Los Lomas

Dear Family,

We had a good week this week. Finally got to have our first interviews with President Richey and his wife. One thing I noticed is that they are trying super hard to learn the language. One thing president is focusing on right now is the principle of refining. So we talked a little bit about me as a district leader or as a missionary in general, he asked how I feel about the mission right now and I said "well, there are always things we can work on" to which he responded "I know what you mean by that. I've only been here 4 weeks and I already have a big stack of 'wish I had done that better's but that is the idea". I think we get caught up a lot of the time in trying to do everything perfect the first time when in reality it would take 2 or 3 or 4 or 20 tries.

We also did a TON of service this week. Helped the elder's quorum president move and re did the roof on a sister's house.

I love my mission, I know I always say that and it might sound redundant but I really do. I know every day I can wake up and work for the Lord.

Love you all,

Elder Craythorne

Los Lomas and the one with the monkey

Dear Family and Friends,

To quickly explain my subject there is a recent convert here and she found a monkey and was keeping it as a pet but then she returned it to its owner..

To celebrate the 24th of July a little bit I went outside and cleaned the windows of our apartment. Only a few of you will understand that reference.

I mentioned a while ago about Angely who is the sister of a recent convert. It is basically like teaching a member she is super good and already has a really good testimony. We are going to try and get her baptized the next week, it was going to be this week but there is a huge ward activity so we had to push it back.  

Something changed this week. You probably won't understand because it was so small but I think it changed the whole course of my mission maybe even my life. I said in my group email last week that now we have to have 10 names in the back of our planner at the end of every day. I can say that 5 days in a row I have completed it but holy cow is it difficult. I think we have talked to 60 or 70 people maybe 80. I can feel I am on the brink of something big here in this area, I think this was the change we needed, but certainly one that I needed personally. I can't say we found an extraordinary number of new people this week because when you plant a tree the fruits don't come immediately but I feel really good. I found a new definition to "giving it my all" this week.

This week I got sun burnt! For the first time in months where I have seen the sun and it just so happens that it happened on the day to do service. Every other day is cold and cloudy. I have only got one picture today and it is nothing special but it is a good representation of the average street here in Peru, well at least where I am serving and have served.

I am learning a lot out here and I can't believe time has gone by as fast as it actually has. I still have a lot to learn before I become the missionary I know I can be. In a lot of ways I am improving but mainly my testimony is one that has been solidified and pounded into what it is now.

I love being a missionary, you have no idea how happy it makes me nor how blessed it makes me feel neither how humbled I am by my calling. I feel like I have a lot of expectations for myself that still are unattended but I like feeling like I can be better.

I love all you guys and I can assure you I am happy.

Elder Craythorne

The outside world

Ceviche de Pollo

Las Lomas and OK Food

Family,

I guess my subject is more a reference because this week our pensionista (our cook) made ceviche but with chicken when you usually make it with raw fish. It was not my favorite. We also get served food that is called "Hamburgers" but its just fish mashed up and made in the shape of a patty. Crabby patties ha ha. Other than that she is a good cook.

This week went by really fast and nothing too special happened.

For my district meeting I wanted to try and help my district be better teachers but that was hard and I am not sure I succeeded. We went through the Christlike attributes because that is who we have to follow to be the best teachers. I have also been studying out of the manual that is called "Teaching in the Savior's way".

This coming week we really need to hit it hard with finding new investigators, I need to start thinking outside the box. I have noticed that what I did in my other areas will not guarantee success here.

We are working really hard with Less Actives and trying to teach their families, when we try to get them to go to church mostly they don't come because we start at 8 in the madrugada. But good news, that will change come next week we will start at 8 30.

I am excited because next week I will be able to have my first interview with President Richey I am excited to get to know him.

I love and pray for all you guys.   Time is going by too fast.  Sorry no pictures this week.

Elder Craythorne

Independence Day

Ola Family,

I am not sure if this will make sense or not but every other week you will get a good solid letter. Since the rule is we can't be on computers at the same time, every other week I am on the computer first then while my companion is writing I can use this Alpha Smart thank goodness to get some thoughts down.

This would be one of those weeks.

That is something that will be weird and different for me because the first time I was district leader I didn't have to do a single baptismal interview but looking at it now it sounds like by the end of this week I will have done 3! Wish me luck.

End of the week.

Well I got one of those interviews done ha ha it was really fun and the investigator was super prepared. He has fought through battle after battle with addictions but it was cool for me to hear how strong his testimony was because of it.

In my voice message I talked a little bit about what we are learning and here I will mostly talk about what we are doing or trying to do.

We found quite a bit of new people this week. On Wednesday we had divisions with the Elders from Floresta so that was useful to us. I think the idea of divisions is different here it sounds like in other missions they just trade off areas and an elder but here all 4 elders are in the same area. An accomplishment we achieved was teaching Angeli, the sister of one of the recent converts here. It was too easy because she has already gone to the church a bunch and she participates in the Young Women's and everything, but the reason I call it an accomplishment because she is super shy and she is super scared to talk to us. I don't know why!! We are nice people! Who wouldn't want a tall gringo and Argentinian in your house teaching you the gospel. Anyway, long story short we taught lesson 1 and after committing her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon we asked her what she would be willing to do if she receives an answer and she thought for .5 seconds "um get baptized". Like taking candy from a baby, literally because she is 13 years old. Her mom was the really good investigator we taught a couple of weeks ago who really likes our church but has no time to go.

We also had quite a few at church yesterday so that was good. Also, yesterday we did open chapel in the stake center and it was super successful so many people went. Elder Streber and I were in charge of the baptismal font and teaching that while we were dressed in all white. Everyone said we looked like angels.

That is all I have for this week.  I hope you enjoy the voice message and my companion and I had some p-day fun trying to learn how to juggle. Some people could call it good companionship unity.

I love you all I still pray for you and I feel your prayers.

Elder Craythorne

Las Lomas and the Beach

Dear Family and Friends,

We had quite the week this week. I had my first District Meeting which I thought went pretty well. I was sort of taking the Vince Lambardi (spelling?) route and talking about the basics of missionary work. Everyone knows how, as a coach, he would sit his players down and teach him saying "this is a football" so on and so forth. I tried to do that same thing with the Book of Mormon, prayer, going to church and baptism. I am excited for the district we have a lot of good elders but of course there are always problems. Last week mom sent me the list of 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and I started tying that to missionary work.

We shared scriptures of the importance of opening your mouth. Nothing happens in the missionary work until someone decides to open there mouth. It is interesting to think that Satan's tactic to try and prevent Joseph Smith from receiving the revelation was to bound his tongue so he could not speak. JSH 1.15. One thing I am seeing is that we have to be contacting WAY MORE than how we are contacting right now.

Highlight of this week was on Friday the visit from Elder Carlos Godoy the area president. He is such a good speaker and teacher and I learned a lot from him. My last chance to see ex President McGinn, yesterday President Richie arrived and Wednesday (Independence Day) will be our first multizone conference with him. I am so excited.

As you will be able to tell from the pictures we went to the beach again today. Different beach relatively same pictures. Which brings me to achieving a grand milestone in my life. Today was the first time a bird has ever bombed me (refer to the picture). 

This next week I will try my best to get a voice message on here again.

I am so lucky to be a missionary.

Elder Craythorne

District Leader Elder Craythorne Episode 2

Dear Family,

As you can tell from the Subject transfers came and went, my District Leader Elder Styler's mission life died and now I am District Leader again, let's see if we can do better than last time ha ha. Other than that not a ton changed, my companion is still Elder Streber and we still get a long super well. In total, if I remember correctly, 27 missionaries went home this transfer. A huge group. But that also means that 27 news are coming in, a lot of training. And the group in August will be about the same size.

This is also the last week for President McGinn which is one of those sad goodbyes happy hellos for President Richey. We had our last multi zone a couple of weeks ago but I think I might be able to see him again because this Friday all the District and Zone leaders with Elder Godoy. It is going to be super weird with a new president but I am really excited to be apart of the change. We already have our first multi zone planned to meet the new president on the 4th of July! Again, I am super excited and super sad to see President McGinn go. They were already planning our reunion for when the other Lima Temple gets dedicated which I don't know when that will be.

The World Cup fad came and went and Peru did not win.. Eh there is always next time. 2022 in Qatar and 2026 in the US Canada and Mexico.

Like I said before Elder Styler finished his mission and nobody tell him this but I will really miss him. He was a super good friend and an incredible missionary, he took wherever he was with whoever and made it better. I am working for that same ability. When I left Solidaridad I had no doubt I was leaving the area in good hands.

I saw a monkey this week but I was not able to take a picture of it. Monkeys are not native to Lima don't get the wrong idea it was someones pet.

I love being a missionary, I am beyond blessed.

I love all of you.

Elder Craythorne

Feliz Dia Papa

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we had our last multi zone with President McGinn and his wife. It was really good and super fun I will see if I can get some pictures sent to you guys from that. My favorite part was Sister McGinn's life hacks slash tips of which I will try to do a brief summary. It wasn't really necessarily anything new that I had not heard but it was a good reminder.

...Don't go to sleep and miss everything and she shard the story from Rip Van Winkle that some of you will remember from General Conference a couple years back.

...Avoid the phrase "I will be happy when..." that one hit really close to home. It goes a long with what President Nelson taught the youth about not comparing which just so happens to be the next point.

...Don't compare. Work with your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses. She shared a quote from Pat Holland who explained how it was to be married to the popular Jeff Holland.

...Be modest.

...Be kind, be kind, be kind.

...Be careful. Do not take that first enticing step to somewhere you should not go or in doing something you should not do. (Summarized quote from President Nelson).

...Don't do dumb things. Then she showed us a picture of her and President's wedding and all the men had on bright orange suits and she regrettably told us that was her idea. Conservative will always be fashionable.

...Live a life of service. Quote from Marjorie Hinkley where she said she doesn't want to show up to the pearly gates in a fancy car or nice clothes. FIND QUOTE.

...Be grateful. Grateful people are happy, not the other way around. Be grateful and express gratitude.

I also read a really good talk by Elder Uchtdorf about what matters most. He quotes Ghandi and says "There is more to life than going faster" or something like that also someone said something like "Simplicity will always be sophistication". Trees understand that when they are going through rough seasons they focus more of their efforts on what matters most so you can tell the history of the seasons based on the rings of a tree. Sure, maybe it didn't grow as much but it continued living.

My study of the Book of Mormon has lead me to more than a few examples of ministering usually Lehi to his sons or Nephi to his brothers. Unlike his brothers Nephi had looked for the reasons as why to be obedient. I imagine that Laman and Lemuel were not too much into reading books and when their dad told them to go back to get one from Laban it didn't sound too flattering. Yet, they go back and everyone knows that story. A short time later their father sends them back to find wives... I imagine there was less murmuring with that last task.

Being so close to the ocean with winter closing in has forced me to bare the cold, and its getting colder. The climate is super humid so the cold is so much worse. At home you could put on hoodie and be fine, here you'd need three.

This week Friday came around and we had zero things going for us when out of no where 5 miracles popped out. When an appointment had fallen through we went to visit Kelly Gil (hill) who we always joke around about visiting because she is never home or if she is we set an appointment for another day and she isn't there. So we passed by and the same thing happened, said she was busy which she really was I don't accuse her of always giving us excuses. So as we started walking away her son who had just pulled into the driveway said he was interested in listening. Raul! It was such a good lesson but a little weird because he knows almost perfect English. So 50% of the time I was talking in English and 50% Spanish. He had spent 8 months in Wisconsin and North Dakota as a life guard. Fast forward to Saturday afternoon and we had an appointment with the mother of one of the recent converts Marjory a 14 year old who has just about as much excitement to share the gospel as a full time missionary. We had been trying to teach her mom forever but her schedule makes it almost impossible. The only time she had was our lunch time so we ate super fast and ran over. Oh it was the perfect lesson. We basically taught 4 lessons in one because after hearing about the Restoration she asked what we believed about tithing and why the Word of Wisdom and the Sabbath Day. She was asking all the right questions. Almost perfect.. But she works on Sunday and she isn't married. But I have no doubt those problems will be solved.

I love my mission, I love everything about it. And I love you all.

Elder Craythorne