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:)

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.

January 26th

Another blazing fast week! They are getting faster!!!!! Well same as always I am in another hurry! So ignore the mistakes.  I am just going to go! We got Harvey Baptized. YAY! He is the first person that I was able to find teach and see baptized! So special. The baptism was great a actually spiritual. Sometimes they get rushed and its kinda loud with a lot of kids running around but this one was great!!! We were able to teach so many lessons this week. We did not get punted very much at all! We are focusing in one area that is on fire right now and we really don't have to walk very much in a day! because are all appointments are so close are we are sitting down teaching all day if you can believe that! The reason we have so many sweet investigators is because of the members. They are really excited to help us and it is super effective!

So for my exotic food for the week! I ate a head of a chicken. Its actually pretty common here. There are people everywhere on the streets with a grill. Where they grill intestines, fat, heats, liver, and good old American hot dogs:) So pretty cool!

So sadly this might be my last week in this area and with Elder Cruz. It has been great to be with him! I have been lucky with my companions!!! I got to see all of them in Roxas on Thursday and all of us are best friends its great!

I don't know what is going to happen this week but I am excited. Sad to leave this place that has won my heart but excited for the challenge ahead. It sounds like you guys have had a great week with Snow Basin and good old ice fishing at Devils Creek. You guys sure do a lot in a week!!! I love the pictures!!! Well guys take care sorry it sounds like I am in a hurry but I am!!! I love you guys! Bye~

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

January 19th 2015

Wow another sweet week here in the Philippines. I looks like everyone is trying to make me jealous about them being in the cabin but it wont work!!!!! Ha cuz I am in the Philippines!!!! Today I totally went fishing in the ocean using shrimp as bait! I was only there for five min. and I caught one right out of the ocean! Earlier today we had a zone activity at a nice beach and I cooked all of the food! Filipino style!!! It actually turned out pretty good!!! I am excited to show you!!! 

So this was the week of the Atiatihan (big week long celebration and parade) which means a lot of our investigators were not home. But that was OK we still were very busy! We had one of the best first lessons with an investigator since I have been here. They are all getting better but this one was especially good. We were tracting on the beach and we decided to talk to a dad who was with his kids picking up sea shells. We gave him a pamphlet and he wouldn't let us set an appointment but said he would text us when we can come over to his house. Which usually means can you please leave. Hey but this time guess what the guy actually texted us! He wanted us to come to his house at 8 in the morning. And when we came he was all prepared and said he wanted to give us his religious background and it was perfect. He talked about how he has gone to so many churches and he said there has to be more! So when we talked about the Book of Mormom he was really excited and I showed him my Quad with all of the scriptures in one and he wanted to buy it off of me because he thought it was so cool! It was awesome I have been praying so hard for the Lord or prepared some people while we are tracting and this guy named Teady Revera seemed very prepared!

We got to go to the Atiatihan but we OYMed the whole time. So I didn't sit and watch it. It was huge! Tons and tons of people and really it was a giant parade for a week straight!!! Our area was like a ghost town on Sunday because seriously everyone goes. But we were able to get Harvey who will be baptized on Sunday to stay for church so he can get baptized on Saturday. And he did which was a good way to show his faith! So I was very happy to see him come even though our attendance was super low because of the parade!

Well family we are doing it! We are having success and its great! This might be my last week in this area and then its going to be all different again! so I am excited for that challenge. Sounds like you guys had fun at the cabin! Thanks for the pictures they are sweet.Well I need to run the Perlas family is cooking us dinner!!! I love you guys so so so much and I seriously am just loving the Pines!!! Take care

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

January 12th

Wow another fast fast week. I feel like I just emailed you a few days ago what is going on? Time goes by fast. Everyday is so fast as soon as I get home from work I still go to sleep right after we plan for the next day! It takes all my energy to focus on what people are saying and then focus harder on how to say something back! But its so cool and I love it! It is really cool to see the simulates of languages.

Well enough of that the language is going good. But still have a lot to learn. This week as you heard in my voice recordings (if you got my voice recordings). We had miracles happen this week. Well we have miracles every week but this week was special. I really learned the power of family prayer. I remember at home every night before we would go to bed we would study the scriptures and have a family prayer. Most of the time we would complain because we had  homework or were busy but eventually mom convinced us to get together for just a few min. How thankful I am that she put up with our complaining and stood strong in her decision to have a family prayer every night. Man that must have been hard. Sometimes I am sure she felt like she was the only one who wanted to. Thank you mom for having that as a goal and making sure we did that. It left an impression on my life. The Perlas family there are 5 kids and the mom got baptized when she was 14 and hasn't been to church in 25 years. But she wants to go back and she wants her kids to come with her. The only problem has been the dad and the rest of his family. So we talked about family prayer and how my mom would always gather us together every night and how special it was and how much I missed it. They loved the idea and they tried it and their dad saw them pray and his heart changed and now he is ready to learn! How cool is that??? THERE IS POWER IN FAMILY PRAYER!!! If you are not doing that in your families right now I encourage you to try it!!! Thanks mom you ROCK!!!!

We have worked hard and tracted some sweet investigator families who keep us busy everyday. The one problem now is they are so far away from any members and really don't even know any members of the church. So this week we arranged appointments for some solid members to come with us after work!!! So we are way excited about that. This is such a great area and is really picking up super fast. Its been dead for a while but now the members are excited about strengthening their ward!!! Its so sweet I wish I could explain it but. I just love this. We have seen the change that the Book of Mormon can bring in people lives. The reason we have some really sweet investigators is because we have really stressed the importance of the Book of Mormon like we really focus on it! I remember my dad saying"the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion so make it the keystone of your mission" We have done just that and it helps!!!

Well family and friends I just love this! What more can I say this is just so cool! I love being a missionary and I love the gospel!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

January 5, 2015

Wow it is 2015!!! I am so excited to this whole  year that I can dedicate to our Savior! I am going to make it great!!! We all know the importance of making goals. So that we never stop improving! Always having something to work at and stretch. That is how we become something great! Probably the same as everyone else. I refuse to get fat even though the food is so amazing. So I have decided I am going to eat a lot. I am not going to waste this opportunity to eat Filipino food. I just have to wake up early and exercise. We will see how that goes. But I have written down a lot of goals in order to improve my "Christlike Attributes" So that I can be a better teacher and the Spirit can lead me during my mission! 

Well this New Years was great we had an activity with a bunch of members. Where they prepared a lot of games for us. One of them we had to use our mouths to dig for coins in a bowl full of flour. So that explains the picture. It was a lot of fun. Of course we got fed great food! After that I was completely exhausted and went to sleep. So there was not a countdown for me!!! Usually they say that this place goes crazy with fireworks but this time it was kind of stormy so there was none.

So the next day Jan 1 was our Barangays fiesta!! Every little neighborhood has a day set apart where they just throw a huge party with loud music and everyone just goes out and dances!!!! Then pretty much every family cooks giant meals and they invite everyone to come eat! So us as missionaries of course got invited to about everyone houses! HA! They really enjoy feeding people here more than back home! I don't know why but they enjoy it and you can't really say no to them!!! No matter how much you try! So that was a good day:)

 We really wanted to find whole families to teach this week and set it as our goal! And guess what? We found a great family to teach. And we are way excited for them!! Well I wish I could explain more about that but we just got a text from Bishop and he wants me to go to the sementario to go dedicate a grave! Wow how great it is to be a missionary in the Philippines?!!! I love it! I love you all so much! I have got to run!

Love,

Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne

In a letter he wrote to us yesterday he explained a little bit about the family he found.  Here is what he had to say.

"We found and invited a whole family of 6 to get baptized this week and they accepted and went to church!!! The Fernando Family. A 16 year old daughter came to the Christmas Party and invited us over to her family! And they are all so great!!! They gave us all sorts of fruits from their trees when we came! It was just a great lesson!!!"