Elder Bobby Crofts

November 24, 2014

Mom….Dad….I am going to be a Father!!!!

Well there is a lot I would like to say so here goes nothing....

Elder Marroquin is now in his lovely country of Guatemala. I learned a lot from him but I don’t know if I would say I was sad when he left. I don’t know, he was a friend but I wasn’t heartbroken or anything at the end. haha At the start of the week, I was in a trio with our zone leaders until interchanges. We bought food to last us for 3ish days. I just bought oatmeal because normally we just have to eat breakfast and the members make us lunch and I wanted to save money. Well one day our lunch appointment fell through so to make a long story short I went pretty crazy with the oatmeal and in the period of about 2-3 days I ate a kilo of oatmeal. Haha my stomach wasn’t the same for a day or two.

Elder Garcia was born into the mission exactly 5 days ago weighing in at 153.2 pounds. ITS A BOY! Well I expected to just receive a new companion for this change because I didn’t receive a call informing me that I would have a leadership position. We show up to the change meeting and President Káhnlein was introducing the news to tell them where they would go. He said " Elder Garcia....you are going to Concon B and your trainer is going to be.....Elder Crofts!" My heart just dropped because I had no idea beforehand. ha-ha but sweet! He is from Peru and is a super nice guy. But I do feel like the term father and son is applicable to our relationship. It doesn’t seem like he has ever really done much alone up until his mission. Well, I could make a pretty long list of why I feel this way but I will just mention a few. So he is not super organized and doesn’t clean up his messes and I really feel like I am babysitting sometimes. One thing that bugs is that he just takes my food I bought without asking (those who know me know that this can be very dangerous and sometimes life-threatening). The 1st day I gave him the keys for our apartment and the following day he told me he lost them. I told him to look for them and if he couldn’t find them to say a prayer. He came back in about 2 minutes and told me he couldn’t find them. So I went to help him find them. I reached in the pockets of one of his pants, pulled out his keys and just thought in my head this can’t be real life. ha-ha

Just 2 days ago after a lunch we had we were walking back to our apartment to drop off some things. When we were about 5 minutes away he told me he had to use the bathroom. We got to our apartments and the door man was asking us some questions and Elder Garcia was all antsy. We stepped into the elevator and he says to me " Elder....I am going to have to take a shower...." well....if you can’t understand what that means maybe the smell that was in the elevator reached you wherever you may be reading this because it was pretty strong. haha Well apart from the fact that I am living with a child, I am doing great. haha he really is a great guy and has a good testimony he is just disorganized and childlike. So maybe the Lord knew I needed to work on my patience. But I am doing my best to set a good example and to be a good trainer. I am trying to help him be a good missionary and also to be a straight up MAN. Too bad I can´t watch Mulan again... I could use some tips. Remember the song, “I’ll make a man out of you!”

Well yesterday, we set a baptismal date with Rita’s daughter, Katty, for the 14th of December. She is 12 yrs old. I am a little afraid that it is only because she has a little crush on me.... When we invited her to be baptized she said "wait just a second" then came back and handed me a note to read. It said something like "Elder Crofts. You have my trust and I would like you to be the person to baptize me". So of course I accepted but we are going to try to find a friend for her at the church and really make sure that it is for a desire to follow Christ and not to have a little play date in the pool with Elder Crofts...haha We might try and change her date to the 6th of December because she already has the church attendances.

Well the work is progressing here bit by bit. We need to find some new people to teach and tonight we have an appointment with one of the most receptive contacts I have had! So hopefully we can baptize baptize and baptize. I think if we do our very best and have faith we can have 4 baptisms this change. I love you all and I am super grateful for the support! I know the church is true and I know that God answers our prayers. You are in my prayers! Love you

Con amor,

Elder Crofts