Another week!

Well, this has been quite the interesting week, man, it's gone by incredibly quickly! However, we've been able to see a few incredible miracles! Probably one of the most incredible things was being able to fast with one of our investigators. Phil, who has been struggling with smoking, decided to fast for the first time in his life on Thursday, and it was incredible. A miracle really did occur and he hasn't smoked since then! It was the fulfillment of the promise in Isaiah 58 that says that bonds will be broken by a true fast. It was just humbling to see his faith, and then the miracle that followed! He's ready for baptism on this Sunday! We also had some other incredible experiences where the Lord guided us in our limited time to be able to see miracles in the area. We received a random call on Saturday in the mission office about a man who had just been hit by a car and was asking for a priesthood blessing in the hospital. We headed to the hospital and were able to give him a blessing. He was fine, in pain, but no life threatening injuries. However, what happened after was honestly
just an incredible experience. We were giving him the blessing in a little room divided into two, and while we were giving it both of us were wondering what the person on the other side of the curtain must have been thinking. As we finished the blessing an EMT from the other side of the curtain came in and said that the lady on the other side wanted us to come and pray for her as well. It was incredible to see the reverence in both of these two people as we were able to explain about the priesthood and offer a priesthood blessing. It was just incredible to see how the Lord can use us, and how the spirit of the Lord is so manifest in his ordinances. It was an incredible spiritual experience and strengthened my testimony of this work, of the direction of the Lord, and of the priesthood! We've also had zone conference, which has been fun, slightly stressful, and enjoyable!
Still, it's been sobering to realize the opportunity we have to train the mission, and how sacred the responsibility really is. We're training the army of the Lord, and it's forced us to depend more and more on the Lord to ensure that we're doing what He would do. Still, the trainings have been received well, we just hope that they choose to apply what we've been teaching them! That seems to be our problem, as well as everyone else's. We just seem to fail to apply what we learn! Today we also had the opportunity to go to the temple, which was a sobering experience. As of the end of this transfer every single leader that I've ever had in the mission will be gone... It's been very sobering, very humbling, and overwhelming as well...
It's going to be an interesting next transfer, but luckily there's still a
lot more time in this one!

Another week!

Well, it was good to hear from all of you about Great Grandma's Funeral. It was interesting when President Matsumori spoke to me over the phone. He told me I came from a very rich heritage, and it's very true. Our family is so unique. We have a family that stems from pioneer heritage, from convert heritage, from General Authorities, and we're also second generation members, not to mention the fact that right now two of us are serving as missionaries. It's been humbling to see how much we have to live up to. I hope the funeral was a good experience, and a spiritual one. I imagine it definitely was.
For us our week has been fairly interesting! It's been an exciting and busy week because we've been able to go on 3 exchanges! I will definitely say that exchanges are probably the most enjoyable part of being an Assistant. Haha It's kind of sad, I just love missionary work so much, and when we're out on exchanges I'm super pumped and excited, and when we head on back to the office I just automatically get kind of down, without even thinking about it. It's something I've noticed recently, and I'm trying to learn how to love office work as much as I love work in the field, haha but it's definitely tough. Elder Pierucci pointed out that it's a good pointer for a career choice for me. Apparently I'm a people person, never would have thought that one, but I love working and serving people face to face.
Granted, office work is service, but it's definitely not the same. Still it was an exciting week, we were down in the city for a little bit, and then I was speaking Spanish, it was awesome!  We also had the opportunity to see Alex Boye perform here at the Visitor's Center twice, we went with a member of the ward who was excommunicated but who is now working through the repentance process in order to return, and no worries, we received permission to be working with him. It's sad to see that someone could fall so far, but it is a testament of the power of the atonement. That even a man who has fallen so far from where he was can still receive complete forgiveness. The Atonement has become more and more of a miracle for me as I see it work in the lives of all these people. We also went with Phil. Man, that guy is so incredible. He lost his job this week, and it happened as he was on his way to the Visitor's Center for an appointment with us. He said normally if that had happened to him he would have gone out drinking,
or looking for something to do, but instead he came to the Visitor's Center looking for help from God. Then just yesterday he texted us in the morning saying that he'd woken up with something of a spiritual thirst and that he was going to head down there by himself to just think, meditate, and walk around the temple. It's so incredible to see how God is working with him.
It's another testament to me that in all reality we really do nothing as missionaries, we just get blessed enough to see the Lord work through these people, and sometimes through us as well! 

Another week

Man, time flies by so quickly I'm not even sure what happened this week...Honestly, haha I have no idea what happened! Alrighty, I'll try my best to
remember some things that we've done, I know we've done a lot, I'm just not sure what it is. This last Friday we had Leadership training meeting which was definitely an interesting experience. It's really weird sitting on the other side of the room, conducting, and then giving the "Assistants workshop".  However, our workshop turned out well and hopefully the mission leaders were able to get what they needed from it and can now pass it on to the rest of the mission. That's also a really weird thing, with every workshop we give to the Leaders we're effectively training the mission because they will now be passing on that workshop to the rest of the mission... Man, it's a heavy responsibility, and super weird to see the way missionaries listen and look at us, they even quote us sometimes, it's actually pretty awkward! It's interesting seeing things at this level, you can notice trends and kind of the feel of the mission. Recently we've noticed that the mission seems to be struggling to find a little bit of fire, so that has been the focus of a few of the trainings, trying to build the mission's fire. Being in this position has really helped me realize how
much thought goes into directing the mission, and how much work really is done behind the scenes to make things happen, it's honestly crazy how much stuff is done that most people don't even get to see. We also had a cool lesson with our investigator Phil. Man, he is incredibly prepared! We made him a calendar with all the events leading to baptism and he loved it! He's ready to be baptized on the 1st of July and is steadily working towards that goal. He came to church this Sunday dressed in a white shirt and said that after church he was just going to go home, eat, and read in the Book of Mormon for a few hours! Man, it's always so incredible to meet such prepared people! Other interesting experiences have been planning with President and Sister Matsumori. It's been really cool to have the opportunity to work with the Matsumoris on a much more personal level.
We've been able to have essentially business dinners and planning sessions with them where they honestly treat us as if our opinion matters, and I believe that it honestly does. They are incredible people, and we've already learned a ton from them, and I'm extremely grateful that now I have the opportunity to learn from them at a more intense level. It's been an interesting week with a lot of random experiences, going on a brief exchange in the city, talking to some interesting people, and learning more about how the spirit guides us. We've been able to better see the Lord guiding our efforts, as well as granting us some inspiration on leadership, councils, and life in general. It feels like my learning experience has been accelerated once again! Still, it's incredible, and still overwhelming, but the Lord has definitely sustained me, I only hope I'll be
able to fill this role once Elder Pierucci goes home...

Another wicked fast and ridiculously crazy week!

Wow, this week has flown by, it's Thursday and it still feels like it's like Monday or something like that... Man, so being an Assistant is a lot different, very humbling, stressful, fun, rewarding, and super crazy... Haha man I honestly can't even explain it. I'm not sure what all we did, but man did we do a lot! We even got to do some teaching! So here in this mission the call of an Assistant is a lot different from any other missionary calling. When I was called to be a Zone Leader I thought it was different, but this is on a different level. Man, it is honestly nothing at all like being a normal missionary, in fact President described it as a job, just a really hard job with lots of long hours! Haha man, it's already been one crazy week. There's a ton of stuff I have to learn, because after this transfer I will be the only person in the mission that has any idea what being an assistant is like. It's honestly kind of stressing me out, but I'm learning to trust more and more in the promise that he whom the Lord calls He qualifies. Still, it's been crazy, I've pretty much just felt like an Assistant to the Assistants, just kind of following them around. It's super weird. Anyways to give you a run down of what kinds of things we do, I honestly don't know what to say. This week was especially crazy with Transfers. I did get to participate in the Transfers process, and it turns out that it's actually the Assistants that do a lot of the transfers and then we get together with President to work out some of the details and see if the transfers are in accordance with the will of the Lord. It's been interesting to learn a little bit more about receiving revelation and inspiration for things that are as detailed as this. Who their companions should be, the areas, etc. It's been crazy and a huge learning experience. Needless to say I'm pretty sure God decided that Elder Croft needed to be humbled even more, because man has it been one humbling experience... The Lord definitely sustains us in our calling, the mission also sustains us, and it's been humbling to see and feel it all. Other incredible and random things happened. For example we picked up the new missionaries and we were able to be with them for an entire day, seeking revelation as to who their trainers should be. It was an interesting experience... It's weird to see them beginning, and not going to lie, it made me extremely nostalgic (Lethargic ;)) for the beginning of my mission. We then also had the opportunity to drop off the missionaries who have finished their missions at the airport. Now that was an intense experience. The mission is flying by far too quickly, and it's hard to believe that so many of these missionaries that I've served with for so long are really going home... Other things we did, we moved in a bunch of people, slept very little, and had the opportunity to serve and get to know a lot more missionaries! It's been probably one of the most intense experiences of my life, but it's been fun, and I'm sure it'll only continue to be more fun as well as challenging! We also had the opportunity to do a little bit of "normal" missionary work. We have one investigator named Phil. He's a super cool guy in his mid-30's, a friend of one of the members here in the ward. He's incredibly ready and we had a VC appointment with him where he accepted a baptismal date for the 1st of July! Man, he's super cool and just willing to make changes in his life. It's weird though because he's a white guy... Yeah, it's super sad... The Assistant's area is an english area... I no longer get to speak Spanish all the time... It's actually been a pretty hard transition, I've been going through culture shock being around white/rich people... Man, we eat with utensils, there are multiple utensils in a meal, there are no tortillas, they're super sarcastic and cold, haha they're responsible in terms of appointments. Man, it's been super super weird. Not to mention the fact that I'm now in an English ward again, in one of the highest tithing paying wards in the entire world! I'm in the Kentlands ward by the way. Yeah, the Marriott's live right around here, a lot of the people in the ward are multi-millionaires. Man, it's been crazy, definitely a completely different mission! By the way sorry if this letter makes no sense, haha I'm slightly tired and my mind is still just running at a million miles per hour! Still it's been awesome, we've had some cool missionary experiences in the form of random Street Contacts which were some tender mercies, because I definitely miss sharing the gospel the same amount as we did before! Still, I really do love this assignment, it's an opportunity to grow in so many ways, and we've already had the opportunity to get to know President and Sister Matsumori a little more, and it's been cool to see that while they are incredible, they are also still human and have their doubts, fears, stresses, etc. As for other info, we don't live in the mission home, though we visit it frequently, we just have a normal apartment, and we may not get to write home every Wednesday just because we don't always have p-days now, so it'll come a little sporadically, but I'll definitely still try and write every week, even if it's a little short!

Another week, man, time is going way too fast!!!

Ok, so I'm not entirely sure what I did this week because I left my planner
in the car, but I'll do my best to remember. If I remember right we did a
lot of transfer recommendations and Stake correlation, or in other words
planning! Haha but it's ok, I've become much more accustomed to it, and
I've been able to see the value of what we do in helping the missionaries,
so it's not so bad, though at times it would still be nice to have a little
more time in our area. However, we've had some interesting experiences.
First of all we taught Doris and Anastacio and reviewed the baptismal
questions with them because they wanted to know what the requirements were
for baptism. Haha well that was interesting, luckily we've got out all
their doubts right now, and there were a lot of them! Pretty much a doubt
on every question, but it's all good, they're very willing to learn and
just have honest questions, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to help
them recognize the answers, as well as help them recognize that it's really
the spirit they felt that matters and not any of the questions that they
have. We also had some interesting experiences, one where we were teaching
a guy and he told us about a fairly grievous sin. I won't go into details,
but suffice it to say that it's a pretty grievous one. However, it's
definitely once again helped me see how much my love has grown, even for,
and perhaps especially for those who have wandered very far down those
paths of sin. He's extremely repentant, and it's been incredible to see how
the atonement has begun to work in his life. It's also been fun because
we've been able to serve the members of our zone in other ways, a little
different than normal. We have some areas that have really been struggling
to find, so we decided to go into one of their areas and just kind of do
the grunt work for them while they went and worked with members and
less-actives. It was pretty cool because number one we met a guy from
Kenya, and I got to use my limited amount of Swahili. "Jambo Bwana! Habari
Gani? Nzuri Sana!, Ninajua Yesu Kristo Anaishi!" haha and he was super cool
and later that evening became their first new investigator for the entire
transfer! It was a pretty cool miracle and it was fun to be able to serve
the members of the zone. Other than that I'm really struggling to remember
specific things. I know we had a lesson with one recent convert who wants
to split from his wife, and whose life just is not in the best shape. Man,
it's been weird to just realize that many of these adults just tell us
there many challenges and believe that we have the answers for them. It's
been extremely humbling and it's helped me realize even more how it is not
us at all that does this work. Those lessons are always just filled with
prayer as we try and figure out what in the world we can possibly say to
these people that will maybe be of some comfort or help. Other than that,
transfers are coming up this next week, so we'll see what happens, I have a
pretty good feeling that I'll be staying, haha especially since I just got
here.

Otra Semana! (ha changed it! Kind of)

So this was another intense week for us, with a lot of stressful things but
probably with some of the coolest tender mercies that I've ever felt on the
mission. We have this family we're teaching, Doris and Anastacio and their
little kids, and we've been trying to go with them to the visitor's center
for a really long time to have a tour with them about the plan of salvation
on families. Man, and Monday when we were planning on doing it was just
this crazy day, my letter will honestly probably just be about that day!
Ok, so we start out the day and for hours in the morning just nothing is
happening, we're out checking on people and knocking some doors in the
rain, which while enjoyable just makes it sounds more epic. So we're going
for hours but we have this new goal to be on time to all our appointments,
an unfortunate habit I've picked up from hispanic culture is tardiness.
Anyways, we arrive right in time at our appointment after checking on Doris
and Anastacio to see if we were going to make it to the VC. They didn't
answer and we were afraid they were trying to dog us. Anyways, we show up
at the appointment and no one is there, but we were on time, and when we
look down the stairwell we randomly saw Anastacio sitting about the bottom
of the stairs! So we go down to talk to him and remind him of the VC and he
says he's going to call us and let us know. It turns out he was there
walking the dog and waiting for his wife who was randomly in that same
exact apartment building selling AVON. Then our appointment shows up and we
leave him, but we don't have a 3rd male so we can't go into the
appointment, and we go back down the stairs only to find that now Doris has
just left her AVON appointment. So we retalk to them and get it set that
we're going to go to the VC. In short, the fact that we're even about to go
to the VC is a miracle! We set up the appointment at the VC and we
magically find a member who's going to get off work just in time that can
drive them to the Visitor's Center, and then we had the appointment... Man,
it was honestly one of the most incredible appointments I have had for a
long time. The Sister did a great job, and the spirit was incerdibly
strong, God wants this family in his church. We sat in the window of the
Visitor's Center staring up at the temple, and it was just incredible. The
day had been pretty rainy, but just as we were coming to the VC it had all
cleared up and the sun was setting on the temple. Man, it was just
incredibly beautiful. The spirit just filled the room as we testified of
eternal families, of the blessings of the temple, and of the need of
baptism.... Man, they almost accepted a date, so close! They're currently
praying and discussing it as a family, but no worries, no hope is lost.
After the appointment we walked around the temple grounds, and the family
was just in awe at the spirit that surrounds the temple. Afterwards they
told us that they had never in their lives felt something like it, and they
know it's the spirit. Man, it was just incredible... After feeling and
seeing all of that there is literally no way that someone could not want to
be a part of it. It strengthened my testimony of the temple, and its
reality as the house of the Lord. There truly is no place more sacred in
all the earth than the temple. There is always a spirit of reverence as we
come near the temple, and it is a testimony that this is God's church on
the Earth, and that Christ truly does live. But it gets even better!
Afterwards we found out that as Doris looked at the temple she said that
she had a vision of them being sealed in the temple for all eternity. God
is very very very aware of his children. He can use us in every way, and he
just makes things work out right. We felt no spiritual prompting to go to
that appointment. We just went about doing the best we could do, and God
placed miracles in our path. It's just such a testimony that we do nothing,
God works, and knows every aspect of our lives, and he's working for our
good, sometimes we may just have to stop and notice the miracles. I don't
know, it was just incredible. I've learned a lot of things in the last few
days. Number one is that I've changed a ton on the mission, I've grown so
much in my ability to love others, and I really just love the Gospel. There
is literally nothing that is better than missionary work, my I just love
it! Second, I've been better able to understand my role as a leader, it's
to make sure that the missions of these missionaries, is like the
experience I'm having. That they learn to love these people, that they take
joy in the work, and that they have the experiences that they're going to
need for the rest of eternity. It was just amazing to feel. Third, I've
realized more and more what true conversion is. What it comes right down to
is just desiring the companionship of the spirit more than anything else in
the world. It's desiring it so much that we have no more disposition to do
evil because we don't want to do anything that would drive it away. I've
been able to feel that more and more this last week. I love the feeling of
the spirit, and just doing my best to help serve these people. It's
incredible to be able to serve and love these people and literally give
everything we have to them, for their benefit. John 17:19 is now one of my
favorite scriptures because of that reason. Man, the Gospel is so true
family, I love it, I literally think there is no greater pursuit than
sharing the gospel, there is nothing that could ever bring so much joy. No
amount of work, or success, or status, nothing. The Gospel literally is the
Why of life.

Another week!

Hey everyone, so, I just talked to you all, which was awkward, haha but not
as weird as I thought it would be. It was mostly just awkward because the
next time I'll be talking to you guys I probably will just say "hi, see ya
in a week." and then hang up  haha Just kidding. Anyways, it was good to
talk to you all, it really struck me how long I've been gone as I spoke to
you all. Man, you guys all seem quite a bit older, Rachel is no longer 16,
Jared's voice is deeper than the bottom of the ocean, and Jonathan sounds a
lot more grown up. Mom and Dad sound pretty much the same, and Jessica
sounded rather flustered haha. It was really strange.... Anyways, you all
pretty much know how I'm doing, things are going incredibly though! Some
things I didn't tell you was that while we were talking we also had a
workshop that we had to finish up for the next day, which made for one of
the first nights that I stayed up as a missionary. Yeah, I didn't think
that would ever happen, nor that it was allowed as a missionary. Still, we
got it done, and the workshop actually worked out really well for our zone,
hopefully they were able to learn a few things that they didn't know
before. This last week has been a crazy one though. It's probably been one
of the busiest weeks for us, what with trainings, so more specialized
trainings (this time in spanish), and exchanges it's been a very busy week.
Luckily the Lord continues to bless us even though we have less time in our
area. We have some extremely solid investigators, John, that is still set
on being baptized on the 26th as well as another family who is loving the
church! The mother came to church this Sunday and really enjoyed it. She
said it was the first church that she'd ever really felt comfortable in!
We're really excited for them and they'll hopefully have a baptismal date
soon! It's also been a rather difficult week what with increasing feelings
of inadqueacy and being overwhelmed. There's a lot to do, and sometimes I
swear we'll just never be able to do it all, or if we do manage to do it
that it won't be up to the standards of the Lord. It's been a very very
humbling transfer, and this week has probably been the culmination of that
process. Still, it's been an opportunity for me to grow and I've learned a
lot of things. Some of those insights would be I need to start enjoying my
time as a Zone Leader more. I got the most distinct reminder that this
won't last forever, and that when it's over I'm going to miss it. I'll miss
worrying about other people's areas, about how we can help the members of
the zone, etc. It was a good reminder, and hopefully I'll be able to take a
little more joy in the journey in these next few weeks that follow. Well,
that's about it family! It was good to talk to you! Time is moving by far
far far too fast....