Week 51

Hey y'all!! It's been another wonderful week here in Est Texas! And boy A LOT happened this week. Let's go day-by-day.

Monday

Monday was fun. We went over to Bro. Atwood's hat shop and made a hat for Elder Hill. Then we did the usual Preparation day activities and ate dinner and then helped to clean up the new building.

Tuesday

We went down to Jacksonville and did a lot of finding and what not. We found a guy named Larry who had been taught by the missionaries about a year ago and we will start teaching him again. We then went and had good appointments with Patsy and Carlton that evening.

Wednesday

In the morning I went to a leadership meeting (I'm still a district leader) in Longview, which is about 45 minutes east of Tyler. While we were there, rain really started coming down and there were thunderstorms and we lost power for about 45 minutes. It was nuts because there was a bunch of Boy Scouts there for a day camp and they were going crazy. It was pretty sweet. We went and saw Charles that afternoon and really had a good lesson. We were going to see Tisha but she and her whole family were sick and they didn't want to let us in. We will set up a time to see them this week. We then ate dinner and did some contacting. It was a full day.

Thursday

This is where it gets exciting. Thursday morning we planned out the next week and then we went contacting...at Wal-Mart, in the rain. It was fun. Then we had interviews and training with President Smith, which went really well. Mine was short, but that's good sometimes, 'cause it means I have nothing really to worry about because I'm doing good. that night we had a lesson with Sevren that went well, but we are going to have to push the baptism back because Sevren's Dad wants to baptize him but he won't be able to until the end of July. Oh well. Such is life.
We did have another appointment but the guy punched, which stank but whatever.

Friday

This was a day of craziness as well. We had Zone Conference that morning and it was really good and really powerful. President Smith gave a great training as did the Assistants and some of the other missionaries. It was a good conference. That afternoon we went contacting and dropped by some people and then we went to the Open house for the rest of the evening. The Open House went really well. There were several non-members there, and sadly there weren't too many that were interested, but there was one that made it all worth it. This woman named Angie came in because she saw the big signs out front for the Open House and wanted to check it out. One of the members of the ward, Sister Parks, introduced herself and asked her if there was anything that she needed, to which Angie said she wanted some literature. Sister Parks then found me and let me talk to her from there. 20 minutes later, she left with a Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, and a brief run down of the first lesson. She had so many questions that were perfect for the Gospel, because we are able to answer them! I know that for these type of events, there is at least one person that is prepared for it, and I think Angie may be the one. We will be calling her and setting up an appointment to teach her and her husband. There is so much potential there!

Saturday

Basically the same thing from 10-4. We were at the open house. That evening we had one appointment at 8 that cancelled, but we still took a member with us. we dropped by some people and dropped by some potential investigators, Malibu and Josh. We were only there for a few minutes, but it was awesome. Josh is really well-versed in the Bible, but he really doesn't believe in it because of what religion has done to it and because of all the different churches. He believes in God but had almost given up on searching for the truth. We talked with him about families and how they can be eternal and he really liked that and so we said we would come back and teach him how he can know that families can be eternal. It was really good and really spiritual and we are going to see them on Saturday.

Sunday

Sunday was really powerful. We had to get to the stake center early because we sang in the choir and it was amazing to see how many people were there. The final count was 978 (and people don't believe there's Mormons in East Texas...how silly!) It was great. President Nielsen (the Stake president, and the member we live with) was authorized to dedicate the building and he wrote a beautiful dedicatory prayer. The Spirit was way strong and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room by the end of it all, and if there was, they had at least teared up at some point in the meeting. Carlton and Sevren were able to be there and they both enjoyed it. It was amazing.
The Atwoods then invited us over for lunch and we went over there and had a great time. We got a kid named Richy to come teaching with us and we went and taught Charles about the Word of Wisdom. He is pretty cool and said that quitting smoking would not be a problem for him. So he's gonna do it. He didn't come to church so we may have to move his baptismal date, but he is pretty solid otherwise. We had dinner with the Hollands and Brother Holland came out with us and we went and saw Carlton again and really hit it hard with the Word of Wisdom. It will be hard for him,. but we are going to get him to quit. We are seeing him tonight as well so it will be good.

Well that's the craziness of Week 51! It certainly was a good week and I am excited for this week. I love and miss y'all and I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Grondel