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

A Hot Week

This last week was a HOT ONE. My goodness, we've been hitting the high 90's for the last eight days, and it's quite the adventure to be biking around in that kind of heat. It's both hot and cool at the same time, since you're exercising more than just walking, yet you're going pretty fast, so the breeze helps to cool you off. And then you stop biking, and WHOOMP, the heat takes you. However, amidst the heat, we've had some pretty awesome things happen this week!

Wednesday last, we began our day with some mormon.org time, and I ended up talking to this random guy that I'm pretty sure wasn't all there in the head, but what was really funny was that he started doing an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression in the library quite loudly, and everyone turned to look at us. I just smiled and waved, and he kept doing his impression. We then went to see if we could find anyone that we could talk to. We went and met the F.'s, the DA.'s, and then backtracked to visit with Hno. C. On the way to his house, we ran into this random guy named M., and as we started talking, he asked us to sit on the curb with him. He asked if we talked about Jesus, which we affirmed that we did, and we got onto a great gospel conversation. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how God revealed His word to all nations, etc., and then M. asks us if we believe in the multi-dimension theory. I knew it as the string theory, so I asked some questions to see what he meant. Then he went off on this completely random tangent about how every world that we're not living in is dead. (???) So we read a quick scripture out of the Book of Mormon, and he got REALLY interested. He asked if he could have a copy, so we gladly gave one to him. After parting ways, we visited Hno. C. who talked a bit with us about the signs of the times, (not quite sure how we got on the topic), and we then went to visit another less-active family, the P.'s. They welcomed us in, and made us some quesadillas, which were quite good. We then went and picked up our bikes, and biked the 3 or 4 miles to the church for dinner. A sister in the ward wanted to give us dinner, but she lived forever away, and the other Elders couldn't give us a ride, so she brought us the food at the church. We ate, and returned to our area. I swear, I have the worst luck on a bike. I've almost gotten hit somewhere around 30 times, I've almost crashed several times, and I'm just not the most coordinated with a bike yet. We then taught M., and after hearing the lesson of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we asked her if she wanted us to keep coming by. She said yes, so we said that we'd like her to do some things to help her come closer to Christ, such as reading, praying, and attending church. We have to work with her parents on the church thing, but we'll get there. Afterwards, we visited R., and he had missed us since we'd dropped him, so we stopped by and visited. Then we turned in for the night.

Thursday was a day of service, as we were helping a member of the branch to move from one house to another not too far away. We Elders showed up and took care of the heavy lifting, and the several other people that showed up worked mostly with boxes and the such. The member had planned on it only taking around 2 hours, but it ended up taking 4 hours. They then bought some massive pizzas and we had lunch with them. We then came home and got cleaned up before weekly planning, which was then completed shortly thereafter. We then went referral hunting, and were able to contact a few. One of them was bogus, the other said no, and the other ones weren't home. We then had dinner with a member, and went to try and find L. to teach her. Once again, she was absent for some odd reason, and we committed the members to take her to church this Sunday. We then went to see K. and see how he was doing. We then ended the night.

On Friday, we had Zone Meeting, and it went pretty well. My comment was actually heeded about keeping the goal the same since we hadn't hit it the previous month. We then did some practices, finished up, went and got lunch, and from there, we went to some more service with the English Elders. We transported boards, and extracted screws and nails from said boards, and the English Elders demolished a Jacuzzi that didn't work anymore. We then went to dinner with some less-active members, and they gave us wings with Mexican spaghetti and salad. Pretty darn good. We then visited a few less-actives, tried to find some investigators at home, talked to a bunch of people in the street, (or rather TRIED to), and turned in for the night.

Saturday, we had even MORE service, but this time, it was for an investigator of the other Elders. His landlady had a bunch of junk in her back yard that she wanted extracted and taken care of, so we showed up, got the job done within 20-30 minutes, and took it all to the dump. The investigator then wanted to take us out for pizza, so we waited a bit while he returned his work truck and retrieved his normal vehicle. He then took us to Filippi's Pizza Grotto, and the pizza that he got us was pretty huge. It wasn't so wide as it was piled high. We ate to our hearts' content, (or rather to our tongues' and stomachs' content), and went home. We got cleaned up, and headed out to get some work done. We received a text that said that a missionary had gone missing, and that we were doing a mission fast for that missionary that he would be found safe. We stopped by and saw our less-active, A. We talked with him about what he's been doing with his life, and he told us about all of these crazy things that he's done, one of which is a native american sweat lodge, which is much hotter than a sauna. He then told us about a bunch of hikes that we can do on P-day if we wanted to do.

Sunday, we went for branch council, and we had a really good council session and were able to get some really good revelation one for another as to their several duties and responsibilities. Not so much missionaries for auxiliary quorums as much as auxiliary quorums for missionaries. We then had church, and for some reason, we had a lot of english speakers in the congregation, so Presidente asked me if I could translate. So I went back into another room with the headset, and translated for sacrament meeting. I never felt so cool in my life. :3 We then got a text saying that the missing missionary had been found, and that he was safe. We then had the classes, had some great input and ideas, and then went to our apartment for lunch. After our studies, we went to give a blessing to K.'s daughter, who was sick, and went from there to the mission president's fireside. We sang, we felt the spirit, and we went home.

Yesterday, we did a lot of looking through our former investigators to find some people that we could go visit. We went from one side of our area to the other, knocking on doors, finding out that the people didn't live there anymore, finding the people that weren't interested anymore, and we then found some people that said to come back! We felt pretty good about that. We then went to dinner with the G. family, (now that Hna's husband has returned from his long work trip), and we went to try another former. We found him, he welcomed us in warmly, and we got to know him a bit. It looked like he'd been a burn accident victim, but he was really happy to talk to us! We shared a powerful message with him, and he asked when we'd be coming back. We said that we'd come back Thursday, and parted ways. So we added a new investigator! Yeah! WHOOP WHOOP. Our goal for the rest of the night was to find people home with the which we could share a family home evening message. Nobody was home, so we went to see K. to see how his daughter was doing, and the C. family was there doing their own FHE, and we joined in. 

Well, that's just about it! I had a cool thought the other day about how leprosy is like excommunication from the church. The lepers were kept out of the camp, they were considered "unclean", and the disease ate away at them. If they were cleansed from it, they had to go through washings and cleansings to be admitted back into the city or camp. The same goes for the excommunicated. They are "put out" of the church, considered "unclean" until they repent of their sins, and are then admitted back into the church through a re-baptism. Thought it was pretty cool.

Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

New companion and a sliver

We had a pretty great week this week! Wednesday, I picked up my new companion, Elder V., and he's from San Antonio, Texas. So I've got another Texan companion! He's pretty awesome, and we've been getting along swimmingly this last week. Mostly, I just really fear the prideful Elders, and luckily, I got a humble one, even though he's from Texas. He just came from Brawley, which is out in the Imperial Valley, and Elder Y. got moved to Calexico, another city in the Valley. So he's out in the heat! And we just got word that we'll be getting iPads in May. Right when I come home. Oh. Goodie. Luckily I don't have to pay for it, so that'll be a blessing. The only missionaries that have to purchase their iPad are those that will still be in the mission by November, so I'll be well away from having to buy one. We'll be getting some special training from President Donaldson, from the District 2, and a member of the Seventy on how to use the iPads for proselyting. That'll be on May 19th, just one week before I come home. So, once again, I'll be getting some good training for how to start doing missionary work once I'm home.

On Wednesday, we got some lunch, and went to the church for district meeting right after transfers. I'm still not quite sure why we had it on Wednesday, but we did. Elder V. and I then went to meet all of our members and investigators. We had dinner with the V. family, and went to see a less-active member right after. We were able to get into their home for the first time ever since I've been here, and we were able to share a good message with the mother. She asked us if we could come and share a family home evening with her kids, and have an activity of sorts to do with them. So, we agreed, and got to planning it. We then went to K.'s, and M. and R. were there. They all jokingly put some chips in a bowl, and smothered them in Valentina and Tapatio, and dared Elder V. to eat the chips. Now, lemme tell ya, those chips were swimming in hot sauce, and Elder V. ate them like a champ. Then everyone felt bad for making him eat them, but by eating those chips, M., K., R., and U. instantly warmed up to him, and he feels right at home now. We shared a message with them, and went home.

Thursday, we went and tried to visit several members, but many weren't home. We mostly biked around, getting Elder V. up to speed on how the area is set up, and where the main pockets of spanish-speakers are. We had some pretty good street contacts, and got a few "not interested" people that wouldn't give us the time of day. But, we had a good time talking to people, and were able to visit R. for the first time in awhile. After dinner, we went to see if we could find him home, and when he opened the door, he got a big smile on his face. He was really glad to see us, and we were able to talk to him about some good topics on the scriptures. The Spirit was pretty darn strong for the lesson. We invited him to read a bit from the Book of Mormon, and he said that he would.

Then, on Friday, we had a full day of contacting and teaching set up. We were just about to leave, when we got a call asking if we could come help some English Elders with some service. So, we went. We got there, and they were shoveling mulch into a garbage can, a wheelbarrow, and several other improvised containers, and we were dumping them behind this member's house. As we worked, we got to know the new Elders in the zone, and had a great time goofing around with the work. Then, I got this monster sliver in my hand, in the skin right between the thumb and index finger. Oh man oh man oh man it hurt. I left it there, because I didn't have tweezers or a needle on me, and it was DEEP under my skin. Seriously. The member was kind enough to feed us, and the burgers that he made were heavenly. I miss homemade burgers. OH well. We then went to another member's house, and began to help her by demolishing some of her furniture that had been ruined. I still had the sliver in my hand, and couldn't help much because the sliver was right where the tools needed to rest in my hand, and it HURT. SO. I got a needle from her, and started digging for the sliver. My. Gosh. That thing must have made it 20,000 leagues under my skin, because my hand looked like the Kennecot copper mine by the time I finished. I finally got a little part of it poking out, and the member lady gave me some tweezers. I had Elder V. try to get it while I tried to pinch the skin around it. He almost had it, and then the member lady grabbed the tweezers, snagged the sliver in one go, and unsheathed the monster. It must have been 4 or 5 millimeters long. I was so relieved to have that savage out of my hand. Then the blood came rushing forth. And then I got a band-aid, so all was well. Then I helped with the demolition and planting of plants in the back yard. We then went to see if we could find a less-active family at home, but they had gone to the temple to wait outside for a sealing of a family in our branch, so we said, "Good on ya.", and told them that we would see them at church. We went and visited the J., met the V. briefly, and tried to find V. at home. We then called it a night.

Saturday came around, and Hna. C. was having a yard sale. Elder V. has a tie fettish, so we went to see what she had out. She had tons of stuff out for sale, and for great prices, and we talked to her for awhile. And then she told Elder V. that he could have any tie that he wanted for free. He was so happy. We then went back to the apartment for lunch, and went right off to an appointment with a less-active member. She welcomed us warmly, and her "husband" watered the plants around us as we talked outside. It was a pretty fresh day, so we were happy to sit out in the breeze and talk to her. We then went and visited another member, and she had this...thing...on her wrist. It wasn't a cast, and it wasn't a brace, but it was there to make sure that she couldn't move her hand. She's getting a surgery on her heart with one of those cool doo-hickies that you put up the vein in the wrist and work on the heart from there. They had just prepped her wrist vein, and they had to make sure that she couldn't move it until the surgery. So, she asked for a blessing, and we gave it. We then went to see if our members were available to feed us, but sadly, they had to cancel. Coordination also cancelled, so we took a letter from a missionary to Hna. G. She was ecstatic to get it, and gave us cookies and milk, and talked to us about a lot of things. We then went and visited K., and talked to him about working on coming to church. We tried our hardest to just invite the Spirit, and he agreed to come to church.

Then, on Sunday, we went to church, had sacrament meeting, and almost everyone that got up to bear their testimonies had gone to the sealing of the L. family on Friday, and they all got very emotional about what had happened there, including the 14-year-old daughter that looks like she's...well...much older. That's a recurring thing in California. Everyone looks older than they really are. Except for me. According to Hna. G., I'm just a kid trapped in an adult body. And that's probably true, now that I think about it. ANYWHO, we had gospel principles, and Elders quorum, and K. looked happy to be back at church. M. gave a strong testimony in Elders quorum about repentance and forgiveness, as he had just met with the stake president for some things, and the Spirit was really strong. After church, we went to a special training meeting for ward mission leaders and missionaries that was presented by the stake presidency and the mission presidency. We talked about several things, and President S. then got up and showed a presentation for the "Because He Lives" initiative that's beginning on March 27th that's focused on members and ward councils. We got to see the video, and let me tell you, it's GOOD. I noticed a very recurring theme and pattern between the "Because of Him" and "He is the Gift" videos, but this one is quite unique. It has the same special effect feel, but the rest of it is different. I really liked it. We then had dinner, went to see some less-actives, and went home.

Yesterday was zone conference. And it went from 10:00 to 4:00. Man it was long. It was good! But it was long. We went over a lot of training on how to make member dinner appointments more effective. We watched some videos, did some group discussion, and at the end, President played this recording of this member of the Seventy demonstrating the celestial way to get referrals, or figure out with whom to share the gospel. He asked questions, made comments, shared experiences, and made promises in a very simple, yet effective way. We then practiced it, and we got some really cool results. President then showed the "Because He Lives" presentation that's specifically for full-time missionaries. After the conference ended, we went to Hna. G.'s for dinner. We talked with her about a lot of things, but the conversation ended up gravitating around U., since he's going to Columbia to date a girl from his mission. We then went to see the V. for the family home evening. We sat down with the kids once we'd gotten them settled down, and shared a message on faith. We talked about how we have faith in, or trust in, Christ and his prophets. We had a mouse trap, and showed that it worked, and then by tweaking the spring, we set it up to look like it was set, but in reality, was harmless. We told them to have faith in us when we said that it wouldn't hurt them, and we promised them that it wouldn't hurt. At first they were scared, and the oldest son poked the trigger, and nothing happened. Then the others were quick to follow. It was a really good lesson, and I guess it was right on topic, because that oldest son had asked his mom what faith was just a few days before. The mother then asked us to give her son a blessing, since he's been having some internal bleeding, so we gave him a blessing. We then went to visit Hno. D., and we asked if we could try out the referral finding pattern from zone conference. He graciously accepted, and as we went, he said that a co-worker popped into his head. He then explained to us a bunch of things about him, we asked some inspired questions, and he agreed to invite P., his friend, to learn more about families. I thought it went really well! And it worked! We then called it a night.

That's just about all that's happened this week! Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

 

 

Great canoe story

Transfer calls happened, and Elder Y. is getting moved out. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed, because I had secretly hoped to have another transfer with Elder Y. He's been so easy to get along with, so the work has been easy to do. But we'll see how the Lord shakes things up this time around. Along with Elder Y., Sister G. and Elder C. are both leaving, so the district got rattled this time around.

Last Wednesday, we had some really good time outside contacting. We walked around a lot, and biked a lot, and weren't really able to find people that were at home to teach. For some reason the other Elders wanted to use our bikes, so we used their car for a bit. We went and visited the C.'s, and they were just on their way out. We went to see another family, and they weren't home. After stopping by several places, we parked, and went to contact some guys working. One was somewhat interested, but the other just wanted to bash, so we left.  Our dinner cancelled, and we went to visit a less-active. He asked us if we'd eaten, we said no, and he gave us some food. We got our bikes back, visited some less-actives later on in the night, and called it a day.

Thursday, we did our weekly planning, and afterwards, went to see some less actives. We had a recent convert, J., come with us to see a less-active family that's all girls. We got there, and waited awhile until he met up with us. We then visited the family and got to know several of the members. We then went and tried to find some people at home, but they weren't, so we went and tried to find some people to talk to. No such luck was ours, so we went to dinner. After dinner, we tried to find some less-active members home, but nobody had time, so we spent the rest of the night walking around trying to find people to talk to.

Friday rolled around, and we had district lunch and district meeting. I don't know why, but I had the munchies the whole day. We got a full order of carne asada fries for lunch, and I devoured it. Usually Elder Y. can eat much faster and much more than I can, but for some reason, I flew through the carne asada fries, and he couldn't finish it. We then visited the C.'s again, and had a good lesson with them. We then went to help Hno. S. to put up the chairs and tables at the church for a branch party. Another member who was giving us food later that night, decided to feed us right when we got to the church, so he whisked us away to his house. We ate there again, and he returned us to the church, where we set up the chairs and tables, and went back to our area. We went to see if U., a returned missionary, could come with us to a lesson with L. We got there and she wasn't there. We haven't seen her in the last 2 weeks, and we're not sure what's been going on. We got her number, and are going to contact her soon. We then went to see another investigator that wasn't home, and visited M. and R. They decided to get us a pizza, and while we ate, we talked a lot about M.'s mission. He's coming back from inactivity, and we're pretty sure that he's feeling good about it.

On Saturday, we talked to a lot of people in the street, and for some reason, the whole day was just weird. We started out having to bike to Wal-Mart for some toilet paper, and that whole day, it rained like mad right when we got back to our apartment. We talked to some really weird people in the streets, and I got yelled at by this Arabic guy. Elder Y. rode past him first, said hi, and the guy grunted at him. I passed him, said hello, and he flipped out. He just went off screaming that he didn't speak English, to go away, and to stop following him. Scared the living daylights out of me. We rode across the street and he kept yelling until we were about a block away. We also ran into some other people that we'd already talked to, and had some good contacts. We didn't really have much success as far as adding investigators, but we had a really good day of contacting. We had dinner with U., and we shared a good message with him and K.'s family. K. said some things that worried us a bit, so we decided to stop by the next day to talk to just him. We then went to the Saturday Evening session of Stake Conference with Elder Paul D. M. Christensen of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy. He was a very animated and enthusiastic man. Big booming voice, a big smile, and he was quite entertaining. He was able to bring the Spirit in really powerfully, and started his remarks off by bearing testimony of the divine mission of mothers. One of my favorite things he said is,"You mothers aren't going to get promoted to a higher calling. Know why? Because there are none." And he talked a bit about Heavenly Mother and Her love for us. I felt quite inspired and spiritually uplifted.

Sunday morning. It had rained all night long, and rained the whole day Sunday. We again had a session of Stake Conference, and the stake presidency talked. They gave some good remarks about the importance of our efforts in reactivation, in raising the children of the church in the right ways, and some other things that pertain to the duties of the members. Elder Christensen then got up and told a story about when he was a Boy Scout leader, and how his troop had wanted to go on a canoeing trip. He decided to show them how to whitewater canoe. He went through the story, telling about how he taught the boys everything they needed to know about the strokes, safety procedures, rescue tactics, and other important factors about whitewater rapids. He picked a river for the troop, and ran it by himself the first time a few weeks in advance, to map out eddies, and other obstacles to avoid. When he took the boys there, he gave them the instruction to follow his canoe exactly. For the first two groups of rapids, they did. For the third set, they didn't, and after a curve in the river, there was a log jam. He knew it was there, and went to avoid it, but the boys didn't follow, and got caught by the river, and were pulled right into the log jam. He had seen them deviating, and immediately pulled over, got out of his canoe, and stood on the log jam, waiting. The boys hit the jam, he pulled them out of their canoe, and a few seconds later, the canoe disappeared under the jam, and they never got it back. The next canoe hit a dead-head, or a log that's protruding from the river floor. He pulled those scouts out, and their canoe cracked in half. He then talked about how imperative it is that we follow our leaders, especially the Prophet and Apostles. We visited K. later that night, and shared a message about the temple, and talked about the importance of scripture reading and family prayer. We then visited a few other members, and went home for the night.

Yesterday, we had an eventful morning, as we heard some thunder, and the rain came pouring down for the third day straight. Right as we went out do work, the rain let up a bit. We went and tried to see M. and R. again, but they were busy, so we walked and walked and walked the whole day long, because we didn't want to bike in the rain.  We talked to this guy named D., and he was actually really interested in the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity.  He's 22, and he said that everything that we had said just made sense. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and gave him the address to the El Cajon chapel that was a few blocks away. After that, we tried contacting referrals, we tried to find our investigators home to teach them, we talked to a black guy called B. J. from Arkansas, and weren't really able to find anyone home to teach. We walked so much yesterday, my feet hurt.

Well, I'm just about out of things to write. And my head feels like I just whirled through a month and a half in less than a week. We've got some cool things happening in our area this week, so I'm really hoping that we'll be able to find some new investigators soon.

 

Don't have too much fun in the snow!

-Love, Elder Crook