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

August 22, 2016 Rain, Rain go away...

Dear Everyone,

I hope your week has been gloriously awesome!! This week had been pretty good, but the rainstorm have been brutal. And when I say rainstorms, I mean torrential downpours like almost none of you have ever seen! And I am almost always caught biking in 'em! Haha but it's ok, soggy shoes and soaked clothes never hurt no one. Well, it's official, Kentucky is getting to me. I talked to a couple on the street from Michigan and they said, "Where is your accent from? It's not Kentucky but it's somewhere southern." So apparently my drawl will kick in when I talk to people on the street now haha! We got to go to Lexington last night for a fireside (basically a testimony meeting) and Gabby was asked to share her conversion story, she did an awesome job! I'm a bawl baby on steroids to quote President Danielson :) so when she talked about the blessings she's seen in her life from joining the LDS church, I couldn't help but shed a few tears. It is so wonderful to see the gospel change people, and to see God's love and Christ's Atonement change them.

I heard a quote from a speech while we were driving to the library that stuck out to me. Mark Twain said, "The 2 most important days of your life are the day you where born, and the day you figure out why." It's pretty difficult to just stop and say, "You know, God sent me here to do..." something. I'm not sure of God's whole plan for me being here on this earth at this time, but I know nonetheless that there is a purpose. It gives me so much joy to know that Heavenly Father loves me, and each one of you, so much that He literally made a plan for us all to come back to live with Him again someday! I know that each and every one of us are "a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny." (The Family: A Proclamation to the World) This document I just quoted is so powerful ,and if you want to understand more how to be happy as a family and understand who you really are, go check it out: https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng . I have found so much comfort in being reminded- by my awesome parents, by other missionaries, and by my patriarchal blessing- that I am a son of God. That makes me feel so special, probably because I am. And all of you are too.

God Bless and have a hip-happy awesome week,

Elder Crow  

Late Happy Independence Day July 5

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, we had to stop working at 6 yesterday and right as we did it started pouring rain, no one invited us over, so we just hung out in our apartment for 3 hours. Wasn't the most fun I've had haha. But this week has been awesome! I realized early on that something was missing from our work and I came to figure out the problem was ME! Yes you are all allowed to gasp at the prospect of Elder Crow being imperfect, I myself let out a little squeal when I realized it. But that little joking prideful comment kinda ties in to my problem. I was having a bit of a rough time early last week and I couldn't figure out why. Then I came across a statement in Preach My Gospel that took me by surpise, it said, "Pride is competitive; those who are prideful seek to have more and presume they are better than other people. Pride usuallyresults in feelings of anger and hatred, and it is a great stumbling block." And that perfectly described my problem, so I quickly prayed and asked Heavenly Father for forgiveness and the rest of the week went so well! It's amazing how easy it is to change and improve and grow when we ask for the Lord's help in doing it. What a koinkie dink.

Also, I came across something that I wanted to share with y'all. In a talk titled "Winning the War against Evil", Elder James J. Hamula said, "Reserved to come forth in these last days and labor for our Father and His Son are some of the most valiant and noble of our Father's sons and daughters." So if you think you aren't special, BOOM! You just got proved wrong by a member of the First Quorum Seventy, so there! You are so special. You are so wonderful. You are one of God's most choice children that He specifically sent to the earth right now for a specific purpose in His plan. We are all fighting a battle every day to win a war that has been waged since the beginning of time, a war against evil. And at this point in time, victory means everything and the Lord's people will not lose. It its up to us to join in such a noble cause.

I am beyond grateful to be fighting on the front lines for Heavenly Father, but so are each of you! Didn't think about that before did ya? Each one of us are soldiers in the mightiest force ever created, the family of God. We stand for what it right and we stand for what is true, and we don't back down. Every day we are under constant attack from Satan and his followers, but we have the Holy Spirit of God along with our brothers and sisters to support us in this dangerous and dark world. This last week we had a zone conference in Lexington. Sister Brough got up, after the missionaries who are going home soon bore their testimonies, and said, "You know, President Brough and I have decided that we don't want to send any more missionaries home, it's too hard to watch all of you leave!" I am so grateful that I still have so long to serve, these past 10 months or so have flown by but I've still got time to "fight the good fight" and serve my Father in Heaven. And all of y'all, wherever you are, have the same responsibility.

Go shake Hell,

Elder Crow