{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 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

{Week Six}

Dear Family,

I was excited to get all of your emails this week! It is fun reading how everyone is doing :) I remember very well the feeling of not being completely ready for festival when the time had come for the recital! But then the next week I was somehow ready! While I was playing the piano at District Meeting last week, an elder asked me how I learned to play and if I could read music. I smiled and told him lots and lots of practice. And that my mother was persistent that we learn how to play. I miss the piano and violin and play the piano every chance I get!

It has been extremely windy here, just like at home. The rain has started to pick up, but not too bad...

We tracted a lot but stayed warm with gloves, coat, and scarf. It is decieving when I look outside because there is no snow! Just cold wind and rain :) Nothing I can't handle though~ We gave out lots of Mormon.org pass along cards and shared lots, but no one is really interested, YET. We have some follow up appointments that hopefully will go well!

Although our week was slow and difficult, as I am looking back, it had some good times too.

We do have 2 people set with baptism dates! So that is a big plus. One is Iris who is 9 years old, and the other is Austin who is 14 year old. Austin has autism, but he know what we are talking about in the lessons. He has such pure answers and is so sincere and loving. He a great dad and wonderful grandparents that are great examples to him.  Iris is also so sweet. Her step-dad is a member and her mom is an investigator. She has a more difficult time learning, but is also coming right along! It's fun teaching younger people the gospel! They are so honest in their answers.

We did some service for a lady in the ward. It has convinced me that cleanliness is next to godliness :) Mom, thank you for teaching me how to keep a clean house! This sister is confined to a wheelchair as is unable to take care of her home. We cleaned her kitchen and her bedroom. She had a hard time letting us throw away anything though... so we more or less just moved things around. We sorted through hudreds of magazines and her son took them out, probably without her realizing it. It is sad to see how many people can live in a dirty environment. She is a sweet lady with good intentions, but just needs help cleaning things up.

We also visited with one of our bishops (Desert Hills Ward). Bishop Volmer is 6'7", or like he would say 4' 31". He is pretty funny too... he likes to joke around and have fun. Ends up he is a big time hunter. He showed us his elk heads and convinced Sister Garrett that jack-o-lopes are real (he had one of them too). He even said if you, Dad, would let him hunt in Chesterfield, I wouldn't have to talk in church and that he would do it for me :) I laughed and told him it was unlikely and that I didn't mind talking... So I get to talk in 2 weeks.

Last night we had dinner at Bishop Damsteadt's home. (Cottonwood Ward) He asked where I was from and he has been ice fishing on Chesterfield Reservior! haha... he also knows people from Pingree, but not the Carters... We shared the Plan of Salvation with them for their FHE lesson. They have 6 children and 3 adopted children from China... they loved the lesson with all the little cut outs that we used. I am in the process of making some for me to use while teaching :)

I also meet a lady in the ward that know the Creers, that recognized they were somewhere near what I described as Chesterfield :) It is still fun to meet people that can pinpoint where I am from.

The highlight of our week was that 4 investigators were at church on Sunday! We were so excited to see them! We taught in Primary about the Priesthood too. So that was fun!

The other highlight has been my studying. Dad, I loved the Atonement Scripture Chain. I read and studied it Wednesday morning and then shared it for some of our dinner thoughts this week! I have also started reading the Book of Mormon over again and marking each time the Lord speaks. It is amazing to apply the scriptures to our lives and see how similar we really are to the people from the scriptures. The only real difference is technology... When we have faith, the same experiences can happen, and when we are wicked, the same distructions can happen. More or less so, but we are so similar.

The work in WA is progressing and we are keeping our heads up each time the door is closed because they are "not interested" in the message we have yet to share with them. This week is looking up though! And I am excited to continue in the work!

I love you all and wish you the best week! Best wishes with Festival, work, school, play, and with everything!

Love,

Sister Stephanie Crandall