Hiking up in Holywell & Searching in Wicky Wacky!

Hey Everyone!!

Dang.. so last P-day.. we went hiking up in Holywell again.. and it was incredible!! We hiked a ton!! It's so beautiful up there.. one track trails through the jungle and mountains.. :) I love it... and it was cold!!!! like low 60's!! :) it was great!! kinda chilly though... especially cuz we don't have much tempurature swing here... its always in the 80's or 90's... so i've adjusted to that... haha.. thankfully i'm coming home in the summer.. or i'd surely die.. :)

Honestly.. this week was just solid!! We've been working with lots of cool people.. :) Anita is doing incredible, as is Jackie.. and the recent converts here are doing great as well!! We've been taking members teaching with us almost every day.. and its been a lot of fun... We're really good friends with a lot of them now.. :) Especially Sister Segree who fed us dinner on Thursday... :) Some dang good chicken alfredo!! :) Members really are the secret to the misionarywork going forward quickly... as soon as someone learning about the gospel has a friend in church, they progress much quicker and when they do get baptized.. they stay active.. because they have friends in the gospel... So... make sure and be good friends with the recent

converts!! :)

Story of the week from my journal: " we had a cool experience looking for a less active member in "Wicky Wacky" today... Its a huge neighborhood with basically no house numbering and we were looking for a guy whom we knew nothing about except his name and that he lived somewhere in the neighborhood.... like looking for a needle in a haystack!!! except... the Lord knows exactly where the needle is... :) we happened to run into a couple walking and as we started talking to them, we found that they lived in the same house as the guy!! :) He wasn't home at the time, but now we know where he is.. The Lord knows each one of us personally and will do what it takes to help us return to Him... we just have to do our part... We are the Lord's hands here.."

I love being a missionary, and I love the people here.... I love the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and how much happiness it brings everyone... :)

Last but not least.. i'll leave ya with my favorite definition of faith: Trusting in the Lord enough to do things His way and trusting that everything will work out for your good if you do....

So.. continue to do things the Lords way, and be happy.. :) like McDonalds says.... I'm lovin it!! ;)

One Love

Elder Kraus

Trade offs in Ocho Rios & Old Harbor

Hey Everyone!!

Short one this week... Things are going great!!

Highlights of the week: we did a trade off with the Ocho Rios Elders on wednesday... So that was amazing... And on Friday we did a trade off with Old Harbour.... So cool!! We had lessons with 3 of the people who got baptized when I was there (Demetry-Ann, Jeromey, and Atanya).. and they're all doing incredible!! :) Jeromey still has his sights set on a mission... :) So cool... oh and they had a baptism w/ us there... :) Her name is Stacy, and me and Elder Gayle found and started teaching her when we were both serving there, and taught her for about 3 months.. Well.. they've been teaching her ever since, and she got baptized on Saturday.. :) I was able to be one of the witnesses.. So cool.. :) Oh and Elder Barker (one of the elders in old harbour) is from England... so after the trade off, I was stuck in a fake English accent for a couple days haha..

But ya... Life is good!! I'm lovin it.. Lots of people to teach, lots of good times, and lots of love.... Everyone have an incredible week!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus

Kadian and Emmy / Be an Example

Hey Everyone!!!

Well... I don't have too much time today at all.. But this week was incredible!! I honestly hate sending these emails because so much stuff happens every week, that I never can decide what stuff to write! haha.. especially when I have limited time.. ..

Well, as for people we're working with... things are going amazing!!! Anita has a baptism date for March 31st and is working really hard to be prepared by that day (She's a girl that we just invited as we passed her in a lane, and turns out she's good friends with a member and was super prepared for the gospel.. ) The power of just opening your mouth... :) It's awesome.. Like Elder Holland said.. Satan can succeed if he can simply bind the tongues of the faithful... So.. open your mouths and invite your friends!! :) Everyone else is coming along great as well!!.... It would be imossible to keep you updated on everyone.... so I shant try haha... but everyone's doing great!! We've got so many people to work with right now... We've been really focusing on helping members fulfill their missionary responsibilities and taking lots of them teaching with us... and lots of success has been following.. Like for example.. today's just Monday, and we're already booked til Saturday!! :) It's awesome!!

Two cool things that happened this week... .. First we went and worked with the Santa Cruz elders for a day, and while there, we went and saw Kadian.. a girl that me and elder Hoffman found when we were serving there... we were still teaching her when I got transferred.. and she's doing great!!! She has a baptism date for sometime in the coming 2 weeks.. :) so thats way exciting!! and Second.. Emmy (Demetry-Ann's sister) from Old Harbour called me yesterday.. (me and Elder Gayle taught her the whole 3 months I was there).. and told me that she had decided to be baptized finally and wanted to specailly inivite me to her baptism on Saturday.. :) I'm so excited!! It's soo cool seeing that even if we don't see immediate success at whatever we do, seeds are planted that can/will continue to grow.. :) I love it..

Funny Story for the week... So, we were at a members house eating dinner, and there was a lady there that we didn't know... so we started talking to her, and she told us that she wasn't a member but was interested in learning more about the church... So we had a great discussion with her.. and she kept asking these amazing questions and things... that showed she knew a ton about the church.... well... long story short.. the lady was actually a member that was visiting from America and she totally punked us haha... It was pretty funny.. :)

Words of exhortation for the week: This is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth again... It's his Kingdom!! People look at how members act and judge the whole kingdom on it... So act at all times like you should...A lot of times here people will make general statements about Americans because of their experience with one American... Their view of America is totally based on their contact with one American... Its the same thing with this gospel... This isn't just a church.... we are citizens of Jesus Christ's Kingdom... Don't ever say or do anything that would make people think anything bad about the Kingdom.. The world's view of this kingdom is determined by how they see the members of the kingdom acting.. Be an example at all times!! If you aren't, your actions could keep somebody from becoming a part of the only kingdom in the world that will be successful in the long run.. and you don't want that on you.. It's so sad to have people say... "oh that church can't be true, I've seen how the members act.." Represent Jesus Christ like you promised at baptism!! :)

Everyone have an amazing week... and live it up!!! I love my life!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus

I Love Being a Missionary!!

Hey Everyone!!

This week was incredible!! Sabrina's baptism went great on Saturday!! There were over 50 people there and the service was great!! So much support from the branch! :) Her dad, President Singh, was able to baptize her, and both of them along with Sister Singh (her mom) were just glowing they were so happy.. :) It was a really sweet experience to be able to be a part of bringing so much happiness to a family.. Sunday was equally incredible as Sabrina was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting, and as if that wasn't enough to make the day amazing.. Venice came to church along with 3 of our other investigators... :) and still the day continued to get better... Right after church, Brother Brown was baptized... We had a recent convert, who pretty recently received the priesthood do the baptism, and it was awesome!! :) Sister Brown was also really excited to finally see her husband getting baptized... :) It was an incredible weekend...

The rest of the week has been great as well... Tons of cool experiences, and great lessons... We're finding a lot of really cool people to teach, and the ones that we have been teaching are coming along great!! :) Oh and Sabrina came teaching with us this week with another cool guy in the branch.. :) It was amazing to hear her bear her testimony in lessons...She's doing great! :) On Wednesday, we went to district meeting in Port Antonio, and took some sweet pictures overlooking the ocean... :) but.. I don't have too much time left to email... so... I'll just jump to one of the cool experiences this week..

Each week, President Singh, gives us 5 less active people who he's never met to go find... Sometimes they've moved, or the address is too vague, so we can't find them... One of our names this week was a girl named Kadian, and her address was super vague.. (Sterling Castle Heights).. which is pretty much a whole mountainside... super spread out and tons of people... Finding her would be like finding a needle in a haystack.. .... So.. we drove up there and started walking around and asking people if they knew her... (which is sketchy because sometimes.. even if they do know who we're looking for, they'll lie to us because they think we're CIA)... After about an hour of talking to people and finding that nobody knew her or where she lived, we decided to leave... As I was driving out of the area, I saw a lady in the rear view mirror and felt prompted to talk to her before we left... So I pulled over and we walked the distance back to talk to her.. Wehn we asked if she knew Kadian, she smiled and said that it was her daughter!! :) and told us where she lived.. We went and Kadian was home.. and so surprised to see us!! It'd been 5 or 6 years since she had any contact with the church and when we tried to set up a return appointment she said that she'd love for us to come back, but she lived with her uncle who didn't really like religious visitors... and she didn't know if he would welcome us coming... We asked her if we could meet her uncle right then.. and she hesitatnly took us around back to meet him... He was back there working on building a house, and instead of talking about the gospel at all with him, we just asked if we could come back and help him work on the house.. :) He eagerly accepted the help and we're seeing them again Monday morning.. :) It was pretty cool how it all worked out... We may not be able to find a needle in a haystack... but Heavenly Father always knows right where we should go.. :)

I love being a missionary.. especially recognizing the times that the Spirit guides us through our thoughts and feelings.. and I love working with the Lord to prepare the world for the second coming...

Basically... I love my life! :)

Everyone have an incredible week!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus

Baptisms of Sabrina and Bro. Brown / Old Ruins

Hey everyone!!!

This week has been lightning fast, and things are going great!!...We had a few air port runs (to drop an elder who was going to Bahamas, and to pick up the elder coming back, and the other one to pick up new missionaries.. )... We had about an hour wait for one of the flights, and decided to go out to Port Royal and see what/who was out there... and on the way back, we found this old abandoned settlement that looked like it'd been bombed out or something... It was pretty creepy and looked like something in a scary movie... so.... we decided to quickly explore it... :) haha it was so cool!! So that was a good time... ... And picking up new missionaries was awesome too!! 4 of them flew in (Elders Eynon, Barker, Adamson, and Daniels)... and we picked them all up from the airport around 9:30 pm... on Tuesday, and drove them up to the mission home... It brought back memories of my first day... But it was all a blur for me.. :) Wednesday morning, we did the orientation with them, assigned them to their trainers and where they would be serving, and headed off for transfers in Spanish Town! Transfers is always sweet getting to see everyone.. :) and afterwords we headed back to the mission home for Elder Tuai's last night... It's always really weird to me to see missionaries go home... especially now that Elder Hoffman goes home in 6 weeks!!!! Holy Cow!!!! I can't believe it!! It's going really fast....

So ya, we didn't have as much time proselyting this week as we would have liked, but it still ended up being an incredible week.... Jermain (a guy I baptized in Santa Cruz) came down to Kingston for the day Thursday to come teaching with us, and it was pretty awesome!! It was good to see him again, and he brought us on quite an adventure to teach one of his friends.... We were like 45 min. up into the Blue mountains... way way up in the mountains... on this windy gravel/dirt country roads that were super steep.... :) It was beautiful when we got to the top.. We could see for miles!!! I tried to take a picture to capture it.. but it just didn't do it justice... we could see the ocean fade into the horizon, but so gradually that we couldn't even tell where the ocean ended and the sky started... :) and we could see so many mountains!! Jamaica is full of mountains... its awesome!!! I love Jamaica..

All our investigators are doing great right now!! :) Sabrina and Brother Brown both passed their baptism interviews this week, and Sabrina will be getting baptized tonight at 6:30.. Brother Brown will be getting baptized Sunday right after church... :) The coolest thing about those two is that Sabrina is the Branch President's daughter, so that whole family will be in the gospel now and can work towards being sealed in the temple, and Brother Brown's wife is a member, so they can also work towards being sealed in the temple... :) The whole purpose of the plan of salvation is to make it possible for families to be together forever, and baptism is just a step of that... :) Families can be together forever if they are sealed in the temple.. COOL! Both Sabrina and Brother Brown have overcome a lot of things to make this step in their lives.. and I'm way pumped for them...

One of the things that we've really been working on, is working more effectively with the members.... Because it really is the members who make missionarywork go foreward... We are the full time teachers.. and members are the full time finders.. :) So we've been having a lot of fun getting to know the members better and even taking some teaching with us.. :) It's awesome!! The testimony of a member in a lesson is one of the most powerful things to invite the Spirit... I'm lovin it.. So special shout out to Sister Segree, Kerry-Ann, Egbert, and George for teaching with us this week.. :)

Oh, and one more highlight of the week.... Cuba was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel!!! so that's pretty cool... :)

Um.... so... ya.. that's pretty much the week in a nutshell.. :) I'm so pumped for this weekend!!

Everyone keep being awesome.. and show your friends that you truly love them by inviting them to meet with the missionaries or to come to church or read the Book of Mormon or something!!! It will make their life!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus

Happy 21st B-day floured!!, Put away the pride & think of the bigger picrture!

Hey everyone!!

This week was pretty incredible.. and full of adventure and spiritual experiences!! :)

Last Friday, we were praying about a baptism date to extend to Sabrina (a lady we've been working with for a while now... who is incredible!!) and we both felt that the 25th of February was the day that we should extend to her... Well, we had the lesson with her on Saturday, and it went amazing!! :) Great lesson, and at the end, we extended the baptism date to her... Her response was, "It's funny you should say that, because thats the same weekend I was feeling.. somewhere from the 23rd to the 25th ... " :) It was awesome!! When we seek the Lord's guidance, he will let us know the best way that we can help Him bless His children... It was really cool that He revealed the same day to us and Sabrina... :)

Brother Brown is still doing awesome, and his baptism should be coming up this weekend as well.. :) He's such a good man... Everytime we go over and have a lesson with him, he gives us something... whether it be dinner (his wife is an incredible cook!), or coconuts... or natural chocolate.. he's just a very generous, good hearted man... and I'm really excited for he and his wife (who is already a member).

Venice is doing great, and feeling more and more each day that this really is Jesus Christ's church again on the earth... Each lesson is so exciting with her!! :) She's been searching so long, and is just soaking it up still.. She should be coming to church this week (its a long long ways away for her... )... so that sacrifice should really help her feel it in her heart.. :)

I wish I had time to write about everyone that we're working with.. but long story short... we're definitely being blessed with many people to teach right now who are prepared to receive the gospel.... The only problem that we're having is just not enough time to get everything done that we need to.... :) What a blessed problem to have haha.. I love my life!!

We made transfer calls this morning, and me and Elder Hoffman are going to be staying the same.. .. :) This is his last transfer, (he goes home in the start of April).. so we're gonna continue to work like dogs so he can go out with a bang!! :) Leave it all on the line and get carried home in a stretcher haha... (Not really)... It should be an awesome transfer.. :)

oh and story of the week ..a member invited us for dinner yesterday.. so we got there.. and as soon as we got inside her gate, her son (about 28 prolly)... immediently told us to get out of his yard.... (he hates us for some reason)... i told him no, that his mother had invited us for dinner, so we were staying.. and i asked him what was wrong? and why was he being so rude and didn't like us when we've never even met? .. well.. he didn't like that very much.. and picked up a brick..... i held me ground.. stood there looking him in the eyes waiting for a response... he eventually put down the brick, and stormed off... and.. we walked the rest of the way to her house.. when she saw that we were there said she'd go up and prepare the dinner.. .. when we walked over to the stairs with her.. the son came back, and amidst a bunch of Jamerican cuss words told us that he wasn't letting us turn his mom into a slave.. she slaved away all day in the garden... and now he wasn't gonna let her slave away some more to fix us dinner... .. she tried to explain to him that she invited us and stuff.. but... he just would not let us pass... so i asked him once again what his problem was with us... and next thing i knew my head snapped back as he open palm punched me in the mouth.. ... the next minute that followed was intense!!! i was shaking i was so mad...... but resisted my first instinct to hit him back.... .. Elder Hoffman said my fist was clenched and my whole arm was shaking though..... i stared him in the eyes for a solid minute with my jaw clenched and my whole body tense.... but... remembered that I wasn't representing me... I was representing Christ.. and He went through a lot more intesne things than that.. and He never retaliated... ... so I politely turned to the member and asked her not too worry about it... we could just come a next day... and asked her if there was anything we could help her with... We walked around to her garden with her and she told us how sorry she was and that she was so embarressed and furious at her son... but we comforted her and just told her to continue to pray for him.... and shared the example of Alma the Elder praying for Alma the younger in the Book of Mormon and the difference that made .. the prayers of parents are powerful!! :) We said good bye and parted ways.... My pride definitely took a shot.. but it turned out for the best... first off.. everyone in the yard who saw that definitely respects us a lot more than her son now.. and if i'd hit him back.. it wouldn't have been that way... So who knows.. maybe it'll make somebody curious about the message we have...I was able to maintain my identity as a representative of Jesus Christ.. :) and second off... he was a lot bigger than i am... and a very bad man.... so if I'd hit him back... he prolly woulda literally killed me.. haha. So... it turned out for the best... Lots of life lessons learned for sure... Sometimes its best just to put the pride away and think of the bigger picture... I'm thankful that I was able to do so in this situation... :)

Oh and I almost forgot.... Thursday was my birthday... I'm 21 now!! woot woot!! :) It was pretty awesome.... Christina (a recent convert) has the same birthday as me... and we had a lesson scheduled with her at the church.... :) she was a little late getting there... and the zone leaders showed up and brought up a bag that said "chocolate dreams" on it... so i was thinking like... cool... how nice haha... ya.. well.. the bag was full of flour... and the chocolate really was left to my dreams for a minute as the flour hit me in the face haha... It was pretty funny though... and they did give me some chocolate afterwords... :) Well... Christina showed up for the lesson and thought it was pretty funny that they floured me.... But... she got it next!! :) haha it was pretty funny.... We blew out candles on a birthday brownie together... and ya.. definitely a good birthday... we had some amazing lessons later on as well (despite me not having time to shower and teaching covered in flour all day haha but thats like a tradition here ... so everyone just laughed and asked how old i was..)..

But... I'm kinda out of time.... and sadly i don't think i did this week much justice.... it was amazing!! :) I'm really excited for this coming week, and everyone be sure and make yours amazing as well!! :) In a di lata!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus

Thank-you Brother Stone! / Get that mouse!!!

Hey Everyone!!

First off... shout out to my brother Garrett.

Second off this week was pretty incredible... So on Monday... Brother Stone, a guy from Muscatine, Iowa, where my family recently moved came down to Kingston on a business trip.... and my mom sent some of her famous homemade wheat bread with him!! :) It was legit!! Such a good surprise... and so GOOD!!!! Definitely a nice taste of home haha.. :) I've been eating it for breakfast this whole week... It was cool to meet Brother Stone too.. as he is in the ward I'm gonna go home to... All around, just a legit day...

We chopped bush for Tammy (an investigator we've been working with) on Tuesday, and it was good until I got into some mysterious plant.. that made my whole body itch and burn... It drove me nuts!! Every inch of me itched for like 2 hours!! but It did go away after that... so no worries haha.. :) it was pretty hard to focus for those 2 hours though... As a whole.. the week was really legit... we had many amazing miraculous lessons with people we're working with, and things are going great!! Venice, a lady we've been working with, has been getting a lot of persecution for meeting with us... but she's been diligent in reading a lot of the Book of Mormon, and even though they tell her that we're a cult and devil worshipers and things... she continues to meet with us... We asked her why, and she said something along the lines of... "cuz logically, it doesn't make sense what they are saying... why would you guys spend 2 years of your lives, tons of money, and walk up and down in the sun trying to talk to people if you were just trying to deceive people.... and secondly... if you were a cult or devil worshippers, why would you invite me to read this Book (referring to the Book of Mormon)... if I do the things that are in this book, I'll become like Jesus Christ... If you are working for the devil... you certainly are not doing a good job, cuz you're inviting me to come to Chirst.... so those people that are saying things are foolish... " :) It was amazing!! She is reading, feels its right, and said she really wants her search to be over... She just needs to make the sacrifice to come to church now... (its about 45 minutes away..).. I wish I had time to talk about all the people we're working with.. So many of them are having such good experiences with prayer and fasting, and reading.. its just aweseom!! :) One thing I've noticed over and over on my mission is that every single person who actually reads the Book of Mormon consistently experiences conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ restored to the earth.. ITS TRUE!!.... :) So the best thing you can do as members is get your friends to read from the Book of Mormon... and follow up with them... don't let them take it casually because eternity hangs in the balance!!

We also got to do a trade off with Spanish Town this week, and it was legit!!! Me and Elder Mcleod met a lady... Saunya-kay.... who seemed awesome.. we had a great 1st lesson with her..left w/ a really good feeling ... and invited her to read little restoration tract... .. She texted us an hour later and said that she'd read it, and had a lot of questions.... and was really excited... Well they went back the next day and gave her a Book of Mormon, and that night she texted them... already done with Jacob!! and she'd been reading from the front!! So cool.. :) The Lord definitely prepares people and puts them in our paths or us in their paths when the time is right... :) I have a big testimony of that... When we got back to their apartment at night... to go to sleep... we saw a mouse in the bedroom behind the curtains... so we got the knife from the kitchen..and Elder McCreaty crouched ready on the right side of them while I was on the left and scared the mouse towards him.. .. When it got close, he swung, and definitely hit it.. but the mouse ran off.. .. We were looking for it, and found a blood trail leading under one of the beds... so we followed the trail, and sure enough.. there he was.. so we scared him out again, and Elder Mcleod (who's kinda scared of mice) screamed like a girl....(i prolly shoulda left that detail out.. but no worries) and stomped it to death It was hilarious!!! Definitely quite a way to end the day.... :) We slept better knowing he was dead....

So... lots more to say.... but not any time... It was a stellar week though... and I'm excited for today... We are going up to this hiking place called Holywell with a recent convert and one of her guy friends.. It should be pretty fun...

So... Everyone have an awesome week!! and don't forget... we're here to have JOY!!

One Love

Elder Kraus