Record Breaking weeks!

Hey everybody!!!

Sorry about not being as diligent with my blog posts lately! Hopefully these are all making it onto my facebook profile as well (hint hint family lol). This week for missionary work in the Clonsilla 2 area of Dublin! Elder Topp and I taught a personal and area record-breaking 26 lessons this week! Woohoo!!!!!

Okay, so Veliana is our most solid investigator at the moment. She has a baptismal date of the 29th of September! It's great to see someone so prepared and willing to listen and accept these things that we're sharing! This will be my first baptism and I'm so excited!

Oh! So Elder Topp, Elder Mauff, Elder Akebrand, and I all got up yesterday in church and performed a missionary-only acapella quartet of 'More Holiness Give Me.' It went GREAT!!! I started it off alone, and as soon as I opened my mouth, everyone, kids and babies included, went SILENT to listen. We blended and Harmonized really well and the Spirit was definitely brought into the meeting. :) Many compliments were paid by the ward. Most of them were VERY surprised that we sounded good haha.

MATTHEW! Matthew (our polish investigator) Came to church today and brought 2 kids! Jessie who is 7 and Ryan who is 4, and they loved it! Elder Topp and I had a great time visiting with them and their mother yesterday, and Jessie taught me quite a few Polish/Gypsy words! Here's a few! Chocolate-sucrierko; plate- talejo; window-okna; Clock-Zegerko; butter-Masmo; Sausage-barufka; cup-shklaka. And they told me I was an english speaking missionary! ;)

Honestly, missionary work is such a refiner's fire, but it involves so much joy that sometimes I don't even notice the 'work' involved. As I've tried to serve these people, that's when the Holy Ghost has helped me to be the best that I can be! I've been able to develop that christ-like love for these people, and friendships are being formed which are hard to sever.

Also! Pro really surprised us this week! He says that he does most of the commandments already, so they didn't really make a difference to him. In other words, he couldn't receive an answer by doing what he already does; so he asked us for something that would challenge him and allow him to 'test God' to receive an answer. WOW, right?? So Elder Topp and I decided to teach him about Fasting (something he doesn't like the idea of) and we will be fasting with him sometime this week! It's gonna be great!

Speaking of fasting, in case I haven't said before, the Scotland/Ireland Mission is having a 40-day fast (2 companionships at least fasting each day) so that we can have 40 convert baptisms in the month of October! I'm super excited for it! Elder Topp and I are near the end, on October 10th, which is actually the next moves day. So if we move, we could be on trains or planes or ferrys or buses on an empty stomach! :p But it'll be fine.

I know that I'm doing the Lord's work. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I know that we are led and guided by a living prophet today. I can't wait for General Conference so we can hear the wonderful counsel for us from the prophet and apostles. I know that faith is the source of any knowledge of Gospel truths, and it takes action to learn them for ourselves.

Thanks so much for the letters! I LOVE responding and hearing about all the exciting things happening in your lives! See ya soon!

Love,

Elder Crosby

Post ending 9-2-12

Hey everybody!

This week was full of adventures of the missionary variety! Well, I say that because it was moves week. Elder Topp and I are in the same ward as our Zone Leaders (one of which was going home-Elder Manning) and the other (Elder Mauff) was left to coordinate ALL the missionaries moving in and out of the entire Republic of Ireland by himself!!! So, needless to say, he needed as much help as he could. Elder Topp and I spent a lot of time this week in one of the missionary cars dropped off in Dublin to take missionaries to and from airports, bus stations, and flats (apartments) all around the Dublin area. Since Elder Topp doesn't have his UK driver's Lisence (tons of people don't in the UK cause public transport is so much better), I was the one driving! Let me tell you, driving in the UK/Ireland is SO different from the US. Everything is a manual transmission, you drive on the LEFT side of the road, you have TONS of roundabouts with their own laws, and all of that on top of the fact that you're in the middle of a very big city! Haha but have no worries, I prevailed! We got all the missionaries where they needed to be, and all is well.

The teaching is going great as well. Matthew is reading, and he says his mind lights up when he reads the book of mormon, and he sees the same teachings as Jesus teaches in the New Testament! He and his family are so amazing... Veliana is the sister of a member in our ward, and when she heard about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon, she was just like "Yeah, it's true!" It was awesome to see her so prepared to receive these truths! We're stilll working with Pro, but it's a little slow going. He really does have a desire to get that answer for himself though, and I know that it'll come!

Ummm, oh! Did I tell you all about Sharpe Musical Day? Well, a family in our ward (The Sharpes) had a musical day in which they sang everything all day! And we were invited to teach them and eat dinner with them! It was SO fun to teach and eat in sing-song! What a perfect family for a kid that loves musicals right??

Thanks for everyone who has written! Getting post is like christmas every time! It takes about 5 or 6 days for a letter to travel, but It does get here and I do reply ASAP! I want to hear from all of you!

 

To everyone going back to school/college this week, good luck! Stay strong, stay focused, have fun! I probably miss BYU more than almost anything else, so appreciate the time you have wherever you are. The Joy is in the journey!

 

Well I think that's all for this week, I'll try to include more pictures/specific stories soon, cause I want you to enjoy this blog as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

Love you all!

~Elder Crosby