I'm staying in Dayton!!! :D Transfer calls came in about an hour
ago and pretty much our whole zone is staying the same. Only 2 sisters and 1
elder are leaving our zone. One of the sisters is going home so that was to be
expected. But we are sad to say that Elder Harper will be leaving us. I guess
the tri-companionship, or "trifecta!", "We 3 Kings",
"the 3 wisemen", or "the 3 Amigos", as we were referred to,
are no more! It was too good to last. :( probably one of the most fun transfers
of my life though. But I'm excited for the transfer to come. We as a zone are
set up to see some amazing miracles the month of December. And there is no
better place to die than where I was born, in the great land of Dayton. I will
have completed a year of my mission here by the end of this transfer.
Last week was a great week. On top of the regular blessings of
missionary work we had an outstanding zone conference with President and Sister
Porter. We talked about the doctrine of Christ (obviously), but also having
vision for how the gospel can build happy, strong, unified families for
ourselves and for our investigators. We talked about the importance of
receiving revelation each day through our studies. If we want to have God's
power in our life we have to continually turn our hearts to Him in prayer and
be treasuring up His words in our minds. So one thing that we started doing in
our own area is memorize a scripture about Faith each day while we're driving
around in the car. It's been another effective tool for us to maintain high
vision throughout the week. We quote those scriptures often and we've seen a
huge change. We were working hard before but thinking about those scriptures
gives us added spirit and energy to do even a little more.
On Saturday we did another "social media split." If
you remember it's a day where we have members follow the missionaries all day
and take pictures and post them on social media sites like facebook and
twitter. It shows that we are good people out to help the local communities.
It's something that started in our mission and has spread to surrounding
missions. We have also been using the "He is the gift" video on christmas.mormon.org.
We have a goal of inviting at least 10 people to watch the video each day.
Social media is a powerful tool that we can all use to do as Elder Bednar has
charged everyone to do, "to literally sweep the earth as with a
flood."
This last week we also had stake conference. It was a really
good conference. President and Sister Porter spoke during the Sunday session.
But apparently last year I missed out on Elder Christofferson coming to Dayton.
The Dayton stake has had a general authority at every stake conference over the
past 3 or so years with the exception of only 2 times. Unfortunately those are
the only 2 times that I've been here haha :( But all well, I was raised in Utah
so I can't complain. I get to be around the prophet all the time there.
So we might be moving apartments here sometime this month. The
Nelsons, my all time favorite senior couple are going home this week, but they
set us up with a nice apartment to move into because they're awesome and they
love us like that :) As for other news, we are loving every minute. We are
serving some of God's most amazing children. They are just diamonds in the
rough. There are a lot of weird people in Dayton but everyone is so real,
nothing superficial about them. So you can't help but love them. We are hoping
to baptize several people this month. It's going to be great! We are still
working with the K… family, and P…, and J.., and many others. I love them all!
P… also called us on Saturday and told us that he wants to get baptized so
that's always a good day :) we are grateful for God's miracles. He always seems
to know the best way to surprise us.
Love you!!! Elder Kevin Graf
Sorry, no new photos this week... So here's Elder Harper eating
a 2 pound snickers bar!
