Gratitude

Hey everyone,
I hope things are going well for y'all. I am doing fantastic. I really have been blessed much more than I have ever deserved. My heart is full as I read the letters and e-mails I've received, and the blessings that are my friends and family. The Lord blesses all of us much more than we deserve!

Well, here is this week's update on the missionary work.
"We've had another good week. Destinee was baptized yesterday. We taught her all 4 lessons in 2 visits, but Elder H told us she had a super understanding of the gospel (he interviewed her for baptism). She's a 9 year old who was adopted into a member family, and apparently her parents didn't feel comfortable with her getting baptized, so it didn't happen when she was 8. Doesn't make sense to me, they are really good parents and they have taught her well. But Bishop N talked to them about it, and now she's baptized. We had an appointment with Mike yesterday. He is rock solid. He committed to be baptized on Nov 28th. He understands that there are many, many good things that come from baptism. He's a little scared, but he wants to be sealed to his family. We're pretty excited. I think the ward will be shocked in a good way. Hunter's still on track to be baptized December 26th. It was definitely an inspired action to open this area back up for missionary work! A lot of good things are on the way."

Thanks for all the details, Mom. I really do enjoy hearing about what's going on at home and with other missionaries. I will try to be more descriptive about my life out here. Here's one story that I think you will find interesting. When Elder S and I were still together, we called the Down East Library, located in Smyrna, and asked if there was any way we could help. A lady took our number and said she would call us back, but she never did. So last week we were shopping at Dollar General and a lady stopped us and asked us if we had been the ones who had called to volunteer. We told her yes. She asked if we would be willing to come help out on Friday morning, and we said absolutely. So we went on Friday, and we'll get to help out there for about 3 hours every week. Believe it or not, it's even smaller than the Basin City library (where, of course, I worked). We're excited to go there every week, we even got the opportunity to invite the pastor of the Methodist church in Marshallburg to read the Book of Mormon! Ha ha. We're going to try and hunt down some nice hardback copies of good LDS literature like "Our search for happiness" or "Jesus the Christ". If you happen to have anything like that, send it to me! So that was pretty cool…

I can't believe it's November! I've been out for 4.5 months now, can you believe that? It's hard for me to believe that it's almost 2010. It's crazy how time flies. I know that the Gospel is true! At our last zone conference, Pres. Cotterell talked about how "true doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior". If you need to change something in your life and you aren't sure how you can muster up the courage or strength or willpower to do it, try studying some doctrine (i.e. reading the Book of Mormon!). There is power in it! Thanks again for everything, I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love,
Elder Casper