July 4 in Brasil!

Dear Family and friends,

     We're staying one more transfer!!!! :D

      We're all pretty excited, nobody is going anywhere. This week went pretty well. The three kids were confirmed at church yesterday, and the members are keeping us busy with referrals and we have plenty of work to do even though it's the World Cup. Speaking of...How about that Brasil??? This last game was a new team, and they've improved their game. However, everyone here is really mad at that one Colombian who broke Neymar's back and took out our star player.

     The conference with President was really really good! He and his wife (wow, I really just accidentally spelled wife as ´´Waif´´ which is how you would help a Brazilian pronounce it right) anyway, they're really sweet and spiritual, and this mission is in really good hands.

     Anyway...for Independence day, we decided to do something American that nobody here does...Make chocolate chip cookies! I was pretty proud of the way they turned out, and we took plenty of pictures. Other than that, I don't really have tons of news for you guys. We're all healthy and happy, and I hope the same for you, too. Love you all so much! See you soon!

Elder Crapo

Batismo! 30 de Junho, 2014

Dear family and friends,

     It happened! Yesterday, Elder Lima and I woke up sick, but that was not going to stop us! We showed up at Sheila´s house, and everyone was all ready to go to church! What a miracle, two weeks in a row! We had really good church meetings, and then we held the baptismal service after the sacrament meeting. It was a really wonderful experience for the whole family, and we had tons of support from the ward, they´re really awesome here. Now we´re focusing on the marriage and baptism of the dad, Pedro.

     In other new, Brasil classified for the next round (sorry, Dad) and the madness of the world cup will continue! On Saturday, we had Dobradinha, which is a sauce made up of sausage, tomato, beef, potato, beans, and most importantly: Cow intestines! Que Delicia! No, but really I liked it, it was good. :)

     The new mission president arrived this past week, and we´ll have a zone conference tomorrow to get to know him and his wife! I´m pretty excited to hear from them and to see what he has in store for the mission.

     As this is the last week of the transfer, I´m really hoping I get to stay here at least one more. It passed by so fast! It seems like each transfer passes faster than the last. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon!

Elder Crapo

23 de junho 2014

The World Cup Madness continues!


     Everyone has painted the streets in colors of green, yellow, and blue, banners are hung above every street, a flag waves from every home, and you can't take 10 steps without running into someone wearing a Brazilian futebol jersey. Today we'll have a game that will decide if we (Brazil) continue to the next round in the world cup, and everyone is going crazy! There's such a great excitement everywhere you go, it's almost like an American Christmas hit the country. Have you ever seen an entire country completely shut down for two hours? It's all this and more here in Vitória today.

     Yesterday, Shelia and Pedro managed to get their four kids (and a friend) ready to go to church by the time we showed up 8:20 in the morning! It was a miracle! It was so fun to see how excited and happy they all were as we took the bus ride from their home to the stop right in front of the church, and to see their eyes light up as they saw the beautiful building! They all seemed to really enjoy the meetings, and are excited to attend the activity at the church tomorrow and then visit again next Sunday. The baptismal dates for three of the kids have been set for next week, and we're all excited for them. What a blessing and a miracle it was when we passed by their mom on the street after we ``Accidentaly´´ made a ``Wrong´´ turn!

     Unfortunately, Tainá´s mom doesn't approve of her baptism for now, but we'll keep passing by and eventually, we'll get to softening her heart. We also had a member bring a friend to church who has been visiting a lot of churches lately, and he seemed to like the meetings, as well. We stopped by his house yesterday and taught about the Restoration with his member friend. He accepted our challenge to pray for an answer about the truth, and accepted our baptismal invitation if he receives an answer.

      So many miracles, folks! I'm glad and blessed to take part in this work here! I love you all and I'll see you soon! ;) Until next week!

Elder Crapo

Copa do mundo! 16 de Junho, 2014

This week was super slow because on Wednesday we had zone conference all day, and on Thursday was the opening of the World Cup and the first game of Brasil, and we were at home practically all day. We found a incomplete family, and are preparing the sons and daughter for baptism.

      We also are working with a 14 year old girl named named Tainá who wants to be baptised on Saturday. She's the niece of a member and has already been to church and received the missionary lessons, and appeared out of the blue, so that was pretty cool.

     Other than that, things are going normal and well here in Vitória. We're just waiting out the World Cup, and things will start going faster and I'll have more to talk about. I love you all, and I'll see you soon!

Elder Crapo

Serviço! 9 de Junho 2014

 This week has been full of meeting all the new members (Several of them know the other Elder Crapo who passed through this ward on his mission) and helping them out with service projects. We helped one member prune his hedges and clean up the yard, which was a nice dose of nostalgia knowing that the same thing was happening right about now back at home. We also helped another family move out of one house and into another.

     We're meeting all kinds of new investigators and are starting to work a lot with the many members here. This week, one lady told us she let us in because she saw us helping someone the other day when there was a small car accident, and we were signaling for the oncoming traffic to slow down and keep to the side. The day we showed up at her door, her husband who never wanted anything to do with religion called her from work, and told her he wanted to start going to church. She accepted our invitation to be baptized.

     Yesterday was our stake conference, and we received instruction from M. Russel Ballard and Richard G. Scott in a transmission from Salt Lake to the stakes in Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. That was pretty neat. I took some pictures of the area, and I'll be sending those to you!

      Have a great week, everyone! Love you, and I'll see you soon!

Elder Crapo

P.S. Yes. My companion is crazy.

.

Transfers! Junho 2 2014

Dear Family and Friends!

     The bus ride from Itaperuna to Campos and then from Campos to Vitória was painfully long, but we managed to make it through. Transfers are being held at the bus station now, so we just meet our new companion there and head straight for our new areas. I've been sent to Vitória!!!! I'm so excited to work here! I'm working in the Estrelinha ward. Yes, a WARD. My companion is Elder Lima (the giant) from São Paulo. We live in a pretty little house underneath the Bishop and his wife, who are the sweetest most caring people. They also have three cats, which serve for kitty therapy after a long day. :) The food in this area is the best of the mission so far, and the members are super with giving referrals and setting appointments to visit investigators with us. It's absolutely gorgeous here in Vitória! We're re-opening this area, so we're getting to know our part of the island pretty well. We have a family who are waiting for some documents for marriage, and they'll baptize.

-Elder Crapo

Tranfers,Open Houses, and Branch Conferences! Maio 26, 2014

Bom Dia, Gente!

     What an interesting week! We spent this whole week running towards the chapel open house on Friday and Saturday, the Fireside on Saturday night, and the conference on Sunday morning, followed by stake leadership trainings on missionary work Sunday afternoon. We passed along thousands and thousands of invitations and only managed to get them into the hands of a small population of the city. We were stopping everyone on the street, and it was cool to see closed faces turn to smiles as we wished them ``good morning´´ and left them with an invitation and a warm handshake. 

     On Friday, my job was to play the piano in the chapel to set the reverence and maintain the spirit. I played the piano all. day. long. I managed to write a simple arrangement of ``God Be With You ´Til We Meet Again´´ in the style of Paul Cardall, and I just looped that over and over again. Seemed to work out just fine. We didn´t have a huge turn out, but many people passed by to check things out and learn more about the church.The Fireside didn´t have the turnout we wanted, but the conference had a great turnout...so we´ll take it. 

     In visiting a bit more with Cacau, he pretty much gets tears in his eyes every time we visit with him, because he knows we speak the truth, but he´s still trying to fix something with his girlfriend so that he can get baptized without losing her. It´s a little frustrating, but I´m sure one day he´ll take the initiative, and do what he knows is right.

     Which brings me to the last bit of news from this week. Tomorrow four of the four missionaries currently serving in Itaperuna will be transferred. Yup. Everybody and I will be leaving this city and heading on the looong two bus rides back up to Vitória. Here we go!!!

     I love you all so much, and I´ll see you soon!

Elder Crapo