"CHUVA" (whatever that means!)

"Darlan & Daniele, Brother & Sister. They remind me
of me and Tami!
Netinho at his baptism!
Elder Crosby & Elder Ferreira

Hey fam! Well how is everyone? I am just great! Well today was transfers and so I was a little nervous that I would be tranferred because I want to stay here until the end so I was hoping that I would stay, and hoping I would get one more transfer with Elder Ferreira. Well, I got one of my wishes, i am staying here in Valentina Joao Pessoa, but Elder Ferreira was transfered to Natal. On Wednesday my companion will arrive fresh from the CTM! Yep, I will train again. His name is Elder Costa and I Dont know anything about him because I havent met him, but Wednesday at 9:00 Ill go pick him up on Wednesday. In the meantime Ill stay and work with Elder Brulher that will train too. These past 6 weeks have been great. Elder Ferreira is a funny guy and we had a good time here. It was good stuff. I was sad to see him leave this morning. He is an example to me; he is the only member in his family, he has less than 2 years as a member, and he still came on a mission and is just loving it. It was good to work with him. Now Im am excited to train yet again. I guess you get what you ask for. I asked to train and when it rains it pours! Talking about rain, yesturday it rained ALL DAY. It started at 9 am and went until 10 pm. It was crazy. We got wet 3 times (IM gonna buy an umbrella today), in the moring going by the investigators houses, going to lunch, and before the 2nd sacrament meeting going by the people houses again for the other ward. Luckily thought Im not sick. Other than this, things are great here. I got the package from mom which was great. I also got a package from Katie! Yay for b-days! Do you guys ever hear from Katie? From what I know shes doing good in Idaho. Have her parents sold their house yet? I still cant beleive that they are going to sell that house and move away. But I guess its good to be close to the kids. Anyway, I am good and excited about this next transfer. I love you all and hope all is well. Sorry its short today but Im gonna try to send a few pics. Love Elder Crosby

the 'Boys" hike the Grand Canyon!

Yep, your ol' Dad survived another 18 mile hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
(as seen here on the 'Black Bridge' that crosses the Colorado River) and then back up on the Bright Angel Trail. This time Mark and Bret wanted to go! Having never taken our kids when they were small, they'd never seen it!! A big hole really isn't very interesting for a bunch of little kids, so we never went there!!
'Spring had sprung' in the Canyon and it was beautiful with
all colors of wild flowers growing everywhere!!

Here's the hikers with the Grand Canyon in the background! It was a great father son trip, they had some great bonding time together!
The last mile or so coming out got pretty tough! They were hiking at a pretty good pace! Bret said that he kept telling himself, " Kari did this, so can I!" LaVerl even said this time was a little harder, maybe because it was warmer and they hiked faster!
Hard to believe, but Mark hiked in sandals, no socks!

Reeds weekly letter

Hey everybody! So here I am in Joao Pessoa once again on a hot Monday afternoon thinking about where to start about the week. Well Ill start out with the bummers this week. The family that I thought was elect and just ready to hear the gospel and would help soo much in the church pretty much told us they didn't want to hear any more about any other book than the Bible. They are really smart but this si where they stumble because they want to understand it logically before they can believe in it. He said he read and thought about it a lot. He understood exactly what happened in the chapter. He summarized it almost better than I can summarize it. But When I asked if he had prayed about it he said that he hadn’t prayed and that he couldn't bring himself to pray because he cant believe in anything other than the bible. He said if the Bible said something about the Book Of Mormon or if it talked about another people he would be able to believe, so I showed him scriptures and he said that he interpreted those scriptures differently. Ya I was pretty bummed. Another bummer was that there was a big show Saturday night close to our house in Valentina. It went on until 3 or 4 AM but it was good because I didn't even hear anything. But the bummer of it was that lots of people we are teaching and lots of people that are members, recent converts went and then on Sunday morning for Stake Conference they couldn't get up in time to go to church. Satan knows exactly how to tempt people. Soooo many people, especially members say, "Oh next week Ill go. This week I'm just way toobusy. But next week, I promise I will go." If we make an exception today to do what's right, tomorrow won't be any easier. We always think that tomorrow will be better. The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill, or so we think. And then when the next week comes, when we get to the other side of the hill, there is only dirt and weeds, or our life just gets busier and busier. We show what is important in out live by how we spend our time doing, not just thinking about or talking about. I could have all the best intentions in the world but if I don't do anything, my good intentions won't take me anywhere. There were some good things about the week though. Like this 15 year old girl that we met and her mom. Her name is Gizeli. So at General Conference a lady gave us a referral to go to her house. Gizeli told her that the missionaries would never come because her cousin is a member and she had already gave her address to the missionaries and they didn't ever go. So, we showed up on Tuesday night and they were all surprised and excited. The mom, Roselene said that she always wanted to call the missionaries to her house but we they always pass so fast that she was a little scared. Anyway, so we taught them and during the lesson when I asked her to read and pray she said she had already read and prayed and knew that it was all true. Her mom did too, but they just weren't going because it was really far away. But we told them about a bus that takes the members to church and they got all excited. Roselene has a problem with her sight so we have to make copies of the parts we mark and enlarge it all so she can read. They are awesome and are way excited. Gizeli takes the Book of Mormon to school with her to read there. After the 1st lesson, she called her cousin that is a member and they were both way excited. Then we also found a 15 year old boy named Netinho. We are teaching him, his uncle and his Grandma, but there are many other people in that house we are going to teach. Netinho is way excited about everything and is always animated. His uncle is 21 and really interested. He already started the Book of Mormon from the beginning, but he went to the show so I was pretty bummed. Well, This was just a little bit of what happened this week. There is always sooo much that goes on and there is no way to write everything. But, I am doing great. Time is flying by this transfer. There are only 2 weeks left and then there will be transfers again. I think that I will "die" here in Valentina. Hopefully I will get to stay with Elder Ferreira one more transfer. Things are great and I am really excited. The work is progressing and There are always sooo many people to teach. The people here are way open and friendly that sometimes it is a little hard to tell who is really interested and who is just being nice but doesn't want anything to do with the gospel. I love you all and hope all is well. Keep me updated on everything! Oh and I love pictures!!!LoveElder Crosby

Marks SUPRISE Mexican fiesta

Mark turns 30!! SURPRIZE!!

Concert!

the rocketeer revived..

I don't know how to explain how happy I am about how good my car looks... I'm sure i'm the only one who truly appreciates it.

I didn't take a before and I should have

the poor thing was filthy!! and faded and.... it was bad!

the roof and trunk were white from being so faded. it has a custom paint job but you wouldn't have know it...

so...hot dog for shiny cars

GO DANNY's family car care-wax and detail!

look, my refection!!

Reed's adventures in Brazil

Hey Fam! Wow, it was good to hear from you all and mom sent some PICTURES!!! It was great to see a few pics. Kari looks like shes doing great and doesn't seem like that greasy Mexican food did anything to her. The Hearts Tournament looks like it was a success. I cant believe Kingston is already 4 months old! And Kaemon and Milea are big too! Kaemon is 3 and Milea already 1!!! Holy Cow man, time flies. I'm glad Lisa is doing better and that nothing is broken. Careful sis! I also saw in the picture that Mom and Dad FINALLY got a new refrigerator. That old thing reminds me of the freezers we have here on the mission. Haha. Well anyway, it is always good to hear news from home. The work here is going good. Ill tell you a little about my area. It is pretty much the farthest part away from downtown Joao Pessoa. I am over 2 wards so one ward is called Valentina. It is a place where the people are a little more well off we could say. Bigger houses, and it is a little bit hard to work because nobody is on the street. It is a big area but will grow once the members start giving referrals. Until then I am spending more of my time in Paratibe, that has the more humble people. All dirt roads and just to get there it is a 30 minute walk everyday from our house Thank goodness there is a bus on Sunday. There are mostly new members in this ward but everyone is excited. Almost everybody was baptized in the past 3 years. Well, we are spending more time in this area and we have some really good investigators. We talked to this man the other day that was breaking a big thing of concrete in front of his house and we offered to help him We talked a little bit and said that we would come back one day to teach about Jesus Christ. He said that the doors were always open. The other day we decided to go there because we had about 20 minutes before our next appointment. We ended up talking and he showed us his place. It reminded me a little of hiome and he reminded me a little bit of Dad, because they have a place and he is always doing some kind of project there He showed us his chickens and ducks, his trees and the other projects he had going on. Then his wife came and she made us a tea of some plant they had in their garden It was really good buit we didn't have time to teach that day But the next day we went back and we taught the 1st lesson. It was really good and the spirit was there. They are about 60 years old but the man, Valdemar has gone to every church but he says that every one of the churches is false and he is just waiting to find the true church Well, 2 days later we went back and we taught a little more and answered a few doubts that they had. Well, he said, "By what we can see, by your examples, This is how the true church should work." So the said they would come to church. Well on Sunday just Ana, his wife came because his son and nephew called and said they had to come and talk. Well, Ana went and brought 2 friends with her. They are really good people and a really special family.We are also teaching a lady named Adriana. We baptized her 2 kids, Darlan and Daniele. They are way smart, but she has a few doubts She says that she is Baptist, but never was baptized there and doesn't go any more. Well, we had a family night there with a movie (The Restoration) and games and she loved it, but this Sunday something came up and she wasn't able to go to church. But she has a lot of support from the members there. Almost all of her neighbors are members and they help her a lot. The work is going good and the Lord always prepares a way to accomplish His work here. This area is really ready for the gospel and I am excited to work here. It is weird to think that I could be in my last area but I would love to stay here until the end. Things are going really great.Oh, one more thing, the other night we had an unexpected visitor in our house! We were there preparing something to eat in the kitchen, my comp was sitting down, when all of a sudden, he screams, "What is this!?"I looked and a huge tarantula had walked between his legs and he didn't even see it. I hate spiders and I jumped on top of the chair… O man, we sat there for 10 minutes just thinking what we could do so we got a dustpan and put it on the end of a broomstick and we got another broom and we put the spider into a box thing that we have in our house but that's not all. This morning I was cleaning outside the place where we wash our clothes and I was washing where the water drains and all of a sudden, another visitor, but this visitor was different. A scorpion. I put him in another container and continued washing, now we have in our box 1 tarantula and 6 scorpions. Its great. I made a little home for them with sand and rocks and even little trees. Don't worry, I wont die mom. There are 2 big scorpions and 4 littler ones. I haven't named them yet but there is still a lot of timeWell I love you all and really, don't worry about me. I am still keeping the rules, I don't kiss girls, but I have held a few girls hands if you count those that are 5 or 6 years old! But really, I love you all and hope you all are doing wonderful. Thanks mom for the pictures. I love to be able to see my family and keep updated.Love Elder Crosby