Hello everyone, Spring
is coming to London, KY, 19 April 2016
As far as I can tell
the "Dogwood winter" here in Kentucky is OVER! And "there never
were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began"
(Alma 26:35). Haha I am so done with cold it is officially short-sleeve shirts
for the next 6 months!! And along with 75+ degrees most every day, even some of
the rainy days, there are sooo many people to talk to! There is even going to
be something called the rosebud ride this week, it is a race for cyclists and
it's about 20-30 miles. Who thinks I should join and try to give Mormon.org
cards to the racers while we bike and see how many accidents I can cause while
softening the hearts of the children of men? Haha man warm weather just puts me
in a good mood, missionary work is so much easier when it's nice and sunny
outside! But it also counts for some extra sweaty shirts and that's a problem
when your dryer isn't working and you don't know why...
Anyways, things have
been great here in London! It isn't perfect, but there aren't too many things
in this life that are meant to be perfect. If everything was perfect, we were
given all the answers to life, we didn't have to learn or go to school or
anything like that what would be the point in us coming here? Heavenly Father
has uniquely created each of us, yet something we all have in common is that we
are sons and daughter of a loving Father in Heaven! He lets us experience pain,
suffering, sadness, and more so that we can know for ourselves that we want
happiness, peace, joy, and light in our lives. In this last general conference
(when men and women called of God speak to us) Elder Hallstrom said, "When
difficult things occur in our lives...is our first response to remember who we
are—that we are children of a loving God? Is that coupled with an absolute
trust that He allows some earthly suffering because He knows it will bless us,
like a refiner’s fire, to become like Him and to gain our eternal
inheritance?" God knows what's best, don't ever think that He doesn't.
Sometimes He loves us enough to hurt us and humble us.
Something I think
allows us to recognize God's hand in our lives and His love for each of His
children is patience. I cannot say I am the best at being patient, I am far
from it, but I now understand how to be patient and why. I would like to share
an experience I had this past week, it will give you a bit of insight to the
life of a missionary and what we face on a daily basis. It seems like we have
met just about every rude person we can find in London, one man had recently
been contacted and hated us even speaking with him, he told us to "Get the
heck (he didn't say heck) away from me and my kids!" And then started
shooing us away like stray dogs. It upset me, but I kept going with a smile on
my face. But Heavenly Father had a better lesson fro me than just masking my
anger with a smile. Just a couple days ago, we contacted this man again not
knowing it was him. When he saw us, he immediately told us to shutup and to
keep biking, I wished him a nice day and told him we were just trying to help
people and this made him yell even more. As we biked on, all I could feel was
hate and contempt for this angry little man. So, without telling my companion,
I screeched to a stop, took off my bike helmet and said a prayer for this man.
Rather than just ask for the anger to leave my heart, I prayed for him and his
family and asked that everything would go well for him. I immediately felt free
of the anger in my heart, and went on with the rest of my day. I don't think I
ever would have reacted like that before my mission, the gospel really does
change people. I don't know why we all have to go through certain things in our
lives, but I know Heavenly Father has blessings and challenges laid aside
specifically for us; to make us stronger than we ever were before. I will leave
you with one last thought. Elder Anderson said in a talk titled "Spiritual
Whirlwinds": "Challenges will come to you, but as you trust in God,
they will strengthen your faith." I know this is true. put your trust in
God and He wil lead you through the thick and think of life.
Much love from good
'ol Kentucky,
Elder Crow
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| Elder Parks to left, Elder Crow to right at Mexican restaurant |
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| Had a lesson with the Carnes kids about coming to church, Elder Parks in front, Elder Crow back right |
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