Elder Casper 2/17/2008

Dear family,

Well as we say each and every week, "the week has flown by". It has been a good week, we will have two baptisms next week, Maria Isabel and Carolina. Carolina is so ready, she has such a strong testimony and every time we share with her, my testimony is strengthened. Maria Isabel has come a very long way and has Struggled getting to this point, but she's made a 100 percent change in her life. I feel so blessed to be able to see people show their faith by living Gods commandment. Being a member of the church isn’t easy and it blows my mind when people actually have the desire to change their lives and be members of the church. I´m way excited for their baptisms and I feel extremely blessed to have helped them to progress.

Elder Adams, Elder Thorson and I are doing well, we are enjoying our last couple of weeks together and we will miss Elder Adams. He is going to a great sector and will be training to finish his mission. I can´t believe that Lauren will be home in 8 weeks, what a crazy thought for me. You guys will be here in Paraguay in less than 2 months, and once again will be able to feel of the wonderful South American spirit. These people are amazing, and I can't express the love that I have for them. Just ask Ash and Laur they know exactly what I mean. I´m way excited for our next change, Elder Thorson and I are going to have a great time and it will be good to see how it is with just one companion. I am stoked to just have one comp even though I will miss Elder Adams a ton.

President is out of town until Wednesday due to a mission president seminar that Elder Holland is having for all the mission presidents here in Chile. It will be interesting to hear what kind of revelation President Resek receives to apply in our mission. On Friday of this week we have Concilio Grande with all the mission leaders and we are going to reinforce the importance of families. When I got to the mission we only taught families but when President Openshaw left we kind of lost that focus, so it will be fun to reinforce that again and to see how the mission accepts it.

It sounds like the family is doing well and that Cole and Harrison are having a good season in basketball and baseball. Keep up the good work buddies, just have fun. Its good to hear that the show is doing well. Just know that your in my daily prayers. Make sure to tell Grams, Nana, Papa and the rest of the crew hi for me. Let them know how much I love them and that they are thought of daily. That’s awesome that Jimbo is in Utah for business, tell him I love him and give him a big hug for me. It sounds like Scottie P gets home next Saturday, that’s really weird for me.

Well dad I didn’t get your email last week, but did you get all the stuff I sent home with Andrew Briscoe? Please let me know. I will get that scripture case ordered for you dad ASAP. I received a letter from Lauren Y this week and it was good to hear from her. Thanks Laur for the letter and I will get one sent off on Monday. Tell Grams that Elder Reed is leaving the office this week. It will be a lot different without him here and i'm going to miss him a ton. He is going to be a zone leader in a city called Buin and only has about 5 months left in his mission.

Yesterday we went to a sweet place called Bellavista, its way up in the mountains, The Andes that is…and its really pretty. That’s why its called Bellavista because it means Pretty View. It felt like we were in Utah again, it reminded me so much of the Utah mountains and it was good to feel that outdoorsy feeling again. This week is change week and it will be a mad house here, but we are excited and we are going to have a lot of changes in the mission. Next change 22 missionaries get here so it has been kind of crazy to see all of the changes in preparation for next the next change. We are going to have to open up 5 new sectors and it will be nuts.

I´ve had some great studies this week about the book of Mormon, Chapter 5 of "Preach my Gospel" is amazing and as always I invite you to study it. I promise your testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Gospel will be strengthened. This upcoming change chapter 5 will be one of our big focuses in the mission and we are really excited to see how we improve in using the Book of Mormon.

On Friday night we had an activity where we set up the projector in a park in our sector and we watched the testaments, it was awesome and a ton of people came. We received a couple of references and everyone really enjoyed the movie. We are going to start doing a movie night every other Friday but we will do it in distinct parts of our sector each week. I love this branch and all the members here, I feel like im at home and as a missionary there is nothing better than to feel at home with your branch or ward. The members are great and they are helping us out a lot. I cant imagine how hard it will be leaving this sector when I have to go, I love these people with all of my heart. Eliana and Raul have a baptismal date for the 10th of March but we don’t know if they are going to make it just because of his work, he has to work almost every Sunday. They will make it, but it might take a little more time.

I want you all to know just how very much love you. I am so blessed to have you all in my life and I am so grateful for all of your examples, friendship and love. Thanks for all you do, you´ll never know how much you mean to me. I hope you all have a great week, that you may be protected and that you may learn and grow spiritually. As always work hard, study hard and do what is right and our Father in Heaven will pour his blessings upon us. I love you, I love you, I love you.
1-4-3-4,

Elder Mason N. Casper