Service and the Spirit

Well we didn´t do much out of the ordinary this week, the only thing was that we had an awesome service! Everything else was pretty much normal. But as I was shoveling away on that hot Thursday morning I came up with something. I was just thinking to myself ¨Why is the mission so good for young kids like me?´ I was trying to figure out why is it that we grow so much from doing what we do, and how can we keep developing and growing after these 2 short years? I boiled it down to 2 things, Service, and the Spirit. I mean, I really feel like it  gives us a chance to focus on everybody else and their needs, this kind of selfless service helps us find ourselves and who we really are. Also we have such high standards that can allow us to live with a big portion of the spirit. I feel like these 2 things are the factors that help us make leaps and bounds as far as spiritual maturity. I am still kind of stumped though on how this same type of growth can be continued throughout life. I can tell you right now that in my 19 years before the mission, I don´t feel like I made an effort to be good or grow at all. 

Anyways before we get to the part about us doing service, I want to tell you guys something kinda funny. So a few weeks back me and my comp went to do an online class on how to teach people about family history and all that jazz. Well that didn´t last long because it turns out that the classes are only in english and even though I have some decent conversations with my comp in English, he didn’t understand. But before we left the videos caught my eye, they were filmed in the Richmond, Virginia mission (Skylers mission) so I decided to watch one or 2 to get a look at how they do things there in Virginia. Then the video cut to a scene where a familiar voice started to contact a young lady and ask her about her family history. I didn´t recognize him at first because he had a ´russian mob boss´crew cut almost to the scalp, and I had never seen Skyler with a haircut like that lol. So I was super surprised and excited to see and hear Elder Skyler Andreason in a church video, it lasted about 30 seconds and then ended but I thought I would tell you guys. It´s funny cause I can still remember that last day we spent together at the dam jumping off of the car passover into the freezing cold water. Then we went and got slurpies and he paid for me. Then I told him, that in 3 years I´d pay for the slurpies. Well now he´s almost done and he´s gotta wait a year more to get his free slurpie lol. I still can´t believe that was 2 years ago!

Anyways back to Colombia...pa it´s spelled COLOMBIA. We had an awesome service on Thursday. We are helping a guy build his house in what they call here invasiones. This is a lot where if you just build something small and mark off the boundaries, you can have the lot without paying a thing. These are usually very poor and still don´t have common utilities like phone lines or water or gas or anything like that. Electricity I am not sure but I didnt ask. So we just basically dug holes all day. We dug 8 foundation holes that were about 3 feet deep by 3 feet wide. Then we had to dig a huge septic tank hole that was 2 meters deep! like more than 6 feet. At the end of the day we had finished them all except for the big one, we still needed to dig a little deeper into the ground. But we needed to go so we just took a picture of Elder Boyd in the huge hole like his tomb. He goes home in a week and a half. He has become one of my best friends here on the mission. Him and Elder Albrect are just the best 2 missionaries and friends that I know. So it will be sad to see him go, we have had some really great times here in Cucuta:) 

Well other then  that, that was basically my week. We had a less active member come back to church which was AWESOME! The first time I met him was 4 months ago sitting in the dirt at night half drunk with a cigarrete in his hand. He´s a young adult and it has been tough to try to get him to come to church. But he had 2 friends that had baptismal dates but never would come because he never went. So who knows if that was a factor in getting him back to church but he just showed up one Sunday and said ´Hey Elders I´ll be coming to church regularly now, and I signed up for institute class again.´ We were pretty shocked but its good to see him at church. 

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Alright well its time to go for me and I will write you next Monday like always. We have 2 weeks left in this change. LOVE YOU LIKE CRAZY:)!!!!! 

-Elder Crook