Does anyone else miss their Mom?

We were door knocking a street and me and my companion was joking around like I described to you last week. He saw a kid on a bike and said "Is that my bike?" I laughed and turned and looked at it. And then looked at it more, and started freaking out "THAT IS YOUR BIKE!!!!!!!!" I know that thing better than anyone after the work I put in on that thing, his comment was sad...but true. =p We almost chased him down but I figured the 12-14 year old needed it more than we did, and that the Jesus Sticker already probably gave him more guilt than he could bear. SO we stood and watched him ride away.

Yesterday we were coming home from dinner at a members house and there was a sign that said "free bikes", my prayers were answered! We were able to play with and test 3 different bikes to decide which ones we wanted. We took 2 of them, one of them for pieces and new tubes for the two bikes that we have, or to potentially give to the zone leaders so they can be more effective on car fast. The new bike we got is much nicer than broken down girls bike that was stolen. Has a amazing seat too!!! The church is true!

We had half mission p-day this week on thursday. As we drove there I almost burst in tears as I looked at the forests and the wavy land of fields and old barns and silos zip by me, knowing that I probably wont see that sight in a good while again.  

While at Half mission p-day I said good bye to many friends I wont see again. I also found out from Sis Burk, a sister who used to be a district leader for, she told me that while she was out and about she walked by a lady in the south part of Kalamazoo. The lady stopped her and told her she recognized sis burk. They thought for a while and connected that they met when I brought her to church. It was Marina! The lady who was in awe that me and Elder Medina was Glowing as we taught her, who came to church with all of her kids and her son wanted to join the scouting program, she was progressing towards baptism and then dropped off the map. Turns out she became Homeless and there was no room for her at her sisters and her mothers, so her and all of her kids (3) were homeless in kalamazoo. They set up a appointment after they talked about me and she is now being taught again.

My last part of my tale this week has not been a miraculous or enjoyable one. My 2 points of friction here is Satan, and the missionaries here, it's been like that since my first week here. I went from having 7 investigators progressing solidly towards baptism to now only having 2-3, Satan has been giving us a beating there; but those 2 are super solid. One is being forced to auction their house this wednesday. R is having the gates of hell rage against him too and I am not sure I will see him join the church soon enough, but I am sure he will in a few weeks.

I did just write for like 10 minutes about the missionaries in the area and my friction with them, but I will give you the cliff notes version, since I don't believe thee other version is appropriate for me to tell the world about.

 Basically number 1, I was stupid and prayed for humility, never do that unless you wanna get into a crazy fight with people. Number 2 I prayed for Charity for missionaries, because I have been having a hard time with these ones. Number 3, missionaries were being stupid and tried to boss me how to work my area and join their secret combination, and as you know I have big beef with people trying to tell me how to live me life if they aren't teaching me a correct principal. They wanted me to shun a member of the church who I invited to help me with my missionary work, for reasons that were the missionary's fault. 

Which led to me having huge debate with my zone leaders last night for like 12 minutes on the phone, and since I won on every point of the debate they had me call up the chain where I then had to contend with the assistants for 14 minutes until I bashed them to pieces on the argument and they had me call president even though all of my questions were answered and i now understood their point of view and was living accordingly to the rule, but since they couldn't beat me they had me call president where we debated for 20 minutes. 

That discussion then turned to him trying to debate with me as well and I destroyed his argument which ticked him off and caused him to go off on how I don't understand a topic I wasn't even talking about, and how I need to obey him anyways..... But he wouldn't listen, it was the way I presented it the first time that set him off. I ended that boss battle by shutting up and letting him rant for several minutes and then thanked him and told him to have a good night, since I am not guilty I just stopped and let him prove his point that I wasn't concerned about.

So yup I have successfully ticked off every one except my companion because he actually understands and gave me the time of day with out trying to debate with me unlike every one else. That night I realized it was my freakin prayers!!!!!!! I hate praying for Christlike attributes! I always pray for him to just give me the gift without the effort or pain, it never works! I wish all people could listen and understand like people who know and love me do. I am sick of missionaries! 

Does any one else miss their mom?

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't worry I am not a demon child

Don't get shot!

Love

-- 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Is that my bike?

When sis p had me punch in your phone number to send you that picture, I accidentally did it wrong. We quickly got a text back " you got the wrong number, but im Mormon too, GO ELDERS!!!" ha ha. 

This week has been a week.

My companion likes to make fun of me, it's because I forgot how to tie a tie. My knots used to be really nice, but I forgot how to do that and now they are very one sided and awkward looking. You would think after two years of tieing a tie a person would never be able to forget how to do it well.... my life is so hard!

My companions bike got stolen. We on p-day changed in the zone leaders war-torn apartment that was damaged by the sprinklers from the fire alarm going off. While there, my companion lost our keys there and we left not knowing we didn't have them. It was easy enough for me to break into my apartment complex at the end of that night so we really had no need. The Zone leaders said they'd come over and give them to us in the morning... Yup the Zoneleaders never came, I guess it's in their job description because thats how it is with every zone leader ever. SO because of that I opened the garage with out a key so we could get out bikes out and we left. Yup... we also didn't have they key to the Disk Detainer bike lock, and there was no way I would be able to pick that so we didn't use it because we couldn't. Yup and his bike went missing eventually. Again they stole the broken down girls bike that could only use it's front breaks and half of it's gears; it also had a sticker of Jesus on the handle bars, I hope they can live with themselves as they continue to see that sticker. But yes they left the fully functional road bike, my pride, my joy, my ability to race cars was the only thing they took because now I had to walk with it so my companion could keep up.

Now every where we go there are two comments made when we see a bike. "Is that my (your) bike?' or when ever we see a bike without a owner "free bike?!!!". 

I don't think I can accomplish my goal anymore. The only way I could is if other people who I used to teach miraculously join the church in another area. But it all depended on one lesson this week, let me tell you about it:

We had been struggling to keep in contact with F since she got her new job. We always seem to contact her if we sit at a bus stop and call people. So we called all the people on our to do list while sitting at a bus stop. A bus pulled up and I said here she is.... nope. Not 30 seconds later did she walk around the corner and walk up to us ha ha! 80% of the time, it works! We got in contact and we set up a appointment at the library the next day. We called the lady who I wanted to be her fellowshipper and we got it arranged right then and there, It was a miracle! I have tried that for over a month now and it hasn't worked this whole time!!!!!! I was so excited I was thinking it through: we finally contacted her and she now has a schedule so we can learn it and meet regularly, she has a fellowshipper now who is going to bring her to the YSA activities like F wanted. and the lesson for her was perfect and would have helped her progress loads. THis was perfect, the deck was STACKED!!!! From there the only outcome I could see was her joining the church soon after I left if not before. 

So we showed up the next day and found her at a computer like usual. She was a little busy and so she had us go get the key to the study room. I did and we waited for her in the room. Like 15 minutes passed and we went out and asked her to join us, she snapped "give me privacy, I am busy!" as she was watching a youtube video of a guy singing and facebook messaging. 

Not wanting to make a public scene we went back into the room. We waited..... I went out and told her we only have a half hour before we have to go somewhere else and she could do that after our lesson, she told me she was busy and she could only do it now, as she continued to scroll on facebook. I went back and like 5 minutes later I was sick of it and went to invite her to the YSA pokemon dance that night and to leave the building to actually go do work. When I walked out she wasn't there anymore.

I was ticked. we left like we planned. I was so ticked. That was the lesson. that was the deal breaker. That was the one lesson that was a for sure we had in the bag to help her become converted. I was so ticked. I thought the whole rest of the day and ever since about that, it still frustrates me. Because of her inability to abstain for 30 minutes it ruined the lesson, it ruined her path to conversion, it ruined our contact again, it ruined my goal,.....But it taught me a valuable lesson that I had only had slight promptings to. 

Christ-like attributes are essential to some one becoming converted, and some one can't be converted if they do not exercise those attributes. Because of her inability to be Temperate she wasn't able to progress, same with every one because of their inability to be Humble they don't accept correct principals and they don't progress. Because of their lack of work Ethic they don't know How to be diligent enough to get a answer to a prayer.

That ran through my head the whole rest of the day.

That night Sis P took us out to one of her investigators she picked up when she was a ward missionary. ( a amazing example of a member missionary, not only did she know how to teach and what PMG says but she had her own teaching pool too!!! It was a Missionary present lesson, not a member present. I want that.). And I was able to get one of them to spit out his concerns, all of which were questions of the soul that he didn't understand that I slayed tactfully. '

But He got ticked (i didn't recognize this but Sis p did) because he didn't want to believe what I just expounded from the scriptures Sis P then helped him recognize he was being prideful and then taught him how to be humble and he then accepted my teaching that it could be true. I was in AWE! I had been thinking about that all day long and it was a perfect example of how to teach some one the Christlike attribute they needed so they can become converted. If F didn't create a need for that concept I probably wouldn't have learned from that at all, which would have been terrible because I have been studying that for over a year now.

My problem now is I am struggling to find out all of the attributes and their opposites and how they are expressed and I have been racking my mind about it all week since, and today I am in a bad mood because in my personal studies I thought I was gonna answer all of my questions, but no I kicked over like 30 more rocks and found endless tunnels when I thought I was reaching the bottom of it all. I just wish I had a smart phone, it would make it possible to find these things out and life would be so much easier! 

That same day we had a appointment with a Messianic Jew who we door knocked into in a Rich neighborhood. We got there and he was there, he let us in, he prayed that he could be Humble and receive our message, at the end of that lesson I determined he has all the attributes some one needs to be converted and If he gets a answer to his prayer I am pretty sure he will join the church in a matter of weeks. I haven't stopped knocking Rich neighborhoods ever since =p. We've been having good success there too which is funny because most missionaries hate knocking those places because they aren't compelled to be humble, but we've done pretty good and I believe all you need to do is understand correct principals of finding in order to have success there.

I have 6-7 p-days before I got home. 2 this week, 1 next week, and 2 my last week and then all the other time that after transfer calls take place I assume will be a p-day too.

Well I gotta go

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!
 (I had a dream tonight that my companion shot some one, it was terrifyingly realistic! I was relived when I woke up) 

-- 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

But Stings like a Bee‏

I have gotten so serious about my goals now my companion prays vocally about my goals too.

I still don't know what to do with Atheists yet, I only knock into a small amount of them, any tips from online or your missions on what to do in that situation. Because I have never seen success from what I do (which I learned from other misisonaries) which is a good indication that I don't use a correct principal.

2 days ago I went and locked our bikes up to a stop sign I stepped back and a Bee attacked me stabbing me with it's stinger a millimeter from my eyeball...It was so close to hitting my eye. That thing got pretty swollen. I am so greatful it didn't get my eye though!

My companion points out every airplane we see, kinda funny because it's supposed to be the other way around where I make fun of him for how much more time he has left, but I aint about that life, so he tries to do that to me. SO it makes it kind of odd and doesn't work but... I swear we have seen like 15 planes in the last 3 days.

We have been riding bikes this week. When ever we are at a intersection I try and race the cars to see who can get to the other side of the intersection faster. The Specialized is a beast and I win some and loose some it greatly depends on what gear I am in and how fast I react to the light change. Those sports cars never loose though ha ha.

I have been reading the power of the everyday missionary alot this week. Our mission approved it and gave us all copies this week,  i am at pg 100 somethin. I like it alot because I have been trying to think of how I will continue missionary work back home and I could easily keep it up or even be  more effective of a missionary than I am now by living by those principals. Because one of the big things about me going on a mission was I knew there was no other place I would be able to learn missionary skills near as well as here and I have always had desires to do missionary work but never had the skill and because of that I had fears and hesitated to do so. That and as I have talked to a whole bunch of missionaries on my mission I have always heard them say " oh when I get home I will go out with the missionaries every week...Give them rides... feed them every month..." I just think, "Yah, what ever! you'll probably do that for like a month if that". So in my case I don't want to do that, I would much rather find people for the missionarys to teach, so they help me with my goal of helping as many people join the church as years I live. Thats one of the reasons why I am still seeking knowledge about missionary work that I don't have because these are the last few weeks where I can practice it for hours a day.

This week we had a lesson with our investigator. Turns out I caught all 151 pokemon, He caught all 151 pokemon, and my companion caught every pokemon that has been created (which all of which don't exist except the original 151 =p, but yet he caught all like 900). Who knew that 3 pokemon masters would have been brought together like that!

My zone leaders had breakfast and studied with us this morning since we are having a zone pday today. We got talking and one of them started to try and convince me that I shouldn't do Family History in Finding... Oh I flipped a biscuit hard! (People in this zone use "flip a biscuit" in their vocabulary and none of them heard it from me!!! One of my companions must have rubbed off on some one and it spread. I was shocked when I heard like 3 people use it in common conversations. None of them whipped out a frying pan like your saposed to but still!) I "bashed" him to pieces on that subject (only i didn't bash, I never bash, I instead taught him of how it is a correct principal every missionary needs to live, created a need for it,  and then showed him the blessings, and testifies of all the many miracles we've seen from it) there was no "putting me into my place" after that! =p 

My goal is going well. It's been hard because now all of my investigators are going through tribulation. One is loosing her house, I found out that they won't make her move for 6 months though so she will be here for her baptism. Another is being persecuted by family and coworkers, one of his friends died (it's scary how much I see that one come up when people are on the path to turning their testimony to being converted). One got a new job where she makes jewelry, and while she makes jewelry her company brings in preachers to speak to them all, she is kinda forced to listen to it all, her phone broke, work holds her late which keeps causing her to miss our appointments.

We have a investigator who really wants to be baptized but there is no way he will pass the interview... Doesn't believe in God consistantly, one appointment he will, the next he wont; doesn't believe In Jesus or joseph smith...... He has felt the spirit several times and I have helped him recognize it during lesson but he keeps forgetting it and almost pretending like he hasn't felt the spirit. He almost pretends to act nobel and says he will act in faith by being baptized so he can have a great spiritual witness after....I got so ticked off our last lesson, I kept telling him I wont baptize him and he wont pass his interview. He finished the whole book of mormon and has prayed to know if it was true the whole time. He just doesn't accept that he has felt the spirit. But forget my goal (in his case), I don't wanna be the shmeep that baptizes some who will never be active in their life just for a number.

Please pray for my goal and my investigators.

If I don't accomplish my goal now on my mission, I believe that it is still possible to accomplish it and probably will be accomplished by my companion. But i worry about that because I can't have influence on that.

Well I gotta go Bye i love you!

have a good day!

Don't get shot!

Or stung in the eye!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

♫Family History! Finally Mastered it!♫‏

I like my new companion loads! He is actually experienced as a missionary and I do not need to train him at all, but he observes me like a hawk and eats up everything and applies it quickly. it's sweet! He is so chill too, every night we sit and drink juice and talk untill we have to go to bed.

This week has been so humid!!!! Yesterday I could almost drink the air!

Hey Robby you better watch out! I have been doing P90X recently and if you think I am coming home a softy, thinking I will loose in any arm wrestling match you are mistaken. =p You better watch it dude, my flexing muscles in my arm move when I turn my hand the other direction =p ha ha

All I can think about is my goals. In fact I now have even more goals to think about too. It has become such a obsession that the only thing my companion thinks about is my goals, not even his own goals but he think about my goals all day every day!

WE have been seeing so many miracles!!!!! I swear I am not worthy enough to have all of these miracles happen, I mean yah I am obedient but I am never seeing anything but MIRACLES! I still suck at keeping some rules and yet I am still blessed beyond belief. But to be fair too my new companion E.A has been serving in BadAxe Michigan for the last 6 months a place that is very sad when it comes to missionary work, so he is probably cashing in all of his unused persecution points for miracles too. Keep Praying that I can accomplish my goals!

I think I did it! I think I mastered Family History! I have been giving those FH pass along cards faster than I do regular ones now because of how many people are receptive to it. I have been doing it in several diffrent ways but my finding through using questions of the soul and restored truth questions, and family history weave in and out now and are truly one finding tactic. 

 

I got a lady super interested in family history and followed it up (after I found out she was religious) with a " So what do you think happens to our ancestors who die with out a knowledge of the gospel?" and totally got her with restored truth too and we should be teaching her the plan of salvation in a few days. There is no way she would have been interested if I didn't go a family history route. I am planning on writing it out and sending it to all of the many missionaries who I have talked to about this to help them all be more effective.

The thing that is getting me now is I realized every missionary I know sucks at helping Atheists agree to meet with us. How do you do that? because what I learned how to do isn't effective and I have never seen success from it.

One of our top investigators who is on date has had some experiences this week.  At the end of our lesson last sunday I forgot to set up a return appointment, so we stopped by after correlation (miraculously we had time after that) meeting a few days later. We dropped by and he answered the door and said he was right about to call us, he let us in and he told us all about what happened at work with his coworkers. 

 

They saw him reading the book of Mormon during his break and they tore him to pieces about how we aren't Christians and other stupid not true beliefs about us. It really got to him and he was thinking about calling us and dropping us a few minutes before we arrived at his door. We resolved his concerns and prepared him for even more persecution and tribulation to be coming as he prepares to be baptized. It may seem odd but I rejoiced in the car that happened, because he is now having Tribulation and persecution  which is an essential thing for some one to go through to become converted to anything. It brought me alot of peace knowing that he isn't going to be baptized with only a testimony and not being converted. But we still have more time there.

We came by a few days later to hear that he was surrounded by 4 co workers at work again and they tried to bash him to pieces the next time they saw him read during his work break. But this time he was aware it was satan and he laughed at the stupid things they said about us. " those Mormons don't worship God, They worship Mohamed!....." he responded "Who the Hell is Mohamed! they teach me about God not him!". He later during the lesson asked us Who Mohamed was because he was still confused on who they were talking about.

Our other investigator almost dropped us, she was getting confused because the book of mormon sounds alot like the bible and she wasn't willing to make the commitment to be rebaptized. It was a pretty quick fix when I went back to mosiah 18 and had her read the verses where she felt the spirit and she humbled herself and changed her mind because she knew what she felt. She then at the end of the lesson gave us 10 bags of groceries!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dude the church is so true here! I havn't seen any thing but miracles and huge blessings since I got here. My companion told me that this week we did more missionary work than he did in one of his transfers in Bad Axe. This week is scheduled to be even better.  Our key indicators were amazing!

Well I gotta go

 Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Transferrrrrs!

We got our transfer calls and I am staying and E.Kratz is leaving. No shock he was here for 6 months and I was going home. That was my last transfer call. I have 6 weeks left. E.Quintana the last missionary I trained Got a transfer call up to Alpena, the area where I was trained! he had a million questions and I spent most of my email time telling him people to hunt down. "son" is going to fix up his "father's" mistakes. 

I think I can accomplish my goal! It's still difficult and not secured but I think it can work out. Currently I have 6 people on date to be baptized and 6 progressing investigators. There is alot of work for these people but I think I can make it, But i am not going to be devastated if I don't make it because I would rather they be converted than only having a testimony and being baptized and going less active.

I love how in PMG under Gospel dispensations it talks about prophets learning things by revelation; I mean they use the scriptures to teach it but they learn it from revelation. I see that ALL THE TIME! All of the big truths I cling to I learned in that way and later found scriptures to back it up to teach to people. I had that happen a million and a half times. It happened with the Godly Sorrow thing, I read Repentance in True to the faith and it says in black and white super clear that it instills a desire. =p Before I could infer that from other things but that was undebateable. But it sure does help when you have the right resources that can straight up give you the answers to all of your questions!

We had so much success this week! I am way too blessed to be here! I don't know if it's I racked up so much Persecution points my whole mission that I now have to cash them all in before I end, so thats why I only see miracles or.... Church is true here! Especially when you drive a 2016 Ford Fusion! I honestly feel like I don't deserve this much success but Everything has been working in our favor! 

E. kratz door knocked into a guy months back and he gave him a pass along card. We got a call a month or so ago and he said he had to do a report on a religion in one of his college classes and so he wanted to interview us. We agreed. He interviewed us about our personal lives, our family lives, the Mormon lifestyles, and beliefs of our church, church organization, how it came to be... 

He had an LDS friend growing up, his friend never talked about the gospel and he decided to study us since we showed up. He is agnostic, But NEVER has any other religion ever made sense or had him feel like this before, and he used to go to school for religion major of a sort and tried many churches before he lost his beliefs. 

We went hard in our interviews, we had 2 of them, the first one we taught him the plan of salvation along with all of his questions about us, and we taught the restoration the second one. He went to church and was fascinated on how we actually respect communion (the sacrament), he learned about temples there, and everything made such sense.  =p.

He finished his report. Got a 97% on it because he was so fascinated by it he couldn't stop thinking about it. We shot him a text after his report was turned in and asked if he read the Book of Mormon that we gave him. He said he did and there was a thing that really meant alot to him from it. He wanted to ask us more about it not over text, so we went back to the church to meet with him yesterday. We picked him up as a investigator yesterday. 

We will have taught 13-14 lessons this week by the end of today, most with member present, 2 are less active lessons. and we still got like 11-12 hours of door knocking and 2 p-days in there! This week has been number 1! I think next week will be better too. Since we will have the car all week long, no p-days, and many appointments. 

pray that I can accomplish my goal of helping 20 people join the church before I end my mission. Because no matter how ridiculously good =p I am at missionary work, there is no way I can accomplish that feat but only by Gods power can I! 

 I should be getting my new companion Monday

I gotta go clean the apartment and do something fun

Bye I love you!

Have a good day!

Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

4 baptisms in 7 weeks. I can do this!

THis week has been pretty sweet! Full day p-day for the 4th of july, zone confrence (took a whole day basically), Maria's baptism (which I made it to miraculously) 

I heard from E.Quintana that Maria was getting baptized this saturday and that she wanted me there for it. I didn't really do anything about it right away because I figured it was best that I waited until correlation for ideas on who could give me a ride to Kalamazoo. We had 2 lessons scheduled though on accident right before correlation that would make us way late for the meeting. We went to the first one and we had to sprint on our bikes to be 5 minutes late to the second one. We had it planned to be at the public library and we walked all around the library and couldn't find him for once. And so we decided to head out to correlation. 

The second we stepped outside of the library The bus pulled right up. We ran and I waved it down and it stopped and gave us the time we needed to unlock our bikes and put them on the bus. If we didn't make that bus that would have probably caused me to not be able to go the baptism. It was a miracle in it's self that I was able to come to the baptism.

With Maria joining the church this week I am pretty sure I can accomplish my goal of helping 20 people join the church, but it is still gonna be pretty difficult, How many people do you know got 4 baptims in less than 12 weeks start to finish? (not all one miracle super prepared family either) I think about it so much! I pray about it like 30 times a day. But as of yesterday I now have 4 people on date, it's just a matter of getting them there.

Maria's baptism was awesome! I heard parts of the story that I had never heard before. She told us about before I knocked on her door. She saw us walking down the street and she kept telling her son to stay away from the door so she wouldn't have to answer it. SHe told him that several times. But I came and knocked on the door and he ran up and lifted the curtain up from behind the glass door and I waved at him (like I usually do when I see people peek from their windows and try and hide and be sneaky so I don't see them). Maria thought "great.... Now I have to talk to them...." 

she prepared a statement on how she is Catholic and not interested but when she opened the door we were glowing. We radiated something she wanted and we helped her see there was things that she didn't know so even though she prepared to shut us down it didn't work and she accepted =p. As she walked away the verse of scripture was brought to her mind from Heb 3:7,15 (or Psalms 95:8-10, or Jacob 6:6 as she later found out it was a combination of such). 

You have heard the rest of her story though. But to add more to what I said in the past... Before the baptism I talked to her and she told me that she posted on facebook that she was being baptized and invited others to it, all she got persecuted hard online for it. She got a email the night before she was baptized from a friend that was full of anti literature. It really got to her and she knelt down and prayed about it. She layed awake most of the night because of it. She decided she would pray about it in the morning. 

She woke up and all of her worries about the anti was gone, and she realized how stupid it all was and how not true it was, Maria thought of all of the changes and all of the love she felt from God as she followed our teachings and the power of God that did many miracles to help her get to where she is. She knew Satan had his one last struggles to try and derail her, but she didn't give in. I have never taught anyone who was persecuted more than her to try and stop her from joining. 

I arrived and saw that she was in a White dress, the very thing she wore in her dream and watched her walk into the font with E. Quintana (who she always told that he looked very familiar to her). I got to see her vision fulfilled, in the very font that she dreamed of. 

I gave my departing testimony at Zone Conference this last week. We get our transfer calls this week, it will be my last t-call, I have so much I need to do and learn still! We get 2 p-days this week =p I am pretty sure my companion will be transferred. 

Yesterday I took a RM who used to be the Assistant to President like 10 months back, he is back in the area until the week I go home, for work. So we took him out teaching and for a first in a long time actually learned from a "trade off" I haven't learned anything about missionary work from tradeoffs in the past few months, I tend to teach more than I learn (and I try hard to learn from them!!! I am not just prideful and unteachable), It was healthy =p. He had a mind like I do in finding truth from every one and he had some awesome insights!

I have a investigator who is dying to be baptized but we have to keep rescheduling his appointments... He would be baptized tomorrow if he could, but we haven't even hit a commandment yet. He came to church yesterday.

We have another lady who I door knocked into my first day here, we have been teaching her in her fellowshippers home, she loves her fellowshipper! She came to church yesterday too and should be coming to a "empty nesters"  event at the church where they feed me (=p) and share messages and have fun. SHe hasn't accepted a date yet but I am certain she will join before I leave.

Another couple are also doing well, I believe they can join before I leave too, they love us like family! The only problem there is our lessons have been WHAKO and I have been fighting 4 people trying to keep us on track and not speculating about other worlds and who lives on them and Jesus visiting them and...and... If we can get them to live the Word of WIsdom and truly repent they already have been taught these things are true and they both agreed to being baptized. I believe they can make it before I go, IF SATAN STOPS GETTING US TO WASTE TIME IN OUR LESSONS WITH THEM!! I am so fired up about that last lesson. 

And a lady From Kalamazoo should join this transfer, They are trying to get her husband to be worthy to baptize her and they are both working on the word of wisdom together, from the sounds of it they are really pumped about it too. 

 Sorry I am out of time and I realized I didn't write any good stories, but all I can think about is my goal and doing the Most good that I can before I can't do this full time. 

Well I gotta go, 
Bye I love you

Have a good day!

--Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Too tired but still obedient

I found out this last week that one the investigators who I taught and put on date that joined the church, one of his kids join the church this last month, I only taught his son once because he was taught by another set of missionaries over at his moms house, but he always seemed to be around and was really goofy and gave some of my dance moves a run for it's money. =p

I forgot to mention to you as well that this area has Sr. missionaries here too. They are not assigned to my area but they live 3 buildings down and we see them at church when the spanish branch comes in. So this week on our p-day we went over and spent some time with them to get to know them better. They are only serving for 6 months and this is their last month.

Mom, no I havn't gotten my birthday present yet. you know 2 months later ha ha =p. There is a Zone conference this week and I will get it there though.

Maria my investigator from Kalamazoo is being baptized this week. I may or may not be able to get there for it.

There is like 6 members here who has approached me and said that they used to live in Mesa, all of them knew people who I know and was able to tell me about changes in our stake that even I didn't know.

It's crazy here, it is so much like home. The houses look nothing like mesa, but the city looks like gilbert with all the grass and trees and organization just not as nice as gilbert, alot of my area has houses that a new family would live in or old people. But there has been so many times where my heart would drop to the floor because where i was looked exactly like a place from back home and I was shocked thinking I was at home or in Arizona.

I asked every missionary I know in other missions about family history and none of them had answers on how to use it in door knocking...

We had to many things planned thursday morning so we weren't able to do weekly planning at it's usual time. It became a back up for our last appointment after dinner. The appointment fell through and we did weekly planning right before we did our planning for the next day. So while planning I got sick of my study chair that was stolen from relief society I believe and I layed on the couch. That day we rode like 10 miles on bikes and it was hot... So i fell asleep during weekly planning on accident. I opened my eyes 2 seconds later any my companion was talking to our district leader on the phone I asked what step of planning we were on and he said he finished weekly planning AND nightly planning. I thought I only had my eyes closed for a second but... nope it was like a hour later =p. So i was tired and planning was already done, and hey I was already comfy So i closed my eyes and was out in like a minute and just slept on the couch.

I woke up the next morning. I was in my bed though, wearing everything:shirt, tie, name tag, socks, tie clip, wallet, planner, pen... My companion informed me that when it hit 10:30ish pm I got off the couch and kneeled down by my bed (which I never do without changing) and slept until my watch beeped that it was 11 which is when I normally wrap up my long nightly prayers and I got in bed and slept. =p ha ha I don't remember it at all! Who knew you could get so trained in the missionary schedule that that could happen. Even when I sleep I am obedient! ha ha =p all i ever dream about is missionary work anyways...

We had a lesson with our investigator (the one who almost died in child birth) we have gotten her husband involved in the lessons now and he is interested, so this last lesson we taught him the plan of salvation. He doesn't like Christians or religions and hates what people think about God and hates mainstream Christianity. But His mind was blown when it came to the plan of salvation and it all was things that he inherently seemed to believe (minus the kingdoms of glory). 

 

There was times that he stood up to yell at and throw his dog in a room where he left us and his wife outside in their garden to talk. This was her second time going through the plan of salvation and she wouldn't stop talking about how much of a difference the plan of salvation makes to her, and how it has helped make her life make sense. At one point in the Lesson her husband went off on a rant on how is dog is stupid and dreams and rolls around and and does stuff while it dreams and then he turned and said that his new daughter does the same thing too. 

 

He talked about how his daughter doesn't open her eyes  or ever see anything and doesn't understand anything and or know anything, but when she sleeps she will smile and and find great joy in her sleep. It didn't make sense to him at all how could she find joy in her dreams if she has seen or experienced nothing except maybe a little light through her mommy's tummy. She then kicked in and explained like a tender loving mother would to a young kid "She lived with God before now and she dreams about life with him" The spirit touched my heart at that moment. I determined at that point she truly does have a testimony and probably would join before I finished my mission.

All I can think about is my goal of helping 20 people join the church before I finish my mission. Pray that I can accomplish it! It's in every prayer, fast, study, determining plans for my day....

I sat and realized how much I love Michigan, I watched fire works sunday night from my window and just thought about when I flew in to Michigan, when I flew over the grand canyon, when I saw endless water and trees from my window..... I had no clue any this could have happened  2 years! I am so grateful for it and for the hell I went through, and for the.......

ak! I am late!

Bye!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett