Last Week in E-town 2/1/16

Hello everybody it seems like this last week has flown by and so much
has happened!
So as you can tell from the title of my email this is my last week
here in E-Town. I have grown to love and adore the people in this town
and most especially the amazing ward family I have here. I have been
very blessed to serve in this area and I cannot believe how much I
have grown and changed since I stepped on that plane 6 months ago. I
have a deep love and admiration for my savior Jesus Christ, he truly
is the perfect refiner. I have faced times of disappointment and
discouragement, but I have been showered with little blessings far
greater than any trial or hardship I could ever face. Through the
thick and the think He has walked with me and lifted me up in my
darkest times, just like the daughter of Jairus in Matthew 9. He will
take each of us by the hand, raise us up from whatever iniquity or
pain we may be in and makes us anew. The hand of our savior can make
us bright and clean no matter what where we may be in our lives.

To end my time in E-Town we had 2 baptisms!! Nauje and Noriean Carter
got baptized this last Thursday and they were confirmed yesterday at
church! I'll out some pictures below from the baptism. It was quite a
memorable baptism. An hour and a 1/2 before we started, the car elders
called us to tell us that the hot water in the church wasn't working
so the font was filling with ice-cold water!!! The members we eating
dinner with freaked out and took us to the church right away. They
started boiling pots of water on the stove in the church and were
dumping them into the font as fast as they could. I was kinda chilling
in the back not worrying about a thing, I was surprised how calm I
was. The bishop came and saw what we were doing, he kinda smiled and
walked to the back of the church. Then he walked to the thermostat and
said, "You're welcome buddy" and the font water was hot! Apparently we
don't have all of the keys to the church. But the baptism was still so
wonderful and I got to baptize Nauje, the first person I've ever
baptized before!!! It was such a sweet experience for us all.

My next email will be from London, KY home to 8,000 people, 30%
baptist and 40% atheist haha. I know the work will be hard, but I'm so
grateful the Lord trusts me enough to make me work to spread this
gospel. Serving my mission has been the greatest decision I have made
thus far in my life, and I love the feeling I have when I go out at 10
am to talk with people about Jesus Christ. Like it says, also in
Matthew, I have been persecuted for righteousness' sake to preach the
gospel in Kentucky. These 2 years aren't the best of my life just
because I'm serving a mission, they are the best 2 years because I am
MAKING them the best 2 years. There isn't any darkness so thick that
it can put out the light that burns within each of us, there is always
happiness to be found in our lives. If we make time for Heavenly
Father then he will make time for us, and we will recognize the tender
mercies of the Lord in our lives.

I love you all, stay strong and shake hell (Alma 48:17)
Much love,
Elder Crow

The Carter Boys and us

District Picture

Me and Sister Thomsen

Me and Brother Owen (wearing the tie I gave him)

Me and Aiden

The work is rolling forward and Ghostbusters replacement 10/1915

Who ya gonna call...THE ELDERS!!! Haha this is the vacuum, I used to
clean the font before we filled it up. So legit!!!



Wow aren't you blessed you're reading a missionary's email!,
Haha just kidding it's not that great of a read. Well, as you all have
seen from my pictures I had my first baptism on October 17th! Kristin
Thomsen has been investigating since last November and Elder Koenig
and I are the 7th set of missionaries she's met with! It was so
uplifting so see someone make such a sacred covenant with the Lord, I
can't describe how happy I felt! I wanted to jump up and down on the
rooftops and just let loose! But I didn't, because that would be
stupid and he missionary handbook says I can't be sumpid. Anyways,
I'll just share a little bit more, the other elders are waiting for me
to finish so we can play basketball (yes that Mormon stereotype
couldn't be more correct). We had a lot of less active members come to
church this week and it makes my heart leap for joy when I see someone
humbling themselves before God and showing Him that they are willing
to honor His commandments. I know that there is nothing more important
we can do on the sabbath than to make the time to attend church and
partake of the Sacrament. Jesus Christ bled in the garden of
gethsemane for each and every one of us and every time we renew that
covenant with Him, his atoning blood can wash over us and make us
clean again. I don't know why someone so perfect and wonderful would
want to suffer for a sinner like me, but I cannot praise him enough
for his sacrifice! Every day of my life is filled with the gospel and
the happiness that it brings and I wouldn't want to be doing anything
else than to share this message with everyone in E-Town. I invite all
of you to pray for and seek after the opportunities we have to uplift
our brothers and sisters and to be a light in the darkness. The Lord
can do miracles through our faith and our works, we just have to trust
Him to work through us. I love you all so much, I know that this is
the one true church upon the earth and the work will continue to roll
forward with or without us. Elder Ballard uses the comparison of the
church to "The Old ship Zion", but I would compare it to a train. This
work moves across the earth faster than we can anticipate and it will
move forward whether we choose to be a part of it or not. Make the
choice to grab hold of the gospel and get on the train!!! God bless,
go make the world a better place.

Elder Crow

The glorious life of Elder Crow 10/12/15

Hello you glorious inhabitants of the strange United States of America,

This week has been pretty awesome! I just got done with a baptism interview with President Brough for our investigator Kristin!! She wan't ready when we got to her apartment, so President took us out to Cracker Barrel and, since he was paying, I got The Cracker Barrel Country Boy Breakfast. It is gloriously dewlicious and it encompasses 3 plates full of food! I wolfed it all down before President and Elder Koenig finished their breakfast and they were staring at my 5'6 figure going "......". Haha it was so good! We went back to Kristin's apartment and President had us sit outside while he conducted the interview. She passed all the criteria and she is going to be BAPTIZED this Saturday at 10 am! We filled out her baptism record and then we left. Elder Koenig and I have been meeting with her for the whole 9 weeks I've been here in E-Town; Kristin has been through 6-7 other sets of missionaries! I have seen the gospel work through her while I've been meeting with her and I've seen the spirit bear witness to her that this is the true church of God upon the earth! I can;t wait to see her baptized and she asked me to give a talk on baptism! 

I can't remember most of the rest of this week, but I'll share my experience at the hospital this past Tuesday. Brother and Sister Crowe took us to the hospital on base so I could have my ingrown toenail taken out. I have had it for over a month, so I'm very grateful right now! The man that took care of me was super cool! He has been in medical Army stuff for about 25 years and he planted a southern baptist church here. He noticed that Elder Koenig and I were missionaries, but it didn't seem to bother him. We talked about religion on and off during my appointment, but we mostly just joked around. I think he was surprised that we, being missionaries for the church, were so "normal" and willing to just talk! He and Elder Koenig joked around about taking my toe off with an exact o knife and a hot iron...not cool. But me the special person I am, my toe started bleeding like crazy and he had to put some goop on it an cover it in gauze. 

After that incredibly graphic and disgusting story, I'll share a little more. Look for the opportunities The Lord will place before you to be a missionary. I promise you that you do not need a name tag to be a missionary, members are sometimes better missionaries than we can be out here. You have a special connection and bond with the people you know, something that the missionaries cannot match. When you open your mouth and do your very best to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ in your conversations, angels will guide your words! I testify to you, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, that your example and your words are the brightest light you can share in this sea of darkness. Like it says in Matthew 5, you can be a light to everyone you see and talk to and you can be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Do not alow yourself to think that you can't share that with someone, you can do it! If necessary, have the missionaries over for dinner and ask them to teach you how to talk about the gospel with your friends! I don't have any time left, but I love you all and hope you will do your best to shine forth among the dark.

Much love,

Elder Crow

First Baptism!! 10/19/15

This is Kristin Thomsen and some of the elders who taught her. She's
been investigating since last November and got baptized last
Saturday!!!