This week's letter - April 1, 2013

Dear Family y Los Demas!

This week was really great because we had the opportunity to see Adrian Lomeli be baptized and it was fun and exciting to see the huge change in him over the past few weeks! We found him the first time and he was a firm Christian in another church and he based everything off of the Bible. We used to bible to show him that today there are prophets as well and I really saw an interest spike there in his eyes. As we continued to teach him we introduced the Book of Mormon and he was reading and going to the church and just eating up everything. On his baptism he arrived and we had everything prepared and then we were about to start when someone told us that he left the church and didn't know where he was. That made me a little frightened. But then 15 minutes later he came back with his 3 kids so that they too can feel and see his baptism. We were taking photos when I told everyone to do a funny photo as well, when I tried to do the Curt stance and my pants ripped in 2. That was indeed a funny picture in the end of it all. He was then confirmed this Sunday which is awesome and we are going to try and work with him this week to teach his kids and his family. (It may be hard because his kids are with his mother on the weekends) So we will see how it all turns out. There are cambios today but i didn't end up being moved so I am happy here with Elder Cuevas still. We are going to try and find all new investigators this week because we already baptized all of our investigators that were progressing! And yes my companion and I are doing something similar to p90x because we cannot actually watch the video. I made up a makeshift version. How are you all doing with your goals. And to answer moms question I want to be a Nutritionist after the mission and learn about what the body needs and how we can function the best. I want to help people lose weight and meet their goals. But we are playing soccer every Monday and I am getting better competing with the Mexicans every week. One day I will catch up with them! :) I love you all and I am glad to say my family is working in the obra del señor as well!!!

Love Elder Cramer

March 25, 2013 letter

Hello family and happy easter as well!!

We did not have the conference with Elder Holland yet but Elder Alonzo from the Seventy came and his talk was amazing and he said we need to focus more on the Atonement of Christ and we then can convey this to all of the rest of the people. Also out of the 120 missionaries I was randomly selected to have an interview with him and that was really special to me because I could feel the spirit really strong and I was grateful that God let me have that experience! I can't believe that it was snowing there. Today we had a zone activity and we played soccer and I got so sunburned on my neck. I think I will get cancer if I keep this up. I hope  not :) I am stoked that Carli can go to see a different country and culture. Tell her she has to give me an essay about it because I want to hear about some of her experiences as well! I bet dad is really happy that she is going to the place where he served huh? :) Carli will come back fluent as well! Yeah there are a lot of Catholic traditions going on butI know that all churches are great because they prepare the people for this gospel so we should never put another religion down or anything like that. Also we had a baptism this past Saturday and also another one this Saturday so we are really excited! The first two baptisms for my companion! :))  Also I am stoked for General Conference and we get to see every session so I will be writing notes like a mad man. I cannot believe that 6 months have already passed by since the last General Conference. I am so glad we have revelation today in these days because boy do we need it. I really liked that dream that you had dad because I think it will come true in just a little more than a year! And it made me feel your love from way down here. Keep me in the loop and know for a surety that I love you guys and that I am trying to be the best missionary so that God will be happy with me and forgive me through my work!

Until next Monday!

Elder Cramer

Mar 17, 2013 and Mar 10, 2013 - No other experience like a mission!

Hey familayyy..

We are making some progress here and I will actually be sending my tapes today in the mail. I will send a tape for the fam, Jackie, and for the family Ritchey! So I hope that arrives in a few short weeks! :) Also no I have not received a package from the Ritcheys.  I hope it comes soon :) And yeah Elder Cuevas and I are doing great here with our baptism this Saturday and hopefully the Saturday that also follows! We are working hard and trying to find more sons and daughters of God that are prepared to hear this message of God. This Friday a Seventy is coming to visit so we are taking a small trip to Torreon, Elder Cuevas and I, to hear some inspiration hopefully. And also I am so stoked for Brendon in 10 days. That is so exciting and I hope the Hoffart family is all doing well! There is no other like the experiences we have here in the mission. I encourage everyone and anyone to go on a mission including dad and mom when they have the means to go as a couple! How special it will be to be able to serve the Lord with your very own eternal companion some day. How marvelous :) But we are doing great here and I had a great experience because one of the investigators that I found and taught got baptized a few weeks back and a missionary sent me the picture so it is crazy to see how I helped plant the seed for this sister to find the gospel! Also we played basketball here in the morning with all of the young adults so that was fun! :) I also have a picture of that :) I love you all and the blessings of the Lord are always coming we just have to let ourselves see them.

Love Elder Cramer

Mar 10, 2013
From last week that I thought I sent but it did not go through.

Hey family!!!

Yeah it is already all toasty here and I feel like a slice of bread being all toasted and crusty. I'm already getting a case of the red face gringo. But my companion and I are learning a lot about humility and we are trying to overcome a challenge that god has presented us with. We were having a lot of success but our president said we need to change our area boundaries so we lost 7 of our baptism dates. And we actually don't have like any investigators right now with these new boundaries so this week we are dedicating to nothing more than finding and teaching new ones. Maybe it is a blessing because I imagine that there are many families on the other side that have been waiting but we never had time to visit these people because we had a ton of work in other colonias and places. So Elder Cuevas and I are working with the ward to find and start teaching others here in these areas that were basically abandoned. But i think we can do it and we are working on it :) This week we have made many improvements in our teaching styles together and we are learning a lot from one another. Unlike a few other trainers we have seen we get along really well in comparison. And I am going to try to send the cassettes to you guys this upcoming Monday that comes so you guys can be expecting some tapes on the way. And yeah I should try to do a few minutes every night because it is hard to find time here on the mission as we are always doing something :) But I am happy here and expect to see some new families that we will find and I am pleased to see that everyone's lives are progressing together! 

Elder Cramer

Also from Mar 20, 2013

Dear family!!

Sorry that you didnt get my letter last week it was in my draft box so I resent it! But that is great that things are going like clockwork there in Indiana!! But more than anything I am just stoked for Jackie and that she is talking to the missionaries! I wanna be there teaching her as well.

But here in Mexico Elder Cuevas and I are doing good with training and all! I am learning a lot being a trainer and being mayor compañero. And the trick is to give my companion all the opportunities to grow and make sure that he feels equal with me. Even though he does depend a lot on me it is fun to see his progress day after day in the teachings that we are doing!

We are still in the ward Filadelfia in gomez palacio, Durango. I really love this ward because we do have a lot of support and our ward mission leader is super dedicated to help us have members with us :) Right now we are working with a family that was less active and the mother and the son this past Sunday were reactivated and soon hopefully her daughter. But we have a baptismal date for the youngest son Bryan for the 23 of March and so we are preparing for that right now and we are excited!

Also we have another date 30 of March with a man named Adrian and he is really cool and he just has a fascination about the scriptures and he loves to find how all the scriptures connect and it is cool to see how he has changed from the first lesson when he said he only wants to talk about the bible, to him now that he is reading the Book of Mormon as well as the bible together. We are excited for him as well in that aspect and we are hoping that everything is good to go for those dates! In the meantime we are also looking for new investigators because our Ppresident switched our area like I have said.

I never knew how bad my allergies really are. I think because of all the dirt here my nose is just running like a marathon. So I am trying to recover from that right now honestly but I stay happy here on the mission!!

Love Elder Cramer

Dear fam and friends!

To answer some of the questions that you threw my way.. Yeah the weather here sometimes is hot but right now and for the last couple of days it has been really cloudy as well. But when the sun is out it is almost like a guaranteed sunburn. And I dont really feel the desire to buy sunscreen because it costs a ton here. They really take advantage of the weather in that aspect. But this week we worked really hard for what we had and we are starting to see the fruits here which is really good! We have 7 baptismal dates and we are trying to prepare them to be baptized in the month of March so we will be very busy! My new companions name is Elder Cuevas or Elder Caves in english. He is like a mexican clone of Kolten so in that aspect I am really happy and I am trying to help him stay excited about the work of the Lord. It makes me think how hard I thought this work was when I arrived but you get used to it and learn to love it more and more. And I did recieve the tape recorder and I really loved it alot. Jackie really put alot of effort into that and I want to thank all of you for that. It made me feel really loved!! I will be working on giving you guys one back in the next few weeks because it is hard to find a whole lot of time to talk in that thing. Today we are going to play basketball and football as a district and afterwards we are going to a members house for a bbq. But I will make sure to send the tapes back. And with insanity I am a little bummed. Because what happened is that some other elders were going crazy with exercise and now all of those kinds of programs are banned and we cannot use discs and things like that. Neither protein because some elders were doing p90x and insanity in the night time and were not studying or planning so they ruined it for me. But what I did was write down alot of the moves and the routines so my companion and I still do it for 30 minutes each day in the morning so we can stay obedient and still have fun and have goals together. I am glad that the Lord has blessed me with this companion and with all of the experiences we are having here. But I am starting to feel weird because I almost have 10 months already... Where did all of that time go? But I am stoked because in May I will have a year, Elder Holland will come, and I can talk to my family. It is like an early Christmas or something haha. :) I am really happy and I want to tell you guys that I love you and I am trying really hard to earn blessings for all of my loved ones! Live the gospel and you will be happy. :)

Elder Cramer

Logan is digivolving!! into a great missionary!! 2/18/2013

Que pasa mufasa? Nada nada hakunamatata...

Hey family I just wanted to let you all know that I love you and I hope the states are treating you splendidly :) I am writing a little bit earlier today because we have an orientation to train in like an hour and a half and then tomorrow President is going to have interviews with the new missionaries from Sur América and I will receive my new companion finally. I only had to endure 2 months in 2 areas. :) But I am really content with the work we did this week for these two areas. Elder Elsmore and I have been working like sled dogs. :) We had like 26 lessons with investigators and members this week. The most I have ever achieved in my mission and it appeared to pay off because we had 9 investigators in the church yesterday. Also we reactivated 6 people this week which made me really happy :) A family of 6 that were not going to the church because of their job and rumors in the church and all we had to do was have a small little testimony meeting in their house one night and that sparked the need to go again. Also we helped a man named Hno Casteñeda. He was bishop a few years back and similarly he fell away from the church because of what some of the members were saying. But he has gone 3 times to the church and he looks like he is excited to be there again. We are going to propose to our Bishop that they get callings in the church to give them that last little push .:) But I am excited and I think I prepared our area of Filadelfia 2 enough. I would like to think of myself as Elías which prepared the way like John the Baptist. Wow lame mormon joke! :) I am really digivolving (pokemon talk for evolving) into something. But Elder Elsmore told me that he has seen a big change in me since the MTC because I just seem a lot more positive than before. And I was thinking on that and I think that is the natural result of obeying God´s commandments. We have received them so that we can be protected from all the bad things and that we can receive blessings from all of the good. The end result.. Happiness. :)

I hope all is well and keep me updated with the whats all goin on!

Love Elder Cramer

Hey fam.

I really loved the photos that dad sent me (these were of our mustache party for Vanessa's birthday). And no I did not receive the recorder yet. I just received insanity the other week so I think I won't receive the other package for at least 2 more weeks. But patience is a virtue and that virtue is already a close friend of mine that I have learned on the mission. And I have news that will probably change my life... In a month or so a Seventy of the church will come and visit us here in the mission. But if that is not good enough in May or when I complete a year in the mission... Elder Holland is going to come officially to the mission. I have a feeling he will get us excited about our work!  I am just so stoked for that and I know I will feel the spirit like crazy. When I saw Elder Holland in the MTC just sitting there, I got chills in my bones. He is my favorite apostle along with Elder Bednar.. But right now Elder Elsmore and I are trying and fighting to work in both areas still. It is hard because it is one day there and one day here. One day Elder Elsmore and I got really depressed because all of our lessons fell through and we felt like all of our efforts were in vain. And I was doubting some things personally in this moment. But then I felt like I received personal revelation because the talk from Elder Christofferson came  to my mind about ¨Those god loves he chastises¨ or something like that because a quote from this talk came to my mind.. Ï am the gardener here.. I know what I want you to be¨ In this moment I became grateful for the challenges that we have right now because if not for anything else God is helping me grow into the man that he would have me be.  I know there are no coincidences. We have trials, tests, challenges, difficulties, and heart aches for a reason. We can take it and pout or we can take it and learn the lesson that God would want us to learn and I know that is true and I am still here in Mexico pulling my personal cart to Zion :) 

I love you all and keep being what God would have you be.. We will see each other sooner than you think :D

Elder Cramer

Reflecting on Christ's Atonement and Patriarchal blessings

¡Que honda familia!

This week has flown by. Because elder Elsmore and I have had many lessons and that is a good sign. We are in 2 areas so one day in one are and the other day in the other area. I had another interview with President today and he thinks that the new missionares will arrive in like 2 more weeks. Elder Elsmore is with me because we are both going to train in each area of Filadelfia. So I am really content right now and we are trying to be the best missionaries as possible! And I did recieve Insanity today and Elder Elsmore and i will be starting that in one of these days that are coming! :D We are excited for sure. I think it is a little crazy how I read my patriarchal blessing today and it means so many different things to me right now than it did when I received it before. It is funny how the truths in this revelation really do come true. But I think really it shows me how many blessings really the Lord has prepared for each one of his children but it has always and will always depend on our decisions we make on a day to day basis. I was thinking the other day how important agency really is to our Heavenly Father if he was willing to give up 1/3 of his children for this gift he has given us. Also Elder Elsmore and I have given our first lesson in english this week with a young man named Henry. He is trying to improve his english for a job that he is studying for. He has gone to the church 2 weeks and we are going to try to put a baptismal date this Saturday with him. I hope he feels the spirit and accepts. We have 4 baptismal dates with a really amazing family. The family Galvan. But the thing is their son has cancer and this Sunday David did not want them to leave so they could not go. So we are going to try and strengthen them and excite them to go to the church so that they can be baptized. Right now we are teaching the plan of salvation to reassure them that no matter what happens they can all live as a family together forever if they chose too! Also we recently reactivated una hermana named Hermana Cruz. She is working with us with some of her famly members right now and I am excited about that :) Tomorrow we have a zone conference and I am stoked to get animated about the work from our leaders. All is good in Filadelfia Gomez Palacio! We live on the street Fransico Villa if you want to look it up on google maps. This week I really focused on the atonement and I am just really grateful for the eternal sacrifice of Christ in my life personally.. Having perfect bodies after this life is a free gift but not only that but he gives us the option to overcome spiritual death as well. He overcame sickness, sadness, temptation, every thing that we could think about he took upon himself. I just want to strive to be more like him. Because that is where Happiness is found.. 

Love Elder Cramer :)

Logan and his new companion, Elder Elsmore.  Reminds us of Saturday's Warriors.