December 16th Letter

Everyone needs a snowblower cover!!! The Calgary South zone!
life's a beach...ALWAYS!!!

the suicide!!! this is for david

Another favorite family from New Brighton, the Bakers!

posterity shot! Page(going home! crazy!), middle, trained me and lake(on the left) and i trained marsden!!

some fun with silly putty

I love you mom!

havin some fun at ZLC! this is the famous bathrobe! that is me, Elder Funk from Idaho and elder Everett from Utah rockin our makeshift PJs!

p.s. can you tell i love my camera? :D

WOW this week has ben crazy! Its been a constant -25 with windchills going down to -40!!! yikes! BUt today, by some miracle, for the first time in 2 weeks, i turned down the heat in the car from full blast to less hot. A miracle! GOd Bless chinooks!!! I'll tell you what, frozen boogers is the weirdest feeling ever! You can freeze your nostrils shut! BUt its "warm" today so tahts nice. ELder Tompkinson is taking off early to be home in time for Christmas so i'm excited for that. In the meantime, Elder WIlson/Steve from BYU and i will be covering BOTH of our zones! I'll be able to go to downtown calgary! that'll be exciting!!!It'll be awesome to serve with him cuz we were friends from before the mish so its a dream come true!!! So the morrison's are having us teach their friend Jayme cuz they like me alot, haha. But Jayme is awesome, she's really been prepared for the Gospel and as she puts it, is already half mormon. It feels so good to see someone so prepared come into the gospel, with such great people as the morrisons. They're the best. BUt Jayme is fun cuz i can teach her in my style, and she accepts it. THe SPirit really helps in teaching, its awesome to see that. AS you can see from all the pictures, i really like my camera, haha thank you so much for it! I love love love love it! ANd i love you guys! LIFE IS GOOD!

December 9th Letter

Award winning gingerbread house!

baptism of scott porter

Wow, good luck to me as i write this email, cuz there’s SO much to try and get through. I guess i’ll start with how a MASSIVE storm came through Calgary over the weekend. It was the same day as ZLC (zone leader council) The roads were terrible so it looked like we were going to be stranded at the mission home for the night, but they eventually sent the Calgary zl’s home but there was all of the out of city guys still there. Our ward Christmas party was at the chapel that is right by the mission home so we were there and we fed all the missionaries who were stranded. There was a gift exchange, and guess who i exchanged with, the little girl from the Testaments! Mara, the girl with the Monkey. She’s in our singles ward! SO that was exciting. We then made gingerbread houses at the party and ours was WAY good. SO i asked, and me and tompknison got permission to sleep over at the mission home with he other guys. This was fun because some of my favorite guys were there and they are leaving soon! Elder Pehrson and i got to hang out a bunch so that was awesome. And we literally didn’t have anything to sleep in. All we had was our suits. I didn’t want to chill around in that, and i didn’t want to just hang out in my undies, so i searched the mission home and found a big pink bathrobe. It was amazing. another missionary found one, and another one found an old lumberjack looking shirt and tiny basketball shorts. Hopefully i can get the picture soon. It was warm though, i didn’t even need a blanket! Then the next day we had to walk home, only like, 6 blocks, through the blizzard, luckily i was well prepared with a jacket, scarf from Jayni, and earmuffs. I felt like a pioneer, walking through 6-12 inches of snow not knowing where the sidewalk was. It was intense. we made it. Then we went to the church to fill the font up for the baptism of Scott porter. He was baptized by his girlfriend’s dad and it was sweet. he had been taught by Elder Mella mostly so that was fun to see elder mella be able to be there and confirm him. Whenever we taught him i was really impressed at ho9w willing he was to make the big step of baptism and join the church. We were supposed to have stake conference with Elder Hafen from the first quorum of the seventy but because of the weather he couldn't get a flight here. That was sad, but we got to eat the food that was prepared for him! It was some pretty delicious chicken! But wow this week was so jam packed! The weather is staying steadily cold at -20 with wind chills up to -30! Needless to say, its really cold when your boogers freeze, and frost build up on your eyelashes. But its opened up a lot of opportunities to serve as we shovel walks. Its exciting, and i’ve gotten pretty good at it! Well, I'll try and not freeze! Thanks for all your love prayers and mail! i love you all! Elder Crippen P.S.-Life is good

Thanksgiving Letter--November 25

I thought I'd do this the Thanksgiving way... But before i do that, no updates too crazy, just the usual.

I'm grateful for the opportunity i have to share this wonderful gospel with the world. I'm grateful for my family, who i don't know how i got so lucky to get them. I'm grateful for a modern day prophet who guides us. I'm grateful for friends who help so much in ways i can't describe. I'm grateful for mail that never comes fast enough. I'm grateful for all my BYU buds out serving missions and the motivation they are to me.I'm grateful for first semester BYU volleyball class that gave me the one of my best friends ever. I'm grateful for David, Jesse, and Mike who helped me really get excited for the mission. I'm grateful especially for David cuz he's the best friend I've ever had. I'm grateful for my first semester BYU volleyball class that gave me the one of my best friends ever. I'm grateful for each and every one of my nieces and nephews. I'm grateful for each of my brothers and sisters, i drop the in law part, they're really family. I'm grateful for the scriptures that i can read each day. I'm grateful for changing weather, that i get to experience so much different climates. I'm grateful for contacts so i can see without having to wear glasses. I'm grateful for temples and how pretty they are. I'm grateful for cars and modern day transportation that make things so much easier. I'm grateful for the Internet and other digital inventions that make it possible to communicate in seconds with someone, no matter the distance. I'm grateful for basketball and how amazing it is. I'm grateful for a self-repairing body that is healthy and strong. I'm grateful for my weaknesses, that keep my humble and inspire me to grow. I'm grateful for good music and for how much it inspires me. I'm grateful for great books that are so captivating. I'm grateful for my eyes, ears, mouth and nose, that work well. I'm grateful for the ability to grow a mustache. I'm grateful movies that are so funny. I'm grateful a great country that stands for freedom, even if its messed up sometimes. I'm grateful for the red white and blue flag, stars and stripes all the way! I'm grateful for food and how tasty it is. I'm grateful for guns and how fun they are to shoot. I'm grateful for relationships with all people and how much they strengthen me. I'm grateful for the help i receive daily from my Father in Heaven. I'm grateful for that knowledge that i am a son of God who loves me so much. I'm grateful for ties and how fun they are to wear. I'm grateful water and how fun it is to play in. I'm grateful for those times and pictures that you look back on and go, "what was i thinking?" I'm grateful for Jesus Christ, who loves me and sacrificed His life for me that i might live forever. I'm grateful for heating and air conditioning. I'm grateful for all the coaches, trainers, and teachers i've had. I'm grateful for the bad times, cuz without them i wouldn't be so grateful for the amazing good times! I'm grateful for the ability to smile and laugh cuz its a bunch of fun. I'm grateful for how diverse this world is, with people of all colors. I'm grateful for love, and how it can change everything. I'm grateful for realizing how blessed i am. I'm grateful for sunflower seeds, and how I'm really good at eating them. I'm grateful for candy for how hyper it makes me. I'm grateful for how long this list could go on forever. But most of all, I'm grateful for YOU!
MUCH LOVE!
Elder Cody Crippen

Crazy Crippen

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Winter Wonderland

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December 2nd Letter

surprised by the freak snowstorm me and tompkinson
Angela Gorner (Perry) and her husband at her baptism! YAY!

I got angry at this car...

Helro evewybody!First of all, thank you so much to Aimee for the cookies and pudding!!! SO GOOD. The cookies were just like mom makes em and they were untainted by air travel! SO SO SO good. I almost would've seen you at the office, i wish i did!!! Bummer. Life is good up here, Angela Gorner, formerly Perry, was baptized Sunday, her and her now husband were married on Saturday! It was so great to finally see that! She was teaching Gospel principles before she was a member, and i thought I'd never see that again ever. But Lana, the Jewish girl, got that calling this last week! So sweet. We've been going to this sign language class taught by a member in our ward and on Sunday we bore our testimonies in ASL! It was sweet. Other people did it too and it ended up being a really spiritual meeting because of the simplicity and sincerity of the testimonies that were shared. It was awesome. I haven't been so nervous in bearing my testimony since i was 12! haha!
Last pday we played touch football in the gym, and i got pretty banged up, haha. But I'm fine. I went up to intercept a ball, caught it,but then my legs got taken out from under me, i fell straight down right on my side from about 4 ft up. I have a silly bruise on my hip and lost my wind, AND held onto the ball. A highlight of course. It was a lot of fun. I LOVE being active!!
Last night we went to try and contact a potential investigator, and her dad started talking to us about how we believe in a different Jesus. We asked what he believed and he said, "Jesus is divine." I said "Check!" And he kept listing off all these characteristics of Christ and we said yes to every one. Then Tompkinson figured he was talking about the Trinity and that was it. He was a silly one. We asked if there was anything we could do for him he said,"believe in Jesus Christ" SO i said, "Done and done!" It was ridiculous. haha next time someone says that we believe in a different Jesus I'm just gonna say "You mean Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of our Father who came to earth to do the will of his Father and suffered for our sins that through believing in Him we might be saved? THAT ONE?!" Yeah, its all good. :)
I love Christmas time, everyone just seems so much happier and stuff. Its -10 degrees outside, and there's lots of snow, so that's exciting. I love you all and hope all is well!!!
Elder Crippen