Many opportunities to teach and testify

Good day to you as well! This last week was a very interesting one indeed. We'll start off with Wednesday.

We started Wednesday off on an exchange with the zone leaders. I got to go with Elder B, who's from Alabama, (and in case you're wondering, is black), and he doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. So I got to spend the day with him, and basically carried the load of every lesson that we taught except for the English street contacts that we had during the day. It was pretty weird, though, because there were tons of people outside walking that actually stopped to talk to us. Usually we just get a lifted hand that signals that they don't want to talk to us, or even acknowledge that we're there. We floated around, trying to find new apartments that had Spanish speakers, and we finally wound down to our appointments. We met with our member, and read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with her, and she gave us a referral that she'd found for us. After that, we visited with I, and somehow, Elder B knew his sister, G. We managed to sit down with them both, and I pulled out a sheet of paper, just like last time, and started asking us questions about the Book of Mormon. He asked where Nephi and Lehi were originally from, why they had to leave, why Nephi was told to kill Laban, why Nephi wore Laban's clothes, why were the plates so important to them, who was Zoram, etc., etc. I sat there trying to handle all of his questions, (luckily I knew all of the answers and explained them), and Elder B just sat there and listened. The Spirit was really helping me, and somehow, again, I mentioned baptism and how one may qualify for it. This time, I translated for Elder B as he explained the requisites for baptism. We then ended with a prayer, and went on our way. We then had dinner with the Branch President, President O, and they speak English, so Elder B was quite happy. President actually ended up teaching us a lesson, and gave us advice to pray for our future spouses right now. So, I've been doing just that. After the dinner appointment, we tried to find some families to teach, and ended the exchange.

Thursday rolled around, and it was just a bunch of hullabaloo. We had errands, weekly planning, and service to move someone into their house way up in the really rich part of town, and a bunch of appointments with members and less-actives. With the move-in, we had to travel all the way up to this really rich part of town called Del Sur, which is actually pretty far north, and the apartment that this couple was moving into was MASSIVE. I swear. Some people have more money than they can handle. It had three stories, with a play-room and bedrooms on the bottom, kitchen and family room on the second floor, and a third level of bathrooms and a middle interaction room. Lots of bathrooms. Lots of money. Yup. Then, we tried our darndest to juggle the tasks at hand with all of the appointments. We then had a coordination meeting where we talked about an "airplane" activity that we'll be doing for the branch on the second week of November. We're still getting the details sorted out.

Friday, we started the day off with some early appointments and were able to get some work done within the first few hours of the day. We had district meeting, and talked about the relationship of patience and hope in the lives of our investigators and members. We then had some fun for a little bit, and played some games as a district. We then gave a blessing to a couple of the sisters that were sick with coughs and upset stomachs. It sounds like the flu or something has been floating around, because several of our members have gotten sick as well. I haven't gotten the flu vaccine, because I figure that I've already contracted and beaten it. Why pay $25 for something that you're already squared away on? Anywho, we then had a double-dinner appointment. In the first one, we had this really great chicken with rice, salad, and this Italian sausage stir-fry. It was really delicious. We then went to the next appointment, and had these MASSIVE carne asada tacos. They cooked up the ribeye steaks and had us just throw the steaks into a tortilla with some pico de gallo, guacamole, and some salsa. The pico de gallo had some Serrano peppers in it, and the salsa was made out of chiles de arbol, so my face was melting off for the most part.

On Saturday, we finally managed to get a hold of F, and found out that the reason for the which he didn't come to church was because he had been called in to work at the last minute. So we talked to him a bit about how General Conference went, how church was last week, and shared the message from district meeting about hope and patience in affliction. He looked very interested in what we were saying, and thanked us a lot right as we were leaving. We then went to a barbeque that was being thrown by our member, Hno. L. He had invited us to join him and some friends of his that had come from Los Angeles to visit. Apparently one of the women that came is housing missionaries up in Los Angeles, yet she is a less-active member. We chit-chatted for a bit, talking about this and that, but as the conversation went on, we were able to share some little things about the church with her non-member friend that speaks Spanish. We then shared a message with everyone there about hope and patience, and it really hit home with Hno. L, since he's been having a hard time with funds lately. He thanked us for our message, and we went to the church to do mormon.org time. We then went and tried to street contact for a bit, and finally ended up back at the H house. We found out that they hadn't been able to go to the temple, so we went to visit them. We helped out with their kids for a bit by distracting them, and once they'd all gone to bed, we sat down and shared that message of hope. And it turns out that it was exactly what they needed.

Sunday was Sunday. Not much happened out of the ordinary. F came to church, and enjoyed it very much. We talked about the temple and the sealing keys and ordinances of the temple. We then went to the Mission President's fireside in El Cajon, quite a few miles to the south, because I had been asked to sing in a special musical number with some other missionaries. So we went, we listened, and sang. The testimonies that were borne were very good, and one of them was borne in Arabic, so that was pretty awesome.

Yesterday, we finished up on an information packet for the stake, and while I did the packet, Elder M vacuumed the car. After that, we went about contacting in our area, trying to find people in the streets with whom we could share the gospel or something like that. We really didn't have much luck with it, and drove around for a bit. We did manage to talk to a lot of people, and were able to hand out some pass-along cards, but we weren't able to get anyone to accept the lessons. After a bit, we went to visit a lady that we met on exchanges the other week. We began speaking with her, and found out that she speaks one of the several dialects of Guatemala, specifically the one called Mum, but she was able to understand us perfectly. So we taught the restoration, and after finishing, asked her to say the closing prayer in her native dialect. It was really cool to hear the differences in her language and that of pure Spanish. There were so many similarities, yet it was completely different. After that, we went and met with A and his family and had dinner with them. We had Guatemalan chicken and rice, and boy was it GOOD. I liked it a lot. And somehow, the conversation kept going back to the temple, and how to qualify to be sealed. We talked about how it's less of a checklist, and more of just being prepared to learn the things that are found in the temple. The conversation started on temple, moved to something else, and somehow came back to the temple at least 3 or 4 times. They really want to be able to be sealed, so they're prepared to talk to the branch president about getting that started.

Other than that, not much has happened this week. I noticed a cool comparison of the Book of Mormon to the last days, starting from 3 Nephi 8. It starts out with a group of people that are very wicked, and refuse to listen to the Lord, and are very wicked. Sounds just like today. They are then visited by horrible destruction and the wicked are killed. Sounds like the cataclysms of the second coming. They then are visited by the Lord Himself, who then establishes a church government and laws. Sounds like the Millennial reign. They then live in a time of perfect peace and understanding, and are visited by angels, and miracles abound. Sounds like the millennium. They then fall into a short period of wickedness, in the which great wars come to pass. Sounds like the final battle after the 1000 years. Everything is then summed up and finished at the end of the Book of Mormon, just as everything will be summed up and finished at the end of all things. Purty cool, huh?

Talk to you next week!

-Love, Elder Crook

P.S.- For Mom, if there's one thing you can tell everyone in your talk, tell them that my mission has changed my life. It has caused me to rely on the Lord in such a way that I never had before, and has built my testimony into something so much bigger and stronger. I can't fully explain in words just how much I have changed, and how much my nature has changed, just by deciding to serve others for two years. After all, that's what we do as missionaries. We give of ourselves that others may have spiritual food. We spend two years away from our families, so that others may be with their families for eternity. I've had so many revelatory experiences that I cannot deny, and my love for the Lord has augmented into something so tangible that it can't be denied. My testimony has gone from "I think", to "I believe", to "I know". And I've seen and felt that change. I will never regret the decision I've made to serve a mission. I'll be so thankful that I did this, and I'll be thankful for eternity. Let them know that I know of a surety of the things that were restored by Joseph Smith. It's all true. I love you, Mom. Good luck on your talk!

Questions and answers

This last week has been pretty darn good, starting off with Wednesday. We planned to do some service to help the English Elders in our complex with an investigator who was moving to Escondido, a few miles north. We showed up, and it turns out that they had gotten the majority of it done the day before, so we mostly just swept and cleaned until there wasn't much more to clean. After that, we went to the Stake Center for interviews with President S. Elder M and I went to the gym and played with the S kids, since they were off from school for the week. We played some soccer and basketball, and then we went and sat in the lounge to wait for our interviews. The kids proceeded to ask me to imitate every other cartoon character in existence, and this went on for a good 30-45 minutes, as Elder M had a long list of questions to ask President. When it was finally my turn, (and I was the last to go before the Zone Leaders), I sat down and President shlumped in his seat. He looked pretty tired and worn out. He asked if I had heard all of the undercurrents about the zone leaders, (i.e. gossip and backtalk), and I said yes. We talked a bit about that, and I told him that I didn't have anything to say, because I remembered President Uchtdorf's talk about the dandelion's, and I felt that his talk was a call to me for repentance. After chatting a bit more, we finished the interview. The interview probably lasted less than 5 minutes, in stark contrast with my companion's. After that, we spent the day working.

Thursday was full of stuff, as we went and started off the day with a bunch of running around trying to get some errands run. We then went to visit I, and he came outside and sat with us in some lawn chairs. He then proceeded to pull out a list of questions that he had written up for our visit. The questions that he asked us ranged from these several questions: In whom do you believe? How is your church organized? Why are the units called "stakes"? What do you believe happens after death? How do you measure salvation? What are the requirements for baptism, and how can one prepare himself to be baptized? After asking us all of these questions, we went to the scriptures to answer each question, and the Spirit was very strong. He seemed to like our answers, and proceeded to invite himself to church this upcoming Sunday (the 19th). After that we went to visit some less-active members, and found out that the brother had walked all the way to the normal chapel to see General Conference, and it turns out that the broadcast was in the stake center. So he missed the sessions, but we're planning on helping him to find a way to watch the sessions at home in our next visit.

Friday was pretty slow. We went and had lunch with some less-active members and their non-member friends, and while eating, talked about vicarious work for the dead, and shared Elder Bednar's story about his kids with the band-aids and ointment. The non-member friends seemed to really like Elder Bednar's story, and we're hoping that they now understand why we do missionary work. We then went and got our car's oil changed at a garage owned by a member from Iran, and waited in the front office for about an hour. We then went and tried to contact a few referrals, but they weren't home, and finished the night off pretty slow.

Saturday, we went and had breakfast with a member of the branch. He made us these interesting tacos using soy beans for the refried beans instead of the normal stuff. It didn't really sit well in my stomach, so it festered a bit for the rest of the day. We went and tried to visit F, but he wasn't home again. We're not quite sure what's happened, but he's disappeared. We even had his friend, Hno. Z, the Elders Quorum president, to go give him a ride to church. Hno. Z showed up to church alone, so we're not sure what happened there. For the rest of Saturday, we went around contacting until about 6:00, where we had dinner with some members down in Penasquitos. We helped prepare dinner, and talked to them about their week. They shared some miracles that they'd seen that week, and the spirit was strong. Then the sister missionaries who cover that ward showed up, and started getting on our case for visiting their members. We shared a quick message, and left. We then took some meds over to the sisters since they were sick, and turned in for the night.

For Sunday, everything went pretty normally. We showed up to church for branch council, talked about the work and how it's going, etc., etc. After that, we went and took a nap at the apartment, and went back to church. Hno. Z, as previously mentioned, showed up alone to church, so we sat there wondering about what had happened to F. During church, we found out that a new member had moved into our area, and that he was a returned missionary. Now, that's a pretty darn rare thing for a Spanish branch, so we're pretty excited to visit him this Thursday. Other than that, Sunday just went by with contacting and trying to find people at home. We found out that the movie theaters showing "Meet the Mormons" here in San Diego were pretty well sold out both Friday and Saturday, but we have yet to hear about Sunday, (for obvious reasons).

Yesterday, we went to the doctor for Elder M. I gave him an ultimatum that he would have to talk to the mission nurse about his sudden weight loss, and he took it up. So, she told us to visit this doctor in Mission Valley. We went and visited, got the pleasantries taken care of, and at the end, the doctor just gave Elder M a prescription for some medicine to help regulate his digestive system. We went to get some blood drawn and sampled, and headed back home. We spent the afternoon trying to contact this less-active lesbian couple that was referred to us by some other missionaries. o_o...They were busy, so we're going to see them tonight. Oh dear. After that, we went back to the members house that we visited on Saturday to wish their son a happy birthday, and gave him a Venus fly trap that we found at Walmart. While sitting there eating dinner with the parents, the same sisters showed up at the door again, and again started to get on our case about visiting their members. We didn't say anything, because the members actually invited us to the birthday party. We just kind of looked at each other and smirked. It was also pretty funny, because neither of the members were very happy that the sisters were there. We had some dessert, and headed home.

And that's the week. Tonight, we're going on exchanges with the zone leaders, so we'll see how that goes. I'll be going English for a day, which will be really weird, and Elder M will have an English Elder with him for the day. I'll let you know how that goes. OOH. Also, thanks for the birthday package and goodies. I'm still enjoying them. Thanks for the jazz music. It was exactly what I needed.

I hope you all have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

A new investigator and General Conference

This last week was filled with adventure and instruction. I'll tell about each one. First, the adventure. Just yesterday, we were able to add a new investigator named I. He's from Honduras, and when we first knocked, he was just about to tell us to come back another day, but we started speaking Spanish, and he welcomed us in. Funny thing, once he found out that Elder M was from Honduras, he warmed right up to him, and I just sat there and listened as they talked about Honduras and the things that they love and don't really love so much about living there. After a bit, he asked what church we were from, and from that point on, the lesson got better and better. We talked about how our purpose is to invite others to come closer to Christ by helping them receive a remission of their sins through the Gospel. He then expressed that he felt as though there were a hole in his heart, as though there was some happiness that he could have, but that he hadn't found, and that he'd been searching for a long time. We shared the Book of Mormon with him, and explained the promises of peace and revelation from God. When we gave him the copy of the Book of Mormon, he wouldn't stop thanking us for it. It really made me happy inside, especially after just having watched conference.

Now, onto the instruction. General Conference, in my opinion, was filled with boldness and truth. I don't think I can remember a Conference when it was this focused and specific, at least to my recollection. I noticed a blunt, and recurring theme of repentance, especially from Elder Jorg Klebingat. When he finished speaking, I had to check and make sure that I still had my eyebrows. Felt like they were getting burnt off by his fiery boldness. Everything that he said resounded with the Spirit, so I knew that what he was saying was what needed to be said, but MAN. He laid it out like a hot meat pie in the face. After that, I kept noticing a recurring theme of sustaining the Prophet and Apostles; understanding that the Prophet and Apostles have all the keys, but only the Prophet may use them; staying in the Church, (as with Elder Ballard's talk); and I must say that one of my favorite talks, (if not THE favorite), was Elder Christofferson's. "You can't deny the existence of gravity, and then expect yourself not to fall if you step off a cliff." That statement set the missionaries off and we all vocally agreed with that statement. In all, this whole Conference has been one of my favorites, and is telling me that something big is about to happen if the Lord is gently reprimanding us in this way. I'm guessing He needs us ready, so He's trying to get us qualified and sanctified through repentance and trust in the church leadership.

My birthday went alright. I tried to ignore it for most of the day, and actually did pretty well. It was my goal to not let my birthday distract me from getting work done, and it didn't. We got some good work done, and were able to add I, so that was great. And during my studies this week, I was yet again blessed with a little tidbit of knowledge. Observe Helaman 1:4-8, and you can see a pattern of the pre-existence. Three factions, all led by brothers, and the judgment seat was given to Pahoran, son of Pahoran. (A little symbol of how Christ was the spitting image of God the Father). After that, the second brother Pacumeni, joined the voice of the people. Now there were 2/3 joined for good, and 1/3 rose up in rebellion under the direction of Paanchi, who was then put to death for his crimes, Paanchi being a symbol of Satan being cast out of God's presence, (spiritual death), for rebellion. Pretty cool, huh?

Elder M was written to by his family, thankfully, and he's been doing a bit better. However, he's been refusing to eat for a reason unknown to me. I keep having this suspicion that he's doing it to lose weight. He claims that he's "fasting", but he's been losing a lot of weight, and when he does eat, he barely eats anything. It's got me worried, and I've talked quite frankly and boldly about it with him. If nothing changes, I'm bringing it up with President.

Mom, I have to say that I teared up somethin' fierce when President Eyring was talking about his mom. His story made me think of all the nights you stayed down on the couch, waiting for me to come home. It really hit home, and when he got so emotional about it, the Spirit sure hit me hard. I've been marveling about the blessings that I've received, in just my family alone. I've been blessed with parents so good that I haven't met any better, nor do I think I will until I meet the Heavenly ones again. My siblings are all faithful and strong in the Gospel, which is a blessing much greater than any other that I can think of. All of these missionaries talk about how annoying their siblings were to them, yet I can truthfully say that I never got that from my siblings. Yes, Ashley and I would tussle a bit when I was really little, but I never felt like they were picking on me. And to be honest, coming into this family 20 years ago has been the greatest birthday present I've ever received.

I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad. I can't express in words how thankful I am for you, so I'll just let the Spirit do the talking. Let my siblings know just how much I love them, and how proud I am to call them my brother and sisters. Thanks for singing happy birthday! It sure made me happy inside. Tell the nieces and nephew just how much I love them, and give them a squeeze for me. Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

A little under the weather

Alas, this week's email will be much shorter than usual, seeing as we have been sick with the flu for the most part of it. Last week while I was emailing, I started feeling a tickle in my throat, and started sneezing a lot. From there, I progressively got worse and worse, until Wednesday morning, I didn't wake up until 9:30. I felt like trash. My face felt like it would melt off, my muscles all ached, and I really wasn't in the mood to go out and work. However, to my dismay, we had some appointments that we wanted to keep. So we went to them, got them done and over with, and we came back to the apartment, where I got to sleep the day away. Elder M picked up the infection also, so we both just slept. The next day, I developed congestion, my lungs and nose filled with mucus, I developed a smoker-cough, and my balance was a bit off. I'm still battling the nose problem, but the other symptoms have moved on.

For Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday last week, we were called upon to give two hours of service per day helping out at the local Poway Rodeo Grounds, to help set up for the rodeo that happened last Friday and Saturday. So, us being sickies, but still wanting to help, we went anyway to do the service. During the Wednesday service, I was sweating cold sweats, and I was really struggling. BUT, we managed to get some fencing done up, and set up the dance floor, which consisted of wood panels ridged with metal that hooked together. It took awhile, and was pretty tenatious work, but we got it all done. During the Thursday service, we helped to rake out the roping chutes, and got that area set up, and then went to the bull-riding chutes and got those all prepped. After that, we went and visited with a couple of members. For the Friday service, we went and ended up doing some of the most interesting stuff. While Elder M and I helped to move some trimmed branches over to the mulching area, the other missionaries helped by taking inventory of the beer, moving ice into the beer truck, and then we all helped to get the beer stands set up. Needless to say, the majority of those cowboys made some snarky comments about the "Mormon kids handling beer". We, as missionaries, joked it up a bit, and I noticed that as we did, it put all of those tough cowboys at ease. Who knows? Maybe us helping them like that will open the doors of missionary work later on.

On Saturday, we ended up visiting F, and when we showed up, it turns out that he had gotten the flu as well. So, instead of trying to avoid each other, we just shook hands and hugged since we were all infected anyways. We shared the first bit of the Plan of Salvation, so as to be able to cover all of the points in a very nice way. We covered premortality, creation, the Fall, our purpose in life, the Atonement, and Death. F really liked it, and made some really good comments throughout the lesson. This Saturday, just after the first session of General Conference, we'll be finishing off the rest of the Plan.

On that topic, I am SO FLIPPIN' EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE. I think being a missionary has special spiritual perks, because I don't remember EVER having had this much of a desire to watch General Conference. That and the fact that I'm doing a lot of things the right way NOW that I wasn't doing BEFORE the mission...yup. Anywho. It sounds like we'll be watching all of the sessions at the Stake Center, since almost none of the members in the Spanish unit have cable to receive the broadcast. We also got a special privilege just last week. There's this frozen yogurt joint called Golden Spoon, the which is owned by a member of the Church. The member gave permission to all missionaries to receive a regular size cup for free, whenever. The mission president placed a wise rule, (in my opinion it was very wise), that missionaries could only go to Golden Spoon once a week. Then, one of the missionaries in Poway a while back decided to go every day to get free yogurt. Sometimes multiple times per day. As a result, the "free missionary yogurt" thing stopped at the Golden Spoon in Poway. Just last week, however, the rule was reinstated, and we're planning to go get some yogurt after the Priesthood session on Saturday. Awww yeah.

Along with that, I've been doing some missionary work to Elder M this week. Apparently his family, not even his parents, have emailed him in the last month. I've been doing all that I can to help him out and make him feel better this last month, but as we can all probably understand, it's just not the same as having your family give you words of encouragement and love. Just today, he had an interview with President to see what he could do to help his family write him more. After the interview, he was visibly happier and more at ease. So as you pray for me, remember to pray for him.

Well, that's just about the whole kit-'n-kaboodle for this week. I'm glad to hear that Utah has been receiving so much moisture! I personally attest the lack of rain in California to the huge amount of sin and immorality here. After all, isn't that what happened when the Nephites were extremely wicked and immoral? I guess that's just what happens, because we haven't seen the slightest bit of rain here since a month ago. We got nuthin'.

I hope you all enjoy General Conference!

-Love, Elder Crook