Sister Crofts-Called to Serve

DECEMBER 9, 2013

It has been a great week! We have had the opportunity to serve many of the members and people in our area. There have been lots of crazy experiences this week and I am super grateful for the humbling, amazing opportunity to be serving in Kariya. Me and Silva Shimai have been fed by a lot of members these past few weeks and as a result of gotten some SERIOUS food poisoning. We were at a members house and our stomachs were making the sickly gurgling noises and she asked "are you okay... Do you need to use the bathroom?" hahaha ahhhhhhhh. And it just downhilled from there. We both were in and out of the bathroom for several days. There was a point where it was coming out on both ends for me. SO MISERABLE! Hahahaha there were several times where we tried to go out of the apartment to visit people. We would ride our bikes for a little bit and then just freeze because we couldn`t move and had to find a bathroom IMMEDIATELY. Hahahaha the members and people we visited just laughed soooo hard at us. It was so terrible and I hope you don`t think I am disgusting for sharing this, but please just try and understand my life.

DAY 2. As you may recall, me and Silva Shimai had a pretty gnarly cleaning experience last transfer. So we visited them last week and realized it was BEYOND TERRIBLE and needed immediate relief. So we set a date to clean on Saturday (wtih the Elders muahahha. There are 3 elders now by the way). So we came, had our gloves, our faces covered in masks and were ready to go. It honestly looked like a bomb of dirt and nastiness had been let off in their home. The elders don`t usually go inside, so when they walked in with us they were filled with immediate terror. Hahaha. They were whimpering and begging us to not make them clean it. I have never seen any humans so afraid in my life. Hahaha. They were honestly shaking. So me and Silva Shimai just kind of started going and told them what to do. We got there at 9:30 am and cleaned until 5:00 pm. They have lived there for over 20 years and I am without a doubt certain that they have never cleaned that apartment in their life. I had to clean the showers and it was completely black. The fridge had hundreds of dead and living cockroaches just scattered throughout the walls and the food. All of the cups and plates were filled with dead cockroaches. We moved the fridge back and there was a pile that just scattered out and all of the elders were in the corner screaming while me and Silva Shimai killed as many as we could. Hahaha. We also took many of the doors off to put new wallpaper on. As we did so, cockroaches just flew out of the cracks and I was hitting the door trying to get them out, Silva Shimai was vacuuming and I was stepping on them with my feet and hitting them with a paddle all at the same time while the Elders were freaking out. Hahaha it was honestly the funniest, most repulsive experience. Last time we cleaned, we just barely made a dent, but this time was good because we really had the opportunity to deep clean. I did not know it was humanly possible for a home to become so dirty. We really did so much for their home and it felt so good when we finished. Sister Ogata pulled out some meat from the fridge that had just had cockroaches climbing through it and said "please!! Let me cook for you!" without hesitation we all said "NOOOOOOOO!" At the end there was a trail of cockroaches above the kitchen cupboard just waiting for us to leave so they could reclaim their territory. It was so depressing, defeat. But I hope that they can maintain their home now and so they can establish a celestial home. When I returned to my apartment, I couldn`t believe how clean it was. If I ever saw a black dot, I thought it was a cockroach. But then I realized, I AM SAFE. It was a scaring experience and my future home is going to be sparkling clean, but I am really grateful we could help them.

It has been an awesome opportunity to serve so many of the members this week and to work with them! They have so much love for us and are doing everything they can to help us. I love my Savior so much. His Atonement is real. His grace and mercy are infinite. He is always there and through HIs strength we are made whole. I love this church, how blessed I am to have hope. Have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Crofts