Sister Heather Crofts: June 2018

June 25, 2018

Bumper Cars

Hola amigos!

Wow what a week! Last week, we went to play dinosaur mini golf. It was a lot of fun. Don't y'all worry, I won. (Maybe I am slightly to competitive for minigolf). We were up in North Myrtle and stayed there for a FHE with a bunch of members of the ward. It was awesome because we got to meet a lot of the less active members and have fun with them. We shared something about loving everyone and it was cute. We then rushed to Ingrid and Monica’s and had FHE with them. They had never done one before and really wanted to do one. We buried swords like the Lamanites and ate dirt cups. It was really cute.

We went on exchanges with the STL's. We wanted to learn how to do English work because we were pretty lost. Sister Ranada came with me and we got to visit a lot of really cool people. She's a great missionary and I learned heaps from her. We got to see Shannon and her cute daughters. We also did a little FHE with them and they are 3 of the cutest little girls you will ever see. We were up in the area and we felt prompted to go and visit a part member family we have been working with. It ended up being just a complete miracle. They were all home and sat down with us and we got to talk. We also went to dinner with our neighbor Galen. He's just our bud and he has a ton of questions. We ran into him later in the week and he just raved about everything we talked about and how cool it was for him.

Sister Conary took us out on Wednesday morning for our lessons. She's got a little Fiat and jokes that she has a deal with the mission president that he always has to send sisters small enough to fit in her car. We had a lesson with Nicole and we put her on date!! It was such a miracle and we were so so excited.

We had interviews with President and that was great. He is always so helpful and really just helps lifts my spirits. I had had a rough morning and so it was really good to talk to him and it was all good. On the way home, we got rear ended... We were rushing to our English classes, but it all worked out. The Malibu is okay and we came away dent free. woot woot.

ENGLISH CLASSES!!! We started them on Wednesday night and then had them on Friday! They were awesome. We had a couple of members come and the rest were just potential people for us to teach!!! HOW COOL. We both felt that English Class would be huge for us in this area.

JOSE Y JORGE!!! We had visitors from Charleston. It was so so so much fun and just such a blessing that they came to see us. We went to lunch and then the church and got to have a lesson with them. They really are just 2 of my favorite people I know. I almost beat Jose at arm wrestling. Almost.

Things are really just starting to look up a lot in this area. I really am growing to love it here. It just took a little extra time hahah.

STORY time. So on Saturday night, we were just getting ready for bed, writing in our journals, the usual. We got a call from one of the former investigators. He was asking us for our help.. With a jingle. So over the phone we are recording this jingle for his advertisement. He is going to send us it, but the sneak peak. "Is that Sushi?" "It looks hot out there." "Ooooooooooo""yeah""I gotta get myself to Beaulonos""express."

Have a blessed week!!!

Con mucho amor

Hermana Crofts

Hablamos Espanol. The Bishop got these little pins for the members that speak Spanish to wear so that our investigators and new Hispanic members know who can talk to them!

Jose y Jorge

Last P-Day mini golfing

Today we went to the boardwalk and rode the Skywheel. It was so pretty.

There were dolphins in the ocean and we were so happy.

June 18, 2018

Mosquitos 29 vs Hermana Crofts 3:1

Hola hola amigos,

This week was soooooooo much better than last week. Last week, we literally just knocked and tried to contact tons of people. This week, we just switched it all to the members. It was so much fun and we saw lots of miracles from it!

Wednesday, we had Zone conference which was awesome. We had some members drive us up to Conway and it was such a good conference. It was just a lot about going back to the basics and raising the bar. We were asked to choose a scripture hero and base our personal ministry off of them. I had been reading in Helaman and so I chose Nephi and Lehi. They are constantly bearing testimony of Christ, they have so much patience with the people, they work so hard and constantly teach the gospel.

Myrtle Beach used to have a Hispanic Branch, but the Hispanic members have mainly moved. A couple years ago, the market crashed here and so all of them lost their jobs and had to leave... there's a lot more now and so we have a ton of potential and are really building a good Hispanic teaching pool.

Myrtle beach to Charleston is about 2 hours. Charleston to Columbia is about 2 hours. Myrtle Beach to Columbia is 3 hours, and it is 2 hours from Columbia to Spartanburg!!!! Usually we are driving. When we have conferences a lot of the time they need us to drive the mission cars, especially if we are staying the night because we need a way to get around when we were there. Sometimes we get members to drive us or senior missionaries.

Hermana Jones is awesome! We get along really well. She is so funny. She's 5'0 and just a ball of energy. I'm stoked we're companions. We're pretty similar. President Innes said he put us together to just be a force in this area. Amen. We're getting crap done!!!!!!!! We have our goals set high and are working hard to get them. Hermana Jones has lived in a couple places in St George: Diamond Valley, Washington and Bloomington.

Thursday, we contacted our investigators that we hadn't been able to seen yet!! They were really happy to see us and it was perfect timing. We were trying to see a couple members and saw this guy trimming his trees and his hedge and bushes. It was a it job so we asked if we could help. He had extra clippers and so we just started cutting all this stuff down in our dresses. We helped him for a couple hours. It had just rained, it was sooooo hot, we were both just dripping sweat, and the mosquitos were out...and hungry. (No matter how much bug spray I wear, they fight through it and still get me. SOS. I had so many bites I looked like I had chicken pox.) Anyway, the guy we helped was Darwin. He had recognized us as missionaries for the Mormon church and was so sweet. He saw that we spoke Spanish and spoke to us in Spanish. He's been studying for a long time and spoke really well! On Friday him and a couple of people he knows were getting together to practice Spanish at an El Salvadorian restaurant. So we went the next day and we realized that Darwin was a former investigator. He was really interested in sitting down with us again, and the Spanish study group was all these retired people in the area that have studied Spanish in college, recently, or in the streets. They all talked really well, but it was such a testimony to me of the reality of the gift of tongues. God really does bless us as missionaries with the ability to speak the language and learn it so fast.

Also Thursday, we left from trimming our trees, they looked awesome by the way, and started driving. We were speeding off because there was kinda a creepy guy that had pulled over and talked to us. Within seconds, it was a full-on downpour. I was driving and had the windshield wipers on full speed and am driving 10 mph and cannot see anything. We had to put on our hazards and so did everyone else. There wasn't anywhere to pull over but I've never seen rain like that. It randomly just hits like that every couple of days. Last week we just sat outside and watched the lighting, I sent a video but it doesn't even do justice to how cool it was. We totally thought the second coming was happening and we were stoked.

We met a couple really cool people this week. We got to see Fernando and talk to him and are going back to teach his family this week. Also Hugo and his cute family!

Little miracle, we were visiting Monica and her mom Ingrid. They're a member family we are working with and are so sweet. They asked us to come over tonight to teach them how to do family home evening which will be fun. But Ingrids son and Monica's Brother Abraham is 4 and he is Autistic. He doesn't really speak and won't associate with strangers at all. As we were getting ready to leave, I reached out my hands to him and he just grabbed them and held them. It was the sweetest little moment and Ingrid was just shocked because she said he never does that with anyone that isn't family. I really think that it's just the Holy Ghost and having us around that really comforts him but it was cool to see that!!

Funny story. We are driving and I almost ran over a little mole. We got out to see what it was because neither of us had ever seen one. We were like following it down the street and we looked ridiculous. We also made smores on our porch and had a movie night watching Johnny lingo.

We are going to play mini golf today. There are about a gazillion mini golf courses around. We totally could go play real golf on Thursday but it just is probably pretty expensive. We don't really have a way to look into all the places either. So there's tons of tourists but we don't even really know what there is to do.

Sorry this email is really scattered! I just hope y'all have the best week and feel the spirit and know God loves you.

Con mucho Amor

Hermana Crofts

A video of them watching the lightening storm from their apartment.