I just had a wave crash over me of my appreciation for families this week. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can be sealed with our families forever. I love my family so much, like who doesn't want to spend time and all eternity with the only people that made this life bearable. 

Now working with the 'young single adult' congregation is a blast and one bonus is that I have felt a lot healthier due to the decrease in dinner apt but this week and especially the last couple days, we were invited into the homes of the families of our members and it was so much fun! We got to play with little kids and share spiritual thoughts with families about eternal families. I remembered how much I missed eating while laughing and trying to round kids up to eat, there is just a special spirit there.

Then this weekend we went over to Elder and S. Well's home (they are a pair of senior missionaries from the office) and we learned how to make apple pie, two different types of quiche, and the crust all by ourselves! 

She is absolutely a mission grandma for me, I am going to seriously miss this cute woman.

 But even that experience, deepened my love for my real grandmas and the principle of 'eternal families', because our grandparents - great grandparents - great great grandparents...they can all be there if we all choose to live the gospel. 

I left multiple homes feeling extremely sick due to the over-sized quantity of food in by belly but then I paused and realized, "I was just full of love." I haven't been that 'full of love' since coming down to work with the ysa and that's because that "fullness of love" is only found within the family unit. 

This also turned my mind to remember the real reason that I am on a mission, to help people be with their families forever. None of this 'eternal family happiness' would be possible without the restoration of the gospel. People have got to know this is the way to being 'full of happiness' in heaven; cause heaven will not be heaven without my family. 

Also since, I knew I was going to be writing all about how much I love and kinda miss my eternal family - when logging onto emails I opened up to pictures of uncle glenn in a hospital bed and then another of a reconstructed/stitched up forearm - grateful your okay glenn! We'll have heaven since we're family, and that is awesome!

lots of love, 

S. mckenna Crawford

One of the longer weeks of my mission is coming to a close with this email. So much happened within the last week, and yet not much was accomplished throughout the week. The only consistent bright spot was our lessons with Camila, who was baptized on sunday!

The start of the week was a little rough, as we had visitors for the first three nights. 'Sister Trainer Leaders' from the whole mission came down, along with all the other mission leaders for a special conference  - since our apartment is the closest to the mission office we got 4 extra sisters, a destroyed house and depleted food and shampoo/conditioner rations for the week. Basically I cocooned myself in our room, really I just planted on my bed since our carpet was covered in clothes and hair and all the other semi-disgusting things that girls bring into a home. 

The stress of the home, was magnified with all of our apointments, besides those with Camila, fell through from monday to thursday of this week. All of which accumulated into me being a slightly frustrated version of myself. 

Recently S Eggett also has been struggling with homesickness, and it doesn't help that I am getting closer to the end of my mission. But we sat down and decided to make a new goal to 'focus' which required that our 'hearts be in the right place'. 

I sat down and worked out my reasons for doing each thing in the day, and then studied, "heart" in the Bible Dictionary and Topical Guide.

Turns out that H. Father judges us based on our desires, hopes and wishes - the "treasures of our hearts" and even though we hadn't seen much success in talking to people or accomplishing those things that we had hoped to accomplish throughout the week - it was all going to be okay if we were doing everything for the right reason. 

Cute Story from Sunday: Camila was fasting for her baptism, and she had been planning this fast for the last two weeks - she was so excited and nervous. Well in the middle of sunday school, I feel this 'tap tap' on my shoulder and turn over to a panicked Camila - she says, "Sister, I was really trying and I have been praying all day to stay focused on it but I just forgot...But now it's all good for nothing, what do I do?" ...turns out when she went to the bathroom in the middle of sunday school someone gave her a little pretzel and she ate it. She was devastated. I laughed and told her just to say a prayer and tell Heavenly Father what she had done, and that everything was okay. 

I knew that H. Father wasn't mad at her.

He is proud of our efforts, no matter how weak we are, we can then continue to improve. 

thanks for the love and support, 

H mckenna Crawford

Being P-day (personal prep day for the upcoming week) we shop for the things we need.  I don't know about you but I look at the dates of the things I purchase to see if they will expire soon.  In a sense our lives are marked by "use by" dates.  It got me thinking that none of us know the day which our heart will stop beating or we'll take our last breath on this earth.  Made me realize that I want to live my life to it's fullest and make the moments count.   In order to make each moment count I need to love unconditionally, forgive quickly, listen carefully, speak truthfully, live honestly, and appreciate everything.  Ephesians chapter 5 got me thinking about these things.  

      

I hope you are all doing well.  God Loves Us.

thank heavens

Hermana Crawford

This week was all about service, and loving other people. I feel like I learned a lot over the course of the last seven days. But service/love it's all just acting out of faith and when we put Heavenly Father first everything else works out. Whatever preoccupation or internal struggle we are facing with priorities turns out alright when we put Heavenly Father first. 

The most minor experience of the week was a huge moment for my mental stability, naturally we were on bikes. Bikes just always bring miracles when you are in over 100 degree heat. 

So we had been biking and visiting some less actives and referrals that we had to visit in McAllen, and we had about 5 minutes until we were going to grab dinner and I had a huge headache - probably because I don't drink nearly enough water (...working on it...), but we knocked one more door and ended up teaching a young mom and her sleeping 2 year old the Plan of Salvation. An hour later we got out to our bikes and S. Eggett was beaming, she was so happy to be able to knock door and teach, she did not want to stop. 

How could I look at her and be the one that was going to whimp-out and bike home just to waste time and eat? So I just said a prayer and asked that the next house we knock would give us water and I would be able to smile and feel as excited as S. Eggett looked...and we walked away from our bikes back to knock some more doors. 

Just as I let go of the whiner inside of me and finished my prayer, the cute young mom calls out to us and gives us each a giant 32 oz 'mountain blast powerade' - nothing has ever tasted so good. 

She served us, as I was trying to serve S. Eggett and we are both just out here trying to serve Heavenly Father. It was a good moment. 

Then at church we had a whole lesson all about service. When the question was asked, "Why would God need us to do something for another person that He can already do Himself?" And our recent convert Joe said, "Because those experiences when we do what He would do, make us more like Him and He can't force us to do it so service opportunities are chances to choose to do it." SO TRUE. 

Everything is about love and when the cute lady let us into her house and we were able to fold some of her baby clothes with her and then teach her about the Plan of Salvation, we served her and she served us before she had even given us the powerades but that is how Heavenly Father's plan works. When we serve one person, they intern are serving us and vice versa when we let someone serve us; both become better.

Other exciting news from this week, Karla got baptized and got the holy ghost this weekend and Joe got the priesthood, so much happiness. Love these people. 

con mucho amor

H mckenna Crawford