Week 21: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 Last week with Sister Bishop in Doña Ana!

This week was really good! We were really busy and said goodbye to a lot of members. I'm not leaving, but my comp is.

We met this cool guy Eli from Facebook and passed him off to the elders. We found 8 people from Facebook this week.

Met this cool guy Paul who has two sons and he was excited to meet with us. Things are slow right now, but I feel it's always on the brink of greatness. But it's always great, I'm leaning to be more bold, but it's still a process.

I was really sad for transfer news this Sunday and might have cried a bit. Sister Bishop is so amazing and a kind person. Such a good companion and I could be myself around her which was awesome. 

We called this one guy and he said that we had his best interest at heart and that we were his new friends-- it was so sweet! 

We were bold with Jose this week and said he needed to to commit or we weren't going to meet as much. He didn't make up his mind. But the next day he called and said he would try to make it to church and he did!

Love you all!!

Appreciate your prayers

Sister Crofts

With Sister Hensch

With Sister Self and kids

With Sister Hallem

With Wesley

Laura and Evan

With the Rogers

With the Van Rompaeys

With Bette

With the Cooleys

With the Wickes

With the Tolmans and Thurstons

With the Jones

With the Rays

With the Grays

With Sister Pallet

With Sister Hallem and Jose

Having fun helping the Cooley's with yard clean up

Week 20: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 Another week in Las Cruces New Mexy!!

We had a really good lesson with our friend Rosa who was looking for a church. She was excited to come Sunday! 

We also found this guy on Facebook and he has gone through a lot. Someone told him that he should pray for a church to join and he thought it was a sign when we reached out to him. He's super cool and definitely felt the spirit when we shared the restoration.

Sadly, they both didn't come to church, but it's a new week and new things can happen. 

We had exchanges this week! I was in the Spanish area and we had quite a few lessons, so I mainly just prayed in Spanish and smiled haha.

There's a lot going on in the mission which can make me overwhelmed, but I know God blesses us as we keep working and He will put us where we need to be, even if it's really hard to see sometimes 

We went to do some service for other Sisters' investigator, and it was interesting. We went to some peddler warehouse and the whole time the man was thinking he was so inspirational talking around a bunch of boxes, and saying we were going to learn a lot from him. It was really funny, and we were there for an hour, just him talking at us.

The other day we ran into this guy that told us he "wasn't a drug dealer." His name was Orangie--he had an orange car and was drinking orange soda. He said he was going to go to heaven for sure.  He was a really funny guy.

Anyways, that's it for this email.

Love yall!!!

Sister Crofts

On exchanges

Helping at the food bank

Week 19: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

Hola! Another week in the Mish

Sometimes it's not all fun. It's hard when people ignore you and I deal with my own anxieties.

I know I can trust God, but sometimes it's hard, when things don't go good.

We had zone conference this week! It was good and I learned I need to be more urgent in the work. 

Some lady gave us lotion to put on. It was in a little jar and we were like, okay. Then she said her daughter made it with her breast milk--it was so funny hahaha. Of course I put a little on my hand cause why not.

I'm grateful for the promptings God gives me. I know everyone can have them, but once we are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, they are all the time! And it's awesome. That's the blessing of being baptized. The spirit is a blessing.

We saw these dogs while we were trying to find someone. They both came up to us limping. We were wondering why both of them were, but they came up and had goatheads, or little stickers, in their paws. We took them out and they loved us. Then we left. Sometimes you're meant to go somewhere to help dogs haha.

I love you all. God always roots for us, and puts people in our life to do that when we feel down.

Have a great week!

Love Sister Crofts

Week 18: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 4 month mark!!!

This week was really good! 

We got in contact with Ramon and had a lesson! We are just working on the small things right now like helping him pray and read his scriptures everyday and come to church. Sometimes the big things are too overwhelming and one step at a time is all we need to do.

We called him yesterday and he said something super nice. He said how he admired how I got up and bore my testimony during fast and testimony meeting. He said he doesn't know how I do it. I told him well I didn't like doing it at first, but I took a public speaking class and had time to practice. I told him he will get there in time.

Sometimes it's weird to see how far we have come. But then one day we look back and so many things have changed. Jesus Christ helps change us unexpectedly.

We listened to this really good talk this week by Loren Dalton. I've realized it won't let other people view it, but it talks about revelation. Would highly recommend. I've realized so many of my thoughts are revelation. It's so cool to follow it!

We've been able to fine this cool lady Loretta, and this guy Rudy and Christian. It's been awesome. We've also had a really cool lesson with a member and we were able to answer her prayers.

Still finding lots of people through Facebook, but I am getting a little burnt out of it. I'm hoping we can do more street contacting this week. 

We had some really awesome lessons about the restoration this week with some friends and less actives. It definitely brings the spirit in and testifies of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and he restored Christ's church to these days. Read the restoration story in Joseph Smith history. It's so powerful. I know that nothing bad comes from this gospel and that it is all inspired of God.

Also, this week we got to pie-in-the-face a district that lost a challenge it was super awesome. 

There was more this week, our toilet also overflowed haha. But overall the week was good and I really felt the spirit, and I know you can too! God wants you too, I would like to ask you: "what can you change in your life to allow you to feel the spirit more?" 

I know for me I can be more positive haha

I love you all and most importantly God loves you all. Never doubt that. I hope you all can know that deep in your soul.

Love y'all!

Sister Crofts

Alexa had some fun with photo editing

4 months in the mission!

Getting ready to "pie" some missionaries

Cats love Alexa

Week 17: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

 Happy New year!!! 

2022 baby! This week was really good, but also there were some hard things. Some of our friends aren't doing very good and some we had to stop teaching for a while. 

We did a lot of contacts this week and we found 9 people this week which was cool. For New Years Eve we just watched The Chosen--it is  awesome! You all should watch it! I would take it with a grain of salt though, I don't actually think that everything happed that way, but it makes the scriptures come alive which is awesome. We also watched The Chosen New Years Day, and cleaned haha. 

It has also been a pretty chill weekend.

Yesterday, we had two really good lessons from Facebook. One guy, Albert,  lives alone with his dog Rocky,(he calls him that because he's his rock, it's very sweet) and he is scared because he might have to get his toe cut off. So I prayed for him and he cried! It was so sweet and he said it was beautiful that a random stranger would pray for him. He's really awesome.

Also, we called this one guy, Mark, who wasn't interested a month ago. I wished him happy New Years and he said no one wished him that. He said he would like to hear a message about truth. I had to explain to him that God and Jesus Christ are men. Sometimes we need to explain it cause those attributes of them are so important. Knowing who they are is really vital. We taught him the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was writing stuff down it was super sweet! He said he would love to read the Book of Mormon and that we could call anytime. 

These were just our first lessons with people, but it was a tender mercy to have some good lessons. 

We've talked to a LOT of people this week and sometimes it's good to not have rejection or mainly just people ignoring us haha.

I am so grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the peace and joy we can feel because of him. In one of the episodes of The Chosen, at the end all the apostles were arguing around a fire about something stupid and it was super contentious. Then Jesus walks in really tired from a day of healing people and it all goes silent. His mother, Mary, goes to help him take his shoes off and go to bed. The apostles are all still quiet. 

This scene really impressed me, and you all will have to watch it haha. But it just showed me that so often we are caught up with our own problems and our own anger, when we just need to look around at other's needs. We all need something. The greatest of all was tired from giving his all all day and there they were arguing around a fire. I know that the remedy for contention in a home is love and service. How joyous it is that we can give and love one another. God is good. He loves you all and I hope you never doubt it. 

I love you all and I know that this year will be good if you have a good attitude. 

Love you all,

Sister Crofts