Monday, January 30, 2017

January 30th, 2017

Hello everybody,

This week was pretty awesome. A lot of pretty sick things happened. First off we had our Conference with Elder Cook which was probably the best part of the week. We also had a worldwide broadcast with all the missionaries and the changed a lot of things for the mission. We also had a bunch of really good citas and we have a baptism for this next Saturday, so it was a pretty packed week.

The Conference with Elder Cook was pretty cool. He didn't really talk much about anything in specific but he did share a few stories and answered a few questions. What he did share was from D&C 31. He talked about the importance of the Spirit and in verse 7 it says 7 Yea, I will open the hearts of the people, and they will receive you. And I will establish a church by your hand. He made it clear that if we do what we need to and we are worthy that He will open the hearts of the people but that we would be the tools in the Lords hands. He told us that we were the ones chose to establish the Church as missionaries. That was really good, but i think the best part of what he said was at the end Elder Cook said, "I decided that I'm going to be more specific with you guys about my testimony of the Savior. I know that He lives, I know the Savior's voice, and I know His face, and I am a witness of His divinity." I felt the Spirit in that moment stronger than I think I ever have in my entire life, It really confirmed my testimony that this is the only true church on earth. I am grateful for the opportunity to shake the hand of an Apostle and to hear his sure testimony of Jesus Christ.

The baptism we have this week is a guy named Daniel Paz. He is super cool. He just moved here from another ward where he was receiving the lessons but he lacked a few things. He is super excited for Saturday. He has changed a lot of things to be a part of the church and he has a strong testimony too that this is the true church.
That's about it for this week. I hope you all have a sick week.
Love Elder Crisp
(random pictures of my area)


Monday, January 23, 2017

January 23rd, 2017

Buenos dìas Familia,

This week was pretty crazy. I got transferred again and i am no longer training. My new area is Valle Sanchez and my new comp is Elder Aguilar from El Salvador. I'm pretty pumped for this new area. It's a little Branch like an hour and a half outside the city. So far the branch is pretty cool, its a little bit different but its cool. There not even a chapel here, its just a house they rent. But there is a lot of support from the members.

This week there was a baptism too of a girl named Emma, ill send fotos of that so you can see. Other than that I'm just kind of getting to know the area and the people here so there's not much to share.
I was reading the Liahona from January and I like the message from Dieter F Uchtdorf about the bow and arrow. "As Church members, we sometimes have a tendency to attach ourselves to gospel programs, issues, and even doctrines that seem interesting, important, or enjoyable to us. We are tempted to draw targets around them, making us believe we are aiming at the center of the gospel..." He then shares the scriptures where Jesus talks about the 2 great commandments and that all the other commandments fall beneath those 2. It made me think that if we really love God and we want to show that love, we aren't going to pick and choose what commandments we do and don't want to keep. And as a missionary that happens a lot. There's rules that "don't make sense" or things like that but as we always say we have to obedient with exactness. It applies for everyone hahaha. 

That's it for this week. I love you all. Have a good week.

Elder Crisp

Monday, January 16, 2017

January 16, 2017

Hola,

This week just flew by. We didn't really get that much time to work this week because we had interviews with President and a few other things to do outside our area but it was still a good week. We had a few really good citas with less actives this week, because there's more of them then there are investigators here. There is one named Jorge Fernandez. Hes been a member for like 45 years but he is the only members of his family. None of his kids want to listen and hes basically alone, but we passed by his house and as usual he was busy. They were getting ready to sell food, cuz they have like restaurants in their driveways here. Instead of teaching him we offered to help him clean some stuff and get it all ready and he accepted. The other elders her told us he hasn't gone in 3 or 4 months but he went yesterday. He seemed super happy too. He was talking with all the members and it was really cool. We also visited the other Jorge, whose 16, we talked with him and offered to pass by in the morning to go to church together but he was sleeping and he didn't want to go. 

Today i was reading in Alma 13, the chapter that says that the time to repent is now. There was one verse that stuck out to me, the 29: 29 Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.

I think of it as a reminder of what we should strive for. To have Faith,Hope and Love. But i like that the hope is for eternal life because that the goal we should all have and strive to fulfill, and sadly there are a lot of people and members that forget that, they look for temporal things and forget what they need to do to have eternal life. And its a lot easier to have that hope if we really love God, like that talk from Elder Holland said.

We found out this week too that Quentin L Cook is coming here the 28th of Jan, so im pretty pumped for that. We haven't really had any kind of visit from anyone in all my time here so its should be pretty cool.

Have a good week everyboday. I love you all.
Elder Crisp

Monday, January 9, 2017

January 9th, 2017

Hola,

This week was pretty good. Its still been a bit rough finding people to teach here but were working hard. We had a visit with an investigator named Jose Alfredo. He is pretty cool. We taught him about the Book of Mormon yesterday and he accepted to read it. He is pretty catholic so he always asks us "Where does it say that in the Bible." But we explained the BofM and that it helps us to understand even better all that and he accepted it. It was a really good visit. Other than that this week we visited a few less-actives and had some good visits with them. 

This week i was listening to a talk by Elder Holland that I loved from Oct 2014. Its the one where Jesus is talking to Peter after he is resurrected. It puts the conversation in his own words. He says, “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.”

I love this because the Lord asks us to do the same. He asks us to truly love him and do the work His Father sent him to do. The message we have is the most important thing we have and we need to share it. And we need to be willing to defend it even they do to us what they did to Him. I love that talk a lot.

Hope you all have a sick week and that you're all ahappy. 

Elder Crisp

Monday, January 2, 2017

January 2nd, 2017

What's up everybody,

This week was pretty interesting. There wasn't too much work this week for New Years and all that but we did have a pretty sick week. We were able to have a few good citas with some less active members. There is one that we visited named Jorge. He is 16 and he is the only member of his family. He mentioned to us that his family is not very supportive and that they didn't really want him to go to church. So he lost his motivation to go to church. But we were able to help him a little bit and he told us that he was going to start reading and praying and that he is going to go to church this week.

There is an investigator that we are teaching too. His name is Gerardo. He is a security guard for a company and hes always there and theres always time to teach him. His son is a member and he told us that he was intrested in learning more. We taught a few times and taught him about the restoration. He said he was going to read and pray about the BofM. He told us too that he has had problems with drinking and something they do here is chew on coca leaves. He said that in these past few weeks that when he goes to drink or chew he feels like he has to throw up. Its defintly a sign that he has been prepared.

I'm super excited for this new year. 2016 went by so fast and I'm so grateful for all the things I've been able to experience here. For all the things I've learned and the people I've been able to teach. I'm pumped to be able to work more and to keep learning about the Gospel and to help other to do the same. Hope you all had a good weekend and that you can have a sick 2017.


(this is what we had for New Years)