September 26th, 2011

Almost. You know when Paul teaches King Agrippa and at the end of this beautiful conversion story that Paul tells King Agrippa says, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." That was our week. So we're improving right? We went from sq 1 to almost. I hope this week will be a definately!

This week we taught a lot of people who were close to being investigators, or close to changing their lives, close to gaining a testimony, but because of that darn agency, they just won't do it. Dag nabit all. We taught this less-active family, forinstance, who are now questioning if God exists yet they aren't willing to take another chance and find out that He is there. If only they could know the blessings they and their family would receive by just knowing that God is there and real and by acting on it. We taught one guy named Robbie. We had knocked on his door and he told us to come back another time and so we did and we got to teach him. The lesson went really well until he told us that he couldn't read the Book of Mormon because he had so many other things to read and to do. We asked him what he thinks he would gain from reading it and knowing that it's true. He agreed that he would gain a lot, yet he wasn't willing to do it. He even sat there for a while in silence pondering whether he should or not. I don't know about you but when I see a delicious looking chocolate cake I don't question, I know I'm going to eat it because it will taste so good! Oh that darn agency.

We do have investigators that are doing really great though! Let me tell you about them. Jing and Chen are amazing! They are crazy busy with school yet they make time for our visits. They are waiting to be baptized until they can get married in China, but we're trying to get them to see that they don't have to wait to be baptized, they can have those blessings now! We taught them seperately this week and asked them each why they wanted to be baptized. Their answers were incredible. Jing said, "I want to because #1 it says that I need to in the Book of Mormon and the Bible and so that I can have the Spirit and #2 because it will wash away my sins and the sacrament doesn't mean anything to me until after I get baptized." After she said that all I could say in reply was, "wow, that was the best answer ever." haha When we asked Chen why he wanted to be baptized he held up the Book of Mormon and said, "because I trust this." Simple, straight to the point. ah! They are so amazing, I hope that i get to witness their baptisms.

The Thomas family is doing well! We went and saw them yesterday and taught them how to pay tithing. I brought my little coin purse with 10 pennies in it, poured it out and told them I wanted to pay my tithing but didn't know how. They gladly helped me and filled out the tithing slip. It's so much more fun teaching kids sometimes :) At the end we gave them this giant poster we had made, on it, it has a chart for their reading and praying every day. They get to put stickers on each day that they read their scriptures and pray and they get a gold star for coming to church. Andrew, the youngest was so excited. He immediately started putting a gold star on the poster even though the week hadn't started yet. When we got to the car after the lesson he came running out to tell us that he had put the poster up already. Kids are so smart. In the lesson I asked this question, "what can we give to God?" It was going to be a retorical question because I was trying to make a point that we can't give God money and so tithing isn't about money, but immediately Adam and Andrew raised their hands in the air. Adam said we can give God love and Andrew said we can give him our sins. Woah. pretty incredible answers.

The best part about being a missionary...ehh let me change that, ONE of the best things is that people give you stuff. I love it. They think, "hmmm I have no use for that, the missionaries must want it...hmmm I won't eat that, let's give it to the missionaries!" On Wednesday it was like that all day. We went to help out at the community kitchen and one of the volunteers there just happened to make a chocolate cake from scratch and thought we would like to take the leftovers home. Costco also recently opened up in Fredericton so they donate a truck load of bread to the kitchen every day. The staff invited us to take some bread that had just arrived. Saweet! ...except...we're on bikes. How do we carry all of this stuff? I have no clue, but we made it work. Jerome then came to our appointment with samosas. ya buddy. Samosas are really popular here, they are these triangled shaped fried things with meat in them. not too shabby. It's the best, our cupboards were full and I was full with chocolate cake. The perfect combination.

I feel like as my mission is getting closer and closer to ending I'm trying to cram in all of the knowledge I possibly can. I love reading the scriptures. I love how much more I know the scriptures since being on a mission. Sometimes I don't feel all that different from when I left to now. One thing I do know is that I'm so grateful for the knowledge I've received since being here. It's exciting learning about the gospel and seeing my testimony grow through that knowledge and light. I can't wait for general conference! It feels like just yesterday that I was watching it last fall in Truro for my first conference on my mission. Pretty crazy. Aren't the leaders of the church so amazing?! I can't wait! Have a great week!



Love,

Sister Crane

These are pictures of the ride back from Lincoln and a pic with a member, Sis. Theriault.

September 19th

Well I have been sufficiently humbled. Our teaching pool is at an all time low and I couldn't be more excited to get to work! This week was rough to say the least. We dropped a lot of people. Our district leader was stunned at our numbers. We were too. But man oh man have I learned a lot in just one short week. You ever have a day like that? Where nothing seems to go right? That was our week. Cancellation after cancellation. None of our investigators came to church. It was so heartbreaking. When Sister Davis and I had our weekly planning session it was a wake up call. After inspiration and prayer and work, we have a vision of what we want to accomplish here. We think that the Lord is telling us that we need to loose ourselves in the work and FIND people to teach. So we're off and it's an exciting adventure.
On Wednesday we decided to make the brave attempt of biking back from Lincoln. Lincoln is a bordering town to Fredericton. It takes about 15 minutes on the bus to get there. Biking back seemed like it wouldn't be too bad. WRONGO. We left and it was getting dark fast. Then the rain came. Yike. So we're biking down and it's freezing pouring rain and dark and cars are zooming by and I'm thinking, "doesn't it say in the handbook to avoid riding after dark?!" ah! We keep forgetting that the summer is over and so it gets dark earlier every day. By december it will be dark by 4pm. We made it safely but man on man was I sore and tired and wet. I never really believed that you could get sick from being out in the rain, now I know. I had a bad cold the rest of the week because of it. Lesson learned? nope
The next day I have a nasty cold and we still have to bike. For some reason it's WINTER here. Why? I have no clue! I thought it was september not november. It got to +2 degrees celcius. That's cold. why? why Canada? At the end of the night if we're working down town we have to take a bus that gets us up the hill but it drops us off to a spot that's a 15 minute bike ride to our house. So here we are biking at night AGAIN and as we get on our bikes (literally) it begins to rain. So we bike and bike and bike and the rain gets nasty, then comes the wind and I'm thinking, "I'm sick! gah!" The worst part is that I'm wearing glasses. Rain + glasses = can't see. For the rest of the bike ride I'm staring at the red light beaming from Sister Davis' bike and thinking, " keep your eye on the light" everything else was a blurr. We made it home. Lesson learned? I sure hope so.
The nice thing about the cold though is that people think we're nuts and so they let us in. This one lady we knocked into started laughing and said, "It's dark! and it's cold! What are you girls doing out here?" I said, "we're here to talk to you!" She was nice enough to let us in the doorway and we talked with her for a bit. We've had some really interesting discussions with people lately. It's amazing the diversity of opinions and views that people have in this city. Most people make up what they believe in and then either look for a church that comes closest to that or don't go to a church at all. The best excuse ever at a door that I have EVER had of why they can't talk to us was given by this lady yesterday who just had jaw surgery and her mouth was wired shut. You win. Every one else your excuses are lame compared to that.
I'll briefly share one of the interesting discussions I had with someone this week. She was from Scotland, an older lady and we knocked on her door. Immediately as I looked in her eyes there was something missing lack of light, or the Spirit in other words. We began to talk and she said that she had no belief in God. I asked her what she thought our everyday actions led to. Nothing, she said. "we are atoms, my dear, and so atoms we will become, maybe my atoms will evolve into a horse or something." I told her I thought that was so sad. I asked her if there was anyone in her life that she would like to be with forever. No, was her reply. She kept saying that we had so much to learn and needed to experience more things in life. I agreed and told her that I certainly hope I keep learning and have experiences because there is so much for me to learn! She laughed at my comment and I explained that although we don't know everything what we do know we are sure of and that is that there is a God. After the discussion she actually said she enjoyed talking with us and wished us luck, but I left so sad that she wouldn't accept and the truth was starring her in the face. Sister Davis had sad something earlier to me that I thought was really profound. God sends out missionaries because we don't know everything. We don't need to. That's the whole point. We just need to know enough. Through small and simple things are great things brought to pass. In D&C section 1 it even talks about that how the simple things of the earth will break down the great and mighty. I do know that God lives and knows us personally and that is enough to teach His word.
The Gospel is incredible! Ah! It's so amazing! Do you ever have an "Ah-Hah!" moment in the gospel? I love those. It passes all my understanding how God could have such a marvelous and perfect plan. It's brilliant. I'm so grateful to know what I know. It's so cool! for lack of a better word. Lately in my scriptures I've been highlighting the basic principles of the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Do you know how many times it says those words in the scriptures? So many! And they are rarely if ever mentioned on their own, one of those words is usually coupled with another because one leads to another. ie: faith leads to repentance, or baptism is incomplete without the gift of the Holy Ghost. It's so cool! How could any of this stuff be made up? It's just not possible.
I am so excited to go out and be those fishers and hunters like it says in Jeremiah 16:16 and find these people to teach! I'm ready! I'm so grateful that God humbles us and brings us low so that we can see that He is the one who is raising us up. It's all about Him. Without Him we could not do this. The church is true! This is the most important work that I could be doing and it's so wonderful!
Love,
Sister Crane

Delicious Donairs!!

Here's some pics with my companion. The thing I'm eating is a donair. They're not FDA approved in the US. Something about the way they process the meat. Sketchy.

More food and friends

September 12

I just came from a funeral. I hope this e-mail isn't too much of a drag because of it. An 11 year old passed away from cancer. I never got to meet him, but his parents are in the ward here and Sister Davis knows them well. It's so sad to see people grieve. Everything we teach is so important, but sometimes it gets routine until something like this wakes you up and you realize how each of God's children needs to know what we know. Life is so short. I see all of these college students and high school students on the streets down town and think, "what do they think the purpose of life is?" "do they understand their potential?" How sad that more people won't accept our message. But how wonderful it is for those who are humble and who are seeking for truth and light. My testimony has been reaffirmed that there is life after death, and what we teach is real and of great importance.
The Thomas family is a less-active family here. The sisters have been teaching them for a few months. Their daughter Anita is 12 and their son Adam is 8. We had challenged the family to think about and pray about a date that their kids could prepare for baptism. Last night they told us that they decided on Oct. 15th! We're so excited for them! I love going over to their house, their kids are so full of energy. Families are so important and I know that by them preparing together as a family for the baptisms that they will be even more unified.
Pegah came to church on Sunday. She's the one we met last week who is from Iran. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly to her! I love it when members talk to our investigators. Even if they just say hi and introduce themselves, oh man I get so excited! It means so much to a missionary to see members take the intiative and be so kind. Pegah seemed to like church, but she only came here 10 months ago so she couldn't understand some of the speakers. I'm grateful that the Spirit speaks all languages. :)
Speaking of which! Elder Oaks gave this phanominal talk at the CES broadcast last night! He talked about the 2 twin pillars of truth and tolerance. Highly recommend reading it! I love how bold he his. He just lays it out for you clearly so you can't misunderstand. If only I could teach with that clarity and boldness like he does.
I'm so grateful to have been blessed with the knowledge of the gospel all my life. It's amazing how much we take for granted. Last night as we watched the broadcast one of the YSA members here asked me if I had ever gotten the chance to be in that building that it was being broadcast at. I said that I had, that that in fact was my school. She asked me what it looked like and I told her about the Marriot center. How amazing is it that I've gotten to be in that room with apostles and prophets and hear them speak! I just can't say enough how much I've realized on my mission how blessed I am, and how selfish I have been. How lazy. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father allows His children the opportunity to serve, that He has allowed me to come here and to look outside myself and to help someone in whatever way I can. What we share is true. God does live, He does know us by name, and our Savior lives and we will live again too. If only I could help others see how important our message is and how it applies to them! I'm so grateful for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Without it I would not be able to do this work. I'm grateful for this time that I have on a mission to focus on eternal things. I get so caught up in day-to-day matters and so often forget about our eternal progression. What a blessing and a gift to have the gospel restored on the earth today! To have the chance to be apart of Christ's restored church! To be able to repent because of our Savior. I'm so grateful for the temple and for the authority that was restored to the earth to bind families together eternally. This is a great and a marvelous work and I'm grateful to be apart of it.
Love,
Sister Crane

September 6

I think it's so hillarious when people tell me to my face that I'm brainwashed. It's so funny, because if they really understood what missionary work was like they would know that not even the most intensely brainwashed person would do this kind of work. Oh these people, if only they knew.
This week was so great! We didn't teach as much as I wanted to but it's picked back up since yesterday and we are ready to go! Happy Labor day everyone, I hope you enjoyed it, I don't think Canadians really celebrate it, it's just another day off of work for them as usual. That means good news for us because we found so many people at home! woop woop! And we got a new investigator! hooray! Her name is Pergah and get this, she's from IRAN! how cool is that? I'll tell you...SO COOL! She speaks persian. (I know even cooler) and she's searching! She was Muslim all her life, but moved here 8 months ago and started exploring Christianity. In our lesson yesterday she kept saying, "I want to be sure, I want to feel it in my heart." It was such a cool lesson and she had so many great questions. Now we just need to figure out how to get a Persian Book of Mormon ASAP. Sister Davis and I have decided we're going to get a globe and for all of the people we teach we'll mark there countries in one color and for all of the people we meet we'll mark their countries in another. It's insane how many times I've met some one, asked them where they are from, and then thought, "where is that?" I really need to brush up on my geography.
Jerome, who is our investigator from the Phillipines is doing so great! He's now successfully completed the 7 day stop smoking program! We've set a few baptismal dates with him, but they've always been delayed. Sister Davis and I wanted him to feel prepared so we set Oct. 8th, but when we asked him about it he said, "oh I was hoping it would be sooner!" ya you were! sweet! So he chose September 30th, and we all prayed about it together. I am so impressed with these people that I've seen who have given up addictions. It's tough stuff! The cravings never really go away for them but they do it, and it's pretty amazing.
Jing and Chen are our investigators from China. They are the cutest couple ever. Jing likes to talk and Chen doesn't. Whenever Jing tries to explain something and Chen thinks that she's talking to much he'll say, "ok ok" and try to stop her and then she slaps him on the leg or pinches him. It's really so funny watching them interact. They also have the most amazing questions and insights! Chen said yesterday how he felt the Spirit at church, or a "gut feeling" as he called it, while people were bearing their testimonies. He then went on to say that in the church he keeps hearing everyone say, "I know this is true, or that is true." but he wants to hear the process not just the end result. It thought that was a pretty cool note. I love foreigners, they are so bold and straight to the point. And when they try to express themselves in English, they choose different words than you would expect. Forinstance a lot of our Asian investigators explain the Spirit as "confidence." Isn't that cool?
For the life of me I cannot figure out why Canadians do not frost their cinnamon rolls! WHY? That is the best part! I just don't get it. Please someone explain this to me. We recently ate over at Sister Lyons house. She is a baker by profession so lets just say it was pretty much the best meal ever! We had rolls, and battin bread (fried goodness), and homemade donuts! ah! so good! She took them right out of the deep frier and we rolled them in sugar and boy was it good. Members have been so nice about feeding us lately. Such a blessing.
Oh ya, we had zone conference this week! It was so good! President and Sister Simpson came and the missionary couple who are in charge of our mental health came and spoke. They cover a TON of missions, so it was cool to meet them and hear what they had to say. I felt like I was in one of my marriage and family classes at BYU. I love it when President and Sister Simpson come and visit. They really are the parents of the mission. Sister Simpson always expresses her love for us at the begginning of meetings, it's so nice to have them here.
Can you believe September is here? I can't. Time has just flown by and continues on. I've lately been thinking about all the things that I've learned on my mission. I can't imagine the kind of person I would have been if I hadn't of gone. It's crazy. One thing I'm very grateful for is the Spirit. At doors lately people have been complimenting me on being very articulate. It's such a nice compliment, but they don't realize that it's not me, it's that they are feeling the Spirit! There's this really cool scripture in 1 Corinthians 2:4. It explains it so well. I could not do this work without the Spirit. Nothing I say to these people could really touch their hearts without the Spirit. I'm so grateful for the amazing power of the Holy Ghost that can touch my heart and help give me power so that our message can then be carried to their hearts. The church is true! And even if so many people think I am brainwashed, at least I know I'm not, I have found the truthfullness of this gospel and that is why I chose to come and continue to stay, it's all because it's true. No one needs to convince you the Book of Mormon is true, it does it all on it's own. Thank you for your letters, and your support!
Love,
Sister Crane