04.18.11 Crazy Week (posted by Trevor's Mom, Rebecca)

Hello Everyone :)

A lot has happened in the last week. There have been a lot of changes, and now I'm actually in a totally new area with a new companion. I only have a few minutes to type this out, so I'm going to have to be brief.

Basically, as of last Saturday things were going great in Sault Ste. Marie. I was starting to get used to the area. I had introduced myself to the branch on Sunday and got to know them a lot better. But Monday, everything went crazy. Elder M. had been having some health problems, so Monday morning after studying we drove down to a doctor in a nearby city to get him checked out. Eventually, it was decided that he needed to be referred to a specialist.

At the same time in a completely different area called Harrison, Elder Poulsen was training a brand new missionary named Elder P. who had just gotten here to Michigan last week. Unfortunately, Elder P. found out that he was going to be sent home, he had some things that he needed to clear up there. So after hundreds of phone calls by Elder M., President Jones, Sister Jones, and the Mission Doctor, it was determined that we would return back to our apartment, pack, say goodbye, and be down in Harrison by that night, which was several hours away. So that's what we did, and it's called an emergency transfer. All four of us spend the night there. The following morning, Elder M. ended up being sent down to Grand Rapids to get better medical care by the specialists there, and Elder P. was also picked up by President Jones to be taken to the airport to head home. So, here I am, a few days later, in Harrison for the rest of the transfer, with Elder Poulsen as my companion. So things have been pretty crazy!

Because we had to leave so soon, the Sault Ste. Marie area actually won't have full-time Elders there for the next four weeks of the transfer. The local district leaders, who live down in a place called Cheboygan (I probably spelled that wrong) will be taking over that area part time, and will mostly just be visiting less active members and making sure things are ok up in Sault Ste. Marie. Luckily, there weren't too many investigators there anyways, so they should be able to handle that.

I'm actually really excited to be here in Harrison though. There are hills! That is so different than Holland. It's actually pretty small town, and we have several other small towns in our area. It's more rural here, maybe about the size of Rigby, ID. Around the town are farms and houses on large plots of land that are spaced pretty far apart. There are also a lot of lakes in this area. It's not very open though, the whole area is surrounded by a forest. It's such a pretty place though. I really love this area. Seeing wildlife like wild deer and turkeys is pretty common, and on a warm day its really nice to walk down some of the country roads and enjoy the fresh air. This is actually Elder Poulsen's favorite area so far too. The members here are great; even just in these few days I've already met some of my favorite people here is Michigan so far. It'll be fun meeting more of the members of the Branch tomorrow. It's a bigger branch than at Sault Ste. Marie, there should be 50 or 60 people there. Harrison is a pretty quiet town, where a lot of people know each other, but it and the surrounding towns are going to be great for missionary work.

Elder Poulsen is a great guy, and I'm really looking forward to working with him.  We're getting along really well and we're already great friends. Also, he definitely wants to work hard, and I do too, so that makes a big difference as well. We just click pretty well, and he's easy to talk to and fun to work with. So this is going to be good, and I really think that this emergency transfer is a blessing in disguise for me. I'll have to tell you more about Elder Poulsen later, because I'm about out of time.

Things are going great, and thanks for all the support! I pray for you and I know that you'll be blessed by me working hard and trying my best to be a good missionary. I'll do what I can to email back everyone, but it'll be a bit tougher now that I don't have as much time on the computers. Still, I should be able to get back to you in a couple weeks. If you send me a letter, I can read that anytime, but that also might take a while to respond to because my time when I can write back is pretty limited every day. Although Saturdays I usually have more time. But have a great week everyone, and enjoy the spring wherever you are!

Love,

Elder Trevor Casper

04.09.11 First Week in Sault Ste. Marie. (Posted by Rebecca, Trevor's Mom)

Hello Everyone,

This has been my first week in the Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced "Soo/Sioux St. Maire") area! It's pretty interesting up here. Where to begin, hmmm... Well, to start off with, our area covers the entire eastern 1/3 of the Upper Peninsula. Our miles are pretty limited though, and because we have to spend most of them driving to and from meetings down in areas south of the bridge in the main part of Michigan. Sault Ste. Marie is right up in the top right corner, right next to Canada. Because of that, the missionaries here rarely go to visit other parts of the area other than Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace, which is a town south of here and right next to the bridge. The bridge connects the main part of Michigan to the Upper Peninsula, and it's actually a really big bridge. It's almost 5 miles long! The land itself is pretty different here. The trees are a lot thicker, and there are many more pine trees here. There are also hills! Most of Michigan is pretty flat. Holland was really flat, I don't think there was a hill in that town bigger than the one on Bellin Rd. between 17th and Broadway. But here, there are tons of hills. Spring has come here just like in Holland. There aren't many tulips, but the last few days have been really nice actually. I was wondering if there would be lots up snow up here, but apparently it's really nice this time of year.

The people here are pretty interesting too. They have a bit of a reputation throughout the rest of the state for being a little redneck-ish. And it turns out, that's actually pretty true for a lot of people up here. They're called "Yoopers" (I think something to do with U.P.-ers, upper peninsula), and in turn call the people in the main part of Michigan "Trolls", because they live under the bridge, haha. Of course the people vary depending on where you go, and Sault Ste. Marie is a more populated area, but in a lot of other places farther west of here the people do get a little more interesting. A lot of the people who live here just spend their entire lives up here it seems like. So even if they aren't redneck-ish, they still have their own identity. It seems like they're pretty nice though, I've met some of them that are investigators or less-active members that the missionaries have been visiting. Yesterday when we were visiting and investigator and less-active member they showed us a couple songs that had to do with the Upper Peninsula. One was a song called "Ballad of the Edmund-Fitzgerald", by (something) Lightfoot, and it was about a big cargo ship that actually sank up here in the Great Lakes a number of years ago, killing the 29 crew members on board. It's a pretty crazy story, apparently the storms can get pretty bad out there at times. The other song was by a group that sounds like kind of a redneck comedy group. I think they were called "Die Yoopers" or something like that. But the song was a long one, and it was called "The 30 Point Buck". It was funny because apparently there are actually people up here like the ones the song describes.

We're actually situated right on the channel between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, which is a pretty important spot. The locks that connect these lakes are actually right in town, and Steve, the Ward (Branch?) Mission Leader took us out yesterday to see them. Our house is a mile or two from the channel, but throughout the day and night we occasionally hear a deep horn off in the distance. In other places I would assume it was a train, but here it is the freighters that travel up and down the channel to different ports and factories. Lake Superior is actually about 20 feet higher than Lake Huron, so in order to get these massive 600, 700, and even 1000 foot freighters up to the lake, they have to use these Locks. Basically, there are two gates with a long stretch of channel in-between. When the ship is inside, they close the first gates, secure the ship, and funnel water down from the upper lake into the lock until the ship is at the same water level. Once it's raised all the way up, they open the second gates and the ship sails on through. When a ship is coming downstream, they just do the same thing in reverse. It's amazing that they can raise those enormous ships like that, especially considering they use only 5 hp motors to do it! All they really have to do is open and close the gates and the water valves, which doesn't really require that much energy. And all the energy they need, they just produce with a small turbine generator that they have inside the lock. So it was a lot of fun to go visit it and see this huge ship get lifted and then power away upstream. It's a pretty long process, it takes around 10 minutes or so to actually go up or down that 20 feet, but it was cool to get to see it. That's always something that I've wanted to be able to see.

Elder McMurtie is my new companion, and he's a pretty cool guy. He's been out for about a year, and has been in lots of different places around Michigan. He's actually from Idaho too, down in Gooding, wherever that is. I had to ask him, and it sounds like it's down by Twin Falls somewhere. He has a reputation for being a cowboy, and he did rodeo through Junior High and High School. Hopefully things will go ok with him. We're still kind of getting to know each other and getting used to each other, but it should work out. The missionaries actually dont' live in an apartment here, we have a house. It's a really small house, and it's old, but everything works ok and we don't have to worry about people making noise above and below us. Today is actually a deep-cleaning day, which happens twice a year apparently. So today, after we finish everything we need to do and get home later this afternoon, we're going to spend a few hours cleaning the entire house. That should be fun. We already did a good bit of cleaning earlier this week, because when I first got here it was actually pretty bad and a little scary. But overall, it seems like a pretty nice place to live.

The Church here is a little different. There aren't many people here that are LDS, so it's actually just a branch that we have instead of a ward. There are a lot of inactive members, and only about 30 to 40 people show up regularly. That isn't quite enough to justify a building, so they actually have a series of connected rooms rented in an office building as the church. That was something new to me, but it actually works out pretty well for them and it makes a good church. It'll be interesting tomorrow to get to meet most of the members here for the first time.

One more thing before I go. The first day I got here, Elder McMurtie and Steve played a little prank on me. Elder McMurtie and I drove over to his apartment, and my companion was telling me that Steve was an investigator that they had met with a couple times, but that he had a lot of hard questions. So that's what I was expecting when we came up and knocked on his door. When he opened the door, we shook his hand and we came inside. But Steve seemed really strange. He seemed pretty agitated. First he told us exactly where he wanted each of us to sit. Then he started saying that he wanted to learn more about what our religion thought about prophets. He told us that in his own religion, whose name he could not disclose, he was considered a "minor prophet". He then got even more agitated and told us that he shouldn't even be meeting with us, and if his church leaders or his gods found out they would be angry with him. Before we could start talking he excused himself, and went into the bathroom. We heard a sound of thunder and lightning that sounded like it was coming from a small toy, and then we heard a pounding on the walls and Steve shouting some made-up words, something like "Babbala Hassabah Cootoo!" or something like that several times. He then stepped out of the bathroom, looked at us and asked "What's so funny?" I was pretty weirded-out by then, but managed to keep a smile off my face and say, "Nothing, everything's fine". Steve then walked into his bedroom and did the same thing as before, except with other words. Elder McMurtie turned to me and was laughing a little bit, and told me that Steve had never done anything like that before in the other times that they had visited him, and said in a kind of worried voice that maybe we should get out of there. Then Steve came back out of the bedroom and sat down again. He was about to start talking, but then just burst out laughing and said that he count keep it up anymore. Then Elder McMurdie introduced us to each other and told me that he was the Ward Mission Leader. It was pretty funny, and we all laughed a bit after that. Steve actually did a really good job acting, and it was totally believable the way he did it, so I believed it right up until he started laughing.

The whole thing was hilarious and I still laugh a little when I think about it. Especially because Steve is actually such a nice guy. He's really friendly and he and Elder McMurdie get along really well, even though teases him and bugs him about everything imaginable. But that's just his personality, and Steve does it right back. It's actually pretty funny to watch them. It'll be good getting to work with them though. They actually have taught me how to play cribbage already too, and we've played a few games. It's actually a pretty fun game. The work here is moving kind of slowly, there isn't much going on. Hopefully we can find some new investigators and people to teach in the next few weeks. I think things will get better though.

Conference was amazing by the way. There were so many good talks, I dont' want to wait for the Ensign to come next month. I'm actually going to print off about 10 or 15 of my favorite talks before I leave the library, there are some that I can't wait to read again. I hope that everyone got a chance to really listen to the speakers and the messages they shared. They were very powerful, and I learned a lot.I probably took about 7 or 8 pages of notes too during conference. Priesthood Session was particularly good, I hope that Stephen gets a chance to see it. But all of the talks by the Apostles were especially powerful. I really felt the Spirit and felt edified listening to them speak. It's truly a great blessing to have these amazing men and women here today. There hadn't been Apostles and Prophets on the earth for over a thousand years before Joseph Smith, but we have them here today and we get to hear all of them speak twice a year. As I've been studying more from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and New Testament, I've understood more and more how amazing and necessary that really is. We're incredibly blessed to be able to be part of this Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I'm blessed to be serving a mission here for the Lord.

I need to go, we've been here at the Library for a while now and have to go to a wedding soon. We're actually going to a wedding for one of our investigators here. She's getting married in the church here today, and then next weekend she will get baptized and confirmed! That'll be a really neat experience. So I'll talk to you next week; thanks for all the emails and letters you've sent, and I'll respond to them soon. I know I'm taking a while to respond but I promise I'll get back to you! I hope everyone has a great week and can find a way to apply something that they learned listening to conference!

Love,
Elder Trevor Casper

04.02.2011 Wk 6: Last Week of My First Transfer (posted by Rebecca, Trevor's Mom)

Hello again everyone,

This last week was the last week of my first transfer. Transfers are six-week periods in which you work in an area with your companion. At the end of each transfer, transfer calls come, and you find out if you will be staying or leaving to go to another area for the next transfer, and also if your companion will stay or leave. It's pretty common to get moved around frequently, most missionaries are moved to a different area every transfer or two, but occasionally they'll stay in the same area for three or even four transfers, which is a pretty long time. Getting transferred doesn't necessarily have to do with if you're doing a good job or not in your area, but just depends on the judgement of the Mission President and the will of the Lord in where you are needed most.

So, yesterday morning President Jones called and informed me that I was going to be transferred up north, way north. As of Tuesday I will officially be serving in the Sault Ste Marie Area (I think pronounced Sue St. Marie. Go figure, I think it's French or something), which covers the entire Upper Penninsula in the Michigan Lansing Mission, which is about the eastern half. The area is named after a city there which is up by border of Canada, I think, and that's where our apartment is and where I'll be living. My new companion will be Elder McMurty, I think. Hopefully I spelled that right, but I'll get it for sure next week. I sure hope there is a place that we can email up there. I don't know much about the area at all, or my new companion, but I will definately know more by next Saturday. It sounds like a pretty interesting place, and I'm looking forward to serving there. I'll be leaving on Monday, spending the night in Lansing, and then driving for a good portion of the day up to the Upper Penninsula. I won't actually be driving because I don't have driving privileges yet. Usually those come during the second transfer, so I'll probably get to do some driving later this month.

Elder Merrell is actually staying here in Holland. It'll be his last transfer before he goes home, it's kind of strange. I really like Elder Merrell, we've become friends these last six weeks. It's definitely been a blessing to serve with him and be trained by him, he set a good example for me. But he is actually getting a Spanish-speaking Elder, Elder Garcia, as his new companion. Things should be pretty good for them here in Holland this next six weeks. We've made a lot of progress this last six weeks here. There weren't too many investigators when we got here, but we've worked hard and we've been blessed to be able to find a few more that we've started teaching. Things are going well here, and I'm going to miss the people that we've gotten to know and been helping to learn about the gospel and build on the truths that they already know. I don't mean it to sound like we've done so well and found all these investigators ourselves, because we haven't. But we have worked hard, and tried our best to do the things that we know we should. Because of that, the Lord has blessed us to be able to find these people. Many of them we came across seemingly by accident or coincidence, or when we ended up somewhere that we hadn't intended to be and found them there. But I know that it was not coincidental, and that the Lord is guiding this work. Finding by the Spirit is as important as teaching by the Spirit, as it says in Preach My Gospel. And Doctrine and Covenants teaches that in missionary work "If you recieve not the Spirit, ye shall not teach". This truly is a faith based work, and I have seen many blessings come from it. I think that Elder Merrell and Elder Garcia will be able to do a lot of good this next six weeks, and I am excited to hear about their progress with these people we'be been teaching. I'm going to miss them a lot. There's something really special about missionary work, it's a time in your life when you get to dedicate yourself to serving the Lord, and for a time share in his purpose "To bring about the... eternal life of man." As missionaries, we do this by "Inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." I am privileged to be a part of it.

This week I actually participated in two trade-offs, one with Elder Hickman and the other with Elder Carr. I spent Tuesday in Grand Rapids with Elder Hickman. He and his companion are Zone Leaders, which is a pretty big responsibility. Each zone covers the same area as a stake out here, and the stakes here are pretty large. Part of being a Zone Leader is that you do trade-offs with the District Leaders in each district in your zone each transfer. Elder Merrell is the District Leader for the 6 missionaries in our district, so that included him. Elder Hickman was a really good guy. He is very encouraging and positive, and I learned a lot from working that one day with him, especially about the importance of following the Spirit in finding and teaching. The next day Elder Merrell  conducted a trade-off with the North Muskegon area which is in our district (District Leaders are supposed to do trade-offs with each of the missionaries in the areas in the district)(Each "area" covers the same area as a ward or branch). Elder Carr and I worked here in Holland for  Wednesday, and that was interesting too. It's good to see how other people work and to learn from them. I hope that all made sense and wasn't too confusing.

I'm really looking forward to General Conference in a few hours. It starts at noon here, which means that I'll be watching conference today from Noon-2:00, 4:00-6:00, and 8:00-10:00. We still wanted to be able to email today, so we came a bit earlier. But I am really excited to hear from the Prophet, Apostles, Seventies, and other General Authorities. We've encouraged some of our investigators to watch it for themselves, and I really hope that they get a chance to so that they can feel the power of their words. Every time conference comes around now, I get more and more excited for it to come. It really is an incredible blessing that we have today to hear from all of these men and women twice each year. I know that this is the Lord's Church, the true Church of Jesus Christ, and I look forward to hearing from his authorized servants.

I'm glad things are going ok at home too. Thats fun that you got a new cat! You'll have to tell me more about it and take pictures. I wish everyone the best, and hope that you recognize answers to your prayers as you watch conference these next two days.

Love, Elder Trevor Casper

03.26.2011 Week 5 in Michigan (posted by Rebecca, Trevor's mom)

Dear Everyone,

This week wasn't too bad of a week. Unfortunately, the weather has gotten a lot colder here from last week. The first half of the week wasn't much fun at all. The weather dropped back down to the 30's and 40's and it rained and drizzled for about two days straight, which isn't much fun for missionary work. The icy wind wasn't much fun either. But since then, the weather has improved. The last two days have been much better, and today its nice enough again to go out without a coat, so I'm pretty happy about that. Hopefully it stays nice this time. I can already tell that Spring here is going to be really pretty.

This morning was a little tiring; we spent about 4 hours helping a family in the ward here move. We had a moving van, which was nice, but it was still a pretty time-consuming project, and we weren't able to stay through until the end. Because they were moving from somewhere farther out by the ward boundaries down into Holland, we had to not only load but then also drive over and unload. Luckily a decent number of ward members showed up to help too, so we didn't feel too bad about leaving. I'm a little sore from moving boxes, but I guess that's a good thing.

Which reminds me, the last two Tuesdays, we've also been doing volunteer work in the mornings from 8 to 12 for Habitat for Humanity, which is a really cool program. From what we've learned, they take either refurbish old or damaged houses or they just build a house from the ground up on an empty lot. They find a family that needs help and could benefit from the house, and then when the house is finished they sell the (pretty decent) house to the family for a severely discounted rate, and a low interest rate. Habitat has some employees, but they also rely a lot on volunteer work. In addition, they also require the family who will be living in the home to put in 250 hours of work during construction, which I think is a great idea. I think Habitat relies on donations to operate, and they also sell a lot of usable materials they'll salvage from the refurbished houses at their resale store. So the last two Tuesdays, we've been going and helping out with construction. Last week we helped lay flooring and destroy and remove and ancient brick chimney in an old house they're refurbishing. This week we were sent to help with the new house they were putting up, and we helped sheet trusses (I now know what that means) and put up siding (The main framework of the house was up and this was the next step). It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to helping again next week. 

Things have been going pretty well overall this week. It's had it's ups and downs, but it's been interesting at least. We had trade-offs (or splits) this week with some other missionaries in my district, so I spend Wednesday working with Elder Jessop. He's an interesting guy. Transfers are coming up in about a week and a half too, which means that next Friday and Saturday is when Transfer Calls will be taking place. When that happens, I'll know if Elder Merrell or I will be staying or going. Elder Merrell said that his prediction is that he will get moved somewhere else and replaced by a Spanish-speaking Elder. We'll have to see what happens.

Missionary work itself is going well, although there hasn't been a lot of progress this week with our investigators. Its been difficult to meet with people; everyone seems to be sick or busy. Still, I'm very hopeful for a few people that we're teaching, and I'm looking forward to seeing most of them later this coming week. We're working pretty hard, but there is always room for improvement. The work is very rewarding though, and I've had so many spiritual experiences since I've entered the MTC. I've never felt closer to my Father in Heaven, or had a better understanding of the Gospel as a whole. More powerful though than my increased understanding of the Gospel is my increased testimony of it, especially the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I know it by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Yesterday we door knocked into a man that is pretty strong in the Penacostal Church, of which there are several here in Holland. We ended up talking to him for a while, and in the end he agreed that we could come back and share a message with him next week, but he also said that he was going to invite his Pastor over too if he could come. He didn't seem to open to learning anything new, and I hope that he doesn't just want to argue about doctrine or try to "convert" us when we come next week, but we'll see what happens. I may not be a very experienced missionary, but I take comfort in knowing that if I my companion and I have the Spirit with us, we will not be confounded by false doctrine and have nothing to fear. Of course, we aren't going to contend with them or argue about doctine the whole time. That is not our purpose as missionaries, and "the spirit of contention is of the devil", as it says in 3 Nephi 11 (I think), and it drives the Spirit away. It is impossible to teach truths of the Gospel through contention and without the Spirit. So if they just want to argue, we'll probably end up just politely leaving.

Thanks for your email, its fun hearing about everything and everyone. Sorry I don't have time to reply right now. But I want to know, what's going on with Japan right now? How are Lisa's relatives? And how are Heather and Megan doing right now in general? It sounds like Stephen is pretty happy. Are you still reading from the Book of Mormon every day?  I love you Mom, let me know if there is anything that I can do for you or anyone. I pray for our family every day. Have a great week!

One final thought before I go. This week members took us out to dinner at two Chinese places and I got two fortune cookies. One said something to the effect of "Now is a good time to enhance your skills and knowledge". The second said "You have an ability to sense and know higher truths". I thought both were pretty appropriate for a new missionary :)

I hope everyone has a good week and that the weather gets nicer for you guys. It's good to hear from you. Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Trevor Casper

03.19.2011 Note to Mom (Posted by Rebecca, Trevor's mom)

Hi Mom!

Sorry that I didn't really have time to email you back last week. I did get those pictures though, but they took a while to load because of the slowish internet here at the library. It was fun to see them though, although I think I look kind of strange in that one picture, haha. I wish I could have been there to eat that pineapple, that sounds really good. And that's great that Stephen and Heather both did so well at piano festival.

Thanks again for that box that you sent me. It's always fun to get letters and packages, and those Thin Mints are really good. I've been saving the Mexican candy, but I think I might have one tonight. That was thoughtful of you to send all that stuff :) .

The busses are nice, but they're also a little time consuming. It does give us another chance to talk to people, but so far no one that we've had conversations with on the bus has been interested. Overall, I think a car is better because it allows us to spend more time knocking on doors and finding contacts rather than just sitting on a bus for hours every day going to and from appointments. Still, its working out very well and the bus system is nice to have. We're still able to get everything done that we need to.

I'm going to try to reply to a few other emails really fast so I should probably go. Bye Mom!  Love you, and thanks for everything you do for me.

Love, Elder Trevor Casper

03.12.2011 First Week of March (Posted by Rebecca, Trevor's Mom)

Dear.... Everyone,

Hey everyone, its been a pretty crazy week this week. Tuesday through Friday there were Leadership Training meetings in Lansing every day that my companion and I went to. My companion is my district's District Leader, so he was invited to go, and since I'm his companion it just worked out easier for me to go too, which I'm grateful for. Its about an hour and forty-five minute drive from Holland to Lansing because we also picked up another missionary on the way. The meetings started at 9 and went until 3 or 4 with an hour break for lunch, so that meant we left by 7:00 or so every day. So instead of waking up at 6:30, we were getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 so we would have time to exercise a bit, shower, and eat breakfast before we left. Needless to say, by the end of each day my companion and I were pretty exhausted.

The leadership meetings were great though. I was a little sad because the morning meetings meant forgoing our personal study each day, which is something that I really look forward to. The meetings more than made up for that though, I think. I called them leadership meetings, but they weren't so much about leadership as just training for the leaders. But what we learned about is 8 important points of teaching that they've come out with fairly recently that they're starting to use to teach the missionaries. When I was in the MTC, this curriculum was a pilot program there, but at some point it is going to become the main curriculum taught there. Those meetings this week with those experienced missionaries and President and Sister Jones are definitely some of the best meetings I have ever been to though. The Spirit was strong, and I learned a lot and took many notes. We were definitely taught by the Spirit as we discussed the principles of the Gospel and of teaching by the Spirit. The role-playing practices that we did afterward were also a very valuable teaching experience as we applied the principles and teaching methods we had just talked about to our own teaching. I am definitely not a perfect missionary, but I am trying hard to do better and to be the missionary that my Heavenly Father wants me to be. The mission field is an incredible place, and a blessing in every way to all who are involved with missionary work. There was a phrase in an article in the Temple edition of the Ensign a few months ago where someone talked about the "philosophical completeness" of the endowment. In a same way, its amazing to see the "philosophical completeness" of missionary work, and how it blesses the missionaries, their families, those whom the missionaries teach, the wards they serve in, and so on. This truly is the work of the Lord in every sense. It is worthy of Him. It is also incredible to see the blessings that come from trying to be obedient as much as I can. I have definitely progressed immensely from when I first entered the MTC, but I definitely am not perfect and need to be more obedient and diligent. Still, I have to exercise patience as I try to improve. But I know kind of a missionary the Lord wants and needs me to be, and I know that I can be that missionary, and that is who I am going to be. I know that if I exercise faith to be obedient, then I will be blessed with more faith. Miracles come by faith, and I want to have the faith to see the miracles in the work that the Lord intended to be there. This is the work of the Lord, and it is done by His power. I'm privileged to be a part of it. The Lord truly will fufil all his promises in the words of his prophets and in the scriptures.

The work is progressing a little slowly right now in Holland, but I know that it will pick up. Not spending half the week in Lansing will definately give us more time to find people this next week (finding new people to teach). Right now we only have a small pool of investigators that we are teaching, around 5 or 6 people, and a few less-active members we visit and teach too. But each of them is an a great and interesting Child of God, and I sincerely hope that we will be able to help them to come unto Christ through His Gospel, which is Faith, Repentence, Baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

My Purpose as a Missionary (Page 1 in Preach My Gospel)- To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

The Lord's work and glory is to "bring about the immortality and the Eternal Life of man". As a missionary and servant of the Lord, I assist in this work through my purpose.

I know that our Savior lives. He guides and watches over His church and this work. He loves us more than we can imagine. I know that he completed the Atonement for us, and did all things expedient for us. I know that he and the Father appeared to Joseph Smith in the sacred grove, and that Joseph Smith and all the prophets since are His chosen servants that hold all the keys of the Priesthood, and they direct and guide this church today exactly as the Jesus Christ would. I know that the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and the "words of life", and is they keystone of this church in these Latter Days. No other book will bring the reader closer to Christ or will invite the Spirit more into their lives. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and blesses me for my obedience and diligence. I know these things by the power of the Holy Ghost, and they have sunk deeply into my heart. I know they are true. And I say them in the name of Jesus Christ. And in the words of Nephi "And thus it is. Amen"

I love you all,

Elder Trevor Casper

03.05.2011 One Month and Two Days ... (posted by Rebecca, Trevor's Mom)

Hey everyone, how is everything going? It’s been my first full week here in the Holland area, so I'm finally starting to get used to everything and get into the rhythm of missionary work. It’s been a pretty busy week though!

It’s still a little cold here. Some days are worse than others, but in general it’s been getting steadily warmer in the last week or so that I've been here. There's still a bit of snow, but it’s starting to melt now. If I'm here for the spring, people tell me that it's really pretty, especially here in Holland. Because of the Dutch influence, they have a Tulip Festival, and apparently there are thousands of tulips everywhere and there is a pretty big celebration every year. So that'll be interesting, if I'm here for that I will definitely have to say more about it. Right now though, we're just hoping for slightly warmer weather. I'm not too fond of all the slush.

The people here are interesting and pretty varied. Most people are white, but there are also quite a few Hispanics and good number of blacks (African Americans? If I'm white then they can be black) . Actually, between the members we've met and eaten dinner with and the people we've door-knocked into, I've met people from all over the country and the world. Earlier this week we ate at the house of some members who were originally Cambodian. It was a little difficult to understand the parents, but luckily their kids could speak English very well. We've come across all kinds of people door knocking too, including a few who couldn't speak English at all. There were even a couple people from India. With this mix of people comes all kinds of religions too. There are a lot of churches here of all kinds of denominations. I think I've probably counted at least 10 or 15 in this area alone so far, and I'm sure that there are more. Most are Christian, but we've also come across Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, and Hindu...ists. And a few Muslims. Apparently no Jews so far though. Other than that, that's about every major religion that I can think of.

We have a car full time, which is really nice. On the downside, we have limited miles that we can travel. Our allotment for this area is 1050 miles per month, which seems like a lot, but it really isn't. Especially when many of our investigators or the less-active members that we go visit live from several miles away to 20. It adds up really fast. To make things worse, Elder Merrell is the district leader, which means that we have to drive the car to do regular trade-offs every week. All in all, we only have an average of 22 miles to drive each day this month. Since one of our investigators who is progressing the most lives about 18 miles away, this is a problem. So we bought bus passes and we've started using those this week. They actually work really well for getting us around to most parts of the city. They're really time consuming to use, but it’s a lot better than walking everywhere. We're also working on getting rides from the members for some of our more distant visits.

The work is coming along. We're working hard, and hopefully things will start picking up now that we have a better grasp of the area and what's going on. Thanks to everyone who sent me letters and emails, I wish I could reply to them all right now but I have to run (we have an appointment in a few minutes), so I'll do it later. I'll keep everyone updated though. Let me know what's happening with you. Have a good week!

Love you all,

Elder Trevor Casper