Tie Snatching Halloween Fiends

I have only 20 minutes as of Monday night, so we are going to see how much I can get to you by tomorrow (meaning today when you will be reading this.) The truth is this week was sick! and I have lots to tell you all about so lets get started!

First of all, I just want to acknowledge that my companion has probably a 55 inch inseam and walks at the rate that would secure the world record for fastest speedwalking mile. It is a real struggle to keep up, and my body has recieved consequences both positive and negative. I acquired what I have coined as a “permanent blister” on both my heels and almost all of my toes, my poor dogs just don’t get any rest from all the walking. On the flip side though, I will easily have the most ripped shin muscles you have ever seen by the time I get home. Nevermind if my legs will be pasty pale, you will all be too distracted by my ripped shins to notice. Seriously, my shins are constantly burning and endlessly sore. Not sure what real-world application shin muscles have, but I am pretty certain it’s going to open some oppurtunities in the future to show of my skills. Just you wait. The good news is, we used public transit this week! Which has improved significantly. We took the metro to the mission home on Wednesday for “train the trainers” since my companion is training for the first time, and again to District Council. For those of you who fell into despair last week learning my directional skills are hopelessly worthless, I must admit I have the metro lines memorized like none other. I even bond with some people over hatred for the metro station “La Raza” which I swear is bigger than Salt Lake International and takes soooooo long to walk across, and unfortunately it is like the central hub. I swear its like 2 miles from the one metro line to walk to the other, and sometimes I literally have to jog to keep up with my companion. Old dudes in our ward love complaining about the day-to-day conditions of La Raza and complaning about the walk and permanent BO/vomit hybrid stench. The one thing that still absolutely stinks about the Metro (figuratively, but also literally) is that the line that runs through our area is literally the worst and is always crammed with people and is like a 20 minute wait every time. Other than that, the metro has been pretty exciting stuff (as fun as a subway could be that is)

On top of that, I’m pretty sure we walked every street in the mission and almost certain we’ve seen all the major places. I’ll throw in some pictures, but there is some really sick plazas, streets, buildings and etc in our area so it has been so cool to explore more of the area, meet more people, and just see some cool stuff and figure out some more landmarks. Plaza Garibaldi has a bunch of mariachis competing for attention, Monumento de la Revolucion is just cool, Bellas Artes has people dancing for fun, La Reforma is where all the “paint heads” hang out, and apprantely this tinly little park I can’t remember the name of is where all the French people hang out. This week we met a crazy amount of people from out of town, 3 people from Haiti, one who moved into our ward, a family from Tennessee, a couple from California, a dude from Paris who spoke perfect English and told him I gave him “short Austrian snowboarder vibes” (he is apparently a psychologist with a series of board games that helps people “determine who they really are”, and his analysis made me question his credibility but only slightly), a member family from Costa Rica, and a pair of brothers from Nigeria. Pretty cool stuff! Lots of people showed up into town for Dia de Muertos.

Speaking of, happy halloween AND dia de muertos! It was a pretty crazy couple of back to back days, but there was tons of loud music, little kids running around, fireworks, free candy, and dancing in the middle of the streets. That was pretty sweet. It was such a fun couple of days and we got to celebrate with some members and learn more about the culture and stuff, ate some really spicy candy, it was sweet! On DdM we were walking the mission border (basically) trying to find a quieter spot to talk to people. We accidentally ended up being 2 streets from Tepito at about 9pm which turned out to be really dumb. Tepito is like infamous in all of Mexico City for being absolute chaos, it is what’s known as a “red zone” and they don’t send any non-mexican, less than 1 year missionaries there. Anyways, our area borers Tepito. Basically from what I’ve heard of Tepito, 5 year olds walk around with guns in their hands and little kids are found passed out drunk in the streets. You can buy anything from automatic rifles to alligators, tigers, and allegedly trained monkeys. I’ve seen photo proof of kids with AKs and tigers in cages, but yet to see a monkey butler so I’m not too certain on that one. Anyways, scary and sad place, and I guess we got too close too late at night because we ended up with a couple attempted robberies the night of Dia de Muertos, none successful. The first guy came up to us like ELDERS!!! And just started chatting with us, he was super high and drunk (HD vision) and had an empty bottle of vodka in his hand then all the sudden grabbed my tie and yanked at it and was like give me your money now and I was like whoa hey there! We had literally no money on us, and we “compelled” him to let go of my tie. We turned to walk away (which for any normal person is a run given my comp is so tall) and he grabbed at my comps arm then started trying to run after us but was so loopy that he tripped over his own two feet about 3 steps in and fell into a pile of his newly-shattered bottle of vodka hah! Anyways, the second was a paint head, (people that walk around sniffing rags soaked in paint thinner, gasoline, running alchohol, whatever it is) and came over to us yelling somethin but some members we were standing with scared him away I guess!

That added some excitement to the week! In all seriousness though this week was super awesome and the two back to back holidays made it esepcially fun. One night earlier this week we went finding at the plaza in front of the monument of the revolution where we met a member and her friend from Oaxaca, one of them had submitted her mission papers like 3 days earlier, and the came and helped us contact and teach people in the plaza so that was way cool! We also had a good time contacting people at plaza garibaldi while listening to mariachis play, its a touristy part but its also really pretty and very clean which is a nice change of pace. We ended up teaching a lady with an adorable dog, and she accepted a Book of Mormon! She then sat down to read the chapter we gave her, and later we went over (she was in tears) and she was so grateful for us and accepted a baptismal invitation in her first lesson. That was a very powerful experience and no doubt a miracle.

I haven’t gotten to play much piano lately (sad) but I did get to play like 20 minutes before district council while we waited for a companionship stuck in traffic and that was so fun! I want to learn Gods Gracious Love on the piano but haven’t quite had time yet. We will see what we can make happen. Its currently Tuesday morning and I’m writing this on the metro, and I am devestated to report that we lost water again this morning so no showering or anything happened. Yuck. Lets hope it gets turned back on here soon because that was no fun last go around. Last night was awesome, our friend Esteban accepted a baptismal date after a couple months in teaching for 2 weeks from now!! I am soooo so excited and we bond over the NBA and his shoe collection. Its his birthday this Friday so we talked all about the shoes he hopes hes gonna get and his dreams of playing in the NBA. He is such a cool and funny kid and I am so so excited that he accepted the invitation to be baptized! Progress with him had been going slow since religion as a whole is totally new to him, but he’s been really good about reading the Book of Mormon and praying, even though his mom isn’t interested, and he was so excited last night to be baptized so it was such an awesome experience and definitely another miracle. Other than that, this week has been lots of walking, learning the cool parts and seeing new sections of our area (crazy how much stuff there is in just one little place), speaking all in Spanish and a limit of 15 minutes a night to write emails. I want to write to you all!! Maybe in the future I’ll get more time. For now, sorry! Oh also right now we are riding in the cablebus which is a gondola running north through the city and it’s got some sweet views (although the air quality has been terrible all week so you can’t see very far) but its weird to look down and see houses and cars instead of snow. Cool anyways!

Little sort of segway to my spiritual thought. Last week I told you all I was really homesick, but this past week things have really improved! I got some fire advice from my dad, read some talks in our mission binder thing, and my companion and I finished The Ricarddi Letter earlier in the week which also applied so well to how I was feeling. And of course, the things I read in the Book of Mormon were total answers to prayer as always!!

Alright lets get started. First of all, I love this scripture so much. It’s so simple, and thats probably why I love it. The sons of Mosiah are heading out as missionaries, hiking through the wilderness getting ready to teach a group of people that hates them. They were understandably a little worried and afraid to head to the people. Here’s the verse I love:

It’s that simple. That’s exactly how I’ve felt this past week. Last week I was just so homesick, but this week as I’ve focused more on the work and forgetting myself, I have been able to manage the stress of the mission more and find more joy in this missionary work. .

My dad sent me an email where he said something I have been trying to focus on. Obviously, its easier said than done, and of course there are still hard days and sad moments, but trying to shift my mindset away from myself has brought me a lot of peace. Heres what he said and I think its so facts:

Heres the Gordon B. Hinkley (I don’t know how to spell his last name) quote:

So, that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Elder Budge, my old zone leaders last advice to me matches up to what I and my companion read in the Ricarddi Letter. I don’t have the exact quote, but the gist is kind of this. These are 2 years of my 50, 70, 100, however many year lives. Right now it feels like so much time and like the end is way beyond sight. But, the last 2 weeks of the Elder’s mission, all he could think about was look back on the last 2 years and evaluate if he made it worth it. Did he put in the work everyday, or did he sleep in, mess around, break mission rules and give half hearted effort? Was the 2 years a waste of time, or did he bring other people and himself closer to Christ? Would he be able to walk of the plane? Could he return to normal life with an ease of consciousness knowing he had given it all to the Lord? Obviously there are days where we are going to snooze the alarm, get sick, go through the motions, but the goal is the mentality and desire, and the drive to consistently become a better person, more useful instrument in the Lord’s hands. That’s an idea I really like. Be able to walk of the plane knowing you didn’t just waste two years of your time and the Lord’s time. The elder in the story was so so grateful that, despite his imperfections, and although there were rough days, that he had the desire and mentality and did all he could do and gave it all to the Lord.

Finally, a brief quote from the missionary work of two amazing Book of Mormon missionaries, Alma and Amulek. Before that, something i think that is a very powerful example about this story is that Amulek sacrafices all of his possessions, and he was very wealty, and even loses friendships and a good relationship with his family because the Lord called him to the work. Obviously, it’s not near that extreme for me, or for most missionaries these days probably (hopefully) but the example of giving up everything because the Lord called you to do His work is a powerful concept. As they left on their “missions”, these is the experience they had:

The Lord protects, comforts, supports, loves, and blesses His missionaries. I can testify of that. The Book of Mormon has answers to our prayers and questions, and was written for our day. It is meant for us! I promise as you study it ans prayerfully seek for answers, you will find comfort and guidance from the Book of Mormon. I want to finish with a small quote from C.S. Lewis, and I apologize if I misquote because I am sitting in a Chili’s and don’t have my little quote book with me. It goes something like “The Lord knows your trials, and has prepared a way for you to overcome. Not without pain, but without stain.” That is so true. Life can be so dang hard sometimes, but one day when we “stand before the pleasing bar of God” we will look back and be grateful for the sacrafice, the growth, and especially the help of the Lord.

I will finish with a little “Interactive Zone” of my own, copyright Jared West. I’ll also use his same question for the week but expand the options, I am generally curious to see the results if anyone has even read this far. Real ones will know what this poll is even about, and the rest of you, your invited to go do a wee bit of research:

Best Kablam Samwich track!

A. Nigh to Nye

B. Samwich Wrappers

C. Lemonade Stand

D. Hometown Heroes

E. Nyestalgia

F. Shaved Legs & Skinsuits

G. The Ballad of the Killer of the Night

Interested to see responses, and even more interested to see if there are not any references at all! Credit goes to Jared West for coming up with that all. I hope I get more survey reponses than him.

Well, that’s about all I got for you folks for today. Sorry for the email late in the day! And for the typos. I miss you all so so much, I love you each, and I am praying for you all! Read the Book of Mormon! If you’ve never touched it, you might take a look at 3rd Nephi 11 and see what you think. And if you have and have dropped the habit, make a goal to read just 5 minutes every day! I promise that you will be blessed beyond ways you can imagine for doing this. You wilk get so much peace, answers, and guidance from the words of God in the scriptures. I love you!

Until next week, when I hopefully have more time…

So much love! I miss you all and love you!

-Elder Crockett

Picture time