Greetings fanbase!
Not sure why I called you that, but I did, and so there you go. I am pretty certain that the majority of you aren’t big fans of this massive honkin’ email that comes your way every tuesday, but that okay, because I am a big fan. For some reason my new companion (more to come on that!) wouldn’t let me write these emails throughout the week, until today (monday night) when he finally remembered to ask our District Leader in our nightly call. Anyways, all that waste of words and typing time was just to say that, I have had literally no time to write emails this week. But that’s okay, because we have time now and I am locked in. This email is very likely to be a shorter one than my usual scientific research paper length shpeel, but I am sure that news willmake the most of you happy. I think its probably just my mom and I that are sad that it’s going to be shorter than usual. Oh well!
Well to start, this week was an emotional roller coaster to say the very least. Last Thursday we had transfers, and as I expected, my companion got moved to a far corner of the mission and I got a new trainer and stayed here in Cuauhtemoc. I was very excited to hopefully have someone more helpful with the language and teaching me about missionary life and everything. My new companion is from Idaho, 6 foot 6 inches, has 8 months out in the mission, and is incredibly strict. I am all about obedience to mission rules and all that, but I don’t love the idea of making up your own extra rules (for example no emails at night during our hour or two of downtime, and not being able to read emails till pday, luckily he quickly found out that second rule was incorrect). Oh well, we are working through it and I will say we are pretty united and open as a companionship which is a new and strange but good change for sure. The truth is that he is very helpful, he has decided to help me learn as much spanish as I can by trying to only communicate in Spanish together. No doubt that my spanish has seen a massive jump in improvement just these last couple days, so I am excited about that!
If any of you have ever been in a car, on a hike, or on bike rides with me are undoubtedly aware of my hopeless directional skills. I have just about no sense of direction whatsoever. Even in Salt Lake, probably the easiest city in the world to get around in, I would get lost. Let’s just say that streets here have none of that nice, numbered, grid street layout. So I get lost very easily. Google maps is for sure helpful and I’ve been using it a lot. One really frustrating thing is that my companion expects me to know exactly the address of everyone we visit and how to get there, but won’t let me use google maps. That has not made me too thrilled. I haven’t been to most parts of our area so sometimes we wander a little bit until he gives in and I get to use maps. Phewf.
On that note, of getting around the city, in just the last couple of days I have seen way more of our area than I did in the entire last transfer. Seems like my old companion only liked to contact people in the park right next to our apartment. When we lessons a little farther away, we would just take public transit straight there, straight back, no detours. In case any of you (none of you are, lets be honest) interested in an update as to the state of public transit, I am dismayed to admit that I have no update to give. My new companion seems like more of a go-getter than my previous, so we have walked everywhere we’ve needed to go. I actually really love seeing more of the area, there is some dope stuff here! I am however pleased to inform you all that we successfully got lady from Hong Kong that spoke a tiny bit of english, and no spanish, onto her correct bus line to get to a taco shop 5 miles away she was insistent on trying. I think it would be a little scary being alone at night with no spanish in Mexico City! But glad she could find a couple of awkward white dudes to help her out. Turns out, our area is really sick and has some really cool places. We have a big old museum called Bellas Artes and a huge park right next to it, a bunch of other fun little parks and plazas, and some really pretty colonial-era catholic churches. I will say though, we are walking a TON, and my very long-legged companion walks really fast, but that’s okay because you know that we love the efficiency.
If you are curious for how the food was this week, the answer is very normal, and delicious, with nothing exceptionally new. The only remotely new thing we ate this week was some cactus, a truckload worth at a member’s home. Pretty solid! It tastes like nothing but is nice and a quite slimy, I actually didn’t mind it at all so that was pretty cool. Other than that, food has been: tacos, KFC, lots of chicken variations, and burgers at night. Our Zone got a new Zone Leader because the legendary Elder Budge got moved to be a ZL of a new Zone. We got Elder Quintero who is actually super awesome. Second day of this transfer we had Divisions Express: The Super Ultimate Edition (I didn’t name it that, he did, and it’s really fun to listen to him say it in broken English. Don’t ask why it’s called that because I don’t know) and they were so fun. He used to be in my current area and was here for 6 months so he knew the whole area super well and is just a super bubbly and funny person so we had a party. I think we walked down every street in our area, it was epic.
For our last District Council earlier last week, I played an arrangement of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing while Elder Dehesa from our zone sang, and I gotta admit it was pretty sweet. The whole zone joined in for the last verse, and it was a sad but so powerful moment!! It was sick. Other than that this week has been pretty solid! We discovered a group of 15 or so people that have nightly practice in the park every night, of what I can only describe as lightsaber calisthenics. I’m tempted to change the morning workout routine to include some lightsaber action, they are dedicated to that stuff! We also saw some folks from Salt Lake just kind of hanging out, they came up to us and were like ELDERSSS!! And gave us big hugs and asked how we were. Turns out their parents are mission presidents in Gauna which is cool! Kind of odd to see them just kind of out and about, not in a particularly touristy area either, so that was cool! One little strange thing, my companion every night, 15 minutes before we go to bed, loves to randomly flip to a section in either Topical Guide or Bible Dictionary and just start reading out loud. To make matters more fun, he has a dead accurate Elmo impression and reads out loud in that voice. Odd thing to do before bed but oh well! Funny on occasion anyways. One other brief story. We went to KFC with members one day at the mall, and decided to walk back to the church afterwards. Apparently on every Saturday here there is like a crazy goth rock festival just outside of our area, but I think they got kicked out of there and moved to the streets from the mall to the church, because holyyyy cow it was crazy! There was like a million people all crammed in between all these little tent stands that were selling all sorts of goth gear and hard rock band shirts. The music was soooo loud and it took us like 30 minutes of squeezing through crowds to finally get to the church, which usually takes like 5 minutes. That was exciting!! Us two white guys in white shirts looked pretty out of place among a sea of cut-off sleeved mohawkers with pierced tongues and neck tatoos. Epic! I’m starting to think that people here, and some missionaries too apparently, are “strange cats” and “odd ducks” as my parents love to say 😉
Some of you that have read this far might remember me saying that this week was emotionally a struggle and might be a little confused up to this point because so far its been pretttttty rad. Well, this week I have been incredibly homesick. On Saturday night I got Seperator by Radiohead (one of my top 10 favorite songs) stuck in my head, and I started thinking about some pretty awesome family trips I went on earlier this year (Van mountain bike trip with Dad through southern Utah, Arizona, Nevada) and an amazing Canada trip this summer and you know, as it goes, just got really sad. Haven’t been able to shake it since then and have spent longer than I would like to admit crying. But, that was and is to be expected, and that’s kind of how this thing works. Yesterday morning during studies I just couldn’t focus because I was so sad, and read an email I got from Elder West, where he told me:
“I’ve been trying to decide what I wanted to email you about but one thing has been stuck in my mind. You are not alone.”
Man guys I am really telling you that answers to prayer are so real. I am so grateful for the power of prayer. No matter how lonely, sad, and desperate I feel right now, or will feel down the line and throughout life, he is exactly right. I am not alone. My Savior and your Savior suffered death, as the only perfect person ever on this earth, to comfort us through these times. He has felt exactly what I am feeling. He stands by my side holding me up and walking each step, even if some are slow and shaky, even if sometimes I want to stop, even if sometimes I feel like I’m walking backwards, He is there, supporting me the whole way. That is something so special. Some of you reading this mught have been lucky enough to hear my awesome Mom speak in sacrament meeting a couple days ago. She sent me her talk, and I absolutely love this quote:
“When life feels frightening, hard, or uncertain, pray to Heavenly Father. Prayer is an amazing gift that we have been given to communicate with the one who knows how to help us before we even ask. Prayer can give us the strength, help and the direction we seek. We can pray anytime, anywhere. We can pour out our worries, our frustrations and then if we listen, we can feel His inspiration, His peace and His deep love.”
I love that. God doesn’t sleep. His work, His hobbies, His favorite thing to do is to help us and listen to us. And He wants to listen to us!! We can pray to Him whenever, and wherever. He will always listen. And like you’ve heard me say before, He will answers as as He already knows is best for us. I read this in Mosiah earlier this week and think this is a perfect example! First a little backstory, Alma and His people, who are firm believers and recent converts in the Lord, were commanded by a wicked king they couldn’t pray. This was their response:
“And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.
And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”
How cool is that?? Of course, like all things in the Book of Mormon, this isn’t just a cool story that happened a couple thousand years ago. Yes, it is that, but its also completely applicable to our daily struggle and burdens. As we make the effort to pour our hearts out to the Lord, to live after He would have us live, and submit with patience to His will, He will comfort and visit us durint even the hardest and most hopeless times of our afflictions. I think something my Dad sent me in an email a couple of weeks ago sums this up nicely when talking about the love and patience of Christ. He allowed each person in the Americas to come and see, to know for themselves, that He is and was the Savior:
“We’re not unimportant to Him, and we similarly are invited to get to know Him just as well (better, in fact, as the Spirit is a better testifier than our own eyes even)–and it may take time and patience on our part, but He gives the care and attention WE need, and that’s pretty inspiring.”
So, although I have felt lonely, afraid, lost, and so so homesick this week, I know that as I pour out my heart to the Lord, I will recieve comfort from Him. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s hard, but it does mean that I can push through and overcome the hard times. Through Christ. Because of Him, I can become a better person and disciple esepcially because of hard things in life. They aren’t there for fun or for nothing, and while they really stink sometimes, we can become so much better than ever imagined as we pour our hearts to the Lord, and change our will to become swallowed up in His. It may hurt and be confusing at times, but He is the Master Carpenter and will build us into palaces. He won’t always (amd probably not most times either) take away our trials, but He will support us, guide us, and comfort us through them as we turn to Him and focus our efforts and goals towards His light. No matter the hard times (loneliness, homesickness, physical sickness, loss of a loved one, whatever it may be) the Lord knows our feelings, has felt them, He overcame them, and He waits ready to lift us up and carry us onward.
Well sorry for the sob story, fear not, I am doing great!! My invitation for you this week is pretty similar, to look for ways to seek answers to prayer but also to recognize that sometimes, we need to pray for knowledge, patience, and trust, rather than for answers that come in our way. His way is so much better. So, trust in Him, trust in His answers, and seek after the answers He has for you. And act! Remember the things you already know about Christ and keep your foundation in Him strong, even when questions, fears doubts, pains, and heartaches come. He already overcame those for you, and He will help you overcome too.
Anyways, that wraps it up for this week. I hope and pray that you all are doing well and I think of you often! I really do miss you all a ton, but thats okay because I know that after these 2 years wrap up (probably sooner than I expect right now) I will look back on these times for the rest of my life with gratitude. And shoooo its only 2 years!! I’ll have plenty of more time to hug you all, ride bikes, ski, watch football, eat homemade food, and take naps on the floor. Don’t take those bad boys for granted, they are pretty dang awesome and I miss them. In all seriousness, I love you all so much and miss you way more than naps on the rug. You are in my prayers! Until next week, hopefully I can give you some fun stories, but until then I love you!
Nos vemos pronto mis queridos carnales,
Elder Crockett
Photo time!
