The Office and Jose

Family,

We had a really good week here in the office, I have gotten so much work done its incredible but no one really notices because they are all small tasks, oh well.
This week our proselyting was limited as well but we had intercambios with the Zone Leaders yesterday and we found 4 news.

Our miracle this week was Jose. On Wednesday we were walking with not exactly set appointments but we passed a kid who was playing guitar on the curb. Elder Mortimer is super musically inclined so I asked if he wanted to play the guy's guitar while I contacted him. We taught him yesterday and he was super prepared. He paid so much attention and you could tell it was important to him.
President Richey is a quiet guy but he has undoubtedly changed my life, he'll never sit you down and teach you an important life lesson he does it when you least expect it and then he walks away without saying another word. I can't describe it but I really like him.

I pray for all of you.

Elder Craythorne

The Office and Inspector Gadget

Dear Family,

One of my responsibilities as housing coordinator is to do inspections and make sure everyone is taking care of their houses, Thursday I did 6 and yesterday I did 10. It is pretty fun, I don't go to burn the missionaries for what their doing wrong but it is fun to be able to talk and get to know everyone even if its only a few minutes.

In other news, basketball got approved this week so we played this morning and you'd think it would be quite different after a year and a half but those who know how good I am know that nothing can stop my game.

Got some extra study time in this week and I read a few BYU speeches I really liked one was recent called Knowing who you are and this are some quotes I got from it.

You may have the vain hope that by acting in a telestial or a terrestial manner somehow you will become celestial. Or you may decide in the first place to be celestial and then really reach that goal.

We were made not primarily that we may love God . . . but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest “well pleased.”

There is kindness in Love: but Love and kindness are not coterminous. . . . Kindness, merely as such, cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering.

“When you realize who you really are, you will be sorry that you didn’t try harder.”

we need to recognize and remember that we are not alone in our struggles. God has placed others in our lives to help sustain us. They may include parents, siblings, roommates, or friends who may be praying and rooting for your success. But they will also include others whom you can serve.

Something cool I did this week was I helped an Elder with some personal financial problems like fraud or what not and we got to go to the U.S Embassy! American soil baby.

The mission is such a blessing and being in the office helps me learn a lot more than I would have other wise I am learning words like audit, guarantee, year end, and rent.

God loves us so much.

Elder Craythorne

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

The Office and David's Baptism

Dear Family,

It was awesome to talk to some of you on Christmas.  It was really fun to talk to Ryker, even though his Spanish had me dying laughing.  

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before but usually the hardest part about having a good baptismal service is whether or not any members show up to support. That was not the case yesterday.

I really haven't written a lot about David, he started investigating 6 months ago and was kind of on and off in some things good and church but then he disappeared. In october we found him again but he said he was busy, this entire time they have been teaching Myrta, his cousin. About 3 weeks ago we go to teach Myrta and David is there too. Of course the focus is baptism because Myrta is ready and she knows it she just doesn't accept it or something Idk its weird. And we had been planning a baptism for yesterday, the 28th of December and David just shoots up, "so can anyone be baptized?" And it didn't take too much time to think about our answer for us to say "um yes" and he responds "yeah I want to get baptized on the 28th of December." He completely changed his life, big changes easier to notice and smaller changes you had to look for like him being more helpful, comes to the chapel and asks if he can help clean and stuff like that.

Elder Kirby thought it would be a good idea to help the investigators have a more spiritual experience is if we say a prayer way before the service starts where they can thank Heavenly Father for the chance to be here, and that was a really good prayer. I remember a part in particular where David promised God that he would be one of his strongest soldiers.

I love Christmas.

Another tidbit about David is he somehow always always finds us in his little motor taxi when we are on our way home and he gives us a ride. Last week we left a lesson at around 9:45 and Elder Kirby goes "Now would be a really good time for David to show up" and wouldn't you know it we got someone honking at us telling us to hop in. Its like a Bat Signal but the Spirit.

Here are some words from Elder Kirby (my comp). Yes, I got my shout out.

"So the highlight of the week was definitely the baptism of David. He showed up that night looking like a different person, I had never seen him so happy. Before the baptism we went to another room with him and congratulated him for the changes that he had made in his life and told him that he was entering through the gate to the covenant path and then there was still more to be done. We then invited him to pray and thank the Lord for giving him another opportunity and for helping him get to that point in his life. He offered a prayer that I will never forget and he promised the Lord that he would be one of his strongest soldiers. The rest of the baptismal service went perfectly and the spirit was super strong and we sure hope that all of our investigators were able to recognize it. I sure love seeing the Atonement of Jesus Christ take action in the lives of these people that we love and I know without a doubt that this path of the gospel is the only path that brings true joy and peace to our lives. David has made a 180 degree turn and has now experimented a change of heart and is truly converted to the Lord and it definitely has strengthened my testimony as I have played a small part in his conversion with my companion Elder Craythorne!"

Tuesday was really fun and good, we were able to meet with the zone, something we don't do often. And it was actually super good I remember laughing a lot (and making other people laugh).

The mission is so good.

I love and pray for all of you, like always.

Elder Craythorne