Monday, September 15, 2014

Happy Times in Henrico

Querida Familia,

     It really happened this time! I am officially out of Stafford and now serving in the Henrico Branch!(pronounced Hen-RYE-co)  I live in Glen Allen, which is just a few miles outside of downtown Richmond.

*New Address: 4049 Gaelic Ln. L, Glen Allen, VA 23060

     On Monday night, Hermana Quinones and I got to say "bye" to a few people. The Ward Mission Leader Hermano Morgan took us to Sweet Frog, which was really nice of him. I also stayed up to nearly midnight trying to finish packing.

     On Tuesday I went to Train the Trainers Meeting again, and I wasn't near as nervous. I met my new companion, Hermana Sprunt. She is half Peruvian (mom's side) but doesn't speak a lot of Spanish. There were 4 new Hermanas, but she was the only one who spent 6 weeks at the CCM in Mexico to learn Spanish. The rest already spoke Spanish. I felt really honored that President Wilson knew he could trust me to help her! And more so, that the Lord thinks I'm capable of helping her!

     During the luncheon before Transfer Meeting, one of the office elders gave us a new phone (well, new to us--not brand new.) and some apartment supplies, so we knew that we'd be opening an area. He also said that we only lived a few miles away from the church. So we figured we'd be in the Henrico Branch:)

     After the meeting, we asked him about our car, and he said that the APs said that they forgot to get us a car. So we got a ride to our apartment and started unpacking a bit. Fortunately our District Leader was at Transfer Meeting (he's also training) and he gave us some information about the Branch. We called the Ward Mission Leader, Hermano Rosales. His wife came to pick us up a while later and was able to take us to dinner at a member-owned restaurant (La Cabana--SO GOOD!) and to Walmart.
Crandall - Sprunt in Henrico Walmart

     Our apartment is brand new so we had almost nothing. We had furniture, but almost nothing else. No food, no plates, only two spoons, no other utensils, some cups and bowls, a few pots, and a handful of English pamphlets and pass-along cards. Hermana Rosales was super helpful and kind! By the time we got home, we weren't really able to do much else except call
a few people.

     On Wednesday, we had a mini meeting with the other missionaries in the Branch. Hermana Mejia is finishing up training Hermana Powell and Elder Grange is training Elder Beatty. They gave us the names of a few lessactives to visit and told us more about the Branch. We still didn't have acar. so the Hermanas picked us up and took us to a gas station to get a map and to the Library to make a copy of the branch list. We live within walking distance of a Fedex Office store so we were able to laminate the map and whatnot.

*We're going to get kicked off the computers early so I'll try and sum it up:

     The area we've been given is north of Broad St. and Parham Rd. Everyone we've asked so far says that all of the Hispanics live SOUTH of Broad and Parham. So we're doing our best:) The missionaries already here didn't have any investigators up there, so we really are starting with a clean slate! They each had a small stack of former investigators to work through and the Hermanas found a potential investigator sheet from 2002 in their Area Book. Most of the phone numbers are changed or disconnected, but it might help us find areas where the Hispanics live.

     We didn't get the car until Thursday afternoon so we did a ton of walking! And we talked to every person that we saw. It was a relief, though, when we got the car and were able to get to know the area a bit better. We've talked to some pretty crazy people. There is a HUGE Arabic and Indian population here. I've mistaked so many of them for Hispanic, but now it's a little easier to tell them apart. We met this one black preacher who told us that we're all black, but some of us have less melanin. I think I have a whole lot less melanin than the rest of you people. He also said we're Jews so that was neat.

     We did find one Hispanic couple, from la Republica Dominicana. We taught them and they seem promising!

     We also saw a great miracle Sunday night. One older couple in the branch asked us to visit their daughter in law. She's less active, and she has a 9 year old son that wants to get baptized. The father (or son of the older couple) moved back to Mexico and that's when they stopped going to church. We tried calling her, but decided to stop by when she didn't answer. The son, Christopher, still has a strong desire to be baptized! The teenage daughter said that she wants to come back to church! We called the Elders later that night and they said that they previously haven't had any success with the family. It was really great and I'm super excited:)

     And last thing.......The Fisher family was baptized on Saturday!!!! I taught them while I was in Accokeek. They went through 5 different Elders and 5 different Sisters, and were finally baptized! They've been investigating for 14 months. President and Sister Wilson gave us a drive up North to attend the baptism and Sister Olsen and I were able to share the message of the restauracion at the baptism! The Spirit was really strong and I know that they will be great leaders in the Church!

Okay love you all:) Have a great week!

Love, Hermanita Crandall

No comments:

Post a Comment