December 15th

To all:
Congrats Truro you did it! Out of the 170 places to live in Canada (#1 being the best) Truro came in at 169! Haha! This man at a door told us that when we knocked into him. He said we should tell our families so that they understand how hard our missions are. I laughed pretty hard. Especially since I'M STAYING for another 6 weeks! yay! We found out about transfers yesterday and both Sister Peaden and I are staying. I honestly am relieved. I wanted to stay some where familiar for Christmas. I was scared of going somewhere far away, because staying here means that we're close enough that we get to go to the mission home Christmas Eve! I can't wait. We'll get to see other Sisters and hopefully go caroling or something fun.
So this week....so much has happened and nothing at all at the same time. We've been visiting a lot of members and trying to get more referrals as of late. I love being with the members. The only problem is trying to leave on time. They love to talk and so do I. Sometimes I want to just stay and chat with them forever, but then I remember I'm not Ashley right now, I'm Sister Crane and my purpose is missionary work! I just love the members here, they really are the best. Sister Putnam in particular has helped us a lot this
week. She has parkinsons and is always so crazy busy but she still found time to feed us, and come to 2 lessons with us this week. She's incredible. We go to her house for a meal and she makes us put our feet up and before leaving always trys to give us something to take home. We had an appointment with a man named Jerry this week. We had knocked into him on Saturday and he told us about how he had read the Book of Mormon when he was 13 ( he's 37 now) and he had this incredible experience while reading it which I told him was the Holy Ghost, and he said after reading it, he was happy, really happy for a year. So we set up an appointment to meet with him on Monday and asked Sister Putnam to go with us. We were running late from another appointment and we were nervous that Sister Putnam would see that we weren't there and she would go home. We called her cell phone and explained and she said, "oh ya I'm fine, I'm just right here sitting in Jerry's kitchen talking to him about his herb garden." She is so personable, she had just gone up to his apartment and saw that he was outside waiting for us and started talking with him, it was like they were old friends by the time we got there. We've taught Jerry twice already and can't wait to teach him more, he really wants to know for himself and he sounds like he's really in tune with the Spirit so far with the experiences he's shared with us.
Casey is having some trouble. She may choose not to be baptized on January 15th. We're really praying for her and hope that she makes the right decision. She knows it's true, it's just hard for her to make changes in her life to be baptized. We love her, and she loves this gospel. I hope she makes the right choice. It's so hard to feel that you can teach someone it all, they can gain a testimony, but in the end it's still their agency, they still get to choose whether or not to act on it. That darn agency.
Matt is still on date and he's successfully completed the stop smoking program! hooray! He's doing great and we're really excited for him and the changes he's already made in his life.
It's a busy time of year, and that means it's sometimes hard to get ahold of our investigators, but I'm really excited when we meet more people to teach, like Jerry. Verna and Steven are doing awesome. Verna has been coming to appointments with us weekly and we just love it! I think she does too, she was really excited that we're staying here in Truro. We've also been able to talk more with her husband Dale. They fed us last Thursday and Dale actually sat in on our lesson afterward! We talked about Eternal marriage, which I thought was perfect! They both expressed their gratitude for things that we've done to help Verna, it was so nice. I sometimes wonder if I'm doing enough or how much I've really helped these people, and it's so nice to know that we've done something good.
Well another week down, and another to go till Christmas! It almost doesn't feel like Christmas right now because the snow got washed away with a lot of rain. Power outages and flooding have been happening because we've had some crazy wind and rain. Walking around I feel like Mary Poppins, ready to get blown away with my red coat and umbrella, (now if only I had her cool hat...) I feel so grateful for our Savior and for a Father in Heaven who is so mindful of His children. I am so grateful that when I don't know the answers to our investigators concerns and questions, or when I don't feel like I can do this great work, that I know that God can do anything. And if I will just trust in Him, he will help my weaknesses to become strengths. Thank you for your prayers and letters! And have a wonderful week!

love,
Sister Crane