rain

This is the word this week…
My companion and I are doing well and I am learning more Spanish, but slowly. It rains everyday and floods the streets like crazy.

This week we have been working on the members and the inactive. We activated a family and they are coming every week now. We found a guy that wants to get baptized but needs to get married first and stop smoking and I have faith in him.

We are working with Blanca’s family now and hoping we will get far with the sister. Speaking of Blanca’s sister--Lupita and her family invited us to go to her graduation we were hesitant but in the end we said we’d stop by. Well we went, and it was crazy because when we walked in everything went quiet like scary quiet and everyone looked at us ... everyone. And then we had to leave because they all started drinking

Ok, let’s end with the good old testimony…

Fact: God lives. Fact: He loves you and me. Fact: We could work our entire lives and never be able to be worthy of the blessings we take for granted everyday.

Go with the flow,
Elder Cranford

being patient

Hello world,

Today is July 5th and I’m closing in on my 7 month mark out in the field. And I’m doing pretty well. Now that Mexico is out of the world cup things are quieting and my companion and I are finding some really good investigators—and I’m even helping more in the lessons. We have to work more with our ward because they are having problems and we need their help to continue the work here. But once we iron out the problems all will be well. My companion and I are doing better and I’m learning to love him and get along with him. I still haven’t mastered Spanish yet, but I’m being patient and studying harder. It floods everyday here but I’m starting to like it ha ha. I sent a package and I hope it gets to everyone soon.

Breaking the mold,
Elder Cranford

overcoming challenges

So I’m tired of complaining to all of you people why exactly do I tell all of the bad and none of the Good? I don’t have an answer but I want to change that. I want to be nothing but a strength to my friends and family but I have not been really living up to my potential but this time I will not say sorry about it... not until I am a little bit better I can't exactly be a honest person if I tell you all one thing and do another right?! So how about my small and little testimony and then we will go onto how things are holding out on my end of the world and I will try to explain my feelings my thoughts and my heart ha ha (corny)

I know that God loves me not by blessings I receive but by the problems he knows I can overcome... I am a blessed person I have been born to a good family, I have been born with comforts of life that are only dreams to others, I have been born into what I believe to be the true church of God. Honestly how can I expect more... why was I picked to be blessed?! I am not a perfect person heck I’m not even a good person a lot of the time. But at the slightest bit of problems I get angry at God saying he has forsaken me and that he is not that loving... but I learn that when I ask for strength god shows me my weakness so I can change it to be strong, if I ask for courage he shows me my fears so I can overcome them. God will let us figure it out because if he did it all we wouldn't learn. That doesn't mean I’m super happy when things go wrong or I have problems it just means that I can deal with it because i have perspective ha ha. But don’t get me wrong I don’t do that all the time but I’m trying more every day ha ha.

Alright, so let me fill you all in on what’s new... so we had changes but I am still I’m my area (can’t spell it) and with my same companion.... he honestly is the hardest person I’ve ever dealt with but I will learn some serious patience and charity if I can get through this not killing him ha ha. my comp has been "really sick" (notice sarcastic air quotes) and has felt to bad to do really anything this week so I decided to appoint myself Senior companion without telling him and take things into my own hands ha ha we will see how that goes. We are teaching three families and are really excited for all of them I’m starting to help more but really not enough to call myself a missionary. Spanish is a dragon that I can not slay but I’m working with my companion and we are working out battle plans. I’m so healthy that people are starting to say that those horses are as healthy as me. (I know lame joke) oh right I have officially lost my funny.... its gone. So when I get home I might be even more awkward than before (if you can believe it) the weather here is perfect chilly in the morning and then warn all day (except that it rains everyday for like one hour) I want to say sorry to everyone that I have not written its hard to send mail here but I will send something by the end of this week I promise ha ha. I don’t know what else to write if you want to know something specific write me!!

Dangerously handsome,
Elder Cranford