October 29, 2013

Wow this week has gone by really fast for me! I don't know why but its been a quick one that's for sure.

It is also getting COLD here which is not to great ha ha just kidding.... its usually 40 degrees or in the 30's so it's getting down there. Its been a wonderful week though on Saturday we had an Elders Quorum activity where we played football and they cooked Talapia fish and we had sticky rice. It was okay, I'm just not a fan of fish that's for sure. Anyways, they put me and Elder Abbott on opposite teams because we were the two white people ha ha, but I was QB most the time... yea y'all can just call me Tom Brady!! Just kidding ha ha but it was really fun and I am super sore from it!! I got out of bed on Sunday and today and I can barley walk ha ha!!

So we had some cool experiences this week... as well as some not good ones. Our date set dropped us and her parents don't want us meeting with her anymore so it was really sad but we just keep moving on... President Clements encouraged us to do service for the investigators and members of the ward, so we took that in and did about 8 hours of service this week raking leaves. There are so many leaves here that's for sure ha ha but its good to do service. 

So just last night we taught a really cool lesson to a former investigator and we had no gas left in our car.... like it was empty and we were worried about making it home and so we said a prayer and it was the craziest experience ever. We were about 8 miles from home and every time we go home from this place we usually hit allot of red lights, but this time every time we got to a light it was green! It was an answer to our prayers that's for sure. We got home with enough gas. We actually went over the miles that our gas things said we had left.

We have picked up two new investigators this week who we are really excited to work with and they're both older people. We are so excited they are really interested in the gospel and doing what God wants them to do.

We are preparing for Mission Conference on November 13. Someone from the 70's will be coming so I'm excited for that!! This past Tuesday we had interviews with President... it was a good time! He told us that we will be getting 3 new Hmong Elders in January so to start preparing for them. We are excited!! That will put us up to 8 Hmong Elders once they come.

Many of you are have wondered what I'm doing for my birthday on the 3rd.....they have a big Hmong New Year's celebration and it's held in the Metro Dome where the Vikings play so I'm excited for that! They hold two of them and the other one will be the 23 or 24 November. That one is in St. Paul.... it's bigger than the one we are going to be going to here on my birthday. We have allot going on in November. Mission Conference, and two Hmong New Year's Celebrations!!! 

My mission has been so great and I don't really see how I have changed but I feel others have! I will be 20 on Saturday and everyone tells me I have to be an adult! I don't feel like I'm an adult or even close to being a adult haha like my parents, uncles and aunts and grandparents who have taught me so well. I hope one day I will be like you all. 

My mission has changed my life that's for sure and its brought me closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior. I know that missions are the best thing in the world and that all my cousins and the people who may read this, if they are deciding whether or not to go on one... I CAN TELL YOU RIGHT NOW THAT YOU NEED TO GO ON ONE! 

I LOVE YOU ALL and have a great week!

Love, 
Elder Crandall

October 22,2012

This week has been a good one we taught allot and overall had a great week, lets see this week has been pretty cool and its starting to get cold out here we have had to ride are bikes a little bit to and man at night it got pretty cold but it has been good. It is usually about 50 degrees on average so not too cold but colder than it has been.

This week we I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Thao who was my companion when I was in St. Paul. It was a really good exchange we get along very well and he is a great missionary who has gone through some difficult times! He was born in Thailand and moved to Wisconsin from there. He is a very funny person, he really opens up to me and we always have good talks, I try and help him too and understand him we had a great time. Here is just one experience we had.
  So we were teaching this older lady and her husband they're about 60 or so and one of the ladies friends who was actually the pastors wife at the church they attend, but as we shared the restoration with our investigator and her husband the pastors wife was asking us all these questions and we were politely answering them and than we ask our investigators to be baptized.  It was super bold by Elder Thao!!  I thought the pastors wife would be offended  but she just sat there and listened to us. It was really cool as she didn't say anything it was like God was constraining her to not say anything. It was a good time!

I came to realize how much people look at us and things like that, on this exchange Elder Thao told me how he appreciated when we worked together because I always looked for the good in him and helped him with whatever it was and that I was really open with him. He really enjoyed the time we had together and it just made me think how much people look at us..

 So this week was President's fireside where we take investigators to the mission home and people that recently got baptized share their testimonies it was a very spiritual experience and our investigator grew allot from it! She said that she loved it and was really touched by the testimonies and its been cool to see her grow from when we first found her. She had no idea who God was as she was raised Shaman so it's been cool to see her testimony develop as well.

Also on Sunday we got a new Branch President, he is a really nice guy with a nice family and has a very strong determination to help our Branch grow. Its been really cool to see the process and we are excited to help and work with him and have him in our Branch!

Its been a great week here. I hope everyone's week goes well and love you all!

Love,

Elder Crandall

PS. Here are some pictures of President's fireside and other things.

October 15, 2012

Nyob zoo,
Well this week was a challenging week, but it also was a week where we have learned to endure our trials!!
It wasn't the best week.... we had about 10 lessons planned for 3 days and they all fell through!! It was really frustrating but has been a good experience to learn how to have more faith and endure.

A cool things we had this week was the branch Halloween Party. It was really good and allot of people came both non-members and members so it was a great opportunity for us missionaries too. We had a booth of our own and we had 2 litter bottles and went and bought some little pumpkins and played bowling with them it was fun. I think everyone like our booth the best.. :) there was always a constant line of kids there and we had fun with them.

I have really grown to love the people in this branch. The kids and adults...everyone! They're are the nicest people I have ever met in my life!! They come from a background of persecution and poverty over in Thailand and Laos and yet they are the most humble and giving people I know! They are so willing to help you out and would give you the clothes off their backs for you. That was a highlight of the week! we got to know the members better and had a great time.

This week in my spare time I have been reading some of the genealogy my mom sent me. Its been so much fun learning and looking at how they lived there lives.  Grandpa and Grandma Waite were some amazing people. I just wished I had the opportunity to meet them. I'm grateful to read about them though and learn more about them and ways that I can become better and have more faith like them. I can see the kind of people they are through Grandma Hunt and my mom also, my uncles and aunts they have touched many hearts and their examples have carried on through out the generations. My biggest desire is to meet them. I want to so bad but it takes patience and time and one day I WILL meet them! 
I thought it was funny how Grandma Waite said that Grandma Hunt wasn't the cutest baby, but I don't agree with that... cause how did I get all my good looks??? Maybe from my Grandpa Hunt....?? I don't know though ha ha!!

Well its been a long week but a great one! Its always great when your a servant of the Lord.

I love you all and hope you all have a beautiful week and keep working hard and doing your duties as members of this church, love you all.
Love 
Elder Crandall,
     

October 8, 2012

Dear family,
Wow first of all... how about that announcement in conference i was stunned but the satellite system wasn't working at the church so we missed the first 20 min and the announcement!! It came on right as Elder Cook talked and we were like what happened? ha ha but it was awesome finding out. I think I am most excited to hear where my two siblings will be going and that they are putting there papers in on the same day... how cool is that!! That is the coolest experience I think! I know they will never forget the experience. 

This conference was absolutely amazing though. It was allot of revelation and answers to my prayers that's for sure. They talked allot about family history and its been on my mind allot lately and it just testified that when I get home to be involved in my family history. I am excited for that and ready!
  
So my favorite talk of the whole conference was Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the Saturday morning session about happiness and having no regrets in life! Just as all my uncles say to me in every letter "NO REGRETS" It has reminded me of them and I'm grateful for their words and their willingness to write to me! I love how he said: "we need to learn how to live life to be happy and we become happy as we fallow our Savior Jesus Christ!
    
One of my favorite quotes is by President Abraham Lincoln he says: "and in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it is the life in your years". how true is that statement! Are we living life by the year or are we living life by the experiences and blessing we receive each day and each year! I have found that true happiness has come from fallowing the Savior and his counsel to serve to be humble and most of all to have Faith, Hope, And Charity. Just as Moroni teaches us without these three attributes we can not enter into the kingdom of God. This past week I have study these in depth and have ponder and prayed allot about them I know that charity is the pathway to happiness and will allow us to enter into Gods kingdom. I encourage all of you to gain and have charity in your daily lives, because I know this world needs more of it as it gets more and more wicked.

This past week I was on exchanges pretty much all week. It has been great and has really been a blessing. I went on exchanges with my zone leader and it was the best exchange ever and I learned allot from him and just had the best time bonding and helping one another. That's what we are supposed to do... help one another! Anyway I also went on exchanges with a brand new missionary who has only been out a week. He came to my area and probably didn't understand anything but it taught me humility and that we can learn from anyone regardless of age!

I'm grateful my family and Elder Abbott's family had the chance to meet some people from the mission and I'm really grateful for the people in my mission, especially Elder Mearns! He is an amazing person and I look up to him allot.

I hope you all have a great week.

Love always, 
Elder Crandall

Pa,Cindy,Yer,Sister & Borther Gardner, Taylor Mearns,Dustin Belliston&sisters, Grandma Hunt, Mom, Sister Abbott, Hunter, Dad,Markel,Clayci,Lindsay,Aleah.

Minnesota friends! 

      

October 1. 2012

Dear family!!
This week has just gone by so fast, I remember when I got my call and in the MTC I thought... "man 2 years is so long"! But now it's going by to fast and its not fair. 

This week has been really good, we set a date with this young lady that we met about 14 days ago. She has came to church twice now and we are super excited for her! She is really interested in the gospel and God. She doesn't know much about God because she was raised shamanism but she knows that God can help her as well. The cool thing his her baptismal date is November 3rd which indeed is my birthday!! so I'm excited for that!! We are finding new people everyday and we are teaching people everyday! and the work is going pretty well!!

So the 3 YSA girls from up here will be going to either our house or grandmas house for dinner with the family this week. They are are going to General Conference and my trainer Elder Mearns will be there as well. I'm super excited for you all to meet them and hope you have a great time!! Elder Mearns is such a awesome person. I really admire and look up to him!!

This week we went to Bloomington to the mission home for a special meeting on an upcoming event that will be happening up here. Singer Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices Choir is performing at a fireside up here. It's for non members and less active members. It has been really successful from what I hear. In Texas after the fireside and because of the fireside there were 70 baptism from it. We are excited to hear some gospel music and the testimony of Gladys Knight! We have allot of investigators going. The tickets are in high demand so we feel lucky we get to go!! We have already seen the effects that it is going to have on our investigators and the people.  Those who are attending are excited for it!!

 

This week has been a pretty normal week for us just doing the work and building our faith in God!!

Right now I'm am studying the Doctrine and Covenants and I'm am just astonished of the things that Joseph Smith received and the things that are in store for all of us faithful saints. I love reading the scriptures and finding new incites to my life trials and ways I can get through them.. The scriptures are the way for us to have happiness in this life and that's why we are all here as 2 Nephi 2:25 says Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy !! Why are we here?? to have joy and to be happy as we follow Christ! and in Alma 27:18 we learn that it's the people who seek for happiness are the people who will receive it. We need to be seeking for happiness, to find joy in the small things! One thing I have learned is to celebrate the little accomplishments because to many times we celebrate the large or big ones and they don't come very often but when we celebrate the little things we accomplish how great is our joy!! 

Anyway I love you all and I hope you all have the most wonderful week and stay happy!!

Love,

Elder Crandall