Turkey bowl, spilled salsa, and terrifying Spanish talks

Everyone,

I will probably be in Pleasant Ridge North for 3 more months because Elder Rich is brand new in the field.  Usually, new missionaries and their companions stay together for the new missionary's first two transfers or 12 weeks.  That's about 3 months.

Elder Rich reminds me, in some ways, a lot of myself when I first came out.  I see now that I was probably an extremely frustrating companion.  Both of us are naturally reserved people though, so we don't talk that much.  I think he's tense mostly because he's new, but also I think it's just part of his personality and mannerisms.  Also, it's been very cold since he got here..  You could say we get along, but we're not best of friends just yet.

Thanksgiving was great.  I POUNDED THAT FOOD!  In the morning, we went to the Turkey Bowl for a couple of hours and I just ran til I dropped.  It felt great and I was sore for like three days afterward.  It prepared me for the feasting that we would partake in later that day.  We went to the bishop's home for dinner and it was just wonderful. Turkey, ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, bread, cornbread stuffing, (no cornbread).  There was this amazing dessert that had a crushed up pretzel base, then whipped topping first layer, and a strawberry gelatin on top.  SO GOOD!  Then I got me some warm dutch apple pie with ice cream.  Technically, it was a work day, but we planned all of our administrative tasks for that day (which is still work that we have to do).  Maybe I'm a bad missionary.... but at least I'm a happy missionary, right?

no?

okay.

Anyways...

Some horrific news for the week:  We were eating dinner on Tuesday evening at a members home, having some of the most delicious enchiladas and guacamole I've ever had (it's tough to beat Mom, that's all I'll say), when I opened the hot sauce bottle.  Without noticing, millions (about 10) of drops of hot sauce drops splattered my shirt and new tie.  The shirt is ruined.  The tie is at the hospital (i.e. the dry cleaners) and I'll have the diagnosis tomorrow.  But now I get to buy new shirts!  Hooray!

Yesterday, I was asked a huge favor.  A gigantic favor.  The first counselor texted me at about 10:30 a.m/ and asked if we could speak in sacrament meeting that day.  Oh yeah, it was the SPANISH BRANCH SACRAMENT MEETING.  I was terrified.  After lunch, I cleared the schedule to prepare my first talk as a missionary (which was my first talk in Spanish coincidentally as well).  The topic was about the birth of Christ, so naturally I just read half of Luke 1 & 2.  It went well.  Afterward, one of the members said that my accent sounds like it's South American.  Yes, I'm almost a native.

We taught a wonderful lesson this week to JJ and Regina who are some new investigators.  The spirit was so strong.  JJ is great, every time I say something like "Jesus restored the true church through Joseph Smith" or "Jesus sent an angel to give us the Book of Mormon" he'll say "praise Jesus" in almost a whisper.  I love it.  We'll be seeing them again tomorrow.

Fortunately, Steven is still a free man.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet with him last week.  I'm bummed about that.  We don't really have any other prospects at the moment, so it's kinda tough.

We did have an amazing finding experience this week though.  Usually, Elder Grandy (who used to live in Hyder actually, for those of you Arizonans who know about it), who I was on exchange with this week, carries several of The Restoration pamphlets on him when tracting.  However, this time, he only had one.  So after he handed that out, he was forced to utilize the Plan of Salvation pamphlet.  The next person we talk to tells us that his wife died within the past few months, he just recently started seeking out religion since his childhood, and he wants to learn more about God's plan for his life.  I think Elder Grandy was holding the right pamphlet.  I'm so glad that the Lord has his hand in this work and makes things happen so that we can unwittingly be prepared to bless the lives of His children.  We're going to try to see him again this week because he wasn't there at the time that he said we could come back.

Overall, the work has been rough.  I try and try, and it seems like I never have any lasting success.  Maybe just with myself and my own personal testimony... that's good enough I suppose.

Oh, I don't have that much time anymore because of my District Leader responsibilities.  And my district is massive (there's five companionships, as opposed to like three normally).  So for those of you who are waiting on replies to letters, I promise it'll get done!!!  Be patient with me!

Nothing too crazy happened this week while talking to people.  We just ran into that one occasional person that likes to freak people out by saying "I worship Satan" and then walking away.  Whatever you gotta do to be happy... she didn't seem to happy though.  I wonder why...

Okay, have a good week everyone!  I miss you lot's!  Chloe's reminded me that the year long countdown starts in about another month!

Love,
Elder Grabinger

Happy Turkey Day!

Hey,

(1)  I'm still here in Pleasant Ridge North, so Knoxville.  It looks like I'll be here for at least three more months, but crazy stuff happened last time I said that, and so that may not be true.

(2)  Elder Rich is my new companion, he's been out for 6 days so he's MTC fresh.  He's great.  He seems tense all the time though.  Mission life can be a huge adjustment.

(3)  Nope, I've got the edge on Spanish right now it looks like.  He's not at all incompetent though.

We sang, "I Want To Be A Missionary Now."  I'd never heard it before.  Whatevs.  It was no big deal.  They even passed out slips of paper so that you could write comments on the program, so of course I took the opportunity to anonymously congratulate myself to the Primary Presidency.  The children did well too.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!  That is hilarious.  Ben has the right idea for sure.  "WE ARE NOT LEAVING UNTIL SOMEONE'S CAR GETS DECORATED!"  That's an important part of the wedding reception.  Even if it ends up being the stake president's car...

No mission plans for Thanksgiving.  We are allowed a two hour dinner appointment, then it's back to work.  WOO-HOO!!!  Nothing brightens people's Turkey day more than a knock on the door from the mormon missionaries.  Expect many baptisms to follow...

Some BIG news I heard this week and need confirmed/updated:

-Hostess is done.  No more twinkies. If true:  STOCK UP FOR ME NOW!!! (Although, someone is bound to buy the recipe).

-Disney acquires LucasFilms along with the rights to Star Wars.  New movies might not actually be that far, far away... (see what I did there?)

Things are aight.  We've met a lot of new people this week, and there's some crazies out there.  But all of these stories just start to sound normal when you've been a missionary for a while, so I won't bore you with pot filled apartments and homosexual females that insist on being called lesbians and picking up a frozen lasagna for lunch.

We've been meeting with and teaching this gentleman named Steven.  He's awesome, and he just loves learning about the gospel and Jesus and the Restoration, it's GREAT!!!  But Steven might end up being incarcerated today, in which case it's back to the drawing board.  Pray for the best.

As you can see, I'm in a hurry again.  All of the new responsibility I've been given is nearly overwhelming.  I've absolutely no extra time now.  Sorry.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Love
Elder Grabinger

P.S.  I'm soooooooooper excited for the holiday season because pies are so abundant.  You can bet that my grocery fund for December is going to include financial support for at least four Marie Callendar's Dutch Apple Pies.... and some Cool Whip.

Short but Good

Dear People,

I couldn't write yesterday because Veteran's Day had all of the libraries closed.  #Wasn'tThatHolidayTwoDaysAgo?

Transfers is tomorrow, so I don't have much time to write today.  But, I will be getting a brand new companion, like, fresh from the MTC.  Exciting!  I'm hoping he can teach me Spanish since he will have had the Spanish MTC experience (or CCM as they call it).  Cross your fingers!

Highlights of last week:  A member took us to Five Guys for lunch.  SOOOOO GOOD!!!  Also, we got to sing in the primary program with all the little ones.  Tons of fun.

M'boy President Irion is back in town.

That is all.

Love

Elder Grabinger

P.S.  'Merica!!!

Awesome Experience

Dear Everyone,

I haven't met the interim mission president in person, but he's the real deal.  He's got big plans to whip this place into shape.  I'll be keeping my nose clean for the next few weeks... jk, lol.  He's really cool and he doesn't plan on just babysitting until President Irion gets back, he really wants to make the most of his time here and I appreciate that.  He'll be a great leader for us.

OMGoodness, it sounds like this is the perfect time for me to relate me recent adoption of beyond intense hatred for gossip.  The phrase "loose lips sink ships" is soooooo true.  And may I take the liberty to add, "ruin baptisms too"?  But that's another story that I just can't share yet.  Don't ever backbite.  In fact, let me share this quote from Thomas S. Monson:

"Complaining is not thinking.  Ridiculing is not reasoning."

Words to live by...

Also, do your civic duty and vote.  And with that I'll conclude my spiritual thought for the week.

FYI:  we don't proselyte on Halloween.  We were told to stay inside from 6-9 p.m. and do our weekly planning.

I'll miss Uncle Vance, he is soooooo awesome.

Hmmm, my only memory of Grandma (before the Alzheimer's) was when she pulled into the alley and picked us up from catching frogs with the neighborhood kids and was flipping out that we were going to get warts.  She cared about us so much... but we were too young to understand.  Also, one time I kept telling her to turn right so we could get to the park, but she couldn't get in the right lane.  Again, I was too young to understand that that was an issue and I just kept telling her to turn right until we passed the turn.  Other than that, it's all hilarious sayings that occurred as a result of the disease.  I miss her though.

Oh good, that pic by Emily Eddy is a real good one.  I'm glad that's up there.

Well, this has to be a short letter again because I'm out of time.... okay I'll share one cool experience from this week.

I was off on an exchange this week and we went to contact this referral in the other elder's area.  Well, when we got there we found out that she was a less-active member that had fallen off the radar.  So we just get to talking and it seems like she wants to get back into church and be active in the gospel again, but her husband was kinda resentful that we were there.  Well, it was only because she had never mentioned being Mormon to him much less contacting the elders and they had recently talked about finding a church to go to and everything.  Soon after talking, the lady had to leave for an appointment, but we just stayed and kept talking with her husband.  When it was time to leave, we decided to leave their family with a copy of the Book of Mormon, because she didn't have one any longer, and introduced him to it as well.  After reading the first paragraph of the introduction, he says "I'm going to make you a promise; I'm going to read every word in this book."  So that's the power of the Lord, a complete turnaround in the husband's demeanor from the time we met to the time we left.  I'm so grateful for His ever present influence in this, His work.

Love,

Elder Grabinger