04-23-12 Happy Earth Day!

Well I sure have been up for a lot of time today! Since 5 o´clock, I´ve been awake and going all over Culiacán, bringing people to airports, bus stations, etc. etc. But now, I´m back!

 

Happy Earth Day! In Mexico, Earth Day doesn´t exist......enough said. Anyway, my companion, Elder Ramirez, always gets on people´s backs about everything. It´s kind of his job, being an assistant to the president. And he´s really good at it. He motivates people really well. Also, he likes doing it haha. I´m getting kind of sick of his ringtone..... but, as a district leader, the district is doing pretty well right now, although there are going to be some changes. Elder Rodriguez is going to go home for a bit to recover while his knee is healing. And I suddenly got a new companion! Remember Elder Peterson from the MTC? He´s baaa-aaack......as my new companion. The whole "working in two areas" thing is fun and stressful. There´s a lot of work to do! Especially since I´m going to be carrying the two areas for a bit until Elder Peterson gets on his feet. =)

 

This week we baptized! The girl´s name is Isis, and she´s 9 years old. It really was a miracle. Her whole family is full of inactive-ish members. We started teaching her, and everyone started getting really excited about the gospel again. Her 20 year old aunt just got called to be a seminary teacher! I´m so excited for that family. They´re pretty potent. The following are some fun pictures from that service. =) You guys can count on some good pictures this next week....I don´t know why.

 

But I love you guys. Really do. Mom, I loved that scripture. It´s totally true. The church is SO true, everybody! I learn more and more things each day. This week, I´ve studied The Fall of Adam and Eve. I´ve been blown away with all the stuff I´ve never even thought of before that is just right in front of my face in the scriptures. Keep studying, and I will too. =) Love you all!

 

Elder Crabb

04-17-12

Man, it´s crazy over here! Last Monday, we took a little excursion down to "Centro" (kind of the "downtown" of Culiacán). I would send you pictures, but unfortunately the crowds are so bad that they advise us not to take cameras down there, or we´ll probably get robbed! (Not that I´d have my pictures anyway...grr....). While I was there, I saw an ad on a TV for "Clash of the Titans 2". WHAT? I don´t know about anything....awesome. =) Something about a "Battleship" movie too. COOL. But, it was in passing, so I didn´t see much, obviously. I´m a missionary, you know.

My new companion, Elder Ramirez, is a crazy little guy. He kind of reminds me of those trolls with the colorful hair, the only difference are that he has clothes, and his hair is shorter (not less crazy...). He just works SO hard. Great missionary. But wow, he´s stressful sometimes! He´s going to make me a better missionary for sure. The district leader thing is going alright. I had my first district meeting today, and I think it went pretty well. Our advice from President Cantú was that we should try and have family home evenings every night with a member family if we can, so I reinforced that to help us get members at our lessons. This weekend, our district has five baptisms lined up. That would be really really good!

I have been singing, but not anywhere specific. I just sing all the time. =) All of my companions have commented on it. If they don´t like it, I usually mention something about how I play soccer every P-day whether I want to or not, and that usually gets them.

 

Lexzaida (my new convert) has officially stopped working on Sundays and will be at church every week. Yay! Her son can´t get baptized yet, because his dad doesn´t want him to. Sad, but he´ll be going to church every week anyway.

Our baptism for this week´s name is Isabel. I would say something about her, but I don´t really know much about her, because I almost haven´t taught her! But she´s gong to get baptized....yay!

I should be getting my ukulele cleared this week, so that president knows I have it and everything, and once I do, I´ll officially be able to play again! WOO! I have realized that all the children´s songbook songs have chords above them, so that´ll be awesome.

Oh, and I want to apologize to all of those who have written me who I haven´t gotten a chance to write back. I´m doing my best! Really, there is almost ZERO time to write letters. But I honestly do appreciate getting letters from those of you who have sent them, and I am honestly really grateful to get news from home.....I´ll do my best to keep writing!

That´s about all for this week! Sorry I don´t have pictures....I´ll get more for next week. Anyway, I love you all! The church is true! (And sorry about the lack of spiritual experiences, I wrote this letter VERY FAST! The internet café where we go to write letters was failing pretty bad this week.)

Elder Crabb

4/09/12 Happy Easter!

I found a Mexicanified ukulele, so....I bought it! I can finally play songs at baptismal services! It´s going to be easy to transport, because I can just carry it. I won´t have to move very often.

YAY! We finally ended up baptizing Lexzaida on Saturday! I was the one who she chose to do it, but it was such a cool experience! She is really really strong with her testimony (and how great that she lives on our street!) We confirmed her on Sunday and it was just very special (even though she totally biffed it coming into the church.....she´s fine though.)

I told you that transfers were this week, remember? Elder Guillen (my companion and now former assistant to the president) is going to a little ranch WAY north of here names Rosales. (No, not "Rowzales"). I´m staying in this area for another transfer, which I´m glad about. So is everybody else in my district. But the curveball the Lord threw me this time is that I´m also going to be a district leader! Under normal circumstances, I wouldn´t be too nervous, but my district just happens to contain the assistants to the president. So I gotta step it up! I´m really excited to have this opportunity though. A little bit more responsibility, but hey. I have begun to discover that God just really likes to do the "Let´s see how they handle it." thing. Like, whenever he calls people he just throws them in the water instead of teaching them how to swim first. I like that. =)

This week, we probably had the coolest experience of my entire mission so far. We were visiting an investigator when we happened to talk to another guy in the street. He was a big ol´ guy with a really husky voice. He said his name was Amado. We said we were going to go visit him later. So cool, we took his address down and left. When we showed up at his house, we just talked to the girl that was in front, sweeping. All we said was like, "Hey, how are you?" and she dropped her broom and just looked at us all wide-eyed. We asked her what happened, and she told us that literally less than five minutes before, she had prayed that somebody could come help her. Her name is Carolina. (car-o-leena =) )She said she feels really frustrated with her life. Her dad´s an alcoholic. She has a 9-year-old autistic son that can´t even talk. Her mom doesn´t seem to care what she does. And she said that it´s hard for her to even get out of bed in the morning sometimes, and that she felt like she had no purpose. We asked her if she would like to know her purpose, and she started crying. "More than anything," she said. So we taught her the Restoration. She was wide-eyed and totally amazed when we told her the First Vision. She just believed everything super fast, because we had come as an answer to her prayer. She accepted to be baptized in the first lesson. Then, yesterday, Elder Running and I had a bunch of fallen plans, so we weren´t sure what to do, when we realized that this lady was right in front of where we were. Even though our appointment wasn´t until Tuesday, we thought we´d swing by and say hi. We knocked on the door, and she just looked at us in amazement. She said that she had prayed again, and that here we were. She told us that she had read in 1 Nephi chapter 1, where Lehi has that dream, and that she had had that same dream before. We were both pretty amazed, obviously. But she said that she was completely blown away when she read about the clouds, the angels, the twelve, and the Person who descended, because it was exactly the same. Can you believe this lady?! During this same lesson, she expressed to us that she had felt really sick and depressed, and that she felt like she was drowning in her own house. I felt impressed to offer her a blessing. So, we did. While I was giving it, I felt impressed to say "Carolina, your Father in Heaven wants you to know that he loves you, and that it´s never too late to repent.". She just sobbed after that. Later she said that it was exactly that that she was needing to hear. The church is so true. It´s just unbelievably true. I´m so grateful that I was born into this church, and that I didn´t have to go looking. I love you all. See ya later!

Elder Crabb

{Here are some pictures that Cody never sent explanations for...does anyone want to write some captions?}

4/2/12 "Stop it!"

Sometimes the scriptures speak right to you. In my personal studies this week, I came across this scripture--

11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be^apatient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good ^bexamples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

Now who are the Lamanites? Or, better yet, who are the descendants of the Lamanites? The people who I talk to and teach every single day. I had been thinking earlier this week "Man, this mission thing is really tough" when I came across that. Funny, huh?

General conference would be so much cooler if we could just watch it without worrying about investigators, getting a ride, or anything like that. Basically, it´s a different experience entirely. In our mission, if you don´t have investigators, you don´t go to conference. My mission president is pretty hard core. I ended up going to one session on Saturday and the two on Sunday! They were SO GOOD. I really enjoyed this one. I cried during the last song--I can´t even remember what it was! Although, in general, I´d be lying if I said it wasn´t better in English (the translator doesn´t even TRY to mimic the accent of President Uchtdorf), but I definitely enjoyed it. Mostly I´m looking forward to the Liahona. We brought Lexzaida to the conference. Remember Lexzaida and Royer? The kid who broke his ankle playing soccer? Well he´s going to get baptized, along with his mom, next week! We´re both very excited for it. It´s going to be a really neat experience.

April 9th marks the end of this transfer. I will probably stay where I´m at in Amistad, but hey, ya never really know. I´ve been thinking a lot about my time out here, and it blows my mind. I completed 10 months yesterday. Along with that much time, you get a little more knowledge. There´s a church here called "La Luz del Mundo" ("The Light of the World") that nobody knows that much about. Basically there´s a whole bunch of really crazy, and really weird, rumors about it. For example, I´ve heard from other missionaries that it was started by an ex-stake president. Whoa. But who knows if that´s true. However, I got a hold of one of their hymn books. Pretty funny stuff.

I´m realizing that this is such a cool cool chance to push "reset" on everything. Really, your whole life. I guess I never really thought about how much it would be that way, but it´s true. It´s like a moment of "Whoa, whoa, what´s really important to you?" I get to start all my habits and thoughts and everything all over. What a unique chance. I may miss the new "Kidz Bop" CD, but that´s a small price to pay.

One more story-- Last P-day we were playing soccer, and it was really hot. I was tired, I´m not going to lie. I was kind of not doing anything to help. Then, Elder Rodriguez said "Elder Crabb, run!"

Now, I don´t know what I thought I should have been doing during a soccer game, but I just went for it. I was a little tired, but I just got really motivated all of a sudden. I booked it all the way down there, I stole the ball from the very surprised guy who was about to make a goal (a very good soccer player) and passed it off. I ran to the other side, where it got passed to me again, then I scored.

My point is, wasn´t that lame of me? I mean, I was capable of doing that the whole time, but what was stopping me? Three words-- "Elder Crabb, run!" totally motivated me to do something that I was completely able to do. I made myself a promise then and there to just GO for it! If I´m able to do it, I will never make anyone motivate me again! I advise all of you to do the same.

I ♥ you all! I´ll talk to you soon!

Elder Crabb