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

The Michiganary‏

Man it is beautiful here! There is trees every where, The grass grows lusciously everywhere and there is green even growing up houses and trees! Oh but man I have been cold! Yesterday morning i was driving to my branch meetings around 9am and it was 38 degrees F out side! It hasn't gone over 60 degrees my whole time here so far, I am freezing up at night so Im going to go buy some warmer bedding because My sheet and 1 blanket isn't enough for me when it cools down at night. 

I am currently in the city of Alpena right at the top of the pointer finger on the glove. We have the Beautiful Lake Huron right next to us. Man the Houses here are just amazing though, none of them are the same, every single one of them are like their own piece of art. 

So my new companion is from Glendale Arizona so we have had some pretty awesome conversations about the temples in Az and such. He is such a loving guy! You can just see his love and the love he has for people when ever he talks to them and gets the opportunity to visit with them. Here in Alpena The church here is only a branch, there was 28 people at church yesterday including me,my comp and a Sr. Companionship that works in the area. The church here is tiny the chapel is the size of the relief society room and the rest of the building could fit in less than a overflow. Elder W has been up north all of his mission and he says that this is actually the biggest church building that he has had meeting in his whole mission.

It was very sad once we got away from the Airport when we landed in Lansing. We all knew that none of us in my MTC district weren't really going to see each other again. We had dinner at the mission home at like 11PM and then we were checked in a hotel and asleep by 1 am. We all met up at a stake center and then got our new companions and were gone by 12 that day. It was pretty sad, i really didn't want to say good bye to all of these people who i immediately came to love and would to anything for them.

I had like a 4 hour drive from Lansing up here to Alpena that day. Alpena is a city that has under 10,000 people in it and on the outskirts theres a lot of corn fields. The Closest set of missionaries that aren't the Sr Couple are 70 miles away.  But one of the benefits of that is we have a pretty nice apartment and we drive a 2014 Jeep compass every where! I love the car so far it's awesome, we're limited on how many miles we use a month, we can't use over 1500 which is actually really hard here seeing as we have 5 different counties in our area. 

Alot of the cars here in Alpena have rusted up a lot! Elder W explained   to me that it's all of the salt that gets put on roads helps the cars rust faster, there is so many cars where you can see through the tailgate or the bumper just because of all of the rust that it gets.

So we were knocking doors on my first day here just because there is no other ways to get investigators than by doing that since there are not really any members to give us referrals. SO on the 4th door we knocked we got into this persons "arizona room" I don't know why they are called that it's a room where you can get all of the snow off of you before you go inside, And she actually eventually invited us in and we taught like half of the restoration to her. During the visit she talked about her sister leaving this one church because she found out that they believe that Jesus Christ is a Alien from a different planet with super powers, and it freaked her out so she left the church. She couldn't come up with the name but randomly during part of our lesson she was like "I know who they are, That church is the Mormons!" Ha ha ha ha, we then explained to her that we do not believe that and we helped settle several other things.

I was bummed to leave the MTC so early as well just because this week they are dedicating a temple in Utah so the whole MTC is getting to watch the dedication and I missed it by that much!

Ella expect a good picture coming your way in a letter, i t is based on a real experience of us using our gooses.

Alot of people who are members here are disabled and in Hospice care or some type of medical facility so instead of knocking doors for 8 hours straight we go and visit all of the members who can't leave there medical facilities because our job is also to strengthen the members here. So we go out there and listen to all of their crazy stories and then leave them with a spiritual thought. I really have been trying to learning how to love people just like my trainer Elder W does, and i've been working at it so much that it's gotten to the point where there is times where i can almost physically see them as a different being, them in their healthy more strengthened state.

The members here are freaking saints, we have been fed every night, and this next week is also booked on us being fed, i really want the opportunity to cook all of the things that we have so it kinda bums me out until i taste the cooking that has been prepared for me. The only meal we've cooked so far was some Chocolate Chip pancakes yesterday for lunch and since we have a gas stove they looked really burnt but they where perfect.

Mom i saw the sickest Tribike ever the other day! There is alot of Handicapped people here and this bike was meant for some one in a wheel chair. It looked like a 3 wheeler but it had like a lift to get on the back and there was some type of lock thing that a wheel chair would slide into and then the bike was modified so you could ride it in your chair, it was so sick!

I really wanted practice at knocking doors so me and Elder W for Comp. Study practiced knocking doors in our apartment, he went in our bedroom and closed the door I knocked a minute later and he was in a completly diffrent outfit and had an accent goin on. And every single time I knocked he was totally diffrent, it was hilarious!

So I don't have Ipads here even though they have been promised to this mission since the pilot groups started using them, so i can't be a facebook elder at the moment so Mommy could you check if any one sent me any thin?

Man I can really feel peoples prayers for me here. That quote about Angles being round about you when you in the service is totally true.

Mom I realized I don't have my insurance card could you send me one?

Well As i brought up yesterday was Sunday and I woke up and felt like I was going to give a talk, so I went and looked up a good scripture and was going to plan a talk, but then I got caught up listening to Elder Holland who gave a talk to the Lansing Michigan mission in may and it was so powerful and then Church started so I only had a scripture. I got in there and I was asked to say the closing prayer which I have gotten used to i have said either the opening prayer or the closing or both at every single thin I go to

so I was glad that It wasn't a talk. 

Then They were announcing the meeting and the order that it was going to be going up and they said and "now we will be hearing from Elder Crockett"... DANG IT! I opened up to the scripture that I had out and they then asked me to just tell every one about my self and where I am from. Personally I Dislike it with a extreme passion when people go up and monologue during a meeting that is supposed to help us come closer to Christ so I said Where I am from and then How big my family is, (Every one got huge looks of shock on their faces, we would have been half of this branch if we lived here) And then I read the scripture and just went straight up by the spirit. 

I don't really remember what I said but it was apparently really good. After I finished The 1st counselor came back up and said "Well we were meaning to give something to you Elder Crockett, But now I feel kinda bad about it," He pulled out a green Tie "Well how long have you been out here?" "Um... 3 days =p" "You do not sound like a greenie at all, but you can have this anyways!"

I was then asked to give like 2 more prayers during that church meeting...

Well We use the Family history center here at the branch building to write emails and so we have all the time in the world to be on them, But we have other things to do today but I will be back around 3:30pm - 4:30 pm here again to send a email to the Mission president, I'll probably send pictures and stuff then as well. Love you all! God be with you

The Church is true!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Michigander Tomorrow!

NO WAY!!! Dang it sounds like things over there has been pretty insane! It's been raining a little bit up here but I can't even imagine that at all! Well I hope you have power tomorrow because I am allowed to call tomorrow before I leave Salt lake City. Well i guess it doesn't really matter since all of you now have some far out new phones, just make sure to send me you number to call through Dear elder or a email I think we're going to check again later today because several of us in my district needs to come back to finalize calling plans with their parents. We get on the plane at 8:30 but I hear we will be at the airport at like 6:30 I don't know the Arizona time for that I guess i'd be at the airport at 5:30 for you guys. But yah expect a call I already bought my call card. 

 

So do you remember how I talked about giving that blessing to Elder Clark? Well heres Part 2 of that story from when I left the computer lab. Me and him was walking back to our "home base" and he was like "I really appreciate that blessing that you gave me, I already feel a great difference, And I think that you set a really good example for all of the other Elders in our district Because they were really focused on how I gave one." Well he was totally right. 

 

Several hours later me and my companion Elder T to teach our real investigator and I went in and the spirit was immediately gone when I started the lesson. I had no clue what was up, but I kept tripping up on my words and the lesson just didn't have power behind it until I started bearing my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. And then after wards my Companion spoke up ( He had been weirdly quiet compared to normal) and he said "i've been thinking all lesson about that injury you were talking about and how you might not be able to play for BYU because of it, Can i ask if it's ok to give you a priesthood blessing?" and immediately i started feeling the spirit after he spoke up. I let him give the blessing since he brought it up.  It was very powerful! 

 

We walked out of that lesson and he said " I am so sorry Elder Crockett, I was feeling like I should have given the blessing at the very beginning and I know it made it really hard for you because I was ignoring the prompting." He then told me that it was his first priesthood blessing that he had ever given, and he knew that when he saw me today that he had to give one to our investigator he just didn't know why. It was super humbling to me! The spirit was just so strong, 

 

We came back to our class room and every one was staring at us. They were so confused just because we were so humbled and so quiet, and so reverent because that moment was almost sacred to us.  They eventually extrapolated the information out f me on what happened and Sister V jumped straight up and was like " I really need a blessing, I've been struggling...." We agreed that we could give her one, and then Elder Clark started feeling like he was going to give it, I busted out my card and She asked Elder Clark to give it, so he started thinking of how I gave the blessing to him right after our temple trip. It was his first priesthood blessing that he's ever given, It was Powerful! 

 

We then got back to our "Home Base" and I wanted my oil consecrated, and so did Elder Brown So elder Hoover Did mine and Elder Brown did his. There was a very strong spirit with all of us the whole rest of the day! We're giving Priesthood blessings today around 9:30 pm before we all try to get 3 hours of sleep before our flight. I am really excited! 

 

On sunday we went in to a meeting and we found out that there are 600 Missionaries that are leaving the same day as me, and they are getting loads more the same day! It's insane to think about that almost that many leaves every week and many more are coming.

 

I realized that All of my ties are red ha ha ha, out of like the 12 ties I brought like 7 of them are red, Ugh my life is so hard! =p 

 

Dad I was reading in Enos today and there was a verse on the right hand side of the book, right hand half, and the second to top that made me really want to hear about some of your mission stories, can you tell me about when you left the MTC and first got into the Mission field, What did you feel? what happened? who was your companion and how was he? I really liked how in the verse it says " your fathers has had the same faith as you" and it really triggered in my mind that you, Both Grandpa Crockett and Johnson, Devin, Hamilton and many more all experienced the exact same thing and really had to press forward with faith, I wanna hear some of your guyses Mission stories a little more in depth if thats all right.

 

Something I forgot to mention when I wrestled with the other elders is man this floor is the worst thing in the world to wrestle on! It's like concrete sandpaper! My elbows were eaten by the rug and when ever I play basket ball one of the scabs open and i keep bleeding on all of my StarWars Shits.  But Man some of the Elders really thinks I'm cool because of it, I forgot to mention there was a crowd of like 20 Elders watching me fight. 

 

Yesterday my district finally convinced me to pick the Schlage that our door uses. There was a crowd of like 25 Elders around me who all thought it was super cool, and then when they saw it turn they all started freaking out! One of them was like Dude Elder Crockett your like a freaking Batman. I wouldn't say that about my self at all though.

 

Any ways I miss you all Alot, and I love to hear from all of you! Be safe! Good luck with the rain, I'm bummed now because the rain is pouring right now and my district was going to have a picnic at this awesome secret place that I found at the MTC I found it on a walk with Elder Clark and man it's like asking for people to have a picnic on it!.

Love you all!, Keep me updated,

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

       

The fighting Elder

I got that letter from you Mom yesterday about the Foster kids and This huge wave of peace and joy came over me I was sitting on my top bunk and one of the elders was like " Elder Crockett, Your glowing dude! What was in that letter?" They all thought that was the coolest news ever. I went in the shower after that and while i was just smiling about it the thought came to me " your family can now be together Forever" I could not control myself I just wept in the shower for like 5 minutes. I came back into my room and I told every one else about that and they all wrote about it in their journals, The spirit was super powerful in there for the rest of the night! 

(from Jenn -the letter said that our adoption lawyer called to let us know that all our paperwork is done and we have an adoption day of November 21st for Susie, Denny and Robby.  That date will likely change either forward or back depending on when the appeal is processed)

I had the opportunity to go to the Provo Temple today and man it is a very pretty temple. One thing that I loved about it though was there was a picture of Mary and Joseph holding the baby Jesus and then a Bearded Man in all white was holding him too. I thought that was super neat painting because I always knew God had an awesome White beard! =p I was so close to saying everything by myself in the temple today, I messed up on one word! I realized I have such a hard time pulling myself away from the temple. If I could I would stay in it for hours and hours.     

I looked at my self in the Mirror at the temple and for the first time, I saw a Missionary.

I meant to try and send some pictures here but these computers have extreme fire walls against that and when i tried to type in a command they redflagged my computer and said I would loose all privileges if I continued.

 Well So Mommy you know how I said I haven't gotten in in fight with any elders yet.... Well.....  One of our good friends from another district came in and started rear naked choking my companion. And in the white  Bible it says that you are responsible if you don't defend your companion. So I "showed" Elder Shelly how to do a real rear naked choke, I picked him up off of the ground by his throat. I only held it for 1, 2,3,4,5,6 seconds or so before i dropped him. He then ran out of our room, and ever since then he hasn't given any of us any garbage at all and he never steps a foot past our doorway. =p

Well because of this people in his district found out about my whole Brazilian Ju-Jitsu thing and all the sudden I was challenged by this one elder who thought he could take me. We were having a really good conversation about wrestling and than all of the sudden he faked me out which made me flinch and then he single legged me and took me to the ground. I then pulled guard on him and then monkey climbed up his back to pull him super close to me and then I took my shoes off so i could actually do something. He was tapping out to a triangle choke in under 20 seconds.

I then was challenged by a elder who took 3rd in state in wrestling he didn't take me by surprise though. He single legged me and then I pulled guard and then I almost finished a armbar on him but he stacked me so i switched it to a triangle choke and he was really good at applying pressure to me and he stuffed my left arm so i couldn't get the proper angle to finish him. He broke out and then it went into this weird north south position where he tried like 4 submissions on me which he didn't know how to finish. He locked up and just stalled, we were there for like 2 minutes so I called off the fight. Man I felt horrible after that because all of the elders that were leaving was giving my district tons of cookies and brownies and stuff so I almost threw up on the kid during the fight when he tried some type of submission on my back but he was just squeezing my stomach.

All of those Elders are gone now though and my Zone leaders when around and told all of the new districts not to mess with me because they wouldn't be the first elders I beat up on. So every one in 12M is super nice ha ha ha! So ya Hamilton I don't have to whoop out PMG to tell them to repent, all of the Elders here are super chill now. 

Yesterday I had a meeting with about 200 other Elders and it was 9 hours long! Man that was ... And because of it me and my comp had no time to study for our lesson that we were going to be teaching to our TRC investigator. We went straight from a class to the Lesson with the investigator. We had NO PLAN. We got there a little late and there was a few sisters in there with our Investigator already so we knocked and in like 6 minutes they came out. Instead of the regular 25-30 minutes that I had we had 13 minutes left.

Our investigator has a strong testimony of the Bible (shes a real one, I found that out, shes not a actor) And she likes to ask big profound questions about things that people don't normally think about. I went in there and she asked one and i said "I am sorry we are on a tight schedule, but heres what you can do with your questions" and then I whooped out Jacob chapter 4:6 and then just opened my mouth and the spirit guided everything I said. My comp (who has been super sick and was barely saying anything) then Whooped out another scripture and then bore testimony and then I bore testimony and invited her to come up with these questions but to write them down and search the Book of Mormon to find the answers to them. We then knelt and she said the prayer. DANG! I almost cried because how powerful the prayer was, She felt something and I know it.

The people who taught her after me are the 3 sisters in my district and they said that she was struggling in the next lesson because she knew that she felt something different and it testified of the Book of Mormon. Every one else had a lesson prepared before they went in their lessons, and me and my comp went in prepared with the spirit. And every one told us how bad their lesson turned out after wards, I said like 9 prayers to thank Heavenly father for all that he gave me in that short time. 

Man so I have been so blessed here! I really prayed for a good companion and a good district before I came and I got much more than I pleaded for! I love all of these Elders and Sisters here.  Elder C when we got back from the Temple stated that he needed a blessing to help him focus on the Mission and forget home. I felt that I was going to be the one to say it so I read the verbage and then Elder C came up to me and asked me to give him one. There are several Elders in my district that haven't ever given a blessing and so they wanted to get a good view of me and they focused on ever single thing I did. Elder C Came up from the chair afterwards and told me how powerful it was and that it was more than perfect for what he needed. 

Miya, I think you'll have a son.=p

Hannah it's really funny here in the MTC because my district gets easily distracted and so we loose people often, when ever some one is lost they throw up their goose until they spot mine. ha ha ha =p

Man I have been memorizing things like none other here, I don't mean to it just happens and then when the spirit is with me I straight up remember almost all 76 scripture masteries that I memorized the year before I came here. I definitely think that was a inspired thing on my bucketlist. And man because I spent all of that time memorizing scripture masteries It's so easy for me to remember the outlines of lessons and such and so when ever I go in a lesson I don't need anything besides my scriptures unlike every other Elder or Sister in my district who has to take notes and draw out a outline for everything. Sorry I feel like I am now boasting but it's true learning all of those scripture masteries has helped alot in several ways (hint hint , Ella)

Alright well I gotta head out I have a appointment at the salon so i can look super attractive when I head out of here. My waves of the ocean on my head are back!

Aight well I'm heading out of the MTC on wednesday at 4:30 am for my flight, so if you wanna reach me My P day will probably be monday but you can always "Dear Elder" me somethin.

I love you all!!!! Good luck! Don't get shot!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

ANOTHER surprise email!

I am so glad to hear from all of you guys!!!

 I started tearing up when you told me of the boys in School and  "picking locks". 

 

i love3 it here in the MTC though and to be 100 percent honest I haven't really missed home, But i've missed the people back at home alot! 

 

But this place is awesome I have already have had several great adventures, I just sent a letter to you guys today it will probably be there in 2 days, I'm sorry because I wrote most of my things in the letter that I sent home to you It's like 5 pages hahaha! I am just doing my laundry right now and they allow us to check our emails which i didn't know so I don't have anything written down to send home. 

 

 Hamilton's Star Destroyer doesn't exist any more. Me and my Comp. snuck into 13M where Hamilton hid it  in room 311 but there was a room 310 and a room 312 but no 311? I was so confused. So i looked around and there was a place where there were couches inbetween the two rooms and they have been ripping out the ceilings and walls of room 111, 211,311,411, in all buildings and adding couches and redoing it so theres no tiles to hide things any more. 

 

Well Dad every one in my district loves playing basket ball and man we have all gotten a lot better at it than we were when we started, we play every day 3 on 3 and it is the best! I am always the first pick no matter what ha ha ha! They love how I guard people and how i can always catch the ball before every one and put the ball in with out them being able to block unless im dribbling towards the hoop. 

 

Man it's awesome how much the spirit is with me and My companion Elder T when we teach and man we taught a real investigator yesterday and she KNEW the bible and when she tried to put a spin on a example my companion gave to kinda make the example not be credible but them after she talked I flipped right to the perfect page and just saw the perfect thing and So I read it to her and then I started testifying of my testimony of the book of mormon and I can tell she felt something, 

 

My companion started bearing his testimony of it right after me and she was looking at us differently. She had a calm loving look, almost as if she could see our testimonies with in us. After that she didn't put a spin like that on anything we said she listened and asked questions when she was confused. Right after us the sisters were going in and I had to tell them to give her a good passage of scripture to invite her to read just so she will start to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon like she has of the Bible. 

 

So every one in my district is picking up on more of my slang and weird things that I do like all of the sisters flick their hand like I do when I say "YE!" Theres alot more than that but I forgot to put that one in the letter. You know it's really funny because I already Feel like I have grown alot, and I wish that I never had to sleep here and that I can just continue to learn how to teach ,because teaching a good lesson with the spirit guiding you through all of the things that you've been taught is the freaking best! 

 

Man I need some super glue though when I was working on the Gazebo my drill missed the screw it and ripped off a chunk of the skin on my thumb. That was on the 25th and it is now just a cut on my thumb that keeps ripping open and bleeding every time we go ball it up on the court. Also can I have some more LONG black socks all of the new  ones I brought (the ones from Seagull) show my ankles and it kills me. 

 

We get mail here every day so if you wanna send me something you can always Dear Elder some letters to me. K well my comps are dying to go play some ball and have me dunk on them so Imma go, my laundry is now done to so BYE Love You!!! Read your scriptures! The Church is true! Little kids, take a bath I can smell you from here! =p

Love,

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett