Short but Sweet

Short and sweet today, we had a very poorly planned activity that was supposed to start at 12:00, but started around 1:45 and ended at 3ish.

Our mission is part of a pilot program the Church is testing out focused on reactivation. That`s EXACTLY what I`ve been doing in Simi Squad for the past 3 months! But now we`re in our "office" from 10-7 Monday-Saturday. "I`ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord", right?

Dad, good luck with your new job!

Mom, keep being amazing!

Trevin, I´m still waiting for a video of an in-game dunk!

Anna - Stop being so sick!!

Allie - Stop growing up!!

Alyza - Some of the people in Chile want to take you away and snuggle you, but I tell them that you are MY snuggle buddy :) Right?

There´s new pictures coming next week (once I take them haha!)

Lots of love,

- Elder Daylon Crider

Yup. Definitely forgot there are Easter traditions like candy and egg hunts and all that. We were sorta busy trying to find people to teach haha.

Unfortunately President thought it prudent for us to only get mail every two weeks. This last week no packages came, so I´m assuming I´ll have a report on them in three more Mondays.....definitely docked his brownie points for that one....

Two things before I forget!

1) I´ve been in this sector for about 6 months, but it just occurred to me this week that we´re basically in D.C. We´ve got the president´s house literally on the other side of the ward/stake/mission boundaries! How cool is that?? It´s funny because in Chile EVERY house has a 6 foot fence where their property meets the sidewalk, EXCEPT the President´s House...go figure!

2) Apparently there´s an app called "What´sApp" (a messaging app) and if you download it (first year is free, every year after that is $1) you can message anyone in the world! So you could talk to the members here, if you wanted to :) Hno Jose R served in California and always speaks English with us (it´s like 98% perfect) so if you want to chat with him, his number is +569-------- Let me know if you do or don´t :) (you'll have to email Lecia and ask for his number if you have a burning desire to chat with Jose. llcrider@hotmail.com)

Re: school & work: I´m now used to getting very little sleep compared to before the mission - in fact, sometime I wake up at 6:30 or 7 and I´m ready to get the day started - so I wouldn´t have a problem getting up early to put in a few hours before work. I try to do a Sudoku every morning to help my brain wake up faster because I have a feeling life will have me putting in quite a few "overtime hours" my first year or so back. Dad´s looking into a few flexible hours jobs for me and he´s found some where I can utilize my Spanish (doesn´t being bilingual get you an automatic upperhand with most companies? Especially in AZ...) Come August/September I think we´ll have to start hammering out the details and getting some things set in stone for when I get back. Thoughts?

Lots of love,

- Elder Daylon Crider

I Love Conference!

Conference as a missionary is the best! I´m pretty sure I said it six months ago too, but that´s because it´s true! A whole weekend, receiving revelation for yourself, your companionship, your investigators, all I have to say is...."THAT. WAS. TOTALLY. WICKED!!!!!!" (name that movie!)

I´m pretty sure Elder Holland´s talk Saturday morning inactivated a few people...in all honesty....I saw people get up and leave! "Really?!" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/04?lang=eng&vid=3434605271001&cid=5)

Anyway, about using Preach My Gospel...Chapter 6 talks about Christ-like attributes and Chapter 8 is about using your time wisely. I would start with those two and maybe when someone needs a FHE lesson idea, there´s always Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 :)

I personally need to do better at reading from PMG daily, but this morning I made a plan (I´m going one week at a time) to study and implement a specific section or chapter. I´m starting with "Faith" from Chapter 6. It seems like a simple principle, but once one really understands exactly what "having faith" entails, well, we could learn much from Peter´s example of walking on the water, as well as James 1:6, James 2:17, and Alma 32. Faith can truly move mountains if our faith leads us to pick up a shovel and start working.

Mom, sorry to crush your dreams, but when I get home I plan on savoring every minute of alone time, cuz let´s be honest, it´s already got an expiration date hahaha (not that it´s a bad thing!) (haha, I had a funny dream that Daylon had just come home from his mission and he brought all his blankets into my room and asked if he could sleep on the floor!)

Pretzel Season....oh the wonderfully stressful and agonizing hours of waiting for dough to rise! How I miss thee not :P hahahaha Since E´ Lythgoe taught me how to make "Banana bread" (basically banana cake with chocolate mixed in and Nutella on top, when I can afford it) the members and other missionaries are about as anxious to get it as the Frosts are for their Pretzels (Mom will understand that the best).

Simi Squad :D The....registros de la Iglesia....Church registers? Church..RECORDS! The printed list of a ward´s membership records is called "Simi" and since we´re a small group working with the Simi, we are thus affectionately known in the mission as "The Simi Squad" :D (p.s. it´s fun hearing Latins try to pronounce "squad" haha).

In my personal work with the Simi, I am the group leader of 4 other people and we look up their names and the address they last voted at in the Government Records to see if we can find them and get them back to activity (Does that make sense in English?). I haven´t had much of an opportunity to apply it in my own sector, but we did get a bit done last week and hope to find some new investigators with it this week seeing as NO ONE has been to church in TWO WEEKS!!! :/

Anyway, love you all :)

- Elder Daylon Crider

p.s. New photos of our District and what we did today to celebrate my comp´s bday (¡justo hoy!)