A little late - Kody's letter from 11-11-13

Alright pa well here’s a new word for you –REGAÑAR.  Look it up before you

read anything else. Well you’re gonna get a good ol regaño from your poor

ol son here in Colombia,  left out in the dark about the epic bear hunt

that went down. Remember size does not matter, I don´t care if you

shot the smallest bear in the world, heck I don´t even care if it was

3 legged, growth stunted, blind, deaf and dumb. I wanna hear the story

behind it. I can still remember carrying my beast of a deer down the

mountain just praying that we didn´t run into anyone because it was a

shame to be seen with such a small animal. Mom and Shay both told me

that the master hunter was so beat that he had cramps all night and

couldn´t even sleep because his experience was so traumatic. Wait I´m

thinking of another word for ya, ya it´s niñita;) Just wait till Mr.

Chocolatinas gets home ready to rumble. I´ll go hunt that bear with a

Colombian machete! Of course it will be my lucky machete;) haha just

tell me the story you big NIÑA.

WELL today was part awesome and part dissapointment. Well we went to

the temple and made it there on time. It was such a great experience

because the last time I want was last December. I heard the new video

came out a while ago in the U.S but here the new temple video came out

this month and its so cool! I really enjoyed my experience and tried

to just soak every little bit of the spirit up that I could. It´s such

a blessing to have a temple here close. We have very limited time to

go frequently but I honestly believe that there is nowhere better to

spend your time on than in the temple. So I left with a lot of good

energy and excitement to keep on trucking and try to make the best out

of every situation and just try to enjoy every minute of my mission.

Cause its awesome! SO at the last minute yesterday I asked a member to

search for the schedule of the Gold museum. It said ¨open all

holidays¨ Today is a holiday but at the bottom of the page it said

¨open all holidays that are not Mondays¨ wow, well there went our

chance to see some Colombian Gold. Who knows if I´ll ever get to see

it now.

Anyways we had a service project this week where we went to an

apartment complex and helped the all Mormon team of construction

workers. It was fun and we got the job of sanding doors so they could

be painted. I fired the other gringo Elders up with my best voice of

the martial arts dude from Napolean Dynamite, you know the ¨how would

you like a round house kick to the face with these bad boys¨ guy. I

can´t remember what his name is but I used that voice and we started

the ¨power sand.  We actually made a few videos where I was the host on

the Colombian home network channel, teaching everyone how to sand. It´s

pretty funny but not like hilarious. So we sanded 4 flights of stairs

with 4 doors on each flight in the same time that the sisters sanded 1

flight. They´re such hard workers;) Haha honestly I don´t know why I

am telling you all of this dumb stuff but it´s probabaly because I

don´t have anything else to say.

So thanks for your inspirational picture Shay, its really awesome and

I think it’s my favorite picture of you. YOu look so happy:) hopefully

You’re enjoying your win and get used to the compliments and praise

because you’re the new big shot on campus;) What are your Thanksgiving

plans? Isn´t it in like 2 weeks?

Well I got my package for you guys sent off, hopefully you like it. I

included a few surprises and some photos that are the highlights of my

year in 2013. We´ve all got to give a huge THANK YOU to William Blanca

and Santiago for being nice enough to come over here to Suba and pick

my package up and bring it to you guys. I don´t know what we would do

if if weren´t for William.

Happiness in a Nutshell

Well it´s honestly so good to get to hear from you guys every week. It´s weird because president just sent us the guidelines for talking to our families for Christmas. It just hit me BOOM! and made me super excited to get to see you guys again. Lots of things have changed since last Mother’s day and I am just so much more happy. SO 1 more month and we´re talkin! Haha well to start off yep dad you’re right about Elder Hicken´s dad.  He´s Greg Hicken the orthopedic surgeon from Logan. Did you know him well or not so much? I told him and we were both pretty surprised to realize that our dads might know each other. I know that I have said this before but he has become an awesome friend here in Suba and we spend every p-day together. It´s so funny because he was just telling me about the first hobbit movie and he got a kick out of how mom just kinda softly rejected the idea of going and watching THE 9:00 AM SESSION OF THE NEW HOBBIT. I think it´s funny that it´s at 9 o clock in the morning but maybe you guys could go and watch the 2 hobbits and then the full trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. There ain’t nothin bigger un that for a 25th year aniversary. Mom how can you not just resist that offer. Well whatever you do, I congratulate you for your wonderful marriage and amazing example you have been to us kids. 

Haha so pa I liked your quote, ¨the more miserable it is, the more you´ll remember it.¨ Well that was not the case this Thanksgiving, turns out I just completely forgot about the wonderful holiday (hence, one more step to achieving my true Colombian nationality). Until Elder Hicken told me Happy Thanksgiving.  We were doing a baptismal interview Thursday and I was just like DANG, it´s Thanksgiving. Then it didn´t even cross my mind again really until now. Even though last years will be more memorable with the pigs feet and beans, I liked this year because I didn´t even have one tiny bit of homesickness like I did last year. Which brings me to my next point:)

So it really is just wonderful and a truly amazing experience to be here.  One night last week after having a good busy day I was unusually tired, so after planning I went to my workout/clothes room and sat on my meditating box (the box of books of mormons I use to do toe raises on) I usually just sit there for a while and think back on the day we had. So I was engaged in this when a ginormous feeling of peace, happiness, tranquility, and just sheer joy came over me. It almost made me cry, but to let you all know I am not that sappy anymore lol. But I just reflected on when in the history of my life had I ever felt this same feeling. All of the memories had to do with our family. Memories of Dad coming back to our house in Utah after a long period spent in Oregon. Memories of waking you guys up early on Christmas, others of me getting home from college, or just those good plain old days when we were able to spend dinner together at the table. So Why I thought, If I´m a thousand miles away from my family and haven’t seen them in over a year am I feeling this way. And I tell you it´s because my relation with God and Jesus has gotten better, I have step by step gotten just a little closer to where they are and it´s an amazing feeling. Then I just couldn´t even imagine combining the 2 things, having my family close and the gospel that helps us come closer to Christ. Honestly I am little by little being able to understand more and more about happiness and peace with a whole lot more to go, but it´s awesome just to step back and enjoy the ride:)

So pa to answer your question about the buffe, I sure did gag;) haha I don´t know why sometimes I can´t control that reflex but I forced the half masticated food down my throat and unfortunately it got caught going down. So for a few minutes before I could get out of lunch I had a big lump thing in my esophagus that I couldn’t get out even with gulping a million times. I had to eat some bread afterwards lol. Other funny tidbits of my week are that there is always a cool old guy in the other ward that I talk to every Sunday morning. I met him a few weeks ago when he walked up to me and said Elder Crook! Do you like american football? in english, I very surprised said si haha. Then we started a very detailed conversation in both english and spanish about the NFL, haha he has been keeping me up to date on all of the sunday night and Monday night games. It was super funny because he told my comp that he schedules his family home evening before the game starts so he can be able to watch the whole thing. He is just about my favorite old guy in the world right now:)

So we had 2 baptisms last week and they turned out super well. They were references from a member and next month we will baptize the other daughter of the mom and her soon to be husband if they don´t move out of our ward. But the lady and her daughter got up afterwards and bore their testimonies on how they had received all different types of churches and missionaries in their home but they were really just waiting to hear our message. They are AWESOME!! Haha Elder Landa baptized the mom and I baptized the niña lol. Everyone was so worried about how Elder Landa is so small and skinny and they all thought he was going to drop the mom in the water, she is kind of tubby. But everything turned out fine, then I baptized the daughter who is skinnier than Landa (now thats saying something) and everyone after made fun of me for how fast and hard I did it. One even said it sounded like she did a belly flop when she entered in the water so it was a good funny experience.  Next time I guess I´ll be more gentle. 

Well next Monday is the changes again. Like dad says the time is just flying by faster and faster. President asked me in my last interview ¨how do you feel your progression is coming so far.¨ I just said well I feel like the time is going by way too fast and I am progressing way too slow. He then told me that I was probably doing a good job lol. So really the pace has really picked up since I hit the year, but I don´t think they´ll change me or my comp, we´re working way too good together. Also a shout out to Jed and Jenni and the boys, thanks for wrting me!!! really good to hear from you guys:) Love you grandma and grandpa Crook and Geddes and thank you Cindi for the nice letter that you sent. I love you all and really hope that everyone has a great week!!!

-Elder Crook

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