Week 18

Happy Halloween!!! Sad to think I can't go trick or treating this year:(

Elder Obena and I have been working, working, working over here in Cebu. On Sunday there was a visitor at church and he came over to us and gave us 3 referrals which was amazing because it's so difficult to find people in our area. So yesterday we tracked them down. All the person told us was that they lived near 'Corner Bakery'. So we went all around asking people where Corner Bakery is and we got lead all over this compound for like an hour and then finally we found it and we realized it's literally 50 yards away from our church building, which is 10 min away from our house. So that was a big waste of time. We called the man that gave us the referrals and he said all three of the referrals work at the bakery! We walked in and all three ladies behind the counter were the referrals!! We talked with them and got their phone numbers and then Obena and I decided to buy a little treat but one of the ladies just gave us a ton of bread and baked goods and didn't even have us pay for it. It was so nice and all of the goodies were sooooooo tasty.

Cebuano is slowly coming and I am definitely getting used to the heat and humidity. And this morning our zone had a session at the temple which was amazing! But that's it for this week. Sorry for the email being so short but our missionary emails aren't working on computers so typing this on this phone is very difficult! 

Love you all and I hope you are all doing maayo gyud!!!

My address for mail:

Temple Complex-CJCLDS

Gorordo Ave
Lahug, Cebu City
6000 Cebu
Philippines

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

Mga bata

Obena and I in 1,000 degree weather

Baptism

Week 17

Hello sa tanan!!!

I have three more weeks of being a trainee and then I'm leading the area and the lessons. I'm pretty darn nervous because I do not know Cebuano and my area right now, Mabolo, is like the most city area in the mission so everyone lives in compounds which are like full on mazes! So this past week Obena has been letting me practice leading haha. Hopefully it will help but we will see in three weeks.

Compounds here are run by gangs and while some gangs love us missionaries, other gangs despise us. Because of that, we are only allowed to enter certain compounds so we've had a bit of trouble finding new people. However, we've (Obena) decided to say hello to everyone we pass by and then have Obena stop talking because some people love talking to Americanos. The only problem is I don't know how to talk back to them! I'll try my best and sometimes they'll just laugh at me and when that happens Elder Obena will jump in. It's worked so far because we have found 2 new families and an old lady to teach

Nothing too new has been happening. Gahapon (yesterday) I went on exchanges with Elder King to his area, Oprra. It was a lot of fun because since he is an American he had to learn the grammar of Cebuano instead of just growing up speaking it, like Obena, so he answered lots of my language questions. We had a few really good lessons and one of them was with 4 super funny little girls and they just kept roasting my language skills. But luckily they were able to get the gist of it and I was able to understand them... making fun of me haha.

I haven't written much Bisaya in my emails because I feel like I'm no good at it but here goes!!!

Nasayud ko nga tinuod ang simbahan. Tanan mga adlaw nagkita ko mga milagro ug mga panalangin. Bisan pa dili maayo ang akong Cebuano, nagtabang ang Dios sa akoa sa mga leksyon. Naay mga adlaw, nagbati ko guol, pero naghinumdum ko sa pagampo ug nagbati ko mas maayo kanunay. Ang akong kauban, ni Elder Obena, moa ang nindot kaayo elder ug trainer. Christ-like siya gyud. Kahibalo ko nga naganhi ko diri, sa Philippines, para sa rason kay tungod nagbati ko sa kalipay ug kalinaw sa tanan mga adlaw. Usuhay naghunahuna ko nga magkaton sa Cebuano ug magsulti sa Cebuano lisod kaayo pero sa Moroni 7:33 nagbasa siya, "Ug si Kristo miingon: Kon kamo adunay hugot nga pagtuo kanako kamo makabaton sa gahum sa pagbuhat sa bisan unsa nga butang nga maayo ngari kanako." Nahigugma ko sa akong mission ug nahigugma ko sa inyo! Ug sa ngalan ni JesuKristo, amen!

That's it for this week! I love you all and hope you all are doing maayo gyud!!!

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

Sorry for lack of pics this week. I wasn't able to upload them all for some reason.

Elder Dumanju, Elder Grasse. Ward missionary Stephen and Justin. Elder King, Elder Obena

Elder Obena and I at Stake Conference with his cousin and her family

For dinner we ate tiny octopus!

Week 16

It's weird, every week goes by sooo fast but the days seem so long. And to think, I GET to enjoy 616 more days out here in the hot but gorgeous Philippines. 

This week nothing too new happened. Lots of our lessons fell through which sucked but we were able to have some amazing lessons and we were able to extend the baptismal invitation to Sister Angelica and she said yes! She's 16 but now her mom doesn't think it's the best idea :(  We are trying to talk with both of them to get it all figured out so we will see this week.

Throughout my short time being here, whenever I've hung out with the ZL'S we talk about the Sam Yang challenge. SUPER spicy noodles. Monday, after district council, the Zone Leaders brought 5 packs of Sam Yang noodles. So we cooked them up and 5 of us ate them. All the elders were racing. Elder Martin (ZL) and I were trash talking each other about who was gonna finish first and he was so confident because he had already done it before. So we all lined up and started. Of course, a certain good looking elder who shall remain nameless DESTROYED everyone and finished it in 49 seconds! Elder Martin I think was second at 1:30. But afterwards my lips were on fire but the worst part... was going to the bathroom the next morning :(  But all that matters is that the best looking elder there won haha. 

The past 2 weeks Elder Obena and I have been really poor because something was wrong with his card so we've been having to use my money to support us both so the past few days we have had nothing in the fridge and have basically been starving haha. Luckily, the Sister missionaries in our ward had some spare food for us. Dried fish and rice!!! So that night we actually had a real meal. This was my first time having dried fish and the smell is absolutely horrendous but it tasted pretty good. The only thing was, you eat the fish with the bones but I didn't chew it enough and that night it destroyed my throat!

On Saturday and Sunday we were finally able to watch conference!!! I don't know if it's because I haven't been able to watch anything on TV for 3 and a half months but holy cow General Conference is the greatest thing ever. Back home I would basically sleep through it but here I took notes on every talk and I found myself shushing Elder Obena when he tried to talk to me haha. And I can't wait until the session in April!

I love you all and I hope you are all doing maayo gyud!!!

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

Sam Yang (part one)

Sam Yang (part two)

Dried fish

The gorgeous Cebu Temple

Our fridge the past week

Week 15

Maayong buntag! This week was super busy but super awesome. Sadly, since I am in the Philippines the time 15 hours ahead of the U.S. so I wasn't able to watch General Conference this past Saturday and past Sunday. All of us missionaries are going to be watching the rebroadcast this Saturday and Sunday so that will be nice. 

On Saturday I had my first baptism!!! I was able to baptize both Joana and Glenn and it was such an amazing experience:) It's nindot kaayo being able to help others come unto Christ and feel his love. 

Monday was a super fun day. First we had district council so I was able to see and talk with all of the new missionaries is my zone and my district. And later that night after working, we picked up 4 other elders to stay the night at our house because of DLC (District Leader Council) the next day. So that night was a full on party at our tiny broken apartment haha.

Tuesday was my first time going on exchanges. Because my comp, Elder Obena, is the district leader I went to work with Elder Rabina, whose companion is also a DL. Then right before we were leaving another DL said that his comp needed to come with us too. Elder Smith is really nice but he is also brand new in the mission so it was fun not being the most clueless person during our work haha. We went to Bicayan, Elder Rabina's area, and it was very bukid (middle of nowhere)! So that was a new experience for me because my area is in the middle of the city. It was neat because in that area the only white people that are ever there are missionaries so the people who live there rarely see a 'Puti' like me. So whenever I walked by people they would full on stare at me and would always want to shake my hand and touch me hehe. And another nice thing was I was able to see the growth in my language. Elder Smith being brand new was me almost 7 weeks ago so the times he spoke I realized, my Cebuano has come long way.

Other than that, everything has been the same here. Hot, humid, but awesome! 

I love you all and hope you are all doing maayo gyud!!!

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

Obena and I were bored so I made a chess board. Pieces are pesos, q-tips, paper, a pill, etc

Picture with Glenn and Joana

Me at the temple

I rolled my ankle again :(

Ronald McDonald and his twin

Bicayan

Elders Rabina, Grasse, Smith

Week 14

We have two baptisms this week!!! This will be my first baptism in my mission and I'm super excited! The first baptism is an 8 year old girl whose parents are both super active investigators but they are still working on a few things before baptism but they allowed us to teach their daughter, Joana. The second baptism is with Bro. Glenn. He is super awesome and has such a strong testimony. His wife lives in Layte and he's here in Cebu looking for work. His wife has been a member for her whole life but Bro. Glenn had refused to meet with missionaries until he came here and now just in these past few weeks he has grown so much.

Today is transfer day, but I'm still in training so Obena and I both are staying put, but this means I've now spent as much time in the mission as I did at the Provo MTC which is insane because time has flown by here but the MTC felt like forever. Plus, transfer days means new missionaries so I'm not going to be the baby in the mission anymore!!! I have at least one more transfer here in Mabolo but I'm hoping that when I get transferred, I go to Siquijor. The most southen island in my mission and it only has one companionship on the whole island. It's known for having witches and black magic and voodoo stuff so I think that's pretty cool. I wonder if my card magic is as cool as their black magic haha.

Cebuano is still lisod kaayo gyud and the more I learn the more I realize this language has no rules and  then I realize that I still have so far to go. But it's okay because I know it'll come. The heat and humidity here hasn't been affecting me as much as it used to and now being sweaty all day doesn't bother me too much haha. I'm loving the food and this week Elder Obena said that he's gonna take me somewhere where we can buy Day 23 balut which is basically a full on baby duck. I'm super excited because I loved balut last time and day 23 should have a big crunch and feathers.

The Philippines is awesome and I'm so glad the Lord picked this area for me. Each day I'm loving the people more and more. Each day I'm loving the Philippines more and more. And each day I'm loving my mission more and more.

I love you all and I hope you are all doing maayo gyud!!!

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

Ang Basahon Ni Mormon ug ako

Elders Martin & Andreason, Bro. Glenn, Obena, me

A massive iguana

Picture of the city

Video of me throwing a pigeon: