Feliz Natal Mais uma Vez

Wow this week was a scramble to get someone who has skype here, because my area here isn't like my last one and people here are a little more humble, but everything turned out awesome! It was my first Christmas away from home and it was kind strange, it didn't really feel like Christmas because there were no reindeer cookies, Christmas music on the street (instead it was funk which is awful), and it was pretty hot and when I called in it was raining like crazy. I thought it was funny when dad made a comment about the steel bars on the windows...its been so long that I have been down here that I am so used to it because all the houses that have stuff valuable have those bars on the windows. And dad yes I will "tudo bem" them haha I was laughing so hard about that. I have come to the conclusion that my family is awesome and crazy at the same time, but that's okay everyone down here is crazy so when I get back super crazy I will fit in just fine.

Mom don't worry about Jinx, Yea I got a little sad about that, but I think I would have been a lot sadder if I were there in person when she disappeared. Yea send me only a few pictures please. I really like all the letters that I got this month and every day was Christmas for me when I opened them up. This week I will go down to the mission office and get my package because I want more Christmas haha.

I hope you guys had a fantastic Christmas over there and ate a lot of pies at Grandmas because no one makes pies down here so I felt a little faulta.

We are still waiting for the mission office to rent out our new house so we can move all the furniture from the mission office to our new house. It is really big and chique! I will take some pictures of our house now and some of the new one when we move. We are in charge of two areas right now so that's why we want to get a new house so the president can send more missionaries down here. The mission is great, all I have to do is shake off the saudade(I forgot what it is in English sorry) and get back to work!

(Looked up Saudade I think it means homesickness)

Love you all so much and I will write more next week when we have more time in between our appointments to talk. Love all of you so very much and I Wish you all a happy new year next week!

TE AMO

Elder Crandall

Por onde ue vou!?

Well I want to get this off my back first of all, I just got transferred and today I am just packing up my stuff and presents to go to my next area with a new companion haha. I hope my next area has internet haha. Yea I think its kinda silly that they have transfers now and not after Christmas. So in our entire zone only two people will stay haha. We have 2 people who finished 2 years and are going home and the rest are going to another area.

Please keep me updated on Elder Calvert...why wouldn't they let me talk to him? I could have talked to him  or meeting him up at the temple or something...

I am sending some pictures of our gift exchange or white elephant that we did that was way fun. I got two new jerseys of the Corinthians who are the best team down here. Ask Sandra what team she is haha. We have a tree in our house and as you can see it is stuffed with food and presents. There is so much to talk about I just don't know were to go haha. I am super excited to talk to everyone next week! I think I will leave out some stuff today because it would be way legal to talk to you guys face to face. Hey is there a way to Skype Dustin and Devin também?(also, sorry about that).  I want to wish them happy birthday in Portuguese and a merry Christmas!

Well at the end of this area I have looked back and realized that I have learned a lot here. First is love, realmente a love for the people even though they say no to me every day I still love them and I know that we are all brothers and sisters of God. The other thing is humility, 2 transfers without baptism and the other people in your district have baptism every week you learn to be more humble and look to the lord and others even if they have less time than you on the mission they can still teach you a thing or two. My time just ran out, but I will talk to you in a bit!!!!! Love all of you so very much and I did a little better not to write Portuguese in this email huh

Com Amor

Elder Crandall

 

 

 

 

Rain rain go away

First of all I think São Paulo wins for the most rain in one day award haha.I have so much stuff that is absolutely wet, luckily I bought some new shoes that are more water proof than my others. (by the way dad your type of shoes are by far the most uncomfortable and I used them 4 times and they needed glue haha so I bought another pair that is pretty sweet).

Tell Shirley thanks for the kind and loving email, She has been a second mother to me and I am so happy to hear her testimony one last time (without the tears this time haha). Hope she is liking the weather in Idaho, it should be pretty cold by now.

Well this week has been another ruff and tuff week as usual. I don't want to give you too many details just to let you know that its getting pretty tuff down here. I have truly witnessed the vicious cycle here in Brazil. I cry almost every night thinking about this and realized how much I am fighting against it. Here in Brazil I am sure you have heard of Favelas before is not imagine a shanty town in America and multiply it by 6. I am so sad to see this down here and I want to help them so bad but I can't. The other day we meet a women who is 27 years old and we found out that she is already a grandmother. So with that though in mind think of how old she was when she had a baby and when her baby had a baby. Unfortunately Satan has gotten a firm grasp not only on this people, but their generations. The parents go out and drink and sleep with people, and the children see this and they do the same thing, until  its something normal. The worst part is the music they play here, just ask Sandra to explain "Funk" for you. It is pretty much Porn in music form and the more I am learning Portuguese the more I am understanding how awful it is. No joke I enter the favela and I can feel that music killing the spirit, that is why it is so hard to teach here. Please pray for these people, I have been wrestling this ever since I got here. It is also impossible to find someone's address here because there are so many vielas "Alleys" that it is impossible to find a house. The other day I found 3 ¨26B....now why would they have 26B 3 times and não 26A 26B 26C ahhh it is so ridiculous here haha. I love my area and I love this people, I really want to help them, but honestly I don't know how anymore. Please pray for them. I find a lot of comfort in Alma 31:31 were alma is giving a prayer for his people. Transfers are the 20th and I hope I don't have to leave my area before Christmas, I really want to stay here when the new chapel opens and actually start helping people go to church again. Our chapel building isn't the greatest in the world and the location is behind a whore house...yea so that kind of draws away the spirit. Just two more Sundays until we get to enter the new chapel and there is going to be so much more success here I know it! Thanks once again for the emails and letters I love you all so very much and Feliz Natal!

Braço Elder Crandall

P.S The best church film in the world that I want for Christmas if you can find it is called "17 Miracles".

Melhor do que semmana passada

I liked the pictures you sent me, it was like an early Christmas present!

I don't have much time to write this week because I have been scrambling to get some pictures sent off. Hey are you able to see my videos that I send as well? I was really happy to see our house up in lights again, the Christmas spirit goes on! Don't worry I am spreading the Christmas spirit down here as well. So with skype I will give you more info when its going down, but get all the family together if possible.

This week the government is going to do an inspection on the new chapel so that it can open at the end of the month and we can actually have people investigating the church again haha.

Thanks for the package I already ate the cereal that was sent to me haha, Thanks Burnham's for the card and the Thompsons I like that card it was pretty sweet. Badger, Mckay, Bro Wright, President Dudley thanks for the card! It felt like Christmas came early haha

TE AMO

Elder Crandall

He forgot to tell me about the pictures.

I am guessing this is at the mission home.

         

his garland of letters thanks to all his friends and family.

I think this is were they are meeting now for Church in an office building.

He forgot to mention who sent him cereal but thank you so much I know this made his day. I am guessing others have sent him things also and he may have forgotten to thank you .  maybe not but he has ben known to be  a little bit forgetful like his mom and I know he would feel really bad if he realized that he forgot to thank you so I  just want to say thank you very much for thinking of my son and making his mission a little happier and his Christmas a special one.

Yea! I can stay in my house still!

 

( Sandra translate for me Brendin’s Portuguese into English all the yellow words are the translation of his letter.)

Yea after a good wrestle with the mission office we managed to get our bills paid! And I found my credit card! Besides that the usual stuff down here. I hope I never have to knock on another door, haha its just kind of ridiculous how ineffective it is haha. You meet so many different kinds of people here, you have the people who are accepting, people who don't believe in anything, then you have the people who are super stiff necked. I have never ran into so many Testimony de Jeova in my life haha. (OF  JEHOVAH) - IT'S A CHURCH IN BRAZIL WHERE THE MEMBERS KNOCK ON EVERYBODY'S DOOR ALL THE TIME! I just have to follow the example of Jeffery R Holland and be really clear and direct with them (sometimes they catch on fire). I try my best not to destroy the faith people already have and cherish, so I teach and then invite. So with JW I teach about authority of God and ask them to pray to know what we have said is true.
Yea I don't want to say too much more about my area, but that the new chapel is looking pretty good and I can't wait to use it to find new people haha.
Yea thanksgiving down here wasn't like the states, luckily it was Inez's birthday so we ate some cake and salgados (KIND OF SALTY PASTRIES, USUALLY DEEP FRIED DOUGH WITH SOME KIND OF SAVORY FILLING) which are so good. We didn't play any football or nothing, but that's all right I did do a lot of walking that day so I got my exercise in. Sorry this computer is pretty lame and I can't send any picture today, but you can  cherish the ones that I have already sent haha. That's awesome that E-dog came back, how is he ? I miss him a lot he is always a happy camper and always tries to do the right thing. I am very grateful for the friends that I have and had a chance to learn and grow together. Its going to be pretty crazy when we all get back together and trade stories from the mission.
I am super excited to talk to you guys in three weeks let me know when would be a good time for you to Skype so I can already plan ahead here.
Muitíssimo obrigado por os fotos e cartas (THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE PICTURES AND LETTERS), eu sou muito grato que nosso Pai Celstial me deu uma família amoroso e engaraçado (I'M VERY GRATEFUL FOR HEAVENLY FATHER GAVE ME A LOVING AND FUNNY FAMILY). Te Amo e falarei mais proximo semmana! (I LOVE YOU AND I'LL TALK MORE NEXT WEEK)  Sandra pode traduzir porque ela precissa practicar mais portuguese para que ela possa tranduzir por min srsr. Até Mais!!!

 (AHAHAH, that's me! SANDRA YOU CAN TRANSLATE BECAUSE SHE NEEDS TO PRACTICE MORE PORTUGUESE SO SHE CAN TRANSLATE FOR MIM. LOL)
Elder Crandall

E Agora o que eu faço? ( and now , what do I do?)

SO the Galbraiths moved out huh...well Its not going to hit me that they moved until I come home and go to their house and see other people living in it.
Anyways this week has been another week. I can't wait until we find some good people to teach again. Its kind of funny how you start up a group of people to teach and then see how many stay in that group. So far we meet people and the turn out "Mole". The other day we taught and the person said that everything we taught was true and then why I asked if they wanted to follow they denied it and said they don't want to change. ha-ha people are funny down here like that. Also we meet a Bolivian and we invited him to church and he actually came! But the problem was the topic in the classrooms were about the millennium and deep doctrine type of stuff so he didn't understand anything and then at the sacrament meeting it was the primary program and they all sang and gave their little talks, but as soon as it was all over he said bye and left. I guess he didn't like it. SOoOo we are starting over again and going to find more people to teach ha-ha. Oh the other day we where walking home from church and we walked in front of the new chapel building and we ran into a women on the street and asked us when the new building will be open and I said the last day of Dec. she was excited and then she started talking about how she was a member of the Mormon church for 6 years and she went in the Temple and she just decided to leave. She continued to call our church the Mormon church so I helped her remember the name and then she went back to calling it the Mormon church again. I asked if she had a desire to come back to church and she said she would...when the new chapel is open. AHH I am so tired of that excuse! Everyone in this area has been saying that. All the less active members will come back to church when the new chapel opens, people will begin to investigate the church when it opens, the members will start helping the missionaries when the chapel opens ha-ha it is so ridiculous! And to top it all off we are endanger of getting kicked out of our house because the mission office is not paying our bills ha-ha. Also I lost my credit card that the mission gives you so I called in to cancel it and give me a new one. “We've got no food, we've got no job, and our pets heads are falling off!” (From the movie Dumb and Dumber). Yea so its been another one of those weeks, but no matter what happens it will never destroy the strong testimony I have in the Savior. I know that he live and because of that we may live with him again. Our trials are only a small part in the growth process. The only thing that I have and will keep forever is my testimony. To be honest I never really had a testimony growing up, I kind of just went through the motions and I knew that it was something real, but I never had that strong response and feeling that everyone growing up had. That has been a big secret of mine for awhile. Not until BYU when I read the Book Of Mormon in 12 days did I get that response that everyone else has had. Every word I read in that book I am growing closer to my savior. What type of person should we be? The savior answered that question and said we need to be as he is. Every day I am learning to be like him, I am learning who he is, how he acts, the love that he has for ever one of us. My words are simple, and I am unable to convince people with my own words, But I know that He lives. He has established his church on the earth again and that the voice of God has been heard by man once more. I know that God has always worked through prophets, and  is still working through one today. There aren't many thing in life that eu tenho  a certeza, (THAT I'M SURE OF) mas eu tenho a certeza que O Livro De Mórmon É verdadeiro.  (BUT I'M SURE THAT THE BOOK OF MORMOM IS TRUE.) I love all of you individualmente ( individually) and I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving

(Sandra  Cavalcanti helped me with the translation. She said “hahaahaa, Denene, I'm pretty sure he wants you to start learning Portuguese so he'll have people to practice Portugues with when he's back!”. )

Guess who got his Christmas package already!

Yea I haven't opened everything just yet, but I already pulled out the missionaries action figures and took a funny picture with them.

yea I ran into Elder Cox after a training meeting with the president and a rumor passed around that my primo (cousin) was in the Mission Office because his companion works there right now. So after the meeting I ran over to the office and when I walk in I was super surprised. There sitting on the couch was Elder Cox and I didn't believe it so I threw my backpack off and gave him a big huge and we took a picture. It was really weird because he called me by my first name and I haven't heard that for a long time. Yea you can tell by his face that he is totally shell shocked ha-ha.

This week was pretty sweet because the couple that we have been working with went and saw a baptism the other day and they loved it and an Irmã from the church gave and awesome testimony. But they slept in for church the next day so that part stinks. Also we are teaching a really cool Bolivian who lives in São Remo which is a huge Favela in our area and he is the nicest and coolest person you will find here. We marked him the 3rd of December for baptism. Also I found out that the new Chapel in our area will delay a little more until the end of December so we have to grit our teeth and bear through it for now in our other capela. Things are going alright in our area and transfers came and went and we are still together so that is pretty sweet. I am ready to see our area fly now and get everyone excited again. I love my area because it is a hug challenge and it is going to be so worth it in the long run. I love the pictures dad obrigado (thank you).

Mom since my package already showed up can I have another one ha-ha. Yea if you could I would like my line of authority and if all possible root beer. Yea I know its random, but that's one thing that they don't have down here and we have been talking about it a lot now ha-ha. Feel free to throw in more goodies if you want. All the elders said my package was the coolest, most decorated package they have ever seen so congratulations on that part ha-ha. I love you all so very much and I was so happy to get an email from Dustin, I already sent him an email. I will talk to you guys face to face here in a bit so get excited!

Te Amo

Elder Crandall

So that can of pop is super hard to get here because it is only made in Salvador and is shipped over here.

                                                  

Below is a picture that I took of the garland of letters  I sent to Elder Crandall in his Christmas box. Thank you everyone who wrote a letter for elder Crandall's Christmas garland. I thought it turned out well and I know he will enjoy reading all of them for Christmas.

                                                      

OH Guess who I saw the other day! Elder Cox! Yea!!

Well I have been spending my whole time trying to send pictures and it didn't work out so I want to let you know that I love all of you and this week will be a lot better!
Com Amor
Elder Crandall

Alright so I managed to go to a members house to finish up my email and send some photos ha-ha. We went to a mew place today and the computers were super slow and we were only there for 40 minutes so we scrambled to a members house to finish up. I hope you enjoy the photos! there is photos of us playing football and we went to this museum of snakes, but it was closed, but they still had a few outside that we managed to take a photo. We also went to Subway which was pretty expensive, but worth it ha-ha. Then the next week we went to McDonalds and went bowling  it was super fun. I played really well, but could have played better, but at the very end were if you bowl a strike you can bowl more, well I threw one that was defiantly going to be a strike, but my companion pressed the reset button and the bowling pins lifted up and my ball went right underneath ha-ha so I didn't get my strike. 

We marked for my first time the marriage of my investigators. I am hoping it is easier then it looks because this is my first time and I am here pretty much for support, because I don't know what I am doing ha-ha. We have a few people in the ward to help out. 

This week was a little difficult again because all our Family Nights we planned with members fell through and it seems like no one wants to help out here. Well I am going to make them help out now ha-ha. Our Ward Mission Leader was called last week so now things are going to get up and running here in a bit. We still feel a little alone here, but things are going to change here in a bit. We are still waiting for our chapel to open up so we can leave our dirty office building as a church to a beautiful, newly built church. I  sinto quethe (  feel that ) members are waiting for the capela ( chapel)  to open to come back to church and start helping the missionaries. The ward started out with 200 active members, but now we are down to 75 members sooo we will see. A lot of people have moved out of this ward, This area is huge and There is a lot of potential and we are going to get more help from the members to get things going down here. Please Pray for us we are really needing it down here. 

OH Guess who I saw the other day! Elder Cox! Yea I took some pictures I am sure you are going to like. Well Te Amo! 

Elder Crandall

                

Elder Crandall’s cousin Elder Cox. Elder Cox just arrived to the mission last Monday.