January 27, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

     I don´t have a whole lot to talk about for this week, so I´ll start with the announcement of transfers! Are you excited?

     I´m staying!!! I´m so glad that I´ll get to work here in Aracruz for at least one more transfer! As for my companion, Elder Capelletti...

     He´s staying, too! Woohoo! It´s going to be a really great transfer. We´ve really become the best of friends, and I was really worried that we´d get separated just when things started to get really good. We seemed to make it through this past transfer without any emergencies, and hopefully we´ll be able to make it through this one, as well. 

      This past week, we were trying to get the area to a really good spot with the investigators in case we were to be transferred. Things are still a little frustrating in this aspect because we´re still having a hard time getting people to church, but patience...*sigh*...patience. 

     Yesterday the branch held a fireside about missionary work, and they had me sing at it. When it was announced that I would sing, the room started buzzing, and everyone was really excited, ha ha ha. They´ve all been asking me when I would sing again, and since it was a possibility that I would be transferred, they´ve really been insisting on one more song. They liked the song I sang, a song called ´´Today is the day´´ about a missionary making the decision to open his mouth and preach the gospel boldly. Now they´re insisting on me making a cd of lds music and distributing it through the branch...yeah, I don´t know how possible that is...

     Anyway, I´m super excited to be staying here in Aracruz. I love you all very much, and I´ll see you soon!

Much love,

Elder Crapo 

January 20, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

     This week was filled with a lot of laughter. Every week I love serving in Aracruz with Elder Capelletti more. We started teaching a new pool of investigators, and they´re a really fun group. We´ve got Mauro--a classic Brazilian grandpa. He´s hard to teach a quick lesson to because he always cuts us off with endless rantings about his perceptions and stories about life. Then there´s Alex. He´s always laughing. It´s a little hard to have a serious moment with him, because he´s just so joyful and happy to have us around, and his nephew, Fernando, just likes to sit in on the lessons and listen to us talk about the gospel. We´ve got Andriele, who´s just a teenager, but she truly believes in old fashioned respect for others, in being a truly decent person, and loves asking us questions about missionary life. The fact that we leave home for two years to serve really fascinates her. Also, we added a pair of sisters, Isla and Amanda. Isla doesn´t show as much interest as Amanda but she´s just 16 years old. Amanda is 18 and lives in her own separate house on the other end of town because she married really young and then separated from her husband. She definitely has real intent to learn about our beliefs, too. Most of our old investigators either asked us not to come back, or were dropped due to lack of lasting interest. 

     So, there are only two things that Elder Capelletti doesn´t like to eat. Just two. First: Pasta. Which is hilarious, because capelletti is the name of a certain type of pasta here in Brazil. Everyone gets a kick out of that. He gets more guff about his name than I do.Secondly: Bananas. I don´t know how this is possible, but he really can´t manage to even touch a banana. He hates the way the peel feels, the texture, the taste--he just can´t stand it. We had some pretty funny moments where a member or investigator would give us fruit salad with plenty of banana or a banana smoothie or something like that, and I´d hurry and eat a bunch of mine, and then switch bowls or cups when the person leaves the room or isn´t looking, because I love banana--to make it look like we´re both eating. 

     Well, we´ve made it to the last week of another transfer! It´s been two transfers here in Aracruz, so everyone is expecting me to head out. To be honest, I´d be awfully sad to leave. Aracruz has been the closest thing to home I´ve had in Brazil, and I´ll probably die from saudade if I´m transferred. We´ll have to wait and see. I love you all very much, and I´ll see you soon!

-Elder Crapo

January 13, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

     This past week was a roller coaster ride! We marked two dates for the 18th: Maria and Geraldo, but neither of them made it to church yesterday. ``Que raiva!!´´ 

     Maria is a little velhinha we found while making contacts on the street. She lives on a lot similar to Valdesir, only all the houses on the lot are seperate, while Valdesir´s is all connected. She lives with her daughter and her husband, her son, and a few grandkids (I haven´t met them all yet). The reason she didn´t make it to church is because of her daughter. Her daughter doesn´t approve of us teaching and baptizing her mom. We´ve caught her lying to us about several things to keep us from talking to Maria, including the lie that she had another commitment Sunday morning. 

     Gerlado is another velhinho we found living above another one of our investigators. He has a friend who started telling him lies about our church, as well, but the good thing is that he´s actually willing to talk to us about these doubts instead of just shutting us out like most people do. Someone told him that we don´t believe in the Bible, and that we don´t believe Christ was ressurrected. However, as we´ve taught him he has realized that we use the Bible in our teaching, and that our lessons imply that Christ lives, and that He has atoned for our sins, and has been resurrected to fulfil the prophecies given concerning Him. He still seems a little defensive while we teach him, though, and we´re working on softening him up to us. Attending church would have helped, but when we called to confirm with him, he told us that he would be travelling to Linhares on Sunday morning after the 8:00 session at his church.

     Right now, our biggest obstacle is usually family members or friends who try to stop the progression of our investigators. It´s really frustrating, and I hope we can start softening their hearts, as well. 

     Other than that, I don´t really have any other news from this week. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon!

 

Elder Crapo

E UM FELIZ ANO NOVO!!! January 6, 2014

Dear Family and Friends!

     I feel especially excited to write an e-mail to you all today, but I really don´t have any exciting news. Honesty. I have nothing, ha ha. SO...

     New Years, we taught practically nobody. Everybody was either out of town, at the bar, or at church (Brazil...love it!). In the evening, we went to Washington´s house for dinner (He´s our Branch Mission Leader, and best friend, too!). They told us the day-of that everyone had to be inside at 7, but since we had this appointment set before they told us anything, they allowed us an extra hour. The extra hour still wasn´t enough to eat the giant feast of food that had been prepared, so we ended up taking some of it home with us. I felt kind of bad leaving so early, because so much preparation had been made, but we weren´t the ones who neglected to tell the missionaries what time to be home until 5:00 in the afternoon...

anyway...

 

     Both my companion and I have been having trouble sleeping since the 30th, and on Friday, we both woke up sick. *yay!* We started out with similar symptoms, but in the end, we both took a turn for the worse--but in different directions. I ended up with a high fever and the works that come with that, and my companion ended up with pretty bad body aches (that sounds mellow, but he really couldn´t move) that made it hard for him to leave bed. Yup...noooo work got done. Sorry I don´t have something more exciting to tell you than that, but missions are awesome! I love you all, and I´ll talk to you soon.

-Elder Crapo

p.s. To make up for the boring e-mail, here are some pictures! One is of the Christmas feast we had at the Branch President´s house, another of the contents of my Christmas package, and another of a plate of happiness that I made for the missionaries in the apartment using the peanut butter I received!