6-24-13. The Time is Far Spent

Well, there's really not much to say. Like I've said before, I feel silly writing anything because I'm just going to say it all to you in person on Wednesday or so. Just know that I love ya and I'm so happy that I've passed these two years like this. However, there's one last thing I'd like to say.

This past week I've had a bunch of mixed feelings. I've felt a lot of "If only" feelings and it's been hard to get over that. I've been a little sad thinking about the "what if"'s of my mission. I've been wondering if I've been diligent enough, if I've completed my purpose, etc.

Then, all of a sudden, the AP's called us and told us there was going to be a worldwide missionary training meeting. I was excited to hear that we were invited and they wanted to involve us. Well, we went. And it was exactly what Elder Crabb needed. I mean, I just felt SO strongly this phrase: "Your mission is NOT over. It's just starting." I felt so much love and comfort knowing the Lord was pleased with my service. I'm going to keep serving and being diligent!

Thanks for all of your support these last two years. I love you all and thank you! See you all very soooon!

Much love,

Almost-not-Elder Crabb!

6-17-13 I'd have Dick Clark do the countdown, but he's no longer with us.

Oh boy....

Well this is a hard letter to write haha. It's like, I have a million things to say, but in the back of my mind, I'm kind of thinking "Can't it wait until next Wednesday?".

 

This week, we had a baptism! It was a total surprise, and I hadn't even taught her one lesson before. She had been taught before, her kids were members, she'd been going to church, etc, so it was her time. Her name's Veronica. Here's a picture:

 

 

 

I feel like I didn't have a whole lot to do with it, but it was great to see her get baptized!

Apart from that, I kinda got sick this week. Nothing too serious but it sure knocked me out for a whole day. After that, though, it was great!

Something that President Cantu has said several times has really stuck out to me. He says "An ice cream cone, whether you eat it or not, doesn't last too long." In other words, it's true, I only have a week left. Am I sad? Absolutely. Am I scared? That doesn't even describe the half of it! I pretty much don't know WHAT to think. However, I'm determined to have the last of my mission be awesome, even if it's just a couple of days.

This Friday evening, we'll be going to La Paz with the whole zone to say goodbye to President Cantu. He's ALSO finishing his mission next Wednesday! He's having a short devotional with the whole mission (a couple of zones at a time) to send himself off. Well, that means Friday evening we'll be in La Paz, Saturday we'll have the devotional and I'll stay there the rest of the day, Sunday I'll go to church in La Paz and stick around there, Monday I'll fly over to visit converts in Sinaloa, Tuesday I'll finish up my visits, we'll eat dinner with President Cantu and his family, then we'll sleep in Culiacan and the next morning I'll be home!

What I've realized is that it would be really easy to say "I'm basically not even a missionary! After Friday I won't even have an area!" But I'm going to do the best I can to visit people still and to keep sharing the gospel! So far it's going great. I've found some awesome people with Elder Miranda, and while I probably won't see them get baptized, I'm sure they will further down the line.

Make sure you're heppy. It's a decision. =)

See you all very soon!

Elder Crabb

06-10-13. 2 John 1:12

Well, it looks like it's going well for these last few weeks. I'm loving every minute and I'm still learning so much in my study of the scriptures.

 

Well, this week, I got a pedicure. I am being completely serious. My companion was having some really severe pain from an ingrown toenail, so we went to a place that takes care of that kind of thing. While he was in there, I was talking to the receptionist about how I have some wicked callouses (two years' worth) to the point that they actually hurt me. She said, "Oh, we can take care of that for only 200 pesos!" I thought, cool, what a deal, so I went for it! What I didn't realize was that I was paying for the whole package. They took off my callouses, they clipped my nails, they put some kind of weird lotion on my feet and then they gave me a foot massage!! It was so great! I had two years+ worth of walking and walking in those feet and that de-stressed me a ton!

 

Apart from just that, we were on the bus the other day, when a musician got on. That in itself wasn't weird, that's pretty common here. This guy just got on with a guitar and started to sing "Christian Rock" songs. The first one was semi-normal, but  then he started in with a two-chord song called, and I'm not joking, "Like a Buffalo". It says how God makes you strong like a buffalo. I started getting the giggles while we were riding, then he SCREAMED the chorus "LIKE A BUFFALOOOOOOO!!". I pretty much lost it. We were laughing SO hard....I'm going to miss stuff like that!

But before you go thinking the end of my mission is all fun and games....

 

This Thursday we were in the house of a member eating, and one of the daughter's 14-year-old friends was talking about Justin Bieber. My companion and I expressed our "thoughts", and she said "If Justin Bieber was [from any church] I would join. But why are there so many churches in the world anyway?!" We took that as "Hey, teach me the góspel!" So we did. We taught her about the Restoration and she got really excited and wanted to come to church. She did! And she told her friend, the member, that she's feeling like she wants to get baptized! We are looking very forward to teaching her.

 

Apart from that, I'm a little nostalgic, but focused. I want to make the best of this time that I can. I love you all and I appreciate your support!

 

 

Love,

 

Elder Crabb!

6/3/13. The General Epistle of Elder Crabb to the West Jordainians

Oof. Here's a long one. 

There's a lot of scriptures that have meant a lot to me on my mission. But none have taken such a meaning to me as 1 Corinthians13:11: 

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
I feel like I have become that (to a certain degree, right? I still like playing with Legos and I still sing while other people are talking to me). Mostly in a spiritual sense, of course, but I have definitely become that.  I have matured more in this time than in the 19 years before it.
This may seem sorta sappy or weird but it's true. My personality hasn't changed. But my very desires have changed.  Before my mission, I thought the word "conversion" was a synonym for "baptism", or that it meant that you got a testimony. But now I've come to understand that being converted is much more that. The REASON for me wanting to do things is different now. Before I don't know if I had a specific reason for wanting to do things I do. But now I understand the covenants and promises I've made, and I want to keep them. I'm not going to say I have a perfect testimony, but I sure can tell you that I'm not the same Elder Crabb that left West Jordan in June 2011.
This also might seem sort of sappy, but my biggest fear is that I'm going to lose all of this wonderful progress I've made just because everyone sees me as the "same ol' same ol'" Cody. I'm going to be doing stuff I didn't before. Yes, I'm going to read my scriptures every day. Yes, I'm probably going to want to talk to you about it. Yes, I'm going to want to have FHE (and invite some people!).If you're not a member of the church or if you're not currently going to church very often, I'm definitely going to be talking to you about it. I'm not saying I'm going to pray for my food in restaurants or anything....I'm not WEIRD (well, I can't really say that, I probably am), but I have changed. Don't think "Oh, it's just his habit--he'll get out of it sooner or later". I don't WANT to get out of it. I love this. What I'm trying to say here is that, I'm going to be new at this. I'm going to be doing "normal people" stuff, going to school, working, etc. It's going to be hard to adjust, but I'm determined to keep doing these things.
One of the things Elder Holland said when he came was that he made us each promise that we'd each have one convert in the mission: US. I'm here to say that I have mine, I just want to keep him!

Anyway, don't think of this as my "obituary" letter. I'm still working hard. =) The reason that all of this is on my mind, actually, is because of what we did this week:

This was the week of the "concilio", the Mission Leadership Council. On Tuesday we went up to La Paz to catch a plane to Culiacan, we "jumped the puddle" and flew over the Mar de Cortez, and got there. Thursday was the big day. We got to President Cantu's house, played ping pong, and ate breakfast. Then we went bowling (high score--106. I sure haven't gotten better.) It was fun. 

But more importantly, the meeting was very very good. It was all so spiritual. We had all thought it would probably be very good because this was President's last leadership council. He ends his mission when I end mine (the 26th or so). He talked a lot about personal conversion--how baptisms will just come if we're doing our part to change ourselves. He also talked about how we as leaders have to be a good example. He showed us this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHi2dxSf9hw) WOW, right? It hit us all pretty hard. It's true, a lot of the "older" missionaries have a lot of bad mission habits that, if we can weed them out right now, it's going to be a lot better.

With all that said, we started to share some personal stories, some "thank you's" to President and Hermana Cantu. The spirit was so strong! It was so great. We came home and had our zone meeting on Saturday, and the whole week was gone!

In good news, we've been blessed even though we weren't here. A recent convert invited her neighbor to church and she accepted. She went and really liked it--right now we're going to go teach her a lesson. It's going to be really great!

I'm so happy right now. I know this all has to end sometime but I sure wish it wouldn't! I love being a missionary! Keep doing good stuff! See you soon!

Love,

Elder Crabb

Oh, and today, we ate at Hard Rock café (in Puerto Paraiso....I love my area) and some Americans were eating next to us started talking to us. It turns out that they were members......and they paid for us!! Woo hoo!! That's all. That explains the photos a little bit I guess. =)

05-27-13 Moving Mountains in Los Cabos‏

This week was really long, and we didn't do much of anything. Well, we did a whole lot of stuff.....I'm just going to explain.

On Monday, we got a call from President Cantu ("Shh! SHH! It's President!"). It really surprised us, but he said that he wanted us to go to the stake building Tuesday at 1 because we were going to have a meeting with President Ramirez, the stake president. Well alrighty. So we did, and President Cantu had his laptop open on a Skype call. He said "Oh, and by the way, Elder Montoya of the Seventy is going to be on videochat during this meeting." AH! So there he was! We just talked about a lot of normal "business" and it was all fine. Me being really new here I couldn't opinionate on pretty much anything, so there I sat, not saying a word. Then, at the end, when they got ready to finish, Elder Montoya said "Before we end, I want to hear the testimony of the Elder on the left" (me). Huh? So...I said it. It caught me totally off guard and it was weird and a little awkward but I bore my testimony about the organization of the church and what not. It was a little strange but I got it out. Who knows why he did that....I'm having all kinds of brushes with general authorities!

Well, that was one thing. Basically we didn't proselyte much this week because there was a lot of Zone Leader business to take care of. For example, all the missionaries need to have all their possessions WITH them (e.g. they can't leave stuff in the mission offices like they used to). We had to send nine HEAVY suitcases to Sinaloa. To do that, we had to obtain the travel plans of the people that flew to Sinaloa, obtain copies of their ID's, go to customs, get them revised, checked and sealed, then we had to bring them back to the messenger service to send them. All of that without a car! Haha it took us a REALLY long time. Like I said, we literally just ended up doing that and nothing else. However, we had an AWESOME spiritual experience this week too. =)

We were walking down the street like normal and I saw a woman, by herself,
using a shovel to move a seven-foot-high pile of dirt. So I said "Hey, do you need help?" She, of course, said that she didn't. "Of course you do. You're moving a huge pile of dirt by yourself. Will you let us help you?" Apparently I phrased the second question better because she said yes. She found another shovel and we started helping.

Through that process she started to ask us questions about who we were and
what we believed. Some of the questions she asked were so awesome ("Is
there any evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet?") We mentioned the Book of Mormon and she said "When can you come by and teach me more about that book? WHOA! So we said "Sunday." She said she could as long as it was in the morning, because she went to church in the afternoon. We have our meetings at 11, so we took advantage and invited her there. She accepted!

Well, it was a huge huge job, so the next day we called some other missionaries from San Lucas to come and help. We finished the whole job in about four hours total. She was so grateful that she bought us pizza (which we ate.....then went directly to lunch haha. I was absolutely dying of full-ness...) The best part about this story? She went to church!! We walked quite a bit in the sun with her to get there. She said she liked it, when it all had finished, and we agreed to stop by at 5.

When we got there, she was ready to say "Alright, I liked this part of the church, but this part no, why do you do this in your church, etc." It was so cool. She was really interested. We taught her about the Restoration. We had finished, and were getting ready to tell her about the Spirit, when my companion asked "How do you feel right now?" and she started to cry. She said "I know this is the Holy Ghost." It was so powerful. It happened again
a couple minutes later too. She wasn't sure that that was an answer because
she says she's felt that in her church too, but she says she wants to know if it's true. It was so cool!

I'll admit, that scared me. If I had been telling jokes with my companion, chatting, not paying attention, we would have totally missed her. But it's good to know that the Spirit guided us to her. We have another appointment with her.

We also changed houses, but that's not to interesting because you didn't see my house beforehand anyway. =)

I'm so glad to hear that some of you are changing at home as well. I've realized that a missionary is like a magnet for blessings. He gets them, The people he's around gets them, anyone who's related to gets them, his friends, EVERYONE: I'm starting to see that that's SO true. I'm so grateful that the Lord has allowed me to see the changes in all of you (and to participate in some!). I love all of you so much!

Have an amazing day!

Elder Crabb

05-20-13 Final Stretch

I've talked to the mision offices. They've told me that they're working on my departure date and time.

(Eeek...so excited!)

This week was incredible. Understatement of a lifetime.

First of all, last Monday, I got my transfer information, to Los Cabos. But
they told me that I wouldn't be going there yet, because Elder Holland was
coming on Saturday to visit our mission (!!!), so ALL the missionaries from
our entire mission were going to be there and we were just going to do the
transfers from there (like "everyone leave with your new companion" sort of
thing) I got the chance to visit my old area Nueva Galicia from Monday until
Sunday, which was the best! There's a guy that I never never ended up
finding that lived in Nueva Galicia that supposedly was very ready for the
gospel. His names Alfonso. So in this week I made a point to drag Elder
Huerta (my temporary companion) over there. It turned out that he and his
whole family were prepared to hear the gospel. I'll be asking about them
later! When we went there they were really excited and we felt the spirit
really strongly.

We also had a really cool experience in ANOTHER of my old areas, Amistad.
We went there and contacted a woman who I had met before (about a year ago)
and she was excited to talk to us. She kept asking the best questions ("But
if Jesus' church was taken from the earth, there's no hope! We need HIS
church!")

As cool as it was to complete "unfinished business" in some old areas,
nothing could have prepared me for the conference with Elder Holland.

Like I told some of you, I was asked to organize a choir for Elder
Holland's visit. It was challenging because we didn't have a lot of time
and it was kind of a difficult arrangement, but we pulled through. We
practiced on Friday night and I was ready.

Saturday morning came and we were all SO excited to be there. There were
lots of security people and it was so exciting. Finally Elder Holland got
there and it was so special. They didn't let us take pictures but they took
lots of them so there'll be lots of those. He asked to shake each one of
our hands, which was really neat. I made eye contact with him and it was so
awesome. The spirit was so strong.

I was asked to lead the hymns, which was funny because I could hear Elder
Holland very well because I was on the stand with him. Like three feet
away!! (He's a pretty good singer!)

Anyway, he started his talk and he was talking about something very
different than normal. Usually the apostles talk about stuff like Preach my
Gospel or Reactivation or stuff like that. But his talk was exactly what
Elder Crabb needed. What was his topic? "Personal Conversion". I felt like
every word of what he said was just for me. He said so many special things
and so many memorable phrases that I'll remember forever. Here's just two:
"We're God's investigators." and "How can we hope to keep the sheep if we
have to run after the shepherds?" That really got to me. Now that I've been
getting close to the end of my mission, one of my biggest fears is that
I'll mess up big time in something. But he helped me so much. He said that
if we're having trouble we just have to get closer to what we know is the
truth, it's like a compass. He said so many beautiful things that I won't
even try to explain it here. Suffice it to say that it was exactly the
motivation, comfort and feeling that I needed right now.

We ended with the hymn "Behold! A Royal Army". I've always liked that one.
I don't know what it was, but this time, it just hit me so hard. I felt the
Spirit so strongly when we were singing. I was so choked up I couldn't even
sing. Especially in the chorus:

"Victory, victory,
Thru him that redeemed us!
Victory, victory,
Thru Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Victory, victory, victory,
Thru Jesus Christ, our Lord!"

Wow. That is now my favorite hymn.
After Elder Holland had left a guy came up to me and asked me "What's your
name, Elder?" I told him and I recognized that he was the one who had been
taking photos the whole time. He then asked "You were the one who led the
music, right?" I said yes, and he said "thanks, have a great day" and left.
Who knows why he did that.....maybe I'll end up in Church news or something.

Well, all of that was great but it was BEFORE I even got to my area! I had
been here before, when I started my mission, but I didn't remember much. I
was excited to get here. There was a huge problem with the suitcases and
the weight of the things you could bring and everything, but that's not too
important. Basically I had to choose 10 kilos of my most important
possessions (not even half of my clothes!) to bring to the Baja with me. We
flew over here and it is just beautiful (and not even hot!).

Since today is my first real day here, they told me that I HAD to see
Puerto Paraiso (Paradise Port). It sounded great, so I went. here are just
a few of the many, many pictures that I took! I even found a crabb
(intentional)! It was so awesome. Being in Los Cabos is just the best haha.
·We even found a returned missionary on vacation there, although the
American guy in the picture was just some random guy that said "Mormons!
Can I take a picture with you guys?" Well, sure....So we did. It was really
funny. there were LOTS of Americans there! Everything was in English and
everyone there speaks English. It's literally paradise here.

Elder Miranda (my new companion) says we have a lot going on in this area,
and that we'll be baptizing soon. I'm so excited to just give EVERYTHING on
my "final stretch". Pray hard for me so I can get this done! the Lord's way!

I love all of you! Some of you are doing amazing things, and I love when
you write me about your adventures!!

Have an amazing week! Read the Scriptures!

Elder Crabb

 

 

 

5-6-13 Roller Coaster Ride

Jen sent me an email to me this week and said something that was very true. She said "It sure sounds like you've been having mixed success". She is very right. The funny thing about this area is that we can't be constant! It's like, one week we're struggling with all that we have to even teach someone, then the next week is a bounteous harvest of baptismal dates, people to teach, and people in church. However bipolar this ward may be, I love it! There are some wonderful people here. There's one girl who's going to go on a mission soon--actually her call is on its way! It reminds me of all my wonderful friends-a (girl friends? amigas, pues) that are serving or are about to serve missions. Way to go!

It was sort of funny, we had one of those "trial by fire" weeks. It's been one of those weeks with more walking than teaching, without finding anyone, etc. But we had 7 investigators in church and 6 less active members there. The attendance was at 120! Normally we have a hard time breaking 100, so it was really cool.

Something that I've started to see is that numbers don't matter. I know, shocker, but I used to not feel like a good missionary if I only taught like ten lessons in a week or something. It was really hard for me if we had a bad week because I thought / was failing, not the week. It took me THIS long in the mission to realize that sometimes, even if we work super hard and do everything we can, sometimes it's not possible to teach that many people or have that many people in church, because it's not the Lord's will. It's a huge thing I've seen out here--if we give our best, it doesn't matter what happens, because the results don't depend on me, they depend on Him!

In other news, I've been a little more musical than ever these past few weeks. President Cantu and his wife asked me to organize a choir of missionaries. In a couple of weeks, a general authority (more news on who coming soon) will be coming to Culiacan, and they wanted us to perform a song for them. I called upon Elder Morrise, the amazingly talented musical genius who has come to be one of my best friends. He came up with a genius arrangement of several missionary songs, which is really great. We're really excited to perform, as nervous as I am. (By the way, I think this little opportunity was a little gift from our Father in Heaven to Elder Crabb, to remind him how much he loves music and how much he wants to be involved with music after his mission! I'm loving it!)

Looking forward to the visit from the general authority and many more things! Stay tuned!

Love,

Elder Crabb

Read the Scriptures!

4-29-13 fruits

This week was unbelievably rewarding!! But more on that in a second.

We had a really hard time this week, honestly. Starting Monday, we were
just plugging along. We haven't had many new investigators or anything, so
we've been turning to the list of less active members, which in this area
is pretty large. So, we took our list and hit the pavement. It was a hard
week with not much success, but we plowed through and we did the best we
could. It was hard, we could barely find anyone in their house, etc. but we
didn't let that discourage us. We just kept working and working.

It came to the point where, in three days, we hadn't found anyone new. We
were VERY close to just putting appointments and getting out of there, but
we kept working diligently. That turned out to be a great blessing. Elder
McDowell had the impression to knock on a random door while we were walking
and we found a man who was waiting for us to come by, literally. He was
upstairs, praying that the missionaries would come to his house. Whoa! It's
not every day you get to see something like that. This man's really ready
to change.

Apart from that, there wasn't much of anything. It had been a very long
week, but we were very excited because Saturday was the baptism of Karen!!
We had been doing everything we could, getting programs, filling the font,
doing her interview, and just all around making sure she was ready. it had
been a long week, because I was really anxious for her baptism. Friday
night, came, however, and something happened....

.... Friday night, I had a dream that we were at Karen's baptismal service.
She was all ready and dressed in white and everything, but there was
another lady who was going to get baptized and she wasn't so sure, so we
started to convince her. By the time we had convinced her to do it, Karen
had changed out of her baptismal clothes. I asked her why she had changed
and she said it was because she wasn't going to get baptized, because she
had heard that Mormons had lots of wives and that Joseph Smith was a witch
and all that other ruddy stuff that they say. We got so sad and tried to
explain to her that it wasn't true and reminding her how much she had
wanted to get baptized, but she wouldn't listen to us. I don't remember
what else happened in the dream, I just remember that I was so SAD! I was
like, "I'd do anything to help you get baptized!"

....Then I woke up! Gladly realizing it was a dream, I told Elder McDowell,
and we laughed about it (but we sent her a message anyway to see if she was
alright still....) and continued our preparations.

The baptismal service was awesome. The spirit was so strong and we had
seven investigators there! I played "When I Am Baptized" on the piano for
the special musical number, which turned out really well (I've been
practicing....). Karen gave me the honor of baptizing her, which I gladly
did, then yesterday she got confirmed by the dad of her hermanadora (how in
the world do you say that in English?) and it's just great. She was just
radiating with the spirit. Honestly, Karen is one of those people where I
met her six weeks ago and I never imagined she'd get baptized. She's
amazing and she'll be a great member of the church. I'm looking forward to
seeing her in the Celestial Kingdom!

Have an amazing week, sorry for the short letter!

Love, Elder Crabb

Read the Scriptures!

04-22-13 Hey! Fasting WORKS!

So this week, I had a really awesome miracle (pretty much all of my great
experiences these last few weeks have had to do with Karen haha) with
Karen. This is one of my favorite experiences of my whole mission!!

We had visited her again, but she was starting to doubt and not be sure
about what she should do this time. We shared lots of scriptures with her
and she started to feel better, but she still kept saying she wasn't ready
and everything. She had to go to Hermosillo, Sonora for three days or so,
so she could renew her visa. She decided that she'd use the time to
meditate, and upon returning, she would tell us what she wanted to do.

Obviously we saw this as a very important time--what if she decided not to?
We dedicated ourselves to fasting and prayer so that she could recieve a
clear answer. I was nervous, I won't lie. But I knew that if she was really
trying to get an answer, God would answer.

When she got back, we went straight to her house to ask her what happened.
And here's what she told us:

On her way to Hermosillo, she got a phone call from Andrea, a girl from our
ward. She's been a great friend to Karen and she knew Karen was going to
leave, so she offered her a place to stay with some friends of hers in
Hermosillo. Upon arriving, she realized that this family was LDS and that
they were a really happy, unified family. Andrea had told them a little
about this situation, so she asked them to kind of....."boost" her.

It just so happens that there is a temple in Hermosillo, so they took her
there to walk around. While she was there, she talked about how peaceful
she felt. One of the members of that family said "If you feel like that
now, imagine how you'd feel going inside." That really impacted her. For
those three days she was looking at that family and she said she just kept
thinking "I want my family to be like that someday." So she decided she
would get baptized! When she told us that, we were so happy. I can't even
describe how happy I am--she is a true convert. I've been teaching her
around a month and a half and she has changed a LOT. I mean, she was never
a bad person, but she has changed. Her faith has grown a lot, she's just
so eager and willing. It's awesome.

As far as anything else this week, we've been looking for less-active
members, trying to find new investigators, but without much success. Some
of them hide or pretend it's not them or that they're not members....it's
sad. We haven't had tons of success other than that of Karen, but we're
doing our best and we have a lot of potential for next month, baptism-wise.
We are so happy. Tired, yes. But happy.

Thanks for your support (as always). If you're reading this, haven't you
gotten tired of the same letter every week for two years?... Don't worry.
There won't be too many more.

Elder McDowell: HEY Y'ALL!!!

Keyboard pirate.

Love,

Elder ¡Crabb!

Elders in a district meeting,

An old man that's dressed like Colonel Sanders (taken by Elder McDowell in a very sneaky spy-like manner),

A mosaic of words that I would use to describe my mission,

a cat that lives next door to us that sometimes gets into our house. We
call her "Charles". In this picture, YES, she IS behind our toilet,

1-15-13 Rain

How y'all doin`? My companion has me talking like that because he's from
Georgia. Jaw-juh.

This week has been so neat. Elder McDowell is a really good match for me, I
think. We complement each other really well. For example, sometimes he
forgets words in Spanish, sometimes I forget to bear testimony or to ask
for referrals, things like that. But because we make a good team, the
blessings are pouring down so fast that there is literally not enough room
(nor time) to recieve them. We have so many people that we're teaching that
it's literally been impossible to find and teach all these heaven-sent
investigators. We have twelve baptismal dates in our area. Things are going
really well here.

Karen is still pretty excited to get baptized, although she's a little
nervous. She's going to get baptized the 27th, so we're giving it all we
got with her. We fasted for her, we're helping her pray, just everything we
can so that she'll not be scared. She has to go to Hermosillo this week for
a couple days so it'll be good for her to think it out.

That family of 4, the Ramirez family, is progressing like crazy. The dad
has read up til 2 Nephi and his family's super excited. They want to get
baptized. They put their baptismal date until May 25th because they're
going to be travelling, so that'll be great! Hope I'm still in the area!

Apart from that, this Wednesday marked something really important for me.
For the first time in my life, I mean the first REAL time in my life, I
finished the Book of Mormon. I mean I've read it before, but not like I am
now, nor understanding what I do now. I feel like this is the first time
I've ever read it. And I can tell you all that I KNOW that book is true! I
asked God like Moroni said at the end of the book and the answer that I got
was "What are you asking me for? You already know." And I do. =)

I don't know how many people read this blog that aren't members of the
church, that are less-active members of the church, or that simply aren't
sure if the church is true. Maybe even people who BELIEVE the church is
true but that hasn't converted itself into a knowledge yet. If there are
any such people reading, I challenge you all to read a little bit of that
book and to ask God if it's true.

*"Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to
know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that
Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once
again established on the earth" -Introduction, Book of Mormon*

I can testify that anyone who:

- wants to have a better life,
- wants to get closer to God,
- wants to know if God exists
- doesn't want to be afraid of death
- wants to live with their loved ones after this life
- wants God's answer about something specific

Can get it! They just need to read and pray. I hope that you'll do it. Just
read a little and ask Him. If it's not true, you don't have to change
anything, and it doesn't affect you. But if it is, it'll change your life
like it's changed mine. I can testify that it IS true, because I've done
it!

Whew! I guess I'm just feeling extra spiritual today =)Thanks to those of
you that write me, and also to those who think about writing me and never
do! I love you all the same.

As for the subject line: No, it hasn't been raining. It's symbolic. Figure
it out. =)

Love,
Elder Crabb

04-08-13 everything I need.

This week was also an awesome one. It's not in order but I'm going to start with the most important stuff first.

First of all, my new companion's name is Elder McDowell. He's from Georgia, and he DOES have a Southern accent, which is totally awesome! I've only been with him for a week and I'm already saying "faller" and "ain't". He's a great missionary. Elder Huntington went to be a Zone Leader in Los Mochis.

The other day we had a lesson with Karen, the English speaking girl. Jesus isn't so excited anymore, but Karen is really loving the church. She went to a YSA conference and said "The ideal man is definitely in this church!" Haha! Well, that's one way to get a convert. Kidding. She is very excited, she's been reading and praying. She went to all the sessions of conference with us. But anyway.

On Friday night we had a lesson with a couple of her friends from church (from church!!). We didn't have a plan of what we were going to teach but we decided we were going to try to discover her "iceberg" (see Preach My Gospel). We went in there, and through some other things we challenged her to be baptized. She looked nervous, then she admitted it. Her family is very Catholic, and she said she was scared of what they would say to her if she said she wanted to get baptized. Then, my companion steps in and shares HIS conversion story, which was the same! His mom was a Pentecostal and she cried when he told her he wanted to get baptized. His uncles are preachers and his grandparents were super involved in the church too. Then he said what he did to talk them down and to help them realize it wasn't a bad thing. It was SO COOL. I, not having a perfect conversion story, shared the story of Alma, when he's almost getting killed for believing Abinadi, and how he accepted anyway. Through the course of that inspired lesson, she told us she wants to be baptized the 20th of April! We are so excited. (Later, she asked us if she could get baptized on the 15th haha. Slow down!)

Apart from that, there wasn't much time to work in our area because we had to go to zone leader council. It was really really good. We talked about how to recognize the spirit. We need more of that.

Let's see.....the conference was really good. I especially liked that talk by Elder Bednar about the Law of Chastity (mostly because we had an investigator there who may or may not be gay). That was so GOOD! The whole thing!

In the zone meeting this week we put a goal as a zone that's double our last one. I'm nervous but my companion's strength is having faith, so that'll be great.

This week was a huge testimony builder for me for many reasons. I'm so grateful for modern-day revelation. I'm thankful that God puts people in our path that are truly ready to accept the Gospel. I'm also very thankful for friends who I love and family who I could never do without. Thank you for being there for me!

Elder Crabb

04-01-13. After the trial of our faith.

I like to call this week "Ether 12:6",

Remember how I've been saying that it's been hard, that this area hasn't baptized in almost a year, that we can't find people, etc.? My whole time with Elder Huntington, we have struggled a little bit. Several times I have asked myself "If we're being so obedient, if we're working so hard, WHY can't we find anybody?!"

So to preface all of this, we have been working harder than I have ever worked in my mission. We've been contacting a lot of people and doing just about everything I know to work with the ward. But the funniest thing happened.....I've never been too frustrated or worried. I felt like it'd all be alright, or that we were doing at least a part of what we should be doing .

This week , we found a family of four that are more excited than anybody I've ever seen, Karen went to a YSA conference and wants to get baptized, there are just SO many people that we've found that are very excited to hear the gospel! I don't even know where to start! We had ELEVEN people in church. I've never had that before! Basically it's been a big trial of patience, because now I've been seeing that all of that was to see how diligent we would be. I feel so blessed to be able to learn this lesson-- that AFTER the trial of our faith is when we get our blessing. Even if the trial is a nine-week-long one.

Now, I'm going to have a new companion. It's going to be hard but we have opportunities to baptize a lot in these next six weeks so I'm going to go for it!

I'll tell you more next week, but I love you all and I'll see you later!

Ah, briefness.
Elder Crabb

PS When I'm in my "usual" cyber cafe I'll be sending pictures. this one isn't so good for that. =)

03-25-13 Grubs

This week was very long! When I realized that it had only been seven days I was shocked! We did have a couple of good things happen this week. We got a few referrals from Hermana Cantu (the wife of the mission president) and she said that she thinks they're really prepared and ready for the Gospel. Yay!

I also did divisions with my old companion Elder Canul. He told me that my converts from the area I was just in are active as ever and that they are starting to get callings!! There's no better feeling in the world than that, I can tell you.

Sadly, apart from that, this week was pretty rough to be honest. I don't mean "discouraging", "sad", or "disheartening" so much as just plain "unsuccessful". We had about six or seven people who all told us that they were going to be at church, but nobody showed up.We had 14 appointments fall! It was kind of ridiculous. (More than anything this week, I've just been tired from all the walking haha)

It's kind of funny how most of the time, on my mission, I don't feel like I have truly failed. What I mean by that is, if I'm honestly doing what I can, working hard, being obedient, and just doing everyhing, I will be blessed! Even if all of our plans fail and we can't get people to read the scriptures or pray, we have a great promise in Doctrine and Covenants:

I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. . DyC 82:10

Can I just say, I'm really glad it says "bound" here. It's an amazing promise. The Lord is obligated to bless us when we do what he says. The thing is, I think most of us are waiting for Him to bless us with the things that WE want. It can be frustrating, especially when what we want isn't bad at all (what / want more than anything is for people to accept the Gospel). As humans, we sometimes get angry and ask where our blessings were, because things don't turn out how we want. But it just always works out better. He just knows, (and we just DON'T) so we have to just trust that everything will be okay. If we do, I know it works out better than anything we could have done for ourselves.

I wish I had more things to write about.....it doesn't happen too often but this time it sure did. I'll be attaching photos next week. Love you all!

Read the.....what?

Elder Crabb



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03-18-14 Everything I Need

Well, it looks like things are going well! This week, we did an activity which I lovingly gave the name of "Scrambled Eggs". We divided the whole zone. Everybody did splits (exchanges? I don't know how to say that in English....."divisiones") It was really good. I stayed in our area and worked with Elder Villalobos. He was really good. He's a really good teacher and he knows a lot about the scriptures. Basically we just had a crazy day. That same day, we found a family with TWELVE members between the ages of 9 and 21. We are so excited to go back there.....

Apart from that we have several potential people coming up. Octavio went to church this week, but he hasn't been reading the scriptures. He accepted a baptismal date but we can't tell how sure he is about it. We'll see. Remember Karen? She's progressing a lot. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and she likes church--this Sunday was three times that she's gone. Her brother's less excited, but they are both really cool and they understand really well.

We also had a zone conference this week that basically changed the rest of my mission. Remember how in the last email I was saying how I've been a little panicky because of the whole "there's not much time" factor? Basically that was the theme of the whole Zone conference. It was so cool! The theme was "getting the most out of the time you have left". It was really cool. I got a lot of inspiration about things I'm going to do different.

I've been keeping a pretty good study journal (regular journal....not so much) and I'm really liking it. It lets me remember a lot of things that I've studied and get "re-revelation".

There's not too much else this week. I just want to share my testimony. Again.

I don't know how many people end up reading this blog. Anybody who has been reading it somewhat consistently will be able to see that I have sure come a long way. I've gained a love for the scriptures that I didn't think was possible (in my case anyway). My testimony has grown in so many specific ways, in prayer, personal revelation, in fasting, in the Spirit, but most of all, that God just loves us. Me being here has taught me more than anything that we really do matter to him. Compared to God, man is nothing, but we mean everything to Him. I know that every single person on this planet is important to Him. It's really hard to believe that sometimes when we think about how small we are in this big ol' world, but He really does love us. I hope you all have a great week this wonderful March! Talk to you soon!

Love

Elder Crabb

PS Read the SCRIPTURES......please.

03-11-13. Clever Subject Line

This week was really good. Remember that Jesus guy that I talked about last week? Him and his sister are progressing pretty well already. They went to an institute class with a couple of members and they are really liking church. Jesus didn't go on Sunday but Karen did! It's really cool to see how people progress like this!

I don't know if I ever told you about Karely. She's the nuera of a member here who is very active. Karely's husband is a member inactive, but Karely's really taken an interest in the church. She's great, but she works a LOT in OXXO (the Mexican 7-11, I guess you could say).

We met another girl who speaks English--weird. Seems like there's been a lot of that lately. That always happens when I'm with an American!

On a less spiritual note, it's hot. The only two seasons in Sinaloa are "Hot", and "Warm". It's not too bad yet, the nights are still comfortable, but it shouldn't be too much longer before the heat hits.

Our zone meeting turned out really well. It was a good one, I think it was just what we needed. Then, on Thursday, we did exchanges (I don't know how to say that in English) with Elder Brandon this week, a district leader in the zone. He only has a little bit of time left, and he's training another American Elder. He's really good. We had some cool experiences over there in his area, there is an AWESOME lady who, last time I was over there, we contacted. Now she's getting ready to get baptized. The only problem now?-- Her family. I hate those situations.

We've been stuggling to find new investigators this last little while. It's been kind of frustrating, honestly. I mean, I trust God. I know he does what he needs to do. My doubt is never "Is God going to come through?" as much as "Is Elder Crabb going to come through?" I've realized that a lot of our weaknesses sometimes impede us from achieving our full potential. I don't remember if I posted this video or not:

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/hope?lang=eng#2011-11-020-mens-hearts-shall-fail-them

I always think of this video whenever I get discouraged or I think that I'm too weak to find all these people that the Lord wants me to find. I know that we ARE weak, but that's okay! God knows that! Of course he knows that. And knowing that, he's willing to give us a break as long as we're trying our best. I love it! I'm so grateful that God trusts us enough to expect the best out of us, but is merciful enough to know where the line is.

I love you guys. Thanks for all your love, letters, support, and llamas. I know I pretty much have said it every week for more than a year and a half, but you guys are (wait for it........) the BEST!

Read the Scriptures! Especially because that in English there's going to be a cool new version!

Love,
Elder Craaaabb

03-04-13. Diligence.....what it's all about

Well, this week was really interesting. We DID go to zone leader council this week, which was so awesome. Remember in one of my first letters when I said that President Cantu is kind of like Mexican Abraham Lincoln because of his awesome talks and stuff? I still stand by that. I'm blown away by that man. They talked about how to be a good leader (which I really needed) and how to get more out of our study time. One of the cool things they talked about is how study isn't just reading time. It's our hour of revelation. I thought that was so cool. It's really true. The whole purpose of our study is to recieve revelation about what the investigators need. It was an awesome meeting. We went bowling again and I scored 116! Woo! (not the best bowler...)

Remember Octavio? The uncle of the Yeovanna, the less active? He came to church! He was really excited....good things are happening this week. New investigators coming out of the woodwork, relatively cool temperature....can't compain. We have some pretty potential people.....I just wish I had time to write about everything! I'll just have to pick the best parts. =)

It was the end of the day (about 8:40) and Elder Huntington and I were both really tired and ready to go home. Our plans had fallen (plan A, B, C, and D) and we really weren't sure what to do. We were just about to go back to the house when I remembered that President Cantu said that the moment in
which it's hardest to choose the right is when the greatest blessing is right around the corner. We decided to stay out and see what we could do.

Well, we just started walking, turned the corner, and there was a young guy sitting outside of a house texting. I thought "I should contact this guy," but I brushed it off, telling myself he wouldn't listen or that he was too busy. I kept feeling that way until I just couldn't keep it in anymore, and I blurted out "Do you know what street this is?" I'm not sure why it came out like that exactly, but he told us what it was called, then said (in English), "You guys speak English, don't you?"

What?

He proceeded to tell us that he's lived in Los Angeles for like 20 years (he's 23) and that he's basically an American. We started to tell him about the church and we set an appointment. We were really excited, but when the day came, he wasn't there. We were pretty disappointed. However, on Saturday night, we thought we'd pass by and invite him to church. He was there, and he accepted, along with his sister. They seemed pretty jazzed. Lo and behold, they came. It was so cool, and they LOVED it!

Imagine if we hadn't gone the extra mile there. We could have easily said "It's late, nobody's home, nobody wants to hear us right now," etc., but since we did it, we were blessed. Our blessing was LITERALLY around the corner! They are both really excited to learn. I'm so glad we talked to
him! If we hadn't, maybe we'd never have found him!

Diligence. That's what it's all about--here, OR in the "real world".

Love you all! Read the scriptures!

Elder Crabb

*(.....but really, did you read them?)*

Here's some random pictures--enjoy!

Our house--we had to put everything in one room so they could fix the pipes!

Elder Huntington's eggs. He drew faces on them of people in our ward (Villa Universidad)

The zone leaders bowling.

Mexican graffiti.....What? Justin Bieber....what a silly goof.

I wish the gospel would spread as fast as Justin Bieber

02-25-13 Families can be Together Forever‏

Hello family! Les manda saludos mi compañero.  (something like..."my companions sends his greetings?")

This week was hard. Real hard. Let me explain.

First of all this week, we found some really cool new people. We were looking for a less active named Jovanna. We found her, and we started talking to her when her uncle Octavio and his girlfriend Carla came and sat down. We ended up teaching them about the Restoration and they understood everything. It was a welcome change (lately most people have just not been getting what we've been teaching). They were very interested, especially in the concept of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Jovanna is really excited to come back to church (so excited, in fact, that she went this Sunday). We have a lesson with them tonight, let's hope they read!

Other than that, we haven't had much else happen. It's been kind of slow (and thus, hard) to find people and to make appointments. Mostly the hardest thing we're doing right now is trying to FIND the really interested people who we've put appointments with. It's so hard to track some of these people down!

Funny note. We were walking down the street and this guy just yells "Hey, brothers.....God isn't money!!". We were really confused but we just started talking to him. My companion asked "So you're saying if we use money, we can't be following God?" , to which the guy responded "Yeah, that's EXACTLY what I'm saying! God is NOT money!" Not missing a beat, Elder Huntington said "Then where'd you get that watch?" He looked at us with deer-in-the-headlights eyes and said "Ope, I'm late! Gotta go!" and he literally ran away. It was so weird....MAN I love Mexico. ¡Arre!

On a more serious note, the best moment we had this week was when we taught a really cool lesson to this girl named Nataly. She's in kind of a tough situation where she wants to get baptized but she's living with her boyfriend, who is married but separated and waiting for the divorce. Basically, they live together and they can't get married yet. We went over there this week and we decided to show a video (for those of you who've just gotten back from your missions, it's the video from the District 2 where the Robles family goes to the temple). It was so cool and the spirit was really strong. During the video, I was thinking about how MY family is sealed and together forever, and I started to cry. I guess everyone realized it, because right after the video, Nataly asked me what was wrong. I proceeded to tell about how my dad had passed away, and how that I knew I was going to be with him someday because I have been sealed to him, and the rest of my family, for eternity. I just bore my testimony, but the spirit was SO strong. I don't remember ever feeling the spirit so strongly in a lesson. We all just sat there for a minute in silence, all just completely filled up with the spirit. We invited her, and the inactive member that was there, to prepare to go to the temple. They accepted. It was such an awesome experience. I felt that the Holy Ghost was bearing witness to all of us that those promises are true.

It goes without saying that I missed my family a lot this week. =) I love you guys. Without all of you I don't think I'd be on a mission right now. All of your love and support makes the hard times okay (speaking of which, zone leader council is this week, so maybe I'll get your packages!)

Thanks to everyone for being so supportive. Whether it's writing me a letter, sending me things, or just praying for me and reading my blog, you're the best!

Read the scriptures! (Why? 2 Nephi 32:3)

Love, Elder Crabbbbbb

 

I didn't get photo captions so, make up your own!

 

 

 

02-18-13. La Voluntad de Dios

Having an email to write every week is kind of strange. Like, a lot of times I've thought "I don't really have that much to write this week", but then I realize that even when there aren't a lot of "happenings" in a week, I always learn things and get better. So here's my week, where I sure learned a lot.

Last Monday, President Cantù announced that there would be a mission wide seminar for the future leaders. President finishes HIS mission in June (the same time as me) so he had this meeting for all of those who will be or could be leaders when he leaves, for the new president. That means that I wasn't even invited! The group I came with is now so old in the mission that none of us went....yikes. Anyway, the great majority of the missionaries did get invited, so they went from wherever they were in the mission to sleep in another house for three days and proselyte in an unknown area.

Getting this announcement put a LOT of stress on our shoulders as zone leaders, trying to make sure that everybody got to their house and had food and could get to the seminar and everything. It was made worse by the fact that my companion was going to go to it, and what's more, I didn't really know the area still! So I was a little nervous.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, they went to hear from President Cantù from 8 to 12, came back to eat and work in the area until 5, then back to the seminar until 8pm, at which time they would return to our house to sleep. I'll spare you all the details of how it was sleeping with six missionaries in our tiny, tiny house, but I had fun seeing people I hadn't seen in a long time (who were the ones who slept over with us).

Alright. That was all set up to be able to tell you the following.

I had been praying that I could get to know this area faster. Elder Huntington has been a little stressed with ALL of the work being on his shoulders, so I wanted to help him out by knowing more. But I thought that this was going to be a huge roadblock, trying to help everyone get to where they had to go, in our area or another one, without even knowing myself. But I came equipped with a map and the addresses of our investigators. Those of you who know me know that I'm worse than Christopher Columbus when it comes to finding directions. So I was doing everything in my power to help it. I managed to bring my temporary companion to see several of our investigators, find the house, help them get to where they had to go......I did it! The huge bonus was that I now know my way around here! My prayer was answered in the exact opposite way that I could have imagined.

That was only part of it. Trying to do your best will ALWAYS bring some sort of a blessing. It can't fail. Doing "all that we can do" is the only thing the Lord asks of us. Sometimes it feels like we aren't good enough and that we're failing, but it's all part of something bigger.

Here's a video that I want you to watch:

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#the-will-of-god

Some of the things that have happened to us this week, and some of the things that people have written me, have made me think a lot about this concept. Like, how we sometimes paint this picture of what we think our life should be like, who we should be, or things like that. And if it doesn't turn out exactly how we imagined, we feel like we've failed ourselves, or maybe even that we've failed God. But He has it all planned out. If we're doing all that we can, He knows it. And He has a plan for every single one of us. I know it. I have such a strong testimony of that right now. That he loves EVERY SINGLE ONE of his children. Even the most insignificant person that lives in a dusty corner of the world is a soul.

And remember. The worth of a souls is great in the eyes of God. =)

I love you all. Thanks for your support. Thanks for reading my blog (who knows how many even reads it....haha) Congrats, Amelia!!!! I'm so full of joy for everyone that gets to come out here and serve the Lord. He is SO happy for you.

Have an amazing week!

Elder Crabb

2-11-13. Soo chee and hammocks

The thing I love about being a missionary is that I never think "Man, what
am I gonna write?" as much as "Man, how can I possibly write about all of
this in one email?!"

Anyway, this week has been so weird, in so many ways, but just SO good.
Basically, a lot of the people we're teaching right now are kind of
bi-polar. Not *literally*, but one minute they're really excited to hear
from us and the next minute they're running us out of their house. What?

Right now some people are just REALLY confusing. There's one family that
went to church and told us they hated it. When we went back to ask why,
they wouldn't tell us.....but they went to church the next Sunday! What??
Good thing we have the Spirit to help us out, because we have several
people right now who are doing similar things.

We have a couple that are progressing really well. There's a guy named
Fransisco who's read around 50 pages in the Book of Mormon, he's been to
church a couple times, but he hasn't been praying. We can tell he's
interested but he's a really busy person. There's also Alex, a 17 year old
kid who went to church when he was younger. He's SO excited to do
everything! He's a really fun person to teach because he's really smart so
usually he arrives at conclusions before we teach anything ("So if there
was an apostasy, God would have to call another prophet!")

Those are mostly the people that were already being taught when I got here.
The newer people we've found have been really good. There's one guy, Simòn,
who's really excited but because of his work he hasn't been able to go to
church. There are lots (my companion just asked me how to spell "schpiel".
I have no idea, was that right?) of obstacles ALWAYS for people, not just
him, but he would have a hard time getting to church.

There's another really cool group of teenagers that Elder Huntington and I
went and talked to. One day we were just going to contact a reference when
kind of a "punky-looking" group of teenagers looked at us and waved us
over. I was kind of wondering what was going to happen when they asked us
who we were and what we did. We explained that we're missionaries and we
help people who want to learn about God. It was kind of funny because we
could tell that they were all really interested although they didn't want
to show it. They asked a couple of questions about life after death and we
put an appointment with them. I hope that turns out well!

Elder Huntington and I are starting to realize how frustrating it is to
give people agency. I don't know if it's bad to say that, but it's SO true.
Basically, when we say "Hey, here's the key to your salvation!" and they
understand why you need to read and pray, and they don't do it. What? Why
not? It's so irritating at times. They know exactly what they should do and
why they should do it and everything. I've been praying to understand that
better. Maybe they just don't really believe it. Like, maybe the concepts
of God or life after death or things like that just don't hit them. I just
want to force people to do these things because I KNOW they'll be happier
and better off! Just do it! Sigh....I definitely understand the concept of
"agency" a lot better. And how much God must love us anyway because we sure
mess up a lot!

Here's a picture of P-day fun. (They say sushi like "soo chee", it's so
funny) I love Mexico!

Have an awesome week. Read the scriptures!

Elder Crabb

Alma 50:16

Hello.

First of all, thank you ALL for all your wonderful birthday wishes. I love
you all and I miss you. Thanks so much for reminding me that I'm loved!
(That goes for all of you, even those of you who just put "Happy Birthday!"
on my Facebook wall).

Just so you know, being a missionary on your birthday is totally awesome!
Mexicans LOVE birthdays. If you say it's your birthday, they freak out and
get so excited! "Let us sing you happy birthday!" It's so cool. So I kept
spilling the beans the whole day, "accidentally". It actually was a great
birthday! I actually forgot until about noon. But the people who made us
food sang happy birthday and they made us gorditas, my favorite! Hooray for
"li'l fatties"! That night we also did FOUR baptismal interviews for the
same area, from the same family. They were all really cool and really ready
to be baptized (and they also sang me happy birthday). Apart from that it
wasn't anything special. But I really love using that day for a good cause.
=)

Well, being a zone leader sure is crazy and different. I thought that it
would be a lot easier at least! Luckily, this week was zone leader council,
so we got to go to President Cantu's house and hear from him all day. It
was so cool! They even took us bowling that day! Haha....I never thought
I'd go bowling in Mexico....(I'm still really bad at bowling). Basically
they talked to us about a lot of things. Principally about the way we
commit people to do things.

Now I don't know how this escaped from me before, but if someon e doesn't
understand 100% the things we want them to do, WHY we want them to do it,
and WHAT THEY CAN GET if they do it. It was a really, REALLY cool day. We
talked a lot about how to teach someone to get revelation. So we talked to
the zone about that on Saturday in the meeting. It was really spiritual and
so uplifting. I'm learning a LOT from this experience already.

Apart from that, this area is turning out to be VERY different from my last
one. The ward is really small. And the members are a totally different age
group--Nueva Galicia was full of young single adults, but Villa Universidad
(my new ward) is more.....experienced. There are much more families and
older people. It's a new way to work. Also, this ward hasn't baptized in
almost a year. We'll have to get our tails in gear. It might be hard, but I
have no fear.........=)

My new companion, Elder Huntington, is definitely the weirdest companion
I've ever had. In the best way, of course. =) I'm really enjoying doing
weird accents with him and talking about weird stuff. For just a taste of
how well we get along, here's a story: Yesterday, we went to eat. There was
a picture of some guy on the wall, and I thought "This guy looks just like
Bob Saget." A minute later, Elder Huntington says "Do you know who Bob
Saget is?" I'm going to love this transfer.

Speaking of transfers, this one may or may not be shorter than normal.
Remember how I said that I was going to be in the mission for about three
weeks more than normal? Well, that also means that we have to either have a
three week- or a nine week-transfer. I don't know which, so I might be with
Elder Huntington for very little time......who knows.

We've been finding a bunch of new people, and I'm really excited. We can't
wait--we should have a few baptisms this month! I've really come to realize
that I have nothing to do with anything here. God could send angels if he
wanted, to make people believe. They could have a dream that tells them to
listen to us. But he loves us so much that he lets us choose. This life has
made more and more sense to me now that I've been in here in the mission.
We're all here just to get better. It's like boot camp. We go in, we
suffer, there's lots of good times and lots of bad times, but when all is
said and done, we come out MUCH stronger, more faithful, and above all, we
understand the plan.

I love you all. Have an amazing day! Read the scriptures!

Elder Crabb

Here's a picture of us when we went bowling. This is my companion....He's
very tall.



Here's a baby, drinking a bottle of hot sauce. Yes, that's right. And it's
NOT mild in the slightest. Mexico is awesome.