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