Well hi!
Man you all are so good to me! Thank you for your emails, I feel so loved! I promise that this time I have a real excuse about the length or timeliness of my email, surely to be addressed later. This week was one of the most fun and crazy weeks I’ve had in the mission field thus far, so let’s see if I can fill you in a little bit! At some point I might resort to some bullet points to increase my efficiency, until then, let’s see how far I can get with stories.
This week I will increase the clarity of my writing by starting in cronological order, beginning with last Tuesday! We had a carne asada, which was a Mexican barbeque on the roof of a companionships apartment building, playing youth music, at what I would argue, was deafining volume. It was so much fun, there was sooooo much food, and I am thriled to announce that we inherited 2 kilos of the leftover meat and have been chefing it up in the apartment which has been fun. Photos attatched!
After a few days of showeing with a bucket in our own house (k wait I actually kind of miss it) we got water back on Friday morning! And so far, so good. I think it’s here to stay. The bucket showers were actually pretty luxurious, and I came to love the morning routine. Wake up, throw a couple pots on the stove top, and then perpetually filled up the pots with water from our big water jugs and poured it into a bucket. Made me feel like a minimalist mountain man and I was actually a pretty big fan! But, since then we have returned to normal home showers, and I am certainly not complaining about that. Clean clothes, clean dishes, clean body, all pretty enjoyable things in my opinion! Speaking of clean clothes (kind of), I got my sheets washed, and I am happy to announce that for the most part, the stains from my midnight bloody noses are basically gone! You can’t notice unless you know what you are looking for. That is definitely a massive win. And, my allergies have improved, and I haven’t had another bloody nose instance since my last email! Count your blessings and knock on wood. You could say the home situation is on the up and up and I would have to agree with you.
I will admit, I am starting to seriously miss a good caesar salad or even some doggone fruit. 2 bananas a day is getting kind of old as far as my fruit intake goes, and beyond that the only food I eat that grows out of the ground in the occasional potato, in the form of fries, and whatever stuff they mash up into these salsas. I would love to eat like an apple or some grapes, but the motivation to let it soak for 30 minutes in a pot with some weird chlorine-like juice hasn’t quite piked my attention to this point. We will just have to wait and see if I ever get sick enough of Walmart bananas to turn to other fruits. On the food note, I think I am starting to put on some serious pounds and it’s starting to be concerning. It isn’t particularly helpful that the members here feed us an absolute truckload of food, and that all the resturants have massive proportions too. For example, the other day we went to this place called the Machete Imporium (or something along those lines) that I had seen like 25 times as we walked past it, but some reason had never tried. The machete might be a top 3 best thing I have eaten since I’ve been in Mexico, and as far as I am aware its just one really really long taco pan fried in some mystery oil. But it was sooo good, and massive, and I’ll put a couple pictures down there so you can see what I mean. Paired with the Jarritos 🥹🤌
I am happy to report that I have your latest update in public transit conditions. Although, I am not happy to report that this weeks report is not a positive review. We were out contacting in the streets with Ernesto, the absolute goat, who was filling me in on the NFL season and complaning about various Raiders players. Anyways, he was sick of walking so suggested we took the trolleybus to the place we were headed to go contacting in public, plaza Garibaldi with all the Mariachi bands. At this point it was like 7:15 so it was well dark out, but the trolleybus is literally so luxurious looking its this big blue bus with some electricy antenna things whatever you call them attatched to some wires above it. Pretty cool. Anyways, as I have yet to mention trolleybus before, this was my first experience and I was basically giddy for the ride. We were only on for 3 or 4 minutes, and as we moved to the back door exit of the bus, I got like shoved from behind. Now, this is a pretty common occurence in public transit, because let me tell you when these people want to get off of a bus or the metro, they are getting off, all obstacles aside. Anywho, I turn over my left shoulder and see a short little Mexican lady behind me and basically get carried off the bus by the wave of people. The second my feet touched the ground I thought “oh no”, reached for my pocket, and found out that my phone had been yanked from my pocket, and the sunglasses had been taken off the top of my head too! Now, I don’t consider myself a particularly unattentive person (which I am sure specific family members will disagree with) but somehow managed to get my sunglasses taken off the top of my head and my phone out of my pocket at the same time. That could be a dramatic representation of either my spatial awareness or the craziness of public transit, and your judgement of which may speak to how well you know me 😈
Anyways, I had the chip, so the last couple days have been a little hectic. I didn’t even notice my sunglasses were gone until the next day when we walked out of the apartment and I realized I was going to spend a few days squinting. I was thinking that I was arguably more mad about my sunglasses getting stolen then my phone, but then I realized I just got a new phone case, and yesterday night when I got my new phone, I realized I had to entirely set up the new one from scratch. But then again…also having to squint all day? I’d say I am of equal frustration. Anyways, after I got pickpocketed Friday night and as we were walking around, I was thinking a lot about the lady that took my phone. Initially I was mad, then I thought it was funny, thinking of her struggling to disable the controls that the church automatically installs on our phones, then I hope she actually even turned the thing on and saw my screensaver of Jesus and felt something. Happiness, guilt, peace, desire to change, that doesn’t matter to me, I just hope she felt something. Then, I started thinking of whether or not I was a specific target because I am a confused-looking little white guy. Probably! Then I got thinking, did the lady actually think before she took my phone, or just act? I thought of what I would think in her situation:
Here’s a confused, lost, and tired looking white guy who clearly has no idea where he is, where he is going, or what he is doing. He doesn’t look like he can speak a word of spanish since he is so pale looking, and given that he is headed toward Bellas Artes area, he’s probably a tourist who got lost on the wrong bus line. I can see the phone is his pocket, he clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing since his hand is on his book and not in his pocket, and that phone is probably the only thing keeping him alive. That’s where he has his translate to talk to other people, his information for his hotel and whatever, and keeps his maps to know where he is. Anyways, she probably thought exactly none of those things, but one can imagine. She probably could use the money anyways, so not a big deal to me! I didn’t lose hardly anything (as far as I am aware to this point) as far as data or information goes, so oh well. Anyways, there’s my weekly excuse as to why I may not have the opportunity this week to respond to all of your emails. Sorry! But in all seriousness, I really do love all your emails and I am so sorry that I am the literal worst at responding to them! Anyways, to continue…
I must say, this week has been hard on the stomach but little by little I am getting stronger. Just before you know it, I’ll be able to eat Andes Mints and Raisin Bran problem free, unlike a certain Jared West. Also for clarification of Mr. Durham and Nye accusal that I got from the same Jared West…false accusal.
Well, now onto things a little more focused on the actual reason I am here! As far as lesson teaching went this week, this week was pretty hard and we had a few people that were progressing really well just kind of stop talking to us and answering the door and they kind of fell off the map which is a bummer for sure. We had a baptismal date set for Erlinda for this past Sunday, but she recently had a foot surgery and hadn’t fully recovered, and still can’t submerge her foot in water so we will have to wait and see on that one! I did, however, give 3 or 4 priesthood blessings this week. Although my spanish still stinks, it is an absolute miracle every time to witness how the Spirit leads me what to say during a blessing and how the people, and I, can benefit from these blessings. It brought a few people to tears and was super super cool to witness. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood that can bless the lives of people throughout the world.
On that note, lets move on to my spiritual thought for the week! The delivery might be a little more expedited than I hoped, but I am still trying to set this dumb phone up and the day has already been busy enough. Let’s see how far I can get:
This week I made a personal goal to read my Patriarchal Blessing every day. While there was a day or two that I couldn’t, man the days that I could brought so many blessings. Seriously, everytime I read it, something new stands out, and my experiences reading it each day brought tears to my eyes each time. Like the Book of Mormon (I mean it literally is personal scripture!), no matter how many times you read it, you will learn something new and receive guidance, answers, and/or peace that you need. My Patriarchal Blessing is truly such a good tool and has been so useful to me throughout my life, and continues to be especially in missionary life. A Patriarchal Blessing really is another direct testament that your Heavenly Father exists, knows you, loves you, watches over you, and has a plan for you. I know that without a doubt.
Anyways, I am about running out of time, so here comes a couple great scriptures that have been my theme of this past week and that I hope you can enjoy too! Alma’s final advice to his oldest son: chapter 37
“Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”
Thats so so true!! Everything we do, especially as missionaries, should be directed in, focused in, and supported by the Lord. As we turn our lives to Him in prayer, He can and will support us with the peace, guidance, and answers we need! He os there watching over us, hoping for our good.
“For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.”
Following the example and words of Christ will being us the lasting, eternal joy we seek.
“Seek not after riches nor the vain things of this world; for behold, you cannot carry them with you.”
So, we should seek after the things of God. This ended up way shorter than hoped, but my invitation to you this week is to read and reread your Patriarchal Blessing, or prayerfully prepare and seek to recieve it. It is such a great strength and guidance, directly from the Lord. You WILL find blessings!! I love you all so much, I miss you,I pray for you, as always, and hope all is well! Enjoy some Thanksgiving food on my behalf please 🙂
Thats all for now!! I love you!
Elder Crockett ❤️
Pictures 👇👇
