My Personal Testimony

Well family… I really don’t have a whole lot of time today to write but that’s ok, I’ll tell you a few of the things that happened real fast.

First things first, we put a date with Vitalino this week which was totally awesome. My comp and I literally just ran into this guy one day walking back to Ciudad Real from La Reina. We walked by him and were like, “What the heck, we will just talk to him a bit as we are going in the same direction.” Three lessons later, he has a date, is living all the commandments and is totally ready to be baptized. It’s legit. I have no doubt whatsoever that God is preparing people for us to teach everyday. I am definitely so grateful for the blessings we receive as missionaries!!

Also this week we visited my convert Christian and we watched a movie clip about missionary work and such and he’s pretty much set in stone on serving. Just as long as his girlfriend doesn’t get in the way, haha. But really, before the mission that was one of the things I really wanted, to baptize a young man that could go on to serve a mission. It’s just so, so cool to think of the chain of events that happen when you baptize somebody. They baptize a bunch of people. Those people go on to baptize people and so forth. It’s so sweet.

There are a few guys in the ward that use wheelchairs and for some reason it’s our job as missionaries to take care of Sundays and make sure they get to the church, which is awesome. It’s really nice to get the feeling of serving people and stuff. But anyway yesterday we ran into one of the guys that lives in La Reina, which is a pretty poor area. We run into this guy and ask him if he needs help. He says yes and we start pushing him around town to get the things he needs. About 45 minute later we finish and started talking to this guy more about his life. He literally eats the same thing every day and what we did in 45 mins usually takes him like 4 hours to do because he can barely push himself. His house is puny and is super, super dirty. But above all that, he is literally one of the most happy people I have ever seen. Like every other sentence he says, “But it’s ok Elders, the Lord has blessed me with more than you guys know and my life is so amazing” and things like that. It’s super humbling seeing people like that.

Last thing I wanted to share this week was about my personal testimony. I have thought a lot about how strong my individual testimony is and I came to the conclusion that really growing up, I used the testimony of my parents and leaders a whole lot more than I actually realized. When I left I thought I had a decent testimony of the gospel and a majority of the doctrine. But in reality my testimony was practically nothing. Out here on the mission you have to testify of things a bunch and it’s helped my testimony grow a bunch. And I can’t even imagine where my testimony would be without coming out here on the mission. I had heard that it would help me a lot but until now I hadn’t realized what a blessing it is to be able to serve as a missionary and be able to build your own personal testimony. Our testimony is something we strive to strengthen our entire life but these two years out here on the mission are like 20 years of growth all packed into two years. It’s awesome. I wish I could expound more but I have like no time. Hope you guys all have a marvelous week. You all are the best!

Love ya

Elder Crump