So we ended up not going to the
science museum last Monday because President Wilson said we need a
member ride :/ But we stopped by Lifeway Christian Store and got some
new music! Which was a relief because I'm so sick of listening to the
same music over and over again. And our car doesn't have a USB device so
we can't listen to the music you sent us in the car. So that was fun:)
Today we have Sisters' P-day and we're going to the Short Pump Mall to
eat and shop. Yay:)
This was a
sssllllooooooooooooooooowwwww week. As was last week. We dropped a ton
of investigators that weren't progressing and didn't want to be
baptized. We spent about 3 or 4 hours each day just tracting. We've
pretty much tracted out all of the Hispanic complexes in our area. It
was very exhausting, but Heavenly Father blessed us for our diligence
because we were able to put someone on date!
Her
name is Elena! We were thinking about dropping her because she didn't
seem genuinely interested. We stopped by for our appointment and she
said she was busy. She asked us to come back the next day, because she
had been reading from the Book of Mormon and she believes it's true! She
said it while smiling! She was so happy!!! Hermana Sprunt and I walked
away from the door dumbfounded. Heavenly Father definitely knows His
children better than we do:) The next day we went by for our appointment
and put her on date! It was a huge miracle in the middle of some pretty
difficult days.
To help with the finding efforts in the Branch, we did a tracting "blitz" in each area this week. On Tuesday we knocked in Henrico A, Wednesday in Henrico B, Thursday in our area, and Friday
in Henrico D. Each companionship selected a complex or a few streets
and we took turns knocking in each others' areas. We got a lot of
referrals so we have some more work to do for this week!
Because we're now four companionships in the Branch, we have an all Spanish District! We had District Meeting on Wednesday
completely in Spanish! I love speaking Spanish! At the end we talked
about language study and how to improve. I bore my testimony about how
it's such a blessing to be a Spanish missionary! I tried really hard
before my mission to qualify for this blessing, and I feel very
privileged to have been given this assignment when I didn't originally
receive it. Because of that, language study hour is very precious to me.
I hope I can continue to use the language after my mission to bless the
lives of others!
We're still teaching Juan,
the Cuban, but he took a 3-week construction job in Lynchburg. He'll be
staying there for a while. But he took his Libro de Mormon with him and
he's going to keep reading! We talked about baptism with him and he said
he's planning on it happening eventually, but when he feels right about
it. When he said that I was filled with so much peace and hope:) He
wants to be baptized and he told our member present all about how he
loves us, loves our visits, and loves the Book of Mormon!
We
also have a really great new investigator named Araceli. We've been
trying to teach her for a few weeks, but her dad in Mexico passed away
and so she was really busy for a while. We went by on Sunday
(yesterday) to teach her for the first time and she loved the Plan of
Salvation! We gave her a Libro de Mormon a few weeks ago and she's
already read some of it and really likes it. She's planning on going
back to Mexico in the Spring to be with her kids again. A lot of the
Hispanics come to the States to work for a while so they can send money
or things home, like shoes or toys that they can't afford over there.
Apparently there's been a lot of violence in Mexico recently, with a
school shooting or something. Araceli said it happened within an hour of
where her kids live. Anyway, she said there's a Mormon chapel really
close to where she lives. She said she and her husband want to join the
church and stick with it. We almost put her on date, but her husband was
upstairs sleeping and she wants to talk about it with him first!
Our Saturday
night dinner with the Lowden family was the best because I found out
that Hermano Lowden served in Dad's homeward when Dad was a teenager! He
loves Grandma and Grandpa and still remembered their address! He said
he served in Santa Maria for about 6 months and that he spent a lot of
time with the Crandalls! He said that one time he and his companion took
Dad and David tracting, and they were planning on tracting for a couple
of hours, but the boys left after one hour exactly. He also said
Grandpa Crandall helped him out once with some dentist thing. So I
believe he gave both Dad and Grandma a call. The world is a really small
place if you're a Mormon!
This morning I was
pondering a statement that's included in both my mission call and Preach
my Gospel. It says that more happiness than I've ever experienced
awaits me as I serve my mission. Up to this point, I feel like I've had a
really happy mission. It's been difficult, especially weeks like this
one, but I'm very happy. It's not the so-happy-I'm-going-to-die kind of
happy, but I feel so much more peace with who I am. I don't know how
else to explain it but that my quality of life has more than tripled
because I chose to serve a mission. I know how to face challenges, I
know who I am, my testimony is much stronger, I have meaningful goals
for my life, and I feel like I'm making a difference.
I
used to think that this statement meant that I'd be super happy on my
mission and then go back to being less happy after I finished. Now I
understand that the happiness I've found on my mission will carry on
with me after my mission because I've become a happy person. It's
impossible to describe, but I've learned HOW to be happy! Hermana Sprunt
said her MTC teacher said, "Life before my mission was horrible.
Mission life was awesome! Post-mission life IS awesome!" So I guess what
I'm trying to say is... I love my mission. Like Mommy wrote in her
email, my mission is glorious! Now that I'm here, I can't imagine having
not served. I'm excited about all the cool post-mission experiences
I'll have, but right now I'm content to just keep knocking:)
Con todo mi corazon, Hermanita Crandall
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