I turn 21 tomorrow!

Hey, guess what I am becoming official can go to jail if I do stupid things adult tomorrow! It's crazy!!!

 

AHHHHHHHHH I know right? Overdramatic?

 

This week was BUSY. Like really really busy but in a different kind of way. We didn't do normal missionary things this week this week was much more of an "administrative" week so to speak. We had P-day and all and that went well we had a lesson with one of our investigators and he is actually progressing! Like it is so exciting!!! AHHHHHH It just absolutely blows my mind we haven't had any investigators to work with and we finally got one progressing this week. It feels really good. He read a bunch of the Book of Mormon and things are going well.Tuesday we then hauled down to 광주 and met with President Furniss for his "Farewell Tour." It was fun I conducted the meeting and it was exciting. I also at that meeting in front of 3 zones had to give my "farewell testimony." It was.... weird. I felt so odd to be up there. Didn't seem real to me at all. But ya, we had a really good meeting. President Furniss gave us a lot of tips on life and how to do things and it was a really good meeting. I really enjoyed it.

 

We then came back had a normal day before we went to 대전! I went up to the office to help train the new SMMR and the new Financial Secretary. Spent two days up there doing that then came back down to 전주! It was a busy week with a lot of working hard just not a whole lot of meeting with investigators. We also had a stake choir competition? Ya it was fun we just got everyone together in the entire stake and sung hymns and other things that we have prepared. It was pretty intense I have got to say! We then the next day got a chance to get together and watch the whole "Work of Salvation" broadcast. It was really good! I am really excited for all of the progression to be made in missionary work but I am pretty much not going to be a part of any of it because They say it'll be implemented over the next couple of months and I don't have that much time left haha. But for the missionaries that will be serving then it'll be exciting! It is crazy how things are moving forward. It's exciting I have got to say!

 

I have been just working away though. I am planning this transfer to stay EXTREMELY busy. I like busy. I don't like days of just having to 전도 and contact. Like Elder Perry said, contacting for us in this day and age isn't as effective as it used to be. So the responsibility of finding needs to move to the members so we will see what we can do to help that actually happen! It's gonna be fun I have got to say :) We have a lot of things going on here and we have been able to find a little bit so it is good! We can teach some (if we had a day to stay in our area anyways) and ya!

 

So officially now our mission president has changed. President 신 is in the office and here and all and the swithc is being made. It is so SO weird. Like President Furniss just is gone. Just like that. It's so weird how this whole thing works.

 

But ya as far as this upcoming week it's gonna be similar. I am going on splits in 정읍 today and then we will be going to MLC on Wednesday(in 대전) and then on Thursday we go back to 광주 for a meeting with President 신 (welcome tour). So this week is going to be busy as well. It is crazy. But ya! It'll be good!

 

This week I am just grateful for the mission. For the awesome affect (effect?) that it has had on my life. Grateful to God for making this happen :)! God lives, the church is true! I know it :)

 

Love ya'll! Take care! We will see you soon!

 

Love,

Josh (크라우더 장로)

Well onto my last transfer!

Hey ya'll

 

It has been a fun week. We got out and worked hard and it was really good. felt good to just be out and about. I really had a great time and we had a lot of great opportunities to feel the spirit and to work hard.

 

This was actually a really good week as far as spirituality went because we had a special focus this week:

 

THE SPIRIT!!!

 

It was way awesome. We focused all of our studies and things on the spirit and trying to feel and share that with others. It was great because as we studied I felt the spirit a LOT. It was then cool to take that spirit out into the day and then kinda experiment with what I could do to keep that spirit with me. It was really quite the experience to feel the spirit that much. It was awesome and it is really kinda nice to be able to feel the spirit in the work.

 

However I discovered exactly how hard it is to keep the spirit RIGHT there with you. It is hard stuff. When we stop paying attention to it, it's hard to just feel it. Interesting how hard it is to stay focused on feeling the "still small voice" it is there. It definitley is there but the whole recognizing thing is the hard part. So we are working hard at trying to stay in tune lately.

 

This week though we got out and found! We found 4 investigators this week all of whom we are working with on a pretty regular basis now and one of whom we will be meeting with tonight. It is exciting! I like teaching people a WHOLE lot more than just senslessly 전도'ing all day long. It makes me feel so much more productive. I actually sent an email to my buddy Tyler (from BYUI) and we have been chatting back and forth about our missions. Says he can't imagine tracting all day. I was just like.... that's my life.....

 

Very different.

 

So I have not had a chance to see the broadcast about missionary work but I am excited to! We got permission from president and everyone in the mission will be watching it this Sunday at 4 (our time) So we will get to hear all about all the new changes and things. It's exciting I have got to say.

 

I like the course schedule for classes. I am excited about college to be honest, it's hard to think that I am excited to... study.... ya I know. From this kid that's weird. BUT ya! It's alright. I am thinking about how I ought to do things and all, maybe I'll ask a question. So say for example that I major in CIT and minor in CS, if I then went on to get a masters what all would that entail? I feel like a masters would probably be a good idea so... ya... but I don't know a whole lot, can you all tell me more about that whole thing?

 

But ya! THis week just feeling the spirit doing the work, working hard. It's good :) I like it. We are going to be busy this coming week too. We will go to 광주 for Presidents Goodbye tour then to 대전 on Thursday for training that I am conducting. I will be training the New Office Elder. It'll be fun. But ya! busy busy busy. I like busy.

 

Good to hear from ya'll I am excited to see you all soon! Time goes by fast and ya... before I know it ya'll'll be here.... (You like that you all will = ya'll'll I thought it was clever) but ya!

 

Study chapter 4 in PMG. I have had a really good time as I have taken my time going through that chapter!

 

I hope you know I LOVE YOU it is great to be here on a mission but I am excited to see my family :) Love you all tons! See you soon!

 

Love,

Josh (크라우더 장로)

This week

Well, we have another week down! It is getting to crunch time in that I have literally 1 transfer left. We got our transfer calls today and I am serving with Elder Lyons till the end! So it is going to be a fun transfer. I kinda tried to like mix styles and stuff this transfer and be balanced between the lot of us but now I am just going to go all out. Like run to appointments. Run to this. Run to that.... Run everywhere.... ya...!!! :) We have time left so that'll make things easy but we are going to work our butts off if I have anything to say about it.

 

It has been another rough week. We had like no investigator appointments at all this week. It has just been way to slow for my liking. So we are going to find this week. We found some people yesterday that have some potential and this week we are going to get some new investigators and do this thing. But ya!

 

The Zone however is doing amazing! It is awesome. Like everyone here is just working their tails off and things are just going amazingly. We are finding people who are willing to be baptized and everything! So ya. I have already got my last training in mind and I will be probably doing something on teaching by the spirit. So it'll be nice to just work hard on trying to feel, listen to, and recognize the spirit. I have had some really good studies of late just studying how things need to be and I have learned a lot. The gospel never ceases to amaze me. We never are really learning things we don't already "know" but at the same time God just seems to take the things that we need the most and "bring them to our rememberance" right at the right time! It's great. So I have been learning a lot lately and hopefully we can have some good progress.

 

I took a look at my schedule for BYU-I this semester and it looks like it is going to be pretty intense. I took a look at all the classes and things and it's gonna be great but tough. I do however think that I am going to change my major over to CIT for my bachelors but if I was to like a Masters or something at BYU how would that work? Is that even how that whole process works or like what?

 

Anyways I think the coolest thing that I have had a chance to study of late is about prayer. I studied prayer in PMG then also in the Liahona that we got recently on how to improve our prayers and it just doesn't cease to amaze me just the things that we are expecting. Prayer is a hard thing to do effectively but it is SO very important. If we do it right though SO many blessings. I know that to be true for a fact! It is great. Love prayer. God really does listen.

 

I love Elder Hollands quote (repeating myself?) that the words: "Ask and ye shall receive" are the most repeated words in scripture. And the greatest part of it all! God wasn't kidding. He really does answer. He guides me on a regualar basis, he helps me to be better and he really truly helps me always! I can feel that!

 

But ya I would really reccomend the Liahona talk about how to improve our personal prayers. I learned a lot and am trying to improve. It is quite the amazing thing, prayer. I love it!

 

So grateful to all you at home, love you tons and tons. I hope you know that. I am so excited to see all you soon!! :)

 

Love my family! They are the best, in our house here in 중앙 we have had the ongoing thing for a couple weeks now of just how awesome eternal families are! We are all excited to be getting married but I am just excited for the family that I have now. It is awesome!

 

Love you all tons and tons and tons and tons! Let me know if there is anything specific that I can pray for you!

 

Love,

Josh (크라우더 장로)

Well, this was a good week in comparison :)

So ya this week was nice. We actually found this week a little bit and we also had some meetings that kept us pretty busy and all. So ya. We actually this week went to 대전 for a meeting and it was quite a good meeting. Another opportunity to kinda refocus and recommit. Every day that goes by it just amazes me how tired I'm getting. It's rough. But still we get up and go. Thanks mom for the gym membership its been nice, I am getting into a little bit better shape and all which is nice.

The work here however in 전주 Zone is going really well. The missionaries that we have here are all studs and they just are working their tails off. We have been seeing baptism/confirmations every week for the last 3 weeks and we have another 3 baptisms planned this weekend! It's awesome. The missionaries here are just busting their butts and God is just blessing us. It's been nice.

I have been having some problems with the heat. It is HOT... like really hot... humidity + elder Crowther = not friends. So ya, I am already through Elder Jensen's thing of cortizone cream and I am now onto mine (turns out I have it too! THanks mom!) and ya. I am also now becoming friends with Baby Powder. Just something to absorb the moisture because my body is not built to handle this much humidity so i chafe pretty bad. It hurts. So ya! Sure you wanted to know that but hey ya'll keep saying you like that I am frank....?

But ya, it makes me laugh that there was a meeting with the sister missionaries. To be completely honest I did not even know that we had missionaries over our ward until I went to college and it turns out that one of my roommates served in our stake.......... weird.... so ya. It'd much different here in Korea. Every ward having missionaries and all. In fact, most branches have their own missionaries and branches without them just complain about having no missionaries. Apparently we have a pretty big effect.... who knew?

I have recently been doing some self evaluation and have decided to work on Charity and Love. 자애와 사랑. I need to pretty bad. I am a very diligent and obedient missionary BUT as far as the "loving" type people don't usually attribute that to me. SO I am working on it. Any tips/advice? Anyway that you can take my "tough love" and make it into love that people actually recognize? A how-to would be nice. I however am studying PMG and the scriptures and all and doing some honest self eval and I hope it'll get better.

Workin' workin' workin' that's about it. I need to work harder though. 더 전념해서 해야지.... More dedicated. I work but I feel like my pace has kinda slowed a lot. I need to pick it up and I felt that this week. I hope that I'll have some assistance in how seeing as how just 전도'ing all day every day is not exactly what I am LOOKING to do. I'll do it. But I would like to kinda go out with investigators and things and it seems that the only people that I can find on a consistent basis are leaders of other churches.... I am really good and finding these people. I have found 3 in the last 2 weeks :)

I truly TRULY love ya'll. I am just working on fixing myself these days. I am sad that I don't have more time to do it seeing as how I have lots of flaws but I guess I'll just have to do it more proactively. Love the mission. Love that God is giving me this time to get better. I pray every day that I'll have his guidance and it comes. I love it. Grateful for this opportunity. Truly am.

LOVE YOU TONS! Not a whole lot of time left eh? Excited to see ya'll soon. Really am! Don't bring anything heat insulating at all. It's SO HOT haha :) Love you!

Josh (크라우더 장로)

Glad this last week is over to be honest...

Wow.... Ya...

 

This last week was hard. Just a lot of things to fix this week that took a lot of stress and a lot of phone calls and more than once on my knees asking for help. This whole missionary work thing is hard and it looks like God isn't just going to let me "get off easy" by just having a plain normal rest of my mission.

 

 Ya. Lots of stressful things in the ward, stressful things with missionaries, sickness, ya... Not cool. Just glad to be able to kinda slow down and email and all.

 

However this week as I was reading your emails I saw that you all have been praying for me! Especially that I would be able to find. Just wanted to say thank you and that yes indeed we did find this week. We were able to find 2 investigators through referrals from a member in the ward! The both of the investigators we found were referrals from the same man and the two are actually related (father + son) so it is cool.

 

This week however we just worked hard. We went to 서울 on Monday and then came back and just went to work. lots of 전도 and trying to teach people and all it was great. We were pretty much able to get through all the hard moments and now I'm just tired and ready for a nap to be honest. I did however cut my hair today! 1.5cm haha. It is nice and short once again. And if I was to show my hair to 장영준 he would laugh and tell me that my hair feels like a hamster. It's cute :)

 

I did however have my last presidents interview this week. It is the last one of my mission (until I have my exit interview with President 신) and ya it was weird. I don't know quite what to think about all of this but ya it's happening whether I want it to or not. SO ya!

 

By the way I did get you the information for President and Sister Furniss' "homecoming" talk It is as follows:

 

2013/7/14 12:50 PM

Pleasant Valley 5th Ward

 

I told them that all of ya'll would be coming so... guess you gotta go now.... :)

 

Love ya'll tons and tons. Hope you know that. So grateful for this work, it's true. I know it is. It's God's work and if we are faithful we will see miracles! Thanks so much for all of the prayers, I truly can not express how much I need them nowadays. I thought I needed them before. I think God is teaching me just another one of those hard lessons in life right now so ya keep them coming :)

 

LOVE YA!

 

Josh (크라우더 장로)