The Office and Transfers Pt 3

Hey family, buenas tardes.

While everything is getting cold up there it is getting blazing hot down here, like really really hot and the humidity makes it way worse.

This morning we had the blessing of going to the temple for the first time this year and as always a great experience. Elder Limao (recap: my trainer from Brazil who is now the AP) was saying that in some parts of Brazil people have to travel 3 hours to get to the nearest temple and it just made me think, if I put a pin in West Point Utah and had a 3-day travel radius in every direction how many temple could I hit, and I know we always talk about this but seriously.

This week in my study I learned a new word, stick-to-it-iveness which is self explanatory but he was saying its apart of the gospel of Christ. That is something I get to see first hand here in the mission. “Make the sacrifice and expect a miracle”.

This week after some plans fell through we decided to start knocking on some doors, which isn’t that common here but we do do it. And we knocked on a door of a lady and before we could finish “We are missionaries from the C-“ she told us to come in. We taught her and her son, she said she believes a lot in Christ but has yet to go to his church. So, though she may not know it, tomorrow she will do just that.

We also taught a crazy guy yesterday who was 75 years old and did 80% of his conversing with his facial expressions, not that he had a difficulty of speech he talks a ton but just that he was so dang funny sometimes he would just stop talking and look at us and throw his arms up like “what is going on”.

It's such a great blessing to be a missionary.

Elder Craythorne

Squad pic

The Office: The Season Finale

Dear Family,

Elder Kirby's and my reign has come to and end and I won't lie this one is going to take some getting used to, we got a long so well and he lives relatively close in Utah so it is most likely I will see him after.

MIRACLE WEEK

The science doesn't add up because we have less time and more work on week 6 of transfers but that is when we see the most success. This week we found 4 news and 2 in particular caught me off guard.

There was a sister who came to the office while we were working and she passed us a reference of her uncle. A couple of days later we just passed by as a back plan but we get there and the guy was waiting for us. His name is Juan Carlos and his wife's name is Ana, they are a little old but not so far that they can't understand the gospel.

We also found Esmeralda who went to church last week, she was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. She said one day everyone was fighting in the house about some feud so she went and read the Book of Mormon and felt that it was from God.

Another highlight of the week was definitely the surprise interview I had with President that was about 20 minutes, he is so smart and said what I needed to hear but in the craziest way. He said that when we put goals we try to emulate someone we want to become like and he goes "I wanna be like Elder Uchtdorf, silver hair 6 foot 3 public speaker" then he goes on a rant about man-caves and he pulled up google and showed me some man-caves he wants to have after the mission and it was weird but it all made so much sense to me and he is funny, he has dry humor like me so he doesn't laugh at his own jokes and always has a straight face. So good.

In BYU speeches I read a talk by Legrand Richards called Missionary Experiences and he says. "I tell our missionaries you never need to argue with anybody if you learn the sweetest story that has been told in this world since the resurrection of the Christ."

I really liked that, last year one of the APs, Elder Whitlock had a saying that went "The Gospel is so sweet there is no need to sugarcoat it."

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

The Office and Elder Mortimer

I have a new companion and lets just say we were practicing card throwing because that is something missionaries do nowadays and he basically sliced me eye open, I am so grateful for eyelids.

This week we got our very first senior couple, the Micklesons from Manti Utah. It has been pretty crazy trying to get them a house and get them places but we are doing alright.

Worked our tails off like crazy this week, I can feel those blessings coming soon.

I really can't say too much other than that, we had our leadership council on Tuesday and we might have a problem because 7 Zone Leaders go home this week. The mission still is just super new but I am excited.

Being in the Office is like the front row seat of the best movie ever made, its awesome and you see everything but it still hurts your neck.

Love all you guys, thanks for you prayers.

Elder Craythorne

The Office a continuation

Family,

Emergency transfers this week, Elder Kirby is leaving the secretary gig and he will be the new AP so now he is training the new guy until transfers. My new companion is Elder Mortimer from Arizona.  Today we are going to eat all you can eat wings so we will see how he does.

If I could just copy and paste the talk Following Christ to Victory for my email I think that would be sufficient.

I am really happy to start this New Year in the mission, there are a lot of things I can improve and that is really comforting.

Not a lot happened this week, we visited a lot of members. Usually we just have the idea to get references from them but after studying PMG again it says the point of visiting members is to strengthen their faith and testimony and then eventually we will gain their confidence so they feel the necessity to share with us their friends and families.

After reading Matthew 3 I wrote in my study journal "From eating locusts and wild honey to baptizing the Son of God, that's quite an upgrade. The Lord requires sacrifice, but expect a miracle."

The only picture I have this week is from Christmas me being money man.

I love all of you. Thanks for your prayers.

Elder Craythorne