My companion likes to take pictures from the car.

Looks like somebody got new mattresses?

To All:

LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW! Snow already? Yes indeed. We had our first snow storm yesterday. wahoo. The only thing I don't like about the snow is that we have to cancel some appointments that are far away sometimes because of it. Luckily by the end of yesterday it turned into slushy rain so we were able to get around safely. I can't imagine what it would have been like on a bike. yuck. Definatly counting my blessings on that one!

This week was awesome! Seriously it was. How do I possibly explain how awesome a mission is in an e-mail? I have trouble with it because you can't describe the amazing feeling you have serving the Lord. It's the best feeling ever! This week we had leadership training woot woot! That means that our whole zone gathered and President and Sister Simpson came to train us. We also had 2 guest speakers there too. One was the Stake President, President Pattison and the CES representative for our area, Brother Pilling. I was stolked to hear from Brother Pilling, since I want his job when I grow up! They gave wonderful trainings and we learned a lot more about institute and how important it is to get our investigators there. At the end of all of it we had a small testimony meeting. The Spirit was there in abundance and President got up at the end and the tears flowed as he expressed his love for us and how much God loves His missionaries. Of course I was balling by the end of it too. It was such a mix of emotions because this is the last leadership training I'll attend on my mission. I hate that. Can't I just be a missionary forever?!

Our investigators are sooooo awesome! Ah! I have so many stories and so little time so I'll just share a few with you! So we go last night to see the Thomas family. As you remember they are less active but a few of their kids haven't been baptized yet so we're working on getting their whole family closer to the Savior. So last night was awesome! We played that trust game where you fall and another person has to catch you and then shared the story of Peter and Jesus walking on the water and how he caught him but Peter had to have faith. At one point I began to bear my testimony of God and how much He loves them and wants to talk to them through prayer. BAM all eyes were on me. The kids were settled and no one broke eye contact. I know why, they felt the Spirit. As I spoke I said anything and everything that the Spirit whispered to my heart to say. After I ended Sister Lorenc then said, "I testify that everything that Sister Crane said is true." wow. how powerful. Seriously to work in complete unity and to see them actually obsorb the information. Wow. Ok so that's not even the BEST part. Then we ask them if they've been praying as a family like we challenged them to, and guess what? THEY DID! They prayed everyday as a family and they noticed a DIFFERENCE! AHHH! You could not wipe the smile off of our faces! They were even smiling about it too! They said they did better in school and their days were just better in general because of it! AH! I may not ever get to baptize an entire family on my mission but being able to see this family accomplish so much together is the same in value to me.

Samantha is so awesome! She came to stake conference and said that all of the talks made her get teary eyed, she loved it so much. We taught her a few times this week and last night as we had our lesson with her at the end we all just sighed and she goes, "I can't believe I met you girls on a bus!" haha. We all laughed and talked about how amazing it is that God directs us in our lives and places us in eachothers paths for a reason.

JEROME came to Institute! WHA? The crazy part is we didn't even tell him about it. A YSA who comes teaching with us a lot, Andrea, she texted him! And he CAME! ah! so cool. Oh and get this AFFE came teaching with us! haha That's right an INVESTIGATOR CAME TEACHING WITH US! We told her we had gotten a new chinese investigator and so she volunteered to come with us! It was so cool. She translated some of it and bore her testimony of church. ah! love it! This new chinese investigator, her name is Vivian. She's super cute. She's married and has a 5 year old son. She knows almost nothing about God. We met at the church and she told us that she had never really been inside a church before. When we started the lesson we taught her how to pray and at the end she even said her very first prayer! how cool is that?! To be able to witness someone's first prayer ever! ah! During the lesson it was soooooo cool. She read in Chinese the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction and after told us that she felt this warm feeling as she was reading it! And then she had trouble translating into english what she was trying to say but she said that her voice got softer as she read it and she didn't know why. We told her IT'S THE SPIRIT! It's true! And then we talk about baptism and I tell her about how she can be completely clean and follow God more fully and she gets big eyed and says, "oh I hope I can do that!" How sweet and precious are these experiences?! seriously!

I just know that this church is true! I know it! It's the neatest thing to be a missionary and to witness all of this! I feel so blessed and so grateful! President asked me this week if I'd like to stay for another 6 months, without even thinking I said, "YES!" He said he would like to have me for longer too but the brethren say that I need to get on with my life. haha. I guess that's true. I'm just so grateful for the wonderful blessing it is to serve! The best decision I've ever made ever was to serve a mission!

Love,

Sister Crane

 johnny dep

 

 I ran my companion over

 What we look like knocking in the rain.

Cool picture of the sky!

SAMANTHA'S GETTING BAPTIZED! yahoo! November 11th. You betcha! This is the girl who approached US on the bus and invited us over. She grew up going to church with her sister who's a member but had to wait till she was 18. Then we run into her on the bus and badabang badaboom. She's awesome. After we set a date we went back and showed her a calendar of what we were going to teach her to prepare her for the 11th. She looked at it and said, "only 3 weeks till I get baptized!" We kept saying how excited we were and she kept saying that no one was as excited as she was. Excitement was in abundance.

This week was awesome! WE GOT 2 NEW INVESTIGATORS! wahoo! Heather and Kathleen. Heather was a former that we called and set up an appointment with. She is so nice and I laughed my head off during her lesson. She's hillarious. Kathleen is so awesome too! She's one that we knocked into the other week and she was not interested at all. She said that she had lost her faith in God because of all of the bad stuff going on within organized religion. We started talking to her and testifying of the Book of Mormon and by the end of it we got an appointment! It was amazing the turn around. We went for the appointment and she said that she was interested in coming to church and in bringing her whole family. A FAMILY! ya buddy! I really hope we get to teach her whole family!

Sunday was such a great day. It was the primary presentation and those kids are so cute! No matter where you go the primary program is the best Sunday of the year. Afterward we had a few lessons. One was with Naoise (neesha). She's so awesome. She and her mom are going to start reading the scriptures everyday. She has a goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before her baptism. We also went to see the Thomas family. They are a less-active family in the ward. We brought a couple from the ward with us and played a game. We scattered a bunch of pictures of different parts of Joseph Smith's life around the room. They had to go find them and then put them in the correct order of what happened in his life. At the end we bore our testimonies of a living prophet and of the Savior. Everyone was paying attention and the Spirit could be felt. The members who came with us even bore their testimonies of how prayer helped them in their family and it was just amazing! We've gone over there before without members and if only members could see the difference they make! It's huge! really.

I can't believe October is almost over. The trees already look brown. It's amazing how the incredible color I saw last week has already faded. I'm so grateful we have a car! I don't know how I would do without one right about now. I'm so grateful to be here on a mission. It's such an incredible blessing! I love reading the Book of Mormon. These prophets are real! They actually lived! We have this incredible record that we get to read from and it was written for our day. It's amazing. I'm so grateful for the scriptures. I'm so grateful that I get to take the time to feast on them every day. What a great blessing.

Love,

Sister Crane

I wish I could describe how gorgeous this place is! It's unreal. I don't remember Nova Scotia being this amazing with it's fall colors! It's incredible! With colors like these I want to stay in New Brunswick....at least until it snows.....:)

Ok so I've got some crazy cool stories are you ready?! OK! This week we were knocking on a street....i know i know sounds really exciting right? right. So it's late at night and these are big houses we're knocking on. I hate knocking on big houses. I always feel like they are never going to say yes because they're not humbled by their circumstances. But these people were awesome! We got an appointment with the first person on the street for the next day which was Thursday. We're stolked, an appointment! how exciting! just you wait. So we go to the next few doors get a few potentials and then hit the next door and the woman says she's really busy but would like us to come back another time. We suggest the next day and BAM 2 appointments for tomorrow. Go to the next couple of houses meet another nice women who like most people is shocked that they allow girls to serve missions! We exist! It's true! Then we ask if we can teach her and she says not right now but we suggest tomorrow. BAM 3 appointments! Next couple of houses same thing, busy, not now, they suggest tomorrow! BAM 4 appointments. This goes on 2 more times and WABAM! 6 appointments for the next day all for people on the same street! the SAME street! what?! It was the coolest. We were giddy. It was awesome. The next day we go back 2 rescheduled, one actually happened, 1 cancelled and 2 weren't home BUT STILL it was pretty cool. When does that ever happen? We're still going to try and convert the whole street. Think about it! A whole ward could be formed on that street alone! I love being a missionary.

This week we've been doing a lot of member visits. We're trying to merge this whole line that stands between members and missionarys. It's hard in a ward because you just feel like another missionary. Branches it's a lot easier to feel needed. As we've gone from home to home I have just loved getting to know the members. They are incredible. They want to help with the work! It's awesome! One of them in particular was amazing: Brother and Sister Doskas.

Brother Doskas was in an accident 16 years ago that left him paraylzed. He was in the middle of a blizzard and went to check on the people who were in a 3 car pile up. As he was getting back to his car a truck slide hit him leaving his imprint on the car and then spun around and launched him in the middle of the road. The police found him an hour later. He had to have his fingers removed due to frost bite. I wish I could tell you or even begin to describe the feeling in their home, the faith I felt. It was tangible. I was moved to tears more than once just sitting and talking with them. It's like they don't have faith anymore they have knowledge. They don't believe their prayers will be answered, they KNOW. At one point Sister Doskas said to me, "With God by your side you can do anything." I believed her. She has absolute experience that attests to that. They are a witness to me that trials can refine you, if you let them. I hope never to forget my small interaction with them. It has impacted me greatly.

The work is moving forward! Jerome came to church and he hasn't been in 2 months! I was extatic! Now lets just get these people baptized! We will! I love being a missionary. I love this place that I get to serve in. The meritimers are hillarious, old fashioned, and odd sometimes but I want to be just like them. I can't imagine serving anywhere else and being this happy. This is my home and I will forever be grateful to have served here. What a privledge and a blessing!

Love,

Sister Crane

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

So yesterday I was a 1/2 hour away from the US border to get to Maine. It kind of weirded me out. I am freakishly close to the US and I didn't even know it. I need to invest in a better map.

Oh hey HAPPY THANKSGIVING! What was your day like yesterday? pretty normal...average... everyday sort of stuff? yupp our's too. But it was also Canadian Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving doesn't seem to be as big of a deal here as it is in the states. Not sure why. It seems like they don't have any huge traditions and it's not so much an all weekend event. It's really just a meal. And it's in OCTOBER. still don't fully understand that. I do like November better. When I go home I think I might just have 2 though. In fact yesterday we had just that 2 Thanksgivings. It was the best. At each one we all went around and said what we are grateful for. awwww. It was the best.

 

Guess what? I have a new companion! Sister Lorenc. Sister Davis left and it was sad to see her go. She didn't think that a lot of people would miss her but you wouldn't believe how many people at church said, "hey where's sister Davis? She didn't say good-bye?!" It's amazing the impact we can have on other people without knowing it. Anyways Sister Lorenc is great! She's from Hemet, California (southern somewhere). She's super cool and has been out for 9 months. It's nice having both of us know what we're doing, we can just jump in and get to work...and boy have we. Let me tell you about how a CAR changes EVERYTHING! It's unbelievable the amount of work we can get done, and the less planning we have to do with a car. It's nuts I tell you, nuts!

 

We've taught Naoise (Neesha) a few more times. She's 9 and super cute and ridiculously smart. Yesterday she asked us if she could pray and ask God when she should get baptized. woah. How cool is that? Jing and Chen are doing awesome too. They both came to church even though they are crazy stressed about school. It's so exciting to see them sacrifice for Heavenly Father and know that the blessings they receive will be so awesome! Oh hey have I told you about Bo?! He's a recent convert that got baptized in March and then was in China all summer so I only got to meet him last week. He's awesome! It's so exciting to have a Chinese convert so he can help all of our other chinese investigators, like Affe! Affe is so amazing, she said that she knows the church is true and that everything we've taught her is true. Now she just has to take the step and actually do something about it! How do you get some one to just take that leap of faith and go with what the Spirit has been telling them all a long?! I really hope she will!

 

The members here are awesome. You really should meet them. I wish I could bring some of them in my suit case home. We went and visited Sister Barton yesterday. She's an older woman and she's hillarious. We went over to see her with her visiting teachers, who are the cutest women ever. One of them is Sister Peck. She's fantastic. She's gives us rides in her convertible, has the best earings, and is obsessed with betty boop. One time I asked Sister Peck if she ever wore the same outfit twice and she replied, "not if I can help it!" So if you can imagine me with these 3 adorable women and what does the conversation turn to? Golden Girls. haha. These people crack me up. I can't wait to go home and be a visiting teacher, it'll be so much easier than being a missionary.

 

I love doing this work. It's the best work ever. I love that I get to do this work. That I get to be apart of the process of helping others come closer to Christ. I'm grateful to be a representative of Him. I love the days where I get so lost in the work I realize that I haven't thought about myself all day. It's the neatest feeling to know that you've been so immersed in others needs that you didn't have time for yourself, yet you are so happy because you were in the service of others all day. We are so blessed to have the gospel. I am so grateful to share this marvelous gospel with others!

Love,

Sister Crane

These are pictures from this week at a members home. The Kadisch's, they are originally from Austria. We had authentic Schnitzel. Which is not a dessert...like I thought it was...but veal...well in our case pork thank goodness. She has this incredible garden! With amazing things in it. One of which is in a bowl, they are ground cherries. Nothing like them anywhere. so good. enjoy!

October 3rd

Transfers! I'm STAYING ....but...I have a new companion! :( It totally bites. I didn't think anything would change! But ALL of the sisters got moved. And guess what?! They created a sisters area in New Foundland! If you're not freaking out, that's because you don't know where New Foundland is! You have to take a plane to get there and it's freezing! I actually feel really jipped that I didn't get to open it there. I've been dying to go. Lame. Oh well. Sister Hudson (my MTC comp) gets to open it so I'm excited for her....slightly jealous though. :) Sooooo my new companion will be Sister Lorenc (pronounced Lorence). Transfers are on Thursday. Sister Davis and I are totally bummed we don't get the full 6 months together (after all that's how long I've been with any of my companions) but I am excited to have sister Lorenc here. Sister Davis is going to Halifax where she'll ride more buses! yay! oh and guess what?!.....WE'RE GETTING A CAR! no more bikes! no more bikes! no more bikes! ...sorry just felt like it was worth chanting. poor sister Davis. right when we get a car and she goes to a bus area. She'll love it though. Soooooo onward ever onward we go.

As for this week it was delightful. Christmas aka General Conference was the best! Jerome watched 2 sessions! I think he really liked it too. I loved all of them. I really loved Sister Dalton's talk about how to raise a daughter. It was so bold and perfect. We also got 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS! wahooo! remember that dry spell we had? see ya later! We have been so blessed this week. Let me start by telling you the best story ever that every missionary wants to have!

We're on the bus and all of a sudden this girl comes and moves seats to come sit by us. She excitedly says to us, "Hi! I'm Mormon! I totally want to have you guys over for dinner!" uhhh ok...!! We find out her name is Samantha and set up to see her the next day. So THEN we go to her house for dinner and she's adorable. She's 18, just working right now, and has our dinner all ready. We start talking and she tells us that she's not baptized but her sister is a member and she's grown up going to our church and has always wanted to be baptized! We haven't even really started with our meal when she says, "Ok so I'd really like to get baptized can you start teaching me? I want to know everything." WHA?! Who is this girl! I promise she's not crazy. Sister Davis and I had to leave the room to grab our scriptures. We get to our bags and look at eachother and do a silent freak out. It was the best. Pretty sure we danced all the way out of her house. We're teaching her again tonight and I can't wait.

Another new investigator is from Iran. Kayvon. He's really cool. We've been teaching a lot of Iranian's lately. They are always so intrigued by what we believe in and how our church differs from other christian faiths.

Lastly our 3rd investigator is a 9 year old! Naoise (pronounced Neesha...it's Irish-galic or something) She's adorable. Her parents are active members of the ward, Naoise just didn't feel ready to get baptized at 8 from what I understand. We had our first lesson on Sunday and this girl is brilliant. I'm looking forward to our lessons for sure!

This week we also had interviews. Afterward President and Sister Simpson took us out for some good old mexican. First mexican I've had in Canada....but seriously...it was pretty good too...nothing like the states but I'll take what I've got. I love the Simpson's. They are my favorite. The nicest people you'll ever meet.

So there you go folks. Do you believe me now when I said it was a delightful week?! Delightful indeed. Well except for change. Ugh. I hate change. Oh well. I'll get over it. I'm so grateful for the 3 months I've had with Sister Davis. I seriously do not know what I'll do without her. I feel like I barely know the members and I don't know how to navigate my way around...ESPECIALLY in a car! I can't imagine if she was leaving me with bikes and the bus route i i I! that would have been awful. Counting my many blessings there! Keep me in your prayers this week! Transfers are always a little scary. The church is true though so it's ok.

Love,

Sister Crane