Hey there y'all!! It's been another great week here in Fantastic Frisco! We had a great week full of training and cold temperatures, but we had good lessons and found new people to teach as well.
As I said last week, Luis is doing great, and yesterday (I think) he got interviewed for the Aaronic Priesthood. Bishop Friend is amazing and on top of it. He is very focused on missionary work and always wants us to have new people to teach. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching Luis' sister soon as well; that would be really cool.
We found a new guy named Alex and his buddy Lou. He is from Maryland but moved to Pennsylvania because he heard about a church out there and felt really good when he did. So he moved out there and then the head Pastor was given the opportunity to be put on TV if he moved down to Texas. So he did and much of the church followed him, including Alex and Lou. They are pretty young (early 20's) but are pretty spiritual and fairly interested. We have another appointment tonight at 8, so hopefully that will go well.
Alfredo and Amalia are doing well; we had to move the baptism back one day because of conflicts with scheduling the building, but it will work out and we will still have a baptism. We are excited.
Tony hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon and until he does, he can't go anywhere. So we are working on getting him to read it with his girlfriend.
Sarah, on the other hand, is doing great. She said the last couple times she has come to church she has come for herself, not for her daughter. She is really starting to feel the Spirit more and we will hopefully have another baptism soon. She said she would be baptized when she knew these things were true, so hopefully we will see one next month.
Elder Jones and I are getting along really well. We both have the same sense of humor and he's pretty laid back so he can deal with my craziness at times =) It has been really fun. Spanish is not coming just because we never have time to study it because we are always in meetings and trainings. Last week we had an AMAZING leadership training on Tuesday and Wednesday that ran from 10-4 both days (talk about a long haul) and we had District meeting on Thursday, and this week we have a Zone Leader Council (where all the zone leaders and assistants to the president and the mission president get together and talk about the mission) on Tuesday, Zone Council (like a District meeting for the whole Zone) on Wednesday, and a Specialized training for all the missionaries in Dallas on Friday. DAHHH! It can be stressful at times, but it is really good and it helps a lot.
This morning we had a really cool experience. We met with a guy named Govani (pronounced ho-VA-nee) who was a referral from the Spanish sisters in Carrollton. He lives in Little Elm and he has had a rough time the past couple of years. He had an accident about 2 years ago which greatly scarred him. He has skin grafts all over the place and it doesn't look the best. But the Spirit radiating from this man was incredible. This morning it was about 29 degrees when we went outside and they aren't doing the best financially, so his house was about 55 degrees on the inside; however, the entire time I felt warm. He told us when he had his accident he prayed in the ambulance that if God spared his life, he would find His truth. So he's been looking for that, and that is what we have to offer him. It is all that we really can give him, but it is likely the best thing he will ever receive in this life. We taught the Restoration (well, Elder Jones taught it and I tried to follow along in Spanish) and he loved it. After we talked about the restoration of the Priesthood, he said, “this sounds really good and I believe it's true, but how can I know its true?" We talked about the Book of Mormon and he loved it and agreed to read it. He has a wife and 2 kids who weren't there, but we are going to see them sometime this week. He has had a hard time, including being rejected at jobs because of how he looks and the fact he might lose his green card soon if he doesn't get a job or something. It's been rough, but we are going to be praying hard for him. He is so humble and Elder Jones and I believe he has been prepared for this and we are excited to see him again.
This week I realized how much God loves us as well. I had a chance to sit down with President Smith and just talk about different things I had been struggling with and how to fix it and make it better. It was incredible and I love the Spirit. This week as I was taking the sacrament, I felt more peace than I have in a VERY long time, and I felt true love from the Savior. I finally realized that I am doing the right thing and that I was clean before him in that moment. Of course, I still make mistakes (all of us do), but I realized that if I just do my best every day to repent and try hard not to do wrong and if I partake of the sacrament worthily every week, then all will be well and I will be forgiven of all that I have done wrong. It was a very wonderful and personal experience, but one I feel like sharing because I know there was a time where deep down, I didn't believe any of this was possible. But as it says in the scriptures, "With God, nothing is impossible."
I love you all and hope y'all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Grondel
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