Last week I forgot to mention the
greatest thing ever! After we raked leaves for 4 hours, my back was in
SO MUCH PAIN. On Monday before emailing, we finally visited the famous
Mormon chiropractor that lives in Fredericksburg! His name is Dr. Brooks
and he is AMAZING! He adjusted my back, did some muscle stimulation,
and realigned my hips. My injury from my fall 5 months ago was worse
than I thought. I had about 3 or 4 vertebrae in my lower back that were
basically stuck together. Standing for too long or any type of exercise
put a lot of pressure on them. My hips were also misaligned by about 2
or 3 inches. As soon as he said that, I knew he was right! I've been
hula dancing in the mornings as exercise, and I could tell that my hips
weren't near as flexible as they were in high school. It's not that I'm
getting old, it's just that they weren't aligned correctly! Yay! I was
in a lot of pain this past week because it was my first ever adjustment,
but we went back today and I feel better now.
A lot of things happened this past week and it all happened super fast!
Tuesday/Wednesday
we had exchanges. I stayed in Fred with Hermana Penaloza. We were able
to do some service for Hermana Warren, a member. She is gringa but her
husband was from Honduras. (He passed away a few months ago.) She just
moved into a smaller house so we did some cleaning and organizing. I
really do love this Hermana!:) She chooses to attend the Spanish Branch,
even though she can't speak Spanish fluently, because she knows she is
needed in the Primary.
On Wednesday,
we painted faces at an easter egg hunt in Wellington Woods! The
majority of our investigators and potentials live in this apartment
complex. When we heard they were having a party, we asked the office if
we could help! Hermana Agurcia and I painted faces while the Elders
(Ormond and Steiner) passed out fliers for our free English classes. It
was only 50 degrees out, so it wasn't as successful as we had hoped, but
we had a lot of fun and all of the kids love us now! The office loves
us too, and they want missionaries to come help with a party they're
having for the 4th of July! I attached a picture of us missionaries with our poster. The Elders were being kind of weird;) haha.
Thursday,
we helped Diana again (we raked leaves for her last week) with the
birthday party of her daughter! (PS the daughter is now 8!) We cooked
lots of good Peruvian food and helped decorate and set up. Then she sent
us to the Latin Market to buy Inca Kola which is the greatest soda
known to mankind. (Yes, I even like it more than Baja Blast!) The
birthday party was "One Direction" themed so we heard plenty of them,
Taylor Swift, and some Disney artists. By the end of it all, Hermana
Agurcia and I were feeling pretty worldly...
Friday
night we had a charla fogonera (fireside) in Stafford for the youth.
Dora's teenage daughter attended, so we were able to go! Remember the
Launching Leaders fireside I attended in January? We had a mini
Launching Leaders fireside directed at the youth. It was taught by
Brother Christiansen, who is from Accokeek! He was super happy to see
me:) I love that family. Also, I don't think I mentioned this, but three
weeks ago we had a youth fireside with Sister Carver, the wife of the
Accokeek Ward's Bishop. Did you know I'm attending the same chapel on
Sundays? I see all of my Accokeek peeps (including the Fisher family!)
every Sunday at church;)
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| Stafford Branch RS & YW |
On Saturday
we had the inaugural English class! Four people attended, including
Absalon and Natalia:) The Elders taught this week, and we'll be teaching
next week. It was SUPER funny to hear them trying to talk in English. I
imagine that's how they feel when they hear me speak in Spanish;) I'm
really excited to start teaching. It's a blessing that I took 2 years of
Spanish in high school and 3 semesters of Spanish at BYU, because now I
know what makes a good language teacher. I am truly grateful for Senora
Ericksen, Mr. Taylor, Brother Lopez, Martha, and Senora Robinson:) I
would love to earn my teaching license so I could teach Spanish part
time in the future.
Mom is going to die when she reads this. Guess which
bug has been nibbling on me? The Genealogy Bug! Seriously I wish you
could understand how funny this experience was. Last Sunday, Hermana
Torrico came to me after Sacrament Meeting and said she really needed my
help. Hermana Agurcia was with Natalia, so I told her we'd meet up
later in RS. Hermana Torrico took me to a small class room with another
Hermana and started setting up her computer. She then invited me to say a
prayer. I had no idea what was going on, so I just prayed that we'd
have the Spirit. Then she logged in to familysearch.org
and told me to make an account for the other sister. It was SO FUNNY.
Hispanics are not very good with computers. They were very confused
about usernames, passwords, display names, etc. And then I was very
confused about the Spanish, because we were using the site in Spanish
and they were talking to me in Spanish. To make it even better, Hermana
Torrico forgot the cord and the battery only had a few minutes left. We
made the account in time and Hermana Torrico walked me to the Gospel
Principles class! (I'm not allowed to be alone.)
Yesterday, it all happened again. Except this time,
there were three other people in the room that needed accounts. I made
accounts for two of them, only to find out they already had accounts!
Haha:) One Hermana couldn't remember the password to her email so we
couldn't activate her account after we made it. I helped one Hermano
update his father in his family tree. (Interestingly enough, his father
was born on May 19, 1961! But he passed away 12 years ago.) At the end, I
went with Hermana Torrico to the ward clerk's room to print some stuff.
She remembered that she needed to get the password to access the
computer from someone, so she ran out of the room. I looked around a
bit, realizing that I was alone, and then stood up to chase after her.
It was super funny! I really love Hermana Torrico:) I'm so grateful that
I'm able to help these people find their families:) And now I have a
stronger desire to do more family history work when I go home!
For Easter, a recent convert named Hermana Santiago
had a HUGE party after church! Absalon and Natalia attended. The food
was super good and us missionaries did a little program based on the
"Because of Him" promotion by the church.
Afterwards, another family had invited us to their
home for dinner. Hermano Messinger served his mission in Guatemala and
also served in the military stationed all over Central and South
America. Hermana Messinger has learned Spanish to support her husband
and now they both serve in the ward!:) I wish I could describe how great
they are! They live on my dream property! 5+ acres, country styled
home, big kitchen, dogs, a horse, fruit trees, garden, huge trees, etc.
The food was really yummy and I felt so comfortable being in their home!
Hermana Messinger gave us lots of advice about choosing a spouse and
raising a family in the Gospel and what not.
I love you all so so so much!
Love, Hermana Crandall
Love, Hermana Crandall
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