Lago, Dates and More Miracles

Wowzers Family, another week has come and gone and well, like usual I have no time to write you guys!

We went to Lake Coatepeque for pday so we don’t have any time to write. The lake was super pretty and I really enjoyed going. It reminded me of all the beautiful nature back in Utah! It was just nice to relax and enjoy the day! 

This week went really well for us. My companion and I are getting along superb and are working hard. We talk a lot and are really open about how we feel about the work we are doing. We are having success in the area and things just keep rollin! This week we were also able to put a date with a kid named Franklin. His bro was less active and we just found them asking around one day. They both live in their own house because they got kicked out of their parent’s house. They are super normal kids but the interesting thing has been motivating Franklin to actually get up and do stuff. His life really is just fine, so it’s hard for him to find a need to change it. In general we teach people going through hard times in their lives, which makes it a lot easier. We have had to really dig down and find the blessings we can promise him to help him build up the desire to put his faith to work. It’s a challenge but I love it! 

Another sweet thing was three weeks ago I was riding in the bus and decided to talk to the guy sitting next to me. HIs name’s Melvin. Long story short, we finally found his house, turns out he knew missionaries before and didn’t want anything, knows a bunch of members and everything! It’s sweet because this week he went to church for the first time with his wife (or soon to be wife, haha) and so hopefully we can help them start to progress!

Last thing that was super cool for the week was that Jose got the Priesthood! It’s so cool to be there and just see the progress of converts! They are already enrolled in the Family Temple Prep class and it’s awesome!

That’s it folks, sorry for being short! Love ya all! PEACE!

Elder Crump

These are all of the pday hike to Lago Coatepeque with his companion, Elder Calero.

Visión de Bautizar

Family. You guys are awesome. Just thought I would let you know. The mission is awesome too. Just so you know, haha. We had changes this week and I got my new companion, Elder Calero from Masaya, Nicaragua! He has 18 months in the mission and is already one of my favorite comps. We get along super well and have already had some real sweet spiritual lessons! He has been a member all his life and also has a sister that’s older that went on a mission. So that’s cool too! I’m excited to work with him this change and I know we are going to have a lot of success!

This week was a little hard because Hna Esmeralda was going to be baptized Saturday but didn’t want to do it because of so much pressure from her family. Her family has been fasting and praying so she doesn’t do it, which makes it hard for her. They are doing literally everything possible so she doesn’t get baptized. We are trying to counter that with the members here and using them to support her so hopefully she can overcome it all and be baptized this week!

I slept for three hours Friday night sitting down at my desk trying to read “Jesus the Christ”. It’s a good book, I was just tired, haha.

Umm, well... we had a little council with President Spjut this week to talk about what we could do so that the mission can have more success, and what the real problem is for us as missionaries is that we focus too much on numbers and not on people. Missionaries start their day hoping to teach 4 lessons with a member just so that their leaders don’t get mad at them at night. Or so they can be on the leader board in the lessons count. But the mission doesn’t work like that. We baptized and we baptize for love of the people here. Everything we do is to be able to help people change. Not for our own glory, but for the glory of God. It’s taken me more than a year to understand that but I’m finally starting to grasp the concept!

I love you all so so much, and hope you can always live the gospel and find the happiness you need through it! I know this is the only true church on the earth and I’m so grateful to share that message with the people here! Have a marvelous week!

Elder Crump

 

Playing Tarzan last pday.

With his new companion, Elder Calero from Nicaragua.
No, Matthew is not a giant :0)

Mission Life 14-9-15

Hello once again family! Another week down and out and things just keep rollin’ here in Paraiso! Today in the afternoon we have a zone activity so I don’t have time to write... as usual, haha. But still some real sweet things happened so here it goes.

Jose got baptized on Saturday and we were able to complete his family, which was amazing! The missionaries have been teaching him almost 6 months now so it was truly a miracle that he was able to do it! He is such a pilas convert that even the Stake President came to the baptismal service! Haha. The family has fasted every weekend with us and we were all able to see the blessings for the sacrifices! Hopefully they can be to the temple a year from now!

Another true miracle this week was when I went on an interchange two weeks ago with an Elder that was having a lot of problems in his area so I went to help him out a bit. We went to an appointment really far away and the person wasn’t there and the Elder was super upset because he had nothing else planned.  So I just started looking around and walked a bit and found a guy playing football (soccer) and felt I should talk to him.  Turns out missionaries had taught him before but he didn’t want to be baptized. We taught him a lesson, he went to church that next Sunday, and now, two weeks later, I went and did his baptism interview. He passed it, and was baptized yesterday. It was crazy to see how fast people progress and how God literally directs us in every single step we take on the mission!

My companion and I ate a grand total of 56 pupusas this week!

Last thing for the week, tomorrow we have changes and my comp will be headed to his house so I’ll let you all know next Monday who my comp is! Elder Bonilla has taught me more than any other missionary here in the mission and it really has been a huge blessing to be with him for these 6 weeks!

That’s all folks, until next week! Love ya all!

Elder Crump

At Jose's baptism on Saturday.

Matthew, Jose & Elder Bonilla

Jose & his family.

The Paraiso Zone

El Tiempo del Señor…

Family, 

You guys are great. This mission is great. Life is great. Pretty much every week here is a new experience and this week didn’t let me down! We were able to baptized Bryan, had the date with Esmeralda fall, we were chapiando (hacking at weeds with a machete) for days and then ended the week by eating 4 consecutive dinners and feeling fat as ever! Haha, so overall it was a good time. My body never ceases to amaze me at how it wakes up in the morning when I’m so tired, but things just keep rolling!

Saturday we baptized Bryan, it was a really nice day, We went to lunch with him and his buddy, had the normal fried chicken like everyone eats here (like KFC, Grandpa, you would be in heaven here) and then went to the church for the service. Bryan is super shy so it was only us 2, him and his friend who is a recent convert and the president of the Young Men’s. Five people. It was super different to have nobody there but that’s how he wanted it! The nice thing was that it wasn’t stressful at all and we just had the baptism real quick and that was it! The thing with Bryan is that he understands the power of the Holy Ghost and that was one of the main reasons he wanted to be baptized. He understands all the temptations in his life right now and we helped him understand the importance of having that guide to choose the right. A lot of the people we teach focus all on being forgiven of your sins, which is good, but a lot of times we forget about the 4th step of the Gospel of Christ and how crucial it is that we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Bryan got that and already can feel the love and direction it brings in his life. It’s so awesome.

Another thing that went down is that the date of the Sister Esmeralda fell... but for the good of everyone. So the original plan was to baptize her on Sunday, and my comp was pushing her to no end to just do it. The problem is that I felt bad because I knew she wasn’t actually ready. Anyways, we were sitting there talking to her and my comp is just doing anything and everything so she will do it. We already had the pila (font) full and everything. And I just felt in my heart so strongly, that now is not the time, and I’m like ‘Hna Esmeralda, if you feel that you aren’t ready, don’t worry about it. We will continue to teach you and next week you can do it, don’t worry!’ My comp gave me that ‘I’m gonna kill you!’ look and I just kinda shrugged. But I knew it was what she needed. It’s so hard as missionaries to understand that the Lord’s time isn’t ours, and that he knows when people will be baptized. Esmeralda now has another week to get ready and understand a ton of things she didn’t know even though she was going to be baptized. Patience is a virtue, that is for sure! I just hope I will be able to apply that in life!

Last things is that we did service a bunch this week and on Saturday we were chapiando (hacking at weeds with a machete) and I was just going ham on this massive field of weeds as usual... so I’m going and going for like an hour and then all of a sudden my feet start to hurt and I look down and there is literally, no joke, a million ants ALL over my shoes and then BAM they start going up and up and up. So in no time at all, my entire body is covered in ants, like off a TV show. The best part? They are the ants that bite. Hard. So as soon as that happens I take my shoes off and run barefoot all the way back to the house, strip down and take a shower to get all the ants off. Needless to say, my entire body right now is covered in little red spots from all the bites, haha. It was seriously ridiculous! The good thing is they are starting to go away and I’m just fine. But, boy oh boy, was it was disaster to watch!

So that’s all for now, as always I’m bored of writing... sorry! But hope everything goes well for you guys! Love ya lots!

Elder Crump

With Dallen Howell, a great friend from high school.  Dallen is serving in the
San Salvador East Mission and they got to see each other last week when the three
missions from El Salvador met together to hear President Russell M. Nelson.
It was an exciting reunion!!

At Bryan's baptism.