Querida Familia,
Hi,
I'm here just bawling my eyes out in the library again. My dear little
sister Amelia RECEIVED HER MISSION CALL THIS WEEK! SHE IS GOING TO TOKYO
JAPAN and...she leaves 6 weeks before I get home. My heart hurts
sooooooooooooooo much but I am also the happiest little Rahrah in the
world for her! She will be a fantastic missionary:) I prayed and prayed
and prayed that she'd be able to go to Japan.
Shout
out to Millie. Te amo tanto y se que seras buena misionera y vas a
cambiar muchas vidas! Te extranare mucho pero se que siempre seras mi
hermanita <3
Okay so now I don't even feel like writing...but we had a great week!
On Tuesday,
we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. It's difficult doing
exchanges with the English Sisters, but it really helps me stretch and
learn. Hermana Sprunt worked with Sister Romney in Glen Allen, and I
stayed in Henrico with Sister Walker. It's hard not having a companion
to back me up, but it also helps me learn to rely more on the Spirit to
know what to say. I have to remember that I'm teaching a person, not a
lesson!
I love exchanges, however, because we always see
lots of miracles! We were able to have 6 lessons in one day! 2 member
presents, 2 other lessons, and 2 less active lessons. We were just
running from one place to another. And after every lesson, Sister Walker
asked me how it went because she had no idea haha;)
On Saturday
we had Return and Report again because Hermana Sprunt is a new
missionary. We met in the downtown building and got to do the same
street contacting activity! I went out with Hermana Collins (Woodbridge)
and we talked to some interesting people...one man told us that he was a
drug dealer but he didn't think God would punish him for his sins. We
also talked with a couple students from VCU (VA Commonwealth
University). And we set one man on date to be baptized! His name was
Harold and he's Baptist, but not active. He said that we were so happy
and he wasn't sure if he could ever be that happy. We taught him the
restoration and set him to be baptized on
November 8th and promised him the same happiness! All in all, there were about 75 referrals submitted, 19 of whom were on date.
President
Wilson said that the VA Richmond missionaries will always tract and
will always street contact because he wants to have bold missionaries!
I've seen myself become REALLY bold over the past 6 or so months! I love
talking to everyone! If we learn to talk to everyone on our missions,
it will become the most natural thing in the world to talk to everyone
after our missions. I want to be the member missionary I've always
dreamed of here on the mission:)
*Here's a little update on some investigators:
Juan
is the Cuban. We were able to meet with him again this week! He is bien
chevere and he basically accepts everything we teach. He said he wants
to read the whole Book of Mormon from the beginning! I think he's pretty
lonely here in the States so we stop by occasionally to check up on his
reading between lessons.
Elivra. I'm not sure if I
mentioned her before or not, but she is Mexicana and we met her in the
home of another investigator. Now she's more interested than her friend!
She has 5 kids 9 and under and they are so darn cute! 4 boys, and then
the youngest is a girl. The older brothers watch out for her and it's
super cute. We teach her individually, and then we also do activities
with her kids during the week. Last night we got to meet her husband and
he seems really interested too! I really just want to baptize a
family:)
Osmin is a new investigator. I street contacted
him when I was with Sister Walked last Tuesday. Since then, we've taught
him 3 times already! He pretty much says nothing during our lessons.
He's 20 and came to the States when he was 15. We asked why, and he said
he didn't know. We asked about his family in Guatemala, and he's not in
contact with them. He doesn't have a job, no phone, no car, and is
living with a friend. We found out yesterday that the friend he's living
with is a young black guy who speaks no Spanish. I'm not quite sure how
they worked that one out. He said he's never felt the Spirit, doesn't
know a lot about Jesus, and has never felt truly happy before. He's VERY
quiet, but accepted a baptismal date! We're not sure how sincere he is,
so we're going to try and hold a lesson in a different location and ask
him to meet us there. That way we can see if he really wants to learn,
or is just receiving us because he has nothing else to do. I've never
taught anyone like this before, so it's been really interesting:)
Isabel
is our miracle of the week! In the CCM (MTC in Mexico), Hermana Sprunt
said they show a devotional about specific prayers. In it, the Brother
explains how we can ask God for specific miracles. He shared an example
about a girl who was trying to decide between two eternal companion
candidates. She said a specific prayer that one she should marry would
call her in the middle of the night and share part of his Patriarchal
blessing with her. And it happened! He called her at
1 am
and said part of his blessing made him think of her. After the
devotional, Hermana Sprunt made a specific prayer that someone would
bear their testimony of the Book of Mormon to her the next day so she
could have a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. The next day in
class during study time, one of her teachers stood up and said "I don't
know why I'm doing this, but I feel like I need to share my testimony of
the Book of Mormon with this class."
Anyway, we've been
going crazy with specific prayers. We made a specific prayer that we
could set someone on date for October 11th. We set Christopher on that
date the following day. (Unfortunately he didn't follow through with it,
but that's his agency.) I said a specific prayer before Return and
Report that I'd be able to set someone on date who was prepared to be
baptized, and Hermana Collins and I helped Harold accept a date!
On Friday,
all of our appointments fell through. I'm not sure if I shared this or
not, but our area is reallllly RICH. We're in the suburb of Richmond and
a lot of the people here have a lot of money. The other two sets of
missionaries in our branch have more apartment complexes and work in the
poorer side of town. It's been hard for Hermana Sprunt and me to find
work. We have one apartment complex that's about 20% Hispanic named
London Towne. We spend all our time there. A few weeks ago, a potential
gave us a notice that there had been an armed robbery in the complex
where a gun was pointed to someone's head. SOOO, it's not exactly the
safest place during night. We wanted to work hard, but it was
7:30 and it was already really dark out.
We
made a specific prayer that someone would invite us in as soon as they
saw us, that there would be a woman in the home (we can't enter if
there's not a woman), and that they would be ready to receive the
Gospel. We then went to knock the doors of three referrals. The first
two didn't answer. The third one looked at us through the window. Then
they went back and brought someone else to look at us through the
window. They asked "Who is it?" in English, but I knew they were
Hispanic because a neighbor told us they were. I answered "Las
misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo!" (With an emphasis on the
"Jesucristo" part.) After a few moments, the man opened the door. The
second he saw us, before saying anything else, he said, "Adelante!"
I
couldn't believe my ears. I thought it couldn't be true...so I asked if
there was a woman inside. He said his wife was in the front room and
directed us there. It was Isabel! We taught her the first lesson and she
loved it! After a baptismal invite, Hispanics almost always say "I've
already been baptized," but she didn't! She said that if she knew it was
true, she would be baptized! She even almost accepted a date! And she
also accepted the invite to pray at the end of the lesson! She is so
golden:) ahhh! It was definitely one of the most direct answers to a
prayer I've ever received. I know the other Hermanas in our area said
they prayed once to find a family from Venezuela and it worked! God
works in mysterious ways, but it is by small and simple things that
great things are brought to pass:)
Okay I love you all so much:)
Hermanita Crandall
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