Thursday, June 28, 2012

Confirmation of Fran


June 25, 2012
Well, I´m doing well. Life is good. Grams... I´m a missionary. I´m suppose to testify of the Gospel. ha ha haha. I loved your letters! Skyler, you are my favorite oldest brother! If you need a new tire, feel free to take my tires off of the pink bike. And if you think your bike is bad... It´s amazing how these wonderful people take anything and make it work. I have seen up to three people riding on the same bike. The cars here are old. You definitely don´t want to play the slug bug game, because there are a bazillion! I know how you feel about being burned. We played volley the other day along with fut. My arms and legs and face were burnt! And as for alovera... I thought mom´s plant was huge, but no, it´s a baby compared to the alovera plants here!
Kaitlyn, I´d hate to break it to you, but I´m not so sure if pioneer girls wore cowboy hats. You want the full experience right? ha ha ha ha!
Mom, you asked the right answer. So many members think that they need to go out and teach a full out lesson or say "I would like to share my testimony," but no. Missionary work is SO simple for members. One, the people they share with they already know. If they don´t accept it isn´t the members fault. If they don´t get baptized it isn´t the members fault as well. We all have agency. Anyways, members can invite people over to do a family home evening with them, have dinner, share simple things, such as "The Family, a Proc...." Or just testify of how a certain thing has helped them, such as pray, priesthood blessing (actually last Sunday we went to the hospital and gave a non-member a blessing). And another thing is the Missionaries are always there to help. They have knowledge, and might be killing for the opportunity to teach ward members how they can help them, and how the ward members can share the gospel (only guessing because I want this to happen). Basically it doesn´t have to be a full out thing. Just a simple sharing of the Book of Mormon and how it has helped you in your life (I really like the Introduction to the BOM paragraphs 1, 8, &9). There is SO much a member can do!!! And the best part is, the investigator or friend, will listen because THEY ARE YOUR FRIENDS!! They aren´t going to slam the door in your face. They may decline, but at least they know you care. Also, there is a story of someone you saw that about 5 families in here neighborhood had something, but she didn´t know what. Right before one of her neighbors moved, this neighbor said to here, if you ever need anything, I just want to let you know that my church is there for you." Or something to that extent, and this woman, was converted. A simple sentence... Can you tell that members are important? ha ha ha
Dad, I bet New Fork looks barren after you and Donel were done with it. Sounds like everyone is doing great up there. Make sure if New Fork ever gets rid of a canoe that you claim it. I can fix it. That´ll be a lot easier than buying one.
Well, let’s see. It is pretty hot down here. We walk in it all day long. Also, it has been raining a lot as well. But when it rains it POURS! We get back soaking wet. Let´s see. This past week. Well, Sunday I confirmed Fran. That was good... My hands were shaking pretty bad, but now he has the Holy Ghost, which is one of the greatest gifts ever! 1!! It is amazing to see the change in his life! I love it!!! Here goes the missionary part for grams. Well, my day is spent walking, teaching the people and testifying. Sometimes you get really, really tired. Other times you are so happy. We have a bunch of investigators. We have a family of four, Andrés, Esther, Antonio, y Enrique. They are great. The dad is always working. It is a bit frustrating with them, because we challenged them to be baptized, but they said they wanted to wait and make sure. We have been trying to get them to pray for the answer from the beginning (we aren´t the first missionaries to have taught them). Finally, la lección pasada, I had us kneel down and pray. After the prayer she said she felt nervous. This is a clue, and we are working on what it means. We think she is nervous about what it means when she gets the answer. It means her life needs to change. I think her sons would get baptized, but she wouldn´t let them until she knew. I don´t know. But I gave them the task to pray as a family, and individually in the morning and at night, and also to read as a family. My companion said I was pretty direct with them. They are such great people. We actually stopped by to see if they were coming to Church and the mom and dad did. They said we were welcome at their house for anything. I guess they had some missionaries form the Jehovah Witnesses visit them, and they didn´t really have the same thing to say for them. That made me feel good. ha ha ha!
Also we have Belen, who has a date to be baptized, which now she can´t because she didn´t go to church. She is so amazing! But she hasn't been to church at all. This is a problem. Also, whenever we have a meeting planned, she always drops it. We talked with her mom yesterday. She might be a new investigator.
Then we have Moíses y Lupita. They are amazing! They are a young couple with two little kids. The other Elders had a baptism on Friday, and we invited them to come to it. We gave them a tour of the church and when we got to the chapel, the Spirit was SO strong! They really like the baptism and after the ward was having a meal for Father´s Day. The members were so amazing! It made me feel good to not have to worry. I also, played the prelude for the baptism and got chewed out a little because I didn´t tell anyone I could play. Well, the young women sang a number during the baptism and they asked if I could play for them. I had to say no, because I had no idea how the tune went or any time to even play it before. I felt a little bad, but I´m not Skyler... ha ha ha. Anyways, they loved it and it was pretty amazing! They said they felt really comfortable.
We have others, but you´ll have to wait to hear about them next week.
I love being a missionary! It is the best!
Love you!
Love, Elder Michael Blake Crouch
Ps. every member is a missionary