Letters From Sister Crane

This is it!

2011-12-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

This is ridiculous. I'm out of time. I'm getting the boot. And it really stinks. I'll get over it eventually and to be honest I don't think it's actually hit me what's going on. It just really....stinks. So instead of getting all down about it and thinking about all of these great people that I'm going to miss, I'm going to write my last e-mail to you as if it wasn't the last e-mail I was ever writing on my mission. Are you ready to pretend with me? ok here we go!
AFFE IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!! WWWWWWWHHHHAAAT?! I know right? IT's nuts! I'll get to actually see her get baptized before I go. She'll get baptized on Saturday, on Sunday she'll be cofirmed and on Monday I'm headed to Halifax. Is this like every missionaries dream or what? Before you get to thinking anything, no I did not talk her into it. I did want to. But I didn't. She just came to church on Sunday and in Relief Society she turned to us and said,"oh actually my friend isn't coming from Toronto so I can get baptized before January 3rd since he won't be here to see it." I was close to freaking out at that point but wasn't sure how soon she wanted to get baptized. She waited a couple of minutes and then turned to us again and said, "And maybe I could get baptized before you leave Sister Crane!" I replied with, "THIS Saturday?" "Or Friday," was her oh-so chill response. That's when the freak out actually happened. I feel bad for the Relief Society teacher, although I think I hid it well enough. After church ended we then hurriedly went with her as she asked each member to give a talk, or baptize or her or say a prayer at the baptism. I'm so excited! Affe has been ready since forever. And I got to teach her pretty much from the her start when I got here. So this has been 5 months now and I'm so pumped! She's so ready. AH!
Our Relief Society Christmas party was on Saturday and it was awesome. Kylie, our investigator came. It was exciting. I ate a lot of sweets and pretty much died from a sugar coma. I also played for them while they sang Christmas carols and after I got done one of the Sisters there says, "oh we're going to miss Sitser Crane aren't we?!" It hillarious because they will all miss me but only because I'm the only one who plays the piano! haha This talent has def. come in handy out here. I also love how this week I've been asked to pray more than ever before. It's kind of ridiculous. Everyone wants me to pray since it's my last time, little do they know how many "last times" I've been having. And their adding up. Oh well. More blessings. Or something.
Oh oh OH so the Elders had a baptism last Saturday and our investigator Vivian came. She's the one that is so incredibly in tune with the Spirit and is from China and is the sweetest thing ever. Ok so she tells us after she watches the baptism that as she saw Eileen go under the water she had this feeling of, "I want to do that!" and her heart was beating really fast! She also said it wasn't like the movies or what she's seen on TV about baptism, but it was more "sacred". Woah. Where did she learn that word?! So amazing! I wish I could be here for her baptism, but she's going back to China for a few months to visit so I'm hoping when she comes back she'll get in contact with missionaries!
The Lord is blessing us greatly. It's incredible. I can never repay Him for what He has done for me by allowing me to serve a mission. I know that I'll be such a better person for it. I'm so grateful for the chance to learn and grow and especially to witness so many amazing tender mercies and miracles. THE CHURCH IS TRUE! What a blessing to serve the Savior. I really don't want to ever take off this name tag. But I am grateful that my service to Him doesn't end when my mission ends. I get to continue to serve Him each day for the rest of my life. How exciting is that?! Someone once told me that in the church you have to learn to say "next." Things are always changing and always moving and you can't live in the past or future you need to live in the present. And as each calling comes you have to learn to say, "next" and be able to move on to the next adventure. So after this week I will say next and take what I've learned here and apply it to my continued life of serving the Savior. I testify that He lives!

Love,
Sister Crane

2011-12-05T12:13:00.001-08:00

Don't ever announce over the pulpit that your going home in 2 weeks. Everyone gets all nastalgic and includes you in their testimony and it's down right embarrassing. Blasted nastalga. Sam is one of those that got up and bore her testimony and oh man she is so awesome! She made Fredericton what it is for me and I couldn't be more grateful for her. Naoise (10) was so cute after sacrament meeting she ran up to me and screamed "NO!" she took my hand and told me with tears in her eyes that she didn't want me to leave. I explained that I would come and visit and that this only meant she would get another friend because another sister would come. Naoise is the sweetest. I can't wait for her to get baptized.
So did you know that this is my 2nd to last e-mail home? I'm going to try and make it good but honestly it's all a blur. We got 6 new investigators this week and in case you're wondering if that's good or not IT'S AWESOME! Cosette is one of those. She's Sam's friend from work and she's AMAZING! We started teaching the restoration and she couldn't stop smiling. I stopped talking and asked her what she was smiling at if there was something wrong and she replied with, "It's just so wonderful!" WHA? Where do these people come from?! It's AWESOME! Scott is another new investigator, we met with him once and then he came last night to institute and the Christmas devotional! Seriously how can you go wrong with the 1st presidency? Affe is doing so awesome! She loves coming teaching with us and is so excited to get baptized in January. I feel a lot better about missing it, because the reason she wants to wait is b/c her best friends flying in from Vancouver and he'll see it and maybe he'll decide he wants to get baptized too!
We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday and it was so much fun! Ryan and Jessica came (the ones who live across the hall) and they brought us each a christmas present! I just about died. They are the nicest. (Man do I sound enthusiastic today or what? It's because being a missionary makes you so happy) So at the party we were in charge of the music, we put on a few Christmas classics, frank sinatra, bing crosby, it was a hit. And then I played for everyone while they sang Christmas carols. What is it about Christmas parties that make everyone so cheery and friendly? I don't know but I love it! We even had a ton of our less-actives come to it! It was the best.
Last night Jessica and Ryan had us over for dinner. Ryan said it was the least they could do for us since we've been teaching them. Again, who are these people? SO cool! We committed them to start having family prayer and at the end we all knelt together and Ryan offered the prayer. In it he said, "I pray that one day we'll be with you, Lord, and our family forever." AH! love it.
Vivian's doing awesome! In our lesson on repentance we committed her to repent every day and she replied with, "but what if I don't sin everyday?" I was kind of taken back and then thought, "good!" We then explained how sometimes it's just about being better, not neccessarily the big sins but small things too.
Can you tell we're teaching a lot of people? we are. the most I've ever taught EVER. 23 investigators this week! 23! It's so cool. I love Fredericton. I love my mission! I love it! I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven. I recieved exciting news about 2 of my recent converts in Truro who hadn't been going to church and they went to church yesterday! This was such a huge answer to prayer and it made me realize that even when I'm not there God will take care of these people I love so much because He loves them MORE. What a huge blessing, to know they they'll be ok. I love this work. I'm not leaving this place till I give everything I've got!
Love,
Sister Crane

2011-11-28T22:19:00.000-08:00

2011-11-28T10:39:00.001-08:00

Chinese people are awesome. I'm over this whole teaching Canadians thing. Chinese people are where it's at! Affe (from China) is on date! hip hip hooray! Jan. 3rd! woot! (we're trying to talk her into sooner you know since I won't be there for it but we'll see...) Vivian who is also from China is sooooooooo amazing! Ah! She has the BEST questions EVER!!!! She asked this week if God ever gets tired of hearing us pray, if we could ever pray TOO much. Of course I reassured her that that's not possible but what a great question! AND we got 2 new chinese investigators! woot! They're both students at the local university here and it's so cool to teach people who don't know anything about God. With all of the Chinese people we've taught they each have brought up that they think they should pray to God only when they need something or when they're having a bad day. It's so neat to teach each of them that they can pray to God and should pray to Him no matter what, even if it's just to thank Him. Oh man sooooo cool! I feel like I've now served my mission not only in Canada but China too. Except I get the perk of speaking my own language. The best is that Affe comes to our appointments and translates words that maybe they don't know in english like "baptism" or "authority." Man I love this job.
So our next door neighbors are now being taught! See guys you can talk to you neighbors and it works! Seriously they live literally right across the hall. Jessica is a less-active and Ryan her fiance is not a member. They have 2 adorable kids, Lilly and Logan. Lilly had her birthday party this week so we stopped by to give her a present. We got her a coloring book to use at church. And guess what they totally came to church! It was so cool! Lilly is seriously so adorable. On Saturday after her party we heard a knock at our door. (no one ever knocks on our door by the way so it was kind of weird) We open the door and there is Lilly with a little goodie bag from her party and 2 princess crowns for us. She said that her Mom said she could come give it too us and told us that she, "loved us with all her heart." haha who is this kid?! It was pretty cute.
We have a couple more new investigators too! We're teaching another person from Iran and 2 other girls. I just feel like God is pouring out His blessings on us right now. It's so amazing! The church is true! Another thing He's pouring out on us is SNOW! We had a massive snow storm on Wednesday and President told everyone that they weren't allowed to drive. bummer. That's never happened before that I know of, so the roads must have been really dangerous. So sister Lorenc and I found other productive things to do, one of which was taking awesome pictures in the snow. I am kind of glad that it snowed before I left so I could go knock doors in the snow one last time (well maybe, it could snow again for all I know).
I can't believe it will be December this week! Pretty crazy. I'm so grateful for the people I've been meeting. I'm constantly reminded of the good that planting seeds can do. We got let into a door last night and she said it was because last time she saw missionaries they saw she was having a bad day and stopped her on the street and asked her if they could help her with anything. She said they were just so nice and it seemed like the thing that Christ would do. These 2 missionaries will never know what an impact it made on this woman and how because of it we have an appointment to teach her this week. Charity never faileth! And good examples can have a huge impact. We may never know just how much. Have a great week! Go do some good act and have fun with it!

Love,
Sister Crane

2011-11-22T06:17:00.001-08:00

Woah woah woah. What did we even do this week? It was nuts! So many lessons, so much stress. It was kind of crazy. There have always been moments of that on my mission, times where you get so stressed you can't even think clearly. People tell you sooooo much stuff and you listen A LOT. It's kind of insane the amount of information that you take in. And every now and then you get an overload and start shutting down. Sister Lorenc and I both hit that point. We became so exhausted and became zombies for a few days but some how recovered as you always do. I don't know how you recover, because you don't just get extra sleep or something. I feel like it's one of those times that God just gives you the strength and energy that you need for your calling. It's awesome.
So even after a paragraph of typing I still really couldn't tell you what we did all week. Sam is doing awesome. She comes teaching with us and goes to YSA and is just so cool. She's told us some more details of her life too that have made me realize how much God prepared her to meet us on the bus that day. It's pretty incredible how God knows us each individually. Sister Lorenc and I have been talking about that a lot she had a good analogy for it. It's like we're the quarter in the candy machine. God made the machine, he already filled it up with candy and he sticks us in and then he turns the knob and there you go! That's all we are really, the quarter. What a blessing it is to be apart of HIS work.
We've been working with a lot of members lately and getting a lot of dinner appointments. It's funny because we weren't really getting many dinner appointments until I announced in relief society that we would be happy to have kraft dinner (mac & cheese) or Mr. Noodle (Top Raman). bada bing bada boom. None of them have fed us that but I think they all realized how desperate we are :) I love going and seeing members. Lately we've been doing this scripture challenge with them and while they do it for a week they pray about their friends. They are all so willing to share the gospel it's so awesome!
I wish I could think up more details about the work but the weeks are so jam packed and all I can think to add is that I know that this church is true. I know that God answers prayers. I know that he sent me here for a reason. It's a priveledge to serve, and I love doing it. Have a great Thanksgiving week!

Love,
Sister Crane

2011-11-16T17:13:00.001-08:00

Pictures from the baptism

2011-11-14T15:44:00.001-08:00

Sam got baptized! woot! It was so awesome! She was so happy and so excited! She got baptized on 11/11/11 and it was also remembrance day in Canada (US has Veteran's day). So that day we went 2 hours early to go fill up the font. We start to fill it up and it's ice cold. I mean ICE cold. The St. John river would have been warmer. The heater is broken, so we grab an older member that happened to be in the building and he got us a ladder to get to the attic. So here we are in our skirts climbing this huge ladder to get to the attic. We try reseting the water heater and it's still not working. The clock is ticking and I'm thinking there is no way we could let someone go into something so cold! So we head over to the mother's lounge to fill up hot water into buckets and transfer the buckets to the font. The old fashioned way, you know. A member of the bishopric came to fix it and by the time Sam got there it was fixed. However there wasn't time to fill it up with hot water so it was more like kind of cold instead of freezing. When we told Sam about it all she responded with, "Even if it had been freezing I would have jumped in!" The baptism went smoothly from there on out. She did get out and mention that we could check baptism and polar dip on the bucket list though. :) So I guess it wasn't as warm as I thought.

I can't express the joy I felt just witnessing this awesome baptism! This girl seriously is icredible. I've never seen such enthusiasm for the gospel not even from members. It's nuts! She kept thanking us for everything and even said, "I couldn't have done it without you." I laughed really hard at that and said, "ya, actually you could have!" We all looked at eachother and laughed thinking, ya that's true. Seriously she had been so prepared by our Heavenly Father.

Yesterday our lesson with Elaine was awesome! Elaine is from China, she's the one that fed us all that good Chinese food. Elaine is so cool because she does this whole reflective listening thing. When we're done talking about a subject she will recap what we've told her in her own words and then recap what she needs to do. She shared this really cool experience with us too! She said that last week after we taught her how to pray she thought she would pray to ask for help on her test the next day. So before she went to bed that's what she did. Then as she was lying in bed she had this feeling that she should look over her notes from a lab she had that week. So she got out of bed and reviewed her notes. Then when she went to the test the next day there were only 3 questions on the whole test and one of them was all about that lab that she had felt prompted to study! How cool is that?! After telling us this she told us that she wasn't sure if she was just lucky or if God had helped her. We explained that God helped her and that the Holy Ghost gave her that feeling. She looked at us and smiled and said that she believed that it was God too. Then she looked puzzled and said, "but why would God help me? I've only been learning about Him for 2 weeks, He should help you guys more than me because you know more about Him." This was my favorite part of the lesson because then I got to explain how much God loves her and that He loves her just as much as He loves me and because God loves her He will answer her. I told her that God had been with her, her whole life, she just didn't know it was Him. ah! Chinese people are so cool! I love teaching them this basic, simple, yet HUGE principle, God is our loving Heavenly Father. Never has that principle meant so much to me as it does now! I've taken this information for granted for way too long.

I'm so grateful for all of these wonderful experiences. I feel like that's all my letters home say now. But it's so true and I could never repay my Heavenly Father for being a witness to so many wonderful blessings. I'll forever be grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has helped me endure so that I could make it to this point and see these blessings. I'm so grateful that God knows more than I do and sees so clearly my future. I hope that I can trust in Him more throughout my life because of the experiences I've had here.

Love,

Sister Crane

2011-11-07T18:18:00.001-08:00

The Chi-lect are back! watch out! Remember when I went on exchanges with Sister Hudson to Halifax and we taught like 8 guys from China at once?! Well apparently I'm a magnent for these asians because we just taught like 8 people from China here and it was awesome! I love chinese people. They are seriously THE coolest people I've taught ever. So humble. So willing. They are awesome! Ok so here's the story:

We're getting out of an appointment with Samantha (I'll talk about her later because that's an awesome story too!) and we had planned to knock her street. Before we pray we decide that we'll knock the left side of the street. As we pray I just get this small nudge that we should knock on the right side instead. I almost didn't act on it, that's how subtle it was, we go and knock on the first door and meet Xiao Jing. She hears our shpeal and then invites us into the living room. She then calls her roommate to come downstairs. Her roommates name is Elaine (english name, they are so funny some of them like english names and some of them don't). So we tell them that we want to teach them about God and Jesus Christ and ask them if they are interested. They both go, "yes! I know nothing about God!" Elaine then runs upstairs to grab a paper and a pencil to take notes. Xiao Jing asks if they need to go to church. haha it was AMAZING! We teach them about God and about who He is. That He's their loving Heavenly Father and that they can talk to Him any time any where. AH! Can I just tell you how cool it is to explain to someone who God is for their very first time?! It is so cool! The Spirit is so strong and you just get so excited for them! And they get excited to. They then offer for us to stay and have lunch with them. So we eat mushy noodles and cabbage and chewy pork. It was actually pretty good. (I know right, I'm actually saying that, the pickiest eater in the whole world! missions change you, I don't know)

THEN they invite us over for a party the next night. They were going to have some friends over and make more food and they wanted us to be able to try some of the food. So we went and the food was so good. Ribs and potato stuff and DUCK WING! G-ROSS! chewy super chewy! Ok but here's the best part so there are like 8 chinese people there and they each arrive at different times so picture this: Me and Sister Lorenc sitting there on the couch with duck wing in front of us and chinese Book of Mormon's in our hands. Each person walks in and says basically the same thing, "Why is your first name Sister?" It was hillarious. Then we would teach them the restoration and they would flip through the Book of Mormon. It was UNBELIEVEABLE! I mean seriously this is what missionary work should be like. You sit there and get fed and people just walk in one by one and you teach them. It seriously makes me giggle with excitement when I think about it. It's so cool! Being a missionary is the best. Ok so then get this we're like, "oh hey so the girl who lives across from you is getting baptized next Friday." They all rush to the window to see which house she lives in and then ask, "what's baptism?!" ah! GREAT QUESTION! So we explain it and before you know it they're all like (to their other friends that arrive) "you coming friday at 4?" "ummm ya I think I can come, where we going?" "to the church" "ok!" So we're going to have a row of chinese people at Sam's baptism. booya!

Which is a great segway into SAM'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON FRIDAY! woot! This girl. Oh my word. You need to meet her. She's the most bubbliest person on the face of the planet. She just won Miss something county and is going to be competing in Miss New Brunswick. She's got this southern accent because she's from the sticks. And she's that same girl I told you that I met on the bus and she came over to us and says, "hey! come over to my house tomorrow for speghetti and apple pie!" She's so awesome! She bore her testimony in church on Sunday and it's like she's been a member her whole life! It's insane. She is such a tender mercy. She even came teaching with us and after we extended the baptismal date to our investigator she told her whole conversion experience and then invited him to her baptism. Oh man it was the best ever. She's constantly like, "I'm so excited!" or "I'm pumped" whenever we bring up her baptism. It's nuts I tell you just nuts!

woah exhale. So this week was pretty much awesome! I just pray everything goes well for the baptism and that we get all 8 chinese people there! The gospel is TRUE! It is I know it. It changes peoples lives! It's so amazing! Hmmm any other updates? It's really cold....

I just feel so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who knows His children. I know that nothing that I have done could ever make me deserve all of the blessings that He's pouring out on this area. It's a miracle. And it's only through God that it's possible. I'm so grateful for the scriptures and for the Savior. What a blessing to be sharing this message with everyone!

Love,

Sister Crane

2011-11-01T20:03:00.001-07:00

Let it Snow!

2011-10-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

My companion likes to take pictures from the car.

Looks like somebody got new mattresses?

2011-10-31T17:58:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

johnny dep

I ran my companion over

What we look like knocking in the rain.

Cool picture of the sky!

2011-10-24T22:48:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

2011-10-17T19:22:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-11T19:47:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-04T21:04:00.001-07:00

Transfers! I'm STAYING ....but...Ihave a new companion! :( It totally bites. I didn't think anything wouldchange! But ALL of the sisters got moved. And guess what?! They created asisters area in New Foundland! If you're not freaking out, that's because youdon't know where New Foundland is! You have to take a plane to get there andit's freezing! I actually feel really jipped that I didn't get to open itthere. I've been dying to go. Lame. Oh well. Sister Hudson (my MTC comp) getsto open it so I'm excited for her....slightly jealous though. :) Sooooo my newcompanion will be Sister Lorenc (pronounced Lorence). Transfers are onThursday. Sister Davis and I are totally bummed we don't get the full 6 monthstogether (after all that's how long I've been with any of my companions) but Iam excited to have sister Lorenc here. Sister Davis is going to Halifax whereshe'll ride more buses! yay! oh and guess what?!.....WE'RE GETTING A CAR! nomore bikes! no more bikes! no more bikes! ...sorry just felt like it was worthchanting. poor sister Davis. right when we get a car and she goes to a busarea. 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! Ithink he really liked it too. I loved all of them. I really loved SisterDalton's talk about how to raise a daughter. It was so bold and perfect. Wealso got 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS! wahooo! remember that dry spell we had? see yalater! We have been so blessed this week. Let me start by telling you the beststory ever that every missionary wants to have!

We're on the bus and all of a suddenthis 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 nextday. So THEN we go to her house for dinner and she's adorable. She's 18, justworking right now, and has our dinner all ready. We start talking and she tellsus that she's not baptized but her sister is a member and she's grown up goingto our church and has always wanted to be baptized! We haven't even reallystarted with our meal when she says, "Ok so I'd really like to getbaptized can you start teaching me? I want to know everything." WHA?! Whois this girl! I promise she's not crazy. Sister Davis and I had to leave theroom to grab our scriptures. We get to our bags and look at eachother and do asilent freak out. It was the best. Pretty sure we danced all the way out of herhouse. We're teaching her again tonight and I can't wait.

Another new investigator is fromIran. 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 differsfrom other christian faiths.

Lastly our 3rd investigator is a 9year old! Naoise (pronounced Neesha...it's Irish-galic or something) She'sadorable. Her parents are active members of the ward, Naoise just didn't feelready to get baptized at 8 from what I understand. We had our first lesson onSunday 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 goodtoo...nothing like the states but I'll take what I've got. I love theSimpson's. They are my favorite. The nicest people you'll ever meet.

So there you go folks. Do youbelieve me now when I said it was a delightful week?! Delightful indeed. Wellexcept for change. Ugh. I hate change. Oh well. I'll get over it. I'm sograteful for the 3 months I've had with Sister Davis. I seriously do not knowwhat I'll do without her. I feel like I barely know the members and I don'tknow how to navigate my way around...ESPECIALLY in a car! I can't imagine ifshe was leaving me with bikes and the bus route i i I! that would have beenawful. 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

September 26th, 2011

2011-09-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

September 19th

2011-09-20T19:03:00.001-07:00

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!!

2011-09-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

September 12

2011-09-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

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

Hot Pot Party

2011-08-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-29T19:42:00.001-07:00

The Hurricane! If I look soaking wet it's because I was.

August 29th

2011-08-29T19:38:00.001-07:00

I had to come all the way to Canada to exeperience my first earthquake! Seriously?! We were in a lesson and I felt the couch rock back and forth, I looked to either side of me and saw that no one next to me was rocking so I didn't think too much of it until I came outside and saw fire trucks and downtown buildings being evacuated. Apparently earthquakes don't happen here often because people were freaking out. oh canada.
In other news I worked in a hurricaine for the second time! I don't even know what hurricaine this one was but the same thing happened this time last year. The Elders decided they wanted the car back on Sundays, because one of the Elders can't fit on our small girly bikes, and they took the car back just in time for us to have to bike and walk in the hurricaine. Awesome. So we booked it up the GI-normous hill to our apartment. Half way through I took off my hood and embraced the rain. There was no point trying to stay dry. We started singing called to serve at the top of our lungs in the pooring rain with the crazy wind and people driving by giving us weird looks. I am such a missionary sometimes.
Have you ever heard of Hot pot?! pretty much the coolest invention ever. We went over to Affe's for supper the other day and she and her 3 other chinese friends made us hot pot! It's where you take this huge pot and put it in the middle of the table and it's full of spicy soup mix. Then you take all this food and dump it in and it cooks it and you take your chop sticks and get the food out and put it in your bowl and eat it. It's like fondu but without cheese, just soup, and chop sticks. I have to say it was pretty much really embarrassing trying to master chop sticks in front of 4 chinese people. Not my talent. But I ate the craziest stuff! I ATE COW'S STOMACH! Yes me. I actually ate it. I know you don't believe me. I didn't believe myself. I also ate Lamb for the first time. It was pretty good. Tofu is ok, the cabbage was the best, and the bean curd sheets were pretty good. Pork balls were a little chewy, do not recommend those. Overall it was a cultural enlightening experience. I love foreigners.
So let me tell you about a couple, Claude and Janet. They are so cool! They are both on date for baptism for Oct. 8th! woop woop! Last lesson we got there and did a bit of small talk and Claude excitedly said, "ok well should we get started with a prayer?" before I could say, "hey that's my line!" he got on his knees! We don't normally start our lessons with a kneeling prayer so Sister Davis and I exchanged a look and then hurriedly got to our knees. Claude looked at us and said, "oh you don't have to get on your knees, I just really want to...ok so who's going to say it?" ..."uhh...Claude did you want to say it?" I asked. He beamed and then said a great prayer. At the end of the lesson we started to talk to Janet about baptism, Claude had already agreed to a date but Janet had not. I extended the commitment and she said she wasn't sure. Claude then chimmed in with, "well that's because you're not reading the Book of Mormon every day! you need to read and pray and then go to church and open up your heart." Claude just kept stealing all of our lines! It was awesome. I felt like he was the 3rd missionary. So I then extended it again and said, "Janet I know you can be prepared by Oct. 8th, will you.." She then cut me off with, "oh I know I can!" haha! ya Janet!
I really love the members here! They have been so generous to us! It moves me to tears sometimes just thinking about how generous these people are. The Hatt's gave us a ride to and from our supper appointment yesterday because the member that we ate with didn't have a car, and the Hatts didn't want us to bike across the bridge in the hurricaine. One couple who was only here for the summer and went back to British Columbia on Sunday, gave us all of their food that they didn't finish! Our fridge is now full! Another cute young couple went with us to an appointment, but it was a no-show, so they drove us home to get our rain jackets and then to our next appointment and in the middle of all of that bought us these amazing things called BEAVER TAILS! ah! sooo good! It's like fried dough with cinnamon and sugar. To die for! ah! Andrea, this amazing member who is 21 and getting ready for a mission comes teaching with us all the time and drives us places. Gloria, our investigator, (not a member, but she might as well be) bought us these sweet Canada shirts! Mine has a moose on it, it's the best, and she gave us New Bruswick pins. Saweet! Who are these people that are just so generous and kind? It's the nicest ever and I just feel so grateful that people care about the work we're doing and want to help out. It lightens my load so much when a member serves me.
The church is true! Oh P.S. I played the organ on Sunday, I was a last minute fill in because the organist was sick. I was crazy nervous. Didn't even attempt the peddels. yike. Missionary work really makes you step outside your comfort zone sometimes....more like all the time...Wish me luck in the rain today, hopefully this hurricaine is over for good!
Love,
Sister Crane

August 22

2011-08-22T18:18:00.001-07:00

Hey remember that one time when we got 7 new investigators? oh ya I do. It was the BEST! We are now teaching all of Napal. Don't know where that is? Me either. Well now I do, they explained it to me, it's somewhere by India and China. We go to teach Nari, a college student here, and her 2 siblings and her friend are there. We teach them all and bam, 4 new investigators! It was the coolest ever! 3 of them are Hindu and the other is Christian. Their friend, Anuba prayed in Napali at the end. That is basically the coolest language I've ever heard. Lately I've heard a lot of people pray in their own language, but Napali is insane. She was talking so crazy fast I was hoping she'd take a breath or something, but I don't think she ever did. At the end I looked at her friends and said, "ok, what did she say? you gotta tell me!" She said she prayed for us and for her friends. I thought, "seriously? that was it? you were praying for at least 5 minutes." I love these culture experiences. I have all of these places I want to travel to now!
Josh was another new investigator we found....well...he found us. We volunteer at the local community kitchen every week and he was there volunteering too. He came up to us and told us that he's always wanted to learn more about our church and if he ever joined a church it would probably be ours. Saweet! We had a lesson at the church and gave him a tour of the building, then as we sat down to start the lesson he said, "I'm going to be honest you've got me convinced already, I think I want to join your church." uhhh ok! you want to get baptized tomorrow?...If only it worked like that. He is really enthusiastic about it though, it's awesome. He really wants a change in his life and he met us at the right time. Isn't it cool how that always seems to happen?
Our other 2 new investigators are an older couple, Claude and Janet. We met Claude street contacting and then went to teach him and Janet. They are both enthusiastic about the Book of Mormon. Claude's at page 100 already! Janet came to church on Sunday and said she really enjoyed it, she said she felt like she was at home as soon as she came in.
I love having people to teach. It's the best. I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father has placed me in 2 amazing areas to be apart of. Truro was so ready to grow and I got to be apart of it, and now Fredericton is ready to grow and I get to be apart of it. I feel so blessed.
On Sunday I gave a talk. It was kind of cool because all 4 of the missionarys in the ward gave talks. We just took the 4 lessons in Preach My Gospel and taught each one. I had the Plan of Salvation. I cried. What's new. The other talks were really good, and I think it was nice for the members to see what we teach.
TIP: do not work down town on Saturday night. That's when you get some...interesting characters. Seriously. We were walking by the bus stop and these guys stop us and want to talk about our religion. One of the guys tells me it's his birthday tomorrow and he's half drunk, but would really like to come visit our church. cool. The other guy was a bit vulgar, so won't repeat that one. We also ran into a woman named "Bunny Love" she writes gospel music and told us she loved us and kept hugging us. I felt the love, keep spreading in bunny. Then we go to an appointment and it falls through, so we're standing outside the apartment building figuring where to go to knock and this little girl walks out. She yells out, "hey what are you guys doing here?" She walks over to us and makes us hold her doll, "libby" and then insists that she goes with us. uhhh yike. We tell her we'd like to meet her mom aka we'd like her mom to take her so she's safe. Finally, she takes us to see her mom and we tell her mom that we just wanted to make sure her daughter was safe. Her mom says something like, "oh ya she's fine she just stepped out." ok so do you not realize that your daughter who is 3 who claims to be 6, is out by herself on a busy street? yikes! We try to leave and her daughter follows us. When the mom tells her to come here the 3 year old says, "no you come here!" ATT-I-TUDE. wowzer. The little girl then takes the Lord's name in vain and says she has to change her doll. oooookkkk......You meet all kinds of people on your mission that's for sure.
My new favorite pass time is contacting people on the bus. It's the best. Sometimes it's hard to start a conversation, but every time I listen to the Spirit I know what to say. It's so strange how something so simple as talking to people about the gospel on the bus can make you so happy. But it does! I'm so grateful to have this time to be a representative of Jesus Christ. It's such a blessing to wear this name tag. Now I'm off to ride my bike in the rain...wow I feel like such a cliche missionary. Isn't it the best?
Love,
Sister Crane

More Bike Adventures

2011-08-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

I actuallly crossed the highway on my bike!!

My injury when I stepped into a puddle

The puddle!

My first Samosa

Sixteen going on Seventeen? I don't get it.

2011-08-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

August 15th

2011-08-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

Biking is brutal. I'm injured. Ok not that badly, but boy oh boy do my legs get beat up. yikes. I am learning to tough it out though. It's hard, but Sister Davis is teaching me....what did I even do this week? Don't you ever have weeks like that? We had district meeting and afterwards we all went out to a thai restaurant. Can I just tell you that I am not a master at chop sticks. It's quite embarrassing actually. Such a shame. I'm grateful I got sent to Canada where the fork is most commonally used.

We have a new investigator! Want to hear a really cool story? ok! So we go to knock these apartment buildings. They are the kind that you have to buzz to get in. yuck. Hate those ones. It's so awkward to just buzz a random apartment and say, "hey we're missionaries, you don't know us but can you let us in to your complex so we can annoy all of your neighbors and have them point fingers as to who let us in?"....ok so we really don't say that, but we might as well. We buzz the 1st apartment and no answer. Then in walks some guy and he asks us if we want into the building. SWEET. uh ya! So we get in. At this point I'm thinking, there is a reason we're here. That was not a coinsidence. There's got to be someone that we need to see here. We start at the first floor. A total bust. 2nd floor. Even bigger bust. It's now lunch time and I don't really care to knock any more, I figure lets just go home. Sister Davis says, "lets just try one more floor." ok 3rd floor. 1/2 way through and a bust. lets just go! No, says sister Davis, we should just finish the floor (see this is why you have companions, b/c when one is down they bring you back up and help you) Next door we knock on is this really nice girl named Savannah. We talk to her for a bit and then I ask if we could come inside and share more about our message with her. "sure! come on in!" WHAT? ya! It was the best! She's a mom of 2 cute kids. One of whom is a 4 month old baby who is suffering from a brain injury at birth. Her baby isn't even supposed to be living right now, but it was a miracle and now she's here! Savannah doesn't know much about God or Christ, but her boyfriend who is pretty religious has told her a lot about God and she knows that a higher power helped her baby be here today. Ah! God prepares His children to be taught! I'm so grateful that Sister Davis pushed us to keep going, or we wouldn't have met her!

In other news, Gloria finished the Book of Mormon! woop woop! She loves it. And we love that she loves it! Affe is as cute as ever. We were in the middle of a lesson when all the sudden she realized that the Simmons, (a couple from the ward that we had brought) had taken off their shoes at the door. She hurridly shuffled out of the room and then came back with 2 sets of slippers for them to wear. "It's too dirty! Your feet will be cold!" It was adorable. One of the things I love about all of our foreign investigators is that we get to teach them about Christ. A lot of them don't know too much about Him. It's a real blessing for me to be able to testify so much of Him and teach them about His life.

This week made me really grateful for the priesthood. God knows us personally. Priesthood blessings are incredible. I think they are one of the things that has strengthened my testimony the most on my mission. Time and time again, God reminds me that He is near and heavily involved in my life. So since He's no respector of persons, then he's heavily involved in our investigators lives too. Pretty amazing. God is there and listening even when we think He's not. He's always there. I know it. He listens even to the thoughts of our heart. Pretty incredible. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Crane

Halifax with Sister Hudson

2011-08-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

The Chi-Lect and scantily clad woman

2011-08-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

I would like to entitle this blog posting as The Chi-Lect and the scantily clad woman. Good title eh? Yes I did just say eh. I've been using it in my vocabulary more frequently. I don't think Sister Davis approves, but I've forgotten my American ways...I'm all Canadian now. Well except for this whole poutine idea. Gravy and cheese curd on french fries? yuck! You can get it at Burger King for only 2 dollars extra. mmmmm....hurry on in everyone!
So this week we went to......TRURO! ya buddy! It was the best. weird being back though...and so soon after leaving too! We were on our way to a conference in Halifax but spent the night in Truro part way. It was really weird sleeping on the couch of my own apartment....well what was my own apartment. Really surreal actually. It was the best seeing Sister Glenn though. She had the best news about everyone. Amber who we were teaching got baptized! Nathan who we taught is getting baptized this Saturday! ah! And Greg and Chad who got baptized earlier this year both recieved the Aaronic priesthood! So many happy things! I got to see a few people while I was there too! I saw Greg, he's hillarious as usual, Sister Reyes and her clan they had to do a double take when they saw me (I love surprises) and then Sister Priest!(the one who got baptized last November) She had recently taken a fall and she's in a lot of pain, it was nice to see her and so sad to say good bye all over again, but we both agreed we'd see each other in November when she goes through the temple for her first time! ah! yay!
After Truro we headed off to Halifax. I worked in the city with Sister Hudson (MTC comp) and the rest of the sisters went to a newer missionary training conference thing. I worked in the city for 2 days and it was the best ever! Oh my goodnes. Sooooo many people to talk to! We rode the bus and mostly walked every where. I learned a TON from Sister Hudson. She taught me to be myself and to act like each person's life depended on you. She is so outgoing and will start a conversation with anyone so casually and then bam share the gospel. I wish I could go into detail about every experience I had in Halifax with her and all the things I learned but to sum it up it was a very humbling experience and I learned to just be myself when I talk to total strangers. I will share one experience though:
THE CHI-LECT! Ok let me first say that this was THE BEST lesson I've ever been apart of ever! SOOO cool! So once upon a time the assistants were street contacting and met this guy from China, he was interested in the gospel but didn't live in their area so they got his phone number and gave him as a referral to the sisters in Halifax. They call the number and they get a guy from China....but it's not the same guy the assistants had met! However this guy from China is interested too! crazy right? It gets better. So they meet with him and he brings a friend. cool! Then he comes to church and brings 2 friends! woah! so cool! Then I get there and go with Sister Hudson to the appointment and we open up the door and I think, "woah it's a party!" 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7! 7 chinese guys! And they all want to learn more about the gospel! WHA? I know right? Plus we had 2 members with us. Soooo 11 people in one room for one lesson. So inside I'm freaking out and so excited. They grab 2 chairs for us to sit on and then everyone else sits on this giant mattress in the middle of the room. I felt like saying, "ok class today's lesson is on the restoration." At one point I asked , "so where are you all from?" STUPID question! a roar of laughter exploded followed by a...."duh China!"....ok ok just checking! haha It was the coolest lesson ever. We watched the restoration and testified over and over again. When Sister Hudson shared the first vision I wanted cry I could just feel the Spirit so strongly and I was so happy! We walked out of there extatic! One of the Chinese guys talked to us after and goes, "you guys are really cool, what I love about your church is this voluntary work you do. I would like to do that too." "YOU CAN!" we both yelled, "just get baptized and then you can serve a mission!" He laughed. It was great. But seriously. Can you imagine all 7+ getting baptized and serving missions?! China has got to open soon I just know it.
Oh side note: after that experience we were street contacting and we see this Chinese girl. Instantly Sister Hudson goes CHI-LECT! (the Chinese Elect) and walks up to her and starts asking her if she would be interested in learning more. The girl says no and trys to leave but sister hudson goes, "well you know actually we're teachin a lot of Chinese people right now and we'd love for you to come and meet them!" ..."oh really? ok well you wanted my number? sure!" haha loved it.
To say the least it was the best working in the city, and it's the best now taking what I've learned and applying it here! Our investigators are awesome and we love them so much, I just wish they could understand sometimes how important the things we're teaching to them are. It's so insane to me that we have this amazing knowledge of this plan God has for us,and we have the authority to baptize! And people don't get that they can have the blessings of that now! That all of the sacrafices they would make to have that knowledge and to participate in those oridinances would far be outweighed by the blessings they would recieve from the gospel! Jeff is a new investigator we have and he just committed to be baptized in September! I'm so excited for him! When people say yes to a baptismal commitment I just want to jump up and down and say, "yes! this is the best choice you could ever make!" I love it when I see the joy the gospel brings into someone else's life. I'm so grateful to be here serving and for the learning experiences I had this week. The church is true!
Love,
Sister Crane

2011-08-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

So there's a story with these pictures. Before I left Truro I joked with a family there, the Criss's that because I didn't have a car I'd be carrying my luggage up a hill to get to my apartment, while riding a bike. We also joked that because I wear headbands all the time that I would have to wear the head band on top of my helmet. Thus the picture. Enjoy!

The Best Day Ever!!!

2011-08-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Before we return to our normal program here's a word TO our sponsors:
Here's to you Mom and Dad for buying me that pink bike when I was 10 and letting me ride around in the garage in circles because it was raining, you made this week possible...(if only you would have enforced helmet wearing maybe my helmet today wouldn't feel so ridiculous)
Here's to you Matt for running head on to me on my bike and knocking me over. Because of you I'm deathly afraid of falling and now bike at a cautious speed.
Thanks to you Jeff, for the rides through the northwood trails. You bike almost as fast as Sister Davis does. Because of you I practiced early on the sentence, "hey wait up I'm all they way back here!" It came in handy this week.
And Thanks to you minnie mouse bike. You're training wheels provided for some good practice...if only I had those training wheels now...if only....
And now back to our normal program:
Happy New Brunswick day every one!! What did you do to celebrate? nothing? perfect! That's exactly how people celebrate it here too! I've decided that Canada makes up holidays to get days off of work. It's a well known fact by now. I mean come on Victoria day? Civic holiday? New Brunswick day? I'm just confused! what is the purpose? oh well...that just means more people are at home when we go to their door. wahoo!
As you can tell from above this was a rough week on the bikes. On Thursday I experienced THE most cliche mission day of my life let me explain why:
-We rode on our bikes in the rain all day (pouring rain) soaked through and through with my helmet on top of my rain jacket hood. Classic look, I highly recommend it.
-I stepped into a deep puddle and came out with one foot soaking wet with mud
-I ate foreign food with my hands ( It was indian food and the person feeding us is from india and she said it tasted so much better with your hands...I think she might be right)
-We got dropped (stopped teaching someone)
-Taught a lesson in a parking garage and I sat on grossness and got it all over my black skirt
-Biked like crazy because we were late for a bus. Get to the bus stop and realize it's the WRONG stop! ah! so get back on the bike and go crazy fast to get to the next stop and the bus comes but the bike rack is full! We ask the bus driver desperately if we can carry our bikes on and he relunctantly says yes! Miracle!
-Came home exhausted and looked in the mirror and thought "oh dear, is that really what I looked like all day?!"
So in conclusion it was the best day ever! Seriously! Half the time we were riding in the rain I was laughing. When I stepped in the puddle I thought it was the funniest thing ever. The indian food was really good and the people feeding us were so nice. And the rest of it was just an adventure. It's amazing how when you are on the go 24/7 you can see God's hand in your life so much! It always works out...we some how make the bus...we some how get a ride...we some how get a member to come to a lesson last minute...we some how have the energy to teach and listen and discern and teach some more. This is the Lord's work!
Our investigators are amazing! I often wonder what it would be like to be an investigator and make these huge changes in my life and sacrifice so much just because you know and believe in the gospel. It's incredible what these people do and what they are willing to give up for the Lord. Jerome (one from the phillipines) is doing good. We're working on getting him to church. This whole waking up thing is hard for college students :) Jing and Chen (china) are amazing. They have the best questions ever! At church Chen kept falling asleep during sacrament meeting and went out to his car to take a nap during sunday school. I asked Jing where he went and when I found out we marched off to the car to wake him up. I gave him a snack and he came back in...I don't think he appreciated it too much but I think he knows now that he needs to get to bed earlier on Saturdays. Gloria is awesome. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel and is so courageous in making those changes neccesary. Affe is the cutest she bought me glasses! Like legit glasses! The ones that I said I loved! Our last lesson she tells me that she had a friend buy them in China and they should be here at the end of the month! Get out! She's so cool. I'm telling you these people are amazing!
We also went to see a lot of members this week, trying to get to know the ward...and you know referrals wouldn't hurt either :) They are all amazing. I'm so grateful that people love missionaries here. I don't know what I would do if they didn't! Our fridge is always full of food and left overs because of them. On Sunday we went to the Caddish's. They are this older couple from Austria. They have an AMAZING garden and she made us a meal with fresh food from her garden. We had Chicken fajitas! AH finally! Fredericton you got it right! Mexican food is where it's at, no more meat and potatoes! The food was divine to say the least. For dessert we had banana bread with ice cream and her homeade warm apple sauce over the icecream. I was nervous at first but not after the first bite! De-O-licious! It's a good thing I'm on a bike with all of this good food.
I am so grateful to serve! I'm so grateful for my family! I'm so grateful that I have been prepared my whole life to come to Atlantic Canada and meet these people...I just never knew that's what I was being prepared for! The gospel is true! How blessed we each are. I regret all of those times I ever felt sorry for myself ever. How foolish. We are so incredible blessed we just have to look around and notice the blessings. God cares about the big things and the small things in our lives. He loves His children all over the world and hears them in whatever language they pray. He knows our hearts. I'm so grateful that He does. Christ lives! It's through Him that we can have hope in this world! I know that everything that we sacrifice for the gospel is really so small compared to the blessings we receive in abundance. It's so simple. You read the scriptures, you pray, you go to church, you get baptized and endure to the end. It all comes down to the simple steps. What a wonderful time to serve. The church is true!
Love,
Sister Crane

Glasses, Affe, Jing, Sister Davis

2011-07-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

My last District

2011-07-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Truro members

2011-07-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

July 24th 2011

2011-07-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

I have never walked so much in life, ridin a bike so much in my life, and sweated so much in my life. yuck. The humidity level here on Saturday was a level 2, I don't really know what that means except sticky, hot, unbearable, and gross. I was chugging water like no other. We had a ward activity on Saturday and all the members kept telling us about how to avoid be dehydrated and dying. Salt tablets, wearing a hat, and having president send us a car, were just some of the best suggestions. I like the whole sending us a car one myself :)
So let me tell you all about our investigators! You'll love them. I sure do. Gloria is amazing. She is so quiet, kinda shy, but after I threw a few sarcastic comments at her she finally threw one back. She's on date for baptism in September and I'm so excited for her. You can tell she really knows that it's true, it's exciting to see the gospel really change someone's life.
Jing and Chen are amazing. They are both from China and have been taught a lot. We're trying to get them to set a date for baptism...and hopefully marriage :) I love teaching foreigners, they are so blunt and straightforward. Jing was teaching me a phrase in chinese and she started to laugh, I asked her if she was laughing because my accent was bad and she straight up said, "yes." cool. I'm working on it! I had remembered chinese phrase that Matt had taught me that he learned on his mission "do you like cats." I thought I'd impress them with it, and after some time they finally figured out what I was saying and then taught me the correct way to say it. haha oh dear...I try to be cool but it sometimes doesn't work out.
We got 3 people on date for baptism my first week here: Jacob, from Lebanon, really cool, searching, when the sisters had met him he already had a Book of Mormon in Arabic. Affe, from China has super cute glasses, kinda like Maddie's but bigger, I tried them on and totally want some now. And Jerome. He's from the phillipines, really nice, really sincere. It's so fun to teach these people! I feel like every lesson I want to cry because the Spirit is so strong. The members that have been coming with us are so great. Whenever they bear their testimony I just feel so warm all over, I keep thinking, "I hope our investigator can feel that!"
Jamil and Christian are pretty cool as well. Jamil is from Africa and Christian is from Columbia. They are both friends and we sometimes teach them together. They are around our age so it's fun to joke with them. Actually most of the people we are teaching are our age. It's kinda cool. So good story: We're on our way to see a potential when we spot Christian and Jamil coming out of a store. We cross the street and start talking to them, trying to get an appointment. All the sudden this guy walks out of the store, he has shades on and it's totally not sunny, and I don't think he was acutally wearing a matrix coat but that's what I picture him in. Anyways he walks by and goes, "mormons?" I immediately turn thinking, "sweet! he's interested lets talk to this guy." I say to him, "ya you heard of us?" He replies with, "no but you guys really intrigue me....and your really hot." and then walks away. Can you say, AWKWARD?! I turn to face Jamil and Christian and just bust up laughing. I couldn't help it. It was ridiculous. Who are these crazies we keep running into? haha oh dear. Anyways Jamil and Christian are great. Jamil is super passionate in what he believes in. When he starts to talk about God he puts his heart to his chest trying to get the point across like he really means it. Christian has the best questions about the Book of Mormon and he's searching for the restored gospel, you can just tell with his sincereity and the questions he asks.
Church on Sunday was amazing. We're getting a new Bishop and the whole bishopric spoke and their talks were incredible! It was like they were speaking right to our investigators. So amazing. I love the gospel. It's so true, you can just see evidence of it everywhere. oh Oh OH! Exciting news! I get to go to a conference in Halifax next week and guess where I get to spend the night on my way to Halifax....you guessed it...TRURO! yahoo! I get to go back woop woop! The conference is for newer missionaries so while in Halifax, I drop off Sister Davis and get to work with Sister Hudson for 2 days! I'm so stolked! Sister Hudson was my MTC comp and we've always wanted to serve together. We beg president everytime we see him. He probably thinks putting us together for 2 days will get us off his case about it. we'll see about that....:)
Thank you for your prayers and love and support! Sometimes I feel strength coming from some other source than myself, and I know that it's through other's prayers that I can feel that strength. Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Crane

Members in Truro

2011-07-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

Brother and Sister Mingo

Sister Laliberte

Nathan (our investigator)

Greg

Tatamagouche and roasted oysters

2011-07-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

Me and my Bike

2011-07-18T08:05:00.001-07:00

What's new in Fredericton?

2011-07-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

China, Bahamas, Japan, Columbia, Lebanon, Africa, Phillipines, and Canada. What do all of these countries have in common? All of our investigators are from one of those countries. INSANE?! or what?! I know, it's nuts. So many accents, so little time. But seriously. In Truro we had 10 investigators, 4 of which were solid. Here in Fredericton they have 17 investigators and I'd say 80% are solid. It's insane people! We spent 12 hours planning this week! It normally takes 3 hours to plan and you betcha it took us 12. Sister Davis was constantly giving me the run down on our investigators and it was so confusing because they all come from such diverse backgrounds that keeping them straight was nuts. We taught 6 member present lessons on Saturday which is the most I've ever taught in one day. This area is on fire. For REALS! Ok so now that I've explained to you my shock factor, let me walk you through this crazy hard week:
So I found out I was leaving Truro and telling the members was so hard. Sister Mingo cried, Sister Priest cried, Sister Criss cried, Sister Putnam cried, Sister Reyes cried,and I cried over and over. Seesh. It was like a cry fest, I was on the verge of tears like 3 days straight and so stressed out because I had so many people to say good-bye to. We went from house to house to house saying, "sign my book, take a picture, see ya later." gah. It was annoying to say the least, because I hate good-byes. It was like leaving my family all over again. So I finally some how was able to pack throughout that whole process and then Sister Glenn dropped me off. That was so hard to say good-bye to her. We both balled our eyes out. I feel like we are the same person sometimes, we just clicked so well it was hard to say good-bye and think that our adventures together in Truro were over. So I got in the transfer van and rode with another sister, Sister Tolliver who was going to PEI and some other Elders headed for New Brunswick, and we left my safety net of Nova Scotia. So sad. I met up with Sister Davis and it's been so great!
We drove the 4 1/2 hours to get here and Sister Davis was so excited to tell me about all 17 investigators and where they are from and yada yada yada. Of course it all went over my head until I actually met half of them. wowzer, it was a LOT to take in. Sister Davis has been really great through all of it, she is really sensitive to the fact that I've been in one area for a year and that it's hard for me to change. She's been really flexible about our routine and wants to change things up, like how we plan, and work with members and all that jazz. The bikes, however are a whole other story!
So we live at the top of this GI-normous hill! who the hay decided to give us bikes to ride up a huge hill! This hill seriously reminds me of a San Francisco hill. I might be exagerating. It's not as steep as one of those but it's worse because it's so tall and is a gradual incline all the way up. How in the world am I supposed to bike up a hill, in a skirt, with this insane helmet they've got for me?! I'm totally sending pictures so you all can get a visual of how ridiculous my helmet is. It's like a military helmet. I feel like bombs are going to go off everytime I strap it on. Luckily we don't live too far from the church, but biking from the church to our apartment stinks because it's all up hill. After our very first bikeride just from the church to our apartment my legs were on FIRE. I felt like jello for the rest of the day. I'm so out of shape it's not even funny. Ok it is kind of funny and one day I'll laugh, but this whole not having a car bites sometimes. All the sisters who served here kept telling me what a blessing it was to have a bike because they used to just have to walk and take the bus and the bus doesn't come too often. I'm really trying to be grateful, I just don't want to die on a bike. I'm so clumsy and with my massive helmet I look even clumsier. I'll adjust but for now I'll take pictures so I can remember these ridiculous moments.
What I love about transfers is I get to come to this new area and as an onlooker see what changes need to be made. We only have 2 people on date right now. And with 17 investigators we should have WAY more. This week our goal is to get 3 more on date. I'm ready and pumped to do it. We gotta start baptizing these people or we'll never get anywhere. On Saturday already we got someone on date, Jerome, he's from the Phillipines, nicest guy ever. Most of these people are college students, it's a college town. On saturday we picked out baptismal dates for 4 people and just went down the line picking a date and then praying, felt good, next date, pray about it, feel good, next... and so on. I loved it. I think one big reason I'm here is to help this area catch the vision of baptism. Another reason I think I'm here is to get the members on board. The sisters before were seeing the same members week after week. That's changing this week. We are going to start with 4 member visits per week. We had one on Sunday and it was so good. This family that we taught really opened up about problems they were having and thanked us for our care and concern and asked us to pray for them. Members need that spiritual uplift ment just like less-actives, and investigators. And if we show sincere and genuine love for the members, they will trust us and help us with our work! Members are the key. Oh did I mention we have Elders in our ward?! so weird. I'm used to being 45 minutes away from the closest missionaries. Now we see missionaries multiple times a week! It's awesome. We're also working on being in unison with the Elders here, making it a team effort instead of "you go off and do your thing and we'll go off here."
IN CONCLUSION! I'm sad to be out of Nova Scotia. Do I miss Truro? yes. I think about it all the time, but do I love Fredericton? Totally! It was hard at first not knowing anyone, but the more people we see and teach the better I feel and the easier it is to move on and be where I'm at. I'm grateful that God knows us so well. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows what we need better than we do. I'm excited to help this area grow and develop. I'm excited to be apart of this area that is growing and developing! :) The church is true!
Love,
Sister Crane

Mom and Dad visit Truro

2011-07-14T07:15:00.001-07:00

July 11, 2011

2011-07-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

Drum roll please! Transfers are here!...........I'M BEING TRANSFERED! to............FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK! I'm leaving the province and going to New Brunswick. All I know about it is that they speak a lot more french there, and get this IT'S A BIKING AREA....ah! I have to ride a bike! ah! what am I going to do!?! My new companion is Sister Davis and she has been out 3 months. I met her at Sister's conference and she is really sweet. I'm excited that I get to be with her. She's from California I think. It's insane. I don't even know how to feel. I'm so so sad to leave Truro, but I feel like it's time. It's so weird that this is my first and possibly only transfer. Since I only have 6 months left I probably won't go any where else, it's possible but if you look at my track record...it's likely I'll die there (meaning I'll end my mission there). Woah. A lot to take in.
This week was great! As some of you may know my parents came! Don't worry it was legit, President Simpson authorized me to be able to spend 3 hours with them where they took me out to lunch and got to meet a few recent converts. Dad was in Halifax for a business conference and since Nova Scotia is all the way across the country I guess President Simpson had a soft heart and let them see me. The time went by crazy fast. We went for fish and chips and I showed them around Truro...there wasn't much to see but I think they liked it. It was crazy surreal but such a fun experience that I'll remember forever.
Our investigators are the best! Nathan is doing so great! That's a baptism I will be so sad to miss. He had an amazing experience that he shared with us last Monday night. 1st off he said he LOVED church and that he's never felt so much love in one church before. He then said that when he had gotten home from church that night he started to read more of the Book of Mormon. He read from 9-12 or 1 in the morning and then decided he needed to go to bed because he needed to wake up at 5am for work. He tried to sleep but couldn't. So he read more. Then he got to the chapter in The Book of Mormon about King Benjamin's speech where the people are converted and experience a change of heart. He said something clicked and he just knew that The Book of Mormon was true. AH! As he told us this Sister Glenn and I are freaking out inside and we both in unison, after a bit of silence, say, "Wow, that's amazing!" Ah! he knows it's true. He told his family about his baptism and his mom and sister are going to come. Nathan is so solid it's the best.
Amber is doing great too. She seems really excited for her baptism! Awww I'm going to miss her baptism by a week! ugh! Stinking transfers! We started a scripture study class this summer and our first one was last Thursday. It went really well. We went through the first 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon and we're going to try to get through half of it this summer. Amber, Nathan, and Cheryl (all investigators) came. It was awesome. Cheryl is also on date for baptism! yay! August 20th. She's a former investigator and we picked her back up and I'm really excited that she's progressing toward baptism.
Oh man it's so hard to write this e-mail and focus on last week because I'm freaking out inside about being transferred since I found out like 10 minutes ago so I apologize if this is at all scattered.
Church was great. Here's a tender mercy I experienced: They were short on speakers so they asked Sister Glenn and I from the pulpit to come up and share our testimonies. I didn't want to leave Truro without doing that so it was a real blessing to bear my testimony for the last time there.
I can't even remember what else happened this week! Steve's doing good, we're a little afraid he's getting attatched to us instead of the Book of Mormon. We're making strategies to bring men to the lessons so he doesn't get the wrong idea about us. :) He comes to church though and reads the Book of Mormon so he's doing his part.
And there you go for now. I'm sure so much more happened but all I can think about is who I'm going to tell first that I'm leaving. It's so sad. Now Truro will be a memory. I still think when I get home and people ask me where I served I'll say, "Truro, Nova Scotia." But I'm sure in 6 months that will change :) I know I'll love Fredericton. I've heard great things about it. For one it's a ward! woah. That'll be way different. I've been in this tiny branch for so long I think I've forgotten what a ward is like. It's blowing my mind. Ok so I'm off for an adventure to Tatamagouche. Sister Hansen, a member, is taking us up there to check out a maple tree factory. sweet! You know you're in Canada when you go visit one of those! Prayers would be nice on my behalf this week as I go through this change! Thank you! The church is true and God does direct this great work!
Love,
Sister Crane

Canada Day with Bagpipes and Hotdogs

2011-07-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wild-Life Park and Taco Bell

2011-07-04T09:52:00.001-07:00

Canada Day July 1st

2011-07-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

July 4th

2011-07-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

To All: HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!....I mean uhhh....HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!....oh man I'm so torn. We've been listening to the Mormon tabernacle choir's "spirit of America" CD today, and I'm wearing red white and blue...but other than that it's a normal day in Truro Nova Scotia. Canada day was so much fun though! I dressed up for that too. I had a bright red skirt and white top (I don't know why they don't have a 3rd color, it just makes sense to add one in...) and we went to the branch activity in the park. It was kind of hillarious because here we are 2 girls from California, our first Canada day and we're matching in all red and white just marching down the street like a walking billboard for Canada. Cool. Apparently they had a parade but we missed it and then most of the festivities go on at Victoria park that day. They had awful singers....I mean really bad...but a lot of free stuff and a BBQ. sweet. Our branch had a little section of the park. We even put up a GI-normous sign with our churches name on it and did free face painting. It was a hit! We had crowds flocking to our station. It was awesome. We saw a TON of people we knew too. It was such a good missionary opportunity because well this town is pretty small, and with everyone gathered in one place you tend to see people you've seen before. So we ran into a lot of less-actives, and people we had formerly taught. Nathan, our investigator, came and it was a blast. We played washer toss with the branch....a little game I think only known to Nova Scotia....or maybe I'm the only one who's never heard of it. It's like horse shoe except you have washers (hence the name) and you try to throw them in a can that's in a box. sounds thrilling. I know. but it was pretty fun. We ate cotton candy and tried to endure the entertainment. It consisted of a really mediocre country singer singing, "brown eyed girl" and a chilling Ozzy Osborne imitation band singing some song about satan. Entertainment for the whole family! Oh Canada....p.s. a little known fact... a lot of Canandians don't know the lyrics to their national anthem. Apparently some of the words were changed recently in history and it mixes them up. I motion for a national awareness day of this sad epidemic.
Ok so Nathan is doing so good! This guy when we first met him didn't think he would ever join a church and he kept telling us over and over, "it's going to take you a looong time to get me to step inside a church." He's the one who feels like churches are full of hypocrites. Now he's on date for baptism, came to our activity for Canada day AND came to church! After fast and testimony Sister Glenn went to talk to him and he said that he really enjoyed it and had a good vibe and was trying to hold back tears and then he took a kleenex and whipped his eyes. awwww Nathan. AND he said the closing prayer in Elders quroum! What?! who is this guy?! I'm so excited for him! He said that the book of Mormon is the best book he's read ever.He just finished 2 Nephi! And he says he knows the book of Mormon is true. When I asked him how he knew it was true he said, "It just makes sense, and I don't think that Joseph Smith would lie." So cool. He's the best.
Steve is doing good. He came to church on Sunday. He's pretty steady in his reading. He's really quiet, so sometimes it's difficult to know if he really understands what we're teaching him. We're working on it though. Amber is doing great too. This week we found a new investigator Rob. He's pretty cool, we thought he was going to be argumentative but he actually listened, was a bit skeptical, but is reading from the Book of Mormon. He's really into the native practices and going to sweat lodges. He loves nature and feels really intune with it. I was so excited to tell him that we have a record of the people he's studying with!
On friday at the party we got to talking with Jason, he's a members son-in-law and used to be really anti-mormon. He's penecostal, but is now finding that he disagrees with some of their doctrine and is more open to listening to us. We had talked to him before and he really didn't want to listen, but now he's changed. It's amazing. The Lord is really preparing him. He came to church on Sunday and we're meeting with him this week. He even got up to the pulpit and bore his testimony of the Savior on Sunday. The whole time I was on edge hoping he wasn't going to say anything bad, but it was actually really nice. He's native, which is so exciting, I can't wait to be like, "the book of Mormon is about your ancestors!!!" So cool. I love the Book of Mormon. I'm with you Nathan, it's the best book ever.
Last Monday we went to the wild life park with Sister MacInnis. The nicest lady on the face of this planet. Seriously. I want to be just like her when I grow up. We saw this gigantic black bear and cougars and birds, a ton of peacocks, and horses, caribou, and yada yada. No moose sadly. They died in the winter! I was so bummed. I'm determined to see a moose before leaving Canada. I've heard the craziest stories about them, they're really dangerous. Who knows maybe I'll run into one and learn how to ride it. Not likely but a girl can dream. Afterwards Sister MacInnis took us out to...drum roll please....TACO BELL! AHHH! you have no idea how happy I was! So to canadians anything remotely close to being spicey is like so hot it's going to burn their mouth. They hardly ever use spices when cooking and most of them don't even know how to make a taco. I'm serious. Sister Priest made tacos upon request for us and she had to follow the directions on the taco kit box. Afterwards she said something like, "wow that was really easy, I should do that again!" We had heard that taco bell in Canada was gross but we decided to try it and it was so good! They even had HOT SAUCE...no fire... but I'll take hot over medium any day. Their hot salsa in the store here isn't even hot. It's ridiculous. So anyways the tacos were good, the meat was a lighter color than it is in the states, but I ate it anyway. I was so happy. my life is complete. So Sister MacInnis moves into my #1 member spot for that good deed of the day. Congratulations Sister MacInnis.
So odds are I'm leaving Truro in a week and a half and can I just say how terribly sad I am at that thought. It breaks my heart a little. I love these people. Seriously. I just love them. They are my family. I know them so well, and they know me and my humour a little too much now. :) but I'm just so sad at the thought of leaving them. If I don't leave and Sister Glenn does I'll be so sad too. We've had the best 6 months ever and it's gone by way too fast. I hate change. I know no matter where I go I'll love it...learn to love it. But I know that transition period will probably be difficult. The idea of not being able to see these people for a long time just makes me so sad. I really hope that I love my new area...if I leave...just as much...but I'm not sure that's possible. The church is true! I love the gospel and the opportunity to serve is such a blessing. God lives and loves each of His children so much.
Love,
Sister Crane

June 27th

2011-06-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

I feel like so much happened this week, I don't even know if I'll be able to write about it all! First let me say that we had an amazing baptism on Saturday! Ja-Mychal got baptized and it was perfect! Well...almost. Sister Glenn and I were in charge of filling up the font and we forgot to check the temperature of the water so the person baptizing Ja-Mychal almost burned his foot. We all stood around the closed doors of the font for 5 or 10 minutes while they put cool water into the font to try to get it bareable enough to baptize in. Oops. Seriously, there is a first time for everything. Usually it's too cold, so I never even thought about it being too hot! The program was beautiful though. His mom sang "I heard him come," that's the song she always sang to him when he was a baby and so she balled through the whole thing. Sister Glenn sang the rainbow song (classic, can't have a baptism w/out it) and the talks were perfect. The best was his grandpa, the former branch president, brother Bezanson. After the baptism he came up to us and shook our hands and said, "I just wanted to say thank you, I didn't think this day would come." He said it through his tears and I just felt his gratitude. I really don't think we did much, but perhaps helping them set a date was the motivation that family needed. Afterwards they had a BBQ at their house with close friends and family and we got an invite! ya! I love this name tag, it gets you into the best parties.
SISTER'S CONFERENCE! It was the best. We had sister's conference on Tuesday and went home on Thursday. We got to the mission home Tuesday night, had a DE-O-LICIOUS meal provided by Sister Simpson, and then had a training with president. He said we could ask him any question we wanted. So of course we went into deep doctrine since we normally can't do that. :) It was the best. We stayed up late talking to President and Sister Simpson and then with the other sisters. I was so excited to see Sister Hudson! Time has flown by since we were in the MTC together and so it was a blast to just see her and chat. We woke up the next morning and went to the TEMPLE! *sigh* it was the best. seriously. the best. It had been forever since I had gone and I felt like I learned so much. I loved being there with all of the sisters! so cool. We ate lunch and then headed off to Peggy's cove! woop woop! In the pictures you'll see that all of the Sister's are wearing headbands. It's because we had a secret sister headband exchange. Elder's swap ties, we swap headbands. You were assigned a sister and had to buy her a headband and wear the one you get on Wednesday and then you find out who gave you yours that night. I got 2. The first one was this CRAZY one that had canadian flags on it and silver streamers. classic. They knew me well. Later that night I got the REAL one with a note saying it was a joke and thanks for being a good sport. The only problem was I actually liked the Canadian one! haha So I wore both. It was awesome.
Peggy's cove is GORGEOUS. It's like every picture you take could be a postcard. Speaking of which mail has been on strike but it's supposed to be off strike tomorrow! Finally I can get and write letters! ah! Ok anyways, we hung out at Peggy's cove and headed over to Lunenburg and Mahone Bay. They are both right by the water and it's just beautiful. They have these cute little shops all around and you can just sit by the water and watch the sail boats. President bought us ice cream I made the mistake of getting Moon Mist. Nasty. But pretty looking. It tasted like plato. After seeing the sights we got back late that night and we were EXHAUSTED. (man I'm really capitolizing a lot of words lately, I hope you can feel the excitement :) ) This time President and Sister Simpson went to bed right away and all of the sisters stayed up talking. It was so much fun. We woke up had a wonderful breakfast and then said our sad goodbyes. awww. It was great. The Elder's have no idea what they're missing out on.
So our investigators! They are doing great! We have 3 new investigators this week! yahoo! and one of them, Nathan is on date for baptism for August 13th! another yahoo! Nathan loves God, but doesn't like church. He thinks that church is full of hypocrites....which is true..we're all hypocrites....but we're trying to help him see that the church is perfect and that's what matters, not the people. Nathan's girlfriend recently died in December. She drank a lot and I think that's what killed her. He has strong faith and has read a lot from the Book of Mormon already. I really hope we can help him overcome his fears and come to church.
Our other 2 new investigators are Cheryl and Mike. Cheryl is a former investigator that I had taught with Sister Peaden. Cheryl and Mike are living together and actually they are originally a referral from a member. We had dropped them because they were difficult to get ahold of and would reschedule appointments a lot. The member, Brother Urquhart asked us to go visit them again. We went yesterday and one of the first things Cheryl asked was, "can we pray?" She began to cry as she told us she lost her job and how her kids are really lost right now. I said a prayer for her and then we taught them about God and the Atonement. She said that we came at the exact time that we needed her. The both agreed that they need to get their lives back in order and start going to church. I'm really excited for them and hope we can help them get back on track.
Amber is doing well, her and her mom Sheila came to church on Sunday and Amber came to Ja-Mychal's baptism. She said she really liked it, but requested that her font water be a little bit cooler than his. We assured her it would be :) Casey gave her first ever talk in church! AH! she was so good! I sat there like a proud mother cheering her on. I was afraid she wasn't going to remember to end it with, "In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." but she did! And she bore testimony and it was perfect. I loved it! Steve is doing well, he came to church on Sunday too. He totally has a crush on Sister Glenn, but we try not to think about it and be very serious with him so he doesn't get any ideas. He kept making comments on how we're inseperable. Ya, Steve, we're companions! ugh. Oh get this. Steve's dad is Mike! you know mike and cheryl that i just talked about. So we're teaching a family! sweet!
Transfers are coming up again. It feels like they come so quickly. If I leave I'll only have 2 weeks left in Truro. How strange. I guess I thought I'd be gone long before this, but I feel so grateful to be here. I love the members. They are a huge source of strength for me. They make us feel loved and taken care of. I really appreciate that. I'll miss them for sure. I'm grateful for every minute that I get to be here in Truro and I'll stay longer if that's what Heavenly Father wants for me. The church is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I'm grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who know's us personally and takes care of us. Thank you for your love and support!
Love,
Sister Crane

Ja-Mychal's Baptism

2011-06-27T09:35:00.001-07:00

Ja-Mychal gave us the Canadain sun glasses and said, "Thank you for teaching me." It was so cute.

Sisters Conference

2011-06-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

June 21& 22nd - Sister's Training

2011-06-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Email to Mom and Dad from President and Sister Simpson:

We love your daughters. They are a joy and a blessing to us. We could never express adequately how much we appreciate what wonderful young women and missionaries each of them are.

Love,
President and Sister Simpson

Sister's Training

2011-06-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

June 20th 2011

2011-06-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

I've decided I'm going to start gardening. After my mission of course. The branch has inspired me, and us all. Alas. We had a gardening activity on Saturday followed by a BBQ. The district has challenged us all to grow something you can eat this year. I like the whole eating something but I don't know about growing it. But after the presentation I think I've changed my mind. Maybe.
This week was another good one! They all are when you think about it. I guess you can find good in every week if you look. Learned that one from Polyanna. Thanks Polly. 5 of our investigators came to church! Do you know how huge that is for Truro? I'll tell you, IT'S HUMONGOUS! Steve, Amber, Gary, Ja-Mychal, and Garnet. YAHOO! Our gospel principles class tripled. It was awesome. We planned really well which helped a lot when it came to Sunday. We called members to greet them and sit with them and all of that jazz so when it came to Sunday each member came in the doors saying something like, "where's so in so?" or "is so in so here? I'll save them a seat." We normally plan that kind of stuff but not that many people ACTUALLY show up. So it was exciting to say the least. Church for a missionary is like what the entire week culminates to. It's the big enchillada, if you will. It was Amber, Garnet and Steve's first times at church. Amber did really well, Garnet and Steve looked really nervous though. They both said they liked it though. Cool Story:
Garnet told us that after sacrament meeting he was really getting a craving for a cigarette, he was just about to leave and go for a smoke when a member, Brother Edmonds introduced himself and started talking to him. They talked so much that all the sudden Garnet realized he was walking back to the class room and sitting down. Brother Edmonds came in too and joined the class. So because a member was friendly, Garnet got to enjoy all of the class instead of smoking. Members are the best!
oh oH OH! Steve is on date! 7 on date! wahoo! seriously though. It's amazing. He's getting baptized on August 13th. Steve's pretty funny. He has this really I mean REALLY deep voice. His sister told him he sounds like that one guy on king of the hill. It's a cartoon and I've never seen it, but I've seen the guy talk on commercials and his voice matches almost exactly. He's super quiet too. In our last lesson he started telling us about this band called Blue Rodeo. He said he'd buy us tickets and we could all go when they come in August. When we told him we couldn't because of mission rules he was in shock. I told him it would distract us and we do missionary work full-time. "Distract you?!!!! from what?" I think he's still confused about it.
Teaching 3 young single guys can be weird sometimes. Each of them have found out how old we are and if we are married by asking in really round about and funny ways. You know, where YOU know what their trying to get at, but they don't think you know. It must be a guy thing. First was Gary. (I might have mentioned this one in my last e-mail) After one lesson he goes, "so you ladies are married right?" uhh no "oh I thought that was a wedding ring." He was pointing to Sister Glenn's CTR ring, "uhh no that's not even on my left hand!" Steve's was classic too. Sister Reyes was with us at the appointment and she starts talking about her 5 kids. Steve looks at us and goes, "so you all have kids?" smooth. No! We told him we aren't married and don't have kids. "how old do you think we are?" we asked Steve. "25 or 30" WHA? no. def. not. pretty sure I look like I'm 18, your age odometer must be broken. Garnet's wasn't as obvious. He asked us what we become after our missions, if we turn into nuns or something. We laughed and made it clear that we wouldn't like to be single for the rest of our lives. Later in the conversation he says, "I don't even know how old these ladies are!" Oh dear. Maybe when we meet single men we should just start off with, "So for the record I'm 22, no I'm not married and no I don't want to go to concerts with you, and I'm going to go home to California and not live in Truro for the rest of my life." I'll try it sometime and let you know how it goes.
Our investigators really are the best though, they are each sincere and really have a desire to be baptized and come closer to God. It's amazing to see the changes that each of them are making and their progress. The gospel must be true because there is no way that I could get so many people to come to church, live the word of wisdom, pray on their own, and read their scriptures, they feel the Spirit and that's what's so amazing!
Ja-Mychal (9) is getting baptized this Saturday! Yahoo! He had his interview on Sunday. We told him it was going to be really hard and the Elder interviewing him was going to ask him math questions and what his favorite sport was. I think he was slightly bummed when it didn't actually happen. Ja-Mychal told us after that when Elder Steward asked him what it means to get baptized he said that it was liking being reborn. Man that kid is smart. His parents really prepared him, what we did was just fringe.
In other news I played my first game of hockey in Nova Scotia. It was with a 7 year old and it wasn't on ice, but you have to start somewhere right? I totally beat him but don't tell him that, he thinks we tied. Hockey is a BIG deal here. like REALLY big. We do service in the nursing home here and even they were talking about it. " Vancouver should have won, even though Boston is still good because they have more Canadian players than Vancouver, but it's gotta be a Canadian name to win not the states!" They're a bit patriotic here too, have I mentioned that? The other day we talked with 2 people who told us why Canada was better than the US and what things the US was doing wrong. It's so pointless to tell us, we don't even get to watch the news! I just smile and nod. I do love learning more about Canada though. I've memorized all the provinces and I'm working on the capitols. Our mission covers 4 of the 9 provinces so that part was kind of easy. This week is sisters conference and we get to go to Peggy's cove. It's supposed to be picture perfect there, just like a post card. I'm so excited! Sister conference is the best! pray for good weather!
The church is true! Thank you for your love and support! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Crane

June 13th

2011-06-13T15:12:00.001-07:00

Glasses are a present from Sister Chown

Waiting for a train, thrilling, I know!

Toaster Struddle, they're the bomb!

2011-06-13T15:05:00.001-07:00

BEST WEEK EVER! K so a few weeks ago Sister Glenn and I were frustrated. We weren't teaching steady people who really wanted to progress toward baptism. We had 2 people on date, but we were struggling to get member present lessons. One week we barely made it by getting just 1 member present lesson. Then BAM this week happened! WE HAVE 4 NEW PEOPLE ON DATE! yahoo! We have 3 new investigators and 2 of those 3 are on date. So let me explain how all of it happened!
First it started with Amber. Remember her? She's a new investigator from last week and her mom is less-active, we knocked into her. We extended the baptismal commitment and before I could finish my sentence she was nodding yes! Ah! So exciting. She really wants this and she was going to come to church on Sunday but got sick, she even got a new dress for it. Next week for sure though. So excited for her!
Next is Garnet. So we knocked into Garnet like 2 weeks ago and before we even got to his door he came out and said, "hey ladies!" we said 2 sentences practically before he was like, "ya for sure come back any time you want!"...uhhh I was creeped out intially for sure. I'm thinking, "yikes this guy isn't interested in our message, he's interested in 2 girls." oh how wrong was I! We go this week and apparently a few years back when he was living in Cape Breton, he was taught by Elders. He knew our message, that's why he was so excited to talk to us. He said that he was really unhappy, that he needed something in his life, he was searching. His girlfriend of 13 years died just 2 years ago and I think that was really hard on him. We taught him 3 times this week and in the first 2 lessons he was really apprehensive about coming to church and baptism just freaked him out. We asked him to pray about August 6th for a date. When we came back I asked him if he had prayed, he said he had and there was something in his eyes that told me he really poured his heart out to God. I asked him, hesitantly if he would get baptized on August 6th and he said so confidently, "yes, yes I will." AH! I was in shock! I think I told him I was so excited for him like 5 times. It was awesome.
Sabrina, Casey's sister is on date for November 7th. Now anyone who remembers my e-mail about Casey when she was first on date will understand why Sabrina's is so far away. Casey got baptized in March but that wasn't her original date. The missionaries taught her for over a year. When I met her it had been a few months. She wouldn't set a date and in September or October she set a date for January. I was crushed. "oh no she'll never get baptized that's so far away!" but she just didn't feel ready at the time. Anyways she did get baptized in March and I was here to see it, so that was a miracle. So it wasn't too big of a shock when Sabrina refused our date of July 30th and picked November 7th. Yes it does feel like forever away, but I think she does need time to prepare. I'm excited that she wants to follow in her sister's foot steps, and more importantly the Savior's.
Ok So Then there was Gary. Oh Gary. Best story ever! Ok so a week ago the Elders in New Glasgow (who are our zone leaders) called to tell us that their investigator Gary is moving to Truro. His sister Veronica MacInnes is a member of our branch in Truro as well. When the Elders knocked into him he was having an awful day and was just thinking, "I haven't seen missionaries around lately, I wonder what they're up to." and then he gets a knock at the door and there's Elder Turner and Elder Gammell. So cool? it gets better! Fast forward a few weeks to last Tuesday. Sister Glenn felt impressed to knock Center street. No way Jose! Center street is drug street. I was told not to go there by the previous Elders and it's super scetchy. But alas we agreed that's where we should go and planned to go during the middle of the day.(daylight is safer :) ) We go and knock on the first door on Center and meet this guy named Steve (I'll talk about him in a second) he's nice and we get a return appointment and i notice out of the corner of my eye this guy walking back and forth in front of the apartment building but don't really think anything of it. We would have stayed to keep knocking at the apartment building but I realized I needed more pamphlets from the car. We walk down and the guy who had been walking in front of the driveway says to us, "well from Mr. Gammell's description it's not hard to spot you 2" It was Gary! We stand and talk in the rain for some time and he's super nice. He tells us that he's living with his sister Veronica until he can get some work and an apartment. It was insane. Not only were we supposed to knock Center street for Steve but for Gary too! So we meet with Gary twice this past week and he even came to church! He loved it. He said he got emotional a few times at church and had to bite his lip because he didn't want to cry and look stupid. He'll fit right in! haha Then last night we go to teach him and extend the baptismal commitment and he says that Elder Turner and Elder Gammell and Elder Farnsworth (who he all refers to as Mr. which cracks me up) tried getting him on date but he just wouldn't make the commitment. The Spirit was so strong as Veronica and Sister Glenn and I explained that he would be prepared by July 23rd and that he didn't have to be perfect to be baptized. He then looked at us and said, "ok I'll give you more than I gave Mr. Turner, and I'll try for July 23rd." Yahoo! I was extatic! As we expressed how excited we were he goes, "now you can call Turner and Farnsworth and tell them that you got me on date and they didn't." haha He's hysterical. Oh man I was so happy, I've never been that happier than last night, let me explain the other reason why:
STEVE. So remember when I said on center we talked to a guy named steve? you should it was only like a paragraph ago...it was a long paragraph though so it's ok if you don't remember :) K so we had an appointment with Steve last night. He'd been taught by missionaries 4 years ago and tried praying and reading but never felt like he received an answer so he just gave up. He's up for trying it out again and coming to church. At the end we asked him to pray. As we knelt he looked at us and said, "I don't think I can do it." we encouraged him and I showed him in the pamphlet how it explains how to pray. We knelt there in silence for some time. He would look at the pamphlet for a while and then look at us and then stare at the pamphlet again. He then said, "I'm not holding you up am I? I'm just a little slow." We assured him that it was fine and he could take his time. He then put the pamphlet down and after a few minutes of silence I heard the most tender heart felt prayer I've ever heard. He expressed gratitude for us and our message and paused and then asked for forgiveness for not praying in a long time. It was so simple and beautiful. I felt like I was in an oven, the Spirit was so strong, like I was wrapped in a warm blanket that was so hot I thought it would catch fire.
WOW that was the gist of it all I guess. I hope I didn't leave too much out, although I'm sure I did. After all of that I just have to bear my testimony! haha I feel like such a missionary. THE CHURCH IS TRUE! God hears and answers prayers. He knows us so incredibly well. It's amazing. I am so grateful for these wonderful experiences and blessings that I get to enjoy here! It's amazing. I feel so blessed and so unworthy of the blessings. The Lord has abundantly blessed us here and I feel so grateful! As Gary accepted a date for baptism last night I just grinned from ear to ear and thought, "I have not been happier than I am right now in this moment." It was the culmination of all of the blessings I had seen over the week. Is it possible to feel so grateful and to be so happy for all of these blessings? I never knew till now. I'm grateful to be apart of this great work!

Love,
Sister Crane

2011-06-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love Relief Society!

June 6th

2011-06-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

To All:

It was such a good week! The weeks just zoom by these days. I'm just so used to the routine of being a missionary. I love going and teaching and talking to people. That used to be such a big fear for me, I still get nervous sometimes, but not nearly to the extent that I used to. The whole lack of sleep thing, I'll never get used to. So many times we wake up and want to just say, "what was the point of that?!" I blinked and I'm awake! Oh well, one day I'll sleep in again....one day.....:)
This week we got 2 people on date and then they dropped us. It totally stunk. It was Julie and Michael. They are so amazing. The lesson was awesome, they had some hard questions, (ie: polygamy, and why did Nephi kill Laban) but I think we resolved a lot of their concerns. We set a date of baptism for July 16th. Then out of no where they call us later in the week and leave a message saying thank you but no thank you. So sad. Seriously we were heartbroken. But you know what? I felt really peaceful about it, that no matter what it will work out. We called back and left a message. We're not getting dropped without a fight. If they don't call us back we'll try and drop by. We just love them and it's so sad to see 2 people who you know have been prepared by the Lord stop like that. Anyways lets get into happier news shall we?
We have 2 new investigators! yahoo! This past transfer we did really well on finding new investigators ( I know because I took all of the numbers since I've been here and looked at the trends to see how the area as grown and how we're doing....I didn't think I was a nerd until I typed that sentence...let's just chalk it up to me being a typical missionary instead) Anyways our 2 new investigators are Robert and Amanda. We knocked into Amanda, she's 20 and lives with her mom Sheila. Sheila was baptized in Ontario, went inactive and Amanda never got baptized. Turns out that Sheila has always wanted Amanda to get baptized into our church though. They are so nice and we're going to be teaching them again tomorrow. I'm really excited to have met them both.
Robert...well he's hillarious. He's in his 60's and about a month ago had a stroke. He's still in the process of recovering and has trouble with his balance. He's sooo intelligent. He went to a Catholic university and has studied a bit about religion. He was fascinated at the fact that we fund our way on our missions, that the church doesn't just pay for it all. He looked at us confused and asked, "so what is your incentive to come here and get me baptized? you seem to be in a hurry, having me read, pray, come to church, and wanting to meet with me in 2 days." haha I said my incentive is the joy that I feel helping you have the happiness the gospel brings. I don't think he fully gets it yet. He still thinks we get some big money prize or something for getting him baptized. Over time though, he'll catch on. He says we're moving the speed of a freight train, and now that's a joke he brings up each lesson. The best though was our first lesson, let me see if I can depict this accurately:
- So we bring Linda Macinnis. Nicest women I've ever met, seriously want to be just like her when I get older. She's in her 60's too. Her house is immaculate and she always looks put together. Ok so we get there and Robert tells us his house is a mess and invites us into his camper instead. (You know you're in Nova Scotia when you've taught a lesson in a camper outside someone's house) We cram into his camper that's probably the size of our apartment's kitchen. He then tells us that he has to finish his lunch but asks a favor of us as we wait. He then hands Sister MacInnis the seat to his commode (aka toilet) and asks if she can decipher the faded instructions and then if she could dictate them to one of us to write on a pad of paper. Apparently you can use the toilet and shower at the same time in his camper. ya... So here we are sitting there (with no camera on hand...man what I would have given for a camera) and I'm watching Sister MacInnis tilt the seat toward the light as she tries to get a few words out while Sister Glenn sits there writing the instructions. I was laughing so hard. I took some mental pictures that's for sure. Never forget that experience. Oh Robert....too too funny. Sister MacInnis was kind enough to share her hand sanitizer once it was over.

side note: You also know you're in Nova Scotia when you see cows in the front lawn. Classic.

We also taught Jamichael this week. He's 9 and we taught him the plan of salvation. We gave everyone in his family a sign and he went to each of them as a station as we explained each part, like one for pre-mortal life, one for spirit world etc. It was cute. We had him eat an apple to get to earth life. cool. The best was when we talked about the Celestial kingdom and we had him sit with his parents and talk about how they would each feel about being together as a family forever. Aww...I love the gospel.
Oh we had women's conference this week! Oh and get this Silvia Allred from the General RS presidency is going to come in September to Halifax for our Women's day! cool huh? Anyways at this women's conference it was just for our district and we went to New Glasgow. We got to watch "Emma Smith-my story" It was so good! I love seeing it from her perspective. She went through so much, and I gained a greater appreciation for the pioneers and especially my ancestors who prepared the way for me to have the gospel and be sharing it today. We then had lunch, which consisted of things made from Emma's very own recipe's...aww shucks don't you just love Relief Society? Their so organized and crafty. :) We had Emma's peanut brittle ( pretty good) Biscuits (excellent) and cookies (okish...I think they would have been better had they churned their own butter to make it). They had dafodils every where, because that's our theme for the year, we're supposed to color the meritimes with daffodils and do service or something. So we had daffodil book markers, napkins, flowers, CROCHET daffodil flowers, and my personal favorite chocolate daffodils...sweet! Like I said their crafty those Relief Society people. I don't know how they come up with this stuff but I love it.
In other news we had branch council...exciting as usual. We spent time planning out our activities for the summer. One of which consisted of a 4 day pioneer trek where we sleep on rocks and kill our own chickens each night. That idea unfortunatly had to be pushed off till next year...apparently it takes time to build a wagon...who knew?
The church is TRUE! I love it! I know that by keeping God's commandments that it brings TRUE happiness. I love the scriptures. These people we read about are real and lived and they are such great examples to live by. Have a fabulous week! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,
Sister Crane

May 29th

2011-06-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Transfer news is in! Are you ready??? I'M STAYING IN TRURO. yes it's true. and yes it's kind of insane that I'll be here for a whole year! I'm happy to stay. In fact 2 weeks ago I requested it from president. There's a lot I want to do to help our recent converts and I just wanted one more transfer to do it in. Plus it's nice being with Sister Glenn, we get along and the longer you're with one companion the easier it is teaching together. The members will be surprised when they find out. They all think I'm leaving. Brother Urquhart from the branch came up to me at church yesterday and shakes my hand and goes, "We're really going to miss you." "What? am I leaving or something?" I asked him. He just shrugged and walked away. Haha Oh brother Urquhart, he's a mystery. Verna Priest (the one who got baptized in November) said that I'll ruin her day if I call her and tell her I'm leaving, so I should call her at night if I am. Casey wouldn't stop talking about transfers all week. She's moving to the city, Halifax, in July for school and she wants one of us to get transfered there. She went and told President that we should stay one more transfer and then get sent to the city. He said it sounded like a good idea, ...whatever that means. :) But at least we both get to stay one more transfer for her.
This week went by so fast. It was a downer in numbers for us this week, all but 1 lesson fell through with an investigator! Sunday came around and I was stressing out major not knowing if we would have been able to teach an investigator at all. Luckily we did! It was with Larry. He was on date for baptism, we took him off, and now after yesterdays lesson he's back on to be baptized but at a later date of July 23rd. I'm really excited for him. His wife is really sick right now, and I know that the gospel is exactly what he and his family needs to help him get through it.
We have a new investigator Debbie! Running into her was kind of hillarious. So on Friday we decided we were going to do a full day of walking, walk to all of our appointments... We got about half way through the day and broke down and used the car. It's exhausting walking everywhere :), but the nice thing is that you talk to EVERYONE because you're not sitting in a car. We got 6 appointments because of it. That's huge. Anyways we're walking on Prince street which is a really busy street and we see this lady out on her lawn chair tanning. She looked burned to a crisp. We start chatting with her and asked her if we can teach her right then. She goes and pulls out 2 more lawn chairs and we have a lesson on her front lawn in front of all of these cars zooming by. When I prayed I was thinking, "what are these people thinking of us right now?" And then when we held out the Book of Mormon I felt like laughing, we were having a lesson in the middle of this busy area. So awkward, but it was great, loved it. We have an appointment with her tonight. She says she's very spiritual (a common phrase in Nova Scotia, it basically means they believe in God but don't go to church) and she told us about how people can spirit walk, where they travel outside of their body. Didn't really know what to say to that expect, "That's false doctrine!" We'll be correcting that one soon.
We had district conference this weekend! It was the best. We got to see the PEI sisters again and all the missionaries in our zone. Do you realize that these Nova Scotians travel 3 1/2 hours just to get to a district conference! 3 1/2! can you imagine?! Most people on PEI couldn't go because it takes $70 just to get off the island, and a lot of people can't afford the trip. There was hardly anyone at the Saturday adult session because most people can't afford to take 2 trips or sleep over. It's incredible the sacrifices these people make. We are the most spread out mission ever. Seriously. To drive through the meritimes this is what it's like, you drive through tons and tons of farm land, then bam there's a town, then you drive through tons and tons of nothing, and bam there's a town, then you drive through lots and lots of....get the picture? Anyways these people are incredible that they make the sacrifice to go. Where as I travel a couple of blocks to get to district conference in Utah. So many things that I've taken for granted.
We've been having a lot of success lately with less-actives. We teach about 10 on average, recent convert and less-active lessons a week. The Chown's are a family that we've been working with. This past week when we went to see Sister Chown she told us without us even asking her, that she had read from the Book of Mormon a lot. She was so proud, and you could even see her countenance change. I'm so excited that she was so proud of her accomplishment. We finally got to see Matt! Matt was baptized in January and has been to church once since his baptism. He has some issues he's dealing with and he works non-stop. He'd been avoiding us for months and we finally got back into contact with him. I just love these people, and especially the one's that I've taught and helped prepare for baptism, so Matt has a special place in my heart. I just don't want him to go back to who he was before he was baptized. The branch misses him, they all ask me about him. It's so frustrating that I can't do more for him, but I'm grateful we got to have a lesson with him, we're meeting again with him this week.
I'm so grateful to be a missionary! The closer I get to my year mark the more and more I think about what it was like when I first got here. Oh man, I never want to go back to that. It was a hard adjustment. I feel like I've grown so much, I don't even remember who I was before my mission. Don't get me wrong I don't think I'm a completely different person, but I do think that this past year has changed me for the better. I can't imagine not have come and met these people. They have become family to me. I'm grateful to have at least one more transfer with them, who knows, maybe I'll have 18 months with them?...ya.....about that....

love,
Sister Crane

May 23rd 2011

2011-05-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

May 23rd, 2011

2011-05-25T19:23:00.001-07:00

May 24th

2011-05-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

May 14th, Greg's Baptism

2011-05-18T06:42:00.001-07:00

Greg

Can you see me?

Greg's Baptism, with the Mingos

2011-05-18T06:39:00.003-07:00

May 16th

2011-05-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

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

Baptism Day

2011-05-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

Wanda and Heather's baptisms

2011-05-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

May 9th, 2011

2011-05-09T18:54:00.001-07:00

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

Mission Tour with Elder Golden

2011-05-02T12:44:00.001-07:00

Elder Golden and a few zones

Sister Swaine

Us!

2011-05-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Truro!

The Mackay Bridge

In Halifax with some missionaries

It's MAY

2011-05-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Greg's meal

Easter

2011-04-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Our Lion treasure

Greg's French Onion Soup

Mum, very tasty

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

I'm staying in Truro! Who would have thought? I did. Well it was just one of those things where I just felt like I was staying. It is kind of insane to stay in one place for this long, but I figure that there's something that I haven't done yet that I need to do, so once I figure out what that is I'll do it and get out of here! Just kidding, I really do love Truro. Everyone was so happy that we are staying. Some members didn't believe me when I told them I was staying. Our investigators were thrilled and I think the best reaction came from Sister Mingo. We told her and she screamed and said she was going to cry she was so happy that she had prayed all night that we wouldn't get transferred and told Heavenly Father that Truro needed us and we were doing such good work that we shouldn't get moved. I was in shock that it meant so much to her that we both stay. When we told Heather, our investigator she said something similar that "pray works" so there you go, prayers are answered. :)
Here's some exciting news: GREG IS ON DATE! yay! He's getting baptized May 14th! So Heather and Wanda will get baptized on the 7th and the following Saturday Greg will get baptized. I'm so excited. I wasn't sure if Greg would get baptized while I'm here or not. He gives us the hardest time and jokes every 2 seconds, you just can't take him seriously, but we asked him to pray about it and then came back and he says, "ok." WHAT?? there was silence after his answer and I looked at Sister Glenn and said, "did he just say yes?" I couldn't believe it. Greg also made us 2 meals this week! He just called us up at 3:00pm and says, "are either of you vegetarian?...ok good come by and pick up your dinner at quarter to 5." The first day it was pork and potatoes and the second day it was french onion soup. It was so nice of him to feed us and it tasted good too!
Heather and Wanda are the best. They tell the funniest stories and we bust up laughing every appointment. Last Tuesday we could barely get through the lesson. We were talking about feasting on the scriptures and I said something like, "I don't think Nephi means to literally eat paper but to..." and bam they were laughing hysterically. It really wasn't that funny but in the moment apparently it was. Oh dear, I'm saving my humor for when I get home, it's no good to me here, I'll never get anything done! They are excited for their baptism and take the initiative to ask people for the program and the confirmation. I'm so excited for their day!
Sabrina, Casey's sister, came to church! I was so excited to see her! We haven't been able to teach her for a while so it was exciting that she came. We're going to teach her today which should be good. Our other investigators are so hard to get ahold of! yeesh! but we keep trying and we are teaching a lot and getting appointments with new people which is exciting.
So have I ever talked about junk day? It's the best. Once in the fall and once in the spring they have junk day! This is where everyone puts out on their front lawn any junk they have. So at this time of year you drive down the street and typically see gross couches, (they call them chesterfields here) broken lamps, toilets, shelves, lawn chairs, stuff you can't recognize, clothes, yada yada. It's ridiculous the amount of junk that lines the streets. People go and scavenge other peoples junk and take stuff home. And then one day it's all gone! We had a nasty toilet on our front lawn for a week or 2, thanks to our neighbors, I was happy to see that go. Sister Glenn and I also managed to pick up a nice piece of junk for our apartment. It's this giant picture of a lion. We were just driving by and saw it and we new instantly it was a treasure. :) We're still trying to figure out where to hang it.
Apparently now that the weather has gotten better people notice us more. We get honked at and whistled at like nobody's business. It's ridiculous and really grosses me out. The only time I get whistled at and I'm a missionary. Weird? I think yes. We've had some really great experiences knocking too. The other day we knock on this door and 2 women answer we give our schpeal and they say no and so we walk out, well one of the women follows us out and stops us. She starts to tell us that she is very concerned for our souls and that we should really pray about our church and see if it's all it's cracked up to be. She said she did admire our conviction but then she almost started to cry as she told us that she would pray for us. WOW. I assured her that I had prayed about it and that I was positive it was true but appreciated her concern. When she was talking to us I felt sick to my stomach. Instantly I knew it was the adversary. (Not her, but her words). It wasn't until we walked away that the sinking feeling in my stomach left. It was nice to have it be so black and white like that.
Oh ya It was Easter this weekend! Happy Easter! I gave a talk on the Atonement in church, I think it went pretty well. I also played the piano for a little girl in the branch, Taylor. She sang "I lived in Heaven" it was really cute. Saturday one member, Sister Reyes had an Easter party and invited us because she has some non-member friends that were coming and she wanted us to talk to them. We had an Easter egg hunt and of course I won. ok well you can't really win....but I gave those kids a run for their money. After it I traded with all of the kids and got the good candy, it was a good experience.
I am so grateful to be serving a mission! It's so much fun to help people and see that I'm making a difference. I love wearing this name tag and boldly telling people what I believe in. This week I'll get to meet Elder Golden of the seventy, he's going to talk to us on Thursday. I'm so excited to hear from him. I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,
Sister Crane

One more thiiing!

2011-04-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

I just found out I'm staying in Truro! So I'll be here for at least 10
1/2 months of my mission. Isn't that crazy? I'm happy to be staying
with Sister Glenn. Hopefully we'll have a lot of baptisms this
transfer!

2011-04-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

We love these statues!

2011-04-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Knockinging with Sister MIngo (a member)

2011-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the Birthday Presents Everyone!!!

April 18, 11

2011-04-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

To All:

Hello! I thought it was supposed to be spring, but we still have snow flurries. What is up with that? It's time for it to end. I was sick this week. Such a bummer. Seriously, I hate being sick on my mission. This is the 3rd time now and every time it's the same thing, an extreme cold or something. gross. Anyways I feel much better now, but lets just say last week we didn't get as much done as we had planned, due to that. But this week will be so much better, I hope. I'm currently waiting for the phone call to tell me if I'm being transferred this week or not. Yeesh. All of the members think I'm leaving since it's unheard of to have someone stay in Truro for 9 months. But who knows, no matter what it's what Heavenly Father wants, I just would like to know already!
So Heather and Wanda's baptism is being pushed to May 7th because Wanda has an ear infection and can't go under the water for a few weeks. She called us 3 hours before her scheduled interview....we were kind of freaking out when she said, "I'm going to have to cancel my baptism." But after hearing what her doctor told her it's understandable and now they have more time to prepare. They even took the initiative and asked the branch President if he would baptize them both on the 7th. Heather had her interview already and Wanda's having hers tomorrow. Heather was so cute she came in and shook Elder Burr and Elder Gammell with her left hand and then she whispered to me that she had to go wash her right hand because she had cheesies. (cheetos, they call them cheesies here...weird I know). She said, "well I was so nervous and I couldn't have coffee so I had to do something!" So funny. She came out of the interview looking so relieved. She did great and I'm so excited for her. Wanda is so smart. Seriously, I ask in yesterdays lesson what they remember about Nephi and she comes out with all of these facts about him that I didn't even know she knew. I'm so glad she's been retaining what she reads. It's exciting to see them learn. In the closing prayer last night Heather said, "I hope that the Sister's get to stay for our baptism." awww. I'm so glad they like us! :)
Greg is hillarious. At church on Saturday they had this big branch clean up where they were going to deep clean the whole building. We didn't invite Greg or even tell him about it, but he heard it announced in church and just showed up! We didn't even know he went until the Branch President mentioned it on Sunday. I think he thinks he's a member already, and I think everyone else thinks he is too. We talked to him about praying about June 11th to be baptized and he told us that he feels like maybe it should be sooner! YAY! That's what we were hoping for. He was sick on Sunday but hopefully we'll get to teach him this week and get him to decide on a date finally.
We had members feed us this week! hooray! That's always nice! I love the members here. I'm learning so much from them. We got a new investigator this week, Corina. We knocked into her last week and when she opened the door we saw her daughter Payton. Immediately I knew that I knew that little girl and then it dawned on me that she goes to day care at one of the members homes! So I asked her if she knew Sister Reyes and we talked for a minute about that and then she invited us to come back. We did and it was such a good lesson. You can tell that she's really trying to turn her life around, she's going back to school to get her grade 12, and working part time. She's a single mom of 2 and is 22 years old. When she told us how old she was I was thinking, "what?! I'm 22! weird...." She's been searching different religions and you can tell she just wants to find the right one. We're going to go see her tomorrow and I'm really excited for her.
After being sick for a few days it was hard to get back into the swing of things. Yesterday I was finally feeling 100% again. As we went and taught I just felt so happy. I love teaching people. I love that the Spirit can take whatever little ability I have and magnify it. I have been out now for 9 months! I'm over 1/2 way there! It's just crazy. I can see such a huge difference in my own life in just 9 months, I'm so excited to think about the person I can be after these next 8. I know that the church is true! The gospel is truly good news and has the solutions to any of lifes concerns. If we stick with it, the gospel can bring so much happiness to each of us! Thank you for your prayers and love!

Love,
Sister Crane

April 11, 11

2011-04-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hello spring! The days have been going by crazy fast. I don't even remember what we did this week, it feels like a blur. We had some pretty funny experiences, and yesterday I feel like we spent all day with members. They are what make Truro so great. We got fed which was really exciting because are calander for April is completely blank, no one signed up. hmmmm...we'll have to fix that. We went out knocking with a member again, Jackie Mingo. It was hillarious. There was this lady who we gave a pass a long card to, the one for the Finding Faith in Christ DVD. She took one look at it and said, "that is not my Jesus, he doesn't look middle-eastern at all, he's too caucasion" and gave the card back. She shut the door in our face and I was so taken back I didn't even know what to say. I busted out laughing. That was definately a first. So funny. I love knocking, it makes you feel so good and you always get the best stories. The other day we knocked into a guy and I was telling him about the Book of Mormon. I said, "It can answer any of life's questions, like where did we come from? why are we here? and where are we going?" He stopped me and said, "wait, you can answer those questions?" I said, "YA! I can!" He said "ok so start with the purpose of life, why are we here?" I said, "We are here to recieve the gift of a body and prepare to one day return and live with God and be like Him." He goes, " oh I just think we're here to live." haha what? ok good answer. Pretty sure we're here to live, but for what purpose!?! It's so interesting to me that this is the whole reason we are here, yet the world is so distracted with everything else that they don't stop and ponder those questions. Kills me.
So anyways Greg came to church. He's had this thing about the Sabbath Day. He thinks that it shouldn't matter if he wants to work on his house, or go buy milk on Sunday. In General conference the very first talk was on the Sabbath Day and he looked at us and asked us if we told the speaker. I said, "Yes Greg, I called up a member of the Seventy and told them you didn't believe the Sabbath Day was a commandment and that's why he's talking about it." He's so funny. So in church on Sunday we were singing this one hymn about working today, it's one of those weird one's that no one really knows how it goes. The last line says, "prepare for tomorrow by working today." He immediately turned around and showed us the last line and said, "work today! that means Sunday!" haha I laughed so hard. I told him that was talking about a different kind of work. Oh Greg, he really is hillarious. He's going to have us over for supper next week with 2 of his friends in the branch, the Mingos. He's making onion soup. It'll be a party! In our last lesson with him we asked him to pray about June 9th for his baptismal date. He said he pray about it. We were shocked. He has this thing about not setting a date until he's fully comfortable in the church, I could feel the Spirit so strongly as he asked us why June 9th? and I replied, "We prayed about it and know it's right." I know he'll feel it too if he'll just keep praying about it.
Heather and Wanda are getting ready for their baptism on the 23rd. Jolene oppted out, she feels it's too soon and is being...well a teenager. She's tuning us out now and gives us one word answers to everything. We're giving her more time to think about everything and prepare her more. Heather and Wanda are so great. I just love them. They laugh at everything I say, which is always nice. But they are so humble and sweet. On Saturday we asked Wanda to give the closing prayer. She started but then stopped right at the beginning. Her face turned all red and she turned away from everyone and said, "I can't" we waited and tried asking what was wrong and could tell she was going to cry. She said it was nothing and with Heather's help finished the prayer. After the members left we talked with Wanda and asked her if everything was alright. She said that it was, and she didn't know what happened, just that this strange feeling came over her that she never felt before. She felt chills and she couldn't even describe it. We asked her if it was a bad feeling and she said it wasn't, but it wasn't anything she ever felt before. She said normally she cries when she's sad, but she wasn't sad. Immediately Sister Glenn and I knew what it was, it was the Spirit. We both smiled and explained that what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost telling her our message is true. It was so neat that she felt the Spirit so strongly.What an amazing experience, one I don't think she'll ever forget.
Well there you go. I feel like I have so much more to write, but nothing at all. We find out transfers next Monday. I think I'll be staying but you never know. The members think I'll spend my whole mission here. One member said when I go home and someone asked me where I served I'll say Truro, Nova Scotia. Instead of Halifax Canada. I think she might be right :) I love the feeling I get being a missionary. There's nothing else like it. Whether you have success that day or not, knowing that you were out there talking to God's children and planting seeds, you just feel so good. You feel so fullfilled doing the Lord's work. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve and have these experiences. The church is true! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Crane

April 4

2011-04-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

Conference was the best! Sunday afternoon was my favorite session. (If you're allowed to have favorites :) ) I especially loved the talk on the difference between doing and being, and Elder Christofferson's was so good too! This week we got 2 new investigators! yay! The first one is Margaret. We knocked on her door and asked her if she was interested, she told us she needed a lot of praying and invited us in. We sat down with her and had such a good lesson. Apparently her cousin is a member of the church and she's familiar with the Book of Mormon. She's been through a lot in her life and still is facing some battles. She said that she has felt like something has been missing in her life, and here we are! It was so nice, during part of the lesson, she told us that we had an inward glow that made us beautiful, she said she knew that only God could do that. I was so touched, but even more amazed that she was in tune with the Spirit to notice that there is something different about us, and she can have that too!
The other investigator is Larry. We had made appointments with Larry in the past but each time he cancelled, we thought we should try one more time but, to be honest, we weren't expecting much. Surprisingly he was there and it was such a good lesson. He talked about how in the past God had helped him over come trials and he doesn't know why he stopped going to church but he feels he needs to go back. Yet again someone who was realizing there's something missing in their life. I'm really excited to teach Larry, I think he really needs this.
We had interviews with President and Sister Simpson. They are so great! Our mission covers the northern tip of Maine and President Simpson was going there for their interviews shortly after ours so he asked us if we would like anything from the US, any comfort food. I told him a REAL kit-kat. The ones here are made by nestle and just don't taste as good as hersheys. A few days later we find a bag hanging on our door with a package of kit kats, a giant hersheys chocolate bar, hershey chocolate bunnies and 2 snickers eggs. I couldn't believe they had gone out of their way not only to get it, but to deliver it to us. It totally made our day. They are the best!
Greg, Heather, and Wanda came to conference. Greg loved it. He said he was holding back tears most of the time. Heather and Wanda thought it was a little slow, I think they were bored. But it's ok I'm just happy they came. They like more interactive learning, so I'm amazed they came to 2 sessions! A less active family, the Chown's, came to general conference too! We met them last week and had a really good lesson. They haven't been to church in a long time but both wanted to come back. We invited them to general conference and they came! It was amazing! I guess some people just need an invitation. They are out their waiting for someone to just say, "Hey we miss you, please come back." Sister Chown hugged us at the end and said, "Thank you for coming into my life." What a sweetheart. I hope they continue to come. At least we're off to a good start.
And there you go. I feel like this past week was a blur. We've been working a lot with the Branch President lately on getting the records all neat and tidy. We went through the whole list and called all of the less active members. I'm excited to meet some of them and hopefully help more people come back!
Oh here's a good story for the day. Yesterday we were out knocking and we come to this door and their is this really old bearded ruff looking man who answers. He had almost kind of a crazy look in his eye, I wasn't sure how to approach him. I asked him how he was and he replied, "Terrible!" I said, "oh no that's not good, well we've got some really great news to cheer you up!" He suddenly looked interested and said, "What's that?" I started with "We're missionaries with the Church of..." He slammed the door in our face and said some explicitives that I won't repeat. I laughed so hard. I was going to tell him that the church had been restored, but he didn't let me get that far. Too bad. I have to say that was one of the best reactions I've had at a door though. It all happened so fast and I was surprised at how easily I could let it roll off my back. It is so sad when people don't accept, but if I felt sad after every rejection I'd be depressed. So somethings you have to laugh at.
Well the church is true! I'm so grateful for a living prophet. What a blessing to have President Monson to lead and guide us. This conference for sure strengthened my testimony of him and I'm grateful for it. Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Crane

More pictures from Truro

2011-03-31T19:32:00.001-07:00

Greg

Eliza R. Snow

statuesque

2011-03-31T19:18:00.000-07:00

Birthday pictures!!

2011-03-28T11:01:00.001-07:00

March 28th

2011-03-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

Another year older another year wiser! I said that in relief society and everyone laughed...I don't know why, these people just don't take me seriously anymore! My birthday was so good! Sister Glenn made me a birthday banner, it was awesome. We got to go to a members house for dinner, the Swaine's. Then they came out of nowhere with a birthday cake and candles! I was so excited because I wasn't expecting that at all. It was so nice of them. We had an appointment with Casey and she got me a present! She gave me the nicest card and some really cute headbands. I loved them! I started tearing up as I read the card too. I seriously was not expecting to get a present from anyone here so that was so nice. Throughout that day members called and wished me a happy birthday and two of them sang to me and played the guitar. Little things like that totally make a birthday I think. Then that night the young men and young women sang really loudly happy birthday and dropped off a treat at our door. I was so grateful to have been thought of so much. I felt so blessed that everyone took the time to even just make a phone call. It just makes me not want to leave Truro even more and I possibly only have 3 weeks left. I hope not.
So I didn't mention the best birthday present of all......drum roll please....GREG CAME TO CHURCH! wowzer! Ok you have to hear the whole story first because it was insane....: Ok so we've been teaching Greg for a few months now and he wanted to finish reading the Book of Mormon before coming to church. Well, he finished 2 weeks ago and still hadn't come and every time we bring it up he gives us such a hard time. In order to explain this story I also need to tell you what Greg looks like: He's in his 60's and has this massive beard and glasses and usually he's wearing sweats when we see him. Ok so fast forward to Sunday, I see this man walk in with a nice white shirt and tie, completely bald and clean shavin. I assume this man must be a member visiting from another branch but I don't introduce myself. We walk right past him and talk to some other people. Then I see the man sit down in the chapel. We walk past him again and a member says, "Sister Crane, you have a visitor!" Oh, I thought, I forgot to introduce myself to this member. I walk right over to him and say, "Hi I'm Sister Crane...What the! GREG?!" I was freaking out. It wasn't until I looked into his eyes that I saw that it was Greg. Sister Glenn and I were floored. It took me the whole day to get over the shock. He looks COMPLETELY different! No joke. He quickly told us that he wanted to surprise us and he wanted to surprise brother and sister Mingo, his friends,too, and that we shouldn't tell them. Just then Sister Mingo walks in and looks around, she looks at us and says, "any sign of Greg? I thought for sure he'd come today!" All I could get out was something like, "nope" before I had to quickly walk down the hall to recover from shock. At the end of sacrament meeting I had to physically turn sister Mingo to face Greg. She starred right at him for a long time then shock took over her face. It was so funny. We all laughed so hard. I have to say that was the best trick ever. It was insane. I'll try to get a picture to send of a before and after but he doesn't like his picture taken, I'll do my best, it's so worth it.
We also had a fun activity on Friday night. Sister Reyes had this genius idea of doing a picture scavenger hunt, so Sister Glenn and I went out and put it together because no one had planned an activity in March. We went around and took pictures of items in the church and then people had to figure out what the picture was of and find the item. It turned out really well. There were 40 people there and most of them weren't members of the church. It was a really great way to have our investigators and other non members get to know the church building. Of course we didn't do pictures of the sacrament meeting room but we did stuff in the kitchen, or primary, or relief society, etc. I think they all had a lot of fun and it was a really good experience.
In other news we have a new investigator! Hooray! Casey's sister, Sabrina. Sabrina came to the baptism and afterwards decided she wanted to learn more. We're really excited to keep teaching her. It sounds like she has a lot of good questions so far. Heather, Jolene, and Wanda are doing awesome. They come to all of the activities and love it. It's so fun to see them learn.
Our friend and former investigator, Vera is in the hospital. Vera is this lady who is, well she's hilarious. She's so bubbly and she's a die-hard Catholic, but she loves coming to our church because she says the feeling just hits ya. She says every time she sees a member or we come over she feels that good feeling, the Spirit. We've worked with Vera but it's hard to get her to understand that we are the only one's with the authority to baptize. She believes in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon too. Anyways we had even gone to see her a few times this month to tell her that we had done her mom's work for her in the temple, but Vera wasn't home. We'll we get a call Friday night from a nurse at the hospital telling us that Vera wanted us to come see her. We went to see her the next day and found out she had been there for a month! And she was going to be in there for 3 or so more weeks. She said that the night before we got the calling she was laying in her bed feeling so sick and so miserable and she closed her eyes and then a thought came to her mind, "call the missionaries!" and so she did and we came and read scriptures with her, and knelt down by her bed and prayed. As I prayed I felt the Spirit so strongly, this poor woman, who is so vibrant and so full of life was laying there weeping. I had never seen her cry before. We told her about the priesthood and asked her if she would like a blessing. She said she would but as long as they didn't come at the same time that her Catholic priest was there. haha. awesome. So President Mahoney went over there yesterday and we're going to go see her today and see how she's feeling. I'm so grateful for the gospel. It is a solution to all of life's problems! As we left she told us that she felt better and we had brought that good feeling with us. I'm so grateful for the Spirit, what an amazing gift.
Well here we are at the end of March. Where did this month go? I have no clue. But I'm so excited for General conference! Greg, Sabrina, Heather, Jolene, and Wanda all said they will come. I really hope they do and I know they'll love it. You can't go wrong with General Conference! Thank you for your prayers, and your letters, and support! Have a wonderful week!

love,
Sister Crane

Sisters Glenn, Crane, Brandley and Olsen (from PEI)

2011-03-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Relief Society Dinner

2011-03-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

Truro in winter

2011-03-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

more pictures

2011-03-22T19:00:00.001-07:00

March 21st

2011-03-21T11:23:00.001-07:00

To All:
8 months! guess who has been out for 8 months? That seems like such a short amount of time, yet I'm almost to the half way point of my mission. It is going by so fast. This past week was good, we didn't accomplish everything I wanted to, but knowing that we did our best was satisfaction enough. We had zone conference this week and it was awesome. I love the trainings and the motivation to do the work that comes from the trainings. We now have sisters in our zone! hooray! The PEI sisters came and spent the night before zone conference the next day and it was so much fun. They are opening an area and just moved into an apartment with absolutely nothing, and no investigators or anything. It made me think of when I first came to Truro and I was opposite, our apartment was cluttered with Junk, mold, and dust, but like them we didn't really have any investigators. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. I grew so much in that period of time and it helped me be a better person. I think they'll be great, their branch has about 22 active people in it. I'm excited for them to see it grow just like I've been able to see Truro grow.
Our investigators are doing great. A neat experience happened with Greg. On Wednesday night we had an appointment with him and we were trying to get an answer from him whether he was going to come to church or not. We only have 2 lessons left to teach him, he's done with the Book of Mormon but he still won't come. We joke a lot with Greg, well he jokes a lot with us, but we told him we were serious about this yet he still wouldn't give an answer. He told us it was time to pray so he got on his knees, we didn't. We stayed where we were, I just felt like I shouldn't let him get off of the hook so easily. It was so frustrating, we finally just got on our knees prayed and left. The next day he called and said he had done some praying and that his answer was he was being too hard of heart and should be easier on us.That was a miracle right there! He was sick this Sunday and didn't come to church, but hopefully this means he'll come this week. He's stubborn, but so are we :) And he knows it, so hopefully he'll just give up his fears and come.
Heather, Jolene, and Wanda all came to church on Sunday. It was Jolene's first time at young women's and I think she liked it. I love seeing them learn. We go slower with them, because of some learning dissabilities, but I love seeing them understand and really grasp a concept. The other day we came in and Wanda said, "I was just reading here and I was thinking how cool it would have been to see the gold plates! I just wish I could have been there." It was something so small, but she really is enjoying reading from the Book of Mormon, I love it!
We had our relief society dinner on St. Patrick's day. That was a lot of fun. I love it because #1 there is always a lot of good food and #2 I love talking with the women of the branch. Wanda, Heather, and Jolene all came to that as well and they had a really good time. We each were assigned a General Relief Society president of the past and were given a brief biography to recite to the rest of the group. I was Eliza R. Snow. I was so excited because I learned a bit about her in my LDS history class with Sister Black. I have such respect for these women, they really did a lot and their lives were not easy.It was neat to learn more about them.
Yesterday we took a member out tracting with us. It was so fun. We took her to an appointment but it fell through and so instead she just came out knocking doors with us for 2 hours. She loved it. We kept knocking into people she knew too. Although we didn't get into a door, it was really neat to see her like it. We met one lady, Tammy, and Sister Mingo kept saying, "I felt something about her, maybe she'll check out the website and then get baptized!" It's so fun to see members enjoy missionary work. We also had branch council this week and I'm so excited for our new branch president, President Mahoney. He really has the vision of missionary work, we talked about less actives, our investigators, and recent converts and talked about how we can help them. It's nice to see the branch even more on board with helping us in the work.
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for all of the birthday wishes too! The gospel is true and we do have a living prophet on the earth today!

Love,
Sister Crane

Casey's Baptism

2011-03-16T21:44:00.001-07:00

Casey's baptism

2011-03-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Casey is now a baptized member of the church! It was the best day ever! Seriously! And it went by so fast. From start to finish it was just perfect and she was beaming the whole day. She had a ton of her family there and her boyfriend too. I think they all enjoyed it and her mom cried a lot. I love it when I see their parents cry because you know they are just so proud of them. Even if they don't understand the church fully, by being there at the baptism they get to really feel proud of their child and see how everyone loves them. At the end Sister Glenn and I were cleaning up in the kitchen and we thought Casey had already left but all the sudden she came back in and gave us both a hug and thanked us. It was such a sweet moment and I am so grateful that I got to be apart of the baptism. That day I thought about all of the missionaries she's gone through in a year and how I was fortunate enough to see the end goal of it all. I felt so grateful for missionaries who had helped prepare her for this day. After the baptism she bore her testimony and she said, "I don't believe the church is true, I know it." Ah! She's amazing. I hope to always stay in contact with her, I've learned so much from her.
The confirmation was wonderful as well! She just couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Her boyfriend Devin even came to church which was so awesome! She didn't think he would want to come, and her family couldn't so it was nice that someone came to the confirmation as well. At church I felt like I had a million different things to do. I got asked to play the piano because the organist was out of town. Then I played for our special musical number, while Sister Glenn sang "There is a green hill far away." It went really well it's the EFY 2009 version and it's a really neat rendition. Then from the pulpit one of the counselors asked me to give the closing prayer. I played in relief society and then gave the opening prayer there too. I love that in a small branch I get to serve so much, even as exhausting as it is :)
Greg, Heather, Joleen, and theif friend Wanda came to the baptism and they all loved it. Heather and Wanda came to church too and I think they enjoyed that as well. Wanda is Heather's friend who she invited to one of our lessons and now Wanda is on date to be baptized for May 14th! It's so exciting!
Greg loved the baptism. We had an appointment with him later on after the baptism and he began to cry just talking about Casey's baptism. He said what made him so emotional about it was that she was just so happy and to see how she felt before and after being baptized I think got him really excited for his own baptism. If only we could get him to set a date. He just doesn't want to be pushed or pressured. Too late :) He thinks since I've been here so long that I'll get transferred next and so he jokes that once I leave he'll be ready for baptism. He just wants to torture me. He knows that I want him to get baptized and I know he wants me there but he teases so much sometimes I wonder :)
oh Oh OH and guess what? They opened up a sisters area on PEI! yahoo! Maybe I'll get to serve there then! I've been dying this whole time because they closed the sisters area in PEI right before I got here, but because we got 2 more sisters this past week, they opened up one in Montigue. So here's hoping! I do have 6 weeks for sure left in Truro because transfers were last week. I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it since I know I might not have much time left, and if I do I'll be so happy!
We also have a new investigator from China. Her american name is Jessica and I have no clue how to spell her chinese name. She's so nice. When I was explaining prayer she asked me to share a time that I felt prayer help me in my life. I was so taken off guard by the question that it took me forever to think of an experience. I think I have a weird memory while being on a mission because I can't remember anything before my mission and I can't picture anything after. I guess that's why they call it a "mini life." Anyways I'm excited to teach her more.
This week has just flown by, I feel like I did so much more but I can't seem to write it all down. The weather has gotten better! Well until today...it snowed...again. But this past week we got as high as 11 degrees Celcius. It was so nice! I loved just walking around and talking to people in the nice sun! I hope it comes back!
So I had this really interesting experience with this guy at a door. Let me give the background to the story first. So we're out knocking and for like 6 doors in a row I felt like I wasn't getting out my words right. People would say the weirdest things or just not what I was expecting and I was stumbling over my words and just wanted to get out what I really wanted to say. I was telling Sister Glenn this and then we knocked on another door. The guy answers and seems nice but then flat out says he thinks we're brainwashed. He goes on and on and finally I said, "can I just say something?" surprisingly he said yes and I went on to tell him that I would not have left my family and friends to come out for a year and a half to some other country to serve as a missionary if I did not know that it was true. I told him how I went to college and lived on my own and if I didn't want to go to church I could have stopped. Anyways I ended up bearing my testimony and we talked for a while. During part of the conversation he said, "why would anyone want to be religious it makes you unhappy." I looked at sister glenn and said jokingly, "am I smiling? sorry I thought I was smiling, don't I look happy to you?" He laughed at that. In the end we gave him a pass a long card and went on our way, but I felt like we both gained so much just from that conversation. He now knows more about our faith and I finally got to get all of my words out! I am so grateful for the Spirit. To have the guidance of the Holy Ghost is such a blessing. With out the Spirit I couldn't have said what I wanted to say to him and what the Lord wanted him to hear. I think if there is one thing I've learned on my mission thus far it's how the Holy Ghost speaks to me and what a precious gift it is.
The church is soooooooo true! Like Casey, I don't believe it, I know it. Christ does live. The Spirit testifies of Him and can speak to each one of us. God does hear our prayers. Families are eternal. I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be serving here. Thank you for your letters and prayers! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Crane

March 7, 2011

2011-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

It's raining it's pouring and the snow is melting! Sorry that didn't rhyme, but I'm so excited to get rid of some of the massive amounts of snow that have come with February! Yesterday and today are rainy but warm days and I love it! It's supposed to go back to being cold soon so I shouldn't really get too excited, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
This week I've seen a lot of miracles, let me tell you about a few. Last Monday Sister Glenn and I decided to go see some potentials ( potentials are people who we have previously knocked into and they said come back another time) We went to one potential and she said something like, "oh well sorry I should have told you, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings, I'm just not interested" I think from the tone in her voice and the bow in my hair she probably thought I was 12. This was our 3rd time to her house, and she had gotten our hopes up and then totally dissapointed me. I felt like I was 12 and that no one was really taking me seriously, this is eternal salvation here people! So reluctently we went to see the next one. Her name is Mel, I didn't have high hopes, she had already bailed out on a previous meeting but surprisly she let us in and asked if we could share the message right then! It was awesome. I felt the Spirit so strongly. All we taught was the principle that God is our loving Heavenly Father. We got a return appointment and left. At our next visit she committed to be baptized on April 16th. I couldn't believe it! When we asked her she said, "uhh I don't think I have anything going on that day, sure." She has made some significant changes in her life, over coming addictions, and now it seems that this is just the right time for her. She has truly been prepared by a loving Father in Heaven and I'm so grateful to be teaching her!
Another amazing miracle happened with Heather and Joleen. I can't remember if I already talked about them or not. Heather is the mom and Joleen is her 15 year old daughter. On Saturday we had gone over to a members house for supper and she invited Heather and Joleen. We taught them the restoration and then set up another appointment to see them this past week. We talked with them more about the Book of Mormon and prayer and then invited them to be baptized and they immediately said yes! So Heather and Joleen are getting baptized on April 23rd! I couldn't believe it. I was smiling so big it hurt. It was to the point where I thought I was going to break out into laughter I was so thrilled and I didn't know how to express my emotions anyother way. Luckily I didn't laugh in the lesson. :) So we got 3 people on date in one day. When we called to tell President Simpson our exciting news he said something like, "so I bet you REALLY want to get transferred now!" "No!" I said. He assured me that I'm not going anywhere, at least not for this transfer. But that means I probably only have 6 weeks left in Truro. How sad. I can't even think about it.
Greg finished 3rd Nephi and we were for sure that he was going to come to church yesterday but didn't. He never commits, he says he has a date in mind of when he'll come to church and he wants to surprise us. We were so close to finding out last time I just know it, but we'll have to wait till our next appointment and then maybe he'll tell us. Crazy thing is one of his questions for us was about BYU. He said he saw on the news that a BYU basketball player was being cut from the team and possibly kicked out of BYU for law of chastity reasons. I couldn't believe that one of our investigators all the way over in Nova Scotia heard about that. Small world, seriously. So we explained to him about that as well as the Word of Wisdom. It's so exciting to see him really love the scriptures and apply what he learns.
Casey! Ah, I am so excited for her. So we have her baptism all planned for this Saturday. She requested that we sing a Christmas song as the opening hymn, so we'll be singing Joy to the World. She was born on Christmas, and she says it's one of the only one she knows in our hymn book. haha She also said there was this one song that was really upbeat and everytime she heard it she wanted to dance with her kids, turns out that hymn is "follow the prophet" so there you go. I'm so excited for her. Last lesson she said the closing prayer, normally when we have members come with us that she doesn't know that well she doesn't like to pray in front of them, but even though we had someone there she didn't know too well she still did. After the close of the prayer she looked up at us with a big grin on her face and I seriously felt like I was in one of those cheesy seminary videos where the person is so extatic that they found the gospel. It was the best. I am so excited for her big day on Saturday! ah! She is so ready and I think I'll be balling like crazy when it actually happens.
Also as of late I've had a few incounters with some drunk people. Some interesting journal entries for sure. It's so sad that addictions have such a hold on people. Almost everyone we meet has some sort of an addiction. It's insane. Satan has used this tactic far too long, it needs to end. It must be so hard to quit an addicition and I can't even imagine what some people go through to stop a bad habit. I am so grateful for the word of wisdom and the amazing blessing it is in my life. The restored gospel is a beautiful thing. I was reading in the margins of my scriptures the other day and saw a quote that says, "Satan frees us to bind us, God binds us to free us." I think that is so true. The commandments may seem restrictive until we obey them and we realize how much freedom we do have when we obey them. What a huge blessing to have a modern day prophet to give us that council. I know this church is true and the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. I have felt it in my life and I am so grateful to be blessed to share that with the people here.

love,
Sister Crane

February 28

2011-02-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

To All:

Hello! So I found a spider in my house, you would think that would mean that Spring is coming, but I just don't think that's ever going to happen. It snowed, it rained, and then it all turned into ice and then it snowed some more. I think I've almost fallen about 50 times, I don't know how I haven't fallen flat on my face yet. Yesterday Sister Glenn and I walked up a really steep driveway covered in ice only to knock and find no one was home and on the way down I was so close to falling, I really like this whole being a missionary thing I think it's keeping me safe some how.
So announcement: go check out Mormon.org. It's so cool. I don't know if I wrote this in my last e-mail but President is having us go and check it out twice a week and just watch all of the videos on it. It's so cool. I made a profile so you can search my name and see if you find me too, although it says it's still pending so maybe give it a week. I think it is going to be a really great missionary tool. They even gave us these cool pass along cards for it. I love that the church is so hip.
Ok so I have another really cool story for you. It's kind of insane. You'll love it. It goes like this: so we decided that we were going to set specific goals of finding 2 new investigators this week. We set a goal to find the first one by Wednesday at 5:00pm. So come Wednesday morning we still did not have a new investigator. We planned and worked and before we knew it, it was 4:30pm and no new investigator. So we prayed and planned and picked a street. We go to the first house on the street and think, "here it is our new investigator!" nope...not interested. We knock the whole street and it's 4:55pm, and we're at the last house. Sister Glenn and I look and each other and say, "ok here it is! our new investigator, it's going to happen!" A woman opens the door and immediately invites us in. I kept thinking, "no way, I'm not getting my hopes up, lets sit down and see if we can teach a lesson." She says she would love to hear our message and we start with a prayer and as I start the restoration I hear her clock ring that it's 5 o'clock. We got a return appointment and BAM we got a new investigator. Isn't that insane?! We walked out of there in shock. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, we had the faith, we planned with the Spirit and worked, but still it's crazy that it worked! And right at 5. It is just another reminder to me that Heavenly Father is so mindful of us. He is involved in every phase of the work. And sometimes He just answers our prayers to show us that He is there and that He will answer us and knows us and our needs. So cool. I love the gospel.
So our investigators. They are awesome. Yet a lot of them aren't progressing (meaning they aren't keeping all of their commitments like reading, praying, or CHURCH!) It's so disappointing when they don't keep their commitments and sometimes I feel like I've tried everything and they still won't follow through. But I love them, and maybe it's just patience that is needed on my part. Casey is doing awesome. She is so excited about her baptismal date and she has told her friends and family and explained to them the commitment she's making and they are all so supportive. It's so exciting to see her be in it 100%. She's such a great example for me to follow. Greg is doing awesome too. He finished Helaman! This week he says he wants to finish 3rd Nephi. At this rate he'll be done in another few weeks and then he'll finally come to church! He's so funny. He and I joke quite a bit, because he thinks I just want to get him baptized right now. (which I do) but it's not like I'm going to push him in. Every lesson when I bring up baptism he says, "I was wondering when you were going to bring that up" same with any of our commitments he always cuts us off because he sees us building up to it and he answers our question without us even asking. He's hilarious. Last lesson he was chatting for a bit with the members we brought with us, before the lesson started, and then I said, "well should we start with a word of prayer" He starred me down smiling and then said something like, "took you long enough." One day I'll surprise him and he won't know what's hit him....too bad I'm way too predictable, all I want is for him to get baptized :) What's so great about Greg is that he loves to test his knowledge. We talked about Alma the younger and he rehearsed to me all of the details before I could even begin telling him the story. It's great to see him love the Book of Mormon.
I know I've said this before but I just love the members here. They just have become like family to me. We went to an appointment with Sister MacInnis and the investigator wasn't home so we went to leave a note. We couldn't find a good spot to stick it and Sister MacInnis asked if we had tape. I said some sort of joke like, "no I never thought to carry scotch tape around with me." We laughed. Next morning in church she walks up and hands me a brand new roll of scotch tape to stick in my purse. It was so cute. Now I'll never leave home without it :) The Reyes family has been so great as well. Sister Reyes is a single mom of 5 kids. Her kids are adorable and loud and her house is always an adventure. We love going over there and spending time with them. We were at her house for supper last night and she asked if I would say a prayer. You could tell it had a been a long day and the kids were being restless and crazy. As I went to say the prayer Zac( 7) said "but she said it last night!" I don't even know what was so funny about that statement except for the fact that I wasn't at their house last night, but maybe we had been there so much that week he thought I said their family prayer too. I couldn't help myself but I started to laugh and it created a chain effect and the whole table was giggling. It was so funny and I still don't know why. It's moments like that where I can't wait to be a parent. I am so grateful for the lasting relationships I have built with the members here.
Well that's all folks. I am so grateful for the gospel. I am so grateful that it has always been apart of my life. I love sharing it. I love getting immersed in the work. Truly we should be the happiest people because we have the fullness of the gospel on the earth. What a huge blessing. Thank you for your support and love!

love,
Sister Crane

Seven month mark

2011-02-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

What a great week! We had leadership training and it was awesome! It was a 2 day training where President and Sister Simpson come and our whole zone meets right here in Truro and President gives us as much of his wisdom as he can. I love it. Our zone saw so many miracles because of what we learned and Sister Glenn and I did too. Let me tell you about one of them. So after training ended we were totally fired up about finding a new investigator so we did everything he told us to and set a specific goal and prayed with faith and planned a TON. We were about to go out knocking and I thought that maybe there was somewhere else we needed to be besides where we had planned to knock. After praying about it we picked a different street. We got to the street and the 1st 2 doors didn't answer, then we knocked on the 3rd and not only did someone answer, but she immediately invited us in. Her name is Durga, she's from India and her 9 year old son Rajeesh sat in with us and we taught them both about the restoration and got a return appointment. It was so cool. Sister Glenn and I were in shock, we had practiced during training A LOT and planned a ton, and it actually worked! It was so exciting. The rest of Durga's street wasn't as pleased to see us but I didn't even care, I just felt so blessed. One man on the street interupted me with, "do you believe in the religious right to smoke marajuana?" ...."....uhhhhh" "It's a yes or no question!" He yelled out. "uhhh no?" "well go read your Bible! see ya!" haha I was so taken aback I had no idea what to say to him. Right before we went in that night we met a girl on the street, it was dark and as we started talking the rain just started to pore. I was bearing my testimony to her about a living prophet, it's cold, I'm now soaked, and it's dark, and all I could think was, "I am so happy!" I don't know why something like that would make me so happy but I just felt like a real missionary! It was so cool. It's so strange, I wish I could describe the happiness I feel when I'm out doing the work, but it's so hard. It's a different kind of happiness than I've ever felt and I just love it!
In other news, Casey moved her baptismal date to March 12th. We all feel really good about it and she seems so fired up about it. Sister Glenn experienced what it's like to get dropped. Poor girl, she was calling our investigators to invite them to our church activity and 2 calls in a row she gets a "you know what, I've decided I don't want you to come back." Luckily it was the same day that we got 2 new investigators, so it made it a lot better, but still it's so sad when people decide they don't want to talk with us anymore. Darn agency.
On Saturday Sister Glenn and I hosted the branch activity! We had a family games night and members invited their friends, it was awesome! I was so surprised at how well it turned out! It's so exciting to see members do missionary work. We played Bret's favorite game, the 3 rounds of charades, I didn't know the name of it so I told everyone it was called Crane Charades. They all really liked it, whew. And then we shared a message about Preach My Gospel. Sister Glenn and I are now going to go to each members home throughout the month and make sure they have a Preach My Gospel and show them how they can use it. They all come out to lessons with us all the time so we figure they should know what we're teaching so they can be prepared. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed just thinking about all the work that needs to be done in Truro. I have so much I want to do here. There are so many members who have children, or parents, or siblings, who are inactive and to think of the joy they could feel from having their family members come back! ah! I just want to help them so much!
Our other investigators are doing well. Greg is awesome. He jokes around with us a lot, but I think he really likes us and you can just tell he wants to be baptized and feel forgiveness. He will! He just is stubborn and wants to take things slower. yeesh. why wait?! Oh well we love him and we'll do whatever we can for him to get there. He said something to me at our last appointment that a few of our investigators have said to me. They all say, "oh well your life has been so easy! You didn't have to go through what I have." At first I used to disagree with them and say, "oh no my life has been hard and p.s. you don't even know me!" But now I have realized how easy my life has been. Truly, I have been so blessed and have been given every opportunity to be happy in my life, it is my absolute responsibility to help them have what I have. Greg specifically last time said that he can see the cleanliness we have and he wants what we have. You can have it greg! And he will have it, I just know it.
Alain is so awesome, he says he hasn't prayed so hard in his whole life till now, he just wants to know if it's true! Too bad he's crazy busy and it's hard to meet with him regularly, but I know he'll get his answer and we're going to help him every step. Amy and Alyssa are still on date for March 12th, but they haven't come to church yet. Soooo this week we are going to get them there! It's happening!
And there you go...that was my week. I am so grateful to be in the Lord's service. I feel so grateful for the training, sometimes I need those kind of reminders to remember the importance of my calling. Today is my 7 month mark. Can you believe it's been that long? I feel like it's been forever and just yesterday since I left, all at the same time. It's crazy to think that I have less than a year left. I almost want time to just stand still so I can soak it all in....maybe I should wait for time to stand still after it stops snowing though. :) Thank you for your letters and prayers!

Love,
Sister Crane

February 14th

2011-02-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

To All:

Will it ever stop snowing?! Seriously this needs to end. It's relentless. You shovel and then 2 seconds later there's more snow. Oh well, they say February is the worst month for snow, and we're half way through, one day it will end and it will be spring and all of the scary and big Nova Scotia spiders will be out again, yuck. Never mind I'll take snow over spiders. Oh and happy Valentine's day! We're going over to a members house for a really delicious meal and she's making this dessert just for us called "cherry berry in a cloud" she tried to describe it and I have no idea still what it will be like but it sounds delicious. I'm thinking Valentine's on my mission will be better than off of it with a dessert like that :)
So are you ready for some exciting news?! CASEY IS ON DATE! ....AND....ALYSSA IS ON DATE! yay! ok so let me explain. Casey has been taught for a year. She had a date for January 15th but couldn't do it. We then started to teach Eytan her boyfriend who was living with her. They broke up, and she says she feels really good about it, so unfortunatly we are not teaching Eytan anymore, but fortunatly Casey has now decided to be baptized. I really think that this time it will happen. When we asked her to be baptized for February 26th she said, "that's soon! will I be ready?" I replied with, "Casey you could get baptized today if you wanted to! You're so ready!" She then asked if I could baptize her. haha oops maybe she's not ready. So after explaining that I don't hold the Priesthood and only men do, I think she's ready. :) We are so excited for her and she knows it's true. She's borne her testimony to us many times and I know that this decision will help her as she continues to be a mother of her 2 boys.
Alyssa is Amy's daughter. She's 10, she and Amy are getting baptized on March 12th. Unfortunatly they didn't come to church on Sunday, and when that happens I always think, "How are they going to know that it's true if they don't come?" So this week we're really going to focus on Church and the importance of coming. I know this decision they've made will change their lives, I just hope they see that too and are willing to follow through on their commitment.
Greg is awesome, he just passed me in the Book of Mormon, he's already at Alma 29. He says he reads for 2 hours every day and prays 3 times a day. HOLY COW! he's awesome. His thing is he doesn't want to come to church until he's done with the Book of Mormon so that he knows what we're talking about at church. We spent a 1/2 hour with 2 members talking to him about church but he still doesn't want to yet. Patience is a virtue right? I just don't get this whole not coming to church thing. We're having leadership training this week with President Simpson, hopefully he'll shed some light on it for me.
We have 2 new investigators, Shelby and Clayton. They have met with the Elders before and seem really open, maybe too open. They accept everyone's religion, instead of seeing that there's "one Lord one faith one baptism." Their preacher at the baptist church preaches from the Book of Mormon and they already have a copy of it. weird. I've never heard of that one before, so hopefully he wasn't teaching false doctrine. Anyways they're really nice and I'm excited to help them understand the restoration.
We had district meeting which is always nice to actually talk with other missionaries. Sister Glenn is doing great. We laugh a lot together, which is good, until we can't stop laughing because we're laughing so hard. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop once we start. She's a lot of fun and we're working together on improving and setting goals. I really think she'll help me be a better missionary.
Oh and on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting because we had branch conference last week and 2 members bore their testimony and mentioned how grateful they are for us. One said that since we committed her to read her scriptures daily she's been doing it and seen what a help it's been to her. It was such a simple thing but it impacted her and helped her. I feel so grateful for the members here, they are so kind to us and always show gratitude for our service. The church is true! I'm learning so much from the members here about being Christlike and I feel so grateful for their examples. Have a great week and wonderful Valentine's day! Thank you for your love and support!

Love,
Sister Crane

February 7th

2011-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

To all:

Despite the weather obstacles we met our goals...well most! We got snowed in on Wednesday, which happened to be the day that we had 3 appointments, 2 of them were people on date for baptism. It was such a bummer because that was the only day we could see those people so we didn't see them all week. It was killing me! Sister Glenn was sick on Friday ( I think it was something she ate) so we were stuck inside that whole day too, and before we knew it, it was Saturday and we hadn't found a new investigator (it's our goal to find at least 1 new investigator each week). So on Thursday I decided to call a former investigator, Alain. He's from East Africa and he was so sincere in his desire to learn, but he got so busy that we lost contact with him. We get a hold of him FINALLY! yay! and set up an appointment for Saturday! It was so good! Seriously he's awesome. We taught him over at our Branch Mission leader's house, and it went really well. Alain prayed at the end and his prayer was so heartfelt and sincere. He even came to church on Sunday! In fact he was the only investigator who came and I was thrilled. We had 7 people who told us they were coming and we waited and waited. Finally we had to go sit down because the meeting was starting, but guess who walks in 15 minutes late?! Alain! I was so excited. He said he really liked the meeting. He couldn't stay for the rest of church because he got a back injury the night before and was in the ER for 4 hours Saturday night, yet he still came! He's awesome and I feel so priveledged to teach him.

We also have been teaching Greg. We've taught him for 3 weeks now and he's already in Mosiah 19. That just does not happen every day. On Saturday we gave him a tour of the chapel and taught a lesson. He told us that he feels that the Book of Mormon is true! Ah! It's awesome! He told us that when he read 2 Nephi ch's 30-33 it hit him like a ton of bricks, and he was shaking as he told us because he said he had such an amazing emotional experience with it. I'm so excited for him! He's still hesitant to come to church, I think he just doesn't like being around a lot of people and it's a big step for him but he set a goal of coming before Easter. I think Greg will do it and I already can see the difference it's making in his life. He says that his future looks hopeful now, and it didn't before we came. He said 2 years ago he was reading the New Testament all the way through and he just felt like there was something missing and he says he just had to wait 2 years for us to show up at his door for him to know!

On Sunday we had an appointment with a new investigator, Gail. We knocked into her and taught her too. She's a single Mom of 3 and a recent Grandma. It's so exciting to teach more people! So in the end we found 2 new investigators, not just one! The Lord truly blesses us when we pray and really strive for whats right. I'm so grateful that in His mercy, He allowed us to have so much success, even when I doubted that we would.

In other news we have a new branch presidency. President Mahoney. He's going to be awesome. His son is serving a mission in Ukraine. He pulled us aside on Sunday and told us how proud he is of us and how he wants to do everything he can to help us. He said that we've helped unify the branch by getting them involved in missionary work. It meant so much to hear him say that. For any of the members to acknowledge our hard work is amazing. I feel extremely grateful for the amazing members here. I love serving them and helping them, but I feel they always seem to be serving us. They really are such a blessing to us.

Well I think Sister Glenn is loving the work! She's a hard worker and now that her jet lag is gone we can really go for it! It's still cold and the mounds of snow seem like they'll never melt, it's a miracle we get in and out of our drive way every day, the piles of snow around it act as a barrier, at least I'm getting my work out every day shoveling! Thank you for your prayers and letters!

Love,
Sister Crane

Matt's baptism

2011-01-31T16:17:00.000-08:00