Another Week.

Well pleasant ridge north is aight.  It's pretty tough to find Spanish speaking investigators, but we definitely talk to a bunch of Spanish speakers.  Yeah, hopefully elder Busch can hold down the fort in Harrison bay and get us some baptisms.

Yeah, elder lesueur is super tight. It's time for some more hilarious stories... Yeah, Mesa is a huge Mormon hub. Elder henriquez high school was 80% Mormon he says. Carazy.

Living in the members basement is tight. It smells, but I guess I can't expect a 5 star suite.

Yeah, good call. Google translate is off sometimes when it comes to Spanish sentence structure.  I used google chrome to translate some lds.org web pages and read them, but every now and then I would be like " well that didn't make sense." half the time, it's because I don't actually know Spanish, but also it would sometimes translate things wrong.  It's whatever.

No more encyclopedia brown!!? Keep those safe for me... Ill read 'em again.

Well some of us aren't even allowed to listen to the radio so we don't get to hear "call me, maybe" every five minutes.

Well, we tried to go back and see crazy lady, but no luck. We got another investigator in her apartment complex though just by going by to try to see her, so there's always blessings.

Elder henriquez keeps trying to set me up with members daughters. Even investigators daughters. It's getting really weird...

Dang, that must have been a church wide thing this Sunday cause our elders quorum lesson was on that uchtdorf talk. The merciful obtain mercy. Stop it.

Not much has actually Happened this week as far as investigator progress. You know, just some finding and teaching. No baptizing. Yet. 

Okay but we did find some hair dye in our apartment and we all know how much I hate being wasteful....

I have dark brown hair now.

But that same day my face decided to grow the biggest cold sore of my life, so no pics until next week.

I hate herpes.

Well, that's the most exciting news of the week I guess.  See you later. Keep it real.

Love

Elder grabinger

Si Habla Espanol

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

 

I lied.  I was transferred to Pleasant Ridge North, which is actually in Knoxville.  I made it to the center of the mission... it's just as tough.  Nothing special.  Yeah, I'm so excited for Sue.  I got transferred in the middle of the week so I don't know what's going on anymore with her or with the Yeagers or anyone else.  Elder Busch and his new companion, Elder Mills, will get work done there in Harrison Bay I'm sure.

 

BEST NEWS EVER!!!  Elder LeSueur got transferred too, and we're still in the same zone!!!  Better yet, we're in the same district.  Better yet, he's my District Leader!!!  WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!?  Yeah, I'm pretty stoked.  It's crazy.  We've been serving in adjacent areas for the entire time we've been out.  I love it.

 

So my new companion is Elder Henriquez.  He's from Mesa, AZ and he's the bomb.  He played soccer on scholarship at UC Irvine before coming out, so he's alright at soccer.  Our area just got changed up a little bit though.  We are assigned to only teach spanish speaking investigators, so we cover like, half of two zones now.  Any english speaking investigators we find, we can teach for a couple lessons to make sure they're legit, but then we gotta hand 'em off to some other missionaries.

 

We live in the basement of a member family's home.  it's pretty tight.

 

The spanish is coming along real well.  Our branch president had me introduce myself and bear testimony yesterday and I got to bless the sacrament in spanish and I got a ton of compliments.  One of the members was like "Your pronunciation is very good.  Not like most gringos."  So, yeah.  I'm doin' aight.

 

Yup, those Hardy Boys books are in a package at home Fawn.  You can read 'em if you want, but leave them for me!

 

Elder Busch and I were just super charming and got in real tight with some people that either were looking to get rid of stuff or had too much stuff and we just asked for it.  That's how we almost got a drumset a couple of times, but there were some complications and we didn't have enough time to make it happen.  Next time...

 

Well, I forgot my camera cord today, so no pics, but I'm at a real computer now so I shouldn't have any problems getting all my good stuff sent over to you guys.  But, I'm limited to an hour now because we're at a public library, so the emails will probably be shorter.

 

No groceries this month cause I just had to get Ray-Bans.  That puts a drain on your finances...  The worst thing is that it's been raining here in Knoxville since I've been here, so I haven't even gotten to look superfly yet.  No, I don't need money....  Just listen to that song "still fly."  That's me right now...

 

OMG there's this new song that is getting played everywhere and I love it!!!  Someone has to save "Call me, maybe" for me for when I get back.  Okay?

 

So we're in this lesson this week and the lady mentions to us that she is a narcoleptic and will probably be out in a couple seconds.  Sure enough, she just slumps over and is out for like 5 minutes.  I was like, "Um, maybe we should go" and Elder Henriquez was like, "How weird would that be if she wakes up and we're gone?" and I was like, "Well, it'll be pretty weird when she wakes up and we're still here too."  We came to the consensus that it was just a weird situation.  I'm going to like it here in Knoxville.

 

This other lady we taught was doing like some "Good cop/bad cop" routine with us or something cause she was eating out of Elder Henriquez's hands.  Whatever he said was astounding and then whenever I taught or bore testimony she was like "I don't believe you."

 So strange....  I was laughing about it when we left though.

 

Yeah, a YSA branch in Yuma?  Das cool.  I probably won't be there for long when I get back, but you can bet I'll be there if Bro. Slade is the prez.  He just cannot escape those bishopric callings...  pobrecito.

 

Well, I think I'm out of things to say.  Oh yeah, I also learned how to solve a rubik's cube this week.  Any cube.  In five minutes or less.  I can do it.  Elder Henriquez says there's nothing more attractive.  It's a good skill to have apparently.  He says the young ladies will be all over me when I get home.  I'm not convinced, but whatever.  I trust him.

 

We asked the "good cop bad cop" lady this week, "why do we need Jesus Christ?"  She was like, "Yeah, why do we need him?" and we didn't get to answer her.  So you'll get the answer.  One of my favorite scriptures that deals with this is the testimony of an apostle, Peter, in John 6:68.  Jesus had just given his sermon declaring that he was the bread of life and it offended a lot of people, so they left him.  He asked the apostles "will ye also go away?"  68) "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the ^awords of eternal life."  And that's it.  Jesus is the way to eternal life.  There's no other way.  That's why we need him, otherwise, we will eventually have eternal death.

 

Well, time to go.  I love you all.  Have a great week.  Then write to me and tell me about it.

 

Love

Elder Grabinger

Transferred Again

Hey Everyone,

I am indeed being transferred this Wednesday.  The word on the street is that I'll be going to Pleasant Ridge South which is a Spanish area near Knoxville.  So it'll kinda be towards the heart of the mission.

It's been a pretty tame week.  Our investigator, Sue, has a baptismal date for August 11th though.  Hooray!  She was a referral that we got from Elder LeSueur over in East Ridge (an adjacent area) where she works.  But she lives in our area and so we've been teaching her and she is loving it and doing so great.  At first, we were having trouble getting in contact with her because her son and sister were pretty antagonistic, but we stopped by one day and she wasn't home and we ended up talking to the son (cause I'm smooth like that) and now he's on board!  We'll probably start trying to focus on teaching him as well soon.  But yeah, she went to church this past week and told us the next day that she was just feeling so great.  Elder Busch told her it was the Spirit.  She's going to be baptized.  I just know it.  She was a little sad when she found out I was leaving too.  She was like "Will you get to come back when I get baptized?"  I'm going to try my darndest.

They Yeager family is a referral from a member in our ward who we've been working with for most of the time that I've been here in Harrison Bay.  Last week we taught them the Word of Wisdom, which is the only commandment with issues that would keep them from being baptized at this point, and it went really well.  But they didn't make it to church this week... oh well.

I don't want to talk about anyone else.  They haven't met with us recently so whatever...

So we helped a less active lady clean out some things in her home last week and.... well, long story short, there's a package headed back home with my name on it that includes such gems as a soldering iron, Hardy Boys books (I love mysteries...), and some guitar strings.  No big deal.

I actually almost got a drumset a couple times this past week...  I don't know how, but you can bet I'll take one if I can get one and send that home.

Doug is absolutely correct.  Fast and Testimony Sunday can be a HUGE gamble, and that's not a game I like to play as a missionary, so I got up there and bore my testimony so it would start off well at least.  It turned out to be an incredible testimony meeting.  The best a missionary can ask for.  So that's the message, if any of you  reading this email are that WEIRDO that messes up fast and testimony meeting for the missionaries by... I dunno... doing whatever it is you do, then heed the council of a modern day apostle and "Stop it." (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)  Thanks.

This week was indeed a good week for mail.  keep it up team.

I was unable to acquire a roman candle last week, but I did burn a tie.  I guess I'm still 'new' though cause I chose to burn a polyester tie.  It's a five minute video now.  Sorry about that... I'll figure out hows to send it to you.  Hopefully the computers in my next area aren't running Windows XP with all the good features turned off...

We were tracting and Elder Busch asked if they had time to hear our message and the lady just said "I'm baptist" and closed the door, but before the door was closed he was like "No time for Jesus?" and just stood there for a couple seconds after the door was closed.  Then we left.  Whether the lady heard him say it or not is beside the point because she obviously wasn't listening as you can tell from her response to Elder Busch's question... but I thought it was hilarious anyway.

I had to get me a pair of Ray-Bans last week cause the sun is rough out here.  It turns out that I look real good in the tortoise shell ones.  Whod've thought?

No groceries this month.

Scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 4:28.  I don't feel like expounding though.

I heard a bunch of fireworks on the 4th, but I didn't see any.  Oh well.

Is it obvious that I don't have much to say about this week?

Okay, well, sorry.  Hopefully there'll be some better stuff next week.

Love,

Elder Grabinger

P.S.  How's Romney doing?  Thinks still looking good?  You can bet I heard about Obamacare being upheld in the Supreme Court...

Six month mark!!

Oh FawnRae,

HAHAHAHAHA, I love that picture of you two on the scooter.  It's awesome.  You don't look like Harry and Lloyd... Alyssa is only saying that cause of Doug's smile.  It's cool.  Don't listen to her.  What does she know about being fabulous?

Less than 25mph is a problem though.

Oh, the 'saved brigade' knew from the beginning that we were LDS missionaries.  That's why they stopped I'm pretty sure.  They were ridiculous; saying stuff like "It doesn't matter what religion you are, you just have to call on the name of Jay-zus (that's how they say it).  You could be saved and just have a mormon background.  I know a guy who's Buddhist and he's been saved..." or whatever.  You know?  Totally irrational.  You can't reason with these people.

I'm thinking about doing a 'Bible Quotes Beatdown Day' where I just murderize everyone who rejects us with Bible scriptures.  Like if people are like, "No thanks, get outta here"  I'd say, "Okay sir, read Luke 10:16 mmk?"  or if someone's like, "Well, I'd rather not, but you guys stay cool out there!" I'd leave them with, "No problem ma'am, go ahead and read James 2:16 for me okay?"  That'll do no good though... But I'd be having fun.

I got my Spanish nametag the other day.  It's pretty cool.  I haven't actually taught any investigators in Spanish yet, but we've role played lessons in Spanish at district meeting and whatnot.  I'm trying to get my hands on some standard works en espanol right now...  The Book of Mormon is really easy, but it's academic (or really proper) Spanish so it makes sense when I read it, but the language that people speak is a lot more informal so it's different.  I can knock out a chapter in El Libro de Mormon and understand it in about 20 minutes now, whereas I needed like 50 minutes two weeks ago.  It's a lot of fun.

I'll probably be transferred in a week though to an area with more Spanish teaching opportunities and a companion that already knows Spanish so that'll be better.  I'll get more experience actually speaking it.  But I'll probably be leaving the area, so all the people I've been teaching will just have to be baptized by someone else.  It's kinda a bummer, but whatever.

Dang!!!  I want to go on that zip line again.  That place is a blast!

Well, Elder Busch and I were biking around in triple digit temperatures this week, no big deal.  I think the heat got to Elder Busch though cause we locked up our bikes and he was about to walk away and I was like, "You missed.  You didn't lock your bike to anything."  He totally had just wrapped the cable around the pole and not even gotten his bike.  It was hilarious.  Everyone was having a heart attack about us being out and about in the heat and stuff and I was like "so............ are you going to invite us in then?  Seriously, I don't do this for funzies... I know that my message is true and 107 degree temperatures aren't going to stop me from trying to share it with you."

This lady we talked to this week was like "Well, I prayed about it, and I just feel like I need to stick with the Bible and learn my Bible better first.  I might sound crazy, but I want to go to seminary and do all that."  We tried to turn it around, but she wasn't having it.  Anyway, when we left I was like, "Well, lady, if you want to learn the things of God, you just need your scriptures, a sincere heart, and prayer.  You don't need to pay money to go to a school made by men to learn the things of God.  If you want help, go to lds.org and download the free study guides for the Old and New Testaments and go to town."  She was like, "You right, I neva thought o' it like dat."  Of course I'm right, call us when you're ready for truth...

Long story short,  I'm not entirely convinced that the field is white already to harvest cause I feel like I'm mostly just planting seeds, but it's a rewarding work nonetheless and I think I've learned to have joy with the little successes.  It's His work anyway so He's going to get all the glory.  No sense in trying to compete...

Speaking of successes though, I totally forgot to mention that the Yeager's came to church yesterday!!!!  It was awesome!  They said they enjoyed it and that they'd be coming back.  It was seriously the best fast and testimony meeting a missionary could ask for.  No weirdos AT ALL!!!  SahWEET!

Shay is ready for baptism, but she'll be out of town this weekend which is when we wanted to do it.  We're going to try to do it next Tuesday, just before transfers so that Elder Busch and I can baptize together.  Fingers crossed.  Her baby is doing fine and so is she.

Carnel, one of our other investigators, said that he would be baptized this week after we taught him about authority.  It'll take a lot of preparation for him though cause there's some commandments being broken and he's the youth president of his church right now and I don't think he fully understands that he's going to have to not do that anymore for him to be baptized.

Lisa's been uber busy so we haven't seen her in like 3 weeks now.  Communications are still positive though.

So yeah, some good stuff going on.  Slow, but sure progress.

That's all I got.  Six months this Wednesday (July 4th).  I'm going to try to get my hands on a Roman candle and destroy a tie.  Pics on the way!

Love,

Elder Grabinger