Family and Friends,
Okay, so to be honest, everyone here is on a bit of a post-phone call home hangover, but it was so good to talk to you guys and we´ll just be glad it´s p-day today so we can wait out the side affects. :)
We had a really good and exciting week this week. I think I told you about Irmão Pedro, but I´ll just tell you again how awesome he is. He´s super excited about missionary work, and he´s been inviting everyone to hear our message. Seriously everyone. We´ve only met with some of the people he´s invited, but he´s really making a big difference in the branch here. His referral, Cacau, will be baptized on Saturday! We´re pretty excited to see this man make this important change in his life--and he´s pretty excited, too! There are so many miracles happening around us these days! This week was spent teaching a new pool of investigators all because of Irmão Pedro´s hard work.
On Friday, we had a huge rain and thunderstorm! lightning was striking every 10 seconds, and one even struck the Cristo Redentor, and we lost power for the rest of the night. The streets flooded, and it was...pretty interesting. But exciting!
Other than that, we´re just pushing through as usual. I´m loving my mission, and I´m just trying to take advantage of this time here, because I know it passes fast, and I can´t get it back. Every day we´re fighting against regretting not working hard here. I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon!
Elder Crapo
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Maio 5, 2014
Dear Family and Friends!
We had a really good week! We actually managed to find some inactive members! The miracle is that we found them...on the road. ...literally, we stopped them on the road and asked them if we could write down their addresses and give them a message about the gospel. It usually goes like this [Please excuse the terrible translation from Portuguese to English, it really is more interesting in real life] :
Elder: Hey, Good evening! Can we talk to you real quick?
Person: Umm...sure.
Elder: Great! Hey, we´re missionaries, and we have this great message about Jesus Christ to share with you! ^.^
Person: uhhhh...
Elder: So, could we take down your address and pass by your home another day?
Person: ehh...sure but I´m certain you guys already have my address. (They always have to be super vague and beat around the bush until the Elders guess that they´re inactive members)
Elder: Really? You´ve met with missionaries before???
Person: mmmhmm.
Elder: Great! It´s just that the missionaries here move around a lot, so your address was probably lost, etc. (Additional explanation of transfers added here if necessary).
Person: uh huh okay, but I´m still pretty sure you already have my address...
*At this point a good missionary tries not to get frustrated and annoyed, but usually...yup.*
Elder: ...Are you a member of the Church?
``Yup´´
(WHY DIDN`T YOU JUST SAY SO???)
Anyway, we end up taking down their address regardless so we can pass by their home and help reactivate them. The joys!
The members are starting to kick it into high gear with the missionary work, and it´s really great. This week we took an elderly member, Brother Pedro, with us, and he helped us so much! We visited a friend of his named José Carlos, but everyone calls him ``Cacau´´. Cacau really likes our messages, and accepts all our invitations. He accepted a baptismal date, and came with Brother Pedro to church yesterday!!! Cacau really enjoyed the feeling he feels in our lessons and at church, and we are preparing him to be baptized soon!
Anyway, that´s our biggest development this week. I hope you all have a great Mother´s Day! See you soon!
Elder Crapo
We had a really good week! We actually managed to find some inactive members! The miracle is that we found them...on the road. ...literally, we stopped them on the road and asked them if we could write down their addresses and give them a message about the gospel. It usually goes like this [Please excuse the terrible translation from Portuguese to English, it really is more interesting in real life] :
Elder: Hey, Good evening! Can we talk to you real quick?
Person: Umm...sure.
Elder: Great! Hey, we´re missionaries, and we have this great message about Jesus Christ to share with you! ^.^
Person: uhhhh...
Elder: So, could we take down your address and pass by your home another day?
Person: ehh...sure but I´m certain you guys already have my address. (They always have to be super vague and beat around the bush until the Elders guess that they´re inactive members)
Elder: Really? You´ve met with missionaries before???
Person: mmmhmm.
Elder: Great! It´s just that the missionaries here move around a lot, so your address was probably lost, etc. (Additional explanation of transfers added here if necessary).
Person: uh huh okay, but I´m still pretty sure you already have my address...
*At this point a good missionary tries not to get frustrated and annoyed, but usually...yup.*
Elder: ...Are you a member of the Church?
``Yup´´
(WHY DIDN`T YOU JUST SAY SO???)
Anyway, we end up taking down their address regardless so we can pass by their home and help reactivate them. The joys!
The members are starting to kick it into high gear with the missionary work, and it´s really great. This week we took an elderly member, Brother Pedro, with us, and he helped us so much! We visited a friend of his named José Carlos, but everyone calls him ``Cacau´´. Cacau really likes our messages, and accepts all our invitations. He accepted a baptismal date, and came with Brother Pedro to church yesterday!!! Cacau really enjoyed the feeling he feels in our lessons and at church, and we are preparing him to be baptized soon!
Anyway, that´s our biggest development this week. I hope you all have a great Mother´s Day! See you soon!
Elder Crapo
April 28, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
This week, I´m really grateful to be a missionary. I remember when I arrived in this mission, everyone told me that there was just one place in the mission where you don´t want to go. I turns out that today, I´m serving in that exact place. True, the branch here struggles to get the attendance of 20 people each week at church, the people are really closed in their houses and in their religions, it´s super hot, everything is expensive, and the only decently priced computer lab is very far from home and closes frequently just when you need it. However, I have a great companion, and a great friendship with the other Elders here, and I´ve been finding a lot of things in scripture and old issues of the Liahona about the purpose of this life and how even when we do our best, we probably will not have reached where it is that we were trying to go. That´s why the Lord sent His Son to the earth, that after we´ve done all we can do, the Lord will fill in the rest through His mercy.
I don´t have a whole lot to talk about this week. We´re just plugging along, and we´re working hard. We´re happy, and we know that God is preparing us for the future. Although we may not see many fruits today, someday we´ll know why we pass through our difficulties. I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon!
Elder Crapo
This week, I´m really grateful to be a missionary. I remember when I arrived in this mission, everyone told me that there was just one place in the mission where you don´t want to go. I turns out that today, I´m serving in that exact place. True, the branch here struggles to get the attendance of 20 people each week at church, the people are really closed in their houses and in their religions, it´s super hot, everything is expensive, and the only decently priced computer lab is very far from home and closes frequently just when you need it. However, I have a great companion, and a great friendship with the other Elders here, and I´ve been finding a lot of things in scripture and old issues of the Liahona about the purpose of this life and how even when we do our best, we probably will not have reached where it is that we were trying to go. That´s why the Lord sent His Son to the earth, that after we´ve done all we can do, the Lord will fill in the rest through His mercy.
I don´t have a whole lot to talk about this week. We´re just plugging along, and we´re working hard. We´re happy, and we know that God is preparing us for the future. Although we may not see many fruits today, someday we´ll know why we pass through our difficulties. I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon!
Elder Crapo
Sunday, April 27, 2014
An Abundance of Holidays! April 22, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
So, let me tell you a little bit about what Easter Weekend is like here, and by doing this, explain why this e-mail is arriving in your inboxes one day late. Okay, on Friday, we had a holiday here in Brazil, so everyone was leaving the city. All the shops and supermarkets and other companies closed down. On Saturday (the next day), we had another holiday, only this time, they opened the supermarkets because people need to eat food, or they`ll die. Sunday, was of course, Easter. Nobody worked, and by this day, everyone had evacuated the city. Monday...yep. You guessed it. Another holiday!! The kind that closes everything down...including the computer labs. It´s because of this that we had to wait until today to send e-mails. Today, THE HOLIDAY CONTINUES! Yes, folks, even today on Tuesday, there is no school, but they decided to open some things up because like I said, people have to eat. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Brazil. We´ve had five consecutive days of holiday. Tomorrow, it greciously will end, and we will manage to get some work done. But wait...what´s this??? Wednesday, we´ll have one more holiday? Yep. Good grief...
Anyway, last monday for p-day, we decided to break out the frisbees and head for the park. The Brazilians took a little bit to get the hang of it, but after a little practice, we got pretty good at it. Then it started to rain a little bit, and everyone ran to the pavilion to keep the backpacks from getting wet. We sat there, watching it pour and wondering what to do next, when Elder Garcia said, ``Let´s just go!´´ Elder Bessa was a little hesitant because it was coming down pretty hard, and he´s like a cat. He doesn´t like to get wet. I was all for it, so Elder Garcia and I went to throw some frisbee in the rain. Now, when we were sitting under the pavillion, we thought it was coming down pretty hard, but once we got out there, after a few minutes, it started really coming down. I´ve never seen rain like this outside of films. Did that stop us? Of course not! It was really cool as it started to get dark, and the field lights came on. If you clapped your hands, you could watch the water go flying in all directions.
Other than that, because of all the holidays, the week was pretty unexciting. On Easter, however, the Easter bunny had made a visit to our apartment, and we all found chocolate bars with our names on them and a scripture. So, the Easter Bunny speaks Portuguese and knows his Bible! There's something you didn´t know!
On Sunday, we also got transfer calls, and everyone is staying here for one more! Nobody here got transferred! Wahoo! We´re all pretty excited to have another great transfer. This past one passed by so fast, I could have sworn we were only on week 3! I hope you all had a happy Easter! I love you all and I´ll see you soon!
Elder Crapo
Monday, April 14, 2014
One Year??? Abril 14 2014
Dear Family and friends,
This week was one of those weeks where it´s a little hard to be a missionary. We didn´t get in to many houses, because for some reason, nobody was home, or wasn´t answering our phone calls or opening the door. We did, however, manage to get in contact with Alessandra and Thayná. It turns out that after work on Saturday, they went to a party that night, and didn´t go home until 7:00 am on
Sunday morning. Good grief. No wonder nobody was answering the door, everybody was getting over the party hang over. We were able to talk to them on Tuesday, but every other day of the week, they were busy doing other things, and weren´t able to talk with us, so once again, they didn´t make it to church.
On Thursday, I hit my one year mark! WOOHOO! A member gave us money for lunch on this day, so we took the lunch hour to eat out and visit the shops in town. I bought some ties and a battery charger (finally) and some cake mix and soda to eat that night after daily planning. The rest of the work day was pretty normal. When I tried to make the cake that night...well, let´s just say that we ended up just going to the Padaria down the street to get a store bought cake, because things didn´t work out. I took some pictures and videos, and I´ll be sending pictures soon.
Other than that, I don´t have a whole lot to say that can´t be described by pictures! So, here you guys go! Love you! See you soon!
Elder Crapo
This week was one of those weeks where it´s a little hard to be a missionary. We didn´t get in to many houses, because for some reason, nobody was home, or wasn´t answering our phone calls or opening the door. We did, however, manage to get in contact with Alessandra and Thayná. It turns out that after work on Saturday, they went to a party that night, and didn´t go home until 7:00 am on
Sunday morning. Good grief. No wonder nobody was answering the door, everybody was getting over the party hang over. We were able to talk to them on Tuesday, but every other day of the week, they were busy doing other things, and weren´t able to talk with us, so once again, they didn´t make it to church.
On Thursday, I hit my one year mark! WOOHOO! A member gave us money for lunch on this day, so we took the lunch hour to eat out and visit the shops in town. I bought some ties and a battery charger (finally) and some cake mix and soda to eat that night after daily planning. The rest of the work day was pretty normal. When I tried to make the cake that night...well, let´s just say that we ended up just going to the Padaria down the street to get a store bought cake, because things didn´t work out. I took some pictures and videos, and I´ll be sending pictures soon.
Other than that, I don´t have a whole lot to say that can´t be described by pictures! So, here you guys go! Love you! See you soon!
Elder Crapo
 |
| My Son |
These are a few pictures of Itaperuna and the other missionaries I´m living with! Also, we went to see the ``Cristo Redentor``. :)
Sunday, April 13, 2014
ONE YEAR!!!!! Abril 7 2014t
Dear Family and Friends,
Can you believe it??? One year ago, my family and I were making final preparations for me to leave! As I was watching conference (in Portuguese, and understanding everything, how cool is that?) I felt the same thing I felt as I was watching conference exactly one year ago. That up ahead lies an adventure, and I´m going to learn a lot. Today, I know that even more lies ahead of me, and the experiences I´ve had this past year have strengthened and prepared me for this second half of my service. Now it´s time to ``Pull out all the stops´´ as they say. I´m really excited for what waits in store this next year, and I know that in the end, I´ll have learned to be grateful in all situations, as President Uchtdorf said in conference this past weekend.
Now, for this week. My testimony was strengthened so much as we taught Alessandra and Thayná. When we taught the Plan of Salvation, the spirit was so incredibly strong! Now, I was born into the church, but never in my life have I ever felt this feeling. It was indescribable. My heart felt like it was going to explode, and the room was catching on fire, and Thayná just kept on crying. Everyone felt it. It was something different. I know. and they know.
Unfortunately, something happened on Saturday, because they haven´t been picking up the phone or answering the door ever since. I wish I knew what it was. Because of this, they didn´t go to watch conference like they said they would, and I know it would have been a great experience for them. We´ll keep trying.
I'm so grateful for all of you and your support while I´ve been out here serving. I´m grateful for the letters, the pictures, the packages, and prayers that have been sent my way! I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon! (But really, thought. It´ll be soon. CRAZY!)
Elder Crapo
Can you believe it??? One year ago, my family and I were making final preparations for me to leave! As I was watching conference (in Portuguese, and understanding everything, how cool is that?) I felt the same thing I felt as I was watching conference exactly one year ago. That up ahead lies an adventure, and I´m going to learn a lot. Today, I know that even more lies ahead of me, and the experiences I´ve had this past year have strengthened and prepared me for this second half of my service. Now it´s time to ``Pull out all the stops´´ as they say. I´m really excited for what waits in store this next year, and I know that in the end, I´ll have learned to be grateful in all situations, as President Uchtdorf said in conference this past weekend.
Now, for this week. My testimony was strengthened so much as we taught Alessandra and Thayná. When we taught the Plan of Salvation, the spirit was so incredibly strong! Now, I was born into the church, but never in my life have I ever felt this feeling. It was indescribable. My heart felt like it was going to explode, and the room was catching on fire, and Thayná just kept on crying. Everyone felt it. It was something different. I know. and they know.
Unfortunately, something happened on Saturday, because they haven´t been picking up the phone or answering the door ever since. I wish I knew what it was. Because of this, they didn´t go to watch conference like they said they would, and I know it would have been a great experience for them. We´ll keep trying.
I'm so grateful for all of you and your support while I´ve been out here serving. I´m grateful for the letters, the pictures, the packages, and prayers that have been sent my way! I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon! (But really, thought. It´ll be soon. CRAZY!)
Elder Crapo
March 31, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow, some mornings are really stubborn on the mission. This morning, for some reason, everybody woke up really really tired. We pushed our ways through studies and house cleaning, and finally made our way out the door already behind schedule. The most inexpensive computer lab in Itaperuna is a bit far, and when we finally arrived, the manager told us that the Internet was down and has been going in and out all day. We decided that if we wanted to write home, we´d have to walk all the way back to Central and use the lab there, which charges double the price per hour! Because of that, this e-mail will be short...sorry!
We found a really awesome family the other day. A week or so ago, we talked to a teen aged girl on the street, and she told us we could stop by and teach her family. On Saturday, we decided to call and see if they could receive us that evening. Her mom answered the phone, and said that her daughter wasn´t home, but we could stop by if we were close by.
It took a little while to find the house, but we found it eventually. When she answered the door, she let us in right away. She said her name is Alexandra, and her daughter´s name is Tainara. We sat and visited for a little, and she told us that she was recently separated from her husband, and she lives alone with her daughter. We taught her about families, about Heavenly Father, and the Restoration of the fullness of the Gospel. I asked her whet she feels about all this, and she said, ``I feel like I was really needing this message. I feel like it´s true.´´
(!!!!!)
And then we just testified our guts out, and I have no idea what I was saying, because the spirit was leading so strong. We set a baptismal date with her, and invited her to church. Unfortunately, I think she was sleeping in on Sunday morning, because she wouldn´t answer her phone or the door when we showed up to take her to church. Don´t worry, though. She already knows it´s true!
Okay, I have to go now, but I´ll keep you all updated. See you soon!
Elder Crapo
Wow, some mornings are really stubborn on the mission. This morning, for some reason, everybody woke up really really tired. We pushed our ways through studies and house cleaning, and finally made our way out the door already behind schedule. The most inexpensive computer lab in Itaperuna is a bit far, and when we finally arrived, the manager told us that the Internet was down and has been going in and out all day. We decided that if we wanted to write home, we´d have to walk all the way back to Central and use the lab there, which charges double the price per hour! Because of that, this e-mail will be short...sorry!
We found a really awesome family the other day. A week or so ago, we talked to a teen aged girl on the street, and she told us we could stop by and teach her family. On Saturday, we decided to call and see if they could receive us that evening. Her mom answered the phone, and said that her daughter wasn´t home, but we could stop by if we were close by.
It took a little while to find the house, but we found it eventually. When she answered the door, she let us in right away. She said her name is Alexandra, and her daughter´s name is Tainara. We sat and visited for a little, and she told us that she was recently separated from her husband, and she lives alone with her daughter. We taught her about families, about Heavenly Father, and the Restoration of the fullness of the Gospel. I asked her whet she feels about all this, and she said, ``I feel like I was really needing this message. I feel like it´s true.´´
(!!!!!)
And then we just testified our guts out, and I have no idea what I was saying, because the spirit was leading so strong. We set a baptismal date with her, and invited her to church. Unfortunately, I think she was sleeping in on Sunday morning, because she wouldn´t answer her phone or the door when we showed up to take her to church. Don´t worry, though. She already knows it´s true!
Okay, I have to go now, but I´ll keep you all updated. See you soon!
Elder Crapo
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