Fantastic

This last week has been fantastic! I've been having a great time doing some service, having Spanish training with the President, and all sorts of other things! Just now, (2 or 3 minutes ago) this guy came over and kept trying to Bible bash with us, WHILE WE WERE EMAILING. Oh my goodness, the apostasy is so REAL. I can't BELIEVE the things he kept saying. "Is there a scripture for that?" "No. We have prophets today that reveal the will of God." "NO. JESUS WAS THE LAST. AFTER HIM IT WAS FINISHED." And then my face was that of (-_-).

I still have 4 baptisms, but they're all after the transfer day, so I'm hoping and praying that I get to stay here one more transfer. And what's interesting, is that as far as members coming out and teaching with us, the best we have is 2 or 3 brethren that come out with us on Wednesday nights to do splits going to less active families. And that's it. We're trying to get the ward excited about missionary work, but it's hard when the culture is one of laziness. It's true. Mexicans find excuses to get out of doing something. I'm not pointing fingers, I'm just stating facts. But, the funny thing is that they are quick to give us name referrals, so we always have something to do.

Today, I'm DEFINITELY going to Balboa Park. We planned it, got the approval from the AP's to go out of our zone, and so we have successfully coordinated a district visit to Balboa. From what I know, there are several museums that are free on Tuesdays, so I'll be able to go to a couple. Also, the San Diego Zoo is there, but it costs $40 to go for one day to the Zoo, so I think I'll either save that one for later, or I'll just save it for after my mission.

And as for me, I am doing just fine. And I honestly and truly am happy to be here, even though the world is calling to me with a really loud, and obnoxious voice.

With the Missionary library and what we're allowed to read, I have been told that all we need is the canonical scriptures, talks by General Authorities, and the Missionary Library (Jesus the Christ, Our Search for Happiness, and 2 other books that escape my memory that I have). I would like to have the History of the Church books to read because there are some footnote references to those books, as well as several references to them in talks that I've read. But oh well. I'll just stick with what I have, I guess.

How does $137 dollars a month last here? The cost of living is CRAZY. Our apartment alone costs $1000 a month. One bathroom, one bedroom, a main room, and a tiny kitchen. And the food is no exception. *sigh* Oh well. The members feed us great food. For instance, we had some fish the other day, and I had a conversation with that member about how we as a family love to fish, and just yesterday, I had senale, which is a drink consisting of milk, barley, and sugar. Non-fermented, of course, but it still tasted good. Oh, and there were ants in it. Those were my favorite part. :)

I have yet to try authentic mole. It sounds good. I mean, seviche was good. And for the most part, people just feed us carne asada and stuff like that. Haven't really had many crazy foods here.

The other day, we went to this investigator's house, named M. Her mother has been in and out of the hospital with this virus that has caused her to have a stroke, and at the moment, her mother has trouble speaking. Right before we left, I felt we should give her mother a blessing. And so we did. While we gave her the blessing, I felt this strong sense of peace come over me when Elder W pronounced the blessing to be sealed upon her head. After we finished, they both were quite emotional, and we gave them some Plan of Salvation pamphlets to read. And after that, we met this referral, named M, (every other woman here is named M), and she couldn't get enough of us. She just kept talking and talking and making jokes, and after D, a member, gave the prayer before we left, she began to cry just when the prayer finished and said that we had been sent to her from the Lord. Eh? EH? Pretty awesome, right? So we're going to stop by and visit again next Monday.

I miss peaches. That's pretty much the only fruit that they have to import, and they are...meh peaches. The ones we grow are SOOOO good compared to the ones here. But I'll admit. The watermelon, grapes, oranges, lemons, and every other tropical/sub-tropical fruit is really good.

Thank you all so much for your letters and emails! Have a great week!

-Elder Crook

Another crazy week

This week has been CRAZY, or as Bishop C would put it, CRAYSEE. He's been teaching us to speak in Mexican accents to improve our spanish pronunciation.

This last Friday, we had MTE's, or Missionary Training Exchanges. Basically, an elder from another zone came and spent the day with me and Elder W. His name is Elder W, and he's from Utah as well. He was really energetic, and we talked to 11 people on the street, and had 6 lessons that day. Plus we found 2 new investigators, one of which was a miracle. I won't disclose the name, but while we were walking to an appointment, this man calls out to us and Elder W recognized him. Elder W had met and talked with this man many times at their apartment up by Logan Heights, but had never shared the gospel with him. Elder W, Elder W, and I then proceeded to tell him about our purpose. He then said that he was having troubles with his job and his family at the time. We then shared with him a bit about the Plan of Salvation, and told him that this would help him in his life, as well as the rest of our message. He happily invited us over Sunday night, and his mom made us Seviche, (I think that's how you spell it.) Seviche is raw fish in lemon juice, and the people here say the juice "cooks" the fish. It really doesn't, though, so it's basically Mexican sushi. We didn't have time to share our message because it was late, but he invited us over again this week.

We also invited one of our investigators to be baptized last night, and she accepted to be baptized on the 28 of September. Her name's G., and she's the daughter of two investigators (that are practically members) that we have taught the last couple of visits. Her mother and soon-to-be step father are waiting for his divorcement papers to go through in Tijuana so that they can be married and be baptized.

M and M. My oh my. If there ever were a pair of Mormons that were never part of the church, it's them. M has been doing missionary work, they don't want to take the sacrament yet because they feel unworthy for it right now, they've living the Word of Wisdom out of their own moral choices for years, and they have been studying the Book of Mormon for themselves so much in the last couple of weeks. We haven't been teaching their son because he's been ill the last couple of weeks with the measles, so we're hoping that we can teach him soon. And we're a bit afraid that they'll want to push their baptismal date back so that they can be baptized with their son. But they're ready.

A, our other investigator with a baptismal date, is bouncing off the walls from excitement for her baptism. She has been asking us so many questions, and has been STUDYING, not reading, the Book of Mormon. She's asked us so many questions, and even asked me about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and why they were so important to be mentioned in 1 Nephi. It's crazy. And this last week, we talked to her about the temple, and how she could go inside to do baptisms for the dead after she was baptized herself. We're going to the San Diego temple this week with her and her friend (who's a member) to let her have the tour that the Mormon Battallion sisters do at the temple. Basically they'll show pictures of what is inside the temple and explain how temples came to be, all while sitting on the temple grounds.

I also got to have yucca plant this week. We ate with Brother and Sister O. Brother O is from Cuba, so we had some Cuban food with him for dinner on night. We had Cuban steak, Cuban frijoles (beans), and some yucca plant with lemon juice, which was DELICIOUS. Yucca is like soft potato, and has a really unique flavor in the sense that I can't compare the flavor with anything I've tasted.

Today for P-Day, we're going to the border. Yup. THE BORDER. We're going to an authentic Mexican outlet store called Northgate to get some souvenirs and clothes.

-Love, Elder Crook

A Crazy Week

Whew. It's been a crazy week. We've had meetings almost every day, so our proselyting time was cut a bit short every day. And I get my letters after I email you, so I can't exactly answer all of the questions and stuff in your letters. The zone leaders don't get the mail to us unless we go to zone sports, so if we are unable to go to that, we don't get our mail for a couple more days. And yes, we do have a microwave in our apartment. And it's just me and Elder W. in our apartment. Coronado was really fun! It's really rich living there, so the field we played on was NICE. It was right next to the ocean, and we saw some people practicing paragliding. We haven't gone to Balboa park, yet, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to next week. I've had some great food this week, too. I got to have tamales, marinaded chicken, and ground turkey stir-fry. An my investigators are doing great! A., a 23 year old girl, is asking us all of these questions and she wants to know all about the temple. M. and M., the people who agreed to baptism the day I got there, have been so...golden. They know it's true, they never question something we've taught, and they have even been doing missionary work. M's sister was saying some untrue things about the church, and M. said, "You don't even know what the church is about. Why don't you come over the next time the missionaries come to visit?" And so we got to teach M's sister last week. I feel like they were great people in the previous life. Not like, "Oh he's great." but like "They were some of the noble and great ones." We've also picked up a couple of new investigators this last week just on the street, and we're hoping that they'll have us back over to teach them.

 

And here in Chula Vista, the standard for lessons taught is 20 a week. Because of meetings and such, we don't have much time to teach. So based on the time we have, we should be getting 20 or higher. The second week I was here, we had 26 lessons that week, which is scraping the highest numbers of lessons taught in a week. This last week, though, we've only had 18 lessons. We had meetings, and missionary events that took up a big chunk of our teaching time, so it was only expected. Elder Ballard asked President C if he was worried about why the baptisms weren't increasing rapidly. President C said he was, and Elder Ballard said,"These missionaries are new. They are fresh. They haven't experienced everything. Once they have a couple of months under their belts, then the work will begin to take off." So I'm looking forward to the time where we can see the great acceleration of the work.

I hope you're all doing well! I'm doing fine here in Chula! And you know the pod races in the first Star Wars movie? Apparently that part of the movie was filmed here in the San Diego mission out in the Imperial Valley.

 

-Love, Elder Crook

This and That

WOOHOO!!! PACKAGES!!! All I've been eating for the last week is pot pies, ramen, noodles and sauce, pb&j sandwiches, frozen pizzas, and cereal. So now I understand why that missionary was only eating cereal. It's mostly because of the lack of time to cook. We only get an hour to get ready, eat, shower, and get dressed for the day, and then its studies all the way until lunch. And then we proselyte.

We've done so many street contacts this week. We met a Muslim guy, (who we're not allowed to teach because of the "Change your religion, you die" thing in the Muslim culture), and a bunch of Latino people. The ward I'm in is completely Spanish, and so I've been drowning in it for the last week. I'm starting to be able to understand what people are saying, and they all talk REALLY fast, but I think the Lord's really been helping me out with that. We occasionally eat at the members' houses, although not as often as I'd like, and I'm not looking forward to Menudo. Matt or Dad can explain that. But luckily the members here cook really good food. Especially Bishop C's wife. I can't BELIEVE how much Bishop C and Dad are alike. Their dry humor is spot on. Every time the Bishop cracks a joke, his wife rolls her eyes just like you do, Mom. I can't help but belt out some good laughs.

Last P-day, after I finished emailing, the two elders that were supposed to come pick us up for sports and stuff decided that they weren't going to pick us up. So instead we stayed in our apartment and watched church-sanctioned movies all day. Oh goodie. Luckily today we get to go to Coronado Island to play some sports. And let Ashley and Melissa know that I will be visiting Balboa Park here, which has several buildings with Indian (India-Indian) architecture and several arboretums.

Also...THERE'S A NEW TEMPLE MOVIE?! WHAT?! SINCE WHEN?! I can only visit the temple every 90 days, unless I'm stationed in the Imperial Valley. Then I don't get to visit the temple until I get moved somewhere else. However, I do get to go SEE the temple and the Mormon Battalion site with investigators any day in the week, so that's awesome. I've been teaching a couple of less active members of the church, and have been teaching only a couple of investigators this week. One is J. E., who fell away from the church when he was 21, and after a lot of mistakes, he says that he just wants to feel the support and peace that the church has. His wife is an investigator, and she's been looking through several churches to find the right one. And what's awesome is that J. has a friend who owned an authentic Mexican food restaurant, who he is going to have cook dinner for us sometime. Elder W. and I are hoping that he'll stick around for the teaching appointment with their family.

Working with the members here is quite difficult. The younger members are always eager to come do missionary work with us. They're not the problem. It's the older, more veteran members that we have trouble with. The Mexican culture is one of laziness. They find excuses of why not to do something. Several members are like this, and several are not, but the ones that are not can only go out with the missionaries so many times in a week. We would like ALL the members to be helping out, but unfortunately, they're not. Bishop C. has been having quite a few difficulties with this.

I want to tell you about some of the miracles that have been happening. Just a couple of days ago, we stopped to talk to this woman and her two daughters as they were standing by their car. We talked to them a bit, and then this black man, Brother H., walks over and gets in the car. Turns out the woman we were talking to is his nurse, and was taking him to a meeting. He asks us if we're doing the Lord's work. Of course we tell him yes, and in that black attitude of his, he says, “Well then WHY have you not given me any literature? I love me a good read about the Lord." We gave him a pamphlet about...the Restoration?...I think. And then, as we like to do, we asked if we could pray with him before he left. He grabbed both our hands, and clasped them as we prayed. When we finished the prayer, he had tears in his eyes. He said, “I had a dream. I dreamed that in this very spot, I would talk to a couple of young men who were sent by the Lord, and that they would pray with me. Thank you, my boys. Thank you so much." We told him that if he wanted, we could talk to him more about the church. He said that he would like that, and we gave him our number. We haven't heard back from him, but we're hoping and praying. And another was that we visited Brother and Sister R. who had been considered inactive because they had not come to church in a while. They're quite elderly, so it's understandable, but we still invited them to church. Sister R. told us that for years she's had pain in her shoulder, and she couldn't lift her arm past her chest. We blessed her, thanked them for having us over, invited them to church, and then we left. This last Sunday at church, we saw them sitting at the front of the chapel. Sister R. waved us over, and when we got to her, she lifted her arm above her head, and said, “Look at what I can do!"

I guess all that I can ask for is just packages of good home-made food or other foods like that. And if you can't, then your emails and letters are all that I ask for. My homesickness has diminished so if you've been praying for me, thank you. Also, if you could ask for the Lord to bless those people who are searching earnestly for the truth, I know that the work will go forward much faster. We just can't be everywhere at a time. As I said at the MTC under the influence of the Spirit, this is not a one plane battle. This is a battle on every plane, in every place, in every heart. Those still in the spirit world need good families to come to, those who are here need the guidance of their friends and the Lord, and those in the next life need more willing souls to do missionary work. As Elder Ballard said, “We cannot do this work without the aid of Heaven." Speaking of which, his address to us was very good. I wasn't so much concerned with the fact that there was an Apostle with us as much as the fact that his words struck me so deeply. They were words of strength and comfort, and they really helped me with my homesickness. I love you all so very much!

-Elder Crook