Talked to an Apostle...no big deal.

• week 4 email‏

So today i have freakin awesome story about being a Host for new missionaries. Which just reminds me of how much God's hand is in this work every day. This week i was asked if i would be a host for the new missionaries who were coming in. And basically what a host does is he takes the missioanaries around the MTC, show them where everything is at and just make them feel welcome. So while i was getting taught about everything i need to do i was asked to be a host for the Early arrival missionaries, because that's what i was and i know what things they need to hear so their second day wont be as bad as their first haha. But as i was about to leave to host the early arrivals the man in charge stopped me and my companion and told us that he wants the two of us to stay in a different room, because he had a different assingment for us than he originally planned. 

 

So i am chillin in this room when a bunch of new missionaries come in, and i don't pay any attention to them yet because i was talking to my friend Elder Brusnt. Then all the new missionaries were asked to line up against a wall and they were started to get Host assigned to them. So i stop talking to my friend and look up to see that i am going to end up with. And it was Elder Jace Hancock!!!! So i run up to him and give him a HUGE hug! I was so happy to see him! And I was freaking excited that i was assigned to Host him! So we talked for a long time before we even started to go around the MTC. And then i took him to his room. Which is in the building right next to mine! And i got him all setteled and stuff. Then after we head over to my place and i feed him a bunch of snacks and get him a Pizza thing from a vending machine because he hadn't eaten sense he left Mesa. 

 

And then we just chiled in my room for almost an hour. It was legit! Even though i spent a ton of time with him i feel like it wasn't enough. Bu i took him to his class, which is just 4 floors above mine!  And then i got a picture with him and then left him to the ravenous spanish speaking psychopaths hahahaha. Just kidding his teachers are super cool. They aren't aloud to speak any English to them for the first couple of weeks so while i was talking to his teachers him and everyone else in his class looked super lost because none of them understand anything that we were saying. And talking to them made e realize how far i have actually come with everything in the 4 weeks i have been here, and i feel good for Jace too because he will pick up on everything super quick too. I'm definitely keep an eye on him though when i can to make sure he is doing good because the first couple days here can be really tough, and seeing on how we've been friends for like a million years it would be even better for him to feel welcome. And even though i am leaving in less than a week and a half (crazy right) he'll be doing really good by the time i check out of here.

 

This week i have been working really hard at being able to teach a lesson completely by the Spirit. It is super hard but i am getting better at it. First i put alot of effort into preparing a good lesson, and then when i am teaching i need to just focus on not going off of everything that i just planned. I think the preparing the lesson is pretty much just for showing God that i am willing to put in the effort totach his Children, because most of the time i get taken away and start teacing about something else that i had not originally planned (exept i always get most of what i planned across). Last night i was doing TRC. And basically what that is, is they throw you in a room with a volenteer who just wants to get help from the missionaries. And the volenteer i had last night was one of the first volenteers i had when i first started TRC. 

 

So we already knew eachother, and he was such a awesone guy, we because friends super fast my first time meeting him. P.s. this is all in spanish too. But i spent time 20 mins just catching up with him sense we talked last. He's doing really good, and he was happy to see that me and my companion were doing really good too (because we weren't when we first met hahaha at least my companion wasn't) (and that's why i was already friends with him because i had to do most of the talking when we met) But anyways we talked for a while. I told him the story about me Hosting Jace Hancock. And then we started our lesson, and i was teaching him about how we can better recive revolation through reading the book of Mormon. And so basically i wanted to read him 1 nephi 11:1-5. And then we just talked about each of the aspects of the things mentioned in this scripture. And i told him a cool story, and it reminded him of a cool story from when he served a mission. And he told it to me and it was awesome.

 

I really want to keep typing but i only have a couple of mins left before i'm out of time. But our lesson went super good, the Spirit was super strong, He said it helped him alot and there was a couple of things i asked him to do that he said he would do when he got home. I hope i get to see Santiago (that's his name) again he's a super cool guy and we are pretty close. the fact that i only have one more TRC before i leave though means that i probably wont. Which is too bad. But it's been a sper good week learned lots. Talked with an apostle. You know how it is hahaha It was actually freaking cool it was M. Russell Ballard. He's probably one of the most humble people i have ever seen. But love you all!!!!

Week 4.5

El Conquistador!  It is the fan of legend! It started out as a fan that a couple of guys took from a storage room and named Bernard. They engraved the scripture Jer 51:1 on the back of it which I found quite appropriate.  When the elders left instead of returning it they established a tradition of passing it down to the most honorable missionaries they knew and with the change of ownership comes a change in name.  After a long line of passing it down the fan came into my possession where I changed its name to El Conquistador.  It has 2 uses; one is to cool down my ridiculously hot room, and the other is to do my hair!  It gets it perfect every time!!

It seems like just yesterday that I met my new room mates, but apparently it's been more than a week, and they are already some of my closest friends. I've been really lucky with the men I've been put with, they are all super fun guys and we all get along great. We have a little story time every night and they love it when it's my turn because I always have the coolest stories.

A Hermana drew a picture for me on my banana.

The bricks here are so rough that everything sticks to the!  So I adopted using the wall to hold my socks.

this is a comparison between what I eat as opposed to what my companion eats.  Every meal I have a big salad, a banana, and something else relatively healthy.  While my companion downs 6 bowls of ice cream, 3 cookies, etc. It will probably cause his death.

 

I want to tell you how I started my day.  I woke up at 5 a.m. to go do my laundry.  So I throw on a a pair of gym shorts and a tshirt and grab my laundry bag.  Normally the sky is black when I get outside, but today it was white...because it was snowing.  So I walk through the snow in my shorts and t for a couple of minutes until I get to the building where I can do my laundry.  So I drop off all of my stuff and walk back home to clean up my room a little bit.  Half an hour later I walk back tot he laundromat still in gym shorts with it snowing harder than i twas before.  Change my laundry walked back.  Wait another half hour, walk back through the snow to pick up my laundry and walk back to my home again.  So if you start thinking it's cold in AZ remember that i an probably trudging through snow in less clothing than you are wearing. hhahah

(OK...the most shocking part of this description is "It only takes half an hour for his load to dry?!!??  I need a dryer like that!)

Week 4 !!

Those Snow Pictures are Crazy! I just sent a letter home about me being in a bunch of snow and making a joke about how you guys probably think you're cold. But the fact that it's snowing there too is crazy!
But today i want to tell you about something that i realized the other day.
I was standing up in a district meeting and teaching about Abenidi, because i felt inspired to talk about him. And i was saying how i wish that i could have the same faith that he had, he know that when he was returing to King Noah to teach him the message that he had, that he was going to be killed. But he went anyway. And I said to my district that more than likely none of us are going to be asked to Die in the name of Christ, but every single one of us has been asked to live in His name. And i taught things like like for a couple of mins, then i didn't feel inspired to say anymore so i sat down, and we closed our district meeting and went to bed.

The next day I wasn't feeling very good about myself, because the night before i was standing up and proclaming truth to my friends, but i didn't feel like i had that same faith that Abenidi had. So i was a little bummed out, so i started reading my Book of Mormon, and right now in my study i am in Second Nephi, and i was reading Chapter 4. It's an incredible chapter, and it inspires me so much. But in it Nephi was repenting for believing that he was the man that God expects him to be. And he was saying things that i know that i have said only minutes before. So i'm reading and i recive an incredibly humbling but empowering thought. That i am just like Nephi. And the more i looked back over my life, the more i realized that it is true. And then i started thinkking about Abenidi again, and the things he was asked to do. And i realized that i have already been asked to do things just like he had. And altought i didn't die for my beliefs, i did have to stand alone when no one else around me would. And i realized that i do have that same faith that Abenidi had.
And then i remembered how for the last couple of years i would sing that song "How can i be", wishing that i could be like those great men who did incredible things for God, and I never realized that i am one of those men too. And it definitely put my entire life into perspective. I can garentee that Nephi didn't feel adiqute to do the things that the Lord asked him to do, and i'm possitive that at some point of time Abenidi had some degree of doubt in his mind about if he would be able to endure things he needed to. But they were faithful, and knowing that harder things were to come they kept walking. And it gave me alot of hope. I have been asked to do hard things my entire life, and i don't forsee that i will ever be asked to do something easy. But i know that i will be able to do it. And i am excited for the Lord to start giving me Hard things again, because nothing easy is worth doing, and doing easy things isn't going to change the world.

So here i am having this incredible experience, when i recieve one more thought that i will never forget. It was "Something inside of you inspired a God to want to suffer, bleed, and die to save you"

I'm not perfect, i'm not even as good as i want to be, but that doesn't mean that we cant do and see miracles. Some of the most spiritual moments that i've ever had in my entire life came when i was down, and didn't think that i could keep walking, but when we fall, that is when God helps us get back up, even better than before.

There is a scripture that popped into my head just now, i don't know the refference but it says "If men come unto me i will show unto them their weakness. I give me weakness that they may be humble. And if they come unto me i will make weak things be strong unto them" I'm pretty excited for the times that i get to become even stronger.

Sorry if you were expecting me to email home a funny story or something like that. Because i have millions of them. But right now i felt like i needed to tell you about this. I love you all!

 

Love you!

Week 3!

 NEW PICTURES!!

Passed out in the snow.  

Elder Jacobson drawing Elder Crockett.

Pretty good likeness! Got the attitude...not quite the chin. 

Elder Crockett,  Sister  Selk, Elder Walker,  Sister Harper

His two new roomies.  And the closet with the secret compartment.


Dear family,
I'll answer your questions first.
1. The Candy Stash- Well I always had a candy stash at home, so why not here! Whenever missionaries leave they throw a bunch of stuff into a big, free box and since I am the first person awake every day I get first dibs! haha. So I take lots of candy and it gets bigger every day because I never eat it (just like back home haha)
2. People I've met that I know from home: Becky Pacheco, Ashlyn Biggs, Dillon Harper, Kevin Hale, Kyle Hobbs, Stuart Monthierth, and I feel like I'm forgetting a bunch of people, but I also have more friends coming in next week.
3. People in my pictures; Elder Walker is my companion, the dark haired one who is taller than me.  Elder Cole, dark hair, glasses like mine, super nice guy, he is literally the most humble man I know.  Elder Owens, blond. He is my DL and is awesome. Elder Jacobson, in the pics he's the one that drew a legit picture of my face, it was super realistic (except for the chin) but he literally got my face down!  It's legit. 
4. The Star Destroyer. Sadly I did not make the star destroyer, but the Elder that did passed it down to me when he was about to leave on his mission.  So I have a giant spaceship on my dresser now.  I made plans to build a Tie Fighter.  I even have blue prints, but I have no time as it is and without Elder Renove I don't forsee it happening. But I'll send pics if it does.

Thank you everyone for your letters and pictures! I love all of them I really like our family picture in Perry the Platipus shirts.  I literally laugh every time I look up and see it!

For my story today I want to tell you about Hermana Rice. She is a volunteer who comes to the MTC to let the missionaries talk to her. She knows English and wrote me a really nice note in English, but she only speaks Spanish while we are teaching her.  Our lesson start out really good and I'm teaching her about God's love for us and then Elder Walker bore a really storng testimony about how we aren't perfect but God still loves us. And I start talking again, but then I stop half way through a sentence and ask her about her family.  And she just gets really emotional, so I wait a minute but then decide to keep talking, so I start telling her about our family and she can't take it anymore. She just starts crying. 

Through her tears she started telling me about her family, she has two sons who both served missions, and has a daughtr at BYU right now who is working on her papers and plans on putting them in so she can leave at the end of the semester. She then starts saying how thankful she is for men like me who have been good examples for her and her family.  later that day I had another one on one meeting with my teacher Hermano Davis and he expressed how thankful he is for me bieng such a great example for my companion and all the people in my ditrict and zone.

I am going to be completely honest here.  So many people tell me about how great of an example I am to them, but I don't even know why.. Yeah, I guess I make people cry on a a regular basis and I work really hard to help the people in my district, but I am by no means perfect.

One thing that has become super apparent to me though is how much people watch you, even when there are lots of other good people around.

Love you all! Elder Hamilton Denton Crockett

Week 2

10:20 AM

So this next week has been super great, and i have learned so much too! So i will begin with telling you a little story. My companion Elder Walker and I have been picking up spanish Super fast! Faster Than most of the people in our class, so naturally it starts getting to my head... Well we have a lesson schedualed with a new "investigator" name Carlos De La Calle. And we have our first lesson with him, and it goes great, we commit him to going to church with us, and praying about Joseph Smith. 

 

 So we also schedual a next appointement with Carlos for the next day. So the next day we come back to talk to Carlos. And my companion and i feel like we are just going to blow him away at the lesson, just because how well we did the last time, and because of how well we were speaking spanish. So natuarally God is not going to let this fly. So we get into our lesson, and i start talking to Carlos if he has any questions, or anyting that he wants to tell us about. Well he starts BLASTING us with how Joseph Smith is a false prophet! And i try so hard to defend Joseph, but i can't!I could not think of any words to say, and so i am sitting here getting toasted by my investigator, and out of my companionship i am the one that does most of the talking anyway, so Elder Walker was stuck too! So after a couple of mins i finally get hit with inspiration, and the scri[pture Amos 3:7 comes to my mind, so i share that and i say how God is the same now as he was in days of old, and so He speaks to prophets. And then I try bearing my testimony about how I know Joseph Smith was a prophet, but it was no where near as power as my testimony about Heavenly Father loving us, or about Prayer, or pretty much anything else! And so i don't know how much the investigator actually believed me about me knowing Joseph was a prophet. 

 

So i ask him if we can come back again later to talk to him again. And he agreed. So my comp and i left, and as we were walking away i was Furious! Not, at anyone else though. Just Myself. And so i grab my companion and i tell him "I will never let that happen again, I know Joesph was a prophet of God, and i have no excuse to let anyone get away with talking about him like that" So my companion and i decide that we are going to dedicate the rest of the day to strenghting our testimony of Joseph Smith. So i lock myself up in a computer lab, and i spend hours and hours, watching the Joseph Smith Movies, watching Elder Hollands talk about his testimony about the book of Mormon, and of Joseph Smith, and i study scriptures too that streangthened my testimony too. And now I KNOW that Joseph Smith IS a prophet of God, and he was called by God to restore Christ's Church on the earth. tomorrow morning i am meeting with Carlos again, and i am going to set him straight! I've decided that we are going to walk in there with a message about Joseph Smith, and we are not going to leave, until he knows for himself that Joseph is a prophet. I will sit there and pray with him until he knows that he is a prophet, and we will not move on to teach him about other things until he has that testimony for himself. That experience was really good for us though, because we learned that no matter how good we think we are we need to rely on the Lord, have good plans, and have a strong Testimony about Everything that we teach! And I will too.

That's my little spirital story for today, now to get onto something that is totally on a diferent track. Elder Walker and I have had our own room to ourselves sense we've gotten here. But yesturday we got two new Elders in our room, and our story about it is so funny! So we didn't want anyone in our room, so we would joke around saying if God really loves he will give us a really cool roomate...and a black guy haha. So we get the names name of the new Elders, and their names were Elder King and Elder Williams, so they are pretty cool sounding names. So we walk around the MTC and my companion see's a black guy walking into a building, and Elder Walker say's "That's him i can feel it!" So i run over to the building and i do a nice little over the shoulder creeper check on him, And his name was Elder Williams! 

 

So me and my companion are super psyched about it, because we are pretend that he is our new roomate, and he's going to be good at basketball and all that stuff. So we go throughout the day, and that night we see Elder Williams again with his new companion. So of coarse we have to get round two of creepin on, so we get up close enough to see that the other Elder was Elder King!!!! And so we just couldn't take in anymore we had to introduce ourselves, and tell them that we are wthir roomates. And we are already friends. And they are super cool. And they both really like basketball too, and even though i play volleyball every day for Gym i will definitely get some B ball on with just them just to show gratitute for my new guys. Once again Elder Walker and i ccan testify that God answers Prayers, even if it's something stupid like we want a cool guy, and a cool black man. I have pics with them, and i'll send them home when i get my SD card back! Love You all! Keep me Posted

First SD card sent home.

Elder Crockett!  He flung this at a Japanese Elder. Hit him square in the head.

Clearly he's impervious to the cold....and apparently a murderer.

His front-row seats to the devotional.

He's never been this organized in his life before. :D

Not cold at all.  Who raised this kid?

Study

And sleep.

And eat.

His friend Jaden!

A companion that's TALLER than him ??!!

Good to see his self-esteem hasn't suffered.  Typically he's in some superhero outfit doing this pose.  Which is still appropriate I suppose... Super Elder !!

um....arm's distance Elder!

popsicle in the snow?  seriously?!

um....is this studying?

Week 1 !!!

• Week 1!!!‏

11:57 AM

I survived week one!!! Just kidding it wasn't even bad! I have been having so much fun up here! My first day here, I arrived a day earlier than the  rest of the American missionaries, so i was pared up with a group of foreign missionaries, who where all going to greece on their missions! And they we some of the nicest people i have ever met! And even though there was Quite the language barrier between us we still all became awesome friends instantly! My funniest story about them though is, The first night i was here there was a devotional that a general authority was coming to talk to us, so everyone from the entire MTC wanted to come. And So in order for a normal person to get a seat they have to be there at least 45 mins early. Well, all of the foreign missionaries have a reserved section of seats to sit in, so they could have access  to the interpretation head sets, and sense i has part of the district with all the foreign missionaries i got to sit in the reserved seats too! So we walk into the auditorium like 5 mins before the devotional started, and so everything was packed except for our reserved seats. So we all go to sit down, and we have a couple of mins before the devotional was going to start, so I decided that i was going to get some practice with taking my name tag on and off my jacket. So i take it off easily but when i am trying to put it back on my finger slips of one of the corners and it snaps out of my hand and goes flying across the auditorium!!! And it hits an elder from Japan right in the face hahaha. And so i assumed he spoke some english so i tried to apologize, only to find out that he hardly understand any English! So i am there trying to tell him i am sorry and ask if i can have my name tag back, but i realize that there is only one way tom communicate with him... Charades. So i stand up in my seat and start acting out the story of what happened with another name tag that i had, and was jumping around and dancing like a fool! And every single one of the elders that i was pared up with was busting up laughing! And after a couple mins of this little game, on of the Tongan elders that i was with tells me that he knows Japanese!!!! I was a little angry that he didn't speak up mins earlier, but i was so grateful that he knew Japaneses! So he tells the Elder that i hit in the face what happened, and then he just starts busting up laughing too! He then handed my name tag back. After that experience i decided that i am never going to take my name tag off of my jacket, and instead get a magnetic name tag that i could take on and off of my shirts, just so i can take my tag off whenever i need to.
The next morning I was taken away from the foreign missionaries because my companion had just arrived at the MTC. So it was a little sad, but i still see them every day during dinner so i get to talk to them for a couple of mins before i need to run off to any of my appointments. But i love my companion, me and him became friends instantly!!! His first week here was really rough, and so it pretty much forced me to grow up really fast, and not be homesick or anything like that anymore because he needed me alot. And I just wrote a letter home to Truman this morning, and it tells one of the stories about him in it. It's not super in depth or anything like that but it is still a pretty good story!.
So one thing that i am really grateful for is that i have only been called to Speak Spanish for my mission! Last night my companion and i were in a computer lab together working on some español when two sister missionaries come and sit down next to us. And you know how i am, so naturally i feel inclined to move onto some really cool sounded phrases that would make me look freaking cool speaking spanish. So i start cool speaking spanish, and one of the sisters turns and looks at me (her name was Sister Fuller, not that it changes the story or anything), and she starts busting out talking to me in Mandarin Chinese!!! So i was taken back for just a second ( because Mandarin is easily a harder sounding language), but i refuse to give her the victory, so i bust out something else in Spanish, and for almost 10 mins me and her are just going back and forth having this little competitive who's language sounds cooler competition, and eventually it gets to the point where i can not keep a straight face anymore, so i just start busting up laughing, and then i give her props for being such a boss with Mandarin! (P.S. While i was typing this she came by and sat down, I am so glad that she isn't reading over my shoulder like a creeper right now! hahaha)
But on the topic of language Spanish is coming so great for me!!! Every day i have to teach an investigator, and i am only aloud to speak in spanish. And my first lesson was terrible! I literally had to read straight out of preach my gospel the entire time! And whenever Daniel (my first "investigator") had a question for me, i would have no idea what he was saying!!! And so i would pretty much just say yes and then move on. And it was terrible! But by by my third lesson with him i could speak in spanish for the entire time without having to look at Preach my gospel or anything! And i could understand everything he said! And so i could ask him sincere questions, and then listen to his answers! It is so much fun! I love speaking in spanish!
Hey i´´m out of time on the computer, but I will keep you posted! P.S. I loved getting those letters from you and Susie! Love you All!

FIRST LETTER!!

We got his first letter on Saturday.  All is now well in the world, never fear.

Dear Mom,
So I learned that my P-Days will be Thursdays so you can expect me to write emails to you every Thursday!  The elders here are awesome. We all became friends super fast! It's only my second day here and I already have a million stories to say, but I will save them for my emails becasue I have hardly any time to write today.

They have us on such a busy schedule!  I am constantly doing something. I have started waking up an hour early so I have enough time to do everything I want to do in the morning without having to worry about having to wait on the other elders in my branch.  I just got my first companion today too. His name is Elder Walker, he's from Orem Utah. At first he was a pretty quiet guy, but when it wast the two of us we talked a lot and became friends pretty fast.  I am a little jealous that he got a companion (me) on his first day thought. My first day here I was alone a lot.  And that was pretty hard, but I made friends with a bunch of international missionaries and they were awesome. I'll tell you all about them in my email. 

I am already speaking spanish too! Here they pretty much throw us into the fire when it comes to language, my teachers are not allowed to speak any English, so it's a really good thing that spanish was easy for me, but I definitely contribute my success to far to the Lord.  My teacher has asked me to help out the other students, because I am allowed to speak (some) English. I am so excited to get to go to class and keep learning Spanish. I know I've only met them today but the missionaries in my district are already my friends!

OK, so it's ridiculous how many sister missionaries are here!  The MTC president was telling me that more than half the mission applications are by sisters.  And I totally believe it! Right now it looks like a little less than half of us here are sisters, but there are more coming every week. Since I got tot he MTC a day early I beat the new missionary rush.  The building was full before but then today we had more than 600 new missionaries. Apparently next we are going to get almost 1,000 more! I also learned that there are currently about 60,000 missionaries in the field. And I think that the MTC president told me that it's expected to have nearly 250,000 by the end of the year.  It is crazy how fast missionary work is going. Hey I would really love it if you mailed me a good picture of our whole family.  I am trying to make the MTC my new home for the next month and a half, but it would be really nice if I could have part of my home with me here.  And stamps.  I have money to spend every week, but it would be really nice if I didn't have to worry about needing more stamps.  I'm having a great time up here! At first I didn't think I was ready, but now I know that I will be able to do everything that I need to do. Keep me posted with how everything in the family is going.  I love you Mom, and please tell the family I love them all too. I'll email you on Thursday,
Lots of Love,
Elder Hamilton Crockett