Working Miracles with the Spirit

Wowzers... 9 months down and out people. The time we have as missionaries is oh so short. Sooo, this week was pretty.. normal to be honest but a normal week as a missionary is anything but normal compared to life back at home! So this week my companion and I have finally starting teaching lessons with the spirit and have made a little progress in testifying about our message to bring the spirit so thats really made me happy. My companion doesnt understand much of what a testimony is so its been fun to like help him create his own personal tesimony. The saying that your companion is your first convert 100% applies to me, but its awesome. So heres just a little bit more of what happened this week...On Friday we had interviews with President which are always fun. Before the mission I had heard a lot about how interviews usually go with president and stuff but let me tell you, President Spjut is like not normal at all, he doesnt care about your agenda, your area book or your telephone or anything, he just sits you down, asks you like two questions and its just like wow. The spirit is instantly there and you just feel so good. He leaves you with a lot of things you can improve but at the same time helps you feel so awesome and just know that you are called of God and have real power to help bring people to Christ. Im seriously SO grateful to have a President that loves me and can show me at the same time what I can do to improve.
So this week we were able to put dates with two older ladies in our area...
The first lady is named Orbelina and she is the Mom of a missionary that just got home a couple of weeks ago. The missionaries taught her a ton before the kid left and while he was on the mission but she never wanted anything with the church because she just said the church had takin her son from her. But a few weeks ago her son came home and had changed a lot. The lady could see the mission had helped him a ton and because of it now wants to be baptized! She learns everything super super slow and cant read so that makes it a tad rough but as long as everything works out fine she will be bapitzed the 10th of May at the end of the change! Its really the greatest feeling in the world knowing you are helping people progress towards making a covenant with God!
Also this week we put a date with another older lady named Cecilia. Cecilia has listened to the missionaries off and on for like 7 years and has literally never listened or cared because she was going to another church where they just talk badly about the mormons every two seconds. So anyway like a week ago we committed her to church although to be honest I had like no faith she would actually show up on Sunday, well, turns out she really wanted to come! She was there like thirty minutes early and loved the entire thing! On Friday we had a lesson with her in the church with a member and it was super HQ. It was one of the first lessons I have had with Elder Hernandez which the spirit was really strong and it was just so sick. We invited her to be baptized the same time has Orbelina and she accepted so, Primero Dios, as they say down here, we will have to baptisms the end of the change!
Thats about all that happened for the week... well actually not because I could be writing for days about everything that happened but I dont have time so until next time folks! Keep it real, never stop living the gospel and youll be happy! Have a fabulous week!
Love
Elder Crump

Umm, no description from Matthew - waterfalls somewhere?

Two daughters of the Familia Palma in Matthew's first area.
They had come for Stake Conference.

In front of his house...

The Temple :0)

Wow it’s insane that I’m now working on 9 months out here in El Salvador. Hooray for the mission being the greatest decision I have ever made in my life! So this week was another good one. We went to the temple, taught some pretty rad lessons on the BofM and were able to bring a solid number of people to church. So overall it was HQ.

So to start things off on Tuesday and Wednesday for the entire morning we went to the house of President of the Rama to help him move dirt. His house has been flooding with all of the rain we have had and so he has to do some major remodeling. So for like five hours the two mornings I shoveled dirt into a wheelbarrow and totally destroyed my poor little mission hands that haven’t done much manual labor in the past 9 months. So two days and 9 blisters later we finished and now President doesn’t have any flood problems. Yippee! Zacho, it totally reminded me of digging the hole for the tramp we did for Jeremy that one day. Fun stuff!

Another thing that was sweet this week was an ex missionary got home from his mission and his mom isn’t a member yet so we just started putting the pilas with her and she will have a date for the 10th of May. So that’s awesome. It’s just the coolest thing teaching the three of us because you can just feel so much power and the spirit gets so strong. The kid was a ZL so he knows how to teach a lot and he reads every day with his mom who’s hilarious. So if everything goes well she should be baptized the 10th! Her name is Orbalina.

We went to the temple this week to do an endowment session... We go like one every 6 months, which is quite rough... but anyway throughout the week I had been feeling super bad with the quality of our lessons and things with my companion and stuff so I was just waiting for the temple trip to help me out. So we went Thursday and went thru the whole session but I didn’t really feel that much better, until I was able to talk to Elder Jepson one of the friends out here that came in the same group as me. He said a lot of really cool things that helped me out a ton and made me realize the things that are actually important as a missionary. I was really stressed with the numbers here and things but then I realized it’s all not so important when we compare it to the love we have for the people and the obedience we show as missionaries. Then as we left the last room to change I just felt the best spiritual confirmation of love for my Savior and could feel that we was satisfied with the work I was doing. It was so beautiful. I LOVE temples. I can’t wait to go back in 6 months.

This week in the branch I gave my first talk ever in Spanish. The topic... obviously the BofM because it is the best thing in the world. I talked about my personal testimony of the book and how the people need to get their own to be able to share it with others. I felt the spirit a lot and think the majority of the people understood me. At least I hope so. So yeah that was fun. My Spanish is far from perfect but it’s slowly, but surely, getting there.

Just so you know, being a missionary here in a branch is seriously so so, so much different than in a normal ward. There’s like 6 priesthood holders in the whole branch so they need our help to do so many things throughout the week. Like be guards for the seminary kids for example. My entire outlook on the organization of the church has changed being here in a branch and has made me appreciate the worthy priesthood holders that I have always had in my life. Because here there just aren’t many at all.

So that’s all I have time for. Hope everything goes well for you guys this week. I know this church is true and there ain’t no doubt about it! 

Elder Crump

With Elder Hernandez at the San Salvador Temple.

A bonus to the San Salvador temple trip - a stop at McDonalds :0)

The earth mover :0)

Patience...

Heeelllloooooo Family!!

Well as crazy as it seems, it’s Monday again and so it seems it’s time to write a few things that have happened...

So my new area is SUPER different than from were I came and it’s really starting to hit me what these next months are gonna be like. Sunday there was a grand total of 61 people in the branch and it was the weirdest thing I had seen... Every sacrament meeting I have ever been in has had like 150 people at least, so to have a meeting with like 60 people was a real shocker for me. The people in the branch are really nice and like working with the missionaries so that’s sweet. I’ve already started to love some of the members here and so I’m slowly but surely starting to make it feel like home (Nahuizalco haha).

This week I dropped all but three of the investigators that the missionaries were teaching before so we were contacting references and knocking on doors a whole bunch throughout the days. We were able to find a 22-year-old kid named José whose mom is member and has heard some things about the church. He explained to us that he has attended a ton of churches throughout his life, including like satanic churches, but he doesn’t feel like he’s found the true church of God. So obviously I’m like, ‘Well, have you have been to the LDS church??’ He’s like, “Well no...’,  So needless to say he is committed to church this next week and I know if he puts forth his part he will gain a testimony of the church and be baptized. Yippee :)

One of the hardest things for me right now is the fact that I now can’t eat free pupusas every night and here in Buena Vista they seriously don’t sell Pupusas at all. It’s the worst. So I have now painfully suffered a grand total of like 13 days without Pupusas. Hard to imagine I know.

So my companion is a convert of a year and has really been struggling to be a missionary. He has 3 months here in the mission and just finished his training for new missionaries but President is pretty much having me train him all over again because he has tons to learn and still can’t really teach much. So it’s been a bit of a trial and, boy oh boy, have I learned a new meaning of the word patience. But it’s all good and I know I’ll be learning things that will help me out the rest of the mission, as well as the rest of my life. We do practices like all morning long to improve his teaching so hopefully we can see some changes this week in the quality of our lessons and stuff!

That’s about all I have time for this week but thanks for all your support and keep being faithful members of the church! If you aren’t reading the BofM I’m sure Cam will be there to make sure its happenin but seriously. READ IT. It’s the greatest book in the world. Love you guys!

Elder Crump

I really don't know who the elders are in these two pictures.  I assume that the second picture is of Matthew's newest companion, Elder Hernandez.

Welcome Back...to Chalchuapa!

Well... welcome back to Chalchuapa Elder Crump!

Buena Vista, Chalchuapa is my new area! I seriously can’t believe I’m back in Chalchuapa again! There are literally a whole ton of areas in the mission and it’s insane that I was called back to Chalchuapa were I started out! Only thing is I know that there are people waiting for me here so I’m gonna give it everything I’ve got to be able to find them! It’s a branch here of about 70 people and the area is pretty small. It’s been super weird for me because the other areas I’ve had were massive and branches with like 180 people each week. My area is just outside the actual city of Chalchuapa and it’s just like a normal suburb area, the streets are all dirt and stuff but the houses are almost all brick or cinder block, so you could say it’s a little nicer housing than where I was in Pushtán.

My companion is Elder Hernandez from Nicaragua and he’s just starting out his mission. He was actually the companion of Elder Barrios in the CCM who I just finished training... He’s a little bit young but he likes to work hard so things should be just fine. He’s a recent convert of a little over a year and so he doesn’t understand a lot of the doctrine yet and can’t teach much either but it’s a great chance I have to teach him while I’m teaching the people in my area at the same time!

So saying goodbye to all the people in Nahuizalco was literally one of the hardest things I have done in my entire life. We only have one day to say goodbye to everyone so last Tuesday was the day to do it. We went to the family Cruz first, which are two of my converts Diana and Daniela and it was super emotional for some reason. The whole family was just like crying the entire time and it made me fell real sad. But they gave me a tie and told me some really nice things and stuff so that was awesome. We went to Jose Sanchez, which is a guy we reactivated and is now preparing for the mission. He was extremely grateful for the time we took to help him out and that made me feel awesome as well. We visited the Hna Blanca, which was hard for me because I love that family a ton and have spent so much time with them, but such is mission life as well. Pretty much the whole day I was just so sad but I know it’s just how life in the mission is. The hardest was saying bye to the Familia Tadeo, which is a recent convert family that just treats the missionaries so well. They make you feel like you are just members of their family and are literally there for any little thing you need. Every time I entered their home I could feel the spirit and they always brought a smile to my face. I bought a sweet plaque thing for them that said ¨Familia Tadeo Una Familia Eterna¨ and they loved it. The Hna Tadeo just sat there and cried for like 6 minutes solid. What I learned at the end of the day was that I really had come to love the people of Nahuizalco. Every single night I prayed to gain a true love for the people and I know I was able to get it in the end. I felt so sad leaving and being in my new area because I had just missed everyone in Nahui so much, but I know I now have to focus on loving the people here in Buena Vista.

The General Conference was SO awesome and there were so many talks that I just loved. It’s pretty much impossible to say my favorite but I’m pretty sure the talk that Pres. Eyring gave in the Priesthood session was my favorite. As missionaries we literally have to do everything possible to have the spirit with us every single second because it is so crucial for us to have the success we want. His message was so powerful and just really hit me hard to strive my very best to have the spirit with me in every thing I do. And it almost always starts with your thoughts, so this week I’m going to focus on keeping my thoughts as pure as possible to better have the spirit with me.

That’s all the time I’ve got this week but pretty much I love being a missionary even though its super hard at times, its worth it. I’m excited to work back here in Chalchuapa and know I will be able to find people waiting for the blessings of the gospel! Have a marvelous week family! Love you!

Elder Crump

"Saying goodbye to the Familia Bran, a family that literally lives on tortillas and beans every single day because they have nothing else to eat. But, boy oh boy, are they humble!"

"Saying goodbye to the Familia Cruz... Diana and Daniela were my converts and they just were crying like the whole hour I was there to say goodbye. Even the dad couldn't stop. It was a rough time for me."

Hna Blanca and her family.

Cake from the Familia Tadeo.

Familia Tadeo - "Familias Son Eternas"