January 14, 2013

Hey everyone!
     So we met an English guy here in Dias D'Avila and we went to his house for lunch today and played chess with him!  We first met him on day when he was out working in his garden.  We just stopped and started talking to him for like half and hour.  I told him I liked to play chess and he invited us to come to lunch.  When you only meet an American once every few years in the midst of Brazilians he was super excited to talk English with someone!  And he is the type that really likes to play chess.  Brazilians don't really play! His wife cooked for us and it was a very English meal.  Baked onions, chicken, cooked bananas, boiled peas and carrots and baked potatoes-English style! It was very good and different.  She is the first Brazilian I have met that speaks English and says, "bloody" and "rubbish" with a british accent!  It was crazy !We didn't really teach him because he has already known lots of missionaries and really isn't interested.  Probably next time I will try and teach him a little something.  We talked about religion quite a bit and about the church and stuff but I want to build a good foundation with him first.  With most people here they already have somewhat of a Christian background.  I have never met an atheist before.  He is a rich, british author so it's pretty interesting.  I told him we would come and play chess with him again on another p-day. 
     I bought a Book of Mormon in Italian and am going to read it.  President also challenged me to read the D&C too so I have a big reading list!
     I'm so excited about everyone's mission calls!  How exciting so many new missionaries!
Well I love you all!
Elder Krause

January 7, 2013

Thank you all for the awesome Christmas Cards!  That was so fun getting cards and letters from everyone!

 These are 2 of my best little buddies!

This is Jaka, my new favorite fruit!  We ate this and popcorn for New Year's Eve!

Some of my Elder buddies!

December 17, 2012

Hey Mom,
     So I'll update you on this first week I had in my new area.
First off I got the house cleaned part way!  Not sure if you have ever seen a typical missionary house, but it's bad.  Bad as college dorms!  But it's much better now.  
     We are doing good.  My new companion is very quiet and very chill.  I like him a lot.  We have lots of new members in this ward and some of them are slipping and some are power!  We have started to work with a lot of recent converts.  I like this kind of work a lot.  We were teaching with the President of the Quorum, who was baptized 2 years ago.  The lady that we were teaching was being soft and giving a lot of excuses.  Like, "this wasn't the right time for her to change."  And I paused to think for a second and Jairus, the member that was with us, asked her when the SAvior comes what will you say?  I didn't have the courage to ask a question like that.  He then told her that he thought they same way she did for a long time.  He was going to a lot of different churches and stuff but when he found the true church he really began to feel the Spirit and come to know his Savior.  I really felt the spirit strong there.  Unfortunately she still said it wasn't the right time for her so we let it go.  We had already given it a good drilling so who knows.  We will pass by there again this week but I wish she would have had a little bit of courage to change. 
     So far I don't have too may funny stories here.  Except these two old ladies making fun of me.  HAHAHA.  This was pretty funny actually.  So we had stopped to talk with them and they were sitting outside.  Right off the bat I see that they have Bibles out from the Jehovas Witnesses.  We were having a Christmas activity so we invited them and they said that they didn't like Christmas!  I about died!!!  They asked me how old Jesus was, so I said that he was 33 when he had died and they started laughing!  Then she muttered something else about today, I didn't understand her too well but she asked waht about today and I said 2012 years, then they said we don't know he is infinite.  Ah boy too funny!  But they were two old ladies so I couldn't really get into it with them so we walked away chuckling too!
     I had been wanting to buy a motorcycle when I got back because everyone here has them and they are pretty cool.  We helped two people this week who crashed right in front of us.  One guy wasn't too bad, just tore up his leg.  The other guy broke his foot, lost of the tip of a finger and had a bunch of road rash.  So I think I'll just stick with a car from here on out!
     Well I love you guys!  Merry Christmas and I'll talk to you next week!
Com Amore Abraco,
Elder Krause

I am in Dias D'Avila

This is me with Elder Bassi before we left.  I was transferring and he was going home!

Well I got here about an hour ago, so I don't know the city too well yet!  They have two wards here.  The city looks nice and it's known for the good water.  My comp is another american and seems pretty cool.  He is from Washington.  I am about an hour outside of Salvador.  I stopped by my new apartment for like 20 minutes, it's nice, but needs to be cleaned.

Here is my Thanksgiving "feast"

December 11, 2012

This is the new Bishop and his wife.  They are return missionaries and are the strength of the ward!  And also my very good friend!

This was our family home evening that we had last night with some of our good friends from the ward.  It was hard to say good bye!

This is Mahbean, an 8 year old girl that is very intelligent.  She asked me to baptize her!

Pictures from Kyle

 Enjoying some Pday hiking!

 Camilla's baptism

 Felipe's baptism

 Map of our town

This is us at the wedding- We went to a wedding of one of investigators, it was in a government building, they were just doing a civil marriage, so we went and it was a room chuck full of people!, it was hot, and everyone else besides the people getting married looked kinda miserable. So our buddies went up there to be married and I was sitting in the crowd, and after they kissed I started clapping and hollering, they got quite a chuckle out of it, because I was indeed the only one clapping, but I was happy. 

 Enjoying a little Pday bbq with some other elders.

And some soccer fun on Pday!

November 6, 2012

Hey I just got on real quick to send a letter to Pres. but I just wanted to share a little thought with everyone, Romans 8;16-18, our true potential is there within us, we were made  with the potential to be great, so don't hold yourself back with the cares of the world, or by not obeying the commandments, these were given to us to help us achieve our true potential. 

I love you all so much!