Well I just have to say, thats a pretty big complement pa, comparing

us to a black ops teancum lol. One of our recent converts said

something about us along the same lines while talking to one of her

friends about us the missionaries. She said ¨Do you know who these kids

are? No, they’re missionaries! Do you know what they carry in their

bags? NO, they carry the bible, preaching the good word of Jesus

Christ dedicating their lives fully to him, I don´t know what you

think about that but I think it´s pretty intense!¨ It was so

funny/awesome, haha it made me feel like a black ops teancum right

there lol. However I fully know what you mean about how new

missionaries do not have the same honed skills as the older more

experienced ones do. I find myself in intercambios wanting to tell

them tons of little things that they can do to be better. But I know

the most important thing is that they feel the spirit and have the

desires to get better, then they themselves will change and hone their

skills a little more. I feel like those little missionary tactics I

have really been able to develop here in Suba as a zone leader for 2

reasons.   One is my companions, we both have the desire to get better and

I feel like it´s so much easier to do it together.   With my other

companions I felt like all that we were trying to do was just make it

through the next day alive and well lol. Here I have learned a lot of

good things and have tried to put them into practice. The second is the

opportunity to go out with the assistants every change, they always

have something that they do that is new to me and I try to apply it.

So it’s actually been really fun to try and speed up that development

even though it has been a very slow process for me lol.

So just like you guys knew, my comp now is really grea.  He´s from

Peru just in case dad missed that in the last letter;) one more time

para mi querido viejo PERU haha. We´ve been getting along great, the

truth is that it´s not that hard to get along when you both have the

same goals and like to work hard, and we both have that. He is a

little more talkative than Elder Perez but I feel like God has always

put me with companions that don´t talk a ton and aren’t that outgoing

so that I can be the one that learns how to talk more and be more

outgoing. So far I have gotten better, but I feel like the rest of my

companions could be that way and I still wouldn´t be at the level that

I want to be. The only companion that I have had that was really

talkative and outgoing with everyone was Elder Da Silva. SO it is

going good, me and Elder Landa don´t have as much in common as me and

Perez but I know we will spend these next few months working hard and

having fun:) Actually it was cool because whenever I get a new comp I

just start to bombard them with questions about themselves to try to

let them know that I´m interested and to gain a little trust with him,

but this time it was the other way around.  I picked him up from the

airport and he just started talking away lol asking me every question

imaginable that I hardly had time to ask him questions haha. So that

was cool. We also got basically a whole new zone haha, there were only

2 other changes besides Perez so for a few days we stayed basically

the same.  Then there were 2 other emergency changes that happened in

Barranca, so 2 elders came from Barranca to work here in Suba. I met

all of them but 1 today and they are super cool so I´m excited for the

missionaries that are here now. I don´t know why but there have been 2

mexicans that have been here in Suba and they are both super cool! the

one thats here is Elder Torres and he speaks english and is just super

cool, we hit it right off today when I met him.

SO mom, one sugestion, you should learn how to make a soup called

ajiaco:) Moises knows what it is, so you´ll have to ask him or look

for it on the internet. You guys should try to make it one day because

it is my favorite soup here! People have given it to us twice this

week and my comp and I were in heaven lol. It´s a traditional soup

from Bogota I think, if I´m wrong Moises will correct me, but try it!

it´s really good. Haha so we also had 2 of our favorite lunches this

week from ¨los vegetarianos¨ haha I don´t know what happened but we had

vegetarian food 2 days this week. It´s not bad, it just doesn´t taste

like anything lol, we had soy meat, rice and lots of veggies lol:) So

those 2 days were interesting.

Also it has been raining like crazy here! so one day it was super hot

when we left in the morning, then we went to lunch and it got cloudy.

We left and I didn´t think to bring my rain coat when boom! it hit us.

we were walking up a big hill that’s in our area to probably one of the

most out of the way parts here to go to our ward mission leaders

house. So we were climbing up the hill, and I just had a short sleeve

shirt on so about 20 minutes later when we got to his house I was

soaked to the bone! haha he gave me a white shirt to put on so I dried

off a little bit and put it on, but he is a little smaller than I am

so his shirt did´nt fit to well so when I came out of the bathroom he

got up and started to imitate me doing muscle poses and just strutting

around all funny, he´s always making jokes like that lol. But so I

have been getting soaked a lot here but it´s all good because I always

remember what elder Da Silva would tell me when we would get caught in

the rain here ¨the more we get wet here on the mission the hotter our

wives will be when we get home¨ needless to say, I prefer not to wear

protective rain clothing;)

..

Well Shay you’re awesome!!!!! way to go!!! I´´ll sure be praying for you

this week:) and I will tell you guys my favorite scripture next week

because I want to do some serious searching to find a really cool one!

-LOVE YOU GUYS Elder Crook

Missing Elder Perez

Gosh I love you guys so much! Once again thank you so much for the

letters and support that I get from you every week. It is truly a

blessing that very few missionaries have here.  I love you guys sooo

much!

Well I´ll just cut straight to the chase.  Elder Perez is gone:( gosh dangit

I´ve never felt anything like this after a companion leaves me behind

in an area. Usually I´m super happy and excited but now I´m just kind

of in a funk and missing him. WE just worked so well together, we

never fought or argued once. He didn´t even annoy me at one moment

during the last 3 months that we spent together. Gosh it was just

because we both were able to get along easily with mostly everyone, so

when we were together it was just so chill and relaxed, and yet such a

busy and hectic time with all that we had to do and get accomplished.

He was the very first companion that I had that we would just stay up

and talk all night. Haha even when we were in companionship study we

would just get on a gospel topic and talk for the whole hour not

really studying anything but those were the best companionship studies

because we really became friends and that united us and made us work

really well together. We both this morning confessed to each other

that he has been my favorite companion and I also was his favorite. He

left to Bucaramunga this morning to finish his mission there.  He has 3

changes left so it’s pretty probable that he will die there. He is also

not zone leader anymore. As for me, I get to be with Elder Landa from

Peru. He was my zone leader in Cucuta for 2 changes so I hope that we

can work even harder for these next 2 changes that I will be with him,

he gets here tomorrow morning so I am in trio with Elder Hicken (who

went to the salt mines with me) and his new companion. Elder Hicken

has also become one of my best friends here in the mission.  He’s from

Logan haha. Went to Logan high and was friends with Spencer Mckay lol.

So whenever I talk about some of my cache valley friends he usually

knows who I´m talking about. It´s just weird because I kinda feel like

dad felt when I left to come here. (obviously on a scale a lot smaller)

But I know that I can have a better next 2 changes here then the last

2 changes.  I know it´s possible but I just can´t see how it could get

any better than it was with my compy Elder Perez. One thing I can say

though, is that I enjoyed every minute of our time together. I don´t

have any regrets about how we spent our time together, and that is a

great feeling and these last 3 months that just passed by like the

blink of an eye will be such a cherished memory:) Honestly there are a

lot of good things out there and a lot of good feelings, but there is

no better feeling than getting home at 9 o clock planning, being super

tired physically but knowing that you did some good work and feeling

just spiritually full. Like just such a huge peace that we had a good

day, and we did a good job for the Lord:) I had a lot of those nights

with Elder Perez.

So I´ll tell you how our baptism went this week, yea it was a little

crazy lol. So we got to see the baptism of the bishop’s sister in law.

And guess who baptized her....yeah of course the bishop! haha he’s

awesome. BUT so I guess there was a marriage going on on Friday night,

the night of the baptism. We didn´t really think anything of it, just

that we´d have the baptism in the baptismal room and the wedding party

would be in the cultural hall. Well we were wrong! so the baptism was

supposed to start at 7, and we got there at 5 to start filling up the

font but NO. I guess the caterer needed to use the baptismal room to

serve the food (yes the kitchen is in the room where the baptismal

font is, a little weird but there you have it) but he wasn´t using the

stove so I asked him politely if we could help him move his things to

another room in the church and he got all mad and huffy and told us

no, haha he was even a member and told us no. Not wanting to argue I

called the bishop and was ready to call the stake president lol, the

bishop told me to just kick him out, but to do it nicely and we could

all figure it out. By this time it was 6 and we hadn´t even started to

fill the font. We told the member that we had direct orders from the

bishop to use the room for the baptism and not for the wedding party.

So he gave in but was pretty mad(I still don´t know why, it was

just a room) so we felt like he was not liking us very much. We helped

him move all of his stuff and food, to another room which was the same

except it didnt have the stove or a countertop and it took about 15

minutes. So I turn the hot water on in the font not bothering to check

it because usually it is always hot. Then we organized everything and

cleaned the room and got everything ready. All of this took about till

7:15 and no one had showed up. So we just waited a few minutes and

everyone showed up at once wanting to do the baptism quick. Then the

bishop had the idea to feel the water, it was ice cold lol. I guess

the hot water heater didn´t turn on...oops. Then he kind of

reprimanded us for not checking, my guess is that he did not want to

get into an ice bath (shay:) haha on a dark drurry day when it was

already raining. So he spent about an hour trying to fix the hot water

heater, but his efforts were fruitless! haha so he just bucked up like

a coast guard lifesaving swimmer and stepped into the water, the

investigator too got in. And after all that time and hassle, basically

yelled wow this is freezing! Everyone started to laugh and he baptized

her and everything worked out fine. Afterwards Perez told me, well I

felt like halfway through everyone hated us, but now it’s all good. It

was a good little adventure for us:)

So today I didn´t really have much of a p-day, we had quite a few

changes in the zone and since my companion left early this morning I

have been trying to get everyone where they need to be, coordinating

with all parts of the mission. And taking lots of taxi rides lol, and

here the price is not negotiable so I have spent more money then I

would have liked. Haha funny story before I have to go, one hermana

got changed to go to Cucuta. So the bus left at 3 and I told her she

needed to be there at 2 because if she got there at 3 she was going to

miss the bus. Well we went to the bus station at 2 to drop an elder

off and pick up another one. And they hadn´t arrived yet. So I called

again and they said they were just going out the door. Haha well that

was just a little white lie. Because the assistant called me at a

quarter to 3 and asked me why the hermanas still hadn´t gotten to the

bus station. Well that made me nervous so I called them and they were

still in the house lol. So I told them that they were going to have to

find their own way to Cucuta because they missed the bus. I think they

met the bus on the outskirts of Bogota but am not sure because they

haven´t called, nor will, nor do I want them to.

Well I sure love you guys, I got a good kick out of shay at booster

club:) she is so funny, but thats just shaylen for ya:) as awesome as

can be. Love ya toots!

-Elder Crook