{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 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

{Week Four}

Dear Family, 

(Please send this to Katelyn, I keep getting her emails back. I have recieved her emails, but mine wont send to her...)

I hardly know where to begin this week's email! It has been such a wonderful week and lots has happened.

I will start by telling you a little about Brother and Sister Nelson. They are the amazing couple we are living with. They served a mission in the geneology department in SLC and loved it! and ever since, they have had missionaries in their home. They have a nice little home in Richland WA. He grew up moving the cows and sheep North of Kemmerer Wyoming (I think Kemmerer... now I can't remember). It is fun to reminisce with him about agriculture and he loves it too!

Sister Garrett and I are in an upstairs bedroom and we all share the kitchen. We usually only eat breakfast and lunch there, because each night there are members signed up to feed us supper.

It is fun to meet the members! Speaking of which, the world is indeed very very small! The first supper I had was with the Hart family. Who happens to be President Hart's (Soda Stake President) son. We had a good laugh out of that. And then a few days later we had dinner with the Jones Family. And guess what... He is the nephew of Allen and Ada Smith! When he asked where I was from, I said Chesterfield Idaho and he started to laugh. After he told me, he knew just where that was and how he knew, we laughed about it for a while. It is such a small world.

The work here has been tough, but worth it. It is taking me a while to remember people's names and their stories, but I am starting to get the territory down. It seems like we are teaching lots of less-active members. Most of them are in part-member families so there are non-members there as well. I hope that the examples of the missionaries and the members will help the less-active members have a desire to return to church. One of the less-active's we visited with was Preston Leavitt. He is from Utah and here away from his family working. His entire family is active but he has been less active for years. We took another member with us and shared a message from Heleman 2:41 (Everlasting happiness). After we read that, he expressed how he could see that happiness in his wife and son and he said he was going to return to the church after 30 years of being inactive. I hope we gave him the nudge he needed to feel that great desire that is so important for each of us to feel on our own.

Last night we also went to share a message with a part-member family. Jody and Rob Lowery. Jody has been a member but fell away a long time ago and Rob seems very interested but is leaving on a work trip for a few weeks. He is actually going to Ukraine, where Sister Garrett is from! We shared Alma 34:32 with them. It is the purpose of why we are here on earth. Rob asked us to re-read it and we talked about what our purpose is while were are here on earth. He is ready to hear the gospel and we are so excited to share it with him!

During last week, it seemed like many people canceled appointments and many people were not there when we went, so we tracted. We have been tracting alot and it has seemed that most everyone is not interested. Until yesterday! A lady invited us into our house, of course the last house on the block, and we started to teach her. She actually grew up going to church with her Grandma and her Grandma had asked if any missionaries had stopped by a few days ago. She was very open to hearing what we had to say and we are going back soon! So that was exciting! I can't wait to share with her the happiness in my life that I have recieved because of the gospel. I think it will help her so much!

Sundays are busy because we have two wards to go too. It is amazing how some of the members look just like people from home. The RS President here looks just like Diane Richardson ;) haha... kinda funny. Sunday night I saw Sarah and Ben Murray! Our stake is putting on the production of Savior of the World and Sarah is one of the co-directors. It is a missionary effort to invite non-members and less-actives to come see it. It is going to be so good! It was fun to see Sarah too :)

Before I forget, Mom, The bag is perfect!!!! I love it and it has the perfect amount of pockets for everything! Very good choice! Thank you for the shoes too ;) I am wearing them today... The cookies were delicious and the card was wonderful! The package was great! I also got all the bedding too... but Sister Nelson is providing that for us... And Dad, thank you so much for the address's :) Much appreciated!

I hope the rest of District's go well for Katelyn! I am so excited for her and have all the confidence in the world that she will do well! :)

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Stephanie Crandall