Hello everyone!

What a crazy week. We had a bunch of lessons to our investigators that members came to support us, I got to go to Martha's Vineyard twice- once on exchanges for a day, and another day for a district P-Day activity, and we met and taught a family of 4 with members. The week was packed, and we were ridiculously blessed. Sometimes you have to wonder how you can get handed such opportunities, because things just came together perfectly for us time and time again. There was some serious divine intervention with us this week.

We are excited to have Thanksgiving here in Brewster. We have certainly gotten enough offers for breakfast/lunch/dinner on that day. The people here are family already, and I've only been here for 4 and a half weeks. The weeks fly by, it seems like I just got out here on the mission. We find out in a week what happens with transfers, so we'll keep you informed.

I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers, and I have faith that some of the things that I've been praying for will work out eventually. It is a good feeling when you feel like you have at least made a small impact on the lives of the people that you are around. The mission will always be hard for me, because it will always stretch my limits and make me feel like an idiot. That's a good thing!

Love,

Elder Crandell

November 15th

Hey everybody! It's been another fantastic week here in Brewster. We've had 4 member referrals here so far, which is amazing! The members have really helped us out in finding people to teach and then also teaching with us. I would be okay with staying here for quite some time.

We had a couple of interesting things happen this week. On Wednesday we went to a leadership meeting and I got to see Elder Davies and Elder Ichi again! That was nice seeing them again. There were about 40 missionaries there, which was nice because it can sometimes feel like we are isolated way out here in Brewster. We have to track our miles, so it is hard for us to make any extra trips to have district activities or anything. It will all work out, though.

We are helping a woman named Carolyn to prepare for baptism on December 4! She has done a really good job in overcoming obstacles that have been holding her back; we are hopeful that she can be ready for this next big step. We also taught Jim a couple of times. Jim is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, and he has also shown a ton of progress. Hopefully we can help him prepare for baptism in December, he is definitely heading in the right direction. We have some of the best people around us, it's great.

Hope you all are doing well, wherever you are. I love the mission. It is really challenging. I keep finding out more and more ways that I can improve, which is nice because it means there is always something to do. I have a long way to go, let me tell ya!

Love,

Elder Crandell

November 8th

Hello everyone! It's a beautiful day for a preparation day, low 40's and rainy. And a couple of days ago we had to scrape ice off of our windows when we were about to leave to a meeting earlier in the morning, that was a new experience for an Arizonan.

This week went well. We had zone conference with three different zones in the mission, zone council with all of the zone leadership, and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. We were very busy, and because we have to gauge our miles and are given a limit, it really isn't as much fun. We try to get rides whenever we can, but it is still annoying.

Regardless, our week was awesome. We set three baptismal dates this week, and two of them are fairly sturdy. The members have done an awesome job in bringing people to us to teach, and we just hope that we can continue to win the trust of the branch. They are awesome missionaries, I have been very impressed with the members that we have met. This transfer has gone really well so far.

My time is short, but I love you all. I love the mission, and am pleased that it is still fun.

Elder Crandell

November 1st

Hello everyone! Another great week here in the Brewster Branch. We had an interesting week visiting the members of the branch and tracting. It sometimes seems like we tract all the time, but then I realize it's because we really are tracting all the time. We have had success, and hopefully we will be able to continue to find people who have been prepared and placed in our path.

Fun experience this week: we taught a lady of the Baha'i faith (spelled something like that) about our message of the Restoration of the gospel in our day, and she explained some of her beliefs. I learned a bunch about what they believe, and she was good about keeping the conversation from becoming contentious. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to be in a position to seek for more truth, so nothing much came of it.

Another cool experience was getting rejected door to door frequently. It almost doesn't register in my mind when someone yells at us instead of just saying they aren't interested; I guess I've adapted to it. I imagine it is a new experience for my companion though- he didn't get any of this at the MTC! But it's ok, we found some people that seemed mildly interested, so hopefully something can come from that.

Mission is going great. I love this opportunity, and am grateful for all the missionaries who dedicate these 2 years to serving. Some of them might not be as valiant as others in keeping that fire going for 2 whole years, but that's why we are all in this together. It's an opportunity to serve the people- nonmembers, members, and other missionaries. Hopefully I can keep it up when things get hard, too. It is definitely "easier said than done", as they say.

Sure Love Ya,
Elder Crandell