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
