I thought I would add this in his blog. It is from March. He and several other elders participated in a huge service project helping the young violinists. If you go to her website you will see pictures of the little children who Xander helped and see pictures of him as well.
Dawn





Dear families of missionaries serving in the Palos Verdes Stake,

I currently have the wonderful opportunity of rubbing shoulders with your good sons as they help with the Young Violinists of the Palos Verdes Regioinal Symphony Orchestra on Friday afternoons.  The orchestra and Young Violinists are programs offered by our stake as a community service.   Having your missionary sons at the stake center each week has brought a greater warmth and peace to the lessons we offer to the community.  These missionaries have been an incredible help to me in making friends with the many children and families that visit our church each week.  They are alert to filling any need that arises.  I am so happy to introduce these missionaries to all of my friends!

Last Saturday we held a recital for all of our Young Violinists.  A good man in our stake set up a photo booth during the recital.  I have attached his link to the photos.  You will find pictures of many of the families your sons are serving and at the end are some pictures of your wonderful missionaries!  I hope you enjoy seeing their smiling faces.

Last evening all of these good young men also arrived at a local auditorium to help with our Palos Verdes Regional Symphony Orchestra concert.  When they entered the auditorium, it was filled with a sweet, warm spirit.  They were a wonderful presence and help throughout the entire concert.  They were directing and seating families in the best seats, distributing programs, helping our Young Violinists on and off stage and anything else they could possibly do to bring the spirit to the evening.  You would have been so proud to see them!

I am grateful that you would share your sons with us!  

Wishing you a sweet Easter,

Sister Michelle Whitesides

On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 5:52 PM, Michael West <jmichaelwest@gmail.com> wrote:

http://www.jmichaelwest.com/2013/Young-Violinists/28466722_RCCQ2D#!i=2411644837&k=sdvfhr3

Above is a link to the Young Violinists Photos.  Also, I've attached a short video that explains how to download a photo from my photo website.

It was an amazing evening of talent and family, thank you for inviting me!

Mike West

I believe that this is the 9 year old little girl that they were able to teach.

View from his apartment

Taking pictures

July 23, 2013

Hello all!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this week well, not much that has happened this week. We are still doing are best to get a new area off the ground. Our goals include some heavy advertising for English class this week and attending and doing are best to participate in the up-coming ward activity. the hardest thing is not being able to speak the language. Many times because i can barely gist the conversation and by the time i think of something to respond with the conversation has moved on and then i am lost. However i have set some high goals to help learn and learn quickly. So that way i  don't feel like a third wheel who can't support his companions and help testify and teach(but very basically). Some of thee things include memorizing 25 words a day. ( for all of you who don't know vocabulary is probably my weakest subject when it comes to learning a language.) But through Christ weak things become strong, right? (Ether 12:27) Good news though we are beginning to have students in English class!. So far we have 1. He called yesterday and declared to us that he would come to Thursday and possibly Saturday! WOOOHOOO! The beggings are always tough but this part of the vineyard shall be the most fruitful and plentiful! The hard part is that it is like being given an open canvas to paint. A completely blank and whit canvas. and then the boss says make something beautiful and worthwhile here. Well, I don't even know where to begin. but the first lines have begun to be drawn.

Elder Craner

mom-he says he likes gummy worms. Also his birthday is on August 11th. That is this transfer, so if you could think of something good to send him that would be awesome. I'll do some digging this week to find out what else he like and what you could send him. All the things that i need are things like notebook and pull-up bar but i can get that here with the money from great grandma among some other things. but some stamps would be nice. writing letters to Taiwan and Korea you tend to burn through stamps pretty fast. Skittles would be good for me, if i think of anything I'll let you know. also check out our new mission blog!!!

 

californialosangelesmission.blogspot.com  

July 9, 2013

Thank you for the package Mom! THe pictures are great and thanks for sending me J's graduation announcement, maybe ill give one to a companion or friend and he can write her;) haha i have had people ask so far i have said no because not sure how J would respond and if that is something she would be nice about or she would be totally freaked out about it. I am super excited for you all and that  you are enjoying life and preparing to let another little birdie begin to fly away from the nest. Did you know Lauren Barney is getting married!?!?! I love you and have you read Dalian's letter yet super awesome.

I have big news!!!!!!! Transfers just happened and guess what?! i am staying and get to continue to work in this area and i am super excited to do so and we are staying as a trio. which is super weird but the Lord has his own plan and agenda for our personal growth and the growth of this area. It'll be fun.

Anyways the best thing to report is that we have been working heavily with members and that we are planning on doing so and so far actually we have seen some success and it has been amazing and we are super excited for it. From our dealings with the members we have received 3 promising referrals and we have seen the fire be lighted in many and so it is super exciting to see everyone begin to conquer their fears and be involved in the work of the Lord. Everyday we see miracles and the Lord's hand in our lives as we help God accomplish his purpose of bringing about the immortality and eternal life of man. This is a huge blessing and gifted opportunity available to all to help our neighbors receive His sustaining influence in their lives.

Well that is all for this week. Promise pictures next week.

Elder Craner.

July 15, 2013

Even bigger news!!!! Thursday morning we were on our way to a service project and the phone went off!!!! dun dun duuun. IT was president Weidman  (our mission president).  He decided that morning that we were going to split the area and that Elder Yoon and I would be going to a new area called Korean C. nothing else changes but we went to from an area that was blooming and becoming awesome to an area with nothing but members who like us but don't really need us, or so they feel right now. We went through the are book for this area and well it took us 30 minutes to contact all the former and potentials and all the branch leaders. However the Branch president is excited to have us as well as our Assistant Ward Mission Leader (actual Branch Mission Leader went less Active because of a fight with another member, we have been forbidden to visit him right now.) So for the Best several days we have set a vision made plans and prepared to become a full-fledged Korean speaking area. Sad thing when we looked at the area book for this area it took us all of like 1 hour to try and contact everybody. So we have an empty book and a long way to go but i am with an amazing Korean Elder, Elder Yoon, and we will turn this place upside down. however on the plus side my Korean will improve because now there is a sense of urgency for it to do so. Sorry this week has been so crazy that I forgot my pictures again. One day i will bring some for y'all. However i have realized that i have a lot to improve on and that all though it will be a long road a lifetime in fact it will be ever so worth it. Right now we are striving to forget ourselves and go to work!.

Elder craner

July 1, 2013

Sorry Mom we just had the baptism. You can still send it if you want i will send you her address in another e-mail. Also did you take that picture with your phone and is the actual picture playing on a slideshow on the TV? Did you get a chance to watch the broadcast? if not, you should watch it with aunt Lynn (Tell her HI and Aunt Becky to send me an email)

So we just had a Baptism and i will send pictures next week. I'm getting better about bringing my camera. I actually brought it today but I forgot my card reader. So next week ye shall see many pictures from me hopefully.

This past week has been good.

Te baptismal service was good and it was full of people from her family and the ward. So we were super excited about that. Her Mom came who was a non-member with her brother (Amanda, the one who was baptized's uncle). So that was good they felt the Spirit and liked it but they are not interested at all.

I had to give a talk in Korean on Sunday. It lasted a whole 3 minutes. YAY! The topic was hard and open-ended though. it was along the lines of say something that will inspire our little Korean branch to do missionary work. There were several non-members there though. So it was good. Then in the English ward third hour we had a QandA session from members to help inspire the English Ward. We are also working with members so that we can help them do their missionary work, so that 1) it will be more effective at bringing souls unto Christ. 2) strengthens the members and 3) We fulfill our purpose. We are trying to do it in a way that we can show our love for them so that they will want to become member missionaries and that they will be excited for it rather than us forcing them to give us referrals and us being "gimme gimme"

We met the new president. His name is President Weidman, i don't know his first name. apparently he is googleable. according to members. But he is very business-like and friendly. So we shall see, i am excited to see the changes and fire that he is going to bring to this mission!

Love y'all

 

Elder Craner

June 26, 2013

Hello so this past week we had four investigators to church this Sunday!!!!!!!!! One is getting baptized this coming Sunday and the others are all progressing as well. A mother and a daughter and an investigator, who has been coming to church more so than ever before! I am not sure what the change was but my first transfer in this area and earlier he rarely came except to see his kids in a program and such. Now he comes almost every week and so far the only reason he hasn't is because he has had a recent hip replacement and whenever it was acting up he wouldn't come. However he has been there 9 of the past 11 weeks. He is making his own progress towards baptism because if we push all he does is regress so we just help him along at his own pace but he is so close!!!

The other two investigators. Are amazing tonight the daughter is supposed to be attending mutual and we are hoping we can help encourage her to attend Girl's camp. These are the investigators that fell into our lap and they are progressing so well. In our last lesson with them we asked them something along the lines of "What would you do if this was the true church of Christ on the Earth?" the daughter responded that it would be an honor and that you better join it" and the Mom responded "I'm sold you don't have to try to convince me" So we asked to be baptized and she said that she would but.. she wants to get more involved with the church first and so we shall help her do that thankfully this ward already has many activities and friendly people with whom we can get her involved with. 

Other than that we receive a new mission president tomorrow and we get to meet him on Friday.

Also if you haven't seen the special broadcast yet from last Sunday you need to see it! Go here http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng and watch it. It is really good and there are some interesting announcements about technology use and such by Elder Perry.

Elder Craner

If it is not to late. Could you look for the One with the three crosses of my Italy pictures and i owe Zach big then for finding them for me!!

Mom- i am doing fine i really am. i wouldn't put a false face on for anyone. Managing the ADD is hard but manageable and i am getting better at it. I will send pictures as soon as i remember to take it from the apartment on Preparation days.

June 17, 2013

Well i hope it is good. Mom have you been able to find the Italy pictures yet? Also Yes we are still running every morning. It is a mission rule to do it. the only way it will change is if the new president foes when the reins change next week and President Weidman takes over. It'll be exciting to be able to have two mission presidents to see how they both will run things here in the Los Angeles mission. This past week has been busy we had splits where the District Leader takes one of us and works one of the two areas(ours or his). So he can help us improve and to exchange ideas. Since we are a  trio we have o do this three times with our District Leader but since Elder Yoon is new we will also have to go on one split with the Zone leaders for him. So of the four we have to do we have 2 more to go. They are fun and good for a kind of boost of enthusiasm to help us want to do better but it slows the work down for the week. However we did find two new investigators this week. The lady who walked in with her friend and was referred to us. We were able to teach both her and her daughter. we think that we also have found some really good fellowshippers too. they are a wonderful family and the wife is from Mexico too.

The Less Actives daughter that we are teaching is progressing well and is on track for her baptism on the 30th of June. She is super on fire about the Book of Mormon and the gospel. We feel that she is really desiring to be here and it is not her Dad pushing her through she even made the comment that when she is 19 that she wants to serve a mission. So we are going to do the best we can to leave her and her father with the skills necessary to accomplish that dream.

We also had an awesome lesson with some less active kids. This is an amazing starting point even though the parents say they wanna come back but sometimes there is a lack of effort. If we can get  the kids involved and excited then hopefully they will drag the parents along!

Elder Craner.

June 10, 2013

Hello!

So this past week has been good. Our companionship is doing well. A little more stress for now. Nothing but the usual after the general excitement wears off. So we are fine and doing better. It is hard to balance three people teaching though. We are making it work and perfecting it finding what works and what doesn't lots of mistakes but always improving.

Miracle of the week: We walked into church with a Less Active and we were introducing him to members when we were called over to be introduced to some new people that waled into our ward. They introduced themselves to us and then one of them proceeded to ask us to come over and teach her friend. So we have an appointment to teach someone new who basically said "here i am teach me" We're utterly astounded at the way people are prepared and how God will lead them to us and us to them!

Not only that but our other progressing investigator (the less Actives daughter) is progressing phenomenally. It is a lot of fun to try and simplify the doctrine for a 9 year-old without going to far and confusing her. Object lessons help alot too. We are getting quite good at them.

Ask questions i would love to hear from all of you.

Elder Craner

P.S. Mom did you find Italy pictures yet?

June 3, 2013

So i have to give a very long update let us see. In the past three weeks the transfer ended. My companion and i were called to be trainers of the same new Elder (Elder Yoon, he's from Korea and super awesome, more later.) We taught a Korean  some of the restoration. Have been asked to teach a Less Active's daughter the lessons so she can be baptized and she wants to and she also wants to serve a mission in 10 years, because she is 9 right now.  We also have been able to move forward on several potentials and we now have several 'soft' return appointments. meaning they want us to come over but their schedules are to tight or variable for us to pin down a time. So we just have to keep fellowshipping them and stopping by and asking when we could come over for a lesson. We have also moved into a new apartment near the beach with a view of the ocean. the biggest plus though of our move is that we are now in our area! umm...... any question?

So the dinner with the korean investigators was awesome. So it is a mom and a daughter and they are our English class students. They invited us over for dinner. So we called them up and set a date. Then we grabbed a member ( a priest from the English ward we cover becasue Koreans were all busy. also because of the rule missionaries can't be alone with others of the opposite sex) It was awesome eating on the floor Asian style with chopsticks( which i have become very proficient at!). The greatest thing is that we didn't even have to bring up the gospel, they did. They had so many questions. the basic one was "Why is our church different from others?" Golden question for the Restoration right? So we had several pamphlets and such for them and we gave them a book of Mormon.

Elder Yoon is awesome he is 20 and will be 21 before i, or elder Kempton, turn 20. However on the mission age doesn't really matter. even sometimes seniority of who has been here doesn't either. So we have started the 12 week In-field training over. Which we had just finished with Elder Kempton. So far we haven't hit to many road bumps in the threesome. Elder Kempton and i have been able to balance everything pretty well between us ad him. So far the key we think is trusting the Lord so we trust each other and treating it like any other companionship.

So the Less Active's daughter is a straight up miracle from God, well, okay like every investigator and baptism i will ever receive will be a miracle from God because that is just how it works. We cannot bring a lasting convert into the church by our own power. Anyway, this Less Actives contacted us as we were biking he stopped us and said that his daughter wanted to be baptised and that it would mean a lot to him if we would teach her. He said he cleared with Bishop and all was good. So we talked with Bishop and he said that we had his blessing for her  because he prays and hopes that it will help this Less active as well to return to the straight  and narrow. So we taught her and she is shy but so smart and so ready. all we have to do is teach her and help her be ready for June 30th her baptism.

One of our awesome potentials that we want to teach but literally has no time between jobs and night school has given us an open invitation to teach her if she can find the time. However her story of meeting is cool. So we first met her because we were called by a less active that wants to come back to church and receive full membership again. So he called us to do some service and help them move in. So we did and they said thanks. Then a couple weeks later, we were able to stop by and meet the family that was in town and leave a scripture with them. They were all super open and friendly. It was amazing and awesome. Then because she is going to marinello school of beauty (is that the same type of school you went too, Aunt Clare?)  we decided to have our hair cut by her. So we did and we found out that her great-grandfather was a Mormon and she was close to him so we offered to teach her what she believed and she accepted and was a little shocked that we would do that for her. So now we just have to find out when we can meet.

These are the big things. I'll keep y'all updated.

Elder Craner

May 28, 2013

Tell me all about it. Sorry Catie e-mailed me and so i don't have much time. Plus we have to move apartments. Same Area but new apartment. Second i will now be co-training in a trio with my current companion in this area. the new elder is a native speaker whom we will meet tomorrow! So no time will write a really long one for y'all next week i promise i love you and take care.

Elder Craner, Also I will send letter today. i know it is to late for them to be on TREK but you could it to them just after or whenever you feel it right.

Beach P-Day Party

Elder Craner with his mission President and his wife. President and Sister Baker

No it is not a skirt! It is a Lava Lava. He assured me that he has pants on underneath

May 13, 2013

So today was beach P-day and here are some pictures from my companion's camera (i forgot min in the car).

So i promise i am not wearing a skirt it is a lava lava. We wore them for the luau we helped at. Just over our pants.

Also one with the old people is us and mission president and two office elders

Us and some Korean missionaries working in English.

Our zone.

May 6, 2013

Hello Mom, 

That is so exciting about Jessica, though i will wait for her to tell to me. I will do my best to do a handwritten letter to them if not definitely an e-mail. Just remind me every week. Can't wait for mothers day. Just so you know we only have 40 minutes of call time. Also when does Dallin leave for MTC? So this past week what has happened a lot has.

So Just start from Sunday. That was a good day we had a really good lesson with a less Active who wants to come back to full activity. so we are working with him and helping him grow his faith and consistency. Then afterwords we stopped by someone we helped move in and they totally let us in and met their family who was in town visiting and we shared a scripture with them and they really seemed to like that. We are planning on having her cut our hair once or twice since she is learning how and would be a great way to fellowship her and then maybe dinner with them and then lessons!

Saturday was an extremely awesome and tiring day. We started off with a service project for a part-member family, doing some gardening which was a lot of fun. Then we had a double booking a baptism for our Ward Mission Leader's daughter who invited all of her friends and several said they would come. So we had to do splits. My companion went to baptism with a ward missionary and i went with a youth preparing for his mission to another service project for a Greek part-member family as they prepared for the Orthodox Easter. (Orthodox calender is off from standard gregorian calender, which is what we use) Then we regrouped and helped them finish that dashed off to English class, no one showed up which was a first for a long time. then to a massive ward activity, a luau put on by a Samoan with dancers from the Samoan and Tongan wards in the next stake over. It was absolutely amazing and a lot of fun. We were asked to help refill water pitchers which gave us the opportunity to be seen and talk with members and their friends. We met so many new people and we are going to follow up with some of them tonight actually for dinner at a members!

Well that was the big stuff. We did bike this last week because we were short on miles so we biked on Wednesday. It was fun glad i have a car but i am willing to do it when necessary. We also had the opportunity to meet with some Koreans again which was a lot of fun and awesome.

Elder Craner

So ow is everybody?

April 29, 2013

Mom, It is good to hear from you right now i think i am good and i have figured out some coping things will keep you updated. I think part of the problem is learning to trust my companion. which with this new elder is working out. Also any luck with the Italy pictures? No crock pot but maybe the LA i am working with does. Please tell Zach to email me.

So this past week has been absolutely amazing.

First off we had a lesson with a part-member family and the non-member really opened up over dinner and we were able to get know him and him us. We also now have the opportunity to be able to do some service for him in this absolutely beautiful terraced garden that they have.

Second We have started up this program to work and get to the Korean branch a lot better and practice our Korean seeing as we are not surrounded by it and not in Korea-town. So went to Brother Kim's house and the spirit that unfolded and was felt as we were there and a little miracle happened. There was one part where Brother Kim bore his testimony to us and something happened i suddenly understood just for this part of our conversation but i knew what he was saying and it was eternally sweeet and something i want to treasure forever. 

Third We extended a baptismal date and the person got really mad because he felt that we had backed him into a lose-lose situation and this was the idea we cam up with through prayer and study! Then as he talked we were able to discover his true concern and now we have a direction to go. Also as he continued to talk the mood kind of suddenly shifted and  it became light and we were able to leave on good terms. Even more amazingly he came to church on Sunday!

We also had the privilege of doing Mormon helping hands  on Saturday and that was fun.

Since it has been two weeks since i emailed. i need to let you all know that i have a new companion! His name is Elder Kempton and i have the privilege of finishing his training. Sometimes  I wonder who is training who thought, seeing as i  missed out on the chance to finish my training it is a new road for both of us. Fun fact we both met at BYU before the mission in our Arabic class. He is from Rexburg Idaho and i like him. I think we will be able to work really well this transfer and into the future for however long we can stay together.

Elder Craner.

April 22,2013

I'm doing fine i really am. However the reason i talked to the mission president about ADD is because my first two companions both commented about it and i never said anything about it. the one time i did was to relate to a part-member family's teenage son who is struggling with it. Both my companions expressed concern about me not focusing and allowing it to stress me or always forgetting where i put things, no surprise.  Thankfully they have been very supportive of me. I will follow whatever council you give if you feel that i don't need the medicine and i can press on then i will do that. I am doing everything i can to just allow the spirit to work and not to think about it. I really have experienced many moments of this. It almost feels like a dance where you can feel the spirit moving in the room and settling upon people and helping realize things and helping them become better. I think i will sit down with my new companion and have discussion on where and how i can better myself. I trust him, we met before the MTC at BYU.   Thank you Dad for those words of wisdom, believe me i am trying to  implement them already it just does not feel lik enough or at least according to my previous companions it doesn't. and i did know that you have ADD and the fact you don't take any medicine for it and still are able to remain focused is one of the ,any reasons you are my hero. Again i apologize for making you all worry. I honestly believe it will be better this transfer because i had the opportunity to be with a companion last transfer that required me to do it all by myself and so i felt the pressure. i have been trying to apply all of the many things you all have taught me about self-control and remembering things (which i know frustrated y'all to know end).

Love,

Elder Craner

P.S. I'm fine i really am and i'm excited about the future. we are finally getting the ball rolling in this area.

April 16, 2013

Hello all,

How is everybody?

So this past week was good things are finally starting to pick-up. We were able to teach a lesson to an investigator, from a member they called us up the day before and asked us to come over! Well okay so they called us up and told the situation that it was her brother and he has not been baptized and knows nothing about the church and that we should come over and teach the Restoration. However it was to be like we were in the neighborhood and that we just stopped by to see the members and see if we could practice with them on teaching a lesson. Which we did and it went well. We were able to use the support of the members to leave a commitment to the investigator to study and make it a group thing so he wouldn't be scared off. 

Sunday i was also able to teach Gospel principles on the Plan of Salvation with several non-members in the class it was a good class. Fun though hard because their were so many questions that we barely got past the Spirit World. However it was all good because members were participating and offering explanations and asking their own questions. It was very open and discussion-oriented.

In other news..... TRANSFERS!!!! so i am staying in my area but will be getting a new companion who is even newer than me this time. From the old to the new. His name is Elder Kempton. Funny thing he and i sat together and worked together in several Classes at BYU. guess which ones?...... Arabic isn't that funny. So it will be a lot of fun.

Love Elder Craner

mom- no sorry i cant remember where they are. so sorry. Tell the kids to email me i haven't heard from them in a while. i want to hear everything that happened to them in the past month or two. Thanks for the recipe and the scripture. i have it marked because i know it is your favorite.

Dad- so is there some kind of fictional monster that i might have read about called the Creeds? because my brain does not usually make up its own monsters and i woke up in a dead sweat with that name and those monsters running around it a couple nights ago

April 8, 2013

So not much has happened in the past few days as they were filled with an absolutly amazing General Conference. So wish you all well and i love you all. Write me. I'll remeber more stuff and make this week super eventful so that i can tell you more next week.

 

Elder Craner

Mom- Will you send me Aunt Tammy's recipe ASAP. I made a deal with a member so that he would go to Priesthood session. So now i have to cook dinner for them every time they have signed up on the dinner calender until i leave or for the next couple months.  Also any other good recipes like the chicken noodle soup. Because we are working with a lesss active and part-member who will let us come over and cook dinner for us and them. Same one i want Italy pictures for.