Dear Family,
I love you all and hope everything is going well! I don't know if you realized, but I hit my 8 month mark a few weeks ago, which means I am 1/3 of the way done with my mission. Isn't that crazy?!
Dear Wonderful Mother,
I love you tons! Good luck with the many busy things you are engaged in at this time. By the way, I am supposed to inform the mission office when my home ward or stake changes, just to give you a heads up. Also, the next chance you get, could you by chance send me the talk "Profile of a Prophet," by Hugh B. Brown? I hear it's really good. Thank you so much!I loved the little stories you sent me about the boys! :) That is hilarious! Or, as you would say it, "the most funniest thing." :) Those are great rules for a big brother to have. I sure have a lot of things to learn from Joshua about "winning friends and influencing people." I don't remember having much success with getting Benson to do my work for me :) Anyways, I love you dearly and very much look forward to sharing those precious moments with you in the future. Keep being awesome!
Dear Dad,
I read Elder Ballard's talk about father-son relationships this morning. Of course, it made me think of you. I was reminded of how much I truly treasure our relationship. Thank you for always being such an amazing example, teacher, and friend. I sincerely hope you are doing well. Question: Could you sometime send me our priesthood line of authority? It's no rush, but I thought it'd be neat to have. Myldsmail.net is making some change so I'll probably be getting a new email address shortly. I'm not sure exactly when, but it'll be: spencercraft@myldsmail.net (pretty easy to remember :) )I received an impression this morning that I want to use with my future family. I know we've done similar things, but here's the idea: Have a family "Scripture of the Week". Something that the parents prayerfully decide on. Each day recite it in family scripture study. Then by the end of the week, maybe have a prize for those who have memorized it. Also, on a daily basis talk about ideas and experiences you've each had applying the scripture. I love you tons! Good luck with the moving process :)
Dear Benson,
Hey man, you still alive? Sometimes I'm not quite sure :P I know you're busy, but I hereby assign you another class. It's called: "Writing Spencer 101" Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write me a letter or email at least once a month for the rest of my mission. It's pretty much a pass/fail system--not too complicated :) If you pass, the rewards will be good. If you fail....well, you don't want to know, just make sure you pass! It officially begins in February, 2010. Also, since you're growing up to be such a big boy, I'm sure you're in that puberty stage. I'm not sure if you're struggling with acne or not, but as you probably know, I have for a while. But recently I've found a product that seems to be helping quite a bit. I've tried lots of stuff before, but nothing really worked for me, except this recent stuff. And you're skin is probably similar to mine. It's "Neutrogena Deep Clean Invigorating Foaming Scrub". It's blue with little microbeads. If you need it, hopefully you can find it. It feels very refreshing and doesn't cost much! Just use a little bit once a day in the shower, and you should be good. If you do have acne, STRICTLY AVOID touching or picking your face. Some zits need to be relieved, but if it hurts at all or bleeds, STOP! Maybe you don't need all this, but I thought I'd offer it just in case, so you can learn it early from someone else's experience. I love you Benson! Keep being the great young man that you are.
Love,Elder Craft
MIRACLE Stories:
Saturday was a pretty miraculous day. After not seeing much success all week, we were able to get 1 new investigator (from tracting), 3 return appointments (2 from tracting and 1 from an ITL), and 1 referral for another area (from an ITL)! We planned to tract a certain street on the outskirts of our area. When we got there, it was chained off apartment area. We felt that we should change our plans, so we went over to another near-by street (which isn't even on our map!) and were able to find a new investigator! When we plan by the Spirit, even if it doesn't turn out the way we expect, we'll be led to the elect.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
ITL -Invite to Learn
Dear Family,
The weather is gorgeous today, which is making me very happy! The work is also going well. Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and encouragement.I want to testify to all of you today of the truthfulness and importance of our modern-day prophets. The General Conference addresses are the most up-to-date scriptures we have! I challenge all of you to make the study of them a DAILY practice. It only takes a few minutes to read a talk, and it'll probably be some of the most effective time you spend all day. At a minimum, make sure you study ALL the recent talks at least once before the next general conference. The General Authorities are inspired by the Lord! Having their leadership and guidance so easily accessible is an enormous blessing that hasn't always been on the earth. In fact, this time we are blessed more than ever before, and we should be the most gospel-learned people of all of God's children. I testify that if we follow the counsel of our modern-day prophets, we will be led on the straight and narrow path to our glorious reward of exaltation!
Dear Mom,
So Elder Greenfield sent you a note? That's pretty thoughtful of him. Tell Joshua "thank you" for his short letter :) I look forward to receiving your's. I've got something kind of cool to send you today, but you'll have to wait to see what it is :)We had interviews with Pres. and Sis. Pfile this past week. I humbly need to do as I'm told and again tell you that you both did a good job as parents :) I love you Mom so very much! Keep being amazing. Have a magnificent week!
Dear Dad,
My respect and admiration for Bishops has grown tremendously lately. We get to go to the weekly PEC and ward council meetings. Bishops sure do a whole lot more than just sit on the stand!Also, thank you for your great example of pondering and applying the scriptures. I'll try to study Helaman 5:12 out and report on it in my next letter. I love you and hope everything is going well!
Dear Benson,
What's up little growin' brother?! I miss you man. Sometimes the devil tempts me to get too excited about going home and playing basketball with you, Randy, and Dad. Do you think we could wup 'em? You better be working hard and doing your best in everything you do, especially in prayer, scripture study, family, and school work. Continue to honor, respect, and cherish our parents. I would be willing to bet that 99.9% of the young men in the world do not have as good of parents as we do. Be extremely grateful for that and take advantage of it! Learn all you can from them. I love you Benson! See you in 16 months (it goes fast; don't let a minute be wasted!).
Love, Elder Craft
MIRACLE Stories:On Sunday an investigator that we've been trying to contact for a while came to church! It was awesome. We actually didn't get to see her because we left quickly to another meeting, but she introduced herself to our ward mission leader and others, and just made herself at home :) We're excited to follow up with her about her experience.Yesterday we saw a wonderful miracle because of planning and ITLing. We had a couple of potentials that we planned to see for a couple of hours. The first fell through, but on our way to the others we passed by this lady sitting out on a driveway. We ITLed her, and she agreed to here the message right there on the spot! It turns out that she has a close friend who is investigating the Church and working towards baptism. We taught her the Restoration and set a date for exactly two weeks out! She was very receptive and commented that her friend will probably be excited to hear that she's investigating also :) It just goes to show us the importance of asking for referrals from everyone, even our investigators!
The weather is gorgeous today, which is making me very happy! The work is also going well. Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and encouragement.I want to testify to all of you today of the truthfulness and importance of our modern-day prophets. The General Conference addresses are the most up-to-date scriptures we have! I challenge all of you to make the study of them a DAILY practice. It only takes a few minutes to read a talk, and it'll probably be some of the most effective time you spend all day. At a minimum, make sure you study ALL the recent talks at least once before the next general conference. The General Authorities are inspired by the Lord! Having their leadership and guidance so easily accessible is an enormous blessing that hasn't always been on the earth. In fact, this time we are blessed more than ever before, and we should be the most gospel-learned people of all of God's children. I testify that if we follow the counsel of our modern-day prophets, we will be led on the straight and narrow path to our glorious reward of exaltation!
Dear Mom,
So Elder Greenfield sent you a note? That's pretty thoughtful of him. Tell Joshua "thank you" for his short letter :) I look forward to receiving your's. I've got something kind of cool to send you today, but you'll have to wait to see what it is :)We had interviews with Pres. and Sis. Pfile this past week. I humbly need to do as I'm told and again tell you that you both did a good job as parents :) I love you Mom so very much! Keep being amazing. Have a magnificent week!
Dear Dad,
My respect and admiration for Bishops has grown tremendously lately. We get to go to the weekly PEC and ward council meetings. Bishops sure do a whole lot more than just sit on the stand!Also, thank you for your great example of pondering and applying the scriptures. I'll try to study Helaman 5:12 out and report on it in my next letter. I love you and hope everything is going well!
Dear Benson,
What's up little growin' brother?! I miss you man. Sometimes the devil tempts me to get too excited about going home and playing basketball with you, Randy, and Dad. Do you think we could wup 'em? You better be working hard and doing your best in everything you do, especially in prayer, scripture study, family, and school work. Continue to honor, respect, and cherish our parents. I would be willing to bet that 99.9% of the young men in the world do not have as good of parents as we do. Be extremely grateful for that and take advantage of it! Learn all you can from them. I love you Benson! See you in 16 months (it goes fast; don't let a minute be wasted!).
Love, Elder Craft
MIRACLE Stories:On Sunday an investigator that we've been trying to contact for a while came to church! It was awesome. We actually didn't get to see her because we left quickly to another meeting, but she introduced herself to our ward mission leader and others, and just made herself at home :) We're excited to follow up with her about her experience.Yesterday we saw a wonderful miracle because of planning and ITLing. We had a couple of potentials that we planned to see for a couple of hours. The first fell through, but on our way to the others we passed by this lady sitting out on a driveway. We ITLed her, and she agreed to here the message right there on the spot! It turns out that she has a close friend who is investigating the Church and working towards baptism. We taught her the Restoration and set a date for exactly two weeks out! She was very receptive and commented that her friend will probably be excited to hear that she's investigating also :) It just goes to show us the importance of asking for referrals from everyone, even our investigators!
Monday, January 4, 2010
It's 2010
Dear Family,
I love you all so incredibly much! Things are going pretty well on the mission, and I hope and pray that things continue to go well for you at home.
Mom,
Of course you can change your gift!! I would much rather spend a day with you than sleep in the mountains with 3 noisy, stinky boys (no offense guys). I was just trying to make the different gifts unique, but I will gladly comply with your request :)In the next package, could you send my hair-cutting kit? Along with all my remaining ties? You might be surprised at what's appropriate. President gives us all ties at Christmas, and I got a bright pink pasely! Then I wore it at transfers and he complimented it :) Even if it is crazy, I can always trade it for something different :PAnyways, I sure love you! Good luck with the many pressing responsibilities you have.
Dad,
Thank you for your testimony and words of encouragement. Do you have any advice for a trainer? Thank you so much for your enduring and loving support! Have a great week!So I've got a joke for all of you. This was shared by Elder Greenfield while we were tracting:So there is this (insert "favorite" denomination) preacher/minister who decides to skip church one Sunday and go out fishing. "I've lived a good life; one week won't hurt," he says. So he goes out fishing and as he's hiking along out in the middle of nowhere, he comes across this huge grizzly bear. He tries to escape, but the thing starts charging him. So he desperately prays, "Oh God, make this bear Christian, and I promise I'll never miss church again." So right before the bear gets to him, it stops, looks up, and says, "Dear Lord, I thank thee for this food which I am about to eat." :)I love you all. Have a FANTASTIC new year!!!
Love,Elder Craft
Weekly Report:We are diligently trying to contact our investigators, but only a couple have been working with us. I think I need to make it a matter of prayer as to which ones we should keep focusing on and which ones would be ineffective at this time.
MIRACLE Stories:We tracted into a young lady who used to go to church with a mormon friend, until her friend moved to college. She was very receptive to learning more. She said that she had heard a little about the church from her friends, but they seemed to shy away from it thinking that she didn't want to here about it, when in reality, she did! It's crazy to think about how many elect are right around us, and we just don't recognize them! Miracles you have seen from planning.:The last night before Elder Greenfield left we had planned to see Rich and Susie Kosut. We called ahead of time to make sure they were home. Elder Greenfield still had packing to do, so I left it up to him as to whether we ride down to see if they're home or not. He decided we should at least try. It turns out that they were home, but were just busy cooking so they didn't answer the phone. However, they let us come in and teach them. We had a great Restoration lesson with them, and they seemed very receptive to everything, including coming to church. They even agreed to continue taking the lessons and pray about being baptized on January 16th! After the lesson, Elder Greenfield told me he had a dream a while back about being a missionary and riding down a hill at night. On our way to the lesson, he recognized that the scene matched up with his dream. "Don't drop them," he kept telling me :) It was pretty cool!
I love you all so incredibly much! Things are going pretty well on the mission, and I hope and pray that things continue to go well for you at home.
Mom,
Of course you can change your gift!! I would much rather spend a day with you than sleep in the mountains with 3 noisy, stinky boys (no offense guys). I was just trying to make the different gifts unique, but I will gladly comply with your request :)In the next package, could you send my hair-cutting kit? Along with all my remaining ties? You might be surprised at what's appropriate. President gives us all ties at Christmas, and I got a bright pink pasely! Then I wore it at transfers and he complimented it :) Even if it is crazy, I can always trade it for something different :PAnyways, I sure love you! Good luck with the many pressing responsibilities you have.
Dad,
Thank you for your testimony and words of encouragement. Do you have any advice for a trainer? Thank you so much for your enduring and loving support! Have a great week!So I've got a joke for all of you. This was shared by Elder Greenfield while we were tracting:So there is this (insert "favorite" denomination) preacher/minister who decides to skip church one Sunday and go out fishing. "I've lived a good life; one week won't hurt," he says. So he goes out fishing and as he's hiking along out in the middle of nowhere, he comes across this huge grizzly bear. He tries to escape, but the thing starts charging him. So he desperately prays, "Oh God, make this bear Christian, and I promise I'll never miss church again." So right before the bear gets to him, it stops, looks up, and says, "Dear Lord, I thank thee for this food which I am about to eat." :)I love you all. Have a FANTASTIC new year!!!
Love,Elder Craft
Weekly Report:We are diligently trying to contact our investigators, but only a couple have been working with us. I think I need to make it a matter of prayer as to which ones we should keep focusing on and which ones would be ineffective at this time.
MIRACLE Stories:We tracted into a young lady who used to go to church with a mormon friend, until her friend moved to college. She was very receptive to learning more. She said that she had heard a little about the church from her friends, but they seemed to shy away from it thinking that she didn't want to here about it, when in reality, she did! It's crazy to think about how many elect are right around us, and we just don't recognize them! Miracles you have seen from planning.:The last night before Elder Greenfield left we had planned to see Rich and Susie Kosut. We called ahead of time to make sure they were home. Elder Greenfield still had packing to do, so I left it up to him as to whether we ride down to see if they're home or not. He decided we should at least try. It turns out that they were home, but were just busy cooking so they didn't answer the phone. However, they let us come in and teach them. We had a great Restoration lesson with them, and they seemed very receptive to everything, including coming to church. They even agreed to continue taking the lessons and pray about being baptized on January 16th! After the lesson, Elder Greenfield told me he had a dream a while back about being a missionary and riding down a hill at night. On our way to the lesson, he recognized that the scene matched up with his dream. "Don't drop them," he kept telling me :) It was pretty cool!
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