May 9, 2016

Feliz Día de la Madre! 

It was great to see you all! You look great.  We had a great week! We were able to find 12 new investigators this week that are all awesome! It has just been hard for us to have frequent contact with them so hopefully we can help them to progress.  This week we will have interviews with President Diaz.  It will be my last until my final end of mission interview! How crazy is that? 

A highlight of this week was going to a small village called Nueva Aurora.  It is on the way to Punitaqui and I had never really even noticed it before.  I am pretty sure that we are the first missionaries that have ever gone to work there.  We went to teach a girl named Catalina that we had contacted earlier in the week here in Ovalle.  She accepted the invitation to be baptized but didn’t come to church because her 7 month old son was sick.... there are a lot of great people out there so we are going to take advantage and teach as many people as we can. 

I love being a missionary! This week I learned a lot about listening to the spirit.  There are a lot of voices that try to drown out or even imitate the spirit.  There is nothing that kills our faith more than following what we believe to be the spirit when it really isn´t.  The spirit uplifts, enlightens and guides us to do what is right and to be obedient.  I hope you all have a great week and that you can try to listen to the still, small and true voice of the spirit!

Un Abrazo,

Elder Crofts

Mother's Day Skyping was great! Elder Crofts talked to Amy's fiance Craig for the first time.

Avocado or Dinosaur Egg?  You decide.

We got locked out of our apartment.....

...you learn a little bit of everything on the mission.

Zone service project....weeding!

We had A TON of appointments all week.  A lot of them fell through...but we are still working hard!

May 2, 2016

Suffer the Children to Come to Me!

What a great week! We have a lot of people we are working with and are seeing the church attendance increase a lot! Sadly, they closed Punitaqui and La Chimba and they will now be attending in our church! So.... we will be having even more people at church on Sunday! haha

Some quick highlights of the week:

1. We are activating a sister named Lorena Adaros.  She has 3 kids.  The oldest is 15 and is already baptized and the others are 7 and 3.  The 7 year old is AWESOME.  He reads Gospel Principles for fun and the other day he taught us about the fall of Adam and Eve! haha he said "I always want to be a Mormon.... and when I have kids.... they are going to be Mormons too." what a stud! 

2. We found an awesome family this week named the Vera Monardes family. They have two daughters (17 and 20) and the dad is out of town every other week for work so we will teach him on Wednesday. Tears filled the 20 year olds eyes as we shared a video with them and taught a lesson.  There was a sweet spirit.  We set a baptismal date with the Mom, Carmen, for the 21st.  I have a good feeling about this family and I feel they are going to progress! Pray for them! 

3. Last night we stopped by a less active family that is going through a lot of problems.  They have 4 little kids and are in the process of a divorce.  The two oldest kids are 9 and 8 and already were baptized.  When we got there, the parents and all of the grandparents that were there had a huge argument outside.  We were left inside with the two oldest kids and our ward mission leader.  We didn’t know what to do so we started to sing hymns with them.  We sung about 4 or 5 then had to go.  There was a sweet spirit and I felt so grateful that we could be there to help them out.

This week, I thought of Christ when he was asleep at sea with his apostles in the middle of a storm.  Can you imagine sleeping through the middle of a storm on a small fisherman boat? He must have been soaked and there must have been a ton of noise but he didn’t move a muscle.  He must have been EXHAUSTED.  He literally wore away His life in service of others.  In moments where I am tired and feel I can´t give more, I know I can with His help and for His cause.  I am excited for another week of being a missionary.  There is no better place to be.

Les quiero,

Elder Crofts

Ps.... see you on Sunday! 

Happy 20th Birthday!

Zone Conference!

They surprised us with a nice little cake for our birthday!

Interchanges with Elder McAllister

That fruit is called Macaqui...when it is not fully matured it numbs and dries out your mouth and it is a weird feeling.  Elder McAllister was not a fan.

Juan made us lunch....

....surprisingly it wasn't bad! Haha

Our branch president surprised me for my b-day with an "once" and also gave me a good looking tie!

The Jones gave me cinnamon rolls

I made some Indian Chapati bread! 

It turned out well!

April 25, 2016

Vamos Ovalle!!!

Firstly, CONGRATS AMY on the engagement!!!! I am really happy for you and Craig! I am excited to meet him when I come back! Also, HAPPY BDAY Mom! People never believe me when I tell them how old you are.  The other day someone said you looked like you were in your mid 30´s haha.

This week we spent a lot of time traveling to meetings in Viña.  So 3 days this week we were working in Viña and Elder Avila was my companion for a day! haha just like good old times! 

I am staying in Ovalle with Elder Barlow so we are just going to keep working hard and seeing miracles.  Today, I learned a lesson about sacrifice and honoring the priesthood.  We had A TON that we need to do today and planned our time very wisely.  We received a call right as we were leaving the pension of an old man that needed a blessing that had just come out of the hospital.  I felt that we needed to go but thought about all of the things that we need to do and I told myself that we didn’t have time.  As I thought and also as Elder Barlow and I talked, we decided that we needed to go.  We made some changes in our plans and went to this man’s house (that is a little far away) to give him a blessing.  When I first saw him, he made me think of Papa Goodman a few months before I left on the mission and before he died.  I was grateful that we accepted the call to serve even though it wasn’t the most convenient thing for us in that moment. We gave him a blessing and the family (that was a part member family) was really grateful that we had come.  Hopefully I am never too busy to accept the call to serve.

I am aware that time is ticking.  The truth is I feel better than ever.  I am doing my best to not be trunky and I feel I am being fairly successful.  I do love and miss you guys but I wouldn't be anywhere else.  Don't worry.... I am a finisher.

I love you all! Have an amazing week! I will be praying for you! :)

Elder Crofts 

Zone activity! We ate pizza and played soccer! Good time!

Thanks Alicia for the package!

I loved it!

April 18, 2016

Mi querida familia! 

I am doing great! This week literally flew by.  I can’t believe we are already in the week of transfers.  I am hoping to stay here in Ovalle with Elder Barlow.  I have met so many amazing people here and I would love to keep working in this miracle filled town! 

Cleyde was baptized.  Her baptismal service was great.  A lot of members stayed after church to support her and she looked like an angel.  She seemed really happy and also bore her testimony after being baptized.

This week in an interchange in another Elder´s sector, a recent convert that was an all-star who was really excited about his conversion and LOVED the church, told us that he would be stepping away from the church for a while because of some family problems.  He said how he felt it is what the Lord was guiding him to do and he hopes we can understand him.  Elder Clifford told me that they were trying for months to get him to read the Book of Mormon but he always had excuses and never would read. It made me think of one of the 1st scriptures that really got to me (1 Nephi 15:24) when I was younger.  I learned then and I know more than ever that the iron rod is the word of God.  We can’t let one day go by without really searching the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon).  I love the scriptures and sincere prayer.  I hope you all have a great week and that you can make time to search, ponder and pray about the scriptures.

Besitos,

Elder Crofts

Cleydes baptism

LA FERIA! So cool and SOOO CHEAP!

The lovely dogs of Chile

Interchange eating "humitas" (they are like tamales) with Elder Clifford.

Nothing like pomegranate and nuts for a good snack.

We had an AWESOME branch activity

Sorry time won't allow me to explain

Halloween pumpkin carving served me well.

Yes, I DID carve that piranha/shark looking thing.

Cleydes baptism

Some awesome families came to the baptism.