Preparation week; it can be so frustrating to prepare the area on the last week of each transfer. We had a week of last minute changes and running around as fast as we can in between meetings. This last week our leaders left for '3-day' training down in McAllen and they took the missionaries that were going to be leaders in this coming transfer so I was in a trio this week with S. Barton and S. Hemmingsen and we visited people in both of our areas. Then S. Hemmingsen got called as a trainer for this next transfer so we had to drop her off and pick her up for a training too! All the craziness just meant that more had to be in Heavenly Father's hands. We were able to get in contact with three families who are less active or don't come at all and get to know them. Two families were not on our plans and yet we were just in the area and felt like we should go by their house; (though in times past all these families haven't been home..) as we pulled up to their homes, they pulled into the driveway - perfect timing after 3 months of trying to visit... and the best part was their willingness to invite us in and get to know us. The third in-active gentleman invited us back and invited his girlfriend to meet us and start hearing the lessons! ...miracles happen in mysterious ways! Time was in short supply but we were able to visit a lot of people and had a lot of fun! The service projects never stop. We didn't have our car due to all the craziness for a couple of days and were able to get special permission to bike in our workout clothes up to the top of our area to pull weeds at a member's home! I love working outside. New favorite scripture story is the father who brings his son to Christ to be healed, and Christ talks a little about faith and failure. - Mark 9. Love it. Possibly last time emailing from Laredo; hope not. Love you all! H. mckenna Crawford

Texas McAllen Mission's first ever interzone exchange. The week started with what we thought was going to be no meetings so that we would have more time to visit people and just spend time in our own areas but then in the middle of Pday, the beans were spilled...the zone leaders had gotten special permission to do an interzone exchange for the first time in the mission's history 'apparently'. And so we had a 3 night exchange with the Laredo South zone and I got to work with Sis. Lance in a little area called Cielito Lindo. During the exchange, Sis. Lance had a package delivered to her in the middle of the street. We were unlocking our bikes and then the UPS man just pulls up next to us and asks if one of us were 'Sis. Lance' - because of this experience we came up with the catch phrase, "God delivers, literally." and its true. Valentines Day was spent at members homes. We taught some lessons, 'heart-attacked' some more people and delivered cookies. This is now our last week of this transfer and everyone is thinking that I will be leaving Laredo. I hope not but I know that Heavenly Father figures out what needs to happen so there is really no need to stress. One of the sisters that I live with - Sis. Taylor got called as an 'sister trainer leader' though yesterday so she had to leave for a three day long training and I will be spending this week in a trio with Sis. Hemmingsen and Sis. Barton covering both of our areas, we're basically just banking on some miracles to get everything done. Happiness is everywhere and the weather is like washington springtime right now so that's a wonderful bonus as well. The lesson over the last two week has basically been to trust in Heavenly Father and the more you trust in Him, the more He is able to do for you! Love you all, wish I was there to be able to heart-attack your door too! xoxo -H. mckenna Crawford

A lot of our time was already planned for us this week, with zone exchanges and district blitz's it left our area to prioritize only the most important things for when we got to actually go and visit people. The week started out (monday, tuesday & wednesday) with two meal appointments a night, and that left me extremely ill come thursday at 2am. So I lost about 3 hours of sleep, due to my desperate need to be on the toilet...that was by far the roughest part of the week and the first real sickness that I have suffered thus far on the mission. #1 states problem, the food is safe but it comes in mass quantities and isn't the healthiest for you. Luckily our Thursday meal appointment we had a lesson on the word of wisdom. This lesson included us working out with the family for 30 min. before we ate dinner, super fun. Miracle of the week came through obedience to bike days. On friday we embarked on flat tires, and without working brakes (at least on my bike) off to the very top of our area which is uphill about an hour bike ride away to meet up with Bro. Wille Garcia (I mentioned him in my last email) at the hospital. On the way we met a lot of people, stopped to have a lesson with two investigators, and by a member's home - who filled up our bike tires with air so we could reach the hospital. We visited Willie and then were debating about which way to bike home. The next thing we know, a former investigator from about 3 years ago calls and says that we are more than welcome to come visit him at his home on Denmark St. ...we bike to Denmark and get to his house, and he isn't home. We decide to continue down the street and maybe meet some new people. That is when we see a little girl run out of her house - scream crying... As we approach the little girl who is unconsolable, the dad runs out and asks us in broken english to, "please come come help!" we dropped our bikes and ran inside. His wife was having a seizure from a nervous attack and wasn't able to breathe. We were at their home for about 45 min and were able to have the elders come and give a blessing. The whole thing was one of the craziest experiences I have yet to have in my life. It was one of the most amazing experiences because we were able to watch the spirit and love of Heavenly Father completely change this family's home. We haven't been able to get in contact with the family since, as they have gone out of town to Mexico but I will keep you updated. Heavenly Father's love for each one of us can completely change us, and always for the better if we look for it and let it. I love being able to see it as a missionary though. Cool experiences. Laredo Love to everyone everywhere. -H. Mckenna Crawford

making granola with Sister Barton. YUMMY!!

Laredo zone at the park

the Perez Family On a mission, we still can choose how to prioritize our time. For fun, we decided to do a week of member visits and service for less actives, and invesitgators and basically any random person that we've met and thought about. This week I spent multiple hours packing with the Pacheco family, they are moving, and I am heartbroken about it! ...A blessing that came from that was yesterday their dad (Br. Pacheco) came to church for the first time in a very long time! We deep cleaned the Montanez's home ...and I left with pruned hands from about a month's worth of dishes. They were so grateful and set up a schedule for us to come and do family home evening every week. The Montanez family was baptized about 2 years ago and haven't really come back since...the service was unpleasant, yet so much fun and we got a weekly invitation to their home from it! Heart attacks..one of the perks of being a 'sister missionary' people accept the weird girly things you do like plastering hearts all over someone's door. We heart attacked doors of our members, less actives, investigators - everyone woke up to an entryway of love from us. ...I dont know what blessing came from that but it sure was fun doorbell ditching as a missionary. We cleaned windows and driveways for people that we met while walking down different streets and helped three different people carry in their groceries... I dont know if anything will come out of these little service projects but either way; we had an absolute BLAST. In reality there's nothing happier you can do with your time than just helping people and serving. Don't get me wrong, we still spent far too much time putting in the grunt work to find new people to teach but for the majority of the week it seemed that we were losing some of the people that we are currently teaching and weren't having much luck finding. Something sad happened yesterday. During the first ten hours at church, we had branch council and I found out about a Bro. Willie Garcia who lives in our area but is in critical condition with his health. After church, Sis. Barton and I went to the hospital and brought balloons - one of which said "I love you, Grandpa." when we arrived at his hospital room, I was heartbroken. The man is on his deathbed. We had to guess and check what he was trying to tell us through his hiccup breathing, and he couldn't move. I adjusted his blanket around his feet to help him be a little warmer and found out what his favorite foods were - he looks like he needs to eat. We will be going back everyday this week. When I moved the blanket around his feet, I could feel how much Heavenly Father loves this man. Feeling that love just made me want to do more. I know that helping and loveing people is what Heavenly Father wants us to do on this earth. Find someone to serve, I promise it is a happy high like nothing else in the world. All my love and Laredo's love... -H. Boo Crawford

sister Barton and I

oatmeal cookies anyone?

helped with wedding set up.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks came to visit the Texas McAllen Mission this week and we had interviews with Presidente Maluenda on another day of the week. Through all the meetings and experiences this week, I have learned a lot about personal revelation, we get prompted to do things or say things ALL THE TIME. We just often are too slow to react or do anything with what we receive...revelation doesn't need to come on a soapbox or in a vision, they can be small clever snippets of happiness. Meetings are long and obnoxious in the mission, for the most part. But also they can be great times to get those snap shots of ideas to help improve. Started the week with zone meeting on monday and then had tuesday full of service activities - we made 60 oatmeal cookies during our morning companionship study. Then wednesday we had a full day of interviews - basically a full day of trainings on how to be a more effective, happier "missionary" but everything we learn during these trainings perfectly applies to regular life. (coolest training: time yourself when you read 2 Nephi 4: 16-19; hasta "...my sins" and it should be somewhere around 18 seconds : this is how long it took Nefi to whine and then change his attitude, we can all give ourselves 18 seconds before we should just start listing the things that we are grateful for. simple enough right?) Thursday and friday we had some of our investigators get interviewed for baptism and that was absolute chaos. I still believe that agency is the absolute best gift that we have been given. Everyone should be more aware of the little decisions that we make and own them. Happiness is that we can take credit for who we become... and this leads me to saturday! Elder Dallin H. Oaks came and spoke to the whole mission in McAllen. That meant another 6 hours in the car for us here in Laredo... but worth it. "You are responsible to ESTABLISH..." -Elder Oaks was talking about establishing the church in the areas that we serve but this phrase also is a huge principle of the reason we are on earth. Establish means: "to set up a structure or corporation on a firm foundation" "to show something of truth, prove" We have to establish our lives, we have to set them up on firm foundations and have integrity, show through our works the things that we say and believe. We are responsible for how we establish our lives. Last quote, "Adversity is mandatory but misery is optional." Love from Laredo, H. Crawford

There was a lot of happiness this week, and a lot of stories. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of time to organize thoughts but here is small highlight of some of the days this week. Jan. 13th - Sister BARTON arrived! Happiness, from the moment she got to Laredo we have been inseperable (obviously since we're companions) but we have genuinely just been best friends and it has made all the difference in the work. She arrived later in the evening on Tuesday so the day was spent getting her adjusted and moved in. Jan. 14th - stress came as I realized that I would have to plan for our area and set appointments for us but then everything just fell into place. We had appointments every hour with different people and the day just flew by, though the last hour and a half of the day was one of the weirdest on my mission. We brought a member to my favorite investigators, the Perez family. Un-knowingly I invited a less active member and her kids (who are the same ages as the Perez children), well it turned into us listening to the member tell story after random story for the whole hour and a half... what do you do? We tried to intervene and tie things back to the lesson but she just talked right over us, never stopping to breathe... this all had a happy ending - the less active family came to church for the first time in quite a while and the Perez family didn't seem phased by the chaos. Jan. 15th - Found a former investigator who was taught just last spring and he had the chicken pox so we are going to come back this week to teach him! Super happy. Also the best quote from sister barton on Thursday, "Wow. It's halfway through January - that means the year is 1/24th of the way over." A chunk of my mission is behind me and happiness, excitement for the coming year and pride at my completion thus far are all on my mind. Jan. 17th - We had zone exchanges and there was also a wedding that took up the whole day! We got to help set up, clean and watch the most adorable couple get married! The wedding was in the church's gym and yet the whole branch contributed to make it special, it was pretty special! Happiness is a choice. Right now, it is super easy for me to be happy it seems but I dont want to be happy only when things are going "good". Thing inevitably crash and the same is true for life you've got to take the good with the bad. The key is to be happy without being indifferent in the roughest moments of the day. Love from Laredo, H. Boo Crawford

'Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood.' Sister Sainsbury and I have been singing that one line back and forth to each other for the past week as we walked in the rain and I think it rubbed off on the overall week and it was the reason we found my new favorite family to teach! The week started off a little weird and it ended a little weird too - tomorrow is transfers, again!! The transfers already seem like they are going shorter and shorter so it's crazy to think about having everything switched around again but exciting. I am staying in Laredo and my current companion, Sister Sainsbury is off to Harlingen. My new companion will be Sister Barton - I am pretty sure I wrote about her in the CCM, but I LOVE(d) HER and I am sure it will stay that way! This week included almost no study time but lots of service and smiling. Jan. 6th - Soup Kitchen in Laredo, as a zone we got to go and completely reorganize and package bags, boxes and more bags of food for delivery to veterans, and we worked there for three hours and by the time we got done you couldn't even recognize the room. On thursday (Jan. 8th) we went back again and were planning on delivering the packages to people's cars but not many came because it was so cold outside. I folded dirty laundry for 3 hours out in the cold and my hands were prunes when we left, a good experience though - I will remember the numbness forever! Jan. 7th - Sister's Conference, another 6 hours in the car, we traveled to McAllen and met up with all 50 other sisters in the mission. Jan. 8th - We found the Perez Family! While walking and singing "its beautiful day in the neighborhood" a man came up and asked why we were out in the rain singing and he referred us to his neighbor. Well turns out his neighbor is awesome - its a mom and her three kids, her son DJ is one of the smartest boys I have ever met and he is 12 (just like you Sloan)! Anyway the rest of the week was focused mostly on them, we had a lesson everyday and the family came to church yesterday! I am so excited about them! The area of North Laredo, well its just like the song "its a beautiful...neighborhood" and so the success level of being able to find and teach people in warm homes has not been very high but my attitude and love for the "work" has grown a ton! Happiness is a choice and success comes when we work hard and smart. Happiness is as easy as repentance; switch your mind and the next thing you know you feel a bijillion times better...not saying that it's easy but in hindsight it is much easier than just being miserable, siempre. Sending you all my happiness, dont worry - I can make more! LOVE YOU LOTS H. mckenna Crawford