Mind, Heart and Soul

Hey everyone!!

This week has been great!! First off, i gave my first blessing for the sick.. This member woman here was really sick, and was going to take the week off of work (which would really hurt financially in Jamaica), and had plans to go to the doctor then next morning to find out what was wrong. But we went up and visited her, and I gave her a blessing. I felt prompted to bless her that she would be healed, so i did, and then we left. The next day we were passing by her shop, and saw her inside! We stopped in and she said she had woken up that morning feeling completely better and went to the doctor anyway and he said nothing was wrong. So she was able to go to work. It was awesome!! A really neat experience. Oh and then also, this Sunday, me and Elder Ashton spoke in church (for the second time haha). We spoke on the sacrament, and i had prepared like a three page talk and went for 15 minutes and only got through half of it somehow haha. That was a new experience, so i was feeling pretty good, but then we got to priesthood meeting and we were sitting waiting for someone to get up and teach, and then the branch president came up to me and was like... "well, we have no one to teach, so Elder Kraus, can you teach on the Abrahamic covenant?" Wow.... that was an adventure for sure, i taught for an hour on something i didn't really know anything about... longest hour of my life. I think I learned more about it than they did, because i had to learn it while teaching it lol. It was interesting. Oh, and I am the branch "organist". They have a ghetto keyboard that has an organ setting that they have hooked up to some speakers, so i play for sacrament meeting every week. I am really wishing that i would have practiced my hymns more, but i'm getting better at sight reading. Its an adventure every week haha.

This monday, we travelled to Kingston for a mission conference!... Elder Anderson of the second quorum of the seventy spoke. It was way good!! He talked about a lot of things. But the thing he dwelled on the most was Mathew 22:37. He said that there was a specific reason that the words he used were mind heart and soul. There are different ways to love and serve God, and different types of knowledge. Mind knowledge, is like memorization, book learning. Heart knowledge is when we have a desire, and know in our hearts that it is true. and Soul knowledge is action, it is the actual changing and actions that come from the desire of heart knowledge. As we live the commandments, our soul knowledge will increase. He went a lot deeper into it, and sorry i wasn't able to explain it very well, but it was awesome!!

Oh and at the mission conference, i ran into a missionary named Elder Gardner. He is from Star Valley, Wyoming and said he was Lindsey Call's cousin!! I thought i recognized him, so that was way cool.. We talked for a while.

But, time is short... I've got to go... Til next week

Love Elder Kraus

Biking ~

This is like a typical place we teach.. many just like this.. trails we walk on a lot are like this too :) just so you can have an idea.. kinda where i am.. i have lots more pics but it takes forever, so i'll prolly just send one or two a week.

Wow, this week was definately more of a trying week. But there were a lot of good experiences. First off, we were biking up this huge hill and my back bike tire goes completely flat. We were like 4 miles from home, and it was just awesome, it took us an hour to walk back to the house at the end of the day haha... but I'm really stoked that my tire popped, because on the way up the hill, when my tire popped, I shouted to Elder Ashton to stop because i had a flat tire. A family in a house on the side of the road heard me shout and called us over to ask us what two white boys were doing pushing bikes in Jamaica, and we are now teaching them. :) If it hadn't been for my tire popping, we would have just rode right past on the way to our next appointment. Everything truly does happen for a reason, because the place where my tire popped was super smooth and there was no reason for it to pop there. SO that was way neat, because we had been praying for more investigators to teach. So other than the walk back home pushing our bikes, it was a great experience. :) haha..

But ya, things here are going well. I'm getting in way good shape biking 11 hours a day. THe other day, me and Elder Ashton were biking along and these two guys about our age yelled out "Hey white boys!!! Wanna race!!!" me and Elder Ashton looked at each other and thought about it for a minute, and were just like... sure why not??.. so we said "ya mon".. and it was on haha.. they pulled up next to us... then i was just like... alright.... and we took off haha... it was such a blast!! once we had gotten a ways ahead, we stopped, and waited for them to come up, and they were mostly just frustrated that they just got beat by two white guys in a bike race, so they didn't really wanna talk to us, so nothing good really came of it... but..... it was a blast haha.. Oh and we stopped and played some futbol (soccer) with some people we are teaching the other day too.. so that was way fun.. they were really surprised that we weren't completely worthless... but most Jamaican's are way good at soccer.. it was a lot of fun.

Food here is great too!! I have eaten so many weird fruits that i have never even heard of before. I can't think of their names right now, but it's awesome. People we teach just hand us stuff and we don't really act questions and it usually ends up being pretty good.... But ya, figuring out what to cook and eat regularly has been an adventure.. they have some American things, but they are all expensive, so I have been trying to figure out how to cook the Jamaican things without too much success so far haha.. most I just eat rice eggs, sandwiches, and oatmeal in the morning and fruit .... But, hopefully i'll get the hang of it soon.

My book of Mormon reading this week took me up to the middle of Alma where it is talking about Ammon and Aaron and them, I would definately recommend reading that if you don't have somewhere to read out of the book of mormon. THose guys are amazing!! It makes for some very fun reading too... lotsa good stories, but my time has run out... Til next week,

Elder Kraus

ps.. everyone keep writing me!!

1st Baptism - GREAT DAY!

Hey everyone, sorry this one is a day late too.. Yesterday was a Jamaican holiday, (emancipation day or something like that) and everything was closed including the internet cafe. But this was a solid week. Everything is going great. I got to baptize Sanekay on Saturday. :) I was way excited for her. It was a really neat experience. We baptize in the ocean in Porty, so it was about as picture perfect as it gets. :) I"ll try to send some pictures, but it looks like last weeks didn't really send. I sent like ten but only two went through. I don't have much time this week, but here are some interesting stories haha

This week was our first district meeting, and me and Elder Ashton were riding to it, a bit late, and we got pulled over by the babylon (police) for running a stop sign on our bikes haha... Then he asked us for our ID's and i had left mine back at the house. WHen i told him i didn't have it, he told me that he was gonna lock me up for riding my bike without an ID. haha.. but i talked my way out of it. Overall, it was an interesting experience.

I am now officially a master at hopping in cold water, and still haven't used any blankets for my bed. I just lay on top of the sheets with a fan on my when i sleep, because its so hot!! I am starting to get some really goofy tan lines too. haha I'm loving it. We taught a lot of lessons this week, and had some good experiences. BUt, i'm gonna make this week's email a little shorter in an attempt to send some pictures. I'll write more next week though.

Love ELder KRaus

July 26th, 2010 BUGS!!!! & BAPTISM

Sorry, the email got all screwed up this week, so this one is a week late.

I talked to my first Rasta's this week.. They are completely nuts generally. Ganja really does mess with your head. haha.. Well, this week was pretty good. :) We ran out of matches on like Tuesday though, so we had to figure out another way to light the stove til we could find more. We rolled up some paper and stuck it in the toaster til it caught on fire and we used that to light the stove. haha. Other than that, the mornings have been pretty much the same, except for I'm getting braver. Now it only takes me a minute to get the guts to get in the shower (it still takes my breath away every time haha).. I'm starting to get used to the bug bites. I have so many, but it kinda is just starting to feel normal to be itching everywhere. I swear the bugs hear are evolving. They probably feed their baby bugs mosquito spray for dinner, because they seem to have an immunity to it. Doesn't slow them down at all. I even have a bug bite on the bottom of my foot....Its nuts. haha oh and on the topic of bugs, we have been fighting quite the cockroach war. We killed 3 last night, but they are so fast its always an adventure. We have two lizards living in the house with us too, but we leave them alone, because we are hoping that they'll help us out by eating some of the bugs.

We lost the car this week. Some missionaries in Highgate needed it because one of them has a bad ankle, so from now on (at least for the next few months) we are biking and walking. ..I get the bike that I will be using on Wed. but for now I am using a bike that was left here by some missionary. It is..... awesome haha.. The first day, the back tire rubbed on the frame so bad that it was like having the back brakes slammed on the whole time, and the seat was basically a piece of wood, oh and the tires were so low that every time i hit a bump the rim hit the ground haha..ya, the first day biking was a little rough, but i did a lot of work on it one of the nights after we came in, and now it is running smooth. I have never appreciated a bike that runs well more than now. :) So ya, since we are biking and walking, we are pretty much always soaked (its so humid here that all of the envelopes that i bought in the states sealed shut lol) , either from sweat or from rain. Which reminds me, its really funny to see the Jamaican guys walking around with umbrellas all the time.. Definately different from the states.

Oh, this week we had our first zone conference. It was up at Ocho Rios (Ochi), and we drove there. It was a good conference. President Hendricks and Sister Hendricks spoke. They are awesome!! But the ride back was an adventure. We had to catch taxis because we gave the Highgate missionaries the car in Ochi. The taxis here are crazy!! They take like normal cars or vans and cram people in them until they literally can barely shut the door. it was prolly the longest three hours of my life. But it made me appreciate not being cramped up more, so.... ya it was a good experience ha.

Jessica, Lakeisha, and Sanekay are getting baptised this Saturday! :) I'm so stoked for them. They are great girls. The funny thing is that their biggest concern was the water. We had to have a whole lesson on not being scared of the water. It was a funny one. :)

I have been reading the Book of Mormon strait through lately, and it is really cool to read it fast. I have never really gotten the big picture, and really understood the cool story it is until I started to read it fast like this. It is making a lot more sense, and I really look foreward to reading each morning. If you have never read the Book of Mormon really fast, do it. It makes it so enjoyable, and its really a cool story. Oh also, we listened to a CD called "The Meaning of the Atonement" by W. Cleon Skousen on the drive up to Ochi. Its seriously mind blowing. I have never listened to anything cooler in my life. If you haven't listened to that, definately do it. It's simply stunning.

Oh, and this week we also had dinner with the Forresters (they feed us every Sunday) and the Wilson's (they feed us every Friday)... we had rice and peas and chicken for both of them and it was way good. It seriously takes work to get through how much food they give us. I love it! :) Oh and the Forresters had this homeade mongo juice.... It was divine!! :) haha... but thats all for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Love

Elder Kraus

p.s. Everyone write me!! :)

The church here in Port Antonio!

Hey Everyone!!

I got into Jamaica just fine on Tuesday evening and was picked up by the mission president at the airport. He is a really cool guy. We chilled at his house, had interviews and then we got assigned to our mission areas and companions. I am serving in Port Antonio. It is a beautiful place!! But for the record, Jamaica is nothing like cool runnings haha. Driving to Porty (thats what the Jamaicans call it) was an adventure. I literally was scared we were going to die a couple times, but we got here safe. I would try to explain the driving, but it would be impossible to explain how crazy it really is. But the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and you drive on the left side of the road (there aren't really lanes or road signs anywhere). You just kinda have to know where to go. That is another interesting thing about here. Nobody has addresses. You just have to know where to go. Like if we ask someone where they live a typical answer would be: over the bridge, take a left after you hit the fifth pothole, and then take the trail up through "the bush" to my house. It's crazy!! But anyway, when we got here (me and Elder Ashton, my first companion), we went to the house, dropped off my bags, and then left and started teaching people. It was a busy day. I unpacked when we got back for the night. The apartment is...interesting. There isn't any AC, so its usually like 90 degrees haha (I haven't stopped sweating since I've gotten here) i'm kinda getting used to being damp all the time, and its a pretty normal place except it would be hard to find a place as run down in the states, but i am honestly thankful that we have it, especially when i see where other people here live. People here usually live in places they have made out of scrap metal and sometimes if they are lucky, they have plywood, and the occasional person has a house built out of cement. But I am very happy that we have a place as nice as we do. They literally have nothing here, and they get by. It is really humbling. I feel really bad when people ask me for money, because we barely have enough to get our food and stuff for each month, so we don't have any to spare.

I haven't had a problem waking up in the mornings because there is no hot water here. My usual morning routine is: i roll out of bed at 6:30, work out til 7, and then go to the shower and turn the water on and watch it run for like five min while I get the guts to get in. It takes my breath away every morning haha. Definately wakes me up. Then I cook my heart healthy daily bowl of oatmeal (cereal is a little too expensive for me) with a banana in it. Then we do personal study for 8 til 9 and companion study from 9 to 10. Then the proselyting day starts. Thats usually when the day gets interesting.

My first day I had a really hard time teaching well because I couldn't understand what most people were saying. They speak a mixture of patwa (kinda a weird dialect thingy), and broken English. I'm starting to get the hang of it now (at least understanding it). I can't really speak it. Some patwa words are whagwan (whats going on), Madea (i've just been chillin), oh and they say me instead of I, so like they would say me soon come instead of i'll come soon. Its interesting. OH and we have a car til this wed. After that, we are biking and walking everywhere. Oh one more random thing... here there is music everywhere!! i love it!! THey have these big speaker walls in the street and basically everywhere you go there is music playing. But here are some of the weeks interesting stories.

We were walking to a meeting with an investigator, and these three ladies stopped us, and we somehow got on the topic of girlfriends and sex and stuff. They asked us all sorts of...... interesting questions and they totally didn't believe us that we hadn't and didn't have sex til we were married. They are very up front about that kind of stuff here. The mindset here is that if you kiss someone, it is impossible to not do anything else. When we teach the law of chastity, it is always one of the most interesting discussions haha.... Another time, we were having a discussion with an investigator and committed her to be baptized. It was a great lesson!! but we started talking about going to church and she showed us that she had a dogbite on her ankle and couldn't walk. So we told her we would pray for her and she would get better by next Sunday. And she said, bless me now. So we were gonna start to explain to her about priesthood blessings and then she just stopped us and said no, you have to hold my foot and say a prayer. We tried to explain that it wouldn't make a difference if we just said a normal prayer or held her foot while we said a prayer, but she was so stubborn, so finally we were just caved. We held her foot and said a prayer. haha It was hilarious!! Oh and another person we were meeting with (Reid) showed us that he had been shot twice, cut open from his belly button to his chest, and then buried alive, and he lived!!!! Lots of interesting stories. On a little more of a sad note, we were teaching one member and her family about the temple because she asked, and I felt so bad, because if they want to go to the temple here they literally have to sacrifice everything. They want to go so bad, but to them, it seems more like a dream than anything. Most of them will never have the chance. So, I encourage everyone that can go to a temple to do so as often as possible, because we are so blessed to have a temple that we can make it to.

Church here was also quite the adventure. Me and Elder Ashton were the only speakers this Sunday for sacrament. We spoke on temples. We only had like an hour to prepare our talks and we had to take up the whole meeting!! But it went surprisingly well. After sacrament meeting, me and Elder Ashton are the gospel principle teachers too haha. But the most interesting was priesthood. Brother James was the teacher, and he spoke on the priesthood and keys of the priesthood, and it broke into a big argument. Its a good thing me and Elder Ashton were there to clarify the doctrine, or it would have broke into a fullscale riot!! haha I can see how all the different churches there are today might have formed.

Oh, we did service once this week too. We helped the Davis family tear down their old house and build a new one. It was awesome!! IT was raining the whole time, and the Davis's have some younger boys. There was a small muddy trail between the two houses through the jungle that is very steep at parts, and after carrying a load of stuff up to the new house, I was "racing" the ten year old boy back, and i totally wiped out and got all muddy. He couldn't stop laughing haha... They say i "dropped" and got all muddy. But they all really like the "new one". Sister Davis said, "I like the new one, he knows how to work" haha... It was a good day. I am loving it here. We have four people with baptism dates right now, so i'm super stoked for them. :)... But ya, the work is going great here. I was going to send some pictures this week, but i left my camera in the car, and we don't have long, so i'll just have to send them next week. Get excited Oh and i'm still a little unsure about the mail situation, but i know that i will only be getting it like once ever month to month and a half, but keep sending it. :) i'd love to have a big stack to read, so if you don't get a response from me for a while don't worry, thats why. I'll write as often as i can :)

Less then a week and off to Jamaica!!!

This week has been great!! I am seriously loving it here. The food is still not the best... Its kinda hard not to get an upset stomach haha. I eat a lot of fruits. Cuz thats about all that doesn't give you gas haha..

The fourth of July was awesome!! We had a fireside about how the restoration came to be. The reformers like Martin LUther and JOhn Calvin along with the founding fathers of this nation truly were inspired men. Without them, the restoration wouldn't have been possible. They definately paved the way for the restoration. After the fireside, we got to watch the fireworks. IT was great!! We got to stay up til 11:30!! Except we still had to get up at six thirty the next day. haha.

The more time I spend here the more I love being a missionary. I feel so good!! Its awesome. :) I'm amazed to see how much I am growing and its only been a week. I guess doing church things 24/7 will work wonders for you. This week we have been teaching and learning the plan of salvation. It has been a really good experience. I have really gained a testimony of it. It is really great to know where we came from, why we're here, and where we're going. It's also so nice to know that this life is just a step on our way to living with our Father in Heaven again. It makes the small things we go through like worrying about money and small things like that seem very trivial. The only things that matters is coming to know our savior and having faith in him and striving to be the best we can be. I know if we do this that everything will work out for us. I have been having some great experiences with Elder Mackey learning and teaching the plan of salvation. We really teach well together, and have been able to teach some powerful lessons. I love all the guys in my district. :)

Another cool thing we had was the devotional last night. There is no way the Book of Mormon isn't true. They have 60-70 pages of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon in the Church archives. The ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT. Handwritten by Oliver Cowdry as dictated by Joseph SMith. The Gettysberg address was revised 5 times and it is only two paragraphs, and was written by an educated man (Lincoln). The Book of MOrmon is 531 pages long, and had no revisions made. THis can be seen in the original manuscript mentioned above. There is no way that an uneducated man could produce a book 531 pages long, strait through in 70-80 days, and not revise it at all with out the power of God. The Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God and is revelation from God. I know its true.

What else has been going on..... OH, we have an hour of gym every day. Thats always a blast :)... BUt not a whole lot is new. This will be my last email until I am in Jamaica. We leave Tuesday the 13th at 3 a.m. And then we'll be in Jamaica at like 4 p.m. I am so stoked!!!!! :) :) So as of like Friday... Write to the Jamaica address rather than the MTC one. I love everyone!! Thanks for the letters :) Write me lots! and sorry if i don't have time to write you. JUst check on here to follow how i am doing and keep writing me. I'll try and write, but I'm very busy. Love Everyone

Elder Kraus