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!

Always Look For Ways To Serve

This week was so good! We came home knowing we worked our hardest every night. It was so great! There were so many miracles throughout the week. And we biked and walked a lot! Tuesday we started with service for Julia. She's so sweet and I love
her more and more every time I see her. We had the Hermanas and the elders help us with Julia's backyard. Near the end my companion, one of the elders and I climbed the best climbing tree I've ever seen. It was so fun! And Julia loves watching us have fun and work together. We got so much done. I worked hard sawing trees! I have done so much yard work service while being here that I have found a new love for it. Even in the heat, it's so nice to be out in the sun working hard.

We had a lesson with an investigator on the law of chastity. It was beautiful. I know she felt a little awkward with the subject which we tried so hard to avoid. Before diving in we discussed the scripture Proverbs 31:10 where it talks about a virtuous woman being above the worth of rubies. I know that as we understand our relationship with Heavenly Father everything else comes naturally. That night we witnessed a miracle of our faith and diligence! It was 8:45 at night and we had no idea what to do until 9:00 which is when we are to retire for the night. So we drove around for a couple blocks until we decided we were near a place where we were trying to find an inactive member. We saw a house and decided we would knock it even if it wasn't the correct house. We got out and it we knocked it. The lady that answered was very welcoming and asked us to pray for her because she was going in for surgery in the morning. She said she would call us soon afterwards. Her daughter is a recent member of the church as of 2 years and her granddaughter just got baptized so she is very willing to be taught and even asked if she could feed us one night. This does not happen everyday people! Sister Cozzens and I were so grateful we diligent and found someone so ready!

Wednesday we drove so far trying to find a house address that didn't exist so we drove out for miles in the rice fields. We drove until

a dead end. So we decided to get out and  Take pictures together. It was fun. But we felt bad we didn't find the house we found out didn't even exist. Thursday we had sooo many lessons! Busy days are the best and every day has gone so fast with so much fun and work and fun in the work. Friday we had car fast so we slept at the other sisters' house because we had more work in their town for the day. We biked 4 miles to service and 4 miles back. My companion and I and two elders. Oh my goodness. My BIKE! The seat kept falling! It was so annoying. I had to make the others stop a couple times to pull it back up and then I figured out how to tighten it real tight and the elders helped tighten it.
Then one elder made me switch him bikes. His bike was soooo nice! Awww! It was the nicest thing ever. My bike is the worst. He trailed behind everyone because my bike is so bad. And so I traveled behind with him. Then he got a flat on the way home and we were like we're not going to make it!!!!!! And then we biked on flat tire until we got to a member's house who had an air pump for us. We filled up a couple tires on some bikes and we're off again! So fun and the sacrifices made to make sure we each made it were incredible. Once we got back to Gridley. We quickly showered and biked to the church for lunch and weekly planning ( I am still on the Elder's bike because he refused to let me suffer on my bike AND I now had his backpack so that I didn't have an annoying shoulder bag while biking...smh). We had a good celebration of a birthday and one year marks during lunch and then walked and biked the rest of our appointments that night. It was a great day and the Elders really watch out for you whether you want them to or not.

Saturday might as well have been car fast. We biked all day until dinner. We didn't even come home for lunch because we were having so much fun biking and felt sooo productive. I am now on my own dumb bike, but it's still good. We were just feeling so great. We saw Julia and she pulled over and talked to us. It was so great. Miracle that morning was that an inactive we are teaching and dropped off the face of the earth called us. I had just finished one of the most sincere prayers to help me find those who are being prepared and he called. I missed the call though and we called back, but no answer. So we biked the whole 3.5 miles out to his house and talked to him. Miracle is that he was actually home. How amazing. Biking brings so much power because we can get into houses by asking for water or restroom and just get to know people so much better. People also have a harder time turning us down when we biked so far to see them. Another miracle is that we found a new moved in part member family by biking around. We saw a girl and she came up to us and said hey I have a question for you guys. She needed a ride to the dance. She said her name was Hannah and that she just moved in and it clicked. She was the daughter of this family that we were on the way to find. Which was honestly such inspiration. We were going to her house and I was like let's go to this other house first which was not even on the way. My companion and I didn't agree very well at first and then we decided to do it and so we did and that is where we met the family we were going to go see. The daughter and the mom and the grandma. We have yet to meet the dad who is the investigator. But what a miraculous day and week!

 I had an the worst and best p-day ever today. It was so crazy, but I will write and tell you about it in the next email... Coming soon. :) lets just say the craziest day ever and that is why I am safely emailing y'all so late today. Didn't even have time for grocery shopping. Oh well. Guess we'll live by faith this week. :)

The Relief Society President in our ward.

My Goal this week:
Always look for ways to serve.        

Things I Learned

My companion in the front and the Hermanas we live with
Just another stellar week!

Things I learned:
Count your blessings and miracles
Have an eternal perspective
Have fun
Ask for help
Fears are better addressed than ignored
Say your prayers
Live healthily
Love lots including yourself and life
Prove your diligence

It's amazing how 90s can feel cool, but it is definitely a good day if it's not the triple digits. It's not quite as humid here than it is in Kansas though. My companion here is from Georgia and she loves the heat. It motivates her. She does her work in the sauna sunroom. Not
me. I come in and lay underneath the Fan on high. Then I'm motivated. So I always make us do the bike riding in the mornings and nights. I hope I'm losing weight because it's not that this wouldn't be worth it, but I would be disappointed if it wasn't one of the benefits. I think I'll ask a member if I can use their scale next time. :) I'll keep you posted!

So my companion is super fun and super sweet - almost always. :P she is currently training me for my first 12 weeks. She's great at it although she doesn't always think she is. But I learn the most important things from her like diligence and love for the people not just the work. She is really a great trainer and I don't think she gets that the other trainers want everyone to think all is perfect. I love her. Y'all would too. She's really happy and fun to be around. She likes to laugh and so do I. We are sometimes laughing at the smallest things which is so great for me. If it weren't for her laughter, days would be so much longer. And I would be unable to talk to any of the strangers I meet. Most trainers/trainees stay together for only 2 transfers (6 weeks each) but we are really banking on 3. We sort of talked to President Marston about it and he's at least considering it. He says he loves us together.

We had so many miracles and an overall amazing week. I'll start off with Tuesday. Tuesday we had to go down and get our car from the shop. Since we were in the city and we couldn't shop on p-day due to car stuff, we shopped Tuesday morning. We were not very focused because it felt like a p-day and departing missionaries were landing so that was on our minds. We saw one of our investigators and I asked her straight up if she had ever prayed since the missionaries have been meeting with her. She got real mad and said no and I won't if you keep badgering me with it. I just told her that I was just wondering if she had because I wasn't clear on where she was at on praying. We were able to talk about it and why prayer is preparatory to baptism. Wasn't sure if we had gotten anywhere, but she wasn't mad at me anymore. The next day we went to her house for service. Before we left we asked her if we could say a prayer like always. She said yes. We said we would and then -actually do you want to say it? And she said I guess. I didn't think I heard her right. We always asked her to say it and she always said no. I didn't know what to do. I searched her face for evidence that I had heard her correctly and she yelled well don't stare at me or I won't do it! I was so shocked and we bowed our heads real quickly. She gave the prayer and at the end she said in the name of the Lord THAT's IT! It was so amazing that she actually said yes this time. This was my miracle this day. Also afterwards, we had a lesson with a nine year old girl from an inactive family. We have her on date for September 10th! Instead of calling Brother Eccles for a report that night we went over to his house to tell him everything. We really were so happy!

Thursday we had SUCH a good day! We worked so hard. We were out the door on our bikes in the morning and didn't come in until 1:30ish for lunch. This all went so well! AND we were able give a Book of Mormon with our testimony written inside to a lady. We'll see how that goes. We saw another lady and helped her with her personal scripture study. She told us that she was not ready to embrace the Book of Mormon at first even though she was baptized. She has been baptized for several years and she said that she just became ready to read the Book of Mormon more recently, but wouldn't have started if not for our push. This is such a blessing because we just took initiative to teach her because we felt she needed it. A member couple here were very very sweet in expressing their gratitude for two really good missionaries in the ward right now and how much of a difference we both make. It was the sweetest thing said in the most genuine way. It was so great.

See you soon ;)

Sister Crowther

Living through first transfer...

#notinkansasanymore

Wow! It's transfer P-Day! Hardest p-day and I have 12 left.  We just sent home Elder Holyoak! It's so sad. There is constant change in the mission. I just got to really know our zone and half of it's being changed. It's pretty bitter sweet. I have just started to see that I
will appreciate it eventually.

Last Tuesday we taught the word of wisdom to one of our investigators. My first time ever! I am learning so much. The lesson went so well. She said it would take some time to think about. We were pretty nervous yet hopeful that she would pray sincerely and be willing to act on the answers God gave her. I know that if we do pray with pure intent and really wanting to know, God does answer us. This is very comforting to me because I know that if someone does their part, then they can know what I know for themselves and they don't have to act on what I say, but on what they believe and come to know to be true. All it takes is an act of faith and our Heavenly Father blesses us.

On Wednesday we had a GREAT district meeting. The focus was on acting on spiritual promptings and we also talked about diligence. He difference between diligence and obedience is the motive behind it and attitude with it. Wednesday night, we got out of a lesson and OYMed (Opened our mouths to) their neighbor. This neighbor was so nice! He invited us in to meet his family. They are an Indian family and are of the Sikh religion. We talked to them about Jesus Christ and they fed us so much Indian food. This was the most fun night. So awesome!

Thursday my highlight of the day was with an investigator who had a hard time listening to us and not quizzing our knowledge, but this time he was so ready to listen and dressed up all nice and everything. He is such a blessing in my life. I get to see the change andprogression in him. He was so happy and we gave a lesson on prophets. Who they are. What they do. Their importance. Purpose. Historically. And now. I love the prophets in the bible, Book of Mormon, and now. They bless my life with such spiritual guidance. My life would be chaos without God. And I am so grateful that prophets show the way to the peace in my life.

Oh! And we took our car in to be serviced today. We were supposed to wait until next Monday, but we had a really bad sulfur smell in our car since yesterday so we took it in early. We just got a call and we are out a car for a while. The mechanic told us he's surprised it hadn't caught fire. Something about the insulation. Idk. We'll get it back soon.

Questions and Comments between Mom and Jenny

"Is it very hot there?  It looks kinda dry?
"Hasn't rained since I got here. It's a pretty bad drought. They aren't allowed to water lawns after 10am and before 6 pm. Because the water will just evaporate. It's so hot. We do some lessons outside too. I sweat so much!"




"I sure love the pictures the people in your mission take of you and your companion and send to me.  That is so nice of them."

They take and send those pictures just because you enjoy them so much. :) seriously. Brother Eccles thinks it's so funny that you texted him "selfie Sunday?" one time and now it's this thing that people talk about. "Oh we have to get a picture because somebody's mom is waiting for one." ---President Sannar.  "Selfie Sunday guys! Crowther's mom will kill me if we don't get a selfie Sunday done. She'll text me tonight. :)" -Brother Eccles. They think it's so funny. It's great, they love it. Before I came out e moms didn't really respond back, but they love knowing that you enjoy it so much at you ask for more.

"What is tiwi, a babysitter for the car?"
 Hahaha yep! Basically! It's this little box that sits in the windshield and yells at us if we are speeding or if the driver doesn't have a seatbelt on and other random things. It records just about everything in the car. Where we are at. When. How fast. It's been telling us the car battery is low lately. Idk why. Oh! And aggressive driving, not that I've experienced that one, but I've heard stories haha! It literally yells at you in a creepy tiwi voice. :D 

August already?

  

We worked so hard this week and it felt so good! Even though the temperature was up to around 112 all week, it was our best week yet. We had 19 lessons which is really awesome for our area, if you'll remember we just opened our area a transfer before I got here. We have  a couple new investigators and were able to find some less actives to teach. Less active work is so amazing because most already know what they're missing and want it back. They are already familiar with missionaries and so it's not a hassle helping them know our purpose. Yet, you are truly helping them find Jesus Christ wherever they are at in their lives. Teaching these concepts and testifying is so fun! Exactly what I want to be doing with my life. Seeing the joy in others as I help them is the best ever! I attended a baptism with an investigator because she wants to see one before hers.  I've had such a great week of fun, work and learning.

Here is part of my Saturday journal entry. I love it. So I will share. :)

"I ran a mile without stopping this morning! And then some. Love you! We have a meeting with brother Eccles this morning and then service and lesson with Lisa. We have a ton of finding to do today. Hopefully I see miracles! :) I'm really happy today. I woke up and just got up and ready to go running. It was great. And then we got ready and had studies and every time I read the Book of Mormon, EVERY TIME, the Spirit testifies to my heart that Jesus Christ is my savior and that He loves me. I know that he knows me and carries me. After reading in he Book of Mormon I opened gospel library which happened to be on the atonement bible dictionary, and I really like that it says the atonement helps us correct and overcome the consequences of sin. That it's not just ok I'm clean again, but we are continually healing through the atonement. We are mending the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. Because sin truly does pull us away from God and the atonement is the way to heal those wounds we have inflicted upon our souls. Then I started reading this talk by Cheryl A. Esplin: the sacrament- a renewal for the soul. And that very much talks about how we should be using and thinking about the enabling power of the atonement. It was so great. I had this deep study about the Atonement
this morning without even meaning to study the atonement specifically.  My studies started me off great!"

Love ya'll!
Sister Crowther