I am just going to give a brief update on some of the days that I had this last week, to give you an idea of what I have been doing. Dec. 15 - Preparation day started with a zone meeting where everyone just got jacked for not working hard with faith, so the focus of the week was believing in ourselves and trusting in Heavenly Father and His willingness to help and guide us. That night we went out to work with the area book of former investigators and visited people who were being taught in the last couple years!! Major miracle: we met a woman, Aida, and her two boys who were being taught a year ago and the minute she opened the door she said, "Finally, you're here!! I was talking about you just a couple hours ago!!" it was awesome until the rest of the week came and she was no longer interested... but for the night it was a true miracle. Dec. 17 - We went on exchanges with the STL's and I was so excited because they're area is in the ghetto but when I got there - it looks the same as my area in Edinburg but with the backdrop of mexico. Anyway today marks my first time driving in the mission!! Dec. 19 - Christmas Conference! We rode in the car for a total of 6 hours, going to and from Corpus Christi in a single day!! So the day started at 4am and we didn't get home until after 10pm. The conference was fun and I got packages so thanks to everyone that sent them!! Also there was a missionary gift exchange from all the missionary parents - missionary parents are way more impressive than missionaries. Dec. 21 - Sundays are just the best. All my friends out there who don't go to church. Go to church just because it will make you feel good. You get to set aside time to just be with the family - you can dress up and feel like you accomplished something for the day and overall its just happy. Out of time for the day but I love all of you and I am sorry if this email hasn't lived up to your expectations. As far as the spiritual improvement goes, currently I am working on the attribute of humility. I've learned a lot about where our confidence should come from, and that is from Heavenly Father. So simple. Merry Christmas & Almost Happy New Year XOXO -H Boo Crawford

Hardest week of this alternate reality that I am living, called a mission. Rejection and extremely hard work. This last week has been the most difficult since getting to Texas. Nothing worked out, and everything that we had been working for since before I got to Laredo crumbled in front of us. I have never experienced so much fervent rejection in my entire life. Every investigator we had been teaching dropped us. Every less active family that we went to teach told us how much they disliked our visits and would appreciate us leaving them alone. Alright so apparently this is semi-normal for Sister Sainsbury and everyone that dropped us this week has been only semi-investigators for a long time. I am over it. Our zone leaders and district leaders keep saying to focus on who we are already are meeting with but I don't think that is our most effective use of time. So now that everyone has dropped we have an opportunity to work super hard to find new people. This last week I worked harder and fasted and prayed more than I ever have in my life - really its been feast and famine now for the past seven days and I am exhausted but at the same time I am super happy! I don't think I have ever worked this hard at anything ever and been so reliant on Heavenly Father's help. Another weird part of the last week is that we have had five 'zone meetings' now zone meetings usually only happen once a month so to have five in one week is absolutely insane!! Apparently the whole zone is struggling to meet their goals this month and we need to motivational training to get stuff done! Anyway, on Saturday we played rugby as a zone for a zone meeting and we had this polynesian member - Brother Lavalava explain the game. Rugby is all about trust and getting the ball to the other side but you cant throw the ball forward, so you have to just run for it and scrounge around by kicking it. ...well I didn't know what the smokes was going on so Brother Lavalava had me stand by him and he played on our team. Basically I got my own personal coaching session of rugby, and I ended up learning a lot about life! The whole time he kept saying, "stay by me, stay by me, stay by me but slightly behind". And the other thing he kept yelling was, "keep moving forward." When you are in rugby you have to trust the people around you and they have to trust you to be there, I am working on that but I think it is most important that we stay by Heavenly Father and trust Him and then be worthy of His trust. And when we just trust we are able to keep moving forward. There is no point in dwelling in the past but rather we've got to look at all the possibilities we haven't tried yet and go do them! I love it, even though its hard sometimes. December is hard, but holy cow does it make you grateful for my family and everyone. I love you guys and keep moving forward to christmas break or all the other happiness that comes this time of year! LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU H Boo Crawford

Hola Familia!! Bienvenidos - Laredo, Texas! Well first off everyone should know that this is completely different than anything I have yet experienced in Edinburg. Loredo is a spectrum from North Laredo > South Laredo > Nuevo Laredo (in mexico). The whole city just fades into Mexico and so we are right next to the border and everyone we talk to goes to Mexico on a regular basis, except border patrol. I am serving in an area called, 'Country Club' we are surrounding a golf course and we work on streets with some of the biggest homes I've seen since being out here. Our area is opposite of ghetto - that is one thing I am really going to miss - I loved working in the trailer parks... but instead of knocking on plastic doors I now have been knocking on mansions for the last week. Our area is full of the english ward members, mostly border patrol agents but also extremely rich 'mob boss' hispanics, the ones that run the drug crossing and all of that bad stuff. Everyone here is completely fluent in both languages so everywhere we go we can talk in english or spanish and they'll understand.The food reflects the language preference though - I wasn't expecting to miss the mexican food. We eat american food here which is something that my tummy is readjusting to. Its good and the members are super awesome! Goodbye nice house, we live in an apartment but really I can't complain. We are much more elevated in Laredo than in the Valley which is great because there aren't really cockroaches or much humidity - meaning less work in the rain. The living quarters are definitely smaller and dirtier which would be rough but I feel more like a missionary as I walk in the door at night. We live with two other sisters again, and they are awesome! We are all super different, one of the sisters likes to walk around in her underwear ...thats been an adjustment as I've learned to avert my eyes but she's nice and really funny, very confident. Her companion is super adorable and currently on a 'english fast' she hasn't spoken english since thanksgiving and is going until christmas 'solo espanol'. (I am going to try and jump in on the english fast starting the 13th of december and do the 12 days of christmas. On to my new companion - Hermana Sainsbury, she's awesome! Background on her, we were in the same house in the CCM, she came out to the field with me! She is super into fitness and did pole vaulting at UVU before coming out on the mission. Heavenly Father keeps putting me with people that really are intense about food and working out...not quite sure what He's telling me there. I was super excited when I found out that we were going to be companions and that we would be in Laredo together, but I was bummed to find out that she hasn't had much practice with spanish. She was in the upper level spanish class at the CCM and at the time I thought she was fluent but since being with her again, I have seen that my spanish has gotten so much better over the last couple months in the field. The trick will be not losing the spanish that I have learned but I know I will be able to get out of language study as much as I put into it, so here I will just have to try a little bit harder. Since we are the same age in the mission - we are co-companions but since she's been in the area longer she drives the car. It's crazy after being with Sister McMahon I feel like I sorta know how to be a missionary. (side note: Sister McMahon is now a 'sister trainer leader' and will be for the next 6 months) But anyway the area apparently hasn't had any serious investigators for over a year, and so the work has mostly been focused on members. We'll do both and I've learned I really like teaching people and so the focus will shift to finding the people that are ready to be taught. Long update, and not many specific events from this last week but overall its been a good week and I think that it's going to be a good transfer! I'm sorry to say this computer doesn't let me send pictures. This last week I realized that I really do love being a missionary. When I logically think about the things that I do each day as a missionary, it sounds just so bloody awful and hard but this week I realized that I genuinely like it. Who else gets to drop out of school and focus on other people for a year and a half? Also this last week we had a huge push on doing service for people - that's the best way to be HAPPY just Go Do Something For Someone Else. By the way, everyone should go watch the christmas video 'He is the Gift' on lds.org, it will make you happy. Heavenly Father put us here to love each other and be happy so I think we should all do that this week, especially since it's December! Tenga una sonrisa! Love de Laredo, H. Boo Crawford

Well as you can see from the title, I have a lot of packing to do. Alright so this last week was a difficult one, physically and mentally. We worked hard, especially since it was the last week of the transfer - I don't want anyone in heaven coming up to me from Edinburg and saying that I just walked by them or didn't bring them cookies when they needed them...I dont know, I just want to be an angel for the people in the areas that I serve. We called members, planned lessons, made thanksgiving thank you cards and cookies for the members in our area, and biked our little hearts out. My personal goal was to see my current favorite investigator Mario baptized this last sunday but nada. Basically all of our plans fell through....except thanksgiving dinners. Five. Five thanksgiving dinners but only three on actual thanksgiving day! It was rough rough rough but the members who fed us were the absolute sweetest! I'd like to think we biked off some of the food, since it was the end of the month and we had no miles on the car we didn't have a choice! Thanksgiving morning a cut and taped some lined paper together in this long line and brought it to each appointment, we ended up with a list of 200+ things that we were grateful for! Being grateful is just happy, and rewarding! This next transfer is terrifying, I LOVE EDINBURG!! It is so funny and crazy how much you can love people after only knowing them for less than three months...and its sad because with the members - they have had a million missionaries before you and will continue to have a million more after you. But I just love them so much!! Saying goodbye is awful!! And yet I am so excited and ready for the next change. Heavenly Father has got my back, I know that even if the next area isn't what I think I want or my next companion isn't someone I would choose, I am gonna learn so much!! learning is easier when you're comfortable with being uncomfortable it can be so good for us!! Sorry that this last email hasn't made much sense but I love you all and hopefully these pictures will shed some light on the people here in Edinburg and what I have been doing the last week! Sending South Texas Love -Hermana Crawford