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

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???

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 and they dropped us off and
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 :)

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

1/28/10

Hola mi familia!!
I have arrived here in the beautiful country of Argentina... FINALLY! The travelling part has been okay. I was able to meet some very interesting people. The sister that i was on the plane from St. George with was so cool! She had a very amazing story. I learned alot from her and her faith. When I got to Salt Lake I went to my gate and met up with some Elders and Sister Gardner. They are all going to my same mission and we made the rest of the trip together. On the plane to Dallas I sat next to an interesting man who works in oil and served a mission in Brazil many years ago. He gave me some good advice. In Dallas, I was able to get to know Sister Gardner much better. She is a nurse and is serving as a medical helper person in the mission. We had the same shoes! haha but she knows spanish alot better than I do so she will only be here in the MTC for only 3 weeks. Im going to be here for NINE weeks! But back to Dallas, as Sister Gardner and I were walking around trying to find a good place to eat, a man came up and said you guys stand out like a sore thumb and then offered to buy us lunch. It was so nice of him! So after a long long wait in Dallas we got on the plane and I sat next to a really awesome man from Buenos Aires. He spoke english and we were able to talk about Uruguay and Argentina. I was going to give him a pass along card at the end of the flight but i chickened out... I know I know! We got to Buenos Aires and it was much more different than i thought it would be. It was humid and so so crowded. I felt a little out of place. But a lady came and got all eleven of us and took us to the MTC. Its a very nice place! Air conditioning and relatively good food haha my companion here is herman kleinfeld shes from orem. I dont know too much about her yet but ill fill ya in when i do. Shes really nice. The president here is awesome. He and his wife are from west jordan and they got here about two weeks ago. I just had a meeting with him and he has a good spirit. His wife is so kind! Im in good hands here. Well, I bet you werent expecting a letter in such great detail but i even surprise myself sometimes! The only way you can expect more detailed and great letters is to write me letters! haha I love you guys all so much! the spirit is strong here.. i can already feel spanish coming into my brain. Ill write ya next week :)
Love, Hermana Crofts

ps. Lydia, thats not my name! I love you very much and miss you
Pss Emma I saw elmo down here and he told me to say hi to you
pss Tommy, ball and uh oh
psss Josh and Johnny, BLAH (tongue out)

LOVE YOU ALL!!