Harvest Blessings!

Hey mamá. 

Dang it, well I kind of had a feeling before I got to the cyber that I was going to get some sort of bad news, so I was somewhat prepared for hearing about Jakey. Also ever since I saw that picture of him I had the feeling too that he wasn't going to make it too much longer, and so luckily I'm not terribly surprised by what happened. It still sucks though and I hope you're feeling better, but at least we've still got Jaspy! And I have like 3956023.4 dogs here to keep me company, so don't worry too much, I'll be alright. I'm glad you had a fun week though! The John Mayer concert sounds like it was awesome even though Philip Philips wasn't that impressive. That's too bad that you missed the choir concert but she'll have plenty more that you'll be able to go to! It sounds like it's been an interesting football season too- hopefully Rustin's last lax season in high school will be a little more exciting though. It's great to see the pic of our traditional General Conference breakfast though- this was the third time in a row that I've missed out (once in college and twice on the mission)! Dang it. But it is pretty cool to think about how we were all watching it at the same time- not only you guys and I but also all of my missionary friends that are in different parts of the world. Que locura!

So since were already on the subject of Conference I guess I'll start off by telling you how my first conference out of the country was. Over here in San Rafael since not a ton of people have internet most of the members came to the Stake Center to watch it. We were pretty much in the church building for two days straight because we had the Relief Society session at 11am on Saturday, followed by the Saturday morning session at 1pm and then the later session at 5. We couldn't really leave and go work in between the sessions because it's a half an hour both ways from the Stake Center to our area! The Sunday sessions were also at 1 and 5, and we ate hamburgers at the other hermanas' pension because it's close by. I watched the Relief Society session in Castellano, and I understood most of it, but it wasn't quite as powerful for me as it is in English. I did really like the talk about the sacrament though and about how important it is to keep our covenants. That was a pretty big theme throughout all the sessions. After the RS session though we watched the rest in English in the "gringo room" with all the elders from the US. As the tradition goes, we all brought snacks and drinks to eat during the conference haha (crepes would've been a lot better though). It was kind of fun to be able to hear and speak English for a few hours and feel almost like I was back home in my country for a little while. 

The best part wasn't that though, it was the talks of course. I don't know about you guys, but I had been dying for the conference. As missionaries we need to be recharged every once in a while and Conference is perfect for that. Even though we don't have a ton of investigators right now and the ones we do have are hard to get a hold of, what the prophet and apostles said helped me refocus on what's most important and on what I can do better to be able to be a better instrument in the Lord's hands. Uchtdorf is pretty much always my fave, and he didn't disappoint me this time. I loved his story about the guy who was asking questions to the Mormon couple and trying to understand why anyone would join a church that requires so much of it's members. It is so true that the gospel sounds crazy until you think about the millions of blessings and true happiness that it brings to those that put in the work and faith necessary. I also loved that so many people mentioned missionary work and how the time for members and missionaries to work together is NOW. They gave some awesome ideas about how to find people to share the Gospel with and how to know what to say or do. Basically just like us full time missionaries it's the same basic principle of praying sincerely and following the Spirit without fear. My other favorite was the one about spiritual endurance and the example about getting our testimonies into shape just like we get physically in shape for sports. I'm gonna have to use that one in a lesson some time (: So yeah, I got a lot of questions answered and learned a ton this Conference and I wish we had it every week! 

The rest of the week we were doing our best to try and find new people to teach. Hna Tzorin has this really cool thing that she learned in the Cali mission that they use to find new people which is called a "harvest blessing". We pretty much just knock doors or talk to people on the street and offer to give a special prayer as representatives of Jesus Christ and we include whatever things they're in need of at the moment like better health and more peace. Afterwards we talk about how they felt and then invite them to feel more of those feelings by listening to our message. Simple, but it's worked pretty well and we've gotten some new investigators out of it. Some of which were reluctant to even talk to us at first, but then after the prayer they're hearts were softened and they told us we could come back and talk with them another day. It's been awesome and even though it's frustrating sometimes and doesn't always turn out great, we're happy with the little miracles we've seen so far. I also had exchanges again with Hna Medrano this week. She's only got 2 weeks left on the mission, but she's still working super hard and trying to help us and her comp out as much as she can before she goes. You can definitely tell though that her body is ready to be done with all of the running around and stuff. Her back is killing her, her feet are dying, and it's so hard for her to drag herself out of bed in the morning. The poor hermana needs a looooong siesta. She's a great example though to all of us, and I actually hope that I'm that worn out by the end of my mission because I'll know that I'd been working hard just like Hna Medrano did. It wasn't a super eventful exchange, but we did meet a lady named Celeste who is SO frustrating because she has a ton of the right ideas and beliefs about families, taking care of our bodies, personal responsability, self improvement, etc. but a few core things are missing like believing that Christ was the Son of God and not just a great teacher.. Ahhh. So frustrating because she's so close yet so far and isn't very open to doing what it takes to ask God and find out for herself what the truth is.. She is going to read the Book of Mormon though and she possibly watched part of conference on the internet, so you never know. We'll see what happens!

It's still a little crazy thinking about the fact that I live in a foreign country 5000+ miles away and that I'm speaking a different language.. sometimes it feels like a dream, but it's a fun, crazy, amazing dream filled with adventures, miracles, and a ton of new friends. I'm so happy to be here and to be doing what I'm doing even though every once in a while I miss watching tv with the fam, eating Chipotle, hanging out with roomies, and the beach. It really is rare that I think about those things because most of the time I'm so wrapped up in everything going on over here that I forget about my"past life" as my comp calls it. It's hard to explain but I think you get what I mean. Anyways I love you all and I hope you enjoy your week and start putting into practice what you learned this weekend! Ciao!

<3,

Hna Crawford

Chillin with my fellow gringos during General Conference

Las hermanas de San Rafael