Week 12: "I've Got Goose Chills!"

When people say that Satan really tries to drag you down right before something good happens, they are so right!! Last week was just so hard emotionally and spiritually and it really made this week mean so much more! This week was amazing, the Lord's hand was in all the details and man, when you're missionaries He can trust, He's just going to bring you so much success.This week was just full of miracles left and right.

We started off the week with an amazing day where we found so many more people who wanted lessons from the missionaries! We were able to find a person named Kat who Sister Strobelt and Rowe could not find when they first got to the area, but we ran into her house on Tuesday! She was so excited to see us and so excited to start taking the lessons! It was a really cool experience and it really showed me that all that I do, if I'm working hard and being obedient, is not for nothing, that the Lord is still consecrating my efforts. But really Tuesday was so awesome, we found so many previously interested people who want to come back to church and learn more! It was amazing!!

We did some exchanges with the sisters in our district this week! I spent a day with Sister Estes then a day with Sister Jenkins and it taught me so much. Being a missionary is kind of hard sometimes, so when you can learn from and grow alongside all these different missionaries, it's a lot more fun and you get a lot more out of all those little growing pains. We were able to learn lots from each other and see some people. I am just NOW feeling pretty confident that I could tract just fine thanks to exchanges!

So a really amazing miracle this week: this guy named Billy has been coming to church for a few weeks with his wife (who is a member) and their new baby and apparently he went up to our bishop and said he wanted to be baptized!! It was really amazing because when we went to go teach him after that, it was really obvious to me that the Lord was really preparing Billy for the gospel. Our first time teaching him, we were teaching the Restoration of the Church to him and we got to Joseph Smith's first vision. As we were teaching, the Spirit was SO STRONG! It was seriously almost tangable!!! We asked him what he thought about Joseph's experience and he told us, and I quote: "I love it, I've got goose chills right now!" Haha it was AWESOME!!! We explained to him that that was the Spirit and you could tell that it made sense to him and he believed what we had said. I love this sacred opportunity that I have been given to see the gospel click for someone. An experience like what happened with Billy almost never happens. But when it does, it makes every door you've knocked, every person who has dropped you, all the blisters, all the tired days, and every other not so fun thing missionaries go through SO WORTH IT!!!! That seriously was a miracle to me. 

The rain down here is killer! Its been pouring every day this week! But thankfully, I've learned my lesson and haven't turned into a raccoon since last week lol. Sister Strobelt and I have just decided to embrace the fact that we'll just always be wet, whether from the rain or from sweat! (I know, it's pretty gross, but when you're walking around in 90° weather and 70% humidity, you get a little sweaty.) On Monday, we were surprised by a HUGE rainstorm that caused some flooding in the parking lot we had parked in, and I think the picture speaks for itself on how much it rained! 

I was reading in Alma 24 this week and something kind of clicked for me. Alma 24 talks all about the Lamanites that have been converted unto the Lord. They used to be a bloodthirsty people who delighted in bloodshed and that was their life. They knew that their enemies were preparing for war against them but in verses 15-16, they talk about how they're willing to give up all their weapons of war to show their God that they are willing to follow him. How scary is that?! They dont care if it means that they die, they just want to obey Heavenly Father. Then it clicked. What am I willing to give up to show that I'm willing to better obey Heavenly Father? I challenge yall to find a way to better serve Heavenly Father this week and I promise you're going to be SO blessed!! 

I love this gospel, I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior, I know they're real. I love the Book of Mormon and I love being a missionary. I also love you all! Have a great week everyone!

Love Sister Crouch

1. Sister Estes and Sister Jenkins

2. Us with Yojanna, a woman from Honduras who we are starting to teach!

3. Aftermath of a surprise rainstorm

4. All of us on exchanges!

5. The lake outside of hobby lobby. Walked through it to get our washitape and stickers #worthit

Week 11: This Greenie is Almost All Grown Up!

Well y'all, this greenie is almost all grown up! Haha well kind of, not really. But I've seriously had the craziest week of my whole mission and lots and lots of mission growing pains to go along with it, so pretty soon I'll be grown up haha.

This week has honestly been a rollercoaster for me. Here's just a little background on why my week was so crazy: So my companion Sister Strobelt is a Sister Training Leader (STL) for the mission, so once a transfer she goes to the mission home in Baton Rouge with all the other mission leaders and talk about things that can improve in the mission, plan out zone conference and all that fun stuff. So that mission leadership conference was this past Thursday. So we got to do a little exchange this week! Anyways, we got a call on Tuesday that for MLC, I would be staying in Slidell for the day with Sister Radmall from Gulfport, MS who is even younger than me! Her companion was also going to MLC so she needed an exchange too. So shes been out 2 weeks this Wednesday and oh my gosh I was soooooo stressed! It was basically a toddler babysitting a new born! I was going to be driving our big Tacoma truck, I had to be an example to this greenie and I was just so stressed and I was the more experienced missionary for the first time my whole mission. So I had a good 2 days to stress over Thursday! So Thursday comes around and I swear the Lord was trying to teach me something because aboslutlely nothing went according to plan! Almost no one we planned on seeing was home, we had no luck with potential investigators and we probably knocked 25 doors without tracting them. It was crazy. I was starting to beat myself up a little bit for being inadequate and all that fun stuff when we had a miracle! I'll admit, I was starting to get a little discouraged by our day. But we had this Book of Mormon referral who told us he'd be home all day Thursday, so we went to go drop off his Book of Mormon and its dumping rain and we haven't had any "success" all day and we just were hoping he'd be interested because we really needed a pick me up. And he was!! When we stopped by, he told us a lot about why he ordered the Book of Mormon and how he was trying to change his life for the better and Sister Radmall and I were able to bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and talk about what exactly it is, and man the Spirit was almost tangible, it was such an incredible experience! He said he'd read it and we are going back this week to teach him about the restoration! So that was a tender mercy from the Lord! He has so much potential so I'm excited to see what comes of it!

So funny story. Here in Louisiana, when it rains it seriously POURS and it pours out of NOWHERE. It makes for a fun guessing game of whether or not to wear our rain boots when we leave the house. Anyways, we were in this pretty big apartment complex going to try this guy we've been teaching and we decided to park at the entrance of the complex and walk a quarter mile to his building to get some sun and some steps in. Anyways, we get to the door of his apartment, and we hear thunder...and see huge black clouds so that made us real excited to run back to the truck! Anyways, we go inside and visit with his wife since he wasn't home from work and share a little message and then as we're getting ready to leave we just hear the rain coming down hard!! So I luckily had brought my tiny little umbrella with me, but Sister Strobelt forgot hers in the car...so we get out of the apartment and both of us are halfway under the umbrella getting soaked anyways. And me, being the loving comp I am, just gave Sister Strobelt the umbrella since she straightened her hair and did her makeup real nice. So a quarter mile later, I'm looking like the stereotypical crazy ex girlfriend haha. It was a fun Louisiana experience. Let's just say I showed up to our next appointment with traces of mascara all over my face. Gotta love the rain.

So I was pretty disappointed by some days we had this week and being a missionary wasn't super fun all day everyday. I really had to readjust my mindset to be more positive, have more faith and trust in our Heavenly Father more than I have needed to in the past. This week made me turn to Alma 26:27. Its the Sons of Mosiah talking about how they were scared to go preach the gospel to the Lamanites who could've killed them (!!!) and they turned to God. It says "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." The Lord has got our backs always! The Lord can comfort you when your hearts are feeling a little depressed. I've felt it! And if any of you need some comfort from on high, just turn to Him and He'll give unto you success, however that looks for you!

I hope everyone has a good week! I love yall so much, thanks for all the emails and all the prayers! It means the world! Yall are the best!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. The outcome of our fun surprise rainstorm

2. Our weekly Book of Mormon study with Susan!

3. Dinner at the Kirby's (also I just love my companion!)

4. Sister Radmall! Ice cream makes our stressful days so much better

Week 10: Manicures and Miracles

Well y'all, its official. We went from a trio to a duo Wednesday morning. We had such a fun last day with Sister Rowe though! We did some shopping and got our nails done (thanks Sister Strobelt's mom!) And it was a great way to end a transfer. Since then it's been such an odd week getting used to only one companion! Don't get me wrong, it's still a blast just being with Sister Strobelt, but it takes getting used to only living with one other person! There were lots of goodbyes this week. Our District Leader and Sister Training Leader both went home this transfer so we have 2 newbies in the District! So it's just been a week full of changes, but I dig change, so it's all good!

Slidell has seriously been BOOMING with missionary opportunities and full of people that were prepared by the Lord (I met a few when I first got here) these past few months. But we haven't had any people lately that we felt we could put on date for baptism quite yet, but we had some miracles!! Last week church was cancelled because there was no water to the building, and apparently someone came to church and told the 2nd counselor of the Bishopric they wanted to be baptized! So that was completely out of the blue but such a miracle and a total blessing! We also had 3 people at church yesterday, which was another miracle! So the work is steadily moving forward and the Lord's hand is in every single detail.

 I have really grown to love the people here, even the ones I cant communicate with! We have been visiting this family from Honduras because their girls Kalyn and Katherine are really interested in the gospel and have the strongest desire to be baptized and it's been so fun teaching them! They're so bilingual and it's really impressive! So it's fun to go over and talk with them, but their mom Johanna speaks only Spanish. Something y'all should know about me is I literally am the worst Spanish speaker and only know un pocito anyways (I can barely speak English, let alone Spanish). But oh my gosh I love her!!! She is such a hoot. For the most part I can understand what they're saying, I just cant reply, unless there's an easy phrase I know that applies Haha (I really regret taking high school French right about now). Its just really cool being a missionary and looking at people the same way the Savior sees them: all their potential, all their amazing qualities and everything. Thankfully, Sister Strobelt knows some Spanish so at least one of us can talk to her! Their family is the best and they have a ton of potential...hopefully we can help them make progress towards baptism! Fingers crossed my friends.

So lately, I've needed a lot of humbling. I have felt so lame for needing help lately whether it's something simple like figuring out how to plan on area book, or something bigger like how to do a decent door approach. It's been tough emotionally feeling like I need all this help and embarrassed to ask for it. Then I had an amazing thought. Even Christ who was a perfect, sinless, humble, and perfectly strong being (I mean He resisted every single temptation of every kind) needed help from on high to get through His trial! We know from Luke 22:42-43 that Christ calls out asking "Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Christ needed help through this near impossible task and because He needed an extra boost, and some extra strength, an angel appears unto Him and strengthened Him in verse 43. That was humbling knowing that if CHRIST, the most perfect being to ever walk this earth, needed heavenly help to get through, I definitely need help from on high! Asking for help doesn't make you weak, it's not a sin, but it shows you're humble enough to turn to the Lord. His arm of mercy is always extended towards us. Sometimes it's just all about being humble enough to grab hold of it. Hopefully some of that rambling made sense to everyone Haha. But those scriptures and that inspiration has really helped me this week, and maybe it can help some of yall too.

Thanks for all the love, support and prayers, it seriously makes such a difference. I feel it and it means the world. I hope everyone has a great week and I love you all!! 

Love, Sister Crouch

1. Sister Strobelt's mom treated us to manicures for Sister Rowe's last day

2. The best STL ever!! 

3. Sister Rowe's last time at the apartment

4. Last pic of the trigger trio

Week 9: The Trigget Trio Splits Up

Well, I'm sure yall figured this much out from the subject, but transfers are this week! We got our transfer news yesterday and unfortunately President feels inspired to break up the trigger trio (as an elder in our district likes to call us) by sending Sister Rowe to Mississippi. I'm sad but excited for her to move on to her next area, but it'll be so weird only being with one other missionary now even though that's usually the norm haha.

Anyways, this week was the longest week of my life! Don't get me wrong, it was a really great week but it was just super long! It was also one of my hardest weeks emotionally. Satan has really been working on my confidence and self esteem which may seem like no big deal, but it's really hard to feel like you're a good missionary when the adversary is telling you otherwise all the time! But it's all good, I'm still learning and growing and the week was still really good. I'm learning a lot about myself and who I am and what I'm capable of with Christ on my side.

We had an accidental trip outside of Slidell this week! So Tuesday this week came around and that meant that the end of the month was coming up. We still had like 175 miles left on the truck and last month our zone leader took away 150 our miles because we didn't use them! We didn't want a repeat of last month so we decided to go for a drive and do our extra companion study in the car while driving. So a little geography lesson for all yall who don't know Louisiana too well: Slidell is just across a HUGE lake where New Orleans is on the other side. There's a giant bridge that goes over the whole lake (25 or so miles) from Slidell to get to New Orleans. So in Slidell, there are houses that sit right on the lake in an area of town called Eden Isles. I hadn't been yet so we wanted to drive down to Eden Isles and then back to the apartment to get rid of a few of those miles. So we're driving down the freeway and see a sign saying "Eden Isles Next Exit" so we keep going on the freeway and next thing we know we're going across the lake!!! So we're all starting to freak out, panicking that we are in the middle of a lake that goes to New Orleans, which is out of our area and at 8:30pm. I feel like our panic was quite justified. Anyways, we're freaking out until we see an exit on an island in the middle of the lake that allowed for us to turn around and head back home. Safe to say, we aren't going to try and wait miles ever again! But we have a funny story now so at least we have that going for us lol.

We had some really amazing lessons this week. One of them was with this guy named Danny who is the only nonmember in his whole family. They have been having missionaries coming over for years but he had no desire to learn. But on exchanges, sister Strobelt asked him if one of the new missionaries could practice teaching a lesson with him, and he agreed and was taught then told Sister Strobelt that he would be willing to learn if we could teach him principles found in both the bible and the Book of Mormon. So we spent like 45 MINUTES finding cross references that complimented each other for our lesson and we were all pretty  burnt out and left hoping he'd understand that the Book of Mormon is also the word of God. So we went to teach him and we used all the cross references, the Spirit was there, he understood what was taught and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon since we cared enough to take the time to plan that lesson for him! That was such an important lesson for me to learn! I realized then that the Book of Mormon really does validate the Bible and proves it's the word of God and vice versa. They're both God's word. And it also taught me that we can't plan lessons based on convenience, but we truly need to show our love through our plans. He felt loved! So he agreed to listen to us! It was such a miracle for us! I'm really happy Heavenly Father was patient enough with me to teach me that.

Speaking of patience...Heavenly Father and Christ are the ultimate examples of patience. I realized this week that there are so many times where Heavenly Father and Christ are reaching out to me whether its through miracles that happen or people that surround me, a message from my mom when I'm low, or whatever. And there are so many times that I dont recognize Their hand, or I think I'm strong enough to get through my trials on my own or whatever (I'm so stubborn in all aspects of life including this). And I'm sure it hurts God and Christ when i fail to recognize Them or ignore Their hand yet They're still reaching out in patience, waiting for me to accept their hand. It's like 2 Nephi 28:32, Their hand is reaching out all the day long and They're patient enough for me to recognize that. I have such a love for my Savior and loving Heavenly Father and I know They are patient with all of God's children and that's such a comforting thing to know

I hope everyone has a good week! I love yall and so does your Heavenly Father and Savior!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. The only cat I have ever liked lol. He's the Kirby's cat Mr. Jefferson Haha

2. The best kids in Slidell! They're recent concerts who we've been teaching them and they're just amazing.

3. Our girl Susan, another recent convert

4. The last supper with Sister Rowe and the Kirby's

5. The best senior couple ever!!

6. The May family who feeds us every Saturday. Also the best

7. Beignets with the Kirby's!

8. the most obnoxious geese I have ever seen

Week 8: Our New Pal Jerry

This week was such a blast down here in the bayou. We've been working really hard teaching lots of lessons and meeting with so many potential interested people, so we've been busy!

We started the week off by having dinner with the VARNERS (my mission president and wife)!!! So Sister Rowe's cousin came back out to our mission after being home for a few months and we were able to meet Elder Rowe, his companions and the Varners for dinner after they picked him up! It was really fun to get to meet some more people in the mission and meet Elder Rowe and to of course hang out with President and Sister Varner. It was a really great way to start off the week! 

Wednesday we taught this really amazing guy about the Book of Mormon who the elders taught about a year ago. He's going through a really hard time right now because his mom just passed away a few months ago. So while standing on his porch, we felt prompted to teach him about the Book of Mormon and the power and peace that comes with reading it and oh my GOSH! I had such an amazing experience with the Spirit! Words were just coming out of my mouth and I really didn't even think about it. The promise in D&C is so real! The Spirit will give you what to say in the very moment you need it! It was a really powerful moment on the porch with Channing and I think he can really progress right now. He seemed really excited to read from the Book of Mormon so hopefully he finds that peace through it! 

So every Friday we go to this nursing home to do a "Bible Study" but really we just sing hymns about Jesus Christ because a few of our regulars have dementia so it's easier to just sing. Anyways, one of the ladies who is a regular attendee is Burnadette who has dementia but she LOVES to sing. She does it all the time haha. Burnadette usually sings this Jesus loves me song our whole visit but she ended up changing it up on us this past Friday and sang God Bless America the whole time we were there and it was the most amazing thing ever Haha! We'd finish a song about Christ, then she'd go "this is how it starts, GOD BLESS AMERICA!" and sing what she can remember Haha. Shes amazing. So that was something fun that we saw this week!

Okay, yall may be wondering who Jerry is. So funny story. About a month ago, we had this tiny baby lizard in the kitchen of our apartment that we eventually got out after about 10 minutes strategic cup placement and moving bookcases around to get to this lizard. Anyways, he was out of the house and that was that, we kind of forgot about him. So then on Tuesday, we are getting ready to go out with a member and guess who made another appearance! Our lizard friend came back and was just chilling on the baseboard. This time, though, I found some courage and caught our pal with my hand (I know who'd a thought I could catch a lizard without freaking out haha). We named the lizard Jerry and for the next two days, we'd put him outside as we left, then the next day as we got ready to leave, he'd be waiting outside the door then run in as soon as it opened! Safe to say we have a pet now. We haven't seen him in a few days but who knows, he might run back in the next time we open the door haha.

Okay last story for yall. So we had been seeing this woman Leora for a while. Shes a minister for a Baptist church here in town and shes been wanting us to go with her to visit her blind friend Diane. We were able to go on Saturday and visit with those wonderful ladies. Diane plays piano and sings so she played some worship music for us which was really fun to hear because shes seriously so talented! Anyways, we started talking about their church and Leora was talking about ministering and out of no where Diane would let out the loudest shout that made all 3 of us jump! She then explained that that was the Holy Spirit going through her. After talking for a while we asked if we could pray before we left and Diane offered to give it. Whenever someone offers to give the prayer down here you really never what to expect, so I was a little excited to see what she was going to do honestly lol. Anyways, we all stand in a circle holding hands and one of Diane's sisters joins in too and she begins to talk ridiculously fast and loud as she was praying while the other 2 ladies just would say things like "thank you Lord, yes Lord, praise Jesus, praise you Lord" the whole time. I timidly would open my eyes to see what my companions were doing and our half of the circle was just silent. I had never felt such an urge to talk during a prayer hahaha. Then! During the prayer when Diane got real loud (and i mean shouting loud), the other ladies would just start shaking! I didn't know what to do so I just looked at my companions and I think they were thinking the same thing as me hahaha. Easy to say, a real Baptist prayer is real interesting in the South.

I had a really cool thought about the Atonement of Jesus Christ this week that I thought I'd share. Someone once told me that they believed Christ went one by one through all of God's children while in the Garden of Gethsemene bearing every person's sins, struggles and pains. Since hearing that, it's become something I believed wholeheartedly as well but I just thought it was a cool belief and not something that was doctrinally supported. But as I was pondering this, I realized everything Christ did in 3 Nephi was one by one; blessing the children, talking to His apostles and everything. So to me, it made sense that Christ went one by one in the Garden too. Christ took a moment to think of you as He suffered all your pains, sorrows and sin. He felt what you felt, and He grieved with you individually. That is so comforting to me because that really tells me I really an never alone in this life with my sufferings. Christ was there too. I love the scripture Alma 7:11-13 that talks a lot about that.

Anyways, I love yall so much! Sorry this email is kind of long, but the gospel is true and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you so much! Hope everyone has a good week!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. That's our tiny pal Jerry

2. Picking up Elder Rowe

3. Went to a disney going away party for a recent convert Karolina and ended up getting a picture with her mom cheryl lol whoops.

4. Our friend Lydia took us out this week and it was so fun!

5. Burnadette in all her patriotic glory.

Week 7: Lots of Baptisms and Zone Conference

Oh my GOSH yall this week was insane!!! We had so much going on it was such a busy week but probably the best week I've ever had in my whole life.

Dora was baptized on Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was honestly the most amazing thing to witness and not gonna lie, I shed a few happy tears (my comps laugh at me because I'm "tender hearted" which is a nice way of saying I'm a cry baby lol). The Spirit was just so strong when she came out of the water and she was just beaming, she was so happy. I know she felt the Spirit too. We just love Dora so much that me and my comps even sang a musical number at her baptism, which if you know me you know that is WAY out of my comfort zone, but missions are all about getting out of that comfort zone!

Then Ella and Zoey were baptized on Saturday! They were really aprehensive about getting baptized once they got to the church on Saturday, but as soon as the got in the water they had the biggest smiles on their faces (that may be hard to believe considering their pictures but I swear it's true). They're just the purest souls and I'm so grateful for them, they've taught me a lot and they're just amazing. It was a really great week here in Slidell and in the mission. All 3 of our girls were confirmed yesterday and it was just the best. I really experienced true joy this week!

On Thursday I had my very first zone conference and oh my gosh!!!!! It was the absolute best. So much revelation and the Spirit was just so strong and I want to be a better and more dedicated missionary after that! And i seriously have the best mission president and wife ever. They are just the most amazing people and they just love and care about their missionaries so much. I learned so much about being obedient and finding joy in obedience from them Of course God wants us to have joy, He doesn't want us to be the miserable! But we have to be obedient and do things His way to experience some of His joy, so it was a great motivation to be a little more exact in my obedience. 

I was reading in 1 Nephi this week and I just wanted to share something amazing I noticed. Nephi and his family are so dang grateful (for the most part haha ignore Laman and Lemuel)!! They are always building altars to give thanks or praying and praising their God even when they're going through the wilderness and probably the hardest trial of their lives. We too can find gratitude for our Heavenly Father among our trials! We will grow closer to Him and get through life with hope and happiness despite our circumstances if we find the good, just like Nephi.

I love you all so much and I hope that yall have a good week. 

Love, Sister Crouch

1. Dora and her granddaughter at her baptism

2. Ella and Zoey's baptism (I swear they really were happy to be there haha)

3. Elders all over our pick up truck for their zc picture. they all really love that truck lol.

4. We had an unplanned twin day where we all wore black and white Haha. Our comp unity even extends to the wardrobe

5. Our whole zone at zone conference 

6. Service at the Bishop's Storehouse with President and Sister Varner! 

7. We seriously just love Sister Varner

Week 6: We Survived a Hurricane

Well friends. This week sure was eventful (and possibly the longest week of my life)! Lots of fun stuff went down this week and it was just a total party down here in Southern Louisiana! 

We started the week with visiting all 3 of the people we have on date for baptism and then Tuesday, during a stake meeting, we found out that a tropical storm was brewing down in the gulf, so we spent the rest of Tuesday night getting our 72 hour kits together and then we got ready for exchanges! Sister Rowe and I were in Covington, LA on Wednesday and Thursday with Sister Garcia in our district. We met some real crazy Louisiana people with her and it was seriously so fun! It was great to get out of Slidell for a few days! We got back and then got a call that night from President that 2 sisters on the beach of Mississippi would evacuate to Slidell, so we did more exchanges on Friday! Sister Elliot, Sister Rowe and I were able to take on the south side of Slidell while Sister Strobelt and Sister Jones took on the north side. It was a party, and then we were waiting out the storm with the Kirby family at dinner! 

The next two days were pretty boring because it was pouring rain here in Slidell off and on, so we decided it was best if we just hunkered down and stayed inside to stay safe from the storm. The storm was kind of lame, honestly, because on Friday it was pretty sunny for the most part with occasional pouring rain for a total 10 minutes. It was so off and on. Our district leader helped keep us sane with some great Barry memes. But Man, that made me really love and appreciate missionary work because it is so boring to stay inside as a missionary. There's only so many times you can watch the District and the Restoration without getting stir crazy Haha. Church was cancelled yesterday due to the storm but we were really lucky to not have any flooding on our side of town. Just lots of rain! So, safe to say Hurricane Barry was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, Dora is getting baptized! Dora is the most amazing person ever and she really is golden. She has such a great desire to grow closer to the Lord and be baptized and it's amazing to see. We're so excited for her! We have 2 more baptisms on Saturday with our girls Ella and Zoey! Itll be an amazing week for us in Slidell. We can't wait for these awesome gals to make that covenant with Heavenly Father and change their lives for the better!

While we were inside all day Sunday, I was able to read from Ether in the Book of Mormon. In chapter 12 verse 41, Moroni commends us to seek Jesus Christ and that really stood out to me. It made me ask myself if I am truly seeking out my Savior, or just going through the motions. Am I seeking change through Him and His Atonement? And I seeking to be like Him? I challenge you all this week to try and make some goals to better seek out Jesus Christ. I promise it'll make your life so much better and so full of joy! I know because I see it everyday, in others and in myslef!

I love you all and I hope y'all have an amazing week! 

Love, Sister Crouch

1. Waveland sisters and us at the Kirby's waiting for the storm lol

2. Sister Rowe and I with Sister Garcia on exchanges

3. The best hurricane meme our District Leader sent

4. The whole district at our Elders' baptism last week

Week 5: Dynamite and a New Nickname

Hey everyone! Hope everyone had a fun 4th! Honestly not too much has happened since I last wrote. We had a really busy 4th of July and have just been teaching lots since then!

For the 4th of July, we got invited to about 8 BBQs but only ended up going to 3. They were really fun! I got to know some members of the ward better and we got a lot of good, Southern food. It was really great. The last house we went to were the Kirby's. Brother Kirby is the ward mission leader so he's always helping us out with the missionary work and his wife, Mama Kriby seriously treats us like her own, it's the best! Anyways, while we were over there all the neighborhood fireworks started and brother Kriby started talking about how last year he had 12 of so sticks of dynamite that he lit off whenever the neighbors got too crazy and then he brings out a stick! So as we're getting ready to leave their house he asks if we want to see the dynamite and of course we day we do, so he lit his very last stick for us and it was INSANE! It was seriously soooooo loud! The whole neighborhood came outside to see what went off and it was seriously the most amazing thing ever Haha. A great way to celebrate the 4th for sure.

The rest of our week was pretty mellow. We spend every Friday morning doing a Bible study with people in a nursing home so we went to do our weekly study and I'm introducing myself to everyone new and every single elderly person there thought my name was Sister Grouch Haha. So we had a closing prayer and Maria, one of the people we're teaching, is saying it and it's super sweet. Shes thanking Heavenly Father for Sister Strobelt and Sister Rowe and then thanks Him for Sister Grouch and I just started giggling in the middle of the prayer, it was just so funny. 

Saturday, someone in our district had a baptism so we were able to go and support the elders in our district and their new convert. It was the first baptism I've seen since coming on my mission so that was really cool to see and a good thing to aspire to. It was fun to meet some more people in the mission that went as well. Now I just can't wait for our baptisms coming up this month!

This week I've been studying in 3 Nephi and I came across a really amazing scripture that never stuck out to me before. It's 3 Nephi 9:13-14 and it's all about how Christ is able to heal us when we come to Him and repent of our sins. He also talks about how his arms of mercy are extended and who ever comes to Him, He receives. What an amazing promise. Christ is promising to heal us when we come into Him with a broken heart and a contrite Spirit and He's promising if we just come to Him, He will receive us. That to me is the most amazing promise and brings so much comfort to me in my life.

I'm so grateful for this gospel and I know that it's real! Christ and His Atonement are real! I'm so grateful for that knowledge and for the ability we have to become better through Him. I love you all and I hope yall have a great week!!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. 4th of July dinner with the Kirby's 

(Sorry mom I didn't take too many pics this week)

Week 4: First Week in Louisiana

Hey y'all! I hope everyone has had a good week and is having an awesome 4th of July! This week has been absolutely crazy! I flew into Baton Rouge last Tuesday on the 25th and spent the night at the mission home, at a real home cooked meal (a true blessing after 3 weeks in the MTC), got some training and found out who my companions were and where I'm going! Then Wednesday we went to transfers, met our comps and got to work.

So I'm in a trio so I have 2 companions! They're the absolute best. Their names are Sister Rowe and Sister Strobelt and they have been working me hard and training me good and I'm really grateful for that. We're in an town named Slidell here in Louisiana. Its a suburb of New Orleans and it's a really fun area. There's tons of work to do here and I've definitely noticed that this past week! It's really hot and humid here in Louisiana and it's a totally different heat from Vegas but honestly its been pretty bearable so far but we'll have to see if that lasts through July and August!
This area has a lot of people to see so we don't have too much time to tract or do anything like that. We mostly have been contacting people who have been interested in the gospel in the past and seeing if they'd still like to meet with us and teaching our progressing people and meeting with less actives in the ward. We've been keeping real busy! But we have 3 people on date for baptism this much which is amazing! We have sisters named Ella and Zoey getting baptized on the 20th and Dora getting baptized on the 16th. It's amazing to see the gospel change lives, even just in the week that I've been here! The gospel is real and it really does bring joy into our lives!
A lot if funny things have happened as we've been working hard. We all got a door slammed in our face for the first time! Someone opened the door and goes "Sorry we aren't interested", slams the door then we hear here say "darn Jehovah's Witnesses" and we all thought it was pretty funny! Then we were teaching Ella and Zoey about the sacrament and how the bread of the sacrament represents Christ's body and the water represents Christ blood and Zoey who is 10 goes "so if the bread represents Jesus's body, does that mean he's made out of bread?" and we all just started dying in the middle of our lesson it was hilarious! Then (last thing I swear) we went over to a members house for dinner after we met with Dora and they had chickens there. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm totally scared of birds, especially chickens because they're just kind of freaky. But! I conquered a fear and fed some chickens out of my hand Haha. And they had a pet bird and I let him perch himself on my finger like Snow White in the movies Haha. So it's been a busy but super fun week!
This week we've shared 2 Nephi 28:33 with some of the people we've been teaching and it talks about how God's arms lengthened out to us all day everyday and all we have to do is reach up and accept it. I've felt that a lot already on my mission. As I'm going through hard trials or have hard days out here, I can feel God's loving grasp keeping me up and helping me through every single time I reach out to Him and I know that if anyone is struggling with literally anything, if you just reach up to God, He will help you back up and be with you all day everyday. It's been such an amazing privilege to teach this to the people here in Louisiana and I know true!
I love you all and I know God loves you all and this Gospel is true! Reach out to God and He'll be with you every step of the way. I hope everyone has an amazing week!
Love, Sister Crouch

1. Sister Rowe, Sister Strobelt and I eating some redbeans and rice (a Louisiana delicacy) at a members house
2. Me conquering my fear of chickens
3. We went on exchanges and got to spend the day with Sister Nuusa and got snowballs with her which ended up dying our mouths red and blue before a teaching appointment lol

Pictures that President and Sister Varner posted on the mission Facebook page