HOLA!!! como andan todos? todo bien? espero que si! bueno ahora en ingles. how is everyone?? i hope everyone had a wonderful week! its been pretty crazy down here in good ol uruguay! for those of you that dont know anything about soccer or sports.. the world cup has now begun!!! back home im sure you can get away without knowing this, but here you would have to live under a rock out in the campo with all the gauchos.. and even then you could still probably hear all the yelling and fireworks! haha it is absolutely insane. I LOVE IT!!!! they shut down all the shops and factories and the streets become deserted when there are games on. especially when uruguay plays! on friday when they were playing we were lucky enough to be over at the bishops house helping with a service project, having lunch and doing our laundry and so we got to watch a little bit of it. haha i have to admit, i didnt want to leave when it came the time! but a missionary´s got to do what a missionary´s got to do! it was awesome to even get to watch for a little bit. theyre playing again this week and im hoping we´ll be somewhere where we can watch a little bit. haha cuz its almost impossible to find during this time. vamos uruguay!! i heard that the usa tied with england! thats awesome too! go usa! hahah so fun.. i love it! you can talk to almost any man about futbol for hours.. its a good way to get in doors haha.
we found some pretty cool people this week! we decided to tract a street that we had never seen before and we found a bunch of cool people! there is an awesome older couple who had actually talked with the missionaries a year before and have already gone to church three times. we just need them to say yes and they can be baptized! i sure hope so! we are working with the son of alfredo and edelbis and his family. they are a young family and very interested. its just been hard to get them to come to church! we´re working on it though. their 6 year old son loves to say prayers. its really cool! the sosa family has been having some struggles lately. gabrielas family have all the sudden come out in opposition to the church. and have started to call juan a crazy person for being so faithful to the church. its no good! we are working on this as well! please pray for them!
oh and guess what!? i spoke in church yesterday! haha i know shocking.. i did it! i spoke for 10 min in spanish and everything! woo hoo! sorry im running out of time but also changes are coming up this next week. im pretty nervous! ahhh hahah oh well the lord will send me where im needed! i love you all! sorry so short!
love,
hermana amy crofts
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
6/7/10
Hola! Buen dia a todos! How are you all!? Thanks to all the fam for the wonderful emails that i recieved today! haha i loved each and every one of them. from alaska to tenessee sounds like all is well! things down here in uruguay are going well, and we having a lot of fun. last week we went to montevideo again, and this time we were able to actually wear our p-day clothes! haha it was sooo nice! i hope you all enjoy wearing pants everyday. i wish i could! but since the temple is closed there for cleaning right now we decided to take advantage of our time and go see a little bit of the city. i loved every second of it! montevideo is such a cool place! its very much like europe but dirtier. the architecture and everything is really pretty. we went and visited the college there that my comp had actually thought about doing a study abroad at about a year before her mission. before the thought had even entered her mind. im glad that shes here on the mish! we walked around a part of deo called ciudad vieja, its the nicer part of the city and it has a bunch of really cool older buildings and little artisan shops. and then we went out to the ocean and just sat there for a little bit enjoyed the ocean breeze and watched the old men fish. it was quite a fun day! (and even the dentist wasnt that bad :) haha)
anyways we got back to work on thursday and it was good to be back. we worked a lot with our recent converts this week and it was nice to see their progression. we had to work out a couple bumps in the road with a couple of them but other than that all is good. it was sooo cool on sunday because hector, juan and alfredo all recieved the priesthood. and they also all shared their testimonies with everyone! these men are so dedicated to the gospel! i love it! i kind of felt really proud of them. i know pride is bad but i just cant help it! haha
as for tracting.. its not my favorite thing to do. we havent had to much success with it lately, but all the references weve recieved havent been home when we go by to talk to them. any ideas from you ex missionaries? we´re kind of in a rut here. haha help! we started to teach english this friday! haha and its so fun! i really enjoy it... were hoping that it will help us bring more people to the church. and plus i get to speak english so woohoo!
well.. not much else has happened this week. sorry to be so boring haha but i can tell you that i am wearing mis matching socks right now and that our water heater has broken! BLAH! haha i hate cold showers especially when its cold! but the blessings really outweigh all of that! i love being here in the lords service! hope all is well and you are doing great like im sure you are.. i love you!!!!
love,
hermana amy crofts
ps.. i tried to send pictures but this computer is RIDICULOUS!! it took me like a day just to send this email. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Monday, May 31, 2010
5/31/10
Iceberg straight ahead!!! BRRR... Hi everyone, how are you all? a cold front has moved into paysandu and i am halfway frozen at this moment. I HATE THE COLD!! i miss warm weather, blue skies, and not seeing my breath everywhere i go(even in the house). it rained a ton this week.. haha im not very cut out for this kind of rain either. when it rains here the streets flood and nobody leaves their houses. but its a good thing for us because thats when we know that they are home and have to answer the door! we did a lot of contacting those days. and my feet are perma popsicles. im thinking about investing in some hardcore boots that dont let the water in. haha it was funny also, on our walk to church on sunday my umbrella almost took off out of my hand becuase it was sooo windy. i felt like mary poppins! i wish i had an umbrella like she does.. itd be soo much easier. anyways, this last week was pretty uneventful really haha but still a good one. we worked a lot trying to find new investigators because most of ours are now baptized. we didnt have very much luck and that mixed with the weather was kind of hard. but the cool thing is that we read alot from Jesus the Christ this week and i never ever realized how amazingly blessed we are. the more and more i learn about our lord and his eternal sacrifice the more and more i want to be a better person and missionary. i read specifically about the days leading up to and the day of his death. it blows my mind to read the things that he had to endure and the trials that he had to face. when he suffered in gethsemane even his best friends didnt stay awake to support him. he had to do it all by himself. what love, what sacrifice. he provides us such a great example of how to live and what we should seek to be. i also read about his resurrection and the grand miracle that that is. he lives and will always live. he loves and and he will always love! of this we can never doubt! i encourage all of you to study more about his life and who he was while he was on the earth. it will increase your desire to become better. i know it has done that for me.
i love seeing our converts these days. they are all doing so very well. the giosas are progressing in their knowledge of the gospel so much each week. he is going to recieve the priesthood soon along with juan sosa and hector. they are all showing their devotion and desire to serve the lord. they all showed up to church yesterday when it was horrible weather. it was really impressive. i love them all very much.
as for the spanish... haha i kind of feel like ive taken a step back this last week. its kind of frustrating. i think ive just been having a hard time concentrating and focusing all the time. my mind is tired. but im rededicating myself to the cause again. its all good im going to be more dilligent. i made brownies in the microwave this week, for the sosas but they turned out burrrrnt! haha it was really funny! haha we still ate them anyway. also... funny uruguay tradition. when it rains they always make these things called tortas fritas. which are like scones. they fry them in all types of stuff, oil, butter, grease! oh boy! ok so on saturday it was raining intensely and we went over to the sosas to learn how to make them. well i ended up eating like 4 there and being stuffed. we had a lesson right after with another family and lo and behold they made us more tortas fritas! i about died! 6 tortas fritas in one day... KILL ME! haha i never want to see another one again. but theres another storm on the way. oh man! i can do it! hahaha
we also learned about our investigators courtship last night... haha ok so the giosas have a 13 year age difference between them. when she was 16 and had not talked to one boy ever in her life she met alfredo. he was 29 and determined to be married before was thirty. he saw her one day and decided that she was the one he wanted. well back in the day, her parents were crazy strict and after she had talked to him once he decided to go to her house and ask for her hand in marriage. after one random conversation! well her parents consented and they began their six month courtship in which they could never ever be alone and he had to come to her house to see her 3 times every week for an hour and always with her parents present. they were not allowed alone until they had been married the second time in the church. hahah they were married first civilly but still not allowed alone. they did not even kiss! hahah and now they are like the coolest couple ever! i love them! haha just thought id share that. i got a kick out of it! also, i guess i dont talk in my sleep... i laugh! haha my comp told me this morning that i woke her up last night because i started giggling! haha i guess i just love my life right now or something! i love waking up laughing! well i love you all! sorry for the randomness of this email but hey i am what i am! keep up the good work! GO JAZZ!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!
love,
hermana amy crofts
pics...
1) see mom i do eat my vegatables and i am good at it!
2)edelbis at her baptism last week
3) match made in heaven.. the giosas and i during lunch
4) me and rocio after her baptism!
ps.. we had another baptism this week of a young man that we didnt work much with but awesome all the same! yay franco!
we also learned about our investigators courtship last night... haha ok so the giosas have a 13 year age difference between them. when she was 16 and had not talked to one boy ever in her life she met alfredo. he was 29 and determined to be married before was thirty. he saw her one day and decided that she was the one he wanted. well back in the day, her parents were crazy strict and after she had talked to him once he decided to go to her house and ask for her hand in marriage. after one random conversation! well her parents consented and they began their six month courtship in which they could never ever be alone and he had to come to her house to see her 3 times every week for an hour and always with her parents present. they were not allowed alone until they had been married the second time in the church. hahah they were married first civilly but still not allowed alone. they did not even kiss! hahah and now they are like the coolest couple ever! i love them! haha just thought id share that. i got a kick out of it! also, i guess i dont talk in my sleep... i laugh! haha my comp told me this morning that i woke her up last night because i started giggling! haha i guess i just love my life right now or something! i love waking up laughing! well i love you all! sorry for the randomness of this email but hey i am what i am! keep up the good work! GO JAZZ!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!
love,
hermana amy crofts
pics...
1) see mom i do eat my vegatables and i am good at it!
2)edelbis at her baptism last week
3) match made in heaven.. the giosas and i during lunch
4) me and rocio after her baptism!
ps.. we had another baptism this week of a young man that we didnt work much with but awesome all the same! yay franco!
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010
5/24/2010
Greetings from Uruguay!!! how is everyone? i hope all is well and you all are getting used to the nice warm weather! haha its starting to get really cold down here.. and i hate it! haha but its all good, im learning to really like my wool tights(whoever invented those was a genius!) so this last week was a really good one, because we are finally recovered completely and back to work! before now we were just taking it easy because my comp has been in pain from her tooth but its all good now and our shoulders are back to the wheel. we tried a lot this week to find some new people to work with and we found some really awesome new investigators that im pretty excited about. 2 of them are 2 ladies that we knocked their house and they were sooooo cool! im really excited for maria and luisa! haha i just wanted to give them a big giant hug when we were leaving! i think they really understand what we were teaching. they had both just gone through divorces so hopefully they can find some comfort in the gospel. that same day it was really cool because my comp got the feeling that we should knock a specific street and so we did.. we talked to a lady and came back the next day to teach her and then we came to know that she had talked to the missionaries before and that she and her boyfriend wanted to get married and baptized and asked if we could help!!! haha of course we can! so we are excited for them as well.. we just need to get them to church.
we also got to see a lot of our recent converts this week which is always my favorite thing to do. we went to the sosas one night to have family home evening with them haha and it was the cutest thing because when we were leaving to walk home, little valentina got so worried because she was afraid that we were going to be eaten by lions and tigers and bears! haha so as we were walking home we had to pretend to fight off the lions and tigers and bears that were trying to eat us! haha it was awesome! they are such a fun family and they have really grown in the gospel :) on saturday we tried to teach valentina how to be reverent in church because we have been having a problem with that. and she actually was a good girl this sunday! it was a miracle! on saturday also we had the baptism of edelbis giosa! she is the wife of the man that we first baptized here. she is amazing! i love her! for her baptism we sang a special number like we always do for baptisms but this time it was not so good! haha we had no time to practice before the baptism and so we just went there and sang and of course what happens? i started laughing halfway through the song! haha it was all i could do to get a hold of myself and finish the song! hahaha oh it was horrible! i felt so bad... i dont think im very cut out for singing in front of people. on sunday we got to eat lunch with the giosas and it was sooooo much fun! i LOVE them! haha it was just like being at home. she is an amazing cook and he is hilarious.. we have a lot of fun with them. my spanish is coming along too! im feeling more and more comfortable speaking.. its a miracle! oh and my comp got her dear jane letter this week! haha she took it like a champ.. im very proud of her. good thing i dont have one of those coming my way :) we`re not going to montevideo this week and so we were able to have a real p day! it was so fun! we played sock dodgeball and made apple pie... it was a blast! i love being a missionary! being able to teach the restoration so much this week has been a very big blessing for me and i feel like my testimony of joseph smith and the book of mormon has grown a lot! i love this work so much and im so glad that i can be an instrument in the lords hands!
sorry this email is kinda short but i just dont feel too much like writing today. just know that i love you all and i pray for you every night!
also friends!.. you can write me gmails to this address and they will print them off and give them to me. its super sweet and i love to get them! the address is...
urugoest@gmail.com and then just put my name in the subject line and they will give it to me.
id love to hear from you!!!!!
love you all!,
hermana amy crofts
we also got to see a lot of our recent converts this week which is always my favorite thing to do. we went to the sosas one night to have family home evening with them haha and it was the cutest thing because when we were leaving to walk home, little valentina got so worried because she was afraid that we were going to be eaten by lions and tigers and bears! haha so as we were walking home we had to pretend to fight off the lions and tigers and bears that were trying to eat us! haha it was awesome! they are such a fun family and they have really grown in the gospel :) on saturday we tried to teach valentina how to be reverent in church because we have been having a problem with that. and she actually was a good girl this sunday! it was a miracle! on saturday also we had the baptism of edelbis giosa! she is the wife of the man that we first baptized here. she is amazing! i love her! for her baptism we sang a special number like we always do for baptisms but this time it was not so good! haha we had no time to practice before the baptism and so we just went there and sang and of course what happens? i started laughing halfway through the song! haha it was all i could do to get a hold of myself and finish the song! hahaha oh it was horrible! i felt so bad... i dont think im very cut out for singing in front of people. on sunday we got to eat lunch with the giosas and it was sooooo much fun! i LOVE them! haha it was just like being at home. she is an amazing cook and he is hilarious.. we have a lot of fun with them. my spanish is coming along too! im feeling more and more comfortable speaking.. its a miracle! oh and my comp got her dear jane letter this week! haha she took it like a champ.. im very proud of her. good thing i dont have one of those coming my way :) we`re not going to montevideo this week and so we were able to have a real p day! it was so fun! we played sock dodgeball and made apple pie... it was a blast! i love being a missionary! being able to teach the restoration so much this week has been a very big blessing for me and i feel like my testimony of joseph smith and the book of mormon has grown a lot! i love this work so much and im so glad that i can be an instrument in the lords hands!
sorry this email is kinda short but i just dont feel too much like writing today. just know that i love you all and i pray for you every night!
also friends!.. you can write me gmails to this address and they will print them off and give them to me. its super sweet and i love to get them! the address is...
urugoest@gmail.com and then just put my name in the subject line and they will give it to me.
id love to hear from you!!!!!
love you all!,
hermana amy crofts
Monday, May 17, 2010
5/17/2010
HOLA!!! how is everyone!? first of all, i want to welcome my wonderful new little niece Anna Lynn Cope into the world! she was born on saturday and i couldnt be more thrilled. congratulations austin and laura! im so excited for you. well lets see... this week has been a pretty chill week but still pretty amazing! i was a little worried when we started out the week with the anniversary of our dear aunt carolyn´s death coming up and just everything but it went really well. i was able to have some really cool experiences and really feel a lot of comfort from the lord. as far as work wise we took it easy this week cuz poor hna ung was still coming off the drugs that she had to take for her root canal. im happy to tell you that she is pretty much a normal person!!! hooray! haha weve had some pretty good times together and i feel very blessed to have her as my companion (even when shes a crazy person) dont tell her i said that though... the good thing about all this is that we have been able to make some AMAZING meals in our humble little house. we made some pasta the other day that was to die for! holy cow we both thought that we had died and gone to heaven! who needs olive garden when you have your own two hands and a companion that is pro at cooking? haha so i love food alot now! ive probably gained like 5 or more pounds out here but dont worry they are pounds of happiness:). i cant help myself everything is just so good... and even when it isnt i end up eating too much of it anyway! i need a stop button! help me! haha but just like laura said.. the devil tempts the elders with the rules and he tempts the sisters with food! i believe it! one more food story.. last night we visited the giosas like we normally do on sundays and they gave us this bread/cake thing that was sooo goood! we each had three pieces at first and demolished those in like no time flat and so she brought 6 more pieces out and just guess how long those lasted? NADA! needless to say i love food and sometimes i use it so i dont have to talk.. my black little secret :) haha
we worked alot this week with the family of estela, the wonderful lady that we met my first day here. she has two granddaughters that we have been teaching who are 12 and 14. their families all live in this humble house and there isnt much order. its kind of like their hill billies... not many rules but they are still awesome! so we taught camila on tuesday about the law of chastity and how we need to take care of our bodies. we both thought hey that went really well but little did we know what was waiting for us at the next meeting. we showed up and were talking to estela, waiting for camila and angela, well they snuck around the corner and came to greet us. and boooommmm.... looky there right there on there lips they had decided to get lip rings! we COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! haha we looked at each other and did not know what to do! we were appalled! haha well to make a long story short by the end of the week we had them both in church without their lip rings! hahah the GOSPEL ALWAYS WINS! :)
this sunday we had the treat of listening to elder aidukaitis of the 70. he came to paysandu to change the stake presidency. he is amazing! if you can find talks by him and send them to me i would love that alot! oh and you should read them too. also, if you arent having family home evening please start! it is sooooo important!
so like i said before, this week is the anniversary of the death of my aunt carolyn. i had some really amazing experiences. we went to the temple on wednesday and i knew that she was right there with me. i felt her excitement for the steps in the gospel that she is about to take! i am sooo thankful for the temple and for the fact that families can and will live together forever! that through the gospel of jesus christ we can overcome death and live in a state of interminable happiness! oh how great is our god! how great is his mercy! i love him so much! there is a scripture that i absolutely love and that comforted me greatly on saturday when i was just trying to get through the day, alma 40 :11-12, 23. i know that my aunt is in a 'state of happiness which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where she is resting from all her troubles and cares'. also i found great comfort in this scripture as well, msh. 16:7-9 'the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.' 'the grave shall have no victory.' i know this to be true! i have felt the help of my aunt throughout this week especially! i am soo thankful for this.. i want everyone to know of the joy that comes from KNOWING that we can live forever in happiness with the ones that we love! i know without doubt that our savior loves us and that this is the true church of god! i LOVE IT! i love being a missionary!
i wrote a little poem during the free time that i had this week for carolyn..
who she was..
who was she
how can i help you see
a woman filled with laughter and grace
always had a smile on her face
instilled hope and faith in all
no mountain for her was ever too tall
she taught to dream and to believe
nothing is impossible for you to achieve
she loved everyone as best as she could
if there was anything she could do for you she would
a mother to many in need
she left a mark on my life in word and deed
and though she is gone to a different place
through our savior we will again see her face
and when we feel lost or tried
we must remember she is right by our side
we also had a little tea party in memory! it was awesome! we went to a members house and even had a tea set and everything. tender mercy :) i love tea right now alot.. and drink like 3 cups a day! dont worry its the approved kind. well ive gotta go but i love you all so much! thank you all for your examples and prayers. i am praying for you all daily :)
oh also.. they changed the address to the mission again :( it is:
hermana amy crofts
uruguay montevideo west mission
1167 Enrique Martinez
Montevideo Uruguay 11.800
USE IT!!!
ok love you! haha bye!
hermana amy crofts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
5/11/2010
Amy's email- amy.crofts@myldsmail.net
Amy's address-
Amy Michelle Crofts
Amy's address-
Amy Michelle Crofts
Uruguay Montevideo West Mission
agraciada 2893 #401
montevideo, uruguay 11.600
Hey everybody! hows it going? it was so good to talk to everyone on sunday. im not going to lie, it was really bittersweet. i loved every second of it though. you all sound like youre doing well which makes me very happy :) you have no idea. but hey... where are all the pictures that you promised me? im a little disappointed! haha just kidding.. but i really would like some soon ok? montevideo, uruguay 11.600
well lets see... this week has been a pretty good week! i guess first off i should tell you that we got changes last night and youll never guess where i am going!....... hahah IM STAYING HERE WITH HNA UNG! we are both very happy and really excited for this next six weeks. we are really hoping that things will start being a little more normal. i feel like we`ve been living in a tornado! never really know whats going to happen next but bring it on! come what may! last week, we went to montevideo again and went to the temple... which was awesome! and then we got the chance to hang out with hna peterson, the mission presidents wife. she is soooo amazing! she made us homemade food and just listened to us! i love her and im going to miss her when they leave this next change. but after we got home we worked a good full day on thursday and then friday, hna ung felt really sick so we stayed in all day. and then on saturday we had hectors baptism! hector is one of those people that you just know that we were led to. he was so ready to recieve the gospel and it really has taken root in his heart! his baptism went really well. almost everyone bore their testimonies and the spirit felt there was incredible. sunday i got to talk to you all and it was hard but very worth.. after we got off the phone we went out to a little party/asado at the sosa`s. we talked to a guy who was a drunk and he completely disrespected us. it wasnt cool at all. of course i didnt really know all that he said but it was lame. after that we went out contacting and talked to a lady that we had contacted before but that went really bad too. i was really grrr... i dont know just not happy! i hate it when people dont respect us and our message. needless to say the spirit was not at that lesson. but we ended the night well, we visited the giosas and eldelbis told us she wants to be baptized! YAY! shes awesome.. im really excited for her. yesterday we worked really hard. we had a lot of good lessons and i think my spanish was probably the best that its ever been! im so thankful for the help of the lord. he gives me courage to speak when i dont want to. but today was a really chill day. my comp hasnt felt well so we stayed in all day. haha so theres my week for you! sorry its not too eventful but it was nice to have a calm week after such an exciting week. the nice thing about us staying in is that i really get to delve into the scriptures! today i read all of 2 nephi and jacob. i love the book of mormon so much! i actually understood alot of those horrible isaiah chapters believe it or not.. im excited to really focus on them one of these days. i hope everyone is reading their scriptures daily! they are sooo important! i challenge everyone to read even if its a little bit each day! youll see a difference i promise.. and i can say this cuz im a missionary!
well i love you all very much! laura i hope everything goes well with the baby! ill be praying for you both all day... please send me pictures of her! im so excited for her to come into the world :) i wish i could be there for it. make sure you show her my picture ok??
love you all,
hermana crofts
ps... the church is true :) haha and GO JAZZ!!!
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Monday, May 3, 2010
5/3/10
Hi everyone!! wow is all that i can really say.. this last week has been one of the best of my life. i hope you all are doing well though and everyone is happy! im very excited to talk to you all this next week. i still havent gotten that package that you sent me yet but i really hope tomorrow itll be waiting for me at district meeting! i look forward to packages so much.. hint hint haha! but anyways, thank you for all that you send me i truly cherish it. i was wondering if you guys could send me a mini childrens primary song book in spanish... i find it is one of the best ways to entertain the kids and i love those songs too :) little valentina knows all the words to soy un hijo de dios and sings with us all the time. haha and sometimes shes been singing count your many blessings too haha its so cute! oh and maybe some more pepper in the grinder thing, peanut butter and little crystal light packets or something to help me drink more water haha. and whatever else you want to send me ill be more than delighted to love and cherish haha :)
anyways, to start out this crazy week we went to montevideo on monday night to go to the dentist for my comp. it was bad news, she has to get a root canal! its so sad, cuz shes in a lot of pain all the time and i just dont know how to help. i HATE those things! it could be even worse news because this means that she has to travel to montevideo 5 more times to get it operated on and everything and we have changes coming up in a week so who knows what will happen. they usually move people closer to `deo when they have medical problems. we both really really want to stay here though! paysandu is amazing! the good thing about going to the dentist though is that we got to go to the temple. i love the temple sooooooo much! i was in need of a recharge of my spiritual battery and that did the trick. we get to go back this week too! :) i did it all in spanish too... haha it was awesome.
we stayed over night in the hostels by the temple because we had hermanas conference the next day. it was a lot of fun! i got to meet all of the hermanas in my mission and they are all really awesome! we woke up and went to the mission home and hermana peterson the presidents wife made us these amazing french toast with bananas and delicious syrup. haha dont worry i had two huge slices and was miserably happy after! and then we went and had pres and the hermana talk to us. they are amazing! and then after that this lady came and told us what colors look best on us... it was pretty boring haha i found out i look best in autumn colors though! they gave us scarfs in our colors. that was pretty cool. after that we had lunch yummy tortilla soup and salsa! haha and then after that we had another meeting and then dinner which was oriental chicken salad! absolutely mmmm! haha i got to see my good friends hermana casebolt and hermana gardner again! i love them! after too much food and too much fun we came back to get ready for the next crazy couple of days.
thursday we spent alot of time working, getting baptism questions done and getting people prepared for their interviews. friday we had the sosa family wedding!! it was soooo much fun! we all made the trip out to algorta which is like 1 hour or so away. we had about 15 people there. well juan and gabriela finally tied the knot signed the papers and got pelted by rice as they were walking out of the courthouse! they were absolutely glowing. you should have seen it. haha during our journey back we had fun singing primary songs with valentina and antonella( the friend of the family that we gave the book of mormon to). we got back and hna ung and i both just felt so loved. that night we had a reception for them at the ward house. IT WAS A BLAST!!! the members from the ward decorated the place and made it look really nice. they have helped us soo much which is awesome because we really wanted to better the relationship between the missionaries and them. but we had a nice dinner and theee best cake ever!!! haha i shamefully tell you that i had two giant pieces.. and brought home two more for later... hahah oops i just couldnt help myself. but dont worry i danced most of the calories off! haha me and hna ung had a great old time dancing with all the kids! i think it was contageous too because most of the ward got up and let loose on the dance floor. it was sooooooo much fun!
saturday! the day we thought would never come came and it was sooo great! we had a really really good turn out for the baptism.and even had 6 investigators there to see it. the meeting was really spiritual and the kids were reverent for the most part. hna ung and i sang soy un hijo de dios in both english and spanish. when we went to have them baptized i think i felt about one ounce of what our heavenly father feels for these people and it consumed my whole self. i felt so much love and happiness for juan, gabriela, rocìo, norma, estela, and marìa noel it was amazing! each one of them has a very special place in my heart and i feel so extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to help them into the truth and the light of the gospel. i stand all amazed! sunday everyone was confirmed except for marìa noel because she got sick but next sunday for sure. we`re hoping to work with her boyfriend and help him follow her example and so they can share that together. by the end of sunday we both were tired beyond belief! its so cool to see the changes that have happened here though. my first sunday in church there was about 20 people maybe and now we have helped the ward grow by 50 percent and everyone is so much happier! the feeling here in paysandu is indescribable. and we have so much more going on. today we taught hector who is the husband of estela and also her grand daughter camilla. it was amazing because while we were teaching one of their family members came over and pretty much asked if she could be baptized too.. its wow! its amazing! so we will be working with camila and angela to be baptized together. hector is an awesome man. he bore his testimony to us today and it is so strong and heart felt. he has a really strong faith and love for our savior. i felt tingles after he had told us all the things he had been feeling and how much the gospel means to him. afterwards hna ung said to me, do you ever think our spirits can get tired from feeling the spirit so much? its totally the question for this week. i dont think so! i feel so edified! my spirit, my testimony and the love i have for this work and this gospel has grown by leaps and bounds this weeks! i love my life, i love paysandu and these people, i love the gospel and i love my savior! im so greatful to have the chance to be a missionary in the service of our lord. the gospel is true, this church is true and i know that we can all live with our heavenly father again in a state of neverending happiness! i love you all so much! more than you know! always remember that and always remember that everything is possible as long as we rely upon the rock which is our redeemer jesus christ!
quickly let me tell you about the pics
1. me and hna ung with our sweet new scarfs that took forever to get haha
2. juan and gabriela signing their marriage license thing
3. everyone who came to the wedding woohoo!
4. sosa fam.. haha this pic says it all!
5. cutting that delicious cake
6. DANCING!
7. more dancing
8. haha we had a lot of fun if you couldnt tell..
9. estela and hector! i love these two. they are who we found my first day here :)
10. marìa noel and her boyfriend
11. EVERYONE :)
12. sosa fam after baptism
well this letter is really long but i still have some important info for you concerning mothers day :) we will be expecting your call from 10 to 12. our number for our house (072)405024 and our cell number if we arent at home is (098)677468. i know the numbers are a little weird but they work. i need you to call me because i dont have a phone card. but yes there they are. im really excited to talk to you! katie and matt can call me too! i really want to talk to everyone if they can get together with john and court thatd be awesome too. i love you all soo much! talk to you soon :)
hermana amy michelle crofts
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Thursday, April 29, 2010
4/27/2010
Hey everyone!!
thank you all for your awesome emails... i loved them all! i miss you all very much and you are all in my thoughts and prayers constantly. this week, im feeling alot better and i feel like my body is finally getting used to uruguayan life... FINALLY!! its been pretty nice not being sick.
On saturday we had my very first baptism! hno giosa got baptized... it was thee coolest thing! we really wanted to make his day very special and so we made really nice programs and had refreshments and everything. he was so happy and i feel very blessed to be even a small part in helping him become a member of the true church of christ. he`s a great man and is going to make one heck of a leader. it took time for him to be sure of the gospel. he was very unsure at first but every time we visited him he seemed to accept what we had to say more and more :) I LOVE BAPTISMS!!
this week we worked alot with our investigators that we already had. we have alot right now! on tuesday morning we had a cita with maria noel and i dont know if ive told you this but she speaks english, and it is so nice to be able to actually teach her. we have been a little worried that she might not be living the law of chastity because she has a had a boyfriend for i think 3 years and so we taught her pretty strongly the law of chastity lesson. she responded really well and said that she was ready and pretty much already living it. it was a big sigh of relief for us. she is awesome! you really can see the light of the lord coming from her. she is going to make an amazing missionary. on wednsday we got to travel an hour from paysandu with the sosa family to get their wedding date! theyre getting married! and their wedding is this friday! AND they are all 3 getting baptized this saturday! this family is awesome. juan loves to talk and has known about the church for a while but it wasnt until hna ung and hna roach found them right before i got here that he got interested again. well he has come to church 7 times and he wanted to get baptized but he wasnt married. his wife gabriela is one of those people that follow through on their promises. she didnt want anything to do with the church at first but slowly she started listening and then she started coming to church. before she didnt want to get married but then after she started listening more she became more and more interested! yay! and now shes getting married and baptized. shes really cool! they have 3 kids.. rocio is 10 and she is very smart and has decided to be baptized even though most of her friends go to the catholic church and wanted her to come with them still, and then theres valentina who´s a little terror haha but sweet when she wants to be and walter who´s 1 who is a terror as well haha. they are a really good family. so when we went with them to get their date for their wedding they brought friends to be witnesses. there was a young girl whos friends with rocio and she really wanted to learn more about the gospel, so by the end of the day we gave her a book of mormon and set up an appointment to teach her and her mom more :) it was really cool! its so much easier to find people to teach through the people we already know. also, estela the lady that we met on my first day who is just super amazing brought her husband hector to church on sunday. we went to visit her this week and this time she had her grand daughter listen to us. her grand daughter loved the message and now she and hector have baptismal dates. we saw them today to go over the baptismal questions and estela was glowing and hector was really excited too. we havent worked alot with him but he already has a strong testimony of the church. i absolutely love that family.
WE HAVE 6 BAPTISMS ON SATURDAY AND A WEDDING!!! wooohoooooo!!! we didnt think that we would have that many though. because this last saturday we invited everyone to hno. giosas baptism and we were so sure that they were all going to come but none of them showed up! grrr... it was so frustrating. i was pretty let down! so sunday comes around and norma, estela and maria noel all needed 1 more time at church before they could get baptized. so we decided to go make sure that they would be at church. we stopped by estela first to get her, hector, and camila to come but we were told that they were sick or something by one of the many people that live at their house. we got to the chapel and no one showed. we wanted them all to be there also because hno giosa was being confirmed and the stake president was speaking. well, five minutes to nine and still noone had come. and so we went into room and we prayed. it was amazing what happened next, we walked out of the room and instantly we were met by one of our investigators we didnt think was coming and then the sosa´s came and then we went to sit down and estela and hector walked in! and after them, maria noel! and then during the prayer norma!! hahaha it was a miracle! they ALL came! the lord works miracles everyday, especially here in uruguay! but wow, it totally reaffirmed my testimony of prayer. i sincerely believe the lord listens to our prayers and longs to give us our righteous desires :)
this week is going to be really really crazy! we have the big baptism and a wedding to help plan and get ready and now my poor comp has to have dental work done and so we`re heading to montevideo a day early to get that done and wont be back until thursday morning. im getting tired already! haha but its going to be a really good week! i just really hope that we can get hna ung feeling better :) i dont know how to help and i feel so bad.. but shell be alright. please pray for her and for our investigators that this week will go by smoothly. well this email is super long and i dont know if it all makes sense but theres my life right now!
oh by the way we got a new address for the mission home its
agraciada 2893 #401
montevideo, uruguay 11.600
that means you should all write me now hahaha but seriously :)
i love you all and my next email will have details of calling home on mothers day wich im very excited about.
hermana amy crofts
pictures: 1) baptism of alfredo giosa :) by the bishop
2) us with hno bico our mission leader haha he´s hilarious!
3) us with norma.. shes getting baptized this saturday. she`s very sweet and shy but she loves the gospel
4) the salsa!! haha we´ve made a batch every week! thanks mom! its soooo good
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Monday, April 19, 2010
4/19/10
Hey fam and friends, another week has passed here in paysandú and it was a pretty crazy one. we had quite a bit happen this week. we came back from montevideo on monday. and wednsday we had a zone conference. it was my very first one and we had three other zones come into paysandú. it was awesome! we got to hear from the president and his wife and i got to see hermana gardner, the hermana i traveled from the states with who was my really good friend in the ccm with, and i got to meet alot of the other sisters! it was so fun! there are alot of amazing sisters out here! after the conference they all came over to our apartment and we all chilled and had a good time. im excited because next week we have the hermanas conference, that we only have once a year. haha i really got out into the field at just the right time! its going to be so fun! umm lets see we have been able to work alot with our investigators this week. they all are doing really well and seem to be really excited about the gospel which is so amazing to see. i love all of them so much! almost all of them have baptism dates! and yesterday we had 8 people in church!!! holy cow we almost couldnt believe it! almost all of our investigators were there and stayed for all the meetings. that like never happens! and estelas husband hector who hasnt showed too much interest came and loved it. he comitted to be baptized a week after estela! talk about miracles! another of our investigators, alfredo, who has been a little stuck in his ways is getting baptized this next week! oh its amazing! but maria noel has put her baptism off for another week. she´s a really busy person. oh but guess what we made? we totally made the salsa mom! and it was just like home! it was soooooo goood! mmm! and we made home made tortillas and had a little fiesta.. my comp really liked it! thanks for sending the recipes. ive been kind of training my companion in the mornings haha its been really fun! shes a really good sport.. we`re getting her ready for when she goes home in 4 months. haha lisa, my comp is going to china at the same time that you are.. what part are you going to again? can you explain it a little better? we had a service project on saturday where we cleaned up a school. it was pretty fun but i got pretty sick. i dont know whats been happening but its like my body doesnt want to adjust to life here. its been kind of a struggle but im doing better. the lord is blessing me with strength and its totally something not to be worried about. im being taken care of. well another week done and another week closer to the lord. i love this gospel so much! i love being a missionary! and im so happy i get to be part of these wonderful peoples lives! the gospel is amazing and life really is so much simpler when we focus on what really matters which is the gospel! i encourage everyone to set aside 5 minutes in the day to ponder on the things of the gospel and then share what you find with each other! it really helps you stay focused on what matters. i love you all very very much! until next week :)
love,
hermana crofts
love,
hermana crofts
Monday, April 12, 2010
4/12/2010
Hola mi gran familia!!! how are you all? how has the week gone for you? i hope youre all doing your best everyday and remembering how lucky we are to live where we are and have what we have. as for me, im here in montevideo for the day getting some medical stuff done for my visa or something. we left our cozy haha and disfunctional apartment in paysandu at 2 this morning.. sheesh am i ever tired! plus im a bit sickish with sinus stuff haha and my throat, i sound quite like a man. haha but its all good and im still alive :) well lets see, let me first tell you more about my dear trainer hna ung since mom asked about her. she`s absolutely amazing! we get along so very well! i am continually amazed at how much i learn from her everyday. she takes care of me haha and cooks for me too! she made me chinese food the other day and i kind of learned how to eat with chopsticks(its a work in progress). i wanted those recipes so that we could hopefully make some yummy home food and so that i can somehow return the favor to her. she has a really cool conversion story. she was baptized when she was 8 with her brothers but they werent really active in the church. so she was living life not really interested in the church but then she went and studied in spain and she got into the church. one year before she decided to serve a mission she got active and she has so many cool and amazing experiences that i wish i could share with you all but i dont have much time. just know that i absolutely love and respect her and the great decision that she made to bless the people of uruguay with her spirit. her family is seeing the blessings as most of them are coming back to the church and getting active again. its pretty awesome! we have a really fun time as companions. well lets see what else happened this week? we worked really really hard! haha by yesterday we were both so warn out that we crashed.. haha i love knowing that i tried my hardest, it provides really GOOD SLEEP! during p day yesterday, actually right after i emailed you all we went and got our guilty pleasure of ice cream and on our way back to the bus bumped into an investigator that had dropped the missionaries before i got here. she is awesome! her name is maria noel and shes about 24 and she speaks english and just radiates the love of god. so we talked with her and she seemed really excited to see us and asked if we could meet with her and talk about the gospel. we were both ecstatic at the prospect that she might be interested in the gospel again. so we called her later on in the week and found out that her doubt was about tithing. we met with her on saturday and gave her a good lesson on why tithing is important, she totally understood it but she still had one more question... how could she afford to pay to GO ON A MISSION!!! hahaha imagine our great surprise! oh my heck.. it was so awesome! she has now committed to be baptized and to work on preparing to go on a mission. i honestly feel so lucky to be in these great peoples lives and experience these things with them. man, it`s overwhelming! we have continued working with our other investigators and theyre doing well except norma and estela did not come to church yesterday. we were so bummed because that means they cant be baptized on the 24th grr... oh well though we will give them a guilt trip and hopefully theyll come around. the work is going strong here! the lord loves these people and so do i.. haha and i have to admit slowly and slowly im getting to like spanish! haha its so hard though.. i still blush hard core every time i speak. BLAH! haha im working on it though. i love this place, i even love having a toilet that doesnt work and getting bit on the bridge of my nose and getting runs in my nylons. what makes this all possible is our dear savior jesus christ and his amazing sacrifice for us! our heavenly father has provided a way for everyone to be truly happy! how can we not glory in our lord? when all that surrounds us reminds us and speaks of his goodness. wow what a great life it is to be in the service! i miss you all very much! i hope you`re all doing well. i think about you everyday with so much love and fondness. im so thankful to have the amazing examples and support that i have! you will never know how much it means to me :) i love you! ps here are a few pics for you of the first couple weeks. please enjoy! keep sending me your awesome letters and if you see my friends tell them that they HAVE to write me! or else! that goes for sam too... cousin! haha well i again i love you all!
lesquiero muchisimo!
hermana amy crofts
lesquiero muchisimo!
hermana amy crofts
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Monday, April 5, 2010
4/05/10
Hi family and friends! how are you all doing? from the emails i recieved it sounds like everyone had a great easter and the kids kept everyone really busy. haha oh how i wished i couldve been there with you all. it was a very different experience for me to not be with the family for conference. but its veen so awesome! i love it here! my trainers name is hermana ung and shes from payson utah and has a really cool story and great desire to serve. she is absolutely awesome and i count myself very lucky to have her as my mom. haha and even though we´re not exactly the same height like 5´2 we have had a lot of fun together here so far. i learn so much from her everyday. she has like 4 months left here on the mission. pretty crazy stuff! im hoping i get another change with her.
but wow! im a real missionary now... haha it hits me at different moments everyday. i keep thinking, is this real? am i really in uruguay teaching the gospel? haha i am! and i love it!! its only been like 5 days here and i cant get enough of it. i feel so very fortunate to be here and in the lords service. we had some great success this week. i came here and they had been working with some good promising investigators so i was really excited. there is a lady named norma who will be getting baptized at the end of april and she actually came to 3 out of the 4 sessions of conference which was amazing. and then the family sosa who we are working on. there are 5 in their family and the dad and his 10 year old daughter are going to get baptized but his wife doesnt have a date yet but we are sure shell be baptized the same day as her family. we are working on getting them married. juan likes to talk alot and i dont think he quite understands that i have like no clue whats going on becuase he just keeps talking! hahaha or maybe he does know that. something really awesome happened to us on my first day. we were out going to visit one of the less actives and on the way there i waved to this family who was on the side of the road just drinking matte and i felt like hmm i think we might need to talk to them. but i didnt say anything. on the way back we passed by them again and i got that same feeling and then basically we went and talked to them, we taught them the restoration and they were really receptive. the lord guided us to estela, she is an older lady who has such a righteous desire to do the lords will. we taught her the first lesson and then the next day we went back and taught her the plan. she accepted the invitation to baptism and she will be baptized at the end of the month too! i cant believe it! you shoulda seen me right after.. i was so giddy with excitement! im convinced that the lord led us to her because we have been completely obedient, and dilligent in our labors.
other than these amazing things, im still trying to get used to life here. its very different than im used to obviously. and all the spanish has been pretty overwhelming. im having a hard time getting up the nerve to speak and not be scared. its really tough. but my companion helps me so much and step by step my fear will disappear im sure haha or at least i hope! our apartment is so crazy... haha we have a toilet that doesnt flush and our whole bathroom is a shower. we cook our food on a gas burner and we wash our clothes by hand! hahaha wow... it sounds so funny when i say it out loud. im getting used to this though! its not too bad.
conference was absolutely amazing wasnt it? so many talks about teaching and protecting the home! im so glad that they spoke so much about this because i truly think that satan is trying especially hard to tempt us and lead us astray. i want everyone to always try their best to be in an environment that you know the lord would be happy with. live your life to please him and not the world! i love elder hollands talk. he speaks with so much feeling! we got to watch the talks in english thankfully because there are about 18 other english missionaries here. we are the only sisters though. if you didnt get to watch the talks please make sure to read them online! i wish i could!
i love this work. i feel like an instrument in the lords hands! i know that he loves these people so much because i can feel some of that love he has for them. i truly know that he is in all things good. thomas s monson is a prophet of god. joseph smith was a true prophet and saw god and jesus christ! i know that we can live with god and our family forever because christ loves us so much and engraved us on the palms of his hands. he is the sunrise and sunset. he is all! and he lives! i know this without any doubt in my heart or mind! do good! do as he would! love as he loves and live as he lived. i love you all so very much!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
3/25/10
Como estan mi familia!? this is my very last p day here at the ccm.. i cannot believe it! i have had such a great time here and ive loved every minute of it( haha well almost). but anyways, how are you all? how is life back home? im guessing you all are doing well? i´d really like to know.. so write me! haha, this week has been good for the most part. im really excited to leave and get out into the field. we had proselytismo this last week and i was really scared about it because they decided to put me in a trio with hna rodriguez and hna smith. one who knows only spanish and the other who knows only english. the night before i prayed for a solid 15 minutes for help from the Lord becuase i was so worried about it. and the Lord blessed us that we were able to have an amazing day! the spirit was with us the whole day and even though we were lost for most of the day we were able to have some amazing contacts. there was one guy in particular named gabriel who i think might just want to be baptized. it was a great experience. im so thankful that it turned out the way that it did. we´ve had some really good meetings here in the last week, we had a member of the seventy come talk to us, his name is Elder Marcos Aidukaitus he´s from brazil but he speaks english and spanish. he gave us an awesome talk on the kingdoms of glory. and then today we had a 3 and a half hour long meeting on the apostasy! it was crazy! but so informative.. im sure it wouldve been better in english haha but it was still really good. ive got four more days left! AHHHH!! im going to miss this place. argentina is such a great country. im sure uruguay is too! im hoping that we get to go to the temple when we get there because the temple just across the street is completely torn up. ill send pics on monday.
ive learned how to lead music katie! hahah are you still the leader? it took me a while but ive caught on to it. my roomate is crazy! haha hna ochoa speaks a little bit of english and she has told me that she wants to eat my eyes and fingers for candy. haha i kinda believe her. she also has a big giant picture of michael j fox in her closet! she LOVES him! hahahaha its soooooooo funny! ill send you a picture on monday of that too... i get to get back on on monday so please write!!! PLEASE!!!
ive learned how to lead music katie! hahah are you still the leader? it took me a while but ive caught on to it. my roomate is crazy! haha hna ochoa speaks a little bit of english and she has told me that she wants to eat my eyes and fingers for candy. haha i kinda believe her. she also has a big giant picture of michael j fox in her closet! she LOVES him! hahahaha its soooooooo funny! ill send you a picture on monday of that too... i get to get back on on monday so please write!!! PLEASE!!!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
3/18/10
Greetings from Argentina! Another week down and one more p-day here at the ccm left.. i honestly cannot believe it! in two weeks from now i will be getting to my first area and meeting my trainer.. haha good thing its on april fools day. woohoo! im thinkin about maybe trying to play a joke on her. any ideas!? i want some good suggestions por favor. how are you all? thanks so much for your emails and letters they are so invaluable to me. i love you all so much! and miss you more than you know! i hope everyones week was good. mine was absoluteley great! i have been very blessed by the Lord this week. as you all know, we got a new group here last week and it has been very different. i was really quite worried when they came that i was going to hate it but the Lord has truly helped me! my new companion is from uruguay and she is very sweet, she has a very strong testimony but she is also very quiet. the other two sisters in my room are from argentina and are both very nice! while i have been here i havent been speaking as much spanish as i should and ive had a hard time speaking. i can understand a lot but when it ever came to talking i just wouldnt because i was scared that i would make a mistake, muy triste. on this last saturday i went into a latino district for the day because there were no other sisters that were here that could go out proselyting. it was crazy! i had to focus so hard! and even then i didnt really quite understand everything that was being said and then it came to teaching with my companion oohh boy was that hard! pretty soon she took over most of the teaching and i just added in when i could. it was hard for the both of us. i prayed alot that day for help and i could feel it but i was very happy when my district came back and i could be with them again. on sunday i got to talking to one of the new north americans hermana smith who is actually from st. george and wh i knew before my mission. we got into a great gospel discussion and after i decided that i would pray for help from the Lord so that i will be ready to leave when the time comes. it was amazing the answer i recieved back, i had the feeling that i should write down all of my goals and make myself a mini mission statement of what i want to accomplish everyday. i have it hanging above my bed and i read it everyday now! it has helped me so much with my attitude and my spanish! on monday i had the best day here yet! i spoke amazing spanish.. its starting to really click for me! i cant believe it but the Lord has blessed me immensely! i honestly cant tell you how much i have felt him in my life during my time here. especially this last week its like everyday i grow closer and closer with him and i can feel him always.
there are two new north american sisters here that i have so much fun with! we just laugh and laugh, im convinced that they are halfway crazy.... hahah just exactly what i needed! i really love it! i dont get to see them much but its so great whenever we´re together. we help each other alot. haha one of my roomates speaks a little bit of spanish which i found out the other day when she all the sudden told me that i was going to die! hahaha and then the other day she held up her fist and said i have a present for you! hahaha im watchin my back these days! hahah its funny! i love all the teachers and people who work here.. we all have our inside jokes.. its so awesome! hna george the presidents wife pulled me aside the other day and gave me a huge compliment. she said that everyone appreciates how modest and loving i am and that she considers me to be the example to all of the sisters... holy moley who´d have thought! it was crazy to hear that. but i have to go i love you all so much! keep writing PLEASE!!!!!!! i love you!
hna crofts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
3/11/10
Hola hola hola! Oh my dear family, how are you all? my dear friends, where the heck are you? you all have disappeared on me... please reappear and write your missionary! haha so... for the last two days i have been the only hermana here. it has been awesome! not gonna lie i love being able to get done with class and immediately go to sleep. it was heaven. we also get really good food when the groups are changing. mmm mmm mmm! but now the new group is here and yikes there are a lot of people! i now have a new companion.... and she is a latina. she only speaks spanish and i dont have any clue what shes saying most of the time. oh boy! its insane! also all of my roomates are latina and speak only spanish haha i am definitely being prepared for the field. its crazy to think that i only have two and a half weeks left here and then ill be off to good ol uruguay! i really cant wait!.. so because my companion is latina they have been talking about moving me up and putting me in a latino district. so instead of me with a bunch of american elders it would be me with all latinos having all my lessons and church in spanish! i honestly dont know how i feel about it.. im scared out of my mind but i also know that if i do this than i will learn so much faster! i guess we will see what happens.. whatever comes its all good! im just happy to be in the service of God.
so from the last time i wrote much has happened obviously. proselitismo this last week was great! it was my last time with hna kleinman and we had a good time! its amazing how much we had progressed from that first time we went out! we were able to carry on full conversations about the gospel. we clapped doors and had a lot of success. i am going to miss her a lot. while we were out it seemed like it was only men that wanted to listen to us. haha i dont know why but 20 of the 21 contacts we had were with guys. i have now been proposed to 3 times haha there was even one time when a guy was driving his car down the street and he turned around tried to say something to us and then parked his car just to profess his love... i dont get it! haha i think its hilarious! we told him to come to church and he said are you coming i said no and he didnt listen to great to our message after that so we left haha! i sincerely love the children down here.. they are so precious! we saw twins who were almost as cute as my nieces and nephews. the more and more i go out to proselitismo the more and more i realize that i can do this! i can speak spanish and i can bring souls unto christ! its so awesome!
now some good news to all who care haha i finally shaved my legs!! yes, hna kleinman and i waited until her last day to finally shave all our amazing hair off our legs haha.. i have pictures to show but i cant send them yet. i wish i could but they have a rule here that you cant send pics til your last day. but dont worry i will! i wish you could all see some of the funny things they do here in the ccm, every third thursday the elders get a visit from a brother we fondly call edward scissorhands! haha he cuts there hair just like edward scissorhands would except he does a pretty horrible job and the elders are left with uneven hair and a humbled ego hahah i love it! thank goodness im a sister! the elders also have whats called corbata fea which is like ugly tie day haha! they all pick ties out of a backpack and wear them the next day. there are some really really ugly ones! one was actually once a pillow hahah! things are good here! the spirit is strong and the language is coming.. thank you all for your great emails! i would love a letter once and a while though. in like a week i would that you guys send stuff to my actual mission address and not here cuz ill be gone!! yahoo! i love you all and hope your all doing well! remember that god loves you!
love you always,
hermana amy crofts
Saturday, March 6, 2010
3/4/2010
Hola mi familia!!
How are you all doing? I´ve been thinking about everyone a lot this week. It sounds like everything is going well! We got the devastating news about Chile this Saturday. I guess some of the elders felt the quake.. I didnt. I had no idea anything even happened. We have some chilean missionaries here and it was a pretty weary couple of hours when they were trying to find out whether or not their families were okay or not. it turns out no one lost anybody which shows how much the Lord is aware of his missionaries. i guess that one of the mission presidents in chile had an impression that something like this was going to happen and he was able to prepare the missionaries in the area. im sure there is probably something about it in the news. crazy that so many natural disasters have been occurring so frequently!
well this week has been rather interesting. I was somehow hit by a train of bad luck. on saturday during prosletismo i got really sick and we had to picked up about two hours in. it was not fun! there has been a bug or something going around all the north american sisters were sick. i was feeling rather bad that we couldnt be out proselyting when hermana george, the ccm presidents wife, had all the north american sisters come into their apartment and watch a movie. she wanted to make sure that we didnt feel guilty. she is such an amazingly sweet lady! we watched a movie called "i am david", it was really good and i reccomend that everyone should see it. its about the holocaust, she said she found it at deseret book. anyways so i was sick for 3 days out of this week but still went to class and everything and then i somehow had half of my big toenail fall off! dont ask me how, it just fell off! its pretty gross looking and just adds to how great my legs and toes look haha! oh and to cap it all off, i took a nap one day during lunch and after i woke up and used the bathroom i somehow ran head on into a door... i know i know pretty amazing huh? so i now have somewhat of a large goose egg on my eyebrow! i am now wearing my good luck necklace everyday and i havent run into a problem or a door since!
my companion and the group we have been here with the longest is leaving in 5 days now.. its really sad! and now that means that we will be the 6 weekers and like the seniors in high school. pretty hard to imagine i only have 3 more weeks here. (im pretty happy we only have three weeeks left cuz im going crazy). i am still trying to survive being with elders all day everyday! its hard somedays i want to kick them really bad.. i can do it though! theyre not all that bad. ive actually grown really fond of them but i can only take so much of them everyday. our teachers are all from here and now all our classes are being taught in spanish.. i never realized how much i love english! haha but the lord truly increases our understanding when we try our hardest. i love you all so much! please keep writing! dont forget.. ok? here is a little bit of my testimony in spanish.. haha errors and all.
yo se que la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias es la iglesia verdadera! y que jose smith fue un profeta y vio jesucristo y dios. mediante jose smith el evangelio de jesucristo fue restaurado. dios nos ama mucha y quiere nosotros a regresar con el. yo se podemos traer almas a traves sus ejemplos. le amo el evangelio de jesucristo y yo testifico que podemos hacer todas las cosas con Dios ayuda!
le amo mucho!
hermana amy crofts
ps.. im so excited for that package! YAY!!!!
How are you all doing? I´ve been thinking about everyone a lot this week. It sounds like everything is going well! We got the devastating news about Chile this Saturday. I guess some of the elders felt the quake.. I didnt. I had no idea anything even happened. We have some chilean missionaries here and it was a pretty weary couple of hours when they were trying to find out whether or not their families were okay or not. it turns out no one lost anybody which shows how much the Lord is aware of his missionaries. i guess that one of the mission presidents in chile had an impression that something like this was going to happen and he was able to prepare the missionaries in the area. im sure there is probably something about it in the news. crazy that so many natural disasters have been occurring so frequently!
well this week has been rather interesting. I was somehow hit by a train of bad luck. on saturday during prosletismo i got really sick and we had to picked up about two hours in. it was not fun! there has been a bug or something going around all the north american sisters were sick. i was feeling rather bad that we couldnt be out proselyting when hermana george, the ccm presidents wife, had all the north american sisters come into their apartment and watch a movie. she wanted to make sure that we didnt feel guilty. she is such an amazingly sweet lady! we watched a movie called "i am david", it was really good and i reccomend that everyone should see it. its about the holocaust, she said she found it at deseret book. anyways so i was sick for 3 days out of this week but still went to class and everything and then i somehow had half of my big toenail fall off! dont ask me how, it just fell off! its pretty gross looking and just adds to how great my legs and toes look haha! oh and to cap it all off, i took a nap one day during lunch and after i woke up and used the bathroom i somehow ran head on into a door... i know i know pretty amazing huh? so i now have somewhat of a large goose egg on my eyebrow! i am now wearing my good luck necklace everyday and i havent run into a problem or a door since!
my companion and the group we have been here with the longest is leaving in 5 days now.. its really sad! and now that means that we will be the 6 weekers and like the seniors in high school. pretty hard to imagine i only have 3 more weeks here. (im pretty happy we only have three weeeks left cuz im going crazy). i am still trying to survive being with elders all day everyday! its hard somedays i want to kick them really bad.. i can do it though! theyre not all that bad. ive actually grown really fond of them but i can only take so much of them everyday. our teachers are all from here and now all our classes are being taught in spanish.. i never realized how much i love english! haha but the lord truly increases our understanding when we try our hardest. i love you all so much! please keep writing! dont forget.. ok? here is a little bit of my testimony in spanish.. haha errors and all.
yo se que la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias es la iglesia verdadera! y que jose smith fue un profeta y vio jesucristo y dios. mediante jose smith el evangelio de jesucristo fue restaurado. dios nos ama mucha y quiere nosotros a regresar con el. yo se podemos traer almas a traves sus ejemplos. le amo el evangelio de jesucristo y yo testifico que podemos hacer todas las cosas con Dios ayuda!
le amo mucho!
hermana amy crofts
ps.. im so excited for that package! YAY!!!!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
2/25/2010
Greetings from Argentina!!!
How is everyone this week? how are the olympics? I really enjoyed the letters and emails i recieved today and yesterday.. i love the updates, the inspirational thoughts and most of all just hearing from you guys! i love you all so very much.. you have no idea :) so anyways, i have now been wearing a skirt everyday for four weeks now.. who´d a thought i coulda made it that long. haha and secretly im getting used to it and liking it. i know i know... im shocked too! haha you should see my legs.. i have mosquito bites ALL over them and dont worry i havent bothered to shave my legs since ive been here. you probably couldnt tell them apart from the elders legs! my companion and i have decided not to shave until she leaves in 2 weeks.. oh sad day!!! i really love my companion she makes me laugh so hard everyday.. dont worry im still definitely not as serious as i probably could be but i think the Lord is okay with that. It has rained so much here in the last week. i cant believe the ccm isnt under water! i almost went crazy one day because i didnt get to go outside and play ultimate frisbee all is well though the sun is back. time is flying by!
the language is coming! this last week i feel like i learned so so much. i have become totally enveloped into this glorious work! i feel so extremely blessed to be here right now and have the opportunity everyday to better myself. i have started to read the book of mormon in spanish and i understand most of what it says! i can´t wait until when i can understand everything completely.. slowly but surely it´ll come. prosletismo was great this last saturday! my companion and i were able to have quite a bit of success which was awesome because i was thinking it might turn out really bad.. but my doubts quickly vanished! the people here are so very nice and genuine. i love how family based they are.. every saturday i see famillies out in the streets. its how it should be! we taught two guys that seemed pretty interested. we gave them books of mormon.. i hope they read them. we are getting a new area this saturday.. its going to be interesting!
so who wants to hear a funny joke courtesy of one of the elders from canada in my district.. probably he and my comp make me laugh the most here but anyways, why did the kid fall of the bicycle? haha because someone threw a refrigerator at him! haha dont know why its so funny but this week has been great!
personal study time is my favorite time of the day and this past week i have been doing a lot of thinking and i want to share with you how i want my mission to be. this scripture is found in helaman 10:4-5 it says Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.
This scripture has now become my mission statement. i want to unwearyingly declare the word, have no fear, not seek my own life but his will, and keep his commandments(or be 100% obedient). I KNOW if i do these things that the lord will bless me forever!! i love this gospel so much, my testimony has grown by leaps and bounds since i have been here! i could not be happier because i am in the service of Him who made me and whom i owe my whole life to!
I love you all so much!!! Thank you for your examples! Im praying for you all!
Hermana Crofts
How is everyone this week? how are the olympics? I really enjoyed the letters and emails i recieved today and yesterday.. i love the updates, the inspirational thoughts and most of all just hearing from you guys! i love you all so very much.. you have no idea :) so anyways, i have now been wearing a skirt everyday for four weeks now.. who´d a thought i coulda made it that long. haha and secretly im getting used to it and liking it. i know i know... im shocked too! haha you should see my legs.. i have mosquito bites ALL over them and dont worry i havent bothered to shave my legs since ive been here. you probably couldnt tell them apart from the elders legs! my companion and i have decided not to shave until she leaves in 2 weeks.. oh sad day!!! i really love my companion she makes me laugh so hard everyday.. dont worry im still definitely not as serious as i probably could be but i think the Lord is okay with that. It has rained so much here in the last week. i cant believe the ccm isnt under water! i almost went crazy one day because i didnt get to go outside and play ultimate frisbee all is well though the sun is back. time is flying by!
the language is coming! this last week i feel like i learned so so much. i have become totally enveloped into this glorious work! i feel so extremely blessed to be here right now and have the opportunity everyday to better myself. i have started to read the book of mormon in spanish and i understand most of what it says! i can´t wait until when i can understand everything completely.. slowly but surely it´ll come. prosletismo was great this last saturday! my companion and i were able to have quite a bit of success which was awesome because i was thinking it might turn out really bad.. but my doubts quickly vanished! the people here are so very nice and genuine. i love how family based they are.. every saturday i see famillies out in the streets. its how it should be! we taught two guys that seemed pretty interested. we gave them books of mormon.. i hope they read them. we are getting a new area this saturday.. its going to be interesting!
so who wants to hear a funny joke courtesy of one of the elders from canada in my district.. probably he and my comp make me laugh the most here but anyways, why did the kid fall of the bicycle? haha because someone threw a refrigerator at him! haha dont know why its so funny but this week has been great!
personal study time is my favorite time of the day and this past week i have been doing a lot of thinking and i want to share with you how i want my mission to be. this scripture is found in helaman 10:4-5 it says Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.
This scripture has now become my mission statement. i want to unwearyingly declare the word, have no fear, not seek my own life but his will, and keep his commandments(or be 100% obedient). I KNOW if i do these things that the lord will bless me forever!! i love this gospel so much, my testimony has grown by leaps and bounds since i have been here! i could not be happier because i am in the service of Him who made me and whom i owe my whole life to!
I love you all so much!!! Thank you for your examples! Im praying for you all!
Hermana Crofts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
2/18/10
Wow!! I cant believe another week has gone by already! This week was quite the week. so much has happened this week.. its been trying, its been wonderful, its been sad, its been funny. I never knew i could experience so many emotions in one week! well anyways, thank you for the amazing valentines package that you sent. i absolutely absolutely loved it! you have no idea! thank you for the cards, the pictures and a special thanks to lydia for the amazing necklace and pop rocks.. i love you! sounds like you all had a great time.. bbq at the park with games? not fair! but wow.. tommy is learning english just about as fast as im learning spanish it seems like. la, i loved those pics you sent and the letter thank you very much.. im going to really try to apply that talk to my life. well ok so here is what happened to me this week... on saturday i went to prosletysmo but instead of with my regular companion hermana kleinman i went with hermanas gardner and sepulveda. hna sepulveda is latin and hna gardner is freakishly smart and knows alot of spanish so... haha it was really a great experience! but it was also one of the most humbling moments in my life. this time was much different from last time. the hnas are very hard workers and i learned so much from them. hna gardner is like thee most courageous and determined person ever! every single person that we passed she talked to and when we knocked or clapped doors she made sure to do it twice if they didnt answer at first! but i felt so inadequate out there compared to these amazing missionaries. they would start teaching in spanish and i would stand there and try to think of what words were... i sincerely wanted to teach just like them but i just cant do that yet. so most of the time i just stood there and tried to make it seem like i knew what was going on. we did have so awesome expericences though.. we met a family on the street and hna gardner and hna sepulveda started to teach and they seemed really interested. they taught them the whole first lesson and i just played with the kids.. but at the end of the lesson i was able to bear my simple plain testimony but with such a power! i knew it affected them for the best! im so grateful that the lord gave me the opportunity to share with them the things within my heart! it is exactly what i wanted and needed at that time. also there was a time where i thought that this young kid was mocking us while we were teaching and i was able to bear my testimony with authority to him.. he wasnt mocking us it turns out but i think it mightve been exactly what he needed to hear... at the end of that day i was feeling down and very humbled because my spanish is not very good and then i came across the scripture that austin wrote down for me in ether 12:22-28.. it was exaclty what i needed to hear at that moment. thank you thank you austin! i know the lord will help me but i needed to be humbled first... i love that i could have this experience and grow from it. later on in the week the first three week group left. it was really sad.. its so funny how close you can become with a group of people in 3 weeks. i especially loved the hermanas! i really hope i get to be companions with hna gardner out in the field.. it would be so amazingly fun! im trying my best and working really hard on my spanish.. pray for me and my spanish! ill need it haha anyways mom youre going to be getting a few calls from hna. gardners sister and hna. kleinmans mom. hna gardner is wondering about some of my skirts.. and hna. kleinmans mom is coming to st. george, you guys should do something! please keep sending me letters or emails.. turns out i can print emails off. i love this gospel! i know the Lord lives and that through him everything is possible! i can even make a difference with as much spanish as i know.. i love you all so so much!
love,
Hermana Crofts
ps... donde está mi cartas???
love,
Hermana Crofts
ps... donde está mi cartas???
Thursday, February 11, 2010
2/11/10
Hi everyone!!! wow! thank you all so much for all your letters... you have no idea
how much they´ve brightened my day! for the future tho could you send me things
through dearelder.com becuase i dont have very much time to read them on here and i
want to be able to have them and read them whenever i want to. we only get 30 minutes
every thursday to email. but we have like 3 hours to write letters so if you could
please use dearelder. thanks for setting up a new email address for me.. that will be
very helpful. well this week has been crazy! saturday was a very humbling experience...
we went out into the middle of nowhere in buenos aires
said theyd come pick us up in 7 hours. everything is soooooo different here! men dont
wear shirts and women decide not to wear bras.. dont ask me why! and to avoid us they
do crazy things like pick their nose or run into there house or... try to sweep us
away with a broom. not to mention they would sick their dogs on us sometimes. dogs
here equal no bueno! but we were able to talk to a couple of people and set up
appts for this saturday! please pray for me and hna kleinman to have the gift of
tongues we will need it! i love the feeling of the spirit here.. it is in everything!
it has been hard here but it has been amazing as well. the lord has comforted me in
my trials and i am trying to maintain a happy positive attitude! its not too hard to
do though... i LOVE this gospel my testimony grows everyday times ten. i wish my
spanish would do that too haha to practice i always try to talk to the latino
missionaries. there are two sisters across the hall that i like to joke with...
it involves alot of charades but i get my point across. this saturday my goal is to
go out proselyting and not be scared to talk.. because it hit me this week how
every person i talk to this is my opportunity to change their lives and give them
the happiness and joy i feel everyday. who cares about formalities and what they
think! this is what God wants so they better just listen! i have gotten sick a
couple times from the food but its ok... i survived. everyone here is very nice and
i love my companion even though i hardly ever get to see her. I will try to write
more next week! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!
Hermana Crofts
ps.. keep those letters coming por favor :)Thursday, February 4, 2010
2/4/2010
Hello family?? Do you know where your missionary is? I would love a letter! we get dearelder.com letters back here pretty fast. it's crazy down here.. different but its nice. i'm in a district with all elders and me. so in all of my classes there are nine elders and me. i don't have a companion to be with all day. i pretty much only see mine on at night and at meals for a couple minutes. it's cool but it can be frustrating sometimes to be with these young men all day. they are like my little brothers now though and i think we will all just get closer. i have been studying really hard, and my spanish is starting to come. i can already pray, testify, say my objective, the first vision, and teach most of the principles of the restoration in spanish! i love being able to study the gospel all day and to push myself to expand my understanding of spanish. im trying to stay completely focused. Our teachers are all native and its nice also because there are as many latino missionaries here as there are english so it almost makes you have to speak spanish. so down here they do a thing called prosletismo where they send the missionaries out to contact people in buenos aires. normally when you first go out you go for two hours but for me its a special situation, since my companion has been here for three weeks longer than i have i get to go out for seven hours. talk about getting thrown into the fire! so i have been studying as hard as i can so i dont get eaten alive by these people... im quite nervous! the food down here is either really good or not to great... its always a surprise. ive been trying to get used to eating meat and potatoes every week.. not an easy task. the fruits really good though! PLEASE WRITE ME!!!! i need you! ive got my heavenly father and all these people but i need my family here on earth.. i love you all very much!
Hermana Crofts
Hermana Crofts
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