Everything is Sew Wonderful

MMMMMOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM. Why don´t I have any pictures of your side of the family? In the photo book I have, it´s all us and dad´s side. The people in this sector are always asking me "¿donde estan el otro lado de sus atepasados?" (where´s the other side of your ancestors?)

(From Mom: Okay, Balluff's, that's your cue to send me some cute photos. If you email me a couple in the next week I will put them in a photo book and get it out in time for his birthday!)

 

Second, I need to know what you want me to do with the name I took through the Temple a few weeks ago. Should I send it to Juennea or you?  (from Mom: Sorry, Jueanne, I guess I never taught him to spell your name! I'm having him send the card back to me)

Questions from Mom: Is the food any different in your new area? Nope. The food is all same, with all the same flavor.....*sigh*

And everyone wants to know if you rode that long way on your bike for fun or if you had to visit someone clear out there? It was mostly to visit someone, but we also don´t really know that area because we don´t normally have the bikes so it´s not worth it to walk for an hour all the way out there and then have to walk back for another hour. It was about 30-40 minutes with the bikes. It was muddy out there for some reason (it hasn´t rained lately) so when we got home, we noticed the back of our pants were COVERED in mud haha

Speaking of pants, I was on divisiones and we had bikes. My pants got nicked twice, so I sat down the other morning and tried my hand at stiching them back together. I hope Jenny knows how to sew, because I was just throwing the needle through the pants basically trying to tie it together haha (that´s what the photos are - below).(from Mom: Well, he didn't do too bad, but I'm pretty sure I at least taught him to use thread that matches his pants. Remind me to spend more time on that with Trevin!)

About new investigators...we´re starting to see some success from our Iniciativa :) We have about 5 references, one of which we contacted with our Branch President. These people are SUPER ready and in need of the Gospel! Give me another week or two and I´ll be able to tell you about our new investigators :)

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My lesson for this week is about the need we have for daily prayer, and won´t be all that long.

Morning Prayer = Protection

Night Prayer = Give an account of how you followed the promptings of the Spirit and what you did to bless the lives of others.

There have been some mornings when we´ve have to get up at 7:30 and be on the bus by 7:45 in order to get to various meetings in time. Unfortunately, those days don´t start with prayer and as the day goes on, I notice the lack of the Spirit that I have.

When I lay down at night without praying, I feel like I´m forgetting something. You know that feeling - when you SWEAR you have everything and have triple checked, but still feel like something is missing.

I have found that it is more effective for me to prayer, not first thing in the morning, but after I´ve done my exercises and woken up a bit. I also close my day with prayer before I get ready for bed so I´m still awake and focused. I´m sure our Heavenly Father would much rather listen to us speak complete sentences in place of "oh crap! I fell asleep 15 minutes ago! I should finish my prayer." And let´s be honest, we´ve all done that before haha

When we don´t start our days counseling with our Father in Heaven, we are less likely to feel His guidance and do His will. When we don´t end our days giving an account of what we did with all He gave us throughout the day, I can promise you from experience that you will not sleep as well as you could.

I would encourage you all to remember the two (in my opinion) most important prayers you can offer in a normal day. If need be, use the Primary´s example and use a "prayer rock". It can´t hurt ;)

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

 

- Elder Daylon Crider

 

Before

 

 

After

Listen to Your Mom and Learn to Play the Piano!

DAD!!!! I PROMISE I didn´t forget about you!!! The day I meant to send you letter was when I had those special changes, so it completely skipped my mind. I found your letter on Friday and I felt SO bad!!! It´s in the mail today, so hopefully you get it in 12-14 days :) I promise I didn´t forget!!!

About mail, I´ve decided to start including a list of what I got from who last week so you don´t have to worry. So:

Packages - Tricia, Jenny

Letters - Jenny, Allie, Nanci, Kristin

Thank you all so much for your love! And my comps definitely appreciate the food, because none of my comps have ever gotten a package of food thus far.

Dad - Do we have Native American blood from your dad´s side?

Mom - What´s the name of the RM who served in my mission? I can never remember :P Also, Sis. Nicoll may say I´m able to go a week without my retainers, but my teeth say two nights MAX :/

Alyza - Why don´t you want to play with your friends in nursury? Remember when mommy and dayday helped out one Sunday and we had SO much fun? You should try to help everyone have fun! :) I love you Lyzee :)

In response to your email, mom:

We actually just started to put into practice our plan on Sunday because of different scheduling things that came up last week. But of the two who have had our lesson, they seem willing to go along with it :)

Where I am now, I definitely wish I could play at least one hymn with both hands! I feel so sad for the youth who struggle through one verse when, if I had but practiced, they wouldn´t have to be so embarassed at their lack of skills. LEARN TO PLAY THE PIANO WITH BOTH HANDS!!!!!!!!!!

My lesson for this week is on following the guidance and lessons from General Conference:

For me, there are 7 steps that I really like and have helped me more fully utilize the talks from Conference. They are:

1) Read the talk

2) Read the talk again, and this time highlight things that stand out and make notes in the margin

3) On a seperate piece of paper (or in a special notebook) write what the "call to action" is from that particular talk

4) Make a plan on how to fulfill that "call to action" (this could include studying for a day or two Peace, if you were studing the talk "For Peace at Home")

5) Pray to see if your plan matches God´s will and make the necessary changes

6) Teach what you learned. We learn the most when we have to teach something.

7) Repeat this process for every talk.

In the Conference Edition of the Ensign or Liahona, after the talks given in Conference are the talks given in the General Young Women´s Broadcast. Those too, are inspired talks. For the first time in my life I read them and there is advice and counsel that is aplicable to all, even those who aren´t young nor a woman.

I would also encourage that special attention be given to the words of our Prophet. I have no doubt that he talks with Christ face to face while Jesus tells him how to lead His Church and what His people ned to hear. The words of the Prophet are His words. May we learn from them and never be comfortable with where we are, but always seek progression.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-- 

- Elder Daylon Crider

Some Pics, Daylon says, "We borrowed the sisters' bikes and went waaaay out there. It reminded me of field work with Tricia!"

 

How About a Few Photos?

Daylon's 2nd Mom and Dad in Chile, Br. & Sis. Cortez

Add caption

The Santiago, Chile temple

All the missionaries on temple day

Another baptism

Their "office" - D has the big blanket & space heater :)

 



Their little kitchen

I Love This Kid! (okay, Mom made up this title, not Daylon!)

So I learned this week that we have absolutely no investigators :( Not a single soul is currently being saved :´( BUT Elder C. and I had a GREAT Weekly Planning session on Thursday and we came up (obviously with the help of the Holy Ghost) of a plan to work with the members so that we can have more references which will turn into investigators. We´re going to have a "Noche de Hogar" (a.k.a. FHE) with one family every other night this week and next. Then, in about two weeks, we{re going to have another NdH with the same families, but this time they´ll have a non-member friend (that´s the challenge we plan on leaving them at the end of the first visit). Hopefully it works because we are in DESPERATE need of motivation to work!

E´ C. goes home August 27, or thereabouts, so we still have a while together :) In our Weekly Planning session, he put two goals that, to me, shows he has a desire to change. He´s already changed a few things to follow my example, so no worries about this being difficult. As long as I "play to my level" everything will be wonderful :)

The campo (I´m never going to remember what that means haha) is much safer than the city! There aren´t any gangsters out here haha :)

Mom, I´m sorry I keep forgetting to say this, but yes the Dino Eggs arrived safely and now they´re all gone :)

The lesson for this week is from "Jesus the Christ", under the chapter "The Sermon on the Mount" (specifically pp237-242):

In these pages, it talks about prayer and analyzes the model given in The Lord´s Prayer. This lesson, I{m going to leave you to study that part, but I will make note of a few good quotes.

Near the beginning, it talks about the "saying of prayers in place of praying". The word "prayer", for me, is most relatable to the word "conversation". Also, when I think of it in that sense, before I pray I like to recall a certain memory of my late-night talks with dad about how my day went. I try to imagine Heavenly Father in place of dad, kneeling across the bed. This helps me think of it more of a conversation.

Also, there are some moments when I just have to say "Tú sabes de lo que estoy pensando, Padre" (Thou knowest that which I am thinking, Father) because more often than one would assume, I can´t put into words what I want to say to Him. "Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul...".

My favorite quote from this section is: "God without our prayers would be God; but we without prayer cannot be admitted to the kingdom of God". Therein lies the neccessity of prayer. We CANNOT receive Eternal Life without prayer.

"True, the Father knows our needs before we ask, but by asking we...are made hubmle, greatful, {and} contrite..." thus, the very action of asking our Heavenly Father for a rightous desire makes us more humble and more able to receive His blessings.

I would exhort you with the same exhortation as gave Moroni in his final chapter of the Book of Mormon that you read those pages from which I have noted and seek to improve your prayers. Before the mission, I though mom was crazy for saying 30 minute prayers, but now, I don´t want to only get to talk with my Heavenly Father for anything LESS than 30 minutes. Prayer has become, for me, a treasured and sacred time.

That is becomes so for you as well is my hope and prayer,

in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

- Elder Daylon Crider

PICS TO FOLLOW

A Visit to the Santiago Temple

Here in Chile there are 3 ways to describe a missionary: quadrado (super strict with the rules to the point of being mean about it), normal, and chueco (doesn´t follow ANY rules). Right now, I´m in the country side (super beautiful and you can actually see the stars!) with the most chueco comp that most others say there is. I´m not going to spend this email complaining about him beacuse that isn´t Christ-like, so that´s all I´m going to say.

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The Temple in Santiago is amazing! It´s super tiny and was hard to do in Spanish, but I loved it! I received some intense revelation that I don´t feel I should talk about just yet to those whom are not involved. The Celestial Room window was at the perfect angle for the sun to shine perfectly through when we were there around noon. It was so beautiful!!!! Mom, what do you want me to do with the blue card?

Here in the campo, we should have bikes, but our sector (ward) is divided in two and the sister have the bikes because they have the bigger sector. So for now, I´m still walking everywhere :P

Yes I have enough warm clothes, although I think I´m going to buy some sweatpants to sleep in so I can finally wash the ones I´ve been using since I got here hahahahahaha

So, I really miss American chocolate. The chocolate here just has a different taste and so I´m not very fond of it. The hot chocolate is super fome (a.k.a. super lame) because of that :(

Also, if you´re expecting me to receive a letter or package this week it won´t happen. The office Elders are too busy getting ready for the new missionaries to sort mail. DOn´t flip out, it happens every 6 weeks. I´ll get everything next Tuesday though :)

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So, my lesson for this week comes from 1 Nephi 19:23. From this scripture I learned that while it is good to say you´ve read the scriptures all the way through, what´s even better is to explain how the lessons you learned from them have improved your life. So the challenge this week is to find a good chapter (I suggest 2 Nephi 32, 2 Nephi 34, Alma 42, Heleman 5, or Moroni 7) and, after a prayer to ask for understanding and help from the Spirit, read through it once. Then read it again, but this time with a notebook and pen ready to use. After that, write a "Plan of Action" about how you can apply what you learned this next week to improve yourself and those around you. For example, if I had read Alma 32 and noted verse 21, for the next 2-3 mornings I would study the difference between Faith and Hope and how I can improve each. Then I would record how I actually accomplished my Plan and what I learned from my studies and what I learned from applying my studies. Let me know how it goes!

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- Elder Daylon Crider