I think I have two weeks left in the transfer?

I'm so glad I don't keep too much track of time in the mission. It's so much nicer than thinking about what day it is, or when you last had a home-cooked meal. :) The work was kinda hard this week. Only one investigator attended church (he isn't progressing much) and the people that are closest to baptism love when we visit them, but aren't acting enough. And we were 115 miles over at one point this much, so we've been walking a lot this week. And we didn't go to Othello, so I have one box of pasta roni, a couple pop tarts, two half-full boxes of cereal, chips, fruit roll ups, and granola bars to survive on for the week. I love the mission so much. :) I mean, if I have to go through something hard like this, what better time to be doing it then when I have the blessings of the comfort of the Lord? When I have the joy of knowing I'm doing what's right? I'm not crazy, really. Well, maybe a little. But I'm happy I'm able to overcome all this. I'm glad that God is helping me be like him.

Anyway, this morning we woke up at 4:30 to go play basketball with some members and non-members alike at the school for an hour or so. I'm not any good, but it was pretty fun. Plus the non-members got to see us as human beings for once. :) Elder Kelly says he's not very good, but he know's he's better than he says, hehe. This week we also found Berto Hernandez, who has known about the church for ten years, had a book of mormon for that same amount of time, and says he's been visited by the missionaries something like once every year. I think he said it was right about time for us to show up again. We tracted into him. :) He sees how good the people of the church are, and understands a lot already. I think he's just afraid to change, afraid to make his wife mad (He said she's "hard-core" Catholic) and isn't sure he can accept that the Catholic church, which he's gone to all his life, doesn't have Christ's authority. We answered some questions he had, but also made it clear, that if he wants to know the truth, he needs to read the Book of Mormon, and ask God for his answer, not us. We plan on visiting him again to help him have the motivation to do that. We also met this week Alvina, who when she answered the door, asked US for El Libro de Mormon, because her son had it in english which she can't read, and she wanted to read it. She also said she liked reading, which I haven't heard yet on my mission til now. She then continued to ask what the book was about, and how she could learn more. We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and a return appointment (we would have done more, but it was cold outside, and there wasn't a man in the house). When we came back, her nephew claimed she was in Yakima. Alvina then came to the door. The kid must have been embarrassed. Anyway, we were able to come inside this time, and she asked us before we could even say much when we had church, what it was like, etc. I've said a lot about her, but suffice it to say, we're very excited about her. :)

 I also just finished Jesus the Christ today, and Wow! its a really good book. It helps you understand so much more about who Jesus Christ was, what he did, and why he did it. It makes you realize that he had a purpose for every little action, no matter how great or small. It helps you love your Savior more, when you realize how great the Atonement really was. And it makes you look forward to when he'll come again in all his glory. I was discouraged by some to not read it, at least not yet, because most of it isn't doctrine that you teach to investigators. I made sure to not spend too much time reading it, but I'm glad I have completed it, because it's strengthened my testimony incredibly, and made me appreciate the Christ, the Son of God, so much more.

Hmm. Hopefully that does it this week. The pictures are of the kind of food I eat (that was at the beginning of the week) and of my many beautiful ties. :) I'm super proud of them, and going to explain them all. The red one is the tie I got from Elder Christensen, and the black and gold is one I traded my white tie for. I need a new white tie.... but it was worth it. I got the blue/teal one from Elder Barr, and the red and black is one I bought back home for a dance with Caroline Thorley. The blue and black stripe tie is one I stole from my dad. The black paisley is one I got from Elder Pinegar, and the purple and silver is one I might trade. The gold tie is from Elder Louth, and the black striped tie is one I bought with a friend, but I kind of want to trade it, so I need to see if I can get permission. The blue and black paisley tie is my favorite, and is from Hermano Ballard, my teacher from the MTC. I also spilled tomato sauce on it one time. Its not as shiny as it used to be on the bottom, but other than that, the damage isn't bad. 

I talk too much.

Love you all!

-Elder Grant

Sometime in the second transfer

So, this transfer the area of Royal City was split in two, and Elder Decker stayed there and got Elder Aguilar as a companion. They now have about 1,000 people to proselyte to, half of which they can't reach. Their area probably won't exist for long. The sisters, Sister Collins (who was in Othello) and Sister Worlton came in, invited everyone to be baptized, and are having a baptism three weeks after they got into the area. This is when I truly learned, that most baptisms you receive, are actually the work of other missionaries. And the people you work on most, will be baptized by other missionaries. It's the circle of life. As for Mattawa....

Sometimes it seems like you're not making any progress in the area! You know you are, inside, but sometimes it's hard to see the progress. Dalia and her kids, who are our most promising investigators, haven't been to church in a couple weeks, even though we visit them every saturday night.  But Gabriel, who progresses very slowly, made it to church again, and so did the part of the Cruz family. Crispin (Cruz) said he didn't want to leave when Sacrament meeting was over, and he felt a lot of peace. Miguel, who is very intelligent, didn't go to church and didn't want a date for Baptism yet, but he keeps inviting us over. I think he's impatient though with my slow spanish. :) Good thing Elder Kelly can speak so well! We are getting some more new investigators, (even if some of them are half-hateful, half-afraid of us. We'll warm up to them :) and we're getting more referrals also. We've just been given the task of bringing an older man, who just lost his wife, back to church. His time in the church stopped when he was about 13, but he's very nice and the man that gave us the referral believes we can do it. So, Mattawa has it's good and bad. :)

Elder Kelly and I are working on having shorter lessons, and it's working pretty well! We don't take up all of the investigator's/member's time, and we are able to visit more people also. Hopefully those we teach can notice the difference when we leave too! Plus, me and Elder Kelly managed to spend only 15 dollars each at the grocery store this week! We are so good!

This week, I've felt a lot of comfort from the Lord. I tried out a suggestion of praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true again. It was interesting. I went and knelt to pray, and confidently prayed as to the truth of this sacred scripture... and nothing happened. I had a general sense of the spirit, but nothing special. I was puzzled, and wondered if I was missing something. I finished my prayer, and thought about it. I still knew the Book was true, but where was that promised response from the Spirit? I decided that for right then, I would just depend on previous answers from the Holy Ghost. Throughout the day, I would think of when I felt the spirit especially strong. The first moment I remember feeling Him in an incredible way was on my seventeenth birthday, when I received my patriarchal blessing. I also thought of when I left my interview with my Bishop to become a missionary, and during my time at the MTC. Why couldn't I receive that sensation of the fire within my soul at will? I was a little frustrated. As Elder Kelly and I continued working, for some reason I got this strange sensation of awe. And happiness. And strength. I realized this was my answer of whether the Book of Mormon was true or not immediately. And I thought of a line from a hymn, "God moves in mysterious ways". I'm not sure why my answer took a little bit. I'm still figuring that one out. But I've applied it into my life, by reminding myself that sometimes it takes time for investigators to get answers! Well, I've said too much. This was a good letter! Hope you like the guard dog picture. Lots of love.

Elder Grant

PICTURES FROM MATTAWA

Wahluke Slope 

Here is my mission area!

Welcome to Fabulous downtown Mattawa

 More Mattawa

 1st (in field) district

 My apartment and wierd companion

 Elder  Kelly- asserting his authority as district Lord

1st week of the new transfer!

Yeah, me and Elder Kelly are staying in Mattawa. I don't really have much time. But I thought I should let everyone know that they should just mail my address at the Spokane mission office. I don't want letters getting stuck in Mattawa when I leave. So mail to

Elder Colton Grant

WA-SPO Mission

820 S Pines Rd Ste 101

Spokane Valley, WA, 99343

For a reminder. :) Lots of love. Write me if you want to know more haha. I always write back as soon as I can!

Elder Grant

Week 5 in field (Or is it 6?)

Yeah, I have no idea what to say. I'll start out with how we watched Other Side of Heaven yesterday! We watched a Disney movie, isn't that crazy?!? I'm not supposed to do that usually! We were told to be home by 6pm on new years eve, and we were allowed to watch one of something like 5 movies. Neither Elder Kelly nor I had seen Other Side of Heaven before. So good! It was weird watching another missionary! Other than that, the week was kind of slow. We had dinner given to us quite a few times for the holidays, so that was nice. But most people were too lazy this week to do anything... Including meet with the missionaries. But our two most promising investigators were at church again, so that's super exciting. Watching others continue on the path to discipleship is the most amazing thing to watch. So, hopefully, I will have more exciting things to talk about next week.... Well, I did have my first white Christmas this week, it snowed that morning and made the ground all white and stuff. That was a nice experience. I met two massive German Sheperds. That was scary. I went to the ghetto. That was fun. We dropped an investigator with a baptismal date. That was sad. She moved to Tri-Cities. Dang tricities. Didn't even leave an address for a referral. Oh well. Till next week everyone. :)

Con amor,

Elder Grant

Christmas Week!

So, I will make this E-mail short. But I just went to a baptism in Royal City, the only other area in our district. It was a family called the Delay's, and I guess the parents had been going to church for a year, and the kids for two years. They randomly called Elder Villa and Elder Decker, our district-mates, saying they wanted to be baptized. Super cool for them. So that's the first baptism I've seen in the mission field. It was really well done, and everyone that attended barely fit in the baptismal room place. I guess a lot of people have been waiting for them to be baptized. Tonight, me and Elder Kelly are going to be eating at the Bishop's house eating ribs. Just a little excited for that. :) Well, it's been really nice having the Christmas season coming up. Shared Christmas messages with investigators and members alike, sung lots of Christmas hymns in spanish, and came to a greater understanding of what Christmas is really about. It's about that guy on my name tag!

 

Too bad my package didn't show up on time. :) Kind of funny actually. It's all good stuff!

 

Well, I love you all! Thank you for the support everyone! I pray for blessings on all my friends and family every night! Especially the ones who write me! ;)

 

Merry Christmas. And Peace on Earth.

 

Elder Grant