Milea Crosby

Before....
(we ate at a China food buffet right before Holly went in to get induced)











After!











Proud parents











Milea Crosby (pronouned mih-lay-ah with accent on the 2nd syllable)









On February 27 at 6:47pm our new little pride and joy was born healthy and strong. She weighed in at 7 lbs 13 oz (4 oz bigger than her older brother). Holly was super labor woman-she pushed for less than 5 minutes, we didn't even have time to get the table set up and I barely had time to get the gloves on in time to deliver our new little girl. She did the whole thing with zero pain medications and is now feeling great.

Pics of Reed

Hey, I'm not going to the beach, I'm going to 'preach'!

Pics of Kari

Kari taking Kari said this

missionary work parrot speaks better

very serious! Spanish than she does!

I

Kari serving joyfully

Feb. 26, 2007
Dearly beloved family, As always, it has been a good week. I managed to get only one flat tire this week, which is better than two I guess! Just to our luck, it was on a rainy day and so we had to walk in the rain with our bikes. I had on pants under my dress and a couple layers so the rain it wasn’t too bad. Its actually kind of fun to ride on our bikes in the rain through all the big puddles. I just curl my legs up on my middle bar so I don’t get too wet. Its a little hard to see though with the rain coming in your eyes- I should invest in some goggles! Its only rained 2 times though mom, so don’t worry! My comp. was smart though and brought a poncho that she wears. It is neon green, complete with a hood and all- as if we don’t already stick out enough! I think the people in this town really get a hoot out of us. In the mornings during our exercise especially. I figure though that when people laugh they are happy and that brings them a little closer to the Lord, right? So, I’m fulfilling my purpose as a missionary in the mornings as I punch the air and jump up and down and as I ride my bike by helping people laugh and feel happy! My sweet zone leaders came and happily fixed my tire again though. I think I’m starting to get it down though and that I’ll attempt to fix it the next time (let’s be honest, there likely will be a next time knowing me!) Zone conference was this Wednesday. That is always a treat. They focused a lot on health, which was interesting and really good. A lot of missionaries just don’t take care about their health and gain a bunch of weight and it affects the work. So, I now have restrictions straight from the mission doctor that I’m not allowed to eat fried food, etc. I can now tell that to the sweet hermanas in the rama without lying, rather just being obedient! And we all know the importance of obedience! Zone conference always leaves me with themotivation to be better and to work harder. It is always needed too. We also got to attend this big service activity in Los Angeles on Saturday. It was an African-American ‘discover your roots’ genealogy conference. Way cool! I am so excited to start doing genealogy someday! I learned all sorts of cool stuff and got all pumped up! They had this black gospel choir, complete with drums and all, in the chapel of the LDS church singing their little hearts out and clapping and dancing. It was a little different, but it was fun! The AP’s were the only of the 20 missionaries that got up and started clapping and swaying with them. Apparently they got permission from President before- too bad they didn’t spread that on to us. It was hard holding it in!  Its so funny how different all the other churchesare from ours though. There’s a lot of excitement, but not much spirit. I just wonder how Heavenly Father really likes His name to be screamed at the top of their lungs. To each their own though! Yesterday was one of those days in my mission that I just felt so happy and grateful that I am here as a missionary. It is such a privilege and I can’t believe I almost passed it up! We went by Ana Silvia’s house to check up on them because they didn’t come to church for the first time in 2 weeks and we wanted to make sure all was well. When we got to their dirty little apartment, sweet little Deana (9 years old, soo intelligent and beautiful and I’m convinced that she is definitely going to be some great leader in the church someday) and her sister Angie (7 years old and so stinkin cute! My comp. always refers to her as ‘little Tublet’ when we are alone. She’s always saying ‘excuse me, excuse me’ and butting into everyone’s conversationswith her 2 front teeth missing- just a doll!). anyways, there they were sitting together on the coach reading out loud from the Book of Mormon! They are the most amazing little girls! I know I was the opposite when I was that age- I thought the book of Mormon was boring! They love it though. We joined in with them and I felt so happy as we all crowded around my tiny hymn book and sang, or tried to sing, ‘secreta Oracion’, one of my favorite hymns, and read together from the book of mormon. I am so glad we found this family. The girls are ready to be baptized, but the mom, Ana Silvia, is not really reading or keeping her commitments. It makes it a little difficult, but I think we’ll go ahead and commit Deana to baptism and hope she inspires her mom. After that we went to the home of a couple we found last Sunday- Christian and Berta. Berta just had a baby and is kind of a punk mom with her nose ring and camouflage clothes- way fun couple and so nice. Afterwards Christian busts out all these Lucky and Polo shirts and let us each pick one. I get so many gifts like this from investigators and members- one of the many perks of being a missionary! The lesson went well too and I have a good feeling about them. The Ruiz family has been dropped, which breaks my heart, but we went by and visited last night and are going to start just teaching the 17 year old daughter, Emir. She is at the stage in her life when she is confused and needs something. She told her dad that it’s like me and my comp are like angels, that we just radiate something and how she feels so different when she’s around us. So she’s recognized the spirit and she has been praying and she thinks the BOM is true. I love that family and I think Emir can be a big influence for good for them.There are so many amazing people here- I can go on and on. I love being able to meet so many of God’s children and see them a little bit like our Heavenly Father does. I know that He truly loves all of them and wants them all to come unto Him. I’m glad that I get to experience a little of the joy and love He feels. The Spanish has been coming more and more everyday. I don’t know how, but I somehow manage to teach just fine. Actually, I know it is the Lord helping me so much. I’ve been able to understand their concerns and answer questions and I am so so grateful for that help. After lessons I’m usually just in awe at what I just did, or rather what the Lord just did through me. I know this is the Lords work and I love being His instrument. Its true that true happiness comes only thorough obedience and through the gospel of Jesus Christ and serving others. I love being a missionary, flat tires, rain and all! Mucho amor, Hermana Crosby

4-wheeling in the Superstitions

We took an awesome trip up into the beautiful
Superstition Mtns., Bret and Uncle Bryan came
too. We went about 60 miles, it was great! It was
a little chilly, but we dressed warm. I just love
seeing places that we'd never see unless we
went exploring, they're out there hiding!!

This is an old rock house, there was also a deep
hand dug well and a mine entrance here.

Another place we rode to was this old rock jail!
The stage coach used to go through here where
they would leave the prisoners on their way to
Yuma in here for the night. Somewhere here
there was a community of about 1800 people.

SUNS are on FIRE........

...... and so is Jake!! hee hee! (he'd kill me if he knew I said that)

So on WED the 21st I scored two sweet tickets on the 22nd row, nice and close, to the SUNs game! I took my new friend Jacob Clark. YES.... he is the guy that Ann and Blair Bently(the guy that served in W.V. and knows MARK) set me up on a blind date with. He is tons of fun and bursting with personality. We had a blast at the game! Ann went and brought her friend Marci. Those girls are a riot and made the night very entertaining
Yeah suns won! GO SUNS

The tall bald dude!

Happy B-day Kaemon

So Kaemon's B-day is the 26th, but we celebrated it early just incase the little one comes on his B-day. Gma Jill and Kellie are here...waiting for something to happen, but nothing is happening. So Kellie's going back up to Detroit and Jill is staying here for the new one. We took Kaemon to Burger King and let him play on the indoor playground and eat chicken and fries. He opened up every one of his presents in hopes of getting a "truck, truck". Holly made Kaemon a chocolate cake and I carried on Gma Crosby's b-day tradition of Rainbow frosting. I can't believe we have a 2 year old!

Kari has 1 year left

Feb. 20, 2007
HELLLLOOOO!!! Since yesterday was Presidents day the library was closed so we didn’t get to email. This week, wow! It’s just like Reed said, every week flies by, but at the same time so much happens in one week. This week I pretty much felt every single emotion to the max, well except maybe falling in love! I felt frustration, joy, worry, peace, and sadness, all of it! The mission truly is a roller-coaster. One appointment is great and you feel like you’re on top of the world, and then the next may be awful and you feel like your heart is broken. I love it though. A few highs of the week:- I am the queen of flat tires! Once again, I got a flat tire on my bike! I don’t know why its always me who gets them and not my companion, but I managed to get a real bad one this week. We were innocently riding along, on the farthest street away from our house, and I hear a loud POP! I knew that meant bad news! Luckily the members we had our dinner appointment with were kind enough to come and pick us up and the next day our great zone leaders spent about an hour and a half and fixed it! I’m going to try to be more careful!- I had the worst experience of my entire mission this Friday. Here’s what happened- we were riding our bikes down Atlantic, which is the busiest street here. It’s always a tad scary to ride on this street because we’re always afraid that we will get hit. We were on our way to one of our investigators house and I turn onto her street and turn around to ask my comp. where she wanted to park. Well I turn around in mid-sentence and she’s nowhere in sight. I figured she just got stuck behind a stop light so I go back to Atlantic to wait for her. I waited about 2 minutes and didn’t see her anywhere so I decided to ride back down Atlantic. Well, I rode up and down the street for about 20 minutes searching for her, feeling so alone and so worried and scared. Finally I decided to go to the nearest members home and figure out what to do. When I got to there house I lost it and managed to choke out “No se donde esta me companera” through my sobbings. Hna. Enriquiz kept saying “its ok. Don’t worry” in her little English that she knows and I just sat crying! I didn’t know what to do (it was about 30 minutes of being separated by then) so I called the AP. I don’t really know why I did- I don’t know what I thought he could do, but I didn’t know what else to do. So the AP tells me that they’ll come right away- of course I’m crying the whole time. Wellll-- in the meantime Hno. Enriquiz is in his car looking for my comp. You must remember that she is completely new in the area and doesn’t speak any Spanish, so I was worried for that reason too. He ended up finding her- she was at our apartment! She had gotten stuck behind a few cars and then a red light and didn’t know where I turned. She didn’t have the address of our investigator either so she got out her little area map and managed to find her way home. Ayay ay- it was the worst feeling though that I never hope to repeat. I felt so alone and so scared and lost. We were separated for about an hour total- I was so ecstatic to see her afterwards! I called the AP to tell him all was well and he was just dying laughing. Here I had just experienced the worst moment of my mission and he was laughing! I was just trying to be responsible, but how I wish I never called him. I don’t think he’ll let me live this one down-he liked to tease me before, but now he really will I’m afraid! When my comp. was by herself too she passed a group of kids and one of them looked at her and thensaid to his friend in a shocked voice, “dude, that’s a missionary”. Webroke about every rule in the book that day! Never again! - Yesterday the zone leaders decided to put me in charge of the p-day activity with our zone. I played a bunch of crazy games that I had learned at EFY and it was a hit! Everyone had a lot of fun- I was glad. - We committed Vera to baptism today for March 11! She is our only English investigator that we have. She’s 15 years old and the daughter of a less-active, crazy lady. She’s sweet and we hope all goes as planned- My comp. threw up on Valentines day because we got fed fried food for both lunch and dinner. We were both so sick! A great way to spend V-day! Later that night we attended a great ward party with the Bell English ward. This ward is about 80% elderly people- it was great! They are so funny! They played like a newly-wed dating game and had members sing- just adorable! - We had to drop the familia Ruiz because they haven’t been keeping commitments! This is so hard for me to do and broke my heart because I love this family so dearly. I still pray for them and their progress. - Oh ya, I never told you- My district leader, Elder Dunn, is the nephew of Gary and Kathleen Davis! It’s a small world after all!About the whole submerging of the missions- before they had English andSpanish missionaries overlapping in an area so we couldn’t teach English people, but had to refer them to the English missionaries. Now they have it so that no missionaries are overlapping. So Hna. Irving and I are the only missionaries in this area. Get it?! So yes, I could very well now be sent to Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes or some other ritzy, English area. Eek! Well, that’s about it! Everything is great! I still feel so frustrated with Spanish at times, but my comp is picking up little by little. Now she can say a simple prayer and a simple testimony, but it’s better then me doing it all! We have so much fun though and I’m so grateful she is my comp. She is 100% obedient- like Nephi! She’s a great example to me and I’ve learned the true importance of being totally obedient to ALL the commandments, big and little. We laugh a lot- she’s hilarious! Her family also has a food fund for us and soevery time we go out to eat she always pays for the both of us! It’s great!Tomorrow is zone conference and I’m always excited for that. The mission is great and the work is rolling forward. I come home in exactly ONE YEAR from TODAY!! Crazy! It’s seems really long, but it will fly I’m sure and I know I still have tons and tons to learn. I love being here. I love the Gospel. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all lots and lots too!
Hermana Crosby

Reed's working so hard he has blisters!

Feb. 21, 2007
Well one more week, a million more experiences. Well it was great to get emails telling me about their life. Kari, the mission truly is a roller coaster, exactly like you said. I like the advice Bret gave me, The mission should be a great experience, with a few sad moments, not a sad experience with a few great moments. I think it was something like that, but it’s true. There are ups and downs but the ups should be the majority, and the downs the minority. Lisa, Wow, sounds like you are having fun, A blind date that actually went good. And taking him to a Suns game, now that’s my kind of date. Tami,50’s Sweetheart dances are always fun, but I hope you just dressed like rebellious Sandy and didn’t act like her. Haha, I know you didn’t but the dance sounded way fun and your outfit was legit. As for the guys, I didn’t get any emails from them this week. I did get Mark and Holly’s Christmas Letter with the really cute picture of Kaemon with Mark and Holly. I put it in my album for people to see. Anyway, as for the news here, there is so many things to tell and I’ll try not to forget anything. First of all, it is amazing here how prepared the people are. I am so blessed to be here where people are open to hear our message. The Joao Pessoa mission is really blessed. Here, the good missionaries baptize weekly. Sometimes it’s hard for me because sometimes it is a fight between the numbers and the people. Let me explain, lots of missionaries baptize a lot herebut they baptize a lot of children. Ya sure, Children are the kingdom of God, but that’s not going to build the kingdom here in Brazil. So there is pressure to baptize every week, so a lot of missionaries get lost in the numbers. I try to make every baptism special. I don’t know if you all understand what I am saying right now but I always talk about my baptisms and I hope everyone doesn’t get tired of hearing about names of people they don’t know but I hope people know that I truly find joy in doing this, I know that I couldn’t do this without the spirit and without a great companion, Elder Q Smith.So this past week we had 2 baptisms. Friday I got to baptize Luan, a 16 year oldguy who has already gone to seminary at 5:30 every morning for the past 2 weeks. He is really excited about the church and has already read For the Strength of Youth has started his Duty to God. We have taught him for the past 2 weeks and he has a lot of friends in the Church. He showed up at church 2 weeks ago with a friend and we started teaching him the next day. I really didn’t do anything, he was really prepared. It helps so much to have a friend in the church. Then onSunday we Baptized Fatima, Cristiano’s mom. It was so great teaching here with Cristiano. She is married but going through a divorce. She started crying many times during the lessons. It was funny, we taught her about the word of wisdom and everyone here drinks coffee. So she said she would stop and she didn’t drink any the next day, but the next she had a big headache and so she went and made a cup of coffee, but a bug got in it. So she made another cup, but then she went to drink it, her body rejected it or something because she couldn’t swallow it,and when she tried, she puked. She kept asking, do you think this was apunishment for trying to drink coffee? It was really funny because she said that she would never drink coffee again, and believed it was a punishment. This week seems like it should be a good week. Sunday we had 7 investigators in church. We could have quite a few baptisms this Sunday and I will write about them next week. I was sad though because Maria and Francisco didn’t go to church yet again. Normally we would drop a person but Elder Q Smith and I have a really good feeling about them. They are living in an unfinished house so we offered to help them and do some service. So yesterday All four of us missionaries (Elder QSmith, me, Elder Michael, Elder C Ferreira) went to their house at 8:00 in the morning to help him with his house. We moved this huge pile of sand and while we were working, it started raining so we got soaked. It was good though to work with my hands. I got a couple of blisters but its all good. Then the other 2 elders had to leave to go teach, but Elder C Ferreira wanted to stay, so me and him stayed while Q Smith and Michael went and taught. It was good, we made cement and put it on the walls ( they don’t use sheetrock here. Its just blocks that they cover with cement) so I learned how to do that. It was really good to talk to them and we stayed there until 12:00, ate lunch there, and then went home. They really appreciated us doing that for them. Francisco was going to do it all by himself and just to move that pile of sand would have taken him all day. He reminds me a lot of dad, he has a mustache and is always doing a project around the house (he’s not as bald though). He built his house all by himself in 5 weekends. They are really a special family and we are going to continue to work with them and serve them. Well this is getting pretty long but so much is happening. Things are going great here and the time is just flying by. O ya, this past weekend was CARNAVAL!!! A few areas in the mission closed but here in Felipe Camarao it was actually a lot more calm. Everyone left to go to the beach or to the “interior”. There were some drunks dancing around the streets and some loud music but nothing bad. We didn’t even have to go to our apartments early at night like some areas had to. Anyway, I love you all and hope the best for all of you.Things are great and I am grateful every day for all my many many blessings.
Your son and BrotherElder Crosby

Valentines prank...

Before & After

So I used to watch the Suns dominate on a little TV that rested upon two end tables. My wife has an amaxing friend Rennai who gave us a humongous 36" flat screen! We had to upgrade the stand to be able to put it on so Becki got a real TV stand from Wal-Mart that had 100's of little screws and intricate instuctions. But we don't mess around so after some serious screwing, nailing, and disecting the instruction booklet we finally got ourselves a pretty nice little setup. Well it's an upgrade for us that we're excited about anyway.







Before...










Disecting...













Screwing...










Nailing...













(Becki helped too!)

& Tah-Dah!

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Sweathearts!

Well this weekend was also the Sweethearts dance. It was a 50's themed sock hop. If you cant tell I was the rebellious Sandy (like on Grease). I asked Liam Mulqueen, who none of you know because he moved here not very long ago. We had a really big group with 14 people. During the day we took our dates down to the dance studio and had Bro. Smith and his wife (our new seminary teacher) came and taught us all some basic dances. We learned swing, triple step and the hustle. Since it was a sock hop it was really fun to actually know how to dance to the oldies music. It was all a lot of fun, but tireing! Well I love you all!

Woo Hoo SUU!

So it has been a while since ive posted anything new so I feel like I should fill everyone in on whtas been going on! So last week mom, dad and I took a trip up to Cedar City for this "leadership weekend". It was basically a bunch of high school seniors that also hold leadership positions in their school. We played a bunch of get to know you games, learned about all the clubs we can get involved with once we get there, had interviews, made up skits, and basically just had a lot of fun. I met a lot of new friends that I look foreward to seeing again come fall. I feel really good about going to SUU, its not too big, but not too small. THey also have a really good nursing program. They did give me a scholarship that will cover tuition, and I am hoping for the presidential ambassador scholarship, which is only available to the people who went to this leadership weekend. Anyway that is that. Im really excited to know what my basic plans are after graduation! GO THUNDERBIRDS!

Reed's Valentine's letter

Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007
Hello and Happy Valentines Day! Well things are just great here in Natal and I am really enjoying it. The weeks fly by so fast. It seems like yesterday I was writing but then a lot has happened since last week. First off before I forget, DO NOT send money using the pouch mail. They open all of our letters and I would recommend not sending money at all. I have a bank account that is a lot easier to get money out of and Mom can put money in it if you really want to send money. But anyways, this past week was great. We had 4 baptisms this past Sunday and they are all awesome guys. All 4 of the people we had marked got baptized, Wellington, Wedson, Cristiano, and Carlos. They are all awesome guys and are helping us find more people to teach. Last night we talked to Cristiano’s mom and marked her baptism for this week. She was so excited that she could get baptized too. When we told her we would like to prepare her for her baptism she said “A person as old as me can get baptized?” She was just so happy. She also made us a whole œpe de moleque (a really good type of cake) for us to take home and eat. Friday we are going to start to teach the parents of Carlos. They went to his baptism and really liked it. The dad’s brother is a member in the ward too so that is a big help. Carlos is so happy and I am really looking forward to teaching the whole family together. Speaking of families, we are planning on marrying Noel and Territa, a family so we can baptize the woman. They are living together and Noel is a member. WE will mark their marriage this Friday so I am excited about that. Always with the good news comes the bad. We stopped by Maria and Francisco’s house this week and Maria said she needed to talk to us. They are the family that we taught the first lesson to and were preparing them to be baptized this next week. So we went in and started talking to Maria. She explained to us their situation. Francisco paints houses for a living and while they were in Sao Paulo he was making really good money but he would spend a lot of it on beer and cigarettes. Then they met the missionaries and he tried to stop but couldn’t. The missionaries saw him smoking one day and one of the missionaries grabbed the cigarette out of his mouth, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it right in front of him. Francisco didnt like that and didnt go back to church after that. Then Ferancisco had a health problem where he had to stop drinking beer and smoking. Then they moved here to Natal. They are living in a house that is completed yet and he isnt working a lot. He finally got a job in Porta negra, a really rich part of town and was there for 3 or 4 days last week. The guy paid him on the spot and I guess he went and spent a lot of the money on beer and got drunk. When he got home, he wasnt himself. He told his 16 year old daughter that he hated her and even wanted to hit her (but he didnt). And now Francisco is gone again for 3 or 4 days to paint another house and has started drinking again. We started talking to here how we would help him stop drinking and how the gospel changes live. We asked her if she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and through tears told us that the night she prayed, she had a dream that brought a lot of peace in her life. We still havent talked to Francisco since we found this out on Monday because he has been out of town working, but tonight or tomorrow we will talk to him. Its so hard seeing people destroying their lives with alcohol and smoking. Maria went to church this week and really loved it. As far as other news, we had Zone Conference this past Friday that was really good. We were all supposed to prepare a 3 minute talk on the example of Jesus Christ. I prepared a little something thinking I wouldn’t be called, but then when President Geschwandtner announced the 3 names, the first one was Elder Crosby. It is really a different experience to speak in front of 60 other missionaries, most of which have more time than me and speak better Portuguese than me. I’ll just say I was a little nervous, but things went good. The conference was great after that and I learned a lot. It rained here this morning for a good 40 minutes or more while we were cleaning our house. It was the best rain I’ve seen yet and I guess we are getting into the rainy season so Ill get to use my umbrella. Well my time is running out. I know this church is true and that it truly changes lives. There are so many people that are searching for the truth, whether they know it or not, but are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. WE must bring it to THEM, we cant wait for people to come to us. We might be the only way they will ever hear about the gospel. I know sharing the gospel brings happiness. I love you all.

Your son and brother, Elder Crosby.

Letter from Kari

February 12, 2007
Hello Hello! I’m sure you’re all dying to find out what’s going on with me and I actually have time today so I can fill you in! Soooo I got a call Monday night and they told me that I would be staying in Maywood, would be moving apartments, would be back on bike, would be put with an English sister and would be made senior companion!! The last 2 were the ones that made me a bit nervous and caused me to get zero sleep that night! So we’re still here in Maywood and it’s true, my comp doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish! It’s worse then having a greenie as far as the language goes because as of yet she still doesn’t know how to really pray or testify, and definitely cannot teach or street contact, etc. So it’s all me. Before when I was with my Latino companions I rarely spoke because they did all the talking, but now the tables are completely turned and if I don’t talk nothing will happen! I’m actually learning Spanish better now then before though because I HAVE to. Its interesting that’s for sure! My comp is great though, minus that small detail of not being able to speak or help out much. Her name is Sister Irving. She’s from Washington D.C. and has been out just one transfer longer then me. She’s been in Palos Verdes her whole mission, which is super super rich and ritzy, so this is a whole new mission for her. She has a great attitude about this all though and is loving being here in Mexico! She and I stick out like sore thumbs here. She’s 5’10”- and everyone would always tell me how tall I am! and also very white. You can just picture us on our bikes with our skirts and helmets- these two white giants¦ ya, everyone stares! In the mornings is really funny too when we go running. First of all no one here exercises so that is reason enough to stare and then Hna. Irving wears these bright fuchsia pink pants with a fuchsia pink shirt and punches the air while we run! She’s quite a hoot actually. She is very grandma-ish. I mean that in a nice way thou! She’s always using phrases like “She is just delightful” and “bless your heart”. Her first name is Amelia and it fits her perfectly! We’re a lot different, but get along good and have a lot in common too. It is nice to have an American comp. though and have the same customs and what not. It’s going to be a transfer of much growth and learning for the both of us. We have lots of investigators and its kind of stressful for me to be in charge of what to teach and always have to do it all, but the Lord knows that I needed this in order to progress. Before I know that I wasn’t because I completely depended on my comp. to do everything, so the Lord has blessed me with this opportunity to rise to my full potential. We also got added another ward. Like I told you, they re-did all the boundaries so that no missionaries are overlapping. So we just got added the English ward of Bell. I really don’t know why they gave us this ward because it is the biggest ward as far as boundaries go in the stake, and we are bike missionaries and our area covers hardly any of the ward boundaries. So that makes things that much more interesting. I feel bad because of course they are depending on us to help out and do our part, but we can’t really do tons with our circumstances and the fact that every single one of our investigators are Spanish. They’ll probably (hopefully) change it after this transfer though. This morning Hna. Irving and I went and bought groceries at this total Mexican grocery store called El Laborio. It is the closest one to our new apartment (which is way nice- definitely a step up!). We are on bike and so that makes it hard to buy groceries so we walked and brought hna. Irving’s big rolling suitcase! Ha ha! The work is great! We still haven’t committed Ana Silvia and her kids to baptism, but I think this is the week. Sadly, the 17 year old, and Deana, the 9 year old, both told me they want to serve missions! I told them we first need to focus on the whole baptism thing! They are such a wonderful family thou- pure gold! There’s tons of people that I love dearly that I wish I could tell you about, but I know it would be a bit boring for you to hear so I’ll spare you! I’m loving being here though and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It truly is the only way to true happiness and it blows my mind that so many people don’t want it. If they only knew what they were missing out on they would be chasing us down and begging us to teach them! The Lord blesses us dearly though and this is His work and I love serving Him. thanks for everything dear family! Con Mucho Amor, Hna. Crosby Ps- I’m sending a bunch of pictures home this week for your viewing pleasure!

So the girls at work and I have gotten into BEADING yes I said beading!! We make our own jewlry! We spend like 4 hours in the bead store picking out the perfect beads to make earrings, bracelets, and neckolaces. Then we spend another 4 hours making them at someones house! Its soo much fun!! I've made some cool stufff. We also had a "retreat" for work. WE all went and played lazer tag at Lazer Quest. Ann and I are very competative and we went all out notice my knife. we all had code names. mine was RAMBO!

Nanna gets Implants

So about a week ago Nanna had 4 dental implants placed at my office. It was a pretty major surgery! It took Dr. Poelman and I about 3.5 hours. She was such a good girl. Now she can bite into a sandwhich!! YEAH!!

Pictures from Reed

Reed said, "A huge fruit, not good eating,
but very picture worthy!"

Elder Q. Smith, Elder Crosby, Elder C.
Ferreira, & Elder Michael. Reed said, "This
picture reminds me of the commercial
"More bars in more places" (the cell phone one)

Elder Crosby is doing great!

Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2007
Oi Familia. Well it’s already P-day again. The weeks just fly by. Last p-day we went to this sweet fort called “Forte dos reis Magos” which means fort of the magi kings. But it’s right on the ocean and it is just a old fort that is one of the tourists sites here in Natal. I will try to send some pictures today for your viewing pleasure but I don’t know if it will work. Anyway, the fort was pretty cool and it was cool to see the ocean and jut be a tourist for a day, well at least until 6:00, and then its back to work. The work here is just awesome. We had 3 baptisms this past week, one of which is a rapaz (young man) that has 14 years and he is just really smart. We gave him the book of mormon with 2 parts marked, the introduction and 2 nephi 31. the next day when we came back he could tell us all the details about the 2 parts. It was so good to see his baptism. We have been teaching his mom too but his mom is married to a different guy then she is living with and is working on the divorce papers as we speak so it could be a while before she could get baptized, but she went to church on Sunday and also to Filipe’s baptism and really liked it. We are teaching a lot of people right now and have 4 baptisms marked for this Sunday; Cristiano, Carlos Enrique, Wellington and Wedson. Critiano was a contact that we made on the street and started teaching him. He came to church last week and so we are preparing him for his baptism this Sunday. He is 16 years old and I always feel the spirit when we teach him. Carlos Enrique is a rapaz that just came to church with his cousin so we got his address and started teaching him last week. We could have baptized him last week but decided not to rush thing and really prepare him. He was almost baptized 2 years ago but something happened with his dad and so he didn’t get baptized. But now he is really excited to be baptized and his parents are going to watch his baptism so it will be really good and hopefully they will feel the spirit and they will listen to our lessons. Wedson and Wellington are brothers that came to church after we invited them on Saturday. Wellington is 19 and Wedon is 17. By their appearance they seem a little rebelious, long hair, Linkin Park (a rock band for those that don’t know) shirts, bracelets and stuff like that, but really they are awesome guys. Wellington said the closing pray at the end of the first lesson and it was one of the best closing prayers I have heard. We taught them about the word of wisdom and law of Chastity last night and they said they would stop drinking coffee and wouldn’t drink beer anymore. These guys really want to do what is right and have the desire to follow Christ. I love teaching people that are willing to change and accept the gospel in their lives. On top of those we have been finding a lot of people that we are working with. We have a family, Francisco and Maria that went to church in Sao Paulo but weren’t baptized. This past Sunday they traveled but they promised to go to church this week. They are great and I love talking and teaching them. I am really enjoying thing here. Its funny because I am used to cold showers, but here in our house we actually have a thing that heats up the water ( I guess its a hot water heater) but it in the shower and it has a switch. I was so excited to take a hot shower the first time but its interesting because I starting taking the shower and I ended up turning the hot water heater off because it was just weird and I have found that I like cold showers. Its so hot here, even at night that they feel so much better than hot showers. Anyway, I thought that was funny. Well I love you all and my time is running out so just keep choosing the right (CTR does not mean change the rules) and remember that Jesus Christ is the rock of our Salvation. Those who build on him will not fall. The wind will come, but you wont fall if you are built upon Christ.
Love Your son and brother Elder Crosby

News from the 'CLAM'

Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007

HELLOOOOO!!! Well, this was my comp.'s last week here in the mission and it was pretty much the perfect week for her to end her mission on. Nothing huge and life-changing happened, but it was just really good! One of our investigators, Leanor Martinez, who we have been teaching for about 3 weeks went to the Visitor's center with us and also to a baptism. We were so worried because on thursday when we had an appointment with her she told us her pastor from the Christan church has been calling her and that he invited her to be baptized that sunday. The bad part was that she actually accepted!she knows that baptism is super important and she is ready to take that step. So that lesson we were praying so hard for the spirit as we taught her about authority and the importance of asking Heavenly Father what she should do. she was very curious to ask her pastor after that where he got his authority (I couldn't bring myself to flat- out tell her "sorry- he has absolutlely NO authority! she'll figure that out tho!) Then on Saturday we went to the VC and did a tour of the temple grounds and it couldn't have been more perfect. The vc sister who did the tour talked alot about authority and about baptism and the temple and everything. I love the Spirit that leads us to say the right things! Then yesterday we took her to baptism of 5 kids and one lady. I've never seen so many people at one baptism and to say the least, it wasn't the most reverant baptism. Of course I was stressing out the whole time b/c i was worried that she wouldn't feel the spirit and that she would just think it was another baptism, but I reminded myself that this is the Lord's work and that it will roll forward no matter what- No matter how many babies are crying or people are talking or kids are running around, if they are ready for the truth they will recognize it despite all of this. It so true too! I don't know how, but she somehow felt something and promised my comp. that she would send her pictures of her own baptism! She also promised us both that she would come to the Arizona temple and the Mexico Temple and go inside with us! It's so exciting to meet those who are ready! I love her lots and hope I get to stay in Maywood and continue teaching her.
Ana Silivia and her 4 kids are also amazing still. We had a FHE with some members yesterday and it was also perfect. I looooove when the members get involved. It truly makes the world of difference. What an answer to prayers!
Jaime and Consuelo are also progressing, but will take a little more time than the others. It's cool though to see that light in Jaime that wasn't there a month ago. I love the Gospel!!!
We sadly also had an experience kind of like Reed had this week with not listening to the spirit, but not quite to the extent of his. We had been invited to a fiesta of 3 of our investigators on Sat. night (EVERYONE has fiestas every Sat. night) and felt like we shouldn't go, but they really wanted us to so we did. Well, we got there and one of them was very drunk (he's about a 50 year old man) and kept trying to hug us and kept telling us "I love you, I love you so much". It was a bad experience with all of them. It breaks my heart to see that. They were so good ( Or so we thought), but alcohol, grrrrr! I hate HATE that dumb liquid. It ruins people and destroys families. So sad. So we left after about 20 minutes of the spirit nagging at us and both felt really bad afterwards that we went. Nothing really bad happened, but we went against the spirit and lost it temporarlily as a result. I never want to experience that feeling again. It's awful. Like Reed said, always listen to those small promptings, no matter how small and no matter if you don't completly understand why. the lord will always bless you when you do.
SO tonight I find out tonight about everything- where I'll be going or if i'll be staying, who my new comp is, etc. I have so many mixed feelings about it and I'm glad the Lord picks and not me. I really want to stay in Maywood becasue we have these great people that I know will be baptized soon, but at the same time I really want to serve in the VC before it closes in April. AAA! Whatever the Lord wants I'll be happy about and I'll do it! The suspense is killing me though! I'm glad he decides and I don't have to cause I don't know what I would do. I'll let you know soon!
All day tomorrow we have a huge meeting with all the mission -ALL the mission, english and spanish, and starting Wed. everything is going to change. It should be fun fun!
You want to know what's wierd, I come home in a year from this month! My release date is Feb. 20 2008- Before you know it I will have less than a year. I need to work harder!! I love being a missionary though. I love it so much! This is the Lord's work and it's such a privlege to be a part of it. I started reading Jesus The Christ and it is amazing. You all should read it! Anyways, this is really long so I'll let you go.

LOTS OF LOVE, Hermana Crosby ps- they call my misison the CLAM -
California Los Angeles Misison

So I've started my OB/GYN rotation and it's actually quite a drag. The doc I'm working with has zero patient interaction skillz and doesn't know English very well and so he always refers to his women patients as "he". He's also not very busy at all, so I'm doing most of my learning on my own from some books I bought about the complexities of women and all their problems. Holly is 37 weeks pregnant now, which is considered full term. Now it's just a matter of waiting to see when it wants to pop out. Holly's officially excited because the relief society in our ward is throwing her a baby shower and they're waiting until after the baby is born (March 7) to do it (which is good). It's been snowing up a storm here. It snows a little bit every day but not a bunch at once. Kaemon is quite the handfull when he's sick. He's had a little viral URI going on for about a week now, but he's fine. These picks are of last Saturday's temple trip to Columbus, Ohio with our friends the Davis' and Donaldsons.