P-day sometimes does mean Play-day—email from 4-16-12

sorry forgot to record again! I'm losing my brain!

We have played and played and played today. So now I am finally getting the time to email. We went and played sports with our zone today and it was so much fun. I love this life.

So my week...well...I can't quite remember. They are whizzing by. We have one family we are working with that I feel like they are family to me. She and I have a sister-like relationship. When I volunteered her to read in Relief Society yesterday she leaned over and whispered in my ear that she was going to undercook my chicken. She's so hilarious. Well her husband has been on and off investigating the Church, but never working with us. Well he has sat in on the last couple of lessons we have had with their son who is turning 8 soon (the bishop asked us to help him prepare for baptism since he didn't grow up in the church) and last night the dad committed to be baptized as well!!!! I couldn't believe it. He is honestly getting into it this time. I am so excited to continue working with them.

We had our zone conference which was just amazing in so many ways. I learned so much from all the people who gave trainings. It just amazes me that 20ish year old young men can grow so much. It really impresses me. President talked a lot about our goal of baptisms for the year. And I just couldn't believe how strong I felt that it is achievable. We have had a slow start on it as a mission. But the Lord can work miracles and we know that anything is possible with His help.

Oh, and we surprised our ward mission leaders wife on Thursday by showing up in our service clothes and asking her to put us to work. She is due... well right now (Sister Surtees saw on fb that she is in the hospital having the baby) and we felt like we needed to serve them for all they do for us. She reluctantly let us in the door at which point we tore through the house and cleaned the whole thing in an hour. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

The craziest part of my week was the phone call I got Saturday night...we were sitting in our office at the end of the night after we had just finished planning our next day. The phone rand and the call was from President Barry, so I freaked out and threw the phone at Sister Surtees to answer. The first thing he did was ask to speak to me. Which only confirmed my fears....I am training. I get to say goodbye to my wonderful seasoned companion and welcome a brand new sister to the mission. I am excited, but terrified. It is such a big responsibility to help a new missionary learn the ropes of the field. I had hoped to spend the mission as a junior companion. But no luck there. I am excited to dig into the training program studies again though and learn with her.

In the Book of Mormon I was reading today in Helaman 5 where Helaman is telling his sons why he named them what he did and he explained how he gave them the namesakes that he did so that they would try to live up to the reputations of those who they were named after. It had me pondering a lot how I live up to the name I have and the people who went before. It gave me a lot to think about and what I can do better at.

Well, it's spring cleaning time? What changes are you going to make(be)?

I sure do love y'all!

love,

Sister McCracken

Happy Easter—email from 04-09-12

Well...wow. This week has been a crazy week. It hasn't felt like we worked in our area much...oh yeah...because we didn't. We had 5 different doctors appointments to go to for Sister Surtees. And then two trade offs in other areas. Oh and meetings and church. So we got to work together in our area for...well...Thursday evening? hahaha WOW!!!! But I love it. We have had some unique experiences through all of it. Sister Surtees Dr's appointment Monday was one of those. The nurse who was taking care of her noticed her nametag and said "I was raised in that Church." And so we asked a few questions and then it went back to medical stuff. Then as she walked out to get the Dr for his part she said "you're being here makes me feel like I need to go back." Then when she came back later and told Sister Surtees the tests she would be doing this week it scared Sister Surtees a little and she started to cry some. And that's when the dear nurse started to cry too. So they had a spiritual bonding moment and talked about what had her scared. And Sister Surtees told her "This is why we had to come all the way to Orange Park" Because for some mysterious reason even though there are specialists in Beaches we got sent to Orange Park 45 minutes away. And the nurse started to cry again and say " I know God sent you here for a reason." So we hope that we can help her go back to Church and begin feeling the blessings from that again. She was so sweet!

In all of our running around we still got a lot done. This biggest moment of the week was Jordan and Kiara's baptism. Missionaries have been working with the family since Halloween and I've been working with them since I got here in December. I feel like their my own family. So watching the two of them be baptized together yesterday was a huge moment for us and I was so happy to see this family starting the path. The sad part of all of it though is this...Kaloni their dad got sent out to sea the day before the baptism. His ship got called up for duty ahead of time and he got sent out for a while. But they still really wanted to go through with the baptism on Easter Sunday. So the Bishop baptized them instead. It was such a wonderful day! And the Elders that we share a building with had a baptism too! So it was a baptism filled day! I love days like that!

Then the Relief Society president called us in the afternoon and asked who we were going to for Easter Dinner...Sister Surtees sheepishly replied that no one had invited us. Sister Alexander said "Thank the Spirit for prompting me to call you then!" And they invited us to join them in the family Easter Dinner. They live in a country and yacht club here. I was BLOWN AWAY by the sizes on the houses and the yachts everyone had! Then we got to their house and we were taken into a fancy dining room with china and silver and goblets. I felt like a little kid in a palace and felt sooooo awkward. They looked like a Harvard scholars type family and we didn't know what to expect. But when the joke "What do you call ten rabbits walking backwards? ..... a receding hairline!" was told, we knew we would be comfortable. They were hilarious and fun to be with. I am so grateful she called us and fed us!

Oh, and I talked in sacrament meeting yesterday. They asked me to talk on the true meaning of Easter. It was a lot of pressure. But I had a really good week studying the history of Easter and the week of Christ's atonement and it's relation to the Passover. It was mind blowing!
Wow...this has gotten long...here are the pictures from the baptism!

The first two are Bishop Harding, Jordan, Kiara, and us! YAY!

Oh and we taught a boy the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Easter Eggs this week! It was so much fun! I wrote the basic principles of the gospel on the eggs in white crayon and then we put them in the dye and pulled them out as we taught each principle. So here's some pictures from that activity.

Oh... and the eggs around my neck...well...I was bored!

I love y'all! Keep up the change! It's a painful process sometimes but how do we expect our lives to get better unless we be the change once in a while?

love,

Sister McCracken

April Conference Weekend—email from 04-02-12

Woooh!!! Today has been a crazy day. So once again, y'all are getting a shorty because I still have to write the mission president. We've been at labs and doctors offices all morning for Sister Surtees. She's not dying, I promise, she just hasn't been at the top of her game the last few weeks and the mission doctors treatments didn't work so he referred her to a specialist. So we have been running a million miles an hour even though all she is supposed to be doing is rest. AAAHHH!!! I'm trying to hurry so I can get her home to rest though.

We have had a pretty average week as far as missionary work goes. We had a trade-off at the end of the week, so we got double the work done in our area for two days. And then of course there was conference! Wow, I learned so much from it all. I just love hearing them speak. Watching the MTC choir made us laugh. They all looked so young and rested (haha). We just laughed to ourselves and said they have no idea what the next 18 months to 2 years has in store for them. They were definitely blessed to be in the presence of the Prophet. 

I don't have any pictures to send from this last week. Sorry about that. I'll work on it! 

I hope as Easter comes that we can all remember the change that Jesus Christ was for all mankind. He set the example, saved our souls, and made it possible for us to live again. He is the ultimate change maker! Let's try to be like Him.

love, 

Sister McCracken

ps tell President Clark I say HI! next time you see him. And I will for sure talk to Brother Parkinson for you Dad!

Another Week in Paradise—email from 03-26-12

So I recorded a lot of my week last week with the voice recorder. It
has just been a hilarious and miraculous week. So I told you all about
it on there. Listen to then in number order and that will be a
chronological following of my week.
This week was a crazy week. We lost essentially all of the people we
were teaching the first of the week. Either they dropped us or we
dropped them. It was very disappointing. But we knew we would be
blessed and we just needed to keep working. Well we found 5 new people
to teach this week! That is an amazing number!!!! And some of them
really seem like they are just going to latch on to all of this. So we
are really excited for them.
We had to say goodbye to Elder and Sister Barrus last week. That was
really hard. For a bit we didn't think we were actually going to get
to say goodbye before they left. We called them Wednesday, but they
had already turned in their mission phone so we had no way of reaching
them. I knew they had a personal phone too, so I finally broke down
and asked a member who knew it if they would tell them we wanted to
say bye if they have a chance. She texted us back with their number.
So we called them Friday morning and the first thing Elder Barrus said
was "It's my granddaughters!!! I was wondering if you'd get our
Wyoming number and call us!" It made my day! So they came and said
goodbye to us that afternoon. It was hard! I sure do love them!
We had two trade-offs this week, so we spent a lot of time out of our
area again. But it was really fun working with the other sisters and I
learned a lot from them. I love getting the opportunity to work with
so many different sisters. Having my companion be a Sister Leader was
definitely a blessing. This week we are sticking to our area so that
will be exciting.
Oh so the voice recordings are all pretty hilarious. The last one is
more to Dad, but it's so amazing you all have to listen to it to!
Heavenly Father blesses me with so many tender mercies!

One is just us being goofy companions...and the other is when Elder
and Sister Barrus came to say goodbye to us.

They were officially no
longer missionaries so he immediately jumped back into his old
clothes. Silly old cowboy. :) I love them so much. I told them I'm
going to come live with them and learn how to ranch when I get
home...and I'm pretty serious about that!

It's springtime here! I love how everything is so fresh and new! It's
all green and sprouting here! It makes me think of how we can be the
change! ;) And Sister Surtees and I realized this week that sometimes
you need to step back and allow the change to happen in your life. So
there's my thought on that!
I love y'all!
love,
Sister McCracken

CRAZINESS!!!—email from 03-19-12

Our day has been insane! And I didn't even think I was going to get a chance to write this week. So this is going to be a short one.

We have had a busy crazy week this week. A lot of issues came with trying to get bikes. A....lot... But end of the story is, that a member took them yesterday and fixed them up for us today so we should be fine from here on out to bike when we need to. The hilarious part is we have been super frugal with miles, and working so hard to get bikes. And we got a letter on Friday that said we got an increase in our miles so now we have way more than we need for the last week and a half of the month. YAY!

So I'm just gonna send the audio and the describe the pics.

Pic one...we were both sick last week. blah

she's eating my name tag!!

our "beautiful" feet!

my new hair!!!

SISTER GILBERT!!!!!!! She just came out this transfer! And she and I were friends at the LDSBC and had a bunch of classes together!!! I'm so excited to have her in the mission. And I get to see her this weekend when we go on tradeoffs with them. YAY!

Well, sorry for not a lot of info! LOVE YA!

be the change!

love,

Sister McCracken

Time flies when you’re fighting Satan-email from 03-12-12

That's how the saying goes right? ....ohhh....it's not? oh well!

Anyway, it's been a good week here. It's been another one of those weeks that I don't even remember what happened because it went by so fast! And we were even in area the whole week this time! Crazy! We walked a lot more last week to do some contacting and that was an adventure. My poor feet are sore. So when I was reading in Mosiah about "how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who publish" this message (or something close to that). I thought of how not beautiful my feet were and that he must have been trying to be funny 'cause I doubt their feet were any prettier than mine! haha

Have I told you by chance that gnats bite here? Yeah, that was a surprise for me too. Oh, and did you know that their bites itch ten times more than mosquito bites and actually turn to purplish black bruises varying from dime sized to quarter sized to one that was about half the length of a dollar bill on my shin? Yeah...they do...It's fun! It scared me the first time and I called the mission doctor. Then I found out that it's normal and to buy some hydrocortisone cream. Pretty crazy! And they have no qualms with flying under my skirt and biting all around my knees too...Super fun!!!

We've just continued working with Joy and her boys this week and they are progressing so well! I can't remember much anything else of note from the week.

Oh yeah! We did service on Saturday. We went to this one sister's house to help with a yard cleanup job. I figured it would be the normal yard cleanup. Nope!!! The whole back yard was an overgrown jungle of plants. WOW!!! So the high priest group leader gave each of us big trimmers and said "Cut a path and clean it up!" So we did! It was hard labor too fighting with the vines running everywhere! But we had a lot of fun. I don't have pictures this week, but I will send some next week. If you want to see one of me in the jungle you can read my comp's blog at almondsofjoy.blogspot.com. Part of her being an online missionary is that she writes a blog. And she wrote a really good post about our yard project. My shoulder still hurts from yanking the vine system out of trees and out of the ground. It's the craziest yard work I've ever done. At one point Sister Surtees said she wanted to be a landscaper maybe after this project. I laughed at her.

Well, I've got to go!

I'm just gonna be simple and say be the change! (I even saw it decaled on a car window the other day :) )

love,

Sister McCracken

SUCCESS! --email from 03-05-12

TIFANNI WAS BAPTIZED!!!!! You have no idea how much of a miracle this was. Elder and Sister Barrus, the senior couple in our ward, found their family about this time last year. And yesterday, Elder Barrus was able to baptize her. Just weeks before he and his wife go home. It was so amazing! Even the mission president came. Tiffani looked so beautiful and they're family just felt so much more complete afterwards. I love them so much! I love those kids like their my own nieces and nephews. And I love her like a sister. I am so happy to see her make this choice for her life. And her husband has gotten active in the last year and will baptize their children in April. How amazing is that?!?! This is what missionary work is about! Bringing families together. :)

I can't even remember the rest of the week...oh yea. I got to play with a monkey!!! Two of them actually. A lady had two little marmosets. One kept grabbing my nose and pulling me in close to the cage. Then the sister that I was on trade-offs with read the health guide the next day and text our phone and told me to read that page. I read it...I'm supposed to avoid monkeys... oops... and dogs! Which I already try to! But every house in Florida has at least one dog. So I'm failing at avoiding dogs thus far. haha

I got to ride a tandem bike last week! In a dress!!! hahaha it was hilarious. The sister's area that we traded off in last week has a tandem bike. And Sister Capua and I were on bike while I was there. It was so obvious that when we got back to the parking lot at the apartment and were putting it on the bike rack of the car a man walked up and asked if we were Mormon missionaries. We laughed and said yes. He said "I knew it! I told my friend when I saw you in dresses on that bike that you were missionaries!" It turns out he's a member in the Singles Ward in the stake and his friend is a nonmember he wants the sisters to teach! Miracle!!! That's what you get when you ride a tandem bike in a dress!

Sister Surtees and I had another miracle last week. We set baptism dates with a single mom and her two boys!!! And they came to church yesterday and loved it! After church last night they told us "I'm a Mormon" It was so cute. I love them!

Basically a lot happened in a really short amount of time. Which I love! Sorry, my time is short so I've got to go!

The pictures are from the baptism

And the other is a roach that I killed. It kind of exploded... We have a bit of a bug problem in our apartment. And we've gone on some killing raids recently.

Remember I came out here because I wanted to BE THE CHANGE! Now you do it too! A revolution starts with one person, right? So be a revolution in your part of the world!

love y'all!

Sister McCracken

ps. sorry I was late emailing. We went to zone p-day so sister surtees could play sports with the elders.