11-26-12 Christmas Crack? I love you guys! And "Dadis lot of kundy!"

Just so you all know, I DID get my boxes, and I enjoyed every minute of it! You guys win first place with missionary boxes! The gold medal goes to whoever found that mustache that goes "Well, hello there...". I pretty much died laughing. Seeing a foreigner try to understand our family's humor was also fantastic. "Why does your family write so much in greeting cards?" "Do you really like mustaches or something?" And Thaaaaaaannnnnkkkk yyyyyyoooooouuuuu for the clothes. I was in desperate need of new stuff. Is it just me, or did you guy the pants a lot smaller? Don't get me wrong, they still fit, but holy cow, after having such giant "Elder Clown" pants I feel like I'm wearing leather pants.

When we actually got home and opened the boxes, my companion who is still very new at English said (in English, of course) "Dadis lot of kundy!" I said "It sure is, pal."

 

I sure did miss Thanksgiving this week. The lady who fed us on Thanksgiving said "Oh, today's Thanksgiving, so I made chicken so that you don't miss your home too much." (??) Cranberry relish and stuffing are nowhere to be found down here. I am DEFINITELY looking forward to Thanksgiving 2013.

We had a few failures this week with some people, but Karely came to church!! We were so excited, but we were trying really hard to make sure she was comfortable in church. It wasn't hard, because Cristal was there. BUT.....all of a sudden, she said "I have to leave, but I didn't want to tell Karely because I knew she wouldn't stay if I did." Oh no! Karely was nervous and so we didn't tell her that Cristal left. She kept asking us and we kept saying "Who knows?" At the end we told her that Cristal left and she said "Thank you for not telling me. I wouldn't have stayed." Yes!! The coolest part was the lesson we had last night, though.

After so much time of her reading the Book of Mormon and living the commandments, we hadn't even taught Karely about the Restoration, so we decided to watch the movie ("The Restoration"). Long story short, we got the DVD player all hooked up and everything, but we realized there was no way to switch the language to Spanish, because they didn't have a remote. I started panicking, but then something told me to just pause it and tell her I was going to translate. I was nervous, because I had never even tried to do that before, but I said a quick prayer for the gift of tongues and started the movie. I started translating as they were talking and I was surprised by how much of the movie I didn't even have to translate--I just remembered what they said in Spanish. Then the First Vision part came. All of a sudden, when Joseph Smith actually says his prayer and the music gets louder, the Spirit hit all three of us like a ton of bricks. I didn't start crying, though, until I had to translate the words of Joseph ("I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head....") by the end of the First Vision Karely started to cry too. It was so strong. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. I felt just like Joseph Smith. Anyway, she loved the movie. She told us she felt the same way in church and she was so glad that she didn't leave, because she felt really good. We hadn't seen but she also had felt the spirit so strong during the sacrament hymn she cried. That woman is really sensitive to the spirit. Anyway, we bore our testimonies and she said she knows it's true too.

Anthony is extremely excited to get baptized. We pass him every day as we leave to go teach people and he says "Hey! Ten more days!" "Hey! Eight more days!" He's so cool. And that'll help his mom (Cristal) be more committed for sure.

We're teaching a 19-year-old guy named Victor and his 16 year old girlfriend Gladys.They're so awesome, but we're going to give them one more week to come to church. Victor said he had to work, so he couldn't come to church, but Gladys said she'd come (and she didn't...) So we'll see what's going on. I'm pretty sure it's just because she doesn't want to go alone, not knowing anybody but us.

In other words, we are cruisin. I'm so lucky to have the mission, the companion, the area, the friends, the family, and most of all the love that I have from all of you. Thanks for all your support and for the things you help me accomplish spiritually!

Love,

Elder Craffp

11/19/12 - Today is Mexican Black Friday. It's called "Buen Fin". Even the FOOD is cheaper!

Oye!

Hey, family. This week, I had a sudden, really crazy realization. Usually, when people ask me how much time I have in the mission, I say "Like a year", so they won't think "oh, he's already gone..." (or be like "Hey, he should speak better Spanish by now....") But yesterday, someone from one of my old areas, Amistad, came to visit a family member. It was cool to see him, we were talking about my converts (Lexzaida, Rosibel, Lionel) who are ALL still active! WOO! But that wasn't the crazy part. He asked me how long I had left on my mission, and I decided to tell him since he's not in my current ward. I had to think about it because I always tell people a year haha. But that's when I realized that I almost have 18 months in the mission! That totally freaked me out. I'm not a "year and a half" class missionary! Anyway...whoa...

Other than that, this week was pretty much awesome! A lot of really memorable things happened.

To be able to explain last P-day, I need to explain The Toledo. There's a bus here that's really famous, called the Toledo. It's famous because it always drives really crazy, there's always super loud music, and there's all kinds of stickers and lights and weird things on the inside. (If you're familiar with Arthur, I refer you to "the crazy bus"!) It's always super full and somehow I always end up really awkwardly pressed up against someone.

Suffice it to say, I really hate taking the Toledo.

So, after emailing last Monday, we were going to go to Centro (downtown) to mail a package for my companion. Like I said, I was feeling a little nauseous and everything, but it wasn't going to stop me from doing "my stuff", so we went. Of course, to get to Centro we have to take a Toledo. The whole time the bus was going from one side to the other, and I just felt worse and worse. By the time we got to Centro, I was totally sick. Like I said, they gave me medicine and everything. But that sickness wiped me out from Monday until Wednesday! So that was incredible. However, I feel excellent now. =)

(Side note: There is NO sign of Thanksgiving down here....)

We were going to have a baptism on Saturday, but I have to explain the surrounding situation as to why it didn't happen. I told you about our really cool investigator Cristal, right? We have been going there a lot to try and help her get an answer. And this week, she had a really cool, really direct experience that totally gave her a testimony! She said "I'm converted. I know the church is true!" We were SO happy!! Happy doesn't even begin to describe it. As we were talking about the baptismal interview, we suddenly realized something awful. Due to a really personal, really unfortunate situation completely out of Cristal's control, she can't get baptized just yet. She's still working toward it, but she has to make an extremely difficult decision. However, she said she will keep going to church forever. "Just because I'm not baptized doesn't mean I'm not going to go to church!" Awesome. Her son, Anthony, however, had no problems and was super excited to get baptized. We called the Zone Leaders to come and do the interview, and all seemed to be well. BUT. They finished with the interview and they said "He can't get baptized yet." I thought something along these lines: "Hahaha....ohh....riiiight.............um.......are you serious?" There is a new rule, directly from President Cantu, that those who want to get baptized need to be living the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity for 30 prior to their baptism. We did NOT know that, and Anthony drank coffee two weeks ago. Aw.....so he was really sad about that. But we explained to him that he could still get baptized and that maybe he could even get baptized with his mom and his mom's friend Karely, then he was fine.

So, Karely. She lives with Cristal. She's actually the reason that Cristal started listening to us in the first place, because she called us over jokingly. Cristal has always told us that she's super rude, she swears like a sailor and that she yells at her kids. We started talking a little bit with her, and we realized that Cristal was right! But Karely told us that she's really been wanting to change and get better. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it's true (she ABHORS reading), and, also this week, she said God answered her through a dream and she said she knows we're the true church.

I've been living so many really powerful experiences in this area, whether it's finding new people, being in the right place at the right time, teaching the right thing, answered prayers, or testimonies through the Spirit. I love this work! It's so amazing. Sometimes I feel so incredibly small here in this big old world, trying to convert everyone, but I know that we're doing the best we can! =) I love you all and I'm so glad to be here. Thanks so much for your support, making it such an easy decision to come out here. Thank you for writing me so often and giving me encouragement. Your words have been a huge help to me many times, and for those who write me every week (you know who you are), many times something you say answers my prayers.

I guess, to sum up how I feel this Thanksgiving season,

THANKS. =)

Elder Crabb

 

 

11-12-12 - Skype, "I'm God!", and Being Sick For Real

Ey!  The pictures are officially lost. I'm working with a member here to see if we can recover them, but it doesn't seem likely. =(

We have a really cool option this year. For our Christmas phone call, we can either talk by phone like normal for two hours, or by Skype for 1 hour! It's your choice, let me know which one you want to do so we can start getting ready for it.

Also, cool news. I will NOT be coming home from my mission on June 1st. They are making some adjustments to the time. I will be coming home three weeks later. I believe that will make my returning date June 26th. Just so you can prepare for that.....in more than six months....

Now, down to the "needy greedy".

Last Monday, we met a guy in Soriana (Mexican Smith's) that told us he was God, and that he needed Bibles to pass out to the people. I told him that I was sorry, but we don't carry Bibles to give away. How strange. I also found out that day that one of the sisters in my district (yes, I have sisters in my district), Hermana Tejeda, is 38 years old! Whoa!

This week I've been getting used to the new study schedule. Now that I'm training, we study for two hours as companions instead of just one. Training is fun. Especially when your trainee only has a little bit of time in the church, because you have to be the one to say "Yes, Joseph Smith WAS a Mason..." It's funny sometimes.

One of our coolest investigators right now is named Cristal. She's a single mom who is also pregnant. That being so, she walks the huge hill every Sunday, just her and her son, to get to church! THAT'S a testimony. Her and her son are going to get baptized this weekend. She's so great.

I don't know if I told you this before, but they have now told us that we can't "tract", meaning basically that we can't knock on a door without knowing who lives there. I don't usually do that too much anyway, but when it means that you CAN'T do it even when all your plans fall is really frustrating.

Thursday, we had a really cool experience in the church. Thursday is when they have mutual in this ward. We had had a meeting with the bishop, and I wanted to meet some of the young men and young women, so we went outside to see who was there. Keep in mind that this was my first week in the area and I didn't know anybody! I had met about five members by Thursday. We walked outside and saw there were a bunch of young people playing soccer. I didn't know why but I had the distinct impression to talk to a girl that was sitting, watching them. I introduced myself, and she said her name was Melissa. I don't really know why I asked, not knowing anybody, but I asked if she was a member of the church, to which she replied "No." She said that she wanted to hear our message in her house, and best of all, she lives on the street in front of the church! It was really a testimony to me about the power of the Spirit. Who knows what people God has prepared to hear the gospel.

Friday was a Multi-Zone Conference. It was pretty wacky, because two members of the Presidency of the Seventy came to Los Mochis to visit, so President Cantù was going nuts trying to finish on time. As usual, it was an amazing converence and I learned a ton. I took like six pages of notes! That took about the whole day. When we got back, it was like 5, so we asked for more and more and more referrals....we're going to do that a whole lot more often.

In other news, I've been totally sick. It was just yesterday and today, but MAN I'm feeling like garbage. We went to the doctor, and she said "Wow, you look horrible!" (not exactly what you want to hear when you go to the doctor...) She said I have an ear infection, a throat infection, tonsilitis, and the stomach flu. She asked me "How'd you manage to fit all of that in your body all at once?" Haha.....i've got medicine, so I'm going to go back home and sleep it off.

Love you guys. Thanks for your mountains of support like always. You guys are awesome, keep praying for us! Especially for my sickness so we can get working again. See ya!

Love,

Elder Crabb

11/05/12 - My pictures are gone! And Nuevas Oportunidades in Nueva Galicia‏

First things first....HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYDNEY!! I hope you had a great one! And may I throw in a little happy birthday greeting for my awesome friend Korinne. Keep on being awesome (and writing Elder Crabb...)

Alright, well this week was totally nuts for lots of reasons.

Well, as I'm sure you have all been wondering, I am no longer in El Carrizo! I have gone BACK to Culiacan. I love this place! It's great to be in a city again after so much time in the middle of nowhere. My new area's called Nueva Galicia. It's sort of where I was before in Amistad, just a little closer to downtown (which is the BEST!). My new companion's name is Elder Damian. He's super nice and we seem to have a little more in common with me than Elder Lazaro. He tells me we've got some great potential investigators, and the members are really nice too. Cool! Remember my old companion Elder Peterson? He's going to take my place in El Carrizo! That'll be cool.

So last Monday, we were traveling back from the district meeting and, while we were waiting for the bus, I saw a young girl (maybe 20) sit down, looking sad. I thought "I'm going to contact her." It was a good plan, but as a missionary I get freaked out talking to girls my age! So I sat next to her and I waited til the perfect moment, then we started to talk to her. Her name's Nuria, she lives in El Carrizo's area. It turns out that while she was in the station, she thought "I wanna talk to those guys." We took down her address and phone number and put an appointment. COOL! Too bad I'll never get to see what happens to her while I'm there. We'll see.

On Wednesday, I did three baptismal interviews for Elder Pearson, who is going to leave for Riverton tomorrow. Weird! But that was fun. While we were there, he almost gagged on the food that the member gave us. Haha....sad. But hilarious.

On Thursday we had an activity in the cemetary planned, which was going to be really cool. All of the members were going to give a short message about the plan of salvation while standing up in the back of a truck! It was going to be awesome. But, the day came, and one by one, all the members started dropping off like flies. Everyone was leaving town or had to work or had SOMEthing, the point is that we were going to have to do it all by ourselves. As fun as that sounded, I thought it might be better to put it off a day. So, we did.

On Friday, when we really did it, we still only had a few members there, so we were trying to figure out the best way to talk to lots of people at a time. It ocurred to me that we could do something less-than-orthodox. I literally preached to multitudes with a Bible in my hand. Check one off the missionary bucket list. It was really cool, and I think some people really felt the spirit. The downside is that we didn't have a good chance to get addresses, so hopefully lots of people come to the church!

I got lots of learnin' of the area to do! It's going to be really fun and I'm excited to meet the investigators. So far I love everything about this place--even my companion! I have lots of new ideas and things I'm going to do to get better.

Oh! The WORST THING EVER happened this week! My camera's memory card got a virus, and every picture I have taken for the last six months is now gone. I was totally devastated....but luckily, we have Facebook, and most of the pictures I had, my companions will have also. Hopefully I can find a way to recover my pictures....but I'm seriously doubting it by now. Darn it! I have almost no pictures of my whole darn mission! Just what I've sent home...sigh. It's hard to send pictures home too because they are HUGE (in pixels, that is).

I'm just learning so so much. I'm so excited to get going here. I feel like there were some challenges that I in particular couldn't defeat in that last area. I'm excited to not let anything get in my way here.....I'm so pumped!

Loves!

Elder

 

These are all from our activity in the cemetery on the Day of the Dead. It was super fun preaching like that!

 

10/29/12 - Don't like change? Go on a misson--you'll get over it!

First, a couple of things....

a) my shoes are fine (for now). We'll see how long they last! Luckily we have a hose in the back of our house so I just sprayed them off the best I could and used a rag to wipe them down. I'd be lying if I said it didn't take me forever...

b) Congratulations, McAlisters!! Holy cow, another niece! Where did you find the name Piper? I have to admit, I think that name is totally awesome. "Sounds like 'viper'...." I'm so glad to hear that everything went well.

c) Despite the subject line, I'm not going anywhere just yet. Transfers are next Monday, and seeing as I've been here in El Carrizo for 6 months, I'm probably getting out of here.

d) as for my "Christmas box", I have but two requests. Both food. Remember those soft peppermint candies that we became addicts to? I want some of those! And some Wint-o-Green mints too! (I wouldn't complain if you threw in some caramels and fudge too!) Basically, all I want is food. =) I love you guys.

Okay, so "Dia de los Muertos" (day of the dead) is this week, on Thursday. It's not what everyone thinks it is! I used to think it was like Mexican Halloween, but it's completely different. Basically, it's like Memorial Day, but a whole lot cooler. There's lots of great traditions and good food, and everyone's at home and has the day off....but unfortunately, that also translates to a lot of alcohol and partying.

To offset that, we as a branch are going to go to the cemetary together on Thursday, and do some contacting! I'm literally going to preach to a crowd, something that I have always wanted to do! We're going to talk to lots of people and get lots of missionary references.

This should be fun though. Everyone says "Do you guys go hide in your houses on Halloween in America?" .....What? Everyone thinks it's super dangerous and satanic and whatever, but what I tell them is that all Halloween really is is a bunch of kids dressed as Spider-Man asking for candy. But they DO make us go to our apartments early on Halloween just in case there's any weirdness.

I mentioned that I have been having a few disagreements with my companion. This week, I decided that if he thought his ideas were so much better than mine, we could just see! So I told him that HE had to plan and decide where to go and what to do. He was all about that, seeing as he complained about every plan I had! So we started this week at full blast. I have to admit, we did some great stuff. We visited a whole ton on inactive families (there are more than 90 here in my area...) and looked for some new investigators. After three days, however, Elder Lazaro started to get frustrated because he had nothing to plan. I told him that he had to stick it out....so he did. By the end of the week he was begging me to plan and take the lead, that he wouldn't complain.

Too bad I waited until the very last week to do this!

Basically, it solved all our problems. Hooray!

Also this week, I had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview with a kid from Constancia (Alejandro, the kid in the picture), which is in my district. He was really cool, and after the interview he asked if I could baptize him! I was totally flattered but I had to go to my area. There was no way to do it. I told him thanks so much but that I couldn't....oh well. But he got baptized. Rosales, the other area in my district, is going to baptize NINE PEOPLE this week! I have to do nine interviews on the same day! I'm not complaining, I love doing interviews, but I've never even done two in a row haha. So that'll be an adventure.

I have even LESS time than usual! It's a miracle I wrote this much. But I know the church is true, and that families are forever, and all that stuff! I'll be more inspiring next week. =)

Keep the Faith!

Elder Crabb

 

 

10/22/12 - Imminent Wedding, Newlyweds, and President Mud‏

Aaaaayyyyy!

 

As for this week, that couple I told you about has been progressing like crazy! They're getting ready to get married. They don't have a ton of money, so it's likely that they won't have a party or anything, just sign some papers. It's going to be awesome....maybe I'll get to be a witness! As soon as they get married, they can be baptized. I'm so excited for them. Honestly, Jesus has rescued his life from the pits of death. He was this close to death several times, for different reasons. But I know he's still here for a reason--THIS reason!

A couple of weeks ago, we were hitchhiking on the way back from El Fuerte, and this 23-ish-year-old guy named Eduardo gave us a ride. He said that he lived in Alaska for about two years (climate shock, right?), and every once in a while he would be coming back from getting groceries or something, FREEZING cold, and two young guys in shirts and ties would come give him a ride. He was so thankful for that, but they never said what church they were from (whoops). We explained who we are and why we're here in Mexico, and he invited us to his house.

We looked EVERYWHERE for his house, which is in Poblado 7, but we couldn't find it anywhere. He gave us his number too, but I had written it down wrong (whoops again) so we couldn't get a hold of him. Then, one day we were walking down the street, and I heard (in English, mind you): "Hey, Crabb! How ya doin?" It was him! He invited us in, and we met his wife, Diana. It didn't take me long to realize they were newlyweds. There were new dishes, about 30 pictures of them together on the walls, and one of the pictures was them making a big heart with their arms on the beach (oh brother), But I ran with it, and they are so in love. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how families can be eternal. That greatly interested Diana, but she said "What's the difference between baptism in the Catholic church and your church?

Here we go...

That's a dangerous question, but a very critical one. If you answer badly, they will get offended and not want to hear more. But them asking shows their interest, so you have to ask. Basically, from there we explained about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We gave them each a Book of Mormon and they committed to read it and to pray about it (together, of course).

It makes me really grateful sometimes that we're not a "lukewarm" church. I've said this before, but we're either completely true or hopelessly confused. How wonderful! It makes it so much easier that way! Like I say to investigators-- 2 plus 2 is "about 4". Haha....does that even make sense? Why would religion be any different?

I know that this work is SO important. I thank you for your prayers. Hey, you guys can be missionaries too--go to the temple!

Love you all!

Elder Crabb

PS. I'm going to make a special request. I'm going to ask every person that reads this that they can kneel and say a prayer to help us find the people that God has prepared for us. We need it!

 

 

Fotos!

My companion made a little mud figurine of "a mission president". He called him "President Mud" ("Presidente Lodo").

My poor, poor shoes. It rained a LOT this week.

Are their sunsets like this in the United States?!