February 7, 2011

Dear Family and Friends (and mummy),

Oh how happy and glad I am to be in the wonderful country of England. This mission thing is the greatest in the WORLD!! I am learning so many great things and I am thrilled that I have 18 months left to learn thousands of more things. This has been a great week where I have been able to stop and smell the roses. I was writing in my journal on Wednesday and realised that I was going to fast and not slowing down and thinking. I felt like I had my head down and was just walking straight ahead. I was missing the most important things. I kept thinking that we weren't having much success because everyone this week said no. 

BUT!!! Jackie passed her baptismal interview and everything is rolling. How grrrreat is that??? She gets to make a covenant to always have the spirit to be with her. She only has to remember Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. We get the better side of the deal. Having the spirit always with us is the best strength we could ever have. It is the Comforter that God gave to us when Jesus Christ was going to leave. "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." (John 14:15-16) It is the thing that the Nephites prayed for most fervently in 3 Nephi 18 and 19. It is a key help that I believe is very underutilized. We should all be dependent on the Holy Ghost to show us where to go, what to do and what to say. We should always remember Him, and one of the best ways to do that is to read the Scriptures and to Pray. It seems so simple. As we read the Book of Mormon, we read about the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We remember Him, and we desire to keep the commandments He has given us. AND if we do that... we will always have the spirit to be with us. It will guide our life. 

How grateful I am to be a member of this church and to be able to offer people this wonderful gift. I have been thinking so much about being grateful. How important it truly is and how we must live with gratitude. I was thinking about prayer and how we do not pray to Jesus Christ, and why we don't pray to Jesus Christ. Everything that we do on this Earth seems to be through Christ... so why not prayer? We are forgiven through Christ, and redeemed through Christ. As I was praying and asking God about it... two thoughts came to my mind that answered what I had been studying and searching about. One, Prayer is through Jesus Christ. We do it in His name. How important that phrase truly is... I believe it is sometimes not truly understood. To do things in His name means to do it as He would do it. As we pray through Jesus Christ, he hears our prayer and through his atoning sacrifice we are forgiven, and understood. We are comforted and strengthened. 

The second was clear "quit worrying about it Elder Krebs and be thankful". That hit me like a load of bricks. I realised how ungrateful for prayer I was being. As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer should become natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11 and B.D.) As we understand that God truly is our Father and created us... then we would die to talk to Him. Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you. How much more grateful can we be? President Monson said "My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." Let us all strive to touch heaven :)

There I go again... soap boxing it up again. No one here listens to us, and you kind of have to listen to me. You're stuck. Mwahahaha. Yesterday we went out tracking with Tasmin and her 7 year old little sister Danielle. It was the best hour of tracting ever. Danielle is the cheekiest little girl ever. She was starting to get angry at people for shutting the door and started quoting Homer Simpson. People would start shutting the door and she would stick her arm in the way and give them a card. She was so excited and kept telling us to hurry up :) During the Sacrament yesterday, she didn't take the bread but took the water. I asked her why she did that and she whispered in my ear... "I don't like brown bread". I love this family. We absolutely love going over there and talking and having a good time with them. It brings me complete joy. 

Please keep Jackie Southon in your prayers. She is being strong in not drinking tea, and we are very excited for Saturday at 11:00. She has asked me to baptise her and that is a great honour. I knocked on her door, taught her and will not help her enter into the gates of Heaven. I just pray and plead she stays on the straight and narrow. I love you all. More than going to the American Base and getting to do shopping and eat Taco Bell :)

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

January 31, 2011

Hello all,

I have received sad news today about the loss of my friend Nicholas Polus. It has hit me quite hard and shook me. It once again reminds me that life doesn't last forever and is not fair. It rarely goes according to our plans and takes us along for the ride. Nick was a valued friend that had many difficult challenges in his life. He bore them with a smile all the while. I have many vivid memories of him coming back with his mud covered jeep, happy as could be. Many times we were able to stop and talk in the front lawn about what most boys talk about. Cars and females. He was a dear friend that was always near. I always looked up to him, not only because he was taller than me, but because he was someone I could trust. It is hard when we are separated from the ones we love most dearly. It would be much more difficult if this separation lasted forever. I know that it does not. It is temporary, not permanent. 

Our Heavenly Father has a plan for all of His children. It is a plan that always allows His children to come back and be happy. Our beloved Prophet shares his feelings on the topic quite well in this video. http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?autoplay=true&index=1&locale=0&sourceId=b63b822d7ecc8210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=bd163ca6e9aa3210VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD

I know that we can live together as families. It is a knowledge that we can find for ourselves through prayer. God answers our questions and blesses us through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost... "quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being." Parley P. Pratt. I love that quote and its importance.

Jackie told us on Wednesday that she WILL be baptised on February 12th!!!!!!!! We are so happy! She has been making all the necessary steps to make that day. We are very happy for her and it is nice to once again see the efforts of our work. Sorry this letter is short. We need to go and work... too many things to do. Not enough time. Next week will be the longest email yet!! I promise. The church is true. I know it. It is perfect, beautiful and simple. Everyone can be blessed from it. It is our job to show them how :) I love you all. Thank you for your prayers.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

January 24, 2011

Hiya mum,

This week has been GREAT!! I enjoyed it very very much. Elder Rallison is great and we are getting along quite well. He is constantly singing and making me laugh. He is way more of a hick than I am and he's not even from kentucky. He is not really a hick though... but kinda. He likes high school musical and fantasy... so basically he is a very well rounded individual. He is very very different than Elder Young and it keeps it quite interesting. Elder Young was very english reserve and Elder Rallison is not. He is from America and proud of it. We had 40 hours of accounted labour this week and that is by far the best of my mission. It made me very happy. I love working and being able to see the success that comes from it. 

We have had some great first appointment with potential investigators. Just before we emailed... we sat down with Andrew in the library. We talked to him in town center about a week ago and now he is a new investigator and we have a return appointment with him. He seemed very genuienly interested and we haven't even shared the Book of Mormon with him yet. He seems very solid to me and I can't wait to meet with him again on Wednesday and invite him to be baptised. We have been able to find more people to teach this week and hopefully our teaching pool will continue to grow. We dropped Stella for good this week and that makes me really sad. We spent so much time with her and she knows the Book of Mormon is true, but she doesn't think she needs it. She wants to sort out her life first, but its easier to have the gospel of Jesus Christ help you. Everyone we meet and you meet have concerns or problems, and the gospel of Jesus Christ can replace the fear and doubt with faith and hope. 

I have been gaining a stronger and stronger testimony of how we need Jesus Christ. His example, gospel and life is a cure all. The Church of Jesus Christ has the answer to all your questions and concerns. Each person we teach has personal challenges and concerns. No matter what their needs or concerns might be, the Savior and His teachings—the gospel—can help them. Our message will enable them to improve the quality of their lives. It will help them deal with the problems and challenges that we all face in life. I know that as we rely on it, that it can bless our lives for good. I have been thinking as well about the commandments and why God gives us commandments. Why do you think he does? Is it because as we follow them he recieves bonus points? More creative power? An A+? We all know that is not why. He gives us commandments for our benefit. We are the sole benefactors of the commandments. It is the best way in which we can live the happiest life. A blue print for success and joy. How lucky are we??? When we think of commandments as restrictions and rules... then we do not understand them. All commandments bless us directly. We are so blessed to have them restored in our day... to stay away from the sin that pollutes this world. 

The world is rarely this evil, all of God's commandments are being disregarded and all the things that we are commanded not to do are becoming normal in the world. Commandments protect and secure us. Most importantly out of all these reasons to keep the commandments is that when we keep them we are giving God the one thing we have to give him, our free agency. We show our humility to his plan. When we humbly trust Him and acknowledge His power and mercy, we can have the assurance that His commandments are for our good. We are confident that we can do whatever the Lord requires of us if we rely on Him. As we keep the commandments, we prove ourselves and our love. "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." 

On Thursday night we went sheep teaching. On our Zone Calendar is said to Teach, Testify and Invite a sheep to come unto Christ. The attached picture proves our efforts. Life is wonderful. I enjoy every second of my mission. I do miss America though. I love you all very much. Have a wonderful week. Ta ta for now.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

P.s. “The discipline contained in daily obedience and clean living and wholesome lives builds an armor around you of protection and safety from the temptations that beset you as you proceed through mortality.”

– ELDER L. TOM PERRY

“CALLED TO SERVE,” ENSIGN,

 

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.