10/5/2015 From Elder Gary Crye - General Conference Weekend miracle

I just want to share a brief experience that happened this week during General Conference.  Sunday morning, a member showed us an excerpt from her journal that went something like this:

Oct. 3rd

 

Conference miracle. Heavenly Father answers prayers.

 

This week we talked as a family about preparing questions for General Conference. J [her son] is having all these great spiritual experiences in Seminary, and now he has some great questions, but there's one that's really been bothering him: Why am I not happy?

 

[My husband] and I promised him that he would be able to get an answer from an Apostle if he paid attention to Conference.
It's normally a really big struggle to get the kids to pay attention to General Conference, so today [my husband] and I thought we'd do something a little bit different. We attended Conference at the chapel.

 

As we all filed in, most of the kids looked like they were about to fall asleep. We pulled out some candy to help them pay attention. J was awake, but not really alert. He was on his phone.

 

I said a silent prayer, asking Heavenly Father to help J pay attention to Conference.

 

At that moment, the awesome missionaries got up from across the room and sat next to J. They pulled out their notebooks, ready to learn. J followed their example and sat up straight. He got his notebook out.

 

The very first talk: President Uchtdorf, an Apostle of the Lord answering his exact question. 

Miracle!

Elder Anderson and I did something very simple, but it made a difference.

By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Love you too!

-Elder Crye 

9/21/2015 Some stuff...

Some stuff that happened this week:

We had family home evening with a family and taught about the 10 Commandments using hand signals - not sign language - that were often humorous. Alright, everyone! Guess what commandment number 9 is? *holds up eight fingers* (That's only eight fingers!) No, this is commandment number 9. We're holding up 9 fingers! *some small children start freaking out and try to tackle us* Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Our Tiwi Device, the little computer that monitors our driving and yells at us if we go too fast or "drive aggressively" (read: hit a pothole or have to slam on our brakes because the driver in front of us cut you off), wouldn't let us log in this week. We probably heard the phrase "no driver!" like a hundred times.

Gave something like 4 blessings.

Helped host an SPCA dog walk at our chapel in Orangeville.

9/7/2015 From Elder Gary Crye with photos

This week's been pretty good.

First off, transfer news. I'm staying in Orangeville for another six weeks.

Last Monday, we taught several of the natives, deep in the Canadian bush.

 t was pretty sweet. Bishop Morton arranged a birthday party for a member then invited all the young men to come and bring their friends.​ We ended up teaching the Restoration to a group of about 2/3 members of the church and 1/3 non-members. Two of them accepted copies of the Book of Mormon.

We got these two pretty sweet photos afterwards. The other is a glamour shot that we took before the lesson. That's Bishop on the right.

Tuesday, we helped a member move some massive cabinets into his mostly-finished house. That was an adventure.

The rest of the week, we had some pretty sweet lessons, but I don't have any photos of those. We're helping a few people overcome smoking addictions. That's going generally pretty well.

We met a lot of people this week that were content with their current knowledge of Jesus Christ. In Sunday School yesterday, Brother Jones shared an interesting story that I think applies well:

When he was a student, Elder Talmage was once approached by a man offering to sell him an excellent oil lamp. Elder Talmage already had a lamp he felt was satisfactory, but he allowed the lamp seller to come up to his room to demonstrate.

“We entered my room, and I put a match to my well-trimmed lamp. My visitor was high in his praise. It was the best lamp of its kind, he said, and he had never seen a lamp in better trim. He turned the wick up and down, and pronounced the judgment perfect.

“‘Now,’ he said, ‘with your permission I’ll light my lamp,’ taking it from his satchel. … Its light made bright the remotest corner of my room. Its brilliant blaze made the flame in my lamp weak and pale. Until that moment of convincing demonstration I had never known the dim obscurity in which I had lived and labored, studied and struggled.”

Elder Talmage bought the new lamp, and he later suggested what we can learn from the lamp seller as we teach the gospel: “The man who would sell a lamp did not disparage mine. He placed his greater light alongside my feebler flame, and I hasted to obtain it.

“The missionary servants of the Church of Jesus Christ today are sent forth, not to assail nor ridicule the beliefs of men, but to set before the world a superior light, by which the smoky dimness of the flickering flames of man-made creeds shall be apparent. The work of the Church is constructive, not destructive” (in Albert L. Zobell Jr., Story Gems [1953], 45–48; see also The Parables of James E. Talmage, comp. Albert L. Zobell Jr. [1973], 1–6).

The message of the Restoration is that brighter lamp. I know that is true.

In other news, we've now assembled the furniture in our new place and put everything in it's new home.

We got to go to the Temple on Saturday! Yay!

-Elder Crye

8/31/2015 From Elder Gary Crye and photos

Today's one of those days where I'm just writing and my mind's going blank. Excuse the sign word-vomit. This week's been pretty sweet!

Got an email from Sis. Crowther this week. Seems she's enjoying Anaheim.

I found Sis. Bonham on an article at LDS.org.

Shannon and Joseph, the native American couple back in Windsor, got married and baptized!

We moved apartments!

More apartment photos

We had some sweet member visits!

(no pictures for the rest of the email, sorry :P )

Quite a bit's changing here in the mission. As a result, we've been visiting with many more members, to help everyone -- not just investigators -- make it to the temple.

It's been a pretty busy week.

We have another investigator, Debbie, that's moving forward pretty quickly.

I love you all,

Elder Crye

8/24/2015 From Elder Gary Crye

We're emailing from the Orangeville chapel this week, instead of from the library. They have a laptop here that was being repaired. Now we're in the clerk's office, using their desktop and that laptop.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 11:34 AM, Caralee Crye <ceicei.crye@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Elder Gary Crye!

I hope all is going good in the mission field. Brother Almond is thrilled with the news that you found one of his former investigators. Keep us updated with what is going on with you and your companion.

 

 The work has been going well. We found this guy named Connor on the street and talked to him for a bit. After our discussion, he said he would be cool with us coming by and talking with him some more. When we came to his house a couple days later for the appointment, it seemed no one was there. As we were leaving, he walked up. We met with him on his side porch. It turns out that he had done some research on Mormon.org. Awesome! He asked us about the Book of Mormon and we quickly gave him one. It was a great lesson. 

   Our Tuesday this week was quite busy. We started it off by helping some members do some moving. The beginning wasn't too bad, but when steep stairs came into play, it got a little tougher. By the end of it all we were quite sweaty and tired. After having a good lunch with them, we went to another member's house and helped her paint some of the ceilings in her new home. We did a couple of rooms and we had to depart fairly quickly because we had an appointment shortly thereafter. We ran home, quickly showered, and made it just in time. And it was a great visit. It was busy but good.

The rest of the week was also pretty good. We had an interesting meeting with the Mission President and the rest of the zone this week, where we're changing quite a few things we do in the mission to have a more member-oriented proselyting program.

We had stake conference over the weekend. The theme on Saturday centered on Ward and Family Councils. This seems to be a continuation from the last stake conference a few months ago.  Sunday's conference had a technical glitch. The two satellite buildings (ours and another ward building to the North) were unable to access the intranet to contact the Stake center. We had so much trouble as apparently the church server was down (according to the high councilman).  We (and the North building as well), sang songs and shared testimonies while we waited patiently. After one hour, we finally made connection through, I believe Skype, or something similar, to the Stake center. The sound quality was horrible as we dropped frequently, even though we could somewhat see (there was also visual static). Nevertheless, we were able to get most of what is going on for the final hour.  Basically, there were nine speakers (we missed half of them in the first hour). Funny, but when we finally made connection, it was at the time when our own Sister Bullock was speaking.

We have Stake Conference here on Sept. 12th. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

 

One of the high council suggested we (from both buildings) could move over to the Stake center, but another from the high council said "there is no room at the Inn".  Some left early for home before the first hour was over. The rest of us who waited and stayed had an enjoyable time singing and listening to testimonies.  Wonderful impromptu meeting the first hour.

8/17/2015 From Elder Gary Crye and photos

Hello Elder Gary Crye!

Hey! 

 

We're hoping you're enjoying your new area now that you've transferred recently.  How is the missionary work going?  How is your companionship? Any interesting stories? 

 

Well, I'll take this moment to tell you a little about Orangeville. It's a little city, maybe 30,000 people surrounded by rural roads, farms, and little hamlets. However, it's maybe just 45 minutes or so outside of Brampton, so a decent amount of people commute.

The ward here's really young. Super young. They have a primary of about 60 kids. Holy cow!

You know how missionaries support the wards they serve in with their missionary activities? That's pretty interesting when about half the ward's under 20. We've been playing a lot of basketball and getting to know the youth.

We tend to do service projects for people outside of the city - several families have houses under construction that they could use help with. Other people just need weeding done. :)

Missionary work's building up. When we got here, the investigator pool was fairly small. We're building that up slowly but surely. We really enjoy tracting (knocking doors) in the new developments.

The companionship's great! Elder Anderson has a really nice singing voice.

Interesting things: I think we ran into a member that Ryan Almond helped to teach, back in 1991. His name's Alex Alexander, and he was taught by an Elder Almond and Elder Andrew Gagon in Pickering, ON.

Were you able to get any letters and/or packages from the deaf branch recently?  We'll be sending another one to you soon for your birthday.  Is there anything you wish, need, or desire to replace? Candy, food, certain clothing, or funds for clothing?

Yeah, I got some letters from the Young Women this last week. Some of them were very funny. My companion and I particularly enjoyed a letter from a deaf girl that just joined the ward. Taitem? She began by introducing herself and how she was deaf, then wrote, "Blah. Blah. Blah. I'm sure you've heard it all before." HAHAHAHA! Hilarious!

Speaking of packages, I'm not sure if I wrote back about the package I received from the family. I sucessfully got the Easter package. All the candy arrived safe and sound. Unfortunately, it seems they confiscated the flash drive at the border. The declaration clearly had it listed, but when I got the package, it contained a little flattened box, roughly the size of a flash drive. I got the letters as well.

Needs? Nothing really comes to mind. Wants? Perhaps some more socks. Ideally socks that match those that I already have. I accidentally got a bit of bleach on a pair or so of my socks. See attached photo for what those look like. They're black. GoldToe brand. I wear a size 9.

I hit my year mark this week. Weird. I'm starting to wonder what kind of arrangements need to be made for when I return. What clothes I'll wear, where I'll live, that kind of thing. I got an email from Garret Carroll asking about living arrangements a week or so back. He returns in June, I believe. To summarize what he wrote, we have no clue which apartments we're looking for when we get back. Perhaps some money for clothing when I return?

Swedish fish are the bomb. I think I have enough chocolate syrup for at least a little while, still.

We've had more families moving into the branch.  I'm not sure if it is indirectly related to the missionary-minded work we're doing.  It is nice to see our branch grow. We did lose a couple of families that moved out because of jobs elsewhere.  I suppose it all sort of evened out.

The Orangeville Ward here has a lot of families moving in too.

 

We love you. We pray for you.  The branch speaks of and prays for you constantly. 

Aww, shucks. :P

Love you too!

-Elder Crye

8/10/2015 Chalkboard at Smoke's Poutine (pictures)

 Elder Scott, one of my former companions, drawing on a large chalkboard as we enjoyed some poutine.

8/4/2015 New area and photo

Orangeville's been good. The people here are super friendly. Even if they're not interested, most people are willing to chat with us for a while.

We whitewashed in (both of us are new to the area, no missionaries from Orangeville stayed). That's been pretty chaotic. Elder Anderson and I have had a good time figuring out what to do and where to go. We started with just an address to our new apartment, then we followed the bread crumbs from there. We're more-or-less situated now, but it took time just figuring out who was investigating the church in this area, how to contact them, etc.

It also turns out we're moving to a new apartment. That's been an adventure.

Life is good though. The ward here is great. I love Bishop Morton. He isn't just present in Ward Council, he really leads it.

Elder Anderson and I get along really well. Almost too well. We've been having trouble finishing nightly planning in half an hour since we like to joke around a little and we easily get on tangents. We're working on reining that in.

Here's a selfie Elder Anderson just took of us.

This week, we joined some recent converts from Orangeville to the temple. That was a great experience. You can definitely feel the Spirit very powerfully as baptisms and confirmations take place in proxy for those beyond the veil. As the scriptures would put it, the power of godliness is made manifest in the ordinances thereof. I love knowing that we can provide the opportunity for all to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had another missionary join us for a day. Elder Bowler's companion had a medical situation that required a brief visit to Rochester, NY, so Elder Bowler stayed with us. His companion is doing well now.

The ward picnic was great.

Finally, we had a wonderful service opportunity pulling some weeds that had overgrown a ward member's backyard.

-Elder Crye

7/27/2015 Abao's baptism and transfer

Getting transferred to Orangeville, which is over by Brampton. Kind of a crazy day packing up everything and tying up some loose ends.

Got the package. Customs confiscated the flash drive with Mormon Tabernacle music, but all the candy and letters made it through.

Will write some handwritten letters home this week. :)

-Elder Crye

7/20/2015 From Elder Gary Crye - Photos

Something that I've learned to appreciate that I never really saw or used before serving as a missionary is the Gospel Principles manual. There's a quote in there about agency that goes as follows: 

When we follow the temptations of Satan, we limit our choices. The following example suggests how this works. Imagine seeing a sign on the seashore that reads: “Danger—whirlpool. No swimming allowed here.” We might think that is a restriction. But is it? We still have many choices. We are free to swim somewhere else. We are free to walk along the beach and pick up seashells. We are free to watch the sunset. We are free to go home. We are also free to ignore the sign and swim in the dangerous place. But once the whirlpool has us in its grasp and we are pulled under, we have very few choices. We can try to escape, or we can call for help, but we may drown.

 

It's a very simple principle that I know to be true. Commandments aren't there to limit our agency. They're there to help us protect

I  hope you got our package by now.  If not, it may be another week perhaps.... I hope everything is in there.  I know there has been situations where customs may open a package to make sure everything in there is "allowable".  

 

Umm, the package has arrived safely, but I don't have it yet. Next week, I'll know if I'm being transferred. If I am, I'll get the package next week Tuesday when we're in Brampton for transfers. I'll keep you updated.

Stuff that's happening with me? Still working diligently to advance missionary work however possible. We're working hard to change the culture here in Ontario. For the past several years, missionaries have been primarily tracting to find investigators. We're trying to change that, but of course, still doing a lot of tracting. As President Hinckley put it, "So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church."

We're helping Windsor put together a Ward Mission Plan that the ward is on-board with. It outlines simple ways that the ward will commit to integrating missionary opportunities into things that they already do. Then, it helps the ward be accountable for those actions.

There's this Vietnamese guy that requested a Bible online a few months ago that's probably going to be baptized this upcoming Sunday.

A Native American couple is doing great with everything. Last week, we invited them to get married. That was intense. That's a work in progress.

All the recent converts are doing well.

I will end with a verse I like from 3 Nephi 16:20 that says:  

         20 The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.

I like how it says, "salvation of God".  There is a lot of meaning in those three words.  The salvation of God is really the salvation of all of us... it is central to His plan.  I know He lives!  I know He loves us and His gospel is true.  The things He teaches resonates with what I feel--the spirit confirms to me and my life and my experiences show to me--the truth of why we are here on this Earth.

I like that phrase too. There's a line from the Zion's Camp movie where a huge storm comes through and protects the camp from attack. As the storm comes in, the Prophet Joseph says, "Stand still and see the salvation of God." very dramatically. That's a line that we can definitely apply to our lives. If we just slow down a bit, we'll see it.

Some carrots I'm growing. Who would've guessed that carrots have seeds?

 Elder Nugent and me eating ribs.