7-30-12 "The bus"

Tell Bobby I said congratulations! It's awesome to hear that he's engaged. It's weird to think that I have friends that are getting married.....

Well, first off, there is a really awesome thing that our mission president changed about our mission. Before, we used to have our district meetings on P-day, which rarely allowed us to do some of the essentials, e.g., buy food, clean the house...Now, we're going to have them at 6, on P-day, after all of our "have-to's". Yay! That's why I'm writing at 11!

Now for the real news. Our investigators have been progressing. The majority of our investigators are in a little tiny town about 20 minutes from where we live (Poblado 7), and so we go there about two or three times a week. That's where Orlando lives. Have I mentioned him? He's 20, and his family doesn't have a lot of money, but he's really smart. He's good at applying everything to his life. He wants to get baptized, and so does his mom, but they told us that they want to be sure, because if they get baptized, they're going to be very dedicated members. I can't really complain about that, so I'm mostly just giving them the time they need. Being the branch president, I extended a calling to each of my recent converts-- Aracely is going to be the Young Women's President (there's only one--her sister) and Sara is going to direct the music. It's fun to be able to give callings. The spirit really puts those ideas in your head, I can testify of that.

We found a new investigator named Selene (that's "Seh-leh-neh") on Friday. She looks just like Amy Luke, for those of you that know her. We were trying to find a referral someone had given us (also named Selene) that lives in Carrizo. It being a tiny town, you can ask pretty much anyone where someone lives, and a lot of times they know, so we asked a lady where Selene lives. The only other thing we knew about her was that she's 25 years old, but the lady said she lived on that same street. Great! We walked up to the door (which was open--nobody closes their doors here until they sleep because it's so hot) and we saw a girl sitting on a chair kind of slumped to the side. We knocked on a post outside and said "Buenas tardes!" (that's how you knock here). Right after that we realized she had been sleeping. Oops. But she was very nice and she let us in. We found out that she's 18, so she's NOT the Selene that we were looking for, but she's still really cool (the Lord works in mysterious ways....). She's very smart and understood the Restoration very, very well. She told us she'll read and pray because because she's always wondered what church was true. The Spirit was definitely present in that lesson and she recognized it right away. Awesome! We have another appointment on the 31st.

Two really awesome miracles involving the bus happened to us this week. We were in Poblado 7, and it started to get dark. We started worrying, because you can't hitchhike after dark, obviously, and we had a total of six pesos between us. In short, there was no way we were getting back to Carrizo without a miracle. We were sitting by the road, when I just said a simple prayer. Basically, I said, "Father, we need a ride. We don't have money. Please let a bus stop by itself and ask us where we're going, and when we say we haven't got any money he'll take us for free." Right then, we saw a bus start coming in our direction on the highway. Sure enough, without us doing anything, he stopped and said "Where are you headed?" We told him we were broke and he said, "Don't worry about it, hop in!" It was a really cool experience. It makes me happy that even though there are "worlds without number" and Moses said "man is nothing" that we matter to Him.

I was at a member's house eating with Elder Osorio the other day. The son of the family, Erick (the one with the long black hair) was watching a movie on his laptop. All of a sudden, I heard it say "It's a fiendish thingy!"

WHAAAT?

Yes! In Mexico, in the middle of NOWHERE, there was a 17-year-old kid watching "Help!"! I couldn't believe it. We started quoting the movie after that and it was really funny because of his accent.

Also, this week I bought new shaving cream. Normally that wouldn't be news, but this shaving cream has a smell that almost makes me gag when I smell it. It was the "cheap" kind, so that's what I get for being frugal...

Everything is great! In like two weeks, there are transfers again! I can't believe that time has gone so fast these last few weeks. Elder Guillen, my fourth companion (the one from Peru) is going home after that. That's wacky. He's my first companion to leave the mission. Almost all of my companions have had less time then me.

Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week, and head over to the temple, because there sure are a lot of people over here who want to go, but can't!

Nos vemos,

Elder Crabb

7-23-12 Slurpee's don't exist in Mexico!?!

This week has been so good. Elder Osorio and I have been thinking about things to get better on, and we`ve been doing them! We cleaned the house really good today and we've been talking about little things we can change (for example, I told Elder Osorio not to say that what we do is "share messages about Jesus Christ" because that's really not our ultimate goal, and he told me I should not use so many abstract examples as I teach. "The gospel is like a motor...." you get the idea.) We're going to put some of this stuff in practice and just have a killer week.

I being real hot and all, I've really been thinking about/missing something this week. Slurpees. The don't exist here. Anyway, as long as we're not talking about important things, this last P-day, we went with this missionary, Elder Nieto (and yes, for anyone who took high school Spanish, that does mean "Elder Grandson") to do a couple of things. He told me he has a TON of really cool church documents, talks, books, videos, and other stuff in his flash drive. We went to the cyber cafe and he transferred me everything he had! I'm really excited to see it (except the memory card that I saved it to now has a virus....so we'll see if I still have it.).

Honestly, I have been a little down recently. Not "missing home" or lack of drive for the mission or anything like that. I was just sad that I hadn't seen many people baptized, even though I had taught some really awesome people in my former areas. Just when I thought, "Get over it, Elder Crabb." Elder Robles, who served in San Josè right after me, told me that they had baptized a whole family that I had found with Elder Tingey. If that wasn't enough, over the next few days, I found out that Virginia, Manuela, Jasive, Victor, Lionel, and two other families (of 6 and 8!) I found in my old areas had gotten baptized!! I immediately recognized that my Father was telling me "You ARE making a difference." I was so so SO happy! I realize now that sometimes, we don't see results, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any! I am just overjoyed right now, honestly. I can't wait to go visit them someday! They are all so excited to be members, I've been told. I love my mission! I wouldn't trade anything in the world for the things I've learned and experienced. I miss you all, but we'll be together again.

I feel like the mission is a mini taste of what the entire plan of God is like, if that makes sense. You have your pre-existence (before you leave), your life on earth (complete with trials and difficulties), where you must endure to the end, then, you have "the eterneties" when you get back, where you get to be with your loved ones again. Maybe I'm just thinking too much, but I wouldn't doubt it if that was one of His purposes. I guess I'll find out someday.

Goodbye, everyone! Pictures are coming next week!

Elder

*James Gaffigan voice*....Why did he put a flower?....that's not his name.....He's not Elder Flowers....

7-16-12

(Wow!  sorry I haven't updated this blog in a while.  I have been completely overwhelmed with getting ready for girls camp.  My assignment this year is MASSIVE and it has consumed my time! I will post Cody's letters but I will have to wait to put the pictures up...hopefully sometimes next week!  Until then, enjoy all the updates you get all at once!)

 

 

This week, as I mentioned last week, was a lot of scrambling trying to get things done. Like I said, EFY, the temple trip (which are both MISSION activities, so everyone who wanted to go to the temple or to EFY in Sinaloa or Baja California Sur was preparing to go). As a branch presidency, Elder Osorio and I were running to all the young men's/young women's houses and getting everything in order for EFY, in some cases begging the parents to give them permission. In total, we had Erick and Jesus go. Erick is a really great kid but he has some doubts about the church, so this will be good for him. And Jesus, his cousin, isn't even a member! Woo! So maybe he'll get a testimony this week. EFY ends on Saturday.

Well, we've had some other miracles this week too, but the biggest are the following:

JULIO. One day, it was night time, about 8:30, and all of our plans had fallen through. We were with Carlos, a really awesome 15 year old recent convert. We didn't really know what to do, but he picked up a leaf and said "Wherever it points to, we're going there." I was kind of thinking, "Aw, look at that faith." But when he dropped it, it pointed exactly at a house, and I thought that maybe he was on to something. When we knocked on the door, we found a guy named Julio, who, regrettably, was extremely interested but didn't have time to talk to us right then. Being a teacher, he said to check with him a little bit later, after the 15th of July. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read. All that took place about three weeks ago.

Fast forward to Saturday. We were walking down a road and my mind got Julio'd. I just suddenly remembered him and that he said the 15th. Then, I realized we were on his street! We went to his house, knocked, and he ushered us right in. He told us that, sadly, he had left his notes at work (wait...what notes?) along with his Book of Mormon ("Hey, it's okay if I'm marking it up and highlighting stuff, right?"). He has a notebook FULL of questions that he has from 1 and 2 Nephi. I was totally blown away!! He is very, very interested in the "us" aspect. Like OUR values and OUR beliefs. That's a little different, because normally I'm just a representative. But I realized that MY values and God's values are the same. Responging to his questions, we basically taught him about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Commandments in an hour. Anyone that has been or is a missionary will tell you that that's totally nuts. But we did it. We're going to go back and teach him slowly so he really understands, but WOW!

Chely y Sara. I don't even know if I've mentioned them, but we baptized this week! Whoa! They are Aracely ("Chely") and Sara, sisters, and children of an inactive member. Their grandparents are very active (they just got back from the temple). We've been trying to help them accept a baptismal date for a while now, they just feel like they aren't ready. They definitely were; the other day, a Baptist gave Chely a little anti-mormon booklet, and she said to him (after reading it, mind you), citing a little part of the booklet, "Look, here it says "The Church of the Latter-Day Saints", but that's not what our church is called. We believe in Jesus Christ." (Our church? Awesome!) So finally, we just told them to pray and see if it was something they should do, and if not, we'll maybe talk to them another time later. Chely, by this time, had decided that she wanted to be baptized, she just wasn't sure when. Sara still wasn't sure. But they both prayed, and when we came back they were both totally ready. I said "How does Sunday sound?" and they were both excited and accepted. We asked them why they changed their minds, and they said it was personal, but I know they had a great spiritual experience. After church on Sunday we had a really great baptismal service. They both wanted me to baptize them, which was a little weird, but that's what we did. It was really a beautiful thing. Chely was just crying and crying, and she couldn't even talk but she was SO happy. You know how it is when you're so happy you just laugh and cry together? That's what she was doing. Honestly, it made me cry too, just to see her experience something so joyful. This was really special. They're really excited to do missionary work too, they gave us about eight referrals this week! They are really great. My first converts in Carrizo! WOO!

If you guys want to ask questions, that's totally fine, don't think I'm ignoring you, I'm just waiting for a less eventful week! (if that ever happens) I love being a missionary. Have you experienced a mighty change of heart? Because I sure have! Oh, I was going to mention, today in the district meeting, Elder Guillèn, our district leader, shared Jacob 1:19 with us.

• "And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day."

I'm starting to understand my mission a little better now. I love you all, have a fantastic week. Please pray for my investigators that they can get an answer to their prayers!

Nos vemos.

Elder Crabb

7-9-12 The Lord has led me where I need to be

My companion, Elder Osorio (Bear river....like the insurance!) is really great. He is a lot like me, and we get along really well. It's fun working with him because we're usually thinking along the same lines. I'm not saying EVERYTHING is the same, he likes to work out, and Elder Crabb not so much. But being with him is great. We had a giant ordeal this week trying to get the maps for our area. As you can imagine, it would be pretty time-consuming to go to every little farm town in our area (a total of 23), so we tried to see if we could get them all in one place first. First, we went to the logical place, the government place with the maps. Did they have them? Nope. Okay.....so we went to the other government office. Did THEY have them? Nope. We tried about five other places, and were getting pretty desperate. The only place we could think of to try was the post office. The guy there didn't have any that he could give us, but he did show us a giant map of the valley that he had for his purposes and told us where he got it. Basically, our last shot. So we went where he told us, and for 300 pesos they let us walk out with every map that we needed! Total of 24 maps! I was so so excited. We ran into Ismael, that crazy science "Keys of Enoch" guy there again....He said that Zarahemla is in Veracruz. What a crazy guy.

We've talked a little bit more with Libieth. She's still really busy so she's not sure she can talk to us still, but she's going to read the Book of Mormon still. There, we also found an American. Now, it's one thing finding an American in Los Cabos or something. That's normal. But in Carrizo Valley? It's kind of weird. So we talked to her and found out that she married a guy from Poblado 7 in our area, so she and her daughter moved down here with him. We've had a good week of finding like 4 or 5 families! Sadly, NONE of them came to church for whatever reason. That's frustrating, but all we can do is help them feel the Spirit and invite them.

This week hasn't been one of work so much. It's been one of getting to know my companion, finding maps, and reflecting. I've been thinking about the kind of life I've had and what blessings I've been born with. There are so many awesome people here who accept the gospel so fast and just make the necessary sacrifices to follow God.

But this week, I've come to the conclusion that I would not have been one of them.

I've really been thinking deep deep down, and I've decided that if I hadn't been born in the church, I never would have had the faith to listen to missionaries. If I hadn't been born in the church, I might have been an Atheist, honestly! It's been really apparent to me this week how much my Father in Heaven loves me. He knows me so well that he didn't send me here with a family that doesn't believe in God, or even in another church. He sent me here with the truth already in my hands, with a family that is an exceptional example to me. Now I'm not saying I was the strongest member of the church, far from it. I had a testimony, but there were a lot of holes in my testimony, about reading scriptures, going to church, little things like that. I believed in them, I just didn't get how important they were. From where I am now, I can see that the Lord has led me exactly to where I need to be. He gave me the gospel, a great family and amazing friends to be good examples to keep me on the right track (for the most part) and then he sent me on a mission so I would understand why all this is so important. I can testify very strongly that He has a plan for every single one of us, I love all of you and I pray for your safety and well being.

And just so you know that I'm not all sentimental and serious.... invisible robot fish.

Til next week!

Elder Crabb

7-2-12 Hay un mexi-gringo que les ama!

Alright, so I said that cambios were coming up this week, right? It turns out that I`m staying here as branch president, and Elder Sumano went to Mazatlàn. The best part is my new companion, Elder Osorio. I met him briefly when I was in Culiacàn, and since then, I thought "How cool it would be to be his companion one day." Surprise! He WAS in Los Cabos, and they sent him all the way to Mazatlàn (8 HOURS AWAY) and he had to take two buses, a flight, then an 8 hour bus to Los Mochis, then an hour long bus to get to El Carrizo. Basically we didn`t have time to do anything--it was about 8 o clock by the time we got all settled in (hence, I write on Tuesday).

Also, this week, we got the instruction to get maps for our areas and start to color-code them and put numbers and stuff in our area books. That would be fine if the size of our area was at least manageable. It takes us about two hours to cross it when we`re in a car. And there are just little "ranchitos" (no idea how to translate that), about double the size of a subdivision, every 10 or 15 minutes. Basically, there are only maps of the entire valley. Our instruction requires a more detailed map. Basically, the ONLY way to get these maps is to go to every single ranchito (there are about 15), ask everyone where to get a map of that particular ranchito, and find the "government office" (usually just a house or something). That`s our project for today (and maybe tomorrow and the next day...good grief) but I`m determined. Nobody`s ever taken the time to do it before, but it would help us a ton in our planning.

Sorry for the brevity of this letter. We`re running on kind of a tight schedule today, because all of the government offices close at like 5, we have to eat at like 2 with a member.....but I promise that next week will be a better letter (and I`ll include pictures!) I know that the church is true. I feel like I say that a lot, but hey, that`s my job I guess. It`s weird to me that I`m now on the down slope, with 11 months left. It seems like so little time! But I`ll use it the best I can. I`m writing in my journal, being obedient, reading the scritchers, all that missionary jazz. But I know it`s important. See you all later! Hay un mexi-gringo que les ama!

Love,

Elder Crabb````````````

P.S. Congrats on the trip to Peru, Korinne! That`s incredible! Suerte con el idioma. =)