e-mail of August 15th.

Dear Dad and Mom,

So like Danielly said, (from a conversation on a facebook chat) we had stake conference yesterday but I didn't see her. She saw me but she had to leave early so it didn't work out. But from what she has told me and the Elders from Satelite have told me, her mom still hasn't said anything and it seems like she won't change her mind, so Danielly will just have to wait until she turns 18 I guess. Her mom doesn't not allow her to go to the meetings, but she is wanting Danielly to go to the Catholic church and do, I don't know what it is in English but Primeiro comunhao (First Communion) at her cousins church and Danielly doesn't want to at all. So it will be interesting to see what happens. Just keep praying for her and her mom.
At stake conference yesterday I also got to see Armando and Rita, the family that Elder Moraes and I reactivated and baptized and some others that I helped reactivate and baptize. It was so good to see them and know that they are still strong in the church. I had tons of people from Satelite who talked with me and it was just good to meet up with them again.
Other than the conference, it was also Father's Day here in Brasil, so Dad "Happy Fathers Day". I wanted to call you and tell you that in person but here in a little bit I will be able to do that.
This past week was a really difficult one. Almost every single one of our appointments fell through and we had basically no luck in finding new investigators, until Saturday.
Saturday was a really fun day, for my English class I taught them the parts of the body and I taught them the song, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and it was a blast to see all of them singing and dancing to that.
Then as we were heading back to our house after the English class we were stopped by a man and a women and the man is less active and the women wanted to know about the church. We invited them to go to Stake Conference but it didn't work out. We went and taught them last night and it was an amazing lesson. If you could think of an elect, it was this lady. She had gone to a Catholic church and school when she was a little girl and was baptized there because her parents are Catholic but she doesn't like the Catholic church because of the hypocrisy. She has investigated lots of other churches and was just looking for the right one. As we got done teaching her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, we invited her to pray to know if it was true, and she just told us, I already know that its true, it's impossible to believe that the restoration didn't happen. It was an answer to my prayers, that the Lord blessed us with this miracle because a lot of our investigators are not progressing at all. I have been praying for a long time to have a miracle like this happen and the Lord answered.
I haven't got my package yet but I will try and pass by the mission office this week and see if it has arrived.
Send my love to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Karen and let them know that we are praying for them.
I don't really have much else to write about for this week, I love you all very much.

Love your Son,

Elder Crittenden

August 8 e-mail

Dear Dad and Mom,

Just to start off I am so excited for Kesha and Doug and the fact that there is going to be another Crittenden goober running around and I will be able to be there for his birth. In my English class on Saturday I had them talk about their families and like always I talked about mine and everyone was surprised at how many nieces and nephews and sisters and brothers that I have but it was a fun activity.
This past week we had a lot of miracles happen with us. We went and taught Jucienne that has the son with self esteem issues and is suicidal and she told us that she wanted to be baptized in our church. She went to church yesterday and unfortunately had to leave early, but we will get her baptized here in the next two weeks, hopefully with her husband and son too. We also started teaching another family in Campestre Leste and they are all really interested. Unfortunately they couldn't go to church, but this next week they should be there. It was really amazing. We just started teaching this one lady and more and more of her family started showing up and listened to our message and were asking really good questions and it was just amazing. They all were invited to pray and we will see this Wednesday how everything went and hopefully we will have some more baptisms.
Then yesterday at church we had another miracle happen, Irma Conceicao, Junior and Gabrielle, who is the entire family of Ismaeli went to church yesterday and all of them liked it. It was a really good testimony meeting at our chapel with lots of people wanting to bear their testimonies. It went past 7 o clock.
Tomorrow we have zone conference and it should be interesting because it will be my last one, which means that I will give my last testimony and the last time that I see some of my friends here from the mission. I am excited but at the same time sad. It's hard to explain but Dad or Anna or anyone who has already served a mission I think knows what I am feeling.
We got a letter today from President saying that the mission is going to open up two new cities for work that have never had missionaries, Caixias, Maranhao, and Araguaina, Tocantins. I don't think that I will be one of the Elders chosen to go there but that's alright. I feel like this is going to be my last area here in the mission.
I don't think that I have anything else to write about from this past week, other than I love you all and keep praying for my success. I am praying for you all.

Love your Son, and soon to be uncle AGAIN!!!

Elder Crittenden

August 1 e-mail, the assualt

Dear Dad and Mom,

This past week was really quite eventful, last Pday we went to the mall and we ate an Arabian food that was really good called esfihas, which is like a flat bread but it has some kind of meat inside of it and the meat looks like cat food but it was really good. We did that with Elder Sousa that I lived with in Acailandia and his companion that I didn't really know. After that we just headed home and got our stuff ready for the day.
We did a family home evening at Irma Conceicao´s house, who still hasn't got baptized but we are working with her. Then on Tuesday we had our district meeting and a division with the Zone Leaders. I stayed here in our area with Elder Pimentel, and he didn't really like how big our area was. He was complaining about having to walk so much, kinda funny. So as we got done that night with our visits we were heading to the bus stop to catch our bus home and a guy tried to assault us. Don't worry, the Lord protected us. Within 30 seconds the Rone (slang for police, I think) was there and arrested the guy. But my comp Elder Pimentel was in a state of shock. I will have to tell you all the story when I get home here pretty soon. Also my last companion Elder Gessel was assaulted on Friday night and lost his mission bag but some of our friends helped him get it back.
Then I found out that the first counselor in the bishopric of my last area, Satelite, ran away from his wife and kids or was kidnapped. Nobody really knows exactly what happened but that is the story and he has been missing for about a week now.
On Friday I did an interview for Elder Daniel and he baptized a guy that is 22 and is the most elect I have ever seen in my entire mission. His interview was the easiest that I have ever done and it was such a strong spirit there with him.
In sacrament meeting we had a lady that we invited to go to church without teaching her anything and she went to church. We will start to teach her and her family this week and hopefully it all works out. We are needing some new investigators in this area to teach.
The members down here also don't celebrate the 24th of July. A lot of them don't even know that it exists.
So just to let you all know about the flight plans that you all received last week it is for October but they have changed a little bit now and I don't know when I will receive the new ones but as soon as I get them I will send them to you.
My English class is going pretty well and I am getting more people to come. Well I don't really have much else to tell you all about this past week.

Love your Son,

Elder Crittenden