Hello my lovely family!

1. My stomach has felt great up until just a few days ago! There is a bug going around and Elder Willis and I both got it and it has made our stomachs hurt and do weird things but we didn't throw up! It kind of peaked yesterday so we are hoping that today is the end of it! It could have been really bad though, we are doing much better than the rest of the Ward! And I gained about like 7 pounds but stopped this week so I don't know how much is really going to change haha 2. We have given many people priesthood blessings each week, but I gave my first "blessing" (besides anointing) to S L our investigator Monday night to help her stop smoking! It was really cool:) Well my week has been pretty interesting! Haha I think that when you are a missionary you feel every emotion at least once in a week, so by the time that the end of the week comes you are like "what just happened?" Haha But I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be a missionary!  I still remember talking to Dad and asking him why we couldn't just do church all the time? And he said " well when you are a missionary you will get to do that."  I was always excited for the chance to be a missionary and now I'm here living it! So cool:) So like I said last Monday we went to Niagara Falls and it was SO COLD It hurt! But it was really cool to see them mostly frozen! Later that night we had a fun doing a game night with the L, S parents ( who are also investigating the church, but they are being taught by the Lewiston elders) and the Lewiston/Niagara Falls Elders. On Tuesday we had an amazing I-pad training with Elder Evans, and Elder Allen who are both part of the seventy! We drove the two hours to Rochester, It was really cool to have the whole mission together all the senior couples, site directors, Elders, and Sisters.  I'm just going to type some of the things that I wrote in my journal that I felt...They talked about becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. Elder Evans talked about how his whole life he has had to learn how to become one throughout his whole life, and that it takes a full submission of your will the father's. I have always felt like I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, but what I realized is that we don't have to be perfect and we become more refined after time. The first part of the Doctrine or Gospel of Jesus Christ is not actually faith, Christ taught us that it is a personal commitment to the will of the father.(Christ first taught this in the temple when he said to Mary and Joseph ..) Becoming a disciple means not having a lingering thought about what you are going to do later, because you will always know you will do your heavenly fathers will. Things we do, and steps change throughout our lives but our discipleship does not.  Missions are a time that God has given us to truly come to know him, and truly come to know the Savior. The lord is trusting us in our time to learn how to live patterns of righteousness, and have the capacity not to be acted upon but to act. We can't wish to be in a different time. This our times to learn how to act and choose the Lord.              Elder Evans said that in the last meeting they had with another mission Elder Holland was asked "would you give your life for this gospel?" He replied "What do you think I'm doing?" I thought that was a good answer because it is so true! We don't have to seal our testimony with our own blood, but we can live our life for the Lord and is just the same. When we went to North Gate (the nursing home) all the residents were lined up as if they were a crowd so we entertained them for a while until the real entertainment got there! Suddenly this African American woman walks in with her huge fur coat, an iPhone 6, speakers, purple makeup, and has buzzed bleach blonde hair. She sang a bunch of really intense gospel music and it was really fun so Elder Willis and I were waving our arms in the back and she says "Come up HERE!" I immediately duck underneath my seat because I knew what was coming next! Haha Elder Willis signs me up to sing! The lady says "Don't make me come back there!" So I go up and bust a move with this lady and sing "Thank you Lord" and "Oh happy day" while Elder Willis is laughing his head off in the back! Cracks me up! As we walked out Elder Willis said "there is never a dull moment in that place." Later that day we had an awesome lesson with a minister of a church in Niagara Falls. There is a lot that I could talk about that experience but the one thing that he said that impressed me was while I was talking he said " Can I stop you guys for a second?" He said "I don't know why I feel impressed to say this but you guys are beaming with light right now. Every time you guys talk I can tell that you really care about the message you have to share." It was refreshing to hear someone who recognized us messengers of Christ. On Friday we had lunch with an friend of Elder Willis from the when he served in the Canandaigua Ward! His name is Brother T. He is an older man who works in the temple with a white head of hair, and was basically a "spy" for the U.S. During the Cold War so he is super cool. He drove two hours just to meet us so obviously Elder Willis had an effect on this man.  He talked to me a lot about how to become an agent for the CIA (which is something I have taken into consideration) I loved everything that he said and he had some really cool stories to share about his close encounters with soviet agents.  We went to the Original pancake house, yes they have one out here and my day was made! In the car afterwards we had a lesson and Elder Willis taught about Mormon and his job compiling the plates together. As he was talking Brother T was all teary eyed and said "you have become a true man" I was sitting in the back seat and I may or may not have teared up a little! haha Love, Elder Crowley Today we went to Buffalo, NY This is a picture from the top of town hall

Hey Guys!

HEY GUYS! So here is to another week as a missionary! I can't believe how fast weeks go by! Days feel really slow. I feel like I just wrote you guys and then another week comes and goes! I love those pictures from Paul it is so true in some areas! This has been quite a life changing week. Here are the answers to your questions mom. :) 1. Elder Willis is a legend in the mission one because he has been in many leadership positions and so everyone knows him. I've been asking him a lot about how to be a successful missionary and he said that you need to follow the spirit and treat people like real people. Be and effective missionary He said go tracking with a purpose like "we are going to give away three book of Mormons today" instead of saying "I'm going to go tracting because I want to prove to the lord that I am tracting" same thing goes for service or anything else that we do. He knows how to make missionary work fun. The scripture that he always quotes is "...men are that they might have joy." And he is the Shiz. Haha 2. I'm learning how to be more patient. And how to just really go with the flow even more. I've learned from the ATML book that not all life is deep and meaningful and we don't need to intensify it in order to enjoy it Ya know? Elder Willis says I'm developing the attribute of missionary life. Exchanges/blitzing (both elders split but stay in the same area) so I went to the Lewiston Elder’s area and we found a girl named A she just invited us right in and wanted to learn more about us she has studied a lot of different religions so she wanted to know more about us. We taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. We passed her on to the YSA elders, that same night Elder Fields and I had an appointment that fell through and so we were wondering what to do. We got down on our knees and prayed about what we should do, and where we should go. As we sat in silence we then both asked each other what we felt we should do. He felt prompted to bring the shovels and I felt prompted that we had to drive somewhere. Suddenly as we are driving I get this prompting that we need to go to a red house with 5 windows on the top and I'm like what? (but I didn't tell Elder Fields because I didn't want him to think I was crazy) so I proceed to direct him to this house that I have no idea where it is! Then all of the sudden we are stopped in front of this house that has five distinct windows at the top and is a deep red. It did not look like any other house anywhere. So we go and knock on the door twice and no one answers, so I wonder why we were brought there. We saw that all five of their cars were snowed in so we decided to shovel their drive way until we had frost bite! As we walked away we felt that we had done what the Lord wanted us to do even though we didn't talk to anyone. The Lewiston/Niagara falls Elders are going to go back next week. L family came to church and are working towards baptism but are trying to quit smoking and drinking. Volleyball has been a big success with getting some inactive youth fellowshipped with some friends in the Ward, and a feeling that they belong! Amy's flower shop was a bust for Valentine's Day because of the blizzard so we will see how we can continue to do service there and help her. The E continue to grow as a family and we are slowly seeing how the gospel is helping them progress together and towards the Savior. This Tuesday we have a mission wide iPad training with two general authorities but we don't know who! So we will see! :) We had a headquarters referral from mormon.org to go see someone named A. So we went two weeks ago and his parents answer the door and seemed surprised that A referred himself and said that he was at a camp but would be back in two weeks! So we went  back on Friday and this A answered and was so excited that we came! He said are you the people from the LDS CHURCH?! He pulled us up a chair and we seriously had the best lesson ever! We taught him the Restoration, basically taught the Plan of Salvation, read the Book of Mormon with him and let him keep it, answered tons of his questions, and he prayed right there in front of us to know if it was true! It was crazy he was so thirsty for knowledge and answers and he just lit up with everything we said it was awesome. He said that he used to be catholic but two years ago he became atheist because he didn't like how churches lied and God let bad things happen. But that his twin brother thought that he should try and find God again, so he researched a ton and referred himself. He got grounded two weeks ago when his parents found out he referred himself (his parents weren't there when we taught him) but he just kept saying thank you! Thank you! Thank you for coming over! As he left he said "this is awesome" and then patted his heart with the Book of Mormon, I was like is this even real?! (This is why we come on missions!)  We are praying that we can go back but he is super busy and his parents would need to soften up a little. I want them to see us as a way to come to Christ, and not as a threat. We love everyone, and especially those who want to come closer to Christ. We drove all the way out to a town called Ransomville with the Lewiston Elders to go help Sister C and her husband (she has been a member 4 years and he is not a member) move there stuff into a storage unit! Service and teaching are my favorite parts of missionary work! Because if we think about the Savior's life he spent most of his time serving, and teaching the people. It was also -25 windchill that day so needless to say it was a very COLD move. But we had wings for lunch so it was all worth it for food:) (by the way I think I'm gaining weight so the world might be ending..???) We had two days that we could not go out unless we had an appointment but we had appointments those days so we braved the Polar ice! And those days our windshield wiper broke. Haha Love, Elder Crowley