Growth

February, 2010

This week was another great week . To start things off, we got to listen to brother Hinckley, president Hinckley’s son. He was a great speaker. He talked about teaching with the spirit and being able to leave your mission saying "I’m glad I did rather then I wish I had" which really hit me hard because that’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot in here. Already I’m thinking of all the things I would do different in high school and stuff, and I don’t want to say that about my mission. I want to be the best missionary EVER!

This week one of the older districts left and we have a tradition where we keep handing down certain things from one district to another. I ended up getting 2 things! It was cool because they make a big deal about all the stuff and I just happened to get 2. I got a sombrero from my zone leader then I got this bad comfy chair from elder Washburn, haha I got the chair because he said I was the most chill. So now it’s my job to hand them down to some one else.

Well, now I’m trying to part my hair. I’m going to try and grow it out.. it’s gonna look good :) haha im so excited to rock the parted hair. I haven’t had partable hair in years! My hair isn’t long enough yet so its going to take some time. I’m only doing this because I’m not sure if my mission president will let me have a buzzed head, and I want to make a good impression on him, hopefully i don’t look to much like a tool!

Lately I’ve been studying the Abrahamic covenant and stuff...i just want to know why no one bothered to tell me what that was! since i've been here in the mtc I’ve learned so much about church stuff that I should have learned a long time ago so i blame you parents for not telling me, and allowing me to feel like a total tard when every one knows but me! but it was cool learning about it and and having the kids in my district go in deep about it.

I got to teach the first lesson in espanol again. I did much better this time except I couldn’t understand this lady, this lady was about 70 years old, 4'8, and didn’t know any english she was from Honduras. E

lder Fast and I would just act like we knew what she said and continue with lesson, she probably thought we were retarded. This up coming Monday we are teaching the second lesson which is way harder to teach and more stuff to learn, so this week I’m going to have to be studying my buns off!

Gotta run, the Church is true! Love you!

Elder Kurtis Chase

He Will Appreciate These Pictures When He's 50

Elder Fast had an inside connection (relative) who worked in the MTC. This was their treat before they left for Guatemala. "..once again proving it's not what you know, but who you know and are related to!"

He’s a Foody,

K.C. will probably be really upset, but I am his mother, and I figure that if he didn’t believe me when I said he should pay attention in seminary, and during song practice in Sacrament and Priamary, and that he would want and need his seminary scriptures (and I was SOOOO right on all of the above.) I am right on this also!…he might just need to be fat and old to appreciate it J hahaha p.s. I never promised, he just assumed way to much!

“We eat breakfast..than sit…then eat…then sit… then eat… then sit some more…”

“I don’t know what it is, but I eat so much food. It’s like eating triples all day”..

“Thank you Jess so much for the package of cookies, I’m not gonna lie, when I first looked at those cookies, they looked kinda nasty but when I bit into them it was like eternal salvation in my mouth :) I ate all of them in less than two days they were so good,”

“Me and the guys have contests to see who can eat the most cereal..”

“Please send me some Kettle corn, it sounds so good right now!”

“please send anything sour, we can get a lot of stuff here but no good sour stuff.”

“Thank you mom for the package, so many goodies in there! All the kids are trying to steal them but I can usually catch them..I think!

“Mckell Allen!!!!! those cinnamon rolls were amazing, you have no idea! I’m usually not a cinny kinda guy but when I microwave those bad boys they’re like heaven in my mouth… lucky for me they have milk in the vending machines so it makes it just that much better! . you are the best sister EVER! Elder Fast and I have one before we go to bed every night...its part of our "fat piece of crap" diet :) I love you so much

OK, so there is a story behind these pictures.

Kurtis Chase is usually an extremely disciplined eater and workout junky. However, trying to get him to take his shirt off and show off his hard work is next to impossible. One day his brother Ryan called from college and we were all bragging about how amazing K.C. looked and how huge he was so Ryan says "I don't believe you, take a picture and send it to me". K.C. did so under duress (the kind only big brothers can dish). Of course I was sworn to delete said photos from computer (which I did). What I didn't do (inadvertently) is remove them from the camera chip, which got down loaded onto his sister McKell's computer while I was visiting there, so I promptly stole them back :), knowing full well, that he would want them when he was 50!

K.C. asks me to send him one to prove to Elder Fast that he used to have a six pack... SOOOOO I made twelve 4x6''s and some 5x7''s and an 8x10''. I taped Valentine cards with the Jonas Brothers on them with hot pink stickers with a note telling K.C. that he could hand them out for Valentines day cards to his whole zone! This is his reply:

MOM you think you are so funny but let me tell you something...you are not! :) haha I wanted A picture, not 20. I look like a total tool in those!,( I did like the Jonas brothers tho! haha ) I only showed Fast and Sua Filo, I’m too embarrassed to show any one else, haha the first thing Fast said when he saw it was..."wow, what the heck happened to you fatty??!" haha yeah I knew asking for those pictures would have no good come from them.

January, 19, 2010

January 19, 2010

Hey family how’s it going?!

I am still doing great here in Utah. The dude who was our DL got moved, so I am now the District Leader. What are these people thinking? Although being district leader is not even that hard, I just have like 3 hours of more meetings on Sundays. I even like the meetings because my branch presidency is way cool. All 3 of them are way funny and we get along very well.

I finally became like really good friends with some of the guys in my zone. Elder Glover is a favorite, he’s freaking funny and of course he loves basketball. He’s the only really good one I play with, but that’s kinda funny because he was a cheer leader for Utah State…which of course I tease him about, he would seriously fit in my group of friends perfect. Elder Curtis is from Washington is the old zone leader He’s way tight and me and elder fast talk with him all day because he’s totally into sports and very spiritual, but they just left this morning for their missions so that sucks!

Get this, I just found out that my new zone leader Elder Larson is from

dessert Ridge and lived there for like 8 years! It was crazy we talked about it for like 3 hours the other night when we found out. I’m not lying when I way he’s the perfect person, he’s good looking, he’s written 3 books already, one of them is a 250 page book about the atonement, and he’s beyond smart. His job before the mission was a professional speaker for a hospital to sell some kind of equipment.AND he knows everything about anything in the church. It’s so fun talking to him and hearing all these stories about the Book of Mormon.

The language is going pretty well but it our teachers are not teaching that much spanish any more.. just a lot of preach my gospel. I was so mad at first because of that, then I found this scripture that says something like you need to seek to obtain thy word and your tongue will be loosed or something like that, so I’m just going memorize preach my gospel then have faith enough to get the language in the field.

Love you always,

Elder Toolson

MTC January 7th, 2010

January 7, 2010

Hey family! I just found out that I get to write two days a week because we have to do service every day which takes away some of our personal time so they make up for it by letting us write today as well :)

Well to answer some of your questions:

-My companions are Elder Fast who is from Las Vegas, and Elder Bredlinger, who is from Oregon

-It’s still going way cool in the MTC, in fact it gets better and better. -Yes, I see Josh like once a day usually but we're always in a hurry so we just give hugs and say hi and bye.

-oh and in my package I also want some kettle corn :) it sounds really good for some reason.

- About my district, they ate really cool, but I’m not going to lie, we are all kinds of weird! Haha

-oh and about my district, it’s pretty cool but there is all kinds of...weird, hahaha . But I like them all.

-I only have a hard time when you get a self-righteous person who is really hypocritical. When I am around a person like that I try to be nice and not have bad feelings, but some times they just get in your face and it brings out the worst in me

I finally got to see Ryan yesterday which was sweeet! We talked about basketball and stuff about Guatemala and the package he’s going to send me. We only had 25 minutes so that stunk, So I really enjoyed every minute of it!

It’s weird, I feel like I learned so much spanish right in the beginning, and now I am like at a stand still, and feel retarded. I cant really say anything...but then again neither can like half my district so I guess I don’t feel too dumb.

I kind of have a small district, there are only 7 people in it, so it makes it a lot better when we have a teacher. Every one I talk to says not to worry about the language here because you will get it eventually so that makes me feel so much better.

yep its a fact, I definitely gained 6 pounds already and have no six pack.

Mom, please forward Josh and Chads letters home to me through ' dear elder' cause i don’t really get to talk to them much and I want to hear about their cool experiences. Oh and I don’t know if I told you this but I saw Josh at the temple on Sunday and we talked for a goood 30 minutes. He has a cool companion and he freaking became district leader! I am so impressed with him!!

Love you so much!

Elder Toolson

Great District!

Elder Fast and I have to show the rest of our boys how it's done.

The Very best District in the MTC sittin right here.

Lesson learned. Don't fall asleep or your companions will draw on you.

I will NOT be distracted!

The difference between us is I make this suit look good...what movie?

First Letter from the MTC!!

Hola mis padres!

Well to start off, the mtc is seriously amazing. I am having so much fun here. I was so scared that I would hate it and that my companion would suck and I would miss my family and friends. Every one said the first week would be horrible but I'm pretty sure that it is the complete opposite for me. I love being here, don't take offense to this, but I haven't even thought of home or friends at all. It's hard work here but its so cool learning all these new things all day, and I have so much fun.

I actually have two companions! my real companion is elder Fast. He is so freaking funny! Fast is about 6'2" and loves basketball, ping pong and soccer. He is like the perfect companion for me. My other companion is elder Bredlinger. He has this dry sense of humor that cracks me up so much! We are in a trio companionship because elder B's comp didn't show up.

I even like the food here. Seriously, I might have gained about 5 pounds all ready...haha I don't even care because I know I will lose it all in Guatemala.

I was in gym yesterday and totally dunked on my companion. I'm still making fun of him.

It still hasn't hit me that I'm on a mission yet, it's like a vacation so far, and I love it.

The Spirit here is so amazing and so strong, my testimony has grown at least twice the size already. there have been a lot of spiritual experiences all ready. Elder Fast woke up really sick one morning and he asked me to give him a blessing..first one ever for me...So I gave him one and by the time that breakfast was over he was fine. it such a cool experience for me. The other experience was on fast Sunday. I prayed that I would not be hungry and to have a lot of energy through out the day. What do you know, I literally was not hungry the entire day and I had a lot of energy..except when I fell asleep at the fireside and my companions drew on me with pen.

A regular day here in the MTC is waking up early and having personal study, then eating then going to class for like 4 hours, then lunch, then class for another 4 hours , then dinner, then class for like hours..so you know now why I've gained so much weight. I have been eating 3 to 4 plates of food every meal!, I don't know whats gotten in to me!

I like it here, I wouldn't want to be any where else right now. There is a rumor that I might go to Guatemala mtc in 2 weeks, but we'll see what happens, it probably wont happen.

Well I have to go, I only have 30 minutes to write. Have fun and just know that I love being a missionary and I love being here and I'll be ok! love you guys and write a lot because I realize now why missionaries love letters. the more you get, the more you can brag to your companions that you are the coolest:)

Elder Kurtis Chase Toolson

The MTC

The first time I ever saw K.C. cry (at a fairly mannish age) was when we went to the MTC to drop his oldest brother Ryan off. He waited until it was all over and we were outside visiting with relatives when I noticed these huge water blops on the ground. I looked up to see if it was going to start raining, and there was sweet K.C. with his back turned just letting these huge tears fall. He swore then and there that he would never go with us to the MTC again. A few years later when it was time for Sean to leave, he swore again that he wouldn't "do that to myself again", so we gave him the choice of going to the Stake Priesthood encampment instead. Needless to say he went to the MTC to see Sean off. He said it didn't get any easier the second time. (hmmm now he knows just a smidgeon of what it's like to be a parent!)

When it finally came time to go to the MTC with K.C., he waited until the very last week to tell us that he wanted to fly up to Salt Lake...with out us. Ouch! I know they had recently changed the MTC opening day to a "drop them off on the street corner with no one getting out of the car but the elder day" but still! So K>C. and Josh Brimhall flew together. The Wardrops picked him up and took him out to lunch and got to do the drop of honors. which was probably good practice for them :)

As parent, it's not that I don't understand what going on a mission will do for my son, but more that I DO understand that once he leaves home, he is never really MINE again.

This is Evan Fast, K.C.'s first companion.

It was love at first sight. "We are two peas in a pod".