Chuva!

Well one more wet week here in Brazil. It was a difficult week and luckily last week I studied about patience (paciência how do you spell it in engligh?) so I was able to press forward with hope and faith. We did a lot of Blitz and going on splits which just tired me out. I have to write real fast because I slept to much on P day on accident after our study I just sat on the bed and woke up at 3 so yea we ran to clean the house, bought groceries, and now I am writing you guys and then I have to buy White Elephant gifts for tomorrow for our Zone hah its fun being a Zone Leader you get to plan fun little things every once in awhile, even though all Zone and District activates have been canceled we managed to get a few birthday parties in after District meeting. Well this week I was able to use my rain jacket for one week straight. I bought some new shoes so now when it rains I don't have to use the same wet shoes everyday. Everyone that was marked for baptism didn't go to church yesterday so that was a bummer, but all of my recent converts went! Also our bishop from Uruguay will move away so we will have a new bishop here in a bit so that should be exciting to see who it will be. I already have a few people in mind.  I am really excited to talk to you guys next week so my letter will be short today and we will talk more next week.

Congrats for the married couple, and the soon to be married. Wow everyone is getting married lately. 

Tchau boa semana

ELder Crandall

Turn up the AC please

Wow it has been a hot week, Luckily our shower broke so we took it off the pipe and we are taking cold showers now. We call it the water fall shower. We have fasted and work very hard this week and we got some good result only the last day of the week. It has been a week of Faith and hardships, but in the end we got some really good people to church. I am very happy this last Sunday because the Gospel Principals class was very full! All the recent converts were people that I had the privilege to baptize and help out return to activity. I thought how great it shall be when I shall meet them all again in the presence of our Father in Heaven. There's a lot more work to be done and I trying my best to give all that I've got while there's still time. I am getting very tired these last few P-days which is a good estimate of how well I am working, today I was lucky to get an hour nap in and cut my hair and get the house together.

This week unfortunately I got a very sad notice. My first companion Elde Lloyd found out last week that he had a tumor in his leg and had to return to the states...yea I was getting really happy to see us together finishing the mission together, but the lord has other plans for him. He was my first companion in the Provo MTC and my companion in the Brazil CTM also returned home after 2 weeks on the mission field. So I am very grateful that the lord has seen fit that I stay, I have been thinking about my Patriartical blessing these days after walking up and down hills and vielas that I have been blessed with the strength to work in the Lords kingdom. I must say I am still in pretty good shape, we shall see when I get back after a few month of working out if I can get back into Pole-vault. I dreamed about it these last few weeks and I feel a lot better when I think about my past experience, I feel comfort instead of fear. One of the blessing of serving a mission is forgetting yourself, which includes all your personal desires and fears and the Lord promises a lot of blessings in return.

I loved the pictures of Chloe, congrats Becca and Devin she a pretty one. I am looking forward to getting to know her in a few months! dad liked the creatividade and am looking forward to what you will do with harry, when I get back I have a few ideas for you. Have a great week and I will talk to you guys em breve!

Com Amor

Elder Crandall

Até que em fim!

Well one of my missions here in Vila Andrade was completed last week. Meire a women that I found knocking on doors in August was baptized this week, it was a struggle, but was well worth it. So far we are with 2 baptisms to start off this month and we need only 10 more...yea just a little more right? And I thought jumping over a pole vault 15 feet in the air was hard, but this is going to be the challenge of the century. The other baptism was of brother Cícero who is the grandfather of the family that we baptized last month so we completed the family! But know they are going through a tough financial problem and they are a little discouraged.

We are working very hard not only in our super favela, but in all the areas in our Zone. Our goal is to have 12 baptisms in each area so we are working as a team to be able to reach this goal. We have started another chain of fast which is basically one person is given 2 days to fast and our whole zone is going to keep up the chain until we reach our goal. It has been a hard and very tiring week, but that makes part of the whole missionary experience right?

Mom thanks for the package I already finished the Gold Fish and I loved the tie, I got a lot of great comments on that tie. Also thanks for the Ring Pops I will give them next week to the bishops kids they are going to love them! They are really energetic and speak 3 languages, Spanish, Portuguese, and English haha I spoke English with them last week and I realized how rusty my English is. I am going to start reading in English again to get warmed up until I talk to you guys again at Christmas to avoid getting made fun of. 

Well have a great week my time is running out and I have to write to the president still. Thanks for the emails and love you all a lot! 

                     

Tchau! 

ELder Crandall 

Todo dia é dia ação de graças

Yea so I forgot about thanksgiving...I think I am getting to used to Brazil that I don't remember the American Holidays. But don't worry today I made pancakes and purchased Skippy Chunky Peanut butter for 12 Reais wich is 7 dollars. Yea I still got the American spirit don't you worry.

Can't wait to see the Christmas pictures this year of the house. Our family has to keep on the tradition, I found a dollar store in our area and I will see if there is any Christmas lights to buy haha.

We had a great week with 3 of the 5 baptism that turned out great. 2 fell through and will be baptized next week. Expedito a young man was the only one baptized after settling a huge conflict in his house. The Step father doesn't want to listen to our message or even let his kids go to church. His sister Gabi wasn't baptized because the actual divorced father who doesn't live there any more swooped in took her away so she would not be baptized. The other was a senior of 70 years who had a problem in his leg which looks a lot like Leprosy but what do I know I'm not a doctor. The other 2 were great, Margeorith who is from Peru and Cristiano who is the son of a less active member was great. The parents were separated but looks like they are coming back together thanks to the baptism. Yea the solution to all problems is simples as following the leis and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ pois he is the font of all righteousness and spiritual cure. It is a blessing to be a missionary and to be able to help our father in heaven save his children before the Savior comes again. I am reading 3 Nephi and reading about the Gadiaton robbers, makes me think about my area and how the Devil walks in the midst of the people. I have never seen so much iniquity, but at the same time I have never seen so much hope. People to day tell me that things are getting worse and that there is no hope, but I believe in the words of the living prophet as he said "We have a bright future", I believe that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet, seer, and revelator. I believe that he literally sees the future and I too believe that the Future is Bright. Also reading the revelations from Apocolipse... (Revelations is the name in english right?) that talks about the second coming of the Lord, yes it talks a lot about destruction and iniquity in these last days, but the message of this book is that the Lord will win. We are part of the Team that will always win in the end. Therefore why do we fear? These moments of fear as I have learned here on the mission is when we lack faith for fear is the opposite of faith. These are the times were we need to kneel down and pray. I know that we have a bright future and that what ever happens these next few months, we will see each other again. 

Thanks for the pictures and the wonderful emails and wish you all a great week!

Com Amor

Elder Çrandall

Beijão com Feijão

One more time!

Well transfers came and WENT! Yea I am gonna stay one more transfer in Paraiso! I will stay with Elder Augusto one more and we are going to rock this place with water and fire. We have 5 people this week and one more next week and we are gonna go big this next month with a goal of 12 baptisms, yea you heard me right 12! Our President is getting crazy...and I like it! Natal 1,000 is the name of the game, our mission is gonna baptize 1,000 people so that means that every area has to baptize 12. I am gonna have to run around like crazy to help my Zone baptize that much.

Yea I am TIO Crandall again! Thats awesome, I told Devin that Chloe looks like a Little Devin Girl. I can't wait to see her, next month I will see her on skype and then just a little bit more and I will be able to hold her in my arms. I will teach her some Portugues when I get down there.

So what's Nates plan? Is he going to go back to BYU in the spring or summer? That's great to hear that he is talking a lot more haha

I am going to love trading stories with him and TJ.

I am finishing up my next to last planner on my mission, it's crazy to think that it is ending so fast. There is a lot more work to be done here.

Also I discovered the best thing in the world which exists in Peru, Purple Corn! Do we have purple corn in the states? Wow it tastes just like bubble gum and it is really good to drink and to eat as a jelly.  You will fall in love with the food here (especially the pizza!) just you wait!

There has been a little commotion these days in São Paulo near my area were police are getting killed by Gangsters and such, it's too bad because the other day I went on splits with another area which is the richer part of our zone and I taught a police officer who works in my area and I thought he was a really good guy. He is very friendly and tries to do his best to help others. I try to imagine how many other police officers that have died these days just trying to help other people out. When there is a lot of drug trafficking the whole town is affected in a  very negative way.

Well wish you all a great week and am always looking forward to your letters.

Boa Semana!

Elder Çrandall

P.S Tell Brian and Dustin to write me whats going up

Lady Gaga

Well its been another great week here in Brazil Interlagos. It's been raining a lot these past few days, but still really warm so its hard to sleep at night. So you are probably wondering why my title is Lady Gaga, well close to our area is the Morumbi Stadium were the São Paulo team plays and last night guessed who had a show...yea it was her. We had a hard time planning and sleeping because of her loud music. Unlike the music here which I don't know very well and all they talk about is breaking the law of chastity, her music I could understand and she was swearing a lot at the people and they were clapping their hands.

Our Zone has been going well we have been baptizing quite a bit even the secretary's baptized a family so that was great. We have 4 maybe 5 or 6 people that will be baptized on the 24th so please include them in your prayers. I feel protected by the lord as I work here in this area, even if it is very dangerous I believe that the Lord is watching over me and that he and his angels are in front of me, around me and always has my back so no worries. Next week is transfers and I have already been here for 4 and a half months so we will see what the lord has in plan, to leave me here until the end, to send me to another zone.

Dad, sounds like the ward is in good hands, that is awesome to hear that Bro Callens is back in the Young Mens (hope I get to be his councilor when I get back). And Bro Litchfield is the ward mission leader wow the ward is going to be seeing some new faces at church. Keep up the good work over there, I am certain that everything we are doing in this moment is being registered in the Books Of Heaven so make the best of it. If your book started off with a bad introduction try to make the best chapters, and chapter by chapter you will be able to see the blessing of heaven.

I am very glade to be called as a missionary in these last days and hope that my effort is preparing the people for the second coming of the Lord.

Well that's all folks até semana que vem!

Te Amo

Elder Çrandall

Chopper Gunner

Well I don't think any news gets up to the states, but this week my area is famous again. There was a lot of shoot outs and people dying because of the drug dealers here. But don't worry after the first few days it got really calm. There was a lot of police here like police on horses, police bikers, SUV's with heavily armed police and my favorite was the helicopters with spot lights with snipers that was pretty cool. We had to return home early Tuesday and Wednesday, but after that it got really calm. There is no more stolen motorcycles that rev their engines at 3 in the morning, everyone is riding with a helmet, there are less people on the street, and things are looking really great here.  As you can tell by the videos we had a lot of free time because we had to go home early so we decided to us our time wisely. Thanks mom for the socks and Gold Fish I am already running out so I am looking forward to the next one haha. Also the bishops daughters are asking if I can send down some ring pops for them haha yea so if you could send 2 down here that would be great.

I haven't cooked anything in my cooker yet, I will wait until I get home to get that sucker going. You are going to love the food here, defiantly one of the things I will miss here.

Hey Nate is home!! One down one more to go! A fim se-aproxima, but I am staying focused and trying to take advantage of my time here. I love Brazil and I love the people who live in Paraisopolis, the are a great and loving people, don't judge them by their brick houses and violance on the street because the people that I know and teach everyday are some of the greatest people I have ever meet. I want some pictures from that RM (ready to marry) and tell him that the same rules apply to him that he can't marry until I get home so tell him to set goals and make plans only after I get home haha.

Natal 1,000 is coming up and we are starting to get things ready to baptized 1,000 people next month. We only need to baptize 10 people next month so we will be needing a lot of prayers for sure. Thanks for the letters and support that you have all given me and tell Cailean Kohagen thanks for the letters and send a hug to all the little ones that sent me a letter.

Boa Semna pra vocês

More adventures with Elder Crandall Next time

I see Brendin got his package ha-ha.

Hot day and cold water

Wow what an exciting week! It was definitely an adventure this week as we were down to the wire  trying really hard to achieve our baptismal goal. We needed 4 more people and we had 3 all set and ready to go. A family from another state here in Brazil moved down here and came to church two weeks ago and everyone in the family except the dad (adriano) and one of his 3 kids (naiza) are baptized. We taught the dad and he accepted the invite to be baptized on the 27th, but his daughter didn't. Also a family from Peru came to church 2 weeks ago as well, the dad does maintenance for the church and they are not married, but have 2 younger women so we invited them to get married and to baptize their daughters in the mean time and they accepted! We prayed a lot and worked hard in the Hot Sun so we could help Naiza be baptized with her dad. She said she was praying and felt nothing, but that was just  fake because the real problem was only a social thing with the family that we resolved and after a lot of prayer she was baptized. We achieved our goal of 5 this month and we are very eager for next month!

I am very glad to hear that Brother Bennett still remembers me and especially something that I said more then 4 years ago. One of my strong attributes is goal setting that I learned after a long and painful process of Pole vaulting. A good goal is one that stretches your abilities and set you up to achieve an even higher goal. Has to be reasonable and not a goal that is impossible, but every goal come with its consequences both good and bad. The Good part is always the reason why we set them. In Lehi's dream there were 3 groups of people that wanted to eat the fruit of the tree of life. The last two groups achieved the fruit, but only those who study the scriptures daily stayed strong until the end. But what about that first group, they had a great desire to eat the fruit like everyone else, but never made and followed up on their goal. Instead they wasted their time doing circle in the dark with absolutely no progress. Sometimes we may feel we are this group who had good intentions, but with lack of planning and hearing and holding on to God's advice through the scriptures we lack in progress. I am very happy to have had great leaders in my youth who helped me grow so much, from the primary (thanks to all the sisters in the church who put up with me) to the mission. All the great leaders like Bro Callens who told us that he was not our friend at the start to give us a scare haha but taught me about social and spiritual things, Bro Bennett who was always super friendly and loved all the  young men and did his best to show us the right way even though he was always at the back when we hiked he always gave that great support and had plenty of jokes haha good times. Definitely some of the greatest leaders in my life would be my parents always dedicated to the Gospel and raising us in the eternal truths. I am sure it would be hard to raise us 4 boys, but I always tried my best to be less of a trouble haha. I am very grateful for those around me who loved and carried me through my troubles and made me a better person. Unfortunately I don't have time to write about all the people who helped me through my days, but all those who know me and have been a leader to me, or served me and my family I want to thank you too. May the Lord Bless you this week and I am very excited to talk to my family by skype for Christmas!

Tchau! Até MAis

Elder Crandall

Monte do Senhor

This week was awesome! I love going to the temple you feel so great afterwards (not just because of the BBQ after). It was a great temple session were many personal questions were answered and revealed to me. Today for P-day after vigorously cleaning our apartment I watched "Monte do Senhor" which talked about the Salt lake temple and it was a lot better this time because the last time I watched it was at the beginning of the mission and I didn't understand everything. Also I got to see and have lunch with Sandra and her baby Sofia. It was great to see her and her family we were  trading off what we both liked about our countries, the food we miss, the customs we will continue as we return home. It was a great conversation all in portugues unlike the last time I was at their house in Redmond before my mission were we kept up a good english conversation. I hope you like the pictures, I felt the picture taking experience after helping another woman from Fortaleza take about 35 pictures at the temple while we waited for our Zone to show up.

Hey Elder Munk is coming home already! Wow time is really flying by and that's great to hear that Alex Burt is coming on down to one of the best countries in the world. I remember when I was waiting for my visa after 7 months of Waiting I finally got it. I already renewed my visa so I am good to go until March!

Hey mom look up for me how much it costs for  a "panela de pressão" its a pressurized pot to cook rice and beans and other delicious stuff when I get back, it might be cheaper and leave more space in the bags if we buy one from the internet. I am having a great time with my companion Elder Augusto from Brazília the capital of Brazil. He has 8 months on the mission and we are going locous por Batismo here. We are going to have some great baptisms this week and on the 10th of November. I am doing my best to stay focused on the work when I know that everyone is coming home already and the end is getting closer every day. I am very exited for December, not only because of natal, christmas, but because of our goal as a mission. Yea our mission is getting crazier every month and we are going all out, going big, letting it all out! Yea we are going to baptize 1,000 people, yea you heard me right something that has never been done. I think the last time they had this many baptisms was probably the time of Alma at the waters of mormon haha. Even if we don't get our goal we are going to raise our vision and start baptizing a lot more then before. Well my time as usual has run out and I am very grateful to be worthy for such a sacred call, the next time I will be called Elder Crandall after the mission would  only be if I was called to be a seventy or apostle so I am enjoying the title as it lasts. I truly feel the power of the priesthood and the blessing of using it worthily and now I have a very strong testimony of the sacrament. I will tell the story real quick. Yesterday night we went to a members house and the mother had surgery and was not  able to go to church. The Family's home  teacher hasn’t  come by in 3 weeks so I decided to call the bishop and ask if we could bless the sacrament for her and he gave the go ahead. She lives  with her 3 kids. one is a member and the other isn't. The one that is not a member  has been declining to be baptize for over 4 months. We blessed and gave the sacrament and she said she felt a lot better and then we went along to give a message with here and he daughter who is not baptized. we gave a part for the mom to read and she read a part in 3 Nephi 11 verse 33 which said all who believe in Christ and are baptized are saved. But without asking she went on as guided by the spirit to read the following verse which says all those who do not believe in Christ and are not baptized are condemned. Very direct scripture followed by a strong testimony of her mom clicked in here daughters heart and she said she wanted to be baptized! I think how  would this have turned out in this situation if we were not worthy to bless the sacrament and the mom couldn't renew her covenants and the promise of the spirit. Would the spirit have inspired the mom to ready that last scripture which was exactly what her daughter needed to hear? I don't know, but I felt the spirit testify to her as we spoke and felt the savior himself invite her to the waters of baptism. She will be baptized on the 10th and we have many others too which will be a great day for sure.

                                                 

Boa Semana

Até Mais

Elder Çrandall

Novo Elder

Wow I already have my flight plans all set up, It's going to be hard to leave here. I feel like this is my home and I am a Brazilian rice and beans eating fanatic. I love rice and beans and hope there is still brazilin food I can eat over there.

This week was awesome we had a great baptism and we had a lot of elect people come to church this week. We have two family's that we are planning to marry and then baptize, something that I have not been able to do my entire mission. Its really hard to marry people here because the document are sometimes in other states of brazil and sometime the place that they are stored are accidentally burned down or flooded. Yea, but nothing is impossible.. I am super excited to see the pictures of my next sobrinha!

Well my time is running out, but the work is going really well here and I am excited for one more week to make a difference here.

Also my companion is elder Augusto from Brazilia he has 7 months on the mission.

Com Amor

Elder Çrandall

 

Tchau Elder Thorup

 

Yea transfers gets ya when you are getting things rolling. My companion just got  transferred and and will be leaving tomorrow. So a new companion and  new adventures coming up! Luckily I am still here in Paradice and guess what, in our zone we will be holding an Open House for the new chapel building in Maria Rosa and area in our zone. The president put me in charge of organizing the missionary force to help out. We will basically be in front of the building talking to people and getting them in to the church to go on a tour. Hey why are all our church building lame, have you seen the chapel building here? wow they are all huge and very beautiful almost like a temple. I will take pictures of our chapel building for you to see.

Found out the other day that we will be going to the temple on the 17th in the morning so I am going to take advantage and eat with the Cavalcanti's.

It's going to be really cool when you guys can see the temple here it is very pretty.

Just wait until you see my areas, they are all favelas, but don't let that scare you some of the nicest and coolest people that I know live in them. I have been talking to my companion these days about how awesome are these people. They are super open and loving, they will let total stranger in and give them food and water to drink and they are really funny. They are a lively people and it's hard to find someone sad, it seems that they are a really humble people and are just glad to have a house to live in and food to eat (rice and beans). I love rice and beans, I think I will have to take a panela de pressão (precision cooker) with me just to make rice and beans equal. I will have to ask the Cavalcantis what they have in the states and what they don't have so I can go ahead and get the stuff that the states don't have.

This week we are going to have a few baptisms of some really cool people.

Wow what a great conference! Luckily the stake center is relatively close to our area so it wasn't as bad as Devin's mission where he had to hitch a ride in the back of a truck. The good part of living in São Paulo is everything is close together. For example, every 2 houses has a hair salon and every 3 houses has a church that yells a lot and every 4 houses is a small store to buy food and every viela "alley" has an elect person to be baptized. It's good to be here on this mission I am really going to miss the people, the housing haha, the pizza and great experiences that I have had.

Time is up and I got to get out of here, sorry no big stories this week, but next week for sure I will have one. Love you all so much Tchau!

     

(I’m guessing the picture of the Canada Maple Syrup picture is for TJ.)

 

Família

Another great week here in Paradic paraiso de paraisópolis haha. This week just to start off with was super Cold! It came out of no were and everyone started to use cloths again so that part was good, but the wind was super cold and felt like I was in Idaho again. Then it started to heat up again and I switch from my two long sleeve shirts that I rarely use to my 3 super used shirts which are hanging in there by a few threads...literally haha. I got some new pants so I am now styling with them and things are going really well here. This week there wasn't that much funk, and parties, and half naked women so that was a good thing. Also we succeeded in our monthly goal for our Zone and also our area so another good thing. Things are looking pretty great from down here and I hope I can stay here in Paraisópoli another 3 transfers. Yea I found out that I only have 3 transfers left before I am done soooo not to be thinking too much about home the nice beaches here in brazil are in Recifi, Pernabouco also Salvador Bahia and here in São Paulo I don't think there is too many good beaches because people come here just to work not to go sightseeing. I am sure Sandra and Marcio Cavalcanti should know a few good places to go. For me I just want you guys to know a few people that I baptized, see some of my areas, taste the food and call it good and go to the beach haha. If you want to be daring we can go to Rio de Janeiro and go to some nice beaches there. Here in São Paulo there is a lot of Shopping, I think there is a zoo and just some places to buy stuff for cheap. 

Hey Elder Munk will be going home this month already? Let me know what day and tell him to write me when he gets back. Looks like I am the last one of the group that is making its way back home, can't believe how the time has flown by. I am doing my best to take advantage of my time while it still lasts. I heard a quote the other day that says this "the mission doesn't need you, but you need the mission". Either way the work will move on and I am simply  an instrument in the lords hands and thanks to him he has made me better. I need the mission, I need the power it has to change peoples lives and behaviors. I need the chance to know my Savior more. I have learned an interesting principle, when you are working for someone you end up knowing them a lot better, when I worked at the movie theater I got to know the other workers and our bosses better. When you are in the Lords work you end up knowing him better too. You learn his love that he has for every single person even if they live in a very small room here in Paraisópoli. You learn how his atonement has power to forgive and undue what has been done. You see how people change and the light in their eyes grows as they look for more light of the Gospel. I am learning more about my savior just by doing his work here in São Paulo. There is lot to do and a lot to say to this people and I am glad that I have been called of God to work here.

Tchau Boa Semana para todas!

Going Big

Wow this week we really worked hard you can tell by the color of our shirt collars haha. We baptized almost everyone in our teaching group and now we need new people for next month. We worked our tails off to find and marked people for baptism and we had a lot of good results. We went to a new part of our area (which our area is huge by the way) and we started to go crazy and went in the vielas to find people. We climbed, jumped and crawled threw parts to find people and that may be why my shirts are getting so dirty haha. Paraisópolis is like and ant hole you throw a rock at it and out comes  millions of ants. Seriously there are so many people here don't think I will be able to talk to half of a percent of the people here. Me and Elder Thorup are working really hard and I love working with him, we get along really great and we laugh and talk about the same stuff. Our Zone baptized 8 people this week and we have a few more coming up so  that is a total of 12 so far. We are picking up the slack and going big  this next month.

I can't believe that the mission is going by so fast! Next month is general conference which is my last one, then in less then 3 months we will talk on skype for the last time.

I can't wait to see pictures of my new niece when she comes! Hey if she doesn't have a name yet I have a few names for you Devin.  Kaiwani, támara, tamires, sandra, gabi, vanessa, larissa, cleonice, Giovana, and a lot of others those are the only ones that I can think of right now.

For P day we are going to play ping pong and go to the eye doctor because Elder Thorup has been having some problems with his eye sight, but it seems to be getting a lot better.

Hope you guys have a great week and I am always looking forward to getting your emails.

Com Amor

Elder Çrandall

Great Baptism

We had a great baptismal service this Saturday and luckily I was chosen to baptize two of the three because it was hot that day and I wanted to get in the water haha. It was awesome to teach these people they were really elects for sure. Marineide and vanessa after 2 week, less then 15 day were baptized just knocking on doors and teaching them about the blessing of baptism. Ilda was a reference of a member that we taught that has a lot of problem understanding, but after much prayer and reading the book of Mormon she started to understand a lot better and was baptized. Also on Sunday after the confirmation they all gave a really cool story about how they felt afterwards. Marineide said she felt her heart burn like she has never felt before and that something filled up a gap that she didn’t  know was there. Vanessa said that before the prayer was over she tried to open her eyes and couldn't seen anything until the prayer was over and she began to see again. Ilda said she has felt a great peace that she was looking for. Unfortunately I am no writer and I can't describe very well how my week went. Hope you all have a great week and see you in 5 months!

Porque ninguem casa aqui?

Wow there goes another one haha what's next TJ is going to get married? Its amazing what can change after two years, its defiantly going to be a shock when I get home and everyone is married, and moving away from Washington and my cats are dying, having two nieces (sobrinhas?) and Brian being a millionaire when he opens up his new business haha.

Sounds like Seattle is getting pretty dry up there, here as well we are 2 and a half months without rain so far and it is super HOT! I am going through shirts like crazy, I have to wash them every other day because they are super dirty because I am sweating like crazy. Also I am down to two pairs of pants all my other ones are discolored and torn up because of the sun haha they are a mix of black with light brown now. Luckily I live close to the markets here and I will just ask a member to pick some up for me.

This week has been super awesome finding new people to teach and baptize. The lord has literally prepared these people to be baptized. The Women who will be baptized this Saturday was inspired of the Lord. Marineide is her name and she likes to stay at her cousins house and usually when she stays there she stays all day just talking, but one day she felt an impression that she needed to go home early. So not knowing why she just went home, and just a few minutes later we knocked on her door and she let us in. She is super elect and very excited for this Saturday and will be baptized with her daughter and one other women as well. Also this week we have found numerous others who said we answered their prayers. Cleuza said that she had a dream that she was going through some tough time and that someone came up to her and patted her on the back and said, "wait a little longer your blessing is on it’s way". Also there was another who simply said that we said the right thing at the right time and was touched and said she really wants to know our church that her son attends and be baptized. All this is happening because of our Chain of Fast that our Zone is doing.

I really like working with my new companion he is on my favorite list. Also this week we both gave talks and taught the lesson for Gospel Principles this week so yea it was a lot of work. Elder Thorup talked about Missionary work and I talked about the Atonement which was a lot of fun. Did you know that the word Atonement is mentioned only one time in the new testament? yea that because the bible was translated a million times and it was being taken out even though it is one of the most important words that the Bible and all the scriptures have. That's why we have the book of Mormon that is mentioned 37 times, yea its a true book.

I haven't gotten an okay yet if I am able to see the Cavalcantis yet, but as soon as I get an answer we are hooking up for sure and I will tell them why the Corinthians are the better soccer team haha.

I am excited for one more week and hope I get a chance to get in the water on Saturday because its hot down here haha.

Tachu amo vocês, e tanham uma boa semana!

Elder Çrandall