It's officially beginning to be summer here in Texas, and the heat is unbelievably real. Here in Laredo, it's suppose to be like a desert climate but we've had some major storms recently which has made the air extrememly humid, like the minute we walk outside we're sweating...after our hour bike ride to the top of our area, we're drenched. 

Our investigator and now recent convert, Jannet lives at the bottom of our area on the TAMI-U Laredo Campus and then we had appointments with members every night, who live 5 miles in the opposite direction of the campus from our house...my leg muscles have grown in just two weeks, its rough. 

Our investigator Jannet got baptized this weekend. She is the cutest college girl in the world. She had been to church for over a month and we had her baptismal date set for May 10th. Well tuesday, during an exchange with S. Tovar (a sister missionary who lived with me in the Edinburg home) were teaching and Jannet stopped us and asked what was left for her to do before she could become a member of the church. We explained she needed to hear all the lessons. 

We went back Friday and Saturday to finish teaching the rest of the lessons and she had her baptismal interview and was baptized on Sunday. The whole Young Single Adult branch attended her baptism.  

Sunday was rather stressful in planning and organizing the baptism's details, we may have forgotten to tell Jannet to bring an extra towel, so she had to dry off with an extra baptismal suite and paper towels. 

Immediately after Jannet was baptized we rushed to the bathroom to greet her at the top of the stairs and she started to cry, which spiraled into S. Hortal crying (btw S. Hortal hit her one month mark in the mission on saturday) and we all exchanged wet hugs!

Love love love, that is really the only thing that we are suppose to spread here on earth. When we know how to truly LOVE everyone, we will be perfect.

Love someone today, tomorrow, the next day.....etc 

Happy Earth Day (from wednesday), hope you did something to 'grow your faith'! ...we handed out packets of seeds to our members and an  invitation to plant with love and faith.

 Just like gardening, it all takes work - don't stop!

Laredo Loves U

H mckenna Crawford

Biking brings miracles, and good thing, since we will be biking for the rest of April. As a result of the 'missionary-hunt' those first three days of the month, we ran out of miles. The mission office called and told our leaders that our whole zone will be responsible to stay within our monthly limit, which just means all of Laredo is on bikes for the next two weeks. 

Training is the greatest! 

Being a trainer is a lot like being a mom. I love S. Hortal so much, she is the absolute cutest - but it's exhausting being so on-guard all the time. I am constantly checking up on her to see if she is okay, and every time she just laughs and says yes. Especially now as we are riding bikes. 

I see her struggling with biking or talking to people and I just want to step in and help but than I know that the only way for her to learn is to just keep working at it. 

S. Hortal invited her first family to be baptized.  I could see that she was struggling to invite them. I just waited along with the family, who then rejected the invitation. But when we left I asked her how she was feeling and laughing she replied that it took her so long because she was translating the baptismal invitation from spanish to english in her head. We both got a good laugh about the whole thing.

We had a meeting at the church which was 7 miles away and mostly downhill and cross a highway without an intersection.  S. Hortai rides over a screw and we're done -the tire went instantly flat.  We realize we'll have to walk the rest of the way so we go to lock the bikes (we are using S. Hortal's lock) her key jams and the lock breaks. Not an easy week for her first week in the mission field.  Good news, we now know how to fix a tire.  Time is going so fast and yet so slow. But I am learning to enjoy both the good moments and the bad. And that is one of the best lessons that you can learn in life! 

Eat a special treat in celebration of what brings you happiness and let that treat set the tone for the coming week!

Laredo Lovin'

Hermana Crawford

I am a new training mom! And my new missionary chika is from Argentina.

Sister Hortal is adorable; I'm super excited to be her first companion.

Tuesday morning, 4:50am we got up and packed up S. Barton to drive over to the church and join the caravan down to McAllen. When we got there they had all the trainers sit on one side of the chapel and then the greenies walked in and sat on the first two rows. One by One they called us up as the trainers and announced where we were serving then called up our greenies. 

Also, no one knew about transfers until there at the meeting so we found out that S. Barton was off to serve in Edinburg!! 

We got back to Laredo at about 5pm, and then went grocery shopping and got S. Hortal situated. We were able to knock a couple of doors at the very end of the night and first one we knocked - a Jehovah Witness opened the door and told us to go google, 'easter' because we were extremely misguided in our celebration of a pagan holiday, she ended the encounter in telling us to go home. We walked away from the door and I looked at S. Hortal and said, "welcome to the life of a missionary."

The rest of the week, I was just showing S. Hortal around our area in Laredo and introducing her to all the people we visit on a regular basis. 

Through this whole process I realized how much I love the people here. After this transfer, I will have served in Laredo for 6 months! That is a long time! Throughout that time, I've set specific goals for different people. Before we meet someone, I sit and give a run-down of our plans and how we are working to be a blessing to that specific family. Basically I am just flooding, poor S. Hortal's mind with information, but its all important. Heavenly Father has unique goals and understands our unique backgrounds perfectly! As a result, He blesses us in the ways that we need - perfect to help us reach our goals and potential.

Okay so the rest of the week, one of my favorite members moved away - the Quintanilla family is now residing in Virginia. We got all of their extra food though, that was fun. 

We were also able to get Raspas this week from Penquinos (basically happiness in a cup), as an introduction to Laredo. Then as a bonus - there has been flash flooding these last couple days - so we've been working in the rain! 

Overall life is looking pretty good from little missionary Hortal and I. 

Lots of Laredo Love

H mckenna Crawford

April Fools. 

We were doing studies as usual and got a call to go and search for a missing elder. This caused everyone alarm, and debate arose as to whether we should go out and search or the leaders were just pulling a prank on all of us. 

I give myself credit for being the voice of reason that we should, whether a prank or not, still go out and look for the dude. So we left. We met up with the other zone and it was real. We then broke into search parties and searched until about 2pm that day. My search party led us to the border, and naturally I took the wrong exit and had a moment of panic when we all thought that we were accidentally crossing the border (we ended up being escorted out of the border area, right before we had to cross the bridge - this may be the closest any missionary has come to mexico without breaking mission rules.)

The first day was called off with the assumption that the elder was on a flight home. Wrong.

April 2. Again the day started as usual, we were even able to have a lesson with Carlos Martinez about the book of mormon. But then another call comes that they found the hotel where the elder had been staying and we were off to join another full day search. 

We orchestrated the search parties to cover all the hotels, pawn shops, bus stations and most fast food places in laredo - it was incredible. We spent all day driving and walking, showing his picture everywhere that we went. The mission curfew of 9pm was even extended to 10pm for Laredo in order to help find him. 

April 3. The mission held a fast, that the elder would be found and was safe. Our man-hunt started at 6:48am and didn't end until the middle of the day - 4pm, when President Maluenda had received word that the elder was safe and had finally contacted his family.

The happiness of the day continued with a lesson with Bro. Carlos Martinez about the plan of salvation - at the end of the lesson he just said, "Toda via yo necesito el espiritu, no puedo lograr esta gloria sin la ayuda del don del espiritu santo."

We all need to be more appreciative of the guidance of the holy ghost in our lives; daily. The help from our heavenly father only comes when we're are worthy to have the companionship of the holy ghost. If we do our part, then Heavenly Father can do His. We have to do the little things to remain worthy, just like Bro. Carlos Martinez is working to receive his confirmation and the gift of the holy ghost.

General Conference - April 4th and 5th. Maravillosa!

One of my favorites quotes, "Average is the enemy of excellence." 

Right before the afternoon session of general conference, I got a call from the Assistants to the President - I am going to be a trainer! 

I had to drive down, 3 hours, to McAllen and I spent the night at the other sister's apartment. Today was spent in a meeting with the other new trainers and new district leaders and President Maluenda as he gave us a pep-talk for our new callings. I am so excited to meet the cute new missionary chika, so there will be an update on her in my next email. I just arrived back in Laredo, we came straight to the library to write this email. 

Almost 6 months of Laredo Lovin'

H. mckenna Crawford

Alright well this week has been absolutely jammed-packed. There has been no time to sit, we've also happened to have a bike week - in honor of it being the end of the month.

The beginning of the week...

Monday and Tuesday we were able to do some service - 'picture hanging' at Sister Gardiner's home, and I found out that I may be allergic to goat cheese. My consumption of mexican food has stayed pretty consistent throughout my time here in south texas. I love mexican food but tuesday night I had one of the fanciest and most delicious meals thus far - goat cheese and grilled veggie sandwiches...well then I got sick so either I am allergic to goat cheese or my intestines aren't use to breaking down real food anymore; hopefully the former.

Wednesday, we had exchanges. I was working in our area of north Laredo and Sis. Barton headed down to work in the south. Alright so a fun part of this exchange is I got to work with my 'mission grandma' - Sis. Hunt. Sis. Hunt was the trainer 'mom' for Sis. Bentz who trained me. 

Thursday and Friday, well we were able to organize our plans for our investigators but little did we know that most of them would go out the window. Life is so funny that way, we plan and plan and those plans are essential for Heavenly Father to be able to redirect our plans and make them better...even if they may not seem 'better' at first. Mostly the days were spent just contacting doors (10+ hours) and dropping over invitations for the General Women's Broadcast: everyone needs to watch that by the way, families are forever. 

Now for this weekend... 

Remember when we got popsicles in the Walmart parking lot about 3 weeks ago. And talked to a family and invited them to church and they came to church. 

Well, Saturday afternoon we got a text from Hermano Carlos Martinez and he said he was having some family trouble and wondered if we could talk. So we said yes and told him we could meet him at the church. So, we show up at the church and he was upset. He runs over to us and we ask what is wrong. he explains that he found out that his wife is cheating on him with another man, they are seperating and he doesn't know what will happen to their 5 kids.  It was heartbreaking. When they came to church they had an adorable family. This man LOVES his kids and his family. and it just fell apart. So, we took him inside and there was a member there that sat down and talked with him ...It was a huge blessing that the branch president from South Laredo was there to help us with the lesson and communicate our thoughts in spanish and share his testimony. Then the Elders came and gave him a blessing. That night we got a voicemail from him, he just couldn't express his gratitude enough.

Then, Sunday Morning at about 9:30 I am preparing my talk for church when the other sisters tell us that they got a text from the elders that Hno Martinez is at church. He had gone to the branch that was at 8:30 in the morning. So we rush out the door and show up just in time to talk to him after sacrament meeting. They didn't have a gospel principles class so we took him into a classroom and taught the restoration to him. The lesson went wonderful! I felt like sister Barton and I taught everything clearly and he felt the spirit. It was fun.... we showed him the picture of Joseph Smith recieving the preisthood and the hands are on his head he said, "i know this is true. I had that yesterday. it works"...he remembered his blessing. It was a special moment as he felt the spirit, we shared our testimonies, and his heart was touched. 

Ok. Now this is where things get crazy. 

We come out of the lesson and the zone leaders start talking to him. They tell him that because he came to church earlier he could actually be baptized today....so things started happening, a baptism was set up, and the zone leaders interviewed him. And 1 hour later we were having his baptism. It was mass chaos and confusion.  But, I think the most important part was that he felt the spirit . I loved seeing the hope in his eyes as he realized that there was hope and he could rise above the challenges in his family and use all of his experiences to strengthen his faith. 

Sunday also included, three of our less active girls that we're working with from the college, TAMI-U coming to the young single adult branch for the first time and a new investigator coming out of the blue. 

I'm grateful to be busy it's  happiness......this week has left me with the understanding that nothing is ever truly finished, we will have work to do for the rest of our lives, and then after that as well. Heavenly Father truly never gets a break, but life is more fulfilling that way!

Laredo Lovin' xoxo

H. mckenna Crawford

Because of Him

This was my spiritual uplift for this last week....so HAPPY it will make you cry.
                                            "Because of Him"
then I read these talks as I continued to listen to the music in the background.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

 

My first attempt at sewing/repairing my good leather shoes ----hoping for another 9 months use:) 

and https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/as-many-as-i-love-i-rebuke-and-chasten?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/the-divine-gift-of-repentance?lang=eng

After reading Todd Christofferson's talks I felt ......It's all about agency. we choose good and we're happy. end of story. 

quick update from my week:

Mon. (March 16) - The Quintanilla family is moving to Virginia so we helped them pack.

Tues. (March 17) - Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had a zone meeting wearing leprechaun hats and mustaches.

Wed. (March 18) - knocked doors for 6 hours...I don't recommend it.  I realized I'm half way through my mission.

Thurs. (March 19) -walked a 1 1/2 miles on the hi-way to get to a lesson....border patrol asked if we were stranded.

Fri. (March 20) - Met Polo who's wife passed 4 years ago and he's raising 3 kids on his own, we had the best lesson with him this morning (23 March)

Sat. (March 21) - I learned how to make 'Empenadas, Pina-postre' (pineapple dessert flavored) from Sis. Pluma -she was obligated to make 60, so we helped.  Win/Win

LOVE YOU LOVE You LOVE YOU!! con mucho amor y aprecio

H mckenna Crawford

stay safe and have a good week

Monday - we visited Br. Willie Garcia, with special permission to travel outside of our zone's area. He now lives in a care facility, that is located basically right on the border of mexico. The retirement care system down here is rather jankey - the facility was not well kept and the people down there are just waiting to pass away. But Willie was in good spirits. During the visit we were also approached by two other less active members of the church who were visiting their parents - in both cases we were able to say a prayer and just get to know the families, it was definitely a highlight. This week we also came up with some awesome new games and scripture stories to act out. We created our own full armor of god attire, super adorable to see the kids put it all on. One of our members gave me a recipe for scripture cookies and cakes - like you have to look up in the scriptures each ingredient to see what it is, super funny as a missionary. Big news came this week, on thursday we had a companionship study with our district leader and he told us that our 'unity' was not at its full potential and "the windows of heaven were closed to us, until we resolved the issue". This resulted in a full heart-to-heart with Sis. Barton later that day, while riding our bikes we stopped in a flood drain gutter and talked about any frustrations we had been dealing with. We decided we were co-senior companions and needed to do some better counseling before we made decisions...problem solved, or so we thought. Saturday we had 'interviews' with the district leader and he told us that Sis. Barton was senior companion and I was suppose to be junior this whole time. News to us. Well, its clear that Heavenly Father wants me to learn more about humility and love. Challenge accepted, I love being the happy support system, the hard part is staying involved and invested in the decisions that are made, but its a good lesson to learn. The fact of the matter is, Heavenly Father knows who each one of us are and where we are going to shine. The correction may come in different ways but it always still comes. We can chose to learn and grow or be stuck in a rut and silently miserable - not fun. On the teaching front, we found an awesome new family, the Ortiz, in our apartment complex last night. As well, yesterday we had a lesson with one of our less actives, the McHugh family. For the first time yesterday, Bro. McHugh sat in for the closing prayer of our visit. There were key blessings that I wanted to have said for Bro. McHugh but Sis. Barton was asked to say the prayer. I panicked and began frantically praying for her to think of those specific things in her prayer - well those key phrases I was thinking of, she quoted word for word. This was a miracle afterwards when she said those phrases came to her mind in the middle of her prayer. I learned that telepathy is possible via Heavenly Father.

In closing, I hope all my math friends (and everyone else as well) had a wonderful 'pie' day (3.1415...) and if anyone is ever in Laredo we recently found a great place to get raspas. A raspa is a mexican version of shaved ice with ice cream, pure happiness.If you can't make it all the way to Laredo, I still recommend everyone find their own happiness treat and spoil themselves this week.

Laredo Love xoxox H. mckenna Crawford