December 29, 2014

Merry Christmas Punk……and a Happy New Year

Well I loved talking with you guys and it was interesting to use my English again. haha I am glad that everyone is doing great.  Elder Garcia’s 1st experience of Skype was a little different.  His family is having some problems and essentially they just cried the whole time.  His parents are separating and his brother his having personal problems.  He couldn’t talk with his mom because she had to work and essentially it was a mess.  It made me realize how blessed I am.  Thanks for all you do and for all the support.  Thanks SO much for the package and thanks for sending some stuff for Elder Garcia.  He hasn’t received anything so it made it a lot more comfortable.

Well.... people keep flaking out.  We finally got ahold of Josepe and he came to an activity that we had at the church and he LOVED it.  We had to leave early but he chose to stay a little longer because he liked it so much.  He asked us "so if someone wants to change from another religion to this one.... they can just do it?" haha He wants to be baptized but every time we pass by his house to bring him to church he is sleeping and doesn’t answer his phone.  This last week, we just decided to go all in and went and yelled through an open window to wake him up (risking getting yelled at by his beastly landlady) unfortunately....nothing happened and we went to church without an investigator.

Well, I had an awesome interchange with Elder Fernandez, our zone leader.  I learned a lot from him.  We went out into the country to teach a lesson with a recent convert.  After, we contacted this man who was outside of his house....peeing.  He came over to us (zipping up his pants in the process) and then stuck out his hand to introduce himself.  We hesitantly took his hand and I kid you not it was wet....he had to go back into his house to grab something so we hurried and pulled out the hand sanitizer, threw up a little bit and then put our game faces on.  We had a pretty good lesson and then invited him to be baptized.  He accepted! He was kind of an interesting guy but hopefully it works out for them! haha 

 I had a talk with Elder Garcia about consegracion (being consecrated) this week. I feel like he has been talking too much about his girlfriend so we talked about it and he was in agreement.  I want to "leave the nets" like Christ’s apostles. I hope to leave my all every day.  It made me think of what Tom Wood taught us about asking ourselves each day if we can "look up".  I know that if we give our very best every day, we can look up to our Heavenly Father and feel proud of ourselves for doing that which we know is right.  Every day is another day to prepare ourselves to return to our Heavenly Fathers presence. Thanks for all you do! Have an awesome year

Love,

Elder Crofts

Making Mom's no bake cookies.  Oh, you know I am happy

Racing to our Christmas Eve dinner

We got a new tie and a pair of socks

Elder Fernandez, our zone leader

Thanks for the package Mom & Dad and Amy for the letter and gifts

Thanks Liz and Trent. Loved it.

Gifts from my family from Japan

I made this for a family of recent converts.  It may not be Julie Boyer status but not bad. Ha-ha

Their little girls loved the gift and couldn't let go of it. Ha-ha

A member made me a cheesecake. Aint no problem sweety.

Well, I guess I really am related to Kristy

December 22, 2014

My beloved fam,

Well, there sure are things to miss this lovely time of the year.  The traditions, the family and friends, the food  haha.  I hope you all enjoy! Well last week, I think I ate the first thing here that I really just did not like. One of the Hermana in the ward is a little.... special. haha Every week, she invites us for a family night. We pass by she makes us completos (hot dog with avacado, tomatoes, and mayo) She can’t seem to understand that mayo is not the main ingredient of this lovely combination.  Normally it is okay but this week she made homemade mayo..... and boy o boy was she generous with the portions.  Well I hurried and put it down the throat and loved every squishy bite of it.  After "Elder do you want more?"....."No thank you Hermana" and thus the first time that I said no to more food.  Well with the amount of mayo that the Hermana gives us and the bread that they eat in every meal (the bread is essentially insta fattener)  I now have more to love in my waste. ;) ha-ha not a lot but it is definitely enough to make me have to change something NOW. Haha So I am now cutting myself off from the "pancito (little bread)".  We are now starting to go out and run in the mornings.  Elder García can go a solid 50 meters without a break.  So what we started doing is we go to a park and I run in circles while he essentially sits there.. ha-ha hey fine by me.  I also have gotten LOTS weaker.  I tried to do pull-ups and normally I could do a solid 20 without too much effort.  The other day, I was struggling to do sets of 10! ha-ha so basically I am going to really start trying to improve my exercises. 

So this week, I was studying about revelation and out of the blue I found the scripture in D&C 128:15 that essentially says (talking about work for the dead in the temple) "and our dead cannot be perfected without us, and we cannot be perfected without them."  The spirit hit me like a freight train and I really could feel Papa watching out for me.  I know that he is working on us and helping us to be a little more perfected each day.

I love this work.  I think I need to work on enjoying every moment.  It is hard as missionaries because you really want to do your best.  You really want to surrender everything.  It is easy to get caught up in all of the rules and to forget that we need to take a moment to laugh things out.  I know that our Savior lives and loves us.  I am grateful for this awesome time of the year! Can’t wait to talk with you guys this week and I hope that you are all doing great! Keep in touch with the Daniels! I want to find out where the Hailey is headed when she gets her mission call! 

Love you all,

Elder Crofts

Elder Crofts & Elder Garcia

"Machines working"

Caution stepping to close just might lead to baptism & eternal life

District Elders

Mom, this scorpion was in my shoe and I almost died

Actually we found it dead on the street

December 15, 2014

Howdy,

This week I have learned a lot.  I am glad that everything went smoothly with Papas viewing and I hope that everyone is doing fine. 

We finally taught Josepe again.  He is SO awesome and wants to repent and feel closer to God.  It is just so hard to find him because he works so much.  He accepted the invitation to be baptized and wants to go to church with us.  We passed by for him Sunday morning and we were on the point of leaving but he got in a little argument with his land lady and ended up not being able to come.  His land lady is super Catholic and told Josepe she doesn’t want us to pass by anymore.  She lies to us when we ask if he is there and let’s just say Satan is working against us with Josepe.

So yesterday, this drunk guy came up to us and started talking to me about “the illuminate” and how I need to go and tell all of the people in the US to cut it out.  He told me to not be such a racist and leave his people alone. hahaha He started talking about money and other things that cause problems in the world.  I then interrupted him and said "oh and drugs for sure". haha he took a short pause and then went on to talk about how drugs are a good thing and resolve problems in the world. (As he is walking in the street without a shirt and a big old cross on the chest and a cigar in the hand).  So I guess my whole life I have been misunderstood.... drugs actually HELP us.  All we need do is believe in Christ and he will come down in a floating cloud to lift us up with him. haha This man would classify in those who say "eat drink and be merry" haha. I also had my first Buddhist contact.... holy confusing.  I don’t know how you did it Amy. haha He did say that I was wiser than my companion.  He concluded this by the shape of my ear lobes...... maybe he is on to something ;) 

Well I think we are going to have Katterins baptism the 27th? I don’t know. We are having a lot of difficulty finding people to teach.  We are going to start making appointments with only the people we feel are really interested because we lose SO much time trying to pass by for these people.

Our mission is going through a big change.  All of the key indicators that have been preached, like scripture are changing.  We are only going to keep track of baptisms and church attendance.  They are doing this to focus on reactivating the people and really strengthening the wards.

I love you guys. I have been blessed with a family better than all the rest! It is a bummer to not be with you guys in this the best time of the year but I am happy to be doing the work of the Lord.  I know this church is true. I know Christ lives and that he is the best gift that we could ever receive. I am trying to improve every day and reach my full potential as a missionary.  I love you guys.

Love,

Elder Crofts

Waiting in front of the church for our ward mission meeting

Cut my own hair! Maybe not Lori Dalton status but not too bad!

Bring on the baptisms

Out in Colmo

December 8, 2014

La Muerta no es el Fin (Death is not the End)

My lovely family and friends,

Well this week had a lot of ups and downs.  Our baptismal date for Rita’s daughter is not going to happen this week because we haven’t been able to teach them and she needs a lot of the lessons still. We are hoping that we can put a date for both of the daughters for the 20th.  We found an awesome guy named Josepe that we have only taught once.  He accepted the invitation to be baptized if he receives an answer.  He needs 3 asistences at the church to be baptized but our mission president said that he doesn’t want anyone to baptize the last weekend of December so that we can start the next year with some good numbers....Kind of sucks because that would mean I won’t be here for the baptism a lot of these people that I think will be baptized that we have contacted or taught. That is... if I get transfered. Yesterday, I had a strong impression to return and talk to a man that was working as a doorman of a building.  We returned and talked with him. His name was ROBERTO. My other half! After talking for a few minutes he said to us "sometimes I ask why things happen....like why you knew to come back and talk to me." He lives in Valparaiso so we won’t get to teach him but I am sure that he will be baptized in a few weeks.  Well I don’t always get to see the fruit of the labor.  But planting the seeds with people are experiences I will never forget!

Well... the father moment of the week happened 2 nights ago when Elder Garcia almost set our building on fire.  He was trying to cook something and put a TON of vegetable oil in a pan....to cook ONE egg.  I was just leaving the bathroom when I heard a bunch of popping coming from the kitchen.  I then saw Elder Garcia running out of the kitchen.  I ran in to see the pan spraying oil all over the kitchen.  I took off the pan and turned off the fire. AYEE CARAMBA.  Well, I am learning lots about patience and about Christ like attributes.  We get along well I just feel I ALWAYS have to remind him of things and tell him to do or not do things. 

Well.... I am happy that Papa´s suffering is done.  Last week, after I was done writing you guys Elder Garcia and I had to go to Viña to get a few things.  As I was in the bus, I started to think about Papa and the night that he fell when I went up to do the snowmobiles. I remembered how bad I felt and some of the feelings came back. I started to tell Elder Garcia about him and about the story and I got a little emotional.  Me...the person who never cries....almost started bawling in a jam packed bus. I don’t know why but I just felt that I knew that this would be his last week in this life.  I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday night that I had a dream with Papa.  It is rare that I ever remember even a little bit of my dreams.  But for some reason I did this time.  I don’t remember all of the details but I know that Papa has received his reward. I know that he lived a life worthy of celestial glory.  There is no doubt in my mind that he lives and that he is happy.  I have to come to KNOW in the mission more than I ever have that our Savior lives, he loves us, and he died for us.  Death is only a pass that we all will face in one point or another.  I know that our eternal happiness is in Christ. I am sad to not be at home to be with the family and that I couldn’t be there for his funeral but I know that I will see him again.  I am so grateful to know that a life that is short, TOO short, is not the end but it is the beginning. I am happy for the privilege I have to share this message with the people of Chile. I am grateful for the gift that our Heavenly Father gave us in sending his son, Jesus Christ, to atone and die for us.  I love you all and will keep you in my prayers.  Tell Nana how much I love her and that she will be in my prayers day and night! 

Love

Elder Crofts  

"Men Working" Got that right

Proving to the world that there is one fold and one shepherd

Mom I got you a present for Christmas

Lunch with the one & only Hermana Navarete

This lady knows how to make food....and lots of it

The fog here gets pretty crazy