Elder Cropper - July 29. 2013

Dear Family:

So a pretty difficult week. well actually I don't know.

I had the best day of my mission friday because we put 4 baptismal dates, which is something unheard of. Of course there is opposition (or however you spell it) in all things because saturday and sunday were the worst days of my mission. People told us to not come back. The boyfriend of the mom  (where 2 of our baptismal dates live) told us we could only stop by on saturday because the kids have to study after school (load of crap nobody studies in chile) I thought it was dumb he said that because hes not even there Dad. Ya sale por alla! ugh anyways. so then the days just got worse because then peoples neighbors starting telling us to not come back. Like for example we tried to visit this person who we have given a book of mormon, and their neighbor (1 house over) came out said no one lived there and to not come back. I was like I can take rejection but can it please be from the people we are trying to find not there neighbors. ughh I am having trouble with spelling that word. From now on neighbor will be spelled in spanish vecino, because its easier for Elder Cropper to spell haha. 

Anyways, love Pdays because you just get to start the week over. I always start the week like i used to start me school years. Feelings of "were gonna take out the trash this week, place 20 books, and baptize a ward" Not really but something like that. I hope our area really progresses this week, we don't have really a solid person that can get baptized, like we have people with dates but not people that are progressing. When the area doesn't progress I look at myself and say what am I doing wrong that I need to change to help the area progress. Elder H said that attitude will get me down but I don't know. I always feel I could be more obedient (because I really am having issues with mission schedule obedience) but I don't know maybe Elder H is right and I do just need to chill out. 

I struggle every week to find a topic of what we should talk about is district meeting. Tuesdays are my busiest days like for example Elder Cropper doesn't laugh on Tuesdays because he's freaking out too much. I Have decided i need to start preparing more early for district meetings so that I don't feel so stressed. The good news is Im getting better at being district leader and helping out my district, and the change is almost over. I only have 2 weeks left in this change which is pretty crazy, its gone by pretty fast. 

I have been feeling pretty lost in out area and didn't know why until yesterday. Elder H finally opened up the flood gates and told me 2 things I am doing that he doesn't like. He one says I correct him on his Spanish (like in lessons) he says that he will say something and then later I will say it back a different way like in the sense of grammar or conjugation. I have much better Spanish then Elder H and he often conjugates things wrong or has grammatical errors in his speaking. I correct him in lessons because I’m afraid the person didn't understand, but none the less he's right and I shouldn't do it. When I was being trained Elder P would let me say what ever thing and then correct me after the lesson if there had been mistakes. Elder H also said he doesn't feel like I trust him (which he's spot on I don't) He says he doesn't like to give me his ideas because he feels like I will shoot them down. So anyways I learned from this that I need to stop treating Elder H like a baby (even though he acts like one) and hopefully with time (and without me correcting his Spanish and not trusting him) he will become a boss of a missionary. I’m glad to have this experience with Elder H because Its helping me be nicer when I’m in charge. Im realizing that when I’m the senor companion I’m not very fun to work with because its all Elder Cropper’s way. Anyways ill have to work on all these things so I’m not the companion of the devil.

Sorry if my letter lacks structure, every monday I get the chance to sit down and really think about my week, so half of these things I wrote were thoughts I just had while writing rather then news or updates or whatever.

Anyways thats all I’ve got. Oh yeah Dad I challenge you to a chess game when I get home. I bought a chess set the other week and Elder H and I play every single day.

Love you all,

Sam

Elder Cropper - July 22

Dear Family:

So I took what you said to heart mom and Dad and decided to haver a little fun. i also decided that I was in the most touristy place in the mission and i needed to take advantage of that. So right after we left computers last week we went across the street to a flea market to look around. I bought a cool little change purse thing that a lot of missonaries use. After that we called the zone leaders and went with the to Ruby Tuesdays! super crazy, I had a filet migon or whatever which i havent eaten in forever and I had that dessert thing i loved (which I took a picture of) it was amazing. They don't cook meat well in Chile and they don't have dessert like that. Dessert here is fruity things--they don't like sweet. After that we did our shopping and went back home. Today we are going to eat at a place named Waton or something like that (I dont know how to spell it), but it means like "fat" or "gut" or something like that in Spanish. They sell huge hamburgers. Then after that we are going to the famous art museum in Viña. 

This last week was pretty good, we had zone conference last Wednesday so I got a break from doing meetings. I learned a lot of stuff I needed to do better though. We had intrerviews with the president Thursday which was awesome. I LOVE MY MISSION PRESIDENT. Thank you for loving your mission president dad because now I love my mission president. THe interviews were in our apartment so we spent Wednesday cleaning it. He walked in took a look at our apartment and said it was the cleanest apartment he had seen in the mission. THen later in my personal interview with him he said he walked in and immediatly felt the spirit. I felt good about that because that's what I was going for. Elder Haws had his interview, president said it was dumb that he did that but he's good now so end of story with that. During my interview, President asked me if there was anything he could do to help me, and I told him all I need is someone to tell me I'm doing a good job. President knows how to give compliments because he just gushed them out. He said Elder Cropper I wouldn't be lying if I told you that you are one of the best in the mission. He said my drive and desire to always do better are very unique. Answerer to prayer, made me feel better--bam! I have a District meeting this week and I think we will talk about having the spirit, and following the spirit.

The work is well. Our area needs more new investigators but were going to focus on tha this week. President asked me in my interview if we were going to baptise this change and I told him i didnt know and that ovbiously I lacked the faith in the area (he just smiled at me) anways we put two baptism dates yesterday! with twins! they are 10 years old and they are, "for sure" baptisms. After we put the dates with them I felt really good. If you are in a sector with baptismal dates no matter how bad your numbers are you still feel good because your going to have a baptism.

I am trying to relax a lot more. I have this insane drive that everyone comments on and that frankly, I've never seen myself have before. I think a lot of it comes from the anxiety thing. Every week one of my goals I make is be more awesome because i just want to be an awesome missionary. Elder Haws told me that was a little prideful so i will have to think about that I dont know. Anyways I digress, I have this crazy drive but im realizing that It burns me up a little sometimes because I dont have control over some things in the mission. So know im focusing on driving when i need to and being more relaxed when I need to. I think that's why I have Elder Haws because he's super relaxed.

Anyways that's All i got. I took a lot of time today to send pictures so I'll probably avoid that next week so I have more time to write. Good wee--no need to vent.

Love you all

Elder Cropper

Elder Cropper (who is getting thinner) - July 15th

Come Estan!!!!!!!!!!

 

So things this week just got better. I realized last week that my letter probably seemed like I didn't think I was going to make it through the week and I was walking to my death or something. Probably because that's how I felt. Its all good now, I'm just sitting here writing my family with 10 other missionaries, while eating my Super8 that I buy every Monday. This week was really good. I"ll go ahead and go through it.

 

Monday:

 

In the 3 hours of work that we did that day (p day) we had 5 appointments set. That is something I have never seen before. Sadly, almost all of them fell through. We ended up only having 2 lessons that day but, eh, still good. we gave out 2 books as well which is good.

 

Tuesday:

 

Busy day we have like 5 or 6 lessons which means we walked a lot. We found 2 news that day as well (new investigators).

 

Wednesday:

 

We had the district meeting in the morning. I taught about getting refrences because that is something the people in our district never do. I showed a video and talked about refrences being the best way for us to find people. I also talked how we need to get our members excited about missionary work so we can do the things the prophet told us to do from the conference thing.

 

Thursday:

 

Nothing much happened this day. We had our branch mission work meeting which went well.

 

Friday:

 

We had interchanges this day which was good because I needed to figure out why the Elders numbers had been so low. The ZLs called me Thursday and told me they stopped by their sector (to surprise them) and found them playing basketball. They told me they had handled it and that they were just calling to advise me. They told me on interchanges I should just act like I didnt know (whatever). Elder H and Elder F were in our area and they took out the trash--something like 3 books and 2 new investigators. Elder L was sick while I was in his area so we didn't start working till 6 because of that. At 6 I woke him up from his sick nap thing and told him we were going out to work. I actually found that he was pretty animated about the work. The only reason he told me that they've been having low numbers is because of him being sick. I dont know.

 

For the next district meeting  next week (because this week we have zone meeting), I'm thinking about doing interviews with them. Elder M, one of the ZLs told me it was a good idea and something he had done once when he was DL. I just want to get to the bottom of it and figure out whats up.

 

Saturday:

 

Normal day of work. Had a cool spiritual experience though. It was 9 oclock and we still hadn't given out any books, which is a goal and as DL I need to give out books everyday. Elder H didn't know where to go and I didn't either, so I decided that we should pray and ask where we needed to go to place books. After the prayer I looked up and felt like we needed to go to a certain house on the corner but I just put it out of my head saying it probably wasn't where we needed to go. Elder H went to a house where he felt impressed but the people were very short with us. I then followed him across the street to a house right next to a members house where we ended up placing a book with a kid. I don't know if Elder H felt inspired to go to that house but none the less he went there and we placed a book. We still had time before we needed to go back so I decided that we should go visit some non-progressing investigators. After thinking about this I really felt (spirit) that it would just be a waste of time and that I really just needed to go contact that house on the corner where I felt like I should go right after the prayer. We went and did it and ended up talking to a man who lived there who has two daughters that are members in Santiago. He said he only believed in the Bible but I asked him if he would read a part of the BoM and he said he would. I ended up leaving him with a chapter to read in the bible and the BoM. · Nephi chapter 13 and Matthew chapter 5 (they are the same). None the less, good spiritual experience. It's interesting how soft the Spirit speaks, a feeling and thats it.

 

 

Sunday:

 

Church which went well. We had on investigator attend Church with us but he's not married so he can't get baptized until that happens.

 

 

Anyways so that was my week. This week like I said we have zone meeting and we have interviews with President on Friday. Elder H never had that interview with President because President canceled, but he will have it on Friday so all is good.

 

 

 

gotta go im 4 min over ahhhhh

 

Love you all

 

Adios,

 

Elder Cropper

Elder Cropper - July 8th

Dear Family:

Yeah so this week was pretty crazy. Ugh it all started out on a happy Tuesday morning last week while I was studying Spanish. The assistants called my companion Elder B and asked him to serve as a District Leader next change, and as a trainor. I was super excited for him and was turning back to my Spanish when I heard the assistant say, "Puede pasarme a Elder Cropper," which just means "can you pass me to Elder Cropper," anyways, he then preceded to call me to the position of district leader in the mission. It was actually kind of funny because the first thing I said to him was "oh no," he started laughing and then asked me if I accepted. I told him that if God had called me to be a district leader then I accept. He told me that God had called me to be a district leader and that as a DL I needed to be an example to everyone. Anyways, the conversation ended and I went and said a prayer--that's about it. Now obviously I was very nervous but we knew that Elder B would be DL, and I would be too, we just didn't know who would stay or go. If I had stayed I would have known my whole area, all my investigators, and my district. If I went I wouldn't know anything, plus it would be my first transfer in the mission. Well they called us again Wednesday morning and said I was leaving and Elder B was staying...ugh...just talking about makes me remember how nervous I was.

We went to the transfer meeting early because Elder B had a speacial training meeting for trainors. I went tracting during this time in Viña with another elder there. He has one more change than me (extra 6 weeks). Changes are transfers. Anyways, we were doing contacts and he was correcting me on a lot of technique things like "try to do your contact this way," or "try not to go into the gospel so fast." Yah know--because he has one more change than me so he has a little more experience. I welcomed the criticism but I thought it would be funny if he ended up in my district and I would have to start giving him advice on contacts and so forth. Anyways, we had transfer meeting and President called my name and said "Elder Cropper usted va a servir en Forestal B con Elder H, Elder Cropper como Lider De Distrito," and that was it thats the way transfers work. Elder H, and I hugged and walked out. I asked him how much time he had in the mission and he told me 4.5 months and then he asked me how much time I had and I told him 3 months, he probably thought I was joking at first but none the less I said "take me to our area." I serve in the city of Viña Del Mar now--the heart of the mission where President lives, where the mission home and office are. My zone in the mission is also Viña Del Mar. I serve in the branch Forestal with Elder H. Our area is divided with the Zone Leaders they are in our branch as well. Elder H is 19 and he is a good missionary. I have lots to say about my experience with him so we will start now. Elder H is struggling. He has never taught a lesson by himself, is Spanish is very rusty. His last companion and trainor wouldn't really let him take the lead so he is struggling. 

My area--let's talk about that for awhile. My area hasn't had a baptism in 2 changes or 3 months. And before that like half a year or maybe more. They have been working with the same investigators for the last 6 weeks but they have not been progressing. When I came to the area I asked my companion if they had any set appointments for the next couple of days. He told me "no," which is crazy because I left Las Americas with at least 4 appoiuntments everyday for the next 4 days, and then he told me that his past companion didn't really like to make set appointments. He told me his companion just liked to get numbers so they would past by the same people everyday. I then told him we would then fill our agendas with people to visit from the ward (members) menos activos and people that are our investigtors. he said that he didn't know who to visit and that his companion had always done everything.  

I apologize for all the venting but it will end shortly.

So basically, my companion is struggling, my area has not been worked for 4.5 months so we're basically starting from scratch. and... my district is the lowest baptising mission in the mission, or at least it was. And on top of everything I don't speak Spanish 100 percent, I don't have much time in the mission, and I am the youngest district leader thats ever been called in probably mission history.

So what do you do when everything sucks and you dont think you can do it? Well first of all you say a prayer, then you recognize that you've been called of God to fix all this mess, and then you go fix it. Ugh it's very hard. It was very difficult last week with my first district meeting and all. I felt like an ox on the pioneer trail just puting one foot in front of the other even though you want to give up every second. Ugh--it was horrible, it's just horrible thinking about it.

Ok enough of tha--now things are getting fixed. We've worked hard the last few days which has made Elder H happy because he actually feels like we are doing something. Some Elders in my district are going to have a baptism this next week so that fixs that. I think things will turn out all right in the end.

Even with all the changes and Elder H telling me he's glad I'm here and I'm called of God to fix this area, he still hasn't been all there. Well I figured it out the other day thanks to the Spirit. We were having a companion study and I read a scripture about being worthy to live with God. Right after I read it, the Spirit told me to wait 30 seconds and then ask Elder H if he was worthy to be on a mission. So I did just that. It was a long 30 seconds and Elder H just sat there reading the scripture and thinking. I asked him if he was worthy to be on a mission and he took a big sigh and said no. Supposedly,  something had happened the week before his mission. He wasn't sure if he needed to go to president so I invited him to tell me what had happened. It was a large chastity issue so I handed the phone and told him to call president. Hopefully he can get an appointment with president today. I don't know if he will stay or go. It was a big enough issue that I can't put a guess on it, but it's president's decision anyways. So anyways add this to the list of crap that Elder Cropper had to deal with.

The moral of this week is that Heavenly Father calls you to do hard things like be a district leader in your 3rd change, and you think "Well-wow-I don't feel ready but ok." Then Heavenly Father adds more difficulties like a companion who is having problems or a new area, or a branch that is not very strong, or an area that doesn't have a stable missionary work foundation, and you say, "Woh-wait-I wasn't sure I could even do the first thing and now you want me to do all of this other stuff?" That's basically how I feel right now, but it's ok, because just like the ox--I move one foot at a time and eventually I'll find myself in the Salt Lake Valley or something like that where I can take a break.

I'm doing good but I've been better, I will feel less nervous as time goes on. 

Hope you guys have a good week, Thanks for all the letters. Please say prayers for me that I will be able to figure it all out.

Love you all,

Elder Cropper

We Received This Today From Elder Cropper's Mission President

Dear Cropper Family,

It is a pleasure for me to greet you and to inform you that your son, Elder Samuel P. Cropper has been assigned to serve as a District Leader in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission. He has demonstrated a sincere desire to serve the Lord while sharing the gospel, and he has diligently set forth a good example to his companions. His responsibilities have increased along with his opportunity to help others.

I thank you for raising your son in such a dedicated way and pray that our Heavenly Father may bless your family while your son serves in this great work.

Sincerely,
Federico M. Kähnlein
Mission President
Chile Vina del Mar Mission

We figure Elder Cropper is either very excited or completely overwhelmed by this new assignment. Haha! Or both.

Elder Cropper - July 1st

Hey family! 

Thanks for the letters! 

Good week we had a baptism!!!! Paula the wife of Antonio the man who was baptised a month ago go baptised, and I performed the ordinance! in Spanish! and I didnt mess up! Answer to prayer, people, phew. 

Awesome stuff so the number is now at 5. 5 people that Elder Cropper has helped into the kingdom of God. Or better yet, begin the journy towards the kingdom of God because we learn in 2 nephi 31:17 that baptism is the gate by which we should enter, good stuff--love it.

So we have changes this week, so I might be writing to you guys from a different spot in the mission next week. If I had a choice I would serve in Valparaiso. Elder B served there for awhile and he loved it. Its the most touristy place in the mission which was cool. Anyways I would love to serve there but we will see. The zone leaders played a joke on me a pretended like they had the change information today instead of wednesday. They said to me on the phone. "Elder Cropper You are...staying......close to my heart.....because your going!!!!" and then they said they were just kidding. Usually they will just say your going or your staying like that phrase in Spanish but sometimes its fun to mess with people. Another good one that they say is. "Elder you are going.....to pack the things of your companion because he is leaving!" Anyways all jokes I dont know if Im leaving or staying but I will wednesday.

Mary- You rock, love you, your the best sister missionary in the world. When in doubt testify. If someone anwsers back to your "families are forever" thing just testify, and don't be afraid to cut them which basically means ask the things mom and dad gave you, but when I don't know what to do I testify. No one can argue with it and the spirt comes

--so yeah. you rock!

Ok well i got to go Love you guys and I will talk to you next week. 

Love,

Elder Cropper

Rockin it in Chile!

Elder Cropper - June 24th

Dear Family:

holy cow. 

Ok so lots of stuff happened this week. where to begin.

Monday:

Rocked the Pday, bought food, zone activity, came back and worked for a bit. We had a good day of work that day for a pday. 

Tuesday:

Craziest day of my mission wanna know why?

Elder P got transfered and is no longer my companion. 

We were working in the street tuesday morning when Elder P got a call from president saying he had been called to be a zone leader. He was super excited and I was excited for him too. After that big discussion last week Elder P and I became more close. We left on a good note. My new companion is Elder B. He has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder P  (they came togeather) Elder B used to be the secretary of the mission (an office elder) he knows everything! maybe not about the work but everything about how the mission works. I love knowing stuff and he loves sharing stuff so we work well togeather. Elder B is good a telling people good job. I will get on little Spanish thing right (but something significant) and he will say wow good job. It makes me feel really good and like I am improving. Elder B is a little harsh sometimes but he knows how to show love in a good amount of ways so it works out. Elder P didnt know how to show love at all. Probably cause he didnt have love (he had a difficult childhood)

After we switched Elder B had me tell him about the area and we worked for a bit.

Wednesday:

We had zone conference!!!!!!!!! I saw President!!!!!!!! and he said 4 times that my Spanish was awesome! Once personally when he was greeting me and the rest during the meeting. He would be talking about having faith or improving or something and then turn to me and say take Elder Cropper for example. Elder Cropper your Spanish is awesome! and then he would make this sign that people from Argentina make i dont know how to explain it. I learned a lot in the zone conference and was animated to start working hard again. I love President. 

Thursday:

Weekly planning was good. It took us awhile because I had to fill Elder B in on stuff. It's been hard being the companion that stayed because I know the area and the members know me. It means that I always have to take the lead or talk on the phone or whatever. But now its ok because i just do it. Heavenly Father had this change happen so that I would have to take the lead. In the beggining I would forget things I needed to do or the way I would do things was wrong (thanks to Elder P) but after a good comment from Elder B or just realizing it on my own part I am super organized and proud of it. 

Friday:

Elder B had to go to Santiago to help out the new secretary with something. I chilled in Viña at the office all day. I was with Elder M, the trainer of Elder B or his dad. He is the registrador or basically the person in charge of records. We were the only two people in the office because there was a zone conference so everyone was gone. I just studied Spanish and the gospel--it was a good day. The people that went to Santiago were supposed to get back at 5 but didnt get back tell 9:30 so we missed all 3 appointments in our area. I had the opportunity to work in Elder M's area though. He works in Viña up on the hill and it was awesome! I loved the hills, the ocean, the houses. I want to work in Viña so bad now! or in Valaparaiso which I here is even oldder and better. We got back to the pension at 10:30

Saturday: We had interchanges I forgot what they are called in English. I was with my good buddy and zone leader, Elder V from Mexico. He speaks no English but we're best buds. He calls me his "gringito" which means 'little white boy.' We taught some good lessons. We taught a lesson to Jose. He was the one who had a dream that he needed to wait for his kids to come home so they could see him get baptised. He said in his dream he was in front of the chapel with his kids when this happened. Crazy experience but the Spirit actually told me during his telling of the dream that it wasn't the chapel, it was the temple. So I got out my picture of the Santiago Temple and said was this the building you saw in your dream. He immediatly started to cry and grabbed the picture from my hands saying that's the building I saw. We told him a little about temples and that in order to enter this building he needed to get baptised. He still said he was going to wait 4 more weeks for his kids to come home so we gave up. He will get baptised just not this month. 

Sunday:

We had church and Elder V came with me. The theme was missionary work and they told me once again 30 minutes before sacrament meeting that i was talking. I spoke on basically the theme of the leadership mission confrence thing that happened Sunday night. I even used some of the same scriptures. I hope my ward understands now (after my talk and that confrence) how important member missionary work is. Night and day difference from giving this talk to my first one my second week. The first one I actually wrote out. This once I just wrote down scriptures and key points I wanted to make. That's the best way to write a talk.

 Mary: Your a beast!!!!!!!!!! take the lead!!!! who cares if they have more time then you in the mission. I have learned that if you want to be awesome and make things work just do it. 

The rest of my letter will be devoted to the amazing confrence we all hopfully saw last night. 

Mary I think this confrence made a bigger impact on us because we see the difficulties of missionary work and how much better it is with the members. Plus what missionary wouldn't want to hear from the apostles! 

But none the less Sister Cropper is right. Where are the plans? It is the job of the members to find not the missionaries. The job of the missionary is to invite someone to be baptised and teach the lessons. Everything else could be done by a member. 

I received a lot of revelation during that conference about how I can be a better missionary. One is love. The most effective missionaries work from love not to get numbers. I decided that I got too caught up in having 3 baptisms that I didnt focus on each person individually. Paula is getting baptised this weekend so I am going to focus on her. I also realized I need to go by the Spirit more often, oh and work harder. If I am trying my best Heavenly Father will not let me fail.

Ok well thats all I got people. 

Mom Send packages to the mission home. The address is on my facebook. its something like 4 norte 1114 viña del mar chile. I love you all and I am doing great. Don't think I'm a little down when you read this email. I'm just a focused guy now thats all. Focused about the work. 

Love,

Elder Cropper

Ps those BYU application papers never came. Plus I dont know when is the best time to apply or really what to do. any ideas? 

Pss love you guys

Psss felt my first earthquake this last week. it was nice a small but awesome. lasted for like 6 seconds. 

Elder Cropper - June 17

this week was blahhhhh. Let me tell you why

Well actually it was really good to start but then it became horrible.

Monday:

Rocked it Pday and everything. Such a good day of work. We only work for 3 hours on pday and we walk everywhere but we had like 3 lessons two others and 1 with member plus we gave out two books. Bam! fullfilling weekly goals

Tuesday:

Tuesday another good day. normal day of work. We had 2 lessons with member and 3 lessons with Menos Activos. another good day of work.

Wednesday:

Another good day of work 3 other lessons and 2 lessons with Menos Activos difficult day elder powner and I had a good companionship inventory ill talk about it later

Thursday:

Not as good of a day. All of our scheduled lessons werent there except one. We taught 2 menos activos that day. We stopped by a sister in our ward who had fallen and broken here arm this last week. We stopped by to give her a blessing of health. Usually I anoint in Spanish and then Elder Powner blesses. However this time Elder Powner felt like I should give the blessing so he tricked me and minced the words in Spanish and said I would do the blessing and he would anoint. ( I don't really like that he tricked me but whatever) Anyways I didnt really have time to say no and I really felt like I should so while He was giving the annointing I was figuring out from my white missionary handbook (in spanish) how to actually give a blessing. In english its easy to do a blessing but in spanish when you give a blessing you have to use a whole different form to conjugate your words. The "tu" form as opposed to the "Usted" form. An example is "Te Bs\endigo" is "thou I bless" and "le bendigo" is "you I bless." We are supposed to use "thou" but its a form in Spanish I never ever use. So I just had faith that I needed to give the blessing, I said a prayer before I actually put my hands on her head and then I just did it. I have no idea what I said. I finished the blessing and it turns out she was crying. Elder Powner asked her why she was crying and she said she didnt know why she just felt the spirit really strong. I told her it was my first time giving a blessing in Spanish and she ahh that is why i am crying. It was an awesome experience and really was the highlight of my week. My week was going super good until Saturday but I'll talk about Saturday in a sec.

Friday:

Friday was super busy I got 3 letters from grandma! and a letter from Mom and Aunt Nancy. I read Aunt Nancy's last night and it really made me feel better because last night I was feeling pretty down I will tell you why (again) in a little bit. We had district meeting Friday which went really well. Elder Powner's best yet (don't worry I told him that) after that we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and then went out and did some work. We had to end the work early because we had a ward activity and then a song practice because we were going to sing in ward conference last Sunday. We basically worked for maybe 3 hours but we felt the effects. We had 1 lessons with a menos activo that day and nothing else besides contacts in the streets. Horrible day. We still hadn't had interchanges this friday night so Elder Powner called the other elders and asked them if we could change until Saturday night. I went to paies de gales (country of wales) ward for that Saturday but sadly without any stuff because we didnt have time to go get clothes or tolietries. Elder Powner asked me to sacrifice so I did but it sucked. I didn't shave for a whole 2 days so i looked grungy. That was the start of when things started getting bad.

Saturday:

I changed with Elder Coronado from Peru. He speaks very fast and isn't very helpful with people who are learning but whatever, I understood him. I do not work well with Elder Cornado because he's not loyal to president. The first thing he asked me Friday night after we changed was if I like president. I gave him a funny look and said of course. He told me he didn't like president because they have had some issues in the past. He told me that he had some pretty bad companions in the past which if that is the case you re supposed to report them to the president but Elder Coronado didn't do this he just tried to work it out with them. Then when he later had an interview with the president (during a regular interview) he told president why their area was struggling (because of his companion and how lazy he was) and president basically said that he was bad and was guilty for not reporting his companion. He also told him he wasn't obedient. Elder Coronado told me he just didn't care what he said. (stupid) He later asked me what I thought of the whole not going into a woman's house without a man rule. I asked him why and he said he didnt care about that rule and he gave me some example of when he was at a house and a woman stopped them because she needed help with something in her house but there wasn't a man there. He said he and his companion weighed the options of obeying the rule or giving service to this women and they decided it was better to give the women service. He then again asked me my opinion so I looked him in the eyes and said in my opnion it is always better to obey the rules. Then I told him that he could have just made a return appoitnment and then brought a man. Stupid elders. I hate it when elders are disobedient.

Sunday:

After we changed back Saturday night I asked Elder Powner how the day went and if we had success. He told me we were going to have 3 baptisms tomorrow (Sunday) but now we were only going to have 1. Diego (14 year old) didn't pass his interview Saturday and Jose ( the man I was going to baptize) had some dream that he told the elders about Saturday and this dream basically showed him getting baptized with his kids. Sooo he didnt get baptized either. Then Sunday our other lady who was going to get baptised didnt because she got sick.....ugh.....3 baptisms to 0. Frustrating.

All is good now though. today is pday and we had a zone activity which was fun. I have a picture from it. We just had a picnic. We have a big zone conference this week with president which will be fun. But I am excited for this week and ready to take out the trash.

I really don't have time, but basically my talk with Elder Powner was this: he told me the only reason he wanted to train was to better himself and not however he trained. So he doesnt care about my progresson. And then we learned from a question he asked me that I have no respect for him as a leader and I don't trust him. So I struggle with authority and he struggles with love. At least we know what we have to work on.

GOtta go love ya!

Elder Cropper

Elder Cropper: June 10

Dear Family:
Thanks for the letters! This week was good I guess. I wrote last week that we had crazy goals, well the crazy goals did the trick because we worked super hard but sadly we did not hit all of our goals. We have 6 lessons with members but only 3 other lessons which is stupid! Other lessons are lessons without a member by the way. I think we had more lessons with member this week because bringing a member with us is something we can control. Other lessons is something we can't control because that is dependent on other people 1. being there 2. people letting us in their house to teach them. We took out the trash with lessons with menos activos though. Again because that is something we can control because we have a list of like 300 so if one isn't there we try the next one. Our goal was 15 and we got 15. The Standard of Excellence in the mission for one week is 10. We hit our goal in contacts which was awesome. Everything else we were close to the goal but we didn't hit it. This week however was one of our best weeks. For this week we made goals that are a little more getable...i don't know if that is a word. Anyways for example in our best weeks we have gotten 6 lessons with a member present, but this week our goal is 7. Tricky but we can do it at the same time. 

We had 3 interviews for baptism yesterday. Paula, her son Diego who is 14, and a man named José. Paula passed and so did José but Diego did not. Elder Alverez our zone leader says he doesn't have a testimony and that he feels like his mom just wants him to get baptized so he will be with the rest of his family. He also told Elder Alverez that Paula, his mom, only wants to get baptised because her husband was. Needless to say we are going to work and focus on Diego a little more this week. After the zone leaders were done interviewing Jose they told him that he needed to pick someone to baptise him and he picked me! ahhhhh so this next sunday i am going to baptise someone in Spanish. cool stuff.

I am excited for this week. This Wednesday we have zone meeting and those are always fun. The week after that we have a zone conference in Villa Alemana centro (center of villa alemana) in their stake center with our zone Villa Alemana West and Villa Alemana zone. The awesome thing is president is gonna be there!!!! President was in our chapel in las Americas last night which is insane because that never happens ever. Turns out our stake president invited him to a meeting. Sadly Elder Powner and I did not get to see him because we were showing Jose around the church and president left while we were doing that. bummer.... 

I am losing insane amounts of weight. So much that I am starting to notice it. The main place that I have lost it is in my face, I think. My pants really don't fit me-- like they curl up when I tighten my belt but it's all good. I lose so much weight now that I just don't care about eating. Like I eat healthy so I have strength but if a member wants to give us some cake we eat it and then go to another house where a member gives us cake I wouldn't turn it down.

Mom and Dad you guys are busy! And you are doing such nice things for the ward. How are you guys just not dead, like all the time. Good job nice people keep on keepin on!

Dad

Thanks for the quote. I like it and its actually something I have thought about before (like that concept) Its really the best thing you can do because then you wake up in the morning and say ok yesterday i was nervous to do this, scared to do that or i did this wrong but its a new day and Im gonna start over. 

Elder Powner and I do fight a good amount. The lastest one was about the phone. I had the phone because I was looking at the calender on it to write down dates in my planner and Elder Powner asked me for the phone back. I asked him if I could have the phone today to practice talking on it and anwsering calls. He said no that he needed to have it because he was the district leader, and I asked him where in the crap in the missionary handbook does it say the district leader needs to have the phone. I feel like he pulls these district leader rules out of nowhere. I liked what Elder Sachez told me about mission rules last week he said that 1. we're not living the Law of Moses here. and 2. making up rules that aren't in the mission handbook is wrong. I feel like Elder Powner makes up a lot of rules. If I could have it my way Elder Powner and I would just sit down and talk each rule out and decide what do to do as a companionship, not just him saying how it is and me blindly obeying. Elder Powner likes to blindly obey and I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing. Nonetheless Elder Powner is the senior companion and I always need to be more obedient to what he says, and believe it or not, I am making progress. For example during exercises this morning I had just finished an exercise and was resting for a minute when Elder Powner said "Vamos Elder!" which means, "lets go Elder." I hate it when he does this! Can I please just run my exercises on my own and not be corrected in every single thing I do. ugh. Anyways thats what I thought in my head but I just told him ok and started doing a different exercise. Sorr--I was just doing a little bit of a vent session there. Like I said earlier i always need to obey Elder Powner more and i try every week to do that I make progressionn--I'm just not perfect yet.

HAVE FUN ON TREK!

By the way I havent gotton mail in like a month and a half so maybe my camera thing did come afterall. We will see Wednesday. 

Love ya!

Elder Cropper

PS

Mom I studied your topic in proverbs. Under your sentance you have one word that is linked to the word humility. I looked up a ton of scriptures onhumility  so if you want them just ask. I will share one because its one of my favorite scriptures. D&C 67:10  ugh love it! 

Ciao! Adios! Les amo!

Elder Cropper: June 3

Dear Family:
Oh crazy week. The worked stunk, like we basically did in a week what we should have done in 3 days with some things, pero todo esta bien porque fijamos metas locas para esta semana no como metas un poquito loco, mas como muy loco por ejemplo usualmente teníamos seis lecciones con miembros, pero esta semana nuestro meta es ocho. Este es solamente un ejemplo. oh lo siento estaba hablando en español porque estoy un poquito cansado yo voy a hablar en ingles ahora. Anyways what I basiically said was that we set a bunch of new crazy goals for this week. Well really I set a bunch of crazy goals for this week and my conpanion agreed to do them.  Good example, of one of the new goals is, 15 lessons with Menos activos or less actives. The standard of excilence is 10 in our mission but I don't care. I prayed about it and felt like 15 was the number so were gonna do 15....BAM! Or another example is 8 Books of Mormon given out this week. The standard of excelance (I dont know how to spell that word..) anyways its 7 in our mission, one a day, but were going to give out 8 which is funny because we dont even have 8 to give out. we have like 4, but who cares because we are gonna do it. anyways...

So this week was crazy. Last Monday it rained like a mother. We finished shopping at around 3 and were on the bus home and it was raining so bad that water was coming over the steps to get on ther bus. I guess this wouldnt be called raining, more like medium amounts of flooding. Anyways it wasent bad at our apartment because we are at the top of a hill. We ate avocado and tuna for lunch my new favorite food (Mom your probably gonna tell me its constipating so i await your reply) After that we made a chess board! and played chess, ate food all while it was raining out side, good day. Tuesday we had interchanges and I was with Elder Lopez. We didnt work very much because I had my docters appointment for athsma in Viña. We left at around 1. go to the mission office at 1:45. It was cool to see president and my picture hanging up on the wall with all of the other missionaries. After we got a sheet I needed we went to the mall and got burger king (chill) and then went to the docters appointment. It was a women docter who didnt speak any english but it was really fun. She like gave me every single athsma  medicne known to man. I now have both a inhaler for emergencies and a long term one. my athsma is now a 100 percent better no issues here now. After that we booked it to the train station, and got an Icecream because Elder Lopez Insisted )it was awesome) and then went back to his area to work. We had a few lessons that night but it was kind of slow because of the rain. It was nice to go to Viña and see it again. I loved seeing the ocean and eating the good food. The only casualty was my awesome umbrela. I was actually in the process of showing Elder Lopez how awesome it was when one part just ripped. I am going to see if I can sew it back togeather today because it was a really good one. Every other day was normal except Friday. We had interchanges again but this was because all of the district leaders in the mission had a training meeting in Viña so I was with Elder Sanchez the companion of the other district leader in our zone. Elder Sanchez is a beast. He is from Utah and speaks both english and spanish which is awesome. I really liked being with him. Something coolo that happened at the meeting that Elder Powner was at was that it turns out Elder Powner and I Had the most Baptisms in the mission for the month of May kinda cool. No we just need to raise the bar and get even more! 

Elder Powner and I are doing well but we fight a lot. I always think hes got a lot of pride about being district leader and he knows better then everyone, oh and that he is the only person who has the anwser. He gets frustrated with me because he thinks I have pride and dont want to obey his every whim. In reallity were both right so lots of work to be done.

Investigators are doing good. We have 3 baptism dates which is good but we need more. We need like one more really progressing investigator for me to be happy, but thats funny because thats what I say every week and then we get one and Im still not satisfied.

Your trip sounds amazing! I wish I could have been there with you guys. I cant wait tell you all come to see chile. Just this week I added something to the list of places we need to visit when Im done in 21 months. Oh by the way I have 3 months in the mission. Actually its a little more then 3 months. 

Mom dont worry about the charger thing I can wait. Well I need to go thats really all that happened this week. Thanks for your emails everyone. 

Mom good luck with all of the stuff you have to do

Dad go to sleep and good luck with your stuff too

Anne and Michael good luck with moving love you guys

Mary keep on keepin on sista! dont be afraid to slap your investigators, and by slap I mean slap them with the gospel!

Elder Cropper

Elder Cropper - May 27th

Dear Family:

This week was really good. I am still in Las Americas with Elder Powner which is what I wanted. My Spanish really jumped up this week which is crazy because I don't feel like I have done anything different. I can speak and participate in lessons more fully. Best of all, I don't know how, but I can understand people better. I am at the point that with certain situations people can ask a gospel question and I can anwser it. I LOVE knowing what people are talking about. It is the hardest thing to be in a country and not know what people are saying to you. I would much rather be able to understand than speak and this week, I felt like my Spanish took that switch. The switch I'm talking about is I used to feel like I could talk better than I could understand, but now I feel the opposite which is more normal. Elder Powner told me that you understand everything at 4 months in Chile and can speak everything at 5 or 6 months.

We are teaching a good amount of people. We have 3 progressing investigators. They are Paula and her son Deigo. They are wife and son of Antonio who we baptised last month. If Paula and Diego get baptised we will have baptised a family of 4! Paula used to be Catholic--like really Catholic--but I think after seeing her husband get baptised she became more interested. Paula came with her son Martin (who is a new member) and her husband Antonio (also new member) last Sunday, and they came to stake confrence yesterday but this time Diego came too! Oh by the way we had stake conference yesterday and it was cool. Our other progressing investigator is Jose. He is super interested and will get baptised. Jose has a very sad life right now. He has a job but his familly is poor because they live out on the outskirts of the city. The thing that is so sad in his life is his children were taking from him a month ago by the government and put in foster homes for some reason. He said it was something his wife had done and she needed to show up to court and did not. Because she didn't show up they came and took her kids. The wife is all mad and moved out to go live with some other man. Whenever he talks about his kids he starts to cry and gets very sad. I can see how Heavenly Father really helped us find him at the right time. Yesterday he came to stake conference which he really liked. He talked with our stake president for a bit for some reason I don't know why (he just talked with him over in a corner not his office) we introduced him to the other missionaries and when they asked him how he enjoyed conference he started crying and telling the story about his family. Elder Powner needed to go do a baptismal interview and as his companion I needed to go with him so we asked the ZLs to give him a blessing of comfort and Familia Campilli to give him a ride home. The ZLs later asked us if we had heard his whole story and we told them yes. They told us that they think he broke the law and that's why his kids were taken away (it would make more sense) if that is the case then we need to just be more careful and possibly work through the mission president. I asked Elder Powner if when we were listening to his story if he heard anything about HIM breaking the law and not his wife. Elder Powner told me that he really only understood about 80% of what he was saying. This frustrated me a little because that would have been helpful stuff to know. We will continue to teach Jose and help him out best we can. They only thing is if he has commited a felony he has to be interviewed by the president. I really hope everything works out and his wife comes back and his kids as well because then we can bring the gospel to all of them. Wow, the sisters in our district just called us and said they got locked out of their apartment? I dont know. Anyways, I would really like to find one more solid investigator. We have other investigators so maybe we can get one of them to progressing status this week. 

So last week during our companionship inventory Elder Powner told me I was only living the minimum of the missionary rules and I needed to start magnifying my call. I didn't like this because I have a personality of only doing the bare minimum sometimes. Anyways, long story short I have decided to magnify my calling and not only be 100 percent obedient but also live the higher law. For example were not supposed to watch movies but they higher law is to not even talk about movies. Or another example were not supposed to listen to music not of the church so were probably shouldn't sing music not of the church. Elder Powner said this is the way Elder Toncinson his trainer was and he just got asked to be the new AP. Nonetheless I am realizing that in order to be a great missionary I need to have 3 things down. 

1. Love the people (now I hate that saying not because it's not true because it is, but because it's a shallow way to say it. The better way to say it is. Really care for the salvation of the people in your area). 

2. Obedience 

3. good studies.

I have number one in the bag which is nice because Elder Powner struggles with it. For example he gives up on people a lot sooner then I would. He says he is a lot better then he used to be though. Number 3 with me is in progress. A mission teaches how to focus and study. Number 2 is the one I need to work on. My goal for my mission is just to be an awesome missionary, and the way you become an awesome missionary is by living and being a missionary from Preach My Gospel. In order to do that you have to know Preach My Gospel so that is where I focus my studies now. For example today I studied chapter 10 "Using time wisely." This chapter has all the stuff on how to do the business of the mission. Run daily and weekly planning sessions and do things like update your area book. We never update our area book so I am now making it my responsibility to do it. I am excited with the goals I made this last week and to see where I end up. 

Like I said Stake conference was really fun. I had already met the new people in my district but not my zone so it was cool to meet new people. Last change a sister named Hermana Call was in my zone. She was being trained like me and she came with my group from the MTC in Provo. This change because they received a ton of sisters and don't have enough to train, Hermana Call and a sister I also know named Hermana Macy are training each other for their last 6 weeks of training. Hermana Call knew a good amount of Spanish before her mission but Sister Macy was like me (not knowing anything). It was interesting to see where she is at and where I think I am at. I am happy with my progress. Sister Macy and Call went to transfers so they were able to see all of the people from my orginal MTC district. Hermana Walker who was in my orginal MTC district and has horrible Spanish is now training a new native sister! It's all because they don't have enough sisters to train. Hermana Nichols, her first change would go to the bathroom every lunch in a members home, say a prayer, and cry. Elder Huntsman has to buy all new ties because of our missions rules on skinny ties. It was fun to hear about all the crazy stuff with everyone, and to know where they had served in their first areas. 

I had a good mission story experience last night. We went to go teach a less active and recent convert family called Familia Cortez. We are really good friends with them and it turns out they wanted to serve us some food. We were super full but weren't gonna turn them down so we sat down at the table. They fed us rice, some chicken, and.... cow stomach. It was horrible. It looked like pasta but it wasn't. It also had little things on it that I can't really describe. Elder Powner and I couldn't eat more then a few bites so we asked them if we could take it home in like a bowl. They were fine with it and just told us to heat it up in the microwave. Ugh we threw it away once we got home. I really didn't like that they spent their money on us to buy that just so they could feed it to us when we came. That family is super poor and I'm thinking "spend your money on yourselves we have plenty of food." We would have eaten the food just to be nice but it was just too gross so we took it home. Well anyways not I have something I can tell people when I get home. 

I am doing really good. Elder Powner is kinda bummed out. He says he feels guilty about something but doesn't know what. I feel a little bad too but I think it's just because of the being more obedient thing. For me it was a bad feeling not a guilty feeling. I think its interesting he used the "feeling guilty." Well anyways I don't know maybe he will figure it out this week. Have fun in France. I cant wait to hear about it.

Dad I will be sure to take a look at 3 nephi and all the things you said. Mom I will study your topic too. 

Love,
Elder Cropper

Elder Cropper