Monday, November 16, 2015

The Best is Yet to Come:)

I can't believe also that this is my last letter. It's been a really hard last few hours. Saying goodbyes is really hard. They announced in both of our sacrament meetings that I have finished a full time mission, and will be returning home this week. That was so strange for me!! But, I am excited for the good things to come. It just kind of feels like a band-aid is being slowly ripped off, and I am ready to just basically leave instead of having to say so many goodbyes!!

This week was pretty good, since it ended with a baptism! I'm just so proud of PQ. He fought through so much to be able to be baptized, and he wore a tie for the first time after because to him it is symbolic of the covenant he made with God. He taught me a lot about diligence, and perseverance, and although he still has a young, budding testimony, he knows enough. I guess, in and of itself, that was a miracle! The service was so nice as well, and I loved how everything ran so smoothly.

I increased my faith this week by really focusing on Enos, and prayer. There's a quote that sits on my desk that I really like. It says, "Pray like Enos, Teach like Alma, Obey like Nephi, and Endure like Abinadi." Of course, this week I've been able to focus on the enduring part, and paired it with a study of the 10 virgins and their diligence in always keeping their lamps full. However, I had this realization this week that if I want to really develop a relationship with God, I need to really work on my prayers. Although I'm still not perfect at it, it has increased my faith in the power of prayer, and how much God really answers not only my prayers, but the prayers of people all around me. I hope that makes some type of sense...

Besides that, I have really seen the miracle of being able to feel of God's love for me, and just feeling peace. There is so much emotion that goes into ending a mission (especially for me because I just cry over everything...) but, I have been able to really feel how proud of me God is, and how He knows I have given my best.

This week, we really worked with members by calling many 4th ward members to followup on the ward mission plan! Most of them had forgotten it, but as we talk over the phone and commit them to do it (specifically) we are seeing such a positive response. I'm really, really excited for it! 4th ward can have miracles too! It's just going to take some patience. This whole experience though has really taught me about the power of a vision, and how if we really build off of and focus on the vision, we will be successful. I don't know why it didn't click until a few days ago, but it really clicked.

C finally got a really solid lesson in French this week, which was SO needed, but she slept through church which was so frustrating. E actually met us, and I think that love and patience with her, instead of pushing her to get baptized, will help. I'm always reminded of The District, and how they say, "we needed to draw her to baptism and not drag her". But, besides that many of our less actives/investigators were on vacation this week. So, it was a tougher week than usual. Also, we had a chance to have 7 New Investigators, and EVERYTHING fell through. It was so sad. But, I know we tried, and there are good things still to come for the area. L is doing really good, she got to fellowship a less active YSA that just moved here from Korea! Oh! That was also such a miracle this week. This cute girl had been praying for weeks to find the church here, and then, she met the Elders on the train, and we were able to introduce her to L, and show her the church. She is happy to be here, and I'm excited for L to have a new friend in the ward. God is so good.

Overall  I'm going to end with my favorite scripture about missionary work. 3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." And, this doesn't stop here.

This is just the beginning, the best is yet to come :)

Love you all!!

I know the church is true, I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. We CAN receive revelation in our day to day lives, CHRIST LIVES, the Book of Mormon is the word of God, mighty prayer works miracles, THIS IS GOD'S WORK! And, it's all of our job and privilege to be a part of it - wherever we are in the world.

Sister Alyssa Crabb

PQ's baptism! 

Monday, November 9, 2015

So, this week, some pretty great stuff happened!

P Q passed his baptismal interview! He has had such a change of heart over the past few weeks it seems like, and he's started to just submit himself to all the commandments that he "doesn't understand" and put his doubts on hold. We prepared Elder Riddle really well for it, and told him that we think he may not be ready, but, he passed! He said he knows the spirit was directing the interview, and that is all I can ask! So, P Q is getting baptized this Saturday! YAY!!!
Also, we of course saw some miracles..

We got an awesome new investigator! J! Sometimes the good things in life take patience.  A couple Sundays back, we felt like we needed to spend some time going to J's house and making a Halloween invitation to give to her and her family. Luckily, that simple act of kindness (definitely inspired of the spirit...again during planning and prayer!) helped them to come to the ward Halloween party where not only were they able to actually meet us in person for the first time, but they coincidentally ran into one of the members of our ward - the P family - who had also had a genetically defective baby born on the exact same day. J and the P's had met in the hospital, but I don't believe that J knew that the P's were members of our ward. So, that was a miracle in and of itself! But, because of getting to know them at the party, we were finally able to teach J this week, and she has so many good questions, and is so prepared for the gospel. The only thing that will hold her back is if she's not really willing to make time to learn! But, she loves the sense of community of the ward, and is really curious why we can all get along so well, and where our religion began, etc. So, next time when we teach her the Restoration, good things are REALLy going to happen!

We also had a fantastic correlation with Brother C and were able to role play how we can help the 4th ward members fulfill the ward mission plan. He is an AMAZING ward mission leader, and he wants us to basically spark the members to actually fulfill the ward mission plan. So, we are going to do that, and we are going to do it by following up on the phone! 4th ward is going to have things happen as they continue to do the things that they have been asked to :). I'm convinced.

C got confused about the church - probably because she doesn't speak English very well, and French is her 2nd language....but, we will keep working with her! Also, K W is just waiting on a baptismal interview (she cried during the lesson, so that was good!) and the B's are just working on reading the Book of Mormon! Things are going well here, and we are just plugging along and trying to see what God needs us to do in our area.

Besides those fun things...we were able to accidentally hop into a taxi with a driver who was doing illegal drugs...(don't worrry, we're fine!) but, let's just say, we hopped out of the taxi really fast! We saw him pull into the parking lot we were in, and we thought he was parking so he could smoke really fast, but as we got closer to the window, I saw him doing something with a needle. I asked Sister Fuglistaler if he was doing drugs, and she thought I asked if he was drunk, and said no. So, I thought that we were fine, and so we hopped into the car! As we drove off though, he told us he is doing something very illegal in SG. It was such a strange moment! We just kind of laughed it off and had him drop us off way earlier than we had originally planned.

Also, I had a cute 7 year old boy kiss me on the cheek before I knew what was happening! He asked me if he could, and before I could decide if I should let him or not, he just did it ;). So cute and funny!

I had a really good dinner of Vietnamese spring rolls at a dinner, and decided I just love Asia!!

The week before last, I didn't really get to tell you, but I got to bear my dying testimony at Zone Conference and MLC. It's weird to bear your testimony at the end of your mission, but it's the best!

I don't know what to say...I'm glad that the gospel is motivated by love, and that the church is true! I love living here in Asia! I love the food, the people, the gospel, the green, the humidity, the crazy loud MRT's and being packed in like sardines, the hawker centers, the birds that wake me up in the morning, how much I sweat, the aircons and the aircon remotes, the cheechas, everything.

Love you all too and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Crabb

With someone from her previous area, CCK

Halloween!

The W's

The C's

Monday, November 2, 2015

Ending a mission is really hard! I'm completely convinced that going home from a mission takes 10x more faith than going out on a mission. It gets harder and harder as the number of days gets smaller and smaller. But, I think overall, the last week was so refreshing for me because it gave me a chance to really reflect on what I've learned over the past 18 months, and the things I've been able to change in my life, and the people's lives I've touched. I think one of the sweetest things I've come to understand over my mission is the idea that I want to give everything of myself to Heavenly Father.

I'm grateful for Zone Conference and MLC and the things I've been able to learn so I can be a more effective missionary. From Zone Conference, the biggest commitments that I have taken away is that I am going to be more bold in contacting, and that I am going to use the new and returning member progress sheet more. The part that really hit home for me about the new and returning member progress sheet was the idea that the progress sheet should be used as a teaching record for less actives and recent converts to help them progress. As we've thought about the progress record that way, we were able to talk to our less active K W about getting an interview with Bishop, since that is one of the first steps in coming back to church. As we addressed that with her during her lesson, I felt so much more fulfilled because I felt like I wasn't simply helping her feel the spirit and uplifting her with a nice message, but that I was truly helping her make steps in coming unto Christ.

Besides that, to increase my faith this week, me and Sister Fuglistaler have really worked on finding more boldly (we took some things away from MLC) and have worked on being much more prepared, and leaving earlier for appointments. This has helped IMMENSELY and it's really nice to be able to have time to actually focus on contacting, and not have to worry about running to and from places. It has provided some really good opportunities to talk to people, and I feel like Heavenly Father is a lot more proud of me because I'm taking the time to talk to people around me all the time. Also, I really like the new key indicator because I really feel like it is helping me reflect on my contacting and see where I can improve! Like, I can be better at inviting quicker, and trying to get people to meet with us instead of just sharing the gospel and giving them a pamphlet or card. I don't feel like I struggle to talk to everyone, even about the gospel, sometimes I'm just not as effective at talking to everyone as I could be.

Another thing about faith this week that I liked was the idea of faith, too, being one of trust and when things got discouraging, I simply remembered that "This is God's work, and if I keep going with faith, things will be fine." That simple mindset made all the difference for me, and it brought an added measure of peace into my week.

The miracle of the week was C! I'm so grateful for the spirit, and how it guides the work. I prayed before weekly planning in my heart that it would be a positive experience and that we would be able to truly get the revelation we needed to be able to help our investigators. As we were pondering on C and her church attendance, instead of thinking that she just needs to strengthen her testimony and then she will desire to come to church, I decided that we needed to pause and think. Instantly, the thought came into my mind that we should utilize the primary program to be able to get her and her boys to church. So, we told her about the program, and she came on Sunday for the first time in a long time! And, she was glowing. I've never seen her happier. When we talked to her about seeing her on Friday, she looked at us and said, "Yes! And next Sunday!" I'm so grateful for the spirit, and the spirit of revelation that helped us understand that utilizing something the ward was doing, was exactly what our investigator needed to desire to come and partake of the gospel at church.

Besides that, we got a new investigator! We contacted a really awesome referral this week at a baptism (we contacted a lot of referrals this week) that we were going to try and make a new investigator and we prayed pretty hard for it. However, we got to church on Sunday, and found out that things just weren't going to work out. I sat in sacrament meeting and felt pretty debilitated because I felt that we had put such a hard focus on finding and seeking referrals, and we hadn't seen any results. In that moment, I looked back, and saw a man who I had seen at church before. We had talked, but he hadn't really expressed an interest in learning. However, I felt that he could become a new investigator. I told Sister Fuglistaler, and we went over and talked to him after sacrament. After listening to his life's story, we found out he has been at church for the past 5 weeks, and has been meeting with the Bishop to learn about the Atonement. He said he's been reading the Book of Mormon, and he feels the gospel working in his life. We asked if we could share some messages with him to help him as he searches for truth, and he was totally open. Such a change from the last time we talked to him. We were able to share about the plan of salvation, and he is willing to meet us consistently. I'm so excited to work with T and help him see how the Gospel really can bless his life. I'm grateful also that Heavenly Father answers prayers, as I remember Sister Fuglistaler praying for us to be able to find "another way to find investigators" if the referral fell through.

We worked with members by contacting numerous referrals from Halloween and having our Ward Mission Leader help us by scheduling appointments with members for us. It made a HUGE difference, and relieved a lot of stress from us. Yay for Ward Mission leaders.

Some random thoughts...
The work is slowly progressing, and I know because I can feel the spirit that I am a successful missionary. P Q has a baptismal interview this week, and although things got really hard at certain points this week, we were able to muster up the faith enough to keep going. I'm grateful for Heavenly Father and His role in our lives.

Love,
Sister Crabb

These are some pictures one of the senior missionaries posted on Facebook from Zone Conference.