Dreaming of a White Christmas

My Christmas was SO fun!  Talking to my family was very strange…I’m still wondering if it was a dream or not…

I had Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas evening with a family here.  They’re really nice to the missionaries!  We had turkey and “potato cake” (Funeral potatoes).  I played Christmas hymns on the guitar while we sang,  and we talked about baby Jesus.  It was pretty neat.  I really don’t feel like I missed out on Christmas for some reason.  Maybe it’s the lack of snow/Christmas lights/ Christmas music/Christmas movies in my life right now.  Probably.

I’m going to make this one short, because I’ve been writing a lot of letters today (and, because it’s getting close to not- P-day-time).  But I hope everyone who is currently reading this had a fantastic Christmas!  The holidays are a great time to slow down, remember why we’re so blessed, and then write your favorite missionary an email! ☺  I love you all!

¡Que Todos sus Navidades son blancos!

Elder Crabb 

And a picture and note from a friend down in Mexico...

Elder crabb dice: que va a extrañar a su familia y amigos esta navidad. tambien they don't have eggnog in mexico.

Google translate:  Elder Crabb says it's going to miss your family and friends this Christmas.

Feliz Navidad

For the first time in a long time, I feel “in the groove” of things, so to speak. I think I’ve got the hang of it a little better now! My Spanish is at the point where I ask what words mean instead of sentences, I know the doctrines of the lessons pretty well, and I’m getting to know the scriptures better every day.

The neat thing about a mission is that there’s never a time when you can’t progress. No matter what, there’s always a leadership position with more responsibility, a companion that’s harder to work with, or an investigator with tougher problems. The Lord definitely knows what He’s doing.
More specifically, things here are going really well. Elder Blood is learning a lot more Spanish, and I think we teach really well together. We aren’t perfect, of course, but we’re doing well, I believe. However, our ward has a bit of an issue. People don’t come to church. I mean investigators, members, everyone. It’s one of the biggest challenges we have! I mean, if they’re not going to go to church, they obviously can’t get baptized! We’re working on that. But if we can accomplish that, we’ll baptize a lot of people. We have a few investigators that really have testimonies, but because of different challenges it’s hard to get to church.

Just so everybody knows, we made Christmas cards about a month ago. There is a post office in Constitución, but it couldn’t be further away. Basically, I’m going to send them. Eventually. The ironic part is that I won’t even send them until after Christmas. I guess what I’m trying to say is that when you get a Christmas card in March, don’t be surprised.

Speaking of Christmas, my activity in Los Cabos was really awesome! We gathered all the missionaries from the Baja (a seven-hour trip for us) and we had a big Christmas dinner. We played dodge ball, which in Spanish is called “Quemados” or “the burned ones”. If you thing playing dodge ball for a Christmas activity is weird, wait until you hear this: our hardcore mission president played with us! AND his wife! We even had a Mexicans-vs.-Americans match. The Americans won, and we sang “The Star-Spangled Banner”. We had a testimony meeting where every single missionary gave their testimonies, too. It was a really cool day. Seven hours later, we went home.

In short, I’m gonna miss everything about a Utah Christmas. Caroling with my friends, the snow, all my awesome family traditions, and of course, spending time with those I love. However, if I give up just a little bit of that right now, families can have those feelings that I have, but FOREVER. That is definitely more than worth it to me. I’ll be missing all of you this year! Have a Merry Christmas!

-Elder “Santa Claws” Crabb

 

Update 12-12-11

If I’ve learned one thing in my week of being a senior companion, it’s how not to be a senior companion. Everybody knows that when you start out doing something, you need to make all the mistakes possible before you master it, right? Well, at this rate, I’ll be a master in no time!

We’ve been focusing a lot on members this week. For example, there are 29 pages of members in our ward directory. About 4 of those pages are active. Obviously, they all need visits from the missionaries! We visited probably six families this week that have been inactive. We’re hoping to see some major changes in the size of this ward.

Well, I’m getting along with my new companion, Elder Blood, pretty well.  He’s really strange and quirky, and I kind of like that. He acquired the nickname “Pavo” (which means “turkey”) because his first day here, a Mexican guy came up and started talking to him. He didn’t understand anything he said, so he said “Pavo”, and did the hand turkey thing, like this picture.

He’s a really cool guy! His testimony’s huge. It’s really cool to work with someone that’s just pure heart like that. I’m also really liking our new district leader, Elder Farr.  He literally has 23 months in the mission (and he lives in Utah, if you see him, say “hi” for me…)! Very experienced. Very powerful. Super excited to help out Constitucion.

Being a senior companion is VERY different than being a junior companion. You decide where to go. You decide who to teach (and what to teach them). You plan the days. Although it’s kind of stressful, I’m really enjoying it! I’ve already grown from it, I think. I’m not any better with directions, though. Luckily, I have Elder Blood. Or as I like to call him, “Elder Tom Tom”.

Christmas is definitely getting closer. They’ve put up some Christmas lights and decorations in the town square, which is fun, but it’ll never be quite the same without the snow. I miss it so much! Actually, I probably wouldn’t like it as a missionary, so it’s probably a good thing. But either way, it doesn’t feel like Christmas without it.

This Christmas’s activity (for the missionaries in the Baja) is in Los Cabos this year! Basically, we get to go to a world-famous vacation spot for Christmas. Cool, right? J The only thing is…we’re not going on Christmas. Actually we’re going tomorrow. Christmas, for me, will be spent in Constitucion this year. I’m glad about that. I like it here. J

Time is passing fast. I’ll be talking to all of you face to face before I know it. Suerte. Animo. Sonrisas.

-Elder Crabb

Update 12-5-11

Just when you’re getting comfortable…Boom!  Everything changes!  On Saturday, the district and I were enjoying a lovely breakfast of fish tacos (the fish were caught THAT hour!), when Elder Vent received a phone call about the transfers.  He talked to the zone leader for a minute, then he looked at me and said, “Is this a joke?”

Uh oh!

He asked him a couple more “things,” then he hung up.  Remember Elder Blood? …that new Elder that doesn’t talk much and just got through being trained?  Well, he’s my companion and I have been made senior companion with only three transfers in the mission.  Yikes!  I still stay in my same area, which is good.  But goodness, the Lord sure trusts me more than I trust myself.  We’ve been having lots of success in my area, so I hope I don’t mess everything up (or corrupt Elder Blood).

Other than that, this week is looking awesome.  We have about 4 or 5 people with baptismal dates who are progressing (although that really doesn’t mean much here.  A baptismal date is really common; in fact, we’re supposed to challenge people to be baptized in every lesson), and I am just loving it here.  It’s getting pretty chilly in the night, which I love, and it’s not hot during the day anymore, it’s very comfortable. 

Oh, and just for the record, Christmas lights wrapped around palm trees are cool, but they just aren’t the same. 

The other companionship in our district recently baptized a woman name Marie,  She’s the one who recently got married just so she could get baptized (her husband was an inactive member).  Anyway, I just think it’s funny that we’ve been taking her to lessons  just like she’s been a member her whole life.

 

But, last week I, neglected to write about our baptism!  We baptized two kids.  They are such awesome little kids!  The story is, we’ve been teaching them and their family (rather hesitantly, since they’ve been investigators for so long).  They suddenly progressed, so we’ve been teaching them like crazy, and we baptized the two kids.  They’re going to be a big focus for us, because we really don’t want them to go inactive because their parents (and aunt) aren’t baptized. 

Anyway, I’m absolutely loving every minute of my mission, and I’m very excited for this new challenge I have!  Pray fore me - - I’m gonna need it! ☺

 Elder Crabb

I got a hold of the letter Cody sent home this past week...I thought there were a few fun things in it like how excited he is for calling home at Christmas time:  I also found out that we are going to spend Christmas in Los, I´m very excited for that. All the missionaries in the Bahs are going to travel there and call from there and everything. It´s going to be really really cool.   I find out about my packages, it´ll be Christmas. =) So...I´ll TELL you then! With my voice

And this part he already sent us, I just thought it was funny how he told his family!

I am now a senior companion! In the furthest area from the mission office (the same area, Comondú). My new companion is Elder Blood. He´s a really awesome Elder, but he´s really shy and he doesn´t speak much Spanish. Can you say "estress"? I´m kind of marvelling that I can have this assignment so early, it´s kind of unheard of! But we´ll see how it goes. Hopefully I don´t drive any investigators away.....

He sent some pictures home but I don't know if they have any explanation, they usually come with something so I think I may have missed it! 

Update 11/28/11

So, a LOT happened this week. Basically, this: The other elders found a lady a while ago named Maria. She was SUPER interested from the beginning, and she wanted to be baptized right away. Especially once we realized her husband was an inactive member! He was baptized by the missionaries when he was like ten, so he didn´t remember much. Basically, they were a miracle from day one. On divisions, we all had a chance to teach them. They kept doing things to surprise us, for example: "Elders, is it okay if I read the WHOLE Book of Mormon, or just the parts you give me?" "Elders, I´m feeling so guilty this week, I´m sorry.....I drank....COKE....." Just amazing people. BUT, when they recieved the lesson on the law of chastity, we found out they weren´t married. Obviously, they couldn´t get baptized until they got married, so that created a big ol´problem. However, IN THE LESSON, Isidrio (the husband) proposed. "Well, of course we gotta get married. It´s the true church!" Not only did they get married, they pulled off a whole wedding in a week and a half (with a big ol´ bunch of help from the missionaries!). They held the wedding in the house of Isidrio´s aunt, and we cleaned it all up and got it all ready (in BARELY enough time. We finished everything with about an hour to spare! Maria was baptized the night before, slept at her mom´s house that night, then they were married on Saturday! It was SO cool to see them act on faith like that! They´re probably the neatest people I´ve met on my mission. I have no doubt he´ll be a bishop soon. He has SUCH strong faith. Obviously Maria does too, because of how awesome she is, acting on her new beliefs. Anyway, it was just incredibly satisfying to see them get baptized. When they get sealed in a year, they will be the happiest people alive. And you know how it all started? A Holy Ghost-inspired knock on a door. =) the Church is true! I´m praying for more miracles like this in my area!

Elder Crabb


This is my wicked watch tan....in WINTER.

Future Elder  =) we just baptized him and his brother this week. His family will be following soon (but more on that next week--including photos!!)

Maria baptism! She is so cool! Her whole family was there.

"Everybody look to the right!"

Cleaning the house of the wedding, we found what is either a tiny tacky vest, or an adorable baby dress. Either way, it doesn´t look good on a 19-year-old missionary.

(hahaha...I've seen this look SO many time it makes me giggle!  I can't believe he put it on!  Cody for ya!)

Wedding food: Sheep meat. BUT, Elder De Jesus asked for the "other" stuff. What you see on this plate: The tongue, which extends clear over from the left into the other side of the plate, the eyeballs are in the back, the brain is on the right, and the liver is in the front. I´m gonna be honest, I didn´t touch any of it. My stomach thanked me.

(blah-I can't really look at this picture without getting the willies!)

The party!