Solidaridad and Christmas

Solidaridad and Christmas

I am sure at least that a few of you are aware of the crisis in Venezuela but they are all moving out the country. We have found about four of them and they are super receptive to listen to us. Their accent is really cool. This week we found Richard who lives with 5 returned missionaries... Yeah, good luck Richard. They do Family Home Evening as friends, he is just surrounded by the best people he could be.

On Friday we had our Multizone Conference and it was a really good day. The president gave each of us half of a chicken. We had a gift exchange and I got an expired pack of gum, but Elder Styler got a Qechua dictionary so we are learning some things. Japii chay wallpata, kaq pachapi kausanchik, kichaypunkuta. I was able to see Elder Limao for the first time in awhile he is still doing really good. Overall, it was the perfect thing that I needed this Christmas, president McGinn and sister McGinn both shared really good talks. I cant really explain it but I was so happy I wanted to cry, I just started thinking about the very fact of being out here surrounded by all of this, I love it.

We were thinking that yesterday, Sunday, was going to be difficult but it was the busiest day I have ever had. We started proselyting at 2 and visited 9 families. We shared little 30 minute lessons and sang hymns with them.

Just in case somebody asks how I am doing out here you can just go ahead and tell them the truth, I am so happy. I love it here in this ward I have made such good friends. Everyday I am always smiling. These people have no idea what is in store for them when they let us in their door, if I could explain it to them in one word it would be JOY. Our investigator Victor and his kids are still doing well and constantly improving. One thing I have seen that has changed with him is how happy he has gotten. He does not live a very happy life but he is super joyful. We had a lesson with them and I think they finally started taking this baptism thing seriously because we asked them how they felt about the 6th  of January and he just came out and said "guys I don't feel completely ready to be baptized that soon but maybe a few weeks later" so now he will be baptized on the 20th. Which is a lot better that he will be baptized when he really has a more profound understanding of it.

I wish you all the Happiest Christmas because that is its purpose. God sent the world His only begotten Son... that they might have joy. (various scriptures)

Love,

Elder Craythorne

Solidaridad and our Son

Family and Friends,

ITS A BOY. In the off chance that any of you understood my last email. We got another companion. Not gonna lie, we were definitely thrown into this parenting thing and I am not saying that its bad he was just a surprise. But seriously, it is really different with the three of us now, before I taught half the lesson but now I am down to a third. We had to practice how to teach with the three of us because we started out and we all taught the same principle three times. Elder Echague is from Paraguay and this is his second time in the mission. He started in March but after a week or so he went home but has triumphantly returned. That means that Elder Styler and I are training him. Officially, Elder Styler is the trainer which makes me the awkward older brother. No I am just kidding other than the fact that neither Elder Styler nor myself know how to train. One thing they do down here is mini missions. So the mission president of the area will call someone preparing to go on a mission to help with the missionaries but he lives and works with them etc. That is what Elder Echague did so he isn't starting from 0. Although this does worry me a little, knowing a thing or two about disturbances in the force I know that this most likely wont last and that I might be the most likely to leave. I have been adjusting to things over and over and I just haven't adjusted to adjusting. Always change, always something new.

I think I have mentioned before the recent convert family that is really good, the Mateo family. The 3 were baptized, Ariana, Jose Carlos, and Carina. They are super strong and super active and now we are attacking the rest of the family. Their aunt, Ruth, has a baptismal date for the 6th of January. Also their cousin, Natalia a 9 year old, has been quietly standing in on our lessons but now she participates a ton, I hadn't really noticed her but she has gone to church a bunch and knows a lot about the gospel. The only thing we need to do at this point is ask permission from her parents to baptize her. She acts like a member already. A while ago we started teaching a man by the name of Juan Carlos who started out full of doubts and questions. We actually were only able to teach him two times because of his difficult work schedule, but he comes to church every Sunday. He participates a bunch and has a lot of friends in the church. He really has changed and I am about 80 percent sure that he is 90 percent sure that all this is the truth, he just wants his wife to feel it too. He came to an activity we had on Saturday and was recording the whole Nativity on his iPhone, he said he wanted to show his daughter. The second counselor in the stake presidency came and gave a really good talk in our ward and after Juan Carlos went up to talk to him. All that is really left to do with him is teach the doctrine and fill up the font, I hope I will be able to see that.

We visited Victor and his family on Friday and until now his opinion about the Book of Mormon has been and I quote, its a good book. So we asked him to pray one more time. This last lesson he shared that he was having a rough couple of days and felt like he should read a little in the Book of Mormon and he said that as soon as he opened it up he just felt happy. He said he felt like crying and he didn't know why. If your looking for the opportune moment, that was it. The opportune moment meaning to tell him that he felt the Holy Ghost. They are solid, just a little quiet and so far have only assisted the first hour of church, they are shy and don't talk very much but we are bring some members to our lessons. The problem is is that they live at the very top of the hill and nobody wants to go hiking with us. To give an exaggerated example of what the Peruvians see, if the chapel is where Cliff Lake is then their house is on Kings Peak.

I am still loving it here in this ward. Sundays are the best because the members are all friends and we have good teachers. I think I have mentioned before Luis Aldana he is one of our best friends just super funny and super spiritual. Yesterday he taught our Principles of the Gospel class and elders quorum both about faith. They make it easy to bring investigators to church because we are almost certain they will have a spiritually edifying experience.

I know I sound like I am doing perfect but one thing I am struggling with is that the month of December tis the season to eat Paneton, fruit cake... I am not a fan. But, every one gives it to us... Pray for me, I live a hard life.

If I am going to be honest with you it really doesn't feel like Christmas. Days go by without notice and we are always working. Nevertheless, the lights go up and Santa Claus is every where. But we are still sharing Light the World and that video still gives me the chills.

One thing I teach is that nothing in life is ideal. No matter how good we plan things are naturally out of our control. The birth of Jesus was without a doubt an unideal situation. Joseph did the best to find comfortable accommodations for Mary, and the best thing he could find was a stable. Which we simplify to be with hay and wood crates and stuff when in reality there would have been smelly animals amongst other things you would find in a barn. Even though His birth had been predicted and there were people who had known He was to be a king and bring peace He was born in a stable.

The other two thirds of the three musketeers mandan sus saludos.

I hope you guys are living Christmas to its fullest and doing everything you can to remember Him. I love and pray for all of you guys. I know that Christ is our Savior and I am so grateful to carry this message with me here in Peru.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

Solidaridad and Sinter Klaas

Dear Family and Friends,

Thought I would start making a throwback to good old magic treehouse days. When I was little I would think of my mission and think "I wish I could go there" and then just like the books, everything started spinning and spinning and suddenly I am here, but I am living the dream. I never imagined actually being here. Like I referred to in the title HAPPY DUTCH CHRISTMAS, and you better believe that we set out shoes outside to get the presents from Sinter Klaas. Elder Styler still thinks I am making the whole thing up based on my imagination and we had a good laugh. We get along super well and it is fairly to get him to laugh which is good because it gives me the opportunity to try out some of my comedian impressions. So, as you will see in my pictures, yes, Sinter Klaas did make it to Peru. Actually, we had divisions with the zone leaders on Dutch Christmas so they were all able to laugh at our traditions I mean celebrate with me. Overall it was a really fun day.

How are your guys's Light the World calendars looking? I wish I were able to see the videos that come out everyday. Usually we associate New Years with setting good goals but these small acts of service are a good time to just get in the habit of frequently helping others. And a slight invitation to be looking for those opportunities. Just as the talk by Elder Holland reminds us that we are falling short we will never be able to do enough service.

The month of December is sufficiently different than those other months to make a difference on the work. We are still working hard we just have a lot of activities that we are doing and invited to participate in.

Tuesday we had a miraculous day we had set 6 appointments and we taught every single one and they were all good lessons. We didn't do anything different it was just a lucky day I guess but it was amazing. Everyday is different and I couldn't adequately explain to you what factors change, I actually think it might just start in our attitude. It is hard to explain and it doesn't make sense but we were laughing all day in the streets and somehow that affected our lessons or whether or not the people were in their homes.

It is different with a new companion, the things we focus on the people and it appears that some investigators have disappeared with the farewell of Elder Limao, no fault of his own it just happens sometimes.

It is humorous when we tell people that we follow the commandment and choose not to drink and they are like, not even a little? No not even a little the commandment isn't that we don't get drunk that is just covered when we don't drink at all. The same model follows that with the other commandments. Obedience starts with having in mind from the beginning that you aren't even willing to dabble in the gray areas. The pharisees weren't bad because they were super obedient but because they made their own rules. If being molly Mormon or peter priesthood means that you are obedient to the covenants and commandments then that should be a compliment although sometimes it feels like a negative thing. I digress, obviously I could go on and on about this topic being a missionary as could any missionary. Elder Holland doesn't like talking about this but I do. Obedience is just the simplest thing that has turned into a negative dogma or stereotype. Be good.

Well we just barely got a call from the President and we are getting a new elder in our companionship so after this we will go pick him up. I am actually kinda freaking out about that. We just barely got the news 30 seconds ago. WOO. Someone tell Elder Stylers parents.

I also did a really good voice recording but I cant get it to plug in. You guys are going to be blown away.

Last week I gave a workshop, I think that is the word in English, about getting people to come to church the three things I focused on was to make sure they understand the doctrine, put a plan and trust agency. Agency. The double edged sword that we are praying these people use to do good. Usually they do good but sometimes the natural man takes over, it also is a decision that requires initiative to be passive.  Missionary work work work day after day. I am glad to be out here, you guys would not believe how much fun I am having. And I take comfort in knowing that I can improve because, I wont lie my efforts right now aren't bringing maximum rewards so I still have a long way to go. The same reason I don't baptize people the day we find them relates to why we aren't in the Eternal Life stage yet. Progression. Progression which has pit falls but a sure positive slope.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

I pray you are having the best Christmas season. I am hear telling people that there was One who was perfect in every way and that through Him we can be perfect. Every day and my whole missionary life I testify of His life.

 

Solidaridad and Subway

Dear Family and Friends,

Solidaridad and Subway

On Friday we went to the temple, after a while it was so refreshing to go back to that holy place. I really cant describe adequately, it is different as a missionary. Then after we went to Subway and I got the good old meatball sub, I almost feel the same way about that as I do the temple. It was like our second p day for the week and it was a longer break because an hour after coming home we met at City Hall to do a Book of Mormon activity. We went around to people who were just hanging out outside city hall, actually a pretty popular place, and we asked the people if they wanted to participate in an experiment that we were doing for 2 or 3 minutes. Most said yes then we gifted a singular page out of the Book and asked them to mark it up with what they liked and what talked about Jesus. After they did that we would come back and talk to them and reveal to them that they only have one page of a great book that is full of additional knowledge about Jesus Christ. Most wanted to learn more and it worked out fairly well.

We also watched the Christmas Devotional Sunday night and as always it was a delight. They shared some good stories and examples and above all principles about love, service, and forgiveness. I hope we never forget that the best gifts have come and will come only through Christ and following His example. Loving, serving, and forgiving as He would and has.

One struggle we have is taking this work and forming it with the Peruvian schedule because I have said they are always working, sometimes we don't know if our progressing investigators are still progressing or not because we haven't seen them in over a week. One thing I have learned from that to is to be grateful for the time they give us to listen and receive us in their homes.

Our area does a really good job of finding new investigators but it feels like we have a lot to juggle and our schedules are always full but its a good feeling we are constantly stretching ourselves.

I love the mission life. We are always learning and if we don't write it down then I am bound to forget it. We are always studying and listening to talks from apostles. Thanks to Jackson and Emily that apostle is usually Jeffrey R Holland. He is a really good speaker and good with words. I am going to grow up and be the Elder Holland of Spanish.

I am so blessed to be out here on this mission. I echo the testimony of the greats and I know that Jesus Christ lived, died and He lives. The life and example He left for us is and will always be the best gift anyone could offer, and it shows how loving our Father is because He sent something so perfect.

I love and pray for all you guys. Have a good week, I will keep working hard.

Love, 

Elder Craythorne

Solidaridad Lo maximo

Dear Family and Friends,

It is an amazing life. We had the baptism for Frany on Saturday! She sacrificed a lot and changed her life to be able to be baptized. She is a single mom and she quit her job to be able to come to church on Sundays. Frany has gone through a lot in her life but I think that overall she really just feels the love the Savior has for her when she lives the gospel. She is not very shy so she has already made quite a few friends in the church and the members have helped her with her difficulties more than Elder Limao and I were able to, being young as we are. Her son Francisco just barely turned 8 but I don't know how to teach a kid yet, his attention span is so short. I think it would be a good experience to teach him though, figure out how to get down to his level of simplicity because then I would be able to teach just about anybody.

This was the last week of this transfer and Elder Limao left me... He is now a zone leader in Villa Salvador and my new companion is Elder Styler from Delta Utah. He is a good missionary and has been a zone leader for most of his mission and is now our district leader. Just a tad bit different leading the different I feel like the host of a party and I am trying to inflict a good time here. But this transfer should be really good, there is a lot of work to do.

I am beyond grateful for Elder Limao and my training, he is a great missionary and a good example and we were able to get along really well. He did a really good job here in the ward, the people love him a lot, I want to be just like him when I grow up. He strengthened the ward extremely and baptized 11 people in his 5 months here. I really will miss him, we became really good friends.

We worked hard this week, as always and it really feels good. I have adjusted to living on this hill and like I said I am either going up or going down but that might help with the amount of rice I eat. They all said the food would be delicious and it is, there is a whole bunch of weird names for their food. Thursday was Elder Limao's birthday and our pension bought Papa Johns. Yeah the better ingredients, better pizza Papa Johns. I am not paid for this advertisement. We also received 5 cakes but don't tell mom.

Sorry I know you are all super sad about the lack of a voice recording this week but I didn't have time so I will leave you my spiritual message on here with boring old letters. Just read this in your head with my voice.

Elder Cook in this last conference talked a lot about humility. It goes back to the, we are nothing without God type of deal. I have seen that it is really hard for a prideful person to lower themselves down low enough to be influenced by the spirit, or humble enough to change their lives. We need to allow God to make us better than we ever could on our own and sometimes that means really submitting to his will and not our own. He has the best in mind for all of us. God changed Paul, then Saul, his direction from bad to good and for us who think we are doing good we need to allow God to change our direction upward. God cannot work with someone not willing to change.

I love all you guys and hope you know how much the Lord loves you. This is His church and we have prophets who are really his servants. I testify of all these things, every missionary testifies of these things.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

P.S don't forget about Light the World. Let us see who can do all 25 without learning how to love his neighbor while doing it, ready go.

Solidaridad 11

Family and Friends,

As always it was a good week here in San Juan. I am nearing the end of my training.  This week we had divisions with our zone leaders again because they pertain to our district. It was a good experience as always to be guiding the area, stepping out of my comfort zone and leading the lessons. This coming week is the last of this transfer and really anything could happen but more importantly I will be done with training!

In Peru, religion is, just by default, a big part of the culture. Everybody believes in God and just about everybody has been baptized Catholic. Here, church and state aren't separated so they preach religion in school. This means one of two things either they are open to learning about us and reading the Bible, or they are super closed off to receiving us.

Seeing as how the colonists didn't start celebrating Thanksgiving here in Peru, while you guys are stuffing yourself it will be a regular day here. That doesn't signify that we aren't grateful, let's see where this takes us. It is easy to be grateful when we receive blessings big and small, perhaps it might take some effort on our part to see the smaller ones and really accept them as blessings. However, our lives, our families, our world are all blessings so shouldn't we be grateful for everything, including our challenges. Especially our challenges. Would we truthfully and sincerely mean it if at the end of a hard day, not an exhausting day, but a day that we really feel miserable and hopeless. Would we pray at the end of this day and thank God, who gave us our lives, and thank him for our difficulties. As a missionary, every day is different and yes some are hard but I am grateful. Like I said last week, the doubts and questions that my investigators have cause me to study and strengthen my knowledge about that subject.

As you can imagine, the people are really excited because Peru is going to the World Cup for the first time in 36 years. They had a game on Wednesday against New Zealand that went into the night and all we could here was the cheering and the fireworks when they scored. 

We had the chance to watch the face to face between Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard and the Young Single Adults. Bare with me to see if I can explain my thoughts clearly. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we believe in both inspiration, the hand of God directing the things in our life, and agency or our ability to choose. A great question is how do I know if I am doing what the Lord wants me to do and not just something I want to do.  In short, the two apostles said the link between divine inspiration and our agency is initiative. We need to secure that we are living in such a way that what we want to do and the Lord's will for us will align.

We have an investigator right now who hasn't come to church yet because he sings at parties Saturday night 11 pm to 8 am on Sunday. One could ask, well if God wants him to go to church why doesn't he just give him a different job?  However, what God wants is that we make that choice to change our lives to be better. Ultimately, his decision to sacrifice his time to come to church and do the things he has felt prompted to do will complete the process of inspiration.

Have a good week I love all you guys. 

Love,

Elder Craythorne

San Juan Solidaridad 8

Dear Family and Friends,

Whether it is easier to say thy sins are forgiven thee or arise and walk we are so blessed to have a Savior who can do both. This week at zone conference we watched the new video for #LighttheWorld and wow am I ecstatic for Christmas, don{t worry I have not forgotten about Thanksgiving and I am not going to forget to give it its fair share of stage time. Nevertheless, today is just as good as any to remember Jesus Christ and speaking of Light the World I particularly want to highlight the similarities betwixt the acts the Savior did and what we can do today. No man, save our God Himself has the power to say [thy sins be forgiven thee[ and have some meat or proof to back it up. But, we fellow members of the human family can be the force that reaches out a happy hand that invites [arise and walk[. No matter physically, emotionally, or spiritually someone around you is metaphorically bedridden or paralyzed and everyone of us the capacity and responsibility to lift and alleviate others. To wrap it all up and put a bow on it, the Savior invites us to be good people.

We had an amazing week, obviously not everyday is good but right now I am feeling good because Sunday was amazing. It felt good to see all of our hard work pay off and be proven through church attendance.

The culture is very different down here but I am pretty much used to it by now, to get around we drive combis, motos, and buses, well we don't drive but you get me. Driving is crazy because there is not stop lights only speed bumps and every second you feel like you are going to crash, (reference: scene in the Bee Movie) but I have actually never seen a crash here so that makes me feel better. The people here have pretty good houses, not very many have phones or Internet actually but they have super nice cars. Not immensely fancy but like new Honda's. Here are some pictures of a recent convert family that is really fun but a little hard to keep under control, and pollo a la braza oooh it is so good. 

I am having the time of my life out here. 

I love all you guys.

Elder Ben Craythorne

San Juan Solidaridad 7

Family and Friends,

It is a good day and a good week and a good time to be a missionary here in Solidaridad. We set a lot of appointments and if you hear my voice recording then you will know that we struggle to set an hour when they are going to be there. We have a lot of investigators and they are all really good. We put into practice the teaching of Ammon who changed his teaching down to a level that the king Lamoni would understand and from the kids to the very learned we have a lot of different levels to work with. Even though the goal is the same for everyone, at the same time every lesson is so different. People ask us if we get bored of this work and I just laugh because everyday is a surprise there is no way to plan for everything that is going to happen.

 I hope you all can listen to my voice recording, I shared some of my thoughts from the talk from Elder John C. Pingree which was a really good talk. The goal in this life is to always be better than yesterday. My favorite word in the English and religious language is: optimize. What a blessing. 

I love all you guys and pray super hard for you. This Church is true. 

Elder Ben Craythorne

Sorry no pictures.......next week!!

San Juan Solidaridad 6

Dear Friends and Family,

It is a good week to be a missionary, like always. The work is progressing and so am I (hopefully). A little bit more news about my area you already know we are in the hills of Lima and I can see the ocean and it is really humid so the cold is colder and the heat is hotter. Everyday I will be sweating and at night wearing my sweaters. My area is fairly big I think, I don't have anything to compare it by but it takes us a good 30 to 45 minutes to walk from border to border. It takes 30 minutes driving in an overstuffed combi to get to the stake center. The work here is good as always, we contact people on the streets more than anything. We have a lot of lessons planned for each day and we can remember them because we have a planner, but the Peruvians do not have this same planner so they forget. So yeah as expect we have appointments that fail and that is mainly when we contact. We probably knock on average two doors a day. 

My first transfer came and went just like that. Everything here is staying the same except Elder Limao is the new district leader, he is still comparably fresh on his mission just like me. I have said that directly after his training (2 transfers) he started training me and now he is district leader. And he feels the mantel is too big to be his but I know that he will do a good job and I will to my best to help him and not be a burden. I still have yet to find a problem with him we get along super well. 

This church is true and we are lucky to have it, and I am lucky to be a missionary. I love all you guys, have a great week.

Love you,

Elder Ben Craythorne

San Juan Solidaridad 5

Dear Family and Friends,

Back into the battle this week after the rest we got through general conference. Every day out here is different but the same, we really just put our heads down and go to work smiling all day and talking to everybody. The progress with investigators is always slower than we would like it to be but little by little people are progressing and the only thing I can do for them is teach and tell them what they need to do to be baptized and it is there job to do it. This week we changed one of our rules for the mission before we had to contact 25 people a day 5 of those 25 families and 5 men but now we have to contact 25 people 5 families and receive 2 referrals, in the 5 weeks in my mission I have only received one reference and now we had to get 2 a day. But with every thing we are asked to do the Lord provides a way to achieve it. And we did and are doing it. A small miracle that hopeful will bring a big change to peoples lives. 

I am closing in on my halfway mark of being trained and I am thoroughly enjoying it and trying to apply everything I have learned. Elder Limao leads by example and strong encouragement I don't feel like I am being bossed around but rather guided and he is walking right there with me. What I was trying to explain in my voice recording about the fish climbing a tree or whatever that was is that during General Conference it talked about our divine purpose like I said last week, that means that we cannot compare ourselves and where we are to other peoples photo shopped and well edited lives. I can only try to be the best missionary possible for me to be and still there will be things that I can't do that only the best Elder Limao can do. I love all you guys and hope my words bring somewhat of a spirit into your lives. 

Love,

Elder Ben Craythorne

San Juan Solidaridad 4

Dear Family and Friends,

First of all before I forget right now I am learning 3 languages, Spanish, Portuguese, and Kechuan (and the language of the spirit if you want to count that) Next week I will send a recording of me attempting to speak something not English. The other two languages are harder for me to learn because I have no books or ways to read the language it is just solely off of sound. 

I really am so blessed to have started my mission in this ward, 9 o'clock every Sunday Fortaleza por la 14. We are the only missionaries that meet at our ward but it is pretty small. The stake center is where our district leaders are and it is pretty big. A little about my everyday life: we have bunk beds and I have the top bunk it reminds me of when I was little sleeping in the bunk bed. I AM SO BLESSED We have hot water to take showers, we have a little fridge and a microwave and stove what more could we need?

Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf shared a story about Bobby the Wonder Dog and the natural ability some animals have to remember the path home. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. As a missionary I am constantly asking which way I should go, I want my paths to be directed but something else that he shared is that we have to take the initiative in order to be the tool in his hands that we need to be. So when I am thinking which way I need to go I just need to pick some direction and go that way. A lot of the apostles talked about our divine destiny and the path that we are on. I recommend a good re watching of all the talks at least sometime in between now and the next one in spring. General Conference was so good I cant describe how much it felt like a feast of the spirit.

Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Ben Craythorne

San Juan Solidaridad 3

Dear Family and Friends, 

I had another great week as always and how it always will be as a missionary. Little by little I am adjusting to how things work here. I am so blessed to be trained by Elder Limao here really is a good guy and I am not just saying that because he is sitting right next to me. So far I haven't found anything about him that bugs me so that is good and we like a lot of the same things. Before the mission he studied English for a year and can speak very well. We are kind of both learning Spanish but he definitely knows more. 

The work is good here. This week Gustavo came to church which is exactly what he needs to do in order to be baptized and this week after we asked him what he learned from reading 2 Nephi 32 he said that he really understands the need to be baptized how Jesus was baptized. We had splits this week and I was able to see actually a big difference between our area and the area of Elder Wilson and Elder Petty there are a lot more people but they are less open to talking about the church which is the opposite of how we have it here in my area.  I am so grateful for my area and the people here. If you can imagine with dogs barking constantly, chickens cock-a-doodle-doodling, kids crying and screaming, the cars on the streets it is hard for me to feel like I am teaching with the spirit with so many distractions. That was something I worked on this week, I really put my head down and focused exactly on what the investigators were saying and what they needed to hear. Always always always something they say will allow me to turn it into a gospel truth that can be applied to their lives. I just need to listen. I need to listen and understand in both the Spanish language and the language of the spirit. I am continually trying to be a worthy servant of the Lord, I know I will forever be indebted to Him the least I can do is give 100% of my time for 2 years. 

I love all you guys and this church is true.

Elder Ben Craythorne

San Juan Episode 2

Family and Friends,

The mission life is great and I am truly blessed. Another week of dogs and dust. I love everything about this place. The weather is actually pretty cold but it is supposed to warm up quite a bit in December. Everyday I get my lunch made for me by someone in the ward and 10 times out of 10 is is some type of chicken and rice. All I have to do for laundry is take it to this place and pick it up 2 days later. I am trying to find things healthier to eat for dinner but it is hard because we don't have much time. So sorry mom but I am not learning how to be a good cook haha. Other than that my days are filled with finding and teaching people. Right now I am working on understanding what the people are saying because they are mumbling just like I would in English but in the CCM everybody vocalized the words strongly. I have had some pretty funny experiences here. People have asked me if I have personally met John Cena (I should have said yes) and the other day a guy started talking to us about Chester from that one band that I cant think of its name right now, he was pretty shaken up about his death I guess. We have been called to preach about the Church of Jesus Christ and the Restored Gospel (all of our beliefs revolve around whether or not the Book of Mormon is true) and if we aren't doing that or making plans to do that then what are we doing. 

I am working my hardest out here and I love it if I want to baptized everybody that means I have to talk to everybody. 

I love all you guys.

Elder Craythorne

CCM Episode 5

Family and Friends,

Another great week at the CCM and my experience here is coming to a close. This next week I will be writing you from the field. I got a little more a taste of what Lima is like this last Saturday. We went to an are called Las Lomas where we were walking on dirt roads and the doors we knock on are their garage doors because everything in their house is fenced off. My companion gave me plenty of opportunities to use my Spanish. This whole place is like a big dust bowl with a big crevice down the middle and there is no vegetation at all on the hills. All the houses are super close together but everyone is at least 2 stories. The mission we went to was Lima East so I don't know how similar the places will be.

It is crazy how fast time goes on your mission. I thought you guys were exaggerating but time is a joke out here. I am still loving everything out here and I hope I can have the same attitude in 6 months. This week I read a talk by Tad McCallister I think and he said what are you willing to put on the altar of sacrifice but after our devotional by Elder Godoy, you aren't really giving up these things, you put them on the altar and they will get better by serving a mission. Everything you could every worry about just is put into perspective when you are on a mission.

I am super excited for whatever happens next week. They wont let me leave the CCM for too long because I will be coming back next Saturday anyway for Elder Oaks devotional. Even though it has only been 6 weeks I am still gonna have a hard time saying goodbye to them. You guys can all be my witnesses that I promise to do my best out in the field.

I love and pray for all you guys.

Elder Craythorne

CCM Episode 4

Family and Friends,

Another MTC week has flown by and no way on Earth does it feel like I have almost been out a month. I am getting used to the schedule of being a missionary. I could not be in a better place. This week we had 2 devotionals by Bednar on Sunday and one from Ballard yesterday. This is the best place I cant wait for everyone to experience the MTC. I hope everything is well at home. Next week I will let you know how my proselyting activity goes on Saturday. About 2 weeks more I am breaking free out into my mission. This week Elder Summerhays ate 24 pieces of toast in one sitting, two kids went to the hospital but all is well with Elder Craythorne. 

I love you all.

Elder Ben Craythorne

Week 1

Family,

THE MISSION Here I am living the dream I have been preparing for this for 18 years! I am loving everything here. The food is really good but just a ton a ton of rice on everything and if it is not rice then its bread just so much carbs but for our physical activity during the day I run a ton by playing soccer and pony ball which is like ultimate frisbee but with a volleyball and as you all can testify I am super athletic so everybody wants me on their team. The Elders that I am with are amazing we have the best time and when we heard the talk "Be a Missionary" by Holland oh we were so pumped to preach the gospel our new motto is "Pick up your socks, Elder" (Our old motto was "do you wanna rethink that elder" that's what i said after Elder Summerhay's put cheese and jelly on his toast). Our district is arguably the best district in the world, we just build each other up and help each other out with the language. I love learning Spanish and my classes in high school helped me so much, so someone find Nebeker and tell him I gave him a shout out.

My companion is Elder Jensen from Spanish Fork going to Cusco and we get along really well our lessons have kind of been struggling until our one on Monday which was amazing. Our "investigator" is one of our Spanish teachers. Everyday we have about 4 hours worth of study and 5 hours of class. On Monday we were supposed to go get our visas but instead we stood in line for 6 hours and then left but it was not for nothing because we placed a Book of Mormon, imagine that!  A few novice missionaries and we gave someone in line a Book of Mormon. I love you guys so much and I am excited to be here. It is crazy the responsibilities the Lord gives us lowly 18 year olds and the trust he has in us.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne