Hey y'all!
It's been another great week here in Texas! First off, I am now in a place called Bullard, Texas, which is just south of Tyler. I cover an area the size of a county and a half, but I'm having a great time already and am loving it. Sorry it took a couple weeks. Last week we got backed up doing stuff and by the time we got to the library it was already closed. So now I will fill you in on all that has happened in the last two weeks!
Thankfully, I was able to go back to Allen to see Cindy and AJ get baptized!! It was such an incredible experience, and holy cow it was a roller coaster of emotions the days before. Thursday before the baptism (the baptism was on Saturday) I thought I was going, and then something happened so we weren't planning on it. Then on Friday my ward mission leader called me and said he had a way for me to get to Dallas and we had set up a way to get back home, but then Friday night it wasn't supposed to work out. So I was pretty upset and nearly cried myself to sleep (I really wanted to go) and Saturday morning was a miracle. The guy who was going to come pick us up and take us to Dallas and couldn't had things cancel and he was suddenly able to do it. So we went to Allen!!! It was awesome. The best part is that AJ and Cindy didn't realize I was going to be able to make it. They thought things hadn't worked out, and so they played that up a bunch. While we were on the way t the church, they called and told me how much they appreciated me and how they wish I could be there. It was perfect because 5 minutes later I walked around the corner and they had the best reaction. It was so great to see their faces and how shocked and excited they were (Cindy grabbed some tissues...it was perfect). Needless to say, I had a good time.
So my new companion is Elder Davis, who was in my district when I first got to Allen. It was pretty funny because 1. it takes about 2 hours to get out to Tyler from Richardson (which is where we have the transfer meeting) and so I didn't meet up with Elder Davis right away and 2. Consequently, when he first saw me, he instantly said "Are you my companion?!?" It was one of those you had to be there moments, but it was still pretty funny. We've been having a great time and some success as well. Bullard is an area that has been struggling for a while, but Elder Davis and I are going to turn that around. When I first got here we had one investigator who may have to be dropped now, but we worked hard and had faith and found 8 new people to teach last week!! It was so incredible, and we're hoping to have a similar miracle this week.
There are two families I want to talk about. Mike and Allison are first. They are a pretty young couple and have a little girl that's one or two years old. Mike was raised Baptist but neither of them have been to church in a while. They are way nice and were pretty open to the Book of Mormon and everything else. They were a bit wary of it at first, but they agreed to at least read it and pray about it, and mike really seemed to take interest at the end and said he wanted to come to church to see it for himself. Unfortunately something came up that made it so they couldn't come, but we should be meeting with them this week and we are really excited.
Next: Dillon and Shannon. So this couple was another one we tracted into and he let us in. We started talking about things and got to the Book of Mormon and they started to have a bunch of questions. We tried to answer as many as we could but eventually had to leave because we were there for so long. we went back over Monday night and Shannon's father, Scott, was there. Shannon and Scott are lifelong Baptists and Dillon was just recently "Saved" and baptized in January. I honestly thought it was going to turn into a big mess. Instead, they were simply inquisitive, asking questions that challenged out beliefs but they were not attacking in any way. We eventually got to the point where we decided the basics need to be established, but again we ran out of time, so we are going over next week to teach them again. I tell you this experience, though, because the Spirit was there the entire time, and I have never felt anything like it. It was so strong for the situation we were in. Usually in something like that the Spirit leaves and it's just uncomfortable. That, however, was something completely different. The Spirit was guiding us completely. It was incredible. I know that it wasn't coincidence that Dillon let us in. It will be very interesting to see what the Lord has in store for us.
These last two weeks have been incredible. They have been some of the hardest, but they also have been some of the best. I can't wait to fill y'all in on everything that happens this next week, but have a good one yourselves!
Love,
Elder Grondel
It's been another great week here in Texas! First off, I am now in a place called Bullard, Texas, which is just south of Tyler. I cover an area the size of a county and a half, but I'm having a great time already and am loving it. Sorry it took a couple weeks. Last week we got backed up doing stuff and by the time we got to the library it was already closed. So now I will fill you in on all that has happened in the last two weeks!
Thankfully, I was able to go back to Allen to see Cindy and AJ get baptized!! It was such an incredible experience, and holy cow it was a roller coaster of emotions the days before. Thursday before the baptism (the baptism was on Saturday) I thought I was going, and then something happened so we weren't planning on it. Then on Friday my ward mission leader called me and said he had a way for me to get to Dallas and we had set up a way to get back home, but then Friday night it wasn't supposed to work out. So I was pretty upset and nearly cried myself to sleep (I really wanted to go) and Saturday morning was a miracle. The guy who was going to come pick us up and take us to Dallas and couldn't had things cancel and he was suddenly able to do it. So we went to Allen!!! It was awesome. The best part is that AJ and Cindy didn't realize I was going to be able to make it. They thought things hadn't worked out, and so they played that up a bunch. While we were on the way t the church, they called and told me how much they appreciated me and how they wish I could be there. It was perfect because 5 minutes later I walked around the corner and they had the best reaction. It was so great to see their faces and how shocked and excited they were (Cindy grabbed some tissues...it was perfect). Needless to say, I had a good time.
So my new companion is Elder Davis, who was in my district when I first got to Allen. It was pretty funny because 1. it takes about 2 hours to get out to Tyler from Richardson (which is where we have the transfer meeting) and so I didn't meet up with Elder Davis right away and 2. Consequently, when he first saw me, he instantly said "Are you my companion?!?" It was one of those you had to be there moments, but it was still pretty funny. We've been having a great time and some success as well. Bullard is an area that has been struggling for a while, but Elder Davis and I are going to turn that around. When I first got here we had one investigator who may have to be dropped now, but we worked hard and had faith and found 8 new people to teach last week!! It was so incredible, and we're hoping to have a similar miracle this week.
There are two families I want to talk about. Mike and Allison are first. They are a pretty young couple and have a little girl that's one or two years old. Mike was raised Baptist but neither of them have been to church in a while. They are way nice and were pretty open to the Book of Mormon and everything else. They were a bit wary of it at first, but they agreed to at least read it and pray about it, and mike really seemed to take interest at the end and said he wanted to come to church to see it for himself. Unfortunately something came up that made it so they couldn't come, but we should be meeting with them this week and we are really excited.
Next: Dillon and Shannon. So this couple was another one we tracted into and he let us in. We started talking about things and got to the Book of Mormon and they started to have a bunch of questions. We tried to answer as many as we could but eventually had to leave because we were there for so long. we went back over Monday night and Shannon's father, Scott, was there. Shannon and Scott are lifelong Baptists and Dillon was just recently "Saved" and baptized in January. I honestly thought it was going to turn into a big mess. Instead, they were simply inquisitive, asking questions that challenged out beliefs but they were not attacking in any way. We eventually got to the point where we decided the basics need to be established, but again we ran out of time, so we are going over next week to teach them again. I tell you this experience, though, because the Spirit was there the entire time, and I have never felt anything like it. It was so strong for the situation we were in. Usually in something like that the Spirit leaves and it's just uncomfortable. That, however, was something completely different. The Spirit was guiding us completely. It was incredible. I know that it wasn't coincidence that Dillon let us in. It will be very interesting to see what the Lord has in store for us.
These last two weeks have been incredible. They have been some of the hardest, but they also have been some of the best. I can't wait to fill y'all in on everything that happens this next week, but have a good one yourselves!
Love,
Elder Grondel
No comments:
Post a Comment