Christmas Eve Gift!!!

I made a very bad decision Christmas morning, I realized that I got way out of the habit of eating my regular 3 bowls of cereal in the morning like I did back home. I had some free time while getting ready in the morning so I decided to eat 3 bowls of cereal just to throw back you know. I quickly realized after I finished the milk in my last bowl of cereal what mistake I made. Not 10 minutes later we were on our way over for breakfast at Elder and Sister W's house, and then we were almost immediately having lunch over at the Branch presidents home, and then a few hours later eating dinner at L's home, we cancelled on the last appointment where members wanted to feed us(we both agreed to do it another day).... I was ready to tapp out for the day after breakfast but it just kept going. Ever since I have not had a desire at all to eat any real food. I wake up in the morning don't want to cook eggs, lunch I only want a bagel, dinner canned soup if i could. I had so much really good, super prepared meals that I just do not have the stomach to eat any thing real at all the past few days.

Every where we go people are offering us food, cookies, candy, brownies, authentic Austrian desert, fruit. We are loaded out of our minds with junk food! After our car was filling up with all of this junk we decided we would reject any thing that people offered us and then we walked in a house taught a lesson and then a little 9 year old offered us some fruit and cookies and we just didn't have the heart to not accept it. TOO much food! Man my life is so hard. We did accept the bag of Venison bacon and sausage though. 

On the way down and back from Mt. Pleasant we listened to a Audio book called "the every day missionary" I believe I loved what I heard from it I hear all but the 4th and last disk of the book. One thing that I thought was a very interesting concept that they brought up is how every single calling in the church is a missionary calling and can be used to help less active and non members. It was awesome hearing a story about how a guy who was called to just bring the sacrament bread to church used that calling to be a missionary. You'll have to check out the book some apostle or 70 wrote it. Elder Christianson I want to say but i don't remember.

This Christmas was very interesting. I don't think I have ever had a Christmas that could be comparable to this one at all. Eating south African food, not having my family around, having snow (for a while it all melted later on), being with people who I never even knew a few months prior. I can't really describe about how I feel about the experience I had, It was very tender and humbling though. 

This could be described as probably the worst Christmas and also one of the best Christmas's I have had. What makes me say that is really only the love and the kindness that people gave me this season because they knew that it wasn't like any thing I have ever experienced. And it's those little kind acts that people did for me that really makes my heart swell with love and gratitude. Like how on Christmas eve we were door bell ditched and there was 2 presents left out for us on our door mat.(It was the branch president i believe because it was kids who did it and they have the whole primary in their family). 

What really got me was when we had Dinner at L's house and she had stockings for us that was filled with fruit and candy but there was a little metal can in the stocking as well that had an ornate snowflake ornament that was crocheted by hand for us. She, being disabled and not able to get out of a wheel chair and who has a million other health problems, spent the time to make us those and cook us dinner that day. It brings me to tears just thinking about how selfless of her that was. Being able to see a few people from my MTC district was priceless for me.

Christmas Eve wasn't fun at all for the fist half of the day, I felt sick, I couldn't even force my self to eat even though I was dying of hunger, i was nervous to sing ( I don't know why that bothered me so much, i have done crazier things in front of much more people and wasn't worried about that at all), My suit got Mud all over it when I vaulted a fence in my suit, I fell more than ankle deep into mud when I landed on the other side (it was raining) to give a guy who was on the corner holding a sign asking for food and money  my food that I bought that I couldn't eat. It all really sucked until all of those kind acts came and being able to see some people who i loved and cared about that I don't ever get to see. That night right before I went to  bed I was just overwhelmed with a tidal wave of the spirit and the song came to my head " I feel my Saviors love" I was so happy that I was given so many blessings that day, I woke up still with that happiness and smile on my face.

I have alot to be thankful for when I think about this Christmas. The Lord knew exactly what was important to me and he blessed me with those things. those acts of kindness, being able to see people, and being able to have letters from Home, Terry Tucker, Rex Zimmerman, and being able to call home meant the world to me, thanks! It was a special experience.

I gotta go, Bye, I love you, have a good day, don't get shot!

Expect a letter home soon.

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Catching Fire

I realized all of the pictures I take are all super detailed and they are cool but when you zoom in they are like 12 times better.

Man they need to make a collapsible electric cello, I was thinking about that the other day and they do that with guitars they need to do that for a cello so i could play, I have heard a few cellos in the music on the Ipod and I really want to play one resonantly.

So I had a interview with my Mission president this week and I found out that I am the reason why this whole mission is why we do car fasts on Saturday. After our car got put in the shop and we 

had to ride bikes every where I loved it and saw many miracles because of it and I talked it all up in a email to my mission president and then that inspired him and got him to come up with the idea that we shouldn't drive as much. =p I'm gonna be selective about who I tell that to because It will probably get alot of missionaries ticked ha ha ha.

Also speaking about the Miracles that came from the car crash I am still seeing the impacts of that. I don't know If I told you about the guy who saw us riding bikes and then a few hours later I knocked on his door and said like 6 words and he let me in and we taught him a beautifully golden lesson. Well I havn't been able to contact him since, UNTIL NOW! 

 

On friday we traded back from our trade offs and Me and Elder A just like caught on fire we had the spirit with us and we got super over the top pumped! WE BURNED a trail every where we went that day. 

 

I felt like we needed to go to the Branch mission leader's house so I drove us to Hillman and we helped him out around in his back woods house and then we talked to him about missionary work and we shared with him what we call "The Vision" It is a super inspired plan that Elder A just threw out to me while we were on the way to Hillman and it turned out that I was studying near the exact same thing in the Scriptures and PMG and then we were overwhelmed by the spirit and we got super pumped.We shared this with Bro W and I have never seen him so excited about missionary work, He was burnin up he was like itchin to go and share the gospel.

 

from there we felt like we needed to visit another member in the area so we did and we found out that their basement was flooded and we spent some good time with them (their basement floods just like our does but it gets alot more, we spent like all of Saturday with a shop vac dumping gallons and gallons of water out of there to watch it still come through the cracks of the concrete) But we had to reschedule a teaching appointment because of it and so we drove down to Alpena and we were about to drive all the way down to Harrisville and we got a call from that investigator wanting a rain check, So i am super glad we set it aside because that 40 minute drive down to harrisville for nothing would have sucked. 

 

I then had a thought, to see that family that I door knocked into when we had no car and we got in and taught a even more golden of a lesson where at one point they explained to us the Word of Wisdom pretty much, and their idea of what happened before and after this life was a piece of the truth, and it was awesome getting to explain that they were right, but there was more!  

 

I then felt like we should go and try to contact a referral we got asking for a bible a while back and he was like impossible to contact me and Elder W tried to contact him like 12 times. But Elder A and I contacted him a while back and gave him a Book of mormon and a bible. We went there that night and he was super excited to see us and he told us to come back in a hour and so we did. And that lesson was even more Golden! He was devouring the book of mormon, he loved it! He was like bearing testimony of the truthfulness of the book of mormon to me and Elder A. He is in his 40's and he is dying of cancer. And that is why he ordered a bible from Mormon.org for free because he wanted to make things right with God. And then we came and we found that out and we shared with him the plan of Salvation....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That lesson was number 1. it was so cool! 

 

He had no doubt that that was Gods plan for him, I felt like i needed to so I did it, I invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He then said "wait you guys don't have the proper priesthood authority do you? you aren't the pastor of your church you're to young" And then I have never even heard of some one actually having the chance to use this and I was talking to several missionaries who are going home at the end of this transfer who never had heard of any one actually using this as well. Elder A Whooped out his Ministerial Certificate and the guy was Amazed when he read that we have that Authority and then saw the signature of the Prophet. 

 

Oh man that was a good day! It seemed that that fire that we had with us caught on every one else we met with and every one was just getting super pumped. I think this area is about to explode with work, we keep seeing Miracle after miracle here it is amazing, I just begged my mission president not to transfer me because I foresee like 6 baptisms in the next 4 months. 

For Christmas Eve we are going down to Mt. Pleasant for a half mission Christmas party so all of the missionaries from the Traverse city zone and the Middland zone and the Lansing zone will be there =p. I AM SUPER STOKED! I know for a fact that I will get to see a few more people from my MTC district that I haven't seen since I left the mission home. Every district has to perform a musical number and every one in Gaylord tapped out saying none of them can do anything, so it fell over here for our district, Elder A is really musically talented too but he just got sick and sounds worse than a chain smoker. and we still need to plan it out hymn 112 is what our plan is right now but I may or may not be going Solo in front of 80 missionaries at least...........

So for Christmas I have 3 meal appointments... We had 4 but we decided to tap out  on one of them who would have over fed us as it is. But we are opening Christmas presents at the Whites in the morning and being fed for one of them. I realized that tis the season for Ugly sweaters and the weather permits it and I havn't been rocking one yet so i bought one at good will today. And Since we do our laundry at the "White house" I have showed up there in a different outfit every single time today ha ha ha

Aight well I gotta go Ill talk to you soon! Christmas!  Be there! Come prepared to talk it up.

Love  

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Single Speed Saturday

I am always amazed how many people I meet from Arizona up here, I have made hundreds of connections with people just because every one up here at one point of time viewed Arizona as the Celestial kingdom and they moved down and back or they are Snow birds and go down there as much as possible. But I swear I was prepared for Michigan ages ago, and the people here were prepared for me. I mean look at my tooth! =p

I have been in a really good mood basically always recently, my Jamm sessions to no music at all have been most excellent the past two weeks.

 

This week one of the members (the one who has us pray for his cat that ran away) was sent to the hospital, and we went and visited him and had to get dressed up in loads of doctor gear because of the illness he had was contagious or something. We went over and read him a chapter in the Book Of Mormon and he gave us a few things to do for him. One was to pick him up some fish food from Gaylord (70 Miles away, but we got it when we went to go to our district meeting over there) and he wanted us to call him from his house phone and let him talk to his cat. 

 

We did what he  asked us to do and I held his cat in my lap and we called him and it was really sweet hearing him a have a conversation with ... nothing, the cat was purring because I was petting it but that was it. He was really grateful though that he got to talk to his Cat =p.

 

We had our branch Christmas party this week and we had 42 people there and 7 of them were in Wheel chairs! It was really fun but I was conducting the music and helping people who were in wheel chairs so I didn't really get to eat more than a piece of Ham. 

 

This Saturday since we don't drive on Saturdays we planned on contacting less actives and that was an awesome plan  that we set up. But Man It was SO HOT! I was in my regular door knocking gear but with the Lama hat from Denton on. I was sweating hard core! I had to keep on taking off my gloves and my hat and scarfs and jacket to not die. I was riding a single speed bike and we had to keep romping over snow banks and we were riding constantly through ice and mud that wasn't frozen and we rode I don't even know how many miles. 

 

And basically all of our plans fell through. Our bikes took a Beating! We took a beating! we were covered in Mud and were super sore, we hit the couches and were done for after we planned that night.

 

Yesterday we were trying to contact some of the people we were assigned to as Home teachers and so we went down south to Ossineke and Harrisville and man we were in straight up back woods and there was no one around for miles. to get to one of the Less active member houses (every on our list is a less active) we had to go through a forest. 

 

Now in Michigan they used to cut loads of lumber and send it elsewhere which makes sense, there is a tree every 3 feet in the woods and after that area was cleared the companies would plant trees all at the same time and so there is alot of trees that are the exact same type and height in some parts of the woods, 

 

there was one of those on the way through to this members house and it was on a dirt road that wasn't even 6 feet wide and there is things every where in the way and so we went super slow. But Since the trees were all planted at the same time all of the branches were dead except the ones near the top and so there was no branches on any of the trees except the top ( i have a pic of it in the light) But Man that is the freaking Slender man forest at night! 

 

I thought of that and said it and my companion started freaking out. we both got chills and were dying we had to get out of there! that was all we could think of the whole drive back after the visit, we went faster the second time =p.

 

I love Elder A, we get along SO well. we were out in the middle of no where in the farm land areas and you could see straight down the street for miles on both ways and there was no one, and so I turned left and stayed on the wrong side of the road for a while and yelled "FIRE POINTS!" I quickly moved to the right lane and he was like "NO WAY YOU PLAYED BURNOUT AS WELL!?!" ha ha ha I have never actually met some one before now who has actually played that game except our family it was awesome.

 

In my many journeying to different city's this week I thought about scary things like when I fell from a tree 12 feet in the air head first last year and didn't even get scratched when I hit the ground, or when..... I have a few other stories like that from before my mission that it really makes me feel sick thinking about just because I should have been really hurt or something, and I made me think of so many Miracles that has happened in my life to just get me here where I am today.

 

Me and My companion Jam out to "How great thou art" By Elvis  all the time ha ha =p, He doens't like anything but classical for the most part but I have gotten it so that is always stuck in his head.

Well Bye I love you have a good day! I gotta go! Don't Get shot! (or go into the slender man Forrest)

Love,

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Frozen Glass Wave Attack‏

Well I have a new companion, his name is Elder A he is from North of ogden Utah,I love the kid to death he is so great! He is only about 2 inches shorter than me. Oh but man he is great he is basically like Napoleon Dynamite just he doesn't dress dorky well i guess I only see him in a white shirt and a tie. But man I love it he is such a nerd! I can relate to him so well. What i think is hilarious is day one he said " don't take offense if I don't talk to you to much I am a quiet guy, I don't hate you I just don't talk alot". But After I saw a stack of pokemon cards in his suit case...=p.

We never have anytime that we aren't talking I swear I have talked more this week with him than I did the past 2 transfers with my last comp. Dude he is such a nerd! I love it so much!!! We are out door knocking and he tells me all of these great things about the deep doctrine of Lord of the Rings, and we have had many Star wars conversations, He even told me that he took a Anatomy class just so he could learn of the real body structure of humans and animals so it would help him with the drawings of mythical creatures that he likes to draw =p. 

His Ideology of missionary work is just like mine though and we have been working hard! We have been using every single moment of our time effectively and it is amazing to see the "fruit" of it all. I also really like his mind set on several other things, we tend to be thinking the same exact thing quite often. Forrealzies he is basically every thing that I've been praying for in a companion for the past few weeks.

This morning we put our laundry in the wash and we could hear Lake huron really loud and so we went up to the docks to go and check it out and MAN! Lake Huron is mad! 

 

For the first time there is waves that you could surf on but they are a little to scary for me to want to surf on them seeing as they crash into rocks and ice. But it is SO beautiful out there! the waves pushing against the beach caused ice to build up the beach is like 20 feet longer than it used to be of all ice but it all looks like pieces of glass either in piles of oval shaped or they look like huge panes of glass and they stick out like death spikes out of the water. 

 

We were walking down the break wall and admiring the icicles hanging from the metal railings and then the waves came crashing into the break wall throwing water and ice at us and we just booked it! it turned into temple run. The waves were plowing into the break wall throwing water and ice up 12 feet in the air and over the break wall. And the waves exploded at us to our sides we made it to the end where the waves couldn't beat but there was no way to get off from there so we had to sprint back through all of this ice on the concrete that was in clear glass oval shapes that went half way up my calf. I was super fun =p Good rush we would have been freaking freezing if we were hit by one of those waves.

We've been doing some finding out in the back woods of Hillman, we stumbled upon a small community a few miles out of there and we door knocked it. I have finally met a bearded lady! Oh man it was great She had more facial hair than I have ever seen dad have.=p

It hasn't been snowing up here this past week, but all of the ground is basically ice but it's good because it makes driving at least 84 and a half time safer when there isn't a foot of snow on the road.  What I think is cool is how some people didn't rake up their leaves and then the snow piled on top of it and then a while later that snow was moved and you can see stain marks from the colored leaves on the side walks! It's like some one was stamping the side walks with paint.

 I love those Kid quotes that you sent me, They are so weird and cute =p. I also like how Emma like the "Birdy song" Black bird is one of my favorites it always reminds me of Dad, Uncle Jared, Michael, and Jeff all around a camp fire jamming on their guitars while we were out on one of the Dude fishing trips.

Whelp I gotta Go. Bye I love you have a good day, don't get impaled by an ice wave =p

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

"Transfeeeers!"

I have basically have no time at all today I am leaving to Mt. Pleasant in not even a hour because Elder W got transferred,  hes going to be companions with Elder C one of my best friends in the MTC. I am SUPER EXCITED to get my new companion! His name is Elder A, and hes been out about 6 months, he is pretty tall (not like me tall though) and thats about all I know about him.

Yesterday was so great we were going and Elder W was saying good byes to people and he thought to go see two of our investigators who are always super busy and never are home because of all of the schooling and all of the jobs they are working, we got there we had a thanks giving meal with them. But the cool part of it was that D wanted to go to church the day before but when it came to Sunday something happened and he didn't come I forget what he said but his wife wanted him to invite us over for dinner when he saw us there at church. since he didn't come he didn't invite us over, but then all the sudden we showed up there for dinner =p. 

They are graduating from college in a week or so and they will have lots more free time so they really want to see us again, we didn't even have to ask they asked us to come back. It was pretty sick they thought it was so cool how we were totally guided to go over there at that exact time.  We then had dinner at the Sr Missionaries house not even a hour later, oh man I was dead they fed us some amazing clam chowder and steak! Dude I get fed so much, My life is to hard! =p

Thanksgiving here didn't seem like thanksgiving at all, but I ate my fill. I spent most of the day walking through snow in my new snow boots.

That is SO COOL that Miranda wants to serve a mission! I am so happy for her, it really will change not only her life but hundreds of peoples lives, I've already seen my mission have huge impacts on people and myself as well.

We have a investigator who we finished all of the lessons with and says he will be baptized, it's just he wants to feel that confirming witness that the Holy Ghost will provide him, we've really been working on helping him understand the Holy Ghost and how it speaks to people, and you can tell that he is feeling it it's just getting him to recognize that he is feeling it. He got super sick and didn't come to church yesterday because he was in the E.R. which he felt really bad about he loves the feeling he gets at church (...THAT'S THE SPIRIT!), 

We went and gave him a priesthood blessing yesterday and taught him a little about what it is and how it works. I am Praying so hard that he heals quickly and that he felt the spirit when we gave it to him, he is right there on the edge of baptism, and I am so excited for him! I love him so much, he will really help build the kingdom here!

I gotta go, But I love you all! I'll send a letter home to make up for this little baby email.

Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Soon to be 3 Months‏

On thanksgiving day I will officially be out on a mission for 3 months. 

 

Today it is 50 degrees! which is a huge change from two days ago it was in the low 10's for all of the week and then all the sudden there is just loads of water every where. I have never experience the ABS system on a car before this week when I was sliding to a stop man that was freaking trippy! I had no clue what the car was doing but one of the Elders in Gaylord  told me that it's all natural and stopped the car before any damage happened.

One thing I find funny about Michigan is just how serious people are about hunting, My neighbors family has gotten 13 deer this season (DNR officer so they get special privileges) But I think it's super funny how every hunter has these ridiculously huge freezers and they have multiple of them just for the deer meat.

I like it how here in the branch in the sacrament preparation room there is a tie rack for all of the people who don't come in ties and a white shirt so there is no excuses for not being able to do the sacrament.

I met a Member on Sunday who was 104 years old, it was Ants man!

We went to Mt. Pleasant for the Elder Nash training but Elder Nash got a emergency reassignment and he couldn't come but I wasn't even mad because all of the speakers who did give training did a killer job at it and the spirit was super strong and i learned alot!

Transfer calls are on the 28th and I may or may not have a new companion next Tuesday

Since Thanksgiving is coming up I would like to say a few things that I am thankful for

I am thankful for being in such a beautiful place where every time I get to go out side it is like a treat even with the snow, especially with snow at times.

I am Very thankful for a good healthy body and I grow more appreciative of that almost daily

I am thankful for this beautiful promised land of AMERICA and i love what 1 NE 13 says about it.

I am so grateful for guardian angles for when you don't know how to drive in the snow and you are sliding

I am thankful that I get to be out here serving people and making a diffrence in peoples lives even when it's just small acts of service

I am thankful that Alpena gets like no snow compared to Gaylord or to Sault St. Marie  (the Sr. Missionaries truck from Gaylord when we did trade backs this week was quite a sight with almost like a flame job done on it but it was like a half a inch thick of ice and then there was just snow piled all over it.)

And i am so thankful for all of the things I have learned from loved ones who are erry where in the world at this point.                     

i am very thankful for S choosing to be baptized this Saturday, I spoke at his baptism about the gift of the holy ghost, We had the baptism in the Branch Presidents indoor pool, I was one of the witnesses to make sure he went under. My companion got dressed up in his whites to help S into the water since he only has one leg, but that wasn't really necessary so he was just kinda chilling in the pool

 

I am also very thankful for Sr. Missionaries, man I don't know what I would do If I havn't had the W's or the S's around. They are such good examples to me and they are all so Christlike and give and help every one with as much as they can. They really help all forms of missionary work so much we are constantly hearing from them for people who would benefit form a visit with us, they come out with us when we have a lesson scheduled super early and no member can make it out to help us. 

 

They Feed us, they drive us to super far out places for meetings, and they really help the branch grow closer and strengthen it. Dad Elder W's company that he shares built the Tempe Town lake Bridges! It was hilarious the S's told the W's that I have two hollow legs that are impossible to fill up with food and during the training down in Mt. Pleasant all of the missionaries were eating Lasagna and some table didn't finish their tray and Elder W picked it up looked at me and we both nodded and I got the rest of it. It was hilarious how in sync it was.

On the subject of Sr. Missionaries helping us with lessons at early hours the W's came with us to this potentials house and we started teaching the first lesson. And Elder W served in Australia before but This was sister W's first mission. And man that was such a good lesson it was all going perfectly, Me and my comp were in perfect harmony on teaching and the questions the now investigator was giving was perfect and Elder W was doing really good teaching certain concepts and we were all teaching really good to his needs. The only problem was We didn't get Sister W to speak up much other than to read scriptures and she also bore a really good testimony at the end. We got out of there and she was jumping for joy on how well that went and she was saying how exciting it is to finally fulfill her dream of being a missionary, in the car she said "Man I really need to practice teaching more".... and I thought she was going to say something she did bad but then she said "It was impossible to say anything, I couldn't stop crying! , the spirit was so strong, My testimony was growing just sitting there!" ha ha It's so funny how enthusiastic she is and how happy she is to be on a mission.

Sr. Missionaries are great I have so much Respect for them because they seem to sacrifice even more than regular missionaries to come out and to do work.

Bye i love you have a good day! don't get shot!

Love,

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

There was a Lion in the room

You  know things are real when your thermostat that is broken and never goes under 60 degrees in under 40 degrees! It's all good though at least I'm not in the Soo, they have over 4 feet of snow already! I finally know what Bill and Ted mean when they talk to Socrates and talk about us being "dust in the wind" =p ha ha I have never heard that song before. I love wearing thermals so much! they are so comfortable!

I made a cool discovery this week there is an El Rancho up here in GayLord! It just reminds me of the times when Miya would hold a comb up to her nose and Say "I am El Rancho!".

this week was a pretty crazy week, there was alot of big changes and Miracles that happened. At church there was 42 people there! Hoooly! We got a new Branch Presidency and it was the S's last day and it was Elder and Sister W's first day.

One of the craziest things that happened to me this week was we set up an appointment with a guy named E. Originally We door knocked into E and I got us into his house because He had a Boy scouts of America sticker on his window and i told him I was a Eagle Scout. After we were in his house we got along super well! He played guitar, was a locksmith, was a carpenter, played string bass, and many other things, there was not a doubt in my mind that I was basically prepared to teach this man. he even had a Canoe! (ha ha ha, I joke around with my companion every day that we need to carry around a canoe and baptize people in it, it's been a good running joke). He read the bible 8 times through so I knew it would be difficult to have him accept the Book of Mormon but I knew that If he would commit to reading it half as faithfully as he did the bible he would assuredly again a testimony of it. We never really got to teach him in that visit though, but we set up a return appointment. 

I woke up that day and I knew I needed extra power so i went to the "Glory Rack" of ties and picked out one of my special ties. I studied very specifically for that appointment because I knew it wan't going to be a easy one at all. And Man was I right! 

 

We get there and we get on more common grounds i swear if I wasn't the missionary for him and his wife I don't know who else was. I went in and started teaching, He had an amazing knowledge of the bible so I just had to point out things that happened in the bible like apostasy.  I asked him about the story of Noah and used that to teach. For some reason Elder W would not say anything at all, i tried to pass it to him and one time I straight up asked him to continue and he shut me down. 

 

So i basically had him read scripture when ever one popped into my head. He said about 6 other words through out the whole lesson besides the scriptures I had him read. But man I was feeling the Dews of the spirit! and I had no problem at all teaching him about the restoration, I felt the spirit like i did in the MTC which hasn't happened since I got to Alpena. 

 

The lesson was beautiful so far and then I started to tell the story of the prophet Joseph smith and E was completely silent, the whole lesson his mind would travel off topic and he would throw out things but he was silent. The spirit was there and he could feel it. I then taught about the book of Mormon and thats when things got really tough. He started to flip a biscuit on about how the bible is the only word of God for him even though I brought up prophesies of the book of Mormon, and prophets coming after Christ from the bible and what not.  the lesson was starting to go south so I said a quick prayer and asked for help and a miracle. 

I then started bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it is the word of God and how there are living prophets here on the earth. I bore testimony with ever fiber of my soul, i used all of the power of the spirit and all of the Authority I had to let him know that this is true! I have never bore a testimony as powerful in my life than I had in that house at that moment. 

 

The spirit was so strong it was like a lion in the room, it was undeniable and he could feel it! There was a Lion in the room and he refused to look at it. I could not get him to accept the book of Mormon in my hands, I tried and bore testimony and tried but he would not take it. I was prompted before I left the apartment to put our phone number on a restoration pamphlet and the address and time for church. I gave him that pamphlet and tried to get him to commit to pray about the things we spoke about and ask if they were true but he kept beating around the bush. It got to the point where I didn't want to keep (as my companion said it) "beating a dead horse" and I closed with a prayer and we left. 

We had a long                     walk to the car, in silence. I wasn't angry at my companion for not doing anything at all, I wasn't mad that he wouldn't take the Book of Mormon. But it tore at my soul to think of his rejection of the word of God. It kinda reminds me of 2 NE 33:1-3, my eyes did water my pillow that night just as nephi's did.  

When we got to the car after the long walk of silence, and i jumped into the drivers seat, for the first time in like a half hour my Companion spoke up. "Elder Crockett I know why we were sent there! I am sorry for not speaking up, but I felt restrained, I'm glad I did though because I saw you teach with more power than I have seen many experienced elders teach with, You are a Great missionary and will only get better!" That is the first complement that I actually felt he was sincere about, and I have been blessed with the miracle I prayed for, he now has respect for me and there has been many miracles just because of that! Ugh the story's not over and i'm out of time!!!!

Bye I love you! be good, don't get shot!

Love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The Bearded Man

Our car has been in the shop all week long, and will probably be there until Wednesday unlike what they promised us. My comp is ticked about it, He is from the country in a city that is alot smaller and spread out compared to Alpena and never had to ride a bike in his life, he hates riding bikes. I love riding bikes so much!!! Dude I don't even care that we are getting rained and snowed on , I love it! We have been blessed with several miracles just because we rode bikes.

We dropped our car off earlier this week and we had to walk a mile and a half or so to get back to our apartment. and it's hilarious because as we were 10 feet from the door the phone started vibrating and I looked and it said "congratulations Elder Crockett! You are now granted your driving privileges, get the keys and fire up that engine you deserve it!" ha ha ha well i just have to wait 2 weeks to get the car back from the shop to do that =p.

We were out riding bikes to a street to go and do some door knocking and there was this man who was doing yard work and getting all of the leaves out of some ones yard who had this awesome beard! Man that thing was knarley, it wasn't like duck dynasty status but it was thick, medium sized, and super manly. I yelled " I like your beard!" and it made the guy have the biggest smile because it was pretty random. The next day I was out riding bikes down a main road waving to every car that passed as usual, and this guy leans all the way out his window and yells "I like your suit!" It was the man with the beard!!! Oh man that brought the biggest smile on my face and made my day.

This week we put our last investigator on date for baptism, all of our investigators are now on date and should be baptized in about a month. Problem is we no longer will have lessons to investigators, other than to clarify and reteach and what not.

We had a District Meeting this week and so we went down to Gaylord for it and we were having trade offs after wards. While in our district meeting we got new rules for our mission, now every Saturday we have to have a car "fast" because we have the most car crashes out of every mission on the eastern half of the states, and so we no longer can use our cars on Saturdays. 

 

We also got a new rule about us not emailing for more than a hour and a half, because alot of missionaries are super stressed and they spend all P-day emailing and they never go out and do anything fun. Oh my goodness my companion flipped a biscuit! not only are we going to have to ride bikes, but it will have to be in the snow, he was not a fan of the new rules and made it pretty clear during the meeting... I love these new rules! I was so disappointed because I was thinking that I was never going to get on a bike again after we get our car back, and i also like the email one because I can actually have time to go and do fun things on P-day, all we ever do is shop, email, laundry, jimmy johns (or culvers!!! I love that place, it's like in and out but alot better!), email, and then FHE. 

Trade offs were super sick! I loved it! I wish I had several more days with my district leader Elder D. Man we Did Work! We picked up several new investigators! We had huge success when we door knocked, and we really did not want to stop at all, we did it for like 4 hours. it ended by us getting let in and teaching the whole restoration to a family who saw us riding bikes earlier that day and wondered why are they dressed so nicely to ride bikes, one hour later we were on their doorstep and I said about 10 words and then asked if We could come in and share about that (in those 10 words I introduced us and said something about eternal families). 

 

The father was golden he kept coming up with questions about our church and the answers to the questions were all bullet points to the lesson of the restoration, he lead everything perfectly so it was nothing more than a natural conversation. He offered us some beers and we of course politely rejected and were going to go back there this week and give them some Books of Mormon and teach more. Oh man the Church is so true when you are on bikes and people actually notice you!

One of my biggest struggles that happened this week was Elder S decided it was finally time for a double legger meal. He was determined to fill both of my "hollow legs" up with food. He took us to Mancinos and bought me a big meal! I calmly ate one sandwich after another . but I was pretty dang full after that. We were dropped off at the church and then went with a member to a lesson and an hour later they took us out to eat... at Mancinos...I was still full from that last meal but Struggling i ate a few slices of pizza. Oh my goodness i was dead, that was a double legger! It took 2 rounds to do it but it happened.

The branch President pulled me aside yesterday and asked me to conduct the primary program.=p I am super excited for it. I will be in primary for the next few weeks preparing for it, Sister S was going to be conducting the music for it but she goes home next monday so they asked me to do it. 

I gotta go, Bye I love you stay strong, don't get shot, Do work!, go... read some books!

Love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The S Word....and......The Gospel According to Skywalker

 It was October 31st in the year of 2014. We looked out the window and watched as the clock ticked to 9:07 am the rain turned to snow! I loved it so much! it made my companion super sad but snow is amazing (I still think the S word isn't nearly as bad as the D word, for now i guess ha ha) It didn't stay to long it was gone later that day. But I loved seeing it as we drove over 180 miles on that day, it was so beautiful how all of the bare branches of the trees were now white and you could see even the tiniest of branches because there was snow stuck to it. And it wasn't super hard core either so driving in it wasn't bad at all, except the telephone pole that fell down and made it so we couldn't continue that way to a members house. 

After all of that snow we check out a newspaper and saw that there was a 50% off all snow gear at J.C. Pennys so we went there to get me some winter gear. I Got a big jacket, a scarf, a beenie, and a long sleeved thermal shirt for P-days to go with a jacket vest that a investigator gave me. In total with out the sale I would have spent 280 something on it all. So i was pretty glad we stumbled upon that sale. But even better the cashier was cute and I was really nice to her, and i didn't notice it until today but she gave me a extra discount on it all! I only payed $100 on all of that, when the coat its self was originally $200. Man it really pays off to be nice and devastatingly attractive!   

We are now on daylight savings time, i have no clue who thought up this idea, but i  am grateful for that extra hour of sleep I got on sunday because of it

So on my mission I have used up the ink in 4 pens already ha ha ha! I guess i write quite a bit, who knew. 

This week I was doing alot of driving every where. I had loads and loads of time to just ponder. I am really grateful that I was able to finish and get my Eagle scout award, and I am really grateful for all of the leaders who helped me learn through out my life whether it was in sunday school or in Scouting I feel like I have been really blessed with amazing examples in my life that has encouraged me to work hard and to be Christ like. I could write a million names down for who I mean when I think about that. And I am so grateful for all of those who weren't my leaders and teachers but my friends who had a huge impact on me. I also remembered I forgot to have my Eagle Court of Honor ha ha oh well we can do that later =p.

There is a member who we go and visit every week, we read out of the book of Mormon with him. His Cat Sammy ran away 7 months or so ago and i think it's very sad / sweet because every time we pray with him he has us pray for Sammy, that she will be safe and have help. I love it, it's really like I said Sad but Sweet that he misses his cat that much. 

Starting today we're taking the jeep to the shop to get repaired so I will be riding a single speed bike every where for the next week. I hope it's fun, I love riding bikes but one of these is a girl bike and I have a feeling that even though it's smaller my comp won't want it. But riding bikes for the Gaylord missionaries did miracles so my fingers are crossed.

Aight well I'm headin off to do some laundry, We have to come back later today, so if there is any thin you want to say go for it.

Bye I love you have a good day! Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

 

 

 

The Gospel According

to

Skywalker

a talk by Elder Campbell

Skywalker 1:1

a long time ago in a city probably not too far away from where I am located currently there was a wise jedi master name Nephi. master Nephi was an expert at the doctrine of Jesus Christ and Taught this doctrine very well within the chapters of the BOOK OF MORMON (2 Nephi 31). let us examine this in light of Star Wars:

 

Faith: luke is exhorted by master Yoda to lift his X-wing out of the mucky nasty swamp. Luke tries and ultimately fails to lift up the X-wing with normal effort and gives up exclaiming "it's too big". Yoda then tells him that "size matters not" and lifts the X-wing with his mind. Yoda teaches that if we exercise faith and put forth effort, we won't have to worry about how big a task is because can still accomplish it (Matthew 13:31-32).

 

repentance: Skywalker the older started out as a very frail boy that made many mistakes, becoming a murderer of people (Alma 36:14). in the end of his life, he finally turns and repents. bringing balance to the force and even appearing to leah as a spirit to ask forgiveness from her as well. Darth Vader repented as we need to as well. I imagine though that Vader looked at his life and realized that if he repented sooner, his life would have been a lot better (Alma 34:33).

 

Make Covenants and Receive Blessings: in order for luke to progress further than he was, he had to make an oath into the jedi order (2 Nephi 31:10-11). this brought him membership into the jedi and all of the gifts and blessings associated with it. including the ability to now use the force at all times(2 Nephi 31:12).

 

endure to the end: Luke has only begun his journey with the redemption of his father and the end of the sith. he will soon encounter "sun destroyers" about 12 more death stars, Admiral thrawn, his own battle with the darkside, yslari lizards, and amongst all of that raising a family (was that too much Star Wars deep doctrine? maybe. read more Star Wars books if your confused). but through all of this (we have his whole life documented) Luke skywalker stayed true to Force, becoming a great teacher of it himself (2 Nephi 31:19-21).

the Gospel is where we can achieve the greatest happiness in life and where we can do the most good. I hope that we all with have this as a pattern in our lives and recieve the blessings from it. I leave this in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

 

 

 

Deer

Merry Birthday Ella! Congrats, i hope turning 15 was very refreshing ha ha ha. Thats so sick that you found my ipod! just make sure that when you send it to me that you clean all of the other stuff off of it because I would defiantly be tempted to jam to some Justin Timberlake or Michael Jackson! Please can you load a whole bunch of conference talks on it, and try to refrain from putting on any solo singers who butcher the hymns by singing every note but the ones that were in the sheet music. But if it's in a group of people who change the notes thats not as bad, you see because when it's a group it sounds planned, but when it's one person...

 Today is my 2 month mark of being out on a mission.

Man I am so glad that I have come up north at this point and time in my mission, It would have sucked to come 1 month later than I did I seriously have been up here during the prettiest time ever! and it's really sad to see now because leaves are just falling like none other.  one of the forests near my apartment is almost completely bare of all leaves. And there is a blanket of color all over the ground every where, i keep bringing them into the house on accident because they get wet and just stick to me shoes or my pant leg. The only colors left on the trees are assorted browns and yellows with occasionally one yellow turning red. I was standing out on the balcony on our Zoneleaders apartment and it is really funny how all the trees from far away looks like colored marshmallows in the shape of brocoly (I don't know how to spell that but it's what we call dinosaur trees) 

This week we were out and about and while we were leaving a less actives house we got a text from one of our investigators husbands. it said "smoked venison at the trailer...now" we hit the road immediately! He is a less active member who has been working on a deer processing trailer to butcher deers. He is building this inside a Semi Trailer and has been working super hard on getting it finished in time for deer season (which is bigger than almost any holiday up here apparently, they don't have school on opening day because they know no one will come, and the city is gridlocked with cars apparently. 

 

I saw a bunch of office chairs out on a side walk that had a "for sale" sign on them, they were just regular office chairs but they were being advertised as "good deer blind chairs" ha ha.) We've been meeting with our investigator inside of this trailer and have been teaching her lessons, we set a baptismal date a few weeks ago. But the husband, as he was driving his son to school saw 2 deer get hit by a car and the other guy didn't want them (they were young and they died) he took them and cut them up and started cooking them. When we got there we had a lunch with glass plates, we had salad and venison, and we were sitting in folding chairs with our plates on the table saw table. It's alright tough we made sure to unplug the thing.

It's so funny I don't think I have gone a week up here without eating Venison.

We had District conference out in traverse city this week. It was like Stake conference but it was a weekend long event. Traverse City is about as far away from Mesa To Showlow in the time it takes to drive over there. But I loved Traverse City so much I did not want to leave. 

 

It currently has a population of about 30,000 people, but in the summer it's more than double that amount. It was nice being in a bigger city where there was actually traffic and noise, i could not go to sleep because I loved being in the Zone leaders apartment and being able to look out the window and since their apartment is on the top of the hill I could see city lights and hear cars quietly humming outside. 

 

But my favorite part of the whole thing was just being able to be around other missionaries for once, We stayed with the ZL's and the Elders from the Upper peninsula (the soo), and during conference we got to see like 5 other sets of both Elders and sisters. 

 

The Cop cars there in Traverse city are so sick they are all new Cameros and Dogechallengers I think, I thinks it's sick how they just have super nice sports cars.

 

We heard from Elder Lansing, one of the area 70's. Most of what was talked about in the meetings were for Family History and temple work which doesn't really apply to me because I can't do either at this time.  I really liked Elder Lansings insights on D&C 121 -123 though, he read through quite a bit of it and testified of many things. 

 

One of the things I liked was how in D and C 122 V 9 it says "therefore hold on thy ways" you'll have to read the whole chapter to get what i'm talking about but Elder Lansing likened it to Finding Nemo how Dory would sing "just keep swimming" and how we all have hard times just as the prophet Joseph smith, and we can plead for the lords help just like Joseph did in Section 121, 

 

but the Lord won't always give us the things we ask for in the way we ask for it, he will give us the strength and the courage to just keep swimming and endure to the end so in that way will our prayers be answered and we will be delivered from the things that bind us . 

I love you all and pray and miss you so dearly!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Chyup! Chyup! Kechyup!‏

Did you know that the Lansing Michigan Mission has the most car accidents out of all the missions on this side of the Mississippi? There is currently 12 other mission vehicles that are being worked on/ that had been in accidents this month..... Man and I thought all of the Stupid Scary driving experiences that I've had where going to be gone once I left Arizona!

Remember the skunk?  Well it's still there and it still stinks.  While my companion was avoiding the skunk he almost crashed into a car, I screamed, "CAR CAR CAR!!" and he swerved to avoid crashing into it, so we didn't hit the car but he slid our brand new Jeep into the guard rail.  After the Car Carnage was over, we rolled into the gas station and I couldn't open my door! my companion tried to get it open but i was stuck, I then opened the latch on the door and rammed the door with my elbow and shoulder and it flew open. The door now opens =p it doesn't always make happy noises but it works.

 

Did you know there is a law in Michigan that makes it illegal for wives to get hair cuts without their husbands permission. It's true, The barbers don't ask about it but the wives can be prosecuted for it.

 

So i was pondering and having a very deep and intellectual struggle earlier this week and i came to the great conclusion that When i die and if it is in the Winter I want every one to wear Ugly sweaters =p ha ha and there would be a ugly sweater competition with prizes just like at Dads work, But you know since we are in the Latter days if I don't die and I just get twinkled were going to have a twinkling party where we all wear ugly sweaters =p.

 

I actually wrote a poem that i would like to share

Dark is the night,

fog very light.

With rain paving the ground, 

and on the windshield it did sound.

Just as a jet black mirror,

the streets were shinning and clear.

Reflecting streams so bright,

of the soothing blue street light.

The serenity seemed,

like it was dreamed.

As the moon shone free, 

it did light a few tree.

Oh how I am longing for this, 

to live in this moment of bliss.

For the apartment I fear,

because the skunk is still near!

I need a good title for it still.

I have memorized 1/2 of my P.B.

For the first time in  my time up here I finally feel comfortable up here in Michigan and I actually am starting to like it here. But to be fair I have been pretty blessed, I have probably only had to make my self 3 dinners my whole time here the weather is perfect (at the moment, im not looking forward to the super humidity or the -40 degrees) The scenery is beautiful! I love after brushing my teeth at night or after my workouts in the morning going out on our balcony and just admiring the Forrest that is our back yard. And I actually am starting to feel like myself again. 

A while ago we were door knocking and we passed a few lades and some little kids who were painting their garage white. I immediately turned back around and started to help them out and picked up a spare brush they said I could use. 

 

They were doing crazy balancing acts on a ladder to paint the top of the Garage and so i took that job and didn't even use a ladder to do it. I was really worried because the little girls were a 4 year old and a 6 year old and they were running around with their paintbrushes dripping and flinging paint every where. I was wearing some of my favorite pants and tie, but I said a prayer and kept them in my pre-referal vision. And Surprisingly I didn't get any white paint on me, unlike every one else. 

 

Man this act of service made my day when we were done and the grandma came to me and shook my hand and said how grateful she was that we came and helped her on this day where she was super busy, and it made me really feel good when with her eyes starting to become moist said "i now have time to play with my grandchildren". I loved that and walking by later seeing her out in the back yard with the 2 cute little girls swinging together =p. 

For my personal Studies I got a teaching record and wrote down all that needs to be taught to investigators before they can be baptized and I have been going through all of the topics and reading them up in "true to the faith" and I have been reading every single scripture reference I could find on the subject. And in my note book I have been writing down the scriptures I like and I've been making a cheat sheet kinda like the Scripture Mastery cards but I'm writing it on the front page of my quad so I have all of these references that I can bust out and that I can practice and memorize to help me with my teaching. And I think If every one did their scripture study according to topics and certain stories it would strengthen peoples testimonies so much more on all of the gospel principals, i can just imagine all the good that it would do to every one if they did that. 

Alright well Im gonna head out, Bye Love you have a good day! Enjoy the new temple! Don't get shot!

love,

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

It would mean the world to me

 "I went in a cornfield today..."

I was looking at one of the most attractive people in the world, you know just like I do every time i look at myself in the mirror. And i realized that the scar that I have on my front tooth from me taking a sharp turn on my bike and going tooth first into the street, It totally looks like Michigan! it looks just like the glove! Man if only i realized that was a sign earlier and prepared more for where I would be going. Well yesterday at about 9am it was 28 degrees here!!! Dude it's not even Halloween yet!

But this place is so cool there is wild life every where! Which is a bad thing at times, Yesterday a skunk was hit not even 200 meters away from  our apartment and that stunk up everything! It was hit before 9am and when we were back at like 9 pm it still stank and it's smell started came into our building and into our rooms.

Road kill is rather common, there is always a dead skunk  somewhere, or a Nephite or Lamonite Squirrel (Nephites are brown, Lamonites are black, Anti nephi lehis are a mix but those are uncommon)  Brother K was telling me that he was driving home and he slammed on his brakes because there was deer covering the road! he counted 73  Elk the vast majority of them being Bucks. Bro K owns a large amount of property and he feeds deer and bears and all manner of wildlife, but he only does it because he is a hunter, he has several tree stands where he has a perfect shot of all of the deer that he feeds and he almost raises them to be huge, and he will sit up there and let 20 or so deer walk by until he sees the Biggest ones.  He has more than 50 antlers and heads in his trophy room. He always feeds us something that has venison in it =p.

 

My left eye has been twitching all week, IT"S KILLING ME!!!!

I was on my way back from the city of Hillman on Wednesday And during that 45 minute drive I was really discouraged, I felt like we wasted our whole day, we spent the whole time at a district meeting, and then we drove back to a go into medical facilities to read scripture with "less actives" who would be active if they could move, and all of our lessons fell through, we didn't go door knocking because my comp felt like I needed to change out of my suit pants and then we had a dinner appointment with a member. I felt like we wouldn't have been able to do the things that we did that day in the timely manner and fashion that we did it, But i felt like i just wasted just so much of today where I could have done actual missionary work. BOOM! I was hit by a spiritual Baseball bat! "your doing what your Heavenly Father wants you to do".

That really changed my out look on missionary work alot.

It really softened my heart loads towards what we were doing, my companion, and many more things. 

I was knocking on some doors and a Lady answered the door and we got to where we asked her if she is a believer in Christ and she said ya I belong to (a certain) church and then Elder W whoopped out (since he actually knows things about other religions, I have a hard time keeping up with all of the different beliefs that are here, I've counted more than 19 churches so far in this city alone.) He asked her  "Well what would it mean to you to tell you that there is a prophet again on the earth and he is leading our church just like Moses did" 

She paused.

Looked up and said "that would mean the world to me!" 

Heck YA! we started testifying to her and then she said that shes happy where she's at and slammed the door in our face. WHAT!!!!

She Legitly said that would mean every thing to her! Man it kills me when people have their own agency ha ha ha.

I was still door knocking and I saw 2 guys and their daughters in front of a house I started walking over across the street and Elder W followed behind me. We struck up a conversation with them and one of them said "well since your a servant of God can i tell you my conversion story?" you could feel the spirit. 

 

The other guys who was Big, Black and hilarious started telling us on how he came to feel the spirit. and then Elder W told of a experience where he was super down and felt the spirit really strongly. and I had to pick out one of my spiritual experiences that I was actually comfortable sharing, and i had to filter it down to one non members could understand. So I shared part of the Longboarding one when we went to the parking garage and the cops came but i felt like i needed to get out of the car and walk to the temple instead. When i told them that the Cops came the big Black dude got that amazed look on his face and was like "OOOOuu OUUU OUU! Man I can't stand being around you guys! You guys make me so teary eyed! When you guys were walking down the street I KNEW you guys were with Jesus!" 

 

he then said something that was was about him feeling the spirit  and he walked away to a guy who just pulled his massive truck into their lawn. Elder W gave him a Mormon.org card with our number on the back and started walking away and I was like that's not good enough for the spirit they felt. I then exchanged numbers with both guys and I said I would love to see them and talk about more things like this again, and then I invited them to have a FHE with me and with tears in his eyes the other guy was like "Yes! I would love to see you guys again" Dude you could tell that they both felt the spirit so strongly with just our presence there and they were truly sincere about wanting to see us again. I love it when people can recognize the spirit!

My comp woke up today and couldn't work out, his heart is hurting him....... Me and Elder S gave him a blessing. And from what he was telling us and from what Sister J was saying it probably has to do with the Supplements he has been taking to help him loose weight and gain muscle, that or super stressed, So we were told to have a very chill day today. It's so cool, it's raining right now but it falling down like snow does you know when it's not a storm it just kinda gently falls every where.

Hey Can i have some pictures that I can put on my wall like every temple in AZ (that i know, Ill come to love phoenix later in life), Family, grandparents, cousins, John Brzenk stuff like that. 

Aight well I gotta go Bye Love you keep me updated!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The Lord Answers Prayers

As I was walking out of the chapel I heard Elder S talk to the Branch clerk saying "Man that Elder Crockett is impressive, when ever I have fed him he always seems to be able to finish any thing and every thing, I swear it just all gets put into one leg". every time Elder S feeds us  he always jokes about how all of the food goes into one leg and how he really wants to see me when finally the food goes to other places in my body and i'm fat.

I would tell you how much I weigh today but i don't think it's any more than what it's been the last time I told you, that and my companion got mad once the scale told him he gained more weight even though hes trying so hard to loose it, he kicked the scale into the wall, and now it gives me kinda unbelievable numbers, ever since that happened I am 200 lbs all the sudden...

Those pictures I sent you home in the Letter are for Ella, so she has something unusual to draw or paint. I don't know how i feel about the first two but especially after general conference I think that she needs to draw the one with the feet on it. " oh how beautiful their feet will be upon the mountains" or somethin like that, I loved how that was brought up in general Conference in Elder Hollands Talk where he talks about Thomas s. Monson how he gave up his shoes off of his feet for some one who needed them. If i'd advise drawing any of those pictures I would do the feet one. All of the notes on the back are just details of how I image it the picture is to give the visual to work off of.

Did any one else notice Hamiltons Trainer in the World Report in between conference sessions? They talked about an Elder from Chile in it and it totally shows a picture of Elder Larson.

 Something else that I thought was interesting about conference is that all of the big red chairs has a tissue container built into the arm rest because they know that the apostles and such are going to cry. 

So this week has been insane! I started out on with trade offs to Gaylord. And me and Elder A are both new he is 4 months old as of next week I wanna say. But we woke up and made our beds and did every thing we could to be exactly obedient, because we've been told being obedient brings blessings, but being exactly obedient brings miracles. 

They had really been struggling with investigators over there in Gaylord and actually so is every one up here. But we worked hard going to former investigators houses and talking to them and teaching them according to what we were prompted to. By the end of the day we had taught 5 lessons and we had 4 specific return appointments. Because we were exactly obedient they had 4 new investigators by the end of the day!

 

We then had Zone training where we had really good lessons from the Sister Training leaders and the Zone leaders and President Hoover. But we also got to watch the new movie "Meet the Mormons" ! That movie is awesome I really think it will help with clearing "The MORMONS!" name and make people more open to missionary work, sadly the only place in Michigan that it's going to be played is in Lansing so it's not going to help me all to much at the moment. It was SO nice to be able to see other missionaries! There was about 9 sets there at Zone training, several of them had to travel over 200 miles just to go to that meeting though. 

I said a prayer while I was on the way back from Gaylord and asked or the opportunity to get better at running because I felt like I don't get enough practice and I don't want to loose my abilities. 

After that Since our Zone leaders are so far away from us they used that opportunity to do a blitz in my area so I got to go and do work with one of the Zone leaders.  

When we were out knocking doors Elder R talks to every one even if he has to yell as they ride their bike away, and he also waves to every car and he is really good at starting a discussion at the door step! 

But while we were knocking on a door a runner ran by and Elder R yelled "could we talk to you for a moment about Jesus's restored church on the earth" and the runner yelled back "if you can catch up!" we then looked at each other and abandoned the door step and started booking it after him. I caught up first and started a conversation with him and about the church and then Elder R came up a while later, and we ran about a half a mile trying to teach him as we ran, dude it was hilarious! 

We finished the run with him and we gave him a Mormon.org Passalong card with our number stamped on the back of it and invited him to go on the website and to learn more about us and to give us a call if he had any questions. We were busting up laughing after we left that guy it was so funny, us trying to teach as we were breathing so heavy, running down the street with a book of mormon in our hands and in our white shirts and ties. 

While I was in Gaylord I was looking through the Area Book with Elder A and we came upon a page that said all of the active members and all of the inactive members in the branch there and there was over 300 inactive members in the Gaylord branch! These are mostly all people who has been baptized who were made deacons, priests, elders, etc. But only about 45-60 people go to their branch each week... that inspired me to check that out in my area book and it was around the same and all the sudden I knew what me and my companion needed to do, 

My "Criminal mind" as i like to call it snapped on and brilliant ideas just started coming to me. I talked to Elder W about it and he was trying to throw me off of the idea and convince me that was all the members duty and we just need to leave it to them. And so I searched PMG to try to find something that says the Full time missionaries need to help in bringing back inactives to the ward but I couldn't find anything on that topic. I gave up and as I was fasting for conference made sure to pray about some guidance or help or something on that subject.

General Conference first session in every talk they talked about us needing to help the inactives come back to church, and Chi Hong (son) Wong said specifically that Full time missionaries need to work side by side with the members in bringing back inactives to church. I was so happy! Because not only was that a answer to my prayer but it was encouragement to do that, that really was inspiration and all of the ideas that I was getting was to help them come back. I am now SO EXCITED to go to branch counsel or PEC so I can bring up that talk and ask all the ways we could help and to start talking about some of the ideas I had.

Any ways I gotta head out, were going to go and visit some light houses today and we have to get going if were going to get our laundry done and get me an electric piano so i can continue to practice (thats all i did in between conference sessions, I am dying to be able to play it well with two hands in sync)

Alright well I gotta go Bye love you! have a good day! Don't get shot!

love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Elk, Cider, Gingerale

(little bit of background, Miya had a nightmare about Truman dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, so she emailed him at about 2a.m.)
 
So Miya you know how you told me about checking that Fire alarm, ha ha well... I went home like 3 days later and the thought popped into my head to check it just like you said and so I opened it and there wasn't even a battery in it !!=p. So we went and bought a battery for it and i put it in and It has nonstop gone off since then. So I took the battery out and we are having a house inspection tomorrow and we'll bring it up to them.

We have a carbon monoxide detector that is separate from the fire alarm though so we will be warned if that does happen, I tested that one. So was your thought inspired, i think so in some way shape or form.

 

 SO dude you guys don't even know, this week has been killer hot! it almost got to 80 degrees this week, oh man my life is so hard! You wouldn't believe the trials and tribulation i have to suffer with this weather!

 

Guess what Miya? So we got a call for some one needing help, so we went over to go and do some service and guess what? I'll give you a hint it has to deal with a roof and Spiderman! Ha ha that trip up to the Homestead totally helped.

 

The trees up here are amazing they are all starting to change colors and there are such vibrant colors of yellow, orange, red, gold and green (haha)

 

So as of the 27th I am officially 1 month old as a missionary! In that 1 month I have officially gained 5 lbs! I am really having to work hard to make sure all of that goes to me getting super "Chad" instead of any thing else. one of the Sr. Missionaries  He says It's because I no longer have to fight for all of the food because before if i didn't eat it all as fast as possible it would all be gone, but here they make sure we leave with a full belly and they even send us home with food, I have so much food that I have to eat at our "Home base", Dude my life is so hard! 

 

That and Elder W has Obsessive Jimmy Johns and Gatorade trips. One of the Sisters in the ward actually takes orders on what we would like to eat, she says because we always have to eat what ever other families decide what they want so she likes to give us the chance to eat something we like, she feeds us officially once a week but we always get some type of treat and such when we go over to have FHE with her, 

 

She has us and the Sr. Missionaries come over for FHE every week because we all don't have Families to have FHE with.

What I find is really funny too is that we always get either Ginger ale or Apple cider almost every where we go, in fact we have had food where those were used as seasonings like the Cashew chicken we ate last week (that was number 1). We actually have even had Apple cider and ginger ale combined together for a drink, try it it's pretty impressive =p. 

 

Many people here also uses Venison meat in just about every thing they have, They all have freezers full of the Elk meat enough to last them a year plus some.

Sorry i haven't sent many letters home I lost all of my stamps for a while and I am now only down to one so...

 

In Alpena this small town of under 10,000 people there are actually over 14 churches so there is a reason why there are so many people here who shut the door on us saying "I already believe in God".

Well this week I had trade offs so i got to go to the city of Gaylord. I was set up with the District Leader Elder D. The problem was they already used up all of their Miles on their jeep so we had to ride bikes the whole time. I don't even know how many miles we rode that day but that bike was terrible compared to the Garry fisher back home. We spent ages knocking on doors and trying to find old investigators that were dropped along time ago and all 12 of those fell through, we couldn't find any of them. 

 

We just crossed off our last one finding out that they just moved and Elder D just stopped in his tracks before we were going to cross the street. He said we need to say a prayer and so we did it with cars driving right by us. i locked our bikes up to a street light and he said the prayer asking for success and direction on where to go, he poured his heart out in prayer, because we had been knocking doors for over 4 hours that day already and had very little success. 

 

The prayer ended and he was pondering on whether he should cross or go right or left. And he had nothing, But i felt like we needed to go to he left. We went to the left and the First person we knocked on jumped out of their door step and closed the door ( i love it when this happens because you can actually get things going and not have a door so easily slammed in your face) And we had a really good conversation and he was like "well can I have one of these books of mormon?" Dude this guy was freakin golden! We set a appointment with him and went to the next house. Good conversation with a Jehovah witness, but but shut down. 

 

The next house was a old catholic ladys house and she opened the door and she invited us in! We taught her the Restoration, and as we were teaching it I was thinking about it and i realized "oh dang Elder D is leaving me to do the first vision!" I tried memorizing it for like 20 minutes 2 days before and I hadn't reviewed it since, I did NOT remember it. I then started talking about Joseph smith and his story and then I quoted the First vision perfectly! It had so much power to it! I was tearing up right there I couldn't come up with words so it was just silent and Elder D let that silence soak in right there and then he asked what her thoughts on that was and she said "I know that is true!" 

 

I was astonished This was a lady who was Catholic, Who had never heard the Story of Joseph Smith before and she just let us in which is very rare and she totally accepts our message. She asked if she can have a Book of Mormon after we told her how she can truly come to know if this is truly Jesus Christs church here on the earth. We set up a return appointment and then talked to her a while longer, and then left. We got out and Elder D was baffled and was so happy that he finally has people who he could meet up with and he did not doubt at all that our prayer was answered. The Spirit was SO strong in that Lesson! 

K well I gotta go, My P- day is super busy I am leaving for another Trade off to Gaylord tonight at 8pm. This week is going to be insane because I come back from that on Wednesday morning and then The Zone leaders are coming here and having a blitz in our area, and were having Zone conference, and There is General Conference. SO this week is going to fly I can already tell. 

Tell the girls Merry Birthday for me.

Bye Love you, have a good day!

Love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Who Am I?

Hamilton your story of when you were on the flight to Chile was basically the exact same thing that happened to me, I was on the flight to Lansing sitting next to Elder Clark and we had a super good conversation going on about how we could see the Lords hand in preparing us for our missions. I didn't want to have to leave all of these people who I came to love in the MTC, and I was starting to realize how long two years actually was. I then looked out the window and saw that we were no longer over the lake, land was starting to appear and then a huge tidal wave of the spirit just hit me and then in my mind the words came to me "This is where your Heavenly Father wants you" I felt so much peace after that.

So we were going out to eat with a member this week. We have been fed like 9 times this week by members, I feel like I am gaining weight ha ha. But His house was kinda far out and we were following our GPS to get to his house and it said turn here and it was a tiny dirt road that was super wavy, I now know why we got the jeep we straight up had to kick it into 4 wheel drive and romp our way up this trail to make it to the top of the hill where he lived. It was so much fun! I started a video journal right then but my batteries died so it wasn't much of a entry. Sorry about the pictures I sent in some emails I realized the dates are off by one day and they are set to arizona time still ha ha.

So in Alena there is about 7 stop lights in the whole place, all of the stop and street lights dangle by a cord above the middle of the road. It's funny to see they be beaten by the wind because they move so much. Alot of the intersections here aren't really stop lights at all they only have one red or one yellow light that blinks that one color the whole time. it's hilarious to hear members complain about the 2 cars they had to wait for to make a turn at a blinker.

Michigan has so many cool rocks and stuff that you can't find any where else in the world, like when we got here President Jacobson gave us all a Petoskey stone which is a really cool stone, they give it to us to carry around in our pockets and to polish it little by little and they shared a cool story of Joseph smith and how he described himself he talked about how he was a big stone and then there was many people who bashed on him which took piece by piece off of his stone until he became the well known "polished" man that he is.

So this week we have given 4 priesthood blessing, we have given them to a member, a nonmember, a inactive member, and a investigator and it was really cool to see how every one truly had faith to be healed through these blessings. The faith of the people here is so amazing just because when all of the medical help that they have is still not working they really are humbled and they realize that nothing else can save them but the power of God through a priesthood blessing. One Elder literally saved one of my investigators lives 2 weeks before I came, He has had a massive change of heart because of it, so i've heard any ways.

Being around a lot of disabled and old people I have now seen what adult diapers look like.......... 

Theres a member here who lives in a medical facility who has survived a car accident, but because of it she has been living in this very same facility since 2006, We go visit her every week just because with out that she doesn't come in any other contact which is really sad to think about. Theres another member who lives in a facility right next to our church house who loves puzzles and we went to go share a spiritual thought with her and she was there making puzzles (thats all she does all day every day there is a stack of 20 that haven't been opened yet and like7 on the walls) We helped here a little bit and it was hilarious just because she is almost like a little kid at heart and when ever we would find a piece she would laugh like a kid who was enjoying being tickled. It's crazy how much you come to love people like that.

So EVERY door frame here has a Spider on it, Alot of them have huge massive webs with a huge juicy spider on it, It's rather impressive the webs that they spin, and they do it fast too! We basically play wheres Waldo when ever we come up to any door to find the spider and 99/100 of the times we find one, And then we always say " SpidAAs, Araknis Deathicus, AH the Speider" (Mega mind). We Literally go through every single one of those every time.

The side walks here are hilarious just because they had the choice to add them in or not and so alot of times there is a side walk and then it randomly disappears in front of one house and then it continues. The roads and side walks really take a beating here and they redo them alot because the Winters are just brutal on them.

You know though this week has been really hard for me, I really just wasn't happy nearly as much as I should be. I was being really hard on myself because I was thinking of what one of my teachers in the MTC told me, How Missionaries are called to literally be in the place of Jesus Christ to bless and help his children. I tried so hard to just forget myself completely and go to work, but it made it so hard! Yesterday during Potluck sunday (every third sunday they have a huge potluck and every one eats right after church, it's like this in the northern part of Michigan for sure I don't know about down where they actually have stakes though.) 

It hit me so hard during church that I wasn't being me, I realized I completely stop swaying to music and I didn't have that melodic rhythm to me at all, I didn't do the stick it to the man fist in like a month, I would talk about things I used to do but I didn't think that that was me any more, I came to a huge realization that I was called to serve to be me! Yes I was called to be like Jesus Christ but Jesus wasn't a robot he was very much a human. I basically came out here and did a clean slate and locked my personality out of it all. And it made things really awkward and weird and actually made me not loose myself, but it made me dwell on the life I used to live. I fasted 2 times this week just because how hard it was for me. (but yet I still feel like I gained weight ha ha).

I already feel so much different just by acting more like I used to. HYMNS have so much power in them, they are all gaining such a different meaning to me now!

Alright well I love you all I gotta go.
Study your scriptures,
Don't get shot!
STICK IT TO THE MAN!

Love you!

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett