Email: Week#69 in Paraguay

We had a super cool week with a few people. Yesterday in church was awesome because we had a super good attendance. We had like 4 investigators at church. One is Roque who has a baptismal date for the 11th of this next month! It is crazy that July is already here, things are just going by way too fast.

We had several services projects this week too. We did service for Roque our investigator where wecut his grass, which was good because now his mom likes us more. Also, we  helped the bishop do some yard work, so thats fun. We also had a  barbecue with him on Sunday for the 2nd time ina row, so that was awesome. He cookes really well.

Last night we watched meet the mormons with a family and they really liked it, and hopefully it will help them progress inthe gospel!!

We have a lot of people to teach, but not many of them have attendances... we are working on that a  bit.

People are crazy about the soccer games lately. Paraguay has made it to the top 4 in the competition, so when they play there is no one... literally NO ONE in the street, so we just kinda hang out with the members for a bit. But Paraguay went crazy when they won two days ago haha. I actually really like watching soccer now.

But there are changes tomorrow, and a change for us would be insane, but who knows... but I guess not much for now.

Love you guys!

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#68 in Paraguay

Hi,

Things are going super well. I really like my new area, and my new companion is super cool. His name is Elder Gutierrez and he is a short, erally funny guy from Peru. But I really nejoy the area. Today we played some soccer with all the missionaries nearby and went out to lunch. And so Concepcion is super tranquil, like there is like nothing that happens here. Everyone has a moto. My area is filled with streets that are just super bad, so my shoes are always full of mud... everyday. Haha.

But anyway,so this week was super fun. I had a full week in Concepcion. It was super weird how it started off, because we arrived at about 4 in the morning and at 8 we left to go to a funeral (is that how you spell it? it looks wrong) for the branch presidents brother. Also, i am in a branch with a small house that they rented to be the capilla, but it is really cool. So that was weird to go to that and all. After, we were able to visit our cool investigator, Roque. He is a cool investigator that has a ton of questions. He has 2 attendances so far, but one time he asked us what we though about Jehovah, so that got a bit complicated haha. He always asks profound questions. He is super cool, though. Also, we met the family Gonzalez. They are investigators, a whoel family, that is super interested, just never go to church...

On Wednesday, we had a ward night. We watched meet the mormons. So I finally saw that movie! It was super cool because we had Roque there too. We probably would have had more attendance, but it pooured a ton!

Thursday was when we traveled out to Santani, like 4 to 5 hours away to go to a mission conference with a 70, Elder Gonzales. He speaks really well English, and he spoke to us about the importance of the Book of Mormon, it was super cool. That basically lasted the whole day. The District president took us back and we went to a buffet place to eat dinner! :)

Friday we did this service project for this crazy old man in our ward. He does this funniest dance ever. He always jokes around. But we had to move this HUGE dresser for him. I have never seen one so big. It was super heavy and it hurt a ton to move. Later, we met with the Benitez Family, who are also super cool investigators.

But Saturday was a super fun day because we made some pancakes with the family Marin. It was super fun and we watched a movie. The kids are trying super hard to be friends with our investigator Roque. I totally think he can get a fecha if he gets permission from his parents.

But Happy Fathers Day to ALL!

Elder Crandall

Email: Week#67 in Paraguay

SO A SUPER CRAZY DAY TODAY!!!

A super big surprise came Sunday night. I got a call from my Zone Leader and he told me that I had special changes... to Concepcion! It is crazy because it is 6 hours away! I was basically told that night that I had to pack my bags and then be at the office at 7 in the morning. It sucked bad because I never got to say goodbye to all the people I loved there. I felt like a family there, so since I am far away, I don't know if I can ever see them again! I was sooo sad to leave the area, it was my favorite area by far and my favorite companion by far.

Well, my new area is called Concepcion, and I am in the 2nd branch. I heard so many good things about it, it sounds like a super cool area. I bet I will finish my mission there. I am just sad because I will miss all the baptisms, especially for my top investigator. She will be so disappointed when she finds out what happened. She even talked to the bishop to not have me changed for her baptism haha, but oh well... that is how things work.

So Saturday was super fun because we spent most of the day with our investigators. They are just such an awesome family. We did some service and shared with them. We also had some lunch with them too. It was super fun. Then, we had a ward activity. It was to start at 6, so we rushed over because we were running late and NO ONE came! But luckily our gold investigators came over. We still had fun with them and played jeopardy and volleyball with them. I am just going to miss them soooo much. I really wish I would have had time to say goodbye to them. Who knows if I will be able to.

Anyway, I am pretty down for not being able to say goodbye to some people, but <I hear like Concepcion is going o be lots of fun, so I am super excited!

I can't send my pictures because I am in the terminal now doing this and my cables are all packed up, but next week for sure!

For Pday today I went and played soccer while I waited for my new companion to come down from Concepcion. His name is Elder Gutierrez, from Peru. He is a short super funny guy. He is really awesome.

Love,

 Elder Crandall

Email: Week#66 in Paraguay

Hi,

Things are doing super good this week. But it has been super stressful too. On Wednesday, we had divisions with the Zone Leaders again, so that was a lot of fun.

Thursday, we went on some visits with Rafael, which was pretty cool. He showed us the houses of a few less actives. He also invited us to lunch, so we ate twice that day! But we also found a less active, her name is Luz Dominguez, we are going to have a fhe with her again today. 

Friday was a super cool day because we found a cool family to teach. We went on visits with a joven, David. He showed us the house a family that used to go to church like 10 years ago. So what happened is that they have 5 kids who aren't baptized and so we got a new family to teach! So David accompanied us the whole day and we visited a ton of less active members, and got a dinner cita!

We went with David again on Saturday, and that was a crazy day, for sure. We were contacting and found a random old member that was baptized like 10 years ago, but he doesn't remember like anything! So it was kinda of a weird lesson. And then, we had an asadito with Rosana, we cooked some meat on a stick kinda thing (whatever that is called). But the thing is that it was chicken hearts, which was good. To end the night, we saw Liz Paola, but that was an interesting lesson, we found that Danny doesn't want to get baptized anymore, we just hope that he still goes with the marriage so Liz Paola can get married.

Sunday was a stressful day. Before church, we went to pick up some recent converts who promised us they'd be there, but no one was home... so we walked de valde. Then, after sacrament, a member told me that Hna Cañete got mad because David drew a heart for her daughter, and now that family can't go to church anymore. It stinks because Michele was a really good convert,  so that really depressed me.

Email: Week#65 in Paraguay

Things are starting to get real now that I have like 4 changes left. It is weird to see how different everything is...

I am in Limpio right now, and there are always guys with huge guns in front of the banks and in front of the ATMs when they fill it.

So this week was a super good one too. Now, we are working with 4 people who have a baptismal date.

Arami and Araceli: Their mom just went opposite on us and now doesn't care much anymore if they get baptized... kinda sad but what can we do. We are going to try to keep them going, they just need to go to church regularly, something they cant do if the mom doesn't help!

Dany and Liz Paola: They are progressing so much! Dany didn't want to get married, but it just so happened that the lesson at church was about marriage, so now they are excited to get married and both have a wedding and baptismal date for the 27th of this month. Even Liz Paola was like how did it just happen to be that you guys taught about marriage, you must have planned it! haha, it was funny, but that is just how the Lord works, the one time he came he got all the help he need, and had a change of heart. It was super neat to see. He now loves going to church, which before he never wanted to go.

A cool visit we had last week was when our visits kept falling so I decided to go differently from what we planned and felt like visiting the Relief Society President, I never visited her before, so I felt like I should. We showed up and she said that she was alone crying. Her son had his house robbed and she was just super down. We came and were able to talk to her and she felt a lot better after. It makes me so happy to see that I can be a servant in the Lord's hands and help other people out.

We have been getting some super good references lately. Somehting weird today is that I got an email from BYU of someone who wants us to teach them, so I will have to call them later today to see whats up.

But we have just seen a ton of miracles where we are since we started trying to be obedient!

Talk to you guys later!

Love,

Elder Crandall