March 7, 2011

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