Monday, February 9, 2015

happy things from Harrisonburg

Querida Familia,

     I'm sorry that I'm about to send another shortie...but this computer is super slow! I've already had to restart it twice. But I hope you all know that I love you so much!:)

     Ana did NOT get baptized last week like we had hoped. She's now received all of the lessons and can get baptized pretty much any day she decides to. She's keeping all of her commitments and we feel like we've done all that we can do to help her. We'll keep visiting her and getting her to church, and hopefully over time her testimony will turn into conversion!

     Her son Fabian also loves pizza, so we stopped by with a pizza on Friday and he was super happy. Ana  feeds us almost every time we go over now, so we wanted to pay-it-forward. We just don't have the time or means to cook as amazingly as she does;)

     We started teaching another woman from Honduras named Odalis. She's 25 and has three cute kids! She's also neighbors with her sister and niece, Erika and Celenia. We were able to meet them this week and all three came to church! Odalis's husband came too. And Erika also has 3 kids. Altogether they were 10 people! They took up an entire bench! Branch attendance basically doubled yesterday:) 

     Last night we had a kind of scary experience. We were with a member and we entered a home to teach a family. The husband was outside. He barged into the home and asked us which God we worship. He then said that he didn't like us and demanded that we leave his home. His wife looked so embarrassed. She explained that he was drunk and not to listen to him. It was probably one of the scariest experiences I've had my whole mission. I've had people yell at me and whatnot, but never while inside of their home. The man went outside again and the room felt really empty. We expressed our love for the woman and her children, and I could tangibly feel the Spirit come back into the room. It was an interesting experience in feeling the Spirit flee and return. I know we were protected from anything worse happening.

     We did an exchange with the YSA Sisters on Tuesday and I got to go to their area with Sister Elliott! YSA work is SO DIFFERENT. We went on JMU (James Madison U) for Institute and then afterwards we walked around and contacted people. I was eating it up:) We got told no a lot, but it was really fun to talk to everyone. 

     So this is a little story about "tagging"--which is something we as missionaries do:) We went tracting later in a student housing complex. We parked and then were praying in the car. When we finished the prayer, we both looked up and the Zone Leaders were parked next to us, like three inches away. They rolled down their window, stuck a sticky note to our window (that said "tag") and then drove away. It was pretty funny:) Normally we just tag missionary cars that we see parked, but they caught us praying.

     We started a Branch Choir on Sunday. A few members showed up:) We're working on "Oh Creaciones del Senor" which is "All Creatures of our God and King." We have Branch Conference coming up in March, so we're hoping to be able to sing it there. Hermana McRae is a great singer, so she helped direct the music. 

     I'm down to two months left in the mission, which doesn't even feel real. Next transfer is my last, and I'm hoping and praying that I can stay here in Harrisonburg. It will depend on whether or not they close anymore Sisters areas in the Zone.

That's pretty much all for this week. I love you all so much! 

Con mucho amor, Hermanita Crandall

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