Talofa lava fam!!
Dang it is super good to hear from you and hear that all is well!!
Things here in Vegas are going really well as you saw from the pictures
this past weekend. That baptism actually wasn't the one that I had
worked with. It was one of the people Elder West had taught so we went
back to see her get baptized. And the other missionary in the picture is
Elder Wilkerson. He is not my companion. His companion was off talking to some
people and Brother Clawson didn't want to wait to take the pic.
And yes, that was super crazy to run into Sister Ili! I'll be honest at
first I had no clue who she was. Then when I saw Brick and Cook it
all started to come back haha. It was kind of a crazy experience because
I was just sitting there and then when I stood up and turned around I
saw her coming at me. She was super easy to pick out of the crowd-I
mean blonde haired white lady haha. I knew I recognized her face, I
just could not put a story to it. Then when it all clicked I was
super excited. It is super cool that Brick is in my ward. I had no clue! To answer your question about if the ward is small -the answer is no.
haha It is huge! I think there are over 400 active members and I only
work with half of them. Brick lives in Henderson, so he isn't in my
area so I can't ever go and see them or anything like that. But it will
be cool to see him at church and talk!
But I guess we will start with the baptism we had on Saturday
with Warner Akiona!! It was such a sweet experience. Warner is a 33
year old man who we ran into because his grandma is a less active member
and so we just stopped by. When we got there we found Warner, who is a
non member! So the rest is pretty much history and Saturday
he finally made the step and was baptized. It was the biggest baptism I
have ever had on my mission. There were over 75 people there. We barely
fit in the Relief Society room. He had a ton of family come in and they
were so warm and welcoming to us. His mom even came in from Hawaii to
support Warner. It was great!! I am not totally sure what the Lord is
doing with me because he has me in the Samoan ward and then Warner is
also Polynesian and his family is Hawaiian. I can't decide if that means
later on in life I will be working with the Samoan people or if the Lord
is just teasing me because I passed up the chance to go to Hawaii with
Austin and his family in high school. So now he is having me meet all
these people and really loving them so that I want to go more when I get
home haha.
All I know is that Saturday
was a SUPER busy day and I loved it! I love those days when you get
home at night and your head is just spinning because you have no idea as
to what really happened. We started off with cleaning the church with
Brother and Sister Hawk at 7 in the morning right after we worked out.
And then we helped with a move until 11:30. Then had a short lunch, filled
the font at 12:30.
Baptized Warner at 2, went to another baptize for our stake at 4, drove
to Redrock for Elder West's baptism at seven and then we rolled into
the apartment at 8:45.
Well, we were getting out of the car when we got a text from some Elders
in our zone and they needed Mormon.org cards for the next morning. So a
little bit of complaining may or may not have went on but we went
and made the 10 minute drive to drop them off. Well, while on the way
back we saw these two guys pushing this car down the side of the road.
It was 9:05
so we had to be in in 25 minutes. I was dead tired and we had already
made it to the parking lot once and we did not want to go and do more
work. But as I drove by, I of course, had the prompting to go back and to
help the guys. My heart raced and boy did I want to just keep driving. There were cars behind me, it was late and I really was not in the mood.
But then I just couldn't keep going. I turned to Elder West and said let's go back and help those guys out. Well, we pushed the car about a
quarter of a mile so not even that far and we were able to talk to them
about the gospel. I am not sure if there will ever come anything of it,
but when I hit the pillow that night I knew I had done exactly what the
Lord wanted me to do that day. It is funny because just the week before
we had a talk on how when we serve others around us we are really
serving God. And I know that that is true. Even when we are dead tired
we still have enough to go just a little bit more!!:)
On more of a funny note- last Monday we had a dinner with a Samoan
family and they wanted us to try what is called Coco Samoa. It's
kind of like hot chocolate, but it is a super good drink that Samoans
make. It is awesome. Well, we tried it and Elder West and I really liked
it so we pounded the first one down. Then without even asking, they
grabbed our glasses and filled them up again. Big mistake to pound the
first one! Then they were super excited that we liked it and they just
assumed we wanted all the Coco Samoa they had!!! 4 big glasses of
Coco Samoa later and a completely full bladder, we finished our dinner.
It was super intense!! But I will say Coco Samoa is really good! You
should see if Zack will make you some. I am sure he knows how to.
Then this past week we have been tracting quite a bit because for
the first time in my whole mission, we have no one in our teaching
pool.... Yeah, not good. So we are tracting and visiting less actives
looking for some new investigators we can teach. But we tracted this one
street and we went up to this house and he had posted "no soliciting." But that hasn't ever really slowed us down because everyone seems to
have those. So we knock on this guy's door and he comes out
just ticked off at us. We didn't even say one word and he comes out
yelling, "ARE YOU BLIND??? YOU WALKED RIGHT PAST MY SIGN THAT SAYS NO
SOLICITING!! GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE AND DON'T EVER COME BACK!!!!"
Well,
Elder West and I just started laughing as soon as he shut the door. It
was super funny. If people here only knew what we were offering them,
but someday they will!:)
On a more spiritual note, this past week we also had Mission
Leadership Council. It was the best MLC I have ever been to.
President Ahlander is seriously the man and gives super good trainings.
We also just got a new member of the mission presidency. His name is
President Stewart and he is the Southwest Regional manager for all of
the seminaries and he is so legit. He stood up and unfolded the
scriptures like Brother Chelson used to do in seminary all the time. And
I just sat there going gosh dang it! Why didn't I ever pay attention in
seminary?!!! Tell the grandkids to pay attention because it really does
pay off. I do regret not doing all that I could in school, but I really
regret not paying attention in seminary. I am so far behind doctrinal
wise it is sad. But besides that, one thing I really liked about the
trainings that were given was that President Ahlander started to talk
about how missionaries come home and then they fall away. He talked
about how he went to speak at a jail one time and 18 of 36 inmates that
were at church that day were RM's. And holy cow did that scare me. haha I
was like, wow!! I cant believe how serious all of this really is. The
mission lays the foundation for the rest of my life and I just want to
make sure I use all of this time wisely. I want to be able to come home
and have a testimony that is so deeply rooted that there is not any
storm that can waver it. Which scares me because I know that life is
dang tough. So one thing I did to help prepare myself for the storms
that will come after the mission, which by the way I am not trunky I
just want to have a super strong testimony for when it does end. But I
went through my patriarchal blessing and I made a little paper with all
of the things that I am admonished to do or not to do. And that was
really cool. You should try it. I found some really interesting things
that the Lord wants me to be careful of. And now I am going to try and
learn how to get good at those things so that when I am off this
spiritual high I can continue on in the right path and be back in the
world, but not of the world.
But I am sure you are sick of hearing about me, but I just had an
awesome week so I wanted to try and get it all in for you! And mom keep
up the journal writing. I have a quote in my scriptures that says
remember the Lord Chastens those who don't record things. I am pretty
sure President Hinckley was the one who said that but I will get the
whole thing next week. Trust me, I am not perfect at that either, but really is important! So the whole family really should be
keeping journals. I know an Elder out here who has been keeping a
journal pretty much everyday since he was 12. It is so cool that he
has his whole history and whoever wants to read it when he is gone can,
and they will know him.
I am going to get going. I love you all so
much and hope that you have an awesome week!! Thanks so much for all of
the support and all that you do. I love you so much!!
Love,
Elder Crapo
PS this is my favorite quote from the week
Forget
About
Me
I
Love
You
Kind of a cool thing someone showed us yesterday:)
Love you guys!!!
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