Crazy Week!

It has been a week of crazy!

Unfortunately in the work it has turned down a little. We had so many people ready for baptism, but they all have fallen off the face of the Earth, or have become less interested in baptism. Keesha has dropped us, and we cannot contact her. Rosalia is so busy with her job at LAX that we can't keep in contact with her. Ashley is not so keen on baptism at the moment, BUT she loves coming to church. So we will keep working on that. Bonnie is doing great. She is so cute. And her mom, Peggie, has decided, although so doesn't want baptism for the time being, she wants to keep coming to church. So hopefully we will be able to get Ashley and Peggie to gain a testimony through church attendance.

Besides that, we have been working really hard this week. Without these investigators, we need to find some more people to teach! So we have been searching left and right. In the ASL program, it is not efficient at all to just tract. You don't find many deaf people going door to door. However, we have a few maps with people's names all over it. We don't have their addresses, but we have a general area. So we decided to find that area, and tract it. We had such a miracle day on Tuesday when we did this. There was not one person we tried that we did not have success with. Whether we contacted the person themselves or the neighbors, we found so many new potential investigators. I am so excited to contact them.

I don't have too much else to say... My trainee is doing awesome! Love her so much! :)

Have a great week! :)

Sister Smyly Crawford

War Zones, Rest Homes, and Dedications

I seriously cannot get over how awesome my trainee is. She is so adorable and fun. We had a project this week in which we had to cross reference three area maps (keep in mind we cover two and a half missions in the north area) so we had to figure out several investigators/members/less actives. The entire time Clarke would get very excited and be like, "We can contact that person! And this person! And them! And her! Oh! And them too!" We area going to be working our tails off, and that is going to be good :)

Happy 4th of July!!!! I wish I could have been at the farm celebrating, but even more, I bet you all wish you were here celebrating with us. We went over to the Shields' home (Sister Shields is our hearing Relief Society president). Wow. Talk about a party. Their ENTIRE neighborhood celebrated. Each house had a party going on and fireworks going and BBQs and sound systems and family and friends from everywhere. All the parties added up to one huge parties as people roamed from one party to another. This is a yearly thing!!! And I think the most interesting part was as we were walking back to our car (which was several blocks away due to NO parking), there would be fireworks going off around us on the left, right, forward, back, and above. It was like walking through a war zone. It was so pretty! :) Also, a huge tree caught on fire down the street from us and it was completely burned to the ground in under five minutes. Gotta love the California drought!

Bragging time again: Like I said, we have not had a single lesson go wrong or even fine since Clarke got here. She just brings this aura of success! We had so many awesome lessons this week with different people. One of my favorites was with Monica. If you remember, Monica is a recent convert. She is so awesome. She and her sister, Annette, who is also a recent convert, moved up to Pomona this week to their own apartment. She requested that we and the elders come up and dedicate their apartment. We went up there and dedicated it and were able to have a really good lesson with them. I had never been a part of a dedication besides a couple of temple dedications, so it was really cool to do that. It really helps me understand more how the priesthood is an integral part of our lives.

We also had a sweet experience with an older member of our branch. She was very active until she became too old to leave her bed. It had seemed everyone lost where she was because she had moved to a resting home. We were able to find her address last Sunday and went to visit her on the 4th. She cannot communicate very well, as she is limited in her movement. However, our encounter with her was so amazing. She seemed to light up as we promised to go back to visit with Sister Thexton. I had gotten on my knees next to her bed to help her with her blanket and as I touched her hand, she flexed in a way of trying to communicate. I put my hand in hers and with whatever strength she had, she squeezed my hand. That was when I almost started crying. As we were leaving we signed and said to her "We love you!!" She hadn't been able to even lift her hands enough before then to move her blanket, but in that moment, she lifted her arms and signed "I love you" back with both hands. We are going back to visit her every week now. She deserves it.

I hope you all had as good of or better week than I did! You all deserve it too!

Sister Crawford

My Trainee has been Born!

Hello hello hello! GUESS WHAT. My baby is here! She is so cute!!! She arrived yesterday morning! I am so excited to have this opportunity to train here. I can already tell she is going to be amazing and be the change this branch needs.  (Mom here: She has a new Trainee, Sister Clarke....that's what she is talking about.  Silly girl)

  Sister Clarke with the Mission President and Wife.

I want to take a moment and brag on my investigators.

Ashley. What a girl. We met up with her last week, and instead of chatting for a half hour, she said, "How are you two?.... Good, ok. I have some questions about what you believe in." Hahaha! Yes! She just wanted to know about the gospel! A few months ago, she didn't want to talk about Christ at all! So we explained to her that we have five lessons we teach people and asked her if she wanted to take these lessons. She readily agreed. We asked if she wanted to start then, and she replied, "Yeah!" So we taught her the lesson about the Restoration. She had no concerns, no questions. When we brought up the Book of Mormon, she said, "Oh yeah! I have that. I'll start reading it." So she committed herself to reading the Book of Mormon. And then she committed herself to pray about it. When we were walki back to her house, she turns to us and said, "I want to be baptized. And I want to be baptized in your church. I need to think about it more, but I am pretty sure. It feels right."

She texted us this week and said,

"Hey!!! I want to come to church this Sunday! Please?"

Us, "Of course! How is everything going?.... Have you been reading the Book of Mormon?"

Ashley, "Well, that's why I want to go to church, so I can get another one!"

We accept.  And then she came to church on Sunday and was so interested in the lessons. She is still deciding to be baptized, but she feels it is right. Yay! So we will keep teaching her. I love watching the spirit work on her. You can just see the brain working and her figuring out how it all fits together and the truth of it all. It is amazing to watch. It really builds my testimony that we as missionaries are only the deliverers of the truth. The spirit is the teacher of the truth.

And now I will brag on Keesha. Oh my goodness. Our lesson with her last week was one of the best lessons I have ever been involved in, only to be topped by this week's lesson with her. She, like Ashley, is so much fun to watch as the spirit works. She is very much like me in that she depends on what makes sense and what is logical, rather on her feelings. So as we taught her the first lesson (the Restoration), she completely understood everything. It was awesome because she is so educated. This way, we are able to explain things more to her. We went into the background of what was happening in Jerusalem at the time of Lehi and everything! I promise, it really was helpful. At the end of the lesson, we asked if she would pray about the things we taught her, and when she agreed and we promised her the Holy Ghost would answer her prayers. She then got a sad look on her face and said, "But I can't have the Holy Ghost because I haven't yet been baptized..." She had learned at church that week about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism, so she didn't think the Holy Ghost could answer her because she hadn't yet received the gift of the Holy Ghost. So we had to teach her the difference of feeling the Holy Ghost and having the gift of the Holy Ghost. She is so educated! So awesome! And in the closing prayer, she went ahead and asked about the truth of the things we taught her. She is so awesome! And I thought that was going to be the best lesson ever.

The second lesson we had with Keesha was even better. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation. This time around, Keesha was a little different. She was a lot more reverent (she is always reverent, but she had more of a peace around her). We taught the entire lesson through with no questions from her, and when we got to the end we asked, "Keesha, we keep asking if you have any questions, but you say you don't. Are you sure?" She responded by saying, "You know, I should have questions, but I don't." She was very quiet and seemed to be pondering something very deeply in her mind. We looked at her and asked, "How are you feeling right now?" She looked up at us, and I have never, never seen someone with more of a glow about them. She smiled from ear to ear and said, "I just feel so good. I feel happy. I have never felt his way before. You should have seen me before; I would be sad, depressed, etc. But now, I am happy. If I don't go to church, if I don't pray, if I don't read the scriptures, I have a bad day, I don't feel good, and I am sad. I just really love my Heavenly Father." Her closing prayer was almost completely a prayer of gratitude. She absolutely glowed with the spirit and the majority of her prayer was telling her Heavenly Father how much she loved Him.

I love teaching people who have such a personal desire to know the will of God, to know the truth. It is so different from most of my time in the first six months of my mission where most of what I did was maintenance work, trying to keep less actives going on the basics (church, prayer, and scriptures) but having them be stubborn and needy. Now, as long as I have faith, I know that the Lord will put people who have been prepared in my path, that I may be an effective tool in His hands.

I love being a missionary. I love being a servant of the Lord. I love being a part of His work and being the means by which others can come to know Him. I am truly humbled by this opportunity, and it brings me to my knees everyday in gratitude for the Lord trusting me enough with His beloved children.

I love you all!

Sister Crawford _\,,/

New Mission Secretary

Dear everyone,

I guess it doesn't matter where I am, because I still end up becoming
a secretary no matter what. I am not complaining though!  This past
Thursday I got to be Mission Secretary for a day. Our lovely Sister
Jameson was out of town taking care of her mother, so Sister Taggart
asked me and Sister Munson to fill in for her. Needless to say, I
thoroughly enjoyed myself. If you had called the mission office on
Thursday, you would have heard, "California Anaheim Mission, this is
Sister Crawford!" I just love being a secretary. 

And even better than that, we had our branch baptisms on Saturday! I
got to say, watching my deafies dress up in white and walk into the
font is one of the sweetest experiences I could possibly experience.
They are so trusting, so loving, so willing to serve the Lord. Some of
them do not fully understand what the entire purpose for baptisms for
the dead is, but they do know that the Lord has required it of them,
and because they love Him, they obey with a happy heart.

This branch teaches me so much about humility. Humility is not just
being submissive. It is having full confidence and trust in Heavenly
Father and His plan. Preach My Gospel describes humility to be a
"willingness to submit to the will of the Lord and to give the Lord
the honor for what is accomplished... You are confident that you can
do whatever the Lord requires of you if you rely on Him." Putting this
perspective of humility in mind, my favorite scripture on humility is
2 Nephi 4:34-35. I know that without my Heavenly Father and my Savior,
Jesus Christ, I would be nothing. It is because of them I have the
strength to keep working and serving everyday. It is because of the
opportunities they give me to learn and grow that I can change into
the person they want me to be.

Have a great week, cause I know I will! Hurray for deafies! 

Sister Crawford

Announcement! Announcement! Annoucement!

Announcement, announcement! Rosalia, Keesha, and Ashley all came to church yesterday! Whodathunk? I am still in shock. See what happened was...

Rosalia has been promising for weeks now to come to church, but since she has started her new job at LAX, she has been working her tail off, and Sundays are her only days off. However, she understands the importance in coming to church. So when we VPd her on Saturday, we made her swear to come to church. She wasn't getting out of it this time. On Sunday, Sister Munson and I were on the edges of our seats. Sacrament meeting started and finished, and the whole time we were looking around behind us at the congregation and couldn't find Rosalia. Gospel Principles class started, and while I was in the middle of teaching, I hear my name and turn around to see a missionary ushering Rosalia in the room! YAY! She had gotten lost, as she lives about 45 minutes away and the drive to the church building from her place is pretty confusing. And of course the first class she experiences at church would be on the subject of baptism... Ha! I was able to teach her after RS, and she showed me her Book of Mormon and all the reading she has been doing. I was able to explain to her some of her questions and committed her to pray about the truth of it, even though she told me already that it was true. She also promised to come back to church next week.

Keesha is the young lady we had met at the Deaf Expo who was golden. She is friends with Annette. We have been trying and trying to contact her for six weeks now, but every time we get to her house, she's not there. So while we were sitting in the chapel, thirty seconds after it starts, in walks Annette and Keesha! What?! Sister Munson and I could only look at each other in shock. Apparently she was going to surprise us by coming to church. She told us that God had told her to come to our church this week. In all the lessons she attended, she was very attentive and agreeable. She seemed to have really connected with the doctrine, especially the lesson about baptism in Gospel Principles.

Ashley is a young lady the same age as I am. She has been taught on and off by the missionaries for a while now, but she has never shown interest in the church. Since I have arrived in the area, she has taken a real interest in becoming mine and Sister Munson's friend. She never really talked about religion, yet she always wanted to keep meeting with us. Last week we were chatting with her, and the subject of the Law of Chastity came up, as she is a big advocate of it. So our first real lesson with her was about the Law of Chastity... I find that kind of funny... Anywho, she listened to our testimonies, asked questions, and agreed. The elders were contacting a referral from her a few doors down, so I called them over to testify as well. She was dumbfounded that there were men who believe in stuff like that! She had never met a guy who would treat women as respectfully as they do. So she randomly turns to us and says, "I want to come to church next week." What?! OK!!! She has never show interest in coming to church!! So we met with her again this week to answer any questions she had about coming, and after assuring her that she wouldn't make any mistakes and she would have friends there, and after she stunned us with deciding to dress modestly, and after she told us that she was still coming even though her great grandmother yelled at her, she decided nothing would deter her. On Sunday our new hearing couple, the Millers, went to pick her up and brought her to church. Thankfully, she knew an investigator who was there (who is getting baptized in a couple weeks who is also the best non-member member present you will ever have). She said she enjoyed it and that she wants to come back next week!

So that sums up the biggest miracle the North Sisters Area has had in a very, very, long time. We are still a little bit shocked, but it is awesome. I am excited.

I hope you all have a great week. Remember to trust the Lord, because He really does have a plan for each of you, and as long as you are humble enough to do as He says, life will work out for the best.

Love you!

Sister Smyly Crawford

Initiative in faith

What a week. Where do I start?

Oh! I have been called as a trainer! We have two new ASL sisters coming into the program on June 30th, and I will be training one of them. Their names are Sister Richardson and Sister Clarke. And here's the tricky part: They are both redheads!!! Yeah, I am still processing that.

On Monday, our lovely Boss family (Peggie, and her daughter Bonnie who is autistic, and Tim who is Bonnie's husband) decided to take the four of us north missionaries out to dinner. At Outback. Wow! So that was fun! We love asking Peggie about her late husband, Mort, because she gets the biggest smile on her face. It is so sweet how much those two loved each other.

Tuesday we taught Adela. She is a blue box signer who has been taught for several years now. We were getting a little tired of her refusing to read the Book of Mormon, so in our lesson we basically told her, "Adela, you are now assigned to read Chapter 1 of the Book of Mormon. We will come in Tuesday next week at 2pm. If you say you have read the chapter, we will come visit you again. If you say you have not read the chapter, we are not coming back again." So we will see what happens tomorrow! She is such a sweet woman, who NEEDS the light of the gospel in her life, but she refuses to do the work for it.

I would like to compare Adela's example to the example of Rosalia's. Rosalia has been reading the Book of Mormon of her own accord every single day. She has been praying about it on her own without us ever having started encouraging her. If she doesn't understand the word she is reading, she compares the scripture to the ASL Book of Mormon. If she still does not understand, she highlights the word and asks us the next time she sees us to explain. She understands the importance of bearing testimony and gaining knowledge. When we taught her Word of Wisdom, she recognized the importance and decided right then and there to follow that commandment.

The difference between Adela and Rosalia is their initiative. They both understand the importance of the Book of Mormon, but only one takes the initiative to act. Nothing in the gospel happens unless we act. Preach My Gospel says, "Faith in Christ leads to action... Having faith causes us to try as hard as we can to learn about and become more like our Savior. We want to learn what His commandments are and then obey them." James 2:26 says, "...faith without works is dead." If we don't act on the commandments of God, we do not have faith. But as we act on the commandments given to us, "He blesses us. He gives us the power to meet life's challenges. He helps us change the desires of our hearts. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, He can heal us, both physically and spiritually." Who does not want to be healed both physically and spiritually? I have a testimony that as we obey the commandments, we allow Christ to heal us. I have a personal witness of the peace and joy we can feel as we allow the atonement to take part in our lives and heal us.

Sister Crawford

The Missionary Calling Card

We contacted an awesome potential this week! Her name is Rosalia and she is so cool. When she met the other sisters at the deaf expo (through an invitation from a member friend), and they asked for her information, she flat out handed them her drivers license to get her information. If that doesn't start to describe how exited she is to learn, I don't know what does. We went up to contact her on Tuesday. She pulled up to her house right as we were and she excitedly waved as we got out of the car. She brought us through the gate to her backyard and we sat down. We came to learn that she knows Mexican sign language and English sign language, both very well. She taught us some of MSL. It was awesome. And then when we started talking about the church, she asked how long her member friend had been a member. We responded 5-6 years and she was so surprised! She was shocked and said her friend needs to share her testimony more! Ha! She asked if we had a Book of Mormon with us. We asked if she preferred English, ASL, or picture book. She said all! So we handed her the huge stack of book and she smiled and said she would start with the English and memorize it so she can help interpret it to MSL. And then she proceeded to commit herself to go to church. It was honestly the easiest thing I have ever had to do. She did all the committing herself. So that was fun.

Sister Munson and I went up to Covina to contact Keesha from the deaf expo, but she wasn't there. So we decided to contact someone close by. As we walked up to the house, we found that there was a gate at the entryway to go to the door, but it was locked. Then, we looked down and saw one of our ASL cards sitting wet in the plant. WHAT. WHY was that there?? It reminded us of Batman and the Joker's calling card haha. So we called the elders and turns out they had contacted that house the day before but no deaf people lived there.  That was our freaky moment of the week.

I love the members of the branch here. They teach me so much about love and charity. I love watching them all interact. Yesterday at church, I saw so many people from such different walks of life chatting away with each other. It didn't matter what language level, what income level, where they lived, what education level, family life, nothing. They all served ad loved each other. It brought me to tears so many times.This is why I love the branch so much., They are so full of love and kindness and patience... In fact, each of them encompass at least one Christ-like attribute. They teach me so much about love and long-suffering and endurance. I love them so much.

Love,

Sister Crawford