Week 59

Hey there y'all!! It's been another great week here in fabulous East Texas! I have loved being here so much and realized something the other day: I have been here a long time...which means there's got to be another transfer coming up soon. This weekend I'll know if I am staying or leaving. Personally, I'd like to stay one more cycle with Elder Redmond just to make sure that I trained him right and fix any of my mistakes ;) We'll see what happens, though.

So two weeks, two baptisms!! Charles got baptized this Saturday and it was really awesome. His grandfather was going to baptize him initially but for some reason, he wasn't going to be able to make it, so Charles asked me to baptize him. It was really cool and really humbling, but I was honored and it was an incredible experience. The real bummer is that he couldn't get to church Sunday! His car broke down and by the time he called us church had already started. So he was not able to be confirmed this weekend, and the Bishop wants to confirm him in Sacrament meeting, so we'll have to wait two weeks because next week is Stake Conference. It stinks, but such is life. The Adversary is always on the move.

The downside of success here is that suddenly you don't have people to teach. Usually you're able to find some people that are pretty solid, but the last two weeks have been crazy with the baptisms (it's a problem that I like, however). We had to drop Tisha because she's really not going anywhere at all and Carlton is not ready at this point. We are going to try to see Carlton about once a week, however, because he has a lot of potential; he's just had a hard life. We found out recently too that he's had 4 major strokes, so his brain isn't what it used to be. So we are backing off on him and focusing on others.

We did find some new people, however. One of the Assistants, Elder Smith (there's about 3 Elders with the last name of Smith out here, and then of course we have President Smith. And don't forget Joseph Smith! There's a lot of Smith's out there) came out with us on Friday and we had a really good time and learned a lot and are going to try to rededicate our efforts. While we were with him, we met a guy named Espirio. He's pretty humble and is willing to learn, so we will see how it goes. On Saturday, we found a woman named Maribel and she is Pentecostal but believes the Bible is more important than any denomination; she simply attends a pentecostal church. She has a lot of questions but told us she is always willing to learn the word of God, so it could turn into something good. Then we found another family right after that, Antonio and Adela. They are a young couple with a 1-year-old daughter and they moved to Jacksonville recently and haven't been going to church since they have moved. We talked a lot about why there are so many churches and how we can know what is right and what is false and how we can know the way to God. We taught the Restoration briefly and they were really open to it and the idea of prophets on the earth again. We talked about the Plan of Salvation briefly and they were really excited to learn about that as well. It could be really good!!!

Everyone else is doing pretty good, although no one came to church this week!! We were pretty disappointed, so we are hoping that it was nothing major. We'll find out later this week.

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Grondel