New Comp!

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:48:31 -0700
From: samuel.crapo@myldsmail.net

Hello Everyboday!

 

Time For email time! Thanks to those that sent me emails and letters.  Sorry if i dont write you back, i only get a limited time on the computer... :(  But i try to drop a quick line when i can!  But here is my week!

 

Monday 7-11-11

We had transfer calls! Woo Hoo!  They called and asked me to stay in Tehachapi! YES! I love it here!  Elder Summers got transferred to Camarillo!  So now i'm with Elder Winward! This guy is awesome!

 

Anyways, besides that not much else happened on monday... some YSA showed up but there were only a few people and we didnt do anything because Elder Summers and Snarr wanted to pack.

 

So after P-day we went out, saw ANOTHER fire and went over to see if we could help again. I guess this one was a little more crazy, in between houses and stuff, they had helicoptors and airplanes dropping water and all sorts of stuff!

 

Then we said goodbye to the Bennetts and the Bethke's!

 

No Mail :( but it figured because i knew i'd get mail from the Mission office the next day :D

 

Tuesday 7-12-11

Woke up at 5! :(  You know me! I love the morning....

 

Drove to Ventura with Brother Miller.  That was pretty fun. I kinda fell asleep so i didnt know what was going on, but hey, we got there right?

 

I saw Elder Haynie down there! It was awesome! I miss that guy so much!

 

Then i got my new comp, he's pretty dang awesome! Elder Winward.  He's from Mesa, Arizona.  He played tons of sports in high school and got a full ride scholarship to a school in Arizona to play football but he turned it down to go on his mission and they didnt hold it for him.  Kid is awesome!

 

Then we came back, did a little shopping and unpacked everything. 

 

Then we went to the Laynes for dinner, that was good because sister Layne is the Coolest! He got to have a game of Ping Pong with her!

 

Then we came back and took the other Elders Shoppings.  Elder Carrera is now with Elder Nyland.  Elder Nyland came out the same time as me but we were in different districts in the MTC so i didnt know him.  They are both kind of... nerdy.  But hey at least Carrera is happy now.  He goes home next month!

 

Then we did some planning for the next day and did some workin out and went to bed!

 

Its weird because even though the transfer before was really rough and i was struggling, i still get the stomach ache... i think its just because of the change.  I have to start all over with Elder Winward.  Kind of take control of everything again...  But the stomach aches are gone now, before when i got put with Elder Summers the Stomach ache lasted about 2 weeks! Worste two weeks ever!

 

Wednesday 7-13-11

Had the Chiropractor! It was great!  He told me that i need to go see a Nerologist, because i have something wrong with my arm, and if i lift it, it goes numb.  So he told me to do that... Something is wrong with my nerves i guess?

 

We went and watched some MORMON.ORG!!!!!    ...boring

 

Then we went tracting for about 2 hours.  That was pretty sweet.  We found one guy, as soon as we knocked on his door he opened the door and held a book up, and all i could see was "Holy Bible" then i kept reading "Book of mormon, Doctrine & covenants, Pearl Of Great Price" and i was like YES! FINALLY! and he said that a neighbor in the Golden Hills ward gave it to him, he's been really interested and has been reading for quite some time.  His exact words were actually, "I've been reading this for a while now and i really like i'm just not mormon yet" haha! YES! We are going to try and go back and teach him so that he can be Baptized.

 

Before we went tracting we had dropped off the truck, the brakes were really bad on them... really squeeky! So we had to go get new brake pads.  As we were walking back to the tire store, we saw another fire! But i think this one got a house cuz it was a ton of black smoke!

 

We stopped at our apartment, ate some grub, took a snooze! (...which is probably what you're doing right now because this letter is so boring)

 

Then we went to the store and bought some last minute stuff.

 

Then we ate with the Warings for dinner.... Elder Winward agrees with me on them... they are a bit.... odd.

 

Then we came back in and worked on updating both Area books...

 

Thursday 7-14-11

We went to the church and made some CD's for the car ride down  to bakersfield.  We didnt have any music, but Elder Winward had some on some jump drives so we burnt them onto some CD's

 

Then we went to Bakersfield for district meeting.  I had to conduct the "Get to know you" it was pretty sweet... There are a few more new elders, and i took pictures but i totally forgot to bring my cord to plug them into the computer so maybe next week if you write me lots of letters....  But we got a black missionary from Africa, he's so cool!  We also got Portable DVD players! How weird is that? We get to use them during study time.  We can watch any church approved movie... i can see this going really bad.  Some retard missionary is either going to ask someone to send him stuff or just going to buy it himself..... Who knows, we'll see.  I like the good old fashioned study better anyways.

 

We then ordered a HUGE PIZZA! HUGE!!!! I took pictures!  And we took it back to the other elders apartment and ate it there.  Elder Jarvies told us some way funny stories.  About how he got sick last week and they were out tracting and had to go #2 really bad, like way bad! haha and he didnt make it.... It was so funny!

 

Then we went back to Tehachapi and got mail.  I got that Army stuff mum sent which was way cool.  I guess you guys want me going into the army eh?  I think i might... i just dont know what i'd do? I kinda want to save people instead of kill people, but i dont want to go into the medical field... who knows what i'll do? We'll see when i get home.

 

We went to dinner at the Holloways! They are so cool!

 

Friday 7-15-11

I forgot to write in my journal for this day... i'll have to try and remember what happened.

 

We did Weekly planning which went pretty quick. 

 

Then we went to "Grandmas" house and did a whole bunch of service for her.  Cutting down branches off a tree and stuff.

 

Then we went to the Kings house and did some service for them, that was really cool to go there and do service, John and i were trying to figure out the knot that dad taught me to tie when we would bundle corn stalks.... i could not remember it was driving me NUTS! So dad needs to mail me back ASAP to tell me how to do it!

 

Then we had dinner, we didnt have an apointment, so we just ate a pizza that grandma gave us, it was pretty tasty.

 

Then we went out and contacted a boat load of people. Took some AWESOME PICTURES! Too bad i'm a retard and forgot my cord! Gah!

 

Saturday 7-16-11

Saturday morning we went to the Leishman's house! She made Crepes! They were pretty good. Then we did some service for them.

 

Then we went with the Tehachapi elders and did some roofing with them.  That was pretty sweet, really dirty, but awesome and fun.  We'll be going back tomorrow to help them put up the new shingles.

 

Then we ate at the Grease pit called Frosty King...

 

Went out to Bear Valley and contacted some peeps, not a whole bunch of people were home :(  So we did some driving up on the roads that went along the mountain sides, took some MORE PICTURES!

 

Then we went to the Bethkes and had dinner with them, had a big fire and called it a night.

 

Sunday 7-17-11

This was a LONG day...

 

We had to go the the Golden Hills ward PEC meeting. Which stunk because we had to be up at 5AM to get ready, so we were at church for 9 HOURS!!!! i felt like an employed worker... not getting paid.  Anyways we had to because we had to fix some things in the Golden Hills ward.  We have been going through the Directory, contacting everybody! and there are about 25 Do not contacts... that is ridiculous!  NOBODY has home teachers! and the bishop got offended that we brought it to his attention, i think i got offended because we were telling him, basically, how crappy of a job he's doing when there was a room full of other men.  So he was making up all sorts of excuses about the DNC people, like "well this guy moved" ok... GET RID OF HIS RECORDS THEN!!! it was driving me nuts... gave me a head ache.... so i started my day off with a head ache and still had 8 hours to go.  So it was a long stinkin day.

 

We didnt have a dinner set so we called the Bennetts and they had us over.  After dinner we tied the calf dummy.. That was way fun.  I'm gettin good, i'll be a cowboy yet!

 

Anyways, that was my week pretty much.  I'm super stoked with this transfer and loving the new comp.  I hit my 5 month mark 2 days ago... i'm almost 1/4 done with my mission... how nuts is that?  Its going to be crazy.  Anyways, i miss you all very much.  And love ya! Hope you are all safe! Spread the gospel.

 

Love

 

Elder Crapo

 

P.S. i still havent received any pictures yet from life before the mission. I want Family pictures, friends pictures... all pictures on my facebook and stuff! I regret not bringing any with me so send me some yeah?

Pictures

Transfers

Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:54:22 -0700
Subject: Transfers
From: samuel.crapo@myldsmail.net

Hello Family and Friends! 

 

So today is transfer day, and we just got our call about.... an hour ago.. Looks like i'm stayin in Tehach! WOO HOO! I love it here.  My companion Elder Summers is getting transfered to Camario!  I will be getting my new companion tomorrow and his name is Elder Winward, and from what i hear, he's an awesome guy.  Its gonna be another change, but i think it will be a lot easier now that i know how to lead this area even though i'll still be Junior comp :( I dont like being JR. haha oh well!  But it's gonna be a nice change, i've grown to understand Elder Summers, it was rough in the begining but it got a lot better.  But definitely good for a change.

 

So thats the big new for today, but this week... OH MAN!!! BIG NEWS! Just wait and see!

 

Monday 7-4-11

So I didnt get any sleep the night before because it was SO DANG HOT!!!! some nights it gets so hot.  So i kept getting my hair all wet and that cooled me down a bit, but then it just dried really fast.

 

We accidently slept in a little, it was nice though because i hadnt slept well anyways, and it was P-day so it wasnt really a big deal... dont judge me

 

Then i got my stuff all packed and as i went out to the truck it was funny i walked down and had just regular gym clothes on and i forgot to put on my tag, well this lady was sitting in the back of a car and started talking to me.  She blabbed on about how my army bag (with all my laundry in it) was cool.  and i looked in the car and see all these little magazines in little bins.... Watchtowers... Yep, they were J dubs!  But she was really nice, and she was like "Do you ever read the bible?" and i was like "Well ya! All the Time!" haha and she gave me some watchtowers and then she asked me what my name was, and i said "Elder Crapo" and she was like "Wow, that's a very interesting name, what nationallity is it?" and i said "Its from here, from Utah" and then i think it clicked... and they got in the car and drove away! haha! so funny. Silly Jehovah witnesses.

 

Then we went to the church and did emails and did some MONDAY FUNDAY! YAY

 

Then we did shopping, then we did nothing, then we went to the church for the 4th of july BBQ, that was way fun, but we only got to stay until 8 :( No fire works :( No party. So i just came in and worked out until ten, it was my favorite holiday and i was inside :( We better have a HUGE party when i get home! haha

 

Tuesday 7-5-11

Started our day doing Mormon.org and there was a pretty sweet video about a guy in the army,who got deployed and lost his foot.

 

We went tracting and it was WAY HOT, no takers either :( If only they knew!

 

Then we went out and got some Quiznoz

 

And we came in to eat and i was like "Ya know elder summers, i really miss thunder storms and lightning" And then like 15 seconds later 'KABOOM! Thunder! it was so nuts! it started raining and lightning! Turned into a way good day! I love those storms. Smells so good!

 

So then we went and did some contacting in the rain it was so nice, nice and cool.  We went to Alpine Forest and had to put on the Four Wheel Drive! Woo hoo! Got the truck all dirty.

 

Then we went to brother moffats and had a BBQ, it was way good, really hot because the sun came back out and made everything humid, but it was a way good bbq.  After we ate, we went out to his dog's gate and set up an electric fence.  And to test it, ya gotta touch it,  so elder summers touched it and got zapped so did brother moffat, but for some reason everytime i touched it, it didnt hurt, i held onto the wire even and rubbed my hand and arm all over it... nothing... the dog even got zapped and i didnt get hurt at all... i think somethings wrong with me...?

 

Wednesday 7-6-11

We went to bakes and met the new president and his family... that was pretty good. 

 

then we went to lunch at A&W... its just not as good as utah though for some reason?

 

Then we had district meeting.

 

On our way back we went to 7/11 and they had PITCH BLACK!!! WOO HOO i bought 4 of them!

 

Then we went to tehachapi and went to the tire store to get a full service on our truck. 

 

Ate dinner with the Mauldin family

 

and for some reason my eye hurt all day... i dont know why? but i thought i was gettting pink eye? But it went away after a few days.

 

Thursday 7-7-11

So when i was studying in the morning i was using elder summers book he has called "Missionary Pal, Reference Guide For Missionaris and teachers, By Keith Marston"  and we looked it up at a members house to see how much it was and it was $80! And its just a little book, if you guys wanna look it up for me and see if you can find a cheap version on amazon or something, that would be sweet!

 

anyways we went over to the bennetts and baptized sister Bennetts car. (washed) then we had a lesson with a guy named Sven.  Now this is where the week got WAY COOL.  So this guy, he's a 22 year old guy who is friends with a member, and me and elder pulham went over to their house a while back and he was there, and he got really quiet and just listened to us and stuff.  Well later that night we got a text from the member saying that Sven had a whole bunch of questions about the Mormons, so she gave him a Book of mormon.  So then we finally met with him 5 weeks later... he has read to Heleman, he's read the entire Gospel Principles book, and we set him with a date to be baptized on July 30th! He wanted sooner too.  He says he loves the gospel and that he really wants to be a member.  When someone starts saying this kind of stuff, thats when missionaries get giddy and want to jump for joy and scream like a girl haha it was WAY cool.

 

Then we went to the Jacobsons and had dinner.  I made their kids laugh so hard that food was flying out of their mouths all over the table! haha then they all left to go see the Green Lanturn :( i was jealous.

 

Friday 7-8-11

I got a package from Christine Brimhall! Yes! She is so awesome! Then we went to the post office and sent some things.

 

Did a little weekly planning, went to lunch, visited the Salyers family, visited Joe Moynagh, Visited the Kernazitskas, Ate dinner at the Rowley's and then we FOUGHT A FIRE!!!

 

It was so cool we came in from bear valley and on our way, we saw smoke in golden hills so we drove over, and started taking pictures but then i was like, "Wait, we're eagle scouts! Lets go help!" so we did, we fought a HUGE fire on the side of a hill, we had shovels and hoses and stuff, and got pretty much most of it out before the fire department got there. I'll send Pictures!

 

Saturday 7-9-11

We helped brother williams with some junk in his yard.  We loaded it in a trailer and dropped it off at the dump. They fed us lunch and bought a ton of Del Taco! and gave us a ton to take home, i'm all del taco'd out.

 

Then we came home and showered, no mail :( i was sad, i thought i would get my package! Oh well, i'll get it tomorrow when we got to transfer meeting.

 

Then we went out and contacted as many people that we could, and came in for dinner around 6.

 

Then we stopped at the Caswells, and i'd never been there before, but we stopped by, and you should see this house! Its amazing!  There are Antlers, and trophis, and pictures, and weapons and old fashioned shadow boxes, and the coolest stuff you've ever seen.  Two huge garages that can hold those huge motor homes.  And they even have like their own apartments above the garages! it was sooooo coool! I told them i was going to go back to their house after my mission haha

 

Also, when i get back, i'm probably gonna get a motorcycle, for the road, like i've been saying.  but for the camping, i will be getting a 250 or 450R dirt bike... just sayin...

 

Sunday 7-10-11

Church was good, Sven showed up and loved it! i'm so stoked for him!  Then we went to dinner and visited with the Kings. The Kings are so awesome, she's fixing another pair of my pants! :D

 

Thats pretty much it.  I miss yall! I'll see you soon! i've been out almost 5 months! crazy huh?

 

Miss ya Love ya

 

Elder Crapo

New Mission President

Hello everybody!

Thanks everyone for the emails and if you wrote me a letter thank you
for that as well :D Those are always goooooooooood... This week has
been good. And we got a new mission president... So let me tell you
ALLLLL about my week.

 Monday 6-27-11
I didnt write anything for this day... i think in my last email i let
you know everything.... So... SKIP 

 Tuesday 6-28-11
We went and helped a new family move into their house. It was pretty
fun. they had a HUGE piano and a HUGE wardrobe... so it was pretty
heavy lifting but it was no match to my missionary madness.

Then we went to the McHenry's and chatted with brother mcHenry while
sister mchenry picked up the lady we were teaching. I have some
pictures of brother mchenry's garage, he's got some funny stuff, but
i'll post them another time... i've got a dumpy computer. But we ate
lunch with the mchenry's and the lady we were going to teach, then we
taught a lesson, well we tried, but the lady kept falling asleep,
like, her face went into her pasta salad, oh man, you know me, i
couldnt keep the laughs in.... She just cant afford her meds and so
she has some sleeping problems... poor lady. and after that we went to
her house and did some service, it was bad, i made a dustdevil with
the lawn mower, had dirt in every crevise!

Then we went to another investigators house and did A TON of weed
wacking! TONS! it kind of stunk, but it was ok because they really
appreciated it.

Then we ate dinner with the Stewart family. That was pretty fun.

Then we dug a trench for sister bethke. she wants to put gopher wire
into the ground so they cant get to her grass. So we dug some of it
for her.

I was SO tired when i got home. The Shower was pure mud coming off my
body hahaha NASTY! 

 Wednesday 6-29-11
I woke up and made a big ol' list of people to go see for the day.

Ate a bowl of cereal and an omelete. I dont know why i'm getting so
hungry in the mornings? I used to never eat breakfast. I feel like a
fatty! I came out weighing 155 and now i weigh almost 180! its so
cool! And Logan sent me a picture of him, THAT KID IS SKINNY!!! its so
funny.

Then we went out and contacted TONS of people.

Introduced a good finding idea to brother waring, and now that is under way.

As we contacted we found 25 DNC's! That's crazy! (do not contact)

We finally got our fans, it is a huge help, some nights.

I got the tie and card from mother, thank you very much, i dont have a
red tie so it made my day :D 

 Thursday 6-30-11
We had district meeting, it was pretty funny because we had an object
lesson with cool aid and everyone got a drink, but some were made with
sugar and some were made with salt, haha a kid spat his cool aid all
over the relief society room because it was so gross.

We then ate lunch at Crap in a box, i dont like that place.

Then i got to go on exchanges with the District Leader. I think it
went really well. First time i havent been bothered by my companion
in months! :D and i told him the whole situation and he had no idea
what was going on and i told him my thoughts so hopefully this
transfer will bring lots of change :D

Throuout the day we did all kinds of stuff. Contacted people, helped
brother Moffatt take his snug top off his truck.

Then we ate dinner with some members and the ward missionaries, they
invited a lady who is not active and we asked her to be baptized, she
said yes haha it was nuts. So it was just a soft set, but the next
time we see her we are going to set her with a date! BOO YA!

Then we came home and the new president called, said he wanted to talk
to my companion and i had to tell him he was in bakersfield so he
called him. But the guy sounds cool, just a little... foreign haha.
But it was a really good day. 

 Friday 7-1-11
Had a good morning chatting with elder Mecham

Drove to arvin to get my companion back

My comp wasnt feeling well... i guess he had thrown up earlier?

We went back to drop off his stuff and i got mail from a lady that
doesnt know me and i dont know her, but she says she lived in the
ventura area and now lives in american fork. And it was a strange
letter but maybe she read my blog? Noticed i wasnt getting much mail
and took pity? haha

Then we went to the church and did some weekly planning. The Jacobson
kids saw our car and came to talk to us. They also wrote all over our
windows... that happens a lot out here. So we went to the car wash and
fixed all that.

Then we went to the Wagners and helped them out with some service,
taking some green waste to the dump and what not.

We kept a whole bunch of his wood to burn at the bethkes the next night.

So we came back in and ate dinner then went to the Salyers home to
continue the Recent Convert lessons. And it went well, we got their
hometeacher to come too.

Then we stopped off at the bethkes and dropped off the wood.

I had to buy another gallon of milk too. I drink like a gallon in 4
days... haha i dont know why? But its good! And Cold!

My bed is all messed up, the box spring mattress has broke, like every
peice of wood to hold my bed up has snapped, but i finally found a way
to fix it, so i guess its ok now.
 

Saturday 7-2-11
Sister Leishman had to cancel breakfast

But i got mail from WAWA!!! i really enjoyed the cookies and the
letters, it was hard to read sarah's letter because it was in NEON
PINK! haha but thank you very much!  Then we went to brother Kannards to help with service, he also fed us
lunch. The service was way hard, he cut down a huge rotted tree and
we had to haul the wood to the top of his hill and split it. Drained
my energy because it was way hot too. Never sweated so much in my
life. I also am proud to say that my trainer trained me well, i can
rope really well now. i roped the kannards dog while it was running at
mach 10! haha!

Then we came in and showered and then went to brother warings and
correlated with him.

Then went and took some pictures on skyline and then headed to the
thomas' where we watched some mormon movies. Then they took us to the
country club which was way nice, but still.... too fancy for me, but
right out the window is the community pool and we saw so many members
out there... some i didnt want to see in their swimming suits, but
hey, now i got black mail ;)

Then we changed and went back to the bethkes and helped them finish
the trench, working out there with the misquitos was no good, i was
COVERED in mosquito bites! its stunk! i looked like the elephant man
hahahaha i took a picture.

And there are tons of people around for the 4th of july.. i'm so jealous 

 Sunday 7-3-11
Not a whole lot happened, just had lots of church then went to break
the fast with the YSA and then contacted people not a whole lot....

Anyways that's my week. I'll let you know how this week goes. Next
monday should bring "Change" haha but i'll let ya know. Thank you so
much for all the emails and support. Sorry if this letter is short, i
dont have much time! Love you all very much and i miss ya!

Love

Elder Crapo