a little later this week

some excitement here that’s been going on.... we finally had our "white Christmas" a day late and 2 - 21/2 feet of snow falling in. i have some pictures I’ll send next week; it’s made driving an harder task than normal so all you over there in Arizona, be glad for not getting snow!!! It’s been fun though. We couldn't get out on Monday so we are emailing today. The roads went from 5 lanes to 3, if that and what’s worse is the snow plows haven’t come down our street yet. It’s been fun shoveling snow every morning!

Anyway Christmas went well. We had 3 lessons but i don’t remember if we ate somewhere or not. We enjoyed the time though to visit with family and teach investigators.

The temple went well. Our plans were changed a bit when we found out the schedules were different from week days to weekends - we got through a Spanish session and some sealing’s in English. We weren’t really allowed to take pictures and i forgot my camera at the house anyway - we were in a big rush to get out on time. We took public transportation meaning trains and it was probably about an hour of figuring everything out and travels when we got to the temple. We walked about 3 blocks and the temple is on a corner. It’s super small and has many levels. It’s pretty cool. I also saw a sister from my MTC district at the temple (we walked outside of the temple into the foyer and she and her comp were outside talking to people). It was weird but cool at the same time. Elders, well, we ran into many of them but we originally started off with 4 - there were probably 20 at the temple that morning.

Enjoy your week off and the time to relax and hang out with the kids etc. i need to get going and next week I’ll send home pictures. Gemma i love you and am glad you had a good Christmas!

I love you all. Thank you for the package you sent me. I definitely am glad to have the snacks! Be safe and have a great week!

Love Craig

short one

buenas tardes a todos!!!

so ya a quick letter from me saying i read your letter. ill call between 1-3 your time. I’m not sure exactly what time but expect it. I can only talk to everyone for about 45 minutes is what President Bahr has told us so we'll use time to the max.

Grandma Lloyd and Roberts both sent me a card - thank you for taking care of that for me. Thank you for the updates and I’ll be praying for Julie and tanner specifically.

I went to the temple but we'll talk about that on Saturday so this is the email for the week.

My comp's name is Elder Wilkins - he's moved all over the country/world but he actually has his parents in Peoria right now so times for us are the same. :) cool huh? We get along great.

Love you all! Have a great week! We’ll talk on sat!!!

Love Craig

Almost Christmas

Good afternoon!!!

So that sounds like a crazy week! Work is the same for you by thesounds of it. And the parties went well I’m assuming. Were Travis andtiffany married in the temple? I’m glad the ward party went well. It’scrazy they both ended up on the same night.

I didn’t realize golden corral did breakfast as well but that’s good mydad was able to do something. That’s cool that ammom celebrated hisb-day on the same day as tanner too. It makes for easier planning Iguess?

Yes it'd be better for the money to go to you b/c I doubt I can cashchecks out here. I’d ask Luke about that one. She doesn't have toworry about that at all either. Grandma Lloyd sent me a card and I gotthat today. It was very sweet of her to do that. Thank you Grandma! So I only sent one package with my ipod, the gift(s) for tanner, gemma and Emily.

Monica is definitely prepared. She should be baptized this Sunday butmy new comp wants to wait b/c he wants to make sure she can come tochurch faithfully so we'll see what happens. We think we'll go to thetemple the week of Christmas but we'll see what happens. That daybecomes our p-day also so you might get a letter 2 times in oneweek.... sorry I can’t be more specific.

So my new comp has moved around a bit but his parents are now inPeoria AZ which is quite ironic. Calling shouldn’t' be too hard though.I’ll make sure it all works out. 1-2 as time should work out fine. Mycomp though was dropped as a zl and placed with me... he is exactlyobedient which is good even though it might bother me a little. Thedifference maker though is he is very very smart. An example he got aperfect score on the act without studying. Smart right? He confoundspeople when they ask him questions (not investigators but othermissionaries) and tells them to go to such and such chapters in the bomor bible. I am the designated driver; he doesn't have a license. It’scrazy driving here and luckily we haven't had any snow storms yet butwe have had signs of snow. It was raining all day yesterday and thismorning. We’ll see if we get snow from it. Funny story, it hit 50degrees and we both were saying that it was a warm day..... :)

With the sweater I don't think it has to be a v-neck so whateverworks. I don't know if you already bought one or not but maybe the oneyou buy can have a color to it, not just solid black.... if youalready bought it and sent it, don't worry about getting another one.I have plenty of warmth with the one you're sending to get me throughthe winter.

I think I’m 2 hours ahead of you so that time frame should work fine.Again, I’ll make sure it works out. :) The time is flying by! I’ve been gone almost a year and to me itdoesn't seem like it has been that long..... I don't know about youand the rest of the family.

this past week has been fun and it'llonly get better. I love you all and thank you for everything!! Foryour support and willingness to help me be comfortable while I’m gone.I keep you all in my prayers everyday and hope you all have a greatweek!! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Have a greatweek!

love Craig

PS

Rob and Julie a special thanks to you for everything. you have been my parents for thepast 4 years if not longer and have been my support for me being outhere. it really means a lot me to me and I don't know how to give itback, if I can... thank you for your love and help in getting me out here to serve.

Hola

Happy birthday Gemma and Tanner!!! I hope you have a great week!!

so happy December!! Christmas day is coming - phone calling is near. We’ll see what happens with time etc. Thanksgiving was fun, and Christmas will not be the same, in terms of eating dinner...... we've had 2 members already ask us to come over so we are, and that is all. We’ll visit others but we will not eat more than 2. And I’m sorry I ate so much at home.... I’ll pay you back somehow.

Well today is the 2nd day it has been snowing. The first was thanksgiving for a few hours. I think today could be all day long. The temps have not gone above 52 degrees if they've even hit 50 degrees. Right now outside its 32 or within a degree or 2 of that. it's crazy. We played as missionaries and we had members/less actives and investigators there. It was great!! haha that’s awesome the ward got together for the game.

I remember when I was still with my trainer we gave a blessing or 2. I wanted to do the anointing though because I was fearful.... I wish I wasn’t and I’m learning to just follow the promptings I receive. yesterday I was able to confirm Marisol a member of the church and give her the Holy Ghost - our bishop told me I could do it in English if I felt more comfortable but I think it was better for Marisol b/c she doesn't understand Spanish as well. I did it in English yet I wish I would've done it in Spanish. Like you said, it really forces you to rely on the spirit and I love that feeling.

So for transfers, I will be staying in the Newark/oranges area but my companion is leaving. So I’ll have a new comp and when it comes to driving, President Bahr chooses who drives. The past weeks my comp drove and now that he is being transferred I think I’ll be the "appointed driver". most, if not, all, of the church vehicles have a "black box" - I don't know if you know what that is but this "box" regulates how fast you can drive and the way you drive etc. when someone speeds it says "speeding violation" and you have 10 seconds to slow down. If you don’t the church finds out which means Pres. Bahr finds out etc. its that way for everything. the "box" gets so annoying that if there is ever a reason to unplug it and we have permission to do so, we leave it unplugged as long as possible.

With the tithing I’ll send it home. What would you say is the easiest way to do it?

Did you get my package? If so, was everything ok inside? Well tanner and gemma are a year older, well gemma is today, and tanner is on Saturday, right? I can’t believe it. They are growing so old!! haha I love the kids. I’m sorry to hear the cards lost, but glad you were able to enjoy really good food!! Brother Hahl, the mission prep instructor informed me of the "sagging sports teams" in az. it’s sad they aren’t doing that great now.

So we had 2 great experiences this past week - 2 investigators received their answers, at least one did for sure and the other really felt the spirit. Monica, the first investigator, was saying the closing prayer and started to ask what happened to me, and had burst into tears. Luckily the Lord had everything planned out and we had a sister member there who was able to comfort her through the prayer. Afterwards she looked at us and stared and asked us to explain what happened. She said in the prayer she knew we would explain to her what happened. She said she "felt cold then warm" in a way she has never felt before. The spirit was so strong there. Yolanda, our other investigator, also gave the closing prayer - she too started to cry b/c of the love she has for her family, kids and the spirit touched her. She said she will be baptized when she know the church is true. She is definitely ready and prepared.

I’m excited for this month!!! We are allowed to go to the Manhattan temple one day this month - we choose the day - and probably snap a few pictures here and there. It’ll be a blast!!! We have a "brunch" in the mission home sometime this month as well and the best, of course, is calling home. For now we have 2 phones so it shouldn't be too hard to arrange a time that is best for everyone at home.

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. I’ve realized here more and more how blessed we really are to have the gospel already in our lives from when we are born. I see so many young men that are sad that enjoy the worldly things that they are not building that true happiness they desire so much. We took one young man out with us and when we dropped him off he asked us to take him out again, soon. He allowed to spirit to touch his heart and has desires to continue feeling the spirit!! Read the scriptures daily, pray daily and always have a prayer in your heart, and always always let everyone know how much you love them, whoever that may be. And always share your testimony, whenever possible. It’ll touch someone’s life somewhere on the way.

I love you all and thank you for everything!!! I’m praying for everyone all the time and personally I am learning and growing I hope I am different when I call. I’ll let you be the judge of that. If I can do anything for anyone please let me know. I hope everyone stays healthy and are able to enjoy this wonderful season!! Have a great week!

Love Craig

email recieved monday Nov 29, 2010

good afternoon

well my thanksgiving, well lets just say I’m glad I’m still walking. haha wow we almost had 5 "food" appointments set for the day. we played football for 2 hours with other missionaries and members/investigators in the snow - not much and nothing stuck but it was snow - before we left the house to play we got a call from a member asking us to come over and eat - we had time and didn't want to say no so we set it.

after playing we were driving home and we got another call from another member who wanted us to come eat - we didn't have time so he said if anything cancelled go to his house - so we ended up with 4 set appointments; luckily for us 1 cancelled and it was our last one so we said no more appointments. so 3 meals of turkey then the food from their country. some of it was good and other not as much. my comp and i drove home after our 2nd meal to make ourselves throw up so we could fit more food for our 3rd appointment (we hadn't cancelled our last one yet) and it didn't work but i think it made more room none the less. we were able to eat without worry at the last appointment and able to enjoy it as well.

whats funny is twice at 2 different appointments a member talked about how the missionaries beforehand however long ago it was, set up more than 3 dinner appointments and we tried to keep from laughing - it worked with one and not the other. it was all good and fun though.

I’m glad you enjoyed your birthday. I’m glad everyone liked the card. sounds like it went well.

so i know who holly is but like you said, not very well. I’m glad she was still able to make the wedding happen and get well in time.

haha black Friday - crazy crazy crazy! i don’t' know why but i guess if you get the deals its worth it right? it snowed Thursday and everyday since then its not snowed and its been about normal, maybe a little more chilly but feels the same. i'm glad the house is all decorated now. I’m not worried about decorations or a tree - its just more stuff to carry around in suitcases for another year or so. thank you for the offer.

so ya we had 4 set for the day but only went to 3; i tried to make myself throw up and nothing came so i guess i wasn't full enough to get rid of anything. i don't know how my body does it. the weather snowed for a 2 or so hours on Thursday and that was it. nothing stuck. it's really felt about the same the whole week temperature wise.

we went to visit an investigator and she had a friend with her. our invest. ended up having to do something which left us with her friend but before leticia (our invest.) left she told her friend to listen to us about the BoM. we found a new investigator from that visit. it was cool. i was going to tell you last week about an appointment we had 2 weeks ago where we showed up late to a members home.

the start of the lesson wasn’t the best feeling since we were an hour late but at the end they asked us to give some blessings. my comp gave one and i gave one and the third person asked me to give him the blessing. so i gave 2 blessings, in Spanish, and it was my first time every to give a blessing. i don't remember much of what i said just i know i wasn't saying whatever i wanted. i felt a difference in my mindset and i felt the words be put in my mind for me. i know i almost didn't want to say anything b/c it might've been said in one of the other blessings but i said it anyway. it was a cool experience and i know that really, when we are worthy, we are guided.

this church is crazy but its true, which is why its crazy. once your in the church and you know its true i don’t know how someone can leave it. it drives me nuts but Satan is powerful and he knows our weaknesses just as well as Christ knows our pains. we are in a literal battle between righteousness and evil and the temporal things are making a stand. if we are not prepared, if our minds are not set, satan will attack us in a way we are not expecting and that could throw us down hill so far and so fast we wouldn't know what happened.

enough preaching from me, sorry i went off on a tangent. so we had a baptism yesterday! i'll send home a picture. this girl, marisol, came to us saying she wanted to be baptized! it was fun and good b/c her older siblings were baptized, a few months ago but her mom wasn’t. her uncle and his parents were also baptized a few months ago yet they haven gone a little inactive but marisol is going to bring them back - she loves the church and wants to go every Sunday.

we have transfers on Tuesday - i don't know until sunday night/monday morning if I’m staying or if I’m going but i'll let you know next week. if i stay i might be driving..... :) so i had a thought about a movie soundtrack, the prince of Egypt. have you seen the movie or listened to the soundtrack? I’ve heard its good music and that the mormon tab. choir actually did most of the songs.... could i possibly get that as well, if you feel its appropriate? and what is the best way to pay my tithing, if i receive money from people??

i love you all and thank you so much for everything! have a great week!

love craig

Feliz dia de Gracia

well happy thanksgiving!! this is going to be a crazy week! Thursday night we have 3 dinner appointments..... I don't know that my stomach will handle all of that food.... :/ so yes we are going to betaken care of plenty well. :)

well this sounds like a crazy week for everyone. you're going to love what I sent you, everyone will. haha :) I’m glad i picked it up when I had the chance. who is the reception for? and the shopping.... well another year has come and gone and time to wear yourselves out in a day or 2 plus work on top of it. stay healthy! :)

I’m glad the weather has been nice to you. it's been a bit warmer here, high 50s. haha crazy huh? I’m glad everyone was able to help clean up the yard and that Austin was able to start his project. is there anything else he needs to do for it or just the write up?

well I think it's safe to send them to the direct address; our landlords live above us and will take packages inside until we get home if they're home when the package comes. ups or usps will leave the stuff outside the door. ya the graffiti is crazy. I have more pictures i can send later. I think I only have one cd player, emily knows which one it is.

so we should have 4-5 baptisms this next 3-5 weeks and on Christmas I can call whenever - we have 2 phones in this companionship and I imagine we’ll use those to call home. I’ll talk with my companion and figure something out. I’m pretty sure nj is 2 hours ahead now, daylight savings time was a few weeks ago.

times up but next week I’ll share experiences. i love you all and thank you for everything! i sent home my ipod and some gifts (only you and julie can open the box and don't let the kids see anything).

I love you all and have a great fun week!!

love craig

November 15, 2010

Emily,
congrats on your new bassoon!! I’m glad you are enjoying it more than your last one. I’m glad to hear everything is going good and life is still treating you well. I cant believe the movie is already coming out.... enjoy it for me ok?? haha hey I love you and thank you for the letters/drawings. :) and candy. :) i got the package yesterday; some leaders had it and got it me yesterday. thank you for everything. I love you and hope you have a great week!! expect some "wow" things in the next couple weeks. :) oh and do you remember what I did with my cds/cd player? I think I packed it all away but I don't remember for sure.... thank you!!!

love Craig

Well another week gone!! how is everyone? sounds like the weather has improved; same here - its in the 50s/ 60s and it feels warmer which sounds different for me. :) this past week was good. my home address is: 41 Halleck Street, Newark, NJ 07104 you can send stuff there and I’ll get it when it arrives; we have transfers on dec 5th though and its always a possibility of me moving.

I’m glad everything is going good with work. I’ll keep it in my prayers. That’s crazy to think there is 90 stakes in az..... I never even thought about that. i think there's only 7 stakes here in NJ -not very much but is enough to see the growth and the chance to improve it even more.

having fun in the mission is a big thing and my comp loves to have fun so I’ll learn how to have fun this transfer. What kind of things would you do for fun or do to make things fun on your mission?

so i already bought a gift for Gemma but I won't worry about any thing else. thank you. and you've already given me christmas so you don't need to worry either. :) thank you for everything including the last package. I love el plan de salvacion puzzle!! thank you so much. I’ll get to use it this week or next!! I don't know if you bought it online or if you found it somewhere else but I hope it wasn’t expensive. It was on my desk when i returned home from church yesterday. I guess the zls picked it up earlier in the week. thank you for the candy and pictures/letters. I really enjoyed them!!

Mason - hey bud! i love you and thank you for the pictures! Your drawings were awesome!

Tanner - Tanner I found luigi! he's on my desk! thank you for his picture. bud you are doing so great with your pictures, i love them! I love you!

Gemma - hey princess! thank you for your pictures! I love your rainbow! I love you! Kids have a great week!

so with my ipod i can send it home; in fact, I’ll try and do it today and if not, sometime this week. were you able to find my cd player, if I still have it? i have some church cds already so if you buy more, don’t duplicate. also all of the talks that you have would be nice to have again.... i realized that much of the space on the ipod was taken up by the talks and many of them were the same just under a different playlist. I like instrumentals and soundtracks and any other church music you want. thank you so much!!!

it was more chilly last week but right now it's not too cold. I’m enjoying it a lot. today is cloudy/foggy and just a nice day. haha 40days away for Christmas.... about 3 weeks before I can go to new york to visit the temple in Manhattan.... oh that will be fun!! :)

I think that is all I can think of for now. thank you for everything! I’m sending some pictures home of some graffiti we found - the kids might like it and everyone else will just wonder how. :) I love you all and thank you, thank you, thank you for everything!! I hope everyone enjoys November and this week. I keep you all in my prayers.

the work continues to progress - we have 4 dates, 2 for the next 2 weeks. we have been given some awesome referrals and they are excited to learn! the Lord truly blesses us on His time, not ours. I know that from experience as I’m sure many of you do too. Have a great week!!!

Love Craig

Greetings from Newark

pues todo vaya buenisimo. solo es un poco disorganizado entonces estamos trabajando a corrigir la lista del barrio de los miembros y tambien una cosa que yo hice por mi ultimo translado fue llamar todas personas en el telefono y borrar los numeros que no sirven y apuntar alado de los nombres "miembro" si son miembros. (Well, everything is going very well, just a little disorganized so we are working to correct the ward list and another thing I did in my las area was to call all the telephone numbers and erase teh numbers that are no good and write down next to the names which ones are members.) it really worked out great with learning/speaking spanish more and using the time to find and now i want to do it here in Newark. we have 2 phones b/c the area was combined from 2. its taken much time but is worth it - we're still working on it.

did you ask gerber about any other areas he served in? i think it'd be cool to know just for fun. no rush to find out though.

i feel safe; i still prefer mail to go to the office and such. other than that we have a car and Saturday i believe spent a lot of time walking. it was fun and pretty cold - lots of wind and overcast. This morning we ran and took some pictures (ill send them next week) and weather was decent. A few hours later we looked outside and it was hailing. crazy right?there aren't any specific rules for us to follow and the main shock from red bank to newark is probably the size and roads. other than that, little Spanish stores etc are all over the place. it’s great.

I’m sorry about the van. the Lord works in mysterious ways. all I know is things happen as trials for us. when we accept those trials with happiness we receive blessings so much more than we would if we don’t accept the trials with happiness. We can't murmur as did laman and lemuel or any other scripture characters. I know you aren’t murmuring and it's hard but remember Christ's life wasn’t' easy either.

as far as Duty to God goes, i think i earned it before i was an elder which i think the ordination took place in June or July pretty close to after seminary/reg graduation.... i don’t' remember for sure and the dates should be in the pamphlets which should be at Jason’s house as you said. wouldn't the record be on the ward computer that bro Horton could check for the date?

Christmas is closer and i want to know if i should only buy gifts for the kids or only Gemma since they boys have received more than her and if i can find stuff for the family..... Thanksgiving is even closer and we already have 2 dinner appointments - we'll see how i do with that since it’s not going to be turkey almost guaranteed and my comp will want turkey somewhere..... It’ll be a fun week!!

So we're in a car - I’m using maps and I’ve learned how to use them really well except they don’t' have businesses printed on them. Right now we aren't using bikes nor do we have any. for the most part the mission is all driving or walking - we had 18 missionaries come out this past transfer so many areas were split/combined and # of cars was reduced. as far as driving - well let’s just say if you came here and tried to drive you’d lose your mind in about 2 minutes trying to figure out the roads. it’s ridiculous all the signs they have and restrictions for diff. days and times etc. GPS' are preferred for that reason but maps are less expensive. it’s just crazy.

Well thank you for going to pomeroys - try to keep it as cheap as possible. I’ll also look around here to see if anything goes on sale. for the past couple weeks day time temps have been between 42 and 50 degrees and i guess that doesn't include wind chill factor. it's great but yes it is a whole lot colder than Arizona.

i would say there is more Spanish speaking people but it's hard for me to tell if they're white or Spanish. that is one thing I’m learning to distinguish. and I’m not sure about the ward. My first Sunday there I was told more members than normal showed up and it appeared to be about 100 people. It’s not too big and we aren't even in a chapel. The church rented out a floor of a commercial building and a room as a chapel on the floor above. It’s different but fun. The bishopric was just reorganized before i showed up and the new bishop is fluent in English yet i don't know that he has a good English accent; he taught an engineering class in English. again, crazy right? I’ve really only talked to him in Spanish and when i can’t think of how to say something in Spanish he tells me to say it in English and i cant think of the word(s) in English either. is that a good or bad sign??

From the 4 bap dates that we had we dropped one. We were blessed though to have found many people we haven’t seen forever and we even found a in/less active member knocking a house. it was cool. lessons have been good and i think this transfer will be more with the investigators we have and finding in/less active members and reactivating them. This will be a great transfer.

so we had a lesson last night. it was pretty good. My comp and i were talking about it afterwards and he told me that i had taught him how to teach with silence. I didn't say much throughout the lesson and nothing was really in my mind to say so i kept quiet and threw in a word or 2 here and there. more towards the end of the lesson a scripture came to mind and i wanted to bear testimony of the BoM. I gave my testimony and read the scripture or however it worked and we ended shortly after that. I know that was the spirit guiding what to say and my comp said the friends had tears in their eyes - i never saw tears. I’m not sure what all happened or how just that according to my companion, i brought the spirit and wrapped everything we talked about back to the lesson. and he told me my Spanish was really good for being out for however long I’ve been out. it was a cool experience.

oh and one other thing. Elder D. Todd Christofferson came to our stake conference we had yesterday which was held in the union county performing arts center (in case you want to look it up) and it was great! He asked everyone at the end of his discourse to come and shake his hand but that he didn't have time for pictures or conversation. He lived in NJ for part of his life and told us a little about that. it was great to meet another Apostle of the Lord in person and be able to shake his hand. He mainly did it for the kids but everyone in general. i was really renewed spiritually.

So Pres. Bahr has asked that we do not have ipods, no exceptions. seeing as how i don't want to be disobedient, i think i have a cd player packed away at jasons house.... would it be possible to get that sent out as well as cd’s of the music i bought and any burnt cds of church music and talks etc??? i would love to listen to music again that isn’t' from the same cd we've already listened to many times and any church Christmas music/instrumentals (trans-Siberian orchestra would be great, if you believe it's appropriate) as Christmas time rolls around. Also i believe i have a case to hold the cds if i could get that as well. please and thank you!!!!

i feel that’s everything i can think of for right now. i haven’t received the package yet; I’m sure it’s in the office just waiting to be picked up. That’ll happen soon. Thank you for everything. i know the letter is long and i hope you don’t' mind. i think pres. whimpey asked me to make them this way anyway right?

I love you guys and always keep you in my prayers. life is going great and i can see i'm progressing little by little. i know the church is the true church. i know when we read the book of Mormon daily it brings a peace and joy in our lives that we cannot find anywhere else. I’m grateful to have such a loving family and such loving friends and ward. I want you to know that only through the spirit can we really know for ourselves of the truthfulness of all things. If we do not have the spirit, we cannot progress at the level our Heavenly Father knows we are capable of progressing and learn to our maximum capacity. Only through the spirit are all things made known unto us whether it be spiritual or temporal.

I love you all. Stay warm, well enjoy the heat of winter and in i guess 7 weeks we'll be speaking Spanish, possibly, and I’ll have the greatest surprise of all!! have a great week!

love craig

New Area-Comp

(Craig and his New Companion)


Well happy November!!!

Emily, you are a busy girl - don't stress about writing me. You'll have a year after graduation to do so!!! its good that you are busy though. it keeps you out of trouble and focused on what you want to do in life. keep learning and working hard and you'll enjoy life more as you grow older. I'm sorry your bassoon was stolen but a new one is always nice, just i don't know if it'll be hard to get used to or not. do you remember if i kept my cd player? i'm thinking i'll want it if i still have it. i might have packed it away with my things at jason/amys house.... I'll see if i can mail you my gift today - you might have to just wait till Christmas though. I love you and thank you for your love and support for me. Have a great week!
Love Craig

Goodmorning family!

so my new area is North Newark and East, West, South Orange (or known as the Oranges). it's probably one of the scariest areas in the mission and it happens to be my 2nd area - kinda ironic but i love it!!!

as far as Halloween goes, we had to be inside before dark saturday and sunday night - im in a ward, not a branch, and the ward didn't have any party that i know of, not that we would have been able to go.

i'm sorry about your sickness - i actually was sick again too and i'm still getting over it but my companion is sick now so we'll see what happens. it's just a cold kind of sickness so i've been taking medicine everyday and it seems to have helped so thank you for the medicine you sent me a few months ago.

so thank you for sending the package. the way it works is the zls pick up the mail about 2 times a month - zone conf we only have every 3 months now so every other transfer, algo si. i think this friday the zls are going to have a meeting and they'll get mail then and hand it out when they get back. i'm not to worried and i think its safer to send it to the office - do you know if gerber if he ever served in newark/oranges (or ask him all of the areas he's served in).

i dont know my address yet - it wasnt on my mind this past week. i'm still trying to figure out the area which is the north newark and oranges area. it will definately be an adventurous 6 weeks at the minimum. we have a car yet the cigarette lighter doesn't work so no gps as of right now. we bought maps (which i prefer) and are using those until we get the cig. lighter fixed. i'm in a 4-man house and one of the english elders has a gps he is going to let us use when we get the cig lighter fixed.

my companion's name is elder stokes. hes from henderson nevada and whats ironic is he is from the cherry hill mission and we were together on an exchange for a day or 2 and we wanted to serve with eachother - we thought no cherry hill missionary was going to have another cherry hill missionary as a companion so for me it was revelation to President Bahr. we get along great and know that we can work very well together. he has been out for 16 months and goes home i believe in may. i'll try and send a picture.

im sorry to hear about the car. how did the transmission burn up? how is the driving working out with only the truck?

how are jourdan and ty doing with their papers? and do you know anything about logan morris? i hope he serves as well.

so we have 4 baptismal dates and one should be baptized this in november. there is a less active family who came to church yesterday and i guess is planning on coming forever (i'm not sure when the last time they came was - i heard a year and i heard they came all last transfer). i like working with less active members because they were already baptized meaning they know the church is true. they fell and want to keep the life they have so we need to get them to change their life to a better one with the happiness they know they can have that is everlasting instead of temporal happiness that they waste money on to keep. happiness should be free, not costly.

anyway if less active members become reactivated, they will have friends who are not members who will follow suit and be baptized at one point in this life - it turns into a repeating cycle - friends influence friends and they end up being baptized. its finding new investigators and reactivating at the same time. 2 or more people coming to Christ at the same time. its great!!

i have that quote from mission prep class - brother hall had it on one of the 50 sheets he gave us and i have it with me now along with everything else he's given us. im grateful to have those quotes and scriptures he gave us.

black socks would be best if they have black wool socks. it doesn't bother me though what color they are. the vneck sweater, if you haven't bought it yet, will be nice if its long sleeve so i don't have to wear anything over it. and hand warmers - im sure you know what they are or look like but those will probably be life savers for the winter. i don't know if they'd be cheaper in arizona b/c it's always hot there or here becasue everyone uses them..... what do you think?

i'm sending a picture of my new comp and i, a pzookie that we made last night (turned out more like bread but was still delicious) and thats all. i gotta go but i love you all and thank you so much for your love and support as well! i hope everyone has a great week and that everyone gets over the sicknesses. be safe and let me know if i can do anything for you.

love craig

wow. thank you for the details. Im not depressed, just glad to know what happened. that pocket watch came from jason my brother. i would say it was about $20 but ask him for sure - he might be able to remember.

the mission office address is: Elder Craig Roberts
1719 Rte. (route) 10 Ste. (suite) 309
Parsippany, NJ 07054
please send any packages or odd shaped items there; its more convenient and safer.

i am being transferred; i dont know where to or who with but i finally get out of my greenie area which i am sad to say i have to leave. it will be fun though and tonight we're going to try and see some members because tomorrow will be a long day with transfers and my comp is training - he has to be at the mission home by 8 am so we have to leave no later than 615 to be on time. i'll go to the office and get to work throughout the day until transfer conference. it'll be fun and a new experience.

i'm hoping i'll be able to send emily her "gift" - if i could get more, i would send more but it's a hard thing to get. i was lucky to get the ones i have.

elder lee and i really just started becoming really good friends a few days ago - we just tallked about life one night and things have just been better since. we've never had arguments or fights or anything like that just we are 2 completely different people. its been fun and he's taught me so much. i'll miss him

so if there is anything else i'd need id ask for a long sleeve sweater, vneck probably would be best. i can't wear my sweater vest without a cover of some sort over it; it gets pretty hot having the vest and the jacket you bought me on with the backpack. i have grey slacks and black slacks and both suits are black so whatever color you feel would blend the best. oh and wool socks - i only have the acrylic and those aren't very good for winter. i want to buy some here but i havent found any yet so we'll see.

we had 3 investigators to church yesterday; it hasn't happened very often in the past. one was waiting for an answer and we feel he received it yesterday! he knows how to receive and recognize revelation and i know he'll be baptized on his date or sooner. sadly i won't be here for any of the baptisms. our polish investigator is marrying a spanish member; they communicate with english and i decided to give them the Reflections of Christ book you sent me; after i got it i felt like keeping it en vez de giving it to the in active member; i know why i waited now and i am glad i did.

i think on friday morning we walked up to a corner store to use the restroom and atm and elder lee forgot the BoM he was carrying - we passed a couple and i said hi as we walked to a members house - we walked back to the corner store after the member visit and i saw the same couple again. i decided i should contact them and it was a miracle. i gave them a BoM pass along card and asked if they had ever had questions of life (you know what they are) and the husband asked me if the BoM had the answers. If i didn't follow the spirit they wouldn't have the BoM in their life now.

that was a cool experience i had but my times up. i love you all and thank you so much for everything. let me know if i can do anything for you and i'm more than happy to do it.

the church is true. the Book of Mormon is our guide and President Monson is the most vital person to us in this life. we all need to follow His counsel b/c it comes straight from God. speaking of Pres. Monson, can i also get a november ensign of the conf. talks please? it'd be nice to have my own copy.

thank you for everything and i love you so much. thank you Gemma. I love you too and when the pictures get here i know ill love them.

have a great week!!! elder roberts

short letter and some pictures

(He did not send any descriptions with these pictures, but here they are anyway.)

i just dont know what to say..... i read moms letter and i have mixed emotions right now..... this past week wasnt' bad. we had zone conference which was great and some other meetings. this is the last week in the transfer - next monday i'll let you know if i'm being transferred or not. im sending some pictures home - hopefully they are good enough to enjoy. the baptism we had set for october was changed to dec. 5th because the couple will be married dec. 3rd. so i won't be in red bank for any baptisms, possibly. i cant think right now...... will you let me know what happened with the break in etc., things that were stolen??? i hope you're all able to enjoy the week, at least keep the spirit with you and keep your selves happy. it's a new trial and the Lord will provide all that is necessary. "endure it well and be blessed" - i think someone has used that quote before. i love you all and will keep you in my prayers. let me know if i can do anything to help in any way. i love you all and thank you for everything.

love craig

buenas tardes! yes yesterday was a holiday so i am writing you today. it is a good thing too because we had a very fun trip last night and if i had emailed yesterday we might have been thrown off a little bit time wise.

Robert Brinton, Rob's dad, Happy birthday this week, and Staci Allen, happy belated birthday.

our 3 man trio is no more as of today, well this afternoon. we drove to the mission home to pick up the new companion for the elder who's been waiting for ever. we had dinner with the assistants and with President/Sister Bahr and the new comp. it was really fun. a storm hit us the last 10 minutes going to the mission home and we were in the storm the whole way home -

i have a picture of the 4 of us that i'll send next week. will be an interesting transfer b/c we have 18 new missionaries coming in and only 2 weeks left in this transfer so well see what happens. it'll be weird going back to a 2 man apt. in one area for 2 weeks but it'll be good.

i have a feeling I'm being transferred b/c Pres. Bahr said he didn't want to move me with a baptism coming up - the baptism we had for october is being moved to november so the couple can get married then we can baptize the wife, if i'm still in the area.....

anyways everything is going pretty well. we had stake conference where a 70 came. the whole way there and mostly on the way back i took video of the trees etc. so everyone can see how many trees there really is in nj, especially just on the highway. if you want to see them I'll send them but for now I'll just keep them.

oh a first time dream for me came this past week - i dreamed that i was at home and i shouldn't have been there.... it was weird. did you ever have those kind of dreams?

ya that is crazy weather... tornados actually touched down and destroyed homes - signs of the times?? i would've liked to see the golf ball sized hail and I'm glad it didn't hit your work or home.

how are grandma and grandpa roberts doing? tell them i say hi and that i love them, please and thankyou! I'm glad the kids had fun with the Halloween party - i actually thought about it one night.

I've heard having a golf ball for the winter is a great "tool" for knocking doors and i was wondering if i could get a golf ball? i know i have a set of golf clubs either in the garage or at jason and amy's and there should be golf balls in the carrying case thing or my mom or jason would probably have some. one ball should be enough though if i don't lose them over the winter. also hand warmers i've heard are great as well yet i'm not sure when i'd need them - i guess november gets really cold then december is when it starts to snow.

instead of different people sending packages maybe everyone can pitch in and send one package?? again i think i'm being transferred at the end of october - i'll let you know the monday before transfers but if anything is sent to me before then i would send stuff to the mission office in parsippany (i don't remember the address off the top of my head but i'll send it next week if you don't have it). muchisimas gracias por todo. sin tu, los demas, no estaria aca yo.

emily i'll send you the thing next monday, i hope and you are going to like it.

thanks for the picture of the house - i cant tell for sure what all they changed except i noticed they took out at least one of the chimneys and the drive way roof thing... the new missionary and crashing - did you tell him about me? and again, our 3-sum is no more, sadly. haha its not that bad

enjoy october break!!! we have zone conference this friday, missionary sunday, and a normal week of normal meetings etc. for the last week of the transfer, i believe... it'll be a good 2 weeks and i'm going to learn a ton about myself.

so with the work, elder lee asked his family to search our area to find the percentage of hispanic people in the different cities (would you want to do that)? and there is a city close by that i guess has the same amount of spanish as red bank and no one has been in the city forever so the last 2 weeks we'll be knocking a lot of doors in that city. it'll be fun figuring it out and learning spanish together. which my spanish is still coming along great.

i think more than anything this transfer i've been able to speak faster but i'm also being able to conjugate correctly y todo and with companions closer to my age in the mission we spit out words here and there but we haven't ever spoken only spanish and that is the best way to learn for us - go to another country (as you know) and you're kinda forced to only speak spanish. its a desire i have to only speak spanish within companerismos yet it feels so weird when we do...

i think thats all. this transfer flew by, well is flying by. i love you and everyone else. thank you for everything you have and continue to do for me. i hope you and everyone else have a great week and enjoy oregon! if possible, could i also get april and october conference ensigns? again, ask family to help out, not just you and julie....

i love you all and we'll talk again on monday! have a great week! i'll send pictures next week

so ya conference was absolutely amazing!!! haha I didn't take as many notes as i did from the mtc but I came close. I would like an ensign though, if possible, when they come out - id like to have one I can mark up and have as my own. our companionship gets one but we have to share it so it's not as personal. to me notes are what the spirit directs, not just words from the mouths of the prophets, even though sometimes those words are what someone needs to hear. i definitely gained a new fire and enthusiasm to work more diligently and really forgetting myself. i try and keep that thought with me daily "forget yourself and get to work."

Emily, what do you prefer, green and black, or pink and white? i need to know! and emily, how are the youth in the ward doing, young men and young women?

that’s cool that the vans are still in the ward and Keith is thinner - that’s awesome! so ya bed bugs - well we think they're gone. we haven't had any problems since but the senior couple is going to come back and spray again, i think....

I’m glad mason and gemma liked the gifts, but did tanner? did you like the water painting?

well we're doing good. the last week in October creo yo is transfers.... I’m not sure what will happen with the 2 areas and of course i don't know if I’m being transferred out or not. they might keep the 3 sum, possible combine the 2 areas (a thought that just came into my mind) or transfer 2 elders out of the 2 areas and send in 3 (2 would be doubled into an area) so we'll see what happens. ya its nice having the 2 areas b/c we do have a whole lot more work and a limited amount of car miles so it's fun. our branch members also live in both areas so I’ve actually sat down and talked with members i didn't really know before.

when we're at doors, i usually stay more towards the bottom, or away from the door and let the 2 elders stay up and if we get in, i walk in quickly and as a surprise to the person, sometimes. with the baptismal dates, yes they are still set - our dilemma? one has to get married or move, something that will be very difficult to do and the other works on Sunday and still feels that all churches are good, which they are, just our church is the only one with toda la verdad, en la plentitud. so we're working with them both and trying to figure stuff out. so ya that’s life -

I wrote down alma 57:9 as i was leaving the house in a rush so I don't remember why I liked it but I did write my thoughts on a paper - it's at home and I’ll explain it next time. There is a website that would be cool to look at if you wanted to; its http://www.ldspuzzles.com/ I’m not sure what its like but my previous comp had a sweet plan de salvacion puzzle in Spanish and it was ordered from that website - it's very useful for teaching. its raining all day today and it's great.

I love you all and thank you for everything! everyone is in my prayers and I always hope that your days are as great as mine!!! hehe I love you guys. thank you for everything. have a great day of work and school and a great week as well. how is the ward doing? let me know if I can do anything for anyone.

love Craig

so going to emily - emily you should just write me on your email account..... it might be easlier to reply.

so i remember stacie peterson saying she wants to go to BYU Idaho - you could posibly go with her..... i'm sorry about the scar from the beecher's dog; i'm glad everything healed up alright. sara behrman is also at eac - you could live with paul and blanca or with sara and still be instate, have an "in" to the music program there, and visit your fav aunt and uncle (i think)..... i'll pray for you as you figure out where you want to go and you do the same.

congrats with the tutoring! good luck with it as well. what happens when the kid has straight a's every week; do you still get the bonus? haha

i'm glad to hear everything else is going good too. keep up your great work and love for what you do! it'll take you places you've never imagined before.

do the kids still miss me, or does Gemma only love Brian? hehe remember her comment in the car about loving me after you asked her if she loved brian??

and my last question - do you like pink or green better? tell me in the next letter.

good luck with getting license and school and work and family. i love you and thank you for your love and support. time is going by quicker than it seems. have a great week! love craig

so Rob - i try not to think about the time, yet i always remember how fast everyone says it goes and it has gone fast but i'm not on the downhill slope yet.... will it be faster then??? ha

i'm glad to hear there was a good amount of support for cory at his farewell thing, whatever they call them now a days. when does cory report again?

and the dbacks game - thats awesome that you were able to enjoy those seats. not very often something like that happens is it?

so ya i'll need some patience and some love and kindness but more than anything, i need to adjust. all is going well though and we're in a 3-man which helps alot and this transfer is already on the 3rd week so time is going fast. the other companion with us has his own area that we work as well so we are in 2 areas, 3 elders. its great. i'm learning alot from them and i feel more like speaking spanish more often becasue they are closer to my age in the mission and they speak spanish here and there. it's wierd at first because we all speak english but i love it.

so i guess the vans are still in our ward? i'm glad keith is home now and all is well - did he change in pesa o algo asi? i was told last night by an invest. who we haven't seen for a few weeks that i am getting taller..... i don't know what to think about that.

haha i'm sorry for the temperatures there..... its raining right now, last night, and probably will rain all day today while the temps are in the 60/70s with a good wind..... it's awesome. i can hear the rain right now on the roof as i type. its great!

haha ya if there are any miracles happening with me, i'm not noticing them very well... i know i've seen some changes but not much. i'm sure i've changed more than i think though. so in the east there are bed bugs, and this morning i woke up and saw a bug on some shorts. it was dead but we still decided to spray the room with pemerithian (however you spell it) which kills insects on contact, or should. also on the wall i've noticed some black spots appear and wasn't sure what it was. we sprayed those as well as the whole room and more bugs appeared.... it's wierd b/c we've been told the bugs we've seen are not bed bugs - i'll let you know next week what happened. we called the senior couple over our area and they're going to come to our apartment and check things out.

we went to the hospital to give a convert member a blessing and she told us her whole life story - i cant share what she told us b/c its not my place to do so but from what she shared, and as we were talking, i really felt the spirit and a scripture came to my mind as clear as the sun at mid-day. i've never had that happen and it was cool to have that experience.

nothing real exciting happened this week, except we have 2 baptismal dates, one for october (our polish invest.) and one for november (a friend of a member). i hope i'm here for them both. other than that, we're seeing succes is finding people and being able to teach the investigators we have.

times up so i have to go out into the nice pouring rain with cloudy skys and wind and green trees everywhere you look!

i love you guys and thank you for everything! i feel your love and support everyday and am glad i'm here to learn what life is really like away from the comforts of home and family and friends. i love you all so much and i know if it wasn't for your love and support, serving a mission would be so much harder to cope with. i hope you all have a great week and that all goes well. i hope to send the books for mason and tanner. i also have something for gemma and a picture i found in my apartment that i want to keep in the best condition possible - if the picture is sent, i'll tell you about it after you get it. it's a sweet picture and you'd love it! i love you and thank you for everything. let me knwo if i can do anything for anyone.

love craig

haha wow - you wrote a long letter. it's all good.

so i have a feeling this will be my last transfer in Red Bank but i have no idea. i guess it'll depend on how well my new comp and i get along and how well the work goes this trans. my new comp is from Murray Utah and is very missionary minded. it will take me some time to get used to him and let that which would bother me just fly away but i know the Lord will bless us, and already has. we have a baptismal date for October so we'll see what happens.

I'm glad I've stayed for this long because, like you said, i really can get to know the members well and i like it b/c it's the same Spanish with the same people.

so today we went to a spot called twin lights in a city called highlands. twin lights is a pair of light houses from years and years ago. unfortunately i didn't have enough time to get as many pictures as i wanted but i did get some and some of the ocean. it was a fun day but now i don't have much time to write or respond to everything.

so ya the weather is crazy. windy everyday and always in the 70s, sometimes 80s and the past week we've had 2 crazy rainstorms - i have video of both on my camera. i loved it. i'm glad cory is still going on his mission! it's great that he really wants to serve. i know he'll love it and be glad he served in the end.

well the house (his families old house) is no longer memorable then, right? haha i guess that could be a good thing, but then a bad thing too.... a childhood full of memories changed and transformed into algo differente. just whenever you have a chance to send the pictures, don't rush to do it and ruin and schedules you might have to do send them.

so ya the book (Jesus the Christ) is written very scholarly and that is what makes the reading take forever. it's the last book i have to read then I'll be done with the miss. library. thank you for your help with the manuals etc.

ok. i was actually able to go back to that same investigator (im in a 3man right now in redbank. one elder was going to train but his greenie never came out of the mtc so he's with me and my comp until he comes so we work his area as well) and he wasn't going to let us in but i followed up with him on his praying and he let us in to talk. it wasn't' anything like last week but it was still a great lesson.

ya i am keeping a journal - i already went through one and bought another one and i haven't missed a day yet since the first night in the mtc. I'm surprised yet I know I'll want it in the future so I just do it and don't let my self go to bed until i do (sorry im rushing so the spacing of words will be off). and i make sure to write those kind of experiences in. haha we all should be keeping a journal and i wish i had been able to growing up.

so i might be giving a blessing tomorrow, my first one. we'll see what happens. everything is going good and I'm doing my best to be exactly obedient. that saying was part of the cherry hill mission motto - exactly obedient, endlessly diligent, spiritually led.

everything is well. I'm learning and growing and seeing many different walks of life. i love you all and thank you so much for everything you have and continue to do for me. if i didn't have your help and love and support i wouldn't be in NJ. thank you so much for everything! i know the church is true and the only way to know for ones self is through prayer. if you don't ask, you probably won't know. hence "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you". i love you guys. have a great week!

love craig

wow wow wow. so with transfers, i am staying in red bank, once again. it was pretty obvious since my companion right now goes home Wednesday but there has been times where missionaries have been 'doubled out'.

so ya the weather right now almost feels like an arizona winter.... in the 70s, always with wind, we sleep with all our windows open, and mornings are probably in the 50s. in a couple weeks, I'll hopefully have some really good pictures of trees and what the roads, town looks like.

with the study manual, would there be any good ones for the old testament as well? i was told it'd be good to read the bible then Jesus the Christ and it'd just be a whole lot more effective..... what would you suggest? Im almost ready to read it - Im about finished with the 3rd book in the missionary library. Im saving Jesus the Christ for last.

well I'm glad work is picking up again. i always keep that in my prayers as well as the family and ward/stake.

oh wow..... i don't know what to think...... mark and scott both are gone on wednesday. wow. well i'm glad mark gave a good farewell talk, whereas i had no time. haha how is marks ward doing? ok so i have a question - my mom said the old house was finally being worked on and things were coming together nicely..... did you drive by it at all? I'd like a pic or two if possible, please and thank you.

thats cool that Bryce and Diana Denton are in our ward. that'll be fun to get to know them. how is the ward doing?, and sister Jansen too? my mom told me about the deck and what she did in the backyard. it sounds really cool and peaceful, and my dad hasn't emailed me in a while so i'm not sure if all is well with him or not....

so speaking of being a worthy vessel and the Spirit i had a crazy day on wednesday, very crazy.... so i was on an "exchange" (elder secrist went to the temple so i was with 2 other spanish elders in my district). so we were out walking and a english guy is out and asks us if we have something for him to read. one of the elders had some english pamphlets so we gave him one and we were talking then another guy came out. the 2nd guy, Eric, is what makes this crazy. to keep it short, he has many problems, disorders, addictions etc. and feels like he needs to get closer to God, and he's in a rough living situation right now.

at one point i thought he was going start yelling and screaming but he never did - we finished talking to Eric and he walked across the street to his home and called us over. his dog has a tumor on 1 of its legs and he asked us to pray for the dog, and his family (he has an aunt in the hospital) so i gave the prayer, and that was a prep for the last lesson we had that night. so i kinda felt the spirit during the prayer and later we knock a door to talk to this guy the other elders met before (remember i'm on an exchange) and we go in and start talking. it's super hard to hear what selso is saying. he has a very raspy voice, and pretty high pitched. i definitely did not understand everything but i had the Spirit.

so selso was stuck on moroni being resurrected (talks about it in the introduction to the BoM) and we weren't getting through to him. the topic started to change, or changed often and about 10 minutes before we were done, i took charge and just went off in spanish asking selso questions that he was thinking about. some how we arrive to the topic of prayer and selso praying. i felt like i ruined the chance to ever teach selso again because i felt like it became a heated conversation when it wasn't. the other 2 elders didn't say much but did say something when there was a pause.

At the end of the lesson, i not only didn't really know what i said because it all came out so quickly, but i felt something "flowing from my chest" almost as if my heart was pounding but it wasn't'. i was super calm and knew the feeling of something "flowing" out of me was the Spirit, something i haven't felt before. selso committed to pray about the BoM and that was the end. i felt really really weird walking out of that lesson.... sorry its so long.

with the 11th the flags, of course, were at half-mass but i don't remember seeing anything special going on but i was in a city called keansburg, on the more northern end, and in another city called keyport . we only have one chance a week to go to those cities with english elders and nothing special was going on in either of those two cities so surprisingly there were no memorials etc.

so as it gets colder i might want a long sleeved shirt or 2 to wear around the house (other than the pj ones - i might just wear those, we'll see) but I'll probably want wool socks for sure. I've been looking around here but i still haven't found any. don't worry about anything just yet and we'll see what happens.

it's 6 pm right now and it's practically dark. this past week was great, and I'm anticipating receiving a companion who is a transfer younger or older than me or who came into NJ when i came in so we'll see what happens.

a scripture i read this week is in alma chapter 43 verses 19-21. i have to give a quick explanation but it's about a war between the nephites and the lamanites, zoramites, army of zarahemnah - the nephites are prepared with armor for the body, and the enemies are not prepared with armor. the nephites are fewer in number but still win the war. it is like us - we are the nephites (members) and satan is our enemy. we are prepared with armor for our bodies (scriptures, prayer, families, leaders etc.) and satan has nothing but angels (can only tempt us through thoughts and others actions that are unrighteous). we are less in numbers (in a worldy aspect) yet we are continuing to grow stronger and stronger and eventually win the war. it was cool because i realized that is only through our self-control, our obedience etc. that we are victorious over satan. if we do not have desire to change, or do not act on our desire, we will not win because we are taking off our armor, the armor of God.

i love you all so much and really don't know how I'd be on my mission learning and growing, learning spanish etc. without your help and love and support. thank you so much for everything that you have done for me, and continue to do for me. i keep everyone in my prayers and always am thinking of how everyone is doing. i hope everyone has a great week! let me know if i can do anything to help.

love Craig

hello

so ya you emailed in time. Im glad all went well at the ranch and i'm glad you all arrived home safely. That zoo thing sounds pretty cool. i think yellowstone park is like that. i only know that from president nicols. you drive around and look at the animals. it'd be cool. how did the zip line turn out? what are the temps right now in mesa? its starting to get colder here. i think it'll be in the 70s soon and just drop from then on. and i've been told, the snow stays through march..... and the power in my apartment complex goes out very often, especially during the winter. we'll see what happens. next week is transfers and i might be doubled out (my comp goes home) meaning 2 completely new missionaries would take over (it'd actually be good for the area, i think).

so with power outages, there was a county wide outage 2 weeks ago. we had already emailed and were shopping, in line to check out and the power in the store went out. it was that way for about 2 hours then this past week i woke up one morning and the power was out, didn't come back on for 4 hours or so. we luckily, somehow, had power from one outlet so we plugged our fridge in to that outlet to save everything.

i'm sorry emily for what happened. i hope all is ok and that the swelling etc. is going away. I'll keep you in my prayers. thank you for your letter in the package too. i really appreciate it.

so yes the package arrived safely, and in a different way. it was about 1030 pm and someonee rings our door bell. it's our neighbor who we are teaching and he has this box that has my name on it but he knew it was me because it was addressed to #2, not #24 (he lives in # 24). so he gave me the package and i guess they had it since tuesday, possibly monday so i was thinking you might have sent 2 packages but it didn't make sense (you told me your ups acct said the package would be shipped on wednesday the 1st). everything was in perfect condition. thank you for the goodies and book and pictures and everything else. i really appreciate it! were you able to find the new testament manual study guide (the thick orange book i think is called the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles)?

as i was thinking about it, what study manuals would be best to have as i study the bible? and i have one other question for mason and tanner - which 2 do they like the most; insects, rocks and minerals, birds, and stars and planets? (dont' tell them but i have 4 books that are about the above things and i want ot give 2 to mason, 2 to tanner. they are really interesting and very cool. they would love the books).

yesterday was our pday. today we're just emailing. so ya nothign was done differently.

we found 2 new investigadores, one of which we thought was going to be JEhovas witness but wasn't and one who has a member friend which was really cool - both were guided by the Spirit in finding them. and on sunday we werent having success. we were walkingn down a street and i stopped as if i hit a invisible brick wall. i turned my head to the left and asked my comp if we ever knocked the 2 houses ( ididn't even know houses were there). we knocked them and found one guy from nicaragua and he gave us his all his info. it was definately the spirit again. having the Spirit is vital in this work.

so ya with my camera, it doesn't pick up sound when i'm taking a video, at least it doesn't play back sound so i don't know if it's picking up sound and doesnt play it back or if it just isn't picking up sound. i'll put my card in another camera that does play back sound and see what happens. other than that it works fine.

so i read this morning in alma chapter 43:19-21 and related those verses to life. i don't have time ot explain them but what i got from them is satan is constantly attacking us, and won't give up untill he practically defeated and he realizes he can't do anything else. we are in a spiritual war and we have the upper hand in everything. if we aren't faithful, satans attacks will make us fall, and he'll continue to attack until we cannot get back up.

i need to go but i love you guys. thank you for everyhting. i keep you all in my prayers and the members love the pictures! thank you for everything. if i can do anything to help, please let me know! i hope everyone has a great week!

love craig

well good afternoon!

thanks for sending the package. I'm sure it'll be safe. i just hope i don't have to sign for it. I'm not worried though. no worries about the letter being short. i saw i didn't have an email from you when i logged on so i figured I'd just wait and see. my comp needs to email tomorrow because he's at ellis island right now so if i didn't see an email from you today i would have checked tomorrow but now i don't need to worry about it. the time has been going by really fast. the past 2 weeks just vanished out of no where (at least that's what it feels like).

thats a good topic to talk about. ( I was telling him about a talk in stake priesthood meeting) if we aren't honest with ourselves, it's a whole lot more difficult to be honest with others and if there isn't honesty, things don't really work out to well. I'm glad the truck is working out. that's cool Brian bought a new car. do you have a picture?

so with labor day, the librarys will be closed so we won't be able to email until Tuesday next week anyway. whatever is best for you.

ya i need to be taking more pictures. i have taken a lot already but it's been awhile and i'm just not sure what all i should take pictures of..... we could probably have a extra card and rotate them when one card is full but right now i can still take at least 1500 pictures, depending on the size of the picture. the one thing with my camera is that it doesn't pick up sounds. i don't know why, and i don't know how to make sound work - ive looked many times to see if there is any options but Ive never found any. i will take tons and tons of pictures though, guaranteed.

so everything is going pretty good. when i think about the past weeks, i can see the Lord's hands in the work and i know we are being blessed at different times. i was studying the other morning and i read alma 37 and 4 scriptures stuck out to me. verses 6-7, 36-37. i don't remember for sure what they say but they talk about the small and simple things is what brings the big things and thats how the Lord works. when we pray or read the scriptures or go to church we feel the spirit and we know the Holy Ghost is with us. when we do everything, not just one or 2 things, we are able to recognize that we are being blessed from God.

an example i heard is this, and i think its' been used many times before: how good is it to brush your teeth once a month for 2 horas with a lot of toothpaste? its not very effective but if we brush our teeth once or twice a day with a little bit of toothpaste, how much more effective will it be? so it is with reading and praying etc. we have to do everything for a little bit everyday in order for the time spent to be effective in our lives.

another blessing i recognize now is something that happened yesterday. we were getting ready to go to a members house on our bikes when there was a loud pop. it came from my bike so i turned around and looked at my back tire. a spoke had popped out so i couldn't ride my bike. we went to one of our investigators homes and asked if he had a tire pump and a wrench (we have no tools in our house). he asked what happened and told us to go to his garage next to his house (he/his fam. live in the same complex we live in). they have a bike that he told me to take and use until we get my bike fixed and so we were able to get places faster than walking. another blessing and from/through an investigator.

there are 3 other people i want to talk about but i'll mention only one other one, times running out. a guy named vincent was baptized a number of years ago and went inactive. we've been trying for weeks to try and contact him and see whats up. one night we rode by his house (he lives with family) and people outside yelled at us. we went by a few days later but vincent wasn't there. this past week though we went by and he was home! he came out and was talking to us (he speaks english and spanish) and we just got to know him and his story. since the first contact, we've seen him in the streets at least once a day almost everyday. he's relaxed with us and all is well. nothing has happened yet with vincent but he's a really cool guy, about 21,22 and is just active in life. we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

one other is ursula. shes from Poland, speaks English. shes dating a span. member. so she's super excited about the gospel and wants to learn as much as she can. shes probably starting to read alma this week and she started from the beginning, intro, testimonies etc. she's a great investigator and we want to set her with a bap. date this week when we visit them. my comp has a friend who went to poland and served so he has ursulas phone number and they are able to call and talk to each other in polish and we ordered/have polish pamphlets and bought her a bible, d&c/pearl of great price combo and she already has the bom. she's a great investigator.

so all is going really good. at times it feels like times are rough but really they aren't. one missionary told me/the district before he went home that "no time is ever wasted. doesn't matter if something good happened or if it seemed like a waste of time."

The Lord knows what we need, where we need to be, and when. it's up to us to decide what we need to do at that moment. like the less active member we found a few weeks ago where we started to walk away and turned around and went back. turning away and walking back to the house wasn't' a waste of time.

anyway i love you all and thank you so much for everything. i love getting letters and emails but sometimes i don't have enough time to address them all. sorry about that if thats happened to anyone.

the church is true. there's no other way around it. pray and ask if you don't know. you will receive the answer you need.

i hope you have a great week!! i love you all

love Craig

8/23/2010

hola familia

haha sweet truck! it looks awesome. i hope it works for what you want it for.

ya I'm feeling better. more or less somewhat of a nose problem and clogged ears but other than that I'm feeling pretty good. so with medicine, vitamins would be good (like vitamin c) and maybe something to help unclog my ears. almost everyday i have to open and close my mouth to pop my ears so i can hear normally but even then, they clog up again. last week i was just being "weak" but i don't need too much medicine as i thought about it more and more after i sent the letter. thank you for that.

I'm glad it rained good. Arizona needs it and so does NJ - grass is going brown and people are not working b/c the grass is dying b/c there isn't enough rain. the weather is great. the past couple of days its been raining off and on and we're supposed to have rain until wednesday. i love it b/c it's in the 70s and windy and almost always cloudy whether there is rain or not. its great.so ya after church last week i wanted to sleep and my comp wanted to work but he was tired too so he let my "sleep" for 10 minutes and we went out and worked. i think being busy when you're sick helps you get over the sickness faster but i could be wrong. and i never did "just sleep" this past week. as much as i wanted to i didn't.

so i don't know for sure what you have but here's what i can remember for the package - a calendar ( doesn't have to be big or anything fancy), healthy snacks, vitamins or vitamin c, whatever i might need being a missionary, some scripture marking crayons, pictures, and something new i thought of, if possible is a reflections of Christ book (in spanish if possible but english is good too) - there is a less active sister in the branch who loves having us over to visit so we talk for 5 mins and teach her something etc. and i thought she might like having a reflections book (1 or 2). if you are able to get one itd be nice but if not, don't worry about it. and envelopes ( the small ones). that's all i can think of for now and again thank you so much for doing this for me. i don't know how i'll ever repay you and julie for everything....

haha oh ya i can see a difficult transition from missionary to college. it's crazy but a part of life that makes it fun.

so weather is rainy but almost always below 85 degrees now, maybe 80. almost always cloudy, and always hay viento (its windy). it hasn't' got super cold yet so we'll see what happens. one of my zls is from phoenix and he said I'll be good with the coats the borens gave me (bro/sis boren, thank you for the coats!) so we'll see. haha my comp isn't too trunkey but yes he reminds me often he's going home soon and I'll try to keep him on track (i think its something i need to develop more of, leadership or whatever it is).

investigators - well one wants to be married to her member husband in the templo and they have dos ninos pero el esposo es flojo y el esposa no va a hacer nada si su esposo no hace nada entonces necesitamos trabajar mas duro con el esposo para bautizar nuestra investigadora. (they have two kids but the husband is lazy and the wife is not going to do anything if her husband does not. so we need to work harder on the husband in order to baptize our investigator.)its crazy and we almost always get trapped at their house for longer than we want.

my bike is doing good. as much as i want to spend money to fix it more, it works for what i need so i'm waiting it out. i know my area might be closed and combined with another area (hay 4 misioneros de el espanol en el misma rama) (there are 4 spanish speaking elders in the same branch) or the other area will close so i'll be in a car if that happens. we ride to the middle of red bank and walk almost everywhere depending on time etc. the concentration of spanish is in the middle of red bank so thats where we are every day.

we are finding more and more less/in actives but still haven't been able to talk to all of them but the Lord will bless us.

gotta go but i love you guys and hope all is well. thank you for everything and for your love and support for me. i hope everyone has a great week and I'll write again in a few days. love you all!!!!

love craig

Email recieved 8/16/10

buenas tardes!!!

so unfortunately i am sick, not horribly but sinus sickness and its driving me nuts. i have to blow my nose every 5 minutes and i can't breath very well through my nose either. :( i bought some sudafed medicine this morning but i don't know that the sinus problem will go away with just that. I gargled, snorted (it sounds weird) hot salt water and i think that helped and I'm trying to only eat soup in hopes the sickness will go away quicker. it's hard because i cant just stay and sleep but the Lord will bless me as i continue to work. if there is any kind of medicine that will get rid of sickness (it doesn't just have to be sinus) it'd be helpful even if I'm better before i get it, I'll have it for future occasions. thanks!!

so I'm glad to hear the kids like their classes. i was wondering how they were doing. mason I'm glad you like to read. learn to read and read all the time! it's fun when you like the book and you learn new words every day. Emily the first 2 weeks are the worst because the administration says "deal with what we give you and once every ones been back awhile we'll start to work things out" - just make appointments early with the counselors and you should be good.

haha wow. i was only 9 years old.... i don't even remember it that well, unless i think about it. anyway happy 10th anniversary, well belated. I'm glad you were able to spend some time together without the kids and enjoy the time.

so again don't worry about the plaque. thank you brandt for doing the picture for me and thank you for printing a pic or 2 for grandma lloyd. i really appreciate it.

that is a funny story though of how gerber is now released and bro bowman is the new ym pres and bro bodrero and travis morris are his counselors. it was a half-change for them.

haha my Spanish is horrible. it's coming along though. I'm able to sit with members/invest. and just talk and for the most part i am able to understand the jist of the conversation without being confused. 2 weeks ago we came home to visit a neighbor and they were having a bbq outside so we sat down and ate with them (it was almost the whole apt. complex - mainly spanish) and i talked to the husband who loves Doctrine and Covenants and this past sat there was a talent show with the Spanish branch and i sat with some members and was able to understand most everything and i talked with a father who has a son who's not going the right direction in life and what we can do as missionaries to help his son. it was good.

so thank you for the story of brother horrocks - i will defiantly keep that as a story to share. how is the ward doing? how are the Gunn's and the Hortons and sister Jensen (bro adair hometeaches her and i helped him give her a blessing a few times)? I was thinking about them a while ago and the ward too.

yesterday for church, i was supposed to give my testimony but it was a 5 minute before the meeting started notice and my nose was running every 5 minutes so i would leave to blow my nose etc. anyway we sang an intermediate hymn and i left to blow my nose then and when i came out of el bano my comp was looking for me with a look on his face and asked if i was giving a talk. i started to walk in and the presidents counselor got up to announce the next speaker and the whole branch just looked at me and the speaker stood to go to the podium etc. and it was just funny but kinda embarrassing too. all fun.

so for the package, pictures of family, Arizona, recipes for smoothies or pastas, medicine (cheap and will get rid of the sickness, not make it go away for a while) and healthy snacks that i can munch on here and there and the scripture marking crayons (big package - its the ones julie/emily bought me for my birthday from desert book, i think). that's all i can think of for now. remember i don't want anything to be expensive.

thank you for your love and support and everything you have done for me. everyone remains in my prayers and i hope all is well health wise. i love you all and let me know if i can do anything to help anyone. i hope everyone has a great week!!!

love craig

8/9/10

querido familia, (dear family)

pues, cunado, la obra misional esta buenisimo aca. la semana pasada tuvimos dias que fueron no tan divertido porque no tuvimos muchas citas donde las personas fueron en la casa pero tambien tuvimos dias buenos donde encontramos personas para ensenar y estamos trabajar mas con los recentos conversos y los lideres tambien. el viernes pasado, tuvimos una cita que la persona no estaba pero habia 2 hombres afuera la casa. ellos nosdijieron que la persona no estaba entonces caminabamos a nuestras bicis y yo tuve una pensamiento para dar los hombres una tarjeta. entonces noscaminamos a los hombres de nuevo y yo hable con un de ellos y mi comp. con el otro. una cuenta corta, yo termine con mi conversacion con el hombre y yo escuche a la conversacion de me comp. nos encontramos un inactivo que buscamos mucho tiempo y nos recibimos dos mas nuevos investigadores por medio del el Espiritu Santo.

(Well the missionary work is very good here. Last week we had days that were not so fun because we didnt have many appointments where the people were home, but also we had good days where we found people to teach and we are working more with recent converts and church leaders also. Last Friday we had an appointment where the person wasn't home but there was 2 guys outside the house. They told us that no one was home, so we were riding away on our bikes then I had the thought to give the guys a pass along card. So we rode back to the guys and I talked to one of them and my companion talked to the other. One short story, I finished my conversation with the guy and I was listening to the conversation of my companion, and though it we were able to find an inactive member that we had been looking for for a long time, and we received two new investigators by listening the the holy ghost.)

so i hope my Spanish is getting better. that's my spiritual experience for the week too so i hope you can understand it.

haha so i didn't know either that Shawn and crystal went. I'm glad everyone had a great time in California. Julie how did you manage to pack everything and the kids not bother you to death about it? and gemma rode a roller coaster.... wow! haha i hope a picture was taken, it'd be cool to see. again I'm glad everyone had fun. school starts this week right? oh and Tate how are ya doing with a week back?

i forgot that Stacie graduated in august. Stacie congratulations!!!

haha don't even worry about the plaque. when its done, its done. I'm not in a rush. thank you for doing that though. haha did grandma Lloyd not get a picture yet then?

so with the work, apart from the beginning, we have 4 new investigators. one is in an interesting situation. she is from Poland, learned English in about a year or 2, maybe 3, not positive and is our investigator because she is dating a recent convert who speaks Spanish natively, knows English and Portuguese. so funny combo, Spanish/polish and lessons in polish/Spanish/English since that's the communicating language. :)

red bank is getting better and has many people who need the gospel. i was told also of a letter the 1st pres. sent out that said the mission pres. should leave missionaries in areas for 8 months to a year..... we'll see with me. :)

so things are going great. i gotta go but i love you all and thank you for everything. i hope all is going well int he family and ward and if i can do anything to help, please let me know. i keep everyone in my prayers always. have a great week!!

love Craig