Week Ending 1-20-13

Hola Everybody!

 

It's a Wonderfully warm 20 something degrees outside, and missionary work is moving onward! The Snow comes and goes. It has snowed every 3 or so days here lately. Long enough so it doesn't just pile up, but short enough that it stays cold round the clock haha.

We had our ward conference this week! So the stake presidency came and took over all the talks and meetings and such. They were really good. But the Thursday before, we had a 'Pre-conference visit' with the Ward Council where we discussed our progress, and made goals on how we can make the ward grow. (Lots of missionary work talk.)

 

Afterwards, however, the ward council, the stake presidency, and ourselves and went out to visit Less Active members, returning members, or (in our case) a new investigator. We and President Wark went to drop by a lady named Karen. :) She is the nicest lady on the face of the planet. At first she said she was just too busy cause she had to take the dogs out. So instead, I just asked if we could walk the dog with her. As I took care of the leash of a VERY strong 2 yr old dog, she brought up the gospel, asked questions, and President Ward shared his conversion story and circumstances which were EXTREMELY similiar to her own! (Luck? I think NOT)

 

She let us into her home when we made it back, and we just listened to her and shared about how the Gospel can help. It went REALLY well. I felt like we were truly inviting her to come and put all her cares onto the Savior and to find rest in Him.

 

Not too many other exciting things happened. We had interviews with our Mission President, President Brown, and afterwards a number of missionaries got Kebabs to eat. :) (Kebabs don't exist in America- possibly for good reason)

It was Elder Johns first Kebab- and in this mission we call it his 'Kebabtism.' lol

 

Lots of great things are happening here! I feel that the work is picking up quickly!

 

I love you all! Stay warm and safe!

~Elder Crosby

Week Ending 1-6-13

Greetings and Salutations!

Happy New Year Everybody!

 

Wow! This New Year has brought MANY changes already, all of which have been wonderful!

First Off. My time with Elder Griffin is at an end, he has moved on to bigger and better things and has gone over to The Limerick Zone in Ireland to whitewash and area! (Whitewash means that instead of keeping one missionary there and sending in one new one, they replaced them both at the same time-- so basically they have to start with no knowledge about the area haha.)

 

As for me: *drumroll* I've had the opportunity to be called as a trainer for a brand-spankin-new missionary! On Wednesday morning, me and some other missionaries walked through the sleeping Glasgow City Centre to catch a train at Central Station headed towards Edinburgh. After getting there, we had our 'Trainers Meeting' with President Brown, and I discovered that 5 people from my group are training! Myself, Elder Holm, Elder McCarthy, Elder Tinsley, and Sister Hopkin! Trust me, as we met the new missionaries climbing off the mini bus and as we sat on the 'trainers' side of the room, we shared how we were just doing the same thing yesterday! 6 months has FLOWN by.

 

As is the tradition for the new missionaries and their trainers, we all got into 'real people' clothes and hiked up Pratt's Hill in the Centre of Edinburgh. It wasn't at ALL like the first time I did it 6 months ago. When I went, we were practically in the middle of a monsoon and you couldn't see the bottom of the hill (it's a big hill, 900 ft or so); but when we went this time, it was beautifully sunny and very windy, and I enjoyed going up there so much!

 

After many a meeting and interviews and such, we finally got to find our new companions. I have Elder Johns from SLC Utah! He's GREAT! I'm really enjoying showing him the ropes and he's learning so fast!

 

Along with the new companion has come a LOAD of New Investigators! We've contacted tons of people and gotten 4 new investigators in the past 4 days! The most exciting was finding this young couple named Sean and Lisa. They have DEFINITELY been prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That's been a real testimony builder for me in the past week. God is TRULY preparing people to receive our message and he is leading us to them at just the right time. It's just amazing.

 

Well, that's all for this week! I hope that you've all made some resolutions and that you KEEP them! My advice? Pick 3 things. That's it. 3 things and STICK to it.

 

Tara!

Love,

Elder Crosby

Week Ending 12-28-12

Hello Everyone!

First of all, I am SO sorry for not posting in so long! As most of you will undoubtedly know, Christmas time has a way of making everybody super busy (even missionaries), so I hope you'll forgive me as I try and sum up the past few weeks!

Dec. 12th- We had an All-Scotland mission Conference where Elder Patrick Kearon of the 70 came and spoke to us.

WOW. I cannot even begin to say how inspired this man was. He taught us for probably 5 hours, and he had us engaged and partcipating and excited the entire time. (Which for missionaries who love a nice nap on a soft church pew is a huge accomplishment) Luckily lunch was 1/2 way through and we were able to visit with all the other missionaries for a bit.

But! Elder Kearon's counsel has helped me to make huge pivot in the way I approach my missionary work. He talked about the power that we posess as missionaries, and how the decisions we make to be better have power in themselves. He spoke of how we can have confidence to make miracles happen if we're fulifilling our responsibilities the best we can. He spoke about truly outstanding missionaries "Shattering the Ceiling," which means that they refuse to accept the norm and they go and work and MAKE great things happen because of their faith.

He also said that we shouldn't just be missionary robots, but that we need to be real people! I loved that bit because so many missionaries forget how to be a normal person sometimes! It becomes 'Greetings investigator beep boop we're sharing a message of happiness boop beep beep take us to your leader beep boop beep!' We can't be that way!

But yeah, I've made a lot of changes and decisions to improve myself since the conference, and I've seen great blessings come from that! We had a small miracle as Elder Griffin and I decided to apply some things we were taught: We decided to pray each time we go to find people to teach so that we can know where to go and what to say. So the VERY first time we do this, we go off to the side of some houses and say a quiet prayer. We've barely said 'amen' when the door nearest us opens, and someone throws some water outside. We immediately go and talk to him, teach him about the book of mormon, and we arranged a time to come back and see him! That was more success than we'd had in a while, so it truly was a miracle in our eyes. I had a scripture come to mind right then from mosiah, where it say when we do what God asks of us, that he 'Doth immediately bless you and prosper you.' We were IMMEDIATELY blessed, and we've seen that attitude carry on in the past few weeks.

Hmmmm. Christmas Eve, I directed 40 missionaries in singing Christmas Carols and Songs in this REALLY posh shopping center in Downtown Glasgow. It was really great! I was tired cause we sang for almost 2.5 out of 3 hours, but we raised over £600 for the Charity we were representing! (thats about $1000) super fun!

Christmas was, of course, great. I got to speak to my family, and that was the best gift of all. :)

On Sunday we get our Moves Call, so I'll keep you updated! I've been out for 6 months now! How crazy right? It has FLOWN by.

Funny Story: At the mission conference, all the scotland companionships got a new phone for their areas (a very very very basic new phone.) On the way out, Elder Griffin is looking at it as we walk with two other missionaries to the train station. We're walking and we hear *DING!*

... Elder Griffin walked face first into a sign pole. I died laughing. He was fine, don't worry, but it was GOLD.

Well, I love you all. and hope you all have a wonderful new year!

Love,

Elder Crosby