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)

One Week Down!! 3/5/2012

Hi All,
Just got Kelbs first letter from Minnesota!! It appears that we need to send all mail through the mission office and they will forward it along.....still not clear on packages but will find that out in the next week or so.....at least before I send his St. Patrick's package!!
Here is the address.... it will be on the blog as well....

Elder Kelby Crandall
Minneapolis Minnesota Mission
5931 W. 96th St.
Bloomington, MN 55438-1715

If you haven't gone to the blog lately you might want to. There is a video of Kelby speaking Hmong and pictures of him when he arrived in Minneapolis!

Keep him in your prayers!! he needs all the help with that crazy language as he can get!

Thanks for all you do for him....and me!! This ridiculously emotional mother couldn't do it without you! and I know that he finds much of his strength through all our prayers!

Love ya!
Lorie





Dear family,
Well my first week is down! My companion is great he knows allot!! he started in my same area when he first was out here so that's pretty cool.

The flight here wasn't bad, a little bumpy but nothing to bad. The Minneapolis airport is huge lets just say that ha ha.. We went to our Mission Presidents house which was nice and ate lunch. I was starving wow!!

Anyways.... yes it's very cold here my first area is called Frogtown. Its pretty much down town St. Paul and it is for sure the ghetto. My companion said it's probably the most ghetto area in the mission but oh well, its funny I love it and yes indeed it is a bike mission ha ha it was only 12 degrees the other day and we were riding our bikes to an appointment which was about 4 miles away so it wasn't to fun being in the cold ha ha but we ride our bikes everywhere!!!

So yea I had my first hmong food. It was great. The hmong people are so so nice every time you come over or just find one they always offer you something to eat, but anyway my first day in the field I got my hmong name from a old hmong lady that lives by us her name is tiam tswv vaj she is so sweet ha ha she lives by herself all her kids are out but she only know hmong and not english!! Lets just put it this way....I don't know hmong at all!! They start talking and I can only understand like 3 words.... its horrible but it will get better!!

Anyway my hmong name is Tswv Feej Vaj. After her we went and visited another family a really, really great family! They actually just moved here from Thailand in November of 2010 so they know like no English!! The exciting news though is that we already have a baptismal date for them for the 24 of March so that could be my first baptism!!! It's awesome they're a family of 6!!
It's so hard to understand them they speak so so fast... ha ha... but guess what Mom I have eaten rice for every meal since I have been in Minnesota...... good thing I like rice!!
Anyway my first sunday was a fast sunday and there are over 100 people in the branch here. It is hmong and english mixed so there needs to be a translator... ha ha luckily it wasn't me or else I would have not been able to say anything ha ha anyway this one lady got up and was bearing her testimony for 20 min it was so long and I didn't understand anything ha ha!! but yea that's pretty much my week.

It's really cold but its better than the MTC!! Our area is the only bike area for hmong Elders in the whole world! But anyway I love you all and hope you have a great day!! Tell everyone if they want to send anything, to just send it to the mission office and they send it to us cause sometimes it gets lost in the mail and I don't know my apt mail box? And yes mom there are fast food places around just send pretty much anything!!

Love you all,
Elder Crandall

Arrival letter and pictures from President Clements

Dear Brother and Sister Crandall,


On Wednesday afternoon, my wife, Julie, and I, greeted Elder Crandall at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport and welcomed him to this great mission. He was happy and excited to begin his mission. Thank you for all of your efforts to prepare him for the adventure that lies ahead. We understand what a great sacrifice you are making to support your son.

On our way home from the airport, we stopped at Normandale Lake to take a picture of the group. It was a beautiful, brisk winter day. We then drove to the mission home where we had lunch and provided a mission orientation. I also interviewed each missionary
.
Typically, we introduce missionaries to their new companions and have them working in their areas of service on the first evening. However, because of a winter storm, we kept all 16 missionaries overnight. This afforded us the opportunity to spend more time with the missionaries on Wednesday evening.

The following day, Sister Clements and I introduced them to their trainers, who greeted them with big smiles and bear hugs. After some more training, we sent them to their assigned areas. Elder Crandall has an outstanding trainer whom I carefully and prayerfully selected. In two weeks, we will bring them back to Bloomington for a day of training in finding, teaching, and extending the baptismal invitation.

Your son joins a remarkable corps of accomplished and dedicated missionaries. There is a great tradition of obedience and accomplishment in this mission. He will serve with missionaries who desire to build the kingdom and who are willing to sacrifice their all for the cause. We serve in a beautiful part of the Lord's vineyard where mighty rivers and beautiful lakes are plentiful. We are privileged to serve among faithful saints. The work is blessed and prospered by their faith and commitment.

Please encourage your son to obey all mission rules. He will become stronger, more mature, and more self-disciplined
as he faithfully follows the rules. Attached is a map of the mission showing his first area of service, which is Frogtown Hmong ; his companion is Elder Mearns . Also attached are some photos, which I hope you will enjoy.

If you need to contact the mission office, the number is 952-835-7788.

[scan0002]We send our love and best wishes,



Jordan W. Clements
Mission President