Deer

Merry Birthday Ella! Congrats, i hope turning 15 was very refreshing ha ha ha. Thats so sick that you found my ipod! just make sure that when you send it to me that you clean all of the other stuff off of it because I would defiantly be tempted to jam to some Justin Timberlake or Michael Jackson! Please can you load a whole bunch of conference talks on it, and try to refrain from putting on any solo singers who butcher the hymns by singing every note but the ones that were in the sheet music. But if it's in a group of people who change the notes thats not as bad, you see because when it's a group it sounds planned, but when it's one person...

 Today is my 2 month mark of being out on a mission.

Man I am so glad that I have come up north at this point and time in my mission, It would have sucked to come 1 month later than I did I seriously have been up here during the prettiest time ever! and it's really sad to see now because leaves are just falling like none other.  one of the forests near my apartment is almost completely bare of all leaves. And there is a blanket of color all over the ground every where, i keep bringing them into the house on accident because they get wet and just stick to me shoes or my pant leg. The only colors left on the trees are assorted browns and yellows with occasionally one yellow turning red. I was standing out on the balcony on our Zoneleaders apartment and it is really funny how all the trees from far away looks like colored marshmallows in the shape of brocoly (I don't know how to spell that but it's what we call dinosaur trees) 

This week we were out and about and while we were leaving a less actives house we got a text from one of our investigators husbands. it said "smoked venison at the trailer...now" we hit the road immediately! He is a less active member who has been working on a deer processing trailer to butcher deers. He is building this inside a Semi Trailer and has been working super hard on getting it finished in time for deer season (which is bigger than almost any holiday up here apparently, they don't have school on opening day because they know no one will come, and the city is gridlocked with cars apparently. 

 

I saw a bunch of office chairs out on a side walk that had a "for sale" sign on them, they were just regular office chairs but they were being advertised as "good deer blind chairs" ha ha.) We've been meeting with our investigator inside of this trailer and have been teaching her lessons, we set a baptismal date a few weeks ago. But the husband, as he was driving his son to school saw 2 deer get hit by a car and the other guy didn't want them (they were young and they died) he took them and cut them up and started cooking them. When we got there we had a lunch with glass plates, we had salad and venison, and we were sitting in folding chairs with our plates on the table saw table. It's alright tough we made sure to unplug the thing.

It's so funny I don't think I have gone a week up here without eating Venison.

We had District conference out in traverse city this week. It was like Stake conference but it was a weekend long event. Traverse City is about as far away from Mesa To Showlow in the time it takes to drive over there. But I loved Traverse City so much I did not want to leave. 

 

It currently has a population of about 30,000 people, but in the summer it's more than double that amount. It was nice being in a bigger city where there was actually traffic and noise, i could not go to sleep because I loved being in the Zone leaders apartment and being able to look out the window and since their apartment is on the top of the hill I could see city lights and hear cars quietly humming outside. 

 

But my favorite part of the whole thing was just being able to be around other missionaries for once, We stayed with the ZL's and the Elders from the Upper peninsula (the soo), and during conference we got to see like 5 other sets of both Elders and sisters. 

 

The Cop cars there in Traverse city are so sick they are all new Cameros and Dogechallengers I think, I thinks it's sick how they just have super nice sports cars.

 

We heard from Elder Lansing, one of the area 70's. Most of what was talked about in the meetings were for Family History and temple work which doesn't really apply to me because I can't do either at this time.  I really liked Elder Lansings insights on D&C 121 -123 though, he read through quite a bit of it and testified of many things. 

 

One of the things I liked was how in D and C 122 V 9 it says "therefore hold on thy ways" you'll have to read the whole chapter to get what i'm talking about but Elder Lansing likened it to Finding Nemo how Dory would sing "just keep swimming" and how we all have hard times just as the prophet Joseph smith, and we can plead for the lords help just like Joseph did in Section 121, 

 

but the Lord won't always give us the things we ask for in the way we ask for it, he will give us the strength and the courage to just keep swimming and endure to the end so in that way will our prayers be answered and we will be delivered from the things that bind us . 

I love you all and pray and miss you so dearly!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Chyup! Chyup! Kechyup!‏

Did you know that the Lansing Michigan Mission has the most car accidents out of all the missions on this side of the Mississippi? There is currently 12 other mission vehicles that are being worked on/ that had been in accidents this month..... Man and I thought all of the Stupid Scary driving experiences that I've had where going to be gone once I left Arizona!

Remember the skunk?  Well it's still there and it still stinks.  While my companion was avoiding the skunk he almost crashed into a car, I screamed, "CAR CAR CAR!!" and he swerved to avoid crashing into it, so we didn't hit the car but he slid our brand new Jeep into the guard rail.  After the Car Carnage was over, we rolled into the gas station and I couldn't open my door! my companion tried to get it open but i was stuck, I then opened the latch on the door and rammed the door with my elbow and shoulder and it flew open. The door now opens =p it doesn't always make happy noises but it works.

 

Did you know there is a law in Michigan that makes it illegal for wives to get hair cuts without their husbands permission. It's true, The barbers don't ask about it but the wives can be prosecuted for it.

 

So i was pondering and having a very deep and intellectual struggle earlier this week and i came to the great conclusion that When i die and if it is in the Winter I want every one to wear Ugly sweaters =p ha ha and there would be a ugly sweater competition with prizes just like at Dads work, But you know since we are in the Latter days if I don't die and I just get twinkled were going to have a twinkling party where we all wear ugly sweaters =p.

 

I actually wrote a poem that i would like to share

Dark is the night,

fog very light.

With rain paving the ground, 

and on the windshield it did sound.

Just as a jet black mirror,

the streets were shinning and clear.

Reflecting streams so bright,

of the soothing blue street light.

The serenity seemed,

like it was dreamed.

As the moon shone free, 

it did light a few tree.

Oh how I am longing for this, 

to live in this moment of bliss.

For the apartment I fear,

because the skunk is still near!

I need a good title for it still.

I have memorized 1/2 of my P.B.

For the first time in  my time up here I finally feel comfortable up here in Michigan and I actually am starting to like it here. But to be fair I have been pretty blessed, I have probably only had to make my self 3 dinners my whole time here the weather is perfect (at the moment, im not looking forward to the super humidity or the -40 degrees) The scenery is beautiful! I love after brushing my teeth at night or after my workouts in the morning going out on our balcony and just admiring the Forrest that is our back yard. And I actually am starting to feel like myself again. 

A while ago we were door knocking and we passed a few lades and some little kids who were painting their garage white. I immediately turned back around and started to help them out and picked up a spare brush they said I could use. 

 

They were doing crazy balancing acts on a ladder to paint the top of the Garage and so i took that job and didn't even use a ladder to do it. I was really worried because the little girls were a 4 year old and a 6 year old and they were running around with their paintbrushes dripping and flinging paint every where. I was wearing some of my favorite pants and tie, but I said a prayer and kept them in my pre-referal vision. And Surprisingly I didn't get any white paint on me, unlike every one else. 

 

Man this act of service made my day when we were done and the grandma came to me and shook my hand and said how grateful she was that we came and helped her on this day where she was super busy, and it made me really feel good when with her eyes starting to become moist said "i now have time to play with my grandchildren". I loved that and walking by later seeing her out in the back yard with the 2 cute little girls swinging together =p. 

For my personal Studies I got a teaching record and wrote down all that needs to be taught to investigators before they can be baptized and I have been going through all of the topics and reading them up in "true to the faith" and I have been reading every single scripture reference I could find on the subject. And in my note book I have been writing down the scriptures I like and I've been making a cheat sheet kinda like the Scripture Mastery cards but I'm writing it on the front page of my quad so I have all of these references that I can bust out and that I can practice and memorize to help me with my teaching. And I think If every one did their scripture study according to topics and certain stories it would strengthen peoples testimonies so much more on all of the gospel principals, i can just imagine all the good that it would do to every one if they did that. 

Alright well Im gonna head out, Bye Love you have a good day! Enjoy the new temple! Don't get shot!

love,

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

It would mean the world to me

 "I went in a cornfield today..."

I was looking at one of the most attractive people in the world, you know just like I do every time i look at myself in the mirror. And i realized that the scar that I have on my front tooth from me taking a sharp turn on my bike and going tooth first into the street, It totally looks like Michigan! it looks just like the glove! Man if only i realized that was a sign earlier and prepared more for where I would be going. Well yesterday at about 9am it was 28 degrees here!!! Dude it's not even Halloween yet!

But this place is so cool there is wild life every where! Which is a bad thing at times, Yesterday a skunk was hit not even 200 meters away from  our apartment and that stunk up everything! It was hit before 9am and when we were back at like 9 pm it still stank and it's smell started came into our building and into our rooms.

Road kill is rather common, there is always a dead skunk  somewhere, or a Nephite or Lamonite Squirrel (Nephites are brown, Lamonites are black, Anti nephi lehis are a mix but those are uncommon)  Brother K was telling me that he was driving home and he slammed on his brakes because there was deer covering the road! he counted 73  Elk the vast majority of them being Bucks. Bro K owns a large amount of property and he feeds deer and bears and all manner of wildlife, but he only does it because he is a hunter, he has several tree stands where he has a perfect shot of all of the deer that he feeds and he almost raises them to be huge, and he will sit up there and let 20 or so deer walk by until he sees the Biggest ones.  He has more than 50 antlers and heads in his trophy room. He always feeds us something that has venison in it =p.

 

My left eye has been twitching all week, IT"S KILLING ME!!!!

I was on my way back from the city of Hillman on Wednesday And during that 45 minute drive I was really discouraged, I felt like we wasted our whole day, we spent the whole time at a district meeting, and then we drove back to a go into medical facilities to read scripture with "less actives" who would be active if they could move, and all of our lessons fell through, we didn't go door knocking because my comp felt like I needed to change out of my suit pants and then we had a dinner appointment with a member. I felt like we wouldn't have been able to do the things that we did that day in the timely manner and fashion that we did it, But i felt like i just wasted just so much of today where I could have done actual missionary work. BOOM! I was hit by a spiritual Baseball bat! "your doing what your Heavenly Father wants you to do".

That really changed my out look on missionary work alot.

It really softened my heart loads towards what we were doing, my companion, and many more things. 

I was knocking on some doors and a Lady answered the door and we got to where we asked her if she is a believer in Christ and she said ya I belong to (a certain) church and then Elder W whoopped out (since he actually knows things about other religions, I have a hard time keeping up with all of the different beliefs that are here, I've counted more than 19 churches so far in this city alone.) He asked her  "Well what would it mean to you to tell you that there is a prophet again on the earth and he is leading our church just like Moses did" 

She paused.

Looked up and said "that would mean the world to me!" 

Heck YA! we started testifying to her and then she said that shes happy where she's at and slammed the door in our face. WHAT!!!!

She Legitly said that would mean every thing to her! Man it kills me when people have their own agency ha ha ha.

I was still door knocking and I saw 2 guys and their daughters in front of a house I started walking over across the street and Elder W followed behind me. We struck up a conversation with them and one of them said "well since your a servant of God can i tell you my conversion story?" you could feel the spirit. 

 

The other guys who was Big, Black and hilarious started telling us on how he came to feel the spirit. and then Elder W told of a experience where he was super down and felt the spirit really strongly. and I had to pick out one of my spiritual experiences that I was actually comfortable sharing, and i had to filter it down to one non members could understand. So I shared part of the Longboarding one when we went to the parking garage and the cops came but i felt like i needed to get out of the car and walk to the temple instead. When i told them that the Cops came the big Black dude got that amazed look on his face and was like "OOOOuu OUUU OUU! Man I can't stand being around you guys! You guys make me so teary eyed! When you guys were walking down the street I KNEW you guys were with Jesus!" 

 

he then said something that was was about him feeling the spirit  and he walked away to a guy who just pulled his massive truck into their lawn. Elder W gave him a Mormon.org card with our number on the back and started walking away and I was like that's not good enough for the spirit they felt. I then exchanged numbers with both guys and I said I would love to see them and talk about more things like this again, and then I invited them to have a FHE with me and with tears in his eyes the other guy was like "Yes! I would love to see you guys again" Dude you could tell that they both felt the spirit so strongly with just our presence there and they were truly sincere about wanting to see us again. I love it when people can recognize the spirit!

My comp woke up today and couldn't work out, his heart is hurting him....... Me and Elder S gave him a blessing. And from what he was telling us and from what Sister J was saying it probably has to do with the Supplements he has been taking to help him loose weight and gain muscle, that or super stressed, So we were told to have a very chill day today. It's so cool, it's raining right now but it falling down like snow does you know when it's not a storm it just kinda gently falls every where.

Hey Can i have some pictures that I can put on my wall like every temple in AZ (that i know, Ill come to love phoenix later in life), Family, grandparents, cousins, John Brzenk stuff like that. 

Aight well I gotta go Bye Love you keep me updated!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The Lord Answers Prayers

As I was walking out of the chapel I heard Elder S talk to the Branch clerk saying "Man that Elder Crockett is impressive, when ever I have fed him he always seems to be able to finish any thing and every thing, I swear it just all gets put into one leg". every time Elder S feeds us  he always jokes about how all of the food goes into one leg and how he really wants to see me when finally the food goes to other places in my body and i'm fat.

I would tell you how much I weigh today but i don't think it's any more than what it's been the last time I told you, that and my companion got mad once the scale told him he gained more weight even though hes trying so hard to loose it, he kicked the scale into the wall, and now it gives me kinda unbelievable numbers, ever since that happened I am 200 lbs all the sudden...

Those pictures I sent you home in the Letter are for Ella, so she has something unusual to draw or paint. I don't know how i feel about the first two but especially after general conference I think that she needs to draw the one with the feet on it. " oh how beautiful their feet will be upon the mountains" or somethin like that, I loved how that was brought up in general Conference in Elder Hollands Talk where he talks about Thomas s. Monson how he gave up his shoes off of his feet for some one who needed them. If i'd advise drawing any of those pictures I would do the feet one. All of the notes on the back are just details of how I image it the picture is to give the visual to work off of.

Did any one else notice Hamiltons Trainer in the World Report in between conference sessions? They talked about an Elder from Chile in it and it totally shows a picture of Elder Larson.

 Something else that I thought was interesting about conference is that all of the big red chairs has a tissue container built into the arm rest because they know that the apostles and such are going to cry. 

So this week has been insane! I started out on with trade offs to Gaylord. And me and Elder A are both new he is 4 months old as of next week I wanna say. But we woke up and made our beds and did every thing we could to be exactly obedient, because we've been told being obedient brings blessings, but being exactly obedient brings miracles. 

They had really been struggling with investigators over there in Gaylord and actually so is every one up here. But we worked hard going to former investigators houses and talking to them and teaching them according to what we were prompted to. By the end of the day we had taught 5 lessons and we had 4 specific return appointments. Because we were exactly obedient they had 4 new investigators by the end of the day!

 

We then had Zone training where we had really good lessons from the Sister Training leaders and the Zone leaders and President Hoover. But we also got to watch the new movie "Meet the Mormons" ! That movie is awesome I really think it will help with clearing "The MORMONS!" name and make people more open to missionary work, sadly the only place in Michigan that it's going to be played is in Lansing so it's not going to help me all to much at the moment. It was SO nice to be able to see other missionaries! There was about 9 sets there at Zone training, several of them had to travel over 200 miles just to go to that meeting though. 

I said a prayer while I was on the way back from Gaylord and asked or the opportunity to get better at running because I felt like I don't get enough practice and I don't want to loose my abilities. 

After that Since our Zone leaders are so far away from us they used that opportunity to do a blitz in my area so I got to go and do work with one of the Zone leaders.  

When we were out knocking doors Elder R talks to every one even if he has to yell as they ride their bike away, and he also waves to every car and he is really good at starting a discussion at the door step! 

But while we were knocking on a door a runner ran by and Elder R yelled "could we talk to you for a moment about Jesus's restored church on the earth" and the runner yelled back "if you can catch up!" we then looked at each other and abandoned the door step and started booking it after him. I caught up first and started a conversation with him and about the church and then Elder R came up a while later, and we ran about a half a mile trying to teach him as we ran, dude it was hilarious! 

We finished the run with him and we gave him a Mormon.org Passalong card with our number stamped on the back of it and invited him to go on the website and to learn more about us and to give us a call if he had any questions. We were busting up laughing after we left that guy it was so funny, us trying to teach as we were breathing so heavy, running down the street with a book of mormon in our hands and in our white shirts and ties. 

While I was in Gaylord I was looking through the Area Book with Elder A and we came upon a page that said all of the active members and all of the inactive members in the branch there and there was over 300 inactive members in the Gaylord branch! These are mostly all people who has been baptized who were made deacons, priests, elders, etc. But only about 45-60 people go to their branch each week... that inspired me to check that out in my area book and it was around the same and all the sudden I knew what me and my companion needed to do, 

My "Criminal mind" as i like to call it snapped on and brilliant ideas just started coming to me. I talked to Elder W about it and he was trying to throw me off of the idea and convince me that was all the members duty and we just need to leave it to them. And so I searched PMG to try to find something that says the Full time missionaries need to help in bringing back inactives to the ward but I couldn't find anything on that topic. I gave up and as I was fasting for conference made sure to pray about some guidance or help or something on that subject.

General Conference first session in every talk they talked about us needing to help the inactives come back to church, and Chi Hong (son) Wong said specifically that Full time missionaries need to work side by side with the members in bringing back inactives to church. I was so happy! Because not only was that a answer to my prayer but it was encouragement to do that, that really was inspiration and all of the ideas that I was getting was to help them come back. I am now SO EXCITED to go to branch counsel or PEC so I can bring up that talk and ask all the ways we could help and to start talking about some of the ideas I had.

Any ways I gotta head out, were going to go and visit some light houses today and we have to get going if were going to get our laundry done and get me an electric piano so i can continue to practice (thats all i did in between conference sessions, I am dying to be able to play it well with two hands in sync)

Alright well I gotta go Bye love you! have a good day! Don't get shot!

love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

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