Happy Halloween

At the baptism of Elder Crook's convert family October 2013

This week has been quite good, actually. Rough, but good. I'm beginning to have that feeling of "losing myself in the work". I worry for the people I meet on the streets, and I grieve when they choose not to hear our message. It's extremely hard when I can see that they wholly believe in Christ, but they reject His teachings in the Book of Mormon. But oh well. I keep trying. I keep walking. I keep knocking. And I keep praying that someone will open the door, and listen.

As of right now, we're planning on going to Old Town for the Dia de los Muertos festival. So hopefully, that will remain as the plan, (but it may change due to stubborn laziness). Quite the oxymoron. Stubborn laziness. And if we do go to Old Town, I'm hoping that I'll be able to buy a sugar skull or something. That would be AWESOME. And you have it correct, that both the ward party and the Boy Scout anniversary are both today. Is our ward attending the Boy Scout thing? NOPE. They don't even know about it. The English wards do, though, and I think they're going to try and watch it at the Stake Center. But we are going to the Halloween party. They are having the kids go trick-or-treating around the rooms of the church, to keep them off of the streets. We've been assigned a room for the missionaries to give out candy, and we're supposed to decorate it. How? No idea. I'll probably just do something with my bedsheets or something. :-)

And actually, the cardboard cutout thing sounds awesome. You could just have a "me" with you at all of the family things, and you could lend it to Isaiah and Joe to do crazy stuff with. Elder B (the district leader), has several pictures of his family doing stuff with a cardboard cutout of him. I think it would be cool. But, I've also heard that they are quite expensive, so maybe not. I'm actually enjoying my time with Elder T. He's from Texas, he used to be Baptist, his mom and step-dad are sealed to him, and his goal is to try and convert his siblings after his mission. He's tall, skinny (more so than I), has the face of a 15 year old, and his metabolism is faster than my own. Half an hour after a big meal, his stomach is growling. And he's...interesting. Not in a bad way, though. And I've been thoroughly enjoying this companionship.

Sunset Cliffs was quite fun indeed. We got right next to the ocean with waves clashing with the cliffs. I have a humorous video of me trying to get hit by one of the waves splashing...you'll enjoy it. I found a lot of sea-snails, barnacles, and saw some tiny crabs while we were there. The barnacles were pretty stuck to the rocks, though.

Thank you, Mom, for all of your words of comfort. For some reason, just knowing that my name is on the prayer roll at the temple makes my confidence go sky high. I miss the blessings of the temple. The reason we can't attend it more often is because of the high numbers of missionaries that would go every Tuesday. So, the next time that I will be able to attend is at the end of this transfer. I hope I get to stay in Chula Vista for Christmas. I would really enjoy that. 

I love you, Mom and Dad. Thank you for raising me to love others, and to have compassion and kindness. Until next week,

-Love, Elder Crook

New companion

We're going through all of the former investigators to go visit and see if they've been prepared by the Lord, and there's somewhere close to around 100 former investigators. Oh yeah, I had 2 companions for the last week. Elders F and T. Then, yesterday, Elder F was emergency transferred to Linda Vista, which is up north in the San Diego zone. So now it's just me and Elder T. He's a great missionary, he's fun to be around, and he's always happy, and never talks down. I'm thoroughly enjoying this companionship, much more than the last one. I feel like we're working together instead of someone having all of the deciding power.

 

We've found a couple of new investigators, and we found some people who had been baptized, but were inactive and didn't move their records. We'll be trying to reactivate them. But to start, I've officially had the weirdest day of my life last week. So many things just kept happening that were way out of the ordinary. This random ginger guy was saying random stuff about us right before we got to Mission President interviews, there was a guy who was at the interviews just talking to the missionaries that has a drinking problem, we met a 40 year old guy that has serious PTSD (and he said he would ground-pound us if we ever came back), we met a really drunk guy named J that kept hugging me (EUGH), and right as we got to our apartment, a lady pops out of the bushes next to the apartment complex. O.O

 

Needless to say, it was a really interesting day for me, and Elders F and T. The new member lessons have been going well, and our new converts warmed up to my new companions really quickly, (thank goodness). We are going to try and visit the temple with M L this Friday, and we'll hopefully set a time next week to go with the R's. The ward is having a Halloween party on the 29th of October. I'm thinking that we won't be using the 100th Church/Boy Scouts anniversary for missionary work, at least as missionaries. I'm pretty sure the ward will still be inviting boys from other scout troops to join us, but we as missionaries will not be there.

 

The stake is having a "Meet the Mormons" open house with a buffet and displays this upcoming November. They want all the members to invite a non-member friend to come and see what the Mormons are all about. Members can't get in unless they have a non-member with them, so we'll see how good this goes. But aside from all that, we're still trying to find people to invite to that, such as some of our investigators as well as finding referrals from people.

 

The only thing that I want to ask you all for, is to pray for the people here in Chula Vista to begin to find more desire to learn about Christ, and pray for them to be found by the missionaries. We need to find those who have been prepared by the Lord, but we don't how. They are suffering without the truth because they know not where to find it, and we know not where to find those people to give it to them.

 

Have a great week, everyone!

-Love, Elder Crook

Staying in Chula Vista

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Love, Elder Crook

Senior Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Love, Elder Crook

Happy Birthday to me!

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook

And an uncle again!

Dear Everyone,

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-Elder Crook

I'm an uncle again

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

 

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

 

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

 

 Have a great week!