Hey Everybody,

Just to give you some sense of how time flies, I'm already at the end of my first transfer! Wait, oh, mission lingo-- a transfer is the length of time that companionships around the mission stick together, which is 6 weeks at a time. After that 6 weeks, the mission president and his assistants mix it all up with people and move everyone around. Some stay the same, many don't. Don't worry, Elder Topp and I are sticking together for another Transfer here in Dublin (Clonsilla Ward) and I'm so grateful for that, because we love it here! Honestly, our ward? Love 'em. We have some amazing prospective missionaries that help us with our lessons sometimes, and their input is priceless. Also, we're definitely seeing progress with some of our investigators, so we're getting excited for the work ahead!

 

Let's see... Matthew is a polish father that we've been meeting with, and he is great! He's honestly become a good friend of ours! He told us that as he meets with us, he feels as if we've been friends for years! Even through the slight language barrier, he just "got it," started reading, and said his mind just lit up when he read, and he saw the words of Christ there! It was awesome! I know that the Holy Ghost is helping him a lot because of his true desire to be close to God. So I'm really excited that he and possibly his wife (who speaks verrry little english, his is actually pretty good) will join the church! I know that as I serve people like Matthew, care for their individual needs, and pray for them, that I can develop this amazing christ-like love for those people that I teach!

 

We also have a girl named Veliana who is the sister of some members in our ward, and we just introduced her to the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She has just taken it right in and seems to love it! She's also been attending church with them, so that's great!

 

I know that I'm here serving Our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. I know that this work is the most important work that we can possibly do on this earth; helping others to come unto Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's kingdom established once again on the Earth.

I'm so grateful that I can study the Book of Mormon and the Bible every single morning! I've learned so much by diving into the scriptures! IF ANYONE wants to know or says they want to know what Mormons believe, or why I'm out here volunteering 2 whole years to go around talking to strangers, you have to read the Book of Mormon. It's as simple as that. If you want to know why, you have to read it. You can talk about it with us and ask questions and make assumptions all you want, but if you REALLY want to know for yourself, you have to crack open the cover of that little book of scripture, start reading, think about what it's saying, and pray to God to ask whether or not it's truly His word. I can testify that it is, because I've read it. And that's my challenge to you. I dare you. I dare you to read it and really seek to know if it's true.

 

I know that it's God's word. I know that Jesus Christ is my savior, and that through him I can always improve and change for the better. He is the reason for everything I'm doing out here, and I can never thank Him enough.

Love,

Elder Crosby

Elder's Flat



Wow, now that is a haircut!



Missionaries of Dublin

Elder Creytn Crosby and Elder Manning

Weekly Mission Post 8-20-12

Top o' the mornin' from the Emerlad Isle! Sorry I haven't written in two weeks, I've just been busy! Lot's of good things ahve been happening, and I cannot believe that I've been out almost an entire move already! Time flies! Well, I'll just try and highlight on some good things that have happened in the past two weeks.

 

Elder Topp and I have been blessed as teaching machines! We've taught over 20 lessons each of the past two weeks! It's been wonderful to know that as we set our weekly goals, and really concentrate on them, that we can see tremendous success with them!

 

We've been seeing a lot of a Less-active-turned-active member named Rose Smith! She lost her husband just over a year ago,soon after her baptism, and the loss had turned her to the drink. But with the support of the members as well as of the missionaries, in a little over a month, we've seen a complete change come over her! She's completely sober and is extremely optomistic. She's sharing the gospel with everyone she meets, and she's making goals to attend the temple very soon! Get this: We've also had a chance to speak to her son about the Gospel. His name? Well, he was named after his Father Joseph, so his name Joseph Smith Jun, and we've taugh him about the Church! How funny is that??

 

I've been on a couple of exchanges as well (Where you basically trade off companions for 24hrs) with Elder McFadgen, our District Leader, and Elder Manning, our Zone Leader. Both went great! We always seem to find success whilst on exchanges, just because the change of perspective mixes it up a bit.

 

Oh! My favorite family in the ward is the Sharpes. They're all great! We're teaching 7 yr old Evan while he prepares for Baptism, and his mother (who is hilarious) cooks THE best food ever. Cause I'm from Texas, she made us the MASSIVE bbq sauce smothered Ribs. I nearly cried with happiness. hahaha We also came over and did some service for them, and Elder Manning and I got this really spicy chili and a huge Brownie. Missionaries will do almost anything for a good meal.

 

We had Zone Conference! Our mission president, President Brown and his wife came down, and we met and had some missionary training for most of thursday. We were also left the commitment as a zone to find 28 new investigators next week altogether, which would be a record for us! I'm excited!

 

As far as actaul investigators, Matthew is doin well, Glory just got a job (because he's been reading and praying), Pro is still working towards baptism, and Veliana, the sister of a member, basically already knows that the restoration is true! The work is moving forward!

 

An update on my 'beautiful Irish Accent.' It could happen. I speak to irish people a lot at church. But I talk to moooostly Nigerians and Polish people haha. That and a lot of american missionaries hahaha. So I might be able to imitate it still, but the chance of it being natural is slimming haha.

 

I love you all, and would love to hear from you as well (You KNOW who you are) I'm all up to date on replying to letters, so if I've received them (they could be lost in the mail or something) then I have sent a reply!

Love,

Elder Crosby

Hey everybody! This week wasn't quite as busy, but there were some good things that have happened! Last Preparation day, Elder Topp, the Zone Leaders Elder Mauff and Manning, and myself, drove up to maynooth and visited St. Patrick's College. BEAUTIFUL. The Dignified, Medieval architecture was quite impressive and beautiful! Combined with the luscious green groundkeeping, it was an impressive sight! I didn't take pictures, but I promise to be better about it! 

Well Wednesday, Elder Topp and I took up most of the day in going down into City Center in Dublin for me to get my GARDA card, basically the Irish version of a green card so I can be here legally. My picture is atrocious, but what else is new? Thursday we went out to a few houses with little success, and mid-afternoon, Elder Topp said that we  needed to get back to the flat on account of him not feeling well. Turns out we ended up spending the rest of Thursday and all of Friday cooped up in the flat as Elder Topp fought off something a 24 hour bug. It was nice because it gave us both some time to take a good rest and get ready to work again. 

He felt better by saturday, and we really wanted at this time to get some lessons in! So we ended up teaching 4 lessons on saturday, and 5 on sunday!! We taught Glory about the Restoration, and it was an excellent lesson because he listens so well and asks good questions. We also met with a new investigator named Dan who is from Romania, and who, when we stopped him on the street, asked us for a Romanian Book of Mormon before we could even offer it to him. He speaks very poor english, but we are working with him!

One of the funniest things is that we were walking through some neighborhoods sunday evening, and some kids between 11 and 17 yelled after us about getting free bibles. So we turned right around (because it was funny to see there reactions) and walked up and started speaking with them. As it was one of there only chances to talk to 'the freaky God people,' they started asking questions, and we ended up speaking with 6 or 7 of them for almost an hour! We answered a ton of really good questions, and in the end we ended up giving them copies of the book of mormon and challenged them to read it and pray about it! As missionaries, we cannot actively proselyte to kids, but if they approach us with requests and questions, we can definitely talk to them. Kids are awesome, because they know HOW to learn, and they know HOW to ask questions, and most of them said "I like what you believe, it just makes so much sense!" So we hope that eventually that some good will come from that talk. It was a nice experience, especially to let them know that we are actually pretty young, and completely normal people haha.

Well that's it for this week, letters have been taking a long time because of my moving around, but I do get them and I will reply asap!

Love,

Elder Crosby