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January 9, 2012

Well here we are again...Monday--it feels like i was just writing two weeks ago and already we´re here. Really time is really unfair. When you don´t wanna do something time goes super slow. When you love doing something it goes super fast. That´s how its going for me. Today I was thinking abit about y´all cause me and my comp were talking about random stuff from the past and i realized the ages of everyone when i get back. Then i remembered that i´m gonna turn 20 this week and i don´t know how its possible. Its weird that´s its gonna just be a normal day. But i honestly don´t care. Some biznaz: I don´t think that the package has even come yet--maybe i go by the offices next week to check that out. Sports....great news that Pittsburgh lost--its always good news. I also saw quickly that Ryan Braun of the Brewers tested positive for something??? What happened there?...Allen Craig is a beast...that´s all i got. About mail....its not that it can´t be done--its that the mail service is on the other side of town and Culiacan is gigantic. Its just a super major pain in the butt and i don´t have time Monday to get it all done.

So this week has been better. We have been teaching a less active family and we found out that their 9 year old son hasn´t been baptized so we are going to baptize him this week. Also our other investigadores are going pretty slow progression wise. Rosita said she was going to go to church yesterday and we showed up with a ride and she wan´t there so didn´t go. That is the most frustrating part of my mission so far. People just not going to church. Also Marco and Paulina were super busy and sick this week so we only taught them once and they couldn´t go to church. That´s a little less frustrating because they have a reason but for the most part these people don´t have reasons to not go and still they don´t. Especially now that it starts at 11 but its their blessings that they´re missing out on Also we learned this week that Rosio doesn´t wanna get baptized. Her daughter Karen who´s 12 said that she wants to go to churhc and get baptized butnot without her mom and her mom is scared to go to church. Her excuse was that she already got baptized and married in the Catholic church but she doesn´t even go to that. We´ve told her the way to do it but she hasn´t done it. Its all too simple--read the BofM, pray, go to chruch and you got a testimony, but no. That´s just too sad that she hasn´t done it. Too bad. The mission has set a goal for us that we find and baptize a family completely. We heard in a Zone meeting a story of a return missionary sister that said all she tried to do in her mission was find and teach families and that she did so 15 times or so. REally the point is the baptize and that htey get ready to go to the temple. That is going to be my main goal this year--find, teach, and baptize families. Its hard here because the men are bums but there are always people being prepared.

We got the Ensign from November finally so i spent all of study time Sunday studying it. Super awesome--the thought came to my mind, thinking of the Jehovah´s Witnesses (have i told you there´s a ton here? Well if not, there are a ton here)--they think they´re so smart and know so much that they close their heart and they miss out on the awesomeness of living prophets, seers, and revelators. That´s too bad for them. That´s all i gotta say about that.

A thought. One time a little bit ago i do´t remember when, but i realized something cool about spanish--in particular on spanish word--Esperar. I realized this as i was studyig in Preach My Gospel about "esperanza" or hope. The word Esperar has a ton of meanings other than "to hope." Its also means "to expect" and "to wait." In terms of Hope, that really what it entails. We have faith that things CAN happen, and then we start to hope and we have the confidence that those things WILL happen. But what i´ve realized and learned from Esperar, is that HOPE entails also EXPECTATION and WAITING. Really they all form together. There are many things you can learn from other languages--studying in multiple languages, you can find insights like this that can´t be found in one. And from Moroni 7, we learn.... "40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning ahope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope. 41 And what is it that ye shall ahope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have bhope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life ceternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. 42 Wherefore, if a man have afaith he bmust needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope." We have faith when we have confidence that things CAN happen and hope when there is confidence that they WILL--as we EXPECT hte blessings come when we obey, as we WAIT for answers, etc. They are inseparely connected, FAITH, HOPE, WAITING, and EXPECTING. So there you have it.

Thanks to all who wrote me birthdays letters, namely...Jan, The Duvalls, Kassie, Beverly, Laura, Katie, Linda, Amy, Emmett, Nathan, Nikki, Bryant, Kaylin, and mis Papás. ¡Muchas gracias a todos! :)

Well this is the last week of the transfer. I really feel that i´m ready to be senior companion. These days if i´´m ready, i´ll be training, which is kinda intimidating but if it happens, it means i´m ready cause it comes from the Lord thru the mission president and the assistants. So we´ll see. Most likely i´ll have a new companion, or maybe a new area, or my own child (that´s what they call it when you train--you´re the papi and they´re your hijo :P ). But whatever happens, it comes from the Lord--that´s for sure.

¡Que tengan buena semana, todos!

-Elder Crisp