Hey!

Hey, everybody!  Sorry I haven’t written.  It's been crazy busy here. I didn’t have any time yesterday, either.  I don’t have much time now, either, but just wanted to say hi and see how everybody’s doing.  I would write in Spanish but the translate does it a little wrong.  Also, mom, hahahaha, viejo is kinda bad here, haha, just a heads up, hahaha.  But it's all good.  I got a good laugh.  Elder is just Elder here. (Note from Chuck - Kathy tried to write to Gabe in Spanish using the Google translator.  Apparently it was an amusing translation.)

Were having some problems with Valeria and her baptism date.  She didn't come Sunday to church.  She told us she was ready but her husband took her to the mass of the Catholic church.  She really wants to go and continue, but her husband doesn’t give her support.  He likes the Catholic church better.  We haven’t talked to him.  He's always busy and he's never there when we're there, just her sons. 

We're working better with the youth as well here, helping them get a testimony of Joseph Smith.  Also so they can help us and teach and invite their friends to church as well.  Any ideas of activities for youth?  I know it's hard cause it's a big difference between here and there of what youth do.  They don't like to do anything here.  There's not a relationship between them.  It's like "OK, whatever".  We brought a boy with us yesterday to teach and he hated it.  He was like "I wanna go home, I'm tired" and complaining the whole time.  I just felt like aww, man, bummer.  We talked to him and stuff, what he likes to do and stuff, but nope, he just wanted to go play video games.  He shook the hand of our investigator but like pulled away fast, and she said  "Are you angry or something?" and he didn’t respond so I just said ''Oh, nah, he's just a little shy''.  But he didn’t even care (the boy).  I was like "OK, you can go home, but you're walkin home alone, or you can come with us to a few more visits and we will take you home."  But no, he wanted out, so I'm like "OK, your salvation", haha.  I was like wowww...... dang, our future generation.......we need help with things to do cause the youth don’t like anything with church.  ideas?.....

Well, I love you all, and thanks for the brownies and cookies.  My district about died, haha.  One new elder, he's brand new, loved them.  He's from South Carolina and he's like "Ahhh, the United States", haha.  It felt good  to eat real brownies from home. Here they don’t exist, just in packaged stuff, but they're gross. Haha, well I hope you all have a great week!  Love you all!

 

Bye! 

 

Elder Castleton

Bien Occupado No Pudimos Escribir...

Hola!  Como estan?  I was thinking about writing in Spanish but you won't understand.  Yesterday we didn't have any time to write, haha, sorry.  Our p-day is just soo full. So how are you guys doing? 

This week we found a lady named Valeria.  She's about your age and the missionaries passed her by a lot but we went with her and got to know her.  She said the elders rushed her to be baptized and she didn't like that.  She said "I want to make sure I'm in the right church."  I thought back for a moment and thought to my self..." Well, I don't think she knows lesson 1."  I asked her "Sister, did the other missionaries explain why there are lots of churches?"  She said no, and I was like, what?  Oh, man!  She told us that they talked about the plan of salvation and all the other lessons, but they did not explain L1.  I said to her "Well, we're gonna tell you what happened".  So we taught part of L1 and after, she loved it and said "That explains why", and then we talked about goals and baptism.  I asked her about if setting a goal for baptism would be good, and a lot of other things, like we're her to help you all the way and achieve your goal and it's a time to prepare and God will answer your prayer and, ya, so she said...............YES!  So we put a baptism date for the 28th of Feb.  It was awesome.  I felt pretty happy that we were there to help her and her need. That was the spiritual experience this week. I have lots for every week but some are more special and others are too special that I will tell you guys when I'm home.

Well, I hope you all enjoy your week.  I love you all.  Thanks for your support and prayers.  Keep holdin' strong to that lil' bar of iron.

Love you All!
Elder Castleton

New Area

Hey, everybody -

So I'm in a new area its called Aztecas.  My companion is Elder Caal.  He's from Guatemala.  He's pretty cool and very funny.  He is very, very tiny.  He's the tiniest guy in the mission, I think, but he's like a ball of muscle, like Spencer Tuckett.  It made me think of him, haha.  I like it here, actually.  The house is a lot bigger.  I like the area and the members. I actually don’t have much time to write now.  I have a lot of stuff to do as a district leader.  I'll send fotos next week so you can see it all, haha.  I'm like on the mountain of Juarez, kinda, so we can see the whole valley of Juarez and El Paso.  It's soo cool at night time.  The area is big, as well, and we're walking a lot, and I have to walk slower cause my companion can't keep up, haha.  I take big steps and he's running, almost, with his little legs, but he's so cool.  Sometimes it's hard to understand him cause the Spanish from there is a little different in a bunch of words.  But I'm learning a lot more now, haha.  Well, I love you all and hope you all have a great week!  Be Good!

Elder Castleton

New Assignment

Hey you all!

So we got transfers, haha. I am leaving Tierra Nueva. :(   I loved it here, but it's all good. My companion will stay here.  I’m going to a new area called Aztecas. I am going as a district leader.  Actually this is a big deal.  Down here it is. It's hard to become a district leader here, because they have to be 100% obedient and in a lot of things I'll tell you when I'm home, but I've been 100% diligent, so Pres sees that and now I'm a district leader.  He says if there are bad district leaders then the whole mission will be bad.  I feel ready for this.  It will be interesting.

My companion's name is Elder Cal, I think. He's from Honduras or from Guatamala, from what I've heard. This will be an adventure. I have a ton a stuff to pack, haha.  Also, there are not so many elders here that have a lot of time in the mission.  There's a couple generations before me and in a couple months I'll be one of the oldest generations here.  I will probably be a zone leader before I go home.  I don’t wanna be an assistant, though.  They do sooo much work here. They hardly teach at all.  And they are always running, busy, busy.  District leader and zone leader sounds good to me, ahha.  Yea, the members were soo bummed that I'm leaving.  They are good people.  I'll miss them but I'm so ready for this opportunity.

How's it all going over there?  It also sounds like I'll be coming home the 19 of August. I am having a good time here. I love teaching now and talking to the people, showing them the love that I have for them.  Thank you guys for your support and love.  Also for the gifts you send.  I share the fotos of you guys with the members. They wanna see what Alpine is like.  I don’t know if you guys wouldn't mind taking some fotos of Alpine and also views of the lake and the mountains.  Idk if it is snowy there or not.  Maybe in the spring. haha.  Also I have to say, I handed out some glow sticks to little kids in the church and more came and I'm like "Oh, ok, I got a couple more."  Then all of a sudden a huge stampede of kids came running AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!  I want one!!!!  I want one!!! I want one!!!  They were all pushing me over and attacking the bag.  I about wet my pants from laughter and my companion was like laughing and it was just funny.  Here those don't really exist, but they love them a lot!!  Like it fascinates them so much.  They all wanted one, but i didn’t have enough.  There was like maybe 60 kids.  There were too many, but yea, it was funny.

We also activated a family this week and they came and their son passed the sacrament.  It was awesome, and there were also 2 goodbye farewells yesterday. it was interesting, haha.  They're different here, haha.

Yea, well, thanks so much.  This week was a pretty good week. I made some amazing hamburgers with my companion and we about died because it was so good.  I couldn’t move, either.  they were huge burgers but so good, and yea, I about wet my pants laying on the couch cause i had to go potty but couldn’t lift my self up, hahaha.  Pretty strange but good week. Hah, well, I love you all. Hope you all have a great week!  Be good!

Elder Castleton