September 29, 2014

Mom & family,

I loved that part of Elder Uchtdorfs talk as well! You guys always know just what to say to me and I know even though I am so far from you,  I just feel like Heavenly Father reminds me of my love for you and our family every day and it just keeps growing and growing! As for all your questions,  I will try to get them all!  We don’t bike in this area because Sister Anderson is full time car! Her back really has something wrong with it but she is just literally the toughest person out here! She has taught me more than I can explain and she is so consecrated! I want to be just like her! We literally pray everyday that we will be together through the holidays! So this area is seriously my favorite that I have been in so far! It is perfect! We have all the crazy experiences and the ward is sooooo great! They treat us like family and I love all the members! On our year mark a Sister named Sister Everett took us to Sweet Tomatoes in Raleigh because she knew it was my favorite and she loves it too! The members take such good care of us and they make everything more fun when they come out with us!  That picture is so funny that you posted of me! That is one of my greatest friends out here,  Sister Bowers and she seriously is like a sister to me! We had CMLC this week, which is just a meeting with all the leaders and  the President.   All of my closest friends were there! It was the best thing ever!! Even my favorite Elders were all there! The whole Pembroke crew!! It was a great meeting and I just love our President! He is so inspired! As for this week it has been amazing! We started teaching a lady named Michelle not to long ago and she is the best! She is getting baptized on the 16th! Her whole family came to church yesterday and she bore her testimony! She has a daughter named Chelsea and during the whole conference she snuggled up to me! It really reminded me how much I miss my little sisters and how blessed I am to be in our family! Ahh I really can’t explain to you how much I love being a missionary! This truly is the greatest work and even though we have hard days there are so many great days to outweigh the bad! We ate with this less active family this week, well they are actually part members and they were so funny.  They love missionaries and he had like 40 name tags of all the missionaries that he has met with. We were nervous to go over there at first because he reminds me of this man in Pembroke that I might be afraid of but we got home and both of us said that it went through our heads that he killed all the missionaries to get there tags... haha!! He didn’t-- but it was a really fun dinner! We also ate at a house this week where I think all I really ate was cat hair-- good protein!haha!!   I love the family so much that I can take a few fur balls! As for everything else,  I am just so excited for conference!! This is one of my favorite weekends!!   What if they extend sister missionaries time??? We all are betting on it out here! I guess we will just wait to see! But anyways,  I hope y’all have so much fun in Utah!! Know that I love and miss you so much!! You are the best family!!

Love always, 

Cass

ps  The weather is the best out here!!! Soooo nice! 

September 22, 2014

Mom & family,

Thank you for always writing me the best letters! I am so grateful for your testimony! I have just come to appreciate how blessed I am to have our family!!  I don’t know if dad told you or not,  but my comp has a really hard family situation! Her mom was way less active and her dad and brother are inactive! Watching her has been such a testimony to me and she has helped me to love being a missionary! I honestly have not ever been this happy and my mission has not ever been this fun! By the second day we were together we were already worried for when we would be separated! But she has made me so grateful to have the family that I have! Our family truly is the best and I couldn’t be out here if I wasn’t sent to our family! So as for this week... well actually-- y’all need to stop growing up-- it is killing me!! But it is good to hear you enjoyed the videos!!  I will probably be embarrassed later on when I watch them but oh well! This week has been great! Sister Anderson and I have just had so much fun together! We have been having more lessons than ever before and finding plenty of new investigators!! Plus, this ward is the best ward ever! I seriously love them! They take such good care of us and I love being around them!! I really hope I will stay here for all the holidays! It is such a change from Chapel Hill but I am soooooo grateful! Chapel Hill was really hard but I think that I needed to go there to learn all that I did! As for the crazy things that happened this week.... We are back to all the craziness from Pembroke! Well, we went to dinner one night and on our plates there was all these bugs and Sis Anderson and I just looked at each other and brushed our plates off on our skirts.  Then Sister Anderson  had one that was still moving on her plate and she was talking to the member and I saw it so I just smashed it for her and we both died laughing later!!  During that lesson I swear we were attacked by fleas! I scratched my skin so hard that I have cuts on my legs and when we got home we both died and got in the shower and washed our clothes! But that wasn’t even bad compared to the next day when I stepped out of the members car and put my foot by a fire ant pile and in the matter of 3 seconds (me getting out of the car) my foot was swarmed with ants!!  Then it got so swollen and now I have a million little bites.  After that, Sister Anderson  and I knew we were eating at the lice house-- so we didn’t wash our hair for 3 days!!  Then,  when we went we sprayed our hair with a whole can of hairspray and wore clothes that were kinda gross.  So we get there and we are just trying not to touch anything.  Well 3 of the 4 kids are autistic and it is a single mom! Seriously she is amazing but it was one of my favorite dinners so far! The kids were so excited for us to be over and they said that they spent the whole day cleaning for us and they bought all this new food for us! They kept fighting on who got to talk and they just really made us feel soooo loved! The oldest kid saved me a seat next to him and told me that he has a thing for red heads.  I just died laughing and then he acted out how a WW2 soldier would act! Then the little boy ate a whole bag of puffy Cheetos while he shared a chair with me!! They were all over the place and there were a bunch of roaches  on the table where she was putting all the food. Trust me I have gotten real good at eating slowly! We just had the best time though and I feel like even though it was so gross and I was worried about lice Heavenly Father made it all worth it by how much those kids loved us and how fun the dinner was! I know that the Lord always blesses us when we serve Him! I also have been learning a lot about what it means to serve God. There is a quote by Sister Holland and she said  her daughter prayed and said,” God I don’t want you to be my servant anymore I just want to be yours" I love that! Truly I know that the Lord gives us what we need but how often do we ask for Him to do stuff for us! I know that I just want to serve Him! Well I have to get going but I love you all so much!

Love, 

Cass

September 15, 2014

Mom & family--

As for all your questions...

I am in Zebulon which is in Raleigh... but it is the country part of Raleigh... lets just say a new Pembroke, but I love it so much I honestly can not put into words how happy I am!!  I have never been this happy in all my life and I think this past week has been the best week of my whole mission!! I love Sister East and I miss her but training is really stressful especially in Chapel Hill where there is minimum member support.  In Zebulon,  I am with Sister Anderson who I came out with... She was trained by my trainer’s trainer-- so Sister Lewis’s trainer and so we have always clung together since the beginning. We always used to talk at meetings and we just have been great friends the whole time so when President put us together we thought he was kidding.  So when we got to transfers and it was true we both freaked out and we now have had to make a new rule that we go to bed by 12 no matter what because every night this week we have been like little school girls laughing and talking at all hours of the night.  Then we wake up the next morning having a missionary hang over! hahaha  So anyways, I love her so much and she truly is one of my best friends! Here in good ol’ Zebulon the members are the best part! They are not Indians but they are crazy like them! We have so many amazing members and the house that we live in is so great!! I love it! It is luxurious for missionaries! We have a few investigators and we have been reaching a lot of our goals! This week we wanted to find 4 new investigators and have 20 lessons. Well one day,  it was almost dark and we had been eaten alive by bugs and we hadn’t had dinner yet but we hadn’t found our new investigator so we went back out. Even though I always feel so tired,  I honestly feel like there is an extra source of energy that is given to me when it comes to missionary work.  So we went out and found Melanie and she is sooooo great! A member referred us to her and she is so receptive! She loved the Book of Mormon and we said a prayer all holding hands together! We also found some other new investigators by tracting this week! I usually hate tracting but for some reason everything just seems to be so much more fun with Sister Anderson! We just have fun being with each other and we laugh at all the crazy things that happen to us!! We have been teaching this man named Charles and he is seriously the best! I love him so much! He has a problem with every part of the Word of Wisdom but he wants to be baptized so badly! At the end of every lesson he kisses our hands and we both just die laughing!! His wife is a recent convert named Znobia and she is so strong!  In the middle of one of the lessons with them, I just so happened to see a trail of roaches leading to the ceiling so I followed it up and realized that their was a hole in the top of their trailer that was surrounded by all these nice sized roaches!! I liked died!!! Then when we kneeled to pray we all went to the center to hold hands and I smashed a roach with my knee... yes the guts were on my dress for the rest of the day and I just dealt with it! haha Oh how I have missed the country! haha But seriously, I love it out here! It is the best!  This week has been so amazing! I can’t even tell you all how much I love you and look up to you! You are my greatest blessing and I talk about y’all way too much! I am so grateful to have the best family in the world! I love you and hope you have the best week! 

Love always Cass

ps-- my ward mission leader is in the district!!! He is so funny!! Second we are eating at a ladies house on Saturday that has lice... pray for me!!! Sister Anderson and I have been praying all week!!!