News from Chaz-- End of 2008!

…So we have been going through this apartment complex that is full of, “ I am sorry”, but ghetto are uncommitted people. I am sure that Tosh knows, but people that are poor don’t commit to anything. So we drive clear the heck out to these people for a lesson, and then they punch on us (Don’t show up), and we are way far away from anyone. We have had about 10 investigators in this apartment complex, they called it the projects. We go to these people and they punch, and so we go visit all the other people that we have there. It seems like the only time we can have a lesson with them is when we just drop in.

But this last Sunday no one came to church with us. Yes, we do sort of feel like we are failures because that is what we need to do is to have people come to church. They all tell us, “Yea, we will come to church”, but then they don’t come, or they go to what ever church they want. So they are just uncommitted. What else really stinks is that they are like, “ Well it is really busy because of Christmas and New Years, so I will call you after the New Year”. We just sang Christmas carols, then taught them So, we tricked them to listen to us, hahahahahaha!

K, so we had to do exchanges on Saturday, and I went with the Spanish elder to a dinner appointment he had. We were in our area. So I am there eating with a Spanish family… they can speak English but they just don’t want to. Elder Ents was like, “Hey, he should try the baby tomatoes that you grow.” I thought, “Ok, they probably are peppers, so they got some and they are tiny, smaller then a pea, like way small so I thought they shouldn't’t be that hot. So I ate two. Oh my heck, they were so hot, my mouth was on fire! They thought that it was funny, One lady that couldn’t speak English was making fun of me and trying to tell me how much I was sweating. She thought it was funny, but then told me that I had eaten the hottest pepper in the world. For the size of the pepper, dang it was hot, and I had eaten TWO, yea that is right TWO

HEY so guess what? Just guess! Yep, I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED. But I don’t know where I am going, I won't find out until they say, “ Rymer, get off of the bus”. I am sort of sad that I am leaving San Angelo. The members are awesome. Elder Shumway and I had a great plan for the members to get more involved with helping us but he will have to go about it on his own.
On Christmas day, we went to a less active family to have dinner. It was SO GOOD, DANG IT WAS GOOD! We had lamb and ham, and the lamb was amazing, I can't even tell you how amazing it was, it was like roast but better. This family lives on the other side of the lake. They have a little dock and everything. We just chilled on the dock for a while and watched the sun go down while talking. We were there for three hours, talking and teaching. I hope Elder Shumway and his new companion baptize two of their children by the end of next transfer, at least that is what we wanted to do before I found out that I was leaving.

AFTER NEW YEARS, I am going to be so happy for 2009, which means Christmas isn’t for a while. Yes, this week was fun, but nothing really went on because of Christmas. So yea, I am leaving San Angelo, and yes, I would love to come back!
OK, Love You All!

Chaz's Mission Home Address:
Elder Chaz D Rymer
Texas Lubbock Mission
Sentry III Plaza
5214 68th St. Ste 202
Lubbock, TX 79424-1523

T's MTC experience

Elder Smith loves the MTC. He is doing awesome. We have received some amazing letters from him and are so grateful that he is so happy. Here are a few of his recent comments.

"Hola mi Familia!

The MTC es muy Bueno! I am learning alot about the gospel and I am coming so much closer to God our Loving Heavenly Father. Since I've Been here I have been reading the Book of Mormon and I am close to finishing the book of Alma! I encourage you all to read the Book of Mormon it is such an amazing book and it really helps to guide and direct you in life.
I had another amazing experience in the RC (Refferal Center). I was taking inbound calls and I got a call from a old lady in wendover nevada. She had been trying to contact the church for such a long time. She is handy capped now and Had a hard time getting around. She said her neighbor is a mormon and helps her alot and is really kind and nice. She in her youth was like a catholic nun or something and then she joined the baptist church. But then the baptist had the members donate clothes that they said were for the poor but then the next week the church sold the clothes for like five dollars a piece and Mary-Ann (the lady) was heart broken. Any way I told her that the spirit was the one that guided her to call and I told her about the book of mormon and told her that I would sent the missionaries to her home. She said she didn't have a way of getting to church and I told her that the missionaries would help arrange that for her. I talked to her for like about fifteen minutes before i even got any of her information. It was such a cool experience. I was on fire in the RC out of the Six calls I got I was able to send Four sets of missionaries to their home! My teacher then wrote on the board "SMITH IS ON FIRE!" it was way chill"

"Hey everyone!
I love you all! I have progressed so much in these last four weeks I have come closer to my Heavenly Father! I have finished reading the Book of Mormon and am a quater of the way through with the Doctrine and Covenants! EVERYONE READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! it is the key thing that has helped me know our Heavenly Father. also Pray every morning every evening and every night!
some one asked the question what I do in my free time... well usually I just like to read the book of mormon! but I finished it now! lol so I'll just give you a run through of my week:

Monday- arise at 6:20
study tell 8:00
Eat breakfast
Class tell lunch at one
Gymn for one hour
MDT
-one hour personal study
-one hour companion study
-one hour language study
lunch at six
class tell nine and then plan tel nine thirty. then we return to the residence hall. Usually everyone comes into our room to talk and chat for awhile its way fun then we write in our journals then go to bed. on P-day its like this six thirty wake up seven o'clock personal study eight eat breakfast then after that its companionship studay then we go do laudry and Email which Im doing right now lol we then can do pretty much whatever... I usually write letters and chill with the other elders! then we go get lunch then more chill time tell we go to the temple after dinner we have class. Its way nice to take a break cause the rest of the week we are working as hard as we can.

Oh another awesome experience ant the RC! I was Four for Four on sending the missionaries! the spirit really guided those people to call! By the end of our hour I decided I would just call one more number and the lady answered and said she usually is incredibly busy and never answers her phone I asked her if I could send the missionaries to her house she answered and said "I am increddibly busy.." the spirit directed me to tell her that the missionaries would share a message with her that would help her relieve stress in her life and find more time for her family (i didn't even know she had a family) she then said ok and gave me a date when she would have time! It was a great experience.

Thanksgiving was good the turkey was gross and so was the stuffing but other than that it was great! We had meetings all day. I really missed every one!

One of the christ like attributes I have been trying to work on is virtue. virtue is more than just doing nice things for people its doing kind things when no one is looking or standing up for what you believe and not wanting to receive credit! I hope you all can pick a Christlike attribute and work on it every day. I know that if you do you will come closer to the Lord and you will feel his love.

I love you all,

Elder Taylor Smith

First News From Texas...

Bidding farewell at the MTC

Look who found each other!

Chaz's address is now... 

3018 Knickerbocker Rd. Creek Side Apt. # 406
San Angelo, TX
76904 

HEY Y'ALL how are you doing? So I did y'all on purpose, I did. So I am in San Angelo Texas, it is below Lubbock and yes it has gotton cold.
So this area is flat with some hills, ya hahaha I get so excited when we go up them and then down them. . But our apartment is an OK size my bike is just chillin in a corner all ready to be riddin if that is a word.
Thanksgiving was fun and it was good too, we had ham and turkey and all of the good American food, hahha! So the Spanish Elders said that their Thanksgiving dinner wasn't good at all, I am so glad that I am English speaking. I still don't have the lessons down in English and I am so glad that I don't have to worry about them in Spanish. Oh but really good thing, I get free Golden corral lunch on Fridays it is awesome, I ate so much last time I was there.
So the people here are way nice until you bring up religion. For instance when I was mailing my ipod home ( Actually mom the president was fine with ipods, it was a General Authority that told everyone to send them home, even though it does say we can have them) Elder Shumway was talking to this lady for a while. She was wondering what we were doing here and then she got the whole spill and then she started arguing with him. She was way nice but then she got angry. We think she was a Jehovah Witness but oh well. This area has so many different church's around it isn't even funny, there is a street that probably has six different churches but that isn't even half the amount that is here. Everyone says they support us for what we are doing but if they did truly support us then they would join us. But "They have found Christ and they are saved". " It doesn't matter what church you belong in as long as you believe in Jesus" but oh well.

So people here have the worst teeth, it is gross. The only good looking teeth I have seen they aren't from Texas, even the little kids when they open up there mouth ...Oh ya, so you know that snap noise that was big in Brazil, you just move your hand really fast and your thumb snaps your finger, well I know what that is all about. So this is what it is from, you ready? So first you get out your chewing tobacco,and you bring it up and then you move it down fast which then makes a snap I learned that one day while watching this one guy pull out his chew and did that. But it is disgusting! We were talking to this one guy and he just put his hand is his mouth and removed a lot of chew then put in some new chew and then wanted to SHAKE OUR HAND. It was gross! I washed my hand as fast as I could.

I am doing great, and I am learning so much!

Much Love,

Chaz

Welcome to Texas!  It looks like this every direction you look!