May 29th

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