Monday, November 26, 2012

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom!

I feel like the whole family is about to receive an increased number of facetime calls now that she has an iPhone. Speaking of that, for Christmas, we are allowed to Skype, so if someone could set up a Skype account and send me all the details, I would appreciate it (probably Phil or David). I am not too sure how it works. I think I just go to a member's house and can use their Skype. If that doesn't work, for a fallback we have the conference number.

I hope that you are all well and that you enjoyed Thanksgiving together. We had a wonderful day in which we taught some lessons and then ate dinner at la familia Carrillo's house. Hermano Carrillo is the second counselor in our bishopric and I love their family. We had a wonderful time with them and some other ward members that came. At the end of the night, we all went around and said why we are grateful. I had an overwhelming feeling of love for the people I was with and told them that I was grateful for them. I explained that though my family is the most important thing in my life, I haven't missed you all while I have been out here because I have had them. The Lord has answered my pleas that I would be able to love the people here. They sure make it easy though. It is incredible how strongly I feel for those I teach and the members of my ward. Like mom always says, "You learn to love those you serve."

I had a really neat experience yesterday. We were teaching Charles (the young man that was baptized last week) and we read the story of Ammon cutting off the arms to try and help him understand that the Book of Mormon is interesting. He not only loved the story, he understood it. That was a miracle. He has had an incredibly difficult time understanding the scriptures, just like all the youth because they grow up with english and spanish so they can't read or write either, and yet he understood the whole story. He offered to pray and the beginning of the lessing and his prayer was wonderful. I was thinking about what could cause such a great change in such a short time and then I remembered that he was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost last week. It all made sense. Though Charles himself didn't even notice, because he now has the Holy Ghost, he can understand spiritual things better. It made me so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the influence He has played in my life. I wonder just how many times my understanding has been quickened? At the end of the lesson, we asked him who he knew that we could teach. He told us we coud teach his best friend. He explained that his friend is like he used to be (involved in drugs, gangs, and alcohol) but the best thing is that he recognized that he has changed and that through the Atonement his friend can too.

We had a neat experience last night. I had a flat tire so we were having a little bit of a rough time getting around. We finally pumped it up at the gas station and then didn't have anywhere specific to go because everything fell through. We visited some people that we were close to and then we headed somewhere else and we rode by a house where the garage was open, they were in camp chairs, drinking their beers, and watching the football game (I think it was the Patriots). We rode by and passed them but after about fifty feet, it just didn't feel right. I didn't have a strong feeling to talk with them, it just didn't feel right to not allow them the opportunity to hear the Gospel. They ended up being hispanic and we had a wonderful conversation with them. Both families want their youth to participate in the youth programs of the church and they invited us back next week. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and for His quiet whisperings. I have learned more and more of the peace that comes from following the Spirit and being obedient.

I love you all. The work is progressing. Will you please pray that Darci will come to church this Sunday. She is a wonderful lady that I have come to love with my whole heart. I also had a touching moment on Sunday as I looked around and realized that all the people that have been baptized since I have been here are completely active. Mary (she was the first baptism) even spoke yesterday. I was also touched as I saw the numerous now active families that the Lord has brought back to full activity in the Church and allowed me to participate in the process.

I love you and this work is true,

Elder Case 

Monday, November 19, 2012

Blessings and Spalding




Happy Thanksgiving Family!

I hope that you all enjoy dad's pumpkin pie. Elder Barajas and I bought one from the store about a month ago and it just couldn't measure up to dad's. Thank you all for praying for Charles. He was baptized on Saturday! It was wonderful. He has had such an incredible change in his life. He is 15 and now the only member in his family. His mom came to his baptism which was an amazing blessing and answers to prayer because she was the one that originally wouldn't give him permission to be baptized. The service was powerful and one to remember. Thank you for your prayers. Now the goal is to get him to temple for baptisms (after the Aaronic Priesthood) then start talking about mission preparation.

After the baptism, we took one of our investigators down into the font. He is ready to be baptized but has a fear of water. As we stood in the font (now dry) the Spirit was strong. He no longer has his fear and we are going to extend him a baptismal date for December 8th. What a blessing.

As you can see from the pictures, Spalding started early. The sister missionaries in our ward have been teaching an English class but weren't able to this past week, so we took over. They normally just teach very plain and simple vocab that everyone that attends already knew, so I decided to teach them Spalding sounds. They loved it! We only taught the vowels but they were so excited because they don't know how to spell or pronounce correctly in English. I committed each student to bring a friend the next week. We are excited to see the fruits of this. Mom, maybe Spalding is paying off after all these years. Now I am just having a hard time deciding whether or not we should play Spalding Bingo. Any input?

We had a Zone Conference this past week and it was amazing! I continue to be amazed by President and Sister Ashton and their life of dedicated service to the Lord. Last night, we had a neat experience. We were riding to go visit a person we had talked to on the street that said we could return and we were waiting at a streetlight. The thought came into my mind that we should go visit an investigator that lived nearby that didn't come to church yesterday. I mentioned it to Elder Evertsen and he suggested that we go right then rather than wait till after we tried the other person we were planning on. The investigator was not there, but his cousin was. He is a member and he welcomed us in. We found out that he hasn't been to church in two years but is only 21 so he could still serve a mission. We read in the Book of Mormon with him and we invited us to come back. We bore testimony and promised him blessings. It was powerful.

We then went to visit the man we had originally planned on visiting, as we reached the apartment complex though, we ran into another 21 year-old less active with the same story. It was incredible that we were be able to be guided by the Spirit so that we could find both of these men and bear testimony to them. The man we went to visit didn't want anything to do with us but I realized that God's purpose for us was not to visit him but rather to bear testimony to His other sons that have already made covenants and just need to begin keeping them again.

We are being blessed and the work is going well. Thank you for your prayers and your love. I feel so blessed to be able to follow all of your examples and learn from you.

I love you.

Elder Case

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Spirit of the Sacrament

Hi Family,

Hope you are all well. I have been praying that you can have peace in
your hearts and have the Spirit with you. I hope that God is answering
my prayers for you because I know that He is answering your prayers
for me. We have had a wonderful week. We spent a day and "explored"
the nether parts of our area. It is just a 5 mile bike ride but for
some reason we never go out there. It was fun to just go an learn a
new part of the area and meet new people and members.

Yesterday for P-Day we played a game called scatterball for a few
hours (revised dodgeball) and I have never been so sore in my life.
Also, I got my haircut and it made me miss mom and my sisters and even
Craig. For some reason, the only people that cut hair in Houston are
Vietnamese and it was the worst haircut of my entire life (picture
included). Luckily I was able to fix it up a lot. It made me think of
the time that Craig buzzed my hair at Winnipasaukee but left it old
man style with a culdesac on top.

We have Zone Conference tomorrow and we all had to write talks in
preparation for it. I was writing mine this morning and had some
really neat insights into the scriptures as the Holy Ghost taught me
about faith, hope, and charity. A few weeks ago I had the thought of
"what type of missionary do I want to be?" My whole life I have wanted
to be like Ammon, Alma, Dan Jones, Wilford Woodruff, or Parley P.
Pratt. When I was pondering on this, the Spirit asked me, "Why don't
you want to be like Christ?" That was a humbling experience. I
realized that all these other missionaries were only great
missionaries because they strived to be and were Christ-like. There
number one goal wasn't to be known as a great missionary. Rather, it
was to bring to pass the Eternal Life of God's children. My focused
has changed. I now want to be a Christ-like missionary. So that is
what my talk is on. Christ-like attributes of faith, hope, and
charity. I have found that the scriptures are repleat with scriptures
referring to these and have learned a lot.

We received a phone call from the ward organist on Saturday saying she
wasn't going to be in the ward anymore because her husband received a
stake calling. She asked us to play in the Primary Program the next
day. Luckily Elder Evertsen plays the piano really well and can sight
read. I never got to good at that. He played for the program and it
was extremely powerful. Him and I will take turns playing the organ
for now on in Sacrament meeting and we will practice during the week.
We are both excited about that.

I thought a lot about the Sacrament this week during the week and
truly tried to repent and prepare to renew my covenants with God. As I
listened to the children sing in the program, the Holy Ghost came and
cleansed me. I can't explain it but I have come to recognize that the
Holy Ghost speaks to me in a number of ways. Sometimes it is comfort,
other times peaces, other times testifying of truth, and every so
often, he works as the Purifier and burns out my many imperfections.
It was an incredible feeling and I immediately felt like praying and
expressing gratitude to God. Funny how that is. When we are truly
clean and pure, we want to pray.

I love you all. I have seen miracles. Thank you for your prayers.

Love,

Elder Case

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Parenting

Hi Family,

I love you all and am grateful for your prayers. I hope you know that they are being answered! We had a lesson yesterday with Charles (15 year-old whose mom wouldn't let him get baptized) and she had a change of heart and now he is getting baptized on November 17! We are so excited for him. I know that this was an answer to prayers.

My new companion is Elder Evertsen from Murray, UT. He is awesome. We have been working hard and enjoying the mission life. It is kind of weird and kind of fun to be training. It is weird because sometimes I just don't know what to do and I can't look to Elder Barajas anymore. It is fun because we are both so new and the only thing we know how to do is what it says in Preach My Gospel (which works) so we are hoping to see a lot of success. I think my Spanish will drastically improve as a result of this. I have already been greatly blessed to be able to understand. I have always been able to understand better than I could speak, but now God has made it so that I can understand everything when someone is speaking to me. Words I don't know and have never seen or heard before make perfect sense and I am able to communicate as much as is necessary to move this work forward.

I have become increasingly more grateful for the Holy Ghost and for His comfort, guidance, and quiet whispers. What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to have a member of the Godhead so close to us.

In other news, yesterday during sacrament meeting, there was a black lady out in the foyer that looked lost so after sacrament we went and talked to her. She was wearing a Republican elephant watch and told us that she wanted to join the Mormon church and get baptized. We skipped Sunday school to talk with her in the chapel until the english missionaries came. It was an interesting discussion but she told us she had the gift of tongues and could prophesy. She then spoke in "tongues" (which just sounded like one of the African languages) and said that she had just prophesied that Mitt Romney would win the election. Good news for all you involved in that. It made me grateful for the fact that I know of a quote (can't remember if it was Joseph Smith or Brigham Young, Philip can tell you) about how whenever there is the gift of tongues there is also the gift of the interpretation of tongues. It is so amazing to know that the knowledge that we have of the Gospel and of God is actually correct. That it is true. That is why I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost.

I love you all!

Elder Case