Family
Thanks for all the letters this week! How awesome you all got to meet Mitt Romney??!?! I remain fairly aloof from the political scene as a missionary so I must say any opinion I have is ignorant.
Olivia!!!! What's been new with you? How is young women's going? School?
Happy Birthday Samuel!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of you! Sister Neider told me you all requested we might Skye so I could be there for it. I wish I could have but I know the experience must have been amazing! You've got the priesthood!!! Wow! It seems like yesterday you just came into this world and now you have the authority to pass the sacrament! Crazy! I love you!
Happy Early Birthday Callie!!! I remember my 17th birthday. We all went out to Lake Georgetown and went cliff jumping. I hope you celebrate well! I am so glad to hear you are liking golf too. It is a sport that frustrates me just thinking about it but it is one of the few wherein you can enjoy nature while cursing the ball. I love you and am so proud of you!
Well family, this has been a crazy week here in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission. Well mostly crazy just here in our area. We had a baptism on Saturday...and get this....we met him 11 days ago!?!?!?
So here's the story:
Zac was baptized Saturday night at 7:30pm here in Henderson, NV, but his story does not start there. 5 years ago Zac and his family lived in Virginia. His brother contracted a condition that caused mold to grow in his lungs, the first and only recorded incident of this in all of Virginian history. Before the diagnosis was made his brother's life hung in the balance and on the night all were sure he would not survive Zac knelt and prayed the best he knew how. He said he was in tears as he pleaded for his brother's life to be spared. The doctors suggested he move to a drier climate. They picked the driest and after a short time in Las Vegas his brother made a quick recovery. Zac mentions the worst part of all of this is that after his prayer had been answered he still refused to believe in God. Then in high school here in Henderson two of his best friends passed away within the same year. One died just yards from Zac as he watched him struggle in the current of the Colorado River. This added more fear, doubt, anger, and questions to his life. Members of the church who were close friends with him reached out and attempted to offer him answers and comfort. This only strengthened the wall between him and God. In his bitterness he sought to disprove the Book of Mormon and as a high school student he read the book cover to cover. Later he mentioned he felt nothing as he read it, but said he could find no faults. Behind the bitterness, rather in front of it all, was an ever energetic young man who achieved his goals. When he turned 18 he enlisted in the Marines. He has been serving in Quantico VA for the past 1.5 years where one day on a whim he decided to find missionaries and take the discussions. Things rang true to him and he decided to join the church. Around this time he would be coming home to Las Vegas to visit for a week and a half. This is when we first met him. We met Zac last Friday and with the help of his best friend, a covenant keeping member of the church, he was taught and baptized. Close to 50 people came to witness this change in his life. Most of whom were non-members. The Spirit at his baptism was unlike any other spirit I have ever felt. He flys back to Virginia today where he will be met by a welcoming singles branch in Quantico. His next goal is to serve a mission!!!!!
I am so thankful for experiences like these. I am so grateful for relationships that can be built in the matter of 10 days simply because of a common belief in Christ and His teachings.
It was just announced that our mission will be splitting on July 1st. We will be giving Elko and Ely to a new mission the Nevada Reno Mission, as well as a few other outlying towns to the Nevada West Mission. Everyone who is serving in these outlying parts on July 1 2012 will be transferred to those missions. However, anyone who has already experienced two mission presidents (aka me) will not be transferred out of the mission. We are pumped to have split!! This means there is more work to do than just two missions can handle here in Nevada.
I love missionary work! I love the Spirit and always having it with me. True it is that it is always with me and you might think that missionaries are never without the spirit but I have experienced times, scarce as they may be, where I could not feel the spirit. What a difference there is!!!! I am so thankful for the ability to discern when the Spirit is there and when he is not. I never want to be without it. It is hard to make the right decisions when its not there. I can testify of that.
I pray you all are well and are experiencing life to the fullest! I miss you all! And I love you all too!
Love,
Elder Cronin
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