Dear Home,
Holy cow, Colton is 16!!!
I'm in denial. Also, school is out! It's so weird to think about you guys putting up the pool and everything already. It's so fun to read about all the family goings on, and it brings back good memories.
This week, Elder Jones and I have been working really hard. We don't mess around, we git er done. We'd run ourselved ragged last week, and were running all over the place last p-day, so by the time we got to the end of the day after proselyting for a few hours, we were beat. We decided to take a break from our bikes, leave them at the apartment, and walk for a bit instead. So there we were, walking down the street, tired as all get out, and we pass by an apartment complex of a man we've been trying to get a hold of for a while, and decided to try his door since we were there. We headed into the complex, and saw the door of some investigators who we'd had a scheduled appointment with a few weeks ago, but weren't home when we showed up (it happens a lot). We decided to knock on their door first. When we knocked, a lady by the name of Jasmine opened the door. She recognized us because a few missionaries had been by to do scripture study with them a few months before. We talked for a minute, and her husband asked who was at the door. He asked if it was "the mormons?" and she said yes. He (his name is Thomas) told her to let us in.
So she let us in, and they introduced themselves. They're a young married couple with one 3 year old daughter and a new born son. Jasmine is black, and was brought up Baptist, but hasn't been to church for years. Thomas is white, and believes in God and Jesus Christ, but I'm not sure which church he associates with. They told us that they had been praying a lot recently, and that the fact that we knocked on their door that day was a sign from Heaevly Father. Thomas lost his job a while ago, and they've been struggling a bit, but he just got his job back, and they are seeing several blessings from the Lord in their lives. We asked them if we could give them a message about Jesus Christ, and they willingly agreed.
The spirit was so strong as Elder Jones and I taught them about the Retoration. They were both very involved and asked all the right questions, and Thomas told us that he "feels so good right now". We taught them about the spirit, and invited them to be baptized on the 29th of June. They both said yes. This lesson was so good because we were all following the spirit. Elder Jones and I were just feeding off of each other's energy, and we spoke all the words that the spirit was giving to us. No single person was talking too much or too long. It went extremely well. We made an appointment to come back the following Wednesday, and they were really excited about it.
On Wednesday, we invited Lacrisha (remember her?) to come with us to visit Thomas and Jasmine. It was a perfect match. She really identified with Jasmine because they were both brought up in a baptist church. We taught them about baptism, and our plans for them, and then we discussed the Plan of Salvation. Again, the lesson went really well. Especially when we got to talking about the kingdoms of glory, and they had some questions about our beliefs about heaven and hell. The spirit directed us to explain what we believe in a simple way, and their questions were answered. They received it really well. We invited them to church, and they had the real intent to go, but Thomas has work (a blessing) on Sunday (...less of a blessing) in the morning right when church is. Jasmine still wanted to go, but Thomas would have the car, so Lacrsha offered to give her a ride (yesss. I love awesome members). On Saturday, though, we called to make sure that things were squared away for church on Sunday, and Jasmine decided that she didn't want to go to church her first time without Thomas with her. They appologized, and Thomas said he'd do all that he can to get Sunday off so they can go next week.
They have been so prepared by the Lord to receive us and the church in their lives, and it is such an honor to watch them grow and help them progress, and I love seeing the light fill them up as they identify with the truths that the spirit is teaching them.
There is so much more that I want to tell you! I don't have adequate time to do them all justice, so I'll just do my best:
-Adrienne is the daughter of two less-actives. She's 11, and has received all the lessons and passed all requirements for baptism. Her dad is a member, but hasn't been ordained a priest. We really want him to be able to baptize his daughter, and her date has been set for this Saturday. We hate to have to, but if he wants to baptize her (which he does), we have to push the date back. This is frustrating because members have told me they've been working on getting Adrienne baptized for years, and we hate to wait any longer, but we have to wait for the bishop to interview Brother Christiensen (Adrienne's dad), so he can be ordained.
-Eli is still struggling with alcohol, but is slowly getting better.
There are others that I'll get to later. I love you all! Keep up the hard work (or hard fun). I'll see you all soon!
Amo voces!
-Elder Crapo
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| Apartment pictures |
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| Sunset in Galveston |
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