April 7, 2014

                     This week was crazy. so much happened! so I shall start at the beginning.

      Monday we were supposed to teach Marjan and Ali. they ended up cancelling our appointment. sad but because of them we were at the Visitor's Center for the temple and in walked a Persian man. Who was visiting for two weeks and didn't really speak English. So what brought him to the Temple was that he is travelling around looking for a religion and he saw the temple and he kept wanting to come in but every time he just felt to tired to come until that day that we were there. So we gave him a tour of the Visitor Center (it is a good thing we are there all of the time and know a lot of the things they have there as well as we are jokingly referred to as 'Visitor Center Elders'. Not our fault that it is such a good place to meet investigators since they are kinda a little paranoid about other Persians seeing them convert)  and watched the Joseph Smith video. to which we had to pause and translate. we just did super simple summaries of what was happening because well our Persian is still improving. That was incredible God wanted him to find out about our church and so we did our best that night.

     Tuesday another miracle with some visitors to America but these were Japanese. They walked into our English class and they really enjoyed hearing about prophets as well as the idea they could hear him in Japanese and so we pointed them to lds.org. We also gave them a church tour and asked them to learn more from missionaries in Japan that actually speak their language. So we gathered what information we could and then we passed it off to friends in the Tokyo Japan Mission. Gotta love the work of the Lord happening everywhere and what a blessing it is to live in a world with missionaries that speak so many languages!

     Wednesday we had lunch with Hessam and Nahid. two of our investigators and we read the Book of Mormon with them afterwards. Alma 34 and it was super good with them. Nahid came to theSaturday morning session of conference and Hessam came to the priesthood session. although they didn't broadcast the talks in Persian. we focused a lot on how they felt as they watched it and hopefully as we meet them in the future we will take conference to them and show them how to watch it themselves. After our lesson with them we went down to see Sam and while we were there Eli came in! She is out of the hospital! She is still super weak and struggling but she is getting better under the protection and care of her sister. So to help cheer and lighten the mood we sang the 1 verse of I am a Child of God that we know in Persian. they loved it and we also gave them a testimony of Joseph Smith pamphlet in Persian.

      Thursday we were able to meet with Marjan and Ali and commit them to come to General Conference and she is helping us learn persian and us her english. so we showed them the new exhibit at the visitor Center. The teachings of Christ through the eyes of a child. super cool it is drawings from children in our stake and at the near-by catholic school. it is super cool.  they loved it and we talked about temples with them. They came to the Saturday afternoon conference.

     Friday We went and saw Sam again and this time we were able to teach a lesson to two people in his restaurant. It was super awesome to see Sam bear his testimony and although the two really enjoyed the talk they didn't really commit to more although they said that they would come to the Visitor Center. also the man was like 20 but he totally looked 30. Persians are so unfair when it comes to age, worse than Asians. when they are older they totally look younger than they actually are and when they are younger they look older than they are. It isn't fair.

      Funny story- so we were on our way home and we were stuck in traffic when this motorcycle come up real close to the driver side and glares at Elder Fry and then he falls back and then he comes up and does it again, so Elder Fry kind of waves unsuredly. He then falls behind us again and then come up on my side looks at and glares at me. by this time we were starting to kind of freak out and wonder what was this guy trying to tell us. So he falls back and floors his bike and then smack the mirror on my side of the car with his hand and then drives off. The back casing of mirror popped off but that is all that happened. We were so shocked that all we could do was laugh and we laugh we did. 

That is it for the week.

Elder Craner

March 13, 2014

    
3 week update

      I apologize for my laziness in emailing everyone. Life has been good. So does everyone know that transfers has happened in the Persian program? well it has we have switched companions! that is all that has happened and really can happen with us. I am with Elder Fry now.

     Sunday we had an awkward success with Marjan and Ali. so they didn't come to church. So we were going to stop by with a note because we had just reconnected with them the day before by dropping in on them and we have an appointment tonight with them as well. however we were sitting outside of there apartment writing the note and we had just finished when Marjan come walking along and sees us in the car. we were caught red-handed. she laughed at us and we talked for a little bit and then she said that they would see us tonight at the temple for us to walk around and talk to them about the church. Super sweet but super awkward being caught red-handed. They are awesome

      On Saturday a man from the translation department came to our mission to get a feeling for how the Persian book of Mormon would be accepted by members and non-members. So we drummed up as many people as we could on short notice and then we went. He shared with us 2 Nephi 31-33. It was super cool and we got to hear news on a projected release date.....early next year:( sad i won't be on my mission for it but i am still super excited. Also can say we helped in the smallest way possible by sitting in a room as a man gathered info from our investigators. However the power in those translated words that the church is so careful about was incredible.       You could almost see it sometimes as we were reading it and discussing it. 

we also learned somethings about translations of the book of Mormon. they try to stay as close word for word to the original English text and they try to keep as much of the awkwardness of the English text as well. syntax and word order can change but everything else there are quite some stringent rules on the translations.

      Hessam and Nahiid are amazing. Nacer (the husband) is still in Iran but he is safe and well and working to support his family. however we have been meeting with Hessam and NAhiid every week and this past week we started seeing them at English class as well. So we are able to help them much more readily now. especially  since they are both seeking to receive that testimony of the restored gospel. This week we asked them if they wanted to be baptized and Hessam said yes! Nahiid said not yet she still hasn't received her answer yet. We are super excited for them and our prayer and hope is that Nacer will be able to baptise Hessam and Nahiid when he gets back home.

       We also had temple service this week and it felt so good just to go and work in the son physically as we shoveled and raked and killed slugs. which note by the way  slugs are weird and fascinating. never saw them in Arizona so still newish to me.

      We have been doing our best to contact all the people possible but we only have one and a half streets in the entire mission that Persians come to for shopping and such. So we are seen there a lot and we are becoming part of the backdrop. so we are trying to find new ways to contact and find. It is super fun all the time just to talk to people and meet new people everyday.

       My new companion is a super boss like all of the time because well he just is. I totally look up to him. he is super personable and open and funny as well as buff. i am really looking forward to the next few transfers with him.

      So the Persian new year started and we threw a huge party for it. I'll send pictures soon. Anyway it was so cool we had more Persians there than members and white people. We totally were able to see some Persian dancing and singing. super fun and awesome to see our investigators totally kind of relax and enjoy themselves so عید شما مبارک just because it lasts 13 days the party so this is still valid.

I love you all and wish the best and God is great!

Elder Craner