It was another good week, I didnt have any kidney stones so that was good. We continue in this struggle to find families who are married or at least want to get married. Its amazing how difficult it is. Like I was saying we have one family the fam Sandoval who are married but not happily. Satans definitely winning the battle there, they fight a lot and the husbands a little bit lazy...the wife Siria said shes completely given up on him, she doesnt love him. Its really sad but she at least is really committed and willing to be follow Christ. Her and 2 of her kids came to church and shes really happy there, well see if this or the next week shell be baptized with those two.
Apart from that we still have Ruth. Shes super great, we gained a lot of trust with her this week and she opened up, everything from her past. She had been involved in a super bad drunk driving accident and almost died. I thought before she had had a stroke cause half her face is disfigured but its because of that accident. So she was living up in Quito, she had been down about some stuff in her life, and a good friend of hers told her theres some light at the end of the tunnel that you can find. And that inspired her to move back here, 3 months ago. She said when we contacted she felt that that was the light she wanted....after the first lesson we had she called that friend from quito, said 'hey so Im listening to these two mormon boys and I feel really good and I feel like this is the light you told me about, theyre talking about baptism, what do you think' the friend was like are you dumb, Yes get baptized! That was a super sweet story to hear, and really I know she was chosen and we were led there. The thing is I think she has some people trying to influence her away right now, she has a mom and sister involved with another church. We were able to see her the last 3 days of the week, and she couldnt come to church. She needs a lot of prayers, shes way to golden to be led away like that. But ya weve got some really cool investigators for right now.
Sorry I still dont got pictures cause my camara cord was left in my last house, its now in the hands of the mission pouch system which is by no means reliable so well see if ill ever have it. And just so you guys know how bad I am at making decisions my toe still isnt doing that great and I played soccer with it today. You stay classy San Diego
Elder Crisp
Monday, January 26, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
January 19th, 2015
Its been a real good first week here in Ventanas. The branch here is a lot bigger than before, it makes it a lot easier to work with members. I just came from the smallest branch in the mission in Simon, so I feel like the whole work has changed a bunch. So we have quite a few investigators, they came to church with us. One her name is ruth, shes like 30 but looks like shes 50 cause Im pretty sure she had a stroke. Its kind of sad, shes raising two kids by herself with a bunch of health problems, and she really needs the help of the gospel. It was cool we met her contacting, contacts for me never end up working out, even coming to church, but she came and she said she really enjoyed it. Another is a family that were former investigators, the family Sandoval....for now theyre prepping for baptism at the beginning of february, but theyre super excited and also need a lot of help in their home, in their relationship.
An interesting thought that Ive had on my mind is about our view of sin. President Riggins always teaches us the scripture from Hebrews 1:8-9, that Christ was chosen because He Loved Righteousness, and Hated Iniquity. Well ya here in this city that I just started in, every single kid has this stupid toy thing its two plastic balls connected by a string, and you swing it up and down and they clack clack clack really really loud and they never stop doing it. At any given time in any given street theres 4 or 5 doing it. It is the most obnoxious and pointless thing ive seen in my life and this whole week ive been so frustrated about the amount of noise that ive had urges to go to every youth here and take it away and tell them how annoying it is. and then it hit me...why dont i feel so strongly and so annoyed about all the unmarried people living together here, seriously like 1 in 20 is married. Why dont I get that upset that people just sit on their porch and drink all day. Why doesnt it kill me so bad that people have to live without the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that I just want to run around all day trying to get every last one to stop living in apostasy. Really it should bug us that people dont have this gospel. I realized Hating Iniquity at the level of the Savior would probably be something like my disgust for these toys, I should probably change my focus this next week haha.
Thats just a little thought I had, a scripture I read that I liked gives us a warning today about the same thing, about sin and righteousness and how it affects all. in Alma 3
10 ; andthe wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to thosewho did not belong to the church; and thus the church began tofail in its progress.
The wickedness it talks of here is more pride (theres a super dope talk from President Bensen called Beward of Pride you should listen to it) but really any form of iniquity is what brings not just us down but the church. Love Righteousness
Elder Crisp
An interesting thought that Ive had on my mind is about our view of sin. President Riggins always teaches us the scripture from Hebrews 1:8-9, that Christ was chosen because He Loved Righteousness, and Hated Iniquity. Well ya here in this city that I just started in, every single kid has this stupid toy thing its two plastic balls connected by a string, and you swing it up and down and they clack clack clack really really loud and they never stop doing it. At any given time in any given street theres 4 or 5 doing it. It is the most obnoxious and pointless thing ive seen in my life and this whole week ive been so frustrated about the amount of noise that ive had urges to go to every youth here and take it away and tell them how annoying it is. and then it hit me...why dont i feel so strongly and so annoyed about all the unmarried people living together here, seriously like 1 in 20 is married. Why dont I get that upset that people just sit on their porch and drink all day. Why doesnt it kill me so bad that people have to live without the restored gospel of Jesus Christ that I just want to run around all day trying to get every last one to stop living in apostasy. Really it should bug us that people dont have this gospel. I realized Hating Iniquity at the level of the Savior would probably be something like my disgust for these toys, I should probably change my focus this next week haha.
Thats just a little thought I had, a scripture I read that I liked gives us a warning today about the same thing, about sin and righteousness and how it affects all. in Alma 3
10 ; andthe wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to thosewho did not belong to the church; and thus the church began tofail in its progress.
The wickedness it talks of here is more pride (theres a super dope talk from President Bensen called Beward of Pride you should listen to it) but really any form of iniquity is what brings not just us down but the church. Love Righteousness
Elder Crisp
Sunday, January 18, 2015
January 12th, 2015
This last week was one of the most satisfying weeks in a while...we had quite a new investigators and people really starting to progress. We had the Plazarte family of 4, it was that referal julia from last week, come to church with us, they loved it. They are super excited for baptism at the end of the month. Theyre way pumped for the stake conference this next week for the Milagro stake, a really great family. The only problem is is that I will not be working with that family or anybody else that we just met in Simon Bolivar, because I had transfers today....a huge bummer but now Im in a place called Ventanas. my comp is Nicaraguan hes name is Elder Gonzalez.
I honestly was pretty upset last night, I was really looking forward to keep working with the family Plazarte, finally we had somebody! After all the hard work we had it was kinda disappointing to not be able to keep going with it. I was telling myself all last night and today, Not my will, but thine be done. Cause the hardest part about the mission is having transfers. I guess its pride that makes me want to stay but either way im excited to start work here in ventanas....its kind of small, another branch, I havent seen too much of it yet but theres a ton of people that are super willing to be baptized. They just dont know it yet....so ya I dont have tons of time but this was more just to keep you updated. This week i complete a year here in ecudor! its pretty crazy but i think its growing on me a little bit, this country. To celebrate this milestone, Im going to eat a lot of rice this week. Just like ive been doing for a year. You guys can joing me in that as well.
Elder Crisp
I honestly was pretty upset last night, I was really looking forward to keep working with the family Plazarte, finally we had somebody! After all the hard work we had it was kinda disappointing to not be able to keep going with it. I was telling myself all last night and today, Not my will, but thine be done. Cause the hardest part about the mission is having transfers. I guess its pride that makes me want to stay but either way im excited to start work here in ventanas....its kind of small, another branch, I havent seen too much of it yet but theres a ton of people that are super willing to be baptized. They just dont know it yet....so ya I dont have tons of time but this was more just to keep you updated. This week i complete a year here in ecudor! its pretty crazy but i think its growing on me a little bit, this country. To celebrate this milestone, Im going to eat a lot of rice this week. Just like ive been doing for a year. You guys can joing me in that as well.
Elder Crisp
Monday, January 5, 2015
January 5th, 2015
It was a pretty eventful week, I had this ingrown toenail thing for over a month and i finally got it taken out. It was a super spiritual moment. No but ive been walking around in flip flops for a week now. It was really good timing, cause even though i couldnt really go out in the middle of the week, nobody was doing anything here but drinking or blowing things up or being on vacation. New years night was completely loca....over there we just shoot off poppers from 12:00 to 12:05. Here from 10pm till 3 am they were lighting all sorts of stuff up. So News years day was completely dead. So we started work again on friday, and that day me and E Jensen decided to just do a revolution of the work here. We set super straight goals about how we would find new people to teach, how we would work with them, how we would only work with those willing to change. Cause these past few weeks really weve had little output of our efforts.
Our plans and goals were super successful, we contacted and taught quite a few new people, and got a super good referal, a woman named Julia who just adopted 3 grandkids who were mistreated. We only talked a little bit with her last night, but she accepted to be baptized and is super ready to learn. That referral pumped us up a bunch, it was the best Ive felt in a while. In just 3 days we turned this area from being honestly pathetic, just us playing hide and go seek every day with people who dont want to learn, to now having a good list of people who actualy want to learn. Even though we didnt log that many hours we changed a lot and i feel really satisfied.
I was listening to Remember lots wife, a devotional from Elder Holland that talks a lot about making new starts, just looking forward as the title implies. And there was a line he says that stands out a lot as a lesson that i think applies to everybody whos living...
When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is notright to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.
Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is it charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ.
I recommend that talk to anybody at any point in their life. He says that line directed also to people individually...to just move on with life, keeping the hope and vision up high. Not to impede the atonement by being miserable. Christ made that atonement so that we can be happy even if we are miserable people, or make miserable choices. Thats it just keep moving forward. Q tengan muy buena semana pibes.
Elder Crisp
Pics-
1. This is a huge paper mache thing called monigotes, they burn them for new years
2. Me and my little friend from inside of my toe
3. The one photo explanation of Ecuador on New years day
Our plans and goals were super successful, we contacted and taught quite a few new people, and got a super good referal, a woman named Julia who just adopted 3 grandkids who were mistreated. We only talked a little bit with her last night, but she accepted to be baptized and is super ready to learn. That referral pumped us up a bunch, it was the best Ive felt in a while. In just 3 days we turned this area from being honestly pathetic, just us playing hide and go seek every day with people who dont want to learn, to now having a good list of people who actualy want to learn. Even though we didnt log that many hours we changed a lot and i feel really satisfied.
I was listening to Remember lots wife, a devotional from Elder Holland that talks a lot about making new starts, just looking forward as the title implies. And there was a line he says that stands out a lot as a lesson that i think applies to everybody whos living...
When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is notright to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.
Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is it charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ.
I recommend that talk to anybody at any point in their life. He says that line directed also to people individually...to just move on with life, keeping the hope and vision up high. Not to impede the atonement by being miserable. Christ made that atonement so that we can be happy even if we are miserable people, or make miserable choices. Thats it just keep moving forward. Q tengan muy buena semana pibes.
Elder Crisp
Pics-
1. This is a huge paper mache thing called monigotes, they burn them for new years
2. Me and my little friend from inside of my toe
3. The one photo explanation of Ecuador on New years day
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