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 beapatient 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
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