Happy Easter

First of all thank you for the Easter package! It really brightened our day and I was like "God is good!" Haha I loved all the notes and treats they made us smile and laugh out loud!:) (nothing melted and ) Whenever I read all your emails I always laugh out loud and smile, it is great to hear about some of the details about what is going on with you guys! Ethan always says the same thing haha "I hope your having a great time out there" lol but Ethan Nice job making Varsity! YAY! Now you can really show off those skills:) How come I haven't heard from Bethany or Lissa much lately? But I always love their short notes on packages:) I'm glad that you guys are still kicking and even though things can be busy and it seems like you can't do one more thing, you are all striving to work hard and do what the Lord wants us to do! I think that if we read the scriptures everyday despite how busy we are we will be able to accomplish everything that we need too! The scriptures give us power to overcome, peace to enjoy, and knowledge that gives us perspective! Our spirits need nourishment just as much as our bodies do! So here we go! Monday we had one of the better P-days that I have had in a while we headed up to Youngstown and spent the most of the day up there. We played soccer with some youth in our ward, but mainly roll down hills and froze our buns off! There were lots of brick houses that held troops during the war of 1812, so cool! We walked down to the bank of Lake Ontario and it was so big it looks like an ocean, it was also cool because you could see the huge skyline of Toronto Canada all the way on the other side of the lake! Very windy but awesome. Tuesday was a little less than enjoyable but I don't think that we will have many days like that! haha we went to Northgate as we usually do on Tuesdays and met a lot of people that have a firm belief in the Savior. We went Street contacting and nothing but bad things happen, people were rude, they thought we are crazy, and most people thought that we were Jehovah's Witnesses and that makes them very angry. We ran into this Lutheran Church and asked if they had any service opportunities or jobs they needed to get done, and the people working at the church were very nice but the pastor was not. The pastor took us into his office and try to bash with us and totally destroy any value of our calling as missionaries! When all we asked was to help him! The spirit was absolutely gone and I was so disheartened by the experience. And to think I was about to climb 50 feet in the air to change a light bulb in his steeple! I want him to ask me to do it just to show him I can! Haha And that wasn't the only sarcastic human being we dealt with. We met quite a few people who worship Peter Cottontail instead of Christ on Easter. Haha and all the less actives we met said they were too tired to watch conference this weekend. But I think we did with the Lord wanted us to do and he was pleased for our efforts! Wednesday was April fools and we didn't do any crazy pranks! But Elder Fields got me so good by telling me president was emergency transferring me to Wellsville! Haha I really learned a lot in my studies that day, I love studying and learning more! I learned a lot about keeping our fishing lines in for as many hours of the day as possible in Preach my Gospel. I also learned about Jesus his early life in "Jesus the Christ" I love that book, it is seriously one of my absolute favorites! I learned that Jesus had to learn his purpose and still had to grow as a child just as any other man. The only one who knew his true purpose was Mary and even she was reminded time and time again of the magnitude and glory of the Savior's calling. Elder Fields gave a great training on not being lazy and letting go, or getting rid of distractions. We played V-ball...we went to Duffs as a district then Elder Rushton had a nice discussion about being an effective leader. (We always talk on the way home from the church building) Thursday I was so glad that we went to Northgate because we were considering not going but we did and guess who we saw? The performing African-American lady with the bleach blonde hair! Oh my gosh after we finally mustered the courage to go sit in the audience, we were of course called up to perform. Elder Rushton went up and sang 'Oh happy day' with her and was so embarrassed it was hilarious! We had so much fun helping her entertain the crowd and getting them moving and dancing! I saw A(the polish lady who we all have a crush on) in the third row and I went up to her in the middle of a song and started dancing. Her face lit up she was so happy to see us! In the middle of the happy song she said HAPPY EASTER!" I literally had President Monson's words from the last conference running through my head "let us not forget the elderly" the whole time we were there. We had dinner with the F and M that night!(more authentic phillipino food, and jackfruit!) They invited their apartment neighbor across the hall to listen to the thought. His name is R and his wife and him are from China! He understood our lesson on charity and the Easter Video #BecauseHeLives. I was able to speak a little Chinese with him and he said I didn't have an accent at all and he was very impressed with how much I knew so that was a plus! Hopefully we can teach him sometime! On the way home 'Grandpa voice' came and M always gets a kick out of that. (He's trying to convince me to be an actor lol) We talked to M in the rain the on the back porch about temples:) (his endowment is on Saturday the 11th) I always start writing my journals at night thinking it was a pretty rough day, but then my eyes are opened and I can see how the Lord's hand was there that day even if it wasn't there all day. I guess if the Lord had his hand in our day all day he would be controlling us and we wouldn't grow! I am always reminded to be humble and charitable several times in a day! haha we took forever to watch the "Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration" movie with S and J. We had dinner at the H that night and what a cute old couple they are! Brother H. And I love talking about music and the physics of sound. Since he knows a lot about organ pipe work and piano work and I know the voice pretty well we talked about how if the higher note and the middle note are perfectly in tune they will naturally bring out the low note in a chord, both in strings, pipes, and vocals! The sound of music is so cool! When I hear music I hear God speaking to my spirit. I feel grateful to be alive when I hear or produce music. It rained again tonight and Elder Rushton and I sat in the car and talked about life and how to deal with people. Peter Cotton tail also left a present on the door step! (Thanks again ;)) I have been shrieking with excitement all week for General Conference!(seriously though) I always receive a ton of Revelation and peace during General Conference! We switched watching sessions between the church and the L house with some technical difficulties here and there! We had Easter dinner with some of the L extended family and so it was a great missionary opportunity! I loved Conference SOOO MUCH! I swear every time I watch conference I say "this is the best conference ever lol" and Kim B. Clark being called into the First Quorum of the Seventy ! I saw many people I have recently heard from in the last couple of months speak, sing, or names be announced in conference so I felt a special connection to Colorado, Utah, BYU-I, the NYRM, and the world all at the same time! But isn't that what the gospel is? It binds all of God's children into one eternal realm and work here upon the earth! It made me excited for that momentous event when all of us will be gathered in the flesh and know that the work is done! Some quick memories from conference are 1. We will all have the same "well done thou good and faithful servant" no matter the office we held or the time spent in the vineyard 2. Being a disciple of Christ comes over time and President Monson isn't perfect either 3. There are still good people in the world and the Church is in good stance the adversary would have us believe we are not doing well or not progressing so we don't have hope 4.RM doesn't stand for retired Mormon 5. We mustn't live fake lives 6.This Generation needs to carry the baton higher than ever before 7. On Easter we celebrate the victory over all our falls 8. If your not hearing the music of the Gospel..keep practicing 9. the Lord loves us 10. Being a Dad is awesome 11. Be useful not deceitful 12. Fight for liberty 13. Press forward with faith in Christ 14. The elect are being gathered 15. Godly fear chases out worldly fear. (And a book full of notes ;)) It has been I pretty rough week in between these moments I have explained, (with no success finding people to teach) but for some reason it feels like it has been a week full of love, new understanding, and a greater desire to serve the Lord. So it is great to be alive and I challenge you guys to really study the conference talks not just set them aside and say "well that was a great spiritually uplifting conference now I'll wait until the next one!" Haha only paying attention to conference once every six months is like brushing our teeth once every six months. Nasty! Pick one talk and strive to live the principles taught in it that week! :) I love you guys! Elder Crowley Ps. Mormon.org/easter has been awesome this week with the timeline and everything!

Three Baptisms!

HI there!:) Well it's finally the end of one crazy week for us! It has been a week full of worry, excitement, planning and lots of calls. But through it all, it ended with an awesome baptism yesterday! I'll give more details later but the spirit was strong and It was truly memorable! We kind of put our whole heart and soul into this baptism and I feel like we are starting from ground zero in a way! I can't tell if I am sad or what but I have always loved President Uchtdorfs council "there are no true endings only everlasting beginnings" I think that is true and I can't wait to start new member lessons with the L, and go to the sacred grove with them and such! Monday we have a great P-day but we took a while to get our laundry and shopping done while trying to organize a fun thing to do with S and her daughters. S had to drive her friend to the doctor so we ended up bumming around with J in N.T. We tried to go to the Riviera Theatre but they weren't doing tours yet,(we might start doing service at the theatre!) then we tried to go to the museum but it was closed so she likes antique shops and I like antique shops… So guess what we did? Ha ha we had a great time bonding with her and getting her more comfortable with us as missionaries I think she will be more willing to listen to us now! And she came to the baptism yesterday so that was good! We deep cleaned our car because zone conference was the next day. We had dinner with the L that night and had more great discussions on the gospel, life, goals, debt, and our families. We talked about how great our moms are, and I truly believe that Eve is the best mom ever that ever lived and I love her so much! Tuesday we had zone conference and some of the things that the spirit taught me were that we must listen to the spiritual promptings that we receive and always be willing to act on them to gain the Lord's trust. I also learned that when we teach we must teach like God teaches Joseph Smith in the first vision! One of those teaching methods being..calling people by their name when we begin teaching. Ex. "Joseph, this is my beloved son." It's awesome what the spirit can teach us when we are prepared in meetings even when the speaker doesn't say it! President asks us what did you catch? Not what were you taught? Present Francis gave a great training on lots of different topics. He shared a story of James E. Talmage (the writer of Jesus the Christ) when he was in the temple in he upper room writing. He would often go to the upper room and open the window to let the breeze in and then close it when he left. Well one day a Honey bee flew in and as he was leaving he tried to direct it out so it wouldn't die but it ended up getting mad, stinging him and dying anyway. He related it to how we sometimes deal with those leaders,(or Heavenly Father) who are trying to help us live better and lead us to freedom, but we end up fighting and hurting ourselves because we didn't understand the bigger plan. I can't write everything I learned but I loved listening to all the senior couples (who are going home soon) share their testimonies! It was the best! And sister Ray ( A lady from the senior couples, the mission nurse, and Elder Neil L. Andersen's sister! So cool) said that she is working on being hip and cool, so she says "Elder Crowley that is a sick tie, that tie is just. so. sick!" LOL the senior couples are so cool, and young in spirit! I am going to miss them:) Wednesday we talked to a lot of the people on the street as the rain poured down! We met some crazies! We finished most of the L lessons and I could sense a true change come over the them and an excitement to become clean as they partake of the first fruit of repentance, which is baptism. Elder Rushton and I watched Joseph Smith the prophet of the Restoration that night and I busted out "THE CHURCH IS TRUE!" Seriously though I was on a spiritual high! Thursday we did our service at the Grand Island library, by helping them with their book fair. We got there and we soon found out that the only ones who could lift a box were Elder Rushton and I because the rest of the volunteers were old ladies! haha There were so many boxes it was almost hilarious. The Librarian was running around a little bit stressed. It was so funny because he said, "Now I have been working with missionaries since before you guys were born and now I understand that you guys can have pop now." And we said oh no we could always have soda haha, and he just kept on saying "No I have been around longer and I know they didn't accept pop before." It's awesome to see how the Gospel blesses families in action. Living the Gospel principles is the difference between successful and happy families and unsuccessful and unhappy families. And Success is not defined as "making it big" in life as the world would say! Friday/Saturday we did exchanges and Elder Fields came down to N.T. In the morning we whipped together a quick musical number for the baptism "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd". Elder Fields has a great baritone voice we sang it acapella and It was really cool how we could just read the music and Heavenly Father helped us use our talents to put it together and then perform it the next day! We got a lot done and helped with the take down portion of the Library book fair as well. I loved talking with all the volunteers and seeing all these old books. Haha Later we had the L interviews and obviously they all passed! haha J said she was wondering when she was going to get her answer that the Book of Mormon was true, so she prayed and said that if God wants me to know that the BOM is true then he will deflate one of my balloons and sure enough her favorite one deflated that night. It's funny how Heavenly Father teaches us each in a way that we understand and at our own level:) Sunday was a crazy day! We didn't have any morning meetings but there was lots of stuff to do as far as making sure everything we had planned came together! Testimony meeting was awesome and so were the other meetings! Our ward mission leader was sick so he just had to describe to us how to fill up the font over the phone so that the hot water wouldn't run out! It was quite the lengthy process, but let's just say S face was priceless when she walked in it was so cold! haha We had a bunch people coming up to us and asking us questions, and Elder Rushton and I were getting a little overwhelmed but I said we are going to have the spirit at this baptism and everything will work out:) and it did! But we did have a lot to do we were clothing crew, set up crew, program crew, music crew, ordinance crew, font crew, and clean up crew! It was so funny the L were waiting at the font while everyone was in the chapel waiting for them and we waited for like 15 minutes until we went and found them and they were like "we were waiting for you!" Haha once the Program started everything went pretty smoothly, the spirit was so strong and and we had both nonmembers and members involved in the program! S. O. (J sister who is a member in the freedom branch) gave the best talk on the Holy Ghost! And his mom gave a great testimony:) all the auxiliaries were so welcoming and they helped with refreshments which was such a blessing! Helping one family come into the gospel makes me want to continue to find more people who need the gospel in their lives! I am grateful that I have been able to be a part of their conversion and I know that years of prayers were answered yesterday! S (J sister) kept wondering how it even happened and said that it was truly inspired that we were supposed to be here to teach them at this time:) I love the Lord and know that although I am not perfect I can become what I need to be by fulfilling his will and not mine. "Green ambition my whole mission!" -President Francis "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. It is an effort of once and for all." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf Love, Elder Crowley

The Highs and Lows

Hey GUYS! 1. I am doing pretty good I am anxious to find more people to teach! we have a couple of people that are potential investigators that I believe could become regular investigators! And yes dad we are going a visiting all the less actives in the ward but it is such a long process to get a hold of people and then to finally meet with them! I feel like by the time you have met with everyone in the ward it would be a year! We figured out that if everyone came to church in the ward then our ward would split! Haha I texted a guy to invite him to church and all he sent back was "too boring" lol 2. We did go visit C when I was with Elder Willis! He basically opened the door and almost shut it on us, he was the grumpiest old man! Until I finally said I know your Grandsons! (I think he thought we were secret service or something) Haha he lightened up a little but he was on the phone, and just kind of waved us away. It was basically a bust when we asked him if he needed any help! Haha oh well it was great! Wow what a week it has been! I can't believe how much has happened! Lots of different highs and lows this week. It has been a great growing week for us as missionaries, the community, and our investigators as it always is. I love the way that the lord works with us and through us as we keep the spirit with us! Monday was great because it was your anniversary Mom & Dad and I thought a lot about all you guys that day!:) We had a pretty boring P-day because we did hardly anything except play munchkin with Elder Fields, and we were preparing for our stop smoking lesson! But we ran into this lady at the laundry mat who was interested in the church and what we do as missionaries! I thought that was interesting because I believe the Lord places people in our path when it is least convenient just when we could say "oh we are on our way out and it's my P-day so sorry can't talk." The Lord wants to see where your heart truly is. Monday was also great because we were able to successfully deliver the stop smoking lesson! The spirit was so strong and we had a great support group, M, the F(newly wed couple), F and K, the Lewiston Elders, and their kids. They committed to all of the 15 steps and we're super excited, and nervous to make this big change. It rained that night and the spirit is always strong when it rains! :) Tuesday we got Chet done! As Elder Willis would say! (Chet was one of his companions dad's name, he thought it was hilarious haha you can replace it for any word in the dictionary ex. I'm hungry for some Chet) it was St. Patrick's Day but it didn't even really feel like St. Patrick's Day because we were so busy you know doing missionary work! We met with J (the minister from before) about some ideas for his congregation and our ward doing a combined service project. He loves to talk about the Lords work and we wanted to be that bridge for bishop. We went finding in Grand Island, and had dinner with M, Internet proselyted, made calls and bonded with the E kids. S texted us in the morning saying it was set in stone, J her and J would all be getting baptized on the 29th. I was so happy I cried a little! I am going to baptize both J and S and J brother in law will baptize him! YAY so EXCITING! We still have to get a lot done before then but we are pretty sure it's all going to work out! ANYWAY! Wednesday was spicy! We had dinner with the F and C made some amazing Filipino food (because she's from there) except both M and I ate the habanero peppers and we didn't know you were supposed to, oh my gosh we almost died we were sweating and our eyes were watering! Haha I think my throat swelled up too. But we had jackfruit and fresh mangoes Mmmmm so good! Then we ran to our lesson with S, J, and J. On Thursday We cleared our old iPads, and M helped us put our pictures onto a flash drive! We helped J with his car by painfully screwing the fan that cools off the radiator back on. Then we had a great lesson with S and J over lunch about the plan of salvation! I think that lesson went much better, and the spirit was felt. Then we rushed to meet the other Elders and the M (the technology senior couple) for our new iPad set up! We we got our new iPads with a really nice protective case to go with it! What a blessing it is and I am grateful that the Lord can trust us to further his kingdom with technology and righteousness. I love the Lord and I hope that he can use me as an effective tool in the vineyard and not as the dung that fertilizes the soil hahaha! In our new training I've learned a lot about how to be in tune with spiritual promptings regarding technology, how to be focused on the mission and purpose, and how to be one with my companion while using technology instead of working separately. Just like instruments given to the Lord's servants in times of old iPads are and other devices did not come forth the benefit business, but the Lords work! A texted us! The young man who we met before and had an amazing lesson with. He finally got a phone and started asking me tons of questions about the degrees of glory, and then later he called me about John 10:16 and I compared it to 3Nephi 15:21 (other sheep I have which are not of this fold) it was amazing how the spirit helped me recall that scripture while I was on the phone with him!... We had an awesome lesson with the F family, they live in a house that was built in 1890 right on the canal but it is all decorated new and hipster like inside I love it! We taught them how they can share the love of the gospel with their friends! Saturday is a special day it's the day we do lots of service! (Isn't that how the song goes? Haha) We helped this less active move on Grand Island that day. We also did service at the library which we will continue next week! So Sunday was filled with great things! As you know already I've kind of talked about how the day went with the L but there were lots of moments of bearing testimony and really supportive relief society moments that were experienced yesterday! K in gospel principles started laughing about this typo in the manuscript that said "do do" and she was laughing so hard that S started laughing then everyone in the room started laughing then Elder Rushton was laughing and I was crying because K was laughing so hard! Anyway that was the gist of our missionary week! I can't wait to see what is in store for us next! Today for P-day we are going to visit the Riviera theatre here in N.T it is from the 1800s and is supposedly haunted! Love, Elder Crowley

:)

Well another week has gone by Crowleys! Happy ANNIVERSARY Mom& Dad! I'm so proud of you guys! What you have done to shape our family, and direct us all in such a positive and successful direction! You guys are celestial to me already and I hope that you guys will always remember Christ in your relationship because it is through him that things are made right and we can all grow, and love together :) I love you guys Elder Rushton is great! We have met lots of people in the Ward and he is already starting to pick up on the area of N.T./Grand island! We had a barfing episode on Saturday which I will explain later but other than that we are great! And working smart ;) (that's for you dad) Elder Mckade Rushton is from SLC (but really from coalville) and has been out for eight months! Our birthdays are 5 days apart:) He teaches differently than I do, so we are loving to learn how to teach together it's really interesting! (in a good way though) So its been a great transition week with Elder Rushton! The last P-day I had with Elder Willis was very typical and I just tried to use it as a last day to suck up all the memories from our transfer together! We finished packing him and he could not focus while packing, I think he was just in denial about what was happening! The next morning was transfer meeting and it started out with an eternal wave goodbye as my trainer, and first companion drove down Klaum Ave to go home having served an honorable full time mission. He made it two years! As he drove away I felt like I was starting my mission all over again. I have mixed feelings about him leaving, I felt like I had just been left in the dust, but I also feel like you can make every companion your favorite companion in some way! After they left Elder Rushton and I went back to his apartment in Kenmore which was only two miles away and moved his stuff over. We then cleaned his old apartment and went grocery shopping. We met some of the Ward members, I gave him the low down on the crazies, talked about our goals, we went to Northgate and he loved the old people! (He calls old people cute too haha I thought that was funny) and finally we ended the night in some intense V-ball. While playing V-ball we (the leaders, us, and people not in the tournament) were so determined to win we kept changing "win without Willis! win without Willis!" Haha we one both games:) It got intense haha On Wednesday My morning studies consisted of learning more about the three Nephites I thought it was interesting to learn that if we ask for a righteous desire God will grant it unto us. I have been praying for God to send messengers to give me strength and direction during the day, and I never seem to notice them but at the end of everyday I pray to my Heavenly Father and he reminds me of the people that he sent that day. I love prayer and the fact that we can speak with our Heavenly Father! I also love what prophets have told us before "we must learn to talk with God" We will never know how God works, or talks with us if we are never willing to talk or work with him. It was a pretty typical day and ended with us having dinner at the E. We had our lesson on gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and everyone was giving major attitude. Reading Jesus the Christ helped me feel morecalm and understanding of their position. Thursday was super warm and so was Friday! (Like 48 degrees haha I'm going to die when summer comes) my studies today were based in 1 Nephi 10 and finding evidence in the Book of Mormon of prophets prophesying Christ's life, and works. Specifically John the Baptist! We helped brother G move some of his stuff into a storage unit. He is so funny he talks really slow, has this crazy white beard, a high pitched laugh, and he is super short. First thing he says to us when we get there is "I though you were going to bring your grungies" haha while we were eating lunch with him he counseled us about our retirements. He said when we are planning for retirement that we should put 10% away because that is the most successful route (he read a book on it haha) I got a migraine and took some medicine, why do our bodies have to be such a pain sometimes? But we taught S that day! She read and prayed everyday, and I can truly see a change coming over her! We have our Stop smoking lesson with her J, the family, and some people in the Ward tonight! We are praying that we will be able to teach it well and that the spirit will help them overcome this problem:) We put a sticky note on our 'miracle wall' that day saying " today brother G gave us a ton of toilet paper!" Haha Friday we had lots of planning to do! At lunch Elder Rushton set a lighter that he was playing with on top of the stove and it blew up! As I'm talking to Elder Fields on the the phone I see our cabinet catching on fire! So I run and starting beating at the flames with my hand (they weren't that big yet) it was seriously hilarious, probably looked like a frantic housewife as Elder Rushton came booking it out of the bathroom! We got it out and everything was fine! We went to visit Northgate and the Activity leaders weren't there so we just walked around and talked to some of the residents! We talked with an older man named P who is a tough OL' man who served in WWII and had many different jobs in his life including putting light bulbs in for the old marquis! He told many WWII stories, his advice was hard to understand because he is 95 but long story short he didn't like to pray and said he wouldn't but I know that he will have a chance to be taught about Christ and the plan soon:) Our Grand island day was a bust because Elder Ruston and I got the stomach flu and were awake all night. We spent all day inside! I felt the aches, but I didn't have a fever. The Lewiston Elders came and gave us a blessing and I told Heavenly Father I had enough faith that he would help me not to throw up and guess what? I didn't! Doesn't mean I felt better right away but I did not throw up! Sunday M (the convert who lives upstairs) got the priesthood, and his temple recommend, the L came to church, and we had a missionary moment in primary:) during sacrament S leaned over to me and said "I want you to baptize me and my daughter on the 29th" half of me was so excited, and half of me was super nervous. Brother S (served in the temple presidency, taught Latin to high schoolers, and is super friendly) taught an amazing Latin lesson in Elders about the word Redeemer! Re(retro)=bring back/restore, dee=buy. It was very cool:) Love you guys so much! Elder Crowley

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

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