Letter #38 - June 7, 2010

Hello loved ones,
Thanks for the great emails this week. And a special thanks to Willy-face. It was good to hear from you. :) So I think I've reached my maximum ugliocity here on the mission. Chubby, sweaty, bug-bitten, and sun-burned with damaged hair. Good thing there is no one to impress... although it does make sending photos a little embarrassing. So don't judge. Haha, I'm taking care of more important things than how pretty I look these days.

Me in my rain boots, which I've used three times.
(Editor's note: "maximum ugliocity? try cutesiosity)

Happy happy birthday ALI DEAR! Sorry I didn't mention it in the last email so the shout out is a day late. But I'm happy to hear that the package got there safe and in time. Did the jicaro cup break or did it get there in one piece? And you can just stash my journal and agendas somewhere where I'll be able to find them in 10 months. Of course you can use whatever part of whichever letter you want to use. If they can be of use to uplift another, please use them.

We had another "preparation day" where we just wore ourselves out and didn't prepare a thing. Haha. It was another "Super P-day" where the whole mission got together and went to the Masaya Volcano. I actually had already seen it (in December with Hna. Bustillos) but this time we didn't get to go into the cave. But it was really fun to be together will all the missionaries and see friends. We were all together last monday as well, looking at pictures of all the weddings from the activity on May 28, playing soccer, and eating pizza. I think Pres. Fraatz is just super happy to be finishing a successful mission and wants to celebrate a bit. But travelling was definitely less than comfortable. We had to leave Jinotega on the 4am bus to Managua to meet with the rest of the zone and get to Masaya in time. And to my utter dejection, the bus was standing room only when it pulled up so we were sardined in there and rode on our feet for three hours this morning. Needless to say, I'm little tired in body and mind.

The Masaya Volcano

A bug that Elder Speer found and decided needed to be in my picture. Thanks Elder Speer. :)

The Hermanas at the volcano

(Our favorite Hermana)

This week Omar Castillo was baptized. His wife Idaida felt unprepared and wanted to see a baptism first and there was nothing I could say to reassure her and convince her to get baptized this week with her husband. So we're going to work with her a lot this week and she'll get baptized this coming Saturday. Omar's baptism went really smoothly as far as baptisms in Nicaragua go. We had to make a few last minute calls to get enough priesthood holders there to be witnesses and there was a bit of a clothing crisis, but nothing we couldn't handle. The biggest lessons I'm learning this week have to do with patience and my companion, but I'm not going to say more on that subject. Just that I really am learning no to let outside circumstances affect my attitude. I've been happy despite a lot of interesting stuff this week.

Omar's baptism

Hna. Hernandez and I on a street in Jinotega next to a little fruit market

I'm excited for Dad to get all plugged in and started with his new ward. When is the first Sunday? Soon right? I'll think of good ward prayer ideas and hopefully have time to write more next week. Also, I think the mission is already essentially split and unless something drastic happens, I'll be staying in mission north. Our new president is named Pres. Arredondo from Guatemala. We'll meet him soon I think. The change conference is the 16th, and we have a sending-off surprize conference for Pres. Fraatz on the 22 and Elder Sanders (AP) asked me to sing a duet with Hna. Lee. We're going to sing For Good from Wicked and I think it will be really nice. So things will be changing, I don't know how much, but we'll find out. Elder Gomez, one of our zone leaders who is actually from Nicaragua, but has lived in the US a lot too and speaks perfect English, in fact we call him a fake Latino, pointed out the supposed plot for the temple as we were driving through Managua today but I don't know if he actually knows. They haven't said anything more than they are looking for terreno, so nothing new to report there.

Well there is actually not a whole lot to tell this week. I love you all mucho mucho mucho.

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - even if you're an ugly one. :)

Love, Hna. Crosland

Me and Becky, the cutest thing in Jinotega

Letter #37 - June 2, 2010

Sorry for the really late email. And thanks for the funny picture, I am feeling much better. Just a little bug. To be honest, I've only had diarrhea once on my mission... it's just lasted for 8 months now. Haha.

So we had some exciting news this week. President Fraatz let us know that in the month of May, as a mission we baptized and confirmed 621 people in Nicaragua and that number included 105 families. That is seriously incredible. We have a huge focus on families as a mission because that is the best way to build the church and retain converts. It is harder to baptize a mom and a dad than a single person and much harder than baptizing kids, which has been done in a lot of missions in central and south america in the past. But it is super hard to retain kids without their parents and children are not filling the leadership positions necesarry to build up the church in these countries. And a family with father and mother can support each other and are more likely to stay strong in the church. So that is our huge focus and baptizing 105 families in one month is almost unheard of. But the news was bitter sweet for me because for the first time since I got to Nicaragua, I went the entire month without a baptism. But, we did have a miracle at the end of last week and we have a family to baptize on Saturday. So here's the miracle marriage story:

President Fraatz let the whole mission know the second week of May that each zone was going to have a two day activity of marriages and baptisms the 28 and 29 of May. And that each companionship needed to have two families prepared to be baptized on the 29th. Well, Hna. Hernandez and I have been working primarily with families for the last few weeks and we had a bunch of potential families. Now everyone knows that in your big pool of investigators, there are a few who progress and a lot who don't. Well, with all the families that we were teaching we cried week after week as they gave us all the excuses in the world not to come to church. All of the positive families that we had seemed to be falling through. So the week of the activity we were without one single family to baptize, but at the zone meeting the AP's put the pressure on the ZL's and they told us to work miracles and to find the families to bring to the activity.

So we got home and I started praying, and I prayed a lot, a whole lot. And when I got up off my knees, I went to the area book and started looking through the list of past investigators. Within just a few seconds I found the teaching record of Omar and Idaida, a family who had been to church a bunch of times, had had all the lessons, but couldn't get married because Omar couldn't pay for a divorce from his first wife. So we took down the direction and set out to find them. That was the first miracle. The second miracle was that we actually found them and that they were both home. They had moved to a different house so it was kind of a wild goose chase to find them, but that's actually how it always is even with a good direction and people who haven't moved. The addresses are so vague here, "from where the saw mill used to be, one block to the lake and 25 feet to the north..." used to be? how are we supposed to find that? and that would be a pretty clear direction

So anyway, I said another prayer, upped my faith and proceeded to tell them that the Lord had guided us to their house because He is mindful of their situation and that He wanted them to be married and baptized in two days. Hmm... actually it went over pretty well. They told us about their situation and we went to work trying to find a way to resolve it. It was kind of a tricky divorce because althought it was written by the lawyer about 15 years ago, it was never registered. So we made a bunch of calls to the Elders who were working with the lawyers to get a bunch of their own families married and long story short, they made it possible. Then the day of the activity arrived and we found a place to rent a microbus for the evening/night so that we could travel to Matagalpa and back and then went to visit Omar and Idaida to make sure everything was a go. Well, Omar was in Managua with his police squad and wasn't going to be back until the evening and Idaida told us that her mother was really sick so she was going to visit her in a neighboring town and that she couldn't go to the activity either. Ahhh! So we talked to her a bunch, called her husband and found out exactly when he would be back and got them back on board. Then we went to some other appointments.

When we returned about an hour before the bus was supposed to leave, Omar had just gotten home and he told us that his jefe had just told them about a mandatory meeting for all the police officers in Jinotega that he had to be to in 45 minutes. Yikes. I had no idea how we were going to get out of this one. But there is another member of the ward who is a police officer so we called him, and long story short, he was able to get permission for Omar to come to the activity. Well all said and done, they went and got married and even though they coulnd't get baptized that saturday, they are going to be baptized this saturday and I am wonderfully happy, and really tired, but with strengthened faith in the Lord.

I am learning some hard lessons right now. I think I'm at a critical point in my mission where I am really figuring out who I am as a missionary and as a disciple. I gave my farewell talk on discipleship, but I've come to realize that I really didn't have a clue what that meant. I didn't know what it meant to receive counsel from leaders that I didn't understand or that seemed illogical, impossible, or even erroneous and then find the faith to sacrifice everything to do it anyway. I understand more personally the early saints of the church who were asked to make incredible sacrifices and follow a prophet in counsel that seemed ludicrous. I used to think that this mission was insane. When President Fraatz asked us to put four baptismal dates a day I thought it was impossible, but I had a companion who knew better, who had a lot more faith than I did and she showed me it was possible. I still fight with myself when the standards are raised to impossible heights or we are asked to do things that seem contrary to the way I think they should be done. But I am learning to have faith, to trust my leaders and not hearken to my own understanding, and then sacrifice more than I thought I had and do the impossible to accomplish whatever is asked of me. I think that is how the Lord has always worked, but I haven't ever really recognized it so harshly before. There is example after example of it in the scriptures, Abraham sacrificing his son, Nephi killing Laban (and doing just about everything else that he did), Alma and the sons of Mosiah's missions to the Lamanites, the army of Captain Moroni winning unconquerable battles, the brother of Jared building barges and finding light to cross the ocean... Joseph Smith said something to the effect of, a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things will never have the power sufficient enough to produce the faith necessary for salvacion. I am coming to understand that quote, even though I still fight against it sometimes.

Well long email and I didn't even get to a few things, but my time is up.

I love you all a whole lot more than I know how to express.

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - learning lessons for forever.

Love, Hna. Crosland

P.S.

Mom, I am damp a lot of the time, but Hna. Bustillos left me her rainboots and I've used them twice now, to my utmost delight. They make trekking through the rivers that used to be streets a lot more pleasant. Don't worry about me at all. The Lord is taking good care of me. Love you.

Letter #36 - May 24, 2010

Hey friends and fam,

We had our conferencia multizona this week which wiped out a good day and a half because of all the traveling, but it was really good to hear from Pres.Fraatz and have classes from the office elders. I always feel edified and leave with new goals of how I can improve. We didn't get Ronaldo y Rosa Idalia to church again... and neither of the other two families I told you about last week came either. Darn. But Osmin was there and we taught a really awesome lesson on the atonement in the class of investigators/recent converts. And Ivania and her kids came.

We had a baptism lined up with Concepción, a single mom with 5 kids under the age of 12. But since we had the conference in the middle of the week we couldńt go visit her and when the DL's came out to interview her Friday night, she had left to work. I was so frustrated. We had set up the appointment with her and everything. So we came back at 7 am the next morning and she had just left to go work again. We tried to get any information about where she was working from her kids and other people that live there, but only got the general area. So we went out to search for her for a couple of hours, but by about 9 we had our first appointments and the elders had to get back to their area. I had a bit of a breakdown and had a good cry, but then we got to work and the day went a little better. It's hard for Concepción because she is incredibly poor and trying to support five kids, so she is basically washing and ironing clothes for other people to earn money all the time. She comes in way late at night and often leaves at 5 in the morning. We'll keep trying to find her and help her understand how the gospel is going to bless her life even though it will take away some work time.

I am learning more and more what it means to sacrifice. We have been on a new schedule for three weeks now. Waking up at 5am instead of 630am and getting out on the streets to work at 9 instead of 1030. Honestly, I haven't seen a drastic improvement but I have faith the the Lord will bless us. And Presidente Fraatz said that it really has made a big difference in the mission because all the missionaries are doing it.

It has really started to pour super hard everyday. We've been lucky to be near houses where we can jump inside when it starts and haven't gotten drenched yet, but it tests your patience when you're stuck in someone's house for a good hour while the rain passes and you had bunch of people you needed to see. That's what happened on Saturday. We were working in an area called Los Angeles when it started to dump buckets of rain so we knocked on the door of a couple that we had contacted the week before. We hadn't had the chance to go back and visit them yet so we really didn't know them, but they were happy to invite us in out of the rain. Unfortunately when it's the enormous drops of rain are pelting the zinc roofs, no one can hear absolutely anything anyone says... so we tried to sing a hymn and then sort of sat trying to talk and mostly looking and smiling at each other until I started falling asleep. At that point the daughter invited us to come to the back and make tortillas with the mom.

It was pretty funny, because I'm still really bad at palmeando or making tortillas but they gave us all the ones we made to eat, probably because they were ugly. Then the daughter asked if we liked beans... funny question, what else are you going to eat in Nicaragua if you don't like beans? So we said yes and she proceeded to cook us a huge pot of beans and gave us each a heaping plate of steaming hot beans, three more tortillas and a bit of cheese called cuajada. And we had just eaten lunch... wow, I thought I was going to burst and out would spill all the beans from my belly onto the dirt floor. But I was really touched at how open and kind and generous the people are here.

They invite anyone inside to escape the rain and then give them all that they have. They are truly Christ-like examples in that aspect. I hope I can learn to sacrifice the best I have and to serve others like that, not expecting anything in return and not saving the best for me. I hope I am learning to sacrife my own wants and comforts to serve like Christ did and truly help others in every way that I can for the rest of my life. I think that mothers learn to do that really fast.

Congrats to my newest mother-friend, Ms. Erin Sorensen, may you find all the most beautiful joy in sacrifice with your new little boy. Well, my time is up!

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - because sacrifice builds faith.

I love you all more than I can say. Thanks for your letters and words of love and support. They make a world of difference while we're a world away.

LOVE, Hna. Crosland

Hna Juarez and I on the last P-day before she left

All of the zone crammed into a microbus on our way to a Multizona Conference. I couldn't believe how many missionaries we jammed into one tiny space for a three hour bus ride in the Nicaraguan heat.

A rad pig I met.

A few pictures from the Young Single Adult Activity from a few weeks ago.

Letter #35 - May 17, 2010

Hi lovelies,

This week makes three in row without a baptism and we've had pretty sad numbers at church. It's really easy to see and monitor progress by the baptisms and church attendance, and after a week of hard work, it hurts when there is nothing to show for it. We were hoping to baptize Ivania and her kids this week, and one of the APs and our zone leader came out to get them excited and teach/interview them, but we went to her house in the morning and she was busy, but the elders kind of pushed their way in and tried to teach/talk to her anyway and they ended up just making her way mad. So there went our baptisms. Trying to push people around just never works.

But, we taught some bang-a-rang lessons this week to some of the recent converts who are now less active (and inactive) members of the ward that I've been working with for over 3 months. We felt the spirit so strong and they were so pumped up and excited to come to church, committed to come with zeal.... and they didn't show. It just about killed me. I was so sure they would finally come. We also really needed to get family (Ronaldo y Rosa Idalia) to church so they start really progressing and they put up a bunch of excuses Sunday morning. However, we did have 8 investigators at church and two of them were even a family. Teaching families is the best thing ever. It's just sad when you think you've found a really awesome family that is going to progress and then you find out that one of them is married to someone else still... not that many people care or much less have the money to get a divorce in Nicaragua. That's happened to us twice in the last month. So that's the pits, but we are working with 2 families that are actually legally married and a couple more who aren't married but who don't have a divorce standing in the way.

Ronald and Rosa Idalia had the discussions like 5 years ago but they moved to a new area and I think the missionaries lost them. They went to church with them at least once the first time around, but they didn't come this week with us. Hopefully next week we can get them both there. Ronaldo is a lot more positive than his wife but when we can get her to sit down and listen she always softens up.

The other married family was a reference from one of the oldest members in the branch (has the most time to be a member of the church). It's his son and daughter in law. Hno. Cesar is a very interesting ward member. He's about 65 and joined the church almost 20 years ago. His wife and 8 kids are all super catholic and basically disowned him (and divorced him) when he joined the church. But he still lives in the same house as his ex-wife.

The lesson with his son actually went really well though. We talked about eternal families and the restoration of the sealing power and they were really interested and had good questions. They live in a dangerous area for us to work in after dark though and since they work all week, we can only teach them on Sundays. Which means it will be hard to get them to church and progress will be a little slow but I think that they have a lot of potential too.

The family that came to church yesterday are called Julio Cesar and Kenia. He's about 35 and she's 17... but whatever. They've got a cute one year old and they are both mildly interested, but they did come to church. What I like about them is they are frank with us. They don't lie and they don't hide. That always saves us time...

Another who came to church is named Osmin. He is 20 and was a reference from another ward member. I help him learn english and then we preach the gospel. So far it's working out nicely. I think it would be amazing to baptize him and prepare him for a mission... How sweet would it be to have someone you taught on a mission? That's my dream with him anyway.

Wow, I feel like this email is super boring. I'm getting good at soccer again. We play every monday and I'm always the only hermana who likes to play. I made two goals today and had a direct assit in two others. It's fun to play with the latino elders. They're way good. Well, really that's all that happened this week, we taught a lot of sweet lessons and then no one came to church and our baptism fell through... bummer. But the work goes on and we keep praying and working with all we've got to find those whose hearts are prepared to receive greater blessings than they ever thought possible.

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - even when you can't see the fruits...

Love, Hna. Crosland

P.S. Thanks for sending me stuff. Wow, you guys are on the ball. And I don't think I told you last week, the stuff you sent with the Sheets came through pouch this week. Thanks so much! The talks are amazing. And the singing card just about made my week. Jajaja, you guys are a hoot. I miss your crazy faces.



Here is a pic I sent to our zone leaders last week. This is the zone Matagalpa before the last changes. The sisters from left to right are Hna. Aguilar, Hna. Bustillos, yo, Hna. López, Hna. Zavaleta, Hna. Escobar, Hna. Juarez, Hna. Estrada, y Hna. Pineda. All of my comps are in this photo (except for Hna. Hernandez). Fun huh? Sorry I haven't sent any interesting pics for a long time... I'll try harder next week.

Love me.

Letter #34 - May 10, 2010

Yay! It was so fun to talk to you all yesterday. I'm so glad everyone is happy and healthy in body and spirit. It is really an incredible support to have a family like you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Well, for everyone else who doesn't know... I'm still in Jinotega and I'm not training. My new companion is Hna. Hernandez from Guatemala. She's bold and not afraid to say it how it is, so that's mostly a good thing. :)

It is nice to be back in Jinotega working like a normal missionary after the last week and a half of activity planning. It's amazing the progress we lose in such a short time of not working. Satan works 24/7 and when we are doing other things, he never rests. We've had a less than steller church attendance the last two weeks and I don't know if we are going to baptize this week, but we have a lot of faith and we're going to work dang hard.

It's started to rain more consistantly. It drizzles at least every day and we've had about three really good monsoons in the last week. I think I'll be damp for the next 6 months of my mission. But, everything is looking more green and beautiful and that is nice. This place really is gorgeous when you get out of the city and look past the trash.

So Paige asked about our investigators yesterday and I realized that I need to repent and write more about the people we are teaching. So here is my repentance, and a few words about some of the interesting people we've met and taught:

1) Felix - an old guy who actually lives about 20 minutes away by bus. He raises chickens and pigs and has a beautiful piece of land and charming house in the mountains outside of the city. He has been investigating the church for about three years, knows it's true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet but wont stop drinking coffee... He's very interesting and very frustrating to teach.

2) Ivania and kids - the wife of a recent convert named José Luis. She can't read and doesn't ever want to pray, but she comes to church and to a lot of the activities. We're still waiting for her to give permission to baptize her two kids, Irvin and Leila.

3) Armando y Yamileth - a lovely pair who are not married, but have two little kids. She really likes everything we teach but hasn't been able to come to church yet, in part because of her crazy three year old. He doesn't want to get married but has come to church once. We're gonna keep working on him.

4) Melba y Noel - she has been to church about 3 times and knows it's true. The problem is that she is living with Noel but is still married to the father of her two sons. Divorces are really expensive and take a ton of time... downer.

5) Concepción - single mom who likes the lessons. She can't read but is really humble and accepts the principles.

As the others we are teaching start to progress, I'll fill you in on a few more. We just usually baptize our investigators pretty fast so all the ones with a continual story are the ones with big hold ups. Anyway. There you go. I'll try to better about letting you know how they are all doing.

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - especially when you get to talk to your family.

Love, love, love,

Hna. Crosland

Letter #33 - May 3, 2010

Hey Ma and Pa,

I feel like I'm writing just to you two today for some reason, and it's kind of nice. It's a smaller more intimate crowd. First of all, answers to your questions. My toe is feeling just fine, thank you :). This week was insane with all the planning. The church is new here and the district (stake) leaders are still learning how to do things on such big level. Basically we pulled off an activity that would have taken months of planning in Utah in just a week. And when I say we, I mean the missionaries. I don't really know how we ended up being in charge of mostly everything and actually I don't know if the district intended us to be either, but we spent a big chunk of the afternoon planning on Tuesday after the zone meeting, Tuesday night and Wednesday Hna. Juarez and I worked in our area and then Thursday morning we caught the first bus back to Matagalpa to finish planning and buy all the things we needed and set up for the activity which took place Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We butt heads with the district a little bit when it came to the budget and we found out that we had been planning things a little bit differently. I don't know how they were thinking to pull this activity off with trying to plan everything the day before.

It was a good thing that we took the initiative and had detailed plans for the activities and the decorations. Friday evening about 150 young single adults arrived and we had a brief spiritual meeting with a hymn, a welcome, a brief message from one of the district counsellors, a testimony, and I organized a last minute missionary choir (yikes). Then everyone went in to the cultural hall which we decorated with a huge net filled with balloons hung from the ceiling and big letters that said CONVENCIÓN JAS 2010 on the wall in back of the stage. We also covered the light on the stage with blue crepe paper and it looked really cool. The noche de talentos went really well but I don't know what happened with housing everyone that night because we weren't in charge of that part and I think a bunch of kids ended up sleeping in the church. The morning activity was a hike which also turned out to be terribly unorganized but the scavenger hunt that we planned for the afternoon was awesome and everyone had a really good time. Hna. Juarez and I left in the afternoon before the fiesta but they told us that it turned out to be really fun. They all had a testimony meeting Sunday morning at 6:00am as well and the Presidente of the district told us that it was really spiritual and he was really pleased. Well, all in all it was a success I guess. Now they will be able to learn from the mistakes to make the next activity like this much better. Phew!

As far as teaching and contacting this week, it was pretty sad. Like I said, we only worked in Jinotega for a day and a half and I am really worried about the area. Our church attendance dropped by about 25 people and we haven't been able to go back and teach a lot of our new investigators. And now I'm back in Matagalpa in a trio with the hermanas working here until the changes this wednesday. Hna. Juarez left for Managua to have her final interview this morning and she leaves for Guatemala tomorrow. I already miss her a ton. She taught me a lot about the kind of missionary I want to be. Always positive, and never doubting. That girl really knew how to get things done. She was not an excuse maker, just a do-er. Yep, I want to do that too. Well, I'm a little bit nervous I might train this change. I don't think I'll be leaving Jinotega since I'm the only one that knows the area right now, but we never know. I'm really excited to get back to a normal schedule though and work in my own area. As fun as party planning is, it really has been the strangest week of my mission.

Congrats to Will on making snare. That is awesome. It will be a fun summer for him on the drumline again. I'm sad I'll miss all the shows... but for his senior year I'll be there! How's good ol' Dr. Fullmer doing? How crazy that Will is going to be driving soon and have his braces off. Everyone is growing up, seriously. So weird. Help Will work hard in his calling. He can do a lot to strengthen his quorum. I never realized the importance of every member and every calling in the church. We are called to build the kingdom everyday in every calling that we have and the Lord uses us, very plain and ordinary people, to accomplish miracles if we are willing to work with an open heart and mind to heed the guidance of the Spirit.

I wish I could see Ali dance! Oh what I would do to have been at her final concert. I hope you recorded it so I can watch it when I get back. What a fun and exciting (and hard) time she is embarking on. I know she'll shine too, mama. She always has. Is Megan still up there at BYU-I? That will be such a great experience for her.

Well, my time is running short. Thanks for your beautiful words full of wisdom and gratitude daddy. I feel just the same. Being here has opened my eyes to so many problems that I never saw before. There is so much work to do. It's a lifetime calling. And it makes me tremendously grateful for my family and all that the Lord has blessed me with. It has also given me such a clear vision of what I want my future to look like. Thank you for being such beautiful examples to me. Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning my wheels, like nothing is getting through, like I can't possibly make a difference. But I know that I am here for a wise purpose and as I continue to do all in my power and then more with the power of the Lord, He will make up the difference.

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - building the kingdom one nation-wide single adult activity at a time.

All my love,
Hna. Crosland

Letter #31 - April 16, 2010

Dear Everyone,

It's been a bit of a crazy week. We had interviews and meetings all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning I was in the hospital getting an ingrown toenail taken care of. The hospital in Jinotega is seriously a scary place. I'm glad it was nothing more serious than an ingrown toenail that I was being treated for. They shot up my toe with anesthesia which hurt like crazy and then cut out the ingrown part of my nail. I used one shoe and one sandal for a few days but that wasn't very ideal so I'm back to my shoes and so far haven't had any more problems. Phew!

We're planning a huge three day activity for all the young single adults in Nicarauga this weekend. It should be awesome. It's going to be here in Matagalpa (the zone that I'm in, not my area) so the missionaries here are in charge of planning everything. A little crazy but fun too...

We got new mission standards or goals I guess and it's been amazing to see what the Lord is able to do with missionaries who put their trust in him even when the task seems impossible. I was skeptical and really lacking faith at first that we could accomplish all that is being asked of us, but I had a really good interview with Pres. Fraatz and I decided stop questioning the sanity of my leaders and just work hard and have faith. We don't meet every goal every day but the improvement has been drastic. We put nearly four baptismal dates every day with people we contact in the street.

Now, not all of these get baptized, but we are better able to discern which people will really progress and focus on those who are willing to change their lives. I think a big part of what I have learned, and what I continue to learn here is that when what the Lord asks seems crazy, illogical, or even impossible, the only thing to do is augment your faith and do it anyway. Just do it. So we have to find four people each day willing to accept a baptismal date, we just do it. And the Lord puts those people in our path when we believe it can be done. For me, my mission has been one impossible obstacle after another, but I am learning that I can do ANYTHING
with faith in my Savior. It's humbling and empowering at the same time.

Well I love you all very much. Good luck with all that you are doing and know that nothing is impossible. The Lord is building us into the men and women for the eternities.

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world - SÍ SE PUEDE!


with all my love,

Hna. Crosland