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December 5, 2011

First off, I just read Dad´s email that said that you guys found a camera--I just bought a camera today with the money that was left over from all the medical reimbursements, so I don´t know what you want to do about that--i still don´t have a CD player (hint hint). While we´re talking about this, i´ll go ahead and answer your questions and such now. It´s getting pretty chilly here too--its probably about the same but not as cold in the nighttime though last night the wind started picking up and i was cold even with a long sleeve shirt--so that´s good. I doubt that the package will get here by the 8th which is the day of the fiesta thingy but yeah, i´m sure there´ll be a chance to get it--being here in Culacan, i can just go to the offices on a monday and pick it up. And about the card thing--remember i can´t send mail from here--there isn´t a post office close so if there are papers to sign it´ll have to wait at least a couple months. About contax--i have enough for the whole two years, though if you wanna send a ocuple just to be safe you can but you don´t have to--i´m fine with wearing glasses if it comes down to that. With it being colder, i would like a sweat shirt or a sweater that i could wear outside--i don´t have anything because i had to leave t my longsleeve shirt in the MTC cause my bags were too heavy. And yes, I do have access to butter and eggs :)

So changes happened today and in my area, nothing changed--I´m gonna be here in Aquiles Serdan with Elder Sandoval another transfer which is cool. Cynthia´s baptism was awesome. We had to use a chair in the faunt because she can´t bend her knees but that was literally the only thing that we had to worry about with her. She is such a strong person--she never knew her dad, her mom died, she got pregnant when she was 14 and then she got hit by a car, that same car killing her 1 year old son and her husband and yet i´ve never seen her cry or have abad attitude. It was just awesome to feel the spirit in that room and to think that her whole life is changing--the past three weeks she has become a whole new person. She said that she when she is cleared by the doctor she is going to move back to her little farmtown in Durango, which is the state right next to Sinaloa. Hopefully she´ll keep on going and progressing so that she´ll be able to see her husband and her little boy again. We also started teaching the wife of a member--he´s inactive but his mom is active and she went to churhc with her. It´s crazy just when I thought that you couldn´t get married any younger that with the girls we´ve met we met her--she´s 13! We started teaching her and we thought she was a little slow becuase she didn´t understand anything very well and then we asked and she´s thirteen years old. She cool--she wants to change and hopefully she´l l motivate her husband to g back too. We didn´t see Rosio or Karen very often this week--they´re so cool but they just won´t go to chruch--Karen went last week but Rosio didn´t go because her baby girl was sick and it was really windy. But she also said that she doesn´t want to go becuse her baby is kind of a pain and cries alot. ONe thing that i´ve noticed about mexico in church is tht ALL the babies cry and the moms NEVER take them out. I think that´s kinda selfish because it totally ruins the spirit but for Rosio´s sake, she just needs to go and realize that ALL the babies cry. That´s the bottomline. We have had investigators that seem golden but they just won´t go to church. That´s the most frustrating part of the mission so far--investigators not going to church. But it´s kinda on us to teach and have the spirit testify that goin to church is SUPER important.

I read in the Ensign of October a quote within a quote. that i loved. it was from a talk by Ezra Benson and a quote by Marion G Romney: Dijo "“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness.”3 I just thought that was an awesome quote and awesome advice. President Cantu had said that we as missionaries should read a chapter from the Bof mormon and D&C everyday- i have also been reading at least a chapter in the Bible also and it has been a blessing and i have seen my understanding of the scriptures grow so much. I hope you all are readin g still in the Book of Mormon every day. If you´re not, DO IT! haha. No but seriously.

That´s all I got for ya this week. Hope you have an awesome week this week. Elder Sandoval said that we are going to get an email giving us info about when we call home so i´ll keep ya updated. Know that I love you all and pray for ya all the time. It´s gonna be a weird Christmas but that ´s how it goes. This past thursayd i completed 6 months in the mission. They say that the 6 month mark is a peak and time just flies by after. I hope not because these pas t 6 months have been the fastest of my life and if it gets any faster i´m not gonna be able to enjoy the mission--I don´t even know yet how to be a good missionary. But however it goes i´m gonna try with al lmy might to focus on the task at hand. I realized that in May 2013, three weeks before I return, I´m gonna call home for Mother´s day--oh boy that´s gonna kill me. But I´ve still got 18 months to focus on this right now. And that´s awesome. Thanks for sending Tuck´s emails again. Please keep on with that. :) ¡Que tengan semana chacísimo!

-Elder Crisp
Psalms 89 (psalm 89 is a maschil of Ethan the ezrahite or ethan the missionary you could say) :1 "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known His afaithfulness to all generations."