Saturday, November 15, 2014

Hey Hey Hey Henrico

Querida Familia,

*Lots of things happened this week. A few were pretty disappointing... 

     So we changed up the areas a bit and now we have a few more apartment complexes! Which is great, because before we were spending all day every day in the same complex. The Elders passed a potential over to us named Gladys. She is so golden! She told us in the first visit that she wants to get baptized! She already believes the church is true, and she said she loves members. She first met missionaries a few years ago on a night she was planning to commit suicide. The only problem is that she's living with her boyfriend who is married to a woman in El Salvador. They've been separated for 6 years, and he has a lawyer in El Salvador working on the divorce, but they can't find his wife. They originally separated because she ran off with another man. And Gladys doesn't want to separate from her boyfriend because they just had a baby girl a few months ago. This isn't the first time I've come across this problem. It's so frustrating because she wants to get baptized but can't unless she's willing to separate from the father of her children. And they're also super poor. So we'll keep working with that and pray for a miracle! There's really nothing that we can do except trust that God will make it happen if the timing is right.

     We also lost Osmin. I think I wrote about him before. He's the one that doesn't talk all that much and came to the states alone at 15. We weren't able to find him for a week, so we decided to take a week break. When we went back to his apartment, his roommate said that he went missing. They haven't seen Osmin since the last time we saw him, which was about 2.5 weeks ago. He left all of his stuff in the apartment and never came home one night. He has a drinking problem, so he's either in the hospital or in prison. I heard that they're not really deporting anyone right now, so he's probably still in the states. But he also told us that he wanted to return to his home country. Oh, and Osmin told us he was from Guatemala and his roommate said he's from Ecuador. We called a few hospitals and we have a member who works for the state and is going to look him up in the prison database. We have no idea what happened to him :(

     And we also dropped Elvira and her 5 kids. We really loved visiting with them, and they loved our visits, but they weren't progressing. Elvira told us flat out that she would not be baptized because she was born into her religion and didn't want to change. We've asked her over and over again to pray and read, but she won't. She was pretty sad when we dropped her because her kids were learning a lot. We told her to pray about it and call us if she changed her mind. It's really sad how people worry so much about what their earthly parents think instead of what our Heavenly Father thinks. Family traditions are super important, but not when they conflict with the truth.

     Saturday was Social Media Day in the mission! We had a YW who was going to come out with us in the morning and then a YSA who was going to come out with us in the evening/afternoon. They were supposed to take pictures of us all day and put them on twitter, instagram, and facebook. The YW called us at 10 PM the night before (we were already in bed) to cancel. She decided to go with the other Hermanas in our branch... I guess the other Hermanas didn't know that the YW was coming with us, so they called her and she decided to go with them instead. So that kind of hurt. Then the YSA didn't answer our calls or texts in the afternoon so she didn't go with us either. Buuut, we did do a service project in the morning which you can read about a little further below:)

*Some things that happened were kind of creepy...

     A creepy guy fell in love with me, which is the second time that's happened to me in Henrico. The first (a few weeks ago) was Diego. We street contacted him and he called a week later to let me know that he thinks it's really cool that I learned Spanish. Then he said he was at home and invited me over to visit him. He was using "tu" form which is singular and very personal, only to be used with family, close friends, or children. So I invited him to church. 

     The second guy, named David, was getting pretty creepy this week. He texted Hermana Sprunt and me and asked what God's name was. We called him back and talked a bit about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He asked if Jehovah was the Father's name. I explained that Jehovah was Jesus Christ because He is the Creator. I told David that God's name is Heavenly Father, and that's how we should refer to Him. Later that night he texted us and said, "how would you respond to the person that likes the missionary?" In Spanish there are a lot of different ways to say the same thing, and basically the way he said it was very inappropriate. Needless to say we passed his info over to the Elders. I am so creeped out :P

*And some really great things happened!...

     So on Social Media Day we were pretty bummed to not have a member with us. But we did have a RS activity in the morning and the member (Hermana Ainsa) asked us to come by earlier to help set up. She's American and was going to teach how to make American desserts for Thanksgiving! She made us breakfast too:) And we got to help prepare some of the food. Only one of the RS Sisters showed up, so we decided to stay for the activity too and I learned how to make yummy homemade pie and cranberry relish! And she took a picture of us and posted it to facebook:) 

     And Hermana Ainsa gave us free tickets to the Science Museum in downtown Richmond so that's where we're going for P-day today! I am turning into you, Mommy! I love museums! Now I just need to get myself to some of the cemeteries downtown! And the holocaust museum.

     This week we tracted into a high school senior named Brian who said to come back later that night. When we came back, we taught him and his mom Teo. Brian knows one of the YM from the branch and he and his mom both really liked the message! They used to be catholic, but Teo stopped attending when her mom joined another church. They're both really open to learning and are going to pray about baptism.

     On Wednesday we had Zone Conference with 5 zones! I'm in Richmond West and we were with Ricmond East, Midlothian East and West, and Chesterfield. President Wilson gave a really great talk about how the restoration of the priesthood aligns with the four-fold mission of the church. And how the church departments are organized accordingly. It's so cool to be a part of the true restored Church of Jesus Christ!:) 

     Sunday was the Primary Program combined with the English ward, Gayton. It was really cute because a few of the kids shared their testimonies in English and then repeated them in Spanish. They also sang the first verse of "I Love to see the Temple" in English and then the first verse of it in Spanish! ("Me Encanta ver el Templo.") It was really sweet and now I want to be a Primary song leader some day. (I really am becoming more and more like Mom on my mission.)

     All in all, I had a really great week and I can't believe it's Monday already! The weeks just FLY BY! I still can't believe it's November. I love you all sooooooo much and I miss you lots. Have a happy week:)

Con amor, Hermanita Crandall

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