Week 35: "Stop, drop and roll doesn't work in hell." We love Louisiana!

Hey yall! Remeber how I said I was starting to like dogs less and less in Mendenhall? I take it back! That's just because we weren't going to the animal shelter and walking dogs for 2 hours a week! Heavenly Father was too good to us this week. It has been really stressful in figuring out the missionary work in Madison with Sister Craddock and I being so new. Earlier this week was overwhelmingly so the idea kept coming into our minds to check out the animal shelter for service and Heavenly Father led us to PURE JOY!! Safe to say, God is good.

This week Sister Craddock and I got to go down to Baton Rouge for a Mission Leadership Council with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the mission and it was the coolest experience! We got to go to Baton Rouge and it felt like going home! I missed seeing the Jesus Semis (pics attached). But for real, MLC was the best. It made me realize how much prayer and revelation truly goes into the mission, which may seem really obvious, but that was my first time ever seeing it! The Spirit was so strong. As we were talking about the mission and our goals and a mission, the amount of love and trust I felt from Heavenly Father and President Varner was just unreal. It was so humbling remembering how God is giving me this incredible opportunity to be apart of this great work and how great of a gift it is! It was amazing! And I got to see Sister Rowe! I just love my mission!

Cool story folks. We had a really cool miracle! We were trying someone in an apartment complex Saturday and we just prayed before we went in that we'd be able to find unplanned opportunities to talk to people and find those interested in the gospel. We close our prayer, open our eyes and the car next to us has someone right outside working on the car! So we talk to him and he tells us "hey my moms a church lady! You should go to her door, she loves talking Jesus." I mean who can pass up that opportunity?! So we head up and they let us right in and we have an incredible lesson the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong! I felt God's awareness of them and love for them and I just see so much potential in them! It was a huge blessing!

It's been a rough week trying to know where to even begin to know where to start with our area, but God is providing! He is blessing us so much everyday and it's only through Him that this work is possible! We taught a lesson on the Atonement this week and I found a picture called "Not my will; but Thine be done" by Walter Rane and it is so powerful. I think it captures the emotions Christ may have had as He prepared to take on the world, literally. Upon His shoulders. Take the pains and sorrows of the world and the sins and it's only because of that event that I'm able to do anything in the work. Jesus Christ is my strength, my joy and my salvation! I'm blessed to have that knowledge and I just love Heavenly Father for sending Him to earth for me and you. It's the best.

I love this work and I love yall! This week marks 8 months as a missionary and it's the best thing ever! I love it! Love yall!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. Best way to get attacked by a dog haha

2. All the STLs in the mission at MLC!

3. All the mission leaders at MLC

4&5. That. That is my mission. I love Louisiana!

6. Sister Rowe!

7. Sister Craddock!

8. I told you the gas stations were posh

9. "Not My will; but Thine be done." By Walter Rane