May 4, 2015

Well, it was a SUPER good birthday! Sorry to hear that things didn’t turn out so well back home.  Last week, we found out that in our zone we have a Subway and a Brownies Factory.  We went and it was SO GOOD! It was so amazing that we decided to go today as well.  In the night time, the relief society president in our ward said that she needed us to arrive at her house because she wanted to have a mission meeting with our ward mission leader.  We got there and it started out everything normal (even though there were more people than I would have thought for just a mission meeting) when suddenly all the lights went out and a big old cake with a candle came floating out of the darkness.  haha They said that they wanted to celebrate my birthday and the baptism (This was the 1st baptism that the ward has had that will actually stay active in about a year)  It was a super great day and I think my favorite p-day up until now in the mission! 

ALEJANDRO!!! So the other day, we were walking along the street when I felt that I should just ask a man walking in our direction how he was doing.  He broke down and said that he wasn’t doing so well.  We started to talk with him and he was super interested in how the gospel could bless his life.  He has been having problems with his wife (or partner.... I don’t think they are married) and really just wants the best for his 2 kids (ages 8 and 3).  He came to the stake conference that we had this weekend and really liked it.  Yesterday, we taught him the restoration and explained to him the happiness that he can have as he understands God´s will for him and his family.  He accepted a baptismal date for the 17th.  It could be a problem because I doubt that he is married but we are going to work with him and hopefully everything works out.  He is always telling us to pray for him and he tells us how grateful he is that we decided to talk with him last Wednesday night.  

Oh Juanito.... a member named Juanito (little John) is an old single man that lives alone.  He LOVES to give lunch to the Elders and man he sure doesn’t hold back.  We ate lunch with him on Thursday.  The entre was a big bowl of soup with a piece of steak that probably was about 14 ounces.  When he brought back the second plate, to our delight it was a plate of a bunch of noodles and a piece of steak that was probably about 8-10 ounces.  When Jaunito went to the kitchen to grab something, Elder Brown turned to me and said "Round two..... FIGHT!" Man he wasn´t kidding.  Juanito came back and told us that he was trying to gain weight and that these noodles were ESPECIALLY fattening.....peeerrrfect. haha He also gave us another plate of the same thing but this time with only about 6 ounces of meat.  Oh I was ready to die.

Well I am not sure if you have heard or not but in Osorno there were 4 sister missionaries living together and 2 robbers broke into their department, robbed them, and violated one of the sisters.  When I found out it just made me so mad to think that people can be so lost and so cruel.  I thought of my sisters serving missions and it wasn´t setting easy with me. So keep them in your prayers! I am sure they need it

  Something I have thought about a lot this week is how there is always room to improve.  I always hoped to come out start working miracles.  I have learned that a lot of the miracles that happen are simple tender mercies that happen that make you know you are doing what the Lord wants.  Hearing someone’s first sincere vocal prayer, or seeing the progress in investigators or members, or reading a scripture that really just hits home, are all signs that God loves us and that he really does have a plan for us.  There are a lot of moments that can suck, when things don’t turn out just as we had hoped.  But we just need to remember that God has a plan for us and that we just need to endure and remember the things that matter most in life.  We shouldn’t lower our expectations, and we also shouldn’t get down when things don’t turn out as we planned.  We turn it all over to God and let him make the results that he hopes to receive.  I love the mission, I love my savior, I love my family and I love my mom. :) Can´t wait to talk to you guys next week.  Can´t believe another Skype session is already here.  Until Sunday.

Elder Crofts

At Subway with Elder Neilson

So happy to eat at Subway that I almost cried

Brownies Factory deliciousness

Edible fat.....yummy

Hermana Cuello (Relief Society President)

B-Day party, Big 19!

Don't remember this hat being on the mission prep list

Selfie with the birthday party guests

Happy birthday

Last district meeting

Picture of our district.  *If you have been keeping track, this is the only picture out of 26 photos this week that doesn't involve food or eating.  All is well with Elder Crofts!*

First plate with Juanito

This was the 2nd and 3rd plate with Juanito.....holy death

I think we killed a whole cow between the 3 of us

Subway # Round 2

Meet the Guaton ( It translates "big stomach".......wonder why?

I wasn't feeling all the mayonnaise......

Maybe next time!

Brownies factory fun

April 27, 2015

First off.... HAPPY 51ST BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!

So my whole email is going to based on well..... yesterday.  Sebastian’s baptism was planned to be at 7 pm.  We had everything planned and  it was going to being a perfect day and a smooth baptism.  We arrived at church and I was up front playing the piano like always.  We were expecting that Cristian and Sebastian would be our 2 investigators that came to church.  We were already ten minutes into the meeting and still neither one of them had showed up.  5 minutes before the priesthood passed the sacrament.  Sebastian’s grandma walked in....ALONE.  Sebastian ALWAYS came with her and my heart sunk instantly when I saw that she was alone.  She went and sat behind Elder Brown and started to talk with him and I just saw his face go blank.  I was praying so hard during the sacrament that everything would work out.  As soon as they finished passing, Elder Brown motioned to me to grab my stuff and follow him.  We went out into to the hall and he told me that Sebastian’s mom and grandma had a fight the night before and that she had suddenly changed her mind about the baptism.  Sebastian wasn’t able to come to church because she wouldn’t let him or because he was just too sad.... I am not quite sure.  But the point is that we went running to his house to try and figure out what was up.  He didn’t answer the door.  We knocked, and knocked and KNOCKED but nothing.  We tried saying a prayer and even singing a hymn but no one answered the door.  

   To make things even more crazy, just as we were leaving the church to find Sebastian, Cristian entered the church with his two kids.  We also had an inactive member that came and she was sitting in the chapel alone. We seriously needed like 8 companionships of missionaries to do it all.  After going for Sebastian, we came back and sat with Cristian and they stayed for all 3 hours.  As soon as church ended, we went running to Sebastian’s house again. This time he answered the door.  He explained to us that he still wanted to be baptized super bad and that he didn’t think it was fair that his mom was taking it out on him.  He told us that his mom would come back from work at 4:30 so we told him to keep praying and to be bold with his mom in his desire to be baptized.  We told him that we were going to stop by at 4:30 to work things out.  We called our ward mission leader, Hermano Jorquera, and made plans to go to Sebastian’s house with him at 5.  We got there and at first she said she was busy but after a minute or two of waiting she let us in.  She told us that Sebastian could be baptized but she wasn’t going to go if the grandma was there. (Clearly that is not what Sebastian wanted.)  We continued talking with her trying to help her feel the need to come to support him. Sebastian suddenly stood up and left the apartment.  We kept talking with her for about 5 minutes or so when suddenly Sebastian showed up with his grandma.  He came and sat next to me and said "I hope it was a good idea, I felt like I should do it."  About 10 minutes later, they hugged and made amends and said that the baptism was on!!!! Elder Brown and I had to sprint to the church to fill up the tank.  It was so crazy! We had to fill it up with water from the bathroom and everything we could find to fill the font.

Well to summarize.... I got really down for a little bit yesterday, I didn’t understand why after so much time without baptizing and after so many efforts, it wasn’t going to work out.  I felt like maybe it was something I did or that I didn’t do but should have done.  But Elder Brown and I talked about it and decided that we needed to show our faith and make a miracle happen.  We really did everything we could yesterday and in the end it worked out.  I would also like to point out how Sebastian followed the spirit and went to get his grandma.   Yesterday really was the craziest day of my mission and the whole time I just felt amazed as I watched the Lord carry out His work.  I wish I had more time to tell more details but it looks like it will have to wait for after the mission.  I really don’t feel I deserved the miracle yesterday but it really strengthened my testimony of the work of salvation.  The baptismal service went great and I am super happy that everything worked out.  I have realized that I might not baptize as many people as I might have hoped before the mission, but I can try to do and be my best and learn the lessons that the Lord has for me in the mission.  I love this church, I love the mission and I love my family! Thanks for all you do

Love,

Elder Crofts

Sebastian's baptism

Sebastian's family

Hermano Jorquera baptized him. Such a great guy.

Sebastian followed the Spirit to make it happen

We had a great turnout for the baptism!

Elder Brown made me some nice peanut butter banana pancakes for my b-day. Whatta pal.

I love you Mom. Happy birthday.

Trying to get the water in the font warm.

I made a heart filled breakfast for Elder Brown the other day. 

Hahaha

Sunsets here sure are nice

The Alvarez family

A volcano in south Chile erupted and they evacuated for 20 miles. According to Elder Crofts "We have a bunch of "super Christians" who come up asking us what we think of the signs that are happening. Chile is passing through floods, fires, droughts and now volcanoes."

Happy birthday wishes on the Vina del Mar Mission blog

April 20, 2015

Well this week went fast.  This week was a super good one.  We have found a few new people to teach and we are working hard to help them progress.  People aren´t really committed and it is tough to work with them sometimes.  Saturday night, we had 3 investigators with baptismal dates and I felt 70- 80% certain that every one of them was going to come to church.  Sunday in the morning, we got a text from one saying that he couldn’t come, Cristian didn’t come because his parents and brother decided to go camping during the day, and Sebastian came.  So now we only have one but it was a true miracle.

Sebastian has been coming to church and as of last week still did not have permission from his mom to be baptized.  This week, we stopped by their house with our mission leader and she said that they were "busy" and that we couldn’t come in to their house.  I was not about to let this opportunity go because this was only the 2nd time that we had found her at the house so I asked her straight up why she wouldn’t let Sebastian be baptized.  She started to talk about "commitment" and a bunch of other stuff.  I was a little bugged but tried to keep my cool.  I bore my testimony of President Monson and that he has said that 3 weeks is enough to be baptized and that he would know better than anyone else how much time is needed.  We told her how lucky she is to have a son who simply wants to follow Christ.  There are so many teens here lost in drugs.  I know that she felt the spirit.  She said that she was going to have to discuss it with his dad.  We stopped by two days later and Sebastian told us that she gave him permission!!!! That same night, she came up to him and told him that he could be baptized!  But the best of all.... She told him that she was going to start to come to church again!!!!! Oh I was so happy!

Last week, we had a zone activity and it was a really good time.  We played some football(not futbol) for a little bit and oh can I just say how good that felt.  The gardens were pretty but we spent most of the time messing around in the camping ground.  It was nice to have a little break.  The theme of the activity was setting spiritual, physical, and intellectual goals.  Elder Allred, the other DL of our zone and I, had to make an activity for the intellectual.  We made a riddle and it was super good and nobody could figure it out.  It was a blast.  We had some choripans (sausage in some bread.... basically a hot dog)  and Elder Rios from Santiago was cooking them when we hear "¡agua!......¡Agua! ¡¡¡¡AGUA!!!!!"  A big old fire had started on the grill and none of us had realized. haha we went and threw a bucket of water on top of it all to put it out. haha but in the end they were still tasty so no problem.

So this week we were teaching a Catholic and they started to talk about the importance of the Virgin Mary.  Elder Brown gave an example that you all might just want to write down.  He compared Jesus to a peanut and Mary to the peanut shell.  He said "Let´s not waste time talking about the shell when we all know that it is the peanut that we want.....Yeah the shell brought life to the peanut, but the peanut is the thing that we want to focus on." Haha, how wise.

This week, I realized how important it is to really follow the spirit.  People can choose to accept our message or not.  So it is a little difficult to measure success with numbers.  But we can feel like we are successful if we feel like we are following the spirit and delivering the message of the restoration to people in a way that touches their hearts.  True success and growth is found in the change, growth and dedication of the missionary.  I love this work and I am loving being a missionary.

Love,

Elder Crofts

Thanks for the package family

General Conference! So Good!

I made Philly Cheese steaks

Yummy

Got to get the greens

Interchange with Elder Pinillos from Peru

Inka Kola....super good

Super sanitary.....

and there comes that guy to add his couch to the pile. Haha

Zone activity

Elder Rios from Santiago Chile

Elder Nielson from Idaho

Elder Curtis & Veloso

Elder Allred & I, our riddle had to do with alfajores

Elder Pinillos

Choripans

On the way back from the zone activity

Futbol Jerseys

FC Barcelona and Chile soccer jerseys

Some killer sunsets