Merry Christmas...and More! UVU YSA 2nd Stake, Orem, Utah Mission, December 26th, 2017

Merry Christmas! I am grateful for all of you! 

I had an absolutely wonderful Christmas, I hope all of you did too. 

Some of the highlights this week:

Baking cookies at our mission President's house; because we are all in YSA and practically everyone went home for the break, we don't have a ton of people to contact. So we all got together to make cookies and brownies to pass out to people still here! 

We met Jos! Jos has a lot of member friends, and we finally were able to meet with her and she told us she wanted to be baptized.. So she's going to be baptized on January 6th! She's super cute and fun and bubbly. 

Teo's Baptism: Was the best! He shouted for joy after he was baptized and we all chuckled a bit. He is now  a member of the Church and received the Holy Ghost on Sunday! He is still the coolest. 

Christmas Eve: We had dinner at our Ward Mission Leaders house, where Teo came too! So much great food. Then we met up with our district at a church building and made tons of cookies.. Again. It started snowing on Christmas Eve which was magical and we got to go around caroling to families and gave them cookies. 

Christmas: Woke up and opened presents from my family and friends, picked up Sister Ang to spend the day with us, then met our district again to celebrate Christmas morning. Our plan for breakfast fell through so everyone just brought basically everything form their fridge and it ended up being pretty good! Then we had a snowball fight (of course) and after that I got to Skype my family! It was wonderful to see and hear from them. They're amazing! Then we got to spend the night at the Killpacks and brought Teo, Isaiah and Julia along since they didn't have any family here. 

Overall is been a great and pretty eventful week. I hope you all continue to feel the spirit of Christmas and the Spirit of Christ and light others lives throughout the year. 

Love,
Sister Crofts 

Making cookies to pass out at the Mission President's house

Teo's baptism.  He was SO excited!

On our way to Teo's baptism!

With Julia

A snake!

Not sure the story behind this...but missionaries are superheroes!

District Christmas breakfast

Opening presents!

Skyping family!

New members Isaiah, Teo and Julia (soon to be) at President's house for Christmas dinner!

My Companions are the Best! UVU YSA 2nd Stake, Orem, Utah Mission, December 18th, 2017

Last night I got my 2nd late night call from President.. Still gives me a heart attack each time haha! There's a Sister in Orem who just lost a companion (we aren't sure what happened) and President called and asked Sister Ang to go with her for an "exchange" for the rest of the transfer in that area. It's actually my old area, in the Orem North Stake, which is cool, and since everyone in our area is leaving we will probably be able to help in that area! That's the good news, but the sad news is we are going to miss having sweet Sister Ang with us all the time! She completes us and is an incredible missionary. And hopefully it's not permanent and I'll get her back for next transfer :) 

This week was so busy! Holy cow! On Wednesday we had our mid-transfer training meeting, where the trainers and new missionaries go and talk about how the transfers been going, and the trainers go into one room and talk about training, and same with the trainees. Those meetings get more interesting each time I go to one haha! But I love being a trainer of new missionaries, especially Sister Wallentine and Sister Ang because they both came Pre trained and are amazing. 

Thursday was Zone Conference.. It was amazing! The only stressful part was I had to give a training, but wasn't told about it until the night before zone conference! But in the end it went well, I got to talk about making room for Christ in our lives and Light the World. Every time we meet as a Zone for Zone conference I just love the spirit that is there, and I definitely come away with something new to improve myself and my testimony each time. After the trainings were done, we all went into the gym and played lots of fun Christmas games and activities, like White Elephant, we sang some Christmas hymns (I got to play piano woohoo!) and a few games I remember playing at birthday parties that my mom came up with! (remember the candy game mom? :) then we got to all take home gifts and it was just a wonderful day. 

In regards to teaching, we have Teo getting baptized this upcoming Saturday, and Julia the Saturday after that! They are both amazing and I love them so much. We also met with Summerlyn for the first time in a while, and she has FLDS background and has been researching our church and agreed to be baptized when she found out it was true: we set a date and everything! We are also teaching Solange, who's from Tanzania. She is so cool and also on date to be baptized in January! Her testimony grows every time we come by. We are also teaching Sara, who we took a picture with, and hopefully she will be getting baptized next transfer as well, she's in Norway, which is where she's from, over break. She's so awesome too.. Basically we are just teaching a bunch of amazing people right now! And hopefully we will still have some people here to teach over the break! 

I just want to let you all know, that this gospel is true! I know it with all my heart. As we actively seek to follow Christ and Light the World, we will feel of His love and peace. I know this! Jesus Christ is my Savior, and He's yours too! 

One last note.. I get to talk to my family on Christmas! Woohoo! Merry Christmas everyone! 

Love,
Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042
United States

Fun Pday activity today!

The Three Amigas.  They sure love each other!

District Sisters

Always the cat pictures:)

Sara from Norway with the missionaries

Meetings and Leavings! UVU YSA 2nd Stake, Orem, Utah Mission, December 12th, 2018

Hello!

Holy Guacamole time flies when you're having fun! 

I'm just going to share a brief overview of my week, that goes along with the pictures :) If you are still reading my weekly emails, thanks and I hope you enjoy! 

First of all.. Everyone is about to leave. Literally. Schools almost done and everyone is going home! Ahh! :) We are about to get really creative. 

Tuesday: MLC aka Missionary Leadership Council. 8:30-3:30 it was probably the longest day of my life.. But so good! President and his Assistants trained us on how to be better teachers and we got lunch so that's always a plus hehe! That's the very formal picture that has a million and a half missionaries and our mission president and his wife. If you look closely you'll see Sister Black (who I love and miss!) and I touching fingers. We thought we were pretty funny. The rest of the day I was exhausted! But it was great. 

Wednesday: We went to the temple with Isaiah, who was baptized 2 weeks ago. He's awesome! We are sitting with him on the edge of the fountain. We also had a lesson with Julia, who is still really excited to be baptized on December 30th, and who we also get to spend Christmas with! She's coming with us to a Christmas party at the Killpacks because she doesn't have any family here. We also had a lesson with Sara, who's from Norway and has been doing awesome as well. So many cool people! I also got to have another meeting today with the leaders in the zone! Yay for meetings. 

Thursday: Zone meeting! I got/had(?) to give a training on how to teach simply and to people's needs. That was a little nerve wracking but I think I did alright. That's the picture of all of the Sisters on the front in chairs and a bunch of elders in the back (the less formal picture).

Friday: Weekly Planning and got to stop by a ward Christmas party where they gave us Ice Cream Cake! Woohoo! (Picture of us with Ice Cream Cake) 

Saturday: Another Lesson with Teo! (We got a picture with him! He's the one in the red plaid shirt, we took that picture on Sunday). He is awesome! Everything we teach him he ponders, then accepts. He really can feel and knows that being baptized will help him in his life. He's going to be baptized on the 23rd of December :)

Sunday: Four Sacrament meetings and lots more meetings! Another normal Sunday as a missionary in Utah!

Monday: I got to go on an exchange with Sister Peter, who's wearing the flower shirt in the picture of me with the sisters. She's awesome and I got to walk all day which was good exercise for me!

Tuesday/Today: We got to go to the temple as a district, and that is probably one of my favorite pictures. The rest of them we were smiling and one certain missionary was a little crazy. (It wasn't me this time mom :). 

I love the temple and this gospel. It is true! I know it with all of my heart. I am so grateful for the truths it gives me and the comfort I feel from it. Don't forget to check out Light the World on mormon.org, which has a ton of awesome ways to serve others this Christmas Season. I love yall!

Love,
Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042


United States

Temple with Isaiah

Teo 

Zone Meeting

Getting a little crazy!

Temple trip this morning!

Mission Leadership Council

Exchanges, Snow, and Sleepy Companions! UVU YSA, Orem, Utah, December 4th, 2017

Hello again! And Merry soon to be Christmas! 

First of all.. It snowed! Not a ton (yet) but we were so excited! This is Sister Ang's first time seeing snow. We didn't know when she would receive her visa to the Philippines so we had been praying extra hard.. And here it is! 

This week was great! There were a lot more people here because finals are coming up, and we had a lot of success. 

On Tuesday we had a lesson with Julia. Julia is AWESOME! She's from Maine, and She told us right when we got there that she felt like something was missing in her life and that she wanted to be baptized! We set a date for her to be baptized Dec 30th and we had lessons with her 3 days in a row. I have never seen anyone more prepared to receive the gospel. She's already seen what life is life without it, and had already felt the spirit so much at church : which is why she's decided she wants to be baptized! 

Another one of my favorite people ever.. Is Teo! He is from Africa and is seriously the coolest! Every single lesson we teach him, he just sits and listens, and ponders. He is going to be baptized on December 23rd and wants more than anything to please God. Recently, we taught him the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. For those of you who aren't aware with what those are, the Law of Chastity basically consists of not having any sexual relations before marriage, and the Word of Wisdom is a Law of health from our Heavenly Father prohibiting Coffee, Alcohol, Tobacco, Tea and Illegal substances. (I am so grateful for both- they have both blessed me immensely!) when we got there to teach Teo and told him about these things, he admitted to us that there were some parts of these two things that he didn't understand, and that he wasn't sure if he agreed with. But after a moment of pondering he said "I want to please God. I know these things are commandments from Him and if I follow them ill be closer to God. So I will do those things." He is such a spiritual person and also prepared to receive the gospel! He reads his scriptures every day and can basically memorize and tell us exactly what he read in the Book of Mormon every time we come back. So cool. 

We also had a lesson with Solange, who is from Tanzania/Chicago (we aren't sure) and she agreed to be baptized in January! She's  a lot more shy than the other two but definitely has a desire to learn. 

We also had exchanges on Wednesday, (which is the picture of all the sisters rmissionaries) because I'm the Sister Training Leader for the zone, I get to go out with each sister for a day and be with them and learn from them and find out what I can do to help them. It's great. 

I got some Christmas music this week so that was awesome and we made some music videos with that while driving haha!

Also, my companions may or may not have a hard time waking up in the morning.. Take a look at the picture below and put in your votes ;) 

Lots of love from me to you!

Love,

Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S

Lindon UT 84042

Christmas Countdown!

Wonderful Sister Missionaries in Rachel's zone!

Awesome Trio of Sisters!  They love each other and are having a fantastic, successful time!

Where Did Everyone Go? UVU YSA, Orem, Utah Mission, November 27, 2017

Hello again!

 I have officially been transferred! I said goodbye to Sister Black and Sister La Croix, and now I'm in another training trio! I miss the, but am excited for this transfer! I am in the Orem YSA 2nd Stake which covers Utah Valley University which is pretty cool. But first, my companions!

Sister Wallentine! (The one with the huge pretty eyes).  She is originally from Bear Lake, Idaho and then moved to North Dakota. She just started her second transfer so I'm technically follow-up training her, but I'm pretty sure she came pre-trained. She is such a great teacher and knows this area well! She is 19 and from North Dakota and is a complete goofball and so much fun! 

Sister Ang! (The one with the cute smile). She is in her first week right now, and was learning Cebuano in the Provo MTC. She's from SIngapore! (How cool!) and is waiting to receive a Visa to go to her assigned mission in the Phillipines. This is sister Ang's first time in the USA and everything is very strange to her.  She speaks English and Mandarin fluently! She was shy at first, but now is a little sassafras (our family word for sassy:).  I love her! We are so happy to have her with us and hope she stays for a while! 

Double duty training is a lot of work and we don't have a lot of time to spare between that and teaching a ton of lessons! We are over 10 wards.  9 Young Single Adult wards and one Single adult ward (31+).  Luckily, we have a car! I addition to training two new missionaries , I am also a STL (Sister Training Leader).  I go to Missionary Leadership Council, and train at zone meetings and zone conference.  I also meet with the zone leaders to plan our zone activity and I get to go on exchanges with the other sister missionaries in the zone which is awesome and a great chance for me to get to know them!

This area is wonderful! It's really cool to be able to teach people my own age--and we are teaching so many! I've only met a few so far but we've had some great lessons, and a baptism! 

Isaiah was baptized on Saturday. He's had a long past of doing things he probably shouldn't have been doing,but within the last couple of months he turned his life around and was baptized! He is such a great example to me and it's inspiring how much he loves the scriptures! He's 22. 

Teo is someone else we are teaching right now. He's 32 and originally from Nigeria. He's so cool! The first lesson we taught him as a companionship was the Plan of Salvation, and he soaked it all in and loved hearing the scriptures from the Book of Mormon. The next day we came back for another lesson (After he had been to all 3 hours of church) and he had read and understood perfectly the chapter out of the Book of Mormon we had assigned him! He is so awesome and has such a great spirit. He is planning on being baptized December 23rd. 

We also met with Solange (22ish) who's investigating the church and wants to learn more. We also have lessons planned this week with Julia, who's friend is a member and introduced her to the church, and Trina, who met the MTC President's wife and got referred to us from her! All are so sweet and already so accepting of the gospel! It's amazing! 

To explain the title of this email, since we are in YSA everyone goes home for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. So the last few days almost no one has been home, or at church! We are struggling a bit to come up with things to do during Christmas Break so if anyone has any ideas of how we can keep productive, let us know! :)  During Thanksgiving break we heart attacked some doors and worked on contacting people through Facebook.  

We got to eat with a senior couple that works in the Mission Office for Thanksgiving! They were so sweet and all of the YSA missionaries ate there. So much fun and we were very full!  Sister Ang wasn't used to so much food and threw up :(  

Love you all! :)

Love,
Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042
United States

Isaiah's Baptism

Thanksgiving dinner!

Add caption

New Trio: Sisters Crofts, Wallentine, and Ang

 A pile of shot guns outside of an apartment..hmmm...

Always the pictures with the cats! 

Official Transfer Picture!

Transfer Day!

Turkey Bowl!