March 14th, 2016

Hola everybody.

This week again was a little bit slow. We didnt have too much visits with investigators but we did meet one new guy. Hes a brazillian that here studying. Hes super cool. He speaks perfect english which is cool because yhe asked me to pray in English which was the first time ive prayed in English outloud in my mission. He also has two FatHeads of Kobe and LeBron in his room and he was wearing a Lebron jersey so he obviously knows whats up. And hes also really cool because hes super prepared to listen. We talked for a little and he told us about how his mom died and how he was never going to see her again. We taught about the PoS and how he would see his mom again and he was super excited for us to come back. Im pretty excited to teach him.

We also taught Victor and Vilma again yesterday about the BoM and we answered a lot of their questions about it and they said they are really excited to get baptized.

This week we also visited the Flia Saucedo, less-actives, and they went to church again. And the son, Antonio is teaching the Young Men Tae Kwon Do for a Talent Show in the barrio. They are progressing really well and im super excited for them too.

Anyway that was basically it for this week. Hope you all have a good week.

Elder Crisp

March 7th, 2016

Hola everybody,

This week was pretty chill. We didn't have to many citas [appointments] and we didn't meet any new investigators so it was a little rough but were still working. Victor and Vilma, were able to go to a baptism this week of a girl in the ward though. And they said they were excited for their baptism. They are reading the Book of Mormon together and they also said that its bonita [beautiful], so i'm excited for that .

Today is exactly 6 months that I left on my mission. Its absolutely insane how fast itsd gone by, and even though is only been 6 months, I've still learned a ton about this Gospel and my testimonio is 50 times bigger than before i left. And i know that in the next 18 months i still have a lot more stuff to learn and I'm pumped to be able to do that. 

Yesterday we had the opportunity to to visit a family in the ward that went through something really hard. The dad of this family was accused of robbing and beating someone in a park that he was never even been in and they put him in jail for a month and basically took away everything he had. This guy is like 60 years old and is literally the nicest person i have ever met. And after he got out of jail he couldn't do anything. He couldn't leave his house alone and he had to be in his house at 6pm or they put him back in jail. The cool thing about the visit that we had was that we were contacting and we knocked on their without knowing that they lived there. We shared a couple scriptures with them and they thanked us for everything and told us that that visit was exactly what they needed. Experiences like that are what make it exciting to be a missionary. That we can have such a big impact on people. Its super cool. 

Anyway that's about it for this week. Love you all and hope you have a good week.

Elder Crisp

February 29th, 2016

First off we got our cambios [transfers] on Tuesday night, and im staying here again with Elder Vallejo. Im excited to be here again because we got a lot of new investigators and Victor and his mom are getting baptized so i wanted to be here for that. This week was pretty chill. We visited Victor and Vilma yesterday and we talked about the Book of Mormon. It was really surprised me when Victor said " I know this church is true because ive been reading the Book of Mormon and i feel in my heart that its right." Thats was pretty sweet to hear. Im so pumped for them to get baptized.

I dont know if ive mentioned Gustavo in any of my letters, but he was a contact from the first week of the last cambio. He was super interested but we thought that he didnt live in our area so we gave a reference to the elderes of the area we thought he was in. But we found a 2 weeks ago that he actually lived in our area, so we went and visited him a couple times and found out that he had some crazy beliefs about God and all that stuff and he was basically just trying to "fight" with us about it all, but our last visit that we had this week was different. He had a lot of questions about profetas and apostles and after the lessons was excited for us to come back again. Im excited to see how he progresses.
Also, the Saucedo family, the less actives that lived in Spain, 

went to church yesterday for the first time in more than a year i think. They are going to start going every week which is sweet and they are starting to read and pray as a family everyday, so thats sweet too. 

Thats it for this week. Not much else happened. But hope you all have a good week.

Love Elder Crisp

February 22nd, 2016

So this week was pretty weird. It started off normal. We had a cita with Joice and Guizy, the brazilians, which was good. We taght the Plan of Salvation becasue they had a lot off questions about it and they seemed to accept it. After the lesson they didnt really have anymore questions so thats good.

We also had a cita with Victor and his mom, Vilma. That went really weel. Victor already accepted a date and his mom accepted the 19 of March. They also both started reading the Book of Mormon and said that they really liked and that they would keep reading. Im pumped at how fast tyhey are progressing.

So that was the normal part of the week but on Friday during our studies the ZLs called and told us that we couldnt leave Friday, Saturday, or Sunday because Sunday was Elections here for President. There was a huge riot in La Paz, and 7 people died so they thought it would be better to just stay in. So we were locked up for another 3 days. Thats 6 days in 2 weeks that we didnt work. And we did lose out on lessons with our investigators.

Also this week is cambios [transfers] and im pretty sure ill be leaving this area. Its not forsure but im pretty sure. Im kind of bummed because we met a lot of new investigators and Victor and Vilma have their baptism set for next cambio [transfer] but i guess thats how the mission is.

I was reading in Alma today and read this scripture: 

27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bea rwith patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

It wasnt until Ammon couldnt go anymore, when he was about to give up that the Lord gave him counsel and told him what he should do. Sometimes we feel the same, like theres nothing more we can do, but like Ammon the Lord will always give us the counsel we need, maybe not when we want it, but when he feels we need it most.

Thats all i got for this week. Hope you all have a good week. Sorry, I dont have any pictures. 

Love Elder Crisp

February 15th, 2016

This week was pretty great. We started locked up for 3 days. It was probably the longest 3 days of my mission so far. We did get to go to church in the morning on Sunday but after that we had to stay in. Apparently the Bolivian people take this "holiday" a lot more seriously than any other country. What they do is fill balloons with water and paint and throw them at people. Thats the normal thing that every country does. But the people here fill them with car oil and other crazy stuff and throw at people. And theyll throw them at anyone. They threw a bunch of balloons at our pension who had her 11 month old baby in her arms. Its pretty insane here.

The rest of the week was pretty cool. On Saturday we had a Multi-Zone Conference which was pretty sick. And we also had 5 investigators go to church this week. Guizy and Joizy are the 2 brazilians investigators we had. Couple weeks ago i had to go to immigrations to do my paperwork for bolivia. And when were there were there for like 6-7 hours. And i was sitting there with one of the Elders From my group. And we started talking to a girl and here sister that were also doing their paperwork. We started talking about the gospel and asked where they lived. They told us that they lived super far, but where they lived was my area. So we visited them a couple times this week and they went to church.

Another contact, Victor and his mom, went to church too. They both accepted March 5th to be baptized so im pumped for them. And the other is a man named Tomas. He hasnt acepted a date but were going to teach him tonight and leave him a date too.

If there was a theme for this week it would probably be Prayer. I studied a lot about pryer for those 3 days and also in the Conference, President talked a lot about it. I like these verses in Alma 37:


36 Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. 

37 Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day. 

If we counsel in God for support in everything we do, he will direct to do good in everything. He will always help us to make good decisions and if we are willing to follow the counsels we receive we will always be blessed. That was my little spiritual thought for this week. This week was pretty sweet. Hope you all have a good week. 

Elder Crisp 

This is the view from our roof. And this is basically all I ate during Carnaval.

February 6th, 2016

So, i lied about having P-day next wednesday. They told us on thursday that we would only be able write today. So we wont have a pday until next next monday. No much happened this week. We had a couple citas with 2 Brazilian families and both of them are really cool. Its pretty difficult to teach them because they dont speak very much spanish and i cant really understand what they are saying half the time but they are really cool families. We also had interviews this week with President which is always exciting. And we got some sad news that Elder Vallejo is going to have to change missions because his Dad is going to be the new president. He had a phone conference with the Area Seventy and our mission president, He still doesnt know where hes going but hell find out this week.

Im excited to be locked up for 3 days. Im going to have a lot of time to study and do all that good stuff so its not that bad. Anyway,hope you all have a good week. And dont worry if you dont email me back today i completly understand it like 730 on a saturday. haha

Love Elder Crisp

February 1st, 2016

So this week was pretty fun. I had another ingrown toe nail, but this time we went to the hospital and they took the whole nail off. It was really fun. Yeah i couldnt really walk very much for a couple days so we missed out on some lessons. We still had some good lessons though. We met a lot of new people this week and we have 3-4 that are really interested to learn more. Im excited that were starting to get more lessons. My first 2 cambios we reallt didnt have to much success with finding new people to teach, but this cambio weve got a lot of nuevos.

On wednesday there was a world-wide missionary training. Its was a broadcast from Elder Bednar and Elder oaks about how we can be better missionaries. It was really good. They talked about the principles of the First 12 Weeks book that they6 give you.

This week is Carnaval and we are going to be locked up for 4 days not 3. From Saturday to Tuesday, which means that our Pday next week will be Wednesday. I honestly not too excited about be locked up with 3 latinos but i guess ill have to deal with it.

Thats about it for this week. I hope you all have a good week.
Love Elder Crisp