Service is good for the soul

I am sorry that I regularly do not seem to have sufficient time to write, but I have service I need to do for some people and I need to leave soon. P-day is not always a day of rest ;)

We had an amazing broadcast from the General Authorities and leaders of the church. It was all about increasing our efforts to bring people to repentance. It was a great lesson and helped me to focus so much more on what is needed. I am here to preach nothing but repentance to these people. That is why we are here. We invite others to repent. The way we do that is by giving them commitments. Praying, reading scripture, attending church: these are all bringing our lives in line with God's will. Ultimately we invite people to get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and progress towards the temple. This is what our Father in heaven asks of us. We must repent of our pride and our enmity towards God and follow Him. Easier said than done, though. I love this gospel and I am very grateful that we can all repent. We all have repenting we must do and we must repent daily. I have so many things that are holding me back but I know the Lord is grateful that I try. My favorite line from Ephraim's Rescue is where she calls him a holy man. He replies that he cannot count how many imperfections he has. She wants to know why he can perform such amazing blessings if he is imperfect. His reply gives me so much hope: "I try"

I love you and I pray for you. 

Elder Crowe

Some of the last times with one of my best friends

My homies

Burning a tie and shirt - Elder L's 6 month and my 1 year (well almost!)

Looking for miracles

Releasing my inner photographer

Hello Familia

I apologize. I don't like typing things over and over so I am copying and pasting a story that I wrote to Erin earlier: 

First I wanted to tell you about one of my favorite miracles this week. We were at a member’s house for dinner and we were shoveling their driveway so they could get to work the next morning. They have a really long steep driveway. We were struggling trying to get it finished because they didn't have snow shovels and it was a MASSIVE driveway. So we prayed that we would be able to clear their driveway. We worked for about an hour. By this point we were sweating and had taken our jackets off and we were just in our white shirts. A man drove past and was giving us some advice about how to speed up the process. We thanked him and he drove away. 5 minutes later her drove back and dropped off two big buckets of road salt. He was a huge answer to a prayer. We were able to get the rest of the drive salted in 15 minutes and it was melted in about an hour.

Another miracle was when we needed to catch a bus to get home. It's about an hour bus ride to get home and we had to catch the last bus of the night. Our bus came at 6 and it was 6, so we asked someone to give us a ride to the station. I offered a prayer of faith (Elder Lampropoulos and I were alone putting our shoes on) and we just pleaded saying that this was the last bus and we needed it. We know He will provide and so we asked Him, knowing that He would, to provide in this dire situation. We got there right as the bus was pulling into the bus stop and got on the bus safely and started heading home. I looked at my watch and the bus had been 5 minutes late. What a miracle! I have been trying to have my eyes open to the miracles this week. So this was awesome! Faith is such an amazing power that I don't really understand yet. But I am getting a little closer everyday. The Brother of Jared got to see Christ because he had such amazing faith. Heavenly Father let a bus stop for my faith ;) I'm almost there.

Galashiels

We had a fun District Meeting this week. My District has been working so hard and doing so well, and so I planned some games for District Meeting. Obviously they were spiritual games that allowed us to learn ;) We went on an exchange with the Galashiels Elders on Wednesday and had a grand time. I enjoy seeing my missionaries and getting to be one on one with them. They are all such powerful men of God. They teach me so much every time I see them. We got to go to a ZIT in Edinburgh since we missed ours because the train was down. It was a great conference that left us spiritually uplifted and edified. After that we didn't have much time but we ran and grabbed some dinner with some missionaries. We were going to sleep in the Zone Leaders flat and we were going to be late getting home so we had to walk really fast and didn't have time to talk to people. But we were walking and we decided we would stop the next person that passed (we can't be outside and not stop at least one person). It was amazing! He had talked with missionaries before in Poland, and we got his details and got to give his info to the Zone Leaders. Hopefully they can start teaching him. 

Anyways. It has been an amazing week. I feel very happy to be alive and to be serving my Lord and my God. 

We can choose to believe that God is running His church, or we can choose to believe that there is chaos all around and we are to fend for ourselves. I know that God has called His prophets and apostles. I have felt the spirit testify that to my heart and my mind. He in in control of His church. Everyone from the prophet down to the deacons quorum President is called of God. Faith is a choice. I pray we will all choose to trust God and those He has appointed. 

Elder Crowe

It snowed! :)

Massive snowball fight....everyone ganged up on the Elders.

I love President Hunter

Hello all,

This has been a long week. We woke up at 5 and went to the train station that was a 30-minute bus ride away. When we got there we waited outside (it was raining) and Elder Lampropoulos saw a sign that said all the trains north had been cancelled... So, we missed Zone Interview Training, but I think President is going to get us to another one this week. 

I love this gospel. I was reading a lot of talks by President Hunter this week. One of my favorites is "What Manner of Men Ought Ye To Be?" It is very short but so powerful. What an amazing man President Hunter was. He passed away the month before I was born. This week I have come to love him as if he had spoken to me and taught me personally. My testimony of him has grown immensely. What a man of God. This was my favorite part:

We must know Christ better than we know him; we must remember him more often than we remember him; we must serve him more valiantly than we serve him. Then we will drink water springing up unto eternal life and will eat the bread of life. What manner of men and women ought we to be? Even as he is. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

It is such a simple yet powerful phrase. He loved the Saviour so much and showed it in all he did. I want to be like him when I grow up. 

Cancelled trains because of flooding

Superman Jammies - Best present ever!! :)

Happy New Year

I have learned a lot this week. I have been doing some studying and pondering and I have learned a great many things. Some are too personal to share right now, but I am glad that they spirit bears witness to us of the truthfulness of this gospel. It is a marvelous thing.

It flooded so badly here this week. Many shops on the high street (main street) got flooded. We call that area the Whitesands. The shops along there got loads of water. I will add pictures. 

We got dropped by a few people this week, which is really sad, but we are finding more and have some really cool potentials. There’s one man in particular named John. He is a really cool man. We have met him a few times, and we hope that we can get him to truly read and pray this week. 

I have been reading the Miracle of Forgiveness (thank you Keeley and Tanner) and I have learned some amazing things so far, and I'm only a chapter in. It is a great book. I love Spencer W. Kimball. 

Something I have learned a lot this week is how much we need to repent. We cannot be comfortable with any sins. We cannot say "Yes, but I only lie sometimes" or "My little siblings are annoying. I only yell when they make me". We cannot allow ANY sins to pass without repenting. We need to make ourselves white in the blood of the Lamb. Not white and leave a few tiny stains. I don't say it to seem like a big scary thing; I say it so we do not ever get complacent and think we have made it. The Prophet of the Living God repents EVERY DAY. A man we think must be as close as we can get to perfect in this life repents daily. We can all learn from that. 

I love you very much! 

Elder Crowe

Elder Cluster

With missionaries in Edinburgh