Hey everybody! It's been another week already? Time is seriously flying past here! It's been a week of amazing experiences and tremendous personal growth for me. Some of the highlights have been how Elder Christensen and I have been growing as teachers!! We've learned a lot about how to ask questions, work together, and effectively plan so that when we get there, we only need to listen to the spirit to know what to do and how to share our message with others. We've had a ton of fun this week too! We had the concert in Avenham park on the banks of the River Ribble, celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the British Isles. George D. Watt was the first man baptized on the European continent, and it happened in the river right next to our celebration! The MTC missionaries as well as those in the Manchester mission all helped clean and coordinate the event with the choir and such, and it was a great success. It rains SO much here, but during the concert it only lightly sprinkled for about 5 min the whole concert! It was definitely a blessing!

 

The next day (sunday) was an amazing experience for me personally as well. The MTC is right next to a stake center as well as the Preston MTC temple (which is gorgeous), and we were invited to put together a choir and provide the music for the Chorley 2nd ward's sacrament meeting. This was a special meeting where an area 70, the stake president, and a couple of local civic leaders were present. The meeting was all about the importance of the family because of the political conflict in the country over the definition of family and marriage. I was able to sing as a solo and a trio of tenors in 2 of the pieces. I sang the first verse of "Familes Can be Together Forver" as a solo, and it was an amazing experience for me. I love my family so much and miss them as well, so I felt the Spirit so strongly as I sang about my opportunity to be with them eternally. After the best talks on families I've almost ever heard, the last piece we sang was "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and It started with me, Elder Olausson, and Elder Jackson singing the whole first verse. By the end of the piece, the entire choir as well as the congregation were singing, and I've never been a part of a choir that has sang so unbelievably strongly with their praises to God. I have a testiomony that Families truly can be together after this life through Heavenly Father's plan for us.

 

Monday (yesterday) was the day of reckoning, truly. We took the train into downtown Manchester, and everyone in the MTC spread out and went street contacting for real! "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" accurately describes the experience. We got denied a lot, and had a couple good conversations, but we met one man who was really interested in what we had to say, especially about how his little son, who had passed away at 6 months old, would be saved by Christ's atonement and that he would definitely see him again. It was amazing to see him take the challenge to find out if what we were saying was true. We also got his information to send more missionaries to teach him soon. Overall, I'd call it a success!!

 

Other than that, I've just been studying and growing a lot, and I can't wait to talk to more people about the joy that I know to be true!

Just so you know, if you've sent me a letter, I WILL reply! I just don't get a lot of time to, so I'm working on it!!! :)

Love,

Elder Crosby