Elder Kasey Lightheart

  Riding home from our mission conference! Hey everybody! Yet another wonderful week has passed by as a full time missionary of the Lord, and boy was it an amazing week. Early on Tuesday morning, we received the news that Elder Parrella of the Seventy would be visiting our mission, and that we would be having a conference the next day with him, and another zone as well. We ended up having to wake up super early, at around 4 in the morning to make it there on time, and so after a tiring morning, and a 3 hour drive in a big van with our whole zone, we finally arrived and had a wonderful conference. It seriously always amazes me the powerful spirit members of the Seventy have with them. Despite my exhaustion, I couldn't help myself enjoying every minute, hearing the counsel of Elder Parrella.  We also were able to visit our friend Desiree in person for the first time! She is a really sweet woman, who has decided to be baptized this Sunday, August 29th. Although, we have had to te...

  Our last lunch in Brás Cubas! We officially transferred safe and sound to Cidade Morumbi!! On our last day in the area, we were able to have one final lunch with a family of the Vila Lavina ward, who were one of our favorite families in the ward. The couple is actually expecting their son to return from his mission this month, so we are very excited for them! We said our goodbyes, and then waited for the new elders to arrived, and waited, and waited... they ended up arriving about 2 and a half hours later than we expected, but that's okay! After about an hour drive, through Eucalyptus tree farms and fields, we arrived in Morumbi, at our new house!  Lucky us, this area belonged to sisters for many years, until about 6 months ago, so it's a really nice house and area! Unfortunately, the previous elders didn't clean at all, so we arrived to a dusty and filthy home. But after about 3 hours of scrubbing, sweeping and mopping (and a little bit of extra work throughout the week)...

  Saying goodbye to Patricia and her family. "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." I just love the story of the people of Alma, who completely turned around their lives, and became disciples of Jesus Christ. Even in righteousness, they suffered for a time, being held captive by another people, the Lamanites. But the Lord heard the prayers of their hearts, and lightened the burdens upon their shoulders, until the day that they were freed. And all this was possible because of their faith and trust in Christ. I would invite you all to study Mosiah 24 in the Book of Mormon, and ponder how God has performed miracles in your own lives.  This week, in and of itself, was a week of miracles! Earlier in the week we ...

  Zone Conference shenanigans "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." (Alma 34:32). This life is a time to work hard, not only exercising our faith, but also laboring physically to provide for our families and loved ones, and multiply the blessings and talents God has given us. Labor is defined as work that is hard that is accomplished by great effort, meaning that life won't always be easy, in fact many times difficult and tiring, but I take comfort in the promise from the Lord that all things will work together for our good so long as we trust in Him.  This Sunday, our wonderful friend Eduardo surprised us by exclaiming after our Sacrament meeting, "Elder, I'd like to be baptized, how can I go about doing so?". These are the kinds of words you dream to hear as a missionary, but let me tell you, this man is certainly prepared and ready to enter the water...

  Patricia's baptism. Wow, what a wonderful week it has been! I wanted to start out my email sharing an awesome scripture I read this week in Mosiah 5, verse 12, which says "I would that ye should remember to retain the name [of Christ] written always in your hearts". I love so much this invitation from King Benjamin because it has so much layered meaning. I find it truly important that he invited us to write the name of Christ in our hearts, and not just on our wrists, or in our mind. Our heart is generally associated with feeling, and love, emotion and joy, and when we center those feelings in Christ, everything we do follows suit with what Jesus would do. But how exactly can we keep Christ always written in our hearts? I don't think it's a one time experience that remains forever without maintenance. Rather, I believe that we need to work and labor every day to remember Jesus Christ, and love and serve as he did. Choosing the harder right, rather than the easie...

  Exchanges with Elder Almeida Wow, what a wonderful week full of miracles it has been! Unfortunately, I don't have too much time today to share with you all of all the miracles that happened, but I'll try my best to include the best part of the week here! Service Project! Although we weren't able to have any baptisms this week, we did re-mark our friends Mayara and Patricia to be baptized this Sunday, as well as another young boy named Mauricio. We had already been teaching his parents, a Venezuelan couple who speak a little Portuguese, and then invited the whole family to be baptized. The parents still have to be married first, but their son accepted the challenge to be baptized this Sunday as well. But I have faith that this week we can help these wonderful souls enter the waters of baptism. Meet Maggie the cat. Gotta catch 'em all! We also had in-person exchanges this week, for the first time in 6-7 months. It was super wonderful to spend the day with Elder Almeida,...

  My new Ukelele! "I see skies of blue, red roses too, I see them bloom, for me and you, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world". Why include the first few lines of a classic Louis Armstrong tune? A couple months ago a random member from another ward sent us his version of the song, singing it with the same hilarious crackly voice that Louis Armstrong has. And ever since, we have been singing this song together, laughing all the way. But I agree with Louis, that this certainly is a wonderful world.  This week we had the privilege to mark 2 of our wonderful friends, Mayara and Patricia, to be baptized next Sunday, the 18th of July. We are super excited to help them prepared to be baptized, and happy to have seen their progress along the way! After our last lesson with Mayara, we had a little family home evening and refreshments, and among the carrot cake and mango juice, they had cream cheese and bread. I did not realize how much I missed cream cheese until that day. Le...