10/15/12 - Cake face, throwin' out my smokes, and "Who I'm Going to Marry!"

Sorry, I don't know how I get so far behind all the time!  You miss a week and then you turn around and it's three!  It's a crazy busy week but I will get Cody's blog updated, I promise!

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Well, here we are again. I've been trying to think of more creative ways to start letters....

This week has been eventful for sure! On Monday I bought a really cool t-shirt that has a Mayan eagle on it. I've been really interested in all that stuff, now that I'm realizing "Mayan" actually means "Nephite". We've been getting the most out of our P'days recently. Like I said, El Carrizo is like a little ranch town, so every P'day we go to Los Mochis, a nearby city, to buy stuff and hang out ("nearby" isn't very accurate. It's about as far as Provo.)

On Tuesday, we had divisions with the zone leaders. I stayed here with Elder Mortensen and my companion went to El Fuerte with Elder Hernandez. It was kind of a joke on our part; by the time we got back to my area, it was like 7 pm. It was really fun to talk to him though. He reminded me a lot of my trainer Elder Tingey. They're both going to end their missions in three weeks!

Due to the announcement by President Monson, we told a 19 year old girl in our branch who has been thinking about serving a mission that she now could serve. She looked a little shocked and said "I'm not ready...." we talked for a while and she said she'd pray about it.

Oh, and this was the day that something hilarious happened in my study! We were about to start companionship study, but my companion was writing something so he asked me to wait like 5 minutes. So, while I was waiting, I had a funny idea. I prayed that I could open my scriptures and find a verse that would say who I'm going to marry (why not?). I opened my Bible to Ecclesiastes 3:1.... needless to say, He put me in my place. I'm just going to pray about my investigators from now on!

Also this week, we had a really cool experience with a guy named Jesus who we're teaching. I don't know if I told you about him. But anyway, he has a lot of tough things in his life economically, physically, pretty much in everything. But he is progressing like you wouldn't believe. We taught the Law of Chastity (him and his "wife" aren't actually married) last week. When we said "To get baptized, you two need to be married." He looked over at his wife and said "Will you marry me?" It was SO awesome! Then, this week we taught the Word of Wisdom. Right after we told him about cigarettes, he took out his smokes and tore them to pieces.

 

 He is SO awesome....but he doesn't go to church. We can't figure out why exactly but he's so willing to change. We're on it.

Anyway, I love you all so much, you know that? I miss you guys, but only a couple of you speak Spanish, so it'll be hard to come back. =) Keep the faith!

Elder Crabb

An amazing (real) picture of two horses drinking out of a mountain stream...almost corny, right?

 

When a guy in our ward smashed Maricela's face into her own birthday cake. He tricked her into getting close by saying "This cake smells weird..."

 

<sorry picture would not upload!?>

 

 

The offending cake.

 

10-8-12 The Second Worst Letter. =)

Hey! First things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY,MOM!

Guess what? Just because you're a missionary does NOT automatically mean that you get to see General Conference. Exhibit A....Elder Crabb! I saw about ten minutes of it total! But that's okay. It's all available to us later in the conference Liahona, which they give us as missonaries.

I will say, though, that I don't have much time to write right now because I wrote a REALLY long letter to President Cantu. Sorry.

I got your box!! WOO! Best box EVER! From the cool water bottle to the starburst jellybeans to the pencil pens, I enjoyed that box from beginning to end! (And I ate some of those Wint-O-Green mints at 6, Saturday night. Miss you, Shawn!) Thank you so so much! My companion and I are enjoying the candy and all the fun church stuff a whole lot. I've already given out some "HLJ" rings! =)

Above all, thank you SO much for that mp3 player. I have been dying to hear a little Eric Whitacre or classical music. My companion only had Enya.....so that was a welcome change.

I would tell you about how we helped this branch see general conference, but frankly, it's a very long, complicated story that will be better when I tell it in person!

I love trials. Is that weird? I mean, I don't love trials. Nobody does. But I sure love what they do to us. There's a great talk by D. Todd Christofferson where he talks about that. He said there was a currant bush that was growing so big it looked like a tree, and it had no fruit. So the gardener came down and hacked it to pieces, until it was just a little stump. He said he could imagine it thinking "Why would you do this to me? I was a big beautiful tree, now I'm just a stump!" (The part I loved) the gardener thought to himself "Well, you're NOT a tree. That's not what I have in mind for you. You're a currant bush! One day, when you have fruit, you'll thank me."

I love that! I hope we all remember that, even though we go through difficult things, it's because God is shaping us!

I love you! I'll write better next week!

Elder Crabb

10-1-12 ¡Lazaro, ven fuera!

This week has sure been a doozy! This was the first week of my new companion, Elder Lazaro. First off, before you read any further, I want you all to look at the photo I've attached of the desks.

Guess which one is Elder Crabb's desk? You guessed it! Elder Lazaro is a great guy, but BOY are we sure different. We're pretty much opposite in everything. He's had some problems here in the mission with attitude things and all that, but he says he's ready to put all that aside and start over. I'm all for that.

Well, since I'm in the same area, my investigators didn't change yet. We didn't find many new people at all this week, but I owe that to "It's my first week here" syndrome, trying to get settled in (not MY first week....this week was my 19th week here....). We've been working hard, but something is missing. I'm trying to pinpoint exactly what it is...

One highlight of this week happened today on the way to Los Mochis on the bus. Remember Orlando? He's the guy from Poblado 7 that almost got baptized. He knows it's true, but he didn't do it, then he got a job that made him work on Sundays...anyway. Today on the bus, I recognized his brother, Fernando, when he got on. Orlando always told me he was a "science" guy, that he believed in God but he didn't like religions, and that he would never talk to us. I realized that this could be a really cool opportunity to talk to him. I said a quick prayer that God would give me the chance to talk to him. He looked for a seat, walked past several empty seats and sat down right next to me. I said "Hey, you're Orlando's brother, right?" He said yes and we started talking. We talked about various things, but the gist of the conversation was "I don't like listening to missionaries because everyone says the same thing: 'We have the truth, listen to us!'" Excitedly realizing this opportunity, I said, "A real answer would have to come from God, right?" He paused and said "Well....yeah." I explained to him that all we do is invite people to learn the doctrine and ask God if it's true (John 7:17). He was kind of surprised, and he threw that surprise right back at me by saying "I'm gonna give your religion a chance, and just one chance." He said he'll read the Book of Mormon, go to church, and take the missionary lessons. WHOA! That totally came out of nowhere, but awesome!

("that I am very engry because for my mission,I am luser and I dont working".....I stepped away from my computer for a second and Elder Hernandez wrote that...haha) 
 {-side note this made me LAUGH SO HARD!!  I am a LUSER!! haha Good for your Elder Hernandez!}

Also, Elder Lazaro got sick this week, so for one day and a half we were in the house with nothing to do. It was a really good time for self-reflection, so I prayed for direction and started reading the Book of Mormon.I opened up to Ether 12:27. I suddenly felt like, "Whoa! I need to ask got what my weaknesses are!" So that's what I did. I kneeled down and asked him what I need to get better on. This was Tuesday. Wednesday morning was when I found out that Elder Lazaro and I are polar opposites. Wednesday afternoon was when President Cantu's wife called me about his attitude problem. It was pretty obvious to me that God put everything how he put it just so I could learn my weakness.....which seems to be "putting my foot down". Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm kind of a layed back kind of guy. In situations where a lot of people would get frustrated and lose their temper, I just....don't. The thing that I need to work on is saying NO, or doing something that is contrary to the will of my companion. I haven't been like that before, but it's obvious to me that I have to be like that now.

This week was district conference in El Fuerte. That basically means that instead of being in El Carrizo we had to rent a bus to get us all there together. After a big old ordeal we finally got it all worked out. It was a fantastic conference. President Cantu and his wife spoke, the district president and a couple of others. NOW, we're getting ready for GENERAL CONFERENCE this week!! Man, I never thought I would be so excited to see general conference. I feel like a little kid at Christmas. One more week until conference! Six more days! Honestly, I know it sounds funny, but who else in the WORLD has a chance like this? Every six months we can hear exactly what God wants us to do in those six months. Frankly, that's awesome! We have a few people that are really excited to see the conference, like Lupita, Ismael, and a few others.

I LOVE MY MISSION.....I think that says it all. The church is true. Watch general conference. You Utahns don't realize how lucky you have it! If you don't have Internet here you have to drive to a stake center, which is more than an hour and a half away! Remember to watch it especially because you can watch it in your jammies in the comfort of your own living room.

Bye!
Elder Crabb