Tiana got baptized

Hey everyone!!

No email time this week... but it was a sweet week!!! Tiana got baptized and confirmed, and Jermain was ordained to the office of a priest in the Aaronic priesthood.. it was a way sweet week... :) everyone have a good week and live it up!!

Sorry for the short one this week.. haha

Elder Kraus

District conf. in Maypen

Hey everyone!!! This week was pretty sweet!!! Jermain has been teaching with us almost everyday, and is going to be a way strong priesthood holder.. :) He's doing awesome, and its been a blast teaching with him!! We had a ton of good lessons, and have been working super hard... Thursday, we did a trade off with Sav and Negril, and I was in Negril with Elders Mcloud and Gray.. and it was awesome!! They are way cool, and it was a way fun day.. I learned a lot! and DANG!! on the way back from the trade off, we went to Sister Williams (a member) for lunch, and it was epic!! She feeds us every once in a while, and its always so much food!! It was so much fun, and I left feeling like i was pregnant or something haha..... so much food!!! oh, and she has a scale at her house.... but it was an English scale.... so i have no clue how much i weigh lol.... except for i know i'm like 13 and a half stones.....haha whatever that means..... it was a lot of fun though... a lot of the branch members were there, and it was pretty sweet.... oh, ya, and another fun thing that happened Frieday, was at Friday night activity, one of Jermain's friends was convinced he was super strong and would kick my butt at wrestling... (he was definately stronger than me.... lol)... so on Friday, we wrestled.... and after I beat him in 10 seconds... he wanted to go again and again... i think we wrestled 3 or 4 times... and every time it lasted about 10 seconds haha... It was good though, because I won his respect, and we're teaching him and his friends now haha... :) It felt way good to wrestle again....

One crazy thing about Jamaica that I can't remember if i emailed or not.. is that cops here walk around with fully loaded automatics... just holding them... ready to shoot at any time haha... its pretty interesting..sorry kinda random... but i can't remember if i had mentioned that before or not...

Definately highlight of the week though was Sunday.... We had district conference (its like stake conference)... in MAY PEN!!! :) :) WOot woot!! It was way good... and it was so sweet to see everyone... especially the Sterlings.... Sister Sterling is like my Jamaican mom... :) It was so nice to see them again and catch up... OH, and I saw Queenie and her family as well....It was awesome!! She told me she hasn't hardly missed a day of church since her baptism... :) I really felt like Alma when he meets up with his bros again (the sons of Mosiah) and he's super stoked... and what adds to his joy is that they are still his bredren in the Lord!! :) I definately felt that way. :) Oh, and Nigel Lee (Elder Lee) was there too.. so it was way sweet to be able to catch up with him as well. :) Pretty much, sunday was the bomb!!

Monday... we had a special zone conference with Elder Vieniez (not sure if i spelled that right...) form the seventy.... :) it was awesome!! the Spirit was so strong!!! So ya... it was definately a solid week.. :) but... time is short... til next week!! One love!! Elder Kraus oh, and don't forget to keep writing me!! :)

Tamara's Baptism, Crazy Bees!

Hey everyone!! Dang! So this week was awesome!! :) I'm not gonna hit ya day by day, but I'll touch on all the high points... :) So First off, We were in a lesson with Tamara on Tuesday... and the lesson was going great!!! We were reviewing everything with her, and everything was just awesome.... The spirit was there... and then.... a lizard on the ceiling pooped and it landed right on my leg haha... Everyone was just dying laughing... It was pretty hilarious... :) Speaking of Tamara, her baptism on Friday went amazing!! :) We all met up at the Mandeville chapel to use their baptism font, and everything went great!! Everyone was on time and everything!! (which is pretty rare here.. because of the laid back culture.... usually if you tell someone to be at church or something at like 10... they won't show up til 11.... haha... )... Tamara was even early... She was super excited, and happy, and the day was just perfect!! :) When she came up out of the water after being baptized, she exclaimed, "that was awesome!!" haha and that pretty much described the whole day :)

Friday Night activity was awesome. We are getting more and more people out for it, and its becoming a great missionary tool because everyone is starting to bring their friends. :) and another perk, is that I'm getting a lot better at futbol, (soccer)... :) Jermain has been doing awesome as well... He came teaching with us like every day this week, and is just loving it!! He really has the excitement to share the gospel with everyone. :) Wherever we go, he is always coming up with great ideas for us to find more people to teach...a nd he's calling his friends, and just being an amazing member missionary. :) Oh, speaking of that, we were up at his house the other day, and him and his family gave us a whole chicken w/ some homemade juice. :) So Sunday, for dinner, me and Elder Ostberg cooked curry chicken and rice, w/ a pear (avocado... they call them pears here)... and we finally got it just right!! :) It tasted Jamaican!! Woot woot!! We even carried some to jermain to let him judge it, and he told us we can "gwon good".. :) So I was pretty happy about that haha...

Oh, dang!! I almost forgot... This week, we went with Jermain and moved some bee boxes.... and it was an adventure!! We had the bee suits, but only half of them... we only had the top, and didn't have any gloves or anything.... but we did it same way.... and it was crazy!! Everything was going good, til me and Jermain went to move the last box.... The box was old or something, and for some reason, the bottom came off, and like all the bees came out on us.... It was crazy!!! We kept our cool though and moved really slowly and finished moving the box... (cuz if you run they attack more)... Not gonna lie though... it was pretty terrifying... I could hear all the bees just swarming us... and it sounded like they were inside my mask... because they were all around it... the buzzing was really freaking me out haha... but we finished it off, and it was all good... Jermain got like 15 stings.... but I was lucky, and only got about 4... :) a couple on my legs... one on my foot (they got inside my shoe!!), and one on my right hand... The one on my hand swelled up pretty big, but its all good now. :) It was only swollen for like 2 days... :) I don't think I'll ever be scared of bees again after that haha

So ya... this week was pretty awesome.... :) We had a ton of plan of salvation lessons.. and my testimony of it grows every time we teach it... Its such a beautiful plan!! It makes so much sense, and gives so much purpose to life!! I love teaching it.... Its my favorite thing that we teach for sure... :) But, i think thats about all the exciting stuff for this week... so everyone have a stellar week, and keep the faith!!! :) Read the scriptures, and do something good for someone every day!! Don't let a day pass without serving someone.... ... One Love! Elder Kraus

Jermain's baptism

Hey everyone!!!

This week was epic!! :) Highlight of the week, Jermain got baptized on Thursday!! It was awesome!!! We all traveled up to Hopeton (upper mandeville) to use the font there since Santa Cruz doesn't have a building yet... and it was just sweet!! :) Definately a super amazing day..We've been teaching him since I've been in Santa Cruz, and its amazing to see the changes that he's made!! It was a great service, lots of member support, and he was just beaming... He was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday, and is very eager to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and start serving!! He's such an awesome guy.... Pretty much all of Sunday was great!! Five of the people we're teaching were there, and four of them have baptism dates. Tamara's baptism is gonna be this Friday the 12th, and was announced in sacrament meeting.... Pretty awesome!! I'm way stoked to be working with her.. she is making some amazing changes, and truly remarkable sacrifices :) I love this work so much!! The times like this when everything is coming together, makes all the hard times worth it.. ... :) Oh, and after church Sunday Jermain came teaching with us... :) It was super fun!! Oh, one more thing that was awesome Sunday... We went to see Barrington in the evening, and he went to the Young Single Adult Confernece over the weekend.. and he came back just oozing the spirit haha... We had a great lesson with him, and he is eager to prepare to serve a mission...:) ... Pretty much, its been an awesome week!! :)

Um... I don't really have too much email time this week... cuz we're in Kingston dong Elder Ostbergs driving test so that he can get his Jamaican licence.... ... but ya.... life goes on good!! :) ...Keep being awesome!! :) Have a good one!!!

One Love!!

Elder Kraus

Elder Ostberg..New companion is awesome!

YOYOYO!!! Whats up everyone!!?? :)

So first off, this last week started out on a way high note... on P-day (last Monday), we found a hot dog stand!!! only 100 dollars per hot dog (Jamaican money haha..)... :) and I got 3....so good!! I definately miss good hot dogs... The hot dogs here are pretty weird... they still taste good... but .... they are a way weird color... bright, flamboyant pink!!! Like think of a flamingo... thats what color they are haha... But they were still hot dogs...so ya... made my day!! :) prolly will become a new p-day tradition.... Oh, and after we got the hot dogs, we went home and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration... (every house has a mini dvd player now!! so we can watch the Preach my gospel dvd's and other church movies...).... and it was amazing!!! Such an emotional movie for sure.... me and Elder Hoffman both felt inspired to watch it with Jermain and Tamara for family home evening...and it turned out great!! Really strengthened both of their testimonies.

Speaking of Jermain.... we had to move his baptism.... he has to work Saturday... so.... He moved it to Thursday!!!! :) I'm way pumped for it... He is so ready to go.... We were over at his house the other day... and he planned everything out... which members he wanted to speak, the hymns.. everything!! He's such a baller! I'm way excited for him... His baptism interview is tonight and then Thursday is the baptism!! Woot woot! :)

Yesterday was pretty sweet as well, we organized an activity and a bunch of people showed up... we all played futbol at the center... it was way fun... We only played for like an hour and a half... and I was dead afterwords!! haha and after we played futbol, one of the guys who came (he's like 19) asked if we have any energy left.. and of course, my pride kicked in and I said yes... haha.. So he challenged us to race him back to the church.... .. I couldn't back out and leave my pride intact, so we agreed, and Jermain sent us off... it was about a quarter mile, and long story short.. even though it just about killed me, my pride overran my exhaustion and I beat him haha... I haven't breathed that hard in a long time.... Definately was an adventure.. and I'm a little sore from that today... :) but it was a lot of fun!!

Wednesday we did transfers and didn't get back to Santa Cruz til Thursday evening.... lots of driving... but the new missionaries in the zone seem way cool... and Elder Ostberg, my new companion, is awesome too... so it should be a sweet transfer....

Motivational Story of the week: So this recent convert from Negril (Nardia), was in Santa Cruz visiting some cousins (who we've been teaching), and they live about a 40 min. drive from the church, and taxi's don't really run on Sundays up that way.... So Sunday morning, Nardia calls me, and says that they really want to come to church, but they don't have any way to get there.... I wasn't really sure what to say, because I had no clue how they could get to church either... but I told them that if they get ready, and walk out to the roadside, and try to hail up a ride, the Lord would provide a way... So sacrament meeting goes by (the first hour of church) and they didn't show up, but she called me right when Sacrament meeting was over, and said that they had been on the roadside for an hour, and nobody had stopped to get them... So I told her to flag down a car like crazy... frantically... and she said ok.... When she got to church 40 min. later, she said that right when she got off the phone with me, she hailed up a car like crazy!! and it stopped and gave them a ride.... and they were able to make it to church.... :) So awesome!! Just thinking about the sacrifice that they made (standing on the roadside for an hour and a half) to make it to church really built my testimony.... The Lord always provides a way for us to keep his commandments if we are willing to make the necessary sacrifice.... Too often I think that we expect the Lord to do things for us when we don't put out all our effort... But when we do everything that we possibly can to follow Him, he always provides a way for us... He's laid out the paths we need to follow him.... its just our job to find those paths. I really have a strong testimony of that.

Well, everyone have an awesome week... live it up!!! Don't let a day go by without smiling and loving life!! L8er!!

One love

Elder Kraus