Reed's Week

Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007

Well Hello Family! I know I probably say this every letter but time just flies from one week to the next. First of all, am I an uncle again yet? I’m sure I’ll hear about all this stuff but Mark wrote me an email and said that Holly and him were on their way to the hospital and so I should have another niece or nephew by now! Wow, I have to wait a week to know if the baby is a boy or a girl. I’m guessing another boy. That is really exciting and I am sure mom is happy to double the grandkids. I hope everything went well and that Holly and the baby are healthy and loving life. Bret also wrote me telling me about going to a Brazilian Restaurant and eating Picanha and drinking Guarana. We don’t get to eat like that all the time, well actually almost never, but there really are restaurants exactly like that here. They bring the food out on a big Sword. Its called a churrasco. My favorite meat has to be ‘carne do sol’ which is ‘sun meat’ translated literally, but they are all good. So this past week was just super good. First of off I got a letter from Jackson and Paloma, the Jackson and Paloma from Sousa. I don’t know if you guys remember me writing about them. But in the letter he said that they were baptized February 6, 2007 and he thanked me and Elder Matos for teaching them and that we had a big part in their decision to be baptized. It was great to get this letter and tears swelled up in my eyes as a read it. He is a great guy and I knew that he was going to be baptized and I was so sad that I had to leave, but now they are going to church every week and are helping the branch there in Sousa. We also had 2 baptisms this past week, Patrick and Isabely. Patrick is 18 years old and a friend of Felipe that we baptized 4 weeks ago or so. He lives really close to the church and is just a great guy. His dad is a little anti but Patrick knows the church is true and wants to do what’s right. Isabely is 13 years old and we were going to baptize her brother in law’s brother that is 16 that lives next door to her, but he had some doubts and wanted to wait one more week. But Isabely, we just made a contact with her and her Sister and she came to church 2 weeks ago. She really loved church and so she was baptized on Sunday. Her sister came to see the baptism and really loved it and said she would come next week. As far as Maria and Francisco, this was the best part of my week. We went to their house Thursday night and were talking with them for a while. We taught them the 3rd lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we taught about the Word of Wisdom and it was really good. The hardest thing for them is to stop drinking coffee so we made a few goals for them to stop. They accepted everything and I really felt the spirit there. We invited them to prepare for their baptism on March 11 and THEY ACCEPTED!!! We stopped by Saturday night and she had made this really good soup for us and me and Q Smith both ate like 4 bowls. Sunday we went by 15 minutes before church started to walk with them to church and they were ready and waiting to go to church. Maria was sitting at the table reading the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome. They went to church and loved it (they had already been in Sao Paulo many times so they new what it was like). We stopped by that night and talked with them for over an hour and left a message. Then Monday we went by again and Maria had made dinner for us again. While we were talking she said, “We always feel so good when you two are here. I feel as if my own kids are with me again (they have 3, 2 that live in Sao Paulo) here in my house. We don’t have much, but you two are always welcome here in our house.” It was a really good night and they are really happy right now. Maria always wants to make us food and feels like she needs to take care of us. Francisco is really funny and really reminds me of Dad. There is this music here called Forro that is always playing in the streets really loud. I told Francisco that I didn’t like it and he doesn’t like it either so he always jokes with me and asks “So are you going to buy a cd of Forro to take back to the US?” and he always thinks it is so funny. Anyway, I could talk forever about them and I am so happy. This week they will be baptized and I will send you a picture!!! The other news is that we had Interviews with Presidente Geschwandtner this past Friday and those are always good. This interview was especially good and President told me lots of stuff that got me pumped up to work hard and obey the rules. Well this is getting long again but there is just so much to tell you about. Things are great here. My comp, Elder Q Smith, got called to be a Zone Leader so I know I won’t be his companion next week, and the Zone leaders here are saying that I might be called SR comp but who knows. We’ll see what happens because we have transfers this next week which will be interesting. Pres Geschwandtner is going home in June so there are only 2 more transfers before he goes home and people are saying this transfer will determine how things are when the new mission pres arrives. Anyway, that’s still in the future. Right now I am excited to be here and know that this is the Lords work. I love being a missionary and am grateful for all my many blessings. I know this is the true church. I know Christ lives and that he loves us all. I love you guys. Be safe and I hope all is well.
Your son and brother, Elder Crosby