Bye Bye Nahui Wowhui!

         Well it’s official folks, I’m headed out of Nahuizalco! We got the news this week so I’ll get sent to my new area this Wednesday when we figure everything out about changes and stuff! I’m a little nervous, but really it will be good for me. I’m super sad to leave a bunch of people here in Nahui, especially in Pushtán. The people here are literally so loving and it makes me depressed knowing I will never see them again! But I know there are people waiting for me wherever I end up! So I’ll let you know next week where I go! Meanwhile, here’s a few things real quick that happened this week.

         Well, this week something really sad happened with the Hna Blanca... so on Tuesday we went to see how she had been doing and within like 2 minutes she was just bawling her eyes out.. Well, there are some family things that she’s really sad about... So yeah. It was a rough moment hearing how sad she was and just sitting there with no idea in the world what to say! It’s really so hard for her because she has 7 kids and has like 0 time to work so if she has to support her family it will be real hard.  I’m literally so sad for her and praying for her a ton. So prayers in her behalf would be appreciated. Hardest thing is that I know have to go say bye to her right in the middle of the trial she is having... But luckily she’s been praying and reading the BofM so I know everything will turn out ok in the end.

         Diego is all out for his baptism next week but it’s rough because I won’t be there to see it!

         It’s literally been so hot here it’s unreal. I come home at night dripping sweat and all my clothes are 100 percent soaked. It’s ridiculous!

         So the miracle of the week was that we were able to bring a family from Pushtán to church and they loved it. They are named David and Alicia.  They are recently married, or got together rather, we will have to marry them... but they have the vision which is the greatest thing ever. They understand the necessity of being baptized and get that they need to be progressing to achieve that. I’m like 99% sure they will be baptized next change so that made me really happy this week.

         Also, we contacted a guy that looked super sad in the street last week, he ended up coming to church and now has a date, which is so sick. He has had problems with drinking but hasn’t had a drink in a week and a half so that’s pretty rad. Only bad part... well he lives in the other area of Nahui, come to find out, so we had to pass the reference along.

         Well, that’s like all I have time for but just know everything is going just fine and I’m loving it down here. The days are anything but easy but each night I get home knowing I have helped families progress a little closer to salvation and that makes it all worth it! Hopefully you all have a fantastic week! Love you all so, so much!

Elder Crump

Zona Nahuizalco

With a young man who is preparing to be a missionary.
Matthew is very tall and the future missionary is very short.

Two of Blanca's boys eating mangoes.

Another pday trip to Golondrinera.

With Eliseo and
Nahuizalco in the background.

The end of Nahui? (Nahuizalco is the city I'm in as of today, but things may change this week.)

Howdy Family Crump! It’s always such a joy to write you guys each week! I don’t have much time at all today but I’ll try and let you know a few things that happened...

- So this week ended super rough because we weren’t able to baptize Diego. He lives with his Dad who had told us the whole time that he supported Diego’s decision and everything, but then all of a sudden he’s being a little rough on us and doesn’t want to let Diego be baptized until the 12th so he can supposedly have enough money to buy him a white shirt... Idk, it made me really sad and stuff, but I know everything is in the hands of the Lord so we are just letting things play out as they need to...

- The Fam Bran weren’t able to go to church this week but they are progressing slowly but surely. They are all reading the Book of Mormon and stuff so I’m sure they will be baptized. The only thing is that who knows if I’ll stay in my area for this coming change to be able to baptize them! We will just have to wait and see!

- Every type of chip here that the people eat is like Doritos or Cheetos. Nothing else. Just so you know.

- While being a missionary I’ve literally turned into one of the world’s best marriage counselors. Practically every day I talk to a family that has a million problems but it’s awesome to help them use the gospel in their lives to sort out the problems. Recently we had problems with a family, they started just praying as a family is all, and boom, all their problems are solved! It’s awesome!

- The coolest thing for the week was that we had one of the most powerful kneeling prayers I have ever had in my life. We are teaching a guy named Daniel and it was pouring rain but we told him to pray with us about Joseph Smith after watching the Restoration video and the spirit just rushed into the room.  It was amazing. Spiritual confirmations like that are what make the mission so worth it.

Sorry I don’t have any more time this week, I’ll try and do better next week but hopefully everything is going just fine for you guys. I love you all so, so much and hope you guys always do your best to live the gospel in your life! Have a great week!

Love

Elder Crump

Pictures:

Familia Tadeo & Familia Tesorero, two families we have been teaching a lot and have grown to love as much as my own family.  They are less actives and recent converts but are really starting to see the blessings of living the gospel in their lives!  The people here are some of the most kind and giving people ever!

Miracles, Miracles and More Miracles

         Well hello there family! Always such a pleasure to write you all each week and let you know of the many blessings we receive as missionaries and the things I have learned. Every day I wake up and say, "It’s a great day to be a missionary!!" (Dad you’ll get that joke hopefully) haha, in reality it’s so true though. It’s such a great blessing I have to be serving the Lord here in El Salvador and to be able to witness the many ways the Lord works miracles in our lives. My companion and I don’t always have the best of days or the success one would like but we are always able to see the Lord working on our side and the help he gives us to grow spiritually. Here’s the weekly list of some of the stuff that went down...

         So about the “family in the middle of nowhere” we found last week. They are named the Familia Bran and live in a place called Cuzamaluco that is 35 minutes away from Nahuizalco in pickup and a good hour and a half walking. We found them last Saturday and it was such a miracle about how we were able to come upon them. The bishop tells us that a family had come up to them Sunday outside the church to ask if they have a Bible or something they can use to study.... So he tells us we should go visit the Familia Bran in Cuzamaluco.  Well, I had been there before and so I told him we would go and check it out. Only thing is, there is literally like 75 people in this town with the last name of Bran and I had no idea how we would find them.  So we take the pickup in the morning to go see and as we get off the pickup and starting hiking the mountain to get to the town we realize behind us was a family walking the same way we were.  So we starting contacting them, well you guessed it, they were the family we were looking for! It was such amazing they just happened to be in the same pickup as us and that we were guided to leave at the exact hour we did. So anyways, these past few weeks we have been going clear out there to teach them and they have some doubts about a second baptism but are reading the LDM (Libro de Mormón) and coming along great. All five of them were able to go to church this Sunday and it just made me so happy seeing them learning about the gospel there! We are hoping to be able to put a date with them to be baptized next month! Only sad thing is I’m almost sure I’ll be leaving Nahuizalco at the end of the month... Hopefully not though!

Random Things...

- This last week all of the missionaries were given cell phones and it’s just been the best thing ever to finally be able to call people when we are out and about and it’s been such a blessing to speed the work of the Lord here in El Salvador!

- Super random... I have had the biggest craving ever for Root Beer these past few weeks. They don’t sell the delicious beverage here in El Salvador and I miss it a lot.

- Thanks to all you guys for your prayers in behalf of my back.  This week I was able to sleep the full 8 hours in the night for the first time in like 3 months. It’s so great!

- Elder Salmons and I (My zone leader) made at least 100 grilled cheese sandwiches for the Relief Society anniversary this week. Thanks to Mom’s good teaching the whole world loved our cooking abilities and all want to learn how to cook more American food. I just told them I would LOVE to show them and eat it sometime with them so we don’t have to eat rice and tortillas all the time, haha!

         So another miracle that happened this week was with a little kid we have been teaching named Diego Alfaro. He’s a crazy little kid that loves playing soccer and his little play station but is super nice and always willing to listen to us. So Mom sent me a little Plan de Salvación picture set to use with investigators and it came to great use to help teach Diego and he totally understood his purpose here on Earth and what he needs to do to reach the Celestial Kingdom now. He will be baptized this Sunday if everything goes well and it’s made me so happy. In the last lesson we had we finished teaching and we asked him if he had any questions for us... He’s like, ‘No but I just want to tell you how much I love you guys and am really grateful you come to visit me. You guys help me learn about God so I can live with God again and my family. Please don’t ever stop coming because I love when you come.’ It just made me feel so great inside and I left the lesson with the biggest smile on my face. Last Saturday he asked me to baptize him and so once again this Sunday, as long as everything works out, I’ll be able to dress up in all white again! What a true blessing it is to be a servant in the Lord’s hands and help people do the things necessary to enter in God’s kingdom!

         I could write for days about all the miracles I see every day but sadly I don’t have any time left but I hope all of you guys have a great week and are able to see the many miracles God works in our lives each and every day! Keep reading the Book of Mormon and everything will end up just fine!

Les amo mucho!!!

Elder Crump

 

The trail to Cuzamaluco.

Cuzamaluco

Matthew & Elder Chacon . . . hangin' out at the church.

Zona Nahuizalco after a soccer game at the church.
His companion, Elder Barrios, is at the top,
far left end.

Hooray for Baptisms! :0)

Well another week down and out here in good ole Nahuizalco and this week was definitely one of the most exciting and spiritual ones I have had here! It has really helped me see the vision we need to have as missionaries and how we can help others gain a testimony of the restored gospel... so here are a couple of things that happened...

Friday we had a MultiZona, which means that like half of the zones in the mission all get together and we get some real HQ instruction from President and his wife. It was such a powerful meeting and the spirit was so strong there it was amazing. We are doing a total overhaul of things here on the mission and focusing a ton on finding and baptizing families. Like half of the numbers we report each night is regarding families and it really makes me happy that we are pushing the work towards creating eternal families. So one of the things that is a big rule now is that every single family we see, no matter what or where we are, we talk to them and try to visit them. It’s really been great to start doing and I know we are going to start seeing a difference here in the mission. To end the MultiZona Hna Spjut gave a fantastic talk about being cheerful and why it’s so important to find happiness as missionaries. She used the example of her daughter who just finished serving her mission and showed us some of the letters she would write home. It was insane how positive and happy she was in every single letter. Not a single thing she wrote was negative. It really helped motivate me to work hard but at the same time, just be happy. I get too stressed sometimes and forget how important it is to just be joyful. So that’s something I’m gonna really be working hard to do....

So Saturday was really one of the best days I have had here on the mission... first of all we found a family out in the middle of nowhere but that are so, so positive it’s unreal. The way we were able to find them and everything was so special and a total miracle but I’m gonna write about all of that next week because I don’t have very much time to write this week... so anyway the best part of all on Saturday was the baptism. We were able to baptize two girls we have been teaching and preparing for like 5 weeks, Diana and her sister Daniela. Diana is the girl that received an answer about the Book of Mormon and from there was progressing a lot (see last week’s letter). The actual service was so, so perfect and the spirit was just overwhelming. The young women sang the song, ‘I know when I am baptized’, which I totally love and still remember my sister singing it when we were little. But then the best part was when Diana gave her testimony at the end of the meeting. She gave one of the most powerful testimonies I have heard and it brought me so much joy it’s like literally impossible to describe. She talked about how she read the Book of Mormon and got on her knees and just felt a pure love of Christ.... When she sat down I couldn’t help but have the biggest smile on my face. In our mission calls it talks about how we are promised to have more joy then we have ever felt in our life and Saturday night I definitely saw that promise happen. Just hearing a testimony of a convert gave me so much joy and has helped me push myself even harder to have another experience exactly the same.

I have ZERO doubts that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and that the work I am doing here in Nahuizalco is the Lord’s work. The Book of Mormon has so much power and the very act of opening the book just brings tons of blessings for us. I’m finally starting to truly love the mission and hearing the first testimony of one of my investigators has helped me to understand that it’s such a blessing I have to bring this gospel to other sons and daughters of God! Have a fabulous week family!

Elder Crump

 

Daniela & Diana

An actual soccer field Matthew gets to play on when they go to Juayua.

Diana & Daniela's baptism.
Family and the Zone Leaders