This place is Number 1!

I love this place it's so nice! I am now in Wyoming Michigan, a city that runs right into grandrapids. I share a ward with 2 other sets of missionaries. I am fed EVERY day and I always get to have dinner with either one set or both sets of the other missionaries, it's a party! I like live 3 minutes from the church and the zone leaders.

My apartment is the nicest apartment I have ever had! It's clean, not dammaged, I have a garage with a garage door a washer, dryer, dish washer, bench press, large bathroom, my apartment is a buzz in where I only have 2 neighbors and so my place doesn't smell RAINK like the others have. We already have bikes!!!!!!!! My bike is a SWEET specialized road bike, i would take it over my one back home thats how nice it is, already has bike locks and helmets, no repairs necessary!!! I have a comfy couch.

We drive a 2016 Ford Fusion!!!!! I love that car so much!!!!!!!!! It is the best/nicest car I have ever driven. It has everything! A backing camera, all wheel drive, electrict adjusting seats, blue tooth to our phone so I can talk while I drive or chill in the seat without holding a phone to my face (I feel like freaking Captain Kirk when I do) I can adjust the sterio volume and settings from the stering wheel. I can pop it into stick shift (sport) mode and the shifters are the cool hand ones on the steering wheel.


I popped it in sport mode so I could do it to beat some one off the line I went from like 0-50 in like 2 seconds!!! the Robot the monitors our car freaked out!!! It reported it to the mission office as "aggressive driving" but Yolo swag that was sick! The seats are super comfortable too. I love this car! I want one =p.

I was a little sad because I didn't want to leave my sour patch melons in Kalamazoo, and I wasn't wanting to carry it all day long so I left it there. Thats the one negative.... But positive to that though is we were invited to the zoneleaders for lunch one day and they gave me a bag of sour patch melons that they didn't want =p. Church is true when it's like that!

The city is as close to Mesa as you can get in Michigan. The neibor hoods are insane and curvy and don't connect, but the main roads are a grid and intersect at every mile; the east west ones are numbers and count down by 8 every new main road! I already know every main road and how to get there in my area ( you know all like 30 square miles of my area, if that)


Elder Hartley and Elder Miles are in my zone!


This place is number 1!

I rode the city bus the other day for a first time in my life! They have a great city bus system so we used it on carfast day. There is Loads of spanish people every where here. Like every 4 people I talk to I get some one who only speaks spanish (so they say, I've caught a few lying to me) So there is a sets of spanish missionaries who give us referrals all the time because they knock and find english people for us to teach.

"Cotton wool falling like snow in..." June from like every tree.

My first day here I was in a trio and to celebrate transferrs we went out to a Mexican food Shack (just like back home) It was so ghetto the menu was partly in spanish and when I asked what cow toung can be in they didn't understand my english and started listing off diffrent types of meats =p. I had a HUGEEEEEEE Smothered burrito and cow toung tacos! Yes my food was tasting me as it went down.

My first day we had a lesson with a investigator, A member came out with us. TURNS OUT that he is Alison Linfords First cousin!!!! He is also our ward mission leader and he is great at his calling ( from what I have seen so far and heard), We even have ward missionaries too!

This last week has seemed like a month, not because it sucked, infact it was actually fast but the weather changed from like spring to summer. It went from around 60 to 91 degrees and humid this week.

I havn't unpacked at all, I have unpacked socks as I need then and garments, bathing supplies and study materials... Yup I have even worn the same white shirt like every day. The only reason why I unpacked and Ironed a new one was because while we were getting our bus passes a guy threw a foam cup full of DR.Pepper  and pegged me in the shoulder with it causing it to explode all over the both of us. even then It didn't seem to dirty so I almost kept it on for another day =p.

 I don't know why but I have been so beat here!!! Every lunch break I have to have a nap , I fall asleep right after planning unlike usual pushing off bed untill the last second.

My companion has been out 11 months, I know president told me I am not training but... he can plan... =p #betterthanstartingatthetop I guess... He has been eating up all of my discourse on missionary work though, I have been brain washing him HARD on how to be a effective teacher and finder.

We went shopping (because we have nothing at all, not even basic things like measuring spoons) I went in the vegtible section and my companion said " vegitibles are so much more expensive than chicken and rice!!!"... yah I aint about that rice and chicken life, So i bought loads so I would have more than the 20 lb bag of rice and frozen chicken at home.


I got to take a toilet off the ground and ripp off the lamenent tile flooring and cut out pieces of the bathroom wood floor to install a new subfloor!!!! I even learned how to fix a door so it hangs how it's supposed to without taking the whole trimm appart.

This place is number 1 and I havn't even told you about the people we are teaching yet But I now don't have time I gotta hit the road so I can chill with every one else in the zone. To be quick I don't have to rebuild the area, we already have a teaching pool and I found 4 new investigators this week too that are SUper solid, I am certain I can accomplish my goal now.


Bye I love you have a good day

Don't get shot!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

. There is rest for the wicked! Who knew?!

I got my transfer call and I am being transfered to Wyoming (3) which is in the Grand rapids Zone. I totally called that I would be transfered to that zone since they are only at 37% of where they need to be to accomplish their part of the mission goal of 280 baptisms for the year. But I was surprised when They released me as a district leader and a trainer. So for the first time since before I started training last May I am getting a experienced companion. And I can go back to falling asleep durring district meeting =p jk.

 But I will be in the biggest ward in the mission from what the assistants told me and I will be working it with the Zone leaders and the Sister Training Leaders, so that should be fun!


I will be on the transfer van on Monday So I wont talk to you untill next monday.


Quote of the week "...(she) Ignores me like Mom ignores the Laundry!". =p HA ha hahAA HA HA HA ha ha !!!! I died!


While we were doorknocking for days we had a rabid squirrel chase us! It was freaky man!!!! It had a funky evil face it did weird things with it's paws and would run really close to us. We were freakin OUT!!!! It also looked like It had part of it's tail smashed buy a car. It followed us for like 5 houses and we tried to avoid it but it would keep comming!


We got a call from a member in the K1 ward and she wanted to give us a gift before we went and before she moved. It was a picture of a bunch of us missionaries none of us looking at the camera or with eyes open or ready for the picture. While there she told me that she found another missionary post about me on their blog.

 I was a little shocked but she pulled it up on her phone and she went all the way back to this missionaries email from when he was in the MTC (when I was there too) and she read it to me "A couple nights ago we all saw Elder Crockett (left for Michigan today) freaking lockpicking this door and we all watched." that is a direct quote I took a picture of it. I burst out laughing when I saw it. Yes, yes that did happen.

 He must have been in my zone or something in thet MTC. I am AMAZED that this lady found that. She then as we were about to leave said she wanted to keep in touch and said it would be easy for me because she can just read my blog, I again looked at her weirdly and she pulled it up on her phone. Hi Sis Jarvis. DId you know there is a website that streams every missionary blog to one website and you can look up peoples blogs by mission? I didn't until she explained how she found me.


So we were door knocking for days this week and we knocked on a door and I was really working at creating a need and trying to help this guy realized there is stuff he doesn't know about the gospel and eventually a lady walks up from the side walk to us on the door step and she asks if we are Mormons. We said we are and the guy we are tallking to was like "Oh I was baptized into your church!"....... and then the lady said the she was too and then showed me a picutre of her favorite sister missionary, a missionary who I met before. We set up appointments and got info to put them on the directory since they wern't.


We came back for the lesson with the guy and me and him got along well, he was planning on taking some fighting classes in different weird forms. but hey, it's fighting. And I noticed that he had a game cube under his tv with a whole bunch of games in a glass cabinet. we talked about it a little and we played alot of the same games (he is like 60).


Before we started the lesson he went to use the bathroom and I immediately crashed on my knees and opened the glass cabinet to look at all the games. When he came out I was still on my knees looking at all of his stuff he had the Gameboy advanced so he could plug it in the game cube to use it on Animal crossing and other games he had controlers memory cards and several games I love, he even had the thing to plug into the bottom of the gamecube that I had never seen before.


 He then told me that he was looking to get rid of it all and said I could have it all.=p The Little kid in me was SCREAMING and jumping for Joy!!! =p So after the lesson he boxed it all up for me. I threw away all the game cases and put the games in a cd case that held them all, donated the console to good will and everything else is now in a package on it's way home to you guys; cuz I don't need to carry around that junk. Happy Birthday to me! (in 3 months). Even though I doubpt I will play with most of it the Keyids will like it.


Later that same day (the day before transfer calls) The M's had us over for a steak dinner out side. OH MAN!!! that was WAY good! After wards we had a lesson where we read 1 Ne 8 and 11. It was amazing all I did was I prefaced that chapter 8 was "very symbolic of different things" and then we read the chapter. When we finished reading and we asked what they thought about the chapter T jumped in and told us not to tell her what it means yet.

She then explained to us what the whole chapter was about and hit the freakin nail right on the head! We didn't even need to explain!!! She told us that something really clicked in her head while she read it. DANG STRAIGHT IT DID! SPIRIT! SPIRIT! SPIRIT!! The only thing she didn't know was what the great a spacious building, the fruit, and the iron rod. It was way cool. But I Still went hard on that chapter because I figured I would get transfered and I wanted to really tell her the garbage she is going to get and what she needs to do no matter what people say or what happens. After that she told us that at work she had a co worker make a snarky comment about her about to become a mormon..... But it didn't phase her, and it really showed her the truth of what I was saying.


They then took us out to get Icecream! It was like the best day in the world. Got a game cube and everything I ever dreamed about getting for it as a kid, was fed a steak dinner, had a KILLER lesson, and finished the day with a sun setting while eating turtle Icecream. Church is true when you have days like that!

 I was totally fulfilled and knew I did the best I could for This area. Got my transfer call the next day and now it's 2nd p-day!!! Saturday is a special day, it's the day that we have our, sec-ond pppppppppp-day! ive been singing that all week.=p After this I am going to the beach, then to dinner with a member when pdays over, then church the next day dk for like 3 hours and then I am off to a new area that I don't even have to flipp! With a companion that I don't have to brain wash to my philosophies (I probably still will) that actually is teaching people. Church is true, church is true!


Gained the Lead. Lost the lead.

12 weeks remaining

Runnning RIOT!



Bye I love you sleep good an have nice dreams!

Love you all!

Don't get Shot!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

No what!?!

This week has been pretty fun! There was times that it was a roller coaster though! For example the assistants told every one that During week 6 there would be no p-days.... I had to tell every one in my district about that and every one flipped a biscuit!!!!

My companion raved about it for like 8 hours.... They got so much complaints they realized it was a terrible rule and they changed it so we have 2 p-days week 6 from now on! So I will also come  and email on Saturday too! I will have my transfer call by then so I will update you on the news.


But it was pretty cool I hated the idea of that new rule. But I have been studying a whole lot about the conversion process and I keep learning LOADS about it which is cool because like 6 months ago I thought I peaked on my understanding of it.

I have specifically learning alot about how diffrent Christ like attributes effect people becoming converted and how if they don't posses certain attributes they can't progress in the path to conversion.

I realized that Humility is the start of gaining any type of knowledge whether it be Mind , Heart, Or Soul knowledge, you need Humility to develop it. I realized I was being stupid and I humbled myself and prayed to be able to accept the new stupid rule and got over it without even needing to take a nap. (I like to say "take a nap and get over it" to people, but most of the time it sounds super rude so I don't get to use it often, and it's easy to say but it doesn't actually always work to get over something)

 I thought so much about how this upcomming week is going to be so hard without a p-day and how my companion will never get over it and..... But after I humbled myself, it didn't seem bad, and 1 hour later they took away the rule and gave us a extra p-day. Hey, I wish every trial was like that! I think I am gonna humble myself more so that God doesn't have to have me go through a trial for me to learn a new lesson. If only it worked like that though...  


I LOVE those bikes that the sisters gave us, after they were fixed they were awesome! I would say the one I ride is my second favorite bike I have ridden on my mission. It has no shocks but the seat is so thick of cusion and it is spring loaded and so I never ever get phased my the crazy roads.

But I love the road bike it's so much better than the huffy! Sad thing was this week we parked the bikes right behind the huge dumpster by our apartment and we ran inside to use the bathroom without locking it... and one minute later E.Q.'s bike was stolen... Yah we were pretty bumbed expecially since we were going to give that one the k1 elders to help them with their carfast week.


M came to church this last week. I taught a lesson on Missionary work in gospel principals and she loved it. She went home that day and went over to her neighbors house and started talking to them about the Book of mormon and how it's helped her and she got shut down....

But then she went and called one of her friends and tried to teach her about the book of mormon. She got rejected again....

BUT she was so excited it didn't matter that much to her. She was tellling us about it in a lesson with her and she kept asking us questions how she can be a effective missionary and what not. Her brother then walked in the room and she convinced her brother to meet with us next time we come over to teach her. Shes sweet!


We helped a less active install a wood floor in his house. we layed down a thin mat and then put all of the vinal wood planks down. I wasn't happy about how we were doing it the whole time, I wanted to be the task master so that we could work more effectively and more efficiently; but it was his place and floor, even when I got him the measurements one what pieces to cut he still went and redid that and all of the work I did, even with him getting the same results I did every time...I eventually just let it be... So it was slow, and not efficient, but we did it! AND it was so much fun!


I found out this week another sister missionary in my district is going home... Today is her last day in Michigan and so we are all spending p-day together.


I love screen peaking on my companions screen when we email president Jacobsen, most of it is him talking really good about me. =p


well I am gonna go, all of the missionaries keep reading my messages and looking over my shoulder and it's driving me crazy since we are in the family history center today to use computers.


Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

. ject: " you say it's your birthday! well it's my birthday too yah!..."

I didn't get to see the video mom, Our mission no longer allows facebook.


What color is the truck you got? I really want a Red truck when I grow up because they always remind me of Dads Red Toyota, and it just seems like a good fathers car color.


I didn't get the package yet, it was sent to the mission office so I will probably get it when transfers happen in 2 weeks.


On May 21st one of my converts in Alpena went to the temple to get her endowments. What a good day to pick =p.


I sat on my bed and told myself my birth story from what i remember Mom saying all these years, my companion was in the shower, I think It's a funner tradition when some one else tells it on your birthday. It also wasn't the same without the Beatles being blasted throughout the house. " you say it's your birthday! well it's my birthday too yah!..."


I dedicated a house this week! A less active asked me to do it, she then picked up M (the former catholic =p) and took her to church. OH yah! 2 birds with one  stone!

This week my long vacation ended after trade offs was over. But I don't think the vacation ever really did end because it's been so easy to love doing missionary work recently since all we really see now is success in the lessons we have, and there are people who are actually progressing!


I had a good Birthday. Our ward had a baptism on it, It was the lady that the sisters have been area poaching from us, the one that lives like 4 blocks away from us. I did the baptisimal interview with the lady and every one was telling me that she has been going through Kemo theoropy and that it's hard for her to remember things, that I would have to rephrase the questions because she has Kemo brain and doesn't under stand, and that she is afraid, and......

I went in there with my A game on just like I always do in a baptisimal interview and was super personable! I got her so excited about Zombies (shes like 64) and she went off for like 10 minutes about zombies and what she is doing when the zombie Apocalypse happens. But after that I had no problems at all I used the questions as they are and I was able to dig deep and discern if she was converted or not.

When the sisters went over the questions like I asked them to and tried to discern she would always get super defensive and snap at them. But I got her to open up so much to tell me about how one night she had a dream where she saw Joseph Smith Leading a group of people and she felt and feels peace every time she thinks about that dream. I found all that out and more spiritual experiences that she has had since the sisters had met with her.


After the interview I brought those experiences up to the sisters and they had no clue she experienced any spiritual experiences...... AND YOU SENT HER INTO THAT INTERVIEW!?! well it worked out. She liked me so much she asked me to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. The sisters convinced her to let her fellowshipper baptize her, but I was mentioned for that =p. The sisters told me later they convinced her because they didn't want it to get to my head, But it did anyways ha ha!


After the baptism me and my district and our zone leaders all went out to eat at outback steak house! It was awesome! It made me miss Will and his Mom, and eating steak at their place. I wanna learn how to cook steak like they can!


The K2 sisters found bikes for the K1 Elders in my district but they need fixing up so I had them drop them off at our apartment yesterday. It was the easiest bike fixes in the WORLD!!!

One of them I moved the tuner by the breaks and the gears all worked perfectly after that and I fixed the back breaks on the other and sprayed it with WD40 and they were both fixed! I need one road bike tube and thats it! They were both lighter, faster,both had cup holders, all of the reflecters, handlebars that don't go loose every 10 miles rode, had comfier seats, and all of their gears worked (unlike our current ones) the only problem is they are girl bikes..... But they don't even look girly so I am Keeping them and giving them our huge Huffy bike and the other. It was a nice change being able to carry the bike up the staircase with one hand unlike the huffy. Hey beggers cant be choosers right =p, not like it matters for me though with T-calls in 2 weeks I am thinkin I aint stayin.


Well I gotta Go Bye I love you!!!

Have a Good day!

Don't get shot!

Don't area poach! (because your investigator will still end up in the front of my PMG apparently =p)


--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

. Does any one else miss their Mom? =p

Did I tell you we went to the beach last p-day? Oh yah it was a blast! we basically only shopped and studied and then spent the whole day on the beach before we had to go back to proselyte.


I am getting fond of going to bed listening to rap music from the cars out side our apartment blasting it. Some of the music is actually pretty fly.


HEY I FOUND OUT HOW TO USE MY SD CARD!!!! My companion was messing with it and typed in a random number in a seach box and it brought up all of the hidden files. So if you send me a new sd card I can send you the one I have and tell you how to find the files.


This week was a vacation for me! i would discourse on how it was  but thats a waste of time because some cool things happened.


We went to our investigator M's house (the catholic who isn't that much catholic any more =p)

and she was sick and had to cancel two of our appointments for the week. So we were asking her about her health and how she was doing and what not and she went off on all of the bad things That's been happening. Her finding out her son has a hole in his heart, her being super sick for several days..

And she went on to tell us that she has been trying to talk to her family about what she has been learning from us. Every one she talked to made fun of her so much! She told every one in her family, her friends, some cousins and none of them were supportive at all! One of them used to investigate and she went off on how the mormons tried to arrange a marriage between her (16 years old at the time) and a old man.......... and started going off on her gift of tongue thing and making fun of her and how she now speaks spanish, english and mormon.

Every one made fun of her. She was sick, her son....She took that hard. It really beat on her. It caused her to pray and ask "to be healed" spiritually because she knew what she felt and was doubting and was sad. She went to bed that night, and had a dream.


She was in a long white dress (she commented she hates dresses and never wears them). She walked up to a staircase that went into a big tub of water. The tub was made out of little tiles that were a blueish white color. she went in the water and met a man in there who them said a prayer, and lowered her backwards into the water completely.

While under the water she looked to see the water turn a thick dark cloudy black, and then changed and it turned as clear as glass. She then heard a voice that said "your sins are forgiven you" and she woke up. Her heart burned and she felt a strong peace and she knew no matter what people said or did she needed to be baptized into our church because she has NEVER had anything like what she has had with any other religion as she has had since she has met with us. Church is true with dreams like that!


Whats amazing to me is we never taught her anything about baptism other than it needs to be by the proper authority and you make a covenant. But she described a baptismal service perfectly. Infact she described our CHURCH and baptismal font exactly how it was! That is the tile we have in the font!!!!!!!! She has never set foot in our church! We never told her you wear white for a baptism. Her church doesn't believe in baptism by immersion, we never taught that! We never taught that only men can baptize. It is amazing!!!  


I opened up to 1 ne 8 and went hard on showing her thats exactly whats been happening with her and what she needs to do.  She went through Tribulation, She was healed (spiritually), she had desires for every one to join the church and all of her kids to feel like she does, and she had a stronger spiritual witness: she fits every characteristic of some one who has more than a testimony but is converted!

We just need to get her to church and get her to have testimonies and become converted to all of the commandments now. SHE IS SO PUMPED to be baptized!


Sorry this is still a short email. But I hope it's a good one.


Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot

Don't listen to rap music to fall asleep it doesn't work

love you!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

fyi

Sorry I am going to the beach today in South Haven!!

#whendoorknocking, "we also help people learn about their ancestors..." "I DON'T HAVE ANY!!!!! get off my door!!!"

You know what I wasn't even mad, I was just impressed that she had no ancestors!!! How were you born?!?!! I have been trying to wrap my mind around it all week =p.


I got so sick of my hair being long and not having a member or a missionary wanting to cut it so I got my buzzer that I stole from the Alpena apartment when I went back there on a trade off and I cut my hair my self! HOLY!!! I look DANG GOOD! Infact I think I like it better than many of my hair cuts I have had on my mission. All I had was two mirrors to reflect off of each other, it took a while but it looks great!


This week I saw the most Gander thing In the World! We were driving and a man rode past us on his rusty lawn mower on the side walk. He was shirtless, large belly, loads of grey hair, wrinkly, bald, missing teeth, a beer in his cup holder, holding a cigarette  and obviously riding a lawn mower on the wrong side of the road asking for a bicycle and him to crash as he ascended up the hill and around a corner where the bike would have been blind to it. My Eyes have seen the glory!!!! =p


We taught a less active this week who we have never met before. I sat there and hit him with multiple questions listening very intently to know when I should ask another one and on what topic. I Hit the gold and he spitted out his concerns. Turns out he has schizophrenia and one time at church the voices in his head started kicking up and they were much louder than usual and they told him that "the church is going to Bomb your (his) home!". I was not equipped with a scripture adequate enough to resolve that concern. In fact was rather shocked and did not know what to do or say for multiple minutes.....


We have had loads of success this week! Since the last time I talked to you we have picked up 6 new investigators, and currently have 5 on date to be baptized now. Our investigator pool now totals 19! One of our secrets of success for this week was we were able to contact Investigators who we have been able to seen in a while. We did that by buying a Box of Brownie mix from Walmart (the type mommy usually gets) and we made plates of brownies to deliver to less actives and our investigators.

 They Worked great magic! Every person we went to contact answered the door but one. We had several lessons and return appointments because of it. They worked great magic, so good one might say these were special brownies. =p They were top die for by how perfectly they came out of the oven, every one raved about them when we saw them again.


Miya, TEACHING IS SOOOOO FUN!!!


One of the investigators we picked up this week was pretty cool. She was catholic and she started off by going "I am catholic, I was born catholic, I don't understand anything but catholic!!!! and I am not looking to be baptized or to convert!". We did awesome How to begin teaching and we really instilled in her what we expected out of her by us teaching her.

Before we started the lesson I got her to open up and she told me about the death of 2 of her sons and how

she was so devastated that she prayed to know her son was ok. She then told me about a vision she had of her sons, And then expressed the peace that dwelt in her heart for weeks because of it. I taught her that that was the spirit and the purpose of the spirit testifying of truth. There was a few crazy kids running around and a loud TV going to distract them so their mother could listen. eventually the mom snapped and made all of her kids go to their room to play and shut off the TV.


The stage was set.


We taught and it was a great environment for us to teach, I went hard on the great apostasy and made sure there was a need to be able to know truth. I then passed to Elder Q where he taught about Joseph Smith and then started the first vision. When E.Q. hit the end of the second sentence the crazies of her crazies had a tonka truck and came drifting out of his bed room and around our table and was screaming and making truck noises.

 His mother got ticked! And yelled for her brother who she was living with to take the kid into the room and close the door. E.Q. then finished and paused. She then turned and told us. " I am so mad that my kid came out right then! because right before he came out I got the Chills! and my heart started burning and I felt that peace that I told you about earlier. But when he came out I got distracted and it all went away." she told us that it was the spirit and that she knew that what we told her was true.

I invited her to be baptized right then and there and she accepted and set a specific date and then set up 2 more lessons for next week. She then asked Elder Q to say the first vision again. I prayed so hard that she would feel it again. she picked up her crazy son before he said it though to hold him still. He said it and she felt it even stronger. She then told us she prayed that her son would be able to relax and be able to be calm so she could listen and understand and he didn't move a muscle the whole time and didn't speak for a first since we got there. She told us she knew that the first vision really happened and she couldn't deny it....Catholics =p


I will skype call this week, i don't know any info about it, expect another email sometime this week.


Bye i love you have a good day

prepare things that you wanna talk about for our skype call


- Elder Truman Rex Crockett