Week 4

Wowza wowza! This week has been something else. I got to leave the MTC facility this week!...... but I went to the Hospital:/ Tuesday morning during exercise time, Elder Young and I went to play some volleyball because we own at it! Seriously I’m so grateful I played sand volleyball like every day after school because I am a full on baller now! But that’s besides the point. With like 3min left in our hour of rec time, the ball is dropping right over the net and so me and this other kid both jump up to spike it. On our way down he landed first and then I landed on his foot. My left foot came down on the persons foot and I rolled my ankle BAD!!! I looked down and it had already started to swell up! No joke within like 5 seconds. I say “Uhhh guys I think I broke my foot” and Elder Young is just like “Nah c’mon Oregon let’s play!” (some people in my district call me ‘Oregon’ because I’m the only one of our whole district to live outside Utah) I try to take one step and my foot just won’t move. It was like I was paralyzed. I think I was in shock because when I looked at my ankle I could honestly see it just puffing up like a balloon. Everyone is just kinda looking and confused. I then tell Elder Young to look at my foot and he kinda jogs over smiling and laughing and as soon as he looks at my ankle his face turns blank. He shouts to another kid and they carry me over to the trainers. They take me in, assess it, wrap it, send me to the doctor, he then makes me get x-rays, I leave the campus and go just around the block to the hospital, I get the x-ray, go back to the campus doctor, and he says I “pulled 2 ligaments in my ankle.” Luckily I didn’t tear anything or break anything. The doctor then mentioned something about how most people only pull a single ligament with cases like mine, but pulling 2 ligaments explained how fast it swelled up. I’m not even joking, as soon as it happened and I looked at my ankle, I could’ve fit a tennis ball in the swollen area! And guess what’s even sadder!? We lost that point in volleyball! But now daily life here sucks. I have a big brace, crutches, and a wrap that I have to put on every day. It takes me forever to get to places, my leg is always hurting, it’s swollen like crazy, and everyone stares at me. And another sucky thing, for the next two weeks during my rec time I have to go to the athletic trainers and do PT. So no more destroying Elders (and my ankle) in volleyball:(

Sorry for scaring you Momma G! Haha

But other than that sucky experience, life here is FANTASTIC!

Saturday: Every Saturday is glorious because of the schedule we have. Usually we have class from 1:30-4:30 and then 6:15-9:15. But Saturdays we have class from 8:30-11:30 and 1:30-4:30. So after that class we just all hang out in our rooms and mess around. The only rough part is we have TIPs (Teach an Interested Person) They are kinda fun but it’s just so stressful because it has to be 100% Bisaya.

Sunday: Super duper long day and Elder Fleischel and I taught the lesson in our district council about “How to Study and Teach Effectively.” I’ll be the first to say that it went pretty darn well.

Monday: Today was kinda sad because our zone leaders (Elder Griffiths & Cardona) left for the Philippines. They are headed to Bacladad(I have no clue how to spell it) and are speaking Hiligaynon!!!

Tuesday: This was the day I sprained my ankle. This was probably the worst day I’ve had here:( When the Sisters are holding the door open for me(an Elder), and not vice versa, you know it’s bad hahaha. “Oh how the turn tables” -Michael Scott

Wednesday: Waking up and walking was ROUGH today. The area that swelled up big time yesterday was a bit less swollen but now the whole rest of my foot is swollen. I’ve really taken having two healthy working feet for granted. Even just getting off of a chair, I have to use my hands to balance and help lift myself up. Walking to the bathroom, which is like 15 feet away from my room, takes me like a full 2min and is quite painful. However, this day got a lot better and I’ll explain why at the end.

Thursday: Foot is feeling a lot better and PT actually helps a lot. Today we also had another TRC. We teach two 20min lessons in 110% Bisaya and it went really well. Both lessons lasted about 17-18min. It’s crazy doing these lessons because it really shows how much we’ve actually learned! And also today, our district held an “English Fast”. From the time we woke up to 9:15pm no English and only Bisaya. All 8 of us probably said a combined 1,000 words the whole day, compared to our usual 100,000 words per day haha!

So going back to Wednesday, that morning was just terrible. After breakfast our district had service(just cleaning buildings) and I wasn’t able to go because of my ankle. Elder Fleischel and I stayed back and he decided to take a nap haha. I tried studying but I was just super angry. I found myself having bitter feelings towards everything! “Why was it ME that sprained a ankle?” “Why is it ME that can’t go to service?” “Why is it ME who’s struggling with the language?” I then thought, “What am I even doing here.” And that question just stayed with me for about 15min and then I got homesick, first time since I’ve been here. I just felt terrible. I hobbled off my chair, got on my knees, and I said a prayer. At first I just thanked God for everything that I have in life. I tried to find the good in everything. Then I just asked God to bless me. I asked him to bless my ankle, my emotions, and my knowledge of Bisaya. When my district got back it was time for personal Book of Mormon study. I read Alma 56 at the beginning of it about the Stripling warriors. After reading that story and when study was over I realized I shouldn’t be complaining about a stupid rolled ankle. And I don’t know why or how but at that moment my whole mid set changed. I remembered why I came out here and I remembered my purpose. Then during rec time I was super bummed because while everyone was playing volleyball and basketball , I had to do PT. The trainer was super kind and helpful and after that one hour I didn’t even need the crutches anymore! I could walk almost completely fine(with the brace). I was SOO grateful for the trainer and for that short hour of PT. Then during our evening language class we went over grammar and we had to build sentences about the Fall and the Creation and then teach with them. I KILLED it! I was able to remember most of the sentences we came up and I was able to spit them back out with ease. When we got back to our residence and when I was writing in my journal, I realized that everything I prayed for was answered. This day was so awesome and so powerful and it just strengthened my testimony in God and prayer so much.

Nasayud ko nga nagatrabajo pag-ampo. Kanunay nagapaminaw sa Dios kon magpangayo kita uban kinasingkasing. Akong pagpamatuod nagpaglig-on kara adlaw. Nasayud ko nga ang Dios mao ang atong Langitnong Amahan. Mga anak kita niya. Si JesuKristo mao ang anak sa Dios ug nasayud ko nga tinuod ang simbahan. Sa ngalan ni JesuKristo, amen.

Sorry if the emails are too long! So much happens here and I want to share it all with everyone!

Hope you all are doing awesome and feel free to email me whenever! I love hearing from you all and just remember I can only email on Fridays so if it seems like I’m ignoring you, I’m not. The first thing I do every morning is check my emails and read all of them. It KILLS me not being able to respond right away but it just makes Friday’s that much better:)

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

P.S. The part that none of you understood was me bearing my testimony in Bisaya about prayer and God. I think it’s funny how I could write complete gibberish or nonsense and no one would know the difference. But don’t worry, it’s not complete gibberish... or is it?