Transfer calls came in and... I'm leaving
Norwood! I can't believe it! Last thing that I was expecting. I was thinking I
might die here. Elder Garcia was sure that he was going zone leader and going
to get a car and everything so he's laughing/crying that he's staying in
Norwood. He'll have to unpack his bags again haha, and I'll have to pack mine!
Crazy stuff. This transfer is going to be a pretty big shuffle for the Spanish
zone. They closed down the East Cherry area and nearly every other area has
someone moving. So we'll all see each other at transfers tomorrow! It looks
like Elder Foote is actually leaving Dayton this time!
Last Wednesday we went to the Louisville
Kentucky Temple. :) :) :) :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
It was fantastic. I loved it even more than
the Columbus temple. It just kind of sits in the middle of all these beautiful
trees and then BAM, white building with Old Moroni glimmering on top. The
member that drove us was Bishop Sullivan, the former bishop. Afterwards he took
us to Wendy's and we all got Baconators. It was great. President and Sister
Porter were at the temple with us. And the Temple president took us into one of
the sealing rooms after the session and addressed us. The peace and spirit you can
feel in the House of the Lord is tremendous. There is nothing like it. I
imagine the spirit that exists there is but a taste of Heaven :) I know that
everything about the gospel is an expression of God's love for His children.
I'm extremely grateful for the temples that remind us how precious each son or
daughter is to our Father in Heaven. I'll attach pictures. Needless to say, for
the rest of that day we had a really good unity and spirit about us so we had
some really good lessons with investigators and less actives. One of them was C….
We showed him our temple pictures and he now has a goal of getting there
someday. Temple contagious!
Thursday our Ward mission leader, the
fantastic Brother Stanford, took us out for all you can eat shrimp at Red
Lobster. Because of the dinner we were a little late getting back to soccer
night. When we walked into the gym our mouths dropped. We had over 30 people
there, not including the families that came to watch their brothers, friends,
or fathers play. We had to make 6 teams. Everyone that has been coming earlier
decided to bring additional friends. Our investigators are pretty good
missionaries :) We got to meet a few new guys and we set up an appointment to
watch part of the classic Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game with one of them. (President
gives us permission to watch part of the games). I surprised myself at how much
I could talk about the teams as they were playing. Soccer just might have a
place in my heart now. :) We were on exchanges for the game so I brought Elder
Garcia's Barcelona jersey and they loved it. Elder Garcia also gave me his
"bandera de Mexico" (Mexican flag haha).
We had an awesome ward trunk or treat on
Saturday so we went to J…'s on Friday and helped him whip up an amazing chili
with a Mexican touch. Well, we didn't do much actually. I just opened the cans
of beans and Elder Garcia just cried as he cut the onions. J… worked the real
magic. It was a great opportunity to just show him how much we love him.
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you
care" right? So gaining the trust of investigators and members is key. J…
brought his chili to the cook off and he had a good time. We're excited for him
and his son. They are totally going to get baptized and I am going to do
everything I can to come back for the baptism! It was the worst to miss
C...'s baptism so I don't want to miss this one either! We have lots of
people here in Norwood that have great potential. I'm excited to see what Elder
Garcia and his new companion and the Lord make of it.
But at the trunk or treat we had more
investigators there than we could keep track of. It was especially difficult to
spend time with investigators because missionaries were asked to judge the
chili competition. So imagine eating 15 different types of chili. 1 in about
every 10 chilis will do work to your insides. So we were kind of worried. But
God blessed us and we got away with just being a little gassy. No major damage
done, so it could have been worse haha. Right before we went to the cook off we
invited the "Nacho gang" to come. There we found probably the only
Polish guy in Cincinnati. The zone leader that I was on exchanges with asked
him, "So you like hanging out with all these Mexicans huh?" He
replied in a classic Polish accent, "No, quite honestly I just like their
beer." It was great. He came to the trunk or treat, ate a few bowls of
chili, and then went outside and slept under a tree. We never saw or heard of
him again.
Well now that I'm leaving Norwood perhaps I
can also be more explicit about what else has happened in the course of a
regular week In Norwood. Right after we left one of our lessons with V... a
lady stabbed this guy at the park we used to play soccer at. Police and fire
trucks and the whole parade came rolling in. The guy is okay but he'll just
have a sore neck for a while. And then we went downtown to visit a referral in
some correction center, pretty much a jail. The assistants told us to see this Hispanic
guy in there. As we were approaching the building a guy flicked his knife out
and asked us "Hey are you Mormons?!" My zone leader just started
walking away but I actually didn't notice the knife, or at least I didn't think
anything of it, so I was just like, "Yeah! We're missionaries!" I
throw my hand out and shake his hand and now he's actually a new investigator
that we referred to the English elders. :) "Kill em' with kindness"
is my motto :P (so he later explained that he didn't actually want to jump us
but he was actually just clipping his fingernails...) ["Yeah, right!" says his mother!]
Well, congratulations for reading this far
into the email. I promise it won't get much longer. I just want to close with a
word or two about how awesome God is. I love Him a lot. And I have a testimony
that He loves us because of the great plan He's made for us to be happy. No
matter how well we feel we know about the Plan of Salvation it is always worth
our study. Our understanding of how much God loves us will continuously
increase as we do so. I know He sent His Son for us because He loves us that
much. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior. He paid the ultimate sacrifice, and He
did it all for us. And, He lives! He lives with prints in His hands and feet. I
know it. I'm grateful for the time He's given me to serve Him. I don't even
think I can say that. Service isn't the right word. I feel I haven't done
anything to serve Him in comparison to how He has blessed me. We are always in
His debt. I have a testimony that He knows and loves us perfectly and that He
especially pours out His blessings in the moments when you need it most.
Love you!!!!! Elder Kevin Graf
 |
| Temple! As we were walking in, I snapped a few pictures. |
 |
| Sister Porter! |
 |
| All the elders from our Norwood ward and Bishop Sullivan (former Bishop). |
 |
| My friend in gold! |
 |
| Selfies after coming out! |
 |
Trees and scenery in Kentucky |
 |
| Cool colors from our apartment window. The window screen got in the way. Bummer. |
 |
| Me and the most Christlike and kind man in the world, my man J...! |
 |
| So Bro Roerdanz caught me looking a little stoned. But he liked the picture because of the natural halo behind my head. Too bad I wasn't looking a little more lively, haha. |
 |
| Bro Roerdanz took a few pictures of all the missionaries before the Reds game. |
