NO Investigators? That can't happen.

Before i start i got the package It came at probably the most inconvenient time possible, but i got it so im happy. I got it just a few mins before leaving for the airport, and i had already sent away one of my suitcases away to arrive there early. So when i got the package i opened it up, and squished everything in between my backpack my carry on and the little amount of space i had left in my suitcase. I didnt really have time to enjoy anything until i got to puerto montt, and thank you i love everything. I want to use an exclamation point but my keyboard is broken and all the top row doesnt work.

Ok so this week has been quite a new experience for me. And it was really a sign to me about how much trust that the mission president really has in me.

I got to my new sector, and i was, and still am, super excited to start working here. So i drop off my bags in my new apartment, and i tell my companion that i want to visit all of our investigators so that i could get to know them. And then  there was kind of a awkward silence and he said ``Umm, thats just the thing...We dont exactly have any investigators...´´. And started telling me about how Pichipelluco was a really hard sector to work in and that there wasnt very many people to work with here. And then offered to show me around the sector so that i could get to know it. So i said ya, and we walked around the sector for a couple hours, doing absolutely NOTHING. 

We get home and we start planning, and so i ask my companion who he wanted to visit, and he could not think of anyone. No investigators, no less active members, no partial member families, and no active members either. He couldnt think of anyone to visit. So we didnt plan, because we had no one.

The next morning for my personal study, i break out the area book, right away my companion told me that he doesnt know what was in there because he had never had to write anything in there. not even once. So i bust it open, and i spend a little bit more than an hour reading all of the teaching records from old investigators from before the area was closed (oh little known fact, the missionaries were taken out of my area a couple of months ago, and my current companion was assigned to re open it with his old companion, but neither of them was really motivated, you could say and so nothing happened.} So i wrote down all of their addresses in my planner, i then studied every signed progress record that missionaries have filled out in the past year, and any person and address that was there that wasnt in the teaching records i write down in my planner as well.

When we left to work we dedicated the entire day to visiting the people who i had written down in my planner. And every time we didnt find the person we were looking for, we would knock doors until we found someone we could teach. And that went on for a couple of days. And good news we have investigators now. 

Now i am incredibly grateful to God that he helped us find so many people so quick. My new companion Elder Munoz, from Rancagua Chile, is now super excited and hes expressed to me that he is teaching more with me in one day than what he was doing with his old companion in an entire week. When he told me that at first i thought in was an exaggeration, but i am the district leader here so i have access to all of the numbers of all the missionaries in my district, and it was true haha.

Now from that part of my story it sounds like this past week has all been just fun and games being guided by the spirit the whole time. And it was like that, but man i dont think i have ever had more spiritual tests in my entire mission, or temptations either. First of all my new sector is mainly college housing. And well i dont need to get into talking about how College girls in Chile react when I knock their doors. Not saying im super awesome or attractive or anything, but some are just TOO receptive, to put it like that. Dont get me wrong i have found a couple of girls who i think want to talk to us for a legitimate desire to learn about Christ. But there was some where i doubt that.

Another challenge. Right now i am in charge of 4 Elders (including myself} and 5 sisters. And we are all working in the same ward. Now the sisters are awesome, but a little fact about one of them is there is one that when i first met her, i forced myself to never talk to her, and avoid her at pretty much all costs just so that i would stay focused. And that worked out pretty well for me, up until now, where i have almost daily contact with her. And i am still in my dont talk to her mode, but now its in a dont talk to her unless its 100 percent necessary mode. And i could go into that more, and how its not really working out too well, but i am choosing not to haha. 

But good news she in ending her mission in 2 weeks, and so its just a short time of fighting against myself in pretty much every single moment in church, in activities, and when i see them ever day. I am pretty dang sure that the only reason why i have this problem is because the mission president (who knows me pretty well) and God just wanted to test me. And guess what, im going to pass my test. I have too much work to do here to let myself get distracted

And there is a bunch of other little things that i want to talk about, but i will choose not too mainly for time.

I am really glad though for this experience, because i am growing a lot here. At least thats what i tell myself haha. I am really glad that i am here with all of my little tests right now though and not at the begging of my mission. Because i am 100 percent sure that i was not strong enough to have to deal with so much when i started my mission.

Welps i love you all thanks for all the birthday wishes.

Unexpected News‏

I was visiting a less active member, when i hear my phone ringing. And it was a ring tone that i did not recognize (i have a different ringtone for every different category of person ex. investigator, less active, active member, missionary, leaders) (i didnt set them the missionaries that where here before me did) And generally when my phone goes off in the middle of a lesson i just cut the call, But i take it out to see who it is and it said ``Presidente Rappleye´´ And just like every other missionary in the world acts when they see their Presidente calling my first thought was ``Freak. What is going to happen.´´ So i excuse myself from the lesson (we were actually just entered the house, and hadnt started teaching yet so i didnt feel bad stepping out for a second.

And i start talking to the mission president and he starts asking me alot of questions, he asks things like ``How do you feel about your mission? Do you like being a missionary? What are your feeling about the country Chile? And a bunch of just super random questions. And so i answered them not having any idea why. Then there was a min of silence after the storm of random questions. And he said ``Yup, you´ll be perfect for the job´´ He then told me ``Elder Crockett, i have a very special assignment for you. I am transferring you to Pichipilluco, Puerto Montt.´´

then he told me ``Elder Crockett, They really need your help there in Pichi´´ And then he explained to me the situation there, and gave me some specific directiones of things that he wanted me to do. And he said ``Can i trust you with this assignment Elder Crockett?´´ And i said ``Ya, dont worry about it president, i can handle it´´ (looking back i dont think it mattered how i responded he would probably have sent me there anyway haha) And then after i finished talking to president he talked to my companion for a few mins. ANd then we taught the less active member, and we left. In the streets my companion asked me what president said and i told him about my transfer, and he thought it was super awesome because he just came from there a couple of months ago (they actually closed the sector while he was there and they just re opened it a little while ago.)

Im not sure what part of Pichipilluco that i am going to be in but i am assuming that its the one he just came from. But i am super excited to go there!!! I love Puerto Montt so much. And i already know how to get around there, because the sector that i am going to be in is from one of the malls there, to the hospital where i had to go to a few months ago. Im super excited. The closest thing ive had to working in a city before now was in Puerto Varas, but i dont think its the same. Ill be right up against the Ocean as well. Im super excited for that. Granted i cant go in the water, but just walking along the boardwalk is awesome enough. I always loved walking there when i had to travel to Puerto Montt.

But anyway my companion was a little freaked out because the two of us was dividing the sector here in Aysen, and i was going to take one, and him the other, but now we is going to have to take the lead in his own sector, and at the same time teach the new sector to the new missionaries that are coming in.

Just like normal i did not want to tell any of the members that i was getting transferred because every time you announce that you are leaving here, everyone invites you to their home to eat, and to take pictures and stuff, and you lose a whole ton of teaching time. And so i was going along and i did not tell anyone that i was getting transferred until my Ward Mission Leader talked to me, and he was asking if we could have a meeting this Thursday. And i said ``Ya of coarse we can´´ And then my companion said ``Well of coarse I can, You´re not going to be here´´ And then our WML said ``Not going to be here? Why not?´´ And so i said ``Well its because i´m going to be in Puerto Montt this Thursday´´ 

 

Shortly after my ward mission leader when around, and announced to Everyone that i was leaving. And of coarse everyone wanted to invite us over to say goodbye. And so there goes all of my hopes for teaching my investigators this week. I didnt have to plan today because the members filled in up with Family home evenings (if they invite friends we are all good, but i assume that they wont), And most of my day Tuesday is filled up as well. And Wednesday i am going to be in the airport all day. Freaking Alfredo, it´s your fault hahahahaha Just kidding love that guy he is awesome. He was planning to go around with us to all our appointments this Tuesday, but now they are just all eating appointments, i bet he is happy about that hahahaha

 

But thinking about it its probably good that the members know im going. Because i have been here sense November, so alot of people looked at me as part of the branch. And they would have been pretty sad if i just bounced without saying goodbye (like i was planning on doing haha)

My new companion is names Elder Muñoz. I think he´s from Chile. but im not sure. But i am super excited to get to work there. They didnt tell me if i am going to be district leader there but i am going to assume yes, because normally in this mission when you become a district leader you are one for the rest of your mission, until your made a zone leader, or an assistant, or until you go home. And more then that they told me that my new district is 100% Sister Missionaries except for me, and my companion, so there is no one else to be the leader haha

 

I am just going to lie about my birthday and tell everyone that i am already 20 when i get there, because i doubt anyone would believe me say ``Hello, i am Elder Crockett. There is my first sunday here in Puerto Montt, and tomorrow is my birthday, so lets throw me a birthday part.´´ hahaha

Last year i dint celebrate my birthday because i forgot about it, this year i probably wont celebrate it because i need the members to see me as a hard worker before they see me as a normal person that has birthdays and stuff. i´ll just have to buy myself a pack of oreos or something haha

Welps Love you all! Keep me posted!

New Assignment

Elder Crockett, we have a new assignment for you We are sending two more missionaries to Aysen in a couple of days. We need you to divide the sector, and take care of all of the preparations to receive the new missionaries.´´

``Ya dont worry, about it. Its not the first time i´ve had to do this. I´ll call you back when i have everything ready.´´

So i am dividing a sector again. I had to do it once before about a year ago, and so i already had an idea of all the work that i´ve had to do, its a little different than what i had to do in Paillaco, because i had to include parts of other small towns, and take away part of the sisters sector, in order to have 3 equal sized (by inhabitants) sectors. More than likely i will be the one with my new companion that will be opening the new sector. Which is good because i was needing a little bit of change in my life seeing on how i´ve been here sense November, and i have literally knocked every single door in my current area, and so a new sector will be better. But its funny the division i had to make there is one sector that we are going to give to probably my current companion with his new comp, and they will have the most people to teach, but its all the ghetto parts of Aysen haha. I really want to work in that sector, for mainly two reasons, one because most of my current investigators are there, and its the most dangerous parts of the city, and so the missionaries there are going to have to coolest stories haha.

 

But more than likely i will have to open up the new part of the sector, which is really just two big communities, one is all the rich people, and stores in the city, and the other part is on the other side of the river, where there hasnt been Elders in a really long time. There is no good maps that has the streets of this part of the city written down, so it is going to be an adventure finding out where people live there.

The third part i we are giving to the sister missionaries, it is on the south side of the river, the west half of the city. And they also get a couple of little town that are outside of aysen so they are going to have to travel occasionally. Its the same area they were in before but its smaller. Initially they got mad at me for cutting out of their sector, but then i showed them the maps and showed them how they have the best piece of the pie and so they are less mad at me haha. Just kidding they are happy now.

This week was actually super slow for me. I did a ton of service. I entered 5 cubic meters of fire wood, then we had to get it cut with a chainsaw, and then after it was cut i had to enter it into a small cabin thing for firewood, and organize it all. That took forever.

I also Painted a House. Half way through the new member who needed our help had to leave, and left me and my companion there alone to paint the other half of the house. Also took forever haha

I also had to help a member whos lives on the side of the river, whos house was starting to collapse, and i had to dig away a little hill. And move the earth from said hill to underneath the house to re enforce it. The member did help with that though.

 

And there was alot more too, with loading up trucks, and other things like that, but long story short, i now understand the importance of going to Collage, because i spent one entire week doing manual labor, and there is no way that i am going to be able to do that for my entire life hahahahahahaha. I did sleep really good this week though haha of coarse i would wake up and my entire body was sore haha. As a missionary its not too uncommon that we will spend a whole day doing service, or doing a little bit of service every day. But almost all day everyday for an entire week freaking killed us haha.

This week i did have a really cool experience. Back in November i was teaching a newly married family, but lost contact with them, because they went on vacations for all of the month of December, and as soon as they got back they moved houses, and changed their cell phones. And so it was 100% impossible to get into contact with them. But they returned home from their vacations in January, and my companion and i tried to track them down, but we couldnt find them. But the other day we were leaving from one teaching appointment we had (one of the few that we had that had nothing to do with service haha), and were running a little late for our next appointment, and so we were very quickly walking (almost running) to our next appointment when i feel the need to stop walking, and use a different road. 

 

So i tell my companion to stop, and then decide to take a different street that was leading in almost the opposite direction of of our appointment. And i think my companion thought that i was taking some gang precaution or something because he followed me without saying anything (it was in one of the sometimes dangerous areas) And as we were walking down this street i say a car that i knew for a fact that i had seen before. So we knock the door, and the wife that i used to teach answered the door, and was super excited but super surprised to see us. And she lets us come in and we talk with her and her husband (the husband we super receptive before they left, he is even more receptive now) And we set up a appointment with them and then left to our appointment we were already late for. We came back the other day and taught them again, and they are awesome. But i imagine that i will tell yall more about them another day.

Welps Love Yall!!!!

Sign Language Miracles‏

So this week i had something happen that was really awesome. As some of you my remember whilei was in the MTC i wasted about an entire week dedicating myself to learn sign language. But anyways all of my sign language training actually was useful this week.

I was vising a less active family, who has not come to church in a really long time, a couple of years. And i went to teach them, and only two of the kids attended us. And so we are there talking to them, when one of the kids says something in sing language to his sister, trying to keep a secret from us. But little did they know that Elder Crockett is a tri lingual missionary. And i totally caught their entire secret, so i called them out, and then told them that (in sign language) that i speak a little bit of sign language, and they thought it was super cool and so the three of us start talking in sign language (my companion was totally lost the whole time haha),

and as we are talking their dad comes in and sees that we are all talking in sign language, and so he sends his two kids out, and then he starts talking to me in sign language as well (but he also spoke in spanish at the same time) And so we are all talking in sign language, and he is teaching me and my companion more sign language, and after talking to him for a while he really started to open up with us. And started to tell us about a ton of awesome memories that he had speaking sign language, and after a whole we asked why did he start learning sign language.

And he told us that he used to have a son, who when he was a little kid got sick, and lost his ability to hear. And so he decided to learn how to speak in sign language so that he and is son would be able to communicate. And so they both learned how to speak in SL together. And he started telling us, how he would always be with his son. They did everything together. And he showed us a bunch of pictures of him too. But they were always together. But 7 years ago (when his son was in his 20s) his son died. And it was incredibly painful for him. Especially because they literally did everything together every day for 20 years. and when he died it was so painful for him to see sign language, that he forced all of his family to stop speaking in sign language, and he stopped speaking in that language as well.

And for years and years he was doing everything possible to forget about his son, because it was so painful to think about him because of how much he loved him that he did everything in him power to stop thinking about him. But then I come along throwing out sign language like i know what im doing, and it really touched his heart. And he remembered all of those wonderful experiences that he had with his son, and the rest of his family. And he got really emotional talking with us and said ``Elders you have just touched my heart in a way that you can not possible imagine. You have just helped much more that i will ever be able to explain. Thank you so much´´

I remember i went home that night and i was so amazed with how God used my idiotic desires to learn Sign Language to help somebody so much. I started learning the language just to waste time because i was learning spanish so quickly that i didnt care about studying spanish at all and so i just dedicated myself to learn other languages (just three others Portuguese, mandarin Chinese, and Sign Language) (And even though in my mission i have had opportunities to use all three of the languages this was really the first time that i used it to help someone understand that God is really there, and that He Loves them.) And i just thought it was so amazing that God used my stupid time wasting desires to reach out to one of his lost sheep. I could keep going on about my thought of this but i already have a couple pages in my Journal dedicated to that and so if anyone cares just ask me to show it to you some day, and i totally will.

I still have a ton of internet time so i am going to write you another story from this week. I was contacting a reference that i got this last week. (And oh my gosh that reference was awesome. I am helping her stop smoking right now, and i have never seen someone stop smoking as miraculously quick as she is doing) But after contacting the reference i was walking down the street when i little girl contacts me in the street and said ``Hey do you want to come to my house?´´ And i say ``Maybe another day we are kind of busy right now´´ And she says ``Oh dont worry about.´´ 

 

She then grabs my hand and tries dragging me to her house. So  follow the little girl, and she brings us to her door step and says ``My mom is inside waiting for you. I`ll knock the door for you´´ She then starts slamming on her door yelling ``MOM THERES SOMEONE HERE WHO WANT TO TALK WITH YOU!!!!!´´ And i just think to myself ``Oh my gosh, i can just feel an awkward moment coming.´´ (which is normal, missionaries have alot of awkward moments haha) But the woman answers the door and is super nice! And she invited us to come in, and we ask if there was a man there, but she told us no, so we told her that we couldn't come in but we could just talk in the door way, and so she told us to wait, and left, and then came back with a couple of chairs and gave them to us to sit in. 

 

And so we just started to talk to her there in the door, and immediately she starts talking about baptism. And how her two kids (little girl is 8 years old, and a son that is 10) have never been baptized, and wanted that we baptized them. And then before i had time to speak started saying about how she is also willing to get baptized Mormon if she feels that the church is true. And so i teach them a little bit, and set the three of them up with a baptism date (thats after transfers so i may not be here to baptize them), and then set up another appointment to come by with a member.

 

In just this last week ive already taught them 3 time. The little girl is super cute she wanted to draw the other day so i drew her a truck, and she drew herself drifting in with two missionaries the back, one of them a black guy, and the other one a white guy with glasses 

This was actually a really awesome week for us, we found a ton of new people to teach and they are all awesome.. Welp I love you all. Keep me posted on your adventures

Who do you know that.....?‏

So funny fact, when you guys told me that you bought a mulberry tree, i had no idea what the heck a mulberry was, so I shoout to my companion ``¿Hey Elder Usted Sabe que es una Mulberry?´´ )Do you know what a Mulberry is?´´ And he said that he had no idea, so i told him to look it up in our english to spanish dictionary that we have buried under a bunch of other books in our storage (because no one uses it haha) And so he looks up Mulberry in the Dictionary and shouts our ``¡Mora! ¡La fruta se llama Mora en Español!´´ (The fruit is named Mora in Spanish´´ And i shouted back ``OH! MORA! Listo, ahora se que es una Mulberry!´´ (Oh ok, know i know what a Mulberry is) I thought it was funny that in order to learn a new word in English i had to look it up in a Spanish dictionary to know what it was. And honestly that is not the first time that has happened on my mission. Actually i´ve realized on my mission that Dad has a really good Vocabulary in English, and so occasionally i have to translate some of the words he uses into Spanish, and then they make sense to me. And i still have like 9-10 more months here in chile. I am doomed haha I have no idea how i am going to survive in an English Speaking Society

This week was pretty awesome, the other day in my district meeting i talked about the importance of References to my missionaries. (Actually i could spend a whole email talking about being in charge of District meetings its super awesome) (It was my first official time teaching a District meeting too!!! Every other while while i was a leader it was a meeting with an Apostal or the mission President''

 

 But real quick for those of you who dont know what a district meeting is its a meeting that all missionaries have ever week that is about 2 hours long. And The district leader is in charge of talking to the district about the strong points of the week, and then places were we can improve, and then uses to next hour and a half giving a class to the missionaries about something specific that they can do this week to do better. And there is normally different short practice teachings and stuff like that. And Shoot i do not think that 2 hours is time to teach enough. Granted The missionaries would not focus very well if it was much longer. But i planned to teach my class about 3 different topics . Talking with Everyone. Asking References. And Baptism Invitations. But i only had enough time to teach about the first two. And oh my gosh i wanted to have more time but i dont haha

 

But Anyway I taught alot about References, and put a huge focus on how important it is that we ask for references from Everybody. And Sunday night when all of my missionaries called me to give me their numbers I was super impressed with mostly everything they gave me, and i will talk about that a little more in a little bit. But after i got the numbers from everyone i had to call my Zone Leaders to pass them the numbers of my district. And when i got to the part of References Received and Contacted i told him the number ( i wont say what it is. But i said it, and my leader said ``Hold up did you just say X. Received, and X, contacted.´´ And i said yes i did. And my zone leader said (they were in my meeting so they know that i talked about references)

 

 ``Elder Crockett I have never seen so many references before in my life. That is awesome to see that your missionaries are listening to what you have to say, because this is incredible. How do you feel?´´ And i replied ``Well, i really like that we have so much references, but we have only contacted a fourth of them, and we have no excuse to leave so many references just hanging around there. Im going to have to talk to my missionaries again to get them to start contacting them because they must not have understood well enough when i taught them´´ And they were shocked at my reply thinking i was going to say that i felt awesome and that i was super happy for  my district. 

 

Dont get me wrong i am super Psyched for them they are going to have so many new people to teach this week, and in my District meeting tomorrow i am going to congratulate ever one of them, and i`ll probably even bring in Cookies or something to Celebrate a little bit, but we can do better, and tomorrow they are going find that our too. But with Love hahaha

 

But after i talked to the leaders i decided to add up all the numbers of the references we received in the past month. And just so you know every companion has received at least one reference every week, most of them more that 1. And the number of references Received and Contacted for the entire last month was 8 times less than what we received and contacted in this last week alone. And here i am preparing a meeting to get them to realize, that even though they are Incredible missionaries, and are Honestly Working a ton of Miracles in their Areas, that they can be better. I have a lot of expectacions for my missionaries hahaha

 

Ok Earlier i mentioned about how i was impressed with all of their numbers. And from what my missionaries told me (just so you know i am doing to same things that i am telling my missionaries to do, and i am seeing the same miracles that the are telling me that they are seeing) my missionaries told me that as soon as they started asking references from every one that the members that they asked got really excited to start to leave with them to teach, and so not only did we have a ton of references, the members left with everyone alot more than normal as well, so we started to teach more than twice as much as we had last week with members, and so they have been finding a ton of new people to teach, and when they are not leaving with the members have a big focus on finding even more people teaching them, and asking them for more references. 

 

And so here we are with more work than we even know what to do with. In my personal area, i have had too many set appointments that it was physically impossible to teach all of them when they wanted us too, and so my companion and i are having to (or forced to, you could say) to leave on splits for the entire day so that we could teach all the people that we needed to. That was actually kind of hard because members dont have time to go around with the missionaries all day long, but that is a story for a different day haha. 

 

Sadly i personally have only had the time to contact half of the references we received, and so i need to pick up my game, and get around to contacting the references that i still have, and thats really saying something because i have a ton left haha.

 

The favorite reference that i received, i went to teach her with a member, and i invited her to get baptized on the 28th of March, (in three weeks, because i have another investigator who turn 18 on the 18th, and wanted to get baptized on her birthday. And so i thought i would just save time and invite her to get baptized the same day as the other girl) and she said to me ``No the 28th is too soon. I want to get baptized in April, when is the next baptism serving you are preparing?´´ And i said ``The next one we have in April 11th´´ And before i had time to finish invited her to be baptized on that day she cut me off and said, Yes thats perfect, i will bet baptized on the 11th´´ And so then i reassured her that we were going to keep teaching her to help her feel ready  to get baptized when that day comes by. But she already seemed pretty set on her decision haha.