Adventures in Canada

2010-07-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-27T10:46:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-09T18:47:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-02T12:33:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

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

April 7th Letter

2010-04-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Canada's olympic hockey jersey

Jarome Iginla is a big deal. He plays on the Flames and he's the man

Me and my district making cookies this morning

WOW i love conference. And lucky me got an extra conference dosage this week cuz it was zone conference. Two missionaries that i really look up to a lot, Elder Funk (the missionary who was in the blue bathrobe) and Sister Jackson (the tall sister that you met when you came and visited, the light-haired one) gave their farewell testimonies. They are awesome examples to me as missionaries and i'm gonna miss em a whole bunch. The weird thing is, sister jackson came out 3months after me, and she's going home. Weirddddddd time is fast. But I loved general conference. I wish i could give a rundown, but that would take forever, and i didn't bring my notes with me. Off the top of my head, talks i like were: Pres Monson: he's so personable! I loved the rundown he gave of standards we should be living. Sister Beck: I was excited for her's cuz it's Jayni's aunt, but then started to zone out because it was all towards women (or so it seemed) but i really felt like i should listen and i was able to apply a lot of what she said to me and i learned a lot about personal revelation! It was great. Pres.Uchtdorf: All of his, especially the one on patience. It gave me new perspective towards that attribute and yeah, good stuff. Elder Martino: Great talk on following the Savior's example on facing and learning from trials. awesome. Elder Holland: I straight up love the conviction with how he speaks. He pretty much was like, Look, we're done messing around with this, here it is. It really motivated me to always have my guard up from all forms of pornography. FYI: there were 15,000 more convert baptisms in 2009 than 2008. Yeah!!!! SO i can't really remember too many more specifics, i guess that's why we take notes, haha. I"ll probably send a letter home with things i liked.
Cool story: Monday night we were walking around, and we got a call from a lady who was not happy. She had just watched a 2 hour documentary on the Mormons and was venting what she didn't like. Funny thing was, everything she said, i didn't like either, because NONE of it was true. She said that we forced men, women and children to walk across the pains in mud snow and ice and we wouldn't allow them to use horses. Wow. If it wasn't twisted completely, it was totally false. She said that we believed that Christ was burned at the stake, what the?! No idea where that came from. But she kept using NOT nice words and said terrible things. It was pathetic. For 2 1/2 minutes she just kept ranting and i couldn't get a word in to tell her that she was being ridiculous. Then she finished off with more not nice words and hung up. It really had me frustrated and down. I guess i could've hung up as soon as she started going off but then she'd be like, baaahhhh rude mormons!!! But it really made me sad that she was believing all of these lies. Then, 3 minutes later as we were walking to an appt we ran into Sis. Vaka ( the wife of the Tongan guy who called you) and her friend Linze who were are teaching and have been struggling to get a hold of. We were able to have a great chat with her and it really boosted me up and i could see that God sends us little miracles/tender mercies when we are down to build us up. I was really glad fro that.
Zone conference was good, i was able to find a lot of ways to improve my teaching. It was only the lethbridge zone so that was a bummer, i love the big gatherings. Another reason is i get to see Steven Wilson (from BYU), he's serving as an AP right not and he's the MAN. Elder Madsen is great. i was really nervous to train but he's making it awesome. He reminds me A LOT of Ryan Gray, best friend from BYU. They are similar in many ways so its almost like I'm serving with him. And we have a ping pong table in our apartment which makes life AWESOME. But life is good, as you know. Thanks for the pictures, they made my day! I love you all!
Elder Crippen

2010-03-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

Boogies Burgers!!!

Elder Meyers, my homeboy, i thought for sure i'd serve around him for the rest of my mission

gulbrandsen and jensen, two of my favorites

my posterity!

saying bye to clawson, i miss him a lot yup.

lethbridge

its really windy here

WOW Lethbridge is Windy. like, REALLY windy. We don't have a car so we really get to appreciate the wind a lot. I guess this is good though, I'll get to get rid of this belly! woot woot. definitely hampering working out though is a pulled groin and a sprained wrist. good times! But life is good here. These are some good wards wit great people. Check this out, on Sunday, we went to the Vaka Family's house to eat, and he's Tongan, he graduated with Pita Hopoate Jr!! His name is Ben Vaka and he came to Canada on rugby tour. I want to learn rugby. They're an awesome family. He says that they always called the hopoate's white tongans because they're lighter i guess. I thought that was so cool to meet them and make that connection. We ate great food of course. Oh, and he was wanting Tino's number so they could chat and stuff. You may or may not remember the Joosten family from New Brighton ward. They were one of those young couples that we hung out with a lot. He's a pilot. His family is on one of my wards, and they are just as cool! He's planning on visiting in the summer so get ready! haha. Tuesday was kinda frustrating because we were supposed to have a baptism, but we could not get a hold of her no matter what we did. Last time we talked to her was Sunday morning, and she's pretty much disappeared since then. NO answer at her door and no returned phone calls. Its frustrating. But we're having fun. I'm not sure if you've noticed yet but the Owens, the senior couple here, are amazing. They take such good care of us and are so much fun. They're the greatest. Oh, and i got a letter from Jayni, and apparently Chris is famous! She plays on a co-ed team and heard some peeps talking about playing vball in Salem and telling all of these stories about some Chris character, she asked if the were talking about Chris Crippen and they said yes! Chris, you're famous!!! I'll do my best to not get blown away! I love you guys!!!
Elder Crippen

2010-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Smith family. they were awesome and one of my favorites BUrning stuff is fun. bye bye 18 months! (yeah i was a little late)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

yeah i got your letter today, what happened to mom's knee?! my boy is cool, his name is Elder Madsen and he's from Gilbert AZ. his personality is a lot like mine, I'm just stressin a bit about purging this area. its rough. and its a walking area, so yeah, haha. but I'm excited, theres some really cool people here that i already know kind of. The joostens, from new brighton ward, his parents live here! when i told him i was going here he got all excited and said, that's my parents ward!! So I'll get to see them every now and then so I'm really excited for that. But life is good as you know. It was really hard to say bye to people, especially Caly, Henry, Carly, the Rasmussen brothers, the smith sisters, its so weird being gone. Transfers are not my favorite thing, but they're just part of life. On Sunday night we went to a fireside and i got to see a bunch of people so that was a blast! And afterwards we went and gave Caly a blessing cuz she wasn't feeling well and as always it was an amazing experience. MAN i miss it up there.

Check this out, on thursday, this girl called us up asking us to go over and teach her. We went over there and the first thing she said to us was that she wanted to be baptized!!!! She'll be baptized on Sunday, we're way bummed we're going to miss it. We're kinda rushed because of appts so I'll tell you more next week. I love you all!!!

March 17th Letter

2010-03-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Me and Clawson helping a family with dinner. he cut the lettuce and i SPUN it

THis is clawson, Carly (a girl who was baptized last year, she's way cool and made me a bday cake AND got me a pinata), me and Henry, the sweet kid who always comes out with us
we DESTROYED the pinata

The guy we lives with is from Chile, hence the sombrero

This is the Ice Cream cake that Caly made for my birthday. the crust was oreos mixed with melted reese's peanut butter cups, and broken up oreos, with ice cream and reeses pieces on top. SO hefty!

Clawson, Henry, Me, Caly, and her friend Becky

HEyyyyyyYYY!!! It was a great week. Before i start, Happy birthday to Carrie and Katie!!! Lots of amazing experiences. I don't know where to start. Maybe with Bednar, that'll be good. Elder Jensen from the Presidency of the Seventy was there as well. So cool! It was an amazing meeting and so spirit packed. I think the greatest thing i learned from him was how to teach better. Our purpose is to teach doctrine and invite people to act. And the best thing i learned is that i don't need to hear a general authority to speak in order to learn something. He wanted us the learn from the Spirit that which we needed to know. It was SO cool. Afterwards, we all got to go up and shake his hand and stuff. At first i was bummed because it looked so impersonal, they would shake his hand and move on. But when it came to be my turn I shook his hand and connected eyes with him. All i could see in his eyes was pure love for all of us, and me personally. It was SO cool. I think if i could share anything about that meeting that would be it. I didn't really learn anything groundbreaking, but i know that the leaders of the church have an immense love for all of us, and that love comes through their devotion to Jesus Christ. The drive ending up being pretty sweet because we didn't drive down, we got all the missionaries in the city on two charter buses! It was awesome and the seats were way comfy. And it was fun to be able to kick it with a bunch of buddies. SO fun. Oh, and i was in the ward talent show. I played the piano part for a song the Henry played on guitar and sang. It was exciting. The birthday was a good one as well. We had lunch with carly, went to the office and got mail and my CAKE! yum. ANd then went to a stake meeting and then went to caly's house for a great dinner and lesson. It was definitely a lot better than last birthday, haha. no car accident. Another amazing experience happened Thursday night. We had a sports night where people from the ward played kickball. And a girl we're close with, Carly, the girl who had the pinata for me, hit her head sliding into home. She's an athletic girl so we weren't really worried too much about her. She left early to take a friend home and we could tell that she was a little different and hurting. On the way home i was feeling really heavy in my chest and felt a lot of concern for her and had a strong feeling that we needed to go and visit her. I told this to Clawson and he felt the same way. SO we drove to her house and called her a few times, but she didn't answer so that had us worried. As we pulled up to her house she finally called back and we told her what was up and she told us she was feeling fine and stuff. Clawson said he felt like we should give her a blessing and i agreed. We went and talked to her on her front porch a bit and she kept telling us she was fine and whatev. We finally got out that she had a bit of a headache and was dizzy and she had 2 concussions last summer. We told her all about how strongly we felt the Spirit tell us to come see her and we asked it she would like a blessing. She had never had one before, minus her patriarchal blessing. So we explained a little bit, i anointed and clawson sealed. It was amazing and the Spirit was there for sure. During the blessing a thought came to me about calling upon the ministering angels because she was also scared about staying home with none of her roommates home, its something that bothers her a lot and she can't sleep some nights when they're gone. And right after i thought that ELder clawson said it in the blessing. I've never heard anyone do it before except for dad and me. SO it was awesome. Afterwards we shared our testimonies of priesthood blessings and the promise of angels. The next morning we talked to her and she said she had no trouble falling asleep and had no headache whatsoever. SUCH A GREAT NIGHT! I love you all and miss you!
Elder Crippen

p.s.- jayni, i mailed you a letter on monday! no worries!

March 10th Letter

2010-03-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

The Calgary North zone started it off with a BANG! We had 3 awesome baptisms and they were great. One of them was a 9 year old kid and i asked him, "hey Cesar, are you glad you got baptized?" He enthusiastically replied, "yeah!" Then i asked him how he feels and he goes, "AWESOME!" and gives me a huge high five, it was sweet, haha. I'm falling in love with Excel, the computer thing! That's what we use to report numbers every week and I've gotten to do some crazy things on it, its pretty awesome. It was a good week, we got to help the zone out in a lot of ways and we are really excited for the meeting THE WHOLE mission gets to have with Elder Bednar this Saturday. We have to leave to drive down to Lethbridge at 4:30 in the morning. Luckily I'm not driving haha. As you know, i don't drive too well when I'm tired. (God bless that little Avalon!) Yesterday we went to the mission office to pick up mail (finally got some! thanks jayni!!!!), but we didn't drive at all! it was sweet. We took the bus and the train. That sounds kind of lame of me to say it was fun but it was an adventure for sure. I like to make things fun. Saw A LOT of interesting people too! haha wow. AT one bus stop, it was by a school and RIGHT when school got out, so it was quite the experience to see 40 crazy grade 8 kids get on the bus, SO loud, SO annoying, and SO immature, haha. I have some pictures to send, but i forgot to bring my camera card, so oops. We had a great zone leader council where president talked a lot about accountability. First we talked about ours, and then members. He used the parable of the talents to illustrate that we have each been given something, and we need to do SOMETHING with it. We need to constantly improve ourselves and share our gifts. Including the gospel. Aka God won't be too happy when we've been blessed with the gospel and we don't share it with others. That's just selfishness. And we talked about how its our responsibility to invite people to be baptized that's how we fulfill our purpose! Woot woot! Now we just need to find some people. On that note, i like this quote, (rhyme! ha!) "We properly pray for the safety and success of the full-time missionaries throughout the world. And a common element in many of our prayers is a request that the missionaries will be led to individuals and families who are prepared to receive the message of the Restoration. But ultimately it is my responsibility and your responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries are full-time teachers; you and I are full-time finders. And you and I as lifelong missionaries should not be praying for the full-time missionaries to do our work!" That's from Elder Bednar's ask in faith talk. God wants us to ask in faith, and then DO. We've been focusing a lot on that lately, DOING. Being not just hearers (or preachers) of the word, but DOERS. jeah. Well, we're off to play some football and soccer and stuff. love you! Elder Crippen

March 3rd Letter

2010-03-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yup, March is here! 100 baptisms will happen. We're all so excited for it. Lately I've been really worried about getting on in march, because we don't really have anyone to teach. But the Lord helps us out. At FHE this week we had a potluck, and afterwards they had a lesson about the importance of reverence during sacrament hymns, and to demonstrate the Spirit that could be felt as we are reverent and all singing. It was pretty cool, because it was way spiritual. A girl in our ward had brought a non-member friend there, and we asked him afterwards if he would like to meet with us and learn a little bit more about the church. We have an appointment with him tomorrow so we're really excited about that. we had a good week of going around and teaching people, and a really awesome experience in challenging 4 people to find someone for us to teach in 7 days. One girl was nervous about it, but the other 3 were awesome and so excited for it. One girl almost did a little happy dance in her chair she was so excited. One guy was nodding his head the entire time and thought we said 3 days instead of 7. It was great to see these people that we identified with the Spirit, following PMG, accept the challenge. Life is good here. It's warm, (highs of +10 for the whole next week!) However, it was pretty depressing however to hear about the US losing to Canada in the gold medal hockey game. But, also really cool because we got to be hear. They set a record for most golds won by a host country or something like that. I was just really happy to see that the States won in the 4man bobsled. I STILL want to be a bobsledder. how cool would that be? The Canadians were REALLY excited to win the game as well. pretty much RIGHT as is ended we went to an appointment at a members house. We were already dreading it because we were at this persons house the night that we beat them in the preliminaries. She answered the door and yelled, "My country beat your country in hockey! WOOOOOOOO!!!!' it was pretty funny, and it was cool to be hear for the olympics. Even though they were a whole province away. Well, bday is coming up and that's pretty crazy. I"m excited for it, hopefully it'll be better than my last one in the mish. I love you all and miss you! talk to you next week! Elder Crippen

February 24th Letter

2010-02-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

HHEEYYYYYY! whats new? Life is STILL good up here. I don't really know where to start. I think i'm really going to like it up here because on pday all we really play is basketball, so that is good for my heart. Not for my knees though, i don't know why they are so dumb. Elder Clawson and i went running this morning in the beautiful -3 weather, and my knees were really hurting at the end. This is dumb. But wow, this was a great week. Namely because of the Spirit packed week it was. On Monday we had a mission tour, which is pretty much a MASSIVE zone conference where a general authority is there. We had Elder Melchin, our area seventy or something. Before he spoke he said something that was really neat. he said, don't write down anything that i say, but write what the Spirit tells you. That was neat because it made me pay more attention to what i specifically needed to hear. It was a way good meeting that we got built up a lot. We've been focusing on faith because we need to have a faithful February if we are to have a miraculous march. 100 baptisms in march. Its going to be SO cool. One thing i noticed was that in Ether 12 Moroni mentions the miracles brought by faith. One of them is when Alma and Amulek have such great faith that the prison they are in falls to the ground, and they are unharmed. Applied to us that means that Faith helps us escape our own prisons of doubt, disbelief, discouragement, and so forth. A prison is something that holds you captive, and prevents you from progressing on in life. you are stuck. So when we have that strong faith our own prisons fall. yeah. It was also a blast because i got to see a lot of other missionaries. That's always a blast. AND it was back in the south stake center so that felt so good. it felt like home. The missionaries who were still there told me that it was weird that i wasn't there, cuz i was there for almost a year. And they said that it was pretty much MY building. I thought that was funny. BY the way, do you know how EXPENSIVE sticky notes are? its nuts. anywho yeah, it was good. I was planning on visiting some people but some missionaries needed us for exchanges and they ended up being late anyway, which didn't make me happy. On Saturday we had this WAY powerful lesson with a girl that we're working with that is just coming back to church. We taught a simple lesson 1, the Restoration. A lesson that i've taught over and over, but this was probably the most powerful one EVER. We focused on praying whenever we weren't talking for the benefit of the teacher and the learner. It was awesome. We left the appt feeling so good because we knew that we helped her out. Its amazing the strengthening that can come from the Spirit. Its also such a good feeling when you meet those people on the mission that you know that you were sent to help. SO good. OH! On our way home from mission tour on the big freeway, Deerfoot Tr, this car right in front of us slowly came to a stop. At first we thought she was trying to change lanes or something, but the we saw that her car was broken down. I wasn't at first too excited to get out on the middle of a freeway, with cars zooming by on each side, but i finally did, and went up to the car. She confirmed that her car just stopped working and it had never done it before and stuff. SO i told her to put it in neutral and that I'd push it to the side of the road. I then went to the back of the car, stopped traffic and starting pushing. The freeway was uphill at that point so it was a bit rough, but the Elder Clawson ran up and started pushing too. Which meant that our car was now parked in the middle of a freeway, haha. We got her to the side and she told us she had AMA (apparently, same thing as AAA) so we ran back to our car across the freeway, suit coats blowing in the breeze. It was pretty dramatic i'm sure, haha. But as we drove away we talked about how good it felt to do service like that. And also, we were in our suits so it probably gave the Church some good publicity. It was exciting! Woot woot, go service! Well, we are going to Burger King for WHOPPER WEDNESDAY! Yay! I love you all and miss you! Elder Crippen

February 17th Letter

2010-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

The amazing Wilsher family. they'll actually be in CA when i get home! Jayme, the awesome lady we were teaching

And of course the Morrisons. My life is empty without them, haha

The Vances, i spent a large part of Christmas with them

The Funks, they were great

The Calgary South zone, for the last time. :(

Jerma(sp?) the lady who works at the best dollar store ever. She LOVED us, and knew me by name

This is Elder Clarke, and yes, he has 416 ties. His goal was to never wear a tie twice. WOW.

Hooray for last valentines day in the field! woot woot! Some girl in church gave a prayer and asked that it be a good one even for the single people. it was pretty funny. Things are way different up here. The ward is TINY!!! WOW! Its totally different. I can't remember if i told you or not but my companion is Elder Clawson and he's been out for a year tomorrow. Yay! He's quiet but a lot of fun. We live with Franny, a Spanish guy who I've heard about pretty much since the beginning of my mission. A bunch of my best friends in the mish have lived with him. Elders Pehrson, Jensen, and Larsen to name a few. We live up by the airport, in Far north Calgary. (oh, could you remove the apartment address from the blog. That's from October.) Franny's a fun guy and he treats us well. On Saturday we went to the baptism of Hans Escher, a guy from Germany. He's building his own boat for kicks and we went on it and it was SO cool! (ps, the boat is in dry dock, like, with no water to be seen around it, minus all the snow of course. AGH snow.) we had an awesome week up until last night. We were almost convinced that spring was here. And then 5 inches of snow fell last night and continues to fall now. Classic canada. we'll see the end of winter sometime. This winter was actually a lot better than the last one. Haha look at me talking about it like its over. Sigh. I've learned I'm definitely a people person because it was really hard to leave the south. I literally miss the Morrison's like crazy. And they are only two of a bunch of people that are my favorite people ever. hopefully i can find some more people like that. This'll probably be my last area, aka the area I'll go home from. And of course it would be right by the airport. Talk about torture, haha. No worries, I'm focused. But it doesn't mean that i don't still love planes. We're working really hard for our goal of 100 baptisms in March. We just need to get some investigators so that we're a part of it. This zone is on fire with it. It just goes to show that when you do what you're told, good things happen. Now we just need to get our ward on board. Its a REALLY small ward, there's about 100 people on the ward list, and half of them are less-active and stuff. So Sunday was weird. They aren't the most excited about missionary work but I'm here to make a difference so I'm going to do that. There's a pre-mish kid we go out with a lot who is way cool, Henry. he plays the guitar like a madman and he's really funny. Oh, and apparently yesterday was McDonald's customer appreciation day so you could buy a big mac and get another on for a penny. I did it, and i didn't feel too appreciated. It was gross. haha, I'll stick with in n out. Or A&W. That's something up here that they don't have a lot of back home. Its good stuff. Apparently, Bro. Banks, the high priest group leader back in Fish Creek park ward named the Teen burger. What a lucky man i am to have known him and know that part of history. :D AGHHHHHHHHHHH i want in n out. That is stop #1 when i get home. In n Out. We have interviews with President Archibald tomorrow so I'll get my endorsement for BYU then. Well, life is good up here in the Confederation Park ward. I love you all a lot and pray for you. Life is good! Elder Crippen

February 9th Letter: TRANSFERS

2010-02-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

some of my favorite fish creekers

Well, just like all good things,come to an end, my time in fish creek park ward, and the south stake has come to an end. I'm pretty bummed. There are a lot of way cool people here, and a lot of people who have really changed my life. I'm going to miss them all a lot. I'm heading up to the Calgary North Stake, where I'll be in the Confederation Park YSA ward. Supposedly its the smallest YSA ward in the city, and I'm coming from the biggest in the city. SO that'll be an adjustment. Earlier in my mission i actually wanted to serve in the north so I'm finally getting that wish! haha. I've heard from some other missionaries that its a pretty sweet zone, and what makes me really happy is that I'll STILL be around Elder Meyers. Him and i have been in the same district/zone since June and he's fo sho one of my favorite missionaries. Its my dream to serve with him so hopefully dreams come true! He'll be a DL there in the same zone so its almost seems like they're setting it up like he'll be my comp for the last few months of my mission! That would be awesome. It was a pretty good week. Our bishop suggested a really good idea. He said that when i get married, we should just elope to the temple. I told him, Bishop, i would die. He laughed. He has some pretty good practical jokes and stuff. Man this ward is so legit. I've been in this zone for so long its going to be weird to leave it. I feel like I'm a relic here. I was here for almost a year and now I'm gone. Its going to be hard to say bye to everyone. I'm really nervous that I'll forget someone and man, that would not be cool. We had our weekly church tour and only one person showed up but we did it anyway. I was really hit by the Spirit by how lucky we are to have this restored gospel and how much hope and peace we get from it. Its pretty ballin. I was reading the Ensign for Feb and the first presidency message was good. It was unique because it was small, but it was still good. I loved President Monson's message on learning from the past. we aren't to dwell in the past, but we are to learn from it and move on. That's something that i tend to do i think, is dwell on the past and maybe hold grudges a bit. And how a deep foundation of faith and a testimony will help us through the hardest times. Having a testimony is the most important thing you could have! It gets you through everything and it never leaves you. The message also helped me see the importance of reading your patriarchal blessing, and that it really is for US. And of course the cool little part about how he loves the word, "come." Its so true. SO much is better and possible when we come unto Christ. That's what I'm trying to help people do! Well, til next week! I love you all! ELder Crippen

February 3rd Letter

2010-02-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

me with our zone title of liberty. do i look like the picture of capt Moroni?

Wow this week has been unreal. SO spirit PACKED. We had zone conference Thursday where a new mission slogan was presented, "My Mission Belongs to the Lord." Its cool. We each got a picture of Christ and it has that on a sticker at the bottom. It was a good zone conference where i felt there were some things i could do to be better. THEN we had an awesome zone leader council this last Friday where President Archibald talked a lot about covenants and the importance of them. Then after that, the APs presented our baptismal goal for march. 100. That's almost 5 times what we normally get. Normally i would be skeptical and be like, wha? To be honest, i was not excited for ZLC one bit because i just saw it as a second day in a row where we just sat for 8 hours and were trained on stuff. but IMMEDIATELY the Spirit hit me like crazy like an adrenaline rush and i knew it was possible. My heart was swiftly changed. So we had an intense meeting after that talking about what we had to do. SO what we came to was that we needed to make a covenant with the Lord to give everything to him. To devote ourselves 100% to the work and everything. We all made a list of things that we were doing that we aren't supposed to and someone said, emailing friends. I was like, oh yeah, that's a rule. So yeah. That's kinda where were at now. Then we put it to an actual vote of who supported this. 26 out of 26 yes' were read and as they were being read i looked over at President Archibald and saw that his eyes were red and tearing up a bit. It really showed how much he cares for us, for the work, and for the Lord. That was a cool experience. We were given the responsibility to take this to ours zones and present it powerfully. I was so nervous for that and felt really inadequate. We all fasted on Sunday for the strength for everyone to be in the right mindset to achieve it and i felt strengthened by that. Monday morning we did the training and i talked about covenants a lot, and it was cool, because these were the notes i went into it with. "PMG baptism (cuz it talks about covenants), D&C 33:7-10, notes from ZLC, and D&C 76:5-7" I talked for at least 45 minutes. The Spirit totally took over and helped me out. It was awesome. And the good thing was i wasn't just rambling. Good things were being said and good discussion came up. Then we presented the goal and everything to the zone, and we did this thing where we had a white shirt, wrote on it,"My Mission Belongs to the Lord" (our new mission slogan) and had squares that people could tear off and write the same thing on them and keep them. Its like everyone got their own personal title of liberty! Then everyone signed the shirt. It was awesome and a lot of people liked it. we do have a few party poopers in out zone. So after we said all of our stuff, we talked about how we all need to make our own personal covenant, and to go to a different room of the chapel and do it. I then said, "well, I'm going to make mine," and walked out of the room into another one. Then i heard and saw people walk by the door of the room i was in and it felt so good to see that. Then, after praying, we went back in the room, where we had put a shredder, and have everyone make a list of their weaknesses. Then like the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, we buried/shredded our sins away, and signed the shirt and tore off a piece. It was cool. Then we made a covenant as a zone. It was an awesome experience. I've really seen that its HARD to focus on everything, and be 100%. But i know its possible. It just take effort. Afterwards we had a few missionaries come up to us and thank us for everything. It felt good to be that instrument in the hands of the Lord. WOW. On Sunday we met with Lana, the Jewish girl, and afterwards, she asked us if we would be ok with her advertising our church tours. We said yes. Her boyfriend later dropped off this paper that they were putting on a lot of bulletin boards and stuff in the UNIVERSITY!!!! Its LEGIT! wow it was cool to see that. Our INVESTIGATOR is doing that. She's awesome. I hope some good comes from it. We told her we could get the phone numbers from the other missionaries in the city for her so they could all be in the prospective areas, but she goes,"No, no, only my elders." it was funny. But as you can see life is going really good. I'm excited to play some bball today. It seems like i can never get enough of it. I'm out of shape though. Its embarrassing. haha I love you all! ELder Crippen

January 27th Letter

2010-02-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

me and Rice (like the tie?)
crazy adventure on the ice

cool river icicles

a little ice bubble man

too cold for basketball

panarama mania

panarama mania panarama mania part 2

hey family! It was a pretty good week. It flew by so fast that i don't know what to say! I hit 18 months last Saturday and that blows my mind. Me and rice went on an early morning walk through fish creek park and that's where a lot of the pictures come from. I was a good week of helping people. Wherever we could it felt like we were doing some kid of service for someone. That service could be just making someone feel good by talking to them and giving them a smile. A sister in our ward came up to us and talked to us about her brother and asking for advice. He's on his mission and apparently having a hard time. We were able to help her out and share some things with him that she thinks will help. And it was nice because in helping her brother, we were helping her, and with helping her we were able to help her brother. It always feels so good to help people and do that. This ward is awesome. There are so many sweet people who are so nice to us and make us feel right at home. And good things are happening. We just got a great solid referral for someone that we'll be teaching this week. And on sunday, some random guy from some other stake came up to us and started talking to me and this girl he wants us to teach, and says that she's ready to hear the gospel. It's just fun to see that when you work and prove to the Lord that you're willing to work that things just kinda fall into place and just work out. I've also really seen that the best missionary work is done with the members of the ward, and with them following the example of the leaders of the ward. Its a great shift that has been going on and has lead to a lot of really good changes. We're being more effective and also are getting more work done and are teaching more. our ward had a volleyball activity night, and it looked like so much fun. Key word, looked. Because there's been a lot of missionaries who've gotten hurt playing sports they've limited us to only playing on pday. SO dumb. I wanted to play so bad! aghh! i did get to serve it a couple times. yay. There is a new investigator that we picked up that is pretty crazy. He he is convinced that God is a computer. I really want to ask him is He is a Mac or a PC. Is that blasphemous? haha good times. I can't believe its nearly February already! so nuts. Time is ZOOMing. I love you all and hope that everything is great! Keep it real! Elder Crippen

January 20th Letter

2010-02-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Its been a pretty fun week, just teaching and stuff. WE had another appointment with Greg, the UFC guy, and it went well. We taught the plan of salvation and it was sweet. ON Friday we helped Jayme and her husband Paul move, and that was A LOT of fun. We had 12 missionaries there helping and it was really good for Paul to see that support and see that we are all normal guys and stuff. He's way cool and we sat and talked for a while about whatever and he's way cool. They really appreciated the help. Then the next morning we helped the Wilshers move, they're the SWEET English family. They just moved to a better bigger house down the road. But they're awesome and i like em alot.
It was fun to be able to do a lot of service as well as teach. Something always just feels so good when you're serving people and helping them out. Yesterday morning we did some more service at the Morrisons chopping wood, and it was WAY icy in their side yard where i was stacking the wood, and i slipped and fell (my first fall EVER on ice up here) right on a stump. It hit right on my lower back and then i rolled off to the side. It knocked my wind right out so i couldn't breathe. so i laid on the ice for a bit, not breathing, and the only one who saw was their 5 year old daughter Gabby, and she goes, Did that hurt? haha it was funny the way she said that. But yeah, it hurt. I'll probably have like a circle shaped bruise, haha. It was rough trying to get comfy in bed last night, and its feeling pretty sore today.
Another fun thing about Canada, is how fast the weather changes. SO weeks ago we got a whole bunch of snow, and then the last week has been above freezing. SO the snow has all melted but then it gets cold again so it all turns into ice. You'll see random things frozen in the gutter, or even into the middle of the road. straws, cell phones, pens, newspapers, midgets. its fun. :D But life is good and I'm happy! i love the work and love you all!
ELder Crippen

January 13th Letter

2010-01-13T12:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the cool story, i liked it a lot. It's so fun teaching the gospel and building people up. I'm really scared for when i come home and don't do that full time. I hear that's what most missionaries have a hard time with once they return home, is just not feeling effective or doing anything. I think that's going to be a big struggle for me. But whatev. Props to Collin for getting into Idaho! He'll probably be classmates with a bunch of people from my current ward because there's a bunch of them going down there.
Also big props to Maddie for getting the machines done! That's a miracle. Now i feel better about not doing them, now Maddie got the fun! Thanks for all the pictures as well, those were awesome to see. And mom, when you made that list of all the exemplary women in my life you forgot the most important one! YOU! You are number one!
It's been a pretty great week. I got to go teach Jayme on Sunday and we talked about baptism. I think it'll happen eventually but she's a little concerned about her husband's reaction. He's a cool guy though, we got to meet him. At FHE the other night a guy brought two of his friends to come play basketball and they came to us asking what our church was all about. SO we took them around the building and talked about modern-day prophets and stuff. It was sweet. they mentioned that they'd probably be at more church activities so we'll be able to teach them there! And we got permission to go to the Elder's Quorum's Winter camp this weekend. We won't be staying the night but we'll go up the next morning and hang out with our investigators that will be there, so we're REALLY excited for that. It should involve some crazy outdoors MAN stuff. It'll be a blast. Lana, the Jewish girl will be coming back this week so we're pumped for her to get back and to see how she's doing and get back to teaching her again.
We've had some pretty warm weather this week. Its been hanging around 9 Celsius which is about 45 Fahrenheit. That is AMAZING. Talk about take off the suit coats! its burning hot! But life is really good and I'm really happy. Love you all!
Elder Crippen

New Years Shenanigans

2010-01-10T21:05:00.003-08:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hasta la vista phonebook!

2010-01-10T21:05:00.001-08:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

December 29th Letter

2010-01-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! This was Christmas morning

How many police cars can you find outside of Tim Horton's.

(Tim Horton's is the big Coffee/donut shop up here, haha)

Answer:5

WOW what a week! Christmas is AMAZING! I got treated SO well. 4 meals from 9-3!!!! At 9 i went to the Morrison's and talked to you, they gave me some bacon, after calling you i went to the Vance's who gave me a great brunch and a stocking FULL of goodies and stuff. Then onto the Mysyk's for an amazing Christmas dinner where they gave me a tie and cereal and more goodies. Then to the Wilsher's so they gave us some great food. i was SOOOOOOO full. It was great getting to talk to nanny too, she sounded kinda rough. :( It was a great Christmas, one I'll never forget. Mostly because of all the thought that so many kind people put into it. SO SO SO nice of them. Transfers mean me staying here, and I'll be training a new zone leader, Elder Rice. I don't really know anything about him at all, but the things I've heard have been really good. I'm pretty excited. It'll be nice to go into transfers with a pretty blank slate and not have any prejudgements to make. I'm really excited. The work is going pretty well. We'll be getting a new ward mission leader soon, so that'll be good. A lot of members are really catching in on the importance of how important the church is. Without us even asking they are bringing people to church, to Church tours, lessons in their homes, its awesome!!! I love it.
You asked why i haven't gotten sick. I don't know. haha. I've had colds here and there, but you're right, i haven't really gotten too sick. I'm REALLY glad for that. Its never been a favorite thing to do of mine. Its crazy that's its a new year already and that this is the year i go home! WOW its unreal. Don't worry, I'm working hard! I love you all!
Elder Crippen

Music Video and Long Live WINTER!

2010-01-05T09:57:00.001-08:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

December 23rd Letter

2010-01-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Cardston! Claresholm chicken! SOOO good!
singing praises!

A sweet beanie someone had at our FHE carloing bus trip

eating a blizzard, but still hanging loose

Saying bye to Page, Pehrson and Sis. Willis, i miss them

We were SO close... :(

The Stones, Elder Meyers, Newman, and me at the temple!

WOW life is good I love christmas time! Last saturday i went with Elder Meyers and Newman to the temple. We went with their ward mission leader, and it was a blast. I ate in the temple cafeteria, where they have THE BEST roast beef, and then ate claresholm chicken, SO GOOD. On Sunday, i sang oh holy night with the ward choir and that was fun. I love that song. And they didn't even kick me out of the choir. A couple of days ago i was in the mission office helping one of the senior couples with some referrals and i got to call a lady in Alaska! That was exciting. we've had a pretty exciting week as we've been going around and teaching members and leaving them a lil Christmas message. Its been a blast, i LOVE teaching!!! I'm SO excited to talk to you guys Christmas morning! Its going to be awesome. There are a bunch of families taking care of me, so no worries. Remember how i was supposed to serve with Elder Wilson, my buddy from BYU? well, they changed that last minute so I've been bouncing around with a bunch of other missionaries in the zone. It was REALLY hard to say bye to the people going home. A lot of my best friends were in that transfer so I'm really going to miss them. I've had a crazy hectic week. First i was supposed to serve with Elder Wilson, but he got called to be an assistant, so then i went with some other missionaries that i enjoy and get along with, but it got changed again last minute, and I'll be with some missionaries who have had their struggles, but they're fun. I can't wait to open my presents. The only 3 items of mail I've gotten in the last 4 weeks were from mom and dad, and two from a sweet family in Taber, SO I'm really excited to see whats in my stocking and all. Thanks for the tie! its niiiice! well, i have to take off, I'm starving, but i love you all a lot and I'll talk to you on Friday! aghhhH!!!!!!

December 16th Letter

2009-12-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T13:39:00.001-08:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-08T13:38:00.001-08:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

December 2nd Letter

2009-12-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

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

November 17th Letter

2009-11-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

We filled al those bags with leaves!

comfy

Sweet beach cruiser Praying

Good times with the APs

Gulbrandsen, Tompkinson and me

Life is great here. The weather has actually been pretty nice here. It hasn't been freezing for quite awhile. SO that's good. I haven't needed to wear a jacket yet really so that's nice. And WOW, this last Friday Elder Scott came up to reorganize some stake leadership and it was amazing. There were A LOT of people there for the fireside he held and it was a big Q&A thing. At the end he testified of his apostolic call and everything. It was POWERFUL!!!! So the other night we had dinner at someones house and they noticed that i have holes in my socks. (15 months of hardcore wear and they are just barely getting holes, God Bless Golden Toe socks!) so they bought me and my companions socks! SO nice of them, hahaha. it was sweet. SO a guy in our zone, Elder Miller, hurt his knee and has been on crutches. This guy in the library just prayed for his knee and it was somewhat awkward. haha but good times! we got some good kicks out of that. SO i took a video of what a church tour is, but i forgot my camera, so I'll give you a quick rundown, we start in the lobby with a prayer and we teach God is our loving heavenly father and the gospel blesses families. Then we move onto a room that is dark where 4 pictures of ancient prophets are set up. Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses. We teach about dispensations vs apostasy with a flashlight representing the light of the gospel being on the earth. Then we move to another room, which is full of pictures of Christ and music playing where we talk about the Saviors earthly ministry and atonement and how he set up his church. Then we walk down the dark hallway towards the chapel talking about the Great apostasy. Then, into the chapel were we watch a video on the Restoration and talk about that and the Book of Mormon. Its amazing, and spirit filled. Its thought this that we gave one of our investigators a baptismal date she is currently praying about! I'll take you guys on one when i come home! Nothing too crazy is going on, but i love you all!

Elder crippen

November 10th Letter

2009-11-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

I'm GREAT. We had an awesome Sunday where We had three investigators coming to church and it was flat out awesome. We taught the gospel principles class and it went really well. We taught about scriptures and I talked about Christ and the Bible and bore my testimony along with that of Elder Hollands from Apr conference and went off on that tangent. I didn't know why but looking around the room as i was teaching i knew. There were people in the class that needed to hear that. It made me feel really good to have the Spirit help me out there. It was just such a great day because one of the people that came to church was a sweet friend of a less active girl i have known forever in Mckenzie ward and the ward did SUCH a good job befriending them. Its really an awesome ward. They've been great to us. We're continuing to do church tours and they are awesome. Everyone loves them so we're hoping that people will start bringing their friends to them so we can teach them! We have another missionary with us, Elder Gulbrandsen, who just came back out from having knee surgery. He is hilarious and is such a good teacher. He was trained by my favorite comp, Elder Pehrson, so naturally he's cool. We're all having a lot of fun and work is getting done. Life is good. I love you!

November 4th Letter

2009-11-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

Calgary south zone is a box of crayons!

On Halloween, our investigator, Lana, her friendshipper Carla, and their friend came and trick or treated at our house. Notice Lana's costume.

Yeah, she's that solid

Some silly chair

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hey hey! How's life going? What are you guys doing in San Francisco! Does the party ever stop? Mennifee stake is the biggest in the state? geographically or number...ly? I can't believe that Levi is HOME! That is SO crazy! For the stake Halloween party we got the whole zone to be a box of crayons! We got different colored shirts and spray painted Crayola on them, then wore colored party hats. IT was pretty sweet. We got a lot of compliments. SO yesterday i finished the Book of Mormon, and it was sweet. I prayed about it and had an answer much like the one mentioned in Alma 32:28. It was awesome. Oh, before i forget, could you ask Brian Kinney to send me another copy of that testimony dinner message? The one he gave me is all worn out. And what reception are you talking about having at our house? We have ZLC in a couple days and me and my comp are gonna shake it up hardcore. WE do these things every month called zone game plans and they are supposed to help you focus on something that your zone needs to or whatever. And lately its become more of a competition between zone leaders as to who can get the most creative name, picture, etc for it. So we were trying to talk with the zone about what we should do and after an hour and a half of debating we got nowhere. SO we're gonna do what our leadership handbook says and make independent game plans per companionship. Yeah man, that's what I'm talkin about.
I'm excited for that, oh, and we'll be emailing next Tuesday because of remembrance day. I love you all and hope you're doing great! Love you!

Elder Crippen

October 28th Letter

2009-11-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the nice email! i loved it. Life is way good this week. Lana met with the mission president Monday night so he could tell her the situation and that she couldn't get baptized because she's Israeli. She was sad to hear that and kind of shocked but it was so much fun to watch this resolve come over her to do what is right. She's not slowing down at all. Its going to be a wonderful day when she can get baptized. I told her that no matter when or where it happens I'll be there. I said I'd even postpone my wedding. She's awesome and is SO converted.
This week I've really seen the importance of testifying. We went in to a member's home and they randomly asked us to teach a lesson. I didn't feel all to prepared for it but i focused on testifying and making sure that the Spirit was there and it went great. And last night i was feeling really down about things so i asked tomps for a blessing and it was amazing. Long too. It calmed a lot of things that i was worried about and also strengthened me.
You guys should send my Uke up. That'd be great. There's some other missionaries here i want to jam with, and it'd give me something fun to do on down time. I'm doing great, and i love you all!

October 21st Letter

2009-10-21T13:21:00.001-07:00

Baptism of Laura Knight

Princes, Bakers, and Joostens, some of the coolest people EVER

The Laceys, one of my favorites from New Brighton Ward

Guess what?! Life is good. haha. But really, it is. Me and e tompkinson are working hard and getting work DONE. Its awesome and i love being back in YSA. On Sunday there was a fireside for all YSA in the city so i got to go and i got to see a lot of people i was close with back in the Brentwood ward. It made me SO happy to see all of them. I'm still all goosebumpy over it. And a lady that we were teaching in our area but then handed them over to the family ward elders. It was a great baptism and she is/was so happy! It was very motivating. And we were able to work more with Lana and it continues to be to rewarding to teach her, her faith is SO strong and its really motivating to us to teach her. She's awesome. Nothing too new is going on, weather is decent, and I'm nearly done with the BoM! I'm excited. I love study time, its so sweet. I've been thinking, I've been out 15 months. That is so crazy! Time if flying by so fast and its nuts that i only have 9 months left! WOW. I love you all!

2009-10-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Hey! how's it going! This is your son, by the way, in case you were wondering! What the hey hare you guys doing in Miami? You are having WAY too much fun without me! This is not fair. you're in Miami having TONS of fun in the sun, and it just dropped 3 inches of snow last night. That's exciting i guess, but it just means that we're gonna be confined inside for P-days. Which is a bummer. But we've started playing football in the gym so that's fun. I love p-days. As great as missionary work is, its nice to have this break where you can just be crazy and stuff. But its been a great week. A few days ago we had ZLC which is were all the zone leaders meet together and talk about the mission and whats going on and it was really good. Really motivating. We have met with a few people and its sweet. On Sunday we had a lesson with a girl named Lana and we gave her a baptismal date which she is currently praying about. Cool thing is, We prayed about Oct 24 and it felt good, but during and after the prayer, and up until the appt Nov 17 was weighing on my mind, so i told her that and she is thinking about that too. It was great. Its been a great week and i love being a missionary! Love you all!

Elder Cripps

October 6th Letter

2009-10-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

hELLO FAMILY! are you ready? here it is, I've been transferred to the Fish Creek Park YSA ward. SO I'm not even leaving my zone! How sick is that? I'm in YSA again, and i still can visit all my favorite people in New Brighton! That's what i call sweet. My new Companion is Elder Tompkinson from Tuscon AZ. I think I'll be able to give you your birthday present dad, haha that'll be an easy one. Seeing as i AM a walking missionary experience. You remember Tyler Barndollar right? Of course you do. He just got the Melchizedek Priesthood awhile back. That was SO good to hear. I'm trying to coordinate a temple trip with him. I definitely missed all the men of the family at priesthood. I made sure I went with a few people to ice cream afterwards. Tell the Rettingers that I said congrats!!! SO the spiritual thing that i shared was just on how precious time is and how important this work is. It's not too exciting, and that's just about the jist of it. Elder Marsden is getting some kid from Preston, ID, the town from Napoleon Dynamite, so New Brighton ward is getting two VERY small town Idaho boys, haha its funny. I don't really have to much to say, but I'm really happy that I'm not leaving the area yet. its nice. But I'm excited to be back in YSA and have all those activities.I love you all!!!
Elder Crippen

September 30th Letter

2009-09-30T14:32:00.000-07:00

President and Sister Archibald!
the Calgary south zone!

district breakfast Good bye to elder Petersen, he was a Canadian who was serving in our mission waiting for his visa to come through

we love him

Yo family! Life is good here, its starting to get colder, so suit coats are back on and so are jackets, I've still got that sense of adventure for winter, so its all good. Transfers are next week, so I'm a little nervous about that, i really love this area, and don't want to leave yet, but seeing as I've been here for 6 months its only fair for some other missionary to come and enjoy. But i love this ward SO much. There are so many sweet people, and its a young ward so i feel more like I'm serving in a ward with my brothers, sisters, and friends. Its awesome. And a bit of a self esteem booster came from when i picked up the dinner calendar from relief society and the dinner calendar was packed....up until the day after transfers. haha it felt good to see that. But i really do love this ward. I'd spend the rest of my mission here. I'm really excited for a Church tour that we got happening this Friday night, we challenged some members to have someone for us to teach, and their neighbors agreed to meet with us! I'm so excited for that!!! Tell nanny that i love her and loved her email and I'll ask president about talking to her. I love you all!

September 23rd Letter

2009-09-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

new mission car
calgary food drive, the traffic directors

larsen in the tunnels under the church!

crazy stuff in the tunnels

us again

Life is going really good up here. Elder Larsen and i went exploring in one of our church building and we found a tunnel that goes under the cultural hall, and then up into a ladder, that goes up to the furnace area. it was SO much. fun. A blast. I felt like Indiana Jones. and that got us wondering about the other chapels in the area, so we definitely found some other crazy spots in other chapels and that was fun. SO we're going to the lake again today, and i hope something exciting happens again. We got together and had a district FHE/bonfire for someone to burn their tie and it was great. WE all shared spiritual experiences from what we've learned being on missions and why we are out here. It was a great experience and really helped me see that we are doing something really important out here. It was an amazing night. And then last night to celebrate pday eve we made root beer floats. I love being a missionary and having this opportunity to serve the Lord and experience so much growth. i love you all!!!

September 16th Letter

2009-09-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

makin banana cream pie for a ward party!

Petersen, being cute

marsden, being angry

larsen, being happy!

marsden, being angry

playing some vball i love that shirt!

setting.........ps, this is the day we saved the guy!!!

Hello family! Life is good. Highlight of the week is for sure the New Brighton Ward's Chili cook off! The Sunday before they mentioned that not too many people had signed up for pies, so i signed up to make two banana cream pies. The party was a blast. There was a good turnout and the chili was GREAT. And everyone loved our pies. Sadly, not too many people got to try them, because they were gone so fast! Definitely delicious. And on Sunday a couple people brought friends to church, and we had a great Sunday school lesson. it was sweet. hearing about Elaine was hard, so it was hard to think of stuff to write, so i just wrote this. It was so hard to hear about Elaine's passing from cancer. I cried for the first time since we lost the CIF quarterfinals game my senior year, back in 2007. Wow what a loss. I've never known of someone like Elaine. She REALLY had concern for you when you were injured, and would help with more than athletic injuries. She was SO easy to talk to, and always was willing to provide good common sense down to earth advise. Everything with her was REAL and alive. The training room was a place you could just feel comfortable in. I'll never forget when i had my second concussion, and she looked at me with a straight face and said, "You have some draim banage." I thought i was hearing wrong and going crazy, and she kept going at it. 3 minutes later she stopped and was just cracking up and then i realized she was teasing me. Its one of my best memories. There's really no words that can entirely capture what she's done in life and how much she means to so many people. I wonder if she's up there in Heaven right now, taping up old long gone Elsinore High school football legend's ankles. Maybe working at some heavenly rodeo or something, i don't know. But I know that she is up there, in a better place, with no more pain for her to struggle with. Thanks for everything Elaine, I love you!

September 9th Letter

2009-09-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Tucking in my boy I threw this cowboy hat in the air toward elder larsen, and it landed right on his head!
SO cool bed time story

Sword fighting with e larsen

Hey! how's it going everyone! Life is good up here from Calgary. just keeping it real. Sorry about the delay, myldsmail.net was not doing too hot yesterday, so i couldn't email for half the time. SO when i went to send the email it totally got lost and i was not happy. That happened multiple times so that was frustrating. We just had mission conference and it was great. WE had Elder Kent Richards from the second quorum of the seventy.It was so good. Just one of those conferences that really gets you excited for everything and fills you with knowledge and makes you want to do better. SO, here's the story for the week. First, a confession. I went swimming. Ok, now the story. WE had an awesome day at one of the community lakes in our zone. An investigator of the zone leaders wanted to thank us for all the service we've done for her so she had a BBQ for us. It was awesome. We played beach volleyball, played a sweet game of capture the flag, and had awesome hamburgers.Then, towards the end of the day, we were trying to catch a seagull (yes they are up here i was so shocked when i saw them) using the box and stick method. It was pretty serene. A lady was combing the beach using one of those tractor things they use at baseball games, and seagulls were everywhere. All of a sudden we start hearing someone yelling "help help help!" I first thought it was the lady on the tractor, like she had gotten stuck or something. But then i saw a guy thrashing around in the water. Someone goes, "is that guy drowning?" And the elder holding the string says, "forget this!" He drops the string and takes off running. That kind of wakes the rest of us up out of our stupor, so me, elder larsen, and elder whitt are sprinting down the beach as fast as we can, larsen in front, me behind, and whitt behind me. Larsen rips off his shirt, and that really wakes me up to the situation. This guy is DROWNING. SO i take mine off as well, and run into the water. We ran about 150 yds down the beach to get to him, and he was about 20 yards offshore. (we later looked at our footsteps and they were about 10 ft apart. we were running pretty fast, hahaha) Larsen gets to him first, grabs him around the chest and starts swimming him in. I finally get there and grab him arm to stop him from flailing, cuz he was fighting larsen pretty bad. Then whitt gets there are starts helping him as well and we bring him in. Turns out the guy was in the second stages of hypothermia when we pulled him out. So, there's some highlights. We Saved a guys life, and got to swim legitimately. It was pretty awesome and a story to beat all stories. Now i just gotta get it down in my journal. Another missionary was talking to him as he was recovering and let him know who we were so hopefully he gets interested. Life is going good though. the ward is on fire with missionary work so we are happy about that. I'm so happy so be out here and count my many blessings that i get to serve people up here as well as my God. I love you all!

What are the qualities of your bishop that makes him a missionary bishop?

Missionary work is a big topic in PEC and he always wants to help. Also, his mission is decently fresh in his mind, so he knows how it is. Also, he never judges us, but is grateful for what we're doing always, and that makes me want to do more.

ANSWERS TO DAD'S QUESTIONS:

What does he do in the ward to excite them?

The WML did a 5th Sunday lesson on this new book that is out. instead of doing a typical missionary work lesson, he did it in a round about way that wasn't so same old same old, but people saw it as really important. The church hired a PR firm to survey what people around the world thought of our church, and L. Tom Perry did a talk about it. I can't remember what its called but you could probably find it. Its in church bookstores.

What do the members do for themselves to have the spirit of missionary work?

We help them. They need to recognize when they have one, and love it

What do you and your companion do to add to it?

Share scriptures, challenge and commit them.

Tell me what you do as a district leader. How does it differ from what you would be doing as a regular missionary?

TO be honest, i don't like it. They throw so many rules and regulations that you cant do what you feel but have to do what you're told, even when its not necessary. But i do like preparing the trainings i have to do every Monday morning, that's fun. But there's just a lot of unnecessary work and even back biting they ask you to do. I don't like that part at all.
Has it been a good experience?It has, you see a lot, and the responsibility is good. I like that part. it gives me a feeling like i can always do more and help others.
NO id didn't send pics. I didn't have any. But i do this week.

September 2nd Letter

2009-09-02T16:07:00.001-07:00

The ward is doing great. I love this ward, I'd gladly end out my mission here. The ward is on fire with missionary work, and i love it. It feels so good to have the bishop behind us so strongly and the rest of the ward is following suit. Thanks for the package! I loved it. The family picture is on my desk! Things are GREAT with the new companion. he a funny kid from Idaho. Cool experience, ready GO: SO we went on splits last night, and i felt a really strong impression to send Elder Marsden to contact a former investigator that we lost contact with. Basically, they taught her about the book of Mormon, set up an appointment and she's still solid! SO good to hear! I'm so excited because the one time we met with them before they were WAY solid, and its gonna be GREAT. i love you all and pray for you! life is good!

August 12th Letter

2009-08-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

This was a decent week! I got to give my first baptismal interview last Thursday and it was an awesome experience. It was sweet to see someone so excited to join the church. She's 17, and was referred by her friends. shocking! Member referrals WORK. Our new mission plan is strictly following that. We have this new plan that we are to work strictly with members. We aren't really even allowed to tract! ha ha that is amazing. We do this thing where by the spirit we identify someone who we can go visit and challenge them to have someone for us to teach in 7 days. Its for sure an inspired program and people have already seen success from it. Normally i hesitate with change but i know that this was inspired and its AWESOME. This was also kind of a bad week. Over the weekend a few times i was really struggling many times with self esteem and what not. I could REALLY feel Satan working on me and i didn't like it. I tried so many things, listening to some of my favorite songs, writing letters to people, but stuff just kept bugging me. It wasn't until i sincerely prayed that i started to feel better, and this morning i read a great article on the Atonement that OOBER made me feel better. I love the Gospel. We taught one of our favorite member families the restoration, and it was awesome. The Spirit was definitely there, As i was teaching i felt impressed to testify of Christ, and i don't know how i talked so well, ha ha it fo sho was NOT me. I love when that happens. Its a big builder of the testimony. There goes another week in the life of me. I'm excited for pday today, hopefully we'll do some sweet stuff, and if we play volleyball I'll be able to ROCK it. Love you all!

July 29th Letter

2009-08-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey family!Life is good, just doing the good work. We're going fishing today for pday so that's gonna be lots of fun. A nice little change of pace and relax with other missionaries and stuff. We had interviews yesterday and they were awesome. One thing that i liked a lot more was they were very personal. Pres Priday would ask if you were obedient and all, worthy and stuff, but wouldn't really initiate any other personal talk during the interview. But Archibald just dove right in to asking questions and teaching stuff, it was almost a little overbearing because i spent 30 minutes in there with him talking about planning effectively and effective member visits.. And sister Archibald is a sweetheart. She spent 30 mines at least asking about me and my family and my interests and stuff, and she's doing something really cool, where she's having every missionary mark their favorite scripture in her scriptures and writing our name. I gave her Alma 43:23, the one about the certain men. She loved it.
Also during interviews, Harvey will appreciate this, I ran to the library because we were watching testaments and i was quoting the whole thing from memory, and i grabbed the old videos and found PIONEERS IN PETTICOATS. For real the best Mormon movie ever. It was a gold mine of old Mormon movies. We started with Uncle Ben, then watched the gift, and then the mailbox, pioneers in petticoats, and then Johnny lingo. ALL ON ONE TAPE! Amazing. I reminisced quoting the pioneers movie with Harvey. Good times. After we're done with emails I'm going to go get a screamer, its a slurpee with soft serve ice cream. SO good.
I totally had a dream last night that i was saved by transformers. Everyone keeps telling us about the movie and it has me transformer crazy. I want our car to turn into one! that'd be so cool. We've started up another sports night here and its fun. Mostly just basketball though. I haven't played volleyball in forever and i miss it. Thanks for the family reunion pictures. I can't wait until next years!!! It's gonna be awesome. love you all!
Elder Crippen

July 22nd Letter

2009-08-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

SO, biggest news of the week, i got in a little bike crash. Burnham cut me off while going down a hill so i hit his back tire and flew over my handlebars, and somersaulted a bit and landed in weeds. Funny thing was, my first thought was, this better not screw up my tie. Which it didn't. Gladly. But it cut my hand up pretty good. Its all good though. It was a good experience. We got some part member families to work with this week so I'm really excited about that. Elder Whitt is back in the zone as a zone leader so its REALLY good to be around him again. He's one of my favorite guys out here. But we off to go do some stuff, the computers been wiggin out so sorry this is a lame one. But i love the gospel SO much! this is a good work. And i have people complaining about the blog not being updated.... Elder Crippen

July 15th Letter

2009-08-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

ok, to answer dad's questions, The mission president's name is Alan Archibald, and he's from St. George. He and his wife are way nice, and i like them a lot. The subject you sent me freaked me out. I can't believe I'm almost halfway done. SO weird. So I'm staying in the area with elder burnham,and I'm happy about that. There are so many cool families who were praying that we would stay. I think they were actually literally praying. So i will be Elder Burnham's last companion before he goes how to Mesa, AZ. So weird. I did get your postcard, and i sent your self addressed one yesterday, haha you guys are funny. postcards are awkward to write on because there's like, no room, but i did my best. So, i got my planner back, but then forgot it this morning. haha I'm terrible. NEXT WEEK for sure. But there's been crazy weather up here, its been rainy for the last week pretty much. Its nice, but also, July is half click month, so we only get half the usual allotted kilometers for our car. So that's why we've been riding bikes a lot, but with rain, its harder to ride bikes. SO we're struggling. But i promise next weeks email will be jam packed with stories. I love you all!
Elder Crippen

July 8th Letter

2009-08-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

Canadian rednecks...SLUMS boomer the dog, lookin chill this is for harvey beavers chewed it down! crazy! the tree asian pose no pose

So, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA! God Bless America. I love that country. Life is going good here. I had a whole list of things to write, but i left my planner at some other elders apartment, so I'm a little lost, but will try and remember. As you can see from the picture, we've been having a little bit of rain lately. Crazy southern Alberta weather. One night we woke up to a HUGE thunderstorm, and in the morning it was sunny with NO clouds. LAME. But whatev. Every time we go out riding bikes its a potential we t-shirt contest. YIKES. But here's the coolest thing you've ever heard. Elder Burnham, me and elders Mansfield and mella, (the zone leaders) RODE our bikes to mission conference. probably a 30 km round trip, and that's pretty awesome. SUCH a good workout, and it didn't take us that long at all.
I'm loving biking around now that we have nice weather. Well, kinda nice, hah. It just makes you feel good, and people see you out and about working. We just had a mission conference where we met our new mission president, President Archibald. He's a great guy and I'm looking forward to this next year under his leadership. Transfers are next week so i email on Tuesday. I love you all!
Elder Crippen

2009-08-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

me and my boy, elder taylor, reunited in the south stake rode through the rain! woooo

June 30th Letter

2009-08-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

The MTC district! Asian pose after hangman... BAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA The Korean girl and Whytni Morrison, notice the hangman word.... YEAH! the wreck, so sad...

SO goes another week in the life of me. First things first. That was SO much fun flying those RC planes. I was meant to fly, i just know it. I just wish it didn't cost $5,000 to get the license. There was a little mishap when i first tried to fly. We were on these controls where there's the main controller, and then a other one connected by a wire, and if the pilot held down a button it gave control to the other person. That's how we were flying. And when i took my first turn, right before it was being handed off to me, the plane somehow lost reception for the controller, and took a straight nosedive to the ground from 300 ft up. It was nasty. That's what the picture is. But i emphasize, it wasn't my fault! phew!
This Sunday we had a surprise farewell fireside for the Pridays. They were so surprised and loved it, i could tell. I'm so grateful to them for everything they have done for this mission. They are Such awesome people. There were lots of musical numbers, and you better sit down for this one, i sang in one! Me and some other elders in the zone sang come thou fount and it was pretty good. Not gonna lie.
Elder Burnham and I have been riding our bikes around a lot and its been such a blast! I just feel so much better being all exercised. WE taught primary this week and that was crazy. It was a class of 2 eight year olds. Such a gong show. (Canadian phrase for something chaotic.) The two girls were Whytni Morrison, yes the famous Morrison family, haha, and then some Korean girl who spoke NO English, that was fun. haha but we played hangman, and Whytni was in charge and the pictures is the result! haha so touching. Love you all!
elder crippen

2009-06-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

With Pres
my new tie hangar

short tie!

hand stand

nerd glasses

Hello! life is good here in SE Calgary, Stampede time is coming up, and that's exciting!...for everyone except missionaries. We don't get to party much. But there are a bunch of stampede breakfasts going on at our chapels and we're going to be doing chapel tours there. Just a heads up, pday is next TUESDAY, the 30, because Canada day is the Wednesday and everything will be closed antuff. We just had zone conference and its crazy that President Priday is leaving in a few days. So weird. Our new mission president is Alan Archibald and he's from Orem. We were riding our bikes around and these two guys drove up next to us and handed us 10 bucks and told us to get something to drink, that was nice, and i prayed over and over in gratitude for them.
As you can see, i made a new tie hangar, and its awesome. 65 ties, from wall to wall. Best decoration ever. :) Today we get to fly remote control air[planes with our dinner apt tonight and I'm way excited fr that! I love planes. Our teaching pool is lacking. We have a couple people that we teach here and there, but one of them can't go anywhere until her member boyfriends divorce goes through so they can be married, so we're hoping for that. She's awesome though, she already knows everything is true and has a strong testimony. I do wear my glasses a lot, well, not a lot, but here and there i give my eyes a break. Thanks for sending the contacts mom! The weather here is finally consistently nice. We've had a few days of rain but that's nothing once you've endured months of -40, haha
This email session was really exciting today because i got SO many pictures from everyone. And its always a constant reminder of how much i love my family and how awesome you all are. We're sop cool. I can't wait for the Crippen Family Reunion 2010! Yesterday i hit 11 months, and that is once again, so crazy how fast time goes. We've been teaching the lessons to ward members, and its great. WE get to practice our teaching and get to know people better. I love being a missionary and being able to feel the Spirit help you teach!
Keep it real!
Elder Crippen

June 10 Letter

2009-06-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

Elder jensen, a fellow californian, just get home. he's gonna eat in n out!!!!!

The Calgary SOuth Zone
Me at the temple!!!
Elder burnham and I

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Life is good here. Elder Burnham and i are getting along great. With Elder Burnham going home soon, and hi, not going through the temple yet, we were able to go this last Saturday with the Morisson's!!! It was a blast, mainly because they are awesome. And it was the temple! Whenever i go to the temple I'm reminded of how much i love my family and how important families are. And i can never forget coming out and seeing mom and dad and everyone there. SO amazing. Of course, a crazy storm came in that weekend, so there was snow, and hail, and rain all weekend long.
It was interesting, considering it was probably all hot and stuff back home. JUNE! and it was nasty weather. bahh. The work is going good. Its funny the difference there is in the wards. One is involved, and one is not. I won't go into specifics, but stuff happens when members are involved and excited. I read a scripture this morning that really stuck out to me and that i loved. Alma 37:38-46. especially 45-46. I love the scriptures. OK, so i get a lot of, "you know who you look like?" SO i put together a list of the top things i get. #1 Kronk from the emperor's new groove #2 Mr Incredible #3 Buzz Lightyear. and then Patrick Dempsey, Jake Gyllenhall and the Canadian prime minister. Random, yes. But i Love you all and i love this work!!
Elder Crippen

June 2nd Letter

2009-06-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

i'm the terminator
roasting marshmellows

i'm a beaver

in a tree

can you find all three of us?

we triple teamed it

my tribute to america

the calgary couth zone

the zone, again different view

Transfer day! I'm staying with Elder Burnham. my first 3 month companion. Its been a good week. Nothing too exciting. We've walked alot and we don't have to wear suit coats anymore! Thats the best part!
I think you guys should mail me in n out. I miss it. Heere's my apartment adress, Aimee, could you put this on the blog and on facebook? 118 McKerrell Way SE Calgary, AB T2Z 1R4
I don't know why but i feel kind crummy right now. sigh. I don't like that. I just need to play some basketball. Or eat some food. I can't think of anything too exciting to say. I love this work and who i am!

May 20th Letter

2009-05-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

i cut my own hair! doesn't look too bad!

rib night!

so good

The bone plate

I as well am on a high from skype. That was so awesome. Dad, I've decided that when you get old, you will look like Richard G Scott, or at least like his picture in the middle of the ensign. my comps agree. And also Russell m nelson a bit. So yeah, that's cool. I gave myself a haircut, it was fun, and went pretty well. I just used a 4 for the sides and a 8 for the top and it didn't turn out too bad. I'm actually really happy with it. Last Thursday, Bro Morrison, (the dad of the sweet family we drywall for) invited us to play hockey with him and some guys from the ward and oh my gosh, hockey just became cool in my book. its sweet. We're playing again tomorrow night! woot woot! Send me a picture of these hanging drip systems! Yesterday was a good day. we drywalled for a bit, and while we were doing that, we got a phone call along with a sweet referral I'm excited for. And then at rib night someone paid for our dinner, and after correlation, which went well, members took us out for ice cream! So sweet. it was a good day. Plus it was pday eve which makes it all the better! I could patch drywall for you dad. I can do it. :)
ok, here we go. This is why the temple is important. It is SO important that its nearly impossible to comprehend. It gives you a better understanding of families and life in general. It gives you power to be better, it makes family happiness last forever! You learn more about love. When i walked into the celestial room i saw my mom and dad standing arm in arm, with every single sibling of mine standing in a row behind them. That's when it hit me how much i love them and how pumped i am to have the forever. temple marriage, although i haven't been married yet, I'm researched and discussed with people. The sealing that happens there does SO MUCH for you AND your children. And the temple is also so important that the young womens general president talks about it nearly every time she speaks. Just be worthy, and go to the temple. Its worth every single sacrifice you go through.
mom, it was so nice to see those pictures of you opening the card. I hope it does a little to repay you for all you've done for me! I love you!
Life is good, the work is great, and I love it.
Elder Crippen

May 13th Letter

2009-05-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

me and steve/Elder Wilson, BYu bud
playing with tape

Whiting, me and burnham

Wow, that was a BLAST skyping you guys. I loved being able to see everyone! So much fun. I can’t even describe it. that family is easily one of my favorites out here. Elder Burnham bought some pogs at a garage sale for 25 cents (I got a volleyball, cd player, and baseball glove for a dollar fifty.) and we learned how to play them and its been pretty fun! haha Yeah, i’m learning some sweet skills and stuff. Maybe we can actually do that addition to the storage room we always talked about! Put a bathroom up there and stuff. jeah! but it was awesome talking to you guys, i can’t even describe it.

The weather has been pretty good here. Nothing too drastic, we’ve had some rain, which is nice. I’ve always liked the sound of rain on a car. So soothing. But its been decently warm, so that's been nice. I miss CA warmth so bad!! I can’t remember if i told you this or not, but we were helping out with a community clean up, and some Jehovah's’ witness’s startied talking to my comp. I don't think they knew who we were. But i grabbed a Book of Mormon from the car and when they offered us their lil magazine i gave em a book and surprisingly they took it. I was under the impression that they can’t accept other books. but what ev. And they kept trying to convince me of stuff like how we can’t add to the bible, Jehovah is god, and all that, but i stumped em. She kept changing subjects, it was funny. But yeah, i probably shouldn't have bashed like i did, but we were trying to get stuff done, and e whiting looked a little annoyed. SO yeah. That was fun. We helped give a blessing to a special needs boy and it was so cool. he was kinda nervous about us standing around him and stuff, but as soon as we started with the blessing he calmed right down. It was really neat. We just had Stake conference and it was pretty neat. President Priday had all the missionaries come up and say some memorized scriptures and stuff. ANd supposedly the camera zoomed on me for a second so i got a little bit of spotlight, haha. Man, I really love this whole being a missionary thing. Its such a blast. So much fun with so many people. Well, time to jet, but i love you all so much!

Elder Crippen

Videos from Taber

2009-05-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

April 27th Letter

2009-05-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

SO, life is going good here back up in Calgary. We're getting splits coordinated FINALLY with the wards here. We were asked to give a 5 minute talk in sacrament impromptu so that was fun. I did it on d&C 18. I really love the scriptures. I've found a new love for the New Testament. before, i didn't really like reading Romans, and Corinthians and all that, but now i do! i love reading those.
Its crazy being back in the city. big culture shock after being in Taber. And we've had snow everyday since Wednesday! this is so bizarre. I want WARMTH! i miss the beach. Cherish the warmth you have back home! Recently I've been able to teach a lot more than i did in Taber, and i love it. Teaching is the sweetest thing on earth. I'm so excited to talk to you guys on mother's day! its gonna be great. I email my number next week! yay! So exciting. Mom, Happy early mother's day! I love you all and miss you!
Elder Crippen

April 20th Letter

2009-04-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

eggball!

hitting eggs with a baseball bat
Bro scott the seminary teacher, so sweet

Me and some seminary kids

more seminary kids!!! yay!

Nothing too much to report here from Canada. I'm in South Calgary
now, in the New Brighton and Mckenzie wards. I'm excited to be back
in the city. Its easier to be a good missionary here and i'm happy
for that. But i'm REALLY gonna miss Taber. Taber had so many
awesome members and i def would like to go back eventually. Sweet
place. Life is good. :) More to come next week!

April 15th Letter

2009-04-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

me in the shack

Elder Castillo in front of the shack

Transfer # 6 Medicine Hat Zone

All 59 ties of mine! (there's 58 in the picture, i dropped one in the closet)

Birthday shirt!

Birthday hoodie!

SO a couple nights i had a dream where i was on the beach with some friends, and i decided to walk down the beach a ways, and there i saw EVERYONE! The whole family was there and we started playing and it was a blast. I really liked that dream, the beach seems to be a common occurrence in my dreams. crazy. I think I've found my tie style, i have over 50 now, and i really like ones with diagonals, but with stuff in the background, like that one Angie gave me the night of my setting apart. yeah. tough to explain. But life is going good here, transfers are next week, so emails are on Tuesday. I gave a talk in church this last Sunday and i spoke on Christ's life and atonement, and it was a blast to give. I wish i could just know more! It was such an amazing 3 years he ministered in life, and now, living again, continues to minister to us! I just wish i could study Christ and his life over and over again! Its the best topic ever. Easter is such a great time. I LOVE IT!!!!

April 8 Letter

2009-04-08T20:40:00.001-07:00

eating a dried fish...ewwww

and the catch!!!

My district at zone conference, 3 piece baby! Elder Bailey, Elder Pehrson (Comp #2), me and Elder Castillo

basketball battle wound

the shack!

HELLO! BREAKING NEWS! ITS WARMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! Can you believe it?! Its WARM! I'm SWEATING!!! Its AMAZING!!! Wow, straight up amazing. First things first. What an amazing general conference. There was like several times when i was so happy and giddy i wanted to jump up and down and hoot and holler, don't know how appropriate that would be though....dang it. Elder Holland's just had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. And of course i liked Elder Perry's. haha. Nothing too big is going on here. For pday we played football and baseball with the seminary kids so that's sweet. Remember at conference when we went on that virtual tour of the home, haha oh man that made me homesick. I could smell texas sheet cake! But in my opinion we passed that test with flying colors. And that made me excited when they mentioned Calgary, and i could TOTALLY picture dad all of a sudden perking up, hahah. What's this i hear about Michael being in a cast?! I was never told anything about this!!! update me! And how's Harvey liking Seminary? He needs to send me his gourmet top Ramen recipe. With the eggs and spam and stuff. I'll fill you in a bit with last pday. It was fun. We met up with the missionaries from Brooks at Vauxhall, a small town in between us, and we went to this shack, and then went and played basketball in the vauxhall chapel. that chapel is TINY! SO we were bouncing the balls off the wall doing trick shots and stuff. So i tried videoing it, and it went in on my first try! Talk about beginners luck!! It was fun. You never answered my question, Is that Spencer on page 74?! I need to know its been driving me crazy for 5 months!! SO that's news from Taber, nothing too exciting, just living the wonderful life of a missionary. I love you and i miss you!

Elder Crippen

April Fool's Letter!

2009-04-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Life is good in Taber. We recently just set a date again with the Pickett's, and i really think they are sincere this time. their parents are really pushing them and it just feels like things are going well. We're pretty close to asking some of the seminary kids to take lessons. There's 16 non member attending! Isn't that crazy? I'm excited because we're heading out to this shack in the middle of nowhere for pday and its gonna be sweet. I'm excited. I love how when we teach, the Spirit really whispers the truth to the investigators, and they feel the need for the gospel in their lives, and feel the need for repentance. its a great work! and i really have to use the washroom right now i gotta gooooo aghhhhhhhhh
Elder Crippen

Hey! Some more things i wanted to mention.
November 2008 ensign, is that Spencer on pg 74? There's a kid who looks and acts just like him, and i was curious if i could get some confirmation to that.
At Zone conference, we are randomly asked to give a 5 minute talk on whatever. I finally got chosen, it was my first time, and i think it went really well. It was on prayer and i got to share some personal experiences on it and stuff. And you won't believe this, but my district was asked to do a musical number and i sang. on my gosh i sang. with a cold. Never again. hahaha we sang "Ye Elders of Israel." SO we couldn't screw it up to bad. one thing I really saw at zone conference is that when things aren't going well and we don't feel directed, we need to take a step back and look at the big picture of where our life is going and what we are doing. And if we aren't doing right things, we see that we need to fix them.
Dad, get a 3 piece suit, trust me. It'll go well with your fathers day present. I'm sure you can get one at any thrift store, or who knows, maybe you still got one somewhere. trust me. just do it.
Tell me more about how things are going at home! people, events, etc. Its so crazy how fast time is going. I can't believe it!

March 25th Letter

2009-03-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe you are on a cruise. That blows my mind. We had a couple days of BEAUTIFUL weather with the temperatures hovering around the 50s. (I never thought I'd ever say that) And then last night we got hit by a huge snow storm that lasted all day Wednesday. And then we had to drive home and stuff. it was crazy. lucky to be alive! We got to have pday with the zone, so that was neat. The work in Taber is going great. I love this place! the people here are amazing. Member's have really been getting involved and we're seeing some good success. That's the only way it works! I really love it out here. As missionaries will always talk about how nice it would be to be at home, dating, listening to music, and watching movies and all. but we really love these two years. And I'm 1/3 done! so scary! I don't want to come home! Its such a nice break to enjoy the great things in life. Haha, i sound like a hippie, but i love you all so much!
Elder Crippen

March 18th Letter

2009-03-27T08:27:00.001-07:00

The mascot for a tire store? weird.

Elder Herrera and i

dereailed train? NUTS!

sweet suit! gay pose

3 piece!!!!

Hey! Thanks for the birthday party!!! I wasn't really able to watch it because the computer I'm on is lame, but hey, thanks so much! I"ll keep trying to see it! It was definitely the most unique slash worst birthday ever. That morning i was driving to meetings, and was driving into the Church parking lot when the car slid on some ice and decked a curb. It trashed the rim, and messed up the alignment. SO yeah, that was NO fun. Had to go get it fixed, and the new rim had to come down from Edmonton so we were stranded in Medicine Hat for the day. But it was cool cuz the missionaries we stayed with are way sweet. but also a HUGE bummer because we were going to have dinner with a SWEET family, and then another awesome family wanted me to come over for cake, so i had to cancel all that. BIG bummer. And there just wasn't a good feeling the whole day. I felt trashy. it wasn't fun. But anyways, on a more happy note, I know how to do the Rubik's cube! Elder Jensen taught me. My life feels so complete now. just know that it IS possible. I've told you some stuff about crazy ray. She's the sweet lady who lives in medicine hat who has the gift of discernment like crazy, like a psychic, but not psycho. Whenever i see her, she always talks about how amazing my life is going to be, how perfect my wife and i are together, and how amazing my children are, and everything. its very nice. I keep trying to get it out of her more stuff about my wife, but she just always says that I'll know once i go home. Patience patience. gah i hate it hahaha. The only thing she'll tell me is that she is accommodating and is a good cook. Sounds good to me! And supposedly my daughters are going to be athletic tomboys. haha cool. I guess we'll have to see how god Crazy Ray is. I think I've said this before, but i don't think i can say it enough. The youth here are so sweet. We're having a sports night tonight and are gonna play some basketball with em. SO chill and sweet. They are such great examples and down to earth kids. I don't know what it is but they're awesome. Things are going good with investigators. We're seeing some good progress from some of our "eternal" investigators and that's really exciting. its so frustrating when someone wants to be baptized but someone else for some reason or other is holding them back. This church is a good thing!!! My new comp, Elder Castillo is sweet. He's from Sacramento and is a mutual friend with someone from BYU. he's funny and is REALLY good at playing the piano. AND is a good basketball player. We'll have lots of fun. :) SO yeah, that's life from Taber, nothing too new is happening. But life is good, and i love it! And i love all of you! Elder Crippen

March 10th Letter

2009-03-11T08:04:00.001-07:00

TRANSFER NEWS! I am staying in taber, i get to celebrate my bday here! And i'm a district leader. woop. now i have to babysit people. haha. But thats cool. Elder Herrera is going up north to calgary where he'll be serving in the mision president's ward.
I'm getting Elder Castillo who is actually from the home ward of one of my byu friends. so thats cool. Did you really quote that to those youth? Did it seem to help? What do i need for my birthday? love, mail, pictures? haha no idea. money? whatever that heart gives, i like. We used to get the church news but we don't anymore for some reason. but sure, send it over. its exciting. Calgarianites are very excited for it. Taber is good. Work is picking up again. We've stopped by part member families and all. We went by this guy in the hospital, an elderly guy in extended care, and he can't talk to well. His mind is fine, but his body isn't so good. he can't speak too well, or move.
So yeah. My birthday's coming up in less than a week! Thats crazy!!! Almost 20. I already found someone who is gonna make a cake for me! i'm excited! WEll, life is going well, and i thank everyone for their love and support. You are all amazing and the best family anyone could ask for. I wonder if i requested you in the pre earth life...... hahaha Love you!
Elder Crippen

February 25th Letter

2009-02-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-11T15:23:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

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

January 27th Sentence

2009-01-31T12:09:00.000-08:00

Hey! life is good here. We've had a lot of adventures and stuff. I'm getting transferred to Taber, which is the place for good corn. so that's exciting.

Elder CrippenCardston Temple trip
Yay for 6 months out! Burning stuff...

Lethbridge zone

Climbing the bridge!

Elder, I wish you never sent these pictures, actually, I wish you never did it in the first place you dummy!

Signed, Your Extremely Concerned Big Sister

Big Ball

MY LETTER TO CODY AFTER RECEIVING THESE PICTURES:

Subject: YOu Idiot!!!

What the heck do you think you are doing?! I have to say I am SO glad youwere transferred because you should be NO WHERE close to that bridge anylonger. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING NIMROD (the Book of Mormon character...)? Doa lot of people do that? Was it "presidency approved"?You almost killedyourself and then almost me when I saw that picture. Don't do things likethat ANYMORE PLEASE! Hopefully in Taber the most dangerous thing that youcould do would be to get lost in a corn maze... You're killing me Smalls!

HIS RESPONSE:

ahem, i take offense. I am elder bourne. That bridge was SWEET. and i'm not retarded. Thats why i didn't go higher. It was fun though. Thanks for the concern! i don't know if it was presidency approved, definitely not DISapproving. I think... Its what you get mor not letting me play with you and jolene back in the day. :) sucker. LOVE YOU!

Elder Crippen