There was a Lion in the room

You  know things are real when your thermostat that is broken and never goes under 60 degrees in under 40 degrees! It's all good though at least I'm not in the Soo, they have over 4 feet of snow already! I finally know what Bill and Ted mean when they talk to Socrates and talk about us being "dust in the wind" =p ha ha I have never heard that song before. I love wearing thermals so much! they are so comfortable!

I made a cool discovery this week there is an El Rancho up here in GayLord! It just reminds me of the times when Miya would hold a comb up to her nose and Say "I am El Rancho!".

this week was a pretty crazy week, there was alot of big changes and Miracles that happened. At church there was 42 people there! Hoooly! We got a new Branch Presidency and it was the S's last day and it was Elder and Sister W's first day.

One of the craziest things that happened to me this week was we set up an appointment with a guy named E. Originally We door knocked into E and I got us into his house because He had a Boy scouts of America sticker on his window and i told him I was a Eagle Scout. After we were in his house we got along super well! He played guitar, was a locksmith, was a carpenter, played string bass, and many other things, there was not a doubt in my mind that I was basically prepared to teach this man. he even had a Canoe! (ha ha ha, I joke around with my companion every day that we need to carry around a canoe and baptize people in it, it's been a good running joke). He read the bible 8 times through so I knew it would be difficult to have him accept the Book of Mormon but I knew that If he would commit to reading it half as faithfully as he did the bible he would assuredly again a testimony of it. We never really got to teach him in that visit though, but we set up a return appointment. 

I woke up that day and I knew I needed extra power so i went to the "Glory Rack" of ties and picked out one of my special ties. I studied very specifically for that appointment because I knew it wan't going to be a easy one at all. And Man was I right! 

 

We get there and we get on more common grounds i swear if I wasn't the missionary for him and his wife I don't know who else was. I went in and started teaching, He had an amazing knowledge of the bible so I just had to point out things that happened in the bible like apostasy.  I asked him about the story of Noah and used that to teach. For some reason Elder W would not say anything at all, i tried to pass it to him and one time I straight up asked him to continue and he shut me down. 

 

So i basically had him read scripture when ever one popped into my head. He said about 6 other words through out the whole lesson besides the scriptures I had him read. But man I was feeling the Dews of the spirit! and I had no problem at all teaching him about the restoration, I felt the spirit like i did in the MTC which hasn't happened since I got to Alpena. 

 

The lesson was beautiful so far and then I started to tell the story of the prophet Joseph smith and E was completely silent, the whole lesson his mind would travel off topic and he would throw out things but he was silent. The spirit was there and he could feel it. I then taught about the book of Mormon and thats when things got really tough. He started to flip a biscuit on about how the bible is the only word of God for him even though I brought up prophesies of the book of Mormon, and prophets coming after Christ from the bible and what not.  the lesson was starting to go south so I said a quick prayer and asked for help and a miracle. 

I then started bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it is the word of God and how there are living prophets here on the earth. I bore testimony with ever fiber of my soul, i used all of the power of the spirit and all of the Authority I had to let him know that this is true! I have never bore a testimony as powerful in my life than I had in that house at that moment. 

 

The spirit was so strong it was like a lion in the room, it was undeniable and he could feel it! There was a Lion in the room and he refused to look at it. I could not get him to accept the book of Mormon in my hands, I tried and bore testimony and tried but he would not take it. I was prompted before I left the apartment to put our phone number on a restoration pamphlet and the address and time for church. I gave him that pamphlet and tried to get him to commit to pray about the things we spoke about and ask if they were true but he kept beating around the bush. It got to the point where I didn't want to keep (as my companion said it) "beating a dead horse" and I closed with a prayer and we left. 

We had a long                     walk to the car, in silence. I wasn't angry at my companion for not doing anything at all, I wasn't mad that he wouldn't take the Book of Mormon. But it tore at my soul to think of his rejection of the word of God. It kinda reminds me of 2 NE 33:1-3, my eyes did water my pillow that night just as nephi's did.  

When we got to the car after the long walk of silence, and i jumped into the drivers seat, for the first time in like a half hour my Companion spoke up. "Elder Crockett I know why we were sent there! I am sorry for not speaking up, but I felt restrained, I'm glad I did though because I saw you teach with more power than I have seen many experienced elders teach with, You are a Great missionary and will only get better!" That is the first complement that I actually felt he was sincere about, and I have been blessed with the miracle I prayed for, he now has respect for me and there has been many miracles just because of that! Ugh the story's not over and i'm out of time!!!!

Bye I love you! be good, don't get shot!

Love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The Bearded Man

Our car has been in the shop all week long, and will probably be there until Wednesday unlike what they promised us. My comp is ticked about it, He is from the country in a city that is alot smaller and spread out compared to Alpena and never had to ride a bike in his life, he hates riding bikes. I love riding bikes so much!!! Dude I don't even care that we are getting rained and snowed on , I love it! We have been blessed with several miracles just because we rode bikes.

We dropped our car off earlier this week and we had to walk a mile and a half or so to get back to our apartment. and it's hilarious because as we were 10 feet from the door the phone started vibrating and I looked and it said "congratulations Elder Crockett! You are now granted your driving privileges, get the keys and fire up that engine you deserve it!" ha ha ha well i just have to wait 2 weeks to get the car back from the shop to do that =p.

We were out riding bikes to a street to go and do some door knocking and there was this man who was doing yard work and getting all of the leaves out of some ones yard who had this awesome beard! Man that thing was knarley, it wasn't like duck dynasty status but it was thick, medium sized, and super manly. I yelled " I like your beard!" and it made the guy have the biggest smile because it was pretty random. The next day I was out riding bikes down a main road waving to every car that passed as usual, and this guy leans all the way out his window and yells "I like your suit!" It was the man with the beard!!! Oh man that brought the biggest smile on my face and made my day.

This week we put our last investigator on date for baptism, all of our investigators are now on date and should be baptized in about a month. Problem is we no longer will have lessons to investigators, other than to clarify and reteach and what not.

We had a District Meeting this week and so we went down to Gaylord for it and we were having trade offs after wards. While in our district meeting we got new rules for our mission, now every Saturday we have to have a car "fast" because we have the most car crashes out of every mission on the eastern half of the states, and so we no longer can use our cars on Saturdays. 

 

We also got a new rule about us not emailing for more than a hour and a half, because alot of missionaries are super stressed and they spend all P-day emailing and they never go out and do anything fun. Oh my goodness my companion flipped a biscuit! not only are we going to have to ride bikes, but it will have to be in the snow, he was not a fan of the new rules and made it pretty clear during the meeting... I love these new rules! I was so disappointed because I was thinking that I was never going to get on a bike again after we get our car back, and i also like the email one because I can actually have time to go and do fun things on P-day, all we ever do is shop, email, laundry, jimmy johns (or culvers!!! I love that place, it's like in and out but alot better!), email, and then FHE. 

Trade offs were super sick! I loved it! I wish I had several more days with my district leader Elder D. Man we Did Work! We picked up several new investigators! We had huge success when we door knocked, and we really did not want to stop at all, we did it for like 4 hours. it ended by us getting let in and teaching the whole restoration to a family who saw us riding bikes earlier that day and wondered why are they dressed so nicely to ride bikes, one hour later we were on their doorstep and I said about 10 words and then asked if We could come in and share about that (in those 10 words I introduced us and said something about eternal families). 

 

The father was golden he kept coming up with questions about our church and the answers to the questions were all bullet points to the lesson of the restoration, he lead everything perfectly so it was nothing more than a natural conversation. He offered us some beers and we of course politely rejected and were going to go back there this week and give them some Books of Mormon and teach more. Oh man the Church is so true when you are on bikes and people actually notice you!

One of my biggest struggles that happened this week was Elder S decided it was finally time for a double legger meal. He was determined to fill both of my "hollow legs" up with food. He took us to Mancinos and bought me a big meal! I calmly ate one sandwich after another . but I was pretty dang full after that. We were dropped off at the church and then went with a member to a lesson and an hour later they took us out to eat... at Mancinos...I was still full from that last meal but Struggling i ate a few slices of pizza. Oh my goodness i was dead, that was a double legger! It took 2 rounds to do it but it happened.

The branch President pulled me aside yesterday and asked me to conduct the primary program.=p I am super excited for it. I will be in primary for the next few weeks preparing for it, Sister S was going to be conducting the music for it but she goes home next monday so they asked me to do it. 

I gotta go, Bye I love you stay strong, don't get shot, Do work!, go... read some books!

Love,

-Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The S Word....and......The Gospel According to Skywalker

 It was October 31st in the year of 2014. We looked out the window and watched as the clock ticked to 9:07 am the rain turned to snow! I loved it so much! it made my companion super sad but snow is amazing (I still think the S word isn't nearly as bad as the D word, for now i guess ha ha) It didn't stay to long it was gone later that day. But I loved seeing it as we drove over 180 miles on that day, it was so beautiful how all of the bare branches of the trees were now white and you could see even the tiniest of branches because there was snow stuck to it. And it wasn't super hard core either so driving in it wasn't bad at all, except the telephone pole that fell down and made it so we couldn't continue that way to a members house. 

After all of that snow we check out a newspaper and saw that there was a 50% off all snow gear at J.C. Pennys so we went there to get me some winter gear. I Got a big jacket, a scarf, a beenie, and a long sleeved thermal shirt for P-days to go with a jacket vest that a investigator gave me. In total with out the sale I would have spent 280 something on it all. So i was pretty glad we stumbled upon that sale. But even better the cashier was cute and I was really nice to her, and i didn't notice it until today but she gave me a extra discount on it all! I only payed $100 on all of that, when the coat its self was originally $200. Man it really pays off to be nice and devastatingly attractive!   

We are now on daylight savings time, i have no clue who thought up this idea, but i  am grateful for that extra hour of sleep I got on sunday because of it

So on my mission I have used up the ink in 4 pens already ha ha ha! I guess i write quite a bit, who knew. 

This week I was doing alot of driving every where. I had loads and loads of time to just ponder. I am really grateful that I was able to finish and get my Eagle scout award, and I am really grateful for all of the leaders who helped me learn through out my life whether it was in sunday school or in Scouting I feel like I have been really blessed with amazing examples in my life that has encouraged me to work hard and to be Christ like. I could write a million names down for who I mean when I think about that. And I am so grateful for all of those who weren't my leaders and teachers but my friends who had a huge impact on me. I also remembered I forgot to have my Eagle Court of Honor ha ha oh well we can do that later =p.

There is a member who we go and visit every week, we read out of the book of Mormon with him. His Cat Sammy ran away 7 months or so ago and i think it's very sad / sweet because every time we pray with him he has us pray for Sammy, that she will be safe and have help. I love it, it's really like I said Sad but Sweet that he misses his cat that much. 

Starting today we're taking the jeep to the shop to get repaired so I will be riding a single speed bike every where for the next week. I hope it's fun, I love riding bikes but one of these is a girl bike and I have a feeling that even though it's smaller my comp won't want it. But riding bikes for the Gaylord missionaries did miracles so my fingers are crossed.

Aight well I'm headin off to do some laundry, We have to come back later today, so if there is any thin you want to say go for it.

Bye I love you have a good day! Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

 

 

 

The Gospel According

to

Skywalker

a talk by Elder Campbell

Skywalker 1:1

a long time ago in a city probably not too far away from where I am located currently there was a wise jedi master name Nephi. master Nephi was an expert at the doctrine of Jesus Christ and Taught this doctrine very well within the chapters of the BOOK OF MORMON (2 Nephi 31). let us examine this in light of Star Wars:

 

Faith: luke is exhorted by master Yoda to lift his X-wing out of the mucky nasty swamp. Luke tries and ultimately fails to lift up the X-wing with normal effort and gives up exclaiming "it's too big". Yoda then tells him that "size matters not" and lifts the X-wing with his mind. Yoda teaches that if we exercise faith and put forth effort, we won't have to worry about how big a task is because can still accomplish it (Matthew 13:31-32).

 

repentance: Skywalker the older started out as a very frail boy that made many mistakes, becoming a murderer of people (Alma 36:14). in the end of his life, he finally turns and repents. bringing balance to the force and even appearing to leah as a spirit to ask forgiveness from her as well. Darth Vader repented as we need to as well. I imagine though that Vader looked at his life and realized that if he repented sooner, his life would have been a lot better (Alma 34:33).

 

Make Covenants and Receive Blessings: in order for luke to progress further than he was, he had to make an oath into the jedi order (2 Nephi 31:10-11). this brought him membership into the jedi and all of the gifts and blessings associated with it. including the ability to now use the force at all times(2 Nephi 31:12).

 

endure to the end: Luke has only begun his journey with the redemption of his father and the end of the sith. he will soon encounter "sun destroyers" about 12 more death stars, Admiral thrawn, his own battle with the darkside, yslari lizards, and amongst all of that raising a family (was that too much Star Wars deep doctrine? maybe. read more Star Wars books if your confused). but through all of this (we have his whole life documented) Luke skywalker stayed true to Force, becoming a great teacher of it himself (2 Nephi 31:19-21).

the Gospel is where we can achieve the greatest happiness in life and where we can do the most good. I hope that we all with have this as a pattern in our lives and recieve the blessings from it. I leave this in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

 

 

 

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