July 28th, 2014

This week was pretty interesting - we didnt have one day where we could work the whole day, it was kind of frustrating. One of my zone leaders got super sick, from tuesday to thursday we were on exchanges running around to be able to work in our area and thieres a little bit. So its been difficult trying to find new people to teach, but this week I have seen a huge change in one investigator. myself. Really I have felt more closer to Christ this week than never before, and I feel a lot more happier and immursed in the work. Im super greatful for the challenges I have right now they are not that bad but they have molded me and pushed me up a lot and I feel a lot better and secure with myself as a missionary right now.

Thursday. we had a little training thing from President, he started sharing from matthew 10, about following Christ- chapter 10 is loaded with good stuff I recieved a bunch of revelation that I completely overlooked before. In verse 37 and 38 it says basically he that loveth his family, or his life, more than Christ is not worthy of him, neither if we dont take up our cross. Look at that with Matthew 4:22 - Christ called his disciples, they immediately left their job, their family, their life to follow this stranger. Thats a huge example of faith and obedience - if I as a missionary expect investigadors to leave their familys traditions to follow us to Christ, I too need to take up my cross no. Give everything to him, drop my nets, drop every desire every ounce of worldliness behind. Its hard but thats really what he expects of each and everyone of us. To immediately follow him. with faith. with diligence. with whole heartedness.

I gotta tell you that friday we had a stake mission activity, a talent show thing, our ward did a play of the Prodigal son, haha I dont know how but I got cast last second as the adopted albino brother of the Prodigal son haha I dressed up as Alfalfa. Im sorry that Im staining the family name down here.

We had a super good baptism, the main man Emilio (I said he was 70 cause i thought he was, but really hes 60- he shaved his Grizzly Adams beard and lost about 15 years). He was super happy the whole service and the spirit was super strong. It was funny, hes one of those super calm people, and super timid, but when he came to church yesterday for his confirmation, he was running around greeting everybody haha he just opened up to everybody. So that really was the highlight of the week is the main man Emilio. Besides that we couldnt accomplish much, but I am super happy and content right now.

Elder Crisp

July 7th, 2014

It was wierd no one here celebrated our independence day....but ya it was a good week. Right now we only have a few investigators, ones a little girl Korina whos grandma and brother are members, shes super excited for baptism. And the others name is Emelio in his 70s. I think he was a drunk all of his life, his mind isnt all there, but he listens really well and really does have good faith. So apart from them two we dont have much, something Ive realized is that here everyones really old...theyre in that stage where nothing matters haha so its a little funny trying to work with them but at the same time not that progressive. So really my focus has turned to reactivating less actives, I really now see the effect that has on people is seeing someone come to their door worried for them. We now have a couple of them coming to church, from more than anything just seeing that somebody remembers them. So do your home and visiting teaching every month every single one youre assigned to.

We had a good training from the new president (thats crazy that dad knows him!), hes a super good teacher obviously, gave us a b unch of good tips about finding the "chosen". To not waste a bunch of time and help those who are really ready for this gospel. He also talked about being edifying to the people. In d&C 50 22, It says that which doth noth edify is not of god, and is darkness. Everything we do as missionarys (and people) needs to be to build those around us up, or else we are doing something dark. It was really good the whole thing, Hes super energetic and cool im excited. So ya do your home teaching and be edifying in every place you go.

With love
Elder Crisp

June 30th, 2014

This week President Amayas mission ended, its been kinda wierd it was like the pope died. Now we have an American, he was a professor of religion at BYUI, im ecited to meet him. We had like a good bye zone conference to PRes Amaya, He told us a lot of good things, one thing that stuck with me is that a sister in the mission asked him the other day what class of missionary am I. He had to think for a while, but his response was that you are the class of missionary that you believe yourself to be. It made me think about if Im really the missionary I want to be, or that I should be. Some missionarys do all of these things just to look good to others, but really i Realized the only thing that matters if were making our ownselves proud and obviously God too.

Weve been stressing ourselves to really find people by the spirit, not just talking to whoever but contacting those who we are led to. Its been interesting and weve had some good conversations, a lot better than those when were just going through the motions with contacting. The thing i realized is that none of the people that I have taught that were baptized, were found through contacting, theyve all been from members. Which isnt a bad thing, but it means that there has been people Ive missed, thats unacceptable to me. ha.

Last night, the parents of Lucho, an investigator of ours who is still waiting for a interview for baptism from president, invited us for dinner and it was really neat. They are super duper Christians. I say christians cause i dont know what theyd be called in america, Here theyre called Evangelicos which would mean gospelists. So ya they were telling us about how theyre son was converted with the BoM. That it was day and night, he woke up after having read the BoM and was a completely new person. They said that they know it has to be the word of God, We have to have been sent from God for him to be converted. Cause really he already is converted. We found out he has been holding FHE with his parents to read the BoM with them. the only problem is they cant accept that theyre pastor isnt a prophet, they "cant" leave their church. But I can see that they are slowing being worked on by the SPirit and the whole family will come around.

Thats just a small testimony of how powerful that book is. I truly now see that its true that it brings people closer to god than any other. It cant be denied if it is read with an open heart. It came straight from God, and there is nothing more important on earth if one wants to be brought to a true testimony of how to gain salvation.

Con Amor,
Elder Crisp

With the zone and Pres sist Amaya
Check out my awkward pose trying to aviod contact with the sister

June 23rd, 2014

I gave birth this week to a 130 pound Peruvian baby boy. Haha I recieved my new companion wednesday, His names Elder Alcántara from Lima. This first week has been super fun...I am still learning this area cause its huge and I havent been here long, so weve been getting lost a lot ha. But ya it was pretty wild the other day when Ecuador won. We were walking down the street, past literally every house was out on their porch watching the game, and the streets exploded at the same time, there were fireworks for the next 3 hours and a mob of no joke 50 motorcycles went up and down the streets screaming till 9 at night. Ha Freaking crazys.

We started the week pretty well, had a few investigators that started to progress. But yesterday they all dropped us. One because her "Christian" mom got angry and almost hit her cause shes listening to us. Another because she feels pressured by us and her husband whos a member, because we told them to pray and read together. And another, who had a solid date, attended church and everything, we had to give to the sisters in our ward cause we found out he lives in their half of the ward. So ya were starting over again, completely brand new basically.This kind of stuff is usual, but I dont know it bugged me a lot more, it was like one right after the other yesterday.

So I prayed hard last night that I could just forget what happened and just go out and kill it this week. And I got a huge help today as I studied in Moroni 9, I swear it was written just for me in that moment.

In Verse 4 mormon says. Behold, I am laboring with them continually; and when I speak the word of God with asharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I use no sharpness they bharden their hearts against it; wherefore, I fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased cstriving with them.
6. And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor adiligently; for if we should cease to blabor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

Ya that me good, Im not gonna stop trying, nor have bad thoughts about the people, nor put my head down, were gonna find those who are not gonna anger or harden their hearts. This work of the mission is important and this church is true, those who deny it will regret it, but were not gonna regret trying to help them. amen.

Elder Crisp

to my left is Elder Alcantara.

June 16th, 2014

So not much has been happening here in the area- our only investigator who was gonna be baptized this Saturday, Luis, couldnt cause he didnt pass the interview, and without going into too much detail its not likely he ever will be. So that was a bummer- me and Elder Sanchez have been looking for new investigators with barely any luck, and we cut basically all of our investigators cause no ones progressing. Were basically starting over from scratch itll be fun.

Another cool thing is that Elder Sanchez had transfers this morning. Haha its cool cause I basically have one week in this area and I really dont know where anything is haha. I also found out that Im pregnant. Wednesday Im gonna be training! Im pumped honestly. Cause up until now i havent felt challenged, Ive been trying to self evaluate where i am as a missionary and I really don´t know yet. So with this brand new area and brand new start with finding investigators and brand new Elder, I think itll be a good test. I know its gonna be hard, but its gonna be a blast.

So thats really all I have. This countrys in a state of depression from the loss yesterday, were gonna cheer em up with the message of the restoration. So ya well see how it goes with this poor new missionary whos stuck with me wednesday. I hope you all have a delightful week read the scriptures ok.

Elder Crisp


A one photo summary of Ecudor during World cup
Despidiendo a Elder Sanchez

June 9th, 2014

"New Stuff"

So its was pretty crazy this last week. Tuesday, at like 11 in the morning I got a call- you have transfers be at the offices at 1. I was wondering the whole time why am I being transfered on a tuesday, but then i remembered that President has less than a month so he does whatever he wants. haha. No but seriously what happened is the assistants forgot to call 3 transfers....so ya now Im in Milagro! Im in a ward called Bella Vista. My new companion is Elder Sanchez, a Chileno. So far so good with him, theres a bunch of chilenos in this zone it has made me realized what country has the worst spanish accent. Chile wins.

When I came he said we really dont have any investigators right now, they all fell last week. So that was kind of disappointing were starting new here, but weve already found some good investigators, from referrals. The members are a lot more helpful here Ive already seen. We had a really cool experience thursday, our plans fell through and we were about to start contacting, but we were like na wait man lets go get some empanadas Im hungry. So we started walking to a bakery, we pass a teen and he runs up to us. Told us he listened to the missionarys a while back but rejected them, but said he wants to start listening again. So we talked to him right there, set a date for this coming saturday, everythings good with him hes super excited. His mom is super christian, and they usually dont like mormons, but she was super excited to here hes going to be baptized, were trying to find a time to teach her too. So out of the blue we found 1, his names Luis.

We had a huge mission conference, the majority of the 3 missions here in guayaquil were there and we were told an apostle was coming. It was supposed to be Dallin H Oaks they told us, but he couldnt come his plane was having problems. So instead came W Chris Waddell from the quorum of the 70 it was awesome. He first told us, I was thinking right here what to speak about cause it was short notice, that why would Elder Oaks ask the 3 missions to gather if God knew he wouldnt be there. What do these missions need to hear. He said he realized what we need to know. That right now this city is being converting from the highest baptizing city in the world. To the highest retaining and activating city in the world. The main focus now for these 3 missions is to get people in the temple, something we have lost apparently cause everyones inactive.

The whole talk was awesome, one part he said that can apply to all of us not just missionarys. That Christ willingly accepted to come here, like we read in Abraham 3. But that doesnt mean he wanted to suffer like he did. But of course he did do the will of the father. The same with us. We chose his plan we chose to come here, so difficulty in this life is NOT an excuse to fall or lose faith. We need to take up our cup or cross or whatever and stay faithful. He said a bunch of great stuff really my whole mentallity has changed here. So Ya new area, good success here, everythings going well.

Love Elder Crisp

June 2nd, 2014

"All is well, all is well"

We have continued to work with Diana for her marriage, really nothing is happening with the papers no one in the government wants to help, so we went to a lawyer whos a member who can speed it up. We went through a bunch to get his help (that was friday), and we go to her house last night- she tells us now there are problems in the relationship, she doesnt want to get married. Man that was fun to here. She was super emotional, so hopefully she was just upset at that moment, and she still wants to be baptized, so theres still hope, but still it was like why couldnt it just work out when we first started working with her...more than a month ago.

So ya because she was the only real investigator that we had, we worked a bunch to try to find new ones this week, but with basically no success. I dont know if this is just a busy time of year or what but we dont have much luck finding anyone, but I know theyll come...

We came across a family very interesting this week, we knocked their door and the dad let us in right away. He brought out his son and wife, they told us the son 18 is super sick mentally, can barely leave the house or do anything. They are super catholic, and the mom is hard as a rock - for example every scripture we share she says ya i read that yesterday i already know everything about the bible. They say that they have brought him to preists to heal him and what not but hes been sick for 2 years and nothing has changed. So we told them ya if you come to church we can have the bishop give a blessing from the real priesthood. After a lot of humbling they agreed, they came and recieved the blessing after what I think was a very impressioning sacrament meeting, I think they might be something, especially if the son improves. So theres one family weve been teaching at least

I was reading in the conference talk form Robert D Hales, there was a part I liked a bunch, he says why did the followers of Satan choose satan when they knew they would lose their earthly body? A similar question we can ask ourselves is why do we choose sin when we know the consuqences? The answer is because we are deciding to LOVE SATAN MORE THAN GOD. Really when we deny the promptings of the Spirit and choose somehting bad, we are making the same exact decision that third of hosts made, we are denying eternal blessings. Luckily we have a chance to regain those blessings, unlike them, but still we need to remember to follow God in all moment if we love him.

Thats all I have, enjoy the week, with love , Elder Crisp


my new nesquik goggles
celebrating kids day which is for some reason a holiday here