Hey Family,
This week was a really great week for us here. We found some more new investigators and talked to alot of people. Unfortunately, we didn't make our teaching goal . . .yet. haha We're continuing to work hard this week and are hoping to get it off to a great start and just keep the stone cut from the mountain rolling all week. haha
The miracles we have been experiencing here are so amazing! The Lord has provided new people each week for us to add to our teaching pool and now the challenge is just to know what each of them needs to hear and keep helping them progressing down the path to our Heavenly Father. You all have heard about Micheal before in some of my emails and this week it's the same story with him. He knows getting baptized is something he should do, but until he has a change of heart he can't go much further. We are probably going to have to have a "Do or Die" lesson, as I've heard it called, with him to tell him how we want to help him but that will only come if he helps himself. I don't want to have to drop him, but sometimes that's what it takes for people to realize and recognize the change that has come in their lives so far and make them want to continue changing. It's a tough call but with the Lord helping I know we'll be able to do what's right.
This past week some of those amazing miracles I had mentioned was that we picked up some great new investigators. Two in particular that we are so excited to work with! They both came because we just stopped and talked to them on the street. Russ is a guy that is deaf, so our original street contact was very interesting, but luckily for us he's good at reading lips and texted our number we gave him on the pass-along card later so we could talk to him little better. We had a lesson with him Friday that was such an amazingly spiritual experience. We have a certified ASL interpreter in our ward and a couple other members that know sign language, so the lesson went alot better with the interpreter there. He doesn't really have any religious background or understanding of who Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ really are, but he has such a desire to learn and build that relationship with Them. It's so cool to be able to participate in sign language lessons and even more cool to watch them pray. He prayed at the end of our lesson with such a sincere heart we could all feel the spirit fill the room. He even came to church yesterday and sat right up front with us so he could watch the interpreter and tried to sing the hymns with her too. He seemed to be enjoying and understanding it and would look over occasionally at us and just smile with a big thumbs up. haha It was a rough day for Sister Neilson because it was Ward Conference and she had to interpret all the sustainings and spell out all the prophet, apostles, general authorities, and other leaders names for him. haha She made it through and afterwards he came up to us with a big smile and tried to talk to us. We're excited to continue to help teach him and help him understand that he is the son of an Eternal Father in Heaven that loves and wants to help him. The other new investigator is Pierre. Pierre is a living testament of the Lord preparing people all around us. On the original street contact he talked with us on the sidewalk for 30-40 minutes asking all sorts of questions and with every response we'd give he'd bring up one or two more questions. haha We had a lesson with him last night at the church and got to hear his whole life story and change he's made. Pierre is a living Alma the younger in these days. His line he kept repeating was, "I hate the things of the world I used to love and love the things of God I used to hate". He's been going to all sorts of churches searching for truth and not being able to find it. He talked about being "spiritually hungry" and that the other churches aren't feeding him. He kept saying, "I just want to be fed". So we gave him The Book Of Mormon and said, "try this feast and see how you feel" haha JK. He is excited to not just read but he told us "study" the Book of Mormon. Normally lessons should be between 45 minutes and an hour, but Pierre talked to us for 2 1/2 hours just about questions he has a answers he's searching for! He had us get some chalk and eraser just so he could write these things down and filled the chalkboard with it. It was so intense but the spirit was so strong as he talked about these sincere desires that he had and wanted to learn for himself. We were so excited and so thankful to be able to find someone like Pierre. I just hope we can answer all those questions for him now haha. He's very very smart and knows the Bible, so with each answer he wants to know where he can find that in the Bible or most of the time he knows a reference that supports it. Personal study time this week is going to be pretty intense for us, but I know the Lord will help us to help him the best way that we can.
That's just a little bit about the things here in "The Hood". haha Elder Haupt and I are still working hard and doing all we can to measure up to the success the Lord had prepared this area for. There haven't been any crazy events this week. Or at least nothing crazier than normal haha. It sounds like everyone's busy and doing well. I can't wait to hear from you all again soon. Thanks for the love, support, and prayers! I love and miss you all!
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
The basement runneth over
Dear Family,
That was so crazy to hear about Kevin Mead!!! Coming up here to the land of weather extremes and miracles! haha I got chills right when I read that. I told him I hope that I get to see him and maybe I'll get to train him when he comes out, or at least know who his trainer is. That's so awesome! It is crazy that he will be leaving a month before Mitch. Too bad so sad for him haha.
As far as the storms Mom yes there have been some crazy ones! Last week there was a storm on Friday that put some streets under a couple feet of water and shut down 252 one of the major freeways here because it flooded across 2 lanes that were impassable for cars. They even had a boat out on some streets to get some stranded motorists just a mile or so down the road from us. We woke up Saturday morning to a couple inches of water in part of the Paynter's basement. I woke up and went to empty the dehumidifier from that night (that should give you a clue to how humid it is haha) and when I walked down the hall towards the laundry room I was surprised to hear squish underneath my feet and see the water flooded in the laundry room. It was the worst in there and flooded the food storage room a little bit as well. Our room was fine except for the wall next to Elder Haupt's bed where it flooded a little underneath there. None of our stuff was ruined and thankfully none of the Paynter's stuff was either. The food storage room had water in it but only one box got really wet and because the food was in can inside it nothing was lost. It was amazing that the floor and carpet underneath and around all the boxes was saturated but only one of them really got wet. Apparently there was a pipe from outside, that we think is to filter the water our of the cinder blocks, that runs to a drain in the laundry room and that drain was clogged, so because there was so much water it just filled up and overflowed all night. It was lucky we caught it when we did and it only took 2 hours to basically get everything cleaned and most of the water vacuumed up with the Shopvac. We were definitely very blessed that it wasn't worse.
That was a fun little adventure and now for the past few days it's been extremely hot and humid. Yesterday it was 86 degrees with 97% humidity! The heat index put it up to 110! I've never sweat so much in my life I don't think and especially not in a shirt and tie haha. We were working really hard for that goal we had last week and came close. We're going to keep working for that this week even with the weather being hot and humid like that all week. It's going to be fun haha. It literally feels like walking around in the bathroom just after a really hot shower. Definitely something I'll never have in Utah haha. It sounds like that heat's pretty intense for all of you. Especially just relying on fans to cool the house. Looks like the days of sleeping under the swamp cooler in the hall are over. I hope you guys can get it fixed. That has to be tough. I can have sympathy for you because even though I'm out in the heat all day I get to come home to a central air conditioned basement. So I do feel bad for you guys Mom haha :).
Well sorry it's not very long this week. There's a ton of people at the library again and I'm running out of time. I hope that everyone's doing well and staying relatively cool haha. I love and miss you guys! I hope to hear from you soon.
Love, Elder Craft
That was so crazy to hear about Kevin Mead!!! Coming up here to the land of weather extremes and miracles! haha I got chills right when I read that. I told him I hope that I get to see him and maybe I'll get to train him when he comes out, or at least know who his trainer is. That's so awesome! It is crazy that he will be leaving a month before Mitch. Too bad so sad for him haha.
As far as the storms Mom yes there have been some crazy ones! Last week there was a storm on Friday that put some streets under a couple feet of water and shut down 252 one of the major freeways here because it flooded across 2 lanes that were impassable for cars. They even had a boat out on some streets to get some stranded motorists just a mile or so down the road from us. We woke up Saturday morning to a couple inches of water in part of the Paynter's basement. I woke up and went to empty the dehumidifier from that night (that should give you a clue to how humid it is haha) and when I walked down the hall towards the laundry room I was surprised to hear squish underneath my feet and see the water flooded in the laundry room. It was the worst in there and flooded the food storage room a little bit as well. Our room was fine except for the wall next to Elder Haupt's bed where it flooded a little underneath there. None of our stuff was ruined and thankfully none of the Paynter's stuff was either. The food storage room had water in it but only one box got really wet and because the food was in can inside it nothing was lost. It was amazing that the floor and carpet underneath and around all the boxes was saturated but only one of them really got wet. Apparently there was a pipe from outside, that we think is to filter the water our of the cinder blocks, that runs to a drain in the laundry room and that drain was clogged, so because there was so much water it just filled up and overflowed all night. It was lucky we caught it when we did and it only took 2 hours to basically get everything cleaned and most of the water vacuumed up with the Shopvac. We were definitely very blessed that it wasn't worse.
That was a fun little adventure and now for the past few days it's been extremely hot and humid. Yesterday it was 86 degrees with 97% humidity! The heat index put it up to 110! I've never sweat so much in my life I don't think and especially not in a shirt and tie haha. We were working really hard for that goal we had last week and came close. We're going to keep working for that this week even with the weather being hot and humid like that all week. It's going to be fun haha. It literally feels like walking around in the bathroom just after a really hot shower. Definitely something I'll never have in Utah haha. It sounds like that heat's pretty intense for all of you. Especially just relying on fans to cool the house. Looks like the days of sleeping under the swamp cooler in the hall are over. I hope you guys can get it fixed. That has to be tough. I can have sympathy for you because even though I'm out in the heat all day I get to come home to a central air conditioned basement. So I do feel bad for you guys Mom haha :).
Well sorry it's not very long this week. There's a ton of people at the library again and I'm running out of time. I hope that everyone's doing well and staying relatively cool haha. I love and miss you guys! I hope to hear from you soon.
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, July 11, 2011
New President
Hello Everybody! haha
Thank you so much for all the support and letters from everyone this week! I really love and appreciate it.
That's so awesome that you were able to meet the Howells, Mom and Dad. They are amazing people! It's funny about Sister Howell how Mom had mentioned she was emotional but just kept on through it because that's exactly how her trainings would go. Tears or no tears she always had something great to say and teach us and it always came through haha. It was definitely sad to see them go, but after meeting President and Sister Clements this week I agree with what President Howell said, "things are only going to get better". President Clements is so great! He's so great and has that same genuine care and love that President Howell did. He has a good sense of humor as well. We have our interviews with him this week, so I'm excited to get to know him even better. Sister Clements is super nice too and I'm looking forward to the next little while that we have to spend here in this part of the Lord's vineyard working together.
That's so crazy about Mitch! I couldn't believe when I read the Philippines and then to have it be the exact same mission as Brady. That's incredible! That's so weird to think that Mitch will be leaving on his mission after I've been out for over a year! That's so crazy! He's probably hating the fact that his birthday's so late. Brady could in all reality have his call about the same time that Mitch leaves.
Sounds like things back home are as exciting as ever for everyone. Brady and Natalie sound like they're having fun on those adventures of theirs. Is Natalie going to be up in Idaho until the baby's born?
As far as here in the grand old MMM things are going to amazing!! Elder Haupt has faith like you wouldn't believe. Our faith and the hard work we're putting in have definitely been manifest in the miracles of the past week. Yesterday when we had to call in the numbers for the week we realized that we had almost doubled the amount of lessons from last week (that's not really so impressive because we didn't do so good at all last week haha). The real miracle was that we were able to pick up 7 new investigators because of those lessons we had been teaching! The Lord is preparing people all around us and this week we were priveleged enough to work hard, talk to everyone, and find them! We are always looking for those humble people to teach and they are either in humble circumstances or compelled to be humble by some other way, and down in "The Hood" is where the humble people are. I have a testimony of contacting and working down in North Minneapolis (just before 8:30-9 pm though jk haha). Those people down there are always wanting to hear about Jesus and willing and wanting to pray with us! It's great! That's where most of our new investigators came from. Even though it's the Southern part of our area the extra miles on the bike just build character haha. Being able to see these people grow in their faith of Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice make it all worth it. Now we just have to figure out how to get all these humble people without cars to church and we'll be good haha. We can only carry so many on our handlebars jk ;). We've set a goal this week of teaching at least 20 lessons and I know the Lord will provide those people to teach and the appointments we have with all these new people to be solid. We got close last week and I've done it before in Menomonie so Elder Haupt and I are going to be working like it all depends on us and praying like it all depends on the Lord!
Kind of as a side note to answer your question Dad yes I am still the District Leader and Training at the same time. It's great! I love these Elders in my district. Elder Haupt and Elder Turner both came out together and Elder Bennett just finished as a trainee and moved into the position as trainer. It's pretty funny now being the "oldest" missionary in the district. If you take all the other Elders time out in the field and combine it I've still been out longer. I never thought I'd be able to say that haha. We joke about that all the time.
Well I hope that all of you are still doing well and having a great time wherever you're at haha. I love and miss you all! I'm praying for you always and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love, Elder Craft
Thank you so much for all the support and letters from everyone this week! I really love and appreciate it.
That's so awesome that you were able to meet the Howells, Mom and Dad. They are amazing people! It's funny about Sister Howell how Mom had mentioned she was emotional but just kept on through it because that's exactly how her trainings would go. Tears or no tears she always had something great to say and teach us and it always came through haha. It was definitely sad to see them go, but after meeting President and Sister Clements this week I agree with what President Howell said, "things are only going to get better". President Clements is so great! He's so great and has that same genuine care and love that President Howell did. He has a good sense of humor as well. We have our interviews with him this week, so I'm excited to get to know him even better. Sister Clements is super nice too and I'm looking forward to the next little while that we have to spend here in this part of the Lord's vineyard working together.
That's so crazy about Mitch! I couldn't believe when I read the Philippines and then to have it be the exact same mission as Brady. That's incredible! That's so weird to think that Mitch will be leaving on his mission after I've been out for over a year! That's so crazy! He's probably hating the fact that his birthday's so late. Brady could in all reality have his call about the same time that Mitch leaves.
Sounds like things back home are as exciting as ever for everyone. Brady and Natalie sound like they're having fun on those adventures of theirs. Is Natalie going to be up in Idaho until the baby's born?
As far as here in the grand old MMM things are going to amazing!! Elder Haupt has faith like you wouldn't believe. Our faith and the hard work we're putting in have definitely been manifest in the miracles of the past week. Yesterday when we had to call in the numbers for the week we realized that we had almost doubled the amount of lessons from last week (that's not really so impressive because we didn't do so good at all last week haha). The real miracle was that we were able to pick up 7 new investigators because of those lessons we had been teaching! The Lord is preparing people all around us and this week we were priveleged enough to work hard, talk to everyone, and find them! We are always looking for those humble people to teach and they are either in humble circumstances or compelled to be humble by some other way, and down in "The Hood" is where the humble people are. I have a testimony of contacting and working down in North Minneapolis (just before 8:30-9 pm though jk haha). Those people down there are always wanting to hear about Jesus and willing and wanting to pray with us! It's great! That's where most of our new investigators came from. Even though it's the Southern part of our area the extra miles on the bike just build character haha. Being able to see these people grow in their faith of Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice make it all worth it. Now we just have to figure out how to get all these humble people without cars to church and we'll be good haha. We can only carry so many on our handlebars jk ;). We've set a goal this week of teaching at least 20 lessons and I know the Lord will provide those people to teach and the appointments we have with all these new people to be solid. We got close last week and I've done it before in Menomonie so Elder Haupt and I are going to be working like it all depends on us and praying like it all depends on the Lord!
Kind of as a side note to answer your question Dad yes I am still the District Leader and Training at the same time. It's great! I love these Elders in my district. Elder Haupt and Elder Turner both came out together and Elder Bennett just finished as a trainee and moved into the position as trainer. It's pretty funny now being the "oldest" missionary in the district. If you take all the other Elders time out in the field and combine it I've still been out longer. I never thought I'd be able to say that haha. We joke about that all the time.
Well I hope that all of you are still doing well and having a great time wherever you're at haha. I love and miss you all! I'm praying for you always and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love, Elder Craft
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The 4th of July
Dear Family,
Most of you have been wondering about the 4th of July and the weather. Well I'll start with yesterday and tell you about the weather later.
The 4th of July was good we got to go to a huge free breakfast at the church with our ward, the Elm Creek Ward, and Maple Grove ward. All the wards that meet in our building. There was a bike ride before with the breakfast at 8:30 and a kids bike parade afterwards. Our ward was in charge of cooking, but Elder Haupt and I didn't get to do that. We had enough volunteers from Elders Quorum to survive. It was quite and event though. They started cooking at about 7 and were still going until 8:30. They made about 1200 pancakes with a ton of sausage, eggs, fruit and muffins. We we rode up there about 8 the other ward had already set up the tables and everything in the parking lot before the bike ride. It was crazy to see 8 griddles all going at once side by side in the gym flipping pancakes and sausage as fast as they could get them out. Because the Elm Creek ward was a little short on volunteers to serve Elder Haupt and I did get to do that. Once we got to eat though it was all worth it. That breakfast was alot better than the cold cereal I was planning on haha. Unfortunately here in the MMM we don't waste time or engage our selves in meaningless tasks like being in a parade like missionaries in other places ;) haha jk. It was kind of weird though not being in or at least going to a parade for the first time in like 8 years. We basically just tried to get all our other P-Day stuff done and went out tracting after dinner.
It sounds like from what Mom and Dad said about Idaho that it was a good time and everyone seems to be doing pretty good up there. I'm glad to hear it.
Now as for the weather here I will say I'm not to sure how sympathetic I can be to Brady for 100 degrees and no swamp cooler. Here last week it was up in the high 90's with humidity at about 80%. Yesterday it had a little less humidity but was still almost 100 degrees most of the day. Last Friday was crazy hot though. It got up to 107! And with the 78% humidity I got to learn about this neat little thing they have hear called the heat index. It combines the temperature and humidity to show what the temperature actually is and feels like. So basically the hot version of wind chill. So with the temperature being 107 and the humidity what it was the heat index put in up at 115 degrees! Lets just say that was not my favorite biking day so far. Later that night though the weather made a crazy change on us. Because of all the hot weather and moisture there was a crazy crazy thunderstorm that rolled in the night. So in one day of biking we went from sweating through my shirt and slacks to getting absolutely soaked on the ride home with crazy thunder and lightening! It was so crazy but made things really interesting too haha. Luckily for us living in the basement of the Paynters it's already cool down there and on top of the the have central air, so when we are home it's a nice relief from the sun, heat, and humidity. It's pretty funny that everyone here has a dehumidifier in their basements and it's crazy to see the gallons of water that we empty out of it everyday. That's Minnesota for you I guess haha.
To answer Dad's question yes we do get the Ensign and can read it but we only get them at Zone Conference, so we'll get them 3 months at a time. I don't have the July one yet but when we do get it I'll look for that article.
Sorry that this isn't very long and there's not too much exciting to report on other than the weather. The pictures I attached are of first this sign to show you I was lying about the temperature on Friday, and the other 3 are of what I found out is called a wall cloud because that's exactly what it looked like and was when it hit us. It's pretty intense and the pictures don't really do it justice. I hope that everyone enjoyed the 4th and is doing well. I can't wait to hear from you next week. I'll be able report on how it was to meet President Clements next week too. I love, miss, and pray for you all always!
Love, Elder Craft
Most of you have been wondering about the 4th of July and the weather. Well I'll start with yesterday and tell you about the weather later.
The 4th of July was good we got to go to a huge free breakfast at the church with our ward, the Elm Creek Ward, and Maple Grove ward. All the wards that meet in our building. There was a bike ride before with the breakfast at 8:30 and a kids bike parade afterwards. Our ward was in charge of cooking, but Elder Haupt and I didn't get to do that. We had enough volunteers from Elders Quorum to survive. It was quite and event though. They started cooking at about 7 and were still going until 8:30. They made about 1200 pancakes with a ton of sausage, eggs, fruit and muffins. We we rode up there about 8 the other ward had already set up the tables and everything in the parking lot before the bike ride. It was crazy to see 8 griddles all going at once side by side in the gym flipping pancakes and sausage as fast as they could get them out. Because the Elm Creek ward was a little short on volunteers to serve Elder Haupt and I did get to do that. Once we got to eat though it was all worth it. That breakfast was alot better than the cold cereal I was planning on haha. Unfortunately here in the MMM we don't waste time or engage our selves in meaningless tasks like being in a parade like missionaries in other places ;) haha jk. It was kind of weird though not being in or at least going to a parade for the first time in like 8 years. We basically just tried to get all our other P-Day stuff done and went out tracting after dinner.
It sounds like from what Mom and Dad said about Idaho that it was a good time and everyone seems to be doing pretty good up there. I'm glad to hear it.
Now as for the weather here I will say I'm not to sure how sympathetic I can be to Brady for 100 degrees and no swamp cooler. Here last week it was up in the high 90's with humidity at about 80%. Yesterday it had a little less humidity but was still almost 100 degrees most of the day. Last Friday was crazy hot though. It got up to 107! And with the 78% humidity I got to learn about this neat little thing they have hear called the heat index. It combines the temperature and humidity to show what the temperature actually is and feels like. So basically the hot version of wind chill. So with the temperature being 107 and the humidity what it was the heat index put in up at 115 degrees! Lets just say that was not my favorite biking day so far. Later that night though the weather made a crazy change on us. Because of all the hot weather and moisture there was a crazy crazy thunderstorm that rolled in the night. So in one day of biking we went from sweating through my shirt and slacks to getting absolutely soaked on the ride home with crazy thunder and lightening! It was so crazy but made things really interesting too haha. Luckily for us living in the basement of the Paynters it's already cool down there and on top of the the have central air, so when we are home it's a nice relief from the sun, heat, and humidity. It's pretty funny that everyone here has a dehumidifier in their basements and it's crazy to see the gallons of water that we empty out of it everyday. That's Minnesota for you I guess haha.
To answer Dad's question yes we do get the Ensign and can read it but we only get them at Zone Conference, so we'll get them 3 months at a time. I don't have the July one yet but when we do get it I'll look for that article.
Sorry that this isn't very long and there's not too much exciting to report on other than the weather. The pictures I attached are of first this sign to show you I was lying about the temperature on Friday, and the other 3 are of what I found out is called a wall cloud because that's exactly what it looked like and was when it hit us. It's pretty intense and the pictures don't really do it justice. I hope that everyone enjoyed the 4th and is doing well. I can't wait to hear from you next week. I'll be able report on how it was to meet President Clements next week too. I love, miss, and pray for you all always!
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, June 27, 2011
The New Arrival
Dear Craft Family,
It was so good to hear from all of you! I'm glad that the snow is finally starting to melt in Utah. Now you know what 6 months of snow is like and what I have to look forward to here. Only thing is there's no mountains that it stays in here. One of the members here told me that just last week they still had a snow pile in St. Paul in one of the parking lots from October when it first snowed. So I don't know how bad I can feel that there's still snow in the mountains back home haha. From what a couple of you have said it sounds like Utah's not so brown anymore. I just can't imagine a summer of all green and no worries of drought. That's crazy for me to think about!
So my new companion is Elder Haupt from Oregon. He lives in a town outside of Portland. I called him a "Greeny" last week but that term isn't correct here in the MMM anymore I guess. The new missionaries are now called "Goldies". I don't know where exactly President Howell came up with that from, but it might have something to do with the Golden Gophers I think. That's just my own personal speculation though hahaha. As you already know he's been out in the mission field for 5 days now and just transferred from Provo haha. It's been going really well so far and I'm excited to get to work with him. Like Kathleen pointed out to me he will be my longest companion and this my longest area. It's pretty cool though because just serving in Shingle Creek ups my street cred (or Cool Scale like Kat's) for the other missionaries. Plus, biking everywhere builds good character haha. Or at least I've been told that. We've had a lot of miracles and people let us talk to them and teach them while contacting on their door steps or in the park and stuff like that. It's been really cool to see. Elder Haupt's faith is through the roof and is awesome to feed off and work with. The one thing about training that's funny for me is how many questions he has about everything we do. It's not like they're overbearing or anything like that. I just forget that he doesn't already know that and how much we really have to learn at the beginning of our missions. He came out in a group of 20 new missionaries! There's a ton of us training. One of the missionaries he came out with is an Elder Checketts from Woods Cross, so I knew the name and went to talk to him after. Turns out he's the nephew of Dave Checketts, owner of RSL, and we played each other for preseason in high school and stuff. That was kinda cool.
President Howell had a final fireside last night and all the missionaries in the cities were invited with investigators and all less actives or recent converts in the mission. Lets just say that Bloomington Chapel was filled to capacity, but it was way cool to hear the powerful and heartfelt testimonies of President and Sister Howell. I'm really going to miss them but look forward to meeting President and Sister Clements. They fly in on Wednesday and the Howells will be flying out. I guess Elder Haupt was telling me that they shut down all of 1M (the main building in the MTC) except for the cafeteria part this whole last week because The First Presidency was there training the new mission presidents. 1/3 of all the worlds mission presidents are being changed this week. That's crazy! It would have been even more insane to be in the MTC during this last week, like Tavan, to maybe even see President Monson, Eyring, or Uchtdorf. I'm going to have to write him about that whole thing.
I'm glad that those of you in Hooper were able to see Cody an d KC. Man I miss those guys so much! But when we do get together again it's going to be just like the reunion of Alma and the Sons of Mosiah! It's so cool for me to be able to tell people here of the amazing friends that I have serving all around the world spreading the Gospel to all nations, kindred, tongues, and people.
Sorry this email is not super long but I think that the computer might be kicking me off sooner than usual because there's so many people here today. I'll conclude by the traditional response to those people haha.
Kat and Tom: I'm so glad to hear that you are recovering and doing so much better! That's so exciting about your trip to the big island and sealing. I wish that I could be there to support you guys, but just know I'll be there in spirit. haha Good luck with the nursing school application too. I've been praying for you. I'm glad that I was able to help your coolness go up a little bit. The Golden Gophers have the power to do that ;) haha.
Brock and Camie: I'm glad that you had a nice birthday and thank you so much for the advice and the story. I'll take any advice that you have ever. Thanks for all your guys' love and support of me. I'm glad to hear that little Raylee's doing well too.
Dad and Mom: Thanks for the letters last week and updates on the farewells and homecomings. haha I talked to Sister Howell and she said last night that they are very excited to meet you guys inparticular. It's good to hear that you're trip was a success and it went well.
Sorry once again that this isn't a very exciting email. Hopefully it will be more so next week. I'm so thankful for your letters, emails, and support. I hope you have a good time in Idaho. Try to not let all the wind get you down ;)! I miss you guys and look forward to talking to you again soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
It was so good to hear from all of you! I'm glad that the snow is finally starting to melt in Utah. Now you know what 6 months of snow is like and what I have to look forward to here. Only thing is there's no mountains that it stays in here. One of the members here told me that just last week they still had a snow pile in St. Paul in one of the parking lots from October when it first snowed. So I don't know how bad I can feel that there's still snow in the mountains back home haha. From what a couple of you have said it sounds like Utah's not so brown anymore. I just can't imagine a summer of all green and no worries of drought. That's crazy for me to think about!
So my new companion is Elder Haupt from Oregon. He lives in a town outside of Portland. I called him a "Greeny" last week but that term isn't correct here in the MMM anymore I guess. The new missionaries are now called "Goldies". I don't know where exactly President Howell came up with that from, but it might have something to do with the Golden Gophers I think. That's just my own personal speculation though hahaha. As you already know he's been out in the mission field for 5 days now and just transferred from Provo haha. It's been going really well so far and I'm excited to get to work with him. Like Kathleen pointed out to me he will be my longest companion and this my longest area. It's pretty cool though because just serving in Shingle Creek ups my street cred (or Cool Scale like Kat's) for the other missionaries. Plus, biking everywhere builds good character haha. Or at least I've been told that. We've had a lot of miracles and people let us talk to them and teach them while contacting on their door steps or in the park and stuff like that. It's been really cool to see. Elder Haupt's faith is through the roof and is awesome to feed off and work with. The one thing about training that's funny for me is how many questions he has about everything we do. It's not like they're overbearing or anything like that. I just forget that he doesn't already know that and how much we really have to learn at the beginning of our missions. He came out in a group of 20 new missionaries! There's a ton of us training. One of the missionaries he came out with is an Elder Checketts from Woods Cross, so I knew the name and went to talk to him after. Turns out he's the nephew of Dave Checketts, owner of RSL, and we played each other for preseason in high school and stuff. That was kinda cool.
President Howell had a final fireside last night and all the missionaries in the cities were invited with investigators and all less actives or recent converts in the mission. Lets just say that Bloomington Chapel was filled to capacity, but it was way cool to hear the powerful and heartfelt testimonies of President and Sister Howell. I'm really going to miss them but look forward to meeting President and Sister Clements. They fly in on Wednesday and the Howells will be flying out. I guess Elder Haupt was telling me that they shut down all of 1M (the main building in the MTC) except for the cafeteria part this whole last week because The First Presidency was there training the new mission presidents. 1/3 of all the worlds mission presidents are being changed this week. That's crazy! It would have been even more insane to be in the MTC during this last week, like Tavan, to maybe even see President Monson, Eyring, or Uchtdorf. I'm going to have to write him about that whole thing.
I'm glad that those of you in Hooper were able to see Cody an d KC. Man I miss those guys so much! But when we do get together again it's going to be just like the reunion of Alma and the Sons of Mosiah! It's so cool for me to be able to tell people here of the amazing friends that I have serving all around the world spreading the Gospel to all nations, kindred, tongues, and people.
Sorry this email is not super long but I think that the computer might be kicking me off sooner than usual because there's so many people here today. I'll conclude by the traditional response to those people haha.
Kat and Tom: I'm so glad to hear that you are recovering and doing so much better! That's so exciting about your trip to the big island and sealing. I wish that I could be there to support you guys, but just know I'll be there in spirit. haha Good luck with the nursing school application too. I've been praying for you. I'm glad that I was able to help your coolness go up a little bit. The Golden Gophers have the power to do that ;) haha.
Brock and Camie: I'm glad that you had a nice birthday and thank you so much for the advice and the story. I'll take any advice that you have ever. Thanks for all your guys' love and support of me. I'm glad to hear that little Raylee's doing well too.
Dad and Mom: Thanks for the letters last week and updates on the farewells and homecomings. haha I talked to Sister Howell and she said last night that they are very excited to meet you guys inparticular. It's good to hear that you're trip was a success and it went well.
Sorry once again that this isn't a very exciting email. Hopefully it will be more so next week. I'm so thankful for your letters, emails, and support. I hope you have a good time in Idaho. Try to not let all the wind get you down ;)! I miss you guys and look forward to talking to you again soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Monday, June 20, 2011
It's a Boy!
Dear Family,
I'm glad to hear from what Mom was able to tell me that everyone's doing well. I'm a little confused as to what this award scarf thing is that Brady got but I guess when you're out of the loop that's what happens haha. I hope that everyone was able to have a good Father's Day. I'm glad that you like the card Dad. I hope all goes well with you traveling and everything this week. The Father's Day for us was just the same as everyday in case anyone was wondering haha. We did get transfer calls last night which was a little different because those usually come on the Monday morning before transfers, but President Howell's leaving so he kind of does what he wants. Unfortunately for us our phone has really been acting up recently. It turns itself off and won't let us turn it back on until it decides. It's really frustrating and was even more so yesterday. It shut off as we were leaving to bike to church and we couldn't get it back on until we got home after church and our coordination meeting. When we did finally get it to work we had a missed call from President Howell for me to call him back. Only problem is that he didn't answer when I did. I wish that I could express the amount of stress that that dumb phone put us under yesterday. I was ready to throw it down the street and make it "give up the ghost" haha. We just had to leave for a couple appointments we had from the day before when we were tracting. Elder Hatch and I started praying in our hearts that it would turn back on just to call President Howell and our dinner appointment who'd also called earlier. All I have to say is that the Lord provides those tender mercies and answers prayers. Even the small seemingly insignificant ones because we got it turned back on. We had another missed call from President Howell but because our phone was running on the spirit this time I called him back and got to talk with him. He asked me how my obedience and companionship study was going. I told him pretty good and his exact response was, "well we're going to have to try and make it even better. I want you to train one of those new missionaries coming in Elder". I'm now going to be training for the next 2 transfers (3 months) with this new missionary that comes in on Wednesday. He'll be my companion that I'll have had the longest and Shingle Creek will be the longest area I'll be in. I'm excited to be able to help this new missionary with the start of his mission. Sorry that was kind of a long story just about a malfunctioning phone but like I said it was alot of added stress and problems for us at the most inconvenient of times. Isn't that how it always is though? haha Like you've probably already all figured out Elder Hatch by default is now leaving and being transferred for the first time in his 4 1/2 months out. He's going to North Branch which is only about 40 miles north and a little East of here. From what I've heard it's a great area he's really going to love. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to learn and grow with him through all the different experiences we've had the past 6 weeks. It's a little sad the our district couldn't stay together because we all really like each other but the Lord knows what he's doing. Elder Kingston is moving North of Elder hatch a ways up to a place called Askov for the last 6 weeks of his mission. He's going to the U right when he gets home and said he wants to go up to Hooper to visit my family. So if you have an Elder Joey Kingston from LA who's going to the University of Utah show up on the front step one day to say hi you'll know why. haha Elder Bennett is still going to be here with me from our district for the next 2 transfers too because he's training also. It's going to be interesting now being the "oldest" missionary in our district . We'll have to 2 new Greenies and Elder Bennett who just finished his 3 months of being trained by Elder Kingston. President Clements will be coming in this week I think with the new missionaries. I hope you were able to get the forward of when and where President and Sister Howell will be speaking. It's weird to have them go but I'm excited to get to know and help President Clements any way I can now.
As for any new news here on the work Micheal is still working towards being baptized. We met with him a couple times last week. He's been taught everything, interviewed, and read The Book of Mormon. He's so ready but like he told us last week he's the only one holding himself back. He's nervous to mess up again once he is baptized, so it's a legitimate concern. We are just trying to encourage and assure him that he is ready without him feeling pushed or unsure about getting baptized at all. I have faith that he will be baptized in the next few weeks it's just a matter of him feeling ready and confident.
That's about all for the exciting and new information here. I have one more question that Brady might be able to answer. KC John should be either home or coming home this month and I was just curious when his homecoming was or will be? I'm glad to hear that all is well and I hope that everyone will continue to be blessed and watch over. I pray for you all always. I love and miss you and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
I'm glad to hear from what Mom was able to tell me that everyone's doing well. I'm a little confused as to what this award scarf thing is that Brady got but I guess when you're out of the loop that's what happens haha. I hope that everyone was able to have a good Father's Day. I'm glad that you like the card Dad. I hope all goes well with you traveling and everything this week. The Father's Day for us was just the same as everyday in case anyone was wondering haha. We did get transfer calls last night which was a little different because those usually come on the Monday morning before transfers, but President Howell's leaving so he kind of does what he wants. Unfortunately for us our phone has really been acting up recently. It turns itself off and won't let us turn it back on until it decides. It's really frustrating and was even more so yesterday. It shut off as we were leaving to bike to church and we couldn't get it back on until we got home after church and our coordination meeting. When we did finally get it to work we had a missed call from President Howell for me to call him back. Only problem is that he didn't answer when I did. I wish that I could express the amount of stress that that dumb phone put us under yesterday. I was ready to throw it down the street and make it "give up the ghost" haha. We just had to leave for a couple appointments we had from the day before when we were tracting. Elder Hatch and I started praying in our hearts that it would turn back on just to call President Howell and our dinner appointment who'd also called earlier. All I have to say is that the Lord provides those tender mercies and answers prayers. Even the small seemingly insignificant ones because we got it turned back on. We had another missed call from President Howell but because our phone was running on the spirit this time I called him back and got to talk with him. He asked me how my obedience and companionship study was going. I told him pretty good and his exact response was, "well we're going to have to try and make it even better. I want you to train one of those new missionaries coming in Elder". I'm now going to be training for the next 2 transfers (3 months) with this new missionary that comes in on Wednesday. He'll be my companion that I'll have had the longest and Shingle Creek will be the longest area I'll be in. I'm excited to be able to help this new missionary with the start of his mission. Sorry that was kind of a long story just about a malfunctioning phone but like I said it was alot of added stress and problems for us at the most inconvenient of times. Isn't that how it always is though? haha Like you've probably already all figured out Elder Hatch by default is now leaving and being transferred for the first time in his 4 1/2 months out. He's going to North Branch which is only about 40 miles north and a little East of here. From what I've heard it's a great area he's really going to love. I'm really glad I got the opportunity to learn and grow with him through all the different experiences we've had the past 6 weeks. It's a little sad the our district couldn't stay together because we all really like each other but the Lord knows what he's doing. Elder Kingston is moving North of Elder hatch a ways up to a place called Askov for the last 6 weeks of his mission. He's going to the U right when he gets home and said he wants to go up to Hooper to visit my family. So if you have an Elder Joey Kingston from LA who's going to the University of Utah show up on the front step one day to say hi you'll know why. haha Elder Bennett is still going to be here with me from our district for the next 2 transfers too because he's training also. It's going to be interesting now being the "oldest" missionary in our district . We'll have to 2 new Greenies and Elder Bennett who just finished his 3 months of being trained by Elder Kingston. President Clements will be coming in this week I think with the new missionaries. I hope you were able to get the forward of when and where President and Sister Howell will be speaking. It's weird to have them go but I'm excited to get to know and help President Clements any way I can now.
As for any new news here on the work Micheal is still working towards being baptized. We met with him a couple times last week. He's been taught everything, interviewed, and read The Book of Mormon. He's so ready but like he told us last week he's the only one holding himself back. He's nervous to mess up again once he is baptized, so it's a legitimate concern. We are just trying to encourage and assure him that he is ready without him feeling pushed or unsure about getting baptized at all. I have faith that he will be baptized in the next few weeks it's just a matter of him feeling ready and confident.
That's about all for the exciting and new information here. I have one more question that Brady might be able to answer. KC John should be either home or coming home this month and I was just curious when his homecoming was or will be? I'm glad to hear that all is well and I hope that everyone will continue to be blessed and watch over. I pray for you all always. I love and miss you and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Monday, June 13, 2011
From 0 to 130 in Less Than 90 Days!
Dear Crafts,
I'm so glad to hear that everything's going well with all you guys! This week for me has been a little crazy but very good as well.
To start it off we had a training from President and Sister Howell this past Tuesday mostly talking about the transition of mission presidents and finishing strong and continuing the success for President Clemens. Basically the same stuff that they've been talking about for the past few weeks. It's crazy in 2 weeks they'll be getting all the stuff ready to go back to Utah. I think if I remember right Dad or Mom had mentioned something about going to their homecoming. So after the training when they were talking to all of us I mentioned that to them and they said that they look forward to meeting you if you end up making it down there. That's pretty weird for me to think about that you could be meeting my mission president that I've spent the past 7 months with. The training was good but we had a real shock come after. Like usual Elder Hatch and I rode our bikes there but it was early in the morning so there was nothing out of the ordinary. When we walked outside afterwards it felt like going into an oven! It was 103 degrees out with 98% humidity all day! The breeze that was blowing was just hot air and the ride from the church to our apartment just drenched me in sweat. It was pretty gross. It seriously felt like we were cooking the whole rest of the day riding around. Apparently that was a record day for the Twin Cities. It hasn't been that hot in like 25 years here let alone this early into the summer. We not only set that record but the Twin Cities was also the hottest spot in the country for that day! I don't ever really wish for the winter but that day I was just amazed that at one point a few months ago I was almost 130 degrees colder! Minnesota's just crazy!
The baptism we had Saturday was amazing! Tony was the one who ended up getting baptized. He was so ready! He's going to be an amazing disciple of Jesus Christ and member of the church for the rest of his life. He wanted a member, our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Doolittle to baptize him. It was a really great baptismal service and his mom even came. Hopefully we'll get to talk with her about that soon and see what questions she might have. They even had me to the chorister for the baptism. Luckily for me "How Firm a Foundation" is in 4/4 and "Come Follow Me" in 3/4 so I didn't have too much trouble haha. Yesterday I had the honor of confirming Tony a member of the church and bestowing the gift of the Holy Ghost upon him. I was a little nervous but it went over really well I thought. I don't remember much of what was said but I do know that it was longer than 5 seconds so the Lord put the thoughts and words in my mind of what to say. It was a busy day at church for me though because not only did I get to confirm Tony, but I was also asked to give a 10-15 minute talk on The Plan of Salvation in sacrament meeting. It was a little stressful trying to cover all the points and things that there are in that without leaving any one event out or short changing anything. Every point is just so important I felt like I was rambling on pretty fast connecting the different points and scriptures like crazy. All in all it went well and was a great day at church that we don't get to experience every week.
It's transfer time again next Monday, so we'll see what happens. Who knows it could be companion #6 haha. I don't have any predictions because all the times I have I've been wrong haha. It will be interesting to find out for sure.
Today's only going to be a 1/2 P-Day for me because our district is scheduled to get to go to the temple Thursday! I'm so excited! It's been so long and we actually have the opportunity to go here in this mission, so we decided to take advantage of it. The day we go to the temple becomes our P-Day for the week. Only problem is that we're out of groceries and our laundry needs to be done so we can have clothes the rest of the week haha. Plus I figured if Mom didn't get an email until later on Thursday the mission office would be getting a call haha.
I guess I'll just start to answer some questions people asked and things they said from the emails I got.
Mom: I did hear about Cassie!! That's so crazy! I didn't know it was Bryce Cooke though! I got a letter that told me about 4 girls I graduated with that are married and 3 including Cassie that are engaged! That's just to nuts to me. All I have to say is that most of them didn't surprise me. I'm just hoping that Cassie sends me an invitation at least haha.
Camie: That's so good that this year it's going better for you with this little girl. Don't worry about not writing me. I just like the letters here and there. I hope Brock got the package I sent and it wasn't damaged. I'll bet Brandt looks adorable almost crawling around with all his teeth in that snaggle tooth smile of his haha.
Brady: Thank you for the letter! That's so funny you have the exact same job as Scott and Shae. Did Sidne hook you up with that? Do you ever see her there? I'm so glad that you're starting to experience this new thing in your life known in the real world as responsibility ;) hahahaha. I'm so glad that you loved youth conference and gained such a great testimony from that! That's what happens every time you go to firesides and study from the scriptures and Preach My Gospel like you talked about. That's why I told you you need to do all that now to help prepare for that mission. It's not that far away and once you get out here into the field too all you have is your testimony to rely on. There's a line in PMG that's so true and says something to the effect of "every man in life is backed up to the wall of his faith and it's there that he must make his stand". You can have all the knowledge in the world but it's your testimony that will stay firm and be all that you have to stand on at times. So yeah you are doing a good things dating around, but my advice would be don't focus on that part before your mission. Focus on learning and growing on your testimony to prepare all that you can spiritually to come out and serve the Lord. Girls will come and go and there will probably be new ones to date by the time you get home, but a mission is only 2 years that you get to spend once in your life serving the Lord. Focus on that and the Lord will bless you from your service the rest of your life. I know you probably know that and are doing that already, but I just felt like I should give you any advice to help you that I can. And if you're worried about Leah and those other girls being all lonely before you get home just remember I'll be home about 8 months after you leave, so they can survive until then. I'll be here to help out with that ;) hahaha jk.
Well I hope that everyone's doing great and that I get to hear from you guys soon! I look forward to getting your letters this week. I love and miss you all and will continue to pray for you.
Love, Elder Alex Craft
I'm so glad to hear that everything's going well with all you guys! This week for me has been a little crazy but very good as well.
To start it off we had a training from President and Sister Howell this past Tuesday mostly talking about the transition of mission presidents and finishing strong and continuing the success for President Clemens. Basically the same stuff that they've been talking about for the past few weeks. It's crazy in 2 weeks they'll be getting all the stuff ready to go back to Utah. I think if I remember right Dad or Mom had mentioned something about going to their homecoming. So after the training when they were talking to all of us I mentioned that to them and they said that they look forward to meeting you if you end up making it down there. That's pretty weird for me to think about that you could be meeting my mission president that I've spent the past 7 months with. The training was good but we had a real shock come after. Like usual Elder Hatch and I rode our bikes there but it was early in the morning so there was nothing out of the ordinary. When we walked outside afterwards it felt like going into an oven! It was 103 degrees out with 98% humidity all day! The breeze that was blowing was just hot air and the ride from the church to our apartment just drenched me in sweat. It was pretty gross. It seriously felt like we were cooking the whole rest of the day riding around. Apparently that was a record day for the Twin Cities. It hasn't been that hot in like 25 years here let alone this early into the summer. We not only set that record but the Twin Cities was also the hottest spot in the country for that day! I don't ever really wish for the winter but that day I was just amazed that at one point a few months ago I was almost 130 degrees colder! Minnesota's just crazy!
The baptism we had Saturday was amazing! Tony was the one who ended up getting baptized. He was so ready! He's going to be an amazing disciple of Jesus Christ and member of the church for the rest of his life. He wanted a member, our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Doolittle to baptize him. It was a really great baptismal service and his mom even came. Hopefully we'll get to talk with her about that soon and see what questions she might have. They even had me to the chorister for the baptism. Luckily for me "How Firm a Foundation" is in 4/4 and "Come Follow Me" in 3/4 so I didn't have too much trouble haha. Yesterday I had the honor of confirming Tony a member of the church and bestowing the gift of the Holy Ghost upon him. I was a little nervous but it went over really well I thought. I don't remember much of what was said but I do know that it was longer than 5 seconds so the Lord put the thoughts and words in my mind of what to say. It was a busy day at church for me though because not only did I get to confirm Tony, but I was also asked to give a 10-15 minute talk on The Plan of Salvation in sacrament meeting. It was a little stressful trying to cover all the points and things that there are in that without leaving any one event out or short changing anything. Every point is just so important I felt like I was rambling on pretty fast connecting the different points and scriptures like crazy. All in all it went well and was a great day at church that we don't get to experience every week.
It's transfer time again next Monday, so we'll see what happens. Who knows it could be companion #6 haha. I don't have any predictions because all the times I have I've been wrong haha. It will be interesting to find out for sure.
Today's only going to be a 1/2 P-Day for me because our district is scheduled to get to go to the temple Thursday! I'm so excited! It's been so long and we actually have the opportunity to go here in this mission, so we decided to take advantage of it. The day we go to the temple becomes our P-Day for the week. Only problem is that we're out of groceries and our laundry needs to be done so we can have clothes the rest of the week haha. Plus I figured if Mom didn't get an email until later on Thursday the mission office would be getting a call haha.
I guess I'll just start to answer some questions people asked and things they said from the emails I got.
Mom: I did hear about Cassie!! That's so crazy! I didn't know it was Bryce Cooke though! I got a letter that told me about 4 girls I graduated with that are married and 3 including Cassie that are engaged! That's just to nuts to me. All I have to say is that most of them didn't surprise me. I'm just hoping that Cassie sends me an invitation at least haha.
Camie: That's so good that this year it's going better for you with this little girl. Don't worry about not writing me. I just like the letters here and there. I hope Brock got the package I sent and it wasn't damaged. I'll bet Brandt looks adorable almost crawling around with all his teeth in that snaggle tooth smile of his haha.
Brady: Thank you for the letter! That's so funny you have the exact same job as Scott and Shae. Did Sidne hook you up with that? Do you ever see her there? I'm so glad that you're starting to experience this new thing in your life known in the real world as responsibility ;) hahahaha. I'm so glad that you loved youth conference and gained such a great testimony from that! That's what happens every time you go to firesides and study from the scriptures and Preach My Gospel like you talked about. That's why I told you you need to do all that now to help prepare for that mission. It's not that far away and once you get out here into the field too all you have is your testimony to rely on. There's a line in PMG that's so true and says something to the effect of "every man in life is backed up to the wall of his faith and it's there that he must make his stand". You can have all the knowledge in the world but it's your testimony that will stay firm and be all that you have to stand on at times. So yeah you are doing a good things dating around, but my advice would be don't focus on that part before your mission. Focus on learning and growing on your testimony to prepare all that you can spiritually to come out and serve the Lord. Girls will come and go and there will probably be new ones to date by the time you get home, but a mission is only 2 years that you get to spend once in your life serving the Lord. Focus on that and the Lord will bless you from your service the rest of your life. I know you probably know that and are doing that already, but I just felt like I should give you any advice to help you that I can. And if you're worried about Leah and those other girls being all lonely before you get home just remember I'll be home about 8 months after you leave, so they can survive until then. I'll be here to help out with that ;) hahaha jk.
Well I hope that everyone's doing great and that I get to hear from you guys soon! I look forward to getting your letters this week. I love and miss you all and will continue to pray for you.
Love, Elder Alex Craft
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