#notinkansasanymore

Hey Family and friends! I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Christmas here was weird. It didn't really feel like Christmas for so many reasons. One being no snow. Another being no family.

But on Christmas Eve I was able to read the original Christmas story in Luke 2. And I also read about what was happening on Christmas in the Americas from the Book of Mormon. It's amazing to have this history! I love it! It just goes to show how much God loves us His children. The people looking forward to Christ's birth were being persecuted and were going to be killed by other people and amongst all of this grief and stress they were saved by one of the signs of His birth- light! Jesus Christ is truly the Light of the World!

Also, we were able to join a family in their nativity as angels and their traditions Christmas Eve night!

Real Mistletoe

"Killing" Sister Ford - her dying pic.

Also..... I got to skype my family on Christmas!!!!! Yayyyy! 🎄 🎁 🎅🏼

Hope you all had wonderful Christmas's!

Remember there was only one Christmas Day. The rest are anniversaries!

Love, Sister Crowther

25 Days of Lighting the World

Light the World

#NotinKansasanymore
#LighttheWorld
#THANKSgivingFilled

I love this video so much! It is one of my favorite Christmas messages. It clearly shows Jesus Christ as the LIGHT of the world and how we can follow His example and be the LIGHT of the world. (John 8:12, Matt. 5:14-16)I love it so much and I love that Christmas is all about LIGHT! Putting those LIGHTs up everywhere, but you can share LIGHT this Christmas in more than just a physical way, but by kindness and service.
LIGHTtheWORLD — Follow the example of Jesus Christ. Share His light —serve as He served. (2:37)

Christmas gift...

Cutie!

This week was different with so many out of town or busy with family. Everyone is so happy with their families and friends in the holidays. It makes me happy, but some of our visits this week have really actually made me pretty sad. We have a couple of people who are not members of our church that I have grown to love so much. They each have such rough trials at the holiday time.

• The first is Sylvia. She is so sweet. She had to have some kind of foot surgery and you can just tell that life is really hard for her right now. We are able to do service for her this week so I am excited to get to know her better and teach her about the LIGHT of Christ. :)
• The next is Bill. Bill is the sweetest man I know. He is always sooo so happy! He came to church with us one time and then has been hard to meet with lately because of different medical trips to the hospital and this week we learned that he was just diagnosed with leukemia. Bill still has so much cheer and hope. He reads the Book of Mormon pretty regularly. He knows that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet. He is just so happy and a bright hope to other people. He still plans to dress in an elf costume and Santa costume just to make people smile. He is the coolest. Anyway, keep him in your prayers. He started chemotherapy today.
• Next is Janice! Janice is one of my favorite findings. She has some personal problems in her life right now and as soon as she separates herself from them she will be more able to meet with us. She plans to change her life circumstances and needs help doing so.
  
   My heart goes out to all three of these people. They are so sweet and in such need at this holiday time. One of them was just thanking us up and down for not giving up on her and coming to help her and the other two both begged. Just pleaded. For us to not give up on them. I hope I never forget the feelings I had with these people I teach and work with. I love them so much. I won't forget them just pleading for us to not give up on them. Telling us "[we are their] faith". I love my mission so much and I learn more and more each and every day. I would challenge you all to remember the people around you who may not be having the jolliest holidays and be a LIGHT to them in 25 ways over 25 days. Seriously. I want the world to do this! Make it big. Do it and then share the video and challenge your friends to do it!

Oh we are heart attacking Bill's door tonight with good sayings and love. It's a good example to start y'all off! :D
Love y'all so so much and enjoy the holidays!  

Sister Crowther

Merry Christmas CA Roseville Mission - Can you find me?

 CAN YOU FIND ME?

Can you find me?

New Area - Redding for Christmas!

CHECK OUT MY NEW ADDRESS ON THE TITLE PAGE!!!

So.... transfers!!! From Small town Gridley to the city of Redding! Redding is SOOO BIG! I have to learn it in 6 weeks!!!!! Because my companion Sister Ford goes home in 6 weeks so that's fun! I'm trying as hard as I can to learn this city and learn the people. It's a lot easier than I expected, but I do feel so lost all the time. I'm excited though. It's fun. Sister Ford is from Minnesota and we've already bonded so much. I love her. I've learned so much from her already in these first five days with her.

First night: My first couple days here have been quite the blur, but pretty awesome. :D The first night I was here, Tuesday, I got here at like 5:30 and we threw my bags in the apartment and we ran off to dinner. We went to Book of Mormon class right after that. Which was AWESOME! I really liked that we asked the guys that were there (there were 3 men) to take some time to think of a question before we started. Or something they wanted their studies to answer. It was really really spirit filled and it helped me realize how I needed to change my own studies.

Thrifty or tipsy? We did service at a thrift store. This thrift store is super organized and the boss is this crazy happy lady that you would think had a little too much to drink. One of the employees we work with is a cross dresser. He doesn't really talk to us that much though.So that's fun too. Haha nobody there is a member. We spent the time wiping down alcohol containers. Some half full. Hmmm... not really fun, but we spent that time getting to know each other, my companion and I. That was fun. Haha

Not a greenie? Brother McOmber is my new Ward mission leader and he's really great! He was just called 3 months ago so he's pretty new. He is driven to do the work, excited, and he loves us. He wants me to talk in Ward council about experiences I have had in my past area getting to eat with less actives and investigators. I was blown away by how I was treated because I have a past area. It's incredibly different when you aren't in your greenie area. At first I was really shy to talk about my past area because it's not like I have all this experience, but I've found I really do! I don't know it all, but I do bring some other experiences to the table and it's great! Another day I was able to use something I learned during my hardest week in the mission. I told my companion what I had learn and how it applied to our situation. My companion thought it was cool and didn't stop talking about it and telling other members and missionaries the whole day. She said it was the best lesson we have had with Judith. It was pretty cool. I've learned a lot from Sister Ford already, but now I feel like I get to use my past experiences and we really do equally help each other. It's pretty awesome.

Is this water sanitary? :D just kidding! It's all sanitary. We all had lunch with this really funny lady named Bonnie who loves feeding all the missionaries. Her food was so good. The house like has no floor. It's crazy. She basically lives in a shack.  I'm not kidding. Her house is like living outdoors. I don't think there was glass on her windows. I think it was sheets. I'm not sure. I can't remember. It makes me very grateful for what I have and I learn so much from her happiness. She feeds us every week!

Inspiring Convert: Another big lesson we had that day was Gabe. We taught Gabe about the priesthood. Gabe is the sweetest, most humble man I know. He is straight awesome. He had to overcome a lot of word of wisdom problems before baptism. He was in a bad place and now he just gets so emotional when he talks about how much his life is changed. He was baptized last Saturday btw. His friends at work are being really mean and really rude to him for joining the church and are always trying to get him to drink something. This is really really hard on him. He is just so sensitive and hates that people are so mean to him. Gabe is a shining example to me. I know that We can change through Christ's atonement and I am so blessed to get to hear Gabe's testimony as I teach him.

For p-day today we played SAND volleyball! In December! Crazy!

Love you guys soooo much!

Love,
Sister Crowther

Fun Pics - Transferred to Redding, CA Dec. 12th, 2016

Day of  Service

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we started out by planning a baptism! And ended it with this baptism. A baptism for a sweet 12 year old girl who was sooo excited to get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost that she cried when she thought the date might have to be pushed back. This little girl, Elizabeth is so sweet and has an inspiring testimony of the Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. She was sooo ready to receive the Holy Ghost in her life! She wanted it and was willing to meet with us every
day leading up to her baptism.

We then had exchanges on Tuesday. That was a really weird off exchange. I'm determined to never let exchanges go that way again. It was a good learning experience. We had such a fun lesson with sweet Ruby about the plan of salvation. We had the lesson with a family of 4 lot her little kids and they were so involved and so fun to teach. I love teaching this family because it's fun to come up with creative, fun ways to teach kids.

Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with Paul about the plan of salvation. Paul has recently struggled with the death of a person who was very close to him. This person was killed by anger shooting. Paul has been having a really rough time with it for a couple weeks. When we taught this lesson we taught it to the needs of Paul. We laughed and had fun with him and then sat down to have a lesson. We read from the scriptures and explained the resurrection and beautiful plan of
Heavenly Father. With the spirit there, Paul opened up and started asking questions about death and the spirit world. It was such a beautiful lesson. I learned and gained so much testimony from getting
to teach Paul. I finally realized why people take death sooo hard. The questions he asked broke my heart. I know that we are blessed with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ who leads our church today. I am grateful for the knowledge and sense of purpose at gives me.

 I am so thankful for the Atonement in my life. I have been teaching the story of the ten lepers. If you haven't read it, it's only 8 verses in Luke.   Luke 17:12-19. The story goes like this: ten lepers plead with Jesus to be healed. Lepracy is a terrible skin disease. Jesus heals every single one of the ten. One comes back and glorifies and praises God. He thanks Jesus. Jesus questions where the other nine are that were healed. He tells the one that his faith has made him whole. I know that Jesus Christ has overcome physical death for us all. That we will all be resurrected with perfect bodies. Spiritual death (separation of us and God) is also overcome, but through our gratitude which is shown by the use of the Atonement. We use the Atonement when we repent and are baptized by the proper priesthood authority given from Jesus Christ. Then are we made whole - as we apply the Atonement in our

Sister Cozzens got to come back for Elizabeth's baptism

lives day by day, more and more each day. I know that my savior lives and that he died for us and that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father through His Atonement. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ in my life and I encourage each of you to be extra thankful of the Atonement this thanksgiving week as you recognize the blessings that have changed your life. I know that as we are grateful for the Atonement and apply it in our life, we will be made whole. We will feel that peace that is promised in the scriptures and by prophets over and over. But we must do it. We must apply the Atonement in our  lives.


Love Y'all!
Sister Crowther

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

Well I ended my third transfer on a high! This week was more than amazing! We had two really awesome restoration lessons this week. The first one was with Jessie. Previously, talking to him he told us there was no way there were prophets today and all that stopped a long time ago. We asked if we could come by and talk to him more about it another time. We taught him and near the end you just saw it. You saw the light bulbs and everything connect. It was the best feeling ever! He said his first prayer with us and we'll see how he followed through on reading the Book of Mormon next week. Jessie is so fun to teach probably because he started off so like I'm not a religious person and there's no way that's true. And now he is just so open minded and praying to know for himself. I've learned a lot from teaching him. I've learned that especially when you suddenly get discouraged about someone for no reason just do it. I know that the adversary discourages us from doing the things that matter the most.

MOOOOOO

The other restoration lesson was with Paul's dad who is also named Paul. This one was so good because Paul is a very intelligent man and has so many questions and applies everything to himself without our promptings. We have Paul Jr. Help teach the lessons with us and it's so great to be able to listen to how much Paul remembers from his own lessons before baptism. It's just the sweetest thing to be able to teach with them together. They are both such nice people.

Sister Gore my new companion!

Sister Cozzens is getting transferred to Granite Bay! And I am getting a new companion up here in Liberty and her name is Sister Gore. Tomorrow will be a crazy day with the switches. I'm so excited to teach in this area with Sister Gore. It is going to be a blast! Also a girl we are teaching is getting baptized on the 19th! Sister Cozzens will probably be back for that! This week is going to be crazy!!!


 Love,
Sister Crowther :D

Lessons and Baptisms

One week left of this transfer and with Sister Cozzens. One more transfer in Liberty. Time is just going way too fast. This is all too much to handle. My longest companion is leaving me after this next week and my mission is going to just roll down the hill and out the door from here! I'm not ready! I am loving the mission so so much! I miss everyone a lot, but time is going way too fast.

Tuesday we had exchanges again! I was again in my own area, but this time I was with a sister training leader.  That means I am doing everything like normal, but I am being evaluated at the end so that I can become better. Usually it's a confidence building experience and a really constructive time to evaluate your own abilities and talents and set improvement goals with a sister training leader. This is something I have learned to love. I would say that I dreaded exchanges until now. I used to see exchanges as scary and judgmental, but now I see it as an awesome opportunity to improve and get new ideas. Anyway, I went on exchanges on Tuesday with Sister Tandogan. We had a lot of fun and taught 8 lessons and then we had 1 more AFTER exchanges! So 9 lessons in one day! I am still so shocked about this and the many miracles we had that day.

We were also able to see a less active - someone who does not attend church regularly- outside with his wife whom we haven't been able to meet. We talked and shared a video about Jesus and somehow - I don't know how- but I led the conversation to prayer and invited them to say family prayer everyday and they agreed to it and told us on Saturday that they have done it three times. :D the wife said she may be interested in taking lessons from us but she is very busy now. Literally we ask for 30 minutes and to attend church. I plan to be teaching her soon. :) that would be so amazing. Later that night, we had a baptismal interview with Paul. It was awesome and exciting!

Jesus/Jessie

We caught Jesus/Jessie again.  Everytime we have gone to his house he is there. He just tells us how coincidental it is that we actually catch him. He will say I am usually here or I was going to go there, but such and such happened. He says he doesn't get to be home too much because he is so busy. I know it is not a coincidence. My testimony grows so strong with every person we teach and I can feel my testimony burning inside me when I talk to Jesus. I just know that I was supposed to meet him! I still remember right before we went to see him the second time, I almost convinced myself out of it, but we did it and leaving and knowing that the adversary was working on me  to not go see him. Jesus/Jessie is going to be a special investigator.

Then you have the investigators that just genuinely believe everything you tell them like aliens and Bigfoot and just about every conspiracy. You see, God is not just cloud talk. He is real and sometimes it's not easy to find that testimony of Him and build that relationship. But salvation's not easy. Why should it be easy? It wasn't easy for Christ. We must do our part in earnestly seeking Him and we will feel a burning love confirming that our savior lived and died for us and lives still. We will know that our Heavenly Father loves us and has a plan for us and we must do our best to follow that plan by living the gospel that Christ taught.

Friday was car fast day!!!! This means that we cannot use the cars at all on this day. Happens once a month. Every third Friday. We were going t0 call a member to drive us and our bikes the 7 or so miles to Gridley, but time came down to it and we decided it was our last car fast and it would be fun to see if we could bike to Gridley. So we did! We were sooo excited! Laughing the whole way, we biked to Gridley. We were so excited we made it the WHOLE way, when we got to the church we took tons of pictures! And then of course weekly planned and did missionary work. :) that was the best car fast ever.

Paul and his dad at Paul's baptism

Saturday morning we had Paul's baptism. It was sooo great. He had to do it 3 times until he was totally submerged the third time. When we were teaching the restoration I looked out into the crowd and looked at Paul's Dad and at another invited nonmember and just felt myself testify to them that God works through prophets and Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet. The prophet to bring back the authority and power to act in God's name. I know that Joseph Smith started with a question and searched for an answer and prayed with faith to get it and also to act on it. He received an answer as have I and as we all can. I know that Christ's church is restored on the earth today through the prophet Joseph smith and that the gospel Christ taught is now taught and lived today. I know that by living this gospel my life has been blessed immensely with knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father and my purpose on Earth. My companion started to tear up and then I started to tear up a little. It was a powerful restoration lesson. Paul's dad was so interested and had so many questions and he is a very intelligent man. It is so much fun talking to him. We are now teaching him the lessons.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it was to Sister Cozzens and I. The fruit stand was open on our way back to Live Oak. We were soooo happy. We pretty much gave up on getting to try it after months of trying. It was the perfect way to celebrate our amazing day and Paul's baptism. We were actually glad we had never caught it before because it made it that much more special.

Laters that day we saw Janice Hall. She was not in our schedule, but we just felt like we should. So we did! It was sooooo awesome and we have a lesson appointment set up with her for next Wednesday! :D we are soooooo excited. Janice is one of our miracle findings and I just feel so close to her. We shared a message with her and started to close with a prayer and I just felt like I needed to bare my testimony of how mindful God is of her and tell her how we found her and a bunch of other things I don't even remember, but I got a little emotional and so did she. It was awesome. The spirit was totally there! We closed with a prayer and we'll see her next Wednesday! :)

I read this scripture in my studies one morning and just thought of this saying. I was just randomly kind of chuckling a bit. Haha It totally fits. Keep calm and pray on! ~ 3 Nephi 19:26

Anyway, I hope everything is well back home. I think of everyone often. I wish I had more time in my days... :) I would really love to invite you all - that means every one of you :) - to think of a way that you can improve in prayer- whether quantity or quality. And email me and let me know how it makes a difference for you. I know that as you do this you WILL feel a difference and that God matches every sacrifice with greater blessings.

I love you all,
Sister Crowther

I love pomegranates!

Hello my amazing family and friends!

So this week was just completely packed with miracles! I just want to write everything but that would be like a 10 page email. But this week was just awesome! I'm loving Liberty 1st ward and Sister Cozzens! It's crazy that she leaves me in two weeks. It is so uncommon that we get to stay together for three transfers, but I am so blessed and grateful that we had that amazing opportunity. We're working really hard together and we work really well together, so it's a huge blessing. And we've been seeing so many miracles together! I am so nervous already to leave Liberty and I still have two months! Not that I won't love my new area and that someone else won't do a good job here, but there are so many people that I love and have grown to understand and bond with. There are so many new investigators just getting started or not started. What I don't train my next companion on the area well enough that she just loves it like I do when I leave? Or that I forget to tell her to keep contacting someone or something? Idk. I'm very excited for the transfer. I'm excited for the change, but I also see more responsibility coming in as I take over the Liberty Ward which is a really important responsibility for this Ward in particular. But that's another story.

We've been fed sooooo good all week because sister Cozzens is leaving so they've been making special meals before she leaves. It's so nice yet so not good for me! Haha just kidding. I am really figuring out exactly what routine I want for eating and exercising and it's really neat to have such a strict schedule, yet still my own agent. It helps me train myself with good habits to take care of myself for the rest of my life.

This month's focus in my mission is the restoration. Last month was prayer. I love this month's focus! It's so great. Literally every time my companion and I teach a restoration lesson, we get soooo excited! The rest of the day is so good! We set a goal to bear testimony of the restoration of the gospel everyday for the rest of our missions. If we have a rough day with cancelled appointments or just did not get to bear testimony of the restoration then we will find a member in our Ward to bear testimony too before we retire home. I love this goal. I remember reading in preach my gospel that every time we teach and everyone we teach we should always bear testimony of the restoration. I love all that I am learning here and I am trying my best to make the gospel of Jesus Christ not what I do, but who I am.

Brother Eccles and his family

We went on exchanges on Saturday and I was with Sister Thomas who has only been out four weeks. We get along really well. She is the sweetest person you'll ever meet. It was way fun. We walked most of the time and had a lot of lessons just because we were walking and passing by people we've had previous contact with. It was so great! The day went so well and it was a blessing to get to be with Sister Thomas for the day.

A really awesome miracle this week happened on Friday. Sister Cozzens and I met Paul's Dad. Paul is getting baptized on Saturday and we met Paul's dad last Friday to get his parent permission signature and just to meet him and make sure he knew he was invited to come and to also learn about the things we teach. It was awesome! His dad is sooo nice. At one point we were talking about me trying to learn Spanish and then before I knew it I was testifying of the Book of Mormon and setting up a time for Paul's dad to meet with us again. Paul's dad had asked me the difference between the bible and he Book of Mormon and I explained a little bit and we set up a time after church on Sundays to start meeting to learn about it. We were so excited. He is going to church and Paul's baptism. We are so happy for Paul and his dad!

We had three all absolutely great lesson. One was with Paul and we planned his baptismal program before the lesson. The Ward mission leader's son gets to baptize Paul and it's just so exciting! Another lesson, the person we teach actually asked so many questions and we were actually able to approach her concerns instead of just teaching a whole other lesson that didn't apply to her 100%. It was so nice. The last lesson was sooo awesome. We really bonded with the family and learned a lot about what they had gone through and I'll never forget the testimonies they shared an d am so excited and proud for them. I love them so much.

I love it here and love everything I am learning. I can't imagine missing this wonderful opportunity for anything. Last, but not least, I was on a high from the news about my new baby niece and nephew! :)

 I love you all!

Love, Sister Crowther

Coming to know Jesus Christ

Mary Turner made all the sisters scarfs and the elders ties! 

Monday, we stopped by Keri's house because she was home with a couple of her siblings. Her parents and half her family went to Disney world. And Keri made us dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs :) she is so sweet. On Wednesday we were teaching a girl who has been baptized in the last year and her younger sister came and joined this time and she wants to learn more! We will be teaching her the restoration of the gospel next week! I am so excited restoration lessons are the absolute best. I love teaching the restoration especially now where I have reminded myself hat it truly is a message about Jesus Christ. It is not just any history lesson. It is a special message about Jesus Christ and because we have this gospel and because Joseph Smith had a question and acted on that I know Jesus Christ so much more. I am so grateful and blessed because so many sacrifices so that we would have he bible where we learn so much about Jesus Christ. And because of Joseph Smith and many other people and their sacrifices, we have the Book of Mormon and a fullness of the Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I know that His Atonement is for us now and today and that I have so much more to learn. I plan to know Jesus Christ so much more. I am learning to rely on him more and more. I also learned this week that God always has more plans for us than we can ever plan for ourselves. I know that the message we have to share is not just a message, but something that is and can be personal. Oh and we are teaching this 14 year old kid named Paul who is getting baptized on the 22nd. He is so stellar and has prayed to know and apply the principles we teach in his life. It is such a blessing to be able to see the gospel bless the lives of so
many others.

Just pictures!

Sister Downing

Sister Matheson's seminary class and mini MTC experience

Zone Conference

First day driving!

Interviews w/ President.  He is so amazing!

Last Tuesday we had exchanges with the STLs. I was super nervous because I was taking over my area with one of the STLs. So sister Watson came to Live Oak with me and it was actually pretty good. We went to Julia's for service first. I actually drove because sister Watson said she was tired of driving. The entire day I only had to map out one address. And I learned the area after that. I recognized street names and found them on my own which helps me a lot now as I try to get myself places in my mind even though sister Cozzens drives. After service at Julia's, we came home and had lunch. We had to park in the driveway because the hermanas had taken our parking spot. After
lunch we backed out. She backed me and I backed the car. My first day driving. My first time backing. I ran into a medium sized rock. I was so so embarrassed. I was so focused on watching her hand signals which were confusing the crazy out of me that I did not use my own driving awareness. I scraped the rock on my tire. Front tire. Might I add thy this tire has been hit by the hermanas in their Toyota a couple times without even a scratch? Well my Chevy Cruz had a giant scratch on the tire and I was so so embarrassed. Sister Watson was like unsure of whether we should let someone know or not. It was so awkward and we drove to our next appt. coming out of that appt I decided to tell Sister Watson we should just tell someone and I didn't care if I never drove again. I was so humbled at this point. So we called Elder Heiner, our leader in charge and told him. He was like it's fine. The next day the car was making this high pitched chirping sound so that's
dramatic. But I'm over it now. We're getting it checked out. They don't think it has a lot to do with the rock fiasco. They are retiring the car in January anyway.

This Tuesday we had exchanges so that was bitter sweet! Sister Cozzens and I had to take that day to drive the hermanas around because Sister Christensen had to go north and then south to pick up her new greenie missionary. So we spent the day with them traveling. It was fun, but not super productive. This week we have had a lot of lessons getting people excited for general conference! We get to hear straight from God's prophet and apostles today. I am so excited! My favorite parts are the testimonies at the end of each talk. Every speaker testifies of Jesus Christ. And the spirit is so strong. It was sooo good and we also taught about the restoration three times. And we had an investigator commit to baptism. It was a stellar day! Wasn't the women's broadcast so good?

 Also I gave a talk Sunday! I was sooo nervous! I didn't really feel great about it afterwards. I felt a little like I rambled too much about myself. I gave it on faith and used a couple experiences and of course other materials. But people seem to not only have loved it, but connect with me so much better! They really give high compliments to me and are so much more interested about me and where I live and my life. It's super nice. So it must not have been too bad. :)

I'll always be a Misisonary :)

Hey everyone! I'm still alive! I'll keep it short this time because I'm pretty exhausted. The flu has been going around already here so ow it's too late for anyone to even get flu shots. They don't even
have them out yet. And I've been up in the nights caring for my companion a little bit. I really know I want to be a nurse because I love taking care of people. It makes me sooo happy! It also makes me
excited to be a mom! :) so this past weekend, we haven't gotten a lot of face to face missionary work done because Sister Cozzens needed to sleep and the exchanges I set up with members fell through, but I still feel super accomplished with what I did get done while at home. My companion was my first concern, but I was also able to contact people on the phone and read in a Book of Mormon I plan to mark and give away.

Ruby and her Grandpa

Ruby...such a good influence on her family.

Ruby is a girl we are preparing for baptism and that's this Saturday!
She's so sweet and so excited for baptism. Her desire to get baptized
has got her family coming back to church. :) it's the best thing!

Tonight we are eating at a Chinese restaurant with a family that is using their own elk, and whatever else they hunt for the meat made. Apparently they are pretty close to the owner of the restaurant. They have us pretty excited! We have been working with this family and their family mission plans. They are so good! They decided to do a competition for the invitations extended to the people they each have in mind. Eight kids and two parents. They all have someone in mind. They're so great!

There are so many people here that I don't want to ever forget. I'll never finish my mission work. I may finish a mission, but I'll always be a missionary :)

One of the things I learned was to not mix up being unified with being the same person. Being unified is NOT striving to be the same person. I also have gained a strong testimony that serving others leads to a Christlike love.

Tiwi certified

Hey guys! This week has gone so fast yet it has been so long! Looking back it seems like forever ago.
Monday we played sports and test up a volleyball net. Ah! So good! I have a crazy appreciation for volleyball that goes farther than just highs hook sports. Volleyball is so regenerating and therapeutic. I played so hard and was so sore for the next few days this week. I've been sleeping on the floor some because it feels better on my back.
Tuesday when we were running at the high school track at 6:30 this girl was there and we ended up talking to her and invited her to go to mutual activities. We should be teaching her soon. That was quite the miracle to start off our week.
Wednesday I gave the focus in our district meeting. I was supposed to give it on a Christlike attribute of my choice. So of course I chose love and charity. I first pulled from the talk "the greatest leaders are the greatest followers". We know that the perfect leader is Christ. But what's interesting is that the perfect follower is also Christ. He follows His father in Heaven perfectly. We can be great leaders by being great followers. So as we study the Christlike attributes, we can focus on following him and we are leaders. We always have opportunities to be leaders in life. And then I talked about Christ's example of charity and why we need it as we lead in the mission. And what charity is. And then I wrapped it back up with this quote from that talk "There will be times when the path ahead seems dark, but keep following the Savior. He knows the way; in fact, He is the way. The more earnestly you come unto Christ, the more deeply you will desire to help others experience what you have experienced. Another word for this feeling is charity, “which [the Father] hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” Then you will find that in the very act of following Christ, you are also leading others to Him, for in the words of President Thomas S. Monson, “As we follow that Man of Galilee--even the Lord Jesus Christ--our personal influence will be felt for good wherever we are, whatever our callings.”" It was a great study and I highly recommend reading that talk. "The greatest leaders are the greatest followers" by Stephen W. Owen.
Thursday we had a ton of service and some great lessons. The leaders in the mission came to Gridley for mission leader conference that happens every month. So I asked to meet with President Marston. Getting to talk to him was a great experience. I love that man. He definitely loves us all so much. I feel so ready and excited to serve the people here.

Saturday we painted a house. It was so fun. My companion stepped in the bucket. Haha sometimes I wonder how they put the two ditziest girls together in a companionship.
I got my tiwi card this week!!!! Woohoo! For those of you who don't know, tiwi is the car device that tracks just about everything in our car- speed, place, battery, seatbelt, aggressive driving, driver... And more. And it yells at you if you're doing someone wrong. Like the common "watch your speed!". :) So I am now a certified driver for the mission cars!
Also exciting is we asked Preident Marston of we could both stay longer in Gridley. Chances are now, I'll be here for my first 6 months! Woohoo!
Anyway,
I love y'all! See you soon!
Sister Crowther

Zone Conference - in a nutshell

We went to Julia's for service and it was just Sister Cozzens and I this time so we filled the bin with branches and I climbed this tree so I could saw off a branch. I was so sore from the hike so reaching up and sawing this huge branch was super hard, but it was so fun. I  felt pretty cool up there in the tree. Exiting a house we were visiting, we ran this food cart down and tried corn on the cob on a stick with mayo, Parmesan, and chili. It was pretty good. On our way back we started talking to this lady and one thing lead to another and we are going to be teaching her in a couple weeks! Woohoo!

We had zone conference and I was so nervous. I just knew I would have to give one of the talks. I knew I would be called on and I just couldn't do it. I was so scared. Well sure enough I was the second person, following Elder Tu'ua, my district leader. And then someone in the Yuba zone and then my zone leader Elder Forson, and then someone else in the Yuba zone. So I just like always have nothing for sure  what I'm going to say when I give talks and I'm freaking out. I just go up with nothing and just the pondering thoughts from last night and  his morning. I talked about obedience. I touched on the following questions: Who are we obedient to? Why are we obedient? Is our driving, motivating force the savior Jesus Christ? I am so thankful to have learned so much about  accountability on my mission and the importance of it. I have learned to give accountability every night to the Lord. Why would we not be obedient? Fear, laziness, rebellion. These are all natural and we can overcome them THROUGH Jesus Christ. Why are we obedient? Is it because President   is here so everybody be  obedient!? Or is it because we made a commitment to be missionaries and to do these things as missionaries? These are all great reasons to be obedient, but we are a covenant people. We are obedient because we love the Lord and we know that it will bring us closer to Heavenly Father and we have higher goals. We are striving to be more and more comfortable in the presence of the Lord. We are accountable to Him and 
we are so strengthened when we know we have been obedient. I know that we are strengthened when we are obedient and that through Christ we can do all things. We are striving for perfection and hold ourselves accountable that we are doing our best. There ya go. Basically that's what I talked about in a nutshell. And I shared an experience from the mission. People say they didn't here my voice shake, but I know it did. I was sooo nervous.

The Gridley zone musical number was so cool. We sang I am a child of God. First verse- Spanish. Second verse- Hmong. Third verse- English. Elder Tu'ua and I did the descant for the third verse. Idk, but I think it sounded pretty good. I was pretty nervous for this too.

We went back and decided to go meet Paul, a kid we met street contacting and he said we could teach him. As we were walking to his home, an African guy called to us from a porch and said hey! I have a question for you! We went over to talk to him and he told us that in Congo he had a friend who married a missionary or something like that. Anyway,he told us that he wasn't Christian, but that he did believe in Jesus Christ and that God was his best friend. Basically what he was saying is that he he didn't feel a need to be affiliated with a church, but that he had strong faith in Jesus Christ. So I asked him how he learned about Jesus Christ and he said through prayer and we talked about the bible a little bit. I told him that the bible is testimony of Jesus Christ and so is the Book of Mormon. It is just more testimony of Jesus Christ, and that he could learn more about Him if he read it. Sister Cozzens has a Book of Mormon that she highlighted every time it talks about Jesus Christ so we got that out and showed him how often it talks about Jesus Christ. After I finish the Book of Mormon I'm reading now for Karrie. I am going to do one like that. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and then I'm not sure everything from there because I asked his Mexican friend beside him if he would also be interested in the Book of Mormon. And I ended up teaching him while sister Cozzens taught BB. It just happened because we were both talking at the same time. Hugo, didn't know a whole lot of English so we communicated in Spanglish. I asked him if he also would be interested in a Book of Mormon and he asked, "Spanish?" I had just put one in the car that morning and so I told him I could get him one from our car and then I looked up at his ac unit in the window and there was a Spanish Book of Mormon on top of it. I said here! This is Spanish! He looked at it. Read it. Looked at BB's and was like "same! Same book!" I was like yeah it is! It was so funny. He told me that he thinks that book was there from the last people that lived there and that he would read it. I invited him to read the introduction page and told him that we lived with Hermanas and explained who they were and told him I could bring them over to meet him and teach him better than I could with the little Spanish I know. We talked about coming to church and the obstacle just like all the other Spanish people here would be they work 7 days a week during harvest season. So no progress until harvest is over basically. But he and BB are so cool and super interested. BB is so funny. He likes to dance and he just has a happy dancing personality. He lives in Yuba though so we won't be able to teach him. We encouraged him to go to church there in Yuba. Sister Cozzens said that even though we are passing them both to other missionaries to teach, we could still attend their baptisms because we "found" them. That would be so cool.


























There was a lady we were teaching that decided she wasn't going to church anymore because one of our investigators hates her and she didn't want to be a stumbling block for that investigator. She said she made her mind up and prayed about it. She wasn't going to listen. I was so much more bold and just flat up blatantly told her that she did not receive that as an answer. That would never be the answer. Not going to church was not the answer to her prayer. I don't care what she says about praying about it and getting her answer that she needs to attend a different religious sect for the rest of her life so that our investigator will keep coming to church and could receive the gospel. She says she's being selfless, but I see it as avoiding getting hurt which is a trial I think she could avoid, but shouldn't. Not if it means not coming to church and getting the sacrament ever again. Anyway, I was able to boldly tell her that that was not the answer and that no matter how hard she prays she will never get an answer that tells her to not come to church. Sometimes we must take the hard way. I could be bold because it wasn't like she had lost her testimony. She told us she would always know the church is true and keep reading the Book of Mormon, but that she thought she was "selfless" by staying out of the other lady's way. Well, we got her to promise to attend church.

Guess what?! Emergency exchanges! So I am here in Gridley staying with sister Watson. I was so nervous. I didn't want to do it, but I knew it was needed. We are doing all work in Liberty so I've been leading and that terrified me the most. But it actually went pretty well. We had a great lesson on personal work responsibility on Sunday which I loved.

There is an old saying: “Doing nothing is the hardest work of all, because one can never stop to rest.” Without work, rest and relaxation
have no meaning.

Love you all!