Happy Halloween

At the baptism of Elder Crook's convert family October 2013

This week has been quite good, actually. Rough, but good. I'm beginning to have that feeling of "losing myself in the work". I worry for the people I meet on the streets, and I grieve when they choose not to hear our message. It's extremely hard when I can see that they wholly believe in Christ, but they reject His teachings in the Book of Mormon. But oh well. I keep trying. I keep walking. I keep knocking. And I keep praying that someone will open the door, and listen.

As of right now, we're planning on going to Old Town for the Dia de los Muertos festival. So hopefully, that will remain as the plan, (but it may change due to stubborn laziness). Quite the oxymoron. Stubborn laziness. And if we do go to Old Town, I'm hoping that I'll be able to buy a sugar skull or something. That would be AWESOME. And you have it correct, that both the ward party and the Boy Scout anniversary are both today. Is our ward attending the Boy Scout thing? NOPE. They don't even know about it. The English wards do, though, and I think they're going to try and watch it at the Stake Center. But we are going to the Halloween party. They are having the kids go trick-or-treating around the rooms of the church, to keep them off of the streets. We've been assigned a room for the missionaries to give out candy, and we're supposed to decorate it. How? No idea. I'll probably just do something with my bedsheets or something. :-)

And actually, the cardboard cutout thing sounds awesome. You could just have a "me" with you at all of the family things, and you could lend it to Isaiah and Joe to do crazy stuff with. Elder B (the district leader), has several pictures of his family doing stuff with a cardboard cutout of him. I think it would be cool. But, I've also heard that they are quite expensive, so maybe not. I'm actually enjoying my time with Elder T. He's from Texas, he used to be Baptist, his mom and step-dad are sealed to him, and his goal is to try and convert his siblings after his mission. He's tall, skinny (more so than I), has the face of a 15 year old, and his metabolism is faster than my own. Half an hour after a big meal, his stomach is growling. And he's...interesting. Not in a bad way, though. And I've been thoroughly enjoying this companionship.

Sunset Cliffs was quite fun indeed. We got right next to the ocean with waves clashing with the cliffs. I have a humorous video of me trying to get hit by one of the waves splashing...you'll enjoy it. I found a lot of sea-snails, barnacles, and saw some tiny crabs while we were there. The barnacles were pretty stuck to the rocks, though.

Thank you, Mom, for all of your words of comfort. For some reason, just knowing that my name is on the prayer roll at the temple makes my confidence go sky high. I miss the blessings of the temple. The reason we can't attend it more often is because of the high numbers of missionaries that would go every Tuesday. So, the next time that I will be able to attend is at the end of this transfer. I hope I get to stay in Chula Vista for Christmas. I would really enjoy that. 

I love you, Mom and Dad. Thank you for raising me to love others, and to have compassion and kindness. Until next week,

-Love, Elder Crook