Elder Casper 8/10/2008

Dear Family-

Hey guys how are you doing? How are Nana and Papa, Grams, Ash and Lace, Lauren and Cole and Harrison? How was your trip at the PGA championship Dad? How is the show and work going? I hope that all is well.

It’s been another crazy week and it has gone by faster than any other week in the mission. Saturday arrived rapidly and Elder Oakes parents arrived safely. They are great and it’s not too difficult to see where Elder Oakes comes from, his Mom is very spiritual and very emotional, she reminds me of you Mamma. His Dad is the most relaxed, laid back person I have ever met and Elder Oakes has always told me how meek he is.

On Wednesday one of my new companions arrived, Elder Rosales from Costa Rica. He left on his mission from the United States, from Tennessee. It has been fun to spend time with him and I have learned many wonderful things in such a short span of time. He also speaks fluently in English and is a great missionary. Last night we let our other companion Elder Del Guercio know that he will be with us next change. He is actually the missionary that trained Elder Rosales and he was 100% shocked that they are going to be companions again. It will be a really fun change. The new secretary arrived also on Wednesday and the new commissary arrived on Monday, it’s going to be a really fun group of guys to be around.

We had a great week last week with 14 baptisms in the mission and it looks like we are going to have a really good month as a mission here in August. Over that last 7 days we have had 4 missionaries and one sister missionary get really sick and they have had to be in the hospital and mission home so that has affected many of the sectors. It’s shocking to me to see how Satan works, when things are going well he always does his part to make them bad. President mentioned the other day that August could be the best month of the year up until now and that Satan is going to do everything in his power so that those children of God don’t get baptized. It is very true and it’s something we have noticed that whenever we are working well in the mission and when we have a lot of scheduled baptisms there is always opposition that tries to hold us back and for the most part it is through the health of the missionaries, very interesting.

We had a big surprise this week. On Friday, Pablo, Aileen´s brother had another interview with the branch president. Pablo wanted to set a goal for when he would be ready to baptize his little sister. It was a great interview and at the end of the interview President Ahumada called Elder Oakes into his office becasuse we were doing splits. The branch president said: "Elder Oakes, Pablo has something to tell you" then Pablo responded, "Elder, I am going to be able to baptize my sister on Sunday." On Saturday we had the baptismal interview at 10 a.m. and it went great. Then last night we had a family night with their family and the Oakes family, it was awesome and we shared about how the gospel blesses families. The Spirit was really strong and the dad even sat in on the lesson. The father of the family is named Milton, he is very closed to all religions because he is catholic. He always tells us we are welcome in his home but last night was the first time we were able to share our message with him. It was great because we asked him what his family meant to him and he responded, "My family is everything, everything I do is to make my family happy." We then talked a little bit about the plan of salvation and how our families can be eternal. He was impressed and the most important thing was that he had a very spiritual experience.

Today the baptism was great, Aileen invited a lot of friends and family, we were able to receive a few references from her. We have a couple of lessons this week that she is going to come with us to. Pablo baptized her and it was the ideal brother/sister baptism and at the end of the meeting Pablo stood up and bore his testimony and expressed his love to all of his family and how he hopes one day that they will be an eternal family. He and his two little sisters are the only members in his family and their biggest desire is that their mother, father and older sister can also become members of the church and one day be sealed as an eternal family. Pablo will also be receiving his mission papers next week, he made the decesion to serve a mission and he feels that now is the time that the Lord needs him. Over the past 6 weeks with that family I have developed a very special love and it has helped me to grow closer to the Lord. They have progressed as a family so much, even though the mother and father weren't baptized they have still come a long way and have made many great changes in their lives. What a blessing it is to be a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ.

It's change week and things have gone well so far. We have been really busy this past week, the busiest I have ever seen things in the office because of all the sick missionaries. One of the sick missionaries name is Hermana Sharps who Cami Slade trained, and she had surgery yesterday. She is doing well and will be going home on Tuesday from the hospital. Things are great other than that. I am so grateful to be here and to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have no doubt that this is Christ´s church and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

Thanks for you emails, I also received one from Lauren Young. I was great to hear from you all, thanks for you support, love and examples to me. Please send Toad my love and congratulate him for his faithful service. I love him so much and I truly treasure the friendship that we have. I love you all so dearly and I am so grateful to have such an amazing family, a family of love and righteousness. Thanks for everything, I love you with all of my heart and I can’t wait to hear from you all next week. Until then, work hard, study hard and do what is right and God will bless you beyond belief. I love you, I love you, I love you.

1-4-3-4,

Elder Mason Neill Casper