And an uncle again!

Dear Everyone,

 

Tell me about it. "What a week!" I know exactly what you mean. We've had meetings, appointment cancellations, unexpected confrontations (not on our part), and piles of other stuff. BUT IT'S ABOUT TIME I GOT A NEPHEW. So that makes the score: Nieces:6 and Nephews:1. Not very good odds on his part, eh? But oh well.

 

So this last week was full of experiences. The internet here was down for about an hour, so I started writing a letter to you with all of the things that have been happening this week, so I'll just write the things that happened that I haven't already written about. So, last week, we had a couple of appointments cancel, so we had to improvise. We went and met some referrals, and found an elderly couple that have no specific religion, but call themselves catholic. So we taught them a bit, and I felt prompted to give the man a blessing for the pains in his joints, and muscle pains that he'd been having. They happily invited us back for next week (the week of the 29 thru the 6th). I feel like referral contacting would be so much easier with a member there. Sometimes people let us in, sometimes they don't. We're having a rough time finding investigators that actually want to learn what we're teaching, and only have a handful that really want it. The ones that really want it, though, already have baptismal dates. And the one we had scheduled on the 5th was moved to the 12th because of General Conference.

 

So this last Friday, we had exchanges again, and did another blitz. So a green greenie who's only been out for 3 weeks, came into my area, just to go back into his area. We went to a gigantic apartment complex, (maybe condo), and started tracting. We found a handful of Spanish speaking referrals for them, and got the door slammed in our faces by the English speakers. I feel bad for the elders in English work. It must be so much harder for them. We then came back to my area, where I became the senior companion. It was rough. We'd set up a good number of people to visit, but they either weren't able to talk that day, or weren't home. So we ended the night with a dinner appointment.

Sunday was stake conference for the spanish wards. Right before it, we gave the Melchizedek Priesthood to D M, who is preparing to serve a mission. Then we went to conference. They had quite a few speakers. Over 8. The talks were really short, in my opinion. And while we were about to sit by our investigators, the sister missionaries asked us to sit by theirs because they had 6 investigators there. I felt that we should've sat by our own investigators, and had the sisters' investigators sit in front or behind us, but oh well. We sat by theirs. And after conference, Elder W gave a baptismal interview to this Cuban guy named J. I sat outside the room for about an hour and a half for the interview. And Elder T, the newbie, talked my ear off. Literally. I no longer have a right ear. Which reminds me, I was able to get to the doctor last week, and he flushed my ear out. The nurse that was helping him kept commenting that the stuff coming out was not earwax, but looked like this white, milky stuff. So once they finished, I had some 3D hearing. That's the only way to explain it. I could hear EVERYTHING. And for the last week, I've been fighting off the excess earwax buildup with a bulb syringe and warm water.

 

And that's about all that's happened for the last week. Hopefully the next week will be better. The missionaries are looking forward to General Conference like it's Superbowl Sunday. All we get to watch on the mission are movies and videos that have the Church's stamp of approval. So all the missionaries are excited to see something different. Including me.

 

AND WHADDAYA MEAN I CAN'T OPEN MY PACKAGE UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY?! Who even does that? ;D

 

I love you all, and thank you so much for the packages and letters that I've been receiving. And thank you so much for all of your prayers. I have been receiving many blessings because of them. Have a great week!

 

-Elder Crook