2016

2016

On every Africans door you shall find a slogan plastered on the front, at the very top that says:,"_____(insert the year they were baptized) my year of salvation!" me and hermana storer always crack up at that because we had no idea that salvation had an expiration date.

But the year we just entered, 2016, does have an expiration date and there will come a time when it shall end. in less than precisely 365 days I will have to do anything I possibly can so that I can get a sticker slogan similar to the Africans that says "2016, my year of concentration!" 

As the new year has come the mission had had a HUGE push for more obedience. El faro has a huge history of 100% obedience and exactness. And this year they want even more. Better teachers, finders, more focused and obedient missionaries. I've come to realize that I didn't come here to just serve a mission, I want to be an effective missionary. And so with this new year I have realized I will do anything I can to be the "fourth kind of missionary" and make lasting changes that will not only affect the people I serve, but also myself.

We spent New Years Eve in the house of members eating food and talking about our favorite moments of 2015, and when we got home we waited in our beds for the last 12 seconds of 2015 until hermana storer and I crammed 12 grapes into our mouths as fast as we could. Well tried to at least. I got all the grapes in my mouth at one time but didn't swallow a single one so yea know, welcome 2016 haha

We went and visited Mollie, as we made goals for the  new year she sat and paused for a moment and said this year I want to be a real active member, I want to go to the temple. 

It's hard to explain the happiness and joy I felt at that moment. It's not like anything else. I've come to realize how amazing  it is to be a missionary and get to feel how our Heavenly Father and savior feel for us. If you ever doubt God loves you, let me promise you he does. It's something he has let me know over and over again throughout my mission. He is so proud of every little step we take in the right direction.

Our amazing Nigerian investigator moved this week, it was sad to say goodbye but I know he will continue to progress and eventually be baptized. We're all a team here in missionary work and all play different parts in others progressions. 

Well let me end by quoting a poet whose name I can't remember

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in his hand

Who saith, “A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!”

The future is as bright as your faith. Trust God and believe that he can truly give you something far better than anything you're leaving behind. 

Enjoy this new year xoxo Hermana cragun