Great Weather and Work

Hello family,

     This week for us here seemed to just scream by!  I can't believe that it's Monday again!  We had a really great week staying busy trying to get in contact and teach all those people that we have since we combined areas in the ward.  We were able to teach a little more this week and have a Part Member family that we're working with that have some great potential!  The husband is not a member but has been coming for a little while now with his wife and their two kids because she's a primary teacher for the 4 year old class.  There kids are pretty crazy sometimes but so stinkin cute.  They have a little 4 year old daughter and 1 year old son that keep them pretty busy for our lessons and keep us entertained. haha It's a really great experience to be working with them and some of the other really amazing people that we have.  The one cool thing that I love about this area is the crazy diversity that we cover here.  We can go from the West side of the ward with part of Eden Prairie in it, and then get over into the East side by the Mall of America with the city of Richfield and get a similar experience to that of Shingle Creek.  haha  It's nice to have that broad spectrum and knowing that I've had experiences at both ends of it with some of my different areas.  That's one of the great things about my mission that I've come to realize I took for granted at the very beginning was just the amount and variety of different people I get to meet and talk to.  It's a really cool experience that you can't really have anywhere else.

     The weather here has been completely unbelievable!  We have been in the 70 degree plus range for the past 4 days!  Everyone that we talk to here is amazed and most of the native Minnesotans have never seen anything like this.  I got to experience one of the most brutal winters in the state's history and one of the most mild.  We don't have any snow left and from what I've been hearing it doesn't seem like there's any more that we can expect for at least the next little while.  Sounds like Utah has had some pretty nice weather too.  Probably not as nice as what some people have down in Miami right now but pretty good considering. haha

     I am so excited about Memphis Rose!  That's so exciting I'll get to meet to new little nieces and listen to Brandt talk now!  A lot of big exciting changes all around, but for what I hear it all seems to be going great! 

     We had a meeting last week for all the new missionaries that just came in 2 weeks ago.  I couldn't believe that ti's already been that long!  We did some training for about an hour of it and had a great time.  I think that I had mentioned before that we now go on exchanges with all the new missionaries and their trainers within the first transfer, so that kept us pretty busy doing 2 of those last week as well.  The new missionaries we got are so awesome and are really a benefit to have in this mission.  The next group is coming on April 11th so we're looking forward to finish up exchanges with all the current ones and getting to know the new group coming in shortly.  One of the trainers in the mission now is one that came out in June with my old companion Elder Haupt.  His name is Elder Checketts and we worked together for the day of their exchange.  Come to find out he played soccer for Woods Cross and Nike Rush so we played each other in high school and for club.  He also knows Josh Miles from my La Roca team, and with the last name like Checketts just as I expected his uncle is the one who owns Real Salt Lake.  He said he's going to take me to some games when he gets home from his mission.  It was pretty sweet to make all of those connections working with him for one day haha. 

     Sorry there's not much else to report on as far as investigators and proselyting for this week.  We're working hard to increase and change that.  I haven't seen Elder Mead recently but I know he and his companion in Cottage Grove are tearing it up.  It's exciting to see all the good work that they're doing.  We had our monthly Mission President's fireside last night in the mission home and got to hear the testimonies of a Nepalese guy that's a convert from North St. Paul and Jordan and Scooter N. from the Eden Prairie Ward.  It was so great for us as the missionaries and all the investigators there to hear their amazing testimonies.  It was great to see those 2 guys again too!

     I think that's about all for this week.  I can't wait to hear how everyone's doing next week.  Hopefully it doesn't sneak up as fast on us as this last one. haha  I love and pray for you always.  Thanks for all your love and support!

Love, Elder Craft