Week 11: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 This week was good! I'm completely exhausted right now hahaha. 

We had lessons with our friend Wesley, who is in our apartment complex. He is 84 years old and goes hiking almost everyday. He's super sweet and doesn't know how to text so he calls us when we text him. He is not religious and says he doesn't have questions, but he's meeting with us and willing to learn a little more, so hopefully the spirit works in him.

Ramon is doing sooo good!! We had a phone call lesson with him about the priesthood and he was using his scriptures and really wants to be baptized. He just has a few things he's working through. When we met with him after that we could see a visible change in him. He wants to make all the promises with God and he has been turning to Him for help. If you guys could pray for Ramon to be able to make his baptismal date of January 22 that would be great 🙂 

We also met a new friend named Josh and he is angry at God, but he loves talking with us and is willing to learn more. He is going to be alone for Thanksgiving, but is too shy to come to ours, prayers would also be good for him to come to our Thanksgiving haha. We actually met him through Facebook and a few other new people which is cool! I used to hate Facebook, but now I don't mind it cause it does work sometimes.

We finally got in contact with our friend Stuart again and we brought him to a members house for dinner and a lesson, pretty good right? No haha he was very talked at and the members talked about many things we have not yet mentioned, but he still wanted to meet with us after so I guess it went alright for him.

We also met this guy Josiah. He is 19, but super open to learning more and super nice! But sadly a few people we are teaching will probably need to get passed off to YSA 🙁

There's also Jose. Jose had learned all the lessons from the Missionaries and he was on date a while ago, but his mom is against him joining and he's a people pleaser so he got off date. But we've been trying to reach out to him and we had a good lesson talking about Lehi's vision about the tree of life and he said he felt really good talking about it. Then later we brought the big guns and we were like, why aren't you baptized? We were being bold but loving and we set up a ride to take him to church so he kinda has to come then ahaha.

We met with a recent convert since January this week and she has been struggling a lot and I'm glad we were there to help her. Sometimes we all just need someone to cry with and to tell us we are doing alright and God is there. That's what I've learned this week. It's so important to be able to have that person to vent and cry to. God is one of those people we can do that with. He is always there to hear all the grief of our hearts, because we all have too much sometimes.

Something great is Sister Hallem. She is the lady who always comes with us to lessons. One time she said she couldn't go because she was sick, and when we were at church she said she felt bad because she couldn't come. She told us to always text her when we need someone to come with us, and we said we'll ask her until she doesn't want to anymore hahaha. Which if you know her, that will never happen.

She also pronounces emoji, ee-mah-gee, it was really funny when we heard it.

Anyways, Ramon always comes to church because he is the best and Jose came! We had an interesting Sunday school because of the Doctrine and Covenants being very unique to investigators, but turns out he loved it! I've also learned that the spirit speaks to everyone differently, so when I feel like it wasn't there, others still feel it.

We went over to Brenda's with Sister Hallem and were going to teach her about the sacrament. If you remember, Brenda is Fernando Sr. Girlfriend. Anyways we knocked on the door and Brenda was crying because her daughter ran away and was going to run away again. So we went in, talked to her daughter for like an hour. She got a priesthood blessing and we made her promise us she wouldn't leave tonight. It was kind of a counseling session haha. Sister Hallem was there too and she is just the cutest and the best. Everyone loves her, if you met her you would.

That is about all for this week.

Something I love though is that all the bad experiences we have, that we regret, are there for a purpose. They help us have empathy, learn, and love more. I realized that I could relate with Brenda's daughter because I struggled in the past. Sister Hallem who was baptized 7 years ago, had a rough life, she had so many hard things happen. They all made her who she is, and she said these last 7 years have been the happiest of her life. There's a reason for all the suffering you go through. God doesn't hate you, but he loves you so much that he gives you struggles to grow and when you turn to him it will be the happiest years of your life.

I love you all and appreciate your prayers. I really feel them helping as God has been helping me feel less anxious on the mission. It has been a huge blessing.

Have a great week❤

Love Sister Crofts

Week 10: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 Busy busy

Hello from Doña Ana!!! I'm not in a trio anymore which is good. I like how we get less distracted and I get to take charge more haha. 

So at the beginning of this week I was with Hermana Ellsworth. I spent a few days with her and I learned A LOT! I learned to work harder and to reach higher. 

I went back to my companionship the next day and we waited around for the transfer van a lot of the day. That night we had a lesson with the Richin's that went nowhere. I think we might drip them (which is just giving someone a break for a while, but not dropping them) which is sad cause we wish they would accept the gospel. They just want to debate it. They need to understand the basic truths, but instead we keep going into deep topics. 

Thursday!! Was good. We were very busy. We had weekly planning that week and we went to check on our friend Ramon that morning. After that, we stopped by Apodaca Park, known by me as murder park. This is because someone got beheaded with a knife there and they kicked their head around like a soccer ball. Hahaha it is very sad and sketchy, but just a very Random thing to happen. Anyways, in the park we went up to this family and read a scripture to this lady. She was super nice, but when I gave her a book of Mormon, she thought it was a Bible. 😅 I didn't really clarify haha. She then gave us each a 20 second hug because that's how long it takes for a hug to work she said. 

We walked around that night and ran into this lady named Jo. She invited us to come back, but so far it's been a dead end. 

Friday we called this lady that we never are able to meet with, her name is Cherie. ( pronounced shuh ray) We shared a scripture and she started crying. She said it meant a lot and she was struggling. It was cool that we could help her a little bit.

Saturday we messaged 26 people and invited them to church. Only three showed up and 2 of them watched the zoom. That's just what happens. People say they come and they don't hahaha.

We had really good lessons this week and had a good Sunday yesterday. We were driving down to go to a members house and my companion, sister Bishop, said we needed to turn back around and talk to a lady. So we did and we shared a scripture with her and she loved it! She said she would love to talk again and I felt the spirit. It's cool what happens when you follow promptings.

This week I learned even more that I need to trust God. He is all powerful, all knowing and all loving so we have no reason to doubt or fear in His ability! If we work for something and it's meant to happen it will! If we do work for something and it doesn't happen, it's not meant to. I think going back to the basics and just remembering God's character is so important, because I get caught up in doubt too often.

Love y'all!!! Grateful for you

Love, Sister Crofts

Alexa and Hermana Ellsworth

Trio is down to two: Sister Crofts and Sister Bishop

Saying goodbye to sister Covington

Week 9: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 2 months of being a missionary!!!!! Woot woot !!

Time flies by so fast on the mission, but I've also felt like I've been here for a while lol. Monday, we went on a hike and went in some caves which was cool. Tuesday, we had some really Good lessons. We met with this lady over zoom and her life is super hard. She has a lot of trials, but she is so strong and faithful through it--it's awesome to see that. It was a emotional, spirit filled, and cool. We had a lesson with the Ellises and who are babysitting this little black pug puppy. I took him out of his little laundry hamper cage and he went goes crazy and wanted to bite us. That's the meanest puppy I have ever seen. When I put him back in his cage he whined the whole lesson . Super loud, it was kinda funny. We finally had a lesson with Ramon again. It went really good and he was happy to get some help. We had super good members there too which was nice. We had a phone lesson with Gabriel and he was interested in learning about the Book of Mormon after reading the intro. We taught him the Restoration and he was super interested, it was really cool! It's nice to not have someone bash. Wednesday, was really fun, it was exchanges!! I went with Hermana Wallace in her Spanish area. I learned a lot and we met some really nice people who were all interested in possibly going to our church which was cool. But the coolest part was we went to a member's house and they only spoke Spanish. So I just nodded my head and smiled the whole time haha. But once my comp shared her spiritual thought she looked at me and said, "say something about Jesus" so I did in the best Spanish I could think of, I felt the spirit and it was cool. My companion said she was so proud and said I did so well. She also said that I had greenie fire and was a great missionary. It was very nice and I felt refreshed as a missionary Thursday, we had to haul our old mattresses over the stone wall by our house to the Church. It was exhausting! Right after, we had to run back and do some service for a food bank. Friday, we had the last district counsel of the transfer! It was super good and I was really hoping that none of us would get transferred cause I really love my district. We all shared what we learned this transfer. They are so hilarious and make me laugh a lot. We drove out to the boonies a bit to have dinner with this old lady who goes to our ward and the ward before us. It was fun, but we got out of there in the nick of time cause she would have talked to us all night. Then we went over to Brenda's house and we talked about how Christ can help us in our trials and she was confused about which church is true, so we'll talk about that next time. Saturday, was long. We tried to go street contacting, but we were stopped because some dog ran away and we were waiting with it till the owner arrived. Then right after that we went to stake conference meetings for four hours. That night we got a call from the sister training leaders and they said that one of us was gonna go with another Sister to her area for four days, because her old companion was going home. So I got dropped off in the morn. It's really nice going to other areas cause I get to see another way of being a missionary and how I can improve. Something cool about last night is that in our mission we have standards that we all try to meet. 7 new people found and 6 people at sacrament and 3 people on date for baptism. So we were 6 short so we had to find them in one night . So we found 4 people while talking to then in a trailer park and another we had over the phone with a member. It was great! I said a little prayer during it and it was answered! Really anything can happen and it was cool to help my comp meet those goals. Transfer news!! I'm staying in Doña Ana!! With my trainer Sister Bishop! But Sister Covington is leaving which makes me sad. It'll be different but good. Anyways, that's all for the week. Love y'all Love Sister Crofts

Mummy dogs for Halloween

Lost dog

District

On exchanges

Lexi found her goats!

Putting together their new beds

Some of the zone

Week 8: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 Hey Y'all! It's been 2 months on the mission (including the MTC)!

This week was good! Not too much happened, but we had a really good church tour with this guy Stuart and I felt the spirit and gave away my first BOM. Yay!

We had this lady Monica bash us, but then hug us before we left.

We finally got in contact with Ramon again and we are hoping that we can continue to meet with him. If y'all could pray for him that would be great. 

We've been on really fun hikes for Pday and today we went to some caves which were cool.

This week we had one day that was really windy and "cold" for here. We were knocking on some grey dots (previously contacted) people's doors. There was a lady who was previously a Jehovah's Witness and she let us in cause it was cold out.  Maybe cold weather is a good tool for Missionaries!

Also, this week we drove out to visit a member in the boonies to heart attack her door and the stars were soooo pretty it was awesome and a tender mercy.

On Sunday we taught the young women and young men and it went good! They're very respectful and we taught them how to be Missionaries. I thought it was funny cause I'm still learning and I feel so young.

Not too much else happened this week, but I appreciate all your emails and love.

It's still hard getting the hang of things and it can be discouraging when lots of lessons fall through and people are flaky. However, it's still good and I'm learning a lot and next week is gonna be GREAT because I'm going to make it that way haha!

This emails short because I'm playing volleyball with the zone and I want to play more haha 😜

Love y'all

Love Sister Crofts

Trunk or treat

Hiking fun

Exploring some caves!

"Guarana" a Brazilian soda