Family! Thanks for all the happy birthday wishes! I don't
feel like I should be 21 yet. How is this happening so fast? Make it stop!
Anyways, I have no time AT ALL anymore to
write emails. My emails will probably be super short for a while. And for that
I truly apologize! But today we have been driving all over our zone to help a
couple people, including a struggling missionary that just came to the mission
last week. We had to show him how fun a mission is so we drove way out to their
area and took them out to lunch and did a few things, which has left us almost
no time to email. And next week we will be helping a senior couple move out of
their apartment so I'm not sure when we'll get to email next week either.
Writing in my journal has come to a complete stop, as we are yet to go to bed
at a decent hour this entire week. It also doesn't help that I now sleep on a
couch because we don't have an extra bed.
This will probably make more sense if I tell
you how transfers went. So I didn't receive any leadership call the day before
transfers so I figured, "cool, I'll just pack my stuff and I'll go where
the Lord wants me to go and me and my new companion, whoever he is, will just
go to work and we'll work hard." It wasn't easy to say goodbye to a few
members and investigators but I’ll attach a couple pictures. So I'm sitting in
transfers and then they announce my name. They assign me to be senior zone
leader serving in the Dayton zone with 2 companions! That's right; I'm BACK IN
DAYTON and I have TWO companions! We are in a tri-companionship and I have a
zone leader companion in Elder Klodnicki and a junior comp in Elder Harper.
Both are awesome guys and this past week has been a complete PARTY. Elder
Klodnicki has only been a zone leader for a transfer and Elder harper is
hilarious. In fact, almost our entire zone is new to the zone. I know president
probably washed out the area to spark some faith and hope into the area. As
crazy as it is, I love Dayton. We are having the best time of our missions but
we've never been so exhausted. We share a tiny apartment with only one bedroom,
one bathroom, and a small kitchen. We only have two beds so I took first shift
sleeping on the couch haha. We are however, blessed with a car! I LOVE CARS!
They are so warm inside. But because we are always on the go we are eating out
a lot more. I don't like fast food but it's very inconvenient to go back to the
apartment and eat, which is technically out of our area.
So yeah. This transfer is going to provide
lots of room to exercise Faith because I have no idea what I'm doing. I've
never been a zone leader before but I'm really just going to trust on
inspiration through the spirit to teach me what the heck I'm supposed to be
doing. I've never been in a tri-companionship before. And, I've never done
English work before! Yes, I'm in English work now. It's quite sad actually. I
don't get a language study anymore. I miss the Spanish culture more than I
thought I would. I feel like I've been booted out of a family of missionaries
that I've worked with for the duration of my mission. Actually, Elder Klodnicki
was a visa waiter. He was going to go to Brazil but after a year of waiting he
decided to just stay in Ohio. So he actually knows a little bit of Portuguese.
I still use Spanish at ever opportunity I get. I’ve given a few referrals to
the Spanish elders. I cry inside as I realize that I don't get to teach them
anymore. English work is so different! It is so much easier because you can
talk to EVERYONE. We also get referrals from church headquarters! I thought
media referrals were only a myth but they actually exist! So Dayton is a branch
of about 70 people average and about 300 less active. Almost everyone is on
welfare so cars are scarce. That's the biggest difficulty here. Because it's hard
for the members to support other investigators when they themselves don't have
transportation or other things. But this area has tons of potential and we're
excited to baptize. President Porter has promised the mission some amazing
things over the next couple weeks and we're already seeing miracles. We a re
working with the K… family to baptize the parents. The kids were baptized a
couple months ago. We are also working with the B… family. The kids were also
baptized but the parents have marriage issues going on. Another guy named P… is
the coolest guy ever. He's a hard core biker that has developed a soft heart
and has been searching for the truth for a long time and he would have come to
church last Sunday if he didn’t get staph infection the day before :( bummer.
But awesome things are happening and this zone is going to be great! I can't
believe I'm back in Dayton! We've been so busy with zone stuff now that our
apartment is a wreck and we've hardly unpacked anything. I'm going to start
sending a lot of things home. I want to really dial in and focus these
remaining weeks. So anything that I don't need over the next 90 days is going
home. I'm going to focus on the essentials and really lose myself in the
service of others. It's almost not even an option at this point. There is so
much work to do and we're having a blast but we barely have time to catch our
breath.
Sorry for spelling a million things wrong. It's
just that my mind is racing. All leadership went to the mission home and we
received an awesome training last week and we are training the zone on it
tomorrow morning in zone meeting and we still have to prepare a few things but
I have no idea when we're going to do it because we still have to drop off the
struggling missionary back to his apartment right now and then teach a couple
lessons tonight so life is crazy. Bye. Adios!
Church is true! We've seen miracles last week
that I wish I could talk about but there just ain't time! Heavenly Father is
definitely sending lots of tender mercies to help me adjust. But life is good
with the gospel. I know that if we remember in whom we have our faith and if we
diligently follow Him and consecrate our all we will be blessed to be able to
do things beyond our own physical and spiritual capacities. I know this to be
true especially because of last week. I can't believe this email got this long
but I am just typing like a madman. Love you all so much! Jesus is our Savior
and He lives and the work is hastening! WOOOO!
-Elder Kevin Graf
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| Elder Foote and Elder Graf |
