August 23, 2012

hello family dear!

Can you believe that I only have one more P-day in the MTC after today? Craziness how fast time flies! This week has been exceptionally great! lots of fun stuff.

 

Yesterday our disctrict got to be hosts for the new missionaries coming in.  We just took some sister around got their books and moved in and showed them to their classes. It was really fun, and it seems like forever ago that I just came into the MTC.  I loved it!

 

We watched a movie devotional given by Elder Bednar about the trying to distinguish between spiritual promptings and your own mind.  He said to 'stop worrying about it!' when you have a good thought, if you aree being good, follow your intuition and the spirit will not let you down.  I thought it was really good, and I have heard that question a lot growing up :) Happy day.

 

Relief society was given by Mary cook from the yound womens general presidency.  I loved what she said concerning missions, 'Those who you rescue are just as important as those you help convert.' Missionary work is not about baptisms, it is about bring people closer to Christ and that is what everyone needs to be doing.  She also said, 'the Lord can do more for your life than you can, so why not let him.' I loved that! If I have learned anything in the MTC it is to trust in the Lord.  If you follow him he will use you as an instrument in His hands:)

 

The other great highlight of the week is that we got to hear Elder Neil L Anderson speak at devotional on tuesday! We finally got to hear an apostle!!!! WOOHOO!! it was so neat! It was president Monsons birthday on tuesday, so in his talk he told us 9 points president monson would tell us if he were here. 1. follow the prophet 2. Do your Duty, that is best, leave unto the Lord the rest 3. Trust in the Lord 4. Let the Lord shape your back to bare the burdens placed upon it 5. smile and enjoy yourself 6. love the people you serve 7. Never neglect spiritual promptings 8. Testify of the prophet Joseph Smith often 9. Witness of the Savior every chance you get.  He share a bunch of stories about the life of president monson, it was just a really good talk, I am so grateful I got to hear it! 

 

Well lets see, here is a story you will enjoy.  So we never really get to be in our residents halls, only in the early morning and late at night.  So we don't have a whole bunch of time to mingle with other Hermanas.  But you get to know people when you are brushing teeth and stuff like that.  There is the one Hermana, and we always brush our teeth beside each other almost everynight and we never new each others names until we saw each other with our name tags on yesterday.  Her name is Hermana LaPierre.  Ring any bells? Haha.  I was just talking to her yesterday and asked where she was from and she said Boston....then we put the pieces together :) We have lived next to each other for 6 weeks and didn't even know it, funny huh? Well she loves you guys a lot.  She told me of when she first met daddy, he was giving his testimony and he had his big belt buckle on :) And she loved getting your w-mail mom:) Haha it is a small world! She is a really sweet Hermana and I am glad we finally put the pieces together on that one! haha, happy day!

 

Another Highlight of my week was getting a package and letters from you guys!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much, it is absolutely my favorite thing to get letters from those I love :) It makes my day! I am so grateful to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints. It is true, the Book of Mormon is true and Heavenly Father loves each of us.  My favorite scripture is Alma 30:44, read it and you can probably guess why.  I love you all and miss you!!!!

 

 

~Hermana Lori Crawford

August 16, 2012

Hola mi familia!!!!!

 

How are you all? I hope that life is just being fantastic to you :)

 

My week has been great! on sunday our district got to do the sacrament meeting for the cafeteria workers, it was so great! saw one person i knew, so it was pretty fun:) we had to miss most of relief society on sunday because of it, but its all good. 

 

The highlight of my week was to talk that we listened to for the sunday night 'movie.'  we watched The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar...talk about a good talk!!! It is sad because I don't think you can get access to the talk outside of the MTC, but it was so good! The main part of the talk was about how Christ always turned outward in compassion when the natural man would turn inwards. when he suffered in the garden the first thing he did afterwards is heal the guards ear.  When he was suffereing on the cross, he made sure His mother would be taken care of.  And countless other experiences when he healed others.    Elder Bednar said that the natural man is like the cookie monster....and then he did the funniest impression I have ever heard of the cookie monster before in my life, haha.  The natural man wants things and he wants them now.  we always consetrate on ourselves when we are sick or hurt, but Christ never did.    We need to put off the natural man and follow christ.  He talked about repentance and how it meant to turn.  He said that it means to turn away from concentrating on the self and focus on others. All sin is selfish, even the little things.  But as we turn outward instead of inward, we will be coming closer to how the Savior was.  

 

Another part that I really liked is when he talked about when Christ was fasting and Satan came tempting Him.  He said there was only one main temptation and several smaller ones.  Yeah Satan tempted Him to turn the stones to bread, but the real temptation came when Satan said, 'if though be the Son of God...' Satan tempts us all with the question of divine nature at some point in life, but just like the Savior we can keep our tesimonies of the gospel and who we really are in our hearts and teach that Satan a thing or two!  

 

He then talked about testimony and conversion.  He said that testimony is what you know to be true, and conversion is constantly being true to what you know.  Faithful people fall away from the church because they are not converted to the gospel.  people can still fall away with the strongest testimonies because they are not truely converted. He applied this to missionary work and told us that we need to help our investigatiors be converted and not just gain testimonies.

 

Well other than that we have been studying about the Holy Ghost and how important it is to constantly have it in our lives and during the mission.  The Holy Ghost is the real teacher, and missionaries can't get in the way of that!  The comforter was given to the apostles when Christ could not be there any more. it is a way for Him to still teach us even though he can't phisically be here at all times.  Anyway...true story :)

 

I love you all and I miss you dearly! Hope you are enjoying everything that is going on and remember who you are! The Church is true and great! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you and so do I!!!!

 

Adios!!!!!

 

 

~Hermana Crawford

August 9, 2012

This week has been so good! Just kind of the same as the other weeks in the MTC, it kind of all blends together :) We listened to a talk by Elder Holland, and one of the things that he said was that a mission is as real as a life as you will ever get.  This mission is just training me for the rest of my life, Woohoo!

 

The sunday night devotional was awesome! It was by one of the MTC presidency members and they talked about how to have power and authority in our teaching. The things were to be obedient, have courage, serve with diligence and be selfless.  He promised that we will be able to do things never thought possible and that the sacred witness of the savior will penetrate the hearts of the people.  One of the main themes of that day was that God will never leave us alone in the challenges we face...and how true that is :)

 

One of the main things they talk about over and over is the need for obedience. It is so neat to know that I and all of these other missionaries are here to help us and other people gain their eternal salvation, and one of the main ways we do that is through obedience.  There is a quote that I really like that says, 'do not let things that do not matter hold sway over things of eternal significance.'  It has been going through my head a lot, and I love it!  Life is about doing things that do have eternal significance, the other things don't even matter :)

 

One of the people that I have been studying a lot lately is the apostle Peter.  He went through a lot of things in his life, and was corrected by the Savior a lot.  He walked on water and then he sank--the Savior said, "oh ye of little faith." After Christ had told of the things that must come to pass concerning His death and resurrection, he begged to differ, and Christ referred to him as Satan. When he and the other two apostles went to the Garden, Christ asked them repeatedly to watch with Him, but Peter was too tired.  When they came to take and bind Christ to take him to be tried, Peter cut off the man's ear--Christ lovingly healed him.  Peter followed the crowd and waited for Christ as he was being tried, he waited a really long time.  He was nervous and afraid and people kept asking if he was with Jesus? Out of fear for what the consequences would be he denied knowing Christ three different times.  Right after he had done so, he realized what he did and he must have felt so sorrowful for doing so. 

 

In a way, we are all like Peter.  He was corrected a lot by the Savior.  He made mistakes and doubted and some times didn't quite give the right answers, but Peter was being molded into the future leader of the church.  He had to go through all the learning experiences with the Savior so he could testify as stongly as he did concerning His coming and the resurrection.  When they had learned of Christ's resurrection, the other apostles stood at the doorway to the tomb, but Peter ran straight in to see for him self.  Peter truely learned from the Savior and learned how to be like Him.  Peter in my mind was a really neat man.  He made mistakes, but he learned from Him and learned to be more Christ like through the mistakes he made.

 

We have 4 more weeks in the MTC until we head out into the field, I am so excited :)

 

Hope all is well and thanks for the letters! I love getting them and it absolutely lifts my spirits :) 

 

Love,

  Hermana Lori Crawford

August 2, 2012

Hello there!

 

Oh goodness I love getting your e-mails and letters from you all! Thanks a billion! Lets see....where to begin...

 

The Hermanas that came last week are so fun! We have been staying up too late talking and chatting and goofing off.....probably shouldn't be doing that, but it keeps us from going insane some times:) They are great!  Today we got to go to the temple and it was amazing as always.  I am so glad there is a temple here so we can go to it...and I am grateful that it is open! Happy day! On our way home, we were standing at the cross walk and Lauren, from our ward and my old roommate pulled up right next to me.  It was fun to see her and talk to her for a brief second :)

 

On Sunday, Hermana White and I went to Choir practice, and it was so great!  BUT....The sister I was sitting next to took her shoes off and that was a VERY bad choice, haha.  I have never smelled a worse smell in my life, it was hard to keep from gagging. And I thought that it would make you laugh...I still dislike feet with a fiery passion, haha. 

 

On Monday something interesting happened. Hermana White forgot a belt and she really needed one.... So we went to the University Mall.  A wonderful sister came and picked us up at the MTC and off we went.  It was so strange to be in a car again..... We went to Maceys, and Cristy guess who I saw...Eddy from Brownstone.  Haha, that was a fun little reunion.  Anyway, at the mall we met a sister that is coming to the MTC next week and she was finishing up her shopping so we gave her a few pointers.  It was pretty fun!  After we were finished, our escort took the back way out of the mall...she drove right past Costco! That was hard. I saw everyone's car in the parking lot and even some people walking out of work and I couldn't say hi :(  But it was fun to wave as I drived by!

 

The Devotional on Sunday was from someone named Brother Swenson. It was really good! One thing that I really liked was that the 'way we figure out the will of the Lord for us, is by going out and doing His work.' It was a good reminder that even when we aren't quite sure what we are supposed to be doing in the moment, or in life, as long as we are progressing and headed in a good direction, that Lord will show us the way.  True story.  And mom....you said that someone called you? Cool! Brother Swenson was Hermana Whites' neighbor for a while so we went up to chat with him for a bit after.  He works in the church and has access to all the missionaries records...I just think that is neat he remembered enough about me to look up your phone number. Any way, cool story!

 

Spanish is coming along alright.  It is hard, but most good things in life are :)  During the video on Sunday night we were watching from Elder Holland, he was talking about why missions are so hard.  I really liked what he said...he said something to the effect that salvation was never easy.  If the one perfect Being on the face of this earth had to suffer so much for the salvation of others, if we are his servants, why in the world would we even think that a mission would be easy. I really liked it, it helped us all to see that this very well might be one of the hardest things we have ever done, but we are the Lord's servants and are acting in His name, doing what he would do if he were here.  Of course that is going to be hard. :)  And I am thankful that it will be!

 

Well I love and miss you all so very much! Hope you all know that I love and miss you! Be safe and talk to ya later!

Hermana Crawford