Talofa Fam!!
Dang, it sounds like things are going really well and that the heat is starting to get you, too. No worries. I think we still have you beat. I don't think we have seen below 100 for several weeks now during the day. Honestly, you just adjust and learn to live with it as a missionary. The other day we were coming into the apartment and saw these people moving in and so we went and offered to help. We moved this lady in up three flights of stairs and it was like 107 in our shirts and ties. When we were finished we looked like we had just got out of the shower. It was really funny. Things here in the mission field are going really well and I am enjoying everything that has been going on.
As the Finau's told you, I got to go and invite them to a Tongan fireside that the ward is having. We had a dinner right next to their home and I couldn't help but going and inviting them. It was good to see them, but different at the same time. I could tell how different I really was and honestly I just didn't feel the same sitting in their living room as I did 6 months ago. I feel like I have changed a lot, which in a way makes me sad. But I know that it has definitely been for the better.
I got a letter this week from Dallin Brower and he was talking about how he was getting ready for his mission next year and he was asking for what advice I would give him. It was crazy! My mind just had a flood of memories of what I was and what I am now. I wish sometimes I could go back and prepare more in high school. One thing I would have done was have a different attitude about seminary. I thought that it was just a punishment the Lord was putting me through. Little did I know He was actually trying to help me be prepared for what was ahead. I was too proud to listen, as I was with most other things. Really learning what this was all about would have been nice, but I think it was something I had to learn when I was finally really on my own and had to decide if this was really what I wanted. Don't get me wrong, I always knew that this was the right decision and that the church was the one and only true church on the earth today. But once I got out here and I was literally all alone with people I had never met, it forced me to come to really make dang sure of it myself.
I am with you, Dad....I honestly wish we could just sit down and have like an interview type a deal where I could just go through experience after experience of what has happened to me on my mission and what I have become. It would be super cool to see if you think I am still the same or quite a bit different. But one thing I do want to share is one thing I have come to know on my mission or how it has changed me, and then next year we can go over all the minor details. I remember being in the MTC and thinking holy CRAP! Am I really going to go through with this and stick this thing out for two years?? It was so unnatural to me at first kneeling every night to pray and then every morning waking up and the first thing I did was fall to my knees begging for strength. I think the only thing that helped me through it all was that I had a determination that I WOULD NOT go home no matter what. I had made the decision and I didn't care what happened I wasn't going back now. I had also set another goal for myself. A few months before I left some people told me that everyone hated the first 6 months of their mission and that just didn't sound too fun for me. So I had made up my mind that I would not go home, and that I would not hate the first six months of my mission. I remember how hard I would pray and ask for strength and thank heaven it came, because I soon found out my determination without the Lord just wasn't going to be enough.
I found that as I was obedient and as I kept the commandments that the Lord laid out to us in the white handbook I was happy. Even when I was going through hard times, or my companion and I didn't get along, as long as I was obedient and I tried to be happy the Lord would make up the rest. I won't lie, the first 6 months was probably the most challenging 6 months of my life. I would wake up with this huge weight on my chest worried sick constantly, feeling like I didn't measure up. I was afraid to speak. I was nervous about everything. Luckily I had learned to pray A LOT and to do everything I could to just have fun. It did suck at times, and it was really challenging. But I LOVED that first 6 months. Why, I will never know. As much as I worried, you would think that I would have hated it. But I loved it and those first 6 have laid the foundation for my mission. I can still remember when I would get those moments, when I would have doubts or worries or would want to go home.... I would just think of Bishop Stoddard's voice in my head telling me he didn't care if I didn't go but if I went I could not come home.:) What good advice!
I was glad I got that letter this week because it helped me to reflect a little about where I have been and where I want to continue going! I have been doing good and having a ton of fun. It has only been because of the support of the Lord. He really has given me the strength to keep going on and to enjoy even the bad days. It is cool too, because He does it through you. It seems like every time I start to feel down or lonely or something dumb like that I will get a letter or a package. Or I will find out my awesome family had pizza sent to my apartment on the 4th of July just because they are awesome!! I am so so so grateful to my Father in Heaven for you and all that you have done for me. I could go through each member of the family and tell you what you have done to help me throughout the past year, but that would take way too long and it would bore the junk out of you. So I will save it for when I can say it to you!!!:) I just want you all to know how much I love you and how much you mean to me.
I have been thinking a lot about the Savior and the love that he has for each of us. At the moment I am reading the New Testament and I have been reading in John. Today I read about the Good Shepherd and how Christ is the Good Shepherd to us. I have seen how much He has done for me and the love that He has shown me. I know that he is definitely watching over me each and everyday. I just hope that when he calls my name, just like a Shepherd does to his sheep, that I will come running. Brother Ford, in my first area, put it best. He would always say when he is done here on this earth and he goes to meet his Savior that there will be no doubt that he will know who Don Ford is!!! haha May we all strive each and every day to continue to get to know our Savoir so that we will know exactly who He is when we see Him. I love you all so much and hope you have an awesome 24th of July!!! I sure do miss that parade!!! haha But I am going to get going I will talk to you all soon!!
Love,
Elder Crapo
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