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.

01-28-13 Here we go again.....Big news, big changes.

Hello again family and friends!

First of all, the big news. I have been assigned as a zone leader in the same zone that I was just in. I was honestly really surprised, because the zone leaders are usually SUCH good missionaries! I'll do my best here, but holy cow.

The big change is that I'm in another area! NOOO....it was so hard to say goodbye to Nueva Galicia. I made so many good friends there and met such amazing people. Probably some lifelong friends will be in that group. They totally just stole me out of nowhere! They told us our transfers at 7pm last night, so we were running around trying to put my stuff in the suitcase and everything. It's going to be really sad because we have been teaching some really awesome investigators and POOF, I'm gone. Luckily I'll still be able to see their progress, being their zone leader and everything. But sad. They'll be like "Hey, why didn't he say goodbye?"

Other than that, this week was fantastic. We had a baptism! Remember Sofia, the wife of the first counselor? She got baptized! I'm still not exactly sure what it was that made her want to gt baptized so fast all of a sudden, but here she is. Awesome. She was so ready and her baptismal service was really powerful. We watched a Mormon Message (this one) and we all cried.

The next day, we rounded out the week with ANOTHER baptism, this time for the sister missionaries. I didn't really know her, but she was really nice and really ready. She's the daughter of a recent cnvert.

Sunday, we had stake conference. But it was cool and different! President Uchtdorf and Elder Ballard gave talks at a stake center in Mexico City with a Seventy and the second counselor in the Relief Society. I expected it all to be translated, seeing as they are all English-speaking, but to my surprise, the Seventy and the other woman spoke in Spanish! It was so cool! They had obviously worked so hard to prepare their talks in Spanish. The other two were translated. (But President Uchtdorf said a couple of things in Spanish before he started. If you think he has a cool accent in English, you should hear him in Spanish!) They were so good. Really, everything that our ward and stake needed to hear. Even though it was a broadcast for like 50 stakes in Mexico, it was really inspired just for us (just like General Conference I guess.

Your assignment this week is to follow the link and watch the video I posted (this one). It will really help some of you. You know who you are. =)

Other than that, I'm excited for my birthday! We'll be doing something fun, who knows what, but SOMEthing. I'll be sure and right all about it. I haven't gotten any packages yet but we also haven't gone to the offices yet, so we'll see. I love you all for even SENDING me packages, don't worry when they get here!

Love you all. Read the scriptures!

Elder Craff

Well, here's my suitcase that's SO FULL. I got transferred! But more on that in my email.

Here's a picture of our ward mission leader saying goodbye! I'm gonna miss him. He's a really great friend.

The sister missionaries had a baptism, and seeing as thaey don't have the priesthood, well, we helped them out.

OUR baptism! =) Sofia got baptized, finally! We were so glad that she did it. More on that in the email.

Culiacan, Sinaloa =)