7/13/2015 From Elder Gary Crye

Elder Crye,

I have a few papers from Primary that wrote/drew some pictures for you.  The presidency asked me to hold on to them until they can get the rest next week.  Our branch went down by half because of the holiday weekend, so many of the families were not here.  They are hoping to have more of these letters/pictures available next week and can send them to you.

 Hey. Cool!

Speaking of mail--we sent you a package last week and it did go all the way to Canada today. However, one document apparently is missing that they need from the consignee (Canada Toronto Mission). Apparently UPS didn't give me all the papers I needed to complete.  This package came to customs and got turned away and sent to Ohio on a hold.  I contacted the Mission office today and they'll get that one document out to the shipping company so that they can retrieve the package and get it to you soon.  Hopefully it will be sometime this week.

I got the email notification that the package has been delivered and signed for by the mission office. Delivery was just a few days too late for pickup by the Zone Leaders. I should get it either at the end of July if I go to Brampton for transfers, or at the beginning of August at Zone Council. Next transfer calls are late Sunday, July 26th.

 

The Young Men/Young Women are also writing some letters apparently to missionaries as they asked for your mission address.  I assume the letters for will come soon within a week or two.

I haven't gotten a whole lot of mail out here, but that's probably because I haven't really written many letters at all. Sweet!

7/6/2015 From Elder Gary Crye - Photos of Canada Day Parade

We caught the beginning of a Canada Day parade.

6/22/2015

I'm alive and well. Looks like I'll be staying in Windsor to see the Independence Day celebrations across the river.

This week, we had a really good lesson with D, an investigator that we've only been teaching for about 2 weeks now. She seemed to understand the 10 Commandments fairly well before we even started teaching her - what interested her was simply the fact that we taught about Jesus. She works at a casino on Sundays and told us upfront that she really needed more of the Lord in her life. Earlier this week, we taught about the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome helping her understand why commandments really matter. 

We had a really spiritual experience where a member was testifying of acting on faith and she felt strongly impressed to leave her job. That was intense. She has two young children and there's no father in the home. Following Christ is always worth it. He always provides a way to keep the commandments. I definitely know that's true.

Love,

Elder Crye

6/15/2015 From Elder Gary Crye - Photo

I've got a picture for you this week!

Here's us and several of our friends after playing basketball last Friday.  

Pictured, across the top from left to right: Sis. Kim, Marcus, Paul, Bubba, Bro. Graham, Bro. Kim, Bro. Moroz, me, Elder Nugent, Elder Lau. 

Bent down: Elder Kendell
On the floor: Caleb

​I'm doing pretty well. We just got transfer calls (or the lack thereof) last night. I'm staying here in Windsor, Ontario with Elder Nugent. No change.

This week was rough as far as missionary work goes. It was really hard to make stuff happen. Not entirely sure why that was. It just feels that not a whole lot happened this week. We dropped a few investigators, one dropped us, and a few asked to meet sometime the following week. We found some new investigators, then took off to other missionaries' areas to help them do the same. Helping some people move also took up a decent chunk of our time. It was pretty slow. None of our investigators showed up to church, so that was disappointing. The Native American couple's out of town - to the reservation. A Vietnamese investigator is being lazy, even though he knows what we share is true. These two brothers that are progressing really nicely also have their own church; they're still figuring out what God wants them to do.

Paul (pictured) will be baptized in about a week!

Thanks for the update on everybody.
With love,
Elder Crye

6/8/2015 From Elder Gary Crye

One of our investigators (League of Legends girl) was confirmed this week, and we had several investigators at church to witness it. S and J (the Native Americans) attended with their daughter and some of S's siblings. (She's the oldest, her mother lives a few doors away.) Seems they all had a great time. Similarly, a couple of our other investigators showed up! It was a sweet week seeing people out to sacrament meeting, getting closer to their Savior.

The Native American couple is taking off to S's reservation for a few weeks this Wednesday. That complicates things slightly, but gives them plenty of time to do some reading.

We had an interesting experience praying about who to visit and then tracting nearby. We knocked on a nearby door, and this older woman immediately offered to let us in for tea. Let's be honest - that almost never happens. We asked if there was another male in the house. She said there was. So, we joined her... plus her entire Pentecostal family and a few friends for some crackers and water. Her husband's the pastor. Super nice guy. We answered some basic doctrinal questions and testified of Christ. Then, we had the opportunity to teach about the necessity of prophets and apostles in Christ's church and to testify of priesthood authority being restored to the earth. The Spirit was definitely there. They invited us to join them at Wendy's this Wednesday after one of their services. Not quite sure if they're actually investigating yet.

I'm alive and well. :)

6/1/2015 From Elder Gary Crye

This week we were praying for another family to teach - the last family we found seems to be avoiding our phone calls. :( We tracted near a member into this Native American woman, S, with a 3-year-old daughter. We taught her the Restoration, but she kept asking tangential questions, so the lesson was all over the place. That's always scary, because it's hard to tell if they've understood what we intended to teach. However, something (read: the Spirit) clearly got through to her. 

By our return appointment the following day, she had read through the pamphlet, the intro, the testimonies, and 1 Ne 1.  She expressed to us how much clearer the Book of Mormon was for her than the Bible, especially since she understood where it came from. We shared Alma 22, and it really clicked for her how King Lamoni's father's understanding of the Great Spirit reminded her of her own family.

By appointment #3, she read to 1 Ne 4. We were planning on sharing the Plan of Salvation in more depth, but for whatever reason, reasonable fellowshippers couldn't make it to the appointment, so we taught on her doorstep in the rain. About 20 minutes into the lesson, her boyfriend walks down the stairs past the door, and we ask her if we can come in and teach the whole family. She was so excited for that. We did a great HTBT where we explained that we were there to help people figure out if baptism is for them, and our role in helping them get there. It seems that's something they've been talking about. After teaching that baptism was a commandment, we were asked about the 10 Commandments - it seems they really wanted to know what those were all about, so we taught them. The Spirit was definitely there, and it seems they now have a pretty strong desire to get married.

Funny experience of the week: When S and her boyfriend told us how much more sense the 10 Commandments make coming out of the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible. They're identical [commandments].

5/19/2015

[I guess you had a holiday yesterday and that your P-Day moved to today.  What is the Canadian holiday? -
Caralee Crye]

Yeah. They celebrate Victoria Day here. Almost everyone gets the day off of work and they do fireworks.

Thanks for the update on everyone.

Since it's a Tuesday, emailing from the Family History Center as is usual around here doesn't work - they have people already scheduled to come in. Instead, we're at the library and they only give us an hour to use computers.

I'm alive and well.

This week, we found a sweet family that's practically Mormon already but they don't know it yet. Good times. :)

5/11/2015 Photos and email

We took a few photos today:

 Me standing in front of downtown Detroit.

 My new companion, Elder Nugent from Mapleton, Utah.

 Freedom! :P

 ​Me hugging an elephant.

Elder Nugent doing the same. 

We had an awesome lesson with A this week. We had already taught about the Restoration, God's plan for us, how we use Christ's Atonement in our life. She had been coming to church, reading, and praying about the Book of Mormon/Joseph Smith. Each time we've asked her, she would say she thought the Book of Mormon was true, but she wasn't quite sure. A lot of planning went into making sure our lesson with her was tailored to her needs. We taught about the distinct role of each member of the Godhead and about recognizing the Spirit. It was awesome having the lesson in a member's home and inviting them to share spiritual experiences. After quite a bit of testimony, we asked her how she felt when she prayed about the Book of Mormon, and she responded quietly, "I know it's true."

Thank you for the awesome letter!

Love you too!
-Elder Crye 

5/9/2015

Hey, I'll be Skyping home this Mother's Day at 4pm Ontario time (2pm Utah time).

I'll be over at the Hamilton's place, so if Bob or Maureen (Mo) Hamilton add you on Skype, that's me. :)

5/4/2015

I'll be emailing a bit later this week once I know what the plans are for Skype. I'm not getting transferred, but Elder Smith's off to St. David's, near Niagara Falls.

- Elder Crye