Monday, December 28, 2015



December 28, 2015

Feliz Navidad!!!

It sure was great to see all of you guys on Christmas! There were lots of surprises in those envelopes! I am stoked!!! We had a really good week and had Ana´s baptism on Saturday.  We have some other potential baptisms but we need to help them resolve some doubts first.  Elder Call was sick on Christmas but he is already feeling better and we are getting to work.  Even though he and I both were asked some "trunky" questions on Christmas, we are still really focused and excited to keep working and we are going to try and make the most of every moment! 

On Sunday, we went to La Chimba.  It is a branch that is about 20 to 30 minutes away by car and is basically just a long windy dirt road.  There were only 10 other people there and it was cool to be there with them and enjoy the sweet spirit.  I was asked to talk and talked about spiritual birth and maintaining spiritual fire.  It was basically my farewell talk from before the mission.  La Chimba really needs more priesthood holders.  As we were walking along the long dirt road that makes up La Chimba, we were talking about the need they have of priesthood holders when we came across a 19-22ish year old guy.  We decided to contact him and he was really receptive! He said he was interested so we gave him a Book of Mormon and we have an appointment with him today after PDAY.  Hopefully it all turns out! 

After church yesterday, we had waited for 20ish minutes for a taxi or bus to come by and NOTHING. On Sunday, there is almost no traffic that goes through there.  It was really hot outside and we were feeling it.  We were already behind schedule for our lunch so we looked at each other and said "well... should we walk?" We decided we didn’t have any other option so we took off our suit coats, put them in our bags and took three steps when suddenly a taxi came flying around the corner.  We were saved! I sure was grateful.  What a tender mercy!  I would have gotten to lunch a sweaty mess!!! The Lord answers prayers! I love you all and hope you have a great week and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

Con Amor,
Elder Crofts 
Ana's baptism!!!

La Chimba!!!


Dirt roads and country. I never thought I would be working in a sector like this! haha

Christmas Eve dinner!
Feliz Navidad!!!






Elder Call's family sent gifts!!!!


That was nice of them.

PJs!!!








Elder Call fell asleep during his studies on Christmas because he wasn't feeling so well....

....Haha









Tuesday, December 22, 2015



December 22, 2015

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Well we’ve got sunny weather and it’s 75 degrees here so it is feeling more like May than December.  I guess that makes it a little easier to not miss Christmas back home all that much! haha Today, we had an AWESOME activity for Christmas as a zone.  All of the zones in the south of the mission had a conference with President Diaz where the office just prepared everything.  We were alone up here in Ovalle and had to get everything going by ourselves.  Luckily, we have a missionary couple (the Jones) that were here and helped us to make it great.  We had a turkey lunch with funeral potatoes and everything.... good stuff..... SOO much food.... TOO much. Everyone really liked it.  

So I found out that my investigator Victor (from Villa Alemana) was baptized on Saturday.  Guess who baptized him....HUMBERTO!!! The ward also had a temple trip on Saturday so right after the baptism they all just hopped on the bus and got on their way to the temple.  I was so excited when I found that out.

We had a little "miracle" I guess you could call it? We really wanted to have a baptism this weekend for Christmas and we have been working a while with a member named Ana who has been reactivating herself in the church.  Her two daughters were also baptized a few months ago.  Well after looking like crazy to find her membership records, we couldn´t find anything.  So we are going to baptize her AGAIN this Saturday. haha She got baptized like 8 years ago but then went inactive. Maybe not exactly what we were expecting but we´ll take it! haha

I gave a talk in our mission leader’s meeting at the start of the month about “how to be a more faithful disciple of Christ.”   I have been thinking a lot lately about sincerity, desires and real intent.  I realized that if we obey, but do it grudgingly, we not only don’t come closer to Christ but we get farther away from Him.  Our prayers, scripture study, service we do for others, church attendance and many other good things we do may benefit others but will never do us good if we don’t have our heart in the right place.  I realize that I have a long ways to go to really develop that kind of relationship with God.  I am excited to Skype with you guys on Christmas day. 

LOVE YOU,
Elder Crofts
Speaking at the mission leader's conference
Photos were from the Vina Mission blog
Mission Leaders Conference for December
Greeting President Diaz

hola soy Elder Santa Ana y su hijo es mi lider de zona y soy un agradecido de dios por tenerle y conocerle y saber que es un hombre de dios envio feliz navidad a uds cuidense y envio foto : (Hi I'm Elder Santa Ana and your son is my Zone Leader. I'm thankful to God to know him and I know that he is a man of God. Merry Christmas to you and I've sent you a photo).    
This is Victor and his little trailer. Let's just say some miracles were brought about. haha



Our Ward Mission leader, Paolo is on my shoulders. He is blind.






Our Christmas activity today!!!



Sister Andrade is from Brazil.  She was the girlfriend of one of my Dad's converts son.....small world!