Dear Compadres,
Sorry you didn't get an email last week. I wrote one and sent it but there seems to be a failure in the interwebz time-space thingy.
Douglas' project sounds SWEET!
That's how we need to do missionary work! Just set up a bouncy castle on the church lawn and "Let them come". Genius.
Okay, crazy stuffs is going down this week. I'm getting transferred and there is a new zone being created and I will still be a zone leader. I won't find out exactly what's going to happen and where I go until Wednesday morning so you'll have to find out next week.
Exciting. I know...
That's about the extent of the excitement that's gone on this week.
Jacob and Stephanie are doing really well. I will miss them so much. They're great. In our lesson last Sunday, Jacob made it known that he was looking for a job and stuff and that they were struggling. I had just happened to visit the LDS Employment Services office 3 months ago that happens to be in our building and happened to take with me some business cards of the senior couple that staffs that program here. Needless to say, I hooked him up and he got a job within the week through that service. I am just so grateful for the opportunity to really help people in any way that I can and I love being a part of this Church that has so many INSPIRED programs to take care of God's children; all of them. It was such a blessing for me to see that miracle happen in our investigators' lives.
The other exciting thing was that Jacob survived his first anti-mormon experiences!!! I mean, you can't not go around telling people "I'm studying mormonism" and not face opposition. But he was able to stay strong and be like "That's not what the Elders are teaching me at all, they don't believe that." I'm proud of him. It was a witness to me though of the real need to find and teach families where family members can love and support and strengthen one another in the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Stephanie is just a trooper also.
That is all.
Love
Elder Grabinger
Monday, July 15, 2013
Families are Forever
I WROTE THIS LAST WEEK BUT I GUESS IT DIDN'T GET DELIVERED
Dear FawnRae,
I miss you bunches.
This week was aight. We had a Zone Conference and a Mission Leadership Council that Elder Davis and I had to train at, so we were busy. It's been raining all week. I feel as though I'm in the Pacific Northwest. It was drizzling Thursday evening, but the fireworks went on so we caught some of those and I enjoyed a delicious caramel shake from Sonic. Yum.
Jacob and Stephanie are still progressing and learning and their testimonies are growing and it's just really wonderful to be a part of it. I love them.
Other than that, not much has been going on.
Okay, except that we went to contact this family this week and there are four children there ages 3, 5, 7, and 10. Well, when we got there the 7 year-old answered the door and he was the only one not feeling well, kinda strange... but he invites us in and then runs back into his room where the matriarch is trying to take care of all the children when we hear on of the kids shout "Kayden just threw up!" and then everyone followed with that "OHhhhHHhhh" sound. Elder Davis and I were just cracking up in the foyer. It was hilarious.
Anyway, the matriarch told us that she loves the church and wants to get baptized, but things kept popping up that day so we didn't get a chance to really sit down and talk with her. The patriarch is a member already. They have a lovely family.
We will make them a forever family. :}
Have a great week!
Love
Elder Grabinger
Dear FawnRae,
I miss you bunches.
This week was aight. We had a Zone Conference and a Mission Leadership Council that Elder Davis and I had to train at, so we were busy. It's been raining all week. I feel as though I'm in the Pacific Northwest. It was drizzling Thursday evening, but the fireworks went on so we caught some of those and I enjoyed a delicious caramel shake from Sonic. Yum.
Jacob and Stephanie are still progressing and learning and their testimonies are growing and it's just really wonderful to be a part of it. I love them.
Other than that, not much has been going on.
Okay, except that we went to contact this family this week and there are four children there ages 3, 5, 7, and 10. Well, when we got there the 7 year-old answered the door and he was the only one not feeling well, kinda strange... but he invites us in and then runs back into his room where the matriarch is trying to take care of all the children when we hear on of the kids shout "Kayden just threw up!" and then everyone followed with that "OHhhhHHhhh" sound. Elder Davis and I were just cracking up in the foyer. It was hilarious.
Anyway, the matriarch told us that she loves the church and wants to get baptized, but things kept popping up that day so we didn't get a chance to really sit down and talk with her. The patriarch is a member already. They have a lovely family.
We will make them a forever family. :}
Have a great week!
Love
Elder Grabinger
Monday, July 1, 2013
An Unprofitable Servant
Dear Friends and Family,
Bo is doing well. I have not eaten roadkill.
We are still teaching Jacob and Stephanie. They are awesome. We went to see them yesterday and I was kinda nervous because they didn't come to church. Stephanie told us that they had gone to a baptist church because they were going to be like 30 minutes late to ours. I was like, "NOOO!!! You can come if you're late. We love you and everyone was asking about you!" They'll be there next week. It's really cool to see their excitement for the gospel and the testimony that is growing inside them. They are studying from the gospel principles manual and reading the Book of Mormon and they loved the Family Proclamation thingy and the gospel is just really being a benefit to them and I don't get to see that often enough in peoples' lives. I'm very happy and excited for them. We love them.
I was listening to m'boy Robert L. Millet throw down some doctrine like he always does a while ago and he referenced Mosiah 2:21 which I've read and treasured many a time before, but this time my understanding was expanded and my mind enlightened. The final portion of the verse reads:
I say, if ye should serve him with all your ewhole souls yet ye would be funprofitable servants.
And I thought, "What does it mean to be an unprofitable servant?" So I imagined that I owned this business and I needed to hire employees to accomplish my goals. Well, if I hired 'unprofitable servants' that means that I would be hiring people and paying them more than they're producing for me. And that's when it hit me, I'm here serving in Knoxville Tennessee, and we can pretend that I've learned to serve him with my whole soul, and I'm basically running His business into the ground but he's paying me the most outrageous salary with unbelievable benefits and plans to make me a joint-heir in the business with His son someday. That was very humbling and made me feel even more gratitude for my Father in Heaven and even my parents here on Earth for all they do for me. I hope all of us realize that we're getting paid way more than we're worth and that we resolve to give our best always.
I'm kinda scared about those announcements to use social media more as full-time missionaries. I was like "I don't know how to talk to people online anymore! All I have are face-to-face interpersonal skills now and those are still shotty at best." So it's good to hear that there's classes on how to share the gospel using social media. I only have six months left though, so by the time they introduce that junk here I probably will be leaving soon or will have left.
I will teach you some simple rules to sharing the gospel effectively though. NEVER argue doctrine (also known as bible-bashing) and ALWAYS stress the importance of sincerely reading the Book of Mormon. You can apply those principles to any question asked about our faith.
Good luck to y'all! Have a great week!
Love
Elder Grabinger
Bo is doing well. I have not eaten roadkill.
We are still teaching Jacob and Stephanie. They are awesome. We went to see them yesterday and I was kinda nervous because they didn't come to church. Stephanie told us that they had gone to a baptist church because they were going to be like 30 minutes late to ours. I was like, "NOOO!!! You can come if you're late. We love you and everyone was asking about you!" They'll be there next week. It's really cool to see their excitement for the gospel and the testimony that is growing inside them. They are studying from the gospel principles manual and reading the Book of Mormon and they loved the Family Proclamation thingy and the gospel is just really being a benefit to them and I don't get to see that often enough in peoples' lives. I'm very happy and excited for them. We love them.
I was listening to m'boy Robert L. Millet throw down some doctrine like he always does a while ago and he referenced Mosiah 2:21 which I've read and treasured many a time before, but this time my understanding was expanded and my mind enlightened. The final portion of the verse reads:
I say, if ye should serve him with all your ewhole souls yet ye would be funprofitable servants.
And I thought, "What does it mean to be an unprofitable servant?" So I imagined that I owned this business and I needed to hire employees to accomplish my goals. Well, if I hired 'unprofitable servants' that means that I would be hiring people and paying them more than they're producing for me. And that's when it hit me, I'm here serving in Knoxville Tennessee, and we can pretend that I've learned to serve him with my whole soul, and I'm basically running His business into the ground but he's paying me the most outrageous salary with unbelievable benefits and plans to make me a joint-heir in the business with His son someday. That was very humbling and made me feel even more gratitude for my Father in Heaven and even my parents here on Earth for all they do for me. I hope all of us realize that we're getting paid way more than we're worth and that we resolve to give our best always.
I'm kinda scared about those announcements to use social media more as full-time missionaries. I was like "I don't know how to talk to people online anymore! All I have are face-to-face interpersonal skills now and those are still shotty at best." So it's good to hear that there's classes on how to share the gospel using social media. I only have six months left though, so by the time they introduce that junk here I probably will be leaving soon or will have left.
I will teach you some simple rules to sharing the gospel effectively though. NEVER argue doctrine (also known as bible-bashing) and ALWAYS stress the importance of sincerely reading the Book of Mormon. You can apply those principles to any question asked about our faith.
Good luck to y'all! Have a great week!
Love
Elder Grabinger
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