It has been three weeks since I returned home...

Hello Family and Friends,

I still can’t believe it has been almost three weeks since I left my mission! I know I kind of left everyone hanging so I will give you all an update! My last week as a missionary was crazy! Everything went off with out a hitch for Leude and Sergio’s wedding! The ward helped out a lot and they both looked so good. Their baptism was a little hectic because it was right after and the ward mission leader forgot to fill up the baptismal font. So everyone was grabbing buckets, trying to fill up the baptismal font. It was hilarious and a very memorable baptism. I felt the Spirit so strong as I watched this special family enter the waters of baptism. My heart filled with overwhelming joy and gratitude to our Heavenly Father. It was my first time getting emotional at a baptism and it truly was the best way to end it. After the baptism I had to say goodbye to them. I started crying as I hugged Leude goodbye. She became one of my good friends and I love this family. I will always remember them and I still thank Heavenly Father for the opportunity I had to help them. I still thank Him for everyone I had the opportunity to teach and watch enter the waters of baptism.

My last week in the field included lots of goodbyes and lots of tears. The ward surprised me with a going away party! I made so many great friends in my last ward and in all my wards. It was a hard time saying goodbye to everyone, but I had such a strong feeling that one day I would see them all again. I hope that happens next year for the temple dedication!
Oh the work was going well when I left. Sister Hamaker has lots of work to do there and lots of people to help. I pray that Noel Nutles will continue to grow and that she and her new companion can find success.

On Monday I had my final interview with President Jayme and it was a good experience. He asked me about what I would be doing in five years. That was an easy question! I told him that I would like to be married and of course active in the church. I am grateful for President Jayme and all that I learned from him. I am also grateful for his good wife and the love she showed me. I hope to see them again someday. After the interview, all the missionaries going home had to go to a job employment and marriage meeting. When the meeting was over, an Irma took me to get my hair done and out to lunch. Then they dropped me off at Staff (mission office). It was extremely hard to say goodbye to Sister Hamaker! I can’t wait to see her next year! I loved being her mom and I love all the things I learned from her. We had a lovely dinner at the President’s home and then we all bore our testimonies. It was a very spiritual night and it was a great way to spend my last night in Manaus. I slept at the President’s house and then left at 4 am in the morning.

My flight home was LONG!! It took almost two days. It was so nice to land on American soil Wednesday morning. I was so anxious when the plane landed in Utah. I couldn’t hold still!! It was an amazing feeling to see my family members and amazing friends waiting for me at the airport. It was so nice to give them all big hugs especially my parents!

So things have been extremely crazy since then! I have loved seeing all my family and friends!!! I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. It was nice to lie on carpet, drink real milk, eat pickles, and flush toilet paper down the toilet. It has been three weeks since I have been home and everyday has been a blessing. The Lord has helped me so much and I have seen His hand it all the decisions I have been making lately. He helped me find a great job and a good deal on a new car. Everyday as I say my prayers I thank Him for all these amazing blessings! I miss my mission a lot. I miss the people and their hugs! I miss the food especially the fish. I miss teaching and testifying everyday. I loved my mission and everything I learned. I loved being able to help God’s children and help them learn about the restored Gospel. I loved teaching them about God and His Son. Everyone says we are blessed for our service, but my mission was a great blessing. It changed my life and I will continue to thank Heavenly Father for allowing me to serve His children. I cannot wait to see my dear Brazilian brothers and sisters again one day and I pray that the Lord will continue to watch out for them. They are an amazing people and truly showed me the right way to love people!

Thank you everyone who supported and prayed for me these past 18 months. I hope that someday I can help all of you in someway, just like you guys helped me! I love you all more than words can describe! THANK YOU!!

I love this Gospel and I know that it’s true! We all are so blessed! I know that true happiness comes from service and that when we lose ourselves in it, we find ourselves! I pray that God continues to bless all of you!

I love you guys!

Ate mais! Tchau!
Crystal Poole

Red Fury Returns!!

(I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to get this blog updated!! Life just got a little crazy when Crystal got home -good crazy, if you know what I mean... :) The day was finally here, and we could hardly wait one more minute! Red Fury's flight was actually 30 minutes early. Luckly, we found out around 9:00 AM and called everyone to come 30 minutes earlier to the airport... Thank goodness for the Internet! Friends and family waiting patiently for our favorite redhead to come down the escalator! Red Fury's flight came in at 12:30 PM on March 23rd. When she finally made her appearance there was a roar of cheer and shouts of joy from all of us! Mom definitely got the first hug!! It was a beautiful reunion! Together again! Two companions from the mission where there to meet her. Sister Young and Sister Boyack! Yeah!!! Bekah and Oli and a big jar of Pickles! Crystal's favorite choice of food! She definitely has that missionary GLOW! Her wonderful friends, Jenna, Rachel and Nakita! More wonderful friends.. Morgan and Steph... Mom and Grandma! The whole family... Bree, Brynlee and Ericka.... We had so many wonderful friends and family that came to join us at the airport and then at our home later that day! Then more for the next few days and weeks to come! I am not sure how to say "Thank you'" to everyone that has given us so much love and support over the last 18 months. We have been truly blessed to have each of you in our lives. Thank you for letting us share this wonderful mission experience with you. It has been life changing for all of us and especially Crystal. Crystal has been home almost three weeks and has been going non-stop since the day she got home. We found her a car (with a car payment-lucky girl), she starts a new job tomorrow and has a few dates lined for this next week! We went from a very quiet home to the Red Fury of excitement! We are loving every minute of having our girl home and can't wait to see what each new day brings! With much love, Cindy and Rondo

I have fought a good fight, I have kept my course, I have kept the FAITH!!

Hello family,

It seems like yesterday I was talking to Stephanie at school about going on mission. I remember that sweet, warm feeling in my heart, that this was what the Lord wanted me to do. As soon as the answer came, I quickly turned my papers in and anxiously waited for the call. When the call finally came (há I say finally even though it only took two weeks) and I read the words “Sister Poole you have been called to serve in the Brasil Manaus Mission” my heart stopped and I thought, “Wait, I am going to Brasil, the Amazon Jungle; I am going to die!” At the time I didn’t realize what the Lord had in store for me and how richly blessed I would be for serving Him for 18 months. I didn’t realize at the time that this mission would change my life and strengthen my own personal testimony more than I could have imagined.

So I started out on this journey making it through the CTM and entering into the mission field, having the challenges of being a new missionary, but at the same time learning to Love the people. The challenges as a new missionary went away and I started to get the hang of this. I remember the first family I had the opportunity to see enter the waters of baptism and the overwhelming joy in my heart. I remember my first transfer and the new families I had the opportunity of getting to know. The struggles in my second area are what helped me in my last area. It seems like everything started to click more in Noel Nuttles and that I worked harder than ever to help God’s children get to know Him. It seems like in Noel, I made a bigger difference and when times started getting tough, I didn’t give up! Oh, how I have loved my mission! It is hard to describe it in words what my mission means to me. I know everyone says that as missionaries we get lots of blessing for serving when we get home, but for me, I have received some kind of blessing everyday. I feel like I have already received the blessings for serving and I really don’t need anymore :).

It has been such an honor and privilege to serve here in Brasil. I love this scripture and it really sums up how I am feeling today (Dad knows it pretty well):

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the Faith! (1 Timothy 4:7)

Man, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my mission (ha in one week) and I have kept the faith, in Heavenly Father and His Son! In my heart I feel so much peace and happiness. I have learned to build my foundation on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It is strong and I will continue to nurture it so it will not fall. As it says in Helaman 5:12, If we build our foundation in Christ, the enemy will try as hard as he can to make us fall, but we WILL withstand. He will not win! We will stand strong until that glorious day when we will be reunited with our wonderful Heavenly Father and Our Savior! I am so grateful for all the wonderful experiences I have had on my mission and the strong testimony I have now. The mission seems like it did more for me than I could have ever imagined. I tried hard everyday to help people understand the rich blessings and the happiness they will feel in their lives for following this path. Of course, I wasn’t perfect, but I tried everyday to be a good missionary. I love these wonderful saints and all the people I have had the opportunity to teach about the Gospel, even the ones who didn’t accept it.

I am grateful for my own conversion process that happened on the mission and for the relationship I now have with Heavenly Father and our Savior. I have felt them both really close these past 18 months and I love them dearly. I know that this relationship will continue to be strengthened throughout my life. I am so grateful for my wonderful mission President and Sister Jayme. I am so grateful for all of my lovely companions! I have learned wonderful things from every one of them and they will be my lifelong friends and sisters. I am grateful for my sweet parents, friends and family that have written me encouraging words from day one and have helped me stay positive and strong. All your letters and emails have touched my heart dearly and you all have made a great impact on my life! I love you all!!

I love this Gospel! I am so grateful that Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees one morning and offered his soul in prayer unto our Heavenly Father. I know that God heard his prayer and answered it! I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through him and I know that we have the restored Gospel on the earth today. I know that our Savior willingly gave His life for all of us and that He personally felt all our grief and pains. I know he suffered for our sins so that we can repent daily and one day be reunited with Him and our Father. I know that the Book of Mormon is one more testimony that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that if we read daily from this book, we will have the Spirit with us and receive personal revelation daily. I know that God hears every one of our prayers and that He answers them in a way that will bless our lives and help us keep going until the end. I know that our families can be eternal and I will do all that I can to have that eternal family one day! This Gospel is TRUE!!

In one week I will take off my missionary nametag and be "normal" again. However, I will always be a missionary and I will work hard to keep spreading this wonderful gospel. I am excited to come home and see everyone! It will be hard to leave my family here in Brasil, but I know I will come back one day! I love you all! I don’t know what is going on in your lives, but keep going strong! Never give up! We receive so many blessings after the trial of our faith! Never give up on God or Jesus Christ! They are always here for us; just talk to them!

Ok, one last time... I love all of you! See you soon!

With lots of love! Muito amor!
Sister Poole!


We wore matching shirts on Sunday for our talks haha


We just love each other! ha



Saying goodbye to Pat and levi!! He is still going to marry my future daughter!



So my last p-day was spent in the Jungle! Yup finally, I walked around in the jungle and found an awesome vine to do some Tarzan moves! It was a great day to end the P-day adventures!



Helieson and Greyce!! They are such a cute family!



A little goodbye party in my old area with Irma Audrey's family!

Note from Mom- we received a second email today with the following update on their investigators:

Ok, so this week was amazing and we worked so hard! The Lord truly was helping us this week! We met two new families and one has already accepted a baptism and wedding date! Their names are Heilison and Greyce. Heilison is a return missionary, who fell away from the church after he met Greyce. They have been together for four years and are slowly coming back to Church. We met with them for the first time on Sunday and invited them to be baptized. They will be getting married and baptized on the 29th of April! I am so excited for them! The other family was a contact we made. Their names are Geovani and Neia and they are hilarious. They thought we were American spies, invited us over to their house and then said they were going to take our organs! Ha we all had a good laugh. They already came to church and we are going to invite them to baptism tonight! I am so grateful that I am leaving this area with more people to be baptized. We have a few more youth we are teaching that will be baptized in April as well. We are teaching a young girl named Larissa and she has accepted to be baptized in two weeks. She is still super nervous about baptism, but I know she will get the answer to her prayers soon. Oh, Emanoel is doing ok. He is still working on his divorce, but hasn’t lost hope to be baptized. He is having lots of family problems. Basically, all his kids are really into drugs and they are selling all of the parent’s belongings. All we can do is pray for him and help him to stay positive. We went over their last night and his family is doing a lot better!

Leuge and Sergio are doing awesome! Everything is in order for the wedding and baptism! We are just waiting for the 19th now! I cannot wait to see this family enter in the waters of baptism and see the joy in their faces! We taught them a few nights ago and Leuge offered the most special prayer. She thanked Heavenly Father for sending His missionaries to them and for the opportunity they had to get to know Him through us. Those words hit me hard and I finally fully comprehended why we have the Savior's name on our tag. We represent Him and we teach people about Him. We might just be the closet thing that people have met that is like the Savior. We as missionaries are always encouraged to learn about our Savior and strive to be like Him in all things. Leude felt our love for her and she recognized it as if it was coming from the Savior. Sorry, I don’t know how to explain it any better, but it was a really special moment. I just love them and I can't wait for this weekend!

We had a special training with President Jayme last Thursday and it was awesome. He is trying to help us teach more people and not just lessons. The Spirit was so strong and I felt sad that I couldn't serve just a little longer and put these new techniques into my teaching. I almost asked him to stay a little longer :). But, I know it is time to go home.

Sister Hamaker is doing awesome! She is a pro at everything! I am so grateful that she is killing me! We have a lot of fun and we work hard. We have become really good friends and I am so glad she is my daughter. I really think she taught me more than I taught her! We both spoke on Sunday and she did awesome. Surprisingly, I didn’t cry. I think I must be in denial or something. We are singing a duet in our missionary devotional on Sunday. It's going to be hilarious!

Well love you all! See you soon!

Sister Poole

p.s.
I was heart broken to hear about Japan. I prayed that our Japanese family was safe and the missionaries too. I hope the Church sends some help and that things can get back in order over there. We all need to keep praying for them. Hey dad maybe we can go over their and help??? I would love it!

Staying strong until the end!‏

Hello my lovely family and friends!

As always it was great to hear from you all! This week went by fast and we have been working really hard to find new investigators and get everything ready for Leuge and Sergio. We are having some struggles helping our investigators progress, but we have decided to invite everyone to be baptized! We usually invite people the second lesson, but now we are doing it on the first lesson. I am just want to leave this area better than I found it. Leuge and Sergio are getting excited for their wedding and baptism. Sergio even invited another married couple to Church on Sunday and now we are teaching them! All of the members were way impressed! We both think he is going to be a bishop someday. We had lunch with them this week and they made Tambaqui for us! I am obsessed with this type of fish. Here is a picture.



I love the relationship we have with them and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the opportunity I have had to help them. We still haven't heard about her birth certificate, but we know it's going to get here. Thanks for all your prayers. It made me way happy to hear that even Bill was praying for them. They have lots of people praying for them so I know it's all going to work out. Oh we had FHE with them on Monday and we taught them about fasting. I almost started crying as I bore my testimony about fasting because I have such a strong testimony of it and because of fasting we met Leuge and Sergio. I still remember the happiness I felt after we fasted and then a few days later Irmao Joaquim called us about this wonderful family. Fasting is such a wonderful tool that we have as members and I know that when we fast with a purpose the Lord answers our prayers and helps us! Wow we are so blessed to have the Gospel in our lives!

Fast Sunday was really good in the ward and I felt the Spirit so strong. We are giving talks this Sunday and mine is about the blessings of serving a mission! I am excited to give it and I am pretty sure I'll end up crying. I just love this ward so much and I am so grateful I am finishing here.

So we have done lots of things for our 21 days! We do something Brasilian everyday! Yesterday we drank coconut juice and today we are going to the Center for last time :(. This morning I came back to my old area and saw Patricia. Remember her? She got married in July and baptized too. It was so good to see her, but sadly she isnt going to Church. I pray that she becomes active and goes to the temple in a year. Then we went to lunch at Irma Lilia's house, my mom in this area. She made lunch for us! I sure do love her. We are coming back in this area on Sunday night for dinner with another Irma. Ah I still cant believe my mission is ending!

Well I am glad that everyone is doing great! I can't wait to meet Rach's baby girl! I was praying for her all week! I hope all is well and I can't wait to give you all hugs in two weeks.

I know I have said my testimony so many times, but I just can't help it :). I know that this Church is true! I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and His Son! I know that through him we have the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that our Savior loves us and that He paid for our sins! What a wonderful blessing it is to know that we can be forgiven for all of them! I am so grateful for the knowledge we have about eternal families and that mine will be! I am so grateful that I listened to the sweet whisperings of the Spirit and decided to serve a mission. It has been the most rewarding experience of my life!

Love you all!
Sister Poole !



(story told by Sister Hamaker) For one of our 21 days of Brasil, Sister Poole and I tried coconut that grows like crazy here. The juice was really good and apparently is really healthy for you but the fruit tasted like flavorless jello haha not my favorite but we were excited to try it as the picture shows! Note: to take this picture we put the camera on a timer on top of our refrigerator door but as the timer was going the door started to close so we were chasing it down and it was really funny.

(story told by Sister Hamaker) Sister Poole and I eating kikao. It's the Brasilian version of hot dogs-the bun is really delicious soft bread and then what they put inside is a mixture of cut up hot dogs cooked in cabbage, onions, green pepper, tomato sauce, and creme de leite. Then they scoop that mixture inside the bread and put ketchup and little potato chip things on top mmmmmmmmmmm.


(story told by Sister Hamaker) - On Monday we were making salsa for some of our investigators to try (Brasilians love hot sauce but it has absolutely no flavor. It just like deadens your taste buds so we wanted them to try something hot and delicious!) and one of the elders told us to buy tomatoes, green onions, and these teeny yellow peppers. He told us the peppers were hot so Sister Poole decided just to put 3 little ones in to start. She took the seeds out with her hand and started making the salsa. A couple minutes later she started complaining about how she felt like she had burned her hands. She tried running them under cold water but it just made them worse. Over the next 20ish minutes her hands got so bad that she said she felt like she was holding them in a fire and she was on the verge of tears because she had never felt anything like it! We figured out the culprit was those teeny peppers after we finished blending the salsa and when we opened the blender, the smell burned our noses because the salsa was so hot! 3 teeny peppers!! (We ended up buying like 5 more tomatoes to dilute it out and it was still deadly hot) Sister Poole's whole body was really hot and anything she touched felt like it was burning her. We were freaking out because we thought she must be having an allergic reaction or something! We had to go to lunch and the Irma tried to help by having Sister Poole put butter all over her hands-made it worse. Then she washed it off and gave her this weird natural peanut cream-made it worse. Then the peanut cream wouldn't come off no matter how much soap and water she used on her hands haha This picture is her super sad and in pain with white hands from the leftover peanut cream. I know I should be more sympathetic but it was really funny at the same time. We finally called Sister Jayme who talked to a doctor who said it was normal for this pepper to do that and that it would last for 4-5 hours and then it would go away. Poor Sister Poole was so miserable! At one point she was like "I am pretty sure if I cute off my hands right now it would hurt less". Oh goodness. Americans in Brasil is clearly a flawed combination.

(As you can tell, Sister Hamaker is quite the story teller! - thanks Amy!)

Note from mom -Crystal will be speaking in church on March 27th at 12:50. Contact me for the details at rondopoole@msn.com

21 days of Happiness!!!

Hello Everyone!

Ok, seriously it seems like the last month of my mission is on turbo speed or something. Everything is happening so fast! I know in a few weeks I’ll wake up and I’ll be home in my own bed, freezing!! I can’t believe how fast my mission has gone! It seems like yesterday I was stressed out, waiting for my visa and now, I am going home.

Sadly, I don’t have a lot of new news this week. In fact, the work has slowed down a lot! I am getting super stressed because I want to leave this area ready for the next Sister, but we haven’t found a lot of progressing investigators lately and the ward has slowed down on their referrals. And to top it all off, they denied Leuge’s birth certificate because her mother’s name was eligible. AH. When we found out, I just started crying. I was really tired that day and I just didn’t know what to do. I want so badly to see them get married and baptized, but it seemed like it never would happen. After being sad for a little bit, I realized that we couldn’t give up and that we still had to try to get this other birth certificate. Leuge came to church on Sunday discouraged, too. She said, “Why can everyone get married, but me?” I could see the discouragement and sadness on her face. I quickly asked her if she was a Brazilian. She looked at me and responded “Of course” then I said, “The Brazilians all tell me that your country has a slogan that says you guys never give up!” She laughed and said it was true; Brazilians never give up! I told her to have faith and that they will be getting married on the 18th and baptized on the 19th. Luckily one of the Elders in staff is helping us and we are just waiting for her second birth certificate to get here! Please pray for us that everything will work out for the 18th and 19th! We had family home evening with them Monday and they both bore their testimonies again about how the gospel is already changing their lives. I just love them!

Monday, I had my last zone conference! It was great and I was able to bear my last testimony. I didn’t cry because I was way too nervous! Ah, I am still in shock that my mission is ending! We are doing a fun thing called “21 days of Happiness.” We are celebrating my last three weeks by doing something fun everyday to remember Brazil. Last night to start it off we made my favorite fruit juice! It is a fun count down list!

These past few weeks I have been studying a lot about Charity and love. I think this has been one of the biggest things I have learned on my mission. Whenever we talk about charity the first person we think about is our Savior. He loved us all so much that he was willing to give his life for us. He loved everyone! He never looked at the outward appearance; just the heart. As he was being nailed to the cross he pleaded with the Father to forgive the soldiers because they didn’t understand what they were doing or who they were crucifying. He loved them and he wanted our Father to have mercy on them. He was the perfect example on how we all need to treat one another and help one another. I love how in the book of Enos it teaches us how to repent, but also how to show charity for others. Enos prayed all night for forgiveness of his sins, then he prayed for his brothers and then for his enemies. He didn’t stop praying after he received his blessings, but he continued on, praying and showing love for others. We are counseled in Moroni 7:48 that we need to plead to God everyday to be blessed with charity and love towards others. Our dear Prophet counseled us, as woman of the church, to show more charity and love towards one another. He spoke about this in the last General Relief Society meeting in October. He is such a great example to us also of someone who shows pure love of Christ for others. Honestly looking back on my mission this has been something I have learned and relearned. I remember there was a time on the mission when I was really stressed and everyone was bugging me, ha. I remember pleading with the Lord to help me stop stressing and help me show more love to everyone around me. Of course, He answered my prayer and love started to fill my heart again for everyone that I was working with. I really have learned how to show more love to people and how to not judge them. At times, I think we all do this; judge people before knowing them or understanding where they come from. We judge people without knowing what is going on in their lives. I remember the Prophet quoted Mother Teresa in his talk and said, “We can’t love people if we are judging them all the time.” I love this quote. I truly have a strong testimony about charity and love. I know that if we feel both of these things in our hearts that we treat one another better and we will be so much happier. If we always strive to show more love, then we will truly one day, become like the Savior.


Oh how I love this Gospel! I love everything it teaches us! I love how it inspires us to grow and to learn. I love all the doctrine and all the principles. I love our Heavenly Father and our Savior. They both have become my good friends these past few months and I know our relationship will continue to grow stronger after the mission. I love Brazil and I love being a missionary. It will be a hard day for me when the stake president takes off my name tag and release me as a missionary. I am sure I will just start bawling because this has been the hardest/most rewarding experience of my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

I love you all more than you can comprehend! Have an amazing week!

Com Amor,
Sister Poole!



Today for PDAY we made tacos with some Elders from my CTM group! It was fun and so yummy! I miss tacos!



Family home evening with some members and Leuge and Sergio!

Pic after my last zone conference. Tear..

Zone activity last week at Ponta Negra

Lucas's baptism!

Pday a few weeks ago! I love the river

Quick email

Hello Everyone,

OK, so we just spent one hour in the Lan house and the power went out and deleted our emails. AH. My email was so long and I wrote lots of details about what is happening here; dang it. So this will be short because now we are at a different place using the internet and P-day is almost over. Wow, I loved the pictures from Stephanie and Morgan! It brought tears to my eyes! I sure have the greatest friends and I love you all! Oh, I received a letter from Lisa Haggerty. She will be leaving for her mission in a few weeks so we will miss each other. Mom can you find me her mission address so I can write her a letter? I sure do love her and I am excited for her! She will be an awesome missionary!

So the work was really good this week. We had a really funny baptism on Friday of a young man named Lucas. He is sixteen and is a reference from a member. His baptism was the funniest baptism in my mission. Everything kind of went wrong, but at the same time it all worked out. When he received the Holy Ghost, he was promised that he would serve a mission if he continued keeping the commandments and doing what is right. I really hope he goes on a mission in a few years!

We had a miracle a few days ago... Sergio found his birth certificate so now they can get married and baptized!!!! We are so excited! We are going to mark their date for the 18th of March! They will be the last family that I will have the privilege of watching enter the waters of baptism! It really has been an answer to our prayers and thank you everyone that has been praying for them! I can't wait for their baptisms!! It is going to be awesome!

We have a few more new investigators that I will have to tell you about next week! I want to keep working hard until the end because I need to leave this area better than I found it. Everyone keeps reminding me how much time I have left; ah it is going by fast! Oh, things with Sister Hamaker are going good! I was stressed to be with another American, but the Lord is really blessing my Portuguese and I seem to be speaking and understand way better than I used to! I am so grateful for Him and how He always seems to help us when we need Him and even when we don’t. I love this Gospel so much! I know it's true!
Have an amazing week!

Love you all!

Sister Poole! aka red fury (yup she is coming back haha)

Sister Poole & Sister Hamaker enjoying a fun Pday!

Morgan and Steph made fun countdown chains for Crystal! They are getting shorter and shorter each day!!! Can't wait to rip off that last link!

The beginning of the end...‏

Well it’s finally happened... I, Sister Crystal Lee Ann Degen Poole, am starting my last transfer as a missionary. The past two weeks have been a little rough. I am feeling a lot better. Sister Jayme finally diagnosed my symptoms as Dengue fever after a weird rash appeared on my body há. But Yes, mom I am doing great now! Please don’t worry! I seriously have felt all of your prayers these past few weeks and they have helped so much. I am going to miss feeling the prayers of millions of people in my life. I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of things. As soon as I started feeling better we got the transfer call. For some reason I started getting my hopes up again that I would be transferred back to Boa Vista. I Love my current área and I was willing to leave it all just to go back for this five week transfer. The call came and the President decided to send Sister Nunes to my old área. So it hás been a heartbreaking few days. I have been with Sister Nunes for along time and I truly do Love her. I Love all those wonderful saints in Boa Vista tôo. I wanted to see them all again so badly, but the Lord knows what He is doing and I won't question it.

I am excited to be working with Sister Hamaker! I think she is the right person to kill me on the mission (há mission slang). She will help me work hard until the very end. I will admit I have been feeling a little nervous and sad these past few days. It was hard saying goodbye to Sister Nunes last night because I won’t being seeing her until 2012. I gave her tons of cards to give to my friends in Boa Vista. I hope she is really happy there; she will truly be missed here. Dad thanks for your last epistle! I loved it! It came at the perfect time! Lately I have been thinking about how tired I am and how I am ready to come home. Your letter gave me the extra energy boost that I have been needing. We still have work to do here in Noel and I need to work hard until the very end. Yes I am exhausted, but I can rest here in a few weeks. I just need to keep praying that the Lord will keep me going until the end. I am a little stressed about Portuguese right now. I haven't been with another American since I started the mission, so basically I have to know everything in Portuguese, yikes! But I know the Lord will help us. We are still talking mostly in Portuguese which is kind of weird, but I know it will help Sister Hamaker learn faster. It will all work out.

We are still having the same problems with the marriage and divorce papers of everyone. Nothing hás changed since last week with the papers. But lots of things have changed spiritually with everyone! Emannoel and his wife loved the baptisms of their two grandkids. Emannoel is still anxious to get baptized. We are going to see tomorrow about his divorce papers. His wife came to the baptism and to Church on Sunday. She loved both days and had tears in her eyes during the baptism. I know she will get baptized one day and it will be wonderful.

Leuge and Sergio are doing awesome! They both bore their testimonies to us last time we were with them and it was an amazing experience. I have never had so many investigators bearing their testimonies before baptism. I Love it! Sergio said he truly feels like he is apart of our family here and that people truly act like servants of our Savior. Leuge said she is starting to see the blessings in her life and that she is more patient and loving with me. It brought tears to my eyes to hear how they both are being blessed and how excited they are to get married and baptized! I love this family!

I still can’t believe I only have five short weeks left as a missionary. This week I have been studying about how to have more Faith in Jesus Christ. I absolutely Love the scriptures in Moroni 10:7 and 1 Nephi 7:12. They both talk about how God can only perform miracles in our lives IF we have faith. We have to show the Lord that we have faith in Him and in our Savior. We have to recognize that ONLY through our Savior’s sacrifice we can be saved and forgiven of our sins. Everything depends on our Faith. We have to have Faith in our Savior and faith in the Plan of Salvation. I am so GRATEFUL for our Savior and His amazing Love for us! I can’t wait to give Him a big hug one day and thank Him for everything He hás done for me!

Have an amazing week! Dad I hope you get feeling better! I will pray for you! I hope granny comes home tôo!

Tchau! Beijos!

Sister Poole

(Crystal comes home on March 23rd at 1:00 p.m. Please come to the airport if you would like to see her. She will probably speak in church on Sunday, Mar 27th. Details to come shortly.)


After the baptism of Raianes. She was so happy.


The baptims of Joao and Leandro


All the sisters in Manaus! I sure do miss S. Read, Young and Dos Santos!



Saying goodbye to Sister Nunes! I miss her so much!



Zone Mtgs. are VERY early...yawn! Sister Poole decided to sneak in a little nap. :-)



Walking one day after a big rainstorm, we seriously picked up about 5 pounds of mud on our shoes.


Sister Hamaker and Raiane after her baptism...doesn't she just GLOW!!?