Easter Weekend

Hello there family!

This week went by so incredibly fast that, too be honest, I don’t even remember what happened.

We did go to the temple with all our investigators, which was sweet. The whole town of Atiquizaya was in fiestas because of Semana Santa. They make super cool sand drawings all over in the streets, but I didn’t have my camera until the nighttime so the pictures didn’t really turn out that well. It’s super different how they celebrate Easter here but at least they are remembering Christ when they do it! We continue to teach a lot of different people and are having a good amount of success. We hope to be able to put a few baptism dates this week with people that are going to church and reading the BofM.

Just something really quick that I liked this week. I was studying with my companion about the importance of the Book of Mormon in missionary work and why our testimony is so critical. He has never read the BofM before so we are dedicating a ton of time to reading it so that he can be able to testify to others. While reading it he just gets so happy for every new scripture he finds that he can share with other people and it’s really helped me a lot. A lot of times I read and it’s just like, ya I already knew about that verse. Heard that before. But it’s just motivated me so much to have that joy of finding scriptures for the first time. Having that hunger to learn new things and be enlightened by the Spirit. I know the majority of you guys have read the same scripture in the BofM 100+ times but if you can just think of the very first time you discovered those things, your daily experience while studying really changes. The stories and words in the book may be the same, but our lives are never the same, and that’s what matters most.

Wednesday we were in the street and a guy was pushing his car up the road, so obviously we decided to help him out a little. So he put one foot inside the driver’s seat, with one foot outside to push, and my comp and I pushed from the back. So we start pushing super hard and the car gets going. The problem was that the guy couldn’t keep up with how fast the car was going and didn’t jump in the car in time. So he like leaps to get in, doesn’t make it at all and cans it in the middle of the road (luckily the car didn’t run him over).  But the car just started hauling and we couldn’t do anything to stop it. So it went up the curb and ran into an electric post. Luckily it didn’t make that big of a dent. My comp then runs over to help the guy get up but then just falls over again. And I’m just standing there like wow, what good helpers we are! Haha. 

I can’t wait this weekend to be able to listen to all the General Conference talks. I hope you guys all prepare yourselves to receive personal revelation in your lives. We are the only church with living apostles on the earth so we better take advantage of it!

Love you all!!

Elder Crump

Here are a few general pictures of Atiquizaya:

Playing hockey on pday.

Chalk Street Drawing in Atiquizaya.

More chalk drawings.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives.

“I know that my redeemer lives, what comfort this sweet sentence gives.” Man, I just love that song so very much.

So this week we had a meeting with Elder Duncan, the area 70 and he taught us a ton of new things to put in practice as missionaries. He is such a spiritually dedicated man and lives the law of consecration perfectly. But at the end of the meeting we watched a slide show of just pictures of the life of Christ, while the song “I know that my redeemer lives” was playing. I just felt the most peaceful feeling in my heart and it was amazing. I just had been so stressed about life and just having that feeling was perfect. This Easter time we have the duty, as members of the church, to testify to everyone around us about the truths we have regarding the Atonement of Christ. So many people have no idea all the doctrine we know, about what Christ did for us, so we just need to share it!

This week while I was on interchanges with Elder Laing, we needed to go visit a lady who just lives with her two daughters but we couldn’t because she was alone. So we went to go find a member to go with us but couldn’t find anyone. We finally found a guy but he is a little... different. We decided to take the risk though and left with him to go visit this lady. We knock on the door of the sister who comes out to say hi to us. Elder Laing whispers to me, I hope he doesn’t do anything crazy! Well, tough luck. The very first thing the guy says when he meets the girl investigator was ¨No wonder you are a little fat, it’s because you are always eating!!¨ hahahaha Elder Laing and I just died. It was like how the heck did that come to his mind!?! The lady was super surprised and just didn’t know what to say. Needless to say, the lesson didn’t go too well but it’s just funny how people are sometimes here.

Other than that, life is good. My son is learning a lot and its fun to teach him. Converts are some of the greatest companions and I am grateful for the chance I have to be with him. He has already taught me a lot.

I always run out of time but, until next time folks. Testify of Christ. It’s a commandment!

Love you all

Elder Crump

Making some pizza with a member in the ward.

A drawing by a missionary - look at it closely...

Hanging out with his "homies".

6 Free Laminas Please...

Elder Crump, checking in here from Atiquizaya, land of the classic El Salvador cities, where all the streets and houses look exactly the same. An area extremely difficult to open up because you can get lost in two seconds, haha. Such is life now in the mission!

This week went really well for my new comp and me. My son is ELder Ordoñez from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. My second chapin (Guatemalan) son, haha. He is a convert from 2 years ago but is super sweet. He is a little shy but loves to talk, mess around and play soccer so things are just great! We are working hard and are already seeing miracles here in Manantiales. So I guess I’ll just tell you about two things that happened this week, one of course has to be something funny, the other more spiritual. So here it goes,

The spiritual: Yesterday we had like an hour before we needed to go to an appointment we had and I am just sitting there thinking, four days of just knocking doors has just about killed me, so I’m just going to go look for a less active. I tried as best as I could to listen to the Spirit to understand were we needed to go and who we should go look for. We had already gone to look for a lady named Ruth yesterday but that’s where I felt we needed to go. In my mind I’m like, ‘You just went yesterday, you can go again another day!’ But I felt like that’s where we need to go! So we went and the lady wasn’t there, but next door we found a teenager that turned out to be her son, who hasn’t gone to church in a few months. I talked to him a sec and then asked what his friend’s name was that he was sitting with. So we met Bryan, who’s 16 and has desires to change his life and be baptized, because he has never done it before. We are going to go back to teach him tomorrow but it was so awesome to really strive for the guidance of the Spirit, receive it, and then see the blessings!

So, the funny thing that happened this week.  We were out contacting on Friday and, as always, we were handing out little cards about the church. One of the cards has six little pictures of the life of Jesus Christ so that’s the one I gave to this guy, and we left, planning to come back the next day. So we go back the next morning and he has seats waiting for us and he’s just super happy to see us. I’m just super stoked and thinking he’s a golden investigator for sure. So after talking a bit he’s like, ‘I have a question...I’m like go for it... He says, ¨you guys gave me a card that says on the back, (Have 6 free laminas of Jesus Christ as a token of our gratitude) Or something like that... so he says, ‘When can I have those 6 laminas...?’ (a lamina is just like a picture).  So I tell him that we don’t have them with us right now but if he goes to the temple with us, that we can buy a few for him there! He’s just like, ‘I have to go all the way to San Salvador just to get these laminas???’ I said yes, you do! Then something came to my mind and I ask him, ‘What kind of laminas are you thinking of receiving?’  He says, ‘Laminas to build my house obviously!!’ Hahaha! So here people make their houses of lamina, which are like 6 feet long metal sheets that they nail to sticks to make their house. So when the guy read on the little card we gave him, that we had a gift of 6 free laminas of Jesus for him, he thought we were going to give him 6 laminas from Jesus, so that he could make himself a small house....slight misunderstanding, haha! Needless to say he wasn’t interested in the message of the restoration.

Well that’s all family. Stay classy. Stay active. Be witnesses of Christ at all times!

Love you all,

Elder Crump

The baptism of Bryan in Nahuizalco the day Matthew left.
A year ago he baptized Bryan's mother.

With the Ward Mission Leader and his wife in Atiquizaya.

Matthew's new companion, Elder Ordonez from Guatemala.

Atiquizaya Here I Come

Ahh...looks like I’m headed to my last area of the mission! I’m going to Manantiales 2, opening area and training a newbie! Its gonna be sweet to have a second son! I am honestly super sad to leave Nahui again. I love this place so much. The culture, the people, and my converts just make it the best place in the world. It really hurts to leave. But at least I had the blessing of coming back here for a few weeks time!

So this week was pretty great, we just worked extremely hard and were able to see a ton of miracles in our area. We were able to put another baptism date for next Saturday with a girl who’s dad we were able to reactivate. He was a member forever ago but started drinking and has had a ton of problems for over ten years. Recently he felt the need to look for God again and well, all of his family aren’t members. The only downside is that I won’t be able to be at her baptism. 

We found a guy in the middle of nowhere on Friday that is a member, inactive for like ten years.  It was funny because we taught him a little, but you could tell he was a little odd. He lives in Pushtán and is like Indian. So anyway he is going to say the prayer to finish and he stands up and comes to us and says ¨Padre Eterno en el nombre de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Dias, bendigame para siempre.¨ So then every time throughout his prayer he would say the name of Jesus Christ, of the Latter Day Saints. All he could remember from the time he was active was that in the church we had renamed Jesus Christ as ¨Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints¨ and he considered it sacred to say the name... so he would just repeat that throughout his entire prayer.  I’m not sure if that made sense but it was super funny and my comp and I just couldn’t hold it in so we bust up laughing while he was praying. I felt bad but it was just hilarious. The things you find in Pushtán are always hysterical.

That’s all I got for now, but life is great. Love the mission. I’m excited to have a change but continue to do the work of the Lord! SALUU PUES!

Love you all!

Elder Crump

Nahuizalco Zone Celebration

A bird randomly attends church...which happens all too often.

Making pupusas with a recent convert.