January 17, 2011

Ello Mum,

Let me just tell you how tired I am right now. It is the first P-Day of the transfer which means Zone P-Day. It is very interesting, we always have a meeting in the morning and then the Zone Leaders usually have something else planned. Today the plans fizzled away because of the rain... we did go to a big castle here in Norwich today and I walked around with Elder Cziesla from Germany. All of the companionships in the zone got split up this last transfer, so we have tons of new missionaries. I love meeting new missionaries and old ones as well. They are all so great and have a wonderful testimony. There is so much to learn from everyone. Anyone can be our teacher and example. Our zone is going to be great! I most likely won't be here for very long, because at the end of this transfer I'll have been here for 6 months. A whole fourth of my mission! That is weird. I'm already getting scared that the end is going to sneak up on me. It gives me more drive to work harder now! For the rest of the day we played futbol and knock out and a tiny bit of frisbee. Therefore we are beat. I haven't exercised this much in a really long time. Life is very good though... I have really enjoyed today.

My companion is great. I spelled his name wrong in my last email... it is Elder Rallison. He is from a tiny town in Idaho, named Franklin. It has about 650 people in it. He grew up on a cattle farm :) He said that tons of Napoleon Dynamite was filmed behind his house. He worked at the same chicken coop that Napoleon did. He has a great sense of humour and has me laughing all the time. To be honest... he reminds me of Brother Ninow. But I do not want to kill him. We are going to work really well together and find, teach and baptise thousands. It is a blessing to live right next door to the Zone Leaders, we have so much fun together. It will be weird to go to an area where I am alone with my companion. I am learning tons of new things with each companion.

I cannot really think of much to say. Ah... I feel so bad. Christmas... It was full of mixed emotions. I love the wards here and therefore they took care of us. I felt really left out though. Seeing all the pictures of the family was really hard. It was wonderful to talk to you and I really enjoyed it. It felt so normal. Like I hadn't missed anything. I love my family and am so grateful that we are sealed together forever. In the long term I haven't missed anything. Woot Woot.

For investigators right now... we have one. Her name is Jackie and she has a baptism date for the 12 of February. I feel that she is solid, and will get baptised. She is old and therefore very hesitant about doing much of anything. She came to a child of record baptism and she felt the spirit and now she knows what it is like. The miracle is that her husband came as WELL!! He has been a big question mark the whole time, but he supports her now! I think it is going to help tons. She is a great lady and has a wonderful testimony. Stella is on the very far back burner and our other investigators either dropped us or got baptised. Therefore Elder Rallison and I are building a teaching pool. Finding is the way we spend the majority of our time. We had 24 hours last week and I imagine this week will be more. I want to have a big teaching pool, and then go swimming in it. Finding in town center has been really rough and I wasn't really doing much of anything. I hadn't found any potentials in a really long time. I was really frustrated about it and therefore decided to pray and ask for potentials. I found that it was helpful, that day we found for two hours in town center and found 13 potentials... therefore prayer works. I know that it does. It is the best way to align our will with Heavenly Fathers will. It is the means for obtaining the highest blessing in heaven. I love finding different things that work for me. I love praying and speaking with my Father. I love listening to the Holy Ghost and practicing following it. The gospel is true. Truer than anything else is true. God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. We can pray and come to know that it is true. Prayer is real. It is a conversation. Will you all pray and then listen? Wait... for thoughts to come into you mind. People to help, ways to improve. I love you all.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

 

P.s. I will have a little time to email tomorrow. Hold your horses lil g money.

January 11, 2011

Hiya Familia,

Wellllll.... It is Tuesday, not Monday :) P- Day is different because of MOVES!! I am staying in Norwich... ahh yeahh. Unfotunately Elder Young (my daddy) is leaving me. He is going to a place I have never heard of, called Elisbury. I think. Far away from Norwich, but everything is far away from Norwich. That is no surprise. My new companion is Elder Rollison. He has been out 17 months and seems like he is a real great guy. I am very excited for something different. Considering its been the same for the past four and a half months. That is not to say I don't enjoy being with my daddy, change is good though. Elder Young has been the perfect trainer for me. He has taught me the things I didn't know I needed to learn. I have been able to figure out what works best for me and how to forget about myself and just worry about making sure Elder Young is happy and that the work is going forth. Companionship Unity is key in missionary work. 

But, the Spirit is even more important. I was studying and realised that the Spirit needs to be directing us where to go, what to say, and what to do. The Spirit like I've been told so many times is the key in missionary to convert God's children. I have spent the past week concentrating intently on listening to the Spirit. Dad told me in an email to follow its promptings when I teach. It was the best advice at that time and enabled us to have a wonderful lesson with Stella. Unfortunately the lesson ended up with us dropping her... but at this time. It is the best for her and for us. I know the Spirit was the teacher in that lesson, and teaching with the Spirit and following the Holy Ghost is the way to become the best missionary. How lucky we are to have this wonderful gift. We must practise in using it. Listening, and courageously acting and following. I am very excited for the next year and a half I have to dedicate my life to the Lord and practise listening to the Holy Ghost.

I have received all my packages now :) One from tam and Laura. Our investigators and less actives loved the gift packages and were so grateful. One from Emma :) One from Mum with my white shiRRRt. I loved it. And an envelope from my sister lala. I feel so loved. Still waiting on my packages from Chuck, Matt, and Jeff. I'm sure the mail is just a little slow. I love and miss my family so much. It was great to hear all your voices. Sorry i postponed present opening. You'll be blessed for it. Hope the belt is treating you well little Gmoney.

 

I love you all so much.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs.

January 4, 2011

Hiya Familia,

It is a wonderful New Year. I will be spending the entire year in the beautiful country of England! How grand is that?? I bet ya'll are jealous! But better yet, I will be serving the Lord with all my Heart, Might, Mind and Strength. Now ya'll are really jealous. I was praying just the other day and realised that this is most likely the only time in my life that I am going to be able to bear the title of Elder and represent the Saviour in everything I do. I wear his name directly over my heart :) I am so soso so very lucky. This week I have been thinking about dreams, goals and aspirations :) Why we set them and how we accomplish them. My thoughts have been this... we set goals because they are what we want to become. They represent our pure desires and who we want to be. It is very easy to set goals.  

As we pray... we come to the Lord and he will show us our weaknesses. If we can't find any... we should ask the people closest to us. I know all to well that it is easy to find things to improve. I have been thinking tons about accomplishing these goals. Why are so many not accomplished if they are our desires? They are who we want to be. Most likely it is other things that get in the way, like children. Or work. I was thinking about goals, and how our Heavenly Father thinks about goals. Our goal and his goal is Immortality and Eternal Life for us. The way we receive that goal is through following Jesus Christ. The way that determines if we achieve that goal is ultimately accounting for our actions. I think accountability is the key to goals. In the mission, we account to someone. I believe that if we want to accomplish a goal, we need to have someone to account to. It can be a friend, spouse, parent, or most importantly our Heavenly Father each night in prayer. I read the long email that mum sent me about all the family goals. I loved reading it. I know we can all accomplish those goals, but only though planning and accounting :) I will send out an email with my goals and I can account to the whole world :)

I wish we had more time... :( We have appointments today, so our email time is going to be cut short. I really miss my family. Reading all the memories and goals made me realise how great our family truly is. I am so lucky to have six older siblings as brilliant examples. Our past week was slow. We have half of New Years Eve off and all of New Years Day off. It has been really weird having tons of free time. We have been spending it mostly with members. Trying to uplift them. For NYD we went to the Baldock Family (the parents of the couple we went to for Christmas). I think of all the families I know, that one is the most like our family. I love them and they are great to the missionaries. I am very excited to work hard this next week. It should be the last week with Elder Young. Then everything is going to change. I am very anxious about it. I am comfortable with Elder Young. I hope everything works smoothly. I love my family. I really do. I can't wait for the day to go to the temple with all of my siblings and parents. To have the closest view of Eternal Life together. Hope all is well. Hope Grant is nice and chubby.

 

Happy New Year.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

 

P.s. I'm not fat, its my hair... it makes me look... poofy.

December 27, 2010

Hi Family, 

I wish this could be longer but i'm in the Apple Store right now because the library is closed. I just wanted to send my love to everyone and say how thankful I am for the presents I received and hopefully will receive in the post. It sounds like this was a wonderful Christmas in AZ. I am very jealous. Hope all is going well. I love everyone. Especially my parents. I can speak for the whole family and say you are the best parents we have ever had :) This new year is going to be a fantastic one. You better believe it. Happy New Year! 

Keep on keepin' on. 

Love, 

Elder Krebs

P.s. I love my mission. I'm never gonna leave. 

December 20, 2010

Mum,

It has been a roller coaster of a week for the Dereham/Norwich Elders. The best week of my mission by far! Cara and Tasmin Sykes have been baptised :) They have partaken of the tree of life, they have changed the eternal course of their life forever. My joy is so full. Hopefully I will be able to attach a picture :) It was so nice getting into my white clothes. Entering the warm water, and being completely overcome by the warm and peaceful feeling the Spirit brings. Everything went just as planned. I was going to sing Rob's "Saviour Redeemer of my Soul" but I got quite sick last week and therefore I sang "When I am Baptised". It was a little less stressful. The two girls were a little nervous but excited. The Dereham Ward is amazing, and they have been super supportive the whole time. I absolutely love the Dereham Ward. We have gotten so many gifts and cards. They are great. Everyone is happy to have us over and take care of us. Feels great. 

I don't feel like it is Christmas at all. My favourite part of Christmas has always been being with family. Now that that is out of the question... All that seems to hit me is the commercialization. And everyone in the street saying "no" and "I don't have time". It is going to be hard... but I am trying to have a good attitude. We have some good plans for Christmas... It is interesting how much time we get off. I don't know if I'm gonna like it. Hope I can stay focused. On Christmas Eve we work till 3:00 pm. We are then going to go to a American Family for the night, and Elder Young is going to phone his family. Christmas Day... we are going to Billy and Claire Baldock. They are an amazing couple with one kid. We really like them. I love them :) They begged us to stay the whole day... so we are... and I'm very excited to relax all Christmas. Therefore I can call anytime on Christmas day. I will call at 4:00 though. I am going to purchase a calling card and then i'll call pops. If something doesn't work right... you can call me at 4:30 our phone number is 07800614565 and the code for England is 044. So I think all together that's 04407800614565. Too many digits i think. No calling till Christmas. I am not sure if our phone will accept international calls though. Guess we will find out. We get the day after off as well... they call it Boxing Day. We only have to work from 6-9. We get all New Years Day off and half of New Years Eve off. I was disappointed that I have to be asleep for 12:00. But i figured I will still be awake when the big apple ball thingy drops and you can bet your bottom dollar/pound that I will be banging those pots for all they are worth. Listen for them in the US of A. 

So more secular things! Mum, do you have any Christmas music on the computer that I could sing for the Ward Carol Concert on Thursday? If you do will you email them to csidney@tesco.net. danks. ALSOOOOOO!!!! I got the package from Kentucky... but all it was, was a piece of paper saying I had to pay 25£ ($40) in custom fees. It was because the Gift Price was valued over £40. It was very irritating that I had to pay for my present. But now our flat smells nice and the tree is on the wall with my stocking and presents underneath it :) Thank you. You can reimburse my account if you want. It also cost me £100 to send my package to america ;) (hopefully dad falls for it tambam, I could be rich). I haven't received any other letters or packages yet :) Hopefully they will arrive soon. We have a Zone Christmas Conference on Wednesday, with 2 Zones. I am excited for that :) Hope blessed we are to celebrate Christmas with our family. How blessed we all are to have all that we need. Jesus Christ was born to a righteous virgin mother in a manger. So humbly he grew. Having just what he needed. Going about the will of His Father. As we remember this Christmas Season, and prepare for the New Year... let us all go about the will of our Father, by following His commandments and His Son. 

How simple the first Christmas was... and how simple the gospel is and always will be. We are so blessed to know what we need to do to live with our Heavenly Father again. We should never look back. As a missionary Luke 9:59-62 hit me especially hard. Nothing is more important than doing the work of our Eternal Father, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. "Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Jesus has ALWAYS told us what to do... but more importantly he has showed us what to do. Let our actions speak louder than our words this season. Let us do more than say. Work more than wish. The work of our Father will go forth till His purposes areaccomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say... the work is done. I am enveloped in a work so great that it floats above our capacity of understanding. But we can all do as much as we possibly can now. And we will.

 

I love you.

 

Happy Christmas (England is weird)

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

 

P.s. Its cold here. This damp cold goes straight to your bones. Especially when you are finding for 22 hours a week :) My friend in Peru said they try and get 9 hours of finding a week. What wimps :) every mission to their own. He is teaching about triple the lessons we do... but that's not the point. This is the greatest mission in the world. No doubts.

December 13, 2010

Mum,

Why oh why are you so sick? :( That doesn't make me happy. Before I forget, lets do some temporal talking. I haven't gotten packages yet... but it takes some time. I can pretty much call anytime on Saturday the 25th of December. I'll most likely call with a calling card to the conference call number. I'm very excited. We have tons of families that have invited us over for Christmas plans and we are excited to sort them out. We have already gotten some presents from members and we are very excited for Christmas time. It is right around the corner. I am going to send a package today to Lauras home, because I believe that you are spending Christmas in Arizona. It has letters to the each family and a present for g-funkadelic. I really hope you all enjoy your cards. That was the best idea I could think of with the limited amount of time that I have. And money. Will you watch out for my tax refund? I should be getting some money back. ALSO... I own $22 in tithing. Could you please pay that for me? So I can be a full tithe payer :) I ran out of time before I left.

Phew. Enough of that boring stuff. Lets get onto the spiritual mission goodness. This week has been great. We worked so hard. The key was not coming back to the flat for lunch. Thats when the unfocusing comes. We either made lunches of skipped lunch. I believe that is why the week went very well. We achieved 37 hours of accounted labour and next week we are only going to do better. I love working. Work Will Win When Wishy Washy Wishing Won't. The only way that we will find people to teach, teach people and baptise them is through work. We often hear about Nephi getting instructions on how to make the tools and build the boat... but he still had to build it. Can you imagine how much work, effort and perspiration that required? The Lord requires us to work. Plain and Simple.

It seems that our Work is beginning to show some fruits. Tonight the Zone Leaders are coming to Dereham with us and we are having a baptismal interview for Cara and Tasmin who are very excited to be baptised on December 19th at 13:30. They are 14 (cara) and 18 (tasmin) year old girls and the grandchildren of a less active that we got coming back to church about a month ago. They have been taught all the discussions and are ready. Cara has even asked me to baptise her :) And they have asked me to sing. They attended a baptism last week where an 8 year old was baptised and I sang "I am a child of God"... so they asked me to sing. I am very happy and my joy is full, but I won't believe it until I dunk her under. Stella came to church this week and is still reading and praying. Therefore... we are still teaching her. Her man from Ghana is supposed to come home on the 20th. If he doesn't... she says that she will never talk to him again. We shall see what happens. Charley is finding is hard to get an answer that the Book of Mormon is true... she is reading and praying. I have faith that she will receive an answer. We should all have faith in sharing with people this promise. It is written by a Prophet of God. If they have a sincere heart, real intent, and ask in faith. They will come to know that it is the Word Of GOD! How exciting is that! All we are asking people to do is read and pray. It is an experiment. Perfect Science and True Religion fit together perfectly. Jackie is currently our only investigator in Norwich... but she is progressing well. She has come to church 3 times now and enjoys the relief society.

Elder Young and I have been getting along excellent. It is a great blessing to be with him a third transfer. I know what he is thinking and what he wants to do. We work very well together and enjoy it. If he is ever frustrated because someone said something rude or slammed the door. I just ask him to start explaining how Dungeons and Dragons works and he completely forgets about everything. He loves his Sci Fi, and Fantasy worlds. He continually reminds me of Matthew Alan Kearl. It is hilarious. The Dereham Ward continues to be the best ward ever. They are always providing for us and making sure we are happy. They come out teaching with us and give us lifts. Twice this week... we got treated to Fish and Chips. They are starting to grow on me :) I really like Haddock. I love meeting all the unique people in England. People from all over... and missionaries from all over. It is a great melting pot.

In my studies this week... I have been going over very carefully the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love how simple it is. How it makes sense in my mind and when we pray about it... we can know it is true in our hearts. President Uchtdorf gave a wonderful talk about simplifying our lives. Making sure we are focused on the most important things... they things that will enable us to live with our Heavenly Father again. Christmas can be a time of flurry and fluff. Let us focus on the most important thing in all of our lives. Jesus Christ was born, through Him we can be free from sin and live forever in a state of never ending happiness. Let us follow the example of Jesus Christ and the commandments of God. As we do that... we show our pure love and devotion. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is on the Earth to stay. This I know.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

December 6, 2010

Hi mummy,

Hello family :) I only have really 20 mins to email. Its sad... our P-day only lasts about 8 hours. And we have a DA in about an hour.  And today we had Zone Meeting and Zone P-day. Usually they are really lame... but this one was great. We went to the Norwich Chapel at 9am and started making American and German pancakes... at 10 the rest of the Zone showed up and we started the meeting. In the meeting we had two great trainings from our District Leaders about Church and Baptism. The Zone Leaders talked a lot about having at least six hours of accounted labour a day. Which means by the end of the week we would have 36 hours of labour. It sounds easy but with church, travel to dereham and back, planning and meetings it is hard to hit. I know Elder Young and I can make it. I feel it. Ask me about it next week. Follow up with me. 

The important thing to remember is that every number needs a name. We account to our Saviour. He will ask us what we did with the time He has given us. We shouldn't let Him down. After Zone Meeting we went ICE SKATING!! Woot woot. It was a blast. I love our zone. So many great people. We ice skated for four hours and now I am extremely sore. I spent some good time with the ice :) Speaking of ice. There is tons here from the snow we had. After an appointment with jackie... i was walking on the ice and started falling :) I had the phone in my hand... so i decided to embrace the fall and rolled into it. While on the ground... I swallowed my pride and got up. As soon as I did... a teenage girl opened her window and started yelling "how does the ground feel??" That was probably one of the highlights from Elder Young and I's week. 

That and this week we were in London and I was in the Car with the AP's and Office Elders and we went the wrong way down a one way and ended up going up on the sidewalk and almost hitting two people and a car. We by some miracle missed them and only popped the two front tyres (that's really how they spell it). It was an exciting adventure. Sorry this is so short... my computer ended up dying in the middle. Thank goodness for gmail and it saving drafts :) Hope everyone is getting in the Christmas mood. It sure is getting exciting here in Norwich. I sent a letter home about Christmas. If you have any questions ask. I love my family. I really do. I love this gospel and I'm so happy... to be serving in the England London Mission. Even though I'm four hours from London. Who cares. I love it here :) Things are great with Elder Young... I'm learning what to do and not do. Tell your friends about the Church.

 

Love love,

 

Elder Krebs.

 

P.s. carpe diem.