My Mission

May 15th, 2002 - May 20th, 2004

Greetings all! I have created this simple site to show anyone interested a little bit about my LDS Mission to Caracas, Venezuela, to both members of the Church and non-members alike. For more information regarding Venezuela, click here.

My Mission Plaque
I wore it on my shirt pocket every day during my two year mission.

(Elder is the formal title that all missionaries of the Church and all other full-time representatives of Christ bear, and Craven is my last name)



Assorted Pictures

Tracting out in Los Llanos
Being attacked by ferocious animals!
A cool family in Caracas, and an electrician's nightmare...
The temple in Caracas, Venezuela

The temple again
One of the 2 tallest towers in South America
Downtown Caracas
Downtown Caracas

More of Caracas, look closely at the tiny "ranchitos" covering the mountains
More of Caracas
More of Caracas, ranchitos
More of Caracas

Caracas, Chavez's offices on far left, center
Caracas, more ranchitos
Caracas
Caracas

Look at all those ranchitos
Even more ranchitos
Caracas
A yucky sea-food dish called "cervichi"

My cat helping me pack before I went to the MTC
The "chaka-chaka" that we sometimes got to wash our clothes in
Hard to make out, but a big riot that was going on in the streets
Goofing off for a minute

The Jungle!
A cute little old mexican lady with a huge beard gave me that bear
La Cucaracha!
A sea monster filled reservoir

People swimming in the sea monster filled reservoir
The beach in La Guaira, which a HUGE land slide destroyed in '99
My companion, myself, a little Venezuelan kid
In the jungle!

At the beach in La Guaira
Shore shot
More beach
Playing with the Pelicans

A blurry shot of a water fall
This ranchito shot embodies the Caracas Mission
My desk at the MTC
Our room at the MTC

The ocean
The house I lived in when I was in California for 2 months, before going to Venezuela
El Panteon, the burial place of Simon Bolivar, liberator of much of South America
Pelicans

More pelicans
Me caught in deep thought...
Some hoodlums getting busted right outside one of the apartments
A snowman I made in the freezer!

The snowman sporting a top-hat
One of the imnumerable street markets in Caracas
Street vendors as far as the eye can see
One time we got captured by militants and they forced us to live an underground fall-out shelter...Oh wait, that's just our apartment...



Why did I do it?

Now that you've had a small taste as to what Venezuela was like, some might ask, "Why did you do it?" The answer's simple really...It was what God wanted me to do. He has a great and marvelous work prepared for these last days, part of which is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to every soul. My mission was the greatest experience of my life and I am pleased I was able to share the happiness, joy, and blessings that only come through the gospel of Christ to others and see the miraculous change that it wrought upon their lives. I went because I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church, the only church that Christ presides over. I know that it was restored in these last days through a prophet named Joseph Smith, who was called and chosen directly by God for that great work and that through Joseph Smith, God brought forth a set of sacred scripture written by ancient inhabitants of the American continent, known today as the Book of Mormon. And that through that book we can grow closer to God than through any other book. I know all this not because someone told me and I believed them, I know this of a surety because God himself has revealed it to me. And I invite all that may visit here, to find out for themselves, and visit http://www.mormon.org for more information.


Created by Paul Craven, 2004