To All:

LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW! Snow already? Yes indeed. We had our first snow storm yesterday. wahoo. The only thing I don't like about the snow is that we have to cancel some appointments that are far away sometimes because of it. Luckily by the end of yesterday it turned into slushy rain so we were able to get around safely. I can't imagine what it would have been like on a bike. yuck. Definatly counting my blessings on that one!

This week was awesome! Seriously it was. How do I possibly explain how awesome a mission is in an e-mail? I have trouble with it because you can't describe the amazing feeling you have serving the Lord. It's the best feeling ever! This week we had leadership training woot woot! That means that our whole zone gathered and President and Sister Simpson came to train us. We also had 2 guest speakers there too. One was the Stake President, President Pattison and the CES representative for our area, Brother Pilling. I was stolked to hear from Brother Pilling, since I want his job when I grow up! They gave wonderful trainings and we learned a lot more about institute and how important it is to get our investigators there. At the end of all of it we had a small testimony meeting. The Spirit was there in abundance and President got up at the end and the tears flowed as he expressed his love for us and how much God loves His missionaries. Of course I was balling by the end of it too. It was such a mix of emotions because this is the last leadership training I'll attend on my mission. I hate that. Can't I just be a missionary forever?!

Our investigators are sooooo awesome! Ah! I have so many stories and so little time so I'll just share a few with you! So we go last night to see the Thomas family. As you remember they are less active but a few of their kids haven't been baptized yet so we're working on getting their whole family closer to the Savior. So last night was awesome! We played that trust game where you fall and another person has to catch you and then shared the story of Peter and Jesus walking on the water and how he caught him but Peter had to have faith. At one point I began to bear my testimony of God and how much He loves them and wants to talk to them through prayer. BAM all eyes were on me. The kids were settled and no one broke eye contact. I know why, they felt the Spirit. As I spoke I said anything and everything that the Spirit whispered to my heart to say. After I ended Sister Lorenc then said, "I testify that everything that Sister Crane said is true." wow. how powerful. Seriously to work in complete unity and to see them actually obsorb the information. Wow. Ok so that's not even the BEST part. Then we ask them if they've been praying as a family like we challenged them to, and guess what? THEY DID! They prayed everyday as a family and they noticed a DIFFERENCE! AHHH! You could not wipe the smile off of our faces! They were even smiling about it too! They said they did better in school and their days were just better in general because of it! AH! I may not ever get to baptize an entire family on my mission but being able to see this family accomplish so much together is the same in value to me.

Samantha is so awesome! She came to stake conference and said that all of the talks made her get teary eyed, she loved it so much. We taught her a few times this week and last night as we had our lesson with her at the end we all just sighed and she goes, "I can't believe I met you girls on a bus!" haha. We all laughed and talked about how amazing it is that God directs us in our lives and places us in eachothers paths for a reason.

JEROME came to Institute! WHA? The crazy part is we didn't even tell him about it. A YSA who comes teaching with us a lot, Andrea, she texted him! And he CAME! ah! so cool. Oh and get this AFFE came teaching with us! haha That's right an INVESTIGATOR CAME TEACHING WITH US! We told her we had gotten a new chinese investigator and so she volunteered to come with us! It was so cool. She translated some of it and bore her testimony of church. ah! love it! This new chinese investigator, her name is Vivian. She's super cute. She's married and has a 5 year old son. She knows almost nothing about God. We met at the church and she told us that she had never really been inside a church before. When we started the lesson we taught her how to pray and at the end she even said her very first prayer! how cool is that?! To be able to witness someone's first prayer ever! ah! During the lesson it was soooooo cool. She read in Chinese the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction and after told us that she felt this warm feeling as she was reading it! And then she had trouble translating into english what she was trying to say but she said that her voice got softer as she read it and she didn't know why. We told her IT'S THE SPIRIT! It's true! And then we talk about baptism and I tell her about how she can be completely clean and follow God more fully and she gets big eyed and says, "oh I hope I can do that!" How sweet and precious are these experiences?! seriously!

I just know that this church is true! I know it! It's the neatest thing to be a missionary and to witness all of this! I feel so blessed and so grateful! President asked me this week if I'd like to stay for another 6 months, without even thinking I said, "YES!" He said he would like to have me for longer too but the brethren say that I need to get on with my life. haha. I guess that's true. I'm just so grateful for the wonderful blessing it is to serve! The best decision I've ever made ever was to serve a mission!

Love,

Sister Crane