Sister Crofts-Called to Serve

April 14, 2014

Dear Family!! Helllooooooo.

I hope everyone is doing good! I can`t believe that I only have like 6 months left in my mission. I miss you, but I really don`t want to go home. Every day is super hard, but I wouldn`t change the experiences I am having for anything in the world. I really feel so grateful for the Savior and how much He has helped me to overcome the hard times and to overcome the weaknesses in myself. We are working so hard and doing the best that we can.

There is this less active girl in our ward who we have been visiting since I have been here in Kariya. She went to a YSA activity and was a little bit discouraged because she didn`t really understand anything they talked about. The doctrine, the ideas, she felt so sad. When we met with her that next week, she was so humble and so discouraged, but she said "I want to learn. I want to understand." She had started to read in the Book of Mormon for the first time and it was really hard for her to understand! She asked us to study together with her and we are going to teach her the missionary lessons. When we came the next week, she had bought brand new highlighters and pens for her scriptures. She had the biggest smile on her face and was so excited. We taught her about the plan of salvation and she just started to cry. We felt the Spirit SO STRONG. She hadn`t known most things about the Plan of Salvation, but when we finished she said "this is true isn`t it?" She was soooo happy and it was amazing to see the change in her because of the power of the atonement. When I first started visiting her she was happy, but there was something missing. She now has so much hope and is quitting her job so that she can come to church on Sunday. I am seriously so proud of her.

We taught the family of 5 we met a few weeks ago how to pray this last week! It was so awesome to teach everyone together and they want to pray as a family to strengthen their relationship.

We also had a lesson last week with an investigator who had been learning about the church for about 5 years but hadn’t been baptized yet. As we went to meet with her, she started to talk about how hard the Book of Mormon is to understand. She said that every time she reads it she just feels so much sadness and guilt because it tells us over and over again to repent. She thought it was scary. So then we talked about the comfort that we can receive from the Book of Mormon as well. We read Mosiah 24:14-16 and she just said "Wow, is there more like this?!" She felt the Spirit so strong and as she started to recognize the love and peace we find in the Book of Mormon, she started to change. At the end of the lesson we asked her if she would read from the Book of Mormon and she said "Yes! with the feeling I am feeling now I am so excited to read it!" She was honestly pushing us out of the door so she could start to read it. hahaha. SO CUTE.

It is so hard to find people to teach. Japanese people are sooooo busy and we will stop people on the street or through housing, have an awesome discussion where they have lots of interest, but they are too busy and can`t even meet for 15 minutes. Ahhhhh bummmmmerrrrr.

Well, I love you all! I hope you loved general conference. I LOVED President Uchtdorf`s talk and I am really going to focus on being more grateful. Can I be an Elder and just serve for 2 years? ... Okay... Have a a great week!

Love,

Sister Crofts