Alrighty, another week in the books!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA. The big 5.0. I'm
awful proud of my old man :)
I skimmed through your letters.
Krysta, yes investigators are often called gators haha. Dad, something about
llamas, can't wait. Mom, unfortunately my bed isn't extra long (I sleep at a diagonal
- only half joking) haha.
Oh man, what to say about this
week???? Well it started off great, had a few days of nothing, but then
finished strong with none other than Elder Dallin H. Oaks himself! Yes I’m in
the back of the picture. (There is a Facebook page for the Ohio Cincinnati
mission run by the mission president's wife and the picture is on that.) They
had all the taller elders stand on tables in the back. So I’m hard to see but
I'm in there on the right.
Hearing Elder Oaks yesterday was
awesome. The spirit was obviously just thick as ever and could rival the spirit
in any MTC or temple experience. There's no way anyone couldn't just feel the
reality of the keys of the apostleship during that hour we had with him.
It was just Cincinnati missionaries and him. It was super neat to share a
chapel with just missionaries, a member of the seventy, and an apostle. It
amazed me how much energy he has. He shook all of our hands and didn't waste
time doing it. He's a man on a mission and doesn't slow down. After the
conference Elder Foote and I were just glowing with spirit and went back to
Dayton and worked miracles. We found four new "gators" just during
the last remaining hours of the night.
Well, more about our week is that we
are steadily improving! The number and spirit of our lessons has increased with
each week.
Elder Foote and I have
been learning a basic lesson. Heavenly Father wants our hearts given to the
work as well. We can be a Laman, doing the work but not really offering all of
our heart and energy, and just experience nonsubstantial days as a result. Or
we can be like Nephi, full of faith and sincerely trying to involve Heavenly
Father in everything we do, and see miracles. We experienced both last week. We
started the week like Nephi and had great success. By midweek we openly
acknowledged that we had slackened our pace a little and nothing was working.
By the end of the week we were like Nephi again and finished strong. What we
were doing didn't really change; our actions were basically the same but the
level of our desire is what changed. Once we really put our heart and desire
into it we received a downpour of blessings. So that's where we're at right
now. We're healthy, happy, and on the high road. We just need to stay humble,
diligent, and keep God in the picture so that we can stay this way.
Que mas? Mi habilidad de hablar y
entender Espanol is mucho mejor. Soy casi como un nativo :) The days I really
work hard Heavenly Father always blesses me with good Spanish.
Oh haha so after email and shopping
last p-day we were back at the apartment and all was going well. I was in the
middle of stuffing myself with one of Bro. Bristow's desserts (a wonderful
member who drops off desserts and food) when the phone rang. I didn't
recognize the number but I answered with a mouth full of food and gurgled out a
"hello". On the other end was President Porter. He asked how our week
was going and I was super caught off guard but I managed to spit out a few
answers. He then told me that I'm district leader over the Dayton area. So as
of a week today I've been District leader over Dayton. He told me that it's
been one the most prosperous areas and to keep it that way and basically hung
up the phone. I was scared out of my mind for a few minutes but I'm actually
comfortable with the new assignment now. But knowing how Heavenly Father is I'm
sure he'll throw a curve ball in here somewhere. That's been my mission
experience. Heavenly Father continues to make you stretch, He doesn't let you
be comfortable, if you're comfortable then you're not growing!
Anyhow times up but I love you
All! I still have the best family in the world, En TODO EL MUNDO :D
Adios, ELDER GRAF
President Porter has challenged us to live, eat, and breath Mexican. We are to shop at Hispanic places, talk about Hispanic things, and not to say a peep in English. We play futbol almost every Saturday morning to get to know investigators. I never though I'd be a soccer fan but president Vilches of the branch gave us each a jersey so now we're official. Dad you may see soccer cleats on the debit card in a few weeks :) We even proselyte in our jersey's :) not really.
Okay the jersey makes me look chubby but I weighed myself the other week and I'm only 185, only 10 pounds since the beginning!!!
Also next week is holiday so might not hear from me until Tuesday or Wednesday.
