From Endless rain to Endless Snow‏

Half stories.., A DONDE LO VISTE! i never do that hahahaha

 

So speaking of rabies shots, i have been regularly getting them (not in the stomach) and my last one is supposed to be this wednesday. The problem is i am supposed to be flying down to punta arenas this tuesday.....

 

I got a call this week from my mission president this week, and he said ``Elder Crockett, a few weeks ago, i was praying about you, to know where the Lord needs you most. And Elder Crockett, the Lord has called you to serve as a  Zone Leader in Punta Arenas.´´

 

I responded how i was going to do everything possible to help the missionaries down there And my mission president replied, ``I know you will, thats why the Lord is sending you there.´´

 

I decided to look up the forecasts of this week down there. There is a High if 1 degree. and a low of -3. It is literally the farthest south city in the entire world, and is just separated by antartica by a short boat ride. They tell me that there is literally wild penguins down there, and there are winds so strong that they literally have handrails in the sidewalk so that the wind wont blow you over.

 

the forecast shows that it should be snowing when i get there.

 

I am actually SUPER Excited to go down there. I have literally wanted to go down to Punta Arenas ever since my first day here in chile. And i am finally going down there! All the missionaries are jealous of me, there are very very few missionaries who get to be in Coyhaique, or Punta Arenas, even less who get to be in BOTH.

 

I dont know know how many missionaries i will be in charge of. I am assuming that the minimum that it could be  3 districts, or about 15 missionaries-

 

Im not going to lie i think i am going to miss being a district leader, i have been one for about 6 months now, and i will probably be a zone leader for the next 6.

 

I actually just got a email from the secretary of the mission, telling me that the mission president is going to have a meeting this friday will all of the Zone leaders in the mission, and he sent me an email specifically saying that he is gong to try to change my flight to a different day so i can be at the meeting, if not i am going to have to attend via Skype, which i hope i can be there, this week all of the sister missionaries that started the mission with me are going home, and i would like to be there in Osorno to say goodbye to them. But if not its cool.

 

I have told very few members that i am leaving. But i told one and they said ``ALREADY! I was just getting excited to do missionary work. The work was exploding here, it was so awesome!´´ The work s still going to do just fine here, Elder MArsden (my last companion) is coming in in my place, and i know that he will be able to do an awesome job here.

 

Other random fact. This week a group of criminals broke into our house and robbed a bunch of stuff. We werent home it was while we were out working. It was literally the 5th time that this house has been robbed just this year. Granted its because the missionaries before us were idiots, and even though they got robbed they didn't do anything about it. But they didnt steal anything that was mine, just a couple of things that were from the mission. But we came home to find the front gate open, and i knew instantly that they broke in because i never leave that open.

 

But imitatively after getting robbed i talked to the mission leaders, and made arrangements to buy all of the things that were stolen, i then replaced locks, and got a member that is a carpenter to come in and make the house a safer place. I doubt that the house will be robbed again. Its like a fortress now haha.

 

But this week was super awesome for us. We dedicated a ton of time knocking doors, and we immediately started teaching anyone who would listen to us. And wow we found a ton of people. There was one family who just moved in from Argentina last week and they said ´``as a family the other day we really wanted to get started god here in chile, and we decided that we wanted to start attending church as a family, but we didnt know which one to go too´´ (the very next day after the family had this conversation) ``KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK´´ They were very excited to see us and let us come in right away, and when we invited them to be baptized they immediately said Yes.

 

But it was about time for me to get transferred, the sector was starting to get going strong so there was no more need to have me here hahahahaha. But i am happy we found a ton of awesome people. We baptized one of our investigators, his name is Jerson, Dudes a boss. Ill send you pics of his baptism next week.

 

Welp i am going to bounce i have a bunch of things i need to do to get ready for my flight. (whether its tomorrow or saturday i  dont know yet, but we shall see.)

 

Love you all!

Temptation

 ok time for cool quotes of the week:

``If we weren´t there, those criminals would have gotten away. But thanks to us they will have to face both earthly and heavenly justice´´

(on a different day a conversation in between me and my comp.)

``Elder Crockett, you just saved my life...´´

``YOU´RE AN IDIOT!!!!!!!WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING´´

``Elder you dont understand, they would have literally killed me had you hadnt done something.

``I KNOW, IT´S BECAUSE YOU WERE ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT! DON´T EVER MAKE ME HAVE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN! (after calming down my breathing) Alright, well it past now, so lets get back to work.´´

haha i wasnt actually mad at my companion i think it was just the same yelling that parents do when their kid does something stupid and gets hurt.

So this sunday was actually really awesome, because in sacrament meeting i was sitting on the stand because i direct the hymns, but i was up there and i was looking at all of the congregation and i realized something.

the first week that i was here there was about 20 people who came to sacrament meeting. The room was practically empty haha. But yesterday as i was sitting there on the stand i decided to count all the people who came to church and there was like 40 persons! And i was thinking about them, and almost every single one of them (that wasnt there my first couple of weeks here) were less active members who i have searched for and taught and helped them come back. I was so happy, this may seem kind of bad to say but i think i was happier about having all of those lost sheep coming back to church then i was when i saw my investigators come in haha. Well thats only half true, i was also super happy when i saw that, but i was equally as happy for each less active member who has started to come but there was just alot more of them and so my happiness what just added up haha

But believe it or not even though i was (am) super happy with the progress that i am seeing here, i realize that i can be doing alot better, because even though we have been finding new people to teach i want to find even more, so this week my companion and i set the goal that we are going to do alot more contacts, yes the things that we have been doing have been working, and we are seeing a nice and steady progress here, i just  want to see a nice and steady progress that goes alot faster hahahahaha and so we are dedicating this week that is coming up on just contacting everyone, and teaching everyone in the street, and then ask every single one of those people for references. And i know that when we do this that we are going to have more people to teach.

So i wanted to share something funny with you guys. So i am really good friends with all of the missionaries that i am in charge of, they are awesome, but oh my gosh they are little tempters haha So little known fact, sense i have gotten to Chile i have become an addict to Soccer, i love it. in fact i bought a soccer ball a little while ago, and every day for my exercises i wake up early just to practice soccer with my companion. (actually thats only half true, because every other day we wake up at 5:45 to run a half hour to play basketball with a couple of other elders for an hour) 

 

But when we dont do that i am practicing futbol. But the thing is in my mission there is a rule that we can only play soccer in between us and our companion, no one else, because a ton of people have gotten injured playing, and they decided its better if we just cant play it, so for those who really care we can play between us and our companion. But anyways 2 of the Elders in my district came over to my house one p day and saw my soccerball and they wanted to play it, so i told them that we cant because of the rules.

 

They said ``But Elder Crockett, you´re the district leader, you have the authority to give us permission to play, Plus nothing bad is going to happen, and the Zone Leaders arent going to find out because they live really far away. And i know you want to play too´´ i responded ``Get thee hence Satan!" And then reenforced that i wasnt going to let them break the rules. But they tried for a super long time to get me to let them play inbetween the 4 of us. But i told them no. But i just thought that it was super funny that how hard they tried to tempt me to play soccer. And i thought about the kind of temptations that i had before the mission in comparison to what i have now. And i just thought was funny and wanted to share that with you. 

Well i got to go. But i love you all. I didnt read you emails yet i just printed them out, but i will respond to and questions that you had next week, Presuming there was any haha. Love you!!!

What a difference

So this week, was pretty dang awesome if i say so myself. So the biggest battle that i have had here in this sector, was finding new people to teach. That is one of the side effects of having lazy missionaries in there before you, they leave you with nothing. So literally i have been spending every single day the past month, just knocking doors, and asking references. But it is FINALLY WORKING. 

 

These last couple weeks we have been finding so many people super awesome! And throughout the week, after teaching someone we set up an appointment. And Sunday comes along, and our agenda for the next week (now this week) was just filled with a ton of appointments with these new people we have. And so in priesthood we started to tell the members about the new people we had so we could get them to come leave with us. And literally every single one of the people we had found, was a friend of the members! 

 

And so they got super excited to work with us, because they realized that all the people we were teaching was their friends. So they all wanted to leave with us! And they even offered to change some of the appointments so that the person could come over to their home so that we could teach them there! And it was super awesome! And i remember after church i reflected back on just a couple of weeks ago, and i couldnt help but think about how most of the people who were now super willing to go working with me, just a couple weeks earlier were all mad and yelling at me for a a bunch of stupid stuff. Blessing of being a hard worker hahaha

So i actually dont have too much to tell you guys about this week. It was good, but  hasta alli nada mas hahaha

So i am going to include a part for specifically Truman. the rest of you can read it if you want. But Truman, one of the things that i do in my personal study time that you can do will help you a ton to really absorb all of preach my gospel into your head, (and heart).

What i do, is when i read Preach my gospel i have a study journal, and i write down all of the key points in a paragraph, and i will write down all of the quotes that stand out to me. And then i will put i reference next to the quote to know what page it was found if (Chptr 1, page 3, paragraph 4)

For example ( i am going to do this by memory to show give you a rough idea of what i do, but i dont have my PMG with me so it may only be half accurate what i say, and all the quotes i know are in spanish, so it will probably be translated differently)

Chapter 1: Your purpose

Section: The gospel blesses the Families

``families who live the gospel will be united in this life, and in the eternities´´ (page, paragraph)

But i do that with every chapter, and every section, and it really helps me because when i am teaching i remember the things that i am writing down and i can use it while i am teaching.

And when you are a leader in your mission you will be surprised how often you are going to have to quote parts of preach my gospel, and pull out different parts of PMG in district meeting or something.

But i will make you a promise that if you master Preach my gospel before you start your mission that you will have no fear of teaching because the lord will bring back to your memory any part of the book that is necessary to be able to teach it.

And just going with my thoughts right now, the only time that you are going to feel comfortable with what you are saying is if the spirit is telling it you to say it. You´ll be able to recognize the difference between your own thought and the thoughts that the spirit puts in your head.

And there is a quote from PMG that i really like that says (more or less) 

``The message of the restoration has to be taught by divine power´´ That is in chapter one, under a section that i believe is called teaching by the spirit, so you an look it up to find the actual quote

If there is anything that i wish i did earlier on in my mission was master PMG, i started too late. I focused most of my studies on the normal scriptures, which is super awesome, i learned a ton, but i feel i could have been a much more effective teacher in the beginning of my mission had i given more of a priority to PMG.

I love that you told me how ofter you notice when you are being guided by the spirit, getting used to following these impressions is going to help you alot in Michigan.

Alright i have to bounce. But i love you keep. Keep me Posted!

Miracle

I have a super awesome story that i want to tell you guys this week. And just so you dont get lost in it i am going to be telling it from two different points of view, mine, and from the way a sister in the church told the story.

Starting with her.

A sister gets up in sacrament meeting to bear her testimony. And she starts.

``One time i remember in a general conference that the Lord will put angels in our lives to tell us what He wants us to know. And i have learned that the missionaries are some of these angels´´

She then started to say 

```There was one day a little while ago, when my husband was very sick, and so we called the missionaries to come over to our house to give him a blessing. And they came over right away. And after we spoke for a little while to get to now each other, because we didnt know either of the missionaries because they were both new to the ward, we asked one of them to give my husband a blessing.

``The Elder then put his hands on my husbands head and started to give him a blessing, and the spirit was very strong in the room as he was giving it. But then in the middle of the blessing the Elder Stopped, and he was silent for a couple of mins not saying a word....´´

this is where i am jumping into what was happening on my end.

The revelation never stopped, the spirit was very strong, and there was never a second that i didnt know exactly what the Lord wanted me to say. The thing was, there was something that i felt i needed to say, but i did not have enough faith to say the words that came into my mind, i was too scared. I knew that the power was real, i have seen an uncountable number of miracles, but i did not have the faith necessary to say the words that i felt like i needed to say. And i fought with myself for a min deciding if i was going to say the phrase that was in my head, or if i was going to ignore it, i was starting to lean towards not saying the things i felt like i needed to say when i heard a voice say to me ``You are my servant, you say the things i tell you to say´´ That was enough for me. there was no way that i was going to do something that was contrary to what i know had a perfect knowledge of what the Lord wanted me to say.

(back to the woman)

``After a little more than a min in silence the Elder started speaking again and he said the words ``The Lord is sending you the child that you have been waiting, and praying for, for such a long time.

``And i was shocked, know all of you know this, but the Elder didnt, that i have had a couple of really hard miscarriages, and that my husband and I have been wanting to have a child for a long, long time, but seeing how im now almost 40 years old, we figured that it would be impossible. 

``The Elder then finished the blessing, and my husband and i were both crying. The Elder then very quickly said ``I know that the power of the priesthood is real, and if you are faithful, the promise will be completed.´´ He then quickly left. Leaving my husband and i  alone to talk. And i said `Can you imagine that, that we will have another child´ `It is possible that when the Elder Said that it might mean in the millennium, or further ahead in the future´ ´´

Back to me.

I literally left that house shaking. I didnt doubt for a second that the blessing would happen, i didnt know when but i knew it would, because i have seen the sick be healed, badly injured people walk again, dying people both be healed, and others die faster. But i just promised a 40 year old woman in the name of Jesus Christ that she was going to have a child. I was freaking out man! But then the Lord calmed me down, and showed me the prophet Abraham, and so i realized, ok so it does happen. I then prayed so hard that the blessing would happen.

Back to the Woman 

``A few days later i started to feel a little sick, and immediately the words which the Elder Said popped into my mind. I rushed to the store, and bought a pregnancy test, and it turned out Positive. I`m Pregnant´´

Me.

When she says that i think to myself ``WHAT!!!!!!´´ There was such a stupid huge smile on my face that in that moment literally every one in church looked at me, and realized that it was me that gave the blessing (i was directing the music that day so i was sitting on the stand)

The sister then bore testimony of how she knew that God can and will speak to us through his chosen servants, and that the power of the priesthood was real.

When i got home that day, as soon as i get home, (my companion went straight to the bathroom so i didn't  get embarrassed) I had the biggest happy dance moment ever. And  i shouted out ``LEGIT! I said that it would happen...BUT THEN IT ACTUALLY DID!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE; THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!´´ And i happy danced all over my house. 

But thats my story for this week. I think its kind of cool. Possible even cooler than that time when i prayed and that house burnt down hahahahaha I have such cool stories. the mission is the best.

Also I had to go to the hosital again this week. Dont get scared. I got bit by a dog and had to get a bunch of rabies shots. I still have 3 more appointments to get more. I hate dogs so much hahahahahahaha  Love you mom! hahaha Dont be freaked about about Dogs

Welp i love you all! BYE!