I'm leaving in a Malibu! North Orem Area, Orem, Utah Mission, August 28th, 2017

Transfers! And I'm hitting the road! I'm sad to say goodbye to Orem, but excited for my new area in... Bluffdale!  Haven't  heard of it? Neither had I until I got to this mission! My new companion will be Sister Black who came in right before me.  The great new is that I get a car again! I'm not entirely sure if it will be another Malibu, but it worked for the title of this email :) 

This week we got to help with the MTC tours, which was pretty fun! I got to see Emily Reid and Noah Cole and took a picture with them! That was pretty nice to see friends from home. After we helped with the tours, we got to go on one of our own! The new MTC is exquisite and the spirit was very strong there. 

We also got to play bingo with the elderly folks again this week, which was entertaining and fun as always. 

Sister Silva was exhausted the other night and was sleep talking. I tried to ask her what she was saying, but she just sat up and started praying in her sleep! That was pretty hilarious and we laughed for a while about that one. 

On Saturday we were walking around one of the neighborhoods and decided to say a "specific prayer." A specific prayer is where you pray, and as prompted by the spirit, describe a person or house that Heavenly Father wants us to visit. Sister Silva said it, and we eventually found the person she had described! A lady with brown hair going into her house who needed help. They had just gotten home from St George so we talked to her and her husband, found out they were members, and they told us about everyone in their neighborhood who could use some service or the gospel in their life right now! That was definitely a miracle.

I'm sad to leave this area, but excited for new adventures! The glorious thing is. that the the gospel is true everywhere! Heavenly Father Loves us all the same, wherever or whoever we are. He loves us enough to gives us amazing families, which I am blessed with, and a plan where our families can be together forever. How blessed and lucky am I to know this and to be able to share it with the people of Utah! 

Love,
Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042 

Sisters waiting to go to the MTC

Sister Reid with Sister Crofts

Bus ride from the MTC (Missionary Training Center)

Package from home

Sister Crofts with Lexi

Saying goodbye to Luz and Maria

Rachel's District

Saying goodbye to the Skinners

 With Sister Westenskow, their landlady

It's Hot...Except When the Sun Don't Shine! North Orem, Orem, Utah Mission, August 21st, 2017

Hola! 

Another week has inevitably gone by. 

This week we had a mission tour... Elder Curtis of the quorum of the 70 came and talked to everyone in our mission! It was pretty awesome and he's a super sweet person who gave a lot of inspired advice. 

Something that I really liked that he said was that there are three things we need to do as missionaries to be successful in finding people to help and teach. (And I think this applies to everyone!)

1. Have Faith

2. Work Hard

3. Have the Spirit with you

I firmly believe that with these three things, we will be more successful people in general! We will also be more Christlike in turn helping us build better relationships with those around us. Pretty amazing!

I also had the privilege of being involved in a musical number and accompanying people as they sang. I'm blessed to have awesome parents who made me practice when I was younger even when I didn't want to, because now it has blessed me so much!

Tomorrow we get to go to the new MTC! I'm so excited. We get to go help out with tours there for BYU Education week so if any of you are there tomorrow night.. Keep an eye out for me :) More details and pictures from that next week!

On Saturday I got to go to a baptism in Sandy.. Out of the missioin! It was for Colton, a 12 year old boy who I got to teach a few times in Eagle Mountain before they moved. No one else in his family are members of the church, but they are all amazing people and he will definitely be setting a great example to them. (Colton is the one in the middle with the white shirt!) 

Regarding my subject line.. It's still very hot here haha. And today of course was the eclipse, so we got to go outside with our landlady and look at it through cereal boxes. It got maybe 15 degrees colder outside (We had about a 90% eclipse) and a tiny bit darker, but wasn't as exciting as everyone had made it sound. Still cool though! :) 

I also got to go on exchanges again this week with Sister Leiter. She is such an amazing person and missionary, I love her! Transfer calls are in a week from today and we are starting to get antsy! How does 6 weeks go by so fast!? 

We also (Finally!) have a Sign Language lesson set up! I'm really excited to start teaching investigators in ASL, it's going to be great! I'm no where near fluent but I'm willing to learn all that I can, and with God's help all things are possible. 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week! 

Love,
Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042
United States

Rachel and Sister Leiter with a wiggly investigator!

Colton's baptism!  Rachel loves this family!

Rachel got new glasses today!

The first 6 months have FLOWN by!!

Nerf War! North Orem, Orem, Utah Mission, August 14th, 2017

Hey everyone! 

I kind of need a nap today, so I'm going to keep this relatively short hehe :) 

This week was a good one. A lot of the time the weeks feel really slow and like not much is happening, even though we are working our butts off. But in a blessing I received recently I learned that even if I'm not seeing everything pay off right now, I'm planting seeds. 

There are two miracles this week that I feel like we're tender mercies from God. They both happened at the end of the week too! Just shows that when we work hard and trust in God, he will help us find people to help!

Yesterday we were finally able to have a lesson with Michelle, who we've been trying to get in contact with forever! She was  a referral from the Spanish elders, because she wants to go to an English ward. We had a lesson with her on Facebook that went really well. She expressed to us her desire to be baptized and we set a date for September 9th! We are so excited for her, she is such an amazing girl. 

Today was the other tender mercy. I got a call from the mission office saying that someone called to ask permission for me to come to a baptism in Sandy Utah (Which is out of our mission boundaries) and that my mission President had approved it! I was so surprised and excited! If you remember from when I was in Eagle Mountain, I taught but mostly served the Salazar family, who were all so ready and willing to be baptized, except for their father who was very strict in his religion. But they were still the sweetest family ever, I loved them and was sad to leave right as they were moving out of the mission. Just recently, a member in our area called his brother who lived up in Eagle Mountain, and I found out that the 12 year old son in that family was getting baptized and that the mom, Emily, really wanted me to come. I was so touched and honored but didn't think it would happen, until I got the call today! I am so excited and overjoyed. What a miracle. Even more proof to me that I am planting seeds every day! 

I love this gospel! I know it is true with all of my heart. Heavenly Father loves each of us dearly and knows us perfectly. I hope that if you don't know that that you will come to at some point in your life. 

I love you all! 

The Pic is of the Awesome Nerf Gun War for our zone activity today

Love, Sister Crofts

57 Weeks! North Orem, Utah, Orem, Utah Mission, August 7th, 2017

Just kidding, I have no clue how many weeks it has been but I am pretty sure not 57 haha! I'm a jokester what can I say. 

This week was a week! In a good way,  of course. It all went by in a blur as it usually does so I'll just summarize my favorite parts. 

There is a Senior Couple that’s new to one of our stakes, the Kaiaokamalie's. (It's Hawaiian, I think). Anyway, they came to the stake correlation meetings we have every Saturday at 7am (yes 7am) and were asked about who they've been teaching. (Background, as missionaries we are each assigned areas in which we are over and can receive revelation for.) Elder K. repied, "Well, we are teaching a lot of people. None of them are from this stake, but the way I see it, the Lord has no boundaries." Oh man, I couldn't help but chuckle. Boundaries are a big part of being a missionary, just because with those boundaries comes the keys to receive inspiration on how to best help the people. My companion wrote down what he said and I had to quickly assure her that, "No, missionaries do have boundaries." They are a pretty funny couple, I'm excited to work with them. 

We have a mission tour coming up on the 17th and 18th of August in which a member of the Quorum of the 70 will be coming to talk to us. I was asked to play piano and my companion to sing for a special musical number so I will be practicing quite a bit in the next week or so. We also have the opportunity to go do tours at the new MTC on August 22nd! I'm really excited for that and to be able to see it!

We also got to go to the temple this week with Brooke! Woohoo! She did baptisms with her grandma, cousins and us. She is an awesome girl. 

I also met Brother Gary Mills parents. 

Tender Mercy from the Lord: Yesterday we stopped by the Tanners, a sweet active family who is always willing to give us a ride or help us out somehow. I had a question for Brother Tanner and he called his brother, who I met when I was in Eagle Mountain. There was a family in Eagle Mountain that I taught briefly, but loved dearly. They recently had moved away. When his brother found out I was there, he told me the family was now taking missionary discussions up in Sandy, and that he was going there every week to do it with them! Their oldest son is being baptized in 2 weeks! I will admit, I may have cried a little. He also told me that the mom, Emily, who I was really close with, missed me. I was able to get her address so I can write her! It was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord that I got to hear about what happened to that wonderful family!

The Gospel is true! So is the Book of Mormon! Only through the gospel can we truly be happy. 

I love you all!
 

Love,
Sister Crofts
612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042
United States

Rachel has been getting bad headaches, especially when reading/studying so she got some reading glasses today!

Add caption

A member sent me this pic

Baptisms with Jessica!

Rachel with Gary Mills Parents

Care package from one of Rachel's seminary teachers.  She LOVED it!!

Add caption

Silly Sister Crofts