Transfers--Doubled Out

Sorry the email randomly sent half way through, here's the complete one....

Over the past few days I knew transfers were coming but I never gave it a second thought. I knew, just knew I was going to stay in this area, especially because Elder Gibb was so set on the fact that he was leaving this transfer. Boy were we wrong. We are getting doubled out, which means that WE ARE BOTH LEAVING! I couldn't believe it! At first I was completely shocked, because we had been doubled in together and surely they wouldn't do that to this area again. So I've been a wild mix of emotions. This morning I didn't know what to do with myself haha. I was just pacing frantically around the apartment. I was in complete disbelief, also angry, and also excited for the unknown. We just said goodbye to M… and C… about an hour ago. I hope we can somehow make it back for their wedding and baptism.  I'm completely torn apart that I'm going to have to say goodbye to E…, J…, and all the members. Part of my worry is that we won't have any time to say our goodbye's to everyone. Leaving Dayton was harder than leaving home, and leaving Ohio River will be even harder than leaving Dayton. To all of you at home I know that I'll see you again. But these people that I've been serving I may never see them again. But I know that this is the Lord's work and that He takes care of His vineyard. I know the branch will be okay, after all they still have Elder Carranza here for at least another transfer. So anyways, this transfer just completely caught me off guard. But I know that the Lord knows what He's doing. His ways are higher than our ways. I know that the best thing to do is just to get to wherever my new area will be and get busy and work hard and love the people there just as much as I've loved the people in the past.

     Oh, just remembered, KRYSTA HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAST TUESDAY! YAY! Do something exciting, like fly all over America. Oh wait, you already do that. Well, you'll think of something.

    Well, here's my week in a glance:

    Monday: Read in the Book of Mormon with M… and C…. It was pretty amazing actually, we were reading in the Isaiah chapters and they still found things they liked. Found a guy named O… and taught him how to pray. Taught a less active's husband named L... He's been pretty stubborn about changing but he told us how he feels different when we come over. It was cool to tell him that it's not us, but the spirit that he was noticing.

    Tuesday: Exchanges with our English zone leaders. I went with Elder Kimball (the guy that was in the news paper) and Elder Gibb went with Elder Anderton (Elder Kimball's companion that's also in a picture in the article). It was a good exchange and I learned some good simple things from Elder Kimball. He's just himself and is genuine and real with everyone and anyone. We were lucky enough to find 9 new investigators that day.

    Wednesday: I conducted a district meeting on using the Book Of Mormon in teaching (something I really want to get good at) and then after we all ate pizza as a zone. But just to reiterate, I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON. I know that we cannot dedicate enough of our time to studying it. My faith in what's possible grows every time I read from it and I know I grow closer and closer to my Father in Heaven and my Savior because of it. The prophets in the Book of Mormon gave up everything to dedicate themselves to the ministry and discipleship of Christ. They loved it more than anything, more than riches and kingdoms and all the things the world could offer. I to recognize that my time as a missionary is short and sacred and I want to leave with no regrets. We can't ever be timid about our testimonies if we ever want to see miracles in our lives. So after District meeting we left and committed C… (a nonmember nephew of Hna. E… M…, be her facebook friend if you can find her haha) to read the book of Mormon every day and he accepted. He has things to change and I know God will help him through the repentance process as he invites God's power into his life by opening up and studying the pages of the Book of Mormon each day, and I know that this can be the same for each one of us as well. We then taught the youth of the branch about the language of Faith versus the language of Doubt as shown in 1 Nephi chapter 3. Laman and Nephi were in the exact same situations and did the exact same things. Both went back to Jerusalem, both helped build a boat, and both hiked through the wilderness. The only difference is Faith. One more experience this last week. Elder Carranza's companion was sick and he needed someone to go with him to help conduct a baptismal interview in another area. Elder Gibb stayed with his companion and I went with him. It was hard because we had some good lessons set up but we had to cancel everything. I was reluctant at first but in the end I decided to just trust that everything would work out for the better in the end. And it did. The interview went well and we still had time to teach that night (Thursday night) and we had some good lessons. In this way I felt like I could relate to Lehi because I had to make a sacrifice to leave everything and trust in the Lord's calling that things will work out (kind of similar to how I feel about transfers haha). But, after the youth we went to E…'s family. She's been feeling unsure about what to do recently and wants to recognize God's answers to her prayers. She really opened up to us again and we were able to give her a blessing of comfort. It's going to be hard to tell her goodbye tonight. After E… we went to a less active named E. H. and committed him to read 10 verses a day. He's a good kid, about 15 years old. We were working with his mom to help her set a goal of getting to the temple.

      Thursday: This was the day that we helped the other elder's out with the interview and that took most of the day but then we were able to come back and give an investigator named I… a copy of the Book of Mormon. We then went to a part member's home and taught them about the sacrament and committed them to come to church. (They didn't make it though because of a work conference, grrr). But E… is making some cool changes, he's a lot more open to us now and wants to learn more.

   Friday: Valentines Day! LOVED the package, chocolates are going to make me fat, I hope I can pack most of it with me to my next area. But thank you for putting that together, You're the best! And who better to spend Valentines with other than Elder Gibb?! We've been together for just about all of the important holidays. But what we did this day was weekly planning as a zone and then we ate dinner with Hna G…'s. She fed us the best "carne asada y salsa verde." After Hermana G…'s we went and taught M… and C…. M and C also fed us after the lesson with some of the world's all time best "tomales".  To say the least we had been stuffed once again, and long story made short, Elder Gibb puked it all back up by the end of the night, thanks to a little extra push provided by an unexpected punch to the stomach by one of the primary kids. Quite a hilarious experience. Elder Gibb felt better after anyways. I however just had to make sure that I exercised really hard the day after. 

   Saturday: Made cookies for J… and E… and J... We taught C… again and committed him to come to church. In the evening we had a big "Noche de Hogar" (Family Night) with the branch. Me and Elder Gibb taught a simple lesson on prayer. It was a good short lesson about a particular boy named Joseph Smith (or in Spanish, "Jose" Smith) and how his humble prayer has changed the world. I know Heavenly Father lives, and because He loves us we can communicate with him through prayer. I know that he answers every sincere prayer, but the answers may not come while we're on our knees. At least for me it's been my experience that Prayers are often not answered as we kneel by our bedside, but rather as we get up and get to work. We closed out the night by teaching L… and his wife and committing them to family prayer. I love being able to tell people about the blessings of family prayer, it's something that I'm very grateful that I had growing up.

    Sunday: Sunday consisted of branch council, church, and then visiting the M… family and a few other less actives. The M… family is such a great family. Hermana E… is the grandma and she is the sweetest lady you could ever meet. She's always feeding us and making sure that we're warm. M…, her daughter, is a champion and G…, M…'s brother, could kill somebody. I never want to get on his bad side, he's a pretty strong guy, probably should be in the NFL. But he's actually a nice guy and we got to meet him for one of the first times yesterday. We talked with the family and read some of Moroni 10 with them. We left their crazy and fun home and went to see R…, a long time less active that is the biggest teddy bear in the planet. He's just doing the best he can to provide for his little boys and it was a sweet experience to sit down with him and begin reading chapter 1 of the Book of Mormon with him. We closed out the week reading with Hermana H…. It's been a little frustrating with her because she wants to come back to church but has been struggling with other things. But as we've been reading with her she's been changing, her prayers have become more and more sincere each time we've come by.

    So that's about my week. There are probably a lot of typing mistakes but do your best to make sense of it all. This is what we do. We get to spend all of our time serving and teaching others and it's been the greatest growing experience of my life. I love these people and I'm excited to see what the next transfer brings!

Til next week!!!

Elder Kevin Graf

One Year Mark

The branch has an elder that is heading to his mission in Tennessee tomorrow. It all reminds me of when I was preparing to go.  I can't believe it, one year ago I was with you all. We had our last Sunday, last dinner, last photo, and then I stepped into the MTC. I feel like it was just 3 months ago that I walked out of there. I've learned a billion things and I've still got a billion to go. Time has definitely flown by.

We are definitely busy out here, I don't have any time to think about home at all, and maybe that's a good thing. On February 6th I nearly forgot it was my year mark until Elder Gibb reminded me haha. We didn't do anything special, we were too busy with zone conference and teaching appointments. We did have a sweet zone conference. President announced the new baptismal goal of 720 people for the year of 2014. It is the combined goal of all of the keyholders, or stake presidents, in our mission. Some stakes have goals of over 100 baptisms this year. So it's really time for us missionaries to perform at our best.

As I look back at my first year I'm proud of how I served. I was learning, I was full of faith, and I was obedient. This year I really want to dig even deeper, serve with all my heart, and just lose myself. I know miracles are possible and I want to do everything I can to reach the potential that Heavenly Father wants of me.  I know that now more than ever He is hastening His work and I'm excited to be a missionary in this time. I want to really learn from the Book of Mormon and learn to develop faith like the ancients, like Nephi, Alma, and Ammon. I love The Book Of Mormon! I know it was written for our day. Sorry this is all I have time for this week. You're in my prayers.

Love you!

Elder Graf

One of my Favorite Days of my Life

There is so much to tell about this week and always so little time! I'll give you an outline and you might have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks.

Monday: We taught M… and C… about priesthood and are going to help M… prepare to receive it after their marriage and baptism. But it was really neat to talk about the goal of temple attendance with them. This week I've been really working on making sure that I myself am constantly progressing in my personal conversion. So I've made an extra effort to look for the blessings of the Lord's hand in each day and it's amazing to realize how much He does for you. Even in the seemingly simple things. An example of this happened when M… and C… asked a couple of questions about a few scriptures they had read and I was able to explain them to them even though I had never before understood them myself. Just a light bulb went off in my head and it all made sense.

Tuesday: Tuesday most of the day was dedicated to interviews with president Porter. He told me some pretty incredible things. He told me, " You are the most obedient missionary in the mission. You can't be more obedient than perfectly obedient. I trust you more than any other missionary. You're an incredible trainer. I would trust you with my son." So I was feeling pretty good about myself. But then we had a discussion about why I wasn't baptizing. We came to the conclusion that I don't need to work any harder but I just need to forget myself, give my heart to these people, and ask in faith for miracles. Elder Gibb and I also had a really good talk. He called me out as being a robot. That's not exactly what he said but it's what he meant and he's right. I think for a time I had gotten comfortable and stopped progressing personally. I reminded myself why I came out on my mission in the first place, not just to do a mission, but to really serve my brothers and sisters from my heart. Hermana Concepcion also had given me and Elder Gibb some good advice a few weeks back. We asked her for advice and she told us to just speak from our hearts, not to change for anyone, and just be ourselves. Some words that I really appreciated. So, in all this I can say that I'm still learning to give my heart. To really give everything I have and consecrate it as God's, for Him and His purposes. No don't think that I was depressed or anything, I was quite the opposite. I think for a while I just fell into a bit of a comfortable routine, and I was forgetting how valuable my time out here really is. So all the words from my companion, and members, and president just helped me to wake up a little bit and remember that again. Anyways, I just blabbed away all the time I have but I'll give you just a sentence or two about the rest of the week.

Wedenesday: Car battery died.... twice. Yay. Water pipes freeze and explode at church and floods the kitchen. It was a miracle that our district was there when it happened so we could stop it and clean up, otherwise the whole church would have baptized itself.

Thursday: Taught C… and read in the Book of Mormon with him.

Friday: Teach M… and C… again!

Saturday: 2 baptisms by Elder Carranza and Elder Shiffler; their first ones! It was a special day for everyone because we got to help them prepare for the baptisms throughout the week with cleaning, and the programs, and interviews. One little girl named J… had to do it twice because her foot didn't go under. She is absolutely terrified of the water and began crying and almost walked out after the first attempt. The room went dead quiet and you could tell that everyone was just praying their hearts out that she would try again. She did it again and it was a success. Really both of the baptisms were miraculous but no time to explain right now!

Sunday: Sunday was possibly one of my favorite days of my life. Church services were full of little miracles and we had some really special experiences that I hope I never forget. One of them was that we went to visit Hermana Concepcion's sister in the hospital after a surgery on her leg. We gave her a priesthood blessing and it was the easiest blessing I've ever given. My Spanish wasn't perfect but I know the gift of tongues helped the words come. We all gave teary-eyed testimonies of the Savior. It was an experience that for me confirmed the sacredness of being a representative of the Lord. She's not a member, yet, but she told us how we were angels to her, how she always felt an increase of peace when we came over to eat, and how they name they will give our names at the last day as people who testified of Christ. And of Him I do bear my testimony, that He lives. That Jesus is the Christ, truly the son of the living God.

Love You all. Les quiero a todos.

Elder Graf 

The Ceiling in the Living Room Fell Down

We took an email break to go eat cake with one of our members, but now I'm back! So yeah, this week was a good one.

We taught M… and C… more about the Restoration and how we now have a modern day prophet, President Thomas S. Monson! They continue to be champions. They are planning their wedding for the first day of March, and the baptism the weekend after. We've been bringing M… to come out and teach with us now. He's great; he's a very bold teacher.

We finally did exchanges with the other elders of my district. Usually you do a 24-hour companion exchange at least once a transfer, but because we're Spanish elders, no one can really do exchanges with us. But we finally did an exchange with Elder Shifler and Elder Carranza, the other Spanish elders. I let Elder Gibb run the area for the day and he did a great job. I went to Elder Carranza's area and we had a fun day that started with a 6:00 A.M. fire alarm that triggered because the roof was flooding. Turns out the apartment above us had a water heater explode. With no maintenance crew available that early we did the best we could to catch water with popcorn bowls and trashcans. Eventually the ceiling in the living room fell down. (Furthermore, bad snowy weather delayed the arrival of carpet and repair crews so the other elders ended up staying at our apartment for another few days.) But we went on to have a good day with a couple powerful lessons. We had a really neat experience with a young single mom named I…. When we walked into her house I knew that I had recognized her from somewhere. Turns out she was at the house of one of our less actives when we had taught them a few months ago. We began to teach her about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, just a simple lesson about their incredible and individual love for us. The spirit was definitely present and she opened up to us. In tears she expressed how she had felt extremely alone in her life. She had been so poor at times that she had looked for people to take care of her two young daughters because they didn't have anything to eat. She accepted the invitation to come to church and she came!

Thursday was a really neat experience as well. We prayed to find a family that day. And at about 8pm at night we were blessed to find a family from Guatemala! We find them because we were on the way to see a potential when we felt like knocking the apartment door next to them, and... Whoala! New family! I've realized that that's sometimes how revelation works - Heavenly Father will give us an idea, and as we follow it, we may discover that a new opportunity is made available, one that could only be recognized as we were pursuing the original idea. So in life, don't just move from point A to point B, because the spirit may be waiting to bless us with a prompting in between! President Monson has said, "Never deny a generous thought." So anything that prompts you to do anything good for someone else, do it! (Moroni 7:12-16) You never know the blessings that Heavenly Father has for you unless you are exactly obedient to the spirit!

Sunday was basically a day of Miracles. WE COMPLETELY FILLED THE RELIEF SOCIETY ROOM! WAHOO! So yeah, we're going to have to move our sacrament meetings to the chapel pretty soon because this branch is about to explode. We had over 60 people at church. And the best part is that 9 of them were investigators, and Elder Carranza is baptizing 2 of them next week. We had investigators giving other investigators rides to church; Investigators teaching other investigators about the church and showing them where their classes are. It's just fantastic. One of the brothers was advanced to the Melchizedek priesthood, and for pete's sake another one even proposed to one of the sisters after church. They'll be married soon, right along side with M… and C…. And as soon as we get E…'s papers filled out she can get married to! So lots of good things are happening.

Thank you for all your letters and prayers!  Love you tons!

Elder Graf

Here's the ceiling!.... on the floor. We were actually out of the apartment when it fell. So it was a fun surprise to swing the door open and see this.

We had put the coach on the chairs because it was soaking up all the water from the swampy carpet.

Elder Carranza in the snow.