May 30,2012

Dear family..
Well I'm so sorry I haven't emailed until today, its been a very very busy week for us here in St. Paul... well lets get started.... this week I have been meeting all the investigators here in my new area in St. Paul. Its been really fun to meet them and I'm really excited for them and to have the opportunity to be teaching them! The area is very big and it has so much potential for many baptisms here in this area!

So first one of our investigators is about 67 years old. His wife is a member and all his kids but he is not. The family is not really well off so they're always concerned about money but he really wants to be baptized so he can receive the priesthood and so that he can bless his family and go to the temple with his wife! We have a date set for him on the 9th of June and we are really concerned about tithing though, its been the main problem for him in the past and that's why he is not baptized yet, but he says he want to be baptized. He has been taught for over 20 years now by missionaries and we think that he is really going to come through and be baptized this time. He has a very sincere heart and really just wants the priesthood.

I had a really cool experience this week... so the father of the family that I baptized back in March, he came joint teaching with us to teach the guy that we have a date set with and it was a cool experience to hear his testimony and to be teaching with someone who I had help come into the Gospel. He is so solid in the church and is a very influential person in the hmong community from what I have found out! It has been really cool to see his progression in this church and to see his testimony grow really fast. Its been one of the greatest joys here on my mission.

So for my new companion Elder Lor!! He is from Fresno and he is a native hmong AND he likes sports! He is a really cool companion. it didn't take long at all for us to adjust to each other and its been really cool to see how he does his missionary work. He is a great companion and District Leader so its been fun seeing what the district leader has to do and helping him get all the numbers in at night from the other companionship's and just helping him with all of that kind of stuff.... has been really fun and quit interesting. I feel as though this transfer I will grow allot and shoot out of my shell and become closer to the man that God wants me to be. I have been reading the Book of Mormon lately and I really love the story of Enos and how he has so much faith and how teachable Enos is. He does the things the Lord wants him to do. He is a great example to us all as he starts off his testimony of the book in that he obeys his father and listens to them and how those words are what sparks his desires to repent and receive that forgiveness of his sins so that he can inherit eternal life. We must be teachable and humble so that we can listen with clear minds and clear hearts so that the Lord can teach us his ways and the things and people he wants us to be. I'm so grateful for all of you and for all the support and love you give to us and how much I appreciate the letters and everything from all of you. Thanks for being such great examples in my life.
Until next time on keeping up with the Elder!!

Love, Elder Crandall

May 21, 2012

Okay this week has been good, it was transfers today and we all were trying to predict everything and so it was really exciting but also nerve racking haha but anyway I am being transferred to the East side now. It's still in St. Paul and we have a car..... yeah buddy!! ha ha its a very large area and I will be companions with Elder Samuel Lor he has been out for almost a year now and he just became the new District Leader so..... I'm companions with the our new District Leader!!! It should be really fun and I look forward to staying in St. Paul but getting to see more of it.

For those of you who may be confused Frogtown (my old area) was in St. Paul but just a couple miles big that's why it's a bike area and there is a large concentration of Hmong people there!! So its going to be nice to get to see a little bit more of Minnesota. I'm super excited and really looking forward to it!! So Elder Mearns my old companion... he got Elder Abbott who was Elder Lors old companion so we just switched. Elder Ly in Minneapolis he got Elder Belliston so that's the Hmong areas for this transfer! it should be really good and I'm really looking forward to being here in St. Paul still it's a really cool city and I like it allot here!!

Anyway, this week we have a date set with a 20 year old kid named Johnny. He is a really funny kid, I think he is just lonely and needs friends so he calls us everyday and he wants us to see him everyday. He has a really good heart but has had a rough childhood. He doesn't have much family at all, that's why I think he is lonely but he is a good kid. He came to church this Sunday and he said he liked it, he is scheduled to be baptized on June 23 but I got transferred.... I'll still see it cause we all go to the same church but it's okay!! This week we have taught allot of people and have met a couple families with allot of potential. There is a family with 6 daughters and 3 sons that we felt had allot of potential and another family with 6 kids that has showed interest to!! This week has gone by so fast and has been really fun. Last P-Day I said we were going fishing, it was really good and fun. We fished for Bass and some other fish I can't remember. Anyway, it was a fun P-Day!! so this P-Day we are finishing up our CD that we are recording and getting them all done so I will send you a copy mother here in the next few weeks!

Now I heard that Nate Dunn is playing catcher for his baseball team....man, how cool is that!! You will have to ask Hunter for some help and some skills he always played catcher for me when we played baseball together he would be catcher and I would be pitcher..... those were the good days!! Nate keep working hard in sports they are really fun and they have blessed my life!! BUT MAKE SURE YOU SEND ME A PICTURE OF YOU AND YOUR CATCHERS GEAR OKAY I WANT TO SEE NATE THE STUD IN HIS UNIFORM!! Keep me updated on how your season goes okay Nate!! Oh and Scott you got those Duke vs North Carolina tickets arranged yet ha ha jk jk but all I can say is I hear the Heat are going to win it this year...... that's what I'm talking about!!! You can never go wrong with Lebron!! (-that was for Markel and Madison and Cami!!!)

Well anyway....I'm doing really good out here and excited for the change but kinda nervous too. Oh well change is good and it makes us grow and find success in life! Thank you for all the support and all the letters its been really fun to hear how all of you are doing. I wish the best for you all and hope you all have a good week!!
Here are some pictures.

Love always Elder Crandall

Kelby bearing his testimony to us on Mother's Day!

(make sure to turn the music volume down so you can hear him)

May 14, 2012

Apparently the kids priorities today are fishing so the letter is short and sweet.....he sounded amazing yesterday! He is so happy and loves where he is and what he is doing...Markel recorded him bearing his testimony in Hmong it is on our facebook pages if you want to hear it. It was awesome to be able to have family prayer together before we hung up....I asked grandpa to offer it as I figured "Mister Tough Guy" could make it through without getting emotional....Wrongo!! :) All in all just a very special Mother's Day!.....I am blessed!

BTW....at the bottom of the letter he is referring to his Miami Heat and Lebron James....Hunter has been keeping him updated on the playoffs and their favorite team. He is going a "little" crazy not being able to watch the games.....oh the sacrifices!! :)

Hey family,
Sorry family I don't have much time this week to write. We are going fishing today for our p day so we have allot of things to do but this week has been really good we have been teaching allot of investigators and have been trying to find new investigators to teach so we have done allot of finding this week. It's not always the funnest thing to do but you know its something you have to do, just like life there are things we have to do that aren't fun or maybe boring but they are necessary to do!

This week we met a new kid he is about 20 years old. He is from Fresno but he just moved up here and he wanted us to come back and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon!! but after we had met him we told him that we were going to the hmong village... its like a mall type thing where its nothing but Hmong stores and food so we went there and ate and he walked in and sat with us while we ate. It was funny and then he followed us back to our bikes and we told him we had to go!! He called us later that night and asked us if we got home safely. He is like our new best friend it's really funny. He calls us like 3 times a day!! We call him our boyfriend now cause he is like obsessed with us. It was really funny.... we also met a couple families that we think have allot of potential in baptism so I'm excited to see what happens.

This Sunday was really cool, I got to call home and talk to the family and grandma and grandpa!! it's so good to hear all their voices and excited to hear all about them!!

Next Monday is transfer calls so we will see what happens!! I have some really cool pictures that I'll send next week cause I don't have much time today but there really cool!! Thank you for all of you that write me thanks Uncle Randy and your family and grandma and grandpa for all your letters and all my cousins! they really mean allot to me and it sounds like all of you are just having a blast!!! hope you all have a great week and I love you all so very much.

Love always,

Elder Crandall

P.S Us 6 hmong Elders are recording a CD in hmong so I'll send a copy home when we finish it. It's going to be sweet!!! Also Hunter I'm sending you some hmong music, its really cool. I hear it when I walk into stores or in peoples houses!! oh and there's hmong rap. It's funny but yea love you all!!
OH AND GOOOOOOOOOOO HEAT!!!!! LJ all day!!

                                                                Elder Kelby Crandall

                                                                    Fishing Day

May 7. 2012

Dear family!!

Wow another week has gone by how crazy is that!!!! Time is flying by I can't believe it.

Well today marks the day I have officially been out 5 months now time is going by to fast for me I think.... I don't know about you guys but it has gone by really fast for me!!
This week has been good. I had exchanges with my district leader, he goes home in like 2 and a half weeks crazy! but it was a great exchange. I went to Minneapolis with him it was really cool! There are allot of cool people in Minneapolis I met so many green hmong people there... so those of you who don't know what green Hmong is, it is a different dialect of hmong which I will have to learn sometime, but right now I'm learning white hmong and then there is green Hmong, its kinda like Spanish and Portuguese so like the people that are green hmong can understand what we are saying to them but I can't hardly understand anything they say to me so it's a little different but it sounds really cool!!
Well I just sent home allot of pictures... it is getting really green here. We have had so much rain in the past 3 days. We have had 4.25 inches of rain, in fact so much rain it makes it really hard cause we get soaking wet and then no one wants to let us in because we are so wet.. ha ha.
This week we got my Cinco de Mayo package and man that was really cool and funny ha ha!! we had some fun with it!! There are some pictures from it! We recorded it to but I can't send a video through the email so you'll have to wait till I send my memory card home!! but this week we met this family. They have been here for 7 years. I think? It was me and Elder Mearns, we started speaking hmong to them and they were so shocked that we could speak it and everyone in there family was standing at the door listening to us cause they were amazed that two white guys could speak it..
Thank you all for the letters they really mean allot to me and have helped me with all your advice!!

MAN I CAN'T BELIEVE GARE BEAR IS BAPTIZED NOW!! I so wish I could have been there! I got his baptism invitation he looks really fly ha ha!! I miss the Dunns allot and their kids they mean allot to me!! I especially miss little kyle he is the cutest thing in the world!!

Anyway.... the exchanges went well and I have learned allot from it Elder Lo is a really great missionary and has a powerful testimony!! allot of the missionaries that are going home pretty soon are all going to BYU in the fall so look out for them.... there will be Elder Lo (Samuel Lo and Elder Mearns) but this week we taught the family that we baptized a month or so ago and he was telling us stories of back in Laos they are really crazy stories. He is such a great man and how the lord has prepared him is absolutely insane! short story about him is when he was over there he fought in the civil war back in Laos and he told us that there were so many dead bodies in the streets of the cities and that they had to plow them with tractors because there wasn't enough dirt to bury them! He said he was sometimes the only one that was still alive in his group!! He was put in a prisoner of war camp there and there were 500 people there with him. They opened the gates of it and told them they were free but they all started running and they started shooting and killed all 500 of them except him and the two men he was holding hands with. It is really crazy how he didn't die and how the Lord has prepared him to do his work..

That's about it for my week. I love you all and wish you all a good week!

Love always,

                                                  
                                                                          DRENCHED!!

                                                                     Servants of God!

                                                               Cinco de Mayo package

                                                 Goodies for the Cinco de Mayo package

April 30, 2012

Hey family..

Well lets see.... this week has been pretty good, allot of frustrating moments but really good ones to its crazy how emotional a mission really is and how tired I am but how happy I am!
Well lets see the weather man told us that in the Twin City's area that there is very good chance of a tornado tomorrow so who knows. It rains allot here and it's so green and beautiful I got some pics!! but for this week we have been doing allot of finding lately trying to find new people to teach and just keep the work going. The hmong branch we go to is pretty small, only about 112 average on a Sunday so its allot different from home ha ha!!
This week we had specialized training where President Clements comes and gives a training.... oh and Sister Clements, its was really good!! He interviews us there.... it's always a good time when you see President and the AP's. The AP's are really cool I really like one of them. He played basketball for Mt. View really cool guy!! We found out President is taking us to a Twins game in the summer so I'm super pumped for that!! We all wanted to go to the Mall of America but we can't go as missionaries...it's lame! I have seen the Mall twice and it's the biggest thing ever..... it's insane. Markel and all you girls don't come here you will spend all your money.. We found out that there was a pack of wolves in the parking lot of the Mall of America it's so weird that there is wildlife in the middle of the city!!
I'm going to the temple next Thursday so if I see the Temple President I will talk to him. We are going because we are taking our investigators there and President Clements is going to talk so it should be a cool experience..
Lets see this week I'm going on exchanges with my district leader in Minneapolis.. I really love exchanges I came to realize that so many miracles happen on exchanges they're really fun and Minneapolis is a cool city.. This week me and Elder Mearns had a photo shoot so I'll send some pics of that ha ha it's really funny!
I love all the old hmong ladies they are so nice and really funny. This week in church an old hmong lady yelled in sacrament meeting because she was correcting the speaker in his hmong it was really funny I laughed so hard ha ha!! One miracle I have seen was that we got this less active girl coming back to church this week, it was her first time back to church in 6 years it was really cool to see!!
The time is going by so fast and so quickly it's insane where all the time goes. I found my new favorite food mother!! it's called pho... it's that picture I sent you last week. It's so good you all will have to try it, it's a Vietnamese food.
I have been doing great and I thank you all for the support and love you have given to me. You all are in my prayers and my heart. I love you all.

Love always,
Elder Crandall

P.S. Grandpa there is an Elder out here his name is Elder Truman and he is from Enterprise. I asked him if he knew Truce Truman and he said he kinda did but wasn't sure so its pretty cool I'll have to talk to him more about it. Sorry guys my camera just died so i will send them next week!

                                     

                                                                     Beautiful and Green

                                                                                      

                                                         Elder Mearns and Elder Crandall

                                                   One of the 10,000 Lakes of Minnesota

                                                                     Thunder Clouds

                                                                             Kelb

Elder Mearns and Kelby

                                                        Pho (Kelby LOVES this dish)

April 23, 2012

Hey everyone..
Well another week has passed. Its been a really good week and has been really fun..
Lets see here, first off we played sports last Monday for 5 hours and me and Elder Mearns were way tired and we had to bike 10 miles after that so it was a pretty long day but a good P day!!
This week I went on exchanges with the District Leaders companion over in Minneapolis, it was my first time in Minneapolis so I was really excited!! Exchanges are really cool. I seem to find that allot of miracles happen when your on exchanges....let me tell you, so we got to Minneapolis after district meeting.. district meeting was great talking about how we the members are the rock of Christ and Heleman 5:12. We have been working on getting the members involved in the branch because they don't really talk to each other, they just come to church and go home so there's not much fellowship in the branch. We have been working on that goal as a district lately.. so I went to Minneapolis as I was saying, and me and Elder LY had two lessons that night, one was with a 20 year old girl she is really cool and they're trying to get her baptized and stuff.... she is just waiting on an answer to her prayers so we taught her about prayer. The lesson went really well!!! After that we taught an old lady and her daughter, that lesson was all in hmong so it was fun.... I guess ha ha but we had a member come with us and we (they) talked forever! We are supposed to be in at 930 at night but we didn't get back to our apt till like 1015 that night it was pretty funny.. The next day we went tracking and it was going pretty bad no one wanted to talk but we had a feeling to knock on this house, we went up there and knocked three times and no one answered so we were about to leave and I decided to knock one more time and a man came down the stairs and opened the door, it was a family that just moved here from Thailand 1 year ago so they are really new. They had no Christian background didn't know who God or Christ was so we taught them and they we very interested and I think now the Elders have almost got a date set with them!! There was one very important lesson I learned in that experience... to be persistent in our work, don't give up as easily and follow the prompting from the spirit...
Thank you all for everything you do!! oh and while I was in Minneapolis my companion and the DL were in my area and they found a new investigator that committed to baptism the 26th of May in the very first meeting.... its crazy how people are prepared for us. Its been an amazing week!
On Sunday I think I spoke the most hmong I have ever spoken. I gave the prayer in Sacrament meeting, then we found out during Sacrament meeting that we had to teach the Gospel Principals class....that was an interesting experience! then in Priesthood I had to translate for an old guy. So it was interesting....I had a major head ache after though ha ha but it was a good day and I realized I know more than I thought and could do more than I thought!!

I love you all and thank you all for the support and I surely miss you all!!

Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks hope you enjoy!!
Love
Elder Crandall

P.S Everyone go to Mormon.org and look at the father of the families profile that I baptized....  Xia Xeng Lor
http://mormon.org/me/8SBZ/XiaXengLor/

April 16, 2012

Hello my fellow family beings!!
Wow this week has flown by, its been crazy and has been a good week.

We started of the week kinda slow, allot of our appointments keep falling through it was very frustrating but at the end of the week it picked up and turned out to be a great week!!

Now I'm sure your all wondering about the weather and yes its been pretty good up here except for the past couple days have been rainy and actually this morning it started to snow so it was kinda dumb but it stopped now and is just very cold.
On about Thursday we had this investigator that the missionaries have been working with for about 9 months. He has a Word of Wisdom problem. He is about 20 years old he is a really good kid and has such a big heart, he just can't seem to get over his addictions. But anyways we took him to the addiction recovery program the church does. They do it at the Stake Center here. It's about 20 min away from us so we had to get permission from President Clements but when we were going over there with our investigator he was really nervous and didn't want to go it was kinda funny, so we said a prayer before we went in. It was really good and when we got out he yelled, "that was amazing"!! So it was really cool to see him want to change and make some steps for changing. Since we have been working with him he has been sober for 3 week..... really cool ! That night when we got home from that it was about 9:30 at night and we got a text and it tells me that they wanted me to speak in Sacrament on Sunday in Hmong! I was like.... oh great I only have two day to prepare a talk and translate it all into Hmong.... it was really stressful!! lets just say that at the least!! So Sunday comes rolling around and I'm giving my talk and it went really well..... everyone told me I did a good job so it was really good! They said they could actually understand me ha ha.

So its been pretty crazy week!! oh then after church we went out tracking cause we were suppose to go to a fireside where President was speaking and our investigator bailed on us so we went tracking and it rained so so hard...I got so wet!! It was the hardest rain fall I have ever seen it was insane!! I'll send some pictures!! it was fun though watching the storm come in and then it just pounded us with rain!

We have met some really cool people this week and I'm so excited to keep going with the work!! Our apartment is really fun with us four Elders in it we have some fun times!! Anyway they do have tornadoes here in Minnesota... we haven't seen one yet but President Clements sent out a text on Friday that said we had an 85 percent chance of tornado this weekend but we didn't get one so that's good!! I think President is preparing us because he thinks this tornado season is going to be pretty bad up here... so it should be interesting!! Everyone in our apartment thinks that we are going to get hit hard because Minnesota is starting to vote on gay marriage and stuff like the California Prop 8! So we think God is going to punish the people of Minnesota! pretty crazy but we will see what happens!

There are allot of pretty lakes up here and its really beautiful here.... its awesome!

Thanks to you all for all your letters and support. I love you all and don't know what I would do without my wonderful family. Thanks for everything you do. I love you all

Love always
Elder Crandall
P.S. I will send you my talk so you can scrapbook it mother ha ha!!

April 9, 2012

Hey family this week has been so great.... its been awesome!!
First off we taught a girl that is less active and her mom that is still old culture which means shamanism so yea but her mom seems really interested in the church, its really cool she made us these things that they hand sew. Its really amazing, I'll probably send them home so you all can see them they're really cool and its amazing how much time it takes them to make them and how cheap they sell them for!

But from Wednesday to Thursday I went on exchanges with my district leader Elder Lo. He is from Sacramento. He is native hmong and one of the hardest working missionaries from what I can see. Before this transfer he was AP for a couple transfers and is a really good guy! He came to my area and I had to navigate around and do all the appointments and everything. I was a little nervous but it went really well. We talked to everyone and we met a guy that believed that aliens were going to come down and give us all the elixir of eternal life... it was really funny! And then we met an Atheist that was arguing with us and it was also really funny. He told us we were wasting our time cause there is no God and stuff like that and we were like.... no we know there is a god and it got kinda intense so we just left!

We found allot of hmong people in the two days. We had found 9 new people to contact, it was really cool.

My hmong is getting better I can actually get a contact from them and stuff. Its been going good! Then from Friday to Saturday we went on exchanges with the AP's that was really cool doing English work and stuff. It was really different but was a great experience!! The AP's are so cool and such great missionaries its was a really great experience. The AP I was with is name Elder dawrimpl. He is from Orem and a really cool kid. He plays basketball.. he told me how impressed he was with me for being so new and being such a great teacher and catching on to things so fast!! It was a really good experience! Easter Sunday was really good it was like another Sunday in the field but I got allot of support from you all back home!! Its been so much fun out here and I'm loving it!! when I was on exchanges with the AP's we saw this old guy about 60 or 65 and they call him (name withheld) cause he is a member but he smokes and stuff but he is a good guy he was like are you a new missionary and I was like yes and than he was like have your ever heard the word and then said the F word and I was like what the heck.....I was so shocked and didn't know what to do but it was a great experience!! so yea my weeks been great! Today was transfer calls and all the Elders in my apartment were freaking out but no one changed so they were all happy it was really funny.

Thank you all for the support and love. I hope everyone is doing great. Love you all!

Elder Crandall

April 2, 2012

I also received a personal letter from Kelb. He is doing great but has some struggles and challenges that he is trying to overcome. Please keep him in your prayers! I am just so grateful he is BUSY BUSY doing the Lord's work with no time to worry! MY PRAYER'S ARE CERTAINLY BEING ANSWERED!
Love you all!



Wow, this week has probably been the craziest week of all my weeks here on my mission! Its been super intense and really fun... actually but its been allot of very, very hard work. I think I hate each morning more and more since I have to get up so early! I always hate getting up....I'm not a morning person that's for sure but that's okay you got to do what you got to do!!
Anyway I'm so grateful for all your support and letters this week. I really enjoy reading all your letters and everything!! Sorry I don't ever have much time to write you all back but please know I do love you all and wish the best for you all!!
So first off this week, on Tuesday me and my companion were doing companion study in the morning and we got a call from one of our investigators Mark, he told us that he needed our help cause his friend Ze... which is another of our investigators was in the hospital and his roommate got them evicted out of their house cause he broke in and stuff but we went and moved all his stuff out with him and the cops came and it was really crazy! They were like "who are you guys"? and my companion was like "oh we're just the missionaries"! ha it was fun.. but then on Wednesday we had district meeting and after district meeting my companion went on exchanges to Minneapolis and I had to take over the area for 2 days....I was so scared cause I'm as good at hmong as everyone else but I didn't really know our area fully! So I was just really nervous and scared. I prayed long and hard and overall the exchange went really well I surprisingly knew more than I though I did and I didn't get lost ha ha! We picked up 2 new investigators and had great lessons with some people but on Thursday one of the people from the Mission Home called us and told me that I needed to go down to the apartment mangers office and so me and Elder Ly went down and they told us that we had to have some other missionaries that signed the lease come and live there cause we were breaking the lease and stuff and if not then we were being evicted ourselves out of the apartment and we had to be out by today at 12.... so it's been a long week moving everything. We moved in with the other hmong Elders.... Elder Lor and Elder Abbott. Its cool though, we are the only 4 Elder apartment in the mission and have had allot of fun. We just barley moved everything all out and are done it's been really stressful but I'm excited to live with two other Elders also!!
So its been pretty crazy over here this week! but this General Conference was great! It was probably the best one I have ever heard cause I was paying attention to it unlike other times!! But I really had some questions to be answered and just was going through some struggles and it always brings me much comfort and joy listening to our prophet and his apostles!
Oh one thing I forgot to mention is that we have to bike 5 miles just to get to our area then go to all of our area from there so its going to be allot of biking!! At least 10 miles a day for a minimum but most likely 15-20 miles a day.. I have so much love for every single one of you and am so thankful for your support and love! It means so much to me and I cant express how grateful I am for you all!! I'm so grateful for my grandparents. I have heard stories that I have never heard and it gives me the motivation to be a fully concentrated missionary. I would like to challenge all of you as I am doing.... so every other transfer starting on the one that's about to start I think in the middle of April I am going to read the Book of Mormon its about 6 pages a day. I would love for all of my loved ones and family to join with me!! It will start a week from today I think!
That was my crazy week! This week I'm going on exchanges with my district leader then going to the mission home after that and going on exchanges with the AP's so I'm really excited for that. I will let you know how it goes!

Love you all and thank you for all the support and love!

Love always,
Elder Crandall

                                                       Studying hard at the Laundry Mat!

                                                                  Sleeping Arrangement

                                                                         Study Area

                                   Elder Lor and Elder Abbott teaching "I am a Child of God"

                                                                       SHOPPING     

                                                                          The Crew

March 26, 2012

Hey family!!
My week went really good I had my first baptism this week! It went great a family of seven. They don't speak English to well but it went really really good I was really happy for them and they are such a great family!!
This week is general conference and I'm really excited for that and preparing myself for that. I can't wait, we have a wedding to go to on Saturday and the mom wanted us to sing 5 songs in hmong at the wedding so that should be interesting. Me and 6 hmong Elders are doing it.
It was good this week, we had allot of success and have been enjoying it allot I cant wait to come home and tell you all my stories and everything. I love it so much. I am learning everyday and am growing in the gospel everyday. I hope everything is going great back in your homes I'm so thankful for all your support and love you, you guys mean allot to me! I know that this is not going to be easy and I'm ready for the challenges that come towards me! The hmong people are so so nice and loving and caring I love that about them. They are really humble and are not that wealthy so its really awesome to see them come unto Christ with there faith and what little they have!!
The language is coming along... it's really hard and is really stressful sometime but i'll get a hang of it.. right??!! It just comes with time and practice. All the missionaries are really great here they are so uplifting and cheerful I really look up to them and all my friends on missions now it's been a great experience so far and I'm ready for more. We are working with allot of people and all of them are so awesome and I just can't explain how great these people are! Sorry I have not much time it's been great I love you all and thank you so so much.

Love always,
Elder crandall

                                                                   First Baptisms

March 19, 2012

Hey everyone...
Everything out in Minnesota is going great. I'm loving it. The weather has been great but one thing is I only have one short sleeve shirt and its a killer in all these long sleeve shirts ha ha but its been great I experienced my first Hmong food this week and man its good but I'm sure I ate chicken intestine and lets just say they use the whole chicken haha. The food is great and they feed you so so much. They tell you to keep eating and eating and eating its crazy but our family that we have been teaching just got interviewed for there baptisms so its very exciting there are 7 of them and this week we got two more people to commit to a baptismal date. Its cool! We have 9 people now preparing to be baptized the area is going great I'm picking up on Hmong easier. I can understand it more but its still way hard! Its awesome though, I'm trying my best and living everyday without regrets!! It was a little hard for me cause I'm quiet to talk to everyone we see but I'm getting over that fear now...I know crazy right mom!! ha ha
Anyways, my district is awesome the ward is so great it's only about 100 people though, way different from back home and the kid from Paragonah is in my district I see him allot... it's cool he says he knows Curtis and Lindas family! His name is Elder Abbott!
Me and my companion get along well together. We have some differences but we are doing great!!! The work is moving right along and we are excited!! Translating in church is so so hard! Man it's a stress but that's what you get if your a missionary I guess.
Oh dad look up on the computer. Our address is in St. Paul it's down town. The streets are Rice St and Marion street our apartments are called Commo Apt so yea!! The area is ghetto everyone yells at us. There are allot of black people here it's funny everyone was drunk on St. Patrick's Day ha... but so many people say " Hi Mormons" and stuff like that we have gotten "the bird" a couple times and everything like that! Man its funny, there is this 20 year old kid we are teaching he is such a great kid I really like him, he has such a big heart and willingness to change it's awesome I love it! It's crazy how the Lord prepares people to be baptized or hear the gospel. We got a call the other day from a random hmong lady and she wants us to come teach her I guess she first got contacted like 9 months ago and she is now just calling us so we are super excited about that Im loving it here and have been grateful for all your letters they really mean a lot to me! And don't worry aunt mandy i will learn how to cook hmong food!! but anyway its been great week for me how about for all of you??
I hope you are enjoying life and god bless you all!!

Here are some pictures of a instrument Hmong people make themselves out of bamboo its crazy and some Hmong food and st paul

Love,
Elder Crandall

                                                                    Kelby First District

                                                          Man playing Hmong instrument

                                                                           St. Paul

                                                                         St. Paul

                                                                         Hmong Food

March 12, 2012

No big shocker that my boy gets hungry at night!! The kid is EXACTLY like his Uncle Shawn that has to eat at all hours of the night! THANK GOODNESS his dad is a Nabisco Rep. and can hook him up! I'm sure what he is REALLY hungry for is his midnight Beto's runs with Hunter, Connor, and the boys!! :)

Just another reminder too. We got word from Kelby's Mission President Friday with a reminder that ONLY Clay and I are allowed to email him UNTIL Hunter leaves on his mission and then he will be allowed to use the email to communicate with him.
It isn't to alienate him but he only has about 45 minutes a week to be on the email and he has to write his family, his mission president, and do all his reports. He just doesn't have time. Please continue to support him through letters and if there is anything you need emailed please don't hesitate to send it to me and I will pass it along.
DearElder.com is a fantastic way to write him letters.... Use it! :)

Hey family,
I got your letters this week, thank you for them all they really mean allot to me. I love hearing how everyone is doing and I love hearing how life is back in Utah!! and yes Aunt Mandy, I will learn how to make hmong food so I can show you guys all that I eat and how tasty it is!! This week I had a big huge bowl of faum (fuh) its really good it's like a big bowl of noodles with meat and other spices in it, usually in beef broth or chicken broth!!

So this week has gone by really fast, I don't know why but I feel that my mission is just going to fly by it's crazy how fast time goes by! This week we taught our family of 7 that is getting baptized on 24th of March. They're an awesome family. I don't understand much of what they say or anything like that but they are really dedicated we have a total of 8 date sets for baptism. I committed another person named Mark to baptism the other day it was cool experience.

I really enjoy the area and everything!! oh and yes there are tornadoes here! haven't had one yet but the tornado sirens went off the other day and I had no idea what it was! My companion told me but there was no tornado they were just testing them and stuff!! This week had been good..... cold some days... then like 60 degrees the next kinda weird!

A really cool experience I had this week was we taught this kid named Vang Lee last week and he is the only member in his family. He wants to serve a mission but his parents told him they wouldn't support him through it and that he needs to just go to school and stuff so we had him set some goals and had him pray every day that he knew what he was supposed to do so the week went by and we went and stopped by his house on Friday. I guess his mom called him up on Wednesday and told him if he moved back and lived with her that she would help him on his mission.... really cool! We couldn't call him or anything cause his parents blocked our number so he couldn't talk to us but we are really excited about that! It's awesome to see the Lord work in other peoples life's and how the blessing of my mission are affecting everyone!!

This week has been good..... and hard. On Sunday, yesterday, I had to translate for Stake Conference, and all I can say is HOLY CRAP! it's super hard and I don't know any of the language ha ha but all the old hmong ladies came up to me after and told me "vajtswv foom koob hmoob rau kof kawm hais lub hmong", which means "let God bless you to learn hmong and speak it".... kinda funny!! they're really nice and really understanding which is awesome I just want to know the language already and know what people are saying to me and everything but I know it comes through time,hard work, and dedication.

I'm having a blast! My area is really ghetto but awesome!! We are always talking to drunk people or something ha ha!! I'm in down town St. Paul.. St. Paul is a bit dirty and gross but it's awesome they have a huge capital building and a crazy big and huge Catholic Cathedral. There is a gold cross on top of it that cost 1.4 million dollars... crazy!

The only thing I am really struggling with is I get so hungry at night but there is nothing to eat cause we have to save money and buy just for our meal!! That's the only bad thing! Everything else is going great!! I love it, I cant wait to get home and share all my experiences I have had and will have.

Have a great week!

Love always,
Elder Crandall (tswv feej)