{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 Eight}

Dear Family,

Sounds like quite the weather you have been having this week at home. With all that mud and muck and snow... It shows that although winter is long, spring is coming!

It keeps raining here in Richland and so we are getting into Spring. It will start out all sunny outside and then after lunch get stormy. But it makes tracting not so hot, so I am grateful. I guess it gets up to about 100 in the summer... so I am for sure grateful for the nice 'cool' weather right now.

This week has been good though. Some days seem long and like we have no appointments, but really, after I look back, I can see how blessed I really am.

Last Tuesday night we decided to try getting a hold of a lady that we have tried before and it just never was a good time for us to come in. But last Tuesday, we went to her door and she let us right in.

It was amazing! Amy Martin had been having a rough week, well, a rough month and year. She has been out of work for a month, no money because of a past devorce, and her boyfriend just left her (that part was good though, she may not know or realize that yet, but it was good), and she has been praying for someone to come and help her.

She was watching TV one night and saw a commercial about some church, she wasn't sure which, but it said something about starting to go to church. She broke down that night and just prayed for help, and then waited. So when we came, she was practically in tears and grateful to have someone there.

She was going to make it to church, but was unable to because her car wasn't working and she hadn't slept all night. We were sad because she didn't come, but she said she will come next week. We get to explain what General Conference is, and I am hoping she will come with us to the Stake Center to watch it! I think she will :) We have been hepling her find work as well, and she has been able to apply at more places now too!  She is very interested about learning more and we are teaching her more tonight! I am so excited!!

So another exciting event is that Austin Edler was baptised on Saturday! The entire ward, well just about, came to support him. We should have moved it to the Chapel, but we squeezed into the RS room. He was completely excited to be getting baptized and can't wait to be able to pass the sacrament! Sad thing is that we have General Conference, then Stake Conference. So he has to wait a few weeks. But it will come soon for him :) It was precious to watch him be baptized because he (I think I told you he has autism and is 14 in a past email) had to ask his mom to be able to do it. His parents are divorced but have joint custody and he lives with his dad. His mom asked him why he wanted to do it, and so purely he said he wanted to have the Holy Ghost with him and he wanted to pass the sacrament. He is a sweet boy that truly is Christ-like.

So for us, this past Sunday was Fast Sunday and I was thinking about geting up and bearing my testimony, but we didn't have enough time. And I didn't want to take up the member's time either because so many people were getting up too. But then I thought about how lucky I am that I get to bear my testimony every single day to multiple people! It is so fun to share the knowledge I have and I continue to learn more each and every day!

I have set a goal to re-memorize the Articles of Faith, the Proclamation to the Family, and to continue my progress in memorizing D&C 121:34-46. I am getting better at remembering, but it takes lots of repitition and practice. I know that as I accomplish this goal, that I will be blessed with the knowledge. 

I am so excited to get to watch Conference this weekend! We will most likely watch the morning sessions at our home and then go to the Stake Center for the Afternoon sessions. I have just started reading the April Ensign and it is geting me excited about the real meaning of the Easter Season. It truly should be focused on the Resurrection of Christ and the Atonement that we have been given. 

The gospel is amazing and I am enjoying my time as a missionary :) This morning we helped some RS sisters tie some quilts for the humanitarian project and one of them, Patty Squire- not a member, but our investigator, asked if it was a difficult transition to be without a computer, my phone, internet access, tv, pretty much without any technology or "fun stuff" and all I could do was smile and tell her it was a relief! I really don't miss all the extra stuff and I am much too busy to focus on any of it. 

I am loving studying out of the Ensign, my scriptures, Jesus The Christ, Our Heritage, and all the other missionary library books. It is so fun to learn more on my own and also from others around me! 

I love you all and challenge you to listen to Conference this weekend with open hearts and open minds, taking in the wonderful inspired messsages!

Love,

Sister Stephanie Crandall

{Week Five}

Dear Family,

It has been such a busy week! At some times it was very slow as it seemed like everyone was canceling appointments or no one was home. We kept going though. We did tract into some very potential investigators and hopefully something will come of our tracting efforts. Sister Garrett and I have a fun time tracting. That way, we keep from getting discouraged :)

We have a new investigator! Wayne. Wayne is very knowledgable about many many religions. We asked if he had ever read the Book of Mormon or if he knew what it was. Although he said he hadn't ever read the whole book, he discribed it well, knowing all the people's names and the stories, all through 3 Nephi. I am thinking he has read it before. But we are excited to teach him. We are also excited that he knows some members in our ward and they are going to invite him to be taught in their home! That makes missionary work so much better! Every member really is a missionary!

We also taugh a lady, Patty Squire. Please imagine Grandma Crandall driving a red Mustang. Well, that is Patty. She is so sweet and we are going to ask her to be baptized when we meet with her this week! When I asked if she had read the Book of Mormon, She said that she loved the cross-refrences and that the Book of Mormon was another translation of the bible... well, Sister Garrett and I explained that it was not another translation, but another testament of Jesus Christ. Her member friend, we meet in the member's home, helped explain more about the Book of Mormon, and Patty is excited to read it now from the beginning instead of just picking interesting verses and comparing them with the Bible. I am so excited for her!

Some more about Sister Garrett! She is absolutely amazing! As I already told, she is from the Ukraine and was addopted into a faimly in Murray Utah! I knew her Utah faimly was musical, but I didn't know that they had made CDs. Which we have one of them at home! Look up the "Songs of the Savior" by James and Morgan Garrett. It is absolutely one of my favorites! They have 3 cds out she gave me the first 2. I don't think the 3rd  is out yet... Some more about her: she become converted when she was 15 and has an amazing testimony! She is so pleasant to work with and loves to sew too :) Her little sister was adopted when she was 8, and when the family found out she had a 15 year old sister, they adopted her too. So all together, I think it is 8 brothers and 5 sisters. That's biological and adopted. She is great and I love her! She goes home July 26th...

On Thursday we had interviews with President and Sister Greer. Wonderful! President and I talked about baptism and helping little children learn the gospel. It really helped because we are teaching a few 9 year olds and their attention span is about 2 seconds long... So I know what you mean Dad :) It is getting better though! And Sister Greer shared a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 50:24 (I think). It is about spiritual evolution. Our light and knowledge gets greater and greater when we keep the commandments and follow Jesus Christ's example. This is so true! I loved it!

Later that night, we had dinner with a young couple that are expecting their second. He is from IF and she is from Hansen ID. So she knew right were Bancroft was :) They both just graduated from BYU and we had a fun conversation with them :)

I also met my friend's (Michelle Ostler) uncle! He spoke at church on Sunday and the missionaries often go to their home for p-day. I have yet to go...

Yesterday morning I finished reading the General Conference Ensign! I was so excited! I especially loved Elder Mervyn B Arnold's "What have I Done with My Name?" Talk. I always love the talks about names. Partially because I am so greatful for my own name and the legacy that I get to live up to because of previous people that have gone before me to make my names so wonderful to have! Both Mom and Dad's faimlies included!

However, the most important name I have taken upon myself is the name of Jesus Christ when I was baptized. I know that as I take upon myself the name of Christ, always remember him, and keep his commandments, I will recieve the blessing of having His spirit with me always. In D&C 84:88 it states "For I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left hand, and my spirit shall be in your heart." The Lord really is there for us when we choose the right. I can testify that is true!

I love you all so much and think of you often!

I hope your week goes well and that you will continue to love the people that are around you. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Stephanie Crandall

P.S. Reed, I forgot to let you know that we recieved the "Lock your heart" talk the first night in the mission home. Loved re-reading it!

{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