BUGS and SUNSHINE

Hello everyone, BUGS and SUNSHINE
I hope and pray that all of you are doing great and that you are getting the same sunshine we are down her in the good 'ol Appalachian foothills! It is absolutely gorgeous, especially down at the hike we were on! There were birds singing, sunshine poking through the trees, there was no one but us at the waterfall, we had a ton of fund hiking around, all around just a good day! This week could've been better but how can I complain, I get to represent Jesus Christ 24/7 and everyone knows it! Definitely got the best job in the whole world!

We have been talking with a TON of people this week and as a missionary I want every person we talk to to be super nice and willing to listen to us but it's almost never that way haha. Especially this week we've just been finding a bunch of mean nasty hillbillies who think they know way more about Jesus than we do and they just tell us to get lost. It is definitely trying as a missionary to keep your cool and just smile at these people rather than just rip 'em to shreds and get angry. Every situation we seem to face, I would've reacted so differently at home; but out here, it's not that I HAVE to be nice to everyone, I could be a complete jerk. But it's the fact that I choose to be nice, I choose to keep a smile on and tell everyone "God bless ya, hope you have a great day!" Everyday we have choices placed before us, sometimes it's just left or right.

But sometimes it's left, right, upside down, walking handstand backwards, the choices seem to never end. But we need never be afraid of which choice is the right choice, it may at times seem like there is no right choice, but the path we should follow should always invite us to do more, to be more. To be more loving, more patient, more humble, really the path we should take should invite us to be more like Christ. I've found so much joy in not only my own growth and changing, but in helping others to change and be more like Jesus Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that we will find a brighter light of joy and happiness in our lives as we choose to follow the Savior and in doing so, helping others to come closer to Christ. Oh how much better the world would be if the Savior was the focus of every family and individual! He is our exemplar, our teacher, our Redeemer, He is the hope we have for more joy in this life. Look for a way this week to bring yourself and others closer to the Savior of the world, it isn't hard unless you make it hard.

Much love,
Elder Crow

Elder Parks and Elder Crow at Dogslaughter falls, pondering the words of Christ

Elder Crow at Dogslaughter falls with a craze face

Elder Crow at Dogslaughter falls,  Right before the hike, my shirt says I'm just here for the bacon. And I am rocking the socks the Lougee family gave me

Elder Crow at Dogslaughter falls

2016 April 25 Elder Crow on bike contraption with Honda motor in it, London, KY

2016 April 25 Elder Crow went to Liberty, Kentucky with another missionary and we pulled into this driveway and found a huge pile of flattened cans

2016 April 25 Louisville Kentucky LDS temple

2016 April 25 This is Joseph, he came hiking with us and he has just started coming back to church, Elder Crow in the red shirt

2016, April 18 Spring is coming to London

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

Elder Parks to left, Elder Crow to right at Mexican restaurant

Had a lesson with the Carnes kids about coming to church, Elder Parks in front, Elder Crow back right

2016 April 11,

12 April 2016 The 2^nd week of the 4^th months known as April in the year 2016

Heller to all y'all Yankees, Southern Brothers, and foreigners alike
(aka Canadians),
Sorry I'm getting this out so late but we are just coming home from a
hike with our ward mission leader and the sister missionaries in our
congregation (yes we got approval). So I am typing this up on the
drive home. This week has been awesome! We really dedicated ourselves
to reaching our goals this week and it has really paid off! We talked
to so many people, and for some reason we found a lot of the sour
pickles in the jar, but it doesn't matter it's part of the calling! I
know that what I'm sharing with them is something that can bless them
and their families, but it's up to them to accept it or not.

This week was a bit tough to start out. We had a baptism all lined up
for one of our investigators, but her dad wouldn't let us come over to
get her ready for her baptism! It is very easy to get aggravated and
upset as a missionary, but if you let Jesus Christ and the gospel
become a part of you then nothing gets to you. Everything you do is
filled with a love for someone else, every part of missionary work
makes you forget about yourself and think about someone else, I love
it! If I were trying to share the gospel and be a missionary for
myself or for Worley glory, then I would literally be wasting God's
time. Love is key.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to change. Because we cannot
become more like the Savior unless we change. But change is not
possible unless we live the gospel of Jesus Christ. That means having
and SHOWING our faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of our sins (the cap
that unlocks the bleach to wash our bloody garments (aka the
Atonement)), being baptized to wash the spiritual muck off of us,
receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost to help us make choices to follow
Jesus Christ, and never ever getting off the path of discipleship. The
gospel is void if we don't live it, if we don't endure well to the
end. It's like unlocking a door then braking off the handle. We may
make mistakes, but Christ is willing to forgive. Sometimes it amazes
me to think that He is so willing to forget my mistakes, sometimes I
think they sent the mission call to the wrong Zach Crow! But I know He
loves me, and I love Him enough to love my brothers and sisters in
sharing the restored gospel with them.

God loves you even if no one else does,
Much love,
Elder Crow

 

We went over to Berea, KY today and it was awesome! Really windy and a
bit cloudy but it was super fun!

Elder Parks found a snake at Berea

geocaching at Berea

Elder Parks in the tree, Berea, KY hike

Kentucky is getting green, Berea, KY hike

2016 April 4 Bunnies and General Conference

Good afternoon from the foothill of the Appalachians,

I pray that you each had an amazing week and a chance to improve; if neither of these things happened for you, make 'em happen!! Each week in the life of a missionary is successful or not, joyful or not, and worthwhile or not. Each one of these circumstances is ultimately affected by one person: me. There were some hard times this week but there is nothing that a smile, a prayer, and some biking can't fix! Now you don't need to get on a bike necessarily to be happy (although it wouldn't hurt) but it's worth any effort to be happy. Something that was pretty awesome was doing a few hours of service for an older sister in our congregation, saving some baby bunnies from her sneaky little dog, and naming them Steven and Earl...but that has NOTHING to do with missionary work haha it just made my day (don't judge sometimes the only thing left to comfort me is a baby bunny).

Well this week has taught me soooo many things. First is that the Lord really does work according to the faith of his children (Moroni 10:7); that is to say, I can't pray in the morning to talk with 25 people that day and teach 1 person about the gospel then go sit on the couch! The Lord blesses us with what we faithfully ask for when we faithfully work for it. We stopped to talk to a woman going into her home and asked if we could come by and share a message with her and she said we could. When we went back, her husband and her uncle were there too! We taught them about how Jesus Christ restored His original church to the earth and has called prophets again to the earth out of love for us (after all everything He does is for us) and they enjoyed the lesson. They all 3 agreed to work towards being baptized on May 22, not because of anything I did but because of the good Lord above.

Then we got to watch General Conference this weekend! For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a broadcast of God's modern-day Prophets and apostles and inspired leaders speaking to us to let us know what Heavenly Father wants us to be doing. It is amazing, if you'd like to check it out, go to lds.org ! It never ceases to amaze me how much our Father in Heaven loves us. He loves us SO much! There is nothing He doesn't want to help us a with, a prayer He doesn't want to answer, a trial He doesn't want to walk with us, He just loves us! I have no idea why He cares so much for someone like me, but I know He does! I know there are many of His children who feel so alone, so unloved, so unwanted. That's why I'm here. If I can do nothing else in this life I want to heal every broken heart and shattered soul I meet. If you ever have felt, or now feel like, you are meant to be eternally hated and alone, let me say this. You're wrong. it's that simple. YOU. ARE. WRONG. There are 2 people up above who smile down upon you every day and one of them gave His own life and split His blood so that you could someday know for the rest of you life that YOU ARE LOVED! I know that is true. If I were to die right now there are 2 things I would take with me: A smile and my faith. There is nothing that can take those 2 things away from you except for yourself.

To end, I stand with Mervyn B. Arnold when he said, "I know He lives! I know it!", God bless,

Elder Crow

We found a couple of bunnies, we took some pictures before letting them go.  This one is Steven, he is cool. We found them while we were doing some service and the member’s dog tried to eat them

saving bunnies