That's why we Door Knock

This has been a good week! It's truly been Healthy! And It will this week too. This week we actually have 2 p-days, one today and one on Wednesday. On Wednesday I am going to to mount pleasant for a half mission p-day to play loads of games, I don't really know anything about it other than I will be getting wet and wont have to much time to do anything other than that on Wednesday.

This week some guy in my apartment complex got shot. I wasn't there when it happened but they got chased and shot through their front door. We got a extremely worried call from the mission office and I was totally chill not knowing (because we are never at our apartment in the day) at all that anything like that happened ha ha. Well I am glad to know the situation was resolved. The next day our door got knocked on and we were hesitant to answer it, turned out to be your package of crushed cookies. I love the Head Band! And the music is good and Elvis singing gospel music defiantly makes the church more true ha ha!

So I forgot to tell you this and Dad reminded me of it in his email there is loads of fireflies in Michigan at night.

For the first time on my mission I cooked Grandpa Pork Chops, who knew what Mom said would prepare me for my mission would actually happen (you know 1 meal out of... ha ha jk)

So also funny thing with Susies gift is the statue is made our of soap stone, I couldn't resist so I had to buy it. Take a bath you hippy =p

My companion was driving and was like "these speed bumps are Tiwi impervious" (referring to the robot that reports any bad driving to the mission office) Right after he took the next speed bump a little quick, Tiwi yelled "Aggressive driving!" and reported it. ha ha I guess nothing is Tiwi proof.

I have beheld the numbers I havn't seen in 11 months. The Car thermometer read 100 degrees this week.

We set up a appointment with a potential for getting that Saturday we aren't allowed to drive our car. Ya we really regretted that! We got a hair cut that day went to another appointment and then we were many miles away from our next appointment, we had about a hour to get there and it was the heat of the day. That bike ride sucked. We rode up to Lansing to take a street down to the house and when we got to where our map said we could turn we learned that that was a flaw in our map. We had to ride back down to holt and then east like 4 miles and then back up to lansing to get where we needed to. We ran out of water a mile away. We rode there and was super beat and sweaty. We went to the potentials house and some one else answered the door and when we asked if the potential was there the lady freaked out and slammed the door.

As she was slamming we tried to ask for water but no.

There was no way I was going the hour plus ride back with no water, we pleaded in prayer for some. We door knocked every door in that neighborhood until some one talked to us and gave us 4 bottles of water. We said prayers of gratitude silently, I said like 8. We started riding back and Elder H doesn't have a seat like mine on his bike and was way saddle sore, hot, low on water, we were both weak from the past 2 and a half hours of riding, and his bike handlebars were rubbing his hands raw and black all over from the deteriorating foam. He told me he pleaded in prayer to ease his burden and give him a pool noodle for his handle bars. And we crossed the highway and a pool noodle was sitting in a pile of rusted car and and broken plastic in the grass. It already was cut to perfect size and had a slit in the side to make it easy to put on. All I could think about was how grateful I am for how much Heavenly Father looks out for me in life the whole rest of the half hour ride, it no longer worried me how bad the ride sucked.

We were out door knocking on Friday in Mason and we had like 8 minutes until we had to leave for dansiville for a dinner appointment, We figured we could fit in a few more doors and just walk quickly back to the car so we could finish the street. we knocked on a Door and got nothing so we left and went down a really long wheel chair ramp and a guy popped out of the back door as soon as we hit the concrete again. I talked to him and He told me He had actually lived in Salt lake for like 4 years, He then excitedly invited us to sit down at his picnic table. 

 

I started a little HTBT and started asking him about his belief and faith in God, and then added several follow up questions on the subject and We hit gold. He told us He had been in a Rehab facility until Thursday for Word of wisdom things and then told us he had been away from God for 14 years and hated him until 3 days ago he felt the spirit and he wanted God back in his life and he wanted to have that joy and peace in his life again. And he told us "It's super freaky you guys showed up here! I have never had any religious people ever knock on my door in the ___ years I have lived here. And 3 days after that experience you 2 come. 

 

He Knew we were sent from God and he called us prophets like the whole rest of the lesson until  we explained that we were given a calling from a prophet but we aren't prophets. He has loads of sincere questions and we were way late to that dinner appointment ha ha. This sunday he came to church in a suit 2 days after we met him, and he was way late and opened the chapel doors and stood with a blank stare until I stood up and walked him over to where we were sitting. He then remarked "I have a million questions for you, are you guys still coming over today?" =p  Loved it! Church is true when you don't even need to follow up or set appointments with your investigators! One of our other investigators J does the same thing he texts us and tells us on his own accord what times he is open from work! It's a good Healthy Change

Well Were off to go play some Ultimate frisbee

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

Drink lots of water!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

       

92 degrees at 7pm and humid‏

There is some members here who bring a George bush cardboard cut out to family pictures with them and they just tape the face of their missionary on it and it's perfect because he's in a suit!

It has been raining so much people have to mow their lawns every other day because how fast it is making every thing grow!

My shower broke at the beginning of the week and it wouldn't drain at all! that was gross! We had to use trash cans to dump it all into the toilet. We really feared that some of the vicious mosquitoes would find it and we would be done for!

My bike lost it's front breaks with out me knowing, making it so I couldn't come to a complete stop any more. I got sad not wanting to almost get hit by a car again and prayed and as I rode a few miles away I found my front breaks in the middle of the side walk!

So Mommy before you send the package you should put a headband in, an some E6000 glue; I can't find it.

 I also found out though this week that there is a lot of false rules here in our mission which are very pharisaical but since they aren't written it's kind of a huge game of telephone for people to find out the "rules". And so consequentially a lot of rules are garbage yet we have been trying to be "obedient" when it wasn't necessary...What ev. Turns out we are allowed to write letters any day of the week according to our mission president, but it just has to be in our morning at lunch or at night after planning. Which is awesome because that means we have way more time to do things on P-day! But I found that out because we had a out of the blue trade off where we literally had 2 hours to prepare for it............ But that was a healthy trade off  because I learned things like that. But ya since we have more time we are going over o the Zoneleaders apartment to play some Starwars x-wing (board game) and then ball it up.

So something I forgot to mention last week was the rest of the story of T the one being evicted. So we tried, and tried him, and tried him, texted called, knocked on the door... nothing for over a transfer. We then decided we would drop him which was sad to me because I grew to love the man and knew he was so close to baptism! But we were tired of getting nothing so we were going to drop him. I wrote a letter since I knew there was going to be no answer when I knocked on the door. We then went to Krogers and I picked up his favorite soda that he introduced me to "Michigan cherry" my favorite is "Michigan berry"  SOOOO GOOD! I was tempted to drink it=p. We then knocked on his door and I was expecting this to be the last time that I would ever see this door and he opened the door! First time I saw him or heard from him in almost 2 months. I set up a appointment and gave him the soda. Apparently God didn't want him to be dropped. And it's a really good thing we didn't drop him.

Before I continue make sure you blow in his ear, 1! 2! 3! DOG PILE ON ROBBY!!!!!

GOTCHYA!

w

So then it leads to him asking us to help him find a place to live. I prayed and talked to bishop and we compiled a list of apartment places he could try and talked about members that would rent out to him; and the first place that popped into my mind was where one of our other investigators lives. That place the literally rent out everything in that place to random people, even the couch. there is like 10 people that live in that duplex with like 4 rooms at least. I continued to "pokemon snap" information of places to rent as we drove by and added it to the list. I gave that list to T and told him to try those places, he instead kept asking me to ask all the members if he could rent out a room, I told him to do that himself not wanting to be involved in that. I followed up to find out he didn't try any of those places and I gave him the information for the first house I thought about again. I then stopped by a few days later and gave him that info again. And then I had a lesson with that other investigator and he told us " Ya a few places just opened up..." I called and gave him and found out he still hadn't tried my list and so I gave him the info to the land lady and told him to call right then and there and call me back. He called and the Lady interviewed him the next day and he now has a place to live. 1 day before he was kicked out to the mosquitoes he is deathly allergic to.

I had a past investigator from me and Elder Baker call and beg for my forgiveness. she prayed about what she should do in life and then we showed up to go buck hay for our Elders Quorum president and she felt the spirit and it made he feel loved and it made her want that family like feeling. She prayed on weather she really should meet with us again and she was told to. And so we without even trying got a fellowshipper and a lesson scheduled all I had to do was be "gent" and break the Sabbath ha ha that and bear testimony on the phone and tell her I forgive her.

This week I got hit hard by several things. I saw those two examples and looked at myself and our area.  We left church yesterday not feeling spiritually edified at all because of loads of reasons including no scripture being used in the last 2 hours some one reading cs lewis to us instead of the words of the prophet on the subject of eternal marriage... And while I thought I realized several things are wrong. And that me not feeling "spiritually edified" was true but over that I had more of the "spirit wroughts change" aspect going. I realized I had a lot to repent of, like keeping the Sabbath day holy; Ya I am a missionary and it's like the Sabbath everyday but I am not doing what the scriptures are telling us to do on the Sabbath and prepare for the Sabbath, I realized I need to stop using the lords name in vain ("jesus ball") obey the word of wisdom more (healthy aspect) and I really  

realized how there is loads of commandments are looked over by loads of people. any ways

We had a really good week and stayed wet.

We are super stoked to ball today we have been practicing in the mornings and did today so we can dunk on loads of people. I have learned a lot of shooting technique recently since a bishop who plays with started to show me. 

 

Well were off! Bye I love you have a good day!!

Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Gift of Tongues

So this week I don't even have too much stories, infact I have no clue how it is physically possible that this week could go so fast!

So I fixed my scriptures with at least a temporary fix, I put "poster putty" on the back binding and since it has stopped my pages and binding from separating more and it no longer cracks and works perfectly! I probably will go and get that e6000 glue though because the putty wont resolve the problem but might lead to more problems.

But this week started by us racking up some major Persecution points. We got a call Tuesday morning and it was our investigator J. He is a hard core Atheist, and we have had some really good lessons with him, he always tried to make it a philosophical debate and I learned a lot from Bro F  one of the ward missionaries who was a PMG missionary as we taught him. Love him and his family and they would give us the best food! But we called him to set up a appointment and he dropped us and even though I made is argument for dropping us invalid on the phone he still dropped us. But He didn't do Moroni's promise in the ways it says it has to be done and he was expecting it to work any ways. But a cake wont taste good if you forget the sugar and flour, it's essential to use every ingredient in that experiment. That was really sad. But that gave us all the persecution points we needed for that day and we slayed it the whole rest of the day! We even put a investigator on date who isn't our investigator, those Elders thought it was pretty cool when we called them later that night. 

That and this week we got back in contact with T, the investigator who started coughing up blood during stake conference, we taught him a little and got a load dumped on us..... Apparently he is getting evicted now because of his land lord is trying to escape having to repay him and get refunded for the place by having it red tagged. But the problem with that is he is deathly allergic to mosquitoes to the point he has like epi pen things  that he has to shove in his leg if he gets bitten too much because it cuts off all of his airways. BAD NEWS especially because this is a record year for mosquitoes in Michigan from what people tell me.  So he is gonna be homeless in a few days and he needs help finding a place to live and so he basically put the burden on us ..................................................................................................................................................................

I have battled over this a lot this week because that is not my job at all in any way shape or form, But the scriptures tell us that we need to help those in need, I forget the scripture but I read one the very next day that applied to him Exactly in the situation that I can't turn him away. It really comes down to he would be a member of the church but I don't know if it would be for the right reasons if we did get him a place, if we could. So that's been unnecessary stress especially because it is a matter of him dying if he doesn't get shelter.  I have reached out to the bishop and he gave me places to give to him but nothing has happened yet and we keep getting begged through text to help him. But I am freaking 19 years old and spend all day teaching I am not a real-estate agent! I have alot of stick it to the man in me, but I also realize how critical this could be and it could even be a eternal salvation consequence. Unnecessary stress and I don't even stress.

This week while door knocking we knocked on a door and a older lady let us in her home. She started preaching to us the doctrine of how church is of the devil and how we don't need it to be saved. She then went on to continually cutting us off to teach us about how educated she is in the gospel and how she knows how to speak in the gift of tongues and how that eases her load so much in life. Her rant continued and I loved this part it was so funny to me how her doctrine was way "the doctrine of man". She started saying " when ever I don't know what to say, I love the gift of tongues and it helps me convey the words that I want to say but don't know how to say, or when I am singing" she then gave us a example "it's like when I am feeling down and I ajkfdhfajhaunfklmlwui, you know?". I died inside! And had such a hard time not laughing because there was no communication made at all in that, great gibberish. But what got me was when the 2 Year old in the room ran over and tried talking to her and sounded like she did when she spoke in "tongues" and she snapped at the kid and yelled "I thought I told you to use your words!". That got my blood boiling and I was about to flip a biscuit. The kid sounded like he tried to copy what grandma said and he got that!

Any ways I don't really have to much to say about this week  other than that, we had a good week, but I only really have stories that talk bad about Ganders this week.

But we had our investigator come to church and the members loved him and loved how real he was, the Elders Quorum President was impressed and that means a lot knowing president Chappman. 

Last week for P-day I loved balling it up, We had fresh missionaries since we had a transfer and none of them know how I play and so I "dunked" on them hard! I am super stoked for today, I haven't been able to find my Mesa High Head band that I stole from Will since Elder B left.....=( I have looked so much for it!

Well I gotta go

Bye I love you have a good week!

Stay Strong!

Don't get shot!

Love you!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Cereal Revelations

You know I was thinking as I was having my usual big tubaware container of cereal....

Yup that's basically it I thought for once ha ha! jk, 

 

But I was thinking of how important Milk is in eating cereal and it could be eaten without but the meaning, the definition, the flavor of it all is lost in the act of not including milk. I then realized we are like milk in a bowl of cereal. FAR OUT! But I won't go into to much detail I will let you all receive your own applied revelation on the subject. But We are like milk because if you don't put the milk in the fridge (unless it's winter in Michigan) then it will go bad and you wont be able to enjoy the blessings and nourishment of the cereal in the way the creator intended you to. 

 

And so us if we don't stand in holy places, if we aren't cooling and preparing for the things God has planned for us(sacrament, temple, missions, callings, ...), if we aren't where our father in heaven needs us to be we can "go bad" and not get the spiritual nourishment that he plans for us. So we need to be where he wants and needs us to be before He will take us out and give us that nourishment and give us the answers to prayers that we seek. Cereal Revelation! =p It's deep doctrine I know! That's all just a drop in the bucket for this week and my inanimate object or task revelations. I am not even gonna go into my mowing lawn and Bucking hay ones.

My companion all the time yells "free t-shirt! I want it!" and then normally asks me to pull over to pick up some growdy shirt in the middle of the street... ha ha =p For some reason recently there has been a huge abundance of road kill and Free t-shirts in the road, I am just scared to find those people who lost that shirt. But for realzies I say this jokingly but he really does want one =p .

It was sick this week. I got super pumped watching one of the D&C videos while I was eating my crepes I made I had the spirit with me and I was ready to stick it to the man! We went out door knocking on a street I prayerfully picked and no one was answering at all because all of the rich people left for the 4th of july. We get to a car and it is a big van with starwars characters on the back just like ours. I was thinking "it's going down right here right now! I was prepared for you!"  Go up knock on this door and this father steps out side and he is in a "chewy I am home" t shirt with a rebel logo on it. 

 

I started to relate and then went at it, Turns out he was a minister to his own church and he started preaching to me. But I was feeling the DEWS you know, I wish I knew what exactly I said, but in a non offensive way I shifted the conversation and created a need for the sealing ordinance for eternal families. HOLY! I have struggled for so long to ever even come up with what I could do for that and it totally confounded this preacher. Even though the need to meet with us was obvious and we gave him a clear choice he still rejected us. But oh man I have tried so hard in my studies to replay that in my mind so I can replicate that on another door step!

This week I have been horribly eaten by Mosquitoes, there was loads of rain starting on Monday of last week and there was huge puddles and those things bread like crazy and it doesn't help that now all of the swamps are full... But we have been swarmed every time we go out. Also because of the rain it really was burdensome on our Elders Quorum President. He has like 40 acres (at least) of hay that was cut and they weren't drying out at all because of all of the rain, And the window to go and bale them before it rained again wasn't ever wide enough. 

 

But on Friday we got a call and they asked us to come and help him with his about 2000 bales of hay. =p On the 4th of july we had loads of people there at first and we were unloading wagon after wagon like none other and since the hay was still moist we were throwing a lot of salt all over it to help it dry out. They wouldn't turn off their country music so I was FORCED to listen to some Luke Byran and Jason aldean, Josh Turner... I was obedient and asked to turn it off but didn't happen, it was super healthy for me though ha ha =p (I learned the science on how barn fires start without any thing but the hay! it's cool but a real fear for them) We did that until the bailer broke. And we all left, we were basically on call until it got fixed and so we called pages and pages of potentials before I was dying to go out side and door knock. I wish we set better back up plans. Because door knocking on the 4th was horrible, no one would answer, handgun, I am spending time with my family. 

 

While we did that I thought to call Prez chappman. We called and the bailer got fixed right then and there and it was kickin. We booked it down to Dansville and it was only us and him after that ha ha. We stacked those bales to the roof and the trucks was coming at a pace where we had no time really for a break. We had 4th of july privileges of being able to stay out late so all we did was work and We did work! I still have Hay up my nose from that ha ha! We got to see fire works as we booked it home. Yesterday we found out it's gonna rain today so we and every one came out and filled that barn and started to prepare for the next barn we were gonna fill.

But the 5th of july , yesterday was number 1! We put another investigator on date, mowed a lawn and tag team taught a less active at the same time, when we came to the chapman's house to buck hay (which I was feeling a little guilty for) we stumbled upon one of our referrals at their house who we picked up as a investigator but havn't been able to contact in like 6 weeks.  So immediately the guilt left because that was a huge miracle and I knew we were where we needed to be. Got a call from another less active and wanted us to come immediately, got to teach him (while we were head to toe covered in hay and salt since he was on the way) And several other really cool things happened and we were exactly where we needed to be exactly when. So yesterday and the 4th really made up for the horrible week we had ha ha. Well it was a good week we had a lot of miracles!, it's not every week you get 5 on date. =p

 

Well I am off to go dunk on some people
Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!
stay away from swamps!

Elder Truman Rex Crocket