Snow in South America‏

Standing on the cliff at the peak of one of the Andies mountains that my companion and i had just ran to the top of, i looked out over the endless beauty of Lago Ranco, and i shout as loud as i can. And can hear my voice echoing for miles and miles. It was quite invergorating (Thanks Shell, you´re a doll haha)

(Denton brushing his teeth in what may be the world's smallest bathroom!)

So before i start my email i want to throw out a quote from this week. 
´´It´s a joke right, i´m not really talking to Elder Crockett am I? Because you sound like a latino´´ ´´Well i am from Little Mexico aren´t i´´ (conversation with my zone leader after talking to him on the phone for a couple mins)

Ok so something really important, i need a recipe for a Cheesecake. Not joking. I lost a bet with the relief society and now i need to make them a cheesecake. One of the problems with being the Branch president with your companion is you have to hold up your sides of bets hahaha

So my favorite experience from this week is yesterday i was conducting sacrament meeting in church, And this week i announced the trip to the temple in Santiago that i am planning. And there was one Sister in the ward whose face lit up with the biggest smile, and i don´t know if i have ever seen anyone so happy from something that i have said. And i even know why. This one sister is the reason why we where planning this trip to the temple. About a week or two ago, after church she handed me a letter. And Later that night, as i was finishing up with all the tithing information, i pulled her letter out of my desk and started reading it. And in her letter she expressed to me that she is really concerned about a couple of people in her family, and for some of the people that she home teaches, because they are falling away from the church, and she was telling me that she believes that if they had a goal to work for, that they would be stronger members. And i am not going to lie it was such a touching letter i was almost tearing up. 

 I already had the goal to get all of the active members in the branch with temple recommends, so the idea of planning a trip to the temple was perfect for me. So after church she came up to me and expressed her gratitude, and how excited she was for everyone who was going to have the opportunity to go to the temple. She then told me about how she is going straight to the houses of the families she teaches that where not in church to tell them to good news. You know although this experience i am having in LAgo RAnco is más o menos one of the hardest experiences i´ve had so far, it is definitely a very special one. 

I´ve learned quite a lot about the Atonement and Gods Love for His Children, and His patience for men like me whose weaknesses show more then their strengths. I´m hoping that by the time the Mission President sends me away from LAgo RAnco that i will have become the missionary that God needs me to be.

Now i´m sure that all you want to hear about how much i´ve changed this past week, but i came into quite the realization today when i was traveling to Osorno, that almost all of my letters or emails and junk all of them i sound super stressed out or sad about something or how i just witnessed some incredible miracle and was humbled by it, and i just want to let everyone know that i´m still the same person who left and still talk about normal things. Granted i have matured quite a bit these last 6 months, (especially this last cambio haha) But i just wanted to let you know that even though missionaries come across as spiritual giants who are slightly intimidating with the mass amount of knowledge that we can throw out we are normal people. It´s something i didn´t learn until i was a missionary, but it is in fact true haha 

So Random thought i just had i want to share with you a quote from the other day ´´I didn´t know you speak English, when did you learn it´´ ´´Before the mission listening to Lil´ Wayne´´ ´´You know, that actually explains quite alot´´ (part of a conversation i had with another Elder in my District) 

So today i spent all day in Osorno (with above mentioned Elder) and it was so funny! But first, Osorno is legit, it reminded me so much of New York, only a little smaller, and instead of everyone speaking Chinese, everyone speaks Spanish. It´s legit. One of my favorite things from today is i was walking down a street in Osorno, and i see this statue of a fireman. So i walk up to it, and i see i big bag full of money in front of it, and i was wondering why the heck there was so much money chillin at the feet of this statue. And i looked at the statue, and it was really detailed. It was awesome. 

And then my companion said. Hey you should throw a Peso in that bag there. And i thought ok sure. So i throw a 50 peso coin in the bag, and the statue jumps down off of the pedestal, and i was freaked out. I almost Punched that statue in the face, but then i realized it was just some Chilean in a fireman costume painted all grey. So i gave him a high five, and then he went back up on his pedestal, and turned back into statue mode.. And HE didn´t move. 

So i´m sitting there making faces at him to try to make him laugh or flinch or something, but absolutely nothing. The dudes legit. It would be so hard to be able to do that. Now i understand why there was such a huge pile of money right there haha. Out of all the street performers he was by far the coolest. 

i spent the day walking around the streets of Osorno changing my money from Dollars to Pesos (finally) and a couple other random things, but the whole time i was walking around with Elder Sosa (from Argentina) beat boxing and freestyle rapping. It was legit. I think tomorrow in my district meeting i am going to have to try rapping the First Vision. I only know it in spanish, but thats ok, because everyone in my district is LAtinos but me, so they should appreiciate it. 

Alright Love you all! Thank you so much for all of your support and Emails. Quick shout out to mom and dad. You could ask Dad to bless the home, it´s a priesthood ordinance that i have only done a couple of times, but it really does help with helping feel more secure in the home. And having a break in a couple days after moving in aint exactly the best start to a new life. I think it would be really good for you guys to do. Les Amo!!!! Quiero escribir in Español un poco solo porque me siento un poco extraño escribiendo en inglés. Love you all!!!

Standing in Holy Places‏

As i am sleeping on the bus i am waken up by a big bump. I look out the window and think to myself ´´why are we leaving the road´´ i look up to see the bus door open and i see something a little more disturbing and i shout ´´WHY IS NO ONE DRIVING THE BUS!!´¨¨(my half story for this week)


So this P Day has been a life saver being in charge of the church is something else, i can't think of the words to explain it. But this day was something i definitely needed after this past week. Your emails are awesome thank you so much.

And i also got to write a letter to Jocee Hatch, i haven´t sent it yet though because i don´t know if you are going to be in the same apartment in BYUI could you email me back please to let me know (mom can you find out for me too in case Jocee doesn´t check her email haha)

And i got to play volleyball with the other elders in the zona. It´s weird to think that almost every single one of my friends are from different countries, and none of them speaks english. But it´s ok to be completely honest i'm more comfortable speaking spanish right now than english. in fact little known fact, the only time that i ever think in english i when i am thinking about what i want to email you about.

But ok story time
So whoever said that bishops live in the church, is especially right in the case of the presedencia de Elder De Regil and I. So my story starts on Saturday night It was about 9 and i was in my office in the church finishing up things for church the next day when my phone starts ringing, and i pick it up and it´s my landlord, and she told me that the plumbing broke so i would not be able to shower for a couple of day. And at first i was thinking ¨Shoot, what i am going to do´´ but then i remembered. Oh the church is just a big house. And i am the only person who has the keys, so i´ll just come here and shower.

So the next morning i wake up, and it is literally below freezing outside, and i grab all my clothes for the day and walk a the couple of blocks to the church in just my pjamas. I get to the church, and i go into the restroom to start showering when i realize that no one has lived in the church for years. Which means that no one has cleaned the shower in years tampoco.

So i look at it and it is super dirty with dead slugs  And a ton of dust and just a whole bunch of nastiness. So i spend about 10 mins cleaning it and i get to shower and happy day. But i get out to discover that now the entire bathroom is flooded because there was a leak or something in the shower. So i spend like a half hour cleaning that up, and then i finally get to get dressed. And i finish getting everything ready for church.

Fast forward a couple of hours we are in the middle of sacrament meeting, it was my companions turn to conduct the meeting, so that means that it was my turn to bless the sacrament. And so after i bless the sacrament i am sitting there reverently when someone starts throwing up. And i don't want to look who it is, but we are sitting there and i am listening to them throw up over, and over, and over again. 5 times in the middle of sacrament meeting. I then hear them run away. And afterward i see that someone has went and laid a couple of paper towels on the pile of puke. And there wasn't anything i could do about it right then, and it didn't smell bad so i forgot about it.

After sacrament meeting i was super busy with tithing and other such things so i didn't have any time to take care of the pile of puke in the middle of the chapel, but it was where the relief society met so i wasn't worried at all. And Then priesthood starts, and my companion has to email a bunch of information to salt lake so he asked me to teach priesthood. And i was so busy the whole week that i did not even have time to look at the manual. So i say a little prayer that it would all go fine. And there was a couple of men from the District visiting, and we only have one priesthood in the ward so there wasn't many people to worry about.

And so i open up the chapter and its on tithing. So i get in there and it was the best lesson i have ever taught in priesthood ever. I used some legit examples relating it to something we do in missionary work, and i talk a little bit about the process of how tithing and fast offerings work (I have already done everything you can do with tithing ex. requesting, money getting it from the bank, giving money to members that need help from the fast offerings, everything) But the lesson went super great. I then talk to the district president for a little bit about someone that i am going to ordain to the Melchizedek priesthood in a month. By now 3 hours have passed from the puke incident.

And so after church i am saying goodbye to all the members, when i walk into the chapel, and it smells TERRIBLE! And i look, and the pile of puke is still there just chilling next to the fireplace cookin for the past three hours! So i am going to start cleaning it up when the district president (who was with us at church today) (other side note on the organization of the church it goes branch/ward-stake-district-area) and he says President Crockett before i leave the general offices of the church just did an audit on our district, and here are the results on your branch, and here is a lit of everything they found wrong in your system that you need to fix and send back to them.

He then hands me a huge list of problems from my branch. So i tell him that i will get right on fixing everything right after i am done with the puke. So i go and put the papers on my desk. And get a bunch of cleaners and stuff to clean up the puke. I then put away all the chairs and hymn books and all that fun stuff. I then spent the next couple of hours fixing the problems in the system and sending them new things, there was literally everything from misspelled names to more tithing to disciplinary council paperwork, like i had to do so much!

 But its ok because now my system is perfect, and the prophet will be happy with my branch haha. After spending hours on the computer sending stuff to salt lake. It was time for me to review all of the visiting teaching informes that was given to me today to see how everyone in the branch is doing and who needs help and all the fun stuff. And then i sent all the home teaching numbers and such things to salt lake (i send alot to the general offices of the church haha) And after all of that it was time for me to work on my own personal needs for the ward (here my companion is helping too, he had a ton of stuff to do too)

And so real quick, my goal is to have my branch strong enough that if by chance the missionaries got taken out of lago ranco that they would still be able to function. And so to achieve this goal i decided that i needed to get everyone with a temple recommend, and a calling. And i need alot of priesthood. Because the branch itself isn't too small, its just made of all women.

So first i printed out a list of all the men members in Lago Ranco, And made plans to give them an assignment so i can reactivate them, get them worthy to hold a calling and a recommend. I then realized that in order to get everyone in the branch to be willing for me to interview them they are going to need a goal. So i started making arrangements for a trip to Santiago in October so all the members can go through the temple.

And so next sunday i am going to announce that in sacrament meeting, and start interviewing more people (i've only done one interview so far. But i have another one planned for this week) I then started making a list of the most important things that we need right now in the branch for callings. And a list of all the members who do not have a calling. But i wasn't fasting or anything so i decided that i am going to wait until a later day to try to extend a calling.

By this time of the day i am just dead, and it was past 9 so i needed to go back to my home. And so referring back to my first statement. Some people say that bishops live in the church. I can say for myself that i know that this statement is true hahaha I have so much more i want to say but i am running out of time. But i have a favor to ask anyone who reads my stuff, please write me letters, it is incredibly difficult to do what i am doing, and i need more support now than i think i have ever needed before. And i am just getting started haha

I love you all!
I am sorry to hear about the death of Lorin i really loved him. He was incredible. It was a little hard for me to read that part, but i know that he is in a much better place now.
Send Sister Brown my love.
I love you all
Keep me posted!

Presidente Elder Superman‏

I cannot find the words the express my feeling for Lago Ranco and my new companion Elder De Regil. I am in love with the people here, and this place. For one i have never seen anywhere was beautiful in my entire life! It is freaking gorgeous!

My home is on the beach on the side of the lake with a great view of a snow capped volcano on the other side. And the people here are fantastic too, it was super funny I found a family the other day, and after we taught them they told me that when i knocked on the door the where going to lie to me and tell me that they were busy so they didn´t have to talk, but i offered to help them cut and organize their firewood, and they were lazy so they wanted to take advantage of the Gringo and the Mexican offering to do their work.

But as we were doing it we talked a bunch and they invited us inside (which i was grateful because it was literally 0 degrees) And we had a really good lesson with them, each person in the family said they want to be baptized but they are not married so right now i´m working on getting that done haha. But after the lesson it was super funny, the dad was talking about how he thought I was awesome, and was wondering how long I was going to be in Lago Ranco, and i told him that i didn´t know because we get changed frequently, and so he offered the funniest thing ever he said Well I have a Cousin shes about 20 years old and she is really beautiful, and i would love to set you two up on a date. And then if you have a girlfriend here in Lago Ranco you could have an excuse to stay for a longer time.

And i just start cracking up, and explain to him that the rules don´t exactly work that way. He still says he´s going to invite her the our next lesson, so i am just going to do a surprise attack lesson and not let the family know before hand when i am coming, because i had enough snake problems in Paillaco, i don´t need them here too haha.

So now on to my companion his name is Elder De Regil and he is from Monte Rey Mexico, and he is legit. I have only been with him for a week, and he is already my favorite companion we get along so good. And it´s awesome i am teaching him how to speak English too, and i have a million stories from that, but i will just have to tell you those in a letter.

So I´m sure everyone is wondering how long it took somebody to call me Elder Superman. I almost made it a whole week hahahaha. Last Night i was in a meeting for Branch presidents, bishops, and stake presidents. And as i walked into the meeting the District President (i think, he may have been a stake president) said Ah Presidente Elder Superman, i´m glad you arrived, we can start the meeting now. Then everyone talked about how i looked like superman. I told them all the i am not the branch President, but i´m the first councilor in Lago ranco, and my companion is the branch president. Then they said, it´s ok your probably going to be the branch president in a few months so get used to it.

And i am not going to lie, it was a little weird being in a meeting with the leaders of the Church, and knowing that i belonged there. I was easily the youngest one there. by at least 8 years (my companion is 27) But helping running the church is really interesting. But as a side note i want to throw out a confirmation of a couple of things that Bro Blaylock my priest quorum adviser said to me once. Actually a couple things. He said One day you are going to have to sit in the bishops chair and not want to. And he also said one day you are going to be in charge of a bunch of youth who don´t do their duty to god. Both of which have now came true. Thank you for your apostate prophesies Bro Blaylock.

But i have learned a lot already with my second calling haha. But i´m not going to publish that stuff all over the internet. Oh random side note, mom when you move this week, do not try to transfer my membership records from or ward to the new one. For one they are no longer there, and Bishop wont be able to find them because they are in the system here in Lago Ranco. Because i need them here to stay access church records, and other fun leadership things. But just email me the name of our new ward and when i leave Ranco i should be able to send my info there. And speaking of moving, can you send me the address to our new house? I need to give it to my mission president. And i would like to be able to still write you.

And and in reference to you sending me a package coud you please send me some a couple pairs of socks, and apparently i left my thermals in Utah so can you send me some of those too please? It would be nice to have those because we are definitely in the winter of the southern half of the farthest south mission in the entire world. I am freezing to death hahahahaha Just kidding I can survive. They haven´t sent me t a place where it snow yet. They just sent me to a place that it rains every day at one degree above freezing (literally) and is below freezing every other day.

It´s a good think i love it here and its ridiculously beautiful or else i would die hahaha I have a couple mins left so i am going to tell a quick story. I spent the night in La Union for the meeting i had the other day. And one of the Elders here is from Mexico, and the other is from Peru. But we where all trying to imitate Mexican Accents. It was freaking Hilarious. Random side note no one believes that i didn´t speak spanish before the mission, or that my first companion was a gringo that never talked to me in spanish. Because literately ever single person i meet makes some remark of how well i speak spanish for only being here for a coup of months, and not knowing spanish before ( I just liked pretending i did haha)

Alright I Love you All Keep me posted with whats going on. And please write me more letters. I am losing my ability to speak in English, which is bad because i have a ton of people that i am teaching English to. One would think that the act of teaching english would preserve ones ability to speak it.

Speaking of which If Shelley Williams reads this, i just wrote a letter to you explaining this in more detail, but it is so incredible difficult to explain words like Duncha, and Creeper in spanish. It was super funny.

Sorry if my email was super jumpy i had a million things i wanted to say but only had time to talk about like 3 of them. Because i have had legit stories this last week, everything from run ins with Gangsters in La Union to   Hiking through beautiful fields with incredible views of the mountains to find a reference. It´s been an incredible week. Y Creo que mejorará aún más esté aproximó semana. (and I think it will get even better this week. J) 
Love you all!  

4.5 months Later‏

So i am going to start my email with 2 random facts. 

First Elder Larsen fixed my white camera i got after i graduated! (i brought it with me even though it was broken) So i can start taking good pictures again!

And the bigger random fact I have moved every 6 weeks starting from the day i left home for Utah. Now in other words that´s me saying that I am saying goodbye to Paillaco this week. Which is a bitter sweet feeling. And the story starts a couple of days ago.

I had the most productive week i have ever had for finding new investigators. I´ve even set 4 investigators with baptismal dates, and had 3 investigators attend church. And the ward has expressed multiple times to me how they think it is awesome how much the branch has grown over the last couple of months. And just recently the zone leaders arranged for an invasion of Paillaco and so the zone leaders sent me 5 other sets of missionaries (11 missionaries) and had me arrange them to go around and do a ton of work in my sector, and by the end of the day i got 8 new investigator, and nearly 50 names of people that i could go visit and try to turn them into investigators.

So in other  words the work here in Paillaco is exploding there is so much we are doing. And so Saturday night i was writing in my journal about how i´m so excited to be able to do so much work, and i was writing about some of the families that i am really exited to go teach when my phone starts ringing. And its my zone leaders. And they asked me to put the phone on speaker phone so that my companion could hear too. And he then said ¨´Elder Crockett.....You have been reassigned to work in Lago Ranco. You new companion is Elder Derriger he is from Mexico¨¨

We then talked about Lago Ranco a little bit and my new companion. And i wont be there until Wednesday but what i know so far about the place is that it is a tiny branch, i am assuming it´s in a house. And my new companion is literally the Branch President there. With Priesthood keys and everything, And so on top of being missionaries we are also going to literally run the church there in Lago Ranco, him as branch president and me as a councilor.

I have only heard good things about my new companion from other missionaries, and how he is a really hard worker and we will do alot of good, and I am assuming that they are right about that because I assume it takes alot of work to be a branch president and a missionary haha.

I am a little sad about leaving Paillaco because i am going to miss the baptisms of literally all of the investigators that i have been working with, and i am done so much work here. I wish i could have done more though. I know that i am definitely leaving Paillaco much stronger than how i found it, but my dream to see Paillaco turn into a ward may still happen but it will have to be without me being there. Only a couple people in the branch know i´m leaving, i´ve only told the branch president (he asked me to do something in church next week, but then i told him that i cant haha), and i´ve told my mamita (the lady who cooks food for me every day), she was actually sad that i was going, Everyone else is going to have to find out through gossip or the fact that they wont see me anymore hahaha.

I´m pretty much out of time for today but i am waiting on my companion Elder Larsen to finish writing a story to his family so i am going to write a little about him. I didn´t realize it until i was told i was being transferred but he really has helped me a lot with growing personally, and me and him became really good friends. He only has about 6 months left on his mission, so i don´t know if i will ever see him again after tomorrow but I am thankful for everything he has done to help, if he knew if he was going it or not hahaha

I may try looking him up after the mission. It won´t be hard i´ve said his full name so many times i am never going to forget it hahaha (that was a hidden priesthood blessing joke haha)  it´s Aaron Paul Larsen. Well i need to go but thank you so much for keeping me posted. You're in my prayers these next couple weeks about the adoption trials and the new house.

P.S. Truman if you die when i´m gone don´t worry i´d get permission from my mission president to come back to speak at your funeral hahaha You are the absolute best friend i have ever had and my brother on top of that. Random fact 3 the other day i had a dream that you were called to Serve in the Osorno Chile mission too and i was your trainer. That would be pretty legit haha. Alright love you all please keep me posted!

(Truman was sick...nothing to worry about, he's fine now. J.)