The Big Finale!

This is us doing martial arts poses in front of the temple

This will be the last letter home, so the events of this coming week will be input by myself in about that much time. Tomorrow, we have a special training conference for receiving the iPads, even though we will not be receiving the iPads until much later on, which means that I won't be getting one AT ALL. Oh well. Such is life.

Starting off with last Tuesday night, we were biking around after dinner, looking for someone to teach, and we couldn't find anyone. So we went to see the J. family, but they weren't home. On our way out of the complex, a man that we talked to awhile ago yelled at us from his balcony that there was a woman that needed our help. We thought that he was talking about the Mexican lady just right below him, so we talked to her and got the stiff-arm of "I'm busy talking.", when I could see the screen of her phone, and it wasn't on a call. He then said that his WIFE needed help. SO, we took our bikes up to his apartment, and we came in and met his wife and daughter, all three of which we had contacted at the same time. We asked how they were doing, and they said that times had gotten hard. The man, J., and his wife, A., were going through a very stressful time. They had a subpoena that they had to be present for, and they were worried, especially A. We talked about the peace that the gospel brings. Elder V. felt prompted to teach about the priesthood and give A. a blessing, since she was the most stressed. So we did, and I then got the prompting to share the Because He Lives video on their computer. As the video was going, A. began crying, and the Spirit was surprisingly strong. I choose that adjective carefully, because it really did surprise me. When the video ended, she said that nothing ever makes her cry, and got her husband to affirm that. We testified of Christ's power to heal and comfort us, and set up an appointment for Elders D. and F. to teach them the next morning.

Wednesday morning, Elders F. and D. added A. and J. as new investigators, and are teaching them now. We had zone meeting on Wednesday morning, and for the most part, it went really well. Elder P., one of the zone leaders, very much pleased me. He acted more as an advocate for the whole zone as far as goal setting, and really did well at getting the goal set at a number that is a stretch, but is at least achievable. We then had lunch, getting some Domino's pizzas, and ate with the Elders of the zone. We then did some service with some English missionaries for a couple of hours. We then went off to work, and found practically nobody at home for the whole afternoon. We picked up dinner from a member, and went to teach mission prep class. We taught about the first lesson of Chapter 3 in PMG, which is the Restoration. We gave pointers and tips to the youth there on certain situations, and answered their questions the best that we could. And that was it for the night.

On Thursday, we went to get our male member to take to see V. that morning. Turns out, he bailed on us last second, so we went to see if we could teach her on her doorstep. She wasn't home, so it turned out alright. We then went and helped a member family wash their four dogs. They have a great dane, a border collie, and two smaller dogs that I can't identify, (that weren't chihuahuas). We got them washed up, and then had lunch with the members. The skies started looking pretty dark, and it got cold. The day before, I'd seen a ring around the sun, and I remember Dad telling me about how Grandpa Crook would say that a ring around the sun meant rain. So in my humorous way, I prophesied that it would rain in the next two days. We then did our weekly planning, and visited a few people. We taught J. A., our previous investigator that disappeared, and he's back with a drive to learn, so we picked him up again. We then took J., the member we helped to clean his dogs, and U., and went to see some people. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was home. So we called it a night. And that's when prophecy was fulfilled. The rain came, and it poured all night long. It thundered on our roof pretty hard.

Friday came around, and we had breakfast with the R.'s, and walked through the rain in the morning. Remember what I said about prophecy being fulfilled? Yeah. So we walked through big puddles, and got there. We shared a message about the temple, since they're just about ready to go to receive their endowments and be sealed as a family. We then spent the afternoon trying to find people at home amidst the rain. We walked around for a bit with our umbrellas, and talked to a couple of Arabic people. We then took J. again, and went to see some investigators. Again, nobody home. We then had dinner with a member at a Chinese buffet, and ate to our hearts' desire. We then went to see some people with U., so that we could get in, and weren't able to find anyone at home. We then met up with J. M., and had a good lesson with him. He's working on helping his family to come back to church, especially his wife.

Saturday, we finally found V., and she said that she'd gone to the hospital on the day that we had an appointment with her. She had low blood pressure, and her head was hurting a lot, so she had to go before we got there. We then went and took J. with us again in the hopes that we'd finally be able to teach someone with him. No such luck. None of our potentials was home. We then had dinner with the C.'s, and had some good dessert there. It was frozen-cookie lemon cake, using "Maria's" cookies, (they're a brand). We then went to see a less-active, the brother of the guy who just barely took us to a Chinese buffet, and he asked if we wanted to have some Chinese buffet. We kind of said no, and he insisted, so we went again to a Chinese buffet. This time it was a different one, and had frog legs. I tried some, and they were interesting. They also had snow crab, and Elder V. tanked on the crab. We then went and had a lesson with J., and took R. with us. It was an amazing lesson, and J. had lots of questions. R. answered some, and testified about the Book of Mormon. We invited J. to come to church with us, and he said that he'd be there. Then R. invited him to go to the class that he, (R.), had been assigned to teach. It was so perfect. And that was it for the night.

Sunday, we waited in the chapel, and J. showed up with R. and sat by us. Then the missionaries started having to help everywhere. We had to help set up the sacrament, make copies of the programs, help pass the sacrament, translate for the meeting, and sing with a member for a musical number. We then went to the classes, and like a miracle, the Gospel Principles lesson was on Faith in Jesus Christ, which is exactly what Joe has been striving to increase. He asked some questions, and when asked a question, he gave an awesome answer, not what you'd expect from a non-member. We then went to Elders Quorum, and R. taught the lesson about the Book of Mormon. Then, after the class, we went to the branch president's office, and participated in ordaining R. to the Melchizedek Priesthood. We had lunch with a member after that, tried an investigator, and went to sing at the mission president's fireside in Poway. We practiced, and the time came to perform. The piece went very smoothly, and Elder Thompson sang the duet. We got a lot of complements, and Rachel's arrangement got a lot of praise. I said goodbye to some members from Ramona, and surprisingly didn't see any members from the Poway branch.

And that's just about it for the week! I'll admit, I'm getting really apprehensive about coming home. I'd love to stay here for just one more transfer, but I know that it's time. I'm excited to see everyone, and I'm about to be surprised with how much the nieces have grown!

 

See you next week!

-Love, Elder Crook

"Interesting" contacts

It was really nice to see you all on Sunday! Guess it's just the appetizer for the next time we see each other. ;)

Don't have too much time to write today because we went to the temple and I tried out for a Mission President's fireside using Rachel's arrangement of My Heavenly Father Loves Me, so I'm short on time.

Last Wednesday, we had a pretty interesting day. The zone leaders planned a DLC last minute, and we rushed over, had the meeting, and whizzed our way to the next appointment. We didn't find anyone home, and went biking around until this guy pulled us over in the O'Reilly parking lot. He told us that there was this girl that he knew that needed the Gospel, and that even HE wasn't a member, but that he had been to our church recently, and thought that it was amazing. He told us to meet him at such and such a place, and we went there. We got there as this black girl was being dropped off by this big black SUV, and as the guy that we met walked up to her, she started yelling at him. He said it was fine, and that they were friends. He got a call and walked away. We walked over to the girl, named Tori, and explained what had happened, and that we were sorry if we had come as an inconvenience. She said that it wasn't an inconvenience. It was just that she was working. We paused and observed for a moment. Moment of realization: she's a prostitute. OOOHHHH DEAR. So we slipped away casually and went on our way. Then this other girl responded really enthusiastically when we said hi, so we stopped and started talking to her. After a bit of talking, she asked us if we were Mormons. "Yeah. We are." She then asked if we were virgins. "Uhhhh....yeessssss.....?" "Oh that's cool! I'm a prostitute!" O___________________O.....Long awkward pause. After a bit of dialogue, and her cat-calling at guys walking past us, we scooted along. Yup. Aw-rkward. We then went and had dinner, and from there, went to mission prep. The sisters taught it, and we stayed and talked to the guys afterward. We then tried a few people, but no luck.

Thursday, we had our weekly planning, got our area books up to date for getting the iPads, and drove over to the Calvillo's to pass off the box to go to our house in Utah. We then went and saw a few referrals, and neither of them were home. We then ate dinner with Marta and Ricardo, and it sounds like Marta will be moving to Utah soon. We then went with Hno. Calvillo and Balta, his son, to do visits with the members. After that, we turned in for the night.

Friday, we had MTE's, and I got sent to La Mesa again. This time around, I was with Elder Reyes from Colorado. Turns out that everything that I like was everything that he liked. From cartoons, to video games, to anime, to music, to funny YouTube videos like gmod idiot box, he knew all about what I was talking about. We had a great exchange, and were able to teach a couple that were so cool. They had some interesting art on the wall of scantily clad women, so we kept our focus on the family.

Saturday, we switched back, had lunch at Wings and Ribs, and I had the most heavenly buffalo chicken on fries that I've ever tasted. We then went to contact Stephen, our potential, and he wasn't home. We biked to see some less-actives, and went to have dinner with the Calvillo's. They weren't home, so we went and had dinner with Kevin for a bit, and went to plan a fireside that the branch is doing. Hno. Calvillo was there, and he bought us dinner afterward. We then went and tried to see the Cordero's, and Hno. was there. We had a good chat with just him, and we shared a message about being thankful, and striving to be worthy of even better blessings. He's been coming to church consecutively for the last month, so he's getting ready to go to the temple soon!

Sunday, we had no branch council due to Mother's day, and the Sacrament meeting was Mother's Day themed. I translated for Sacrament, and then we went to the classes. I had to design an invitation for the branch fireside, so I did that during gospel principles. I doodled and participated when called upon. We then went to Elder's Quorum, and had a lesson on the BoM. From there, we went home, had some lunch with Ricardo, and Skyped with the Crooks and Grandparents Mecham. And Camille, don't feel awkward about the fact that Ricardo asked if you wanted to get married. He's a jokester, and asked if any of my sisters were single. I saw your face make the biggest reaction, so I figured that I'd put your mind at ease. :) We then went and had dinner with a family in the sister's area, the Mendoza's. All of their kids were there, and when I told them that the Man of Steel was the first movie to come out after I went to the MTC, they proceeded to tell me how the entire movie is full of Christ-like symbolisms. THE ENTIRE MOVIE. I basically don't need to watch it now, because they told me the whole flippin' movie. Oh well. We then went and added a new investigator, Joe Cortez. He's from New York, but his parents are Puerto Rican, so he speaks Spanish. After that, we biked over to see if Alex was home, but he wasn't, so we called it a night.

Yesterday, we traded cars with the sisters because we have been saving our miles like crazy, and they haven't been saving theirs at all, and they had to drive out to the Imperial Valley for MTE's, since they're STL's. They have to get us pizza for letting them use our car, so we're pretty happy. We then went to Jamul to try and find a referral there, and then biked to see Luis our investigator. He was asleep, so we talked with Julian, his nephew. We then biked down to contact a referral, and there was no man home. So we went to eat dinner with the Guevara's, and from there, went to see if we could find Jose Angel, a former from a while back. We got some pretty good cusses, got flipped off a few times, and got a few "Hail Satan's" from the people driving by. We didn't find him home, and went to visit Edith. We had an awesome conversation with her and her husband about tons of gospel topics. He just kept asking us questions, and we kept answering them with scriptures and stuff. It was awesome.

Well, that's just about it! See you all soon!

-Love, Elder Crook

Bloomin' scortchin' boiling hot!

WELL, let's get on with things. Last Wednesday was interesting, and it was BLOOMIN' SCORTCHIN' BOILING HOT. I mean, sure, it's gotten hot here before, but it was already 82 degrees by the time it was 10 a.m. By noon, it was over 100, and it stayed like that ALL DAY LONG. Not to mention the fact that we were on bikes pretty much the whole day. We biked around and set up some good appointments for other days, and were able to get a solid referral for the El Cajon zone leaders. Remember the guy named C. that told us that he knew tons of Mormons a few weeks ago? They met up with him, and he said that if they pushed him, that he'd probably become Mormon. He was the one that offered to make us food since he caters, and had recently catered to a wedding for some members down in Sweetwater. We had district meeting, just us and the sisters, and Elder V. did an amazing job. I'm mostly trying to stay out of the way when it comes to him being a district leader, and just give points and tips when he asks. So far, it's working really well. Do you remember my investigator back in Poway, named I.? Well, I got word that he got baptized a few weeks ago! I WAS SO FLIPPIN' HAPPY. I 'bout died. We then went and tried to find several less-actives at home, but to our dismay, none were home, so we biked our butts off and I roasted alive. We had dinner with a member, and somehow, she recreated the pork roasts that we eat on Sundays back home. I took a bite and just about melted in my seat. I think I ended up eating half the plate of meat, since it tasted so familiar and divine. We then went and taught a missionary prep class that's started up, and it seemed more like a Q&A with testimonies mixed in. I felt like the young men got some good thoughts out of it. We then tried to go teach some people, and swung by K's. He wasn't home for some reason, but CJ L. was. He's a returned missionary that served here awhile back, and he was here visiting. We asked if he could accompany us to an appointment the next day, and went home to bed.

Thursday, we got up and got runnin' early. Once again, the temperature was above 100 by noon. We picked up CJ, and went to teach V. at 10 a.m. We had a really great lesson with her about the restoration, and even though she said at the beginning, "I'm a Catholic.", by the end she was super interested in reading the Book of Mormon. She had even read the introduction and had questions about it. I think she read your testimony before she read the intro. Thanks for putting that in there. We then were able to answer several of her questions, including one about infant baptism. She had a big problem with it, and said that she felt that it was wrong, so we showed her Moroni 8:11-12, and she lit up when she read it. She had a question about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, so we gave her the reading assignment to read 2 Nephi 31 before our next appointment. She said that she'd be busy all this week until after Mother's day, so we'll be stopping by this week just to see how she's doing and how the reading's going. We then did weekly planning, got some really good insights planned in, and went out to try and contact some referrals. None were contacted, so we went to visit a less-active member. The wife was there, and she asked us when we could come back. So we set an appointment, and continued on to some other people to visit, and ran into a couple of members on the street. We even talked to a guy named John Kennedy. I wonder if his middle name started with an F. Hmmm. We then went with Hno. C. to see some members for branch splits/visits. We saw the G.'s, and shared the Because He Lives video with them. We then went to see some other members, but they weren't able to meet with us. We then called it a night. Because of the heat during the day, I made sure to double-check and see if I still had eyebrows.

 On Friday, we did mormon.org, and went to see if we could find some people outside to talk to. For the third day in a row, above 100 degrees, and I think that it's the humidity that kills me. We tried a few places that we hadn't been to before, but found nobody. We contacted both of our referrals, and were able to set up return appointments. On the second one, I started feeling lightheaded because I didn't have any water. We swung by a CVS pharmacy, and I snagged a Gatorade. Oh man it was the quenchiest. I downed the whole thing in 10 seconds. We biked around a bit more. We then had dinner, and from there, went to see the C.'s. I'm not sure exactly why or how it happened, but I had been listening to Brad Wilcox in "His Grace is Sufficient" that morning before studies, and I felt the strong impression to share some thoughts from that. The Spirit was so, so strong. I was mondo-major-crazy surprised. I don't know exactly what the C.'s needed from what I said, but I hope that they got something. We then got a call from Hno. I. to go to his sister's house, so we did. He had inadvertently broken his car key inside of the lock on the trunk, and needed our help with what he was doing in the trench that we had dug the week before. We helped him out with some of the laying of the piping, and held the light up so that he could see what he was doing. We then went home.

Saturday, we woke up early and helped clean the church, and right after that, we went to the San Diego Family History Center and got Elder V. trained up on how to do family history work. We then did some studies, and went to see an English guy that is a friend of M. L.'s. We called him up, and went to see him. He welcomed us into his museum/apartment. I mean really, it was one of the coolest apartments I've ever seen. He had African masks, skulls, paintings, models, molds, and all sorts of other stuff, arranged and set in a neat order. His bedroom was Japanese themed, and everything on the walls was authentic Japanese stuff from the 40's and 50's. His guest room was Old West themed, and had pictures, paintings, an Indian headdress, tools, arrowheads, guns, and all sorts of stuff on the walls. His kitchen was Civil War themed, and he has an original photo of John Wilkes Booth. There were pictures of Lincoln, newspapers, and all sorts of stuff. We sat down after he showed us all of this, and told us about his life, and how everything he had collected hadn't done him much good. We talked about what we do as missionaries, and after a while of talking and sharing, we invited him to meet with Elders D. and F. He agreed, and we said that we'd stop by and see how he was doing every so often. We then had dinner with the C.'s, and they made some pretty darned good mole. We then went to see some other members, but since it was the fight night of Mayweather and Paquiao, we didn't' have much success.

Sunday, we made it to branch council, and it was packed. A bunch of people from the Stake Presidency and high council were there, so we took the remaining two seats. During the prayer, we heard a knock, and I figured that since Elder V. and I didn't have much to discuss, that we could leave and set up chairs/make copies of the program/set up the sacrament table, etc., so we got up and asked President if we might be excused, and that we would get those things done for him. He smiled and thanked us. We got all that stuff done, and waited. Several less-actives came to church, which was awesome! We then had the classes, and went home. After getting home, we studied the afternoon away, and then went to see L., an investigator of Elder N's. We met him, and talked with him about a lot of things. We shared our message, and our expectations, and left. We had dinner, and went to see E., a recent convert of CJ L's. We knocked on the door, and at first, they didn't open the screen door. We asked for E., and the guy on the other side asked who wanted to know. We mentioned that we knew CJ, and the door flew open. It was a bit awkward at first. The wife is E., and her husband Z., isn't a member. In fact, right off the bat, he said that he wouldn't go to our church because of some things that he'd read. I did my best to let him know that a lot of times, people that attack the church with certain things don't exactly cite their sources. The things they say are pretty much just hullabaloo until you can find the direct source and citation. That eased his worries, and from that point on, the visit just got better and better. E's dad dropped off their son, G., and he was just a little ball of joy. He had no problem with coming up to us and saying hi and giving us a high five. We talked about a lot of things, and we had a great time with them and their family. By the end of the visit, they were eager and exited for us to come back. We then biked around for a bit, and turned in and went home. 

Yesterday, we had one of the coolest miracles I've had on the mission. We biked over to see the G's, but they weren't home. We went to see S., one of the referrals, and he wasn't home either. We then went to see the R., but only the husband was home, so we gave him the Because He Lives card. We then went to see a particular less-active on a street called Shady Lane. He wasn't home, so we started walking out. I spotted this older black lady that I had tried to contact last week. When I tried last week, she gruffly said no, and shrugged us off. This time, I noticed that she was struggling to get around because of her legs. She has to use a cane, so I asked if there was anything we could do to help. She said no. I then got a feeling. I asked her how her day was going. She started to cry, said that her name was J., and said that things had been really hard lately, and that she was so sorry for shrugging us off last week. She said that she had felt horrible after, and that she only did it because that's what everyone else does. I was really surprised. She told us all of these things, and said that she was so thankful for God and Christ. We stood and listened to her, and after a bit, she asked if we knew anything about computers. I said that I did. So, we walked her to her apartment, helping her up and down the stairs, and she waited outside while I worked my magic. She uses this phone service called MajicJack, and it had stopped working all of a sudden. So I called up Elder J., who is a computer genius, and he walked me through a ton of troubleshooting techniques. None of them worked. So, I got the idea to check the website one more time, and there was an upgrade button, so I clicked it. The software installed, and the phones worked again. She was so thankful, and she said that we could come back any time. We said that we'd send some other Elders, and she was all for it. I felt like that was one of those moments where someone was changed by the Spirit, and I got to see it happen. We then had dinner with the G.'s, and went to see the C's for FHE. We shared a message about forgiveness, and the Spirit was really strong. We then turned in for the night.

Well, that's just about the whole kit-'n-kaboodle. I'm happy to report that the heat didn't kill me, and that we've been doing well here in this area. I'm really excited to talk to you this Sunday! I love you!

-Love, Elder Crook

Our trio's down to two

First order of business, I couldn't see what was happening, and I really had no clue. It happened fast, and here's the bottom line; our trio's down to two. Yesterday morning, we got a call from President S. A missionary out in El Centro, in the Imperial Valley, had to go home for some reasons that I still don't really know about, but he asked Elder N. to go fill the vacancy out in the valley in an English unit. So, he got packed up, and President took him out to the valley. So once again, I've been in a trio for just a little chunk of the transfer.

Last Wednesday, we went to see V. afterwards. She wasn't home, so we were volunteered by the Sisters to go do some service for this senior lady that needed some weeds and roots pulled out of her garden. We showed up, and at first, she said,"Oh great. They brought the guys with them." The Sisters had explained that this lady didn't want us to do ANY preaching in ANY way, and that we were just there to help her weed. She told us that she was sick, so she would show us what to do, and then she'd stay inside. So, that's what we did. I snagged some tools, and we went at it. Turns out that there was a bunch of spruce trees growing there, and the roots had fanned out under the dirt like a carpet, and as we pulled up more and more, there were just more and more roots underneath those. We had pulled out a larger root, and set it by the trashcans that we were using, and then E., turned to go get something, and tripped over the root. We dropped our tools and ran over to help her up. She hadn't hurt herself in any way, and thanked us for helping her up. She ended up staying outside with us the whole time we were there, and kept commenting on how amazing it was that we were actually getting the roots out. She told us all about her acting career as a director of plays and theatrical productions, and how she had retired because she can't see in the dark, and kept getting hit by the moving scenery during the shows. She told us about how she'd worked with Steven Spielburg and George Lucas. I was pretty excited about that, and she talked about some of the things that she'd done with them. After we left, we went and got some dinner, and went to see L., one of Elder N.'s new investigators. We sat down, and started off pretty shaky. I had the preconception that we were teaching the restoration, and Elder N. was going off on a completely different tangent than what I was prepared for. I kept getting the feeling to teach the restoration, and let both Elder V. and Elder N. know. We went right into it, and as we taught, L.'s 2 year old daughter kept fussing and fussing, and wreaking havoc, but the Spirit was still really strong. She payed close attention when we taught about the Book of Mormon. We then went to try some less actives, but they weren't home.

Thursday, Elder N. went to a special Mission Leadership Council with Elder H. and President D. from the missionary department. So Elder V. and I had the day to ourselves. We started off by going to Wal-Mart to look at bike tubes for Elder V.'s bike, and then went to see some less-actives. None were home, so we went and did our mormon.org time. We then walked around the library to try and find a guy that wanted to be taught there, but couldn't find him anywhere. So we walked back to the apartment, and biked over to the J's. They weren't home, and we continued on to see the C.'s. We sat and talked about how they were doing, and about whether or not Hno. C could make it to church this Sunday. We then went to see some other less-actives, and called it a night.

Friday, we had breakfast with the R.'s, and we showed Hno. R. how to give his wife a blessing, since she was sick with something that was affecting her inner ear, and she was feeling dizzy. We went from there to service with some less-active members, and trimmed up their big pine tree. We then had district meeting, which was focused on the things taught at the MLC, and from what I hear, President D. has a pretty great sense of humor, so I kinda felt jealous that I didn't get to go. But oh well. Maybe it wasn't intended for me to be there anyway. We then did a couple of practices, and went back to the apartment for dinner. After dinner, we got Elder V.'s bike tire fixed, and got rolling again. We then went looking to find V. at home, and as we rolled into the parking lot on our bikes, a guy called out for us to come talk to him. His name was J., and he told us that he's been feeling much angrier than normal. He said that about a year ago was when he started noticing that he kept getting angrier and angrier. He said that it felt like something was always there trying to make him irritated, and was trying to tear him down. We told him about Satan, and what he does to try and make us miserable, and from there, I told him about how I take care of my anger through reading the Book of Mormon and praying. We felt the Spirit really strongly, and after we said a prayer with him and gave him a Book of Mormon, he thanked us for helping him to calm down. We tried to get his information to give to the English Elders, but he's presently homeless. So we continued on to see if we could find some less actives at home, and found the V.'s home. In fact, the whole family was there, which is pretty rare. All three were sick, and Hno's hand was starting to hurt a lot from the lack of circulation due to the dialysis that he goes through. We gave all three of them blessings of health, and went home for the night.

Elder Crook at Mission Trails park clean-up

Saturday, we went and helped to clean the chapel for a bit, and as we cleaned, more people showed up, so we were able to go to the next service project for the day. We were sent to help out at Mission Trails park, and the park rangers took us out into the woods and had us take out a bunch of wood and lumber and garbage that had piled up in the riverbeds. We got a conveyor belt system set up, and handed the pieces down the line. Some of the logs were pretty heavy, but it was pretty fun as we got things going. I got ants all over me as they were hiding inside the decaying wood, so when we finished and went home, I had some nice little buddies that I had to wash out of my hair. After we got cleaned up, we went to try and find a referral from M. L., a guy who lives in our area. So we tried to find him, but couldn't. We went back to the apartment and did our weekly planning, and I was so flippin' tired. We got it all taken care of, after a lot of sidetracking, and went to see the C.'s for dinner. They made ham/cheese/tomato sandwiches and bought a Little Caesar's Pizza. We set up a lesson for a family home evening with them, and went off to coordination. The branch mission leader cancelled last second, and we talked about what was needed. We then went and tried to find some investigators at home.

Sunday, the Sisters had been asked to give the gospel principles class as the teacher simply didn't want to do it, and they tried to dump it on me. I taught last week's, so I suggested that they take it since they have never done it since I've been here. They complained and said that they had an investigator coming, so to fix the problem, Elder N. volunteered to teach the class. He was stressed out of his mind, and was struggling to form his thoughts as to what he should teach. So I helped him out by giving him some pointers and giving him options to choose from. We then had Sacrament meeting, and we split up to sit with several members and people that were sitting alone. Elder N. then taught the gospel principles class, and did a really good job. We then had Elder's quorum, and had a great lesson by a member that recently moved in. We then, (to our delight and dismay), that there were four families that wanted to feed us that night. How that happened, I have no idea. We ended up having to cancel three of them, and went to eat with the O.'s, who we had scheduled dinner with in advance. After dinner, we came back and visited the O., who have been a bit less-active because of the fact that the wife can't speak English and they've been in an English ward for the last few years. So we stopped by and shared a message with them, and read from the Book of Mormon with them and their kids. One of their sons kept piling all of the toys that he could find on top of Elder V. until he was completely buried. We then called it a night.

Yesterday morning was stressful after we got the call from President S. Elder N. spent the whole time packing up all of his stuff, calling people, and stressing out. He had no time to visit any members to say goodbye since he was leaving with President at 2:30. We went to a luncheon thrown by the members for the missionaries, and he said goodbye to all of the missionaries. We then went and finished up the packing, and he got shipped out with President to the valley. We went and did some service for a less-active member by digging an 18-inch deep trench from their kitchen water outlet in their front yard over to the water main that they needed to connect to. We got it done in about an hour, and bounced over to dinner with the G.'s. We then went and had a family home evening with the C.'s, and shared a message about service and the blessings that we receive, and that others receive through our service. It was a really good family home evening, and we called it a night.

And that's just about the whole flippin' cake for the week. All of the members for some reason just love to remind me about how little time I have left, and the other missionaries are more trunky than I am. Elder V. is the new district leader, and the sisters are the only ones in our district, so we make the joke that now, instead of district meetings, they'll be district "datings", because that's pretty much what it'll look like to anyone else. Ugh. I want some Elders in the district. I hate it when it's just sisters. Oh well. I guess that's what happens when the mission runs out of missionaries.

Have a great week! But don't have too much fun without me.

-Love, Elder Crook

Companionship of three

No, M. L.'s daughter and her family were members, and she was introduced to us through them. She got baptized, and soon after, went with her family to the temple to do the work for her husband. From there, we waited a year, and I kept writing letters to M. L. and her family. I received a card from them around the time of Valentine's day that said that she would be going through the temple in the first weeks of April, so I quick-like-a-bunny got her number and called her to congratulate her and ask her if she would be willing if I came with. So on the week of the endowment, I got permission from President to go with her and her family. And I am very much ready and willing to go to the Ogden and Brigham City temples. ALSO, the new companion was just Elder N. They took his companion out and moved him to another area, and put Elder N. with Elder V. and me. We've been biking, driving, (because we now have a car as well), and walking because last night Elder V.'s tire exploded. BUT, we'll get to that in a few paragraphs.

Last Wednesday, after transfer meeting, we waited and went to the district/zone leader training meeting because Elder N. is still the district leader, (with just us and the Sisters.) We then went and got our apartment situation resolved and were moved from one apartment to another in the same complex, except the new apartment has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We moved our beds out into the main room, and put our study desks in one of the bedrooms, with the laundry and dressers in the other bedroom. The whole move from one apartment to the other took pretty much the whole day. I ended up ripping my pants right up the middle seam when I squatted down to pick up our sofa. Yuuuupppp. Either the pants were just done, or I've gained weight. My bet is that the pants were just old, because I really haven't gained weight. Darn.

Thursday, we had our trio weekly planning, and since both Elder N. and Elder V. are from Texas, I had the premonition or apprehension that they would have a bit of a hard time getting along. So, after going through our investigators and stuff, we got to the companionship inventory part of the planning session. I mentioned that I just wanted to have a really relaxed atmosphere and not worry about the little things too much. Thankfully, both Elder V. and N. voiced their agreement and said some things that I feel have set up this transfer really well. We then went out and tried to get a few people contacted, and were able to find a few potential people to teach. We then went to find some referrals, and none were home, so we moseyed on over to dinner. After that, we went to see Hna. C., and asked her if she could fix my pants. She said it would be done lickety split. And so it was.

On Friday, we had breakfast with the R.'s, and they bought us some breakfast and California burritos. We ate, and then we taught Hno. R. about how to perform a priesthood blessing of health and one of comfort/counsel. We showed him how to consecrate oil, and went over the other ordinances as well. We then went to give a blessing to a friend of a member, who has been suffering the side-effects of chemotherapy treatment from years ago. Apparently she's been suffering internal damage for years, and it's been very painful, all because of the chemo treatments. She told us that the cancer has returned, and that the doctors want to put her on the same chemo treatments as before, and that she's afraid of the same damage occurring. We explained the power of the priesthood to her, and told her that what we would say under the influence of the Spirit would be the Lord's will concerning her. We then went and had district meeting, which was a bit awkward since it was just us and the Sisters. We went from there to pick up a bike from the zone leaders so that we could bike in our area. Driving is pointless, since there's never any parking. We then went and tried to contact the referrals again. No luck. We then picked up dinner from a member, and ate at our apartment. We got some flaws fixed up on Elder N.'s bike, and went back out to see some investigators that were in his old area that's been picked up by all three of us. We then tried to see some other potential investigators, but ended up only finding the V.'s at home. We then called it a night.

Saturday rolled up, and we started out by going to see some other people in the new parts of our area. We then visited the F.'s, and for the first time ever, got to sit down and talk to J., the son of Hna. F. We talked to him about all sorts of things, from soccer, to football, to other sports. We shared a message, and asked if we could stop by more often, and he agreed. We then stopped by several people to see them, but they weren't home. We visited Hna. M., who had been sick all week, and we gave her a blessing. After the blessing, we went to the birthday dinner for the C.'s mother-in-law. We had some good birria with some crazy hot salsa made from tiny little ball-shaped chili peppers. MAN WAS IT HOT. We went and talked with Hno. I. after that to see if we would be having coordination, which ended up not happening. We biked around for awhile, and talked with a lot of people, and called it a day.

Sunday, I was asked to give the gospel principles lesson on Priesthood Organization. While Elder N. was in Branch Council, Elder V. and I went to the classroom, and I got the whiteboard set up with a list of priesthood offices and specific stewardships and responsibilities, or keys in the priesthood. We then had sacrament meeting, and we ended up splitting up to sit with several families. The talks were good, and we went to gospel principles. I taught the class the best that I could, and tried to make it as simple and understandable as possible. We then had Elders Quorum, and had a good lesson taught by Hno. L. about how to have the Spirit more strongly in our homes and families. After doing our studies at the apartment, we went to the Mission President's Fireside, where President M. and his wife bore their final testimonies as they will be going to serve as Mission President and wife of the Santiago, Chile East Mission. The meeting was powerful, and President M.'s testimony was filled with the Spirit, and his wife's was amazing. She went right to the point, and didn't beat around the bush about the things that she knew to be true. I saw G., a guy that I visited while I was in Chula Vista, and we freaked out when we saw each other. He said that he proposed to his girlfriend in front of the temple. (Sly dog.) We then went back home.

Yesterday, we had a lot of success in contacting people in the streets. Like A LOT. I was really surprised. Most of the people that I made contact with actually stopped and listened, even if they were rushed or in a hurry. We taught a couple of lessons, biked around a lot, and by the end of the day, we had mostly just had street contacts where we shared the Because He Lives video. We were also able to share it with I., a less active member, and she agreed to share it with her friend down the street. Then, as we were just about to turn back towards home, (mind you we were about a mile and a half from home), we sat still on our bikes and discussed where to go before turning in for the night, when Elder V.'s front tire exploded. Well. There went our plans to see anyone before going home. We walked our bikes all the way home, and there wasn't really anyone on the streets to talk with.

Well, that's just about it! I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well, and that you're still getting snow? That surprised me. Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

Special Day at the Temple

I guess as news to the world for my last transfer, I'm going to be in a trio with Elder V. and our new companion that we're picking up tomorrow! AH MAN, I was so excited when we got the call last night. It was weird. I guess that President wanted us to have better studies on Transfer Tuesday, so he had all of the zone leaders do the transfer calls on Monday night. So we got a call from them last night, and they told us that we'd be in a trio. At first, I was laughing it off, like, "Naaaaahhhh, stop pullin' mah leg. You guys are funny!" And they were completely serious about it. So we went downstairs and asked the El Cajon zone leaders if they had done calls for their zone, and they said that they had. So we knew that it was true. YUP yup Yup. Puy

SO. Last Wednesday was rough. Let me tell ya, it was a rough day. We started off the day with zone meeting. We then had lunch, and went to start contacting referrals. And that's when everything started going downhill. We started contacting, and all of the referrals contacted said no, all of the street contacts said no, and all of our investigators dropped us. In one single day. So we had nobody to teach. We then went to find some less-actives to teach, and they were either busy, or not home. So we spent the whole day riding our bikes in search of someone to teach.

Thursday, we shifted our focus from finding to helping our members to do their family history work. We figured that as long as we couldn't find people to teach, that we could at least provide some people on the other side of the veil the ordinances of salvation through their family members. So we got a plan set to help so many families to progress towards the temple through doing their family history work. After getting our plans set, we went to do some mormon.org time, and I got some good quotes set up to share with people. I also watched some of the conference talks over again. Just because. :3 We then went out and began to contact some people in the streets, and went on to contact a referral. The first few times that we'd stopped by to try and find the apartment, my navigational skills were off, so we were at the wrong complex. I then realized my blunder, and we went to the correct complex, and easily found the person we were looking for. Her name is V., and she had seen the Because He Lives video in English, but didn't understand it. So we gave her a card in Spanish, and talked with her about what we do. We shared some things about the restoration and eternal families, and asked if we could come back and share more with her. She said not really because she was Catholic, and that was when I pulled out the Book of Mormon. It was the hard copy that Melissa sent me, and I'd had a prompting to grab it and take it with us before we left the apartment. So I whipped it out, and asked if she'd seen this book. Her eyes got big, and she asked what it was. We explained that the people in the Americas knew that Christ would come, and that they testified of Him as the Savior of mankind. She started flipping through the pages, and all of a sudden, she was super interested. We asked if we could come back and explain more about the Book, and she quickly accepted. So we added a new investigator! YEEEAAAAHHHH. Yup. We then had dinner, and went to visit a few other less-actives, who ended up not being home. So we turned in for the night.

The next day, on Friday, we went to see K., and started helping him to set up his family history. At first, he was a bit "meh" about it, but as he kept inputting information, he said,"Man. Now I can't stop. Look what you guys did." Heheh. Spirit of Elijah, baby. He was missing his membership record number, so we got him set up to get it from the branch president. We then went and contacted for a bit. We then had some service, and were able to use one of the mission Jeep Compasses to get there. We got assigned to water all of the member's plants, which I was happy to do, since it reminded me of Willard Bay Gardens. I got to water some tomato plants that were looking pretty healthy and happy. We then got cleaned up, and biked over to a taco shop to meet up with L., from my last area in Poway. He was in El Cajon, so we set up a place and time to meet up. He bought us some burritos, and we sat and talked about how he'd been. He's been progressing towards receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood, and told us that since everything had gotten changed up that the classes back in the Poway branch have been boring. I told him that it's usually like that, but that we can still feel the Spirit and learn the things that we need, and that we can always feel the Spirit during the sacrament. We then parted ways, and we went on to visit a family that we had planned an FHE with. When we got to the complex, we found out that the mother had gone to the hospital for some health complications, so we went back down to our bikes. A bunch of Arabic kids were running around playing, and the son of one of the Arabic converts to the Church came and talked to us. Then ALL of the kids came over. They spotted the cards in our pockets, and asked if they could have one. We gave them some pictures of Christ, and THAT'S when all heck broke loose. All of a sudden, I had a bunch of kids mugging me, trying to get my attention, asking me if I was married over and over and over again, and I kept repeating, "No. NO. no. nO. NO!! GO AWAY SMALLISH PEOPLE." A couple of the guys took Elder V's bike and started riding around, some of the other kids took my planner and pen, and all around just MUGGED us. I finally gathered my things, made sure that I had everything, and when the moment came to escape, I pointed behind them and really excitedly yelled "OH MY GOSH WHAT'S THAT?!" and right when they all turned and looked, I made my escape, with Elder V right on my heels. Then they started chasing us in a maddened mob of bloodthirsty children. We then told the Arabic Elders about our traumatic experience, and they got excited when we mentioned their recent convert F. We were then interrupted by a little old Arabic guy that wanted to talk to the Elders. He even came and shook our hands. Turns out that the first time they contacted him, he got down and started doing push-ups to show them how strong he was. And this guy's like 70. We then finished the night with a visit to a less-active.

Baptism Day October 2013

Temple Day April 2015

Saturday, we got to go to the temple with M L, a recent convert from my area in Chula Vista. She went to receive her endowments and be sealed to her family, and we were able to go with her. We got to the temple right as they were getting their clothes from the rental place. M L's daughter then gave us some names to take through of their ancestors. We went and got ready for the session in Spanish. And let me tell you, it was WEIRD. We all got sat down, and it turns out that L, M L's granddaughter got her call to serve in the Provo, East mission. HA! Man. Tons of people from San Diego end up serving in Utah. Anywho, we got into the session, and they used the really REALLY old one. And surprisingly, I was able to understand everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. I thought that I was going to have trouble with it being in Spanish, but I really only had trouble once I had gotten to the end of the session, when you have to remember everything. We visited in the Celestial room for a bit, and went up to the sealing rooms. We sat down, got all of the papers signed, and the sealer came in. He started out by talking about the importance of the temple in the lives of every human, and how the power of the priesthood is necessary for making families eternal. He then mentioned that we become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints through baptism, we become members of the Church of the Firstborn through the endowment, and we become members of the Eternal Family of God through the sealing. I had never realized that before! He then pronounced the sealing, and man was the Spirit strong. I don't think I've ever felt it that strongly in the temple before. Everything just seemed right, and it felt right. We then went outside after getting changed, and took some pictures, after which, we went and ate at TGI Fridays with M L and her family. We then drove back to El Cajon, and biked over to the church for coordination. We then went to see Hna. C., and got some service planned with her.

Sunday, we went to branch council, and practically everybody was sick with a cold. Every couple of minutes, everyone would break out in a synchronized coughing fit. I've somehow managed to avoid it, so I've been pretty happy. (Knock on wood.) I then ended up translating for the English speakers in sacrament meeting, and afterwards, we went to the classes. After Church ended, we went back to our apartment, had a light lunch, and went to a meeting with the ward mission leaders of the stake and the mission presidency. We had some follow-up training on the Because He Lives initiative, and of course, our branch mission leader wasn't there. He's usually never there, so Presidente H. showed up to represent the branch. We talked about the many things that can be done to help the branch to progress in their missionary work. We got some plans set, and went to eat way out in the boonies with the O. family. We had some good chicken chipotle burritos, and had a good message with them about the Because He Lives initiative. We then did some work back in our area.

Yesterday, we had some service with Hna. C. and weeding her back yard. Once again, Willard Bay Gardens memories. We got everything cleaned up and weeded out, and her yard looked nice and pretty. We then got changed, and biked over to Hna. G.'s for an early dinner, since Elder G. and Elder C. were visiting, and she planned it just right for us to end up together at the same time. So we ate with them and visited for a bit, and we then shared a message with her, since the other Elders had to leave to drive back to Calexico. We left, and went on to visit some members that we had hoped would be home, but weren't. After a bit, we went and visited a family that for the longest time, I had thought that they were active. After having a family home evening and sharing the Because He Lives video, the hermano opened up and said that they had been pretty less-active because of some tough circumstances. We didn't pry, but offered our support and help. We have another appointment with them this Saturday.

Well, that's just about it for this week. I'll have to let you know who the number 3 companion is. Until next week!

-Love, Elder Crook

The bitter and the sweet

Well SWEET NOPALES ASADAS I'm happy you're alright after that accident! I'd say that it gave me a bit of a scare for a minute, but I'm really happy that neither you nor Melissa were hurt too badly. Why I oughta find that 17-year-old and give him a piece of my pie. Then I'll smash it in his face. BAHAHAHAHAH. Nah. Not really.

This last week was a pretty...eh...bipolar?...no...contrasted?...yeah. Contrasted. That's a good adjective. We had a lot of ups and downs this week, so we've been tasting the bitter and sweet all at once. But I think that General Conference trumped the bitters of the week, and swamped them with sweet. I mean really. That Conference was amazing. I absolutely loved it. And I felt like I got more personal revelation that didn't pertain to what was being said, yet was more applicable to me and what I could work on that connected to the subject at hand. Okay. Back to last Wednesday. WOOOOOSH.

So. As you know, I emailed last Wednesday. Fancy that. After the emailing, we had dinner with ourselves, and went to try and find M. She wasn't home, so we went to visit Hna. C. to see what we could do for her. We visited for a bit, and we mostly talked about her desires to go to the temple and be the example for her family. Her husband and children have been less than active, and she's been praying to know what to do. She resolved to go to the temple, and see what she could receive as far as revelation goes. She mostly vented to us, and seemed to answer her own questions as we listened. I love it when that happens.

Thursday, we did our weekly planning, and went on to visit M. We talked to him about some of his mission experiences, and he showed us some pictures of past companions and other things that he'd done. We then went to find some referrals and potential investigators, who ended up not being available or at home. Again, we visited Hna. C. at request, and we talked to her about her plans to get to the temple. She took us out back to her back patio, and I offered to help her weed her garden, (since I did lots o' that at Willard Bay Gardens). She accepted, so this week sometime, we'll be weeding her back yard. We then had dinner, and went off to visit the G.'s, who were busy, and from there, went to begin exchanges. Elder N. came with me, and Elder V. went with Elder S.

Friday, we woke up, and Elder N. decided to plan district meeting for his morning studies. We had some discussion about some past district meetings that I'd done, and I suggested some that I thought were good, but he selected one that I had done out of shortage of time to teach, and lack of time to plan. I was a little surprised, voiced my opinion, and we went off to breakfast. We taught the R. family, (after eating some California burritos), and shared with them many things about the temple, as they will soon be going to be sealed. Hno. R. has just barely received the Melchizedek Priesthood, and they are now working on the interview process to receive their recommends. After the lesson with them, we had some referrals to go contact, and whilst contacting, got called to go do some service. We showed up, and this member that we normally help on Fridays had purchased a full-sized backyard playground, and we missionaries were called on to put this thing together. So we did. I mostly tried to organize the thousand and one pieces that were scattered throughout several boxes, and then someone else organized the screws/bolts/washers/nuts/etc., and we got to work. We didn't work for long, and got a good portion done. We then went to see the J's, who weren't home. We went to see the V's, who weren't home. We got yelled at by some people. Had a conversation with this crazy lady who told us all about the spirits that haunt her and her family. Then we went to see the V., and they WERE home. We sat down and talked to Hno. about the resurrection as connected with the initiative, and we went from there back home.

Saturday was spent like a Superbowl Sunday for missionaries. I brought some snacks from the package that was sent for Easter, and we enjoyed some Starburst jellybeans as we watched. I kept noticing the recurring theme of family, marriage, fidelity, and faithfulness in relation to trial. I really felt that I was able to receive some very personal revelations that I was quite surprised to receive. After the first session, we got some lunch at Sonic, and went straight back to the church to have district meeting. Yup. District meeting between sessions. We then watched the second session. Again, recurring themes of marriage and family. But I really liked the talk about the music and the dance. I can really connect to that talk, because I feel that there came a time when I actually felt the music of the gospel, and that's when I understood the steps. Luckily I already knew the steps, so it was easy to get into the groove. I don't know what I'd do if my parents hadn't taught me the gospel when I was young. Again, I heard the recurring theme of marriage and family. I think that the Lord was trying to tell me something. And I saw Michelle Dean in the choir! I started flipping out and pointing, and all of the missionaries just looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well. Nothing new there. :3 After that session, we went and got a polish hot dog and a drink at Cosco, and came back to see the Priesthood session. I liked Elder Ballard's quote of "RM doesn't mean Retired Mormon." I really liked President Uchtdorf and Eyring's talks. We then had a lesson with the G.'s and their non-member friend to share the "Because He Lives" video. Would you believe me that it's the first time in my entire mission that a member has invited a friend to their home to meet with the missionaries? Yup. It was amazing! The Spirit was felt, the message was given, and the members bore powerful testimony. We weren't able to add him as an investigator, as he had to leave abruptly, but he was very grateful for the visit.

Sunday, we watched the first session, and hoped and prayed that L. would watch one of the sessions. We had collaborated with the S. family earlier in the week to get her to see at least one session. I really liked Elder Brent H. Nielson's talk about the prodigal son, Elder Holland's talk about the cliff, the leap, and the hands like lightning in a summer storm. I thought that it was very well presented. And Elder Uchtdorf's talk about the resurrection was awesome. A member provided us lunch, and after eating, we returned for the following session. I really liked Elder Nelson's talk about the sabbath. I felt that I could greatly improve my own efforts at making the sabbath a more special day. We then went home and went right out the door and into the streets to talk to people about the resurrection. We came across a couple of homeless people. Tiny Tumbleweed and J. (Tiny Tumbleweed's real name was J.) We talked to them about the resurrection, and promised them that everything is worth it because of the resurrection, and all of a sudden, they wanted to take a picture with us. Okay...? So we humored them, took a picture, and went on our way. They walked ahead of us for a bit, and turned off to go behind a small building. They asked if we'd like to see where J. lives. So we went and saw, and talked with them a bit more about the things that we do. They really opened up to us, and I think that it was a really great conversation. We even got to talk about how we had just gotten done with watching General Conference, and were able to talk a bit about the prophets and apostles. We then had dinner, and afterwards, went right back out to talk about the resurrection. We didn't have any success at finding people. I think that everyone was inside with their families for Easter. I guess that's a good thing. Just not for us.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day working on that same playground, and got it pretty much assembled. We then went and had dinner with the G.'s, and they had to leave suddenly to visit K. and his wife. So we talked to their daughter M., and talked about the talks from General Conference. We then went a-searching for people to teach, none of which did we get to teach. Believe me, we struggled last night. We asked several people if we could just give them a card. Almost every single one said no. We asked about how their Easter went. Fine. And they kept right on walking. So, we returned our bikes to the apartment, and decided to just walk. (And believe me, Mom, I think that I've made up for all of the years that I didn't bike just by biking in this area. So it's all good. :) ) We got picked up by Elder D. and Elder F. as they were driving by, and we went to their apartment and talked about the lines that we loved from Conference.

Devil's Punchbowl

And today, we just barely finished a hike to a place called the Devil's Punchbowl. It's an interesting hike, where you hike downward to a little oasis in the middle of the "mountains", and then hike back up to get out. It was pretty cool! I haven't been on a good hike like that in a while, so it was really refreshing for me. We saw tons of lizards. Some people jumped off the cliffs that are at the Punchbowl, and one of the girls did a bellyflop. When she hit the water, it made a pretty loud slap, and all of us watching cringed. We then hiked out, and came to email

Well, I really enjoyed Conference, even though it was the last that I'll enjoy in the mission. We're planning on going ham this week on finding people to teach. I'm glad that you and Melissa are alright, Mom! I hope that you have a great (and safe) week!

-Love, Elder Crook

Cesar Chavez Day

Look, Ma! No cavities!

Yesterday was Cesar Chavez day. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Apparently he was some human rights activist here in San Diego county, so there's a holiday set for him where all of the libraries in the history of existence are closed. And it just so happened to be on our p-day. So President said to go find somewhere to email if we could, but that if we couldn't, to just email on Wednesday, or today. So that's the reason for the which I am writing today. I'm sorry if it gave you any anxiety or worry, but we only found out about it on Sunday, and we had no way to tell our parents what was going on, so the mission office got A LOT of phone calls yesterday asking why their child had not written them.

 

Last Wednesday was quite the day. I was on exchanges with Elder S. We had several lessons that day, a few with some investigators, a few with some less-actives, and then some wonderful dinner at the end of the night. The whole day was spent on bike, and for some reason, 'twas hot indeed. We ended up giving Hna. C. a blessing that day because her daughter was about to be released from prison into her care "because the judge said so". So she was a bit frazzled and worried, and we gave her a blessing. She said that she wanted us to come back on Saturday to feed us arroz con pollo, (I know it's your absolute favorite, Dad. ;)  ) and we agreed that we would be back Saturday.

 

Thursday turned out to be a bit less fruitful than Wednesday, and we started off with weekly planning. I don't know what it is about weekly planning, but it always makes me sooper tired. So we finished up and went to find some former investigators. We went around searching for people at home, yet were unable to find anyone. We spent most of the day talking to people in the streets, and trying to talk to Arabics and English speakers. We didn't really find any one of our set appointments at home, so we spent most of the day looking for people to visit and teach. Finally, at the end of the day, we stopped by and visited K. For some reason, he stayed back in his bedroom, and we talked to U. for a bit. We then went home early as Elder V. wasn't feeling good from some Chinese food we ate.

On Friday, we had interviews with President, and the other Elders had just put their car in the shop to get fixed, so we had to scramble to find some way to get to the stake center. We had opted to just bike there, and wake up super early to get there on time, but we were able to use the El Cajon zone leaders' car to get there instead. My interview was probably 5 minutes, I think. Shortest interview I've ever had, and I think that it was my last one before departure interviews. Oh well. We came home, returned the zone leaders' car, and went to district meeting. It was LOOOOOOONNNNG. We did some role plays for using the "Because He Lives" initiative, and I got to be a professor reading Machiavelli in the library, and the other Elders had to contact me. It went pretty well, but then it just kept going. We finally went to lunch, ate some good California burritos, and went to do service. Hna. C. then called us and asked if we could come meet her daughter, so we did. She was interesting. You could tell that she'd been cooped up in a small room for quite some time. But she looked like she was getting a lot of support from her parents. Elder V. and I gave her a blessing. We then went to the R's, and shared a message with them, and after, we went to the branch movie night. We watched 17 Miracles with Spanish subtitles. Ah man. All the women were crying, as expected. We then went home.

Saturday, we went to a baptism for the sisters, and helped out with conducting the music and being witnesses. After all was said and done, we went to help a member move into his new apartment, and we Elders provided the heavy lifting. I was nominated for getting everything in the moving van pulled apart in a weird game of reverse Tetris, and everyone else carried it to the apartment. We then had some pizza, and went to visit some people. After biking around for a bit, we went to have dinner with Hna. C. and S., her daughter. For some reason, S. wasn't there, but we still had dinner with Hno. and Hna. C. It was some good arroz con pollo, and it was Costa Rican style, so it wasn't what I expected. We then went and saw R, had a good visit with him, and went to see if we could find K. He wasn't home, so we went and tried to find several other less-actives at home. We finished the night, and went to bed.

Sunday, our branch mission leader wanted to have coordination super early, right before branch council, and we had to get up early. Elder V. wanted to get up at 5:30 for some reason. I slept until 6:30 and got ready quick. We then got to the church for coordination, and we ended up not having it anyway. I didn't have to go to branch council, so I got put in charge of copying the program for sacrament meeting, and that was what we did. We then had a great fast and testimony meeting, and went to gospel principles. Hna. G. was giving the class, and asked if I could tell the story of the Mediator, as given by Elder Packer. The story in the Gospel Principles book is quite long, so I read over it, and summed it up when called upon. The lesson was very well taught by Hna. G. We then went to the 5th Sunday meeting, and Presidente H. showed a presentation for "Because He Lives". He explained it, and then showed the video, and right after that, he asked who they would share the message with. Everyone sort of mumbled the answer of "Our friends", but that wasn't enough for him. He said, "How much better would it be if you had the missionaries there helping you share it with your friends?" Then everybody got it. So we had a couple of appointments set with members to share the message with their friends by the end of 3rd hour. We then went to our apartment to do our studies, and then went to dinner with a member. After dinner, we FINALLY found K., and got to share the video with him. He really liked it, and we were able to get on a good conversation topic. We then went to see A., and he was actually just barely getting back from a hike at Yosemite. He drove for 8+ hours that day just to get back when he did. We talked about how it went, and because of time, gave him the card for "Because He Lives" and told him to see it and maybe even share it with his girlfriend.

Monday, we had quite the bit of service. We went with the El Cajon zone leaders, Elder D. and Elder F., (since they live right below us), and we went to help their ward mission leader to trim some trees. Now, mind you, this man is in his late 60's or so, and has this nice plot of land covered in orange, lemon, lime, and fig trees, and had some kumquat bushes growing around. He told us to help ourselves to the fruit, so I had my fair share of fresh oranges and kumquats. I just love fresh oranges. They're so sweet and juicy. We then got to the tree cutting, and the ward mission leader, Brother T., got up on this 15' ladder to cut these trees with a chainsaw. The ladder he was on was leaning against his neighbor's fence, and we were cutting the trees that hung over the fence. He cut a few branches off, and then, all of a sudden, the ladder twisted, and Brother T. went right over the fence and into the trees. We all dropped our tools and ran to jump the fence. He had somehow fallen with his back to the tree, and just so to have both arms pinned over some cut branch stubs, and his whole weight was on his arms. He wasn't even touching the ground. We lifted him out of his predicament, and his hand and face were a bit cut. But somehow, that was all that happened to him. The first thing out of his mouth was hilarious for some reason. "Oh. I'm bleeding. Where's my glove?" We all started laughing after a moment of tension and fear, and then we looked up, and his glove was still in the tree. He went into the house and got a few bandaids on, and came right back out to help. His wife came out and started chastising him for coming back out to help even after what had just happened. She told us,"He does this all the time!" in a bit of a frustrated vent. We then went to lunch with some of the senior members of the church, and then went to work. We started out trying to contact some referrals, and found a few, but were told to come back another day. We then went to see J. A., and right when we got there, he came out and said that he'd be going back to Tecate, but that he had read the vision of the tree of life. And then he explained the whole thing to us! It was crazy! We're pretty bummed out that he's going back to Tecate. We'll hopefully be able to get the missionaries there to find him. We then had dinner with the G., and had a good time talking to them about what we would to when we taught their friends that they were inviting over on Saturday after the Priesthood session. After getting the game-plan set, we went and saw Hna. C. again, as she's been having a hard time lately. Her family has been pretty less-active, and she really wants to help them. We talked about what she could do, and finally came to the conclusion to have her go to the temple to see what revelation she could receive pertaining to the situation.

Then, yesterday was just one big day of weird. It didn't feel right that we weren't writing home. We spent so much time just "puttering around" as Dad would put it. Every time I sat down to write a letter, I got mobbed by all the other missionaries telling me to quit writing and come play sports. I hardly got anything written. I'm going to get some letters sent next Tuesday to everyone, so be ready.

I hope you all enjoy Conference! I know that I will!

-Love, Elder Crook

Biking, hard work, rejection, funny stories, and lots of sweat

First off: Happy Birthday, Mom! You're turning 36, right? ;) Love you, Mom. This last week was a pretty good one, full of biking, hard work, rejection, funny stories, and lots of sweat. Lots of it. So as far as the rejection goes, I've been carrying this paper with Arabic contacting phrases so that I can try talking to them. Half of the time, they don't even know what I'm saying, so it doesn't really matter anyway, and when they DO know what I'm saying, they usually walk away saying "La." Which being interpreted, means "No". But I must say, I've got those phrases memorized now, so we walk around being able to at least contact everyone, if not talk with them.

On Wednesday, we started off the day by having some district meeting. We had ceviche the night before, and Elder V. got to take the left-overs, so he ate that for lunch, and I ate the other half of a subway sandwich that I got. We then had district meeting, and we had been asked to give a thought about one of the Christlike attributes in PMG (Preach My Gospel), so I decided to be spontaneous and share a thought about a Christlike attribute that wasn't in PMG. I decided to read about meekness, and after reading up on it from a talk by Neal A. Maxwell, I really noticed that meekness is one of those things that I want to become the best at. I really liked the fact that the meek are those who humbly control themselves, and refuse to react in any negative or contentious way, even if it means getting the worse end of the deal in an argument. "It's better to save one's soul than to save one's face." I just about died laughing when I saw that, because it's so true. So I shared my thought, and I really felt the Spirit while doing it. I think it went well. We then went to look for some former investigators, and after not finding anyone, we visited Hna. C. We sat and visited a bit about how her week was going, when all of a sudden, we were on the topic of dreams, and she told us about all of these visionary dreams that she'd had since she got baptized about her ancestors coming and asking her to do their temple work. She said that they were all so vivid, and that they were always dressed in white. After a bit, I asked if she was from the tribe of Manasseh, which she affirmed. I thought it was so cool. we then went to see if we could find some less-actives home, who weren't, and then went to teach M. We had originally planned to teach the law of chastity, (a really fun one for teenage girls :-/  ), but when we got there, we felt that we should teach the Word of Wisdom. We shared it, and after finishing, we committed her to live it, and she said that she had just been drinking green tea, but that she would substitute water for the tea. We searched for other people to teach after her, but found no one and got pretty shut down by everyone that we talked to in the street, so we finished the night and turned in.

Thursday, we got our weekly planning done, and went to see if we could find some less-actives and formers at home. After finding a few, and setting some return appointments, we had dinner with our branch mission leader's family, but he wasn't there, so we ate with his son and daughter-in-law. We talked about some of the members that they know that are having a bit of a hard time, and talked about what we as missionaries could do to help them. We then went and visited J. A., our new investigator, and talked with him a bit about what we do as missionaries, and what we plan to help him do by stopping by and teaching him about the restored gospel. We then went around trying to find people at home, and with no luck and no success in street contacting, went home for the night.

For Friday, we started off by going to see Hna. C. because some other missionaries had called us to tell us to go visit her right then, so we did. Turns out that she just wanted to ask us a question but had called the wrong Elders, and that those Elders overreacted as to the situation. So we visited with her a bit, and went on our way to meet the other Elders for some service. We ended up helping an English lady with her back yard and garden. I got to do some planting, and boy did it feel good to have my hands back in the dirt. I started off doing all the things that Barney showed me, and the lady started saying,"No don't do it that way!", and my first reaction was,"Lady. I got this. Lemme do it." So we dug the holes, broke the roots a bit, and got everything planted. I even got to plant some tomato plants! I was pretty happy after that. We then stacked big bricks and blocks to make them "inspection worthy", since the way that they were previously stacked wouldn't pass the inspection that the city was going to do on her house. We then went to dinner with the R., and had some ceviche again. You could really tell that the shrimp wasn't cooked. We then tried to see a former, but no luck there, and after a few hours of riding around and talking with everyone, we called it a night.

Saturday, we actually had a pretty successful day. We started off contacting in an area that I haven't visited yet, and found a good number of people to talk to, but none of them wanted to talk. So we visited a member, and she told us about another less-active member that lived in the area that we had just been in, and never knew about. She said that he didn't want anything to do with the church anymore, but we decided to stop by anyway. We found him, and he stepped outside to talk with us. He was super nice, and was really friendly! We talked about a whole bunch of things, and to try and gauge where he was, I asked if we could share a scripture with him. He kind of scrunched up his face until I said, "How about a scripture from the Bible?", and he relaxed and said that it would be fine. I shared a scripture from Matthew, and as we talked, I could tell that he liked it. I guess he has a problem with the Book of Mormon, since at first he seemed apprehensive. We then went looking for other less-actives and former investigators, and after a bunch of swing-and-miss contacts, we went to dinner with R. He invited us to eat with him at Pizza Hut over in the corner of our area, and as we were heading over there, I found a hollow-tip .22 bullet sitting on the road. Just sitting there! I snagged it and put it in the swirly thing on my planner, and we went our way. We ate a large pizza which was probably 12" wide. Smallest large pizza I've ever eaten in my life. Seriously. And the waitress was super flirty, and it kind of annoyed me, because once R. put the tip on the table, she stopped. I HATE WAITRESSES LIKE THAT. OOOOH. Anywho, we then biked our way to the church for coordination, and when we got there, one of the branch missionaries, Hno. C., brought a headless rattlesnake that he had just killed. It was pretty cool, until Elder N. went to touch it. Then it got HILARIOUS. I can't adequately explain how he acted, but his whole body would cringe every time he went to touch it. And he would swing his hand at it like he was trying to slap it. Then Hno. C. started swinging the tail at him, and he started freaking out. Oh my goodness, it was so funny. I got it on film, so that's great. After trying some referrals after coordination, we went home.

Sunday, we had a wonderful pair of talks in church. One was Hno. P., and at the end of his talk, he got a look on his face, and the Spirit got really strong. He said that his talk topic was exactly what he needed to hear, and that he would do better at home teaching from now on, (as that was his topic). I just love it when the Spirit teaches you about the topic that you're teaching. Hno. G. was the next to speak, and he got PASSIONATE. My goodness, he was getting into it, and he went off about how important it is to do our home and visiting teaching, since it had slacked off in the time that he had been away for work. He said that there were many members who weren't there in sacrament meeting, and it made him sad to see the reduced number of people at church. I think that he did a really good job. He was probably the only one who could've gotten that passionate without offending anyone in the congregation, (which is quite the feat in the hispanic culture). I ended up teaching gospel principles about Chapter 11, the Life of Christ. I have been reading Jesus the Christ again, and I used a few thoughts from James E. Talmage, and focused on certain points throughout the lesson. I really tried to follow the Spirit, but I felt kind of under-par by the time the lesson finished. We then went to Elders Quorum, and had a great lesson on Elder Holland's talk about "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." which lays out the law of the fast and the necessity of giving to the poor and feeding the hungry. We had dinner with the O's, and went way out past Alpine to see them. After dinner, we came back, and had a pretty rough night. We tried talking to everyone, and kept getting shut down. We then were dropped by V., who said not to come back. And after that, we found almost nobody at home, so we went home for the night.

Yesterday, we looked through our area book to find new people to contact, went to do mormon.org time, and went to see some less-actives. After finding a few, and NOT finding a few, we went a-contacting and got shut down a few times, and I tried to do my Arabic contacting, which yielded some funny and awkward moments of me not knowing what to say, and the other guy not knowing what to say because he didn't speak English, so we usually just said "Masalama" which just means "peace until later", and went our way. We then had dinner with Hna. G., and she shared her whole experience with her mother dying, which was really hard for her. However, she shared it in a way that showed just how much hope she had in seeing her mother again, and how her mother was working for the Lord on the other side. It was really powerful, and I felt pretty inspired and motivated to get to work. We then saw I., a less-active, whose boyfriend is a piece of pond scum, and she gave us some pizza. The pizza threw my stomach off, and I started feeling pretty crappy. We then saw C., K's wife, and shared a message with her that I think was much needed. We then went home to take some acheselzer for our aggravated stomachs.

Well, not much new to report other than those things! I would say to save me a slice of cake from Mom's birthday party, but I figure that it'll all be eaten pretty quick. Oh well. It sounds like we're going to La Jolla Coves today as a zone, but I'm a little skeptical because of the fact that it's A) really close to the beach, and B) it's spring break. Not a great combo for missionaries in San Diego, if you know what I mean. But, we'll see what happens. I'm planning on getting a California flag and a jacket, so I hope not to worry about that.

I love you, Mom! Love ya, Dad. Let my siblings, nieces, and nephew know how much I love them. Have a great week, and don't have too much fun celebrating Mom's birthday! I know how crazy those birthday parties can get!

-Love, Elder Crook