Dogs and a Prayer

Dear Fawn,

They weather had been pretty tame, just regular weekly showers and whatnot... until yesterday.  At the start of priesthood this hailstorm begins and just drowns out everyone's voices.  The look on everyone's eyes was just sheer terror as a few brethren ran outside to witness the monstrous hail damage as quarter size ice balls pulverized the parking lot.  One sister ran into the building with a destroyed umbrella.

There's a member of the YSA branch who works as an insurance claim adjuster or something like that and he said "it sounds like money falling from the sky!"  Hahaha, that was funny.

But know, there wasn't actually very much, if any, damage done to vehicles so things worked out fine.

Now, I spoke too soon with that dog story last week, because certain events transpired this past Friday that just put that one to shame.

When Elder LeSueur was here he visited this part member family in the ward, but he only did so on exchange so I had never been to their home or met them before.  However, he did tell me about this killer German Shepherd with one red eye and one black eye that the family owns and they keep it chained up because it truly is a vicious dog that has respect only for the husband and it poses a danger to the wife and rest of the family.  Why you would keep such an animal around is beyond me...

Anyway, I decide to try and meet this family on Friday and they live at the top of this hill with an awful driveway so we parked at the bottom of the hill and walked to the top.  Well, we get to the top and I see about four dogs shading themselves under this tree and I stop.  I turn to my companion and tell him I don't really have a good feeling about this and that maybe we should go (because I'm a little more wary of dogs now than I have been earlier in my mission).  But one of the dogs notices us and gives a gruff alert to the other dogs and before I know it, their all on their feet with ears pointed up.  To my sheer terror, one of them is a German Freaking Shepherd and I'm not about to find out whether these dogs are friendly or not.  I turn again to my companion and say "We have to go, now!" and we just bolt down the hill.  I'm running with a stiff ankle because it's still kinda weak in super thin slip-ons and praying for my life and my comp. looks behind him and sees them about an inch away from him.  Luckily, they stop about 2/3 of the way down but that doesn't keep us from reaching the car.

We soon find the husband coming after us and we chat with him a while and the dogs are all friendly except for the killer German Shepherd which was chained up and we only encountered the nicer one.

As the spiritual thought this week, pray works.  "Even as faith without works is dead, praying without running (or vice versa) makes you dead as well."  The Lord truly takes care of us when we remember Him.

Have a great week!

Love
Elder Grabinger

P.S.  Give Matthew my congrats!  And then leave him at graduation and go get a table at Applebee's.

P.P.S.  I'm SOOOOOO SORRY about that joke if that's still a sore spot for you.  Just ignore it if so.  So sorry once again...

Harry Potter and Buckbeak

Okay, I already talked to my family so it's going to be a short letter this week.  I'll just share one funny story:

So Elder Davis and I are knocking a few doors on this lady's street that we tried to visit...  We come up to a home surrounded by a 4 foot high fence I suppose and a sign that reads "No Trespassing" and another "Beware of Dog" sign.  No big deal, that's our specialty.  So Elder Davis just waltzes into the yard through the gate with this old mangy dog throwing up the warning cry.  Well, Elder Davis immediately befriends him, but that doesn't keep the dog from barking at me.  So I cautiously enter the yard with the mindset "this thing is all talk.  Elder Davis just disarmed him no problem like Harry did with Buckbeak.  That's what I'll do!!! Note to self: begin work on an LDS Doctrinal commentary on the Harry Potter series in personal study tomorrow...."

I slowly begin to approach this dog when he just bares his teeth and begins to charge.  IT JUST GOT REAL!!!  So I turn around to jump over the fence and as a begin to bend my knees I remember "My bum ankle isn't going to make it over!" so I kinda half jump onto the fence with the intent to like donkey kick this mutt in the face.  But he backed off before he got to me because he could sense the Holy Ghost surrounding me when he entered my personal bubble and realized that I was an emissary of the Lord Jesus Christ and came bearing a solemn message of peace unto all (I mean, it's not like he was overcome with the Spirit and granted the gift of tongues to speak that thought to me, but you could just tell from his facial expression and the way he was wagging his tail.  I guess you just had to be there.  Ya know?  On of those things...).  Also, the impending face-breaking that was about to occur probably persuaded him to err on the side of caution.

I peacefully observed Elder Davis from the other side of the fence as he knocked on the door to offer the saving ordinances of our Lord and Savior's restored gospel.

No one was home.

Have a great week!

Love
Elder Grabinger

How I Became Semi-Famous

Oh yeah, here is a short story about how I became semi-famous in the knoxville stake this week...

Several weeks ago I was on a team-up with our bishop's step-son.  On this team up, I told my Elder LeSueur and him a ridiculous joke about a train conductor and some chihuahuas (you see where this is going already, don't you?)  We'll the premise of the joke is that you pay attention intently to the details that I share, but then I end with this HORRID punchline and the real joke is that I just wasted 15 minutes of your life.

They loved it.

So our team-up goes home and tells it to his parents and we get a text from the bishop a few minutes later saying "Sterling is not allowed to team up with you anymore." Haha.  Well, their two youngest children are IN LOVE with the joke and want me to tell it every time we come over (joke's on me now, because I waste 15 minutes of my life whenever I have to tell the joke)

Anyway, fast forward to this Saturday night where the bishop's wife is speaking in the adult session of our stake conference.  Last week, I told her that if she needed to stall for time, she should tell the joke.  So she ended up giving me a little shout-out and referenced the joke in the adult session. (didn't tell it, but mentioned it).

And that's how I became semi-famous in the knoxville stake this last week.

Ask me about the joke when I get home....

Oh What a Week!

Dear Everyone,

We had to prepare a district leader training meeting and a zone meeting last week so it was super hectic.  Everything went superbly though with the help of Elder Davis and the Spirit.  I'm glad it's all over though.

Well, I may or may not have broken my ankle playing basketball last week (see attached photos) so I've been limping around for several days now.  The worst part was when we got called to go give a blessing to someone in the hospital here and so I was dragging my leg around in the hospital like a lame dog.  It was ironic.

We had a wonderful area wide stake conference for the eastern states that was broadcast from Salt Lake.  It was super cool.  The focus was on the family and the need to reach out to others and be proactive in our efforts to save our loved ones along with ourselves.  Also, Dieter F. Uchtdorf said something to the effect of "Tithing has nothing to do with money and everything to do with faith."  So well said.  He also held up a copy of Preach My Gospel and challenged each family to obtain a copy and study it regularly, especially chapter 3.  That was uber exciting for us missionaries.

Something cool that happened this week was that we were at WalMart and this less-active lady that we had been trying to visit for a little while saw us and came right up to us and gave us her phone number and stuff so we could meet with her.  The Lord's got everything on lock down.  You just have to work hard and try to work smart and He'll make things happen.  Way cool.

Also, it appears that Sonic is doing their half-price shakes after 8p.m. again this year which I'm really excited for.  I love milkshakes.

That's about all that's going on though.  Can't wait for Mother's Day this Sunday!!!  Have a great week.

Love
Elder Grabinger