Hey! It's January 15th and I am happy to be alive! And on a mission! It's a wonderful, comfortably chilly day here in Culiacan, and I'm glad I have the chance to be here!
(All that positivity was to mask the fact that, yet again, I didn't have a chance to get to a computer. It's pretty frustrating when I only have four things to do in the whole day and I don't have time!)
Actually, I'm so uncomfortably cold, after this I'm going to buy a sweater. Look what the unnaturally hot climate has done to me!
Anyway, as for this week, we had a great time. Like I mentioned before, we found a really REALLY great investigator, Mauricio, so I'll talk about him first.
There's a woman in this ward who works at some sort of leather business (I'm honestly not exactly sure what she does), who constantly talked to this Mauricio guy. He's only 24, and he recently got out of some hard stuff in his life. Ana, the member from our ward, had been talking to him about God a little. One day, Mauricio mentioned that the church he went to had a woman as the pastor. Well, Ana was NOT happy to hear that, and she told him he should listen to us. He accepted the offer, and went as far as to go to church! In church, he obviously had a LOT of questions, so we did our best to answer him and to get appointments set to answer the things we didn't get to at church.
On Thursday, we went to his house for the first time. While there, we found out that he's pretty awesome. He's a full-time musician! He sings really well, plays the piano and the guitar, and has LOTS of instruments in his house. Before he went to the church where he goes right now, he was pretty lost in the "things of the world", I guess you could say. He decided to clean himself up, visited a few churches and decided to stick to the one where he's at right now. Well, he was pretty happy with it for the most part, except that, in this church, they never answered his questions--in fact, they just shrugged them all off! His "lady pastor" told him that he had dumb questions. Well, we did our best to answer him with the scriptures (for example, he asked us about aliens and we shot him 3 Nephi 16:1!) and we taught him about the Restoration. He was so interested that we ended up answering questions for a good two and a half hours. He wouldn't let us leave! This Sunday he came to church in a white shirt and tie. I tell ya, he's really amazing. He's reading the Book of Mormon and he understands a LOT. It's really amazing to teach him.
Other than him, we have a few other really cool investigators, who are just so awesome! We have Mireya and her sister, Isabel. They're progressing and they ask a LOT of questions. We have the Obeso family (no, they are not obese), who went to church on Sunday. And we have Yedith, who was really excited to get baptized but her husband is really jealous, so he might not let her. Let's hope not.
The subject line of this email was just something funny that happened with a member. Her mom said "Lots of missionaries leave girlfriends at home, especially when they're as beautiful as Elder Crabb." I was like......"what?" but she didn't mean it in a weird way or anything. Needless to say, I am now Elder Bonito.
We were going to baptize this week, but it turns out we'll have to wait one more week because she hasn't paid Fast Offerings yet, a new requirement to be able to get baptized. She's gonna be sad when she finds out she can't get baptized yet. We're going to see her right now.
I've come to realize that the Lord has been trying me. My whole mission, I haven't had any success when I first get to an area. And, right when I'm getting used to things, finding lots of really great people, and getting ready to baptize people, I get transferred. At first, I didn't really notice it. But now, I've started to realize that it has happened to me in every single area I've been in. It has frustrated me more than once. Here, though, I'm getting to see why. If I was there when these people got baptized, I would probably let my pride tell me "These people got baptized because of what I did. ME. ELDER CRABB." Now, I'm forced to see it for what it really is.
A blessing.
I'm so glad for the opportunity that I have to see people get baptized--here, in my district, or any other past area. I've learned that it really doesn't matter WHERE or WHO.....just that it happens!
I sent a few letters a while ago. There was one for Alessa Wade, Korinne Ivory, Lauren Page, and Curtis Stone. I have the funny feeling that they ALL got lost in the mail, since I haven't heard a peep from any of you! Probably so. At least, that's the best-case-scenario...
It's been really hard for me to write letters in these last couple of months/areas. The time just gets away from me on P-days. My companion and I wake up at 5 on P-day so that we have enough time, but it STILL isn't enough!
Speaking of awesome stuff--I want to congratulate Lauren Page and Mariah Pugmire on their mission calls! How awesome is that?! I know there are others that have probably gotten their calls that I didn't even know about, but congratulations to you too! I'm so excited for you all!
Really, being a missionary is the absolute best. I'm starting to realize that real life is awful! You have to work all day, you have stress, you have normal worries, you have to divide your time wisely....but not me! I'm just out here doing the same day every day for two years! I don't have to worry about a thing. I feel like the celestial kingdom will be something like this! I don't have many worries and I have enough time for the important stuff. The only thing that'll probably change there is that I'll be less tired and my feet won't hurt.....
Sorry once again for the lack of photos. This computer doesn't want to cooperate. I'll send some once I get the chance. But I love you all so much. Thanks for being so supportive. Every once in a while I have a dream that I'm at home, and it makes me realize how much I miss my wonderful family and friends. I'm so glad I have such great examples in my life. Who knows where I'd be without all of them! (Yes, I'm talking to you. Thanks for being awesome!)
Hasta la OTRA semana....
Elder 
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