Hey Fam!!
It is so good to hear from everyone! This week has been a crazy week for me. It has been so fun and so busy!! We taught more lessons this week than I have ever taught in my whole mission. It was pretty dang crazy, but so fun! The Lord has really really blessed me this week. Why, I am not totally sure, because I am sure that I do not deserve it. But He really has done so much to help this area. I finally feel like we have made the corner with the ward members and we really are almost to a point where I feel good about the work. Now I think the next step the Lord wants us to take is to be doing splits every night and teaching twice as many lessons a week. But with time we are really hoping that will happen. The ward has gone from not involved in missionary work to SUPER involved. It has been awesome! I must say I have to give some credit to the Elders Quorum President. He has been doing some really good work- getting people out and doing their home teaching. When I got here our home teaching was 5 % and now we are up to 34% which to be honest is a huge jump! I know that that number is still horrid, but hopefully this next month we can hit the 50% mark!
With Judd, that makes me so sad. I talked to Houston on here last week and it sounded like he was taking it pretty tough. I guess I didn't understand how serious it really was. I have prayed for him and the family everyday. One thing that I have noticed is that sometimes we get these trials to build us up. I wish more than anything we could just change the situation. I can't even imagine the struggles that they are going through. Please let them know that I am thinking about them and that I love them all. If there is anything that I can do for them or the family I will do my best to do it.
Happy birthday to Hali and Mandi this past week. That is awesome you're one year older;) haha No worries, I will be too. Hopefully you got my cards I sent you. Hali, I know yours was late. I am really sorry. I kept it because I wanted to send it so you would get it on Saturday but it didn't end up working out that way. I got super busy and totally forgot to get it in the mail... I know I am a really bad brother. haha Hopefully you can forgive me.
These responsibilities of a district leader really do consume all of my time now. Elder Frost and I are super super busy with the things that are going on just in our area. Then on top of that we are going on exchanges almost twice a week. It has given he and I some really good opportunities to grow. It is awesome. Elder Frost is a Stud and has done some really good work. We are finally at a point that even if one of us is gone, the work is going to move forward no matter what. Definitely blessings from the Lord. It is crazy how much He has His hand in all of this. I can rattle on for hours of stories and experiences that I have had where the Lord has guided me or my companion to find new people. For example, this last week we find this new random little development that we had never been in before. So we began to tract there a few days later. We had tracted about half way down the street and this lady let us in. SUPER surprising. We hardly ever get let in. Well, we soon realized that she was a member of the church. But she was like, "ok, so are you looking for people to baptize??" And we were both like heck yeah we are!! She said, "well my daughter and my son and my husband aren't baptized. Could you come back and teach them??" haha Well, needless to say we went back and we are teaching them now. We also tracted into a kid from Pocatello who had just moved here. He had been taking the lessons in Idaho and attending church there and is SOLID. We had him at church yesterday and he was giving answers and everything. It was super legit! We also are teaching a family that are really close to getting baptized. It will probably happen next weekend. So really, the work is just going crazy!! To think that they weren't sure if there was going to be enough work for us haha The Lord was preparing tons of people and still is. Now we just need to find them!!!!!! We are working on it, though. It is kinda hard to find enough time to balance everything out, but we will be lead and guided as to how we should go about that.
How is the work going at home? Has the stake had any baptisms this past little while?? Anyone coming back to church that hasn't gone in the past?? How can I help there? Anyone who is getting close that can use a letter or something of encouragement?? I am sure with all the new missionaries in our stake the work is going crazy!! Tell them to work hard. There are a ton of people who are prepared at home. It is just getting the right missionary who can teach them and connect.
How is good old Reggie?? Engaged yet?? What about Jake? Has anyone heard from him?? I am just curious how everyone is doing. Tell Amber and Blake, Sheila and Cliff, Patrice and Shawn, Max and Joy that I say hi! I could go on and on... let them all know I think of them from time to time.
Cole and I were emailing last week and he said, "Man, could you imagine if we hadn't come on our missions?" And that was kind of a crazy thought. The thought that I almost didn't come out here. We both kind of came to the conclusion that no- this is not the funnest thing we have ever done. But I haven't ever learned more in my whole entire life! This is amazing! So for all you grandkids- prepare now and get ready to go! Time flies out here. So if you can enter into the MTC ready and knowledgeable, it will be so much easier than it was for me! I am so grateful to you guys and all of my friends' parents and everyone who helped guide me in the direction of a mission. This is awesome and I wouldn't trade it for anything. If nothing else, I am closer to my Father in Heaven than I have ever been. I know He lives. I know He is aware of each of our situations and I know He knows each and everyone of our wants and needs. He has allowed me to be tried a lot these past couple months, but when we are accomplishing the most good we have the most adversity.
Thanks so much for the package, mom. I got it in plenty of time. And we did get the dinner calender around and it is completely full. We just had to get it sent around to all the auxiliaries, not just the relief society. But all is well and I will be back to gaining some more weight in no time- don't worry:) I love you all so much and hope that you have a good week. Let me know if I can help out in anyway possible. Tell Susan and their family I am praying for them and I think about them often. I'll talk to you soon!!
Love,
Elder Crapo
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