And the sign says Long haired freaky people may not apply

This week has been a week.

I love how in the spring all the animals of Michigan come out and are every where, but you also see loads of road kill because of it, I can not even count all the different dead animals I have seen!

Transfer calls are this week, right before General conference, I'm really excited to see what the news is. Whether it be me going on a new adventure or it staying the same.

It was really interesting, this week I was on trade offs with Elder R  a missionary who came out with me, and we picked up a new investigator by teaching the Law of chastity. Who knew right.=p  But that lesson became VERY heated at the start of it! We were teaching one of our investigators and he is Bisexual... He got very offended when he heard the word Chastity and he started flipping a biscuit! Elder R and I have only been out 7 months, I have only taught the Law of chastity like a handful of times. We didn't know what to do. 

 

Elder R was just kinda looking at me in shock giving me a is-this-really-happening-what-do-we-do type of look and I just turned to the investigator and super boldly said a few words that caused him to pause and then bore testimony about the law of chastity. That's all I knew what to do, and it worked out pretty well =p. We committed them both to living it and they accepted and we didn't even have to rebuttal, they agreed. But we came back a few days later and he was super under the influence of Marrry Jaaane, But we got to teach his room mate again.

I have a investigator who is 10 years old, he reminds me of Will when he was a kid without Medication, so I really think I was prepared for this kid, because his grandparents are freaking out trying to get him to pay attention and I just do something weird that gets his attention or stops his rant on how he will never be able to trust some one unless he knows them for more than 4 years.

It's been a thing that I think about regularly that all of the really good missionaries get loads of persecution in the stories, I have learned that persecution comes and then Miracles come. So I have told Elder B several times how I wished we had more persecution because more good would happen.

 

 We were trying a Former investigator in a trailer park and parked by the main building and then walked 4 streets down. and as we were getting to the house the manager of the place came running and told us You can't go door to door here! and She tried to make us leave after we knocked on one formers door. For realizes she chased us out of that building that far! As she was watching us and making sure we don't knock on another door (If only people knew anything about the supreme court) and then she made us leave. As soon as we got back to the car I told Elder B We need to hit that last house that's the persecution I've been wanting for. We drive away park in a members parking space and then sneak over to the house and we set up a appointment with the lady at the last house =p.   

This week ever since like thursday has sucked to be honest. We are super out of miles to the point where we are doing the math in decimals with out a GPS to be able to make it to out appointments today and tomorrow. So all week we have walked every where, sore shoulders, legs, sunburns, and no one seems to be answering their phone or door. I was super discouraged on Friday and Saturday and Really was at war internally. I really was being put down by Satan and was even wondering why am I even out here. But I fought hard to remember all of the spiritual experiences I have had, and all the people who love me, and all the people who need me here. 

 

I got 2 letters Friday night  one from Michael and Karen and another from Addison Goff and that really helped me. But Sunday got to me too. While we were doing call ins around 2pm on sunday Elder b was telling our district leader how a Wednesday night we set a investigator on date and how that night we counted over 10 people who will more than likely be baptized by the end of next transfer. I realized that ever since that moment we have had it rough! It's that persecution I was wanting! 

 

SO I am super pumped to see what happens now because this really has sucked=p. But as it says in Ether 12 the witness comes after the trial of our faith. We just need to work to gain the Lords favor and it will happen.

 

 I have 2 really strong testimonies I have gained on my mission so far. One is that Miracles come by Faith, Diligence, and obedience. Two Satan is real; which means this is all real! The Church is true!

I hear about March madness on like every door we knock! MSU all the way! The cup is mine! Get ready for upsets! =p (I hope)

I have a photo shoot coming in the mail for you mommy.

Bye I love you, have a good day

Don't get shot!

Stick it to the man!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

"In my church we teach 2 doctrines, Faith on his name to be saved, and Tithing" =p‏

I die every time I think about that statement, I heard that this week. But it seems to be pretty true for a lot of people who I talk to.

I am so excited about all of that you just told me! The Adoption, Susie's baptism, the younglings getting sealed to the family, Lacey's baby blessing; that will be so much fun! If only you could all do it at the Detroit temple, but it's alright the church is still true.

 

I have to admit I left my pocket book at the apartment today so I don't have any of my notes on what I wanted to tell you today.

This week though we were super low on miles and so we walked every where we went. I got a few more sunburns but Me and my companion will be pretty tan soon. We did the math and we could drive 11 miles a day which is like nothing seeing as we have other cities in our area as well. So we basically door knocked for days! I love door knocking =p, But the more I do it the better I think I am and the more I learn how bad I am at it. That probably doesn't make sense at all but it's true. We broke Elder B's record of doors knocked in one week and he's only got 1 transfer left. But we did more than that too we tried to follow up with a lot of those potentials that we have. But nothing came of that .

Some how we picked up 2 new investigators though who weren't even potentials before.

 One cool Miracle we had was we were door knocking and this guy walks up, doesn't really seem friendly (which is funny because always the ones who don't seem friendly end up being a miracle) and we say Hi and he ask's me if I just got out of the MTC... We knew something was up, turns out his daughter was baptized and he met with missionaries for quite some time until he moved and then he never saw them again. UM YES PLEASE!

A lot of our investigators just have one concern! ONE concern! And because of that it stops them from progressing. But if we can get them to over come that one thing they would easily be baptized. It's really funny how Satan gets people caught up on that one thing that really doesn't even matter and should not be hindering them in any way shape or form. We have been doing a lot of praying and fasting and doing every thing we can to just get them to feel the spirit so they can recognize everything is true, the book of Mormon is true and that is all that really needs to be figured out. But it's easier said then done for the moment.

Elder B has been egging me on to tell stories from before my mission a lot this week, he loves seeing and hearing about how different I am from that. He especially finds my stories about me sticking it to the man really funny. He mentioned last night how it's really funny how I loved to be super crazy and rebellious back then and now I have no problem at all being an obedient missionary. I have also noticed that since I have been telling him more stories he quotes me a lot more.   

A little girl who's Mom and Dad are both ward missionaries said her favorite missionary is Elder Rockett =p

They put out a flyer at church that says pray for our missionaries and it had pictures of us and our names and phone number. It has the picture I used for my mission papers and I think I left as my facebook picture, but every one and their dog comments on my "male model" picture 

I think it's so cool being able to be in a area that is close to other missionaries! This week we got to go on a blitz with the Zone leaders that was so much fun! And it was pretty Healthy for me to learn from other missionaries things that they do and how they teach, door knock, PC, ect. . They stayed for two days. I don't even know how many Hot Rod quotes I heard in that time, they are innumerable.

A lot of missionaries are really blown away when they find out how my MSF account is super full from me budgeting it. And it came in handy when Elder N came over from tradeoffs and he was super sick and out of money. But I think I told you that last week now that I think of it.

I have heard a lot about March madness. That's basically every ones excuse when I knock on their door, they start telling us about the MSU game and how they are doing. I like your choice for my Bracket mom you know especially since I am in third place in the McCrockett Cup! You need to go and talk loads of trash talk to every one for me. DAN MAN AND THE LIONS DEN  AND THE MASONATOR IS GOING DOWN! I am going to straight up DUNK on you! Is my name still the Elephant King? Plus if I win you'll have to engrave my name on it for me, and then send me the cup so I can enjoy the glory of it to it's fullest!

Something else that was funny was on the last day of the blitz some one called and asked about the plans for the baptism on Saturday. Turns out there was going to be a baptism in our building and we didn't even know it. We didn't plan to go to it but I really wanted to and felt inclined to, but Since none of our investigators were able to go we decided against it even though I really was inclined to go. 

 

I didn't really think it would be a good use of our time and there were several potentials we could try. The next morning Elder B was like "you know, we need to go to that baptism" so we went there, walked a few miles. I am so glad that we did that baptism made like my whole week! There was like 8 sets of missionaries there for this baptism from MSU ward, apparently a lot of people taught this lady. But what was really cool was that Sister T got permission to come down here all the way from Cadillac! I love being able to see people from my MTC district! For realizes though those people became like family in my time there and then when ever I get to see one of them It's like having one of my best friends from home you know? I guess the baptism was a really good thing to go to, because we all felt the spirit really strong, we were super pumped, happy, and ready to go door knock you know.

We have Jesus ball today! I am super stoked about it, me and Elder B for our work outs have been going to the church and balling it up to practice so when we get to play with the other Elders we can straight up dunk on them you know.

Well I gotta go Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

The McCrockett Cup is Mine!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Spring!!

 

 

 

Last week was warm, and this week is even warmer! I saw the digits hit 72! So last week all you could hear was the constant sound of running water and dripping every where you went and you could see small rivers of water flowing under the ice on the street and sidewalks which made it really fun to door knock because we could finally break through the ice and so we were stomping every where we went. But now out side really there is no snow at all except the few piles that was been hiding in the shade. but for realizes it's not even bad here at all any more an people are still yelling at us for not being dressed warm enough. I am wearing a sweater today because the wind is brutal but I've been in short sleeves and no wool or thermal anything at all not even gloves or a hat. Every one has told me a million times that spring wouldn't come this quick... well... I learned very quickly to disregard all weather predictions here in Michigan because they are always wrong, 84.5% of the time, unless you are seeing what it is currently out doors.

We have gotten sunburn twice this week. We have ran our miles a little too thin, we can only drive 15 miles a day or else we will go over... which is sad because I don't think we are going to be able to play more Jesus Ball =(. We have been walking like all day every day though because of it the real problem is people want to feed us and they live in places where we have to drive to, we've had to be a lot more careful in our planning.

But the cool thing about walking every where is it is beautiful weather and you can wave to people in cars. We get a million waves back and a lot of grumpy people who pretend like they didn't notice. Elder B realized a lot of girls wave back to me =p. Basically every where we go now he says "oh she digs you" when ever a girl waves back.

While driving out to ball it up last P day I took the freeway and I didn't think it was bad at all I mean the highways are a little curvy and it could be easy to forget a turn but it's not bad. OH MAN was I wrong when we were on the way back from basketball. Rush hour traffic in the capital here is insane. I swear I was in the freakin fast and the furious! 70 miles a hour going down the curved  streets with hundreds of cars flying left and right, some person tried to pull out right into the side of the car and when she noticed me she honked and yelled at me, like for realizes that was all you. Fast and the Furious!

Sorry I didn't email yesterday we had interviews with the mission president and so we didn't have a P day. I thought my interview was interesting and super short. I went in and he asked me how I like Elder B and after that he asked me why do I think I have seen so many miracles in my areas. I then responded and the shortened version; faith, diligence and obedience and he told me I was exactly right and then he promised me blessings if I continued to do that and he offered a prayer. I think he trusts me.=p

 I was searching through the area books a lot this week and I have a lot of quotes I want to share with you from the sisters. "she is full of Spunk Flava", "she is a real Sassy lady, we like her", "and he always tries to be a sweetheart and listen to his mom". I do have quotes from Elders though " we got in and taught about angle's and stuff." that's another one of those lessons that I have no clue what they taught at all because that is not a phrase from any PMG reference at all, I have found the phrase "Nature of God" like 6 more times in teaching records still no explanation... I also like how one Elder every time he made a record would draw a scale and say how interested they were in the gospel and all of the numbers had a decimal that went back 3 places (Ex: "interested scale:  about 8.572"). I also had a really cool discovery when I found a record of a investigator I picked up while Elder b was in the Bathroom, turns out not only was he taught before but he was picked up as a investigator like 6 year (at least) ago by a Elder Crockett. I think It's pretty Far out!

When ever I make spaghetti I like to break all of the noodles in half except for 1, I keep that one full length and spend all of my time looking for it as I eat.

We had a really cool Miracle this week we were out door knocking for DAYS(!) and as we were walking to the next house A guy comes out of a house we already knocked on the other side of the street and calls out " are you guys Mormons?"  "you better come talk to me then." We got on common grounds REALLY FAST! He had a green shirt that had a weird white blob on it as I got there in seconds I realized it was a picture of Jesus Riding a dinosaur ( I thought it was great! so funny) He apologized for it he thought we might think it was sacrilegious, 

 

He let us in and in like 10 seconds I found a Cd from one of my favorite bands, and then in like a minute we were already having a conversation about fighting, and then in 3 minutes we were arm wrestling on the table in front of us. He had nothing against my Hook and press. I then taught him how to do those 2 techniques and also the top roll.  He was super chill, and we had a blast! and we taught him the restoration and he said stuff like "you know the only people I could truly say I thought were happy was Mormons" "I have been feeling like I need to go to a church, but I don't feel right at all of the ones I tried" " do you guys do baptisms?". 

 

Turns out though that the house he invited us in wasn't even his house, wasn't even his in any way shape or form... ha ha. It was a friends house who he was visiting and when the friend got home it turns out that She used to meet with the Missionaries too and even went to church, but got super busy with work and had to move and missionaries never found her. So it was a really cool Miracle and we are super excited for it. We still don't have a lot of investigators but we have 9 really solid potentials who I suspect will be investigators this week. I am pretty sure our teaching pool will double (at least).

We were also walking home to go grab the car to go to dinner and then we I was saying hi to every one I saw one of them stopped me and Elder B and said he used to be a member (excommunicated) and I said we can help him rejoin the church and he gave us his info. We went to go follow up and when we knocked on his door he wasn't there but a roommate was and turns out he used to be taught by the missionaries back before someone burned down the lansing stake center. He agreed that we could teach him as well. =p.

But now we're at that time where I don't even want to have a P day because there is so much we could be doing! That and Members are giving us people now to see. That and since it's Tuesday no one is playing Jesus Ball =(. But really we couldn't sacrifice the miles any ways.

I had inspiration of a fun goal, I think I am going to wear the same tie for a whole month =p I just need to pick one very carefully.

It's great to hear from all of you and keep me updated

Well I gotta go have a good day!

Bye I love you! Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

I gotta learn to be specific in my prayers!‏

It's rather funny how a lot of people still have Christmas Decorations up, It's probably just because the snow is still on the ground that they haven't taken them back in yet, but still it's March.

So I have finished that big leather journal that you gave me for Christmas last year Mommy, I saved it for being on a mission since it says "Mission Memories" on it or something like that. Packed full, actually I finished that last week ha ha so I had to go and buy some other leather bound journal. But I am impressed that only took me 6 months It normally takes me like a year and a half.

Elder B is a really cool cat, turns out we have been in all of the same musicals, and every day we find out more songs that both of us know. It's really funny because we went into a members house to teach their two year old daughter about what happens to people when they die (a member here died) and while we were there at one point Sister F said "you two are like the same person!".

We had that funeral for the Edd, and that was really interesting because he was deaf so there was a lot of people doing sign language there. We were specifically invited to invite people to learn about the church so we did what we were asked to but oh man was that weird and hard but I used every bit of ASL I knew which is basically "cookie" and "my name Elder Crockett" ( I learned that with Elder Coulson and Erickson back when they served in our ward). But we basically had to pass notes to people and to use the translators.

it's weird, every where I go I am hearing fire alarms that have low batteries so they make that high squeak. I have counted 6 different houses this week that has had their alarms squeaking, our apartment included.

Did you know that the court house that is in the movie "Real Steal" is here in Mason, the place is pretty cool we got to go inside and get searched, it was great ha ha.

Also Mom do you remember that one time Denton and I jumped the fence, went to Walgreens and bought lazer pointers and you made us return them? Well I was searching my desk and I found the exact same type of lazer pointer pen! I use it ALL the time basically as much as possible =p.

On Friday I was smelling peanut butter cookies all day long, It was killing me and Elder B smelt them too. And It's really funny because this happens a lot and just like every other time this happens like 2 hours later we were given peanut butter cookies =p.

I just got a email from one of my Investigators in Alpena and he said " Thanks I got to meet the new missionary as well as one from traverse city, I think I'm ready now to be a Mormon" =p Um yes please!

Oh man Miracles are great!

This week we saw a huge Miracle. We were out door knocking and I asked for a miracle in the prayer. We door knocked and got nothing from any one. there was this 83 year old man who came to the door and was like " I am catholic!..... My back is in a lot of pain!...." and so we left and finished the street and started walking back to the car and while we were walking he ran out of his house and said "come in , and pack your car in my drive way" it was a little weird but hey, so we did it. 

 

We got in and he told us how immediately after we left his door his back was healed, and he had no pain at all. He then started freaking out and really felt like he needed to invite us in his house. HUGE MIRACLE! So he waited at his window until he saw us and he invited us in. He then just kept bringing up all of these different people who has died, he just went on and on about these people who he cared about that no longer are living. So it was a pretty big key to Plan of Salvation it up in there. 

 

Now the problem with this is I only asked for the Miracle in my prayer. We tried to teach him (all things that he felt were true, except pre earth life) and we did really well and he felt the spirit but he got super defensive and started " I am a Catholic!...." But I snuck a pass along card on his table while we were saying a closing prayer ha ha. You know just in case.

Aight well I gotta go shop and get ready for more Jesus ball. =p

Bye I love you all!

have a good day

the church is true!

don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Jesus Ball is Life

Holt is pretty great I really like I here so far! I have all of Holt a small southern part of lansing, Dimondsdale and Mason in my area. There is a schedule for feeding missionaries here and we are booked every day of this month for dinners with members, and slots for coming days next month are filling fast. My new Companion is Elder B, he is from Utah and has 3 months left. He is a super down to earth type of guy, I love it He has played a lot of Rock band and so he catches on to a lot of the songs that I have stuck in my head which has ended up in us having small short jam sessions of air guitars and singing. We do the bill and ted's excellent adventure air guitar a lot when ever we say excellent. I have a Napoleon Dynamite statue on my desk from previous missionaries who says quotes from the movie, We love Napoleon =p.

But Holt is pretty cool, I have seen a lot more diversity than up in Alpena, There is quite a bit of black people and I have even met Mexicans and I door knocked into some one from Iraq (it was weird trying to talk to him). We have 3 area books here and there has mostly been Sister missionaries down here, and all of the records show that they were sisters. 

 

I opened the area book and had like a seizure, on every record the notes are written in 6 different colors of pen ink all that are super bright and girly. The funniest thing though is actually reading what the sister wrote, Looking at the potential investigators list it said stuff like "Cutest couple ever!" "Seriously he just needs some love" "He is SO ( so being under lined 3 times) Nice ( nice being underlined twice)" "Call him, please, he was so kind". It's also really funny seeing their notes where they were obviously being hit on but they didn't catch that. 

 

All of the teaching records are pretty funny there is several phrases that are used throughout the area book like ' we taught him "The Nature of God" ' and then they wouldn't describe what that entailed at all. Another one that comes up several times is ' we taught her "Revelation Rain" ' and it just ends at that. It's one thing if they actually do that with a PMG subject like "the restoration" or "Plan of Salvation" but none of that is there in PMG at all.

You can also tell that sisters used to live in our apartment by the dishes we have and how the bedroom is decorated We have glow in the dark stars all over the bed room which could have been a Elder but I am convinced it was the sisters because they are in specific constellations and the constellations are in a certain order.

But you know that this is the church is true when you see a million kids during sacrament meeting and youth go up to the stand and quote Lord of the Rings during testimony meeting.

This area actually used to be several different areas but they combined 3 different ones into what is now the Holt area. There has been some pretty disobedient missionaries here though, in fact there is no record of the past 4 months here at all of any work. 

 

We have 2 investigators one of which hasn't been contacted in .??.. I was told we were basically opening a whole new area. But I am super pumped and excited to go and Do work. The members here area amazing and they have been setting up a system of getting every member to set missionary goals and to get them to accomplish them, For realizes the area is perfect for missionary work and fellowshipping of tons of people it's just we don't have people to teach.

So day two of me being here we went to Bishops house and asked him who we can help him with and who he feels needs us (after us being fed of course). The next day we started going around to these members houses and searching the area books for these people and one of them turned out to be a part member family. Knocked on the door got in and spend time with them found out one of them wasn't a member.

 

He talked about how he needs to be baptized because it's something God wants us to do. I then slipped in something about my Home boy Joseph Smith and asked him if he knew about him and he asked me to tell me about his story. He was askin for it. He felt the spirit and there was no arguing to what we said at all. We set up another time to teach him more and his wife asked us if we are still teaching the lady 3 doors down, We had no record of a lady 3 doors down so we went over there and picked her up as a investigator too. We have like 5 investigators now and we are searching the area book for all of the loose ends, there is a lot of people who have just been forgotten about they were never dropped or had no problems it's just that missionaries stopped coming. I can tell though that this area is going to explode soon and we will have people for days to teach.

I got here on Monday night and there was no food at all! there was like 10 cans of expired food and then the fridge had like 8 eggs and 2 sticks of butter, they were basically living off a huge bag of rice and a few spices in the cabinet. Elder B only had a few cents in his MSF account as well. So me having my Maxed out MSF account bought tons of things that will never go bad and got enough stuff so we can live on more than what they members sent us home with last night. I spent like 60 bucks to get some stuff for our shelves like spaghetti and super cheap frozen pizzas and other cheap stuff that I could get a lot of. And my account is now maxed out again as of yesterday ha ha.

The cool thing about being down here is that there is other missionaries around  that we can actually see, a lot of us are all going over to the stake center to go play some Basket ball. Me and Elder B are all decked out in head bands arm covers and crazy socks ready to Ball it up. So We got to get heading out if that's gonna happen.

That is SOOOOOOO COOOL that we can now adopt the little ones =p

Bye I love you! 

have a good day!

Don't get shot!

Tell Lacey that uncle will make her smell my stinky feet when I get home. 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett