Buenos dias!

Buenos dias! Ya tenemos una nueva semana en frente de nosotros!

This transfer has been very rewarding, especially with E…'s baptism. I know that God will never tempt us, but he will try us, and those trials are in place for the purpose of refining us and building us. For this is the purpose of our lives, to become more like the Master, to have His character become ours. (Moroni 7:48). I definitely can look back throughout my mission and throughout my life and see how Heavenly Father has been carefully guiding my personal and spiritual growth. His plan is so incredible. I love it so much. It is definitely difficult but it is all so worth it. E… has been the prime example. Last week she learned that her boss wants her to start working Sundays because of all the days she's needed off for her baptism and family therapy sessions and on and on... I can only imagine how important it is for her that she has money to provide for her family right now, especially with all the difficult things she has been going through this past month. Her 12-year old daughter has been having a hard time because of it all and so she has been a bit rebellious towards her mom. So here is E…, suffering from wounded relationships with her family, and money is tight, she's trying to sell her trailer and her car, and then her boss is asking her to work on Sundays.... So what does she say? "God first, no matter what I'm going to church." No sacrifice is too big for her. She is incredible. As soon as my mission is over I am flying back here so I can give her and all her children the biggest hug ever!  

Well I feel like sometimes I get a little too pensive in my emails. I go into deep thinking mode. I do want you to know that even though it's sometimes tough lately we've also managed to have a blast. We've been getting up at about 6 A.M. to play basketball, we've had nerf wars after nightly planning, we are always eating super great food, and we even celebrated M…'s Birthday Party! We did a surprise party for him!

Yo se que mi Salvador vive! Yo se que esta es su iglesia verdadera y que el Libro de Mormon es completamente awesome!

Love you all, until next week!

Elder Graf

Baptism!!

President Porter said something interesting a while back. He said he loves getting emails from missionaries about how hard their week was because those are always the weeks where the greatest blessings come. (D&C 58:2-4 and 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 also talk about this) Those hardest weeks always seem to be the highest baptizing and those are the weeks where missionaries and investigators grow the most. I felt that was very true for me this last week. I really had to learn how to rely on the Savior. This companionship has been very rewarding and we have been developing a very strong relationship.  With God behind us there is always hope and power to conquer every foe, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. The only way to stifle God's grace is by not trying. So as long as we are just doing our best with what we have, we will always be entitled to His divine help. We may make a mistake over and over and over again, time and time again, falling on our faces day after day, but He knows how to heal us, pick us up, dust us off, and set us on our feet again. Life is stressful, but it needs to be because that's how we grow and progress. Elder Arveseth and I have been doing really well the past couple days. "Trials make champions because opposition makes Gods!" (2 Nephi 2) that's a quote Elder Arveseth and I came up with during a rather revelatory gospel discussion before church one day. Haha but all in all I know we had a rough middle of the week because the adversary knew perfectly well what miracle was in progress for the end of the week, E…'s baptism!!!!

E… was baptized, and what better time than Easter weekend and Rachel's Birthday!?!?! (Rachel by the way looks like a totally different little person than the one I last saw).

But holy cow the baptism was the greatest experience of my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It started right on time, 25 minutes late. Which really ain't too bad for the branch  :). Besides, we needed the extra time to top off the font anyways. The power of God was definitely made manifest during the ordinance. A senior missionary couple, Elder and Sister Nelson, that didn't speak Spanish said it was one of the most spiritual services they had ever attended. (And Elder Nelson has served like 3 missions!) They also took us out to dinner to Olive Garden after the baptism, which is exactly what they did for me and ELder Gibb after J…'s baptism.

It has been really cool to participate in the baptisms of this family. E… wanted me to baptize her because she felt like I had come back to this area to baptize her. As I said last week it was a complete miracle that God opened up this opportunity for her at this time. I don't have words to express the feelings of the baptism and confirmation. Right before the baptism we sang the hymn, "Oh Mi Padre" (Oh my Father) which she chose and is one of my favorites. I was almost in tears as we were singing. When we finished the song and she and I had stood up to walk towards the font I could see the tears in her eyes. It warmed my heart with complete amazement that Heavenly Father has allowed me to be a part of all this. His plan is mysterious and amazing. One of the witnesses for the baptism testified of the spirit he felt as she was submerged in the water. I to can testify of the same spirit that I felt as she came clean out of the water. At the end of the service she shared a very emotional and powerful testimony about her conviction of how greatly this gospel has and will bless her and her family. She bore her testimony that she is here in the church and here to stay! Wahooo! So next stop? Temple and Endure to the end! I know that this Easter weekend was the spiritually healing that she and we all needed. The power of the Savior's atonement is so amazing.

As far as Easter goes I missed the egg rolling tradition but I did have a great time at the M…”s home. We watched the "Because of Him" video and shared testimony's of the Savior and ate a nice display of protein: "Carne Asada", hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, and sausage :) It was fantastic. Thank you by the way for the Easter Package!!! That was quite awesome of you all. The Nerf gun is perfect. We have another one just like in our apartment, and now we have two! And where there are two Nerf guns there are Nerf wars :) So thank you! Just know that I am very very content, so very happy with all that I've been learning about myself and my Savior. You are the greatest family ever and I love you TONS. Have a great week! I'll send some pictures!

Elder Graf

President Loechinger of the mission presidency flew his plane down from Dayton Ohio to interview E..., which was a very spiritual moment as well. We picked him up from the airport and snapped a few pictures while we were there.

Easter Package!!! 

I called Elder Gibb and made sure he came down for the baptism.

Her youngest son isn't old enough yet and her daughter is waiting and praying for permission from her dad to get baptized. 

Miracle after Miracle

This week was absolutely incredible. We saw Miracle after Miracle after Miracle. Thank you for praying for us, it really made the difference.

(In a semi chronological order)

Miracle #1 As I said last week, random guy payed for our Steak n Shake. AWESOME right? We're convinced he was one of the three Nephites.

Miracle #2 We find this amazing mother of 5 and have a sweet lesson with her. We teach her again tonight. She and her kids are super prepared for the gospel.

Miracle #3 First day of the week, Monday, we hit all of our daily goals!

Miracle #4 Over the weekend I had felt like I had been walking a tightrope of stresses so much that by Tuesday my head caught fire with a 24 hour fever. That same day we were biking hard because we had to save miles on the car for another day. That afternoon, thanks to missing the bus, we had a decently long bike ride to our next appointment, E... We were biking along and I was sweaty and my head was exploding but I just kept my spirits up and I'm glad I did because boy oh boy did God have a surprise waiting for us. We get to E…'s house and we sit down and she tells us that she and her boyfriend just separated and now she can get baptized and she wants me to baptize her! HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE. She has been waiting for this for over a year. This opening of an opportunity to allow her to be baptized so suddenly is an answer to our combined prayer and fasting and sacrifice. She told us "God first" and that she and her family are going to be stronger and better than ever before. I still can't believe that it's all finally coming into place, and seemingly so suddenly. Miracle and nothing less. Her baptismal service is going to be this Saturday at 4, maybe about the same time that Rachel will be having her birthday cake! (Happy birthday Rachel!!!)

Alright well it was my intention to go through the week and list off the miracles that happened every day but I don't have time. So the Miracles of Monday through Tuesday will have to suffice. But trust that amazing things literally happened every single day and it was one of the greatest weeks of my mission. We hit our weekly goals and we had incredible trainings and we had some super sweet lessons and the spirit was guiding everything and it just feels like everything fell into place for us. Love you all thank you for your prayers, Please pray that E…'s baptism goes well and I'll tell you about it next week!

Elder Graf

Elder Brown, me ,and Elder Foote. Part of the family tree in the mission field. Elder Gibb was my lost son, I don't know where he was in this picture. It was super super fun to see everyone again.

We have a Spanish specialized training at the mission home twice a year. Here's all of us Spainards lined up in the Ohio Cincinnati mission.

Here's me when I wake up in the morning. Ready to fight the world.

Here's our bedroom with a Mexican flag prominently showing. 

This is a couple that has been with our mission for a few days. They are Spanish speaking so the Spanish Elders gathered together and took a picture with them. They are going to be Mission President in EL Salvador.

We got to spend a few days with them and talk with them about the work in this area. The just got done with a mission in Guatemala as well. Super awesome people.

Watching Conference

A few white people and a whole bunch of Hispanics! These are the people in the branch that have become to feel like family.

I love this church! I love this gospel! And I love Jesus!

Que Hubele?!

Super cool thing just happened! Me, my companion, and 4 other elders all played basketball this morning and then we went to "Steak n' Shake" and, well, ordered delicious steak burgers and some large shakes. As we were about ready to go our waitress informs us that some random guy sitting near us had paid for everything! It was probably a 50 dollar check! Made my day.

My new companion is Elder Arveseth. He's from Brigham City Utah and comes from a family of three brothers. He wasn't very active in the church for a few years but he's come back strong and is an incredible missionary. He likes skiing and snowboarding and biking and football and basketball and baseball and water skiing and wakeboarding. So on that note we're pretty similar. He's been out since September or October 2012, I believe, so almost 18 months. He's a really good teacher and a good missionary. We were blessed with a good start together. Our first several days together were quite successful and spiritual. And of course Conference Weekend was so great! Another Elder took some pictures of us watching conference and he'll send them to me next week.

We watched the Saturday sessions at a member's home, the H… family. We watched priesthood and the Sunday sessions at the church. We watched all of them except priesthood in Spanish. I was definitely praying for some additional help from above to help me understand the talks. I feel like I was able to understand about 80%. It was a super revelatory experience nonetheless. I wrote like 10 pages of notes. My faith and testimony of the reality of this work always triples after listening to the Lord's voice through the Prophets and Apostles. There is just no doubt that they are servants of God. They speak with such spirit and authority. I love them! I love this church! I love this gospel! And I love Jesus!

It has been so cool to see all of my old friends again! The members continue to be firm as ever and the branch now meets in the chapel! E… has been going through some hard times and I've heard that she hasn't been very steady in her church attendance the past several weeks. But it was such a happy moment to see her walk into the church to see the Sunday afternoon session. I know she felt at peace as she quietly listened to that session with her son C… (who is 2 years old and normally is running around) asleep on her lap and recently baptized J… sitting by her side. We have been praying for her and really concerned for her and so it was definitely a miracle to see her show up for the last session of Conference. She purchased and brought little Caesar’s pizza for everyone after the session.

M… and C… are still trying to get married and baptized. We just found out this week that they have to wait until May 28th to go back to try to apply for a marriage license. But they continue to hold to the iron rod of the Book of Mormon and because of that I know that they'll come out on top and eventually have the sweet joy of marriage and baptism and keeping God's commandments. I hope that I can be there when that day finally comes. Sometimes having to really pursue something makes it that much more valuable and enjoyable.

Well that's the update for this week! Oh, transfer day was on April Fools’ so I was totally expecting President to pull some prank on us, but he didn't. Rather it was Sister Porter that turned out to be the prankster! She sent out a missionwide voicemail saying that "transfers went well and President Porter just got permission from Salt Lake to send iPhones and iPads and they are on the way!" Elder Arveseth and I totally bought it and we rejoiced the whole day. It wasn't until the following morning that she sent out another voicemail that said nothing more than "APRIL FOOLS. Love you!" We were crushed. But we still love the Porter's, they are a great mission president and wife. We will practically be with them every day this week to! Tomorrow is zone meeting, Thursday we have a zone specialized training, and then on Friday all of the Spanish Elders go to the mission home for a biannual Spanish specialized training! It will be a fun week!

Les Quiero mucho!

Elder Graf

The Beloved Brother Bristow took us all out to a steakhouse as my farewell. He just wrote me and told me that one of the little boys we were teaching asked him to baptize him on the 26th of this month!

Here is me and the Branch President and wife of the Spanish Dayton branch. He's a Chilean that always dreams of living in Chile!

Another picture of President V... and one of his daughters.

Me, Elder Taylor and Elder Foote and Elder Wells. What a great crew! The Best of the Best!

We realized that we had the tallest elders on the highest side of the hill slope so we rearranged for a second picture so we could be a little more evened out.

A random Mexican store that we would visit a lot in Dayton.

This is the J... Family! They got "transferred" the same day I did! He works in the Air force and is being moved from Dayton to Texas. His wife and children are moving to California to be closer to grandparents. They helped us so much. Both of them served missions and are so kind!

Me and my companion at transfers!

Here's my companion and the H... family that came to teach E...'s family with us! 

These are the youth of the branch. We teach them every week and they are good little students. We're trying to help I... go on a mission and help the rest of them read the best book in the world, THE BOOK OF MORMON!