Transfers!

Chase is leaving his current address, but I don't yet have his new one.  Mail should be sent to the Mission Home (address to the right) until a new address is posted.

 

"Oh what a beautiful mornin! Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a wonderful feelin, everything's goin my way!"

 Well, not everything is going my way actually, I'm gonna be on bike for at least 6 weeks..... But hopefully afterwards I'll be as ripped as Hugh Jackman!  

 

Transfer calls were on Saturday, and it looks like I'll be heading to the Graham zone, Firgrove ward!  Pretty funny really, it's a neighboring zone, so I'm like 20-30 minutes (tops) away from my current area.  I'll be DL there, and follow-up training Elder G. I've met him once or twice, but I'm a little nervous. I love Elder B a lot, and I'm really gonna miss him.  

I'm kinda excited for the "week one fire" or whatever :)  Week one is kinda like New Years, and you make resolutions for yourself to improve, and you recommit yourself to be the best you can be.  I'm excited to get to know Elder G, and I'm excited to bring what I can to the area.  I love Fruitland, and leaving it is hard, but I've done what I came here to do, and I really really really feel that that's true.  If I was making my own transfer calls, I would have called myself to stay here where I'm comfortable, where I know what's going on, and where I'm happy.  Good thing our Father in Heaven is infinitely smarter :)  Maybe next week my email will be a sad one where i'm cold and wet and my legs feel like jello. (That was more of a prophesy than speculation.) But I know that I'm going there for some reason. 

 

I'm going to miss the Bishop here a lot, he's a huge role model for me.  However, he graciously offered to take Elder B and me out to dinner tonight before I go, which is awesome and I'm really looking forward to that. 

 

A couple recent converts and investigators were not very understanding when I explained I was leaving.

 

"Why didn't you just tell him you weren't going to go?"

"It's not that simple, someone else already knows they are coming here to replace me, where would he go?

"Not your problem!"

 

hmm.

 

Welp, next week I'll actually probably be emailing from this same library, but I'll be in a different place :)  It will be an adventurous week!

 

Love,

Elder Chase Lonas

 

 

Pronounced "Bapt-TIS-me", not "Baptism-e"

Starting week 6 of the transfer!  I can't believe it, it's so crazy.

 

Biggest events: Two Baptisms!  Both happened this past Saturday, one at 5 and one at 7.  It was a long, exhausting day, but really spiritual and awesome at the same time.  Plus we went to some other missionaries' baptism at like 2, so it was a very Baptismy day.  (Pronounced "Bapt-TIS-me", not "Baptism-e" which would be a dumb made up word)

 

First was Michelle!  She's this awesome 11 year old, We had a great little baptism service, and when she was changing afterwards, we passed out a notebook, and had everyone write her a little note, and then the rest of the blank pages were for her to journal her feelings about it and stuff.  cute huh? :)

 

Second was Kelly!  We've been teaching this girl FOREVER. on Elder B's first day here, we had our first lesson with her.  She's 16, and her mom refused to let her come to church or be baptized.  However, this past week, I'm not sure what prompted it, but she just changed her mind.  So we had a great baptism, a LOT of her family in attendance,  Elder B and I played Come Thou Fount and sang, it was really fun, and Bishop is having us perform it for the Youth now, so that should be fun too!

 

If I were to have one Pokemon companion with me on my mission, it would probably be Vaporeon.

I think everyone should have these kinds of things already decided, so if the situation arises, you already know what to do. 

 

Something else to think about this week is transfer calls for me!  You win 15 brownie points if you guess which zone I'm going to.  Here are your options (I might forget some, if so I apologize)

Puyallup South (where I am now), Elma, Lacey, Tacoma, Lakewood, Gig Harbor, Grahm, Centralia, Port Angeles, Bremerton, or Silverdale

 

I'm guessing.... Lakewood.  Parkland ward.

 

While we are making guesses, I guess that Emily's little Babins will enter this lovely world on October 4th.  I also predict she will be beautiful and happy. 

 

Well, my tummy says that my time here is nearing an end. 

 

Yep.

 

Love you lots,

Elder Chase Lonas

"He is the funniest one ..."

Hello World!

Coming up now on week 5 of the transfer.  In other words, just 2 short weeks before my life will probably change again!  I'm anxious this time, unlike last time, statistics say one of us will leave, and it will probably be me. 

Pretty hard week, except we found a family last night!  We only had a few minutes to talk, but we have a return appointment for tonight, so I'm very excited for that :)

This morning I was going to have breakfast, but then I realized I was totes out of milk.  So I thought about my predicament long and hard, and then I realized the obvious solution! "Elder B! you wanna make me breakfast?" 

But for some reason he didn't want to.  Remember the good old days, when all I had to do was just wake up at a decent hour and Mom would make breakfast usually?  Wish I didn't take that for granted. The point here being, I'm hungry.

Also, I'm so happy that it's practically Christmas!  I'm so excited to have Christmas in the mission field, what a wonderful day it will be!  Elder B and I have started listening to Christmas music in the car the past couple days, so our holiday spirits are alllll ready!  I'm hoping for a white Christmas, so pray for us! (NOTE: please do NOT pray for excessive snow and an ice storm like the first week of my mission.  just some pretty white snow that will look nice in pictures, and I can frolick in while we tract.)

Oh hey guess what? remember DeeDee?  She was baptized a couple months ago?  Just want to say that she is coming actively to church every week, and has a calling to be the ward greeter, she passes out programs to those entering the chapel.  She does such a wonderful job.  Please pray for her; every new member faces challenges and she is doing such a good job.   :)  We're excited to go to the temple with her next year!

Overall, we don't have much success to report on this week, a lot of long days.  But we have smiley little faces, and faith that things will work out.  :) 

Love,

Chase

 PS, If you have a chance in your personal study, I recommend reading from the Gospel of John.  He is the funniest one as far as I'm concerned. 

"All this and more to come, stay tuned!"

Hey!

 

This week has been.... hard.  But like, good - just some hard days.  We got dropped a lot, and some were really disappointing.  This girl, Lisa, was supposed to be baptized this upcoming Saturday, but her mom Anti-d her pretty hard, and now she wont talk to us :(  The most frustrating part is just that it feels like this transfer is almost over, and all these people we've been working with are just falling through. 

umm, here's a highlight of the week, remember that boy Tony we teach?  No real progress this past week, except we met his mother (the one who won't let him be baptized, even though he's more than ready.)  But anyways, we saw him this week, and I was restringing his guitar for him, and we were talking about music a little bit.  His Grandma says something about music, and then Tommy goes "well, I'm an unaccompanied Minor"  hahahahahahaha get it?  he was on a plane a few weeks ago and thats what they told him. 

 

So you know how you are supposed to "liken the scriptures unto yourself?"  Well, we've been doing that.  (Oh I don't remember if I ever said, but we've been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission, out loud with our companions.  so we have some story time every day, I really like it)  Except, to liken it unto ourselves, we've changed the name of every single person and place we come across.  People from the Book of Mormon become other missionaries, character from Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Pokemon.  Zarahemla is the WATAC :) 

Try it, and watch the scriptures come to life!  Warning: This may not be a tear-free activity.  It was so sad a few days ago, when at the end of the book of Weaver, Daybell and President Weaver passed away :(   I dont think i've ever been sadder when reading the scriptures. 

Every morning a new adventure awaits!  What will become of the Bowenites?  Will Prince Zuko be succesful on his mission to Seattle?   Will they remember the teachings of Professor Oak?  All this and more to come, stay tuned!

 

Ooh, update on the marriage situation of Ricky and Gail.  Gail now wants to be married, Ricky is resisting.  Gail isn't very good at confrontation, so most the progress happens while we are present.  We'll be seeing them again today,  I'll keep you posted!

 

Haha, so Elder B is emailing next to me, and he just asked me what has been the funniest thing that has happened on his mission so far. (his mom wants to know)  I have no idea what to tell him, I don't know how it's possible that we laugh until our tummies hurt almost every day, but I dont know any funny stories. 

 

On Pday I made a shot from out in the hallway on my first try, so Elder B owes me a pizza, that's really the main thing I'm thinking about right now

 

I really don't wanna ever leave Fruitland, or change companions, or have anything different ever happen for the rest of my mission.   I'm just in a good place.  I know that it will, but still. 

 

Um, today is gonna be kinda a hard day, so I'm reluctant to leave, but it's that time....

 

Wish me luck!

"How hard can it be?"

Chase asked this week that I post a link to this video in a prominent place on his blog.  I've added it to the header, but here it is again: A Book of Mormon Story

Hello!

Mary's baptism was this week!  It was on Wednesday!  It happened!  It was a spiritual day, with a lot of tears from her, she really felt the spirit.  I guess you had to be there. 

We got a lot of pizza this week! I love pizza. 

We had our park day this week (the one day each month where the car stays in "park" all day.  Not to be confused with the kind of park day where you go to the park and chill all day.  two unrelated concepts) and we almost got run over on our bikes 193489230 times.  I dont have any idea why there is no shoulder on any of the streets in our area, except that whoever designed these streets does NOT like Mormons
.

Hey, so like a month ago or so I sent some letters, and most them have been returned to sender, one of them i just got back like 2 days ago.  So sorry if you haven't gotten a letter in a trillion years.  I sent out some more a few days ago, but maybe these will be returned to me also haha. 

This is gonna be a good week.  It just will be. 

Gail needs to be married before she can be baptized because she's currently living with Ricky.  So my goal is to have a marriage this week.  How hard can it be?

I know I haven't written much, but I'm really hungry.... so I'm gonna go...

Elder Chase Lonas!

"With smiles and rainbows and hearts, but like in a manly way"

I am so happy!  Missionaries are the happiest people I know, and I'm the happiest missionary I know.  I can't even put my finger on why, but Life is just so good.  Oh by the way, turns out my companion knows Ally (a cousin)! 

 

So, one of my first nights in Puyallup, it was about 8:45pm, and we see a guy on the side of the road, give him a Book of Mormon and invite him on a church tour.  His name is Dean, but you've never heard of him before, because shortly thereafter he fell off the face of the earth.  Then we give him a call a little bit ago, and he picks up!  says he's still interested but won't meet with us because of all the stuff going on in his life.  

Two days later, we're out knocking doors on this one street, and we pass a guy, so we invite him to church, and he's like "wait a minute, I think you guys called me the other day.."

 hahah i'm like "DEAN!? is that you!!!???"  

and he's like yeah!  

so then he follows us down to the church, and we start the church tour.  

 

We always start with an opening prayer in the foyer.  During the prayer he's making some noise which i didn't think much about, but afterwards he's just like "wow.... just then, I felt like...the presence of God around me, telling me this is good.  It felt so warm, what was that?"

:)

So we explain, and then finish the church tour.  He happily committed to be baptized on september 1st. 

but the next day, he told us to meet him outside the safeway at 3:00.  So we're there, we wait for 15 minutes, and look all over for him.  We know he spends some time in the forest behind safeway, so we also looked for him there, but to no avail.  So we still need to find him again.

 

Mary is set to be baptized on Wednesday at 12!  And it's finally solid! 

 

Last night we were down in Olympia doing the missionary music fireside thingy, it was so great.  We sing a few songs (best of all, Amazing Grace, and I get to belt the tenor part way loud) and i'm part of a ten piece musical number, How Great Thou Art.  At first there was just 8 of us, so we called ourselves "How Great Thou Oct"  hahaha  get it? but 2 more got drafted in, so we became "TENder Mercies" which became "TENor Mercies" 

We clearly have too much time on our hands.

Lil Krees (Elder C, a previous companion) is also in a musical number, which is sounding tighter than ours, except the arrangement is pretty boring. 

but, Krees, Major, and Rhodes are doing this trio for Come Thou Fount, and it's the most legit thing i've ever heard.  It sounds, SO good. 

Oh, and Sis. Grenfell is conducting this whole thing If i didnt already mention it, and it just makes me so happy haha, she is so good at it.  

 

Anyways, so last night we're there singing and I just realize how so so so so happy I am, and it makes me so so so so sad to know that one day my mission will be a memory. 

 

The happiest, best, and sweetest experiences of my life have been in these past 8 months while serving a mission, If anyone by chance is reading this and considering whether or not a mission is right for them, It is.  Please don't deprive yourselves. 

With smiles and rainbows and hearts, but like in a manly way,

Elder Chase Lonas

DL, dead animals, and direct answers

First things First!  TRANSFER CALLS! 

I've never been so not nervous for transfer calls, because I was so sure I was staying in Fruitland, and keeping my boy!  anddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd..... I was right!  So I'm very excited about this!  It's gonna be another awesome transfer, and we're gonna tear it up!  

 

Transfer calls were pretty funny for me, because I actually got calls from both AP's, and President Weaver too, haha.  First one AP (Assistant to the President) called to give me my transfer call, that was normal.  Then the other called to give me some information for the Mission fireside things we're doing, and then President called to tell me I'm going to be the new DL (District Leader) (ACK!!!!) So it was an eventful night, and the whole time I got these calls, we were still with an investigator.

 

Let's see. 

 

So a few weeks ago we were driving down 128th (A street in Washington) and we see a guy on the side of the road trying to cut these bushes for no apparent reason, so we pull over and offer help.  He assures us that the situation is well under control.  (the situation= the fact that bushes exist) We invite him to follow us down to the church, but after giving it serious consideration, decided that this was not a good night for him.  But he set up a return appointment for one week from then.  So at 8:25, the next sunday, we returned to 128th and stood by what was left of the bushes, but he didn't come.  But sometime this past week we were driving by again and this time saw him outside in his yard.  We pull up and talk to him, and ask him what he's doing.  Turns out, he's about to bury a dead kitten. So we offer to help him hold a funeral.  He buries the kitten, I give a little eulogy and a prayer (It occurs to me that this is 3rd or 4th funeral for an animal I've been involved in on my mission)  and he cries for a minute and then starts talking to us about church.  As it turns out, he is already a member!  He just hasnt been to church since he moved to Washington from Arizona.  So this week he came to church!  Before Elders Quorum he was telling this guy about his story and why he was at church this week.  It was pretty humbling to hear his point of view.  We see so many people every week, and invite so many people to come to church, and helping someone bury a kitten is pretty easy stuff.  But for him, it was a direct answer to a prayer he said about 5 seconds before we showed up.

 

Mary should be able to be baptized this Friday!  I'm so excited but also kinda stressed, because it all hinges on a follow up interview taking place on Thursday.

 

But we have quite a few people progressing towards baptism, and I'm so glad me and my boy are staying!  Puyallup has been in a bit of rut, so we're gonna change that, and then blow up this mission :)