Happy Christmas!

Hello everyone! This is a little bit late but... MERRY CHRISTMAS & a Happy New Year! :) So sorry I haven't written in forever. Things have been absolutely crazy with the holidays, and we didn't have a P-Day last week other than Christmas. Let me tell you though, in the last 2 weeks SO much has happened.

Starting with last week we had the annual Christmas zone conference in London. It was a lot of fun because we all got to wear festive Christmas jumpers, and play games with everyone. President Stevens even sang for us! He was in the Tabernacle Choir so he's really good. It was also great to see everyone. The Christmas spirit of sharing the gift of Christ was so powerful. It's always an incredible experience to go to conferences, and get a spiritual boost for your week.  

Skipping a few days, I have a Christmas Eve miracle for you. We were walking up to the bus station in the rain and saw a young man struggling to pull 2 suitcases, and a bag through the cobblestone streets. We asked him if he needed help, and he graciously accepted after hearing we were headed to the bus station as well. We talked and got to know him a bit, learning that he had just missed his plane ride home and had had an awful morning. We also told him we were missionaries from our church. When we arrived at the bus station he turned to us amazed, telling us how he knew we were angels sent by God to him that day. The spirit was so strong as he told us that recently he'd been questioning his belief, and that he was going to make some wrong decisions that coming week. He told us how he now knew that God was aware of him, and cares about him. Such a cool guy! It was such an amazing experience to be an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands like that! :) We'll be meeting with him in the next few weeks when he gets back into town.

Although every Christmas season is wonderfully centered on the Savior, I've never had a Christmas season so purely focused on Christ till this year. Putting aside all the décor, presents, and parties, Christmas is just so clearly all about that baby born in Bethlehem a little over 2000 years ago. My Christmas was filled to the brim with people that I loved! We visited quite a few members, ate delicious food, watched the Queens speech (which was actually all about Mary & Joseph), and then got to Skype my family. Which was the highlight! :)

The rest of the week has been a bit of a blur to be honest. Saturday was Boxing Day in which the whole British population goes out shopping because there are huge sales. It's like the equivalent to Black Friday in the States. The rest of the week we've been doing a lot of finding new investigators & visiting members because we assumed either Sister Mussman or I would be leaving the area this week. :( Just yesterday however we were surprised with the news that the transfer was actually extended till next Wednesday! Yay! :) The sad news is that because our district leader is going home this week, we'll be the only missionaries in our area for a little while, and that means our district of 4 just turned to a district of 2. haha This should be interesting!

All in all it was an incredible week filled with miracles, and tender mercies from the Lord. :) Everyone, this gospel is true! It changes lives, I've seen it. And it's changed mine!

Love you all! Have a brilliant week!

Sister Rebekah Croft

p.s. Thank you SOOoo much to everyone that wrote a Christmas card, and helped my Mom make the month of December great! I loved hearing from all of you, and it meant a lot to me. 

Christmas Skype!

As per missionary tradition, Rebekah was allowed to Skype with us on Christmas. I was so worried that somehow we would have problems with the connection that I was very literally having dreams about it leading up to the big day. While most missionaries get three or four Skype calls while they are gone, we will only get two...because Rebekah left a week and a half after Mothers Day and will be home right before Christmas next year. So though I'm not complaining, I certainly didn't want anything to go wrong with the Skype...especially seeing as this was our first one, and the first time I'd seen/heard Rebekah in something other than pics since she left seven long months ago!

I sent her our Skype info and also FaceTime info as well in case we needed to go that route, and then hoped for the best. On Christmas Eve I received and official invite to connect with Rebekah on Skype. That made me feel a lot better...even if it did make me cry. (I know, I know...I'm a bawl baby these days.) And then Christmas morning there was a message on Skype wishing us a Merry Christmas and reminding us that she'd call/Skype around 8:00 PM England time, 1:00 PM Utah time. 

She was about 25 minutes late getting connected, but it came through just fine. Hallelujah! The picture got a bit fuzzy at times but for the most part looked really good. Only once did the connection fail entirely and Rebekah had to call us back again.

Some odds and ends (or bits and bobs as she calls them) in regards to our conversation:

* Rebekah and her companion were Skyping on their iPads from the church which is only about 2 minutes walk away from their flat. Rebekah was in the foyer and Sis. Mussman was in another room...the primary room, maybe? 

* Rebekah, Sis Mussman and two other elders had spent their Christmas day at a members house...a member who has friended me on FaceBook and who kindly sent me some pictures. They have been Rebekah's family away from home while she is in Canterbury and I have been overwhelmed with how kind they have been to her, how much they love her. 

* She doesn't have a British accent necessarily but she definitely speaks differently now. Her words are very precise, she enunciates very crisply. 

* We caught her using British words frequently. Examples:

          When asking about her long hair she commented, "I haven't had it cut since I got here and the ends are just rubbish."

          Talking about her Christmas tree, "We decorated it with twinkly lights and baubles."

          We noticed she wasn't in a skirt and asked if she'd been able to dress more casually that day to which she made a comment about it being nice to wear "trousers."

          We asked her what she ate for breakfast, "Oh I usually eat porridge most mornings." 

          Often we found ourselves talking over each other which made it hard for her to hear and so if we'd asked her a question she'd say, "Pardon?" We teased her a bit and she said that when she would say "What?" in England, people would correct her and say it was much more proper and polite to say "Pardon?" 

* Rebekah showed us her mission tags which are magnetic! And she also has a few that clip as well, but no pins. She said the elders do have those pocket protector ones but they don't like to wear them because they feel nerdy when they do. ;)

* She went into more detail about each of the companions she'd had up to this point...what they were like, what she had learned about each of their cultures (Swiss, African, British, etc) and how she related to each one in different ways. (She's absolutely adored all of them.)

* She talked about listening to the Queen's Christmas speech that afternoon and said that it was a tradition for everyone to tune in. I listened to it myself on-line later that evening and it was very interesting, actually. The tradition goes back to 1932.

* Right near the end Rebekah and her companion traded iPads for a few minutes and we got to chat with Sis. Mussman. She is absolutely delightful! I can see why Rebekah loves her so much. 

* We decided to have a family prayer before signing off and we had Rebekah say it. It was a very special highlight and I'm so glad we did it! Even if it meant that I had tears pouring down my face.

* All in all we were able to skype with Rebekah for 1 hour and 50 mins. It was wonderful and truly the best part of Christmas Day. I miss my girl so much but oh, I am so proud of her! 

 And the screen shot Rebekah took from her end....

Joy to the World

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season just as much as I am.

Christmas really does have a magical feeling, and a special spirit

about it! It's not just the beautiful lights on the houses, carolers

in the streets, or delicious smells of hot cocoa & Christmas pudding;

although that's all wonderful as well. But it's the happiness that

comes with all the holiday cheer. Underneath all the tinsel, and

decoration there's a lot of meaning! On Sunday night we had a

fantastic stake carol concert, and for part of it all the primary kids

took turns hanging decorations on a tree, and then explaining what

they represented. A star for the star of Bethlehem, a wreath for never

ending love, a candy cane for the shepherds crook, and so on and so

on. It was just a cool experience to realize that most every tradition

of Christmas has a root, and that root is Jesus Christ. Awe, I just

love this time of the year! :) Sorry, I went off on a bit of a tangent

there... Christmas does that to you sometimes... ;) Let me start over.

These last 7 days have been really good! It had its ups and downs like

always, but turned out to be a really fun and different sort of week.

Since a lot of our investigators are students at Kent University, we

knew we'd be losing quite a few of them for a while because of holiday

break next week. We decided that although it was freezing outside, we

needed to find new investigators. And fast! So we bundled up and went

finding. Talking with people on the streets, and visiting people who

were being taught in the past. As we were doing this we knocked on the door of one

of Sister Mussman's former investigators, A. We had no idea if she'd

even still be interested, but she opened up the door and gave us both

huge hugs while inviting us into her home. We shared a short message

with her and the Spirit was so strong in that room!! She told us that

although she wasn't in a good place to join the church earlier that

year, she now wanted to learn more again! :) That she needed to find

the truth, and a good community for her and her baby son. They are the

cutest and I'm thrilled to be teaching them!

The sad news of the week is that on Wednesday Elder & Sister Jones

(the senior couple serving in Canterbury) packed their bags and headed

home after finishing their mission. :( Oh how I love those two! I'm

going to miss them SO much!! They would always treat us like their

grandchildren, and so I got to have adopted British grandparents for a

little while. :) They've honestly made such a huge impact on this ward,

and I've learned so much from them these last 9 weeks! Good news is

that Elder and Sister Tuttle from none other than Kaysville Utah will

be taking their place, and they are fantastic as well! :)

In other exciting news of the week:

*J (our investigator who's been being taught off and on for 3

years) has accepted a baptismal date! Woohoo!

*Another one of our investigators S is working towards baptism in

January. :)

*Sister Mussman and I put our Christmas tree up and will hopefully

decorate it tonight.

*We went to the White Cliffs of Dover today with our district and

absolutely froze, but enjoyed the beautiful view.

*We also went to "Even Song" at the Canterbury Cathedral which was

absolutely heavenly. The acoustics in that place are amazing!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! I'm actually not sure when I'll

email again... But just in case.. MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Love you all! :)

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft

A Christmas Post Card

Hello one and all! 

Hope everyone has had a wonderful first week of December wherever you may be. :) Now that it's "officially" the Christmas season Canterbury has turned into a winter wonderland (without the whole snow part..) The city center is filled with twinkling lights, a Christmas market with traditional English/European christmas gifts, troubadours on the streets singing all the classic holiday songs, and delicious hot cocoa and roasted nuts. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming, because this place is honestly taken out of a Christmas post card! And I love it here!

My week has been crazy, just to put it in one word. It was pretty different from usual because Sister Mussman was sick, and I wasn't feeling 100% either. We ended up taking it pretty easy, staying in for a couple days, and then going to see a doctor to make sure Sister Mussman didn't have anything serious. The good news is she's fully recovered! Yay! 

Just to mention a few cool things that did happen this week though..

*On Friday we got to attend and help serve food at the wedding of Megan & Gerry (two of the YSA's in the ward) at the chapel. Let me just say.. it was so BEAUTIFUL! Both Sister Mussman and I haven't attended a wedding before so it was especially exciting! We spent the day serving various courses to the guests, washing a bajilion and a half dishes, throwing flower petals at the newlyweds, and having a lot of fun with everyone there.    

*On Saturday we had Zone Meeting! This Zone Meeting was really focused on the new Christmas video that came out 7 days ago- "A Savior is Born". If anyone hasn't seen it yet, go right now and watch it! It's such an amazing video that helps us refocus and remember what Christmas is really about. It's been so much fun to stop people in the streets and show them the video, and then to see the smiles on their faces when they feel the sweet spirit that comes with watching it. :) A lot of people out there don't know that a little over 2000 years ago a Savior was born for them! But I know that for a fact, and it's such an incredible feeling to let others know.   

*Yesterday we had Stake Conference. This was my first Stake Conference as a missionary so I was really excited. :) Also, our investigator S was able to come as well, even though it was about a 40 minute drive away. Something special about this particular meeting is that there was a short lesson before the main conference started for all the recent converts,and investigators. President & Sister Stevens and President Hunt (stake president) taught it so it was super spiritual! They each bore testimony of the Book of Mormon, and just how real and inspired it is, which is exactly what S needed to hear. :) Another highlight of the conference was the closing song. We sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives", and for some weird reason it was the first time that I really payed attention to the lyrics. As 400 or more of us stood and sang these words the spirit hit me like a brick wall, and I realized once again that Jesus really is our Savior & Redeemer! And most of all He does live today! 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week full of holiday adventures! Sorry if this email was really boring... but if you read the whole thing, I'm impressed. haha. Love you all!

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft 

At Megan and Gerry's wedding.

The library we email at. It's pretty amazing!

Our zone meeting consisting of lots of Americans, New Zealanders and Australians. They're great! :)