Hello from Minnesota

Hello everyone!

Well this week has been so good. It has been hot here and it's going to get hotter!! I think the summer is actually here now in Minnesota. We had a really cold winter and now it's summer time!!! It is supposed to be in the upper 90's all week with humidity, which is never fun but it's fun to be a missionary and that is all that counts!

Well it sure was good to see all the pictures and stories from the family meeting Elder Lor and Elder Abbott and also Hunter's trainer. It sure is a blessing to have them in my life and now also our families life...they really are my brothers and heroes and I look up to them so much.

This week has been really good. We have had a super good week in finding people and we met this kid that is going to bring his friends next time we meet. It is really cool to see Gods hand in the work.

I think this week on Sunday I felt kinda like Alma when all his brothers leave to preach the gospel.... it gets kinda lonely now that Elder Abbott left! I have felt a little bit alone but I know that this time is to gain more relationships with other missionaries and its been really good to gain those relationships.

This week I had been thinking about that in Alma 30 he talks about his afflictions.... but that they were swallowed up in the joy of Chirst. Ii felt like I have truly felt that on my mission. It is not that the afflictions go away but that you can bear them and they seem light through the joy of Christ. 

Well its a bit short this week but I love you all and keep it all up. love you all!

       Elder Crandall

Hey, Hey, Hey!

Hello everyone,

Wow this was a great week and one to remember, it has been very eventful that's for sure! So on Monday night I got a call from President telling me that I will be training Elder Her, he told us we would be picking him up at 8:30 at night on Wednesday at the Mission Home, so that was exciting news. 

So on Wednesday we all went to the Twins game it was really fun. It went into extra innings...I think 12 but they ended up loosing by one! its always good have some fun once in a while but it was good to get back to work that's for sure. So we got back at about 6:30 and we had to be in Bloomington at 8:30 that same day to pick Elder Her up. So we had a crazy day on Wednesday. He is a great Elder! He is from Sacramento, California, he is 18 and he really is a very special kid although he reminds me allot of Bubba ha ha!! But anyway he is the youngest of 19!! ha ha yeah crazy right! But when he was 1 years old he was put into foster care and so he grew up in a Caucasian family, so he doesn't know a lick of Hmong but he is a super hard worker and has a strong desire to serve! I will be spending my last two transfers training which I'm really excited for! 

Elder Hardy and me

Hmong Elders at the game

Picking Up Elder Her 

   

So now we will fast forward to Saturday.... there was two people getting baptized on Saturday. It was a really good baptism and glad to see them progress and enter into baptism, on Saturday we saw so many cops!! it was crazy ha ha but we got fed like all day! I swear every house we entered into they fed us... it was sweet, that's one thing I love about the hmong culture. Its impossible to leave a hmong house without them giving you something, they're the nicest people ever!! I really love there culture and they way they have love for there families.

So on Sunday we had a busy day! This whole week has been packed with things and appointments so it's really good for Elder Her to see how missionary work is. Sunday morning was two more baptisms they were so awesome! One of them was very special to me because I had been working really hard for it to happen and now it finally did so it was probably one of the most happiest moments on my mission! Right after the baptism I got to confirm and give the Holy Ghost to her! It was a day I won't forget. I love being a missionary!!! The people I teach the gospel to, I see them as more than just a random person or more than just an investigator but as a brother and sister. For any missionary that is struggling I encourage you to see the people you teach as your brother or sister as you change your mind set and see them through our Heavenly Fathers eyes the course of your mission will change drastically I promise you that, I'm glad I learned that principal pretty early on in my mission. I have such love to share the message of hope and peace to them and most important a message that will save them! I have great love for the people I serve and I am so privileged to come and teach them.

Elder Her, Charlie, and I after her baptism.

 I love all of you so much and I'm so grateful for the support and love, I'm most grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. 

I have pondered that phrase allot this past week and I still don't really know what to think about it, I'm still pondering it and finding my meaning to that phrase that is so often said in the Book of Mormon. I invite you all to ponder the tender mercies the Lord has shown you in your life or even the past few months because no matter what trail or challenge comes our way we know God is a tender and loving one, he is there to lift our burdens and even to carry them for us. I love the phrase "pick up your cross" that the apostle Paul says, it tells me to never give up life is not meant to be easy but it is meant to be fulfilling with God. Everytime I have a trial I think of Jesus Christ and how great of a trial the atonement was for him, and after I think of him my testimony is reconfirmed with the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Christ and he over came the world, he can help us as we use his atonement. I invite you to use that atonement, pray fervently, and grow closer to him. 

Love you all,

Elder Crandall

Our Hmong Pose haha!

Gardening Hmong Style

Hmong Family :)

Nyob Zoo!

Hello dear family,

Well this week has been great and full of fun and hard work! One thing I have come to know on my mission is that I'm really a calm person who doesn't really stress that much, there have been a couple Elders that are really hard working....but they have no fun in the work! They work and work and work and that's it. I tell them, "hey you have to have fun once in a while or you're going to hate it down the road". I think I'm really good at helping people be able to work hard but have fun at the same time. We took some great pictures and just had a great time as we did missionary work.

 

So this week I had the coolest experience, one that I will never forget. I had the privilege of interviewing Charlie for baptism and one other person. It was just such a spiritual experience that i will never forget. She has so much integrity and courage.... her parents do not agree with her baptism, her father is really mad because he wants her to not go to church and to just stay shaman, but she knows it is true and has such great faith. We had a very spiritual conversation, one that has left footprints upon my heart.  I have the privilege of conferring the Holy Ghost upon her after she is baptized so I'm grateful to have had this time to know Charlie and to help her come unto Christ, even though I'm not the Elders that are teaching her at the moment I feel so happy for her.

  

The other interview was a young man who has been learning for 8 or 9 months and has had a hard time overcoming some Word of Wisdom issues, but the interview I had with him really opened my eyes to the Spirit as we were interviewing and asking him questions and testifying all he could say is..."I'm so happy, I feel the Spirit so strong right now... look I have goosebumps"! he had goosebumps the whole time :) I just was so grateful to know that the Spirit was working through me, through both of the interviews, but also working through them to teach me.

  

We have 4 people preparing for baptism at the moment... the mother and her two daughters came to church 3 times in a row now so we are super pumped for them and also Hailea, he is 21 and I have been teaching him my whole mission but he is doing so well! He is going to be baptized in October. It's awesome to see people who I have been working with my whole mission finally come unto Christ.

This Wednesday we are going to the Twins game and we are all excited for that because a new hmong Elder comes that same day! So he will have a good first day in the mission!! :) He comes a week before transfers because transfer dates here are off from the MTC? Next week is transfers and then I'm down to only 2 left..... its crazy! I don't know whats going to happen next transfer but I hope I stay in Frogtown the rest of my mission.....I love it here.

  

Just a shout out to Gma Hunt for her birthday last Thursday! Happy Birthday Grandma.... oh hey you have the same birthday as Charlie as well ha ha cool! 

I'm so grateful for all your support and love. I love you all and keep on pressing forward.

              Love,

                      Elder Crandall

Hello!

Hello Family,

Wow this week has been a great one! We set 3 baptismal dates with this family we just picked up. They have came to church twice now and are really doing good it is a mother and her two daughters. Her family was a member referral so it sure does help us when the members get involved. 

Today was a funeral service for an older man in our Branch. He had allot of family come from Laos and everywhere else but it was good. His family is not members of the church so they where amazed when they could see us missionaries speak Hmong so well. I think there were about 5 of them that wanted to get our numbers ha ha!! and an a lady who is about 25 or so who is married asked us if we had girlfriends it was funny. 

The work is progressing really well. Our district has 7 date sets which is really good. Oh and yes Charlie is still good for the 18th so we are really excited for that one! I have done allot of interviews and I have 7 more to go.... it gets kinda exhausting but it is always such a spiritual experience.

  

This week we talked to allot of different people.... i took some video but y'all have to see it in a couple months... but its been very rewarding that's for sure.

This week we went to the Temple with all the leadership in the mission so that includes District Leaders, Zone Leaders, the AP's and President Clements and Sister Clements. It was such a spiritual time and just every time I go to the temple I am so motivated to be more Christlike. I love the temple. The best part was President Hugh and Sister Hugh.... as soon as Sister Hugh saw me she just threw her arms around me and said Elder Crandall! We have missed you! Tell Burnell and Velma hi for us! so she says hi G-pa And G-ma oh and so does President Hugh. :)

 

This week I have been thinking allot about the Principal of Remembrance and I love as we look in the Book of Mormon we see the first thing that the Nephites do before they turn wicked....is they are slow to remember the Lord their God. If we always remember the Lord and his atonement it impels us to be humble and have humility it is what fuels the spirit in each of our lives. I encourage you all to remember that all the time. My quote of the day is by  Richard G. Scott "We become what we think about most." Think of the Savior so you can be like him.

Love always 

Elder Crandall

-p.s next wednesday we are going to the Twins game again as a mission...super excited!