April 27, 2019

Sorry and thank you to those who continue to want to stay in the know despite my inconsistent emails and lack of pictures! You guys are greatly appreciated.

To give an update: I'm still living here in Tuguegarao. it's summer now and I've heard we've broken 40 degrees Celsius I'm not sure what that converts to in Fahrenheit but if I had to guess it's 1000 degrees! The heat sometimes makes it hard to sleep so I've bought myself an 80 peso hammock ($2). I'm now living the life. 

My Tagalog is better than before, but I'm still learning the language. 

My trainee is almost done with training.

We have a baptism this week for the Inay family. They're super awesome and I feel lucky to have been able  to finish they're teaching They're super ready for baptism.  So ready, in fact, they’ve passed the baptism interview twice now. Oops! And the ward loves them.

I'm not sure if I've talked about Sharon but she too was recently baptized. I remember there was one lesson where she told us that she was going to get baptized.  As in, she was going to follow all the commandments, go to church 4x's in a row, and basically do whatever she needs to. She really wanted it. She's pretty cool! She has a little baby and often times there’s no tricees by her house. But she doesn't let that stop her from going to church. I hope her husband will follow her example. I'm sure he will one day. 

This week we met a lady named Susan.  She was “decorning” (?) stocks of corn. So we started to help her. Filipinos get the kernels off so fast. This corn is dried out and stinking hard!  But I wanted to get on their level so I started trying harder and around the time my thumbs started to burn I noticed the correct technique. I needed to twist the corn first. I ended up with two giant blisters - but totally worth it.  We got into a lesson with her and were invited back.  That’s always a plus. 

This week was stake conference and we got to hear from a member of the 70: Elder Wakolo.  For my spiritual thought this week I'll share what he did. In Genesis 2 we learn about Adam and Eve and how they

were in paradise -> ate the fruit -> were ashamed -> cast out into the wilderness 

and in comparison the story of Lehi's dream in 1 Nephi: started in the wilderness -> ate the fruit -> desired his family to partake of it too -> paradise.  In order for us to return to paradise we too need to partake of the fruit. But that requires action on our part.  It requires us to remain steadfast on the path back to our father in heaven. I know that if we're to do this we too can partake of the sweetest and most desirable fruit above all other fruit.

Love and miss you all!

Sister Crawford 

hammock purchase

blister from decorning stocks of corn

Inay Family

Bishop's wife gave sister missionaries this bag

March 31, 2019

Long time no update! haha

Here in the Philippines food is love, so this week I was chastised for not eating more food. (haha, who knew?) We were invited to birthday parties to eat food and were given free watermelon and pineapple (from the farm that we work at almost every P-day). All I can say is that if missionaries visit give them merrienda (snacks) because it's the best thing ever.

Sister Caratao and I focused our efforts on Less Actives and Heavenly Father was listening, because we were out contacting and met a Less Active! What happened was, we saw an elderly lady and went to talk to her. She's super cute and sweet and after we talk,  she says we can teach her.  Then I notice her t-shirt and say, "I like your shirt", which said, "I love my family". She asks if  I recognize the shirt (this is a long time into our conversation) and I was like, "Um, no (haha)". And she's like, "It's from the Church and I'm a less active." Whaaaat!, and to add to the crazy of that coincidence is that we decided to take a different path to our investigators house and thats led us to her. We have other Less actives here, too, that just aren't receptive - even though they know the doctrine. And I just want to say that apostasy doesn't have to be a nation wide thing. It can literally be within a household or within an individual. And when it happens there's a difference in their happiness! This sweet old lady told us she felt that something was missing in her life. She had cried the night before ... and we happened to find her for the first time the very next day. Crazy odds. Sadly, she didn't go to church the next Sunday, but I'm sure that it would be intimidating if it's been a long time. Idk - people need to fear God more than man. 

Spiritual Thought: I've restarted the Book of Mormon and 1 Ne 3:31 stuck out to me. I've named this state of mind the "The Laman and Lemuel mindset". Even after seeing an angel they still doubted that they could really obtain the plates - because they have to get them from Laban ... what does this imply? That laban is greater than God? It's wild. Then there's Nephi's mindset in 1 Ne 4:1 - who has no doubt because God is all powerful. I fear sometimes on my mission. I've fallen into The laman and Lemuel mindset thinking, "Where are the people, theres none!" But KNOCK ON WOOD because I've had a lot more success finding people to teach, and I recognize that preaching the gospel is what I've been commanded to do. So, even though I meet people, and in person I'm rejected, if I remain faithful I'll reap the reward. I'm sure we've all doubted things of faith but I'd like to challenge us to remember the power of our God and Creator. We can't see Him but he's there. 

Love and miss you all!