“What the heck is wrong with this area?”

How is everyone doing? I miss you guys! Man let me tell you, this week has seriously been one of the most fun weeks of my entire mission. I loved it! Let’s see if I can rope together any stories for you about this last week!

To start it off, we had transfers on Wednesday night. Lots of crazy things happened, including that we now have 4 missionaries in our ward! Elder Goliath and I split ways, he’s training a new missionary and I got my new companion, Elder Rodriguez who is 22 months into his mission. I knew we were destined to be companions once I found out that he is from Ohio! Two companionships in one ward has already been slightly mayhem, but Elder Rodriguez is an absolute beast and I can’t wait to see how this transfer goes! Let me tell you though, trying to fit all of my belongings into 3 bags in 3 hours after I got the news was less than enjoyable, but we made it work. I hate packing. Since we are doubling up the ward, we moved into the greek yogurt elders house, and they headed to a new house. It’s really close which is nice! The apartment is really new and quite nice, the only problem is that the previous elders were pretty filthy and the house is pretty gross right now. But, we have been cleaning like crazy, and we’ve made some serious progress. The shower now drains (let me tell you, cleaning that out may have produced the worst smell I have ever smelled), the finger prints and who-knows-what-else on the walls is coming off, the floors are way cleaner, and the greek yogurt smell is all but gone. Threw away all the rotten meat and stuff, cleaned out the freezer, and made a massive pile of old shoes, clothes, bags, wrappers etc that had been left here by previous elders. I’m telling you, I should get my own TV show for my ability to flip filthy apartments, I am pretty unstoppable. This house does have some pretty sweet bonus features, such as running water, an OPTIMUS JUMBO+ water heater (the hot water never runs out I swear), and 8 unopened, fresh, leftover bags of Coco Krispies left for free! We’re living good. This aparment is going to be the best in the mission once I tackle scrubbing the grease off the kitchen walls. It’s already lookin pretty luxurious 😈

So, since we have 4 Elders in our ward now, the APs split the old Cuauhtémoc area into 2. They chose a big road that runs east-west about in the middle, and gave us two the southern half. Which means our entire area is basically just downtown, Bellas Artes, Monument to the Revolution, Lagunilla (massive street market with everything), and a bunch of government buildings and malls. It’s kind of hard to contact and find people to teach sometimes, since there are lots of tourists. There are some houses and stuff, but its hard to get to them and its way easier just to contact in plazas and stuff. People here are a little interesting though, and I love how my companion put it, word for word:

Most accurate description of Centro in Mexico City that I’ve ever heard. Since then, he has nicknamed Bellas Artes, “Besartes”, which sounds just about the same, but means kisses haha! Dead on. But hey, a couple of dudes set up some drums and amps yesterday and played “Creep” live in the park right by Besartes, and it was actually amazing and I loved it! People here are actually amazing public performers, there is all sorts of cool stuff we’ve seen. Had we not been talking to people I definitely would have stopped to take a video of the live Creep cover because it was soooo awesome.

I seriously think my new companion is so cool. You would think with only one or two transfers left, he’d be slacking off and ready to go home, but man we are out here working with urgency I have yet to experience and I am loving it! He even lengthened his mission an extra transfer. He’s so good at talking to people too, makes everyone laugh, and we are just seeing so much success. I mentioned he was from Ohio (he and all his siblings were even born at the same hospital as me!) but everybody here thinks he’s from Mexico or some latin American country. He has a very good accent and likes changing his accent to match different people we meet from out of town, like 3 Venezuelan dudes stopped at Plaza Garibaldi. They wouldn’t believe him when he said he was from Ohio, and not Venezuela. Cool skill! His first area was the ward that shares our ward building, so he knows the area decently well and knows a lot of the members! Plus, I’m getting all the inside information on the best food places from back when he was first here. There’s this lady outside of our aparment complex that sells crepes every night and gives us big discounts and they are fantastic. I thought the nutella and cheese combo was going to be weird, but after my companion convinced me to try it, I haven’t been able to get enough of those bad boys. Once the metro taco stand opens, I will for sure be eating those bad boys too.

Yesterday during a videocall lesson, my companion out of the blue told this girl that we are teaching that I! am going to buy her a birthday present for her birthday on January 1st. What! What!? That came out of left field, and so apparently now I have to figure out what to buy this girl since I got totally thrown under the bus there. That was awkward. Thanks a load. The good news is that she told us (before this birthday present scheme my companion came up with on the spot) that she wants to be baptized!! So that was awesome. My companion also started telling another girl in our ward that I was going to buy her a Christmas present too, but I beat him to it, so revenge was exacted. I gotta tread carefully or I’m going to get roped into buying gifts for the whole ward.

Today we are walking around Chapultepec, a massive park full of all kind of cool museums and monuments. Everyone here keeps calling me guerro and telling me to look at the overpriced candy and snacks they are selling which is fun. I met some people on the bus over here from Birmingham! Jared West will have to pick up on teaching them, his name is Steve Rahiem!

We met this really cool guy at Besartes the other night named Jesus, he came up to us and asked where our nearest church was! We had to the chance to teach him for a second, and he came to church the next day! Little did I know, this guy has to be oke of the richest in Mexico. He pulled up to church in a brand new Audi, and was super happy to be there! We got to talk to him again last night, and this guy is actually so cool. He studied at Monterrey Tech, the best school in Mexico, and at Duke, has traveled to or lived in 43 countries, and can speak Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, and Italian all perfectly fluently. He has his own futuristic-home architectural business in Guadalajara, is a part-time professor in Monterrey, and runs his own tech communications improvement company, where he gete to work with all sorts of big companies, government leaders, and even with leaders of the Church in Mexico! His house in absolutely beautiful, he’s written books for sale on Amazon, but man despite all his wealth and fame and stuff this guy is so so humble and so down to earth. And just like so knowledgeable and genuine! Such a cool experience to get to know this guy, and he shows such genuine gratitude for each conversation we have. I think that’s a great example of making time for what matters, and not letting pride get into your life even once you become wildly successful. He goes out of his way to meet up with a couple little, unknowledgable white kids whenever he can so he can get to know us better, learn about Christ, and find ways to give back to the community. He loves Light the World and really this guy is just so cool! Which makes me think of the importance of giving. So many of us are so blessed, and this time of Christmas should be focused (primarily) all about Christ, and His example. He is the absolute perfect example of giving all that He has back, to help other people. I don’t think He was a particularly wealthy man concerning to things of the world, but it is beyond clear He gave all that He had not only to the people He healed, taught, and raised from the dead in Jerusalem and the Middle East in old times, but He gave literally everything to each one of us. From the moment He was born, nothing He did was about Himself. His sacrifice freed us all, so that we can become like Him.

This Christmas time I’d invite you to try and give more, and focus less on ourselves. We are so blessed, and I love the emphasis that the Church puts on giving back to those in need at this time of year. There are so many people around us that are in need, and not just financially. Be a friend, give a hug, serve, shovel some sidewalks, send a nice text, support! Do the things that Christ did and would do, and be that light to others at this time of year. Minister to others and help them feel the love and light of Christ and of Christmas, through YOUR love and light! For example, we couldn’t meet up with Jesus (not Jesus as in the Christ, but the cool Jesus guy from Monterrey) again tomorrow, because he is headed to an understaffed and undersupported orphanage to meet the kids, bring christmas presents and decorations, and to help rebuild and support the orphanage. Obviously we can’t all do that, but we can be a friend and a helping hand to people that need it. There are so many people that need it! So reach out and be that light. “By small and simple means are great things brought to pass.” You don’t need to rebuild and orphanage, but your small and simple efforts can lift the brokenhearted and comfort those who need it. You can be a light!

I liked this scripture I read this week, where Samuel the Lamanite prophecies about the coming of the Savior. Helaman 13: 6-7

Dang straight! The birth of Jesus Christ is all about glad tidings and gratitude that He came into this world, and especially that He completed His heavenly mission so that through Him, and Him alone, we can become a part of the great plan He has for us, and return home to live with Him and those we love for eternity. I’m so glad we get to remember and worship the birth of Him, the Savior of the world, at this time of year. I’ll wrap up my spiritual thoughts here with the words of the Lord to Nephi as He prayed that the Savior would come into the world:

Lift up your heads and be of good cheer! Rejoice! The Lord has come into the world, He redeems us from our sins, and for that we have great reason to rejoice! I lied…one more scripture, Luke 2: 14

Because of Him, we can have and will have peace on this earth and in our life. In His way and time? Yes. But we will recieve it! Only in and through Him, who was born, who lived, died, and was resurrected. All this so that we can do the same and become, someday, as He is. And for that, we really do have such great reason to rejoice! Be of good cheer! This life is not the end! I’ll send you off with a reminder of my invitation:

Make an active effort each week, hey even each day if you can, to do something to lift another person and help them each day to feel of your love, the spirit of Christmas, and especially the light of Christ. It doesn’t have to be something massive, just reach out and serve, love, be a friend. We all need it! Anyways, its late by now, so I’ll send this along. I hope you all know how much I love you, always, and that I miss you all so much! Until next week…

Much much love,

Elder Crockett 🩷

Ya sabes 👇