Hello everyone! We had our first real snow experience here on the Cape- we woke up this morning and everything was covered. The weird thing is that whenever it snows or rains, it gets warmer here, so that's the positive side to the weather.

We had a baptism yesterday at 3 pm! Our friend's name is Jim Tuttle, and he's been listening to missionaries for about 7 months, but only in the last month and a half has he really started progressing. He started reading the Book of Mormon every day, and before we knew it, he was accepting everything we taught, had gotten over some of his fears, and was willing to follow all of the commandments and do anything he needed to do to prepare for baptism. It was amazing to his his conversion. There were about 25 people at his baptism, which is a good number seeing that there were less than 40 people at church earlier that day. The only unexpected event came when Elder Henson and Jim went into the water of the font, and the water turned out to be freezing cold even though we had filled it with hot water from the beginning. Apparently there wasn't too much hot water at all, so the majority of it was filled with cold water. The positive side of this story was that I was standing in the warm, comfortable room watching the baptism, instead of in the water!

The work is going great. I've made lifelong friends out here with members, nonmembers, and other missionaries. I love being a missionary, and I feel God's love when I am serving others. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Crandell

P.S. I've been nicknamed Elder Cranberry, Captain Chaos, and Krendoll by some of the people here. Very strange names.

Hello everyone! This week was great, we got a bunch of good things done. We have a baptism set for Sunday with one of our investigators, Jim. He is a really good man, this will be awesome.

The mood of the people here as a whole has been happy, which is nice. The Christmas spirit makes missionary work fun. Hopefully that friendly feeling can stick around for awhile!

Not too much time to write today, they are kicking us off of the computers early here at the library where we are emailing. I love the mission, and I'm learning all the time. I feel that my mission call was inspired, and that Massachusetts is exactly where God wants me. I love you all, stay strong.

Elder Crandell

Mason left 9 months from today!! Crazy!!!

12-3-10

Transfers came, and Elder Henson and I will be staying for another one here in the Brewster Branch. Things are going really well. We had three of our investigators come to church, and it was a really big step for one of the guys. It has taken months of effort to get him comfortable with the idea of attending church, but he finally came! He's awesome, he had a great time and the members love him.

Not much else to write, we don't have too much time. Let me say that patience is indeed a godly attribute, but I question how far you should let something go without taking action. I've been patient with things that I shouldn't have, I don't think patience means letting yourself get walked over and pushed just so you don't offend anybody. Patience is doing what is right while enduring well, not giving in to certain activities just to keep peace. Keep the faith, stay strong!

Love,

Elder Crandell