Some of you may have heard in my voice recordings but I had a very interesting week! Well first of all I went to America!!! I stepped on official American territory! There is a very big Navy ship here going around to different places and helping them buildings schools, hospitals, and getting fresh water. The Chaplain of that ship is a member and invited our Mission President to take a tour! And since my Mission President is awesome he also invited some of us to come as well! So on Tuesday after District Meeting we went to the Port and took a boat to the big Navy ship! I wont talk a lot about it but it was just very weird being around so many Americans and really big ones! We also got to eat there and ate good old Shepard's pie with unlimited milk!!!
The spiritual part was when he took us into their small room where they have church and he talked about how even though he is LDS he is in charge of all the other churches as well. His job is to help everyone on the ship worship how they want. But at the same time he is literally set apart as a missionary! I like what he said about respecting other peoples beliefs and at the same time just sharing the "light" that you have. He talked about how he goes around the world on that Navy ship and when he was in Guam he made eye contact with someone and just saw something different about him or saw that "light" that he had and thought that he might be a member of the church! And he turned out to actually be a returned missionary. You can really just see a light in faithful members on the church. That light comes from our obedience to the commandments! And I think is just something really special!
As missionaries we are really supposed to stay away from debating and tearing down other peoples beliefs that is what sets us apart from others. We are just inviting others to become closer to Jesus Christ and sharing the light that we have!
It was also a cool thing to attend sacrament in Sigma in the small building that they have and see just how strong those members are. They don't have the amazing buildings that we have but understand the real meaning of why we come to church to take the sacrament and renew our covenants! So amazing! From opening that area we have found so many people who were very active members but moved and now since there was no church by them stopped. And they are so excited that their prayers were answered and that they have a place to go to church even if its small for now!!!
So ya its been quite the week and very enjoyable! Thanks for all of your emails. All of you seem to be having quite the summer. I love you so much and want you to know that I just love my mission and love being a missionary!!!
Love love love,
Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne
