Coitado Elder Blackford

This week was a struggle it seems that nothing went my way this week, but you just have to push this week behind you and keep looking forward. So a few people who looked very strong to be baptized just told us on Friday that they don't want to learn anymore and they won't go to church. I still don't now the reason why,but I will find out this week. Also last week was Carnival week so everyone in our area was just about gone and there was no one to talk to haha. Then Sunday morning I hear my companion puking his guts out because he got super sick. He threw up like 7 times and didn't get any sleep. We would have not gone to church if we didn't tell an investigator that we would pick him up before church, but my companion gave his best and we made it to church with our investigator Fabio. Elder Blackford was doing just fine until we got to the part during sacrament meeting were everyone stands up and sings and he stood up for a bit and them sat back down super exhausted and nauseas. After the meeting we left our investigator with the members and we took off to make it back home before Elder Blackford got sick. We made it home and little to say we had to clean up the bathroom afterwards haha maybe it wasn't a good idea to eat that pizza last night huh elder.
Just to let you know that book of Mormon card game is super fun me and Elder Blackford have played it all day today haha he has beat me every time through.
It was nice to have two days of rest because my feet and my knees were starting to hurt because of all the walking that we did that week and I was starting to fall asleep in the morning during personal study on accident, but now I am full of energy and super excited for one more week of adventure!  Well I hope you all have a great week and my next letter I will try to get some more juicy stories for ya.
Te Amo!
Elder Crandall!

UNO!!

We just got out of our zone activity which was pretty funny. We had BBQ and we played Uno which was super crazy because every time someone won a game someone gave a new rule that was applied in the next game so at the end we had like 7 rules which were all very funny and crazy. My companion is doing really well he is getting a little better with the language now. I remember when I was new on the mission and was struggling with the language as well Its pretty crazy. The exact moment  I got my new companion I started to speak a lot better portugues and I am understanding everything that everyone says. He prays every day that we may have the gift of tongues and it looks like it is working out at least for me haha. We had an awesome week, we managed to find a lot of elects this week and had 3 of them go to church yesterday which was awesome. We are still going to Church at the school, but I have grow to love that little school haha I will try to take some pictures of it next week. Speaking of photos I am trying my best to send out a few pictures to you right now, but the computer is super slow and I don't think it is going to send them in time.

New House, New Companion, New Problems resolved

Wow what a week, there has been so many changes this past week I don't
think I will be able to get them all in at once. So Tuesday we went to
the chapel were we have transfers. We managed to get a ride there, but
not on the way back. On the way there the Assistants called me and
told me that I WOULD START TRAINING! I was shocked, I went there
without my suit coat because I didn't know I would train so I showed
up without a suit coat so they lent me a big one for me to use haha.
Also I found out that we were going to switch houses that exact moment
so I didn't pack my bags or anything and didn’t have a lot of time to clean the last house.
So I show up and saw my companion get transferred and I had to go to
the mission office to pick up my new companion. I was kind of hopping to
train a Brazilian, but to my surprise I got an American haha. His name
is Elder Blackford from Bainbridge Island near my home town. He is 19 and has 3 younger sisters. 

He is pretty crazy, but I like it because I am getting pretty
crazy as well my time in this area so we are getting along just fine.
I never thought the day would come that I would forget how to speak
English, but it came and went. My first day with Elder Blackford was
really hard because it has been a long time since I have spoken
English and so I was asking him how to say stuff in English and he
didn't understand my Português so we were in a pickle for a few hours
until I got my English back in shape.
Also I planned that another couple of missionaries would come to our
new house, but the president sent two sisters so they had to stay in
our old house. The moving truck put their stuff in the wrong house so
I had to do a blitz and trade all the stuff at night. It was super
stressful, but we got it done and my poor companion had no idea what
was going on haha.
To get to our area was super hard because we live super far away from
the mission office and Elder Blackford had two big suitcases to carry
around. So we took a bus with the new sisters to our area, then a
train(which was super packed, worse then the clips on YouTube) and
then we took one more bus super packed. So after all this we managed
to go to our house and nothing was organized and we didn't have a
shower head so we took a bath with a sponge that I bought and some
water haha and we don't have a dresser so we are also living out of
our suit cases. SO it was defiantly an experience for my poor
companion haha. He is good now he has a good attitude and he is ruffing
it with me.
I defiantly have a lot more responsibilities now and I have to give a
perfect example to my companion because I want him to be a better
missionary than me. The other day I let him mark someone for baptism
and she accepted haha. It has been a super stressful but a fun week.
Also I am loving my package I LOVE YOU TOO, I am eating the recess
every day and I have shared them with a few people in our ward and they
loved it. Yesterday Sandoval received the Holy Ghost and received the
Priesthood. It was a great week. My next planner has a picture of me that I took 

were I am standing on top of a mountain and I put a tab that says 1 Year!So this 

week I will defiantly buy pizza with my companion and show him what a pizza really taste like. 

Yea dad you should give up B Ball, but keep up the ATV because I want to go riding
with you when I get home haha. That's cool that everyone is living
close to home now. How old is Ella now? She is getting pretty big haha 

It is crazy how fast time is flying by now. 

If I blink one more time I will already be home haha. 

The mission is awesome and I am super happy here, even though it is super hard, it is super worth it!
We have a few more baptisms next month so keep up the prayers so that
we can overcome the challenges that everyone faces before baptism. I
hope you like the picture that our president found haha its pretty
epic. Love you all so much and I am excited to hear your emails next
week! LOVE YOU and happy valentines day!

Tchau Elder A. Matos

I think I forgot to tell you that we had a meeting with Elder Ballard so I am going to give you the update on that first. It was really awesome! Elder Claudio R M Costa was there with his wife and they both gave really good talks on Priesthood authority. They had a translator that did a very good job, its awesome that I now had the ability to understand 100% of the things that they are saying now. Sister Ballard seems to be getting a little old now and she is starting to be a little forgetful. You know when someone really old gets up and talks about just about everything and nothing at the same time haha but she has a very sweet heart and I can see that she really has a strong testimony. Elder Ballard gave a great talk about "FIX IT" if there is a problem then you better fix it. Call upon the powers of heaven and fix it. Well that pretty much what I did all this week was fix it. This week was Sandoval's baptism and we taught him everything within 2 weeks (and he gave us food every time haha) and we had his interview the day before the baptism. Everything went smoothly until he had to be interviewed by the president! And that same hour our cell phone stopped working and the cell phones of everyone else! So that is when it all started. The rest of the day I was trying my best to get to the president. Finally after many prayers I got through to him. Unfortunately our area is really far away from the Mission home so it was impossible for president to come and do the interview. So he said he would call the Stake President to do it and said he would call back. Well he didn't call back so the next day the same thing I couldn't get a hold of the president to see what's up. I called the stake president who said that he had another meeting in another city so didn't work out for him to do it. I tried again and again and our Mission Leader of our ala went to the temple for a bit and left us to take care of everything for a bit haha so it was getting down to the wire. with only 3 hours to spare I call the president and he told me that the bishop could do it, so I ran to the bishops mechanic shop and gave him the phone to talk to the president and we marked the interview. With only 1 hour to spare he did the interview and we walked him to the chapel (which is in another area) and baptized him! He picked me to baptize him and it was great! We even stayed to watch the other baptism of the other ward which was great!.

Also the big news is my companion is transferred! Yea so I will be left here to take care of the move from our old house to our new one and the president wills send two more missionaries to live with us and work in the other area. I don't know which area I will stay in, but I hope it is Lucélia haha I like church in the school house it is a nice tight fit haha.

Next week will be a challenge to be the guide for 3 missionaries, showing them were everything is and what to do. So at night when you have a few minutes to spare I would appreciate a few prayers my way.

How is Elder Cox doing what is the update on him?

My time is running out and Elder Matos has to say good bye to a few people so that will take up the rest of our day haha. I am so thankful for the many emails and letter that I have been receiving. Its good to know that I am not forgotten even when I have almost 1 year on the mission! I will have 1 year on the 16th! I am so excited I am totally going to buy a pizza with a lot of chocolate in the crust! Love you all so very much and I am loving the pictures of Ella and Dustin! She is growing up so fast! She is how many months now? Love you so very much!

Braço

Elder Çrandall

Where’s Elder Crandall ?