Hey hey everybody!!
Que lo que! How’s everyone doing? Hope everyone has had a fantastic week out there, hope the weather is still great, and that Ohio State keeps on winning!
Welcome to my first P day Monday! Feels weird but also its going to be pretttty sweet, many more to come! It was a great week out here once more, we didn’t have too much stuff going on but I’ll go ahead and tell you all about it!
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– We did indeed have transfers, and Elder Nye left. But, I got Elder Wetzel!! We ward shared in my first ward so I already knew him, and I am so excited to be his companion! He works so hard and we have already seen a ton of miracles and its going to be faaantastic!
– On Wednesday we got to pick up a brand new missionary and he spent his first day with us! Elder Vasquez is a very tall and skinny dude from Colorado, and he spoke way better spanish than I did on my first day, it was tons of fun! We ate lots of burgers, members gave us a lot of gifts and he was especially hyped to see the pyramid outside our house.
– At transfers the Secretaries asked me to be in charge of getting and moving all the keys and the phone chips off the areas that were going to be whitewashed, which were 11. Carrying around and keeping track of 11 sets of keys and 11 SIM cards was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be, but the good news, most people were able to get into their house with all of their possessions with the correct keys
– On Thursday we were out contacting in the rain and met Rosa, and her little dog named George. Rosa was very happy to see that George did not try to eat us and didn’t even bark at us. We invited Rosa to church, and she said she is a recent member of a Christian congregation in Coacalco, an hour and some change to the north, and said she wasn’t interested, but that her daughter had been asking about our church. She didn’t remember her phone number, so we left her with a little pamphlet with our phone number on the back, the address to the church, and a lot of hope! Her daughter did in fact end up texting us, and convinced her mom to come to church with her, and the both came and lovedddd it! And they met the latest member of the bishopbric who lives in the same apartment building as them and were super excited about it!
– In memory of President Nelson 🥹, here is my favorite of his quotes that I’ve used a lot as a missionary, both for myself and for others. It’s something we all need to hear and a great reminder:
“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”
Now THAT is true. At the end of the day, this life is going to be filled with its fair share of bummers and let-downs. But, we don’t have to let all the outside junk impact our perspective. Joy comes from our focus, not from our circumstances. We can choose to find joy among the heartache! Anyways, I love you President Nelson ❤️
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I love the book of Jacob from the Book of Mormon, and I loved reading there a couple times this week! Jacob has a couple great life advice one-liners.
Now it’s taken me a minute to decide which one I wanted to use, but I decided on two, both from Jacob chapter 4. Here they are:
“Seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand.”
Now I think that one’s pretty straight forward. A lot of times we get answers or maybe get a little corrected by the Lord, but we choose to ignore it. The Lord is perfect. His will and plan has always been and will always be perfect. We are not here to council Him or justify or ‘change His mind’, we are here to do what He asks. That reminded me of one of my Dad’s favorite quotes, and forgive me that I don’t know who it’s actually from!
“If God created Man in His own image, then we have more than reciprocated.” [from Dad: Voltaire. Love you buddy]
Or something along those lines.
Anyways, anytime that council comes from the Lord, we should happily accept and eagerly follow. Don’t make God in your image, don’t council Him, don’t try to make deals or negotiate or justify, accept His will and do what you can to follow it! Moving on…
“Because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall.”
Now that’s a verse that I LOVE. Too often we look way beyond the mark, demand way too much of our selves (or especially of others) and forget to focus on the small and simple things, which as Alma teaches, bring to pass great things. Instead of putting crazy goals, demanding perfection, or overworking ourselves (ie, looking beyond the mark) what we should most often do is focus on the small, simple, and often basic things. Daily scripture, daily prayer, serve your neighbor, love God, go to church. Once you’ve nailed down the important stuff, then you can move on to bigger things. But don’t look beyond the mark and blind yourself from the important things! When we blind ourselves with too much stuff, then we will fall. Focus on the simple things, then go make your big plans happen. But focus on the simple first.
Anyways, I think I gave you plenty of invitations for today haha! I sure do hope you all know that I keep on praying for you and especially that I love you all! You guys are the best, so keep on keeping on. You got this!
Go have an amazing week, choose your focus to find your joy, and focus on the small and simple. Take the Lord’s council! It’ll be the best week yet!
Take care out there, I love you all!
Elder Crockett 🫶
