Week of February 8 - very short email

Short email from Elder Crye today:


Hello!

We both forgot our cameras at home. We'll get a selfie to you next week. :)

Week of Feb. 1, 2016 - Funny story

Hello!

The internet was out at our chapel last week, and the nearby library was really stubborn in what they accept as proof of North Bay residency. They required us to have a letter addressed to us that had been sent to our address, unlike literally every other public library I've been to in Ontario (like 7). All the others accepted our proof of residency form printed on LDS letterhead with our name, address, and contact info for the mission office if they had any questions. Not North Bay, though.

Some changes did indeed happen! Elder Meise is now home in British Columbia, and Elder Sommers is now my companion here in North Bay. It's mid-transfer though. Things might change in 3 weeks.

We drove over to Sudbury (~2hrs drive) Monday evening and stayed with the Elders there. Elder Meise took a bus down to Brampton early Tuesday morning, then after meeting with the mission president and going to the temple, he flew out to BC. I stayed with the Elders in Sudbury until Thursday when our Mission President came up for interviews. He brought my new companion up with him. Elder Sommers is from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Funny story: 

Last week Sunday, our Chevy Equinox started dripping water inside near the overhead lights up front. So, we had to take it in. It was covered under warranty. The dealership rented us a Buick that we got to drive around. Our fleet coordinator said that was fine, so we went for it. The dealership mentioned that the inspection and repairs might take a few days. Perfect. We were heading over to Sudbury anyway.

Picture this - We pull into the driveway at the Zone Leaders' house in Sudbury, and they look bewildered. At first, they probably wonder why a random Buick was parking in their driveway. Then we step out of the car. Pure confusion for like 5 seconds straight. They get over it and go inside. Once we bring our stuff in, they ask us about it.

Elder Moffat: "So, why are you in a Buick?"
Me: "Oh, you know, it was Elder Meise's last week. He had some extra cash left on his card. *straight face*"
Moffat: "Seriously?"
Meise: "Yeah. ... Just kidding."
Moffat: "So what's up?"
Meise: "We thought we'd save on K's (kilometers). A member offered us their car."

(They still look confused, but they drop it for the time being.)

... Later that night once we're in bed and it's too late for them to make any calls that aren't an emergency...

Meise: "Want us to tell you what really happened?"
Moffat and McKinnon: "Yeah, sure."
Meise: "We totaled the car. We haven't told President yet."
*silence*
McKinnon: "What happened?"
Meise: "We were turning and slid on some black ice, right into a pole."
Moffat: "Are you guys alright?"
Meise: "Yeah, all the damage was up front by the engine block. We're both fine."
Moffat: "How'd the car look?"
Meise: "Pretty bad. There's no way it wasn't totaled."
Moffat: "And you haven't told President?"
Me: "We'll probably tell him tomorrow sometime."

We told them what actually happened the next morning.

The last week was pretty interesting. Lots of really absurd things happened, both with missionary work and with just little everyday things:

• Lots of ward drama.
• An investigator that was ready for baptism in like 2 weeks dropped us due to his fiancee.
• Half the investigators we were teaching dropped us. (Lets face it though, that one's pretty normal)
• One of our investigators randomly died; he was only like 40 and he looked healthy the last time we saw him.
• Two of the people we were working with confessed their love for my companion, so we couldn't go back until after he left. 
• Making arrangements for Elder Meise's last week.
• The Chevy Equinox leaking as mentioned above
• Somehow, in the midst of all the chaos, we taught about 35 lessons (new record for us)

The most recent week was pretty good. I spent half the week in Sudbury, then half in North Bay with Elder Sommers. We've been having a great time and the Lord is continuing to bless this area.

We'll have to take a selfie to send home. :)

Love you all!

-Elder Crye

Week of January 25, 2016 - no email

No email from Elder Crye came in....

1/18/2016 Photo

Yeah, everything's going really well for me.  We're keeping ourselves super busy. 

A picture of our zone. 

[Elder Crye is third from right.]

1/11/2016 Transfers?

Hello!

So... transfers... 

We didn't get a call last night. We were pretty confused, considering we were expecting to drive Elder Meise down to Brampton. He's going home in like two weeks, but it seems we're both staying here for now. We got an email today with our travel plans that just said "No movement." I guess they'll send me up a new companion mid-transfer when Elder Meise goes home. Weird.

[Caralee Crye wrote] Last night was a wonderful World Wide Devotional for young adults (Institute age). I'm not sure if the missionaries are allowed to attend/watch. Basically, the take-away message I got from Elder Russell M. Nelson is that when we are asked to do "impossible" tasks, with a lot of prayer, wrestling of spirit, and effort, miracles happen.  He shared several experiences from his life about this. One of these was the mandate to open more European countries (this was before the Berlin Wall came down) to the mission work. There were several times when his efforts seem to fail, meetings (with European officials) didn't seem to succeed, among other things. With time, patience, and a lot of prayers to seek revelation and guidance from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the European countries, one by one, were able to be dedicated and opened for mission work.  

He also remembers when he and his wife and several others [it was a university setting] were asked by the prophet [then McKay I think] to learn Mandarin as the students will need to develop relationships and businesses with China and this, will in turn, will help with future missionary work.  Years later, as a surgeon, Brother Nelson was asked to go to China to help train some Chinese doctors with heart surgical procedures/methods. He was happy to use his basic Mandarin skill.  That wasn't all.  Some more years later after he was called as an apostle, China asked him to return to perform a surgery on a well known star Opera singer. He declined, since he is called as an apostle and no longer working as an apostle.  China kept asking him, again and again, to please come do the surgery. He then asked the quorum and the first presidency, and after prayer, was directed to go ahead to do as requested. he flew over there and was welcomed warmly as a fellow surgeon; thankfully, the Opera singer survived the surgery [it also was his last surgery he performed].  This act of service led to continuing friendly relationships between the Chinese people and the LDS Church.

Basically, what Elder Nelson was saying is that we may be asked to do things that may appear, or at present be, impossible to do, but with faith, prayer, and a willingness to do everything and all that we can, miracles will happen and the impossible will be accomplished.  This is similar to the quote I gave you some time ago and paraphrased, "Seek not only for missionary opportunities, also seek for the courage to do them."

Yeah, missionaries in our mission couldn't attend unless they were accompanying somebody that they were teaching. Nobody that we're teaching in that age range wanted to go. We downloaded the audio and plan to listen to it sometime in the next few days.

1/4/2016 third email

It's been pretty good! For New Years Eve, we went home early and did some weekly planning. We had plenty of leftover goodies from Christmas, so we pigged out on those. The last few days have been pretty normal. Nothing really crazy comes to mind. We're visiting lots of good families that genuinely want to develop their relationship with God.

This upcoming Sunday night we find out transfer news. Right now, I'm still with Elder Meise from Prince George, British Columbia. This is his last transfer - he'll be going home very soon. Missionary work's going really well right now! The Lord is definitely blessing us. The Vincent family (that we spent Christmas morning with) is more-or-less reactivated now, and they're getting ready to have their daughter, Shyann (she has the pants that say "Work Out" on them), baptized.

Lots of people are keeping their commitments to do things like read their scriptures, pray, and attend church. As such, you can see temptations and addictions slowly losing their grasp. It's amazing! Most of the families are doing really well.

Love you too!

-Elder Crye 

1/4/2016 some more pictures from Christmas

​Christmas breakfast with the Vincents

1/4/2016 Pictures of recent snow storm and some from Christmas Eve!

 The day [12/27/2015] the temperature dropped like 30 degrees overnight and we got like a foot of snow.​


Christmas Eve breakfast with the Ludlows

 Christmas Eve lunch with the Gunnells

Christmas Eve dinner with the Allans

12/28/2015 Weather changes

We had a nice, green Christmas here. 

Weather's been super weird. People kept telling us winter would come. We kept laughing at them. The weather kept getting warmer. (About a month and a half ago, it dropped down to about -10/-15 degrees Celsius, then it just kept rising.) On Christmas, it hit 14 degrees Celsius. Then, two days ago, the temperature finally dropped. Pretty drastically. We had a high of like -10 and a low of about -18. Last night, we got dumped on with like a foot and a half of snow.

Love you too!

-Elder Crye

12/21/2015 Week of Christmas coming up

Hey, there! I'm doing well!

Christmas is coming soon!

Got a letter from the Mission President this week:

Dear missionaries,

As you know, the MTC is keeping missionaries another week so our transfer dates as of April are pushed back a week. Timing of arrival home is generally the Wednesday of the week after your original release date. You can let your parents know that. Exact information about arrival times, etc., will be made when flights arrangements are made.

We love you and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Pres Clayton

He sent us another letter, maybe a week ago, explaining that release dates April and beyond are being pushed back a week to line up with the transfer cycle. He said to contact him with any questions - he has jurisdiction to adjust release dates within about 4 weeks.

From what I remember, my release date was like a week and a half before school starts up again. I'm not quite sure though. We have plenty of time to make arrangements, but my new release date may require a bit of altering. Could you find out what day the 2016 BYU Fall Semester starts for me?

--

This week's been good. I'll see you guys on Friday, so we'll catch up some more then. :) As a heads up, we're limited to 40 minutes.

Love you all, and Merry Christmas!

-Elder Crye