Transferred!! Oh yeah! And more news.

I got some of the best most relieving news of my life on Saturday morning.  I'M BEING TRANSFERRED!!!  I don't find out where to until Wednesday though.  But it was the most hilarious thing ever because my companion has already been here in Johnson City for 6 months so he though FOR SURE he was leaving, so he started packing up his stuff like a week ago, his bicycle and two suitcases: all ready to go.  Then we find out I'm leaving after only 3 months and he's staying.  HAHAHAHA!!!  I pointed and laughed at him until he unpacked everything.  Just kidding.  I didn't really do that.  I was kind about it.  It was kind of a relief though cause he kept driving to far places without confirming our appointments and we only have  1150 miles to use each month and we've already used almost 800 and it's halfway through the month so I was getting a little ticked.  I though he was going to 'peace out' and leave me with like 250 miles for the last two weeks of the month.  Joke's on him now.  He's being a lot more conscientious about his driving now.  That's the only stab I get in every day, just teasing him about how many miles he has left.  But he'll probably get the last laugh... I bet I'll be transferred to a "bike only" area. 

Anyway, Ginger is not so good.  She still doesn't understand what it all means.  She thinks we're just another Christian church preaching salvation through baptism and just believing in Jesus Christ (even though that is partly true...).  I just need to find out how we can get the Spirit to help her realize that THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION OF YOUR LIFE AND GREATER BLESSINGS AND HAPPINESS THAN YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN (that no one else can offer) WILL BE YOURS IF YOU WILL JUST READ THIS BOOK AND ASK GOD IF IT'S TRUE!  Ugh...  But Vicki's doing a little better.  She's still afraid of reading the Book of Mormon, even though she already has and hasn't found anything wrong with it.  But we had a member go with us to visit with her and the member did a really good job of getting the point across in simple terms.  She's still on the line, but we have to be really careful about reeling her in.  Progress is slow, but progress is progress.

Yes, the Zone Leaders have their car again.  Whoop-de-doo.

That's a perfect example!!!  I was talking to this baptist preacher on Friday and it was all pretty civil, but he took a few underhanded digs at us and whatnot.  Anyway, first thing he says "We believe the Bible to be the only word of God."  I asked him, "Do you think God could speak to us today?"  "I KNOW HE DOES!"  (he didn't get it.  Seriously, a lot of people out here are so thick.)  Moving on, he told us he had a Book of Mormon.  I asked him if he'd read it.  Yes.  What'd you think?  He said it was confusing.  He later said that he didn't understand how we could put our faith in one man's (Joseph Smith) opinion.  That led me to believe that he hadn't actually read the Book of Mormon and that he doesn't understand what it is.  He, like many people out here, think the Book of Mormon is some sort of "constitution of the religion of mormonism" or whatever authored by Joseph Smith.  I even talked to person that had formerly investigated the church and talked to her about the Book of Mormon and she still that that Joseph Smith had written it.  Every day I just say to myself, "WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE FOR YOU ALL TO JUST LISTEN TO OUR WORDS?!"

Anyway, one of those new investigators is aight.  She took a Book of Mormon and was excited to read it and wants to meet with us again.  The other one put a note up on her door so that when we showed up, it informed us that she wasn't home... a few times over.  Of course, she was hiding from us and just wouldn't answer the door.  I'll take pics of these hilarious notes and make sure to include them next time.  It was just so funny because these investigators live within sight of each other, and when we went to our appointment with the good investigator, we saw the other out on her porch, so we decided to drop by unannounced after our discussion with the good investigator, and there was a note up for us again, even though we didn't even have an appointment this time.  I chuckled.

Wow, I'm super excited about all the home improvement being done.  It sounds like a blast.

It's time to talk about serious issues though:  Dinner appointments.  SPAGHETTI IS THE WORST POSSIBLE MEAL FOR MISSIONARIES because it the sauce ALWAYS ends up on a white shirt.  Keep that in mind.  Maybe you could provide bibs or ponchos if you do indeed serve spaghetti or a related dish.

Also, some people out here enjoy buttermilk as a tastydelicious beverage.  I will tell you that buttermilk has the consistency of egg nogg and tastes like sour cream.  Go ahead and form your own opinion... but if your opinion is that buttermilk is yummy, then you're wrong.

Sometimes my confidence wavers.  Like we tracted into another person that only spoke Spanish this week and I didn't even try that time.  I gave her a card and left.  I wish I had time to practice...

I'm excited cause there's a Zone Activity today and we're having dinner at the Peralta's who are real-life Mexicans who make delicious and authentic food.  They're always afraid to make it too spicy for us "gringos" though and we always have to tell them SPICIER!  However, I did much appreciate the package of Chile Pepper burritos I received this week (and those magnificent cinnamon rolls).  "MUCHAS GRACIAS A MI FAMILIA!"

So.  We had companionship inventory last Thursday.  I learned something really weird.  I asked my comp. about something he was doing and how he felt about it and he was like "I'M DOING AWESOME!" and I was like "That's blatant disobedience."  So yeah.  Sometimes when people do things that are wrong, maybe they don't even know it's wrong.  We have to talk to people and communicate with them so that we all are edified.  So I learned to communicate last week instead of be silently grumpy about sinfulness that wasn't so obvious.

Dang, Fawn, you and Doug had quite the busy week!  I laughed soooooooooo hard in the middle of the library here when I read that Grandma Bonnie was trying to get you and Doug to have a picture holding Zane.  HAHAHAHA!!!  Classic...  Also don't worry about the Kierre Lewis album anymore.  I've got it taken care of  :}

Well, I suppose I'm out of things to say, but before I go, read the following obligatory weekly appeal for letters:

WRITE ME!!!  Here are some analogies:

Christmas: Normal People :: Days Where Mail Is Received: MissionariesBath Salts: Tennessee Teens :: Letters : MissionariesButtermilk:  Delicioustastybeverage :: Mail : Unwarranted acts of hatred

Also, I've recently found out that you can go to DearElder.com and write your loving sentiments have them mail those sentiments to me at my expense!!!  DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS!?  I WILL PAY FOR YOU TO LOVE ME!!!  well maybe I shouldn't have worded it that way...  but the point is:  I will gladly part with $.45 if you will simply write a letter to me on DearElder.com  The cool thing is, I write back. And it's personal.

Reminder to Fawn:  Please go ahead and repost the mission office address and reiterate that all mail can be sent there.  Thank you.

I love you all.

-Elder Grabinger

A little note from Fawn:

Bert's address is:

11320 Station West Dr.  STE 101

Farragut, TN  37934

Please, please, please!! Take a minute (or more) to write him. He would love it.

Another Letter!!!!!

Dearest Friends & Family (or Fawn, if you're the only one that still reads this)

No, General Conference was broadcasted to our local meetinghouse, so we saw it there.  Don't even remind me about having no outlets and no one to talk to.... I'm working on toning down the gossip though, even if it is true.  I will tell you that 6 missionaries in our mission were sent home last month alone because of disobedience.  Disobedience is a real issue in this mission from what I've seen thus far.  I don't know if it's like that in most other missions, but I'm really tired of hearing people think that they know better than prophets and general authorities.

Well, that keyboard is actually a good outlet when I get home in the evening.  I've memorized Canon, but I just need a little more practice to play it up to the right speed.  I'm really working on Hymn 134.  In my humble (but factual) opinion, nothing brings the Spirit faster or stronger than that hymn.  It's my favorite.  And if you want to argue about it, send me a letter and include which hymn is your favorite and why (that should get me some mail...).  Speaking of hymns though, there's this amazing artist named Kierre Lewis who does wonderful arrangements of some hymns on her album, "Horizons".  I recommend it to anyone and everyone.  Also, if you can find out how to get a copy of her CD, let me know... or send me one and I'll love you forever.

By the way, this is the first week since leaving the MTC where I have gotten no letters.  You slackers.

Haha, I hope that didn't come off mean about your wedding pics, Fawn.  I just thought it was funny.  But you're right, I didn't consider that Dev does it just as a hobby.  Also, she does AMAZING work anyway.  She can take as long as she needs.

Ya.  Bath Salts are ridiculous.  Seriously, who said "Hmmm, why don't I just put that in my body and see what happens?"? Emergency Centers are overrun in this part of the country.  One story I heard was that a girl was on bath salts and decided that a man was after her or something so she ran to her boyfriends house and, in a frenzy, set the kitchen aflame.  But wait, turns out that her 'boyfriend's house' that she ran to was just a neighbor's home.  Drugs make you do crazy stuff.

No.  We didn't go to her bathroom window.

I love the GPS.  I listen to it when I go to sleep.  Something about watching my face as the vehicle icon and hearing Doug's voice say "You have reached your destination" is just so soothing.  Thank you both sooooo much.

Well, we visited both of our investigators this week and first, Ginger hadn't read any of the Book of Mormon because she was so swamped this week.  But I could tell she was genuinely upset about not having gotten around to it.  She was going to be having a crazy Easter weekend too, so she asked us to come back a little later this week so she'd have time to investigate.  Vicki was awful when we first saw her this week.  She wouldn't even look at the Book of Mormon for fear of the curse at the end of Rev. 22 or whatever.  But, because of the Spirit, we were able to commit her to read 2 Nephi 31 by the end of the visit.  So we went back to see her yesterday and not only had she read the chapter, but she had been reading more on her own!  Again, the Spirit directed a few appropriate verses to share that had to do with whatever we were talking about and I asked her how she felt about the B of M.  She said that she had been praying, and that everything she's read so far has been true and really aligns with what she already believes (it's like the Book of Mormon and the Bible were both inspired of the Spirit from the same God or something!?  Who'd have thought) but she hasn't received a definite answer just yet.  I was so excited, progress is progress and she's going to keep reading and praying.  We'll just have to help her recognize the answer in our next visit.

We had exchanges with the zone leaders this week and... well, it was terrible.  I ended up going to the zone leaders' area and the senior zone leader popped a tire and ruined the rim on the way to exchange, so first thing the other zone leader and I had to do was go to the dealership.  They said it would take 5 working days before they could get it fixed.  So we had no car the entire exchange.  And it was the stake temple day, so any and all worthy and helpful members were off at the temple.  We had to walk to the church and get the nearby missionaries to drive us to our one appointment that evening.  We could have done better, but comp. for the day was really disheartened about the loss of the car, which I understood, but we could have overcome.  Oh well.

Okay, so on Friday night, I just had this idea to present the Book of Mormon more when talking to people and force them to realize that it's similar to the Bible by asking them some questions about what the bible was, and then telling them that that's what the B of M is too!!!  (namely, inspired writings of prophets of God that were originally written separately and then later compiled into one volume [Bible literally translates to library]).  Come to find out, that was actually revelation from the Spirit because it WORKED!!!  We only tracted for an hour yesterday and we got two new investigators!  Also, it turns out that many people don't actually know how the Bible came about... It seriously is just blind faith in what their preacher tells them many times.  I couldn't believe it when I asked "Who wrote the Bible?" and most people said "I don't know I guess."  You literally have at least 30 correct answers and they're at the top of each page in the Bible, "Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Amos, Jeremiah, etc."  COME ON PEOPLE!!!  Are you even trying? Really?

That frustrates me.

"Oh, but I go to church every Sunday."

Wonderful, what are you learning?

CHLOE AND THAT CELL PHONE!  She's always losing it.  Geez.  Sew it to her pants.

Well, I suppose that's all for this week.  I don't have my planner with me, which is where I right down my notes of interesting tidbits to share with everyone each week, because we had to help someone move and I didn't have a shirt pocket to put it in.  I'll talk to you all later I suppose.

Love,
Elder Grabinger

P.S.  One more week til transfers!  I'm excited.

P.S.S  ADAM WHITMER IS GOING TO COLOMBUS OHIO!!??  INCREDIBLE!!!  But he doesn't leave til August?  That's quite the wait...  How exciting though.  Way to go Adam.  I'm proud of you.

My Address

I forgot, for some reason, people are still telling me that my address is NO WHERE to be found on FaceBook (liars).  Will you just repost it every week with my updates and tell people to SEND EVERYTHING to that address?

It's like:
 
11320 Station West Dr.  STE 101
Farragut, TN  {ZIPCODE}

I forget the zip code obviously... but you've got it.

Take care.  I LOVE YOU!!!

(The zip code is: 37934)

21 More Months

Dear Loved Ones,

THE SHAMROCK SHAKE IS GONE!!!!!!!!  I didn't get one in time.... next year for sure.  I just don't get it though, they had the ad up and everything at McDonald's and then when I asked for one, they said they were all out.  TAKE THE AD DOWN!!!

I mostly just love to say Doritos Locos Tacos really fast.  We haven't gone to Taco Bell this week.  Probably for the best....

Dang, I think I probably missed that talk about the BofM and the Bible.  Conference is like the busiest weekend of a missionary's life.  We were significantly late to like 3 sessions.  I was bummed.  We didn't even get any investigators or less-actives.  I was such a failure this week.  But Conference was much needed.  Fawn, I basically wrote in my journal last night exactly what you said about feeling totally awful afterward because I'm not doing enough, but so happy at the same time because there's that renewed dedication and hope to rescue people (and myself).  Definitely at least half of those talks were given DIRECTLY to me (in regards to my relationship with my comp.).  I'm the worst companion ever.

Yeah, I was surprised at how easy the banjo is to play.  And that book looked super helpful.  I mean, I only played it for a total of like 10 minutes maybe in the month I had it, but it seemed like it'd be fun to learn.

As far as the keyboard goes, I've almost got Canon down.  Yeah, I jumped from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Canon.  Not a good idea I guess, but I wanted to learn something that was actually cool/useful.  I'm going to hit that Hymn Book pretty hard after I've got Canon under my belt.  I was sight reading some Hymn's last night.  It's pretty easy if you just recognize what the key is and recognize the intervals written.  Sometimes that's not so easy though...

Anyway, we didn't see Sis. W (Thanks for your help at keeping things anonymous Fawn.  I know it wasn't something I thought of at first, but then I was feeling really bad and was like, "Bert, you idiot! You can't be using people's real names!!!") this week.  We tried to on like, Tuesday, but she didn't answer her phone/door/pager/bathroom window.  Her visiting teacher called us later that night and told my comp. that she Sis. W. said we had gone over and given her a blessing just as she requested.  That didn't happen.  We think she checked in to the hospital for detox.  DRUGS ARE BAD PEOPLE!  BTW, has anyone heard of Bath Salts?  They're out of control over here and every ER is swamped with these people doing this new drug.  It's really strange.

SUCCESS!!!  We were tracting the projects again this week (soooo much fun to meet some of those people...) and we ran into a Spanish guy that only spoke......... yep, Spanish.  So I give him my new and improved Spanish door approach -- "Como esta?  Somos de La Iglesia De JesuCristo De Los Santos De Los Ultimas Dias (or whatever).  Quieres hear our mensaje?"  HE SAID YES!!! I mean.... "SI!!!"  But then I panicked and was like, I can't actually share our message in Spanish, so I told him we'd come back with someone who could...........  Dang.

You got the wedding photos, Fawn!!!??  Just in time for your first Anniversary!!!  Awesome.

They're gonna do it?  The flooring is happening?  Way to go.  Did they get the good stuff?

Sweet!!! Thanks for getting me that GPS.  Now I'll have money for groceries.... or other mischievous stuff  ;}  I can almost guarantee that I'll love those modifications.  Did you get Marge Simpson's voice or something to give me directions?

There's a street here in Johnson City called  Bert St.   I'll get a picture before I leave... maybe more than just a picture...  ;}

Okay, so there's this restaurant here run by Amish people called the Farmer's Daughter (did I already tell you about it?).  And IT'S AWESOME!!!  It's all like, home-cooked food, all you can eat and it's served homestyle.  You just sit down and they start bringing you food.  Like twelve different sides including green beans, fried green tomatoes, etc. and rolls and two kinds of meat.  Then you walk out the store and pay as you leave a fixed price.  It's like eating at home, but not your home. Ya know?  Maybe it doesn't sound so great to you guys...  I'll stop.

I don't know what else to say.  Like I said, this week was pretty awful.  One of our investigators is still not convinced that we need organized religion and the other one is just so agreeable and says 'yep' to just about everything we say that it's tough to know exactly how much she understands.  I'm on it though, so don't worry.

Oh yes, we were just visiting someone at the hospital last week.  Although, I was about to put that guy in the hospital..... by blowing his mind with my insane knowledge.  JK. LOL. but not really.

Man, I feel like I really had something else to say, but I guess not.  I guess I'll talk to you guys later.  I love you all so much.  Only 21 months left.  No big deal.

Love,
Elder Grabinger

P.S.  After conference, remember James 1:22.  Remember, "Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day; But TEACH a man to fish, and that's better for some reason..."  and you can quote me on that.