3-1-10 #2

Hello My Loved Ones!

Wow, I'm going to write this letter first and then look over all the e-mails sent because I want to make sure I can tell you about some neat experiences. First off, this week has been increadable. Its been difficult but WOW...what a week it has been. On Tuesday we had one of the neatest experiences. Our cell phone was breaking so we needed to go back to the mission office on Tuesday. Usually we only go on personal day-Monday but we had gone on Monday and the phone system was down to get it switched. So after study and service on Tuesday morning we went to look up a member who is less-active. We knocked on her door. No answer. Usually we wait longer or try again but instead Hermana Crandell and I just felt like we should go. So we went to get on the bus to the subway. As we walked out of the building the bus was right there! Ahh!!! Hermana Crandell and I are always running for the bus. I said, I don't think we're going to make it this time but right then the light changed so we could cross the street and we just barely caught the bus in time. That day was really muggy and wet. We had a lot of rain so the bus was really packed full of people. When we got on we could there was only room to stand. There was a man sitting down and I saw him read my name tag a couple of times. He had a little room next to him and he invited me to sit down next to him so I did. He then saw Hermana Crandell standing up and stood up and invited her to sit. He was about 28-30ish, hispanic looking. He then stood up and kept reading his book. I knew he spoke spanish because I asked him how he was doing and he siad bien :) He was reading a book titled, "How to become more like God" I thought, "We HAVE to talk to this man but what could I say, Spanish...hmmm...spanish." I turned to Hermana Crandell, "You HAVE to talk to him, he speaks spanish and look at the the book he's reading." She didn't say anything to him. I though, "This is either a test on my part or she's trying to get me to try more, speak more spanish." I couldn't take it. The only thing I knew I could say was, "Do you believe in God?" in spanish. After that the windows of heaven openned. And guess what? He spoke ENGLISH too! Hermana Crandell and I have never met a more prepared person that is ready to hear of the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how it helps you to become more like God. He wanted to know more about it. He asked us eagerly more and more about other topic of the church which he had know idea we believed in. He asked us about topics like eating heathy, abstinance, drugs, our purpose in live, remorse after sin, repentance. Its hard to even discribe, it was increadable. We were able to get his information and the Elders are going to teach him more.

Ok-10 min left. We had a baptism! Hermana Crandell wrote a lot about it and I'm going to forward you what she said too. To say the least-AMAZING. It was unexpected and then expected all at the same time. Claire* Claire* has been investigating the church for more than two years now. Her husband was a less-active and after they had there son they decided they wanted to find a church to go to for there family. Claire* is amazing. I can't express the love I have for her. She is so involved in the church that people were so surprise she was getting baptized because the members already thought she was a member as well. She hadn't been ready in the Book of Mormon like she'd been needing to to receive an answer about being baptised. After teaching her once together Hermana Crandell and I knew that we needed to figure out a way to get her reading more. I had bought a mini-BOM at the MTC for some reason. I didn't know why but I did. We took that little book and marked about 10 sections of verses in it and wrote little questions next to them on tabs. The next time we taught her...it was amazing. Mind you-she has been taught for about 2 1/2 years off and on. I knew boldness was going to be needed. As we met with her we talked to her about the Book of Mormon we had prepared for her. I can not believe the things which came out of my mouth and later that night I though, "did I REALLY say that to her?"

OK-To be continued-I have to log off and log back on

* Names are changed to protect privacy