Temple + Wendy's Baconator = Best day ever

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.

Exchanges in Ohio River

Before I forget! Family History work is awesome! Hay que hacerlo! (It needs to be done!) We have a family History center attached to our church building and Elder Garcia and I spent some time there last week (it's also the same place we email haha). We wanted to learn more about it so we can teach others about it and it was actually super neat! I discovered that we have ancestors from Scotland! And Elder Garcia's family went back only 2 generations but he found the jackpot and connected his family to another name that takes him back to the 1300's! And it didn't take a lot of time either! We were definitely enjoying the spirit of Elijah and we encourage all to enlist and take a look. Grandma Adams doesn't have names entered in for her parents and grandparents (not that I saw on familysearch.org at least)! So if she wants she could send me their names, birthdates, and places and I could put them in! Now is a unique time to complete the Lord's work and Temple and Family history work are essential! We have the technology, temples and doctrine to make it possible! :) Doctrine and Covenants always has a good word or two to say about the topic:  "And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect." (D&C 128:15)

Perfect segway to this week. We are going to the Temple this Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy just thinking about it. I can't smile nearly big enough :D

Last week was also AWESOME. Here's why. I went on exchanges with the Ohio River elders after district meeting and guess who I got to see?! M… and C… and E… and J… and J… and even the little C…! I will attach pictures. It was the best day of my life for so many reasons. It reminded me how much I love these people. E… is in a bit of a difficult situation, in between home arrangements so they are currently living at a friends home. So at the end of the night we met them and the branch president, Presidente Garcia, at the church. As we sat down together I got a good look at them. The difference in light and spirit between E…'s and J…'s faces from J…'s was so apparent. The gift of the Spirit is so real I tell you! We wanted to help J… commit to be baptized. We had an incredibly powerful yet simple lesson about following the Savior and being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I nearly bawled like a baby telling them how much I love them. After some inspired questions and extending baptism to J… a series of times we knelt and prayed together and after the prayer we asked her how she felt and what was her reply?? .... She said, "my throat hurts." haha! Bummer. So much for the spirit that was thick as butter and the love that filled the room from carpet to ceiling. So J… didn't commit to anything yet but I know she's making baby steps. Since the crazy fallout of last spring when the family divided J… has had a hard time opening up and being honest about her feelings. She has some scars that only God can patch up. She will decide to be baptized one day, just not this day. But in the meantime the other elder's will keep working with her.

But I still was happy as a clam to see them all again. And what added more to my joy last week was that J… committed to baptism for November 15th!!! Do your best and God will do the rest. We were in the middle of our weekly planning session and we just felt like praying for J… so we got down and prayed for a miracle and asked the zone to pray for him and when we went into the lesson that night J… committed to the day! We've been involving a returning less active member named J… in our lessons with him and J… has been enjoying it tons and is catching fire!

Awesome miracle happened at church yesterday. N… decided to come! And not only did she decide to come but she did in fact come! If you knew her situation with anxiety you would realize how miraculous it really was. Throughout church I became the distraction for her crazy 2 year old son to keep him from screaming (also named C… haha I haven't had the best of experiences with kids named C… on my mission) I'm not excited to be a parent one day haha.

But last week was fantastic, absolutely fantastic :) We are having great lessons with V… and a new investigator named H…. But before this gets any longer I want you to know that gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I am a witness that Christ's atonement is infinite enough to touch everyone's life and to fill us with hope for an everbright future. We get to know and appreciate Him and his sacrifice through life's greatest difficulties as well as life's greatest joys. I'm grateful for both! I am grateful for the trying times of my mission. They have brought me to my knees and have strengthened my faith in the Savior in ways that no other experience could and I love Him for it. This is likewise the happiest times of my life! May you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Kevin Graf  

Friends from Ohio River.

More Ohio River friends.

Bad hair day = wear a hat!I was a little over confident in cutting my hair this morning and so I attempted to cut the back of my head without help and I shaved it down way too much haha. You can kind of see it in this picture haha all well, the only difference between a bad hair cut and a great one is about 2 weeks :)

Elder Garcia snapped a picture of me rockin' my Cincinnati cap 

Recipe Disaster

I just wrote Elder Arveseth and he's doing great! We're going to be brothers after the mission. I love him tons.

Elder Garcia and I shared some good times together last week. We had some awesome lessons and little miracles that I'll share about if there's time. But after finishing planning Tuesday night we engaged in an epic battle of my umbrella shield and inflatable sword versus his nerf gun and candy bombs. It was one hit kill and I won hehe :) Saturday we also had a good time making a Hispanic cake called tres leches. We wanted to show our love for one of our less active families that was feeding us that night so we wanted to bring a cake. Get ready for the disaster...

We realized that we were out of the most important part of the cake, the tres leches (the 3 different types of milk you use to moisten the cake). So we took the bus down to Kroger really quick and got the 3 milks. While at the store I asked Elder Garcia if he remembered how many eggs we needed. "Two", he said, which was perfect because he had an egg and I had an egg so together we had it covered. We returned to the apartment and realized that we in fact needed 4 eggs. We weren't going to go back to the store, so we just called Brother R…. No big deal, he said he could help us out with the eggs. Right before we go over to his place to pick them up we also realized that we were just a little short on sugar to. So Brother R…. sends us off with plenty of both sugar and eggs. We promised we'd bring him some cake and returned to the apartment. The process continued. We didn't have nearly the amount of oil we needed. Our vegetable oil was nearly empty. We weren't going back to the store, and we couldn't call Brother R… again, so we knock on our apartment neighbors' doors. Of the 3 neighbors, 2 didn't answer and the 1 that did answer was a lady that didn't cook with oil. In my mind I was like "What? You don't cook with oil? Who doesn't cook with oil?" But we thanked her anyways and headed to our last resort, the church. At the church we found some oil in the kitchen. Good thing we live so close to it haha. We returned to the apartment and as Elder Garcia was mixing the batter he noticed an odd smell. He asked me, "Elder Graf does this smell bad to you?" I smelt it and I checked the recipe. It hit us that we didn't add the milk. Luckily we had some so we mixed it in and then figured our problems were solved. We finally popped the cake batter in the oven. After cooking in the oven it came out a nice golden color. Just perfect! But the bad smell filled the kitchen. We taste tested it. It was terrible! Absolutely gross! We felt like vomiting. Elder Garcia checked the expiration date of the oil we used. It was nearly 3 years expired!!! And who knows how long ago it was actually opened. So that was about 3 hours completely wasted. Not the most productive attempt of my mission haha. Well, many little lessons were learned from this experience, the first and greatest perhaps being: Check the recipe! So, when I come home, I can't make any promises about my personal cooking skills but I will gather a few Hispanic recipes and we can experiment with them together :)

We ended up having a great dinner with the less active family anyways. And they came to church yesterday! And the father of the family came out with us teaching for the first time! We had an awesome experience teaching J… with him. He shared his conversion story with J… and it really brought the spirit. It was something that J… needed to hear and also the member needed to hear his own testimony to. I do have a testimony that this work is the Lord's work. The spirit will always be there as we engage ourselves in His work and in His way. Members make a huge difference. I think they worry too much that they aren't going to say the right thing but their testimony is always perfect. Our visit with J… couldn't have gone any better. He is going to pray about baptism and we'll see how he feels next time we see him. He really is trying his best and we love him a lot. 

We had a miracle at church yesterday. A guy named J… that comes to Soccer night texted us Sunday morning and asked what time church started. He came all dressed and looking spiffy. He stayed for all 3 hours and had a good experience! 

C… has been slipping back into bad things but we are getting to know his sister and mom a lot more. Keep them in your prayers! We shared family stories over some "caldo de pollo" (chicken noodle soup Mexican style haha). We love them a lot too. I just love everybody right now haha. 

And I love my Savior! He's the Brother that I never had :) I've come to know Him a lot more out here and I'm so grateful for what He did, and continues to do for me. He has never asked any sacrifice too big, and His love is always there, especially when we need it most. And His love often shines through other people, so be the one to be kind, and patient, and forgiving. Be the one that lifts, and God will always support you. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen :)

Elder Kevin Graficito

P.S. Josh sent me a talk by Elder Bednar called "The Doctrine is the Answer". It is amazing. It helps anyone who wants to understand and teach the gospel more powerfully. I suggest that everyone read it. It's worth it I promise! I sent it to President and he had the whole mission study it for zone meetings last week. It's great! Love you! 

I figured I"d snap a picture of one of my healthier dinners that I whipped up one day. Just so Mom knows that i'm not starving :) I'm about 180. Nearly what I started my mission at. 

We visited with these investigators for less than 2 weeks but we had some incredible times teaching them about the Plan of Salvation.

Brother R... wanted to take us to a park. So we went. It had some cool views.

The Ohio river with the yellow bridge.

Me and the river bend :)

Me helping a statue prepare a duck for dinner.

A pretty pond and...

pond #2!

Can you spot the crow?

Stolen Bike and Moments of Grace

Wow! I can't believe it! The Aggies pulled it off! I am so happy right now haha. Another Elder from our ward was like "hey, Elder Graf, guess what happened with the BYU- USU game?" And I was just like "nope, don't want to hear it." Because I will admit I doubted that they would do it. But then he told me my Aggies won by 15! Wooo! Then I enjoyed your emails giving more details about the game haha how great is that?! 

Okay, Gospel and missionary work now.

So, Conference was great! Loved it! Are apostles and prophets sweet or what? Here's how our conference weekend happened. We originally had an investigator and/or less active lined up to come to every single session and it was going to be epic but most of them cancelled. :( But we still had a couple people show up that I will tell you about. So we enjoyed the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions at the church (we watched them in English with the other missionaries and a few members). I, by the way, have decided that watching conference at the church is the bomb. I don't know why more members don't do it. You can focus way more and the spirit of revelation is only intensified by being in the Lord's chapel. So after my mission I'm definitely going to watch at least a few of the sessions at the church. I entered each session with a couple questions to search answers for and they were answered EVERY. TIME. So I'm grateful for the gift of the spirit that we receive after baptism. I think we sometimes underestimate its worth. Maybe I'll watch the morning sessions at home and the afternoon ones at the church. That way we can still enjoy our lovely Conference morning breakfast tradition at home that dad reminded me about. I love Costco muffins. That’s one of the few things that Ohio is missing, Mountains and Costco muffins. (Sadly, I had to inform Kevin that conference is not broadcast at the church in Utah since it's so readily available on TV. He was disappointed, but at least we still have muffins!) But not to get too sidetracked, I thought it was so cool that this was the first session with talks in foreign languages! Elder Garcia and I went into the relief society room and we watched some of the Spanish ones.

In between the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions, we went and contacted a referral from one of our members, Bro. R.... He knows someone who knows someone, and that person knew a lady from the Dominican Republic that is dying from cancer. So we went and comforted the family and taught a little about the plan of Salvation. We prayed together and the spirit was so strong. We and the Catholic family are obviously from different backgrounds, but love for God was really abundant during that experience. The lady is going with her parents back to the Dominican Republic this Friday so that she can be with family there. Several miracles have already happened with teaching this family. The referral was received at a critical time for me and Elder Garcia, and Elder Garcia knows a friend who is serving in the same area of where the family lives in the Dominican Republic and they are making plans to contact the family when they move over there. We will continue visiting with them until they go this Friday. If the lady's health permits, they will move back here in January. So we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for this family. 

Right before the Priesthood session, the small number of our ward priesthood body met up at Chipotle and we ate dinner before going over to the chapel (at 8pm our time) to watch the session. While at Chipotle I concerned myself with J…, a returning less active member that only speaks Spanish. So we were kind of by ourselves because Elder Garcia was with everyone else that speaks English. But I found myself bearing my testimony to him. I was testifying of the incredible blessing of missionary work and I later reflected on how quickly my time in the field is expiring. I feel like my time in the mission is a steaming freight train, and all I can do is helplessly try to apply bicycle brakes. I still have plenty of time to work but it is just going to quickly! We watched the priesthood session in Spanish. All four of us together: me, Elder Garcia, J…, and.... (wait for it)..... J…! J… came and he enjoyed it. We are going to baptize that beloved brother of ours as soon as he gets work off on Sundays. So, Saturday was fun, but Sunday had it's own mix of twists and miracles.

To try to keep this email less than the length of the Old Testament I'll try to be more brief. Even though I want to say as much, if not more, about Sunday than I did about Saturday. So, Sunday morning we had a sweet lesson with the father of the G… family about the Book of Mormon. Spirit is definitely going to be able to work with them now that they have a Book of Mormon in their lives! Woooo! We enjoyed Sunday morning session and then left the church to go out and try to round people up for the last session. We ended up at the apartment complex of some former investigators, yea, even the notorious "N… gang." We convinced a lady named C… to come with us to the last session. As we were waiting for her and her kids to get ready, we worked on talking to N… to get him to come to. But the more and more beers he downed the less and less likely it appeared that he was going to commit to coming. So, as we are getting ready to leave the apartment complex with C… and her daughters, C… pointed out a problem. There was only one missionary bike where there are normally two. Yep, one was stolen. Yep, it was mine. Was it locked to a railing? Yes. But some Norwood thief outsmarted the lock and got away with the bike, the lock, the helmet, and everything within the 45 minutes that we were in the apartment above. My hat goes off to the guy that has the guts to do that so promptly in mid daylight. We filed a police report but I'm quite confident I won't be seeing those set of wheels anytime soon. So we are back on foot. It was kind of a "deja vu" moment. It wasn't that long ago when Elder Garcia and I had found ourselves on foot after his bike crash and broken wrist incident. :) We are already the only Spanish area without a car, and now we are bikeless. Opposition is mounting so we must be getting close to something awesome in the near future. So, after my initial shock and frustration, I just looked at the stolen bike as an opportunity to learn and demonstrate Christlike forgiveness haha. At least I got to use it for 20 months. And bikes are replaceable. I've had plenty of friends who have lost cameras with hundreds of pictures and memories. So things could always be worse. We watched the last session and it was good. Can't believe that the next one I'll be watching won't be in Ohio. How Crazy!

After Conference we went to see J… but we didn't catch him at home. Our back up plan was too far away (because we hadn't planned on having a bike stolen haha). So, not really sure what we should do, we started walking. With a small prayer in our hearts we picked a street that we had never walked down before but I had "remembered" seeing a Hispanic family drive down it weeks earlier. (John 14:26) We walked the length of the street, passing nearly 60 houses or so. There was a house near the beginning of the street that had caught my attention ever so slightly but i had ignored it and kept walking. When we had reached the end of the street and it was clear that we hadn't accomplished any purpose by walking down it, Elder Garcia posed the question," So what should we do?" I responded," Well, I don't know if it's inspiration or OCD, but there was a house back up the street that was nagging at me. Let's try it." If I had just heeded the prompting in the first place we would have saved ourselves a long walk, but, to our amazement, not only were there people home, but they were Spanish! We had a great conversation with a guy named O…, a father of a family of 5. He is now a new investigator. We really almost never tract at all as a mission. And it really wasn't our intention to go knocking doors. But it was by no power of our own that led us to that street and to that house at that time. It was the first and only house we knocked and it was a Spanish family that is open to listening to us. For me it was a cool confirmation of President Monson's quote," never deny a generous thought." Seriously, little moments of grace like that happened all throughout the week. If only there were time to write about them. The Lord is definitely guiding us and will guide us as long as we are searching for Him.

Temple countdown: 16 days til the Louisville Temple!!!

Love you!

Elder Graf