Dear Family,
Sorry that this is so late but this week has been one eventful one for us here. I had mentioned that wedo exchanges with the new missionaries and their trainers in Bloomington within their 2 transfers of being trained and this week has been one full of those. We try to schedule them with teams that are further out around events and meetings they'll be coming to the cities for. THat's the main reason why this week has so many because of the New Missionary Training Meeting that we had on Tuesday, so we had teams coming from 2 and 3 hours away and had to schedule their exchanges all in a row so that we could get to them without delaying it too long or making them make an unnecessary trip out of their area later in the month. This Monday to Tuesday we went with the Elders from Fairmont, MN. Elder Sande is thr trainer and a convert of a little over 2 years from Washington state and his companion is Elder Meguro from Japan. We were with them Monday night until the NMT meeting on Tuesday morning. Then after all or training and things we had to do in the meeting we had an exchange with the Mankato, MN Elders. Elder Waite is the trainer from Logandale and Overton, Nevada. Dad might know where that is because Elder Waite told me all about Hawthorne! He's been there and to Walker Lake a lot before and told me all about what isn't there haha. I thought that was cool that he could tell me all about Dad's little hometown which I now want to go check out sometime. His trainee is Elder Hall from Draper. On Wednesday after lunch they went to drive back down to Mankato before the Chippewa Falls, WI Elders came in until this morning. Elder Worwood is the trainer from Ferron, UT and his new missionary Elder Allen is from Sun Tan Valley, AZ. It was great to have a chance to work with all these Elders and see the great faith that new missionaries bring to the mission. It was a lot of fun seeing all the miracles that came and as a result of all these missionaries helping to work in our area we have found 20 new future investigators this week which should really keep up busy and help the work to pick up. Last night Elder Worwood and I found a few potentials in this really nice and really fancy town home complex in Eden Prairie that has a bunch of the Vikings players that live there. One of the guys that we talked to said that he sees Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin driving around in there all the time and that Nate Osiata, the guy who used to play for the U and is now the Vikings fullback, lives there. So that was kind of a cool adventure. I'll let you know when I find one of those guys or you can look on ESPN or something to hear them announce the new celestial help that the Vikings team seems to be getting ;) haha JK. Coming up tomorrow until Saturday afternoon we'll have the Blaine, MN Elders coming. Elder Sargeant is the trainer from Springville, UT and Elder Manoa is from Hayward CA. That should be another fun and exciting exchange too. These exchanges have a lot of planning and work that can go into them but are one of my favorite parts about this assignment here. I missed not getting to work with all the new missionaries when I spent my summer vacation over in the Lake Nokomis Ward. Speaking of that since you asked Dad it was kind of hard to leave all the good things that were progressing and the fun Elder Neeley and I were having, but because I didn't go far I still get to see some of those people and talk to the Elders working over there.
It's been kind of fun coming back to an old area too and talking with all the members again and visiting other people that I taught. So I didn't tell you much about Elder Clancy when I got here but he is from Lawrence, Mass. He graduated the year before I did but went to BYU-I for a year before his mission. He came out to Minnesota about four months after me. He's a pretty goofy guy and it's been fun to serve with him. I knew of him just from seeing him around in the mission. He's very smart and creative. We get along really well and are hoping for great things to come here in the near future. He actually has a twin brother who is serving in the SLC Family History Center Mission who goes home in mid-December.
The weather here has been typical Minnesota which equals out to bipolar. Something that I'm used to from living in Utah. We have had some really nice days in the upper 60's and one in the lower 30's too over the past few weeks. The leaves have been falling really quickly the last couple of weeks and we're all hoping Winter holds off for a little bit longer. I think secretly I want this Winter to just be awful so that I can experience some of it and have something to talk about because the last one was so mild. We'll see what happens here in the next couple of weeks.
The Saints Unified Voices (SUV) choir and Gladys Knight were awesome last week! The presentation was so good and the message they conveyed I think touched a lot of people. I definitely loved it and would highly recommend inviting and taking people to that if it ever comes around in Utah haha. It was sweet to hear some of the Gospel songs that they sang and the renditions of the hymns that were sung. The best was all the people with a Baptist of Pentecostal back round that just stood up or put their hands in the air "praising" and saying some good heartfelt "amen" to different things they sang or talked about. It was just all around awesome and something that I really loved. It was a little bit of a later night because of the length of the 8:30 show too and due to the fact that we had to help tear down and clean up. It was cool though because I got to meet her husband and talk to him for a minute and say hi to Gladys Knight while I was helping clean the stuff up in the church.
From what Mom told me though it sounds like the Primary program was just about as eventful as the presentation that I got to see though haha. That's too bad for the poor kids that were sick but exciting about Mom's new calling! That's going to be a lot of fun for you! Does that mean you just get to go visit a lot more of the Primaries around and go talk with the Presidents? I assume from what I've known seen and come to understand with the structure of The Church that that's some part of it. I'm really excited for you but sorry that you have to leave your little entourage of fans in the Sunbeam class. At least you'll still get to see them every once in awhile.
I think that's about it for the updates from me here and all the adventures that we've been on in the great state of Minnesota. haha I hope that all is well and that I can hear from you again soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Political Indoctrination From Dad
Hey Mom,
Sorry that I only have a few minutes to send you a quick note. I loved the emails and look forward to telling you all about the Gladys Knight presentation and the new missionaries and all the other things that people asked about. You can tell Dad that I registered for my absentee ballot already and that Elder Braun, the one who does all the cars and bikes stuff here in the office just started laughing when I read him Dad's line about what happens if either Obama or Romney wins the election. He feels the same way as Dad. haha I did get Grandma's card and the cake. I'll respond more to that later in the week. The reason this note is so short is because we don't get P-day today because of all the stuff we have to get done this week. We have an exchange (or split is what some people call is) with the ELders from Fairmont, MN before we have our New Missionary Training Meeting tomorrow with 2.5 hours of training we're doing and an exchange with the Mankato, MN Elders after that, and an exchange Wednesday with the Chippewa Falls, WI Elders. We will have one more exchange towards the end of the week with the Blaine, MN Elders on Friday, so looks like I won't get to really send everyone an email until Thursday I just wanted to send this this morning so you weren't worried and wondering. Give everyone my love and tell them sorry for making them wait. I'm getting good at doing that to you all recently. :) haha
Love, Elder Craft
Sorry that I only have a few minutes to send you a quick note. I loved the emails and look forward to telling you all about the Gladys Knight presentation and the new missionaries and all the other things that people asked about. You can tell Dad that I registered for my absentee ballot already and that Elder Braun, the one who does all the cars and bikes stuff here in the office just started laughing when I read him Dad's line about what happens if either Obama or Romney wins the election. He feels the same way as Dad. haha I did get Grandma's card and the cake. I'll respond more to that later in the week. The reason this note is so short is because we don't get P-day today because of all the stuff we have to get done this week. We have an exchange (or split is what some people call is) with the ELders from Fairmont, MN before we have our New Missionary Training Meeting tomorrow with 2.5 hours of training we're doing and an exchange with the Mankato, MN Elders after that, and an exchange Wednesday with the Chippewa Falls, WI Elders. We will have one more exchange towards the end of the week with the Blaine, MN Elders on Friday, so looks like I won't get to really send everyone an email until Thursday I just wanted to send this this morning so you weren't worried and wondering. Give everyone my love and tell them sorry for making them wait. I'm getting good at doing that to you all recently. :) haha
Love, Elder Craft
Monday, October 8, 2012
General Conference Shake-Up
Dear Family,
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes from all of you! It feels weird that it's actually my birthday. haha With all the other things that we've been doing I haven't really payed too much attention and now that it's finally here it doesn't have the same excitement as usual I guess haha. It's not a bad thing I just think with all the other things coming that I'm looking forward to the excitement must just be channeled there. It's almost like how I explained my 19th birthday being like because I was so looking forward to leaving on my mission that all the feelings were saved for that day.
Speaking of birthdays and missions that new announcement was so incredible! People (mostly members I;m sure) will be talking about that for awhile now. I thought about exactly what Nick said that now I can say, "you had to be at least 19 and 21 when I went on my mission", just like Nick, Brock, and Tom can say, "we had memorized discussions on our missions that we taught to everyone", and dad can say," we didn't have either of those or those MTCs everyone has now they just sent us off into territories to get on a soapbox anywhere we could to preach". hahaha jk Dad ;) It really is a great announcement that really is not only going to change the mission field with a larger number of missionaries and especially Sisters, but it will really change the culture of BYU and BYU-I with who marries who and the Student enrollment. There are several levels to the changes that this will bring! We are very excited to see how this effects the MMM and mission field worldwide!
This whole conference weekend was just fantastic! I loved all the talks and the underlying themes that came of personal conversion and how to strengthen ours. Out of all the talks of the five missions that I got to listen to and watch at the church I think I loved the talk by President Uchtdorf the most! That really hit home about not looking too far ahead and making sure I'm allowing myself to enjoy the moments in life and be happy! It's so great to see the inspiration that God's anointed servants receive and how it is so applicable to all of God's children! I love this dispensation that we are so privileged to live in and agree with Dad's message that we were meant to be here as a family together. You all set such a great example for me and I've always felt that there's no other family that I could have possibly been better matched up with! I have such a testimony from Conference too that Our Father in Heaven is aware of all of us individually and what we need in our own lives.
Sorry that this is so short! There's much to do before I officially become an adult! :) I love you and appreciate all that you do for me!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes from all of you! It feels weird that it's actually my birthday. haha With all the other things that we've been doing I haven't really payed too much attention and now that it's finally here it doesn't have the same excitement as usual I guess haha. It's not a bad thing I just think with all the other things coming that I'm looking forward to the excitement must just be channeled there. It's almost like how I explained my 19th birthday being like because I was so looking forward to leaving on my mission that all the feelings were saved for that day.
Speaking of birthdays and missions that new announcement was so incredible! People (mostly members I;m sure) will be talking about that for awhile now. I thought about exactly what Nick said that now I can say, "you had to be at least 19 and 21 when I went on my mission", just like Nick, Brock, and Tom can say, "we had memorized discussions on our missions that we taught to everyone", and dad can say," we didn't have either of those or those MTCs everyone has now they just sent us off into territories to get on a soapbox anywhere we could to preach". hahaha jk Dad ;) It really is a great announcement that really is not only going to change the mission field with a larger number of missionaries and especially Sisters, but it will really change the culture of BYU and BYU-I with who marries who and the Student enrollment. There are several levels to the changes that this will bring! We are very excited to see how this effects the MMM and mission field worldwide!
This whole conference weekend was just fantastic! I loved all the talks and the underlying themes that came of personal conversion and how to strengthen ours. Out of all the talks of the five missions that I got to listen to and watch at the church I think I loved the talk by President Uchtdorf the most! That really hit home about not looking too far ahead and making sure I'm allowing myself to enjoy the moments in life and be happy! It's so great to see the inspiration that God's anointed servants receive and how it is so applicable to all of God's children! I love this dispensation that we are so privileged to live in and agree with Dad's message that we were meant to be here as a family together. You all set such a great example for me and I've always felt that there's no other family that I could have possibly been better matched up with! I have such a testimony from Conference too that Our Father in Heaven is aware of all of us individually and what we need in our own lives.
Sorry that this is so short! There's much to do before I officially become an adult! :) I love you and appreciate all that you do for me!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Monday, October 1, 2012
Weird, But Good to Be Back
Dear Family,
Good afternoon Utah from Bloomington! haha Sorry that I am so late in writing but today has been a lot of preparation for us to get ready for a leadership meeting tomorrow with all the Zone Leaders and District Leaders. It should be a really great meeting with a big focus on improving our teaching by helping people commit to change. President Clements wants to focus on "faith unto repentance" for the people we teach and having us as missionaries focus on listening to the Spirit in asking questions and relating to people so that we can teach and commit them to make changes in their lives. It should be really good and really help our mission improve.
It is such a great time to be a missionary here in the MMM! General Conference (a.k.a. Missionary Super Bowl) is this weekend so that is way exciting! We are pumped for that! Then that presentation/ musical fireside with Sister Gladys Knight is going to be a week from Wednesday in the 10th. That's going to be such a great opportunity and blessing for our mission too. We are really hoping to have a lot of people go to feel of the Spirit from her testimony and see how it can change their own lives. From what we've heard it does amazing things in other missions and areas with phenomenal amounts of referrals and even baptisms that come from it. Good thing Minnesota has 10,000+ lakes so we can keep up with it all after she leaves ;) haha.
Speaking of baptisms this past Saturday was the baptism of Brother and Sister M. Tr and Al are so awesome! I love them so much and was very fortunate to be able to go and witness their baptism because I came to Bloomington last Tuesday, to answer your question of when I'd get back here in the office Mom. It was one of the best baptismal services that I have witnessed. We sang a few hymns while they changed and heard a message on the Restoration from Elder Neeley and the other three Elders in the Lake Nokomis Ward. Once that was all over the Ms asked if they could share their testimonies and gave some powerful witnesses of the blessings that they have now seen come into their lives. Brother M basically gave a sermon up their for 10 minutes on the goodness of God and all that he has seen in his life. It was awesome! Brother L, one of the members of the Elder's Quorum Presidency, baptized them both and like I said the Spirit their was just so strong! It's so amazing to see the changes and witness that people can have while doing such simple things like reading scriptures and prayer. Even for people like the Ms who have grown up Christian and very religious their entire lives the Spirit can work and increase within them so much and so rapidly. I love being a missionary!
It is weird to be back in the area I just left from but a lot of fun. It's cool to see all the members again and to see the same people I was teaching before. People like Brother A who we are still working towards baptism for. It is a lot of fun to visit some of the same people and work right from where I left off almost. In a sense it's almost like I never left haha. A lot of the members and people were surprised to see me back. I told them I just spent summer vacation in Lake Nokomis Ward but it was fun while it lasted haha. I really do miss that ward and the area with all the people there, but now I'm hoping to see things progress even more here and fix what I must have done wrong the first time haha.
I love you all and love to hear about all the great things going on back at home! You guys are the greatest and I look forward to talking to you soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Good afternoon Utah from Bloomington! haha Sorry that I am so late in writing but today has been a lot of preparation for us to get ready for a leadership meeting tomorrow with all the Zone Leaders and District Leaders. It should be a really great meeting with a big focus on improving our teaching by helping people commit to change. President Clements wants to focus on "faith unto repentance" for the people we teach and having us as missionaries focus on listening to the Spirit in asking questions and relating to people so that we can teach and commit them to make changes in their lives. It should be really good and really help our mission improve.
It is such a great time to be a missionary here in the MMM! General Conference (a.k.a. Missionary Super Bowl) is this weekend so that is way exciting! We are pumped for that! Then that presentation/ musical fireside with Sister Gladys Knight is going to be a week from Wednesday in the 10th. That's going to be such a great opportunity and blessing for our mission too. We are really hoping to have a lot of people go to feel of the Spirit from her testimony and see how it can change their own lives. From what we've heard it does amazing things in other missions and areas with phenomenal amounts of referrals and even baptisms that come from it. Good thing Minnesota has 10,000+ lakes so we can keep up with it all after she leaves ;) haha.
Speaking of baptisms this past Saturday was the baptism of Brother and Sister M. Tr and Al are so awesome! I love them so much and was very fortunate to be able to go and witness their baptism because I came to Bloomington last Tuesday, to answer your question of when I'd get back here in the office Mom. It was one of the best baptismal services that I have witnessed. We sang a few hymns while they changed and heard a message on the Restoration from Elder Neeley and the other three Elders in the Lake Nokomis Ward. Once that was all over the Ms asked if they could share their testimonies and gave some powerful witnesses of the blessings that they have now seen come into their lives. Brother M basically gave a sermon up their for 10 minutes on the goodness of God and all that he has seen in his life. It was awesome! Brother L, one of the members of the Elder's Quorum Presidency, baptized them both and like I said the Spirit their was just so strong! It's so amazing to see the changes and witness that people can have while doing such simple things like reading scriptures and prayer. Even for people like the Ms who have grown up Christian and very religious their entire lives the Spirit can work and increase within them so much and so rapidly. I love being a missionary!
It is weird to be back in the area I just left from but a lot of fun. It's cool to see all the members again and to see the same people I was teaching before. People like Brother A who we are still working towards baptism for. It is a lot of fun to visit some of the same people and work right from where I left off almost. In a sense it's almost like I never left haha. A lot of the members and people were surprised to see me back. I told them I just spent summer vacation in Lake Nokomis Ward but it was fun while it lasted haha. I really do miss that ward and the area with all the people there, but now I'm hoping to see things progress even more here and fix what I must have done wrong the first time haha.
I love you all and love to hear about all the great things going on back at home! You guys are the greatest and I look forward to talking to you soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Monday, September 24, 2012
Back to Bloomington for Good, and . . . I Am Extending!
Dear Family,
I would just like to start by responding to a comment Mom made in her email about Natalie accomplishing a dream of mine that I had in driving on the bike path. Although the picture looks sweet to see you in the car on there the joke is that Brady and I drove down that one night on our way home a couple weeks before I left and I guess we never told you. haha So now Natalie is officially apart of our club that we started fall 2010. Welcome Natalie! :) haha
This week as I'm sure you are all fully aware of has been crazy and unexpected! I would have never thought I was going to get a chance to call and talk to any of you if you would have asked me at the beginning of the week. I am excited for the chance I have to extend my mission and to continue to help out anyway I can in my service to the Lord. That's so cool to hear that Shae is extending too! Man that's going to be crazy! Too bad for Tommy haha. I apologize that it did throw a major curve ball and wrench into the plans with Nick and Tati and the family all coming from Idaho. Not only did it ruin the whole 11/11 @ 11 thing Mom's been talking about but everyone's vacation and holiday plans. I'm excited to see what I can continue to learn and what the Lord will have in store. It is different going back now to a ward that I just served in and to one that is neighboring too. I've had 3 of these transfers now into bordering areas and these next few months will make my time in the Minneapolis stake officially up to somewhere over 15 months. That's nothing compared to Nick's 15 months in one area but it sure will make Stake Conference cool in November when I get a chance to see everyone from the Eden Prairie and now Lake Nokomis wards too. Even though I am excited to be be back in Bloomington I am sad to leave this area. We have a lot of things going here now and it's hard when you grow so close to people and work so hard to see it build and then to leave and put it in another missionary's care. Elder Neeley is great though and I only expect to hear about great things and many baptisms to come. The Elder coming to replace me here is Elder Bast. He's a very good, very happy missionary from Germany. He's from a little city called Glueckstadt up near the North Sea in Germany and will be a great help in leading this zone. I got to do exchanges with Elder Bast when I was in Bloomington the last time and see all the great qualities he will help the zone with. The good news is that even though I am leaving I'm only going a little ways away and will be able to see how all these things continue to progress and come back for some of the baptisms coming up. This past week we had the interviews for both Brother and Sister Mentoe and they're both good to go for this Saturday. we still haven't figured out the best way I can tell them I'm leaving because even if it is pretty close they still won't be happy haha. And that's the last thing we want is some angry Liberians haha jk. They should be ok because I should be able to come to the baptism Saturday. We are really excited and have grown to love them so much! They talked to me on Saturday about how they are wanting to come to Utah next summer to visit me and see the Salt Lake Temple. I was pumped to hear that I they are excited to do it. It's not for sure by any means but at the least it's a great idea and desire and something to look forward to hopefully.
Besides the crazy news on Thursday for Mom this week has been great. We found a couple new investigators that show some real promise and potential with a few more people that we found and Elder Bast and Elder Neeley will go back to teach this week. The Lord has been directing us so much and it's amazing to see the preparation of people that truly goes on before our face. We run into at least a few people a week that have some association with The Church. Whether it's they like or hate Mitt Romney, they have family members or friends that are members, or they have met with missionaries before years ago. That last one happened to us a couple of times this last week; contacting and tracting into people who have been to our church or at least read from The Book of Mormon and met with missionaries some time in the past. It's always a great feeling to be an instrument in the Lord's hands and feel the direction that was given to you to find these people. Just as cool as the finding is when that guidance comes in teaching. For example this past week when we taught the Ms about tithing we got to a point in the lesson where we were explain how you actually donate with an envelope there after we'd already covered the doctrine and asked Brother M some question about what we had taught. He told us his experience of being in the kitchen a few hours earlier in the day and thinking, "I need to be doing more for the Lord, but how can I do that?". He hadn't related that to Sister M because she'd been running errands all morning and we actually beat her to the house for the appointment. He told us also in regards to the envelope we shared that they would ask themselves at church every week where to offering plate was or if we even did tithes and offerings because they never saw it. Every week though they would forget to ask us about it and so Brother M said it was no coincidence that we taught that today with the thought that he had and now the answer that we gave to his question. They were both excited and look forward to the blessings of tithing in their lives! It was such a good lesson and all of us were just to happy afterwards. Those guys are a true example to me of faith and really just putting your trust in the Lord and knowing that things will always work out "through God's grace" as the Ms always say haha. It's sweet whenever you ask how they're doing too Sister M says, oh praise God we are blessed in Jesus name". African people are so legit!
Sorry that I don't have much more time. We have to go down and start to help with the crazy transfer coming up today once all the calls are done and then I have to be in Bloomington by tomorrow morning again with all my stuff for my official early transfer because even though Elder Dalrymple doesn't fly home until Wednesday tomorrow all the departing missionaries go to the mission home and have all their departure interviews, training, and a trip to the temple. Plus, we have a couple new missionaries from this last transfer to do exchanges with tomorrow before the craziness with 22 new ones coming out on Wednesday! Thank you so much for the love and support that you guys give to me! I can truly feel that and more fully appreciate it after this new change in plans! You guys are so great and love having such a great foundation around me. I love you and I'll talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
I would just like to start by responding to a comment Mom made in her email about Natalie accomplishing a dream of mine that I had in driving on the bike path. Although the picture looks sweet to see you in the car on there the joke is that Brady and I drove down that one night on our way home a couple weeks before I left and I guess we never told you. haha So now Natalie is officially apart of our club that we started fall 2010. Welcome Natalie! :) haha
This week as I'm sure you are all fully aware of has been crazy and unexpected! I would have never thought I was going to get a chance to call and talk to any of you if you would have asked me at the beginning of the week. I am excited for the chance I have to extend my mission and to continue to help out anyway I can in my service to the Lord. That's so cool to hear that Shae is extending too! Man that's going to be crazy! Too bad for Tommy haha. I apologize that it did throw a major curve ball and wrench into the plans with Nick and Tati and the family all coming from Idaho. Not only did it ruin the whole 11/11 @ 11 thing Mom's been talking about but everyone's vacation and holiday plans. I'm excited to see what I can continue to learn and what the Lord will have in store. It is different going back now to a ward that I just served in and to one that is neighboring too. I've had 3 of these transfers now into bordering areas and these next few months will make my time in the Minneapolis stake officially up to somewhere over 15 months. That's nothing compared to Nick's 15 months in one area but it sure will make Stake Conference cool in November when I get a chance to see everyone from the Eden Prairie and now Lake Nokomis wards too. Even though I am excited to be be back in Bloomington I am sad to leave this area. We have a lot of things going here now and it's hard when you grow so close to people and work so hard to see it build and then to leave and put it in another missionary's care. Elder Neeley is great though and I only expect to hear about great things and many baptisms to come. The Elder coming to replace me here is Elder Bast. He's a very good, very happy missionary from Germany. He's from a little city called Glueckstadt up near the North Sea in Germany and will be a great help in leading this zone. I got to do exchanges with Elder Bast when I was in Bloomington the last time and see all the great qualities he will help the zone with. The good news is that even though I am leaving I'm only going a little ways away and will be able to see how all these things continue to progress and come back for some of the baptisms coming up. This past week we had the interviews for both Brother and Sister Mentoe and they're both good to go for this Saturday. we still haven't figured out the best way I can tell them I'm leaving because even if it is pretty close they still won't be happy haha. And that's the last thing we want is some angry Liberians haha jk. They should be ok because I should be able to come to the baptism Saturday. We are really excited and have grown to love them so much! They talked to me on Saturday about how they are wanting to come to Utah next summer to visit me and see the Salt Lake Temple. I was pumped to hear that I they are excited to do it. It's not for sure by any means but at the least it's a great idea and desire and something to look forward to hopefully.
Besides the crazy news on Thursday for Mom this week has been great. We found a couple new investigators that show some real promise and potential with a few more people that we found and Elder Bast and Elder Neeley will go back to teach this week. The Lord has been directing us so much and it's amazing to see the preparation of people that truly goes on before our face. We run into at least a few people a week that have some association with The Church. Whether it's they like or hate Mitt Romney, they have family members or friends that are members, or they have met with missionaries before years ago. That last one happened to us a couple of times this last week; contacting and tracting into people who have been to our church or at least read from The Book of Mormon and met with missionaries some time in the past. It's always a great feeling to be an instrument in the Lord's hands and feel the direction that was given to you to find these people. Just as cool as the finding is when that guidance comes in teaching. For example this past week when we taught the Ms about tithing we got to a point in the lesson where we were explain how you actually donate with an envelope there after we'd already covered the doctrine and asked Brother M some question about what we had taught. He told us his experience of being in the kitchen a few hours earlier in the day and thinking, "I need to be doing more for the Lord, but how can I do that?". He hadn't related that to Sister M because she'd been running errands all morning and we actually beat her to the house for the appointment. He told us also in regards to the envelope we shared that they would ask themselves at church every week where to offering plate was or if we even did tithes and offerings because they never saw it. Every week though they would forget to ask us about it and so Brother M said it was no coincidence that we taught that today with the thought that he had and now the answer that we gave to his question. They were both excited and look forward to the blessings of tithing in their lives! It was such a good lesson and all of us were just to happy afterwards. Those guys are a true example to me of faith and really just putting your trust in the Lord and knowing that things will always work out "through God's grace" as the Ms always say haha. It's sweet whenever you ask how they're doing too Sister M says, oh praise God we are blessed in Jesus name". African people are so legit!
Sorry that I don't have much more time. We have to go down and start to help with the crazy transfer coming up today once all the calls are done and then I have to be in Bloomington by tomorrow morning again with all my stuff for my official early transfer because even though Elder Dalrymple doesn't fly home until Wednesday tomorrow all the departing missionaries go to the mission home and have all their departure interviews, training, and a trip to the temple. Plus, we have a couple new missionaries from this last transfer to do exchanges with tomorrow before the craziness with 22 new ones coming out on Wednesday! Thank you so much for the love and support that you guys give to me! I can truly feel that and more fully appreciate it after this new change in plans! You guys are so great and love having such a great foundation around me. I love you and I'll talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Monday, September 17, 2012
Back to Bloomington . . . For a Couple Meetings?
Dear Family,
This week has been one of chaos and fun for everyone it sound like. It's crazy to see how many different things are going on in your own lives and then seeing how much goes on here with me. The most amazing part of it all is to see how things seem to work out for all of us for the best and we can truly see the Lord guiding and directing us as His children. That's why it blows my mind to see all the many miracles I do and then to hear about all the great things with Brady and you guys! That's something I have a strong testimony of is the knowledge and care God has for each one of us individually in our own lives! We weren't able to meet with Brother and Sister M this week due to scheduling conflicts and as a result may have to move their baptism back one week so it's on the 29th and not the 22nd. They still have a desire and want to be baptized we just don't want to make it a hectic dash to the end with some of the things we still have to go over and have them just feel the stress of it all working out instead of the spirit that they should feel strongly as they prepare. Pushing it back will give them the chance to make sure and invite all of their friends and relatives to attend too and make it an extra special event. We set another baptismal date this week with an investigator for October that we are really excited about. It's crazy and scary to me to see the Halloween stuff coming out right now! Time is going quick!
This is going to be a crazy week for us again. It's the last week before transfers and this time around there are 23 new missionaries coming out to Minnesota! That's the most I've seen at once since I've been here. Cool side note is there's one coming from Japan and one from Nepal who is actually the first Nepalese missionary to come out the the country there. At least that's what we were told so that's kind of a big deal. With that many missionaries though that means that there's going to be a lot of trainers and transfers and new areas opened up which equals a lot of work for President and the Assistants. So he has asked that I go back to Bloomington for a couple meetings this week to coordinate it all and help to drive the departing and arriving missionaries to and from the airport on transfer day. It's nice for him because I am van certified haha ( I can drive the big mission 12 passenger transfer day travel van) and I guess it means that I must not have screwed it up too badly while I was there haha. That should be fun to work with that whole aspect of transfers again and it will be cool for Elder Neeley to get the experience.
Sorry that there's not much more that I can write about. It sounds pretty boring this last week for us but rest assured I just can't remember all that happened and some that I can would take more time than I have to write. I need to finish up some applications for school so thanks for the transcripts Mom. I'll be sure not to open them. I love and hope the best for all of you this week. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.
Love, Elder Alex Craft
This week has been one of chaos and fun for everyone it sound like. It's crazy to see how many different things are going on in your own lives and then seeing how much goes on here with me. The most amazing part of it all is to see how things seem to work out for all of us for the best and we can truly see the Lord guiding and directing us as His children. That's why it blows my mind to see all the many miracles I do and then to hear about all the great things with Brady and you guys! That's something I have a strong testimony of is the knowledge and care God has for each one of us individually in our own lives! We weren't able to meet with Brother and Sister M this week due to scheduling conflicts and as a result may have to move their baptism back one week so it's on the 29th and not the 22nd. They still have a desire and want to be baptized we just don't want to make it a hectic dash to the end with some of the things we still have to go over and have them just feel the stress of it all working out instead of the spirit that they should feel strongly as they prepare. Pushing it back will give them the chance to make sure and invite all of their friends and relatives to attend too and make it an extra special event. We set another baptismal date this week with an investigator for October that we are really excited about. It's crazy and scary to me to see the Halloween stuff coming out right now! Time is going quick!
This is going to be a crazy week for us again. It's the last week before transfers and this time around there are 23 new missionaries coming out to Minnesota! That's the most I've seen at once since I've been here. Cool side note is there's one coming from Japan and one from Nepal who is actually the first Nepalese missionary to come out the the country there. At least that's what we were told so that's kind of a big deal. With that many missionaries though that means that there's going to be a lot of trainers and transfers and new areas opened up which equals a lot of work for President and the Assistants. So he has asked that I go back to Bloomington for a couple meetings this week to coordinate it all and help to drive the departing and arriving missionaries to and from the airport on transfer day. It's nice for him because I am van certified haha ( I can drive the big mission 12 passenger transfer day travel van) and I guess it means that I must not have screwed it up too badly while I was there haha. That should be fun to work with that whole aspect of transfers again and it will be cool for Elder Neeley to get the experience.
Sorry that there's not much more that I can write about. It sounds pretty boring this last week for us but rest assured I just can't remember all that happened and some that I can would take more time than I have to write. I need to finish up some applications for school so thanks for the transcripts Mom. I'll be sure not to open them. I love and hope the best for all of you this week. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.
Love, Elder Alex Craft
Monday, September 3, 2012
Fall Harvest
Dear Family,
This week was a crazy hectic one just like it sounds like Brady had (because every missionaries week is crazy and hectic in some fashion haha) but it was very good. We had a great time with all 100+ of us missionaries at the Twins game and Zone Conference the next day was very uplifting and inspring. We've focused a lot on the finding and planning aspects of missionary work and now President Clements has been training on how to improve our teaching. That's what most of the training we were assigned to give at the conference and what he trained on as well. It's going to be a great thing to help us all do a lot better and really help the mission as a whole to move in a upward direction. We have set a goal to have a great "Fall Harvest" here in the mission by helping 100 souls come to Christ over the next 3 months of September, October, and November. We are working hard to do our part to build up the people we have so that our efforts can help in bringing people to Christ for all of those months and not just what we have already set up in September.
I can't believe September is already here! And that means Tomatoe Days on Labor Day! haha. September is looking good for us still. Sister M is scheduled and had already been interviewed to be baptized on this upcoming Saturday. We are really excited for her! She's been battling smoking for a long time now and she has finally kicked the habit. We all fasted this past Sunday together that she will be strengthened to overcome temptation and the devil this week and throughout the coming months and years. She had grown an amazing amount and it's a great blessing to be a missionary in helping someone crawl over, under, and through the obstacles that they may have in their life and being apart of that evey step of the way. It can get frustrating beause all you can do is encourage but when the changes are made it's almost like you yourself have overcome that obstacle too. That's the way we feel with Sister M. Her faith and knowledge have grown a lot and with the new hometeachers she has things should ciontinue to only improve for her.
We had a couple lessons this week with Brother and Sister M again and they are still doing awesome! The lesson we had on Saturday was at a member's house. We had a bbq there and the Ms brought some more of the Kala, that we made at their house, to go along with the hotdogs and salads haha. They told me because I know the Liberian handshake from my time in Shingle Creek and I now have eaten and knwo how to cook so much of their food I'm practically Liberian haha! That lesson after the bbq at the M family home was so great. We taught about the Word of Wisodom but what's funny is that Brother M has already been telling us how important it is to eat healthy and stay in shape, so literally everything we taught about keeping ourselves physically and spiritually in shape and healthy they agreed with and were already doing. Now they just have some more doctrine to back up their beliefs. It was funny when we extend the commitment to live it Brother M just looked at me and said, "Come on Craft you know I'm already doing that!" haha Sometimes they only call us by our last names and no matter who you are they are very honest straight forward people haha. He did say yes after that but it was just funny to seee how different it can be when we teach one person something that they have a really hard time with doing and other people we teach the exactly same thing to can have such strong agreeances and no questions of doubts about doing it. The Lord prepares each person in their own way to hear and come to know the message is true, but no matter their path and the curves they have to follow, sometimes very faithful and fearfully, they all come to the same witness and enter the same gate to the straight and narrow path that Nephi talks about.
I love this work and I love all of you! I can't believe that the time is going like it is! Thanks for your continued support and love for your. Your prayers are very much appreciated and heard! Talk to you again soon.
Love, Elder A. Craft ( The "A" is for African now ;) haha)
This week was a crazy hectic one just like it sounds like Brady had (because every missionaries week is crazy and hectic in some fashion haha) but it was very good. We had a great time with all 100+ of us missionaries at the Twins game and Zone Conference the next day was very uplifting and inspring. We've focused a lot on the finding and planning aspects of missionary work and now President Clements has been training on how to improve our teaching. That's what most of the training we were assigned to give at the conference and what he trained on as well. It's going to be a great thing to help us all do a lot better and really help the mission as a whole to move in a upward direction. We have set a goal to have a great "Fall Harvest" here in the mission by helping 100 souls come to Christ over the next 3 months of September, October, and November. We are working hard to do our part to build up the people we have so that our efforts can help in bringing people to Christ for all of those months and not just what we have already set up in September.
I can't believe September is already here! And that means Tomatoe Days on Labor Day! haha. September is looking good for us still. Sister M is scheduled and had already been interviewed to be baptized on this upcoming Saturday. We are really excited for her! She's been battling smoking for a long time now and she has finally kicked the habit. We all fasted this past Sunday together that she will be strengthened to overcome temptation and the devil this week and throughout the coming months and years. She had grown an amazing amount and it's a great blessing to be a missionary in helping someone crawl over, under, and through the obstacles that they may have in their life and being apart of that evey step of the way. It can get frustrating beause all you can do is encourage but when the changes are made it's almost like you yourself have overcome that obstacle too. That's the way we feel with Sister M. Her faith and knowledge have grown a lot and with the new hometeachers she has things should ciontinue to only improve for her.
We had a couple lessons this week with Brother and Sister M again and they are still doing awesome! The lesson we had on Saturday was at a member's house. We had a bbq there and the Ms brought some more of the Kala, that we made at their house, to go along with the hotdogs and salads haha. They told me because I know the Liberian handshake from my time in Shingle Creek and I now have eaten and knwo how to cook so much of their food I'm practically Liberian haha! That lesson after the bbq at the M family home was so great. We taught about the Word of Wisodom but what's funny is that Brother M has already been telling us how important it is to eat healthy and stay in shape, so literally everything we taught about keeping ourselves physically and spiritually in shape and healthy they agreed with and were already doing. Now they just have some more doctrine to back up their beliefs. It was funny when we extend the commitment to live it Brother M just looked at me and said, "Come on Craft you know I'm already doing that!" haha Sometimes they only call us by our last names and no matter who you are they are very honest straight forward people haha. He did say yes after that but it was just funny to seee how different it can be when we teach one person something that they have a really hard time with doing and other people we teach the exactly same thing to can have such strong agreeances and no questions of doubts about doing it. The Lord prepares each person in their own way to hear and come to know the message is true, but no matter their path and the curves they have to follow, sometimes very faithful and fearfully, they all come to the same witness and enter the same gate to the straight and narrow path that Nephi talks about.
I love this work and I love all of you! I can't believe that the time is going like it is! Thanks for your continued support and love for your. Your prayers are very much appreciated and heard! Talk to you again soon.
Love, Elder A. Craft ( The "A" is for African now ;) haha)
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