Thursday, July 16, 2009

July 13, 2009

Hey y'all!! It's been another great week in the wonderful state of Texas! It's hard to believe I've been away from home for almost 6 weeks...it's gone by really fast! I'm loving every second of it though and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Elder Smith continues to be amazing. I think I forgot to mention in previous letters that he is a bit of a health nut and I can't blame him. We get fed pretty much every night by members and when dinner is 1200 calories by itself...you get the picture. Thankfully we work out every morning, so it doesn't do much to us. I thought I was gonna gain weight (the average missionary in our mission gains 30 pounds), but instead I've already lost ten pounds. It's crazy! I really enjoy it though and I'm happy I'm with someone who's dedicated. Elder Smith is one of the best people I have ever met and I'm really sad he's leaving. He got his travel plans last week and he flies home August 5th. The worst part about it is that I keep thinking about home myself...which is not so good; however, I feel I've been focused and we have definitely been blessed for our efforts. We've been teaching quite a few lessons lately and found 4 new investigators this week. Sadly we've all but dropped Gabriella, Veronica, Alex, Carla, and Joanna because we haven't had a lesson with them for almost 2 weeks. We're pretty sure they've been "anti"-ed. It's been really annoying.

Melissa and Logan Lewis are doing really well, though. They both want to be baptized but are concerned about it being too soon and without the rest of the family being baptized, they don't know how it will affect them. Logan is a stud though and said to his mom the other day, "It's my body and I can do what I want. And I want to be baptized." It was way cool. The kid is only 8, but he's already a spiritual giant. We're really excited for them and hope to see them baptized soon.

We had another lesson with Juan on Friday, and he already seems a lot happier. He said he noticed that we are always happy no matter what, wheter we're sitting out in the heat (which we've had to do) or helping him change a tire, he said we just shrug it off and stay happy. This was thankfully a great teaching experience on the Holy Ghost and how it comforts those who have it with them. He's become a lot happier himself; he's still got a long way to go but with the Lord's help, we can get him there.

We met with J.J. and Hayden Kruzel again last night, and they are both doing awesome. They're pretty much ready for baptism; they just need to make it a weekend that their grandparents can be in town. J.J.'s team made it to the World Series (crazy huh!) and he had something crazy like 66 stike outs in 60 innings. The kid is a beast.

I love you all and want to hear from you!! Please write me!

God Bless,

Elder Grondel

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