Families being changed by the hand of the Lord...

Hola Familia!

This week we got to do something pretty sweet! We got to go and do service in the temple and set up some chairs for some meeting that the General Authorities are having before conference. It was sweet because we got to go to the 4th and 5th floors and got a tour which they said they don't do anymore so we were lucky. It was cool to see where the Prophet and Apostles meet to discuss things. The Spirit was also very strong, probably because normally just the General Authorities are up there.

My Spanish is doing alright. It is really hard to understand people because everyone is from a different country and speak with different accents. I can see that the Lord is helping me a little bit at a time so it is just going to take time for me to learn the language.

We had a baptism this week for a man we have been teaching.   Initially, he was really excited to get baptized because he felt that he should have done it about 8 months ago. However,the adversary was really trying to keep him from being baptized.  He said that all day he felt this bad feeling that was confusing him and he didn't know what was happening and also all of his friends were telling him he was making a huge mistake so he was really questioning his decision. The baptism was supposed to begin at 8pm and we were supposed to meet him at 7:30 to make sure he was all ready to go. We arrived and he was nowhere to be found. So we tried calling him and he wouldn't answer. Finally at about 7:45 he answered and he said that he didn't want to be baptized anymore because of those confused feelings. So we asked him if we could come over to his house and just talk to him real quick and give him a blessing. So we got to his house at about 8...everyone was at the church waiting for us because that is when the baptism was supposed to be. We talked to him for like 30 minutes and he explained how he was feeling confused and he didn't know what was happening and he said it felt like something was trying to keep him from getting baptized. He said he knew he needed and wanted to be baptized but wanted to feel peace about it before he went through with it. So we gave him a blessing and the Spirit was so strong and I know he felt it. After the blessing he asked right away if he could still get baptized tonight. It was 8:45! So we said “of course!” and we went to leave and his car wasn't working, we were thinking “you have got to be kidding, what else will go wrong?” So we call for a ride and finally arrive at the church at 9pm. Then guess what? There was another baptism that was going on that wasn't on the schedule so we had to wait and ended up going to another room. Finally the room opened up and we were able to see him baptized. It was really cool to see that if we have faith, the Lord's work cannot be stopped. Even with all the things that seemed to be going wrong with him, the Lord will always prevail!

We also saw another miracle this week. He had an investigator that was progressing a little and then we got a call that she needed to talk to us. So we set up a time and went to see her.  The family wasn’t in agreement about church. We read some scriptures and bore our testimonies about how important the family is. We asked her to talk to with her husband and we would come back the next day. When we went back, the husband was so humble! When we went back to visit them after they had talked and they were really looking  to improve their family relationships. We told them that the church is centered on families and with the gospel in their lives they could have a happy family and be able to work things out. So they both agreed to come to church. They loved it and their son loved primary.  It was amazing to see how the Lord is able to work miracles, once again to keep the family together. It has been such a blessing to see theses miracles of hearts being softened and families being changed by the hand of the Lord and becoming happier!

So that's pretty much the best of this week.

Hope you all are doing great and enjoying life. Make sure you put the Lord first because with the help of the Lord you will always prevail and be happier as a family!

Love ya!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

The Lord can do anything to get a family together...

Hola Familia!

How's everything going there? How is the weather, still hot? The weather varies here every day it is either rainy or a billion degrees, haha.

This week I was only with my companion for a couple days. On Tuesday and Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Watson who is from North Carolina. We had a good time and worked hard. We also made Sister Winn cookies because we heard her dad passed away so I took the ingredients you sent me and made her the cookies. I gave her the recipe as a message that would work for a lesson where each ingredient stands for an idea or principle.  It was the recipe for overcoming life's challenges. She said the cookies were "divine" but didn't believe we made them, haha.  

We also ran into Geoff McIntire at the mission office too which was crazy, like what are the chances?

Then on Saturday my companion and I went on exchanges with the AP's (assistants to the President) which was nice. I went with Elder Green and he helped me out a lot. 

This week we had a baptism.  He is from Mexico and loves sports. I think we have a pretty good connection too. His whole family was baptized about 7 months ago but he wasn't living with them so he wasn't baptized before, but now he is! They have to go back to Mexico in November because their visas expire and they said that they are going to try and come back for Ruben’s school. His family was so happy at the baptism and it was cool to see how well it worked out. It shows how the Lord can do anything to get a family together.

We also met another investigator this week. He is 15. I knew we were going to connect right when he opened the door because he was wearing some J's. He is having a rough time right now because his football coach just kicked him off the team. They had early morning conditioning a couple of weeks ago and he didn't have a way to get there early. He tried talking to his coach about it and his coach didn't care and kicked him off the team. He said he wasn't the fastest kid but he could catch everything, sound familiar?  Also his favorite team is the Broncos too so that's another plus. He is going to try and come to play basketball or soccer with us today and then we are going back to teach him on Sunday. He seems like a really nice kid, his parents were baptized a year ago but stopped going to church because they decided they like the Catholic one better so we are going to try and work with the family to give him a support system.

Well hope all is going well there and school is great for the kids!

Love ya,

Siempre Crean

Elder Creer

 Brother Wilson's house

 Brother Wilson's garden

 At "the" restaurant

 A view of the city from where we begin our morning run

I was surprised I was able to communicate so well...

Hola Familia!

Every Sunday Brother Wilson lets us have dinner with him and his guests. He takes great pride in his dinners and says I have been deprived for not having fried eggplant, buttered beats, zucchini soup and custard pudding, haha. Last week at dinner the guest was the son of Ezra Taft Benson..the prophet just in case you didn't know, haha. It was cool and he told some stories of his dad. Brother Wilson also is a famous gardener in Salt Lake. Every year they have the fair and they have a garden competition and Brother Wilson is notorious for winning it. He has been on the news, in the paper and everything. In his garden he grows literally almost everything. We did some service for him on Wednesday and helped him go through his whole garden and pick the best fruits and vegetables out, it was fun! He ended up winning tons of prizes and money!

As for the dinners - I just had the best dinner ever on Friday. We went to these members home who were baptized like a little over a year ago and they love feeding the missionaries (that is rare around here believe it or not). Anyways as dinner started, on the table were two huge bowls of meat, one was steak and the other was something else. But there was a bunch of toppings since we were having tacos. At first there was 15 tortillas on the table we started eating and the food was the best Mexican food of my life. When the tortilla stack got down to a couple the guys put on 15 more and they told us to keep eating- so we did. He did this two more times! We put down at least 50 tortillas between us and the family lol. I felt so sick after. But it tasted good. Haha

On Saturday we had companion exchanges. I was with Elder Yancey. He is the District Leader that is from Iowa Mom, he is from Cedar Springs or something with Cedar but I can't remember. Is that close to you? Anyways it was the most fun day in the field for me. We get along great and have a ton in common. Elder Yancey doesn't speak Spanish, and we were on exchanges in my area, which meant I had to take the lead for everything. I was surprised with myself how I was able to communicate so well. No doubt with the help of the Lord. It was nice to have Elder Yancey encouraging me too. We weren’t fed lunch or dinner that day but not to worry. Sister McPherson came to the rescue! They are a missionary couple…Technically, I think they are seniors but they are super young. They assist us Spanish speaking missionaries and I love her to death! Anyways she brought me some cookies! So that is what we had for lunch and then we went to Taco Time for dinner since it is free for missionaries.

 The exchange ended with the baptism of a mechanic from Peru. I didn't start teaching him but the missionaries have been working with him off and on for like 7 months. That was a neat experience.

We also completed the standard of excellence this week again which makes two weeks in a row. To get the standard, you need to get the highest numbers in all of the categories, (lessons, a baptism, progressing investigators, a bunch of stuff).  We had a miracle to get it this week. We need to get 5 investigators at church to get it. At the start of Sacrament Meeting we only had 1 and then God started working miracles. 3 more showed up so we had 4. Then at the last minute 2 more investigators who said they could probably never come to church came! It was cool to see again how if you do all you can and then trust in the Lord, he will provide!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

Stay patient because when we get frustrated we can't learn...

Hola Familia!

To answer your question, I told President Winn the reason why I was serving a mission was because through many experiences over the last few years I learned to put my trust in the Lord and rely on Him completely for everything, then I shared the story of when I got lonely at school. I told him that as I learned to put my trust in the Lord I came to love Him and the more I came to love Him the more I felt His love for me and I wanted to help other people know how they could experience this same kind of love in their lives and help them realize how much God and Christ love them and want them to be happy. The only other thing I told him in the meeting was that I like basketball and football, haha -so it was pretty short.

And mom, the mail is picked up every Wednesday or Thursday morning at the latest and then we receive it during district meeting Thursday morning. My district leader is cool, we get along great. He played basketball and baseball in high school and is from Iowa. His last name is Yancey, don't know the first. Ring any bells?

So the first p-day we played soccer I was one of only a couple of white kids there. All the rest were from Mexico, Chile, Brazil and some other places but they were all good and I was terrible,  haha.  Buuut yesterday we were playing and guess what, white boy scored 3 goals! haha Bry you were right! My zone is the central zone. My zone leaders are Elder Fuentes and Elder Tory.

This week was somewhat frustrating! I can hardly understand anything people are saying and when my companion stops talking and looks at me, I don't know what is being talked about so don't even know what to say. I'm not too thrilled with the fact that I feel like I can't teach the way I want too. When I can say something in Spanish it feels like it has no emotion. Elder Fuentes told me that my Spanish was good for my second week and not to get frustrated and to give it time and stay patient because when we get frustrated we can't learn. I thought about it and agreed and have seen a difference so that is helping. I figured that I will do my best to let my personality shine though, haha. I have begun to carry around a candy bag for all the little kids. They get a piece of candy right when we get there and if they listen they get to pick another one out when we leave, haha. My favorite part so far has been the interaction with the kids. They can talk slow enough I can understand them. I also like when I can feel my heart burning during a lesson because the Spirit is so strong. Love it!

We had a zone training from President Winn at the mission office this week. We learned how to involve the Spirit more. It was helpful and it was also cool to see all the guys from my district again. Elder Romero and I won brand new ties!

So for the district meetings on Thursdays we practice teaching. It is cool to get help from other people who have been here for a long time because the more opinions you have the better you'll get. It's tradition to go to lunch after district meeting and there are two options, side by side and we have to all go to the same one. One is Cafe Rio and the other is Wendy’s. Guess what?  The majority vote has been both times..Wendy's! I don't even know how they are comparable, haha, but it looks like I won't be getting Cafe Rio anytime.

We had a sweet miracle this week. We were tracting and I felt a prompting to knock on this door clear at the end on the other side of the street. So we go and knock on it and nobody is home. A couple days later we were looking in the Area Book for former investigators to stop by and I saw this one and I had a prompting that we should check it out. So we went and it ended up being the same house. Still hadn't gotten a hold of them yet though. The next day during the district meeting we got a sheet of paper with a few referrals on it and one of them was this same house! So we went over there later that night and there were 4 adults and 1 kid (who is a fan of basketball and football) and we taught them a lesson and the Spirit was strong and all of them accepted baptism, except for the kid because he is too young. It was crazy to think that the Lord was trying to lead us to this house over and over again using different ways and eventually we found out why. Cool huh!

Another one of our investigators is the owner of a Mexican restaurant and when we go to teach him we get chips and salsa and orchata water. That is like cinnamon milk or something.

It seems like as fast as we are getting new investigators the ones we had aren't interested anymore so it is frustrating sometimes.

On Sunday I got to give the lesson in gospel doctrine. I guess the missionaries are the teachers. It was on priesthood organization and if my companion hadn't of saved me it would have been a disaster. I would ask a question and then not understand what their answer was. I can't wait till I got this down.

Anyways hope all is well there. We hardly have any time on p-days to write letters, like basically none. Oh yeah- tell Aunt Arne thank you for the package I got with all the snacks, shirt and stuff. Everyone was like “your mom is awesome!” and I said “this is from my aunt.” then they were like “you have the best aunt ever!” haha.

Adios, love ya!

Siempre crean,

Elder Creer

We are serving in downtown Salt Lake in the Liberty Park area...

Hola Familia!

Well this week has been crazy! To start things off we finished up at the MTC and said bye to all the guys in my district and our teachers. We traded ties like crazy! ( haha)  I think that I have 10 new ones!! Last Wednesday we got up at 4am to go check out and catch the bus which left at 6. We dropped some kids off at the airport and then we headed to the mission office building.

We got there at around 8:30am where we were met by President Winn (Sister Winn was in the kitchen :). President Winn emailed us to questions to help determine who our companions would be. He just said to tell about ourselves and why we came on a mission.  We only talked for a few minutes.  After that he just said he knew who my companion was, I don't even think he was finished but oh well haha. 

We then sat at the table waiting for breakfast (granola bars, fruit and pancakes) and we met this guy who calls himself Guapo.  Guapo's job is to marry people so if we bring him a couple that needs to be married to be baptized we get a "guapo tie" haha. Then we had lunch and got to meet our companions.

Mine is Elder  Avalos. He is from Mexico City, is 26, and is a convert since he was 18. He played college football in Mexico as a strong safety.  We get up every morning (except Sundays) and we run for at least 4 miles!!  I'm trying to convince him that maybe some pushups or something might be more fun but he's not buying it haha.  He is a great companion!!

 We are teaching well, mostly him -because I can hardly understand what is going on. It is difficult sometimes too because I am trying to learn Spanish and I thought it was going be sweet since I had a native companion but he is trying to learn English and likes to speak it a lot :)  So hopefully we can work something out so I can teach.

We are serving in downtown Salt Lake in the Liberty Park area. We cover like 3 or 4 English wards and 1 Spanish branch with approximately 30 people.

We did have a baptism last night. He is 10 years old.  I didn't start teaching him of course since I haven't even been here a week but I got to teach probably 4 times, in English. So he was baptized yesterday and I was asked to give a talk so I talked about baptism and gave him a blue tie with a message on it. He loved it!

Also yesterday I was asked to give a 20 minute talk (in Sacrament Meeting), in Spanish! haha It went good- I talked about missionary work and trusting in the Lord, and I didn't have to speak the whole 20 minutes because of time.

As far as food goes, it has been good but they all stuff you so full! (haha)  The first night we had dinner Peruvian style, the next 3 days were Mexican. I don't think I will be fed American food for dinner in this area but no complaints here!!  The place where we stay is not even in our area, it is in the hills above the capital building. We stay at a member’s house. He is probably somewhere around 80 but idk for sure.  He is really funny and served his mission in Germany so he always talks with a German accent. He also is a really good cook. Every Sunday we get to have dinner with him and some of his kids and their families. It is like a 5 course meal haha. He also owns 25 chickens so we are allowed to have a couple eggs a day which is cool. We get 110 bucks a month for food, laundry, haircuts and anything else we might need. We were told to budget 2 bucks a day for food! Good thing Brother --- has chickens haha.

For p-days everyone plays soccer, so no ball for me for who knows how long. And apparently everyone wears soccer jerseys so my companion gave me one from Mexico.

Mom if you have any room in that package do you think you could squeeze as much snacks in as possible? A nice mix of junk and good stuff please haha :) Well love you guys!

Siempre Crean,
Elder Creer

A great experience, great memories and great friends...

Hola Famila!

This was quite the eventful week! To start things off, thanks for the snacks Every Sunday night we get an hour and a half for movie time, and we have fiestas while we watch and eat all the snacks that people receive, so that's been fun. The last movie we watched was the biography about Thomas S. Monson which was sweet.

My hip is doing better; I am playing at like 75% now with no pain. Buuuuuuuuuut I broke my nose last Thursday playing ball haha. This 300 pound Samoan guy nailed me and it hurt really bad. The funny thing was right after he hit me he pulled out a tissue or napkin or something like he knew something bad was going to happen so he was prepared haha. Anyways to make a long story short, it was supposed to look like this ( l )  but instead it looked like this  ( L )  so it obviously needed to be fixed so I did it the old fashion way so we weren't late for class. I just put it back to straightness which hurt worse haha but now it’s straight so it's all good! I just had a headache for like a week so nothing too bad. Anyways other than that ball is going good. I am playing well and my jumper is falling from pretty much everywhere. Speaking of basketball it sounds like the NBA knew that I would be gone for the next two years because they are messing everything up and knew I wouldn't mind. Hopefully they still have a season, if not have fun with that Bry. If not there is always the WNBA..ha!

For the Spanish update, we started playing a new game because everyone was speaking so much Spanish that the "el Nativo" game wasn't working because nobody could ever tell who it was. The new game is called "La Mariposa"..the butterfly. If someone is caught speaking even one word of English they receive a card with a giant butterfly on it that says mariposa and they have to keep it until they hear someone else speaking English. Whoever has the card at the end of the day has to wear a super ugly leaf tie we found in the free bin the next day. It's been fun and my Spanish is improving! I haven't got the card yet either so that's good too.

Another exciting thing that happened was that we got our travel plans last Thursday! Those of us that are going to salt lake are leaving next Wednesday at 6am and then we go and have breakfast at the mission home or office or whatever it’s called so can't wait for that! We have met 7 other elders this week that are going to SLC Spanish. 6 of them just got here two weeks ago so they won't be out in the field for a while but the other one we met at dinner yesterday is from Chile and had to come to the mtc to learn English for 9 weeks and he seems like a really nice kid and it would definitely be nice to be companions with someone like him who is a native so they can help me with my Spanish.

It's crazy to think it's time for the field already, can't wait! Looking back the MTC has been a great experience, great memories and great friends. I am grateful for the district I got and know they will all be great missionaries. Looking back I am really grateful that I have a supportive family and friends. Not everyone has that and I have realized how lucky I am. I am also grateful that I was always counseled to never get a girlfriend before my mission and I am glad I followed that advice. I have seen how missionaries are distracted and don't have their minds on the work; totally not worth it because we are on the Lord's time not ours. So Bry, I advise you to do the same, trust me it will be worth it! Also Happy Birthday Aunt Arne and Mom!! Hope you have some good treats without me! Hope all is going well there, love ya!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

It is like watching grass grow...

Hola Famila!

Hope everything is going well there.

Dad- thanks for getting my bike situation taken care of.

Mom- it sounds like your brownies made you pretty much famous. Even the guys here love them, but Turtle Bars are their favorite, I looked up how to say it in Spanish because our goal is no more English and it is, los tabletas de tortuga haha.

Bry- sounds like basketball is going good there. You better keep practicing because I am going to whoop you when you get home from your mission even if you are 6´5 haha. The basketball here is not as fun as it used to be. There is a new district in our zone that all want to play basketball. We were really excited when they came in and heard that we would have some new competition, yeah that excitement lasted until the first game we played. A bunch of them think that they are better than Michael Jordan or something and never pass the ball. It is not very fun if you get stuck on their team because of that. We used to just play for fun and have a good time while still playing hard, but now there are too many kids out there to prove themselves. Don´t worry though, Elder Black and I kicked their trash when we played against them. I don´t know how much we will be playing with them from now on, we might just go shoot by ourselves or go lift or something.

When we went to the temple last week Elder Shuster and I did sealings, it was my first time so I thought it was cool. There was a family in there that had a kid who is reporting to the MTC in a week and he is going to the Kennewick WA Spanish speaking mission. So we talked backed and forth about the fact that I am basically going to his home and he is going to mine and just different stuff about the areas. He seemed pretty cool and his family was nice. His name was Elder Gray and he is probably 6'2, blonde hair and looks like a linebacker. So if you ever run into him, treat him well...emphasis on the "treat" haha.

The Spanish is still improving like a turtle, but I am learning a lot. It is cool to look back and see how much progress I have actually made because it doesn't seem like I am making a lot day to day but when I look back I have realized that I have made a lot. Our teacher said that it is like watching grass grow, if we just sit there and watch it; it will take a long time to even realize that something is happening.  But if we evaluated or check it every couple of days or every week we see how much we grow. That just makes me think to lose myself in the work and have the Lord do the rest. I have been working a lot on vocab and practicing the grammar when I talk. I feel really comfortable giving prayers in Spanish but that is because I have been trying to do all of them including my personal ones in Spanish from the beginning so I have had a lot of practice. Hopefully the rest of my Spanish will get to the same comfortable stage once I practice it enough. The more practice the better we get. I know that learning Spanish will require me to do everything I can first, with faith, and then put my trust in the Lord and he will take care of the rest.

Elder Shuster and I have been doing really well teaching together, even though we are not much alike. We have been using a lot of visual aids when we teach because we feel that it is helping the investigators become more involved in the lessons and they are more fun to teach. I would make some cookies or something like you mom but we don't have an oven and I don't have money haha.

Crean Simepre,

Elder Creer