Email: Week#20 in Paraguay

Hi, 

I really like it here, it is way better than I had originally thought. So I am the Cartero (Mailman), who is incharge of all the materials: books, pamphlets, plaques, mail, etc. It is cool being in the office because I get the inside on everything, like I know almost all the information about everyone and I get to know the changes before too, so that is cool. So I just stay in the office for about 6 hours everyday to work on stuff like that to help out the missionaries. I work in the office from 10 to 4.30, and then after, if we are finished with everything, we go out tracting. That is how I have my investigator, Marcelo. My new area is Mburucuya, and before, Hermana Owen was in that area, and she and her companion are like some of the best missionaries in the mission, is what everyone in the office says. My area now is a lot different because the people here have a lot more money. A lot of people have super nice looking houses and cars, so it is a lot different. My companion is Elder Hatfield, he is training me right now on how to do everything, but after that my comp will change to the guy in charge of finances. The ward is super neat, but there are not as many people that attend there.

It is always like that at the temple, we can't go into the prayer circle or be the witness couple (that one is abit more obvious haha), but yeah it is for that reason, so they always ask who is a missionary. Marcelo is super awesome, we just are trying to get some permission from his mom, but we don't know how that is going to work. We are trying to get his dad to convince his mom to say yes, but who knows what will happen... because his dad is okay with him being baptized because he is a super inactive member. 

Hmm... so about my week in the field. I have been busy learning all my duties and such on how to do everything. Like, yesterday, we were up super late trying to get a project done for President. He has already given me a few of his projects to get doing. But as far as proselyting goes, we have been looking for all the less actives, we dont know the area, because it is new for the both of us, so we are looking for awhile sometimes to find the houses. But we haven't been able to go out teaching much lately this week, so not too much to report on. It just has been raining like crazy this whole week, so we are hoping that the rain will stop soon, because otherwise no one will attend church tomorrow!

Well, hope to talk to you guys later,

Love Elder Crandall

Email: Week#19 in Paraguay

So I just want to let you guys know that my Pdays are now on Saturdays because i work in the office now and we are busy helping the other missionaries on Mondays. So I will be writing for a while now on Saturdays, I totally didn't even think to write you and tell you that, so there is no worries about me not having a letter now because I never let you know. But anyway, I will let you guys know about how my crazy week went haha.

I am now the Cartero for the mission, i am in charge of all the mail, maps, books, and plaques, and a few other stuff. I have been in training for a bit and have learned a lot now. Also, I have been learning a bit on how to drive stick shift, so that was fun, I have only driven twice now, but i am learning how to do it.

So what is really cool is that my area now is Mburucuya, which was the old area for Hermana Owen, so I get to meet everyone who she knew before. Something super crazy cool that i learned yesterday was that I met someone named Samuel Vasquez. He has a sibling that lives in the United States, who married an American, which is Christian Freemans older sister. So he is in my grade and had been in a few clases with me, who is on a mission now in paraguay, but in the south mission. So that was super crazy that I met his brother in law and that he is from paraguay but more than anything in my ward. But this ward is super awesome, I have only met a few people, but it seems super awesome, I am sure to meet everyone tomorrow in church.

In my area, we have this super awesome investigator whose name is Marcelo. He  has a super awesome testimony, he actually reads 5 chapters of the book of mormon every day! It is super crazy, he is super awesome. He has a baptismal date coming up soon, but has some problems with his mom, who doesn't want him to get baptized, so we are trying to figure something out for him, but he is one of the best investigators to have in the mission.

So I said goodbye to a lot of people in my area on Tuesday, so I have a TON of pictures to send out to you guys.  You only get about one day to say goodbye to everyone. They let you know on Monday and Tuesday is basically the day to say goodbye before you leave on Wednesday morning. But that was a super fun day and I am going to miss my old area Piquete Cue a lot, because it was super awesome and the people there super cool.

Ah, so remember those photos  that you guys got a long time ago when i arrived in Paraguay, but you weren't able to see? Well, i have access to those photos now (office perks!) and i am going to add them in too. So I have like over 20 photos to send haha.

Well, hope all is well, and I will talk to you guys later!

Love,

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#18 in Paraguay

Hi,

This week was super good! We had the baptism for Juan and Rumilda, the children of Maria Ortiz, who we baptized last week. So we haven't been able to do much other than that because we were so busy preparing themfor the baptism, but it was totally awesome! The only real interesting other things that happened was that we had Zone Conference, which is when the President come talks to us as a zone, which was super long meeting, but it was super cool. He tested our scripture knowledge. Also, we had some ''fun'' on Thursday. Hermana Vilma came over to our home to help us fully clean our house. We ended up cleaning for sooo long, we cleaned for 5 hours straight from 8.30 to 1.30. I was super exhausted afterwards.

But I have suuuuuuper  big news. I am leaving my area this Wednesday morning because I have changes. The change came out as a super big surprise, I wasn't sure if it was a joke at first, or no. I am going off to be the new Cartero for the mission (mailman)! I will be working in the mission office in Asuncion. I have heard a lot about it, and it sure will be quite interesting. I will be in charge of all the mail and the plaques for the mission. I get to go to the post office every week to pick up the mail. But most of all, I get to drive the mission vehicle, however, I have to learn how to drive it because it is a stick shift, so when I come home, I should know how to drive one! But I am still not sure how to take it, I have heard a lot about being in the office, good and bad, so I will see how it goes. I will be in training to be the new cartero for the first 6 weeks and then I will be on my own. So now today and tomorrow I am saying goodbye to everyone and taking a picture with them one last time. I really don't want to leave Piquete Cue, because I absolutely love the area, and that is an understatement. I hoped to stay another change in the area, but it is what the Lord wants, so of course I will oblidge to it. My companion is going to stay with another Peruvian in the area. I also don't want to leave because my companion and I are such good friends and we get along so well, we also work really good together.

Okay, hope all is well! I will let you know how my new life is in the mission office!

Les amo, chao!

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#17 in Paraguay

Hi,

So this week started off bad, I got hold of a virus. I was super sick for a while. I kept waking up in the middle of the night to throw up, I had nausea and lots of pain. So the next day I called the nurse and she helped me get some medications. I slept almost the whole day, like 18 hours. But all is well now, I am feeling a lot better and am good now. It was about 1 and a half days that we weren't able to do anything, but I feel bad for my comp. because he was super bored all day haha. But we have super good news that totally makes me not care about that. We had Maria's baptism on Saturday!! It was super awesome. So my companino was able to get his first baptism and he performed it! We also have really good plans later because her two kids are planned to be baptized this Saturday too! So we will have a few more! We are planning on having their grampa, Dionicio (who we baptized a month ago) perform the ordinance. It would be super awesome. But so because we haven't been able to work much from be being sick and preparing fully the baptism, there is not much of an update. Ah, I think we found another good potential investigator with Cynthia, we just haven't been able to find her in her house again.

So it is crazy that I could leave the area of Piquete soon the 18th of June is when we have changes. It is more likely I stay, but anything is possible, really. So I was waiting to fill up the font and to entertain myself, I took pictures of the chapel so you guys could see how it is like. Enjoy!

Ah and I share a scripture how I feel you guys think about me ;) Galatians 4:10

Les quiero! Chao, Elder Crandall

Email: Week#16 in Paraguay

Hi,

I usually will be on at this time, about starting 3 your time. Sometimes I get on in the morning but only real quick to email the president. I finish emailing a lot earlier than my comp. so I have a bit extra time. After we head to the church to hang out with the other missionaries to play games or ping pong or such.

For my companions birthday, as I said last time, we didnt have much money at the time. We get money at the end of the month and we came a bit short then haha. But I asked other missionaries to make brownies so he made that for us in our district meeting. Then once we got money we bought some lomitos and made some tortas, which were awesome. It still is pretty cold, but now it is a bit warm. Thankfully, it didn't rain last Sunday so people actually came... it was awesome. Those pictures: one is with Elder Fernandez, who I lived with for a bit, I have more pictures with him I sent a while ago. I got a picture with him because he left to his home last week to recover from his surgery. Then there is Elder Fielding and I, we came from the MTC together, so we are friends. We are at the immigrations to sign, but like I said last time that we weren't able to, so we need to come back another day. That picture I sent by myself, there is a part which is totally empty in my neighborhood, I thought it was cool. And yeah it is crazy that I have 5 months now in the mission today! But I still have lots of time left... but time has gone by super fast! It is a bit crazy to think about. The changes are the 18th of this month, the chances are I will stay, but no one is totally sure.

Hmm... so this week we are going to be working with Maria Ortiz a ton because her baptism will be this Saturday! We were abit afraid we would have to push it another week, but things are going great! It is going to be awesome. Her mom-in-law is going to make a torta for it and we are preparing the last final details for her baptism, but it is awesome because she is super happy. So about Maria Echague, we will ahve to change her date for another time because she is too busy with her work to be able to fulfill her commitments like reading and such, but she is super awesome and we will keep working with her to realize the importance of baptism. We also had a cool experience with our investigator, Raquel. She is progressing super well, but the only thing is that she is not able to attend sacrament meetings yet until she recovers fully. It was super neat, one day she told us that she had been praying that we would come this day, and this day we showed up. It was interesting because it had been some time since we had come.

Something pretty cool I did was that I taught a member Algebra again, so that was fun haha. It always is intersting to do it in another language. So someting cool, the brother that we baptized a while ago, Dionicio, he has a huge family and a couple are interested in getting baptized, like Maria Ortiz is the daughter in law. It is super awesome, Dionicio comes to church with about 15 people every week, it is super awesome!

The food here, is actually pretty normal for me. It surprises a few people when I say that. They eat meat, rice, spaghetti, a lot of normal stuff. I have heard some missionaries eat some super strange stuff like pig heart and such, but I haven't had anything strange.

Ah, so the thing about piquete is that none of the houses have adresses, so that makes it a bit hard to find some people sometimes. We have to contact around and ask people for such and such. But if you look for limpio, asuncion and then look for that part nearby using that picture of the map I sent you, you can find it.

Well, hope all is well. Chao! Love you guys!

Torta (aka chocolate cake)