Damian's bautismo!

Ahhh, only 2 weeks left! Thanks for your letters and pictures! I'm happy that Liv had fun at EFY, that Chloe had fun in Cali, and that Rustin had fun in Washington. Thanks for checking out my apartment even though you couldn't go inside, it looks awesome. Your trip to Utah sounds like it was great too, that's funny about the gravestone mess-up. I'm glad dad enjoyed his birthday too and is going to be able to relax a little more for now after being released!

Well, surprise: my week was........ insane. But really, probably the most stressful I've had in quite a while. Damian got baptized!! But we had some crazy things go down.. So on Tuesday we had our interviews with Pres. Goates & his wife too and mine were awesome- they both are incredible and have a lot of energy and ideas about how to work more creatively and get better results from members/investigators and converts. This mission is in great hands. Then our lesson we had set up with Damian fell through.. but we had a good lesson with that Catholic family who told us they were going to come to Damian's baptism on Saturday. On Wednesday we taught Damian and my comp asked him as we started how he was doing with the Word of Wisdom, and he informed us that an hour after he had come to the baptism with us he drank a glass of beer because some people in a store were celebrating friends day and offered him one.. Yeah so since investigators have to keep the WoW for a whole week before baptism we got worried and basically tried to get him to understand the importance and seriousness of both baptism and the commandments. He kind of got mad that we were probably going to change the date but were legitimately worried. He also told us about all the trials that he's had this week like losing his house and job. Stress. 

The next day we went and he was a lot different- happier. We talked about the verse in D&C 122:7-8 I think and he calmed down a lot and was back to normal, and excited to get baptized on the 25th. We had a really good lesson and afterwards weren't sure about whether to change the date or not. We prayed about it and both felt like it'd be best to do it sooner rather than later. Luckily a miracle happened and the next day (Friday) was a holiday (it's not really a huge miracle I guess because just about every other day is a holiday here..) but we then had the time to teach him the things that we had to so that he was prepared, and we got to watch the hour movie about Joseph Smith and all the trials he went through too, which helped a lot. That same day he had his interview and it all went well. Then on Saturday at 7pm, the coldest day we've had here this winter, we had his baptism at 7pm. Hardly anyone that we had invited showed up, but a few recent convert kids with their non-member mom did so that was good- Damian had invited them after fixing their car. We watched the Come see the light video from Reflections of Christ after he was baptized, and we ate alfajores and soda afterwards. Everything went as planned... until later as we were sitting in the pench my comp noticed that on his baptismal record Damian had a middle name, but the guy that baptized him didn't say it during the ordinance. We weren't sure how big of a deal it was to not say the middle name, so we asked our district leader who asked the zone leaders who asked the assistants who asked the President. Apparently during that game of telephone there was a miscommunication and Pres. thought Damian was upset that they didn't say his middle name and so he told them to tell us that he should be baptized again using the middle name. So we got told that he had to get baptized again or it wasn't valid. First we called bishop and decided to do the 2nd baptism sunday morning right before church so he could get confirmed, but then when we called Damian to tell him..... he got mad and said he refused to do it because his middle name was the name of a relative who I guess did something to offend his family and he had been trying to get the name legally removed for a while. He said he wouldn't do it again and that for him the baptism he had was good enough.. but that he would still come to church the next day. The next morning we informed the Elders of what had happened when we called and then right before church and half an hour before sacrament meeting the assistants called and told us about the miscommunication and that he didn't have to get baptized over again after all.. We got to church and right before it started Damian still wasn't there so I called him and he said I had woken him up but that he'd be over in 5 minutes. Luckily he kept his word and showed up right on time and was confirmed a member of La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias. Then my comp and I got put in charge of the Gospel Principles class last minute and it happened to be about Exhaltation and we had to give it to 3 recent converts with less than 6 months as members and one member with only 6 years in the church. It was fun, there was almost a fight... almost. Hahaha so yeah sorry about the length of the story but that was basically my week! It was insane but I think everyone learned a lot from it and it helped my stay distracted from getting trunky too (;

We have to travel 3 hours to Mendoza today for my last mission leadership counsel meeting tomorrow, and then on Thursday night we're traveling to Malargue (another 3 hour bus ride) to do exchanges with Hna Sanford and Bentley. So basically the week's gonna fly by because we'll only be in our area 2 and a half days.. then we'll start my LAST WEEK! Ahh. I'm excited! I hope it's a little less stressful of a week, and I hope your guys' week isn't too stressful either! Love you, & see you soon.

<3,

Hna Crawford

Hno Julian's sister missionary shrine.. no comment.

Julian' desserts!

Hermano Julian 

@ Hermano Julian's

Our favorite bakery

my favorite member's house & kid (Raquel, the lady that's friends with Damian)

inside Raquel's house she's decorated her wall with missionary pamphlets

Volleyball on p-day with the Elders

our area

these are everywhere..

Argentina's answer to the Twix bar

uhh, yeah

More of our area

eating dinner (for once) with a recent convert, Teresa- haha she didn't understand the concept of the 10 second timer on the camera and wasn't quite prepared

Baptism!!

Damian and David

My comp, Damian and I

Damian, David, Raquel, my comp & I

Damian's baptism

Finishing Strong..

Hey, it was awesome to hear how all of you are doing! It's getting hard for me to comment on all the crazy stuff you guys are doing because you're all over the place and are having all sorts of fun, so sorry if I don't cover it all or email everyone- I'm trying! I'm jealous that you've been hanging out with the Winters/Koskis and Anne and her boys all week and that you went to the hot springs place.. I can't wait to be able to swim again! I bet Olivia had/is having a blast too. Tell them all I said hola! I'm glad Chloe's back safely from Fiji and that she had an awesome experience. She'll never forget it. I'm also extremely jealous that Rustin got to hang out with the Crawfords and Straights!! The pics are so cute, I'm so excited for McKenna. Seriously, she made a great decision. I bet dad's been enjoying having some time to relax in silence too. I hope everyone's doing well and stays safe wherever they are.

This past week we didn't have a baptism- it'll be this week (: Damian has been doing well and is keeping the Word of Wisdom even though he's given us a few scares, they were just false alarms though. He came to a baptism in the ZL's area on Saturday and liked that the service was short and sweet. He's a good guy that just wants to calm down and turn his life around. He's also excited about being able to go to the temple some day and do the work for his little girl that died at age 11 (she's not technically his daughter but he raised her I guess). He's great and really funny. He reminds me of some of the people that Tiffany Coon writes about that she's teaching in Oregon haha. So yeah, this saturday should be the day if everything goes well and we make sure he's prepared of course. 

We met this Brazilian girl walking down the street the other day and my comp started talking to her but she didn't understand anything. All she could get out roughly was that she was from Brazil and that she had only been here a little while. We drew a little picture of a chapel with the address and meeting times on a card with the mormon.org site on it and gave it to her because we weren't sure what to say or do. It made us wonder if that's what people felt like talking to us when we didn't speak any Spanish at all.. It's slightly awkward. Poor Argentines that have to deal with us gringos that just want to teach them the Gospel but don't know how to. Haha.

I also did exchanges with a mini missionary Hna Moron (hahaha yeah, I know) and it was an interesting day.. Basically she just wants to bajar la caña a todos which I'm not really sure how to translate into English right now but it means that she wants to like put people in their place and tell them why what they do or think is wrong. For example she wanted to read a scripture in D&C about how anyone that doesn't support marriage is not of God to a very Catholic family (their child is named after the current Pope) that we just barely started teaching.. I had to explain to her that for most people that's not the most effective way to help them accept our message, and she kind of understood I think.. hopefully. She likes to yell HOLA and BUENOS DIAS to everyone we cross paths with on street, which is even more uncomfortable when she does it with her mouth full of drinkable yogurt and tutucas (inflated corn?). It was a funny day. It made me glad to have the comp that I have- she's great!

I've been doing pretty good about concentrating on the work, but it's getting harder and harder. I try to only think about it at night after planning. I have a ton of lists of goals and stuff that I want to do when I get back, as well as goals for the mission of course. My favorite list is the grocery list that I made of all the food I want to buy when I get back <3 Haha but really I'm not quemando too bad (which means I'm not too trunky in English missionary slang), I promise. I'm obviously excited though- who wouldn't be excited to see their family, friends, country, etc. after being in practically another world for over 17 months doing something that's amazing but not easy. I'm super excited for Damian's baptism though too and to keep teaching and finding people to teach.

Sorry about the lack of pictures- this computer sucks and won't read the memory card. Only 2 more letters after this one though and then I be able to put the pics/videos directly on our computer and we can all look at them together! Woohoo. I hope you have a great week and stay safe like I said earlier. Love you!

<3,

Hna Crawford

17 Down... I to go!

Hey! How are things going in Utah, Fiji, AZ, and wherever else you guys are?

I'm super jealous of how awesome 4th year camp sounded like it was- bugs, games, repelling, stories, and all the rest of the fun experiences you got to have. To answer your question I'm pretty sure one of our babysitters taught us pshht- Nikki if I remember correctly. I'm sure the girls loved it and loved you guys. I'm glad Chloes's still having a blast in Fiji and that you guys made it safely to Utah and are partying with the Winters!

My week down here was cray as usual. It started out with my last ever Zone Meeting and then with the semifinal game and holiday on Wednesday. We had the activity from 11 to like 3 and it was pretty fun! It started out a little slow- they were just drinking mate, but then they had this traditional dance-off thing (don't worry I have videos of all this) and played hopscotch, marbles, trivia, and a 1 on 1 game with brooms and a big bouncy ball that you have to hit between two chairs called Pato. It was definitely entertaining even though we couldn't participate in most of it. Renzo came and so did Damian! Damian actually danced in the dance off and it was pretty funny, he enjoyed it. We then ate pasteles (fried empanadas) and drank soda. Afterwards we had to go back to the pench and we didn't leave because of the futbol game, but we definitely knew who had won once we heard the cheering along with the ambulance siren and gunshots. It was a fun day.

Then on Thursday we saw Pres. Goates again and he told us some cool stories about his mission and the experiences he had. On Friday we found a new family to teach in the morning who are nice, but nothing else too eventful happened. On Saturday we had lunch with Julian, who's a recent convert guy that is a baker and is a little.. strange.. and kind of has an extreme, borderline-creepy obsession with sister missionaries but is sweet and makes us really elaborate 3 course lunches once a month and invites 2 other members because he lives alone. It was fun just because the members he chose are funny and it was entertaining and only slightly awkward. We ate tacos at my request though, so that was good!

Sunday was probably the most eventful day of the week. Our church attendance was a record high of about 50, including Damian. My comp and I sang "Brillan Rayos de Clemencia" otherwise known as "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy" acapella in sacrament meeting- the first 2 verses in Castellano and the last one in English, and it went pretty well, the members loved it and all wanted to give us lunches this week afterwards (; We had a lesson with Damian during sunday school because we hadn't been able to see him in a while and he has a baptismal date for the 19th of July. We weren't sure if he wanted to still or would be willing to learn/keep the commandments, so we had a chat and surprisingly he told us he still wants to on the 19th and is willing to meet every day with us for 30 minutes and do whatever's necessary. That's NEVER happened to me on the mish as you well know so we're a little shocked and had to scramble after church yesterday to try to plan out how we're going to teach him lessons 2-5 (we have to teach lesson 5 now before baptism according to the new Pres.) in five days and help him be 100% prepared......... We know he can do it but we're going to make sure that he's ready of course and if we need to we'll push it back another week. It's going to be crazy. We're a little nervous. It should be awesome though! The final game wasn't that eventful- we were in the pench all day again (sleeping and eating tacos) and so all we heard were a few "NOOO!"s and then gunshots and stuff of course. So yeah, we lost, but people don't look to devastated today, I think they saw it coming..

Anyways, I can't believe I have less than a month left! It's a good thing we have all this work to do here to distract me (: I can't wait to see you locos. 

I hope this next week is less stressful for you guys than it is for me and that you enjoy your vacations like you have been doing so well. Les quiero!

<3,

Hna Crawford

Hahahaha!

me eating leftover tacos on Sunday (my cumplemes- 17th months!) right before the final game.. that we lost..

We drink herbal tea & mate cocido all day 

This random member on a bike gave us half a dozen facturas (pastry things) as we were walking the other day

4th of Julio

Greetings from World Traveler #1. 

I still can't believe Chloe's actually in Fiji, what the heck. It looks like they're doing amazing things over there, I'm proud of her! Seriously we all are going to have a ton of catching up to do here in a little over a month. Haha I liked the story about grandma's birthday (PS- Feliz Cumpleaños Abuelita) apron at Joe's BBQ, and the 4th of July sounds like it was great too. I <3 the USA. The $5 patriotic shirts were a nice touch. The flour war sounded awesome as well. My cuatro de Julio was kinda fun- we did our best with the time, money, and resources we had haha. 

So as you know we got to travel again and meet Pres. Goates and his wife. They're from Sierra Vista, AZ I believe (I think it's super close to Mexico) and they're buenísimos! We were afraid they wouldn't be as funny as Pres or as loving as Hna Avila but they definitely are. They have amazing testimonies and are very excited to work hard out here in Argentina even though it's a lot different here than in Colombia and in Bolivia where they served. It was entertaining to watch the look on Hna Goates face during lunch as we hnas told her a few stories and facts about the culture and stuff that goes on here. I guess it's a lot different than Colombia where she had lessons every hour every day. Ha. She has some cool ideas though and I'm sure it'll help us get a little more creative with how to work more succesfully. Pres. is really great too and he's going to help this mission focus and grow a ton. I'm excited even though I won't be here to see much of it! They're coming here on Thursday morning to meet the rest of us and tell us more about their lives/fam. 

Other than traveling we've been teaching that guy named Damian who's a member's friend and it's been going pretty well- he actually came to church yesterday! It was great even though the Gospel Principles class got a little....crazy. I wish you guys could see how funny the classes here are sometimes just because of the culture and the personalities here. He's coming to the 9th of July activity on Wednesday and he's going to help cook so it'll be good! We haven't really seen the Ibañez fam so I don't have updates on them, or on Belén except for that we found her last night and have a lesson for Tuesday which hopefully she won't bail out on again like she did this week when we had brought a member and everything.. Grrr.

The World Cup is insane too and the people are getting super pumped for the game on Wednesday. It's the first time that it'll be at 5 pm instead of 1 pm which has been perfect because it's during lunch and we study afterwards so there's been no conflicts.. so we'll see what happens.

There hasn't been much more to tell you about. We FINALLY got the Liahona/Ensign (not sure what it's called in English anymore) with these last conference talks and I've loved being able to read them this week! The Priesthood ones were especially awesome. My new fave is "The Chosen Generation" by Ridd of the seventy. You should all read it, it's awesome- especially the part about smart phones and how we should make sure to be spiritually charged every day. It's something I've definitely come to understand a lot more thanks to the mission. Oh yeah also Acts 18:11 is a cool scripture that an elder in my zone found the other day. Go sister missionaries! Anyways I hope you have another awesome week! Be safe, I love you.

<3,

Hermana Crawford

¡Happy Fourth of July from Argentina!

we impressed ourselves with how delicious our hamburgers turned out

last week I had the genius idea of making tropical pizza empanadas and then dessert empanadas with bananas and dulce de leche inside- we enjoyed them

extremely creepy dog on a roof (I guess that's the most convenient place to keep them here)

more dogs on a roof haha