September 5, 2016 🇬🇧Last Week in London🇬🇧

Good afternoon everyone,
Sorry for the late group email, but for the past couple hours I've been packing...packing is so tedious. I'm packing my bags because today is my last day in London! Tomorrow I will heading up and hour and a half to North Lexington, in the Beaumont (sounds like Bo-Mont) area! I'm excited for a new area and new experiences, I will be in the GKLM's biggest bike area so I'm sure I'll have plenty of them! But I'm gonna miss London and Corbin a ton, these last 7 and a half months have been so awesome, but the Lord needs me elsewhere so I'm gonna follow!

This week I was directed to an awesome talk called "Slow to Anger" by President Gordon B. Hinckley, the last prophet of the LDS church. It sounds like President Hinckley was speaking directly to me, my short temper has always been a challenge I've been fighting. He says something that summed up my childhood and most of my years on this earth, "It is when we become angry that we get into trouble." Why is it that anger leads us to do such awful, unkind things? It is because when we let contention take over, we have chased away the Holy Ghost (3 Nephi 11:29). It is because we have replaced the pure love of Christ with the foul hatred of Satan. When we are angry, we throw away any morals, standards, or habits we have previously lived by that helped us have a happy lifestyle.

I like the other option that President Hinckley poses, "I plead with you to control your tempers, to put a smile upon your faces, which will erase anger; speak out with words of love and peace, appreciation, and respect. If you will do this, your lives will be without regret. Your marriages and family relationships will be preserved. You will be much happier. You will do greater good. You will feel a sense of peace that will be wonderful." It is so much better and pleasing to be happy and kind compared to when we are bitter and hateful. After I read this talk, I was reminded of an old primary hymn my mother would often sing, " Let us off speak kind words to each other; Kind words are sweet tones of the heart." Get out there and be happy this week, happy people are awesome and stick out to others!

Much love,

Elder Crow

Changes in London June 13

Hello Everyone,
So this was the last week of this transfer (6 week time period) and on Saturday we found out what would be happening to Elder Parks and I. It looks like Elder Parks will be heading to Madison, IN and I will be staying in London training a brand new missionary!! I think the world is getting a bit scarier if they are letting me train a new missionary and see what kind of monster I can create haha! So all of you currently serving or returned missionaries eading this email, GIVE ME SON ADVICE haha!!! But I'm pretty excited, I'll end up staying in London for about 3 more months, but I know Heavenly Father is needing me here for some reason! This past week was awesome with Elder Parks! He wanted to leave London with a BANG so we set a goal to talk to 160 people this week and we exceeded it! Now I'm not saying those contacts went very well but hey, they happened! We had a lesson with Gabby yesterday with some awesome members, the Harms. We watched a video about the restoration of Christ's church, it's called Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration ( watch it here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-03-01-joseph-smith-the-prophet-of-the-restoration?category=feature-films&lang=eng . Every time I have asked to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, I have been told time and time again that he is! Gabby told us that she believes he restored the church of Jesus Christ and she believe the Book of Mormon is true!! I showed her a picture of the Birmingham Alabama temple and her face lit up; she's going to Alabama for a couple weeks in July and she said she's going to visit the temple as soon as she can! It is so amazing to watch the gospel change someone's life to something so beautiful and joyful, I have had many opportunities to see that on my mission. This past week I had lots of time to think about the blessings the gospel brings to families, mine in particular. In church and at a missionary zone meeting this week I was reminded how blessed my family is to have been raised and reared in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I particularly thought of the blessing it is to serve a mission and do for other families what has been done for mine. I thank my Heavenly Father that so many ages ago he sent 2 missionaries knocking on the door of my mother's family's home, and that there was a man strongly-willed and determined to help my dad get back in church/ The blessings that have come from their decision to live the gospel and become members of this church are immeasurable!

I gave thought to this awesome Father's Day (God Bless It!!!) when we have the opportunity to give our dad's just a little thanks and praise for all that they do. It makes so much sense to me why we are put into families with a mother and a father. We all came from one huge Heavenly family, so when Heavenly Father decided to send us here to earth he organized us into families. God is a God of order and love, he wants us to have the opportunity to be reared in a loving home, to learn about and follow Jesus Christ, and to learn how to love EVERYONE!! I am grateful for my mom and dad, who took so much time (and the patience) to raise my troubled self. Dad especially, he has no masculine support or presence in his house right now besides the Holy Ghost. Keep trucking dad, keep trucking. Haha but in all seriousness, I have the best dad on the earth. Don't care what anyone else says, mine wins. My dad has supported me through thick and thin, he has shaped my life and my personality through the skills and abilities he has engrained in my soul. I saw a quote this week on another church's billboard and I wish I would've taken a picture. It said, "God gave me the greatest gift ever and I call him dad!" My family really is my greatest earthly blessing, or at least very close to it.

What kind of men should we be? We learn in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 27:27 as Jesus speaks to his disciples: "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." I am grateful for a father here on earth who emulates the ability to love as Christ loved and serve as Christ served, I consider myself beyond blessed to have a man to look to here on earth whom I can learn from and follow as I seek to learn from and follow the Savior. I know that God's love for us is so great that He sent His beloved Son to live a perfect life then to give it up so that we could become clean and live with him again someday. I know that while we are here He has placed us in families so that we may be happier than ever. God the Father lives with His son Jesus Christ standing on His right hand. I an eternally grateful for everything I have to thank Him for and the blessings He continues to give me.

God Bless and Happy Father's Day,
Elder Crow

P.s. July 4th is a work day for me so I won't email until the Tuesday following the 4th

2016 May 9 Warming up and Raining

Heller youfers,

I hope everyone is having an amazing week and if not I pray it will
start getting better! This week has been nuts! Most days it has been
up in the 70s and it has been really sunny and pretty, Kentucky is so
green I love it! We just got done doing a ton of geocaching with
Brother Harms. He is a ton of fun to be with, and geocaching makes my
head hurt its almost like trying to understand Isaiah. But we had a
ton of fun (and we hopefully don't have any more poison ivy than we
already do). The rest of the week has been really stormy though. We
had to come in early because we severe storm warnings coming in and I
have never been so soaked in my lifetime! For car missionaries we use
our bikes a lot and there are a lot of positives and negatives to
that! We get to talk to a ton of people but we are subject to whatever
Mother Nature has to throw at us. Maybe Heavenly Father is subtly
hinting that I need to bathe more...

Haha this week has definitely been pretty tough, we are finding a lot
of people who believe in fire and brimstone and believe we belong
there! It has been very trying for me this week to remain patient and
to find an ounce of love for these people. But if Jesus can do it, I
should be trying! I read a talk this week that said, "When...trials
are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the
Lord feels you are prepared to grow more." Heavenly Father's purpose
for us being on this earth is for us to learn and grow! How can we
learn if we do not make mistakes, how can we grown unless we fail a
time or two? How can I become more patient and loving unless I meet
people who are neither patient or loving? How can one learn to samba
unless they practice and have awesome teachers (that's you Jill and
Joe)? How can one do anything unless they try it out and put a little
faith to test?

We are not meant to struggle and fight tooth and nail for happiness,
it is the essence of God's plan for us to be happy and to STAY happy.
But He does not force us to be happy, He has given us the gift to
choose. Every choice we make can be boiled down to 2 choices, good or
bad; light or dark; happy or sad. We have placed before us every day
the CHOICE to be happy. So why not choose it? Who in their right mind
wants to be flipping discouraged and sad the whole day? Everyone wants
to be happy. It is so simple, live the gospel! Read the scriptures, go
to church,may your prayers, serve others, do whatever you think Jesus
would do! I promise that if we are trying to be happy and trying to do
good that Heavenly Father will help us to Choose The Right! God bless
you all, I love all y'all so much.

Much love,
Elder Crow

2016 May 9 Elder Parks, Crow geocaching

2016 May 9 at the end of my Mother's Day skype call

2016 May 9 Elder Crow in front Elder Parks behind, geocaching

2016 May 9 Elder Crow in front of Elder James went on splits so they took a selfie

2016 May 9 Elder Crow stole Brother Harms' phone

2016 May 9 Elder Parks feeds off danger, they call him Endangered parks

2016 May 9 Elder parks found a possum

2016 May 9 Elder Parks, Crow, Sisters Achee, Thomas

2016 May 9 LtoR Elder Champ, Elder Parks, Elder James, Elder Crow

2016 May 9 on the way home, Elder Crow in front with Elder Park and Sisters Achee and Thomas

2016 May 9 Sisters Achee, Thomas Elder Crow photobombing

 May 9 Sisters Achee, Thomas Elders Parks, Crow geocaching 

2016 May 9 This is my great friend Elder Champ from Enumclaw, Washington who went home last Wednesday.  We got to have a sleepover so he could get to Louisville on time.  Love Ya Elder Champ

2016 May 9 This sign is supposed to say Cheap yard sale this is how hillbilly the people are here