February 25th Letter

Vauxhall, famous for potatoes...and thats about it

Connect Four with Elder Jensen-Fresno, CA

A sweet tie someone gave me. cough cough

me and my baby, the rapid fire



Alright, hopefully this doesn't go out again. to be honest, this last week hasn't been too eventful. Not too many stories to tell. I'll get more! haha I ate spaghetti/lasagna 6 nights in a row. if i ever see tomato sauce again i'm running away. Unless of course its moms. :) We saw a big hit to our teaching pool. Every Saturday we go out to Grassy Lake, the small town just east of Taber, and do work there. We has 3 investigators there, and we lost all 3 this last visit. We were working with this Mennonite family, and the wife was really nice and enjoyed the Book of Mormon. She said she thought it was a good book. But this last time we went by she came to the door looking sad and said her husband wanted us to take the book back. we saw a bruise on her shoulder and guessed that he REALLY wanted her to give back the book, so that was sad. And a girl we've been teaching who allowed her baby to be blessed in sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago finally lost the battle with her mom. She doesn't want her coming to church anymore. Dang. But on the bright side we set two baptismal dates with Hannah and Bradley, a mom and her 10 yr old son. They're really cool. As with the lack of fun stories, i finally decided to tell my conversion story. So here we go.
my whole life i knew the church was true. it was just a good comfortable feeling i felt whenever i was at church or gospel subjects were brought up. But i eventually got sick of leaning off of others testimonies and all. I wanted to know for myself. Especially growing up listening to my dad's talks on tape about his story and all. I wanted a cool one. Sometime early in high school, i was reading in my favorite books of the Book of Mormon, Alma, Mosiah, and Moroni, when i got the feeling it was time to pray. Almost as soon as i started praying and asking Heavenly Father if it was true, I got my answer. It was so sudden i almost brushed it aside. Right when i asked, I felt a voice in my head say, Duh! Of course its true! I felt surprised that answers can come that fast and abrupt, so i kept asking, and it was the same every time i asked. So i decided to listen. And i felt, You know its true. you've always known. Now go and spread my word. Those words have stuck with me so much! So straight and so solid! And that is how i came to now that this church is true, and that i am doing the Lord's work.
One thing I've learned out here on my mission is if you've been born in the church, don't think you aren't as special because you don't have your neat story. Everyone has to have their own testimony found in their own way. Some find it through prayer. Some find it through trials and sorrow. Anyway you find it, its YOURS. And its special.
Another cool thing about being a missionary is the support you find through other missionaries. Some of my favorite people to hear from are those other guys that I'm friends with from BYU or whatever. Fred Nelson, Ryan Gray, Skylar Brown, Jordan Harbor, all those great guys. I can't wait to swap stories with them.
Well, what i thought was going to be a short boring email got quite expanded! I just want everyone to know that i love what I'm doing. I keep having a dream every other month or so where I'm home from my mission, but i can't remember anything past 3 months, 5 months, or 7 months. And its frustrating. 24 months seems like a long time, but i want to make the most of every day i get. Going home seems really scary. hahaha well, i think that's pretty good. I love you all!
Elder Crippen

February 19th Letter

helloo! Life is going good! Especially because this is basically going to be the best pday ever. I have 4 other elders with me! my whole district is here, and the zone leaders. The wanted to kick it with us, so thats real neat. I'm glad to hear some news about nanny. Tell her hi for me and that i love her! I'm happy for you that you get to have collin in the home. You're no longer empty nesters! I told some other missionaries that i have a little brother and iit was fun watching their reaction. Yikes about the insurance! haha i'll be sure to be careful. Its funny, cuz as we were walking around earlier we were joking about trains. There's a prominent railway that goes right through Taber. Sometimes they're really long and if you're trying to get to the other side of town it takes forever!!! haha pin the transfer? How's that gonna work out? Its funny, because i was thinking about the Olympian friend too. and i haven't heard from breanna in awhile.. Mail is REALLY slacking here. It was coming strong, and then just stopped. There's only a few people i still hear from. Haha, krank, its actually kronk, for the emperors new groove. I have many nicknames here in the mission: Crippen-dor (harry potter), Mr. Incredible, Kronk, Cripptorious, Old man crippen, Clark Kent, and stuff. The article that Jayni sent me was something her grandpa put together. Its AMAZING. It really helps with missionaries and stuff. Talks about the importance of the Holy Ghost and how to resolve concerns with investigators. I've already used it a lot. Its pretty sweet. i"ll see what i can do about getting the movies to you.


The work here in Taber has really taken off these last few weeks. we've found some cool people, and hopefully will be setting baptismal dates tonight! We have about 4 people that could be baptized this transfer, they just have concerns with spouses or other matters like that. But I've been thinking a lot about this great opportunity i have right now. I only have 17 more months of this! Time if flying and I'm so glad that i have this time. It only comes once! Much love to everyone!


Elder Crippen

February 11th Letter

Baptism of Tanner with his parents

Me and the nerf gun. STUCK THE CEILING YAY!!!

ME!!

Life is good here! Nothing too too exciting. We had the baptism of Tanner Wilson this last saturday and that was an amazing experience. He's a great kid, acts way older than his age (15) and was so excited.
It was a great experience. Its definitely a different experience being in a small town and stuff. We aren't really allowed to tract, seeing as everyone in Taber is either LDS or Anti. So yeah. I guess Taber's been closed down to missionaries every now and then because people have physically chased them out! ALRIGHT!!! Sounds like I've got some adventures up ahead! We do a lot of service and stuff down here, in the springtime we'll get to BRAND COWS! I can't even describe how excited i am for that. There's a lot of missionaries out from this stake, and the parents are always so kind to us! (you better be doing the same thing!) There's an extended care place for geriatrics (old people) and we do a sacrament meeting there every Sunday, and i gave a talk on having Charity in trials, D&C 123:15(?) and we then took a lady the sacrament in her room because she wasn't able to get out of bed, and we sang for her, and she was so grateful! It was very touching. Elder Herrera is a fun kid, he's from Worcester Massachusetts, and is from the very ward where Fred Nelson is serving right now! That was a neat coincidence! Well, this church is true and i am SO pumped to be out here. It's a great work, and I'm proud to be a part of it. I love you and pray for you!
Elder Crippen

February 4th Pictures

Sign in the middle of nowhere. HAPPY!!!
Me and elder Page reunite!

Bye BYe big daddy garvin! home to the land of endless pdays!

First off, let me apologize for last week's Sentence. haha. Life is going good here in Taber. Its a really small town in the middle of no where! We cover a lot of the surrounding acreages, which is cool, because if i stay til April, i get to brand cattle! That'd be so sweet! I'm an outdoors man born in a city. Dang. I can't wait til i can go out and camp again. And i REALLY can't believe I only have 18 months. time is ZOOMING by its ridiculous. Its kinda scary.
Taber is fun because we get to do a lot of service. Currently we are helping turn an old library into a theatre, and we're doing lots of DEMOLITION. oh man i feel right at home. SO much fun. Knocking down walls, going crazy with a sledgehammer and a jack hammer. oh man, good times. Takes me back to the days working with Wes! I miss that man. EXCITING NEWS! We have a baptism coming up! I feel funny because i didn't really have a part in it, but still, that doesn't take away from the excitement of seeing someone make that wonderful change in their life! He's 15 and SO solid. Elder Herrara is a lot of fun. He's actually from the town where Fred Nelson is serving right now. His dad just went on splits with him! Crazy! I've really come to love the book, Jesus the Christ. SO GOOD! Read it. yeah. p-day is weird here, because we don't hang out with other missionaries because they're all so far away. SO no basketball for awhile, but i plan on staying in shape. The member we live with has a treadmill, so i run on that every morning. I have to go, we have a lil service appt to get to, but i love you all, and can't wait to here and see you guys! in 18 months. hahah much love!
Elder Crippen