January 28, 2019

"Soy un hijo de Dios, aunque sea grande."

WHAT a week! 

     Tuesday, I had my exit interview with Presidente Innes. Man, that was tough. I realized that I have been in complete denial about going home. I started thinking about it, and it just made me soooo stressed. AH! SOS! Presidente Innes helped a lot. It was incredible to see and reflect on all that has changed in 18 months and how much Presidente and I love each other. It was a really tender moment with him. As we prayed, I just felt very strongly the affirmation that Presidente and I were chosen to serve together. I obviously already knew that, but it was in a way that's just not surface level. 

     EXCHANGES. We road tripped up to Greenville woot woot. We were able to go and blitz the Hermanas area, which is so fun and cool, but even more fun and even cooler because I got to be with Hermana Champlin. Ahhh mi hija (My daughter). It was a huge answer to my prayers and I loved talking to her and helping them in their area. I felt the spirit so strong as I was with them. Hermana Champlin is the best. 😊

     All I want to do is have each of you be able to read my mind and feel how excited and incredible Sunday was. MILAGROS on MILAGROS!!!! I just want to scream it was so good! Back story, Hermana Bechtold and I have been working SO hard the last couple of weeks. SO SO SO hard. We've been trying to do everything and help everyone and be everywhere all at once. Well folks, let me tell ya.. Sometimes you need to get out of God's way so he can work some magic. That's what he did in West Columbia. We were out of our area for a couple days so it almost forced us to be hands off a little, we just prayed and prayed and relied on God to help us. At church, we had Marco Antonio, Eduardo, and Angel (the niños), Freddy came with his daughter Frida, Karina was able to come from Newberry, Ruben came and was reading his BOM, AND ABBY AND RICKY! Ohhhh God smiled down on us. It was really cool because the Branch finally has enough niños to have a Nursery, it was full! Our people got to enjoy their classes and learn and they talked all about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. The members that spoke bore such strong testimony. Again, it'd be nice to transport y'all into my brain to explain how awesome it was. 

     On Sunday night, we had a Noche de Hogar (Family Night) with the Romeros. We all wrote down our testimonies and thought about people who needed them. Cute little Sinai wrote "Soy un hilo de dos, aunque sea grande." (She's 8.) It's incredible the knowledge and peace that brings into our hearts. We really are children of a loving Heavenly Father, He is looking out for us, he does answer prayers, this is his work. I love being a missionary. I am soaking in every last moment! 

I LOVE Y'ALL

Hermana Crofts

PS My last P-day is next week on Wednesday. See y'all soon!

Someone tried to give us fermented soy beans!

Jose Luis (From Columbia) was at the same tienda as us!

Exchanges in Greenville

Doing exchanges with Hermana Champlin and what are the odds we run into Latham Dr.?

I don't know if I ever sent you the pics from Zone Conference?

Spanish Conference

January 21, 2019

"I carved this for you"

HOLA FAM, 

     What a week! This was just kinda a funny one honestly. Here are a couple of things that have kept me laughing:

     I went on exchanges with Sister Gurecki to the YSA. Ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyy. I now fully understand why I was sent 1) Spanish speaking 2) not to YSA. It was a really fun day. We went down to USC (University Of South Carolina) campus and invited people to a Bible study. I was so AWKWARD. I do not know how to talk to people my own age in English. We were talking to one guy and he told us he was a Christian and he'd be down to come. We talked about his classes and as we walked away, I said "Keep on fighting the good fight." He looked at me like I was weird, Sister Gurecki's face confirmed that I am. 😊 It was actually a very good day and I learned a lot from her. 

     We had a correlating meeting with the Elders at the Library. We were talking about the branch and trying to make a plan for how to help a couple of the members. A man named John came up and started talking to us. He then continued walking by and just staring. I looked around and he had disappeared for a couple minutes. He walks back in the front door, B-lines towards us, he made sure to catch my eye and proudly presents me with an apple (that he found outside in the dumpster) that has I ❤ U carved on it. "I carved this for you," *winks* and walks away. I don't know who was more blessed from this interaction, me with my apple, or the Elders who were on the verge of peeing their pants. 

     This week was good. We are really just trying to keep the faith and keep working hard. We are having some funny problems. We are finding too many people to teach. We have too many people in our teaching pool and we don't feel good about dropping any of them, but we also can't give them the attention that they need. It's a battle. 

     Heavenly Father was so so so good to me this week. There were a lot of good things happening, but some weeks are just a lot harder than others. That was this week. On Saturday, the Latham's from Myrtle went to the temple and President Innes approved them to come take us to dinner. Have you ever experienced PURE JOY? I have now discovered that when I am overwhelmingly happy I lose all words. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with an extension to my family all the way in South Carolina. 😊 

I love being a missionary. I got to speak at church on Sunday and know that nothing brings more joy than sharing the gospel. 

LES AMO

Hermana Crofts

"I carved this for you."

Sister Ammer's again today

LATHAM FAMILY ❤😊

Abby and the boys for Noe's birthday