I thought i told ya imma star

not really but got your attention.  How are you all doing?  This last week was super busy especially with the conference we were vistiting people like crazy trying to get them to go and ya some people did go it was really cool.  On friday we were looking for a guy and we knocked a ladys door and asked if she knew the guy and she didnt but then we kinda talked to her a sec asking if shed talked to the missionaries and stuff like that and she said ya a few months ago  some people came to invite her to a conference where a prophet or somethin was gonna talk by satellite and me and my comp looked at each other and then asked, was it like in april?  she says ya and were like hmm.  Well actually tomorrow is the other one, she was all excited cause she wanted to go in april but couldnt so she was excited for the new shot.  The only problem is something came up and couldnt come but still we found her for something.  We are gonna visit her this week and see what happens.  Her spouse isnt a big missionary fan but we can still win her over.  And we found a cool family thats big and some came to church so needless to say we got more work to do.  itll be fun!  Howre you all doing?  I got to the conference late so i couldnt really see rebecca but im sure you guys got it on tape.  Whatd steve say about it? did you tell all them i say hi?  I liked the prophets talk about just like following the spirit. Even when we all the reasons to doubt we just have to follow it and all the things will work out.  Pretty much hes a beast!  I liked his talk in the priesthood session too, we always have to be willing to stand up even if its alone.  They had a lot of good talks about the book of mormon too, we are teaching a guy thats being difficult with accepting it saying the bible is the only thing and well its obvious there could be more.  The book of mormon either comes from god or the devil and it talks about christ too much to be by the devil so basically its obvious but if thats not reason enough all we got to do is pray.  Sounds so simple but sometimes its hard to get people to do, it gets frustrating sometimes when the people wont really listen to us and give us the chance, like they wanna learn but arent willing to pray or anything its a hardknock life for us... Ha anywho changes came and went and im not getting changed or going anywhere for the next 6 weeks.  Im excited though this area has been hard but we are working tough and changing the attitude of the members little by little. I wanna make little missionary badges for them or something, something to give them a little more motivation. its gonna be pretty legit, itll almost be too legit to quit ha im a nerd but i know you all love me.  Im doing way good though, im sure glad to see that my pleasant view children got to represent in the conference i heard that and thought to myself hey thats where im from ha.  But if you have any questions just let me know and ill give you all an answer,

love you all and have a good week.

mom good luck with your surgery and we just watch the conference with the missionaries in our zone, in our local stake center so its pretty fun. 

Welcome to my life.

Well this week was pretty fun.  We didnt have any baptisms we had a cool movie night though.  A lot of people came and we cooked some food from home... french toast!  They all loved it now some people are gonna sell it in the street ha we are the trend setters around here.  This last week was pretty cool we were teaching a family and we were teaching about the prayer and the little kids all just started doing their own personal prayers, like a prayer circle ha it was cool.  and then i bought me a nice camelbak backpack but without the bladder for like 12 bucks.  Good investment if i say so for myself.  The main thing of this week though was the movie.  We had a lot of people and the ward loved us after, nada mas i didnt have my camera so there are no pictures.  We showed the testaments.  Its a pretty good movie you all should watch it see what you think.  We gotta lot of work to do this week.  We got some kids that we are trying to baptize but its bein tough  they arent exactly goin to church so its harder but whatev.  We also found a young couple that wanna be closer to god adn well thats what we are here for.  Ha its cool though they accepted a baptism date and everything we just need to help them get married before.  Aint no thang!  Also we got conference this week and im excited to see what news we have.  It seems like we just barely had the last conference but nevertheless its been 6 months... My last conference int he mission.  AH!  im still trying to not think about home but sometimes it comes ha but its all good i just gotta go out and work and everything will work out fine.  How are you all doing?  Im sorry i write such short letters i never know what to say to you all.  But im doing good and staying busy, there are chances of changes next week but i dont think im goin anywhere. nothing is sure though, thats for sure! ha  My comp is a beast, hes gonna be a good missionary, im glad were together, hes from the home of the heber creeper.  But we are working hard and im learing a lot from him, about the faith and just having the right attitude and basically it all starts with the attitude we can happy or miserable, depends on how we wanna look at it, no?  Im trying to be more positive and well things are going more positive ha funny how it works.  well love you all and hope youre all doing good,

 

have a good week!

 

me

Im proud to be an...

Well here we go again.  How are you all doing?  This past week was pretty eventful.  Mexico celebrates its independence the 15th of September so they had some fun that way.  They had fireworks all night, just like bottlerockets and whatnot, it was pretty fun the ward did an activity and we got to eat some good ole fashioned mexican food so that was pretty fun.  And the most especial thing this week was that we got another paycheck moment or inother words, a baptism or two. duh da duh :)  We baptized this lady weve been teaching for a while and her 8 year old son, it was a good program, got started a little late but it worked out good.  It all ended perfectly.  And for this week we are gonna try to work with her nephew to get him baptized, hes cool we just need permission from his mom to do it. Aint no thang but a chicken wang right?  Ha lets see a crazy story from this week.  Um we got to do a random service project and helped make taquitos and pull apart chicken ha that was pretty fun i suppose, we are having a hard time getting people to let us do service, they all say our job is to teach people not help them in things like that so its a tough life but we are gonna win em over.  Yesterday i got to give a talk in sacrement too, that was cool i kinda like it now it was my first one in like 4 months so id had a while since my last one.  I talked about charity and service and i imagined that everyone was crying but i think it was just tears from yawning so much ha just kidding i think it went pretty well.  This week we are going to do a movie night and we are going to cook a lot of french toast, enough for like 80 people so ill most likely be sick of it by the end but i serve those i love right?  ha its gonna be fun we are gonna watch the testaments.  if you havent seen it i invite you to do so.  It talks about the book of mormon and when christ came, its pretty good.  It could be a family night thing thing :)  But we are gonna cook and make horchata, two of my favorite things, its gonna be legit.  almost too legit to not quit.  But ya we got work to do and people to find and we are gonna do it, my comp is gonna be a beast in a few months so i gotta get him ready.  Ha how you all doing?  Did you make it to church? :) :)  I would love to hear from you guys seems like heidi and mom and sometimes holli are the only ones that send me emails, i understand the internet and all but that just means you can send handwritten letters ha hows staci doin with the kids, lets hear more broc stories. 

Bueno pues ya es tiempo para terminar pero sé que estoy haciendo lo que debo hacer y que al cumplir con dios el va a cumplir con nosotros y vamos a encontrar mas felicidad en nuestras vidas y que el libro de mormon realmente viene de él. 

Heres your spanish homework for the week.  Love you guys!!

Elder Colton Jo. Critchlow

MISSION CONFERENCE

where i at? :)  im in the back... somewhere     (click on the picture and it should zoom in. I circled him in red haha)

I saw an apostol, what did you guys do?

Hey you all so guess what i got to do this week, I got to hear Elder Ballard and it was real cool, He just talked about missionary work and how to be more effective and confide more in the Lord, basically we got our minds exploded ha it was really cool though we got to have the whole mission go so i saw some of my old comps and whatnot.  Elder Ballard is older than i thought, i guess hes 82 years old. who woulda guessed? hes still goin strong though.  He talked a lot about the desire and that we need to aks and have confidence and everything will go alright.  We then got to do a few questions and it was awesome hes a cool guy, me and him are gonna be tight after the mission, his daughter lives in pleasant view and is married to the uncle of a kid i was in the mtc with so ya thats exciting.  Also this week i got to know the mission pres a little bit better, i got to go out to dinner with him and his wife and have a nice car ride with him to mexico and all that fun stuff. Ha my comp got a little sick from the food change and he got hospitalized but dont worry its nothing serious it was just really hard on his stomach so from wednesday to friday i was in a hospital room with not a whole lot to do but i did read a lot so that was good. I made some progress in the scriptures and learned to put in practice patience and all that.  We are good to go now though, now we can focus more and just work.  I was a little worried for him for a minute but everything is good to go now.  No worries for no one :)  This week we are going to have a baptism too! Its a lady and her son and maybe the nephew we have to talk to his mom but it should be ok.  I thought we had no one but well we were blessed.  Im excited my comp will get his first baptisms yay!!  We went to service with her wednesday morning and her son was there so we talked a little bit and he came to church yesterday and wants to get baptized with his mom so we are doing good.  Its gonna be a good week!  we are also gonna go and visit the inactive members and well all of them to do service and help thme otu and see what kind of miracles can sprout out.  We are going to be super busy im sure.  But its ok id rather be busy than have nothing to do.  Time crawls when there is nothing to do, i just learned ha but me and my comp are gonna tear it up this week.  I got my package too so thanks a lot!  I loved it the pictures and candy and everything!  another whoopie cushion is good too ha.  How are you all doing these days?  Hows the temple in february lookin mom and dad, ay thats too soon i cant believe im where im at in the mission still feels like i have a lot to do and i do.  Hows sadie doing? she gets home this week huh? Crazy african goer ha its all good ill travel the world one day, itll be fun.  Well time to go but i hope you all have a good week and take care. you know i love you all!

Elder Colton Joseph Critchlow

ps. im gonna send you pictures from the conference lets see if you win -wheres critchlow (aka colton)-

Hey you what you gonna do when they come for you?

So whats new and wonderful with you all this weekend.  This past week was pretty good.  I got to go on changes for a day with the district leader and hes a very good missionary.  I learned a ton and we found some cool people with him.  I just completed 19 months too thats pretty weird huh?.  But anywho weve been workin with this lady the last few weeks and she is doing good gettin ready to enter the baptism of waters.  So the date we are working for with her is the 17th and then we got some other people we are working with for the 24th.  Also we got an activity planned for the 22nd where we are gonna cook and teach a little bit about the restoration, its gonna be cool im excited for it.  My comp is doing good too he speaks really well for how much time he has. He definatley speaks a lot better than i did when i first got here. I still get frustrated with my gringo accent sometimes but such is life right, i cant change who i is ha.  Its also been pretty rainy lately too.  I like it we dont really get too wet and its a whole lot cooler so what more could you ask for right?  Have you guys decided to do the book of mormon challenge with me?  Im about to finish 2nephi... Anywho not a whole lot has changed we are trying to stay busy and keep goin in the work. Im super excited for this saturday.  Elder M. Russel Ballard is gonna come talk to us on saturday and then we have a stake conference on sunday where we get to see a 70 Jay E. Jensen.  Its gonna be beast.  I guess we are the only mission in all of mexico that elder Ballard is gonna talk to so we´ve done somethin right i suppose.  Its gonna be a really cool experience though im excited i cant wait! and then in a few more weeks we get general conference :)  You come to appreciated those things more in the mission cause at home i didnt even care about general conference, i dont think i ever saw anything more than the priesthood session... But when i get back i wanna go down to salt lake and get to know down there a little bit.  Itll be fun :) 

So whats new with you guys?  Gettin ready for all the birthdays comin up in the comin months?  Its all gone too fast if you ask me but what do i know? Ill tell you not a whole lot...  but anywho im sorry i never have anything exciting to write about.  Im doing good though so dont worry.  Life is going well and im stayin busy.  Any questions you might have just let me know

Elder Colton J. Critchlow the first!!!

ps. dad could you send me your chili recipe please...

Welcome family and friends to my edition again.

Well ive started the training process and its pretty fun i like it a lot actually, my trainee speaks spanish pretty well he says he just doesnt understand too much, it happens to everyone so its all good but his name is Elder Holmes from Heber Creeper Utah.  Hes a stud though me and him are gonna tear this area up.  We brought someone cool to church yesterday, shes a lady thats had a difficult past and well here we are to help her out :)  we also found another guy thats had problems with his family but is willing to try it out and we got this activity planned in september where we are gonna cook some american food some chili blts or somethin so dad if you could send me your chili recipe thatd be nice ha.  Im excited though.  We got a lot of work before us and im ready to step up to the batting plate.  Part of the training process is that we study an extra hour so by the end of it i will be well studied and practiced right? ha I like it though the pres has given us the challenge to read the book of mormon before christmas in all the mission so im doing that lets see if you all can beat me, who wants to try it?  Next saturday we get to have a mission conference with the elder m. russel ballard im super stoked its gonna be awesome.  Im sure hes gonna get us super animated so that we can be better.  Thats one thing ive learned, no matter how good you do you can always do better.  Ay tough life.  Im doing good though.  How are you all doing?  Hows the church and all that stuff going, february is comin up quick i cant believe its like 5 months left its goin to fast...  Im trying to lose myself in the work and its superhard but superpossible.  Ya all that birthdays are comin happy happy birthday to all ha I dunno if you guys have any questions or anything but im diong good and lookin forward to the work we get to do in septembber, The activity is gonna be epic, ill send you all some pictures.  Well hope youre all doing well and having a good week and anything you need done, aqui estoy :)  Love you.

 

Elder Critchlow