Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone

I debate these updates weekly just because I never know where to start or what to say.....and here we go

Monday: Was Christmas Eve - my kabahays (roommates) decided to clean the windows and to be candid that was a nightmare! Behind the window sill next to my bed we found nests of a creature: hard big clumps of dirt with holes in it. Pretty gnarly! We all were in danger of tetanus (the rusty nail disease). And the cherry on top of this window cleaning adventure was that our faucet broke - and we were gifted with a fountain in our bathroom. Because it was Christmas eve my Filipino companion knew we would be receiving no help this day. So she grabbed our rolling pin and shoved it in the spout. We all slept downstairs that night. 

Tuesday: Christmas day! I got to talk to my family and what's better than that?

Wednesday: I went on splits with the STLs (Sister training leaders). My companion greeted everyone as if she knew them and that threw me (and everyone she greeted) off  But we were still well received. I learned that if you can get past the moment of awkwardness people are more likely to ask a question at the end of a contact - which is cool. That day we taught an hilarious old lady (at least I thought this was hilarious) we met her at a tindahan (a little store). This girl walks up with her hair clumped together and the old lady looks at her and makes a face. Then as she walks away the old lady mumbles a question to the girl while pointing and says, "Whats that?" (all in English). We begin to walk away and she says, "Very very very very very bad" super quickly while shaking her head. For some reasonI thought it was the funniest thing! Really you had to be there.

Thursday: A normal day. We've been focusing on the less actives in our area because we have so many of them and they're all so friendly.  Plus they will listen to our messages. But nobody likes commitments here, and we all know faith with out works is dead, so we're working on that. 

- I heard a dog cry for the first time and that was super sad.

- Delicious food I ate was called Kilawin. Everyones gotta try that 

I finished the Book of Mormon this week and really it's such a good book. But sometimes I think that fact gets forgotten because we're told read the book of mormon - like it's another task or thing to do. Everyone!  We are so lucky to have the scriptures - to have the Book of Mormon. In one of the paragraphs - I forget exactly where, but it's in the introductory part of the Book of Mormon - it says that the book is worth more than all the riches in the world (not a direct quote) but along those lines. WE ARE RICH! my friends. because we have something of such great worth. In Amos we're told people searched everywhere for the word of god - something that we have so accessible today. And in the Book of Mormon there are many verses about reading the Book of Mormon and praying to save ourselves from destruction, to keep ourselves away from temptations. This is the purpose. The Book of Mormon is not a burden or an annoyance. Find the joy in reading it. Make it your favorite book. I challenge everyone to find a favorite verse from the book of mormon! 

Mine 2 Ne 22:2 and Ether 12:41 

Love and miss you all!

Sister Crawford 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!! 

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm almost to the end of my training which is crazy but awesome I just realized because I'll start the year as an Independent ... there's a much cooler word for that but I'm blanking on the name. Unfortunately I'm not sure how independent you can be when there's a language barrier the good news is that my understanding even when people talk fast has increased I still can't quite match or replicate them though ... one day. 

Monday: Always a great day - we went shopping at the plangke as always but we scheduled our day a little differently and so we finished shopping around 6 which is the same time it gets dark and apparently the same time tricy's go home ? Crazy thing so these crowds of people were standing at the four way street and when a tricy drove by they'd rush to pile in hahaha sister cabaraban and I weren't able to follow suit because of our groceries but it was a little scary to think we weren't going to be able to get home. We then saw a member tricy driver and recent convert pass us aka we were given 2 signs to act but they both passed pretty quickly to make a long story short patience is a virtue. 

This day I also made two solid contacts. In this mission we have a goal of 30 contacts a day. We introduce ourselves and testify to 30 people a day and it can be difficult but I saw a man with a missing leg dusting his car and I offered to help then contacted him and it was awesome. Nothing too special about that story but the lesson I learned is you feel good when you offer to help someone and they appreciate the effort whether it's accepted or not. Maybe that's how I'll phrase my contacts like we all need help. This gospel is that help. 

Tuesday: My eye kept twitching and IT RAINED. It's been raining and I love it. Sister Cabaraban said she needs to shower or she'll get sick so I was thinking the rain had something in it but no she just needed to get warm ... She took a warm shower! By boiling water. So the next day I did the same thing (boiled water while exercising) and I don't think I can go back to the cold water again. 

Wednesday: ZONE CONFERENCE that's when a bunch of zones meet and hear from the Mission President. Unfortunately I forgot my nametag but there were missionaries who brought 2! Assuming no one reads those things I put it on and then I had to introduce myself to new people who would read those things ... it quickly came off after a couple introductions. We got a cook of mormon apron which I find so applicable to my mission experience because here I've learned how to cook: rice, french toast, adobo, sinigang, and pansit. Catch me in the kitchen folks! 

Friday: The previous night Sister Cabaraban showed me a movie about John Tanner and I highly recommend everyone check it out because it really makes you want to increase your faith. Quickly: John Tanner had a leg that was going to kill him but he didn't want to remove it and through faith and the priesthood the leg was healed.  Anyways the next morning I got to the thinking about the movie and we have an investigator who is partially paralyzed and so I turned to sister Cabaraban and asked "do we lack faith" In all seriousness and she was thinking about the work and I was like no could we heal sister Tecla? Anyways it all sounds crazy but like really by and through faith miracles are wrought and I wish we all could be in a position similar to mine because it really allowed me to ponder about faith. I mean what would happen if we said she is healed and nothing happens? At that point we'd have to chalk it up to it's not Heavenly Father's will but still really interesting. 

I recorded me talking about my investigators but forgot the tape today ... so I'll quickly tell you about this cool find. We are currently teaching people who sell coconuts and homemade peanut butter so after teaching them we're given coconuts -bonus!

Last week I began my spiritual thought but didn't get to finish it. As I read the Book of Mormon verses about us being sheep have stuck out to me and there are a lot of them. So this Christmas season we should ask who is our sheppard? I'm not sure which scripture it is but theres one that says we can't be the sheep of the good and bad sheppard. But Jesus the good sheppard is calling out to us and is still calling out to us (Alma 5:37-41) we need to hearken to Him. We can't serve two masters (3 Nephi 13:24) but how can we know a master we haven't served? If we simply desire to be the sheep of the good sheppard then we're given the incentive of being protected from wolves (Alma 5:60)

Here are some other verses I didn't write quick things about 3 Ne 18:31, Mormon 5:17, Mosiah 14:16, Mosiah 5:13-14. Jesus will call us by his own name and if we do not know him we aren't of his sheep and he can't protect us. Let's become Jesus's sheep.... ps: if you love Him you'll feed His sheep 

Love and miss you all - have a very merry christmas 

SIster Crawford 

week 15

It seems I've forgotten the week I'm on haha 

I only wrote in my journal Wednesday and Friday- I should write about the less eventful days too but today I'll just be writing in depth about those two days. Everyone should keep a journal they're important. 

Monday: I went Christmas shopping for myself (kind of not really) I found these silky pants for 70 pesos I now sleep in, I got some nail polish, and a hair straightener for 225 pesos. I'm still so happy for the most part about these purchases. I went to straighten my hair and it didn't do the job as well as I'd hoped but I bought a straightener not a defrizzner hahaha 

Wednesday: Interviews with my mission president those went well except I failed at guessing the answer to his questions. He wanted to know about my companions problem which is that she hasn't had communication with her family for 2 months and I told him her problem was headaches. My companion and I laughed about that one for a while afterwards. 

Thursday: We taught Mike and his wife - I'm not sure if I've been updating you on their progress but they're an awesome couple who have their baptism date set for December 29. Anyways their old lady neighbor sat in our lesson and as we prayed she said, "yes lord. Thank you lord. Hallelujah" I'm not sure if that's irreverent but I want to incorporate it in our prayers in America. 

Friday: We were taught how to make Grey Ham cake by Sister Maymen. A member of our ward who has taken us in as her daughters (literally) she gave us clothes that her daughters didn't want anymore and anyways grey ham is how they say graham which is so funny when I discovered that. We teach her niece who is also 20 and super smart named JV. I really hope she'll get baptized but she won't read the book of mormon until she's finished the bible. Then we were contacting and Sister Cabaraban saw a foreigner (me/ people not from the Philippines) and she told me to contact him in English. I then went up to him and began my spiel and he says, "my life is too short for that". That isn't how contacts usually go here so it made me really grateful for the kindness of Filipinos and if anyone has insights as to what he was talking about please let me know. Then that night we were walking to our friday dinner appointment (in the dark) then BOOM a firework goes off and a white horse runs right in front of us. Hahaha we were pretty rattled and then each time we began to walk the horse would ran back across the path so we broke out into a run while fireworks were going off it was pretty funny. Come to find out it was the member lighting off fireworks he bought 9000 pesos worth of fireworks for Christmas. Then he taught me to eat the eyes of a fish....it's not as good as it sounds. 

In my personal Book of Mormon reading I've gotten to 3 Nephi and just in time for Christmas which is pretty awesome. But I'm going to be talking about impressions I recieved while reading Helaman 13:7 - I wrote: Does repentance bring glad tidings to your soul? If not we should try making it so. Jesus Christ did not suffer for us not to use the atonement. I know that as we use the atonement more in our lives we'll receive greater conversion to the gospel and will feel more spiritually prepared for the second coming. Ask yourself that question- are you ready for the second coming of Christ and if not why not? Get ready! Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance 

Love and miss you all Sister Crawford 

week 14

Week 14 (Labbingapat) 

Good week ulit (again) don't be fooled by these few words of Tagalog I throw in these emails I really don't know the language all that well but line by line right? I lost my American trainer this week she left to Bang Bang to go train so it's just been my Filipino companion and I. The biggest difference with this change is I take a larger portion of the lesson - this is good and bad. Good for me because more practice with the language. Bad for our investigators because they literally don't understand me..... no they do for the most part- but they'll look to my companion for confirmation minsan (sometimes). Update on the week:

Monday: I bought a HOLY dress. Fun play on words cause I'm a missionary that wears a dress. But I bought a dress with a lot of Holes in it. And it was initially 300 pesos and then I went to try it on and the lady said its 200 Pesos because these 2 holes and I was thinking no big deal because it's fun to sew and 2 holes I can handle -especially since the pattern of the dress made me so happy. I buy it and take it home to find like 8 more holes hahaha. I wore it Tuesday and found that I missed a hole. All good things. 

Tuesday: I ate pig ear on a stick and really is as good as it sounds. The outer ear was hard rubbery almost with a fatty inside -yikes. I wouldn't recommend it ......but a good experience. 

Thursday: I tried Alakart Chicken intestine with cheese in it. My Filipino comp was talking this up like it's the best thing ever. And well I'd eat it again but it definitely wasn't my favorite. We got punted (canceled)  this day so we looked for people to teach and I saw an old lady sitting by herself some ways off so we went up to her and asked if we could teach. She let us in and we started the lesson with a song as always and since my comp is sick it was really my voice carrying us and I began to laugh  (I don't know why) but I couldn't stop and mid song the the old lady, my comp, and I were all just cracking up. That was probably my favorite lesson we taught this week because the spirit was still so strong there and it was my first time sharing more of the lesson and it went well.

Friday: We went to the hospital because of 2 infections on my leg. That was the most eventful thing that day so I'll leave it at that. 

LAST WEEK (quickly) First time for me to experience 3 baptisms! It was pretty awesome I'm not sure if I've shared this but the boy who's dad was an inactive member told us that he wants to serve a mission and he doesn't care where he goes as long as he's sharing the Lord's gospel. Pretty cool. 

Spiritual thought: because last week was Thanksgiving I thought a lot about being thankful. And since being on the mission I've had times of life at home just come to mind that make me really Happy. They're really obscure random moments too but I write them down in the back of my journal entitled "A few of my favorite things" haha. It's cheesy but this page makes me so happy to look at espeically when I'm having a rough go at things here. My leg was a doosy maybe pictures will be included -I'll leave that one up to my mom but like the poem I'll share after this-- I'm grateful for the wound on my leg for it means I have legs. (mom could you please include it actually) I'm running out of time but I encourage you all to enjoy and be grateful for the things you have because theres a LOT to be grateful for. And we should appreciate all we can while we can. It shouldn't take ice bucket showers to develop an 'attitude of gratitude.'

Hope everyone is well..... love and miss you all

                                                          Infection......Boil

                                           Comp assist on clean up

                                                2nd.......Boil

         Tori mentioned sending a poem, however she forgot to include it in her letter. 

week labbindalawa (12)

Banal ng mga usoke (holy smokes) where to begin? 

Tuesday: I recently finished reading the Ricarddi letter - I felt like we should pray to know what to do or where to go. So my comps and I prayed and we felt like we needed to go straight across the street.  We found a nice elderly lady who wanted to hear our message and invited us to return. We returned later in the week and met her son (she wasn't there) and he was interested in our message. 

We also visited the videoke and prayer lady. She's so cute and her house reminds me of Narnia because from the outside it looks like a cute little house. Then you walk in and the first room is a treasure untold (little mermaid)  no but really so many trinkets and what not. The second room a nice old kareoke machine and then outside a backyard with so many flowers and a cute little gazebo and at the end of the lesson she showed us her part of the house where she has a shrine. Come to find out she has a Book of Mormon and has been taught by the missionaries before and she said "I know you don't believe in this (shrines) but I do" it was a tender moment.

Wednesday: It's been four weeks of training - we woke up at 4:30 to travel 3 hours to our meeting in Cauayan city. Everyone fell asleep just about but I was so entranced by the scenery outside so I stayed up .......then regretted that later when we took a Van instead of a bus home. The difference between the bus/ van is space, ac, and speed. I passed out for the first bit of it then woke up with a heat stroke just kidding but woke up because a boy threw up. It was rough and to top it off my comp lost her bag with her money in it. But all is well we've recovered.

We taught Deejay and A LIZARD PEED ON ME what? 

Thursday: We went on splits with the stl's first time I was just one on one with a missionary little intimidating. But it went well she was really nice and I've discovered the language is coming I just need to trust myself more. 

Saturday: Baptism interviews: Chris, Deejay, and Jomer and that night we found out Jomer's dad was mormon! What? That's crazy because I told my comps when we met them we need to find Jomer's parents because there's something different about him. Never did I guess it was that his dad was mormon. 

Sunday: Stake conference! It was about ministering and how all members can be missionaries.  I want to testify of the truthfulness of this. I didn't realize how much we can do to help move the work forward as members but we make the difference. And that leads me to my spiritual thought: 

FEAR NO MAN - read the ricardi letter and you'll get the reference. But really fear no man. Share the gospel with everyone because God loves everyone so open your mouth and share what you know is true........what you know is TRUE.  This gospel is true, The Book of Mormon (Alma 31:5)  is the word of God and brings people happiness, peace, and a desire to be better, families can be together forever, and we have a prophet on earth today.  These are truths and as you share them with others then you can feel the power of the truth of these things. Brother Chris texted us missionaries "How can we know or get closer to God" and as I gave my answer I got fired up sharing my thoughts because IT'S TRUE!  And that's so cool and powerful-we have no reason to fear sharing these things because ITS TRUE D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. 

Love and miss you all 

Sister Crawford 

Jomer is 14 and wants to serve a mission some day

missed a nap entranced by scenery

bus...Space, AC, & Speed

comps I've come to love

P-day off to the Caves

Entrance to the Caves

Ready...OK

Strike a pose...good day

Sister Tovia

Sister Carbanara

week 10 & 11

Week 10 (Sampu) 

Tuesday Wednsday Thursday: rather normal we had two dinner appointments with families that I LOVE. Both weekly appointments. The Maymen family and the Calagay family. The parents/family almost never eat with us so we just talk with the mom or parents while we eat but they're very kind. I'm really pretty lost in the language so I'm not sure whats being said but I laugh when others laugh and I can pick up on the basics so thats good. 

Thursday: Sister Maymen is a patient member who's accompanied us to all the members houses so we could know our area a little better since it's new.   She got us these pasteries filled with cocunut something and every members house we went to fed us merrienda (snacks) YUM  Everyone is so sweet and generous.

Friday: We met a cute lady Sister Vilma. We've visted her everyday she's receptive to our message. She has really loud children always around her but it's kind of fun for example: this one boy (hilarious) runs around and is just in his own world. Then one day a cocroach ran across the floor and the kid says "Ipis" (cockraoch) and he chases after it and trys to stomp on it BARE FOOT misses though and the roach got away but it was HILARIOUS to me Idk why 

Saturday: News of the baggio (storm) Typhoon.  We were at Dj's house and they were playing this fun game so we joined them for a while and then taught them a lesson and then having gotten news of the storm went back to our apartment to prepare for the storm.   

Tomorrow the storm will hit and so we'll have to stay indoors but life is good and exciting. I know the church is true.  I read things in the Book of Mormon that testify to me of it's truthfulness.   I encourage everyone to continue reading STUDYING the book of mormon so that you can feel and know it's true. Theres a scripture about praying for comfort and He'll give it and I know thats true. I also know that if we abide in him he'll abide in us and so many other profound things are promised in the scriptures so make sure to read.  

Love and miss everyone 

Week 11 (Labingissa) on the mission

Another good week! Started with the baggyio (storm) and thankfully my area wasn't affected very much. We still spent the day stuck in doors it felt like a snow day at home really. I spent the day sewing and a sister had the movie Johnny Linggo - it's on Lds.org so it was allowed and if you haven't seen it I reccommend watching it (very good). The storm was the loudest at night with heavy rain and wind.  The next day was mild so we were able to teach around 4. 

We contacted two elderly women and one of them asked me what dialect I was speaking because she couldn't understand ... I was speaking tagalog---YEP.   Sister Cabaraban asked whats the key to old age she said "praying and videoke" Which is espeically funny if you know how much Filipinos love videoke. I hear it everyday all day long. 

Wednesday: We got severely punted which means all of our lesson plans fell through. Idk why but it was still a really good day. I whistled with a piece of grass like my dad taught me and then my comp said "quiet dignity" partly joking to which I replied "we should preach with a voice like a trump" and then trumped the grass haha. We also walked past a group of people playing basketball (looked like mormon dads) and I think I've seen too many movies because I said we should make a deal that if we make a basketball shot we can teach them ... and well it went as cringy as it sounds haha

It was "All Saints Day" and a little girl was telling me about her grandma that died but I didn't know that All saints day was a holiday so I was telling her sorry and then I asked kahapon? as in yesterday and all the kids cracked up because she had passed away in April 

Nothing super eventful the other days Deejay has now invited two more of his brothers to our discussion and we have a total of 8 baptism dates planned. These group of kids are really awesome one named Jomer has read up to Jacob 4. We hope to get their parents in on our discussions.

Spiritual thought: This week I was reading in Alma 24 the story of Anit-Nephi-Lehi's who would rather die than sin. And their example made me wonder do we allow the fact that we are imperfect  keep us from doing everything in our power to not sin? I read Alma 13:12 which talks of looking upon sin with disgust and I know that it's important for us to do everything in our power to avoid sin and not justify sin for others because I know that when we justify sin it makes it that much easier for us to commit the same sin. Kaya Mo En (I spelt that wrong) but You can do it 

Love and miss you all Sister Crawford 

Quick Update week 9 (Sham) I think

Funny events from the week. I learned some more Filipino culture: to be respectful we take the hand of elderly people and bring it to our forehead, a meal isn't a meal without rice, dried fish equate to chips pics included, people burp to show they enjoyed the food, burping in general is just normal, and you eat with your hands if you really enjoy their food also. 

We taught a lesson to members of the church an elderly couple and their son (non member) and daughter in law (non member) anyways I was praying and mid prayer the daughter in law just starts burping a ton and it caught me so off guard I really had to fight back my laughter. Then this same family has really low roofs and they kept warning me to watch my head. Well I was saying goodbye and I shook the old ladies hand (shes so cute) I turned around to walk away and she hugs me from behind it catches me off gaurd and I stand up hitting my head on the roof super hard I died laughing. It was hilarious. 

As for the investigators with baptism dates: they're awesome!

Theres a group of 5 all cousins or brothers and sisters. Dj, Vimar, Merelyn, Jomer, Jerome their ages range from 18 to 12. They really like sports and have begun to play with people in the ward. We taught them this week the word of wisdom and the law of chastity both of which made me nervous because I didn't want them to feel judged or liked less. But I learned that chastisement is love and they really accepted both messages well. Another funny Filipino culture they love sharing other peoples business so when we ask who's keeping the Word of wisdom etc they'll just point at eachother and put one another on blast its awesome hahaha but then we were teaching how are body is a temple and men shouldn't have their ears pierced. In this moment Vimar removes the earing from his cartilage and chucks the earring! What that was cool too.

I also spoke in church and I have a thick american accent I've realized but I told the congrigation we can endure together and I guess the way I said it implied romantically ? I'm still not sure but I spoke on the 5 principles of the gospel and for the most part it was well recieved

IT also rained this week !! and i Know Heavenly Father is looking out for me because I said on a clear day "I just want it to rain" and boom next day it did and 1. it reminded me of home and 2. it made the day cooler 

Spiritual thought: The people here are always happy even though they have different living conditions and I realized we need to treasure things with eternal value. This isn't deep and there are scripture verses about this so I'm going to challenge you to do you're own studying about this but I KNOW that when we treasure things of eternal value like our families we will always be happy. 

LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE 

Week Wall (8)

Holy smokes!! Where to start? Being in the field is a whole new ball game and this week alone has been a week of firsts. First time: riding in a tricy (idk the spelling), eating belot, being handed an umbrella getting off the plane, showering from a bucket, washing clothes in a bucket
I'm sure there are more firsts but those are the ones coming to mind currently and I've never sweat so much in my life good news is I haven't minded it much. It feels like I just finished a soccer game. Okay I'll now break the week down
- Tuesday night we had belot. It was given to those who wanted to try it after eating dinner. My district sat together to share the experience. An elder in my district ate it like bear grills no joke funny part about this is he doesn't like mayoinnese or pineapples but eats any wild philippino food given to him. Anyways I mimicked his technique. I didn't breathe out of my nose either. You start by sucking the juice from the egg and then taking it out of the shell and popping it in your mouth. Really it tastes like a hard boiled egg and thankfully mine had no crunch.
- Wednesday I flew to Cauayan from the Manila mtc. There I got a yellow umbrella. I met my mission president and his wife. The Hiatt's. They're awesome! Really super kind. Then I met my two trainers sister Cabaraban and sister Barnett they're so different from one another but play important roles in my training. We then rode a tricy to get on a bus to our first area Tugegaro (probably didn't spell that right) and in a dialect that I'm not certain of the name means "burning sun."  It is the hottest city of the philippines. Good thing I like the heat. hehe
- Thursday a prayer was answered I told my trainers I want to find a tailer who can make changes to my clothes. That night we were fed by a church member and SHE SEWS, what are the odds? so that was so cool. We also taught and contacted many people and it was really neat watching how it works. The people here are really friendly and will listen to your message. They also have a way different concept of time so they don't mind if we talk forever!! We also met our bishop and he was awesome too. He showed us the area and fed us a merrienda (snack) dim sum.
- Friday I don't remember everything but we had a lizard in our house
- Saturday and Sunday general conference
I cut the last two days short because I'll recount the other stories I don't know which days they took place.
I showered in a bucket. Which I anticipated before coming but I really saw it being tropical cool. A novelty of sorts. Long story short I stand by a toilet in a bathroom and pour water onto myself from a bucket HAHAHA yeah its wild
I wash delicates in a bucket of water, soap, scrub, rinse dry...... easy
I have hilarious roommates; a Samoan and an American. Yesterday sister Toiva and I became twins
A bird pooped on me mid lesson. I felt it hit my head and tried my best to just silently endure but I ended up LAUGHING my head off. It was so funny to me for some reason and my trainer sister Cabaraban quickly helped me get it out. I also bought ice candy which is basically a popiscile in a pouch, I spilt it all over myself and died laughing again.

We have 4 scheduled baptisms. Sister Condoy: She's wonderful. We met her when she had chemical burns on her arms from washing laundry. She has what seems like a ton of kids (maybe its the neighborhood kids too) but they all run up to me which is fun.
Brother DJ: He's 18 years old and seems really receptive of our message. All of our investiagtors attended all 4 hours of general conference. We told them we'd give them Book of Mormons when we got back to the apartment and we ended up forgetting and they called us asking for copies which is a great sign.

 I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Not only did I have the experience

with the seamstress this week but I also had serious feelings of "how will I get through/ enjoy this next year and a half of my life" feeling the opposite of peace (um haha I can't think of a word) I prayed and then attended general conference and I felt super empowered. Something shared was that Satan wants us to feel despair and wants us to have fear but that's not Heavenly Fathers plan or will. Thats not a direct quote but it was something along those lines and it made a Huge difference. So much so that after the conference on Saturday I personally contacted 2 people and was mistaken for Philippino at a tindihan (shop).
Anyways, life is good - thanks for reading

Love and miss you all Sister Crawford

Last email from the mtc in Provo, UT

PSA: I think I receive everyone's DearElders, if I don't I wouldn't know -hehe but I try writing everyone back so hopefully you're getting my letters. And thank you for writing me, my time at the provo mtc is quickly coming to an end. I leave Monday so if any of you want to get your last DearElders in, do it! I love reading them. 

These last two weeks here have been awesome. 

The Language: I think I was more fluent in the language at the start of my mtc experience than I am now. Not actually (that's a bit dramatic) but learning a language is super cool. I know a lot of words but I'm so grammatically incorrect that what I say doesn't make sense. It's awesome though because I was never good at memorizing things prior to being at the mtc and now random words will stick in my memory. 

The Weeks Experiences: 

Tuesday: Elder Anderson 1 of the 12 apostles spoke to us on the topic of temples last Tuesday.

Friday: I taught a Filipino lady in Wisconsin over skype about our life on earth. She was so nice and I have my second skype lesson tonight at 8:15 pm. 

Saturday: My district hosted "the ratties" which if any of you have watched the office is like the Dunddies because a part of our district was leaving that Monday. It was hilarious. Everyone in the district was given an certificate for being something. For example my award was "The blind (and deaf) faith award" because my name is Helen and I'm super faithful hahaha or I hope the faith part was included. 

Monday:  The zone leaders left and set an alarm on the stl phone for 2 am. It goes off and my companion (who's on the lower bunk) rushes to her clock to turn it off. She's so dazed she doesn't know where its coming from I tell her it's the phone she grabs that opens it up and reads "gotcha". Those same leaders set 3 alarm clocks at 30 minute incriments starting at 1 and hid them around the room of the elders that were leaving. The recounting of that story was hilarious. They went so far as to place an alarm in a drawer and lock it. 

Spiritual Thought: 

I love the message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's truly a message of love. I really felt this as I read and pondered 3 Ne 17. Love can and should be the motivation for everything we do. Jesus Christ suffered the sins of the world because he loves us. My teacher said that overbearance is not possible if there is love. I think often times we hold back from checking up on people or doing things because we don't want to bother them but I think that when we do those things with love as our motivation then it's impossible for it to be overbearing. And if it's a good thought then it's from God and we should follow it. Which leads me to another point made in my Sunday class. When we receive promptings from the Spirit often times Satan will follow the prompting with a sentence of logic. For example: we may be prompted to go hug somebody but then think "no they're busy they don't want to be hugged". So we ignore it but I challenge you to ignore the second thought. 

Love and miss everyone! 

BIRTHWEEK

Week 4 (apat) 

What a good week - I celebrated my birthday on Monday and everyone blew me out of the water with birthday wishes etc. I had set my expectations really low expecting nothing but hoping for cards at least and don't underestimate the power of love haha. Really though it didn't matter if the gesture was big or small everything meant the world to me. So thank you everyone! 

Saturday the girls in my zone celebrated my birthday with face masks while we studied. And here my spiritual thought for the week comes. I had brought 6 face masks for myself and companions to enjoy throughout my ENTIRE mission, but there were exactly 6 sisters in our zone. So I had to decide if I wanted to include the other sisters and use all the masks or just keep the celebration between my companion and I because no one knew of my birthday. Anyways I decided to give all 6 of my masks away and share because making this special for everyone was going to make me happy. So I let everyone pick out a mask and pop the one bag of popcorn my companion and I had gotten as a gift. And so everything I was saving or trying to look forward to I decided to use and in return a sister went to her room and bundled a happy birthday handsanitizer, these nail things, hawaiian candy, and a face mask. And I ended up with another bag of popcorn because it was set in a share pile for all the sisters in the hall. Yeah, so, weird story but it made me think of heavenly father because when we give everything we have he'll bless us. He'll help us out and make sure we too are taken care of. And if you really want to think more about helping others read MOSIAH 4 because that had me thinking pretty deep too. 

The tagalog: Is going good I feel like I've begun to plateau on my language progress but I'll be immersed in the langauge 8 days before I originally thought I would because I'm leaving to the manillla mtc October 2nd rather than the 10th. 

My funny story for the week: "An electrifying bday" 

I straightened my hair for my bday. Showered then blew dry my hair. If you've seen me at this stage in my getting ready process you know my hair is INSANE not an understatement like really big/ fluffy. Anyways I'm singing to myself just making it fun and I went to unplug the blow dryer and it would not come out of the socket so I grabbed it by the tongs partially putting my finger in the socket and my whole body shook like cartoonish - I electrocuted myself. I shrieked before I realized what was going on and then proceeded to laugh at myself for a good 10 minutes because I thought turning 20 would mean I'm a little wiser - or at least wise enough to not put my finger in a power outlet but that wasn't the case. I mentioned the state of my hair previously because after I shrieked a sister in my zone came into the bathroom to ask if I was okay, I told her the story and she responds, "did the electricity do that to your HAIR". Nope. 

Love and miss everyone - Thanks again for my bday wishes!

Sis Crawford 

  Tori got an extra birthday bonus seeing her fall roommate on her p-day Dacey Zimmerman and family.

week 3

Week Tatlo (3)

Another good week at the mtc. Stomach problems have gone down and tagalog has gone up. 

About a third of the mtc is going to the philippines so its a language a lot of people toss around campus which is super cool. My district had our first trc this week and it was roughly awesome. Meaning the people were so nice but trying to teach a lesson in a language you've been learning for two weeks is rough. My goal for the next trc is to say um a little less - all good things

My companion and I have been asked to serve as the new STL sister training leaders for our zone. Our zone has 5 districts about 70 people with a total of 11 girls and 5 of them will be leaving next week but 6 will be coming new to the mtc so thats exciting

As  I learn the language at times I feel like my memory storage is full it's coming slowly but surely. It's funny though being at the mtc feels like here is the only place I'll serve but know one day I will be in the Philippines and thats crazy. I also heard this week that most Philippine missionaries go to the manilla mtc a couple weeks earlier so who knows when I'll actually leave the provo mtc. 

Funny Stories this week (I found them funny):

- An elder in my district was asked to conduct the music but it's in tagalog so he didn't know which song it was the teacher tells him it's We Thank Thee Oh God for Our Prophet and he begins to sing Called to Serve so the class begins singing two different songs all to the words of We Thank Thee oh God in tagalog. I was dying we had to begin again 

- The teacher asked any questions in tagalog and an elder responds opo (yes) then admits he doesn't know what was asked but for those who knew it was kind of funny 

My teacher this week shared the verse seek not to declare my words first seek to obtain my words and then shall your tongue be loosed. There are promises that if we obtain His word then open our mouth in faith it will be filled with what we should say. I then read a verse that in order to receive knowledge we must do more than ponder it in our hearts (2 Ne 32: 4,7,9) If any of us wants a deeper knowledge of anything we should pray for understanding because I know Heavenly Father will give us the knowledge we need. As I pray for deeper understanding of the gospel I've had cool thoughts come to mind and I can't wait to put opening my mouth to the test in the philippines... I know this applies to more than missionaries. If any of you want to put these verses to the test than I challenge you to do so! 

Love and miss you all - Sister Crawford 

Tori’s 20th birthday is in 3 days Sept. 10th —if you want to send her a letter in the mtc

you can send it for free thru 

http://www.dearelder.com

they print it and deliver it to her room

this is the info you need:

Sister Helen Victoria Crawford

10-10- PHI-CAU

2005 N 900 E unit 155

Provo, UT 84602

Week One

One week at the mtc (missionary training center) down 6 more to go! 

I'd say its been a wild ride already. They waste no time here we're scheduled from 6:30 in the morning to 10:30 at night but it's cool. First day I walk into class and the only language being spoken is Tagalog and I'll never forget how hot my face felt when I could not figure out what was being communicated to me lol 

Lifes gotten better though and I've picked up on some of the basics:

Magandang Umaga - Good morning 

Kamusta kayo - How are you

Mabuti - good 

Magandang directly translates to beautiful and Mabuti is pronounced my booty hahaha 

I can pray, testify, offer an overview, share a scripture, and extend an invitation in tagalog

My companion is a red head from california, super nice and super indecisive like me 

Theres a sickness going around the district right now and I hope it doesn't get to me

We've already taught lessons to our teachers in tagalog and this upcoming monday we'll have our first trc. I can't tell you what it stands for but I know it means we'll teach people that served in the philippines or filipinos about the gospel.

As mom dropped me off last week she called this place LDS Hogwarts (Harry Potter) and after a short time being here I can attest to the truthfulness of this comment. Things are super different food wise though funny story that relates - I was drinking orange juice and everyone was freaking out because they say its a laxitiv and I noticed as I looked around nobody else was drinking orange juice, but I've been lucky enough to not have any stomach problems so far. And the only reason I decided to share this is as I typed this email out a person let one rip. smh(shake my head). I'll try to get pictures out soon, I forgot to bring a cord to upload pictures my bad. 

On a serious note I know that I could not be where I am at in learning the language of Tagalog without the help of the Savior. He wants to help me learn the language as much as I want to learn it and although I feel like a lot is being asked of me,  I know as I continue to put my faith in Him it will come. I just need to "forget myself and go to work". 

Love and miss you guys!

Love, Sister Crawford 

Introduction

Okay folks,

This is my first missionary blog post. For those who aren't LDS I'll just explain how the next year and a half will go for me. I'll spend anywhere from 6-9 weeks in the mtc (missionary training center). There I'll be taught how to speak Tagalog and share the gospel, and then I'll head to Cauayan Philippines where I'll preach of Christ and serve anyone in need of help.
I have chosen to serve a mission because I believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true and I love the peace that the gospel brings me.