Helaman's Mighty Men . . .: Learning Quickly

Well. I’m currently enjoying the fact that I played soccer for two hours, my shirt is completely covered in sweat, I smell terrible and am squeezed in here between two sisters that are surely enjoying the odor, hahaha. But at least I get the blessing to write you all another week, so it’s all good!

So this week was superb, it was filled with a lot of hard things to accept but as always, they were necessary. Elder Calero and I were able to bring three new people to church this week that hadn’t happened before so that was awesome. The best part was the fact that César went. He is a guy that lived in the States for 30 years, speaks English and got deported. Right now he is living with a younger girl and they aren’t married yet. The awesome thing about César is that he is literally always happy. No matter what. We see him and he just shouts WHATS UP MY BROTHAS! I LOVE YOU MAN! Haha. I’m even sitting behind the sacrament table in church this week and he walks in a little late and started calling me to get my attention, it was hilarious! But anyways, the cool part about César is that we taught him the First Vision and he’s like, ‘Bro, you won’t believe me but I totally saw this before in a dream I had while I was in prison before I got deported! I totally believe this!!' So that’s sweet because he believes in Joseph Smith, loves the church and has a ton of friends already. The only problem is the marriage issue so that’s what we will work on this week!

The lesson that I learned this week was a good one. There’s a guy in our ward that’s the husband of our cook. So every lunchtime I always chat with him. His name is Pedro and he served his mission here in El Salvador. So the eternal truth I learned while we were chatting is this. God gives us trials in life to learn. If we choose to learn quickly, the trials can end quickly. If we choose to be stubborn and not learn the lesson, he has to drag the trial out. It’s something that is very simple but just something that had never really hit me before. For example, we haven’t had much success in our area that past few weeks, does God want me to have success, of course! But he puts trials so I learn. If I learn the principle in a week, in a week I can have people to teach. If it takes a whole month, in a month I will be blessed with more people. So my invitation for you all is to just take a look at the trials you have in life, and what you should be learning from them. If you choose to be a quick learner, well, things will pass by faster, and you’ll be happy faster!

This week we had a Multi Zone Conference were I got my flu shot given by the AP, Elder Long. He’s my pal. The crazy thing was that it was the first shot he had ever given in his life... well no wonder my arm hurt so bad the entire week, haha! But the Thanksgiving dinner we had was sweet because I got to eat turkey...not even close to the Gpa Crump turkey, but I had to make do. The other cool thing was that Elder Craig was there so we got to chill for the day there!

Well fam, you’re great. Love ya all. Don’t ever stop being true members of the church, living every single commandment God has given us! SALU PUES!

Elder Crump