November 18, 2013 letter

Thanks for the birthday wishes!!!

I feel old haha. (21 this year)

And I did not have transfers yet because they are this next Monday that is coming up. So who knows:)  I kind of hope they don't change me for 2 more weeks because then I will be here for the baptism of cCaudia and her 2 daughters. They are super special :D But if not well at least I could see the conversion of them and feel Gods love for them! :) I will attach a photo of them and my companion. I saw the vid of the YMCA. What a treat to have Ryan and his friend there. Actually I knew every child there except one because of swim lessons. :) It made me miss working with the swim kids! But we had intercambios (meetings) with the assistants last week and it was nice to get another perspective on things. He showed me a talk that really helped me understand what is grace. It is called "His Grace is Sufficient." I bet dad will like that a lot. It changed my mind set a little bit :) 

How is the YMCA fundraising going? How is Ness and Curt doing as they prepare to be parents!! :) They are so ready and the baby can ride Macy like a horse to the church and things like that :) But I am glad you are all okay with the tornado! I bet the work out there is just zooming. I am excited to get involved when I get back. Just a few more weeks and then we will be skyping! I don't know where I will be so I cannot make arrangements yet, but as soon as I know I will let you guys know! Here is a photo! 

Elder Cramer

Nov. 4 and Nov. 11, 2013

Hey hey my growing family!

This week was nice because we have found a few new families and that is making me excited. And the ward is in a moment of transition. It is because a lot of people are used to the way of the work of the Lord where the missionaries do everything but these times are changing and when we get to work together there will be so many that come to the knowledge of the truth. But until then we are trying to put down the building blocks for this ward and zone. We baptized this week also Nacho! He and his family have to wait a year and then they can be sealed in the temple! That will be a wonderful event for sure. :) I confirmed him a member this last Sunday and it was my first time doing that as well. I have done so many things for the first time in the gospel but only in Spanish. It will be odd doing them in English. I will attach a few photos. My companion is named Elder Arvizu and we get along really well. And I have been in this ward for 5 months now. I think in a month or less they will send me to a new area to know it and then maybe I will train for the last 3 months of my mission. And if not that is okay also. I have been in the ZL council for 5 months now. Wow time goes fast. and no I have not received the package yet but when it gets here it gets here :) And let Jacci and her husband know I love them and I am so happy that they got baptized! How is Grandma Kay holding up? I got a birthday card from Debster so that was so nice to here from them! Gotta love those guys. And Vanessa looks like she is doing a professional photo shoot there. What a nice job I bet she did. 19 baptisms is a ton. What are you guys doing to find people to teach? How many missionaries do you have?

I really like a lot of scriptures. I really like in Chapter 14 of John. verse 21.. I know that God loves all of his sons and daughters but this scripture says that there is a special love for those that obey God.. and He will manifest himself to them... that is remarkable to me. At least that is one of the scriptures that has really hit me lately. Tell me what you guys think about it. Tonight you should watch the Gorbon B. Hinckley movie... it made me cry.. I love that man.

But here are a few photos of the baptism and my companion :)

 

Nov. 11, 2013

 

Hey family! (Including Grandpa Paul and Grandma Nancy)

I am stoked for that news ness gave me. I have been pondering when the time will come that I can teach some little dudes or dudets in our family the ways of life :) And it sounds like this week has been a delight with Applebees and Pink Walruses and baby announcements and photo parties. The fam is a hoot! But tomorrow we have to give a zone capacitation and then we have a special meeting with our zone and president on Thursday followed by another meeting with Presidente Flores and our Stake President in the night time. So this week will be fun again. It is neat to see how the work changes so much like it seems now we are focusing all of our efforts on the members again as we now have instructiones to visit and teach all of the lessons to our 12 members of ward council so it will be nice to get to know the members more here in San Luis. I am going on 5 months in this area. Time flies for sure. My companion is Elder Arvizu and he is from Mexico City as well. It is neat to see him again because he started his mission a year ago and we were in the same ward as I was in La Rosa 1 and he opened La Rosa 2. So we get along really well. The members are starting to kick things into gear and are beginning to work again. Which is a good sign for us. And that is awesome that our ward is baptizing like machines! What a blessing to have a lot of fruits in our ward. If all goes well we will be baptizing again this Thursday with a young man of 11 years in hopes to prepare his family to be sealed in a year. I will send photos.. And the photos that you sent me won't display so if you can send them again that would be great. And the video that ness sent me doesn't work either so that was a bummer but I am still super happy. We found a new family this last week and yesterday She went to the church with her 6 year old daughter. She said she liked the church and has a lot of questions and that is great to hear as a missionary because it means she wants to know the answers. 

But I am doing great here and know that I am working hard to return with honor!

1. In Zone leader council we bought presidente sone cakes for his birthday

2. Helping a sister in the ward with Tamarindos covered in sugar to sell

3. Same...

4. Enjoying the end product

5. I found a tumbleweed haha

 

 

 



Oct. 14 & 21, 2013 Letter

Oct. 21, 2013

Hey family!

I cant believe little beanie baby is 16 years old haha. I never saw a bill to pass in order to give her permission to do this. I veto'edd that! >:) haha but I am proud to be a member of such a good looking family. Everyone seems to be falling in the right places in the Cramer family puzzle. And yes if I can I think it would be better to be on the fall/winter track as well. And I promise you mom I will spend less time under the bed and more time in the library hitting the books haha. Like I mentioned to mom we have a baptism this week for a less active family that reactived and we are going to baptize her 13 year old son and his 8 year old brother. They are basically pros and Jose acts alot like Ryan I think in many ways haha. Today we had  zone activities and President came so I had to guard him in basketball. Not really but he is good at basketball for an old guy ha. His power doesn't only come from the gospel. So that was really fun and now I am pretty wiped out haha. We had interviews this last week as well and afterwards President bought us tacos and it was nice to get to know him more on a personal level.. This Sunday we are going to do something that I have never done before.. Our Stake President asked us to teach all of the bishops in our stake. So President Flores, my companion, and I will be teaching all of the bishops this sunday about obedience and that when God commands we obey. So that will be a once in a lifetime experience I think haha. I have never taught with President Flores so I am stoked. But thanks very much for the fitness stuff. I am starting to lose weight again like I hoped I would :) Gotta be fit like the rest of the fam. But good job mom with the job! You will do great! And wow I will be seeing you guys in 8 weeks and one month from today (skyping for Christmas) I will be an old man of 21 years old.. Weird. :( 

Oh well haha

Have a wonderful week and remember the challenge Ballard gave us. A friend or family before christmas!

Elder Cramer

October 14, 2013
Hey hey!

The zone is doing good right now. We have 2 ex zone leaders that are training and they had to talk to us yesterday because they want help to stay focused on the mission. It is such a weird period when someone will be leaving the mission it seems because you are in the middle of thinking about yourself again and focusing on the mission. But they can call us whenever they need to. This week we will have interviews with President and that will be fun to be close to him. I thought I was going to get transferred today but another 2 weeks at least here in San Luis with Elder Nuñez. So I am going to try and find some new investigators this week! That is the goal. :) We have a family that was less active and in 2 weeks we are going to baptize Jose because he has not been baptized yet so for that I am grateful! That is the goals for right now. We are trying to stay focused and also we will be opening another area in 2 weeks. Valle Verde 3 so they will have 6 missionaries. We will see how that turns out ha :) That is great that you could go out and spend time with the fam dad! Did my tape come for Jackie yet? I miss you guys and I want you to know that I love you all.. :) Lots of hugs and make sure to let Kolten. Jackie. Scott know that I miss them all too.

Love elder cramer

Wow... Conference was a blessing :)

I got to see every meeting of conference except the one for the women obviously.. which I will download later on to hear. My two favorite talks were about the African 70 Dube or something like that about not looking back and that we need to take our covenants seriously and that it is not enough to say that we have accomplished this or that but what is important is what are we doing right now. Also the other talk with Elder Uchtdorf about joining us and that the church requires so much of the members but it is the only way because God requires our hearts. I loved that he said the church is perfect but the membrs are not and never will be because I was thinking that in Ephisians it says that we have a church function to be perfected in Christ so that is the whole reason we have a church. Really I loved every talk because I took 13 pages of notes and a lot of their messages struck me. When Elder Eyring talked about the boy in prison and the mother questioning God, it made me cry. God loves us so much sometimes we don't even realize it.. What blessings. I was sad that conference ended because now I have to wait 6 more months for the next one. 

This week we had exchanges with the assistants and I learned a lot from Elder Tarrega. We also had our zone leader council and we learned lots in regard to studying for our investigators to transfer the spirit to them. Did my tape for Jackie arrive? How is the family? I am so jealous of Carli because I want to go to conference! Actually I have a goal for our family that we can all go together, and if that is impossible at least Ryan, dad and I together like a priesthood party. I bet it was great to go to priesthood with Ryan for the first time! What a blessing to have a dad that honors his priesthood. Ryan be grateful because I now know a ton of people that do not have that blessing :) I liked that it talked about how much the women in our lives also play such an important role for the priesthood. Really a priesthood holder is nothing without his wife and support like Thomas S Monson was telling us. What a grand testimony our prophet has about the plan of salvation. Je knows he will be with his wife again. This is the church of God there is no doubt! (EXCLAMATION MARK) I will doubt my doubts before I doubt my faith :D Thanks for being such an excellent family and I will be so happy when the day comes that we can do the work for Aunt Inez. she will accept the truth lickity split! Keep working in the truth and do what Elder Ballard invited us to do. EVERY MEMBER has to invite someone before Christmas... Keep it in your mind that those 10 investigators can be 20 and 10 baptismal dates. Don't conform yourselves :)

Love Elder Cramer 

P.S. I got to watch it in English hehe :)

September 30, 2013 letter

hey hey hey hey :)

Wow how fantastic that you were able to baptize someone dad. I bet it reminded you of your mission a tad huh? Are all of his kids baptized already as well? If not you have some more work to do for sure. And how many missionaries will you have in the ward then? Is the Spanish branch also increasing a little bit? What are the stake goals that you have put with President? Thanks for sending those things as I want come home a spiritual and physical giant :) At least something to start out with. I am trying to prepare a lot of people for the gospel. I am talking to like 10 friends every Monday and trying to fit in small reminders of God every time. Graham really needs some help these days. He moved back in with his mom because she had a heart attack and I think it would be worth it to try and teach him again.  He would make a great person to be baptized because there are a lot of things he would like to change about himself and he doesn't know how. He needs the plan of salvation. se le encargo :)  How is Jackie doing anyways. I have emailed her like 3 times and she doesn't have time for me apparently. No I bet she is busy. Let Kolten know I am stoked to help him prepare for the mission along with Carli. We can go out with the missionaries and teach a bunch of our friends. It'll help him a lot I think. And our zone capacitation was really good I think we are always focusing on practices now and President really focused about getting along with our latino companions because sometimes the culture differences don't help us have the spirit with us but I don't have a problem with that at all. I have loved all of my companions. The trick that I try to use is what dad told me like a year ago, trying to find out why God put with him and what can I learn from him and I try thinking.. if he were my wife (this is really hilarious, oh Logi) what would I do to serve him? so that is what has helped me haha. Tomorrow we have exchanges with the assistants and then this Thursday we have zone leader council. Then 2 weeks from today we have changes so who knows what will happen. You should also give a calling to your new member there because I feel bad for alot of new converts here because our ward council doesn't do anything and we have 6 recently baptized priesthood holders and each without callings... :( Sometimes I feel this ward doesn't want to grow. But we are trying to help them. At the meeting we had with President Flores and our Stake President Jasso, we set some goals for him and to try and get the work going.  I felt like I was helping a lot of people in that meeting and it is fun working with the big hot shots haha :) I hope you are all doing wonderful and I am looking forward so much to seeing the prophet. Today we have a family home evening and a less active that we are teaching,  is going to invite 2 friends that went to church yesterday! So we are excited :)

Elder Cramer

September 23, 2013

hey family!

This week was a good week and we are excited because we received sisters in our zone and now we have 18 missionaries in our zone. Almost everyone is training except 3 pairs in our zone so there are a lot of new missionaries and it is fun to be a part of such a wonderful army of God. This week was a pretty hard week because this last Friday my companion woke me up because he was in a ton of pain and I didn't know why he had so much pain... I gave him a blessing and we called the President's wife for medical help. She didn't know what it was either so we rushed to the hospital at 1:00 in the morning and they hooked him up to a bunch of machines and it turned out that he had a kidney stone that was causing him so many problems! So they had to do an ultrasound like if he would have been pregnant and a few other tests. So we slept in the hospital that night and in the morning they did more tests and he started to get better. I slept 3 hours that night. And we could finally leave the doctors office at 5 pm the next day. We ate and then we slept the entire day of Saturday until Sunday morning. We slept like 2 bears for 13 hours. It was an odd situation I can assure you. But it made me realize how much I appreciate my companion and it made me think someday I will be in the hospital taking care of my family and all that. 

 

Because of all of the chaos we didn't have many investigators in the church so this week we are going to be focusing on getting them to go to church. If they don't ever go to church they can never get baptized! Also this Thursday we have a zone conference with President so we have to plan for 3 hours with our zone and then our President will take over. and then in the afternoon we have a meeting with President Flores and the Stake President and us and we are going to talk about the stake and how we can work better with the ward councils and what we can do as missionaries to help President Jasso with his stake... really I am looking forward to that because our wards are slacking a tad so I wanna help us all work together!! I know this work is true and I am so blessed to be able to be an instrument however small I might be in the Lord's hands because he makes us bigger than we could ever be without him!!

Love Elder Cramer

September 16, 2013

hey paps and family!

I didn't get transfered so I am still in San Luis with Elder Nuñez and I am a little bit glad because I want to help this ward more. I am starting your tape for the family right now. Today I am sending the tape for Jackie but it will arrive at our house. So if you can lend her the tape recorder so she can listen to it at her house that would be great. I was stoked to hear that you talked to Gil I could see that he really enjoyed that a lot! I am excited to see General Conference with him in 2 weeks. What a blessing, to be honest! We are trying to baptize before they change me in 4 weeks. We have to give a zone conference with President in like 2 weeks and today we had alot of changes in our zone so now including us we have 18 missionaries because we opened an area in Matamoros! We are also going to recieve Hermanas in our zone that is a new twist. I am really enjoying my time as zone leader! This week I am going to go to a first cash and by a small dvd player and I am going to put the small dvds that the church gives us about working with the members and we are going to ask for references in this way hoping to help them get excited about the missionary work here in San Luis. I hope to bring new things to this ward! :D That is all that is really going on right now! So look for the tape for Jackie and hand it over to her and next week I will send the tape for you guys :) I love you all and keep me in your prayers please because you all are in mine!

Love Elder Cramer

September 9, 2013

hey hey hey

I really liked those 10 steps that you sent me. Really the ward hasn't started the interviews yet and for that reason we are still struggling to find good people to teach because we don't have any references.. But we are doing the best we can. We can only pressure the Ward Counsil and hope for the best.. We cannot force them to do their calling. I would like to but I can't ;) That is crazy that Ryan passed  the sacrament! I am so proud of him exercising the priesthood like a champ! Yeah I am not sure where I will be going next but there is a good chance that they might change me to a different area because I already have 3 months here.  We will have to see for this Sunday what President will do with me. 

I would like to be here for General Conference which I am stoked for because I could go with Hermano Gil. He just got the priesthood this past week and this Sunday that is coming, he is going to bless the sacrament and so for that I am so stoked. But right now my concern is helping our investigators. We have a lot right now but many are not progressing like I would like. For that reason we are trying to get those references started so that this ward can baptize :) I really like that worldwide conference with Elder Holland and President Monson and all of those apostles because they were focusing a ton on working together as missionaries and members. I hope that the work in our ward is going smoothly. I already wanna help all of the investigators that are in our home ward :) But for now I am trying my best right here. We gave a zone conference yesterday for 3 hours about the Holy Ghost and the importance of studying not for our own account but for our investigators. I love you and all and I hope that you can help bring others to Christ!

Elder Cramer

David O. McKay’s 10 Rules For Happiness
1. Develop yourself by self discipline.
2. Joy comes through creation—sorrow through destruction. Every living thing can grow; use the world wisely to realize soul growth.
3. Do things that are hard to do.
4. Entertain up building thoughts. What you think about when you do not have to think about shows what you really are.
5. Do your best this hour, and you will do better the next.
6. Be true to those who trust you.
7. Pray for wisdom, courage, and a kind heart.
8. Give heed to God’s messages through inspiration. If self-indulgence, jealousy, avarice, or worry have deadened your response, pray to the Lord to wipe out these impediments.
9. True friends enrich life. If you would have a friend, be one.
10. Faith is the foundation of all things—including happiness.