3 Investigators

So its kind of weird i have no idea what i want to tell you guys about this week hahaha i just worked alot, but i didnt have to raise the dead or cast out Demons or anything like that this week, some would say it was an off week for me hahaha

just kidding it was actually a super awesome week, we have this one Investigator, who is one of the most loving guys you are ever going to meet, but he is generally speaking self conscious about going to church and stuff like that because he had a really bad accident, which burned off all of his fingers, and left his hands in mangled nubby things (i feel so bad describing his problem like that because i love that man so much) 

 

But we havent had much of an opportunity to teach him, because he got flown up to the capital city, Santiago, a little while ago to get some surgery done, and then when he came back a couple of weeks ago, he was afraid to go to church (which before we got flown up to santigao he loved going to church and would come every week regardless of if we invited him or not. But ever since he has gotten back my comp and i have been working with him really hard in order to help him feel comfortable coming back to church. But we had a really spiritual lesson the other day with him. my comp and i left him a scripture to read about repentance and the atonement (alma 7) (random fact remember how i was memorizing scriptures, in alma 7 now i have memorized verses 11-15 memorized, and i can recite it off without any mistakes, i have memorized a bunch of new scriptures too and i am loving it its helping me alot out in my teaching) 

 

But we were teaching him about the atonement, and repentance, and how Christ suffered all of his pains, and that he did it just so that he would know how to help him out. and that all that he was asking is that he repents of his sins and gets baptized. And after my comp and i taught him he talked about how he has just been trying to hide from God for too long and that it was time for him to start coming back to church. AND HE CAME!!!!!! and he enjoyed it alot and no one judged him, now he is super excited again to start coming to church, and is super excited for general conference next week.

We have another investigator, whom i also love alot, but he has been having a really hard time too recently but has finally gotten past it. A couple of weeks ago he had his baptismal interview, but he got scared and didnt show up, and then right after he didnt show up to the interview he started having bad family problems, which every time that happens he would get drunk just to get over them, and he got drunk really bad, he was running around doing nothing but drinking fighting, and stuff like that for two whole weeks, and he just destroyed his life, and his family has lost all trust in him.

 

 But during that time when he was super drunk there was nothing that my comp and i could do, because he want even home most of that time, and those few times that we found him he was tripping all over himself so there wast much that we could do to help him. But my comp and i caught him one day  in the morning (we swung by super early) and talked to him early in the morning, before he could have an opportunity to get drunk, and we talked to him about what he was doing, and got him to stop drinking, and he has gone almost a week now without drinking. But i had no idea what i needed to do to help him, so i decided to turn to my handy dandy areabook, and decided that i was going to dedicate one of my study times to studying his registro and praying and what not to be able to find out what we needed to do to hep him. 

 

And as i was studying i noticed that ever since he met the missionaries he has had 4 baptismal interviews (the missionaries found him in February) and passed 3 of them, and just didnt show up to the 4th one (with me) and i noticed that he would pass the interview, and then get drunk and so his baptismal fecha would fall, and i received the idea that he wasnt really falling into drinking because of just family problems like he was telling us, but it was because he was just afraid to get baptized, and then after getting drunk he would start fighting with him fam.

And so i told my comp about what i discovered and we decided to go talk to him about his fear of getting baptized. And I can honestly remember very little of the lesson, i know that the spirit was super strong there. But i do remember one phrase that i said, i remember i said something ``your fear is holding you back from moving on with your life`` I then talked to him about how he has made so much progress since he met with the missionaries, and how as a person he has changed alot and i said to him ``As long as you let your feat beat out your faith, you are never going to receive the peace of conscience that i know you want to have.``

 

 And then i want to say the direct quote of what i said to him because i think it means more in spanish than it does in english, but i looked him straight in the eye, and said in not a harsh but an authoritative voice ``NO TENGA MIEDO. No Deja que su miedo le gana`` the first part (no tenga miedo) is in the command form in spanish, and i was commanding him to stop being afraid, and then the second part says ``dont let your fear beat you`` and i said ``God is preparing so many blessing for you, and he is hoping, and waiting to give them them to you, but he cant, because you arent letting him, God has always required that His people exercise their faith, before he would give them any blessing. And he requires the same thing for you, if you honestly want to feel relief from your past, and your sins, he requires you to stop sinning, repent, and be baptized.`` 

 

And i cant remember what else we said to him, but i know that i was just super straight up with him the whole lesson, and i know it got him straight to the heart. But he said something to me as me and my comp were leaving he said ``Hey Elder Crockett thank you so much for your words, they were exactly what i needed`` And i was assuming that he was just saying that to be nice to me, but then when he said bye to my comp he just said ``Well see you later P`` And so i felt really good to know that he actually was grateful for what i said to him, no matter how straight up it was haha

He came to church too, so that was awesome

And i want to tell you about a lady too, because we had an awesome lesson with her too, and she came to church too, but i dont have time. But i love you all! NOS VEMOS!!!

Seventy Visit

(Elder P) ``You know its kind of funny every time i start wondering if i really want to be a doctor or not after the mission, i have an experience like that which reminds me why i want to be a doctor´´

```Really??? That experience just reminded me why i DONT want to be a doc. I dont think i have ever seen so much blood in my life and quiet frankly i think it was a miracle that i didnt pass out or throw up or something. Experiences like that just reminds me why i want to be a dentist, because i get to help people but with a whole lot less blood involved´´

It was an interesting P day today, one of my missionaries took a nasty spill and busted his head open, and wow heads bleed alot. But all is well, we took care of him and then got him off to the hospital, but he will be fine, hes just got a minor concussion and is going to need a bunch of stitches, but all is well in Zion.

So this week was a super awesome one for me. I mentioned it last week, but we had a Seventy fly down here for a conference. And wow is was amazing. I got to spend pretty much the whole day with him, because first he wanted to meet up with all of the missionaries for a couple of hours, and then he wanted to meet up with the leaders of the missionaries (me and my comp) for a couple of hours, and then we had a conference with all of the members in the stake, for a couple of hours as well. 

 

But i was just fascinated with being with him for so long. I learned so much. But there was one thing that i really loved, just while i was talking with him, he would just be talking, and then quote a scripture from memory that has to do with what he was teaching me, and then would keep going. But it was just amazing. and that really inspired me. And so the very next morning, in my personal study i started to memorize scripture, and its super awesome. 

 

What i did is a did a self analysis of my teaching abilities with each point of the missionary lessons, and then picked out my weakest point, and then i would search through the scriptures to find a scripture that i could use to better teach that point, and then i memorized it. and man it has been helping me alot in teaching, because even when i dont cite the scripture word for word when i teach, i am using the exact words and phrases that show up in the scriptures to teach, and that is helping alot, i have seen some awesome changes in some of my investigators when i do that. I feel like it just gives me more power when i teach because i am literally using the same words that Christ inspired prophets to write down. 

 

And now its kind of funny in my down time i will take the scriptures that i have memorized and i will chain them together and create a super scripture. Its so cool i love it alot. and it doest even take that long to memorize scriptures, i got some down in just a couple of mins, the one that i memorized today took me about an hour, but it is kind of a huge one, (its Alma 7 :11-13) i was talking to my mission president about how i am doing that in an interview i had with him the other day, and i expressed to him that i really wanted to be able to teach like the Seventy that taught us, but i am sure that if i can keep up memorizing scriptures like this every day until  die im sure that i will be able too hahaha.

So this week there was a baptismal service that i took an investigator to (i think i talked about her, its the one who came to church all by herself, and she has been progressing a ton since then) But after the baptism service she told me. ``this was really good for me to see, before today i knew that i wanted to get baptized, but now i am sure about it. I cant wait until i can be baptized!´´ It was so cool She is super awesome actually, the other day ( a couple of days ago) she called us and Said ``Elders I have news For you!!! I Prayed about the Book of Mormon... And I Got an Answer!!!!!!!´´ And then she hung up on us.....Jerk.... hahaha 

This week was also the Chilean Independence day week, and so we couldnt really work alot, because the streets where just full of drunks, and was not too safe to be outside, so we could only work with Confirmed appointments, or visit members. Or ward Activities. It didnt effect me and my comp too much because one of the days we were with the Seventy and the mission Presidente all day, the next day we had interviews with the mission presidente so we were with him a long time too because we talked about all of the missionaries in my zone and what he wants us to do with them, and then the next day there was the baptism. So i actually was lucky enough to be busy like every second of the day but not have to spend too much time out on the streets. 

 

But oh i just remembered something this is a secret that the seventy told me (not any of my missionaries know yet wahaha and i cant tell you much details, but he told me about how very soon (he told me when but i cant tell you) him and one of the apostles are flying down here again to have another big conference with all of the mission (he told me which apostle too) i am super excited about that. i want so bad to tell my missionaries about us but he made me promise not to tell any of the missionaries. But you guys arent missionaries so its fine, and i dint give you any details so its also fine.

But mom thats funny that you are just telling people that i am just planning to just show up at home without telling anybody, because me and my comp where literally talking about doing that just the other day hahaha (he is also going home in a little bit, before me) But we were joking around about being even meaner about it that what you said. We were talking about telling you a day that we were going to come home, but really just giving you a fake day that is a day or two after we will already be home, so that everyone would be getting excited to get to the airport to meet us and what not, and then they would realize that there is a bunch of suitcases on the couch and not know where they came from...hahahaha and then you would eventually discover us just like taking a nap somewhere. hahahahahaha We`ll have to see what happens Wahaha. 

Haha the real reason that i havent told you what the day on that letter says (in fact i took a picture of everything the letter said, and thought about sending it to you, but i just decided against it.) But anyways the reason i havent told you when is i am still talking to my mission presidente about it, because i want to stay here in Chile the absolute most time possible before college starts.But as soon as i have a more concrete date than the one i already have i will let you know.

Welps i love you all keep me posted with how you are all doing!

Remembering

So Truman in response to wanting to hear about experiences when i started my mission, i wanted to tell you about one. It was on the day that i left the MTC, i was super stressed out, i was completely terrified by the idea that i was actually going down to South America. And the plane ride was actually a pretty restless painful journey for me because i just had no idea what to expect, and i honestly didnt think that i would be able to handle what i imagined was going to happen to me when i finally started. 

 

So after a 15 hour flight, i was transferred planes in Santiago, one a plane that was heading down to Osorno, and i was terrified still because there was no turning back, but i forced myself forward and got onto the next plane. And i remember that i just felt sick. I wasnt really happy at all. But i remember we were flying in the air when i hear the pilot say that we were approaching the city of Osorno, and i decided that i wanted to look outside and see the city that i was going to be working in. And as i saw the rolling green hills, and the rivers and everything, i was overcome by an incredible feeling of peace. One that i will never forget, and i had a scripture come to my mind, that is in the book of Mormon, and its Ammon speaking to the King Lamoni, when he tells him that he was planning on staying there for a while, even until he died if it were necessary, and it was though i heard a voice telling me ``This is where i need you to be`` (Man its getting hard to write i am totally tearing up a ton here, i swear if my comp says anything about it i am going to beat him up hahaha) But i felt at complete peace, in fact i remember an exact phrase that i wrote down in my journal, i wrote down ``I felt at peace for the first time in i dont know how many years`` And i knew without one single doubt that i was exactly where God needed me to be. 

 

That one moment pushed me through some of the hardest trials ive ever been through in my life, because i knew that it was what God wanted for me. thinking about it, i think i may have had one spiritual experience that i would put on a higher pedestal that that moment, its one that i will have to tell you about one day, that other one is one that i have literally never told to anyone ever. 

 

But dude i am so excited for you, you are going to have so many incredible experiences, serving a mission has really  changed my life alot, and even though its been hard, really hard, i would never change the experiences that i have had here for anything in the world. I really see my mission is what changed me from just some other kid, to a true disciple of Jesus Christ (dang it im tearing up again haha)

So this week, was both super super awesome for me and my comp, and actually super super stressful. We just had transfers this past week (Im still with Elder Parsons HURRAY!!!! (seriously my favorite comp ive had.) But we had a little problem, A lot of the missionaries in my zone instantly decided to start being disobedient, and my comp and i are just catching on to it right now, so this week me and him are going to hold a special zone meeting where we are going to get them all together, and tell them that what they are doing is not ok and we are going to put them straight, and then just to reinforce what we are going to tell them, my companion and i are planning on doing a bunch of intercambios (sorry i still dont know that word in english) just so we can have a ton of one on one time with the missionaries, and try to personally help them out. 

 

On top of that this week we are having the Area Seventy fly down here for another conference that he is having with the stake down here, but they did not organize their plans on coming down here very well at all (im not blaming the 70 im sure its his secretarys fault haha) But because of how little notice weve gotten and how little information we have on it (and that fact that it is on a national holiday and all the missionaries in my zone were really excited to waist all day at BBQs) and they have started murmuring alot,  And when we heard those remarks come from my missionaries i was filled with righteous rage. i just wanted to rip off my shirt and make a title of liberty and march through my zone, they are so lucky that i love them .... But this meeting that i am having this week when i am going to call them out on their disobedience we also have a alot to say about how wrong they are about the mission presidente and the 70. I never like having to call missionaries to repentance, but they need it. bad.

In fact the only missionaries that i am not having problems with are my sister missionaries.  ive always loved getting to work with sister missionaries they are just little angles. Im kind of tempted to just not invite them to my call to repentance meeting, but seeing on how they arent doing really anything wrong it will really just be another meeting for them. And really im not having problems with all of my missionaries either in fact really only half of them are causing a bunch of trouble.

And on the bright side the work is doing super well in my sector i love working there so much, my investigators are so awesome, i love them so much, and the members are helping us out a ton, i honestly hope that i get to be here in Punta Arenas until i finish my mission.

Shoot im out of time. Welp i love you all i will tell you how everything turns out! You will all be in my prays about the floods

    

Sad, then Awesome

ok quotes of the week

``Hey Elders am i going to have to bring my holy water or anything like that the fight against the evil spirits?``(the member than walks away laughing to himself and go looks for his scriptures) I then turn to my companion and whisper in English ``Hey Elder i dont remember you telling him that we actually got called to go cast out evil spirits out of someones home`` ``Elder I didnt tell him that `` ``Should i tell him that we are literally going to go up against a couple of evil spirits right now  so that he doesnt freak out as much when we get there`` ``Naaa he`ll find out when we get there``

So this week was a pretty crazy one for me and my comp, but it was pretty sad too, we had one investigator who was going to have a baptismal interview, but then never showed up, and so after we went to go talk to him, and it turn out that he was just scared to get baptized, and we had a really good lesson with im too, and now he is exited to get baptized again, and has a new baptismal date.

But we did have an awesome moment in church where one of our investigators turned to me while we were at church, i was sitting with im, and he said to me 

``Hey do i have to be mormon in order to bear my testimony`` 

And i told him ``no you dont``

``does that mean i can go up right now and talk``

``Sure can,go for it``

So he stand us and bears this super awesome testimony, and in it says ``I just want you to all know that over the past couple of years i have been looking around alot at different religions(and then talked about all of the churches he has gone to in the last couple of years) and the mormons are freaking cool! (everyone laughed a little bit at that) But for real, i have been to hundreds of different churches and this one is the best one out of all of them, i would say its the true one, but i only met the missionaries like 2 weeks ago, and right now i have only read up to 2nd Nephi in the book of Mormon, and yes i did pray about it, and yes i believe that God answered my prayer, i still think that i need to learn more before i get baptized. And sense i am preparing to get baptized in a couple of weeks, i guess that give me about 3 weeks to read the book of mormon all the way through. ill keep you posted how that goes. That is all (and then walks down like a boss) 

Shoot i want to tell you more, but i have to bounce. but i love you all!

Preachin' the Word!

Wit wins.

Ok....somebody that's recently come home from a mission tell me (Jenn) what this envelope contains.  I'm guessing by the Moroni it's an official notice.....I'm guessing going home by the look on his face.

       

Trilogy!

so Truman i read about how those ``older missionaries`` are hazing the new guys, not cool. what you could do to fix that problem (or at least what i would do) is i would get them to read page 4 of preach my gosspel, under the section ``the power and authority of your calling´´  the seccond paragraph (i think its a quote from spencer w kimball, i dont have my  PMG with me so im not sure but them i woul get them to read that, and tehn tell them they they are representing Jesus Chirst, and that their action are not in agreeance with their calling, 

 

i would then tell them to go back to their rooms and kneel down and repent for the dumb things they are doing, and start acting like the missionaries that their moms THINK they are. Thats what i would say (have said) whenever there are missionaries who dont take their calling seriously. And then just so that the missionaries in your district dont start sinning like your great examples are doing i would admonish them to deeply study chapter 6 of PMG and get them to reflect upon the literal phrase that they are representing Jesus Christ. If you are still having problems with missionaries acting like idiots let me know and i will show you a list of scriptures and quotes that state that missionaries who dont take their callings seriously will be condemned for it.

Glad you got there safe, and that you are happy haha. Teachings the best i love it SOO MUCH

Ok quotes for the week ``You want them to remake the original star wars trilogy! Thats like wanting to rewrite the bible!!!!!´´

``Shoot Elder, i have a secret i want to tell you, but i dont want anyone else to hear it, by chance do you speak signlanguage so i can tell it to you in that?´´ ``Whats wrong with just telling it to me in English?´´ ``OH YEAH! I forgot that we are bilingual!!!´´

So this week was a super awesome one for me, we saw so so so so many miracles, but it was so awesome this last week literally 5 of our investigators bore their testimony to us to why they want to get baptized, and other stuff like that, in fact today i was talking to the APs about how this week went, and one of them said ``Wow, i dont think i have ever heard about seeing so many miracles in one weeks, you two must be doing something right´´ And then talked about our numbers a little bit, and noticed that in just my sector there are more people preparing to get baptized, then in my entire zone combined. Its so cool hahaha Granted its because my comp and i have been working our butts off, and so the Lord gave us a ton of miracles so that we can see that when we do what the Lord wants, he is going to reward us for it.

But there was another cool experience yesterday, when there was two people who came to church that i have never seen or taught before, and so my companion and i both assumed that they were investigators of the sister missionaries that we share the ward with. But then when sacrament meeting ended we noticed that the sister missionaries left with out even acknowledging their presence, so we decided to go talk to them, just to find out if they were the hnas investigators and to invite them to the gospel doctrine class. 

 

But as we were talking to them they told us that they had never even spoken to mormon missionaries before (at least as adults) (one did when she was like 7 years old) But told us this story about how they were going through a really hard time in their life, and they really just wanted to get to know God, so they started going to go to a ton of different churches,and then told us that even though the had been to a ton of different churches before coming to ours that they didnt like a single one of them, whether because they just did really weird things and were just kind of weirded out (or freaked out) the whole time, or that it was a really big creepy building and just felt really creeped out and uncomfortable, and there was some that their teaching just made no since to them what so ever. But then they came to our church and told us how much that they LOVED IT! 

 

And how even though that they have visited an endless number of churches these last couple of months, this was the first church that they went to where they felt peace, they loved how calm everything was, and how everything that the people were saying made sense, and that they had just ``felt good´´ there. 

 

So after talking to them we set up a appointment to teach them immediately after church in one of the classes, and that was just a super awesome experience as well. But there was one thing that i thought was super cool. There was a moment when we were talking about the book of mormon, and i was about to give them a copy of the book, when she told us not to, and then told us a story, about how her mom is a member of the church, but she hasnt been to church in a long long time (in more than 10 years) and how now her mom completely hates the church. And how one day, in a little rage fury her mom took all of the book and stuff that she had from the church and threw them away, and was going to burn them, and so when her mom wasnt looking she was looking at the books, and she was looking at the book of momorn, and she just felt that there was something special about that book, and felt the need to save it. 

 

So when her mom wasnt looking she took the book of mormon out of the pile of books, and hid it, and would study it in secret. That girl was incredibly receptive, i have another appointment to teach in the church again tomorrow. She says we are not aloud to go o her house because now her mom is super Anti Mormon, but she really really wanted to learn more, and so she wants us to teach her in the church. She is awesome.

 We have another investigator who we have been teaching this week that had a really bad problem, and had to go to the hospital, and is going to be there in a couple of weeks, and so he was really worried about what was going to happen about the baptism date that we were preparing for him, so he got in contact with a member and sent this message to us ``Elders, i really really want to get baptized this 13th of september, but i am still going to be in the hospital, so i dont think that i will be able to prepare myself enough from in here to be able to get baptized that day, but there is nothing i want more than to be baptized in September, if its in any way possible please help me to still be baptized this month´´ Gosh he is golden, i met him like my second week here in Punta Arenas, and sense ive met him, we have help him over come an addiction to alcohol, and cigarettes, and even more important get a testimony.

Shoot i have alot more i want to tell you guys but ive got to bounce. Loveyou all!!!