What a week! April 30, 2013

Dear Family,

 

Myself and some other branches are currently in a schedule change trasition. To help with the large crowds in the laundry room, computer labs, etc., my P day is being changed to Friday. I will write more then, because I have very little time to let people know what is going on before we go back to a regular work day. I'll try to send pictures today, but I may not be able to.

 

 

  I love you!

-Elder Crapo

Oi! Tudo bem here at the CTM April 23, 2013

Does anybody want to guess what time I woke up this morning to do laundry?

               4:30 a.m.

Who wants to guess how open the washers and driers were?

              Not at all open!

Seriously?

Oh, fun fact:

I'm sitting next to an Australian Elder right. now. and his accent is killing me.

Okay, this week:

                 We finished teaching our first investigator, Joao, and now he's become our teacher (literally, he teaches half of our classes now. Totally normal, right?). His name is actually Irmao Dodge, and he does really well with the class. Now we are teaching two new investigators who's names I don't know yet, but that will be fun. Who doesn't love stress? After I mailed my letter, we had a devotional on Tuesday evening last week and the speaker was Richard G. Scott, and it was really good! He talked about learning new languages, and even spoke some Portuguese to us! I didn't know he spoke Portuguese. Another fun fact:

Richard G. Scott does his own Portuguese translation voice overs for his talks! How cool is that??

                 This past Sunday, I had THE best seat for the devotional, which was a program by the BYU Men's Chorus. I really needed that. We're not allowed to listen to any music here unless it's in a devotional or something like that, so everyone was in such a good mood after that. They did a fantstic job! But seriously. If they told me I could change any one of the many rules here at the MTC, it would be that one. I need music!

 One of my favorite things is every week on P-day, I get to go to the temple together with my district. It's wonderful! I love taking a walk around the grounds each Sunday as well (pictures to come next week). I have to buy an SD card reader from the bookstore in order to send you the pictures because the computers are not that smart here.

                  This morning when I went to the temple with my district, it was after I read your e-mail (I had to go get my laundry, and then we went directly there). When I got to celestial room, I sat in a chair and silently prayed. I was reminded of what you told me about Julie, and I prayed for the comfort of the Hoffman family and you guys at home. Then, I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace, and a rememberance of what I've been learning my whole life and here at the MTC:

Eu sei que Deus e nosso Pai Celestial, e nos sommos Seus filhos. Ele nos ama, e nos podemos voltar a presenca de Deus por meio a Expiacao de Jesus Cristo. Jesus Cristo e nos Salvador amaroso, e Eu sei que  Ele e o Filho de Deus.

 Give my congratulations to Nikki for her birthday, and to Cody for his mission call. That's so exciting!

                      I love you!

                                                                                                                                                                                                      - Elder Nicholas Crapo

I forgot a fun story!!!!!

Portuguese Hymn books are like hard to come by here. Every time the book store got some, they'd be gone within the hour. BUT one time, we got there just as they stocked them, and our district cleaned them out. We NEEDED them because we never sing in English anymore. Anyway, after we finally got out Hymn books, Sister Earl, Elder Wyatt, and I sang some of the hymns (we were super excited). We would split into 3 part harmony, and it was awesome! Not to brag, but us three sounded so good together. The beautiful language helps, too. Yup. We spent a good half hour just harmonizing in portuguese. Super cool. That's all. Love you!

(When I  asked if he received his package I sent, he replied:)

OH MY GOODNESS! YES! That was one of the greatest moments of my life, I cannot believe I forgot! Thank you thank you thank you so much!!!!

First Letter!!! April 17, 2013

Dear Family,
 The Provo MTC is a HOT MESS! There are so many Elders and Sisters here right now, the campus is going to burst! The campus is beautiful this time of year, though. The trees are blossoming, the flowers are blooming (they smell fantastic), and on rainy days, the clouds cover the tops of the adjacent mountains in a way that makes me feel nostalgic. (I don't know why) Meu companieros are Elder Sewell and Elder Wyatt (yes, I have two. We call it a trifecta). Elder Sewell is about 5'9-10, brown hair and looks like Randall from "Monsters Inc." and Edward from "Twilight" had a baby. Elder Wyatt is the tall, lanky, half-Mexican baseball player from Washington. Oh, I forgot. EVERYONE in my district plays sports except me. (Who called it?) I am grateful for Elder Wyatt because he's the reason I can go to choir on Sundays and Tuesdays. Nobody else really can/wants to sing with the choir. Let me tell you, though: There are TONS of people in the choir. More than I've ever sung with ever before, and we . sound . glorious. For your information, I did NOT get to pee that first day unil I went through a line to pick up my tags, schedule, ID, residence key, etc. and drop off my luggage at my room. Everyone loved the rolls (there are only five of us in our room) and the notes and cookies were a wonderful surprise. Thanks for all the love and support! Lunch time is a bit crazy, but trying to get laundry done is even worse. It's a ZOO! Gym time is packed, too, but usually just at the first level where everyone is playing basketball and such. There aren't even close to as many people up at the top level were I like to run on the track. I'll usually run 3 miles, or run 1 1/2 and do push-ups, crunches, stretches, the like. My Portuguese is coming along about as fast as is expected. I can pray and bear my testimony without the help of my notes, and my converstional phrases are at an okay point. We taught our first "pesquisador" completely em Portuguese on our third day here, and taught him again on Saturday and Monday. His name is Joao (Portuguese for John), and we didn't really break any ice until Monday. Lanuage is a tall, difficult barrier, but on Monday we definitely felt the spirit. Joao was understanding everything we were saying, and we even got him to smile! Nobody else could! I still haven't seen Elder Dalton yet, but I'll keep an eye out for him. There is, however, a VERY tall elder in my district by the name of Elder Stillson (more like Elder Stilts-son). This guy is 6'8, strong, and meek as a lamb. I don't even reach his shoulder. Oh, you'll love this: One morning while I was showering, another Elder was singing some song I knew, so I quietly started to sing harmony with him, and he just stops....Like, "....da heck?....". It was hard not to laugh. I could fill an entire novel's worth of pages with things about what's going on here, so I'll tell you a few more things and save the rest for later. Meal time. It's all . about . the juice. It is easily my favorite go-to beverage here. They have good juice, just sayin'. Our language teacher is Irma Wells, and she's way better than any of the other teachers. She's fun, and is also a dancer/dance teacher, so she's a little slice of home among all the sports fans. The sister missionaries in our district are nice, but you just don't mess with them. They are SMART. Before I forget: I got here and realized, "Nao tenho e-mails!" How am I supposed to write you without e-mails! So please send those to me. I'll try tiffanycrapo@gmail.com, but some stranger may be receiving a random e-mail today. Tell Colton to get on my facebook and give Christien Miner and Anna Ray a message for me: "You guys are the BEST! Thank you SO MUCH for the cupcakes. I especially loved the strawberry!" With Love, Elder Nicholas R. Crapo

On his way!

Due to the fact the Nick didn't recieve his visa in time, we took him to the MTC in Provo on Wednesday April 10th. He was very anxious to finally be starting his mission. We said our good byes and off he went without looking back! We send him with all our love and best wishes for much success on his mission! While he is in the MTC, you can send letters through dearelder.com and they are delivered every day for free. He would love to hear from you!