HOWDY UTAH! Okay where to begin? The
days sometimes blend together and I forget what was when and what stories I've
already told you. But we were teaching this Air Force guy about the Plan of
Salvation last night and he asked us if God had a body. We explained that he
does. And he was like "Cool. Is he ripped? Cause he's perfect right? So
he's gotta have a toned body. Is your God ripped? My God is." It was so
weird and unexpected. We all had a good laugh over it.
In another lesson we were teaching
in Spanish and the brother of the guy who we were teaching walked in and told
me that my Spanish was really good! WAHOO. I'm getting there! Still tons to
learn but I'm communicating pretty decently now. While I was on exchanges with
my district leader (who is only English speaking) I even contacted a few Hispanics
and talked to them all by my lonesome! :D
Random thing, while on that exchange
with my DL we also ended up playing Bball on the street with all these black
kids in Downtown Dayton. We played for like an hour. It was fun. My District
Leader says it's a good way to get people interested in who we are and what we
teach as missionaries. Because when two white dudes in shirts and ties come to
play bball the whole neighborhood comes out to see it haha. I don't know if it
really is the most effective proselyting technique but it was fun to play a
little. The music he listens to is also probably a little apostate for the
mission field. It's primary songs put to dub step haha. It was a crazy exchange
but it was fun and I did learn a lot.
When I got back with Elder Brown we
had a cool lesson. We found this guy that's trying to get back into the
marines. He's a nice guy with a small family. We were teaching him the first
lesson and it was EXTREMELY hard to focus (Dog, little kids running around,
immature skater friends that eventually left. etc.) But while Elder Brown kept
the dog preoccupied I told him the First Vision. The room seemed to settle down
as I told him Joseph Smith's experience. The spirit confirmed to Steven's heart
that Joseph Smith did in fact see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He
described it as a "warm tingly feeling" while pointing to his chest.
He liked it so much that He wanted me to tell him the First Vision again. We
told him that he could feel the spirit again as he reads the Book of Mormon.We
teach him again tonight! Hopefully he reads!
Se que Jose Smith vio el Padre
Celestial y su Hijo, Jesucristo. Se que Dios nos ama mas que podamos entender y
El esucha y contesta a nuestras oraciones sinceros. Se que Jose Smith fue un
profeta, aun el profeta de la Restauracion. Se que Dios y Jesucristo viven en
este momento y ellos comunican con un profeta moderno. Se que todas estas cosas
mediante los sentamientos del Espiritu. Y por los mismos sentamientos de paz y
consuelo, yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero y es la evidencia que La
Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos dias es la iglesia de
Jesucristo en la tierra!
There's a quick testimony in Spanish!
Love you family! Have an awesome week!
Elder Kevin Graf
My area is possible the largest area in the mission so we have everything from rural farms to suburban neighborhoods to downtown inner city.
The Lake was in a place called Springfield Ohio. We had a branch party there and we had food and played soccer on the beach. It was a lot of fun. Other Elders were there and two other spanish branches were there. I'm not much of a soccer player (especially in jeans and shoes) but it was fun to get involved.
