The "Itty-Bitty" Letter

(So Sis. Crockett emailed today but was "too busy" to send a big email.  "Sorry mom!" She said.   Apparently she had too much planned today for p-day.  She said she will tell me all about it in 17 days.   Lol!  
I did ask her for one story and this is what she shared.   What more could a mom ask for?!  Enjoy!)

Last Sunday we went to Lovely's surprise birthday party. It was actually a dinner and we went with Sister Machowiak. We surprised     Lovely and everything was going well. Then her cousin walks out with 2 bottles of wine. Ummm awkward. We are talking around it as it gets passed around. Then Lovely sees it and says "HEY! We don't drink!" and gestures to me and Sister Sampson and Sister Machowiak. It was awesome to see her stand up for her beliefs amongst all her friends. Almost everyone there wasn't a member. We had an opportunity to speak with everyone about the gospel and a lot of them were interested. Now it's the waiting game! I love being a missionary (:

To be Continued...

....who on earth celebrates Columbus Day I ask you?! Geez. Just throws all of our plans out the window ahaha! But we had a good P-day yesterday. We played some super fun games with our district and the Pitt 2nd Elders. Mostly volleyball because it involves less running haha! We had a blast though! And silly us, we forgot to take pictures! d: Sorry!

But my week....

So Tuesday was long and pretty good. We picked up McKeesport REALLY early so that we wouldn't be late and we weren't!! We were 15 minutes early actually! Surprise, surprise. We had interviews and they were super good. I love the Johnsons. They are so sweet and loving. We had a training on using family history as a missionary tool. I am super bad at it. We tried to role play, but....man I am just no good at it hahaha! We couldn't stop laughing at our silly attempts and contacting people with family history approaches. Basically, we need more practice. We had lunch and then we got to watch.....

MEET THE MORMONS!!!!!

Twice. (:

It was SO good. Oh man. I just cried and cried during the missionary mom. Too real for me haha! And I don't think I thought it was so good because I haven't seen a real movie in over 17 months....just saying haha! But for real. If you get a chance. WATCH IT. By the time the movie was over and we took the Elders home, it was late and we still needed to study so that is what we did. Even if I did feel like death haha!

Wednesday we taught Doreen, the lady from last Saturday that called the church. It took a long time and she is definitely in McKeesport's area. But she really wanted Sisters to come and teach her so we are going to have to work that one out. She said that she was open to being baptized if that is what she was supposed to do. So that is something. We went to lunch with Sue and just talked. I love her so much. She is the greatest!!! Sue-per woman indeed. We went home and got cleaned up (so we didn't smell like cigarettes anymore) and then we went and saw Vi for a little bit. The poor lady needs lots of company!! We then went and saw Sister Hoffman for a little bit. She is a sweetheart. For dinner we went out with Brother Alton. Pretty much the coolest old guy ever. He is seriously amazing.

(Mom, I will finish this email next week but I just wanted you to get some of what we did)

Conference Talks are the Best!

Well, this work has been pretty crazy especially finding out that Sister Sampson used to babysit Daryl and Rhonda's kids when they all lived in Hawaii....umm SO STRANGE. haha! 

Tuesday we went out with Sister Hollander and saw Vi. We almost got her son to sit in but he bolted as soon as the scriptures came out. Of course. So after praying that Sister Hollander's car would start (it doesn't start in the rain...), we went to pick up Marissa and on the way to see Eve, Marissa was talking about someone she knew and she said "Well, he's cute...for another girl." She has the most interesting sense of humor haha! and then we went to see Eve. Poor thing is still hanging on. We asked Eve what she had been doing all day and straight faced she said "Picking my nose." Literally, that is what she did all day. haha! Poor thing. We went and saw Laurie and we are still working on her reading. /: We left and tried to see Sister Fitch but she wasn't home so we went and talked with Dena and Marcus for a bit. It was good to see them. I love them a lot still and it breaks my heart that this isn't the time to teach them. ): 

Wednesday we went to District Meeting as usual and yeah...ha. Sister Lang met us after lunch and we went to see Sister Fredrick so that Sister Lang could do her visiting teaching! We are so grateful for team-ups. We drove to our dinner appointment and made it back in time for our one member BOM class. Well, when you combine 4 slap happy missionaries who have had really long days with Marissa, you get hysterics. Basically, we'll be teaching the same lesson again next week d: Missionaries are human too. 

Thursday we went with Sister Paul to see the Hoffmans but because of a miscommunication we scheduled the appointment for later. We ended up seeing Sister Braddy and reading from Elder Holland's conference talk in April, "The Cost--and Blessings-- of Discipleship". It was super good. We then went to the Senior Center and because of another miscommunication, we had to make 15 meals stretch to 26. Fun stuff. Living the exciting life! We saw the Humberts after lunch and I am having a really hard time trying to help them understand the gospel the way that it is meant. I feel like I am not teaching clearly. We saw Sister Hoffman after that and we had a super good discussion with her about Elder Rasband's conference talk. Conference talks are the best (: We got a deeper appreciation for Sister Hoffman and the challenges that she is facing. If it weren't for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, there is no way I would be able to feel that much love for people. We had an awesome church history lesson at the Kerry's house when we went for dinner. It was pretty crazy. This area has so much history and all in one very small 96 year old lady. SO incredible. Sister Kerry's mom was here when the church was started in this area so we got to hear a lot of stories. We went to see Sister Fitch after dinner and the Elders wanted to meet her (they are jealous of how cool she is and that we are her favorites (;  ) so they came with us. She is a riot. 

Friday we saw Sue after weekly planning and caught up with her since she left this week to go help some family near Ridgeway, PA. Well, that woman is one incredible fighter. She is so strong and such a rock. I don't know what I would do without her. She is such a good example of enduring to the end. I am so inspired whenever I am with her and hear of her different experiences. We tried to see Menolly but Sister Braddy was at work and so we only got to talk to her outside in the rain. Poor thing was having a rough day but she was seemed happy to see us. We went to see Tim and Tonja and it went pretty good. They are really looking forward to the temple. (: 

Saturday was just wow. General Conference was AWESOME. I love it as a missionary so much!! it's seriously the best thing in the world! We even got a call in between sessions from a lady that wanted us to meet with her so she could learn more about what we believe. We set up an appointment to visit with her on Wednesday morning! (: After the sessions we got invited to have dinner with the priesthood (they were having a chili cook off) so we ate and then sat in the family history center with the computer on listening to the priesthood session. We didn't hear it all, but it was super good. I have so much respect for the priesthood. Props to all worthy priesthood holders. Thank you for striving to live up to your call! (:

Sunday we went to the Ader's for breakfast and then watched conference with them. They are really sweet. We then went to the Mosser's to finish conference. As we were getting ready to sit down and watch it, one of the kids ran in screaming and holding his finger. He had cut it on a huge clay pot that he was trying to empty. It was super deep and so they took him to the emergency room. Turns out, he may have cut the tendon and nerve but he should be okay. It was so intense. We helped out around the house so they didn't have to worry so much when they got back but we can only do so much. 

It was a pretty crazy week, but it was super good. I am really excited to continue serving for my remaining time. I pray for you each night and hope that you are doing super well!! Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Can Life Get Better? I Submit that it Cannot.

Well, this has been one heck of a week that is for sure!! Everything has been up in the air and back and forth and running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I am sure you are SO stoked to hear all about my craziness hahaha!

 

Tuesday was transfers. We found out early that Sister Jones would be going to Gettysburg so we celebrated a little. We drove to Greentree by ourselves which was super nice it turned out. I love that girl so much. We took some last minute picks and partied it up with some frozen hot chocolate and tried not to cry on the way there ha! Ya do what ya gotta do. We tried to meet up with Sister Rock and Sister Toupin for lunch but there is a reason they are walk sisters haha! No parking. So we dropped them off in a super sketchy area and booked it to the transfer meeting. I got my new companion, Sister Sampson. She has been out 7.5 months and is super sweet. Her dad was in the military so she has pretty much lived everywhere. It's going to be an interesting transfer that is for sure! We dropped off Sister Sampson's luggage then went to our dinner appointment. We also had a family home evening set up with the Kerry's to watch 17 Miracles with some widows in the ward. Instead, only their non-member neighbor showed up. Hey, ya win some. (:

 

Wednesday we had district meeting and we got Uniontown back in our district. Elder Coke, who was my district leader once in Pitt 2nd, is now in my district again. SO weird to see people you have previously served with. But it's kinda fun. Well, after lunch, we had to try some formers and ended up tracting when we found out that they all had moved. Awesome. haha! But the 2nd to last door we knocked on asked us to come back at a specific time the next day. SCORE. I was so pumped. The last door we knocked was a little less nice haha! We saw Vi and read the Book of Mormon with her and gave her a challenge to study from the BOM every day until we come back in a specific chapter. We'll see. We also saw Lovely and talked about the Plan of Salvation. She is such a rock star. We also saw Menolly and taught her about the Priesthood, temples and family history as well as eternal marriage. She was super hyper. We went over her baptismal program and then I asked her if she wanted Brother Tolliver to confirm her the following day. She blinked and said "No. Elder Martin. Can he do it??" I about fell over laughing. "Yeah, he can do it..."Then she started giggling. I think we might have a situation on our hands haha! She is just mildly obbsessed with him hahaha! We went to dinner at the Halsels. I love them so much. They are SO great! (: But Kajhia was pretty upset when she found out Elder Jackson had been transferred. She yelled "Why didn't you stop him?!" cuz we have that much control hahaha! Oh man. I love that family.

 

Thursday we tried to see the potential that said we could come back but she wasn't home ): Just our luck. Maybe she will be home some other time! We went to the senior center and helped out there for a little bit. We got some groceries and came home and took a nap. Lunch is the best haha! We saw Sue and ended up talking to Bella, Dena and Marcus' little girl (remember them?!) I miss those kids a lot. Dena wanted us to come over but our schedules didn't work so well. We saw Eve for a bit then tried to catch Menolly. It was a hit and miss kind of day. We tried to find Tonja so that she could get a ride to the Relief Society dinner, but it didn't happen. The dinner was awesome. Lovely's sister in law, Christian, and her sister came. The sisters were super friendly and they said that they wanted to come to church so hopefully next week!! (:

 

Friday we did Weekly Planning which is always super challenging when you are the only one that knows the area. It went okay but we ended up going back to the senior center to help out with their pizza party. Pizza, coke, and oldies. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot! Living in a senior's paradise right there haha! Sister Paroda asked us to come with her to see Sabrina but she had to work so we didn't get to. It was a huge bummer and Sister Paroda said we weren't allowed to drive there at night /: Oh well. We gotta listen I guess. We did get to see the Hoffmans and Brother Hoffman was happy to see us. So it was a really good visit. When we were getting ready to go he told us "Don't go. You are the only peace we really get all day." I am 98.7% sure he was being sincere haha! I am going to take it that way (: We went to the Boni's and got stuck waiting for the Elders to show up for 30 minutes. It made us late to our appointment with Laurie and so that was super disappointing. But Laurie wasn't too bugged. She was really glad we came and we committed her to be baptized on November 8, 2014. Unfortunately, that is only 3 days after I go home, but it is more important for her to be solid in her testimony and coming to church consistently than for me to see her baptized. Whatcha gonna do? It's God's work, not mine.

 

Saturday was HECTIC. We had so much to do. We updated records in the morning then picked up the baptismal programs from Sister Fredrick. We taught Jackie about the law of chastity. She is married and has grandkids so that was fun....ha. We finished up Menolly's lessons and gave her a hug for good luck. We went to the church house and cleaned and filled the font. We got everything together and somehow it came together. It's super good to know that Heavenly Father is so involved in our every action, especially as missionaries. Cuz that would have been a total flop had we not had Divine Intervention haha! After the baptism we got to watch the General Women's broadcast and it was SWEET. I loved it a lot! There were so many good things from it! Oh, I loved it. "God knows more than we do."

 

Sunday Menolly was there bright and early and she got confirmed. Thank goodness! She is so goofy in public but she really does have a testimony. I know she does. She has shared it with us before!  (: We ended up teaching Gospel Principles because the teacher was gone and the Elders had to give a blessing. Seriously, I have never been so grateful for the Spirit in my entire life. We came home and I just crashed hard core. I love sleep hahaha! We tried to see the Braddy's to see how they thought things went, but no one was home. We met the Elders at the church and drove to the Hollanders who are from AZ!!! Represent! (: We got to see Tim and Tonja after dinner and talk with them. They are doing so well!!! (:

 

SO as you can see, this week has been a tad crazy. A lot of adjustments and change. Not necessarily bad, just different. It is good to know that God is in charge. I know that He makes changes so that we can grow. This time will be one of growing and learning and stretching and adapting, but I know that I will be a better person for it.

 

I love you so much and want to thank you as you continue to support me out here! I couldn't do it without you!

 

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Good news and bad news

This week was SOOO long. Like SO long. The days went by fast, but it took us a long time to get to this point. I am not sure why. But I have some bad news (well bad for me ha) I'll share it in my Saturday section...

Tuesday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!) we went to exercise class and one of the Elders' less actives dropped off her baby so that Sister Martin could watch him for a bit. So afterwards we had to drop him off and since we got a ride with Sister Martin it ate away at our day unfortunately. After we got through with our studies and looked less like the walking dead, we saw Eve and she informed us that she was told that she might have a clot in her leg and so she needed to go to the hospital. Well, she couldn't do that until her meals were delivered (obviously!) so we helped her pay some bills, packed up her overnight bag and made her promise to call us when she got to the hospital because we were running late for our dinner appointment. We went to the Machowiaks and had our UBER trunky zone leader with Elder Martin on exchanges. Elder Leavitt goes home on the 23rd so he was pretty excited about that. haha! After dinner, we went to visit Menolly and confirm her baptismal date. We talked about how she wouldn't be able to be confirmed until AFTER General Conference if she got baptized on the 28th. That made me SUPER nervous....and so we talked about alternatives. But so far she is doing awesome and ALMOST ready to be baptized!! (: We also visited with Sister Honick who is active, but she needs a lot of support so we do what we can!

Wednesday we made muddy buddies for district meeting as a good bye for the people who may get transferred in this next transfer meeting. We didn't really think too much about it but we had to use a whole box of cereal because there would be 6 Elders coming haha! During DM we had an interesting activity where we prayed about where the Lord wanted us to be and who He wanted us to talk to. So we prayed and got a few leads. Sister Cook came out with us to go visit Aja and so we got to talk with her about the gospel for a bit. Turns out, her husband Greg is becoming more and more open. We aren't going to push it, but he had a really good talk about it. We had a little bit of a mix up in our team-up times and so our next team-up had to cancel. We were left with a good solid hour and a half and that doesn't really fly, so we figured we would give our new finding leads a try and contact those people. Well, we seem to be SUPER out of tune haha! We did talk with more people though. That was a pretty good thing! I think those type of activities are cool, but it's mainly just to increase my faith and help me get out of my comfort zone. If I have an objective, then I know that it is something I can accomplish verses just aimlessly knocking on doors. I don't know, I am a weird missionary haha! We also saw Lovely and got to talk with her for a little bit. She said some really interesting things that I have been thinking a lot about lately. They meant a lot to me. Members are so inspiried; especially recent converts. We then went back to the church and, as instructed by President Johnson, we worked on our family history. We are supposed to catch the Spirit of Elijah and also collect stories from our ancestors. Sooo any help that I could get with stories about people from my 4 generation pedigree chart would be awesome (Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandmas and their parents! (:  ) We had Book of Mormon class and it went alright. Tim teased me because we were talking about Captain Moroni and I love him. haha! We were writing down attributes and Tim said "I believe, he was faithful...to his wife." and the jokes continued. I just rolled my eyes. Some people like celebrities, missionaries like scripture heroes. haha!

Thursday we went to the senior center. oh man. Gotta love it there. They are crazy people. Afterwards, we went to lunch with the Scotts. They are so AWESOME. They are both converts but have been members for over 40 years....so basically I was trying to get around saying this but.....they are old. haha! But you wouldn't have guessed that by the way they were talking haha! I love them. Sister Scott was being sassy to Brother Scott about the tip and so Brother Scott folded his arm and started wiping his mouth...with his middle finger. We were laughing so hard! You just don't expect an 80 year old man who has served a mission with his wife and works in the temple to do that! But it was SUPER funny. And bad. Don't do that kids...so after that fiasco, we went to visit Vi because she has been MIA for so long. We had a good little chat with her and then went and taught Menolly again. Last week when we taught her the law of chastity, we talked about modesty and doing head, shoulders, knees, and toes to check to make sure your clothes are modest. Well, she wasn't wearing a modest shirt and when we showed up to do a review she told us right up front " I don't pass the modesty test!!!" She laughed and said that she would pick out a better shirt next time. I legitimately love this little girl. She is so smart! We talked about tithing with her. She just gets it. She is awesome. So then we had dinner with the Machowiaks again. Then it was time for us to go with Meg and see Laurie. I love both of these ladies to death!! I just wish that Laurie got it a little bit better. We are going to have to teach her more effectively in the future. When we showed Meg where Laurie lived, she said "If you had told me we were going to Monessen at night, I would have been packing!!" She was serious too! hahaha! I love this ward a lot. 

Friday was weekly planning and we felt pretty confident neither of us were leaving. It went fairly quickly and we both planned on seeing our plans through for the week. Done and done. We went to the Kerry's to drop off some brownies to thank them for all that they do and Sister Matthews (Sister Kerry's mom). She is 96 years old and thinks she can still drive her car. No. way. haha! I like the Kerry's a lot. They are super cool. So after that we decided to do some mormon.org time at the Charleroi library. Well, it was closed, so Sister Jones started texting people and I looked down the street. Walking towards us were 6 HUGE guys and none of them were wearing shirts. I said "Sister Jones, let's...go make plans in the car." So she looks up and sees them walking towards us and agrees. By then, they had seen us and we booked it to our car. They started hollering at us and walking in our direction. We got in the car as they started waving at us to come down. No freaking way. I locked the doors and drove toward Tim and Tonja's house. And that is about as scary as it gets in my mission hahaha! No big deal. We talked to Tim about it and he said not to worry about it, we are always welcome to come to their house if anything like that happens again. We talked about Kianna a little bit. She is in some hot water. Not good stuff, for her at least. Sister Jones and I were relieved to hear it. We went to dinner after visiting with them for a bit. Then we went to the Aders and had a lesson with Tanner by a fire. Yup, a legitimate fireside haha! It was sweet. Tanner's parents are starting to ask more questions and look into what he is doing. Leading by example is the way to go! (:

Saturday we did some work on the computer to get everything up to date. It took a few hours but it was totally worth it. Then we went to Tim and Tonja's and talked about missionary work. We took Tonja with us and saw Marissa. She is as funny as ever haha! Love that girl. Our next appointment fell through and so we went and got ice cream with Tonja and just talked about life with her. I think she needed it. Sometimes it is the little things that matter most. Then we went and talked to Brother Ader about Menolly's baptism and some concerns we had. He really helped us get back on the right track. Only by members and missionaries working together is the work going to hasten. Truly, it is just us trying to keep up with the work. The Lord is going to move His work forward whether or not we are involved. But wouldn't it be better to be involved?? now, the bad news. Late Saturday night, we had finished planning and were getting ready for bed. I kept in touch with a few sisters to see when transfer calls would be coming. They came at 9:45....it was really bittersweet. Sister Jones is getting transferred. I am finishing my last transfer in Monongahela with the ward that I love, but without one of my favorite companions. I am really nervous about getting a new one, but I know that it is for a reason. My mission president is inspired. 

Sunday was bitter sweet as well. We came early to get a picture with Bisodent (Bishop/President) Paul and well, we ended up cleaning the floor in the girls bathroom because the toilet overflowed. What a disaster. Well, after choir practice, Menolly got her baptismal interview and she passed with flying colors!! She also said that Elder Martin was a goofball...just like her! Haha! well, she's not wrong...haha! So we took lots of pictures and stayed after for a baptism of a little girl. Both Menolly and Tanner stayed for the baptism! It was super good! We went to the Aders and had lunch with them and Sister Jones and Elder Jackson said good bye. Then we had to go to the Mosser's for dinner. SOO MUCH FOOD. It was good, but I was SO full. Well, in between the two meal appointments, the Elders locked their keys in the car...so an hour and a half later...we finally made it to the Mosser's. It was a mad house there but it was a lot of fun. I like them a lot.

SO that was our week! A lot of ups and downs but good things happened. It will be a trying week but good things are to come I am sure!! Wish me luck!! 

So, this is an awesome quote in PMG by then Elder Henry B. Eyring. I read it in my studies and I hope that you enjoy it!! "The Lord sets His standards so that He can bless us. Think about those blessings: He promises those who meet the standards the help of the Holy Ghost. He promises personal peace. He promises the chance to receive holy ordinances in His house. And He promises those who endure in living His standards that they will have eternal life....Because we love the people we serve, all of us want to do better in lifting our Heavenly Father's children to the faithfulness and purity they need to have all the blessings of the Lord....You begin by holding up the Lord's standards clearly and without apology. And the more the world drifts from them and mocks them, the bolder we must be in doing that".

I love you!! Have a great week! You are in my thoughts and prayers!!

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Departing Testimonies

This week has been a little bitter sweet I have to say. There were lots of ups and downs, but luckily not too emotional. It was just very dramatic in our work and experiences. Overall, it just went really really, really fast.

Tuesday we had zone conference so we picked up McKeesport FREAKING early because there was NO way we were going to be late again. Well, Pittsburgh traffic disagrees, so even with 30 minutes extra, we were still 10 minutes late. Tell me how that works haha! We were instructed by President Johnson to wear proselyting clothes (aka white shirts and ties for the Elders and skirts for the Sisters) at ALL plausible times. SO you would expect with a softball tournament this weekend for the Pittsburgh stake, plausible to not wear pros. Nope. Supposed to wear a skirt. But I'll get to that in a bit. We couldn't help but laugh and be obedient. After lunch we had departing testimonies...yup. I was one of them. I felt SO sick (not because Sister Jones and I caught a cold this week) but with the thought that that was my last zone conference and I am going home. I hugged Sister Cook so tight and asked her where on earth our time went. She shrugged. It's gone too fast. We eventually left on the long rush hour traffic back to McKeesport and then to our dinner appointment at the Langs.

Wednesday was a weird day all the way around. We went to Sue's to check up on her and it turned out to be inspired. Who knew right? Her family is going through a lot right now so we focused on what we do best: talk about the gospel! It was a really good visit. Then we had a lunch appointment with Sister Machowiak and the Braddy's. Sister Braddy is doing amazing!! We are so happy with the progress that she is making! Brother Braddy on the otherhand....well, he told us that he believes in the possibility of a higher power...but for all he knows he made us all up in his head. Needless to say, it was an interesting conversation.....When we couldn't explain things to him, I felt prompted to just bear testimony to him. I looked him in the eyes, with little kids running around and the door bell ringing, and said "I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is real and so is His Son, Jesus Christ. Without the Atoning grace of my Savior I would not be here right now telling you this." And that was that. I am so grateful for the Spirit and promptings from our Heavenly Father. There is no way we could even function as 20 year old kids/missionaries and still manage to help people find the truth. No way. Next we went to Eve's. Silly silly Eve. I love this lady a lot. We then went to the church and met Rachel for a team up. We then went and talked to Aja for a bit! She is expecting a baby!! (: We were really excited for her! After catching up with her we went to BOM class. It was pretty good....I just wish that more people came!

Thursday we went with Sister Martin the Relief Society President, and saw Sherry. We asked her what was new and she said that she was moving. We asked her when and she said tomorrow. Oh. Okay. It was super awkward. We read from the Book of Mormon and then said goodbye to her. Next we went to the Hoffman's and talked with Sister Hoffman for a bit. She is really sweet and wants to come back to church but Brother Hoffman's health is so poor. It's a sad situation. After dinner we went to see Laurie.  And Laurie wasn't there. We talked with Lovely for a bit about the changes that happened at stake conference. WE explained that because Bishop was called to be the 1st counselor that there will need to be a new Bishop. She volunteered for the job haha! We explained that it didn't quite work like that...haha! Laurie finally showed up and we talked for a bit. We need to get reading the Book of Mormon with her, but she is so busy that it is hard to catch her in general!

Friday after weekly planning we went with Sue and saw Jackie. She is doing pretty well. But with her grandkids over it was a little harder to get a good lesson in. But it was still pretty good. We talked about baptism and confirmation. We also saw Vi finally! She has been up in Erie for a month and we had no idea! d: So strange! And she'll be leaving again pretty soon, but she is doing pretty well. The Elders had a scare with bed bugs...our whole mission is having an issue and we told them that if they gave us bed bugs that they would be the ones to come and clean our apartment. They weren't too fond of that idea haha! The scare turned out to just be a flea, but still disgusting! We went and taught Menolly about the 10 commandments. She is keeping ALL of her commitments and is doing SO well! It looks like she will be able to be baptized at the end of this month! We got to work on reading the Book of Mormon but as long as her mom is progressing in the gospel, it looks like Menolly will as well!

Saturday was WAY fun! The stake softball tournament!! We of course had to have correlation so we texted Brother Wood the night before and moved it to 7 am. Well, the Elders didn't really know that. But we had the same amount of time to get ready and we beat the Elders to the church by 10 minutes and Elder Martin was still tying his tie when he walked in...Pretty sad that 2 sisters had time to straighten our hair, put on make-up AND pick out an outfit in the same time it took one to shower, shave and put a tie on....we had correlation and the Elders were SO out of it. haha! Then the Hoffman's (different ones) had us over for pancakes and deer sausage. Pretty good. Then we went to Washington to play softball...in our skirts. haha! Oh man. We looked RIDICULOUS. All these missionaries were running around all dressed up playing softball or whatever and we couldn't help but wonder what non-members would be thinking when they saw us haha! I played catcher for a bit and the skirt came in handy when the ball bounced off and I could just pick it up and throw it back. But try playing outfield haha! Sister Jones and I were on the left and right side of the field and Elder Hebdon (a zone leader in Pittsburgh) was playing center. Mainly it sounded like..."Hey! Elder Hebdon can you get that one?! k thanks!" "Elder Hebdon, you run raster than us in skirts will you get that one? Thanks!" you get the idea....haha! The Elders were laughing at us but I'd love to see them trying to run and play softball in a skirt! d: President Johnson showed up after lunch and after seeing the state of the white shirts and ties....he regretted his decision haha! We even went ice blocking in pros! We are pro's haha! We ended up playing Ultimate Frisbee and having a BLAST!!! It was a LOT of fun! (: We talked to Tim and Tonja afterwards and got an update on Kianna. Not good, well, for her...but for everyone else, it's a definite answer to our prayers. We came home after our dinner appointment to a La-la Loopsy infestation. Dumb Elders got into our house haha! Those dolls are SO creepy. haha!

Sunday was pretty good. I missed the sacrament last week a lot! We had lunch with the Aders and we were helping cook lunch. Sister Jones and I were making comments about how much we have learned about life on our missions, especially how useful cooking will be (woman jokes aside) even if we don't get married. Well, Preston pipes up and says "Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about that Sister Jones." I about fell over I was laughing so hard. He didn't seem to catch it at all. Oh man. Got to love awkward moments. We did studies then went to Sister Fitch's and had a mini dance party to get her attention...it didn't work. So we just looked like fools. No big deal haha! But we did have fun! (: haha!

So that's pretty much our week. Not too bad, but it was a struggle losing some investigators. But it's all part of the job. I love being a missionary and sharing the gospel with everyone and seeing the Atonement change bad men to good men and good men to better men. I'm pretty sure that is a GA quote from someone, but I don't know who or when it was said. But I do like it. I love the gospel because it brings peace where the world lacks it. The gospel is true and Jesus Christ lives and loves us.

I love you a lot! Thanks for the support!! (: Have a great week!!

Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Go Bold or Go Home

So this week was CRAZY intense and I am SO glad it is p-day so we can finally breathe. It wasn't the good kind of "everyone wants to get baptized intense" but it was still good.

Tuesday we talked with Sister Braddy. She is doing SO good!! It's awesome because at the beginning of Sister Jones' and my companionship we didn't know what to do with her and now she is reading the BOM every night and praying with her kids!! We are so thrilled!! (: We talked with Tanja for a bit then met Kianna down at the library to help her get ready for her job interview. The things we do for that girl. We ate ice cream with her afterwards to congratulate her for getting a job interview. Then we to Giant Eagle and bought some stuff to make brownies for Sue with Sister Fitch. We had a really good time.

Wednesday we went to District Meeting in Mckeesport and then went to lunch afterward. Sometimes I love our district and then other times I wonder what goes through their heads haha! Boys...
Rita came and got us after lunch and we got to spend the entire day with her! I love her a lot! (: We saw Lovely and played with the kids. Then we went and taught Menolly. She is doing good minus the 3-minute attention span. But she is looking to get baptized on the 28th!! Maybe this one will actually stick ha! Then we got ready for dinner. We ate with Ian's parents. Ian is a missionary that was dating Rita's daughter. Ian's parents aren't members so this was a pretty big step. They aren't super interested either, but that's ok. We shared Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon. It's a little intense, but go bold or go home. haha! It was super good though. We had a nice visit.



Thursday was not according to plan at all. Slightly frustrating but what are you going to do? haha! We talked to Cheran for a bit. Next was the good ol' senior center. We got in and out pretty fast. Which was nice. haha! Luana called us and invited to lunch so that was fun. We got to see them and Juliana for a little bit. I love them a lot! (: We drove to Sue's house and made a cherry nut cake for her anniversary. I am learning SO much on my mission haha! Then we met with Laurie and she is trying to re-arrange her schedule to come to church but it isn't working that well. We will be working on studying the BOM more with her in the future. We then went to dinner at the Cooks.

Friday we did weekly planning then saw Sherry and read the BOM with her. We tried to see Eve, but she wasn't there strangely. So we then updated some teaching records and went to Sister Honich's house and had dinner with her. We left and went to read the BOM with Kianna. We finished the chapter and she got up and left. I asked her where she was going and she responded "Brea's" and walked out the door. Now you have to understand....she is on house arrest. So ya know, not supposed to leave. Then we got Brea's number to try and find Kianna and she barely knew who Kianna was or where she was. She straight up lied to my face. I wanted to cry myself to sleep. Sister Jones and I were so distraught. We found out where she really was and what she was doing. Basically, she did everything we committed her not to do. I don't understand how we invest so much into people and then they can just break your heart like that. It was a rough night for us.

Saturday Sister Jones and I both started to get sick, but we muscled through the day like champs haha! We did mormon.org time with Tanja. She spent the whole time looking up "historic prayers" on mormon channel because she was asked to give the opening prayer at stake conference with 2 General Authorities there. Silly Tanja. haha! We were laughing. She is so funny. So then we saw the Hoffmans. Brother Hoffman at least didn't yell us ha! We ran to Eve's and then were told we had to be at the Elders' apartment in 20 minutes. We had a quick scripture with Eve then went to dinner. We decided to mess with the Elders a little bit since they told us 20 minutes before we had to be at their apartment. Sister Jones and I pretended that we were mad at each other and the Elders squirmed pretty good haha! We got to the Mosser's for dinner and we acted like we were best friends. Then we get in the car to leave and we are fighting again. haha! Poor guys didn't know what to do haha! I know, we probably should be nice, but it was too hard to resist. We had a good laugh. We went to stake conference with Sue and her sister, Sherry. It was really good and all about missionary work. Elder Teh and Elder Kunz were there because they were going to SPLIT the Pittsburgh stake!! What the heck right?! We were SO pumped! One stake closer to a temple!!!!

Sunday we got to Greentree early and sat with Bishop Paul's family. It was  a pretty big deal because they haven't added a new stake in the Pittsburgh area in over 30 years! They made the announcement shortly into the meeting. In the Pittsburgh Stake: Monongahela, Oakland YSA, 1st ward, 7th ward, Mckeesport Branch, Uniontown Branch, Greensburg ward, and 3rd ward. Those last 2 were previously in the North Stake. In the brand new Pittsburgh West Stake: 2nd, 5th, and 6th ward, Washington, Wheeling, and Wintersville wards. Then they announced the new stake presidency. For Pitt, a President Peterson (stake president) , President Cavalier (2nd counselor) and as 1st counselor Bishop Paul! ): Sister Jones and I just started crying. How could we lose our Bishop?!?! We learned a HUGE lesson in sacrifice yesterday. Bishop's wife was crying a lot. Poor family has gone through a lot this past year. The oldest Paul daughter left on a mission, the 2nd daughter went to BYU and now he is in the stake presidency. We went to lunch with the Aders then we went to dinner with the Bingers. We talked to Tanja for a little bit. We are trying to get her to see the importance of the temple. We also talked to Kajhia. Her mom doesn't want her to come to our church anymore. ): Week 4 is a beast.

So as I said, we learned a lot about sacrifice. When the Lord calls, you answer. Although I wish things had gone a little bit differently, it's not my opinion that matters. God calls who He needs. The same things goes for me though. I am sure some where shocked that I was going on a mission. But I received a call from the Lord. I am His servant. No one else's. "God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called." The gospel is true.

I hope you have a marvelous week! I love you!!

Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Basically

I am so grateful for MY trials

Wow. Can you even believe that it is September today!? Where did August go?? So crazy. We had a pretty good week, but we got some big p-day plans so I'll have to keep it short!! (:

Tuesday we went to Donora to see Eve and it ended up being a rescue kind of situation. Her oxygen wasn't working but there was no way I was gonna try and fix it, so we called her aid who was able to fix it. When we finally finished that, we went to go try and see Tim and he was home! For once haha! We still have to finish his recent convert lessons. So we started to teach about the Priesthood and he basically taught us. Kianna was asking all sorts of questions and Tim was answering them. Basically he knows WAY more than Sister Jones and I combined and he has been a member for 11 months. Talk about being schooled haha! Then we went to Laurie's and talked with her for a bit about baptism. Sister Jones was SUPER bold and told her that if she didn't come to church, she couldn't be baptized. Laurie's response? "Well, I am about to text my manager right now and tell him I'm done! I need to go to church!" She is amazing. There is so much faith in that home!

Wednesday we had DM and then we stalked Tonja. We couldn't find her anywhere so we just started walking down the street in hopes that we could find her somewhere. We reached the main street in Charleroi and we see her across the street! It was insane!! Totally Heavenly Father helping us out on that one. After a quick visit to Menolly's, we had dinner with Brother Alton. He is the best!! Like so sweet and you would never guess that he is turning 90 in a few months. So we survived Book of Mormon class and that was our Wednesday.

Thursday we went to the senior center and we prayed really hard for charity. And Heavenly Father definitely answers prayers. It went a lot smoother than it has in the past and they were really grateful for us being there! (: We went with Sue and saw Marissa and the Hoffmans. Basically with all the conversations we had I am so grateful for the trials I have. I can definitely handle them haha!

Friday was super weird but like nice all at the same time?? I dunno we still had to weekly planning haha! We left right after studies and saw Jackie. We had a really good conversation and talked about following the prophet. That morning in studies I was reading Preach My Gospel and the 1st sentence under following the prophet about truth. And I realized that in Amos 3:7, God promised to speak to prophets to help us out down here. And if God never changes, as truth never changes, we would always have a prophet. Right?? Oh man. SO cool. I love the scriptures! (: So then we went with Rachel to Lovely's and the 2 little girls, Ceyona and Divine, fell asleep on me. It was so cute. They were on either side of me and had their heads on my lap. They are the cutest things in the world! We talked about the importance of scripture study with Lovely. It was awesome! After seeing Kianna and reading the scriptures with her, we came home and weekly planned.

Saturday was a lot of service! We helped a family move and then we helped Tonja take apart a bed frame and get it up stairs to TJ's room. What a long day. It was good but it definitely made for a physically exhausting day.

Sunday was a good fast Sunday. When we were giving our progress record to Bishop Paul, the Elders started motioning to us and mouthing something that looked like "Preston's here." He is a kid in the ward so we are thinking "and we care why??" Finally they caught up to us and said "President's here!!" Oh yeah. That we care about. The ward was in a frenzy when they found out. It was really cool (: He interviewed each of us and basically just talked about transfers (no I don't know what's happening).  After church, we talked with Cheran who is our neighbor. Next, we went the Hoffman's and taught Tanner. It was super good. Then we went to dinner and finished studies. Busy busy day.

So everything is going great!! I love you all and hope that you are having a good Labor day!! (:

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

"I Still Love Mail...just so ya know"

HEEEEEYYY there. It's me, Sister Crockett...I know I've been out for a while and it seems like you don't know who I am but I am still here! And I still love mail...just so ya know d: haha! I got one letter from home this week and one from a mission friend so a little letter love goes a long way haha! No guilt trips or anything. d: Anyway.

Tuesday we went with Lindsey who is a young woman in the ward. We went to work Donora which probably wasn't the smartest idea but hey, we needed to keep busy and there were plenty of people to see. So we saw the Humberts and met Brother Humbert's ex girlfriend/daughter's mother. They have a 3 year old together. What was super weird is she said she knew Sister Rock....I started thinking and then it hit me, a story Sister Rock told me near the end of our companionship. They had helped this lady, Angie, get some gas because she was stranded on the side of the road. Well, she ended up always asking them for money if her friend could sleep on their couch. So legitimately crazy. I started praying that Sister Jones wouldn't give her our number because she had lost it months back. And the Spirit is awesome and we were super unified in not teaching Angie after we explained the restoration to her. It was a tiny tender mercy that we didn't have to deal with another situation. But that incident led us to another topic of conversation that  I'll spare you from at this time haha! Then we saw Sherry and she cried and said she was so glad that we come by to talk about the gospel with her. Talk about making me feel guilty. I really need to work on this charity thing. We also saw Eve and.....she fell asleep again haha! Poor thing. So we peaced out pretty quickly. At the end of the night we made our grandma run. We saw Sister Stoy and she filled us in on what is happening in Ferguson. No wonder they tell the missionaries not to watch the news. It's heartbreaking. Then we saw Sister Fitch and she helped cheer us up a lot.

Wednesday was SUPER stressful. I HATE driving in Pittsburgh. ESPECIALLY when it is raining...which it always is. haha! We had zone conference in Greentree and we had to pick up Mckeesport. So we drove there with time to spare then we had to make our way to the Chapel. Well, we were 40 minutes late because of traffic. And there was a 70 there (Elder Wilford Andersen). AWESOME right? I was really frustrated and it made it worse with the Elders in the background singing "Love at Home". Oh man. These guys REALLY know how to push my buttons haha! After the meeting we tried to get President and Sister Johnson to come to lunch with us, but they had stuff they needed to take care of. So 14 missionaries went to Olive Garden. That's a lot. And when we all ordered our food, some of us had to wait 15 extra minutes because they ran out of Chicken and Gnocchi soup. While we are waiting, the manager comes up and asks us if we have been waiting for a while for our soup. Some of us shrugged, not too long for a busy restaurant. He said he thought we were so he was taking care of the bill. We all sat in silence and didn't know what to do. He really did take care of the check. We found out that our waiter is the one who told the manager, so we tipped him pretty well. We calculated it to be roughly 112 dollars. It was insane. Heavenly Father really blessed us on that one! We only had time to eat and then go to Book of Mormon class. And Kianna gave us the ice challenge sooo that's a thing haha! But she is out of leader!!! We are SO close to getting her baptized. Heavenly Father is paving the way!! (:

Thursday I woke up not feeling good so that was a fun obstacle. We went and saw Dena and that's when we realized that we need to drop them. I felt really discouraged after bringing up the temple with her. It's not their time right now, but it will be sometime. Then we helped with the Senior Center and then we did VT-ing with Sister Lang. Next was our team-up with Sister Hoffman. We tried a few people but no one was home so we saw Tonja. Please pray for her to be able to go to the temple in October. She needs a lot of help. We went to the Machowiaks for dinner and an old missionary came back to visit and he was staying with them. It was super weird. After dinner we went to Tonja's again and did the ice challenge. Not too bad haha!

Friday we survived another weekly planning and then went to Meg's for lunch. We painted our nails and talked with her about life really. She is amazing and it was really good for all of us. We taught Kajhia the gospel of Jesus Christ but she didn't really remember any of the 1st 2 lessons and doesn't have her answer yet so we will be focusing on her for the next couple weeks to hopefully help her work towards getting baptized!

Saturday was crazy insane. We went to correlation and then we helped the Stinnetts clean up the church. The Elders were pretty grumpy about it so that made it a cheerful thing. We got after them when they put the toilet brush in the clean sink so that they could use the bucket for something. Boys. We made them clean the sink again haha! Then we went to the Sullivans and helped them clean up for their company this coming week. They insisted we stay for lunch. This ward is REALLY good to us. They are super sweet and want to make sure we are taken care of! After that we saw the Hoffman's and had a decent visit with them. Brother Hoffman wasn't feeling well so we mainly visited with Sister Hoffman. After that we "happened" to run into Kianna, who "happened" to tell us to go visit her mom at her aunt's house, who "happened" to be walking home at that time and just "happened" to be in the act of smoking. What the heck!? We were so shocked at everything that panned out the way it did. We really focused on the temple when we made it back to Tonja's house. We went to dinner at the Martin's after that and the Elders discovered the zipline. So we all took turns on it. I have never felt so insecure about myself in my life haha! It was super awkward but a LOT of fun. And the old missionary was at THAT dinner appt too. haha!

Sunday for all of you people keeping track (Mom) was my 16th month mark. I have about 2.5 months left on my mission. I don't really know how to feel about it yet so I am just gonna keep going along until well, I'm just gonna keep going along haha! We went to church and then there was a court of honor immediately following so we stayed for that. We took lunch and did some studies then had to peace out for dinner at Meg's. They are so much fun to be around. Kiley is the only girl and she took my nametag and said I was now Kiley and she was Sister Crockett. We told her she had to ask the Elders really nicely if they could take the sisters home (because she was a sister missionary) and Elder Martin said "Well, only if you give me a hug!" So she ran up and gave him a hug. We tried to stop her because Sisters do NOT hug elders. But well, couldn't really do anything. Then she started pushing Sister Jones over and that REALLY couldn't go down haha! So awkward. So that was our evening because no one would let us in haha!

So we had an interesting conversation about how we can't grasp all of our sins. (we were listening to a Hillary Weeks song) and what crossed my mind is that the only One that can hold all of our sins in His hands, is the One that has holes in His hands because of those sins. This made me think about the gospel because it doesn't make sense to give up 18 months for a church; to put school on hold, family on hold, friends on hold, everything. And it still works. I am happier than I have ever been and it is because I don't have to worry. I know that everything is in the Savior's hands; His broken hands. Elder Andersen, the 70, came and said that faith is submission to God's will. I am trying to submit to His will. I am trying to have faith. And that is all He asks of me.

I love you all very much and I hope you have had a good week! I hope this week brings more miracles and more happiness to you!!

All my love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

A Humbling Experience and Worn Out Shoes!

Well, there must be something about week 1 with Sister Jones and I...it was a rough week for us! It went ok, nothing major happened, but we weren't at the top of our game. But we survived and are VERY excited for a new week to get going! (:

Tuesday was a struggle for us. Everything we planned on doing fell through. /: Literally everything. And we called President Johnson about Kianna getting baptized on Saturday and well...he said she couldn't because she was is on probation ): So we are working on that. It's really sad and Kianna was NOT happy, but it gives us more time to prepare her and finish teaching the lessons.

Wednesday we went to District Meeting and met Elder Klima's new companion. That was exciting. I feel like I am just getting everyone that has ever served with Sister Hanseen. Elder Martin now Elder Johnson. And Sister Jones was trained by the sister that took my place in Beaver with Sister Hanseen. So weird. Anyway, we went back to the church and Sister Paul came out with us and we tried to visit Laurie, but she was at work so we made our way back to Charleroi and tried the Braddy's but they weren't home, so we ended up at the Hoffman's. Well, Brother Hoffman was not happy about us being there apparently and we got into an interesting conversation about grace....basically how he doesn't understand it. So I committed them to read Brad Wilcox's "His Grace is Sufficient". It's an awesome baseline for grace. I love that talk so much. Sister Paul dropped us off then we went to Tim and Tonja's for dinner and that was super awesome. Kianna was super embarrassed around the Elders so it was REALLY funny to watch. She stuck me and Sister Jones on either side of her. She is a hoot and a half. Then we went to BOM class and we didn't have the manual so that was fun. It didn't go too badly once Sister Jones and I got in our groove. But that was just how our week was going.

Thursday we visited Dena and talked about the gospel a little bit. We asked if her and Marcus had prayed about it and she said a little bit. But not since a few days after we taught the first lesson. She said they had said they didn't want to change at this time. And then she threw this at us. She said that she had once asked Marcus "What if we are wrong?" Now, you might disagree with how I responded, but this is how it happened and I have no regrets. I told her there is no right or wrong as far as worshiping God goes (except maybe human sacrifice...but I didn't say that) however, that happiness that she is looking for so desperately is found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ taught in the His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She looked at us and we knew she was going to talk to Marcus again that night. If they will come to church I know they will make the changes. She is already giving up smoking and they want to get married sooner than planned so they can be right in the eyes of God. I have never seen people be more prepared than they are right now. God is definitely running the show around here. So we left and did some service at the senior center. After that we went and went to Menolly's to have a lesson. She had promised last time that we were there that she would read the scriptures and well, she didn't. So we brought up the promise that we had made to bring her a treat for playing the game. We threw her excuses back at her. "Sorry Menolly, we were REALLY busy last week and we just didn't have time." "There were a lot of other important things we needed to get done and we couldn't bring ourselves to go to the store." "We are sorry Menolly, maybe next time!" Well, she wasn't too happy about that and she realized where we were going with it. She said she would REALLY read the scriptures next time. So we brought her the candy and told her that it was really important to keep our promises, especially to God. Sister Braddy even spoke up and said that she would read the scriptures with Menolly. That was a HUGE step and I was kinda floored that she would agree to do that. Then was our trek to get our oil changed. It took FOREVER and was a huge waste of time, but it was necessary. Then we had FHE with the Machowiaks with Aja. That was a fiasco and a half, but it ended up working out.

Friday was weekly planning. And you should be pretty familiar with how I feel about that by now. haha! Then Sue came out with us and we saw Kianna. It was good to have another Mom's perspective but I think that Kianna responds better to peers than adults. I dunno what we are going to do with her. We went to a YW's grad party and got to talk with the Stinnetts. They are SO cool. I love them a lot. After dinner we went to Lovely's and got to talk to Laurie for a bit. We talked about the temple but it turned to the plan of salvation. It was a really good discussion and Lovely kept testifying of the truth of the gospel. It was pretty epic. I love them a lot. They are so funny. I wish you could meet them. Some day.

Saturday we found out that our ward mission leader's wife is pregnant and that's why we haven't seen her in weeks!! We were so happy for them! But she is apparently REALLY sick. So that is no bueno. We went to the Sullivans again and cleaned some more then Brother Sullivan made brunch. It was super yummy. They take good care of us. Then we visited with Eve and the poor lady fell asleep on us!! We were talking and she just conked out! haha! It was kinda funny actually. Next was Sherry and we just read the BOM with her to keep her reading. She is still struggling with smoking so we aren't really sure what to do with her right now. We then saw Tonja and really started pushing the temple with her. We showed her the store.lds.org website so that she could kinda know what to expect; but that turned into a whole new lesson with Kianna about the law of chastity. Basically our consensus was to have the Elders teach it to her....this will be interesting. They are REALLY excited about it. d: oh well!

Sunday was good, we didn't have any crazy experiences like last week; in fact, hardly anyone was there! Which was pretty sad. After church we went to the Lang's for dinner then went to the Aders and had a lesson with Tanner. It went really well! I was really happy with it. He is making huge progress and studying like a prophet. I don't even know what to teach him anymore haha! He is so awesome!

So this week has been a pretty humbling experience. We all need those moments. With Kianna not receiving permission to be baptized, Tanner's parents forbidding him, and TJ flat out refusing I turned to wonder "Why is all of this happening? Why am I teaching people that can't be baptized?" I had to realize that I am not the one teaching them and it's all on God's timing. I want more than anything to see Tanner, Kianna, Kajhia,  Laurie, Menolly,  and Dena and Marcus to enter the waters of baptism and start their journey towards eternal life. If I am robbed of that experience, then it is fair. God timed when they would need it and it isn't up to me. One of the hardest things is to accepts God's timing but it's perfect, is it not? That's all that matters. I have done what I could and the rest is up to Him.

I love you all very very much!! You are my favorite people in the entire world and I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

PS I WORE OUT MY SHOES!! I FEEL SOOO ACCOMPLISHED! (:

A 14-month Milestone

Wow. We'll have to keep this short because I AM GOING TO PITTSBURGH!!!! Whooo it's going to be a blast!!! (: Can you believe that it is already August!? Mind blown. And here was our week welcoming in the new month.

Tuesday was fun because I didn't feel super great. But definitely not sick enough to stay in!! d: We went to the work out class and Sarah came, Sue's daughter. She is so cool and we really want to start getting her back to church. She has already quit smoking for 3 weeks!!! (: She's on the right path! Then we saw Brother Kray who is a less active we hadn't been able to see before. We talked with him about the church and he said that they were offended several years ago over tithing. Come to find out, it was all a miscommunication. *sigh* pretty common unfortunately. We got a call from Kiana and she said she didn't want to get baptized anymore...oh boy. But we had a lesson set up for Wednesday so we waited until then to talk with her and sort out her concerns. We saw Sister Honich and she cheered us up a little bit. Thank goodness for awesome members!!

Wednesday was really up and down. We saw Dena and it seemed liked she was less convinced that she should meet with us. I guess they met some lady who "talks to God"...and conveniently goes to her parents church.....RIIIGHHT. We are going to keep tabs on them still. If they don't accept it now...they will in the future. That's for sure!! We had district meeting.....yawn....But afterwards we got to see Menolly and she is doing really well. We are probably moving her date back to make sure that Sister Braddy is regularly attending church. Then we saw Kiana and she is still getting baptized August 16th!! She thought (through no fault of her own) that she had to literally be perfect to be baptized. Nope. Not quite. So she is ready to be baptized. (: Then we invited her....umm relative (it is Tonja's niece who was adopted by Tim's mom...talk about confusing!!) Kajhia (Kay- asia) to talk with us. It went really well and she wanted her own copy of the Book of Mormon! During Kajhia's lesson, Kiana told Tonja who was talking about Joseph Smith, that she forgot the best part: "There were TWO personages above the brightness of the sun!" It was awesome! We worked the family history center and had Book of Mormon class. Annnnnd we'll leave it at that.

Thursday was the senior center and they literally left EVERYTHING up to us then got mad when we didn't do it their way. hahah! Old ladies man, you never win. After lunch we tried to drop off a talk to Tonja to help her but she wasn't home so we went to Tim's mom's house (she lives next door) to ask if she would give it to Tonja. She let us in and told us "You won't get me!" We were a little confused until we realized she was talking about teaching her the lessons...and yes we will. She started insulting Kiana in front of her and Kiana finally spoke up and said "Grandma! I am not stupid and I know what I am doing!" She quoted a scripture from the Book of Mormon and bore her testimony of the truth. It was EPIC. We were totally stunned and so was her grandma who kept telling us she didn't know what she was doing. Kiana knows what she is doing. And it's awesome!! (: Later, Marsha (Tim's mom) told Tonja that she had had a lesson with us (she hadn't......) After dinner was the relief society meeting. Sister Jones was so excited. So excited she couldn't stand....or run for that matter. haha! We were helping Sister Lang set up her display and Sister Jones went to get an extra hymn book and she was running back towards me. I glanced at her and then I hear a BOOM. Then she was gone.....on the floor. I was dying cuz all I could see were her eyes between the chairs. HAHAHAHA! I was laughing SO hard. The activity was pretty awesome. Sister Braddy came so that was a HUGE plus (:

Friday was one big stress case after another. We had to get team ups set up for this week and that took a lot of time. But after they were all set up, it was good. Then we went to Sue-per woman's house and Rachel met us there. She took Sister Jones to got to Aja's and Eve's while I went with Sue-per woman to Finleyville. At the end of this team-up, Sue and I got in to see the Sullivans. We haven't been able to see them ever and they live in a mansion house. Literally this thing is insanely gorgeous. We were afraid to sit on their couches. They were really nice and we talked about faith with Tammy, the mom. She bore her testimony to us about faith and when I invited her to church she said she didn't have a testimony and couldn't see herself coming unless she was "moved to". ): It was REALLY sad. Because of that appointment, we were REALLY late to our dinner appt but the Lang's were pretty chill. We found out there that Tonja was stranded in Pittsburgh. We didn't know much of the situation but as we were coming home, she called us on a weird number. It was Marsha's number. She asked us to find a ride for Kiana's doctor's appt the following day. But we were really concerned about them being at the point at 9:30 pm!! So we call 7th ward missionaries (Sister Rock) to make them aware of what's going on. By the time we think to call Bishop EVERYONE'S phone died. We couldn't help them. I was definitely a stress case that night. haha! Oh man. (They made it home at 2 am and everything worked out)

Saturday was a really long and good day. We had correlation and the Elders were moody. Probably because they had only seen 3 people in 5 days....rough. I don't blame them. It's pretty discouraging to not have a lot to report on. After studies and lunch we saw the Humberts and Dave said he wants to start coming back to church!! After we were correcting his false doctrine. Next was Sherry and we just read the Book of Mormon with her. Next was Vi and Marissa. They are both doing pretty well. We had a dinner appt at the Hammonds and Tanner came. We were able to teach him the 10 Commandments and it went really well (: Next were the Hoffmans and they are always pretty goofy!!! (:

Sunday was good. We went to Ward Council and then Aja told us Sister Robker didn't show. So we struggled to find her a ride and Sue-per woman saved the day. She went to get her!! It made me so happy and relieved!! So everyone made it safe! (: Then we had dinner at the Stinnetts. They are AWESOME. Love them. Next was Tim and Tonja's. They are super cool. And then we saw Sister Fitch to end our night. All in all a good day.

So I finished the Book of Mormon today during studies. Sadly it has taken me 14 months to read it but the things I learned from it were priceless. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that the Book of Mormon testifies of His divine mission. I love my mission and I am so grateful for the things I have learned.

One more insight. I was reading Jesus the Christ this morning and I am reading about the betrayal. Elder Talmage cites D&C 76 talking about the sons of perdition. In verses 36-37 it talks about how they won't be redeemed and that the 2nd death will have power over them. It made me aware that if the Atonement had never happened this would have been everyone's fate; no point to life. But it did happen, and I am redeemed. This will not be my fate as long as I trust God and do what He asks of me. This is why I am on a mission, to help others escape a fate worse than can be imagined. The Gospel is true and the way to return to live with God.

I hope you have a good week!! I love you!!

Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Free to Struggle

Wowie. These weeks are getting shorter and shorter. I can hardly believe it is the end of July. And the weather has been GORGEOUS. Thank goodness. We could use a good change from the ugly humidity!!

This week was a little more difficult than we would have liked but it's week '4' of the transfer (actually week 5 but we have 7 weeks this transfer instead of 6) so we can't expect too much haha!

Tuesday we went to the work out class and the Elders came. They kept teasing us about "jazzercising". But the joke was definitely on them. haha! They couldn't walk for days. An old lady work out class my eye! haha! We had to take time to clean our area book because it looks ATROCIOUS so we spent time updating records and putting everything in the right place. Then we saw Menolly, our 10 year old investigator with Sister Tolliver. We committed her to be baptized on Sept 28 so it will give her parents tons of time to come to church...hopefully. Then we went to the Machowiaks for dinner with Tim and Tonja. We had a lesson afterwards with TJ.....ugh. Who knew an 11 year old could be SO frustrating. He asks THE most random questions. Like "Did God have parents?" "If we all accept Jesus Christ in the Spirit World why does it matter if we join here?" Oookay. Not random, but definitely NOT pertinent to what we are talking about. Sister Machowiak tried to help as much as she could but TJ is one stubborn kid. I don't know if he'll make his baptismal date mostly because he doesn't want to.

Wednesday was pretty frustrating. Week 4 is just humility week. And it doesn't matter whether or not it is a different number of weeks in the transfer; Humility week KNOW when week 4 is haha! We had district meeting...yup. Then we went to Finleyville and Venetia and no one was home. Of course. Why would people be home?! And the one guy who was, lied to us that the Moore's had moved a while back...he WAS Brother Moore. *sigh* gotta love agency. We had BOM class and since the Elders never gave us the book, we totally winged it. It wasn't horrible, but I KNOW how important it is to prepare now. Man.

Thursday was better that is for sure. We went to the senior center to volunteer and it was a mad house. They had JUST dropped the food off right before we showed up and so nothing was ready. The old ladies were running around like chickens with their heads cut off haha! So we tried to step in and help as much as we could. But of course, we didn't know how to cut the cantaloupe right...riiiggghht. So we excused them and did it how we wanted hahaha! We met Sister Stinnett at the church so we could go work in Charleroi and that went pretty well. We saw Jackie then saw Kiana. Kiana now wants to get baptized on August 16th /: Bummer!!! But whenever she is ready is when she is ready. We talked about music and the influence of it. Kiana said "Well, if you take out the swear words the song is only a minute long!!" Do YOU see anything wrong with that haha! Oh man. So we are going to try and help her get some good music that will help her stay focused. Joining the church is a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice. A lot of people have to give up many things that they have been doing for a long time. And often, they already know it's wrong. Sister Hreha (ray-hi) was really sweet and picked us up for dinner and then we went and saw Aja after dinner. Her daughter, Adrianna is SO smart and wanted to play with us and was pretty upset when we had to leave.

Friday, Sue saved the day after weekly planning. We needed a ride to Donora and she came in and took us there. We saw Eve....more baby advice haha! I seriously don't know what to do with her hahaha! She is crazy! d: Then we saw the Humberts who are a whole other brand of crazy...Then we went on exchanges and had to book it to the Elders apartment and they took us to the Mossers. Everyone was running around like crazy haha! After dinner, we saw Lovely and it was super awesome. I love her! Her kids were super cuddly this week and just wanted to hug us. It was super sweet.

Saturday, we saw Tanner at Tonja's. We meant it to be really for Kiana and TJ but they went to Pittsburgh so we didn't get to teach them that much. Tanner's lesson went alright. Then on to Vi's. Then we had to exchange back and Sister Jones and I went to the Crooks for dinner. They are leaving this week so that is pretty sad. But it was a good dinner.

Sunday Adrianna wanted to sit by me....so I missed ANOTHER sacrament meeting. Oh well. If Aja got something out of it, it is totally worth it. We studied at the church after wards and another huge rainstorm rolled in. I love the rain SO much. It's amazing. We had dinner at the Aders and they are pretty goofy haha! After our dinner, we tried to see Brittany but that didn't work because Sister Ader beat us to it! So we saw Tim and Tonja. They need a lot of prayers, so if you wouldn't mind praying for them, I would really appreciate it!!!! I know they would too! So that was our week. Not super exciting but pretty tiring.

One cool thing I have been pondering this week is from a song and the line is "We are free to struggle, we're not struggling to be free." Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ I am allowed to struggle through things without being penalized because I don't understand right away! I am allowed to make mistakes (so long as I repent afterwards) because it is apart of the learning process. Ideally I would grow line upon line and precept upon precept without making the mistakes along the way, but sometimes I trip up. I am not struggling to prove myself to God, I am struggling to prove God to myself. My Spirit already knows that God is there, but my carnal, fallen man mind has to catch up. I am so glad I am allowed to struggle and that I don't have to earn my way to heaven. It's already been paid, it's just up to me to decide how far I want that payment to get me.

I hope you have a great week!! I love you a ton!! Thanks for your support!!

Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

A Fantastic Week

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!! You are NEVER going to believe what happened this week! It was CRAZY. The church is so freaking true. I am still kinda is shock about it. It was SUCH a good week! (:

So on Fast Sunday the stake had a fast specifically for new investigators! And that was way cool. Tuesday was just the start of it! We texted Dena and asked if we could set up a time where we could come over and talk. She said we could on Tuesday in the morning so we went! We chatted then Dena asks "Sooo what did you want to talk about??" I nervously shot a look at Sister Jones who just nodded. Dena said "Umm why did you just look at her?? Are you nervous?" I laughed and said "No.....but yes." I explained that we wanted to talk about the gospel and it was extremely important to me. I said I wanted them to say yes so badly and I was afraid they would say no. Marcus explained that he didn't like religion forced down his throat so he would most likely say no, but he would pray about it. Ummm sweet. Because God is TOTALLY going to tell him to listen to us. Dena was a little more quiet during this. She then let Marcus finish and said that she knew we weren't there to just help her paint her house or unpack. We were there from God. When she needed God the most, we came knocking. She said that Marcus and her were uncomfortable with their church and wanted to find one that fit them. That's also the day the sisters knocked on the door for the first time. So we ended up talking about religion for a while and then Marcus said "Well, if your church is true, why isn't it that old? I mean Catholicism and Presbyterian date way back. What about yours?" Sister Jones and I laughed and said, "Well, this will take some explaining. Can we teach you the first lesson?" They agreed and we taught. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Marcus said that it made sense. He also said he wanted to read it to know what it said. Umm go for it. Be our guest!!! (: haha! Basically, I want them to accept the gospel more than anything else in this world. I can't even describe the overwhelming feeling I get when I think of them being baptized and sealed to their kids!!! It makes me so happy!! This is what missionary work is ALL about. Incomprehensible joy. We then had dinner and then went to Tim and Tonja's. Kianna, Tonja's daughter, is home for good now. We talked first to Tonja about smoking. She has gone almost 2 whole weeks without smoking!!!!!! We are so proud of her!! She is making so much progress. It's clear that she wants to go to the temple more than anything. Next was a stop at the Hoffmans. They are so funny.

Wednesday was totally sweet!! We had District Meeting, which let's be honest, is getting kinda old. The same lessons by different district leaders. *sigh* I still try and get as much out of them as I can but it isn't like when I first came out. We went to the Braddy's house after lunch and talked with Sis Braddy about missions and conversions. Then Sister Jones asked if her kids were interested in taking the lessons. Right then, Mennolly pops up and says "I want to be baptized! There is an 8 year old getting baptized and I am 10!!" hahah! So, we didn't specifically teach her, so she isn't a new investigator yet, but she will be this coming week! We then went back to Tim and Tonja's for TJ's lesson. Well, TJ conveniently went to Pittsburgh for the day. Tonja and Kianna were sitting outside when we walked up. We ended up giving Kiana the first lesson and she is all fired up about it. It was super awesome! So we picked HER up as a new investigator. (But we aren't done with the family yet!!) 

Thursday was a test of our faith I think. Everything fell through. But when we went to go organize our area book we got a text from TJ asking us to come and teach him a lesson asap. So we did. He is a typical 11 year old and got mad for some reason. He laid on the floor talking to us through his arms. So like the awesome sisters that we are, we laid on the floor next to him and talked to him through our arms. He eventually sat up once Tonja came and yelled at us for laying on the floor haha! ooops. 

Friday was weekly planning and we beasted it up. We got it all done in 3 hours and set up members to be at ALL teaching appointments. CRAZY. We took Elizabeth, the Bishop's daughter with us to see a new less active, named Sherry. She basically just told us all of her medical problems. Yikes...Then we met up with Sue who is superwoman I swear. She is SO amazing. She drove us to Cokeburg so we could meet with Aja, a recent convert from Washington. Aja is amazing. She is getting married in August and has a little girl named Adriana. Aja wanted to come to church so she asked us to help her set up a ride. No problem, we are pro at that haha! Unfortunately, Aja is probably moving to North Dakota in September. Bummer! 

Saturday was non-stop running from the time we woke up to the time that we laid down for bed! Crazy stuff. We had correlation with Brother Wood then we came home and did studies. Then we went to the Ader's and had lunch with them. They are so sweet. Sister Ader came out with us and we visited Tonja again to make sure she was still doing well. She was (: We met up with Haley, a young woman who is planning on going on a mission. She drove us to the Humbert's and also Eve's. We committed the Humberts to pray every day about the BOM....we'll see how that goes this week. Eve is funny as usual. She was explaining that when you talk to an old person you have to speak really loud and slowly and look at them. When she finished, or so I thought, I asked if she had any advice for us and she said "I'm trying to tell you it!!" We went back to the church, took a picture with Haley then tried to figure out a ride for Sherry on the way to our dinner appointment. The Mossers fed us Brazilian hot dogs again!! SO yummy. We had the spiritual thought. We combined D&C 18:15-16 with Diet Coke and Mentos. Figure that one out (; haha! 

Sunday was good. We fasted for Dena and Marcus to get their answer. So if you can keep them in your prayers that would be amazing!! We went to choir practice before church and 15 minutes before sacrament meeting, Brother Binger, the 2nd Counselor pulls us into a class room and asks me to speak! 0.o Sister Jones was already speaking, so I was the fill in because our WML's WIFE got sick. Oh man. haha! So let the stress begin! I scribbled some thoughts down tried to concentrate on the sacrament but I was SO nervous. Funny story about the sacrament. They blessed the bread just fine then they started to bless the water...and a whole tray was empty as in it was never filled. Bryan, one of the priests blessing the sacrament was like "What the??" So they filled the tray as the other priesthood holders were passing the water. They hoped they wouldn't have to bless it again. Annnnnd they almost made it. They had to bless a whole tray for Elder Martin. Bryan started whispering again "Are you serious!?" It was SO awkward haha! They say the prayer and everyone is confused. Elder Martin takes the water and they sit down. hahahaha! Sister Jones and I were dying we were laughing so hard. But the rest of the meeting went ok. Minus my talk haha! d: But what can you expect? Not much haha! So that was about as eventful as it got!!

So as you can see, it's been an amazing week. I feel so privileged to be serving at this time. I may not be able to see the changes, but I can feel my desires slowly starting to change. I love the scriptures with all of my heart. If nothing else, I have promised to never EVER forsake the knowledge that I have gained here. It's too precious. I love my Savior and I am so grateful that He was willing to condescend so that He could know how to help ME through my difficulties. Who else would show that much love? I love my Heavenly Father with all of my heart because He is willing to let us go for a while so that we can eventually reach perfection, completion, and exaltation. What a wonderful time we live in where the Restored Gospel is on the earth!! 

I love you all and I hope that you have a marvelous week!!! Oh and Happy Birthday Dad!!!! (:

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

4th of July

Hello!!! Happy 4th of July (on Friday!!!) I hope you had a great time!! I know we had fun! (: Things are going well in Monongahela! Sister Jones and I are doing really well and this next week is going to be a challenge because we want to get members to all of our lessons!! Talk about difficult, but with the Lord anything is possible.

So Tuesday was a little strange because we made plans and then did something completely different from those plans. Pretty typical actually haha! We stopped in on Dena and Marcus and Dena asked us to come back and help them. Now, I was a little hesitant at first but Dena said she would make sure I'd stay away from windows d: So first we went to the Senior Center and we had a kinda cool experience there. When we showed up they were a little shocked (because it's Tuesday and we normally go on Thursday but it was Tuesday, Mother (;  ) So we ended up helping them with lunch and when we sat down to talk with some of the ladies, Ida, who is in her 90's, said that God answered her prayer. She didn't know how they were going to get everything done that day and we had shown up. She kept telling everyone that God had sent us to help. It was kinda awesome. Love those people!! So we went back to Dena and Marcus' after lunch and I DIDN'T BREAK ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! (: HURRAY!! It was a miracle! (: We helped them for 4 hours and their front porch now looks great and all put together. They are amazing. We are going to schedule an appointment with them so that we can sit down and have a good lesson with them....finally. We went to the Hoffman's after dinner and Brother Hoffman gave us an RLDS copy of the Book of Mormon. Talk about WEIRD. haha! It's pretty much the same...but not. They kinda left out Joseph Smith's testimony....a little important if you ask me.

Wednesday was totally awesome!! We went to the Braddy's and Sister Braddy committed to pray with her kids at night!! That was the first solid commitment we have gotten from her! And she prayed for us!! Even better!! A little of amazing things happened with this family and I'll talk a little bit more about it in a second. We saw Vi after that and her son is making her stay for all 3 hours now which is probably for the best. d: We were pretty excited about that too because she ALWAYS leaves after sacrament. For an old lady she is moves pretty fast! d: Next was Tim and Tanja's. By the end, we committed their 11 year old son, TJ to take the lessons!!! So we got a new investigator!! We were REALLY happy about that. He is a pretty typical 11 year old but you wouldn't guess that by looking at him. He wears size 13 shoes!!! That is HUGE!! haha! But we are pretty excited to start working with him! Our only attendee at the BOM class was Sister Crook, so we got a little off topic /: We also met with Bishop Paul after that and got his direction for the ward this transfer!

Thursday we picked up the Mckeesport Elders then headed off to Greentree!!! We then met President and Sister Johnson for the 1st time! They are super sweet. They are from Logan Utah and almost the complete opposite of the Tophams. So our mission will have some adjusting to do! But it looks like we are in great hands!! (: I am really excited to serve under them! I even got to see Sister Rock so that was pretty sweet! She is surviving her walk area...kinda haha! Then it was time to drive home and that literally took us 2 hours. We left at 11:45 and didn't get back to our apartment until 1:45 and we had an appointment at 2:30. We scarfed down some lunch then took off to Sue's to meet Rachel. We talked there for a little bit then headed out to Jackie's. Her father in law had a heart attack and she had an infection so we haven't been able to see her for the last few weeks. But we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went pretty well! She is learning so quickly!

Friday was the 4th so we had to be in by 6 if we didn't have an appointment /: We had weekly planning then talked with Cheran for a little bit. But we had an early dinner appointment at the Hammonds. They are amazing and had invited some of the Elders' investigators to their house for dinner. It was super great but they definitely have their work cut out for them with Sara!! haha! But she is really sweet and loves coming to church so that's pretty awesome. So then we came home and had to stay in. Fireworks are really loud....haha!

Saturday was still pretty good. We went to correlation and the Elders forgot....same time every week...not hard hahaha! But we came home after having a good discussion on our investigators and less actives. We found out that Eve is BACK in the hospital and she is as wiry as ever! d: She gave us some....ahem interesting advice...we'll let it stay there haha! Next was the Sullivans and they are doing better. Mark is doing better but he was on one for sure. haha! We talked about D&C 4 which was super awesome. Pretty epic section if you ask me! d: Next we went to Barbara's and taught the Plan of Salvation. We are working on her understanding. Next was our lesson with Tanner. He is still bossing it! We talked about scripture study as a formality haha! He is really good at it. Next we tried a lady named Michelle. We've tried her before and both times she wasn't available. We told the people who opened the door that we would be back and they said ok. So we show up and their is an envelope on the door that says 'Sister Missionaries'. So we take it down and it's a letter that basically says she doesn't want contact from the church at all and that we need to respect people's wishes. *sigh*. I try not to take things personally but sometimes it is REALLY hard. I just want everyone to want the gospel!!!

Sunday was another fast Sunday! The whole stake fasted to help us find new investigators! So at the start of sacrament meeting, I turned around to see who came. SISTER BRADDY WAS THERE!!!!!!! (: We were SO happy!! It was amazing!! We ended up spending our evening with some of the coolest people ever!! We saw Sister Honich and Sister Fitch. These ladies are SO awesome!!!! I love this area!!

So this week has been amazing and I have learned a lot. I love being a missionary and I love serving with Sister Jones!! Everything is going great, soooo bring on the trials right!?!? haha! Oh man. But everything is really great!! I hope you are having an awesome time too!!! (: I love you dearly!! Thank you for the letters!! They make my day!!!!!

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett

Everything is for our Good

Weeeelll hello favorite people!! How's it going?? This week has been pretty good for the most part! We survived and it wasn't as bad as it was last week, thank goodness. But we do have transfer information...Sister Rock is getting transferred tomorrow ): It makes me super sad but I am excited for her! She'll do great things!

On Tuesday, we saw Dena and shared Earthly Father, Heavenly Father with her and she really liked! She even asked us to leave it up so that she could show Marcus when he got home! Score. But the kids made it kinda hard to ask them if they want to investigate. Grr. I just need to be bold!! We tried to visit lots of people but people don't seem to be home very often at 4 on a Tuesday. I don't know why they wouldn't be!! d: We visited Tanja and she had her grandkids over so she was super flustered; poor lady. Then we went to the Stinnetts so we could visit the Colberts. Sister Stinnett's daughter is dating their son and they are both on missions right now. By the end of the visit I was a walking rug. Like COVERED in hair. It was so gross!! And Sister Rock saw her first firefly (yes they are real!! and SO cool! (:  )



Wednesday we left early to go help at the Food Bank. Mostly we just talked with people and directed them if they had any questions. Then we went to our last district meeting. But no district meeting is complete without finding SOMETHING gross. Our zone leaders found a HUGE fly like MASSIVE and trapped it between the glass doors! d: Sick. After lunch we went to Donora and visited the Humberts. Sister Humbert's daughter is really sick and in the hospital. They keep asking us to pray for her because we offer "better" prayers than they do....we gotta work on that. But we did set up a blessing for them. The Priesthood is awesome. Sister Humbert wants to retake the lessons so she can remember what was first taught to her. Hopefully she'll come to church! We also saw Sister Latkanich. She is a wirey old thing haha! We had Book of Mormon and a lesson with Tanner. He is doing SUPER awesome and we reset him with a baptismal date of April 10, 2015. Sweeet! (:

Thursday was pretty long. We did service at the senior center. We saw Sue and talked about Jesus Christ as our "reference book" for everything we do. We made it out to Vi's and talked about enduring to the end with her. We also saw the Hoffmans but they told us to come back later. We were planning on going to visit the Abbeglens with our ward mission leader and his wife but then the family invited us to dinner. So we planned on that but then Sister Abbeglen was running late so they cancelled dinner...AND the lesson. Oh dear. The life of a missionary d: We saw the Hoffmans again and talked with them for a bit. They are pretty funny d:

Friday we had to split up weekly planning because we went to lunch with the Crooks. We had to get Sister Rock's blood drawn and then Sue called us. She asked for help in moving some clothes around. We got a call from Sister Hammond who asked if we still talked to Dena and Marcus. She invited them to dinner! And they said they could come!!!!! (: So we did then went to get some AWESOME gyros from a Greek guy downtown. We were able to talk with Sue for a little bit then we had to race to our dinner appointment. We had dinner with the Paul's. Then it was back to Bethel Park! I picked up Sister Stokes and we didn't stop talking until about 11:45....mmm probably Midnight. We had SO much fun!

Saturday was depressing and fun all at the same time...*sigh*. Missionary life. Sister Stokes and I went to correlation and then back for studies. We took lunch then off to Donora for us! We saw the Humberts and followed up on the blessing and Sister Humbert was really happy about that. We saw
Sister Latkanich again and she is doing well still. We saw the Sullivans and they had us make milkshakes while we talked about the gospel. SICK. haha! I was doing SO well! d: On the way home we were rushing because we had to exchange back AND make it to dinner on time PLUS make a cake. So we ran to the store and then dumb me thought "Hey, just turn up the temperature! That'll make it bake faster..." So up to 450 the oven went. I sat down after putting it in the oven and sat down. I looked at Sister Stokes and said "Wait.....that's not going to work!! It'll cook the outside before the inside is even CLOSE to being done!!" I ran to the kitchen but it was too late...mmmm blonde moment. And then the sisters showed up. So I just laughed and Sister Rock said we would just make it at the Hammonds. So we got another cake mix and rushed to the Hammonds and made it there. Dena and Marcus showed up and they had a BLAST!! The kids hit it off really well and everything went AWESOME!!!! (: And the cake turned out when I didn't touch it hahaha!

Sunday Sister Rock said good bye to everyone at church and just cried. The poor thing. 1st transfer is the hardest. We ran around all crazy visiting people and finally slowed down in the evening with dinner and a goodbye visit to the Aders. Yup. That was our week!! (:

Man, and the Tophams are going home on Saturday!! How weird!! I can hardly believe it!! So many landmarks are happening. The Tophams are leaving, my 11th transfer and my 14th month tomorrow!! I don't know where my time is flying to but I am glad it is being spent in the service of my God. I love this area and I can't wait to see it flourish more!! Everything is for our good!

I hope you all have a great week! I love you!!

All my love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett