April 28, 2014

Family,

I have missed you!!  As for everything that went on this week-- holy crazy!! I know that you had to of just been dying!!! I have realized one thing though... I am not a very clean person... ooopss!! So this week’s goal was actually to try to be more clean. It is a work in progress but Sis Wilde is really clean so I will learn! Oh and I made spaghetti this week!! It was so good!! As for the  questions... my comp, Sister Wilde is great!! We get along really well and no she is not like Elder Clark.  She is really sweet-- we still argue a little but that happens with every companion so to say the least I really like Sister Wilde and we have a lot of fun together!! She is doing really well.  She leaves in three transfers so I think we will end her mission together.  She is great though; I learn so much from her everyday! As for Gladys Knight, she was here all weekend!!! It has really been the most amazing weekend ever! Something that I will cherish forever!!  I am so grateful that I was one of the missionaries who got to serve at all 4 firesides!  Let me tell you it was soooooooo amazing! The first one started off great and they just kept getting better and better!! Her husband came to 2 and they would both bear their testimonies!! They are so powerful!! To give you a visual you know that song that we sang in music camp where we had to make all the weird noises like bamb... bamb... bamb bamb and Jacque had her part in the beginning... yeah well that was what it was like!!! We were all shouting amens and dancing!! It was soo fun and really funny! I will have to tell you more in person but lets just say I have never felt the Spirit that way but it was so strong!! I am so grateful for all the different cultures that we have in this church! It truly is amazing! We also became really close with the choir and so it has been a rough morning because it feels like the end of a dance concert! I am so sad it is over but we are now on to do bigger and better things with all those Baptist folks!! As for the rest of the week, we had an amazing experience! One of our recent converts named Kwee is from a place around Tailand and she speaks Karen not Koran but Karen it is like Burmese but it is a little different and all the Karen people are flooding to America because there is a genocide going on in their country right now. So Kwee introduced us to her friend Lah Say Ku and her family! They are amazing and they don’t understand anything we say!! The church doesn’t have Karen yet-- they are working on it but we are so blessed because Kwee translates everything for us!! We had our first lesson and it was one of the most powerful things that I have been a part of! Even though we had no idea what Kwee was saying, she would tell us and help them to understand what we were teaching.  We had to teach super simple and just focus on the feeling in the room. The Spirit was so strong! Kwee bore her testimony at the end and the family is so excited to learn!! They truly are a miracle! Oh I almost forgot Kwee is only 17 and she just joined a little while ago! She told us that she wants to serve so that she can bring the Gospel to her people and help them to know the truth!! On top of all of this we went to the temple on Friday and as you all know that is my absolute favorite place to be! The Raleigh Temple is little but beautiful! Being there with a bunch of missionaries is a whole new and wonderful experience! I am so grateful for our temples! It has been a crazy week and we really should get some sleep today but we are going to tour around UNC!! Go Tarheels! hahah It should be fun! I miss you all so much and hope you have the greatest week!! Girls--Mom told me a bit about the competition and I can only imagine how great you all are! I am jealous! My companion Sister Wilde dances and she was going to go to college for it! I always talk about how good y’all are!! Keep on keeping on!! Clay, Makelle told me that her mom said y’all have kept up the tradition of the friendship wall!!! It is the best-- right!! I hope all is going well! Oh and I was reading in Alma 26 this week and thought of you! If you get a chance-- read it! It is the best! Honestly the greatest place to find what a mission is truly like!! I feel like I can read it everyday and something else stands out to me where I am like "oh my gosh this is me everyday!" As for everyone else, I hope Chelsey has a great birthday.  I love you all and miss you so much!! I hope you have the best week! 

Love forever 

Cass

April 14, 2014

Well family!!! 

I miss all of you so much and love hearing from you!! You all have such great testimonies and I am so proud to call you my family!! Wow!!  It sounded like you had such an amazing week!!  Carlee I miss One Tree Hill as well! Did you know that it was filmed here! I am pretty sure North Carolina is the most beautiful place I have ever been to! The city is amazing and everything is beginning to bloom! It truly makes it so great to wake up each morning to beautiful colors and birds everywhere!! Oh and here in Chapel Hill everyone is out running and riding bikes!! It makes me a bit jealous but then we get to go out and jump on the buses and walk around and talk to all of them so I really love it!! There are lots of people to teach and to be honest I don’t think I have ever been so busy!! Every morning we wake up and have a day planned and it goes nothing like what we plan but we are always running everywhere and time just seems to fly!! Everyone always says Chapel Hill is just crazy and it is so true!! But I love it!! As for cooking... lately we have been in a lot more member homes! The members really seem to be opening up to us, which has been a blessing, but I have learned to cook!! We have a store called Aldis that has super cheap food and I make spaghetti and eggs and oatmeal and cooked vegetables and all that jazz!! I have gotten a lot better! One of the members gave me a hot pad because Sister Wilde told her how I burnt my fingers on my oatmeal bowl that morning and spilt it all over the apartment so I am getting there!! haha  These next weeks are going to be great but crazy!! We have Easter this week and I am so excited! I have been reading Jesus the Christ and it really explains Christ life so well!! I have learned so much! I would recommend it to all of you if you want to study the last week of the Saviors life!! Also the Ensign has a really great depiction of it as well!! Other than that we have our temple trip the next week and Gladys Knight comes that weekend!! I might be a bit worn out but I am too excited!! This is truly going to be amazing!! They are taking the pews out of our church building so that more people can fit!! They said in California they had 150 people baptized after she came!! It is really going to be a miracle!!! As for Easter what color are y'all wearing I want to match!!! Sister Wilde and I are going to match with our ward mission leaders wife.  She is like our mom out here and I love her so much!! She is from England and has two sons out serving and one is with Christiaan hahah small world!  They are the best and she calls people twits and says the rubbish can and all that stuff!!  Anyways I hope you all have the best week and know how much I love you!! Please don’t give up on your missionary work! I know that it can be discouraging but just remember how important our family is to you and remember that if we don’t share what blessing the Gospel is to us then they may never have it! Oh and something else that helps-- on average people hear about the gospel 7 times so just be happy if you are one of the 7!!! Cami! I look up to how brave you are with Samantha! I wish that I had had the courage with some of my friends back at home!! I love you all and hope you have the best Easter!!

Love Always,

Cass