Email April 8 2013

We actually haven’t had much wind here. It’s been breezy but not windy. Which is good because the other day we took a bike day! It was sooo much fun! Biking is so much more fun when you actually know how to ride a bike well! The streets here are perfect for it too because there are only a few main streets and everything else is residential so you can get where you want to go by taking side streets because most of them connect. So that is fun.

I got an email from Morgan today and it sounds like he is doing really well. It really has brightened my day to see everything going on with my friends. Some getting baptized, lots on missions, it’s so crazy!

It is really crazy that conference has come and gone again. It was really weird when President Monson said until we meet in 6 months and I thought... "I will be at home...” It was really crazy. It’s coming quicker and quicker.

I really enjoyed conference and the values that they talked about. Mostly what I got out of it was that 1. Families need to be raised in a Gospel Centered home. 2. Member missionary work is extremely important and 3. No matter what the world is doing the standards of the church stands strong.

I really enjoyed the talk that President Uchtdorf gave in the Priesthood session about the 4 names that we have as men and priesthood holders. I also liked President Monson’s talk on Sunday morning... Mostly because I went to watch that session with a question in mind that I wanted answered and that was "How can I become a better/the best missionary I can be?" and his entire talk was on obedience. It’s interesting because I have been really working on that and doing even the small things that most people don’t think matter. Like, Make your bed, Write in your journal, clean your apartment, talk to EVERYBODY. Things like that and as I’ve been doing that I’ve noticed a lot more blessings.

As far as things this week we had kind of a rough week for a couple of reasons… it was transfers and we got a new greenie in our zone and he and his comp are on bike and had some meetings in R so we were the drivers for that. Then our brakes were having major issues that presented a very serious problem haha so our truck got worked on in 2 different shops. Luckily the second one was close to our house and in our area so we just took a partial bike day and I LOVED it!  I want to take a bike day at least once a week because our area is really not a hard bike area at all. So we didn’t really do anything from Tuesday-Friday... it was crazy... but on Friday we went to see that family of potential investigators we got from knocking on doors and taught them part of the first lesson, told them about conference, and set up a time to teach them again. We found out that the mother is going through cancer right now and her sister in law who is a member is encouraging her to listen to us. We had a really powerful lesson and promised her that the gospel would help her through her trials. Not take them away but give her the strength that she needs to overcome them.

Sunday night we also had a neat experience where we went to see a member who just got active about a year ago. She is having some difficulties because her husband won’t come back to church with her and so she is doing it alone. While we were there she brought up a concern that she was feeling guilty about something and felt like she shouldn’t pray because of it. We read her 2 Nephi 32:8 and told her never to feel like that. We then had a very spiritual experience and just let her know that God loves her and she should never leave him. She talked about how hard of a time she is having and how she feels like the better she gets the more trials she has and we promised her that the Gospel would help her through those trials and that if she backed away from the Gospel she would still have trials but she would no longer have the strength of the Gospel to help her through them. It was really neat and the spirit was strong.

Well that about sums up our week! Oh yeah funny story though! So the missionary that is training in our zone is Spanish speaking and I told him. If you get Elder Graff lets stand up and hug each other in transfer meeting. (That’s what the trainers do when they get called with their greenies; they get up and go hug their greenie and sit on the stand.) Well that was while I was sitting next to him but I ended up getting up and moving to the back side to sit by Elder U. Well lo and behold Elder C gets Elder Graff as a companion. So I’m sitting in the back laughing because there are now 2 Elder Graffs in Ontario and I look up and Elder C is coming up the aisle towards me with his arms open. So I get up and we hug each other and everyone is laughing and his greenie looked sooo confused! haha it was super super funny. Anyways there are 2 of us in Ontario! He is from Washington but has many ties to Santa Clara. crazzy! Well I love you tons! Have a great week!

Email April 1 2013

I missed being able to do the Easter hunt on Easter. I have been hearing from people I haven’t heard from. Mostly other missionaries who are now out on their missions. I found out Morgan Potter is in the MTC on his way to South Africa! That made me super happy to hear! Not really much has changed. It was a rough week. The baptism went great!

 

I’ve been tired lately... really tired. And stressed but we went to the chiropractor that’s in our ward this last week and I mentioned that I was stressed and he asked what about so I just told him mission things not wanting to say much more and he seemed to get what I was talking about and just said "If there are things you can change, change them. If there are things you can’t change, give it up to the Lord." It was just some simple advice that made me think a lot. So I’m just going to keep doing what I can to improve myself and the blessings will come. Either sooner or later. So that’s been my week! Love you so much! I get to talk to you in about a month and a half!!

 

I sure did enjoy my package! So there isn’t much to tell for this week. Not too exciting. We did get to go to W’s baptism and it was awesome! She was so happy! She is going to be so awesome! It was also really neat to see a lot of the people from my old ward. They kept telling me how much they missed me and it made me feel good! I asked about if one of the S girls got her mission call and found out her open house was that night so we after the baptism we went up there to their house and we went in and when I walked into their main room her mom was sitting on the couch and did a double take and FREAKED out because she was so excited! She even made a comment while I was there and said "It’s like one of my sons came home!" It made me feel really good. Other than that we have continued to look for more people to teach and haven’t had a ton of success and I’m still really frustrated. I don’t know what else more I can do.

 

Easter was really good too we had a big Tongan party that we ate our lunch at and I was stuffeeedd. Then we had to take Elder C to his departing devotional and went to a couple really quick appointments. Nothing really special happened and it felt like a normal day. We got transfer calls Sunday morning. Nothing is changing with Elder B and me. We will be together for another transfer. That really is the highlights of the week. I love you tons and hope your week is great!

 

Email Mar 24 2013

I really like those pictures! You did a really good job on them!  There are so many people out here with drug problems and things of the sort. It’s really crazy and really sad to see.

Things this last week went really well. I’m just going to focus on the neat experiences that we have had.

On Thursday night we went to teach the Less Active that is coming back to church regularly and we got there just a few minutes early and Brother W from the Bishopric was already there waiting for us and talking to Bro S’s neighbor who is his brother in law. Well we went over to talk to them and Brother W said, “M is going to join us for the lesson tonight. We had a really good lesson about Reading, Praying and Church. Brother S was just bearing his testimony about how much they helped him in becoming a happier person and telling his brother in law how much it could help him. We are going to go back and teach them both again this week!

We also had exchanges on Saturday with the AP's and I went out to F with Elder S. We had kind of a different exchange but it was really good! It was their stake’s Youth Conference and they were doing a 24 hour mission. So they had their companions and name tags and went around to 4 different stations and we were in charge of one of them. Ours was the importance of planning and goal setting. You would think that would be the most boring one but we made it really fun and people told us that they liked ours the best. We were just super interactive with them. We were getting them to focus on some friends who weren’t members and how they would invite them to do things like go to mutual with them and what not. So then after those 4 rotations they lowered it to 3 and us and a few other missionaries did a finding station where we taught them to go door to door and had them practice going down the hall and knocking on classroom doors where missionaries would answer them. After that they came back in the room where I was and me and another missionary would help them evaluate and go talk to them about how it went and what could do better, then they would go do it again. It was really awesome! Then we went to a baptism in R and took some of Elder S’s Investigators. It turns out it was Elder U’s baptism so I got to see him! He is doing really awesome!

So now for another couple of miracles. As you know we have been praying for families. Well we got a call from some of the R Missionaries and they said they had a referral for us who was really interested. So we went by and it was a family and we are meeting with them this next week. Then on our way out of their apartment complex I started talking to a guy and he said his wife had talked to us before. We were in a hurry so I just asked if we could come teach him sometime and he said "yeah sure!" It was really awesome. So through much prayer and fasting things continue to look up. I decided to fast again yesterday and we got a call from bishop this morning about a non member who came to church a couple weeks ago that wants to meet with us. It’s him, his mom, and his brother. We also got a text from a girl in the singles ward who said that for our dinner this Thursday she is bringing her non member friend and we will be teaching him! So many miracles! All because of prayer and fasting! I was feeling really stressed again earlier this week and I decided to read the scriptures before going to sleep and I read D&C 58:4. It made me feel a lot better.

Things are looking up and it looks like we might have a really amazing week this week! Also W gets baptized this Friday! Soooooooooooooooo excited! I love you so much!!

It was a good week for a couple good reasons! I got an email from Maxx Pope last week. He got baptized a couple months ago. It is really weird because before I left on my mission I was told that the hardest part was coming home and seeing that your friends are all the same and nothing but you has changed. I’ve been really set on that but things ARE changing a lot! Maxx got baptized, soooo many of my friends are on missions. Those are like the biggest changes you can have!

We are just trying out something new that I hope continues for a long time! We have a notebook that says "Missionary Experiences- (name of ward) " and we go teach members a lesson about praying in faith and about "going about doing good" from PMG and then tell them for the next week we want them to pray for missionary experiences and we are going to focus on their family and praying specifically for their family and when they have an experience they write it in the notebook and in a week we pick it up and talk about what happened. Then take it to another member and so eventually they will have a notebook full of the missionary experiences the ward has had! We just started it last night so we will see how it goes. I’m very much looking forward to this next week and seeing what happens! I love you tons! Have a great week!

Email Mar 17 2013

The big letter was to Lyndsi: 
We just barely started teaching a new person who is about your age. He is really awesome and he is probably going to get baptized! But I decided to send you the long email this week so let mom know so she can put it on my blog.

 So this week was really good. We had our zone meeting and it turned out good but we had to rush the last little bit of the training because of time. We trained on the Ward mission process and on talking to everybody and having a desire to do missionary work. I guess it went well because this last week all of our numbers went up a good bit. Our zone is doing better right now than they have in the last 2 years and we have one less companionship. We only have 14 missionaries here and our numbers have almost doubled since I got here. The funny thing is that I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything crazy or motivational I don’t think. The same thing happened in S B. when I got there the numbers went up. It’s nothing I’m doing though. Just have good missionaries in the zones.

 We spent a couple days just strictly trying to find more people because our teaching pool is quite low. We started teaching one of our members nephews and he wants to get baptized we just need to talk to his parents about it. We also have been trying this thing where we are going to meet all the members and get them working on missionary work. So we find an area that has a lot of members. We park our truck. And we try the active and less active members and between houses we knock on doors and talk to other people on the street. It hasn’t been super effective yet but we are out working the way that we have been told to work so I know the Lord will bless us.

 Oh also I just got off the phone with the N missionaries and W is getting baptized!! Yay!!! I’ve been waiting for this forever! I’m super excited for her! So now back to the email.

 We also had a ward party this week that was really simple and really fun. Everyone just brought some of their favorite games and some snack food and we played games and just got to have fun. I played a game called curses and throughout the game people curse each other with cards that say things you have to do for example, "talk with your teeth clenched" or "you cannot bend your elbows," and if you don’t do your curse and someone catches you and they call you out on it than you flip your curse card over. If you get caught 3 times you lose. haha it was a super funny game.

 Sunday was also a really good day! We had both wards and had some really good talks in each and then had a fireside that night about marriage/dating and what girls look for. We didn’t know that was what it was about before we went but oh well... haha so that was most of our week. Nothing extraordinary this week but I think this will be a great week this next week! I love you tons! Have an awesome week!

Email Mar 10 2013

Well this week was alright. We taught quite a few less actives and they went really well. Tuesday we had exchanges and I went into the Spanish ward. It was pretty fun and I was with a missionary from Mexico City. Luckily I can understand Spanish pretty well when I really try. I just can’t speak back to them in Spanish. It was neat being able to hear the conversion story of the missionary I was with. He hasn’t been a member for very long.

Wednesday we saw a couple of people and then got a call to come help do some service. We helped do some plumbing and electrical. So I now know how to do electrical. A little. haha I could probably do it if I had a little bit of help. Then we had FHE with the YSA branch and they did a carnival type activity which was pretty fun. Then we went to our ward and played indoor soccer with some non-members which was pretty fun. I don’t think they had much fun though haha. We are going to start having a lot of people coming which will be great.

Thursday we had ZLC which lasted from 11-5. After that we had an appointment with one of the less-actives we have been working with. He is doing awesome! He has been to church every week since we started teaching him and he is working on getting the priesthood.

Friday we had to take 2 missionaries to 2 different doctor’s appointments then drive to R to pick up another missionaries stuff she left in the back of a missionary car. By the time we finished that it was almost 3 so we went to try to see R. The guy I tracted into a while back to see how he is doing. We set up an appointment for Wednesday. Then we went home and Elder B had a headache so he went to sleep while I organized the area book.

Saturday we did weekly planning which took awhile and then helped someone move some boxes to a storage shed. After dinner we met with our ward mission leader and went over how we can change our ward council to be more beneficial and run the way that it is supposed to.

Sunday was really awesome. Sister Reeves, the 2nd counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency spoke in our ward! She spoke mainly to the youth about how they are the rising generation but it was neat to have her there. We only stayed at our ward until Sunday School was done then we went to our branch for branch council and met with the branch mission leader and then had church from 1-4 and linger longer from 4-5, then dinner from 5-6 and started working on our trainings after that.

Some things I have learned from being on my mission. There is a lot. haha

-Do all you can and the Lord does the rest.

-Miracles truly happen if you have the faith.

-When things happen, learn from it, don’t dwell on it and use it as an excuse.

-Charity is necessary to be a good leader

-I have a lot of weaknesses on my own but the spirit makes up for them as I teach.

-The atonement of Jesus Christ means EVERYTHING. It can be applied in any situation. We would have no hope without it. We would be miserable without it. There would be no purpose to life. The atonement is what makes us strong. It’s what carries us through our hard times and through our struggles. I don’t know where I would be without it.

Important things that have benefitted me

-I know the Gospel 1000 times better than I used to.

-I understand the importance of scripture study.

-I know how not to handle hard situations

-Christ-like attributes have all gone up.

-Being independent. (Not depending on family to live)

-Having powerful members to look up to.

Those are just a few of them but I know there are a lot more. That is a good question though and I will have to continue to think about it.

Hopefully you have a less crazy week! I love you!

Email Mar 3 2013

(This was in response to questions about training…)Well they do need new trainers but the thing is. The new missionaries coming out are all either Spanish or sisters. The amount of English Elders is staying the same so it’s not too much of a demand. But next transfer we are getting another Elder Graff! haha I don’t know what his name is or where he is from though but I just think it’s funny.

 I did have a couple cool stories this week.

 1st. We were playing basketball with some youth on Wednesday night after a meeting and I went up for a rebound and got hit in the back of the arm and dislocated my shoulder! Not very bad though and I just looked at it out of place and just pushed it back where it was supposed to be. We went to the chiropractor a few days later and he did a little adjusting and its feels a little better. Still pretty tender though.

2nd. Because of our lack of people to teach and me wanting to find a family to teach really bad I fasted to find a family. Well Sunday morning at 7 we had ward council where our bishop informed us of a family that lives in our area that was going to a ward in Rancho but is going to start coming to our ward. 6 people, non-members. Also a member of our ward who is one of my favorite people in the ward who I respect a ton. went to do his home teaching and one family had moved and so he talked to the new family that moved in and they don’t have a church yet so he invited him to ours and to play soccer with us on Wednesday nights and he said he would love to! They are a family of 7. haha the Lord works in mysterious ways :)

3rd. We went back to that family I tracted into and dropped off a Book of Mormon that we had one of our members write their testimony in and he said he is still interested and we are going back to hopefully teach him this week! Pray that his heart is softened!

4th. We got to go to the CES broadcast of David A Bednar’s talk and it was REALLY good. About submitting to God’s will and putting your trust in him through your trials. You should watch it if you get a chance.

 

Things are going alright still and hopefully picking up. I don’t have enough time left to waste any of it. I love you tons and look forward to hearing from you next week!

Email Feb 25 2013

YAY I was accepted! That’s awesome! haha I’m still going to USU though so go ahead and sign up for classes. This week has been kind of crazy. At transfer meeting we found out we are not only covering the MV ward but also the C YSA branch that covers only the stake. Soo we have a little extra work there. President doesn’t really want us to spend much of our time there though because he wants us to focus on the family ward so that’s what we are going to do. We went to sacrament at the YSA branch though yesterday and to a meeting before that. So we had our family ward meeting at 7, sacrament at 9, Sunday school at 10:15, YSA meeting at 11:00, Sacrament at 1, appointments at 3, and 4, dinner at 5, appointment at 6:30. It was a busy day but I felt like it was a blessing from the Lord. Other neat things from this week as you already heard. Our mission is getting split and they are creating a new mission! It’s really crazy!  The funny thing is that it’s changing on July 1. So I will have a new mission president and a new mission for the last 4 weeks of my mission haha kind of funny.

We also saw a few miracles this week such as we went to see a less active who someone in the bishopric told us to go see but he said not to tell him that he sent us. Well as soon as we got out of our truck he was standing in the front yard and asked if we were looking for him and invited us in. He was disfellowshipped many years ago and was kind of stubborn about coming back well he told us that he was ready. He has had a change of heart and is ready to be back. He said it kills him every time he does go to church and he can’t take the sacrament. That’s a good sign. So we are going to be working with him and re teaching him the lessons. He also came to church on Sunday! That was a nice surprise!

So we get to the S’s and they let us in and what do you know. Last time I challenged them to bring a friend to the next lesson and guess what! They did it! We taught a really good restoration lesson and the friend was asking awesome questions like "Well how are WE supposed to know what church is right," right before we talked about Joseph Smith. She was listening and being involved and it was just really awesome. She ended up as a new investigator and she promised to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She seems like she might be pretty solid too! So that was a really neat experience!

Also one last thing! There were 4 children being baptized on Saturday and Elder B and I were asked to do a little talk while the kids were getting changed. Well we got there and one of the kids who we had taught because his family was partially less active was getting baptized and he doesn’t have a father in the picture. Well turns out he wanted me to baptize him! So I had a baptism pretty randomly haha It went really well and had a good turnout. Anyways that’s about all for this week! I love you so much! Have a great week!