🎉🎉Happy New Year everyone🎉🎉 wow I hope you had an awesome New
Years Eve and enjoyed some time with friends and family!! We were
gonna play basketball for most of the night, but we come to the church
and what do we see? A New Years Eve balloon releaser thingy that was
no taller than 5' 6 me!! So we couldn't shoot the ball without getting
it stuck, so yeah that didn't happen. We just watched LDS videos for 2
1/2 hours...kinda different from the huge New Year's Eve dance I'm
used to. But it's always nice to be around other missionaries and to
get to know each other a little bit more. This week has included a lot
of learning on my part. I think it's practically impossible not to
grow and become more like Jesus Christ when you are truly devoting all
of your time and effort to helping people learn more about Him! I'm
very thankful that I've grown out of the old me and felt my faith
growing. Heavenly Father always wants us to become more like Him, and
that means we will have to do everything we can 24/7 to strengthen our
foundation in Christ(Philippians 4:13). The Lord always prepares a way
for us to accomplish those things He asks us to do, why wouldn't God
want us to do His will and His work? Like it says in 1 Corinthians
10:13 "but God...will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are
able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it." I testify that this scripture rings true even
hundreds and hundreds of years have passed since its writing. Heavenly
Father doesn't ask or command us to do anything that He will not help
us accomplish, whatever the task may be God will provide. I was
recently reading through my mission call (the paper that tells me
where I will serve my mission) and I realized how important this
calling is. I don't have it with me so I couldn't quote it, but it
talks about how each missionary has been found worthy and able to
serve the Lord and IF they rely on Him He will strengthen them while
they go about doing this great work. Now, no where did I ever read
that this would be easy, that I am entitled to baptize hundreds of
people, or that every moment of my mission would be picture-perfect. I
didn't believe any of that before, but it hit me so hard that
missionary work is a blessing when I see it as a blessing. I don't
think it's much different from anything else in life. We can choose if
something will be a blessing in our lives, or we can make it
miserable. We may not control everything but we can control our
attitude. I thought of a story when I said that's:
There once were 2 buckets sitting on the edge of a well,
One bucket looked at the other with a frown and said," All I do every day
Is go down and come up and go down and come up, but no matter how many
times I come up full I always go down empty!" The other bucket looked
at him with a smile and said," Huh, that's funny. All I do every day
is go down and come up and go down and come up, but no matter how many
times I go down empty I always come up full!"
(Thank you Danielsons for the story book I LOVE it) Our perspective
changes everything, so why make life cloudy and gloomy when we could
make it sunny and happy? That's my invitation to you, focus on the
good in life, light up the sky with your sunny smile, and count your
blessings; we always have blessing sin our lives we never even think
about! Heavenly Father blesses us with so much every day, take some
time to think about what he's done for you and your family!
I love you all soooo much,
Turn your storms into sunshine,
Much love,
Elder Crow
Years Eve and enjoyed some time with friends and family!! We were
gonna play basketball for most of the night, but we come to the church
and what do we see? A New Years Eve balloon releaser thingy that was
no taller than 5' 6 me!! So we couldn't shoot the ball without getting
it stuck, so yeah that didn't happen. We just watched LDS videos for 2
1/2 hours...kinda different from the huge New Year's Eve dance I'm
used to. But it's always nice to be around other missionaries and to
get to know each other a little bit more. This week has included a lot
of learning on my part. I think it's practically impossible not to
grow and become more like Jesus Christ when you are truly devoting all
of your time and effort to helping people learn more about Him! I'm
very thankful that I've grown out of the old me and felt my faith
growing. Heavenly Father always wants us to become more like Him, and
that means we will have to do everything we can 24/7 to strengthen our
foundation in Christ(Philippians 4:13). The Lord always prepares a way
for us to accomplish those things He asks us to do, why wouldn't God
want us to do His will and His work? Like it says in 1 Corinthians
10:13 "but God...will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are
able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it." I testify that this scripture rings true even
hundreds and hundreds of years have passed since its writing. Heavenly
Father doesn't ask or command us to do anything that He will not help
us accomplish, whatever the task may be God will provide. I was
recently reading through my mission call (the paper that tells me
where I will serve my mission) and I realized how important this
calling is. I don't have it with me so I couldn't quote it, but it
talks about how each missionary has been found worthy and able to
serve the Lord and IF they rely on Him He will strengthen them while
they go about doing this great work. Now, no where did I ever read
that this would be easy, that I am entitled to baptize hundreds of
people, or that every moment of my mission would be picture-perfect. I
didn't believe any of that before, but it hit me so hard that
missionary work is a blessing when I see it as a blessing. I don't
think it's much different from anything else in life. We can choose if
something will be a blessing in our lives, or we can make it
miserable. We may not control everything but we can control our
attitude. I thought of a story when I said that's:
There once were 2 buckets sitting on the edge of a well,
One bucket looked at the other with a frown and said," All I do every day
Is go down and come up and go down and come up, but no matter how many
times I come up full I always go down empty!" The other bucket looked
at him with a smile and said," Huh, that's funny. All I do every day
is go down and come up and go down and come up, but no matter how many
times I go down empty I always come up full!"
(Thank you Danielsons for the story book I LOVE it) Our perspective
changes everything, so why make life cloudy and gloomy when we could
make it sunny and happy? That's my invitation to you, focus on the
good in life, light up the sky with your sunny smile, and count your
blessings; we always have blessing sin our lives we never even think
about! Heavenly Father blesses us with so much every day, take some
time to think about what he's done for you and your family!
I love you all soooo much,
Turn your storms into sunshine,
Much love,
Elder Crow
Dear Mom,
You did win the snow run, or race or whatever. Haha I read your email last night and while we were doing studies our ward mission leader texted "Dress warm and be safe...it's snowing". Looked outside and their were some pretty hard flurries coming down and I was like "Heck yeah we got some snow!!!" But the flurries ended after an hour and now it is sunny and probably in the 40s...Kentucky. I'm thinking about sending Elder Gehring a video asking why Russia stole all the snow (in a Russian accent of course) haha. It warmed my heart to see the little ones out in the now making the usual teeny snowman, their smiles melt my heart! Tell them I love them and I look at their pictures on my wall every day. Also I need Aunt Louise's address so I can send her a thank you letter, threw away the box already whoops! This fast Sunday held a lot of comfort and guidance for me. I was beating myself up again and the work was really hard this week, we are struggling to find people to teach and I always think it's because there is something I am not using in my missionary work. So for the past 2 days I have been doing my personal studies on faith and humility. I realized that, yes, I probably could do a better job relying on the Lord and trusting in Him. But, I learned something from God, and your email helped a bit. I read your comment "your children are making a difference" and I read your words about how whether or not I know it I am doing what I can. That put a big grin on my face and tears in my eyes, you always know exactly what to say and when to say it. I guess it's just your motherly intuition haha. This fast Sunday put even more truth and power behind your kind words. Fasting thins the veil to a point when Heavenly Father could answer the most simple and sincere prayer, if it is in accordance with His will and will help us through whatever we stand in need of. Something I read during my studies on faith came into affect during fast&testimony meeting. Although it may be 9 am, one of the greatest ways to have an increase in our faith is to hear another bear their witness of our Savior and their knowledge of this gospel, but something I forgot is that we can have our own faith built upon when we strive to build up others! In other words: BEAR YOUR TESTIMONY!!! I smiled as this thought came to my mind during sacrament meeting, and I did get up on the stand and bear my humble witness of Jesus Christ, His restored gospel upon the earth, and everything that has brought me to a greater knowledge of my Heavenly Father and His plan for me. I know He loves me. I know He has a divine purpose for me and every person on the earth. Even to those who feel they are not loved or cared for there is always someone we can rely on and that is the grace and mercy of Christ the Lord. Even to those who do not believe in Him, God still loves each one of us. That truth will never cease to be true, not now not ever. God bless you mom, for loving me enough to build me up and prepare me for what I'm doing right now. You are continuing to lift and support your sisters and I know they recognize he shining daughter of God you are, you are a beacon to all who see you.
Much love,
Happy New Year,
Elder Crow
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