The Office, Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday to Easton

Dear Family,

Like I mentioned last week, turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing are not at all popular here in Peru, but it was celebrated with a lot of stressful breakdowns as we had the entire mission come up to Lima again for another devotional with Elder Falabela. That is 186 missionaries who all need reimbursements and money to go back home. And I(the mission) paid for all their lunches.

Let me tell you a little more how Thanksgiving was super stressful. We bought chicken for everyone but the place showed up an hour late and everyone was getting antsy, even Elder Falabela. So we kept calling and calling and they didn't answer and then in the midst of all the chaos a guy from our apartment rides by on a bike and shouts, "Hey the floor above you flooded, and your floor flooded, and the floor below you flooded".. That was pretty fun. We couldn't do anything about it because we were waiting for the pollo but eventually we got back to look at the damage and there was hardly any damage or sign of a flood, but the girl next door got hit slightly hard so she stuck her head in to look at our room and she goes "wow nothing happened to you guys" and we said "its because we go to church" and left.

BLESSINGS OF THE OFFICE

On Thursday after the first training with Elder Falabela he had another meeting that we were in charge of with all the recent converts in Lima! It was so cool. Of course not everyone came but it was so good to see the Mateo Family again after a year, we also saw members from Pamplona and Las Lomas. So cool and really only a privilege from being in the office so it has its perks haha.

HELPING HANDS

Today for service we cleaned garbage at the beach with those yellow jerseys so the picture is from us returning.

Quote for this week 

We should not feel we need to be perfect to be ‘all in’ Latter-day Saints.

Time is flying it is so weird.

Elder Craythorne

The Office and Thanksgiving

Family,

I hope everyone is doing well.  I am on the downside of fighting off a man cold and I was losing that battle for a long time haha.  Don't tell my mom though because she doesn't believe in "man colds". Everytime I get sick in my mission doing normal things are just so much harder but as soon as I leave to proselyte or teach I can't feel anything its awesome, like Airborne but on steroids jacked on the spirit. Then we get home and I feel like I got ran over by a bus again.  This coming week is sure to be a huge blessing, we are having the area president Falabela come to our mission on Thursday and Friday to speak with the whole mission. So for my Thanksgiving I will be eating a Pollo a la Brasa instead of the traditional American Turkey. Either way I am blessed.

My studies this week have lead me back again and again to being grateful for all things. I am pretty sure lds.org is doing that on purpose and not just because this Thursday is where we stuff ourselves so much we can't walk up the stairs but also because I really want to exert myself to be more grateful. I have watched probably 30 times that one video "think to thank" and also "in the spirit of thanksgiving" where that one guy says "donuts and muffins" #throwback to young mens. I also had these good quotes I wanted to share.

 

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that the more often a person says thank you, the happier he will be

An excellent way to express gratitude is by giving sincere praise. Praise lifts both the giver and the receiver. Mark Twain said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment,” and most of us feel the same way.

This week Lazaro and Lieti are in Cuba getting married so we can get them baptized.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and an awesome Thanksgiving.

Last quote I want to end on. God trusts us to do our part, and live our lives.

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.

Love you all,

I love my mission,

Elder Craythorne

The Office

Family

Just in case you are reading through this quickly only to look at my pictures the one I have attached is of today (Saturday) this morning when we had to wake up early and run to the office for something. On our way a Venezuelan lady called us over asking for some help she said she just wanted us to stand guard at her little Tamale Cart while she went and took something to her daughter. She said she wouldn't be long so we said yes. Thus lead to me yelling "RICO TAMALE 2 SOLES" to everyone who passed by. Elder Peregrino thought that was pretty funny so he stole a picture for me.

The other picture is from all the people that were originally in the office and the people they were training.

MIRACLES

This week we really wanted to get to know the ward well. We went to visit a family Negrete and they gave us a reference to Cecilia and as we were walking out we ran into her on the street not knowing it was her we contacted her. She is really awesome and super prepared so we decided to start praying for her everyday. She actually called the Negrete Family and confirmed the appointment for today at 5. Sad news is we learned she is in the other area... But we are on the same team so no harm no foul.

SHOUT OUT

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday and those who know her know what a blessing she is. A literal superhero in my eyes. I don't want to say too much because I know she will start crying but I want you to know mom that I really love you so much.

Thanks for everything, I am not sure if I should include our office shenanigans in these emails because other than that not a ton happens around here.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

The Office and the first time dealing with transfers

Family,

Shout out to Ryker and his 18th Birthday!  He is so lucky to be a future missionary.

To start off explaining the picture and the subject, this week was transfers which means no sleep as a secretary. It was a cool/wierd experience to see the elders who were ending their missions (but that is hard not to be homesick with them) and then on the other side of things to see the brand new missionaries from the MTC. It was so cool to see their faces like "what have I gotten myself into" when they found out their trainers. They have this huge map of the mission and they take their picture by their new area so Elder Kirby and I thought it would be funny to take a picture next to us pointing to the office so thats what that is and boy does it look like the camera filled my cheeks with marshmallows but whatever

Also! We just barely got back from the temple so that was fun as always but you aren't going to see any different pictures from the last 5 times going haha. Always a blessing.

FAMILY SEARCH

So I was messing around on Family search and decided to see how far back I could go (Adam and Eve) but I realized that in the 13th century the last name Crathorn just comes from a town and the Duke who was in charge of it was called William de Crathorn and his dad's name was Le Teuler so Elder Plada the AP has been calling me Elder Le Teuler this whole week. I need to do more work.

Love you guys so much, sorry this letter is so short P Day ran long.

Elder Craythorne