Monday, September 16, 2013

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



Monday, September 9, 2013

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 niƱa 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