"Thank you, Thank you very much!"‏

So I totally bagged on day light savings last week but this week I really enjoyed it being able to have sunlight until 7pm it helps me enjoy life more, it help me with missionary work more. More people are willing to talk with us because we arent so creepy walking up to their house when it's pitch black and 6pm. 

While we were out and about on our car fast day a train started going through the city and had to stop. Since we were watching it move and then jerk to a stop I grabbed one of the 15 pennies that I picked up that day and put it on the train tracks and after it was done moving I had a squished penny! It brought me joy for a good 10 minutes =p

While I was on trade offs with one of my zone leaders we were out in the Ghetto and we went getting any good responses from any one infact few people gave us any time of day. A Ice Cream truck started going down the street slowly and playing music. I saw the guy eyeballing us since we were the only people on the street. He kept going slower and slower until he passed us and he pulled over. Yah I wasn't gonna fall for that trick. I stuck my head straight forward and passed him. He rolled down the window and I did a quick glance and then stopped dead in my tracks. That clever devil got me! Jk It was a Less Active who I had been calling and he wasn't answering his phone! I even called him that day. So I went up to the window set up a appointment and got free Ice cream out of it! That was a Sweet Miracle =p Literally =p. So I wasn't discouraged at all because we were where we needed to be at the right time and I got Ice cream out of it. 

So my new companion I found out yesterday that he was born a month early and it really effected his social skills. Which makes sense, But I didn't know that and so I was pushing him Hard this week! We were on that same street we got the ice cream and we had a appointment in 10 minutes. We walked around a house to the side door that they use and we could see the next house and there was like 6 people in their lawn with super loud Ghetto music playing, They all looked like G's too. My companion after he saw that said "So are we good to go to our lesson?"...."Elder It's a 2 minute walk... We can go After YOU talk to them all" since he hadn't been talking to any one at all and giving up super super easy.

 He started all of his whining, complaining, and dishing out everything he can as fast as he could to try and convince me not to make him. "Elder Crockett It's Not SAFE!" I shot him a evil Eye for his super racist comment there and said I was going to walk in the middle of them all and let it get super awkward until he talks. And I did. I walked up and like 4 brothas left. I said Hi and I just sat there knowing that he couldn't stay more than 2 feet away from my hip and was coming.

 He did and He talked for like 7 minutes to them before I said another word =p. even got a return appointment out of it (I mean it fell through but...). I loved that conversation that he had though because the guy who we were talking to gave a awesome testimony of Jesus Christ. Even with the loud music that was swearing up a storm, I felt the spirit from it! I am amazed at the truth that people have and learn from the spirit, You can learn so much if you just listen to those people you to try to teach.

 I feel like thats a problem in my district, there are several people who really want to teach but wont learn anything from my lesson at all and when I ask check understanding questions All they will refer back to is what they brought up and not what other people shared. 2 ears, 1 mouth, come on people! You have that proportion for a reason. But I am guilty on that subject at times too.

I door knocked into a Less active who is on the directory but had a different address. When we found her she told us that she is super excited to come to a fast and testimony meeting and has been thinking about it alot. She told us she wants to bear her testimony on the power of Prayer because her Daughter was one of the kids who was Shot that day that 6 people here was killed. She felt all day long that she needed to pray for protection for her family and so she poured her soul out in prayer and her daughter lived and she found out why she felt that need to pray.

Last week we had a visitor come to church. I went up to him and said hi to him and to all of the other people who I had never seen before who came for a baby blessing, Most of which was nonmembers. 3 Days later my companion answers the phone while I am driving and the guy wanted to speak specifically to me, So he put it on speaker and I pulled over. It was the visitor who came to church. He told me that he had brought his lessactive son to church with him that day who lives in our area. I didn't know that I did say hi to him too though. He then went on to tell me that their whole time there I was the ONLY person who ever went up to them and introduced themselves and tried to even say hi. He went through all that effort to get his son there and then no one but me said hi to them and I said hi for like 5 seconds as I had to run to ITL some people before they left. He was grateful for my recognition, and appalled by my ward and called the Elders Quorum and Bishop to complain. They felt pretty bad when they heard.

I love Elvis. I don't know what I would do with out him. I LOVE his gospel album. No matter how bad I feel, no matter how beat down I am, how tired I am, lonely, heartbroken; When Elvis comes on my ipod and he starts to tell me to "Walk ON!!!!! through the wind and the snow, YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALOOOOOOONNNEEEE!" I brings me to tears, punches me in the gut and tells me to man up, Do Work and DO work hard! I really needed his influence this week. Especially these last few weeks where I have felt like a claustrophobic fat cat trapped in a peanut shell twitching and not being able to release or break anything free.

Well I gotta go 

Bye I love you!

Have a good day!

-- 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

With in Sight and Sound,.... and never more than 6 inches away....

This week has been pretty sweet. #vacation.  

I have found over 20 pennies on the side walk this week, who knew so many people would drop pennies in the snow and not be able to find it. 

My new companion is from 3cities washington or something like that. He asks me questions ALL DAY long. The sisters in my ward like to make fun of me because he is always 1 or 2 feet away from me, even at the China buffet where we sat next to the place for food he would follow me around  1 foot away haha. It's alright though he is adjusting and I know that he is trying to fit in and be the best that he can. The problem is with training down here It's hard to keep him unspotted from other missionaries so and he asks me about things that I refuse to talk to missionaries about because stupid missionaries don't need their stories of disobedience passed on.

I started my 4th Journal this week. It's interesting because the Journal doesn't have any lines on it so my lines go up and down a little but it is still legible and not hard to read so.

I had to go to Lansing twice this week one to get my new companion and the other to go to MLC. Yes I do not have a GPS. Yes my temporary companion Elder Freemen didn't have a GPS. SO without it anything but the big map I received when I got my call letter We went from Kalamazoo to battle creek church building (which He had been to once before) , up to Lansing and to the Lansing stake center. Yes we were 10 minutes early! I have leaned so much about city organization and road signs and what not since I have been out, forrealzies you don't really ever need a GPS unless you are going out to the boonies for a referral.

I loved being with Elder Freeman for the 3 days we were together, He ate up everything I had to say! It was a huge healthy change for me especially because He had been out for a longer time and so I could go off on all of my great discourses on different principals of missionary work that I can't teach to people who are new and I haven't been able to teach anyone recently who would actually understand and apply it.

I loved this week though I had so many tender mercies!

I checked facebook and I got a message form a "Child" of record whos father was excommunicated who I used to stop by and try and encourage to get on the repentance process and meeting with us. He wrote me to tell me that he was baptized and received the priesthood a few weeks ago and that he was talking to his bishop about his mission papers. =p

I also went to Lamb of God this week, it technically wasn't a musical because there was no real acting just standing in a suit in front of a mic. I almost cried when the full orchestra went up on stage and I heard only a cello start to tune using harmonics. I was hit by the spirit so hard! I was experiencing a tear jerker performance even before they were tuned or started yet! I did cry during though. But After the performance I looked around and found a member from the Holt ward and when I found them I found Sister Dean and Gabe Dean. I broke course and ran to them to give Gabe a huge hug. Sister Dean first off Told me that she is so glad that she added Mom on facebook and that she thinks Moms posts are a Hoot! But then she told me that because Things changed when I came, Gabe is now active and went to the temple and did the work for her deceased husband. And her other son Gary who would never leave his room EVER, now comes out and spends time with them together, She made the statement "I now have my son back". I cried. That like made the 6 months of time spent in Holt worth it.

Our investigators son who has been coming to church for 3 weeks now started asking people if he could join the scout program and it caused a uproar of people running around trying to arrange it, and provide a way that he could participate in the upcoming Pinewood derby. We didn't do anything at all but members were going around and asking who would be able to help him make a car and what not! They love church! They believe they found their church home.

Daylight savings wrecked me! I had PEC at 7:30am and fell asleep and there is only like 4 other people there. I passed out during Sacrament meeting. The only reason why I didn't fall sleep the other 2 lessons was because I was teaching. I did tell them though that if I fall asleep to keep the conversation going and let me be until class is over =p.

I can't figure out why I cant see the files of the pictures on my camera I thought it was just in Gaylords computers but I still can't view them. SIster Dean wants to see the pictures I have of her and I would post one today on facebook but I can't see it...

In my mission we will be having a new Key indicator: It is Hours of service. We are now asked to get 10 hours of service and 15 hours of door knocking a week. I am not sure how to balance that and the extra hour of compstudy since I am training and everything else.... But it sounds like fun

I am so grateful for all of God's Tender Mercies, I know he loves me, I know that he understands me in ways I can't express to any one else. I know he hears my tears at night while I pray. I know he is merciful and has great power to lift us when we are beaten and torn and miserable. I know I can spend all day typing and trying to describe all of my experiences and pains and worries and joys, I could use all of that time with countless things to help give you the imagery of what happens in my life; but no one will EVER understand the depth of any of it the way that God can. These past weeks has been great evidence of that! I believe every single word in the scriptures has that same depth that can not be portrayed and thats why it's so important to ponder on scriptures.

Love you all

Miss you all

Don't get shot

-- 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

"They say there aint no rest for the Wicked!!"‏

Yes the band "Cage the Elephant" describes how I feel, Little do they know The Elephant King does not stay trapped behind any lock =p.

Yes I must either be pretty Wicked or something else was messed up with me since I will now have to go through the 12 week program again. I got my transfer call and I am training another missionary. =p #round3. on 9/11/14 The first day I was in Michigan a Elder who lives in Gilbert AZ went down the line and pointed at each of us and tried guessing what we would do. He pointed to Elder T and said Zone leader, Yes he is a zone leader. He Pointed at me and said " he will be a district leader and train 7 missionaries" I feel like that statement was rather prophetic Since I am still a district leader and I will have soon trained 3, one of my "Boys" (as other missionaries call new missionaries) Has trained since, I have "greenie busted" 2 missionaries now, and I will have 2 more transfers after this which is exactly enough time to train again. haha, he was inspired! But it's good to train so I can brainwash new missionaries on my thoughts on missionary work.

We didn't expect to be transferred though that was a little bit of a shock. We never even busted out the Boxing pads! He wouldn't let me trade him anything for them either...But it's alright because this week we explored our building a little and I found out our apartment complex has a gym!!! Elder M was so mad that no one told him about it! I am sad that he left, We were getting along great too! Our friendship exponentially got stronger the week before transfer calls.... Well... what ev.

18 months. Mom, the MTC is changing their training and instead of it being two weeks it will now be 3 weeks and so Every one who doesn't go home tomorrow gets a extra week added to their mission so that way it doesn't ruin every transfer in the world. SO this next transfer will be 7 weeks instead of 6 weeks. So I guess I will actually be going through the 13 week program this time around. Yes Mom Your count down is inaccurate I wanna say I will be coming home on the 31st of August or in September. 

The sisters I came out with on my mission are going home tomorrow, it was sweet being able to be Sister T's District leader before she left. It was a great miracle for me because she was like my best friend in the MTC. 

I really don't have much to say about this week, But it has been full of tender mercies for me! So many little miracles that just made my day! I could spend for ever writing you all about it but it would mean nothing to you so ask me in 6 months if you wanna know and I will gladly throw up loads of information on you in person. 

This next week will straight up be a vacation for me! Well I will still be in my area and I guess that might be a little hard on me since I don't know the area as well as I would like to. But I have a temporary companion until thursday where we will drive up to Lansing and then spend all day there getting our new companions. Then In Kalamazoo All of the missionaries are going to see a musical called "Lamb of God" which was written by members of the church. and then the next day I am going back up to Lansing with my current temporary companion for MLC for the whole day. =p h aha. I have so many appointments I need to re Schedule!

We went to try a potential we got while door knocking and when we showed up for the appointment we found a book all torn up and in the snow by her door we kicked it over and it was a triple combination! That said "Portage ward library" on it. We took it because they obviously didn't care about it But it's in bad shape. 

This week was our one week off of for car rotations. And yes the day we got rid of the car it started snowing again.... For Realzies every one else has gotten beautiful sunshine for the most part, our whole week was terrible weather wise. We got like a foot of snow at one point and it was also freezing rain. We door knocked for 6 hours straight and walked for 1 hour one day this week and it never stopped snowing. Except we had a BALL door knocking that day! But we only got 1 potential from it all, and yes that was the first door we knocked on.... and yes I did randomly get a bloody nose and ended up bleeding all over the 7/11 that we were next too at the time. But we had so much fun! and I am not even joking. 

The best part of this week was the investigators at church for our district. we had 3 there in total but they all had awesome experiences while there. Our was the same as last week she brought her "Keyids" along again as well. The Sisters brought a guy they door knocked into and he was super touched by the spirit and was so excited and was loving every second of everything that was brought up in church. 

 

I talked with him in the hall way and I had to start going "Spirit, Spirit, Spirit!!!" but he already recognized that it was the spirit testifying of truth. He was so touched by the 8 year old who went up and bore his testimony of the spirit. he said "I have been thinking and there is only one word I can use to describe the spirit.......MAGIC!!!!" and he threw both of his hands in the air when he said magic ha ha, it was so funny and everyone felt the spirit. I don't think I have ever heard some one so young bear such a sincere testimony before. And when I went to see the K1 Elders as they were coming out of their sacrament meeting one of their investigators who I had taught before came out in tears saying how much she loved church and was so glad that she finally came. Her husband had an amazing experience where he died and was sent back by the savior and 2 angels. The Missionaries knocked on their door that week. I love his description of the savior, it matches the one Grandpa Crockett has in the picture on his wall by the stair case. 

  

I wish I had more good things to tell you but thats about it, and I don't think next weeks will be too exciting either with my long meetings in lansing.

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get Shot!

Love

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

    

I think things are finna come back for this area

"Finna" is another word that alot of people use in the ghetto, I am not sure exactly what it means but from what  I understand it seems to be in place of "going to". These people crack me up!

In Gaylord this sunday 3 of my investigators that I taught and put on date were baptized! The former Messianic jew.  S's son. And S's nephew/foster kid. I called up the chain to get permission to go to it and got it. But in a ward where we have no friends with any members but like 2, and there is very little member involvement in anything, even in church We didn't have much of a chance of some one driving us 5 hours up north with the possibility of bad weather. 

 

That and The sister that replaced the other one who left had a baptism 3 hours away and was asking loads of people for help and they didn't even get a ride to Lansing which is like a hour away...To be fair though I didn't try very hard because of how unlikely the odds were. 

This last p-day was rather fun. But it didn't work out in the way that we intended it to be. We put effort to make the day super special for a sis since she was going home on a unknown day. But things weren't working out for our district plans and so we had a zone p-day instead where they came and didn't really associate with any one and then left super early... I tried so hard to talk to them and what not but you can only do so much as a Elder before sisters start to think you are creepy and it gets really awkward... I tried my best. She called me that night and told me she was leaving the next morning...

But after they were gone I had loads of fun at the zone p-day! We played Ultimate frisbee in the cold. One of my zone leaders who has battled me on several things about supplies and what not was on the other team. I went up and started blocking him and waving my hands in his face and doing high kicks in the opposite direction that my arms were to block him. He couldn't get past me and so he hooked under my arm and clinched to me and spun so he could try and throw the frisbee. Bad news. Because I then slid under his arm and went for the rear naked choke....

Elder E...

weight- 220

hight- 6' 3"

trained- MMA for years

specialty- wrestling/ground and pound

We were off right then and there. My playful fake rear naked choke got taken the wrong way and his arm grabbed under my armpit in means of self defense. I started swinging my legs around his body to wrap my hooks around a leg at least because I knew what was coming. He then bent over and rolled me over the top of him and slammed me on the ground. Adrenaline flowed through my veins. 

 

We struggled and he took side control and started working for a pin. I slipped his left arm in between my legs and was pushing out to break his grips before the pin was locked. I used that to pull his head near to my hips and then I more tactfully than before (because I thought about this technique alot on my mission and realized I was forgetting a step) got my right leg on the top of his neck and let go of his arm with the other leg and locked the triangle choke. 

 

Next thing he knew he couldn't breath. I was popping up my hips, pulling down on his head and Yelling "TELL ME YOU MISS YOUR MOM!!!!" He never did but he tapped out and I let him run away. after he got off of me I noticed that all 30 missionaries stopped playing to watch, I don't think too many of them knew what happened since most of the work that was done was fought underneath his side control.

We had dinner at a member in another ward that night and he was there and he kept saying he wanted a rematch. yah whatever

This week has had the most distracting things for me ever. Not only did I fight him and I couldn't stop thinking about that. But we were going to visit a person and while walking through a parking lot some lady locked her keys in the car. Some one was already using a clothes hanger to try and get in the driver side, so I grabbed my set out of my bag and worked on the other door. Problem was that car was in the ghetto and it's lock showed! 

 

It looked like people tried to knock all the pins out with a screw driver but couldn't get the driver all the way into the lock. I had no luck and as I went to the other side to push the other guy out of the way some one ran up with a hammer and broke a window to the car... Yes we got 12 inches of snow that night, poor lady! She doesn't even have a parking space for shade or cover, so i bet it was filled the next day. I had footage of working on the lock and the fight playing over and over and over... it drove me crazy. Oh that and I arm wrestled 3 elders over and over and over again. I couldn't beat one of them but to be fair when he is 115 lbs more than you and you don't have a table or technique I would say I gave him a struggle at least. 

This week was amazing for this area though! We picked up 4 investigators all of which are super solid ones. I already told you about 2 of them. To continue with their story what happened is One of them wanted to come to church with her Shorties and I was dreading the fact of having to call for a ride for all 4 of them.

 

One time in Holt I spent over 2 hours alone calling members for rides for 4 investigators and it didn't even work out for them all, only one out of the 4 came. So I set aside an hour to call people to be able to figure all of this out on how to get them all to church. On my second call Some one answered and said they would love to take all 4! OH YAHH!!! That was a miracle in it's self. 

 

Later on that night I had the thought to call her again before the battery on my phone died. So I did and she told me her husband took her carseat for the 2 year old on accident and she wont be able to come to church since she has to stay with her. I frantically started making calls at 7:45pm to try and find a car seat. Like the 6th call I made the person I talked to said "oh yah I got one you can borrow.". And so we made plans to get it in like 10 minutes, and then AS SOON as that phone call ended my phone battery died! That was two miracles in it's self! 

 

We met up with them in the morning and set up the car seat and arrived shortly before sacrament meeting with them. Oh yah! We had to slow walk across the chapel to take up a WHOLE bench right in front of the K2 Sisters face! They tried to poach a less active we also got to church so they had no one come. I am pretty sure they counted that less active at church as one of theirs in their key indicators report too...

The Next miracle was even though I didn't feel the spirit through out the meeting except for during the sacrament and the sister choir that sang " as sisters in Zion", She still liked sacrament meeting and loved the rest of church and participated alot! After church we had loads of members come up comment on how awesome they were and be amazed when we told them we found them by door knocking. She also followed up with us 3 times to make sure we were meeting again this week, asked for a gospel principals book to study for the next lesson next week. Hey, Church is true when it's like that!

I also found out this week that a child of record who Gave me a storm trooper blaster rifle up in Boyne City-who we used to stop by to see if we could teach him and his excommunicated father- messaged me on face book and said that he got baptized this last week =p. Man and I was still trying to coax him out of his address in California! But I guess it makes it easier when you aren't way out in the boonies and there is actually mormons around you, and you live next to your former bishop.

We had a sweet miracle. We made our way to make our appointment... He wasn't there... As we were walking away me and Elder M had the same though at the same time that we should try this one potential we knocked into like my first week here. We went there and she answered the door (we have tried this place like 9 times and she is never home)! We waited and talked to her at the door and then her husband came down the stairs and then we came in since we knew it was safe. 

 

She was frantic and all over the place but we talked to her in between her ADHD out bursts. We eventually got to a point where I said the first vision and she was stunned! IN awe! And was talking about how amazing that was before I was even finished. She felt the spirit strong and I did my now usual "You felt that right!?" and she went off on how amazing the spirit felt and for like the next 20 minutes would go back and talk about that feeling and how she needed that! 

 

She ran to her calendar and said she is open on this time and all of her kids will be at school then so she could be more focused! She went on to tell us that when we knocked on the door she didn't want to answer the door because she Literally didn't have any time for us, but she felt something and it encouraged her to answer the door. So she did and she didn't have time but she was so happy she gave up that time because the spirit when it swept over her brought peace and warmth and comfort, and then she went on for like 7 minutes about all the garbage thats been happening in her life and how that doesn't even matter anymore.! the deck was stacked for us there! Right place, right time, Right timing, Guiding her to answer the door, Husband was there, felt the spirit strongly. We did nothing but talk about what we know. She couldn't get over how cool my full name was =p haha she had to run to tell her husband about it. 

Well I gotta Go 

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

Stay away from people who ruin your life by telling you things about starwars! (I am still mad about that, I don't think I will take him out to a lesson again even if he was a Sr. Missionary)

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

You's are Wako!‏

I am super impressed you guys didn't say or ask anything about the big shooting that happened here in Kalamazoo! But I don't have much to say about it other than it was rather close to were I was sleeping this week.

You won't believe it! It might not even mean anything to you, it might to Miya. But I went on a trade off to the Kalamazoo 1 area and while I was there a member called and said they made brownies for us (dude their area spoils them so much I hate it! They rub it in all the time that their meal calendar is filled through the month of march and I get fed twice a week and have no investigators...) But the members met us at their apartment and we started talking and he said that they have relatives in Mesa and as we talked more it turns out he was the Uncle to McKay and Kaden Shelly who live 4 streets down from us in the other stake! Mckay is the one who got a parasite from being fed road kill dog while in the Philippines on his mission. Mark and Pam Shelly is their uncle and Aunts names. It was pretty sweet!

Yes, as I was on trade offs there all we did was teach lessons all day... and when we door knocked the 3rd person who talked to us let us in and we picked them up as a investigator.... I had a blast with Elder S, he is such a kid and when ever he kneels to pray he kneels on top of something =p, he's a hoot. 

We actually are being fed basically every day this week, only because of us area poaching our meals and the members actually signed up this week. One lady from the University branch called us up wanting to feed us and so we set a appointment up to meet at burger king. It was the funniest thing ever because like 3 days later she called us and the call sounded like she was a investigator who was dropping us. For reals! She spent like 10 minutes saying she had to cancel and told us why. It started by sounding like she was in confession telling us she didn't feel comfortable with our meal appointment  because no male would come with her to burger king... I didn't listen to the whole thing, she was crying about it and I couldn't stop laughing so I stepped out of the car since it was on speaker phone. the other elders tell us she is pretty wako though, I guess so. It was terribly sad, but yes she dropped us as a Inves...Dinner Appointment =p. 

I found out today one of my Investigators in Holt got baptized!!!!! I wasn't a failure! jk I don't think that at all. And i just found out 2 seconds ago 3 more of my investigators in Gaylord will be baptized on sunday!

The K2 sisters think they are so funny and when ever they leave a message for me they say " Hi!!! It's your favorite Missionaries!!..." So this week I called them back and said "Elder and Sister White!!!! It's good to hear from you! What are you doing with the K2 sisters phone?" =p they thought it was funny....actually, no they didn't but I died laughing at my own joke!

You know I got pretty sick of this game that we play here in Kalamazoo this week. For realzies, people never keep appointments! I will ask them like 5 times if this is something they are truly interested in and get everything squared away, get their number to call the day before and  it never works out or they give bad numbers... I got so sick of this game of doing this and bringing members with us to a empty house I just started complaining in prayer. I said things like "Why would you have me on a mission if All i am doing was wasting time by always having appointments fall through and it leave us to help no one progress or learn..." We had like 4 appointments fall through that day and it's like that all day every day. But we went out home teaching with a member since his companion couldn't come and every single door we knocked on some one answered! 6 less actives in like 3 hours! it was sweet! I had to pray for forgiveness after that though.

It even continued on to the next day we went door knocking on Lake street which is literally the border to our area and every one we were talking to was straight up Wako! we knocked on a door and no one answered and this homeless guy rode up on his bike and started talking to us. He had a water bottle full of beer which he told us he felt bad about drinking in front of us but... He was pretty far out. 

Then we went to the next door and knocked on it. It had a paper in the window that said it was condemned but it was a house that was on our directory where a less active supposedly lived, that and there are 2 investigators in our district that live in condemned houses and I have seen plenty of people in them here so we knocked. And the Guy from the house that didn't answer walked out and snarkly remarked at us like we were stupid "Don't you see that house is condemned?!!???" I responded "yup" and nodded my head. 

He left disgusted and walked around the 8 foot bushes back into his house. He was pretty determined for some one who 10 seconds ago wouldn't even answer his own door to talk to us... What ev he seemed a little far out too. We kept knocking and this lady came out 2 doors later and started saying "no habla engleis" or how ever people say that they don't speak english in spanish. Me and My comp froze a little  and then we tried speaking spanish with like the 5 words I know and it was similar for elder m. But she would keep responding "ok" or "oh ok" after we said stuff so i figured she was just playing us and I just started talking to her regularly and testing a little. I then asked her a question and she responded in english....Yah she understood everything and was playing us. I stopped that game right then and there. 

We kept knocking and this guy stopped us and started talking to us. Like every 4 words he would say " You know what I'm sayin?" I love how people have the gander words where every word will end with a S. I also love how they all talk about their devil "baby momma's" or "their Shorties" (kids) or their "Church Homes", and they are very prone to gander rants. We got that guy to let us sit on his porch and teach him a lesson (since all the snow melted this week for real this time). 

I asked him a question to see what he learned about what we taught about prophets and he ranted for like 7 minutes... At one point he said concerning the topic of people who go to churches and knowing truth (which he got himself on the topic of and responded to himself) "I need to know you MIND!(he then stands up gets up in my grill and said) I WANNA see you's Body! and all of you to know your beliefs!"... Yah we basically stood up and walked away right then and there since it was going no where. We then knocked and got a lady who was "looking for a new Church Home". We set up a appointment and came back yesterday with a member. SHE WAS THEREREREREEREREE!!!!!

We had a lesson and her sister took a taxi with all of her " Shorties" so she could be there too (there was 10 kids present) We taught the restoration and they were both impressed! They commented over and over and over again that we were physically Glowing. They were super touched by the message and both accepted a baptismal date and asked for us to get a ride for them and all the Shorties to come to church. Set up another lesson too. " You are so sincere's about what you's believe! (sounding very touched) AH i don't have time to quote the we are glowing part again... Point made anyways. WE HAVE INVESTIGATORS!!!

I found out on saturday a sister in my district who just got out 4 weeks ago is going home this week. It's so sad! So all Yesterday I spent my thinking time planning on what to do to make this p-day super special since I don't think she has done anything fun yet because she never hangs out with us and the other sisters. So today is stacked and it is gonna be killer!

Bye i Love you have a killer day!

But not killer in the way of being shot or anything

More as in like Killer like the band the killers right

Love ya!
-- 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

"I HATE YOU!!!"- Anakin Skywalker episode 3‏

My life is ruined. I have no hope.
The day started well, we had a car ride for the first time this week but it would have been better if we had never gotten into the car. A terrible thing happened and I have scars that will be with me until the end of my life because of it! A member picked us up and we had a lesson fall through so we set up a back up to see the sister who moved in the ward a few weeks ago that no one in the church knows about except us since we door knocked into her.

We got them to meet so she would know at least some one for church and thats when it happened.... We were sitting peacefully on the couches in the room and I was in a arm chair like usual (I always seek out the best seat). And while the members were relating, it happened. "Have you seen the new Star Wars movie yet? I cant believe that ______________________ happened!".

I was about inches away from throwing the dog off of me and taking that old man to the ground! I hesitated about it because he was like 70 years old...... Before he continued "I yelled don't ruin it!" It seriously made me like out of commission the whole rest of the day because I was so angry at him!

I guess it wasn't to bad since all we did was walk for hours in the snow and door knock and have every Potential lesson fall through. But Forrealzies I am not taking him out teaching with us this week. The only words Of how I can describe my feelings for him are best said in the correct way By Anakin Skywalker in Episode 3 "I HATE YOU!!!". I prayed all day that I could forgive and forget, especially FORGET!!!!!!!! I joke about this in the way I said this but.... Forrealzies you didn't need to say anything about who dies in the movie.

We were talking to that sister though and we asked her if she was going to come to church and she had a concern that I never heard before. She is like in her 60-70's and she said "I might not get enough sleep because I need to stay up so I can play World of Warcraft and raid with my team so I can get geared up."... ?What? You have grand kids and maybe even great grandkids and you play that game? She came to church and told me all about how the raid only lasted 2 1/2 hours unlike the 3 plus that she thought it was going to take...=p

Holidays for missionaries are pretty sad, you tend to get a good dinner appointment because people feel bad for you, but no one else in the world wants to see you =(. 

We were on the one week off for car rotations this week. Yes it was said to be the coldest week of the winter here. I prefer us having to walk than the sisters in my district who were sick though. The most we did in one day was about 13 miles in several inches of snow.

We went on trade offs this week and when we got dropped off at our apartment the east half of the city blacked out. The thing is here there wasn't any lights at all, and since the trees are still pretty thick it was super dark. It was freaky! Especially when we would walk down the street and not be able to notice the people who were walking around, and there seemed to be more than usual out that night from what we could see anyways. Our apartment building felt like the super dark building in "I am legend" and even the emergency lights ran out of power since it blacked out for 6 hours. "Sam.....Sam" As we were walking down the hall one light turned on and there was a person who was sitting under it! We also learned that we had no flash lights at all, so we planned under the light of a lightsaber and a camera. 

P-days here are so much fun! 

We got a referral and when we tried them since they would never call us back some lady answered the door and said "how did you find me?". Turns out a less active partmember family moved to that house 4 days ago and the only member in the house answered the door... =p um yes please! We got all of her info to get her records shipped in as well. In 2 weeks we now have 24 changes to make to the directory where about half is actually useful info, the rest is bad addresses and phone numbers. 

It seems like here in my district we are really low on lessons. But I don't think this is a bad area at all I just think it needs to be more organized and have better records. We have 10 less active lessons set up for next week  already. 

I loved all of your emails this week they seriously made my day and I am going to read over them again before I have to go because of how funny they were. Ella Congrats on finally writing me, I hope it was Refreshing. =p ha ha hah aha. Hamilton, aint nobody got anything on "the Elephant King" But "The Ham Snap" sounds pretty impressive.

Sorry this week was lame Hope you don't get in a bad mood by my story on starwars because it puts me in one whenever I think of it.

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Bear one anothers Burdens = "DO stuff together"‏

I cant cook anything in my apartment without the fire alarms going off... It drives me crazy. Every single time we open the oven when it's turned on it goes off, it's not even a gas stove or anything. So we take them off and throw them in the bed room, shut the door when we need to cook.

I like being here alot, I get fed like nothing but my district is loads of fun. Elder S used to be a professional gamer and made big bucks playing Call of Duty in tournaments, when ever he would log into live and play a game people would screen shot and post about it on twitter that they were playing with him, his account would always blow up with notifications when he played on live. I told him I would own him with a riot shield and he had like a 10 minute rant ha ha. 

Elder F came out with me and he got special permission to bring a guitar on his mission and so we Jammed on p-day! It was healthy for me to hear music like that, He is way good!

Problem is though since we are on car rotations we had to be their slave child and drive them every where. E. S spent for ever shopping for new pants and belts, but hey when you drop 10 sizes I guess it's about time to celebrate and get new pants.

I went on a trade off to Western Michigan University with my zone leaders. That was a totally different experience of contacting then I have ever had before. Since people were walking from class to class to their dorms they didn't really want to stop walking so we walked every where with people to talk to them. It was fun because you had so much more time than you do when door knocking, I mean what are they going to do run away from you? Well some one did! ha ha! 

But I had to address things totally differently just because of how strong college kids are against certain words or "Kill words". I couldn't say church, Religion, God in the first 4 seconds or they would cringe. So we asked if people are spiritual, or if they believe in an energy which we could then relate to God. It was good for me and helped me with my finding quite a bit, especially with "atheists". 

I felt super cool doing it too; because how they do it is they will walk around campus and set up a appointment to meet with them in one of the study rooms that people could reserve through this touch screen terminal. So I felt like a Professor who was hired by the school to help the students with their spirituality! Thats how we made me feel anyways we wouldn't say we were hired though, because we aren't. That was a super cool lesson though that we had in that room of glass, it had one wall that was a white board so we would draw on the wall to emphasize the Gospel dispensations and the Great Apostasy. It was super cool Because I was able to do it all in a rolling office chair and I never had to stand up.=p

District meeting is a little different, my crowd is a little tougher than before I really have to work to get every one involved since I have several new missionaries and not Old returned missionaries who are here for round 2 who are dying to teach something. I used the email you sent me Hamilton that talks about magnifying your calling. After I sent my email I checked the district meeting topic on line and it was on Magnifying our calling ha ha. 

All of the missionaries are trying to coax me out of my MSF money...

We were walking down town which takes a long time to get their without a car to go to a lesson we set up with a less active. The good thing was there was a lot of people we could Pc on the way over there. So while we did that there was this lady who was just standing alone in the sunlight. It was rather odd. I let out a over enthusiastic Hi and then asked how she was doing. She responded, " I am doing terrible=("... I stopped dead in my tracks, and dropped my whole walk with swag past you and let you turn around and walk to me when I ask you a question. I asked her about it, to end up hearing this sad story. 

She was from Carry indiana and she took the bus up here to Kalamazoo to visit some one. After she explored this city she had never been in before she eventually made it to a bus stop where she found out she had no phone, no card, and not enough money to get her bus ticket back home. She was only 5 dollars short. She was in this city that she had no clue how to get around she didn't remember where she came from so she couldn't get help from her friend. She eventually was picked up and brought to the mission (a homeless shelter) for the night by a cop. Where they gave her clothes so she could stay warm and a meal. 

She was terrified in the mission (I don't blame her!!!! I have been in twice now and it seems more like a concentration camp) and spent the whole next day in some hobo clothes that were way beaten up and not warm, with one glove. She went from church to church begging for 5 dollars and was turned away several times. They would have helped her if she lived here and she couldn't pay her bills but since she had a husband with a good job back home and kids who were well off they wouldn't do anything for her. 

She got to the point where she did what she never thought she would have to do in her life and beg people on the street for money which was terrifying for her! She attempted  to ask for money from a mother and a child since she would be able to relate to her in her circumstance but she was turned away. All she needed was 5 dollars! She eventually was super cold and couldn't just stand in places for fear of being kicked out for loitering, and was determined not to go back to the mission. So what she did was stand on the side of the road in the only spot of sunlight there was to warm up and pray for help.

And then some funky tall skinny dude gives her a over enthusiastic "Hi!" and listens to her and watches her cry buckets of tears as she recounts what has happened to her in the past 2 days. She was super sincere! And she didn't look like she was prepared enough to be homeless, her thick hair was all over the place from not having a brush or anything  or being able to wash it. But was rather clean. She had the look of a mother and seemed to be healthy.

So from what I discerned spiritually and visually I couldn't find any fault in what she said. Not once did she ask for anything from me! So I opened my jacket and pulled out my 2 unopened hand warmers that I picked up out of our closet the night before, and gave it to her. She was super happy! and broke out into tears again in gratitude that some one gave her the time of day, just listened, didn't judge her, and showed they cared. That meant the world to her!

I felt it was the right thing to do so I opened my wallet and went for my 5 dollar bill, but when I opened it up I saw a 10 and realized that that will be a several hour trip back home and gave that MSF money to her. She quickly shoved it into a inner pocket in her original clothes (not the hobo ones) and then ran and hugged me and just cried. (No it is not against missionary rules to hug some one! Read Pg 33-34 in the white hand book). Then asked where the nearest bus stop was and I had no clue. But we gave her directions to the library so she could use the computers there. I then said "you probably will have some time until that bus comes... So you should go to this website and check out some of the videos on it." and gave her a pass along card =p. 

We were door knocking and had to go into one of the amazingly beautiful houses that a land lord ruined by making it into 7 apartments. As I walked up the stair case my mind flashed (I like to think of the tv series "Chuck" in circumstances like this) My mind flashed and a whiff of air swept into me and I realized I had seen this place before. I then walked where I knew the that the person would answer the door and knocked. They answered. And after dispelling his thoughts of me being  J.Witness' he then saw our name tag and told us all about how he used to be a foster kid in a mormon home 40 years ago. And was baptized.... Sweet! He said he wasn't gonna open the door since he saw us from his window but felt like he should.

I lost my library card and am out of time BYE!!!

Love you!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett