GOD'S PLAN FOR US, DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, A BRIDGE & A DRESS

A bridge I found. Thought it was cute (:

Out teaching with Brother George (a boss).

I've been super. Ummm... as far as missionary work, I had a cool experience. We've been teaching this family (the Lee's) and the oldest son was like, "Look, you guys seem honest, and I just want to let you know, I don't really believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in God and that's it. I don't see why everyone is always talking about and praising Jesus the son of God when His father is the real one we should be worshiping." It was an interesting concern I had never really heard before, so I thought about it for a second and then decided to teach about God's plan for us. The whole reason we're here and how this entire plan would be impossible had Christ not done what He did. We are here to learn and grow and make choices and ultimately try and become more like our Father in Heaven. But He knew we would mess up at times and that meant we needed some way to be forgiven. Because "justice" would say if sin there is a punishment. And God is a just God but also merciful, and that is why he sent Christ, to show "Mercy". A mercy that could satisfy the demands of justice. Christ felt every pain and sin and sorrow we will ever have to go through, so that we could ask God for forgiveness. He paid the demands of justice in full, so that we could have mercy. And by no means does that mean, "Christ already paid for my sins so all I have to do is believe in him and I'm saved!" We have to now live His gospel and accept His atonement. After the lesson he was so happy. He just asked why no one had explained it to him like that before.

It strengthened my testimony of this church because it seems to me all the other ones do is confuse people. Now, I'm obviously not trying to insult the people in the other churches here. They are amazing. I know and teach a lot of them. Very humble honest people. But if you are being taught the doctrines of Christ mixed with the philosophies of men, it will leave you confused and searching for more, and that's why I love teaching the restoration because for those people who really do have faith in Christ and who really want to follow Him, it goes amazing. But for those people who confuse their pride with their faith in Christ it becomes obvious in minutes that they are not filled with true desire or honest searching. I'm here to help those confused honest people. As confused as I am sometimes, I still do my best because I know what is important, and I know that this is the only true church upon the face of the earth.

Shout out to my parents for getting me out here. Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Chassse

A dress Elder Hardy bought, so I tried it on.

THE RASTA LIFE HERE IS REAL, OUT AND ABOUT THE ROADS OF GRENADA AND A WEIRD EYE INFECTION

Elder Hardy and I out and about the roads of Grenada.

The Rasta life here is real man...

This week was pretty swell! We're teaching this family, the Lee's, and they are all awesome. The father, though, is a rasta and a bit crazy, but everyone else is actually really cool! Jardeem is the oldest boy, he's 20 and he's so humble and genuinely interested and searching for truth. He's got 3 younger siblings, and his mother is taking the lessons too. And every time we go over we just have such an awesome lesson, and the Spirit is so strong. Oh, also! Casnel came to church! That was exciting, he said he liked it and we had a lesson with him afterwards. I asked him to pray and ask God the specific question of whether or not he should be baptized by the proper authority (because he was hesitant about already being baptized), and I know he'll receive his answer. (:

Other than that, I go my package!! All the missionaries were like "awww it's so cuuuute" making fun of me, aha, and then telling me to open it because they knew there would be food inside. Aha, so I said forget yall and took it home, LOL! (But Elder Hardy ate most of it), but thank you so much for the new ties and white shirts! That medium size one is my new favorite white shirt and made me realize how bad my year old white shirts are. But thank you again for the package! My diet has been hot chips for the past week. aha.

Love you lots!

Elder Mykesell

My eye just decided to get some weird infection this week, so that's been fun...

I HIT MY YEAR MARK & MY LOST CAMERA WAS RETURNED BY A BUS DRIVER

So, my week was all right. I hit my yeaaar mark, so that was exciting. I also lost my camera with all my pictures on it and spent a few days sad as could be until this random bus driver puller over when he saw me and was like, "Hey! You left this a few days ago!" And I was so happy I couldn't speak! So, that was awesome. It was also a faith builder too because at first I was like, "I'm going to pray to find my camera," but then I thought "well really it has nothing to do with my personal salvation and in the grand scheme of things probably doesn't matter to God." So, I was being a downer about it, but I decided to pray anyways that I would somehow at least get the pictures and videos on it that meant so much to me and then later that day it was returned to me by the bus driver. I've always felt like my problems, or what I think are problems, are probably small to  God and that He doesn't really care, but I know He does. That he's mindful of even the small things. I know that's a lot to say just because my camera was returned to me. It could have just been a nice conincidence, but I don't think it was. And it's not just the camera. There have been so many times on my mission when I have felt alon where my prayers have been answered.

Other than that we taught Casnel and he's doing well. He's just a bit skeptical about being baptized "again". So we're going to have to teach him about priesthood authority again.

Other than that it's been a pretty normal week.

I love you!

Elder Mikesell

ROOT BEER FLOAT FAIL, MORRIS FHE & NEW INVESTIGATOR

I've got a couple more cool pictures for you! Family night last week with the Morris family went really well! We taught the plan with cute visual aids and everything! Casnel, our new investigator, is this guy we found who seems really prepared to hear the gospel. He's super nice. He's in his late 30's and is willing to find out if the Book of Mormon and the gospel is true. I know it sounds just "alright", but it's actually amazing! We don't have a lot of prepared people here in Gouyave. It's kind of a tough area. But, he's exactly what we need because he could really help the branch out. Other than the group leader, Brother George, we have no other active priesthood holders here. So, we need men to teach. I'll give you an update on how Casnel is doing next week. Pray for him! (:

Root beer float FAIL

All the islands eat pretty similar. Rice, Chicken and Macpie. I had that for lunch today, actually. We never get fed from members. There's just not enough members and the few we do have aren't well off like those in the states, so it would be hard to regularly feed the missionaries. I've been fed like 3 times in Gouyave, though, so I guess "never" isn't true. Aha.

I had a funny experience last week. We made root beer floats for the Morris's Family Night thinking it would be fun and they would love it. Turns out, none of them had ever had root beer before, and they all thought it was gross. Aha. So that was kind of a failure. Aha.

I'm running out of time... Thanks for keeping me updated and really for everything. I love you and the family.

Love,
Elder Chase Mikesell