Aguas de Mórmon!

Well I must say this week was one of those tender mercies of God. Just about everything turned out well this week! We had a successful and funny baptism. Also a great family night, and we have another baptism this coming Saturday. I do not take pride in my own works, but I do boast in my God. I have been seeing the hand of the Lord in his Vineyard helping his children following Christ. I love our ward, everyone in our ward is super funny and crazy. I have never seen so many funny people in one place at one time. This whole area is full of them haha. I hope that I don't get transferred out of Lucélia because it is just a great place.

The person who got baptized is Lais who have been waiting almost a year to get baptized, but her mom didn't let here. Then when I showed up she changed her mind and let her get baptized! She is 14 years old and she only has uncles and aunts who are members. Next week is the baptism of Sandoval who is the person we took a picture with eating pizza. Without a doubt he will be a bishop some day. He is still a little worried that it is too soon for him, but I feel that the 4th is perfect for him because he will start to work again this week and it will be a little corrido (busy) to teach him more next week. Please pray for him specifically in your prayers this week to help him feel ready to be baptized. He is a Teacher in English and Português and he is a really funny guy. Last week his roof fell on him because of the rain, but the lord protected him, because he has a lot more to do here.

Last Night we had an awesome family night were we taught about learning to follow the spirit. I started out writing things in English on a paper and having people translate for me. I started righting things harder and harder for them to translate to prove that it is hard to learn a new language. I showed what types of things we need to learn a new language like desire, books, teachers and so forth. Then I compared it to the language of the spirit and how we all need to learn how to listen and follow the spirit. We have been given the scriptures, teachers, and a prophet, and our own desires to choose the right.

Also last night I had a really weird dream that I am still trying to figure out why I had it. I dreamed that I came home after the mission and I got out of the van and I saw Craig and gave him a hug and some other people. Then this one person that I didn't know who came up to me and gave me a huge and it seemed that I knew him and I asked him were he was going to serve and he said he was going to serve in China. All this was in português and I was kind of surprised that he said China when we all know that they haven't opened up their doors yet. SO we will see what that dream was all about haha.

That's awesome that Elder Monterio's letter got to you. Yea he knows a lot of English, but tem vergonha para falar. (he feels shy to speak) sorry i don't remember how to say that in English. He is awesome please wright him back and tell him to get my bed ready at his house in 2014 when I come back for the world cup haha. He is a great Elder and it was a privilege to be his District Leader.

Also next week is transfers and a new couple of missionaries are coming to relive the stress of being in charge of two areas. the president is going to put everyone in one house so that is going to be a lot of FUN.

I love you all so very much and I want to let you know that your ´prayers are being answered and miracles are beginning to happen. I know this is a Great and Marvelous work that will soon fill the Earth and that "when we keep the commandment we will prosper in the land". Learn to follow the spirit. Never think it is too late. Repentance is for all of Gods children, if you think otherwise you are being tricked by our enemy. Life is an endless battle

Love you so much!

ELder Crandall

You got snow and I got rain

Fist off wow you guys got a lot of snow! I always love that time of
year because if it snows enough you get off of school haha. I still
remember that one year were it snowed so much that we went racing with
the Munks at Rose Hill JR. High on our 4 wheelers haha that was one of
those moments I will always remember. The Cavalcanti's bebê (baby) is super
cute tell them "para bêns pra vovês" for me. I don't remember if they
are going to be there when I come home or not. If not tell them I will
come back here in 2014 for the World Cup haha.
So this week was a lot of fun, one of our wards had a late Christmas
party so that is why we are crammed in the trunk of that car. We went
to this really cool place that is on an island and we got to get on
the funny looking ferrie thing again. We played volleyball and killed
everyone haha. Also we ate BBQ with rice and beans YUM. Yea who would
have thought that I would love rice and beans so much! I even like all
the stuff that I didn't like before the mission like tomatoes,
mushrooms, and chicken feet haha ( they are actually pretty good and
very good for you too!).
We have a baptism this week and I am so excited, its been awhile since
we have had a baptism so we are passing by everyday to make sure that our
competitor doesn't give her any second thoughts. Also we have one
more on the 4th and he is super cool and it was his first time at
church the other day and he has already made a lot of friends. We are
visiting him every day as well. There is something that I have noticed
here on the mission that is going to give me more success here in a
bit. Us missionaries are on one team and Satan is one the other and
everyday is a battle. If we leave our investigators for one day our
enemy will do his job and he has had plenty of practice and he works
very good. It is better to visit our investigators everyday because we
can find out faster if they were prepared by the lord and want to be
baptized, or if they are just wanting to be our friends and not want
to follow the example of Christ and be baptized.
I had a great experience of following the spirit this week. We went on
a division with two members in our ward. I planned to visit a less
active member, but didn't know why I needed to go over there with a
member. So we split up and stared walking in the opposite direction with
my companion when Vagner (the member that left with me) said "it would
be a lot faster going the other direction". I agreed with him, but
just kept going in the same direction not knowing why haha. Suddenly
the bishop of JD. Lucélia came up with his car and gave us a ride.
When we got there bishop said he will go with us to teach. When we got
there the bridge that goes from one side of the favela to the other
was halfway broken just like in the movies because of the rain. SO we
did our walk of faith and managed to get to the other side to teach
the less active family. When we got there they had company, but they
still invited us in. There was a couple and 2 kids that were visiting
and he was teaching them stuff from the bible. SO I though oh great
its going to be a bible bash. But it turned out that he was honestly
seeking the truth and our bishop gave a great testimony and we marked
another day to teach them. So because I followed the spirit we meet up
with the bishop at the right time and showed up at the house to teach
the new family at the right time and marked another day to teach the
right family. Pray for them because they work on Sunday and they need
to switch work. Love you all so very much and my time ran out.
Te amo!
Elder Crandall

Agradeço o Pai Celestial

 

I love Brazil and I am so thankful for my health and my calling to serve as a representative of Christ. The mission is really hard, I don't know if you have noticed, but the mission causes a lot of stress which is the basis of all the medical problems of a missionary. I feel bad that Elder Cox is going back home, he is such a great Elder and has inspired and helped many people here in Brazil. My prayers are out to him and Elder Calvert, the mission is tough, but the Lord doesn't let his missionaries go without a reason. Something that I have learned on the mission is that nothing happens by chance. It just seems too perfect to say that thing happen by chance. Just look at our solar system and how it continues to expand and that after all this time our planet has been in perfect rotation of the sun. Yea by chance nothing.

This week was pretty funny, I had a dream that made me think of home a lot this week haha. Fist off the dream was so real that I though it was true until I woke up. I dreamed that my two years were up and I had already came home. It was the second day home and we had a home coming party. All of our cousins were there and some friends. It was really cool and super realistic until I realized that everyone was talking in portuguêse. Mom you were talking really good haha. ce I realized that I woke up and thought woa I am still on the mission haha. I think I had that dream because of Elder Cox who is going home and I felt how it must have been seeing everyone that loves you. It was bitter and sweet at the same time.

Wait a sec I need to write my president real quick...

Alright so this week we met a really awesome family  who have a lot of desire to follow Christ. There are 5 people in their family, Josefa who is the mother of Andresa who will get married to Diego and Josefa has one more daughter who chose to do things  wrong  and had a kid and she left the family with victor who is her daughter. The family is really awesome, I love Josefa because we will be talking about one thing and then two seconds later she will be talking about something completely different haha.

My companion got a little sick last week so we stayed at home for a few hours. unfortunately when we stay at home two areas suffer instead of one. If you don't remember we area in charge of two areas so that means two Bishops, two church meeting, and two Ward Mission leaders. So it gets pretty busy on Sunday to try to get everything in when one starts at 9 30 and then we have lunch then run to the other church that starts at 2 30 and ends at 5 30 and then sometime we talk to the bishop for a bit and we hit the road to get home  real quick to leave our suit coats home and then hit the street again before 7 to teach a few people before 9. I love all of you so very much and I am trying to send some hand written letter over there so we will see how long it will take haha. Te amo

Elder Crandall

More to the story

Read the beginning of the story one letter down from this one.

So after getting pretty wet we decided to make one more break for it. We started running and it started raining harder and we took a short cut through the favela. When we turned the corner we ran right into a river that came through because it was raining so hard. All the houses were flooded and we had water past our knees! So now we are completely wet and there’s no hope staying dry so we pressed forward in the river. It was really epic! Once we got to a part were it wasn't so deep I got my camera out and took a video for everyone. So that Friday I took a shower 3 times one in the morning, one in the dirty rat poop infested water of São Paulo, and one more to get all the polluted water off. So in the end it was really fun, but my companion hurt his toe pretty bad going through the river so he had to take it easy afterwards. We stayed in our house until it stopped. Just to  give you an idea of how long the rain went on I had enough time at home to read the entire book of Mosiah.

So that was Friday and Saturday we left to help a couple sign up to get married at the cartório. The couple is pretty crazy, Dinho I think has something wrong in the head and Lourdes has a lot of patience with him because she practically provides for him to just sit on the couch all day. So we went and took a bus to go to Socorro were the cartório is. On the bus we meet some beautiful girls who were members of the other ward so they were talking to us for awhile. And 3 stops before the cartório Dinho said that he is going to walk and just got off the bus and started walking! He is crazy and he is without money or cell phone too haha. SO we waited for him and the cartório then we walked back and found him causally walking like nothing is wrong. We went back to the cartório and found out that it closed! So it was a waste of time. We took a bus back to go and eat at Habib's. When we got off the bus guess what happened Dinho was the last one to get off the bus and I got off and looked back at him and saw him helplessly looking at the doors of the bus closing and him taking off to who knows were. So there was nothing to do so we went and ate some food and went back home haha. Our patience was tried that day for sure.

But this Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and we went to the two wards and heard everyone give their testimony, including a less active member that we managed to reactivate this week. Then at night a member introduced us to his neighbors and we got to know them and left them super interested to hear our message this Saturday. If everything works out and is according to the lords will we can baptize this family before my 1 year mark and I can see them get sealed in the temple! I am loving my area, this week was a lot of fun! The people here are crazy like one member wants to buy something from the states and he wants to buy it with American money and he asked me various times if you could send American dollars down here in trade for Brazilian cash. haha he is really funny. I will see if I can send some more pictures, but I love you all so very much and tell the Cavalcanti s congrats on their new baby girl!

Love Elder Crandall

 

Rainy Days

Well my email is going to be pretty crazy because I have a lot of photos to send and the drop box is downloading a video for you guys to see. Well the activity on the island was really fun. We took 2 ferries, reminded me of the ferries back home but a ghetto version. We ate lunch over there and did some exploring and threw some rocks in the water. There is so much trash there it’s ridiculous. We climbed a tree to take a picture (which I need to get from another elder) and it was funny because another elder fell off the tree, but he is okay. I will try to send the video this time, but we will see. A video sucks up a lot of time to download.

Dad, yes it rained and rained and rained a lot down here! Its was a super hot day and we were knocking on doors when I started to heard the thunder. I was trying to be positive and said to myself it was nothing and that it wasn't going to rain. Well I was 100% wrong, it rained and not only did it rain cats and dogs it rained kites that were in the air as well. We tried to find shelter, but the storm picked up so we ran to the bar near by . I asked for a trash bag to put my back pack in and make one more attempt home because we got pretty wet and we needed to run home.( Will continue in the next letter)

Feliz Ano Novo!

The name of my area is Jardim Lucélia or Novo Jaú, My companion is Elder Matos.

Happy New Year!!!! Wow the time is flying by now! In February I will have 1 year on the mission can you believe it! It is crazy how fast time is flying by now and so much stuff is changing back home. Devin graduated, Birthday of Dustin and Devin, Everyone is getting a lot older now haha. I will have you know that I have to shave every other day now...yea growing in the stash.

Today is going to be a pretty sweet P-day because we are going to an island in our zone and having a picnic and play some volley ball. I am going to get my tan on (I need to tan my legs they are as white as the snow in Washington). I am in charge of buying all the pop and cups so I am going to buy a lot of Guaraná!

That's great that spencer gave a talk, I hope everything is going smoothly for him switching from the mission to home. Tell him to shoot me up a letter and that if he wants anything from brazil I will try to get it for him.

Mom I got the package you sent, wow it is so awesome! I already ate all the candy and I like the pass along cards that you made. My companion and I are playing with the yo-yos almost every night. I still haven't played the Mormon playing card game yet, but I am eager to play.

I sent a few pictures of our new years, It was pretty chill because we had to be home at 5 and do nothing. But our neighbor who is a member and he lives above our house invited us for dinner so that was nice. He and his wife are pretty crazy as is everyone in my area haha. I wish you could come down and get to know everyone you would die laughing. For example I hung up all my close to dry and this week it has been pretty cold out  so it has taken awhile for them to dry. And the day that they were almost dry which was Saturday our neighbor came through and started pressure washing the hall way and got all my clothes wet and dirty again haha. Yea way to go! So I washed them and they just dried today, but at least he is kind enough to wash our hall way and get a part of our bed room wet because he was washing the windows too and the windows down here don't really keep anything out haha. I love my two areas I think they are great and they are filled with a lot of awesome crazy people that you just can't  help to love. Probably this week we are moving into a new house because we are taking care of two areas right now and we attend two sacrament meetings in two different places. One in a smelly school and the other in a church building. So we found a house for us to move so the president can send two more missionaries down here to take our place. There was a total of 20 people who showed up this week in each ward so it was cool because I blessed the sacrament twice yesterday. It is a lot of work, but it is fun being in charge of almost everything down here haha. Well my time ran out so I want to wish you all a happy new year and I love all of you so much. (Send me a picture of the Cavalcanti's little baby girl please and tell them that I love them too)

Elder Crandall

 

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