Do your best and let what happens happen...

Hola Familia! So we had interviews with President Swain this week. He is legit. He is a humble spirit giant! So in the interviews he told me that he forwarded the email I sent to him last week to a General Authority and they talked about it and liked it. It was about my thoughts about how the mission is going to move forward and some ideas that I thought would help us be successful. Apparently they (the ideas) came from the Spirit because they loved it haha. It is kind of weird having them looking at my numbers though, I try not to think about it and just do my best. Kind of like you can't worry about everyone in the crowd during a basketball game, you just gotta play and do your best and let what happens happen. So that is my plan for now. Soo....superman returns...lol...Idk what the heck is the deal but I wrecked again...we were just coming down a small hill. It wasn't even that big at all but when I was turning my tire slid on the road got caught on a crack in the road and I went flying off my bike and landed in a push up position somehow haha. So I just did the pushup and stood up. My companion was just shaking his head haha. I don’t know why I keep crashing but I am trying not to and it shouldn't be a problem this week because both of our bikes our broken so we are walking haha. So we have a family of 4 that is going to get baptized next Saturday. They are super solid. They are the ones that we took to Temple Square and had the crazy spiritual experience after the family videos. The mom is super funny and doesn't speak much English but always copies what her kids say and she has a super strong accent so it is super funny haha. The kids are pretty shy but they are starting to be a little more outgoing and laugh a little more. The dad is super quiet and we are still trying to break his shell haha. They are a great family and super prepared to receive the gospel so it has been a great blessing to be a part of their conversion. I will let ya know how their baptism goes next week. Well I hope all is going well and that your trip to Utah was fun! Jessie make sure you keep practicing! Love ya! Siempre Crean, Elder Creer

To help me see people as God sees them...

Hola Familia! So this was another tough week. I have been thinking a lot about us as members of the church and how we have responsibilities to really follow Jesus Christ. Do what He would do if He were here. I was studying charity this week to help me see people as God sees them. We were at zone conference and President Swain told us to think of a question that we had at this time. So I invite you to do that right now too. My question was, "How can I have more charity for people?" so then President Swain told us to flip open the Book of Mormon to a chapter and read it and we would find our answer to our questions. So I flipped it open to 2 Nephi 9 and read verse 39 and it says "to be spiritually minded is life eternal" This was my answer. To really be spiritually minded to see people for their positive qualities because that is how God would view them. And...if we smile more we will have more charity! S - spiritually M - minded I - is L - life E - eternal So I want to invite you to do the same thing right now. Think of a question that you have right now and then flip open the Book of Mormon and as you read the chapter with whatever question you have in your mind I promise that you will get your answer! God loves us and he wants to help us. As we pray and study the scriptures he can answer our prayers. "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." So that is the attitude that I am going to have moving forward because I know it is the only way that I can learn what I need to learn from these experiences! We had a crazy miracle last night at Temple Square. So last week we had put a mother and daughter on date (for baptism). The dad was still Catholic and the son didn't want to upset the dad. So the dad and the son actually didn't come to church yesterday but we took the whole family to Temple Square last night. We talked about the priesthood and how families can live together. They have these awesome family videos at the temple that bring the Spirit like crazy. We watched the videos and after them when the Spirit was it its strongest point we invited the dad and the son to be baptized and they both accepted and then we finished kneeling in the room and the dad offered a prayer from his heart and now they are completely solid! This will be the first family baptized in this branch in over 1 year so we are hoping this will spark the excitement for doing missionary work in the branch. I know that this was a miracle and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be able to witness it and be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. It is also interesting to see the progress we are making with bringing less actives back to church. Yesterday our zone got 40 less actives to come back to church which was really cool. Basically what I have been finding throughout my mission and especially recently is that you get what you want. If it is a righteous desire and we ask God for it, then we will get it. I saw a little video clip on mormon.org that had the message of why not you? Someone else is going to do it if you don't, so if you want it, why not you? Right now in our lives where are our desires and priorities? Are we pursuing things that are worthwhile that will help us progress spiritually? If we want something we need to go for it. Right now the Lord has asked me to feed His sheep. Non members and less actives. If that is something I really want, I am going to get it. So I am trying to pump up our zone to get them excited and ready for this new mission, so here is my scripture chain. Get yo popcorn ready. 1. D & C 136:1 - The Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West: 2. D&C 45:64 - Wherefore I, the Lord, have said, gather ye out from the eastern lands, assemble ye yourselves together ye elders of my church; go ye forth into the western countries, call upon the inhabitants to repent, and inasmuch as they do repent, build up churches unto me. 3. Luke 12:54 - And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. 4. Deuteronomy 32:2 - My doctrine shall drop as the rain 5. 3 Nephi 11:26 - And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water. MAKE IT RAIN BABY!! What do ya think?? lol Anyways I hope all is going well with you! Love Ya! Siempre Cree, Elder Creer

I know that it is because God knows more than me...

Hola Familia!

This week went pretty good. Our new mission President is legit! I think I will be able to learn a lot from him. This is his second mission so he just came in last Sunday rolling. In our meeting we had with him he looked very confident with what he was planning on doing but at the same time he was relaxed and very easy to get along with. It was kind of crazy to be on a council to discuss making a new mission. We have a lot of different rules and the way we are going to be doing things is completely different. We are one of 2 missions out of the 347 that are going to start the new church's program that will eventually be in all the missions in the world. I am going a little crazy because there will be General Authorities looking at my numbers and President Swain said there are a lot of eyes on us....ahhhh haha. Right now we only have 76 missionaries but the number is going to double before the year is over so it is going to be very interesting and exciting to see what is going to happen with our mission. We also have new key indicators which are going to make the normal routine a bit different. We also lost Guapo so we will not be able to get couples married very easily anymore. Something else that is going to change is that he is focusing on how to be good leaders. He said that we need to help people become accountable not be held accountable because if they are held accountable their whole missions then they won't have that progression they would have had if they had learned to become accountable. When they become accountable that is something that will help them for the rest of their lives. There is a bunch of other stuff that will change but I just can't remember it all right now haha. We are going to have a zone conference this week and we will be learning a bit more so I will keep you informed on anything that learn.

This week was another tough one. We are trying to get more people to teach but it is really hard. The branch hasn't seen success for so long that their faith of the ability to have success has decreased. The branch has only had 2 baptisms in the last year. We are doing everything we can to get the members excited about doing some missionary work...I just want to get them all together and be like Ray Lewis and get them fired up, get them all yelling and shouting and saying "Arrrrriba" haha...But that is probably not the way the Lord wants his members fired up so we will go with plan B...
This is one of the toughest times of the mission so far. Our area is the hardest it has ever been for me...I haven't had a baptism in 4 weeks...and I am supposed to be a leader starting a new mission..life is hard..but that's to be expected right? That is how we can grow...so even though the mission is super hard and stressful right now I know that it is because God knows more than me and that I will learn and grow from the experiences I am having now. I’m still reading Alma 38:5 and putting my name in it and that helps every time. I’m also still singing A Child's Prayer just so I can feel God's love and know He is by my side.
So that is the update for the week.

Siempre Crean,
eLdEr CrEeR

It is the 4th quarter and we are down 20 and we have the ball...love it!

Hola Familia! I hope everything is going super great.... Well I am going to start out with this...I need new shirts...and superman ain’t got nothin’ on me! So here's the scoop. I have ruined 1 shirt and 1 pair of pants and shoes in the last week...because of a bike crash..so here is what happened... We have this big hill in our area and one night we were at the top of the hill and we decided to race down. So we started down the hill and I was riding on the purple rocket...my teenage girls bike that is purple.. :) So we were going down the hill and my pedal had already broken earlier during the day so I was riding with one pedal..But I am way too competitive so I had to win. Anyways to make a short story long- I was dominating and then about half way down the hill my chain broke off and got caught on the pedal, at the same time my seat broke off and I was flung from my bike (probably looked way cooler than superman) and I slid on the street going like 25 miles an hour..and no that is not an exaggeration because there are the speed thingys for the cops and so I slid first on my bike then rolled to my side and then popped up on my feet, it was nuts...when I popped up I looked and my bike was flipping in the street and finally stopped on the other side of where I was originally...The funniest part was that there was this lady who was backing up and I turned and looked and saw her and her mouth was open...astonished! haha And she just looked at me with her mouth open and then just asked if I was okay in a super worried voice and I smiled gave a thumbs up and just said "of course" haha. Then she just sat there with her mouth open and I was trying not to laugh at her because it looked like she saw a ghost haha. So I will send you some pics right now of my injuries of my huge bike crash. AS you can see...my little scratch on my arm and bloody knuckles was it, and a cut on my ankle. Not bad for a crazy crash at 25 mph. I’ll bet Superman woulda got hurt haha :)..So that's why I need some new shirts and yeah haha I already bought some new shoes at Ross. They didn't have any shirts or I would have bought some too. I think it was a crazy miracle that I wasn't even hurt. I was cruising! Haha. Even the kid on The Incredibles would have been impressed! Moral of the story: my bike sucks...and the Lord will protect us if we are doing what's right! So our area is kind of struggling right now...there hasn't been a baptism in this area for a very long time. But that is what has happened in the only two other areas I have been in so why expect something different right! I love it though because it is like every area -it is the 4th quarter and we are down 20 and we have the ball...love it! So this past week we had a good week and we are continuing to see miracles like crazy. We put a 17 year old girl and her mom on date this week and then the whole rest of their family came to church. We also found 2 other families that will be solid by the end of this week...the best part is we are teaching this other family now and they have a 4 year old daughter who fell in love with me...she punches my comp when we get there and gives me a hug haha :)...She always sits next to me in the lessons and everyday I ask her what color of tie she wants me to wear and then I wear it the next day. I need to find a purple tie because I don't have one and it was requested haha...Anyway- so the area should be booming here in little bit. So the mission officially began yesterday.. Elder Rasmussen is serving with Elder Blakey so I called them and talked to them from 9:30 to 10:30. It was kind of sad to say goodbye but we are going to try and stay in contact. Also Sister and Prez Winn came by to say goodbye and we had a lion piñata ready for them (an investigator makes them). We didn't have any candy to fill it since we are poor and so we filled it with popcorn and oatmeal cream pies and then other random stuff in the house. When they walked in the door we had the lion right in the doorway with a bat and then in the background we had the Mo-Tab Lion King Circle of Life song on because it was only fitting haha. So they broke open the piñata and then I gave Sister Winn the cookies I made her but as soon as I brought the cookies out, Prez said “Oh perfect! Elder Creer cookies!” And he took the plate and started eating them, haha. We got to hear what he tells the missionaries that are leaving in the interviews because Elder Homer is going to be gone soon and he talked a lot about the importance of reading scriptures and praying and going to the temple, so what Conner said in his farewell talk was right of course. And he was talking about how to find our wives and not to delay getting married when we get home. It should be our first priority. I am glad I am only a year out because I don't want to think about it at all, I am still a kid, haha and the "Madagascars" are my favorite movies! :) (By the way- have you seen the third one and if so is it any good?) So we still don't know a whole bunch about the new mission. Tomorrow we have a meeting with the other 4 zone leaders and the assistants and Prez Swain to make all of the mission rules and basically create the mission. The meeting is pretty much going to be all day so I am kind of excited about that! It is crazy though because our mission is going to be the first mission in the whole world to start the church's new plan and eventually every other mission in the world will be doing it like we will, I don’t know exactly how we will be doing things since we haven’t had the meeting yet but it sounds intense! Well I will let you know more about everything next week but keep trusting in the Lord and look for His tender mercies! LOVE YA! Siempre crean, Elder Creer