Two by Two: Elder Cade Casper:

Cade at the MTC - Pointing to the World Map - his Mission

Nov 3, 2009
The week has been good. I really notice a difference in my receptiveness to the spirit when I truly forget myself and worry more about the people here in State College. We have tracted, and tracted, and I actually don't mind it. I have been blessed with a really good trainer, he talks to EVERYBODY! It was hard to do at first, but now I love to see somebody walking their dog (which everyone has a dog here) and going over to talk to them. We have found some new investigators, people who are very open. As we teach them the first lesson outside their house or something I can see them being interested or uninterested. It's cool when we finish teaching and we are able to set up a return appointment with them. We went on exchanges with the district leader yesterday, well, I did. He is cool, way nice guy. I went into his area which is Clearfield, and we tracted in Phillipsburg. His area just consisted of a lot of small little towns or villages. I didn't like the area. It made me appreciate State College and realize how much nicer the people are here.

But we had some good lessons. We taught a guy named Anty on Saturday who I think had been in prison. He was way open about Joseph Smith. We left him a copy of the Book of Mormon and we are meeting him again on Saturday, I hope he invites the Spirit as he reads so that it can let him know it is true. Oh, one cool thing about exchanges with E. Andrus (the d.l.) was we went up to this guys house, and he said "Come on up!" He was a Methodist pastor and he was very nice. One of the first things he talked about though was how he knows what we believe in and he thinks Joseph Smith is a hoax, and the B of M is from his imagination. I hadn't had anybody tell me this. He said a couple of years ago missionaries came and told him to pray about it. He said he did, and that was the answer God told him. I didn't know what to do, I thought he was going to be a jerk. But then he said he heard a voice three times throughout that night saying something like "don't discount or disregard those people." So then we talked about how he respects what we do. And we talked about how the world is so messed up and how we as Christians have to help people. He was cool, but I had just never heard anybody tell me that the answer they got from God was that Joseph Smith is a liar. It kinda shook me and questioned it a little bit, but then I realized how much I knew that he was a prophet of God, and even though we don't have the archaeological evidence to prove the B of M, I still know it's true. By the way, what was that rock you guys visited about Lehi's Dream on your cruise, I was wondering about that. But yesterday, I was back with Elder Tranter and we went and saw Michelle. We taught her the first half of the plan of salvation, then Elder Tranter gave her the invitation to be baptized. She said she would pray about it but the thing which was going on in her life at the time that made things really hard for her is that she got fired, and her boss was a really manipulative lady and she is going to fight it I guess. She is nice but it was hard to have a serious talk with her because she honestly laughs at everything! As she talked about her life I realized that that is how she would handle stress. It's not a bad thing, but it was just hard to talk about the gospel with her. I really hope that she'll get that answer to be baptized, because she came to church and liked it, so we will see.

We are having a crazy racquetball tournament today with like 4 companionships. It's sweet. Because there are two comps in State College, we are State College inner area, and then our d.l. and his comp are coming, then the z.l.'s are playing too. It will be sweet. Next week I think we are going to drive by the football stadium and the baseball field. The State College Spikes play here, they're single A. I'm not sure who they are affiliated with.

I love you guys and I'm glad and thankful to be here.
Love, Elder Casper