Happy Anniversary

Well I´m not sure what a ¨silver¨ aniversary is but it sure seems interesting lol.   Too bad the hobbit couldn´t be a part of it lol. But I congratulate you both for lasting so much time with the same companion. That’s a pretty amazing feat. Let’s just say there’s no emergency transfers in marriage. Heck there aren´t even any planned changes to look forward to when you want to get rid of your compy (not that that has EVER crossed my beautiful mind). But at least you got to choose you companion, thats a big plus, I think maybe I could do it with Elder Perez, or E´ Albrecht or Hicken lol.

SO last monday I had kind of a funny story. So me and hickey stayed in the chapel till about 4 practicing our duet. There were some niños playing on the field and they left and gave us the keys to give to the bishop, no big deal right? Wellllll not necessarily when they forgot that the deadbolt is in one of their backpacks. SO we go to leave and find that we can´t lock the gate. Well that’s a really big deal. So I raced home changed and went and wrote you guys, all of this time leaving the chapel unlocked because the bishop wasn´t answering. SO finally afterwards at 6 we were able to locate the niño and he was still unaware of the deadbolt (ahhhh niños) haha I had to track him down and tell him to STAY WHERE YOU ARE SO I CAN SHUT THE CHAPEL. Turns out in all of my haste, I lock the keys in the apt. (first time in 4 months). I who had done it once before knew exactly what to do. Get the ladder from the maintenance  guy and climb in through the window which is strategically left unlocked for precisely these moments lol. BUT the maintenance  guy had gone home early haha. SO my set of keys being the only ones we use were in the apt along with the church keys to lock up the gate...Wonderfull. Good thing I´m an eagle scout and am always prepared with a plan. We have a member just around the corner of the apt and miraculously he had a ladder. Haha the look on the security guard’s face was so funny when I walked through the door with a 20 foot ladder. It was literally 5 minutes after I had asked about the maintenance one. He thought I was out of options but NO I have connections lol, It´s great to be a missionary:) So I climbed in through the window and was at the church in a matter of minutes to close the gates like at 7. Well yet another learning experience of how if you don´t take a minute to slow down and think things through in stressfull moments, more stressfull moments are going to compound the problem. It was pretty funny the look on the security guys face though. That made it all worth it:)

WELL we had an AMAZING Christmas conference that was actually a whole lot of fun. It´s cool to see how president has lightend up just a tad from last year. Last year’s Christmas conference consisted of A HUGE 4 hour capacitation on how to teach short lessons, how ironic. 30 minutes to scarf down a really good but really small lunch, more capacitations, a small Christmas video and passing out a few gifts from the mission. This year was full of musical numbers and a really good lunch, tons of games and stuff and the same movie as last year. It was a lot better and a lot more relaxed. President is still really really strict though. Our number was THE BEST haha we played it sooooo goood! I only messed up once playing it the last time through fast and Hickens voice cracked super hard on our last big opera note lol we had everyone laughing sooo hard and it was classic. I will never forget it, I wish I could send you guys the video but oh well. Oh about the piano, well I realized that I really really really love to play and that I regret it so much not having learned the hymns before. So It´s a goal I´ll have  to learn to play all the hymns. Oh and ma, don´t forget about that sheet music!

Well on top of the Christmas conference we had our ward Christmas activity, it was the most legit activity I have ever been to. They rented a TON of games and blow up houses and cool stuff to do it looked like the circus from outside the gates. And the best part was the ELECTRICAL BULL, yeah pretty sweet huh:) Well I had to go buy a new SD card just so I could have a video of me dominating the bull. Yeah the other one is full;) so I did get up and kick the bulls butt for about a minute and a half until I was so dizzy from spinning in the same direction that I just kinda let go and flopped onto the pad dizzier than a drunk dude on Friday night. It was tons of fun and I had a blast helping set up and talking to all of the members and all of our investigators, they all congratulated me on my succesfull run on the wild bull. You mine as well call me Vaquero Crook instead of Elder;) Also before in the morning we went caroling with our district to a few investigators and me and Hicken had tons of fun singing goofilly to the investigators. We were going to go sing ¨Feliz navidad¨ to all of the Jehovahs Witnesses that were out in full, but decided against it lol (probably a good idea) 

Well to finish the night we had a baptism:) it went well and hopefully he will become a strong member, a member baptized him which is always better than one of us. So hopefully we can do a good job with the ward setting him up with a network of support. He is the boyfriend of a very active member who got pregnant and had her baby a few weeks ago. They have said a few things about marriage but who knows. But I know the gospel has made a big impact on his (carlos) life. 

Well turns out that I think we are gonna have to skype the 26th because we were planning on going to a members house for Christmas eve and skyping our families BUT president says no members computers( don´t ask me why) so no one is going to have an internet open the 24th. Sorry, I was really excited to do it as well on the 24th but the 26th will be just as good. WE also can´t call to set up a time so I will figure everything out really well this week and e-mail you guys with the time next monday.

To end, I can´t believe Shay has narrowed her colleges down to 2 WOW! this will definitley have to be a subject of matter when we skype. I CAN¨T BELIEVE DECISION TIME IS SO CLOSE. Well I really love you guys, thanks to gradma and grandpa Crook who e-mailed me this week. Sorry I´ll get you your personal e-mail next week. But I´m glad grandpa liked listening about us giving it to the christian missionary:) haha! LOVE YOU ALLL SOOOOO VERY MUCH AND TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK!

-Elder Crook