Thanks, Family!

Dear Craft Family,

     Thanks for the emails and pictures!  It's always fun to see some of the old ones like of Saja and Koda and the newer ones of Brandt and Raylee.  They look like they're getting pretty big pretty fast haha.  I'm surprised he knows my name too.  That's pretty cool.  Speaking of pictures though I can't believe you thought I sent you a picture message Mom haha.  Brother Parsons had that wise idea after dinner when I told him about the picture of Camie with the Root Beer.  I thought that would give you something to laugh at too.  Brother Parsons is a pretty funny guy.  We love going over there to eat.  They help out with missionary work a lot and is one of the lead member fellowshippers for the guy we have scheduled to be baptized on August 11th. 

     Things really picked up this week and we had the best numbers reporting week as far as teaching and finding goes in our own area since I've been here.  We're staying really busy and loving every minute of it.  Elder Neeley is great helping things to go even better here and we're really hoping that come 2 weeks from now when we have transfer calls that neither one of us is going anywhere.  The guy we have working towards the 11th and lady for baptism on the 18th are still doing well!  They came to church again yesterday and loved it.  I think that the one brother likes Primary more than anything when he gets to go in and sit with his 5 year old son.  He said he's learning on their basic same level so it's great for him haha.  He's such a good guy!  We've been finding a lot even with all the teaching and people getting ready for baptism so that we can continue to have people to teach and progress throughout August and September so that things don't just drop like I talked about last week after these people are baptized.  We've found a couple new families to start teaching hopefully.  One single mother and her 3 sons seem very interested.  She works a lot but loves the idea of her boys having good male influences around them because they don't have their Dad.  So even though she had to work the 3 kids ages 12, 11, and 10 all came with their downstairs neighbor, who's a member, and loved primary too.  They're some great kids that we are really wanting to help along with their Mom because the environment where they live is definitely less than ideal and my heart just goes out to them.  We're hoping to get them to the church to play some basketball or something and do what we can to help them avoid the street influence that is all right in front of them.

     I have been so blessed to have grown up with the family I have and with the Gospel as my foundation.  I've really gained a testimony of that by serving around people like this is this area.  Thank you for all that you all do.  I love and appreciate your support and care.  You're the ones helping to make this amazing experience all possible.  Sorry there's not much to write.  I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love, Elder Alex Craft