Hill Cumorah Pageant and a Son

Hey Yous! So this week has been really good but not as good for appointments and things going very smoothly haha! You just never know what your week is going to be like here. But we have been getting some meal appointments this week! Transfer calls were this morning and we are all staying except for Elder Durfee (he is going down to Wellsville with Elder Fields) I reserved an appointment at the buffalo library in the rare books section today. They have an original Book of Mormon that you can touch and read from under a specialists supervision! How cool is that?

I will send pictures later. Tomorrow are transfers and my SIX MONTHS! Time to burn a tie!:)

Monday we played V-ball and basketball at the Raintree island apartments (Kenmore's apartment) we were going to meet with B that night but it fell through so I was pretty bummed about that! But hopefully we get to meet him this week:) Tuesday we did a last minute exchange, because no other day of the week was going to work and I wanted to make sure I exchanged with everyone in the district! So that night Elder Neil came to our area and Elder Durfee went to Buffalo Spanish. We didn't have time to grab Elder Neil's stuff so he came to our apartment and slept on Elder Durfee's bare mattress using a shirts as a blanket haha it was so sad! I wish I would have taken a picture haha. All our appointments fell through, and I felt bad because every other exchange I have worked all day! Just so they can feel what our area is like :) haha. But we were able to see L , and follow up on her reading of the Book of Mormon! It then rained the rest of the afternoon and we just barely caught the bus before it started really coming down! Wednesday was zone meeting and Elder Christenson(brown hair in Palmyra pictures) and Elder Haws (bright blonde in pictures) did a great job on their training. They wanted to lighten up the mood a little bit and have people get out of their comfort zone! They stole my idea for a training! We played improv games and applied them to various street contacting approaches in which we try to plant the Book of Mormon! :) It was so fun! I loved it. And it really got people thinking out of the box which was awesome! haha after zone meeting we all went to Chipotle in Amherst (that's the nice area in Buffalo haha) and everyone was looking at us like "what is this army of Mormons doing here?" Haha it was really great to be with everyone. I got sick sometime last weekend! Haha we just had this horrible cough, sore throat, congestion, and it wasn't very fun. haha I think Wednesday afternoon was when Elder Durfee finally got it! But he got it really bad (he was basically sick for the rest of the week poor Durf). We had a dinner appointment with the H family from our ward with all the other Elders! They have a very colorful house and a bunch of cute kids. After that we went to the E (a new couple from BYU-I that are working through his first job in construction management) apartment because we want to build relationships with the ward more. Their apt. was SO COOL! As Elder Durfee would say it was "very cool and hipster". Haha the Building was an old water plant that was turned into a bunch of apartments. They have this huge window and and its all rustic but new! It's sweet. But we had a great lesson with them! Long story short I told them that we didn't want any referrals but we wanted to see how we could help them in their missionary efforts. We ended up role playing with N (the wife) how she could invite one of her friends to Pageant! Will see how it goes:) While we were walking home I got a call from President Francis and I knew exactly what it was about. Haha he says "Elder Crowley can you take the phone off speaker?......The Lord has called you to train a new missionary, would you be willing to accept this important responsibility?!" I told him no. Just kidding haha of course I said YES, so I will be training a new missionary and I will find out which one at transfer meeting tomorrow! Exciting but also a little stressful:) After that we met up with Elder Christenson and Haws for our Zone leader exchange! Well it poured all day Thursday and Elder Durfee was sick as a dog, so he and Elder Haws stayed inside all day. Elder Christenson and I ended up just visiting a bunch of people that are hard to reach, since we had the car:) It was really nice to be in our area with a car. Unfortunately no one was home or anything but hey we tried our best!:) S called us right as we were about to exchange back that night and she wanted us to go give someone related to J a blessing In ICU. It was really cool to see that S would call us and have faith and trust that the Priesthood will heal those who are sick and afflicted. So the ZLs While we were giving the blessing Elder Haws hit the button (on the side) that lifts up the bed and the lady we were giving a blessing to just starts sitting up! It was kind of funny because we walked out of there and Elder Haws said "I can't believe I hit that button, how embarrassing! Haha" Friday morning we had the Train the Trainers meeting which I was LATE to! Because I thought It was Thursday again, and Elder Durfee was sick in bed. So Kenmore Elders ran us over to the Amherst building! It was a really good opportunity to learn from President and listen to some Mission President Seminar talks from the apostles, about trainers. I'm super excited! But I guess it's just kind of that parent feeling of like "what If I don't raise him right?" Haha it's funny because you are their Mission Dad right? So all week everyone has been saying that I am "with child" haha after the meeting I fixed President's I-phone so I didn't feel so bad that I showed up late. Plus he knows Elder Durfee is sick and so he understands :) After the meeting Elder Woerner went with me to go give a blessing to Miss S one of our investigators. We had a nice lesson with her before in which we talked about baptism, the priesthood, and read Mosiah 18. In the blessing the Spirit was so strong! Elder Woerner anointed and I sealed the blessing. It was amazing how the spirit was able to speak through me while we were giving the blessing. During the blessing she was promised that her family had already accepted the Gospel and that they were waiting for her to perform that work for them in temples. I was kind of hesitant to give that promise during the blessing but once it was confirmed to me that It was not my promise but that It was from the spirit, there was a power and undeniable peace that came over all of us. As we walked away I thought 1. Wow what a promise! And 2. We had done the Lord's will. :) We had Dinner with the C which was fun, and then after that played Volleyball with the 'New Age' (the other group of missionaries that live by the Kenmore Elders) missionaries. We invited them to Pageant, so I hope they can go! Saturday!:) Probably my favorite day, because we were able to go to Pageant!!!!

(we get to go once for ourselves, and two times with an investigator). We went with Buffalo YSAs (so our Zone Leaders) investigator named M he loves the missionaries and has been paying his tithing for months now! Super solid. We went and hurried around the sights, and went to Chill and Grill (the place with the HUGE ice cream cones) before Pageant started. When we were walking back to our car from the Book of Mormon publishing site this person drove up on the curb and honked really loud! He was trying to run Elder Haws and I over but what was amazing was we didn't EVEN flinch! In my head I was like "RUN ME OVER I DARE YOU" haha but once we got to the Hill it was definitely different being a missionary! As we were walking up the Antis were just railing on us but we just smiled and waved:) and I felt a little bad but as soon as we got to the top of the little hill that leads into the bowl where all the seats are, about 50 little kids wearing Nephites clothes (from the cast) came running to us screaming "MISSIONARIES!!!!" They were hugging us, jumping on us, and welcoming us from the Antis it was so awesome. It was such a difference of Christlike joy and love:) It just felt like we were famous! Haha I asked "who is going on a mission?!" and the kids were all saying "Me me me me!" What a joy it was to be able to be strong and bear the name of Jesus Christ on our chests and then to be amongst others who are trying to come closer to Christ as well:) Pageant was awesome and the spirit was SO strong! I can't wait to go this week with some of our investigators! We just have to find rides!

I love the Lord and I can't wait for new adventures with my new SON! "No in hallowed hand can stop the work from progressing." Love, Elder Crowley