Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Fun stuff 10/14/13
This week has been amazing. Yesterday (Sunday 10/13) We had the opportunity and we strive to set up with as members as we could for that day. However we only were able to set up with one family but that one family was awesome. We went and shared a message and we got to know them a lot more. Because of this experience he invited us over again next week so that we can practice Korean and learn to speak from natives and invite the Spirit into their homes! We are really excited to be working with this young family and our goal is to expand this to more of the branch. We feel that if we can use our time to strengthen the branch it will be a better use of time than some ineffective methods that we have been trying.
Saturday afternoon after English class we had a very Korean experience with our class members. They brought traditional tea sets and layout which they spread out and begun to make tea for everyone in the class. We hesitantly and in broken Korean asked and talked to them about how we don't drink tea as members of the church. When they asked if it was like all tea like cinnamon tea and such we said no. Just things such as black and green tea and such that actually have the tea leaf in it. Is that correct information that we have? So they continued to make it and explained that the tea she brought was homemade tea which was just dried flowers. We looked through it and well it was pretty colorful and we didn't see any leafy greens We felt okay with it and had some tea with them. Saturday we went to a dinner at a members' house and they invited their friends over. They are wonderful members. The wife was Korean and the husband was not. The husband did not speak Korean and we had a wonderful time getting to know him. When the time came after dinner to share a spiritual message we strived to teach simply and clearly to them. We testified and gave them each a Book of Mormon one in Korean and one in English. We felt the Spirit and we know they did too. We offered them a choice as well as we could. We can and will improve but the members loved it and they plan on following up and continuing to fellowship their new neighbors. Also side note, while we were focusing on the husband so he could be included the awesome Sister was on the other side of the room teaching the wife in Korean about the church. I love this branch.
Friday I went on splits with Elder Moon. That was great and we both really enjoyed the training meeting. We also tried to do a couple new move-ins that night but noon seemed to be home, I guess it was Friday night. That is what you get when you have no solid back-ups to visit on a Friday night. However President this did leave plenty of time to talk in the car. His relationship with his companion seems strained to say the least.
Thursday Elder Jenkins and I planned. We have decided to do a huge fireside for all of the Koreans south of the 105. We realized that one of the biggest resources we have is President Hong himself. With an amazing conversion story and quite the influence in the Korean Community we are hoping to combine that into a colossal fireside from which we will turn the page in the history book of Korean work in LA! We are going to start a fire. Our branch mission leader is behind it and we are going to start double teaming the branch, him and us, to get the rest of the branch behind it. Because will only work if we get everyone. It'll be huge and at the end of November.
President we thank you for the opportunity as well to expand our English Class to the Gardena area. We are looking forward to using this tool to find the elect and all those who desire to come unto Christ. We are planning to advertise the new location like crazy and hopefully push the older one as well.
On a personal note. I am doing well no complaints, I have learned a very deep secret about the universe: if you want to sleep well have meaningful prayers before you go to bed and when you wake up. Alma 37:36-37
Elder Craner
Friday, October 11, 2013
October 7, 2013
This week has been wonderfully hard and great as well. We have tried some more things. We have sincerely begun to use the new move-in list and as it is a little old our approach is a little different. When they are actually Korean ( we knock a lot of american-Koreans who only speak English) they are amazed at how we speak Korean and such. So we plan on using this to our advantage and we are role playing to find different ways to invite ourselves in to their homes, in essence. Today we studied Preach My Gospel chapter 9 Find when you teach and teach when you find. We are going to try and apply this and study it a bit more over the next few days and see what kind of results we recieve.
AS for the service at the Palos Verdes Regional Orchestra (super cool finding tool for the Asians in the area. Run and sponsored by some wealthy members in the stake. Also the conductor is a world famous musician!) we believe and the people running the show as well the next step for us to step out of the shadows and take a more prominent role with the TA's and with the parents by becoming their friends.That is what we shall do. It is a scary prospect but i personally just need to remember that God is on our side and it is HIs love and message that we are carrying to the world!
AS for the service at the Palos Verdes Regional Orchestra (super cool finding tool for the Asians in the area. Run and sponsored by some wealthy members in the stake. Also the conductor is a world famous musician!) we believe and the people running the show as well the next step for us to step out of the shadows and take a more prominent role with the TA's and with the parents by becoming their friends.That is what we shall do. It is a scary prospect but i personally just need to remember that God is on our side and it is HIs love and message that we are carrying to the world!
Elder Craner
Sorry it is so short
Because I was at the computer when His email came through I was able to "chat" with him via emailing back and forth. i asked him about volunteering for the Orchestra and his area. Here are the responses.
Me: Didn't you volunteer at the orchestra last year too, like right after you got there? She sent a link so we got to see the kids you helped and pictures of you too.
Elder Craner: Yep, Mom I've been the same area my whole mission the biggest thing that has happened that the area split and one area went full Korean the other English. I went Korean. Funny thing both areas still live together in the same apartment. The Elders in Malaga Cove are funny. One is from New Zealand the other is from England.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
October 1,2013
I'm alive
Of course I'm alive, i emailed last week. Did you get it? sometimes my account is weird. Every time you ask if I'm still there usually i still am but i don't actually get the email until later or the next week. However this last week was great. This week is transfers! I'm staying with the same companion! This is great and super exciting because we are going to do so much together and be able to truly help this branch and help each other grow immensely.
This past week was my birthday and my lovely companion decided to make the cake that you sent me and cup cakes as well because we had some left over batter because we didn't have the right size pan in our apartment. That was fun. Wednesday a member also brought us a cake to her lunch appointment and we ate some of that cake and then on Saturday we also received another cake from one of the students in our English class. So it is safe to say that we are pretty sugared out in our apartment even with four elders in it. We have a lot of cake.
Other than that the same member treated us to gogi buffet or a Korean baroque in which all we did was stuff ourselves with meat and oil. Safe to say we felt pretty greasy after words and pretty full and i think my guts hate me still.
Anyway we had an amazing special Zone conference with Elder Richards of the seventy on Thursday and i learned something big or rather it was brought to remembrance. MY dad has always been trying to tell me to in essence just do it to be a go getter and do things and figure them out. the main memory that comes to my mind is when we were building a wall downstairs in an unfinished basement and it was me and Zach and we were getting really frustrated because we had thrown up this mental block (Dad was out shopping or doing something) saying we can't build a wall we don't know how" Rather then just doing it it we got frustrated and called and Dad and had him walk us through it. We finally did it but not until he came home and helped us finish. well it is safe to say that i was hit over the head by the Spirit to just go and do things and so i now have set into motion this master language plan that will help me master Korean! muhahahaha. Thanks Dad for teaching me to be a go-getter i finally understand ( a little at least) and i becoming that kind of person!
Love Elder Craner
A little something we learned from Elder Richards
SO this is something cool which we learned from Elder Richards. Which i feel you all already know because i read your emails and i see you applying it all the time. However i want to share it anyway.
Happiness=Spirit=Act in Faith. All of these i are infinitely and directly proportional. When we are happy we have the Spirit and we act in faith. When we act in faith we have the spirit and are happy and so on. These three things are directly related if we want become happier then we act a little more in faith and we strive to have the spirit with us a little more as well. It is one eternal round. It is wonderful and i love it.
Elder Craner
Alma 7:24
September 23, 20013 Wonderful Week!
Wonderful Week
This week has been a wonderful week.
We were able to have a lunch appointment with a recent convert of the Korean branch. I realize that i never told you all about him, he has an interesting story. His name is Vincent Kim and he lives in Monterray Park in the China town there (outside of the mission). Our BRanch has tried to get him baptised for a very long time. However our previous mission kept saying no. So anyway We couldn't teach him and so President Hong went to the mission that he lives in and somehow got permission(not sure what he did) to baptise him there in MArch or April. and then had his records transferred. HOwever when we met with him this week for lunch that was the first time that he had ever met with missionaries and we made great strides in our relationship. We found out that he still drinks coffee and tea and all that he knows is that it is a good church and that he wants to be a part of it. . He comes to church and reads the Book of Mormon in church and learns the gospel there. Which is better than nothing but it worries us. SO we are going to try to see if we can start meeting with him weekly.
We have had several dinner appointments that have immensly strengthened our relationship with our branch along with our language goals. I love this branch and although the language is hard it is getting better.
Then staurday we had a miracle. We go to the library after studies to finish prepping English Class and take the stress test. When ELder JEnkins gets a call from a harmoni할머니 (Grandma aged women) and says that they are there at church building where we hold english class and that they were wondering where everyone is for class. It was 1230 two hours before class and Elder Jenkins was like uhh it starts at 230 and she is all okay we will wait. So they sat in the church for an hour and a half by themselves until we could get there at around 130. Then we had an awesome english class of 3 new people and 3 returning for there second or third time. So 6 people total in our class.! WOOO! We are talking with the Older couple after class and he asks if you can know i say that you can and he says that is a lie you can't know. Then Elder Jenkins continues to talk to him and they sincerely were asking if you could know and they wanted to know how. So we set up an appointment with them for the following Saturday before class. HOwever a little later they call and cancel because they forgot about a previous appointment. BUt She had forgotten her glasses and so SUnday we were near their house and we called them and asked if we could drop them off so we did. When we get there they invite us in and we begin to get to know them. THen we turn to gospel topics and they figure that we are mormon and they are slightly hesitant but not to much and she confronts us about Polygamy (because all Koreans still believe that Mormons still practice polygamy) So we tell her that we don't and that our fathers only have one wife each. We continue to teach a little about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and we leave them again with the promise that they can know God and He has again called a prophet to guide us these days. It seemed that they wanted to continue to meet with us but right now they are confused because they just started attending this other Presbyterian church and not sure if they could just switch again. They are lonely old grandparents who just want some friends. So we are going to do our best to get them out to church to meet our members! HOwever we are working on how fast we should work with while at the same time giving them there space so we dont run them off because that has happened before. We did leave them with a Book of mormon and a committment to read it. So we shall have to follow-up on that.
We were able to have a lunch appointment with a recent convert of the Korean branch. I realize that i never told you all about him, he has an interesting story. His name is Vincent Kim and he lives in Monterray Park in the China town there (outside of the mission). Our BRanch has tried to get him baptised for a very long time. However our previous mission kept saying no. So anyway We couldn't teach him and so President Hong went to the mission that he lives in and somehow got permission(not sure what he did) to baptise him there in MArch or April. and then had his records transferred. HOwever when we met with him this week for lunch that was the first time that he had ever met with missionaries and we made great strides in our relationship. We found out that he still drinks coffee and tea and all that he knows is that it is a good church and that he wants to be a part of it. . He comes to church and reads the Book of Mormon in church and learns the gospel there. Which is better than nothing but it worries us. SO we are going to try to see if we can start meeting with him weekly.
We have had several dinner appointments that have immensly strengthened our relationship with our branch along with our language goals. I love this branch and although the language is hard it is getting better.
Then staurday we had a miracle. We go to the library after studies to finish prepping English Class and take the stress test. When ELder JEnkins gets a call from a harmoni할머니 (Grandma aged women) and says that they are there at church building where we hold english class and that they were wondering where everyone is for class. It was 1230 two hours before class and Elder Jenkins was like uhh it starts at 230 and she is all okay we will wait. So they sat in the church for an hour and a half by themselves until we could get there at around 130. Then we had an awesome english class of 3 new people and 3 returning for there second or third time. So 6 people total in our class.! WOOO! We are talking with the Older couple after class and he asks if you can know i say that you can and he says that is a lie you can't know. Then Elder Jenkins continues to talk to him and they sincerely were asking if you could know and they wanted to know how. So we set up an appointment with them for the following Saturday before class. HOwever a little later they call and cancel because they forgot about a previous appointment. BUt She had forgotten her glasses and so SUnday we were near their house and we called them and asked if we could drop them off so we did. When we get there they invite us in and we begin to get to know them. THen we turn to gospel topics and they figure that we are mormon and they are slightly hesitant but not to much and she confronts us about Polygamy (because all Koreans still believe that Mormons still practice polygamy) So we tell her that we don't and that our fathers only have one wife each. We continue to teach a little about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and we leave them again with the promise that they can know God and He has again called a prophet to guide us these days. It seemed that they wanted to continue to meet with us but right now they are confused because they just started attending this other Presbyterian church and not sure if they could just switch again. They are lonely old grandparents who just want some friends. So we are going to do our best to get them out to church to meet our members! HOwever we are working on how fast we should work with while at the same time giving them there space so we dont run them off because that has happened before. We did leave them with a Book of mormon and a committment to read it. So we shall have to follow-up on that.
Elder Craner
September 16, 2013
Gotta love Missionary Life!
This past week has been one full of little miracles and tender mercies for us.
Tuesday was a little of alet down because of English Class and we only had 3 students show-up and that was all. Although the individual conversations that resulted helped build and strengthen these people were great. Especially between Tom (one of the advanced class students) and I, I was able to testify about keeping the law of chastity and obedience to him and their importance. It was very interesting seeing his arguments and such pitter away as we talked more and i prayed silently in my heart to be able to speak the truth to him. It was still sad to see our numbers drop so low despite our best efforts. In response to this warning alarm. My companion and i decided to try something that our WML (Ward (Branch) Mission Leader) suggested to hand things out at Korean markets. So Wednesday afternoon we did that and not only were we able to ge tour face out there we talked to people and it was great. We had several people say that they wanted to come. We also realized tat we need to be able give directions in Korean. Pretty sure that we met the pastor of another church and that was an interesting exchange. He came over all innocent and asked us for a Book of Mormon in Korean since he had one in English. However the second he had it he kind of hid it in a newspaper and walked away. We should've testified more. Gratefully the Book of Mormon is it's own witness and we pray that its power and good spirit will work on this man so that he won't attack us (if he is a pastor of a local church) since that is all the local Churches do is hate on Mormons and their polygamy. We also ran into a member of our branch who offered to take us out to dinner since we didn't have an appointment. So we took her up on it and it was a wonderful experience with her.That was another miracle and tender mercy. Us running into a member and speaking Korean with them and understanding and our relationship growing. Our branch relationship is growing exponentially right now and it is amazing.
Thursday i was able to go on splits with Elder Yoon my former compnaion and work in Korea town it was good. Interesting but good. It felt like last transfer only the location had changed. Weird.
Friday was our zone conference at the Orizaba building. Which was amazing and my expectations were met. I walked away feeling good and having some more direction in my mission. That night we went and taught Hamoud (An Arab from Saudi Arabia, Who has been studying English for the past two months can respond well and understand basic conversation. He also has ambitions to have a massive business empire all over the world. He also is planning to take the TOEFL and ILETS (Huge and hard English Proficiency Tests that universities use) in 4 months and pass it with flying colors) English and then he provided dinner for us. Mexican ingrediants Arabic style. It was pretty good actually. That was a tender mercy in the fact we hadn't eaten anything all day and we didn't have time until that night during planning to eat. We are moving slowly with him, mainly just working on English and doing our best to follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost with. We know that the situation with Arabs is sensitive and so we shall press on carefully as the Spirit directs. Also during one of out visits we had a little book exchange. He came and gave us each a Quran and we in turn gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic. So now we each have a Quran.
Sunday was a miracle day. So Saturday night we set some goals have 1 of everything (member present, other, refferral R and C, and 1 new investigator) We put our faith forward and we didnt know how it was going to happen but it did. One of President Hong's students came to church and we were able to teach her during Gospel principles and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she wants to come next week and we invited her to bring a friend, who is a Korean who speaks Spanish and is from Ecuador! Although as we work with her more since she is Mongolian (from Mongolia) we will have to hand her off but it was super cool to see the effects of faith and the miracles that resulted!
That was our week.
Elder Craner
Tuesday was a little of alet down because of English Class and we only had 3 students show-up and that was all. Although the individual conversations that resulted helped build and strengthen these people were great. Especially between Tom (one of the advanced class students) and I, I was able to testify about keeping the law of chastity and obedience to him and their importance. It was very interesting seeing his arguments and such pitter away as we talked more and i prayed silently in my heart to be able to speak the truth to him. It was still sad to see our numbers drop so low despite our best efforts. In response to this warning alarm. My companion and i decided to try something that our WML (Ward (Branch) Mission Leader) suggested to hand things out at Korean markets. So Wednesday afternoon we did that and not only were we able to ge tour face out there we talked to people and it was great. We had several people say that they wanted to come. We also realized tat we need to be able give directions in Korean. Pretty sure that we met the pastor of another church and that was an interesting exchange. He came over all innocent and asked us for a Book of Mormon in Korean since he had one in English. However the second he had it he kind of hid it in a newspaper and walked away. We should've testified more. Gratefully the Book of Mormon is it's own witness and we pray that its power and good spirit will work on this man so that he won't attack us (if he is a pastor of a local church) since that is all the local Churches do is hate on Mormons and their polygamy. We also ran into a member of our branch who offered to take us out to dinner since we didn't have an appointment. So we took her up on it and it was a wonderful experience with her.That was another miracle and tender mercy. Us running into a member and speaking Korean with them and understanding and our relationship growing. Our branch relationship is growing exponentially right now and it is amazing.
Thursday i was able to go on splits with Elder Yoon my former compnaion and work in Korea town it was good. Interesting but good. It felt like last transfer only the location had changed. Weird.
Friday was our zone conference at the Orizaba building. Which was amazing and my expectations were met. I walked away feeling good and having some more direction in my mission. That night we went and taught Hamoud (An Arab from Saudi Arabia, Who has been studying English for the past two months can respond well and understand basic conversation. He also has ambitions to have a massive business empire all over the world. He also is planning to take the TOEFL and ILETS (Huge and hard English Proficiency Tests that universities use) in 4 months and pass it with flying colors) English and then he provided dinner for us. Mexican ingrediants Arabic style. It was pretty good actually. That was a tender mercy in the fact we hadn't eaten anything all day and we didn't have time until that night during planning to eat. We are moving slowly with him, mainly just working on English and doing our best to follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost with. We know that the situation with Arabs is sensitive and so we shall press on carefully as the Spirit directs. Also during one of out visits we had a little book exchange. He came and gave us each a Quran and we in turn gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic. So now we each have a Quran.
Sunday was a miracle day. So Saturday night we set some goals have 1 of everything (member present, other, refferral R and C, and 1 new investigator) We put our faith forward and we didnt know how it was going to happen but it did. One of President Hong's students came to church and we were able to teach her during Gospel principles and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she wants to come next week and we invited her to bring a friend, who is a Korean who speaks Spanish and is from Ecuador! Although as we work with her more since she is Mongolian (from Mongolia) we will have to hand her off but it was super cool to see the effects of faith and the miracles that resulted!
That was our week.
Elder Craner
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