July 20th

Life is good, and getting better. We are learning so many new things in the office - I know how to take apart the outer interior of a car and put it back together again - as we learned how to install 'Tiwi Unit's' into the mission cars. They are little computer systems that track our driving. 

We are having a blast in the office and out when we are working. Our area got divided this last week but we only lost one city, Alton. The rest of the valley is still ours to roam.

This week we found our new favorite street vendor of watermelons - we got 3 for $2 and then gave the guy a Book of Mormon. It was awesome. We also found a place with cheap 64 oz glasses of Horchata....they may not have nearly as good Raspas here but we're finding our own happiness. 

I've learned the beauty of the reward system on my mission, and I will definitely be applying it to my future children. 

The difficult part is sometimes you have no control over the 'success' of the day. For example, one day this week we walked, biked and drove all around the city of mission - all day. Not a single one of the people we planned to visit were home or texted us back, and a couple of them we had planned the visits but they 'no-showed' us. We walked around aimlessly all day but then rewarded ourselves with watermelons. Also because we were aimlessly walking, Heavenly Father put some entertainment in our path. Including a stray horse, and then a german shepherd that almost killed us. 

Always be happy, is the biggest thing that I learned this week. Basically I learn this every week. But not every week is the same so I have to learn it over and over in every new situation, it's kinda a rough one to learn but I'll just keep learning it until we're all in heaven together...not perfect yet. But sadness kills all the faith and it is really just not fun. All we can do is be the best we can be. 

con mucho amor, 

la hermana m. crawford

July 27 th 

News of the week. 

A good portion of the week was preparing Joe for his baptism this Sunday; which went off without a hitch. We heart attacked his door with all of the commandments and laws (this included a life size chastity belt and portable key), one new law/lesson for each day of the week. 

Officially I am the worst trainer/mission mom ever. Alright, now the mission teaches alot about obedience and doing what your suppose to do. Well, one of the things that we are asked to do is take two bike days each week. Now this week I got S. Eggett all pumped up and ready to go and I made us take them even though it was like 104 degrees for both days that we chose to ride and our appointments weren't anywhere near each other. After about 2 hours of riding and one appointment, she says, "I don't know but I think that my tire may be flat." I look over and her back wheel is completely flat, she had been riding on it all day - after stopping by two members who weren't home we biked the 45 min back to our apartment for the pump...now she has a bruise on her bum. I felt horrible, also we are getting mini-missionaries for this whole next week so the cute girl will have to ride like 4 days next week with a bruised tail-bone and then sit on ice everyday for studies. 

On a spiritual note, I learned a lot about charity and what is means to have pure love for another person this last week. Now S. Eggett is easy enough to get along with but it's about more than that. We are expected to love everyone. Now the LOVE that Heavenly Father is talking about is perfect, we have to put them before we put ourselves - that is stinking hard. 

Christ was the perfect example of service so as I am working on making service plans for everyone down here in South Texas - all of you should make plans to serve at least one person out of the usual this week. 

Happiness is just a good deed away, so go do the good deed. 

con mucho amor; 

H. mckenna Crawford