I noticed a small Laker basketball...

Hola Familia!

This week we had a baptism for a lady. When we met her she didn't really know anything about the church but she said she felt like she needed to learn more and then get baptized so that is exactly what happened.

Yesterday hardly anyone came to church, even though it was Easter. I thought that we would have a record number of people come since we are supposed to be remembering Jesus Christ but it was the total opposite. We only had 3 investigators come to church because everyone was at parties and what not.

So there were some apartments that burned down over here so on Saturday we were helping some of the people move their stuff and I noticed a small Laker basketball in their house so I talked to them about the Lakers for a little bit just being friendly. Then they took me to the back room where they had a huge wall of cut out newspaper articles from like the last 20 years of the Lakers and a whole bunch of posters and magazine covers. It was sweet so I told them how awesome they were for liking the best team in the NBA!!  They invited us to come to their new apartment and so we are going to go next week so I will let you know how that goes.

Also during district meeting we did some role plays of live concerns that us missionaries have and then solved them using stories of the Book of Mormon. I felt prompted to change the plan for district meeting right before to focus more on using stories from the Book of Mormon to help investigators but also to address and solve the concerns that us missionaries have right now.

Well that is pretty much all that happened this week. Love Ya!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

She said she couldn't just meet us in one day and then get baptized...

Hola Familia!

K so conference was great! We got to sit super close for almost every session! We actually got in to every session this time and on Saturday morning we didn't have a single ticket, haha. The coolest thing was one time we were standing in line because someone gave us tickets and we happened to be standing behind someone related to or in the Mormon Tab and they gave us front row seats for the next session so that was sweet. My faith was definitely strengthened especially after the soldier story that President Monson shared in Priesthood meeting.

Things are going really well in our area right now. On Thursday the Zone Leaders came over for morning study. When I was reading in the Book of Mormon I had the prompting that someone in our phone was ready to be baptized. We were given a challenge to look in our former book for someone because for each area there was someone ready to get baptized. So I thought that maybe there was someone in the phone who might not be in the area book. So I got my phone out and started looking at all the investigators in our phone. Each person that is an investigator or was at one point in this area is in our phone and before their names there is an   I..(for investigator). So I looked through all of the investigators in our phone..There are 116. I didn't know which one was the one we needed to talk to. We are encouraged to find those prepared. So I thought what better way to find those prepared than to ask them. So I sent a text to all 116 people saying that we were the missionaries and we would like to stop by and visit them and asked when we could. So we ended up getting 5 return appointments of the previous investigators among the phone contacts. One lady asked if we could come by soon. So she set the appointment for the following Monday, the (current) day was Thursday. But then I got another prompting that we really needed to go on Thursday, the same day. So I talked to her again and she finally agreed to let us come over. She told us about a missionary.  For one straight year he would teach her. As everyone knows we get transferred in the mission so it is crazy that he taught her for one year. Every time he would get transferred, she would happen to move or have already moved to the same area and he and his companion would happen to see her in a store or something. So this continued for one straight year. She told us she never got baptized and she said she knew why we were there..I was happy she did because I just knew we were supposed to be there, didn't exactly know why. She knew at that point that she needed to get baptized. So we committed her and she said yes!! Buuut when we tried to put her on date she wouldn't accept a date. She said that this previous missionary spent one whole year trying to save her, trying to help her come unto Christ through baptism. She said that he was like family to her and that she couldn't just meet us in one day and then get baptized because that wouldn't be fair to him. Through a series of small miracles, we tracked down this previous missionary, although he lives back east,  amazingly he told us he was visiting in Utah.  We were freaking out, haha and we told him the whole story of what happened and he called her right away. He called us right back and said she would be getting baptized the next day. It was crazy!! So she got baptized on Friday!! We met her on Thursday and she got baptized on Friday!

How did this miracle come to pass? The answer was given to us in conference. Angels are around us. I think Neil Anderson said it. No doubt it strengthened my faith and the faith of my companion and the faith of this new member. It begins with obedience, and then we are available to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. Then he gives us promptings and as we follow them, miracles happen! Once again we are reminded that the Lord sends his prepared children to his prepared servants!

Well hope all is well! Love Ya!

Siempre Crean,

He is super quiet and thinks I talk too much, haha...

Hola Familia!

Well transfer info! I.....stayed haha and Elder Morales went to West Valley. I am District Leader still but now I am training as well. My new companion for now is Elder Tracy. I am training him for 3 weeks and then he will head off to Argentina and then my new comp will come from Argentina. So I will train two people this transfer, yikes! haha. So I’m still here in Rose Park. I still live with Elder Torres and his new companion. So a little bit about Elder Tracy... He is from Highland Utah and knows Sam Avila from school...remember him? He is super quiet and thinks I talk too much, haha. But I know it is what we both need for these next few weeks so we will do it gladly!

Also I switched districts..Now I have my ballin’ buddies Also I have 4 sisters in my district who are doing really well.  They taught 50 something lessons this week! Also we got Elder Rogers back in the area, he lives like 3 houses down from me and I see him all the time so that is sweet! I don’t know when he is going to Brazil, haha.

And Jessie to answer your questions we don't know anything about the new mission right now, we only know that 60 missionaries will be leaving in a few months. And those that are in the south or west zone next transfer will be heading to the new mission so we still have some time until we find out exactly what is going to happen but I WILL GO WHERE THE LORD WANTS ME TO GO!

Elder Tory came to visit at transfers so I talked to him a little bit and he is heading off to Hawaii in April, lucky him because that's when the weather gets good again! Terripia is out in Wyoming right now and he says it is freezing. Shuster is out in Toeele and Blakley and Heaton are in West Valley.

This week was tough for us. We are trying to find solutions of what to do; many of our current investigators aren’t responding well.  We do have a baptism  this week on Friday so that will be Elder Tracy’s first one of the mission so he is getting pretty excited about that.. Well that is pretty much all that is going down here. Hope all is going well there!

Love ya!

Siempre Crean,

E L D E R  C R E E R

He never complained, never whined, never talked bad about anyone...

Hola Familia!

It got up to above 70 this week which was great!! Then the next day it snowed...ridiculous! Things are going pretty good here. We have transfers this Wednesday. The week was a pretty tough one. We taught the most lessons I have so far on my mission (34) so we were pretty busy but it seemed like not a whole lot of them produced anything that's why it is quality that counts not quantity.

 We had 2 more baptisms this week. They got married last week and then they got baptized this week. They love us to death, haha.  They had me make another cake for them for after their baptism since they loved the first one so much. They also said that if we got transferred they would kidnap us and I think they were half serious...but we will see :)

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that the mom of the boy who prayed and felt he should be baptized March 31st and his brother, who was baptized a few weeks ago wants to be baptized now and will be baptized in April. She said that she had been seeing a difference in her kids and wanted to know what they were learning and why they were different. So we had a lesson with her and she asked if she could be baptized. It was pretty exciting. I knew that it would happen though because earlier in the week when we were role playing,  I had a really strong impression that we should invite her to baptized even though she hasn't shown any interest in the past. I later found out that my companion had the same impression. So we followed the Spirit that was trying to guide us and it worked out just as God planned- I assume. It was cool to see how excited the kids were that their mom was going to get baptized too.

I got the hang of being a District Leader now. I am super busy with all my appts. but also I give a ton of rides to the people in the district especially when the weather isn't that great. I gave a training today about charity and faith. I decided to base the training on Christ, since that is who we represent and who we are helping people come unto. I looked at the example of charity that Christ showed us. To sum it up really short- He laid hold upon every good thing. He never complained, never whined, never talked bad about anyone but always looked for the good in them. He loved everyone unconditionally no matter what. Even the people who were the farthest off the path, He looked only at the good in them, never criticized. So of course it is easy to say that we need to lay hold upon every good thing ourselves so that we can have charity, but how can we really do that? The question is Moroni 7:20 and the answer is Moroni 7:25. The way that we can lay hold upon every good thing is by increasing our faith. Faith is the first principle of the gospel so that means that is probably really important, huh?. So we talked about how we can increase our faith. When we increase our faith we believe more in Jesus Christ. And if we REALLY believe more in Jesus Christ then we will understand the importance of becoming more like Him..aka the charity. When we become more Christ-like we will automatically have more love for people. When we have more love for people we can lay hold upon EVERY good thing.

So that is pretty much what happened this week. Hope all is going well there and I will send the transfer info next week.

Love ya!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

(Picture is of bowling on p-day with the Winns)

I am loving every bit of my mission...

Hola Famila!

Goood to hear that UNC beat Duke! That is how it is always supposed to be! Things are going pretty good here. I kind of hurt my arm a little bit playing dodge ball so I can't really work out right now or shoot very well. Things are going good here in Rose Park. Transfers are in a week and a half...and I think that I will be leaving but we will see. I already had two investigators tell me that if I left, they would call Prez Winn haha so we will see what happens. We had two marriages this week. The first one is the one that I made the cake for. You sent me that recipe but I didn't really follow it haha I did my own thang. Annd they said it was the best cake they ever had in their life and they asked me to come over and show them how to make it so I guess it turned out great! 

The next wedding we had was for this couple that has 3 baptized kids and one older one that isn't baptized but I will be working on him. It was really cool because the couple that got married second both got baptized right afterwards and the little girl who is 9 in her closing prayer said that she was grateful that her family could be united and brought together and she also asked to help her parents remember that they said "I do" haha I thought that was kind of funny. 

Anyways we had a couple sweet miracles this week. The first one was with a kid who is 10 years old and his older brother just got baptized a few weeks ago. When we were teaching the family this boy was never super interested. Then one day for some reason he just came to church and said he liked it so the next day we decided to stop by his house and just talk to him. When we had the lesson he told us he wanted to be baptized so we asked him to ask God if March 31st was the day that God wanted him to get baptized. So in his prayer he asked God if he should get baptized on March 31st and right when he was done he just started smiling and I asked him if he knew why he was smiling and he said “Yeah”, so I said “Why?” and he said “Because I’m getting baptized!” So that was pretty sweet. He came to church this week too so he is super solid!

The other miracle that we had this week was with a guy who is the husband of the couple that got married and baptized this weekend. His wife has been on date to be baptized for a couple weeks now but he wasn't able to come to church so he couldn't be baptized. However, two weeks ago he lost his job and we found that out on Wednesday. So we had a lesson with the family and invited him to be baptized and he said “yes”, then we asked him to pray for his date and he didn't get his answer that night. So we invited him to pray that night and ask again-  then we would come and follow up the next day. So the next day we saw him and he said that God wanted him to get baptized on Sunday with his wife. So that's what happened!

It was a testimony booster to see these two miracles this week. I definitely know that the Lord is on our side and that He will do whatever it takes to bring His families back to him.

Things are going great here and I am loving every bit of my mission. I know that as I continue to see families be baptized and then sealed in the temple that their lives will be blessed more than they can even imagine right now.

Well all is good here. Conference is coming up in a few weeks..Are you guys coming?

Love ya!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

If I could give Him a plate of cookies to influence Him...

Hola Familia!

So I have some pretty big news...OUR MISSION IS SPLITTING JULY 1st! Isn't that nuts! We had a mission meeting this week and the prophet said that because we have been having a lot of success we are going to be splitting the mission. Now there is going to be The Utah Salt Lake City mission, Salt Lake City South, Salt Lake City North (Ogden), Salt Lake City West, and Salt Lake City Central! 5 missions in Salt Lake. They already have the new mission presidents too.  The boundaries are all changing and everything. Everything that is in the west zone and south zone will be part of the Salt Lake City West Mission. So that means all of west valley and whatever is in the south zone. So whoever is called to serve there on the June 13th transfer will be changed to the other mission. The rest of the people that aren’t transferred will stay part of the Utah Salt Lake City Mission. And that is where President and Sister Winn will be serving too. The cool thing is that our mission will be growing bigger. We are going to lose West Valley and the south part but then we are going to extend all the way to Bountiful and Layton! Pretty cool huh! I will go wherever the Lord wants me to go, but if I could give Him a plate of cookies to influence Him I would want to stay with Pres and Sis Winn. :)...so transfers are in two and a half weeks, then another transfer and I will know what mission I will be a part of!

Things are going really well here in Rose Park. We are having a lot of success and the Lord is blessing us a lot. We had another baptism last week. It’s the lady who went with faith to her boss to get Sunday’s off of work so she could go to church with her family.  Her story was amazing and the fact that she got baptized was a miracle in itself. So for our baptism, the AP's came, Pres and Sis Winn came and they brought investigators. We also had 4 investigators there as well, and some missionaries from my district had investigators there. So it was a packed house. The baptism was going very well until I was in the water with her and the doors that are supposed to open so the rest of the people can see the baptism wouldn't open. They tried for like 10 minutes and they couldn't get them open so we had just the investigators and my comp and Sis Winn and the witnesses come and squish together in the back so they could see the baptism. This sweet lady told me that she didn't think that Satan wanted her to get baptized but that she was going to prove him wrong!  

Well that is pretty much everything. Wish me luck on my cake that I have to do for the wedding haha I hope I don't mess it up!

Love Ya!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer

She told her boss she wouldn't be working on Sundays so she could go to church with her family...

Hola Familia!

This will be short. The reason is because we had a visa waiter last week and we had to take him around to the Mexican consulate and go get his flight plans and then we took him back to the airport today. We went back to Paisa Grill today with the ZL's..the Tongans including Elder D-and Elder M- who is one of the ZL's but also the raining heavy weight champion of the mission. He has destroyed all of the food challenges here and I told him about the Pasia Grill taco one and so we all went today. Now when I broke the record and got 29 tacos, I weighed 170...Elder M- weighs like 100 more than that haha so long story short. Elder M- tied me at 29.

We had another baptism this week and everything went really well. We have two marriages lined up next weekend so that is exciting!

I will just share one of the miracles that I had this week before I log off. We were teaching a lady 2 months ago when I first got to this area and then she just disappeared. Then two weeks ago we found her again and arranged for her to get married. She really wanted to get baptized too but the problem was that she was working on Sundays. So we committed her to ask for Sundays off so that she could go to church. She asked her boss like 3 or 4 times for Sundays off and he just told her no. So then we had a lesson with her and we shared the story about when Nephi went back to get the plates and particularly 1 Nephi 3:7. We promised her that if she asked her boss one more time for Sundays off that he would give them to her because going to church is a commandment and if it is a commandment then God will always find a way to make it happen. So the next day she went to work and told her boss, not asked, that she wouldn't be working on Sundays so that she could go to church with her family. Her boss said okay and gave her Sundays off which was great! Things got a little complicated with the boss threatening to cut her hours altogether.  She prayed that her boss’s heart would be softened.  She somehow found herself in an interesting position where she found a paper her boss needed that had confidential information on it.  When she returned it to him, he accommodated all of her schedule concerns.  It’s true; the Lord often works in mysterious ways…

 I gotta go now but I hope all is going good back home.

Love Ya Lots!

Siempre Crean,

Elder Creer