Well church was canceled, following the cancelation of stake conference this weekend due to Hurricane Patricia, and the mid-Texas cold front. It would've been the only week in my mission without church, but we ended up going to another ward that was holding only sacrament. I've learned over the course of the weekend, that the best place to go when there is a big storm near, the beach! We went running on Saturday morning on the sea wall and were absolutely drenched when we got back to the apartment, but it was awesome. 

Miracles from the storm: 

One of our investigators - John Clapp - saw us on the side of the road and noticed that we weren't wearing any jackets and it was raining (our raincoats were in our backpacks, since you get hot after walking for awhile in 70+ degrees). But he went home, found some old ponchos that he had and then tracked us down. We were out knocking some doors of potential investigators and people who'd invited us back; then John showed up with rain ponchos. Still not sure how he'd found us, we were appreciative that he had taken the time to come and do something nice to get us out of the rain. 

One of our member - the Castillo Family. They saw us on the side of the street and pulled over to offer a ride. We didn't need one at that moment but they ended up driving us around at different times throughout the day, it was a huge blessing to have them willing to put everything aside and just come save us whenever and wherever. 

Sister Castillo & daughter

Random people on the street, invited into their house to dry off, or offered food and water. They repeatedly told us to "go home." but it was an a sincere caring sort of way. 

Other exciting news from the week, Elder Dubei came to visit the 'Texas McAllen Mission', he is from Africa. His insight and the way that he expressed himself reminded me of the character - Rafiki, from The Lion King. Anyway, he was so excited when he talked with us, and it was contagious. I wanted to share with you and African proverb that he shared with us: 

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." 

He connected the proverb to our companionships but I have come to see that it can be applied to families, communities, church and school groups...ect. 

We wouldn't have gone nearly as far (or fast) without the help of people on the island all throughout the weekend with the storm, but we had to accept the service when people offered. Service helps both sides, and I was definitely on the receiving end of it this weekend. 

Also working with other people is more fun. S. Hortal and I had an absolute blast, we danced and sang as we walked in the rain and just were enjoying every minute of it, there is no way it would've been enjoyable without her. We've got to appreciate the people around us. 

keeping mexico in our prayers. lots of love

H mckenna Crawford

The struggle is real, ladies and gentleman. Sometimes you just get attacked with negative vibes and all you can do is look upward and press onward cause there really isn't any other logical choice to progress. 

We had some struggles with our investigators this last week. And their families. I went to the court-house to deal with the speeding week from about two weeks back, that went worse than expected, this also required us to drive all the way up to corpus two different days. Then I got vertigo and threw up for the first time on the mission, before going on an exchange - where we then ran out of food, thank goodness for subway.

Now the problem with all of my problems from this last week was that they're all self-inflicted. There was preventative things that I could've done to stop all of the above from happening but I was behind the curve, just messed up, or wasn't thinking and then was forced to deal with all of the consequences. 

My driving record is officially 'clean' though I am not sure it was dirty before. I had to go and present my case in front of a judge, in hopes that he would explain my options and maybe have some mercy on me. Well, the judge was incredibly nice, but he didn't actually help me at all. I had to pay for court costs, something else and then finally the defensive driving course which all adds up to about the amount of the ticket. In addition, I will be spending the next six hours on the computer taking an online defensive driving course - pobrecita sis hortal gets to sit next to me and watch. 

Something I failed to mention in my last email from when we got to go and visit the USS Lexington, S Hortal and I had a rather creepy encounter with a worker named Jeremy who tried to show us the locked up parts of the ship - like some type of 'special tour' anyway, we got out of there and away from him rather quickly but S Hortal has now been suffering with nightmares. When you're companion suffers, you suffer. Waking up in the morning to nightmares has been a little stressful, though luckily I haven't had any.

Our investigators really boil down to Meryk, his grandparents are from Washington - lacey, lakewood and tukwila area. There is a point in time when as a missionary we are suppose to drop people who are not progressing or who have heard all the lessons before and haven't done anything. Meryk's grandparents are getting cold feet with Meryk's baptism and we've gotten to the point where we have taught him all the lessons, he just has to decide what he wants to do. The mission leaders say, he either needs to get baptized or we need to stop visiting them, we'll see. 

Now for the story on throwing up after getting vertigo. Well it was self-inflicted pain, all starting with a pineapple. Yes, I had bought a pineapple last preparation day and then proceeded to eat all of it during weekly planning on Friday and that really was a bad idea, I felt sick for the rest of the day which cause me to not eat much of anything else until that night, before the exchange we stopped and got an ice cream cone from McDonald's since we hadn't had dinner and apparently that was a bad idea. The 'acidity' from the pineapple and the 'base' from the ice cream didn't sit well in my stomach - weird part was it caused me to feel as though I was spinning until I threw up the ice cream, it was a rough day. Never eat a whole pineapple, ever. 

As I said before, I could've avoided all of these things but I wasn't paying good enough attention. I was transgressing. I didn't know or pay attention to the amount of pineapple that I consumed, I didn't see the "school zone" sign while I was driving, S. Hortal and I didn't know we would be in danger when we wandered away from the elders, but we suffered for all of the above. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to making mistakes. We just have to pay attention and make the best decisions that we can. We will save ourselves a lot of pain. 

Still loving the island, and all of you

H mckenna Crawford

Dr. Suess once said, "A person is a person, no matter how small. but I would like to add that - "A miracle is a miracle, no matter how small." And we're seeing lots of small miracles over here on the island. 

We've been working like crazy over the last couple weeks, just doing everyting that is in our power to meet new people and just do the work. As a result we broke records for the number of people that we were able to get in contact with over the last week. That included knocking doors, having people just go up and introduce us to their neighbors, it was a lot of 'get-to-know-you's. 

We made a deal with one another to not let anyone pass us without just saying hello and then if possible asking them a question about them.

This brought various responses: but it kept us busy and like I said we saw some miracles just from opening up our mouths.

One example; we had packed our lunch on Thursday and to go to an different city that is apart of our area - Port Aransas. While there we sat on their pier until two fisherman came by and started fishing in front of us, so naturally we talked to them. Turns out that one of the fisherman was a member, but he hadn't been since he was baptized at nine. His father lives on the island and was an inactive member of the church as well - apparently he had just moved here and recently became a father, we set up a time to go by his new house to meet his wife and baby girl. Pretty miraculous, at least we were pretty excited. 

walked all day and then..........

Our investigator Meryk, his grandma and grandpa (who are currently his caretakers) are from Tuwilla and Lakewood, Washington. It was just this happy little miracle that I got to hear about home. Also when we discovered this little news, the grandma looked at me and said, "I think that God sent you to me." The grandma isn't a member but Meryk's grandma grew up in the church. Minor but miraculous. 

Miracles are everywhere, and they're usually pretty small. But life is what we make it, so we just have to use the small miracles that surround us for bigger things. 

island vibes, peace, love & blessings

H. mckenna Crawford

Conference weekend, that was the highlight of the week for sure. But a number of other things happened this week. 

I now know how to change bike tires and that is pretty awesome, but I am getting more practice than I would like. We replaced my back tire last week and patched my front tire but then another couple 'espinas' got into my front tire and it popped so I will have to replace the front this week too. 

I can't complain too much though. It popped officially while we were out at the 'community garden'. The sisters a couple sets of missionaries back, arranged with the "community garden club" to gave a planter box and so now we are currently growing watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers and tomatoes. I haven't gotten to try any of what we grow cause it was mostly dead when I got here two weeks ago but we went and replanted all of it and so far its looking good. We get to stop by and water it every couple days and talk to whoever is at their planter box. How cool is that? Who else gets to grow a watermelon and pass out Book's of Mormon at the same time?

Since we don't have 'garden-goodies' to pass out to members. We made some cookies at the beginning of the week and it just happened to be on a day that we were fasting so we couldn't try them. We also didn't have flour so we went and gave them to a neighbor, his name is Kip, and asked them how they were. He told us that they were delicious. And by taking his word, we passed them out to most of our members on the island. That night we broke our fast with a cookie each...and then spit them out because they tasted like corn tortillas....our bad since we did use 'masa: corn flour'. Mistakes were made, but we still got thank-you texts from members throughout the day, probably because they texted us before trying them. 

On a more unfortunate note, I got my first speeding ticket. Heart-breaking moment for me, and the worst part was I was going 29 in a school zone - it was 4:29 when he 'gunned my speed' and the school zone ended at 4:30. I was rather shook up, but the officer explained that I could take a 'Defensive Drivers' course for a couple hours within the next two weeks and the ticket would be gone. ...who wants to waste time doing that though? .... lessons were learned. 

Thoughts from conference, I loved the theme of receiving direct answers from the Holy Ghost. We have the best resource, a perfect companion/compass, and we often neglect to use him. We can ask direct questions and receive direct answers. Often times we just ask for the general things, big principles/characteristics the 'cookie-cutter' but we have the opportunity to fix the acute problems. Finding the small fragments of ourselves that need fixing and working on those first, but we've got to ask what those are. Currently ponderizing: Moroni 7:19

I love progress and the island. xoxoxoxoxoxxox

H mckenna Crawford

Shocker of all shocks. I got transferred, I had failed to mention in my last update that transfers were this last week, but I was convinced that they wouldn't effect me too much. 

I am now on North Padre Island with S. Hortal, my MISSION HIJA otra vez. We were pretty stoked about it, and I couldn't be loving the island more. It is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, we live right across the street from the beach, and we go running there in the morning on 'the sea wall'. 

The members here in Corpus Christi are the sweetest people, and they spoil their missionaries. Our coordination meeting follows a weekly dinner appointment with all the ward missionaries and us, (the ward missionaries rotate providing the dinner). 

Everyone here lives on the canals of the gulf of mexico - everywhere we go there is an ocean breeze and sand particles blowing in the wind, I will try to send pictures but they don't do it justice. Knocking doors again is slow going, and most people here don't have a very warm reception to missionaries on their doorstep. 

Reputations are a silly thing though, I am excited to be here and being rejected doesn't scare me - I love getting to know new people, even the ones who don't want to listen. 

Reviewing the week though, it should've been a rough one. Our first day together we had to take the car for a repair, though we both thought that we would just sit for an hour or two and do our studies then drive our car home but we were wrong. We left the car there for the rest of the week and had to call and organize rides back from Corpus Christi to the Island (20-30 min drive). Then the remainder of the week was on bikes. 

Slight problem, my back tire is popped and the front has a leak. As a result we saw miracles throughout the day during the four or so times we had to refill the air. Three times, I just opened my mouth and asked some random person if they happened to have a bike pump - we were at the beach, at a gas station and in the middle of a street near 'town' and all three times there were people who were able to help us. Miracles. 

Another bump in the road.. our air conditioner busted in the middle of my second night in the apartment. Our apartment complex has a green house and pool in the middle of it and 'boy-oh-boy' it gets hot. At about 2:45pm in the middle of the night there was a loud sound (I thought someone was weed-wacking the plants) and then a crash. I jumped out of bed, as did S. Hortal and said, "someone's breaking into our house with a weedwacker." Well no. Actually it was our air conditioning unit exploding. 

The next two days, we planned and studied outside of our apartment each morning and night and cried/laughed ourselves to sleep in the 100+ degree room temperature. 

I love it here. Also I love the Holy Ghost - yesterday I was able to give a talk about the Holy Ghost in the baptism of a man named 'James'. I read part of the song, "Let the Holy Spirit Guide." All the lyrics in that song are true, often we don't rely enough on Heavenly Father and simply trust Him and the impressions that we receive. It was a good talk, and a good lesson for me. I love you all, hope its a great week. 

xoxoxo H. mckenna Crawford

I am currently working on living in the moment, which my missionary brain sometimes works ahead in our schedules - always trying to stay 'one step ahead' of our day. I always told myself that it was a matter of preparation, since no one likes going into a situation unprepared but this week taught me that there is moderation in all things and if being 'prepared' is pulling you away from enjoying the moment around you then you've got to change something. 

Tuesday (Sep. 15th) was S. Eggett's birthday and it was full of surprises for her, we visited members who had prepared full birthday meals and parties. We had our own birthday party with the missionaries on Monday, the Presidente and Sister Maluenda came and brought a cake. It was pretty special. Anyway, we ended the night with a piñata and a blow-up house - I had no idea what was happening. Now this was one of those "once in your mission" type of events but guess what I was doing... during the piñata, I was alone at a table, fingering through my Book of Mormon for something to share as a 'spiritual thought' for the birthday party. Now as good as my intentions were - I was missing the opportunity to make a memory with everyone at that party - and there was basically the whole branch. 

Later in the week, we learned some new things and had some 'extra-ordinary' moments. I feel like this area is full of opportunities to learn new things but I get worried that I am losing my "missionary purpose" when I get sucked into enjoying the moment; wrong. 

We learned from a member, who hasn't been able to get to church for the last while, how to paint. She loves loves loves to paint so we decided to have her help us learn. (When people are able to help you do or learn something, they love you more - another learning from the mission.) Painting takes a while, I started to stress and then calmly reminded myself to just enjoy the moment. 

We weren't doing the usual 'missionary lesson' but as we continued painting we eventually started talking about her many past 'art teachers' and why some are better than others, she said the best art teachers are "the ones that let you express yourself". So true. 

We then started talking about how Heavenly Father must be the best art teacher of all cause we are pretty 'free to express ourselves' down here on earth. We have to learn who we are and make good decisions, that's when we'll look back and enjoy our class here on earth. 

Sat (Sep. 19th) we learned how to make crepes in the wee-hours of the morning for a missionary breakfast from S. Wells. Again, not conventional and it took up a good part of the morning but we learned something new and it was so much fun. I just had to enjoy the moment. 

Interspersed through all the fun activities we also had some drop lessons and found some new people. Good and bad, we just keep going. A quote from church yesterday, "Stumbling blocks and stepping stones are made of the same material." We have to enjoy the rubble and move forward.

Long email, sorry about that. Lots of love. 

H. mckenna Crawford

There was not a lot of change within the last week but life is going great. 

The current focus is just getting all of these YSA members to work, and they're exceeding our expectations, I am so proud of them. 

We put in a lot of effort this week but didn't get to see much of it's fruits.  Gratefully, multiple members helped us out a ton over the last week.

We were eating dinner with one family and three of their kids are in the YSA branch, we finished eating and were on bikes. We got out to the bikes and had about 30 min before we needed to be home. We were 5 min from our house and had a potential investigator who lived about 15 min away on bikes - so we had time to get there but not enough time to teach him anything. We turned around and knocked on the Espinosa's door again, then we ended up taking the family and two other friends who were at their house over to visit the potential - knocked a door in the dark with a crowd of 7 people. Joseph didn't answer but I know Heavenly Father saw our efforts. 

Another effort to get people to take action, was with a kid named Andres. He is one of my favorite people down here, hilarious and loud as can be. We walked with him from his house to the nearest chapel with 'LDS Employment Services' to try to help him get out there and get a job. Well we walked about 30 min to the church (longer than expected) in the middle of the heat of the day (literally it was noon) and we come to a sign that says they were closed for the day. Then we walked home. Once again, the effort was made and though our plan failed, I know that Heavenly Father saw our efforts. 

And again, we walked around 'South Texas College' campus with another member from the branch for an hour as we visited different offices, in search of proselyting permission on campus grounds (the YSA is so awkward). But after multiple stops and about an hour wandering in the sun we finally arrived at the right building and office center - and the person in charge of 'religious public relations' or whatever was gone for the day so we'll be back later. Again, our plans failed but when we put in our effort and I know that Heavenly Father sees it. 

There was a huge push by our mission leaders to 'hit the number goals' and we'd see the blessings. A lot of our efforts were not rewarded with numbers this week but I feel okay. 

Our stake conference was this last week and a big focus topic was the temple. Due to the illegal traffic from Mexico - the Rio Grande Valley, contains a lot of people who aren't able to make it up to the temple in San Antonio or down to the temples in Mexico but everyone who is worthy can have their own temple recommend. 

Having a temple recommend while knowing that you cannot attend any temple, brings the same feelings as when you put in all your effort in a day and don't get any numbers. The spirit brings peace of mind, and confidence that you are doing what Heavenly Father wants you to do. In fact that is one of the greatest blessings of the temple is a more abundant presence of the spirit, we need the spirit. 

Life is good. Peace, love and the spirit headed your way.

H. mckenna Crawford