Hola familia mia!

Hola familia mia!

General Conference this weekend!!! Wooo! Get excited cause it's going to be sweet! Wow I just remembered that this will be my last General Conference on my mission. That actually just made me super depressed so I'm not going to think about that anymore haha... 

Unfortunately no investigators came to church again :( BUT, we are going to choose to see the bright side of things. We still saw lots of cool things happen last week that were totally God's grace in action. A less active Spanish family came to church for the first time in months. What was the difference? Service. Serve those you want to love, and those that feel God's love through you will change for the better. This family moved from one home into another home (still within ward boundaries thankfully) and had a baby the day before. Moving homes and a baby within 24 hours!!! Talk about crazy timing. Literally after unloading the last box the father went to pick up his wife and baby from the hospital. So there was ample opportunity for the ward to reach out to them and serve them last week. Missionaries and members alike helped with unpacking and Relief Society provided dinners. They certainly felt our love and a week later, yesterday, showed up at church!  

The ward also gave us a list of less active people to contact and to find out if they still lived there. Miracle here is that one such name on the list was a lady named S... She is the sweetest older lady from an island near Guam that you could ever meet! She has such a pure spirit and just hasn't been to church because she was a recent convert and only knew the sister missionaries. So when the sisters got transferred she didn't feel comfortable with the new elders and didn't know the members well enough so stopped coming. But we love her because she is so cool and we are reading the Book of Mormon with her weekly now. We are going to work with the Relief Society and she is totally coming back! We've got to get to know the people around us; there are just too many friendships with awesome people that we miss out on by not reaching out to those around us. 

Another awesome less active we are working with is a guy named Bro. W... He's always got something he needs help with because his bad lungs don't allow him to do much. But last Saturday we had a good time tearing up an old deck, putting down a new one and painting his fence. He and his nonmember wife treated us to a good dinner afterwards. We are definitely gaining their trust through service. This is a sweet family that I hope to stay in contact with. I don't think people realize how much we love them. I am so grateful for the many opportunities that a mission and the church provide us to be able to serve people. God's definitely making my heart grow a size or three. :) 

The members here are doing super well at fellowshipping C... He's now best friends with our Elder's quorum president. And after soccer night on Thursday a recent convert from the YSA branch bore her testimony to him about how he needs to get baptized haha it was great. So now C… is on fire. He had to work Sunday at his new job but he's going to ask for Sundays off. He brings his Book Of Mormon to work and reads it during breaks. He is telling his friends about us and told us of a friend that needs God because he's been depressed and he wants to get away from all the bad influences in his life. C… said of his friend "he'll probably get baptized even before I do. I'll talk to him and bring him over here so you guys can teach him." Haha oh C…, we love you. You make a great missionary. C… also helped with moving the less active family. He also helped us clean the chapel last week. I'm pretty sure C… is a better member than both Elder Garcia and I combined. :) He's going to need some help getting over some word of wisdom problems but we're working with him. (Pray for him that he'll be able to have the strength he needs to stop smoking please!)

Last week we also did exchanges and had a good time. Ohio River was added to my district so now I'll get to do exchanges with them and see my old friends in Kentucky :) I still keep in touch with E… and her kids every now and then. But it will be fun to see them again. It was also Elder Garcia's birthday Saturday. Hard to believe it but he's hit the big 20. He pointed out that I was with him for his birthday last year because we were on exchanges that day haha how ironic. Elder Garcia and I have been together so long that we're going to have our second round of interviews with president together. Interviews this Wednesday! Hats off to Mission presidents that do interviews to 200 plus missionaries on a regular basis. President Porter also missed the wedding of his only daughter last week because he is glued to the mission for 3 years no matter what. He's definitely made great sacrifices to be here and we couldn't ask for a better mission president. 

I'm also grateful for parents that make the sacrifice to let boys like me be out here. :)  It definitely is no sacrifice on my part. God has blessed me with way more than I could ever even come close to repaying Him by being out here. So I know this much, God loves us. And before this gets any longer I say that in the name of Jesus Christ amen!

Cuidense, disfruten su semana!

Elder Kevin Graf

Church is Still True

Hello! We are back from our Papa John's pizza break. I love it when the Bengals win, it means half off at Papa Johns the next day, which is today! We've started making that a Pday routine. Email and order pizza. 

Last Monday was fun to tell all of our investigators that we get to stay. We continued to work just like any other week so when we showed up at church on Sunday, I had forgotten that last week was transfers. Many of the members that didn't already know that we were staying came to us and said, "Hey! You're still here!" My immediate reaction was, "Yeah of course I'm here. Why wouldn't I be?" Then I had to remind myself that last Tuesday was transfers and it was in fact possible that we could have been moved somewhere else. But I guess I'm just so comfortable and used to being here that for a moment I forgot about that possibility. I love it here and I will gladly stay here as long as president allows. But, who's to say how long that will be? This is for sure Elder Garcia's and mine last transfer together. Chances for a 5th are very slim. So I'm feeling like this is our hour to make it or break it, so to speak, because the pressures are mounting. President has made a huge investment in us. He's pretty much told me that he was inspired to keep us here for a purpose and he assumes that it is to baptize the families that we are working with. I was originally super excited that we'd get to stick it out and finally baptize all of our friends that we've been working with, but then Sunday rolls around and no one came to church. Not a single soul. This has been the case before and that was okay then but we're in a bit of a critical point here. I was kind of thinking to myself," We've only got 6 weeks to finish out here. If we don't there is a real chance that this area will be closed. But we have families and friends we've got to baptize, and we've worked so hard to get them to church, so where are they?"  So I was kind of frustrated. Being careful to contain my frustration to myself and not towards Heavenly Father I asked Him what more I need to do. It was only at that moment where I climbed the ladder of accountability and become empowered to change my circumstance. And then the revelation flowed. And I opened the scriptures and answers continued. Several scriptures had impact on me, including D&C 64:33, Alma 26:27 and even Alma 5:11-13. I won't take time now to explain specifically how these helped me but they did. Now, this wasn't like the clouds of heaven opened and trumpeting angels descended, but I grew in my testimony that God communicates with us. I know His written words will inspire in our hearts and minds the impressions He wants us to hear. He does it when we are sincere, when we ask for it, and when we search for it. In Church yesterday we had ward conference and one of the stake presidency member's quoted the Church Relief society president in saying something to this effect: the most important skill we can develop in this life is to qualify for, receive, and then act on revelation through the spirit. Elder Garcia is helping me with that one. He's told me to trust my gut more, and as I have I've seen little blessings happen. An example is during sacrament meeting yesterday. Elder Garcia and I were sitting out in the foyer doing translation. I saw one of the English elders' investigator go out for a smoke break. (Yes half way through sacrament meeting haha). He's done this before, but I felt like I should go sit and talk with him. So I did. And then I left him and went back to the foyer. Church continued as normal. No big miracle here, I just did what I felt. But it was cool to check the phone later and see a text message from the other elders that I had missed because the phone was on silent. They had sent a text asking if I would go check on their investigator at the same time I decided to go and talk to him anyways. And I know it was the same time because the investigator had asked me how much time was left until the next class. Pretty fun right? I'm grateful for the restored gospel. I'm grateful for the guidance of the spirit. I'm grateful for everyone that chooses to follow it, no matter how seemingly small. Elder Brown (who if you recall was my trainer) was also very good at following the spirit. I hadn't heard from him in awhile but just now he sent me a much appreciated letter because he felt prompted to. Cool. Thanks Elder Brown.

Well, this is getting lengthy. Church is still true :) I'm doing great. Hope you all are doing great to.

Love, Elder Graf     

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Transfers are tomorrow and guess what?!?!?! We're not going! Haha Elder Garcia and I are staying together another transfer here in the good ol' suburb of the Great Cincinnati known as Norwood. So when this transfer is all said and done that will be 6 months, 24 hours a day, that Elder Garcia and I will have been together. That's a quarter of our mission with the same dude. We are either going to be best friends or worst enemies by the end of it haha. It will be great marriage prep. :) Basically the only companion that Elder Garcia had been with longer than 1 transfer was his trainer.  I told elder Garcia that when you're married it's not just like you can get up and move homes or switch companions every month and a half. So we're obviously both in it to learn something haha. But at the same time it makes sense. We need to finish what we've got going here. Despite getting on each other's nerves here and there, I feel that we are the right mix to get things stirred up here. We have come to love the area and we LOVE the people here, both members and investigators, and they trust us. We were telling an investigator named N… about the possibility of us getting transferred and N… told us that if either one of us goes she won't let the missionaries come by. And L… (her daughter) said she wouldn't get baptized haha. They said it mostly jokingly but we feared that to some degree they might be serious. So we basically had a discussion about not being converted to us, but to the Lord. We reminded them that the spirit is the real teacher that testifies of the message. We are just the messengers, and any missionary can deliver the message by the spirit if he or she has a pure heart. (I love D&C 112:28 that talks about that, "But purify your hearts before me; and then go ye into all the world, and preach my gospel unto every creature who has not received it")  Regardless, seeing as how we are both staying, they have no excuses. Muahahah! :) Hopefully this transfer we will be able to help them, along with the others that we've been working with, overcome their obstacles and help them on their way to a lasting conversion through baptism. We're going to help someone take that step this transfer. I just know it. I couldn't tell you who it will be exactly but I feel that the Lord is going to let us reap a little of what we've sown in this area if we stay unified and serve with faith in Christ.  We'll keep you posted. :)

Well, I actually took quite a few pictures last week. So I'll cut this email a little short so that I can send them. :D

But... before I do that. Just know how much I love you guys. You're awesome, every last one of you. I pray for you but I don't have to think about you too much because I know that the Lord is taking caring of us. He always has been. I know that it is because of the gospel in our lives that we have been so blessed. I am so grateful for the Savior and His atonement. I have felt of His love in my life and it is something much bigger than I am, that's for sure. It is a powerful feeling that you get every once and a while that reminds you that He is still there for you, and always will be. It envelops you with a peace and an assurance that all will end well as we just do our best. I'm so grateful for the scriptures that bring the spirit to testify of this truth: that God lives. He will work miracles in our life as we learn to trust Him. That is perhaps one of the greatest things that I've been learning; how to live with faith in Christ. The more we lean on Him, the stronger we get. (Philippians 4:13) I know He lives! I leave you this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen :)

Cuidense, hasta la proxima!

Elder Kevin Graf

Gathering before the game

Me and Elder Taylor before we went into the stadium. He's a goofy one.

A member from the Ohio river branch that drove the other elders.

We sat near the top, haha. You have to get cheaper tickets when there are over 200 of you.

A pic of the river during the 6th inning.

We found a booth to print a "first game" certificate haha.

We each added a Spanish twist to our names. Hence I put Carlos for a middle name.

Batter batter SWING batter.

Look at that handsome squad :) I love being able to know everyone in there, lots of good buddies, including Elder Fivas and and Elder Taylor and Elder Garcia.

This is Brother Kevin Stanford. He's now our ward mission leader and he's awesome. He takes us out to Red Lobster every now and then. We love him. He's super fun and goofy.

So Elder Garcia thought he was for sure getting transferred out so he started taking pictures with all the people we visited sunday night. And while the cameras were out I just went ahead and snapped a few myself. So you"ll see a few of the people that we're teaching.

The Bishop family had us over for dinner. It's the same family that has the lovebird that attacks you haha. We were on exchanges and after the lesson they took this photo of us and posted it on Facebook. Fun picture!

Saturday we did a soccer tournament. We had several investigators there and it was a fun time.