Elder Willis leaves

I'm so glad that you guys are finding some order in the home with Reading, projects; and your FHE schedule sounds awesome! Stake conference sounds like it was a really great experience and the spirit was felt! I think that it is so cool how most the general authorities have a firm witness that Christ lives, so they can say "I know that Christ lives" but if we remember that many of the eight witnesses fell away from the church even though they had proof that it was true. So our faith should be grounded in the gospel, and in faith manifested by our actions not by what we see. I believe that many times when the prophet or the apostles have an angelic minister come to them, or when Christ comes himself that it is no surprise and it doesn't change their faith at all :) It is warming up a little but we are starting to get yucky snow! But I'm not getting my hopes up yet I think we might have a few more snow storms! Also I love to hear about what you guys are doing, even if I don't get a chance to respond to it all so KEEP IT COMING! So we got transfer calls this morning and I am STAYING here in NT and my new follow up trainer will be Elder Rushton! He is super awesome, he was in our zone before so I know him. I am sad that Elder Willis is leaving :( he was great and it is hard to just up and change again. But he stays at the mission home tomorrow and then on Wednesday he will fly out of here! #Returnwithhonor This is CRAZY! both of us did not get much sleep last night because we could not stop thinking about the whole thing. By the way I gave Elder Willis your numbers and he is looking forward to calling you guys haha. So this week has been another great week as a Missionary! Nothing too crazy has happened but maybe it is all just so normal to me! haha It has been more of a transition week with Elder Willis leaving. Questions being answered, car reports, getting him packed, calling the mission office, saying goodbyes, etc. But I am wanting to find new people to teach so bad! Next week I want to start teaching the members how they can talk to their friends, by role playing everyday conversations that highlight truths in the gospel that we can share and testify of. Maybe that will help them get more comfortable and help us find more people to teach! I KNOW there are people ready! Monday night we went over to the E house and had a great discussion. I felt prompted to reteach the Restoration because the kids couldn't really remember it and didn't know why they got baptized. Their daughter had lots of great questions about where we get our authority and things like that. As we taught you could look into the father's eyes and know he felt the spirit testifying to him. He was like "kids they have the priesthood from Jesus Christ!" It was a good reminder of how important our call is and what our purpose is. L said that she felt chills run down her spine. We felt like we truly fulfilled the Lord's will that night! Tuesday we did our studies and mailed our 15 year old investigator that requested us on mormon.org a copy of the military Book of Mormon, and a finding faith in Christ dvd. I did some online New missionary training at the library, and then we had very early dinner before district meeting and V-ball. M who lives above us gave us more huge portions of potatoes ,meatloaf, and bread. Haha then we had a our district meeting with our zone leaders Elder Watcott and Elder Vickers. We learned about 'How to begin teaching' it was a good review. Elder Willis pointed out that I am good at 'How to begin teaching' because I can relate to people but get started teaching without saying "So.. How 'bout them Bills?" Haha it made me feel good that he recognized that. :) Wednesday it got above freezing and it rained a little! I was so Happy! I LOVE RAIN! That day in my studies and I learned more about Aaron and the story of Korahs and his rebellion. It was all a root of pride and an error of aspiring to offices in the priesthood. And then Moses states that he and Aaron were chosen to lead the people because they were willing to do gods will and not their's. We taught S that day and talked a lot about overcoming trials and hard things in life, our plan was to teach her the plan of salvation but right as I was talking I felt like we needed her to teach her about faith. So I turn to Alma 32 and we learned about reading from the word of God and then experimenting upon it, and faith being compared to a seed. S really loved the lesson and said it was just what she needed! J (her husband) later came and they agreed to read and pray every night together! Next week we are starting the 15 step program now that we have it all printed out and have reviewed how to teach it! Friday morning started earlier than expected! We heard a loud crash in our bathroom and Elder Willis thought that I was in there and I passed out, but I was laying in the room still with him! Haha anyway our bathroom tile fell off from the ceiling; by the end of the day it progressively got worse, we realized we had a huge leak and a big nasty moldy hole in our ceiling! Blah! M went and checked on it while we were out during the day. My email is getting long so I will just explain the important stuff.. Saturday we practiced for our duet that we were going to sing on Sunday "abide with me" brother H helped us practice ( he was the cute old man whose daughter died, and he has been and organ and pipe builder and tuner his whole life..its a dying skill!). Later that night S brought her daughter J to come play Volleyball with the youth, and actually gave a ride to the E kids even though she isn't a member! So Sunday L couldn't come because she felt uncomfortable without B and her kids got offended which was frustrating, and then the L had been in the hospital with S since 4am and then F and K didn't know how to get to the church without the L. But Elder Willis and I killed the duet in church! And Brother H was so awesome at the piano! I felt a big pain in my stomach yesterday throughout church and after so I took a nap and that helped. But Sister N she gave an awesome talk on the need to live the gospel listening to the spirit as we govern our lives, and not letting ourselves be governed with excuses like "oh it's just mormon standard time." or "I'm a teenager and that's just what we do so its ok." or "my dad cussed so I can" things like that. If we are governed by worldly phrases we will become worldly, whereas if let Gospel phrases and the spirit govern our lives we will become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become. (It was your kind of talk mom) So here we are on a beautiful day in western New York! Sorry my email was so long but there missions are too good not to share! :) LOVE YOU! Elder Crowley