February 23, 2015

Well what a great week again! We have had some great great things happen to us this week!

 Well like I said in the voice recording the highlight was for sure when we went to my favorite bread shop to by some tinapay while we waited for a bus to take us home a couple came up to us and asked us where our church was. It turned out they got taught by the missionaries before in Iloilo and after they moved they realized that they wanted to join the church! So we went back to them on Friday and they picked us up on their motor and took us to their amazing house in the mountains. They are so awesome and just so excited for us to be there! They accepted a baptismal date for march 28 so boom just like that! It was so cool to see how Heavenly Father really prepared these people for us!!! So Awesome!!!

One thing that I want you guys to look up is a talk that someone gave in May 1996 at a BYU devotional! It is something special! It has helped me a lot when I am down or tired. It was a lot of power! So look that up:)

We are really excited for this month! Ronel his wife is a member and now he also is preparing himself to get baptized. He has came a long way when I first met him I was kinda scared of him. But its cool to see the power of the Book of Mormon it makes me realized another one of its purpose. People realize that God is there and trying to talk to them and help them improve their lives! Its a good news that we bring!!!

Well again I just love this area and the people here! We are so busy going everywhere! There are so many people here who are ready to hear the gospel. The field is white and the time is right here in the Philippines.

Thanks again friends and family for all of your support and letters. I am glad to hear about you guys going rock hunting? What other family does that together? I am truly lucky to have such an awesome family!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

 This is the couple that found us in the bread shop!!

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February 16th

Well hello family!!!! I just had another amazing week! I just got back from an amazing place in the mountains. They just opened a brand new church and it is absolutely crazy. It is like going back in time 150 years. Just all farms in the top of the mountains but the church has made it there and the church building which is very nice is like one of the only buildings in the whole place. It is so cool! So we went on a hike to the waterfalls there wow was it cool!

So this week was the Roxas Stake conference and we had the Philippines Area president speak! Wards rented huge semi trucks to take there members to the stake center. It was cool to see how strong the stake is here so many white shirts and ties. This church is so amazing and it is crazy how far it has come in so short of time. God has his hand in his work!!!

 I will tell you a little bit about Ryan. He is 28 years old and about ready to graduate college. He is trying so hard to find the right church and is trying hard to find out for himself through the Holy Ghost! He is hungry for an answer. We can only teach him on Saturday but man it is awesome to teach! I am excited for him!

We are trying really hard to complete the part member families a lot of wives have got baptized but there husbands are a little bit more challenging but that is my goal here is to complete those families and gain the trust of the men here!

Well its been a great week family got to give a shout out to my cute little sister Lexi Lou!!! Turning 8 and is so excited to get baptized!!! I hope you had a great birthday Lexi!!! I am not so sure what you guys are doing about the whole rock hunting thing or who came up with that but that sounds interesting.   You guys sound so good in your letters!!! Man I love you all so much! So have a good week everyone and have fun!!!!

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

February 9th

February 9th!!! 

Hello everyone! Well let me just start by saying I have a really really good area! It is full of amazing people. My favorite and I will talk about them a lot they are the Languayan family and I sent pictures of them! They are awesome and just got baptized a few months ago so we are trying to strengthen them and help that area. its a cool place in the mountains and it is a huge sacrifice for them to always come to church! i love them so much!

Sunday was my favorite day this week. It turns out that we have a group in our area. So we go to church there in the morning and help get that running. It is seriously the craziest place for a meeting house. just outside on the dirt in the mountains I could not believe it! There are some amazing strong members that go to it! It just started a year ago so that is really cool to go there. We have a place called mambusoa and somehow there are some members there even though there is no church or meetinghouse they found the church other ways then from the missionaries. So that's pretty cool! That place was the first time that I was sick to my stomach when we tracked a lady who said she had 11 kids and we could go to her house! There were a lot a lot of kids and you would not believe there house. So we just tried to talk about Jesus Christ and the hope that he gives. It was amazingly spiritual. They are far away from the church and have no money to go to church but that was extremely humbling to go into that house with so many kids. You would have never ever guess the mom lived like that by the way we were talking to her at first! She is amazing! We spent 1 day there which is an hour drive from our apartment! Cool cool place and it is amazing the church in a place like that! It really strengthens my testimony of the church!!!

I have a great companion right now he is old in the mission and has like 4 months left! I can learn a lot from him. We both worked really hard and he has one of the best work ethics that I have seen here. So i am very happy to be companions with him! We had a good week! Always busy!

Well I still love it here and I love this area so so so much I think I might be here for a while and that's great! I love speaking this language Ilongo is much much easier than my last area. I love you all so much and hope all is well in the great town of West Point!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

Roxas!!!

Well I am now in my second area here in Roxas. It is a really nice place and I am really excited to be here. So its a new language so that's pretty cool. Its almost like transferring to another mission. Just the joy of this mission. Ilongo is pretty nice though. Its better than Aklanon which was really crazy. The people here do not know Aklanon. So I am excited. My new comp is Elder Lazaro. He has 4 transfers left in his mission so he has been here for a while. He is a great missionary so I am just really excited.

This week I did a lot of traveling actually. Wednesday I went from Kalibo to Roxas then Thursday I went to Iloilo then on Friday finally got back to my area. So I still do not know a lot about this area. I am just really excited for all the members here. Every night since I have been here I have been fed dinner. There are some pretty amazing families here!

Of course it was sad to leave New Washington I loved that place so much and the people there but I know I will love this place just as much. It is very mountainous. You really are hiking to get to some of these people. They treat missionaries great. So ya I don't know a lot yet about this area I am just really excited for my next adventure here in the mission. Its amazing! I am just in such an amazing place here in Roxas. There are great things to come here and miracles just waiting for me!

So I love you all so much and so happy here. I love it!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

His letter is short but here are a couple of questions I asked him and his reply.

1-  So how is your house compared to your old one?

Its a step down. I really really enjoyed that last house it was just a nice little house away from everything quiet and peaceful. This is more in the city so not as quiet. There is no shower like the last one but thats fine. its has a nice place to look over the city and the wind blows so I enjoy just sitting there and thinking

2-  Bigger city and stronger ward I think you will like that.......how many come to church there in your ward?

Around 150 but solid solid solid as can be. 

3-  Is it pretty in this mountain city?

It's amazing that mountain city is great and it has exploded with baptisms recently. 

4-  What is the coolest part of your new area?

I have only been to the mountain area so I really don't know much more. I know its the biggest area in the mission and on Sunday to church twice.

5-  Is the food similar?

As far as I know I really haven't been to a lot of places here. I went down to Iloilo for two days where all ZL's and STLS meet and talk about what we can do to improve. So Sunday was my only full day here.