Elder Kasey Lightheart

Hello all!! This week I was issued a phone, and I've taken it upon myself to draft up my blog email early this morning, that way I can really type up as much as I would like about my amazing week, because it truly has been just such an incredible week. On Tuesday I had my first Zone Conference, which is basically a meeting of all the zones in the mission, in which we received about 5 hours of council, goals and reminders, as well as an amazing lunch. We also got to enjoy the company of all the other missionaries in our mission and we  took a huge mission picture . It was super nice as well to get to see Elder Blackwell again, who was in my district in the MTC, He has been serving in the only Portuguese ward in our mission. Although I'm a bit jealous that he gets to attend a Portuguese ward, I'm still so grateful for the ward I am currently attending in Cypress Creek. Elder Blackwell was telling me how sacrament meeting for him was crazy, and very hard to understand, as...

Unfortunately, this blog will have to be super quick and short, since I don't have much time, but for those of you who don't know I have been serving in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, while waiting for my visa in order to serve in Brazil. This week has been crazy!!! My new companion and trainer is Elder Hansen, and he is super cool. He has a super strong testimony and has been super nice to me this first week. My area in the mission is called Cypress Creek, and it is a full bike mission, meaning that we have to bike everywhere, and don't have our own car, like most other missionaries in our mission. It's actually been great riding around on bikes though!! Other than one time, on my first day, that I ran into a pole that was just around a corner, riding around each day wasn't too bad.  This week I was able to help teach several interested people that my companion was previously teaching and acquainted with, and one of which who is committed to be bapt...

Wow, this week has been crazy!! For those of you who don't know, for the last 6 weeks I have been in training at the missionary training center in Provo, Utah, learning both how to speak Portuguese, and also learning how to teach others, and be an effective missionary. To be honest, it has been a ton of work, and I have been itching to leave for a while this week, that I might be able to go out and truly serve.  However, I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had here.  I have learned so much and have changed greatly.  I can honestly say that I'm not the same person I was when I came here just 6 weeks ago, and that makes me all the more excited to see how the Lord will change and shape me and my life over these next 2 years. This week, as we have been preparing to leave the MTC, it has been fun to hear lots of stories from our teacher, the best teacher EVER, Irmao Childs.  This week Brother Childs brought in tons of journals, notebooks, and plan...

Hello everyone!! So this week has been pretty amazing, if I'm being honest, for quite a few different reasons. First off, over Christmas break our teacher that we have had since day one, Irmão Childs, was gone to visit with family, and we had a ton of Portuguese subs. You never realize how much you love your teacher when you have substitutes, because none of the subs we had had anything on Irmão Childs. When Brother Childs returned this week we were all so happy, and we also were reassured, as we were told we might be given different teachers after the new year, but Irmão Childs stayed as our teacher, thank goodness.  Funny story, in Brazil it's pretty popular for missionaries to buy these nice leather scripture cases that have engraved on them their mission boundaries, the mission scripture or motto, your favorite scripture and your name. Well during his last couple weeks on his mission in Santa Maria Brazil, Irmão Childs decided to order one of those scripture ca...