May 30, 2016

PERSEVERAR

Well I am now in my last change! The change meeting is on Wednesday and it looks like I will be leaving Ovalle.  I think this will be the hardest place for me to leave up to this point! I LOVE Ovalle and all the people who have taught me so much here.  I am excited to see where I will end up and hopefully I can leave my mark.  

I don’t know if I have mentioned Marybeth.  She is 15 and from Punitaqui.  She has a baptismal date for the 18th and is really awesome.  We taught her the plan of salvation the other day and she said "This is so cool! You answered so many of the questions I had!!!" Her niece and nephew were also in the house.  The niece started sharing right away but her nephew, Mauri (he is 8 or 9), started out in the other room.  When we invited him to participate he didn’t want to.  But as we started to teach Marybeth, we could see his head poking around the corner until he finally gave in.  A member from Punitaqui told us later that she talked with Mauri and he says he wants to be baptized and come to church! He is so awesome! It was sweet to see the Spirit help him work his way in there.

We also are teaching a woman from Ecuador named Maritz.  She has come to church 2 times now and I am positive that she will be baptized.  It has just been hard for us to teach her more than 1 time each week! 

This week, I learned that I need to improve my morning prayers.  I normally do them without thinking much and try to do them quickly so I can start doing my exercises.  In Gospel Principles the other day, I learned that it is important to ask ourselves if we have the spirit with us and to really search for guidance for the day.  I have been applying it and I feel it has really helped me.  I love this Gospel and I love my Savior. 

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

Elder Crofts

Elder Crofts Homecoming Talk will be July 24 at 1pm

The Huitranan Family

Watch out....

...cutting onions are deadly

Our sweet BBQ last week!

Sister Jones

Elder & Sister Jones

Elder Barlow fell asleep writing in his journal....hahaha.

A sister gave us a seafood tour for lunch!  Shellfish & fried fish!  It was so sweet!

The sisters had a baptism yesterday!

Saying goodbye to the missionaries that were ending their missions!

Elder Barlow invented this for breakfast today....thanks Elder?  Haha

May 23, 2016

Cancer

Hey Fam! I don’t have a whole lot of time today because we are going to do a BBQ in the zone today! It is going to be sweet! 

Some of the interesting moments this week: On Friday, we had to spend the day trying to find a doctor who could see a sister in our zone because she had a large golf ball sized lump on her right jaw that was sticking out and hurting.  It was a crazy day and in the end, we ended up sending her to Viña because the person we saw thought it might be a tumor.  She is having surgery today but in the end it wasn´t a tumor.  Better luck next time cancer.

We had an awesome talent show in the branch on Saturday and had about 70 people that came.  Less actives and investigators participated. It was sweet! The Huitrañan brothers (Pedro y Jorge) did an awesome rap and break dance about leaving their past life behind and becoming a man of God.  It was SOOO cool! They are strengthening the branch a lot.

One of the greatest lessons I learned this week was in gospel principles yesterday.  Jorge is now the teacher.  When he was called, it honestly shocked me! haha As I looked at him yesterday, I saw a casual, street-dressed man who I never would have guessed to be a teacher for all of the investigators and less active members that come to church.  Yet yesterday, he had a special glow about him and really dominated the class and had the participation of everyone present! Only the spirit can make changes so drastic in one´s life.  It was awesome to be there.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Shout out to Heather on Graduating from high school! I can’t believe how fast that all went! 

Elder Crofts

A nice view

Helping the Sisters on Friday!

Our awesome activity

The Huitranan Family! They are on their way to the temple! They are so great!

I saw this t-shirt and thought of Heather & Kristy :) Haha

I LOVE when members give us food to bring home

May 16, 2016

Howdy!

Starting with the biggest miracle of the week, we had 135 people in church on Sunday.  It was SO full! It was great! I have seen so many miracles here in Ovalle.  We had an investigator in Church from Punitaqui.  She is 15 and will be baptized but it is just hard to teach her often.  It might take a couple of weeks.

I had an interchange this week with Elder Winward who ends his mission this month.  We ended the interchange by getting together in the town square. Wouldn’t you know that the one day it rains here in Ovalle we ended up having the Elders phone by accident so we had to run all through town getting soaked trying to find them.  Well, that makes washing our clothes a whole lot easier. Ha-ha  I never would have imagined running so much in church clothes before the mission.  It is just a normal thing for me now.

This week, I am really going to try to focus on being grateful and remembering Christ always.  It is so cool being a missionary and sharing with people about Him all day.  I have come to realize as I see people change and come closer unto Him that the only way to be truly happy is giving ourselves up to Him.

Love you all!

Elder Crofts

Mission Interviews. The 3 assistants and all of our purple ties!

I made pancakes!

Hermana Diaz left us with some treats!

Nothing like a nice long completo to end the day!

We got pretty soaked by the rain.

We ate a type of seafood called "loco" that was really tasty

and "pepino dulce" (sweet cucumber)

Mission Leadership Conference April 22, 2016