Helaman's Mighty Men . . .: 6. Months.

I will legitimately be completing 6 months in the mission this week. Where the heck has the time gone! It’s really helped me realize how much I need to give it all I have for these short 2 years I have to serve the Lord! So this week was a rough one as well but there have been lots of blessings that I have had, so here are some of them..

So Monday of last week was one of the hardest days in the mission I have had, BUT the next Tuesday in the morning I was so, so blessed to have the best Zone Mtg in the mission I have ever had. We had the assistants to the President come and they taught a lot of really powerful stuff. My favorite part though was when they started teaching about love and the different types of love we need to have. It just helped my heart feel so strong about the love I truly have for my Heavenly Father and that everything I am doing here on the mission is to give back for what he has done for me. The end of the mtg we watched a movie that just brought me to tears. It showed all the things we, as normal Mormon families do to raise kids in the gospel, and that literally everything I did growing up was preparing me for these two years. Every primary class every Sunday class, mutual temple trips, everything. The movie was made perfect for me at that very moment and I felt so blessed because Heavenly Father blessed me with exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

Another sweet thing that happened this week was that we were walking down a street we hardly know outside of Nahuizalco, just looking for people that needed the gospel. As what usually happens we came upon a drunk man that started talking to us. Almost always we just say ‘good to meet you’ and leave. But for some reason this time I said, “Hey can you take me to your family??” and he’s like, sure! So we walk with him a little ways and come upon this old guy’s property. Like four golden families that are all willing to listen to us. It was so awesome. Hopefully we will be able to baptize some of them in the coming month, but it really was such a blessing to be guided by the spirit to find such ready families.

This Sunday the other companionship that works in the same area as us and that we are super close to had a sweet miracle. They literally had a lady come up to them outside the church and say I want to be baptized. It was so awesome for them but obviously for me I felt a little jealous because they have had a ton of miracles this week, put a lot of dates and my comp and I still don’t even have one date. So I was reading in PMG that night, feeling a little jealous, and read in Christ-Like attributes about humility. It says ¨The opposite of humility is pride, and pride is competitive¨ Yikes. That sure hit me hard. Really, as missionaries we are just one big team working for the Lord and need to be supportive, not competitive. Lesson learned? Yup!

Finally this week I was at a member’s house that I am really close to named Familia Martinez. They are working really hard to be sealed this year but have run into a whole bunch of problems that are holding them back. The dad has problems with coffee and they can’t get a habit of paying their tithing... so we were there two nights ago and the Mom was in tears because they just couldn’t see themselves being able to reach their goal of being sealed in the temple. So I then started testifying to them of how I knew God had a plan for them and that in His time they would be able to enter into the temple. Which was super powerful, but then I told them, “I love you guys, and I’m gonna do everything I can to help you guys reach your goal.” I don’t know why, but it was the first time I have told someone here I love them and it just struck me so hard. I really do love this family. And I want to help them so badly. I’m constantly struggling to develop love for people here in El Salvador and it was such a blessing to realize I had finally done it. I loved this family and really cared, from the bottom of my heart, that they can be sealed. So... this week I’m going to be working real hard to develop a true love for the other people we visit here in Nahuizalco.

That’s all I have time for but thanks so much for your prayers and love. You guys are the best family in the world. Thanks to some of the members in the ward that sent me letters in the mail this week. As a missionary it’s sooo great to get mail from loved ones. This week I have really been missing the temple and have wanted to go so badly so if all you guys can go once for me, that would be savvy... I promise you will be blessed for it!

Love you guys all so, so much!

Elder Crump