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January 16, 2012

So here we are. I have only 7 anda half months in the mission, with only 5 and a half in the field and i´ve been called as senior companion. Its crazy how they are doing it now--i don´t know if its just here or everywhere but they´re pushing more the younger guys--no more waiting around, if you´re ready you´re ready. My companion from the MTC Elder Shipp now is 1) training, 2) training a gringo (that´s an american) and 3) opening a new area. Talk about pressure. He had been in the same area for all 4 transfers, and all the members (and him) were crying. Puro poder con Elder Shipp. Eldr Nordfelt also is training and is district leader too. And here i am, with a little less pressure, senior companion with my new comp Elder Morales who has 5 months. But i´m kinda pumped. It´ll be different but it´ll be fun. (And by the way mom and dad, can you send me some more mission stories? I had never really heard any before and i wanna hear some so i can brag about how awesome missionaries my parents were :)

So my bday was pretty good--last night we went with some members and they had bought me a cake and we played jenga haha. I´m gonna see here in a sec if i can send a video--they´re super funny this family. Also, we had to go to the offices to drop off my comp and i got my package from you guys--i´ll probably get the other in the next zone meeting in Feb. I´m sure it was a bit of work putting it all together and i´m sorry to say it but we don´t have an oven here. I´m still gonna work something up with the chicken and all that or check with a member to see if they can bake the cake or something. I don´t think anyone uses ovens--they have them but all i´ve seen them used as are as storage. But thanks for the music and all that--i haven´t read the letters yet cause i just opened everything quick cause my comp didn´t arrive until late but we´ll see :) Also i forgot to ask President in my letter if i could call to get the card going--i seriously doubt that i´ll be able to. I don´t know if there´s anything else that can be done with that???

So this week was good but kinda sucked at the same time. My comp got sick on friday and since then we haven´t been able to work very much....Marco went to church yesterday. They´re super humble--they´re kinda hippies, so he plays like tribal drums in buses and stuff--his wife works at a grocery store. We visited with them on Sat, and he said he wanted to go to church but they had to pay the rent and all that and they didn´t have enough yet and that he was going to work. But we shared 1Nephi 3:7 and said that if he followed through and kept the commandment to go the church that they would get the money to pay. So he went. Paulina didn´t go because its not so easy for her to skip work (but we´re gonna work on that with her this week). We´re also goingto see what miracles they saw for his obedience in giong to church....Also, we had ward council for the first time since i´ve been here and they´re pushing the program 555 here alot--its really the mission president who´s pushing it. I don´t know if you´ve heard about it or if they´re doing it there but its a program to reactivate the less actives and it includes us teaching members all the lessons like they were investigators. We´ll see how it goes.

When i got the news on Sat that i would be pumped up as senior comp, i tried to do all i could to humble myself--and i will continue to try to do so. I just now found this awesome chapter in Deuteronomy that talks of humility: Dice, "1 All the commandments which I acommand thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. 2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to ahumble thee, and to bprove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. 3 And he ahumbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with bmanna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that cman doth not live by dbread only, but by every eword that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." There are commandments that i need to follow as a missionary--without exception. In this time i need to buckle down and realize that hte commandments, the rules and the "suggestions" that are really suggestions are there to help us to find the people, just as the regular commandments are there to help us get to the point where we´re ready to live wiht God again. I just need to bukle down and do everything and i doesn´t matter that i only have 7 months in the mission or that i don´t speak spanish perfectly. And that, like here wit hte children of Israel, applies to everyone.

Thanks everyone for your love and your support always. ¡Que tengan buena semana, todos!

--Elder Crisp :D

PS: when you send another package, don´t put pics of the virgin haha. They in the offices don´t like it. Put Jesus instead. Its better:). Also, whenever you send another package, i would like a CTR ring. Just whenever you can.