Monday, October 14, 2013

Kody's letter - 10/7/13


First off pa, chocolatinas refer to the 6 different chocolates that
the candy bar has, if you look at it, it has 6 different sections that
resemble a what? a 6 pack! Did you translate nalgas yet, I hope you
did because you got 2 nalgas de acero coming your way shortly.
Anyways remember how you guys told me that the weather had been
horrible up there in Coos Bay? Well I kinda didn´t want to say
anything because the last p-day was gorgeous, however the following
Tuesday and Wednesday were 2 days of straight rain, rain, hail, rain,
and mucho frio. Yeah I got wet like 4 different times. Haha funny
quick little story. I guess the hermanas saw a burning car with people
inside and there were a bunch of people running around and screaming.
So the hermanas decided to call us and scream too.  Well I was the
lucky one to answer the hysteric phone call. I couldn¨t understand
anything so I gave the phone to E¨ Perez and he just holds the phone
away from his ear so we can all hear frantic panicky high pitched
screams. Well they calmed down and just wanted a blessing of strength,
so we went and gave them one, just kind of laughing our whole way over
there - imitating the hermanas wails.  Who knows if it was that horribly
bad but, they were scared lol.  By the way this all happened when it
was pouring down rain. Then we decided to walk up the mountain in our
area to have a lesson. As we were walking up the cement stairs I felt
like one of those extreme climber guys that climb up waterfalls, It
probably wasn´t that intense but I´ll just let you guys think that
your son or brother is the studliest missionary there is and is
working on his chocolatinas day by day;)
Alright so I had one of THE COOLEST P-DAYS OF MY WHOLE MISSION TODAy.
So we went to the salt mines in a pueblito called zipaquira, but there
not just any old salt mines.  They have a catholic cathedral under
ground and made out of salt. How cool is that!! So we got a member to
guide us there(even though if he would have given us directions we
could have gotten there ourselves and it would have been even more cool)
but  we took him with us and he also took a non member friend which
was fine. Then we asked presidents permission. He said yes but on the
condition that we ¨return and report how cool it was¨ haha.  He said his
family is coming down and they might go there, so I´m gonna tell him
to GO because it was freakin awesome. So we start to go underground
(by the way it was just Elder Hicken and I because our comps wanted to
stay and play soccer) and we took some awesome pictures of us licking
the salt and all the good stuff. So it showed us like 10 or 12 steps
of Jesus´s life right before he was crucified. These were represented
by HUGE salt caverns with spooky lights and there was always a cross
carved out of the salt. There were so may caverns and we took some
sweet pictures that I will send to you. There is one picture in
paticular that is just really spooky.  It is a cross carved out of the
salt wall and with lights put behind it so it just looks like a
glowing cross of light then there were white lights pointed towards it
and around was pitch black, and the floor was marbled so you could see
the reflection in the floor.  We took super creepy pictures of us
standing in the glowing cross of light, E´hicken has a better picture
then the one I have so I´ll send it to you next week hopefully.
Then we went even farther down in the cave and it had a huge cross
with pews to sit in and pray, around was adorned with Jesus on the
cross and the Virgin Mary. IT WAS SO COOL, then the coolest thing was
that they had carved a picture into the ground of Adam when he is
touching Gods finger (at least I think its of Adam). Then there was a
HUGE gift shop and it was of figures of salt but they were so
expensive, every price was in dollars lol. Haha also it was Gringo
central, I goofed around with them a little when I talked to the tour
guide in Spanish and he was giving an english tour, it was funny:) we
didn’t take the tour though, we did our own exploring and picture
taking.
So Conference came and passed. I can´t believe 10 hours passed so
fast! Well the first 2 morning sessions were my favorites, as far as
presentation and charisma goes I loved Edward dubes talk, his accent
is just so awesome, and had a great message. Then there was Gifford
Nielsens which was way sweet too. I mean who can´t love a man talking
about football, and missionary work! Making a missionary gameplan!
then adding exclamation points!!! Then I loved Elder Bednars talk and
also the talk by Elder Oaks on Sunday. Ever since he gave me a hug and
wished me luck in Colombia he has been one of my favorites. But my
absolute favorite was by Russell M. Nelson when he talked about self
mastery, I love that term! also when he talked about each and every
day is a day of decision, and that daily decisions determine our
eternal destiny. I loved that one the most because it helped me
respond to my question that I had that was ¨How can I stay completely
focused for the rest of my time in the mission.¨ I made this my
question because I realized that just when I am becoming the best
missionary I have ever been, I have been starting to think about the
Jeep and my motorcycle and college. And while these things are’nt bad
there are better thoughts that I could be thinking. Gosh these dumb
thoughts never came into my mind before. So I guess I´ll just ask you
guys the same question, how can I master being a missionary and stay
focused? Obviously I know that there are things about home that are
not too great, like work and study and making my own decisions. But I
just am tending to think of all the cool and awesome stuff there is
out there. So that’s my question. haha also before conference I thought
I was a good missionary, but then boy was I humbled.  Gosh I know I can
do so much more.  I just can’t seem to reach my potential. Everything
that I have asked for God has given to me and I just feel like I´m not
doing a very good job using all of his many blessings to my advantage.
Well I’ve got to go. But I sure love you guys SSOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! thanks
for everything and have a great week:)
-Elder Crook
 

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