the bartolozzis SOO sweet

Making my RING! woot woot!

we look like the von trapp children from sound of music doing the cuckoo song

burn baby burn

jeah

train tracks are neat

Yup.

Kickin' it.

Middle of nowhere

The Judds, a WAYsweet family

this was scratched into the door of the community center where i emailed last week.

Wow, i can't believe this is it. This totally blows my mind that I'm on a plane and HOME in 2 days. I can't even remember anything else besides being a missionary so this is going to be weird. It was a great last week full of adventures. I'm just trying to replay them all in my mind so i can tell you!

Monday, we got a ride in for pday, and when we arrived back in Strathmore later that night i realized that i had left our car, AND our apartment keys in Elder Byington's car. oopsie. So we walked to all of our appointments that night carrying around our shoes, haha. A family let us borrow a ladder so then i broke into our apartment and we were all good. Wheeler had his car keys there so we were set. Later that night i was telling the story to Byington and Clawson, and was joking that they should come out and bring the keys. Clawson goes, buzz your door people are looking at us weird. So i did it jokingly and seconds later heard footsteps down the hall and out door opened. They actually came out! I was freaking out it was really exciting. SO yeah, that was a fun night being able to see them like that. Tuesday we went in for our meetings and also our zone pizza party award that we won for having the cleanest cars and that was fun. Then on Thursday we went on exchanges, did some service, and burned the suit! I tried sending the video of it but it didn't work. we drove out in the country, saw a road that said, 'road impassable" so of course we took the challenge. We stopped at the train tracks and had some fun there. We laid the pants on the ground, soaked em in gas, and then soaked the tail of my suit in gas, i put it on, and clawson lit it on fire. I ran to the pants and took off the coat and threw it down. It was exciting.

OH man! Wednesday night our dinner calender said "Rellief Society Activity" SO we went there and it was SO awkward. We were the only men in sight and i was scared. Also annoying was the fact that no one really talked to us. Only a couple members, two less-actives,and a recent convert. Tip to everyone, Missionaries are far enough from home. The ward they are serving in IS there home. They like feeling welcomed! ok, onward.

Saturday morning we helped out at the ward breakfast, I wanted to help cook stuff, but all we ended up doing was crack 100 eggs. I guess people think we only eat top ramen and stuff, haha! It was a day full of service for sure! We went and helped a family pull out a tree, then re plant it somewhere else. Then we went and helped a less active lady move a weight machine and an elliptical machine. That was crazy intense, mostly because there was so much assembly and tools and things to remember. I love putting things together, it was a blast. Then we went to the Woods, the family who gave us the fish oil, and helped them move a bunch of stuff. They're awesome.

Sunday was good. Elder Wheeler was giving a talk on hope, and Bishop Laycock asked me to bear my testimony at the end. It was fun because the majority of the ward thought i was only out a bit over a year. SO i said, "As Elder Wheeler and i have been going around to your homes, and you've asked me how long I've been on my mission I've always said, a bit over a year. I have a correction to make. As of last Friday, i have been out a bit over two years." It was fun to see surprise on people's faces. Then i spoke about a few of the things that I've learned. Then we went out to the native branch and both of us spoke there as well. We also found out that a guy who's been coming there for 4/6 weeks that i have been there isn't a member and wants to be baptized! Surprise! wow. well, I'm off to play some ball. SEE you guys soon. Love you!

Elder Crippen

This morning. Clawson, me, wheeler, byington

mmmmmmmm peanut butter

Flooding in the road. CRAZY!!!

after running to the car in that storm.

Hey! Want to know something weird. This is my second to last email home. agghhhhh!!!!! Its starting to really sink in but i think i'm still in denial Your last 2 weeks you get to call whoever you want and invite them to your lil farewell fireside and stuff, so its been so much fun to talk with people from past areas and it really feels good when they remember you. I had a couple people who forgot, and that hurt, haha, but they said it was just on the tip of their tongue. Riiiiiiiiggghhhht. But its fun. That fireside is going to be PACKED cuz i invited a lot of people, and there's about 20 other people going home with me. Last Monday after i emailed this HUGE storm came in. We were in the mall at the time and when we got to the exit we could see all of the hail and stuff outside. There was about 10 people standing in the entrance just looking out and holding their shopping bags. It was funny. We stood with the and looked out with them in awe. I asked Elder Byington, "Do you remember where the car is?" "No." "Sweet." "Let's go." Then we opened the door and ran out screaming into the rain. All four of us were soaked instantly. it was a blast. The hail was about marble sized, but it didn't hurt. Supposedly other parts of the city had GOLF BALL sized hail. LOTS of car damage. But we were ok. Water was FLOWING in torrents down the street. There was so much water flowing through the sewers that we saw a geyser coming out of a manhole cover and then we saw the cover blow off!! Then, it was over 30 minutes later, in typical southern alberta fashion. Supposedly back in Strathmore 3 tornadoes touched down in the county! And when we got home i discovered that our bedroom window was open, and our window faces east, where the storm came from... SO yeah, my bed was soaked, Elder Wheeler's was totally dry. I threw my bedding in the washer and the turned on some fans to dry everything off, and that worked. There was a couple more storms throughout the week but luckily we didn't get caught in any of them while outside.

I made guacamole with some avocados that the Bartolozzi's gave us, it was really good.

My last zone conference was Tuesday, it was great. The Archibald's gave great trainings on how to really be a good missionary,we revamped some mission programs, and i had to give my farewell testimony. At lunch we always sing to the relief society sisters who prepared our meal, and we sing 'Army of Helaman' but change the words, like, "and we are now the Lord's Missionaries...
and stuff. I love it. Halfway through i realized that its our last time doing it and my voice started cracking. I was arm in arm with a couple buddies, and one of em looks over and goes, Dude, you are going to BAWL. You're gonna WEEP. When it came time for the testimony we went up on the stand and while i waited for my turn my knees were bouncing like crazy. Then While i was at the pulpit my whole body was shaking and i couldn't control it. People told me that i was gripping the pulpit like it was going to float away. It was really hard because that time is like the beginning of the end. I spoke a lot on how i was grateful for every second of my mission and stuff. I got decently emotional, but no tears, take that Elder Elkins!!! But when i sat down my eyes welled up and spilled over a bit. I love my mission. It was a way powerful zone conference, and a bunch of my favorite people were there so i got to be around them, that was great. A couple people thanked me for my testimony and said its what they needed to hear and that felt really good.

Sunday was interesting. One of the speakers went for 30 minutes, so we went 15 minutes over and i wanted to pull my hair out. BAHHHHH!!!!! Then we went out to the native branch and while we were pulling into the parking lot of the chapel, the gas light turned on. And we were 50 km from home, but had to drive an extra 45 to go to an appt. basically 100 km to go, on not that much gas. We thought the Lord would rather have us doing his work than stuck on the side of the road so we tried to gas up in Gleichen. The gas station was closed. SO we drove to Standard to meet the an awesome family, the Sommerfeldts. They tried to help us get gas, but they're gas station in that town was closed too. At this point the car said it had 7 km to go, and we had to go 40. We had to get back for some appointments so i told Bro. Sommerfeldt we'd call if anything happened and we took off. I told Elder Wheeler to say a prayer and he laughed and was like, yeah. But then i said, No, for real, say one now. so he said one. We drove going 80 km/h (45 mph), supposedly the most fuel efficient speed, the whole way, A/C turned off, knuckles white on the wheel. We made it, our next appointment gave us a little gas from a jerry can and it was enough to last us the night. We looked at the data display and it said there was 4 km left. We were SO watched over. Wonderful little miracle, that's fo sho. Next time i think I'll try and look at the gas gauge more... :)

Oh, a couple drunk natives came to church out at the branch, and one of them, before lunch was served, kept asking us to help him out, so i said, I'll play you some music! He said ok, so i played A poor wayfaring man of grief, I need thee every hour, and nearer my God to thee. Somewhere in that time, his possibly drunk friend came and started talking to him, and the guy goes, "shhhhh he's playing my song!" It was funny. He kept asking us to help him out and Elder Wheeler said, "Silver and gold have i none, but such as i have, i give thee." It was really funny. Hooray for drunk people.

We spent this morning with Elder Byington and Clawson and Byington got his ukulele back from a previous area so i spent most of the time playing that and was reminded how much i love it! So awesome. Well, i love you all, and I'll talk to you again fro the last time on TUESDAY!!!! love you mucho!

Elder Crippen

July 12 Letter

Hey! Life is good here in Strathmore! We had a week full of adventures. monday was pday, and i got angies package. I couldn't tell whether i like the R2D2 toy, the jerky or the cookies more. I think its a tie between the cookies and r2d2. Cuz the cookies are long gone, and i make r2d2 make noise everytime i sit at my desk. I consider him my magic 8 ball. :) On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and the mission is really stressing to have effective exchanges. It being july, and half-kilometer month, going on exchanges is a big deal, because we live far away. I was with Elder Gardner in Strathmore and within 20 minutes of arriving back into town, all of our appointments called and canceled, haha its was comical. But we had alot of good talks about things and had a great dinner with an awesome family, so YEAH. woot woot. We took back roads coming home because it was shorter that way and it was fun hitting up all the back farm roads. We saw a family of skunks! I was trying to get a picture but they ran away. Elder Wheeler jumped out of the car to snap a photo, and i was scared cuz i could just imagine him getting sprayed BAD, but they ran away luckily. On Friday, it was BOILING hot. it was in the mid-90s, and before you laugh, you need to remember that i've been suffering through -40 degrees of winter for two years! I've lost some of my hot weather tolerance sadly, i'm gonna broil back home, haha. But then saturday, the next day, it poured rain. Notice to anyone coming to visit Canada. No matter what time of year you come, or for whatever duration, bring Swimming gear, snowboarding gear, rain gear, windy day gear, normal day gear, cuz you'll most likely need all of it. Then on sunday it was WAY stormy and windy when we came out of church but it calmed down. After church we went out to the Siksika native branch and thats always fun. I was nervous when we entered the tiny building because it the 3 young men we normally work with weren't there. Then we found out one of them was there, he was just hiding in the Primary room. Enter Jacob "Spotted Eagle" Crowfoot. He's a very round, funny native kid who's dad is just now coming back to church and we're gonna be teaching his mom soon. WOOT WOOT. he was excited to see us, ran to the classroom, jumped into a chair and pretended like he was asleep. Then we taught the Restoration to him and somehow, miraculously, was able to hold his attention here and there. :D After the potluck, as we were leaving, he ran out with us and got in the car. After joking around with him for a bit, he got out and stood in front of our car and started dancing. I pulled out my camear and then seeing that he was on film he ran away, but then ran back and tried stealing our cameras. I have video but i won't be able to send it because its too big. You'll see it soon. he's a blast and makes the long drive out there worth it. Than we drove to a members house in standard, 30 km away in a near opposite direction from strathmore all on back roads, FUN. THen back home. It was a good week. I felt really good at church, and life is just flat out good. Goin out with a bang!!! There's a new that if you live more than 20 km away from where pday is held, you aren't allowed to drive in. sadly, that is us. Luckily you can have members bring you in. Brother Fawns works as an accountant in the city and let us come in with him! they're a sweet family, we like them alot. SO he dropped us off at the East Stake center at 7 am, haha and we waited 20 minutes for Elder Clawson and Elder Byington (i love them) to come and pick us up. in the meantime, i ate an entire apple, except the seeds, and watch a bird feed its babies. its been a fun morning. I left my wallet at home in Strathmore though, so the plans to make guacamole are out the window. The Bartolozzi's, a sweet couple we visit with in Gleichen, the town where the branch meets, gave us two avocados! woot woot! Well, i love you all and will talk to you soon! Elder Crippen

July 5th Letter

Hey everyone! Happy Independence day/Canada Day! We got to watch fireworks from our apartment on Canada Day and that reminded me of how much i love fireworks and where you see them, the beach, baseball games, it made me happy. :D Strathmore had a little Canada Day celebration and we tried to make it to the pancake breakfast but were too late. Then we walked around A LOT, (july=half-kilometer month) and later walked back to the celebration in time to see a magician. He was really talented but extremely eccentric and a little bit creepy. Later we were walking down the street and i heard someone yell, "HEY!" Me, normally curious, would've turned around to see what was going on but at the same time i felt a voice in my head say, "Don't turn around." I told Elder Wheeler the same thing and we kept walking, despite the repeated "heys" we kept hearing. We had just walked past a house party so who knows what would've happened it we turned around. Whatever would've happened i'm glad for the Spirit's little whispers to protect us. While watching the magician we also gave a Book of Mormon out to a lady who came up and spoke with us. that was neat. I bore my testimony for the last time on fast sunday. that was weird. We found out this member served in the same mission as Carrie, but a little bit earlier than her. That was cool to make that connection.
Its a bit of a struggle right now and its really annoying. We aren't receiving a lot of help from the members. this week is girls AND scout camp so we haven't been able to get any appointments set up. Its frustrating. In the 3 weeks i've been here, we've had 3 dinner appointments with members. We've had dinners scheduled each day, but people always cancel and drop food off. Its really nice of them but frustrating because I don't get to know the members as well and they don't get to know. As members of the church, we think that our purpose is to feed the missionaries. That's nice, but not the real reason. We're supposed to be in their homes encouraging missionary work and letting them get to know us better. People have asked me, "Are you getting fed?" If i say that we have 2-3 nights a month without a dinner they go crazy and are all worried. Then they'll ask, "how's the teaching pool?" and when we tell them its lacking, they shrug it off like, oh darn elders. keep working, we're praying for you. Moms will feed us and say, if i feed you i know my boy out there will be taken care of. If your son is anything close to a good missionary, he'd care less whether he didn't have dinner that night if he had 4 people to teach! bahhhhhhh!!!! sorry, a little rant. :) There are a few awesome people here though, no worries. I love you all! talk to you next week!
Elder Crippen

June 28th Letter

Hey everyone! Life is good here in lil Strathmore. I tried to send some pictures but this computer is just not working! I'll start out with the biggest adventure from the week. ROAD TRIP! We were looking at our area map and there was some tiny towns that we covered that we wanted to visit. Hussar was the first one. It took us an hour to drive there, and we almost missed it! There are 157 people there and we tracted out half the town, one street that is, in 15 minutes. It was typical tracting, small success, haha. We bought some lunch at the tiny general store and watch some little league game for a bit. Then we went to Standard, which is just a little bit bigger, and visited with a member there. That was a half hour away. Then we drove down to Cluny, one a highway where i didn't see another car for 20 minutes (we didn't have cell phone service for over half the day) and in CLuny we found this hole in the wall bakery/convenience store that had some delicious bread. Then we went deep into the Indian reserve there and saw the gravesite and last camping ground (before signing over their land) of Cheif Crowfoot. There were Rocks in a circle from where his teepee was! cooool. We even tracted out some teepees. No one was home sadly. Then we went back to the bakery and got some more of that bread. good stuff! blueberry bread with lemon icing, and chocolate chip banana bread, only 50 cents a slice! yuummmmmmmm. By then it was time for us to head back the 85 kilometers to Strathmore for dinner. Which was fun and crazy. We were beat and our allergies were going crazy cuz of all the crazy plants and stuff we saw. Elder Wheeler literally sneezed 27 times in a row. I thought he was going to die!
I had my last interview with President Archibald. That was really weird. I didn't want to leave the room, because i love talking with him. Next week at zone conference i'll be giving my farewell testimony. That it SO weird. It almost would be at the same building as my greenie testimony, but its down the road a bit. SO weird! i can't get over it. I've been telling the ward that i'm only out "a bit over a year," cuz then it won't be brought up as much and i won't trunk myself out of my mind. I'm ignoring the impending disaster. :)
We have a foosball table and every now and then. It reminds me of playing on the one that we have at home, except a bit more on the new side, haha. I spoke at church on sunday about Jesus Christ being our example and i think it went well. Hope fully it'll have the members of the ward more willing to have us over, because at the moment, no one is really keeping the appointments we've set with them, its really annoying. After Strathmore ward we went to the Siksika Nation Branch. We've been teaching these two native boys who were baptized a while ago. they each received the priesthood. They had a friend there that i almost kicked cuz he had some fascination with the word "duty." He would say it every 5 seconds as we were teaching. AGHHHHHH. haha whatev.
Life is good, i love you all and i'm working hard. til next week!
Elder Crippen

June 21 Letter

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I tried calling but no one answered.

Just kidding! :D

Sorry, no pictures this week, i forgot my camera. I guess you got those ones from the Joostens and Elder Owens though. The Joostens were AWESOME. Now i know why Martin was so cool. My companion is Elder Wheeler and he is a funny kid from Mountain Home, Idaho. And yes that is a small town. I'm no longer in a walking area which is a bummer but its fun cuz we drive A LOT out to small towns and stuff. Its an adventure all the time. Small town people are always a but more relaxed, which i like. They even had a tie contest after church on Sunday, and you are speaking to the official Strathmore Ward Annual Father's Day Tie Contest winner in the Craziest category. It was the fish tie that i have. It sealed the deal. Woot Woot! I won a small box of candy, and in some eyes, immortality for sure. :) After church, where i met someone who served in Lake Elsinore Ward and he remembered the Sniders and the Fardigs. That was cool. He supposedly served there back when the Dexter Building was new/dedicated. Crazy!

But yeah, after church we went to the Siksika Branch, which covers a native reserve and that was interesting. I'm so grateful to live in an area where the church is strong, but not too tremendously strong, oddly enough, haha. They have a potluck after church every week and that was fun. We had some funny conversations with the branch president about "ripened fish oil" aka rotten, then rottened again and left on the beach for 3 weeks, then rotted some more,cooked and made into oil. Oh, did i say rotten? I meant ripened. my bad, haha. We're gonna go try some next week probably. Yikes. Afterwards we were trying really hard to find something to do, because no one was home or answering their phone out there. SO we stopped by some random native lady who is the sister of the branch president's wife and talked to her for a bit. Then she said that someone came and mowed her lawn and was a member, so we didn't really know much at all about who it was so we just went there and visited with them. turns out they've been inactive for a few years, not because of lack of testimony but because of laziness. We had a great long conversation with them and they want to start coming back! That was our little miracle for the day.

We had a baptism on Saturday, which was very exciting because they are always fun to see. I didn't really have anything to do with it, which is kinda a bummer but whatev. I'll find someone else. :) Her name is Jessica and she's 15 and was really excited. Baptisms always blow my mind because they are SO simple and so fast. It's something that we as missionaries try SO hard for and work for months at a time with people to get them to come unto Christ by a 5 second ordinance. I love that the gospel is so simple like that. Til next week! I love you all!

June 14th letter

SO yup. I'm getting transferred. I can't believe it! I'm going to Strathmore, and I'm pretty bummed to leave Lethbridge with only 6 weeks left, but whatev. I'm sure plenty of adventures await. the week was pretty good, nothing too crazy happened. we had more rain and thunderstorms, that was cool. This is definitely the wettest spring i have ever been a part of in my life. Yesterday Elder Madsen and i helped someone build a playground for someone and it was a blast. Afterwards we were bored so we rode around in the country part of our area, and found a cool park to go to but to get to it we had to ride down this REALLY steep gravel road for about a half mile at least. It was intense and REALLY fun. Anyone remember Elder Bullock? he served in Canyon Lake and i met him a few nights ago! It was cool, he said he remembers everyone loving the Crippens. Last night we had a great appointment with Bro. Tsui and we really helped him a lot. He's the non-member in a part-member family.Sorry this email is really short, i'm just a little bummed so i'm distracted. I love you all and will talk to you on Monday! Elder Crippen

Flaming Pongs and Clowns at OneTrueMedia.com

I find it ironic that Cody looks like a clown with that play button on his nose!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

June 8th Letter

Claresholm CHICKEN!!!!!!!!!!!

the best frosted brownies you'll ever see. Aren't we so good?


Elder Hass is pretty

Elder Madsen and I outside the temple

Yup, we went to the temple and it was a blast, learned some good stuff, and felt really good. Someone asked me yesterday, so how many weeks? and i was like, uuhhh 7. I hadn't thought about it in terms of weeks! yikes. Its crazy. Its really starting to hit home that its happening, and its pretty scary. Guess who i saw at the temple! Bailey Hughes Kado and her husband! Such a surprise! It was weird to see Bailey prego. She came up to me and gave me some really good advice, "Cody (it was weird to hear that name), don't ever get pregnant." it was pretty funny. I'm thinking i won't have a problem sticking to that. But it was really good to see them and chit chat. I heard all about Elizabeth's visa problems in the MTC, thats rough! Hooray for Canada's wide open borders!! haha
What an AMAZING experience this last week. As a result of a 7 Day Challenge we gave to our ward mission leader we received a referral from them to teach their son's acquaintances from high school. He spoke with them at a grad party and they said they'd be interested in meeting with us and "telling us what they believe." He mentioned that they were very opinionated girls so we were expecting them to try and bash, but we found quite the opposite. They were very accepting and active in the discussion that we had (in Starbuck's, of all places, our clothes smelled of coffee for two days, haha) as we taught the message of the Restoration and began to answer each other's questions. One of the girls said, "I came here today thinking that I would disagree with everything that you said, and that you would tell me all of these things that you can't do and that you would tell me that I was going to hell because I'm a terrible person, but everything is totally opposite from what I expected." They then invited themselves to church, weren't able to make it due to work, but were excited to read the Book of Mormon and we are meeting with them tomorrow! Such a great experience!
Adding to that, one of our bishops called us this morning and told us that a less-active family in the ward wants their son to be baptized! This is someone that we've been trying to contact for the whole time we've been here and that was an awesome thing to hear.
It was borderline creepy to hear about all the people getting married and having kids. its weird that life goes on so quickly and people grow up. Next week is transfers so i'll be emailing on Tuesday, and just a head's up, pday will be moving to Monday after that. Our mission is finally hoping on board with the rest of the world, haha. I love you all and pray for you!
Elder Crippen

rain and more rain, little kids shooting at us, and really good ice cream

this is from our tour of the water treatment plant. SO cool.

we made German pancakes!

panoramic pictures are the best

this is from our dinner on Sunday in honor of Memorial day. The wife is American and this reminded me so much of home!

The Subject pretty much sums up the week right there, haha. It was a good one.Yesterday was the first day it didn't rain all day for a long time. Thursday was the worst. We tried all day long in the pouring rain to try and contact people with no luck. Walking from dinner to our next appt we were walking into the wind and heavy rain. Needless to say, we were totally and completely soaked. At our next appt they gave us towels and a hairdryer to try and dry off our pants. We were WET. So that was a big adventure. A few days ago we were walking around, and there was a whole bunch of kids playing with toy guns, and when they saw us they started yelling some sort of battle cry and were shooting at us and making gun sounds. Their dad's just looked on annoyed, haha. They did it over and over and over as we walked by, then saw something shiny and ran to play with it. it was funny. Ok, check this out. I don't know if they have this in the states, but up here, dairy queen just started serving STRAWBERRY GOLDEN OREO BLIZZARDS. ummm, heaven? yes. I LOVE GOLDEN OREOS. speaking of those, anyone up for sending Vanilla Joe-Joes? :) Life continues to be good. There are so many awesome families in these wards, but we are struggling with finding someone for us to teach. But we're having fun. Good news: outside of church and mission meetings i never have to wear a suit coat on the mission again! woooooooooooohhooooooooooo. It was legit. We get to go to the temple next week so that'll be a blast. We finally got in contact with Amanda, she's moved out of our area now, but she said she wants to eventually move back into the ward boundaries in a month or so. We had "stake conference" on Sunday and Elder Pace of the Seventy, Elder Ballard and Pres. Uchtdorf were there. It was great and i learned a lot. I love you all and will talk to you next week! ME

May 26th Letter

Hello family. It was a good week and stuff. we had interviews and zone conference and i love those two times. Interviews is always great because President Archibald is the man. He's so easy to talk to and helps your perspective grow a lot. Some missionaries from my transfer are going home a little early so they gave their farewell testimonies and that was really weird. Time is tickin. Zone conference is always cool because you can see that you never stop learning. Just because I've been out 22 months doesn't mean at all that i know everything. I learn things that are new everyday. We were able to teach Dawn, the friend of a family in the ward a few times and its been great. In one of the lessons she asked what were the greatest experiences of our missions. I instantly started tearing up a little bit, which NEVER happens because i know what they were and they are so sweet to me. We had a great couple of lessons with her and hopefully will be able to see some progress with her. On Sunday we spoke in church and I spoke on the benefits of having missionaries in your home. There are a lot of them. I shared some experiences and ended with saying that we can't be like the servant who hid his talent. We need to share our talents/the gospel because we were blessed with in and ENTRUSTED with it. As we share it, our welcome from the Lord will truly be, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Won't that be AWESOME? I love you all more than you know!

Elder Crippen

Colossians 2:4-5

May 19th Letter

you guessed it, LIFE IS GOOD! Elder Madsen and i fixed up the bikes that the Vaka's gave us and we are biking FIENDS. its a blast, i don't mind not having a car one bit cuz i love biking. total blast. hopefully this'll mean my "winter coat" will melt away. woot woot. No nasty spills yet, just tons and tons of fun. And weird looks from people. One thing i like about being a missionary, you always can make people laugh. whether or not you're talking to them. I wonder if they notice that they are staring and laughing. With summer comes mosquitoes and they're already finding me. Its a good thing i didn't go to Africa or South America or I'd be dead.I have 3 on my arms and two on my legs. BAH. Monday was a cool day because i found a shirt crumpled at the bottom of our laundry closet, and i liked it and it fit perfectly! Woot woot! As i was cutting an extra button hole for it (ok, it didn't fit PERFECTLY, but whatev) I cut my finger so that was a bummer. But its getting better. But we pretty much did service all day. We started out mowing our lawn, Madsen did the front and i was about to di the back when we realized that the tree in our backyard was totally infested with bees attacking the flowers on it. The back lawn still remains uncut. Then we helped a few families with random things, helped someone move, then went to the Vakas where i did that AMAZING chicken for them. I MISS BBQING! i love it. Then we had to rush to an appt with Amanda, our investigator, which didn't happen :( but we had an awesome lesson with another family an hour later. We were EXHAUSTED that night and quickly fell asleep. Last week after pday we had a lesson with a Part member family the Tsui's (choys) and it was great. Supposedly Bro Tsui, the non member said wow to his wife after we left. It was an awesome lesson, we were able to get out his concerns and stuff, and most of it was on spirit recognition.
We had an amazing spiritual experience with a less-active we were teaching last Thursday. He expressed that he was really feeling down with things he was going through at the time and we talked a bit about that. Then we moved onto the lesson, which was on Moroni 7, the reading assignment. I was leading the discussion so i started talking and stuff. It was a big struggle because i could feel that i was receiving NO help from the Spirit. I sounded like a bumbling idiot. I felt no power helping me. So i just stopped talking, hoping that someone else there was inspired to say something. After a few quiet moments, Bro Wilkinson says, "Is it just me or is this not what we're supposed to be reading right now?" Boy, was he right. I didn't know what to do, and neither did he, but Elder Madsen says, "I know where." And he had us turn to the Sermon on the Mount and it was PERFECT. Its now one of Bro. Wilkinson's favorite stories and it really helped him a lot with the things that he was going through at the time. Such a great lesson! For sure on of the first times I've ever felt the spirit tell me to shut up, haha. Thanks to everyone for all the mail that keeps arriving at my house! We hardly ever get mail sent down here so its always fund to check our mailbox and see something from family or friend! Mail will be delivered from the office tomorrow and I'm SO excited! we haven't gotten any since may 5, so I'm hoping there's some good stuff waiting.
Suit coats got to come off for the last several days! It felt so good. Sadly, that shindig is over cuz its gonna be on the more chilly side for the next week. :( oh, and we have a lesson with a new investigator tomorrow! She has a lot of questions about the church and stuff so we'll be teaching her tomorrow! woot woot!
OH! we got to go on a tour of the Lethbridge Water Treatment plant. Probably one of the coolest things I've seen. Its crazy all the things they have to purify water. I"ll send pictures next week. It blows your mind! unfortunately my mind was so blown i didn't really take many photos. bum bum buuuhhhhhh. But yeah, life is good, I'm alive and loving life. I love you all!!!
Elder Crippen

May 12 Letter

The Lethbridge Zone
Grape Drink! few will get it.

This is Ashley, the girl who was baptized just after Clawson and i got transferred out of Confederation Park. The other girl is a recent convert who was a great fellowshipper for Ashley, Carly Raslask.

We got Carly "I Got Baptized" stickers and she gave one to Ashley, haha!


Great week! agghhhh first off is was SO good to talk to the family. I almost fainted when i talked with the little ones who are not little ones at all anymore! Kaela, Michael, Reagan, it blew my mind how old they sound! And it was so good to talk to David and plan stuff out with him. I"M EXCITED to see everyone and be able to be more involved in your lives! And Happy mother's day mom, i already told you it but now this way it'll be broadcast to the world,. you're the greatest!!!! I have to admit, its been the only phone call that made me a bit trunky, but after that i felt really motivated cuz i was like, i can't go like this for 3 months! So don't worry, I'm better, but i loved the call, it was AWESOME.
So, awesome story. We FINALLY were able to get a hold of Amanda, through Bro Mathes, our awesome ward mission leader. He set up a dinner for Friday where we would all be and stuff. 2 hours before the dinner, she called and canceled with him. When Bro Mathes let us know we were pretty devastated. I had a stack of flyer's in my hand that i had brought in from the mailbox and i threw them in our kitchen floor, childish, but that's how upset i was. This was like the 10th time she'd canceled and stuff. So we were bummed. then we stopped by a member who said she had a friend who wanted to meet with us. That member then said that the lady changed her mind and only wanted a Book of Mormon. another bummer. Then a half hour before the dinner we got a call from Bro Mathes who said Amanda had uncanceled!! we were ecstatic! It was a great dinner, we taught the first half of lesson 4: The Commandments and she accepted a baptismal date for May 22! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO she's still going strong and is set for that date.
Later that week we went and visited with a cool family named the Bissets, who we have met with a lot. Sister Bisset normally wears glasses. A lady answered the door who looked completely unfamiliar and I, thinking that it was one of their tenants or something, said,"is Ben or Victoria here?" And she goes, I am Victoria. AGGHHHHHH i was so embarrassed. Elder Madsen looked at me really funny and stuff. Oh man that was weird. SO i explained the whole glasses thing and stuff. haha oops.
I got a letter from a friend who said shes been looking at the blog and said that i have gained weight, but she has too, and started a challenge to get back to our July 08 weight. Winner gets treated to dinner. Katelyn, YOU'RE ON. I'm already down 3 pounds.12 more to go. boo yah! my pants are fitting better already!
My district is the Lost BoyZ. We are named after the kids from Hook, i'm Rufio, Elder Madsen is TooSmall, the kid who goes, there you are peter! Elder Whiting, because he can eat like no other, is the fat black kid named ThudButt, and Elder Grace is Tootles. Good times.
Life is good, we're finally having some warm weather, its BEAUTIFUL actually. I love it. We're SO close to no suit coats! ahhhhhhh can't wait. I love Elder Madsen, he and i are having a blast! I love you all!
Elder Crippen

breaking into the safe at Scotiabank. The bank manager is a ward missionary and he had to stop by there to do something and he said, yeah, go poke around where ever you want. how often do you get told that in a BANK! JEAH!

Hello family! Its been a good week. Craziest things first. The weather is ridiculous. More crazy storms and snow and WIND. Oh man the wind is unbelievable. Its enough to drive you crazy. But we've seen a lot of good things happen. Beaudette is a less active lady we've found and she's been great to meet with and she has SUCH a desire to come back and especially she has a massive desire for missionary work. Its great. We were able to give her a blessing and stuff and that was awesome. Elder Madsen and i have really gotten better and better at our teaching and we've had some good experiences with that. Its so fun to totally feel the Spirit totally take control and help you out. Oh! and Transfer news. Nothings really changing. Madsen and i are staying together and I'm DL again. Which is a bummer because i really enjoyed just being able to focus hardcore on just being a missionary. But whatev.
I think one thing that has been awesome is see members really get excited about missionary work. We have people coming up to us and telling us about these awesome experiences they've had with their friends. They are so excited! Thats just a smidgen of the joy that we'll feel later in heaven. Well, that's all that's really going down this week. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you on SUNDAY! yeeeahhhhhhh!!!! hah it's gonna be awesome. oh! the phone number, I'll send that in a separate email. hugs and kisses. bye!
Elder Crippen

April 28th Letter

Me and Elder Lee running to the temple in the rain/snow/slush.

iOle!

we had to take the classic photo

Me and Bro. Vaka bringing in DA PIG!

the pet cat we had for 10 minutes

our baby

painting without war paint is for chumps.






SO yeah, transfers are next week. SO I'll be emailing on Tuesday. How crazy is that? Time is going by way too fast, its blowing my mind. Reality is setting in and I'm FREAKING out, haha. Life is so good as a missionary, so I'm gonna take advantage of it. Big thanks to mom, Leneah, Kaela, and Maddie for the letters i got from them! we only get mail every like, 3 weeks down here, so that's a bummer. More than likely I'll finish here and if you want to send anything direct, my address is 47 Laval Blvd W, Lethbridge, AB T1K 4E4 Canada. That's more optional that anything, whatev you want! Oh and Maddie, thank you for the iPod comparison, but mine is better cuz its old school! haha not. but it works still. Right? right? please say yes. That blew my mind when you said that I'm the next missionary to report. How does that happen, like, what goes on there? We just went to the temple today, that's why I'm writing a bit late. It was awesome. We had ANOTHER surprise spring snowstorm and that was good times. there was a WHOLE bunch of missionaries there, our whole zone, and a few others from other zones came, so it was really good to see old buddies. A few nights ago was writing in my journal and i was just kinda feeling down a bit. Satan works on me hardcore and tries to make me feel like i haven't done anything good on my mission. I had earlier listened to a CD Jayni sent me forever ago with a song on it by the tabernacle choir and it says in it, "If you're worried and you can't sleep, Just count your blessings instead of sheep, And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings." That song came to my mind and i thought I'd try it out. I started counting my blessings, and WOW nothing chases feelings of insecurity away more than that. Mostly i tried to focus on the people that i have met that have changed my life and that i know that I've helped them a little bit. It was such a great feeling. I want to find more of those people!

We had a good training by the assistants a few days ago. Prior to the meeting we were asked to read two talks. Man Down by Pres. Eyring, and the Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father by Elder Maxwell. They both are great talks about forgetting yourself and serving others. I thought that i had been doing a good job with that but the Spirit helped me see otherwise. I learned that we can never stop moving forward, but we always need to keep moving forward. We can't just be all happy and complacent with where we are. We can always get better and better and be more effective instruments in the Lord's hands. It was a humbling but really cool wake up call for me. I wish i could have had my act together 21 months ago. But whatev, we're here to learn!

I really like Elder Madsen a lot. We are a lot alike in personality so we have lots of fun. His teaching is getting better and better, he's one of the best teachers I've ever seen so young in the mission. I really wish i could get all of me feelings down, but i have the same problem Nephi does in 2 Ne 33:1. Bummer. i guess i can just tell you guys stuff. Oh, by the way, Sister Lambert from the office called the other week and asked for travel plans and stuff. I told her i wanted to go to Ontario Airport. I'm guessing that's where you were planning on anyways. Its SO weird we're making these plans. wow. Well, life is good, i love you all, and I'll talk to you on Tuesdays!

Elder Crippen

April 21st Letter

Hey! I'm really sorry about last week. It totally slipped my mind. For some reason i thought i had emailed you guys but i think got confused with the pictures and stuff. But its going pretty good here. Last Thursday was probably the highlight of recent days. We went up to Calgary for a re-training meeting for Elder Madsen and i was reminded how much i love big drives! Its just so fun to throw in some music, EFY music, don't worry, haha, and watch the miles click by. It was awesome cuz i got to stop by a lot of families and stuff. It was fun to see the surprise eon their face and how excited they were. It really felt good to feel that impact on someone. I love it. The meeting was good, i was enriched. Its really been warming up here and that's nice, except for the fact that we cant take off our suit coats until may. And its getting reasonably hot for Canada, 26 degrees C. I really hope winter's over. Last week we had a crazy random snowstorm. Like 8 inches fell! Walking around was awesome, as usual. But then it all melted like 3 days later, haha. Typical southern Alberta. We're still trying like crazy to meet with our investigators, but they are very illusive. we're going to the temple next week! love you all!

Elder Crippen