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