Well this was a good week.... we didn't have anything new really but there is some exciting news because today was transfers...this morning we were super excited to get the call!! President told me that I will be staying in Minneapolis and be training a new missionary and I'm so excited for this opportunity! I feel real growth will come from this time of my mission and it is going to be great as we learn together. I am also scared to train....it is allot of responsibility as it sets that missionary up for the rest of his mission, and perhaps the rest of his life. 
I am reminded of something that Joseph smith said. He said: " the Lord calls us in our weaknesses but he does qualify us for his work". I am going to be relying on my Heavenly Father every step of the way.
 
Well I'm sure you all heard the news about dad and his broken ankle. I think this will give him time to catch up on basketball and all that good stuff....even his History channel he likes to watch.
 
We were also excited to hear that President is opening up two new hmong areas in Wisconsin that will be half hmong work and half english work, so Elder Ly, my companion is going to Wisconsin and another Elder will be going there as well and all the new missionaries will be trained here in the Twin cities. 

We had a huge ice/ snow storm this week and we couldn't drive that day so we walked about 7 miles helping people.... I was so exhausted after that but it was a great opportunity to do service for others.

There isn't much this week to talk about but next week starts a whole new adventure and a whole new journey as a missionary. I just can't believe how fast time is going by and why is it going so fast?? I want time to slow down so I can stay here longer!!!!
 
The work is going well though and we are picking up new people and are really excited for them. We have many oportunities to find and get new people which is great. I'm excited too as we have a great week planned for the new missionaries and are getting so excited for them.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week


Love,
Elder Crandall

Nyob zoo kuv tsev neeg!!

Nyob zoo kuv tsev neeg, (hello family)
Well this week has been very interesting and very great as well! This week we had Zone Conference and interviews with President Clements which is always great getting some one on one time to talk with him. 

Well First things first...I will start out with the exciting news. So this week as we had interviews I was talking with President Clements and we had a really great talk and stuff about the new missionaries coming in and he asked me this question. "How do you feel as a missionary?" I told him, "I'm doing great! I am here to do whatever God wants me to do President", and he responded saying:"okay good cause you will be training next transfer, so prepare to do that" I was like "oh man!!" I was scared at first but now I'm really excited to do it! I was the only one out of the Hmong Elders he told. In 8 days is transfers so we're all trying to predict transfers and now I know I'm at least training so that's nice but that's the exciting news!!! I will have my first son!!! (for all of you that know missionary term..ha)

As you probably all see on the news how cold it is up here!!!! We got a text from President yesterday saying to be careful because the temperature is supposed to be  -30 to -40 this week.  Yesterday it was -25 and it was so cold, you would spit on the ground and it would be frozen in like 3 seconds! So it was really interesting because I never knew what cold was like until now! ha ha. It's always a great experience though.

So this week was a little nerve racking as well! Our investigator who has a date set right now... we didn't teach him once this week. We stopped by his house and tried calling him but we could not get in contact with him. We were really worried about that and we went to church and asked our lead member friend if he had contact with him and he said he had talked to him and told us that Fong our investigator had got in a snowboarding accident and got knocked out and broke some ribs. We were a little bit happier that he had a good excuse for not being in contact with us, :) the cool thing was though that on Sunday we asked our lead member friend if he was willing to call Fong and see if he wanted to come to the fireside in which Keith Hamilton spoke. He came out from Utah and is a convert and also a good friend of Pres. Clements. Fong said he would because he felt bad he hadn't contacted us this whole week, and we were like its okay if your sore and don't feel like it.....  but he insisted on coming so he came he really enjoyed it and loved it! He is a great guy, full of love and he is really sincere. I'm so excited to keep teaching him.

We also had a really cool miracle this week as well. We have been teaching this young lady she is 18 and her dad is really really strict on letting her do things, so it's hard for her to get to church and come to activities but we decided to fast with her, us (missionaries) and some members, and so we fasted Saturday night to Sunday lunch and we fasted for God to open a way or path for her to come to church and to follow her desires. We ended the fast with a prayer all together on a conference call and right after we hung up she called us back and said that her sister was selling egg rolls and wanted to know if we wanted to buy some? We said "sure" and so we went over to her sisters house and we started talking and she asked us a few questions about missionaries because she is currently attending a different church and she was really interested in what we teach. We wanted to share a message with her then, but she was busy and so we have an appointment to teach our investigator and her older sister! We believe that this is the way that God has given to us to help her and her sister come unto him in the fullest. I was truly a miracle by fasting and prayer.

This zone conference President told us all we need to repent and become better missionaries and we talked allot about conversion as well, I know that daily repentance and mighty prayer to our God is what gains the trust of our Heavenly Father, and after we do that and endure the trials of our faith.... that is when the miracles will happen in our lives. 

This week has been great, I hope you all enjoy these stories.

I also got a email from a good friend K.J Hall he is a great kid and someone who I look up to as well, as he is someone who follows the Savior and is a great example for others! I'm so blessed to have a wonderful family and friends.  

I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Love always,
                -Elder Crandall
           

Hey Family!

Hello family!
How are you all doing? Minnesota is going great. I hope you are all staying warm now that it seems like winter is actually here!! Here in Minnesota its been -10 degrees for the past 3 or 4 days.... it has been bitter cold out tracking but its been a great experience!

One trait I have learned from my mission is your attitude matters!! President Clements trained us on this about 3 months ago.... he said our mission is where we will learn how to be successful in life, if we have a positive attitude we will be successful in life. There is a cool thing that I have learned that I want to share with you all it's the word PACE.
Positive 
Attitude 
Changes
Everything
As we pace ourself in life and apply this to us then we will never have a bad moment. It has been great as I have applied this in my life now and how my views change on everything and how I conduct myself. My favorite talk is the talk President Uchtdorf gave this General Conference "Of Regrets and Resolutions" 
Here in life it's short and we need to cherish every moment. He talks about how we always look at the end of our journey's or whatever we go and we end up missing out on the experience of the journey because we are so focused on the end of it.
 
Anyway just some thoughts I have been thinking about lately. I hope you all live life without regrets. As my uncle's always say "NO REGRETS"!! I really have applied that and I feel like there is no reason for us to regret if we always have a positive attitude and look at the happy moments in life!


The work here is going great. We are finding allot of new people that seem committed and have real potential. I found that as I look at the person as what they can become rather than what they are now, it changes the whole lesson or whatever it may be. We should all take that upon ourselves as Pres. Monson has instructed us to do! I'm so grateful for my mission and the growth and the happiness it brings to me and to other people. I love sharing my testimony about our Savior Jesus Christ and growing closer to him every day.  As we share our testimonies with others our conversion deepens and it's our conversion that sustains us in life's trials. I encourage all of you to deepen your testimony and share it with someone this week, I promise it will help them out and your faith will grow!

We are teaching a man, he is 21.  He is so devoted to Christ. He is currently attending a different church but he is an active seeker.... he came to church yesterday and he loved it. He is the youngest son and he is worried his family won't understand. We compared his circumstance to Nephi and that he will be the tool that will bring his family to the gospel and it solved his concern and he is doing so great! I get along with him really well.... he loves basketball and sports so we talk a little about that! 


It is really funny... we are teaching all YSA aged young women so about in there 20's and all the other missionaries make fun of us and our Branch President..... but it's so weird every house we knock on it is always a young women we meet..... it so weird I don't know why. The work is picking up and we are really excited we have had a great week.

So the 21 year old kid, we shared the Plan of Salvation with him and he just told us "I never have learned about this, nobody at my church teaches anything like this". He has word of wisdom problem but we committed him to live the word of wisdom and he said yes without hesitation he was like, "I know this will help me." i just have really felt so blessed to teach such awesome people and to know such great people I really love the mission and the work that is going on right now. We teach a scriptures study class every Sunday and it has been great. I love teaching to them and teaching in general. I feel I learn so much as I teach. 

I'm grateful for all of you and I really love you all and thank you for the support you have given me so far!

Have a great week and love ya!
                    -Elder Crandall

Hello Family!

Well its been a cold week here but its been really great I had allot of spiritual uplifting experiences this week. The only downfall is I'm catching a cold, so hopefully I get over that quickly!
 
Well first things first.... We went ice fishing on Tuesday and it was really fun... but so bitter cold!! We didn't really catch anything but we played football on the ice though and it was really fun.... the ice was super thick! People had there trucks and stuff out in the middle of the lake. That was a fun part of the week.

We went on two exchanges this week. The first one was on Wednesday with Elder Abbott. He came over here to Minneapolis and we had a great time together! We had a great talk and we stayed up until 12 30 and just talked.... it was fun but I never want to do it again.  I was so tired ha ha but we just talked about how we know that we were called to be hmong missionaries for a reason....because we are usually with the same missionaries all the time, we don't move around much and we create a really special bond with the other hmong missionaries and that we believe that these bonds will last though out our lives and not just the mission. We see the English missionaries always moving around and don't really get allot of time to create that bond so it has been a blessing and we just talked about how we will all be there for each other even after the mission and still have that bond.
 
The next exchange was with our zone leaders. I went with Elder Checketts from Bountiful Utah. He is a really great guy.... we have gone on 2 or 3 exchanges before so it was fun working with him again, he showed me allot of great and useful tips. It was so much fun and I always receive so much revelation when I go with him, its awesome. He taught me a perfect definition for joy....  Joy is knowing that you and God are in an acceptable relationship.....it was a great exchange.


We have recently found this young man he is about 24 and is really awesome! He has such a great desire! When we shared the restoration, the spirit hit him so hard and after we had shared the first vision with him he was just like, "as you where saying that I prayed in my heart to know if it was true, and I believe what you guys are saying is true." So we invited him to baptism and he said yes. We also taught his dad and he said yes to baptism as well! It was awesome they go to a different church and they're like we don't understand what our pastor teaches us but when you guys teach us it makes sense. It was truly a miracle that we taught them this week.
 
Overall great week.... I hope you are all doing well and I hope you enjoy the pictures of ice fishing. 

Have a great week, I love you all!!

-Elder Crandall