Week 31

Hey y'all! It's been an AMAZING week here in Texas! We have been so blessed with people to teach it's unbelievable. The Lord is recognizing our efforts and has opened the windows of heaven unto us. I’m going day by day to list the blessings that we have received:

Monday

We had P-day (which was excellent as always) and that evening we went over to the Thomsons in the 4th ward for dinner, and their daughter and son-in-law, Kayli and Carlos were there. Carlos isn’t a member, but wants to become one. We talked about it with him and they are moving to Fort Worth in a week, so we started teaching them last Monday and will get everything taught to him this week so he can be baptized on Saturday! It’s going to be way sweet! We are really excited and it will be good for the ward because they haven’t seen a baptism in a long time. Later that evening we went and had a lesson with the Loveless’ (the wife is less active) and had a really strong spiritual lesson there.

Tuesday

Tuesday rocked and that was one of the best days of the week. We went to transfers in the morning (I had to be there for some district leader training that morning) and there are a lot of changes in the mission that will hopefully help it take off. It’s funny; our former district leader, Elder Nate, was told that he was getting transferred and becoming a Zone Leader, and he went to the meeting and came right back to Allen to replace Elder Krammer. It was way awesome and I totally called it. Anyways after that we went over to a potential investigator’s home for an appointment. She has been flaky in the past so it wasn’t all that surprising when she wasn’t home; what was surprising was when she called 30 minutes later, apologized for being late, and told us to come back on over. It was awesome!! Her name is Salma and she has no real understanding of religion (she wasn’t raised in any particular religion) but she does believe in God and a little bit in Jesus Christ. She has to be taught very basically but that will be great. She’s unmolded clay right now, so it will be really fun and spiritual. We later had another appointment with Beth and the Spirit was really strong there as well. We taught her the first part of the Plan of Salvation and she understood and was asking questions! It was really cool and we are so excited for her. We just hope she can come to church soon. That evening we went over to Lawson’s and had a really good lesson, teaching some of the commandments (tithing, fasting, ten commandments) and talked to him a little bit about the Law of Chastity and he said he knows it’s wrong, but Jen was in a tough situation and he’s not sure if he’s ready for marriage yet. We told him that there are plenty of young couples that do it and make it and that he definitely needs to pray about it. Hopefully it will turn out well for him. After Lawson we went over and taught Sydney and Cody another lesson, finishing up the Restoration. They both really enjoyed it and understood it, but they need to come to church. The problem is that they are really busy a lot on weekends, but hopefully we will be able to find a way for the entire family to make it a priority.

Wednesday

Wednesday was another good day. We had district meeting in the morning, which went well considering it was my first time giving training to other Elders. That afternoon we went and visited Brother Johnson, a less active in the First ward. We are teaching him the lessons, hoping it will help him come back to church; the problem is he has a disabled son and so he usually has to stay home to take care of him. It was a really good lesson, though, and it will be good for him. That evening, we went on splits because we were double-booked for appointments and had a god night. Elder Hardy went and saw a woman named Suzie, who became a new investigator. I went and saw Lawson again (it was the only time he was going to be able to meet with us again that week) and taught him the Word of Wisdom, which he probably won’t have any problems with. He’s been trying to quit smoking and has gone down from a pack a day to a pack a week and he drinks tea like crazy, but he should be able to stop that as well. Sweet tea and iced tea is the big thing down South. After Lawson we went by a potential investigator named Jesse and got in and taught a lesson! It was pretty cool. He’s a Baptist but seemed way open and willing to learn.

Thursday

Thursday was pretty boring until the evening. We had our planning session (which was boring) and we had a meeting as well at a senior center that was honestly a waste of time. We didn’t get out to do anything until the evening and that’s when things got good. We had an appointment with Sandra, but she wasn’t home, so we tried going by a few people to no success. We then went over to Chad’s (another potential investigator) and we taught the restoration. He had some questions we didn’t have time to answer because we had another appointment. We are hopefully going to see him again this week. After Chad we went and saw Kayli and Carlos again and had a sweet lesson there and eliminated most of the concerns about him being baptized. There shouldn’t be any and he will likely be good to go.

Friday

We did some service for a less active lady in the ward in the morning, and on the way back, I TOTALLY ate it HARD on my bike. I don’t even know how I fell, but next thing I know, I’ve got some gnarly road rash on my knee and on my elbow. I’m including pictures, so check it out. It still kills and I can’t put any pressure on it and probably won’t for a while. It was sweet. That afternoon we went over to the Youngs to day hi and see how they were doing. The evening went up and down. It was gonna be great—then everything punched. Then when we got with our ride, Ed, he took us back to his place to teach his roommate Jeremy and Jeremy’s girlfriend Olivia a lesson. It was really good and the spirit was strong there. We were really excited to teach them and hopefully it will turn into something really good.

Saturday

In the morning, I went to buy an ace bandage for my knee (it kept oozing everywhere) and after that we went to teach Carlos and Kayli again. Kayli was still asleep, but Carlos was up and it was a really good lesson. We started the Plan of Salvation and he really understood it and enjoyed it. That afternoon we went over to some of the members of the ward and met with the Bishop in the 1st ward to go over the ward list. It was really good. That evening we had dinner with the ward mission leader in the 1st ward and then went over to teach a lesson at Becky’s home. Becky is an active member who has been struggling with her testimony and we are teaching her the lessons to hopefully strengthen her. It was a really powerful lesson and it has been good for her. After that we met with Mike, and we started teaching him the lessons as well, hoping to help him come back to church. He is less-active but is a great guy with a good heart.

Sunday

As always, Sunday was extremely long, but really good. Lawson and Carlos came to church, and we got another potential investigator. Trevor is a 17-year-old who is a recent convert due to being a part of a part-member family and he is dating a non-member named Natasha, who is interested in learning about the church. We are planning on starting to teach her on Thursday, which will be really exciting. We had a good evening and a good time.

Well, that’s my week!! I know it was long, but that’s because it was excellent. I love you all and hope all is well!!

Love,
Elder Grondel