Hello family,
This week for us here seemed to just scream by! I can't believe that it's Monday again! We had a really great week staying busy trying to get in contact and teach all those people that we have since we combined areas in the ward. We were able to teach a little more this week and have a Part Member family that we're working with that have some great potential! The husband is not a member but has been coming for a little while now with his wife and their two kids because she's a primary teacher for the 4 year old class. There kids are pretty crazy sometimes but so stinkin cute. They have a little 4 year old daughter and 1 year old son that keep them pretty busy for our lessons and keep us entertained. haha It's a really great experience to be working with them and some of the other really amazing people that we have. The one cool thing that I love about this area is the crazy diversity that we cover here. We can go from the West side of the ward with part of Eden Prairie in it, and then get over into the East side by the Mall of America with the city of Richfield and get a similar experience to that of Shingle Creek. haha It's nice to have that broad spectrum and knowing that I've had experiences at both ends of it with some of my different areas. That's one of the great things about my mission that I've come to realize I took for granted at the very beginning was just the amount and variety of different people I get to meet and talk to. It's a really cool experience that you can't really have anywhere else.
The weather here has been completely unbelievable! We have been in the 70 degree plus range for the past 4 days! Everyone that we talk to here is amazed and most of the native Minnesotans have never seen anything like this. I got to experience one of the most brutal winters in the state's history and one of the most mild. We don't have any snow left and from what I've been hearing it doesn't seem like there's any more that we can expect for at least the next little while. Sounds like Utah has had some pretty nice weather too. Probably not as nice as what some people have down in Miami right now but pretty good considering. haha
I am so excited about Memphis Rose! That's so exciting I'll get to meet to new little nieces and listen to Brandt talk now! A lot of big exciting changes all around, but for what I hear it all seems to be going great!
We had a meeting last week for all the new missionaries that just came in 2 weeks ago. I couldn't believe that ti's already been that long! We did some training for about an hour of it and had a great time. I think that I had mentioned before that we now go on exchanges with all the new missionaries and their trainers within the first transfer, so that kept us pretty busy doing 2 of those last week as well. The new missionaries we got are so awesome and are really a benefit to have in this mission. The next group is coming on April 11th so we're looking forward to finish up exchanges with all the current ones and getting to know the new group coming in shortly. One of the trainers in the mission now is one that came out in June with my old companion Elder Haupt. His name is Elder Checketts and we worked together for the day of their exchange. Come to find out he played soccer for Woods Cross and Nike Rush so we played each other in high school and for club. He also knows Josh Miles from my La Roca team, and with the last name like Checketts just as I expected his uncle is the one who owns Real Salt Lake. He said he's going to take me to some games when he gets home from his mission. It was pretty sweet to make all of those connections working with him for one day haha.
Sorry there's not much else to report on as far as investigators and proselyting for this week. We're working hard to increase and change that. I haven't seen Elder Mead recently but I know he and his companion in Cottage Grove are tearing it up. It's exciting to see all the good work that they're doing. We had our monthly Mission President's fireside last night in the mission home and got to hear the testimonies of a Nepalese guy that's a convert from North St. Paul and Jordan and Scooter N. from the Eden Prairie Ward. It was so great for us as the missionaries and all the investigators there to hear their amazing testimonies. It was great to see those 2 guys again too!
I think that's about all for this week. I can't wait to hear how everyone's doing next week. Hopefully it doesn't sneak up as fast on us as this last one. haha I love and pray for you always. Thanks for all your love and support!
Love, Elder Craft
Showing posts with label Eden Prairie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eden Prairie. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Letter to Brady
Dear Craft Family,
Es freut mich dass Brady zu Deutshland im April gehen!! Ich hoffe er kannt Elder Chambers sehen order habt ihm fuer seiner mitarbeiter!!! (Don't try and put that in Google Translator or something because it will probably come out with something way different that what I meant to say in my broken 5 year old German haha). Man Brady that is so awesome!! I am so super pumped for you! From what I hear, because you're right everyone and their mother knows someone that served a mission somewhere in Germany, it's going to be legit! The ward mission leader in the Eden Prairie ward served there along with 4-5 other members of the ward. I've known at least one person in every area that has served there. President Clements was in Switzerland but it's basically the same sort of area haha. I'll bet the Chambers were way pumped. I told Elder Mead at transfers Wednesday that you should have gotten your call that day, so he'll be excited to hear it too. I'm way excited for you to learn how to speak and then help tutor me while I try to continue to learn it. My guess was way off though for somewhere in South America. haha When you talk to Herr Jackson tell him I said Hi. Wouldn't it be crazy if Elder Chambers got to train you or was your Zone Leader? That'd be so cool. April 4th's going to come up quick! You can get your passport picture at the Post Office in Ogden just by the Newgate Mall. That's where I got mine. I'm telling you right now read the scriptures, study your Preach My Gospel, and learn the Doctrines of the Gospel while you can because you are not going to have the time or means to be able to do that in the MTC trying to learn a foreign language in 9 weeks. You might want to start drinking carbonated water too cause that's all the people give you for water over there. haha That's one of the first things Elder Chambers told me in the MTC when I saw him drinking it is that he had to try and get used to it. It really isn't that bad though. I'm just pumped for all the experiences and joy that you're going to get. Not only out of just going to Germany, but going to teach the Gospel to all our brothers and sisters there. It's going to be one of the most joyful experiences of your life, and the most difficult. Just remember that because it's not going to be easy but it's going to be worth it. I can promise you that.
I guess I should have just started that off Dear Brady and Craft Family haha. This week for me was awesome! It flew by! We were really busy getting all the things taken care of for transfers and then actually doing the transfers themselves. Picking up the new missionaries was a lot of fun. Elder Lo, President and Sister Clements, and me all went to the airport to get them and then to the U of M campus (known as Dinkytown) near downtown Minneapolis to do some street contacting. Elder Frasure went with me from Pocatello, ID and loved it. We had a great time together. We got some food, took some pictures to send to their families, and did the training meetings we had to before the day was over. There were only 3 missionaries that came this transfer so nothing too crazy at all. Two of them, Elder Frasure and Elder Ouimette, had to spend the night with us at our apartment so we could take them to the Greyhound station in the morning because they got transferred up to Thunder Bay Canada to be trained. We haven't gone up there yet Mom. The closest we'll get is to Duluth for their Zone Conference in a couple of weeks. Unless President asks us to we don't really have a reason to head up there. Next transfer might not be as quiet. We're expected to get 17 new missionaries, so that should be a lot of fun. I'm working hard trying to learn all the ins and outs of who's where serving with who and everything else I need to know about the mission. It's a ton of fun and we're working hard to meet with our investigators as well. Many of them weren't able to meet with us this week, but we get to spend a lot of time proselyting this week and are confident we should be able to teach many of them.
This last Saturday was J.'s baptism out in Eden Prairie. He's the 16 year old I was working with out there and he is so awesome! I didn't get to go because it was too far away, but I called him and talked to him Saturday before it all went down and he was super excited. President Clements went out for the baptism and said it was a great service with a lot of people there to support him. When I talked to J. I told him I might not be able to be there for the baptism, but I look forward to hearing about when he gets the priesthood, when he goes through the temple and is sealed to his Dad and Sister, when he gets his mission call, and all the other things throughout his life. I'm so excited for that guy and the great things he's going to continue to do throughout his life. It's so amazing to me the people I am blessed with being able to work with and grow to love while I'm here in Minnesota. Having the opportunity to watch people change their lives and see the spirit work within them like it did with J. is something I couldn't or wouldn't experience anywhere else. Like I had mentioned to Brady it's one of the hardest things I have ever done but also the most rewarding. The Lord knows and expects our sacrifice, but in return he gives us more than we could ever work for.
Well sorry there's not much more to report on from here. I'm glad my package and my brick made it safe and sound haha. I did get my new card thanks Mom. It sounds like I pretty good exciting week for you. I'm glad to hear all is well and hope to talk to you all again soon. I love you and appreciate all that you do for me! Auf Wiedersehen!
Love, Elder Craft
Es freut mich dass Brady zu Deutshland im April gehen!! Ich hoffe er kannt Elder Chambers sehen order habt ihm fuer seiner mitarbeiter!!! (Don't try and put that in Google Translator or something because it will probably come out with something way different that what I meant to say in my broken 5 year old German haha). Man Brady that is so awesome!! I am so super pumped for you! From what I hear, because you're right everyone and their mother knows someone that served a mission somewhere in Germany, it's going to be legit! The ward mission leader in the Eden Prairie ward served there along with 4-5 other members of the ward. I've known at least one person in every area that has served there. President Clements was in Switzerland but it's basically the same sort of area haha. I'll bet the Chambers were way pumped. I told Elder Mead at transfers Wednesday that you should have gotten your call that day, so he'll be excited to hear it too. I'm way excited for you to learn how to speak and then help tutor me while I try to continue to learn it. My guess was way off though for somewhere in South America. haha When you talk to Herr Jackson tell him I said Hi. Wouldn't it be crazy if Elder Chambers got to train you or was your Zone Leader? That'd be so cool. April 4th's going to come up quick! You can get your passport picture at the Post Office in Ogden just by the Newgate Mall. That's where I got mine. I'm telling you right now read the scriptures, study your Preach My Gospel, and learn the Doctrines of the Gospel while you can because you are not going to have the time or means to be able to do that in the MTC trying to learn a foreign language in 9 weeks. You might want to start drinking carbonated water too cause that's all the people give you for water over there. haha That's one of the first things Elder Chambers told me in the MTC when I saw him drinking it is that he had to try and get used to it. It really isn't that bad though. I'm just pumped for all the experiences and joy that you're going to get. Not only out of just going to Germany, but going to teach the Gospel to all our brothers and sisters there. It's going to be one of the most joyful experiences of your life, and the most difficult. Just remember that because it's not going to be easy but it's going to be worth it. I can promise you that.
I guess I should have just started that off Dear Brady and Craft Family haha. This week for me was awesome! It flew by! We were really busy getting all the things taken care of for transfers and then actually doing the transfers themselves. Picking up the new missionaries was a lot of fun. Elder Lo, President and Sister Clements, and me all went to the airport to get them and then to the U of M campus (known as Dinkytown) near downtown Minneapolis to do some street contacting. Elder Frasure went with me from Pocatello, ID and loved it. We had a great time together. We got some food, took some pictures to send to their families, and did the training meetings we had to before the day was over. There were only 3 missionaries that came this transfer so nothing too crazy at all. Two of them, Elder Frasure and Elder Ouimette, had to spend the night with us at our apartment so we could take them to the Greyhound station in the morning because they got transferred up to Thunder Bay Canada to be trained. We haven't gone up there yet Mom. The closest we'll get is to Duluth for their Zone Conference in a couple of weeks. Unless President asks us to we don't really have a reason to head up there. Next transfer might not be as quiet. We're expected to get 17 new missionaries, so that should be a lot of fun. I'm working hard trying to learn all the ins and outs of who's where serving with who and everything else I need to know about the mission. It's a ton of fun and we're working hard to meet with our investigators as well. Many of them weren't able to meet with us this week, but we get to spend a lot of time proselyting this week and are confident we should be able to teach many of them.
This last Saturday was J.'s baptism out in Eden Prairie. He's the 16 year old I was working with out there and he is so awesome! I didn't get to go because it was too far away, but I called him and talked to him Saturday before it all went down and he was super excited. President Clements went out for the baptism and said it was a great service with a lot of people there to support him. When I talked to J. I told him I might not be able to be there for the baptism, but I look forward to hearing about when he gets the priesthood, when he goes through the temple and is sealed to his Dad and Sister, when he gets his mission call, and all the other things throughout his life. I'm so excited for that guy and the great things he's going to continue to do throughout his life. It's so amazing to me the people I am blessed with being able to work with and grow to love while I'm here in Minnesota. Having the opportunity to watch people change their lives and see the spirit work within them like it did with J. is something I couldn't or wouldn't experience anywhere else. Like I had mentioned to Brady it's one of the hardest things I have ever done but also the most rewarding. The Lord knows and expects our sacrifice, but in return he gives us more than we could ever work for.
Well sorry there's not much more to report on from here. I'm glad my package and my brick made it safe and sound haha. I did get my new card thanks Mom. It sounds like I pretty good exciting week for you. I'm glad to hear all is well and hope to talk to you all again soon. I love you and appreciate all that you do for me! Auf Wiedersehen!
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, January 16, 2012
All the Way to the Top
Dear Crafts!
Sorry that this will probably be shorter than some of the previous ones. There are a lot of things that have happened here in the last week. We had an exchange that I did in the Plymouth area on Tuesday. If you can believe it it was 55 degrees! We stopped by a potential that they talked to a couple weeks ago who ended up not being interested but we asked if there was anything that we could do to help him out. He had the families van and suburban pulled out on the lawn with a couple buckets, and told us he was just about to wash the cars and we could help with that. We helped to hand wash those cars with the hose on January 10th in Minnesota! I never thought that I would ever be able to say that in Utah let alone out here in the land of cold! haha Just a fun little crazy story for the past week from here. I'll try to send you a picture of that whole event at the end of this. haha
So you may have already known that today is transfer calls. To answer Nick's question the average missionary has I have no idea how many areas. I've heard anywhere from 3 or 4 areas to 16. So it's pretty hard to tell. 14 months is definitely the longest I've ever heard of in an area haha. For me I guess I get to add another one. I know that Mom really wanted to keep the Neilson connection going in Eden Prairie, but unfortunately the Lord and President Clements had another idea. I found out that I'm not going to be staying here for the next transfer. I have really loved this area and serving with Elder Pope and I'm sure that you guys have loved all the fun little calls, emails, and rare visits from members here in Eden Prairie. I got a call on Saturday afternoon from President Clements about where I'll now be serving, so I've known for a couple days and just haven't been able to tell you. President Clements has now asked me to serve as one of his Assistants here in the W. Bloomington Area. It was definitely a shock to me and still kind of is. I'm very humbled and excited to serve in this new assignment. Like I said before I might not have as long of emails for the next few weeks due to a lack of time haha. Just as kind of a warning too I might not be able to email every Monday, but I will be able to email each week. I'll make an attempt to keep you updated and informed haha. There's going to be 3 Assistants for this transfer, so I will be with Elder Lo and Elder Crepeau who I was with for a couple days at the beginning of this transfer. It's going to be a lot of fun and pretty busy too. We have all the Zone Conferences this transfer so I'll get to tour the whole mission and see all the missionaries. It's going to be intense trying to learn all the missionaries names and areas and stuff like that. We're pretty busy doing transfer stuff today making all the calls and in the next few days we'll be picking up the new missionaries and taking the going home ones to the airport. It shouldn't be too bad since there's only 4 going home and 3 coming in. I'm pretty excited and thought you'd be pretty surprised to see how this transfer went.
I'm way excited to hear about Brady's call coming hopefully this week! That's so exciting! Remember my guesses too haha. Thanks for the pictures and emails this week from all of you. I'm glad to hear that everything's going well. I love and appreciate all that you guys do for me. Good luck for everyone this week with school, work, and everything in between (including running the mile ;) haha JK). Talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Craft
Sorry that this will probably be shorter than some of the previous ones. There are a lot of things that have happened here in the last week. We had an exchange that I did in the Plymouth area on Tuesday. If you can believe it it was 55 degrees! We stopped by a potential that they talked to a couple weeks ago who ended up not being interested but we asked if there was anything that we could do to help him out. He had the families van and suburban pulled out on the lawn with a couple buckets, and told us he was just about to wash the cars and we could help with that. We helped to hand wash those cars with the hose on January 10th in Minnesota! I never thought that I would ever be able to say that in Utah let alone out here in the land of cold! haha Just a fun little crazy story for the past week from here. I'll try to send you a picture of that whole event at the end of this. haha
So you may have already known that today is transfer calls. To answer Nick's question the average missionary has I have no idea how many areas. I've heard anywhere from 3 or 4 areas to 16. So it's pretty hard to tell. 14 months is definitely the longest I've ever heard of in an area haha. For me I guess I get to add another one. I know that Mom really wanted to keep the Neilson connection going in Eden Prairie, but unfortunately the Lord and President Clements had another idea. I found out that I'm not going to be staying here for the next transfer. I have really loved this area and serving with Elder Pope and I'm sure that you guys have loved all the fun little calls, emails, and rare visits from members here in Eden Prairie. I got a call on Saturday afternoon from President Clements about where I'll now be serving, so I've known for a couple days and just haven't been able to tell you. President Clements has now asked me to serve as one of his Assistants here in the W. Bloomington Area. It was definitely a shock to me and still kind of is. I'm very humbled and excited to serve in this new assignment. Like I said before I might not have as long of emails for the next few weeks due to a lack of time haha. Just as kind of a warning too I might not be able to email every Monday, but I will be able to email each week. I'll make an attempt to keep you updated and informed haha. There's going to be 3 Assistants for this transfer, so I will be with Elder Lo and Elder Crepeau who I was with for a couple days at the beginning of this transfer. It's going to be a lot of fun and pretty busy too. We have all the Zone Conferences this transfer so I'll get to tour the whole mission and see all the missionaries. It's going to be intense trying to learn all the missionaries names and areas and stuff like that. We're pretty busy doing transfer stuff today making all the calls and in the next few days we'll be picking up the new missionaries and taking the going home ones to the airport. It shouldn't be too bad since there's only 4 going home and 3 coming in. I'm pretty excited and thought you'd be pretty surprised to see how this transfer went.
I'm way excited to hear about Brady's call coming hopefully this week! That's so exciting! Remember my guesses too haha. Thanks for the pictures and emails this week from all of you. I'm glad to hear that everything's going well. I love and appreciate all that you guys do for me. Good luck for everyone this week with school, work, and everything in between (including running the mile ;) haha JK). Talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, January 9, 2012
Libby
Dear Family,
Thanks again for another week with all your love and support. I know I basically say that every week, but I really do appreciate it!
This week was pretty good for us here in Eden Prairie. Nothing really too exciting to report as far as new people we're teaching or anything. We're still working with Jordan and he's still planning on being baptized but it got pushed back a week so they could make sure to invite all the family and people they wanted to come. So not this weekend but the next. We're really excited and so is he! He's a great guy we've been very blessed to work with as missionaries and a great friend for me to know for after my mission as well. It's so awesome to me to see in every area I go to the relationships that I get to build with members of the ward and investigators. President Neilson was telling us about people he still keeps in contact with from his mission and how they're eternal friendships. I've definitely seen that with his family and many others throughout my mission not to mention the families and people I've been able to teach and help. Leonard came to church yesterday and he's still doing really well. He really enjoys church and our "Bible Studies" as he calls them". After he came to church the first time he had told us in our next appointment that he thought he wouldn't be able to handle 3 hrs of it. He had us get him a ride that first time "so [he] wouldn't be tempted to leave early" haha. Ever since his first time he's felt like he's "being fed in [his] spirit the entire time" and doesn't even notice the time. It's amazing to me how the Spirit works in so different ways with so many different people to help them overcome any number of concerns. Unfortunately, this week we weren't able to have all our investigators to church but we'll keep working on them haha.
Sounds like Winter decided to come over in Utah but didn't want to make the trip to the Midwest haha. We still don't have any snow and the weather has been clear skies and sunshine with temps in the upper 30's!! I can't even begin to tell you hoe insane that is to me right now especially reading in my old journals what it was like the first week of January last year. Nobody here knows what's going on either. They're not complaining yet but they will if the snow doesn't come soon. No snow= angry Minnesotans that can't use their sleds and drive their houses out on the lakes to fish in. And that all means angry Minnesotans that take it out on Utah and Idaho missionaries haha. I'm just waiting for Winter to bite back at the end of this month or during the entire month of February by not going into the positive numbers the entire time. Something's gotta happen because as much as I'd like to think that Minnesota's just the righteous that Winter's going to avoid it all together we can only tempt fate for so long haha.
I'm pumped to hear where Brady's going to go!! As of now I' sticking with either Argentina or Chile somewhere down on S. America around that area. It would probably be easiest to just have Brady email me after he opens it in a week and a half whenever it comes. I just know how painful handwriting anything is for him. So if I want to hear any time before he ends up leaving and email would just be the easiest route for everyone haha. I'm sure you could tell the Neilsons and they'd love to tell me. It's not technically cheating it's just a sweet connection for you guys that you have with them to make it feel like I'm not actually gone haha. However, I would prefer to hear from Brady himself and not a third party haha. Sorry I'm kind of needy that way I guess.
One cool story this week is about Libby. She's a dog that started to follow us around tracting the other day. We thought it was a sign from God for us to call the number on the tag and find some new investigators. When we called however the people just called her from a distance and she ran home. So much for our Ensign story about a miracle dog leading the missionaries in the MMM to baptisms we thought was going to happen haha. I'll attach the picture of her for you, but it may not look like I was petting her. She rolled over and made it look like I killed her right before we took it haha.
Well I think that's about it from me here in Minnesota! haha Hopefully I'll be able to update you on some new people we've found to teach next week. I love and appreciate you guys so much! Take care and I'll talk to you all next week.
Love,
Elder Craft
Thanks again for another week with all your love and support. I know I basically say that every week, but I really do appreciate it!
This week was pretty good for us here in Eden Prairie. Nothing really too exciting to report as far as new people we're teaching or anything. We're still working with Jordan and he's still planning on being baptized but it got pushed back a week so they could make sure to invite all the family and people they wanted to come. So not this weekend but the next. We're really excited and so is he! He's a great guy we've been very blessed to work with as missionaries and a great friend for me to know for after my mission as well. It's so awesome to me to see in every area I go to the relationships that I get to build with members of the ward and investigators. President Neilson was telling us about people he still keeps in contact with from his mission and how they're eternal friendships. I've definitely seen that with his family and many others throughout my mission not to mention the families and people I've been able to teach and help. Leonard came to church yesterday and he's still doing really well. He really enjoys church and our "Bible Studies" as he calls them". After he came to church the first time he had told us in our next appointment that he thought he wouldn't be able to handle 3 hrs of it. He had us get him a ride that first time "so [he] wouldn't be tempted to leave early" haha. Ever since his first time he's felt like he's "being fed in [his] spirit the entire time" and doesn't even notice the time. It's amazing to me how the Spirit works in so different ways with so many different people to help them overcome any number of concerns. Unfortunately, this week we weren't able to have all our investigators to church but we'll keep working on them haha.
Sounds like Winter decided to come over in Utah but didn't want to make the trip to the Midwest haha. We still don't have any snow and the weather has been clear skies and sunshine with temps in the upper 30's!! I can't even begin to tell you hoe insane that is to me right now especially reading in my old journals what it was like the first week of January last year. Nobody here knows what's going on either. They're not complaining yet but they will if the snow doesn't come soon. No snow= angry Minnesotans that can't use their sleds and drive their houses out on the lakes to fish in. And that all means angry Minnesotans that take it out on Utah and Idaho missionaries haha. I'm just waiting for Winter to bite back at the end of this month or during the entire month of February by not going into the positive numbers the entire time. Something's gotta happen because as much as I'd like to think that Minnesota's just the righteous that Winter's going to avoid it all together we can only tempt fate for so long haha.
I'm pumped to hear where Brady's going to go!! As of now I' sticking with either Argentina or Chile somewhere down on S. America around that area. It would probably be easiest to just have Brady email me after he opens it in a week and a half whenever it comes. I just know how painful handwriting anything is for him. So if I want to hear any time before he ends up leaving and email would just be the easiest route for everyone haha. I'm sure you could tell the Neilsons and they'd love to tell me. It's not technically cheating it's just a sweet connection for you guys that you have with them to make it feel like I'm not actually gone haha. However, I would prefer to hear from Brady himself and not a third party haha. Sorry I'm kind of needy that way I guess.
One cool story this week is about Libby. She's a dog that started to follow us around tracting the other day. We thought it was a sign from God for us to call the number on the tag and find some new investigators. When we called however the people just called her from a distance and she ran home. So much for our Ensign story about a miracle dog leading the missionaries in the MMM to baptisms we thought was going to happen haha. I'll attach the picture of her for you, but it may not look like I was petting her. She rolled over and made it look like I killed her right before we took it haha.
Well I think that's about it from me here in Minnesota! haha Hopefully I'll be able to update you on some new people we've found to teach next week. I love and appreciate you guys so much! Take care and I'll talk to you all next week.
Love,
Elder Craft
Monday, January 2, 2012
Happy New Year!
Happy 2012 Craft Family!!
Luckily for all of us even though the libraries are closed we have awesome members here in the Garden of Eden and are emailing from the Neilson's right now. So you know who to thank for your timely email this week Mom haha ;).
Well just like Mom, and I'm sure a few others, guessed it ushering in the New Year was not anything too eventful for me. Elder Pope and I got home and to bed by the normal time of 10:30 and were pretty tired. I still asked him if he wanted to get up at 12 and we could celebrate the New Year by singing a rendition of "Happy Birthday" with just the phrase "Happy New Year to you" instead, but we both decided it really wasn't worth it haha. It is kind of weird to think that it is already 2012 now. This next year is going to fly. We've been talking a little bit about some New Year's resolutions for us and what we want to try and do better in for the next 365 days. Basically just trying to memorize scriptures and be more consecrated are about the craziest new goals I have haha. Do any of you have any fun resolutions?
This year for the MMM we have alot of goals that we're hoping to accomplish. President Clements writes a letter to the mission each week and sends it to all of us. With the new year comes new goals, new desires, and new accomplishments for all of us. President talked a lot about this year being the year of "MMMMMMM"! haha Nothing like the year of Campbell's slogan though. I'm sure you're all used to me saying and referring the my mission as the MMM. With President it's going to be a little more this year haha. It's going to be the year of "The Mormon Moment of Miracles for Members in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission". We're really trying to work with members on becoming missionaries themselves this year and bringing about all the miracles that are in store in this area from the Lord for members and missionaries as part of all of our missionary efforts. We've seen a lot of that here in Eden Prairie as we've been trying to work with the members through different lessons to inspire and motivate them to fulfill whatever commitments and invitations we leave them. We've also been trying to work on teaching more lessons with members present and just this week alone we were able to see the fruits of that labor. We had 4 investigators to sacrament meeting yesterday! Even though that may not sound all that exciting or amazing and it was such a blessing and was the most that either one of us have seen to church in our 3 transfers here. The teaching pool is really strong and growing. The investigator we have scheduled to be baptized is on the 14th and he's still super pumped and excited for that just like we are! We're going to continue to work hard because we know the blessings that can come from it. Especially those blessings that come in the cold weather like we're having now. It snowed a couple inches here on New Year's Eve that was long overdue. Now it's starting to look and seem more like I remember my last Minnesotan winter being haha. Today as we were doing our shopping and stuff the windchill dropped the temperature to 3 degrees and last night it was a familiar feeling tracting down at 0. haha We're just out building the Kingdom and some great character is how we like to look at it.
I'm glad to hear that everyone's talks went so well out in Hooper and that my letter helped add some material to speak on. I wish I could have been there to hear because they all sounded like they were so great. Is the Park Ward meeting at 9 a.m. now? We switched from 11 to 9 here and it's the first time in my entire mission that I haven't been at 11. All my other areas have been at 10 or 11 to start. I've been pretty lucky I guess. That's exciting news from Kat and Tom too! I'm anxious now to hear if I'll have 2 nephews and a niece that don't know me or 2 nieces and a nephew like Kat said haha. Congratulations to Brady on becoming an Elder too. Now if we could only get your papers in to find out where you'll be serving as Elder Craft 2.0 at we'll be good. :) As far as Elder Musaka's emails go Mom it would probably be best to print them and send them to me with your letters. That way I can have a little more time to read them.
Sorry that there's not much to report on today. I'm so glad to hear that you are all doing so well and loving life. 2012 seems to have started off right for all of us. I love and miss you all. I can't wait to talk to you again.
Love, Elder Craft
P.S. President Clements also sent us all an article the the Wall Street Journal did on Mormon missionaries this last week because of David Archuleta announcing that he'll be going on a mission. I would just attach it to this but I'm not exactly sure how to do that. haha It's titled "From American Idol to Mormon Missionary" http://newsroom.lds.org/article/david-archuleta-mormon-mission and that link should get you right to it.
Luckily for all of us even though the libraries are closed we have awesome members here in the Garden of Eden and are emailing from the Neilson's right now. So you know who to thank for your timely email this week Mom haha ;).
Well just like Mom, and I'm sure a few others, guessed it ushering in the New Year was not anything too eventful for me. Elder Pope and I got home and to bed by the normal time of 10:30 and were pretty tired. I still asked him if he wanted to get up at 12 and we could celebrate the New Year by singing a rendition of "Happy Birthday" with just the phrase "Happy New Year to you" instead, but we both decided it really wasn't worth it haha. It is kind of weird to think that it is already 2012 now. This next year is going to fly. We've been talking a little bit about some New Year's resolutions for us and what we want to try and do better in for the next 365 days. Basically just trying to memorize scriptures and be more consecrated are about the craziest new goals I have haha. Do any of you have any fun resolutions?
This year for the MMM we have alot of goals that we're hoping to accomplish. President Clements writes a letter to the mission each week and sends it to all of us. With the new year comes new goals, new desires, and new accomplishments for all of us. President talked a lot about this year being the year of "MMMMMMM"! haha Nothing like the year of Campbell's slogan though. I'm sure you're all used to me saying and referring the my mission as the MMM. With President it's going to be a little more this year haha. It's going to be the year of "The Mormon Moment of Miracles for Members in the Minnesota Minneapolis Mission". We're really trying to work with members on becoming missionaries themselves this year and bringing about all the miracles that are in store in this area from the Lord for members and missionaries as part of all of our missionary efforts. We've seen a lot of that here in Eden Prairie as we've been trying to work with the members through different lessons to inspire and motivate them to fulfill whatever commitments and invitations we leave them. We've also been trying to work on teaching more lessons with members present and just this week alone we were able to see the fruits of that labor. We had 4 investigators to sacrament meeting yesterday! Even though that may not sound all that exciting or amazing and it was such a blessing and was the most that either one of us have seen to church in our 3 transfers here. The teaching pool is really strong and growing. The investigator we have scheduled to be baptized is on the 14th and he's still super pumped and excited for that just like we are! We're going to continue to work hard because we know the blessings that can come from it. Especially those blessings that come in the cold weather like we're having now. It snowed a couple inches here on New Year's Eve that was long overdue. Now it's starting to look and seem more like I remember my last Minnesotan winter being haha. Today as we were doing our shopping and stuff the windchill dropped the temperature to 3 degrees and last night it was a familiar feeling tracting down at 0. haha We're just out building the Kingdom and some great character is how we like to look at it.
I'm glad to hear that everyone's talks went so well out in Hooper and that my letter helped add some material to speak on. I wish I could have been there to hear because they all sounded like they were so great. Is the Park Ward meeting at 9 a.m. now? We switched from 11 to 9 here and it's the first time in my entire mission that I haven't been at 11. All my other areas have been at 10 or 11 to start. I've been pretty lucky I guess. That's exciting news from Kat and Tom too! I'm anxious now to hear if I'll have 2 nephews and a niece that don't know me or 2 nieces and a nephew like Kat said haha. Congratulations to Brady on becoming an Elder too. Now if we could only get your papers in to find out where you'll be serving as Elder Craft 2.0 at we'll be good. :) As far as Elder Musaka's emails go Mom it would probably be best to print them and send them to me with your letters. That way I can have a little more time to read them.
Sorry that there's not much to report on today. I'm so glad to hear that you are all doing so well and loving life. 2012 seems to have started off right for all of us. I love and miss you all. I can't wait to talk to you again.
Love, Elder Craft
P.S. President Clements also sent us all an article the the Wall Street Journal did on Mormon missionaries this last week because of David Archuleta announcing that he'll be going on a mission. I would just attach it to this but I'm not exactly sure how to do that. haha It's titled "From American Idol to Mormon Missionary" http://newsroom.lds.org/article/david-archuleta-mormon-mission and that link should get you right to it.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Phone Call Wrap Up
Hey Everyone!
I know that you all just talked to me not even 24 hours ago, but I just wanted to send an email to keep my streak up every week. haha The libraries are actually all closed today, so we are emailing from none other than the Murray's. I'm pretty sure they're going to just get sick of seeing Elder Pope and me being around haha.
I hope that everyone had some of their questions for me answered yesterday. I had some things I thought of in the shower this morning that I wish I would have asked or talked about but now of course I can't remember any of them. haha Elder Pope and I got to go to the mission home last night like I told you and have a little Christmas Family Home Evening with President and Sister Clements and their 5 daughters that are in town. It was a lot of fun listening to a couple different stories and experiences of people's favorite Christmas. It really is true that the Christmas holidays that you have on a mission become some of the most memorable. It's great to really try to focus on others and just go out to serve and bring joy to all the people we're surrounded by. I thought I tried to do that when I was at home, but it's much easier when you don't have to worry about the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Things like who are you going to buy what for and things like that that I would worry about. I can say honestly that we truly tried to follow the example of the one whose birth we celebrated and received the greatest gift we all can receive with the Spirit and love that comes from our Savior as we emulate what He taught. Elder Pope and I were just talking about how much fun this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was for us. We got to go out and deliver cookies to people we're teaching and others that just needed a little cheer. It brought so much joy and really was one of my favorite Christmas experiences. Like I said yesterday we didn't even get booed off of any porches we sang our duet carols on so that's always a good thing too.;) haha I also got like 5-6 cards at the mission home yesterday that they received Saturday and were waiting to forward. Kat and Tom's card was there along with your letter Mom. Sorry Nick and Tati I still didn't see that "big package" you sent yet ;) haha. Speaking of your letter though Mom. I will try to write Elder Musaka sometime but I can't email him. I'm only allowed to email immediate family and President Clements. So I'll try to write sometime, but sorry I won't be able to email him. I just figured I'd give you a little FYI about that.
Other than that I don't think there's anything else to really report or say. I love all of you and it was great seeing and talking to you yesterday! Thanks again for all the love and support you give to me! I can't wait to talk to you again.
Love, Elder Craft
I know that you all just talked to me not even 24 hours ago, but I just wanted to send an email to keep my streak up every week. haha The libraries are actually all closed today, so we are emailing from none other than the Murray's. I'm pretty sure they're going to just get sick of seeing Elder Pope and me being around haha.
I hope that everyone had some of their questions for me answered yesterday. I had some things I thought of in the shower this morning that I wish I would have asked or talked about but now of course I can't remember any of them. haha Elder Pope and I got to go to the mission home last night like I told you and have a little Christmas Family Home Evening with President and Sister Clements and their 5 daughters that are in town. It was a lot of fun listening to a couple different stories and experiences of people's favorite Christmas. It really is true that the Christmas holidays that you have on a mission become some of the most memorable. It's great to really try to focus on others and just go out to serve and bring joy to all the people we're surrounded by. I thought I tried to do that when I was at home, but it's much easier when you don't have to worry about the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Things like who are you going to buy what for and things like that that I would worry about. I can say honestly that we truly tried to follow the example of the one whose birth we celebrated and received the greatest gift we all can receive with the Spirit and love that comes from our Savior as we emulate what He taught. Elder Pope and I were just talking about how much fun this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was for us. We got to go out and deliver cookies to people we're teaching and others that just needed a little cheer. It brought so much joy and really was one of my favorite Christmas experiences. Like I said yesterday we didn't even get booed off of any porches we sang our duet carols on so that's always a good thing too.;) haha I also got like 5-6 cards at the mission home yesterday that they received Saturday and were waiting to forward. Kat and Tom's card was there along with your letter Mom. Sorry Nick and Tati I still didn't see that "big package" you sent yet ;) haha. Speaking of your letter though Mom. I will try to write Elder Musaka sometime but I can't email him. I'm only allowed to email immediate family and President Clements. So I'll try to write sometime, but sorry I won't be able to email him. I just figured I'd give you a little FYI about that.
Other than that I don't think there's anything else to really report or say. I love all of you and it was great seeing and talking to you yesterday! Thanks again for all the love and support you give to me! I can't wait to talk to you again.
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, December 19, 2011
What a Difference a Week Makes!
Hey Crafts!
It sounds like I don't even need to talk to you this week or send any sort of updates. You've already heard from two families from two different wards out here and gotten all the exciting news from them. haha jk So as you may have heard or guessed it was kind of a crazy week for me here. Unfortunately, Elder Parry did end up going home on Wednesday morning. He had some medical issues he had been battling since he came out on his mission. Last Monday after our appointment with his Dr. he and President Clements talked about Elder Parry's situation and decided he would be best to be medically released and try to fix what it was at home. There's little likely hood of him coming back, so it is kind of sad but he has something else he can accomplish and do back home. It was tough to see him go, but it's what was best and will help him the most. That is the reason I was with the Assistants from Wednesday through Saturday and thought I might possibly be there the next 5 weeks of the transfer. President wasn't sure where I would go and because our area borders the Assistants we were going to see how managing both of them together would go. We had a Christmas miracle come through for us in the Eden Prairie ward though. I'm not sure if I told you originally that I came to Eden Prairie to replace a missionary who had gone home due to medical complications and was having surgery to try and fix it. Through his communication the past couple months to President Clements and what he had told some members he kept in contact with here he wasn't going to come back. Even if he did get medical clearance it was just going to be way to hard to say good-bye again. Everyone loved him here in the ward and most of the missionaries did too. We actually came out together. He was in a different district but it was still hard to see him come home and not come back. That is until Elder Pope called President on Tuesday and said he knows he needs to come back. HE had the ok from the Dr. and wanted to be out here. So on Saturday that's why the Neilsons saw me at the airport with the Assistants picking up my new companion Elder Pope who would be coming back to the ward I'm currently in and that he left almost 4 months ago. It was nothing short of a Christmas miracle to have things work out like the way that they did! Everyone at church was pretty confused not to see Elder Parry, but once they saw Elder Pope he was welcomed like some sort of conquering hero. Everyone was way excited to see him and he's way excited to be here again. We get along really well and now with both of us having the same sort of drive and desire there are going to be even more miracles this transfer! I'm way excited to see what's going to happen. The whole ward is too. As far as the Cardons go that was pretty crazy! While I was in Bloomington we decided to stop by some members and teach them Friday night. The Cardons were one we decide to try and see. Right when we walked in Sister Cardon didn't really think anything of it with the two normal missionaries Elder Crepeau and Elder Lo walking in front of me. Then she told me later she saw this tall blonde missionary bringing up the rear. She was told by Tara Manning that she was to look for a tall blonde missionary from Hooper with the name Elder Craft. "You can't miss him" is what she was told. Right when I got through the door and started to take off my shoes she looked right at my name tag and said, "Elder Craft I've been looking for you!" That's the one and only time I think that's going to happen on my mission haha. Any investigator or person I would talk to tracting have tell me that would be phenomenal. haha She then told me she was originally from Hooper and talked about how she grew up on 5500 in the 2nd Ward. We connected a few ties like that I went to High School and have hung out with her younger brother Bo, before finding out the reason she knew I was there and to "look for me". Her husband in the other room told me< "wait a minute you're from Hooper? I'm from West Warren. Craft? Do you have any siblings?" So the conversation turned to him knowing Nick and saying they had a lot of classes together and he remembered Nick was on the soccer team and he even brought up the story of the fight he got into in one of the games when "Sugar went sour" haha. It was pretty awesome! And all of this took place in the first 5-10 minutes of being there leaving the Assistants stunned and kind of left in the dust haha. It was very unexpected but really funny. I still can't believe all the connections that have all the sudden come out of the wood work since I've been here in Eden Prairie. All the emails, pictures, and videos you guys get sent it feels like I'm not even really on a mission haha JK. That's my abbreviated story to answer a few questions people had. The best part is that what ever doesn't make sense we can talk about on Sunday and clear it all up. haha
Now for the Skype on Sunday like I told you before we'll be doing it at Brother Murray's but I think it will be sometime after dinner. Sorry to totally throw a wrench in your operation of doing it and scheduling it for 2, but Elder Pope's parents have late church and won't be able to do it until like 3:30 or 4 Idaho time. So I think what would work best for us is doing it after dinner at about 6 p.m. here so 5 p.m. for you guys. Sorry again to mess it all up. I hope that that can work for you guys. If not you could contact Brother Murray and he'll relate the message I'm sure. His Skype account it: ------------- and his email is -----------@-------.com. I hope it all works out and his computer's good enough to where you all can see me and not the still images like last time haha.
Thanks also for the packages! I got them from the Neilson's after dinner last nigh. I had no idea and neither did they that the little one was for them until I opened it haha. I'll give it to them the next time I see them. I really liked the Christmas card that you guys sent too. We all look so good! haha JK I was surprised that was the picture you picked for me, but it was a good one. I do have Christmas cards I was going to send last week but Target was having some problems to where I could only get them this week. Sorry you'll be getting them like right before Christmas. Just kind of as a disclaimer as well they were to best Target had to offer so don't be too critical haha.
Well I hope that helps to answer all your questions and clear up some confusion. Just know I'm doing great back in Eden Prairie! We got our Christmas Presents for the ward yesterday at church. All I have to say is that I was amazed by the amount of stuff the ward gave to us. I'll attach some pictures so you can see. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you Sunday!!
Love, Elder Craft
It sounds like I don't even need to talk to you this week or send any sort of updates. You've already heard from two families from two different wards out here and gotten all the exciting news from them. haha jk So as you may have heard or guessed it was kind of a crazy week for me here. Unfortunately, Elder Parry did end up going home on Wednesday morning. He had some medical issues he had been battling since he came out on his mission. Last Monday after our appointment with his Dr. he and President Clements talked about Elder Parry's situation and decided he would be best to be medically released and try to fix what it was at home. There's little likely hood of him coming back, so it is kind of sad but he has something else he can accomplish and do back home. It was tough to see him go, but it's what was best and will help him the most. That is the reason I was with the Assistants from Wednesday through Saturday and thought I might possibly be there the next 5 weeks of the transfer. President wasn't sure where I would go and because our area borders the Assistants we were going to see how managing both of them together would go. We had a Christmas miracle come through for us in the Eden Prairie ward though. I'm not sure if I told you originally that I came to Eden Prairie to replace a missionary who had gone home due to medical complications and was having surgery to try and fix it. Through his communication the past couple months to President Clements and what he had told some members he kept in contact with here he wasn't going to come back. Even if he did get medical clearance it was just going to be way to hard to say good-bye again. Everyone loved him here in the ward and most of the missionaries did too. We actually came out together. He was in a different district but it was still hard to see him come home and not come back. That is until Elder Pope called President on Tuesday and said he knows he needs to come back. HE had the ok from the Dr. and wanted to be out here. So on Saturday that's why the Neilsons saw me at the airport with the Assistants picking up my new companion Elder Pope who would be coming back to the ward I'm currently in and that he left almost 4 months ago. It was nothing short of a Christmas miracle to have things work out like the way that they did! Everyone at church was pretty confused not to see Elder Parry, but once they saw Elder Pope he was welcomed like some sort of conquering hero. Everyone was way excited to see him and he's way excited to be here again. We get along really well and now with both of us having the same sort of drive and desire there are going to be even more miracles this transfer! I'm way excited to see what's going to happen. The whole ward is too. As far as the Cardons go that was pretty crazy! While I was in Bloomington we decided to stop by some members and teach them Friday night. The Cardons were one we decide to try and see. Right when we walked in Sister Cardon didn't really think anything of it with the two normal missionaries Elder Crepeau and Elder Lo walking in front of me. Then she told me later she saw this tall blonde missionary bringing up the rear. She was told by Tara Manning that she was to look for a tall blonde missionary from Hooper with the name Elder Craft. "You can't miss him" is what she was told. Right when I got through the door and started to take off my shoes she looked right at my name tag and said, "Elder Craft I've been looking for you!" That's the one and only time I think that's going to happen on my mission haha. Any investigator or person I would talk to tracting have tell me that would be phenomenal. haha She then told me she was originally from Hooper and talked about how she grew up on 5500 in the 2nd Ward. We connected a few ties like that I went to High School and have hung out with her younger brother Bo, before finding out the reason she knew I was there and to "look for me". Her husband in the other room told me< "wait a minute you're from Hooper? I'm from West Warren. Craft? Do you have any siblings?" So the conversation turned to him knowing Nick and saying they had a lot of classes together and he remembered Nick was on the soccer team and he even brought up the story of the fight he got into in one of the games when "Sugar went sour" haha. It was pretty awesome! And all of this took place in the first 5-10 minutes of being there leaving the Assistants stunned and kind of left in the dust haha. It was very unexpected but really funny. I still can't believe all the connections that have all the sudden come out of the wood work since I've been here in Eden Prairie. All the emails, pictures, and videos you guys get sent it feels like I'm not even really on a mission haha JK. That's my abbreviated story to answer a few questions people had. The best part is that what ever doesn't make sense we can talk about on Sunday and clear it all up. haha
Now for the Skype on Sunday like I told you before we'll be doing it at Brother Murray's but I think it will be sometime after dinner. Sorry to totally throw a wrench in your operation of doing it and scheduling it for 2, but Elder Pope's parents have late church and won't be able to do it until like 3:30 or 4 Idaho time. So I think what would work best for us is doing it after dinner at about 6 p.m. here so 5 p.m. for you guys. Sorry again to mess it all up. I hope that that can work for you guys. If not you could contact Brother Murray and he'll relate the message I'm sure. His Skype account it: ------------- and his email is -----------@-------.com. I hope it all works out and his computer's good enough to where you all can see me and not the still images like last time haha.
Thanks also for the packages! I got them from the Neilson's after dinner last nigh. I had no idea and neither did they that the little one was for them until I opened it haha. I'll give it to them the next time I see them. I really liked the Christmas card that you guys sent too. We all look so good! haha JK I was surprised that was the picture you picked for me, but it was a good one. I do have Christmas cards I was going to send last week but Target was having some problems to where I could only get them this week. Sorry you'll be getting them like right before Christmas. Just kind of as a disclaimer as well they were to best Target had to offer so don't be too critical haha.
Well I hope that helps to answer all your questions and clear up some confusion. Just know I'm doing great back in Eden Prairie! We got our Christmas Presents for the ward yesterday at church. All I have to say is that I was amazed by the amount of stuff the ward gave to us. I'll attach some pictures so you can see. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you Sunday!!
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, December 12, 2011
Things Seem to be Going Well
Dear Family,
Thanks for the emails and updates this week. Things here in the great land of lakes in "the garden of Eden (Prairie)" have been going so well! This past week we were able to pick up 3 more investigators! That is such an answer to prayer to be able to keep adding to the teaching pool that we've been working so hard to build. One is a 16 year old kid whose dad is a recent convert to the church. He's never really had any religious back round at all. The first time he's ever been to a church he said was when he came to his dad's baptism in July. It's going to be really fun be able to start with the basics and teach him all from the beginning. He's really open and receptive and asks great questions. He really listens to what we're saying and thinks about it. He knows and goes to school with a few of the member kids in the ward and is really good friends with one in particular. We're teaching him at that friends house. He came to the turkey bowl and really loves to talk anything sports. Mostly basketball and football so if we can steer clear of getting him distracted on those topics things are going to continue to go great haha. The other 2 investigators that we picked up are a really great couple we tracted into about a month ago that we finally got to meet with and teach. It was a great lesson! They really want to increase their knowledge, faith, and relationship with Jesus Christ. All things that the Book of Mormon promises to do for all of us. Unfortunately, the husband works in retail so this time of year is total craziness for him, and we can't meet with him again until the week after Christmas. We'll still call and keep in contact to help them get to church before then. The Lord is blessing us tremendously and we're working hard to keep these people growing in their faith and on their path coming unto Christ. Good things are only going to continue to come and grow in these letters.
As far as the snow here we are expected to get rain the next couple of days! What is this?! I feel like such a wimp. I did not come to Minnesota to write home and report on rain in the middle of December. It's so amazing to me that a year ago yesterday was the day that we got 22 inches of snow in 24 hrs! I just can't believe the difference. I keep waring Elder Parry that this is not normal and the members here back me up. I just figure we'll pay for this nice weather come about January when the bottom of the thermometer actually just falls right out and we don't get positive numbers until March haha. That's just my guess though.
That's so exciting about Brady's papers. I talked to Elder Mead the other day at transfers and he said that Jesse Wilson got his call to Bolivia? I told Brady in other letters and emails that I'm guessing he's going somewhere in Central or South America. I'm not sure on a specific country yet. Don't worry that it won't be here by Christmas. I'm used to finding out all information over email anyway haha. Speaking of Christmas though I'm not sure if you guys want to try and Skype again or just a phone call. We'll be over at Brother Murray's for Christmas and he has enough computers we could both Skype there. You just might want to email him and found out if he has a Skype account to get that all coordinated. Just let me know what time everyone will be available next week so I can try to plan that.
I think that that's really cool about that adopt a missionary program you're doing Mom. Sister Simpson emailed me the emails she's sent and received from Cody and his companion and I think that that's a great idea. I wish that I could say that I'll have time to try and write every week too but that's probably not going to be the case. I can for sure try though. I was thinking since I've been so blessed and really don't need stuff for Christmas like I talked about last week you could go in on a Christmas package with Sister Simpson for a couple of those missionaries instead. I realize that it will probably be late getting there now but I think it'd be awesome to just save the money from sending me one and sending it to those African missionaries there. You might have already thought of that but if not it's just a cool idea I had.
It's so crazy to think that Jacob will be home this week! Time flies when you're speaking Norweigen haha. He's written me a couple emails the past couple weeks so it was cool to talk to him.
I hope that everything else is going great with all of you. Sorry this is kind of short but we have a lot of stuff planned to try and get done today. I can't wait to hear from you guys and talk to you again!
Love, Elder Craft
Thanks for the emails and updates this week. Things here in the great land of lakes in "the garden of Eden (Prairie)" have been going so well! This past week we were able to pick up 3 more investigators! That is such an answer to prayer to be able to keep adding to the teaching pool that we've been working so hard to build. One is a 16 year old kid whose dad is a recent convert to the church. He's never really had any religious back round at all. The first time he's ever been to a church he said was when he came to his dad's baptism in July. It's going to be really fun be able to start with the basics and teach him all from the beginning. He's really open and receptive and asks great questions. He really listens to what we're saying and thinks about it. He knows and goes to school with a few of the member kids in the ward and is really good friends with one in particular. We're teaching him at that friends house. He came to the turkey bowl and really loves to talk anything sports. Mostly basketball and football so if we can steer clear of getting him distracted on those topics things are going to continue to go great haha. The other 2 investigators that we picked up are a really great couple we tracted into about a month ago that we finally got to meet with and teach. It was a great lesson! They really want to increase their knowledge, faith, and relationship with Jesus Christ. All things that the Book of Mormon promises to do for all of us. Unfortunately, the husband works in retail so this time of year is total craziness for him, and we can't meet with him again until the week after Christmas. We'll still call and keep in contact to help them get to church before then. The Lord is blessing us tremendously and we're working hard to keep these people growing in their faith and on their path coming unto Christ. Good things are only going to continue to come and grow in these letters.
As far as the snow here we are expected to get rain the next couple of days! What is this?! I feel like such a wimp. I did not come to Minnesota to write home and report on rain in the middle of December. It's so amazing to me that a year ago yesterday was the day that we got 22 inches of snow in 24 hrs! I just can't believe the difference. I keep waring Elder Parry that this is not normal and the members here back me up. I just figure we'll pay for this nice weather come about January when the bottom of the thermometer actually just falls right out and we don't get positive numbers until March haha. That's just my guess though.
That's so exciting about Brady's papers. I talked to Elder Mead the other day at transfers and he said that Jesse Wilson got his call to Bolivia? I told Brady in other letters and emails that I'm guessing he's going somewhere in Central or South America. I'm not sure on a specific country yet. Don't worry that it won't be here by Christmas. I'm used to finding out all information over email anyway haha. Speaking of Christmas though I'm not sure if you guys want to try and Skype again or just a phone call. We'll be over at Brother Murray's for Christmas and he has enough computers we could both Skype there. You just might want to email him and found out if he has a Skype account to get that all coordinated. Just let me know what time everyone will be available next week so I can try to plan that.
I think that that's really cool about that adopt a missionary program you're doing Mom. Sister Simpson emailed me the emails she's sent and received from Cody and his companion and I think that that's a great idea. I wish that I could say that I'll have time to try and write every week too but that's probably not going to be the case. I can for sure try though. I was thinking since I've been so blessed and really don't need stuff for Christmas like I talked about last week you could go in on a Christmas package with Sister Simpson for a couple of those missionaries instead. I realize that it will probably be late getting there now but I think it'd be awesome to just save the money from sending me one and sending it to those African missionaries there. You might have already thought of that but if not it's just a cool idea I had.
It's so crazy to think that Jacob will be home this week! Time flies when you're speaking Norweigen haha. He's written me a couple emails the past couple weeks so it was cool to talk to him.
I hope that everything else is going great with all of you. Sorry this is kind of short but we have a lot of stuff planned to try and get done today. I can't wait to hear from you guys and talk to you again!
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, December 5, 2011
Where's My Raise?
Hello Crafts,
This week as you know is transfers and just like I did not expect to happen we got a call from President Clements this morning to inform us that we would both be staying in Eden Prairie. It was kind of strange because you usually do not get a call unless you are transferring. After he informed us we were staying he cleared up some confusion on the purpose behind his call. He told me that I will now be responsible of one of the largest districts in the mission as the new District Leader here. It was a surprise to me to find out that we had one of the largest districts and to be called as the District Leader again. Elder Caldwell the old district leader is going down to Rochester to be a Zone Leader down there. I'm excited about the new responsibility again. What makes it even better is that Elder Bennett and Sister Daniel were in the last district I was District Leader over, so they get a little bit of Elder Craft round 2. haha I'm really excited to still be here in Eden Prairie and to continue to serve with Elder Parry. We have some good things going on and are excited for the next few weeks the following transfer will bring.
This past week we found 2 new investigators from tracting. The woman we talked to told us we could come back in a couple days only because her daughter met and had this best friend when she went out to college who was a member from Wyoming that is now on his mission in Russia. When we went for the lesson though her son who's a sophomore at Chaska High wanted to sit in and listen because he knew a couple of the youth from the ward here. The lesson went really well and the spirit was really strong as we taught and testified about Christ's church anciently and the restoration of it now. The power of the Book of Mormon was evident as we read through the introduction and testified to them about the truthfulness of it and how it would bless their lives. They both committed to read before we come back later this next week, and she even said hopefully her husband will be sitting in joining us this next week. We're pretty excited to be working with them and know that these are who we are here in Eden Prairie to find. Thanks for all you prayers because the blessings have really been pouring out upon us! We are also going to start teaching the son of a recent convert in the ward and are really excited to be working with him. The work as you all know has been a little slow going but because of the hard work of the spirit within people and the Lord because of the prayers in our behalf we are starting to reap the benefits of it. The other investigator that I had mentioned a couple weeks ago working toward being baptized on the 17th might not make it on that day because there are a couple other changes and commitments that need to be made and met so that it is all according to the standards and qualifications that the Lord has commanded of His children. We're still working hard and the ward is a great support to him. He's encountered a couple bumps along the way already with the short road he's traveled in a couple weeks, but the spirit is helping to strengthen his testimony and help him to see the truth of what he's learning and feeling. It's always an incredible and humbling experience to watch and be a part of.
I'm glad that you got the pictures from Sister Neilson. She was such a great blessing to us to not only drive 4 of us missionaries to the temple but then want to go through with us and take us back home. It made coordinating rides much easier. When she was taking pictures on all our cameras too she told us to wait there as she took a couple on her iPhone. She said she was going to send them to my mom because she would love that. I agreed and told here she also got a sweet new wallpaper for her phone from that one picture. It was a win win for everyone even though I'm not too sure she wanted a picture of us as her back round haha. ;) They are a great family who we have dinner with again this next Sunday. This ward is just great though and like I said earlier I'm just glad to still be working here for the next 6 weeks. Especially since Elder Parry told me that when he talked with President this morning he said that he was initially going to move me, but was strongly corrected by the Lord saying that I needed to be in Eden Prairie. That in and of itself puts enough pressure on knowing that there's something the Lord knows I specifically need to to be here for and accomplish this next 6 weeks. We'll be working hard to find out what that is in the short time that we have to do it in.
Well I'm glad to hear that Brady seems to be surviving and recovering from his ordeal with the oral surgeon fairly well. Thanks for sending the fairly gruesome pictures along with your email haha. I can't wait to hear how it goes these next few weeks as you finalize everything to send in so you can find out where in South America you'll be headed. I'm going to just go ahead and call that right now. haha
I'm also glad to hear that everyone else seems to be doing fairly well or at least recovering towards that. Thanks for all the support and prayers again! I know the Lord listens to prayers and grants us those worthy desires of our hearts! I love you and can't wait to hear from you again.
Love, Elder Craft
This week as you know is transfers and just like I did not expect to happen we got a call from President Clements this morning to inform us that we would both be staying in Eden Prairie. It was kind of strange because you usually do not get a call unless you are transferring. After he informed us we were staying he cleared up some confusion on the purpose behind his call. He told me that I will now be responsible of one of the largest districts in the mission as the new District Leader here. It was a surprise to me to find out that we had one of the largest districts and to be called as the District Leader again. Elder Caldwell the old district leader is going down to Rochester to be a Zone Leader down there. I'm excited about the new responsibility again. What makes it even better is that Elder Bennett and Sister Daniel were in the last district I was District Leader over, so they get a little bit of Elder Craft round 2. haha I'm really excited to still be here in Eden Prairie and to continue to serve with Elder Parry. We have some good things going on and are excited for the next few weeks the following transfer will bring.
This past week we found 2 new investigators from tracting. The woman we talked to told us we could come back in a couple days only because her daughter met and had this best friend when she went out to college who was a member from Wyoming that is now on his mission in Russia. When we went for the lesson though her son who's a sophomore at Chaska High wanted to sit in and listen because he knew a couple of the youth from the ward here. The lesson went really well and the spirit was really strong as we taught and testified about Christ's church anciently and the restoration of it now. The power of the Book of Mormon was evident as we read through the introduction and testified to them about the truthfulness of it and how it would bless their lives. They both committed to read before we come back later this next week, and she even said hopefully her husband will be sitting in joining us this next week. We're pretty excited to be working with them and know that these are who we are here in Eden Prairie to find. Thanks for all you prayers because the blessings have really been pouring out upon us! We are also going to start teaching the son of a recent convert in the ward and are really excited to be working with him. The work as you all know has been a little slow going but because of the hard work of the spirit within people and the Lord because of the prayers in our behalf we are starting to reap the benefits of it. The other investigator that I had mentioned a couple weeks ago working toward being baptized on the 17th might not make it on that day because there are a couple other changes and commitments that need to be made and met so that it is all according to the standards and qualifications that the Lord has commanded of His children. We're still working hard and the ward is a great support to him. He's encountered a couple bumps along the way already with the short road he's traveled in a couple weeks, but the spirit is helping to strengthen his testimony and help him to see the truth of what he's learning and feeling. It's always an incredible and humbling experience to watch and be a part of.
I'm glad that you got the pictures from Sister Neilson. She was such a great blessing to us to not only drive 4 of us missionaries to the temple but then want to go through with us and take us back home. It made coordinating rides much easier. When she was taking pictures on all our cameras too she told us to wait there as she took a couple on her iPhone. She said she was going to send them to my mom because she would love that. I agreed and told here she also got a sweet new wallpaper for her phone from that one picture. It was a win win for everyone even though I'm not too sure she wanted a picture of us as her back round haha. ;) They are a great family who we have dinner with again this next Sunday. This ward is just great though and like I said earlier I'm just glad to still be working here for the next 6 weeks. Especially since Elder Parry told me that when he talked with President this morning he said that he was initially going to move me, but was strongly corrected by the Lord saying that I needed to be in Eden Prairie. That in and of itself puts enough pressure on knowing that there's something the Lord knows I specifically need to to be here for and accomplish this next 6 weeks. We'll be working hard to find out what that is in the short time that we have to do it in.
Well I'm glad to hear that Brady seems to be surviving and recovering from his ordeal with the oral surgeon fairly well. Thanks for sending the fairly gruesome pictures along with your email haha. I can't wait to hear how it goes these next few weeks as you finalize everything to send in so you can find out where in South America you'll be headed. I'm going to just go ahead and call that right now. haha
I'm also glad to hear that everyone else seems to be doing fairly well or at least recovering towards that. Thanks for all the support and prayers again! I know the Lord listens to prayers and grants us those worthy desires of our hearts! I love you and can't wait to hear from you again.
Love, Elder Craft
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Isn't There Suppossed to be Snow Here?
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the emails and letters this past week. Sorry to leave you hanging for a few days. We went to the temple as a district today. I forgot to mention in the email on Thanksgiving that my next P-Day wouldn't be until today. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. To answer some of your questions yes it was a little nerve racking having dinner with Elder Payne and President Clements. With so many people being there it was kind of a more casual thing though. Sitting with President and Sister Clements at our table was pretty cool though because we got to just sit and talk with them outside of an interview setting and get to know each other a little better. There really wasn't anything too different for dinner at all or anything too amazing I guess.
This past week didn't have anything too crazy here in the Garden of Eden. There still hasn't been any snow yet, but from what I hear that will be coming tomorrow. I'm not complaining by any means. We went until December without snow. That has to be some sort of miracle for Minnesota. Everybody's surprised by it. There must be some very faith filled bike missionaries here that have been praying for the snow to hold off. We have been able to set up a few more appointments for the next couple days with potentials and people we've tracted into, so hopefully the work continues to pick up. Thanks for all the prayers. I know that's what's helping and providing the miracles for us here.
It's crazy to think that next Monday (which should be my normal P-Day again by the way) is transfer call day! 6 weeks has gone by already. I think in a sense now that it has been a year everyone's right that it is picking up and I'm not really sure what it is that causes it. Even President Clements talked about that in an interview that Elder Parry and I had with him this last week. He gave me an analogy that I've heard as I'm sure many of you have that missions are like a roller coaster, for more reasons than one haha. It seems to just drag as it's chugging up the first part of the hill until it gets to the top. Then it kind of pauses for a second. After that it just flies by with nothing you've really changed or that you can do about it, and the closer you get to the bottom the faster it's going. I've seen that in sense I guess now looking back, but I'm just looking forward to what's going to happen here in Eden Prairie the next couple weeks and to experience the great things that I know are coming.
It sounds like Natalie had a good birthday. Surprise surprise that there was honey sesame chicken to eat haha. It sounds like everyone there seemed to make it a party too haha. I hope that she was able to get the package that I sent. Crazy to think that in 6 months now she can get here learners permit! What it that all about? Lucky for her the cavalier might just be available without any one to even drive it. That's probably exactly what Mom and Dad did not want to hear haha, but we have to face the facts sometime.
To answer a question that I figure is going to be coming from some of you here soon I have no idea what I need or want for Christmas. I definitely do not need food like I got last year haha. I have plenty of t-shirts along with warm winter clothes too. I asked for music before but getting it approved is kind of a hassle if it's not within the qualifications and standards already. I've gotten books and stuff before but I never have time to read them or space to really pack them around. I know I had mentioned to Mom and Dad about a GPS too but as of now I can navigate my way around the area just fine and with the maps we have it's easy enough that I never really get lost, so I don't think that will be a necessity like I thought before. Sorry to not really help out at all and I kind of made it a little more difficult, but I figured I'd try to tell you somewhat early haha. You guys are so great I just can't think of anything I need. You take care of me too well ;). haha
Sorry this is kind of short too and there's not too much exciting in it. I hope that you are all doing well. Thanks for your prayers and support. I'm always praying for you guys! I can't wait to talk to you again hopefully with news of me staying in Eden Prairie haha.
Love, Elder Craft
Thanks for the emails and letters this past week. Sorry to leave you hanging for a few days. We went to the temple as a district today. I forgot to mention in the email on Thanksgiving that my next P-Day wouldn't be until today. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. To answer some of your questions yes it was a little nerve racking having dinner with Elder Payne and President Clements. With so many people being there it was kind of a more casual thing though. Sitting with President and Sister Clements at our table was pretty cool though because we got to just sit and talk with them outside of an interview setting and get to know each other a little better. There really wasn't anything too different for dinner at all or anything too amazing I guess.
This past week didn't have anything too crazy here in the Garden of Eden. There still hasn't been any snow yet, but from what I hear that will be coming tomorrow. I'm not complaining by any means. We went until December without snow. That has to be some sort of miracle for Minnesota. Everybody's surprised by it. There must be some very faith filled bike missionaries here that have been praying for the snow to hold off. We have been able to set up a few more appointments for the next couple days with potentials and people we've tracted into, so hopefully the work continues to pick up. Thanks for all the prayers. I know that's what's helping and providing the miracles for us here.
It's crazy to think that next Monday (which should be my normal P-Day again by the way) is transfer call day! 6 weeks has gone by already. I think in a sense now that it has been a year everyone's right that it is picking up and I'm not really sure what it is that causes it. Even President Clements talked about that in an interview that Elder Parry and I had with him this last week. He gave me an analogy that I've heard as I'm sure many of you have that missions are like a roller coaster, for more reasons than one haha. It seems to just drag as it's chugging up the first part of the hill until it gets to the top. Then it kind of pauses for a second. After that it just flies by with nothing you've really changed or that you can do about it, and the closer you get to the bottom the faster it's going. I've seen that in sense I guess now looking back, but I'm just looking forward to what's going to happen here in Eden Prairie the next couple weeks and to experience the great things that I know are coming.
It sounds like Natalie had a good birthday. Surprise surprise that there was honey sesame chicken to eat haha. It sounds like everyone there seemed to make it a party too haha. I hope that she was able to get the package that I sent. Crazy to think that in 6 months now she can get here learners permit! What it that all about? Lucky for her the cavalier might just be available without any one to even drive it. That's probably exactly what Mom and Dad did not want to hear haha, but we have to face the facts sometime.
To answer a question that I figure is going to be coming from some of you here soon I have no idea what I need or want for Christmas. I definitely do not need food like I got last year haha. I have plenty of t-shirts along with warm winter clothes too. I asked for music before but getting it approved is kind of a hassle if it's not within the qualifications and standards already. I've gotten books and stuff before but I never have time to read them or space to really pack them around. I know I had mentioned to Mom and Dad about a GPS too but as of now I can navigate my way around the area just fine and with the maps we have it's easy enough that I never really get lost, so I don't think that will be a necessity like I thought before. Sorry to not really help out at all and I kind of made it a little more difficult, but I figured I'd try to tell you somewhat early haha. You guys are so great I just can't think of anything I need. You take care of me too well ;). haha
Sorry this is kind of short too and there's not too much exciting in it. I hope that you are all doing well. Thanks for your prayers and support. I'm always praying for you guys! I can't wait to talk to you again hopefully with news of me staying in Eden Prairie haha.
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, November 14, 2011
Where is the Snow?
Dear Family,
Thanks to everyone for the emails and prayers. To start off and help clear up some worries of Mom's: yes I am staying warm haha. I'm a seasoned Minnesotan winter veteran remember? haha JK. The weather here has actually been incredibly nice! Saturday it was up near 60! There isn't even any snow here, and from what I hear that's not the case in either Utah or Idaho. What about DC? Are you guys starting to see white yet? Don't get too jealous of my no snow just yet because once it does come here it's not going to stop for the next 5 months! And we won't even talk about the temperatures that come along with it haha. So far I haven't even pulled out my coat. I've only had to use my gloves tracting one night when it got to about 28, but even that wasn't too bad. The rest of the time we've been out at night it's been in the upper 30's so I haven't even need my gloves or earmuffs. Like I said before I'm going to come home and be able to shovel snow in a t-shirt in Utah! haha Once it does get colder though I will pull out my coat and hammock,Mom, and will be just fine. It lasted all last year and from what the natives have told us here that was one of the worst on record. Our apartment is really nice too so a heater won't be necessary. Thanks so much for the thought and concern! I really do appreciate it, but we haven't even had to turn on the heat yet and when we do there's a heating system in our apartment. Speaking of my apartment I'm hoping to attach some pictures of it so you can see what it looks like. I realized the other day I haven't even shown you where I've been living the past 10 weeks haha.
That's so funny about Landon. I knew it!!! Tavan and I talked about this since high school. I just can't believe he's getting married to Jesse this week. I guess that's about 6 months since he's been home so it's nothing too crazy. You'll have to tell them and Cherice that I said hi.
To answer your question Dad I am not the District Leader anymore here in this area. Elder Caldwell is and he's serving over in Plymouth. It's kind of funny because he actually trained Elder White and did half of Elder Parry's training. There aren't as many district leaders as there were before because there's not as many districts. They recently realigned all the districts to be alot bigger with more areas included in each district. We're the smallest zone here in the Minneapolis Zone, so we only have 7 teams total and our district is made up of 4 of them. We have Waconia (where or actual meeting house is), us in Eden Prairie, Minetonka, and Plymouth. The old district that I was District Leader over got 2 more companionships added to it when they made this whole realignment so there's 10 missionaries in that one now. We have Zone Leaders as well but they are apart of the other district in the zone and work in South Minneapolis. I hope that gives some more fun information and answers your question haha.
This week there's not too much crazy or exciting to report from last week. We did have some lady last night tell us when we knocked on the door, "sorry I'm watching Harry Potter, so I don't have time" and just shut the door. I just turned to Elder Parry and said, "I cannot believe someone just used that as a legitimate excuse" haha. It was pretty funny that she was actually serious about it too. We have our "Mission Tour" this Friday and one of the members of the Presidency of the Seventy I think will be here to speak to us. I'm really excited about that, but at the same time after meeting Elder Quentin L. Cook it's kind of hard to try and top that haha. We should be getting new phones at the meeting too so that's kind of a fun random fact for you.
Like I said sorry that there's not much too new or exciting to report. We have some good potentials that we'll be working with this next week and doing a lot more tracting to find even more people. Your email really helped to confirm my testimony of it, Dad, and what I've said before. I know the Lord has prepared people here for the Gospel. We just have to be worthy enough and work hard enough to find them. So hopefully this week we will have done enough to report the fruits of that labor to you. I love you and pray for you all always. I'm looking forward to the Christmas Music and talking to you again. For some reason Mannheim Steamroller is not approved for Christmas music just so you know in case you were going to send some. I don't know why it just is so I follow the rule haha. I hope all is well.
Love, Elder Craft
Thanks to everyone for the emails and prayers. To start off and help clear up some worries of Mom's: yes I am staying warm haha. I'm a seasoned Minnesotan winter veteran remember? haha JK. The weather here has actually been incredibly nice! Saturday it was up near 60! There isn't even any snow here, and from what I hear that's not the case in either Utah or Idaho. What about DC? Are you guys starting to see white yet? Don't get too jealous of my no snow just yet because once it does come here it's not going to stop for the next 5 months! And we won't even talk about the temperatures that come along with it haha. So far I haven't even pulled out my coat. I've only had to use my gloves tracting one night when it got to about 28, but even that wasn't too bad. The rest of the time we've been out at night it's been in the upper 30's so I haven't even need my gloves or earmuffs. Like I said before I'm going to come home and be able to shovel snow in a t-shirt in Utah! haha Once it does get colder though I will pull out my coat and hammock,Mom, and will be just fine. It lasted all last year and from what the natives have told us here that was one of the worst on record. Our apartment is really nice too so a heater won't be necessary. Thanks so much for the thought and concern! I really do appreciate it, but we haven't even had to turn on the heat yet and when we do there's a heating system in our apartment. Speaking of my apartment I'm hoping to attach some pictures of it so you can see what it looks like. I realized the other day I haven't even shown you where I've been living the past 10 weeks haha.
That's so funny about Landon. I knew it!!! Tavan and I talked about this since high school. I just can't believe he's getting married to Jesse this week. I guess that's about 6 months since he's been home so it's nothing too crazy. You'll have to tell them and Cherice that I said hi.
To answer your question Dad I am not the District Leader anymore here in this area. Elder Caldwell is and he's serving over in Plymouth. It's kind of funny because he actually trained Elder White and did half of Elder Parry's training. There aren't as many district leaders as there were before because there's not as many districts. They recently realigned all the districts to be alot bigger with more areas included in each district. We're the smallest zone here in the Minneapolis Zone, so we only have 7 teams total and our district is made up of 4 of them. We have Waconia (where or actual meeting house is), us in Eden Prairie, Minetonka, and Plymouth. The old district that I was District Leader over got 2 more companionships added to it when they made this whole realignment so there's 10 missionaries in that one now. We have Zone Leaders as well but they are apart of the other district in the zone and work in South Minneapolis. I hope that gives some more fun information and answers your question haha.
This week there's not too much crazy or exciting to report from last week. We did have some lady last night tell us when we knocked on the door, "sorry I'm watching Harry Potter, so I don't have time" and just shut the door. I just turned to Elder Parry and said, "I cannot believe someone just used that as a legitimate excuse" haha. It was pretty funny that she was actually serious about it too. We have our "Mission Tour" this Friday and one of the members of the Presidency of the Seventy I think will be here to speak to us. I'm really excited about that, but at the same time after meeting Elder Quentin L. Cook it's kind of hard to try and top that haha. We should be getting new phones at the meeting too so that's kind of a fun random fact for you.
Like I said sorry that there's not much too new or exciting to report. We have some good potentials that we'll be working with this next week and doing a lot more tracting to find even more people. Your email really helped to confirm my testimony of it, Dad, and what I've said before. I know the Lord has prepared people here for the Gospel. We just have to be worthy enough and work hard enough to find them. So hopefully this week we will have done enough to report the fruits of that labor to you. I love you and pray for you all always. I'm looking forward to the Christmas Music and talking to you again. For some reason Mannheim Steamroller is not approved for Christmas music just so you know in case you were going to send some. I don't know why it just is so I follow the rule haha. I hope all is well.
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, October 31, 2011
Weekly Update
Dear Family,
Thanks so much for the package you sent with the Drapers! I feel so spoiled now getting all this stuff from home. I got Kat and Tom's package last week and for those of you who know about it all I'm going to say is I just started laughing when I opened it up! haha It was definitely creative and unexpected. I could see Tom's personality all throughout too that's for sure. I'll write you guys a letter today for that. I really appreciate all you guys do for me as a family. Like I've said before. . .You're the best! Thanks for the letters Dad and Brady too. I know it must have been painful to make it hand written Brady but you survived and it means alot so thanks. ;) That's way cool that you guys got to meet and spend time with the Drapers and that the Meads did too. Kind of an unfortunate way to meet them at a funeral and all, but it's all part of this thing we like to call "life". They are very nice very helpful members to us here. Brother Draper is the Stake Patriarch too. I don't know if I mentioned that last week or not.
The work here in Eden Prairie is . . .growing. haha Slowly but surely it's picking up in little increments at a time. Patience in trails I think is one thing I definitely needed to learn before my mission (right along with just patience in general I guess) and right now is what the Lord needs us to do. Missionary work comes in these cycles of finding, which moves to teaching, and after that to baptisms, and eventually on to the temple. There's a saying for the mission that says "Find to Teach, Teach to Baptize, Baptize to Seal" because that's what we do in the MMM. Right now at this point I feel like we're in the definite first part of that: Finding. Typically I've tried to keep that cycle of continuous finding going along with teaching so that you don't have to worry and focus so much on finding because you didn't keep replenishing the teaching pool to have individuals to teach throughout. Always striving for that balance of both aspects of missionary work I think is what we should do, but when you come into an area you can't really control what the missionaries did there before. Especially, if they weren't there for a few weeks like what happened here. It is a trial on patience and diligence in work but something I know is going to help me to grow. We were reading in Alma 32 the other day as part of companionship study to prepare for a lesson we'd be having with some active members after dinner that night and read verses 41-43,
" 41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with apatience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree bspringing up unto everlasting life. 42 And because of your adiligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the bfruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. 43 Then, my brethren, ye shall areap the brewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth cfruit unto you".
It really made me think about diligence and patience in what we're experiencing right now with limited people to teach. Not only that but also continuing to act in faith and use that as the principle of power that it really is. The other cool correlation that came from these verses is that after we labor with faith, diligence, and patience is when the fruit comes. Not just any fruit though. Fruit that is white and pure above anything else that when we feast upon it fills us all. Just like the fruit from the tree of life that Lehi had seen and described about 450 years earlier. Something we need to desire to share with all those around us. That's my purpose here as a missionary is to share that. Sometimes there's not fruit enough to harvest yet but it will come from our faith and in the Lord's time after we labor sufficiently here in part of His vineyard in Eden Prairie. I love this work and the scriptures! We're optimistic with things picking up here soon and will just keep working and serving until then :).
As for Elder Mead. I was not able to find an excuse to head down to the mission home to welcome him in on Wednesday like I would have like, but after a couple days I made a few calls, cause I've got connections haha jk, and talked to one of the Assistants to get permission to call over to Eagen Minnesota where Elder Mead is currently serving with Elder Black. That was way sweet to find out because I've served around Elder Black a few times now being in the same zone with him and just talking to him a few different times. I knew his trainer who served as my Zone Leader when I first came out and he served with my MTC companion a few months ago. He's been out 3 months longer than me I think. He's actually one of the few missionaries taller than me. He's probably 6'5" or 6'6" an pretty goofy, but he's one of the nicest most sincere Elders ever. Elder Mead is very lucky and really going to like him. So on this last Saturday evening after planning at about 9:45 pm I called over and got dismissed with a text saying they were busy and would call back a few minutes later. When Elder Black called back very formal I asked, "is this was Elder Black" with which he replied kind of shocked, "yes and who is this". All I told him was I'd seen these mormon.org commercials and I wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. He didn't say much after that and after a brief pause I told him my name was Elder Craft and the sooner thy got the font filled the better. haha He just started to laugh and was like, "I knew it was too good to be true! What's up Elder Craft?' So I talked to him for a couple minutes before talking to Elder Mead for about the next 12 minutes. It was so cool to hear his voice and think he's out here with me now. We got to talk about training and how lucky he is to be with Elder Black. He seems to like him which is good, but it was just good to be able to call over and motivate and encourage a good friend who's probably going through a rough transition like I had to not too long ago. I really hope that I was able to motivate and help him as a new missionary because I know if I would have had a call like that from someone I knew going through the same thing I was in the same place it would have helped me at the beginning of my mission. I'm not sure when I'll get to see him. Eagen is in between Minneapolis and St.Paul kind of. I'm not sure the exact location or Zone, but hopefully we both get to go to the President's Fireside this next month and I can give him a nice face to face personal welcome. So from what I got to hear and talk to him Elder Mead is doing well and now hopefully excited to go out and baptized the whole state of Minnesota his next few months of training! haha
I hope that answers most of the questions you guys had and gives a nice update from here. I'm doing great and can't wait to hear from all of you again! I love and miss you. Thanks for all the prayers.
Love, Elder Craft
Thanks so much for the package you sent with the Drapers! I feel so spoiled now getting all this stuff from home. I got Kat and Tom's package last week and for those of you who know about it all I'm going to say is I just started laughing when I opened it up! haha It was definitely creative and unexpected. I could see Tom's personality all throughout too that's for sure. I'll write you guys a letter today for that. I really appreciate all you guys do for me as a family. Like I've said before. . .You're the best! Thanks for the letters Dad and Brady too. I know it must have been painful to make it hand written Brady but you survived and it means alot so thanks. ;) That's way cool that you guys got to meet and spend time with the Drapers and that the Meads did too. Kind of an unfortunate way to meet them at a funeral and all, but it's all part of this thing we like to call "life". They are very nice very helpful members to us here. Brother Draper is the Stake Patriarch too. I don't know if I mentioned that last week or not.
The work here in Eden Prairie is . . .growing. haha Slowly but surely it's picking up in little increments at a time. Patience in trails I think is one thing I definitely needed to learn before my mission (right along with just patience in general I guess) and right now is what the Lord needs us to do. Missionary work comes in these cycles of finding, which moves to teaching, and after that to baptisms, and eventually on to the temple. There's a saying for the mission that says "Find to Teach, Teach to Baptize, Baptize to Seal" because that's what we do in the MMM. Right now at this point I feel like we're in the definite first part of that: Finding. Typically I've tried to keep that cycle of continuous finding going along with teaching so that you don't have to worry and focus so much on finding because you didn't keep replenishing the teaching pool to have individuals to teach throughout. Always striving for that balance of both aspects of missionary work I think is what we should do, but when you come into an area you can't really control what the missionaries did there before. Especially, if they weren't there for a few weeks like what happened here. It is a trial on patience and diligence in work but something I know is going to help me to grow. We were reading in Alma 32 the other day as part of companionship study to prepare for a lesson we'd be having with some active members after dinner that night and read verses 41-43,
" 41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with apatience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree bspringing up unto everlasting life. 42 And because of your adiligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the bfruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. 43 Then, my brethren, ye shall areap the brewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth cfruit unto you".
It really made me think about diligence and patience in what we're experiencing right now with limited people to teach. Not only that but also continuing to act in faith and use that as the principle of power that it really is. The other cool correlation that came from these verses is that after we labor with faith, diligence, and patience is when the fruit comes. Not just any fruit though. Fruit that is white and pure above anything else that when we feast upon it fills us all. Just like the fruit from the tree of life that Lehi had seen and described about 450 years earlier. Something we need to desire to share with all those around us. That's my purpose here as a missionary is to share that. Sometimes there's not fruit enough to harvest yet but it will come from our faith and in the Lord's time after we labor sufficiently here in part of His vineyard in Eden Prairie. I love this work and the scriptures! We're optimistic with things picking up here soon and will just keep working and serving until then :).
As for Elder Mead. I was not able to find an excuse to head down to the mission home to welcome him in on Wednesday like I would have like, but after a couple days I made a few calls, cause I've got connections haha jk, and talked to one of the Assistants to get permission to call over to Eagen Minnesota where Elder Mead is currently serving with Elder Black. That was way sweet to find out because I've served around Elder Black a few times now being in the same zone with him and just talking to him a few different times. I knew his trainer who served as my Zone Leader when I first came out and he served with my MTC companion a few months ago. He's been out 3 months longer than me I think. He's actually one of the few missionaries taller than me. He's probably 6'5" or 6'6" an pretty goofy, but he's one of the nicest most sincere Elders ever. Elder Mead is very lucky and really going to like him. So on this last Saturday evening after planning at about 9:45 pm I called over and got dismissed with a text saying they were busy and would call back a few minutes later. When Elder Black called back very formal I asked, "is this was Elder Black" with which he replied kind of shocked, "yes and who is this". All I told him was I'd seen these mormon.org commercials and I wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. He didn't say much after that and after a brief pause I told him my name was Elder Craft and the sooner thy got the font filled the better. haha He just started to laugh and was like, "I knew it was too good to be true! What's up Elder Craft?' So I talked to him for a couple minutes before talking to Elder Mead for about the next 12 minutes. It was so cool to hear his voice and think he's out here with me now. We got to talk about training and how lucky he is to be with Elder Black. He seems to like him which is good, but it was just good to be able to call over and motivate and encourage a good friend who's probably going through a rough transition like I had to not too long ago. I really hope that I was able to motivate and help him as a new missionary because I know if I would have had a call like that from someone I knew going through the same thing I was in the same place it would have helped me at the beginning of my mission. I'm not sure when I'll get to see him. Eagen is in between Minneapolis and St.Paul kind of. I'm not sure the exact location or Zone, but hopefully we both get to go to the President's Fireside this next month and I can give him a nice face to face personal welcome. So from what I got to hear and talk to him Elder Mead is doing well and now hopefully excited to go out and baptized the whole state of Minnesota his next few months of training! haha
I hope that answers most of the questions you guys had and gives a nice update from here. I'm doing great and can't wait to hear from all of you again! I love and miss you. Thanks for all the prayers.
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Computer Ate My Email . . . I Promise!
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
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
Monday, September 26, 2011
Succesfully Rebuilding
Dear Family,
Thanks for all the love and support from you guys! I hope that you got the pictures on the email last week and were able to put some faces to the names I've been talking about. haha
This week in good old Eden Prairie was pretty good for us. We're still kind of in a rebuilding stage our teaching pool and trying hard to do that. Things are going well and the Lord's definitely providing for us. We have a few part member families that we've been working with here in the ward. One of the members is Brother Dave Barnes. He's a severely less active brother that Elder White and his other companion stopped by and started working with a little while before I got here. No one in the ward except his home teacher, who's in the bishopric, knows who he is. We've been over about 4 times since I've been here and have gotten him to read his Book of Mormon again. This last week his 25 year old non-member daughter wanted to meet with us. She was interested in learning because she said that she's seen a change in her dad since we've been coming over and has seen him reading and was curious. She's now a new investigator of ours and has a lot of potential. The best part is that both she and her dad came to church yesterday. Despite the fact that she got off work at 6:30 a.m. they still came and sat next to us. We were so happy to see them there and for Brother Barnes it was his first time back in a church since his baptism almost 40 years ago! It was incredible that all we had to do was be there to extend an invitation to him and the Lord took care of the rest. It all started with an invitation to let us teach him, to an invitation to read The Book of Mormon, and to come back to church. He told us after sacrament meeting that he needs to get his suit tailored now and that we'd see them next week. The spirit works on people and all we have to be is be the instrument and mouth piece. It's amazing!
Like I said we're still trying to build up our teaching pool here and will be continuing that effort this next week. We're working with a couple other part member families and will keep trying to help them. There's a couple potential that we have found over the past few weeks just from knocking on doors after our dinner appointments. They both seem really solid and would be great to actually be able to teach. One was a former body builder who has won MR. MN 2005. This guys huge but one of the nicest guys I've ever met. We've gone over and talked with him while he's been in his garage a couple of times for like 30 minutes each time. The last time we talked about what we do as missionaries and that whole deal. He couldn't believe first of all that we were not actually from any town even close to here Chaska. Once we explained where we were from, how long we're here for, and what we do as missionary work goes he was just amazed. It was even funnier when Elder White told him that we'd only known each other for 2 weeks too. He didn't see how it was possible that we could just live with a complete stranger we never knew before for any extended amount of time. haha He's really interested now in learning more about what we believe and we're hoping we can do that sometime this week. He's really busy. When he's not working he's at the gym, and when he's not doing either of those he's working on his '67 Chevelle that he's built all by hand. The best part is that his neighbors right across the street are some way solid members that they're kind of friends with already. Hopefully I'll have more to update with Adrian for next week.
So the end of this week is "The Missionary Super Bowl" more commonly known as General Conference and we're pretty excited! Really being able to hear modern scripture and counsel coming from inspired men that commune with God is such a blessing. It's our unique message to the world that just like in times of old there are apostles and a prophet called just as Moses, Noah, Nephi, and Moroni to help all of us as His children in our individual lives. No other church has that and I feel like I should have appreciated that more when I was at home. One of the people that was not so excited to have us knock on his door this week said something to try and bash with us that really made my testimony grow and for me to appreciate the fact of modern revelation. He told us that all we need was Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and that we really shouldn't read anything else. In his attempt to try and argue about The Book of Mormon he also discredited the entire Old Testament and a majority of the books in the New Testament as unimportant and irrelevant. Even though this guys was an idiot I refrained from saying that too him because we as a society don't generally enjoy that, and just felt bad that he really thinks that God, our Eternal Father and Almighty Creator, would limit His power and knowledge that He wanted us to know as His children to the 4 Gospels and that's it. It made me think of the scripture in 2 Nephi 29 not only the verses that say "And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. But thus saith the Lord God: O fools" But also the verses where it says that "there are more nations than one. . . and [the Lord] speaks the same words unto one nation like unto another". That's something I know that's true. I know that God loves all His children equally and that The Book of Mormon is true and is evidence of that. That Joseph Smith was a true and living prophet to restore Christ's church and authority to the Earth and that President Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet for us in this dispensation. It made me even more excited for conference after talking with that guy!
I'm glad that the sealing went well. That's so cool! Hopefully everyone going to DC has fun too. Speaking of which thanks for the email and pictures updating me on the crazy things going on there Nick. I did end up getting that email 3 times I just for got to comment on it I guess. I'm just glad it wasn't worse and you guys are doing alright out there. I'm excited to here that little Raylee's actually being blessed on what should be considered a national holiday on October 9th! ;) haha It's a very momentous day. haha
Well I look forward to being able to talk to you all again and here more about the adventures that everyone's having haha. I love and miss all of you!
Love, Elder Craft
Thanks for all the love and support from you guys! I hope that you got the pictures on the email last week and were able to put some faces to the names I've been talking about. haha
This week in good old Eden Prairie was pretty good for us. We're still kind of in a rebuilding stage our teaching pool and trying hard to do that. Things are going well and the Lord's definitely providing for us. We have a few part member families that we've been working with here in the ward. One of the members is Brother Dave Barnes. He's a severely less active brother that Elder White and his other companion stopped by and started working with a little while before I got here. No one in the ward except his home teacher, who's in the bishopric, knows who he is. We've been over about 4 times since I've been here and have gotten him to read his Book of Mormon again. This last week his 25 year old non-member daughter wanted to meet with us. She was interested in learning because she said that she's seen a change in her dad since we've been coming over and has seen him reading and was curious. She's now a new investigator of ours and has a lot of potential. The best part is that both she and her dad came to church yesterday. Despite the fact that she got off work at 6:30 a.m. they still came and sat next to us. We were so happy to see them there and for Brother Barnes it was his first time back in a church since his baptism almost 40 years ago! It was incredible that all we had to do was be there to extend an invitation to him and the Lord took care of the rest. It all started with an invitation to let us teach him, to an invitation to read The Book of Mormon, and to come back to church. He told us after sacrament meeting that he needs to get his suit tailored now and that we'd see them next week. The spirit works on people and all we have to be is be the instrument and mouth piece. It's amazing!
Like I said we're still trying to build up our teaching pool here and will be continuing that effort this next week. We're working with a couple other part member families and will keep trying to help them. There's a couple potential that we have found over the past few weeks just from knocking on doors after our dinner appointments. They both seem really solid and would be great to actually be able to teach. One was a former body builder who has won MR. MN 2005. This guys huge but one of the nicest guys I've ever met. We've gone over and talked with him while he's been in his garage a couple of times for like 30 minutes each time. The last time we talked about what we do as missionaries and that whole deal. He couldn't believe first of all that we were not actually from any town even close to here Chaska. Once we explained where we were from, how long we're here for, and what we do as missionary work goes he was just amazed. It was even funnier when Elder White told him that we'd only known each other for 2 weeks too. He didn't see how it was possible that we could just live with a complete stranger we never knew before for any extended amount of time. haha He's really interested now in learning more about what we believe and we're hoping we can do that sometime this week. He's really busy. When he's not working he's at the gym, and when he's not doing either of those he's working on his '67 Chevelle that he's built all by hand. The best part is that his neighbors right across the street are some way solid members that they're kind of friends with already. Hopefully I'll have more to update with Adrian for next week.
So the end of this week is "The Missionary Super Bowl" more commonly known as General Conference and we're pretty excited! Really being able to hear modern scripture and counsel coming from inspired men that commune with God is such a blessing. It's our unique message to the world that just like in times of old there are apostles and a prophet called just as Moses, Noah, Nephi, and Moroni to help all of us as His children in our individual lives. No other church has that and I feel like I should have appreciated that more when I was at home. One of the people that was not so excited to have us knock on his door this week said something to try and bash with us that really made my testimony grow and for me to appreciate the fact of modern revelation. He told us that all we need was Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and that we really shouldn't read anything else. In his attempt to try and argue about The Book of Mormon he also discredited the entire Old Testament and a majority of the books in the New Testament as unimportant and irrelevant. Even though this guys was an idiot I refrained from saying that too him because we as a society don't generally enjoy that, and just felt bad that he really thinks that God, our Eternal Father and Almighty Creator, would limit His power and knowledge that He wanted us to know as His children to the 4 Gospels and that's it. It made me think of the scripture in 2 Nephi 29 not only the verses that say "And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. But thus saith the Lord God: O fools" But also the verses where it says that "there are more nations than one. . . and [the Lord] speaks the same words unto one nation like unto another". That's something I know that's true. I know that God loves all His children equally and that The Book of Mormon is true and is evidence of that. That Joseph Smith was a true and living prophet to restore Christ's church and authority to the Earth and that President Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet for us in this dispensation. It made me even more excited for conference after talking with that guy!
I'm glad that the sealing went well. That's so cool! Hopefully everyone going to DC has fun too. Speaking of which thanks for the email and pictures updating me on the crazy things going on there Nick. I did end up getting that email 3 times I just for got to comment on it I guess. I'm just glad it wasn't worse and you guys are doing alright out there. I'm excited to here that little Raylee's actually being blessed on what should be considered a national holiday on October 9th! ;) haha It's a very momentous day. haha
Well I look forward to being able to talk to you all again and here more about the adventures that everyone's having haha. I love and miss all of you!
Love, Elder Craft
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)