Weekly Update 3/14/16

Dear family and friends.

It's time for my weekly email, again.

                        Well it was another good week here in the Longwood area. We went hard and had some fun! We taught a ton of lessons. Tons. And helped some people come closer to Jesus Christ.

Cause I guess that's what I'm called to do or something like that. :) This week I learned a lot about repentance and how good it feels! Hahaha... not repentance of large transgressions, but of little things.

Little mistakes I make! Like not getting a member to every lesson or not using the scriptures well enough in lessons. I've found that by doing that I can more easily access the atonement and progress

faster! Then I'll be a better missionary, and person. Lord knows I need to be a little better! Well I'll just go into this week and mention some of the highlights. Those include but are not limited to:

                  Well to start off this week I'll start with a somewhat funny story, so on Sunday we were at church. Shocker, I know, but it was a normal day. The speakers who talked gave great talks and I enjoyed them. But against what the norm usually is all three of them together only took about 35 minutes. So we were left there with that awkward extra 5-6 minutes to fill. So what does the bishopric do but call on the missionaries to give on the spot testimonies. Boooooyahhhhh! LOL! Of course it was a pretty full chapel and I was feeling pretty good, I had a sock tie on. So we both went up there confidently and spoke by the power of the Holy Ghost. A wise man once told me if you didn't have time to prepare the spirit will give you the words to speak, so he did. I don't remember much of what I said I just know it's what needed to be said. It was pretty funny. I think I cracked a joke, knowing me I'm pretty sure I did. It feels good to be lead by the Holy Spirit. That leads into my next point.

                     On Saturday Elder Thornock and I had a packed day full of lessons and good stuff! We were pumped and prepared to just go out there and kill it. I was pretty confident that we would. As

studies went on it appeared the Lord had different plans in mind. Appointment after appointment canceled. Soon we were left with only 1set appointment. We looked at each other and said "LFG" or "Let's Freaking Go". We said a prayer, an inspired one, for the Lord to help us fill our now 4 hours before dinner. We had already taught 2 lessons but we had an audacious goal of teaching 10. Well with that quiet prayer in our heart we acted and went to twerk. The Lord lead us to 6 people who were ready to hear the gospel. Three were less active members. We actually knocked on the door of one, whose mother was about to go into the hospital. She was actually a member as well. So we got to give her a blessing before she went in. It was so sick. We went hard and at dinner time we had taught 8 lessons. We were pumped. It was a great day and a testimony to me that he Lord answers prayers. The most repeated commission in the scriptures is to "Ask and ye shall receive" I know that's true!

                     So it's time for another story, a funny one, but a touching one as well. Anyways many of you may or may not know while I was serving with Elder Egan in Daytona we met a young man named Kamal. He is blind, has autism, and is a Muslim. Well he doesn't want to be anymore because he knows the church is true. We met him at a center of the blind. Gave him a blessing and he went on. He called us every day, and when I got transferred to Longwood I thought he'd stop. I was wrong. This young man continues to call me every single day. The conversation goes the same: Kamal "Hey Carterrr" Crismon "Heyyy Kamal, how are you?" Kamal "Greaaatttt, so what's up?" LOL. He's a great kid. I sure do love him. I look forward to his calls every day. I'm pretty sure we will be life long friends. Whether or not I choose to be. LOL. He's already asked me if he could marry my sister (I said no Brianne, no worries) and if when I get married if he can move in with me and my wife so he can get baptized. His parents won't let him get baptized by the way. They will allow him to if he moves out so he always asks me to adopt him. LOL. He's a great kid! Please pray for Kamal. He also calls the Draper temple and puts my name on the prayer roll often. Hahaha.

                      Well that was my week in a nut shell. It's been a good one and I'm grateful the Lord has blessed us with so much success. I really can't take the credit for it, because this is his work and I'm just an instrument. The more and more I think about it the more apparent to me God's love for his children becomes. I know he loves me. He sees fit to bless me with all these great things. One of

my favorite scriptures is 3 Nephi 14:11 "If he then, being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" That's true, I know it is.  I've asked, and then worked to the best of my abilities to get it. Father in Heaven always blesses me with it. He lives, He's real, I know it. I've felt it, and I've watched it change lives. This week we had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was absolutely amazing. As I sat in the high rooms in that sacred building, a powerful feeling entered into my heart. A feeling that I

was home, and that we are all wandering strangers in a distant land. This is the Lords true church. I know it, and I testify if it with all of my heart. I hope you all have an absolutely amazing week this

coming week! I will be praying for every single one of you. This past week I hit my 18 month mark, it's weird. I've been doing this for a year and a half! Hahaha!! Please pray for me, and I hope you all have an amazing week!

LOVES!!!!!!

Love, Elder Carter Crismon. A duly ordained minister of the Church of

Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.®

P.s.- I testify that hymn #284 "If You Could Hie to Kolob" is true.

 Carter and Elder Thornock playing with SnapChat at a members home- this is their face swap! Haha!

 Beautiful Florida! :)

Weekly Update 3/7/2016

Dear family and friends...........How are y'all!!!

                    I'm Gucci Mayne! Before I really get into this please send up a prayer for my boi Elder Hill, he broke his ankle this morning and is currently on his way to the hospital. He's a good guy!

                     Anyways, so we had a pretty good week! Hahaha Some crappy stuff happened including a pretty crazy injury that took place this morning. Plus I had something wild happen to me that I'll mention later on. Anyways just a wild week. As for the key indicators and stuff and missionary work it was alright. Nothing real crazy happened. We had an alright week, but there is room for improvement. We are excited for this next week because we feel we are just gonna explode. Anyways......... highlights of the week!

                    So the first thing was something very funny happened this week. Kinda sad, but very very funny! So the other day Elder Thornock and I were sitting at a stop light. Our windows were down because it was an absolutely Beautiful day! We were waiting there and I thought it'd be funny to yell out the window! So I yell "Your Sick" real loud and it was funny. LOL!! Then this guy next to us was rolling up in his car as I yelled out the window. He looked at me like I was an alien. Hahaha! So he then looks forward and he rear ends the guy in front of him...... Holy cow. I caused a car accident!!! It was pretty funny. Our windows were down and we had to really try hard to hold in

our laughs. We slowly rolled up our windows. It was freaking funny!! Anyways, I just can't imagine what was going through his mind as that happened. LOL!

                      Other then that nothing really crazy happened. We found a ton of part member families as we tried to find through our LARCs. The other day we were looking for this guy. So we knocked on his door looking for him. We knocked a couple of times, then suddenly the window flung open behind us. Then this guy named Ted was looking at us, hahahahaha he is a funny dude. We asked him for the guy we were looking for, but he wasn't there. We asked if he was a member and he said no. We asked if he wanted to be one he said no. Hahaha! He was a funny dude. Needless to say we are now teaching him and are going to do service for him this coming week! Along with him we found

a couple other part member families that we are excited about.

                     Well probably the coolest highlight was I got to train at zone conference with My boi Elder Johnson. He's the man. We gave A 35 minute training and it was dope. We took a video of it. So that was cool. I'll try to attach it to the email. The zone conference was really good. We had some amazing trainings. It was so cool to train with Elder Johnson during the conference. We had an

amazing time. It's super cool to train with your best friend from back home!

                     Alright that's my week. I really don't have much else to say. All I know is that this is the true church, and this is Gods work. He lives and so does his son Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to serve here in Florida! It's so fun, and I'm learning a ton. The things I'm learning will bless me throughout my life! I hope you are doing well back home! Hopefully I hear from some of you fellars out there!

Loves Elder Crismon

 Cooking eggs with his St Patricks day bling and an NBA head band! Hahaha!

 His first experience with boxed food not really being like it's "Shown"! Haha! He said it tasted good though!

Weekly Update 2/29/16- Leap Year!

Weekly Update!!

#TurnUp

                   We had a good week here in the Lake Mary Zone!! Like a really good week. We hit every single one of our targets. Which is just nuts! Wahooooooooooo!! We are just instilling faith and hope here in the Lake Mary Zone. God is blessing us! It's pretty awesome! I'm very grateful for that because I really don't feel that it is anything that we are doing! It's so so cool. So thank you for all the prayers for me and my zone! They are truly working!! Wahoooo! Other then that I had a busy week with three exchanges, tons and tons of lessons, and cool miracles! I'll just hope right into it!! Wahooooo!

                     So we had three exchanges this week which honestly is just draining. I love it though. They say sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven! I truly believe that is true! I've seen it as we go on exchanges the zone seems to be doing better. I went on an exchange with Elder Bone, Elder Lindsay, and Elder Walker. Each one was lots of fun. The first two I was in my own area. Which is fun cause you just go ham, and show others how we find success. Elder Bone is a good guy and so is Elder Lindsay! I've gone on exchanges with Elder Lindsay before as well! Then on Saturday I went on an exchange with Elder Walker! We had so much fun in his area. They had been struggling and we just went off. Taught 7 lessons and got that area going again! So that feels good! Elder Walker, Elder Lindsay, and myself have been out on our missions the longest in our zone. Which is so weird to think about. I have always been the young gun, but now I'm like the old hag. Hahaha! It's kind of a

fun change of events. Now people just seem to respect what I say a little more, so that means I've gotta make sure my advice is sound!

                       So cool miracles that happened this week. The first one I'll mention is that we found an awesome woman to teach. So we were going LARCing which is just when we go and try to find some Less Actives to teach. Which can be kinda crazy sometimes! Hahaha! So we were going to find this one, we knocked on the door and this lady Melanie answered. She was awesome and we taught her on the door step. Then later on we came back. We taught her the restoration and it was an amazing lesson. We all felt the spirit, and she cried a couple of times. Hahaha! That always feels good. But we then committed her to be baptized. She accepted. We were so pumped! The feeling of

the spirit in a killer lesson like that is priceless! It makes all the planning, finding, knocking, and hard twerk worth it! Life is Gucci Mayne for these two missionaries right now! Please pray that as we

continue working with her and others that we will continue to help them get baptized, and find other people! Then later on that same night we found someone else. His name was Joseph. We knock on his

door, he lets us in and the first thing he says are "These Are My Brothers In Christ!" We were like uhhhhhhh. Okay, yeah we're your brothers! He requested a Book of Mormon and we gave it to him. #Bang It was pretty dope, he told us to come back later this week, so we are. I'll let you know what happens there!

                    Alright funny story of the week. So on Sunday Elder Thornock and I were out LARCing again, and we found ourselves in an apartment complex! As we were getting a Book of Mormon

out of the back of our car suddenly we heard a voice from a window two stories up across the parking lot. It was this little kid. He was like "What's up?" Elder Thornock and I looked at each other and yelled in response "Nothing, what's up with you?" He responded quickly with a "Nothing!" I then responded with "Can We give you a book?" Not knowing if he was old or not. He was just quiet. Then suddenly the door flung open and he was like "What Did You say?" We saw that this little kid

was like ten so we responded with "Nothing!" LOL! It was probably one of the weirdest things that has happened to me on my mission. Later on Elder Thornock was like "You know your bored when you start yelling at random people outside your window." LOL! It's true, it was a good time.

                     Over all it was a pretty good week for the Swool Squad here in the Longwood area. After all was said and done we taught a ton of people, and got some people to church. Sadly that super awesome guy that Elder Johnson and I taught moved to West Palm Beach due to a job offer he received! We were both pretty bummed. But that's okay, God just wants us to find other solid people to teach. We are hopeful, and faithful that we will find those people. Please pray that we do! God is at the helm of this great work. I just know it, because somehow this work rolls forward when an imperfect instrument like me is involved. I mean I'm crazy and stuff. But we still see miracles! I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to serve him here in Florida. The old orange state! My zone is killing it as well. Pound for pound we are doing the best in the mission. It's pretty dope, and again it's not me, it's God! I'm just a little fellar from Utah! God lives, and he sent his son Jesus Christ here to the

earth! He restored his gospel in these days through his prophet Joseph Smith. I know it, and I know that God knows it! This work is true, and the book we hand out is blue. Generally, sometimes is like different colors depending upon the style. Either way it's true! I hope you all have an amazing week! I'll keep you all in my prayers! OKAY LOVE YOU SEE YOU LATER BYE!!!!!!

Love, Elder Crismon

 This picture was taken in an area furthest away in his zone. He called it "the boonies!"

 Same area- The city was called Oviedo. It is near a large lake has has the MOST alligators in the country! Yikes!

 Carter and a cat at a less active members home. Apparently it is part leopard or something!

 This was the day he sent his email. It was a District P-day and they all went go carting! This is Carter and his Companion Elder Thornock.

 Carter was the winner! Woo Hoo! he was very proud of that!

 Apartment selfie! :)