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June 18, 2012

¡Feliz Lunes! y ¡Feliz dia del padre, papa! I hope you had an awesome fathers day and that you all had an awesome week. This week was kind of a rollercoaster. Tuesday, we had to send off some elders to other areas (one for disobedience :( ) and we recieved some others. One of them is an Elder that has one transfer left after this one and is junior comp. He´s junior comp for disobedience--he was goin to be zone leader when they bumped him down. He´s super prideful and didn´t arrive until 9:00 pm because "he didn´t want to come." That was super frustrating. He does work hard and he baptizes a lot (i don´t know how) but its a struggle. We also did divisions with a good friend of mine E.TAlbot, who was one of the first elders that i met in the mission. He´s training and is District leader but we went around all day in his area visiting members because he hadn´t planned. When we finished planning, i started to explain the right way to plan and he snapped at me "I´ve tried that and it doesnt work." And after he started to tell me that he was fed up with having responsibility and all that and that he didn´t want to change--he didn´t want to do everything like we should. I treated him like an investigator and the truth is if he was an investigator we would have to leave him behind because he´s not progressing. It made me so sad to see him like that--not wanting to repent..not wanting to be better. I am giong to keep working with him in the 2 weeks to are left in the change--hes been in his area for 6 months and he´ll probalby be changed from here--but i am going to work. We didnt have a happy experience--we had planned an activity with the youth to go to a supermarket to contact with them. So we did it. The bad part was that only 5 youth came with 1 leader but it turned out awesome. There was one young man who was super nervious--but once he started going, he left super excited. We got a bunch of references, most of them in other areas but it was really good--one youth came to us sunday asking when we would have another one. It was awesome to see the change in those youth that shared the gospel, and at the same time strenghtened their testimonies. It was a week of ups and downs and i thought more than once "i don´t wanna be zone leader anymore" but now i´m good to go, keeping in mind God´s will.

I have been reading every morning in the Book of Mormon and in Matthew and i have learned so much from Alma and obviously from the Savior. Here´s a scripture that i found that i love--an awesome invitation from the Savior: "28 ¶aCome unto me, all ye that blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you crest. 29 Take my ayoke upon you, and blearn of me; for I am cmeek and dlowly in eheart: and ye shall find frest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is aeasy, and my burden is light." When we take full advantage of the Atonement in our lives, live is easy--its not easy because it stops being hard--like we don´t have trials anymore. But we get the help we need--Jesus Christ already knows how it feels--it doesn´t matter what it is...he knows how it feels. And if we turn to him and try all we can we will "find rest unto our souls" and the "burden is light." Ive learned so much from Matthew and i{ll keep learning a lot.

Happy Fathers, Dad once again and to all the Dads out there, Tony, Uncle Mark, all my Uncles out there. I hope you all had an awesome day yesterday. Thanks Dad for the note...im still waiting for some mission stories from Chile--that other one was awesome...¿Que "posiciones de responsibilidad" tuviste en tu mision? There are things right now that i regret from my earlier time in the mission but i am going to do all i can to not regret more when there isnt any time left--I have always felt that the mission is like a minilife--its prep to life like life is prep to eternal life--for that reason Alma 34:32-33 applies alot to the mission.... Mom, thanks for sending the pedigree chart--i think ill be fine with the second one thanks. Very surprised to hear about Aunt Tina--of course i am going to include her in my prayers--tell her I love her and i hope she gets better :).....man, i love Sam :).....About ben, he may not recognize it right now but he is going to be sooooo grateful for the rest of his life for all the "forcing" that you have done. He may not even recognize it right now or in 5 years but he will realize it at some point....I am glad to see that my missionary service is paying off with my sports teams haha....

Well i hope you all have an awesome week. About the camera, the battery has been dead. But guess what, its charging right now on this computer so you{ll have some fotos ready for next week. Its your lucky day mom. (And yes i{m writing in my journal everyday :) ) Well that all i got for you. ¡Que tengan buena semana!

--Elder Crisp :)