3rd place at State!....Way to Go!

Alright well I don´t really think about home during the week but man Friday and Saturday night came around and I was just itching to know how Shay did. I almost couldn´t take it at night when we have a little bit of free time to eat something and to shower and stuff and to write in my journal (yes I´m still juicioso at writing in the good ol journal.) So when Monday came around I was just so excited to print out your letters and read that Shay once again kicked some major butt. Anyways it was so awesome to hear how great you did Shay!!! 3rd at 5a state:) Remember last year when we went to Baja Fresh afterwards with Frank? That was fun wasn´t it. I can remember telling you that you were running like a 10:44 and that if you could shave 20 seconds off this year and then 20 seconds off your senior year you´d be running with the best of em. Well if I remember correct you shaved just about 20 seconds off of your time at state last year!!! So hopefully this next year you can do just around the same and run like a 10:02 or a 10:05 no? That would be super awesome right!!!! Well love you lots, now take a break for a few weeks and let those legs and knees rest. I´m sure proud of you:) And I think it would be freaking awesome too if you became a Banana Slug.  Those things are pretty cool right although they would dry up and die in those nice California winters.....hmmmmm something to think about. I know that you have your mind set on BYU but expand it a little!

Alright so it was Mothers Day this Sunday and the whole town just went crazy. Saturday night there was music bumping really hard on seriously every corner. We woke up at 6:30 and it was still going!! and the people were STILLL drinking lol. But we had a good turn out at church and some really nice messages for all the moms. Then afterwards we went to the BEST LUNCH IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. There’s a hermano here that absolutely loves his wife. He made seriously like 50 steaks!!! for the whole family and for us. So they brought me my plate and I had 2 huge steaks that covered more than half the plate with salad, potatoes and guacamole (everyone has guacamole with their baked potatoes) then he said ¨Elders Don´t feel ashamed to eat the meat with your hands¨ that was all he needed to say, I went to town on those 2 steaks!! Man they were soooooo good and I honestly had forgotten how much I love meat lol. So then I get done, and the hermano says to me ¨those first two pieces looked like they were kinda tough, here’s 2 more¨ so he gave me 2 more huge steaks and honestly I did not even feel at all full, man I just devoured those things then took my plate to the kitchen to wash it and my hands. Then one of the sons whose a return missionary said ¨hey look man I got way to fat on my mission and I can´t eat my second steak¨ so he gave me another piece and tried to start talking to me in English and said es que, tengo muchos fatties! Haha that was super funny and I almost choked on the meat! Honestly I have never been more satisfied in my life! It was awesome, and I´m not exaggerating. I had 5 pieces of manly meat!! Then we shared a message about Mothers Day and one of the other return missionaries asked me one thing that I missed about my mom.  I had to respond right on the spot that the first thing that popped into my head was your Sunday walks that you´d always go on. I would never go because I was too busy watching tv or just doing something better ya know. So I told them about that, that mom would always ask me to go on walks with you guys and I never hardly went and that if I had the chance to go on a walk with her right now I just wouldn´t know what to do I´d be so happy.

Well my time is running out but I want to tell you a funny story to end. So we had an activity in the other ward here, they asked us to come especially because no one from their ward knows my new companion (Elder Carballo) so we went and they had Elder Carballo dress up as a bum and sit on the sidewalk outside of the church and ask for money. They were holding an activity about the Good Samaritan. So everyone walked in not even paying attention to him or the little kids would make fun of him lol. Then they all went to the chapel and the other missionaries gave me a signal and I gave the bum,  Carballo, a signal and he walked in the chapel and started asking for money!!!! One hermano almost kicked him out cause he thought he was drunk! then he went over and started asking for some of the refreshments!!! All this time I was sitting in the back laughing my butt off watching my shy, timid companion be the bum lol. It was awesome and at the end, all  the missionaries  sang “A Poor Wayfaring man of Grief “ and he came up and sang with us. He started to sing and take of his bum clothes and had his missionary clothes underneath. It was all good till he got to the pants,It was so funny watching him take off his pants in front of like 40 people. It was an awesome activity and I was really surprised to see my comp come out of his shell. I couldn´t have done it, I would have just started to laugh too hard and give it away. 

Alright well I sure love all of you°!!!!!! the pic is of our district:) LOVE YOU ALLLLL AND WAY TO GOOOOOOO SHAY SHAY:)

Elder Crook

Wasn't it just Homecoming?

Dangit Shay!!!! You are such a freaking STUD!!!! There’s only 4 letters to describe Shay S.T.U.D. Haha when you look for stud in the dictionary, Shaylen’s picture is right there next to a skinny tall Ethiopian man who runs the mile in 2 minutes! haha honestly Shay’s letters this week were the best! and the pics! I love the pics! Well we just have got a few more days till the big ol state meet (not me, unfortunately I won´t  know until NEXT MONDAY!) but that’s alright!  I know that Shay is a Stud and kicks the crap out of people. WAY TO GO SHAY!!! And honestly, I can still remember so clear, sitting in Bogota after homecoming weekend getting to the bottom and seeing Shay, wondering if I was actually looking at my sister, and just sitting dumbfounded looking at the pictures. Today I prepared myself mentally a bit and enjoyed looking at all the pictures that were sent to me. Sounds like it was a great week! 

Well my week also was pretty great! We had 2 count em 2 baptisms that turned out really well. The hermana is just so awesome! She has a testimony of the church and has felt a change in her life for the better. I felt the spirit so strong when she was bearing her testimony afterwards.  It was just great. Also we baptized her son that is 10 years old, and after he got baptized started swimming in the font! My companion drug him out of the water but not before the bishop opened the curtain things and said ¨What is going on in here!¨ haha I was laughing so hard, but trying to be reverent, Then I went and gave a hermano the movie to watch in between while we got dressed and little Carlitos went back and jumped in the font again! He was so happy and content in that water lol. I drug him out and shoved him in the dressing room with his mom and made sure he didn’t escape again to swim, all the while just laughing quietly to myself. 

Well we also moved houses this last week and it is really awesome to live in the heart of our area, I feel integrated with the people lol like I´m just one of the vecinos or just another peep living in Cucuta. Except we didn’t have a fridge for like almost a week, and we don’t have an oven or even a stovetop to cook eggs on. So I´m just pretty much breadin it. Or I make meat, bread and cheese sandwiches lol. But so it´s pretty empty lol, just basically our beds and study tables and 2 chairs lol. But It´s been good, I´m gettin along great with my comp, he´s really just pretty easy going and still kinda shy but we´re workin on that. I have slowed down a ton, and we are studying like crazy!!! So I´m doing great as well!

Pa, it´s like 300 pesos to print out a sheet of paper so just go for it and send me those talks, after a while printing things out does get expensive but for the material that you are giving me it´s worth it. Also the object lessons are going great! I have so far done the cup one that mom sent on the restoration and the atonement one with the food coloring and bleach. That is super cool for people of all ages! The cup one too, it´s just like an easier way for the people to understand which is pretty much our purpose. Oh and mom, that’s pretty cool that you are still running a crap ton of miles! Good luck with the marathon and thanks again for those other lessons you sent me. Oh and Melanie, I can only get online to view my e-mail and can´t really go to your sight even if it is for the lesson things. But thank you and maybe you can send me one directly to the e-mail. I sure love you guys sooooooooo sooooooo much and hope that all goes well this week.......AT............STATE!!!!! KICK BUTT SHAY!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-Elder Crook

My One Hour of Heaven

Well I sure enjoyed talking to you guys yesterday. I am so thankful that everyone is alright and doing great back home, and I agree with Pa that this is going to be an interesting next year that I too don`t want to go fast or slow haha.  So we`ll have to just take it one day at a time and enjoy every bit of it. So honestly it`s hard for me to even think that we even called last night just cause it passed by so darn fast. It is just so weird sometimes because I just get in such a routine of working all week reading and writing you guys then going back to work. Haha afterwards I realized that my parents and sister are more than just words on the page or pictures on the computer screen. It`s just so weird, and is making me so much more grateful for who you guys are and all that you have done for me. I really, really enjoyed it in the moment and it will be a great memory that I will keep in the back of my head. 

Well I actually didn´t get Griffin Lines letter so you´ll have to give him my e-mail again and make sure it goes through. But I liked what dad said about your track meet Shay. That he was yellin at you to not let poor Cody beat you and you turned on the after burners and whooped his butt like normal. haha Pa,  I wouldn´t feel bad about ol Cody either, I´d probably be givin him crap alongside his dad too lol. Haha also about the poor ol bunny rabbit.  I heard somewhere that rabbit meat goes really well in soup, or maybe if that doesn´t work you guys can just make some rabbit jerky, I bet that’s pretty tasty lol. And I realized today (I realized a lot today cause I printed your letters out) that whenever you guys talk about food it makes me want some of your goodies soooooo Baaaadddddd. Theres no chocolate chip cookies here! Although I did get a recipe from my man Elder Boyd, when we get all moved we´ll have to make a batch or 2:) 

Well my week was just pretty normal for me, I don`t know if you could say the same for my comp. He just kinda hit the ground running with me and for the first few days I kinda forgot he was new and just treated him like he should know everything. But that was bad on my part, cause he got baptized a little over a year ago and he´s just super, super, super, super green. He´s talking to me more now but he just shelled up when he got here. I can´t blame him, everything is new to him, even the gospel...so I have just had to slow myself down and make sure he understands everything, make sure we plan really good and most of all make sure to give him all of the personal time at night. But he´s great and has a great spirit so things should be going good the next few months with him. Also he follows me in every step, so I realized real quick that I can´t be a bad example in anything or he will follow and that will set a precedent for the rest of his mission.

Well mom, I´m grateful that you wrote me about your desires to share the gospel with your coworkers, just don´t get scared, people have their free agency to choose and decide for themselves and more often than not are waiting to hear the Gospel. I personally don´t think that it will hurt your relationship with others at all because everyone already knows that your mormon and have accepted you. Also it made me think of a scripture in D&C 84:85 that talks about sharing the gospel (I think that was the first scripture that I learned in the MTC lol) And also It´s great to hear that Emily is getting better and will be able to go back to school here soon, thanks for telling me that, I still try to keep her in my nightly prayers. 

Well the last thing is to keep sending me things that can help me be a better missionary. I want more object lessons, talks, (dad I would like that talk on the atonement that you gave that one time in gospel doctrine for Easter Sunday) more quotes, and inspirational stories. I am making a really cool study journal that I will put all of that stuff in. It´s more like a study book filled with topics and also fun and cool pages about missions. My first page is titled MISSION 101 lol. Well thats all I´ve got for today, I love you all tons and tons and tons!!!!!!!!!!

-Elder Crook

Newfound sense of Fatherhood.... Take 2

Hahah welllllllll we did have changes this last Sunday and I went toooooooooooooooooooo     CUCUTA haha. I'm still here in my area but good ol Santillan left me. Also I know you are all waiting, we do get to talk this Sunday for an hour, I will call you guys Saturday to ahhhhhh set up the appointment:) Well turns out that I am training again. Honestly we have 224 missionaries now here in the mission and when I got here there were only 152. There have been newbies like CRAZY soooo I'm gonna be a Daddy otra vez haha. I'm actually really excited and just kind of ready to kick butt. I feel so refreshed and ready to start out new. Honestly when I got here from Tunja I was just really quite depressed, but the change with Santillan went surprisingly well and just made me so much more excited to be a missionary. Like it just threw cold water on my face and said "YOU’RE A MISSIONARY!!! YOU’RE ON A DIFFERENT CONTINENT!! YOU’RE SPEAKING SPANISH!! JUST ENJOY IT!! So I am tryin to get back in the good ol groove of just enjoyin stuff that comes my way even if its tough and makes me wanna cry sometimes or is just like a physical weight is just pushing down on you to try to make you go back to sleep when it's 6:30 but the Lords blessings are always better than the consequences of not being obedient. I honestly am loving it right now and I'm just super jacked up to talk to you guys again!! I remember the last time that I got to talk to you I had just started to train elder Escobar and now when we see each other again I will just have started to train my newbie. I have no idea who he is yet cause he's getting here tomorrow afternoon cause Cucuta is freaking lejos haha. I just have one wish about him, that this is his mission and he's not here temporarily.  I just don't want another temporal. 

Alright dad well sometimes I like lookin like a russian mobster alright, those guys are always such studs and plus it's a tactic so that I don’t get snaked on alright! I totally know that gelled hair looks waaaaayyyyy better than a super buzzcut on my oddly shaped head lol. But this is just more convenient, and gel NO MATTER WHAT I DO, gives me zits lol. Also that pic with the colombiano hat was at a service project we did to help a guy in the bishopric build his house. They build houses so differently here haha we just shoveled dirt and filled it the foundation of the house with dirt so it was all level and they can pour cement there. So that was the goofy picture. Also mom you wanted me to talk about Cucuta and it is basically a city of about 700,000 people and its all surrounded by mountains. It's quite hilly but my area has almost no hills, but you can see other areas with lots of hills. It has been raining a ton here and every time it rains the streets flood instantly and are just like mini rivers. In the aguacero I told you about, me and Elder Boyd were walking on the sidewalk and a taxi sped by and just drenched us with water, it was honestly like a scene out of a movie haha. Also here there are no gas stations and cars and trucks that you see in the states, there's a truck like Eric Luckmans black one and it is just ginormous on the road lol. This is because Venezuelan gas is just so cheep everyone just hops the border buys tons of gas and then camps out on the highways to sell it and it seems to me like they make pretty darn good money. 

Alright so I don't have any super crazy stories this week but I just want to say that I had one of the coolest experiences on my mission. Well we found an old investigator when we asked a recent convert if she knew anyone. She showed us where it was and we went and contacted the lady, who we found laying on her bed with the bottom part of her leg cut off at the knee.  Her name is Judit. She was really happy to see us. We noticed that her wheelchair was in super bad condition and she could hardly even push herself around just cause its all broken. She has a 9 year old kid who is just starting school because he was in foster care for a year or 2 when this lady  was sick in the hospital with diabetes. So you guys know...just super humble circumstances. Circumstances that if I compare them to what I have always known, just make me want to cry. So we had a few lessons and then asked the bishop if he could help us find a new wheelchair. He is super awesome and just had an almost new one in his house. So we had a lesson with her in the morning and invited her to be baptized.  She accepted and I could feel the spirit was there. Then we asked if she would be home in the afternoon. She was a bit confused but said she would be. Then we went to lunch at the bishops house, cleaned up the better wheelchair, and headed to Judit's house. I greeted her pleasantly and told her we had something for her.  The bishop rolled the seat in and she just broke down in sobs, so grateful for a used wheelchair. It humbled me so much because at first I felt like I was on extreme home makeover haha. But then I saw just how grateful she was and it was only a used wheelchair! I could just feel Christ’s love so strong in the tiny room,  it was amazing. Honestly it hit me so hard to see a woman so grateful for so little. Watch out for a baptismal picture of her and her son:) 

Well change of subject I do kind of have a funny story about the hermanas in my district. So it was raining super hard Saturday and their area is basically one big hill. So the rain was so bad that the canal at the bottom of the hill turned into a river like an actual fast running river. The hermanas were going home and realized they couldn’t cross, saw a man get swept into the river, then decided to camp out under a bridge of all places. I honestly did not ask them why they were under the bridge but that sounds kind of a dumb place to be in an aguacero. Anyways they called us like 50 times but our phone was in the house (we have a rule that its supposed to stay in the house), they called the zone leaders 50 times who finally answered and went to rescue them but couldn’t get there because of the rain. So they climbed back up the hill and stayed with a member until the rain let up and they could get back to the house. Elder Boyd tells me that they were pretty hysterical and thought they were gonna die lol. Well I asked them and they told me the exact same story that I just told you guys lol. It kinda makes me laugh, poor sisters camped out under a  bridge!!!!!

Well I am SUPER PUMPED TO TALK TO MA PA AND MY PROM QUEEN SISTER;) LOVE YOU GUYS AND SEE YOU SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Elder Crook  

April 29

Alrighty ma, you told me that you would send me a pic of Shays race and I don´t have it here in my inbox, arrepientate alright! send me the darn picture cause it always makes me feel a little closer to you guys as if I were there with you:) Thanks haha. And pa ya I know that sometimes I forget to shine my shoes lol but I have shined them since then and actually used my aguacero boots (that I will tell you about a little later) Ok anyways I´m super happy to hear that Shay totally kicked butt in her last meet and that she is learning the principle of obedience through going to Friday school. I am still laughing about how you just felt so guilty staying home in the first place and about how mad you were about getting punished:) (by the way I never went to those stupid assemblies either) haha actually the same exact thing happened to me my last year.  I just told ol Mulkey that I was on my free period studying my BUTT off lol, he believed me and didn´t do anything. Guess you should go to the next one huh? hahhaha I think this is one of the moments that you are glad that I´m not home because I feel like teasing you a lot on this one haha. Love ya toots! 

Alrighty so we had our super p-day today and no unfortunately we did not doa  push up contest because there just wasn´t enough time. We played soccer on a turf field across from one of the chapels here, and it was super fun!. There are only 4 gringos here in Cucuta and 3 of us play decently, the other one is very uncoordinated lol. So we played a big game to start out with and I scored a few golasos.  During the middle it got kinda rough. I wasn´t the one starting the roughness but I got some contact in here and there lol. Just like dad says ¨theres always a little room for football in every sport¨ I applied that principle and had some good hits here and there lol. Afterwards one of the other gringos asked sister Andelin if we were gonna play with the hermanas and she said only if you guys stop tackling each other lol. So that was pretty fun, there are some really good soccer players here, and I actually like to play it, its fun lol. Then we had lunch and a little meeting with the 2 zones here about missionary stuff then we left and now I´m here. So it was pretty awesome and I took lots of pics which I will send you. Oh also one of my best friends from the mission Elder Da Silva sent me a tie that his dad gave to him when he was trained. I think I have made a friend for life with him even if we can only communicate through e-mail and face book the rest of our lives. 

Also about the aguacero boots lol, it has been raining a TON here! More than in any other area, it is nice at night because it isn’t near as hot as when I got here. Also during the day it is soooooo awesome! Just nice and warm but with the sky covering the sun, it’s not so hot. But Friday night it started to rain monsoon style. Honestly it was one aguacero lol, we were at a less active members house and he gave us huge trash bags and cut head holes and arm holes in them and sent us on our way. We looked like such DORKS but I’m very used to weird looks now lol. The streets were like rivers! My shoes stayed dry like half of the way home then they just got soaked so I decided to have some fun and just wade through the streets.  We were with one of the zone leaders Elder Boyd who is another one of my good friends and we just goofed around the whole way home in our trash bags lol. So after that I have been using those big timbaland boots that make me look like a big time rapper or something lol. But it was an experience I will never forget just because I have never been so wet, and had so much fun. 

Well I want to end my letter asking you guys for help. I want to really be a little different in the way I teach and do things so I want object lessons! of anything you can think of! I want inspirational quotes! anything you can come up with! and I want activities that we can do for family home evening! Anything you can think of. You guys can all help me be a better missionary through sending me theese little things every week. Think of what you guys have already done and taught, send me everything! and this isnt´just limited to mom, dad and Shay, anyone who reads these letters,  send me ideas alright! It really would be awesome if you guys could do that for me!

Alright gootaa gOOOooo

LOVE YOU LOTS

-Elder Crook 

April 22 - You Guys are My Favorite

Well first off I just wanna tell you guys that I got more letters than I ever have this week lol. I got one from elder Da Silva, from my kid escobar, from grandma and grandpa from josh and derek and paul woytus. It was awesome hearing from all those guys and to know that in one moment or the other I had crossed their minds. But then I saved your guys´letters for last and I just have to say that you guys are my favorite, no one can or will ever replace you guys. HONESTLY holy crap I almost just started to cry knowing that I am missing every single track meet of shays for the rest of her high school career. I guess I just thought that I´d get back and she´d still be 15 and a sophmore. Honestly that is one of the hardest things about being away, not geting to see my big sister grow up. But I know that if I were there with you guys I´d just want to be here, so I just gotta enjoy the moments that are given to me and not worry about anything else. Freak shay is turning 17 this week, why do you have to do that Shay? oh well, haha I wrote in my planner during weekly planning in big ol letters FELIZ CUMPLE MI HERMANA TOOTS:) haha hope everything goes well this wednesday and just want to let you know that I keep you in my prayers every night as well as mom and dad. 

Alright anyways I had a pretty good week with a few funny things happening. The first is that I got flat out attacked by a dog lol. It wasn´t that big, but it wasn´t that small either, just the right hieght for a doc marten left foot shoe in the chops lol. Well we were walking to a lesson after lunch and there was a nasty lookin dawg laying in the street which is pretty normal lol. I was walking on the right side of my comp and the dog was across the street on the left. But as we passed it, the thing just went godzilla and started chasing us. Well I start to run and my comp too, but he got a late start so he was a little behind but he wasn´t who the dog had beef with, the thing passed him and went after me, (at this point I´m running and looking back over my shoulder, so it comes up on my right side and and nips at my heels so I do some high steps lookin like a retard I´m sure. Then I stop and he comes in to bite my right leg. So I turned and gave him a kick with my left. I still play this out in my mind and am mad at myself for not kicking him harder lol. But those doc martens wheigh like 2 pounds each so I think the might have heart his poor yapper. Then he starts to run backwards barking and my comp fakes throwing a rock at him which scares him a little. Now in my rage it´s my turn to charge the poor thing, I wasn´t really thinking but I start to run after it and it kinda runs away, but after a few steps I´m just like ¨what are you doing, your a human and he´s a dog, leave him alone lol¨ so I stopped and we kept on walking, crisis averted lol no bites no blood, and well theres always sweat involved when your talking about cucuta lol. 

The other funny thing was that I learned that that jehovahs witness guy that invited us in thought we were Jehovahs witnesses lol. But we started to teach him about the Book of Mormon and hes been reading it! he´s an old geezer but we´ve been working on him little by little and in the plan of salvation lesson he asked us how he could get baptised because he only has a catholic baptism (I don´t know why the witnesses didn´t baptise him) and we asked him if he would like to do it the right way;) with power and authority straight from God. He ALMOST said yes, but then realized that that would make him  member of the iglesia mormonica as he says and got scared lol. So he said he would pray about what church he should attend and let us know. We´re visiting him tuesday so i´ll let you know how it goes. I don´t know why I´m telling you about him in particular but I think it´s been a really cool experience to see the cogs turning in his mind and when he prays to see if this is actually true. So hopefully i´ll send you a picture of him dressed in white in front of the font:)

Weelll I´ll end with my last story that I personally think is the coolest! I got to talk in sacrament meeting for the first time on my mission!!!!! it was weird cause in the morning a thought came to my mind that I might have to talk today. I was thinking about the day before when we went to a baptism of the hermanas in my district, they told me 5min before that I would give the 5 min talk before the baptism. thats not a problem i said but I was kinda torked that they had planned for this in the baptismal agenda and hadnt even thought to tell me. But anyway, I thought about that and then the thought came that I might have to talk in sacrament. So I grabbed my notebook with my planned talk if anyone were ever to surprise me with a talk before sacrement meeting. So I brought that along (I made it right when I got to Tunja a few months ago) and we got there and sure enough the bishop greeted us, started to ask my comp somethin and then stopped and turned to me with the same question, will you give a talk? I said yes of course and then asked my comp why the bishop didnt ask him. he told me he had already been asked and he just told them to shove it up thier butts and tell him beforehand when he had time to prepare. So yup, I gave the last talk in sacrament and guess what? the two other dipwads left me with 20 freaking minutes lol. So I got up there and gave my talk in the best gringo accent ever. I tripped over some words reading from the scriptures and saved myself by making a joke about how gringo I am (everyone loves those jokes when you make fun of yourself) but I took up the time talking about how we can let our lights shine bright and to not hide them and to develop them and all that good stuff. I ended with my testimony which i love doing because I feel like when I´m bearing my testimony the spanish just flows right from my heart. It was awesome and actually fun! haha and everyone told my good talk afterwords, I asked them If they understood and they all did! Well I´m quite short on time today but I just wanna tell you guys that I sure love you:) hasta luego:)  

-Elder Crook     

April 15 - I guess we all had stories about crap this week

WELL as always it is so awesome to hear from you guys and you guys just make me so happy! man every one of your letters is just awesome:) you guys are great writers and I am especially impressed at you Shay:) when I started I half expected that you would get caught up in everything that keeps you busy and forget about me, but you have written me constantly and I really, really love to hear from you! Especially all of your track stories, I LOVE THEM! I just about fell out of my chair when you told me what Connor said. You must have really kicked the crap out of her! 27 seconds is pretty darn good. Now my question is was she just kinda holding back until districts or is it just that she hasn´t improved? Also those pictures are awesome. You kick butt toots! I pray that you can keep on improving and run your best times at districts and state. LOVE YOU LOTS. 

Well I haven´t heard anything about when we get to talk this mothers day. I´m sure we´ll get to skype again but I´ll have to ask which days we are allowed to. I´ll ask president when he comes up here for a p-day activity that the 2 zones here in Cucuta will have. Since we are so far from everyone else we can´t join together in those huge groups of missionaries for activities like this like when I was in Bogota and Tunja which was relatively close to Bogota. So we´ll just have about 30 missionaries here and the president. I have the suspicion  that we will be having the push up contest then, which is 2 p-days from now the 29th. So I have been tryin to hit it hard and trying to get up to around 100 in a row lol. But yup I´ll ask him then. 

Sooo anyways this week has been a pretty good one. I am still amazed that the people here come up to US on the streets and contact US!!!! I have had that happen 3 times now and everytime I honestly have thought at first that they were going to ask for money or try to fight with us but no! It´s all hey! what church are you from? what do you believe in? Can you guys come visit me?  I need a bible, it´s awesome! we have found a few people that way and even an entire family so we´re doing great. Also we have a member who is really cool.  He´s a big black guy and he goes out with us every week to show us to his friends. He´s way cool and funny too.  I think all black guys are pretty much the same no matter what language they speak. So we are doing pretty good here. Basically when I got here there were a few investigators but they just aren´t progressing.  Now so we have found a decent amount of new ones and are working hard to find more. My goal is that we just have so many people to teach that we never have to ask ourselves ¿well now what should we do? which has happened a lot in these last few weeks lol. haha every night when I´m laying in my bed I feel my feet trying to take steps lol. Honestly it´s so weird and I´m just like wow, my feet don´t know how to rest they just want to keep walking lol. 

Anyways I´ll end with my own story about crap this week (it´s not actually mine, but I took part in making fun of the Elder that owns this story) yeah since pa told me all about his hilarious crap story this week, and shay too I figured I just better tell you guys another crap story. Well we have a bout of diarrhea going on in the house, luckily I´m fine and perfectly solid but all the latinos in the house have the worst diarrhea lol. Ol elder Westerhyde (I call him Wester) from Guatemala got the worst of it lol. So I guess Saturday he was walking and he just couldn´t hold it in anymore and he had an accident in the street. This was about at 5 or 6 or sometime in there. So they obviously had to go back home, but as he was half waddling home he remembered that we had the key to the apartment! Yeah we need to make a copy lol. So the poor kid who at this point  had poo trickling down into his sock (don´t ask me why it was only one leg cause I have no idea) had to tough out the rest of the day with gushy brown garment bottoms. That night we got home a little late and they were waiting outside for us. I noticed that he had a funny look on his face so I was like What’s up Wester?  How’s it going, you doin all right. He just told us to unlock the door and that he´d tell us later. Well we got in the house and me and my comp started to plan, but Wester got right in the shower. We were both confused so we went and asked his comp what happened. His comp is really seroius and told us with the straightest face ever that poor Wester had crapped his pants and because they didn’t have keys he had to go to all of his lessons that day with poo in his pants. I just about died and the whole rest of the night we just teased ol Wester, he´s a good sport though and laughed right along with us. That was about the funniest thing that happened this week lol.

Well we are going to go buy food and go play some mikro which is soccer but with a cement court and its the size of the basketball court so love you all!!!! Sorry I dont have pics this week but maybe the next! LOVE YAAAAA

Elder Crook