Wow, never thought this day would come....

Ya....

Title says it all right? It straight up blows me away... so weird.

I am keeping busy and all in that I have a lot of things that have been made my responsibility. It has been very intense with President 신 here and I have been trying to stay on top of the wave of everything happening and be moving forward but it's hard. Very slow to be honest.

But all in all our zone is still doing quite amazing. We had a baptism this last week and although we are changing our focus to member missionary work like A LOT. We are still seeing good results. We are in need of 구도자 though so we will have to see what time brings. The goal of the whole thing that we have going on here is 2000 active members in this 전주 stake. It's a big goal but we can do it. BUT we cannot do it without the members though so that has been kind of intense.

All in all though it has been a good 2 years! I have learned a lot I have grown a lot. My testimony and everything is just so much better. Like SO much better. I have grown and become a better person and now the thing that I am trying to figure out is how do I keep it after I go back. Because I don't wanna go back to who I was lets put it that way. 

So ya. I remember that when Chase went back in his last email he wrote about the things that he would miss... but... you are all coming.... and i'll just show you those things.......... ya.....

Anyway... ^_^

I guess that this is technically my last email as a missionary huh? That's weird.... well, like Mom I guess I have to leave you with something that is monumental of sorts. So I wanna leave you all with my testimony ;)

But because I'm a Korean missionary, gotta do it in Korean :)

제가 정말 이 선교사업이라는 것이 하나님의 위대한 사업이라는 것을 확실히 알고 있습니다. 1820년에 조셉 스미스가 어린 소년임에도 불구하고 신앙을 행사하셨고 그기도에 대한 응답으로 하나님과 예수 그리스도께서 그분에게 나타나셨다는 것을 알고 있습니다.  하나님과 예수 그리스도께서는 조셉 스미스를 통해 이 교회 즉 예수 그리스도 후기 성도 교회를 세우셨습니다. 그 일로부터 몰몬경이 도 나왔습니다. 몰몬경을 읽음으로서 정말 이 교회가 하나님의 참된 교회라는 것을 알게 될 수 있습니다. 제가 그 방법대로 행했기 때문에 정말 확실이 그렇게 말씀 드릴 수 있습니다. 

예수 그리스도 정말 우리를 위해 속죄를 하시고 돌아가셨습니다. 그분이 또한 부활하셨습니다. 저희가 이 속죄의 가지고 있는 힘의 의지하고 회개하고 이 복음대로 생활하도록 단지 노력해도, 하나님께서 우리에게 축복을 주 실 것이고 우리가 발전하고 행복하게 하실거라는 것을 확실히 알고 있습니다. 이것도 제가 경험해 봤습니다. 정말 놀랍고 위대한 축복입니다.

제가 여러분을 너무나 사랑하고 이 교회가 단지 참됩니다. 사탄이 무엇을 해도 부인 할 수는 없습니다.

Love you all :) If you haven't gotten that translated by Thursday I will translate it for you :)

LOVE YOU SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!

See you soon (Thursday)

Josh (크라우더 장로)

Hey ya'll

Well well well if it isn't my Crowther family! How are ya'll doing????

 

It is exciting to get to hear that I get to see all of you soon and it is also exciting to hear that Kellie is nice and safe and that everything is going well. It is so good to hear from all of you. Like seriously it's pretty dang awesome.

 

I have just been working away this week and this last week it was definately interesting I have got to say. It feels weird to have all of you coming here soon and like actually making plans and stuff.... it's weird. I have most of our itinerary taken care of so as soon as ya'll get here we are gonna be busy busy busy!

 

I had a busy week with lots and lots of meetings and things. It was definately interesting. We will be actively going after this last week and then kinda wrapping things up starting next SO ya.

 

This week as far as our investigators went we dropped/reffered a lot of them. We don't have so many any more. Dropped 2 referred 3 so.... ya this week we weren't so busy with our investigators as much as with other missionaries and all.

 

But ya.

 

Just love you all tons and tons. I will see ya'll soon so don't have a lot to say. Just excited to see all of you to be honest. it's going to be good :)

 

We had a fireside this week and it was absolutely awesome. It was interesting to have a fireside in the first place (seeing as how they usually don't have them) but then at the same time I had to sing. Like they made me sing a solo and stuff it was scary. So ya. But all in all its over now and I am still alive. It was a good experience and all also President 신용인 came and gave an awesome talk on the Book of Mormon which was really cool. President 신 is just exciting to work with. He is full of energy and just infuses his energy into everyone. I can already feel it starting in the stake (seeing as how the stake presidency came to me and said that we are going to go do some touring of the entire stake and interview people and get the work going) so it's exciting to be a part of.

 

I just want to leave you all with my testimony that I know that this church is true! It really is! This is the Lord's work and he guides every step of it. It's cool. He guides each of us in everything that we do. He's there and he helps us so so SO much :). Love you all and look forward to seeing you all next week!

 

Love,

Josh (크라우더 장로)

Well, time just seems to keep flying... just not much left...

This is so weird to hear from all of you and to see pictures of you with everyone that I know. It truly just blows me away. So weird... like so SUPER weird

 

We had a good week however. We got things all taken care of finally and things started rolling. We are teaching about 14 investigators now and things are really picking up. It takes some time to find but once we get some people we can kinda get things moving which is exciting! We have appointments almost every single day of the week and we are just busting our butts to try and make sure that while we are teaching we are still trying to find and teach Less-Active members and new investigators as well. It's good stuff. Tiring but good stuff!

 

I have been REALLY tired of late. Yesterday church was hard. I almost fell asleep standing outside to greet people beforehand, just tired. But still it was a good meeting. We had an investigator that we picked up this week come to church (he has actually been coming out now for a couple of weeks and his son recently was baptized!) So we are working with him now but I feel like it is going to take some time for him. Needs to get the whole social thing worked out. Koreans are a very social people, so if the social stuff isn't right, things aren't right. SO ya. We will try to help with that as much as possible.

 

This week we gave a training on Feeling the Holy ghost. It was such a good meeting. The spirit was with us and in talking with people they all mentioned that they felt the spirit and were excited for the future! It was awesome. Keep working hard. It was honestly a relief to get training out of the way. I am just reading the Book of Mormon now and it feels great. I love it ;) No pressure. Just peace :) Awesome :) 

 

Lots of smilies right?

 

So anyway, I am now just working hard but things just keep dragging my mind to the fact that I am going home soon. The bishop asked me to give a talk on the 28th and yesterday I got a call from 황성규 so you all will get to meet him! He's so awesome. You are going to love him. Also I am working on getting things figured out for the trip. But, gotta do things one step at a time :). So ya.

 

This week I just want to add my testimony to that of President Furniss. He talked about the spirit in his talk (apparently) and I just wanna say that the spirit is so important. SO so so so so so important. We need the spirit otherwise nothing else matters. If you have the spirit things will go well. They just will. It's awesome! When we really take the time to get rid of distractions and things in our lives we get to hear the spirit a lot more. So as we live to have the spirit's guidance, always gotta focus on having our ears tuned to the spirit. So very important! But if we do, it is so very worth it and the spirit will guide us and help us :)

 

SO ya! I am excited to see you all. I will work probably next week (p-day) on the itinerary for our trip. Today we have a Zone activity and all so I am kinda lacking in time. BUT I promise I am getting things organized. It's gonna be fun to see you all!

 

Love you all tons. Like so so so Much! You're the best family ever. And you are all so BIG. Like you have no idea, I saw that picture of ya'll with President Furniss and I was just baffled. I know how big President Furniss is so ya, you all scare me. Big people. Weird.

 

Anywho, LOVE YOU

 

Josh (크라우더 장로)

 

뿅!

 

Well another good week and a BIG change

This week was another busy one. We were all over the place for training, and meetings, and appointments and all sorts of things. Just straight up BUSY. We went tuesday to 정읍 for splits, wednesday to 대전 for MLC with President Shin, thursday to 광주 for a mission tour. We were just chilling on buses for a large amout of the time. Busy busy busy. It was good though we were able to do a lot of good things and it was awesome to feel the excitement and all of having a new mission president.

 

Speaking of which, ya! We have a new mission president! His name is 신용인 회장님. He was the old VP of samsung and is kind of a super star. He's really really excited to be out here and has a really big vision of what this mission is going to be! It's really exciting to be a part of even though it's only a couple weeks. There is a lot of new excitement in the mission and it's good. Although it was SUPER tender to have President Furniss leave. It's exciting but still definately not the same mission anymore.

 

This week sounded like a fun one for you all at home! It is exciting to hear that we have a gym! I am gonna need it. I have been working out here with Elder Otterson. He is a pro weight lifter and frankly is just HUGE. So it is fun to be in the gym with him. He is really REALLY encouraging and I am feeling like I'm actually getting someplace! It's exciting.

 

Also our area is progressing a lot! We have about 10 or so investigators that we are meeting with now who are all making some good progress. It's awesome! They are willing to learn and specifically they are willing to experiement! It's the best. They keep commitments and are progressing well. One of whom is reading the Book of Mormon like a stud. He reads well and is studying it. I love it! It is an inspiration to me and he's making good progression because of it. The Book of Mormon truly has a lot of power in it. In fact that is one of the things that President 신 wants us to be focusing on is our Preaching of the Book of Mormon. It's so vital. But I'll talk about that in a sec :)

 

All in all though just excited to be out here. There is a lot going on and I am in a position to help God's work move forward. It's super exciting. We are all kinda re-evaluating and are moving to be a lot more focused on working with the 10's of thousands of less-actives here. It's gonna be a big work but we can do it!

 

SO ya, I am super excited this week! Because tomorrow after I give my last training I am going to start reading the Book of Mormon one more time. I intend to if at all possible finish it before the end of my mission. I love the Book of Mormon. It has so much power. So so so so SO much power. There is a reason people refer to it as the "keystone" of our religion. It truly is. And just like President Hinkley promised. Anyone who has read the book of mormon has GROWN under its power. It's true. I am so glad that I got it through my head that I needed to be reading it. It's so amazing what reading the book does! Be sincere and Read it! It's amazing the change that comes into your life. It's unexplainable, but because it [The Book of Mormon] is from God, it makes total sense. This is his work. I know it, I look at the effect that this has had on my life and can say without a doubt "This is God's work!" And to add to that I can say with certainty that The Book of Mormon is from GOD. Why? Because it changed my life. It gives me faith in Christ. It gives me strength to overcome my trials, it gives peace to my soul. So I am going to try and read the whole thing one more time before I finish my mission. I am excited. I am certain I will continue to learn (as I always do) and this time will learn something that can make me even better!

 

:)

 

Well I promised pics so I'ma 생략 more and add some pics!

 

I love you all tons! See you soon!

Josh (크라우더 장로)

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)