This week was basically the best vacation I've ever had in my life! We were out of our area in Mendenhall for 7 WHOLE DAYS!!! It was the weirdest feeling ever! This whole week we were in Baton Rouge working the temple open house that I have been anxiously waiting for since opening my call! It was an absolute dream and I seriously couldn't have had more fun!
We started the week off with a mission wide training with all the sisters from the all over the whole mission! So the trigger trio had a little reunion! But it was so much fun to see all my friends in the mission from literally all over. We got to walk through the temple and guys its gorgeous. I forgot how much I just missed the temple, but walking through it was a much needed spiritual reboot. It was amazing. But after that training, the real fun started!
So we stayed with a senior missionary couple the whole week! The Beardshalls are actually the sweetest humans on this earth and it literally felt like a week at the grandparents. We had family dinner every night, family prayer around their bed every morning and night, we had a family day on sunday and had dinner with another senior couple and their missionaries! So like a 20 person family dinner in a tiny apartment and it was so much fun. I never wanted to leave! We had a lot of down time in between shifts at the temple so we did a ton of service at the mission office and got to just hang out with all the amazing senior couples! It was so much fun!
While on "vacation", we realized you can take the sister out of her area and she's still going to be a missionary. During our downtime, we would go to neighborhoods the local missionaries said were good for finding and we would pass out temple invitations haha. We would even go to shopping centers and invite people all over the Baton Rouge area! It was so much fun and it made me feel a little bit better about being out of my area for a week!
The temple guys, the TEMPLE!! Its freaking AMAZING! We worked 4 days this week at the open house. We were working on VIP, invited guest only days and it was insane! We met congressmen, senators, the mayor, pastors, preachers, rabbis, and all sorts of people. But the best day we worked was Saturday by far, the first day the temple was open to the public. I think I take the knowledge of an eternal family for granted all the time. But it was such a spiritual experience to feel the Spirit with individuals as they watched the video about what the temple means. The sisters would either walk around the reception area and answer any questions or run a video room and say a little bit about the tour then turn on a video about the temple. There was this one Spanish speaking family that came into our room because Sister Glenn is fluent in spanish. She did most of the talking and I basically just had very simple conversation with them. This family was a part member family, so their dad wasnt a member. As the video was playing I wasnt paying much attention to the family, but when it ended, I grabbed the door and thanked the family for coming. The dad was the last one to come out and I said muchas gracias to him and he just stopped, looked at the ground then back up at me with tears in his eyes. He shook my hand silently and went to the temple with his family. That was the most powerful moment of my whole week. That's what the open house did and will do all week. It softened hearts and helped people feel hope and love. I'm so grateful I was able to be apart of it. How did our mission get so lucky?!
I love the temple so so much. I am so beyond grateful for the blessings received in the temple. I love this gospel and the hope it brings. I love my Savior and my Father in Heaven for loving us enough to send Him to earth. I love yall! Have a good week!
Love, Sister Crouch
1. The Trigger Trio!!!
2. When in Baton Rouge! 5 missionaries at one time in one shopping center, inviting people to come and see the temple!
3. All the sisters we came down with and stayed with all week!!
4. Family dinner on sunday!
5. Stroopwaffles with my adoptive grandma Sister Beardshall!
6. I SAW MAWMAW KIRBY (and the whole Kirby clan)! Best day ever!
7. Family dinner at the Jackson's, another senior couple!
8. Favorite place on the whole earth
9. Random neighborhood by Baton Rouge where 6 missionaries were trying to invite as many people as possible to the temple! It was wild haha
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