Wednesday, December 3, 2014

#hastaluegoHenrico #HeistheGift #EleslaDadiva

Querida Familia,

     Como estan todos??:) Espero que tuvieran feliz dia de accion de gracias!

     I would like to invite everyone to watch the new video from the church called "He is the Gift!" You can find it on youtube or atChristmas.Mormon.org. This video is going to be the only advertisement on the front page of youtube on December 7th! The Church is predicting that more than 220 million people will watch it that day!! It will also be on a jumbotron in Times Square for the entire month of December! This includes New Year's Eve, so millions of people will see it there too! It's really beautiful and I've seen already how powerfully it can bring the Spirit!

     We found a few new investigators this week. One of them was Veronica, who is a single mom with three kids. She seemed pretty stressed for our second appointment and I was surprised she even let us in. We invited her kids to come into the room, sang "Noche de Paz" (Silent Night), and watched the video. Her daughter seemed really touched by it. We talked a little bit more and then kneeled and prayed with them as a family. It was great to see how this video brought peace to their home.

     Last night was decided to contact a potential, Soyla. (I don't know how to spell it...) When we went by, she wasn't home, but another family that lives there was home and they let us in. There names are Sabino and Loyda. They said they didn't have a lot of time, but agreed to watching the video. After the video, they opened up a lot and wanted us to come back! It softened their hearts. They talked a lot about how the Christmas culture here is way different from what they grew up with in Mexico. They seemed open to baptism too!

*Our other investigators are doing well.

     Juan still works a lot, but said he just worked his last weekend in Lynchburg. He's trying to find work closer to home so that he can be here for the weekends. He's been really diligent with quitting coffee. He's gone from 5 cups a day to 2! He said he wants to come with us to church and it makes him feel bad to have to miss it every week. I can see how is faith is growing and he's working hard to repent. It makes me so happy :)

     Elena. Every week she says she'll come to church and she never comes! And every week we push her baptismal date back another week. But she loves the Book of Mormon, she knows it's true, and she's working on quitting coffee as well. There are always a billion distractions at her house with kids, a few other families that live there, people cooking in the kitchen, people watching TV, etc. We're hoping to get her to a church tour so that she can feel the Spirit and feel more confident coming to church.

*Okay so now I'll talk about Thanksgiving:)

     We had breakfast with the Lowden family which was so much fun!! I think I talked about them a bit last week or two weeks ago. Hermana Lowden made us yummy pancakes and sausage and desserts. She even gave us some extra desserts to share with Juan. Afterwards we watched the "He is the Gift" video and talked about Christmas and Thanksgiving traditions. They have two really cute puppies too, so that was fun:) I love being with the members because it makes me feel right at home!

     Later Hermana Sprunt and I returned home, did our studies, and did weekly planning. We also made some cookies to pass out to our investigators that night!


     We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Diaz family. Now this was probably the craziest experience of my entire mission!!! So back when I was dating Alonso, I remember him telling me that he had a cousin named Shelton that was his age. (Or at least, their families were really close so he considered him a cousin.) Alonso's on his mission right now, and I wrote him a little over a year ago when I received my call to let him know where I was serving. He wrote back and mentioned that he had family that lived in Virginia. When I met the Diaz family, I knew that Hermano y Hermana Diaz were his aunt and uncle because they have a son named Shelton on a mission and they're Peruvian. I didn't really think that much of it because they knew I was from Lehi and had never asked if I knew the Lopez family. Hermana Diaz is also in charge of our dinner calendar so she invited us over for Thanksgiving. 

     Anyway, we show up and we walk into the kitchen and I was speechless! Alonso's oldest brother Alfredo was there! We both freaked out a bit and my companion was super confused, haha. And he called me "Sarah" the entire night. He joined the Marines and is in boot camp in North Carolina. He decided to come up to Richmond to be with some family for Thanksgiving. It was super crazy and definitely the last thing that I thought would happen! 

     But we had a nice dinner and the food was very yummy! We watched the "He is the Gift" video as well and had a great time:) It also lasted for a reallllly long time so finally we got out and were able to deliver some treats to some investigators.

     So yep, that was my Thanksgiving:) I think I enjoyed this year more than last year. Last year, we were with a group of like 5 families and we only knew the host family so we were kind of in-and-out. This year we got to spend some quality time with the family and actually talk about the Gospel. I'm really grateful for all of the wonderful families here:) I love my mission!

     Speaking of loving all of the people here.....I'm out! I'm being transferred tomorrow and I've been given the opportunity to be an Hermana Training Leader!!! I really wanted it 6 weeks ago, but I know that I'm so much more ready now. I feel very humbled by this calling and I'm really excited to move on to the next part of my mission! Though I really did love training and I'm going to miss it. I don't know where I'm going yet, but it will likely be Harrisonburg or Chesterfield, which is where the HTL areas are. (Unless President Wilson opens up a new area.)

Love you all so much!:)

con amor,  Hermanita Crandall

No comments:

Post a Comment