Sheeshong! Março 24 2014

Oi, gente!

     This week was really interesting. On Monday, I was told that here in Itaperuna, they have a SUBWAY. As in the restaurant that sells sub sandwiches from the United States! Yup, we totally jumped on that for lunch on p-day. It was great to take a trip back in time when lunch meant a sandwich and juice instead of rice, beans, and guaraná (don´t get me wrong, I love the food here, but it was good to walk down memory lane). They also have a ``Bob´s Burgers and Shakes´´ here, and we´re all going to be broke here in a short while if we don´t control ourselves.

     The branch here has about 20 active members (we have to cram ém in the chapel...I don´t know how we manage.) ;) However, they´re a really great group of people. I´ve been told that there actually exists at least 100 baptized and inactive members living here, too, so we´re going to kick our reactivation efforts into high gear. Branch President Lopez called us on Saturday evening to ask us if we could give a discourse on Sunday morning. We picked the topics. I was trying to think of what to give on Sunday morning (the day of) and I thought about a study I did a few transfers ago about Alma...24, I think. Where he compares the Word of God to a seed. I was able to relate my experiences in helping out with the garden at home and what it takes to have a good harvest at the end of the season, and how carefully Dad always tended the plants. The reaction from the members was really positive, and I was grateful that I have been doing my studies.

     On Thursday, we had our Zone Meeting, and we had to travel to Campos. It was cool to see Rio pass by as we rode the bus (when I wasn´t sleeping, because We had to wake up early to catch the bus). The meeting went really well, and we have a really good zone, and loooots of Sisters. Our zone has more Sisters than Elders. There are a ton!

     Right now, our main investigators are Juliano and Carlos Anderson (everyone calls him K-zé (kaw-zeh). Juliano is married with one daughter, and always receives our visits well. K-zé works full time in delivery at an ice cream shop, and we always get free ice-cream when we visit. Both of them have said that they want to keep learning before they get baptized, so we´ve been passing by frequently to get them prepared. With K-zé it´s harder because he can get a delivery call at any moment, which makes it hard to get him to come and stay at church. He came last week, but could only stay for 30 minutes. That was a little frustrating. 

     Anyway, we´ve already become a pretty tight group of missionaries here after two weeks. Everyone seems to get along well, and we have a lot of fun. The problem has become fighting the urge to stay up all night talking and joking instead of going to bed on time. But, I promise, Mom, I am going to bed on time. I´ll be sending pictures of the area and companion soon. I have to fix or find a new charger for my camera. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon!

Elder Crapo

p.s. I forgot to explain why the title is ``Sheeshong´´. The other day, I was showing the other missionaries my visa, and it has Mom and Dad´s names on it. I told them to go ahead and try to pronounce my Mom´s last name (which is Chisholm). The response I got sounded like chinese or Japanese: ``Sheeshong´´. Now, I´m Elder Sheeshong, ha ha ha. ``Oi! Sheeshong! Vem ká!!´´ they say; ´´Hey, sheeshong, come here!´´ We get a kick out of that. Until next week! Love you!

Padrasto!?!?!?!? Março 17 2013...no, ´14

Happy Saint Patrick´s Day, Y´all!

     I bet you´re all pretty excited to hear what happened on Tuesday. To tell the truth, there was a mistake in the transfer announcement, and they just sent me back to Aracruz with Elder Capelletti...

JUST KIDDING!

This week, everyone is calling me ``padrasto´´, which in Portuguese means...

*Drumroll*


...

...

...

STEPFATHER!

     Yup, I´ve been assigned to finish up the training of a greenie who´s dad left to be a Zone Leader in Vitória. His name is Elder Bessa, and he´s from Fortaleza, Brasil. I´ll be telling you more about him later, he´s pretty great. My other announcement is that I´ve been sent to...

Rio de Janeiro!

     It´s gorgeous here! Seriously. My area is in the city of Itaperuna, and we´re here with one other companionship that is training, too. Elder Sacramento is our district leader, and he´s training Elder Garcia, who has just 5 days in the field. They´re pretty great, too. This week was a little bit rough because the travel time from Vitória to Itaperuna is over 7 hours, and we made the journey the same day as the transfer meeting. ..We got home reeeeally late. I think that this morning I finally shook off the last symptoms of the huge lag it put in our schedule.

     We´ve jumped right into the work, and we already have some families with so much potential. I was surprised, because I´d heard of Itaperuna before...it`s known for being a difficult area, but we seem to be managing just fine so far. I really believe that here in a few weeks we´ll have a baptismal service!

     Being a trainer is really a different experience, especially being an American missionary training a Brasilian missionary. I haven´t really had any trouble with the language yet, but it´s certainly going to be a transfer very unlike the others. I´m pretty excited!

     That´s all I have for this week, so I´ll let you all go. Love y´all!

Elder Crapo

March 10, 2014

Meus Queridos, 

     I´ve really been humbled by this past week. A lot has happened, and I feel as though a lot is about to change. On Tuesday, one of the assistants to the President requested a surprise division in our district. Our district leader, Elder Araujo, told me that it was requested that he spend the day in my area with me, and that Elder Capelletti would go with his companion in his area. within the first hour of the division, I asked what our focus of this division would be. He told me that it was just a normal division to see how the area is working and to see how he could help to improve. I wasn´t convinced. The assistants to the president wouldn´t call a division the day of--just to see how the area is doing. I had a feeling something was up. We visited Denize, and she told us that at the moment she is not willing to separate from her boyfriend and change her life in order to be baptized. She said that she feels that the church is true, and that baptism by authority is important, but for now she does not want to stop living the way she´s living. 

     Then we went to visit Bruno. His mom still thinks he´s not ready yet, and she won´t let us baptize him still. We wanted to talk to her personally, but she ran to the hospital with Bruno´s Grandma, because she became suddenly ill, and needed immediate attention. We left a baptismal record with Bruno, and he said that when things calmed down, he would ask permission again and present the form for her to sign.

     We had planned to meet up with a member of the branch to go visit some less actives and investigators after the lesson with Bruno, and he told us we could meet up at the water tower in São Marcos. While we were waiting for the member to meet with us, Elder Araujo and I got talking about the transfer, about my experiences in the mission, about my difficulties and my strengths, and about my vision for the future. He asked me how I would react to being called to be a leader. I told him that I´d like to learn to lead well, and that it would be a good experience that I could learn from, etc. He shared some experiences of his with me, and assured me that you learn a lot from serving as a leader. As we talked about some of the difficulties I´ve passed through, Elder Araujo told me the real reason for the surprise division. The assistants have been calling him daily, asking him ``How is Elder Crapo, is he doing well, is he happy, is he working hard, etc.´´. Elder Arujo always told them that he´s not sure because Elder Crapo is not a morning person, and mostly keeps quiet until comp. study (Elder Jones knows all about the `morning monster´) and by the time he gets home at night, he´s so tired, he just takes a shower, says his prayers, and goes to bed. The assistants called the division so that Elder Araujo could get to know me, my likes, my interests, my work ethic, my abilities, my language skills so that he could pass these things on. Why do the assistants care, I had wondered. Then he told me that it´s because the assistants have really grown to like me, and they will ask authorization of President to place me as a trainer this upcoming transfer, and perhaps in other leadership positions soon. When I heard that, I didn´t know what to think. I´d have to wait until transfers and see.

     This morning, we received the transfers announcement. I´ve been transferred! I´ve noticed that President likes to transfer the trainers to re-open a new area with their ``sons´´. I´m not saying that I´m sure I´ll be training, but with the news I received about the assistants...I think it´s probable, and I´m nervously excited to see for sure tomorrow. 

     From Wednesday morning until late Thursday night, we struggled as we juggled getting the house moved and attending to our investigators´ needs. I´ll be short and simple in saying that it was not fun, and I hope I never have to do it again. Unfortunately, when Saturday rolled around, Bruno´s mom hadn´t budged, and the move made it difficult for us to catch her at home. He´s ready, but I´m going to have to leave him to another group of missionaries because of transfers. I´ll leave a note for the other missionaries to send me pictures when he gets baptized--because I have no doubt that soon he will.

     To be honest, I feel really relieved and peaceful in knowing that I´ve been transferred. I´ll miss Aracruz and the people here, but it´s been 3 transfers, and the normal ammount is 2, so I got a little extra time. I feel it´s now time to go. I´ll be sure to fill you in on all the details on the transfer meeting tomorrow. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon!

Elder Crapo

March 3 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

     

     Well, it seems like my ``little head cold´´ has almost completely disappeared. One week ago, I went to bed with the first symptoms, and yesterday, I went to bed with hopefully the last symptoms. It has been a fun week fighting the sickness and trying to fit in an acceptable amount of work, as well. Elder Capelletti tried to get me to call the President´s wife so I could stay home and get better several times, but we had Bruno´s baptism coming up on Saturday, and we had other important investigators to visit who we couldn´t afford to neglect. We went through some pretty funny stages, though. Near the last part of the week, my voice became sore, tired, and I sounded like Eeyore with his super deep voice. This was the cause of some hilarity Friday night.

     There´s a less active member named Edite who lives in our area, and who we´ve been helping get back to church, as well as her recent convert granddaughter, Elise. She always likes us to sing at least one hymn during the visit, but usually she gets us to sing a few. When we were visiting with her on Friday night, I told her I probably wasn´t going to be able to sing anything with the terrible condition my voice was in. However, she and Elder Capelletti pushed me to sing, despite my complaints. Elder Capelletti chose ``The Morning Breaks´´ and I knew it was going to be a disaster. I started out fine because we set the key low, but I didn´t last long. I got to about the third measure where the melody jumps from low to high at `the shadows flee´, and my voice rebelled with an incredibly humiliating screech that completely floored Elder Capelletti. I don´t know if my family remembers, but it reminded me of the video that Lydia shared of that one opera singer´s epic fail. Yup everybody ended up laughing uncontrollably, and thus ended the singing for the night. How embarrassing…

     Anyway, I bet you´re wondering if Bruno actually got baptized on Saturday. Well…he didn´t. His baptism has been postponed until this next Saturday because we´ve been trying to talk to his mom so she can authorize the baptism, but she´s always either sleeping in bed or not home. Bruno told us that he would talk to his mom, and that she´d be home for sure on Saturday to sign the baptismal record. It´s…just that when he went to tell her that he wanted to be baptized, and that she needed to give permission…she said no. She doesn´t think he´s ready. It´s frustrating because of all the people I´ve worked with on the mission, Bruno is one of the most prepared people I´ve ever taught. I know he´s ready. He knows he´s ready. But his mom won´t give permission. However, we´ll be visiting with her on a regular basis this week, and with some faith, we´ll get her to sign the form.

     We also have been trying to get Denize´s daughter, Lisamara, to accompany her mom to church. She promised every day last week that she´d go, but when Sunday morning arrived, she was still sleeping. We woke her up to get ready to go, and she told us that she wouldn´t be going to church this week. That was fun. Denize also needs to separate with her boyfriend so that she can get baptized, and she wants to separate and baptize, but when she tried to talk to her boyfriend about it, he treated it as a joke, and then started fixing all sorts of excuses. Unfortunately, she´s not being all too firm, but in our last visit, she told us that she won´t allow him to stay at her house any more, and if he shows up, she´ll leave to her cousin´s house to stay the night. We´ll see if it actually happened.

     Those are basically the people we´re focusing on this week, since it´s the last week of the transfer. If everything goes as planned, we´ll have two baptisms on Saturday.

     On Thursday, we had our Zone Conference with President. Attending was my zone (The Serra Zone) and the Vitória zone together. It was good to hear President and his wife speak about the mission, and they´re helping us get excited for the new Mission President to arrive in July. We had a devotional in the morning, had lunch, held a questions and answers meeting, and then in the evening, we all changed clothes and played sports. We got almost everybody to join us in playing volley ball, and we had a blast. Everyone was sore the next day.

     It´s really strange how March has started and I should be experiencing the transfer of winter to spring, but in reality, I´m experiencing the transfer of summer to autumn. Hopefully, I´m sending some warm sun to all soon. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon. Have a great week!!

-Elder Crapo