March 28th

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