December 19, 2011

Dear Mom

This last week lots of things have happened. We had changes this week. My companion got changed out and I have a new companion, Elder Ward. He´s from Nebraska and he´s been a nice relief for me. I have become District leader once again even though I´m in the same area. So, once again I am District leader of the exact same district I was leader over exactly a year ago. It seems kind of strange to me but it´s been kind of fun at the same time. I´ve gone back to my old area and visited my converts. They´re struggling getting up to go to church, I´ve been told, and there are a lot of members that were really kind to me that have gone inactive since I´ve been there. It´s been kind of sad for me to see that, but I plan to go and help them try and reactivate some good friends of mine.

The Futbol tournament went well. We played terribly and lost every game but we had lots of fun. I played defense and had some fun defensive plays. Bonnie is from California and Enrique her husband is from here. They´ve lived in the states most of their lives but right now thy´re living here and have their restaurant.

This week we´ve got lots of fun things planned. Wednesday we have a service project, Thursday we have the Christmas Conference, Friday we have interviews with president, Saturday we have the Zone Party at Bonnies house :D, and Sunday is Christmas! We´ll be home all day long Sunday. If I get the package at the conference, I promise I´ll wait this time until I call to open my gift.

Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo

December 12, 2011

(In reference to questions concerning a family from Guatemala that are coming for a visit this week) They´re not that different from a family back home. Edgar (the dad) is very businesslike and straight faced and I think if it seems to him like he´s in the way he´ll change his mind, but he is really courteous. The wife, Betty, is about the opposite. She LOVES to talk and she loves to cook. She wanted to know some recipes from me but we ran out of time. She likes the banana bread as well as all the family and they were hoping to be able to make some cheesecake but I never even got the chance to ask you for the recipe. I don´t know how much time you´ll actually have at home to be able to do something like that but just so you know. When I was with them we usually just ate beans and eggs and bread, but that´s just the night time snack right before bed if your hungry. Just know that they´re more like a states family than any Guatemala family I´ve known.


The dedication was awesome! A lot of people told stories of their pioneer ancestors who saw the missionaries in a dream or a recently deceased spouse who returned to tell his wife that he was not happy where he was at that time but that he would soon leave that place. The reason was because the wife´s sister was about to do the temple work for him. There were many stories like that. The dedicatory prayer was beautiful. I liked it a lot.

(In reference to an email that I got from this lady asking for recipes)
Bonnie is the lady who has been feeding us really well and Zumbas is the restaurant. It´s been really good and I´ve asked her if she can make me a batch of home made caramel and I also was wondering if she could get the pineapple cookies to work since I couldn´t.


For Christmas, I will call. The limit is 40 minutes and I have to buy the minutes on our phone with my own money.


That´s about all I know. The Christmas conference is the 22nd, so there´s still some time (for his package to get there). Thanks so much and I love you all.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

December 5, 2011

Dear Mom,

Being back in Huehue has been good. I guess I´ve never been good at explaining things here but Elder Fuentes is one of the best, if not the best companion I've had and the changes I had there were the most effective ones I´ve had as well.

I´ve thought a lot about how my last half of my mission is going and I feel that I´m being tried like I´ve never been in my life before. I´m being prepared for something. I don´t know what it is and I don´t like to think about it, but I know I´m being prepared. I´ve thought about the same thing you mentioned to me a couple of times, but I´ve always dismissed it as justifying not having success in the mission. I don´t ever want to think that I can´t do God´s work just because I have a difficult companion. I don´t know if I´ve done any good for the companions that I´ve had, but I sure have tried.

My companion is from El Salvador. He likes psychology and wants to be a psychiatrist.

I´m just going to tell you now that I don´t expect to write much about the work for the next two weeks. The cultural celebration is Saturday and the Dedication is Sunday. President Uchtdorf is coming to dedicate it and I believe we might be able to have a conference with him.

I´m here with Elder Bagley and he has mentioned a lot of stuff about this area to his mom. I think she´s on the missionary moms group. We are eating really well... someone has been praying too hard that I get fed extremely well these last couple of months in my mission. ;)

I´m out of time but I´ll write you next week about the temple.

Love,
Elder Landon James Crapo

November 28, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,

I´m glad to hear that the surgery went well. First I want everyone to make a guess where I am. I´ve been in every city possible to be in our mission now. Where am I? Xela, Momos, Huehue, Nahuala, or Quiché.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................I am now back in Huehuetenango to spend Christmas once again. The area I´m in now is Brasilia2. There are two companionships in this area: The Zone Leaders and us, and guess who´s the Zone Leader... Elder Fuentes, my companion from Calvario. So now we are here once again to spend Christmas together once again, sort of. My new companion is Elder Chacón and we´re both new in the area. Not very many missionaries like him too much. He´s kind of socially awkward and acts like he knows better than everyone else. From the very beginning, we began the companionship a little off because he began to command me in everything. That being said, I don´t want you to think I´m miserable. It seems that since I hit my six months left mark, it has been my job to be the companion of missionaries that require a lot of patience and, in some ways, a firm hand to get the work done. I have learned a lot this week about trusting in the Lord and looking to him for consolation and peace.

Here we have only been able to find one investigator that the other elders had before, named Gustavo. He´s come to church several times and it seems that they tried to set a goal to baptize him this last week but he says he still feels unprepared. He´s already had an interview with president but still doesn´t want to quite yet. So we´re just trying to get to know him and gain the confidence the other elders had before we got here. He probably will get baptized in a couple of weeks. I´m out of time now but I will explain more details next week.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

November 21, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,

I´m glad to tell you that this week was a really good week. We went to the temple twice this week. Lino´s family and his teacher, Catarina, could not go to the temple on Friday, so we arranged to go with them on Thursday with another ward in Nahualá. It was great. They loved it. The temple is beautiful. There´s a lot of Guatemalan things there. The murals of the mountains and the lake and quetzal birds are beautiful. The celestial room is different. I like the one in our temple much better but there is always the same spirit there. We´ve continued to teach Lino´s dad and Catarina. We tried committing Catarina to baptism and she said she´d be willing if she felt more prepared. We promised her that we would help prepare her and that through other commitments she´d be able to prepare for that day.

Pedro, Lino´s dad, has been more difficult and slower because he has many ideas from the Pentecostal church, but we´ve enjoyed the lessons and we´ve avoided contention. We will have to wait and see if he reads the book of Mormon. We´ve determined that if he doesn´t do that, he won´t progress.

We´ve received a lot of good reports about the temple and the District leader called us this morning and told us that there´s a reference from the temple for this area.

I´m excited to see how these next few weeks go here, but I no longer will be here in Xolcajá. I don´t know where I´m going but I have changes.

I´ll be writing you next week from my new area and most likely the area where I will be finishing my mission. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

November 14, 2011

First of all about the temple; The open house started on the 11th and will go to the 26th. I hadn´t been able to mention anything about it before getting here to Nahualá because I didn´t know myself. I knew that we were going to be able to enter but I didn´t know when or anything like that. The rule is that we can only go in if we bring 10 investigators with us. But, for every 10 investigators we bring, we can go 1time. We have 50 who are planning on going on Friday so... we´re praying and hoping all of them come. The ward is going on Friday this week and Friday next week.

So, as you know, today they sent me the information for my honorable release so they can reserve flight tickets. It was kind of a shock for me to see that. It looks like I won´t be getting home until the 16th. I don´t know what projects you have planned but, just so you know, you´re only going to write me 13 more times before I get home.

I was thinking about the pants and I still want you to buy them but I think you should save the money in shipping. I have the other suit I had made. They did an OK job. It was a little too big when he made it but now it really is too big. But it still works. I can come home in that and when I get home you can have the pants there ready for me, and maybe you can see if you can fix the other suit I have. Save the money. I can get by with what I have here. I´d rather have new stuff when I get home than have new stuff for only three months. About the measurements, my sewing kit has a measuring tape but I keep forgetting to do the measurements. Sorry...

This week went pretty well. We´ve got quite a few people to bring to the temple on the 18th, as you know already, and we´re doing all we can so that they don´t fall through. Maritza, the lady who owns the tienda that we converted into our office, told us that she wasn´t going to go but she hasn´t explained to us why. It frustrated me a little, but we´ve been praying that when the time comes, she will have changed her mind.

We started teaching someone this week named Pedro, the father of some kids that come to the tienda to talk to us when we eat lunch there. Pedro has lots of doubts though, and I feel it will be very difficult to focus on the spiritual part of the lesson. We´ve doubled our efforts to plan our lessons really well and prepare well to teach our investigators, and even though we haven´t followed a single plan yet because of the questions our investigators have, I feel the spirit guiding us. I have to admit too, I´ve become rusty in my teaching because I´ve gone so long without having a positive investigator.

The K´iché is coming along more or less. I understand a few things when nobody is around to translate for us but I´m nowhere near being able to communicate with them.

I just want to say thanks for all your love and prayers. I love you all and can´t wait to see you all and tell you all about my mission.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

November 7, 2011

Dear Mom and family,

This week went a lot better. We finally are finding new people to teach. The two most positive people are:
Maritza, a lady who works at a "tienda" that gives us lunch, and
Catarina, a schoolteacher. One of her students, a little boy who likes to talk to us a lot, gave us the reference. The boy´s name is Lino and we have plans to begin teaching his family as well. All of the people we´ve been able to invite to the Temple, has come primarily from these two investigators.

I haven´t mentioned this yet, but Maritza is the first person I met when I got here. I saw that she had an oven and I told her that I could make a really good banana bread with all the old bananas that she had. (It was also my birthday the next day) The next day we made my birthday cake and shared it with her and her daughter.

Saturday, we spent most of our time in Maritza´s tienda. In the morning, we went over to reorganize stuff and clean shelves. Afterwards she made us lunch and then she began to ask us some questions. One of the questions was kind of a strange one but we were able to use it well. She asked ME, and she asked me to be honest, if the men in the United States were loyal to their wives or if they betrayed them as well. My response was that I didn´t know about the rest of the United States because I lived in Utah and the majority of the men I know there are members of the church, but I assured her that most if not all the men I know there are completely and 100% loyal to their wives. Then she asked me if the women were loyal as well, and I assured her that they were. I then explained to her the great blessing that I have had to be able to grow up in a family where my parents have been loyal to each other and to the Lord all my life and that I´ve become who I am because of the family I grew up in and the parents that have raised me. Then the conversation changed a little. Both my companion and I gave examples (anonymous of course) of people we knew (him before the mission and me during the mission) who were members and had not been loyal to their spouses. We began to explain the process of repentance that they had to take in order to become worthy and faithful once again. Then we explained how the world knows who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us, but what they do not know, is how to apply it into our lives. We tied it all off by explaining that the members that she knows, and even ourselves, are not as happy and kind and good to others because we naturally are perfect. We are who we are because we have learned to apply the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our lives and the process of repentance. We ended on that and she told us that on Tuesday (when we go for lunch) she´d have some more questions for us.

Yesterday, Elder Martino randomly was attending church here in Chirijox with us. Nobody knew he was coming but he spoke in sacrament meeting and taught Sunday school. It was a great experience and I wish I could have the kind of inspiring power he and all authorities have. When he was done, everyone felt better and wanted to BE better. Even despite the discouraging living conditions that these people live in, he was able to lift their spirits and encourage them to live better.

The work is beginning to pick up and I´m excited to see how everything goes.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

October 31, 2011

That´s a pretty cool costume! And Hunter is getting so big too. He looks quite a bit older than the pictures I have in my camera. It feels like only a month ago that you sent me the pictures of his alien abduction costume.


I tried to get someone to fix my boots but they made them impossible to wear. I got huge sores on my feet that didn´t go away for a month from trying to wear them. So this change I left them behind. Also the other shoes because I had been re gluing them every month and they finally fell completely apart. So I´m stuck with the nicer Sunday shoes that I´ve got and I´m trying to take care of them the best I can so that they last me the next few months before I come home. I don´t want to buy new shoes here just to use them for a few weeks.


My shirts have surprisingly held out extremely well. It wasn´t until this morning that I found one of my shirts with a tear in the collar like all the missionaries who are going home have. I think I can get through though. I might come home looking a little rough but... I´ve had quite a few adventurous areas.


This week has been an interesting week and a purifying week. I´m not going to hide it anymore, the elders that are here and the ones that were here before seem to have given up hope. They don´t want to do anything because they don´t believe they can do anything. They´re fun to talk to and hang around with on P-Day, but it becomes a temptation to relax during the week. I´ve been working really hard with my companion to help him see clearly the vision once again. But... I find the same lack of faith in myself. I´ve found I don´t believe I can change anyones lives. I´ve tried to change my mind. I´ve studied the subject of faith deeply and have had some pretty amazing spiritual experiences. I´ve tried to explain the things I´ve learned to my companion and increase both our faiths. But we haven´t come to the level I´d like to be at, that I feel we need to be at, in order to make some changes here. We had a really long talk far away from anyone at all about the things we were doing and how, even though it might be fun, doesn´t help in the work. I find I have to be more forward and bold than I have ever been in my life.


Yesterday we were visiting an almost investigator with her inactive mother. Her name is Maritza. We pay her to make us lunch and we´ve done some reorganizing service in her store. Yesterday her daughter had a really swollen mouth from a tooth that a dentist down here pulled. We were afraid of a bad infection and recommended that she take her to the dentist I went to. We talked about it for a long time and then we left her with a blessing. This morning we called to see how things were going and they didn´t even go to the dentist, because she woke up all better. That´s the best thing that happened this week.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

October 24, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,

The sun came out this week! My companion told my that it´s always foggy and cloudy, even when there´s not a hurricane passing through, but apparently the wet season has now ended and the cold and dry season has come and it´s been sunny since Tuesday.

This week has been a lot better. We´ve been able to work trying to find new investigators. We tried contacting a few people, but the majority could only speak k´iché. They´re rebuilding the chapel and are just about finished. It looks great and the bishop is really excited about it. They´re planning to do a cultural night to celebrate the new chapel and they´ve asked us to do an act on the part of the missionary work. We planned a little yesterday and I´m a bit worried about the crunch of time they want us to be able to prepare it in... I feel they´re starting extremely late, but we´ll do our best. We´re estimating dedicating the chapel in two weeks or three. We taught a member named Miguel and asked him for a reference and he told us he´d think about it and have someone for us yesterday. He followed through and so now we have someone to go teach.

That´s about all for this week. The family I was living with gave me their e-mail so I could give it to you so you could talk but I forgot it was on my old planner and I don´t have it with me. I´m sorry, I´ll try to get it to you next week. I´m not quite sure what I´m going to need to get me through the rest of my mission. A lot of my pants have a small hole between the legs from all the walking I´ve been doing. I´m down to my last pair of shoes. All my socks have holes in the toes that I have to repair daily. My garments are all stretched out... but I´m doing fine. I can find most of that stuff here if I need to. My name tag broke yesterday so I filed down the sharp edges and stuck a magnet to it so I could still use it. I can improvise. My backpack is being held up by climbing hooks... I could go on. I´ll look this week and see what I can think of that I might really need. I think the only thing is a pair of dark blue pinstriped pants to the suit I brought on the mission so I can go home nice and clean and new. Everything else I´ll just use up to the very end.

Thanks! I love you.

Elder Landon James Crapo

October 17, 2011 Hurricane for a birthday present!

Hey Mom,

I´m not quite sure what to tell you this week. It´s been another crazy adventure this whole week and there´s too much to tell and to be completely honest... I didn´t want to come write today because I don´t want you to stress over it all, especially since it´s already over, but I´m writing with the confidence that you already know how I´ve been able to deal with things thus far.

First of all... I am no longer in Las Rosas with Elder Chavez. That may be the biggest shock. I got a call at about noon to inform me that I actually did have changes, AFTER I wrote you all to tell you I didn´t. So... Where am I? I wonder the same thing myself. The area is called Xolcajá and it overlooks Nahualá, when you can see it that is. The things is, the area is extremely high and is covered in fog 24/7. What makes it worse this week is that there was the hurricane on my birthday. I haven´t seen the sun since last Monday. The good thing is that I AM in the mountains so the hurricane is only tons of water instead of high winds and all that fun stuff on the coast. The problem with the mountains and tons of rain is all the landslides that happen. We´re all fine but the area itself took a pretty big hit. Wednesday morning was the scariest part because I woke up to a loud but distant rumbling and crunching noise like glass and dirt rolling down a hill. We found out later that it was a huge landslide in Patzité (part of my area) that took out 8 houses. Because of that, more than half our area is inaccessible right now because of the walking path being taken out. The road near our house, the main one that goes to Guatemala City, is almost completely wiped out.

Being out here has been a bit of another culture shock to be completely honest but I´m sure when we begin to get some work done it won´t matter. I´m actually excited to have the chance to really learn K´iché. If I stay out here for the rest of my mission, I will be able to teach in K´iché my last change; at least I hope. I´ve been living off of oatmeal and beans this whole week since I didn´t get a chance to buy before the storm hit, but that´s a good thing. I´ve been trying to stay healthy and I´m taking the vitamins you sent me which probably have helped more this week than ever. My new companion got sick though so I´ve been using your propolis pills as well. I imagine right now that I probably weigh 165 now which is close to the ideal weight for me and to my goal. Don´t worry though, my companion has permission to go to Xela and buy healthy food because he's on a mission weight loss program and needs special food. So I´ll be able to do the same.

The reason I got changes is because I traded places with an elder who was having some health issues and altitude sickness and they wanted him to be closer to the doctor. My new companion, Elder Paz is from Honduras and has had some rough companions these paste few changes and at one point was about to give up and go home. The assistants told me I needed to take care of him and help boost his excitement and self esteem. He has many good goals. He is determined to learn English and exercise every day. The point is, there´s a lot of work for me to do. They haven´t baptized here since the first week of January. They´re building a new chapel and it will be finished and dedicated within the next month. After that, the bishop says the goal is to fill the chapel by the end of the year. The ward is split into two areas and we live across the street from the other Elders. Most of the week we´ve spent in their house waiting out the storm playing Uno.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

October 10, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,

Thank you so much for all your love and letters. It feels really good to be able to remember how much I´m loved back at home. I really REALLY needed all your letters today. Things have been kind of difficult for me lately. I really am trying so hard to do everything I should and to have the spirit and success, but I just haven´t done too well. I´ve longed for so long the peace in my heart that I am pleasing the Lord in what I´m doing every day and not guilt for not doing more. This week I´ve had struggles with my companion. He has been quick to judge and his comments and responses to me have been belittling and judging. He has had some struggles with the existence of racism, and has turned to racism as his reaction and defense. He has claimed that we North Americans do not understand Latins, because we have never grown up in an environment where the government could shoot you if you were out late at night or if you looked like a gang member. He seems to depreciate us because he doesn´t believe we can offer anything to them. We have been given everything and we have nothing to offer because we haven´t suffered enough to win his respect. The most frequent thing that comes out of his mouth is that all the sins are going to fall upon someones head for not doing what HE thinks they should be doing. He doesn´t show mercy and all he wants to do is "machete" people. Something happens or doesn´t happen and he throws up his hands and goes about saying that they should be doing this or that and indicates that if he were in such a position, he would be able to do the job perfectly. He feels that everyone is against him, especially North Americans, but he can´t see that he is the one who is making an enemy out of everyone else.

We got the chance to work with President Boutista this week. We went to visit Hermano Martinez and we had an extremely good lesson. Yesterday President showed up to sacrament meeting, hoping that Hermano Martinez would show up but he didn´t. We made an appointment with the bishop to visit Hno Martinez for Wednesday. I´m hoping that they can resolve past conflicts and that Hno Martinez can confide in him and begin his way back.

Tonight we have a family night with a young single adult less active and with her boyfriend who´s Catholic. She´s 6 months pregnant too. We´re hoping they commit to getting married and him getting baptized. They are both extremely nice. We´ve met him a couple of times but we haven´t had the chance to teach them together yet.

I´m out of time now but I just want you all to know how happy you have made me. That´s why I told you all that I did. So you could understand how much I appreciate what you do.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

October 3, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,

About all we´ve been able to do so far is work with inactive members. We talked with the bishop on Friday about the 15 names we needed and we got them. There are about 4 families he gave us, one of which we are already working with. We also mentioned the keys and he told us that he understood and is going to get some to the Mission Leader.

One family (familia Martinez) is a senior couple. The wife (Alma) has a strong desire to come to church and be active and has helped us a lot with another friend of hers (Margarita) who is also less active. The problem is the Husband (Rolando). He is less active for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons he blames on the leaders of the ward. He says that they don´t show love and kindness nor do they show their Christlike character outside of the church. He judges them and says that it´s better to be inactive and living a Christlike life than to go to church and then to "not even greet people they know in the street". We tried to teach about the importance of going to church and in the conversation he said that those who are inactive have a better, clearer view of things than those who just go to church to go to church. At that time I could not stand any more apostasy and I just blatantly responded "That´s not what Christ teaches in the Book of Mormon." It was silent for a few seconds and then I decided to explain myself. I opened up to 3 Nephi 18 and we read 1-12 and then I explained why we go to church, to take of the sacrament. Then I reiterated that Jesus taught them that it was his commandment that they always do it and how we promise to carry His name and that He promises the spirit. Then I read verse 25 and explained that Jesus taught that nobody should be denied nor deny themselves that privilege and that those who did were more easily swayed by temptation. He paused, then, as he always does when we confront him about coming to church, he tried to make a joke out of things and said, "yes but I always have the spirit with me." At that point I just gave up. I thought, "I can´t make this any clearer for you. You´re contradicting Jesus Christ himself." but I didn´t have the heart to say that at the time. I felt it wouldn´t do any good. I just smiled, closed my scriptures and put them away. There was a little bit more small talk and religious jokes from Rolando and then we left.

The other family we´ve focused on went much better. We´ve been teaching the parents of a young single adult named Deisy. All of them are converts but her parents haven´t gone to church for quite a while. Her grandfather who lived with them just recently passed away and then we came in and started teaching them little by little with family night activities. We taught about the gospel. We went in depth on faith, touched on the repentance process, the baptismal covenant, and explained the purpose for going to church. We shared the same scripture of 3 NE 18. Yesterday we got a text from Deisy:
"Hola Elderes!! Hoy en la mañana me acompañaron mis papas a la conferencia, estoy muy agradecida con mi Padre Celestial y con ustedes por lo que hacen por mi familia. Que el Padre Celestial les bendiga. Att Yo"

I am so grateful for these experiences that I´ve been able to have in my mission. Even with the disappointing ones, I can feel the spirit acting through me as a voice of warning.

I haven´t mentioned this but I kind of have to now. The family that we live with here, when I got here, asked if I could help them fill out their petition papers for a visa. It was all in English and they couldn´t understand it. I did so for all 5 of them which was hard work, but it was worth it. A couple of months later they went to the embassy to have their interviews and it got accepted. They now have visas for 10 years and they are planning on spending Christmas and New Years up there in Los Angeles. They also are planning now to go visit Utah for a few days to see the historical sites and the lights at Temple Square. The only problem is they don´t really have a place to stay or anyone to show them around. I thought that it would be kind of fun for you guys to have them stay in the trailer there and be able to meet a Guatemalan family that gave me housing for at least 3 months. The only thing is, I don´t even know if you still have the trailer... Anyway, I thought I´d mention it and see your response. It would be really awkward at first probably with the language barrier but... What do you think?

As far as my birthday... Just deposit money I think.

Thanks, I love you!

Elder Landon James Crapo

September 26, 2011

This week I´ve noticed that the district is beginning to get more references now which is good and there are a few baptismal dates coming up too.


I did divisions this week with Elder Cifuentes in his area. It was a really good experience. We set a baptismal date with one of their investigators and had an unplanned finding experience which could very quickly lead to another baptism. I enjoyed the experience a lot. While I was there, Elder Cifuentes complained a little bit more about Elder Lopez. Elder Cifuentes is a hard worker but he very frequently has negative things to say about other people so I always have to take that into account when he tells me things. He told me that Elder Lopez has a worldly movie, Prince of Persia, but I looked through Elder Lopez´s movies and didn´t find it so he could have taken it with him on the divisions. I don´t have any evidence right now that he has anything, only Elder Cifuentes´s word, so I´m not doing anything about it right now until Elder Cifuentes gets some evidence.

This next District meeting my goal is to help the district understand more fully the gospel and to recognize how well they are using it in their lives. I´ve chosen to talk about this because I´ve learned in my studies a lot about Faith and how to really use it and to confide in God more. In reality, what I want to teach touches a lot of different topics: Faith, Dignity, Repentance, Grace: the enabling power of God and how to qualify for it to take effect in our lives and how to use it to help us meet our goals. The problem is that we make goals but then we doubt. We are constantly saying things like, "The members in this ward don´t want to help at all." or "These people are pure Catholic and don´t want anything to do with us." and we begin to doubt and deny ourselves the blessings and help we could receive through exercising faith. This is what I´ve learned in my studies this week and I want to communicate this concept to my district.

I have a request for a return home present. I´ve been thinking about it a lot for the past couple of months but I never remembered to put it in my letter until today. I would like and urge Nick to begin his mission papers now so that the week before I come home he can turn them in. That way, soon after I get home, he can receive his call. I want to be able to teach him some vital things I´ve learned on the mission and also, if he ends up going Spanish speaking, I can begin to teach him Spanish. It´s something I want to do so that he can have better success in his mission than I have had so far in mine.

For conference we´re just going to stay in our zone to watch it. I really love Conference and am excited to listen for my last time in the mission.

Already beginning to plan my first few weeks home huh? Well, I don´t know what day exactly. The 14th is the Tuesday but that´s the day of changes. From what I understand I may not get home until the 15th or even the 16th depending on how the flight plans go. But I´m almost positive I won´t be getting home on the 14th exactly, unless I specifically ask that they find a way for me to be home before the 14th or on the 14th.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

September 19, 2011

Dear Mom and Family,
There have been a lot of good and not so good things this week. First of all, there is a problem here with the bishop and our new ward mission leader. As you know, we´ve been waiting for months for the bishop to call a new mission leader and he finally called a future missionary, but since that point we´ve had a lot of problems. I don´t know if you know about this but I had keys to the chapel here in Las Rosas, but I lent them to the elders in the office one Saturday so they could play basketball. When they left the building, they closed the keys inside and left them there. They called the bishop to let him know what had happened, but from there nobody has been able to find the keys. Now we´ve learned that the keys were the ones that belonged to the mission leader, so the new mission leader doesn´t have any keys to open the chapel for correlation meeting, or for any activities that we may plan. The old mission leader also has lost the manual. The new mission leader is frustrated because he is asking the bishop for these things and the bishop is telling him that he won´t do anything about it. He´s telling him that we had the keys so we need to find them or he can´t have any, and he says the same thing about the manual. So, in summary, we have a new mission leader but he doensn´t have any of the tools necessary to do anything. I´m kind of at a loss of what to do about this one. The bishop feels satisfied with himself in exercising justice and punishing us for having lost the keys, but I feel he doesn´t understand that he´s also hindering the work out here in the process. We can´t change what has already happened, but we should do our best to make things better despite what has happened. That´s not the only run in we´ve had with the bishopric. Saturday we had an unexpected opportunity to help some people with an interesting problem. We were walking home that night when a woman across the street waved for us to stop and ran across the street to talk to us. She told us how she and her two other friends were on their way to Huehuetenango from the coast, but they had to switch buses here in Xela. The only problem was there weren´t any more buses going to Huehue. They didn´t have a place to stay, they didn´t have enough money for a hotel, and they were freezing cold because they were dressed like someone on the coast. She asked us if they could stay with us for the night (which gave me a good laugh). We responded that WE couldn´t take them in but that we´d try and find out something to do. We started first by trying to call the bishop... didn´t answer. Next we called his counselor. His first response was that he couldn´t let them in their house. I explained to him that we weren´t just asking him to take in complete strangers, but to help us, as a member of the bishopric, to find a place for them. Then we called the Zone Leader to ask if they could call President Bautista (Line of authority :) ) to ask for advice in what we could do. After all those phone calls we decided to go ask a member if she could let them in for a little bit and give them something small to eat. She gladly did so and as she did she talked all about the church. Through a lot of interesting phone calls, the counselor decided to use fast offering funds to pay for a night in the hotel, but afterwards pulled us aside to talk to us. He ended up chewing us out, telling us that he had used the WARDS FAST OFFERINGS to pay for it and that it was meant ONLY for members and that he only did so because he didn´t want to stain the name of the church, then in his own way suggested that we don´t let something like this happen again.
We also had a chance to help a member who was sick with pneumonia. She is a tough old lady who is extremely opinionated and not very easily swayed, but loves and takes good care of her family and has a very strong deep testimony. I love talking with her. Anyway, we were able to help her with providing a couple of beds for her daughter and her kids who were coming to visit her for fear that she might die. There was an old mattress that we didn´t need in the house that we were going to throw away and I have a small inflatable mattress that I bought after having been in Momos and sleeping 7 elders to 3 beds. We were layed out like sardines and I didn´t want an experience like that ever again... so I bought the mattress. I haven´t used it myself too much, but it´s come in handy quite a few times.

This is how things have been going more or less with my district. First is Salcaja with Elder Olsen and Elder Bench. They´re doing great and working hard out there. I´ve run into some the members of that area and they´ve had nothing but good things to say about them. Next is Elder Cifuentes and Elder Lopez here in Las Rosas. I´ve been getting some complaints from Elder Cifuentes about Elder Lopez sleeping in, not studying and all sorts of stuff. I just told him to try and encourage him and remind him what he´s supposed to be doing and that if he still continues to ignore, then to tell him the situation, that Elder Cifuentes has already told me and that I asked him to try and encourage him to do these things. I´m thinking of doing divisions with them soon so I can be with Elder Lopez and hear what he has to say about all of this. Elder Bergeson and Elder Monge are doing well in their area. they are working and have had baptisms. I think what they could use some help with though, is using the planner and the area book. The reason is because when they call to report, if they remember to call, sometimes they don´t remember what dats they have and they have to take some time thinking about it. So with that, I´m assuming that they don´t write stuff down. Of course, I know that I´m not the perfect example of all these things that I want to help these elders with, but I think that´s one of the blessings of being a leader is that I´ve been able to learn and grow as I try to help other people. That´s about all this week. We didn´t have very much work because everyone was celebrating independence week in the center of the city and left this place desolate.

Love,

Elder Landon James Crapo

September 12, 2011

Dear Mom and family,
 This week I had divisions with Elder Frodshom, my Zone Leader. I really enjoyed it and learned quite a bit. We´ve been working a lot with less active members lately. We are working with the Martinez family (of which I have mentioned before), more specifically, Hermana Alma is working with Margarita once again and we have an appointment on Wednesday. I´ve been trying harder this week to plan together with my companion our lessons because we´ve struggled to be on the same page. My companion has a great testimony and knows quite a bit. In our lessons sometimes he just gets excited and starts to share everything he knows and it overwhelms the investigators and afterwards there isn't much time for me or the investigators to talk. I´ve talked with him about it and we have the goal to plan our lessons and to focus on the doctrine and commitments. I really am beginning to understand how absolutely necessary it is to plan the lessons. I am now more excited to teach my lessons and less worried about if the lesson will be good or not. That´s really all I can think of about this week... The root canal went well, I think. I´m just waiting for them to finish it all up. The bad thing is I had an appointment to finish it today at 10 but they weren´t there and I´ve been told they won´t open back up until next week... the temporary filling they gave me is not meant to last that long so... I´m waiting for the nurses to figure out what to do. I´m sorry this letters really short... I really just can´t think of much to say, other than thanks for all your love and letters.

Love,
 Elder Landon James Crapo