Your Weekly Dose of Awesomeness

Friends,

The APs and Mission President basically choose the focus of the Zone Conference and then everyone kinda teaches along those lines.  I've always been one to live my own life though so whatever.

The thing that I hate about the Book of Moses though is that it just stops really abruptly.  Like, cliffhanger status.  Not a fan.  Plus, I'm just really enamored with Abraham's dry sense of humor in verse 1 of chapter 1.  "I saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence."  I should say so Abraham!  You're dad is a false priest of Elkenah who delivered you up to be sacrificed!  Lol.

What a comedian...

Anyway, one sooper dooper cool thing happened this past weekend.  Vicki was baptized in Johnson City on Saturday!!!  For those of you that don't remember, Vicki was an investigator that Elder Richardson and I found over a year ago when I was serving in Johnson City.  It sounds like the missionaries stopped visiting her shortly after I left, and then some of the more recent missionaries called her after finding her teaching record in the meticulously kept (you're welcome) area book!  Then they finished teaching her and she entered into the covenant of baptism and thus unlocked the gate opening to the path of eternal salvation in her life no big deal.

So that was way exciting.

I will definitely have to keep the "disappearing companion" prank in mind.  It's been since Harrison Bay since I did that one and Elder Craig was seconds away from calling the mission president after failing to get a hold of our district leader three times.  I really got him good that time.  It's been like a year now since that happened though.  CRAZY!

Attached is a picture of myself and Elder Henriquez at transfer meeting (yes, I'm looking very sharp.  I know). He went home last week, so I'll miss him. Also, Elder LeSueur and I took a photo as well just before being separated at transfer meeting.  He's now in Harrison Bay and my new companion is Elder Davis who you'll be interested to know came out in the MTC with Elder LeSueur and I.  So this is just going to be another wonderful transfer.  I just feel to mention that Harrison Bay and Pleasant Ridge are two of my past areas that are now zone areas and while I try to avoid being really prideful sometimes, President Thomas S. Monson says "There are no coincidences."

Do what you will with that...

Um, that's probably enough 'awesome' for us both this week.  Take care!  Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Grabinger

Thoughts on a Gem of Extremely Large Value

Dear Friends,

Well, in order to prepare a truly fantastic zone conference as a good zone leader, you would probably spend a lot of time pondering and praying about what topics your zone members could really use to lift their spirits and help them be successful rather than recycling an old training that you gave several months ago.  Then, you meticulously set up the room in the stake center that the conference will be held in and you don't forget to pass out hymnbooks before the start of the first hymn.  These are just some very general guidelines.

Ours was FANTASTIC!!!

I've been studying in the Pearl of Great Price lately (well, I actually just read it and the institute manual that goes along with it) and holy cow!  That is one of the most doctrinally intense 61 pages of scripture ever!  If someone asked me, I would compare it to some kind of gem of extremely large value.

Who knew!?

One thing that I'd like to share is Moses 6:59.  The symbolism is just incredible.  Just as we are born into a world of sin, so also must every man be born again into the kingdom of heaven (like Jesus says in John chapter 3)!  And what elements are involved in that process?  The very same three!  Water because of embryonic fluid and baptism.  Blood because of our bodies of flesh and blood (which was not so before the fall) and the redeeming blood of Christ through is atonement.  And the spirit which is united with the body before birth and the Holy Spirit which is united with us when we are confirmed.  It just seems to me like there must have been a grand council in heaven before the world was formed in which all of this was planned out...  Cool, huh?

To be real with you, nothing very exciting happened last week that you would be interested.  I play pranks on Elder LeSueur all the time to keep things interesting.  The latest one was that switched his box spring on top of his mattress and put his sheets on it, but he noticed before he laid down, so that wasn't as fun as it could have been.

I'll do better this week so y'all can have fun stories!

Love
Elder Grabinger

P.S. Give Libby my sincerest congratulations!!!

Ca-ra-zay Week

Dear Everyone,

Last week was crazy.  We had to prepare for Zone Conference and get that done.  It went well but I'm just relieved that it's over.  For the Zone Conference, I prepared and played "He Sent His Son" on guitar and it was really good.  A couple of sisters in our zone also did a special musical number and it was INCREDIBLE!!!  That's my favorite part of any meeting that includes one, the special musical numbers.

We had the opportunity to assist in a neighborhood cleanup last Saturday and there's a creek that goes through the neighborhood.  AW YEAH!!! I donned a pair of waders and we got in that filthy nasty water and pulled up bicycles, rugs, tires, a desk lamp, a toilet, a (nonhuman) bone (we think), and some shopping carts.  It was a blast!

I got some great news that the Elders in Johnson City (my first area) were going through the area book and contacted one of my old investigators and started teaching her again and she's going to get baptized and I'm UBER excited about that!  Success!

Spiritual thought for the week:  Anyone who truly listened to general conference, and attends church regularly, can see that Satan is not just out in the world, but is even among the Saints.  I ran across this scripture in Mosiah 4:10.  It was super powerful to me when King Benjamin says "if you believe all these things see that ye DO them."  We all know that belief is not enough.  But we can't forget Moroni's counsel in Alma 60:23 as well.  We have to first cleanse the inner vessel.  It does no good to recognize these things in others if we can't recognize Satan creeping into our own lives.  The little things are sooooo important;  reverence in meetings, avoiding inappropriate media, and crude language are some great examples.  Even if you do the other things like read the scriptures and pray regularly and attend church, Satan has begun to gain a hold of your life if he can make you believe that music with poor lyrics doesn't really have any effect on you, that you're better than that.  The prophets and apostles are right to exhort us to live the basic standards of the church in this last conference.  Just as we can fill our lives with good and the bad will be cleared out, if we allow evil to creep in, it will be able to overcome the good in our lives as well (Jacob 5:65-66).

Well, I'm done preaching now.  Things are going well.  I love and miss you all.  Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Elder Grabinger

Another Day at the Office

RMOs are Rocky Mountain Oysters.

I dunno what was in the spicy spaghetti, but I haven't asked how it went when they went back to see him.  It wasn't in my area.

Bueno, en realidad, no creo que tengo much para compartir esta semana.

Oh, except that each person that we are teaching who is not a member is now committed for baptism.  We'll see how that goes though...  Yesterday, Elder LeSueur and I were teaching one investigator who me met through this less-active member at his home and the member was just interrupting sooooo often and the lesson was not going smoothly because of that.  So at the end we just cut the crap and shared the BoM and had them read 2 Nephi 31:13 and then the Spirit helped them accept a baptismal invitation.  I walked out of there with Elder LeSueur and I had the "NBD, just another day at the office" attitude on.

I'm such a bad boy missionary.

Well, hoped y'all enjoyed General Conference.  To me, it seemed like everyone was emphasizing the importance of family including the law of chastity and virtue.  It's very apparent that the standards of the world are in total dissonance with the standards of the gospel.  We will have to keep the commandments much more consistently in order to ensure that we are standing for truth and are not affected by these false notions.  It's really incredible how easily and quickly you can fall away from gospel truth and I've seen it a lot in others and a little in myself at times.  Stay close to the scriptures and the words of the prophets and apostles.

Have a great week!

Love
Elder Grabinger

Happy Easter!

Dear Family and Friends,

Nope, just the RMOs.  But, I had this INCREDIBLE experience in Sevierville the other day.  I was on exchange so Elder Pierce and I were tracting for two hours in the rain in this trailer park with many hispanics and we were having some mild success when this MIRACLE happens.  We walk up to a guy who is on his porch grilling some carne asada and he just sits us down and makes us plates and we have the most delicious mexican food since leaving Yuma.  Well, except for hispanics here tend to mix random foods together.  Like, tortillas and carne asada were served along with spicy spaghetti.  Kinda strange, but I didn't complain.  And I ate the entire grilled green chile, seeds and all.  My tummy had a category 5 hurricane brewing for about an hour afterward.

I FELT SO ALIVE!

It was a good time.  Oh yeah, and their going to go back and teach him the gospel this Wednesday or something too.  So that's good.

Okay, I think I forgot to tell this experience last week, but Elder LeSueur and I had to go to the UT hospital to administer a blessing to a member that was flown there from Sevierville.  So we go to the emergency room and she has some family there that were with her, but this lady was clearly not all there at the time and she was covered up by a blanket except for her face and she was fiddling around under the blanket with her hands.  Well, she locks eyes with Elder LeSueur and he goes over and reaches out his hand to take whatever it is that she is now offering him with her outstretched hand.

It's her IV needle.

So she's bleeding a little bit now and Elder LeSueur just flushes and he's getting super light-headed.  So he just anoints her super quick and sits down with his head between his knees and I'm kinda peeved, like "You're really gonna sit this one out, bro?"  So I give the blessing and then everyone just turns their attention to Elder LeSueur and basically forgets that we're in the emergency room for their family member.  After a couple minutes Elder LeSueur asks, did you give the blessing yet?  He seriously didn't remember it at all.  He's beginning to rethink his career choice in the medical field I think.  I had to drive home and now Elder LeSueur is famous among the Sevierville ward members because he got super woozy at the sight of blood.

Another time, we go to visit this less-active member who we've never met before with another member and we knock on his door and we get the warmest welcome I've had in a while and he lets us in.  Well, this guy was part of this program or something where he has a live-in caretaker and he's not allowed to answer the door or anything as part of the rules for this program.  So his caretaker comes in and this has just set the spark to a mess that had been building for weeks.  So we just get caught in this verbal argument between the guy and his caretaker and we just sit there for like 10 minutes because none of us know what to do.  After multiple threats to send the man to the nursing home (and what I think was a fake phone call to a nursing home to come pick him up) we politely excused ourselves and got outta there.  It was so strange.

Well, for Easter we ate dinner at the bishop's home.  They made me tell this chihuahua joke I have that's like 15 minutes long and really the biggest waste of time.  But I had told it to their priest age son on a team-up once and he just went to town with it.  He told it at his lunch table and to his parents (who immediately texted us afterward to let us know that it was the worst joke ever).  Anyway, it's pretty hilarious.  Remind me to tell it to you when I get home.  Anyway their son is into videography and they showed us this video he did called "mission man" which is a parody of the pokemon theme song.  Search for it on YouTube.  It's hilarious.

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.  Ours was busy since the missionaries got asked to teach the 3rd hour lesson and then I substituted in the Gospel Principles class.  It was fun though.  I'm just so grateful for Jesus Christ and his Atonement.  Knowing that he made that kind of a sacrifice for me and did something for me that I could never do for myself is just so humbling.  I know that He lives today and that we will all live again after this life because of Him.  The sting of death is swallowed up in His matchless love.

Love,
Elder Grabinger