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