Elder Chase Mikkola

Well everyone I'm still here in inwood. The work is going alright. We had a cool friend rose and her little brother that were going to get baptised. She called Saturday and said that she is no longer Interested in baptism and that she would rather live the worldly life. It kinda broke my heart but it happens so much I know that she will come back at some point and god will provide another friend for us to teach and baptise.  Transfers happened and as far as it goes on where I'm at and who I'm with I'm still in inwood. Im going to miss elder narvato and i love that man so much. He taught me so much about charity and being content with life and what we have. Im excited to go visit him in the Philippines some day! I'm with elder bjornberg. I did get a training call and I guess you could call me his trainer but he's been out for 20 months and he went home from another mission and came back out to NYC. I don't feel like a trainer at all but oh well we are working

  Well incase you havent heard im still alive. Im in manhattan in a place called inwood training a missionary from the Philippines. I honestly love him so much and helping him with his english has honestly been the funnest part. Every day he has new questions with meanings of words and with grammar and its hilarious. We havent baptized anyone yet but we have taught a decent amount of lessons. Our friends seem to fall off like dead flies. We do have a pretty cool family of 3 (single mom and 2 kids) that are looking to get baptised this weekend so thats cool.  Nothing is new with me. Im just getting over a nasty cold and i seem to be doing alot better. Ive been to the natural history museum two times in the last 3 pdays and its pretty fetching massive. We were there for 4 hours each time and we barely made it to all the rooms. Not even looking at all the different exibits. My favorite though was the dinosaurs. Id say ive grown alot as a person as a missionary and im super excited for wha

  So everyone I finally managed to drag myself to write an email. This last week has been a freaking grind that's all I have to say. Every day was pretty close to 8 hours walking around on the street and it kind of gets depressing sometimes. I think what honestly honestly drives me is Christ's atonement. Trying to help others learn about it and be baptised.  I know that he truly did suffer and die for everyone of us. I know that it's Christmas and we are focusing on the birth of the savior too but I know that my savior lives.   Today was a crazy day. Woke up opened a few presents and headed straight to Brooklyn for a little zone pday. We watched a movie on Netflix called Klaus. If you haven't go watch it. It's pretty much all about charity. Then we headed back to the island for games at the church with the district. I got a torta from this Hispanic run down deli from lunch because it was closed. But honestly... it was amazing. Then we were planning on going to a mem

  Well jts been another few weeks but i guess i managed to make it back to the keyboard. It's been quite the grind like usual and we have been struggling to find lots of people. We have had a pretty good progressing pool so that's been nice. We have a family that we are teaching. Chris, Kayla and Destiny are all preparing to be baptised on the 24th of december. Right now they are struggling to know if they want to get married or not. We gave them homework to read the family a proclamation to the world. We are working with them alot and we know that the spirit is going to lead them to the water. We did have a miracle baptism for our friends Lilian and Leo. Last week one of the Spanish missionaries here in staten met them on the street and referred us to them and we gave them a call. They made it to church that sunday but they came after the sacrament so we planned on baptising them on the 24th. The next week we struggled to teach them consistently as she's a busy mom that do

  Well this past week went by so idk what to think. Butttttt i do know that our friend skye got baptised this week. Earlier last month I was able to meet her on the street shortly before the bus came. She said she worked sundays and i thought nothing of it. Last saturday i gave her a call and she said her schedgule changed and she could come. She desired baptism so bad and she even told us that there was no better time for her to do it. She came on sunday with 12 family members and friends. None of them wanted to progress towards baptism but the seed was planted and i know that atleast one of them will be baptised soon. God is so good and it starts with the little things. Anyways i love you all and ill talk next week.  Love, Elder Coca-Cola

  This has definitely been a journey the last couple transfers. God has been testing me and testing me and testing me. Making it the hardest stretch of my mission so far. I've battled alot of obstacles including the area(can be slow sometimes), companion changes/struggles, and lots of anxiety but gods given me so much strength recently and it's increased my testimony so much. I know that if we are willing to submit to his will and do his work that he will provide, and that includes that he will provide for our family's and I can testify of that. He's helped my family in so many ways and we need to thank him for all those tender mercies.  It's the start of a new Transfer and I'm in Connecticut as a zone leader. Kind of a big change right? Good thing that I'm just kidding because that would be stressful haha. I'm still in Staten Island with Elder sharp. We had a baptism last Sunday for our friend Kenneth and it was a miracle actually. He's 17 and for t