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!

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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!

Upside Down! Bluffdale, Utah, Orem, Utah Mission, November 20th, 2017

Well everyone, I just got some unexpected transfer news! I think the only thing left that my Mission President could've done is changed is me into an Elder 😉

I'll be going back down to Orem, and I'll be in the UVU YSA 2 area! (Utah Valley University Young Single Adult Ward). I am going to be follow up training (finishing training for someone about to start their second transfer), and also training a new missionary! Woohoo, another trio! I'm going to continue to work with American Sign Language, and I will also be the Sister Training Leader over the zone (what girls are called instead of zone leader: basically I get to help all of the sisters in my zone and I have to teach training at meetings like Zone conference.)   Holy Guacamole. If I didn't know this was divine revelation from God I might be slightly more stressed! Sister Black is also going to be a Sister Training Leader and is opening a new area near Bluffdale. Sister La Croix is going to be moving to Orem with a great companion.  

This week was Freezing! We also had our car in the shop for 3 days, and our area isn't super small so we got to walk a lot in the very cold weather.. Builds character though, right? 

It also snowed! On Sister La Croix's birthday! It was great, we decorated the house and got her some cute things and had a bunch of missionaries call.. Made for a wonderful day. 

Yesterday was the Musical Fireside! (sorry my emails all over the place!) it was so wonderful. BYU vocal point sang and Sheri Dew (an amazing speaker and past General Relief Society Presidency member) spoke and the whole thing was centered on Jesus Christ! I was able to memorize the living Christ and recite it with other missionaries in our mission. It just reemphasized to me how grateful I am to have a Savior and to know and feel of His love.. And to have His gospel on the earth today! I am so blessed!

At church yesterday I also had to give a talk on a Christlike attribute.  I chose charity, which is the pure love of Christ.  I talked about the story of the Good Samaritan, and shared several scriptures that talk about this wonderful attribute. I know that as we pray and seek out charity for those around us that we will feel of Christ's love for them and not fear inviting them to hear about the gospel. 

Sorry this email is a bit shorter than usual.. I'll be doing lots of packing and figuring things out today! Woohoo! I am so grateful to be a missionary for this one and only true church 😄

Love,
Sister Crofts 

Sister Dew, with Vocal Point and President and Sister Kilpack

Helping the Birthday Girl celebrate

Another Week in Paradise...oops Bluffdale! Bluffdale, Utah, Orem, Utah Mission, November 13, 2017

Hello everyone! 

Thank you so much for the sweet birthday wishes. I got to be a missionary for my birthday so it was a blast! 

Unfortunately I've been sick again this week! (Yuck). But I'm slowly recovering! Thank goodness for Priesthood blessings!

Tuesday night we had a really cool experience, we had set up a time to come talk to the Coffins, a family where the dad hasn't been active in the church for a while, and the mom's not a member. They have two young kids. Anyway, we got there, taught them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and immediately Uli (The husband) brought up wanting to be sealed to his family, and his wife, Charlene, mentioned wanting to be baptized! So cool! The spirit was definitely there and we are so excited for their family. 

Wednesday was my birthday! I am officially 20 which is weird, it was a pretty normal day overall, but throughout the day I just felt immense gratitude for my family and friends and my companions and everyone I've been blessed to know in my life. God truly blessed me to be able to meet and know all you wonderful people!!

Thursday night I was sick.. But, we were able to schedule a baptism date for Keri, who's 10 and has been wanting to get baptized for a while but family things stood in the way. Recent events have made it possible for her to be baptized December 2nd! Woohoo!!

We also had a zone meeting that morning, I had lost my voice so that was entertaining. 

Saturday we had exchanges and Sister La Croix and I were able to go with the lovely Sister Dupaix. She's awesome, and so sweet! When we got back Sister Black told us that she had stopped by a nonmember named Anthoney, and his girlfriend Maya answered (she's a member but not active). Maya told Sister Black that Anthoney had woken up that morning and said, "The sisters are going to come by today.. We need to go to church tomorrow." So cool! And Sister Black felt impressed to stop by! God works in mysterious ways. We have another appointment set up with him and we have a lot of hope for him. 

Transfers are a week away, how is time flying by so fast? I am so grateful for my loved ones, my family, friends, and especially for this gospel. I don't know where I'd be without it! It gives me peace and joy and a knowledge of what some people think is the unknown. 

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Crofts 

Birthday girl and her loot!

Hmm..creative use of birthday balloons?

Rachel has LOVED serving with Sister Black and Sister LaCroix!

Exchanges with Sister Dupaix

Zone Conference

There's always that one missionary...or two?

Happy Halloween, Baptism, and Miracles! Bluffdale, Utah, Orem, Utah Mission, November 6, 2017

Hello again! Happy Belated Halloween!

For Halloween we got the privilege of going as an entire mission to the Mount Timpanogos temple! We also got to eat and talk and have lots of fun. I'm so grateful for temples and the opportunity I have to go to them! No better way to spend Halloween :) 

The next day we went down to Lindon to the mission office for a mid-transfer training meeting! I can't believe this transfer is almost over already, time really does fly by. It was a great meeting, but the coolest part was that on the way home, we were on the freeway and a HUGE six foot piece of wood got shot out from under another car in front of us, I had no choice but to drive over it and a pretty loud bump followed. We kept driving for a little while and everything seemed fine. The second we got home and pulled into our parking spot, we heard a loud rushing of air and saw there was a huge gash in our front tire, and it instantly became flat! It was such a miracle. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over us and made sure our tire was okay until we got home, otherwise we would've probably been injured or in trouble. Thanks goodness after that all 3 of us had been taught well by our dads (Thanks dad!) how to change a flat tire, so we started doing that, when a nice man showed up, changed it in about 5 minutes, and then told us our spare was flat, so we followed him and he filled it up so we could make it to the tire shop! (Holy Guacamole another miracle). We could've changed it, but it would've taken a while, plus we might not have been able to make it to the tire shop without his help! We finally got to the tire shop and got everything situated, and we were starving so we went to the Subway next door. Right as we were about to pay, the lady working there told us it was on her. Tender mercies I'm telling you. What an amazing, miracle filled day. Sometimes we see big miracles, sometimes we see small ones, and sometimes we don't notice them at all, but they're always there and always happening. 

Heavenly Father is aware of us!!!

We also had a baptism on Saturday! Jett (11) was baptized, and as per usual many strange things happened before (he was late to his own baptism, someone went over to the speakers and announced extra food, the font was slowly draining) but in the end it all went well. He's an awesome kid, I'm grateful to have met him!

A favorite scripture from this week:

Alma 7:11 (Talking about Jesus Christ)

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people."

Jesus Christ Lives! And He loves us now, and loved us enough to suffer through everything hard we've ever had to go through, or will go through. I'm so grateful to know that in the hard times of life, He knows perfectly what I'm experiencing. Reach for Him, let Him into your life. You WILL see a difference! 

The gospel is true! 

Love,
Sister Crofts

612 W 100 S
Lindon UT 84042
United States