A big family and they were all super happy...

Hola Familia!
This week went by super fast!
We also had training by the Mission President from "The District 2" videos. He is now the trainer for all the Mission Presidents and we had a meeting with him and President Swain this week and it was really cool. He talked a lot about the Atonement and how as we are focusing on that when we are teaching people and inviting the less active ones to come back to church that it would really help us have more success. I guess that makes sense because it is the most important event ever to take place. We have seen a lot of people come back to church in the last week as we help them see the importance of the Atonement so it has been really cool to see.
So being an AP is really. really. busy. haha but it is great. We had two amazing miracles this week. At the beginning of this week it wasn't looking like we were going to have any baptisms this week because one of our investigators was hesitant. So we went back for kind of our last attempt and we read with her Alma 20 and then we had her read the poem "Footprints" and she felt the Spirit super strong when she read the poem and said that was exactly how she was feeling so we invited her to pray and to ask God if He would carry her if she got baptized and if she needed to do so this Saturday. We came back the next day and she said she got the strongest feeling that she needed to get baptized- so she did!! A cool thing about the poem is that about 2 months ago I found that poem in our old house and so I wrote it down in my journal and never used it until that lesson this week so it was crazy to see how I was prompted by the Spirit 2 months ago so that I could have that in my journal in the time of need and it happened to be exactly what she needed at the time. Cool how the Lord works.
Also we had another baptism this week. I met her with Elder Tui on our exchanges we had awhile ago and then we went to dinner at her house and this was when I was still comps with Elder Homer. So her story is that she grew up in Cali and her mom served a mission but her dad was part of another church and so she never got baptized but was in and out of the church her whole life. She was planning on getting baptized at the end of this month but they were having a family reunion this week and her mom was in town... Most of all her family are members and they were all here this week but none of them knew that she was getting baptized. When we were having a lesson with her this week, she said she wished she could get baptized sooner so her mom could see her. So we asked her if she wanted to move it to Saturday and she agreed happily. So we had a HUGE baptismal service with a big family and they were all super happy and the Spirit was really strong.
 I don't have any more time but I hope that all is going well.
Siempre Crean,
 Elder Creer  

Footprints in the Sand 

 One night a man had a dream. 
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD. 
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. 
For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: 
one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD. 
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, 
he looked back at the footprints in the sand. 
He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. 
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. 
This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it: 
"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. 
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, 
there is only one set of footprints. 
I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me." 
The LORD replied: 
"My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. 
During your times of trial and suffering, 
when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." 

 written by Carolyn Joyce Carty

I have a bad accent and everyone calls me out on it, haha...

Hola Familia! My companion is Elder McNees. He is from Battlecreek Michigan. He is a huge sports fan too so that was a dream come true. He was the one that was serving with Elder Tui as the AP before so now that Elder Tui is training his last transfer I am with him. President Swain said that I will be Elder McNees' companion until Oct 30 and then I will get a new companion. So right now I am in heaven because Elder McNees and I are a lot alike. Something I thought was interesting was that they said I was a baptizer and could help others do the same and that was kind of my plus. So we are actually going to be working a lot more in the field that other assistants. We will be the in office some of the mornings and in meetings and stuff too but we will be able to get out and do work at the same time. We will be getting almost every afternoon to go out and work and every night so I am pretty excited about that! Right now we have 3 people that are on date and they are getting ready to get baptized and the next one is next weekend. Jess, to answer your question- here is a typical day for me: 6:25- wake up and pray then play ball till like 7ish, then shower and get ready for the day between 7 and 8- I study, mostly the Book of Mormon right now 8 to 9- I study with my companion and we talk about how the mission is doing. Then usually we will have some meeting or something at the office to do until 12 and then we either have a lesson or we have lunch then we work in our area until 5- then we have dinner, then we go out and work again until like 9 or 9:30- and then we either go home or take care of mission stuff again like problems or something. then we get home and we plan and then we write in our journals and then go to bed at 10:30 So teaching in English is super different. I have a bad accent and everyone calls me out on it, haha. So something else new is that even as the assistants we don't have cars. So we are the only two that have bus passes lol...It is super weird because it feels like Hawaii a little bit because that is the only other time I have ever rode the bus that often. It is super nice though because we are able to contact a lot of people on the bus and I like it too because I get to speak Spanish sometimes to the people on the bus. Sometimes the bus is super slow though so we are trying to figure out the best way possible to make it effective. It was also different going to Wards that only have single adults in there. Right now we are covering 5 of them but next transfer we will only be covering 2. We cover 1 ward that is the Poly YSA ward for all of the valley so it is pretty cool because sometimes we will have lessons to go to that are in the old mission like Rose Park and other areas so that will be pretty cool. It has been such a blessing to be able to spend more time with President Swain as well. It is not that often that you get the opportunity to learn from someone like him so I am going to try my best to learn everything possible from him while I can. It is crazy how fast the days go by because of how busy we are. It seems like we never have a bit of free time and by the end of the day we are so dead!! We had a super legit experience this week. We went to a lesson at the house of a member who was going to have his neighbor over for us to teach him and when we get there the neighbor wasn't there but he had over another friend. She was a member but we were just talking to them both a little bit and she ended up giving us a referral for one of her friends. So the other day we headed over to her house so we could teach her friend. We learned in the first few minutes that her friend has been going to church forever off and on but has never gotten baptized because she never felt like God told her that is what she should do and she didn't understand how a lot of members can have such strong testimonies that this is true. So we promised her in the lesson she would get a strong confirmation that the Book of Mormon was true and she would know that the church was true. So we were teaching her a little about the restoration and the need for the Book of Mormon and once we got to the Book of Mormon the Spirit prompted my companion to share with her 2 Nephi 33 which wasn't even the lesson plan. I felt really good about the last second audible so we went for it and she read verse 12 and it really hit her and she told us she was feeling the Spirit super strong and she said she knew it was true! So then we invited her to be baptized and she accepted for September 8th. We later found out that she is in a different YSA ward boundary so we passed on the referral today but it was so cool to see the power of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit work together like that! There is a part in Preach My Gospel in the Book of Mormon section (chapter 5) that says the Book of Mormon combined with the Spirit is the most powerful tool for conversion. It is so true because in order for someone to be truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ they need to know the Book of Mormon is true because it testifies of Christ just as it talks about in 2 Nephi 33. So I am going to leave you with an invitation. To first read 2 Nephi 33 so you know what I was talking about, haha, but then to really ponder over the next few days about your testimony of the Book of Mormon. Do you feel the Spirit when you read? Do you receive revelation? Do you feel your relationship with Christ improve? Do you read for time, or do you read for Christ? Can you improve your study of the Book of Mormon? How? I know that as you do this you will receive guidance from God about how you can make your study of the Book of Mormon more effective and you will feel the Spirit more in your lives! Love Ya! Siempre Crean, Elder Creer

I need to watch and learn everything I can...

Hola Familia! So this week was another tough week. I have been praying as hard as possible for charity and patience like it tells us to do in Moroni. It is working out pretty good. I am going to keep trying to do one act of service everyday and writing down one blessing that I see each day too, that seems to help. So on Friday President Swain came to our house at like nine am and told us to get our stuff and to come with him because we were going to go on exchanges with the AP’s. So we got our stuff and headed to the church where our mission office is. I got to study for like 10 seconds and then President Swain called me into his office haha. We said a prayer and he just looked at me. I was trying to think if I had done anything wrong and couldn’t come up with anything haha and then he said, “Elder Creer, The Lord wants you to be an Assistant.” So then he told me that I was taking over as AP for Elder Tui starting tomorrow at transfers. When he told me that, I could really feel that this calling was coming from the Lord and not just him so it was a pretty special experience. So the rest of the day I spent with Elder McNees who is my new companion in the office learning how to do everything I need to do once I become the new assistant. So yesterday I went with Elder McNees on exchanges again and we went to a meeting with President Swain to discuss what we were going to do for transfers and we moved some names around until the Spirit confirmed that what he had on the board is what He wanted. We also got to plan the meeting that we will be having with the Zone Leaders on Wednesday. It is like overload right now but seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun. I am going to be serving with Elder McNees until basically Halloween and then I will get my new companion. President said that I need to watch and learn everything I can from Elder McNees during this time so that I feel comfortable as a leader in the mission. Sounds like it is going to be kind of hard but I can do it with the Lord’s help. Well there’s the update for the week. I will hopefully have more details and time to write next week. Hope all is well and continue to put your trust in God and serve as Christ would! Love Ya! Siempre Crean, Elder Creer

"I slap you, my food"...

Hola Familia! We had 4 baptisms this week so that was really cool! It was amazing to see how much this family was able to progress since we first began teaching them. We weren't able to get the older sister interested yet but she came to the baptism so that was a blessing! So this week we got to eat with the Samoan Ward for the first time...it is now part of our dinner rotation because I worked my magic with the guy who is in charge of dinners and he took it from the English Elders and gave it to us haha but they have 10 other wards and we don't so it's all good. So anyway, we ate a ton haha it was super good, just like Hawaii food but we had to eat sooo much! For one of the dinners we had this week we ate with a family and they had a 10 year old daughter...she was 5'8!....another one had a daughter who had just turned 3 and her plate for dinner was huge, hahaha, her dad tried to steal some of her food when he was done with his and she slapped his hand and said "I slap you, my food"..It was great. My favorite thing they made was O-tai...It was a smoothie drink with mango and pineapple and a little bit of coconut... It was super good...after the three glasses I had they told me each glass had 500 calories and laughed haha..Ouch! Right now our area looks rough. We basically don't have any investigators right now. Just going to have to go forward with faith! Something pretty cool happened yesterday though. It all started about 5 weeks ago we met this guy and his family was less active and we just talked to him and got to know him. We took a tour of his crazy house that has a full sized movie theater inside and we hit it off with him....fast forward.. They have come back to church the last 5 weeks and last week the dad was able to give his son the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain him a Deacon...When he was giving the blessing the Spirit was super strong and it was a great experience. I think that is a part of this mission that will be really fun to be a part of. We never really worked with less actives in our old mission but what happened yesterday was legit! Well hope all of you are doing well today..I don't have much time to email but thanks for the emails. Siempre Crean, Elder Creer