July 7, 2014

So this week was kind of crazy but really great! We met with some of my favorite people here and so I always count that as a blessing! We have been really trying to get this ward to come together and it is finally starting to work! I have been so grateful that Sister East is so sweet because I think that the ward really likes her! We have been meeting with Joey and he is doing so great! I am cutting his hair today because he said he looked like Moses in that picture haha  We also had zone conference this week and it was so great! During the summer everything gets a little tougher because everyone is out of town but we have been tracting away!! So that is what zone conference was all about--  not being afraid to tract!! It is a little funny when we pull up and have sweat beards running down our faces and dirty staches from the dust but sometimes I think people feel bad and they let us talk on their porch for longer because we feel the cool air from the inside!! We also did service with Vernetta this week and guess what she does... the same thing that dad does!! So we were cleaning a house that was just built and wiping away spiders and having dust in our face! But for some reason it wasn't that bad because I just love Vendetta so much so any time we spend with her just makes me happy!! She has become one of my best friends out here and I look to her for everything! She has such a strong testimony! She actually told us earlier this week that she has been thinking about getting married to Calvin who is the man that we prayed and fasted for months before she was baptized-- that he would move out and now she is going to get married to him!! But she told him that she wouldn’t marry anyone who is not a Latter-Day Saint!! She always tells us "I serve a mighty God and I will never forget that!" I love Vernetta! I have been thinking and learning a lot on how we each do serve a mighty God, and  I am so grateful for that. We know who wins in the end and we know whose team we want to be on! President Bernhisel gave a lesson on the movie “Miracle” and I told Dad but I didn’t tell all of you-- but there is a part in the movie where the coach makes the players go back and forth on the ice over and over and over after they lose a game, and this is when they are trying to win the Olympics.  Anyways they are all getting sick and throwing up and wanting to quit but the coach won’t let them until one of the boys say "My name is Michael Lutunskie and I play for the United States of America!" and after that the coach lets them stop and go in.   I learned so much from that because I know that in this life we all have our own battles.  We all have to go through hard things and that is the only way that we can grow, but in the end no matter what choice we have ahead of us we know who wins the battle that we are fighting-- so what team are we going to choose? Luckily for me I get to go out and tell people what team I am on and invite them to come win with us! I am so grateful that I know that Heavenly Father has greater strength than Satan! I know that I am on the right team everyday and I will always fight to win! I hope you all know how much I love you and miss you! This week I thought about you all on vacation! I had a dream that missionaries take a vacation with their family hahaha but then I woke up and rode 20 miles on my bike!! The fourth was super fun!! We went on our bikes to a couple lessons and we rode to get ice cream at the best place in all of NC it is called Mapel View.  You sit in rocking chairs and look over all these fields of farmland while you eat your ice cream!! It was definitely the most southern way to spend the 4th and then we had a bbq! Oh and UNC puts on a big firework show but we didn’t get to watch it because of our curfew! haha   We could still hear them-- mixed with the million frogs outside our door! All in all it has been a super week! I love Sister East so much! She is the greatest and we have so much fun walking and talking!! I think the Lord sent her directly to me because He knew that I couldn’t take the heat and the humidity and the walking and biking with a non-funny companion!! She makes everything ten times more fun and I am so grateful for her! I love you!!

Love always and forever

Cass

ps a man fell out of the trees outside our apartment today... he was drunk but the ambulance had to come... normal Chapel Hill life haha 

pps oh and I ate the grossest thing-- I don’t even know what it is called or what it is but it was from a family that is Karen aka a little area in Thailand. It was sick and I almost threw up! But anyways I am good now! I love you all!

June 23, 2014

Thank you so much for writing me it really means so much every week when I get your letters!  I always find myself trying to find people out here that remind me of you so that I can find a comfort zone... it doesn’t happen very often but sometimes Heavenly Father throws a curve ball at me and one of the ladies that I am by will do something that reminds me of you and it always warms my heart! I think it is like little tender mercies! Like this week someone had fake nails on and they looked just like yours or sometimes randomly I will see a white guy speaking Spanish on the phone and it always reminds me of you and dad!! ha-ha Funny the little things that will start to matter!   ! Joey is such a blessing to me and I look forward to seeing him each day! Well what a crazy week it has been for you all!! Ahh-- Clay I can’t believe you leave so soon but trust me when you get out here time flies by!! Well this week-- where to begin!!! What a crazy week!! As always Monday we had a hair dying party and I bleached my own hair but it didn’t turn out that well and then Tuesday was transfers! I love my new comp! She is great and we get along really well! She has a bigger personality than I do and that is saying something but it makes it easier because I feel like conversations flow smoothly and the ward is really starting to like us more! We have been so blessed! So pretty much we lost the car on Wednesday and it has been like I wake up each morning and run into a wall of humidity but I love it!! I sweat so badly that I just drink the salty water that runs into my eyes!! It is like I am recycling haha OK-- just kidding TMI but seriously  I made my comp bike 11 miles on her first day and she was a champ!! It was so great because it was so hard but we both just pushed each other along!! The next day we decided to use the buses and we really had no idea where we were going so I just prayed that we would get to our appointment on time and that we would be led by the Spirit.  Honestly I had no idea where I was going and I couldn’t find our bus schedules but our bums hurt so bad that we couldn’t bike anymore so I decided that we would go with faith and a prayer in our hearts! Well we got to the bus stop and I started talking to this little  Mexican lady next to me... well she was sent from heaven because she was going to the exact place where we were trying to go. So after transferring onto 4 different buses and 3 different stops she got us to our appointment and wanted the missionaries to come to her house! The only thing was she spoke little English so we had to send the Spanish missionaries! But I know it was a tender mercy from the Lord!! Then the next day we were back on bike and we both got a little dehydrated so we ditched our bikes and walked to the gas station. (this was after riding about 10 miles!)  We got some ice cream and Gatorade and kept going.  After we had a couple of appointments we were going to be late for our dinner so we knew we had to bike home fast. Well-- the only thing was Chapel HILL isn’t called Chapel HILL for nothing... it literally is full of hills everywhere and it was so hot and our GPS died and I had no idea how to get home and then.... it started pouring rain. Well to say the least I looked like a witch (or Clay when he was little and riding on the quads) elbows up trying to peddle as fast as I could and holding back tears when all I could say was Heavenly Father please help us I can't do this... and what do you know an investigator that we had taught earlier that day pulls up next to us and offers us a ride all the way home! We had 6 more miles and when we got in the car she told us she just went to the store to get a drink and she decided to take the long way home and found us! I know that Heavenly Father sent her!! I am telling you when you pray for and expect miracles they always happen! I know that this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each one of us!! I am so grateful for prayer and that Heavenly Father hears and answers every one of my prayers every time!! I love you all so much and hope you have so much fun in Seattle!!
Love forever and always,
Cass