Going to the Mountains

Hello everybody! Hope things are going well! It has been a very good week! Im really picking up on the language, its coming a lot faster. This week we went back to the really bukid (mountainous\jungley) area for a day.  After a couple hours of hiking through the bukid and asking people about our recent convert we finally found her..... but she was at work. It worked out because we were able to talk to lots of people and find where she lives. People are so hospitable here in the Philippines. We had been walking for so long and were really tired. When we found our recent convert's home there was another family that lived right next to them who were there. He climbed a coconut tree and cut down 3 coconuts, cut them open and gave it to us. I'll tell ya, there ain't nothing like some fresh coconut in the bukid when you are really tired! It was super good. 

We have had a lot of challenges with some of our investigators and recent converts. Its so true when people say its the most challenging but most rewarding time of your life. I really see that, you have some days where things go so good, investigators keep their commitments and really progress and have a new light added in their composure. Then you have days where you are tired, investigators don't care or see the blessings of the church but won't act on it and you just get frustrated. I get frustrated or impatient in my heart but then I really need to realize that we are asking people to change their life. The gospel is so foreign to them, action or going to church, reading scripture, and praying is also new. Most people here are Catholic, but Catholicism is more of a tradition than a religion. It has really taught me to be more patient and put in the effort to understand others. There is a couple named Generose and Reynend. They are live ins and have a son. She is 20 and he is 23. They have been together for about 3 years and are super good! Reynend gave up work on Sunday so that they could go to church as a family. Right now they are working on getting married. They have to get a lot of forms done before but things are really good! We all set a goal together with them for july to get married. Its truly amazing to see their light and happiness as they read as a family and pray together and as they progress through our lessons for them. Their family has really been strengthened. It seems like each transfer gets better and better! I included a picture of a guy we met. He looks mad and isnt smiling but he is super funny and a cool guy. A lot of ppl here don't smile in photos and look mad. He is a farmer and has a little banana farm and eggplant and has lots of chickens. Super nice guy!

Elder Crandall

The Devil Monkey

May 20, 2014

So its been a bitter sweet and interesting week. I'll start out with the sweet! We had a baptism! It was sister Entienza. It was soo good. Her husband has a member but hasn't gone in 30 years and had been coming back for the last 6 weeks as we have been teaching. He stopped smoking and drinking coffee and prepared himself to be worthy to baptize his wife. It was truly an amazing experience. She was sooo good, truly elect! 

For the bitter... So my companion got emergency transferred to Escalante, one of the new areas in negreos occidental our mission recieved as its cebuano. I was getting a new companion. The day before he was going to come, there was some medical issues so he had to go to manilla and so i got a call that i was transferring since i didnt have a companion. I packed up that night and went to toledo zone the next day. It was pretty tough since we were teaching sis entienza's son and had many super good investigators and members. I'm in an area called balamban in the toledo zone. My area is pretty cool. Our apartment is maybe 50 yards from the ocean but theres some sewage water goes so its not a nice spot. But we get a nice breeze! And it smells good, like an ocean. Our area is pretty bukid. Very country like with big feilds and stuff. My new companion is an american which is different but he's cool! We have a big patio upstairs in our apartment. There are 4 elders there. We slept outside since its so much cooler and it started raining on us at 12:30 so we had to move inside. When i came to toledo zone i took a bus from pardo to toledo. i got out of the taxi and took my 2 bags out and went and set them down on the curb and i came back to get my scripture bag and the taxi was gone. It had my camera and all my photos. I was really upset. We have the taxi number so the ZLs are trying to find him. It was on the ground so Im pretty sure he didnt even realize it was there and just thought we were done. 

Now for the funny stories!!

So we were out visiting some members and it was getting late and was dark outside. We were walking on this feild were there were these animals called carabou. They are like cows. We are just walking across and i feel my foot just sink. It was just a big cow paddy! I just kept walking haha. 

We went to this memebers house yesterday. They have this small tree, no taller than 8 feet and had this small devil monkey in it! If we got close he would just start growling sneering his teeth and holding on the tree with one hand and swinging the other one to try to grab us or something. I took my sweat cloth and kind of waved it in front of him and he grabbed that thing sooo fast!!! The member started laughing and got it. He was super nice to her but not to us guys for some reason. My compaion gave the monkey some oreo like cookies. He grabbed it and ripped open the wrapper and started eating it. It was pretty funny! Hopfully i can get my camera back and take a video of it to send to annie!

 

 Everything is going good! Im really excited for my new area. Hope all is going well!

Elder Crandall

Simon Says ...

May 14, 2014; I hope mothers day was great for everyone!! This week had some funny events.  First, we were walking and some little kid ran up to me and ask if i was circumcised. I was super confused cause i didnt know the word for that, so later i asked my companion what he said and he told me. 2nd, we were walking down this alley along the water line were people's washing, shampoo and toothpaste water goes. There was a pipe out of the back of a home that would drop from the pipe 6 inches to the waterline underneath. It was water that had been used for washing so it was white from the soap. A little kid, maybe 1 years old was sitting on a little plastic tricycle leaning over to try to reach the water. There wasnt anyone around and so we asked what he was doing. He just said " gatas, gatas" or milk milk. We pulled him back and said no, thats dirty water. 3rd, we were in a lesson with one of our investigators. Elder fuentes was talking about the plan of salvation and was talking about our pre-mortal life. Sometimes we use english words for big terms just because the cebuano words are confusing to say. So he was meaning to talk about the pre-mortal life and ment to say during our pre-mortal life but said " So during our procreation" . I tried so hard to not laugh. We had recently taught about the law of chastity and he accidentally switched the 2 words. 

      Just some funnies! The highlight of the week was a service project the relief society did. They got lots of bread from a bread shop, juice, clothes and candy. They invited the missionaries to join, so we were able to go. They went to a little area and gave people food and drink and clothes. People loved it! It was so fun, we played games with all the kids and the adults would go through the clothe and pick the ones they wanted. It was such an awesome experience! We were able to talk to a lot of people about who we are and what we do. We were able to talk to some people that are really interested who we will return to! Service brings so much joy to our lives. Well thats all for this week. I hope all is going well! 

Elder Crandall

Elder Crandall playing Simon Says with the children

Every Missionary Has a Dog Story...

Its been a super good week! I was able to go on splits with my ZLs which was a good experience. I really learned a lot! The entienza family is still progressing and doing very well! Mario jr committed to be baptized this week and is very excited. The next sunday the whole family came to church! ( except one of the older brothers, 28). We had our zone activity last wednesday. We went to this beach area and had a pick-nic, played Frisbee, flew kites, and tried to play volleyball though our net was a rope tied from one tree to another. We had a traditional filipino meal called budle fight( pronounced boodle) where there is lots of rice, meat and fish on banana leaves ad everyone just uses their hands!

          I have had a request to hear some funny stories so here we go. The other day elder fuentes and i were walking in our area to an appointment. Every time we walk down this one path there is this dog ( we call him devil dog) cause he just starts barking and jumping all over in his cage that is about 15 ft from the path. The cage is probably about 6 ft by 6ft and 4 ft tall. On the top there is a tarp held down but some big pieces of wood spread out across the top to weigh the tarp down. Every time he sees us he starts jumping up and hitting the tarp. So one day we were walking by ( btw this dog is a pretty big dog) and he starts just barking, growling, and jumping all over in his cage. We see the wood start to move and we were thinking "all that wood is gonna come off". The dog kept jumping and hitting the top and to our worst fear all the wood fell off!! We see that and we both literally just book it, not even looking at each other first, out of there, not even looking back!!! We kept going and there was no dog chasing us. We went back and and peaked around the corner and realized that the tarp was tied down on the cage. All the filipino ladies who were outside talking and what not were now just dying with laughter. We felt pretty dumb, but it was funny.

                  The 2nd funny story was during our zone activity. There was this massive cow and i wanted to go get a picture with it. I was standing maybe 5 feet from in when elder fuentes ( taking the photo) was like its coming at you. I thought he was just messing with me and i was laughing but looked back anyway. As i look back i just see this cow coming at me so i just start running. The picture is mid action when i was in my picture pose, and laughing cause i thought elder fuentes joking and the cow coming at me. He was tied to the tree but had lots of slack. All the local people were watching and all started laughing when they saw me running. 

      Im loving the mission! Still working on the bisyian as it is coming slowly, but i know that pretty sure i will be good at it. Hope all is going well with everyone

Elder Crandall

April Letters

April 22
     Hello family and friends! Another awesome week this week! Super good week! We have been teaching this family named the entinza's! They are super awesome! The dad is less active and has been his whole life so we treat his as an investigator as he doesnt remember anything from before. They have 6 kids but one passed away when he was 23. We have been teaching the 21 year old ( mario jr), kobe (14) and marlo ( 9) and the mom ( 50s)( others are younger and sit in sometimes but have a hard time focusing). They are really good and have been coming to church the last couple of weeks. We had a church tour where we talk about the different rooms and sunday school, relief society and things like that ( the ZLs do the tour). After the section where we talked about the baptismal fount we said any questions? Sister entinza raised her hand and said " when can I be baptized?" WE were soo excited and talked to her after and set a date. Its amazing how she has completely changed from the first time we visited her. I was able to do splits with my DL elder valencia ( my old companion).It was super good, he is an amazing teacher, maybe the best in the mission. We talked about the plan of salvation and their whole family were all wet eyed as elder v talked about how mario jr could later do the baptism for his brother who passed away. Also we taught a 16 girl named may. He mother was a recent convert 2 months ago. She wasnt interested at all before. We spent some time being very simple about our beliefs on things she didnt understand ( jesus, god and holyghost, and BOM). elder valencia did such a good job talking about how the church will bless her specifically and her family and the joy that he has seen in his life. She smiled sooo big after when she understood and really saw the blessings, it was such an amazing feeling in the room. She committed to be baptized as well. Her mom was almost in tears of joy and was mouthing to elder valencia after thank you, thank you. 

This week i was polishing my shoes and I was it was like a tube with a sponge that you rub on the shoe to polish it. I was trying to figure it out and so i squeezed it really hard and the polish top shot off and polish was everywhere!! Ill include a photo. It was really funny cause after the one shoe was very very shinny. There was polish across the room, on the wall!

We found the culprit of our mysterious pan on the ground cause it happened again. In our wash room ( super small) there's a window that just has bars and the cat has been coming in and eating the left over food on the pan haha. Thats about it for this week! I love it here, in all the little village/ towns there are karaoke machines everywhere and it always feels so alive. We have a zone activity today that i am excited about. We are going to the beach and have a pick-nick, playing volleyball and playing frisbee! No swimming though aha Hope all is going well! 

Elder Crandall




April 15

Apr 15

   This has been a very busy week, but an amazing one. It started last Saturday with conference. There is a week delay. It was super good, I really enjoyed it. My favorite talks were nelson, holland, and the bishop about 4 min. My favorite quote was from nelson " faith is the antidote for fear" so powerful. They were all very good. I wasn't able to watch the priesthood session because the stake president accidentally took it when he left so I just listen to them while I email. Its been a good week in the Philippines too! Manny P won his fight so all week he has been the center of conversation. This transfer was zone interviews. President Schmutz did a workshop about the light of Christ. He really got into it and it was soo good. He is a big advocate of true conversion. He said something like " in the Cebu mission we aren't here to baptize people, we are here to have true conversions. Some of the requirements are hard, but they are very good because its those that are committed that are the ones who are baptized and they are the ones who stay active. His workshops are always super good! Mostly they are doctrinal. At conference we had some investigators come to watch. We had lorenzo who is 25. He is stellar! He has a baptismal date for may 17th but we will have to change it cause he is currently working on quitting his smoking and most go 4 weeks sober before baptism.We had Sister Entenze come too. She is an investigator and her husband is a less active and has been for the last 30 years. We also had kiano come to conference. He is an investigator, 15, and is really awesome. He has had a hard life, his mom isnt responsible and has kind of just jump from guy to guy and has lots of kids and so he has been tossed around and doesnt even live with his mom but a family that is just watching him. He is really a good kid. We are sad because he is moving to a different area in our missions but are happy because he will still listen to missionaries and be baptized. They are both progressing really well! We are excited because they are married already! So many people we teach are just live in's so its awesome when they are married and have families because our message is really for the families. My shoes are already getting soo worn out! Our are is mountiany so we go up and down all day and walk so much. We talk to around 100 people per week. We saw some kids that were have spider fighting. They put 2 spiders on a stick and then they fight to the death. Things are really going well here! I really love and am so grateful im on a mission.

Elder Crandall

Spider Fighting 

Basketball in the rain

Public Transportation

April 8th 

    It's been a good week! So this week we had a cleaning check. Elder Fuentes and I spent over 3 hours completely cleaning our place since it was super dirty! We found around 30 coach roaches. It looked really good after, but they ended up cancelling the checks, oh well, at least it is clean now! We had a temple tour this week. We spent about 40 min traveling there with our investigators and recent converts. It was really good, a very spiritual experience for them! We went over the importance of the temple, walked around it, talked about what happens inside, talked about the patron house ect. Yesterday it rained real hard, so I took the opportunity to shoot a couple hoops. I'll attach a photo. So if you wondering about the food we eat a lot of rice. We also have meat loaf that comes in the can, It looks like dog food but really isn't bad. I'm excited for this. We also have lots of bread and jam. The work has been progressing well! One challenge that we are having are live ins. So many people have their live in with kids. We have an investigator named Jessa who is really stellar. She always reads and prayers. But she has a live in, which is normal, except that she is 14 and her live in is 21. All is well! I really like my area and my companion. The language is coming slow still. What makes it really hard is the slang. So many words are abbreviated and cut to make it shorter.  I'm looking forward to conference this weekend. It comes a week later here since they have to translate it. Our bishop was actually involved with the translating. They have a room for cebuano and then another room for english. All is going well! 

Elder Crandall

Pardo, Phillippines

So I love my new area! Its called Pardo, right next to my old area. Most of our area is in the mountain area. Elder Fuentes is awesome! He is one transfer ahead, just finished his 12 week program but he is a native speaker. Since I went to the MTC he is only 2 weeks ahead of me in the mission so when I go home he could possibly be in the same transfer home. We get along real well. He is native Bisiyan speaker which helps a lot which my language progression. We have lots of investigators and people are really progressing. Something really cool is the area in the mountains. Little kids love flying kites. So from our area we can look out over the city and see tons of kites with the ocean behind and can see bohol in the distance. Super pretty. Something interesting I didnt know is that it is illegal to have a Philippines flag, which i have. I pulled it out to have elder Valencia sign it when he said " why do you have that?!" He explained it and was laughing cause I had no idea. He said none of the missionaries will care since I'm American haha. This week has been very busy. We go out at 1 and come home around 8-9 every day. The language has really been tough. My district leader said this the other day when I was trying to understand grammar, " cebuano has no grammar. There are 2 ways to speak it, the right way is the one that makes sense. The wrong way is the when it sounds wrong". Most of the words we learned are too deep so I am learning lots of new words from Elder Fuentes.  A lot of the grammar rules I learned at the MTC dont apply. So with time I'm sure I will learn it. People here are so nice. Most people in the mountains really don't have any money. We always look for service opportunities. On Monday we helped some teenagers make a basketball backboard. They didn't think I could work at all cause I was American, so I just grabbed the nail and hammer and started helping.  Well thats all I have! Loving the mission and love all of yall!

Elder Crandall

Elder Crandall and Elder Fuentes