November 21, 2016

Dear everyone,
I hate the cold haha I know the missionaries reading this who are in
actually cold places are laughing, but the humidity adds in a factor
that cuts through any human-created fabric. Let me describe the
bipolar weather attitude of Kentucky: on Friday it was 76 degrees
🙌🏻, on Saturday it was 45 degrees 😅, then yesterday it was 31
degrees 😱! The city of Lexington is DEAD when it gets cold, so
talking to people is a bit harder, but we did meet some really cool
people on Thursday! We kept talking to these groups of people with
blue name badges and we were really confused because we didn't know
why there were so many of them and why they were so nice to us! Then
one of them told us they were ALL from the Idaho bible college and we
were like "WOAH that's why they're all so nice: they're from the west
and they know we're the Mormons!!!" So that was pretty cool, I haven't
talked to almost anyone from the west while I've been on my mission!
But it's ok, I stopped telling people I'm from Washington when I hit
like 6 months haha you would be so surprised how nice people are to me
when I say Alabama instead! Us southern folk stick togetha!

I read something really awesome from the teachings of one of the
prophets of the church, Spencer W. Kimball, he said "No matter how
much we say of him, it is still too little." "Him" being Jesus Christ
of course. We cannot ever say enough about our Savior! We cannot
testify of His Atonement enough, we cannot live enough like He lived,
we cannot love enough like He loved, we can always do more for our
Redeemer because He did so much for us! I challenge all of you to look
for more opportunities to share your testimony of Christ, whether in
word or in your actions. It is much harder to say "I hate" if we are
too busy finding things that make us say "I love"!

Have an awesome week and Happy Thanksgiving,
Elder Crow

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