Happy New Years! Laredo, Texas welcomed the new year with an intense cold front which caused some painful contacting for the last week! Everyday this week, I wore my only pair of leggings under my only pair of tights and socks on my hands in my pockets. Good thing I got the opportunity to do laundry this morning cause those leggings needed it. Alright well, this week was full of choices to happy. And I feel that I did a pretty good job of choosing the latter - Sister Sainsbury and I have a whole paper full of 'positive affirmations' that we read, yell or sing to each other everyday. ...some of our favorites include... "I am a magnet to success. Everything I touch is success." "Infinite wisdom fills my mind like a mighty river." "I am lovable, loving and loved." "I touch, move and inspire others." we even had a moment this week were we were just jumping on the beds - yelling them at each other...maybe not the most appropriate thing to do but I left the apartment to work feeling like a million bucks. Dec. 31, 2014 - spent on the mission. Well as a special mission-wide treat on new years eve, all the missionaries get to gather as zones and watch a movie - this year we watched 'Frozen'. I loved it. A less active family heard that the movie would be showing at the church so they came and watched it with us, just them and all the missionaries - it was hilarious! Jan. 1, 2015 - Everyone just basically told us to go home until one nice old lady let us in and told us her whole life story when her husband served in the Vietnam War. I love people, I could tell she was just so so happy to have someone listen to her - her husband has gone deaf. She was the best part of that day. We did a great job of getting members out with us this week but every lesson 'no showed' us. Some members decided to just come contacting, but as the missionary - I just felt bad. Hopefully everyone had a good week, and if you went to a lesson with a missionary this week and the lesson was canceled - I would like to apologize. LOVE you ALL! Hermana M. Crawford

Hola Familia! Happiness came through facetime this week! This last week was wonderful, full of food, present delivering, service projects and member karaoke, oh and a pinata. Dec. 23 - Miracles came, in the form of new investigators and teaching lessons. We found three new people to teach today - one family and a single mother. The issue with finding people right before Christmas, they all are going out of town until the second week of January. Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve was one fiesta after another, we went from house to house (like Santa Claus). We had 3 meal appointments and in between them we dropped off gifts to some less active families, it was a great day. Every meal appointment included reading the Christmas story (or Luke 2) except one appointment. Sister Gardiner showed us a compiling of scriptures that she made after her mission, that is a full spectrum of Christ's story - I will be reading it for the rest of my life with my future kids...I will put the scripture references at the bottom of the email. Oh and at the final meal appointment with President Wagner, there was a pinata...who could ask for anything more? Dec. 25 - Christmas on the mission - its really nothing you can prepare for mentally or physically until it hits you like a speed-train and you're left with the aftermath. Learning from the whole experience, people step up to comfort you when you give them a chance. One family in particular, the Reeves, took in the sister missionaries and I will forever be grateful! The members are way more impressive than the missionaries this holiday season, the Reeves family not only opened up their home for us, four sisters, but contacted our parents and arranged the best times for us to each call then comforted us as we ended each call in tears and fed us dinner before we left. Heavenly Father works through us to bless those around us, and through others to bless us - we have to be ready to do what we can to be this blessing when we get the opportunity! The Reeves family were angels for us on Christmas but there was angels everyday. Dec. 27 - Zone leaders decided to do a zone blitz/white wash: everyone goes with a new companion to a different area to work. Sister Hemmingsen and I went to the zone leaders area, right on the border of mexico. I loved it. The leaders were nervous about it being dangerous for sisters but it turned out great - we visited some of their members and met multiple old couples walking the streets (hace fresco). Everyone I met, I instantly loved. There is no good way to describe it, but I just wanted to do anything and give everything to every person. That is how I want to feel all the time, and I know that is how Christ feels all the time except to a far greater extent. It was freezing on Saturday but I couldn't help but be incredibly happy all day. Also we got chased by 2 stray pit-bulls and a chihuahua. Overall a great week. It really makes you appreciate family, I love you guys a whole lot! Thanks for being good examples to me. xoxo -Hermana M. Crawford

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

cute decor of resturant

sister McMahon and I having lunch the other photo is

Elder Gallman (he grew up with Tess and Rustin Crawford.....my cousins from Gilbert Arizona) HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE The week before thanksgiving.....Life is going so fast. And the ward is so willing to feed us, I don't know how they do it or what I am going to do! I made a list of funny things that have happened each day this last week so I am just gonna give a quick run through! Mon. -NOV 17 After giving the weekly update last week, we were leaving the library and as usual I smiled at the person who was walking in, this time it happened to be an old man. I smiled and turned to say something to sister McMahon when the old man grabbed my arm and I turned back around. He just looked at me for a minute and I didn't know what was going on...he proceeded to ask me if I was 'german' and then went on to tell me that I looked exactly like his ex-girlfriend in high school. I don't know how the conversation progressed but we ended up talking about the word of wisdom - the man hadn't ever taken a drink of coffee, tea, or alcohol in his life and was planning on taking a trip to Salt Lake City, UT in December. We invited him to stop by Temple Square and asked if we could visit more about some of our beliefs to see if they matched with the way he was already living but he was from a town about an hour away from Edinburg and was just visiting. Odd, but so cool. This old man told us about his wonderful health in his old age, I know that his superior health was just a result of living a healthy lifestyle, whether member or not. Tues. NOV 18 District meeting was followed by district lunch and Sister McMahon and I showed the Elders this little house/antique mall/restaurant that we had walked by a couple times in our area. There are really no words to describe this place so I will send some pictures. It was expensive, spanish, completely empty besides us but overall a wonderful experience. The rest of the day was a slight let down as our investigator Mario canceled on our appointment, though his cancelation led us to walk over to a mexican grocery/gas station for Sister McMahon to use the restroom and that led me to buy a bag of granola from this place - best granola I've ever had. The rest of the day was uneventful until our meal appointment with a member, they gave us two gallons of orange juice to take home and we were on bikes, an hour away from our house...so that was good excercise. Wed. NOV 19 This was a hard day, we fasted for Mario's progress but again he canceled on us. We biked all day without much finding success until finally decided to take our 'mormon.org' time for the week. I found a wonderful series of mormon message videos called, "Bread of LIfe" and I would encourage everyone to watch the 'pattern' and 'change' videos. Heavenly Father didn't create us to need daily bread on accident, we have to turn to him and show our thanks everyday simply for the fact that we are still here, everything we have comes from Him. Then that night we also got huge food baskets from the ward - Heavenly Father really does just know. Thurs. NOV 20 Elder Foster, of the seventy came and spoke. He was pretty direct about what our purpose as missionaries should and shouldn't be. He did a good job of refocusing us on the 'strengthing of the stakes of zion' but overall what I got out of it, was we all need to 'build each other up'. Mom said, 'Build Each Other Up" to all of us 100x but I didn't get how important that is. As missionaries we just have to build everyone up, creating relationships between people (leaders, members, investigators) to help each one grow stronger in the gospel. Its so easy, yet not. At the meeting I was also able to see Sister Bentz again, she got me excited for all the other areas in the mission - she LOVES brownsville! I love Edinburg but it will be fun to see where I end up next in south texas. Fri. NOV 21 Uneventful but solid day of member work and mostly food. We taught Gonzalo about family history work a little, actually Sister McMahon was teaching both of us. Families are the biggest blessing that Heavenly Father has given us! And I got a letter from Grandma Rain today, she talked a little bit about Bompa and I just am so excited to get to meet him!! I love families! The rest of the day was meal appointments, my stomach was crying from all the food, 2 hamburger, 1/2 of a 12 inch peperoni pizza, 2 quesadillas, a plate of beans and noodles, BBQ chips, a apple cinnamon empinada and 2 side flour tortillas - this is just two dinner appointments, killing me. Sat. NOV 22 Cookies and being a blessing were the theme for today and the rain couldn't stop us from doing so. We made 36 cookies and strapped them onto the back of my bike and went out and tried to deliver them to some members and our investigator Mario and his daughter (but again he canceled). We ended up giving them to some random people on the street, and meeting a new family to teach - they are so cool! Oatmeal cookies ended up being a great way to meet to people but then the rain came! After delivering cookies to Mario's roommate, we got to our bikes and it starts downpouring! We ride for no less than a minute when I biff it and slide in the mud, boy was that rough but I laughed it off and we rode onward. On the way home we tried to stop by a members house to deliver the last of the cookies and they werent home. While trying to contact a referral in the rain, the next thing we know the Morales, another member couple pulls up and we were able to give them the cookies - they offered a ride but had nowhere for our bikes. The last 30 minutes of biking in the rain were painful, the rain felt like rocks but the memory was absolutely worth it. Sun. NOV 23 Mario came to church with his 5 year old daughter Kaylee!! That was just about the only important thing from yesterday, and we have a family home evening with Mario and the Morales's tonight! Heavenly Father is so good.

Sorry this update was so long but that is a very good summary of the last week!! Hope everyone's thanksgivings are good, don't get sick! Love from South Texas, H. Crawford