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!

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- Elder Truman Rex Crockett