Week 72: Socorro Ward, El Paso , TX

 Hey yall!

It's been a another good week! We went on two exchanges with some sisters in the area and they are awesome! We had a goal on one of them to get 5 numbers, and we got way more!

Veronica is doing well, we are almost done teaching her everything and we talked about priesthood blessings and she said she wanted one. So after church yesterday she got one and it was awesome. The spirit was very powerful and and she felt it. She said that she's been prayed over before but it felt way different--like she had a weight lifted off her and that he felt encircled around by a hug. It was very cool. Veronica also decided she wants to be baptized on the 11th! Please pray for her that she can overcome temptations and be baptized

The Galdamez family is doing great! We taught the youngest, Sebastian, who is 10. He now understands baptism better and is excited for it. We went over Friday night to teach them, and we were all just exhausted. We taught them the 10 commandments with the hand signs and we started joking about it and all were cracking up--I forgot why exactly. They are awesome.

Saturday, we went to a youth baptism. The Galdamez family came too. They loved it and are excited. Benjamin, who is 13, already wants to serve a mission.

That evening they drove us to BYU Living Legends in El Paso. Our mission president allowed us to go with them. It was awesome being with them the whole night. After Cesar took pictures of us with the dancers hahah. 

It was awesome seeing a concert after not seeing one in a while. It eased Sister Baxter and my worries about going home.

I also saw my old Sister Training Leader Dani Meza! I saw her on stage and was like, I know her! She's pretty cool.

We are also best friends with a little 2 year old in the ward named Dante. He comes up and gives us hugs.

The Socorro ward is seriously great. They are just enveloping our friends and it's amazing. It helps me be excited to be a member missionary.

Anyways, inevitably I am going home, my homecoming talk is February 19th, at 9am PST.

Love yall!

Sister Crofts

Week 71: Socorro Ward, El Paso, TX

 This week was great!! 

Our friends the Galdamez family are going to be baptized on February 11th! Could y'all pray for them, and also for our friend Veronica?

Lots of great things have happened this week and I also learned how to make tamales. 

I love the ward and I love El paso. Sorry this email is short.

Pictured below is tamale making and the Galdamez fam

Oh yeah, we also had zone conference and interviews! For zone conference my companion and I did a companion inventory in front of the whole South Half of the mission haha.

Love, Sister Crofts!

Galdamez family

Week 70: Socorro Ward, El Paso, TX

 A good week! 

We have a lot of new members in the ward, so we try and do member lessons every week. We had one that ended in 30 minutes and then they were just talking for like 30 minutes after having a heart to heart and it was really funny. Needless to say we were late to our next lesson.

We met with this super cute old lady member. 

We thought the name of the family we are teaching is Gomez, but their little four year old just says their name wrong. It's actually Galdamez. Haha! They are doing so good! We taught the restoration to their little kids and they are soaking it all in. They came to church and they dad and oldest son were wearing white shirts and ties! So awesome! Our members taught them the word of wisdom before we did and they said they'll work on it. I love them and God has blessed me to meet them. 

Taught lots of restoration lessons to people we are teaching! We have some new people--could you pray for Daniel, Janette, Veronica, and the Galdamez fam? That would be great!

We went to addiction recovery program with our friend and I love it! It's such a good program from the lord.

Something funny that happened:

We felt prompted to visit this guy, Tony, we met the other day, it was at 8:40 at night. He opened the door and we started sharing about the Book of Mormon and I was sharing my testimony about how it's brought me to the savior and then I asked, "did you eat something spicy?" Cause it seemed like he did. He said I did, can you tell, then apparently I proceeded to just ignore his question and gave him the Book of Mormon to read the intro. Haha idk why it was funny!  Sometimes I have selective hearing when I don't mean to.

Anywho, God is so good, and Satan is real. I've noticed that every time I have a spiritual high, Satan comes at me. I know that God prevails every time, He did this week and he will every week.

Love yall sooo much!! Being a missionary is the best life ever. 

Love, Sister Crofts

Week 69: Socorro Ward, El Paso, TX

 This week was very good! So good that I can't remember anything I did! Lol

Our friends Cesar, Monica, and Benjamin Gomez are doing sooo well!! I love them so much and know that the Lord has been guiding them. 

We had a plan of salvation lesson and only got to the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we talked about baptism, and how Christ needs us to do our part and come to Him and be baptized, Sister Baxter talked about her baptism and how she felt so clean and how now shhe can be forgiven over and over again. Our friend Monica started crying when she heard that and her husband, Cesar, said he'd be baptized again if he had to.

We asked all of them if they would be willing to work towards baptism and they all said yes. It was awesome. Their family of 5 and Veronica showed up to church on Sunday!!! Woo!!! They all loved it and are all amazing. The ward is so great and welcomed them with open arms.

We had fast and testimony meeting this Sunday and sometimes it can get a bit rough, but all the testimonies were great and were simple for them to understand.

Monica later told us that the reason why she was crying is because she wants to feel forgiven and that she can be clean and forgiven again and again. She is such a sweet soul as is Veronica. She's dealing with a lot but she has such strong faith. We need people like them to be part of the Lord's kingdom.

We rang someone's ring door bell yesterday and the guy said go away. He kept saying that and started barking like a dog haha. It was so hilarious.

We constantly pull over and talk to people and we've been trying to turn those in to lessons. It's been better.

I love God. I love Jesus. Life's hard and stressful, but His love is the best. It's cool how He has given a portion of it to me.

I love yall!!!! Let me know if you need anything... Prayers or anything at all.

Love, Sister Crofts

Weeks 67-68: Socorro Ward, El Paso, TX

Last week was good! Just busy with finding and teaching. We have one less active friend who has had lots of doubts and is choosing not to believe. Some people just choose not to accept truth and it makes me sad. I can't do anything about it

On Christmas Eve we got together with another missionary zone and had a basketball and volleyball tournament and we won in basketball. We watched Narnia and ate a lot of food. Christmas we opened our gifts and called our families then went to church where I sang last minute in the choir.

We went to dinner with this awesome family, the Borcherdings, and a bunch of members teamed up to give us gifts. They gave us 4 missionaries in the ward each 110 dollars! We were like woah!!!! We then went home and watched The Chosen.

Flash forward a few hours to around 2pm  I was throwing up like every few minutes and in the morning we went to the emergency room and I got some fluids and stuff. That whole day and most of Tuesday I was out, but the rest of the week I was good!

We had lots of less active member lesson this week and we had three come to church! Woo! One of them started reading the Book of Mormon and she is doing a lot better.

A really cool miracle happened this week!

Going back to a week or a few weeks ago, we drove by talked to this guy named Cesar. We gave him our spiel and he said he's already Christian. We said that we just like to add on to their beliefs and we asked for his number and we got it. 

So we texted him amd set up a time to meet and when we got there we met their whole family and sat down with him his wife, Monica, and their son Benjamin. They are super cool we got to introduce the Book of Mormon and and they were very intrigued.

Next lesson we brought the Stake President and his wife (they are in our ward) and they clicked! We shared the restoration and the spirit was strong!! We invited Cesar to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon was true and he did and it was very sincere and powerful. He cried after and I did too and it was very special. They are elect people and they are just searching for the truth. 

Later, we met with our friend Juan Carlos and he wants to put more effort in meeting with us.

We watched the nativity story Saturday night and the Chosen yesterday. 

I love El Paso and I'm meant to be here for a reason

Oh yeah I also went to my friends' Sophia and Paul's baptism and it was awesome! They are so ready!

Love ya!

Sister Crofts