November 4, 2013

Family and Friends,

People always told me that missionaries come home weird...

When I left, I was weird...

Does that mean I get to come home normal??

     Good November, y´all!! I can´t believe how fast October flew by! Things here in Brazil are starting to get hot, which is strange, because I heard it snowed back home this past weekend. That, and the fact that it´s supposed to get cold before people start putting up Christmas decorations! 

     By way of announcement, I´m being transferred tomorrow! Wahoo! I also heard that we´ll be receiving 12-15 new missionaries from the good ol´ US of A this week. Hopefully this will include the remaining missionaries from our MTC district who haven´t arrived yet. Cross your fingers, y´all! I´m excited to see where I´m headed and who I´ll be serving with for the next while. 

     This week was a great week to go out on. It was a little sad not having any Americans around to share in the excitement of the non-existent Halloween on Thursday. (Thursday? Quinta...yes. Thursday. aiai...) But on Friday, we had a branch activity where a few members and the missionaries put on a little theatrical show about final judgement. They asked me to prepare a musical number for the show, which I did, but when we gathered on the day of to review what we´ll do, I was told they wanted 3 or 4  musical numbers. It was time to pull a ´Crapo´. With about an hour to prepare, the Mission Leader let me hop on DeFordmusic.com (thanks, Mom and Dad for introducing this to me before the mission. It quite literally saved the show) and I prepared and used two arrangements with the accompaniment, and sang the fourth song a´capella. I started with the song I originally arranged, ´´Come, come, ye Saints´´ in Portuguese. Then as the man acting as ´´The Father´´ or ´´The Judge´´ was calling (previously selected) people from the audience to come sit at the front to be judged, I used Sally´s arrangement, ´´I need thee every hour´´, with the english lyrics switched out for the Portuguese ones. Then as one of the ´wicked´people were being judged, and were thinking about their life and accountability for their transgressions, I used a verse of ´´ É Tarde, a Noite Logo Vem´´ a´capella. ( I can´t, for the life of me remember the name or lyrics in English). That was really a touching moment for everyone in the room. Many people told me they cried. Finally, as one ´righteous´person was being freed and escorted to be exhalted, I sang ´´Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing´´ in English, the same arrangement from Sally that I sang that last time in Sacrament meeting back home. It turned out really well. Everyone seemed to like it. After the show, they prepared one of the rooms with Halloween decorations and had food and Halloween music playing. The Elders had to go home for curfew at that point, but it was good to just look for a moment. It was like a tiny piece of home for 10 seconds.

     Of course, after the great reveal of Elder Crapo´s ability to sing, the members make other plans to use this talent. And of course, Elder Crapo is transferred shortly thereafter...

 Life.

     At any rate, I´ll be sure to tell you all about my new area and companion next week. Be excited! I love you all very much, and I´ll talk to you soon!

Abraço Grande!

-Elder Crapo

Outubro 28, 2013

Dear family and friends, 

     ´´Graças a ceus´´, this week slowed down a little bit from last week. I was honorary senior comp for just this week, so things got a little interesting. When my companion told me I would be senior this week, I thought, ´´oh, man, you have no idea what you just got yourself into, ´cause we´re gonna work like were in Texas.´´

 That being said, I´m pleased to announce that we received 4 referrals, gained 5 new firm baptismal dates, found 9 new investigators, and taught 24 lessons this week. Ah, it looks like Texas again. 

     On a more serious  note, we had our big mission conference with a member of the Quorum of Seventy this week. We were visited by Elder Gavarret, and I was really excited because I remember seeing him give a discourse in General Conference, and really liking it. The conference was truly an answer to many prayers and fasts. I had so many questions answered and concerns addressed by Elder Gavarret and his wife. I would do it again, even though we travelled about 8+ hours to get there and back. 

     We´ve started teaching a family that a member referred to us, and they truly are fantastic. They are a husband and wife with one 10 year old son. They´re married!!! WOOO! Man, that really is the number one thing that stops people from being baptised these days. Get married, people! *deep breath* okay...

      They´re awesome because they just express their love for the Lord and the gospel in every lesson, and their son is a religeous genious. He always gives better and more profound answers than any other person in the room. He´ll make a great missionary in 8 years. ;) 

     Our other great new development is a referral from the young man we baptised a few weeks ago. His friend and the mom of his friend pretty much just told us they´re trying to figure out which church to attend, because they don´t believe the one´s they´ve attended in the past. They responded really well to the message of the Restoration, and have committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon.

     Well, it´s week 6 again. You know what that means--Transfers are next week! I´ve completed my second training in Brasil, so we´ll see if I get to stay here in São Mateus or if I´ll be moved to another area. Until then, I love each and every one of you so much! I´ll see you soon!

Abraço grande!

-Elder Crapo

Outubro 21, 2013

Queridos Família e amigos, 

     We said goodbye to Elders Mason and Figueredo last week, and this week, we say hello to Elders Rocha (ho-sha) and P. Araujo ( I´m not gonna even try on that one). Elder Rocha has 6 months on his mission, and looks really young. I think he´s either 18 or 19, but he looks 15 ( I´m sure many people think the same thing about me.) Elder P. Araujo is 22 and has 4 months on his mission. He went through an inactive stage and when he came back, he decided to serve, so here he is.Yes, this means I am now the only American english speaker within walking distance, but it´s a lot of fun, and I at least speak enough of the language to understand and communicate on a basic level. You may have to re-teach me English when I get home, though. I go whole days without speaking an entire sentance in English. 

     Since the emergency transfer, there was a change in the areas, so Elder Moroni and I had to hand over Particia to Elders Rocha and P. Araujo, but it´s no problem. I´ll be there for her baptism still. In other exciting news, we had 3 baptisms this past weekend! One 15 year old named João Vítor, and two brothers Luiz and Ibison ages 12 and 9. I had been with Elder Mason to teach João before he became our investigator, and it was cool to help him finish preparing to be baptised. He was super prepared and was all worried about what kind of changes he needed to make before he was baptised. He wanted to be sure he was worthy and ready, which he is. He´s solid. Luiz and Ibison are two brothers of a recent convert, AnaFlavia (that´s such a great name!), and since the branch here is fairly new, and our building just went through rennovation. what little baptismal clothing we had was lost and we only had a few items of clothing to use for two small boys. I had a picture taken of what we ended up doing. It worked, but it was a little ridiculous and funny. 

     Yesterday, we had interviews with President Araujo, which went well. Nothing incredible or life changing happened. We´ll just keep plugging along as usual. After he interviewed us individually, he took us all into the office, and reviewed some rules (in general for everyboday) It´s funny, because he didn´t really know where I was in my Portuguese skills, so he tried to speak some english phrases to me. At one point, he looked at me and said, ´´Baby...No. Kids...No.´´ as he acted out cradling a baby, meaning missionaries shouldn´t hold children or babies. We all laughed because I already understood everything he was saying, he didn´t need to speak in English to me. The way he said it was comical.

     Right now we´re just trying to get our new areas learned and organized. Tudo bom here in São Mateus. We´ve been getting a better hang of things, and we laugh a lot. It´s fun. I love you all, and I´ll talk to you soon!

Com amor,

- Elder Crapo

October 14, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

     This has been the craziest week! Yesterday, as I was gathering my thoughts about the week and thinking about what to write today, I couldn´t believe the things that have happened in such a short amount of time. This week feels like it´s been a month!

     Tuesday, we had zone conference, so we were up at 4 am to catch the bus to Linhares. By the time we got there, had the conference, and then traveled back, it was well into the afternoon, and I was already exhausted. The lack of sleep and food ( I had skipped dinner the night before, and hadn´t had time for breakfast) left me feeling pretty gross, but we made it to a member´s home for almoço, and things got better.

     The next morning, we were woken up in the wee hours of the morning by the travelling assistants tapping on our window and calling our names. I heared Elder Mason get up to answer them, and I was asleep by the time they came in. I was super tired. We spent the whole next day on divisions with them, and it was a pretty good experience.

     Thursday, I hit my 6 months mark!!! Wahoo! Elder Moroni made a microwave cake ( it was his 9 month mark, as well), while Elders Mason and Figueredo split some green coconuts. It was good to sit and laugh and relax a little bit.

     Friday, we went on another division. Elders Moroni and Figueredo went apartment hunting for a few missionaries that we´re expecting to add to our district while Elder Mason and I worked our areas. It was pretty fun to go see all the other investigators I hear about, but don´t really meet until they come to church.

     Saturday was Landon´s birthday! It was also a national holiday here in Brazil called ´´Dia das crianças´´ or ´´Children´s day´´ (because we need yet another holiday to give kids presents). The branch had a primary activity that everyone was invited to. They had balloons and a trampoline, and lots of food. It was a lot of fun to see the kids playing and the parents visiting, knowing that many miles away, a similar thing was happening with my family.

     Sunday was of course Fast Sunday, and it went normally for a while, but this week wasn´t going to end without a bang. Last night, Elder Mason got a call that he and Elder Figueredo were being emergency transferred. They leave today. ( I know. Again. Nobody is allowed to stay in that area for more than 3 weeks in one transfer. It´s a curse.) So, late today or early tomorrow, we will be expecting yet another new pair of missionaries. We´ll see who we get this time.

     Besides that, we started teaching a new investigator this week, and holy cow. I´ve never seen anybody so prepared to receive missionaries. Her name is Patricia, and she´s a mom of 2 little girls: one 8 year old, and one just-less-than one year old. She asks all the right questions, wants to do this for all the right reasons, and is just so awesome. I´ll keep you updated on her.

     So, that was my week. It was really crazy, and I´m ready for things to calm down a little bit. I love you all, and I´ll talk to you soon!

Com amor,

- Elder Crapo

6 Month Report Outubro 7 2013

Queridos Famílias e amigos,

    We had an interesting week this week, to say the least. It started off when we went to visit a man we met on the street last week named Idair (ee-dah-ee-h), and when we showed up, he was...less than sober, but not so drunk that he couldn´t listen or talk to us properly. As we talked with him, he expressed his desire to stop drinking and smoking for his sake, and to improve the realtionship of his family. He´s probably in his 50´s or 60´s, and reminds me a little bit of Eli from back in Galveston. My heart really went out to him, as he sincerely looked at us and asked, ´´Can you help me?´´ Since we knew it would be difficult to make a game plan in his current state, we made an appointment for the following day when we would return and help him get back on his feet. He promised us he wouldn´t drink, and we set a time for the evening. 

    

     Then next day was an incredibly busy day. We went on an ´´endereço´´ spree and talked to tons of people on the street. We received 18 endereços (addresses) in one day. A new comp record. However, when we showed up at Idair´s home at 5 horas, as planned, he wasn´t there. We haven´t been able to get to see him since. Hopefully someday we´ll catch him at home or on the street and talk to him about what he wants to do.

     This past week we also went and had a lesson with a member family and taught them how to have a family home evening. The game we played at the end was one in which music was played, and a ball was passed around in a circle. When the music stopped, the person holding the ball had to pick a folded up peice of paper out of a bowl, and then they had to answer the question if there was a question, or do the action if there was an action. Of course, one of the times I had the ball when the music stopped, and of course, my challenge was to immitate a monkey. Oh, dear... I thought, ´´Well, if I´m gonna have to act like a monkey, then I´m going to do the best monkey immitation they have ever seen.´´ So I stood up and did the greatest, silliest, most accurate monkey immitation I could, much to the pleasure of all the little kids in the room, accompanied by chuckles from the parents. There were lots of giggles with a round of applause when I had finished. 

     Another interesting experience from this past week was when we passed by a group of the poor drunks that live in the northern part of São Mateus next to the river, and they insisted on us stopping and sharing a message with them. They wanted to hear the ´´beautiful words´´, so they said. They weren´t letting us go, so we began to teach about the Word of Wisdom (they wouldn´t remember it tomorrow anyway). As we were talking and trying to break free, another lady walking down the road saw us, and parted the crowd of partiers to talk to us. She addressed us as ´´Friend Brother Elder´´, and told us that many years ago she had been ´´baptised in the waters of baptism back in Portugal into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints´´. She told us about Joseph Smith and other points of the gospel. She asked us if we had a pamphlet she could read, and if we could stop by her home some time. So, we wrote down her address, gave her a ´´Gospel of Jesus Christ´´ pamphlet, and she was on her way. What we were puzzled about was the fact that she was definitely Brazilian, not Portuguese. What she was doing in São Mateus, and why had she never come to church? When we visited her, we found out that she was indeed a Brazilian, she lived in Portugal for a few years, and was diagnosed with a mental illness (not a serious one, though. She´s very much aware and accountable and high functional), was indeed baptised by an Elder from California named Elder Gunther, and his companion was a Brazilian, as well. She´s never been to church because she works Sunday mornings in Guriri, but she´s trying to find a way to come back. She told us that she had a very difficult childhood with abuse in the family. She loves the gospel, and I´m excited to help her come back into full activity.

     One other experience we had was when our lunch appointment fell through, so they gave us money to go buy food for lunch. When we went to the store, two teenage girls stopped us ( I was worried). They said they were interested to know who we are and what we do, and what we believe. We set an appointment to meet at one of the girl´s houses, but when we showed up at the appointment, the girl who originally showed interest left to go home, and we were left to teach the other girl alone. We invited her mom to join in on the lesson when we arrived, but she politely declined. However, as we were having a conversation to set up for our lesson , the mom ended up joining us anyway. We went on to teach the best ´´Restoration´´ lesson we´ve ever taught as a companionship, and the mom reacted really well to the message. She commited to read, pray, and get baptised when she knew the truth for herself. I look forward to teaching them again.

     Now for conference. Conference was intereresting because since we´re in the middle of nowhere, we had to use the Branch President´s television and wifi at the church building to watch the sessions online. It was all in Portuguese. Needless to say, I had a bit of a hard time understanding exactly what all the speakers were talking about, especially if the translator they were using for the speaker had an accent I wasn´t used to. What I did understand was wonderful, though. I really enjoyed President Monson´s talk in I think it was the Sunday Morning session. That was really powerful. I´ll be reading and listening to the talks again throughout the next few months, so eventually I´ll understand, and by next conference I´ll understand enough to be able to really enjoy it.

     Wow, that was a long letter, folks! Know I love each and every one of you, and I´ll talk to you all soon! Até mais!

 Com amor,

- Elder Crapo

September 30, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

     To start this week´s letter, I thought I´d announce the newest addition to our house. I´d like to introduce Elder Mason´s new companion: Elder Figueredo! Don´t hurt yourself trying to pronounce his name. It goes: Fig-uh-reh-doo (with a little flip of the tongue when you say the ´´reh´´ part). It´s actually really fun to say. He´s from Rio Grande do Sul which means Grand River of the South, and I believe it´s located in the João Pessoa mission. I could be wrong, though. He´s extremely nice and friendly, and tries his best to help out everyone around him. He has 7 months on his mission so far. ( I just realized that sentence might not be right in English. People express their age by saying they ´´have´´. For instance, I wouldn´t say ´´I´m 20 years old´´, I would say ´´I have 20 years´´. I dunno. aaaaaanyway...)

   

     This past week, it felt as though I´m really starting to get my arms around Portuguese. I´m beginning to have the ability to speak more freely in lessons, and not only can I stray from my written script if I want to, but it also seems like I´m starting to learn faster because I can actually pick out specific words and phrases as I listen to other Brazilians speak. It´s getting to be a lot of fun! The other day when we were at a ´´Mormon helping hands´´ project where members were donating blood, and a member asked me a question. When I responded she turned to my companion and said, ´´Wow, he was just talking really fast!´´

     We also are starting to have the work pick up a little bit (por fim!). We´ve been teaching a 16 year old girl by the name of Luanda, and she told us in her last lesson that she will be baptized. She´s always been a great investigator to teach, but she attends another church and is really involved in the services over there. Our biggest hurdle with her right now is church attendance. She doesn´t drink, smoke, do drugs, and she even told us she doesn´t drink tea or coffee (what??? A Brazilian that doesn´t drink coffee?). I know. We´re excited, too. She already keeps all the commandments, and she prays about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith every single night before she goes to bed. She just has to come to church! 

     We also have Gabriel who is I think 14 years old, and his little brother Rafael who is 11. They´ve been to church several times, and they come to ward activities. I´m not sure which member of the ward brings them, but Gabriel asked us if he could be baptised the other day. Uhhhh,yeah. We started teching them yesterday. They´re really great, and they are always excited to see us when we pass by on the street.

     I´m excited to see what else this transfer brings. I´ll keep you updated on all the goings on. I love you all and I´ll talk to you soon!

Com amor,

- Elder Crapo

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!"

 This is Elder Mason (with the black hair)

Elder Morgan (with the pouty face)

And my companion, Elder Moroni (The Brazilian)

Each of these pictures completely describe the personalities of these people. They´re too perfect.

Elder Mason

Elder Morgan

Elder Moroni