Tuesday, May 24, 2011

May 24th

Wow this week feels like a year! I feel like so much happened. Now let me see if I can even remember any of it! We had leadership training with President this week. We met in New Glasgow, it's about a 45 min. drive away from us. The Sisters who are serving in Montigue on PEI came and stayed with us and I got to experience my very first exchanges! wahoo! I went out with Sister Olsen and we taught Jamichael (the 9 year old) and got him on date for June 25th. Hooray! It was actually pretty cool because we roleplayed our lesson with him at training and the lesson went just like we had role played it. To top it off all 4 of us sisters prayed about his date and didn't feel good about the original one so we chose June 25th and felt good about it. Turns out June 25th is his grandma's birthday and he was really excited he said it could be her birthday present. So cool! I'm really excited for him. He said the best prayer at the end of the lesson too.
Leadership training was really good, but as always a humbling experience. President wants us to do our "door approaches" differently. He wants us to rely on the Spirit more and go straight into the doctrine, rather than just saying, "Hi we're just coming around the neighborhood to share a message about God and Jesus Christ, are you religious at all?" His new way of doing it involves being a lot more bold, asking people if we can come in, and not really having a system of what your going to say. It's been hard to say the least. I got so used to doing it the other way that this is scary. Yesterday Sister Glenn was such a pro, she told this guy Nick that Christ's church had been restored and then asked, "what would that mean to you to know that Christ's church has been restored and is on the earth today?" I always flinch at those questions because it sounds so deep for a 30 second conversation. But he responded surprisingly with, "It would mean a lot actually, I don't think a lot of people talk about that kind of stuff today." There was a pause as Sister Glenn and I stood there stund, like "who is this golden potential?" I chimmed in with something like, "well ya it's true! Christ's church is on the earth today!" and then we talked about the Book of Mormon and we have an appointment with him tonight. I'm so excited, and grateful that Sister Glenn was so bold.
Yesterday we went to Victoria park with Casey and her kids. Victoria park is this beautiful park smack dab in the middle of Truro. You can take a 5 minute walk up to a waterfall, or climb up 174 steps of "Jacob's Ladder", which I'm totally sore from. It's really gorgeous. It was so fun to just go and see something on a preparation day. I loved it. What I do not love is these stupid bugs called black flies. Black flies look like nats but are about twice the size. They bite and it hurts big time and they love to take bits of flesh out of your skin. Wow am I too graphic for you or what? They are nasty, and I don't remember them last year, so I'm hoping they go away ASAP! yuck.
We also had a fireside by the temple President and his wife, the Robinson's. They are from central Utah and recently served a mission in Africa. He was in the temple presidency in Nigeria at the Aba temple, and apparently the Aba temple is almost identical to the Halifax temple which he is now president of. How cool is that? There stories were incredible! I hope I get to serve a mission in Africa with my husband one day, it looks incredible. Apparently they had to end their mission early because of some kidnappings and the temple was closed for a year until they could train a new temple president in Africa. Craziness.
We also got 3 new investigators this week. 2 of them are a couple, Julie and Michael. They have an 8 month old son. They have def. been prepared by the Lord and it's so exciting to hear their concerns and think, "the gospel has the answer to all of those!" I'm excited to continue teaching them. Oh some really sad news, Heather's Mom passed away this week. Heather seems to be doing well though. I'm really grateful she has the gospel in her life to help her through it.
We find out transfers next Monday. The idea of leaving Truro is sad. I hope to get at least one more transfer in, there's still more that I want to do and especially in helping our recent converts. I'm so grateful for the 10 1/2 months I have had here. The members are incredible. I love the gospel. One thing I learned this week is that God knows me personally. I've believed it, but this week I know it. It's incredible, and a little scary too, because since God knows me so well, I better watch my thoughts, and my actions every part of every day. I'm so grateful that God hears are prayers, even the silent ones of our hearts. How amazing, He has so many children and He loves them all enough to listen to each of them. It's incredible. The church is true, this I know!

Love,
Sister Crane

Monday, May 16, 2011

May 16th

Why do I keep getting sick? I don't know what it is but it's getting on my nerves. I have a cold, and it's still lingering. Despite the sickness setback, we still got a lot done this week and taught a lot! The best news of all is that GREG IS BAPTIZED! Hoooray! Seriously I can't believe he's baptized. As he went into the water Sister Glenn and I looked at eachother like, "is this really happening?" Greg gave us such a hard time for so long and FINALLY he did it. He was so happy all day, he couldn't stop smiling. The baptism and the confirmation went really smoothly. Sister Glenn sang "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" and I played for her. She got a bit choked up and I was surprised I didn't. The only part that I was crying at was when Verna Priest gave a talk. I met Sister Priest with Sister Peaden back in September and we started teaching her, she got baptized in November and she was my first baptism. Greg asked her to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. She was so nervous since it was her first talk, but she was so good! I felt like a proud mother sitting on the side lines of my childs soccer game, except I was rooting for her in my head. "You can do it, go Verna go!" haha It's amazing how in just 7 months, she has grown immensley. I'm so grateful that I was able to witness her growth so far. She's amazing.
This week we got 3 new investigators! So exciting! 2 of them have formerly been taught and we picked them back up, Allen, and Jennifer. Allen lives in Brookfield which is a 20 minute drive outside of town. He conveniently lives down the street from the famous Brookfield bakery, well it's famous to me. They have the best cookies ever! ah! so good! I won't even tell you how many I ate in one day. I'm thinking we need to find more investigators in Brookfield...if you know what I mean... Jennifer is really great, she's a single Mom of 2 and is so nice. She knew some members and so she just welcomed us in her home. She said that she always trys to welcome the missionaries because she thinks about how we have families and that there are people missing us and she just has to let us in. :) The other new investigator is a 9 year old named Jamichael. His parents are semi-active in the church and are super nice. We've been wanting to visit them for a long time, but it was hard to pin-point a time. Jamichael's mom, is the one who came up to us and told us she wanted Jamichael to get baptized and be taught. He's a smart kid and knows a lot about the gospel already. It's always challenging teaching kids though, it really tests you on what you know and understand about the gospel. So far his main question was if he got to plug his nose when he gets baptized. We assured him he did.
We're working with a lot of less-actives and recent converts lately. One of them is Delcia. She is the nicest lady who is unfortunatly allergic to scents, extremely. That's pretty common in the meritimes to be allergic to scents. The temple is a scent free zone and they are working on having our chapel be scent free too. She hasn't come to church in a long time because of it. We met her a few weeks ago and have been visiting her and she came to church yesterday! It was so exciting to see her. She did have a bad reaction and was coughing a bit, but she was happy she made it through sacrament meeting. She said she really missed it. I hope she keeps coming, and doesn't have a bad reaction everytime.
Heather and Wanda are still doing great. Now that they are baptized they want to get involved in the activities. We had a really cool experience with Heather on Monday. I had written about how Wanda had had a cool spiritual experience, she was praying and all the sudden she teared up and became red and bashful. After later talking with her she described that she was feeling the Spirit. Well, Heather had a similar experience when we were with her. She was giving the closing prayer and began to cry she said she felt like a burning in her heart, like a match had just been lit. She felt the Spirit! It was so neat! It's so exciting when you get to see other people experience truth!
Now that 3 of our golden investigators are baptized, it's off to find more golden investigators. Most of the people we're seeing are being, well flakey. They are either crazy busy, or who knows. We keep trying, and we'll keep finding. This week the Sister's from Montigue on PEI are coming for exchanges. I'm really excited, hopefully with all 4 of us we can find more people to teach! The church is true. God does hear and answer prayers. I'm grateful to be serving in Truro right now. I've met such amazing people. Serving people really does help you to love them and see them how God does. It's amazing how that works. It's also amazing how you can find yourself in serving other people. The world would have you believe that you should put yourself first, have some "me" time. But because of the Savior we know that when we loose ourself in the service of others, that's where we find ourselves and our needs our taken care of. I'm grateful to be able to serve.

Love,
Sister Crane

Monday, May 9, 2011

Baptism Day










Wanda and Heather's baptisms






May 9th, 2011

If April showers bring May flowers, then what do May showers bring? Sun in June? I hope so. It's warmer, but rainy. This week though, was the best ever! We reached/ exceeded all of our goals. We got 10 member presents and over all taught 21 lessons, which was our goal. We weren't sure we could do it, but it happened! HOORAY! Yesterday was so good, we hadn't found a new investigator all week and we decided to go see a potential, Lisa. She had time to talk to us right then, so we taught her and got a return appointment for Tuesday. She's really cool, has 4 kids, and she sees that her kids need to go to church and have a positive influence. We told her all about primary, and she's excited for them to check it out. She says exactly what she's thinking and is so straight forward. She kept saying she could, "see the Lord through Sister Glenn's eyes." She said it seriously like 10 times, and would apologize each time for being so blunt. Lisa then looked at me and said, "you can see the Lord through you too, but it's in your talking, you have a calming voice, and you make people feel comfortable, you know you're friendly." hahah Thanks Lisa. She then went on to say that she felt so bad for going off on Sister Glenn's eyes and she wanted something nice about me to say. Awesome. Oh Lisa, it's ok we all know Sister Glenn's your favorite, I'm over it. In our next appointment I think I'll keep a tally of how many times she comments on her eyes, I'll let you know :)
Yesterday we also got someone on date! Larry is on date for June 18th! I'm so excited for him! We can't see him that often because of his work schedule but I know he can be prepared by then, if he'll take the time to read and pray. It was really exciting to get him on date because sadly this week Craig dropped us. His Mom and step Dad are mad, infact I think it was his step dad, but a man who claimed to work for Craig called us this week and told us to stop visiting him and that Craig isn't interested, he's just too scared to tell us that. 5 minutes later Craig calls and tells us that his Mom's really upset and he wants to cancel the whole thing. He wouldn't even let us come and talk to him about it. Lame. It's so sad when that happens, you get so excited about it and then the adversary comes in, it's ok in the end we'll win, Craig will become a member, just not on May 28th.
oh Oh OH! Hello! WE HAD A BAPTISM! haha how can you forget that? Wanda and Heather are the newest members of the church! The baptism went really well. well.....just one minor slip up...literally. So we're all sitting there with the doors closed to the font waiting for them to get baptized. I'm playing some prelude and then all the sudden we hear a *splash* and a scream. Apparently Heather took a step into the font and went diving into the water. Luckily President Mahoney was there to catch her. After the baptisms we went up to them and asked, "how do you feel?" We were expecting something like, "oh amazing! I feel so good!" and Heather's response was, "A little sore." hmmm well at least she didn't break anything, but seriously, I'm so glad she didn't get hurt, it was a little scary. Wanda said she didn't want to leave the font because it was so warm, she compared it to a hot tub, glad we could make it warm for you Wanda. haha. The confirmations were beautiful, and Wanda commented on the warm feeling she felt after it. I still can't believe they are members and it all worked out. I get so nervous for baptisms, it's such a relief to see it work out!
Also this week we had a not so fun experience with a creepy man. We knocked on Angus' door a week ago and he invited us in, we told him we couldn't at that time but would come back and teach him, his reply was that he would love that but he also wanted to teach us a thing or too and see if it would, "rock our faith" I replied very shortly with, "that's not possible." I seriously don't even know why we went back, except that he said he was willing to learn. Gah. He so was not. The beginning of the lesson went well but by the end it was AWFUL! He goes off about Sunday, how the Sabbath is supposed to be on Saturday. I showed him Acts 20:17, how the apostles changed it to Sunday in rememberance of Christ's ressurection. He said that was a mistranslation. How do you argue against that point, other than saying, no it's not? He went off about it raising his voice not quite enough to be yelling, yet enough to feel like you wanted to get out of there. He then says to me, "are you hearing what I'm saying? I want this to ring in your ears!" Ugh. Yes I was listening, I just didn't want to argue with the man. Then if that's not enough he just has to say the one thing I've heard since forever just to get me ticked, "how old are you anyway? 18, 19?"...."I'm 22" "ohhhhhhhh well you're still learning, I've been at this for a long time, I've suffered for the knowledge I have...yada yada." Anyways we got out of there quick. The next day, he calls. I was SOOOOOOOO grateful that Sister Glenn answered. The funny thing was he was calling to apologize, but he just made it worse by saying exactly what he said before, just justifying it. He said he wanted to meet with us again, but this time we know better. No way jose. Perhaps this was just a lesson on humility. It just goes to show you that the people who will listen to us have to be humble, because ya we are young, but we do have knowledge that they don't have yet, and to accept it you have to be teachable. I have a lot more respect for those who actually listen, now more than ever. I learned that and maybe I showed stop wearing bows in my hair...when will these people take me seriously? :)
The church is SOOOOO true! I love this work! I love that I get to be apart of it and see miracles happen. We're so excited for Greg's baptism this Saturday, I know he'll be beaming and we will be too. One thing I learned this week is the importance of the Sabbath day. It's so interesting how things you've known all your life suddenly click in your head, and bam, you've got it. I thought I did get it but now I know I do. I was reading in the bible dictionary how the Sabbath day is an eternal principle! how cool is that? If it's an eternal principle, then it must be important to obey it. I love that I get to learn so much and so quickly, I just want to soak up as much information as I can while I'm here. The scriptures are true. God lives and answers prayers. Thank you for your prayers and love!

Love,
Sister Crane

Monday, May 2, 2011

Mission Tour with Elder Golden




Elder Golden and a few zones



Sister Swaine




Us!





























Welcome to Truro!


The Mackay Bridge



In Halifax with some missionaries

It's MAY

Yay May is here! Yet it feels like winter. How does that work? Oh well soon the humidity will be here and I'll be wishing back the cold wind.....maybe....So this week was sooooo busy! And so great! Our new investigator, Craig, is on date to be baptized on May 28th. He came to church yesterday and he said he really loved it. He says he's really nervous to get baptized but I think after coming to church he feels more reassured. Greg, who's getting baptized on the 14th, immediately took Craig to see the baptismal font. haha I love it, our investigators helping each other out, it's the best.
On Thursday we met Elder Golden of the seventy. He and his wife are from South Africa and have these beautiful accents. It was so cool, at the begining we all line up ( I felt like I was in a wedding line) and what he did was he came to each of us one by one, shook our hands and starred us in the eye while he talked to us for a minute and then went to the next person. He just held my hand the whole time as he starred into my soul...ok maybe not...but it kind of felt that way. He was really nice and I was taking notes like crazy while he spoke. I played the piano for the meeting which I was kind of nervous about, but now that I've played in front of a general authority I think I can play in front of anyone. :) Then at the beginning of the meeting President Simpson gets up there and says, "We will now hear from 4 of you and will ask you to bear your testimony of something that you have learned on your mission thus far. Sister Crane you'll be first." of course. My heart was beating so fast I had no idea what to say. Seriously my mind was blank, yet some how I managed to say my testimony and as I ended I heard a loud "AMEN" from Elder Golden....hopefully that was a good sign. Some of the things that I learned from Elder Golden are:
-Trust your first thought, If you are being obedient then that first thought is most likely from the Spirit
-distrust the second thought. There is opposition in all things so the 2nd thought is most likely from the adversary
(by the way he said that those 2 pieces of information are not formal doctrine, they are his own but they have been tested)
-Atheism is just an intellectual excercise
-When you know thoroughly the laws of God it protects you and then more laws will be revealed to you
-When being exactly obedient you have to give yourself some room for error. Forinstance if we get up at 6:30am, that's late.
To be exactly obedient you would get up at 6:29am.
I have so many other things I learned, but those are the ones that stick out most. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to learn from him, especially while being a missionary. The rest of the time in Halifax was good. It was crazy to drive in the city, I've gotten so used to the small town of Truro, I was slightly nervous about finding my way, but thank goodness we did. It was so nice to talk to the other Sister's too. I got to see my old companions Sister Peaden and Sister Hudson. Sister Hudson and I are trying to convince President to put us together next transfer...we'll see if that one actually happens...it was worth a shot at least :)
We also got a new investigator this week! Kelly, she's incredible. She's one of those who has been so prepared by the Lord to hear our message. She minored in religious studies and has been looking for a church to go to for a while. I'm excited to teach her again.
On Sunday we had SOOO many people to church! I felt like the congregation was so much bigger because we had visitors! It was awesome. Greg, Craig, and Sabrina, out of our investigators came (Heather and Wanda were sick). And then we had 3 other visitors! One was Casey's friend, Diana, she came to support Casey because Casey taught our Gospel Principles class for her first time! She did great. The other visitors were Satvir and Katherine. We knocked into Satvir (she's from India) she didn't want to meet with us right away but wanted to come to church and brought her friend, this older lady Katherine. I couldn't believe they actually came. The best part was that they hit it off with a visitor from Ontario. The visiting sister sat with them and came to class with them and answered their questions. I was so amazed that she wasn't even apart of the branch, yet took on that resposibility as a member of the church. She set a great example for me. During the sacrament portion of the meeting, I heard Katherine asking all of these questions like, "what's sacrament? am I allowed to take it? do I chew the bread?" (in the Catholic faith you can't chew it, you have to wait for it to disintegrate in your mouth) We're hoping we get to meet with them soon.
This week was so crazy busy and this next week looks like it will be too. I love that! We have a lot of appointments, I just hope they all happen. Our goal is to teach 20 lessons a week (lessons to investigators, members, recent converts, or less actives) Last week we had 17 and this week we were so close and then on Sunday half of our appointments fell through so we got 16. We've planned it out again and we're hoping this week we'll actually reach it! I'm excited for Heather and Wanda's baptism on Saturday, I just hope they start feeling better soon so they can get baptized!
The church is true! I'm grateful to be serving at this time and to help the people of Atlantic Canada. I keep having "Oh Canada" stuck in my head. I'm determined to get the words right by the end of my mission, maybe I can memorize it in french too! Thank you for your love and support!

Love,
Sister Crane