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
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| 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! |
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| 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! |
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| Another picture of President V... and one of his daughters. |
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| Me, Elder Taylor and Elder Foote and Elder Wells. What a great crew! The Best of the Best! |
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| 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. |
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| A random Mexican store that we would visit a lot in Dayton. |
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| 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! |
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| Me and my companion at transfers! |
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| Here's my companion and the H... family that came to teach E...'s family with us! |
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| 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! |
