Week 7

Week 7 has been one of the longest weeks here. I dunno why it seems so long but man it has gone by slow. However, it was still a fairly good week. Last Monday, we were able to teach Korea (who's real name is Ryan) and he really enjoyed the lesson. We just had another one with him on Friday and taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was really spiritual and me will likely get baptized before the end of the transfer (a transfer is 6 weeks and this one ends on the 14th of September).

Tuesday was exciting because guess what? I got a new companion!! While it was sad to see Elder Smith go and I will miss him dearly, a change is always new and exciting. His name is Elder Hatfield (he's still looking for an Elder McCoy) and he's from Payson, Utah (about 20 miles south of Provo). He's been out almost a year (he hits a year this week) and he's a great missionary. He's the new district leader and is already doing an incredible job. he has lots of great ideas, and has planned a few blitzes for the areas that need new investigators and people to teach. A blitz is where you get all the missionaries in a district (or zone depenging on the area) and for a few hours contact people in mass force, trying to find people that are willing to listen and be taught. Since a lot of the areas are seriously lacking in teaching pools right now, it will definintely help the areas and in turn the mission.

After I got my new companion, Elder Hatfield and I went over to see a boy named Daniel. Daniel just turned nine in June and was not baptized, so then it became our responsibility to teach him the lessons. We've been teaching him for a few weeks now and while we were there last time, Daniel said he wanted to be baptized! Daniel's father said they needed to figure out what day would be best for them, but it was way exciting to hear that. We'll see him again tomorrow and so hopefully we'll be able to set a baptisimal date with him.

We have another investigator we've been teaching, a girl named Liz. Liz is the boyfriend of the young men's president's son, Trevor. Trevor is a returned missionary from...I can't remember. But anyways, Liz was interested in taking the lessons, so of course, we were happy to oblige. We've been teaching her since the end of July, although she seems to br progressing fairly well (she's reading the Book of Mormon and going to church) we kinda feel that she's not sincerely praying about it and that she may be taking the lessons simply to keep Trevor and his parents happy. Hopefully this is a wrong assumption on our part, but if she doesn't show a real desire soon, we may have to level with her, meaning we would have to figure out if she's really doing it for herself, or is she is doing it for him.

On a sadder note, Shawn dropped us, and truthfully, we were thinking about dropping him too. He was reading the Book of Mormon against the Bible (meaning he was criticizing it) and he was fairly firm in his beliefs. We had taught him up to the Plan of Salvation and had a real hinderance on the Garden of Eden (he thought it was possible for Adam and Eve to have children in the Garden) and the Pre-Earth Life (he just didn't believe that one). We encouraged him to go on mormon.org to try to answer his questions because we had been there too long already, and the next day he called us because he found out about the doctrine that we can become like Heavenly Father (which of course he thought was crazy) and so he said he didn't want us to come over anymore. I was upset, but maybe sometime in the future he will look into the church again with a more open heart and mind.

Now for the really exciting news: Kelly (Melissa's husband) has started taking the lessons for real this time!! We went over on Wednesday mainly to visit with Melissa and Logan and start the new member lessons with them (basically all the lessons over again with one more) and then Kelly walked in. We talked a little bit and found out that on Sunday, Kelly picked up the Book of Mormon and said they should start reading it together....WAIT A MINUTE. KELLY SAID THIS?!? Needless to say I could barely contain my joy and excitement. We taught him the Restoration and it was a very Spiritual and Powerful lesson. We commited him to come to church and guess what? HE CAME!! We were so excited and happy to see him there. We had another lesson with him after church SUnday evening, and it was just as powerful as before. He'd been really busy this last week, so he didn't get a chance to read, but he said he wanted to and knew it was important too. We taught him the first half of the Plan of Salvation (From the PRe-Earth Life to the Atonement of Jesus Christ) and he really understood it and asked the perfect questions that helped him to learn. We're really excited for him and could see him baptized before the end of the transfer as well. To add to that, Melissa's 15-year old son Brandon comes home on Sunday and he was pretty interested before he went to Virginia in July, and so he could be baptized with his Dad. I am way excited for the whole family and this entire transfer.

We haven't been able to find any new investigators (sadly enough...hence the need for a blitz) but hope to find some this week.

Well, that's it for me!! Love you all!!

Elder Grondel.