Week 58: She's been resurrected...STL take 2

Where does one even start?! This week was filled with so many miracles, it was crazy! The Lord is so involved in His work and is so ready and willing to help us in it. Plus, we had a blast!

So at the end of Pday last week, Sister Young and I didn't really have anything planned, but we had a referral that only lived a half mile away. So we decided to bike there and just stop by since we weren't having much luck getting in touch with them over technology. So we stop by and they let us right in! I was holding a Book of Mormon and the man who referred himself asked what the difference was between the Bible and the Book of Mormon, so we got to teach them about the Book of Mormom! They were so pumped to start reading!!! But it doesn't stop there! Then they proceed to tell us how they've always wanted to get baptized but never knew what church to get baptized into... obviously, we jumped on that pretty quick, offering to help however we could! We had a return appointment and they are loving what we've taught so far! I'm so excited for them! 

I have learned over the past year or so that my love for rap helps me connect with so many people instantly. Funny story, we are teaching some teenage boys right now (they're the cutest and I'm obsessed with them) and they wanted to play basketball with us out in their driveway before we had dinner with their family. Somehow I was able to make a 3 pointer and one of the boys starts singing a rap song. I immediately start singing along and this kid looked at me with pure shock and says "people from your church don't listen to rap!!" Haha they didn't realize I used to be a normal human I guess lol. So it was awesome! As we were shooting hoops, we were talking about what they liked and they were so pumped to talk about rap with a hip sister missionary.  Making connections and forming friendships is the best way to share the gospel! Who would've thought my love for music would help me so much on the mission! 

So last week I mentioned being an STL last week, turns out rumors are true! Your girl is going to be a Sister Training Leader again! I am actually so excited and I cant even wait! I get to go to Baton Rouge tonight for mission leadership council again. It feels good to have an idea of what to do and I just love serving the sisters around me. So this transfer will be awesome. 

I have been studying lots about missionaries lately, and I feel so blessed that I've had the chance to grow so much on my mission. I have had my fair share of hard times and I know that's how it is for all missionaries. But the Lord supports us and helps us the whole way through! Alma 26:12 say "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." I'm so grateful that the Lord can make this weak Sister stronger! I love Him for that! 

I love my Savior, I love being a missionary, is is hard and I have to rely on Christ daily. But we can do all things with Christ. God is good! I love yall, stay safe and have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Crouch

Week 57: Mosquitoes: the Unofficial State Bird of Mississippi

Alright, alright, alright. What a good week we have had! It was my favorite holiday and we spent almost all of the 4th outside! We were able to put someone on date to be baptized who wants to grow closer to God! I somehow hit 13 months. I got too many mosquito bites to count. Rumor says I'm an STL again with Sister Young...I'm 99.9% certain this is truth, but I haven't heard it from President Amos yet! So basically it's been a blessed week! 

Okay so miracle! We had the best phone lesson of my entire life! So we are working with someone named Kevin and he is so awesome and so ready for the gospel. He was taught about a year ago and didn't progress but now he really wants to! So we were teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and talking about repentance when he said "I just feel like I'm meant to do something big, like something big is going to happen to me." Uhhhh....baptism?! So I had this prayer in my heart, asking that Heavenly Father would help me know how to bring up baptism to him in that moment. So I opened my mouth and words just came out! It was so awesome! I don't even know what I said but the Spirit was so strong! One of my favorite things about being a missionary is being able to really be an instrument to the Lord and feeling Him work through ME to bring His children back. It's so cool! Basically, he's on date to be baptized now! Hopefully he'll be baptized July 31st if all goes well! I am so excited to keep on working with him this next transfer! 

I got to meet my new mission president and companion! President and Sister Amos are the most cajun people I have talked to in a while! They're hilarious!!!!! President is from Opelousas, LA and Sister Amos is from Baton Rouge so she's 20 mins from home! They just made us roll on the ground we are were laughing so hard!!! I am super excited to work with them as an STL! It will be really fun to get to know them more. They were definitely called of God and that's what I got out of our meeting Friday! He's the man for the job!

The 4th was seriously so much fun! We had this idea as a companionship to bake like 10 dozen patriotic cookies and take them to the boardwalk and pass out to just get the badge out. We got to wave to so many people and serve so many people! We wore our red, white and blue and just had a blast! It was so fun to just feel normal! We then had some amazing BBQ with the cutest memebers ever! My favorite holiday was well spent, that's for sure! 

I was in a lesson this week with this guy who is so in tune to the Spirit and doesn't even know it! Its wild! But basically, we were having a lesson on faith and he said something that really stood out to me. He said "faith is just letting go." I was shook. Alma 32: 21 says faith is not having a perfect knowledge, but to hope for what we can't see. Basically, this guy was saying faith is all about letting go of the "what ifs" and just going forward and hoping that God's got this. Faith is about letting go of our sins and turning to our Savior and hoping He can help us overcome our weaknesses. Faith is letting go of our doubts and insecurities and seeing what God sees. Faith is literally that simple! I loved his insight so much I wrote it next to that scripture. Faith really is just letting go. Pray and ask what you can let go of to strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and He will help you let go of it and grow closer to Him!

I love this gospel and I love being able to share it. Being a missionary is the absolute best. God is good and cares about each one of us. Jesus Christ sees great worth in us! He loves us so much! I love Him and I'm grateful to bring others closer to Him!  Turn to Him this week! I love yall, have a blessed week

Love, Sister Crouch

1. Cheers to month 13!

2. Happy 4th!

3. I love Goula and I love the beach. 

4. Our socially distant district pday lol

5. The district!

6. "Mosquitoes: the unofficial state bird of LA." -President Amos. I'm adding MS in there because I got 20 bites in 30 mins! #happysummer 

Week 56: Ik kom bij je

Wow, this week was really crazy! We were so busy every day, which is a huge miracle! We went on exchanges, I hit one year in the South, I went kinda viral, and a band in the Netherlands is covering Sister Craddock and I's song. Safe to say, our week was pretty cool!

I got to go on exchanges with my STL, Sister Jenkins who was in my district my 2nd transfer! It was so fun to go on exchanges as older missionaries and just hit the ground running. We even got to visit people IN PERSON and IN THEIR HOMES!!!! It was so amazing! It was the first time in months I felt normal! I loved it! It was so fun to get a new perspective on how to spend our time and get back into the groove of visiting people. Sister Jenkins also taught me how to use Facebook groups to help the posts we make reach more people. I am not the best at finding on Facebook, so I decided to try out the whole groupz thing where i share posts to them! So to test the groups, I shared "I'll Turn to You" that Sister Craddock and I wrote last transfer from my Zone's facebook page to the Worldwide United group! That group has almost 600K members from all over the world and people with all sorts of religious backgrounds! It's an uplifting group where anyone can share stuff about God, Jesus Christ, hope, or basically anything uplifting! So I shared the song Tuesday night when it had less than 1k views. It now has gotten 47k views and has reached over 100k people!!!!!! Its absolutely crazy! So many people have reached out to tell me how much they loved it or how it helped them and gave then strength! A cool Dutch band in the Netherlands is doing a cover of it since there isn't a ton of gospel music in Dutch! It's just absolutely insane! It has almost 500 shares and it just blew up! It was so humbling to see how our efforts aided by the Spirit were able to affect people. That was a huge miracle. It was such a cool experience! 

Friday we had a film day with the district for Facebook (because that's a huge part of the missionary work now)! Some members in Biloxi came to the church with their ~fancy~ equipment and I got to make another video! It'll be posted soon, so stay tuned! But to me that video was a huge miracle! I decided to be very open about my struggles with self-confidence and body image insecurities...something I don't talk about very often! But I felt prompted to share my struggles and I was so nervous to film because I had an audience of straight up elders!!! And Sister Young of course...but also elders! It was pretty intimidating, but I just prayed that the Spirit would guide my words and that's exactly what he did. I'm really excited to share it! I felt the Spirit so strong making the video, and I'm excited for people to feel the Spirit as they watch! Stay tuned folks!

Sister Young and I got to teach the Plan of Salvation to some amazing boys we are working with! We talked so much about how God's plan for us wouldn't work without Jesus Christ because He is the only way we can get back to the Father. A few days later I shared 3 Nephi 27:14 with someone and it says "And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father..." and it hit me! Jesus Christ was lifted up to give us a boost to our Heavenly Father if we choose to come to Him. That's grace! Having Christ's help the whole way until we get back to our Father. He makes it so we can reach what we, ourselves, can't reach on our own! I'm so grateful for the grace of Jesus Christ that helps me every day! 

I'm so grateful for my Savior and for all he has done for me! I love Him so much! I challenge yall to share your testimony of Him with someone you love this week, whether that's in person or on social media! I love my Heavenly Father for sending Jesus Christ to help us one day come back to Him a little more heavenly. I love yall and I hope yall have a great week!

Love, Sister Crouch

1. What Sunday devotionals look like in the Pascagoula ward lol

2. The Dutch band from the Netherlands sent me a clip of them working on our song and it's SO GOOD!!!

Week 55: The floor is leaking and Joseph Smith is King Benjamin

What a week down here in good ol Pascagoula, MS. We have someone who is progressing (a huge miracle!), we had zone conference and got to say goodbye to the Varners, we're writing another song, and our house is high key falling apart! But that's okay because miracles!

So yeah! Miracle! We were calling people who were taught then dropped by previous sisters and we actually found someone who wanted to work with us again! He wanted to learn about Joseph Smith, so we had a really awesome Restoration lesson and oh. My. Goodness! The Spirit is so cool! He led and guided my words like crazy to meet Kevin's needs. At the end, we asked Kevin if he believed Joseph could be a prophet and he said yes! Something that kept him from progressing a year ago is that he didn't want to come to church, but now he does! God has a plan! His timing is perfect! I'm really excited to see how things go :))

I had my last zone conference with President and Sister Varner and I am so sad they're leaving ONE WEEK FROM TODAY  But it was so good to see them one last time and say goodbye to them and hear their testimony one more time. I'm obsessed with them. They were exactly what I needed this past year. We talked a lot about using technology to further the Lord's work and I just have a renewed desire to use Facebook as best I can! I may be really bad, but hey if the Lord can magnify 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed 5,000 He can help me use Facebook! It was also so good to be around people again! I've missed gathering as missionaries and church members. I can't wait for church to meet back up!! So yeah, zone conference was amazing. Prayers were answered, the Spirit was felt, tears were shed saying bye to the Varners, it was a good time haha.

When it rains, it pours in Pascagoula! The past 3 weeks I have felt like the biggest adult dealing with adult things! Rear-ended, getting our car fixed, getting our AC fixed, and then this weekend we realized our floor had water leaking up through our tile! So I earned the title of a big girl and called the office multiple times and it was such a mess! We had no responses so we just had a member come by and he fixed it (shotout to Brother Loosli!). It has just been crazy and I am so ready to adult, watch out Provo! 

All this week I have been studying repentance. President Varner said something really cool about repentance at Zone Conference. He said we should be so thrilled and excited to be able to repent every day. I was shook! He was so right! I love the gift of repentance and change! Over the past 20 years of life, I've accumulated a long list of my wrong doings and mistakes that I'm not too proud of, but thanks to Jesus Christ, I don't have to feel guilt or pain if I just repent! What an amazing gift! Christ is too good to us. I love Him so much! So I studied the story of Alma the Younger in Mosiah 27 and Alma 36 and I think it's pretty darn cool that Christ allows is to make complete 180°s and turn our life around. Check out Alma 36:14-22 and see the 180 Alma is able to make because of Christ! Then look for the changes Christ has helped you make and make more! We aren't earning heaven, but learning heaven in this life all thanks to repentance!

I love yall so much and I'm so grateful for all your prayers and support! I love my Savior and Heavenly Father and I know this work is true! This is Christ's church! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Crouch

PS. Sister young and I have noticed the Church uses the same actors for basically everything. I thought I'd share that Joseph Smith in the Restoration is also Peter in the Bible Videos, King Benjamin in the BoM videos, and Brother Willie in 17 miracles. You're welcome.

1. The best mission president and wife ever

2. My zone in Gulfport!

3. My district

4. Good ol Goula

5. Lol this is the life of the co-driver #backitup

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