{Week Eleven}

Dear Family,

This week has been slow at times, fantastic at times, and phenomenal at other times! In all, it has been great :)

Easter was great :) We had a nice Sacrament Meeting with both wards and then had a nice afternoon with some families. It was a change from my normal family tradition, but it was a fantastic time to ponder about the Resurrection of Christ. I loved being able to focus completely on the Savior. We did enjoy decorating eggs with Elizabeth Hansen, Iris, and Michael. They LOVED IT!

We did lots of service for less-active and active members this week. We are trying to develop relationships with them and helping them understand why coming to church is important. Slowly but surely, they are progressing. 1 step backwards and 5 steps forwards is still progressing and we are working  with many less-active members. Although they know the truth of the gospel, having a testimony and knowing through faith is so important as we build our own testimonies!

Our baptism with MacKena was great! We had it early in the morning because Savior of the World has been overrunning the stake center... She was pretty excited and is such a cute 9 year old. She has been waiting to be baptized for so long; well, a year is long for a 9-year old. I spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Sis G played the piano. They had lots of friends and some family supporting them too, so that was good. Her parents are both converts, so neither family are members, but some came which was awesome! They are excited for their next step. Being sealed as a family for time and all eternity! We are excited for them as well :)

This week we had some wonderful lessons with Jane Goldberg! She has a friend in another ward and asked if she could go with her to that ward, (the building is closer than the one she is suppose to go to, so that is sometimes a hassle to explain...) but she said it wouldn't be a problem that she was suppose to come to our building and ward! We were so excited that she came to church on Sunday!

We have been teaching Jane about the Plan of Salvation. She is very concerned about seeing her parents and grandparents again. When we told her she would, she (65 years old or so) jumped for joy and had the biggest smile on her face ever! Jane has bi-polar disorder and we have noticed that she has become more stable and so much more happy the last few times we have seen her. She is so amazing and we love teaching her. A neighbor down the street is a member and comes with us, and I can say, member fellowshipping is SO important and vital to missionary work!

Another exciting story is about Mike. We tracted into him a few weeks ago and gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration. He said he would read it and we said we would return to follow up. Well, we stopped by and he did read it! He said it sounded very familiar, but he got to thinking why his church, the Lutheran faith, didn't have modern day prophets. We gave him more and he said we would read and look at Mormon.org. We are so excited! He wouldn't commit to reading the Book of Mormon, but he did say he would consider it. I am excited to follow up with him again! He also wouldn't commit to us teaching him, but little does he realize that he is being taught by the spirit.

I am loving the service of being a missionary. It is such a great time to share the gospel and the joy that I have in my life. I am so fortunate to have been taught the gospel at such a young age and to have examples to follow and learn from. I am surely loving the Book of Mormon reading we are doing as a mission and I love looking for the Doctrine of Christ in it. I am finding so much new that I have not before realized or remembered.

I love you all so much!

♥,

Sister Stephanie Crandall

ps. Des, I hope you liked Tangled ;) I am glad the Easter Bunny found you! I Love you and Clay lots! Along with everyone else! Continue to pray and read your scriptures daily and you too will be blessing in the trials and discouragements in your life. I love you all and am looking forward to calling home on Mother's Day afternoon!!! :)

{Week Ten}

Dear Family,

This past week has gone by so quickly and lots has happened!

We were able to catch Amy Martin this week and had a nice visit with her. She had read some parts of the Book of Mormon and we're excited about that. We had another appointment with her last night, but she wasn't at home, nor did she answer our text message. She is in-between helping her mom, her son, and home right now. We are excited to keep teaching her; now we just need to catch her at home.

Last Thursday we taught Wayne Toebe about the Priesthood. Or rather, that was our plan. We had an exchange with us (a lady to drive us and to be there because he is a single man) that loved to talk!  A lot. It was a little frustrating because he was getting confused by doctrine that was unnessessary to talk about, but we made it through. When we met with him last night, it went fantastic!  We helped clear up some things and we are excited to teach him next Monday night. He continues to study diligently from both the Bible and Book of Mormon. I love it when investigators study! And he is great at that :) He continues to have lots of questions and we love it!

Friday night all the missionaries went to watch the dress rehersal for our stake production of Savior of the World. Sarah Murray is doing a fantastic job of co-directing it and it is going to be amazing!  We have a handful of investigators that are going to it and we are so excited for this great missionary experience. Out of 5500 seats, over 2000 of them are non-members or less-active. It is exciting that our stake is doing this!

Saturday night we went to Stake Conference and I met Lyle and Sonja Sasser, from Reed's mission there! They recognized my name and Reed told them I was in this mission. They weren't expecting to meet me, but it was fun to get to meet them. The talks were amazing!

One couple team-spoke about family unity. They told about their family going on camping trips and listening to talks and speakers in the car... it reminded me about our family and how much I love you! We even sang hymn 260 for the opening song! :)

I also loved the Sunday session; Pres and Sis Greer spoke and It was great! They taught about how a testimony is knowing and feeling and conversion is doing. Something that Dallin H Oaks taught.

I wish that I could tell you more, but I am just about out of time.

Yesterday we had a marvelous zone conference! My first!!! The main topic was conversion through the Book of Mormon. It was fabulous! It helped me realize better how I can help investigators feel the need to read from the Book of Mormon and to apply it in their life. I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is the word and work of God.

I love you all so much!

♥

Sister Stephanie Crandall

{Week Nine}

Dear Family,

This week has gone by so quickly! And when I look back on all that has happened, there was a whole lot.

So I will start by telling you how much I enjoyed Conference! SURPRISE! I stayed awake for all 4 sessions! So if I was at home, the candy bars would have accumulated ;) haha... I don't think I could have fallen asleep if I had wanted to though. Each talk was specifically talking to me in some way or another. I loved Elder Oaks talk about desires.

This week, lots of people have been making excuses, and it all comes down to what are our priorities and our desires, and where are they in line with each other?. Each speaker was absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to get the May Ensign to re-read them and mark them all up again and compare my notes to them. I wont tell you all the details of my notes because we each receive different messages from each talk, but I do know how true each message is!

I feel like I have been missing out my entire life because my sleeping desires overcame other priorities that should have been first on my list. I just love the Ensign each month, and now have a greater love for Conference!

So last week I told you about Amy Martin! We are still excited about her! But... she had to cancel on us on Tuesday because her car quit that day and she was stranded at her sons home. But we will try to meet up with her this week for sure :) She is amazing! Now if we can just catch her at home. Her car is working now... It's funny how we find people who realize they need what we have to offer, and then they get blessed with a job or a working car and their time disappears. But Amy is actually working with us on us seeing her :) So that is wonderful!

Something amazing happened yesterday! Each Monday afternoon, we visit Cindy Killen. I think I've told you about her before. To refresh your memory, she is in her late 50's and wants to be baptized, but doesn't want to scare her husband away from the church before he is ready. She has been praying for a long time about baptism and also about the heart of her husband softening. Well, each Monday we read some of the Book of Mormon with her. Yesterday, we were just talking while she was finishing up her lunch, and then out of the blue she asks how we help prepare people for baptism. We also talked about prayer and how sometimes we pray and don't receive direct answers because we need to make decisions too. A bit after telling her, and us being aware that something is up, but not knowing what, she asks, "So when can I start taking lessons?" !!! We were so excited!! We told her we could start immediately if she would like! So next week we will! Well, we continued to read like we normally do, and last week we read 2 Ne 31.

So we started at 2 Ne 32. It was phenomenal! It says: "I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts? Do ye not remember...?"  It talked about prayer and how we know our answers in our hearts! She was in tears and said that the scripture answered her question and she wants to be baptized! That chapter was perfect for Cindy and she is so excited now. It was an amazing moment where the scriptures really do answer our questions.

Well family, I love you all so much and appreciate your prayers and confidence that you have in me. I also have confidence in you and pray for you each day. I know that we will surely be blessed when we keep the commandments given to us in the scriptures. It is truly a blessing that we are part of such a great Plan. I know that as sure as I know that the Prophet is called of God and that the scriptures are written for our days.

I love you all!

♥,  Sister Stephanie Crandall