Email time - Manizales, Colombia

Hey everyone, no clue how long it's been but i thought I'd write something really fast. Not sure what I wrote in my last email so if I repeat a couple of things ya fue.

Last time I wrote I was in Planeta Rica (the coast) since then I've been in Medellin and now I'm in Manizales. I was a bit sick in Planeta Rica ( I lost 13 pounds) but I loved the time that I was there. In the end I left at the end of the transfer because the water was making me sick and the health secretary told Prezident Florez :( BUT I went to Medellin so that was cool. I was only there for a week but it was in a great area so it's OK. My area in Medellin was Villa Hermosa, I was in a trio with Elder Ballesteros y Elder Sellán. Both of them are newer in the mission, Elder Ballesteros has 4 1/2 months and Elder Sellán has 2 months. After a week all of the new group of misioneros that got here had to get resigned because there is a problem with the visas in Colombia :( they all left el miércoles and presidente had to do a lot of emergency transfers. I was in a trio so he told us that one of us was going to leave si o si. On Wednesday at like 12:00 ish one of the APs called and said that I would be leaving the next day in the morning, not a surprise because we were in trio, and that I should pack in the night. We went to lunch and the APs called us again and said that there had been a change of plans, and I should come to the offices at 6:00. That was at 2:00. We had to go home and my companions had our appointments virtual while I packed everything. I left for the office at like 5;30 and got to the office in time to see all the new missionaries leaving. Then presidente said that they had trouble finding a buss to Manizales quickly and I could only bring 1 suitcase. So I repacked super rápido and went to sleep so I could leave in the little bus the next day. And now I'm in Manizales :D

I'm out of time so I'll talk more about Manizales and my current area the next email, whenever that happens lol. But I want to end bearing my testimony that I know this church is true. At times life is crazy, but no matter what happens the work is the same. I love it here in the mission, I've learned sooo much about the gospel, about Jesucristo and about myself. I know that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer. He knows us personally and loves us more than we can imagine. Through his atonement we can come to live with our Heavenly Father and become the people that he wants us to be. He has a plan for us. I also know that His church has been restored on the Earth through Joseph Smith, and that today it is lead by Jesus Christ through his Prophets and Apóstoles. I know that the Book of Mormón is true and as a representative of Jesus Christ I invite all to read it. It will bless your life in a way that no other book will. It is the word of God. I have learned of the power of the prayer. The blessing it is to be able to talk to our Father in heaven. I testify that he hears us and that he can and will respond. Go to Him in prayer and let him work miracles in your life. When we have faith in him he will respond. Find the ways that you hear him in your life, search for ways to hear him more clearly and search for the answers to your questions. Read the scriptures, they are the pre-recorded words of God and through them we will come to know our Savior and his love for us. I testify of the power of the atonement in our lives. It is a gift that is freely given to us and it is of greater worth than almost anything else than I can imagine. Use it in your life. Learn to love the blessing of repenting daily. It has blessed my life and it will bless yours too. I know this work is true, I know it with all my heart, and because I know it is true I share it with the world.

Ya nesecito dormir entonces les dejo con eso: )

If you have any questions or just want to send me an email because you're cool feel free. I can't respond until Monday but I can read it any day of the week :)

Almost cambios but then no - Calarcá, Colombia

Hola todos!

Sorry I haven’t written for the last 3 weeks, the schedule has been really weird. For example, in the last 2 weeks I've had 4 companions. Yep 4. Basically My original companion finished his mission the 26 so he's already at his house. Obviously I still need a companion for the last two weeks of the transfer so I stayed with the ZLs for a week and then went back to my area with one of the missionaries from Sevilla (another area in my zone) So my comps the last two weeks were Elder Lucas, Elder Jackson, Elder Peñalosa and Elder Bermejo. It's been good to work in my area again after a week of not being there. Elder Lucas was a really cool companion and I learned a lot from him.

Speaking of new companions, let me explain the weird schedule we've had the last couple of weeks. OK to start off, the last time I wrote was right before Christmas, that was the 20th. We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas as a zone and Christmas (Sat 25th) was Pday. I didn't write then because I forgot, you are very welcome :) the next Pday wasn't a monday like usual (and like literally every other mission) it was the next Saturday the 1st. We didn't have a group activity that week and had to go to bed at 10:03 (normal bedtime) because one of the zones in Medellin broke a window in one of the apartments of the elders playing futbol (soccer) Christmas and President Florez was mad. :( Instead I was with the zone leaders and we ate some food and ya. I didn't write that week either because I forgot again :) If it makes you feel any better I forgot to write my mission president both of those Pdays too so you guys can't really complain. ANYWAY, after that we didn't have pday Monday the 3rd either because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Don't worry It gets better this week was supposed to be cambios (transfers) but half of the missionaries in Medellin have the new Omicron thingy, including the mission president and his wife, so cambios got delayed by probably a week. We really don't know.

ALSO

Congrats to Sister Hamilton!!! She started her mission a bit ago in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania! Extra cool because I used to live there :) You're gonna do great :D

Spiritual thought, why are we here? That here could be on this earth, in a town or city, in a ward, branch, family, or whatever. The question has a lot of answers but there's always one in common. We have a Heavenly Father who has a plan for us. He loves us and wants the best for us. When we trust in him, we will always be in the best place, at the right time to do his work. That doesn't just apply to missionary work. That's everyone. At times we can think that that's not true, but it is. Remember that you are here for a reason. I won't give you any scriptures on this because it's your homework. If you find one and send it to me you get a gold star and if you find one that I haven't found yet you get two :) good luck.

I hope you guys are all doing great and you don't have covid, I'll try to remember to write next week, but if you send me scriptures I have to so I can give out gold stars, just saying.

Elder Crenshaw :)

p.s. Example of gold stars  these could be yours

IDK what to put here so here's all the keys...of the keyboard - Calarcá, Colombia

IDK what to put here so here's all the keys on the numbers and symbols page of the keyboard +±×÷=≈≠≠/_€£()@#№$%٪‰^&*¿¡!-‐‐—'":;,?‽ `~\|<>{}[『「〔【】〕」』]°•○●□■♤︎♡︎◇◆♧︎☆★︎¤《》¥₩,. de nada :)

Okey dokey, so im not realy in the mood to write a lot today so oh well, this week was good, we haf an intercambio with the district leader this week. One cool thing that happened is this sunday one of our personas en enseñanza asked what he needs to do to be baptized, definitly not something that happens every day, we haven't even talked about baptism, he just heard about it at church! Very cool. Other than that pretty normal week we did a little planing for Christmas the upcoming week and half of the elders in our zone cut our hair to 2cm today because navidad and why not lol. Elder Lucas leaves the day after Christmas so after that I'm staying with the zone leaders untill about January 10 so that will be cool. The next pday is christmas eve so idk if ill have time to write or not but we'll see :) 

Ok short spiritual thought, one of the favorite quotes our mission president likes to say is "obedience brings blessings - exact obedience brings miracles" this is true for everyone, not just for missionarys. When we are exactly obedient to the commandments of the lord, miracles can and will happen when we need them.

Okey dokey, byeeeeeee

Elder Crenshaw :)

Photos because i should probably actualy send some for once :)

Multizone Conference

Mission email week heidogjwysugleebflswjejqlsñddmsñsñsjflfodhshdnfu :) - Calarcá, Colombia

Hi everyone, don't worry I'm still alive, I just forgot to write the email last week. We had problems with the phones and by the time we figured it out I forgot to write :) oops. It's ok tho because I FOUND THE ' KEY ON THE SPANISH KEYBOARD!!! I can write words like I've and I'm and I'll and don't and it's and haven't and all the other words!!! It's where the -_ key is on the english keyboard. the -_ keys are on the ?/ key, the normal ? is shift + -_ and I have no clue where the / key is. :D

also yes ' is different than ´

I'm and Ím

The last two weeks were good, we had a baptism, General Conference, I helped give a blessing to a lady in the ward who has a hurt back, we had a multi zone conference with the other zones in the Eje Cafetero (I think that's how it's spelled) and interveiws with President Florez. Other stuff happened too but those are the highlights. I listened to General Conference in Spanish and I actualy undersood almost all of it! I'm studying the talks again tho because I missed some stuff but ya that was cool. The baptism was great. Jenny is now a member of the Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días 

I TOOK PICTURES

like a lot.

like 100

in the last two weeks

:)

Over half of them were in one day tho because the hermana we gave a blessing to has a huge garden with lots of new plants and flowers. I'm gonna put the best ones in the Google Drive with the pictures because it would be a lot to put them all in the email. I'll put the link to the dive folder at the end of the email tho and if I forget it's in one of the earlier emails too. 

The multi zone conference was good, I got to see some of the other Elders from my MTC district. everyone's spanish is improving and we had cake after the meetings so that was good. The meeting was good to. It's fun to see President Florez talk about missionary work. He gets so exited.

This is the last Pday before transfers so there is a small posibility I won't be able to write next week if either me or Elder Camacho gets transfered. Hopefully that won't happen because I don't know where everything is in my area yet but we'll see.

ok thats it.

I think.

ya.

ok.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''

:)

Byeeeee.

(More pictures of food and plants in Elder Crenshaw's GOOGLE DRIVE ALBUM in the Calarcá folder)

Mission Email Week 6 First week in Colombia! - Calarcá, Colombia

Hi everyone! IT's difficult to type on this phone because  it keeps auto correcting to a spanish word or a different word in english so if there are a lot of typos thats why😂 A lot happened this week, it's my first week in Colombia! Meeting all the Elders from my MTC district was great. On the flight to Miami I sat bext to a missionary from another church, it was cool to talk to him about the church. At the end of the flight i offered him a book of mormon but he wouldn't take it, ah well, at least he knows a bit more about the church :D. I was a little worried when we got to Colombia because i forgot to print all of my papers, the coustoms people must have not cared tho because they just asked for my passport and then just let me through when they asked for my other papers and i said i didn't have them with me. After the airport we met the mission president and he took us all to Dominos for pizza. Then we droped off our bags at the mission home and went to sleep at a bunch of different missionary's appartments. Then in the mornning we went back to the mission home and ate breakfast and had our welcome to the mission thingy. We met or saw a video of our companion and found out were our first area was. My companion is Elder Camacho in Carlarca.  Inteeviews with the mission president took all day because there are so many of us. That night we went to another missionary's appartment. I was at that appartment all of the next day with Elder Meeks while the zone leaders were at zone conference. The day after that we were on the bus all day going to our areas with our zone leaders. Im really tall in Colombia so everyone i meet talks a lot about it😀 one cool thing that happened this week was durring lunch. Lunch in Colombia is very big and breakfastand dinner is small. I had trouble eating everything so that lunch i said a prayer asking for help finnishing the food. It felt like my stomach emptied😀 i need to go so i will stop here but God loves all of us and always listens to our prayers.

Love you all, byeee