I was thrown from my bike superman style...

Hola Familia! So transfers were on Wednesday...the big one...to see who goes west and who stays...annnd as you know I am going to the new west mission! My companion is Elder Homer. He was my Zone Leader for 2 transfers when I was in Rose Park. I am a Zone Leader now too! It was super hard to be separated from the main mission. I was getting to be really good buds with Elder Rasmussen and Elder Owen too and they are both staying in the SLC mission. There were 76 missionaries that left the SLC mission to come from the new west mission and we will be getting more and more missionaries to our mission now that are actually called to the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission. I was totally fine with going to the west, I told you on Mother’s Day I was probably going -remember? haha...But it was hard to leave some of the missionaries and Prez and Sis. Winn. At transfers though I found out that Elder Shuster, Elder Morales and Elder Dreyling will be joining me in the west. Elder Shuster said once he had found out that he was going to be staying in the west mission he began praying that I would be moved out to the west with him which was kind of cool to hear. Right now we have 3 zones, so I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be one of the 6 leaders in the mission. It is going to be kind of stressful and hard I assume because we have to create a whole new mission and as leadership that is mostly going to fall on us. I think that it is going to be a great blessing to be able to be a part of this, not many people can say that they were able to start a whole new mission. I know I have a lot to learn and work on to help the mission be successful, especially as a young Zone Leader. I will have to learn as much as I can from my companion who has been a Zone Leader for awhile and also from President and Sister Swain! I am excited and ready to learn and start this adventure! For the third straight time I was just put in an area that hasn't had much success for a long time. I am kind of like “please give an area with people already on date to be baptized!” Still hasn't happened yet but I am hoping for it someday haha. But I actually kind of like the challenge as you would probably guess. The crazy thing is that this mission will have NO cars! So we are covering our zone on bikes! haha And the zones are pretty big. This past Thursday we had to go around to all of the district meetings in the whole zone, on bikes. It took foooooorever haha. I think I am going to lose some weight with this for the next year too :). So I have to tell you about my bike. My companion didn't have a bike last transfer because he was in a car too but he took one of the Sister’s bikes because it was a Trek road bike and she was going to the other mission where there are cars. So he is riding a women’s Trek bike haha. So we had to go to the office and see if there was an extra bike there that I could use. We found one. There was only one. Annnnd it wasn't even a women’s bike! It was a little girl bike haha like teenager size. It is purple. Brakes are terrible haha. The seat is like a metal rod. It is great. So let me tell you about my bike adventures. Two days ago we were riding down a big hill, since we are on bikes now I am going to enjoy it...so I was pedaling as fast as I could down the hill and then my right pedal fell off, haha. So I had to stop which took forever and we tried to fix my bike but it seemed unfix-able; luckily there was this member that saw us and he fixed it for us later that night. But for the meanwhile I was pedaling with only one pedal because we had lessons we had to get to, haha. Then yesterday I almost died! Well not really but in my crazy exaggerated imagination it seemed like it. The first time was when we were riding on the side walk and then this motorcycle drove by and he honked and pointed real cool with one finger right at us so then I decided to return the favor and I pointed back at him (in the same cool way he did to me of course) and I lost control of my bike and I got both hands on the handle bars and swerved into the grass and hit a big pothole and flew off my bike and I landed on a small store's sign and broke it and my bike went flying and the chain broke hahaha. So I had to fix the sign and then my bike. My comp said it looked hilarious. So then later that night we were on our way to our apartments and I was racing my companion...remember he has a road bike and I have the equivalent of a turtle with wheels haha. So we were racing and we were neck and neck and I decided to take a short cut so I could beat him and I went through the grass and was heading for the road again and there was a big curb. But this curb was angled up instead of a drop off...and remember my brakes are bad so I had one choice if I wanted to beat my comp in the race and that was to jump the curb. But my bike weighs as much as I do and so I lifted with all my might, still going full speed and the front wheel cleared the curb and the back wheel didn't quite make it and I am not too sure what happened but I was thrown from my bike superman style and barrel rolled in the air and had a graceful landing and the front of my white shirt was completely black because of the asphalt but luckily somehow my tie was not harmed. Just my shirt, haha. My chain broke off again during this crash too haha. So now all is well. Well that is all I have to share from the west adventures for now. I don't know anyone in my zone except for my companion but I am sure it will be a great experience so I will keep you posted on what is happening Love ya! Siempre Crean, Elder Creer

I am going to be in the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission

Hey! I am going to be in the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission so all the mail will be sent to our apartments. I will tell you more later, but don't send anything else to the old mission address. And tell everyone else too please. My address is: Elder Brennen James Creer 3693 South 4800 West West Valley City, Utah 84120 Love Ya! Siempre Crean, Elder Creer

Growling at me like a small lion...

Hola Familia! This week was like Man vs. Wild! So many different things tried to eat us alive this week! So to start things off, another snake tried to bite me this week. It was right in front of our investigator's house and she hates snakes! She told us to kill it but was like screaming and freaking out and it was super funny. So I decided to man up and take care of business haha. It tried to bite me and I punched it in the face and made it a little dizzy so I could give him the round house kick to the face to finish him off. I will attach a pic to show you my second victory in the last two weeks with the snake gang. Then a spider tried to attack me while I was driving... I HATE SPIDERS! So I pulled over the car and we bailed out of Elder Vital’s passenger door (because the spider was on my window) and I ran around the car and flipped off my shoe and then smashed the spider right on the car with my shoe right in the middle of the road..I am sure there were a million people watching wondering what was going on haha but once again...victory! Then yesterday we were driving and we parked the car and there was another fight...6 raccoons!! So I was feeling a little confident after my latest victories and maybe a little too cocky haha. So anyway one raccoon tried to get me and was growling at me like a small lion and I threw a cherry at it and it got scared and ran up a tree haha I will call that a victory haha. Yeah it was a pretty crazy week! Thanks for all the brownies. I took them to leadership meeting and then district meeting the next day and everyone loved them. I made a lot of money too, I was charging like a buck a piece...it was great haha. Thanks for all the b-day stuff it was great! Love you all, and mom I was just kidding about selling your treats lol :) Siempre Crean, eLdEr CrEeR

Half baked cookie with ice cream on top...

Hola Familia! For my birthday I made my own cake...lol...but then the other companionship that lives with us...Elder Mochegemba and Elder Colton made some kind of dessert for me..It was like half baked cookie with ice cream on top..It was pretty good and we had Mexican mango soda. So our baptism that we were supposed to have on my birthday got moved to June 17 and the one that we had for next weekend got moved to July 17. The rest of the week nothing really special happened. It was kind of a slow week. We are working hard and talking to everyone. That is how we have been finding most of the people that we have been teaching lately. Earlier when I was in this area we thoroughly reviewed the area book and we were finding baptisms left and right but now I am trying my best to talk to every person on the street and share a small part of the gospel with them. We have met two great families that way and it has been really promising. We just have to continue to work harder and pray for the miracles. Well hope all is well. StAy SwEeT Siempre Crean, Elder Creer

They had a one legged hamster that we played with...

Hola Familia! On Saturday I was doing exchanges with Elder Rasmussen. We worked hard all day long, like seriously all day long! We had very little success. All day--hard work, little success--Something that would probably decrease faith right? But we said a prayer and asked God to give us a miracle because we had done everything possible. D&C 82:10.. So at 8:30 we got a miracle. We met this family of 5 and they let us right in the door. Then they all sat together willing to have us. So we thought that they were golden and prepared because that doesn't happen very often. So we started getting to know them and they had a one legged hamster that we played with, it bit Elder Rasmussen hahaha...and then the mom was making some kind of craft on the floor that looked like angels so we asked her what she was making and she told us that she was making the decorations for her kids confirmation in the catholic church. They explained to us how they were really involved in the Catholic Church and they loved it, basically. Once again something that would probably decrease faith right? We decided to have a lesson anyways, after silently praying we taught the Doctrine of Baptism and the Restoration. At one point of the lesson I saw the mother's eyes. You could see the peace in her eyes and at the same time we were feeling the Holy Ghost so we helped her recognize it and the rest of the family too. When we told them "what you are feeling right now is the Holy Ghost"..The mom just shook her head up and down kinda fast and the dad was just saying "si, si si si"..and the kids agreed too. So then we invited them to be baptized and they all agreed and the dad said again, "si si si si"...so they will be getting baptized in July! We asked the teenage daughter what she felt like she learned or what she felt during the lesson. She told us that she felt like she could trust in God now and that He loved her...we left the lesson with the Spirit and it was perfect! Then we went to our next appointment and the lady just looked at us and said that the previous night she realized she was living in sin because she wasn't married, so she asked when she could get married so she could be doing what God wants..She is getting married this week and she will be getting baptized later as well. So we had these 2 miracles back to back and our Faith was higher than the mountains! I gave a talk on Sunday and told both of these stories. My talk was about faith. I first talked about the Book of Mormon story of Nephi when he had to build the ship. I made 3 points. First he believed, then he acted (praying for guidance) and third he had adversity from Satan. I talked about how after he got through the first three steps he was rewarded and he got to the promised land on his completed ship and overall his faith was strengthened. So then I told the stories I just told you of Saturday about how I saw the same three things and saw the end result also. I then invited everyone in the congregation to ponder about what their "ship" is that they need to build to increase their faith. So you can do the same if you want' think of your "ship" you need to build and then rely on God to build it and your faith will be strengthened!! I didn't write one word of notes and gave the whole thing in Spanish for 15 minutes. Everyone said my Spanish was super good compared to when I got here. We also had a baptism for the grandma with J's this week. It was cool to baptize an 80 year old! She said she had been going to church for 20 years but never wanted to get baptized until now! Well I gotta go, Go Build your Ship! Siempre Cree, Elder Creer