Dayton

HOLA HOLA! so this weekly email will be super short because of Memorial Day mixing things up. So Dayton is quite the ghetto, lots of crime down there. Lots of people tell us to be careful down there so we don't linger around when it gets dark. We see remnants of newly torched homes every week. Fantastic right? But I know Heavenly Father hears all of our prayers and I know we're protected so long as we don't do anything dumb. (so don't worry mom :) God's got my back) But down in Dayton we met this Biker lady, she's hard core, bandana, Harley Davidson set of wheels and everything. She wasn't interested but she was telling us about this Heavy Metal Church of Christ. I thought it was Hilarious. They read from the Bible and then have breaks to drink a beer, smoke a cigarette, rock out to some heavy tunes and then dive back into the good word. I guess whatever you got to do you got to do. The world is a pretty crazy place. Lots of wacky ideas. What a blessing it is for us to have the foundation of pure and simple truths in our lives.

But we're finding new investigators. One of them is named Julio. He had talked a little with the missionaries in Mexico but has lived in Ohio the past 4 years. We taught him the restoration last night. Elder Brown began teaching about Joseph Smith when he paused, thought to himself, then asked me to proceed with Joseph's story. Somehow we both knew that I needed to deliver the story of Joseph Smith's first vision to Julio. My heart was beating a little bit, which was unusual because we've taught this a million times. But by revelation confirmed throughout the earlier parts of our visit we somehow both knew that I specifically needed to deliver the first vision to him. I did so and the spirit testified to us all of the reality of Joseph's vision. Everyone felt the spirit's presence. It was pretty powerful. I don't know exactly why I was the one who needed to teach the first vision to him but I know that it will be a valuable experience for Julio to remember in the future. We teach him again next Tuesday. I'm excited about it. LES AMO!

 

Cow Brain and Pig Kidney

Kevin sent replies to our letters and then a short separate letter. That’s why this is so disjointed.

 

I keep telling Elder Brown I want to see a tornado but he's said he's never seen any big storms the whole time he's been out (he just hit his year mark last week). But who knows, maybe this week is the week haha.  I'm sure mom loved the Star Trek movie. She's quite obsessed with them

This week was pretty slow going. We're trying to really focus on finding new people. We've found a couple that we are excited about. My Spanish improves little by little and it's exciting. I can't believe I'm already on my tenth week of 12 week training! This transfer is going by really fast!

 

Hola querido familia mia!

Alrighty. Due to only a few minutes left of time this email will have no rhyme or reason to it. Enjoy!

Elder Brown ate cow brain taco while I tried pig kidneys. Both were equally undesirable.

It's crazy to think that I'm already on my tenth week (of 12 total) of training! As I was telling mom, this transfer has been flying by. The experiences I've been having have been awesome. I'm learning tons about myself and the gospel. We continue to use the priesthood to bless others. I feel that Heavenly Father has allowed me many opportunities to use the priesthood because the Hispanic population is almost entirely Catholic.The difference between us is obviously the restored authority.

Well sorry this was so short. I'll write home about this CRAZY door to door experience we had. I'll write home about other stuff from last week as well. Love you all, work hard, be happy.  :D

 

Go and Do

It was great to talk to everyone yesterday. Before we know it it'll be Christmas and we'll be talking again. Happy Mother's Day again! Mom, I love you tons. You've taught me the incredible principles of strength, love, faith, and hard work. Just like a true pioneer-spirited mother! Know that I'm well taken care of out here. This is best experience I've ever had. I'm growing tremendously in so many ways. Thank you for all your prayers and know that they are answered. Know that I'm healthy, safe, and happy.

Cool pictures! It's crazy to see pictures of everyone. Basically everyone looks the same except Camille looks a little older and Rachel's hair is more brown than I remember. I'm super excited for Kolby. He's going to be great for the people of London. I’m not sure why but I just think that mission fits him so well. I'll have to pinch out some time for emails to Kolby and the cousins overseas; might as well save a couple bucks like you suggested.

Well, well. I'm trying to send pictures but it's not working. So until Elder Brown shows me how to work his card reader I shall publish a scriptural thought :D but before I do that I just want to say it was awesome to talk to you all yesterday. It was a little weird but it was also so cool to actually hear your voices. Keep up the good gospel livin' :)

Okay so look up 1 Nephi 3:7 The famous "Go and Do" scripture. It says that God has prepared a way for us to keep EVERY COMMANDMENT. Do we really believe that? Because in verses like 3 Nephi 12:48 we also read that we are commanded to be PERFECT. How can we be perfect? What is the way prepared that we might fulfill this commandment? Well, here's where I like the wording in D and C 19:19 (read D and C 19:15-19). It talks about The Atonement. But when Christ completes the infintite sacrifice He doesn't say He finished the work and the glory, He doesn't say he finished our salvation, He doesn't even say He finished the Atonement. What He says is that He "finished my PREPARATIONS unto the children of men." Interesting word choice. Christ has prepared the way for us to be perfected, it is up to us to finish and fulfill this commandment. It is up to us to Go and Do, to Believe in Him, to put our faith in Him, to use and apply the power of the Atonement in our lives.

So there ya have it, a correlation between a few scriptures that I thought was pretty thought provoking. Study these scriptures, bake some cookies and... WHOALA! Family Home Evening is already figured out for tonight. !!!LES AMO!!!

 

Kevin thought this truck with all of the toys stuck to it was "quite hilarious!"

WAHOOOOO! First Investigator at Church!

WAHOOOOO! First Investigator at Church! The Ecuadorian came! He was originally going to ditch Ohio (and move to Connecticut or back to Ecuador) and buy a plane ticket to leave today. His life was in the pits and he had nothing to stay for so he was planning to run from it all. But, Elder Brown and I sat down beside him, on a curb outside his restaurant, and bore our testimonies like never before. I don't think I have ever so earnestly, so sincerely shared my testimony about the Atonement of Jesus Christ than sitting there on the curb. He smoked while telling us of all this pain that he'd been suffering. And you could see it in his face, he was exhausted, he was quitting, he wanted to just run. But we told him that the only way to be fully healed is the Atonement, is Jesus Christ. I bore testimony to him, and then we sat in silence for a few moments letting the spirit work on all of us. He sealed his commitment to come to church and we left him with a word of prayer. Such a cool experience. It's vivid in my mind. LOVE IT. Missionary work is awesome; it's unreal.

    Before I forget to tell you, after transfers we found out that we are staying put, which is just what we expected. We get to keep working in the Dayton area! They are also splitting the mission right through Dayton so if I’m still in this area come July it will be a toss up as to which mission I end up in (Cincinnati or Columbus). We also just found a promising investigator. She seems pretty prepared and we're so excited for her! We've been trying to visit her recently to invite her to a baptismal service that's soon, but every time we've been over she's had music on so loud that she couldn't hear us knocking haha. So we've been leaving post-it sticky notes and she's been replying through the sticky notes. One of these times we'll hopefully catch her in a quiet part of her music.

  Well I'll talk to you all this next Sunday! Love you all! ADIOS.

Elder Kevin Graf

Hola, Hola, Hola

HOLA HOLA HOLA. So this week is the end of the transfer! Hard to believe I've already been in the Field 6 weeks! That's why I'm emailing on a Wednesday, because P-days are on Wednesdays for transfer weeks. We find out tonight if we get moved to a new area or not. I imagine Elder Brown and I will be staying put because I'm in training. I love the branch here as well. I'd hate to leave them so soon :(

   So Mother's day is soon and I'm not sure exactly how the calling home works out just yet. I'll ask Elder Brown about it as it gets closer. I think they have us call from a member's phone so that parents don't have the temptation of calling their missionaries directly haha. I also was just assigned to speak in church on Mother's day. It'll be fun to give my first talk in Spanish!

    I do feel that my Spanish is coming along. I'm able to carry out a decent conversation. When teaching lessons I can teach decently if the investigator is patient with me. My testimony of prayer has really grown. I usually don't like to pray for myself but I kept reading in the scriptures "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Well, totally true. I put it to the test and there really has been a difference. If we're humble and sincerely ask Heavenly Father for help with achieving our righteous desires, He'll help us. That simple. He Loves us and wants to help us. We just need to ask for His help and He'll deliver in His way, which is always the best way.

    About our area... We're having a hard time finding Spanish investigators who'll keep commitments and progress. We manage to find incredible English speaking investigators but we've got to hand them off if they're outside Huber Heights. It's hard to teach an amazing first lesson and then refer them to other elders. But it's all part of the fun of being a Spanish Elder. So this week we're really going to try to boost branch member involvement. That'll be the key to this area (and probably most areas). Members really are so vital to the work. Our monthly miles have been cut from 1450 to 1300, so we'll especially need members this month!

    But, a good thing is that we're probably going to have someone at Church this week! Our first One! Wahooo! He's a guy from Ecuador and the owner of an Italian restaurant that we visit frequently. He works all the time, (and on Sundays), but he's been miserable these past couple weeks...but we continue to be his friend and he accepted to start the restaurant late Sunday so he can come to church. Wahoo! :D

   Last story then time is up. We helped this lady in a wheel chair last week. We pushed her to the store she needed to get to, helped her shop quickly, and pushed her back home. The cash register at the store asked us who we were (basically why we were helping her). we told her we're missionaries and she responded "Oh, that makes sense." I thought to myself, "How sad!" It only makes sense that missionaries give simple service like that? No way Jose! Everybody should! We have the restored Gospel in our lives and there are other children of God who need it to, whether they realize it or not, whether it's convenient for us or not (I'll add that we had an appointment to get to and easily could have dismissed the sight of the handicapped woman for the cause that 'we don't have time'). So, my invitation to family, friend, and foe this week is to cast out fear with love and look for an opportunity to bear testimony. :D Heavenly Father is ever so willing to help us and accompany us with the Spirit as we think of and serve others.

   Love you MOM. Love you Dad. Krysta, Erin, Camille, Rachel - Have a good week!

-Elder Kevin Graf

Habanero Salsa!

HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!

First thing. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!! It's crazy to think how much everyone will have grown while I'm out here. Sounds like it was a fun birthday. Love You! Also, thanks for your letters this week!

 Oh boy, the library is busy and so I might have to get off in 2 minutes but I'll get back on later if we can...

  So nothing too crazy happened this past week. I did manage to lock ourselves out of the car while it was POURING. So that was pretty sweet.

  Poop. got to go

Okay, I'm back once again! Elder Brown and I are doing well together. I eat constantly throughout the day, even as we're going tracting I munch on granola bars. For lunch I eat like 4 PB and J sandwiches and a couple tacos and have only gained a couple pounds the whole time I've been out here. In Elder Brown’s diabetes check up the doctor told him he needed to lose about 15 or 20 pounds, which would basically be my weight. So I think he tries to plan our day so that there's minimal amount of time to eat meals just to spite me haha. Here I am eating all the time and I don't gain wait while he eats hardly nothing and needs to shed a few pounds. It's kinda funny. I just try to enjoy my metabolism while I have it! We had a zone activity (we basically played a one verse all version of dodgeball) and we had a teaching appointment so my Pday is a little mixed around today. 

So like I was saying... Not too much happened this week, but getting locked out of the car (until the Vehicle coordinator drove down and saved us) turned out to be a blessing. We turned lemons into Lemonade by knocking doors around where the car was parked. We ended up having like one of the best first lessons we ever have had. They were already so humble. They committed to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, and to be baptized when they know it's true. BUT, they were an English family so we turned them over to the other Elders. EVERY Spanish Investigator we have is Catholic (which means you go to church once a year on Christmas and you have a Bible in your house but you don't know where it is haha) And the Hispanic population works like crazy. So they work on Sundays, which is what is keeping several of them from coming to church :( Also, they generally can't read very well, which makes gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon a little more difficult. But they really are great people and I'm learning to love them tremendously. I often find myself bearing testimony to my friends (that's what I'll call them, not investigators but friends) and begging them in my heart that they will accept this message of the restored gospel. I want them to have it so badly. I pray for them and hope to see some of them progress because I know how it can bless their lives. The mission has already truly been an incredible opportunity to feel of the love that the Savior and Heavenly Father has for his children - Especially the Spanish ones in OHIO ;) I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH! So I continue to work hard and be patient :D 

Random thing of the week - Me and Elder Brown tried "DA BOMB" it's like one of the hottest habanero salsa's in the world. Elder Brown took the smallest drop on his tortilla. He nearly doubled over crying from pain. The quote that says, “wise men learn from their own mistakes, but Wiser men learn from the mistakes of others" apparently doesn't apply to me. After Elder Brown's episode of tears and hyperventilating I promptly followed suit and took the SMALLEST drop of salsa and consequently suffered similar pain. Luckily it was just dinner at a members house and so we were comfortable with looking like pathetic Gringos. But honestly, I love the people here!

Last note, apparently I might be training right after I'm done training. It's a real possibility. The number of missionaries is going to almost double by the next few transfers! This work is so crazy and I love it! The church is true! Love you all and have a great week!!!   -Elder Kevin Graf

**Kevin also sent a handwritten letter and said to let everyone know that he is grateful for all of the letters he's received from friends and family. He doesn't have time to answer everyone, but he really appreciates the support. He also mentioned that if they come across an English household, they teach them the first lesson and then refer them to the English Elders. But if they find an English household in Huber Heights (where they live) they keep them and continue teaching them. They end up teaching about half in English and half in Spanish. 

A Week's Worth of Awesome

 Hola mi querido familia en Utah! Upon request, this is what a typical day is like for me: Wake up and pray at 6:30. Exercise for 30 minutes, shower, and eat half a box of cereal (and an apple if there's time). From 8 to 9 we have personal study. From 9 to 11 we have Companionship study (normally only one hour of Comp study per day but because I'm training I have 2 hours Comp study a day for the next 9 or so weeks). 11 to Noon is Language study (something Elder Brown and I have neglected recently because of random chores we've had to get done). Noon to 1 p.m. is lunch hour. We also try to clean during lunch and do various things like that. But after lunch we get to work! We generally have 3 towns as our hotspots: New Carlise (a smaller rural town that Elder Brown loves because it reminds him of home. It's actually where some good potential investigators are) Dayton- Dayton is a bigger city (downtown Dayton there are some big buildings like Salt lake. But we stay in the more suburban/ slums parts of Dayton) and the third area is Huber Heights where we live. We don't actually like to spend much time in Huber Heights because there aren’t a lot of Hispanics. So that's a brief summary of what we do. We talk with everyone. We knock doors, which is actually something that I don't really mind because anything can happen haha. We go to teaching appointments. We talk with Mexicans (who are always so willing to feed us!) It's quite wonderful. No one is on track to baptism right now but we're finding new people almost every day. As a mission we found 354 new investigators last week! a new record! This is a great blessing to be a part of this work. I love it. I never realized how much the missionaries need the help of members. The work is seriously handicapped without member help! So be nice to the missionaries in your areas! Be prayerfully looking for someone you can share your testimony with, and then when the missionaries come asking, whenever that might be, you'll have someone for them to teach. And if the missionaries don't come around then fell free to take the initiative and teach your friends, neighbors, coworkers what you know. The gospel is for everyone. 

Time is always my enemy. I'm realizing that there is just no way to tell you all about everything I'm doing. 90 minutes of email time isn't enough to cover a weeks worth of awesome. But I'll continually try to pick a few things and do them justice with my frantic typing on this sticky keyboard. I email from a public library.

   Biggest thing that happened last week started with Wednesday. We drove down to Cincinnati area (about an hour south of my area in Dayton) to do a 24 hour exchange with our Zone leaders. The first part of the exchange was awesome. Wednesday evening we switched companions and both groups had a lot of fun with cool teaching experiences. Our zone leaders are the coolest. We stayed in their apartment that night. They are hilarious. They wrestle and pin each other down and scream at each other "Tell me you love me!" Quite Entertaining.

   But after Wednesday’s fun, things went south and it turned into a lot longer than a 24 hour exchange. Elder Brown is diabetic and his Blood sugar shot through the roof over night (which we later found out was because he hadn't set his pump in properly so he wasn't getting the insulin he needed). But he woke up feeling awful and was throwing up throughout the morning. I gave him a blessing, said good-bye to the zone leaders, and drove him to the E.R. We checked in expecting to be there for only a few hours. We learned that hospital protocol for a diabetic reaction as bad as his called for us to stay the night. And so we did. Elder Brown was monitored back to health throughout the night while I eventually got to sleep around 3:30 AM on a creative arrangement of hospital chairs. By 2 p.m. Friday he was well enough that we checked out and left. We've taken it a little easier the past couple days and Elder Brown is doing well. So far I've had to drive both of my companions to the E.R. and I'm awfully worried for my next companion, haha.

   Overall my testimony of the priesthood continues to grow. I had several other opportunities to give other blessings last week as well. One blessing was to a member's nonmember mother in the Hospital on our way to the 24 hour exchange. By the end of the blessing the older Spanish lady was in tears. The spirit works amazing emotions inside people.

   We also met another lady in Walmart who we ended up travelling to her home and giving her a blessing. Long story short we were confined to give the blessing to the lady on her porch where it was cold and windy. But she said she felt warm throughout the blessing. Go figure.

  Another blessing was given to a less active lady who had pain in her side from gall bladder or kidney stones. We gave her a blessing and next time we followed up with her she said that the doctor couldn't find the stones anymore and she no longer had pain. How Cool!

   If it sounds like I'm rushing through these stories it's because I am. Time is up. But Heavenly Father is A God of Miracles and He continues to work miracles in our lives today. We just have to look for and recognize them.

   Random thing of the week: I tried Cow tongue in a taco. It was fabulous. Just like a chewy steak :D

   LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE A GOOD WEEK!

-Elder Kevin