January 19, 2015

Well it is another great day to be a missionary.  This last week we went and talked to an old couple who was sitting on a park bench.  They told us we could pass on by their house so the following day we went and taught them and committed them to be baptized.  Her name is Isabelle Meri and his name is Manuel "segundito".  They are pretty old so it is a little tough to help them understand.  But when we invited them to be baptized Meri turned to Segundo and said "What do you say Segunito, should we get baptized?" hahaha oh I almost died.  They didn’t come to church Sunday because they have sleeping problems and were exhausted Sunday morning.  We set their baptismal date for the 8th of February so hopefully they come to church and we can help them enter in the waters.  They struggle to understand and want to feel more prepared to be baptized but I feel like they recognize the spirit they just need to trust in it and have faith.  We gave them both blessings of health and also blessed their home because Meri is a little preoccupied with "bad spirits.”  As we were leaving they said that they felt better and Segundo said that his head/neck pains were gone.  The power of the priesthood is real! 

So Jesenia... she is now living with a friend who drinks and smokes a lot.  So she has given in to the temptation.  She says she understands that it was a promise that she made with God and not with us and that she feels bad about it but she only took a little bit.  She didn’t come to church either.  Our last lesson with her I was with Elder Anderson from Wyoming.  He has 3 weeks in the mission.  The lesson was a wreck because as we started to teach about the importance of the Word of Wisdom and baptism, her son arrived and was running all over the place, then their neighbor started cutting their lawn so we couldn’t hear anything, and to top it off, Ricardo, her son, lost her friends daughters turtle and we had to start looking for it..... so we looked for a turtle for about 10-15 minutes (This was Elder Anderson’s second time looking for a turtle here in Chile in just 3 weeks.....haha tough luck).  So essentially, we lost all the time looking for a turtle because we had to leave for a meeting.  But on the bright side, she believes that the church is true we just have to help her use this knowledge to leave behind a few things and to act in her faith.

Wednesday, we had interviews with President Kähnlein.  It went well.  I always feel super pumped to work hard after interviews with him.  He invited me to be a little more diligent in a few things and I have been trying to do it.

It was a super great week.  At one point, we had 4 people with baptismal dates  but now we just have two (Meri and Segundo).  Hopefully, we can get Rita´s daughters going.  We will see what happens. 

Thanks for all the love.  Shout out to Makayla and Hailey on the mission calls! I am stoked for you guys. Thanks Alicia for the package! I just got it last week! Love you all.

Love,

Elder Crofts

We were waiting for one of the members to come pick us up in his truck

Lunch in the country

To get to the house of Meri & Segundo we have to climb some killer stairs. I have heard that all of Valparaiso is like this. Hopefully I go there so I can get rid of these love handles. Haha.

He is just like a girl always wanting to look at his photos in the camera. Haha.

Almost hopped in with that guy there.