Becoming A Chef for sure!

Hey Everyone!!!

So, this week was actually fairly uneventful.... We've been talking to so many people (thank heavens for the area book or we'd never be able to keep all of them strait)..... and this week we' had lessons with a lot of them....Many of them seem really cool and ready to receive the gospel.... and others not so much... but its our calling to talk to everyone, so we've been reppin it good.. :) One of the hardest things as a missionary is to see people who need the gospel so bad in their life, yet they won't take the time out of their busy lives to let it help.... but, we have been working our butts off, doing everything we can to help everyone accept it, and it feels so good to stumble in the door at night just physically drained haha.. ... Sunday was a little disappointing... as we had 8 people firmly commited to come to church and none of them showed up, but we're keeping the chins up and going to work same way... :) So ya, it was just a solid teaching week... We had some awesome lessons and are just having a blast talking to everyone and getting to know them.... .... We've been doing a lot of finding this week as well, and for me, the biggest secret to success is not being a robot... haha... As we're always ourselves, we find a lot more people who are interested because they see that we are down to earth and usually get them to laugh within the first little bit... :) so its been pretty fun...

Oh dang!! Best part of the week was Wednesday for sure!! I taught district meeting in May Pen, and afterwords we went to lunch at Juicy Patties, and as we were going to sit down, we heard someone on the other side of the resturaunt excitedly yell "KRAUS!!" haha... I turned and saw Queenie running over... :) It was awesome to see her and talk with her again... she's doing great!! and on the way out i saw another one of my converts, Novia! She's also doing great.... she told me that se finished the Book of Mormon!! :) haha... so it was pretty sweet to see both of them! :)

Oh and me and Elder Gayle have been cooking for almost all our meals too... :) its great!! I'm becoming a chef for sure... we made some super good fish this week, and also, I made some amazing plantain porridge!! :) Its my new favorite breakfast.. i'm gonna be pretty disappointed when I get back to America and can't find green plantain to make it haha...

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but ya.... the week was pretty good.... and I'm pumped out of my mind for conference!!! :) woot woot!! talk to everyone next week.... and.... One love!!

Elder Kraus

Faith-simply trusting God enough to keep his commandmants!

Hey everyone!!

Short time this week... but it was a way good week!! :) We're getting to know the area better, and have been literally talking to everyone!! We have so many people to teach that our whole week is filling up fast and its only Monday!! :) So ya.... One pretty cool thing this week was that I was trying to think of a good way to help Elder Gayle understand about teaching really simply, and as I was thinking about it during personal study, the idea came to my mind to practice teaching my little brother Bryant!! So during companionship study.. we set up a picture of him and practiced teaching him so that he could understand.... and it worked really well... :) Its really important to teach simply so the people we teach can understand and the spirit can testify... So thanks for being such a good investigator Bryant! haha...

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So ya, life is good... and fun definition of faith.... Its simply trusting God enough to keep his commandments even if we don't understand...... :)

Love everyone!!!

ONe Love

Elder Kraus

Burgers with Jermain & new companion Elder Gayle

Dang!!... oh i mean uh.... Hey everyone!

Dang!!!! This week has been so intense!!! I had a great last couple days in Santa Cruz. We are teaching a ton of way cool people, and Jermain had never had a burger in his life!! So on P-day last week, me and Elder Ostberg went up to his house with a little mini barbecuer, and made our own burgers with him and his family... It was so much fun and they were amazing!! :) We did the whole shabang, seasoned up some raw hamburger, made our own patties and everything.... the hardest part of the day was getting the fire going in the right way haha.... But it was such a blast! :) Wednesday we went to Spanish Town for Transfers, and I found out who I'm going to be training... His name is Elder Gayle, and.... me and Elder Dale are the ones who brought him his mission call a few months ago!! :) How cool is that!! He's from Junction (like 20 min. from Santa cruz)...

The Spanish Town Zone Leaders Elders Mackey and Montgomery brought us to Old Harbour and dropped us off at the house... and.... It was a tough week!! We were met by a ... less than clean house.... I don't think tubs and toilets are supposed to be black.... and... .I'm not really gonna go into details, but... bless all you mothers who teach your kids to clean.... and thank you mom, for making me do chores!! Its such a blessing knowing how to clean... haha... So instead of getting to go out proselyting for the rest of the day Wednesday, the zone leaders said we should stay in and get the house livable... which...... is gonna take a lot more than just one day... but we piled up a whole garbage truck load of garbage, (we're hoping the truck comes sometime soon, cuz its starting to smell)... and did our best to get the bathroom a slight shade of grey instead of black haha... and we're gonna be doing the rest today... with some powerful cleaning supplies... :) ... and as if that isn't a good enough welcome for Elder Gayle to missionary work.... Thursday came.... haha... The morning went great!! We walked and talked to everyone we could (there weren't any records at the house either...so we literally were starting from scratch... even the phone didn't have any numbers in it... lol..)... in the morning, and then in the afternoon a member called us, and asked us to come link him..... We weren't quite sure how close his house was, so we decided to bust out our bicycles.... and.... I thought my bicycle was still in great shape!! I've taken good care of it... but I didn't think to check all the parts... But it was riding great still...and we were riding down a hill, going pretty quick, and all the sudden my handlebars were no longer attached to the bicycle and I was left holding them in my hand, with the bicycle still moving really fast down the hill... It was pretty terrifying, because i was no longer left with a way to steer haha... and after about 3 seconds the wheel turned sideways (thanks to the assistance of a beautifully placed pot hole), and I went right over the front... after I stood up, and looked at the damage, I noticed that my left wrist wouldn't go strait, and when I looked at the top, there was a bone pushing awkwardly against the skin that had never been there before and my neck had a pretty good crick in it cuz my head bounced pretty good.... Thank goodness for helmets. :)...... so I called Sister Hendricks to tell her I think I broke my wrist, and she had the Zone Leaders come and pick us up and take us to the Spanish Town Hospital to do some X-rays.... Sister Hendricks said she was praying so hard that I wouldn't have any broken bones... and her prayers definately worked... by the time I got to the X-ray (about 6 hours after being at the hospital... ... I guess there's a reason Jamaican health care is free haha), my wrist still wouldn't straiten, but the bone seemed to have gone back to normal.... and great news... by the time I got the X-ray, it wasn't broken!!!!!!!! Definately a modern day miracle... but the doctor told me that I had a bunch of tendons in my hand that I did some damage to, and that is why I couldn't touch my thumb to any of my fingers... so she gave me some cream to massage into it and some little exercises to do everyday...and.... now a few days later, I still can't touch my thumb to my pinkey, but I can all my other fingers.. :) ... My palm is pretty blue... but the doctor said that I should have full movement back in couple weeks and then I'll just have to get my grip strength back... So... a great second day for Elder Gayle.. haha

The rest of the days this week were pretty good... :) We are starting to get to know the area... and we only got lost a few times... oh, and we're building a pretty good teaching pool.. just walking and talking to everyone... :) We printed off a membership directory on Sunday at church (church here is a rented part of a building beside a hardware shop) and met a lot of the members, so that helped a lot as well... :) So things are definately looking up.... Oh and the branch president's wife, Sister Gardner, surprised us and brought us dinner on Sunday to our house. :) We were very grateful.... :) So ya... I think I'm really gonna love Old Harbour... and serving with Elder Gayle... I'm pumped to get to know the place better and continue to help people come unto Christ!! Everyone have an awesome week, and send me some letters yo!!! Its been getting kinda letter dry out here lately for me haha

One Love!!

Elder Kraus

Transfer to Old Harbor

Hey Everyone!!

So this week has been crazy!!! but I'm just gonna hit the highlights...... Transfer calls were this week, and I am getting transferred to Old Harbor to whitewash and train a new missionary. I've been in Santa Cruz for 6 months now, and leaving is definitely gonna be hard. I feel like part of the branch family now, so its gonna be tough to move, but I'm also excited about it, because I look at change as a new adventure... Something exciting to give a go and to learn and grow from.... My last Sunday in Santa Cruz was yesterday, and it was amazing!! The rented house was overflowing, and me and some other people had to sit outside again... :) it was great!! I think the best part though for me, was that I was able to prepare and administer the sacrament with Jermain (a recent convert who received the Priesthood last week. :))... It was amazing!!! One thing that I am happy about is that I can leave with no regrets..... I am sad to be leaving because I will miss a lot of people, but I served here with no regrets.... I feel like that really is the secret to being happy as a missionary, and in life... Anything we do, we should always give it everything that we have, so that at the end, whether we succeeded or failed, we can be proud and happy because we worked our very hardest and didn't hold anything back... so because of that, I can leave Santa Cruz with a smile on my face, and eagerly go to my next calling...

I am a little nervous about the whitewashing though... "Whitewashing" an area means that neither you nor the missionary you're serving with knows the area... which is how its gonna be this transfer... because I'm training a brand new missionary, and neither one of us knows the area at all.. So on transfer day, they're gonna drop us in Old Harbor... and we're gonna start walking around and talking to people, trying to get to know the area.... and find the investigators the previous missionaries were working with.... oh, and its prolly pretty important to figure out where the church is at haha... I'm really excited for it though.. It should be a challenge for sure, haha... but hey, the computer kept freezing today, so I'll talk to ya later.... cuz i'm out of time now.... .. Live life and love it!!!

One Love!!

Elder Kraus