November 27, 2017

Vicious Chihuahuas and Pretty Places

Hiiiii Everyone!! I hope that you all had the happiest Thanksgiving full of lots of turkey and pie. We had two Thanksgivings and were fed so much food at both of them. I felt like a balloon just getting bigger and bigger. But it was so tasty and I was so grateful for them inviting us to be part of their families for the day. 

There were a lot of little miracles in every day. I have gotten a little frustrated recently because there are a lot of people who we have invested so much time in and they just stay right on the bubble. It is like they are sitting on the edge of the baptismal font and just need someone to push them in. It has been frustrating because it feels a lot like we are running on a treadmill and working so hard and just not getting anywhere. BUT God always blesses us with some miracles and things that remind us that he is in charge. There were a couple times that we kinda went out on a limb and figured we would try something and then the person would be there and we met a lot of new people this week. 

Update, my soccer skills have improved. Friday night I had my first goal, I would like to add that it was with my left foot AND I had two headers. I don't know if the Hispanic in me finally came out, or it was just my completive spirit that is a really sore loser.... Maybe a little bit of both. 

STORY TIME: Last night we were trying to contact this cute lady named Sofia. We'd only met her once before and she was so sweet... the only problem was we couldn't get past her vicious dog. At this point, I was thinking "I know so many stories where people calm the dog as a missionary and get through to knock the door" but listen he was holding his ground. We started to inch closer and closer to the porch where the dog was and Hermana Bowers took the first step, and then I followed her up. The second we both got there, the dog charged with all its might and was going for the kill!!!! We ran so fast! Long story short... We were chased off a porch by a vicious Chihuahua. But seriously I wouldn't even call it a Chihuahua this thing was the biggest Chihuahua I'd ever seen, like a Chihuahua on steroids! I mean at least the size of a hound dog or something. And he had like shark teeth. Moral of the story I am working on my dog skills and praying harder to get past animals.  

Today for P-day we went to this place called the Magnolia Plantation. AHHHH it was so so pretty. We spend all of our time in trailer parks but when you look outside that South Carolina really is beautiful. Magnolia Plantation has this beautiful home and a small slave tour, and gardens on gardens. It was almost obnoxiously pretty. So happy that we got to do that this week. 

This year, the church is doing the #lighttheworld campain again. You all should try and do the 25 ways over 25 days and go and watch light the world. The holiday season is the best because of the lights and the fun but it also is just a time to recognize the Savior in our lives. There really is a special spirit around Christmas time and people open up their hearts a lot. I hope that all of you can look beyond the festivities and try to find the people who need your help or could use a pick me up. It will take effort, but you will feel so many blessings. I am so excited for Christmas. Hermana Bowers and I set up all our cute Christmas decorations on Friday. 

I love being a missionary. I love that I get to teach the people in South Carolina. I am thankful for all my family and friends and thank you for the people who that have written me or send me cute blurbs!! I really do love it. I am thankful for my Savior and my Heavenly Father and that they trust me with such a special work especially at this time of year. 

Con Mucho Amor

Hermana Crofts

Heather sent us a video that her district made about the "light of the world" program that the church is initiating the month of December.

Soccer Night

The Hernandez Kids

Thanksgiving with Hermana Candy & Hermana Tapia

Christmas all around

Jose y mi companera

Magnolia Plantation

Former slave houses at the plantation

Beautiful gardens at the plantation

November 20, 2017

Laughing it off

Hola hola

Another really awesome week. 

It's starting to be that time... everyone is headed back to Mexico! We had one of the recent converts René leave this week and we are going to miss him lots. We had a little going away party for him at the Taco truck. It's scary having everyone leave because the church in their hometown is 3 hours away and they won't be back in SC until April. So, hopefully they just keep doing all the good stuff and it'll be alright.

We have a lot of really awesome investigators right now. We've been working with all of them for a while and there's a lot of potential for baptism. The only thing holding them back right now is with everyone they're taking the lessons with someone else or as a family or as a group of friends and one of them is having trouble or just doesn't care and so it kinda halts all of their progression. But we are praying for them and feel like it'll come eventually. 

This week we had a lot of things fall through...A LOT. Wednesday was an all-time high. We left the apartment at 5pm after dinner and we went to plan A, plan B, plan C. Everything we had planned for the night, all of the lessons fell through, back up plans just didn't work. By the end of the night when another plan was crumbling, we just laughed because we literally had no clue what was going on but everyone was gone and kept canceling. We counted at the end of the night and we had 9 lessons or backups fall through. Woot woot!  Setting the bar high so it only gets better from there right? Every other day was a lot better but Wednesday you couldn't help but laugh about it. 

Speaking of laughs.. I was recently told like my laugh now sounds like an old Hispanic lady. Is that good? Bad? I'll keep you posted. 

This week I finished the Book of Mormon again! Good news it's still true! One of my favorite times throughout the day is personal study. Just get to learn so much and I love it! 

The holidays are here my people and it's the happiest time of the year. The day after Halloween, I made Hermana Bowers start listening to Christmas music. It's been the best. She said we can’t put up Christmas decorations up until after Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone has the happiest Thanksgiving and for the fam I hope you all drink an extra cup of slush just for me! I hope that we can all reflect on all the small and big blessings that God gives us every day because he puts situations and people in our life that make us happy if we just look for it. For Thanksgiving, we are eating at Hermana Candys and Hermana Tapias a bit later. I don't know what a Hispanic Thanksgiving looks like but I bet it'll be good! 

Con mucho Amor

Hermana Crofts 

ConTACOtando

An oldie con los Tre Muchachos

Brazilian candy. I am a sucker for chocolate and one of the Brazilian investigators now calls me "Candy Crofts."  THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING!

 

 

Rene's last week at church with us (until April).

Jorge

November 13, 2017

Hola y'all. 

This week was awesome! We prayed that we'd find new people to teach and God delivered! On Friday, we were leaving the house and there was sooooo much traffic. We were sad that we were late because we couldn't meet up with all the people we'd planned. But it turned out to be a huge blessing! We tried this former investigators house and as we were leaving a new guy pulled in and we were able to go Sunday to teach him. Then we met this new Brazilian lady that night and we'd been praying to find people to teach during the day and she said... now really isn't a good time. Can you come during the afternoon? YES! But just little tender mercies and blessings were happening all week. 

So kinda funny situation. This week, one of our investigators asked us to come and teach him how to make something American! So we went with chocolate chip cookies hahah. We brought everything to make them and assumed too much. They didn't have a big bowl, so we used a giant pot.. and they didn't have measuring cups hahahahaah. So I had a red solo cup... I would hold it up to the light... yeah.. that's about a cup.. Anyway they turned out great!!!! I left just like OH yeah, I'm practically Bobby Flay. After the cookies it just wasn't as sweet. We asked him about his reading in the Book of Mormon and then he just got mad! He told us he has the Bible and doesn't see why he needs it. (Keep in mind we've taught him the last 2 months... and he knows why) but he just kept trying to Bible bash with us and ahhh it made me so mad. This was all happening and my heart was just racing and I was so mad that I was that mad. Anyway the moral of the story is that I can make cookies without measuring cups and I somehow kept my cool with my investigator. By the end of the talk, he really did come to it like okay... if I want to know this is true... I gotta read. 

I love being a missionary. It really is hard and I have never wanted something so bad for so many people. I love the people that we get to serve. I love that I get to just talk to people about the gospel all day because truthfully it is the greatest blessing in my life. I hope that everyone has the best week and reads their scriptures and laughs a lot because life is good. 

Mucho Amor

Hermana Crofts

Lunch with Miguel

Huaraches y Sopes

Miguel

Arrival photo from the mission home

Noche de Futbol with Raiana & Elder Oliver

Manor singing with Yvonne

Pic from last week with Jorge, Rene & Jose