Hey Crafts,
I am so sorry that you guys thought that I forgot to email or didn't have time last week. In reality I did send a really good long email that I was upset to find out at the library today didn't send because I attached too many pictures and it was too big. So the email I have copied down here is the one from last week. I'll write another one for this week too. Sorry to leave you all hanging. I was just trying to keep you on your toes and anxious haha ;).
(Monday Oct. 10, 2011)
Dear Craft Family,
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!! It was a good one. I got to do on my birthday what I've done on every other holiday so far. . .tract. haha It was good all in all. It didn't really feel like anything special yo now be 20. I feel the same in case you were wondering haha. I'm glad that you got the video and pictures from Sister Neilson. I should have asked her to send them to me too so I could see it. If it's not too much trouble maybe you could send them to me. I didn't mean to look nervous. It was just kind of different. It was cool to know that you guys could have a part in my birthday and all, but I almost didn't tell them it was my birthday. I felt kind of sheepish and didn't want them to make it a big deal or put the attention on me. They are the nicest family though! I don't think there's another one in this ward I would have rather had my birthday with haha. For you information Mom no my head is not shaved. It's short but not shaved. You're not allowed to shave your head in our mission unless your black or Polynesian basically. For those of you that asked I got the package from Nick, Tati, Mom, and Brady on Thursday. Thank you so much for that too! It was really nice and the fudge was a nice treat too ;). As for any others I have gotten anything and with the post office closed today I won't until maybe tomorrow. You guys are the greatest though!! Thank you for all the love and support that you give to me.
This week was a good week but nothing too outstanding. We're still working to find more people to teach but in the land of "great and spacious buildings" it's a little harder to accomplish through tracting. Most people have a church or religion they're apart of and even though we may present to them a way to have even more happiness the underlying attitude seems to be, "why should I change? I'm comfortable and obviously successful". It's just one of those unique challenges we're working to overcome in this area, but I know the Lord will provide away for us to find those that are seeking the truth here among the kingdom builders haha We went out tracting yesterday like I said before and didn't find one person that was interested or gave us their information to come back in the couple hours we were doing it. The greatest part is that we still found a couple really solid potentials. One was a guy washing his car in our garage that we just talked to as we were heading out, and the other lady was walking by with her husband as we walked down a driveway of a house that we had just knocked on. It's amazing how even though there was no direct success from the actual knocking on doors itself the blessings of tracting were still presented to us in people placed in our path to talk to. Like I said the Lord will always find a way to bring about His purpose for those of His children here in this area.
In October there's what's called a mission tour here where we get the chance to meet and listen to a General Authority. It's something I'm sure most if not all missions get the chance to have. I'm not positive but I'm guessing that's when Nick got to meet Elder Eyring when he was in Korea. Well ours is suppose to be at the end of the month sometime, unfortunately right before Kevin gets into Minnesota I think. This week we found out we get a special privilege on Friday. Elder Quentin L. Cook is going to be in Rochester for some reason, and he and President Clements are good friends. They worked at the same law firm in San Fransisco and were partners of that firm together I think. So President Clements talked to him and convinced him to come and do a "Mini Mission Tour" here in the cities at the Bloomington Building on Friday. We get to go from about 12:30-4:30 to meet and listen to an apostle of the Lord speak to us!! It's pretty exciting and something we're really looking forward to! We only found out about it on Saturday, but I'll tell you all about it next week.
I hope all is well and that you guys are enjoying the snow some of you are getting. We've had record breaking Fall heat here. It's been in the 80's for over a week now and last Thursday was the hottest it's been on that day since Minnesota became a state. We're loving it and hoping that maybe winter just forgets to stop here this year haha. Everyone talks about how awful and miserable last winter was. It was the worst most people say they've ever seen. That's what gives me comfort to know that I can survive another. Except now the weather predictions for the winter are that's it's suppose to be even worse than the last one! No body's really excited about that, but there's nothing we can do to stop it. Thanks again for the support, love, and gifts for my birthday! You guys are the best! I love and miss you but look forward to talking to you again soon!
Love, Elder Craft
Showing posts with label Chaska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chaska. Show all posts
Monday, October 17, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Settling In
Dear Crafts,
I almost feel like after that story Dad sent me and what I heard about the game from members at church yesterday that we all need to take a moment of silence for all those grieving cougar fans out there. . . . HAHA!!! That's so funny! I was glad to hear about that. Especially since Elder White's a BYU fan haha.
Back on the subject of missionary work. Things in Eden Prairie are going well. Elder White and I get along great and are working really hard to try and build up the teaching pool here. It's taking a little time but there's amazing potential and people here. We just have to get and work to find them. This ward is great and really missionary minded. We're blessed to be serving in a ward like this. Hopefully we will have more exciting things to report on for next week.
The Bishop gave us the opportunity to bare our testimonies and for me to stand
and introduce myself yesterday. It was good to kind of make an appearance and share our testimonies with the whole ward and show them we're here to work. There an uncanny amount of people that came up to me after with question about people I know that live in Hooper. One member, Sister Ward, is the great aunt of Braxton Willie and then as Mom got to find out Sister Neilson, who we had dinner with last Sunday, grew up right across the street from Blakeley Charlesworth's mom. So that was weird when they asked where I was from and said they knew someone out near Hooper. The world within the church really is very small. Especially here where everyone seems to be from Utah or knows someone from there haha.
That's great Kevin did so well yesterday. That is kind of early to have his farewell but with Stacie coming home now too it makes sense. Lots of crazy things going on back in Hooper. It's too bad that Brady make it and then that you missed Elder Dillon Pilcher speak on the amazing MMM. Hopefully you'll get to talk to him soon about it. Maybe they'll have him speak again haha. The Assistants were asking me about "this Elder coming out from Hooper next transfer". It's so cool to think about where he'll be trained and who will train him. I'm excited to find out! He's going to love it. Especially since the temperature just dropped like 20 degrees this last week. Winter's just around the corner. Time to build some character haha.
That's so exciting for you Kat and Tom! I wish I could be there to support you, but I'm just glad to know that it's still going through. I know we weren't sure if all the documentation would be ready for awhile so I've just been praying for you, and those prayers were answered. Just know that I'll be thinking about you guys tomorrow! I can't wait to see the pictures. I'm sure it's going to be great with what I've heard about it!
So I'm hoping today to attach some pictures from Shingle Creek for you and I'll probably print some to send as well. There's only a couple from here that I could put on and one is of the Temple of Ekenkar! The people at this church are completely insane!! The one and only "Temple of Ek" is here in Chanhassen and it's their world headquarters. These people in the simplest terms I can describe it are just nuts! They believe in basically everything which means they believe in nothing. They're not Christian and they read from a book that their leaders wrote in 1965 as their scripture known as the Seriyat. They're know for their spiritual exercises that they do. They chant to word "HU" over and over and over. They call it a spiritual exercise that each member does everyday for up to 20 minutes. They do it to soothe and they chant to word "HU" because "it's the sacred, ancient name for God and the vibrations you feel on your throat as you do it are because it's sacred". I want you guys to try it just take a nice deep breathe. . and chant "HU" in a nice soothing voice for 20 seconds while touching your index and middle finger to the side of your throat and repeat as need for up to 20 minutes. Their claim is that it's a "love song to God that will soothe both of you and bring you closer to Him". When they meet to "worship" they all do this chant as a group and it's called a "HU Song" . They're led by their "Temple Masters" and their "prophet" as they referred to him is "The Ek Master". The best part is that I'm not even having to make up any of these names or titles and I was told all of this by one of the followers when we tracted into him. You could probably Google it to find out more. I can't even tell it all that well over an email. There were plenty of things we came up with after talking to him about the Grinch hating the "HU"s and their "HU song" that's why he stole Christmas. We're just waiting for a rapper to now come out with the name "Master EK". I can totally see it haha. They're really nice people just a little on the blasphemous, apostasy side of things haha. I'll just have to remember to tell that story in person. haha
Well I hope that everyone is doing well and I can't wait to hear from you all again. I love and appreciate all that you do for me and I hope to have more stories about investigators and the true Gospel of our Heavenly Father and maybe not so much about the Ekites next week haha.
Love, Elder Craft
I almost feel like after that story Dad sent me and what I heard about the game from members at church yesterday that we all need to take a moment of silence for all those grieving cougar fans out there. . . . HAHA!!! That's so funny! I was glad to hear about that. Especially since Elder White's a BYU fan haha.
Back on the subject of missionary work. Things in Eden Prairie are going well. Elder White and I get along great and are working really hard to try and build up the teaching pool here. It's taking a little time but there's amazing potential and people here. We just have to get and work to find them. This ward is great and really missionary minded. We're blessed to be serving in a ward like this. Hopefully we will have more exciting things to report on for next week.
The Bishop gave us the opportunity to bare our testimonies and for me to stand
and introduce myself yesterday. It was good to kind of make an appearance and share our testimonies with the whole ward and show them we're here to work. There an uncanny amount of people that came up to me after with question about people I know that live in Hooper. One member, Sister Ward, is the great aunt of Braxton Willie and then as Mom got to find out Sister Neilson, who we had dinner with last Sunday, grew up right across the street from Blakeley Charlesworth's mom. So that was weird when they asked where I was from and said they knew someone out near Hooper. The world within the church really is very small. Especially here where everyone seems to be from Utah or knows someone from there haha.
That's great Kevin did so well yesterday. That is kind of early to have his farewell but with Stacie coming home now too it makes sense. Lots of crazy things going on back in Hooper. It's too bad that Brady make it and then that you missed Elder Dillon Pilcher speak on the amazing MMM. Hopefully you'll get to talk to him soon about it. Maybe they'll have him speak again haha. The Assistants were asking me about "this Elder coming out from Hooper next transfer". It's so cool to think about where he'll be trained and who will train him. I'm excited to find out! He's going to love it. Especially since the temperature just dropped like 20 degrees this last week. Winter's just around the corner. Time to build some character haha.
That's so exciting for you Kat and Tom! I wish I could be there to support you, but I'm just glad to know that it's still going through. I know we weren't sure if all the documentation would be ready for awhile so I've just been praying for you, and those prayers were answered. Just know that I'll be thinking about you guys tomorrow! I can't wait to see the pictures. I'm sure it's going to be great with what I've heard about it!
So I'm hoping today to attach some pictures from Shingle Creek for you and I'll probably print some to send as well. There's only a couple from here that I could put on and one is of the Temple of Ekenkar! The people at this church are completely insane!! The one and only "Temple of Ek" is here in Chanhassen and it's their world headquarters. These people in the simplest terms I can describe it are just nuts! They believe in basically everything which means they believe in nothing. They're not Christian and they read from a book that their leaders wrote in 1965 as their scripture known as the Seriyat. They're know for their spiritual exercises that they do. They chant to word "HU" over and over and over. They call it a spiritual exercise that each member does everyday for up to 20 minutes. They do it to soothe and they chant to word "HU" because "it's the sacred, ancient name for God and the vibrations you feel on your throat as you do it are because it's sacred". I want you guys to try it just take a nice deep breathe. . and chant "HU" in a nice soothing voice for 20 seconds while touching your index and middle finger to the side of your throat and repeat as need for up to 20 minutes. Their claim is that it's a "love song to God that will soothe both of you and bring you closer to Him". When they meet to "worship" they all do this chant as a group and it's called a "HU Song" . They're led by their "Temple Masters" and their "prophet" as they referred to him is "The Ek Master". The best part is that I'm not even having to make up any of these names or titles and I was told all of this by one of the followers when we tracted into him. You could probably Google it to find out more. I can't even tell it all that well over an email. There were plenty of things we came up with after talking to him about the Grinch hating the "HU"s and their "HU song" that's why he stole Christmas. We're just waiting for a rapper to now come out with the name "Master EK". I can totally see it haha. They're really nice people just a little on the blasphemous, apostasy side of things haha. I'll just have to remember to tell that story in person. haha
Well I hope that everyone is doing well and I can't wait to hear from you all again. I love and appreciate all that you do for me and I hope to have more stories about investigators and the true Gospel of our Heavenly Father and maybe not so much about the Ekites next week haha.
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, September 12, 2011
Chaska!
Dear Everyone,
Haha I'm running out of fun clever ways to start off these emails each week. This week was definitely busy and chaotic in a sense. I spent all my time trying to pack up not only my stuff but Elder Haupt was having to pack up his stuff to move the few miles down to the Southern end of the ward. We had to try to divide up supplies and the Area Book into North and South again. Amid all this we were trying to figure out the final details so that Elder Haupt would have a place to live and trying to see these investigators that I've grown to love. We didn't get to see all of them but we did see a few people. I don't know what it is but the last couple moves of mine haven't been as easy as they could be. Most of the time transfers are just you packing up and getting your stuff out and on to your new place. Oh well we got it all done so that's what's important haha. We do transfers here a couple different ways depending on where you serve. Almost everyone in the mission that's being transferred will meet at the mission home on transfer days to meet their new companion. You can either get there in your own car if you're close or what I've done every time is get a ride with a member there. Once you're ready to leave the mission home and get to your new area you will ride with the member that brought the missionary that you're replacing typically or with a member that is taking missionaries to your area. The only time it is different usually is of you're heading South to the Rochester Zone or North to Duluth. South isn't that different. You just ride with the other group of missionaries going down in a members van that they have and your luggage goes on a trailer. The ones going North are the only ones that have to ride a bus. They catch a Greyhound from the mission home, so they have to weigh their bags and make sure they're not over 50 lbs and all that fun stuff. For that reason I'm not particularly excited to ever be moved up there. Transfers are usually pretty smooth and easy though so I'd tell a certain worried friend of ours not to worry about it because the Zone Leaders coordinate everything out here really smoothly. :) It's funny what Lance said about being with your companion more than your wife because that's something we've talked about a few times out here. Realistically you are with your companion about 23 hrs of the day. You definitely learn to cooperative and survive together haha. Either that or it can be the longest 6 weeks of your life. We get our money each month or MSF ( Missionary Support Fund) automatically from Salt Lake at the beginning of each month. They give you a debit card when you come out that is directly connected to that account so it's nothing complicated either. These are good questions but I would tell them not to worry about it again. Kevin should have his own personal account to use for things that MSF doesn't cover like I do but not to worry. Everything will be taken care of haha. I actually got my boots for free from some members in my first area. They had some used ones that fit that they just gave to me so it saved me some money. Mine are some Thinsulate boots. I don't know the specific name but Thinsulate is the brand and typically the best brand to get. I wouldn't worry about getting any specific ones before coming out unless he finds some really good ones he wants to use. Most missionaries I know have gotten theirs out here when they get to their first area. His trainer and the members will know the best place and kind to get some. Hopefully he can just luck out like I did. I hope that answers a couple of the major questions.
Sorry I don't have much time today but as for me here in the Eden Prairie ward it's going really well. The ward is huge and really nice and loves the missionaries. I actually live in the city of Chaska and we cover Chaska, Chanhassen, and a little part of Eden Prairie. Elder White just refers to it as the Garden of Eden. haha He's so funny and we get along really well. He's from Sandy and went to Alta High. I actually found out that Elder Bennett from my last district is in my district again, so that should be fun. To answer Mom's question no I am not District Leader again. I guess I didn't cut it the last time haha jk. They switch them up usually at transfers.
I wish I had more details to talk about with you to make this a little longer, but that's about it for this week. I'm trying to learn this new area where I swear there's not one straight road and all of them have the most random names haha. Like we live on Walnut St. right next to Yellowbrick Rd. I'm not even kidding. haha Thanks for all the letters and support this week. I love you all and look forward to talking to you again! Hopefully I can send some pictures next week.
Love, Elder Craft
Haha I'm running out of fun clever ways to start off these emails each week. This week was definitely busy and chaotic in a sense. I spent all my time trying to pack up not only my stuff but Elder Haupt was having to pack up his stuff to move the few miles down to the Southern end of the ward. We had to try to divide up supplies and the Area Book into North and South again. Amid all this we were trying to figure out the final details so that Elder Haupt would have a place to live and trying to see these investigators that I've grown to love. We didn't get to see all of them but we did see a few people. I don't know what it is but the last couple moves of mine haven't been as easy as they could be. Most of the time transfers are just you packing up and getting your stuff out and on to your new place. Oh well we got it all done so that's what's important haha. We do transfers here a couple different ways depending on where you serve. Almost everyone in the mission that's being transferred will meet at the mission home on transfer days to meet their new companion. You can either get there in your own car if you're close or what I've done every time is get a ride with a member there. Once you're ready to leave the mission home and get to your new area you will ride with the member that brought the missionary that you're replacing typically or with a member that is taking missionaries to your area. The only time it is different usually is of you're heading South to the Rochester Zone or North to Duluth. South isn't that different. You just ride with the other group of missionaries going down in a members van that they have and your luggage goes on a trailer. The ones going North are the only ones that have to ride a bus. They catch a Greyhound from the mission home, so they have to weigh their bags and make sure they're not over 50 lbs and all that fun stuff. For that reason I'm not particularly excited to ever be moved up there. Transfers are usually pretty smooth and easy though so I'd tell a certain worried friend of ours not to worry about it because the Zone Leaders coordinate everything out here really smoothly. :) It's funny what Lance said about being with your companion more than your wife because that's something we've talked about a few times out here. Realistically you are with your companion about 23 hrs of the day. You definitely learn to cooperative and survive together haha. Either that or it can be the longest 6 weeks of your life. We get our money each month or MSF ( Missionary Support Fund) automatically from Salt Lake at the beginning of each month. They give you a debit card when you come out that is directly connected to that account so it's nothing complicated either. These are good questions but I would tell them not to worry about it again. Kevin should have his own personal account to use for things that MSF doesn't cover like I do but not to worry. Everything will be taken care of haha. I actually got my boots for free from some members in my first area. They had some used ones that fit that they just gave to me so it saved me some money. Mine are some Thinsulate boots. I don't know the specific name but Thinsulate is the brand and typically the best brand to get. I wouldn't worry about getting any specific ones before coming out unless he finds some really good ones he wants to use. Most missionaries I know have gotten theirs out here when they get to their first area. His trainer and the members will know the best place and kind to get some. Hopefully he can just luck out like I did. I hope that answers a couple of the major questions.
Sorry I don't have much time today but as for me here in the Eden Prairie ward it's going really well. The ward is huge and really nice and loves the missionaries. I actually live in the city of Chaska and we cover Chaska, Chanhassen, and a little part of Eden Prairie. Elder White just refers to it as the Garden of Eden. haha He's so funny and we get along really well. He's from Sandy and went to Alta High. I actually found out that Elder Bennett from my last district is in my district again, so that should be fun. To answer Mom's question no I am not District Leader again. I guess I didn't cut it the last time haha jk. They switch them up usually at transfers.
I wish I had more details to talk about with you to make this a little longer, but that's about it for this week. I'm trying to learn this new area where I swear there's not one straight road and all of them have the most random names haha. Like we live on Walnut St. right next to Yellowbrick Rd. I'm not even kidding. haha Thanks for all the letters and support this week. I love you all and look forward to talking to you again! Hopefully I can send some pictures next week.
Love, Elder Craft
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