March 31st Letter

Did not get a group email from Elder Craythorne this week.  Who knows what happened.  Here are a few lines from the letter he wrote to me as well as some pictures.

Erik

So I spent another two days in Iloilo for Zone Leader meetings. Not a big fan of that but nothing I can do about it!  Then went on splits one other day. I will be honest I don't work in my area as much as I would like. I am doing my best to keep my area going and it is doing really good. There are some sweet sweet investigators. Just cant go back to them as much as I want or I need. It's not because of lack of effort that's for sure. My area should change next transfer because the group is doing so good.  Lots of investigators coming to church there!  And we sealed the deal with an apartment and meeting house!!! So cool! So that's the challenge in this area. More than just teaching.

Just have gotten so lucky with companions and areas. Very very blessed. O ya totally caught some fish and cooked them this morning. Had to scratch the itch I guess!!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

March 23 2015

Hello everyone!!!! Just got done reading all the amazing emails from all my brothers and sisters and wow are they amazing. How in the world did I get so lucky. Every single one of them are doing great things and couldn't be more proud of them!!!

Of course I had another great week. There is no such thing as a bad week. There might be some bad minuets or hours but never a whole week;) Haha. This week was special because we went to a place that has never had missionaries before and looked for a house where the missionaries could live and also hold church on Sundays! They are called groups and I have only heard about that here. Its just a place where members can go to church and so investigators can attend church so its not so far away. In order to strengthen the members so we can start a branch pretty cool. So here the Bishop is over everything there. He runs both meetings. The group is like 45 min away so that is a huge sacrifice for the bishop but he is as solid as they come and is really a huge part in the progression of the church here!  So cool! The story of how we found the perfect apartment is a story of its own that I will tell when I get back;)

So remember that couple that I met at the bakery and was super excited for. It turns out their family is not super excited about what they are doing. And here a 24 year old man needs his signature of his parents in order to get married. So that's their update and our challenge with them. They are still great and we can overcome that:) We actually didn't go to our ward this week so we are not sure who came to church:/ So I don't have an update on that. We went with the bishop to make sure the meetinghouse we found is OK! We had some great success trackting this week. My comp is just a loving loving guy. Super easy to be his companion. I have got so lucky when it comes to companions!

So this morning we went through some crazy caves and I found my first monkey! So I will send those pictures next week! You will be jealous:) So ya still just loving this. My friend sent me this quote this week for just some reason I really liked. "Just keep on keeping on everyday matters!" Not really sure why I like it but just keep on doing whats right and some day that will be who you are!

love you all so so much!

love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

Well I picked the wrong computer this week and can't send any pictures.......but boy do I have cool pictures for you next week:)

March 16th Letter

Kamusta kamo sa Utah???

namit gid ang linggo namon diri kag namit namit gid ang lugar namon diri sa Roxas! Another week in Roxas! LOVE IT! Well for the announcements this week. I got 3 new missionaries in our Apartment and I got a new Companion. Elder Dacutan,  he is from Bacolod so Ilongo is actually his Native Language! So I am very lucky to be with him. I can learn a lot from him. Another missionary in our Apartment is Elder Kellerstrass from..... Hooper, Utah. He actually lives in Carol Craythorne's ward! So that's a lot of fun! I have never met him before but he lives very close to us!

Well its March Madness and I hope all your brackets are surviving. But here in the mission its a lot like March Madness. There are always those sleepers and there are always those big let down and upsets. Just all part of missionary work! MARCH MADNESS!!!! Always on your toes. That couple that lives far away that I talked about a few weeks ago. They haven't been coming to church and we are not sure why. This week we will find out!

Blandina Alajandro got Baptized this week! She is a very sweet lady who has such a strong testimony! She actually texted us the morning of her baptism and told her she was sick and couldn't come today! She lives 1 hour away from the church so its pretty far. We told her it was her choice. She said she was wondering why on her special day of her baptism she would feel sick like this. So she just prayed and asked God if this is something that she really needed to do and that if this church is really true that she would feel better. And guess what she called us and tears and said she is set and ready to go and her baptism was a great spiritual day!!!

Another transfer down and I am so excited to be with this companion. I have got so so so lucky with awesome companions. And having natives as your companions is such an advantage. So everything is just working out and I have learned a lot from them. Their testimonies are so strong. Less than a month to General Conference! So excited!

Thanks again for all of your emails. Never once has any of you missed a week. That means a lot! You guys are so awesome! Well I am still loving everyday of my mission! This is such an amazing opportunity and I am just want to take advantage of all of it!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

March 9th 2015

This week was sweet! But also had lots of challenges as well!:) for the announcements this week my comp will be transferred on Thursday so next week again I will get a new companion. My 5th companion on the mission! Wow that makes it sounds like I have been here for a while! 

I will probably keep this one a little bit short.

The miracle for this week is for some weird reason the hearts of the men this week has really softened. A lot of the recent converts here which we are working with are moms and daughters. This week the whole game has changed with their husbands. I don't know why that has been our focus ever since we got here and nothing has happened until this week. They wouldn't even let us teach them. But now we are very close! Rowell and Roderick Langurayan. I will send the pictures of Rowell's family!

Not much has changed we are still busy as ever! Going a million miles per hour! I know that the Book of Mormon is true. There is so much power in it to change peoples lives and I have seen that here!  I know that the power of the priesthood has been restored and that if we live worthy of it we can be instruments to help the work of the Lord here. As we serve and work everyday to destroy the natural man that is when we get closer to Our Heavenly Father and really come to know our Savior! The commandments are there to help us to reach to that point and that is my testimony! I love you all so much have a wonderful week. Halong!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

Rowell Family

Roxas Zone

March 2nd

Another month has just flew by and it has been amazing here in my new area! Roxas is awesome the ward is great. There are lots of investigators coming to church! The ward likes to help the missionaries. Yes and they feed us from time to time;) No this week we had BBQ squid! I will tell you what that was amazing! They call Roxas the seafood capital of the Philippines so ya I love it here!

I will be honest this week was a little bit different I only worked in my area 1 day:/ Lots of splits with other missionaries in their area! If there is a Baptism interview for us one of us will go to their area to interview them. So this week was one of those weeks! It was really cool to go see other areas in the zone. Who would have guess I would have found a Hoyt bow in the Philippines!!! So sweet! 

Well yesterday we went to Roderik's house to pick him up for church because we are really focusing on him! But he refused to go! just kept saying "next week na lang" We were kinda persistent but nothing happened! So we left and went to church by ourselves! While we were singing the opening song guess who walked into church for the first time! O ya he surprised us and said after we left he just had the biggest feeling that he needed to go! And it was a great meeting because it was fast and testimony meeting! Its always amazing to listen to the strong testimonies of these members here in the Philippines! Because I will be honest its hard to be a member here you really need a strong testimony in the gospel nothing like back home! I am amazed at the members here! They are great!!!

Big shot out to Lexi for her baptism on Saturday! She is the last one. Here pictures were so cute she is really growing!!! Ahhh I love you Lexi!!! And Ben what in the world are you doing growing? You look so tall! I will be honest I don't think I have made much progress on my 6 foot goal. But hey its alright.

I read this quote this week that I really liked! its something like "Always face the sunshine and the shadows will always fall behind you" I just think that's great. We need to always look for the positives and have a good attitude and all the dark shadows or bad things that happen to us doesn't really matter and they will just fall behind us!

So ya we are still rockin' it here. Trying our best to make the most of our time here! I love you all so much and hope all is going well at home! Take care!!!!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne:)