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.