Christmas and Other Happenings‏

G'morning loved ones!!

This week was da bomb.com.... There was so. much. snow. and blessings. and joy. 

Really was one of the greatest weeks ever. 

Ok, so time is pretty short, so here are some of the awesome happenings of the week:

-Climbed a mountain. Through waist deep snow. In a suit. Found a cabin; no one was home. Still a fantastic experience. I love winter! 

-Got locked out of Durango on the way back from Farmington. Apparrreently snow+ice+cold+roads=not a great thing... so, we found some county roads and drove through da deep snows and made it back safely.

-Sooo many opportunities for service. Which led to opportunities to lessons. Also led to a Jewish man (he looks a LOT like Stan Lee) we're teaching making us Ham sandwiches... And then he and his wife came to church!! :D

-Christmas!!!! Opened the family's package. I'm now fat. (Thanks a lot family). Also had the greatest gift ever of getting to talk with them :) You never realize how much you love your family until you only get to talk to them twice a year... It was so good though :)

-Remember Elizabeth? The girl we're teaching from NAU? We asked her to pray to see when Heavenly Father wants her to be baptized annnnd she got the 16 of January. Which is the same date that we had gotten. The amount of faith that she has is just incredible. She knows that what we're teaching is true, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. 

This life is so great. Here's an excerpt from the letter to the mission president:

Hello President!

This week was full of miracles; learned how my sister got engaged (the guy is AWESOME), didn't die in the snow, committed Elizabeth to baptism on the 16th, talked to my fambam (everyone is doing SO WELL; I have such a strong testimony that a mission blesses your family), had 5 investigators come to church, andnnd yeah! I'm excited for the New Year! I see where I am. I see who I want to be. I know I can get there through the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He's shown us the way. God speaks to His children, and we have the blessing and the opportunity of bringing His message, that the way back to Him, the way to a fulness of joy in this life, the way to be with our families FOREVER, to his children! There is a prophet of God on the Earth.

How incredible is that? I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. I love being in this mission. I know that mission calls are divinely inspired. Thank you for all that you and Sister Adams do. I'll see you tomorrow!

In this coming year, make a commitment to keep the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of Christ, in your life. Do better. Be better. He's with you.

I love you all!!!

Nizhoni na'ash

Elder Kraus

There's no place like Durango for the Holidays‏

(Cue supah deep Santa voice)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

This week was, to put it into a two syllable word: crazy. 

Filled with highs (ha, Colorado pun) and lows

Monday was a bit of a miniature snowpocalypse. I'm improving my winter driving skizzles (we drive a tacoma. spoiled much?); found out Taylor is now engaged!!! (Congratulations!!! P.S. I LOVE Bryson.) annnnnnd the new incoming trainees got stuck in Denver!! they got here like 3 days late.

Tuesday: We were going to drop Elder Vineyard off in Farmington with his new companion, but then the weather was like: "or nah." So, instead, we went around teaching and preaching and shoveling up a storm. Twas beautiful. Oh! Elder Vineyard and Longino paid me moneys to dive barefoot and in a t-shirt through the snow then walk ~100 feet through the snow. Too bad they didn't realize that my cold tolerance level is over 9000. No big deal. The Lord provided us with some incredible opportunities to meet people through service today. :)

Wednesday: One of the main reasons the week was crazy. Dropped off Elder Vineyard in Farmington (supah sad to see him go. He's AWESOME and tripanionships are the equivalent of missionary superpower immunity--there's no home we can't visit). Picked up a bunk bed for the Durango 2nd Ward Sisters (they're a tripanionship now; lucky ducks). drove back to Durango, attempted to build the bed, realized there were screws missing, went and gave a member a blessing, picked up screws, finished the bed, had a rushed dinner with the gospel principles teacher (one of the most awesome guys evahh). Stake Vitality with the Stake President on top of all of this made for a very interesting day...

Thursday: A little bit less hectic; drove down to Cortez for their district meeting; discussed the power of finding! Taught some incredible people, planned for Zone training... 

Friday was supah crazy!! Weekly planning; lesson with one of our favorite investigators! Planned out his baptism on the 2 of January with him :D Oh!!! Got the Christmas package from home, and a letter/pen from the grandparents (thank you!) and Dustan's fellowship proposal today!!! By the way Dustan, you're brilliant. Jussayin. Can we work together someday?

Saturday: One of the only perks to not having a tripanionship is the amount of member involvement it forces you to have. Member missionary lessons for dayyzz! We also rang the salvation army bell outside of the City Market and sang to everyone! If you have a fear of putting yourself out there, have no fear. A mission will DESTROY that fear. 

Sunday: I love church so much. The opportunity to renew promises with God every week? Seriously? Have you ever considered how significant that is? Just... wow.  

I love this gospel. Merry Christmas. Remember why we celebrate; because of Him! 

Challenge for da' week: invite anybody and everybody, definitely at least somebody to visit christmas.mormon.org. The message there is life changing. 

I love you alll!! 

Merry Christmas!!!

Here's pictures from the thing :)

Letter To president

Oye everyone! Sorry, just about out of time. Here's the letter I sent to president! It's a pretty decent overview

Hello President!!

This week was pretty great; I'm pumped to be in Durango for another 6 weeks, and I'm happy Elder Vineyard will be so close--I've really grown to love him. This week really flew by. Got my knee and chest scanned early this week to make sure no cancer was coming back. As far as I know, everything's going well there. Physically, I'm starting to get my handstand prowess back; especially on the parallettes. I probably need to start doing more floor work, but that'll come with time... Socially, I feel like I've been doing pretty well... I'm really trying to emulate Christ more in all that I do and say, and it's been helping. Mentally, I get stressed occasionally--there's always so much to do, and there's never enough time; but life is awesome. I'm learning more than I ever have before--by study and also by faith. Spiritually; I'm feeling great--I feel like I'm following the spirit more, and I'm able to communicate that to others.  

Hmm... exciting happenings of the week--My sister got engaged!! She'll be getting married in April. I'm a little bummed, because it will be about 3 and a half years total that I haven't seen her (I left while she was still on her mission) and by the time I do, we'll both be so different, but I'm super duper happy for them! I love the guy she's marrying (I'm going to convince him to give me guitar lessons when I get home). Life couldn't be better President. I love these people and I love this work! Oh! Jill came to Sacrament Meeting this week and absolutely loved it! She felt the spirit so strong she started to cry! We'll be teaching her and her family the Plan of Salvation this Saturday and, unless the spirit blatantly tells us not to, we'll be challenging them to baptism! This work is God's work. I know it. I live it. I love it.

The Zone has been experiencing fantastic success with the Christmas Initiative as well. Less Actives have been returning to activity; people have been asking to be baptized (really, just ask the Cortez Sisters), and many other miracles are happening. 

To close, here's a quote my dad sent this week that I really loved: "Learn how to be uncomfortable, the faster you wish to change the more discomfort you’ll feel."

How cool is that?

Have an incredible week!

Elder Kraus

And here's some pictures from today--we sang and rang the bell for the Salvation Army this morning. Twas Grand. Our apartment is right behind us.

Miracle of da'weeeeek!‏

Hello all you loved ones. Time is short, so here's an awesome miracle. Or two. Both involve the Book of Mormon, which is a miracle in and of itself, if ya think about it. 

So, number one is Mike. The guy is an absolute champ, and is soooo ready for baptism. Only thing holding him back: tobacco. Sooo, we've been using the Book of Mormon to help him with that. Last thing we had challenged him to do was to read to 1 Nephi 10. So we meet with him and he goes: "I've got good news and bad news... the bad news is I only read until chapter 9. The good news is it's in 2 Nephi!! :D" He's hooked, and life is looking up. 

Miracle number two is Jill!!! She's read to 2 Nephi 17, and is just on fire. 

More on everything next week. Transfers are coming up! This week we'll be meeting with the mission department for a 10-hour-training and then Lynn G. Robbins for another couple of hours. Big things are happening; can't wait to find out what! So be pumped for news next week.

Love you all!!!

Have an incredible week! 

Elder Kraus