I Think We Have a Winner!!

I Think I’ve Found a Winner!!

How is everyone up there? Well as always I´m just as happy as a

missionary can be! I just feel so at home in this area and ward. It´s

AWESOME, my comp is great, our investigators are getting baptized, I

just can´t ask for more, I think I have picked a winner. I have never

been able to say that I have had a favorite area.....until now.

Everything is just so perfect,  even our house! It´s just a normal

conjunto, but compared to everyone elses house, it´s THE BEST. Get

this, for lunch one day we got there and saw LASAGNA, BLACKBERRY JUICE

(ALL THAT WE COULD DRINK) AND BROWNIES!!! Holy cow I about wet my well

used britches in sheer joy:) Wait can it get better...... it sure can,

so the Hermana asked me what I wanted to eat for lunch on Sunday, well

I took advantage and told her about 10 kilos de carne (meat) mashed

poatoes, and all the gaseosa (pop) we could drink. Well we got there

and she gave us some big ol steaks and about half a plate of mashed

potatoes, on top of that they had made beans and each gave us a soup

bowl full of beans. So boy oh boy was I a happy guy! It’s just awesome

here, the bishop is the best bishop I have ever met, and our ward

mission leader is super cool also. It´s just fun to work with all of

them, and add on top of that we are having a few baptisms here and

there. We can all say that I have entered in to the ¨golden¨ part of

my mission.

So we did have a baptism of the nanny of the kids of the recent

converts, and guess who baptized her.....our wonderful bishop. I love

when he baptizes our investigators because that means he is always

going to be watching out for them and helping them along with the

difficulties that come from being a new member of the church. It was

also really cool, because Camilo that I baptized a few weeks ago, is

getting the Aaronic priesthood and is excited to start blessing the

Sacrament. We gave him a white shirt this Sunday and the next Sunday

he should be blessing. So it´s an exciting time for barrio Suba and all

the members and especially us as missionaries.

Well I got my bag, it’s pretty darn cool.  It’s got the map of Colombia

and the scripture and everything, and the guy told my yesterday Quote

¨from one man of God to another.....this bag will last until the

millenium¨ All I told him was to go get baptized and I´ll meet up with

him there with my bag and all.

Soooo Shay, sounds like you’re quite the studly runner, gotta enjoy it

huh! Can you remember being nervous about the other girls that were

really fast? Well now the majority of the girls are getting butterflies

in their stomachs because SUPER SPEEDY SHAYLEN IS AT THE STARTING LINE

READY TO ROLL. My knees are shaking just reading that phrase. Just put

on that serious face and there’s sure to be one or 2 girls that faint

before they´ve even started. Haha the other day, I told some members

that before my mission I was thinking about being a doctor, the guy

told me it wasn´t a good idea because my face is to serious and scary,

and would kill anyone before I could save them lol. But that’s just his

opinion and impression. He doesn’t know me at all.

Well jeez I feel like this letter is super short, is it? I want to end

with just one more funny thing that I discovered this week. Well it´s

called arepa con chorizo!!!! whooooooo weeeeee it is a big giant

sausage, wrapped in an arepa, and is like a hot dog on steriods. Holy

Cow are they good.   I was always afraid to try them because they are

just giant sausages cooked in the street, and all I could see was a

big sign that said (FREQUENT TRIPS TO THE BATHROOM AND POSSIBLY

STOMACH WORMS) however a family of investigators invited us to eat some.

So I ate one and it was just the most wonderfull thing in the world.

AREPA CON CHORIZO food of the Gods!!

Well I sure love you guys and hope all of your activities this week go

great! Run fast Toots!!!! I´ll be praying for ya!!!!!

Elder Crook

A New Change Has Never been so Exciting!!

Well well well, can you guys believe that I already have 1 change down

here! Man I was talking to my comp last night about how fast it went

for me, it flew by! We obviously are staying together because he only

has 1 more change than me here. So we basically knew it and planned

this whole upcoming change last week in our weekly planning session.

Actually hardly anyone got changed in our zone, only 2 elders and they

just went to different areas here in Bogota. So we didn´t have to do

anything at all for the changes. All we have to do is go to the bus

station and pick up the elder thats coming in from Bucarumanga

tonight. And honestly I have NEVER BEEN SO EXcITED to start a new

change. It´s awesome, my comps awesome, the ward is the best ward that

I have ever worked with in my mission. And we have some great

investigators. One of which is getting baptized hopefully this

Saturday. She´s the nanny of a the 2 kids of a couple that got

baptized the Saturday before I got here to Suba, so hopefully I´ll

send you pics next week!!!

Another thing, it´s weird but I have been noticing a lot of women with

streeeettccchhhhy pants (in a nacho libre accent) honestly it makes me

remember Jack Black in his baby blue stretchy pants ready to do some

lucha libre. But I wanted to ask if that was getting big in the

states, stretchy pants with all kinds of crazy designs. So theres the

fashion update for this week.

Pa cool bear stories!!! how did you figure out where to go? I can´t

believe the master hunter Tony Meline didnt go with you guys. When we

always went, we needed his help. And nice shooting with my gun,

remember that epic heart shot I gave that cow elk. Yeah I think it was

kinda lucky cause all I can remember were you and Tony yelling( in

hushed voices) that I was taking too long and to just pick a dang elk

and shoot it. First of all I couldn´t tell which was the biggest and

second of all I´m pretty sure I was shakin like a nervous ol fart, so

I just put an animal in the scope and pulled the trigger lol:) But I´m

glad the good ol winchester holds its own for accuracy. Oh yeah the

patio looks awesome! great job! I like the artistic design with the

darker gray squares too, now all that we need is a good sized hot tub

to go on top and it´ll look even prettier;)

Alright so mom asked if I have had any spiritual experiences this week

and I have. Sharing my testimony with my comp has been awesome this

week. Before this week I had never seen him really fired up before,

he´s just so tranquilo, me on the other hand, I have gotten a little

fired up this change, mostly with other missionaries. I realized that

I have a lot less patience with missionaries than I do with everyone

else. I guess I just think they are on a higher level than anyone else

and expect more from them. But I have learned from lots of past

experiences (especially with my kids) that getting fired up and

starting to yell is not the answer, but my comp is good about that

stuff so he has handled it. But anyways in 2 occasions we have been in

lessons and the people we have been teaching have just said things

that are just downright wrong! So anyways my comp, tranquilo as he is,

gets everyones heart rate going a bit and just shares his testimony

like a humble giant with so much power! The 2 times he did it this

week it made me think of the scripture in D&C 35 where it says that

God has sent the weak things to all places to thrash the earth with

the spirit and with testimony. So it has just been really cool to see

the fire in his eyes and feel the spirit testifying of truth when he

shares his testimony. It was funny because last night we got done

teaching a lesson and one of the kids in the family told me that I

looked like someone from the army, and that he thought I could give a

beat down to John Cena lol. I think it was because we had both just

testified pretty powerfully and he felt it lol.

Haha also a little along those lines, I always have pictures of you

guys in my scriptures so when people ask I show them and I wanted to

let you know usually what the people think of our little family. For

some reason they always say that I look older than dad! The median age

that they usually think I am is somewhere from 25 to 30 lol. They

always say that because I look mas ¨gordo¨ than dad in the picture

even though he is taller than me. They usually always say that mom is

my sister because she looks like a niña and that shes so short. And

that Shay is my girlfriend because I have the picture in there from

when she was homecoming princess. I usually have to make a few

corrections but it´s alright, it´s actually always super funny to see

what people say about you guys, Dad has been compared to George

Washington lol.

Well Shay, how about you tell me a list of your classes? Goodness toots

don´t you know that your senior year is the last year that your life

will ever be like this! Relax, breath like dad says, and take it easy.

Also remember that your 2nd semester DOESN¨T MATTER AT ALL. Every

single college will have accepted you or declined you before you

finish the second term, good choice in dropping calculus, that class

almost killed me lol. I love you toots just have fun this year, loosen

the screws and let yourself be happy. Remember you have the true and

everlasting gospel in your hands and what you do according to that

knowlege, is far more important than your high school report card.

Love ya!!

So I had a really cool experience this Sunday. If you refer back to my

last letter that I sent to you guys while I was serving in Jordan you

will see that we had 2 baptisms, one of them was a lady named Karen.

Guess what!! we were waiting in the chapel for the executive committee

meeting of priesthood and I noticed that someone was getting their

patriarchal blessing. When the lady walked out of the room it was

Karen! so I ran over and talked to her all happy and she told me that

she was a primary teacher now and doing great! so that made me super

happy!!

Alright so I´ll wind this down.  But I finally

designed my satchel and it´s got a map of Colombia on it with a

scripture from Matthew 28 I think it is that says basically go ye to

all nations baptizing in my name. The guy charged me 60 bucks but then

his machine to do the drawing broke so he has to borrow one of his

friends´ so now he told me 150 mil pesos or around 80 dollars so

thats the price. Also if Santiago needs to get a hold of us our number

is 317-404-7820 so maybe he can call or someone can give me his number

and I can call him. Well I sent you some pics of our p-day today and

my lastest buy;) a jersey from a local soccer team named santa fe, and

maybe a pizza party:) LOVE YOU GUYS!!! you are awwesome!!! oh p.s good

job on our race shay!!! keep kickin boooootttyy!!!

-Elder Crook