Howdy!

Well to start off...I don't really know where to.......... okay... WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS COMING SATURDAY ON MARCH 30TH. We are so so excited her name is Mai Yang she is 24 and I told you all a little bit about her last week it was such a crazy experience how it all played out. We are excited! She will be baptized the same day another girl about her age will. The other missionaries have been teaching the other girl. We are excited for the baptism... now the only part is making sure she is prepared and everything goes smoothly, that is the worst thing about baptisms is that the week before is so stressful but we will manage to get through it!! So I got the pictures of Yer and Cindy and Elder Lo, Elder Belliston, and Elder Gettys... man it make me miss them so much! It was so awesome to get those pictures it made my week!!

 
I just want to talk about my siblings and how wonderful they are and the power and love and examples they are to me! I really enjoyed reading both their letters. I thought it was interesting about Hunters first letter, he seems like he is already an African ha ha... oh man just wait until he gets home.... we are all in for a treat!!
Markel's experiences in the MTC.... it reminds me of mine when I was there..... it is such a sweet experience and I am so grateful she has a wonderful companion.. its shows that the Lord really does know us personally and that he is always watching out for us.. I'm excited for when she gets to Houston too!! She will have a blast. The only down part is they're all in warm places.. and I'm in the freezing cold still!!! ha ha....Minnesota is crazy, the first day of Spring which was on 3/20 the temperature was -2. I mean what the doh man!!! It was so cold I thought Spring is supposed to be warm ha ha! but it's okay we got snow that day too...we are surviving the cold.. I was talking to a older gentlemen the other day and he has lived in Minnesota his whole life and he said that this March is the coldest March that Minnesota has had since 1965.... so it's really cold, but it seems like the sun is coming and the warmth. I never thought 30 degrees would be warm for me ha ha.

This week we had a specialized training from President which was really good. We learned allot. We learned how to use the Book of Mormon more in helping people with their pain and helping them by using the Book of Mormon. 

Allot of good things are happening and we are excited for them.... I hope you all are having a great week as well..I will update you all on the baptism next week.. 
          Love always,
                    Elder Crandall

P.S. enjoy the pictures.

Hey Family!

Hey family, 
Well I have had a great week....Sorry I will send pictures next week for you all to see. It has been a busy week and I hope you all have had a great week.

First things first.... this week we picked up a girl who will be getting baptized here in the next couple weeks she is really awesome! but anyway the story goes like this.. so about 3 months ago we got a referral and we went back  and they didn't answer the door, so we never really went back and so this week we felt impressed to go back and see her and so we did and we found out that she was being taught by the English missionaries and she had a date set but it didn't go through and she kinda dropped them and so we told her to come check out the hmong branch and she said she would... so Sunday comes around and she came to Church and after church she came up to us and we asked her how she liked church and she said that it was great and then she asked us a question... she said "so when can I be baptized?" and I was like "your baptism can be whatever day you want." So this Tuesday we will be going over to her house and setting a date with her in the next couple weeks. It is so cool to see the miracles that are happening now in the mission.
 
This week we are working hard to finish out March Madness and we are hoping to get a baptism for March but if not we will have one for sure in April and so we are really excited. 

This Sunday it was Yer's farewell. It was so great and the spirit was so strong and I was so glad that our investigator was there because it was a very spiritual talk.
  
Well there really isn't much to talk about...... the area is going well and it has been a great week. We are looking forward to a good week! and looking hopefully forward to Spring we got 3 inches of snow today and I am ready for no more snow! 

Well I love you all and hope you all have a great week and expect pictures next week.

Love always, 
 Elder Crandall

Hello Family!

 Well this week has definitely been a good one. We have had a great week and have had a ton of fun this week as well. 

this past week we have been working really hard... we recently picked up an older man who has allot of good questions. First we taught him the Plan of Salvation because he wanted to know where we went after death, because he currently goes to a different church and his church doesn't tell him anything like that. The pastor just goes up and starts talking and that's it so it was really cool. He is really concerned about his salvation and at the end of that lesson he came up with the concern of how does he know which church is the true church? He was confused why there are many churches these days, so it was really cool and we are really excited for him.

Wowwwwwwwwwww!!! looks like the farewell's went really well and it looks like allot of people showed up! It's great to see some pictures of everyone back home and it looks like your all doing really well. I just wished I could have been there to see them but that's okay i'll be there for their homecomings. I feel so blessed to have such a great family and great siblings to look up to and to support me. Also great friends which always support and help me each time I have a trial or challenged placed before me. 
I can't believe they're already going out on there missions.... that means time is winding down for me:(  it has been the best experience I have ever had and I wouldn't trade my mission for anything. I have truly grown to love the hmong people and am so blessed to know them. They are amazing people who I just stand in awe of when I hear their stories and the things that they have gone through.

Pictures of Markel and Hunter's Farewell

 
I think the most important thing I have obtained on my mission is charity and to have Christ like love for everyone. I know before I was a missionary I didn't have charity. I was selfish and it was all about me... but now that my conversion has deepened and that my views have changed in life and I have become a spiritual son of God and I have experience joy everyday of my mission and it is because of charity and because I continue to press forward and serve the Lord. Here is a really cool quote I like and I will leave it with you it is by Elder Worthlin:
"There is one word that frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is LOVE" 
I hope we all will have Christ like love/charity and help each other out through service or whatever it may be.

Love you all, 
        Elder Crandall

Hi family!

Well another week has passed by. I bet all of you are experiencing some warmer weather.. Last week wasn't to bad we were at about 35 degrees one day which was nice and the snow started to melt but we woke up today and it was snowing so we still got winter here ha ha.
 
This week we went on exchange blitz and I got to work with Elder Meyer and Elder Lor. It was super good to work with Elder Lor again. We are finding new people and there are allot of people who we realize are in the middle of religion.... they except everything as truth so they take a little from Buddhism and some Christianity and some from shamanism so it's difficult to tell them that there is only one way and it is through Christ and through this church. I have realized that other religions are good, they just don't have the full truth. I was talking to a Buddhist priest and he was explaining more to me about their religion and stuff and I really like how they meditate and things like that. You know I find some truth in them but it's sad that they don't see that there is a place where they can experience the fullness of the truth which is through this church....so that's some of the struggles, getting people to recognize that.

This week I have had a really cool experience.. so the beginning of this starts out when I was back in the MTC and there were two sisters there that me and my companion were really close to because one of them was native Hmong and she was dating a member in the branch here. She would help us with Hmong and tell me about Minnesota...through the MTC we became really close and great friends.. and just this past week her father passed away which is a terrible thing to have happen while on a mission in Taiwan so she came home early and the funeral was actually up in Wisconsin, in a city about 1 hr from the Twin Cities. She got released actually by the one of the Stake Presidents here in St. Paul and on Sunday she came to the Stake Conference we had and it was the weirdest but coolest feeling in the world. it is weird because when I knew her, I didn't know hmong ha ha and now my hmong isn't to bad ha ha!! I just really loved seeing her and it was great!! 


On Saturday me and Elder Angeles had to translate the Saturday night session of Stake Conference and he doesn't know much hmong... I let him try but I pretty much translated for 2 hours straight.. afterwards.... oh man I was drained and my head hurt so bad from translating all those big words that hmong doesn't have in their language but it was good.... well the work is picking up here. President has challenged us all since its March Madness to have 55 baptisms in the month of March and if our mission get 55 baptisms then he said we could soak him in Gatorade. We are all zealously working hard for that.. oh and also today was transfers and nothing happened so we will all be the same after this transfer. This will be 9 months straight in Minneapolis so here we go!!!!! Well we also found out we will be getting two more hmong Elders in May as well so I possibly might be training again which I'm excited to do. I really like training, its been an awesome experience and love doing it!!   


Well that's the week for me. Hope you all have a great week and are a little warmer than here.... love ya!

Love always,
          Elder Crandall