Dec 9: Finally a letter. And pictures.

Here's a decent email. Hopefully.

 

So... the area. We ran into a problem between housing and miles. We live with the Brewster Elders but... we live 50 miles from Twisp. Last month we used 2,600 miles. We just found out the other day that we have a limit of 1200 for the month. Which would be too small even if we lived in Twisp (which we're working on doing right now). But... I guess our housing and vehicle coordinators are working it out. Anyway, we're looking for a place in Twisp or Winthrop. This past week we reached -1* F. I've never been in weather so cold! :) Neither has Elder Sanchez. It's snowed a little so far, but it's actually been a pretty dry winter for now. We have an investigator with a baptismal date, named Manuel, and we met another hispanic family in the same area, so the majority of our investigators in Twisp are now hispanic. So that's cool. I think the work will hasten more as well, once we live in our actual area.

Pictures are... Elder Sanchez teaching cows, and I hope the other one shows the -1*

Winthrop looks like an old western town. Pretty cool.

Elder Judd, and Elder Duncan, my zone leaders. So awesome, I love them both. :) Elder Duncan will  be going to Utah State

Dec. 2: I fail.

So, we have to email at a library this week, and they refuse to give us enough time. So Not enough time to write a good email. Sorry again! Hope you still all love me! I'll do better next week!

Quick Story

We found someone named Manuel who has a truckload of potential! We found him tracting, and I had been fasting to find the elect, and at first he seemed uninterested because he's Seventh-Day Adventist, but we taught a short, simple, 8 minute Restoration lesson, and he said when we asked him, "How do you feel about Joseph Smith's vision?" He answered us, "Well, he must have had a lot of faith!" He also accepted baptism for the 25th, and told us "I'm going to be very busy the next few weeks, but I'll definitely work for it" And also, he asked us "Do you have a church nearby? I was wondering so that I could take my family to come one day" before we even invited him! Miracles!!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Grant

Nov 25: Laziness.

I'm afraid I'm succumbing today. I really don't have much of an idea of what to write this week, and I'm kind of tired. So I promise to try harder next week, but I'm going cheap on you this time. Hopefully you'll forgive me. Emails aren't the center of my P-day like they used to be. But I still love you all, and love talking to you! Hope you all have a nice week! I think partly the reason I'm not writing much is because my fingers are frozen and its hard to type!

Elder Grant

our MTC district at the mission conference

Nov 19: Elder Richards

My district making cider.

Dear Family,

Prayer is usually the easiest answer to like everything. I guess maybe it's not always easy, but I feel if you ever have a problem, faith-filled prayer and action seem to solve so many things. I don't think I can really describe it all. Just pray more everyone. We all need it. And never say you already have enough. Except of food. Sometimes you've had enough food. I know from personal experience.

 I think right now, the thing with our area that is slowing the work, is that we just live kind of far away. And that most people aren't in their homes until after 5. So, it's not too bad, just that we aren't around enough. We are working on getting a house in our area though, so we won't have to drive 50 miles to our main town anymore. One other thing I noticed is that during the winter I guess many houses are empty. Lots of snow-birds, people that are only here for the summer, up here. But the members are all excited to have us. :) There are about 20-25 each week, and so I've gotten to know most of them all, but they're all really nice. Super supportive too. We just need to start working with them! All in all though, once we can really get the work going, it should be really good, especially since most people have never talked with missionaries. At least not in Twisp. :)

Up here the temperature will be between 26ish-43ish in the coming week. It snowed for the first time a couple days ago, but it didn't stick luckily. Of our members, three families have most of the children, and there are a couple others. They have a pot-luck every third sunday which is nice until you eat too much. -_- We bless the sacrament each sunday. All of the members are english, here, so except for a few investigators, all of the work here is english. At the beginning of my mission, I was afraid of going english, but now I'm just kind of... "Whatever. Wherever the Lord wants me to be" I actually hope to stay here for at least 3 transfers. I would love to get to know the people here really well. One of our towns looks like an old western town (on purpose). I'll have to send you pictures of that soon. :) The branch isn't new, but just hasn't ever been big enough to have missionaries of its own. For over 30 years it has gone up and down in the 20's, for the number of members, they tell me. And now they are stuffing as many missionaries as they can into our small-town mission, so here I am. :) It should be really good for the branch if we can get it going. 

We had another Seventy visit us rather unexpectedly. Elder Richards. We talked about how ordering people to do things is attempting to take away agency, and that the end of section 121 is how leaders should act. We also talked about how Obedience, is just acting on faith. Acting on the belief that you can receive more blessings. We talked about teaching more simply, which I realized I stopped doing as much over the past few months, so I feel dumb. We had already been trained on that in Spokane. Really good training. He kind of made a point that I would like you all to consider. The number of missionaries in the world has gone up about 38%. But the number of baptisms hasn't been going up. What's wrong? That's something we still need to figure out. I invite you all to pray about it. I know I'm going to.

Pray like your life depends on it! Con amor,

Elder Grant

Nov 4: Twisp

Gosh, I don't have enough time to write everyone. My companion is rushing me. Okay, so I thought for sure this transfer I would stay in Chelan. But I'm not. I'm going to be opening a branch called Twisp that hasn't seen missionaries in 20 years, and is a town of 500 people. Luckily we will cover a few more towns. :) It should be exciting. I'm also pretty sure it might be even colder than Oroville in the winter. Unlike my last winter in Mattawa where the snow melted within a few days each time. Elder Berg will be serving in Pasco, and Hermanas Worlton and Correa will be serving here. I know them both pretty well. I think our Bishop was surprised, because he wanted Sisters, AND Elders. But you can never quite predict transfers....

So, for a miracle this week, we taught a girl named Isamar who is the niece of a less-active hispanic lady in the ward. She's been around for a while, but she never seemed to be there when we actually taught them. So, when we went to see the Serrano family, we were talking about the English Classes, and Brother Serrano told us she wanted to take them! She's rather quiet, so she just kind of smiled and said yes when I asked her if its true. Then, Sister Serrano came in, and said something like, "OH! She wants to get baptized! You should teach her the lessons!" I think I was gaping after that for a bit. I asked her if THAT was true, and she gave the same smiley-yes response. Then they told us that they would go to the next english classes, and to church on Sunday. THEN, when we came back to teach the first lesson, Felipe, whom we had taught a while ago and never got in contact with again, was there with the Serrano Family, and told us he had read up to Alma 36 in the Book of Mormon!!!! Unfortunately, he's moving to Mexico for a few months, but we got the address and are planning on sending the referral down there. Evidently, the Serrano family is just a family of miracles, where everyone they know wants to be baptized.

Sorry this was a short letter, but I love you all! Remember your small-town missionary!

Love, Elder Grant

Oct. 28: My Calling to Repentance

Hey everyone,

I'd like to apologize if I've bothered anyone by asking you all to do one thing or another. I admit, I get carried away sometimes. You have to realize, all I do all day, is.... the missionary purpose. It's too long to write. But the short way is to "Invite others to come unto Christ". This is my life! I invite people to do things! So sorry if I seem over-critical. But I'd like to clarify, that I still know all the things I've invited you to do will make you happy. They make you better people! I'll try not to be so pushy, but I'm not retracting my statements, I suppose you could say. :)

I thought I'd tell you, last week, I actually had a day where I pulled a muscle in my neck! It was during exercise in the morning (I didn't stretch) and at first I just couldn't move my head to the left. Then I moved it around a little, and all of a sudden my head was stuck in a very awkward position, and if I tried to move it I had massive jolts of pain go down my neck and spine. I ended up applying heat and cold for about 8 hours straight, and I could finally drive... Very carefully. I also accidentally took 2000mgs of Ibuprofin (can't remember how you spell that) in one day... I was misinformed on how much I should take, and took 800mgs, almost twice as much mgs, as the recommended amount during the course of 24 hours... Luckily we went to a member in the ward that is a chai... chi....cai.... cairopracter? for dinner the next day, and he helped a lot. And I'm all better now. :) There's just a certain exercise that he should told me I should never, ever do again. In fact noone should.

This week, Sister Fournier got baptized! The Fournier family was first taught by Elder Paxton, my zone leader (for 4 transfers now), was baptized when Elder Christensen, my room-mate in the MTC, was here, his two kids were baptized when Elder Berg, my other MTC roommate was here, and now the mom was baptized while I was here. :) Super exciting. They're a great family. We also taught a boy named Louis, he is 11 and hasn't been baptized yet, but we taught him the Plan of Salvation yesterday, and because generally he goes to church each week, he already knew all the answers! Easiest lesson ever. He should be baptized mid-July. :) I feel the work is slower here than it should be, so I'm planning on working harder to pick it up here! Especially, since on Saturday we saw...

Elder M. Russel Ballard! And also Elder Maynes of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Risenmay our Area Seventy! They gave great talks, basically telling us, if we don't teach by the Spirit, its in vain, and that we need to work like the members aren't giving us any help, while they will be encouraging the members to work like the missionaries aren't finding any investigators on their own. We're hoping our days will fill up that way. :) I've now shaken my first Apostle's hand, and we had a really good time with him. He's so powerful, yet so human. He told us something along the lines of "We (meaning the Apostles) are all getting pretty up there in years.... But we're all still pretty cool". I love Elder Ballard. :) He's great. He hardly even rebuked us, just mostly encouraged us. I need to meet more of those guys!

I think that's it for this week, I'll write more about the area next week. Thanks for the love everyone! Hope you still love me!

Elder Grant

Oct. 21: Humility

Dear Friends and Family,

Firstly, I thought I'd remind you that Elder Ballard (who I'm seeing this Saturday :) invited every member to have someone taught by the missionaries by Christmas. EVERY MEMBER. Pray for it, and if you don't know how to invite, ask the missionaries. They know how to help.

So, for the area. We have a baptism this week! Sister Fournier is getting baptized, so she, her husband, and her two kids will all be baptized, and one day be able to go to the temple and be sealed together. Families are the best. :) While I really didn't put much work into it, I'm excited for it, either way. I never saw baptisms as that big of a deal before my mission. It was just such a regular thing, that I never thought much of it. But... I realize now, how incredibly important they are now. What Baptism, REALLY is. It's not just something all the kids do at 8 years old. It's a covenant with God, and it's the only way we can make it back to God again. The only way. 

I have seen often how humility changes us. And how some people don't change because they refuse to be humble. I had to define humility to a ten year old boy yesterday, and it eventually came out something like this. "Humility is being willing to not do what you want, but to do what God wants you to do." Of course that's a religious definition, but there are SO many little things that we refuse to humble ourselves about. We refuse to forgive someone, or we don't want to give up some of our personal time to help another, or we simply don't pay enough attention to the lesson in church, because we're checking sports scores. We all know what God wants. We just sometimes ignore it. Pretend like we're doing fine. When of course, there's something we can do better. 

Remember, that just because something might not necessarily be a sin, (God will judge that) The Lord might not want us doing something. I just talked without a couple of teenagers, about the rules of dating as well. They both want to push the limits. Obviously, for example, dating only one person in high school isn't breaking any commandments. But... In all honesty, you're generally wasting your time. There are many people you can date, and if you're planning on going on a mission, or getting married AFTER high school, then you shouldn't be looking for someone to marry during high school. And God doesn't want us to waste our time.

Enough of my rambling. I invite all of you to quit doing one thing, that God doesn't want you to do, for 40 days. Whether its drinking soda (water is better for you) checking up on the sports scores during church (there's something better you can learn) or something a tad bit more serious, like doing your home/visiting teaching this month. All of it. I promise you'll feel, and see the Spirit stronger in your life. We all need it.

Love,

Elder Grant

Oct. 14: Believing Christ

Okay, I finally got pictures! It doesn't quite match up to the real thing, but they should give you a taste of what our view is like from our house. We scored on our housing. :)

So, the area is going pretty good. We just met a less-active member named Denise, and she told us, "It's time to come back." That desire is so great! It is THE most important factor in conversion. And, she also has a sister that just moved into Chelan a few days ago, who's husband wants to get baptized! The Lord leads people to us! That's probably the most exciting thing that has happened this week. We're planning on teaching Denise and her brother in law together all of the lessons, and getting them to church ASAP, and the ward knows about them, so it should be good. In other news, we haven't really tracted lately because we are trying to get members to find new investigators for us. We'll see how it goes. It might take a while, but I'm sure it will be worth it. 

I recently bought Believing Christ when we were down by the temple again, and... I'm probably exagerating (I do that a lot) but I think its the most important book I've ever read, other than the scriptures. It... has changed my view on Faith a lot. And realized I need to improve. And it has made me realize how much I need the Savior, more. And that I can't save myself, no matter how hard I try. I felt rebuked and comforted at the same time haha....

I recommend everyone read it.

I love you all, and will try to get more pictures to you in the future. I understand that you don't all always have time to write me, I still love you anyways. :)

Elder Grant

Oct 7: Temple Week!

Querida familia,

I LOVE the temple! We are going again on Wednesday. I LOVE IT LOVE IT I LOVE IT. Anyway. So did anyone else notice that all the members in the church were asked to find someone for the missionaries to teach before Christmas? Not every family, not every couple, every member. Has anyone made any plans for that? If you don't make any plans, you probably won't do it. I still love you all though. :) I just want you to know, that I understand. I understand, that I don't have a life, and can't have empathy for you all. But don't let the world bury you! Remember the end goal here. There's something more important in this life, than your job, your social life, money, your dog, or Disneyland. Don't forget the Plan, alright? There's something better than your vices in this world. But you have to work for it. Don't let excuses stop you, overcome them and let them make you stronger. I love you all. But make sure you work hard!

Elder Grant

September 30: Mi Primera Semana en Chelan

Hey Everyone!

So... To report on what has gone on in Chelan. A woman who has investigated the church for a long time came up to us and told us she wants to be baptized! By her son, who was just confirmed today! I'm starting to be convinced that Chelan is going to be my favorite area. But I can't play favorites so.... I can still see a lot of potential in this place. :) We have had 3 new investigators in the past few days (which is pretty good. Not incredible, but good) and I'm pretty sure I've visited the majority of the "Spanish Branch" members. They've been trying to set up a branch here for a long time, but the members haven't been steady enough to quite establish it. The good news is that they all seem to have testimonies! The bad news is that they're mostly working. The other good news is that apple season is almost over! And the other bad news is, even if we did manage to set up a branch over the winter, what will happen next summer when harvest starts and everyone has to work again....? We're still working out the kinks. But I would love to see this place get a branch, and I'm hoping I will be here for a good duration of time so I can really be involved in the work here. :) 

So, we live right by a lake, lake Chelan, which is one of the biggest lakes in the state. Chelan is mostly a tourist town, but it quiets down after Labor day. It has a population of what I would estimate to be 4-5000 people. But I really don't know. I'm sure it fluctuates with all the tour-orists. (como terrorists...) Many people have summer homes here. We also cover Manson, which is more settled, and has the majority of our members. Manson is about 10 miles away, and also has the majority of the England family, who originally settled here after WWII, and now dominate the Chelan ward. Kind of like the Timms in Oroville, and the Christensens in Mattawa. There's usually a family like that in each small town ward. The area is super pretty, and I need to get pictures of it for you all. :) So, I'm going to put my camera in my backpack after this. If I remember.

To answer a bunch of questions I got, it's getting pretty cold up here, probably 50's in the early morning, and it's been raining quite a bit, which I love. I need to work on getting us some new investigators, but this area seems to have a LOT of potential, everyone is so smiley and friendly. Unless you go to the nice looking homes. My last companion, Elder Cramer, was from North Carolina, and I was with him for 10 weeks (the longest companion he's had thus far). He was really great, really funny, we knew about a lot of the same things, the only thing that disappointed me was that he didn't care for Lord of the Rings. :) I loved my time with him, and we did have the occasional arguement, but what's important is that we still love each other, and we overcame our differences. He's got so much heart, and really wants to be the best missionary he can, and I'm immensely proud of him. In Oroville, we had about 20% spanish investigators, but I believe here in Chelan, it's more like 50/50, which I'm excited about. :) 

I'm going to try and think of a bunch of other good stuff to write about next week as well. Thanks for all of the suppport everyone, les quiero!

Elder Grant

September 23: New Transfer!

Hey everyone!

So, big news this week. I'm leaving Oroville! And Elder Cramer, who I just finished training, is going to train someone else! You have to realize that that almost never happens. It is very rare for an Elder to train right after being trained (it's more common with Sisters). I'm spreading rumors that he's the chosen one. :) Shh. His new companion will be from Paraguay, and they'll teach eachother their native language. It'll be good. :) I'm going to miss Elder Cramer a lot. He's been a lot of fun, and he was more prepared for his mission than I was. Hopefully, if he is the chosen one though, he won't end up like Anakin.

For me... I'm going to a town called Chelan, which is close to Oroville (relatively) but not in the same zone. My companion will be Elder Berg! I don't know if any of you remember him, but he was one of my roommates in the MTC, and I'm expecting a really good time with him. Apparently it has one of the best houses in the mission... So that's something to look forward to! 

I'm going to miss Oroville, but well, I like change now. I just love moving forward, and progressing now. It's really weird. I'm sure I'll love Chelan too. It's not too big, but it's bigger than Oroville. :) 

My creative juices are running out. Time to put pictures on. The first picture is of Kim. He'll get baptized one day. :) The other is of my hands... I bailed hay. It was awesome.

Les quiero, hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Grant

September 17: Last week of the transfer... and a late email.

So, yesterday we got locked out of the Family History Center, and we weren't able to email. So we got approval to do it today at the library (library is closed on monday). So... Hope noone was worrying too bad! And I also hope that some people noticed. :)

The last week is coming up for the transfer, and I've got a feeling about it. We'll see what happens. I've always said it's boring when nothing happens for transfers anyway. :)

I think I'm actually building a testimony of the Bible! I've started reading in it, and it actually has a lot of good stuff. Kind of like missionary work, you just have to wade through a lot of work to get to the good stuff ;). E.G. four chapters of how to do different sacrifices can be pretty slow.... But right now, I am reading in Leviticus, and I'm almost to Numbers. I'm just hoping that with 15 minutes a day, I'll be able to finish it before the end of my mission!

I need to start writing down things to write about in these letters. Anyone got ideas? I'm still having cool experiences... I just forget about them. xD So I think I need to repent and start doing that. Help me out! I love you all!

September 9: P-day

I decided to talk about our average P-day and work day this email. So, in some areas, "P"-day, means play day! However, up here in Oroville, it is Preparation day.

Here is an average P-day, if we go to Omak. We wake up at 6:30 of course, and start our laundry immediately. If we do, we are able to finish it by the time studies are over. At 8 we do Personal Study, and at 9 we do an hour of companion study. That's all the study we do on P-day, and so after that, we have to wash the car, clean the apartment, and get ready to go to Omak. Then we drive the 45 miles to the closest Walmart, and do our shopping there. Then we write the family for 1.5 hours, on email, and use our other time to write real letters. So, between 1 hour of cleaning, 1.5 hours of driving, half an hour of shopping, and 1.5 hours of emailing, and a half hour of whatever delays come up that day, we SHOULD have about 3 hours of free time. I don't know where that goes, because it's not there when the day finishes at 6! That's when we start proselyting again.

For a regular day for Elder Cramer and I, we get up at 6:30, eat breakfast, shower, exercise, and get ready for the day. 8 is Personal Study, 9-11 Companion Study, 11 is Lunch (YES!), and then at noon is Language Study. We finally start proselyting at 1, until about 4 usually. We then have dinner, and then at 5-9 we are proselyting again. 8-9 used to be easy to get appointments, but now it's getting dark at that time, and we often times, have to try a few places before we get a lesson or whatever. Often times we will be doing service around 1pm-4, but if we aren't, those hours can be slow as well. Overall, we usually teach 2, or 3 lessons a day. Then at 9 we do Daily Planning for the next day, then at about 9:45, we get ready for bed, and we are in bed at 10:30.

And then we start all over again.

Oh the busy, but fulfilling day of a Missionary! There are many hardships, but I love it. :) I think that's all I've got for this week, please please please ask me questions, so I know what to say in these emails! Les quiero!

Elder Grant

September 2: Half-way through... another transfer!

Hey everyone! 

I've been slacking on my emails lately, so I'm going to try and give a good one this time. So, this week, noone at church. :( It's been a little rough, because the Thomas Family, who went four weeks in a row, haven't been for 3 weeks now, and have stuff coming up for the next two weeks. They're making  it a habit of not coming! Not intentionally, but we won't be able to teach them for a while, and it's killing us, but I suppose SOMEONE will baptize them. Us missionaries just want everything to happen while we're there. Delia and Maria, also didn't come, even though they said they would. 3 times. And they are leaving in late October, so they have a deadline! We also haven't been able to teach Salvador because of a couple times where he forgot our appointment, but he still has a lot of potential, is on date for the 28th of this month, and we just need to start getting him to church! Pray that all of these people will come!

With Kim... I've been teaching Kim for a while now, and I've gotten to know him pretty well. He finally made it very clear though, that he's not really sure that he believes in one true Gospel. That there's more than one way to get to heaven, and God again. We showed him 2 Nephi 31: 21, and asked him to pray about it. He is reading the scriptures, says he's been asking God about it, and is attending church about every other week. Just pray that he will get his answer, and recognize it. He needs this Gospel. And he needs to know it's strait and narrow, and it's the only way. Pray for him!

Funny story... So, Elder Cramer is a pretty confident missionary, but he still doesn't know the Book of Mormon perfectly. We were teaching a less-active member, and he was looking in the index for "rest" I believe, and scriptures that relate to that. He found a chapter that said that a lot, and decided we could read that with our investigator. That chapter was Moroni 9. He didn't know what he was getting into. :) If you don't know what's in that chapter, read it. :) I'm still giving him a hard time for it!

Also, there's a member named Jason, who I recently (like a month or two ago?) had the oppurtunity to participate in his ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood. He's come a long way, and we've been helping him out as much as we can. He's a middle aged guy, and he's an officer in the Border Patrol up here. And he explained everything about it, and now being a border patrol agent is one of the careers I'm thinking about haha! I would most likely be able to work down in Arizona, which is hot, but closish to the family... And there's a lot of nice things about it. We took a tour of the station up here, and it's pretty nice... So... We'll see what happens. :)

No new pictures.... I haven't really taken any. And I can't find one of my memory cards, so at the very least, I'm hoping all these pictures I've sent are saved somewhere back home. But anyway, thanks for all the love and support! I really appreciate it, y les quiero tambien! Contestenme! Hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Grant

another note:

So, I used to HATE fast Sunday. I'll admit it. I couldn't stand going without food, and I complained, and grumbled, all day long. I didn't understand why we fast. On my mission, the first fast Sunday, I warned Elder Kelly, "I might not be able to make it through the full 24 hours." My attitude has completely changed though, I feel. I am still hungry. But I feel humble also, and I love it. I love feeling closer to the Savior. This week, we also did a ward fast for all of the youth in the ward, and I was able to focus on how I could help those less active youth that we visit. It is something of a cleansing, and I'm going to commit from here on out, to never complain about fast Sunday again. It is something the Lord has commanded us to do, because he knows it will bring us more happiness. So there really is no reason to complain! :) 

August 26: Well...

My computer is acting up a lot, I need to write to the President, and I don't know what to say! Suffice it to say, I had a pretty good week, taught lots of lessons, and listened to the Prince of Egypt soundtrack that I got pretty much non-stop. We dropped our 5 on-dates, but got two more, and have quite a few more promising people. Hope you all have a good week! Mucho amor,

Elder Grant

2 more pictures

A picture of the legendary Pedro de la Cerda, and the AP's, Elder Bennet and Elder Snow.

August 19: Just another week up in Oroville.

Dear Family and Friends,

So, it's just been a pretty regular week up here. Elder Cramer and I had some good days, some bad days, there wasn't a lot of progress though with our investigators. It's frustrating for us, because we want it all to happen so much faster. But sometimes, conversion happens very slowly. Sometimes unbearably slowly. This week, unfortunately no one that we were waiting on to come to church were able to make it. We did get in some lessons with Kim and the Thomas Family. They are all progressing, but we haven't set a baptismal date for them yet, and Kim especially has told us he will take some time to find out if the Book of Mormon is true. I think with dread, of how long Brigham Young took to get baptized (I believe it was about a year?). The end result is what's most important, but it sure would be nice to see him get baptized! 

We did have a meeting this week in Moses Lake, where I drove all the way from the Far North, for three hours with only one break. I think it's the longest I've driven in one sitting. Kind of interesting. I feel rather old. My experience with car trips is that I am the one sleeping in the back, with my dad staying awake driving the car. Now I'm the dad. :)

pictures of the scenery up here:

You can see Oroville in this one if you look real close.

August 12: No time!

I'm staying in oroville with Elder Cramer for another six weeks! I got no time to email a good letter though. Sorry about that. Hope you all have a nice week! Mucho amor,

Elder Grant

August 6: Temple Day!

Querida familia y amigos,

Okay, so I'm going to have to make this a short email, because we don't have much time. We drove from Oroville to Omak, a 45 minute drive, last night, and then we drove from Omak to the temple in Tri-Cities this morning at 4 am! We did a temple session at 8am (super cool, It's different, for those of you who have been to the temple before, I would recommend going to the temple as soon as possible. :) which lasted for 2.5 hours. It was overflowing, I don't think they expected so many missionaries to show up! It's been about 5 months I think since I last went to the temple, so I was DYING to go back. That was my first time in the Tri-Cities, and it was crazy being in a city larger than 100,000 people again! I guess I was in Spokane pretty recently too though. Afterward, we went to Olive Garden (first time in months!) with our zone, who is in the picture of the temple. We are the smallest zone in the mission, with only ten missionaries. :) And after that, we drove back to Ephrata, for 2 hours, and here we will stay until tomorrow, when we will drive to Wenatchee for an hour, to another meeting, and then back home to Oroville for two more hours. It's a pretty hectic week, but I love it. :) I've begun to crave change too much on my mission!

The pictures are both in front of the Columbia river temple, and 

starting from the left, the missionaries are:

Elder Porter, who has been in my zone since I came to the field, and is currently my zone leader; 

Elder Thibadeau, who is my district leader, and was recently transferred to Omak from the Kennewick mission; 

Elder Penrod who I actually met before my mission when he came from SUU to Bonzanza to talk about choir stuff, and is also in Omak; 

Hermana Mierow, who was in my zone in Othello for quite a while and is in Quincy;

Hermana Lloyd who is a new missionary, and speaks better spanish than me, and is in Ephrata; 

Hermana Williams who is a missionary from Kennewick and in Ephrata; 

Hermana Rhody who has been in Quincy her entire mission so far;

 a missionary that needs a hair-cut but doesn't have time this P-day; 

Elder Cramer, my 2nd step-son; 

and finally E. Paxton, who has been my zone leader for two transfers now and was previously E. Pinegar's companion.

I don't like how I look in that picture, but it will do. Thanks for all the love everyone, I'll try and write better next week. Les extrano!

Elder Grant

July 29: So tired.

 The last time I saw President and Sister Mullen, with my district: Elder Heward, Elder Reid, and Elder Penrod. 

Proof that I do service

Dear Loved ones,

I am so tired. That's how I feel. I feel happy. But so tired. I recently made a goal to try and nap more during our meal times. We've been so busy though, that I haven't had time. On the bright side though, me and my companion just made Zucchini bread, which reminded me of the first time I had that in Logan. :) 

I know I'm supposed to write a lot for these e-mails, but it's SO hard when I just want to do nothing on P-day, and when I feel horrible when I did nothing on P-day, so my desire to write people, to nap, and to go on an adventure are all clashing. And I've been failing on pictures again, but I should have some of the temple in Kennewick next Tuesday. We are a five mile drive from the temple x) so we will be driving to omak on monday night, staying there and waking up at 3am there, and then arriving in Tricities to go to the 8 or 9 session and then we will spend the day in Ephrata on Tuesday, so that we can work with the missionaries there, and THEN we will go to Wenatchee on Wednesday for a new missionary training. I can't wait, I love busy weeks! :) 

This was a tough week for the area. While we had the chance to teach a lot of active members, a lot of appointments cancelled, and we ended up with ten lessons on Saturday evening. That was a shocker to me. I can't remember the last time my lessons were so low. I feel like I need to work harder. But I also realize that we worked hard to invite people to Christ, and that the success is in what I can do, and not in what the investigator necessarily does. But people coming to church would be nice! We had a total of 6 people that we were hoping to come, but there weren't any people we were already teaching. BUT, there's a super great family, that has come two weeks in a row, that while we weren't able to make an appointment last week, we now have an appointment to go and visit this week. It seems like EVERYONE in the ward knows them, everyone wants to help out in the lesson, and a few people have told us they want dinner-lessons set up. Dinner-lessons are missionary's favorites! We teach, AND we eat! We have SUPER high hopes for this family. We'll see how it all goes. Sofia has been reading now that she has the Gospel Library app on her phone, and but she couldn't come to church because of her work schedule. Kim will be able to come to church this coming week, and we have an appointment with him tonight. Josh, and Patty, the other two main people that said they could come we haven't been able to contact. So pray that Sofia and Kim can come to church this coming Sunday, and that we can find Josh and Patty this week somewhere!

I was on an exchange with Elder Porter this week, who has been in my zone since the beginning of my mission. It's always nice to have someone you can call a long-term friend around. Anyway, we were down in Ephrata, and I was reminded of how much easier it is to be a new, junior companion! I didn't have to worry about any of the appointments, because I didn't know what they were! I didn't think about all of the little details and paper-work, because all I had to do, was do what assignments I was given! But more importantly, I also learned that I'm not doing such a bad job. It was a weird way to realize it, but between Elder Porter's encouragement, and the memories of being a trainee with Elder Kelly, and thinking of what a good job he was doing, made me think: Elder Kelly was probably stressing, a lot like I am right now, when he first got me. Yet, now I can see myself in his shoes. And just as I believed he was a good missionary; maybe, just maybe, I'm a good missionary too. That probably didn't make any sense, but it made sense in my head. :) 

Keep giving me encouragement everyone, I need it! :) Also, don't forget your other missionaries, especially the ones that are normal, and actually get home sick. Thanks for thy love!

Con amor,

Elder Grant

First week with Elder Cramer (July 22, 2013)

Querida Familia,

So, I found out that my new companion, Elder Cramer, had been out in the field for about 9 days when he got transferred to me. He was a little more prepared for the field than I was when I first came out, in most ways, even though he's only been a missionary for about a month (I was a missionary for two months before I even came to Washington). He is from a small town in North Carolina, and his house is about an hour from Raleigh, the capital there. He used to be a wrestler back home, and tried to convince our superintendant here to let him wrestle on P-day in the school (he was joking. Mostly). He was in Kennewick, living in the Mission Home for about 8 days before he came up here to Oroville. I guess there was some kind of mix-up on his date to come to the MTC because of the mission changes, and so he came to the field about 2 weeks into the transfer. He is an english elder, but wants to learn how to bear his testimony in spanish, so he can participate more in those lessons. The majority of the work up here is english though, so it's not too big of a problem. I do miss speaking more spanish though. 

We met a few interesting people his first week. One guy told us that he fought in Vietnam and had over 600 "kills". That raised an eye-brow. Another man from another religion told us he was converted as he tried to assault someone. And then there was the dog that bit Elder Cramer on his 3rd or so day. Out for only a month, and he's already got a lot of good stories! :)

To tell you about the area: So, it's been a pretty crazy week. We found out that the reason Sofia, one of our main investigators didn't go to church last week, is because Walmart called her into work. I now have a personal issue with Walmart, but that's beside the point. She unfortunately couldn't make it yesterday either, for the same reason, but does want to come. But for now, we will have to wait until her schedule allows her to do so. We didn't have the chance to teach Kim this week, because he's on a fishing trip, but he told us he will be in town by Wednesday, for our Ward Party, and he's definitely planning on coming to that. We won't be able to introduce him to everyone there because we won't get home from Wenatchee for three hours after the party starts, but we arranged a really great member, Brother Quick to show him around. We also taught Sinforiano yesterday with Brother Quick, and were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to him. He seemed... interested. But not like his mind was blown like I kind of hoped. It was kind of difficult, since I was teaching alone in spanish, but I think he and his daughter, Abril, liked the lesson. We told them that they can't know for sure if they will have an eternal family one day or not, unless they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We're praying that his work in the vineyard won't wear him out too much that he won't have the time to.

I had been a little discouraged from tracting recently, partly because I felt bad that with Elder Heward, we hardly taught any lessons from tracting while we were together. So I had been somewhat avoiding that form of finding, but felt myself at a loss of how to find investigators yesterday, during an hour where our appointment cancelled, and our back-ups failed. So, I told Elder Cramer, that we were going to do some faith-tracting. He asked me what made it different, and I said that we are going to have an extra heaping of faith when we went out to find, that the Lord would bring us to someone that was prepared. He seemed down with that. So when we went out, of course the first few houses were unsuccessful (they usually are), and we actually went down a little alley way on the edge of town, where I hadn't been very often. And lo, and behold, on the other side of this alley-way is a family in their back-yard, of a mom and her 5 kids! We talked to her, and she speaks spanish and english (so it was good for me and Elder Cramer) and she said that she felt estranged with all of the religions, and that she just wanted to know which of all the churches is true!!! So we shared the Restoration, that this was the one true church, and gave them a Book of Mormon, and invited them to come to church! She said she didn't want all of her family to go at first, but  that she would come next Sunday and check it out. As we rode away, Elder Cramer told me "I've got a good feeling about them Elder". I smiled and said, "So do I!" I have faith in tracting again. But something to note is that I had to have faith first, before the evidence would come forth.

Something I wanted to say is that you can pretty much ignore everything I said last time about how to be a member missionary. INSTEAD you can read a book that's called something like "The Power of an Everyday Missionary" by Clayton Christensen. I guess the missionaries from the office gave a training on it to the Ward Mission Leaders, including ours, Brother Timm, and told them to have their missionaries read it when they could. I think it is the best missionary book I've read, that isn't written by Prophets! Please please PLEASE read that book, if you have any desire to be a member missionary. It is only about 150 pages, I've heard it is pretty cheap in paper back, and will teach you the 'how' of inviting people to hear the happiness that comes from the Gospel. That's my new invitation to you all. Just like my investigators, I'm inviting you to read a book, and act on it. :)

No pictures again, sorry. :( But I did get my new GPS from my family, and I plan on hunting down all of the "hill-people" hiding in the outskirts of Oroville! They can't hide from me now!

Hope none of you think I'm too weird, and I hope you all have a good week. Love you all!

Elder Grant

Mid-transfer transfers (July 15, 2013)

Dear mis amigos queridos y amada familia,

So, surprise! We are having a transfer in the middle of this 8 week transfer. And unfortunately I am losing my visa-waiting step-son, Elder Heward. :( He will be going to Pasco, which is one of the tri-cities. At least he will be close to the airport though, for when his visa to Brazil comes! His twin brother, who is also going to Brazil, just got his visa, so this Elder Heward should be following behind him soon. I will be receiving an Elder Cramer tomorrow up here in Oroville. I hope I spelled his name right, because they didn't give me much information about him. They told me his name over the phone, and I assume he's from the Kennewick mission, because I've never heard of him. Hopefully he speaks spanish. 

Here in Oroville, we were SO close to having an investigator at church. Twice. And a half. One person, Sofia, told us something like five times that she would be able to make it. We were a little persistent at reminding her. And she wasn't able to come. We're not sure of the reason yet, so we're going to pass by either today or tomorrow, depending on our schedule, and if it feels right. We also had a man named Kim, who has been praying, and reading the Book of Mormon a lot. He is almost finished with 1st Nephi I believe, and we took him on a Church Tour this last Saturday. He said before we could even ask, that he was willing to get baptized in the future, but he did want to take his time, and didn't want to make rash decisions, which we understood. He said that while he couldn't come to church yesterday (there's a new Catholic Priest in town, and he wanted to show respect) that he wants to attend in the future, and that he is also planning on going to our Ward Party on the 24th of July! He's doing great. There's also Steven. He's a ten year old boy, who we aren't continually teaching. We do visit him every once in a while though, and he wants to find an answer to whether the Book of Mormon is true or not, but he's been taught most of the lessons, and hasn't truly been progressing. He said he would go to church last Sunday, but he slept through his alarm, and this Sunday he had to also go to the Catholic Church. We hope that as he keeps the commandments, he will "know of the doctrine, whether it be of God" or not. But until he does that, we'll just continue to visit him infrequently.

I thought I should tell you all about some tips to invite others to hear the Gospel, that I told someone else. Also, you should ask your local missionaries for help and practice as well. Don't be afraid. Most of them don't bite.

If you are thinking of people you have already tried to invite, just kind of slip in stuff about the Gospel (aka about your life :) into your conversations once in a while. Let them ask more questions about your religion. If they don't ask questions, either they're probably not interested, or they are too shy to ask. It depends on the situation, and you have to use a bit of discernment on whether they are disinterested, or reserved. Either way, have faith, make it natural, love the person, and don't be afraid. :) That whole, slipping in stuff about your life works with people you haven't invited yet too. 

If it's someone you are acquaintances with, here's the hard part. Get to know them first. Talk about something other than religion first, unless they happen to be doing something related to religion. Just use things they're doing as a point to start the conversation. Or maybe something they're wearing, something on their desk (families are GREAT ways to start conversations. Usually.), or something on their bag. The hard part is just practicing being more social. That's what's hard for me anyway. Learning how to go up to a person you barely, or don't know, and making them into a friend within ten minutes or less. But it's a VERY valuable skill, and one we should all improve. If there's any more questions, don't be afraid to ask. :)

I was reading a scripture in 1 Nephi 14 about how while Nephi wants to be the best man he can, he still feels like a wretched man. It was a strange moment that passed through my mind. I felt comforted that even Nephi feels kind of like that! That even a great prophet is human still makes mistakes sometimes too. And then he went on to recommit himself to not focus on the negative, but have a faith in Christ, rely on the Lord in place of man, and just try and do better. I've come to the realization (again) that I'm not perfect! That God understands that, and still loves me anyway. That He is still with me, even though I'm weak, and not the greatest Saint that's ever lived. Like Nephi though, I'm going commit again to try and do better, rely on the arm of my Redeemer, and overcome the temptations that so easily beset me. And I'm going to make some goals to help me be able to do that. :) 

The first picture is of Elder Heward that I just took, and the other is a pretty picture of the Osoyoos lake I took, right after I got kicked out of a resort of summer homes for rich people. Good times. 

I love you all, and I'm so thankful for all of your support! I'll keep working hard for all of you, and the people here in the far north! Have a good week! Con amor,

Elder Grant

P.S. My new mission address for letters/packages is 

8202 W Quinault Ave Ste D

Kennewick, WA, 99336

My new mission (July 9, 2013)

So, I met President and Sister Ware on wednesday. He is very soft-spoken and kind. It's quite a difference from President Mullen, where he was a very excited man, but they've both been called of God, and you can see it on their faces. We can now have meals on any day in the Kennewick Mission, but that probably won't make too much of a difference up here in Oroville, since the people are so sparce. But we'll see what happens. Some members do seem relieved that they can invite us over any day now. I'm just afraid I'm going to gain weight. 

There will be other changes, so we've heard, but they're not implementing too many right now. In fact, hardly any at all. They're going to announce more things on saturday when we go to Ephrata again, but last I checked they were still trying to take the best parts of both missions in the new policies. Elder Bennet, my zone leader for 3 transfers in the Othello Zone (down in Mattawa) is one of the AP's in Kennewick, so we should be treated kindly up in the northern part of the state haha. I found out some of the new spanish areas I will be able to go to in the future (possibly) are Pasco, which is part of the Tri-Cities, Yakima, and parts of Oregon. I can't wait to get to know new areas and new people!!!!

In other news, because my white shirts are becoming thing from over-use, I now have a tan line from my hands up half-way up the upper part of my arm. It almost reaches my shoulder. The line is where my garments are. x) It is the only tan part of my body! Anything else important going on here...? I can't think of anything. I'll wait until next week if there is. :)

Okay, about the area. We struggled on Sunday when the Luna family and Kyndra and Mariya, and Roscoe didn't come to church. They are all less active members that we have been working with, and they all said they would be there. They ended up having pretty decent reasons for not going, but it's still frustrating haha! We also had six appointments set up yesterday, and two of them came through, while we also taught two other people that weren't even on our plans. That kind of thing seems to happen a lot in missionary work. We asked Sinforiano to be baptized, and while he understands why he needs to be, he still feels very unsure about it all, and just says "I don't know!" He does say that he feels good, and a certain peace though when we are here and when he reads the Book of Mormon. Now we just need to get him to church! 

Elder Heward is learning so much! I probably say that in every email, but it's true! He always asks me questions about doctrine, and I surprise myself by knowing the answers most of the time. You'd be surprised how much you can learn in six months of heavy scripture study. I love that he wants to know more, and while he still gets tired, or discouraged, or doesn't do everything perfectly, he is so open to learn from his mistakes and improve himself. It's actually pretty impressive, because he understands more spanish than I did at 3 1/2 months, and he doesn't even speak the language! He's going to be a great missionary and a great asset to the people in Brazil. :)

I think that's all I've got this week. No new pictures.... I'll work on that. I hope you all do missionary work this week! Lots of love,

Elder Grant

July 1: The Kennewick Mission!

Dear family and friends,

I'm so excited! I'm now part of the Kennewick Mission!!! I feel like so much is changing, and it's all a little too big for me, but it makes the missionary life fun. :) I have two district mates from the MTC in the Bakersfield Mission now, Ben is in the Queretaro Mission, and I am in the Kennewick Mission with every missionary I know from my MTC district. Our President is President Ware, and he's vice President of Deseret Book or something. We'll be meeting him on this wednesday. So, another 2.5 hour car ride. But that's what happens when you are in Oroville. On another note, while Kennewick is closer to most spanish areas in the mission than spokane was, for oroville it is now a five hour car ride down to the mission home instead of three hours to spokane. They're not as happy about the change up here but... Well, at least I am! :D

I'm going to note, that I'm copying and pasting parts of another letter to this one, so there will be information that the majority of you already know. Sorry about that! It's faster! 

So to explain a little bit about Oroville. I officially found out from a government agent the other day, that it has about 1500 people. He said it was a big growth from before when it had about 1200 people. :) We cover 6 other towns named Ellisforde, Tenasket, Moulson, Chesaw, and Loomis. We've got plans to visit Loomis for the first time on saturday, and I've only been in Oroville, Ellisforde, and Tenasket, other than that.  We don't have any on-dates right now, and while we didn't have investigators at church, we've got a few people that say they will once the cherry season ends, we're looking hard for new people to teach, and we did have a number of less active members at church. Kyndra, Kayla, and Mariya are a few less-active/recent converts that we've been making a lot of progress with, helping them overcome their major problems, and getting back to church. In the seven (or is it eight?) weeks I've been here, we finally got Kayla to come to church for the first time in months! The Elder who baptized her will be pleased to hear that (He's in Moses Lake). Also we have got the Luna family, another less active family, reading the BoM daily, and praying together as a family each day, and we have plans to challenge them to come to church this coming sunday, tomorrow, so pray that they'll be able to do that!

I am step-training Elder Heward, who has been in the field about 6 weeks now, and is waiting for his visa to go to Brazil. He's anxious to speak his mission language, but in the mean time he's been humbly learning so much here in Oroville. I'm so proud of how much he's been growing, in such a short time, and how he's borne his wait patiently! I recently taught him how to say a baptismal invitation in spanish, and in the middle of one of our lessons in spanish, he asked me if he could ask our investigator a question. I curiously told him to go ahead, and he invited this man to be baptized at a very random point in the lesson, but Guadalupe said yes! He is busy with the cherries, and wants to be sure that the book of Mormon is true, but because of Elder Heward acting on the spirit, we now know that Guadalupe truly does have a desire to follow God's will in his will, during a lesson that I had been wondering in the back of my mind if we would have to drop him soon. He's a great missionary. :)

I read a talk this morning, the subject being that we should have faith, not fear. It talked about how on a canoe trip, while you generally enjoy the calm portions with near still waters, your favorite parts of the journey is when the rapids come. Although it's more difficult, there is a sense of exhilaration, and you feel accomplished when you've conquered them. This is how it should be in life as well. While we do have rapids, and it may seem that we are in danger at times, we must remember that 1. God will make sure everything turns out best, according to His plan! and 2. That there will always be challenges in our lives, but if we can learn to enjoy them, instead of dread them, we will be able to achieve and grow more each day. I have a new personal goal because of that talk! And a new quote in my book. :)

There's Jig again. I met her in Moses Lake during my day there. She's the fattest, walking dog I've met in my life. And another couple pictures of our beautiful area.