INFUSION SOFTWARE ROCKS!

Just in case you guys don't know, my company, Infusion Software is awesome! Check out this recent article from Yahoo Finance about us.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060928/20060928005768.html?.v=1

I recently invested what money I could afford into the company which in about 5 years when we are sold for $100 million it will be worth about 5-10 times as much. That's the plan anyways. Oh, by the way, Clate Mask, Jr. is the President of Infusion. His Dad Clate Mask, Sr. gave the opening prayer at the Priesthood Session of Conference and has also invested in the company. Pretty sweet huh?! Check out our home page also www.infusionsoft.com. Can you find a picture of me on the site?

Update: Hey I wanted to add that each month one lucky employee is chosen as the Empoyee of the Month and gets to drive this sweet Nissan Z 350 for the whole month!

Another week in Paradise

Date:
Mon, 09 Oct 2006

Well i got smarter and am writing this in Word first and then will copy
and paste it (or will try to, everything is in Portuguese). Well this
past week was really good. We had a ward activity on Friday night and
that was a big hit. We had 13 investigators there so that was really
really good. We are teaching a lot of people but did´t have a baptism
last week but will have at least one this Sunday. It´s amazing how much
of a roller coaster life is. One day I´m on top of the world and the
next day all of our appointments fall through and I´m down at the bottom
again. I love it though. Elder Matos is a good trainer and I have
learned a lot. I actually know where we are going now (most of the time) and
am beginning to be able to understand people in regular conversation. I
still have a long long way to go but I won´t let this weigh me down.
Like Mom told me in the last letter, I can´t let things like this weigh
me down but be grateful for what I can understand. Well we got to play
futebol for the first time today and that was a blast. I had some fotos
but its not letting me download them so I will try next week. Its good
to hear that Round Valley and BYU are doing good. I will admit that I
do miss the football games but it´s only 2 years. Sounds like Tami was
busy with Homecoming week and all that and what is this about Lisa
going to driving school? Shame shame shame. Well things here are just
great. The work is progressing and we are actually going to move the chapel
in 2 weeks I think because we have so many people going to church. We
are teaching Rina, Dalton, and Jorge and they might be baptized this
next week. Jorge has a drinking problem but I am praying that he will
stop. We are also working with Francisco and his family and have a lot of
references we are receiving from Paulo Henrique and Robson (the two
young boys we baptized last week). We are working with Robson´s parents
and they came to the activity and really liked it. At the activity Elder
Matos and I did a skit where I was his hands and he explained what
Missionaries do before they leave the apartment. I got to brush his teeth
and shave and feed him and other things like that. It was good and we
got a lot of laughs. The members here are great and the people are so
nice, so nice that sometimes its a problem because it is hard to tell
which ones just like you and which ones like the gospel. Well I love you
and it was good to hear from Mom about everything. We have zone
conference this week and so I will receive my leters I have been receiving.
Sousa is so far away only once every zone conference we get letters and
we don´t have an address here in Sousa so i´m looking forward to some
letters. Well I better go. Be good and always be a good example. People
are always watching.
Your son and Brother
Elder Crosby

I PASSED!

What better to do with 6 hours of your life than attend driving school!! Yep, I had to sit in a stuffy class room and learn how to drive more gooder! wink I got a little flashy speeding ticket on the 101 N! I'm a hard core CRIMINAL what can I say!!



I wore my "jail bird" shirt for the occation! WINK

Day 2- Time Travel Tuesday!

Well today was day two! i was originally going to dress 80's with the big side ponytail and all, but decided not to last minuite. Any way the icecream social was a big success today, everyone seemed to really enojoy themselves. We had it during lunch infront of the school, and it was a perfect, warm beautiuful day.... it wasnt raining or snowing and the wind was hardly even blowing!:) I included a picture of my choir teacher Mr. Hagerman, becasue i thought he was pretty funny! OH and today they announced the "finalinst" for homecoming royalty, girls- Chandra Sessions, Marcee Walker, and ME:) boys: Trever Nicoll, Ray Hamblin, and Ross Eagar, so everyone will vote again just on those three and then they will announce royalty at the game. I actually didnt evem want my name to be in the voting because I am going to be so stinkin' busy friday, and i have recieved cool awards before, but Im really happy because it is my senior year and what not! Anyway i better get to bed! love you!

Letter from Reed

Date:
Mon, 02 Oct 2006

Well this is my third time trying to send a letter so I hope it works.
Things are great here. it´s still hot and we are working hard. We had 4
baptisms, Vitoria and Maria on wednesday which asked me to baptize them
so that was an awesome experience, and then Paul Henrique and Robson
last night. Things are going good and we are always teaching. I´m sorry
this is short but I don´t have any more time. i love you all and hope
you are doing well.
Your son and Brother
Elder Crosby
O mom I was wondering if you could send me some simple recipes like
pancakes and stuff like that because we usually just get fed lunch. I was
wondering if you had a home made root beer recipe too for a ward
activity we will have. I also didn´t bring hardly any pictures and the people
here love pictures so if you could go up in my room and look for my
pictures, n0t a lot but just some pictures of me and just other stuff. Let
tami pick som out but I want a picture of me playing football and
basketball because they like pictures like that. I dont know exactly where
they are. They could be in my yellow container or the boxes by my bed.
Thanks and I love you.

spirit week! day 1 AHOY MATEE!

WELL I havent posted for a while because i have been so busy getting everything ready for spirit week, but now it is here! I got asked by Kellin Walker, which i am excited about. I have been busy planning and icecream social tuesday, carbashing and bonfire wed., car decorating contest thursday, the assembly, parade and a tailgate party friday, then of course the actual dance. I have alot of people helping tho, so it should all turn out good! anyway i'll take alot of pictures and post them when i can! Today was pirate day, you cant see my pants but they were pretty sweet! any way love you all!

More from WV

We were visited by the Huish's (Gma, Gpa and Kellie), Dad and Kaemon eating popscicles, my latest 5k run (another first place).

Latest of Kaemon

Reed's first week in Paradise

Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006
Well I am finally here. I´m sorry I didn´t send a letter last week
but I didn´t have a chance to use the internet. I flew out of Sao Paulo
at 8:00 in the morning so I had to be at the front desk with all my
stuff and the other guys going to Joao pessoa at 5:30 in the morning so I
had to get up at about 4:45 and you all know how much I like getting up
early. So we flew out, me and 6 other guys. Luckily we had a brasilian
with us so that we didn´t get lost. I was sitting in the airport and
the guy would come over the speaker and say something in Portuguese and I
had no idea what he was saying, and then he would repeat it in English
and I still had no idea what he was saying. That was kinda the first
time that I realized that from then on it was all Portuguese and that I
better learn it and learn it fast.
So we flew out of Sao Paulo to Brasilia which was a 1 1\2 hour
flight. We had about a 45 minute layover and then flew to Joao Pessoa which
took about 2 1\2 hrs. We were all just wondering what it would be like.
When we were getting close to Joao Pessoa it started to get more green
the closer we got and then I finally could see the city and the ocean.
It was a pretty cool site. So we landed were walking toward the airport
we could see our mission President and his wife waving at us. So we got
our bags and went to meet them. We didn´t get much of a chance to talk
at the airport but we just packed up our stuff in a van and headed for
the mission office. We then had some cake and they told us abut the
mission and some of the stuff that we needed to know about the mission.
They went over rules and other stuff like that too. We had interviews
with Presidente Geschwandtner. After that we went to their house for
dinner and it was just amazing. It was the best meal I had had in 2 months.
after dinner we had a little testimony meeting where all the new guys
bore their testimony in Portuguese and that was really good. So by this
time it was about 8:30 and we were all wondering when we would find out
where we were going to be sent the next day. Finally Presidente
Geschwandtner pulled out the envelopes that had all the info in them. So he
started reading them and finally he got to mine. He read (in Portuguese)
Elder Crosby, your new zone will be Caico, your new area will be Sousa,
and your trainor will be Elder Matos. At the time this all meant
nothing to me and I just wanted to find a map. He then talked to us a little
bit more and then we took pictures and I thing they ar sending some of
those to you. The whole time I was just wondering, "where the heck is
Sousa?" So finally we got to talk to some of the missionaries that had
been there for a while and they explained that Sousa is the furthest
area away from Joao Pessoa. It was also the hottest part of the misison
and almost never rained there but they said it had the best ice cream,
the best salgados, and had a lot of Baptisms.
So that night we stayed in a hotel, right on the beach. The next
morning we got our stuff and headed to the bus station but they told me
that I was going to wait because my companion was actually in joao
Pessoa for some training. So Everyone else left and I went to the Misisonary
office with the older missionaries. I sat ther until noon, just reading
the letters I got (14!!!) and opening the packages (2!!! One from Kari
and one from Katelyn) so that was pretty exciting. Finally I got to
meet Elder Matos. He´s a Brazilian and knows about 20 words in english so
Its pretty interesting but I will havew to learn Portugues that much
faster. And then we went to lunch. We went to a place like Tucanos where
they bring the meet out on the swords and that was great. While we were
eating it started to rain and it was just perfect. So at about 3:00 we
went to catch our bus to Sousa but we ended upmissing it and having to
wait untill 5:00 that night to catch the bus. I was just glad Elder
Matos was there because I would have been so lost with out him. We finally
got on the bus and headed to Sousa. 7 1\2 hours later, at 12:30
Thursday morning we arrived at our Apartment. that first night was pretty bad,
both me and Elder Matos had the runs (I think from the lunch) . It
wasn´t a pleasent experience. So the next day we got up and went out on the
town. Sousa is a little town with about 40,000? people in the middile
of nowhere. It is in the easter part of Paraiba if you want to look at a
map.
Things are good here. We live with another companionship and the
living isn´t too bad. It is really hot here and so I average about 2
showers a day and sometimes three. The apartment isn´t too bad. We have all
that you need. The people here are extrordanarily nice. It´s amazing
how open they are and everyone will invite you in to their house and
offer you water or something to drink. We are teaching about 10 people
right now and 2 are getting baptized onWednesday and another one maybe
Sunday. At church yesturday we had I think 105 people so that was pretty
impressive. we had 6 of our investigators show up to church. I still have
no idea what people are saying here because the dialect here is a lot
different. It would be like learning english and the going to one of the
southern statees like alabama and trying to understand them. The first
couple of days I didn´t understand anything but I am beginning to be
able to pick out words and Phrases now. Elder Matos is a great companion
and has taught me alot. President Geschwandtner came here on Sunday
becuase we just got married misisonary couple to be the new branch
President because the old one got excommunicated I think.
Anyway, things are good and I love it here even though it is really
really hot. I love being able to actually go around and teach the
lessons to people with real problems and real desires. Every lesson Elder
Matos lets me teach a part of it and I am trying to learn how to teach
mor effectively and be able to explain things in Portuguese. The food
here is good. It´s kind of different because at home the big meal is
dinner, but here it is lunch. We always go to a members house for lunch and
Sometimes that is the only meal we eat all day unless we make something
for breakfast. We never take time for dinner but teach lessons. Some
times we stop and get a little bite on the run at night but usually we
don´t eat until we get back to the apartment at 9 or 9:30. I eat so much
at lunch I don´t even notice though. Well I can´t beleive that I am
actually in the field. I didn´t even tell you about my last week in the
CTM or when Elder Uchtdorf spoke to us but I don´t have time. I love you
all. I know that Christ lives and that we are sons and daughters of
God. I know that God knows us each personally and will help us if we ask
him, even if it´s just a little thing. I know that this church is true
and that it brings happiness and hope to our lives. I know that only
through the Atonement of Jesus Christis the Plan of Salvation possible. I
know that Jesus Christ rose from the grave and that he overcame both
physical and spiritual death. I know that he lives today and that only
through Him can we be saved. I want you all to know that I love you all
and aprreciate all that you have done and still do for me. I challenge
you all to share the gospel with someone. Pick a date that you want to
have someone go to church with you and then pray about it and TALK WITH
EVERYONE. just open your mouth. I know that If you have the faith that
you will be able to find someone to share the gospel with. If everyone
would do this in the church just think how much faster the church would
grow. Misisonary work is 10x more effective when they have a friend
there when they are taught the lessons. I know it will bless their lives
and your lives. I hope you all have a good week.

Your son and brother,
Elder Crosby

Come inside our home...

We finally got our house in order so we posted some pictures on our blog so you can go check it out if you want to.

Kari enters the MTC

Here's Kari, won't she make a great missisonary? She was so excited to get there. They will love her in the Los Angeles Temple Visitors Center.

Reed writes a Poem

I didn't get a letter from Reed this week since he's probably on a plane headed to his new area. He sent a letter home this week and included was a poem he wrote so I thought I'd post that. He also said that he and 4 other guys got to sing a special number and he also got to lead the music, something he's never done. He said it also rained alot and actually woke him up one morning. It was kind of funny, he said that he received a letter from Elder Burkholders Dad, he thought that was weird. Then he was shocked when he got one from his mom and his girlfriend a couple of days later.
It was then he remembered that he'd mentioned to him that he hadn't received any mail. (He has now).So if you can, write real letters to him. I bet he sends a new address from where he's at now. Here's the POEM:

When I'm down or life is rough
When I feel I have bad luck.
When things get bad, get hard, get tough
When I hear "just give up".
I close my eyes and see His face.

If I'm sick and life's no fun.
If I feel I can't go on.
If life goes south, goes bad, goes wrong.
If I want to say, "I'm done".
I close my eyes and see His face.

His loving eyes that say "I'm here".
His look that says "Have no fear".
His lips that whisper in my ear.
His love that makes my purpose clear.

I'm here for Him and not for me,
To bring His sheep that will believe.
He suffered all for you and me
That we may live eternally.

Two years I'll serve with all my might.
With all my heart, mind, strength I'll fight.
I'll stand for what is true and right
And guide His flock unto the light.

With Him I can do anything
To Him I'll pray and I will sing.
Because of Him, death has no sting.
He is my Lord, my God, my King.

So when you're down or life is rough
And when you feel you have bad luck.
When things get bad, get hard, get tough.
When you hear, "Just give up".

Just close your eyes and see His face.

by Reed Crosby (D&C 122:7-8)

Honeymoon Update!

Hi every one! We are back from the Honeymoon of course and if you haven't heard yet it was 100% perfect from start to finish.

Because there is so much to tell about our trip we put it on our blog so we could just email the link to people so they can read more about it at their own leisure. Thanks again to every one for your awesome attitudes and support. We love you!

Her is the link: http://mr-mrs-crosby.blogspot.com/

Reed's last week in the MTC

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006

Well this will be my last letter while I am here at the CTM. It´s
amazing how time flies. By this time next week I will probably be on a
plane to Joao Pessoa. It sounds like getting Kari off was a great
experience. I will always remember when we took Bret up to the MTC, riding up in the Dynasty, Tami, Bret and I in the back and then singing Called to Serve with all the missionaries and the spirit there was so strong. I´ve always been so blessed to have brothers and sisters who have always set the best examples for me and also two awesome parents always urging and encouraging me to do what is right.
This past week was great. I´ve been getting really excited to go out
to the field especially after going proselyting on Friday. It was an
amazing experience. It started out a little slow but we ended up passing out 14 cards but the best part about it all is that instead of just walking around and talking to a few people, giving our message, then leaving, this time we did a lot less walking (we probably walked 10 - 15 steps between each person) and more talking. We could actually have conversations. We had a couple of hard ones but 2 of the three spoke english so we could explain things in english. Of the two that spoke english, one said he had his own way of worship by hugging and crying to trees so that was kind of weird and we mainly just bore testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel, and the other tough one that spoke english asked us why the church doesn´t like gays. We gave him a condensed law of chastity lesson and tried to bear our testimonies that God loves us all but sexual relations outside of legal marriage between a man and wife, homosexual, or lesbian activities are all abominations to the Lord. The best experience of the day though was when we were talking ot the "tree hugger" guy I kept seeing these two men that were probably in their early 20´s just keep looking over at us while they sat on the next bench and I knew that we needed to talk to them. So as soon as we ended our conversation with the other guy we went to talk to them and ended up talking to them for over 20 minutes. It was amazing because I could understand almost everything they said, but they others I talked to I could only understand about 1/2. They had both heard of the church and even had heard about Néfi. They seemed really enthusiastic about being able to talk to other missionaries and receive the Book of Mormon. I have a really good feeling about them and it just got me really excited to finally be able to go out into the field.
The rest of the week was great. Sunday I got to bless the bread in
Portuguese which was a good experience. I don´t remember if I told you
or not but tonight we get to hear from Elder Uchtdorf!!! I don´t know
why I got so lucky to hear 2 apostles becuase before Elder Nelson came,
an apostle hadn´t come to the CTM in over a year and I get to hear from
2 of them. I´m really excited and am hoping to get some answers to a couple questions that I have. This morning we went to the Sao Paulo
temple which will probably be my last time in 22 months so that is pretty sad. I love the temple. I am planning on sending a cd of pictures today along with a tape so I hope it gets there. It´s amazing that I have already been gone for 8 weeks already!
I love you all and hope everyone is doing great. don´t worry about
me because the Lord will watch over me. A pretty good quote I heard the
other day was "there are no sacrifices, only great opportunities." That
is how I feel about my misison. I´ve been reading about the SOns of
Mosiah and I just think it is amazing how much they were willing to give up. It never really hit me before but they all had the chance to be the King, THE KING, of the Nephites and they gave that up to serve people that hated them. they didn´t know how long they would serve and were willing to serve until the day they died. It´s amazing. I know i didn´t give up as much as them and I know it will all be back when I go home in 2 years. I love being able to put on the black name tag everyday and be a representative of Jesus Christ. I love you all.

Your brother and son
Elder Crosby

Handsome boy!

News from Reed

Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2006

Hey family! how is everyone? Things are still great here at the
CTM. Not much changes from week to week but it sounds like things are
still going on back home just like they were. Bret and Becki off on their honeymoon and Kari checking into the MTC tomorrow!!! It´s great. So we beat St. Johns finally Mom tells me. That is pretty neat. I heard that BYU lost the season opener to U of A from my inside source (Sister
Cardon, The CTM Presidents wife watched most the game over the internet). It´s alright Dad, BYU can bounce back. Don´t lose hope in them yet.
Anyway I met two people from St Johns this past week, Taryn Platt
said to tell Kari hi and congratulations and also Matt Greer that I
played basketball against (tall red head kid). It´s amazing that I actually know some people here. The world is very small, especially in the mormon world.
This past week we got the best rain since I arrived here. A storm
moved in at about 4:00 and it rained all night. It was nice because the
temperature dropped to where it actually gets cold at night now when we
leave the window open. The weather is about perfect right now and I´m
enjoying the cool while I can.
Other than the rain I´ve just been buckling down. Proselyting a
week and a half ago got me pretty scared that I might not be ready to go out into the field so I´ve been hitting hit hard and hopefully i can
keep it up until I leave. We get to go out again this Friday and I am
really looking forward to talking to everyone and having some good
experiences. I have heard of some pretty coool stories about people proselyting in the CTM.
This morning our two Brazilian roomates, Elder Carneiro and Elder
Fonseca. The Brazilians stay for only 3 weeks. i´m gonna miss them and
their help. It is so nice to be able to talk to real Brazilians every
single night. We should be getting new roomates tomorrow or Thursday so
I´m just keeping my fingers crossed that we get some more Brazilians.
Also Elder Oriente, Elder Da Silva, Elder Tosta, And another Elder Da
Silva all left. These guys were really cool and would always just come in our room at the end of the day and talk and joke with us. Elder Orinte is just a really cool guy and he´s from Joao Pessoa so I tried to talk with him all that I could. It was really sad to see them all go.
Thak you all for your prayers and support. I love you. Watch and
Pray always that Satan will have no power over you (Alma 13: 28).

Love Elder Crosby


ps - Tell people to send everything to the Mission address until I get
my new address. I will get all my mail that everyone has sent through
pouch and to the mission office once I get to the field. the stamps are
for you because I just go to the post office and use their stamps. As
far as the book, I saw it when Wes had it but I haven´t had a chance to
sign it. I don´t know where it is right now. Oh ya, tell Denver to get
a three ring binder with dividers and paper so that he can organize his
stuff nice. They give you some stuff here but I wish I would have brang
some because they don´t have just regular three ring binders down here.
Also tell him that peanut butter down here is like gold.
Is there any way that you could get some addresses for me? Just
every one in our town like BO, Nate, Jesse, and all the other missionaries and it would be best if you could just send those to the mission home not by email. Don´t feel rushed but I would like to have them so I could write them every once in a while. Thanks mom, you´re the best. I love you.

Kari's Mission Address

In case you didn't get my e-mail, here are my address'. I expect some sweet letters and stuff from every one of you! I cannot email until I get out of the MTC, so for the next 8 weeks please take the time to hand write me! I would greatly appreciate it and it would bring a lot of sunshine to my day! I would be so sad if none of my 6 siblings wrote me... that would be a tragedy! Anyways, this will be my last blogger post for awhile- kind of sad! I love all of you so very much and I will miss you all a lot. Thank you for your love and examples... you all have helped me to get where I am right now. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for all of you. You are the best family in the world- I am so blessed to have you!


MTC: ( I will be there from September 6th until November 6th)
Sister Kari Lynn Crosby
California Los Angeles Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

Mission: (this is for both letters and packages)
Sister Kari Lynn Crosby
California Los Angeles Mission
1591 E. Temple Way
Los Angeles, CA 90024-5801

Our exciting walk to the park...

First we saw our friend the groundhog,
then we walked pass our neighbors the deer family and finally we ended up at the river feeding the ducks. Kaemon loves it.

Wedding FUN!!

Check this out!!

Hey I just wanted everyone to know that Kristina started a new blog for the Dave Crosby family. Mark put it on under 'links' so you can go straight to theirs from our blog. You can comment without an 'invite' because you are already a blogger.I just read it and it was so fun to read about their lives. This blog stuff is just great!

Reeds letter

Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006
Hey family! Well another week has flown by yet again. From the letters
it sounds like the receptions and all that went well and that the
backyard looked good. I looked at the pictures that Bret sent me and Bret
and Becki look sooo happy. It sounds like the past few weeks have been
pretty hectic for everyone and I´m sure mom and dad will be glad when
things calm down and get back to normal. So Kari has already given her
farewell talk I heard. Wow, I guess I didnt reallize it was so close. She
only has about 8 days left now. Wow. I remember what it felt like that
last week, just the anticipation and the wondering what it will be like.
You´ll love it Kari.
Well this past week was great. I got a haircut Wednesday and I´ll
just say that I´m glad that I only have to get one haircut here at the
CTM. It was free though so I can´t complain about anything. The guy
just missed a few spot a little bit but its ok. He was a cool guy, just
happy and whistling while he cut everyones hair but he only does about
three cuts and you´re on your way out the door. Then Friday i went
Proselyting again which was soo much better than the first time. Elder Demke
and I handed out 14 cards I believe in about 2 hours. It was a good
experience to be able to talk to the people, even though I didn´t
understand everything, I understood more than last time. We just made a goal to
talk to everyone and to be bold. It was so good. i feel really good
about a lot of the cards we passed out but about three of them stand out.
I can´t go into any detail because we don´t have time to but the three
I feel good about we had pretty good conversations with them. i just
wish I could know if the people actually call or not. It just makes you
wonder.
Other than that there isn´t too much to tell. I´ve been learning
so much and just love every day. Our Brazilian roommates are awesome. I
look forward to talking to them every night. Last night Elder Demke and
I gave a medium Portuguese lesson plan and it was the first time I was
able to give one without reading my paper or looking at it a lot. We
gave it to a couple of Brazilian missionaries so they could understand it
and it was just a great experience. I know I won´t be able to speak as
well as I want as fast as I want but I can´t wait until I can say what
is on my mind.
I love all of you and I think about you all every day. Thanks for
the letters and the support. Remember to read your scriptures every day
and pray morning an night. Pray for the gift of Charity because if you
don´t have Charity, you are nothing. (If you haven´t read 1 Corinthians
13 lately I would suggest reading it)

Love
Elder Crosby

Reeds weekly letter

Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:14:59 +0000

Well hello again my wonderful family. There is officially one more
Crosby this week than last week. Congratulations Bret and Becki. I wish I
could have been there but from what I hear from Mom and Dad it went
great. Sounds like you all got to see a lot of Family and friends and had a
grand time. This week has just been amazing, one of the best weeks yet
(I only have like 3 others to compare it to but it was still really
good). Last Tuesday was just a great day in itself. As I said we went to
the Temple in Campinas. That night we had an amazing devotional. Elder
Amato, an area authority spoke to us. After the Tuesday night
devotionals we always get to go with our district and discuss what we learned for
about an hour. These are some of my favorite times. With 14 people in
our district there are always a lot of good insights and the spirit is
always so strong. I learn so much from my district but mainly from my
district leader. He is an amazing guy. On Thursday I got my first letters
so that made me real happy. Becki wrote on some ribbon that they were
using for their wedding and that was pretty cool. Then on Saturday we
had the privelage to hear from one of the twelve apostles, Elder Russel
M. Nelson. It was just amazing. It was lke a general conference meeting.
We had Elder Arnold, an Area Authority, and his wife spoke, Elder
Robert C Oaks who is in the presidency of the seventy and his wife spoke,
and then Elder Nelson spoke. They were all such good talks and I learned
so much. Elder Oaks talked about keeping a good journal, the exact same
thing that Dad has been telling me to do. Before that I had been
writing almost every day but Ever since that day I have been writing every
single night and I am going to try to for my whole mission. Elder Nelson
spoke to us about how the Lord uses Patterns and we need to figure out
these patterns. One that he spoke on was "The Lord uses the unlikely to
accomplish the 'Impossible'." There are so many cases of this. One for
example is the birth of Jesus Christ. Who did the Lord choose to give
birth to Jesus? A virgin. Everyone know that a virgin can not have a
son, but the Lord provided a way. It was an awesome experience to be in
the same room with an apostle. You can just feel his spirit. The Arnolds
that spoke get to travel around with Elder Nelson. They have been able
to travel with two other Apostles and they say that being able to
travel and be around these men give you a sense of what it would be like to
be around the Savior. These are amazing men. Elder Nelson is the one
that dedicated the Brazil MTC so he has a special place for here.
As far as Portuguese I am learning a lot. This last Thursday We got 2
Brazilian room mates. They don´t speak any English so we have to
communicate with them in Portuguese or charades. Its a pretty funny site every
night to see us trying to communicate because for the most part it is
charades. Their names are Elder Fonseca and Elder Carneiro. They are
great guys and just always happy. All the Brazilians here are so happy and
willing to help you with anything. In just 4 days I have learned a lot
from them because they always correct my Portuguese and teach me a lot.
I also met a guy from Joao Pessoa, Elder Oriente. He is a cool guy and
we talk, or at least attempt to talk, about Joao Pessoa and the food
and jsut everything. I´ve learned that the people in Joao Pessoa talk
with a totally different accent then what I am used to. They talk really
fast too so It might be a little difficult to adjust and understand
them. He says the people In Joao Pessoa are so humble and they all want to
feed you. he says the food there is some of the best in Brazil and that
I might gain weight while I am there because everybody wants to feed
you. He said Joao Pessoa is one of the highest baptizing missions because
the people are prepared to hear the gospel there. Talking to him makes
me excited to be able to go to the Mission and get out of the CTM.
This week we get to go preselyting once again. I am excited to see how
much I have learned and see if i can talk with more people andbe more
bold. Life is good and I am always learning so much and growing so much.
I get to feast every day upon the word of God and it is so exciting. I
learn so much. I hope every one is doing great. I love you all.

Elder Crosby

Reeds weekly letter

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006

Well another week has gone by and I don´t know where it went. I´ll
start out by answering some of mom´s questions. I don´t know what time zone
I am in but I just know that we are 4 hours ahead of arizona. as far as
letters go I haven´t got any because I think they are all going to my
Mission Address and not here to the MTC. I didñ´t know that I had to
give you the MTC address. So if anyone has wrote to me and doesn´t get a
letter for another month and a half or so, that´s why. It´s almost too
late to do anything about it now so just keep sending them to the same
place and in a month I´ll be able to get back to you. As far as the
package, I just got a note today that it got here but I haven´t gone to pic
it up yet. That´s where we are going right after this though. I´ll try
to send anouther picture with my companion in it but we go to a new
computer place now because it´s cheaper and I don´t know if they have the
card reader device that hooks up to the computer and we aren´t allowed
to take our cameras outside of the CTM. As far as the blog, I´m able to
read it if I have time. Sometimes I just glance over it. It looks like
Mark is starting to Run some races and stuff and what´s this I hear
about me being an uncle .... again? That´s awesome Maark and Holly.
Congratulations.
I´m still loving it here although it gets hotter every day. As i told
you all last week, Last Friday we got to go out on the streets and try
to pass out some pass-along cards. So here´s how it went down. We left
at about 12:45 and drove to the middile of town called Santa Maria (I
think its like a suburb type thing of Sao Paulo). They dropped us off
for almost 2 hours and gave us all pass-along cards. Elder Demke and I
had prepared a little intro thing in portuguese, "We are Representatives
of Jesus Christ. We have a very important message for you..." we would
then tell them about God and Joseph Smith and about the restoration in
our best Portuguese (which isn´t very good) all in less than 3 minutes.
The people here are very nice and I can tell that most people listened
just be be nice. We ended up passing out 6 pass-along cards. Not bad
for our first time. i have to admit I was pretty scared though. It´s hard
to just go up to people and tell them your beleifs. One thing that they
have been telling us is to be bold and say what you believe. That´s one
thing that I can work on. It was an awesome experience and I learned so
much from just a couple of hours.
I got to go to the templo de Campinas today. Its just an awesome
temple. It sits up on this hill and you can look out and see all of Sao
Paulo from behind the temple. I love being able to go to the temple.
Well my 4 roomates got shipped of to their missions today so we are
getting 4 new roommates. From what I know, 2 guys in our district are
changing rooms and then I think we are going to get 2 Brasileiros. We
have a definate advantage here that I wouldn´t get in the MTC in provo of
being able to hear Portuguese wherever you go. It´s awesome. the
Brasileiro missionarios are so nice and just awesome. I love going up and
trying to talk with them in my broken Portuguese and my greengo accent.
The 2 guys that are moving in that are in our district are cool guys. I
don´t know if I told you but one of the missionaries that just left
rolled his ankle a couple of weeks ago playing basketball and then just
yesturday one of the guys that is moving into our room had to get 4
stitches above his eye from running into the wall trying to save a ball. Its
like church ball all over again. I don´t play real hard and I don´t get
very competitive because it´s not worth the risk. i´ll have plenty of
time for that later.
Thank you for your prayers and your support. I love you all and I
miss you tons. Congratulations Mark and Holly again and the family
website is just awesome. I love being able to just glance at it every week
and see what everyone is up to. It sounds like Mom and Dad are putting a
lot of work into the backyard trying to get ready for Bret and Becki´s
reception. Ué (whoa), the next time I write Bret and Becki are going to
be married. Thats crazy but its awesome. congratulations. I hope
everything goes smoothly. I wish I could be there. If you two just would have
decided to tie the knot a month earlier I could have been there but
it´s ok. I know us Crosby´s. It takes us so long to make up our mind. I
know that´s how I am. heck i have to get up a half hour before everyone
just so I have time to pick out which tie I´m going to wear. Well I
better run, I hope everyone is doing fantastic. I love you all.

Elder Crosby


ps - Have you been sending my letters to chad? I thnk he would
appreciate some mail and I think it would be better to send him my letters
instead of just telling him about how I´m doing. I don´t have much time
after going to the temple on P-day to write letters so I´m sorry but I
can´t really write leters to anyone right now. maybe when I´m out in the
mission field I´ll be able to write mor personalized letters.

EFY update and stuff...

Wow, I haven't been on here forever! I'm sure you all have missed hearing all about my exciting life... sorry to have kept you in the dark for so long! EFY was absolutely wonderful! I had too many great experiences to even tell you about and I met so many good friends and also had a blast! It was such great mission prep for me too since the nightly devotionals were straight out of Preach My Gospel, so that was cool. I'm sad it's over, but time to move on to bigger and better things! Here a picture of me with my co-counselors Megan, Chance, and Jonathan in action! I liked the shirts a lot better this year than last year... just thought I'd throw that in!
One fun thing that happened to me took place the last Friday night dance of EFY (just this last Friday). I had been at the dance for about 20 minutes and was with my kids out dancing when 4 of my boys came and tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a bag of those Amazing Fruit gummy things and said "this is from your secret admirer because he thinks you are amazing". They wouldn't tell me anything else; no hints whatsoever. So I thought that was cute and just kept on dancing. Every 20 minutes the rest of the night I got a treat with a message from my secret admirer from random boys. This is what they were (Soo cute!): Almond Joys "because I bring him joy everytime he sees me", Hot Tamales "because he thinks I'm hot", Bit-o-Honey "because I am a sweet, beautiful daughter of God", Sweettarts "because I am a sweet heart". None of the kids would tell me any hints and so I was like freaking out all night, but I did have a hunch. I had a crush on a counselor named Chance the past few weeks and so I was hoping it was him (we have been partners twice this summer and had been out on one date), but I really didn't know. I looked for him all over the dance and I had my kids out looking for him, but he was no where in sight. I had to go on duty at 9:10 and it was 9:05 and he was still MIA. A slow song came on and it happened to be a "counselor dance". I was standing next to my co, Shayne, and so he asked me to dance. I wanted to dance with Chance, but of course I still said yes to Shayne. About half way through the song Shayne brought up my secret admirer and so the thought crossed my mind that it may be him, so I asked him. He just laughed and then swirled me. Okay this part was pretty much straight out of a movie... All the sudden he swirled me and I was now dancing with Chance!! It was so cute and unexpected! Chance and I danced for a bit and then he turned around and my boys had taped a sign on his back that said "PS- I am your secret admirer" It was so cute! He asked me out for Saturday night, which was SO much fun. We have hung out every night since... Anyways, sorry that was long but I just thought it was so cute and it made me so happy! Hopefully you all will get to meet Chance this weekend! He's great! (He's the blond one in the top picture)

We're pregnant!

So here's our little baby, Baby Crosby #2, Kaemon's little playmate...all 3.61 cm of it. The top photo has 2 little crosses in the comma shaped dark uterus. The cross to the left is the top of the skull and the one more down and to the right is the sacrum. The bottom picture you can see the heart, which is the white spec beating at 160 beats per minute. Good job Lisa, you were the closest to guessing right.

Pool Time

We're going to play a game...

...and everyone has to participate. There's a prize for whoever can guess the significance of this number. It has nothing to do with what it's written on or with, just the number. Make your guesses before Wednesday.

Reed's 2nd week in Brazil

Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006

Well another week has gone by and there still isn´t too much more to
tell you. It´kinda the same ol´thing every day but I´m not complaining. I
love it here. ive been learning so much. I actually got complimented
last week on my portuguese by a brazilian. He was amazed that I had only
been at the CTM for a little over 2 weeks. That was a big confidence
booster but I still can´t really communicate with brazilians. I just have
a few questions I know and thats about it. I´m learning more every day.
On Sexta-feira (friday) we get to go out proselyting for 3 and a half
hours out in the town of São Paulo. They will take us to a park or some
place like that and drop us off and let us go talk to people for a few
hours. They give us pass-along cards to hand out and stuff like that.
I´m pretty nervous for that because I don´t know enough Portuguese to
have a real conversation yet. I can teach a short lesson in prtuguese and
by Friday I should be able to say give the first medium lesson in
Portuguese. So on Friday keep me in your prayers that maybe I´ll be able to
touch somebody´s life or somethin like that.
Well I forgot to tell you about the weather here. It´s winter here
so it´s not bad at all. Last week I actually was a little bit cold.
there were rain showers for a couple of days and it cooled way down. Now
the rain is gone so it has warmed up a little. As far as the humidity, I
can´t really feel any difference from Arizna, maybe a little bit more
humid. In the CTM you can´t really tell though. I feel spoiled. We get
a/c and hot showers and good food. Sometimes I forget that I´m in a
different country until I look out the window. i don´t know if you know
this but São paulo is the 3rd largest city in the world. I lok out the
window and there are endless buildings. Well, I miss you all and I hope
you all have a greatweek. I love you.

Love Elder Crosby

Kaemon's never been the same...

...since he fell down the concrete stairs.

It's fun to run...

...when they give you trophies when you're done. So 5k's are pretty fun. It's 3.1 miles and my latest time was 18:48, which is 6:04 min/mile. I figure it's a good way to have a healthy heart and the events are fun participating in. I;m gonna run in another one on Saturday.

Hi from Brazil

Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006

Oi Familia,
Well its been another week here in Brazil and it just flew by. Today
we got to go to the São Paulo temple and it was just awesome. It was so
nice to be able to just go there and forget about that I had to learn
Portugues and just feel the spirit. They say that we will be able to go
five times before we leave so Im looking forward to that. It was nice
to get some emails and hear from everyone. As I said, our district has
14 people in it and there is only one other guy and me that haven´t
revieved any mail yet. Its funny, some people had some here when they got
here. Their family sent it like 2 weeks before they left. Anyways, I
just want to say that although emails are nice, I would still like to get
a letter every once in a while.
Ok, so I thought I would tell you about my schedule every day. I get up
and eat and have to be in the classroom by 7:30, where we all have
personal study then companionship study until 9:00. Monday, Wednesday and
Firday we then go to the gym for about na hour. Its a nice break from
the classroom. After gym we have MDST, or Misisonary Directed Study Time
where we can study whatever we want. Thursday and Saturday we have MDST
for about 3 ½ hours. Its really nice and I actually look forward to it
each day. There just aren´t enough hours in a day to study enough. I
have all the lessons to prepare, language to learn and scriptures to
read, sometimes it seems overwhelming but I just gotta take it a step at a
time and not try to eat the whole steak in one bite. We prepared a
short lesson in Portuguese yesturday and practiced that for a while. Its
amazing how much I already know and yet I know practically nothing. They
teach us so fast that its hard to remember everything. I´m so glad that
I got to come to the CTM here in Brazil. Its so nice to be able to be
among the Brazilian people. There are many Brazilian Elders here in the
CTM that I try to talk to as much as possible. They still have to talk
way slow but I can understand them somewhat every once in a while.
After lunch is when class starts and we have two four hour classes, with
dinner as they hour break in between classes. It´s a lot of sitting but
we have so much to learn that sometimes it seems like its not enough.
P-days are really nice though, especially being able to get out and walk
around.
Nothing too exciting happened here at the CTM just a lot of learning
and stuff. We had some really good devotionals and stuff this week. At
Sunday night devotional we get to sing the Brazilian national anthem.
It´s crazy. I´m going to record it so all of you can hear it. Anyways,
everyone likes my ties. I get a lot of compliments on them and one of my
roomates liked them so much he bought some off ebay he told me. Haha.
Well I better go, I love you all.

Love Elder Crosby.