First Baptism :))

         Man time sure does fly down here!! Every day is just a constant blur!! I learned a lot this week so here are a few of the things that happened...

         So we baptized Christian Linares this week!! It was such a sweet experience and definitely the boost I needed to keep going. It’s crazy how much the Lord had prepared him to hear our lessons.. We seriously went straight through the lessons and then baptized him, yet my comp said he is one of the most prepared people he has baptized. Three weeks and he was baptized. Crazy!! It’s so awesome to see the Lord’s hand in things!

         We had interchanges this week and it was a really cool experience to spend the day with the Zone Leader Elder Sanchez. He is from Mexico and a real great missionary. But while we were teaching we met a lady from Salt Lake. She had lived like three blocks from Temple Square and yet never once had a visit from the missionaries. She told us all about the people at work and stuff that would try and invite her to church stuff but she always rejected it. Then she decided to return to El Salvador to help raise here kids some more... Now she’s progressing a ton, has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and is almost for sure getting baptized. How weird is that? A lady accepts the church clear out here in El Salvador but lived not three blocks from temple square. It really hit me that every little but of missionary work we do helps. Those people back in Utah have no idea that the little invitations they gave had an effect on this lady some twenty years later, in a different country. Really cool stuff.

         Last P Day we got to play a sweet soccer game with all the local guards in our city against the guys in our zone. It was sooo awesome to play soccer on a full field again and we decided to make it a weekly tradition. Definitely looking forward to it again next week!!

         We have an investigator named Daniel, 19 years old, whose whole family was baptized last month by my comp but he is still struggling to accept the gospel. We have been teaching him like almost every day and slowly making progress. Something really cool though is that we both have the same favorite team: Borussia Dortmund from Germany.  Thus every day he gives me the update on the team and we have already become super good friends. It’s really helping him trust us as missionaries and he’s gotten super close to baptism now. It’s so sweet. Mostly I just want my Mom to know that maybe those countless hours of watching soccer all day weren’t for nothing :)

         That’s all for this week. It was a great one that’s for sure! Maybe in my letters it seems like the mission life is just super awesome 24/7... which it is. But don’t get me wrong, it’s still super hard. I get homesick a bunch and want to just sit on the curbs and cry... BUT I know this is where I need to be so I push on. And it’s worth it 100%. Hopefully you all have a great week!!

Elder Crump

 

Yeah, Pizza!

Scripture covers

Making pancakes-
"Amazing little circles of happiness"

Elder Johnasen, Christian & Matthew
(He always looks so tall in the pictures)

Livin' the Mission Life

Familia!!

          It seems like just yesterday I was writing! Weeks just fly by down here that’s for sure!! This week was awesome! We had a lot of crazy experiences and spiritual ones as well so here are a few...

         Elder Ochoa visited this week and we spent the majority of the day listening to him. Boy was it sweet!! He is such a spiritual giant and I learned so much from him. Two things I really like was one, that as missionaries we aren´t supposed to be taking people by the hand and dragging them to church or baptism or anything, instead we need to be placing their hands in the hands of Christ and allowing Him to guide our investigators to baptism. Also he talked about the Law of Eternal Progression, which was sweet. Just that we need to be constantly working on bettering ourselves everyday and becoming more and more like the Savior.

         So it rains every day here. It’s just a fact. But anyway one day it was raining quite hard and my comp and I were getting out of a moto taxi (a small little red car taxi thing) You have to get out quickly or they get mad, so once it stopped I quickly jumped out and up onto a tile platform that was drenched... so, next thing I know it, I pulled a cartoon quality slip and landed straight on my butt. Embarrassing right? Well, to make matters worse, I look up and there is, no joke, like 100 people standing on this platform in front of the market, staying dry from the rain. So of course I proceeded to hear a nice concourse of laughter from everyone. Yeah for mission life!!

         We taught our investigator, Christian, who is preparing for baptism this week, our final lesson yesterday and he will have his interview this week. We have seriously only taught 4 lessons with him and it’s insane how prepared he was to receive the gospel.

         There is a teenager in our ward named Kevin, who went to serve in Honduras for a while but got a foot problem while he was there. So he returned and has been waiting for like 6months to finally have his surgery then return to the mission. Last week he finally had it and everything went well. The cool part of the story is that before the surgery my comp and I gave him a blessing and it was seriously so powerful to me. My comp said that it will be by your faith that these blessings are realized and it was just awesome because Kevin is such a strong and faithful person you could already feel that he would receive all the blessings. It was such a great experience and example for me.

         Finally this week we taught a drunk dude that like locked us in his backyard and proceeded to go nuts. He is like telling us crazy stories in his iffy English and made us start singing random American songs in English to him. At one point he is kissing my head and saying he can breathe my mind... ya it was one heck of an experience!  He really just needs friends so we can´t decide if we should continue visiting him or not :0)

         That’s about all for the week. I love you guys and hope everything goes well!! Thanks so much for all you do!

Elder Crump

 

Matthew's Zone - with Pres & Hna Spjut and Elder Ochoa

Mission life is the life for me.

Familia!!

         So this week was just the bomb. Every day you come home more tired than you could possibly imagine but it is so worth when you find that prime investigator!! Speaking of which we found one this week! His name is Christian and our first visit with him he asked, "So how soon can I get baptized?" Woot Woot!! So we were already preparing him for baptism and he is coming along very nicely. It’s pure awesomeness! His baptism is supposed to be in two weeks, so hopefully that all works out!

         My companion and I have three areas, one were we live, Cuidad Real, and two that are about 30 mins away walking that we try and visit every day. San Sebastian Saltrillo and the Rosario. The place we live is a lot nicer than the other two and it’s just crazy the contrast between the houses of each! I definitely had that culture shock moment when I walked into my first total dirt and tin sheet house! Awesome stuff though! Also, because we are opening new areas we are blessed to have a whole lot of investigators and our schedule is virtually always full! It’s the greatest!!

         We have been teaching a 19 year old guy named Daniel that lives with a member family and we have tried so, so hard to get him to go to church (He plays soccer every Sunday morning) and so we taught like five lessons with him all last week about the Sabbath Day, prayed for him a bunch and really thought we had put a spark in him to realize he needed to go... but he still didn´t come. It was really sad. I sure that’s just the first of many times that will happen on the mission :(

         This week I was reading a talk by Elder Bednar and it was talking about the atonement of Christ and how hard it was for Him. One of the biggest reasons for this was because of His love for us. Actually going through what we would go through was insanely hard, but what was also immensely difficult for Him was that He loves us so much and just the thought that we would have to go through what He was going through was harder than ever. It’s amazing how much He loves us. More than we can ever know. It’s just something to be grateful for!

         That’s about all for the week, you definitely don´t have much time to write down here! But life is great, its hard but worth it. I love my companion. He has 23 months but still works really hard and I am grateful for that. Down here I have really started to appreciate how much my family has taught me throughout my life. I have been so blessed to be raised in the family I was and I know I wouldn´t be anything near what I am today without them! Love you guys and have a great week!!

Elder Crump

One of his areas, San Sebastian Salitillo

San Sebastian Salitillo

 

Matthew's collar after a day's work.

A colony about an hour from his apartment.

With Elder Johansen.

El Primer Dia en el Campo...

Familia!

         I can’t believe my mission life has already started!! Boy how time flies! The drive over to Santa Ana was just grand... only took like three hours so that was nice! The first night we slept with the APs and had a very nice dinner in the President’s home. His house is like nicer than majority of the houses back in the states. Wednesday morning everything got started and I got my new companion and area!!

     My companion is Elder Johansen from guess where.... Riverton Utah!!! I actually knew him two years ago as a matter of fact! He ran Cross Country for Riverton and I remember playing Gator Ball with him numerous times back in school! He is one heck of an awesome guy and it has been such a blessing to be his companion! I will end up killing him because this is his last transfer... quite sad I know... but I am very grateful for these six weeks I will have with him! He is really motivated, speaks perfect Spanish, and can share a powerful testimony, so it's great!

    My new area is Tazumal in Chalchuapa. They just barely created the fourth area... Tazumal 4... so we have a whole bunch of new investigators already!! The people here are all really nice and I am excited to share the gospel with them. I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday, which was quite nerve racking but I think I did all right, so that’s good! I’ve slowly started teaching more and more of our lessons but its just really difficult to understand what the people are saying because they talk insanely fast and use a whole ish-load of slang words! But in time, probably a ton of time, I will understand what they are saying!!

   I don’t have much more time but I am super excited to be serving the people in my area and I know the gospel can change the lives of many of the families we have been talking to. I love sharing my testimony with them and I pray all the time for them! Hopefully the work continues to go well!! I am grateful for all the Lord has given me and am glad I can repay Him in a small way by serving a mission!! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Crump

 

Leaving the CCM district

Tazumal, Chalchuapa

New companion, Elder Johansen.
Matthew loves him!!

He's arrived!

We received the following email from Matthew's mission president and his wife, Ron & Gayle Spjut:

Dear Crump Family,

            We are happy to announce that your son, Elder Crump, has safely arrived to our mission, El Salvador Santa Ana. The night of his arrival, we enjoyed getting to know him during dinner at the mission home, and we can tell that he is going to be a great missionary. We are grateful for his and your sacrifices to allow him to be here. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will pour out his blessings upon your family. We are very happy to have your Son with us and we know he will bless the lives of many people here in the great country of El Salvador.

He has been assigned to the area of Tazumal 4 in the Chalchuapa Stake. His companion is Elder Johansen from Utah.  He is a determined, hardworking missionary who is diligent in the Lord´s work. We expect to see many miracles from this companionship.