I LOVE Finding the Elect! - June 10

In Sister Cross' own words:

Helllllllooooo Everyone!

Boy! What a week! I feel like the weeks are flying by faster and faster and they're busier and busier. But then I come to email and I have no idea what to say! Haha. I can't believe we're halfway through this transfer already! I wouldn't be surprised if I leave the Don Mills East area at the end of this transfer. Maybe all of you can pray that I don't! lol. I'm not ready to be among all white people just yet.

I might have told you about C. (the Irish one from England) last week. He was a media referral who's learned about the gospel before. He is awesome! He's progressing right along. He went to Institute on Friday night and we taught him before. He told us he wants to know about some little things to make sure he understands what he's getting himself into, but he's pretty solid. The YSA did a great job of just accepting him. The YSA here is fantastic! He should be getting baptized soon. Last night he told us that he feels like Sister Fisher and I are part of God's plan for him. I LOVE being a missionary!

As far as crazy stories, they're becoming more and more normal, so I'm not really sure what to say. Sister Fisher waved at an Old Chinese man from across the street. He said, "Hi! How are you?" So we started to cross the street to talk to him. He immediately pointed his umbrella at us defensively and said, "No! No! No! No English!" hahaha! We gave him an ESL card and left. That same day we went to the Ward Mission Leader's house for Ward Coordination. When we got there, his dad answered and said, "You probably think you have a meeting here tonight, don't you?" It had been moved to the church. So we spent the next HOUR traveling on TTC (Buses and Subways) to get to the church. It was raining and we were a little wet. But it was good. We had a fun time.

I'm pretty sure that's about it. Oh! I heard from Grandpa Jacobson this week. Going to write him back, so that was good. Love you all! I hope all is well. I'm praying for you.

Remember: Exact Obedience!

Love you ALL!
Sister Cross

40-day Purification Challenge - June 3

In Sister Cross' own words:

Hello everyone!

This is going to be kind of short today, sorry. This week has been really good. Sister Fisher and I are learning more about each other and our strengths. These next few weeks are going to be solid!

We're teaching a new guy named C. who's really exciting. Hopefully he'll be baptized this month. And we're really trying to get more students to come to ESL. And so far it's working pretty well. So we'll see how that goes.

Our district is working on this 40-day Purification Challenge. I really think we'll see miracles come from it. I'm excited to turn more of myself over to the Lord during this sacred time I have to be a missionary. I can't waste my time worrying about what I can't control and instead pray harder for the things I CAN control. This'll be great.

I feel like I need to share something with all of you, something that I've learned over the last few months. The Lord doesn't give us goals to hit and we're done. We work toward baptism. Then we work toward the temple, then a mission or marriage, but then what? I know that the Lord has a plan and a "next step" for each of us. We just need to figure out what that is. And it all comes through what we like to call the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. Faith that Jesus Christ really can and WILL help you, Repentance.. and not just for the "big sins" but for the little things you can do better, Baptism (or the Sacrament), learning to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and allowing it to govern your life, and Enduring to the End or continuing that process. This is by far my favorite thing to teach people I meet. We are ALL at some point in this process. We just need to find where we are and move on from there.

Keep your prayers coming! I love hearing from each of you!

All my love,
Sister Cross

Short Week! - May 27

In Sister Cross' own words:

Hey everyone!

It's been kind of a slow and short week. There's actually not a whole lot to report on for now. Sister Fisher and I are getting along great! We've set some pretty exciting goals and we're ready to start working hard for them. We've heard a lot from G. this week. He's kind of struggling having a desire to stay at bootcamp, but he wants to do what the Lord wants. So that's a good sign.

We had a chance to see N. and S. yesterday. S. is really into basketball, so we showed them a Mormon Message about Tyler Hawes, a BYU basketball player. N really liked to see Tyler's mom showing her love for her son and letting him serve a mission. S. just liked to watch Tyler play ball. :) It was a good lesson, though, and Sister Fisher fell in love with them. Not a surprise. Sister Messer and I fell in love with them too. Their great!

We met with L., an older man from Jamaca. I don't know if I've talked about him much. He's great! We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. He didn't come to church because he wasn't feeling well, but we'll get him there.

Other than that, not a whole lot of news for you all. Oh, one of the members brought Reece's from the states, so I've been enjoying them! :) They're not as good out here. And they call them Reece.... weird.

I'll make sure to send pictures next week. I'd love to keep hearing from you all. Love you! Keep the prayers coming and remember... EXACT obedience!

Love,
Sister Jessica Cross

From Trained to Training - May 22

In Sister Cross' own words:

Hey Family and Friends!

This week has been CRAZY! Sister Messer went home yesterday. Well, she's flying on an airplane right now, actually. But she left Don Mills yesterday. And I'm staying here! I would be surprised if I stay longer than 6 more weeks, but we'll see. My new companion's name is Sister Fisher. She's from Fiji and she's only been out 6 weeks, so I'm what we call her "Step-Mom". I get to finish training her. Of course, I'm nervous about it. But I'm pretty excited too. I know that the Lord puts us where he needs us.

Last night, the Zone Leaders called and asked us to be in charge of the Don Mills ESL program. We've already been teaching it, but he wants us to do all of the trainings and stuff as well. Sister Fisher came from an area that didn't have ESL, so I'm basically doing it on my own for now. Like yesterday, I taught all on my own. But it went really well, I think. I'm just spending a lot of time on my knees right now. Maybe that's why. I need to be humble.

It's funny, before I got out, I had 3 major fears: Trying to understand accents of people we're teaching, public transportation, and having a companion from another country. I had to face the first two last transfer. I guess Heavenly Father is helping me face the 3rd one now. I need to be humbled, so it's good. Sister Fisher says she loves just having fun, so it should be a good transfer.

Coolest moment from last week was on Sunday. We have this less-active named Sister L.  She's started coming back to church and she loves it! We were walking her to the bus stop and she asked if people liked her being there. We told her of course! Which, is true. They do like her because she makes comments in class! Anyway, then she thanked us for bringing her back to church. Bringing someone back is just as good as a baptism! We're fulfilling our purpose and blessing people's lives with the gospel.

I don't really know what else to talk about this week. I'm pretty tired. P-Day should be on Monday next week, so I'll talk to ya'll soon. Love you!

Sister Cross

Happy Mother's Day!!! - May 13

Hey everyone!

This week wasn't super full. G. has been doing GREAT! He went to Bootcamp on Saturday, so we were a little nervous and SUPER sad about it. We got to teach him one last time and talked about setting goals and working hard. We showed him the Mormon Message about President Monson at Navy Bootcamp. It talks about standing alone. He really liked it. Saturday night, he texted us and said he found a really cool scripture he liked in 1 Nephi. It talked about Coventants we make with God and how we have to repent or perish. He said he thought it was really cool. He's almost finished with 1 Nephi! He's soo great! Sunday he didn't make it to church because of how everything played out those first two days there. But he said he found out there is an LDS service there, so he will go to that next Sunday. We're praying for him, that's for sure! He's awesome!

We did get a new investigator, A., from Rwanda. She was actually a former and we're trying to help her know that God loves her. She's so sweet and has an adorable 5-year-old son with special needs. Hopefully we can change her life. Or at least lay the foundation for other Sisters to help her if I get transfered. The other A., from China, is doing well. We're trying to help her overcome her fear of going to church.

Next week P-day has been change to Wednesday because of Victoria Day on Monday and Transfer Day on Tuesday. This week it will be fine to send letters and stuff here. But next week, if you could either hold out until you know for sure where I'm going or if you want to send it to the mission home, that's fine too. I won't know if I'm staying or going until Sunday. So we'll see how that goes. Sorry it's a little confusing.

I don't really have much else for you. It was GREAT to Skype with my family yesterday. It's weird that I'll only do that 2 more times on my mission... I guess it really will go by fast!

I love and miss you all! Happy Mother's Day to you women out there. Love you!

Sister Cross

Look at my New Prison Suit - May 6

In Sister Cross' own words:

Family and Friends,

I don't know where to begin or what to include. This week has been CRAZY! A lot of cool things have happened, but I think I'm going to focus my email on just this one story. It took up most of my life this week anyway.

So... Last week I told you about a guy who came to church, G.  He just showed up after coming to Institute/YSA activities for a while. Later we learned he'd even given his number to missionaries multiple times AND the Institute Teacher had sent his information to the Referral System. But no missionaries contacted him. So he came to church. We taught him that Sunday and set him with a date to be baptized on May 12.

Wednesday, we met him at this bench by a police station in our area. It's been super nice out, so it was great to teach him outside. We had planned to teach him the Plan of Salvation. We talked with him a little and he had some questions about some of the commandments. And then he said, "Oh... and sorry, but I can't get baptized on the 12." No!!! I was sooo upset! Then he said, "I'm leaving on the 10th! But I still want to be baptized." I just kind of stared at Sister Messer and I wasn't really sure what to say. We told him we would have to get permission, but he might be able to be baptized on the 9th. We sat down and planned out what we would teach him and when up through Friday (so 2 days later) because he wanted to meet with us every day. For some reason, we decided to stop there and plan it out from there when we met on Friday.

During the lesson, he brought up the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He'd heard about both of them in Institute. We went over the baptismal interview questions, which wasn't normal because this was only our SECOND time meeting him. It all made sense to him, though. At first he had a couple reservations, like not drinking coffee, but when we helped him understand that this wasn't coming from us, but from the Lord, he readily accepted it.

We also found out that he doesn't live in our area. So that made things really complicated. Since he was leaving so soon and wouldn't be moving right back there, we figured it would be okay to keep teaching him. Elder Rowley, our district leader, said he'd talk to the Zone Leaders, who would probably talk to the Assistants, who would probably talk to President Scott and get permission for this all to happen.

Thursday, he brought a friend with him. He kept telling us she needs the gospel and she kept saying, "Whatever!" Then she told us she was already a member! She's in the Oshawa YSA. Haha. It sounds like she's the one who invited him out to the activities and what not. But we're not sure. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the last main lesson, and basically every other commandment except the main 10 and a few little things. We invited him to fast on Sunday and everything and he agreed.

Friday, we decided that we would pause and talk to him more about spiritual conversion and make sure he was actually gaining a testimony. Unfortunately, he had a little mix up with his roommate and couldn't make it out to our lesson. He said he would go to institute, though. We just couldn't believe how fast this process was going. In weekly planning on Thursday, we were planning for his BAPTISM! We had just met him! We still had a week, though, so we were trying to plan out what and when we were going to teach him.

Friday night, at 10:15, we were writing in our journals and watching some Mormon Messages. It was about time for bed, but we were expecting the call to tell us if he can get baptized next week. Our District Leader called us and said, "So.. I have some really exciting news! I just got off the phone with the Zone Leaders. President Scott wants you to baptize G. tomorrow and confirm him on Sunday." Literally, we just sat there and didn't say anything! He asked us if G. would be okay with that and we said we'd try to call him. He wouldn't answer! That stinker! He was at institute and they were having all kinds of activities because it was their "spring bash". We told Elder Rowley we'd call him back on Saturday and let him know what's happening.

We tried calling him all morning with no answer. We taught ESL and we were freaking out the whole time! After ESL, he finally picked up! I told him that they wanted him to be baptized that day! He said, "Okay, yeah. I guess that's a possibility." We were supposed to meet him at 2:30, so we asked if he wanted to talk about it then or if he wanted to get baptized then. He said he wanted to talk about it first, so we met him at the church.

We showed him the font and talked about the last few commandments we needed to cover. He invited his friend to come at 5:45 that night so he could be baptized! We called Brother Gonzalez, our Ward Mission Leader, who agreed to come and baptize him.

Around 5:40, Elder Rowley realized that they need Bishop's permission to let Brother Go preside. We had been trying to get ahold of him all day! It took about half and hour and a million phone calls to the Zone Leaders and Assistants before we finally got permission from the Stake President to baptize him.

When he first put on his jumper and came into the Primary Room, he said, "Look at my new prison suit!" Haha. He's funny like that. He took out his eye brow piercing too! Man, he's great! I played the piano, poorly and one handed, for the baptism and we didn't have any talks. He was just baptized. After, Elder Rowley asked him to bare his testimony. He said he was grateful that he was baptized a "Mormon" now. He said some other things. All I remember was that he took the Lord's name in vain during it... Oh dear. Bad habits. But we're working on his language.

The next day he was supposed to get confirmed. Time was ticking and he still wasn't at the church. 10 minutes before Sacrament was supposed to start, he FINALLY picked up his phone. He said he just woke up but would be right there. Then he didn't come... In the middle of people bearing their testimonies, he texted us and said, "Sry.. My friend got arrested." And that's all! Man... This kid stresses me out!

We got a hold of him later and found out that his roommate had borrowed his car to "go to the store" the night before and didn't come back. He also had the keyes to G's motorcycle and house and everything. He had gone gambling and got arrested and didn't have a license. So G. didn't have a way to get to church. Brother Go and his daughter drove us up to G's house. We picked him up and took him back to church for the last half of Priesthood. Again, we had to make a million phone calls to get permission to confirm him after church.

While we were waiting, he paid tithing because he wanted to. Oh! When we walked into the church building, he sighed and said, "I missed church." Like he hadn't been in a long time. It was great! He kept telling us he felt guilty for not being here. And then he was confirmed and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Crazy!

After church, he told us that his brother came over the night before to watch the Leaf's game with him. He said, "He brought over a whole case of beer. You know what I had to do? I had to make a smoothie!" Hahaha. G. is the BEST!

We're going to keep teaching him the follow-up lessons this week and talk more about his language. But he's great! I have felt so blessed to be a part of his conversion story. Honestly, all we did was teach him what was required before hand. But it felt so good.

Thank you all for your prayers! You're great! Love you!

Sister Cross
 

Miracles: I Love Them! - Apr 29

In Sister Cross's words: 

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week! I need to start with explaining some goals President Scott has set for us. He calls them Standards of Excellence. Each week, we set goals to help people come unto Christ. We call them Key Indicators for Conversion. Our mission president set the Standards of Excellence to help us work toward something achievable, but also that will make us stretch. They are: 4 Lessons taught with a member present, 2 new investigators, 2 investigators with a baptism date, 2 investigators progressing toward baptism, and 2 investigators at church. Each companionship still sets goals based on their area, but Sister Messer and I always try to at least set our goals at or above standards. These goals are hard! Sometimes we do very well at hitting the standards in one area, but another area will lack. We've especially been struggling with finding new people to teach.

We have a goal as a companionship to have 2 baptisms this transfer, which ends in 3 weeks. We knew that this last week would have to have MIRACLES happen in order for us to hit that goal. We have prayed our knees off for that miracle. I learned that Hope means to trust that the Lord really will bless us as he has promised. I've been leaning on that hope this week and really stepping out of my comfort zone. As of Saturday night, we had 0 investigators coming to church and we needed 1 more progressing, 1 more new, and 1 more member present as well as 2 coming to church to reach Standards. We prayed hard that night to have a miracle happen. But it seemed IMPOSSIBLE. We got to church on Sunday and Jacob showed! By definition, J. was our one progressing investigator. Still, we did not have another investigator at Sacrament meeting. I leaned over to Sister Messer during Sacrament and said, sadly, "We didn't hit standards. But we worked hard." Maybe not word-for-word, but close.

Sacrament ended and we went to say hi to the Spanish Elders who were talking to a young guy. We knew they were expecting someone at church, so we assumed this was him. Elder Johnson said, "Hey! This is G. He told us some about him. We asked him if they were teaching him and they said no and that he lives in our area! What?! We asked him about how he found the church and he said that he's been coming to play sports at the church almost every Friday night (after Institute, the YSA plays sports) since Jan. or Feb! He said he really wants a positive influence in his life and he decided to see what this church was all about. I literally couldn't keep the smile off my face. As he was talking, he said he's joining the military. I was trying to count out weeks to see when the earliest he could be baptized. The guideline is that someone has to come to church at least 3 times before they can get baptized. Which means the earliest would be May 12. Literally moments after I figured that out, he told us he'll be shipping out to Quebec on May 13! Oh my goodness! He was asking about the differences between us and another religion. We talked a little bit about prophets, but then class started.

After class, we asked Brother G, our Ward Mission Leader, if he would be able to stay and help teach G. the first lesson. He said yes. As we taught, G. asked some really great questions and he said it all made sense. The spirit was strong as we talked about Jesus Christ's example and why He was baptized. I invited him to be baptized and he seemed to like the idea, but wanted to make sure he knew everything first. We talked about how the Holy Ghost can be that constant companion and influence for good. He, without any attempt at persuasion on our part, said, "I want the Holy Ghost!" We taught him the rest of the lesson and told him that we are holding a baptism on May 12. He said, "Right before I leave!" We talked about how we can be sure that he is prepared for that day. And he accepted! Earlier in the lesson, he brought up the Word of Wisdom and said how he really likes it. He said it makes sense that SOMEONE gave us this body and we should take care of it. Man! He is GREAT! After the lesson, I Sister Messer told me how she had prayed and asked for someone to show up at church so we could hit Standards. And he did!

I KNOW that as we do as God asks, He will bless us. He said, "I, the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." As we are striving to be EXACTLY obedient, we see the Lord blessing us. We have 4 investigators with baptism dates right now. It feels great! I know that, if we work hard and pray harder this week, we CAN have 2 baptisms in the next 3 weeks before Sister Messer goes home.

Thank you all for your prayers. They are greatly appreciated! And for your love! I've received quite a few letters this week and I love it! Thanks so much, everyone!

Sister Cross