December 14, 2015

Well howdy,

Wow this week was crazy.  As ZL´s, we have had a ton to do to try and find a new pension for the sisters and we also had to clean and hand over some old pensions in the zone.  Elder Call was in the office for 7 months and helped out with fixing up pensions.  Now that we are in the north of the mission, he still has to help out with the pensions.... So we have had a lot to do but it looks like after today things are going to settle down and we can just get to work.  

I feel like people have been more receptive here.  We found 7 new investigators this week and they really have a lot of potential.  We were hoping that 4 or 5 investigators would come to church yesterday but they didn’t show up.  I am ready to work hard this week and get the work going! 

We had to be in 2 different branches yesterday that both start at the same time so we ended up doing divisions.  I felt so weird not having a missionary companion with me.  I stayed with an RM in our home branch and confirmed Cathy a member.

I thought a lot this week about how much I have changed in the mission and how much more I know about the gospel and about myself.  It has been awesome coming to know the Savior better and striving to be more like Him.  I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! 

Love,

Elder Crofts

P.S. hey.... as of now it looks like my next P-day will be a week from Tuesday! I guess we are going to do some activity for Christmas? But plan on Tuesday unless I tell you something different! 

SUBWAY!  I think I will get along just fine here in Ovalle.

Replica de Zona

Exchange with Elder Santa Ana

Saying goodbye to Hermana Forste!

December 7, 2015

So I got transferred! I am now in Ovalle with Elder Call from Oregon.  He has two transfers left in the mission and is awesome! We have a lot in common and we are already really good friends! I was bummed to say goodbye to Villa Alemana but I really like it here in Ovalle and it looks like we are going to have a lot of success.  I was a little bummed to leave Villa Alemana because we had just started to have an investigator named Victor come to church two times and he had a baptism date for the 13th.  But I lost one and got here for another baptism.

Yesterday, we had a baptism of a 19 year old girl named Cathy.  She is really awesome.  We are working with her grandma as well and we have the goal to baptize 4 people this month! We have already seen some miracles and we hope to get the work going well here! Ovalle is a district.  We are part of Ovalle Sur but also have two branches that are about 45 minutes away that we have to visit once each month.  So every Friday, we will be traveling to Poni Taqui to preach the word and strengthen the branch.  There are only about 12 people that come to church each week so we have a lot of work to do.! haha

We had a  zone activity in Poni Taqui to start to get the work going.  We had some success and were able to make some good visits.  There has never been so many missionaries in the branch all at once! It was great!

So Ovalle is like a 6 hour bus ride from Viña.  On Wednesday evening, we left Viña and we got to Ovalle at about 1 in the morning on Thursday.  On Friday, we had consejo for mission leaders so at 1 o clock in the morning on Friday we had to take a bus back to Viña.  We had the meeting all day and then took a bus back to Ovalle at 6 o clock in the afternoon.  We got to Ovalle at about 12:30am ..... so basically this week we haven’t slept normally at all... haha

I love this work and I love all of you! I hope you have a great week!

Hasta la vista! 

Elder Crofts

Cathy got baptized

Elder Call is the blondie! My comp!!!

Elder Dunn, my trainer

First time on the bus!

Bus rides and more bus rides....

I am not a huge fan of traveling...but we made the best of it!

Zone activity in Poni Taqui

November 30, 2015

Well I am pretty sure I have said before that I don’t like dogs here in the mission.... well just in case, I don’t like dogs in the mission. haha The other day we left a family night with the bishop and right as I stepped outside of his fence, a little rat dog came up and bit my calf.  Luckily, my mission-toned calves were so firm that the dog almost broke his jaw and ran away like a little girl. :)  No, it didn’t bite me hard and I didn’t even have a mark on my leg so everything turned out alright.  

My companion is the opposite, he LOVES dogs.  He always is petting them and showing them some love.  The other day we were waiting outside a less actives house when he started to pet a dog.  After a minute or so, my companion got distracted and was looking up in the sky.  Suddenly, I saw the dog come close to him, lift up its leg, and start to pee on my companion´s shoe. hahaha I almost fell over I started to laugh so hard. So that´s about it for dogs as a missionary;  The mean ones bite, and the nice ones pee on you.  The take home message? Stay away from the dogs.

So it looks like my Thanksgiving wasn´t quite the same as yours.  Nobody celebrates it here but still every house we entered on Thursday gave us food.  We were stuffed and I really had NO desire to keep eating.  Just when we thought we couldn´t be any fuller, another person would give us more food.  So I guess my after feeling might have been about the same but it sure wasn’t the same as a Thanksgiving turkey dinner! 

Well I know I talk about him every week but Humberto is awesome! He finished the Book of Mormon and has now read one of the church´s manuals about the priesthood and is half way done on the second. What an AWESOME guy.

Well sorry for making this email a little long but just one more thing.  The other day I was studying in “Preach My Gospel” and it told me to write about my thoughts on the purpose of the mission.  As I thought about why I am here, I realized that I came because I love God and I love and want to serve those around me.  Looking back now on this past year and 5 months, I have come to realize that the person that has been served the most is me.  I love the mission and it is definitely the most selfish thing that I could have done in my life. The Lord really does immediately bless us as we do His will.  I love you all so much! 

Que tengan una buena semana! (Have a good week)

Elder Crofts

Humberto is awesome!

Family Night with the Bishop's family

Interchange with Elder Mcmurtrey

Our last district meeting

Well....at least the dog has good aim

Let's get cutting

La Familia Bernales. He is our Ward Mission Leader and she's the Relief Society President. What great people!

Elder Brock's last day in the mission!