December 29th

Perlas Family

Ward Christmas Party

Sister Nora's house (The ward mom)

Food fight

#sharethegift

Wow what a week! I will not be able to write all the cool things that have happened this week. First it was great to see you guys on Christmas over skype!!! I loved talking to you all. And what is the deal with the ugly sweaters contest??? HAHA that is awesome!! Who picked out Grandpas sweater??? That is something that we need to continue! The picture was hilarious!!! It sounds like Christmas was a success!!!

So we had a Ward Christmas party on Wednesday! It started at 9 in the morning and didn't end until 3! It was a long long party but everyone loved it! We invited all of our investigators to it and it turns out its a lot easier to come to a Christmas party than church! Haha there was a ton of them. We underestimated the rice we needed to bring for them! But it all worked out. It helped a ton with the people we are teaching to talk to the members and to see how fun the party was! They were really prepared and it was a success. There were so many different games and skits! It was a huge success!!! And way cool to see everyone have such a good time!!!!

Christmas was great! We spent a lot of time with the members and we had a lot of fun with them. On one of them we had a chocolate cake and it turned into a chocolate cake fight!!! It was great!!! We also worked quite a bit on Christmas. And taught some great lessons!!! It didn't feel like the Christmas at home but that doesn't mean it wasn't amazing!! I loved it!

The last few days have been quite productive O ya here is a little story for ya! So remember Alfredo had a hard time getting baptized because his family would be way mad if he did. So he ended up going to Manila and brought with him two Book of Mormons. And he told them what we have been telling him and to just read the Book of Mormon! So he said that they read quite a bit of it and now they are way cool with him being baptized and want the missionaries in Manila to come to there house!! Crazy Right??? So he now knows that this is what he is supposed to do. Kinda cool huh???

Well It was a great Christmas and it was amazing to talk to you and to talk to Talon in Tagalog ha oh yeah another cool side note. The place that we ate at lunch on Christmas was the same exactly family that fed Talon on Christmas 3 years ago!! How crazy is that??? I am still just way happy to be here and have this opportunity to grow!!! I love love love being a missionary! I hope you all have fun at the cabin over New Years!!! Take care and keep up the good work!!!  No body says it better than the Jacob in the Book of Mormon Jacob 6:12!!!

I love you all so much!!!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

December 22nd

Christmas in the Philippines

Wow it is the week of the Christmas and there is still no snow here! I am still waiting!!! The spirit of Christmas is pretty much the same here. There is a giant Christmas tree made out of Bamboo here in the plaza! People who don't usually go to church went to church and tons of Investigators made it to church! It was sweet it was a packed house and it was great!!! Now if only it stays like that after Christmas!!!

Well this week we traveled down to Iloilo again! So the few days we had to work we hit hard! We had some sweet lessons. People received answers to their prayers that The Book of Mormon is true and we also saw the strength of Satan. He is pretty strong and he really has quite the weapon with Alcohol. I  just love the Word of Wisdom its my favorite commandment for sure!!! So with Mika she wants to get baptized but her husband and her husbands family which she lives with will pretty much kick her out if she does. She is so so so so sweet but its just way sad to see. I know that there will be a way for her to get baptized. We just have to trust Heavenly Father!!!

Our apartment changed again and I am with Elder Cruz my comp still and Elder Layugin and Elder Gan so all Filipinos!!! So that's way sweet! Elder Layugin is a great cook and makes some amazing Filipino food. I have just accepted the fact that I am going to gain weight here!! The food is just so good!!!

Well I just love this Christmas season. It is a bit different when you are far away from the people you love the most but man am I excited to have it here in the Philippines! How many times are you going to have Christmas in 80 degree weather and wearing the name tag?!!! I am just enjoying the joy here and loving everyday! I am so stoked to talk to you all on Friday!!! I hope you all have a mMerry Christmas. And really remember why we have the great Holiday! Its really tough to not get tied up in all the other traditions but it is just nice to slow down and really really think how great of a gift our Savior is and really ponder the meaning of his birth!!!

I love you all so much!

Maligayang Pasko!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

December 15th

Eating Bugs

Beautiful New Washington

Wow 10 days til Christmas!! Really?? Well it sounds like you are having about the same weather as me! Its really nice though when its Christmas time. Everyone wants to feed you and the last few days we have been fed amazing food!!! I really think each week gets better and better and that's because as your language gets better the better you can connect and build relationships with the people here. It makes missionary work so much fun!

I have really enjoyed teaching Meacha and Third. Or what I call them. Brooklyn and Easton! They are just like them. Meacha acts like she is 18 and Third is just a stud! They made you all Christmas presents which are with Elder Christensen in Tremonton! So look out for those:) They are so nice and I just love them so much! Mika is another sweet investigator who is progressing way well! She is different than another investigator. We don't really have a planned lesson. We just give her assignments which she always completes. So that when we come back we just answer her question and expound of her reading assignments. Its perfect. She is the perfect investigator. We can't wait till we get to go back to her!!!

We have a sweet Christmas party on Wednesday in Iloilo where half the mission went and did skits and swapped gifts and had a huge feast. It was way fun to talk to all the missionaries we all have some crazy stories to share.

So right now we are in a tri some with Elder Layugin. He is a way way smart Filipino and super sweet. He will get his new companion on Thursday but I am way excited for him to be in our apartment. I have been way lucky to be surrounded with way sweet missionaries. Alright well I have loved reading all your emails and way excited to talk to you on Christmas. I can't believe its already Christmas that is insane!!!! Well I still love being a missionary. I can't belive how lucky I am to be here and to do missionary work! There is nothing like this in the world!!! Thanks for all of your love and support! I love you all so so so much especially Ben, Ryker, Easton, Brooklyn, and Lexi! How did I get so lucky with super sweet brothers and sisters? Well Have a good week!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

Preparing the bugs

Meacha and Third

December 8th

Good morning everyone. So most of you have heard of a Typhoon. Here the Typhoon is named Ruby. So that caused our week to be a little different than usual. Well for some background. Last November this place got hit really hard with a Super Typhoon. And they are still recovering from that. So when news came that another super Typhoon was coming everybody was really scared because they remember how bad the one was just last year. So there was a lot of people getting prepared for it to come. But news travels slow so no body really knew what was going on. So we were told to stay in our apartment all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Except we were able to go to church on Sunday. That was something really cool to see too. So this city really shut down. All the people evacuated into the School or concrete buildings. But a text went out to all the members saying that we would still have church. I didn't think anyone would be there because the wind and rain was pretty strong. But I was wrong. And our church was packed! I was proud of the members here.

So I am still not sure what happened but either it missed us or it got really weak because we just has wind and rain. Nothing too bad at all. Maybe somewhere else got it a lot worse. But we were way lucky! Which is good because these people can't take another Typhoon. So I am way happy that nothing bad happened here.

Well I am all rested up now and got some much needed extra study this week. It was nice to help tie a bunch of tin roofs down in preparation for the storm. They really learned from the last storm and was well prepared for this one. 

So yeah all is still good here. I am so ready to get back to work again. It has been way to long. I really missed going out and working. It got really cold this week. I needed to use a blanket to sleep last night. Our thermometer said it got down to 76 degrees! Haha well it sounds like the weather is really nice at home and everyone is in the Christmas spirit. I got to run. I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

Some of the food I ate at our Thanksgiving feast!!