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

Zone Traingiving and other various happenings!‏

Hi! Hello! Wassup!

This week, to put it shortly, was INCREDIBLE!!!!

And here. we. go.

Monday: Typical P-Day; helped a family get some moving done; prepared for the week. Life is good :)

Tuesday: FLEW BY. Great lesson with our investigator Mike. We've been studying the Book of Mormon with him and he understands it like nobody's business! It's been giving him quite a bit of additional strength to get over some things... Also had an incredible lesson with Jill; committed her and her daughter to go over the Restoration Pamphlet and answer the questions at the back.

Wednesday: Ever wonder why Mormons are so good at moving people? We get a lot of practice on our missions. Did that for a significant chunk of the day, then had an interesting lesson with a less active of ours named Alfred--he says he's in a constant fight with the devil. Aren't we all... Here's an excerpt from the journal regarding thoughts on Zone Traingiving:

"Anywho, tomorrow is Zone Traingiving! Dang! I'm feeling pretty trpidatious, to be honest... there is a LOT of information we need to cover with the new Christmas Initiative: #ASaviorisBorn (look it up! It's incredible)--- and a lot of trainings and role plays and oh my lanta tomorrow is going to crazy busy... but it's all good! This is the best place I could be. There's not too many times in your life where you can be sure you're where Heavenly Father wants and needs you to be. Now, the thing to work on is always doing what Heavenly Father would have me do--that's where following the spirit comes in...I'm still working on that one...but anywho, what's important is that I (we) keep. moving. forward. Onward. Upward. Becoming better today than I was yesterday and better tomorrow than I am today. That is why we're here. To help others do the same by Coming closer to Christ and receiving His Gospel. How awesome is that?"

Thursday: Thanksgiving!!!! And Zone Traingiving!!! Both went awesome possum. Got to have dinner with the Witte's--an incredible family--and some great Thanksgiving messages with various people we met. My LANTA there is so much to be grateful for out here. 

Friday-Sunday (Sorry, I'm running out of time): Incredible lessons, incredible people; I'm going to have to do a solo in church in a few weeks (yikes), annnd yeah, other crazy stuff happened too. I love this work and this gospel. He lives! Share what you know!

Love you all, have an incredible week!

Elder Kraus

Annd here's the sunset!

Stoners and Meetings and JW's (oh my!)‏

Ya'at'eeh! Hola! Hello! Oye! So, as I'm sure you've been able to tell, I attempt to make the subject line kinda punny. My creative juices are pretty dry this week, so bear with me XD 

Anywho, time is short and this week was ACTION PACKED. So here we goo! 

Monday (the 16): Supah great P-Day; got an incredible package of parallettes (forgive the spelling) and other niceties from the fambam (shoutout to the parents! Couldn't ask for better ones :)), sooo now I'm actually consistently working on getting back into shape! Haha! Take that, winter chubb! It's going to be a bit of an uphill battle... Members feed us so much and so well here! Helped an incredible part member family with a family home evening on the power of language; all in all, just an incredible day.

Tuesday: Got a lot of the prep work done for Stake Vitality; went out and met a lot of people, and in general just did a lot of general missionary work; not a supah noteworthy day...

Wednesday: Finished plans for Zone Traingiving (held on the 26th, it's going to be AWESOME), then went out and worked--today, we tried to have an entire day of just following the spirit, and it went pretty well! Got in with an 86 year old Jehovah's Witness who didn't look a day over 70! That was crazy... Had a spirit filled lesson of the Restoration, then challenged him to find out if the message was true by reading the Book of Mormon and asking God through prayer, annnnnnd he flat turned us down. That's ok though, he might not be ready just yet, but someday he will be. When that time comes, we just pray he'll let the missionaries in. Then we had a little bit of time before the stake vitality meeting, so we went out contacting, when we were approached by a modern day Korihor! (For my non-Mormon friends reading this, please ask your nearest Mormon friend and they'll explain alll about who that guy is). He kept trying to convince us to drop what we were doing and "come and smoke a bowl with him." Man I love Colorado XD Needless to say, that lesson didn't go too far. We bore strong testimony, buutt it might be a little bit more time before this guy is ready. Stake Vitality was grand, and we're super excited to implement a lot of different things in the coming weeks :)

Thursday-Sunday: Again, I'm almost out of time, so here's a brief overview:

We've been working and praying a lot for the chance to find people who are ready to receive the message of the gospel, and it finally came to fruit this week!!! We found an incredible family and many other people who are ready to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I'll have more to tell about them in the coming weeks. 

Ok, last crazy happening of the week: We got the opportunity to give a little 2 year old a blessing; he was in the O.R. for like 7 or 8 hours after complications occurred and fluid started to buildup in his lungs... he's doing ok now, but just having the opportunity to be there as a servant and representative of Jesus Christ for that family... wow. This gospel is true. Jesus Christ lives, and His Gospel, in its fulness, is on the earth today. Families can be together forever. Life doesn't end at death, and, because of Him, we can experience a fulness of joy here in mortality as well. I'm so very grateful for that. 

Alright, if you got that far into the letter, here's a challenge for you!!!

So, Thanksgiving is coming up. What are you most thankful for? Think about it. Ponder. Ok, got it? Now write it down, and share it with those you love! And, if you feel so inclined, send a copy to me. I love reading that stuff :)

And if you've already forgotten my address (shame on you! ;)), here it is again:

Elder Garrett Kraus

P.O. Box 4252

Durango, CO 81302

Have an incredible week! Happy Thanksgiving! Love you all!

Elder Kraus

This email is almost as short as I am...‏

Oye everyone! 

Soooo I forgot my journal, which is how I include details. So this is a letter without details... here we go! 

Twas an incredible week. Had a goal of talking with EVERYONE we saw, annnd we just about did! This week should be even better. We've really been focusing on more faith-filled finding, and it's been working so well!!!  Here's a story: Remember Jacob, the big guy I told you all about last week? So, we were teaching him and his family, when we felt inspired to promise his wife that if she took Sundays off from work to come back to church (we think she's a less-active), then the Lord would bless her with more productivity and affluence than she had. She was skeptical, but not Jacob! He showed up to church, calling into his work to tell them that he wouldn't be coming in until two. He said he knew it would take faith, so he prayed and acted. Twas AWESOME! So yeah, the work is progressing, people are coming closer to Christ, life is incredible! And here's some pictures of Durango. I'm out of time. Love you all!

Elder Kraus