August 26, 2013. Week 2 Brasil

Dear Family and Friends,

     This week has been a bit easier than last, now that I´m starting to get settled. I still have a hard time understanding people´s questions to me, and I still can´t teach very well, but we´re working on it. I have so much that I could tell you, and I don´t really know where to start. hmmm...

      Last monday, after we finished e-mailing and doing everything that needed to be done for the day, we decided to go look around at all the little shops that we pass by every day, but never look to see what is inside. Let me just say that it´s a good thing I´m a missionary, otherwise I probably would have spent some money. All of their dress shoes are so nice! 

       Also last week, I had my first experince with crazy dogs! We all knew this day was coming. It´s funny, because earlier the day that this happened, I thought to myself, ´´I don´t know what everyone is talking about back in the states, all the dogs here are just fine.´´ There are quite a few stray dogs in the more poor parts of São Mateus, but they never seemed to bother us. Yeah, that was the wrong thing to think. In one particular section of the poor section, there is this one dog, who I have decided to name, but I don´t know what yet (suggestions?), and she is really mean. The first time we went over on the street where she reigns, she let us pass by, no problem just like any other dog. Then, once we had walked down her street a few feet, she started to bark like crazy, and charge after us: lips curling, teeth showing, hair standing on end, the whole bit. It was in this moment that I realized the true purpose of the MTC for missionaries going to Brazil: dog attack prevention. I had been taught that the dogs in Brasil are very trained, and if you even pretend to bend over and pick up a rock, they´ll leave you alone. Well, I didn´t want to get attacked by a dog with diseases, so I stopped in my tracks, quickly turned, and started aggressively advancing towards the dog, bending down to pick up an imaginary rock (there were no rocks on the street where I was standing). The second I started to bend over, the dog screeched to a halt, and ran as fast as it could the opposite direction, whimpering as if I´d hurt it. As I stood there, marvelling at the fact that it actually worked, I had never felt so liberated. 

     Let´s see, oh yeah! We had another baptism on Saturday. His name is Wilson Destefani. I don´t know if I told you, but we don´t really have a church building here in São Mateus. We´re just using another building kindof like a giant apartment, only...not. It´s hard to explain. It´s similar to other church buildings in Brazil, but it wasn´t originally built to be a church building. Anyway, because of this, we don´t have a font. Just an above ground swimming pool on the back ´´patio´´. Since we had a baptism that week, we had to clean it and re-fill it with water. We cleaned it one day, and then went to fill it the next, but for some reason, we didn´t have any water in the building. We did everything we could with the help of ward members to fix the situatiuon, but we really had no water. Well, we weren´t  going to give up that easy. We went across the street to a type of car wash (done by hand by people), and asked if we could use their water to fill the pool so we could baptize someone. The owner gave us permission, and so Elder Moroni and I took a bucket each, carried them full of water, one by one, across the street, up the stairs, across the building to the pool to fill it up. Needless to say, we needed a lot of bucket-fulls, and even more needless to say, my arms were very sore the next day. I was soaked and exhausted by the time we had finished. That night, I performed Wilson´s baptism, and we had to do it twice, because the water was so low that I really had to lower him pretty far, and his feet slipped and popped up.

     Other than that, I´m just continuing to work on the language. I can´t really do anything but smile and nod until I´ve got it down, so it´s a little frustrating some days, but we´ll get there. It´s really beautiful in some parts here, and I´ll send you some pictures I took in the past week (don´t worry, I made sure nobody was around). ;) I love you all more that you understand, and I´ll see you all soon!

com amor,

-Elder Crapo

Pictures of parts of my area, and a bird that was talking. He was yelling "HEY!" at us as we walked by, and my companion told me the name of it, which I don't remember, and said it speaks Portuguese!

August 19, 2013 Week 1 in Brazil!!!!

Dear family and friends,

     Let me start by saying that:

                -yes, Brasil is as beautiful as everyone says it is, at least where I am right now.

                -yes, the traveling to finally get to Brasil, and then finally to my area, Sao Mateus, was absolutely killer. 

                -no, my companion does not speak English. He knows a few words and phrases, but every day is like a giant game of charades.

                -yes, I am adjusting. Slowly. I think it´s safe to say that this has been the hardest week of my mission, and probably the hardest week of my life, BUT

                -yes, I trust the Lord, and know that He has a plan for me here, and will give me aid. (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

                -yes the people here are incredible and welcoming, and loving and so much fun, even if we have to work hard to understand each other.

                -yes, they baptize a lot here. We had two this weekend! and one that fell through.

                -no, I don´t understand most of the things people say, and that´s the hardest part, as well as the fact that I can´t teach the way I could in Texas, or express myself to people. It´s hard when you work for three months to get to the point where you feel like you can teach okay, and then slide backwards this far in teaching capability. However, if the Lord wants me in Brasil, then I will serve in Brasil. No matter how hard I know it will be at first. 

            

     That being said, let me say that I know I´m going to love it here. My area, Sao Mateus 1, has two parts: The actual city/town of Sao Mateus, which has lots of little shops, a park, a cemetery (right in front of our apartment), and some other small and very modest houses. The other part is just outside of Sao Mateus, and I don´t really remember the name of it, but it´s beautiful Brazilian countryside, with so many trees, and sand roads, and little houses and hills. 

      Like I said, we had two baptisms this weekend. One was a man named Cleder, and his daughter, Maryangela. Oh! I forgot. My first full day in Sao Mateus, we went to two weddings. Not ceremonies, but at an office, where the vows are read, and the papers are signed, without all the big ceremonious stuff. Just really simple. Cleder was one of the two couples getting married that day. The next day, he was baptized, and the day after that, he received the Priesthood, and baptized his daughter. They are an awesome family, and we all love having them in the ward.

      Other than that, we´ve been trying to get settled in, and it´s taking some time to get used to the huge difference between missions (Elder Stilson served in Colorado, and is going through the same thing). The main hurdle is Portuguese. Once we can get that down, we´ll be good to go. I don´t really have much more to say this week because most of the week was spent traveling and getting our companions and getting visa things squared away. I really am so happy to be in Brasil. I miss my mission and companions from when I was in Galveston, but I know by the time I leave this area, I will have had experiences that I will miss, too. It´s like they say: It doesn´t matter where you serve, what matters is that you´re serving. I love you all so much, and I´ll see you all soon!

com amor, 

-Elder Crapo

After corresponding back and forth a bit, I gleaned a bit more info.

His companions name is Elder Moroni.  Moroni is his first name but that's what he uses.  He is from São Paulo, Brazil.

He also said this:

Elder Stilson's companion is from the south of Brazil, and speaks very good English.  His name is Elder Torres.  They live in the same apartment as us, and when he's with us, he's a lot of help, so at least I'm not completely lost all the time.

 View from the mission home window in Vitoria

 View from the hotel I stayed in my first night in Brazil

View from the apartment in Sao Mateus. 

 (notice the beautiful countryside in the background, with the cemetery in the foreground)  ;)

August 12, 2013 OFF TO BRAZIL!!!!!!!!!!!! (finally)

Here I am! I'm in the mission office, and I'm heading off to Brazil today! I'll do everything I can to call you sometime whenever I can! I love you, and I'll talk to you soon!


Nick's Mom here.....
Nick received a call from the Mission President on Friday morning informing him that his visa was approved and he would be leaving on Monday!  Nick's other companion, Elder Christensen also received a call that morning saying his visa was also ready and he would be leaving for Australia the same day!  Poor Elder Jones!!!  Anyway, Nick was sad to leave all his friends in Texas and the 14 baptism dates behind, but he is also excited to be finally going to Brazil.  He was excited to meet up with some of his friends from the MTC that went to Colorado.  They  met up in Atlanta and all traveled to Brazil together.  He said it was like a reunion at the airport.  They all need work on the language and have lost a lot, but it will come back quickly, hopefully.   He seems to be doing very well and it was great to talk to him and hear his voice!

I received this letter informing me he made it safely.

We are very grateful to have Elder Crapo with us in the Brazil Vitória Mission.  He arrived yesterday from the U.S.  Although a little tired due to an early plane flight, he was anxious to begin his service in the mission field.  After a session of training, we met in our home for lunch and an afternoon interview.  Attached is a picture taken in the mission home.  Once again, it was a pleasure getting to know your son and we look forward to serving with him as we invite others to come unto Christ and enjoy the blessings of the gospel.  If in the future you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

President and Sister Araujo

p.s. Monday is our Preparation Day.  As such, you should expect an email this coming Monday!!

August 6, 2013

Dear Home,

     Wow, last week has gone by so fast! I guess I owe you an explanation about why my e-mail came late this week.

No, I'm not dead.

No, I'm not in Brazil.

No, I'm not transferred. yet.

     Missionaries in this mission have permission to attend the temple once per quarter. But, the rule is that 1. You have to get a member to go with you, and provide transportation, and 2. You have to move your P-day to the day you go to the temple for that week. That's why you didn't get an e-mail from me yesterday. The Houston temple is so beautiful! I really enjoyed going to do an endowment session there. (did you hear about the new film?) Missionaries may also attend the temple with one of their recent converts IF they take a family name to perform baptisms for the dead. That being said, we may be able to go to the temple a second time this week with Eli on Friday, which is the planned ward temple trip. I'm pretty stoked!

     Anyway, like I said, this past week went by crazy fast, and I'm trying to figure out what happened. I won't know if I'm being transferred for sure until Monday (eep!), but Elder Jones or I may get a call on Thursday, informing us if either of us will be training next transfer (if I'm staying in Texas.) If President Ashton receives a prompting that I need to train next transfer, then I'll stay here. (I could train next transfer! GAH!) Yeah, week 6 is super stressful. every time. I hate not knowing what's going on, or what is going to happen. Yes, I realize that this is coming from a visa waiter who could be shipped out of the country tomorrow.

     I forgot to tell you that Elder Christensen is a visa waiter for Adelaide, Australia? Well, he is, haha. It's really nerve racking because he's a ticking time bomb. All the Australian visa waiters last transfer got their visas by the end of the transfer, so he really could leave any day now. Every time the phone rings, we all jump. We don't want him to go!

     We're still working with Diamond for her date on the 17th. While we've been teaching her, her sister has joined in the lessons, and has decided to get baptised on the same day! We're just gonna go have a huge family baptism that day, and baptize everybody! Her name is Bertha, but she goes by Nee-nee. (or ni-ni, or something like that.) She's 13, but she's really smart and really mature, so we thought she was way older than that. Nope. She's 13.

     The big miracle for this past week is our 10 baptismal dates! We've been finding a lot of people lately, and I wish I had enough time to just sit here and tell you every detail about every single one of these people, but I guess I'll tell you guys about them individually as their baptismal dates get closer (sometimes they fall through). We're continuing to work hard, and have fun, though. The end of the transfer is really hard, because Elder Jones, Elder Christensen, and I have become really the best of friends. We're pretty sure this trio is going to be hard to top. Sometimes we wish we could watch ourselves as we go throughout the day, because we have the greatest dynamic, and we have a lot of great moments, in and out of lessons, in seriousness as we work and in fun at the apartment. We'll be sad when we eventually have to separate. I've grown to love these guys so much, and we have big plans for a reunion after we all get home (since we all lived in northern Utah. That kinda worked out nicely.) I'll let you know everything about transfers, visas, training, etc. next week when we find everything out! I'm kinda nervous!

Com amor,

-Elder Crapo

July 29, 2013

Dear Home,

     First, a bit of news concerning my visa.

Don't freak out it's not that big of news.

...

But it is news.

...

are you dying of anticipation yet?

...

I would be...

Okay, here we go.

     Last week, our zone was scheduled to have interviews with President Ashton on Tuesday, right before our district meeting. I was pretty excited. I really like President Ashton. He interviewed our companionship first. He started with Elder Christensen, then me, then Elder Jones. When I went in for my interview, we talked about all the success our area has been having, and how pleased he is with our performance. Then he told me that he'd like to discuss some things concerning my visa.

     He told me that some time into my 3rd transfer, if I was still here in Texas, then church headquarters may begin considering permanently re-assigning me. He asked me, should that happen, what would I want. Of course, I told him that I'd like to stay here in Houston South. He seemed relieved, and told me that he really wants me to stay in Texas. "Not that I'm praying for your visa not to come," he said, but he'd really like to keep me in the Texas Houston South Mission with them. Then he asked me if I'd like to go Spanish speaking (half the mission is Spanish speaking), or stay English. I told him I'd like to stay English, if that's okay, ha ha ha. (I really like my English investigators). It turns out that he wants me English speaking as well because Elder Jones said they discussed me in his interview, and he told me that President said, "We really need Elder Crapo in English". WOW! Talk about a self-esteem boost. I hope by the end of my service here, I'm as good of a missionary as President Ashton thinks I am. As this is the second to last week of the transfer, we may find out if Elder Jones will be training again, which would tell us if I was being transferred or not, because we're pretty sure Elder Christensen will get his visa either by the end of this transfer, or the beginning of the next. It really could come any day now, and it's scary because we really have the best companionship I've ever seen. With how well we work with each other, and by the success and blessings we've been seeing, I doubt anybody else has it as good as we do. They really are a blessing. We're also worried that we might get split up "to spread the goodness around" as Elder Christensen put it.

     Anyway, I don't have any breaking news for this week other than that. Diamond relapsed only one day last week, but has been strong ever since. She has a daughter named Delexis, who is nine, and said she'd like to get baptized with her momma, so we're going to start teaching her, and preparing her to be baptized. She said she loves to read, so we gave her a Book of Mormon of her own to read, and she held it like it was the most precious thing she'd ever touched (which--it kinda is). Our only real struggle with our investigators for the past few weeks has been getting our investigators to church. Yesterday, we had 7 investigators at church! The standard of excellence is2! We still missed some, though, and we're still working with them and the members to help the stragglers make it there on Sunday.

     I continue to learn and grow and stretch and love my mission. If I end up staying in Texas for the rest of my service, I know that it is because the Lord wants me here, not Brazil. I know why I'm here, and I'll take whatever I'm handed. All I want is the be able to serve as well as I can, wherever I can. I love you all, and I'll see you soon!

                                                                     com amor,

                                                                  -Elder Crapo

My apologies to all who follow this blog!

Hey everyone,

Nick's Mom here.  I'm sorry the blog has been such a mess lately.  I am having computer issues and it has made posting pictures very difficult.  I am working on resolving the issue.  I have updated all the letters and added the pictures to past letters so scroll down to see them all.  Thank you for your patience as I deal with my technical difficulties!   Happy reading!

July 22, 2013 Another Baptism!!!

Dear Home,

 

     I'm so glad to hear that the family reunion went well! It sounds like it was a lot of fun! This week was extremely crazy for us, and we saw several miracles as we re-doubled our efforts to work hard. Let me start with Steven Romero. He was a media referral that we received from church headquarters a couple weeks ago, who is a catholic (but doesn't agree with all their teachings) with an inactive LDS girlfriend. He's 18 years old attending Texas A&M, a college or university here in Texas on Pelican Island (which is in our area). He told us that he was meeting with us because he has an open mind to learning about our church, and also because there is a deal that was made with his girlfriend's parents that she'll meet with Steven's parents about Catholicism, and Steven will meet with the LDS missionaries. He obviously agreed. He's a really smart kid, listens attentively in lessons, keeps all his commitments, and has already read a pretty big chunk of the Book of Mormon. So far he agrees with everything in the Book of Mormon, but isn't sure he believes everything we've been teaching him so far, but he's committed to reading and praying about the truthfulness of the B.O.M.

      Then there's Diamond. She is a bit like Eli in the sense that she's received all the missionary lessons, knows the church is true, and wants to be baptized, but up until this point, told the missionaries that she's not ready to give up smoking. To describe Diamond, she is pretty much as "straight-up" as anybody can get. This lady does not lie to you, and isn't afraid of telling you what she thinks, or hurting your feelings in the process. When we decided it was finally time to visit her again, she told us that she wants to be baptized, and is now ready to quit smoking. On Thursday, she smoked a whole pack of cigaretes. On Friday, she smoked one, and on Saturday, she didn't smoke any. WAHOO! She said she'd come to church, but she forgot that she was going off the island on Sunday, so she didn't make it this week.

     Our newest development is James. James is the son of Patricia, a former drug addict and chain smoker. He is 16 years old, and was taken to the hospital a few months ago for drug overdose. "The officials" took him out of the bad environment at home, and then he ran away from them to stay somewhere else, nobody is sure where. Once 'the officials' found him, they brought him back to Galveston to Patricia. Elder Jones told me that James looks completely different than the last time he saw him before his overdose. Apparently, he has been off of drugs for over 2 months, has realized that he needs to change his life, and contacted us because he wants to be baptized into the LDS church. His mom told us that before and after he was taken away, James always went to the church whenever he felt sad, alone, or depressed. Yesterday, he called us and told us he was at the church, so we went over there, opened the building, and taught him the first lesson. He knows it's true, and really wants to be baptized, so he has committed to reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and coming to church next week.

     Lastly, I'm excited to announce that Eli Rios was finally baptized on Saturday!!! He finally was able to overcome his alcohol addiction, and was baptized in the Gulf of Mexico on his birthday, July 20. It was a beautiful event, and we even saw some dolphins in the background as the service was being performed! I have enjoyed seeing the incredible transformation from how depressed he used to be, to the strong member of the church he has become. He told us that he is so proud to be a mormon, and wants the whole world to know it. He will be receiving the priesthood next Sunday, and has expressed his excitement to start participating in passing the Sacrament. "That's so cool!" he says. I took some photos of the gulf that I'll send this week. I'm loving my time here in Galveston, and I'll surely be sad when I have to leave.

 

                                                       Com amor,

                                                     -Elder Crapo

 

P.S. Thank you so so so so much for the CTR ring! It's perfect! I actually got to open it on my birthday. I wasn't sure what it was going to be, and I was so excited when I found out that it was the notes to the tune "Choose the Right". It's the coolest CTR ring that I've ever seen! I couldn't get over how perfect it is! Thank you so much!

 Baptism pictures! Here are the people from left to right:

Eli Rios Jr. (son)

Elizabeth (x-wife)

Elder Cooper (Elder Jones' companion before me, he performed the baptism at Eli's request)

Eli

Elder Jones

Elder Bethers (Elder Cooper's companion before Elder Jones)

Elder Christensen

Me