Our Heavenly Father was definately watching out for us!!

Hey Everyone!!!

This week was COMPLETELY INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!... Definately worth a day to day recap... :)

Monday: We had P-day, and we got in the truck to go out at 6 to go proselyting.... :) Well, thats where the adventure started.... I was driving up the road, and all of the sudden, I was driving through 3 and a half feet of water rushing down the road.... It had been raining all day, and the roads literally turned into raging rivers.... the engine was starting to lug down even in first gear, but luckily we found a turn off to higher ground.... and waited out the storm... It took about an hour for the roads to become driveable, and then we went teaching for the rest of the night.... so that was our Monday adventure.. haha.

Tuesday: We did some sweet service for a guy in the branch in the morning... He is building a chicken coop, and needed a bunch of logs to do it... so we went into the jungle with him, with our machetes, and cut down about 20, ten foot tall 6 in. thick trees... It was so much fun!! :) If you are familiar with the animated Book of Mormon movies, its like the one where the soldiers of King Noah are trying to follow Alma and the followers into the bush, and they were cutting their way with machetes..... we literally had to cut our way through to find the good trees.. haha... oh and while we were back there, We found a ganja tent!!! haha (Its just a bunch of tarps strung up to the trees, with a ton of marijuana hanging from the ceiling drying.... I wish I had my camera with me lol...After that, we went up to Hopeton, and me and Elder Clark stayed there and walked around in the hills talking to people, while Elder Larsen went back to interview Ariel for baptism.... with Elder Ashton.... (she passed her interview!! :))

Wednesday: Ariel got baptized!!! :) It was an awesome, and a great service. :) I'm way excited for her... She's an awesome girl!! It's a great feeling to be part of something like that. :)... After the baptism... and some technical difficulties with their taxi man.... (no comment lol).... we raced off to dinner with Sister Williams... (a really cool British lady)... it was an awesome day! :)

Thursday: Wow!!!! This morning we drove to Sav-la-mar to do a baptism interview, (she passed :))).. and on the drive back to Santa Cruz is where things got crazy!!!! I'll try to paint you the best picture with words... but to get the full effect you just had to be there... or see the illustrations in my journal... haha... I want to start out by saying that our Heavenly Father was definately watching out for us today. . . . .So here it goes...We were driving on a long straitaway, Elder Ashton was driving, and we were behind a massive "air brakes" truck, and a taxi bus.... The big truck was going 10 under, so the bus passed him, and we started to follow the bus (no cars were coming)... and also pass him... honking the whole way (thats what you do when you pass here...)... when we were almost all the way past him, the big truck decided to dodge a bad spot in the road, and swerve over to the right (here we drive on the left, and pass on the right)... He slammed into the back left tire of our truck, and the back end of our truck swung out so that we wer completely sideways going down the road and 90 km/hr w/ a massive air brakes truck right behind us.. .... To be honest.... I was bracing myself (and yes mom, I had my seatbelt on)... for the truck to roll... because it seemed inevitable... but by some miracle, it didn't, and finally after what seemed like an eternity.... the our truck slid to a violent stop with the front end on a bank on the left side of the road, and the rear bumper in the middle of the road... the back tires weren't even on the ground.... A bunch of people stopped and helped us lift the truck out of the road so that traffic could go, and I helped them move it while Elder Ashton was holding his own in a shouting match with the guy who was driving the huge truck.. (the other guy got out and was yelling that it was our fault... so I feel the shouting match was justified haha)... ... We looked at the damage to our truck... and I think the rear axle was broken, because the left tire was way far back, and the right one was strait still.... so I called the police (119 here... instead of 911 haha) ... When they finally showed up, the other guy started telling the police how it was our fault.. and what happened... then the police turned to us, and asked us our story... so we told him what really happened, and the policeman said... ya, thats what the bus driver stopped me and told me too... So the bus driver in front of us stopped the police and told them the story before the police got to us.. so the police were on our side... the other guy was at fault... and to make a long story short... A tow truck came to get us, and drove us into Kingston... ... We tried to teach him the gospel on the way, but he didn't seem to interested... :) but at least we tried... he was a way cool guy though... So ya, we got into Kingston 4 hours later at 8:30, and went to stay the night with the Office Elders.... Oh ya, nobody was injured... so its all good. :)

Friday: Today, we got permission to use the spare truck until ours gets fixed, and we drove back to Santa after doing a bunch of paperwork. and Finally got to teaching again!!.... Awesome news... Omar got his answer to his prayers that the Book of Mormon is true!!! :) We just have to help him overcome some things, so that he can progress to baptism. :)

Saturday: Woot Woot!! my 10 month mark. :) We taught all day.

Sunday: Happy Easter!! Today was awesome!! :) Ariel was confirmed a member of the church and given the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. :) It was sweet!! Oh, and me and Elder Ashton were the speakers in sacrament meeting... It was great!!! I read through Matt. Mark, Luke, and John's accounts of the atonement, and learned a lot in preparing for my talk...

Monday: nothing much happened... nothing was open, so me and Elder Ashton watched the testament at the church... if you haven't seen it... WATCH IT!! Its such a powerful movie!! and shows Christ's visit to the Americas!! :) Its sweet!!

Well... hope everyone had a good week...and have a great one this week!!!

yaya!!

One love!!

Elder Kraus