Elder Kody J. Crook: June 2012

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Leaving for Colombia - July 3

Kody will be leaving for the Colombia MTC on Tuesday, July 3. If you wish to write to him while he is there, his address will be:

Elder Kody Crook
Colombia MTC
Carrera 45 #57 B-26
Barrio Nicolas de Federman
Bogota'
Colombia

June 27, 2012

Way to go little sis!! you've done a pretty good job this year in school! Thanks so much for e-mailing me and telling me about how your doing. Elder Albrecht is a big track guy so he was way jealous to hear you were at the olympic trails. I love you a lot and hope you are having a great summer so far. haha so last thursday I got a letter from my boy Elder Kilts, it was 2 pages front and back. All my roommates have girlfriends they write so when they saw the handwritten letter they all jumped on me and were like" Thats from a girl Elder! you've been holding out on us......then I was like "This is way better, this is bromance lol" anyways he gave me a lot of good pointers and tips and he's doing so great in Guatemala.

So we also got our travel plans to bogota and that was a great night! we were all slapping alto cincos (high fives for you gringos out there) and were so exited to get to the mtc in Colombia. Then it was mission presidents week were all the new ones get trained so Elder albrect rezendes and I got to meet pres. and Sister ANdelin. They said that we are the second group of Gringos ever to go to the Bogota CCM and that it holds a max capacity of 40 people. I don't know what to expect but boy am I exited! Pres. Andelin is like some real estate tycoon/ computer company owner and has a 15000 acre ranch in Idaho as well as houses in Hawaii, California, utah, and Idaho. They just got done serving a mission in Chile and are really cool people. They each greeted us with handshakes and hugs, it made my day.

So Dad I know you like to hear some funnies about Mtc life and this week has pretty much been full of them, so I'll give them in chronological order. Last Friday I was walking up the five flights of stairs to get to class, my whole district was behing me and I was just marching up those stairs like a fearless leader. Then all the sudden the Star Wars theme song popped into my head, so I started humming the humming gradually got louder until i was going BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM all while keeping my knees high marching up the starirs. As I rounded the corner to the last flight, there were 2 companionships of hermanas on the landing and one of them was sitting on the stairs. I did'nt notice them till Iwas about 4 stairs from the top when I stopped and was embarrassed for a split second. Then it croossed my mind that I am not here to woo any hermanas so I just said "hola hermana's" and proceeded to keep singing and marching. My whole district saw this and still make fun of me because it was pretty darn funny. Then on Sunday I was walking back from our weekly temple walk and a little girls dad asked me if I would shake his daughters hand because she alwasy has wanted to shake the hand of a "real" missionary, so I bent down and shook this super cute little girls hand, I could tell she was embarrassed but it just filled me with the spirit to know that I am actually a "real" missionary and little kids notice that. Then in our weekly sunday devotional I fell asleep because they won't let elders take their suit jackets off and it was really hot. So while I was asleep I drooled all over my tie. It looked so gross and when I woke up, they told the Elders to feel free to take their jackets off. I was like oh great who do I want to be, the retard who drooled on his tie or the only one who still has his suit jacket on. I kept my jacket on and stuck out like a sore thumb. Also Elder Albrecht and I have come up with a new word, BUNGHOLIO. I'm sure none of you think it's funny but when you've been cooped up in here anything out of the ordinary is funny. So we both say it to each other at awkward times and it's pretty funny. Elder Albrecht and I are also making a missionary rap cause he's good at beatboxing and i'm sorta good at ryming lol.

Alright, that's wnough of the funny stuff but I will try my hardest to call on fri night, I'm gonna leave some extra time on my e-mail so I can e-mail you guys tomorra night or fri to tell you if I can and when. I love you guys so much and love the gospel as well, I recieved you're package as well as letters and cards from Pallos, Andreasons, and Grandma Geddes. Thank you all for you've loving support!!

-Elder Crook

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

First P-Day

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their support. The days are long and hard here at the MTC and it's great to just unwind and read letters that were sent to me. So thank you mom, dad, Shay, Cindi, Lexi, and both sets of grandparents for showing me so much love. Well I've hardly had time to think about anything else other than spanish and the gospel for the first few days here. Wednesday night we learned how to pray in Spanish and we taught our first lesson thursday night. It was so stressful and I was nervous because this is the gospel we're teaching here! But it was amazing because before Elder Hill ( mi companero)and I went in to teach we offered up a prayer for the spirit to be with us and it was. I was blessed with almost total recall of the limited information that was taught to me, I have never EVER been able to do that before and so I know that the spirit was helping me and I'm not just all the sudden super smart. Since then we have taught 2 more lessons and they have gotten progresivley better.

My companion and roommates are all going to Colombia and we've met 2 others that are headed there as well but no others, no that puts us at 6 missionaries repoting to Colombia if all goes well with our visas. I've really bonded with my district and one kid named elder hancock. He's kinda chunky and we have to walk up 5 flights of stairs for class and yesterday he got to the middle and yelled Ayudame Dios Ayudame! (help me God help me). He loves the buffet meals and makes a point to drink like 3 glasses of chocolate milk every meal. Personally I love the food here. I sneak cookies in my pockets for later and a couple of times we've even had a NACHO bar, which you all know I love. Our district has a thing for mixing drinks cause theres like 20 different juices here and so far we have hulk sweat (blue powerade and Orange Fanta0 bubblegum(fresca a shot of rootbeer and orange strawberry bannana) and shirley temple (Fresca and Cranberry juice) I made shirley temple and it's gooood.

Dad how was your ride to reedsport and how was mom and shays half marathon? Shay! how did school end? I'm dying to hear! Tell me everything you've been up too.

The gym here sucks, it's only dumbells and my dumbell roommates just like to write their girlfriends on P day. So I went on an exchange with Elder Mortenson from Rexburg and worked out. He has a new 450 to ride the dunes with.

Guys I'm just doing great here, I'm meant to be here and I've never been happier because I've never felt the spirit this close to me. Remember when I told you about me Colton and Kelton Snowboarding the last run with our shirts of in 14 degree weather!? I feel like thats how the mission will be. At the bottom of the lift I was freezing and didn't think I could do it, and once the lift started to move it seemed like forever (like the MTC) sometimes it would even stop and I would be so cold, but once I got to the top and boarded down it was awesome, I wasn't cold and it was over like that. I don't know when I'll reach the top of the lift on my mission, but I sure am enjoying the ride up!

Love,

Elder Crook