I'm turning into my mother!! - Letter of 10-14-13

I’m turning into my Mother!!!

Gosh darnit. Haha well I´ll explain you the title right off. Well

those senior pictures of Shaylen caught me off guard. And reminded me

the cold hard reality that when I see her again she will be graduated.

Honestly I made a promise to myself to not cry during my whole

mission. And the only times I have were in that last call home and

right now. I mean I´m not bawling just a few little tears slipped out

ok;) But toots you can count on a lot better of a brother now. Gosh I

love you a lot and am amazed at what you are doing right now. Not just

with your running, but with your whole self. Geez you have grown into

an awesome girl!!! Man God had to send me away to a foreign country

just to get me to change a little. You are growing and becoming into

the person God wants you to become in HIGH SCHOOL. I really admire you

for that. Honestly in high school I worried about stuff that wasn´t

important at all and didn’t put enough attention to the things that

really matter. So you’re a very good example to me. Congratulations for

running under 18 minutes but I really like your attitude of making

that time the one that you normally expect:) but you can celebrate and

feel happy a little bit right YOU BROKE 18 MINUTES!! enjoy it:) oh

yeah and I finally called Santiago haha, I actually called his dad

because he had given me his number when they first met me when I was

in Jordan. Haha I am still meeting people that remember me from a year

ago here. OH funny experience, so the last leadership conference we

had, I was walking on the bridge to go to the transmilenio bus with a

big ol box in my arms when I see all of the young men, young

women and young single adults from Cucuta. They were from barrio

motilones (which I didn´t even serve in that ward, but passed almost

every p-day playing soccer there) and they all almost mauled me. Haha

it’s really cool how much the people love the missionaries because I

didn´t even serve in their ward, and they were all taking pictures

with me and talking and all excited to see me and asked if I

remembered them. It was pretty cool and fun to get to see them all.

Alright so we had another pretty sweet p-day today. It was a super

p-day because we had 123 baptisms last month, so the president

organized a super p-day. We got together with all the zones in Bogota which

are 5 with the zone of Duitama and the zone of Yopal. So I got to see

my boy Albrecht again who is Zone leader in Yopal and we played a

little american football baby! haha first we played soccer because we

made a zone team with positions and everything and thought that we

were gonna dominate. But when we got to the field I think it was a

real full sized field! because it was huge, lets just say that us

gringos do not know how to space ourselves and just chasing the ball

around does not work, because it makes you super tired in very little

time. Even though my comp put us in our specific positions I still

couldn´t play on such big of a field. So there were a few gringos that

brought footballs so I decided to go play a little 7 on 7 instead

haha. It was way fun, and even though there was a lot of gringos that

played football they weren´t even that good. I dominated for as slow

and tubby as I am. My highlights lol were a pick 6 and another 1 handed

interception lol. And a bunch of other touchdowns. We played with a

bunch of young gringos who we didn’t know at all but they all knew each

other. So at first no one passed me the ball but when they finally did

they saw that I was decent lol and started to pass it to me. It

reminded me how much I love the sport but just how incredibly

political it is as well which is the harsh downside. Then me and

Albrecht had a couple nice little talks here and there and me and him

have definitley become pretty good friends.

Soooooo I answered my own question! haha It made me feel good. So I

was getting unfocused mainly while we were walking from cita to cita,

if I wasn´t talking to my comp I was letting my mind drift. So I

figured something out.  If I do just 1 or 2 contacts on the way to the

citas my mind stays sharp and focused on the work. I got it from the

general authority that said ´if you want more people to teach you have

to talk to more people each day¨ So I applied that and it has been

working and I feel like I am more effective as a missionary. Then it

was funny today because we had a little devotional after super p-day

and the president talked to us exactly about the same thing. That we

need to talk with more people every day so I was like QUE TE DIGO

REVELACION? haha:)

Well its hard to believe but we have cambios this sunday, E´Perez

thinks that he is leaving, but I keep telling him that he is staying

lol. So who knows if I will get another companion but he has been my

clear favorite so far. Also thank you Nicole for writing me a letter,

it is always cool to see what is going on in your lives´even though my

dad does fill me in on all of Aarons funny projects:) hope that log

splitter is getting some good use;) haha so tell Gage hi, and tell him

to make a Preach my Gospel dating edition;) haha I have given him

some GREAT ideas lol but who knows if he has been using them.

Love you guys all, I really hope you have a great week, and mom learn

some spanish from good ol ricardito or whatever his name is! tell me

how it goes;) I already know that Dads knowledge is growing more and

more everytime I tell him to translate a cool phrase in spanish

LES QUIERO:)

-Elder Crook

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

 

Letter from 9-23-13

Alright first of all pa, I have to say you are WRONG!!! Hahahaha, I am

laughing in your face right now because I told you Elder Perez was from

Chile in my letter titled BBBB BACK TO BOGOTA BABY. Yeah you might

have to put those scripture searching skills to work (or buy better

glasses;) cause I had already told you!!!! What now pa;) I actually

really like my haircut! I look like a stud ready to kill with my

spiritual power. The only bad thing about it is that it got cut so

short that my dome is fried right now. Haha I have never had to put

sunscreen in my hair to protect the dome but there’s a first for

everything haha. A few days ago I was standing in the sun and could

just feel my poor scalp cooking like a fried egg.  Yeah it’s pretty

burnt lol. Sometimes I feel like Josh Line, and we all know that he

could be a contract killer lol. Anyways we did have our zone

conference and the president didn’t say anything to me but his wife

did. I was helping her with the lunch stuff and she kind of told me

that it was unacceptable to have it this short. But I just told her

what dad says,  ¨Well it won´t make a difference in a few weeks¨ then

last night we had to take a missionary to the President’s house, and

she saw me and told me that it looked a lot better now. Haha dad

maybe the food I´m eating here does make my hair grow faster. Oh by

the way, I think I weigh more than you now;) Mr 173, well I´m Mr 84 in

kilos, yeah.....convert that! and then get ready for a smack down!

I´ve been practicing with a few of my latino friends lol;) if anything

I´ll just give you a double nalga pin!! haha nalga or nalgas is one of

the very first words I learned in the MTC, 19 year old humor lol. As

for 19 yr old humor I´ll have to take a picture of a Colombian dog

doing the shake shake shaky!!! I was laughing so hard when I read that

letter it almost involuntarily made me start to shake shake shake, so

I ran to the b-room but it turned out to be a false alarm. But I´ll

take a picture and then Shay can attach it to her descriptive essay to

describe wobbly legs:) Believe me I´ll send you one!

Ok on a more serious note, I got a few letters from old investigators

that I was teaching in Cucuta.  We had a family there that the son and

the mom were baptized before I got there and we were focusing on the

twin sisters who are about 29 and the Dad. It´s cool because E´ Perez

started to teach them all because he also served in Cucuta Barrio

Atalaya about 6 months before me. So we both got e-mails telling us

that the twin sisters are getting baptized! And the dad has started to

go to church! It made me and E´ Perez from Chile (just in case that

dad has already forgotten;) sooo happy we both wrote them back and

hopefully they will send us pictures, they will be getting baptized

the week after conference. It was so funny because when I was there,

we had the twins accept a baptismal date but only if they received a

confirmation from God. Well the day later one of the twins´ boyfriends

dumped her, so she took that to be her answer and spent the whole week

in her room crying. Which turned out to be my last week in Cucuta, I

went and said bye to all of them exept her lol.

Well Pa your story about carrying the icy bag of water up the hill made

me think of something to tell you. SO our house is like the center for

all of the material that the zone needs, all of the Books of Mormon

and pamphlets come in big boxes that weigh like 20 pounds. I have been

converted into the best box carrier ever. Man it’s just awesome to have

2 boxes on your shoulders and then get on the transmileno that is

packed with people. At least they move when the see a freaking buff

mob boss get on the bus lol. Usually you have to push and shove which

is no problem for me due to the amount of soccer I have been playing

lol. But then sometimes we need to carry stuff to the other

missionaries houses which are about a 20 minute walk, so I´m pretty

sure that Dana White will choose me for the next fight with Brock

Lesner, Pa you´ll have to fight in the featherweight weightclass, haha

just a few  weightclasses down. Too bad you’re so skinny or we´d both be

duking it our in the championship fight for the light heavyweighters;)

I also have been dedicating more time to my abs, and am starting to

see those chocolatinos (6 pack) pokin through there haha. It was

pretty much invisible for a while there but if you cock your head and

if the light is just right you can see a wicked 6 pack haha.

Alright so we had a cool experience this week.  So Tuesday night I

wanted to do everything we could to have 3 lessons with a member on

Wednesday, so we planned good and got members for all of the lessons

and stuff like that. It turns out that after 8:30 we had 2 with a member

and 1 normal lesson without a member. We went to pick up the member with

whom we had confirmed the night before but he canceled on us. So we

headed to the lesson kinda bummed talking about how tommorrow we would

have to make up for it with 4 lessons with a member. So we got to the

guys house, and started normally and halfway through the lesson, the

elders quorom president shows up telling us that he felt the need to

come and talk to Orlando (our investigator.  We were amazed!!! It was a

great lesson and we ended with a prayer and left and the member stayed

and talked a little. But It was a super awesome experience of faith

vs. works.  We had done everything to have 3 lessons with a member and God knew that, that’s where his hands came into play a little bit more visibly,

and sent the Elders Quorum president our way. I love those little

spiritual confirmations! It wasn´t by all means a huge miracle, but

those are the things that strengthen me most! and the things that I

will never forget and will be able to look back on and be able to act

with more faith in my life. It was super cool and uplifting:)

Well I´ve got to end, but Shay!! go out with the sisters more!!! I

promise it will help you with every aspect of your life if you go out

with them more. When I always went out with them I always felt such a

strong spirit!! I encourage you to take a little more time out of your

super busy schedule and do it more. Also have a great weekend!!! Man

am I geared up to hear some spiritual wisdom from the men that are the

closest to God here on this earth. It´s got me so excited!!! Hopefully

we can transfer this excitement to the investigators so that they can

go and feel the spirit!

LOVE YOU ALL SOO VERY MUCH heres a little español for ya!!1 LES

QUIERO, LES AMO, Que les vaya bien, que estén bien, que Dios les

bendiga y un montón de otros dichos:) ohhhh y bien hecho tootsie tu

puedes correr tan rápido aun cuando estas en lluvia y barro y truenos,

QUE TE DIGO, ERES LA MEJORA;)

UN BESITO HAHAHA   -Elder Crook