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