Investigators and Spring Break

I will be SO happy when I can stay up to see the lunar eclipses. It's too bad that THE NEXT FOUR WILL HAPPEN DURING MY MISSION. (angry black smoke fuming from my nose). But oh well. All the moon does is turn red. I mean, that's normal, right?....ahem.

We usually go to the mission office to get mail with the zone leaders since they're in our district. So this morning, we did just that. Elder H wanted to get some good pictures of the boulder-hills, so he took pictures of a lot of stuff as we drove. I've been getting him to loosen up, but slowly. I've gotten a bunch of talks off of lds.org and we've been listening to them every night right before bed. I dunno. He's feeling a bit of homesickness, (just like I did), and so I've been trying to get him to use some of the things that eased my stress and homesickness. I've already told him that he'll have to find his personal releases 'n stuff, so he's kind of trying everything out right now.

This last week was a pretty rough one. We had a very large chunk of time almost every day where we had nothing to do. Elder H got to see the harder side of missionary work in a very vivid way. It's spring break, and it started last Wednesday, and doesn't end until next Monday, the day after Easter. So first of all, a lot of our investigators are gone, and we're pretty sure that it's for spring break, and on top of that, it's "La Semana Santa" or "The Holy Week", and that's when all of the Catholics actually go to church. It's pretty much Easter and Christmas that they go, so we won't be having much success with talking to Catholics this week. However, on the better flipside, the Church put out a new video on Mormon.org called "Because of Him", and it's completely geared towards the fact that Christ lives, and that the Resurrection was something that really happened. It's pretty good, and we're supposed to show it to all of our members this week, so that they can use it to invite their friends to meet the missionaries.

We were finally able to teach G, our neighbor, for the second time. We'd been trying to find him at home, but he kept getting called in unexpectedly to work at the Nuevo Grill, where he works. But this time, we found him. He quickly let us in, a smile on his face, and we sat down. They were watching Avatar, but he quickly turned it off and turned his whole attention to us. We taught the lesson in such a way that he can have no doubt that we hold Jesus Christ as our Leader, Savior, Redeemer, and King. We emphasized the power of Christ's Atonement, and taught G about how he can be completely clean of the things he's done that are contrary to the laws of heaven, (but in a much simpler sense). We gave him the Book of Mormon, and explained that by reading and praying, that his horrible nightmares of hell would go away. (He'd been having these nightmares for quite awhile, and in one of them, he said the devil tried to take him.) We said that we would like to explain where the Book of Mormon comes from, and why it's so important. We have an appointment this Thursday with him. GAAAH I'm so excited.

M is doing well. We haven't seen him since we gave him the baptismal invitation. (Pretty sure it's spring break.) We instead took J, our member that's 20, and went to see some people. We had a solid lesson with one of our less-active members.

We haven't seen G and M in a while, because they've been quite elusive. We keep stopping by around the time that they're home and free, but they haven't been there for the last week. We're going over tomorrow to try again.

Other than that, no other progressing investigators. The others just kind of sit and listen. They're kind of like a platypus. They don't do much.

Well. That's about all that's happened this week. Have a happy Easter!

-Love, Elder Crook

First week as a trainer

My new companion is Elder H, he's from Quad Cities, Illinois, and he's about as fresh as a lemon. He's pretty quiet, a little socially shy/awkward, but he's got the conviction and heart for the work. This next week I'll start speaking more Spanish to him to get him more exposed to it. On top of that, I'm letting him take the reins a lot earlier than my trainer did, because I want him to be ready to train at 6 weeks. There have been missionaries that train after 6 weeks in the mission. Right now, I just need to help him loosen up and feel comfortable with talking to people. Granted, I'm still not completely comfortable, but I can do it without flinching or hesitating, so that's where I want him to be very soon. He's very passive, and doesn't like to make decisions, yet that's a very key part of missionary work. Making direct, specific decisions quickly. I really hope that as I put him on the spot, that he'll take it and run with it.

We did indeed watch General Conference, here in the Ramona chapel. They had a pretty old projector, so the picture was a bit off, but we heard everything that they said. Last conference, I wasn't particularly impressed with a lot of the talks given. I didn't feel like I could directly apply them to myself as perfectly as this time around. This conference, I was drinking it in, as though I had my face in a big barrel of living water. I loved every single talk, even the shorter talks by the members of the quorum of the seventy. It was over way too soon. I wish we could sit around and listen to 6 hours a day for 6 days a week. But alas, that would be way too many talks and choral pieces for those people to do. And as a missionary, we have access (kind of) to getting an Ensign. I was hoping that this apartment in Ramona had more copies of the Ensign, but alas, it has very few.

This week, we added a guy named G. We had just finished up Elder H's first night in the field, and we walked into our apartment. 10-15 seconds later, we hear a knock at OUR door. Believe me, 9 months and that's the first time anyone has knocked on my door. We answered, and it was our next-door neighbor, G. He's about 21, and he wanted to know if he could talk to us. We stepped out, and he began to explain that he wanted to give up drinking, smoking, and drug dealing to come unto Christ. He distinctly said "I don't want to become a Mormon. I just want to find Christ." Having gotten that a lot, I replied that we don't invite people to become Mormon. We invite them to come unto Christ. He told us that he'd had many horrible dreams in the which he thought he saw the devil and hell, waiting to take him away. He said that he would do anything to get away from that. We set an appointment with him, and went back into our apartment. We haven't seen him yet, but when we do, we'll talk to him about how to be rid of his sins and how he can be clean and free through Christ's atonement.

Along with that, we managed to get one of our investigators with a baptismal date. His name is D, and he's about 12 years old. His sister is a recent convert to the church, but he really doesn't have any church support from his family. He asked his mom if he could get baptized, and she said that she didn't care. We taught him how the gospel of Jesus Christ can make us happy in this life, and the next, and Elder H invited him to be baptized. We'll be working for the 26th of April.

Other than that, we really haven't had much happen in our area. We've been working hard, but we haven't had hardly any success in finding new people to teach except for G. Tender mercies, no?

Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

My first greenie

Elder V is getting transferred, and it's not an April Fool’s joke. I'm going to be training a new Elder as the district leader, and to be honest, I'm scared out of my mind. Everyone that I've talked to says that they hated their trainer, and I really don't want that to be the case with me and my trainee. I want him to have a great time and actually like the time that we'll have together. I'm also really nervous because this area is really hard for finding investigators. I just hope that my trainee doesn't get bummed out or anything.

So. Last Tuesday, after I finished writing you, one of the Sister Missionaries got hit in the head with a soccer ball pretty hard. She was fine for about 5 minutes, and then began to hyperventilate and went into shock. I was calm for about 30 seconds, and then I realized that because I was an Elder and she was a Sister, I couldn't help at all. I had to talk the other Sisters through the procedures for helping someone in shock, and we Elders gave her a blessing. I got a bit nervous, to say the least. Anywho, we took her to the urgent care here in Ramona, and they calmed her down enough to send her home. The next morning, that Sister threw up, which was a symptom that the urgent care warned us about. They were going to call 911, but we stopped them (since an ambulance ride can cost upward of $5000), and the Sisters drove her down to Poway. They CAT scanned her, and she had a minor concussion, and a bit of hearing loss from the impact. Since that day, (Wednesday), it has been drama and irritation with her. She has said and done some things that were very wrong, all on account of "her concussion", and so we had to talk to President C. She's getting transferred, so I don't have to worry about her anymore.

We haven't been able to go see M again since our lesson with him last Monday. We'll be setting an appointment soon through J. On the other hand, this less-active member, Jn, has progressed exponentially. Before I got here, he would come maybe once or twice a month, since he played soccer on Sundays, wouldn't pay tithing, and drank coffee. He hasn't missed a Sunday since I got here, and because of a knee injury, he can't play soccer anymore. He's been at home recovering for about 3 weeks, and just the other day, he told us something pretty amazing. When I got here, he didn't really want to go to the temple, because he felt that too many people were prejudiced towards those who haven't been through the temple yet, and he didn't want to become one of those prejudiced people. The other day, however, he told us that he now wanted to go to the temple. He said he'd been reading the Book of Mormon, and that he had begun to understand the Gospel in a new way. He whipped out several scriptures and explained why he liked them, and blew our minds. He then told us of a dream that he had before his baptism, and how he knew that God wanted him to go to the temple. So even though we haven't had much of a success with any investigators, we have indeed helped at least one person to progress.

Oh yeah. My arm swelled up on Sunday, and I'm not exactly sure why. I woke up, my arm felt a bit tender, and during the day, it just ballooned around my elbow. I took some Ibuprofen and Benadryl, but it really didn't do much. We checked to make sure that it wasn't a spider bite or anything, and there was no bite mark. Then, we checked for a rash, a scratch, anything that might make me swell up. Nothing. Couldn't find anything. So I called the mission doctor, told her the symptoms, and she says "Well that's weird. I don't know what to do." So she had me call a specialist who is a senior missionary in another mission, and I'll hopefully be able to meet with him soon to get the swelling down. Until then, I don't have to work out (because it could inflame the swelling), so I'm a happy camper. :D

I've finally finished the Old Testament, and have just begun the New Testament. There are a lot of things that I never knew about that were in the OT. Several scriptures referenced the latter days, some the temple, others the restoration, and many of the life and ministry of Christ. I really wish that we had the perfect translation, though. Sometimes, the translation was absolutely horrible, and the JST made it completely clear.

Well, I'm still completely nervous about getting a new companion, not even to mention the fact that he's a greenie. I just don't want to cause him to hate me for the mistakes that I'll probably make. Most of all, I just hope that he's humble and willing to learn.

Not much else to report this week. Have a good week!

-Love, Elder Crook

Member referral

This last Saturday, a missionary came home to his family here in Ramona. His parents threw a big Mexican fiesta with lots of food, but thankfully, no Mexican music. They invited us over because the other Elders live at their house, and they didn't want us to feel left out. We stayed there for a bit, and then we went to an appointment.

Just yesterday, we had a pretty great miracle, one of the kinds of miracles that I had never had on my mission until yesterday. This guy, J, was extremely less-active for a very long time until about 6 months ago. He was involved in drugs, drinking, and not the best sorts of friends. He got to a point so low, that he cried out in prayer to the Lord, and he had such a strong answer, that he became completely active once again. He's about 21 years old, and he'd been less active since he was 15. Yesterday, he took us out for lunch, and afterwards, we went to visit this less-active lady who takes care of her disabled daughter and her 99 year old mother. She wasn't home, so we asked J if we could visit one of his friends that he had mentioned a while back. He said that was a great idea, and we went to this guy's house. His mom let us in, and we found him sitting there eating a breakfast burrito. He was a nice guy, and quickly warmed up to us, especially since he and J are best buds. We taught him the Restoration, and J bore a really strong personal testimony of his own experience. It was a really powerful testimony. Afterward, J offered M a ride to his chiropractor appointment, which is in El Cajon, about 25 miles south. We got a text from J later in the day that they were going to the Mormon Battalion. M loved it, and is looking forward to our next lesson with him next week. This is the first member-referred investigator that I've received on my mission. So. Pretty big miracle.

Sorry I don't have much to say this week. Not much has happened. We look, we walk, we walk, we look. Every day. Till next week.

-Love, Elder Crook

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