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
No comments:
Post a Comment