It's Cooooold!

Unfortunately I forgot my paper that has all the stuff I need to say, so I'll apologize now for forgetting something and I'll make sure to include EVERYTHING next time!

Let me begin by saying I AM SO DONE WITH THE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!! The only reason I'm homesick is because I miss the warmth!! This is crazy cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (from mom: wait, did he just say he misses the sun more than his mom?)

I don't believe I need anything else before I get to Chile, but I will be sending quite a few things back that I haven't touched nor will I need to.

A mi familia:

Yo se que una mision puede bendicir a todos en mi familia y a los personas en Chile. Me encanta el Evangelio!! Necesitamos estudiar mucho el Libro De Mormon. Tiene muchas cosas que necesitamos en nuestros vidas. Me amo a Ustedes!

- Elder Crider

P.S. Trevin, Missionaries aren't allowed to speak in the Tu form, hence my use of Usted and Ustedes

From Mom: Sorry this email is so short, the other bits were little paragraphs to the kids, just responding to things in their letters...     yeah, I know - it wasn't fulfilling to me either, haha! :)

Our First Pics!

Yay, the moment Mom has been waiting for - pictures!!!

Daylon and his two companions, one artfully hiding his name to abide by our privacy policy, haha

Daylon acting studious for the photo



Looks like a fun group!

Ummm, where's the warm coat we sent with you?

This is so Daylon

The Criders' favorite Utah treat, this one's for you Bin!

Whoa, this gave me the shivers...

Happy, righteous young men at the temple!

See you soon, Elder Fudd. Only 23 more Fast Sundays to go.

He loves letters, keep 'em comin'!

Life at the MTC

Let me begin by stating that everyone should read "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard. It's fantastic!!

Dad wanted an outline of my schedule, so here is Saturday and Sunday:

Breakfast - 7:00

Gym

Technology Assisted Language Learning

Personal Study

Lunch - 11:30

Language Study

Classroom - 1:30-4:30

Dinner - 4:30

Additional Study

Planning

Classroom - 6:30-9:30

Sunday:

Breakfast - 7:30

Personal Study

Priesthood Meeting

PS

Lunch - 11:30

District Meeting

PS

Sacrament - 3:15

Sunday Walk to Temple

Choir

Dinner - 6:30

MTC Fireside

Conference address

Life is good, time is flying. Some people got their travel plans today and the leave at 3AM so hopefully that won't be me! I'm so glad I don't have to get reassigned because I don't need a visa. Hooray for Chilean International Laws! Our days are very mundane and mechanical so not much "new" happens. Oh! Not sure if I said this last time or not, but there's a Canadian in my Zone with the first name "Daylon", with the exact same spelling! I never thought I'd meet another one of me! Hahahaha.

I feel like there were questions people had that I'm forgetting and I'm sorry! Please try to keep your questions to a minimum so I don't have to try to find them and answer them all in the 30 minutes we're allowed to email for :)

I love you all, thank you for the food, the prayers, and the love.

Antes de el fin, yo querré decir que yo sé este Evangelio es verdadero. Me gusta el amor en este Evangelio. Los profetas son personas que hablan a Dios cada día y los reciben dirección para nosotros. Cúando yo oro, me sentio el Espíritu y paz. Es un bueno tiempo para mi. Deben leer en el Libro De Mormón al hacer con Dios. El Libro tiene felizidad y paz y dirección para nosotros vidas. Me amo mi familia y Jesucristo. De estes palabras yo testifico en el nombre de Jesucristo, Ámen.

- Elder Crider

P.s. I have only 3 weeks and 3 days left until I hit the field! How crazy is that??

Long Days, Short Weeks

Hola! Just before I forget, I did indeed see Matt here Wednesday night, and Carlos Hidalgo. It was fun to catch up!

So, our first lesson was on Feb. 2nd and it was completely in Spanish!! Thankfully the Spirit was there and we were able to stutter out a few phrases that hopefully made sense, haha.

It is true what they say about the MTC: if you can make it through your first Sunday, the days start taking FOR-EV-ER, but the weeks go by mas rapido! It's already Friday!!

We are required to spend our "spare" time in our classroom, not our dorms, so I definitely love P-day where we can stay in our rooms up until lunch! Esta muy bueno!

In response to mom's letter:

We do about 8 hours of language/lesson training each day. We have an hour of exercise, 2 hours of personal study, and only 30 minutes per meal. I always get chocolate milk with breakfast and orange Fanta for the other meals because Orange Fanta is a big drink in Chile.

I have one companion, Elder P (who is not from Nephi), but there are four of us in a room and we like to stay together. The other companionship is Elder B and Elder M, who I had a class senior year with. It's been fun getting to know them!

For Sundays, we have our own "Branches" that consist of our Zone. Our Zone is made up of 3-4 "Districts" and each District has 5-6 companionships. All of our classes throughout the day (we stay in the same room for all 6 weeks) are with our District. I'm 21-C.

Thank you all for your letters!

Allie, I'm not in CHile yet, but I will make sure to call you before I leave the MTC. And everyone was so jealous of all the star stickers that were on your note! Thank you!

Anna: You had two questions and I hope what I said above answered them :) They were about if I knew anyone and what activities I do.

Alyza: You'd better give DayDay a big snuggle when I get home! And you gotta share your binkies, ok? ;)

Trevin: The food here is all-you-can-eat for all 3 meals! I hope you finished your season strong and I want you to know that I'm proud of you.

Thank you all for your love and support! The mail gets checked after lunch and after dinner and I'm always so excited when I get something so please keep sending them! If you want me to relpy on P-day you need to send your letter before or on Tuesday so I can get it in time. And DearElder while I'm at the MTC is same-day, but when I get to Chile it'll take 2-3 days.

Testifico que Jesucristo es el Salvador y nuestro Padre Celestial es un Padre de mucho amor por todos. Ests conocimiendo me ayuda a tener amore con otros más y me ayuda a perseverar estas días que deficil. Yo sabé Jesucristo meurte para me y el Expiación de Jesucristo es muy bueno por todos. Y tambien, yo sabé que el don del Espíritu Santo es necesita que predicad el Evangelio de Jesucristo a otros. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén.

(Yes, Expiación = Atonement)

- Elder Crider

The First Email!

Hola! We only get 30 minutes to write, so hopefully I can say everyting I want/need to in that time.

Yesterday was the first day our mail was collected and I was definitely excited to see I got a good handful! Thanks!

We have been told to speak as much Spanish as possible both in and out of class, so at the end of each email I'll include my testimony in Spanish and I have a habit of throwing in a random word every now and again.

My first companion, Elder P. from a small town here in Utah, is great! I can't wait to get to know him more over these next 5 weeks. He's going to Salta, Argentina. I do have pictures, but they haven't told us how to take them from an SD card yet, so maybe next week I'll include some.

So much info has been thrown at me these past two and a half days! We can only sing, pray, and testify in Espanol, y ayer, we taught our first lesson....completely in Spanish! Mas deficil! No me gusta hablar solo en Espanol cuando no creo mucho. No esta bien haha. (Yes Trevin, I know there are supposed to be accents on some of those letters, but since I'm writing in mostly English I didn't want to have to constantly change the settings :P)

The food and facilities are great! Three all-you-can-eat meals 7 days a week! Esta muy bien!! OH!! There's chocolate milk available all day tambien :)

Normally on P-day we do our laundry in the mornings and go to the Temple in the afternoons, but our P-day is also usually on Fridays. With all the orientation stuff we had to do, this first week's schedule is different from weeks 2-5 and on week 6 we have an "ending instruction" schedule that I'll explain more about when it gets closer.

I'm so excited to be out here and having the opportunity to completely give of myself to the Lord 100% for the next 2 years!

Testifio que Jesucristo es el Salvador y ls Expiacion de Jesucristo es mas bueno para todos. Yo se nuestro Padre Celstial es un Padre de mucho amor por todos y este conocimiendo me ayuda a amor con otros. Amor es muy importante para el Evangelio y quiero sentirse que amor para todas las investigators. Y me dice estes cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Before I run out of time, I just want to say that I love you all and thanks for the support!

Elder Crider