Pamplona

Dear Family and Friends,

Someone in sacrament meeting last week said "No importa la placa pero la corazon que queda detras." It doesn't matter about the name tag but the heart that lies behind it. 

This week was amazing, I know I say that a lot but this time I mean it, and I meant it the other times.

One thing I forgot to mention last week in my letter is the Gospel Principles teacher in this ward is the best. He is probably the most unqualified teacher on the planet but he makes it so easy to bring investigators to church because his classes are so fun and edifying. He doesn't exactly tell jokes just the way he acts we all have a smile the whole class and walk away with the feeling "we all just lived that uncomfortable mess together". Maestro Cucci. Every body loves Gospel Principles.

I know that I am being the stereotypical missionary when I say this but my perspective about callings and assignments has changed, I have seen the affect it makes when someone either magnifies or slacks off. Every missionary comes home with a bunch of things they want to do but I really do want to do a better job with my callings.

Sounds like both the San Gabriel stake and West Point stake had conference yesterday. Our mission president assisted along with a member of the 70. If you'll allow me to write some of the things that impressed me. 

The mission president's wife told a story about her brother who was the advisor to the deacons quorum. She described her brother as being a bigger than average guy who played football. On a camp out where they were to go hiking her brother started the hike with ease being in generally good shape. But as the hike went on he was getting more and more tired and started to fall behind and it came to the point where he wanted to go back. He kept moving and finally got to the site where they were going to camp. He unpacked his bag only to find that it had been filled with rocks, at every break that they had taken, the 12 year olds had been putting rocks in his bag. The mission president's wife tied it into keeping the Sabbath day holy and taking the sacrament. We can go through this life collecting all kinds of guilt and putting it in our load, some sins we may not even know we have committed.

Second, the member of the 70, whose name is slipping my mind right now, told us about the Book of Mormon. It was super powerful and a good reminder of the importance of it in our conversion and continuing retention as members.

This week we were contacting and I knocked on the door of a young man who thought it was pretty cool that I was from the United States, he is learning English and tried to say somethings to me. He is also interested in religion, so we set an appointment and Saturday we and taught him. If I am not wrong I think he said that the Book of Mormon is true in our first lesson. Let me just say that it was way too easy to teach him, it is like when mom tells you to go pick the tomatoes and you find one that could have been picked a couple weeks ago.

We had the baptismal interviews with Nikson and Pamela for this week, and after a really spiritual experience as far as explaining what it means to be a disciple of Christ. The baptism is this Saturday and it should be really good, really spiritual. Three more souls on the winning side if you know what I mean.

I know that Christ lives and to me that means I can be better. I am working hard and I pray for all of you every day.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

Pamplona Side Story

Dear Family and Friends,

For those of you who only skim over my emails I would like to first start off my copying and pasting a story that another Elder shared with me. I will never be able to say enough about repentance and I will never be able to recommend "too many" talks by general authorities about it, but this story puts it in another way to visualize what repentance means for the saint as well as the sinner.

"I don't quite understand whether it was real or a dream. I only remember that it was late and I was sitting on my favorite sofa with a good book in my hands. I was tired and I began to nod.

In that world between asleep and awake I found myself in a huge room, it was not a particular room except for a wall full of drawers like you find in a library. The drawers went from the floor to the ceiling and looked like there was no end in sight. Each drawer had a different name. When I got close, one of the titles called my attention. Without paying much attention I opened it and started to read the cards inside. All of the sudden I realized that I recognized the name on each one of them. They were the "Girls that I have loved".

I started to realize where I was. This huge room with its endless drawers represented my existence. There I could find each of one of the actions of my life even the small ones that I had forgotten.

I started to feel a sensation of curiosity, expectation, and wonder when I started to open the drawers randomly, to explore what they contain.

Some made me happy and brought me sweet remembrances. Others, on the contrary, gave me a feeling of shame and guilt so intense that I had to turn to see if someone was watching me.

The file "Friends" was next to the "Friends that I have betrayed" and "Friends that I have abandoned when they needed me the most".

The titles went from the ordinary to the ridiculous. "Books that I have read", "Lies that I have told", "Condolences that I have given" and the "Jokes that I have told".

The titles kept amazing me. In some drawers there were more cards than the ones I thought would be and in others less.

I was amazed by the volume of the information that I have compiled about my life. How could I have the time to write each one of these millions of cards?

But each card confirms truth. Each card had my signature and was handwritten.

I became dumb founded when I saw the drawer "Songs that I have listened to" (or might I add Netflix shows I have watched or hours of video games I have played), when I discovered that it did not have an end in sight I felt ashamed not for the quality of music but because it showed how much time I have wasted.

When I arrived to the drawer "Impure thoughts", a tremble ran throughout my body.

I only opened the drawer a few inches... I was ashamed to discover its depth.

Randomly I took a card out and I read it. I felt sick knowing that "this" moment hidden in obscurity had been recorded.

I didn't need to see any more...

An animal instinct came out of me. A thought dominated my mind. No one should ever see these cards. No one should even enter in this room... I had to destroy it.

With feelings of insanity I pulled on a drawer, I had to empty it and burn the cards that it contained.

But I discovered that I could neither empty  nor could I burn the cards. I realized that I could not even dislodge a single one from the drawer.

I became desperate and tried to yank even harder, only to discover that they were harder than steel when I tried to rip them.

Defeated and completely defenseless, I returned the drawer to its place.

Placing my head against the endless bookcase, invincible witness to my miseries I started to cry.

Then the title of one of the drawers made me feel a little bit better. "People with whom I have shared the Gospel".

I grabbed it by its shining handle and found less than 10 names. Once more tears came to my eyes. I was crying from the depth of my being. I could not even take a breath. I fell to the floor crying in shame.

A new thought came to my head, no one should enter this room I had to find the key and lock it permanently.

While I dried my tears, I saw him.

Oh no. Please no. Anyone but Jesus.

Helpless, I saw how Jesus opened the drawers, and read each card. I could not stand to look at his reaction.

At that moment I didn't want to meet his eyes. Intuitively, He drew near to the worse drawers. Why did He have to read them all? With sadness in his eyes he looked into mine, I lowered my head with shame, I put my hands on my face and started to cry once more. He came near, put His hands on my shoulders. He could have said many things. But he did not speak.

He stood next to me in silence. That was the day that Jesus kept silent, and wept with me. He returned to the drawers and from one side to the other he opened them and one by one and on each card signed His name over mine.

I screamed in pain. NO.

I ran towards him and ripped the card from His hands, His name didn't need need to be in those cards. Those weren't his sins they were mine.

But there it was, written in crimson. His name covered mine, written in His own blood.

He took the card from my hand, he looked at me with a sad smile and continued signing cards.

I don't know how he did it so quickly but the next instance I saw him closing the last drawer and came back to me.

He gave a tender look and said to me "It is done, it is finished, I am carrying your shame and guilt. At that moment we both left the room... Room that still is open... because there are more cards to be filled. I still don't know if it was a dream or a reality but of, what I am convinced, is that the next time that Jesus returns to that room, he will find more cards that will make him happy, less wasted time and less vanity and shameful cards."

There is something for you guys to read and think about throughout this week, if you want to share it in your Family Home Evenings I wouldn't be mad. Last night we shared it with recent converts and it was the best.

I also make a quick reference to a story I heard called the Butterfly Circus, I think there is a YouTube about it. 

Our area has progressed a bunch, well better said that our investigators are progressing well. If I can explain myself in a simile it is like when you are making cookies but your working one batch at a time. We have few people who are in the beginning stages compared to the larger number of investigators we have who are closing in on their baptism.

We didn't know about Stake Conference until a couple weeks ago so we had to move the a couple baptismal dates including Nik (the super good one) and he actually got pretty down about it. 

Other than that not too much new news for this week but things continue to improve. I love it out here.

I love all you guys and will never adequately express gratitude for the prayers you have sent my way.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

Pamplona and Perros

Dear Family and Friends,

I have learned a lot from Elder Infante but primarily his ability to make people trust him. In our first few moments with new investigators we usually ask how they are, how their day was yada yada and you all know that we all lie and say we are good. But with Elder Infante they automatically open up, they say "to be honest today wasn't so good" I don't know how he does it. I was talking about it with some of the other elders and they said that because of his size he is just naturally charismatic.

In response to the trust, I have seen the other side of these people's lives, the majority of which are getting over addictions or having problems having to be a single parent. Problems which the gospel of Jesus Christ was specifically made to help.

This week we did see a lot more progress. There is not much better than teaching a good family at the end of a long day. We may not have a bunch of families to teach but the ones we do have are solid.

I think I take advantage of the times during the day where I can actually bare my testimony. Often times people come up to us but only with the intentions of contention. We have an investigator who decided not to be baptized because of some anti Mormon propaganda. Time and time again it only comes down to our testimony. If we feel an answer to our prayer that means it is from God, not man. Which means that man cannot deny or negate that our answers were from God. 

One thing Elder Infante shared with me was a story he had when someone was arguing with his dad about doctrine. His dad simply sat back and listened until the man had finished his discourse. Then Elder Infante's dad asked "If God answered a question of yours, would you deny it?" 

"Of course not"

"And neither will I. I have received my answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith restored the church and that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ".

I love testimonies.

A reference to the title, there are somehow more dogs here than in my old area. 

We had an investigator, Raquel who is golden and things were going great until she got kicked out of her house. The ward helped out and in the end she has a new place to live, bad news is it isn't in our area because we share the ward with 2 other elders. So they took over. Which is fine because she will be baptized either way.

The ward here helps does a good job of helping us out.

I was doing a little more studying of the 10 commandments and it says that we shouldn't put any other God before Heavenly Father. So it put me to think, what other gods do we even believe in? Satan or the devil is not as powerful as our God but unfortunately he still has power and does a pretty good job. That thought lead me to question, how on earth could we put Satan before Heavenly Father? Here are just some thoughts.

When we worship God we love our neighbor, we serve others, we are humble, we are altruistic, and we believe in hope. In contrast, when we hate or hold grudges, when we are prideful, selfish we are unknowingly diminishing our own testimonies of the Father. Including when we are fearful. 

There is no room to doubt and not enough time to feel hopeless. Thou shalt not fear.  I repeat Elder Holland who repeats Paul when he says "have hope for a better world and with faith... wait for it." A better world and better times to come.

I love all you guys, never forget to pray and continually ask for help.

Love, 

Elder Ben Craythorne

Solidaridad and San Gabriel

Dear Family & Friends,

It wasn't too unexpected but I did leave Solidaridad in an emergency transfer. Last Tuesday after lunch we got a call at 2 and at 4 I had to be in the office. My new area is called Pamplona 1 and my new companion is Elder Infante from Trujillo. So far, I like it here but it did hit me at some point that I will never see any of the members or investigators in Solidaridad. We had 11 baptismal dates for Pete's sakes.

The mission likes you to get familiarized with the area and the people, establish some friendships and love everything and then it gives you a transfer.

So I am back to the learning stage as far as the area.

Elder Infante pranked me on my first day here. Our very first lesson he told me we were going to a family who had baptismal dates but were having difficulties living the Word of Wisdom. So we got there and the daughter, age 20 something, started making tea. She said she understood why no drinking and smoking but didn't quite get the tea deal and took it a step further to say that if we didn't drink the tea she was preparing we weren't accepting her culture and she wasn't going to be baptized. After contesting for a little Elder Infante came out and said "OK if it means you will be baptized I will drink it". To exaggerate only a little, I had to stick my hand in his mouth so he didn't drink. After burning him a little bit, the investigator felt bad and admitted they were playing a joke on me. She is a member and the rest of the family recent converts. Unfortunately, they were recording so they caught an embarrassing moment but fortunately I passed the test and didn't stoop down to different standards just for a baptism because that would have been way worse...

One thing I forgot to explain last week were the fireworks. I had been told that Christmas and New Years would be nothing I had ever seen but I had also been told that the fireworks were a little more regulated this year. Whatever the case, midnight on Christmas Eve and New Years at 12 I thought the world had just about exploded. I bet every house had over 100 US dollars worth of fireworks. We went up to the roof and looked over the whole valley and I had never seen a worthy comparison.

Thanks to Jackson and Emily I listen to a lot of Jeffrey R Holland talks and the one that I always have in my mind is when he explains that after the death of Jesus the apostles aren't quite sure what to do. Looking to Peter they judged it best to go back and fish. Which is often what we find ourselves doing after having a really good general conference, devotional, or just a spiritual experience. Elder Holland paraphrases "you can't go back to boats".

Love,

Elder Craythorne

With the passing of Ben's grandpa he wrote this in his letter to me this week.

Erik

"Today the Mission President called. That is something you don't want to hear as a missionary.  More than anything I hope Mom is Ok. It is a rough combination to have your kid gone for the holidays and lose your dad.

Basically the only thing I have to tell you is Dad, take care of my good mom!"