Your little Rahrah is about to make you grandparents again! On Saturday night, after a full day of nervous anticipation, I received the call that I will begin TRAINING tomorrow!
:) AND, I will be staying in Stafford for another six weeks;) I'm
really starting to believe I'll die in this place. Hermana Penaloza is
going home and Hermana Clark is being transferred out. I will miss them
and our happy little trio soooo much, but I'm also super excited for
this opportunity to train! I've been studying 12 week, the white
handbook, PMG, etc. non-stop! We're also rearranging the furniture in
the room today so that it fits two people, not three. So happy :)
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| Last District Mtg before transfer... |
*A reminder of Sister Crandall's address...
Sister Sarah Crandall
8 Ferguson Dr. #201
Stafford, VA 22554
*Here's a little about my week:
A
dog entered our car. We were in a parking lot, and this happy, foamy dog
came up to us. While I was petting him, Hermana Clark opened the back
door to put her bag away. As soon as she opened the door, he jumped into
the car as if he was going with us! After we finally got him out, he
ran around the car and got in on the other side before we could stop
him! Our car was covered in dog saliva and fur. I would've taken a
picture if we weren't in a hurry ;) Oh, and this was a Taizo-sized dog!
Not a perrito.
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| Woodbridge Transfer/ Intercambio |
This past week, Hermana Penaloza and I went to
Woodbridge for an intercambio. We were with Hermana Collins, who is just
finishing up her first transfer. I was the designated driver, since
Hermana Penaloza doesn't have her license and Hermana Collins needs to
fill out some paperwork before she can drive. It felt like the greatest
P-day ever! I still got to do missionary work, which I love, but I also
got to relax a little because I didn't need to worry about planning. We
had a lot of fun and saw a lot of miracles! At this point, I didn't know
that I would be training, but it helped me prepare a lot because
Hermana Collins is still learning Spanish.
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| Clark, Crandall, ENRIQUE, Dimas |
Enrique. His dad was a referral, but his dad referred
us to him. He's 21 and doesn't say much during the lessons. He does the
reading, but doesn't have much to say about what he learned. He said he
wanted to go to church, so we found him a ride. After church, he said he
loved it and wants to come next week! And he's coming to Robert's
baptism tonight!:) He is so golden!
Speaking of which....YES, Robert is getting baptized
TONIGHT! We saw one miracle with him being able to go to church last
week, but we saw a bajillion more miracles this past week. His mom
doesn't work Tuesdays, so we stopped by to visit him. It was our first
time meeting her, and she expressed her desire for him to be baptized!
She said she was against it at first because Robert's only 9, but
because he's been praying about it every night and he's been reading in
the Book of Mormon, she decided that he can be baptized! Also, other
miracle...his Grandma hasn't been able to take him to church because she
works on Sundays and it's nearly impossible to teach him because he's
always being babysat at other homes. On Monday,
she had an accident at work and dislocated her shoulder. (She does
housekeeping at a hotel.) SO...I know it's kind of morbid, but I also
think it's a miracle. We were able to see Robert almost every day last
week and teach him all five lessons! And he came to church again
yesterday! The Grandma se dio cuenta at church that she has been missing
it, and she wants to find a different job so she can keep attending
after her shoulder and arm heal!
Robert is so cute and says the cutest things. We were
talking about family history, and Hermana Penaloza asked him if he'd
heard of it before. He said, "Yeah, isn't that when families pass down
secrets? Like secret recipes?" When we taught the ten commandments, he
said, "Don't commit adultery? Doesn't that mean that we're not supposed
to do what adults do?"
He also has this book about overcoming addictions and
changing your life. It's some weird Christian hand-out. (There are
plenty of those in Virginia!) It was full of the before-and-after meth
addict pictures. He said, "This is what you look like if you don't pray
for a year." There was a picture of someone about to swallow a pill. He
pointed it out to me and said, "this pill represents sin." It was pretty
darn cute.
OH, and Robert had some potential issues...While I was
in Woodbridge, apparently he confessed his love for coffee. When we went
by again on Friday,
we had to make sure that he hadn't had any coffee in the past 7 days.
He said the last time he had a cup of coffee was two months ago. Then he
said, "But sometimes I think about drinking coffee. How can I get these
thoughts out of my mind?" We assured him that he could read the Book of
Mormon or pray and Jesuscristo would help him :) and that he can have
hot chocolate whenever he wants.
I'm just super happy that Robert's getting baptized!
It's the perfect way to end this transfer, and for Hermana Penaloza to
end her mission!
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| With Jose y Alicia... after 2 dinners! |
We have another investigator on
date! His name is Jose. We're teaching him and his wife Alicia. They
have different work schedules, so we teach them separately, but I'm sure
she'll be on date soon too! The fecha is in the end of September so
that he has enough time to find a new job because he works on Sundays.
They REALLY love us! Jose was worried about transfers and us leaving, so
he gave us gifts on Saturday--some
notebooks and post-its and highlighters. He knows us so well;) Alicia
also gave us a stack of clothes. I don't know why Hispanics love giving
missionaries clothes;) haha.
Alicia also fed us dinner on Tuesday...which was possibly one of the hardest nights of my mission. We had dinner con la familia Velazsquez at 5:30.
They're the family that was teasing us because of how much food they
gave us and made us eat. This is the best food I've ever eaten in my
whole life...the only problem is that I'm served 3x more than I want!
Anyway, right after dinner, we went straight to Alicia's at 6:30
to eat with her. We knew that she was going to feed us, and we couldn't
bear to cancel on her because of how excited she was! She made SO MUCH
FOOD. By the end, it became a game of survival to get it down. It was
really delicious too and I love her so much :) I love my mission.
Anyway, Alicia gave me this cute skirt because it was
too small for her and she thought it would fit me. It ended up being too
big for me. A few of my other skirts are also too big. So we borrowed a
sewing machine from Hermana Miranda and I've been happily fixing up all
my skirts:) Just wanted to throw that out there. I love sewing! And I
really love Hermana Miranda. I loved her grandboys while I was in
Accokeek, and now it's so cool that I can serve her too!
Absalon, Natalia, and Randy all celebrate their birthdays this week! On Saturday
we went to Fredericksburg to eat and spend some time with them. It was
really nice, especially since my Spanish has improved a lot since I left
Fred! I got some cortos (shorts) and shirts for Randy for school this
year and then I printed some pictures of the wedding for Absalon and
Natalia. Absalon said that I should move to Fredericksburg after my
mission and rent a room in their apartment. He said Natalia would cook
for me and I can nanny Randy;) Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
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| Hermano Marco is Bien Cool ;) |
Yesterday we got Marco to go out with us again AFTER he
fed us dinner! (Which was super yummy! Look for Mexican cream sauce
(Ole brand) if you get the chance.) I think I've mentioned him
before--he's the one that's "bien swag" and "cool." He's a great example
of real conversion. His life has changed completely and he made it to
the temple. He attends YSA now, but he's great to have at lessons. We
took him to see la familia Gomez again last night.
I think that's all for now. I love my mission SO MUCH! I
love Stafford! I love this Branch. There are some amazing people here.
They are so willing to serve! I love my investigators a ton. I love my
new Hermanita. I love mi Padre Celestial y mi Senor Jesucristo. Estoy
tan agradecida por todo lo que me dan. I just really love being a
missionary:)
Con amor, Hermanita Crandall
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