September 19th

Well I have been sufficiently humbled. Our teaching pool is at an all time low and I couldn't be more excited to get to work! This week was rough to say the least. We dropped a lot of people. Our district leader was stunned at our numbers. We were too. But man oh man have I learned a lot in just one short week. You ever have a day like that? Where nothing seems to go right? That was our week. Cancellation after cancellation. None of our investigators came to church. It was so heartbreaking. When Sister Davis and I had our weekly planning session it was a wake up call. After inspiration and prayer and work, we have a vision of what we want to accomplish here. We think that the Lord is telling us that we need to loose ourselves in the work and FIND people to teach. So we're off and it's an exciting adventure.
On Wednesday we decided to make the brave attempt of biking back from Lincoln. Lincoln is a bordering town to Fredericton. It takes about 15 minutes on the bus to get there. Biking back seemed like it wouldn't be too bad. WRONGO. We left and it was getting dark fast. Then the rain came. Yike. So we're biking down and it's freezing pouring rain and dark and cars are zooming by and I'm thinking, "doesn't it say in the handbook to avoid riding after dark?!" ah! We keep forgetting that the summer is over and so it gets dark earlier every day. By december it will be dark by 4pm. We made it safely but man on man was I sore and tired and wet. I never really believed that you could get sick from being out in the rain, now I know. I had a bad cold the rest of the week because of it. Lesson learned? nope
The next day I have a nasty cold and we still have to bike. For some reason it's WINTER here. Why? I have no clue! I thought it was september not november. It got to +2 degrees celcius. That's cold. why? why Canada? At the end of the night if we're working down town we have to take a bus that gets us up the hill but it drops us off to a spot that's a 15 minute bike ride to our house. So here we are biking at night AGAIN and as we get on our bikes (literally) it begins to rain. So we bike and bike and bike and the rain gets nasty, then comes the wind and I'm thinking, "I'm sick! gah!" The worst part is that I'm wearing glasses. Rain + glasses = can't see. For the rest of the bike ride I'm staring at the red light beaming from Sister Davis' bike and thinking, " keep your eye on the light" everything else was a blurr. We made it home. Lesson learned? I sure hope so.
The nice thing about the cold though is that people think we're nuts and so they let us in. This one lady we knocked into started laughing and said, "It's dark! and it's cold! What are you girls doing out here?" I said, "we're here to talk to you!" She was nice enough to let us in the doorway and we talked with her for a bit. We've had some really interesting discussions with people lately. It's amazing the diversity of opinions and views that people have in this city. Most people make up what they believe in and then either look for a church that comes closest to that or don't go to a church at all. The best excuse ever at a door that I have EVER had of why they can't talk to us was given by this lady yesterday who just had jaw surgery and her mouth was wired shut. You win. Every one else your excuses are lame compared to that.
I'll briefly share one of the interesting discussions I had with someone this week. She was from Scotland, an older lady and we knocked on her door. Immediately as I looked in her eyes there was something missing lack of light, or the Spirit in other words. We began to talk and she said that she had no belief in God. I asked her what she thought our everyday actions led to. Nothing, she said. "we are atoms, my dear, and so atoms we will become, maybe my atoms will evolve into a horse or something." I told her I thought that was so sad. I asked her if there was anyone in her life that she would like to be with forever. No, was her reply. She kept saying that we had so much to learn and needed to experience more things in life. I agreed and told her that I certainly hope I keep learning and have experiences because there is so much for me to learn! She laughed at my comment and I explained that although we don't know everything what we do know we are sure of and that is that there is a God. After the discussion she actually said she enjoyed talking with us and wished us luck, but I left so sad that she wouldn't accept and the truth was starring her in the face. Sister Davis had sad something earlier to me that I thought was really profound. God sends out missionaries because we don't know everything. We don't need to. That's the whole point. We just need to know enough. Through small and simple things are great things brought to pass. In D&C section 1 it even talks about that how the simple things of the earth will break down the great and mighty. I do know that God lives and knows us personally and that is enough to teach His word.
The Gospel is incredible! Ah! It's so amazing! Do you ever have an "Ah-Hah!" moment in the gospel? I love those. It passes all my understanding how God could have such a marvelous and perfect plan. It's brilliant. I'm so grateful to know what I know. It's so cool! for lack of a better word. Lately in my scriptures I've been highlighting the basic principles of the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Do you know how many times it says those words in the scriptures? So many! And they are rarely if ever mentioned on their own, one of those words is usually coupled with another because one leads to another. ie: faith leads to repentance, or baptism is incomplete without the gift of the Holy Ghost. It's so cool! How could any of this stuff be made up? It's just not possible.
I am so excited to go out and be those fishers and hunters like it says in Jeremiah 16:16 and find these people to teach! I'm ready! I'm so grateful that God humbles us and brings us low so that we can see that He is the one who is raising us up. It's all about Him. Without Him we could not do this. The church is true! This is the most important work that I could be doing and it's so wonderful!
Love,
Sister Crane