Hey!
So in this past week, we went from zero people with a baptismal date to four! I mean, what the heck!
So on Thursday we were sitting in a meeting with the zone, and randomly we get a text message from an 18 year old girl named Nia. She's met with missionaries before, and she's been going to church pretty regularly for a while now. And we haven't met with her because she's always busy or said that she wasn't ready right now. I opened the text message and all it said was "Hey boys! Lets get this girl baptized!" Out of NOwhere! We went and visited her 2 days later when she was off work, and she was sitting on the couch with her 12 year old sister... Who ALSO wants to get baptized! We've been holding off on visiting them because they've been highly pressured by missionaries in the past and they've had negative experiences. But we went over the baptismal interview questions with them, answered the questions that they had, and set up a date for December 1st! In fact, right when we had met with them they had just finished shopping for clothes for their baptism day. I love Utah.. It's super strange. I think I've mentioned it before - but it seems like Heavenly Father looks out for us as long as we are doing what he asks us to do. We may not have 100% success with every referral that we visit, but as long as we're doing the most we can with the Lord's time, someone ALWAYS pops up.
Speaking of which.. I had another "Only in Utah" moment the other day. At our Sunday correlation meeting with the Richmond Stake we were talking to the ward mission leaders and one of them walked in late.. He then said "I literally just finished talking with a girl who's 12 years old and signed up for baptisms for the dead. But she's not a member.. Can you do something about that?" I have MET this girl before. I have MET her family. I have TALKED with her young women's leaders. She's been going to church for 6 months. And they just realized that she's not a member! She's been living with her grandma and going to church faithfully and her parents are supportive. I mean, how does that even happen? It's literally the weirdest place to serve a mission on the entire planet. A few weeks ago we spoke in a ward and it went really well. Everybody was coming up to us and telling us how great of a job we did, and out of nowhere a super old guy sneaks up behind us and slips a piece of paper in my pocket. It said, "You are an amazing speaker! I felt the Spirit as you talked, but I must offer one criticism: You say "Uhh" and "Ahh" occasionally, and it was really distracting. You are a great speaker! God bless!"
...
So in this past week, we went from zero people with a baptismal date to four! I mean, what the heck!
So on Thursday we were sitting in a meeting with the zone, and randomly we get a text message from an 18 year old girl named Nia. She's met with missionaries before, and she's been going to church pretty regularly for a while now. And we haven't met with her because she's always busy or said that she wasn't ready right now. I opened the text message and all it said was "Hey boys! Lets get this girl baptized!" Out of NOwhere! We went and visited her 2 days later when she was off work, and she was sitting on the couch with her 12 year old sister... Who ALSO wants to get baptized! We've been holding off on visiting them because they've been highly pressured by missionaries in the past and they've had negative experiences. But we went over the baptismal interview questions with them, answered the questions that they had, and set up a date for December 1st! In fact, right when we had met with them they had just finished shopping for clothes for their baptism day. I love Utah.. It's super strange. I think I've mentioned it before - but it seems like Heavenly Father looks out for us as long as we are doing what he asks us to do. We may not have 100% success with every referral that we visit, but as long as we're doing the most we can with the Lord's time, someone ALWAYS pops up.
Speaking of which.. I had another "Only in Utah" moment the other day. At our Sunday correlation meeting with the Richmond Stake we were talking to the ward mission leaders and one of them walked in late.. He then said "I literally just finished talking with a girl who's 12 years old and signed up for baptisms for the dead. But she's not a member.. Can you do something about that?" I have MET this girl before. I have MET her family. I have TALKED with her young women's leaders. She's been going to church for 6 months. And they just realized that she's not a member! She's been living with her grandma and going to church faithfully and her parents are supportive. I mean, how does that even happen? It's literally the weirdest place to serve a mission on the entire planet. A few weeks ago we spoke in a ward and it went really well. Everybody was coming up to us and telling us how great of a job we did, and out of nowhere a super old guy sneaks up behind us and slips a piece of paper in my pocket. It said, "You are an amazing speaker! I felt the Spirit as you talked, but I must offer one criticism: You say "Uhh" and "Ahh" occasionally, and it was really distracting. You are a great speaker! God bless!"
...
...
... *facepalm*
We had a visit last week with a guy named Joe. Who, initially, was not very pumped to see us as we walked up. Actually as we walked up he was outside changing a tire, and the first thing he said was "I'm NOT happy with your church right now." Apparently he had asked his neighbor to get in contact with the bishop about finding some temporary help... And his neighbor forgot. So the guy had been living in his car for the past two weeks, and it's been snowing... But we went and talked with the bishop and visited Joe the next day. He was talking to us at the door for a second, then invited us in... He talked to us about his past religious experiences, and we ended up having an hour long lesson with him. The entire time, I was just praying that he would listen to us. He needs the Atonement in his life so badly. He's had family problems and is beating himself up over it, and feels like he has no self-worth. He used to be a church going man, but he feels like he has separated himself too far from the presence of God and he just wants to feel peace.. It's so crazy being a missionary. People trust us like a perfect stranger. We don't know them or their background, but they will open up to us and share with us what matters most to them. What God means to them. What they care about. What their problems are. It's just... Indescribable.
Our success stories are not alone. Actually, this last transfer was a build-up transfer for our zone. President Hiers came down on us because as a zone we only had two baptisms last transfer. And last Wednesday there were only 4 people with a baptismal date. As of yesterday, the zone now has 19 people preparing for baptism. It's literally blowing up up here. The Richmond Stake is exploding. Everyone is doing well. And it's a great day to be a missionary. :)
Mom - I DID get nanny's box.. But I may have forgotten it was a Christmas box. And I may have eaten a few of the chips. Or two bags already. My bad. Is it really still 70 back in Iowa? That's so strange. I don't need autism info.. I'll be fine. Things are getting better. We had a good talk about it and he's opened up to me a lot more. He's really a good kid, I'm just being patient and stuff. Tell Ryan I say hi! And I miss Taco John's SO bad! And yeah that's the one that we opened.. The one next to Kohl's. SCWIIIIPTURE POWEWWW!! Tell Ryan I won't be offended if he leaves on his mission.. But it WOULD be awesome to see him again! I'm looking for some new piano music for Christmas.
Dad - Yeah. Obama is the president. So that kind of sucks... You may be interested to know that Utah DIDN'T vote for him. The electoral system seems completely loaded.. LIke, seriously. The states in the west don't even mean anything. The east coast and California will ALWAYS vote Democrat and they're worth like over half the votes. It's retarded. My companion and I are doing better. It'll be a productive transfer for sure. Do you have cool missionaries for Ryan to go out on splits with? Or are they weirdos? Hahaha.. And I can't believe you're still playing geometry wars!! And I can't believe my record still stands! I'll have to come back and smash the record when I get back.
I love you guys. Pray for miracles. :)
- Elder Grant
... *facepalm*
We had a visit last week with a guy named Joe. Who, initially, was not very pumped to see us as we walked up. Actually as we walked up he was outside changing a tire, and the first thing he said was "I'm NOT happy with your church right now." Apparently he had asked his neighbor to get in contact with the bishop about finding some temporary help... And his neighbor forgot. So the guy had been living in his car for the past two weeks, and it's been snowing... But we went and talked with the bishop and visited Joe the next day. He was talking to us at the door for a second, then invited us in... He talked to us about his past religious experiences, and we ended up having an hour long lesson with him. The entire time, I was just praying that he would listen to us. He needs the Atonement in his life so badly. He's had family problems and is beating himself up over it, and feels like he has no self-worth. He used to be a church going man, but he feels like he has separated himself too far from the presence of God and he just wants to feel peace.. It's so crazy being a missionary. People trust us like a perfect stranger. We don't know them or their background, but they will open up to us and share with us what matters most to them. What God means to them. What they care about. What their problems are. It's just... Indescribable.
Our success stories are not alone. Actually, this last transfer was a build-up transfer for our zone. President Hiers came down on us because as a zone we only had two baptisms last transfer. And last Wednesday there were only 4 people with a baptismal date. As of yesterday, the zone now has 19 people preparing for baptism. It's literally blowing up up here. The Richmond Stake is exploding. Everyone is doing well. And it's a great day to be a missionary. :)
Mom - I DID get nanny's box.. But I may have forgotten it was a Christmas box. And I may have eaten a few of the chips. Or two bags already. My bad. Is it really still 70 back in Iowa? That's so strange. I don't need autism info.. I'll be fine. Things are getting better. We had a good talk about it and he's opened up to me a lot more. He's really a good kid, I'm just being patient and stuff. Tell Ryan I say hi! And I miss Taco John's SO bad! And yeah that's the one that we opened.. The one next to Kohl's. SCWIIIIPTURE POWEWWW!! Tell Ryan I won't be offended if he leaves on his mission.. But it WOULD be awesome to see him again! I'm looking for some new piano music for Christmas.
Dad - Yeah. Obama is the president. So that kind of sucks... You may be interested to know that Utah DIDN'T vote for him. The electoral system seems completely loaded.. LIke, seriously. The states in the west don't even mean anything. The east coast and California will ALWAYS vote Democrat and they're worth like over half the votes. It's retarded. My companion and I are doing better. It'll be a productive transfer for sure. Do you have cool missionaries for Ryan to go out on splits with? Or are they weirdos? Hahaha.. And I can't believe you're still playing geometry wars!! And I can't believe my record still stands! I'll have to come back and smash the record when I get back.
I love you guys. Pray for miracles. :)
- Elder Grant
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