Here is Kaylyn's latest email :)
Sorry I don't have for pictures. I would much rather get to email you all back and forth! Anyways...
I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to the best family and friends in the entire world! This season really is my favorite and I am so grateful that I have so many amazing people in my life. I hope you can all take the time to reflect on the life and birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the reason for this season and He has given us the gift of eternal life. I am so grateful for Him and His atoning sacrifice. This season is really so much more than giving and getting presents but it is about giving ourselves to the Savior. I hope you all can feel of His love for each of your during this time and know that I love and pray for you all daily. Thank you again for all the support. Merry Christmas! I love you all!
Until next time,
Sister Crawford
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Power of Prayer
Hi everyone! Sorry I've slacked again! This is from Kaylyn from December 9th!
Hello Family and Friends!
What a week! My goodness I have learned so much! Before I get into all that I want to thank everyone for the love, support and for the PRAYERS! I can literally feel them all the way on the Island! I don't know what I would do without you all. Thank you so much!
First I want to share a few funny experiences.. This week I have began to realize that I HAVE to laugh at al the funny things that happen throughout the day if I want to stay sane and happy. So here it goes.
1. My milk froze! We went shopping last week and I got some milk, right? You all know how much I LOVE my milk. I put it in the fridge thinking everything was good. The next day I went to go use my milk and BOOM! It was FROZEN like a popsicle! Great. Now what am I supposed to drink? It took about a day and a half to thaw out and now the milk is gone but dang it was crazy pulling frozen milk out of the fridge!
2. The amazing people that pretend they are NOT inside their homes when we knock on their door but we KNOW they are inside their home. Yes. People actually do this. We will knock on a door and dogs will go crazy and we will literally hear people telling their dogs to be quiet but they will never come to the door. Yes. People actually do this. It is great! Even better is when we will see them look our their windows and then they never come to the door. Again. People actually do this. It's so wonderful! Like really. Our favorite thing to do when this happens is to wait for a really really long time at their door. We like to make it awkward. It's great! Oh, and NO MATTER WHAT, we ALWAYS knock on the door twice. Just in case. :)
3. The ward choir. I am a part of the ward choir. We sang at the ward Christmas party on Saturday and we will be doing some fancy musical numbers for the Christmas sacrament. It's great fun. The choir director is a convert. A black convert. A black convert who is my age. Yes. It is so great. I love her so much and am so grateful she puts up with my terrible singing and poor dance moves. She is really into gospel music and really tries to get all the white people into it. Does it work? We try. We try really hard. We sang Joy to the World at the Christmas party. We swayed and all. It was great ya'll.
Alright. That is enough funny. You all probably don't think that was funny but I thought they were all funny. Got to find the joy in life, right?
Now for the good stuff.
Something else that I have learned this week is about the power of prayer. The first five days of my mission were incredible hard. Harder than I thought they were going to be. But, I learned something really important from them. I learned that prayer is real and that it is powerful. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that I could pray for help to endure those first five days but it didn't really occur to me. Rookie move I guess?
On Monday of last week I was reminded that I can pray to our loving Heavenly Father whenever I need Him. I remembered that He is just waiting to help me. And I remembered that I have to just ask for help. How grateful I am for Him and His love. I would not have made it another week without the comfort He gave me. As soon as I turned my struggles over to Him in prayer, they started to be washed away. He helped change my perspective and my attitude towards my struggles. As soon as I asked, He was there to help and pull me through. How grateful I am for that! That alone helped me in so many ways. So many ways.
I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us. I know that He wants to help us. And I know that we can do anything if we will rely on Him. He has giving us the ability to pray and He wants us to pray to Him frequently. I know it, I know it, I know it. I love you all so very much and am so grateful for the love, support and all the prayers. Always remember that God loves you! I love you all and will talk to you soon.
Until Next Time,
Sister Crawford
Hello Family and Friends!
What a week! My goodness I have learned so much! Before I get into all that I want to thank everyone for the love, support and for the PRAYERS! I can literally feel them all the way on the Island! I don't know what I would do without you all. Thank you so much!
First I want to share a few funny experiences.. This week I have began to realize that I HAVE to laugh at al the funny things that happen throughout the day if I want to stay sane and happy. So here it goes.
1. My milk froze! We went shopping last week and I got some milk, right? You all know how much I LOVE my milk. I put it in the fridge thinking everything was good. The next day I went to go use my milk and BOOM! It was FROZEN like a popsicle! Great. Now what am I supposed to drink? It took about a day and a half to thaw out and now the milk is gone but dang it was crazy pulling frozen milk out of the fridge!
2. The amazing people that pretend they are NOT inside their homes when we knock on their door but we KNOW they are inside their home. Yes. People actually do this. We will knock on a door and dogs will go crazy and we will literally hear people telling their dogs to be quiet but they will never come to the door. Yes. People actually do this. It is great! Even better is when we will see them look our their windows and then they never come to the door. Again. People actually do this. It's so wonderful! Like really. Our favorite thing to do when this happens is to wait for a really really long time at their door. We like to make it awkward. It's great! Oh, and NO MATTER WHAT, we ALWAYS knock on the door twice. Just in case. :)
3. The ward choir. I am a part of the ward choir. We sang at the ward Christmas party on Saturday and we will be doing some fancy musical numbers for the Christmas sacrament. It's great fun. The choir director is a convert. A black convert. A black convert who is my age. Yes. It is so great. I love her so much and am so grateful she puts up with my terrible singing and poor dance moves. She is really into gospel music and really tries to get all the white people into it. Does it work? We try. We try really hard. We sang Joy to the World at the Christmas party. We swayed and all. It was great ya'll.
Alright. That is enough funny. You all probably don't think that was funny but I thought they were all funny. Got to find the joy in life, right?
Now for the good stuff.
Something else that I have learned this week is about the power of prayer. The first five days of my mission were incredible hard. Harder than I thought they were going to be. But, I learned something really important from them. I learned that prayer is real and that it is powerful. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that I could pray for help to endure those first five days but it didn't really occur to me. Rookie move I guess?
On Monday of last week I was reminded that I can pray to our loving Heavenly Father whenever I need Him. I remembered that He is just waiting to help me. And I remembered that I have to just ask for help. How grateful I am for Him and His love. I would not have made it another week without the comfort He gave me. As soon as I turned my struggles over to Him in prayer, they started to be washed away. He helped change my perspective and my attitude towards my struggles. As soon as I asked, He was there to help and pull me through. How grateful I am for that! That alone helped me in so many ways. So many ways.
I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us. I know that He wants to help us. And I know that we can do anything if we will rely on Him. He has giving us the ability to pray and He wants us to pray to Him frequently. I know it, I know it, I know it. I love you all so very much and am so grateful for the love, support and all the prayers. Always remember that God loves you! I love you all and will talk to you soon.
Until Next Time,
Sister Crawford
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Finally in Florida... Life on the Island
Hey everyone sorry for slacking so much with updates from Kaylyn! She left the MTC last Tuesday and has now been in Flordia for her first week! Her P-Days are on Mondays and she usually can email from 8am to 10am Utah time. I got the chance to email with her a little bit this Monday. She says she will eventually be able to use Facebook but not for a few months. I gave her the news of Paul Walker death and her response was "oh no!! not paul walker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Lol my reaction was pretty much the same! She seems to be doing well though! Here's an email from her!
Hello Family and Friends!
I have been called to serve in the St. Simons Island of Georgia! That's right, I LIVE ON AN ISLAND. It is so fantastic here. Beautiful scenery, beautiful homes, beautiful pier and beautiful people!
My companion and I are opening or "white washing" this area. Basically that means that missionaries haven't or have never been lived in this area so we are the first. We are the trail blazers! We are assigned to the Brunswick 2nd Ward and live about 20 minutes from church. There are 2 1/2 other sets of missionaries assigned to that ward (One are part time Spanish Elders) and so we get to work along side with them. The others live in Brunswick and they didn't get to venture into the Island very much so they added us! We live and serve the people solely on the Island. It is pretty wealthy area for the most part so I have seen a lot of beautiful homes and a lot of really rich people. The area itself its gorgeous! The streets are lined with big trees covered in Spanish moss and the homes are all so different and just amazingly beautiful!
We got here pretty late on Wednesday night and we didn't have ANYTHING to help us start working when we got here. NOTHING! No supplies, pamphlets, Book of Mormons or anything. Not even a list of members on the Island. Hahah, so that was great. We have sense gotten that worked out now though :)
Thursday was Thanksgiving! At first we didn't think that we were going to have anyway to go but we ended up getting invited to a members house, Brother and Sister Thomas's house, and we got to eat there. Sister Thomas as was out of town so it was just Brother Thomas but he did really well on the cooking! Also on Thursday we visited members and also did some tracting.Jumping right into the work! :)
Friday was a good day. More contacting and tracting. We have done a lot of that! Opening an area is a lot of work! We have a few handfuls of members that live on the Island but a lot of them are inactive so we have been trying to get ahold of them the best we can and get that excited about coming back to church! We have got to meet with quite a few of them now so that has been great! Also the members are simply amazing and have treated us SO well! Seriously don't know what I would do without them! They are all so nice and willing to help. They are super ready to be a missionary ward so I am excited to jump in on that and get it going!
Also, we have 3 new investigators! We found them all will tracting and they all promised to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We will be following up with them all this week so we are excited about that! I can't wait to see how their experiences have gone and see what else the Lord has in store for them.
We have also had doors slammed in our faces a lot, too.
It's cool.
The work here is going well. It's coming along nicely and I think we have a really good base to start with. We have some really strong families and I'm super excited to work with them and get them involved!
Overall, the people on the Island are so nice! Like really. Very few people have been mean to us. Haha, so that is great. Most people around here are religious and are comfortable with where they are at in life so that is a struggle but it is good. Also, it is a struggle that our church meetinghouse is up over the causeway in Brunswick... Island people don't like to drive. Island life is super relaxed. All the time we see people walking their dogs and riding their bikes and just like chillaxing. Haha, it is crazy! But really cool. I admire it a lot. They just have this slower pace of life. Something I have NEVER lived with.
Buttttttttt, good news about never having a slower paced life..... Missionary life is NOT SLOW PACED AT ALL. So my experience with a fast paced life is helping me immensely! Like no joke. So thank you mom and dad and everyone who has contributed to me having a freaking crazy busy life! It has helped me cope so much!
Anyways, I love you all so much and miss you all more than words can describe! I want everyone to know that God loves you and He will NEVER leave you! He is SO aware of us and our needs. I have seen His hand in my life SO much over the past 5 days, it is incredible! I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone remembers who they are as children of God! I love you all! Peace!
Until next time,
Sister Crawford
Ps: Write me letters and send them to: 850 Mallery St Unit P14 St. Simons Island, GA 31522
Hello Family and Friends!
I have been called to serve in the St. Simons Island of Georgia! That's right, I LIVE ON AN ISLAND. It is so fantastic here. Beautiful scenery, beautiful homes, beautiful pier and beautiful people!
My companion and I are opening or "white washing" this area. Basically that means that missionaries haven't or have never been lived in this area so we are the first. We are the trail blazers! We are assigned to the Brunswick 2nd Ward and live about 20 minutes from church. There are 2 1/2 other sets of missionaries assigned to that ward (One are part time Spanish Elders) and so we get to work along side with them. The others live in Brunswick and they didn't get to venture into the Island very much so they added us! We live and serve the people solely on the Island. It is pretty wealthy area for the most part so I have seen a lot of beautiful homes and a lot of really rich people. The area itself its gorgeous! The streets are lined with big trees covered in Spanish moss and the homes are all so different and just amazingly beautiful!
We got here pretty late on Wednesday night and we didn't have ANYTHING to help us start working when we got here. NOTHING! No supplies, pamphlets, Book of Mormons or anything. Not even a list of members on the Island. Hahah, so that was great. We have sense gotten that worked out now though :)
Thursday was Thanksgiving! At first we didn't think that we were going to have anyway to go but we ended up getting invited to a members house, Brother and Sister Thomas's house, and we got to eat there. Sister Thomas as was out of town so it was just Brother Thomas but he did really well on the cooking! Also on Thursday we visited members and also did some tracting.Jumping right into the work! :)
Friday was a good day. More contacting and tracting. We have done a lot of that! Opening an area is a lot of work! We have a few handfuls of members that live on the Island but a lot of them are inactive so we have been trying to get ahold of them the best we can and get that excited about coming back to church! We have got to meet with quite a few of them now so that has been great! Also the members are simply amazing and have treated us SO well! Seriously don't know what I would do without them! They are all so nice and willing to help. They are super ready to be a missionary ward so I am excited to jump in on that and get it going!
Also, we have 3 new investigators! We found them all will tracting and they all promised to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We will be following up with them all this week so we are excited about that! I can't wait to see how their experiences have gone and see what else the Lord has in store for them.
We have also had doors slammed in our faces a lot, too.
It's cool.
The work here is going well. It's coming along nicely and I think we have a really good base to start with. We have some really strong families and I'm super excited to work with them and get them involved!
Overall, the people on the Island are so nice! Like really. Very few people have been mean to us. Haha, so that is great. Most people around here are religious and are comfortable with where they are at in life so that is a struggle but it is good. Also, it is a struggle that our church meetinghouse is up over the causeway in Brunswick... Island people don't like to drive. Island life is super relaxed. All the time we see people walking their dogs and riding their bikes and just like chillaxing. Haha, it is crazy! But really cool. I admire it a lot. They just have this slower pace of life. Something I have NEVER lived with.
Buttttttttt, good news about never having a slower paced life..... Missionary life is NOT SLOW PACED AT ALL. So my experience with a fast paced life is helping me immensely! Like no joke. So thank you mom and dad and everyone who has contributed to me having a freaking crazy busy life! It has helped me cope so much!
Anyways, I love you all so much and miss you all more than words can describe! I want everyone to know that God loves you and He will NEVER leave you! He is SO aware of us and our needs. I have seen His hand in my life SO much over the past 5 days, it is incredible! I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone remembers who they are as children of God! I love you all! Peace!
Until next time,
Sister Crawford
Ps: Write me letters and send them to: 850 Mallery St Unit P14 St. Simons Island, GA 31522
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