SLAM DUNK!‏

So random fact today for p day we were playing basketball, and after everyone else was done playing, they all went and started playing soccer (well 3 fuera which is basically the same thing) But me and elder M decided to keep playing. And he taught me the technique to be able to dunk it good. And oh my gosh its actually pretty easy to dunk! My whole life i always thought that you just normally run up to the hoop jump and slam it, but there is actually technique behind it. But he taught me some technique and then i just started dunking like crazy!!! Just kidding i only slammed it really good like once the rest of the times i just got really close, or just kind of rolled the ball into the hoop.

Other Random fact Dad ive been working alot on doing Euro Steps during my exercise time, and so when it came down to play time, freaking no one could stop me when i got into the key. Next basketball goal of mine is doing a Euro Step into a dunk, but that may just stay a dream until i perfectionize my dunk haha 

Ok so Last random fact, and the only one that is actually of any relevance, this may or may not be the last time i write home. i have to be in Osorno By next Tuesday, and they havent sent me my itinerary yet, so i dont know if i will be flying out of Punta Arenas on Monday, or super early in the morning on Tuesday. And so if i dont write you next week, dont worry im probably not dead, so dont worry too much, but ill try to get some message out to you if i can.

But this week was really good, It had some sad moments too, like that funeral i told you about, i learned about how freaking heavy caskets can be too, holy moly. The man who died was like 6`2 and easily weighted over 200 pounds, and there was one moment when we were walking through a door when everyone let go and left me alone to carry one side of the casket, And i literally had to use like every muscle in my body just so that i didnt drop that stupid thing haha. but the Ceremony was beautiful and it was a really nice day So Menos Mal hahaha

I also had an interview with my mission Presidente this week and it was kind of funny, i walked in and we said a prayer and he said ``Elder Crockett i have one question, are you still working hard, or are you trunky?`` And immediately i responded ``Please i wouldnt get caught dead being trunky, Im going to work like crazy every single day that i got left`` And then Presidente Obeso Responded ``Ya i was expecting you would respond like that, just keep it up`` He then said ``Well i have nothing else i need to ask you, I have to interview you anyway in a couple of days so ill just wait until then to talk more`` I was literally in that room for like 10 seconds for my interview. Well and then after mine i grabbed my comp and we talked about all the missionaries and what i can do better to help them more, and that part of the interview lasted like a half hour, And that was good, 

But i was amazed by something, as i was talking to the mission presidente, i realized that he knows freaking everything about the missionaries, i know that i talk to him alot about them and email him about their needs and stuff like that, but its like he knew them just as well as i did, even though with some of them he has literally only seen them like 5-6 times. Granted he does get a weekly email form them, and i know for a fact he reads them all, like every time i talk to him he brings up specific things that i write to him about different subjects, but still it was pretty crazy how the Lord can give him so much revelation about how to help the missionaries that he knows them just as well, if not better than i do, even though i have known them for longer than he has been the mission presidente. I totally hope that some day i am so in tune with the spirit that i will be able to be like that.

But good news F Passed his baptism interview this week (AGAIN!) Its been the 4th interview hes had (2nd with me) But the last couple of times he was tempted really hard the last week before his baptism, and he would fall. But i honestly believe that he is going to make it this time. He has progressed alot my time ive been here, and especially these last couple of weeks from the last time he fell. But i will keep you posted with how that turns out. Pray for him if you can, he needs it haha

But i am really excited for this next week. I feel like its going to go by so fast, but i am going to work SO SO HARD!!!! Like my whole mission i have always tried to do my best, and work as hard as i can, but this last week i am going to try even harder! I know that God still has alot for me to do, i mean there is some reason why God needed me home on the 7th and not on the 3rd like it was originally planned, and so i am positive that God has alot of people prepared for me in this week. And i am going to find them

Theres work do and i am going to do everything i can to make sure it gets done.

See you soon

-Elder Hamilton D. Crockett

Time Flies

So the time is going by way way to fast. I know that time has always gone by too fast on the mission, but man this last week it has gone by faster than just about any other week ive had in my whole mission, it literally feels like i was here writing you just yesterday.

But there is probably a reason why its going so fast. The other day i was planning a bunch of stuff when i noticed that i only had a couple of days left on the mission, and it bugged me alot, and the thought about going home just terrified me, and i hated thinking about going home, and so i decided to put up some goals of things i need to get done before i go home. Actually i told one of them to the 1st councilor, and he just laughed and said, Elder Crockett thats a great goal, but i dont actually think its possible, jokes on him though because i have already almost achieved haha

But its really funny the last couple of missionaries that ended their missions here in my zone did not do it very gracefully, they got super trunky and would waste a ton of time with members, and going out and having like little Chile bucketlist kind of things, and just waste a ton of proselyting time, and all of the missionaries knew about it. 

 

So the other day we were in a meeting, and i was talking to one missionary after the meeting and my comp was talking to another group of missionaries, and i over heard someone ask my comp ``Hey is Elder Crockett really trunky yet?`` And i heard my comp say ``No way, if people didnt bring it up all the time that he is ending i wouldnt believe it, he works his butt off every day, he does not come across at all that he is ending his mission right now``

I was pretty proud of my comp, hes got my back

So its super cool, i havent told you much about her yet, but there is one lady who got baptized when i was here named M, and i only taught her a couple of times before her baptism so i havent talked about them alot. But shortly after getting baptized she got a job that pretty much worked her like a slave, she was having to work from like 11am-10pm every day of the week, weekends included, And so a couple of weeks after her baptism she went less active, because she was basically a slave. But the other week we taught her son (who got baptized with her, and he may be my favorite person in the ward, love that kid to death) but i taught him about Faith, and asked him to teach him mom about faith. And shoot im out of time but long story short he talked to her, and she quit her job so that she can spend time with her family and start going to church again.

But welps i love you all, see you on Christmas!!!!

stupid going home.

So it hasnt really hit me yet that i will be going home in a couple of weeks, the other day i was having this big conference with all the missionaries in my zone, and i had a computer hooked up to a projector, and while during the thing i had to open up my email, and we noticed that i got a new email from the office with the title ´´Info for returning home´´ i didnt read it at that time, but pretty much all of my missionaries have been making fun of me about that...stupid going home... haha

Random fact i read how you talked about how cold you are. This week i was burning it is sooooo freaking hot here!!!!! i have been walking around in a short sleeve shirt, and im still sweating. And so i decided to look at what the high temperature is.......50 degrees. I am burning to death at 50 degrees....hopefully its like snowing in Arizona when i get there, because any hotter than like 45 and i am going to die....not excited about that haha i think that when i experienced what -20 degrees was it just threw off my ability to measure temperatures. That´ll be fun to get over...not. hahahaha

But this week was really good, we have been helping out F alot this week, and he is totally normal now, we have him with another plan to get baptized on January 3rd. I really hope that he makes it this time. Not so much just so i will be able to be there ( i wont lie i really want to see him get baptized) but i just really want him to finally get baptized. Hes made so much progress the last 5 months that i have been here. I really hope that he finally makes it.

L is doing good. We have been doing family history work with her, and she loves it alot, shes starting to meet with the Family history specialist in our ward to start doing more. One of the biggest things that she loved when we started to teach her was the fact that people have the chance to accept the gospel in the next life, so she has been working in order to get the work done for her antepasados. After we were done though she asked to see my family tree, and was astounded that it was even possible to have so many names on one, and so she got pumped up to have one giant too!

Its really funny teaching my new comp how to be a zone leader, like today we were down in Centro doing a bunch of visa junk for other missionaries, and i cant remember how it came out but i remember saying ´´Welcome to life as a zone leader, when we work just as much of P day as we do any other day of the week´´

He´ll get used to it though. I´ve learned to love never having any time ever hahaha

Honestly i dont know what else to talk about. H's doing good too. He has alot more confidence in himself now, 

I honestly cant think of anything else right now to talk about. Thanks for sending me the photos mom, i got a call from the office the other day and they were freaking out because no one was putting any fotos on dropbox for them to put in our slideshow thing. and i just said ´´Ya i already sent all of mine in a week ago, So i dont know why your trying to give me a hard time´´and then they said ´´Oh ok... You were really on top of that.´´   (One more thing off my to do list.)

OHHH I REMEMBERED SOMETHING I NEEDED TO TALK ABOUT!!!! Hey what is the plan for skype? My comp tells me that apparently its free to have multiple callers on Skype at the same time now, and you get to have video and everything. And i think it would be really cool if we could have me and Truman on at the same time. I should be good for whenever you and Truman can do it at. To be completely honest im not terribly concerned about talking with the rest of the family because i am going to see you just a couple of days after we skype anyways, but i really want to be able to talk to Truman at the same time.

Welp i am going to go now, if i remember anything cool i will write you,Welp love you all !!!!

Big Changes

So this past week i got a new comp, whos name is elder P, and the kid is such a boss. But random fact this week he taught me how to solve a rubix cube. and i am getting pretty good at it, its super fun. But anyways the kids a boss, its his first time as a zone leader, and it was really funny, he just finished training a new elder, and then one of the first things he told me was, ´´Im so happy that i am out of training now, because now i finally get to leave to work in the mornings again!!!´´ And then i had to burst his bubble and say ´´Well dont really count on being outside much more´´ And then i showed him our calender and how we literally dont have any time any morning because we have some kind of meeting, or have to go do visa  stuff and its like that literally everyday. And then he just said´´Well....AT LEAST I DONT HAVE TO BE STUCK IN THE SAME HOUSE ALL DAY LONG!!¨¨ hahaha we think alike. I almost went crazy in my training just because i had to sit down so much. 

But this week was really good. We had a meeting with our mission presidente, and it was awesome (and only 5 hours long....ALOT SHORTER THAN NORMAL!!!!!¨¨ But its nuts we are having some super big changes in the mission (all sadly right after i go home...Waa) But one of them is nuts. We have been selected to be a mission that starts a pilot program, where we are no longer going to have any of the Key indicators, (lessons with member, others, baptismal invitations, references, all of those things) And we are only going to keep track of 2 numbers, Baptisms, and Church attendance (in general). Which is nuts, but we are trying to test to see if those two numbers get bumped up (because missionaries are going to put alot more focus on those things) But sadly they said that they are going to start the program the first week of January, and so i will literally only have 1 week to work with this program. Lame. But im sure that it will be awesome.

We also talked alot about Christmas, and how they want us to pass la navidad, and i am super stoked about it, they want us to do a bunch of public activities, and stuff, so i started to make arrangements for that too, so far we have one event planned where we are going to go and sing Christmas songs at the cemetery that we sung in on Halloween (its weird to think that people would go to a cemetery on Christmas, but apparently they do. And we also planned to sing songs en la Zona Franca, which is pretty much a giant mall, that sells stuff from all around the world (mainly america haha) because boats pass by there on their way up through the channel, and sell a bunch of their cargo, and its all tax free, so everyone goes there to buy stuff, and we are going like the saturday before Christmas, so it is just going to be super packed. And so we talked to someone else to get us a sweet hookup on microphones and sound systems so that we can put on a pretty sick event hahaha just kidding, it will just be us singing more christmas songs. And i am still in the process of planning a couple of other events but its nothing concrete yet (speaking of which it just reminded me that i need to go talk to the stake presidente so that i can arrange another activity with the whole stake, ill have to do that right when i leave to work

But this week was really good, we found a family of a man who is an excommunicated member who wants to start his papers to get re baptized, and his wife wants to get baptized. WE didnt put her with a date though to get baptized, because her husband works on a boat, and he is out at sea for 21 days and then he gets 5 days off for rest, and so we are going to try to get her ready for baptism by the time he gets back, we´ll see how that turns out. Regardless i wont be here to see her baptized because ill be heading up to osorno about the same time he will get back from work.

(p.s. i found out a little more about my plans for coming home. On the 5th i will be flying out of Punta Arenas, on the 6th ill spend the day in the mission house with the Presidente, then i head out that night. On the 7th ill spend the day in Santiago and go to the temple and stuff (YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA 2 years without the temple= too long) and then that night i fly up the Florida, and from there you already know my plans.

But ima bounce now. Love you all!!!!!!!

The darkness always comes before the light. Boats, Demons and Baptisms‏

So this week was awesome. I am so grateful for it.

But first i will start with a couple of little News bits.

We learned about transfers this week. Elder N is leaving, and so i will be finishing my mission here in Punta Arenas!!!!!!! Im so happy about that, This sector is going to explode we are going to work it so hard these next couple of days. Im so stoked.

So this week i took a trip down to a island named Por Venir, i was doing some intercambios with the Elders down there. I had to take a 3 hour boat ride to get down there. And that was super sick, we found some pretty sick investigators there on the boat too on our way over, and one of them is currently preparing to get baptized!!! What! Zone Leader Boat Boss! But i wont talk about that too much. But it was fun

Ok onto the real story. As you know I told you that i was going to have 2 investigators get baptized this week, but  there was only one...I am so sad about that story. But i want to tell it to you guys

So about 2 days before his baptism i felt a really strong prompting that i needed to visit my investigator F, who was going to get baptized that weekend. So i rushed over to his house, and we get there and i find the door wide open. (side note i dont know if this story will be too scary or not for the kids so if you read the email to them maybe skip over it) But i run up to the door, and i see him lying down limp over his couch. 

So from outside i call out his name ´´F!´´ And he didnt respond, so i called his name again. But still no response from him. So I turned to my comp, ( i was actually with one of the APs that day) and say ´´ Dude he doesnt look asleep,we need to go in and make sure that he is still alive´´. And i am just about to step in when while he was still limp on the couch, he let out a terrifying soul crunching scream. I yell at him one more time, (this time with my authority voice haha) ´´Stand up!´´ And he jumps up to his feet, and he had such a demented look on his face. And he had this super creepy smile on his face, and he says really quietly, ´´come in Elders´´

And so i come in, and my comp follows me. And we start talking to him. And he invited us to sit on his couch, so we did, and he sat down in another chair that he has. And we started to talk. And he was not calm at all, not even for a second, he would start talking for a second, and then would just get really tormented, and would starts weeping and crying, and was scratching at his eyes as though he was trying to rip them out.

And he would start to get all shaky for second and lose control of himself. So i cut him off in the middle of one of his weeping moments, and i said ´´When God Restored his Church he gave his power to man, the power to baptize, the power to bless, the power to heal, and the power to cast out demons. We have been given this power by God, and are here to use it to help you.´´ And then he took his hands off of his face, and looked up to me, and it was probably the most terrifying face i have ever seen in my life, He was looking at me the way i imagine a man looks at a man just right before murdering him. But i wasnt afraid.And i said ´´Do you have the faith to be healed?´´

Then suddenly he looked calmer, and said ´´I hope i do´´ I then stand up and put my hands on his head, and gave him a blessing. I wont say what i said. The spirit was very very strong there in the room. And when i finished the blessing, i looked down at him, and he looked completely different, he was calm, with just a happy smile on his face, he stood up and gave me a big hug. And then he told me that he didnt feel ready to get baptized this week, and told me that he was really tempted to drink and fell. it was hard but i told him that because he fell we wouldnt be able to get baptized. But that we would keep helping him. We then prayed with him before we left, and i made him pray, told him to keep reading the book of mormon every day, and to pray everyday, and then left.

We left the house and the AP turns to me and says ´´WHAT THE FREAK JUST HAPPENED THERE!!!!!!´´ I then say´´ Elder Honestly you know what it was just as well as i do´´ And then i started walking toward our house. I was really proud of myself that not even at one second while i was there in the house was i scared, but when i got home i was terrified.  the looks on his face were just burned into my mind, I just prayed myself to sleep that night haha. 

Hes fine now though, i went by again a couple of times since, and he has some nice bruises and scabs on his face, but he is doing fine. And we are helping him get back on his feet.

Ok Good story now hahaha I was debating not telling you that one, but i didnt write it in my journal, mainly just because i have been really bad with writing in my journal ever since i was with Elder N, me and him play too much at night so my weekly emails are pretty much the records of my mission from this last month haha

But anyways good story, L got baptized this week! The were 3 people from different wards who were getting  baptized, so i talked to the stake presidente and arranged that we had a stake baptismal service. And wow it was incredible the spirit was so strong there. L asked me to baptize her she was freaking nervous up until we walked into the water, and i baptized her, and then she just looked really happy after that. It was awesome. It was so awesome to see the change in her life.

When i started teaching her she didnt even believe in God, but as she kept meeting with us, she started changing alot. She is probably one of the most faithful members we have now haha she has such a strong testimony. She had to give up alot to get baptized, and went through some really hard times doing it, but she is really happy about her decision. I think that is probably my favorite part of the mission, just being able to see the changes in people lives. It always makes me so happy.

Welps i gotz to run. I have lots of things to get done today. But i love you all. Keep me posted on how you are all doing.