March 30th, 2015

It was a good time with elder camacho this week, we have a bunch of work to do but a super bomb mission leader to help us...Were trying to reach out to all the converts of two years and look for less actives who can be priesthood holders to help the church grow. We were given a promise that if we work equally 50 50 with less actives and investigators, baptisms will double. Which I know will work especially because a lot of those who are weaker have family members who are ready for the restored gospel. Our strongest investigator right now his parents are also less actives who were working with his name is agustin, hes 30 and its easy to tell hes been affected a lot by alcohol but is super willing to change, hes got a super calm attitude and is always realy content to listen, and always reads from the sections we leave him in the scriptures. We were gonna have his baptism this last friday but hell need to prepare a little more before hand, were hoping that hes not gonna get disencouraged. We have quite a few other people who are also pretty close to baptism so its exciting.

Something that I heard from another missionary this week about testimonies are like sources of heat. Some people have a burning log. Some have an electric resistor. Some have coal. All three work right, all three give off heat, but the log goes out when a breeze comes. The resistor relies on other electricity to be able to give off heat, so if those other sources go out it will as well. But the coal once its lit, itll keep burning. When a breeze comes it burns more, it gets hotter. I think that example serves as a good way to see where we are in our testimonies...Am i a log, am I lamp, or charcoal. Do I give up on my beliefs when the slightest challenge or doubt comes? Do I rely on the testimony of others to confirm what I believe? Or do I get stronger the harder the situation is, do I want mountains to climb to make my testimony firmer like David o Mckay said, Am i unmovable no matter the circumstance? To have our light shine to forth to the world and not hidden under a bushel, like christ said, I think the best, the only, option would be to put some nice hot coals up on that hill.

This is gonna be a bomb week cause today we are traveling 4 hours to guayaquil (for that theres not much time today) to go to the templetomorrow morning, were gonna have a zone conference in only english, and general conference is this weekend! General conference is honestly the best I hope you can all watch every session, I wish I used to do that cause I come out of these weekends feeling stronger always. But ya enjoy the week everyone.


Elder Crisp

March 23rd, 2015

This week was cool, were still in the trio and the works kinda picking up. We had a baptism of a young women Erika whos 16 and whos sisters were baptised some time ago, she had doubts about it before, but finally felt ready and was super happy...she wasnt confirmed yet though because we had stake conference saturday and sunday. Which was a really cool conference, we had a bunch of investigators there to see some powerful talks from president riggins and the temple president Furhiman and the stake president.

I read through Mormon 8 and 9 this past week which are super bomb about how the record they were trying to preserve would come back to us, and in what state the world would be in at the time of the restoration of this with the gospel....
I love the when moroni talks in 9:19 20 about the miracles that God still can perform. God is still the same. God will never change. Why would He cease to be a god of miracles and still be an unchangeable. I know that Christ performed the miracles that are written in the new testament and in the book of mormon, . And because that same power of priesthood is found today, and God doesnt change, we can see miracles in our lives. We can experience all that firsthand. I know because I have seen it here, almost everyday. Huge miracles. Tiny ones. Some that are so simple that you cant notice without effort. A miracle he gives us is the ability to change who we are by changing what we want. Thats one of the biggest ive seen- completely changing what we desire to conform with what he wants. Whatever be the thing we need, God can do it. I know God is there and he is a God of miracles, no one can make me deny that.

So since I started writing this letter one of my companions was just notified hes got transfer so everythings back to normal. its cool cause he was the one bringing this ward down really. So ya i cant write that much more cause we have to leave, but i might come back to finish the time to be able to talk a littl more.


Elder Crisp

quevedo ecuador
im a menace to society

March 16th, 2015

The week was really interesting being in a trio but it was cool. What happened is they closed one of the two sectors in this ward, Bellavista, and one of the companions each stayed. So we have been working a lot to keep it like theres still 4 missionaries and 2 sectors here, working a lot in splits and whatnot. There isnt too many people really progressing but there can be. Theres a bunch of members that can help but the truth is that they dont want to right now cause the missionaries lately have been lazy and rude and disobedient. So theres a lot to deal with right now trying to fix those problems. Our duty as missionaries to represent Christ is not just to set an example or gain trust with people outside of his church or trying to come back. Its also so that the members who want to help in the salvation of another can have a worthy and powerful source of help. Anyone would trust Christ with a referal obviously but sadly these members wouldnt (cant) trust the missionaries right now. Something I spoke about sunday cause i had to give a talk and I mentioned that when we invite them to go on a visit to a less active or investigator, or to invite their friends to church, its simply an invitation to help in the eternal salvation of that person. That its a responsibility, cause like when Christ told Peter when hes converted to strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:32) If were converted, we are willing to work to strengthen our brethren. Having a testimony like peter had wont be enough to save ourselves, but also to be converted, and we cant be converted if we dont fortalize those around us Being called Gods people means that were willing to mourn with those who mourn, to lift the weight of others, to confort those who need to be comforted, to always be his witness (Mosiah 18:8-10). Were killing it out here and Im getting really excited for conference in 3 weeks to listen to prophets seers revelators called of God. Im happy to be here in Quevedo sharing this perfect restored gospel designed by our Father in heaven!


Elder Crisp


los 3 nefitas (the 3 Nephites)

March 9th, 2015

Sorry I gotta write super quick cause Im super late, just to say that Im alive, today I was transfered again. I "killed" my companion Elder Gonzalez, hes done with the mission and because there was an odd number of missionaries I got kicked out and put in a trio. Im in a big city way far away from the rest of the mission, called Quevedo. My companions for right now are Elder Camacho a costarican, and Elder Ordoñez from Honduras. Itll be a really interesting week working with 2 companions but the city were in is known as the paradise of the mission cause the people are a lot more ready to recieve the gospel here. So ya thats whats going on, its been a wild day, i hope every one has a good week!

Elder Crisp

March 2nd, 2015

It was a satisfying week and we had a baptism, of a young women Paola. It was a pretty cool experience with her cause even though her sisters and mom are members (she lives apart from them) she was super opposed to the message at first, she had previously been baptized in another christian church. She repeated a billion times the first night we met her in january that there is no true church of jesus christ that any road will do and that nothing will convince her otherwise. She came to church a few times with her family, but didnt really listen when we tried to teach her. Her whole attitude changed when one day when we went to her house we found her sitting outside, super down from a bad day she had had....she told us that we came at just the right time, that we were answers to her prayer and "angels".

That one moment is when she really started to act and have desires to follow the restored gospel. Its amazing how often that kind of thing happens, where we just happen to be in the right place in the right time, that really led to the conversion of paola. after being a missionary for over a year I still cant accept the belief that Im an "angel", i disagree with that haha. But i do know that even though im nowhere near being a perfect missionary or disciple of Christ, God does use us as missionarys, he kinda just throws us where he needs us to be without us even realize it. Thats a lesson for anybody in life too....the small, seemingly unimportant decisions we make sometimes can make the huge difference for our own salvation, or even better some one elses. Thats a huge testimony of our Father´s love for us.

I read the book of Helaman this last week which is full of super good scriptures, and i also listened to a talk from President Bensen "book of mormon the keystone of religion". He tells that a huge chunk of the book is focused on the time right before the coming of Christ, right when the times were most important. That is super evident in Helaman, that because of their combinations and pride, and apathy, they started to fall, the chosen people of the lord, right as the son of God came into the world. Im sure satans gonna get worse and worse as we get closer and closer to the coming of christ, and I think the invitation from bensen to learn from the Nephites of how to prepare for that coming is wise. I hope every one has a good one.


Elder Crisp