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

Pics - Snowing and Subways in April!

Great Pics in Toronto - Don Mills

Look Alive! And have a Deeper Sense of Urgency! - April 22

In Sister Cross' words:  Dated April 22

Dear Children of God,

We are ALL children of God. Not just members of the church or believers in Jesus Christ, but ALL of us. This was something that J. brought up, and I just wanted to start by sharing that with all of you who might be reading this and have a question about whether or not you have a Father in Heaven who loves you. Our lives will not be perfect and we will not always understand why we go through the things we do. But I can assure each and every one of you that He DOES love you! If you aren't so sure about that, pray! And he will help you know he's there.

So, I'm not going to talk too much about J. He's not really progressing right now. Sister Messer is a lot more patient with him than I am. He likes to make things difficult for us. So I'm not really going to talk about him. Oh! But I did want to share a GREAT definition of Pride that I learned from him. He doesn't see it as a definition of pride, but I do. It's "Having faith in yourself." Faith in Jesus Chrsit will bring peace, joy, and salvation. Faith in yourself will bring pride and wickedness. And "Wickedness never was happiness" no matter how happy you seem to be.

Right now we're teaching an awesome investigator! Her name is A. We actually tried something that worked REALLY well and was a pretty spiritual experience. We gave her a chapel tour, but as we did so, we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We started out in the Relief Society room and talked about how that class, as well as others, builds our faith in Jesus Christ. Then we showed her the bishop's office and talked about Repentance and Prayer. Then we took her to the baptismal font and talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We invited her to be baptized there. She's not set on a date yet, but she will be. Then we took her to the chapel and talked about Enduring to the End and how the Sacrament is part of that. Along the way, we showed her pictures of Jesus Christ on the walls and classrooms. The church building we meet in has 3 floors! So it was a little hard to go all over the place, but it was still way good. In the chapel, I asked her how she felt. She said she felt a lot of good feelings, but especially in that room. As we asked her to describe those feelings, the word she came up with was "Sacred." How awesome! When we met her the first time, it was on the street by her house on the way to an appointment. She had told us that she would take a long time to come to church because she's very shy. The tour was our second lesson with her and the first lesson, we only had enough time to talk about prayer. But guess who was at church on Sunday?! A!  She brought a friend with her and only came to sacrament because she had a family thing, but it was great! She actually came and said she enjoyed it. She's way smart and she's reading and praying a lot too. We're going to see her Thursday and invite her to be baptized on May 12. I love teaching the elect!

Ya'll might remember N. and S., the mother and son. Well we taught them about the Plan of Salvation this week. N. isn't progressing, but S. is. He's doing awesome! We taught about what Eternal Life means and how our goal is to go to the Celestial Kingdom. At the end of the lesson, S. prayed for us. He said, "Please bless the sisters that they can have Eternal Life. And please bless that my mom and I will get baptized on time." I LOVE this kid! Goodness! I want him to get baptized sooo bad! Next time, we're going to take picture with their family so I can send them to ya'll.

We've set the goal of 2 baptisms this transfer. We have 4 weeks left, so we're hoping A. will want to get baptized and then either J. or someone else. Keep us in your prayers! That'd be great! We recognize that, in order to achieve our goals, we need to change what we're doing. It's easy to sit down on the bus and nod off or relax on the way to a bus stop. But if that moment is the ONLY time these people see LDS missionaries, what will their opinion of us be? Lazy, tired, slow.... We need to have a deeper sense of urgency. We are working to help EVERYONE know the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is essential for ALL people and I am sooo excited to share that with others this week!

I love you all and the support you have given me. I'm sorry that I haven't had the time to write each of you back personally. P-Days are almost as busy as every other day. And I'm usually beat by the time we get back to write letters. So sorry. Thanks for everything!

Sister Cross

Testimonies and False Prophets - Apr 15

In Sister Cross's words - April 15

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been kind of a good, long week. The weather here has been crazy! It's been raining and snowing and windy. And then it'll be sunny and beautiful. It doesn't make any sense.And it's had quite the affect on our work. We had to stop and buy rain gear (which really isn't cheap). But I've LOVED having it.

W., the guy on house arrest, called us a few hours before our appointment with him and said he doesn't want to meet any more. He had rescheduled because he was supposed to help his Pastor move some stuff in his house. We're pretty sure he mentioned meeting with Mormon Missionaries and heard some things that probably aren't true. The thing is, we're okay with it. He's very dedicated in his church, so we're pretty sure it wasn't going anywhere anyway. He just wants friends.

We were able to meet with A., this sweet Chinese lady. She is so fun! When we got to her house, she had slippers for us to wear inside. It was great! She has a small little basement apartment and she keeps it very clean. She's excited to learn with us and we LOVED hearing her pray. She has friends of all different religions, so it's possible that she'll also hear things that aren't true. So we're going to try to keep open communication so she'll ask us about things.

Oh! We met a "prophet" on the bus the other day! It had been kind of a rocky morning and we were ready to just start talking about the gospel. We sat on the bus and Sister Messer saw this guy looking at our tags. I didn't see him, but she said she saw him sit closer to us so he could get a better view of our tags. We hadn't even got 2 stops away from ours and he said, "Sister! Sister! When you get home, you have to pray for yourself!" He then proceeded to tell us we were possessed by demons and that he knew that the angels that appeared to Joseph Smith were from Hell. He also told us that he KNOWS that Joseph Smith was not a prophet because HE IS! I had no idea what to say! Sister Messer just smiled and kept eye contact. I refused to look at him. We got off at the next stop and waited about 10 minutes for another bus. She said she'd heard stories about Elders having to get off the bus for things like that, but she never thought it would happen to her. Glad she's having good story-telling experiences! Haha.

Yesterday was fast Sunday. A mom got up to help her son bare his testimony. He wouldn't say anything. J., our investigator, called out, "Can I help him out?" Sister Messer and I sunk in our chairs a bit, but we both had a huge smile on our faces. He whispered into the little boy's ear, but the boy still wouldn't say anything. The mom bore her testimony and J. sat on the stand. He got up and talked about how he knew the Body of Christ was present and that the "team" (which is what he calls the ward, stake, etc.) is working hard. He's glad that people are going out and trying to bring more members to the team (US!). Then he said, "I'm also grateful for Sister.... (He clearly couldn't remember our names, which is HILARIOUS) Could you two stand up?" We shook our heads. haha. He said he was glad we bought him stuff to help him quit smoking and he's glad that we're helping him come to know the truth. It was probably the BEST moment of my mission!

Last night we also taught N. I think I told you about bringing the coloring book to her house so her 3-year-old twins would sit still. Well we got there and knocked on the door. K., one of the twins, opened the door. He saw me and smiled big. He grabbed my hand and said, "Please come in!" Then his twin sister, K, brought me a green crayon I had left there. Then K. said, "What's in your bag?" He started feeling it. But I completely forgot the coloring book! I felt SO bad! I gave them all the sticky notes I had left in my scriptures and even ripped out a notes page of my planner. It didn't keep them entertained for long. But we had K, with the help of Sister Messer, say the closing prayer. They were a little more involved so that was good. IF I ever leave Don Mills, I'm going to miss that family!

Oh! Last story for today. We were walking to that appointment with N. and this guy was walking toward us. I almost didn't say anything; he didn't look like he'd be interested. But I just said, "Hey! As you're passing, my friend and I, we're missionaries. And we're inviting people to learn more about Jesus Christ. What's your religious background?" He said he was Christian and I asked him if that had played a role in his life. He said it has, but he's struggled with something. He said he fell off the path and he wants to get back on, but he doesn't know how. I asked him how he would feel if he knew all of those feelings of guilt could be gone. His eyes lit up a bit and he asked how that was possible. I told him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Endure to the End) briefly. He asked how he could get baptized. We told him that he would need to learn a few things first, but that we could teach those to him and help him repent of the things that he struggled with and then, on May 5, he could be baptized. And he wants to! We're supposed to meet with him this week. It'll all depend on if he shows up to that. He seemed VERY sincere, like almost to tears that this was possible. But we'll see if that actually works. We're exciting to maybe have a golden one! It's hard to teach people here because they all have a religious background and, if they don't, they believe in "One God" meaning we all worship the same God, so the church doesn't matter and they don't want to hear more. G. (that's the guys name) is from Ethiopia and he seems very humble. So his heart should be ready to accept the gospel.

This week, I just wanted to bare my testimony that I know that God has a reason for EVERY trial we go through. If you read in the Book of Mormon about the people of Ammonihah who believed the words of Alma and Amulek and were cast into the fire for believing. Alma was constrained by the spirit to not stop the men. God had a reason. Most of the time, we will not be killed to be a testimony against wicked men in the next life. However, God knows what's good for us. We can't always see it that way, but it's true. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father puts trails in our path that will help us grow.

I love you all!

Sister Jessica Cross

One Transfer Down!

Sister Cross's words:

Hello All!

I've probably said it before, but time is so warped on a mission. It's crazy that my first transfer in the mission field just ended. I'm halfway done being trained and Sister Messer is dying (goes home) in just 6 weeks! Then I'll be moving on to a new companion. This week went by pretty fast. We had some fun experiences, though.

We're teaching a YSA guy named J. I don't remember if I told you about him or not. He's pretty great! He has some fun beliefs and we're enjoying teaching him. He came to church last week and then conference on Saturday morning and both of the Sunday sessions. He also has gone to institute and an institute Dance in the last two weeks, so those are some great signs. I'm praying we can teach clearly enough so he can understand. We really do have our own language as "Mormons" and I'm learning that some people define words differently, so we have to make sure they're on the same page first.

Mail got pretty caught up this week. I got 2 letters from Daniel/Nathan, 2 from Harrison, 2 from Helga and Hans, and 3 from Bill Sparks! It was a good week for me. :) Mail is slow, but to ease your minds, I AM getting it.

Conference was GREAT! Those of you who know me well know that I want to be a mom really bad! Well, the talks were all about families and how to make them stronger. One way is through obedience. Our mission focuses A LOT on EXACT obedience and how important it is. I'm learning that it's not just "nice" to have the blessings of obedience, but I NEED them. If I am going to raise my family to be able to withstand the temptations of the world, I need to be obedient and focused on what the Lord wants me to do. Right now, he wants me on a mission so I can learn these vital lessons. I am so grateful for the opportunity to devote so much time to helping others strengthen their families through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I want all who are reading this to know that I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today. Yes, he could perform miracles, such as parting the Red Sea. But no, he does not NEED to. Prophets in the Bible didn't just talk about cool, new things all the time. A great majority of the time, they reminded people of the things they needed to do in order to live with God again. They quoted scripture and taught and testified of Christ. This is EXACTLY what our prophet does today. This weekend, he reminded us that we need to be obedient. We learn in the scriptures that "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." If you are doing what He asks, you CAN claim the blessings. I know that to be true.

Elder Holland, one of the 12 apostles on the earth today, talked a lot about holding on to what you DO know. I can tell you that a mission reminds you a lot of the things you do not know. People ask questions all the time and I realize I don't know all the answers. And sometimes the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture, make sense and I have to re-evaluate what I know to be true. But I do know this: The Book of Mormon is true. And if that book is true, then Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and the Authority he was given to act in the name of Jesus Christ to baptize and perform saving ordinances has been passed down. And Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet of God on earth today and has that same authority. If I know these things are true, which I do, then I have no need to doubt or fear.

I love all of you: family and friends. I have been so blessed to have love and support from home. I couldn't do it without you. Thanks for everything! Remember: Exact Obedience! Celestial work will bring Celestial Blessings.
Sister Cross

Easter in North York!

Recent email from Sister Cross.

In her words:

Hey Everyone!

This week was interesting. We had a couple of dinner appointments, which was good. One of them, Sister L., gave us "Easter Packages" that included toilet paper, tooth paste, canned soup, and a chocoloate bunny. It was great. We had to carry it with us to our appointment after, but our investigator was okay with it. The youth in the stake gave us all bags of food, too. Which was nice because this week we had NOTHING. Like my easter dinner was Cream of Wheat. Haha. It wasn't all bad. We had a pretty good laugh about it.

We counted our lunch appointment yesterday as our Easter meal. We ate with Sister R. and her daughter. So, little hint about missionaries. Their meal appointments are only supposed to be an hour long. Our first meal with her was 2 HOURS! She wasn't even done cooking. This one was only 1 hour and 40 minutes because we had an appointment. Nice of her to keep it short. :) She's funny. Her meals are like 5 star hotel meals or something. Seriously like 5 courses. And all REALLY fancy stuff. She's Polish and makes all kinds of crazy foods. She made this mushroom soup with sausage and stuff. It was way good. Except the mushrooms, but that's alright. And this Polish/Canadian Pizza thing. But not like normal pizza. She just lays out TONS of food and expects us to eat it all. I feel bad that I physically can't finish a meal there. I guess I just need practice.

We're teaching a guy on House Arrest. We're not exactly sure what he did, but he's great! He's turned his life to God and is trying to learn how to do what He wants. He's really active in his chruch; he's an alterboy , actually. We're hoping to help him know that the Priesthood is important. He was homeless for 30 years, but with the help of the government for disability, he's been able to have a home for the last 3 years. He is so sweet. He wants us to love his home. He's talks about it with pride and his face lights up when we compliment something. He won't be able to get baptized till September, when he's off house arrest, so we're taking it slow.

I'm not sure what else you all want to know. There are a lot of little stories I could tell. For example, I got on the bus and sat across from this elderly lady. I was just going to talk with her because she looked super sweet. But then she looked up at me and started talking, like she was talking to me. She said something like, "She's never going to win; she's mentally incompetent." And "She can laugh all she wants, they arrested her last time." And, "We're going to take her to court and (soemthing about lawyers.)" I didn't say a word! Haha. It was an awkward bus ride.

A lot of people have asked about mail and email. I'm getting mail slowly. If you send a Dearelder, for example, on Monday or soemthing. I won't get it till the next week because they don't deliver mail on the weekends. But I get it and I love it! I'm getting a good amount of emails too. We don't have a time limit on email, so that's nice. It's not overbearing either. I love to hear about how your lives are going and how your testimony is growing. Tell me about your easters! I'd love to hear it!

I love you all! Keep doing good and being GREAT!

Remeber: Exact Obedience.

Sister Cross