Elder Ethan Crisp

Happy Monday! I hope that you have had an awesome week and that you will keep doing well. This week was pretty good. E. Cruz is awesome--and he is not dying at all so thats good. He teaches really well and he really loves the people. We had an awesome lesson with Ramon this week. Hes the one that all his family is member and he broke his foot. He had used that as an excuse to not go to church but we went thurs with a member. It was an awesome lesson--we started teaching about the plan of salvation but the brother asked if he could say something and he shared his whole testimony--his conversion, the blessing he had received and all that. It was awesome. Then we challenged Ramon to go to church and he was doubting--he has a pride thing that he wants to do everything by himself and he didnt want to accept a ride. But the spirit convinced him that he needed to go and he went and he loved it. There were some awesome talks in Sac Meeting, Sunday school was good and priesthood was really good too. We are going to go visit him tomorrow and see if he has gotten an answer yet. We also met some really good people this week. But i dont think we have found anyone who is really ready yet. We have to go find those people that are READY right now. But so far we havent done it. Its been a chain of unsuccesss here that started with the disobedience. That led to discouragment on the part of my comp that led to laziness that now leaves us with little to work with. But we now are super focused and ready to do whatever is necesary to find those people that are waiting to hear the gospel from our mouthes.

The other day i was studying in Alma, thinking about the missionaries in the zone and what they needed along with the needs of the area and i came upon a scripture that i had read before but that hit pretty hard. Its from Alma 26:27: 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with cpatience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." There are always times when we feel discouraged and feel like it would just be easier to give up. Sometimes Satan menipulates our thoughts telling us "you dont wanna be here. God doesnt want people here that dont wanna work. So go home." Hes a perfect liar. But theres the promise from the Lord. If we go and work and work through the tough times, we will see the fruits of our labors. And we will learn from every moment. Thats an awesome promise. It applies to life too--if we fight through our trials, we will learn everything that the Lord wants us to learn and we will have that success or have that answer or whatever the case--we will be blessed. I love this part of the Book of Mormon about he sons of MOsiah--it applies to everything we do here, even down to the whole Lamanite thing--they are all lamanites here :)

To answer your questions...we cant stay any longer than the day we leave--because of the whole visa thing. But we can go visit after. But like you said, its wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too early to think about that....time is funny--the more that goes by, the faster it goes. I remember as a deacon they told us to start preparing for a mission cause it would come faster than we thought. And it did. And now that i´m here, its almost over. This friday i´m gonna complete a year. All this year i have been closer to the start than the finish but everyday that goes by goes by faster. I´m gonna be home before i know it. And the truth is thinking about that makes me wanna cry--if you saw me right now you would see that im about to tear up. I think its more about fear about life haha but i dont wanna go home haha. Im sure its gtonna be the same once i get home. Before i know it, i´ll be married :/ with kids. Thats even crazier. But i´m done thinking about that. Congratulate Stephen for me. He finally made it. Good to hear that the Dodgers keep on keeping on. Hopefully they can endure to the end and see the blessings (haha missionary talk). And since when did we care about hockey haha?

Well i´m gonna let you go, without pictures. Unfortunately, the thingy that charges my camera was lost, and my camera doenst wanna charge with anything else. I´m gonna see what i can do about that--maybe ill just have to mooch off my comp´s camera--i still havent tried his charger. We´ll see. Sorry--but thats life. I hope you all have an awesome week. We have "concilio" this thurs, so it´ll be awesome for us :)

¡Que tengan buena semana todos!

--Elder Crisp