Before I forget! Family History work is
awesome! Hay que hacerlo! (It needs to be done!) We have a family History
center attached to our church building and Elder Garcia and I spent some time
there last week (it's also the same place we email haha). We wanted to learn
more about it so we can teach others about it and it was actually super neat! I
discovered that we have ancestors from Scotland! And Elder Garcia's family went
back only 2 generations but he found the jackpot and connected his family to
another name that takes him back to the 1300's! And it didn't take a lot of
time either! We were definitely enjoying the spirit of Elijah and we encourage
all to enlist and take a look. Grandma Adams doesn't have names entered in for
her parents and grandparents (not that I saw on familysearch.org at
least)! So if she wants she could send me their names, birthdates, and places
and I could put them in! Now is a unique time to complete the Lord's work and
Temple and Family history work are essential! We have the technology, temples
and doctrine to make it possible! :) Doctrine and Covenants always has a good
word or two to say about the topic: "And now, my dearly beloved
brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation
to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to
our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation,
as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made
perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect." (D&C
128:15)
Perfect segway to this week. We are going to
the Temple this Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy just
thinking about it. I can't smile nearly big enough :D
Last week was also AWESOME. Here's why. I went
on exchanges with the Ohio River elders after district meeting and guess who I
got to see?! M… and C… and E… and J… and J… and even the little C…! I will
attach pictures. It was the best day of my life for so many reasons. It
reminded me how much I love these people. E… is in a bit of a difficult
situation, in between home arrangements so they are currently living at a
friends home. So at the end of the night we met them and the branch president,
Presidente Garcia, at the church. As we sat down together I got a good look at
them. The difference in light and spirit between E…'s and J…'s faces from J…'s
was so apparent. The gift of the Spirit is so real I tell you! We wanted to
help J… commit to be baptized. We had an incredibly powerful yet simple lesson
about following the Savior and being baptized and receiving the gift of the
Holy Ghost. I nearly bawled like a baby telling them how much I love them.
After some inspired questions and extending baptism to J… a series of times we
knelt and prayed together and after the prayer we asked her how she felt and
what was her reply?? .... She said, "my throat hurts." haha! Bummer.
So much for the spirit that was thick as butter and the love that filled the
room from carpet to ceiling. So J… didn't commit to anything yet but I know
she's making baby steps. Since the crazy fallout of last spring when the family
divided J… has had a hard time opening up and being honest about her feelings.
She has some scars that only God can patch up. She will decide to be baptized
one day, just not this day. But in the meantime the other elder's will keep
working with her.
But I still was happy as a clam to see them
all again. And what added more to my joy last week was that J… committed to
baptism for November 15th!!! Do your best and God will do the rest. We
were in the middle of our weekly planning session and we just felt like praying
for J… so we got down and prayed for a miracle and asked the zone to pray for
him and when we went into the lesson that night J… committed to the day! We've
been involving a returning less active member named J… in our lessons with him
and J… has been enjoying it tons and is catching fire!
Awesome miracle happened at church yesterday.
N… decided to come! And not only did she decide to come but she did in fact
come! If you knew her situation with anxiety you would realize how miraculous
it really was. Throughout church I became the distraction for her crazy 2 year
old son to keep him from screaming (also named C… haha I haven't had the best
of experiences with kids named C… on my mission) I'm not excited to be a parent
one day haha.
But last week was fantastic, absolutely
fantastic :) We are having great lessons with V… and a new investigator named H….
But before this gets any longer I want you to know that gospel of Jesus Christ
is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I am a witness that
Christ's atonement is infinite enough to touch everyone's life and to fill us
with hope for an everbright future. We get to know and appreciate Him and his
sacrifice through life's greatest difficulties as well as life's greatest joys.
I'm grateful for both! I am grateful for the trying times of my mission. They
have brought me to my knees and have strengthened my faith in the Savior in
ways that no other experience could and I love Him for it. This is likewise the
happiest times of my life! May you all have a wonderful week!
Elder Kevin Graf
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| Friends from Ohio River. |
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| More Ohio River friends. |
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| Bad hair day = wear a hat!I was a little over confident in cutting my hair this morning and so I attempted to cut the back of my head without help and I shaved it down way too much haha. You can kind of see it in this picture haha all well, the only difference between a bad hair cut and a great one is about 2 weeks :) |
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| Elder Garcia snapped a picture of me rockin' my Cincinnati cap |
