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