Week 54: Body Shops take longer than one day??

So remember how Sister Young and I were rear-ended 2 weeks ago? Well this week we took our car into the body shop and let me tell you, we learned some real good life lessons for the future. Apparently it takes body shops longer than a few hours to fix your car? I'll admit. This wasn't my brightest moment...we show up to the body shop with our water, our granola bars, and our Book of Mormons, totally ready to wait a few hours then take our car back. After 45 mins of waiting, our vehicle coordinator told us the repairs would take over a week... so, we grabbed our things and started the trek back home on foot! We had a district zoom meeting scheduled as we were walking and to open we sang the song "Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked" lol. Heavenly Father was totally cracking up at us (so were the elders)! You know it's bad when a southern lady says "oh bless your sweet hearts." Anyways, as a result of our complete ignorance, we have been a biking area for the past 6 days! It's been a blast and a half! 

Even though it's been super hot, biking has legit been a blast and has brought lots of opportunities to talk to lots of people! Every night, Sister Young and I bike down to the boardwalk and bike down it and talk to people we pass! It's been really fun! And we've only been Bible bashed once! It's been so much fun to spend summer nights on the beach spreading the good word. Dreams do come true!!! 

We had some miracles this week! There's an adorable family in our ward that fosters kids and they have 3 new foster kids who all want to learn more about the church! We had a come follow me lesson last week and one of the boys kept asking about how we can know the Book of Mormon is true, what missions are, what we do as missionaries. So we asked their foster mom if they wanted to hear the message of the Restoration of Christ's church. She said they all wanted to! So we biked to a park, met up with them, and were able to teach them that God is their loving Heavenly Father and how His love is shown to us by the restoration of Christ's church through Joseph Smith! I really felt the Spirit so strong! The oldest boy seemed like the Spirit really hit him. We already adore them! They all want to be baptized so we'll see what happens the next few weeks! 

So I was totally chastised by an apostle this week. A few weeks ago, I watched a missionary devotional by Elder Gong (one of the 12 apostles that help lead our church) and he said some amazing things. One of the things he talked about what's practicing what we want to be good at in our life. He talked about how if we practiced complaining, then guess what! We are going to be really good at complaining! If we practice positivity and optimism, we will be positive and optimistic! And boy, I realized I was practicing complaining wayyyy to much. Like Laman and Lemuel level complaining. Our AC broke in our apartment, we've been biking back to a house that's sometimes 89 degrees, we have no car, and I've been murmuring like crazy! It's so crazy how relatable Laman and Lemuel actually are to us. The women in Nephi's life were seriously so awesome. They had all these trials (like no AC) yet they practiced positivity. 1 Nephi 17:2 "...and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings." I know life can get annoying and it's really easy to complain about anything and everything, but if we practice positivity and turn to the Lord for that help we need to get really good at it, He can help us change our very natures and begin to bear our journeyings without murmuring!

God lives and loves us! Jesus is the Christ and He lives! Turn to Him and He can help you through whatever life is throwing your way. I love Them so much! And I love yall! Stay cool, and have a good week!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. Our cute little boardwalk by our house

2. Sunsets on the beach are the best

3. The Plan of Happiness!

4. Someone in our district had his brother in Tonga make this and it's the best thing I've ever seen, just had to share it haha

Week 53: Help Apprehend a Criminal? CHECK!

We have had a pretty eventful week for two sisters in half isolation! We had a little fender bender (we are both fine though! More details to come), we have a tropical storm in the gulf, I hit my ONE YEAR mark (!!!), we had pday on the beach last week, and put someone on date to be baptized! Easy to say, this was the best week I've had in a few months! We've been teaching people, have done lots of service and we even got to meet some ward members in person!!! Definitely a step up from zoom! So yeah, twas a good week!

But yeah! Our fender bender. Just a preface,That was crazy. So last pday, we are driving to Biloxi (this beach town in the elders' area) and we get to this red light and stop. Well, 2 seconds later we hear the screeching of brakes behind us and then we get rear-ended hard! So I'm slightly dazed and before I can do anything, this guy backs off our bumper and speeds through the red light to get away from us! So, that sucked. So we pulled into a parking lot and called the police and they said they'd have an officer over shortly...1 hour later and still no cop! I then had this thought that I should pray about it so me and Sister young prayed that the cop would be there soon. We opened our eyes and the cop was turning into our parking lot! Definitely a tender mercy! So after one hour, we finally get to talk to the officer and this lady pulls into the parking lot and tells us they got the guy! She said she had followed the guy who rear-ended us and stayed with his car until the police came! If thats not the Southern kindness I'm all about, I dont know what is! Well, eventually we get to the beach with our district and the elders get a call! Turns out their member is the woman who stayed with the guy who hit us! And then! She tells them that he was apprehended and wanted for car theft and something to do with drugs. So basically, Sister Young and I helped apprehend a criminal from the Gulf Coast. safe to say it was a pretty crazy day! 

The rest of the week wasn't as exciting, but we were really busy! We met a few of the kids in our teaching pool, we put on of them on date to be baptized next month, and just are slowly getting to know the ward! It's been a blast serving here and I seriously love it so much! 

I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants this week and I came across a scripture in section 88:107 that I loved! It says "And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and the saints shall be filled with his glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with [Christ]." I was thinking about that A LOT. Isn't it so cool that Christ did what He did so we could be made EQUAL with Him?! He loves us so much and is humble enough that He doesn't want any glory for Himself, but wants us to be equal with Him. I think that really shows the worth of souls perfectly. God and Jesus Christ love us perfectly and equally. I'm so grateful for that knowledge! I love my Savior and I'm so grateful for what He did that allows me to one day live with God again! I love Him and I love my Heavenly Father.

I love yall! Thank you for your prayers and for your support! Have an amazing and blessed week!

Love Sister Crouch

Week 52: Sister Irwin takes on Pascagoula

Okay, where do I even start with this week?! Transfers happened and oh my goodness I am obsessed with Pascagoula and the beach that is half a mile away from my house!  Y'all already know I'm there on the daily!! Tuesday rolled around and I had to say goodbye to Sister Craddock and that was so WEIRD. I almost accidentally say "This is Sister Crouch and Sister Craddock" everytime I leave a voicemail lol. But I picked up Sister Young and boy we are having the time of our lives! 

Feel free to call me Steve Irwin folks because sometimes I totally feel like him out here! There are so many little critters everywhere that we are just able to see/catch! We have caught butterflies, turtles, sand crabs, and more turtles just wandering around the neighborhood! We eve saw an owl!! It's been kind of hilarious how much "wildlife" there is on the coast! So we have been having a blast with that!

So I've doubled into 3/4 of my areas on the mission (when both me and my comp are new to the area) but this time has been so different! It's been so hard to get to know a ward and a teaching pool when you can't really go and see them in person. But the Lord has really been helping is! It's been so cool to see us follow promptings to call people and names that stand out to us and have it really affect someone and their day! We got to meet some really amazing families over video chat and were able to meet up with an AMAZING family at the beach as we social distanced! It felt so good to see someone in real life! 

We had a really awesome miracle. There was a family that I had actually met in one of my last areas that lives here and is less active at church! I felt like we should call and so we did and it turns out this mom was contemplating whether she should go to our church or her other church when we called! I mean, she couldn't go to church because it was closed, BUT! We were still able to let her know God was aware of her and that we loved her! I think that was a huge miracle!!

So I know that theres been a lot of craziness going on in the world. My news feed had been full the past few days. It really reminds me of a scripture in Alma 26:37. Ammon reminds us that God is mindful of His people. "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth." God is with those that are hurting and He is mindful of what is going on. He sent His Son to heal the wounds that this fallen world brings. Turn to Him for peace! I promise it will come!

I love being in Pascagoula! I am so excited for this next transfer! I love my Savior and I love being the Lord's servant! I know God loves each one of yall and so does Jesus Christ! I love Them and I love y'all!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. The beach right down the street from our apartment!

2. Sister Young!

3. The new district!

4. Sand crab we caught

5. I got to see Sister Johnson at transfers and it was the best thing ever!

6. Saying goodbye to Craddock  

7. The Madison mega district. We had district pday last week and it was so fun