Elder Nick Crapo's Mission Blog Brazil Vitoria Mission 2013-2015: September 23, 2013 Week 6 Brazil!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, my first transfer in Brasil has been completed, and my news for this week is that I will be staying in São Mateus with Elder Moroni for this next transfer as well! Wahoo! Yesterday we sent off Elder Morgan on a bus headed for Vitória, and he´ll be going home on Wednesday (I think). It was sad to see him go, but we still have Elder Mason here with us, and he´ll be receiving a new companion shortly.

Unfortunately, this week was even slower on lessons than last week because we are having a hard time finding people at home. We did get to attend the baptism of Robson on Friday, though. He was an investigator of Elders Morgan and Mason. He´s fifteen years old, and really excited to be a part of the church. He´s solid.

On p-day, we got to go see a sea turtle conservation exhibit in Guriri. It was a lot of fun to go around and take pictures of them, and learn about the conservation efforts in Brasil. (I´ll send you some of the pictures that I took).

I realized that I hadn´t updated you on how Elder Stilson was doing. He´s doing a lot better. When he went to Vitória, they sent him to the doctors to get some tests done, and sent the results to both a Brazilian and American doctor. The interesting this is that the Brazilian doctor said that everything was fine, and that there was no problem. The American doctor called and said that Elder Stilson´s stomche was practically one gigantic ulcer. To be melodramatic: he could have died. It´s no wonder why he was in so much pain, and couldn´t hold any food down. The good news was that it was on the way to recovery, and Elder Stilson would be able to remain in the field under a strict diet. He´s been recovering well, from what I´ve heard.

I´m really glad that I´m able to stay in this area for at least one more transfer. We have a few people who are so close to accepting the gospel completely in their lives, and I want to be here for their baptisms. We had one lesson the other day with a 17 year old boy who´s dad had died. He had been a referral from a member, and she told us that he was having a hard time with the passing of his father, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation. At the end of the lesson, I felt impressed to share my experince with the loss of Julie to cancer and how I came to know for myself that the Plan of Salvation is a true message of hope for all people. I was... a little hesitant. I have a hard time teaching the memorized sentences I use, let alone tell a personal story! So I explained to him that I have a personal testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and that I´d like to share it, but to try to understand even though I don´t speak that language very well. He laughed, and agreed. I told him about Julie and what had happened, and explained about the great amount of time I spent on my knees praying for comfort to know that Julie was happy, and that she was in a place of peace, or that she existed still at all. I then testified of the comforting feelings that I felt from the spirit, confirming to me that she was indeed in a place of rest, where she could find peace and happiness. I told him he could find the same peace as well.

Now, I highly doubt that a single one of my sentences was grammatically correct, or that my vocabulary and pronunciation was of the highest quality, but the spirit was there, and our investigator understood what I was trying to share.

I´m also starting to build up a really good relationship with the members of the branch. I always enjoy being around them. It gives me a headache trying to understand everything all the time, but it´s always a good time. Elders Morgan and Mason told me that the members tell them that they like me. ´´He doesn´t say a lot,´´ they say, ´´But I like him.´´ I can´t wait until I can really communicate with these wonderful people. They´ve really been so warm and welcoming.

That being said, we´ll start off this next transfer with a renewed determination to learn the language as quickly and effectively as possible. I continue to learn new words and cultural phrases that they don´t teach in language books every day. It´s alot of fun, and it´s such a beautiful language. I love you all, and I´ll talk to you soon.

- Elder Crapo

The sea turtles say, "Hey, dude!"