April 28th Letter

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

iOle!

we had to take the classic photo

Me and Bro. Vaka bringing in DA PIG!

the pet cat we had for 10 minutes

our baby

painting without war paint is for chumps.






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

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

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

Elder Crippen