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