Taxi driver had waited to get a Book of Mormon his whole life.

Hello!

I survived changes this week! Hooray! This week a ton of missionaries had changes and I had to spend a lot of extra time on their bus routes. Also, there is a missionary named Elder Valle who is from Costa Rica who was supposed to serve his mission in the Dominican Republic, but his Visa didn't come on time. Soooo he got put with Elder Fuller and I to babysit him until we could get his Visa. Luckily it came the next day and I took him to the Dominican Republic embassy, picked up his visa and got him shipped off two days later. I felt kind of bad for him though... he had to witness what our lives are like during changes week... including waking up at 2:00AM to drop off the returning missionaries at the airport. I'm definitely not going to miss that part. haha

Not too much stuff happened this week. I taught the taxi driver about the gospel on the way back from the airport and he seemed to really like the message of the restauration. When I gave him a
Book of Mormon he asked me to sign it and said he had been waiting for somebody to give him one his whole life. It was a nice little experience. One thing that I have learned here on the mission is that sometimes missionary work consists of the little things you do and the small seeds you plant in peoples hearts. I don't know if this man will get baptized in a week, month, year, or even in this life, but I did my part and planted the seed.

Alma 32:27-28

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
 28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

Since you all seem to like the homework that I sometimes give... This weeks homework will to be to focus on the word "desire" in these two verses and figure out what the word means to you. After, search for other words in the scriptures that contain the word desire and try to link them the best you can.
Thanks for the emails! Keep em coming!! :)

Thanks for all the cool Finland stuff! I really like the shirt!

I already know I'm going to make myself sick from all this candy, but its okay!

Love you!!

"Take time to think about the things most important in life"

It is another one of those pre-changes weeks and we are also in the week of zone conferences so things have been pretty crazy here. I've gotten really used to the constant stress and mild headaches so when weeks like this pass by I just kind of turn in to a working zombie. All of the zone conferences are taking place here in the office and that's pretty cool because I get to go to all of them. Usually the stake president talks, president talks, the zone leaders talk, and a couples of others, so you can always learn a lot from the conferences. The meetings are always catered too, so that's a nice bonus. haha

E. update! He lost his job! I tried sooo hard to get him back with a baptismal date, but now he says he doesn't feel prepared. UGHH I dont know what to do with him........ Time will tell.

We are trying hard to find new people to teach. The people we have found are now slowly not progressing.

I'm really looking forward to being able to Skype tomorrow for MOTHERS DAY! (remember to do something nice for your mothers everybody)

Well since time is short I'm going to have to end here.... But I hope everybody has a fantastic week and takes out some time to think about the things most important in life. I'm also going to leave you with homework... One section from the bible and one section from the book of mormon to compare. Enjoy!

Romans 8:11-14
 11 Y si el Espíritu de aquel que levantó de los muertos a Jesús mora en vosotros, el que levantó a Cristo Jesús de los muertos vivificará también vuestros cuerpos mortales por su Espíritu que mora en vosotros.

 12 Así que, hermanos, deudores somos, no a la carne, para que vivamos conforme a la carne,

 13 porque si vivís conforme a la carne, moriréis; pero si por el espíritu hacéis morir las obras de la carne, viviréis.

 14 Porque todos los que son guiados por el Espíritu de Dios, son hijos de Dios.
Mosiah 2:22-24
 22 Y he aquí, todo cuanto él os requiere es que guardéis sus mandamientos; y os ha prometido que si guardáis sus mandamientos, prosperaréis en la tierra; y él nunca varía de lo que ha dicho; por tanto, si guardáis sus mandamientos, él os bendice y os hace prosperar.

 23 Y ahora bien, en primer lugar, él os ha creado y os ha concedido vuestras vidas, por lo que le sois deudores.

 24 Y en segundo lugar, él requiere que hagáis lo que os ha mandado; y si lo hacéis, él os bendice inmediatamente; y por tanto, os ha pagado. Y aún le sois deudores; y lo sois y lo seréis para siempre jamás; así pues, ¿de qué tenéis que jactaros?

Chase hit his half way point on his mission and celebrated by eating a pint of ice cream.

Hello,

So... I completed my year mark this week and guess what I did to celebrate!! Nothing... well besides buying myself a pint of ice cream and eating it all by myself, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. Really, it just felt like any other day, which is how it should be I think. The cool thing about a mission is that every day is soo important and you can't ever let yourself get distracted! It's crazy how fast time is flying by though... I don't really have that much to update you on... This week the Burt's (the office couple) took Elder Fuller, the Assistants and me out to lunch at Jonny Rockets. It was so good! The Burts are seriously so nice! They remind me a lot of the grandparents, especially because everytime they have a technological problem they walk right in to my office and ask me to fix it. (Just two days ago I had to wipe Elder Burts computer because he got a virus so bad that he got locked out of his own computer...)

I wish I had pictures of the activity from last week, but I forgot my camera, next week I should probably be able to steal some pictures from somebody. The activity was a huge success though! We have about 70 people show up and about 20 were investigators! It was really good for the ward and the community! President Hayes and his wife were able to come and they were really impressed! People loved what I made and were asking for the recipe for the sauces! I was so relieved that it all turned out well... haha

As far as my investigators go... Eduardo said he is ready to be baptized!! Only problem is that he can't go to church anymore... Yesterday we talked to him and he said, "I kept my promise to God and now I don't drink coffee! Now I can get baptized and I'll start going to church when my boss lets me get Sunday's off!" It was such a happy/ sad moment.  He was so happy to be able to finally make this big step in his life. His plan is to buy a motorcycle soon so that he can at least make it to the first hour of church before work. He promised me that he will get baptized before the end of the year and I believe him!

Well... since I don't have that many pictures, I decided to take a quick pic of Elder Fuller and I in the office... shoutout to the gangster barber for the fresh haircut

Fastest baptism date ever!

Hello everybody!

This week has been pretty dang good! I´m not really sure why though... We have found quite a bit of new people to teach (which is a miracle) and the work just seems to be going better!

Let me share just a quick story about a guy named Rodrigo. Elder Fuller and I were walking down this one street in a neighborhood where everybody is VERY Catholic and don't want anything to do with missionaries. So after getting many doors slammed in our faces, I started to get frustrated. I thought to myself, why are we even here? What does the Lord want me to do in this neighborhood? Shortly after, I saw a rather old man sitting under a tree outside his house. I walked straight up to him and said, "Hi good brother, We are missionaries sent by God to help you feel happier in your life. God has placed us here in your path so that you can accept the only true restored gospel on the face of the earth. Would you allow humble messengers from God to help you acquire more peace in your life?" Without even thinking about it the man said, "Of course!" Then, without skipping a beat, I said "Well, we teach about faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by authorized servants of the Lord, the reception of the Holy Ghost, and persevering to the end. We want to help you fulfill these eternal steps of Christ's Gospel found in the scriptures by inviting you to be baptized in the only TRUE church of Christ. Will you be baptized June 4th?" He thought about it for 5 seconds and responded, "I WOULD LOVE THAT!"

I was really excited to have an experience like that, he actually does seem really serious about progressing and being baptized and I'm anxious to start working with him more.

Well... I don't have a ton of time to write because I have to start prepping for a ward activity. All of missionaries are making a food from their home country and I have to start cooking. Last time we did this I made funnel cakes, but this time I wanted to switch it up. I decided on French Toast! It's going to be soooo good though! I decided to make an apple cinnamon sauce and a strawberry shortcake sauce to put on the french toast. I already have the sauces made and they taste sooooo dang good! I'll send a couple of pics! Mom, I tried to make the apples just how you would make them for pork chops and I think that they came out pretty dang close! You´d be proud.

I hope that everybody has a great week!! Talk to you later!

Chase found sushi!

Making the French toast apple topping. Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Almost Done

Done

Yum!

Piano Guys Fireside was a success!

I would like to start off by saying that the Piano Guys fireside was a success! I'd say about 400 people came! It was kind of sad because about double the amount of people came for this activity than they did for General Conference... but that's okay! I was really happy that Jon Schmidt and his family could all get there alright and were willing to do an activity like this! Jon shared some of the piano guys videos and gave the behind the scenes and compared each video with a scripture. His main focus was that if we trust got and put him first in everything we do, we will discover our purpose and he will help us fulfill it. Two of his kids also played the guitar and sang a primary song. At the end Jon Schmidt played his own song Waterfall live for us and he and his wife shared their testimonies. There were a ton of investigators that showed up and President Hayes was really proud that Elder Fuller and I could get the whole activity set up in just one day!

In other news... we had an Elder get hit by a car... he dislocated his shoulder and he had to be sent home. That was kind of sad. He only had two months in the mission.

Our investigator E. finally got a job! He has been promising us that he would stop drinking coffee if God would give him a job first! He has already broken up with his girlfriend and coffee was the only thing holding him back from being baptized! I hope he keeps up with his promise!

Lately I´ve been depending a lot on the tender mercies from the Lord to help me out in the mission... I don't know if it's because I'm coming up on the year mark or what, but I´m worn out. These past couple months have been hard. More emotionally than anything else. I guess part of it might be for being trapped in a 3x3 meter box every day for about 8 hours.

I have been studying a lot about the character of God lately and have found a lot of cool stuff. Just to share a quick scripture with you all: Moses chapter 7 in the Pearl of Great Price has some really great stuff. In this chapter Enoch is seeing the coming of Jesus Christ and after Enoch sees that there will be some people who will continue in their sin and will not accept Christ even at his coming, verse 28 describes them as the "residue of the people". When Enoch turns back to God in the same verse he sees that God is crying and asks, "How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy ... And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations." This is a question that I´ve had before. God has so many children, how is it that He can really care for each and every one of us. Let alone, enough to cry for us when we turn our back on Him. The answer is simple, "The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands..." verse 32. God is our loving heavenly father. He created us and we are made in his own image. He really does care for us and wants the best for each and every one of us. I can't comprehend how He does it, but he really watches and guides us in everything that we do.

That was probably my favorite part of the week. I love reading scriptures and coming across something that hits your hard like that. I encourage you to read that chapter. It really helps you see things on a bigger scale.

Thanks for the emails and the love and support! Sorry for not having any pictures this week...

Love you all!

Exciting Stuff is happening and Chase is somehow in the middle of it.

Hello,

I was suuuuper tired and worn out from the week before. I was seriously dragging. Today I finally got to catch up on my sleep and I am doing better!

This week our investigators are doing alright, not progressing as much I would like them to be... but they are good. We are really trying to find new investigators. It's  hard to find people that are willing to listen to you here in the city.

I do have some exciting news though!! We have two missionaries that are serving like 10 hours away from the mission office near the Panama border. It's a really touristy place because it's a huge jungle rainforest. One of the missionaries down there called the office and told me that they just ran into Jon Schmidt (the pianist from the Piano Guys) down in their area. I thought it was pretty cool that they got to meet him, but didn't really think that much more of it. Well, last night I got a random call on my phone and when I answered it some Gringo started talking to me. It was him! He said that he wanted to do a little fireside for some of the missionaries and their investigators and wanted to see if we could set something like that up for tomorrow. Of course we said yes and got to work. Well we called the Stake Music Coordinator (who happens to be a BIG piano guys fan) and she blew this activity waaaay out of proportion. She got the best church piano shipped to our stake center, made brochures, and invited pretty much all of Costa Rica. It ended up getting so big that I just got off the phone with Elder Cordon, a member of the general 70, who was asking me all sorts of details about this "Countrywide Fireside".... I had no idea it was going to get this big. He explained that he thought it was a great opportunity but had to get it approved by the proper brethren with the keys over these kinds of things, so he called Elder Duncan of the Area Seventy to get permission. It's now all set up and an official church sponsored activity that got thrown together in about 4 hours. hahaha I have no idea how its all going to go down and I'm supposedly the one who set it up! I also just got done talking with Jon Schmidts wife on FaceTime and we are going to pick them up from the San Jose Mariott at 3 tomorrow to take them to the fireside. I have no idea exacly how I got involved in this or how it's going to turn out but it sure is exciting!

Well sorry I dont have much more to tell you about... I will try to make next weeks a little more interesting!

Have a fantastic week!

25 overnight guests in Chase's home and different Easter rituals.

Hello!

This week has been insane. I have been worked sooo hard! We had changes this week, which are always crazy, but this week the flights got all split up and we had to run back and forth from the airport all the time. We also had the whole mission go to the temple this week. Luckily, the planning for that wasn't too crazy, but all of the missionaries came to San Jose the night before their temple day to sleep. And guess where all the missionaries sleep when they come here? My house. I had three nights in a row with over 25 missionaries in my house... I didn't get any sleep at all! They were all so loud! And to make this worse, right after that I had to wake up at 2:00AM to drop off the returning missionaries at the airport. I can safely say I'm dead tired.

Okay that's enough of that. This email is going to be pretty short because other than crazy office stuff I haven't been able to do anything exciting this week. Easter was weird here... Most of the people here treat it like any other day. In church they didn't really even talk about Easter. It's weird. The Catholic church here celebrates Holy Week. It consists of lots of parades where people follow big crucifixion statues and chant the Hail Mary and the Lords Prayer in Latin. It is actually kind of scary. One night I was working in the office late and saw a bunch of sirens and heard a woman screaming in a very monotone creepy voice. I ran outside and saw about 50 people in the street holding up a big cross chanting things that I couldn't understand. I took a video of a procession during the day, but the pastor got mad at me.

Yesterday we found a spider bigger than my hand just chilling in the office. It was funny how much it freaked out my companion. I'll send a video of it.

I hope you all had a good easter and that you enjoy General Conference this weekend! I'm really looking forward to it, because I'll actually be able to understand it in spanish this time! haha

Love you all! Look forward to hearing from you all next week!