December 29th

Can you believe Christmas is over?! I feel like I look forward to it all year and then all of the sudden it's over. Crazy. Christmas was a lot of fun this year, although it didn't feel like Christmas. Sister Peaden and I drove down to Halifax where the mission home is and got to hang out with some other missionaries and President and Sister Simpson. We ate a lot of goodies, played games and watched While You Were Sleeping!!!! Apparently it's President and Sister Simpson's favorite movie ( that and Return to Me) I totally have the best mission President ever! It was so fun to watch it all together, and weird to be watching a movie. I love movies, but as I was watching it I realized how much I didn't miss it. I've found so many other ways to fill my time that it was nice to come that realization :) While in Halifax we got to go see the live nativity that the church puts on over by the Temple. It was a lot of fun and I think that made it feel like Christmas more than anything.
That night we slept over at Sister Hudson's place (my MTC comp.) in a place called Eastern Passage. It was so fun to be with other sisters. We read The Night Before Christmas together and in the morning we made french toast and opened up all of our presents. We then headed off to a member familys home in Eastern Passage and we ate lunch and watched Dispicable Me. What was crazy is the member, Brother Meisner, served in the Clayton Valley 3rd ward! Pretty crazy connections. Then we headed back to Truro, made some phone calls :) and ate at the Laliberte's for Christmas Supper. Sister Laliberte is the best cook ever (besides you Mom) and I left their house barely able to walk I was so full. And there you have it! It was so fun I loved Christmas on the mission, mostly because of the members. The members just showered us with love, and were so understanding of us being away from home. I am so grateful I got to spend Christmas in Truro!
The rest of the week has been....well...COLD. It snowed, and snowed and snowed and we knocked and knocked and knocked. awesome. It's really not too bad except for the wind! It cuts you like a knife. Seriously, I got a headache it was blowing at my face so hard. I asked some of the locals, as we knocked, and got some ideas of how to protect my face. My favorite though, is when people ask us if we're cold and we of course say yes, and they respond with..."just wait till Febuary! This isn't cold"....awesome...looking forward to it :) It's also been pretty funny, because it's so cold that people won't even open their doors to say no to us, they instead just wave out their window and shake their head. Haha I laugh every time.
Jerry is still doing awesome! His Mom now wants to join in on the lessons! Seriously he's finding more people for us to teach than we are! Michelle, his girlfriend, came to church on Sunday and really liked it. They say that their kids are just a lot happier since we've been talking with them. I love that they are seeing the immediate blessings from learning about the gospel.
I love being out here, despite the weather. It's so fun to share my testimony with everyone I meet. I love being bold and feeling confident in what I'm doing! It's exciting to be out sharing what I know! The church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Thomas S Monson is a true prophet of God. Have a wonderful New Year! Thank you for your prayers and letters!

love,
Sister Crane

Presents from the members

December 22nd 2010

Wow this has been the week that has beaten ALL other weeks ever!!! We have 4 MORE PEOPLE ON DATE TO BE BAPTIZED! That's 5 in total! This is nuts. Seriously. It's the craziest thing ever! Ok let me explain, because this week has been AMAZING!

So the first 2 people are Jerry and Michelle. They are living together and they both have 1 son each. (Dillon (7) and Cameron (12) ) We knocked into Jerry 2 Saturdays ago and talked about the Book of Mormon. He had read it when he was 13 and had this amazing experience with it and invited us back. We have met with him every day since. He came to church on Sunday and it was so awesome! It was the Christmas program, and Sister Peaden and I played a medley of hymns (Sister Peaden rocked it on the recorder, yes the $2 recorder I bought her for her birthday, you betcha) And I accompanied Taylor this cute 8 year old girl as she sang "He Sent His Son." Surprisingly there is a lot of musical talent in our little branch! It went perfect and then after they broadcasted the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional and followed it with a little linger longer, lunchin. Michelle had to work but Jerry came with Dillon and Cameron and he loved it! The branch was amazing, they all welcomed him in, we barely got a word in, everyone else was so busy talking to him. :) He afterward said he felt more at home there than at his own family reunions. He said it didn't even feel like church, it just felt like a bunch of selfless people coming together to help others. Sister Putnam has been coming to every lesson with us too. She is a recent convert of 2 years and she says it's been helping her so much too. She's reading along with them and she has come to love them I dare say even more than we do. She is the kindest person I have ever met. I hope to one day be like her. When I read about how Christ tells us in the scriptures to become as a little child, I picture Sister Putnam. She's incredible.
The other 2 that are on date this week are Chad and Darleen. Darleen is Chad's mom and Chad is 15, he has a brother Bradley who is 12. Chad has been coming to Young Men's and seminary a ton and loves it. We didn't even have to bring up baptism, Darleen just said at the end of the lesson, "so Chad wants to get baptized, how do we make this happen?" I responded, after I finally shut my mouth in surprise, with, "well lets set a date!" Darleen was sick and didn't get to come to church but Chad did and he brought a friend too. I'm so excited for them both. We have Brother Mahoney coming with us and like Sister Putnam with Jerry and Michelle, Bro. Mahoney is so invested in them, I love it! It's just wonderful to think that our investigators are building such great relationships with the members here.
Speaking of the members, on Sunday at the lunch- in they brought in this huge box full of Christmas presents, cookies, pie, juice, candy, and food for us! For Sister Peaden and I! President Bezanson had us stand up and he presented it to us and said that he wanted to thank us for our hard work and that we brought a lot of enthusiasm to the branch and then had everyone clap. I was overcome with gratitude. I basically sobbed the whole way over to get the presents. Sister Peaden and I went home and opened up the presents one by one, all of the branch members had planned this out and each had gotten us a little something. I don't think I have ever felt so loved in my whole life. It was the sweetest thing. I think what meant so much is that I truly feel that I've given my heart to these people, I love the members like my own family and for them to show their appreciation is overwhelming. Christmas hasn't even happened yet, and I think that was the best present I have ever been given.
Well I hope you each have a very Merry Christmas. I am especially thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for his great Atonening Sacrifice. I am grateful to be able to represent Him and to serve God's children. I know that He lives, and I know that God knows us each personally. He leads us by the hand, and prepares us for our future trials, and blessings. Thank you for your letters and prayers! Have a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
Sister Crane

December 15th

To all:
Congrats Truro you did it! Out of the 170 places to live in Canada (#1 being the best) Truro came in at 169! Haha! This man at a door told us that when we knocked into him. He said we should tell our families so that they understand how hard our missions are. I laughed pretty hard. Especially since I'M STAYING for another 6 weeks! yay! We found out about transfers yesterday and both Sister Peaden and I are staying. I honestly am relieved. I wanted to stay some where familiar for Christmas. I was scared of going somewhere far away, because staying here means that we're close enough that we get to go to the mission home Christmas Eve! I can't wait. We'll get to see other Sisters and hopefully go caroling or something fun.
So this week....so much has happened and nothing at all at the same time. We've been visiting a lot of members and trying to get more referrals as of late. I love being with the members. The only problem is trying to leave on time. They love to talk and so do I. Sometimes I want to just stay and chat with them forever, but then I remember I'm not Ashley right now, I'm Sister Crane and my purpose is missionary work! I just love the members here, they really are the best. Sister Putnam in particular has helped us a lot this
week. She has parkinsons and is always so crazy busy but she still found time to feed us, and come to 2 lessons with us this week. She's incredible. We go to her house for a meal and she makes us put our feet up and before leaving always trys to give us something to take home. We had an appointment with a man named Jerry this week. We had knocked into him on Saturday and he told us about how he had read the Book of Mormon when he was 13 ( he's 37 now) and he had this incredible experience while reading it which I told him was the Holy Ghost, and he said after reading it, he was happy, really happy for a year. So we set up an appointment to meet with him on Monday and asked Sister Putnam to go with us. We were running late from another appointment and we were nervous that Sister Putnam would see that we weren't there and she would go home. We called her cell phone and explained and she said, "oh ya I'm fine, I'm just right here sitting in Jerry's kitchen talking to him about his herb garden." She is so personable, she had just gone up to his apartment and saw that he was outside waiting for us and started talking with him, it was like they were old friends by the time we got there. We've taught Jerry twice already and can't wait to teach him more, he really wants to know for himself and he sounds like he's really in tune with the Spirit so far with the experiences he's shared with us.
Casey is having some trouble. She may choose not to be baptized on January 15th. We're really praying for her and hope that she makes the right decision. She knows it's true, it's just hard for her to make changes in her life to be baptized. We love her, and she loves this gospel. I hope she makes the right choice. It's so hard to feel that you can teach someone it all, they can gain a testimony, but in the end it's still their agency, they still get to choose whether or not to act on it. That darn agency.
Matt is still on date and he's successfully completed the stop smoking program! hooray! He's doing great and we're really excited for him and the changes he's already made in his life.
It's a busy time of year, and that means it's sometimes hard to get ahold of our investigators, but I'm really excited when we meet more people to teach, like Jerry. Verna and Steven are doing awesome. Verna has been coming to appointments with us weekly and we just love it! I think she does too, she was really excited that we're staying here in Truro. We've also been able to talk more with her husband Dale. They fed us last Thursday and Dale actually sat in on our lesson afterward! We talked about Eternal marriage, which I thought was perfect! They both expressed their gratitude for things that we've done to help Verna, it was so nice. I sometimes wonder if I'm doing enough or how much I've really helped these people, and it's so nice to know that we've done something good.
Well another week down, and another to go till Christmas! It almost doesn't feel like Christmas right now because the snow got washed away with a lot of rain. Power outages and flooding have been happening because we've had some crazy wind and rain. Walking around I feel like Mary Poppins, ready to get blown away with my red coat and umbrella, (now if only I had her cool hat...) I feel so grateful for our Savior and for a Father in Heaven who is so mindful of His children. I am so grateful that when I don't know the answers to our investigators concerns and questions, or when I don't feel like I can do this great work, that I know that God can do anything. And if I will just trust in Him, he will help my weaknesses to become strengths. Thank you for your prayers and letters! And have a wonderful week!

love,
Sister Crane

December 8th

Christmas time is here! yay! We had our Zone conference Christmas party on Monday and it was a blast! President and Sister Simpson were there and we had a white elephant gift exchange and a talent show. I did 2 talents. One was Sis. Peaden and I playing a medley of Christmas songs. I played the piano and she played the recorder. And then our district did a mini play. One of the Elders wrote up this spoof of a Christmas Carol. He played scrooge and I played the narrator. Which I have to say was the best role ever. It turned out pretty well, especially considering that we had never practiced it before hand and it was a musical so we all sang this song he had made up and that none of us knew the tune to. You could say it was a hit. :) Our white elephant gift exchange was pretty fun too. Sister Peaden and I found a bunch of junk that Elders had left in the apartment before us. We gave away a hockey skate and some half burned out lights. We were happy to get them off our hands. The assistants dressed up like Santa Claus and his elf and handed out letters that the office had kept for like a month that were from our families. I thought it was a good idea so that everyone had a letter to open.
We also got to see the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional! It was actually pretty funny because their not going to play it for the whole branch till the 19th but Sister Peaden and I really wanted to see it on Sunday. We had a meeting with 2 of the women in our branch (Sister Macinnis and Sister Wentzell) that night to discuss the Christmas program for sacrament meeting. They found out we wanted to watch it and so we found a way to do it by watching it in the mini library they have on the small TV that hooks up to the satelite. So here we were the 4 of us crammed into this closet of a library eating pringles and watching the devo. It was a blast. I loved it. Sister Macinnis at one point was talking about all of the musical talent that there must be in our wards and then she looked at us and said, "you must feel bad for our branch some times" I said " oh no! I don't! you get so many opportunities here to be leaders and serve in so many callings" And I meant it. Yes more musical talent would be nice. But it's better this way, people who wouldn't normally get the chance to shine in a big ward get the chance to in the small branch here.
Matt is still doing good. He's smoke free and we're having a small celebration for him on Friday. He has come a long way and we are so excited for him and the changes he is making. Casey is still on date, she was on vacation so haven't seen her for over a week, which is eternity in the mission world. We're excited to see her and see how she's doing. We have a few other investigators but they are all so busy at this holiday season that it's hard to see them on a regular basis. Which totally stinks. We are constantly setting up appointments with people that we meet knocking but they have literally ALL fallen through this week. It can be frustrating. But you just keep trying. I think it's just a true testimony builder for me that when missionary work is through members it's successful, and when it's through knocking...well it's just harder to see the success right away. So we've been doing more member visits and finally got a referral yesterday! yahoo! I love referrals. Seriously they are the best because they are pretty much an automatic open door.
Well transfers are next week and who knows what will happen. My guess is we are both staying. And if we do we get to go to the mission home for Christmas Eve and I'll get to spend the night over at Sister Hudson's place because she's serving near there. I really hope it doesn't change for that reason...but change is also welcomed. I love Sister Peaden and Truro and we both want to stay here, but we both like change too. :) It's weird you can love something so much but also want a bit of change to make things exciting. I know that no matter what happens, it is exactly what the Lord wants and that is what matters most. I feel so grateful for a Loving Father in Heaven who answers prayers. And in particularly this week I am very grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I don't ever want to take for granted that special gift again. This week the Holy Ghost has warned me of danger, has comforted me, and has prompted me to do things that have led to us having success. I feel so grateful for that special gift we each can have. What a huge blessing. I know the gospel is true with all of my heart. It is, and it is a priviledge to wear this name tag and share the message of the restoration with the people of Truro. I am so grateful for the adundance of things that we have, so many are in need and do not have what we have. I don't know why I've been so blessed, but I am so grateful for it. Thank you for your prayers and letters!

love,
Sister Crane

Relief Society Christmas, Bay of Fundy, Sister Hudson

December 1

To All:
Matt is getting baptized January 29th!!!!! AHHH! I can't even believe it! 2 people just baptized and 2 more on date to be baptized! Matt is Steven's ( the one who just got baptized) brother in law. So Loni (who was originally the member) now has a member husband and a brother who will be baptized next month! Seriously there has been such a transformation there like you wouldn't believe! First of all Matt smokes and when we gave him and Steven the stop smoking program Matt didn't want to do it. Now he says he's ready and we're giving it to him on Thursday! yay! And he prayed for the first time at the end of our lessons! We were thrilled! I can't wait to see him change even more!
In other news we went to the temple today and I got to see Sister Hudson, my old MTC companion! It was so good to see her and catch up with her, it was like seeing a friend from home! The temple was amazing, I always feel so uplifted coming away from the temple. I just love it!
On Saturday was the Relief Society Christmas dinner! It was so fun! They did a gift exchange and had a potluck supper. It was so fun to sit around and just talk with the women of the branch. Verna came and I love that she is just socializing and has just immersed herself in the church. As we were eating and talking, I thought about how I have a special relationship with each of the women there. All but 2 had gone to a lesson with us and the other 2 have fed us and helped us plan activities. It's amazing how in 4 months I have grown to love these women and get to know them and their struggles and try to help build them up. The dinner was wonderful!
So I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was fun and better than ours :) We had Thanksgiving at a members home and the wife is American so they celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in October and then American Thanksgiving in November and every year she invites the missionaries over and makes a huge meal. This year she is crazy busy working and didn't have time so we got KFC. woop woop! It was still so sweet of them to invite us over so we didn't mind, we just thought it was so funny that the one year she does KFC, we're here. :)
We are knocking on doors a lot! And finding more and more NEW people to teach which I love! we have 5 appointments set up this week for people who we have never taught before! last week we met with a girl her name is Tanya, she's a young Mom and has 2 daughters Cici (7) and Bella (2). We actually originally met her street contacting and we had given her a pass a long card and she said she wasn't interested and then we knocked into her last week and she said her daughter Cici was really interested. So we taught Cici and Tanya and oh man was that hard to teach the restoration to a 7 year old! holy cow! That was a humbling experience. You can't use words like restore or Atonement, or Prophet, or Dispensation. No way jose! And her attention span is pretty long for a 7 year old but still not that long. I did love it though, because as hard as it was, it's good to be challenged so you can learn!
Anyways it's been another great week! We have zone conference next week which is also our Christmas party and talent show. Sister Peaden and I are going to play a duet. It'll be a melody of Christmas songs and Sister Peaden is going to play the rockin' awesome recorder I bought her at the dollar store for 2 bucks! It actually sounds really good. The dollar stores here are FABULOUS! Have a wonderful week! Yay it's December already! It's so exciting! Thank you for your prayers and letters!

love,
Sister Crane

Parade

We were in the Truro Christmas parade on Saturday. Our branch decided that we wanted to get our church name out into the community so they built a float for us to ride on and sing Christmas carols.The parade is SUPER long and it was snowing. But we got a trailer full of people from the branch and we sang Christmas Carols the whole time. Too bad we were the last float before Santa Claus so no one really cared about us. And we were right next too some floats that were blaring music from their trucks, so we practically had to yell instead of sing. It was so much fun! I laughed so hard. Verna came and she LOVED it. She waved like no buddys business. It was awesome. For sure it was a highlight of my mission. We ended up singing "here comes Santa Claus" the majority of the time, we thought that would be more appropriate :) And people on the streets were singing with us! It was so fun to laugh and sing with the members!

Here Comes Santa Claus

New Members

November 24th

Steven and Verna are now members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

The baptisms went PERFECT. Seriously I was amazed at how many branch members showed up and how smooth everything went! We met in the Relief Society room and there wasn't enough room for everyone! We were so packed in there. Casey came and Matt too, we were so happy that they came to see a baptism for the first time. Verna's nieces sang the "I like to look for rainbows" song and I played for them, by the end of the song I was balling. I'm surprised I could even see the notes :) I sat down with Sister Peaden and as we listened to Verna's sister and Steven's wife give talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost, I felt the Spirit so strong. It was incredible. I've never felt this way before. This kind of happiness.
Steven was first to get baptized. He totally hit his head on the side of the font as he went down. haha I laugh because later we talked to him about it and he said he didn't even know he hit his head! he said all he could remember was he went down in the water and as he came up he felt a "ahhh" like a sigh of relief. He is so funny. In fact he asked his brother in law if while he was in the water if the man baptizing him, Pres. Bezansen, said anything. haha His brother in law explained that Pres. Bezansen couldn't have said anything, Steven was only under for like 2 seconds. Apparently it felt longer for him. He cracks me up.
Verna did an awesome job, she was in a bad factory accident a long time ago and so she has really bad back problems and walks with a cane. We were a bit nervous because her nephew was baptizing her and he's 17 and this was his first one. As they stood in the water, before he spoke the words he heaved a big sigh, like a "oh boy I hope I can do this" haha I tried to laugh to myself reverently when he did that. But he did great and her only complaint was the water was too cold :) Sorry Verna, we're in Nova Scotia and the water heater wasn't working properly.
So there you go! It was amazing! And after they received the Holy Ghost on Sunday, Verna said she was on cloud 9 and Steven said it was like Christmas morning. They truly are worth every cold night that we are out knocking, every time my feet hurt, and every rejection. I'd do it all over again for them.
In other news, Casey is doing awesome. Matt said that he is going to come to church this week! yay! Oh and we had this awesome experience yesterday! So we had been knocking a lot yesterday, and we were in this really nice neighborhood where every person we have met thus far was very nice but also very content with what they have in their life. So we knock on this one door and a man named Ralph opens the door and immediately invites us in, it was snowing/raining outside,so we were very grateful to be in a warm home. He finds out we're Mormon and sits us down and his wife made hot chocolate for us. He's a retired dentist and his wife is a dental hygienist and so is his daughter. Their teeth were in excellent shape by the way :) And so Ralph starts telling us about all of the Mormon people he has known in his life and the impact they have had on them. Something so simple like when he was in the military and his friend who was LDS didn't drink even though everyone around them was. This happened years ago yet it had left such a great impression on him. He also was puzzled because his dog apparently barks at everyone and goes crazy and he didn't bark once at us. It seriously made him think and he said, "Now why isn't my dog barking?" I replied with, "he knows our message is true" He got a kick out of that one. And we concluded that the dog must be Mormon. He also later was saying what good people the Mormon people are and it makes him wonder, " Maybe everyone should be Mormon" I said, "ya you're right! that's why we're here!" He laughed pretty hard at that one too. We stayed for almost an hour with him and his family and they were just the nicest people. Too bad he's set in his ways but we left him with a pass a long card for the finding faith in Christ video. Hopefully he'll call the number.
IN CONCLUSION to this long e-mail what I've learned is that as members of the church we will never fully know the amazing impact we can have on other people! Something small to you like abstaining from drinking, or not swearing can have and has had an influence on someone like Ralph. And because of that family, we were let in and showed some kindness. That is incredible. Never underestimate the power of an example. I am so grateful for the standards of the church. What an amazing blessing! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's already been 4 months since I left home. Time flys by and I have to start appreciating each moment more before it goes by any faster :) Thank you for your prayers and letters!

love,
Sister Crane

Nov. 18th

To All:
I can't believe another week has gone by! Monday through Friday we had Leadership Training. It was right here in Truro and there were about 20 other missionaries who came and we had President train us. It was AWESOME. Seriously I learned so much. On the first day it was kind of awkward because Sister Peaden and I were the only Sisters there and I don't think the Elders knew how to talk to us. By the 3rd day they got over their shyness and we finally had a conversation with some of them :) So on the first day I was extremely humbled, because in leadership we do role plays. It's basically like acting so I don't mind it. One missionary pretends to be one of your investigators and then you extend a specific commitment to them like read the Book of Mormon, or pray to know it's true or come to church. So all the Elders paired up with other Elders and Sister Peaden and I got President and Sister Simpson. A bit intimidating but I thought I'd be fine. After we are done President critques it a lot. I knew I hadn't done a very good job and in fact he asks if he can use me as an example of what NOT to do. Can you imagine standing in front of your peers and having your mission president say "here's what not to do just look at Sister Crane" you see, I was trying to fix my investigators problems instead of letting them fix it. They would say I can't come to church and I would say, "oh yes you can just do this and this and this" and really you're supposed to say, "what do you think you can do to come to church and recieve the blessings from coming?"

So after that day I decided I was going to stopping fixing problems. And that night we went and saw the Meissner family. They are less active and they refuse to pray. I took all that I had learned that day in leadership and guess what? It worked! It was amazing! They committed to pray as a couple and pray on their own and as a family every night this week and we're going back next week. The next day at leadership I stood up and told everyone how it had worked and so of course this time, as if the day before hadn't been enough, President brings Sister Peaden and I up infront of everyone to role play with the Meissners. Luckily that time President played us and I played Brother Meissner, and boy oh boy did I give him a hard time. He would ask me to pray and I would pause for a really long time and then say no. haha But the thing is I wasn't doing it to give him a hard time I was just trying to respond like Bro. Meissner would have and the Spirit was so strong, President even got a bit emotional over it. I got to be in the shoes of Bro. Meissner and feel what he felt when we talk to him and it opened my eyes to things that we should do next lesson. Also later that day Sister Peaden and I were paired up with some Elders roleplaying the Book of Mormon commitment and who comes over but President. I was actually really nervous because we were teaching this investigator Peter that day and so I wanted to make the role play as real as possible. I prayed really hard that I would know what to say and it just came to me. It was amazing. Sister Peaden did awesome too and afterward President said that was the best he's ever seen us teach. YAY! I did something right!

It's amazing how when you are humble or (humbled I should say) you learn a lot! And if you really try to implement what you learn it works! Anyways leadership training was awesome and I'm sad it's over but now we get to look forward to Steven and Verna's baptisms! oh Oh OH! I almost forgot! In my last e-mail I said how Verna's husband wasn't supportive and so Sister Peaden and I fasted and prayed about it and you know what?! He said that he's fine with it! After one of our appointments, she got really upset about it and he saw how much it meant to her and said I'll do whatever it takes and now he's going to come on Saturday! yay! We are so thrilled! And Steven has grown so much! His friends at work have been making fun of him and he's just stayed so strong and been focusing on forgiving them and trying to not let it affect him. They seriously are so stalwart and such great examples to us all. After our appointment with Verna yesterday she said, "I'm really going to miss you guys coming over so often" And I realized what a special relationship we have with her. I hope it's one that lasts my whole life.

I feel so grateful to have come on a mission. Because if I had stayed home, I never would have met Verna, or Steven, or all of the wonderful people here. Yes it is hard, but you know what? I would do all of the pain, all of the work, and all of the sadness all over again for Verna or Steven in a heartbeat. I just love them so much and I can't wait for Saturday. I really hope we make it as special as we can for them on Saturday. Thank you for all of your prayers. The church is true! I know it!

love,
Sister Crane

More pictures from Truro

More pictures. . .

More pictures from Sister Crane

November 10th

I'm finally feeling better! Being sick was so not any fun and so I'm so glad that finally I'm feeling back to normal and able to work hard. This week it rained A TON. The river that goes through town and feeds into the bay of Fundy was totally flooded. I'm just glad it's not snow :)
Steven is officially SMOKE FREE! yay! He passed the first week! We gave him his certificate and celebrated with apple pie and ice cream yesterday. Speaking of which we had an amazing lesson with him on Monday. It was crazy because on Monday morning durning companionship study I became really overwhelmed, I felt like Verna and Stevens baptismal date is coming up really fast and we haven't prepared them enough and are they even ready? I got really worried that they would be one of those converts who gets baptized and then falls away, and I got really scared. So we decided that with each of them that day we would go over the baptismal interview questions and follow the Spirit in discerning whether they felt ready and were doing this for the right reasons. So that night as we talked with Steven the Spirit was so strong. It was amazing. He has a testimony and shared it with us. As we talked to him about how he'll receive the priesthood and how they get to go to the temple as a family next year, it was just amazing. Sister Peaden gave the closing prayer, and as we knelt and prayed together I just felt so much love for them and their family. This is why I'm here! For them! As we left and shook Steven's hand he tried to hug us both, oops forgot to explain that rule. But I thought it was so sweet that Sister Peaden and I have developed this relationship with the Caldwells. And when they are sealed as a family next November I will still be here so I can go to the temple and be there with them!
Verna is doing really well, she is so ready and excited for baptism. One problem. We need her spouses verbal permission. We finally met her husband Dale on Monday and he is super against it. It was a huge step for him to meet us though because he's been saying he didn't even want to talk to us. We're meeting with him on Friday and we are really praying that he will consent so that Verna can be baptized. She deserves this and she wants it! She has a testimony and knows it's true!
Casey is doing awesome, still sticking with her date for January 12th. She has made awesome progress and we just love her. Alain, the student from Africa called us yesterday and said that his host family that he's staying with says that we can't come over anymore because they are "100% against Mormons." It was so hard to hear that. It's hard not to take it personal and think that it was something that I've done. I just feel really bad. Luckily Alain said he still wants to learn! So we're going to meet him at the church building instead. whew. I almost thought we had lost him there. And he's stellar. Seriously the elect right there, so sincere and I can't wait to see him progress.
We've also been teaching Alexandre from Brazil, he's staying with a member in the branch ( speak of which this member that he's staying with his name is Brother Bruce and my stake President at BYU, President Child, who served in my mission, he baptized Brother Bruce and his family when they were kids! nuts!) Anyways we're teaching Alexandre, he's 17 and so awesome. In fact after our lesson yesterday he told us in his teenage way that it was awesome. He's so sincere and really strives to understand everything that we teach him.
On Sunday we had district conference. It was really cool to see all of the missionaries serving in the surrounding areas. President and Sister Simpson were each there and spoke. It was so good! AND Casey, Steven and Verna all came and they loved it! They all said that they were so happy they came, and they each applied the things they learned to themselves. That was pretty cool, because the conference was 45 minutes away, so to get them all there was so cool! I led the music so we had to sit on the front row and we sat with Casey and Steven (Verna sat with her sister) and President and Sister Simpson just looked at us and smiled. I was so happy. I can't believe they all came! It was awesome.
So there you go another great week! This week is leadership training and we're really excited for it and tomorrow our District leader and his companion are coming to our area to do a "blitz" it's where they come to our area and work in our area for the day. They are going to come to appointments with us and knock and try to find potentials. We're really excited, it'll be something different for sure, and it'll help our area out.
Thank you for the continued support and the prayers on mybehalf, I do feel them, and I know that my investigators have as well. I know it's only through prayer that I'm seeing such amazing miracles.

love,
Sister Crane

Red Canada Dress

Survivor Room. This one's for you Dad!

YUM, Real Fish & Chips!

Verna!

Me really chopping wood!

Painting Pumpkins

November 3rd

Congrats Jeff and Jackie! I am so happy for you both and can't wait until I get to see my new niece Sofia! So this week I've been sick. It's awful. I hate being sick on a mission. Seriously the worst thing ever. It was just a cold at first, so we would work part of the day until I felt awful and then come in and rest. Yesterday I thought I would be ok, but it was so cold out side, it started to hail a bit, it was freezing, not the brightest idea for me to be out working. So because of that I woke up feeling even worse. I'm amazed that I got out of bed today, I just feel awful. The worst thing about being sick on your mission is that hard work is what makes you happy, so when you're in your apartment and can't work hard you just don't feel happy.
Anyways despite all of that we still had a successful week for not being able to work as much as I would like. It's FREEZING here. But that's sometimes nice because people are more likely to invite us in. Yesterday we had 2 awesome lessons with Stephen and Verna. Verna is the cutest ever. We've been calling her Sister Priest and so she has now started referring to herself as Sister Priest. She'll call us on the phone and say "hi this is Sister Priest" and as she does she laughs every time, probably b/c it sounds so foreign to her. Yesterday after the lesson she brought her camera so we could take a picture with her. She is just so happy, and you can tell. She's so ready for baptism it's amazing.
Stephen has been having difficulty. He's still working on the stop-smoking program. It's really hard for him because to not smoke and drink is a TOTAL life change. That means he can't hang out with all of the people that he used to. We thought he was doing pretty well, but turns out he's having a harder time than we thought. We gave a lesson on repentance and read about Alma the younger and his conversion story and what it meant to repent, the Spirit was really strong and I hope it helped. To keep his date for the 20th he has to keep the Word of Wisdom fully by this Saturday. We're praying for him really fervently lately. I know he can do it, I just don't know if he knows that he can do it.
We had our trunk or treat on Saturday, there were more non-members there than members! It was so awesome! Sister Peaden and I decorated our trunk and handed out candy. We were over the station "the witches brew" where we blind folded little kids and made them touch gross stuff like "eye balls" or "brains" and help them mix it in their caldron. (kind of sounds torturous but it beats knocking) :)
On Saturday we got a call from the branch President right, before the trunk or treat started, to ask if we could teach the combined Relief Society/Elders Quorum lesson on Sunday. Awesome. Normally I would jump up and down at an opportunity to teach but I wasn't feeling so good, we had ZERO time to prepare and I was frustrated because we just gave talks last week and we are doing the young women’s activity today. So we came home after the trunk or treat frustrated and tired and tried to prepare a lesson. Obviously the Spirit couldn't be with us to help us prepare, so we made a random outline and hurriedly went to bed. We woke up the next day, I was feeling a bit better and we decided we were going to stop being frustrated about it and think about what they need to hear. It was amazing, as I prayed for clarity to know what to say, closed the pray and lifted my head up, immediately I knew what we should teach. "Why are we trying to make it so complicated, let’s teach something we know! Lets teach the restoration, the first lesson!" BAM immediately we made a lesson outline and within a 1/2 hour we had a lesson planned. We taught it and it went really well. The discussion was awesome and the Spirit was there. It's amazing how revelation can so easily come to us, but we have to prepare ourselves for it. I couldn't receive revelation while being frustrated and resenting the call to teach, but when I repented and humbled myself, the revelation came and because of that the Spirit could teach all who were there.

Well now I'm just trying to get better, Sister Peaden has been really patient with me, I just hope she doesn't get sick. I'm resting up today and hopefully I'll be feeling like myself again by the end of the week. The church is true! Thank you for your prayers and letters!

Love,
Sister Crane

October 27th

To all:

STEPHEN AND VERNA ARE GETTING BAPTIZED ON NOVEMBER 20TH! I can't even believe it! It's insane. So the story leading up to it is this:



Stephen is doing the stop smoking program, he did really well, but isn't fully there yet, he's working on it again this week, but last Friday when we met with him he said that he would be baptized! we were extatic, the happiest I had ever felt ever! So then Sunday we have the fireside that we had put together. It went really well, the young women sang and the testimonies were awesome, could have had a bigger turn out, but some people were there that I didn't think would come and they did it was awesome! so Pres. and sister Simpson spoke and it was AMAZING! seriously it was so perfect. So after we're talking to Verna and we have asked her about baptism a lot, but her husband is totally unsupportive of it. And so we're talking to her and she says, "as I was hearing Pres. Simpson speak I just felt that I should be baptized." She then said that the date we had been asking her to be baptized on didn't seem to fit right and she's having surgery to help her hip and the recovery is only 2 days, and she said that sometime after the 16th would work. So I said, well Stephen is getting baptized on the 20th, what about that day? And she said YES! You should have seen how happy she looked when she said yes! It's incredible! Sister Peaden and I were jumping up and down we were so excited! This means we have 3 PEOPLE ON DATE TO BE BAPTIZED! for real! I am in shock. And Verna and Stephen are people we found, that we taught from the beginning. This is what I've wanted to do, to come on a mission and see lives change like this is incredible! So lets all hope that Stephen can work through the stop smoking program and that Verna's husband will be supportive because they have a date!

So in other news, not as exciting but still fun, I learned how to chop wood! you betcha, I did, Dad would be so proud. I even got pictures because I knew no one would believe me. I was deathly scared at first, you know thinking I would be one of those missionaries in the news all over the world, who got there hand chopped off by being stupid. But I didn't and was very careful and even split the wood on my own, (believe me that is a big accomplishment). It was a lot of fun!

I also gave my talk on Sunday and everyone was so complimentary afterward, it was so nice. I talked about repentance, and I was amazed at how bold I was, but I know that it wasn't me, it was for sure the Spirit. Afterwards President Bezanson (the branch President) told us that there are few talks that people will remember who said it and what was said, but these were 2 that people will never forget. It was so nice, I felt really grateful that people appreciated our talks so much. He said he was also really grateful that we taught out of the scriptures, he said that we don't do that enough and we showed a good example.

So life is great! Truro is amazing! Now we just need to find more people to teach! Speaking of which, totally met a Korihor the other day. Seriously he was totally Anti-Christ. It was insane. We knocked into him and he "played dumb" from the beginning acting like he had never heard the name Jesus Christ before. Apparently he's Jewish and so he doesn't believe that Jesus is the Christ. He told us that we should go try and decieve some of his neighbors and denied Christ and slammed the door in our face. I was a bit shaken up but then I recited The Living Christ out loud and it just confirmed that I know that Jesus is the Christ, the immortal son of God. I was so grateful that I had memorized the Living Christ and taken the time to do it, because it has strengthened my testimony so much. I know that Jesus is the Living Christ, that by Him and through Him and of Him the worlds are and were created. I know that he was the great Jehovah of the Old testament the Messiah of the new. He is the Christ and I know it with out a doubt, this is His church and it has been restored on the earth today. The gospel is true!



love,

Sister Crane

October 20

To all:
Another week has flown by! How does this happen? I do love that it flys by though! So we had interviews with President Simpson yesterday. Looks like it's about 99% sure that Sister Peaden and I will both be here for another transfer. I'm really happy about it. We've gotten used to eachother and the balance of how everything goes when we teach, so it's just one more transfer where I won't have to get used to someone else. We've also become good friends, it's amazing how you can come to love someone over such a short period of time when you serve with them. President Simpson also said some really great things, he said I'm like a missionary who's been out for 10 or 11 months, that I've picked up on everything really quickly and he's really proud of the work we're doing in Truro, he's just amazed at our success as we are. I love seeing President and Sister Simpson, it really helps you feel motivated and want to continue to do better.
Yesterday we presented the stop smoking program to Stephen and Matt. Matt, unfortunatly oppted out in the middle of it, but that's ok hopefully next week he'll have the desire to do it. Stephen took the challenge and is quitting this week! We are so excited for him and really hope that he sticks with it, I can't imagine how hard it must be to quit from an addiction like that, but I know he can do it. In fact, Sister Peaden and I left after meeting with him and stopped in a grocery store to use the washroom and guess who we see there, Stephen, picking up the supplies that are on the supplies list for the stop smoking program. It was awesome!
We have a new investigator! He is a foreign exchange student from Brazil and he is staying with a member. His name is Alexandre. He's really awesome and comes to church every week and goes to seminary too. In fact, when we taught him on Saturday we renamed the day "culture day" because we taught Alain that day too, who is from Africa, and then we taught a member who is from the Phillipines. I just kept thinking, "wow, why want to serve anywhere but Canada? all of the foreigners just come to you!" It's really neat to ask them questions about their homes and understand a little bit more about their cultures. I love it!
Oh we got a new car! A brand new one too! It's a subaru Impreza 2011. We feel pretty cool, since our district leader got our old car, which was ok, but a little shaky when you're on the highway. This one is sweet and Sister Peaden loves driving it, it's hillarious actually, because I've never really cared too much about cars, but you can sure tell the difference with the way this one drives compared to our old one. Now lets just hope we don't wreck it :)
I'm giving a talk on Sunday! It's going to be on enduring to the end. I'm really excited. It's kind of exciting because in a talk no one talks back. haha In a lesson, you never know what the person will say and a lot of it depends on them and so you never know how it will go, but when giving a talk, it's just you and the Spirit, it's more of a comfort zone I guess. Oh and on Sunday Pres. and Sister Simpson are coming for a fireside that we are incharge of, it's our follow up fireside for the "sweet is the work" activity that we had. We can't wait! Seriously this branch has been awesome about missionary work. Last week the talks were on "how can we support the branch missionaries." SWEET! In one of the talks, Sister Henwood said, "That missionary basket should be full of food every Sunday, and we need to go and teach with the Sisters and they need to eat every meal 3 times a day and we need to be feeding them!" Inside Sister Peaden and I were thinking "you tell em!" haha It was awesome.
So it's getting colder and colder, and the work is still moving forward. Sister Peaden and I are trying to spend more time finding, just in case all of the sudden we don't have any investigators, you never know when that could happen. I feel so blessed to be here in Truro, I just wish it would stop getting so cold here, I'm not ready for it to snow! The worst is the wind, because you can get used to how cold it is, but then the wind blows and wow you feel it. Oh well, it's more exciting when you get into doors that way, and we've been let in more, especially when people find out I'm from California, they usually make fun of the the fact that my nose is so red and then invite us in, thinking that I've never experienced cold in my life. :) Oh well whatever gets you in right? Thank you for your prayers and support!

love,
Sister Crane

Thanksgiving in Canada

October 13, 2010

HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING! I personally would like to never see a Turkey meal for another full year. We had 4 thanksgiving dinners. Yes 4!!! I know it's kind of insane. Don't be too jealous. At first when we had all of the invites from members to share their Thanksgiving with them, we were excited, you know bragging rights with the Elders and all that. But man oh man after that last piece of apple pie and that last helping of stuffing, I'd be ok for a break from Thanksgiving for a while. The members were so nice though. Really it was so thoughtful and the meals were so good! It was funny because the whole day of Thanksgiving I was thinking, "hmm I wonder what my family is doing today." and had to stop myself because yours isn't till November. I think they do it here so early because right now the weather feels like November, and if they waited any longer to have Thanksgiving all of the crops would be frozen.
Our investigators are progressing! yahoo! Casey is keeping her commitments, still doesn't want to move up her baptismal date, but the smile on my face when she told us that she had kept her commitments, oh man, lets just say I couldn't stop smiling for days about it! ah! it's amazing. Then Stephen, the one who is married to a member and also Matt who is the members brother are going to do the stop smoking program. Apparently this program is guaranteed and endorsed by the church, but what in the world do I know about smoking? ya...so I've got some reading up to do on this program that I'm supposed to present with confidence. I'm sure it will be fine, and it's supposed to be 100% guaranteed that you'll stop smoking after a week. wow. I can't wait to see how it goes! I'm so excited! Verna who is the sister of a member in the branch is on date for baptism for November 6th! ah! So exciting! We have an appointment with her on Friday to make sure she's still good for that date, because I left feeling maybe she wasn't entirely. We'll see. It's just so exciting to see these people making changes in their lives! This is what I have been wanting to do, what I've wanted to do before I came on a mission, was to see lives change because of the gospel and now I get to witness these miracles and it's such a blessing. oh OH and we taught this guy Alan on Saturday who is from South Africa! It was the coolest ever! He believes in many gods, like a god for each element, one for water, one for the sun, etc. So we taught him about God and Jesus Christ, which I've never really needed to expound much on before, but he doesn't even believe in the Bible so we had to go through the basics. Then at the end as we knelt to prayer I asked him to say it and taught him how to pray and he said the most beautiful and sincere prayer I have ever heard. It was AMAZING! ah! I loved it! He even prayed for Sister Peaden and I and asked that we would have the energy to keep teaching him! It was such an amazing prayer. I can't wait to see him this Saturday!
I possibly only have 3 weeks left in Truro, if I get transfered, and it makes me so sad. I had a dream last night that I got transferred and all I could think about was, "no! I don't get to go to Casey, or Stephen or Verna's baptisms!" I woke up feeling afull. It's amazing, I hated this place at first. I really truly did. And now, I love it! I don't want to leave it! Truro is so successful and now that our investigators are progressing I can't imagine leaving it! How does this happen? haha I can't believe I've had such a change in the past 2 months.
It's Sister Peaden's birthday tomorrow so I have some fun things planned for her. We went to the dollar store today and I made her walk to the end of each isle and picked out fun things for her. You see, the dollar stores here are AMAZING. They are soooo much better than in the states. For reals, you can get a TON of stuff at the dollar stores and I don't know, they are just amazing, trust me on this one.
So the work is great, I'm doing good, I find that when i get homesick, I just focus on the people here and it goes away. This week has flown by and I can't wait to get started on this week! Thank you for your letters! I love hearing about your lives and keeping updated!

love,
Sister Crane

Singing in the Rain!

October 6th

Hi there! Hope you enjoyed general conference! wasn't it amazing?! Ok 2 things I learned this week : The adversary is real. AND God is more powerful than the adversary.

So let me tell you the craziest story ever. So Saturday night we have this awesome lesson with this investigator Sonja. She's 23, and we taught her the plan of salvation it was amazing, and she said she would come to general conference the next morning. We had a ride set up for her, it was all working out, and we were thrilled. As we left her lesson I said to sister peaden, "I hope nothing goes wrong and she gets to come" sister peaden replied with, "nothing is going to go wrong, unless she gets sick or something." " Don't say such things Sister Peaden! She's going to come!" Little did we know being sick was the least of our worries (your wondering what's going to happen next aren't you?) So then we driving Sunday morning before conference to go knocking and on our way we drive by Sonjas apartment. All of a sudden sister peaden is gasping saying "Oh my gosh" repeatedly, she can't even speak she just points to Sonjas apartment I look over and Sonjas apartment is surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances, and her apartment, the one we had been in less than 24 hours ago was completely burned! Charcole black! So at this point we are freaking out! like seriously. so we pull over and offer a prayer and then hop out of the car to go talk to a fireman. The fireman said that fire started @ 4 that morning every one got out safe and they are going to tear the building down because the fire damage was so bad there is no way to recover it. Sister Peaden's sigh of relief could have been heard clear across town. Sonja's alive. Where she is, we don't know. But all of her stuff is destroyed. We've been trying to get a hold of her, but it's hard because we don't know if her phone is ruined or not. crazy huh.

Ok so basically what I learned from that is Satan will do anything to make it so that someone won't come to general conference. There could have been lots of reasons for the fire, but just saying, the adversary could have had a hand in it....maybe... Sooo rewind a bit. On saturday we had a lesson with a man named Steven. We had just watched the 1st session of conference and we were so excited to teach him, so pumped up from conference, and plus we had taught Steven a week ago and he wanted to be baptized and was on fire. (maybe a bad expression to use after my last story but you get the idea) So we get there and immediately you can feel the contention. He wants to debate, has 1 million and 1 questions, and won't listen to a word we say. I kept saying, "Steven it all starts with faith, if you dont' have faith that God is real and loves you, then you won't believe in anything else we say." We told him to come to general conference and I promised him that he would recieve an answer there. He said, "you promise? you can't promise that. you can't know, you only believe because your parents took you to church your whole life and you want to believe in it because you've been programmed to." He didn't show up to general conference. And we're still trying to contact him. It's aful. Luckily we had another session of general conference after his lesson to help motivate me again.

So Satan is real, and he knows the potential our investigators have, but the cool thing is that the Lord will always win.

so yesterday we had this amazing lesson! It was with a part member family. Loni Caldwell is a member, convert of a few years and her husband Stephen is not a member. Last week we were supposed to teach him when we went to their house for supper and he wasn't there. So this week we didn't have high hopes, but guess what? he was there! and Loni's brother too who is not a member. So we have this lesson with him and the whole time I'm thinking, "is he even interested in the church?" We taught him about the priesthood and eternal families and I asked him, "is having an eternal family something you see and want in your future? do you want to be baptized?" I said something to that effect and he got choked up telling us about how he does want to be baptized because he's seen God answer his prayers, but he knows he would have to make changes in his life style and it would be hard. But you know what? He gave the closing prayer and in it he said, "I pray that one day I'll be sealed and united with my family for all eternity in the temple." My heart lept out of my chest. Literally I think I actually julted forward I was so elated. It was the most amazing feeling. Sister Peaden and I got back into the car and screamed with joy. You know how they say the lows are the lowest on the mission exhibit A with Steven but they also say the highs are the highest exhibit B with the other Stephen. The happiness I've felt in life up to this point has for the most part been temporary, but this kind of joy is eternal. It's amazing. I can just see him being baptized, recieving the priesthood and baptizing his son how is 8. ah! It's amazing!

This week has been crazy. We helped move someone and carried couches down the steepest stairs ever in our skirts. Ya I totally felt like a real missionary, and we had some other really awesome lessons. Oh and Casey is on date to be baptized! The one with 2 kids, single mom! Too bad her date isn't till January 12th, (don't ask why) but a date is a date and maybe she'll move it up eventually :)

The church is true! President Monson is the prophet today. God truly prepares people to hear the gospel. This I know! I love you and thank you for your prayers and letters!

love,
Sister Crane

Sonja's apartment

September 28th

Hi! Relief Society conference was so good! wasn't it? I loved hearing Pres. Monson and the general presidency, it was fabulous. I wasn't fully with it that night (it broadcasts here at 9pm) because 1.) I was so tired and 2.) my stomach was hurting and I wasn't feeling top nautch but it was still really wonderful. We got to go to the temple today! yay! Sister Reyes an awesome member (single Mom of 5!) gave us a ride and it was so great. I love going to the temple and saying, "ok all of my outside cares you are staying out here, and I am going in there to feel peace." Afterwards she even drove us to the mission home where I had mail! Which is always exciting (Ash I got your letter thank you!) and Sis. Peaden got a birthday package, her birthdays on the 14th of October.
Sooo I just love the members here. It was like the first couple of weeks all you see is the outside appearance of these people and as you go into their homes and serve them and they serve you, it's just amazing. Forinstance, on Saturday this awesome member, Sister Henwood took us out to lunch as this great Italian restaurant, seriously a treat, I felt like a normal person for an hour. :) and then she came with us to a lesson. The lesson was awesome. It was with this 24 year old girl who hadn't prayed in forever, and was scared away as a child from religion because of bible camp where they told her everything is a sin. awesome. so anyways we taught her how to pray and she prayed and it was such a heartfelt prayer and it was awesome. So fast forward to Sunday, it's fast and testimony meeting and I go up and bear my testimony, of course I balled through the whole thing, blubberd really. I bore my testimony of the Atonement, because lately I feel like no matter how hard I try, I keep making mistakes, and I keep demanding perfection out of myself, yet I can NEVER get there, and I was realizing that I need to be relying on the Atonement. So anyways, sob fest right..so I sit down and 2 testimonies latter Sis. Henwood gets up there and gets teary eyed talking about the lesson she had gone with us to yesterday and she says straight to me, "sister crane, I don't know what your dealing with in your life, but if only you could have read the letter I was writing to my son about you yesterday (her sons on a mission in Texas) and telling him what a great missionary you are. You are a great missionary." Woah, so then I'm balling more. (Man this is making me sound really unstable, I promise it's nothing out of the ordinary, you just don't usually hear someone say such a compliment so clearly to you, or well in front of the whole branch.) So anyways I was really touched, and the members have just shown us a lot of love. Every day that I see a member on the street or around town I just feel so uplifted like, "ok ya I'm not alone in this!"
We had a really cool appointment yesterday. Her name is Cheryl and she actually called US. woah. She is dating this guy who is a referral from a member ( if that makes sense) She said she was really depressed and needs someone to talk to. We get there and she is balling from the start (worse than me right? :) ) So she starts talking about how are daughters have messed up lives, she is low on money, might loose her house, she is lonely, sad, and wanted to kill herself last week. Sis. Peaden and I are sitting there hearing her whole story, like holy cow. So she's telling us all this stuff, and I said, "so what are you expecting from us coming and seeing you?" she said she needs council, immediately sis. Peaden says, "well as missionaries we do not give council but what we can do is share our message and it will help you." we then gave a lesson on the Atonement. It was really good, she prayed at the end, is coming to General Conference this weekend and hugged us before we left. And you know what? when we left she had a smile on her face! She said, "I'm starting to feel better already!" It was amazing! She had this HUGE list of problems and concerns and you know what the answer to all of them is? the Atonement. I know it can and will change her life. I am now more than ever grateful for my family, for the opportunities I have had in my life, for being blessed with the gospel, for having a good family. And I honestly believe that everything I have been given and taught my whole life has been so that I can now help others. So that I could meet Cheryl and bear witness of a Savior and the healing power that that can bless her life. The gospel is true! Count your blessings everyday. That's advice that Mom has always given me and it has helped me so much here. Jesus Christ lives! and because he lives we can live to! and our burdens can be made light! I am so grateful for the opportunity to share that message with the people here. Can't wait for general conference. It's kind of cool to think we will all be doing the same thing and watching and hearing the same message at the same time. :) I love you all! Thank you for your letters and prayers.

love,
Sister Crane

September 22

Hi everyone,
So some awesome experiences this week! We had all of those appointments, over half fell through but we still taught a TON it was such a blessing and it's continuing on through out this next week. Some investigators have dropped us, but as they do, new ones keep coming! It's amazing! Last week this single mom Karen with her 8 year old daughter Brittany that we are teaching, prayed together! Karen had only prayed one other time and we asked her to pray and she was hesitant so I asked Brittany to pray and Brittany said, "uh I don't know how" and Karen jumped in and said, "I'll help you" and then she walked her through how to pray just like we had walked Karen through how to pray. It was the most amazing experience ever and I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. To see a Mom teach her daughter to pray to her Heavenly Father, because we had knocked on her door and taught her how to pray to her Heavenly Father, wow. It was an experience of a life time.

In other news, we are still teaching Casey a single mom of 2 who knows the church is true but she doesn't think she's ready to be baptized yet. We tried to set a date with her, but she said she's not ready and she says that she will pray about the date we gave her of Oct. 23rd. Man oh man. We taught her about the word of wisdom and my personal fav. Law of chastity. haha ya first time teaching that one and boy oh boy is that a humbling one. It was fine, and I am amazed at how bold I am when wearing this name bag, but it's hard because I can't relate to her I just know why we should obey it! I told her about each of my siblings and that if anyone of them were here I knew they would tell her that they were so grateful that they waited and were obedient to that law. It's amazing how I just love Casey so much. I really want her to be baptized and I kept reminding her that it's not about letting us as missionaries down, it's between her and the Lord and she wants to be baptized and is missing out on the blessings that the Lord so freely wants to give her!

The work is great. We are so excited today for P-day we are going to the church getting popcorn and watching old church videos like Labor of Love and The Prodigal Son and seminary videos. We've counted down to it all week. It's hillarious that as a missionary you get so excited about something so ridiculous but it gets me through. And now we get to look forward to going to the temple next Wednesday! ah! Sister Peaden hasn't been for 7 months! crazy huh! but we got permission from the Pres. and a Sister in the branch, Sister Reyes, who is awesome by the way, is going to drive us so we can do a session with sister Hudson! So I get to see my long lost friend again! If in your prayers you could pray that we get to go to the temple that would be wonderful! We are looking forward to it so much, and I'm slightly nervous that something will happen so we can't go. So we have been praying for it every day :) Can't wait!

I love you all thank you so much for your letters and e-mails and prayers! I feel so blessed with support and it helps motivate me so much! thank you thank you!

September 15th

Hello!
So wow this week has been kind of crazy. We have 22 appointments just for this week alone! I don't know if you realize how insane that is! 22! That only happens in places like Mexico and the Phillipines not in Truro Nova Scotia Canada! And if half of them fall through (which unfortunatly that happens sometimes) we would have 11 lessons! Do you know how many we had 2 weeks ago? uhh...like 5 maybe and then if half fell through it was devastating. but 22! 22?! Sister Peaden and I are in shock seriously. So is our district leader. We have more investigators than any missionaries in our District I think. It's crazy. And I really am not trying to boast because I KNOW that it's only through the Lord that this is done. We went and visiting people for a little over an hour yesterday that we've been trying to get a hold of FOREVER it felt like and guess what? We made 5 appointments to return and teach in that time! We were in shock. A LOT of prayers of gratitude were said this week. The Lord is so incredibly merciful.
Sunday was a really hard day. We had made a poster and flyers for our activity and last week 8 appointments fell through which was such a bummer because we had been so excited to implement what we had been taught in leadership training. So at church we are juggling a million things. For one our investigator CAME TO CHURCH! Casey is her name the single Mom of 2 and we had not had ANY one come to church and she came! It was a miracle. So we're trying to help her, another member had her non-member sister there. We had planned to talk to like 8 members to ask to come with us to appointments, everyone we asked said no, and then the other ones we didnt' get a chance to talk to. So I'm freaking out inside feeling so stressed. Oh and 2 less active people who we have been teaching came to church! Which was amazing! The only thing is one of them has a son who was screaming at church! seriously loudest kid I've ever heard and I know how stressful it is to keep kids quiet at church, but the thing is the kid is being so loud and is sitting right next to Casey so I'm praying the whole time that she will hear the speakers and be able to focus and I'm stressing out inside. And to top it all off one of the members came up to me and said something at which I took offense. I won't rehash it because I'm moving on, but lets just say that after the stress of the week and of church alone I came home frustrated and angry. I don't get angry often. And for some reason the mission brings out strong emotions in me it seems. And I was mad. But I knew that we were leaving to go knock and so I knew I needed the Spirit with me or I couldn't teach. Lets just say I prayed a lot. and a lot. And we left and went to work and BAM we get a hold of a girl that we have been trying to get a hold of and we go to her house and teach her! And she even said the closing prayer! It was such a great lesson it was awesome!

....so moral of the story is, when we turn to the Lord we are blessed. The Lord will help us. I feel like I'm learning a lot about facing my problems. I used to love to avoid things, and at home if I had been feeling like I was feeling normally I would just watch TV or sleep it off or something, but here you can't do that. You have to turn to the Lord immediately or you don't have the Spirit with you and you can't teach. It's as simple as that. And it's teaching me a lot!

So anyways i've been learning a lot and we've had a lot of lessons! 4 so far this week and 3 tonight. I'm so excited. I need to work on my patience for sure, because lessons aren't cookie cutter recipes, they are each different, so I'm working on being patient with having the lesson not go exactly as I want it every time.

Good story though. So in Canada you go to the back door. Weird I know, and I feel intrusive everytime we do, but they hardly ever use their front doors. So we are going up this long drive way and it wraps around the back and I Sister Peaden and I are just chatting and all the sudden I see this face of a dog. Now that should be no surprise to me dogs are EVERYWHERE here. But then the dog stands up and well have any of you seen the dog on the movie "beetovhen"? Look it up. This dog was the BIGGEST dog I have ever seen. It could have been a horse. I thing i said something like "Holy SMACKAGE" or something that didn't make sense as I gasped and prepared to run as fast as I could down that hill. Luckily the owner popped out of no where and grabbed the dog. I was in such surprise that I could bearly tell the owner our message with out shaking. I laughed the whole rest of the walk down the street. It was crazy. That dog was a beast. So I guess moral from that story is the Lord protects his servants, big time.

Anyways the work is great. HARD, but great. And each day I still get up and pray to the Lord for help that I will make it through that day, not feel homesick and love the work. And each night as we come in from working I feel exhausted and I thank the Lord for helping me accomplish one more day and for finding joy in the work. The church is true! It really is! And it can change the lives of so many. I'm excited to see those changes. Thank you for your support and prayers. I love you all!

love,
Sister Crane

September 8th

I survived hurricaine Earl! and in fact the day the hurricaine hit I we got more knocking time in done than we did any other day! haha! It wasn't even as exciting as we were hoping for! the power didn't go out or anything! lame! they say 3 more will hit before the end of the year so I'm hoping for some sort of excitment. But I'm glad we were so safe, we had to stay in for part of the day because it was so stormy, and so we deep cleaned which, man oh man does that apartment need! gross. that's all I'll say about that, I think they called sisters into this area mostly for the apartments sake :) So anyways as soon as the rain let up I said, "Sister Peaden lets go!" We both didn't want to, but it was actually a really successful day! Everyone saw how dedicated we were and admired us for it. We got a lot of appointments set up and it was great!

So we're planning this missionary activity for the ward members and I'm so excited about it! Next Saturday we are going to have an activity called "Sweet is the Work" and everyone will bring desserts and we are going to give each member a mission call that says, "you have been called to the Truro Branch" and then give them goals they can accomplish as a missionary for the next month and then President and Sister Simpson are going to come out and do a fireside in a month for them! The coolest part is that it was all our idea and it's actually coming together. And I think the branch we'll seriously feel like it's a celebrity coming out, having the mission pres. come and speak. So hopefully it will get them pumped up to give us referrals. Note to all: give the missionaries referrals, just one, it helps so much! Ok i'm off my soap box, just an idea though :)

Well the real exciting news is that it's leadership training this week! So Tues. through Thurs. we drive up and back to Halifax each day (an hour away) and the mission pres. trains us. About half of the missionaries are there these 3 days 40 of us in total. I have learned so much and to be honest I feel so inadequite. He has just been firing at us with information and on ways to improve and we've been role playing a lot, where we'll pretend to be teaching real investigators to other missionaries. And it is so helpful but man oh man, I just can't help but feel like I have a long way to go! We tried last night to go and apply some of the principles he taught like, "teaching people, instead of teaching lessons" so we went into this lesson with a woman named Karen. She is a single parent. Has a daughter who is 8 and we had taught her twice and actually met her by knocking into her the first week. So we wanted to know if she was really interested because she wasn't reading from the Book of Mormon, so we went in there thinking oh we just need to teach her as a person and forget about the lesson. and so we went from one extreme to the other. From teaching lessons, to teaching her. And guess what. The Spirit wasn't there. We thought about it a lot, and I was really frustrated trying to think what I had done wrong and then Sister Peaden said, "we didn't prepare a lesson!" We went in there unprepared, so of course the Spirit couldn't teach through us! duh! So it's a learning experience. And I am learning slowly, but surely. And I'll get there, I just have such a long way to go.

Life is good. The work is good. I feel like I'm accepting this life style, you know instead of fighting it or wishing I was some where else, I'm here! So I'm trying to just be HERE. It's hard sometimes, but through prayer I'm getting there. One thing I'm really learning this week is how HUGE the Book of Mormon is in our religion. It truly is the keystone of our religion. If we have have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, then we will know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that God lives and loves us! Seems easy to us, but it's huge! And trying to teach this to investigators is harder than it seems, but I know if they'll read it they'll know it! And I'm so grateful for prayer. I take for granted the knowledge of prayer, and some people we teach don't even know God will listen to them. It's so amazing to know that we can pray and that God is listening to us! He is I just know it. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that we can gain and regain our testimony of it every day if we will just read it! really study it. The gospel is true! I really think that Truro is a baptizing area I just know it! There are people here that need us and that have been prepared by the Lord to hear the gospel from Sister Peaden and I. I feel it. Yesterday we stopped by a girls house, Casey, she is cohabitating, has 2 kids and works 4 jobs and does school! yikes I know, and she has met with the missionaries a ton, but for the past 4 weeks I've been here we haven't been able to contact her at all! We prayed for her every single day since we've been here and called her and stopped by I can't even count how many times, but then yesterday we felt good about stopping by just one more time. And BAM she was there! she's coming to church on Sunday and we're teaching her next week and as I left I jumped up and down and wanted to dance through the streets. It was the happiest moment of my mission so far. And I think what made it so amazing was knowing that we had been patient and worked so hard and then after the trial of our faith, God allowed us to know when she was home and we got to talk to her! What a huge blessing! I'm just so happy and can't wait to talk to her more!

Well I love you all, you are in my prayers and I think of you often. I know you will be blessed by me being here, and that I will be too, and I know that the Lord loves each of His children so much. And if we pray and read the scriptures we will know that they are true. Until next week!

Sister Crane