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

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