That's why we Door Knock

This has been a good week! It's truly been Healthy! And It will this week too. This week we actually have 2 p-days, one today and one on Wednesday. On Wednesday I am going to to mount pleasant for a half mission p-day to play loads of games, I don't really know anything about it other than I will be getting wet and wont have to much time to do anything other than that on Wednesday.

This week some guy in my apartment complex got shot. I wasn't there when it happened but they got chased and shot through their front door. We got a extremely worried call from the mission office and I was totally chill not knowing (because we are never at our apartment in the day) at all that anything like that happened ha ha. Well I am glad to know the situation was resolved. The next day our door got knocked on and we were hesitant to answer it, turned out to be your package of crushed cookies. I love the Head Band! And the music is good and Elvis singing gospel music defiantly makes the church more true ha ha!

So I forgot to tell you this and Dad reminded me of it in his email there is loads of fireflies in Michigan at night.

For the first time on my mission I cooked Grandpa Pork Chops, who knew what Mom said would prepare me for my mission would actually happen (you know 1 meal out of... ha ha jk)

So also funny thing with Susies gift is the statue is made our of soap stone, I couldn't resist so I had to buy it. Take a bath you hippy =p

My companion was driving and was like "these speed bumps are Tiwi impervious" (referring to the robot that reports any bad driving to the mission office) Right after he took the next speed bump a little quick, Tiwi yelled "Aggressive driving!" and reported it. ha ha I guess nothing is Tiwi proof.

I have beheld the numbers I havn't seen in 11 months. The Car thermometer read 100 degrees this week.

We set up a appointment with a potential for getting that Saturday we aren't allowed to drive our car. Ya we really regretted that! We got a hair cut that day went to another appointment and then we were many miles away from our next appointment, we had about a hour to get there and it was the heat of the day. That bike ride sucked. We rode up to Lansing to take a street down to the house and when we got to where our map said we could turn we learned that that was a flaw in our map. We had to ride back down to holt and then east like 4 miles and then back up to lansing to get where we needed to. We ran out of water a mile away. We rode there and was super beat and sweaty. We went to the potentials house and some one else answered the door and when we asked if the potential was there the lady freaked out and slammed the door.

As she was slamming we tried to ask for water but no.

There was no way I was going the hour plus ride back with no water, we pleaded in prayer for some. We door knocked every door in that neighborhood until some one talked to us and gave us 4 bottles of water. We said prayers of gratitude silently, I said like 8. We started riding back and Elder H doesn't have a seat like mine on his bike and was way saddle sore, hot, low on water, we were both weak from the past 2 and a half hours of riding, and his bike handlebars were rubbing his hands raw and black all over from the deteriorating foam. He told me he pleaded in prayer to ease his burden and give him a pool noodle for his handle bars. And we crossed the highway and a pool noodle was sitting in a pile of rusted car and and broken plastic in the grass. It already was cut to perfect size and had a slit in the side to make it easy to put on. All I could think about was how grateful I am for how much Heavenly Father looks out for me in life the whole rest of the half hour ride, it no longer worried me how bad the ride sucked.

We were out door knocking on Friday in Mason and we had like 8 minutes until we had to leave for dansiville for a dinner appointment, We figured we could fit in a few more doors and just walk quickly back to the car so we could finish the street. we knocked on a Door and got nothing so we left and went down a really long wheel chair ramp and a guy popped out of the back door as soon as we hit the concrete again. I talked to him and He told me He had actually lived in Salt lake for like 4 years, He then excitedly invited us to sit down at his picnic table. 

 

I started a little HTBT and started asking him about his belief and faith in God, and then added several follow up questions on the subject and We hit gold. He told us He had been in a Rehab facility until Thursday for Word of wisdom things and then told us he had been away from God for 14 years and hated him until 3 days ago he felt the spirit and he wanted God back in his life and he wanted to have that joy and peace in his life again. And he told us "It's super freaky you guys showed up here! I have never had any religious people ever knock on my door in the ___ years I have lived here. And 3 days after that experience you 2 come. 

 

He Knew we were sent from God and he called us prophets like the whole rest of the lesson until  we explained that we were given a calling from a prophet but we aren't prophets. He has loads of sincere questions and we were way late to that dinner appointment ha ha. This sunday he came to church in a suit 2 days after we met him, and he was way late and opened the chapel doors and stood with a blank stare until I stood up and walked him over to where we were sitting. He then remarked "I have a million questions for you, are you guys still coming over today?" =p  Loved it! Church is true when you don't even need to follow up or set appointments with your investigators! One of our other investigators J does the same thing he texts us and tells us on his own accord what times he is open from work! It's a good Healthy Change

Well Were off to go play some Ultimate frisbee

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

Drink lots of water!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

       

92 degrees at 7pm and humid‏

There is some members here who bring a George bush cardboard cut out to family pictures with them and they just tape the face of their missionary on it and it's perfect because he's in a suit!

It has been raining so much people have to mow their lawns every other day because how fast it is making every thing grow!

My shower broke at the beginning of the week and it wouldn't drain at all! that was gross! We had to use trash cans to dump it all into the toilet. We really feared that some of the vicious mosquitoes would find it and we would be done for!

My bike lost it's front breaks with out me knowing, making it so I couldn't come to a complete stop any more. I got sad not wanting to almost get hit by a car again and prayed and as I rode a few miles away I found my front breaks in the middle of the side walk!

So Mommy before you send the package you should put a headband in, an some E6000 glue; I can't find it.

 I also found out though this week that there is a lot of false rules here in our mission which are very pharisaical but since they aren't written it's kind of a huge game of telephone for people to find out the "rules". And so consequentially a lot of rules are garbage yet we have been trying to be "obedient" when it wasn't necessary...What ev. Turns out we are allowed to write letters any day of the week according to our mission president, but it just has to be in our morning at lunch or at night after planning. Which is awesome because that means we have way more time to do things on P-day! But I found that out because we had a out of the blue trade off where we literally had 2 hours to prepare for it............ But that was a healthy trade off  because I learned things like that. But ya since we have more time we are going over o the Zoneleaders apartment to play some Starwars x-wing (board game) and then ball it up.

So something I forgot to mention last week was the rest of the story of T the one being evicted. So we tried, and tried him, and tried him, texted called, knocked on the door... nothing for over a transfer. We then decided we would drop him which was sad to me because I grew to love the man and knew he was so close to baptism! But we were tired of getting nothing so we were going to drop him. I wrote a letter since I knew there was going to be no answer when I knocked on the door. We then went to Krogers and I picked up his favorite soda that he introduced me to "Michigan cherry" my favorite is "Michigan berry"  SOOOO GOOD! I was tempted to drink it=p. We then knocked on his door and I was expecting this to be the last time that I would ever see this door and he opened the door! First time I saw him or heard from him in almost 2 months. I set up a appointment and gave him the soda. Apparently God didn't want him to be dropped. And it's a really good thing we didn't drop him.

Before I continue make sure you blow in his ear, 1! 2! 3! DOG PILE ON ROBBY!!!!!

GOTCHYA!

w

So then it leads to him asking us to help him find a place to live. I prayed and talked to bishop and we compiled a list of apartment places he could try and talked about members that would rent out to him; and the first place that popped into my mind was where one of our other investigators lives. That place the literally rent out everything in that place to random people, even the couch. there is like 10 people that live in that duplex with like 4 rooms at least. I continued to "pokemon snap" information of places to rent as we drove by and added it to the list. I gave that list to T and told him to try those places, he instead kept asking me to ask all the members if he could rent out a room, I told him to do that himself not wanting to be involved in that. I followed up to find out he didn't try any of those places and I gave him the information for the first house I thought about again. I then stopped by a few days later and gave him that info again. And then I had a lesson with that other investigator and he told us " Ya a few places just opened up..." I called and gave him and found out he still hadn't tried my list and so I gave him the info to the land lady and told him to call right then and there and call me back. He called and the Lady interviewed him the next day and he now has a place to live. 1 day before he was kicked out to the mosquitoes he is deathly allergic to.

I had a past investigator from me and Elder Baker call and beg for my forgiveness. she prayed about what she should do in life and then we showed up to go buck hay for our Elders Quorum president and she felt the spirit and it made he feel loved and it made her want that family like feeling. She prayed on weather she really should meet with us again and she was told to. And so we without even trying got a fellowshipper and a lesson scheduled all I had to do was be "gent" and break the Sabbath ha ha that and bear testimony on the phone and tell her I forgive her.

This week I got hit hard by several things. I saw those two examples and looked at myself and our area.  We left church yesterday not feeling spiritually edified at all because of loads of reasons including no scripture being used in the last 2 hours some one reading cs lewis to us instead of the words of the prophet on the subject of eternal marriage... And while I thought I realized several things are wrong. And that me not feeling "spiritually edified" was true but over that I had more of the "spirit wroughts change" aspect going. I realized I had a lot to repent of, like keeping the Sabbath day holy; Ya I am a missionary and it's like the Sabbath everyday but I am not doing what the scriptures are telling us to do on the Sabbath and prepare for the Sabbath, I realized I need to stop using the lords name in vain ("jesus ball") obey the word of wisdom more (healthy aspect) and I really  

realized how there is loads of commandments are looked over by loads of people. any ways

We had a really good week and stayed wet.

We are super stoked to ball today we have been practicing in the mornings and did today so we can dunk on loads of people. I have learned a lot of shooting technique recently since a bishop who plays with started to show me. 

 

Well were off! Bye I love you have a good day!!

Don't get shot!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Gift of Tongues

So this week I don't even have too much stories, infact I have no clue how it is physically possible that this week could go so fast!

So I fixed my scriptures with at least a temporary fix, I put "poster putty" on the back binding and since it has stopped my pages and binding from separating more and it no longer cracks and works perfectly! I probably will go and get that e6000 glue though because the putty wont resolve the problem but might lead to more problems.

But this week started by us racking up some major Persecution points. We got a call Tuesday morning and it was our investigator J. He is a hard core Atheist, and we have had some really good lessons with him, he always tried to make it a philosophical debate and I learned a lot from Bro F  one of the ward missionaries who was a PMG missionary as we taught him. Love him and his family and they would give us the best food! But we called him to set up a appointment and he dropped us and even though I made is argument for dropping us invalid on the phone he still dropped us. But He didn't do Moroni's promise in the ways it says it has to be done and he was expecting it to work any ways. But a cake wont taste good if you forget the sugar and flour, it's essential to use every ingredient in that experiment. That was really sad. But that gave us all the persecution points we needed for that day and we slayed it the whole rest of the day! We even put a investigator on date who isn't our investigator, those Elders thought it was pretty cool when we called them later that night. 

That and this week we got back in contact with T, the investigator who started coughing up blood during stake conference, we taught him a little and got a load dumped on us..... Apparently he is getting evicted now because of his land lord is trying to escape having to repay him and get refunded for the place by having it red tagged. But the problem with that is he is deathly allergic to mosquitoes to the point he has like epi pen things  that he has to shove in his leg if he gets bitten too much because it cuts off all of his airways. BAD NEWS especially because this is a record year for mosquitoes in Michigan from what people tell me.  So he is gonna be homeless in a few days and he needs help finding a place to live and so he basically put the burden on us ..................................................................................................................................................................

I have battled over this a lot this week because that is not my job at all in any way shape or form, But the scriptures tell us that we need to help those in need, I forget the scripture but I read one the very next day that applied to him Exactly in the situation that I can't turn him away. It really comes down to he would be a member of the church but I don't know if it would be for the right reasons if we did get him a place, if we could. So that's been unnecessary stress especially because it is a matter of him dying if he doesn't get shelter.  I have reached out to the bishop and he gave me places to give to him but nothing has happened yet and we keep getting begged through text to help him. But I am freaking 19 years old and spend all day teaching I am not a real-estate agent! I have alot of stick it to the man in me, but I also realize how critical this could be and it could even be a eternal salvation consequence. Unnecessary stress and I don't even stress.

This week while door knocking we knocked on a door and a older lady let us in her home. She started preaching to us the doctrine of how church is of the devil and how we don't need it to be saved. She then went on to continually cutting us off to teach us about how educated she is in the gospel and how she knows how to speak in the gift of tongues and how that eases her load so much in life. Her rant continued and I loved this part it was so funny to me how her doctrine was way "the doctrine of man". She started saying " when ever I don't know what to say, I love the gift of tongues and it helps me convey the words that I want to say but don't know how to say, or when I am singing" she then gave us a example "it's like when I am feeling down and I ajkfdhfajhaunfklmlwui, you know?". I died inside! And had such a hard time not laughing because there was no communication made at all in that, great gibberish. But what got me was when the 2 Year old in the room ran over and tried talking to her and sounded like she did when she spoke in "tongues" and she snapped at the kid and yelled "I thought I told you to use your words!". That got my blood boiling and I was about to flip a biscuit. The kid sounded like he tried to copy what grandma said and he got that!

Any ways I don't really have to much to say about this week  other than that, we had a good week, but I only really have stories that talk bad about Ganders this week.

But we had our investigator come to church and the members loved him and loved how real he was, the Elders Quorum President was impressed and that means a lot knowing president Chappman. 

Last week for P-day I loved balling it up, We had fresh missionaries since we had a transfer and none of them know how I play and so I "dunked" on them hard! I am super stoked for today, I haven't been able to find my Mesa High Head band that I stole from Will since Elder B left.....=( I have looked so much for it!

Well I gotta go

Bye I love you have a good week!

Stay Strong!

Don't get shot!

Love you!

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

Cereal Revelations

You know I was thinking as I was having my usual big tubaware container of cereal....

Yup that's basically it I thought for once ha ha! jk, 

 

But I was thinking of how important Milk is in eating cereal and it could be eaten without but the meaning, the definition, the flavor of it all is lost in the act of not including milk. I then realized we are like milk in a bowl of cereal. FAR OUT! But I won't go into to much detail I will let you all receive your own applied revelation on the subject. But We are like milk because if you don't put the milk in the fridge (unless it's winter in Michigan) then it will go bad and you wont be able to enjoy the blessings and nourishment of the cereal in the way the creator intended you to. 

 

And so us if we don't stand in holy places, if we aren't cooling and preparing for the things God has planned for us(sacrament, temple, missions, callings, ...), if we aren't where our father in heaven needs us to be we can "go bad" and not get the spiritual nourishment that he plans for us. So we need to be where he wants and needs us to be before He will take us out and give us that nourishment and give us the answers to prayers that we seek. Cereal Revelation! =p It's deep doctrine I know! That's all just a drop in the bucket for this week and my inanimate object or task revelations. I am not even gonna go into my mowing lawn and Bucking hay ones.

My companion all the time yells "free t-shirt! I want it!" and then normally asks me to pull over to pick up some growdy shirt in the middle of the street... ha ha =p For some reason recently there has been a huge abundance of road kill and Free t-shirts in the road, I am just scared to find those people who lost that shirt. But for realzies I say this jokingly but he really does want one =p .

It was sick this week. I got super pumped watching one of the D&C videos while I was eating my crepes I made I had the spirit with me and I was ready to stick it to the man! We went out door knocking on a street I prayerfully picked and no one was answering at all because all of the rich people left for the 4th of july. We get to a car and it is a big van with starwars characters on the back just like ours. I was thinking "it's going down right here right now! I was prepared for you!"  Go up knock on this door and this father steps out side and he is in a "chewy I am home" t shirt with a rebel logo on it. 

 

I started to relate and then went at it, Turns out he was a minister to his own church and he started preaching to me. But I was feeling the DEWS you know, I wish I knew what exactly I said, but in a non offensive way I shifted the conversation and created a need for the sealing ordinance for eternal families. HOLY! I have struggled for so long to ever even come up with what I could do for that and it totally confounded this preacher. Even though the need to meet with us was obvious and we gave him a clear choice he still rejected us. But oh man I have tried so hard in my studies to replay that in my mind so I can replicate that on another door step!

This week I have been horribly eaten by Mosquitoes, there was loads of rain starting on Monday of last week and there was huge puddles and those things bread like crazy and it doesn't help that now all of the swamps are full... But we have been swarmed every time we go out. Also because of the rain it really was burdensome on our Elders Quorum President. He has like 40 acres (at least) of hay that was cut and they weren't drying out at all because of all of the rain, And the window to go and bale them before it rained again wasn't ever wide enough. 

 

But on Friday we got a call and they asked us to come and help him with his about 2000 bales of hay. =p On the 4th of july we had loads of people there at first and we were unloading wagon after wagon like none other and since the hay was still moist we were throwing a lot of salt all over it to help it dry out. They wouldn't turn off their country music so I was FORCED to listen to some Luke Byran and Jason aldean, Josh Turner... I was obedient and asked to turn it off but didn't happen, it was super healthy for me though ha ha =p (I learned the science on how barn fires start without any thing but the hay! it's cool but a real fear for them) We did that until the bailer broke. And we all left, we were basically on call until it got fixed and so we called pages and pages of potentials before I was dying to go out side and door knock. I wish we set better back up plans. Because door knocking on the 4th was horrible, no one would answer, handgun, I am spending time with my family. 

 

While we did that I thought to call Prez chappman. We called and the bailer got fixed right then and there and it was kickin. We booked it down to Dansville and it was only us and him after that ha ha. We stacked those bales to the roof and the trucks was coming at a pace where we had no time really for a break. We had 4th of july privileges of being able to stay out late so all we did was work and We did work! I still have Hay up my nose from that ha ha! We got to see fire works as we booked it home. Yesterday we found out it's gonna rain today so we and every one came out and filled that barn and started to prepare for the next barn we were gonna fill.

But the 5th of july , yesterday was number 1! We put another investigator on date, mowed a lawn and tag team taught a less active at the same time, when we came to the chapman's house to buck hay (which I was feeling a little guilty for) we stumbled upon one of our referrals at their house who we picked up as a investigator but havn't been able to contact in like 6 weeks.  So immediately the guilt left because that was a huge miracle and I knew we were where we needed to be. Got a call from another less active and wanted us to come immediately, got to teach him (while we were head to toe covered in hay and salt since he was on the way) And several other really cool things happened and we were exactly where we needed to be exactly when. So yesterday and the 4th really made up for the horrible week we had ha ha. Well it was a good week we had a lot of miracles!, it's not every week you get 5 on date. =p

 

Well I am off to go dunk on some people
Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!
stay away from swamps!

Elder Truman Rex Crocket

Pretty Little Song Bird

To start out we got transfer calls and I am staying and training still.

I am so glad we bought those bikes! they help us out so much! And it's super healthy for me to be able to ride places, explore, and fix up the things! Especially fixing something. But I am still partial to the Gary fisher back home and would never replace that or my specialized for the thin I am riding.

This week we had what was called "the day of service" It was one of those Mormon helping hands events, it was awesome! It was like a eagle scout project for grown ups on steroids! =p It had like 15 different projects that was to help beautify and help the people in Lansing all of which where about eagle scout project size. I was assigned to Reutter Park which is right next to the capital building. that was so much fun!

What happened is they have this beautiful fountain that wasn't being seen so they chopped these trees down and chopped huge limbs off so people could see it and the beauty of the place. And our job was to drag these massive things and throw them in a huge wood chipper. Man that chipper was a beast! I saw it eat a log bigger and thicker than me like nothing! I am not that thick but point made we needed 4 people to carry it to the thin. We were rained on for 5 hours straight too and those things got us way dirty! loads of people took pictures of me so you should look it up on the internet to try to find something because I know I am in like 12 of them at least.

So I told you about NIIIIGHT EEEEEYYYEEEE!!!! last time but just like I was trying to say, I wasn't the Hero the whispering pines appartments needed, But I was the one it deserved. I battled valiantly to take out the ear wigs and the spiders but eventually the hero that was needed came and our apartments got poison gassed. So the tallys on my blow gun are at a stand still. I took one out this week by taping it to the floor and spraying it with axe body spray ha ha.

Since we are on the subject of creatures brutally biting the dust that leads me into this next thought.

These last few weeks I have been really feeling odd, I knew something was wrong in what I was doing with our investigators and it was irritating to me because the spirit just wasn't there. I was being obedient, I was focusing, I was helping my companion with everything and we are getting along great. It was cutting me every day because I was seeing our pool of 18 investigators get close to baptism and then fall away, and there was a downward trend. I realized the importance of Revelation through reading, praying, and keeping the Sabbath day holy and loving the people we are with. 

I look back and I now see those key ingredients missing was that love and the deeper follow up on what we committed them to. We have been doing that for like 2 weeks now. It was horrible seeing our area and investigators sliding down and getting lost. It's like we were doing "the dance steps but we weren't feeling the music" and they couldn't either.

It continued even after we started to emphasize those things, but that all changed yesterday. =p

We have a investigator who has basically had the gates of hell open to try to get him. Love of his life who he had been married to for 40 years divorced him is forcing them to sell their beautiful house, he got in a car accident, health... We found him at a all time low and he had no faith that there was a God he didn't believe that a loving heavenly father would allow this garbage to happen. He was ticked at the world. Super busy and stressed with work and the divorce. 

One day we came over when he was thinking the end of life, for him and his technical "wife". If you know what I mean, we were prompted to go there without knowing it. the spirit calmed him and that didn't happen. We are the only church people he can even stand to be around. And to us it seems like we have been beating a dead horse for a while. But we kept going over because He wanted faith he wanted that light he saw in us (he still does). 

Finally he broke and kept a commitment and listened to the book of Mormon. And with out telling us has been listening to it every day while he works out. He argued and yelled when ever we would ask him to pray. But this week was a stormy week. And one of the days was really bad! It was pouring rain hard. He prayed to know If "Elder Crockett was a sign" sent from him (since I have been in every lesson with him while my companions have shifted around from trade offs). A while later he heard a loud thump on his window. He looked out to see a blood stain on the window and a small song bird lying dead. It tried to get out of the rain quickly and hit his window. He sat there and cried as the bird lied motionless on his porch. 

It really carved into his heart and he prayed for the bird (he later told us he would have never done that EVER if it wasn't for us continuing to come back and loving him) And he prayed that the pretty little song bird would be able to sing again for some one. A half hour passed and the bird still lay motionless on the porch now with a empty bladder in the same position. It Wrenched his soul to see it dead. He prayed again and he prayed like I do "dear heavenly father" and when he closed in the name of Jesus Christ, he saw the tail twitch and the head snap up and quickly it darted out of the weather into the trees.=p

We met with him yesterday and he told me I know God lives =p, he said he wouldn't convert that easily but that is a huge leap forward! And really that is why I am out here that very specific reason because I know God lives and loves me and I want other people to feel that joy and experience that through the True Gospel of Jesus Christ that was restored. That was super fulfilling especially after the garbage we've been getting!

Well I'm off to go play some Jesus ball!

Bye I love you have a good day!

Don't get Shot!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

NNIGGHTTT EEEEYYYYYEEEEEE!!!

 

 

Oh man it was healthy to hear from all of you! thank you! Ella I am so excited about your MMA training I don't even know what gym your at or how many people you are training with (which is important, because of the quality of the learning is effected accordingly). Do they teach you submissions or are they teaching you just the stand up and when grappling the ground and pound style? Oh man you better learn quick because I really get neglected out here because no one wants to fight me =(. I even brought my mouth guard and boxing raps...

I am not going to lie this week was a week... Our teaching pool took a beating, all of our lessons canceled on us before we could teach any one. All we really had to do was pound the pavement and pound the doors. Door knockin for days! And all we really got was a few potentials, but some seem promising. All of our lessons but 2 was from door knocking I really could leave it at that for this week.

While we were out door knocking we walked by a ice cream joint and you are only in Michigan once, YOMO you know so we got some Ice cream and tried to fellow ship with a lot of people. Man it was so funny this lady keep looking over her shoulder to see us and was super obvious about it and before we walked away to keep knockin she came up and she ITL'd us! (invitation to learn) She gave us a business card that had a picture of her and her information and said she would love to see us at a certain coffee shop. It was so funny! But she obviously didn't want to learn about the gospel so, I don't think she intends for us to teach her a lesson at the coffee shop so we didn't commit to anything.

But it's so cool now because Elder Hartley basically understands how to create a need while trying to find people to teach and so I have been working on things like bearing testimony and discerning their real need instead of talking the whole time to find it. We sent out like 3 referrals this week from it.

So that little taste of me riding bikes was awesome and we both have been dying to ride some more but we didn't want to have to ride the same ones that we borrowed last time. So we talked to the ward mission leader and he knew just the place to go. We got permission to go and so we went over to MSU campus and went to the MSU surplus store! It was freaking number one! It was like GoodWill on steroids! They had all of this Lab equipment that was out dated for sale, they had loads of computers for cheep, they had a billion and a half mini fridges and chairs, foot ball jerseys and pants, But the part we went there for was the fact that every bike that gets left locked to something way to long gets it's lock cut and they sell the bikes there. There was a lot of Gander bikes that was eaten away by rust and the chains were frozen solid by it. But it was sweet! I got a mountain bike my size with new breaks front and back, all of the gears work, it has a big seat way comfier than our tandem bike seats (and those are good), it had a water bottle holder, both tubes were good, and it wasn't even rusty. All for 25 bucks! UMMMM YES PLEASE!!! Church is true with a find like that! My companion got this sweet oldschool road bike that has front and back head lights and had a generator on the bike that you could flip on so when you spin your wheels it powers the lights! perfect condition and all gears work, bottle holder, and switches all gears. The only thing with that one was one of the tubes were popped, but that's a small price to pay for only 60 bucks for the thin! We are so excited to go ride our bikes! I even scored a bike lock recently after a member said if I could pick it I could have it, 2 minutes later it went in the satchel =p.

Our apartment complex has been infested by ear wigs, spiders, and occasionally Ants of unusual sizes! It is so gross! And because of the dire circumstances there arose a need for a hero to rise up, I am not the Hero Holt needs, but the one it deserves (I forget how batman says it). I have taken to grabbing my PVC pipe and nerf darts to fend off the terrorist attacks. After one is spotted there is normally a sudden shriek "NIIIIIIIIGHT EEEEEEEEEEEYYYEEE!!!!!"  which is normally followed by the spraying of honey nut gas (freeze) and a endless barrage of nerf darts until we have a confirmed kill and several tries of running/ jump/ dive shots. I have just started to film the combat situations, I wish I had thought of it before, I already have like 13+ tallies on the blow gun and I only started counting yesterday.

 

Well were off to go play some ultimate Frisbee,

we'll catch you later

Bye I love you have a good day

Don't get shot!

NIIIIIIIIGHT EEEEEEEEEEEYYYEEE!!!!!

--

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett

The Adventure of Service

How do you fix the bindings on books? My quad is starting to not stick to the glue of the binding and it's really sad! I want that to be in the best condition it can be in because that thing is a major tool and I want it to last forever.

That's So cool that Sterling Pendleton is going to Argentina on his mission! I love that kid so much and wish him well on his adventure of service. 

So I was making German pancakes, mixed it up , popped it in the oven and stared at a cook book while it was going until we both heard a loud buzzing sound start to happen. We stood up puzzled not knowing what it was from. We opened to see the element of the oven (now broken) Welding it's self to the bottom of the stove... those pancakes could have used like 1 minute more! 1 minute! ugh my life is so hard. We ate them anyways =p. It was really cool though I haven't been flashed by the light of weld in ages, that Melting metal, mmmmmmmhhhhhhhnn smelt so good! It was healthy for me. 

We got a new rule in our mission this week. We are required to Door knock or Pc for 3 hours every day. My new companion was no too happy about that because he has never seen any thing good come from it yet. It's because we have been so busy we haven't really had much time to go and door knock and there is never any one to Pc walking around. So we planned it out and in my prayers at night I really pleaded that we would have a really good fun time door knocking and that we would see several miracles when we did it. And it happened =p. Elder H now is super pumped and excited to go door knocking again he loved getting into some ones house and helping them feel the spirit and picking them up as a investigator. And since he likes to do it now he is involved a lot more in it all which helps us out a lot! I am excited to do some knockin!

I was getting my camera out to take a picture and while the lens was coming out it hit a book and said lens error and then wouldn't go back in the camera. It took me like 30 times of turning the camera on and off to get it back in. and since then it does this weird clicking every time it gets to that point that it used to be stuck at and doesn't work some times. it makes it hard to get a good pokemon snap on occasion. 

Speaking of bad things that has happened to my camera I guess this is a really important part of this week. I had a baptism this week! In fact I was the one who performed it! I baptized her on June 13th. She is in a partmember / less active member family and because of us teaching her it has been reactivating her whole family. 

 

It is super cool to talk to them all because you could see the spirit working on them all as she has been wanting them to read scriptures with her, and take her to church. I really wanted her father to baptize her but he asked if I would since he has loads of things happening in his life and wanted the ordinance to be perfect and didn't want to be doing it if he wasn't worthy. We had lot going on that morning! We got  asked to give a blessing and they were coming like 15 minutes before the event started. 

 

The mission President and the Ap's were there too, there hasn't been a convert baptism in Holt for almost a year and a half. We quickly got in some pictures before the event started. I totally forgot to take off my name tag for the baptism. I also forgot to take my camera out of my pants pocket... But it's all good because I am a Giant and it was just splashed a little. Oh but that baptism was number one! we had several non members come and because of that we will be teaching her Aunts kids. 

 

Her Aunt hasn't been to church in years but went there and felt the spirit and felt really bad and asked bishop and my companion for a blessing (I was talking to every less active and nonmember there and inviting them to learn). And after that she wanted her children to have the gospel in their lives, she talked about her seeing the world in a downhill spiral and doesn't want her kids to be like that any more (bus driver for public schools). I also got the girl's Uncle's girlfriend to accept missionaries to teach them up in Cadillac. It was also cool because the Mission President was working on several people there as well. He made sure to come and report to me before he left what he talked about and what he did. By the end of the day I had several referrals to give out and every single one went to people who were in my MTC district so it was way healthy being able to talk to them!    

That was cool though because I have never seen any of my converts get baptized yet. And that is the first not in proxy baptism that I have done.

But I knew Bad was just around the corner because that much good never happens without some serious "persecution points"  coming. We got home from the baptism and immediately we got a call from our Investigator who is on date to be baptized next Saturday and of course the garbage came...  He told me that him and his wife argued over the law of tithing and that he wasn't going to be baptized and there is no way he can "pay $300 a week for tithing" I talked to him and told him that I am almost certain that math is wrong (he's old and forgets things sometimes) and got him to not drop us entirely. 

 

We are going over later this week so we have really been praying for a good miracle to sort this out so he can be baptized. And it has to be this week end because he will be having surgery on his cancer and will be bed ridden for 3 weeks after. So we are a little excited to see if we get him to make it! We have already been dropped by a investigator who was preparing for baptism this month and I don't want it to happen again!

Well I am off

Bye I love you!

Have a good day!

Don't get shot!

 Elder Truman Rex Crockett