October 13, 2010

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

love,
Sister Crane