This is Major Tom to Ground Control

Dear Family,

Not sure how many times I will mention Diomedez in my letters but in short he has been falling back into his old ways and causing the same problems in his family that previously existed. He only went 3 times to Alcoholics Anonymous. My companion and I decided that to help him out we could maintain daily contact with him, and since he doesn't have a phone that means we pass by to see how he is make sure he isn't drinking and is going to go to AA every night at 7. Well, this week was a rough one to start out with considering Friday was the only day out of all the times we passed by where he wasn't drunk. So we made 100 percent sure that he went, we even walked with him to the bus stop. I don't know if they will ever be baptized but we just have to help Diomedez quit drinking.

Yesterday we were thinking "no matter what, if Orlando doesn't come to church we have to leave him" because we have been teaching him for a long time now and he has progressed in everything except the church. Nevertheless he came! And he already had a friend in the church and I am pretty sure he had a good experience. We still don't have ward missionaries but there are a lot of members who are easy to make friends with so all we have to do is say "Hey, go sit by him."

On Saturday we had a really good Family Home Evening with an active family whose daughters are struggling a little bit with their testimonies, ages 18 and 16. So we went planning on teaching about the Book of Mormon and its importance as the keystone of our religion. We taught about the power of a testimony with an object lesson. I guess I can only speak for myself but I felt the spirit.

Yesterday was Branch Conference for the branch who shares our chapel and for some reason we had Priesthood first and the Sacrament last. And almost all of our investigators stayed for all 3 hours. It sort of helped our focus because we were thinking "Oh they have to stay for the sacrament". I guess other weeks we don't really put that much emphasis on the classes because we teach the first hour is the most important and everything. 

We are working super hard here and getting a lot of work done. I knew coming into my mission that it wouldn't be 100% happiness but I am so happy.

I relate a lot more to the story of the kid who is throwing starfish back into the ocean who has so much work to do but trying to make a difference.

I hope you all are doing well. Love you all more than I can express. Enjoy the picture from our Conference with Elder Montoya.

Love, 

Elder Craythorne

Pamplona and Las Lomas

Dear Family,

On Thursday we had a conference with Elder Montoya from the 70 and it was so good. The majority of his talk was centered on mission goals, weekly, yearly and after your mission. If we don't measure ourselves how are we ever going to know how we can improve. But he also touched on topics like the Atonement and being worthy priesthood holders. It was very spiritual and I learned a lot, Elder Montoya is a really good teacher and a good speaker. I will talk more about that later.

I have already mentioned this before but ever since the financial crisis in Venezuela the people have left to just about every country they can trying to live. So there is a large amount here in Peru and especially Lima. If I remember right then I emailed awhile ago about Wilmer who we found and now we found a new family, they actually came to the food activity. Their two sons are what you could consider to be nuts, but that is good news for me.

This morning we went hiking again, yes that same place we went 2 months ago. Its about the only thing we have here. So what I lack in words this week I will make up with the quality of pictures.

Again, I learned so much from Elder Montoya he is so easy to listen to (even in Spanish) and the whole room was silent waiting for what he had to say next. The spirit was so strong. Like I said he talked about goals, he also talked about traps we can fall into as missionaries and to stay away from any possible harm, or anything that could get in the way of our goals.

Super sorry this is a short one but enjoy the pics. I hope you all the best week and I hope you know I love you all.

Love,

Elder Craythorne

Pictures in no order:

Cactus and Elder Craythorne

Inca Head

"The Pioneers used to ride these babies for miles"

Two more points for Heaven

Dear Family,

This last Saturday we baptized Santiago and Jorge, and the service was good, not exactly because of what happened or what was said or done but the people or better said the souls who made it.

Jorge Yactayo was a baptism long in the making an investigator who started about 20 months ago. He got married on Friday, which is a miracle all on its own. His new wife is a member and they have been living together for some time now because they were waiting for papers to get married and it took a long time because he is from a little town in the jungle that almost nobody knows anything about. I have mentioned before that it is very hard to get married here in Peru as far as paperwork and blood samples go so I don't need to get into those details. So for his baptism I can't say we did much other than put together the service, he acts like a member and already knows a lot.

Santiago on the other hand means a little more to me, sure the worth of souls is great in the sight of God and no one is better than anyone else but 3 months ago it was super hot in the afternoon and we were planning to go up a little higher on the hill to contact and it was there I knocked on any old door and out walked Santiago with a big old smile "What can I help you with?" he said and here we are. He has an amazing testimony and a firm value of being early to things which made it really easy to get him to go to church. This last time when we went to the temple we decided to buy him a hymn book so he could sing along. I am so grateful I was able to help these 2 men make this eternal covenant.

I have mentioned before Diomedez and his family and all of their problems but it is really cool to teach them. They trust us a lot and we joke around a lot but they are just sort of a different type of people than ones you would see in church. And I know we are supposed to picture each of our investigators in the temple but for them it was just so weird to think about for me. They laugh a lot and are always making jokes one to another. Anyway, flash forward to yesterday and they came to church! It was a miracle! Little by little we are getting to that vision where they can one day be baptized, even though that is far off because they have to get married.

Well for my birthday, the zone will bring a cake on Wednesday to district meeting and I will bring the decorations there to celebrate. We also went to Papa Johns so it was a really good birthday week.

The elder who came in to replace Elder Macgregor, the other companionship here in Pamplona, is Elder Hatch from Arizona and he is just a salt of the earth type of guy.  He is super tall and played basketball in high school and very humble. Anyway, we get a long very well.

I just wanted to share my testimony of the small and simple things. Here we teach the acronym OLA orar leer y asister or pray read and attend. And I really know how important those 3 very small things have an impact. This week we were teaching a lesson and I needed to pull up a scripture but I have never been a wiz at that. I was trying to explain baptisms for the dead and I just thought to myself "Well I am pretty sure that's somewhere in Peter" and bam I opened right to it. STUDY YOUR SCRIPTURES.

Love,

Elder Kreyton (how they say and spell my name here)

Speechless

Dear Family and Friends,

I was going to put Pamplona and the Priesthood as my title but that was obviously before hearing of the newly announced temples. Layton, Utah. Wow I am speechless and I will not be able to express anywhere near how I actually feel and I am excited to hear your comments and similar feelings, not forgetting the other temples in remote parts of the world like Russia and India. To those who want to hear an attempt of how I felt refer to my voice recording. The work is moving along, and with great velocity.

Then to my fellow priesthood holders, if you did not participate in the session Saturday you missed out. Again, I will not be able to adequately express the spirit that was there when we shouted in song, Rise Up oh Men of God. He really is the prophet and you can feel it.

My companion caught the flu this week, or in other words I should be getting sick any day now.

I just wanted to share a certain experience before I elaborate more on General conference. This week with Santiago. Towards the beginning of the lesson we verified how he felt about his baptism, the 7th of April, and to be honest I was doubting a little bit just because a lot of time passes between our lessons, sometimes we are lucky to get one a week. These last couple of lessons we have been trying to finish the lessons and on Wednesday we planned to teach tithing. So after some hesitation I finally asked him if he felt sufficiently prepared and still wanted to be baptized and he started in explaining how he could not wait he is ecstatic about his baptism. He said "I know I have to be baptized and I want to do it and this is the church I need to be baptized in." I can't explain it well enough or translate exactly what he said but it just gave me so much peace I couldn't help but let out a giant sigh of relief and smile. When we were doing the pre interview and we asked if he believed in God he appeared to be almost offended he said "that's not even a question". Again, I don't know what we did to deserve this miracle.

I feel packed with spiritual ammunition after this weekend. And with the new calling of Elder Suarez and Elder Gong, I know the will and hand of Lord was behind all of it. I finally learned what it means to be meek with 4 amazing examples. I learned for Elder Robins the necessity of failure and that "success is going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm".

I loved this week and that weekend definitely helped. I hope you enjoy the voice recording.

Love,

Elder Craythorne