May 12, 2014

This is it...my final email.  This week was a good one but sad too.  Elder Panah had a little party for me on Friday night so I could say good bye to some people.  And tonight we are having a family night and President and Sister Hart are coming and bringing chocolate chip cookies.  I'm excited!  It was so great talking to you guys yesterday.  I'm getting so excited to see everyone! Thanks again mom for everything!  You truly are the best mom in the world.  I can't tell you how grateful I am for all that you have done and how many times you sang "I hope they call me on a mission" and got me out here.  This has been the best two years of my life and I wouldn't trade it for all the riches in the world.
~Your Son
Elder Krause

May 5, 2014

Well this week was a great one.  We had our leadership meeting with President Hart so that was a really good day.  I gave my last testimony, which was pretty intense.  It's like a thing we do, when it's someone's last meeting they always go up there and bear their last testimony and my day has arrived!!!  Another great thing about this week was that we had 15 people at church again!  So that was really, really good.  We are doing everything we can to finish my work out here.  That's about it for this week.  I'm getting really excited to see you all.  Have a great week!

April 28, 2014

We had a really great week.  We worked a lot with the members and go some awesome references.  One of which told us of how he received a powerful testimony after he read and prayed for the first time.  We are working to  baptize him before I leave!  Please include him in your prayers!  He is a really cool guy and we have a few others as well that we are working with.  

Also, there was a stake activity this past week and they asked a missionary to speak at it so I ended up doing it and spoke about the restoration, which was really cool! I told them about going to the Sacred Grove and the feelings I felt while I was there.  Everyone loved it and was really paying attention.  They love to look at the pictures we took while we were there. They have testimonies and know the gospel is true and they think it's so cool to see pictures of where that stuff happened. 

I'm trying so hard to stay focused and work hard these last couple weeks.  There's still people waiting for me so I have to find them!  I have another meeting with President Hart this week so that should be really cool.  I love talking to him.  He goes home 7 weeks after I do.

One thing I have decided is that only in the most dire of circumstances will I return to work at Subway! I'm so excited to get to work at dad's office this summer.  That will help me with my anti-Subway plan! hahaha

Well that's about it for this week.  Keep reading the Book of Mormon.  I love you all!

So this is a picture of the crazy baptism that I was telling you about last week.  She was so happy to be baptized!  Elder Panah isn't in the picture because he was busy distracting the Anti-Mormon neighbor that had come along!  But it really was a wonderful baptism and she's doing great!

 This is me cleaning the sugar cane so we can eat it!

 This is another Elder that lives with us too.  

 Here we are at the church farm cutting sugar cane to snack on later.

 What a great sunrise!

 These are the Salvador letters in the city and they have the World Cup team flags on them.

 So cool!

 Out exploring the town on Pday!

 I'm going to really miss Elder Panah!  We have had such a great time together!

The Pellorinho

 Here's me with my Easter Egg

 What's on the inside?

 That's it???

April 21, 2014

     I'm doing good here.  We went to the church garden this morning and cut some sugar cane to eat so we're pretty excited about that!  Oh, and I got your Valentines Day package.  I've been passing the heart shaped suckers out to everyone.  They love them! 
     It was a pretty crazy week but all is safe and sound now and we had an awesome baptism yesterday! (I asked him what he meant by all is safe and sound now and what was so crazy) Just lots of work and people were being crazy this week.  But it has calmed down and yesterday when we went to go get our baptism girl the anti mormon neighbor of hers was at her house and was totally trying to stop her from going to church. Me and Elder Panah stood firm though and she came to church because she really wanted to!  This guy came along too!!!  So me and Panah came up with the plan that he would take a member of the bishopric with him and the guy and keep him busy while I got the baptism going.  And we pulled it off!!!  The guy was soooooo mad.  He didn't even shake my hand when they left but she was really happy to be baptized.  It was an awesome baptism but pretty intense too.  I can't get the pictures to upload so I'll send them next week.  
   Well my shoes were so bad that a member that works for the post office gave me some new post office shoes!  They are like my other ones so I will need some good looking ones for church when I get home!   That's about it for this week.  Have a great one.  I won't lie...I'm getting pretty excited to come home and see everyone!  Love you all!

Here is a picture from our zone meeting.

April 14, 2014

This week was great...we had 16 people at church.  I broke my record from before!!!  We were so excited to have so many people there.  Elder Panah and I are doing some really good work together.  Oh and they are putting out those big Easter eggs that I loved last year so I guess you were right...Easter is still coming up! hahaha

Well, my shoes are barely hanging on and all of my shirts are yellow.  I bought a new one to come home in though and I'll be leaving the rest here.  And I'll probably leave all of my slacks here too.  There are 2 young men that we had baptized that are getting ready to go on missions so I'm going to give them a bunch of my stuff.  

Today we are going to clean our place, play some chess, eat some food and make some lime and carrot juice.  I'll make it for you guys when I get home.  It's sooooooo good!  I'm a juice man now! hahaha 

 This is the carrot cake that my comp made for me on my birthday.  It was so delicious!!!

 Happy Birthday to me!

 This is from when we went and had lunch with Elder Whitney and his companion.  It was so fun and such a fun day!

This is my yummy lunch!

April 7, 2014 KYLE'S BIRTHDAY!!!

I'm 21!!!

 I can't believe it!  The 3 Elders that I live with made me a carrot cake and woke me up with it this morning!  It was cool and later on for lunch we are going to this all you can eat pizza place!

We had a really good week.  We worked hard and found some good people.  We had a baptism lined up but the person fell through so that was kinda sad, but it was still a really good week!

We had a meeting with President Hart so that was great, like always. It was with all of the zone leaders on how to help the mission out.  And a few changes in how we do things.

 Oh, and I got your birthday card which made me laugh sooooooo hard when I read it!  

That's about it for this week.  Love you!

***Funny quotes from Kyle this week***

"President Hart spoke a lot about The Resurrection at the training because yesterday was Easter"

(I had to inform him that Easter isn't actually for a couple weeks!)

"I hope it's cold when I get home!  I really can't take the heat anymore.  It's crazy hot here all the time.  I just want to feel cold again!"

(I had to remind him that he's flying into Arizona where it's already 95 degrees and in Texas we are already in the high 90's as well!) 

March 31, 2014

     Well Elder Panah and I decided to take a trip today!  We both served in Dias Davila so before I leave to come home I got permission to come and say good bye to everyone here.  Also, we will be able to have lunch with Elder Whitney!  I'm super excited and we have both been companions with him so it's going to be a good old reunion!  
     We had a great week.  Worked hard and taught lots of lessons!  
Well I gotta go so I can visit people.  I love you all!

***The pictures below I, (Randi) got from Kyle's companion's blog!  Thank goodness for Elders that take their camera with them! hahaha

District in Liberdade.

 

 So apparently Kyle and his companion got 2 awards of excellence from President Hart at the last zone conference.  I guess he just "forgot" to tell me about it!  That kid!

March 24, 2014

Well as you can see from the pictures below...we had a GREAT week!  2 baptisms!!!

Also,  this past week was my last zone conference! It's weird because I can still remember my first zone conferenct!  This one was really spiritual and uplifting.  President Hart goes home in June so he's winding down too.  I'm pretty sad about that.  A cool thing about it is that they were practicing contacts so they called me and Elder Panah up because we are zone leaders and we had taught a lesson about making contacts.  And we were able to get everyone motivated to challenge people to get baptized!

And get this...we made a goal this week to do 1000 contacts.  So a contact is when we talk to someone on the street, we introduce ourselves, invite them to church, ask to go visit them and teach a little about the church.  And guess what...we did 1000!!! Usually we get about 100-400 a week but the week we went crazy and we did it!  It was nuts but really helpful and we met sooo many new people.  A lot of them are really good!  So ya, this was a big week!

And I got those last 2 packages finally!!!  We have been eating so much junk food thanks to all the packages!  It's been fun.  When I went to get them that's all I had there...no mail.  Everyone was in shock, "what...Elder Krause didn't get any letters?"  But I was happy to get the packages!

Well have a great week! I love you all!

 This is the friend of the kid we baptized last week.  And we baptized him this week!!!

 Here's the 4 of us together after the baptism.  What a great day!

This is another sweet lady that we baptized this weekend! She loves the Book of Mormon and already loves the story of Nephi!

Kyle's Birthday!!!

Just a reminder that Kyle's birthday is April 7th!  

If you want to send him a card,

 now is the time to send it!  

March 17, 2014

     Well the past two weeks we have been working really really hard to find lots of new people.  My new companion is a machine!!!  The Lord has greatly blessed us.  Despite our great efforts to find people on our own not many were progressing and one night everything fell through.  We went to teach a young boy that plays basketball at the church and he wasn't there, but his friend was and he started asking us tons of questions and we taught him over the next few days and he wanted to get baptized.  So we taught him more and baptized him this Sunday!  It was an awesome baptism!  Other than that not too much exciting other than working hard to help people progress.
     Oh and I know something else kind of exciting that happened...on Saturday I wasn't feeling too good and we were on a busy, busy street with tons of people and I had to throw up.  So I walked of to the side of the road and threw up tons of rice and beans.  Then I went home for the rest of the day and I think I had just eaten something my body didn't like.  But the next day I was back to 100%!  It was one of the Elders that I live with birthday, so I made him a cake!
(my reply to this "exciting" story was..."so was it exciting that you threw up on the side of a busy road or that you were 100% better the next day or that you made a cake?"  hahaha he replied back, "all if it was kinda exciting!"  That crazy kid.  Only Kyle would find that exciting!)
   I'm excited to drive home from Arizona to Texas.  I think about driving all the time and wonder if I'll remember everything.  2 years of not driving is a long time!!! I might be a little out of practice!  I can't even imagine driving here.  The roads are horrible.  They remind me of Paris but worse!
   Well that's about it for this week!  Enjoy the pictures!  Love you all!

 Here's us at the ice cream shop last pday! This is our favorite place to go!

 The most handsome missionary out there!

 This is our baptism this weekend!  This is my new companion too.

 Being funny!

Enjoying the Taco Bell seasoning that you sent!  These were the most amazing tacos ever!!!

March 10, 2014

This week was good.  Not too much to report.  I love my new companion.  He's from Seattle, Washington and a really hard worker.  We are working really hard and trying to get more people baptized before I come home!

We are headed to get banana splits with some other Elders today so I'm excited for that!  Oh and I got a few more packages finally!  

Well, that's about it for today!  I love you all.  Have a great week!

I have a confession to make...hahaha just kidding.  This is a tourist sight we went to! 

I dug into the pork rinds you sent me and they were sooo good dipped in that cheese you sent!  I LOVE getting those packages!!!

March 7, 2014

I got an email today that they changed Kyle's flights to May 16th!!!  So we'll be seeing him 7 days sooner than planned!  YIPPEE!!!

March 3, 2014

This week was a good and busy one.  We also had to make the rounds saying goodbye's because Elder Kammerman is leaving to go home this week. It's weird watching him pack knowing that so soon I'll be packing too.  I will miss him.  The good thing is that I already know my new companion.  Elder Panah, he's an American too.  He's been out a little over a year and is a great missionary!  I'm excited to be companions with him! Well, I love you all!  Have a great week!

 This is Roberta's baptism.  It was awesome!  We had to do it at 2:00 in the afternoon since she works nights.  

 I FINALLY GOT CHRISTMAS PACKAGES!!!  I've been passing out the candy canes you sent and people just laugh! And I LOVE "The Piano guys" christmas CD.  I listen to it everyday. I ate the Funions right away! :)

This is a really cool family in our ward.  They are so good to us.  The husband did a really cool drawing of all the missionaries as super heros.  

ELder Krause Batman, branco 

Elder Kammerman Captain America branco

Elder C. Ferreira Hulk, negro forte

Elder Felipe dos santos HOmen de Ferro moreno magrinho

Elder Barbosa, wolverine branco gordinho

ELder Alencar Gambit branco 

Elder Garcia Daredevil

Elder Chaves O coisa, moreno

Elder Santos Thor

Elder Prestes Supoerhomen

Elder Porter Wonder woman gordinho

Elder Pardo Flash

Elder Macedo Laterna verde

Elder Pardim Avatar, (aquele que move agua e ar e fogo)

President Hart Professor X

SIster Hart Jean Grey

February 24, 2014

So this week was a busy one.  We visited lots of people but no one came to church so that was disappointing!  We have one baptism lined up for next week so I'm excited for that!  We took a bunch of people with us to institute on Saturday and they really liked it! 

We confirmed the three baptisms from last week so that was good. Oh I know what was exciting this week so we went and taught an english class with President and Sister Hart and they gave us a ride! So his car was a whole lot nicer than the bus and we got stuck in traffic and so we got to talk to them for a good 1 hour about lots of cool stuff. They told us how they met and what they like to do. It was a really nice afternoon. Something funny, they live in Utah so I asked about skiing and Pres. Hart loves to ski!!!! but sister Hart no, she pretty much said exactly what you do, "I don't like the cold or the hills so i'll just stay at home!"  haha it was so funny!

So I had started a while ago reading the D&C backwards as my countdown!  So today I read section 87...meaning I have 87 days left.  But don't worry I'm still rock solid here and focused on the work I have left to do!

Good news...the mission home called and packages finally came!  They are probably the Halloween packages you sent me! haha

Well I love you all!  Have a great week!

I finally got a haircut! :)

This is out of town a little bit.

I had this jersey made!  It's a real legit jersey!

February 17, 2014

Ok, so my week was awesome! I had my first zone meeting this week that I ran and it went pretty well. We did a few divisions and helped some of the elders in our zone out. I saw Elder Pardim, that I trained, he is in my zone now and its crazy that I trained him so long ago. But he is doing well. We baptized three, 2 sister and this one other young lady. It was right after sacrament meeting and tons of people went to support them. We also had one new guy at church, who is super cool he is getting ready to get baptized as well! He is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon, which is kinda rare and actually called us over in the street, he just couldn't stay for the baptism because his family was waiting for him to have lunch. But if all goes well he should be baptized here in a few weeks. We did lots of contacts this week, this mission has bumped up the goal from 100 a week to 200 so we are talking to lots more people now which is really good! I am liking it a lot! One of the cousins of the baptism made a cake that was super good as well for the baptism yesterday. And ya thats the hightlihts of the week. 

 This was the most amazing week!  We had 3 baptisms!!!

Kyle and Paloma

 Kyle with his last companion Elder Whitney

 So this is Kyle's current companion, Elder Kammerman, and he's going home in 1 week so they decided to do some sight seeing on pday!

 I told Kyle to go out to a special lunch for my birthday!  He had a really good shrimp dish.

 Kyle in downtown Salvador.

 He said Michael Jackson had been here in this very spot!

 The view from uptown

These big letters are in the middle of downtown!

February 10, 2014

     Well, we had a great week!  We have 3 baptisms lined up for this Sunday!  They are solid too so there shouldn't be any issues!  I am so excited!!! We have been working really hard and it's paying off! 
     My comp is getting ready to go home in 3 weeks so we are trying to get a lot done before he goes home.  Today we are being trunky and going sight seeing in a historical part of town!  It's ok to be trunky on Pday only! :)
    Well I found out that the postal workers are on strike. That's why we haven't gotten packages for so long.  I'll probably get my Christmas packages for my birthday in April!  It's so frustrating!  I talked to a worker and he said the strike was probably going to last a while!
    This week I ate some pretty weird food.  One of them was some kind of meat...I really have no idea what kind of meat it was...and it was mixed with okra.  Hmmm...ya pretty interesting! It was called xin xin.  Not really my favorite!
   Well that's about it for this week.  We are headed out in town so I gotta go.
    I know I said I would send some pictures this week but the computers aren't working very good so I only could get one to upload. 

Happy Birthday MOM!!! You are the best mom ever!

I love you!