Potato Chip Rock

Dear Mom, and all others reading,

Happy Day After St. Patrick's Day! We actually didn't do anything special yesterday for St. Patrick's day, specifically. Yet we were able to do service for a guy moving out to Oklahoma and for a member here in our area. The guy that we helped is named R. He's in his late 40's, long hair (down to the middle of his back), interesting mustache, potbelly, and a love for Star Wars. I was wearing my new Millenium Falcon t-shirt, so he was quite happy with that. He has three cats, and so when we began moving everything, cat hair filled the air, and Elder I's allergies acted up. His apartment smelled like cats, incense, and tobacco smoke. As we moved his stuff, we found a massive pile of swords and movie replica battle axes. So that was awesome. He had a gaming PC with the G15 keyboard (specifically for World of Warcraft), a gaming mouse, and a high sensitivity joystick for certain RPG's. He had some pretty colorful language when he accidentally broke his fiber optic cable and microwave dish. But, it was still a good chance for service. Later that night, we just helped Hermana F to carry some heavy boards and metal framing up to her apartment. She takes care of her extremely active 99 year old mother, and takes care of her disabled daughter as well, so she needed a bit of help from us.

We had a lesson with our investigators, G and M. They're both about 25 years old and have a son. Luckily they're married. G's brother is a recent convert in one of the English wards, and his conversion story is solid. He was severely addicted to drugs, and one day he had a panic attack. He said that the missionaries had told him about prayer, and being in the panic attack, he prayed with all his might that the Lord would help him. He said that when he finished the prayer, his body calmed down almost instantly, and he felt a warm, calm peace come over him. He said that after that, he knew that those missionaries had told him the truth, and he hunted them down. Anywho, back from the sidestory, we taught the Plan of Salvation to G and M. They both had good questions, and towards the end, the Spirit came down like a mudslide. It was a fantastic lesson. Then, just the other day on Saturday, we had a lesson again, and after reviewing a bit of what we'd taught about the Plan, G went off on some tangent, and told us that if we wanted to talk about the Bible and God, that he was fine with that. He repeated himself about 4 more times. Then, after a bit of discussion, we got onto baptism. He told us that the reason children are baptized is because they are born in sin. Elder V and I looked at each other in exasperation, and out of nowhere, M explains to him about the reason that children aren't baptized, and mentions how people must become as little children to enter the Kingdom of God. She then also asked him about what happens to the babies that aren't baptized. Then, trying to defend his Catholic side, he said "Surely they must be saved as well, right?". She shut him down and asked why they would need to be baptized if they would be saved without it. Elder V and I just sat there with stunned looks on our faces. M: Solid investigator. G: Still needs work.

Potato Chip Rock, Ramona, California

Today, we went hiking up Mount Woodson at 10 AM this morning instead of emailing. It was a pretty steep hike, but not nearly as bad as that hike over by Sardine Canyon. Colesville Peak, I think? I can't remember. My memory is failing me. Anywho, we got up to the top, taking pictures at most of the cool rocks that we came across. E, a recent convert, came with us and showed us some of the cooler rocks to climb. Then, we finally reached the top, and for the most part, the view was pretty good. It was just a bit blurry because of the smog, though. After walking just a bit further, we spotted Potato Chip Rock. Now, the rock is solid enough for people to climb on it to take pictures, and there was a HUGE line of people waiting to take pictures. Since we missionaries are on a tight schedule, the other Elders didn't want to wait to take a picture. So, I took a picture of the rock to let you all know what it looks like. Keep in mind that this rock is hanging out above a 30-40 foot drop, so it's pretty sketchy. Right after we finished the hike, we went to E's house, and he helped us to work out. The other three Elders in the district are all about getting in shape before going home, so they're obsessing over lifting weights. So, by majority vote, I got to work out with them. They're all heavyweight guys with beefy arms 'n stuff, and I'm a skinny, lanky dude with no muscles. The funny thing is that I was lifting the exact same weights as they were.

OOH. Right. I sang in an ensemble at the Mission President fireside this Sunday at the Mission Valley building. I got to see some familiar faces from Chula Vista there, so it was a pretty good experience. We sang "Senor, te necesito", and one of the sisters played the ukelele.

Other than that, we haven't really had much happen to us. We listened to a talk called "They Saw Our Day", and the talk is by a man, (member of the Church), who investigated prophecies from several different cultures. He starts with the Native American Indians, and finds out that they have several prophecies about a white God that came and visited them, and while he was with them, he taught them how to live a good life, and return to heaven. Along with that, this white God gave them signs so that they would know when he was about to come again. Then, this guy that's investigating finds out that there are stone tablets that these Indians have that have prophecies written on them, and that there are three other sets around the world. That's the gist, but the prophecies are pretty amazing.

Well, I'm out of things to write about. Until next week.

-Elder Crook

Learning and testifying

Things here are still going pretty slow. Last Wednesday, we had Zone Meeting, and after that, we tried to visit a lot of people, but nobody was home, or they just didn't answer the door. We heard voices on a couple of doors, so we were a little discouraged. On Thursday, the Zone Leaders were on exchanges with two other English companionships. One ZL went with one companionship, the other ZL with the other companionship. While on exchanges, one of the ZL's had a seizure, and had to be taken to the hospital. We had the ZL's car for the day, and since the one who had the seizure was in an ambulance, we went with the other ZL to the hospital. We got there around 4:00, and didn't leave the hospital until 8:45 or so. After that, me and Elder V were exhausted from sitting, and pacing, and stretching, and exercising, and sitting. We all went to In-n-Out Burger for dinner, and those were some GOOD burgers, lemme tell ya. The Zone Leader who had the seizure is just fine, and is on medications to prevent any more seizures.

On Friday, we went to visit this member who just recently went less-active and has decided to not go to church anymore. He had explained to us his reasons for not wanting to go back to church in a couple of previous appointments the week before. Apparently he got offended by some of the things that the Branch Presidency was doing, began to judge them and say that they had been doing certain things for selfish reasons, etc. During this visit, I wanted to talk about redemption, and what it means to us. After reading the scripture, and asking him what redemption was to him, he went off on this same story of why he doesn't want to come to church. Honestly, I was sick of his excuses. I prayed that the Lord would bless me with the knowledge and power of the Spirit to be able to help him to forgive his leaders. After that, I felt the Spirit practically slapping me across the face on what I should say, and how I should say it. I don't think I've ever felt the Spirit telling me to do something more strongly than it did then. I began to talk, sharing with him my personal experiences and understanding. Then, the Spirit guided my words towards forgiveness, and how it liberates us when we receive it from the Lord, as well as when we give it to those who have offended us. Elder V said that he felt the Spirit so strongly as I was testifying. Yet when I finished bearing my testimony, this man just shrugged it off like nothing. I don't know what else we could have done. I put my all into that testimony, and it wasn't enough, I guess.

After that, on Saturday, we cleaned the Zone Leaders' car with them, and cleaned a member's car as well. On Sunday, church as normal, and after that, we had a lesson with a recent convert who is planning to go on a mission. Elder V and I both talked to him about the importance of a mission, and testified of how much he would grow. After that, he told us that he now understands the importance of a mission. Yesterday, we had Zone Conference, and President C taught us quite a bit about the Book of Mormon. He pulled out this massive book called "Mormon's Codex". In it, there are over 400 physical truths that testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. He gave us 19 of those points, all of which blew our minds. My favorite was the Narrative of Zozimus. I don't know if it's on Google or something, but it's this vision about a family that leaves Jerusalem, journeys through the wilderness, builds a ship, crosses the ocean, arrives at a land of promised blessings, and sets up a civilization. Then the civilization splits into 2, grows, spreads, and eventually, both are almost eliminated by catastrophic and cataclysmic natural disasters. Then, later on, one of the two parts of this civilization is killed off by the other. Sounds pretty familiar, eh?

And I learned something really cool about revelation. Revelation is "revealing" something, or "to be revealed". To reveal it, it had to have been covered by something, right? When we came to earth, the veil was placed upon our minds, and our understanding of the Kingdom of God was covered. When we learn a gospel truth, or the Spirit reveals it to us, the Spirit merely removes the veil from that part of our mind, and we understand that truth. Thus when the Lord said in the Book of Mormon that "those who receive that portion of my word shall receive the greater portion, and those who reject my word shall have even that which they have taken away from them". When we read the scriptures, the Spirit is able to remove the veil and teach us. But when we put off reading the scriptures or learning about the Lord, more of the veil is placed upon our minds, and we understand even less. We already know these truths, for we learned them in the premortal life. We are merely relearning, or having revealed that which we already know.

Anywho, I really don't have much more than that. We're still searching for investigators, we're constantly walking, and we're working our soles (souls) to the bone.

Talk to you next week!

-Love, Elder Crook

Ramona CA

Ramona is an interesting town, indeed. There are three really strong English wards that make up 15% of the city, so tracting isn't a very successful option for us. As Elder Ballard has told us, we have to find investigators through our own efforts as well as through the members. Some of the members have burnt out their friends in trying to do the missionary work, and other members just don't give us anything, nor do they make the effort to help us. So with our area that's made up of one street and a bunch of scattered farms, we find people through street contacting (which really doesn't work), and through noticing where Hispanic people go, and then we go knock on their door. So it's a form of tracting, yet we aren't selecting a street to knock on all of the doors. Needless to say, it's really hard to find investigators here. There's an air mail field here, and there are single and double engine planes flying around all the time. To get to investigators houses, we take shortcuts through big fields all the time.

Last Thursday, we got hit by a rain storm. Turns out fasting works. Sadly, we just weren't prepared for the abundance of rain that the Lord sent. Elder V and I were walking around doing our proselyting with our raincoats AND umbrellas, and we were still getting really wet. Then, out of nowhere, as we were walking down the main highway, the wind picked up like crazy, and the rain started coming down in torrents. We ran over to a couple of stores by the road to get out of the rain, and we watched as the road and parking lots filled with water. The rivers in the gutters extended from the sidewalk out into the street about 5 feet. We couldn't get to our apartment, so we went and had dinner at Wendy's. I hate Wendy's. UGH. Anywho, as I before mentioned, we go through fields to get to appointments. So we decided to give it a try, even with the rain. Shouldn't have done that. Elder V got ankle deep in mud, and we had to wash his shoes in the gutter. Since that day, there have been frogs everywhere in those fields. I actually managed to catch three of them while we were out proselyting. Don't worry, Mom, I let them go free.

Today, we went to the temple. We were hoping to see the latest temple video, but they played the first new one instead. So we were all a little bit bummed out, but we still had a very good temple visit. I don't think the other Elders appreciated being in the temple as much as I did. We spent less than 5 minutes in the Celestial room. Thankfully, I was able to receive some good revelation before we left.

I really feel alone here. Not because of the fact that I don't know many people here, but rather it's because I feel isolated by my personality and values. The other Elders in the district, including my companion, have crude senses of humor, and make jokes and do things that I personally feel are not in agreement with what I feel is appropriate as representatives of Christ. But that's just me. I'm planning on addressing it indirectly through teaching good lessons in district meeting and setting the good example. I just hope that it doesn't get out of hand to the point where I have to approach it directly.

There are 8 missionaries in the district, including me, and all of them are Spanish-speaking. The branch is very proud of the fact that there are 4 pairs of missionaries, but I have a feeling that President will take one of the companionships away because of the lack of investigators and teaching in Ramona. Hopefully, if that happens, it will get the members working with us more than they have been, which hasn't been much. There's two or three main, strong, solid members that always help us out, and are always trying to give us referrals and investigators. Then the rest of the branch is sitting around not doing much. I'm hoping to be able to help the branch get up and moving.

Not much else has happened lately. I wish there were more, but life in Ramona is pretty slow.

I'll talk to you next week!

-Love, Elder Crook

District leader

As you all know, I got transferred last week. Where to? I got moved to Ramona, a little farming town just up to the north-east of San Diego. It's the furthest north in the mission. It's smaller than Brigham City, yet bigger than Willard. It has a lot of dirt roads, farms, fields, horses, cows, and tons of cats. We're surrounded by what the locals call "mountains", but they're really just hills with massive boulders all over them. Our area is pretty much just one street, (since the rest are dirt roads with farms, typically white-Americans), and we're walking. The English wards around here are booming with the member missionary work, and are having several baptisms. The Spanish branch makes up about 80 members total with about 50 active members. The branch Presidency and ward mission leader are white except for the second counselor in the Presidency. From what I've heard, the member missionary work isn't very strong in the ward, so I'm hoping to take an idea to the stake president to see if we can get things moving. Oh. Right. I've been called as district leader, by the way. Just thought you oughta know.

My companion is Elder V, and he's from Victoria Island up in Canada. It's right next to Vancouver. He's a great missionary, although he had a rough spot in the middle of his mission with an extremely disobedient companion. He's become extremely obedient since then, but he still feels bad about what happened in the past. He says that all of his cousins, uncles, aunts, and siblings are all less-active or inactive, and he says that he's got a lot of work to do when he gets home. The other two Elders are the Zone leaders, Elders I and N. All of the missionaries in the district have been out longer than I have, not to mention the other Elders are Zone leaders. So being a district leader here will be an interesting experience. All of the other Elders have been out for 20 months, so they're already talking trunky. They've been doing that for days.

Elder T is still down in Chula Vista with a trainee, and he's the new district leader. He's got a handful down there. But I think he'll do well.

For the last couple of days, we've been visiting all of the people in our area that we know, and so I've gotten to know a couple of people. Most of the people I've met are actually NOT from Tijuana, (for the first time in my mission). Most of them are actually from Guadalajara, where they have a lot of mariachi bands. And every morning for morning exercise, we go to this park in the city and play a little bit of rugby. It's been pretty fun.

I don't really have much else to talk about. We've been working and working, but there's really not much to be done here since it's all so small. Today, we were talking about going to see Potato-Chip rock, which is this giant rock that's really thin, and looks like a chip. Exciting, right? Since we're in the "mountains", we don't really have much to do on P-days except for sports and hikes.

I'm trying to think of stuff to write, but I'm coming up blank. I was reading in Alma, where Ammon goes to the Lamanites, and I noticed that he was with the Lamanitish servants for three days before the flocks were scattered. Now Ammon, being the missionary that he is, probably talked to those servants and tried to share the gospel with them for those three days. Yet they wouldn't listen. I think that he prayed to the Lord to give him a way to talk to them, and have them listen. Once the flocks were scattered, Ammon saw his opportunity to open up the missionary work. After that, he defended those servants and chopped some limbs, then got summoned to the King's presence. After that, the work started rolling. But I thought it interesting that it doesn't mention any big event in those three days before. But oh well. That's just a little tidbit that I noticed in my studies.

Let everyone know how much I love them.

-Love, Elder Crook

I'm getting transferred!

Baptism of C and J

I'm getting transferred! Where to? I'll find out tomorrow, and y'all will find out next Tuesday. And what's funny is this. For the last two or three transfers, not much has happened to our district. One missionary would leave. One would come. Not much change. This time around, Elder T is training, Elder Th is training, one of the sisters is training, and the other is getting a new companion. So four new missionaries in the ward, 3 of which will be greenies. That, and it looks like Elder T will be "death training", which means that he'll go home right after he finishes training. But I am really happy that he'll still be here to watch over J and C.

They both were baptized on Saturday. Looking back to when Elder T got here, neither of us expected that they would get baptized. And their baptism was quite under par. Only three members other than Bishop C showed up, and when the zone leaders filled the baptismal font, they did it wrong, and the water was chilly. J had just had a bit of pneumonia, so we had to blast the font with hot water for a bit. Even then, it was still cold for him. We baptized C first, and both Elder T and I were in the font to make sure everything was safe. After that, we helped J into the font. He can get around, but he's just a bit off-balance. We got him in, baptized him, then quickly got him out and dry. They both were then given the chance to bear their testimonies, and they gave the most simple, yet powerful testimonies. J's words were, "I'm so thankful to finally be baptized." On Sunday morning, I called to confirm that they were ready to come to church, and C said that J had woken up a bit sick. Both Elder T and I were on edge about that, fearing that his pneumonia had come back. Luckily, they made it to church, were confirmed members of the church, and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then as we visited them yesterday, they seemed happier and more full of joy than I've ever seen them. I love them as though they were my grandparents. They truly have "become as [little children]", and their desire is to continue learning. I'm going to miss them.

Other than that, we went around to visit a lot of the members and recent converts that I've worked with, (since we were pretty certain that I was getting transferred). I feel that maybe I've done a bit of good here in Chula Vista, and I hope that Elder T and his trainee will be able to jumpstart this area.

And when Elder T and I got stuck in the rain, the reason that I was using my emergency poncho was because it was sunny and happy during the day, so I didn't grab my raincoat. Elder T had a windbreaker/rain jacket that he had stuffed in his backpack, so he was well prepared. So don't worry. I've still got my raincoat.

As far as emailing goes, it varies from week to week. For example, last week I had around 5 missionaries write me, and I wanted to be sure that I had gotten the chance to write them. Then, as I was finishing up your email last week, the computer's time was just about out, so I ended up running out of time. THIS week, however, I have barely any emails to write or respond to, so I'll have extra time to drool on the keyboard. BLEEEEHHHHH.

At the swap meet last Tuesday, we got there, and it was set up in a drive-in theater. My first comment, "These things still exist? Cool." Then we see the ocean of tents and canopies set up for the vendors. I only bought two things, and they were both Star Wars t-shirts. The best part is that both t-shirts together would have been $26 at wholesale price. The guy that was selling them gave them both to me for $6. SAY WHAAAAAT. I was so excited. BARGAINZ. Then the rest of it was practically a gigantic yard sale, minus the manicure/pedicure booths, shoe booths, and clothes booths. I was personally hoping to find a booth that was selling machete's or something, but to no avail.

Oh yeah, and yesterday, I just had the weirdest member present lesson of my life. Basically, our investigator's soon-to-be brother-in-law from Utah comes to visit. He brings his non-member cousin that lives here in Chula Vista. Our investigator and this guy from Utah (who happens to be the ward mission leader of his ward there) proceed to teach this guy's cousin about the church, missionary work, Joseph Smith, the apostasy, the Book of Mormon, and revelation. All the while, me and Elder T are just sitting there nodding our heads. Seriously. Our INVESTIGATOR taught the lesson. Blew my mind. She (the cousin) is now thinking about having missionaries over to teach her.

Anywho, that's about all that's happened in the last while. And I'll talk to you next Tuesday! I love you all!

-Love, Elder Crook

Visitors from home

Elder Nathan Crook, Ted Davis, Maggie Davis, and Kristen Pettingill Poulsen and son.

We were at Mormon Batallion with some investigators on Saturday. We had been planning it for a while, and we had just finished the tour, when Ted Davis, his wife, and his cousin walked out of the tour just after us. Ted and I made eye contact, and were both confused, and then Ted's cousin comes at me for a hug. Naturally, I reacted in the negative, and she stopped. "Right! No hugs." And Ted, just behind her, says "Well that was awkward." We talked for a bit, and we went and panned for gold. The odds that he and I would both be at MoBat were exponentially small. That was my first visit to MoBat with investigators. Mormon Batallion (Battalion?) is in Old Town San Diego, and was supposed to be the downtown district until someone sold the beach front for really cheap way back then.

And you remember that fast that we had for the rain? Well, me and Elder T prepared ourselves for the torrential rains that the Lord would send. I had an emergency poncho in my bag, and he had his rain coat. On the Monday right after the fast, it misted a bit. Last Friday, it POURED. And all of our appointments cancelled that night. So me and Elder T were stuck out in the rain. I looked like Elder T had wrapped me up in saran wrap. We managed to stay dry, though.

And a less active girl that we've been reactivating has just gone off the deep end. For the last 3 months, we've been helping her to see her self worth, rely on the Lord, and come to church. She's done well with all three, and has made plans to go to the temple. She also made plans to move to Utah with her aunt, (because she couldn't pay rent, nor go to school, nor get around well because of a lack of transportation), and was going to attend Dixie State. She even got to the point of getting rid of her couch and other furniture items. Then, last Tuesday, she gets a text from this guy who just got baptized, and he says that he thinks she's pretty and that he likes her. She was a bit weirded out by that, so we didn't worry about it. Thursday, we stop by, and the guy is there with her. Okay. Weird. We decide to go visit her Friday night because of the rain, and he's there again. Then we find out that they're officially together and dating. They held hands for the closing prayer. Keep in mind, she was living with her boyfriend before we started teaching her, and he caused her to go less active. He also did many disrespectful things, and she was quite dramatically open about it. Yesterday, we found out that she's moving in with this guy that she's known for less than 5 days. I'm a little perturbed, to say the least.

But oh well. Other than that, we've prepared J and C to be baptized this Saturday. They're ready for it, and to answer Melissa's question, J just can't get around well because of his legs. They're fine as far as being sick 'n stuff like that.

Not much more has happened. Today we get to hear a general authority speak, and tomorrow, we get a couple extra hours of P-day, so we're going to the swap meet. HECK YES.

Tell everyone how much I love them.

Love, Elder Crook

A good week

Dear Mom, and everyone who reads, (that's a lot of people)

We had a pretty good week. The sick bug has passed over me and Elder T so far, and we're still trying to avoid catching it. There are still a lot of members that are ill and incapacitated, and there are still a few that are in the hospital still. Brother P is in an induced coma, and we haven't been able to visit J and M C for the last 3 weeks since they got moved out of our area.

Our investigators could be doing better. We only have 4 investigators that we regularly see. 2 are R and A, who are waiting for R's divorce papers to go through from his previous marriage. Once the papers go through, they can get married and baptized. The other 2 are J and C, and their only obstacle to baptism now, is health. They don't know if they'll be well enough to be baptized.

We haven't really done much this last week except for trying to find former investigators, to see if they've been prepared, and walking around on the streets trying to find investigators. We haven't had any luck with the finding formers, since all of them are quite content with their current religion. And something Elder T mentioned has stuck with me. He pointed out that every person that has been taught by missionaries is changed in a noticeable way. If they're baptized, their lives get so much better. If they deny the message of the Restored Gospel, their lives become worse in two ways. One is in a spiritual way, in the which they just go downhill spiritually. The other is their lives become much harder temporally. As we've visited these formers, I've noticed the change in their lives. They're not as happy. None of them truly appear content with their religion. And on top of that, we haven't seen ANY of the investigators that Elder B and Elder T found. We've tried to find them several times in the last week, but we haven't found any of them.

A cool story, though. We were walking down towards the southern edge of our area, trying to find a former investigator. We didn't find them, and we started walking towards an appointment. After a little ways, this guy pulls up to the curb and parks, and he's dressed in a white shirt and tie, so we think he's a member. After a moment, we realize that he's a Jehovah's Witness. He gets out of the car, pops the trunk, and hands us two bottles of water. After a moment, a group of people, dressed quite nicely, come walking up. The man we were with asks if they had any luck with the "sheep". The youngest of the group, a little 5 year-old boy, pipes up and says "No. Nobody was home today." And then he sat there and looked sad. The little boy then gestured to us, and asked the man we were with about where we had been working. The man smiled at us, and motioned in the direction that we had come. From the many impressions that I've received about JW's from previous experiences, they are people that are quite genial and kind. The bit that I wanted to get across with the JW boy, was that he's had some pretty good missionary experiences at 5 years old. Just a thought.

I hope you all have a great week! Talk to you next Tuesday!

-Love, Elder Crook