The Hands of Christ

Hello everyone!

I hope that you have all had a wonderful week, and that everyone enjoyed the end of January! If you have snow, count yourself very lucky because I've been waiting to build a snowman, and throw a snowball for ages. Sadly, the closest to a snow flake I've seen is lots and lots of rain. Well, one can always hope that February will bring snow right..? :) We will see!

Now that you've gotten the non important weekly weather update... (sorry about that) This week was really fantastic! :) Nothing earth shaking, or mind blowing, but some really amazing things happened! 

Just to mention a few cool stories of the week:

Sooo Britannia ward is the land of recent converts, because there have been so many baptisms in the past year. And so Sister Wai & I get to teach them every week for a year! This week we've been teaching a lot about the Atonement and how the Saviors hands lift can us from anything that we are going through as long as we accepts His help. That fact that He has felt every single pain, heartache, sickness, and sin that we've ever felt, and will ever feel, and that He chose to do so because of His love for each one of us. It's amazing!  As we were teaching this quite a few times this week I couldn't help but be thankful for the huge sacrifice that He gave! It's what makes everything in this gospel possible, but sometimes we get stuck on the tiny details instead of remembering what's most important. 

One of my favorite quotes about the Atonement from Jeffery R. Holland is this- "Because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so."

On Friday we got to sing on the step of the Hyde Park chapel! :) It's something that they used to do all the time, but I missed it when I was in Canterbury... So it was so fun to sing some of my favorite hymns and see people stop mid stride and look up to see the chapel name, sometimes stopping to talk with other missionaries on the streets. Music is my favorite way to share the gospel! It's great!

On Sunday while we were on shift at the VC in the morning, the sweetest English lady walked through the doors. She told me that she had grown up in a small village that had an LDS church in it, and that many of her friends had joined the church as she was growing up. She had always walked passed the church and had wondered, but had never walked inside. While she was walking down Exhibition Road she saw the Hyde Park Chapel, and decided that she'd walked past an LDS church one too many times without going inside and asking questions. We ended up talking for over an hour, and the spirit was super strong! We talked about Heavenly Fathers love and his plan for us, the restoration of the gospel and Joseph Smith, and much much more. When she was walking out the door with a Book of Mormon in hand I felt like I'd known her much longer then an hour. :) Such a tender mercy! Another little miracle of the day was that S, our recent recent convert, brought 3 of his Chinese friends to church. We've already been teaching two of them, and the third is also interested in learning about the gospel! :) Talk about super member missionary work! YES! Later that night we got to go to a dinner appointment at H's flat, which also made the day great! In a YSA ward you don't get many dinner appointments.. poor university students. I understand!

Hope that you all have a great week! :) Thanks for everything that you have done for me! The prayers, the support. It means the world. You are all the best!

Much Love,

Sister Rebekah Croft

The couple in the middle are the Hulet's...the new directors of the Hyde Park Chapel Visitor's Centre, now that the Cardall's have finished their service and gone home.

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Speaking of the Cardalls...I had the opportunity to go to their Homecoming yesterday in Salt Lake City. Sister Cardall sent me a friend request on Facebook as soon as Rebekah arrived in London and has sent me multiple messages or comments about how Rebekah has been doing. According to Rebekah, they also updated her occasionally on various things I had posted on Facebook. So though Sister Cardall and I have talked back and forth virtually, we had never actually met in person until yesterday. I was there early and noticed that Elder and Sister Cardall were standing near the back of the chapel greeting friends and family as they came in so I decided to say hello. As soon as I introduced myself, Sister Cardall pulled me into a huge hug and we both got a bit emotional as we talked about Rebekah....how much she loves and admires and misses them, and how much they love and adore her. Elder Cardall said that it was a bit strange talking to me...it felt like he was talking to Rebekah, we sounded so much alike, and we joked about how Rebekah is my mini-me. He told me how thrilled he was that Rebekah was serving in the Britannia ward and that he was going to share some experiences from that ward in his talk. So it was actually such fun to recognize so many names and stories that Rebekah has also shared. 

I found myself wiping away tears the entire meeting. I will always and forever love the Cardalls for welcoming Rebekah to her mission and the big city of London. They took care of her, watched out for her, encouraged her, taught her, and truly loved her. They went out of their way to get to know not only her, but also her family so they knew how best to help her. They were aware of some of the struggles our family has faced this past year and Sister Cardall even took the time yesterday to encourage and lift me. I will never be able to thank them enough!  

I'm officially 8 months old

Hello loved ones! 

It was my 8 month birthday on Wednesday! :) I can't remember if I've explained this before but.. all the missionaries count the time they've been on missions by celebrating month birthdays. Every month it's your "___ month birthday." It's a fun tradition! I really can't believe that I've been a missionary for 8 months now though! Oh my goodness, time flies! Honestly, 8 months have gone past in the blink of an eye. This week went by in something similar, because it seems like just I just wrote all of you. Absolute craziness!

It was quite the eventful week. Starting with Tuesday, when Sister Wai & I got a message from a girl in China saying that she'd like to be baptized this Saturday! She told us that she had been investigating the church for over 3 years now, and that she had even been taught by the Britannia Sisters in the past. Long story short, she arrived on Friday we taught her for a very long time to review all the lessons, and then she was interviewed by President Stevens. Although she has one of the strongest desires to be baptized that I've ever seen, the outcome of the baptismal interview was that it would be better for her to be baptized in Shanghai. She is the sweetest thing, and I'm excited for her to make this special step in her life in the next month! :) Also on Tuesday, the Hulets arrived!! We went a few days without any visitors center directors, and it was super weird... especially because everyone was grieving Elder & Sister Cardall leaving to go home, but Elder & Sister Hulet from Upland, California are here now and they are fantastic! I haven't got to serve around them too much yet, but I'm already excited to see what exciting events the next few months hold for the visitors center. 

Wednesday was a day full of meetings and interviews. It's always exciting to have interviews with President & Sister Stevens for 2 reasons. First, Sister Stevens always makes the most delicious brownies served with milk. And second, I always learn so much from both of them! We talked a lot about the Atonement, and what it means to us. It's actually something I've been thinking and studying a lot lately so it was perfect! It means more and more to me every time I think about it though! The fact that the Savior has felt every pain, every hurt, sickness, and sin. And that he suffered through it because of His immense love for us. The Atonement means so much more to me than I can even express through words! Also on Wednesday we had an official world wide missionary conference. Can I just say- AMAZING!! It was so incredible to feel united with all the missionaries all around the world, and to be taught by the apostles! :) Although I took bunches and bunches of notes, one thing in particular that stood out to me was when Neil A. Anderson talked about always having Christ's name on our lips. That we should always be testifying of Him, and his redeeming sacrifice. Wow, I love the Savior! He is real, and he is here for all of us!

Skipping the quite average Thursday, Friday was an incredible day! We got to teach two of our investigators back to back in the morning. First I, who I actually taught before I left for Canterbury three months ago. She is the most genuine seeker of the truth, and I absolutely love her! Then we were going to teach S's (our recent converts) friend, and she surprised us by bringing another friend to the lesson! Talk about an amazing miracle! :) We taught about the restoration of the gospel, and S got to share his pure & strong testimony just being baptized less than 3 weeks ago. 

Saturday was Sister Wai's birthday!! Wahoo! We started out the morning with the VC training meeting, and then K (one of the YSA) made us all the most delicious porridge! He actually wants to open up a porridge restaurant, so we call him The Porridge Master, although I'm not sure how fond he is of the name yet.. We spent most of the rest of the day teaching C, the girl from China. Then while we were on shift, we threw a mini surprise birthday party, and the AP's made a cheese cake with candles to blow out and everything. It was a good day! :)

Lastly, Sunday was yesterday. The good news is that we had many of our friends come to church, so that was great! The sad news is that a few of the Chinese members are headed back to China this next week, and so it was their last Sunday here in London! I'm going to miss these wonderful people that I've come to know and love. We were invited to a goodbye party/dinner after church, and because they have been telling me so much about traditional Hot Pot we ate that. And they weren't raving about it for nothing.. it was DELICIOUS! 

So, that's my week in a not so small nutshell. I hope that you all had a marvelous week! Just know that I love you all! 

Love, Sister Croft

(The Chinese members gave me a Chinese name- Ta Li Li) Now I just have to pronounce it correctly. ;) haha

 Hot Pot party! These people are so great!

 Starbucks and email reading. We're fans!

这是祂的事工和祂的荣耀

Hello from Great Britain everyone! Surprise! I'm fluent in Mandarin

now. ;) haha. Credit to Sister Wai for the title of this email. It says

"This is His work, & His glory" :)

Wow it is cold here! I was starting to think that after the fairly

warm December, the rest of the winter would just be mild too.. nope!

January hit and proved me very wrong! Along with the cold, this week

was was completely full to the brim of tender mercies from Heavenly

Father. I realized once again just how aware & in control the Lord is

of this work. :) Which is good, because most of the time I feel super

inadequate to be part of something so important!

I'm pretty much all adjusted to the London life again though. And the

people here are as fantastic as ever, especially the Britannia ward!

We've been finding lots & lots of new Chinese investigators so Sister

Wai is also teaching me more & more Mandarin phrases and words. Who

knew that I'd come to England and learn so many things so far from

traditional British culture. This week seemed really long though, and

seeing as S was baptized last week, our main focus of this week

was to find new people to teach. We had some people, but no one

solid.. the miraculous part about this is that although our days were

jam packed with appointments of recent converts & less actives and we

didn't go finding too often...so many prepared people would just walk

into the doors of Hyde Park, or we would stop one person on the

streets and they would be willing to learn. It was SO cool! I have a

strong testimony that as long as you are doing the right things, the

Lord is going to make sure everything works out in the long run!

Something sad is that the Cardalls left on Friday morning.. :( It was

super sad  & lots of tears were shed. They have done so much for me

while I've been here in London, and for everyone here, so to see them

go was hard. Really hard! The good news is that they are from Salt

Lake so I can see them when I come home, but I'm gonna miss them!

Also, I had another baptism this Sunday! :) Although, I wasn't able to

attend this one because it was in Canterbury... :(  My good friend

S, who I had stopped on the street 2 months earlier made the

decision to follow the Savior! Ahhhh, I honestly couldn't be happier!

And although I couldn't be there physically, I got to skype in after

and see everyone there. It was a huge highlight of my mission so far!

Something amazing that we got to do this morning was watch the 2016

CES devotional! Oh my goodness, if you haven't listened to that yet

stop reading my email right now and go watch it. It is SO great!!

Russell M. Nelson gave a talk, and although he spoke about a lot of

things one of my favorite parts was when he was talking about personal

revelation & following the prophet. Can I just say how much I love

personal revelation! :) It's something that I've been learning a lot

about on my mission, and although I'm still learning I've come so much

closer to my Savior through it. It's an absolutely incredible

experience to receive personal revelation from an all knowing & all

loving Heavenly Father, and I know that it is real. Related to this

topic, I loved when he was talking about listening to the counsel of

the prophet! And how when the prophet says something that is "not in

harmony with what the world says, and interferes with our social &

political views," we need to stop, listen, and then pray and ask the

Lord about it! I absolutely LOVED this, because the gray area between

the world & the church is getting slimmer and slimmer. We need to

follow the counsel of the Savior and the prophet in these crazy times!

I'm honestly so thankful that I know that. :)

Other then that my week was full of odds & ends. I got my first hair

cut in London, Sister Wai & I went to China Town, Piccadilly Circus,

and West End (where all the musicals are including the Book of Mormon

musical), we went on another Blitz, and other British randomness.

Love you all!! Thanks for all you do. Have a wonderful week wherever you may be!

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft

My London Tale Continues

Well, it's official. I'm back in the hustle & bustle & beautiful city of London! :) It was a bit strange coming back at first because in some ways it seemed like I'd been gone for a lot longer than 3 months, and in others it didn't seem like I'd left at all. I'm happy to be back here though, although a part of me is always going to miss the people in Canterbury.  

This week has been absolutely wonderful, crazy, emotionally draining, and a spiritual explosion as well! The week really started off on Wednesday when I moved back to London. Usually a lot of the missionaries meet up at Kings Cross Station (platform 9 3/4) to exchange companions and move to different areas, but because Sister Mussman was training, and I was headed back to Hyde Park we had about a 90 minute travel via the train, tube, and bus.. haha let me tell you that is not easy with a whole bunch of luggage. We made it though, so no worries. ;) Immediately I was thrown into the busy life of being a missionary in the Britannia ward. Exciting stuff!

My new companion is Sister Wai, and she is the cutest! Her ancestry is from China, but she's actually from California. So I get two awesome companions from California in a row! :) Lucky me! My new ward consists of about 200 YSA students from all over the world, and they are SO amazing!! Also, a large chunk are from China, and so Sister Wai's Mandarin speaking abilities are super handy. Speaking of Mandarin, on Friday Sister Wai informed me that we'd be teaching the gospel principles class on Sunday- the Chinese gospel principles class... WHAT?! Let's just say that most of that class was in "Chinglish" (chinese & english). haha But she's been teaching me all about tones, and teaching me a new phrase everyday, so we'll see how quickly I can learn this language. :) It's interesting because I feel like I'm experiencing such a broad variety of cultures. First with all of the Filipinos, then the very British, and now Chinese! And I'm loving it! 

On Thursday most of the day was taken up by my first Zone Meeting back in the Hyde Park Zone. All the Elders had changed since my last time here, but most of the Sisters were the same so it was a deja vu sort of experience. The meeting was amazing though!! We set some great goals for the month of January and talked a lot about having faith in the Saviour, in ourselves, and in this great work. :)

The most exciting event of the week, and what took up most of our time preparing for was Z---Z-- Y-- (S's) baptism on Sunday! :) I only got to teach him twice, but oh my word that guy was SO prepared. He met the missionaries on Exhibition Road about 3 weeks ago, and yesterday he was baptised! He came to church on Sunday just buzzing with excitement to be baptized, and the actual service was absolutely wonderful! After he was baptised he got up and bore his testimony, and it was the most powerful testimony I've ever heard from a recent convert! He talked about how before he met the missionaries he felt really alone, and how he'd been looking for what he was missing.. he talked about how his heart was now full & how he'd finally found what he'd been searching for. :) But what really got me about his testimony was his experiences with prayers, because it's been something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I just listened as this young man shared how he knew there was a loving Heavenly Father listening to every prayer, and I couldn't help but smile. My heart was full, because I also know that prayer works! I LOVE prayer! How incredible is it that we have an all knowing, infinitely loving father just a prayer away? It's not only incredible, but it's true, & I love Him!

Other than that my week was a lot of the normal. Or the old normal I guess. :) Finding, VC shifts, online teaching, and a fantastic visitors center family. It's a good life. It's a good work. 

I hope that everyone is enjoying the cold month of January! Thank you for everything that you do, I couldn't ask for a better support team of friends and family. I love you all! 

Zai Jian (goodbye)

Love, Sister Croft

 My Old Dutch Pancake House with the Cardalls

 S's baptism! WW baptized him and he was only baptized in November. Such an amazing moment!

 Celebration of S's baptism with homemade Chinese food. Yumm

Hyde Park Zone

 Visitors Centre family breakfast to say goodbye to the Cardalls...I'm going to miss them!

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I had the opportunity yesterday to go to the Homecoming of Elder Ramsay. He was Rebekah's zone leader these past 3 months in Canterbury. But interestingly, their connection goes back further than that. I've mentioned this before, but just as a quick reminder....about a week before Rebekah left for the MTC back in May, I was invited to join the Missionary Momma's Facebook page. I introduced myself and mentioned where my daughter would be serving. Immediately I got a comment from a woman who said her son was in the England London Mission and that Rebekah would love it there. I realized as I looked more closely at her name and profile picture that the two of us had gone to high school together! I sent her a message and confirmed it, and then the two of us went back and forth for days...I got so much advice from her about what to pack, what to expect, how things worked in England and in that particular mission. She was so incredibly helpful! We both told our kiddos that they should watch for each other. And one day a few months after Rebekah had arrived in England, there was a mission conference where Elder Ramsay was conducting a training session that Rebekah was in. She recognized his name as the one I had told her to watch for and went up and introduced herself afterwards. He immediately realized who she was and they took pictures to send home to their momma's as proof that they'd found each other and official met. :) 

When Rebekah got transferred to Canterbury I knew before I got her email...because Elder Ramsay's mother had sent me a message earlier that morning telling me that her son had emailed and told her that Rebekah was going to be in his zone.

It felt almost a little strange officially meeting him yesterday because between his mom and Rebekah, I kind of felt like I already knew him. But it was great hearing is mission report. He left no one in doubt of the love he had for the country of England, the people there and the gospel. I went up afterwards to introduce myself. When he heard who I was he said, "Oh, I have a big hug for you!" Because apparently he and Rebekah had talked before he left about the possibility of me coming to his Homecoming. And if I did, he told Rebekah he'd give me a proper high five from her. And she said, no way...you give my mom a huge hug from me! Always nice to get a hug from your missionary daughter...even if it's by proxy. And fun to talk with someone who had seen and talked to Rebekah just a couple of weeks ago. I told Rebekah about Elder Ramsay's homecoming in my email to her last night and she said this:

"I opened up todays email and was like "woahh it's my Mom and Elder Ramsay! So weird!" haha I think it's so great that you had the chance to go to his homecoming! Elder Ramsay really was a great Zone Leader, and a good friend of mine so I'm glad you got to hear some of his experiences, and hear his testimony. It's a powerful one. Also, props to him for keeping his promise about giving you a hug. I'll have to tell him thank you one day. "

Year 2016

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great New Years! For me it was a different kind of New Years, but fantastic all the same. :) President Stevens let us know that we needed to be indoors by 7pm (for safety reasons), and so after we finished planning for the day we changed into our matching PJ's and ate lots of fancy British foods to celebrate. Then, lights out at 10:30, because mission rules. It was a good night though, and we had a blast!

Another exciting thing about the New Year is the opportunity to make New Years resolutions. As missionaries we are always making goals for ourselves, but I'm looking forward to this next year as a major learning experience. As a missionary I feel like I'm learning Sooo much! Spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental. I LOVE it! :) And I just want to soak up as much of it as I can!

This week has been a bit different because we were the only 2 missionaries in our district. With the Elders being gone, we had Canterbury almost all to ourselves, and it was bizarre! Something really exciting that happened this week though is that we had a mission wide blitz- "Fast & Find". A blitz is usually when a whole bunch of missionaries get together and go finding for new investigators together, but with a mission blitz we do a mission wide fast, and then every missionary in the whole mission goes finding at the same time. Let me tell you- MIRACLES happen!! :) This time, Sister Mussman and I wanted to do some tracting, and after praying where we should go we felt prompted to tract in a specific area a few blocks from our flat. After knocking doors in the rain for about 30 minutes and finding no success we knocked on the door of J! She opened the door, and at first had absolutely no interest in learning. She was Canadian though and so all three of us being foreigners started talking about the crazy weather England has. haha. We ended up talking for a good 45 minutes and slowly it changed into a gospel discussion.  We'll be meeting with her on the 14th of  January...next week, to give her a Book of Mormon! :) So cool! (Well at least Sister Mussman will be meeting with her..)

That brings me to my other BIG news of the week. Transfers news! Which is the scariest kind of news. *imaginary drum roll*

I'll be moving back to London on Wednesday because I'll be going back to the Visitors Centre! And I'm heartbroken. :( It wasn't shocking in any way, because I knew I would go back eventually. And I am excited about it. I love the VC! But also I'm extremely sad to be leaving Canterbury, and most of all leaving the people here. It's amazing how in just a short 3 months I've come to absolutely love these people with all my heart! And although I feel like I've given everything to serving them, they've given me more. Sorry about the extreme mushiness, but I just LOVE these people!! Also I'm going to miss Sister Mussman a ton. She and I have gotten along so well, and we've had some crazy spiritual adventures together! Ending on a good note though, I'll be going to London to serve in Britannia- a YSA ward. I'm excited that I get to still work with university students! They have such open minds. :) 

I hope that everyone is healthy & happy! I really do appreciate everything that you do for me. The prayers and letter and everything. You are all amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love you all lots!!

Love, Sister Rebekah Croft  

Best companionship ever!! :)

 We went to Canterbury Tales today, and got to dress up in medieval costumes. Super legit!

 We found a random, huge painting of a cow in the library. Seriously, that thing was gigantic!

 This kid got us matching coats. What?! :) I'll never be cold again.

LOVE THIS FAMILY! They are the absolute sweetest and I'm going to miss them tons! :(

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! :)