Another Week in the office (Stress Level: High)

Well, hello there home! It has been a fairly interesting week last week I have got to say. But I have also got to say that my typing speed really is going up!!! WOW It helps so much to be sitting in front of computer all day. Makes things go faster gotta admit.

Anywho. ya it has been a busy week I have been all over the place doing stuff and just ya. It has been nuts. I have been making reports and all sorts of stuff. Ya it is kinda bonkers.

Lets see what all has happened that I really enjoyed this week.... I dunno.... Oh ya TRANSFERS!

That's right it's transfer week this week and I made up the transfers for the entire mission and stuff after president got everything all done and ya!

So I guess that leaves the surprise: I get a new companion! (Booooooo/WAhhhh!!)
내 사랑하는 황장로님 is going to 전주 and going senior! 
And in his stead I am getting elder 구병모 장로님. He is the same mission age as Elder 황 but ya!

it will be an interesting transfer and all. I am excited to see what happens! We should have a good time the two of us as well as being pretty productive with everything. I am slowly figuring out how to get everything done (for example, tonight I have to do a vehicle report that is due tomorrow, I am kinda scared out of my mind) but after I figure things out I usually am able to do pretty well at getting everything all done as well as am able to get some good language study time in. I have really been blessed with a lot of opportunity to study the language (considering also that this is my 3rd consecutive Korean companion AND I am, if I work right, able to get about 1-2 hours of language study time in a day (yes, even though we do a lot I still am finding a way)). It is awesome!

As to the things going on at home it is quite interesting. Alissa is sick out of her mind. Haven't heard much from the other girls (except for Katie Bug who I will write an email to today!) and then Mom and Dad have been writing studs. I love hearing about all the things back at home! So this week I hit my HUMP day so ya. I am now on the downward slide.... weird.... doesn't feel like going down feels like I am just getting to the harder part of the hike. It has been a real learning experience and I am finding out new things about myself every day. Interesting right? I am just beginning to learn about myself. So weird.

But ya I think Dad put it best in his email to me. He asked Do you manage all of the finance, the recording, supplies, transfers, vehicles, apartment management, referrals, health and wellness of the missionaries, etc? So to answer that. Yes I do. But I have to add one thing onto that. Missionary Work. Somehow I try to do all of that and especially this week (transfer week and new missionaries and all) I will be especially busy (hence the subject) But ya. it has been nuts here I gotta say. We actually do have two investigators who are just straight up studs and it is so much fun to meet with them. I really REALLY enjoy meeting with them. One of them has a little more gospel interest than the other but ya they are awesome!

As to this week I really had a good time studying the BoM Liahona/Ensign (whatever you wanna call it) that I got last year. I love the BoM. It is so cool. I have gotten into this habit of lately of actually reading the BoM with my investigators in lessons (I don't know why but I haven't done that for most of my mission.... maybe because reading 한글 is hard (like you have no idea) but I really have come to like it of late. Just pick a chapter that teaches what we want to teach and then read it together and let the Book of Mormon (몰몬경) do the teaching. It makes my life really really nice. Love that Book. We are gonna baptize people with that book if it kills me. 

So I did have one thing that happened to me this week that was interesting that I really need to work on (you know how I told you God shows us our weaknesses? I'm not kidding) I was on the bus one day thinking about how I could be a better missionary (because this week again has been kind of busy) and I all of a sudden had the thought "turn around and tell everyone on this bus about the BoM"....... I thought about it and I just ignored it... again and again and again this thought kept coming to me "just turn around and tell everyone about the BoM"...... and I couldn't do it. I think in my heart of hearts I wanted to but I couldn't get myself to do it. As we got off the bus I was just so sad. The question I kept asking myself was "who am I more afraid of men or God?" and I just couldn't figure out why I didn't. I read something by Elder Eyring that I wanna try and apply he says the following: 

I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tinted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am lifted up in prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed, will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table with the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me and when He returns for His own He will have no problem recognizing me”. 
I really liked this a lot, and that's what I wanna be like. I figure if I can do that... wow... that'd be awesome... that'd be a person worth being. I hope ya'll have that desire to be better too. I know I do. I just have to find the How. I pray for that. I pray to be better. I just gotta find out how.

I hope ya'll know I love you. I hope ya'll know that this church is true. I do. This life truly is a time to prepare. A time to be tested. To see "who's on the lords side." I have some work to do on being 100% but trust me when I say that I know it's gonna be worth it. I pray that God will help me along the way and I know that he will. But it sure ain't gonna be easy. Oh well, guess I just gotta keep on truckin' then eh?

Love you all so much look forward to hearing from ya!
Elder Josh

Hellooo!

Well hello there ya'll!

Well it was another week here in the good old 대전 선교부 I have been busily working but this week was kinda hard. I don't know quite what it was but I just was like 정신 없다.... I just translated that and it doesn't quite describe the feeling right but I can't think of it right. We did 선교사 업 but my mind wasn't there? I dunno it was a hard week for me focus wise. It may have to deal with the fact that I picked up all of the financial stuff this week and my workload with transfer time coming up just keeps doubling daily. It is hard to stay on top of everything that I have to do. *phew Big breaths and keep going I guess. My to-do list keeps growing longer and longer and I only know how to do about half of it. THEN I gotta try and do missionary work as well..........

Ya, but gotta keep going right!? Wahoo! If I ever get on top of everything that I have to do it will be a really great day let me tell ya! You should just see the fat stack of stuff that I have to do in the financial office right now.... keeps growing longer and longer and longer (and that is just from the stuff that I have gotten this weekend)

Ya. 바쁘겠지요? Anyways It was just a lot of studying and trying to meet with people this week. Unfortuantely our baptismal date guy Moved!!! NOooooo!!! He went down to 광주 and hasn't answered our phone calls since like last week.... Kinda dumb so we can't like 소개 him down there to the elders or something. It is unfortunate.......... We have been working with this guy named 김세환 who we are pretty close with and we will hopefully get him to accept a date here pretty quick. We have extended the commitment to him and he said yes but he hasn't accepted a date..... We will keep working. Pray for him will ya? That'd be awesome!

So..... ya I have just been busily working and all and this week (besides yesterday) just flew by... It was so fast. Then there is the fact that I hit my year mark this week and I actually have been thinking quite a bit about how much I have progressed but then at the same time it has also been kind of an eye opening experience to see exactly how far I have to go (in terms of the growth I wanna see in myself). I know I'm not the same person I was when I left (thank heavens for that, I look back at myself last year.... dang... I wouldn't have liked myself if I met myself now. But I hope to be saying the same thing again next year because if I can progress that much more I might be getting closer to being a little more who I would like to be. 

I guess since I have some time to talk (I have quite a few things to think about right now and I have time cause I have nothing else that needs to be done. SO this is the personal growth that I want to see in myself:

1. Harder Worker
2. Go to guy
3. Whatever I am doing always 정신 있게 함 (sorry again that won't translate  (maybe all might, mind, and strength??) )

4. Rely on the lord 100%

5. 100% Obedient (this is a hard one let me tell ya)

6. Better Korean Speaker (유창하게)

7. More Christlike (especially: Love/Charity, Humility, Obedience, Diligence)

8. 100% Missionary 110% of the time

9. Anxiously being the person I CAN be as opposed to who I AM.

10. Spiritual Giant (An example of the believers - Tim 4:12)

I sincerely hope that I can achieve those things. (I am printing this out to be honest I need this for me too!) I need some help doing it because trust me it is not by any stretch of the imagination easy. I hope you will all keep me in your prayers! 

Anyway I hope ya'll had an awesome week (pack on the Aloe Vera you sunburnt Crowthers!) Ya'll better know that I love ya! Remember that I know that God lives. He truly does "show us our weaknesses - Ether 12:27" any time I take some time to think I found out all about mine. I also know that as we rely on him that he will make those strengths. I really need that strength He so willingly gives us. I need it all the time. I love you all so much, I miss ya!

Take care, remember that the Gospel is true!

Love,

Elder Josh

 The one with me and the people in the fancy clothes is the Brunsons. They are the senior couple that are going home coolest people ever!  

Hey! Guess what! it is RAINY SEASON!

Dear Family/Other people (if Mom (or dad) decides to read this at the lake......실망하다..... 제가 가고 싶은데......)

AnyWAYS! ITS REALLY WET HERE!!! IT RAINS ALL THE TIME!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Ya, so it has been another pretty good week here in the Daejeon Mission. But before I tell you about me I have to say.... Sarah Taylor is coming here???? What???? I'm in the office so I have access to all of the people who have gotten their calls from now till like January of next year. I make the little cards that president uses on his board so like ya! Wow, that's weird I'll like have to make that and stuff.......WEIRD.....

But ya, she actually hasn't hit the system yet here so I can't see that she is officially a part of the mission yet  (although I do know some people who will come to the mission next year but ya....) but I will definately let you know as soon as I see her hit our system!

So we had a pretty good week! We got to meet with some people and had some really good lessons. As well as this week for I think one of the first times in a really REALLY long time our district leader did a split with the Elders in the Office. So I went on a split! It was so good! We taught a way good lesson to one of our investigators and he is actually progressing this week as well as 소개ing us one of his friends. It is so cooL! We are meeting with them on Tuesday this week (tomorrow) and I was texting him yesterday and he said he's really excited to get together and meet again! He is such a cool guy. He is meeting us twice a week so that is way nice!

So ya this week has been pretty fun we had a lot of lessons and a lot of time spent trying to find productive things to do (long story short I'm running out of them). I am now officially two transfers ahead on transfers and things so I am looking for fun things to keep my mind occupied because I have to be in the office all day. BUT it has been a good experience and I hopefully and keeping things running alright.

As to the missionary work here it is going pretty good! Me and Elder 황  are keeping the area going alright and we are having some pretty cool success. We are having the opportunity to meet a lot of fun cool people and all so I really enjoy it. We have had some really spiritual lessons and all which has really been a blessing to me. I am so happy that I am finally learning how to teach. It is such a relief I have got to say. I have been out here almost a year I am glad that I can talk to people and kind of explain what I am wanting to say. It feels good, I gotta say.

I'm sending you some pictures that I took from my birthday and other times. I to be honest haven't taken a whole lot of pictures of myself but I have taken some :). Also I thought you'd be interested to know that Elder Meigs (one of the AP's here) is teaching me how to play the guitar. So I am slowly (oh so slowly) learning a musical instrument...again.... but ya. It's been fun.

I did want to tell you about a lesson that we had on last week. It was when I was on a split with Elder Duncan and we had a lesson with a guy by the name of 김세환 (I'm assuming that you know how to read 한글 at this
point so I will just keep using it). We got to talking and we just talked about God. We talked about how he is our Father. He loves us. He wants to guide us. He wants to bless us. All we have to do is trust him enough to do what he asks. How cool is that? (I think pretty cool). I also love the Book of Mormon. 3rd to last paragraph is what Joseph Smith said and as we shared that with him it was so cool to see the fervor for the BoM. It truly does help us to get to God. It brings us so close to him. I am still trying to find out why, I have read the Book of Mormon almost 4 times while on my mission (I think thats pretty good!) and It is so cool to see how God guides me through that book. It baffles me (I mean you have stories like Teancum in there!) but every time I read it I come out feeling stronger. It's the best. It's truly God's book. It's his word. I love it!

:)

Ya, love ya'll have a great time at the lake~~~~ 수영 재미 있게 해주세요! 제가 할 수
없으니까, 많이 해주세요!
Love
Elder Josh!

Another Week in the office of the Korea 대전 mission!

Well well well if it isn't my family sending me emails on yet another P-Day!

It has been an awesome week last week and I have got to tell you why!

SO ya, we started off last week with the 4th of July and because it was my birthday on P-Day we had the 4th of July and my birthday on the same day! It was SO cool!! We got to eat cake and to be honest one of the sisters in my district right now is also born on the 2nd so we had a huge party! Our whole zone was there and it was just the best! Then to top it all off afterwards we went out to a new investigator appointment and he didn't punk us! So we got to meet and talk about the church with him and all and it was just a good birthday.

The rest of the week was pretty similar to be honest. Elder (Hwang) 황 and I worked really hard and we saw a lot of success. We were able last week to find 3 new investigators and that was awesome. We also were able to get 3 member lessons and it is just awesome (that's not a lot in other areas of the mission but for the office elders that's pretty decent) And ya. We had a really decent week :)

It was pretty great I gotta say. Although we only met them all once so...... ya....

But as to the office work it has been going pretty well. I am keeping people on their toes so ya. I think that the people that the previous SM/MR's have associated with are probably hating me (because I harass them a lot with orders and things) but ya! We got some new 전도 cards in from 서울 which was nice (like I said I harass people a lot :))

But ya, I will answer your questions now Mother :)

1. As to where we live. We live in the mission office home. It is literally above the mission office. We just go upstairs to go to bed. :) Pretty nice!
2. My companions name is Elder Hwang. He is from 인천 and has been on his mission almost the same as me :). He left the MTC a month before I got there. We are a pretty beasty companionship. YA :)
3. Yes, there are other Elders in the office. The AP's, there are also the Office Senior couple: the Brunsons! But ya the AP's are the best, they make me happy when skies are gray. He is looking at me right now. One of their names is Elder Campbell. He is taking slow menacing steps toward me. It is kind of creepy........
4. We are in the 삼성 ward, it is awesome. Fun ward and yes we do go tracting!
5. Typical day in the office: wake up - personal study - companion study - office work (whatever needs to be done: preparing graphs or things for outgoing/incoming missionaries or ya.) till 5 o'clock - eat - MISSIONARY WORK!!!! That is pretty much the average day :)
6. Thing I like best: I get to use a computer, Air Conditioning, being around President and the AP's and the Brunsons all day :) it's awesome!
7. Yes, i got the package from the random guy
8. One day later I got the package from home :) It was awesome although I have got to say that sparklers indoors is not the best Idea we have ever had.......... I'll tell you more about that when I get home.

ANYWAY.....

It is so great to hear about everything going on back at home. Jenna had some beast AP's and all the girls (except our star athlete katie bug/Mom and Dad a.l.k.a (also lovingly known as) the bear) slept out at the Parade route. Did it rain on you like it did on me and Jenna? except that wasn't rain.... that was a sprinkler.....gah...........
So great.... hahaha

Also so fun to hear about the 4th! Gotta love the good ole' US of A. I know I do :) But I also love me some 대한민국 too :). Anywho it was fun to see all the pics and stuff AND to say that Dad got lazy and hasn't been shaving (Dad I will follow your amazing example and I'm taking a no shaving vow until I leave the office :) hahahahaha )

Also Mom I love the blog post you put up. I have some comments: 
First I totally am MATURE thank you very much...... maybe... not sure... i'll get back to you on that one.......yah..
Second: yes I could use a back scratch right now to be honest!
Third: I love ya Mom :)

And also to Dad, I actually had my interview with president here just a minute ago and we got talking about camping. It seems like there is a really strong connection with fathers-sons-camping. It brings a lot of really good memories. Some stuff that I'll never forget. Thanks Dad for being my bud. Love you! (I still have to give you crap though I was talking with one of the AP's and somehow we got talking and I remembered.... man... you could have worked at GOOGLE!!! haha)

Last but not least to the girlzies. I love you all tons! It is so fun to hear about how you are all growing up and stuff. It's really kind of weird. I see pictures of you and you are all big and stuff. Katie's running 10k's with Mom, Kellie is working and making the GREEN, Alissa is being a stud on the soccer field leading her team to victory after victory, Jenna is beasting AP's and ditching me to go to BYU Hawaii....... Ya'll are crazy! It's so cool to see you all growing up. I love you all and hope that ya'll still remember your big (somewhat annoying and slightly chubby) brother loves ya.

I love you all! I really do, I hope you have an awesome week and I look forward to hearing from you next week!

Elder Josh 크라우더 장로!

July 2, wow that is really weird............

So ya.... um.... 안녕..... haha

It has been a definitely different week here in the 삼성 Ward, It has really been interesting to try and get adjusted to the schedule here and not go crazy and all. The area we are in currently is on a down streak... So we have to try and recover it during the time that we have during the week....hard eh?

Anyway, all in all it was a good week! We got some good work done in the office and things just went really well there, wish that would transfer over to the  issionary work we are doing here faster, that would be awesome! But ya...... So as to this last week we had little success in actually meeting people besides recent converts and less actives, so we did a lot of that this week. It was good to get to know some more of the people here in this ward. I need to know them more!  hhhH!!!!! So ya. We are working hard, Elder 황 and I, and we are planning on seeing some success (as soon as we find some investigators to teach. That'll be great!) So ya!

Thank you so much for the fasting! Oh, I can't tell you how much I need that. My language skills are probably the thing that I stress about the most because I don't get a whole lot of time (and by that I mean absolutely no time) to study it at all. But I am trying to get on top of things so that I can get some good language study time in too!
That'd be really good if I could get all that done as well!

So ya........ I don't know exactly what I can tell you about this week.... Not a whole lot happened... BUT I can tell you about what I was thinking about yesterday as we fasted.

So fasting to me is REALLY hard. I do it and all and I love seeing the blessings that come from it.... But......... I have like absolutely no energy at all. And I usually get really quiet and frustrated looking when I have no energy (which is why I'm not much of a morning person I think) but despite all this I still LOVE to fast because the blessings that it brings are so real! But ya, so yesterday as we were walking around I was thinking about WHY we fast. And the answer to that is simply to bring our bodies into subjection with our spirit. But yesterday I thought about why.

The things that the body wants the most are: 1) Water 2) Food (that is if we leave out air but we don't have to fast from that) So anyway. I thought about how I was feeling as I fasted and I realized that when we fast our bodies literally lose all excess energy that we have at all. Like it's all gone. But as we go about doing the things that we
choose to do while we fast it takes that much more effort. The things that we do while we fast are truly the things that we WANT to do. Why? Because our body doesn't have excess energy to do ANYTHING else. All desires, all feelings, all thoughts are controlled completely and totally by our will.

I thought that was pretty cool. I already have an agenda of things that I want to kinda study next time I fast because I want to see how I can make my fasts not only spiritually more effective but mentally also. I want to really learn how to suck every single blessing I can out of fasting (because it's really hard and I would like some
blessings if I'm gonna do something hard haha).

Anyway it has been a good week! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope all of you have a good week as well! Know that I love you all and am so thankful for all that you do! Remember that I know that the church is true and that God lives. Don't forget it :)

Love,
Elder Josh!