Cincinnati Reds game tonight! Everybody watch it! It can be a
mandatory family home evening activity :) We bought Cincinnati hats and they
are sweet, but we probably can't bring them to the game :( All well, it will be
fun! Hopefully we'll be able to bring our investigator C… as well. He was
planning on it but we haven't been able to find him the past couple days haha.
So we shall see.
Let's start with the end of the week and work
backwards shall we? (Matthew 19:30) So, by the grace of God, our beloved
and most wonderful investigator named J… came to church yesterday!!! Wooooo!!!
And what's more is that, even though he could only stay for sacrament meeting,
he had a great experience! We were blessed with another really powerful fast
and testimony meeting and the members bombarded him after the meeting. It was
great. If we can help him come to church consistently now he will be well on
his way to a lasting conversion, possibly the first Norwood Spanish branch president.
So, in other news, Brother R… deserves a word
or two. I believe I have mentioned him quite often but that's just because he's
a great neighbor to have and he feeds us like 3 times a week. He has a family
book that goes back to the early 1600's! Why does he have it? Well, because God
lives and He inspires men to act in order to fulfill His purposes. And so it was
with one of Brother R…'s great great great ancestors, who one day felt that a
record of names and dates and locations would be needed. He acted on that
prompting and began a book of birthplaces, names, marriages, funerals, and
important events for his family. How cool is that?! The record was written in
German, but Brother R… has since had it translated into English. And just last
week we helped him make a digital copy of the whole thing. What a gold mine for
family history work! He and his cousin now have a combined total of something
like 50,000 names that are getting prepared for temple work. This is the
hastening of the Lord's work, and who can stop it? Not anyone with a puny arm
hehe. "How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall
stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the
Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the
Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the
Latter-day Saints." (D&C 121:33)
Testimonies are so powerful, and the more we
share them the stronger they get. We had a really neat Spanish zone meeting last
Wednesday. We talked about the basics. We had a simple training on a few
fundamentals of missionary work, things like planning, studies, and the spirit.
After the training we had a testimony meeting. Let me tell you, there aren't
many times where I have felt the spirit so strongly. We sat in the chapel of
the church, only 16 of us. We were congregated as fellow missionaries who have
grown to become brothers because of the cause that unites us, and for the
sacrifices we've made to serve. We each bore testimony of how we have changed,
and oh how we have changed. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has grown, and
it will continue to be tested, tried, and proven true. And not only have we
changed, but the mission has as well. Spanish work was collapsing in these
states, and in the former Columbus mission it has become an afterthought. But
as of last week, the Spanish zone broke the record of number of people at
church on Sunday with 36, more than any English zone in the past in this
region. That's 36 people's Faith in Christ increased, one of which was our man
J… :)
Church is super true and so is The Book of
Mormon. Amen :D
Elder Kevin Graf
This is us and J…, the most solid recent convert I've ever
seen. He was baptized 4 months ago and just received the Melchizedek priesthood
yesterday. His plane for the National reserves training leaves in 30 minutes...
:( he will be missed.
