Week 5!

This week has been special because I learned to say “Unsa’y nagaluto, nagatan-aw maayo.” (You can look it up, it will prolly come up with something literal, just change two words around and you’ll get it). So now whenever we are talking with Sister Missionaries I’ll always say that haha. Probably not the best the thing to say on a mission but I gotta have have some fun here, plus they have no clue what it means!

And this week has also been special because I’m finally back playing sports again!!! The trainers said my ankle healed very quickly, although there is still a bit of swelling.

Saturday: Pretty basic day and we had a 20min TIP in full Bisaya. It’s kinda crazy because I can talk pretty well about the Gospel and Jesus Christ, but just talking about normal stuff is really difficult haha.

Sunday: Today most of the districts in my zone switched DL’s. Now I’m sure when I’m out in the field I’ll want to be the district or zone leader, but here, I don’t want to be either. They really don’t have much control or anything, they just have to get the mail and go to more meetings. This morning everyone in our district was thinking it was either Elder Young or myself and both of us were hoping it was the other. Then during sacrament meeting they call, “Elder Young.” I was dying laughing and started messing with him when all of the sudden I hear “Elder Grasse.” I stand having no clue what’s going on and now I’m trying to hold in my laugh, which was directed towards elder Young. I hear “Thank you” and I sit back down. I was called as The Technology Specialist. Then Elder Young started laughing at me because none of us had any clue what they do. But basically every week I have to teach all the new missionaries about their devices and safeguards. So it’s not too bad I guess. But elder Young did get called as DL.

Monday: My first online TRC. We had a 30min lesson in full Bisaya with someone in the Philippines. It was fun but very tough. Our person couldn’t hear us at first so he hung up and called back like 5min later and then he didn’t even understand like half of our words we were saying. Pag-ula is atonement and he had no clue what that was. So we had to cut out like 5-10min of our lesson. Our teachers said afterwards that he might have been speaking Hiligaynon. So that was fun haha. But it was just cool listening to a native speak the language.

Tuesday: Today was the day the trainers cleared me for physical activities. I went back to volleyball and I hadn’t lost any of my skill. My team won 100-0, give or take about 100, but it was so much fun being back out there.

Wednesday: Our district was assigned to be Host Elders today. This new batch of missionaries had 600 elders and 150 sisters! They said this was one of the biggest batches ever. When a car arrived one of us would follow it and introduce ourselves, get to know the family and the elder, grab the luggage, and take a pic of the family. Then we would quickly take them to their room and back to T4 for check in. It was actually a lot of fun but right as the new missionaries were arriving, it started dumping. Dumping as in a Thursday evening in November in Oregon. It was actually super nice to see the rain again.

Thursday: Today was another English Fast. LISOD KAAYO(very difficult) but it really shows how much we’ve learned and how much we still need to learn! There are like 2,500 missionaries here now which is insane! Everywhere you go you have missionaries walking behind and in front of you. During meals the lines are crazy long but in the midst of all the crowds I was able to see my cousin Kadem Yost! It was so amazing seeing family here because the only other person I’ve seen outside the MTC is another Sister here. Not many LDS people my age back in Eugene haha. We also had a TIP today which was a surprise to us all so Elder Fleischel and I quickly got a lesson out of Preach My Gospel and started reading out of there when our teacher stopped us and said it can’t be out of Preach My Gospel!!! I puffed up my chest, acted like a missionary of God and spoke from the heart about the restoration, the great apostasy, and dispensations. Our teachers said besides the broken Cebuano, it was awesome. I felt great but I took over and left Elder Fleischel was kinda left in the dust... oops.

The first day I got here I restarted the Book of Mormon and just yesterday I finished the whole thing. It took me 30 days. It’s insane how much I cherish the Book of Mormon out here. I hate to admit it but reading it back home was a full on chore. Here, BoM personal study is what I look forward to everyday. I know God has blessed me immensely because I’m able to read, ponder, and really comprehend what’s going on. I know that the Book of Mormon is the most true thing ever written. It testifies of God and his son Jesus Christ being alive and real. Every time I start reading it I just get overwhelmed with a joyous feeling. I can’t wait for when I start it over again.

Real quickly I wanna share what is now probably my favorite story in the Book of Mormon. In Alma 30 it talks about Korihor, a wicked man who denies Christ and God and teaches against their doctrine, talks with Alma about if there is a God out there, why doesn’t he show himself to me right now? When I was back home I talked to my dad about this a few times. I had always wanted for an angel, or God, or a massive sign to tell me this church is true. But then I think back to Laman and Lemuel. How many times were they spoken to by God? How many times did they tremble and fall to the earth because of God? It doesn’t matter if we see God in person or if we’ve never even had the slightest sign, it’s all about our faith. But continuing on in Alma, Alma says, verse 44: “...Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” The scriptures are the biggest sign that this Gospel is true and I didn’t fully realize that till I came out here. But also if we just look around, our earth and everything on it and around it witnesses that there is a God.

Sorry for that little shpeel, that’s just been going through my head for weeks.

Anyways I love you all and I hope you all are doing fantastical!

Ayo ayo!

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse