Email: Week#93 in Paraguay

Hi,

It sure is crazy that I am going home soon. It is hard to believe. I won't write too much so then I can tell you more in a few days haha. But things are going super well. I just basically am saying goodbye to everyone and having some little parties and stuff. It is weird saying goodbye because everyone says stuff like ''see you in 5 years with your wife and kids!''... and that is super weird to think about. :P

I am super excited to see you guys!!! :)

Love, 

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#92 in Paraguay

SO I am writing super late today because I went off to Asuncion for the meeting. Also, I went off to my old area Huguito to say goodbye to a few members! It was so fun. I love those families so much and it really was so super awesome to catch up with them. I didn't have much time to share, so that was the bad part. We were a bit rushed, but luckily I was able to talk to several people there.

It still is raining a ton! It will never stop... its the worst because the water enters into my house very time and it gets all flooded :P.

Things are just getting hard because I know that I am getting close to finishing my mission! So last Sunday we had the testimony meeting and the Branch President was like ''We invite all of you to come and bear your testimonies, especially we want to hear from someone that is going to be leaving us soon''. So I got up and basically gave my last testimony on how glad I was to be there and how sad I was to leave. It was crazy. It was super hard, they have grown to be like a family for me. So it turned out to every one saying something like ''Oh we will miss Elder Crandall'' or something like that in their testimonies. It was really neat. I sure am going to miss it all.

But I don't have that much time... but here are some cool photos! :)

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#91 in Paraguay

Hi,

This week was super awesome! Well... it still has been raining a ton. It will be raining like crazy here until about April because every 7 years it is like this. So it is cool on the fact that it isn't as hot as usual.

So last Thursday was Thanksgiving! It was super awesome because I celebrated it with the missionary couple, the Cranneys. It was a lot of fun, we had a big meal. It was SUPER nice. I can't wait to celebrate that holiday again.

I also went on a another division last Saturday, and it turned out super well. We were teaching this one lesson to someone about the Plan of Salvation. It was super neat because we told her about how she could go to the Celestial Kingdom and that she needed to get baptized. Then, my companion invited her to get baptized and it was the strongest invitation ever. She accepted! It was super awesome because then we put a date with her and she got super excited! It is really cool to see the influence of the spirit.

So yesterday was crazy because of all the rain. We didn't think that many people would show up... but I guessed wrong! We still managed to get 52 people. Our Branch President is working super hard and picking a ton of people up in his car every week and it helps a lot! It was really cool because we had the highest attendance this week and that has never happened before. So then after, we had a HUGE lunch together. There were 35 people there to eat. The house was super full to celebrate our Branch Presidents birthday yesterday. It was super awesome because we had a really nice meal and a lot of cake! :)

So yeah... here are some photos to enjoy.

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#90 in Paraguay

Hi,

I don't think I will get to see Ignacio and Marias baptism before I go, he hasn't gone to church yet because he keeps going to Bolivia, but now he isn't anymore! So now he can start going to church. I may not get to see it, but I still am super happy because I was able to truly bless someone's life and make it a lot better. Ignacio said he is now in 1 Nephi 12 and is really anxious to keep reading. It was funny because he said that he wanted to skip to the end to see how it ends... but you cant do that ;)

So yesterday was so awesome! We had an attendance of 57! It was so crazy... we haven't had one like that in so long. It was really neat because the church was like super filled up. The church isn't that big. The other elders had a ton of investigators show up and we both had a lot of less actives that day! It was so neat. So the members are as trunky as ever. Everytime they see me they say something like... oh only 4 weeks left! or you are super close to finishing! It is crazy... they keep reminding me haha.

So I also was able to go on splits twice this week with two Elders and one of them was with my old companion, Elder Calderon, so that was fun haha. All in all, a good week.

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#89 in Paraguay

Hi,

Things are pretty good. I don't have much to say as I got sick... again! It really stinks. But luckily it will be the last time, right? And that sounds like all is good!

But things are going really good. I am trying really hard not to get trunky and keep working. Things are going good, Ignacio came back from Bolivia and so we are trying to keep him going. But other than that, things are all going good.

We didn't leave much because of me being super sick and all... but things are all good now.

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#88 in Paraguay

Hi,

So now my companion is just Elder Gomes. I am happy because we are really good friends. We are like basically the same. We like the same things and always are thinking the  same haha. He is really cool. I stayed in my area, so I am with Ignacio and Maria still. But... Gloria is now in the other area, the girl that wanted to get baptized. But it was cool this Sunday because the members brought a friend to church! So we will have to see what she thought about it.

I am talking with all the members and they are always like... ah only 5 weeks left! It is so crazy. It is really hard to believe that my time is almost over. I am trying hard to take advantage of every moment with the members because I will never see them again! I don't know what I will be doing when I get home.

Well... today was super fun. We had a zone activity and I organized a game of jeopardy and it was really fun. It got to be super competitive. So then we played some ultimate frisbee and ping pong and ended by playing some Uno. It was a ton of fun and turned out super well.

So lately we found out that Ignacio went to Bolivia! I hope he doesn't stay there too long because he planned on it. But so that kinda puts a hold on things for us. Other than that, it has been raining a ton! It is like so crazy. The worst part is that the house gets a big flooded when it does. Well... other than the baptisms, the members are doing well. We had 41 attendance on a rainy day! In Paraguay that is a miracle. It was pretty cool. We have been having 52 the last two weeks, so it was really neat to see it grow. The members are all doing really well.

But I guess that is pretty much it. Today was SUCH a fun day!

Love, 

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#87 in Paraguay

Hi,

Things are going good. I traveled to Asuncion today so I don't have much time to right because my bus is going to leave again... but it was a fun conference. It just stinks having to travel so much.

Tomorrow we have changes so it was cool to be able to say goodbye to a lot of my long time friends in the mission. It is crazy I only have 6 weeks left.

It is super hot here too, but luckily (and unluckily), it has been raining a lot. So I just get super dirty because my area is all dirt roads, so it just is super flooded and muddy. :(


So this week was pretty good. Unfortunately, Ignacio and Maria didn't go to church... but its alright, I guess. They went to a party late Saturday night and so that's why they didn't go. We visited them later Sunday and they were still excited for us to come and teach them. Ignacio said he feels like this is a good path for him. So I really hope they come to church. We need to get them married and baptized before I leave! I only have 6 more Sundays to go. They love having me over to visit. It is really funny because whenever I come they always want me to say a prayer to start because they say they need to take advantage while I am still here since I am leaving soon haha.

Also, one of the investigators told us on Sunday that she wanted to get baptized! It was super amazing to hear because she had been going to church for years and never even wanted to! The only thing is that I bet that tomorrow the area will split up and she wont be my investigator anymore... but at least I can be there for it! :)

Well... hope all is good! :)

Love,
Elder Crandall

   

Email: Week#86 in Paraguay

Hi,

So on Monday, we had a cool family home evening with a family. We first had them draw with their eyes closed, which they obviously couldn't do well and related it to that we need to see and need a light to do things, which is the same spiritually with Christ. It went super well, it was really neat.

Tuesday, we had the Conference. It actually went pretty good, we were able to teach well! After, we went out to do visits with the branch. I left off with the Branch President and we were able to do a few visits. We also saw Ignacio and Maria with them. It was a pretty good day.

Thursday, we did the service just like last Friday. It was fun, it just has been SO HOT lately. I don't know if I have ever sweat as much as I have these last few days. It is so crazy.

Well, Saturday we visited Ignacio and Maria with the Coronel family and they got along super well. Maria wants to start coming because she befriended Sister Coronel, which is cool... the only thing is that they didn't come because Ignacio had a committment already, but the Hermana Coronel is like already good friends and they are going to come visit each other in the week to drink terere (common bonding thing in Paraguay). So lets see how that goes in the future. It may be a bit hard because they need to get married too, which they don't want yet...

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#85 in Paraguay

Hi, 

This week was pretty fun. I have gotten to be super exhausted. I have realized how much work being a zone leader is... just getting a lot of phone calls and stuff. So this Tuesday, we have a zone conference and I get to speak! SO that will be lots of fun.

So on Wednesday I went on a division with Elder Orihuela and then on Thursday I went out to Horqueta. Horqueta is a small town about 45 minutes away. I took a bus at 11 at night and finally got to bed at 12.30! I was so tired the next day. But the cool thing was that I got to hang out with my old companion, Elder Mendoza! It was a super fun division and we had lots of success.

The next day I got home super dead. Well... I didn't get much rest because in the morning we had a service for the Branch President. It was cool, but SUPER exhausting. We were all dead. He wanted us to fill his yard with new dirt, so we had to wheelbarrel it all pretty far and spread it out. It was hard because we had to bring the dirt for a bit of a distance. We worked all morning for like 4 hours and then we were dead. But luckily his yard is huge so we can come back this next week to continue... so I just crashed when we got home :)

We had a super awesome lesson too this week. It was actually yesterday. We visited Ignacio and Maria. It turned out that they really liked our visit and asked a TON of questions about how we are and the church and wanted to meet some of our members. So now, I am going to visit them on Tuesday with the Branch President. I am excited for them. They told us that they would come next Sunday so hopefully!

Love,

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#84 in Paraguay

Hi,

Things are going good, it still is raining a lot.

Today was a super crazy week. Monday, I went off to the concilio de zona and it was a fun ride like I told you.

Tuesday we had the district meeting as usual. I was super tired still. It was neat because we met with a less active, who has a son named carlos that wants to start acoming back to church and all and one day serve a mission, he couldn't go this Sunday for the rain. that is one thing I miss, that over there, no one has problems like this in the rain. Everyone gets soaked, sick,and super muddy, so they don't go.

Wednesday I had a division with Elder Henriquez, from chile. it was neat because we found a lot of cool people and contacted a ton. we met this one guy who lived in italy for 14 years. 

Thursday was an interesting day. I now have a new companion, but that I am in a trio now. His name is Elder Gomez. He is from brasil, but speaks perfect english because of playing video games and watching movies haha. he is super cool. I just need to get used to teaching like this in 3, it is a lot different. but today we found this super cool guy that wants to know if the book of mormon is true and promised us to come to church, he has really good desires to know the truth, he totally will progress later on.

On Friday, we met this super old lady who is like 85. She is living on her own since her husband died 10 years ago, but she doesn't have any kids. All we could think about in the contact is that how one day she can get sealed to her husband. We got super motivated to help her since then. She seems super nice.

Saturday was meant to be a super good day, but it rained... :( so when that happens no one accepts us, and that is what happened. We walked around a lot this day. But all that matters is that I know I made God happy by trying. Atleast in the night we saw an invesigator who came to church.

Sunday was neat because even though it rained our attendance didnt drop that much. We had roques younger brother come! So that was cool. He is only 8 years old, though. So it will take a bit to teach him all. We hope that maybe next month he can get baptized.

Love,

 Elder Crandall

Email: Week#83 in Paraguay

Hi,

I am writing super early today because I had to travel to Asuncion for
a leadership meeting in the city, so I traveled 6 hours to get here.
Now, I am going to write while I wait. I just put as the Zone Leader recently.

General Conference was super awesome, I really enjoyed it. I liked the
first talk that Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave, but that was pretty cool.

So this week was cool because I met an investigator, he brought out
his book of mormon from four years ago, and it was signed by David
Halliday! I thought that that was kinda cool. We found Pablo in the
street and he accepted a baptismal date for the 31st. We will see if
he starts coming to church, he said he did 4 years ago. it was just a
cool guy we contacted.

It honestly has been raining so much, we have been getting just super
soaked, it has been terrible. water keeps getting into our house and
it stinks because it is hard to clean. but we have been leaving to
work anyway, and the streets are just flooded and we get ankle deep a
lot!

this week just has been neat because we have been finding a lot of
neat people, we just need to get them to go to church!

Well, I can let you know more next time, but until then!

Love, 
Elder Crandall

Email: Week#82 in Paraguay

Hi,

Things are super good. Well so for changes, I stayed here and I got a NEW companion. His name is Elder Calderon. He is Peruvian but he is from Oregon. He moved there 8 years ago. Well, the other cool change is that I am now the Zone Leader. So basically, I am in charge of all of the missionaries in Concepcion.

I heard about a huge rain storm coming into Phoenix and Mesa. That must have been crazy. But the crazy thing is that that storm is how it usually rains in Paraguay... it is always that crazy. It enters into a lot of peoples houses.

So this week has been crazy. I have been working a ton now that I am the zone leader. I have been recieving a lot of phone calls recently to do stuff. It is cool, though. So today we had our zone activity. It was a lot of fun. We planned to play ultimate frisbee and it actually worked out pretty good.

So last Tuesday, Elder Turley said goodbye to all the members. They were all surprised because he didn't stay for very long.

On Wednesday I did some divisions while we waited for our companions to arrive from the capital (as it is a 6 hour bus ride!). We had a super neat lesson with a less active. He told us that he was going to leave his job, and now he wants to go back to church and eventually a mission! I was so happy, but he honestly is super cool. He is an 18 year old. So we will work with him.

So last Saturday was super fun. We spent a while cleaning the house with the mission presidents wife. She wanted to show me how to clean the houses well enough so I could do it and show my zone how to do it. So that sounds like a lotta fun! Haha not. 

On Sunday we had our District Conference (like Stake Conference) and it was neat to see everyone there. It was actually a super good conference about the sabbath day. I really liked it. The best part was that we gotta walk one hour to get there!

Well, we met this cool guy that wants to get baptized and go to our church, but it turns out that he is going out to travel for work and be gone for 2-3 months... but hopefully he gets back before I finish my mission. Anyway, after that lesson, we went to visit the branch president and he gave us dinner! It is cool because that is pretty rare here, but we just got lucky!

Well, enjoy these fotos

Elder Crandall

So this is my house and my new companion

Email: Week#81 in Paraguay

Hi,

Tomorrow we get changes so I am wondering if I will be changed out of Concepcion, I am not sure... it is like a 50% chance that I go and that I stay.

So things are going good. I just have been super sick this last week. I was sleeping a lot. I had super bad stomach pains and chivivi. I think it was bacteria that entered in my stomach from the water. Paraguay is pretty sketchy sometimes...

The baptisms went super awesome though! It was the best because I was able to baptize on my birthday! It was the best present in the world! There really is nothing better than that. So that was basically all our week. We prepared for the baptisms and we were sick... so that was lots of fun! I didn't go to the baptism for Carlos in the river because it was on Sunday and I stayed for Lidas confirmation, but so Elder Turley went with another missionary and I stayed with his companion here.

We also surprisingly jumped like 15 people higher at church on Sunday. It was super neat. We also went off to a birthday party for a family of investigators and they just gave out SO MUCH CANDY. Too bad I am kinda sick... I will save it for later though! :)

And yeah... I am getting close to end my mission, trying not to think of that and focus ;)

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#80 in Paraguay

Hi ,

So this week has been crazy. It has been raining a lot, so the roads have been terrible and we haven't had as much success. But the good thing is is that Lida is getting baptized this weekend! That is also my birthday!! So it really will be the best ever. She is progressing well, she always goes to church and knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She also is in second Nephi now! It is really cool.

We didn't have the baptism for Carlos. That will be moved to the 27th. I am not sure if I will be there this next change to see it.

This week has been pretty normal, but I am getting a lot closer to home and it is getting a bit harder to work, but we are still finding a lot of cool people for next change.

Love,

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#79 in Paraguay

Hi,

This week was pretty good. We made the pancakes from scratch, Paraguay doesn't really have much. You basically make everything from scratch, like the brownies and stuff. 

So we didn't have the baptism in the river like we planned. It turns out Carlos didn't feel ready yet, so we are going to push for next Sunday. I hope it turns out before we have changes.

But the good news is is that we have a date for baptism with Lida! Roque's older sister accepted baptism and asked for a date. It is awesome because she went to church numerous times already and keeps going. We just need to work with her to get a testimony, but little by little we are getting Roque's family to accept the gospel! It is so awesome how much lives changed just by one person!

So this week I did a division with the Zone Leader, and it was a neat division because basically every house I chose ended up being a super awesome person to teach. So we got lots of new investigators, it is awesome.

But also the hermanas in my district have a baptism this weekend! So it is so awesome and it means that I get to do another interview.

Well, thats good for now, I guess. Love you guys!

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#78 in Paraguay

Hi,

Today was good. It was super interesting because the power went out last night and it didn't come back until just recently. The worst part is that we don't have water when that happens here!

 

Things have been super slow this week. I don't have much to write because I was sick for a while, so we didn't leave that much. But I am good now and ready to work.

 

We had a broadcast for all of Paraguay on Sunday. We all met in the stake center and heard from a few general authorities. The only problem... was that they told us all the wrong time and we came late. THEN, the broadcast died and we ended an hour early haha. So it was interesting.

 

We are planning on doing a fireside for the branch on missionary work to motivate the members and stuff to help get references. I think that it will be pretty cool.

 

So this weekend we are going to have a baptism up in Tacuati. It is where Elder Turley used to be, and now that there are no missionaries there, we get to baptize him! SO I get to go up there and see a baptism in the river! It is super cool.

 

Also, we are workng a lot with Roque's older sister, she just needs to have someone take care of her 2 year old kid and we are good with her! She is super cool and all.

 

But... I was going to send pictures but I forgot my camera. Next time you can see when I made some pancakes!

 

Love, Elder Crandall

Email: Week#77 in Paraguay

Hi Mom,

Things are going good. It is really cool to be with Elder Turley.

So also Tuesday we had an interview with the mission President, and it went really well. He is such a good guy. It basically took the whole day, so that is all that we did that day.

Wednesday was fun because we were just walking one day and this random guy calls our name. We asked him what his name was and he said 'bond... james bond'. he just kept telling so many jokes, he was kinda weird. he told us that he was paralyzed and he was left in a freezing chryogenator for therapy for half a day.

Thursday was neat because we met with Lida. She is Roques older sister and is progressing super well. She told us that she would come to church on Sunday and she did!

Saturday we had an awesome family home evening with the family mcleod. it so so cool because they always make some chipa. it is really good. it sounds weird how it is made because they use animal fat, but it is super good here.

but this sunday was so awesome because we had 20 more people than last week! It was so awesome to see all the members showing up, they didn't stop coming! we had an attendance of 61 and we haven't had one like that for a long time! it was so cool.

today we chilled with an hermana for our pday. it was her birthday and she invited us to eat something. so we had fun there!

well... not to mucho to decir. until next week!

Elder Crandall