Hey Everyone!!

Sorry, Its been a while since we've had a full emailing session..and we don't really have one today either.. Super busy.. and enjoying Jamaica.. :)  Today, we went up to Holywell in the Blue Mountains to go hiking again.. and it was incredible!!  I love it up there so much.. 4000 ft. above sea level, fairly cool, little one track trails through the jungle.. I love it!! :)  Today after hiking around and taking pics, we ran for a while.. It felt incredible!! Brought back memories of cross country practice up in the mountains when I was living in Idaho... Except thing here are more green.. I'm really excited to go running with my family when I get home.. (I'm comin for ya Bryant.. .. haha.. We'll have to race a mile when I get home.. I did a 5:45 on the treadmill... but it nearly killed me.... Dang am i out of shape!!)..  

Other eventful things:  we finished another transfer successfully, with all the airport runs and picking up new missionaries and everything.. so that went great.. oh and one of the missionaries who got transferred to this branch, Elder Condor, had his birthday.. so to follow Jamaican tradition, we "floured him".. but.. funny thing bout that, is as we were chasin him down (he saw us coming.. I guess we weren't as sneaky as we thought)... Elder Randle stepped on a water pipe, and created a geyser... which was good and bad.. Good, because it successfully turned all the flour we dumped on him to dough.. but bad, because we had to fix it.. getting soaked in the process.. It was a pretty funny sight for all the Jamaicans who came to watch.. 4 guys dressed up in business clothes, soaking wet, one covered in flour, at 9 pm, fixing a broken pipe.. After a pretty good battle we got it Jimmy rigged to last the night... haha.. :) It was a good time.. 

As for missionary work.. Things are going great!!  We've been working with some new people, and Jackie is still coming along slowly but surely... She's been coming to church since December every week!! :)  She'll be baptized soon I'm sure.. We've been trying to help members invite their friends to hear more, and have been finding some cool people that way... and have been knocking apartment complexes too.... Pretty much just trying our hardest to build up a big teaching pool again.. So far its going really well.. :)  

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately, especially as I get closer and closer to the end of my mission, is really what it means to serve with "no regrets"... Because as I've thought back on my mission from the start.. I have a longing to go back to each area and do things a little better.. because I have become a better missionary now.. As we improve each day, it makes it kinda hard to look back at yesterday without a sense of longing to have been doing things the better way all along.. but I think thats part of this mortal experience.. and the reason we are counselled to live in the present.. If we look too much into the future, it can fill us with anxiety... if dwell on the past too long, it can fill us with regret...  I've come to find that serving or living with no regrets just means to give it my all in the present.. do things with passion and enthusiasm.. with 100% obedience and diligence.. and focus on improving... As I've done that for these 23 months, and will continue to give it my all in this last month, I know I'll be able to look back at my mission without any real regrets.. I love this gospel, and I love how happy it makes me!!  I love being a missionary, and I'm determined to finish strong.. 

Life is good.. :)

Everyone have an incredible week.. and if you are gonna write any letters or anything... a good time to do it would be this week.. otherwise, I won't ever receive it.. haha but if not.. see ya in 4 weeks! woot woot!! 

One Love!!

Elder Kraus

I Love the Book of Mormon

YOYO!!

Hey everyone!! Things here are going great!! It feels incredible to be all done with Zone conferences and doing normal missionarywork again.. :)  We're working with a few really cool people still.. and one of them, Jackie, has a baptism date for May 26 that she's working towards.. She a really sweet 47 year old lady.. We met her on the street looking for a less active member sometime at the end of December, and invited her to church.. and she came the 1st Sunday of the year, and hasn't really missed church since.. she's been like 19 Sundays in a row now :)  She had been visiting lots of different churches but feels something different as she's been visiting here, and we've been teaching her for about 4 and a half months now.. She's doing awesome.. :)  Other than her, we've got a few people who are feeling the church is true, but need to act on it and start living the commandments.. so we've been working with 

them, plus finding a lot of new people to teach.. :)  

One of my favorite ways to find new people to teach is to serve them.. We were going through some papers we found that had a list of people the missionaries used to teach in like 2006.. and found one guy, Brother Jones, that lived up in Red Hills.. that we both felt we should give a call.. So we called him and ended up going to see him.. Well he has 7 kids, and is a farmer.. So the first thing we did to develop some trust with him is set up a time to come do some farm work with him.. :)  it was fun!!  On Friday this week, we went up and cleared a bunch of land with machetes.. It was hard work, but felt great, and he deeply appreciated it, and is really eager for us to come back and teach him and his family.. :)  I definitely have a testimony of the power of serving people with love.. It softens hearts when nothing else will.. and speaks a lot louder than words.. :) So ya.. we've been doing little things like this to find new people to teach.. plus working with members.. Anita's been doing incredible at member missionarywork.. She brought a friend to church who we are starting to teach... .. I love when members fulfill their missionary responsibilities..That is one of the biggest things that helps the work go foreward... We have the most important message in the world.. Its the reason we're even here in this world and its how we prepare for a better life after this.... SHare it with your friends!! :)  They need to hear it!!

Oh and cool thing.. We did a trade off with Port Antonio this week..:)  It was incredible to be back!!  I saw Sanakay and Sister Davis!!  It was really cool to see both of them again... One of the things I longed for as we were there was to come back and serve there again.. because its hard to live with no regrets when you are constantly improving.. If we are always improving, looking at the past can tend to leave a bit of regret.... thoughts of better ways you wish you would have done things.. etc etc.. but I think that's part of this mortal experience... Do your best in the present, and continue to improve so you can do better in the future.. and don't look back with regret.. but rather, when you do look back.. look at the progress you've made.. 

Well.. Time is short.. I love this gospel, and I love being a missionary to share it!!  I've been reading in Alma about the sons of Mosiah lately, in the Book of Mormon, and as I've been serving as a missionary, those stories seem to apply so much more!! i love the Book of Mormon!! We should always read it daily.. :)  

Everyone have an incredible week!!

One Love!!

Elder Kraus

I love this church!

Hey Everyone!

Well... I'm pretty much out of time.. so.. super short this week.. but like is good!! Right now, we working on getting some new people to teach in addition to helping the ones that we are already teaching continue to move foreward, and we decided to call a bunch of former investigators from like 2008.. I found an old area book in the office, with a bunch of people that missionaries used to teach, and we called them all up.. Many of them were really excited to hear from us again and set up appointments.. :) I'm excited to meet all of them... 

It should be a good week, and i'm excited to continue to do the Lord's work.. I love this church and the gospel of Jesus Christ.. I know its true, and I'm pumped to continue to share it.. Its all about joy!! :)  

Everyone have an incredible week!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus

Pure zone conferences!!

Hey Everyone!!

This week was pure zone conferences!!  We drove to Ochi on Tuesday and did their zone conference, did Kingston and Spanish Towns together in Kingston on Wednesday, and then the fun began.. Before we get to that though.. Wednesday after zone conference, the Smiths (the senior couple in the office) had us over for dinner to meet their landlady in a casual setting.. :) It was awesome!! (Sister Smith is a great cook!!) and before we left, they asked the landlady if she would like us to come and share more about the church with her and she agreed.. :)  It was really awesome... Moral of the story.. have your friends and the missionaries over for dinner so we can get to know them!!  THey need the gospel in their lives!  

Wednesday night, we stayed the night at the mission home (HOT WATER AND AC woot woot!!), and got up early Thursday morning to catch our flight to Grand Cayman to do zone conference there.. We stayed the night there and then flew to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos on Friday (passing through the motherland in Miami!)  did zone conference Saturday, went to church there Sunday, and flew to Nassau, Bahamas after church.. We did their zone conference Monday, and flew back to Jamaica Monday night.. .. It was quite a trip.. but zone conferences are done now!!  I'm really excited to see all our friends here in Kingston again... :)  My favorite island is Cayman I think.. Turks has the most beautiful water, but the island is just dead and brown... Nassau is really nice as well.. It was a pretty legit week though.. Flying is exhausting for some reason!!  I'm really happy to be home.. 

Somethin pretty cool though, at church on Sunday, a tourist couple was there in Turks and Caicos.. and I found out that the lady grew up in the ward my family moved to, and that her parents and family still live there.. :)  So we were able to talk about Iowa and she told me what its like.. Small world!!  I got a picture with them before we left.. THeir last name is Thrap I think.. She said she has a brother, Steven, who is serving a mission somewhere too.. So.. I'll be seeing them when I get back.. :)  Crazy!!  

Well.. Time is up.. but everyone have an incredible week!! 

One Love!!

Elder Kraus

Laying up Treasures in Heaven

Hey Everyone!! 

Quick one this week because we're having a combined zone p-day.. Kingston zone vs. Spanish Town zone in basketball.. :)  I'm way excited!!  But it was a great week!!  Really really busy... We spent some time planning and preparing for zone conferences with President Hendricks... and had our first one in Savannah la mar on Saturday.. It went really well! :)  The spirit was strong and I feel like this zone conference is really gonna help the mission move foreward in the best way... The focus was on real growth instead of just growth... and how we achieve real growth... That was what me and Elder Randle taught on for about an hour and a half... and President Hendricks taught an amazing segment on repentance... How its really about becoming rather than doing.. Really puts things in perspective... but anyway.. it was an awesome experience..and I'm excited for the rest of them this week.. We have 5 more then we're done.. :) 

We didn't get as much teaching time this week as I would have liked because of planning and preparing for zone conference and some other things that happened.. but we still had some awesome lessons... One thing I've definitely learned on my mission is that when you have limited time, its really important to make every thing you do count... but... i wanna mention real quick 2 lessons in particular that i remember from the week....

The first was with a lady who's almost been baptized for a year.. She's been struggling with coming to church every Sunday, and when she does come, she's late... One of the things we talked with her about is really the "why" of going to church.... I think that's a question that all of us should ask ourselves fairly often.... because if we aren't careful, we forget the why of the gospel and get lost in the "what".. well.. the "why" in particular that we talked about with her, was because Jesus Christ went to Gethsemane and asked us to remember him by partaking of the sacrament every week.. One thing that was brought up is that... most of us when we have a job will sacrifice a lot of things to be on time for work... we get up early even if we're tired to make it to work on time so we can get our pay... yet when Sunday rolls around, we always find ourselves rolling into church late if we go... The logic of that is very flawed... We will sacrifice many things for our temporal job.. where the compensation is temporary.. .. but when it comes to a long term investment (living the gospel.. ie.. being to church on time) that has the greatest return.. (Eternal Life).. we aren't willing to put in the work.. Its a foolish mindset... We can not put anything before our Heavenly Father... and when we aren't willing to make any sacrifice for Him, that's exactly what we're doing.... It was really an eye opening lesson... In everything we do... we need to make sure that we are "laying up for ourselves treasures in Heaven"... The little things.. like being on time for church show how much we love our Heavenly Father.. and never forget.. "by small and simple means are great things brought to pass"..

The second lesson was kind of heart breaking.. We have been meeting with a really cool lady who is really smart.. but doesn't want to engage in a serious study of the gospel because she doesn't want to leave her church.. She's scared to study the Book of Mormon, because if she finds it to be true.. She knows she'll need to be baptized.. She would rather remain in ignorance than find the truth... 

Both these examples I think just really show how important it is to take a step back and remember why we were sent to this earth in the first place.... The only thing that matters is preparing to live with our Heavenly Father again, and we should be willing to make any sacrifice to do so.. I love this gospel and I love the hope and joy that come from knowing exactly "what" to do, but most importantly "why" i'm doing it... :)  

Have an incredible week and take some time to ponder the "why" of the gospel... or anything you do... It puts things back into perspective... 

One Love!!

Elder Kraus

Hey Everyone!!

Short one this week.. but everything is going great!! I found out some great news!! Kadine's (who i baptized in Old Harbour) mom got baptized!! :) So cool!! So now the whole family is in the gospel!! I love it.. :)

As for missionarywork for us this week.. things went pretty well.. We didn't get to teach as much as we would have liked to because we ended up having to schedule and change some flights and things for zone conference, so that took a while... Waiting on hold for orbitz customer service takes forever!!!!. but we did have some great teaching experiences... Anita and Sabrina came teaching with us this week and did great!! Their testimonies are so strong and immediately invite the spirit as they share them in lessons.. :) It is so cool to see that for me..

We did a trade off in Santa Cruz on Wednesday, so it was pretty cool to see some people I know again.. and work with the elders there..

Oh and Monday we had our P-day and the branch had a fun day... so it was perfect.. :) We spent the day at the church playing soccer and volleyball with the members.. :) So much fun!! I love sports!! There have to be sports in the celestial kingdom haha

Well... thats about it for this week.. super busy.. and lovin life!! :) I know that living the gospel is the happiest way of life because its the way that our Heavenly Father asks us to live... Live long and prosper!!

One love!

Elder Kraus

Goodbye ELder Hoffman!

Hey Everyone!!

This week was crazy!!! Monday we had P-day... We deep cleaned the house and Elder Hoffman wrapped up any loose ends he needed to before going home...

Tuesday we had Elder Hoffman's last teaching day, and had some great lessons.. :) It was a great way to finish off his mission.. I still can't believe he's home!! Holy cow!! At one point during the night.. We were coming down off Red Hills from a teaching appointment, and stopped for 5 minutes at the lookout (it overlooks all of Kingston and the harbour).... I can't imagine how Elder Hoffman was feeling during that time.. because as we were standing there and just reflecting... I had a lot of emotions go through me.. I can't believe that I only have 2 and a half months left... I felt excited.. but a little bit sick about it... There is so much work to be done.. and I felt for a minute like the 3 Nephites... I just want to stay and continue to build the church in Jamaica for much longer because of how much work there is to do... There are still so many people who haven't heard the gospel!! And it needs to be shared with them... but.. I'm also really excited to go home and start school again and do all the things that come with that... and see my family.. :) It was really weird... a LOT of mixed emotions.. and I still have time left!! I can't imagine how its gonna feel when its my last day... But as for now.. I'm just gonna keep workin my tail off til its finished...

Wednesday, we drove to transfers... got everyone switched and headed to their new areas... and came back to the mission home for the last night with Elder Hoffman and Roberts..for their interviews, dinner, and final devotional and everything.. . My new companions name is Elder Randle.. He's a really cool guy from California.. We're both going back to BYU in the fall.. So that should be fun.. :) haha... One funny thing at transfers.. thats kinda a tradition.. is before Elder Hoffman gave Elder Randle the phone.. he made him get down on one knee and "dubbsed" him with it.. Like when a knight is dubbed..haha it was way funny.. ... uh.. ya.. you prolly just had to be there..

Thusday we had a full teaching day (other than scheduling our flights for zone conferences coming up at the end of the month)... and after thursday is when the week got crazy!!

So, the new missionaries usually fly in on Tuesday night.. and we bring them to the mission home where President Hendricks interviews them and we help him assign them which trainer they're gonna go with.. and they'll just come to transfers with us on Wednesday... Well.. There was a tornado in Texas, so their flight wasn't allowed to leave the ground.. They got stuck in texas for 3 days.. and didn't end up getting here til Friday afternoon.... Well.. funny thing bout that, is that President Hendricks had to fly to the Dominican Republic early Friday morning for a mission presidents seminar, and didn't get back til Sunday... So he had us play the role of mission president for a few days.. We were way nervous!! So.. Friday, we went and picked up the new missionaries (there are 7), brought them back to the mission home, ate dinner together.. and me and elder Randle had "get to know you" interviews with all of them... We were way nervous.. but it went well... and after the interviews, we had the task of assigning them which trainer they would go with.. and honestly, it was a really cool experience.. After discussing it. and praying, we felt the quiet assurance of the Holy Ghost that we had each new missionary paired up with the trainer that the Lord wanted them to have... .. :) I definitely am grateful for the experience.. I have such a strong testimony that every missionary is called to the area that they're in by inspiration... ... Well.. after discovering which companion each missionary was gonna have, we brought out the map.. showed each of them where they were gonna be going.. and called it a night...

Saturday morning, we went back up to the mission home, and held an orientation meeting to let them know the expectations and everything.. ... and drove them off to their new areas... We had the office elders help us out.. but we still ended up driving to Spanish Town, then through Highgate to Port Antonio, to Montego Bay and back to Kingston... it was a LONG day driving the windy roads..... It took all day...and made road trips back home look easy!! I'm definitely excited to see long strait highways again.. though, it won't be nearly as exciting..

Church on Sunday was great!! :) Anita was confirmed a member of the church and given the gift of the Holy Ghost.. and is super excited to continue to learn and grow... Oh, and Sabrina gave a talk in church!! It was incredible!! :) It's really cool to see how much she's grown...

So... ya.. it was a really busy week.... and P-day today is gonna be great!! The branch is having an activity at the church.. so we're gonna go check that out.. It should be fun!!..

Well... Everyone have a great week!!

One Love!

Elder Kraus