12 de Janeiro 2015

Bom dia, pessoal!

     Everyone is praying for rain here in Teófilo. We´ve been getting hit with quite a bit of sun, and it´s drying everything up and making us all lose our marbles. Really. There are days when we get home and I can´t think or speak right, so everyone says I´m going crazy and that I shouldn´t spend as much time in the sun. It has led to some pretty funny language mix-ups, though. Nothing new for the Crapo family, right? (see also: lanes in the store, stop it off, rolled oats, etc...)

     We miraculously managed to get several investigators and less-actives to church yestarday! Four of which were two couples who need to be married. (surprise? No.) I´ll save you all from the ususal ``just get married!´´ rant this week, you already know how I fell about this. The work is going well, and we´ve been going crazy still trying to find people to teach while the whole city is travelling. It´s seems like things are finally getting back tho normal now.

     We also had President and Sister Young visit the city this weekend along with his couselor, President Aguirres. It was a weekend filled with meetings, interviews, and lots of running around. The two branches here met together in sacrament meeting and also in the third hour with the Quorum and the Relief Society. About half way through the third hour, Presdent Young stood up from the stand and started walking to the back of the chapel where I was sitting. I sat there thinking, ``not me, not me, not me...´´ but to my dismay, he stopped in front of me and started whispering something in my ear. He told me that he would be the next to speak, and that he would talk about the sacrment and asked me if I would sing a sacrament hymn solo before he spoke. I thought, ``oh, just that?´´ haha. It went well and many thanked me for bringing such a strong spirit to the meeting. 

     That´s about all the news for this week. I love you all, and see you soon!

Elder Crapo

Happy New Years! 5 de Janeiro 2015

Can You believe it´s 2015!?!?

     This week, many of our investigators were traveling, so we had a long week of knocking doors and making street contacts as we tried to find someone to teach. After one particularly difficult day, in talking with my district leader, Elder Willett, I realized that maybe I could be doing more to find someone prepared to receive the gospel. The next day, Elder Barroso suggested that we knock doors in another neighborhood, since we weren´t having much success where we were. Even though it was a longer walk, we decided to go street by street, door by door, in search for that one investigator who was waiting for us to arrive. We actually found a lady named Vanessa who is incredibly receptive and has passed through many many hardships this year. We felt guided by the spirit as we unfolded the gospel of Christ for her and her family, and they have accepted baptismal invitations! My testimony grew stronger and I remembered how the Lord is the head of this work, and the Spirit is our help and guide. I´m very grateful to be part of it all.

     New Years was good. Everyone in the city was letting off fireworks, and we sat up at the top of the house to watch everyone celebrate. I thought about the year, and I´m grateful for all the blessings and experience I gained. I´m also grateful for a fresh new start, and I have many hopes and goals for 2015. For now, we´ll keep on keepin´ on here in the mission field. I love you all, and I´ll see you soon!

Elder Crapo

The importance of Family Home Evening 29 de Dezembro 2014

Good morning!

     I hope all of you are happy and satisfied with your Christmas holiday this last week. I know I am! It was so good to see, talk, and laugh with my family again. All the missionaries had to be home at 7, so we spent the rest of the night playing scum, which got to be pretty funny. There were a few rounds where I went from scum to king then back to scum in just 3 or 4 plays. I guess it was just luck... or lack of it.

     This week, it was a challenge because everybody is travelling or on vacation for the Holidays, so knocking doors didn´t reap much success for us. We did, however, meet a lady who had received the missionaries at her house many many years ago, and told us that she wanted us to stop by her mom´s house to visit (because she lives really far away, but spends most days at her mom´s). We managed to stop by on Christmas eve and talk about the gospel over some delicious home made bread. She agreed to stop by the church on Saturday to attend the Christmas activity, but Sunday, unfortunately, she had another commitment. She actually made it to the activity and watched a baptismal service with her boyfriend, who is also receiving the missionaries in another area. 

     We also held a family home evening with a less active family this week. We showed the movie: ``Only A Stonecutter´´ and discussed the importance of enduring to the end no matter what the circumstances. It was really neat to see the home be filled with the spirit, and to see the understanding light up in the eyes of the children and parents. On Sunday, every member of the family made it to church! It was so good to see them all there, smiling and happy to be in attendance. Family Home Evening gives us strength during the week that will help us make better decisions and unite us as a family!

     Other than that, the work continues on. I hope you all have a great New Years. I love you, and see you soon!

Elder Crapo

Telefone Tony 22 de Dezembro 2104

Family and Friends! Merry Christmas!

     There is so much to say and so little time to say it! I´ve been transferred to another state entirely! I´m now in the city of Teófilo Otoni in the state of Minas Gerais. The name is really weird and hard to pronounce, so when the greenies try to say it, it just comes out something like ``Telefone Tony´´, which I find hilarious. It´s found in the interior of the state, north of Espirito Santo, which means that if you thought it was hot in my other area...welcome to the devil´s oven. And we´re not at all close to the ocean, so there´s no breeze, and there are lots and lots of hills.  It´s weight losing time!!! What saves us from wasting away is the food. Mineiro seasoning is so so so good! We end up eating quite a bit.The area is actually really beautiful with all the green hills, too. There´s a ton of German and Italian influence here,  so it´s like a blend of the three cultures: Brazilian, German, and Italian.  I love it!

 

     I´m with a new companion, Elder Barroso! He´s from Manaus, which is a really developed city located in the middle of the Amazons! How cool is that? I really like working with him, he´s a great missionary and helps me out so much! In short, I´m incredibly blessed and happy with how transfers turned out.

  

     We have an investigator named Ibis who has a baptismal date marked for Sunday, so wish us luck. Or just wish us the spirit. That´s much more effective. Love you all, and see you soon!

Elder Crapo

Rainy days and Mondays...15 de Dezembro 2014

Good Morning!

    ``Iiiiiiits thaaaaaaaat time of year, when the world falls in...´´

...puddles of mud, because it´s the rainy season here in Brazil.

 I think I remember sending a similar e-mail exactly one year ago, which said something like, ``Either it´s blazing hot, or it´s raining it´s guts out.´´ Some things never change.

     I hope you all had a great week full of happy christmas preparations! This week, we had our branch christmas dinner, and they asked me to choose a song to sing a few days before. I decided to use Josh Groban´s version of ``I´ll be home for christmas´´, and in the parts where the soldiers give shout-outs to their family and friends, I read selections from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland´s talk: Christmas Within You. Go read it, it´s good! https://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/12/christmas-within-you?lang=eng

     So, I guess I left out some important information in the last e-mail. I didn´t put the date I would be going home! I only realized this after we finished e-mailing, but when I remembered, I thought, ``My family is going to go crazy.´´ Sorry! I´ll be leaving from Vitória on March 17, and probably won´t arrive in Salt Lake until the 18th. The exact times, I don´t know yet, but I´ll probably receive all the itty-bitty info here in a few weeks. I´ll keep y´all posted. Now to go hunting for a green tie...

     In other news...I´ll be transferred tomorrow! This transfer was only 5 weeks because the church doesn´t buy plane tickets within a week of christmas, so they cut this transfer short, and the next transfer will be 7 weeks long. So...I have no idea where I´ll be spending my christmas.

     That´s it for this week, folks! Love you all, and see you real soon!

Elder Crapo

Regrets and Decisions: 8 de Dezembro 2014

Feliz Natal!

     Since beginning my misssion, I´ve been impressed several times with how serving a mission is like living another mini ``life´´. Everything that applies to life applies to the mission. The day you enter the field, you are born. For those who serve in foreign countries and different cultures, ``Birth´´ is very much like starting again from actual birth. You have to learn how to speak, how to talk, how to work, etc. Then you continue through the ups and downs of life, learning as you go, until the day you return home, which is ``death´´. As you start to arrive near the end of your ``life´´, you start to thinl about everything you´ve gone through, everything you´ve done, all your mistakes, and your moments of triumph.

     This past week, I received ``The Call´´ from the mission secretary confirming the date and airport to which I´ll be going home. To other missionaries, when you get ``The Call´´, you are really really old in the mission. It´s like turning 70 years old in a life span of 80 years (or 88 years in a span of 100, to help those who have already turned 70 feel better).

     In language study recently, I´ve been studying conference talks in Portuguese from the November 2012 issue of ``The Liahona´´. Interestingly enough, I came upon President Uchtdorf´s talk entitled ``Regrets and Decisions´´ (all this will be a rough translation from portuguese to english, so bear with me) in which he talks about three common regrets that people have in life. I won´t give a complete and extensive review of the discourse, but I encourage you all to go and look it up yourselves and read it because it´s really good and ... I´ve forgotten the word in english...uhhh...it´s...enlightening? I wanted to say something like that. Just go with it. It´s great.

 

     The universal regrets are:

1. ``I would like to have spent more time witht the people I love.´´

2. ``I would like to have lived to my highest potential.´´

3. ``I would like to have allowed myself to be happier.´´

     Just as these regrets apply so well to each of us in our mortal lives, these regrets are also very real in mission life. I know I´ve come a long way, and that I have just a few short months left to take advantage of my missionary experience. I´ve already felt each one of these regrets at one point or another during my mission, but I want to be ble to ``die´´ knowing I lived this last part of my ``life´´ with no regrets!

     I know that Christ lives! I know we are cared for by a loving Father in Heaven. I know that the Book of Mormon is not just a book full of fairy tales, fables, and war stories. These people actually lived and their words are true. I love the gospel, and I love my mission. I love all of you and thank you for all your love, support and prayers. I´ll see y´all soon!

Elder Crapo

1 de Dezembro, 2014

Hello!

     I wanted to change the way I start these e-mails, but I´m lacking creativity today, so the ``hello´´ will have to do for now. :)

     This week was full of surprises! President Young showed up at our door one morning to interview my companion, and then asked to speak with me for a bit after. He asked me how everything´s going at home, with my companion, in the work, etc. It was good to just sit and talk and learn for a few minutes. President Young is really a great teacher.

     Thankfully, we got a break from the sun this week and got a little rain intead. A blessing and a curse, as it cooled everything down, but hurt our church attendance big time. Brazilians hate doing anything but sleep when it rains. Me, too, but you know...missionary life.

     It was also Elder F. Lima´s birthday on Friday, but we got surprise cakes on Wednesday, Friday, two on Saturday, and one more yesterday. I´ve had enough cake to last me a long while.

     We found a man named Paulo the other day, who recognized us as ``The Mormons´´, but admited that he doesn´t know anything about our religeon. We taught him about the restoration, and he said he liked it and agrees with a lot that we taught. He told us that he´d pray, and we´ll see what happens.

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

Elder Crapo