Staying in Chula Vista

I am staying in Chula Vista for another 6 weeks, and Elder W is getting transferred. So. I'm at a toss up. I was excited to get a new companion, but now that I think about it, I have the great responsibility for the souls of the people here in Chula all on my shoulders until my new companion gets his bearings with the people here. And now that our four investigators have been baptized, (M, M, M Jr., and M L), we are going to be teaching them the New Member Lessons, which are the same lessons that they learned as investigators, but now with the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

So I finally got the birthday package, and I am thoroughly pleased with all of the stuff I got. Thank you all so much. I've been practicing the pennywhistle a bit, but I'm not very good at it, and everyone that does the musical numbers in the Mission President Firesides always have really complex accompaniment. Oh well. Anywho, I am hoping to be able to persevere.

So, the baptism went really well, all except for the fact that M L, who is 85 years old, had to be baptized 3 times because her grandson missed a word the first two times. She was a really good sport about it, though, and she was really happy about it. At church, Bishop C gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to the family, and I had the opportunity to confirm M L and give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. First time ever, and in Spanish to boot.

The other night we talked with a man just outside our apartment complex, and he appeared to have PTSD pretty bad. We tried to talk to him about the gospel a bit, but he kept mentioning that there were too many people using religion as an excuse to kill other people. We were able to talk a bit about Jesus Christ and how he knows our pain, and then gave him a Mormon.org card.

Being a missionary is hard. But it's also easy. It's hard because I miss you all so very much, I feel quite lonely a lot of the time, and I really want to be home. But it's also easy, because I know that whether it be a good day or a bad day, that it's a day with the Lord, so it's always a good day.

I hope you all have a great week! Until next Tuesday,

-Love, Elder Crook

Senior Week

Senior Week...is finally over. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to know that I never have to go through that again. With your comment about how there were squirrels everywhere in Wisconsin, it's the same here with hummingbirds. The fact of the matter is that the plants here are constantly blooming throughout the year. And so there are hummingbirds everywhere. I've seen them perching on telephone lines, little trees, bigger trees, and they're always chirping and chattering at each other. It's quite entertaining, really.

My visit last P-day to the Ocean Beach fishing pier was a great, but nostalgic experience. Great because we got to go places, I bought a souvenir at one of the beach shops, and got to eat some pralines and cream ice cream. Nostalgic because there were seagulls everywhere, and there were several people fishing off of the pier, which is what made me feel the most nostalgic. I miss fishing. And I can understand why people want to live close to the beach. It's beautiful. However, I miss the mountains and rivers more.

This last Saturday and Sunday were spent for the most part at the stake center watching conference. We spent all of Saturday there, and we went to Bishop C's house for rhubarb pie and ice cream before Priesthood, since Saturday was HIS birthday. Then, on Sunday, we watched the sessions, had M L's interview, and she had to meet with one of the Presidency of the mission. She passed her interview. Then we went to the L's house, and had my birthday dinner there. They are the Chilean family that I have a hard time understanding. They drop the "s" off of several of their words, so it confuses my simplistic mind. But, we had grilled chicken, carne asada, shrimp alfredo fettuccine, and afterward had cake. Apparently Sister L has done several birthday dinners for many missionaries in the past, so she was ecstatic to be able to cook some food for us. After that, we visited J and M, a couple that is investigating the church after a near-divorce experience. They got really close to divorce, but were able to reconcile and save their family. And now they're looking for a strong religious base for their family.

This last week was "Senior week", which is when the missionary in training is supposed to take over all planning situations, setting appointments, coordinating with the Bishop, and teaching lessons, to give the trainee a taste of what it will be like for the first couple of weeks being a trainer for another missionary. 

Dad, I want you to know that I took your advice to heart. "The biting of the tongue is sometimes better than the gift of tongues." Thank you for that. I feel that I was able to retain the Spirit as I stayed silent. And as I've been reading the scriptures, I've been noticing a lot of shadows and types of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon. Especially Alma and Amulek.

Anywho, I have no idea what we're doing for P-day today, but it sounds like we're going to thrift stores to look for miscellaneous things to buy. I have no idea what I'll find, but I'm kinda hoping to find a random "sai" knife like in Napoleon Dynamite.

I don't know whether Elder W or I am being transferred next week, but I'll be sure to let you both know in my email next week.

-Love, Elder Crook

Happy Birthday to me!

It's October. And it still looks like summer here. Depending on where I go after this transfer, I may end up in a hot place. The Imperial Valley is a place where it is always above 80 degrees in the winter. And in the summer, it's always above 90, even at night. And during the day, it usually hits 115 or 120.

 

We got to eat with a Chilean couple last night, the L's. We ate what I term "The Cuatro Carnes", but I have no idea what the name is. It had some polish sausage, chicken, beef, and shrimp all cooked together with basil, bay leaf, tomatoes, and onions. It was DELICIOUS. I really wish I could get some recipes to bring home, but for some reason Spanish people don't want to give their recipes to other people.

 

The other day, we went to contact this potential investigator on our list, and ended up talking to this guy named E. He's about 82, and looks like Fred Flintstone. He sat there and cracked jokes at us for a bit, which we enjoyed, and then as we were about to leave, he told us that if we ever needed a place to stay, that we were always welcome. We talked to him a bit about our purpose as missionaries, and taught a bit about the restoration. We're hoping to send the English elders over to him. He did seem quite lonely.

 

And the other day, we had exchanges with the Zone leaders. I got to go to Imperial Beach, which is a quarter mile from the border, and spent my day with Elder B. DANG Tijuana looks dirty. Even from a quarter mile it just looked...filthy. But at night it's really pretty. They have a lot more lights on than we do at night. Anywho, we started out our day with a couple of teenagers that are learning about the gospel, read the scriptures with them, and went on our way. We then tried contacting some investigators, to no avail, and then we ran into C and M. M was moving to a new house, and C, her brother, was there as well. They both recognized us and waved us over. I assumed they were members, but apparently not. They were former investigators that the missionaries stopped visiting a while back. We offered our services, and spent about two hours helping them move. When the work was done, we successfully snagged a return appointment with dinner included. After that we went and met with G W. He's from Utah, he's a redhead, and he's got a mullet. He just sat there and talked with us for a bit about his work, his grandson, his family, and missionaries that visited him in Utah. He said to come back in a week or so. And THEN...we went to meet Elder T's and Elder B's investigators...from Haiti. They speak only French and Spanish, so we taught a lesson about Prophets with them. Another couple of their investigators were there, so we had a big lesson. We talked a little bit, and F, the Haitian guy, pretty much taught the lesson. He's a painter. And he's painted the temple. And the baptism of Jesus. Full-size canvas. He's INSANE. We just said a little bit about how important prophets are, and then F took over. They are SO BLACK, I LOVE IT. He's got the black attitude with the French accent while speaking Spanish. I really enjoyed that lesson. And then when I mentioned it to Bishop C, he said,"Oh. So it's a "Haitian-ing" of the work." And he started cracking up about that.

 

So. This week is senior week. This week, I have to plan everything, set all the appointments, and plan all the lessons. I'm planning on taking us into the eastern part of our area to try contacting more investigators.

 

And I'll be sure to hum a little happy birthday song to myself on Sunday. :-)

 

Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

And an uncle again!

Dear Everyone,

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-Elder Crook

I'm an uncle again

So. I'm an uncle. Again. And it's a girl. Again. And she's as cute as a jelly-bean. Again. Would've been cool to have been born on Friday the 13th. But oh well. I'm betting you're all going to watch the Psych Episode called Tuesday the 17th today, yeah? Anywho, this last week has been pretty hectic for what it's worth. On Wednesday last week, we did a missionary blitz in another area. A blitz is where another companionship goes into another area to do a great big search for people to teach. We went to an apartment complex nicknamed "The Catacombs". And indeed they were correctly named. We tracted, knocked on doors, met a muslim, and found some great people for the other Elders to teach. That, and I've been eating tons of different foods this week, from flautas, and abondigas (mexican meatballs), to pasole and tomales. We had tomales de maiz y carne, (corn and beef), and it was for the Dia de Indepencia de Mexico. Aparently they ring church-bells all over Mexico and have the people shout "Viva Mexico! Viva al Hidalgo! Viva la Indepencia!" We had our own little ward celebration with tons of food, a program with the Primary, Youth Program, and some adult members who all danced. The primary did the dance of the viejitos, the youth did the mexican hat dance, and the adults did this great big culturally accurate dance that was...quite amazing, to be honest. Oh yeah, and we got pulled over by a cop yesterday afternoon. He pulls up, rolls down his window and says,"Are you two allowed to walk side by side on this sidewalk?" And right then we knew he was a member. His name was R W. We talked with him for about a half hour, and all of the kids at the junior high across the street were waving at us. We're not sure why, but we think it was because of us talking to a cop. I dunno. But we talked about family history with him, missionary work, and he told us a great story about missionary work that he did.

 

And I can't even tell you how excited I am for General Conference. It's like the superbowl for missionaries. 

 

And the family name has been getting famous out here. First of all, it's hard for Mexicans to pronounce because of the double 'o' in Crook. They pronounce it "Crawk", "Craouk", or "Kruk". And then they ask what it means, and I say "It means ladron." Ladron means robber, or theif. So when they find that out, they get all giggly and make jokes about it, which I in turn give them jokes about it. So people here have been having a great time with our last name.

 

 Have a great week!

First baptism

The San Diego temple was absolutely amazing. And I won't be able to go until the beginning of December. I've got quite a few pictures of the temple, some of which were during sunset. I'll be sending my SD card in the mail today. And yes, I sent the postcards. I thought they would have made it by now. Hmm...oh well. Hope they actually get there. They were some good postcards. And I never got my letters from last week because our zone leaders didn't want to drive over to our apartment to give the mail to us. So I will be getting double of everything this week.

And as far as letters being returned to me, I have no idea why. It says the postage is payed for, says that it arrived in a city near the location, and then it has the "return to sender" stamp. It hasn't happened since I got here to San Diego, but it happened a ton in the MTC, and I'm not sure why. In fact, I got HALF a letter back one time. That's right. Half. The mailing machinery must have ripped the letter perfectly so that the return address would be visible, but not the sending address. So yeah.

The baptism went really well! I didn't really contribute all that much to it, though. Since Elder W was the one who found A, he pretty much took over for the baptism. And A wanted him to be the one to baptize her, even after telling her that it was preferrable for a member to do it, so he was pretty proud of that. She is one of the elect. I can see in her eyes the recognition that this church really is His church. When she received the Holy Ghost she sat on the chair for a minute just looking at the floor. I could tell that she was sensing the difference between the presence and the Gift. Our next baptism is on the 28 of September. We are hoping that G will be able to be ready for that date, and M and M have decided that they want to have their son taught and baptized with them, so their baptismal date is also the 28 of September. M and M are solid and practically guaranteed to be baptized, but their son has a bit of ADHD, and so he has a bit of a hard time listening to the lessons. I don't think he sees the importance of what we're teaching. Then again, he's 11. So for the most part, we're counting on M and M to do the most for him as far as helping him gain a testimony.

Quick question, how was the marching band and the Madrigals in the Peach Days parade? I never heard about how that went. AND I REALLY WANT TO KNOW. I'm DYING without any instruments in my possession. President has allowed certain instruments in the mission, such as flutes, violins, guitars and such. Would it be possible to send me my ocarina? It should be in my room in my drawers. Or a pennywhistle would be fantastic. I would LOVE a pennywhistle. I just hate not being able to play an instrument of sorts. I can only play a couple of hymns (much to my surprise that I could actually play them), but I don't have a piano in my apartment. Only at the chapel.

And it's true. Fruit here...is bleh. The grapes, oranges, avocados, lemons, and limes are fantastic. I love how fresh they are. But the peaches, tomatoes, watermelons, and plums are...meh. The watermelons are really bland here. I was surprised.

In answer to one of Dad's questions, I have not felt any earthquakes since I've been here. I heard that the most earthquakes happen out in the Imperial Valley, which is practically its own mission. That, and it's blazing hot there. In the summer, it hits around 130 in the daytime, and 90 at night. Then in the winter, it's 100 in the day, and 80 or so at night. So maybe I'll get sent there sometime in my mission.

Anywho, this last week was quite interesting. We've had temperatures here of over 100 degrees, and the humidity just kills me. The work has been fluctuating. We've lost a couple of great investigators, and we're not sure why. Both were miracles. All of a sudden, they've stopped texting us, and they won't answer our phone calls. We're not sure what happened. But we have been able to find a good number of new contacts to go teach. One is convinced that Mary the mother of Jesus had no other biological children. Another actually used to live in Payson, Utah, and is a less active member. And one has been contacted by missionaries several times; it sounded like more than 10 companionships. But other than that, we had the baptism, so we didn't have many teaching appointments on the day of. Then we finally found an investigator/referral that we've been trying to meet for over a month. We finally met with her and her husband. Their story is remarkable. They have been going through a horrible marital separation situation for the last 6 months. Custody battles, insults, harsh words, everything. Then, just last week, they reconciled with a lot of apologizing and crying, and they are back together to save their marriage. The husband was thoroughly impressed by his uncle who joined the church, and how the church ultimately changed his life. He wants to know everything about this church, because of how profoundly it changed his uncle. And the wife wants to find a stable, family based religion to raise their daughter in, as well as to find good fellowship. We shared with them some wisdom from the scriptures, and I felt prompted to say a little bit about the parable of the Prodigal Son, in reference to "A ring, a robe, and a fatted calf" by Jefferey R. Holland, which you sent to me. They were deeply touched by the Spirit, and both had tears in their eyes. They were absolutely willing to have us over again, and even to feed us if we could do that.

And something that I found in the scriptures was the significance of the Holy Ghost in our lives. Not as our comforter and guide, but as the Purifier of our souls. To be born of water is to make the covenant with the Lord which cleanses us of our sins, and represents the death and resurrection of Christ. To be born of the Spirit, is something entirely different. By partaking of the sacrament with a broken heart and contrite spirit, the Holy Ghost, by spiritual fire, cleanses us again of the sins that we had in that week. The Holy Ghost is how we are baptized every time we take the sacrament, and he effectuates the purification of our souls. I had never noticed that before. And after combing through first and second Nephi, I've been finding so many profecies and references to our day and time, as well as the Second Coming of the Lord. And I also found that the thing that will burn the wicked in the Second Coming is the actual presence of Jesus Christ. The righteous will be transfigured to endure His glory, and the wicked will burn in his presence. THAT, and in an Isaiah verse, it said that the Lord would protect his people Zion, even unto the consuming of their enemies by fire. So. That's my little spiritual tidbit that I found this week.

-Love, Elder Crook

Not much time to write!

I told President C about Dad and he serving the same mission at the same time, and he got a thoughtful look on his face, and said that he remembered an Elder Crook, and that he was a good, hard-working missionary.

 

And I actually got to try mole this past Sunday. It was really good. It didn't taste like chocolate, because the member that made it said she hated really chocolatey mole. So instead, it was more of a Sweet'n'Smokey chicken that vaguely tasted like chocolate. And it was spicy, which was a weird taste with the chocolate.

 

And yes, I get to stay in Chula Vista for another transfer, so I get to see the baptisms of our investigators. And Elder W's staying, too.

The weather here is fantastic, although sometimes when it gets above 90 degrees, it can become sweltering. I've been sweating profusely the last three or four days because of how hot and humid it has been.

 

It's been a challenge to find good foods to eat with the small budget of a missionary. I only get $137 a month to buy all my food, soap, laundry detergent, pay for dryer/washing machine, and so forth, so I have been eating pretty cheap foods and frozen dinners since I've been here. 

 

I went to the temple today, and finally saw the new temple endowment movie. It's FANTASTIC! I still can't get over how much better this movie is from the last one. The acting is so much better, and the animation for the creation of the earth was so realistic, it blew my mind!

 

We had a great miracle this week, though. We met this woman two weeks ago, and were only able to talk a bit and pray for her sick husband because she was distraught and needed to get home to help her husband. So we prayed, and parted ways. Just yesterday, we ran into her again, and this time we had a more fruitful discussion. We talked about the Gospel with her, and how each individual point is able to bless our lives. (Faith, repentance, baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). She then mentioned something about how the Bible can't be the only book out there, and how there must be more than just the Bible. We then gave her a Book of Mormon, and explained how it was a record of the people here in the America's, and that it bore testimony of Jesus Christ, etc, etc. She accepted it happily, and said that she would definitely read it. We have never had something like that happen before, so it was awesome! We're having a couple of investigators getting baptized in the next few weeks, one of which is this Saturday. On top of that, we've given blessings of healing and comfort that have manifested themselves through the power of the priesthood.