December 30, 2010

Thanks for all of the great presents!

Merry Christmas Mom, Dad, Callie, Olivia and Samuel!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas........

Family!

What a joy it was to hear all of you on Christmas. Although the time was short the conversations were uplifting and are carrying me through each day. Thanks for the support and all that you do!

I don't think I expressed my gratitude enough for all of the gifts. Thank you so much. My Christmas was very enjoyable and thrilling. 

   During the holidays things seem to slow down as families prepare for trips or to host, but with the holidays over the work seems to be picking up again. Along with a change of pace out here I am noticing changes in myself. After 2 months of doing something it starts to become a habit and then it becomes easier to do. That's how life is right now for me. I am noticing myself doing things subconsciencly that before I took time to think about. All of these things are related to missionary work and help the work progress so I feel like these habits are sucessful ones.
   I am treating the mission more like a lifestyle now as well. Before I had an outlook on it similar to Field Training. Just a program in which I needed to do my best and complete. It kept me focused but not personally fulfilling or sucessful. But I have come to understand that it is a lifestyle now and as I embrace that I am able to focus more on the Spirit. And as I do that my success is not measured by numbers but rather by, as Dad told me on the phone, "planting seeds." And seeds are being planted everyday out here, every hour in fact. 
   So I would like to start telling you all more about the actual details of the past week. I think you all might enjoy this as it will give you a taste of what I am doing out here. 
   So this past week, since we talked on Saturday, has been very fulfilling. We have this family from Puerto Rico, George Ramirez,  we have been trying to teach. They come to church every Sunday with his brother's family, Edwin Ramirez, who are members. Elder Macferran spoke on Sunday and the wife started crying, she later told him he really touched her heart with his talk. This is exciting because they have been really flaky with us in the past. Hopefully this will yield some commitments.
   I learned something this week. Hispanics are susceptible to dreams, or at least talking about them. In the past week we have sat down with at least 3 Hispanic investigators who each claimed to have dreams and asked us what it meant. This turned out to be very rewarding as we explained that we are all entitled to our own personal revelation. 
   We had a very interesting dinner last night as well. We have been working with this part member family here and found out they have a lot of member family friends. So we called up one of these families to sit down and talk with them about the Zimmermans, the family we are working with. We were on exchanges that day so I went over with my district leader and sat down to talk with the Howards, the member family. As we started talking we discussed how we could get the Z's involved and excited about taking the lessons Bro. Howard pulled out his cell phone and called up Bro. Z and told him he was sitting down talking to the missionaries and that we were all having dinner on Wed. night so be there. Despite his boldness Bro. Z agreed! After he hung up the phone Bro. H told us we were going to have  a 3 course meal so the dinner could drag on and we could have time to causally bring up the gospel. Well the dinner turned out to be 7 courses on fine china and religion was not even brought up until the beginning of the 6th course! Overall it was a great experience and great food. We left with a return appointment with Bro. Z and his wife in shock that we got him to agree to listen to the lessons. Success over seven courses.
   So from a week full of dreams, drawn out dinner appointments, and Puerto Ricans, what have I learned? That the Lord's hand is in everything. He is responsible for every "coincidence" encountered and every blessing received and as I continue in obedience I expect this pattern to continue.

Family, I love you all and am happy to see the Lord is blessing you all as well. Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Cronin

A New letter, just in time for the New Year!!!