My First Baptism Christmas Day

Well, hello again there!

Seeing as how I have already talked to ya'll once today :) it was a pretty eventful and awesome day/week.

But seeing as how I already told you about all of that (including how Korea is and all that) I'll just tell you about Sunday!

Long Story Short: I GOT MY FIRST BAPTISM OF MY MISSION! IT WAS AWESOME.

Short Story Long: So ya we got to the church early on Sunday and shoveled all of the snow out of the parking lot at the church and it was awesome. We did it soooooo fast. It was surprising because I usually hate shoveling snow but this time it was pretty dang fun I have got to say! Got that all done then went to sacrament meeting and sat down next to two of our newer investigators. Took the sacrament then hustled downstairs to make sure the boiler was on and started filling up the baptismal font. Started getting it filled up and that was all great then we went back for the last part of sacrament meeting. It was a good meeting! I really enjoyed it. So then we went and got our investigator his baptismal clothes (I had to get mine on as well) and went in to do the baptismal service. We sang a song heard some good talks by the members (I didn't understand all of them very well, they were talking kind of fast... :(,.....But they were still good the parts I did catch). Then it was time for the baptism. Me and 황성규 [Hwangseonggyu] went to go get into the baptismal font and I explained to him how we do the baptism really fast (but I forgot to tell him to bend his knees...important in a sec). So we got into the font and got all set up, I raised my right hand to the square, said the baptismal prayer, and then............

BAM!

So ya, I baptized him. And BOY oh BOY did I baptize him. Hahaha, So you know how I forgot to tell him to bend his knees? Well, ya so I kinda just picked him up and threw him in the water like a foot under, then just hauled him out (I am used to temple baptisms that are really fast, so I kinda forgot and just killed him a little bit... He described it like a wrestling body slam afterwards....But hey, the witnesses were like "he was all the way under" so ya, that was it. Besides the fact that everyone was laughing a little bit it was good!) 

So we got changed and I was talking to him in the bathroom and was like "how do you feel?" He was like "I feel amazing" SO it was good! We went back into the baptismal service to finish up and me and my Ward Mission Leader and his son sang a song. Then Elder Dodd was like "we will now hear God's words" (because the word for God, and the word for Bishop are similar haha). So we did that and ya! It was way good.

Had an awesome week, I love ya all tons! I hope you enjoy the pics that will follow!

Elder Dodd - Hweongseonggyu - Elder Crowther

Elder Dodd - Mom - Hweongseonggyu - Ward Mission leader - Elder Crowther

This is the mom and son that Josh has been teaching since he arrived in Korea.

WELL MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

It has been crazy here in the big old Korea. We have had quite the week I have got to say filled with all sorts of fun stuff (including interesting things I have eaten) so let me tell ya'll about it!

Last Monday was just your average P-Day, worked hard did a lot of 전도 and ya. Talked to quite a few people and got the week started off on a good note! Other than that not a whole lot to report I have to say. Monday's are usually pretty slow

Tuesday we had district meeting and it was great. We had a combined district meeting and we learned about how to speak the language better and stuff. I have got to say that it was pretty legit. I really have had a hard time with the language of late but I have some plans to turn that around here in the future. SO ya. We were going to meet with one of our investigators but he dropped and we didn't get home till later than we had expected ffom district meeting so it was hard. Had kinda a slow day

Wednesday was pretty interesting. We met with one of our investigators who we've been meeting for a while (after street contacting for a while anyways) and had a good lesson. Talked about commandments because that's all that we haven't covered recently. So we went over law of chastity (which was hard); word of wisdom (which he has a problem with) and so on. So we still have some work for that but stay tuned! We then met with another investigator who's baptism date is the 24TH!!! SO this could be very exciting I have got to say! Had a good lesson then we went to teach english class. I taught that while Elder Dodd met with an investigator. But seeing as how only one person came (and it was a less active) I met and talked with him about the church! SO that was a good lesson and good chance to get a feel for what is up with him.

Thursday was good! We managed to have 2 really solid lessons (both actually with the same member) and it was an awesome experience. Our first lesson was with our proffessor friend who unfortunately isn't progressing very well at all.... so ya, we got out and met some people during the day and then we met with one of our new (very promising) investigators. He is such a cool guy I love him. We had a good lesson where we explained about the scriptures that we had shared last time (Plan of Salvation stuff). It was a really good lesson I thought! 

Friday we had an interesting experience with everything. We went and met people and all (street contacting is very popular can't you tell?) and then we went over to a member's house and ate (right after we had ate before). We met to try and meet with his neighbor and he straight up denied us. The dude had a very I'm better than you because I went to UC Berkley and ya! kind of attitude about him so I'm not to heartbroken about it. Anywho we then went to meet with another one of our investigators at the church and had a good recap of the first lesson! It was quite an enlightening experience for him haha! 

Saturday, we had all these plans and then they just kinda went to crap. So we went and met with a member ended up staying at her house (with like a thousand other people) for like an hour and a half talking. Then we ran to the church taught a lesson to the guy with the commandments problems. So we talked with him about it (the WoW one in particular seeing as how we had done all the others beforehand) and he said he had no problems. We commited him to live it and then ya! There was a wedding out our church so we went downstairs and helped them with that and ya! that was that!

Sunday, WOW this was a busy day. So you have to understand first of all that 광주 stake was having a very big goal to get 1000 people in the stake to partake of the sacrament and if they did they might be able to appeal the first presidency for a temple in the 광주 area. SO they did it! WAHHH!!! We had 210 people at sacrament meeting in comparison to our usual 130-140 which for Korea is still a huge ward! So we were busy running around trying to meet people and talk to them and ya! It was a blast. We were just meeting and talking and meeting and talking for hours! haha. So we did that, went out and 전도'ed some more (I met a guy who spoke english and was catholic so i basically went and asked him a bunch of scriptures quoted them to him asked them what they meant (all out of the bible) and told him all about how the Catholic church started and how the doctrine changed over time (Council of Nicea and so on) talked about Ezekiel 37:15-19 (The stick of Ephriam and of Judah) and basically just explained to him stuff that no one else but our church could explain! It was pretty legit I have gotta say. I really wanna find someone who thinks they know the Bible well because BOY have I got some news for them. It was fun :)) So ya then we went to a member's house and ate and that was the night!

So fun things I've eaten this week:

Raw Cow (which is actually really good),

Cow Liver,

Octopus,

Squid

So ya! It has been quite the time this week. We had a crazy week but it was awesome. I got to listen to Jeffery R. Hollands "Safety for the Soul" talk and that has been the best!

I love ya all thanks so much for all that you do! Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Elder Crowther (Josh :))

안녕하세요!

Well, hello there!

It has been a while since I actually sent an email to just everyone like I was doing in the MTC so ya! I figured now would be as good a time as any to start the tradition back up (Mom/Dad, don't worry I will still answer your emails!)

So ya this week was RIDICULOUS! Oh my goodness we worked hard and we were totally blessed for it! I had a rough last week but if we keep working like this I don't see how we aren't going to see success. It will be fantastic! Anywho let's get started with my week:

Monday was pretty average (Good in that it was P-Day but like missionary work wise, I did get a hair cut though!). We taught our good old proffessor (I don't know how to spell) 교수님 and he straight up told us that because he had been so "busy" he hadn't been trying to actually get an answer (thank you 교수님 [professor] that is what we guessed you were doing). So anywho we read with him out of Alma 32 the end of the chapter where Alma gives his whole discourse (that's a good word right there) on faith. We talked about it with him and we successfully "likened the scripture unto him." Told him that he needed to "experiment on the word" 시험하라고. He was more or less receptive to that but then told us that we couldn't meet till next week (this week) on Thursday. SO we are hopefully going to have a good meeting with him and considering that 반학 [Banhak] is coming up he has no more excuses to not read like we've been asking him to.

Monday night during planning was when the real magic kicked in. We planned and BOY OH BOY did we plan. We actually made some concrete decisions and decided to "fuel the pipeline" or start building our missionary work from the Key-Indicators (stats) and so that is what we did.

Tuesday: We bailed after individual study for District meeting in 충장 [Chungjang] and had a pretty good meeting. Our whole district was kinda in a slump so we talked about how to get out of said slump and set some good goals for the week on how we can improve!

Then we hopped on a bus (with like 150 people on it) and headed home. We then met with one of the 이전 구도자's [previous investigators] who we had been meeting off and on for a while and basically just laid everything on the table. He has been telling us for a while he wants to change so we told him how (this is the guy who said he got baptized and all but he DIDN'T)! So yes, we got him a baptismal date (the 18th but he didn't come to church so we are moving it to the 25th) and are trying to build that 변화하고 싶은 마음 [desire to change]. Then we went and 전도'ed for an hour, came back to the church and met with one of our newer investigators who is pure GOLD. He is a engineer at a dental implants company and he is so cool. We met him with one of the members from our ward and it was just straight up legit! Taught a really good part of the second lesson and bore some good testimony of that! Then we went our and 전도'ed some more for the day and that was that. Had another boss planning session and got Wednesday all set up!

Wednesday: We went out about midafternoon and just visited some less actives/recent converts. One of them was home and he is way cool! He is actually going to BYU-I which is cool (there are actually quite a few up here going to BYU-I I am pretty surprised. I actually had one of them look up Victoria because she is nervous about going to an American school so I figured it might be nice for her to have a friend that she at least thinks is cool!) So anywho ya, we met with that son of the mom and son combination and had a boss lesson! We met with the guy that referred them and it was just awesome. Afterwards we went out and got expensive Chinese food and it was DELICIOUS. Then we went to English class that we teach on Wednesday nights and had this CRAZY guy who is like a veteran and everything meet with us and then a less active. Had a good class went home and that was the day!

Thursday: Ohhh man, so we just did all of our studies and stuff and then it was off to the LC Tower (formally known as the ONLY place in our area where we can effectively 전도). So we 전도'ed for a while (talked to like 34 people it was pretty cool) then we went to the church to meet with the crazy veteran guy. He apparently like served in Vietnam and stuff and was telling us a bunch of his war stories for a while. It was crazy, we did leave him with a good lesson and got him the pamphlets to the gospel (because he likes the Gospel Principles book I figured the more fundamental literature he has about our church the better). Then we met with one of the investigators that I found through 전도 (which is kinda cool because he is the first one we've found through 전도 here in 첨단). We taught him the 1st lesson and gave him a baptismal date. Then immediately (바로) we went and met with the guy who we met on Tuesday who is gold. Now let me explain a little bit WHY he is gold :). He is a father of 2 and WAY focused on his family. So as we taught him the 2nd lesson (same member came) and we talked eternal life. The member gave a really REALLY awesome explanation about sealing and stuff like that in the temple and how we can get eternal life. We gave him a soft baptismal commitment but were unable to set up a date with him. He was so excited, though, when we were talking about families being together forever. GAH it was awesome!

Friday: Again another busy day of 전도 worked HARD. Talked to a bunch of people and then ya. We went and ate and then it was afternoon and time to meet with the kid I met through 전도 again (We meet him twice a week). Taught him the whole 2nd lesson but our member wasn't the supportive at all (he's an awesome kid, I love him a ton but he doesn't focus when we teach with him) so ya. We taught him and went home. We just worked hard all day.

Saturday: Long story short we just worked ALL DAY. We did meet with a member family that Elder Dodd knew back in one of his other areas. They absolutely loved him so they came to 광주 to visit, we talked to them then went and taught an investigator who has to go to the 군대 [army] on the 17th. THen we just 전도'ed We had an appointment at 6:40 but it fell through so we couldn't really do a whole lot. We just busted our butts trying to contact people and ya that was that!

Sunday: Good church meeting. The investigator we met on Saturday came as well as the kid I met through 전도. It was way cool. I taught about eternal families in English gospel principles class and it was just awesome. We had a Filipino man there with us who spoke in sacrament. He has been in Korea for 4 years and decided early that week to go back and be with his family. So we had a really tender gospel principles class and it was awesome. Then we went to ward council. We were there for like 2.5 hours and I did not understand A THING. They speak to fast hahah. So ya, got some language work to do still. I did actually understand a little bit. The members have this goal that next week (the 18th) if they get like 1000 people out to church then they can get a temple down in 광주 [Gwangju] and it would be the second here in Korea. So they are working WAY HARD to try and achieve that goal. Goodness gracious they are working hard. So ya, we went and put up some of our English Fliers (광고's) and then we just came home and that was the day. It was just a straight up BOSS week. I loved it completely. I died every night haha. But it was totally and completely worth it.

So that was my week, it has been a good hard working week and I have been amazed what I can do with the Lord's help if I just put my head down and work. It was awesome. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Loving it out here, this gospel is true. I know it :). I can't even begin to tell you how hard I was asking for help this week. Thank you for your prayers and I hope this next week will be just as good! Love you all!

크라우더 장로 (also formally known as Josh Crowther but I haven't been called that in so long It's gonna be wack when I actually hear that again)

Two months in Korea

Welllll HELLOO there Poppy san!

How ya been big sir? I loved hearing about home, sounds like Coach Crowther is back in action there eh? Great to hear that the girls are doing good at home! so Alissa is a straight up boss then huh.... 9 steals... first game... that's pretty good! haha :) But hey you gotta remember I had a pretty good first game of the season too.. Well at least senior year anywho. That's good that she's an animal keep her quick and she will be a beast, she's so big haha. Just gotta keep her fighting hard.

Kellie is a defender too eh? Dang that seems to be a Crowther family special, I wonder where we get it... Dad... what'd you do??!? haha ;) SO ya she getting better at her ball handling and all that good stuff? If Kellie builds some good offence she's gonna be a boss I gotta say!

Jenna is getting some Varsity time! Good good good. She just needs to get a left hand and she will be fine. When she has that just get her in and let her play around the rim and noone will stop her at all! It's impossible when you can do that. Get her some go-to moves and she will be a giant in the middle. Also maybe teach her how to draw fouls a bit. That's be good, especially if she learns how to convert with contact. That'd be straight up legit.

Our area is seeing some progress but still not a whole lot. We have got 4 investigators who we are teaching and 1 of them I feel like is only meeting us because of the 30 mins of English we teach him. It gets frustrating. But we did get one of our investigators a baptismal date on Saturday and he is probably the closest and most sincere of the investigators that we have. Things have been pretty hard especially considering the crash that we had at the end of last transfer. Which reminds me, I am now a transfer old! So ya, I guess I am slowly but surely getting older out here haha.

So now to kinda give you my insights from the (almost) two months I've been out here. I love the work, it is hard... extremely so... and discouraging a lot of the time... but for some reason I keep getting up each morning to do it. SO hey, I guess that right there is a blessing in and of itself.

I'm pretty happy in that I love the members out here and the food and the fact I'm in Korea and all that good stuff but I'm not gonna lie, there are days (especially when everything just tanks, investigators drop, appointments fall through) that I just get mad. Somedays I just think "why the heck don't people want this?" "why don't people care if they have a father in heaven who loves them?" "why are people so content to just live without purpose here?" It bothers me a lot.

Things you could pray is just that the investigators that we have will have the will to know. To actually want to find out for themselves if this is true and then to do it. I really want to see some success soon and it's been a trial thus far already.

Things you can do :) MAIL! Oh my goodness I need mail! I have loved the letters ya'll have sent me, it has been so awesome. I especially like the inspirational quotes one - it has been really nice. I loved hearing from you all and it totally helped my whole day to just get some mail (I haven't gotten any from friends not on missions though) (BUT I did get some mail from Elder McCloskey (a.k.a Chasey boi) and that was pretty fun).

I am loving it here, but that definitely does not take away from the fact that this is not by any stretch of the imagination easy. I hope one of these days I'll see some success.

Anywho that's me. I love ya and am so grateful for all that you do for me :)

Love ya and I hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Crowther (Josh)

_____

Dear Mom,

Yes, I know I know, I'm a fatty! I am working hard to get rid of it though believe me. I ain't gonna stay a fat boy :) So I sent you the email that I sent to Dad to which kinda has all the stuff in it for the week. But it is good to hear that Katie bug is keeping the shoes clean! It really does make a difference (even though you may not think so it really does haha!)

That is so scary for Heather! Oh my gosh, that is ridiculous. I don't have to worry about too much of that here seeing as how 9 times out of 10 people are intimidated by me because of my size (and then apparently by Korean standards I am pretty cute too so according to Elder Dodd there are some guys who get intimidated by that haha) It is pretty funny I have got to say!

I hope you all have a great Christmas, I didn't think I could get homesick but Christmastime is kinda hitting home. I was so grateful for the Christmas package that I got I can't even tell you. I loved the Reeses Puffs! Gah I eat my last bowl of them tomorrow. Also the Smurfs cereal was actually pretty good. I am enjoying it :) I hope you will keep me in your prayers and I really am excited to talk to you all on Christmas!

Love you so much Mom. Thanks for all you do. I wish I could give you a hug this Christmas but I guess it'll have to wait.... :(

Love,

Elder Josh Crowther :)