September 4th, 2012

Hello family! Friends!

It's been so strange.. As I was coming to the family history center today, I couldn't remember for the LIFE of me what I had sent you guys in the last week.. I think the longer I'm completely immersed in the mission field, the more the weeks just blur together. It's almost just one big smudge in my mind... Hahaha.

But! Last Thursday we WERE able to take Heidi to the open house! She is the lady we have been working with who referred herself to us... We drove down to Brigham City and met her there. It's pretty sweet being a missionary - it's almost like a VIP pass and we don't even need tickets to show up to the open house! Well actually nobody does... But we have kind of that VIP vibe. Hahaha. As we walked through the temple with her and her 4 year old daughter, they were both incredibly quiet and reverent. Going through the second time was also pretty cool for me.. Since they have so many people going through every day, they kind of rush you through the whole open house. You're basically walking walking walking from start to finish with very little time to pause and just look. But on the second time through I did notice a lot more of the intricate details that go into the house of the Lord. At the end of the tour, she had a LOT of questions about everything she had seen. We did our best to answer them, and then lo and behold, the Primary President from her ward showed up! She walked over and talked to her for a while, and Heidi said "I'm so excited! I just want to go through the temple so badly!" It was just an awesome day - I'll send you pictures if I brought my cord. I haven't exactly checked if I have it yet.. Oh! Fun fact - I think I told you last week that she had been calling in sick on Sundays so that she could go to church. We texted her yesterday morning and asked her if she was able to make it to church and if she was going to get in trouble for work calling in 4 weeks in a row. She sent us a message back saying "I officially have sundays off! :) My doctor is Mormon so I got a doctor's note!" Miracles happen when you're trying to do what's right!

On Friday we had a far less miraculous experience... Normally in the mission, they buy the cars new and then trade them back in once they reach 50,000 miles. Ours had about 62,000 miles on it, so it was ancient by mission standards. :) So we got a call from our vehicle coordinator saying that there was a brand new car for us waiting at the mission office. So we headed south, through Logan, past Brigham City, and were ALMOST to Ogden... And in the middle of the freeway at 65 miles per hour, our car just shut off. The accelerator stopped working and the engine light turned on. We pulled over to the side of the road and called the mission office. Our car wouldn't start either. Unsure of what to do, our car started again and we hesitantly headed off... But a mile down the road the same thing happened. And then again. We got the car to start one more time and took the exit off and took the first street toward the mission office we could find, which was kind of a wind-y middle of nowhere back street. And, wouldn't you know it, the car shut off again. Except this time the power steering and brakes both went out... At this point we knew that it was far too dangerous to try and drive again, and had to try and direct the vehicle coordinator to us (which we had a REALLY hard time doing since neither of us knew where we were) and he picked us up and sent us on our way. So now we're driving a brand new 2012 white Toyota Corolla with 500 miles on it. Her name is Phoebe :). Hahaha.

So we had been told by a lot of members in one of our wards that there was an almost entirely non-member family that had been going to church for about 3 months every single week. And they decided it might be a good idea to refer them to us... Wow. I love members. Every single time we ask people "Do you know anyone who could benefit from the message of the Gospel?" everyone tilts their head... Thinks briefly... And then tells us their neighbor is less active and they haven't done their home teaching. No one tells us about these completely golden people! The family has a mom who is a member, and then a husband and 3 kids who aren't. All 3 of the kids (who are 18, 15, and 11) have all been asking their friends how they can be baptized. The only issue is that some missionaries went over to their home in the past and offended them - so the dad is extremely hesitant and apprehensive about missionaries just showing up at his door. So we had planned to show up at their ward on Sunday and introduce ourselves to them. We fasted all day Sunday specifically for them... And the one Sunday we went to their ward, neither them nor their fellowship family were there. We were pretty disappointed. It's such a hard balance and extremely hard to understand and be patient with those type of things, but I realized that if every time a missionary fasted for a family they had a miracle and got baptized, the church would be much larger by now. It's the same thing with prayers - if every prayer was answered exactly how people asked for them, the world would be a MUCH different place. When we pray or fast, we are not commanding God. We cannot say that just because we skipped breakfast and lunch that Heavenly Father will do it our way that day. Everything involved with missionary work is building HIS kingdom; so everything is HIS will and not ours. When we pray or fast, we are merely provided Heavenly Father with a channel whereby he can fulfill his purposes. It is dependent partially on our faith and willingness to do His work and not our own, but at the end of the day, we do not have the power to change His plan for us. Everything happens when it happens for a reason. I feel I understand that at least a little bit better now.

Mom - I am very glad that you got my pictures! They didn't take that long to write out.. I write down descriptions over time not all at once! :) Is it a pretty good system? Your  questions... 1) The Caziers were ward missionaries for the Salt River Ward up in Star Valley. They had a son on a mission that got home the week that I left the area and they were helping us fellowship a few people in their ward including a lady from Turkey.  They also owned a feed store and we helped them every Tuesday unload their huge palettes of pig, sheep, dog, and cat food. :) 2) The FISH were intended to be a birthday present for one of our zone leaders. We had it all planned out to get all those fish and put them in their bathtub.. But it was one ONE day that they locked their apartment and we couldn't get in. So we kept them as pets for a while.

 I don't know if I met Elder Jones mother. I am not serving in Logan - there are like... 12 sets of missionaries in Logan. If not more. OH!! I got the package from you guys - tell Evan his drawings were AWESOME!! And tell him his next three pokemon assignments are Alakazam, Gloom, and Miltank. And tell him the next time he sends me pictures to send me what pokemon he wants ME to draw back to him! He forgot to give me an assignment! I haven't been to Leven's yet. Maybe today. It's literally across the street from where we are right now. Tell Ryan that he's awesome and to rock out in Seussical. :)

Dad - I think that our little white Corolla outclasses your huge man-truck! Well.. Probably not. Have you given your truck a name? It's kind of a custom in the mission to have names for the cars. The Star Valley car was named Molly. The Tremonton car was the Lunchbox Avenger. And now Phoebe the Corolla. I don't envy you in biking! Actually I really don't mind it. I was enjoying it a lot in Ogden.. It was just extremely inefficient and I felt like we were getting so little done. I've never taught an Agnostic Buddhist. We're teaching a family of born-again-Christian-esque-saved-by-grace people right now and it's proving challenging enough! There was only one anti-Mormon guy at the corner of the temple in Brigham. He looked super lonely and was actually kind of a dork.. Very closed minded. Not willing to listen. I've heard that there are a lot of those at General Conference. Hows Lorin Walker doing? :) D & C Section 122 is one of my favorite sections. It's just an amazing section to share with investigators or less active families who are going through trials. And that is a LOT of babies. You have almost delivered the entire town of Afton, Wyoming. Congratulations. :)

I love you guys! I'll send you a few more pictures as I have newly discovered my camera cord in my backpack. Enjoy the pictures that I sent! Have a wonderful week!

- Elder Tyler Grant

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Richmond, Utah

My oh MY it has been a crazy week...

For starters, on transfer day last Wednesday I got exactly an hour and a half of sleep. I went to bed on time and woke up in the middle of the night with a huge stomach ache, and proceeded to spend the next 7 and a half hours in and out of the bathroom with some of the worst throwing up and diarrhea I can remember. So I got up, completely drained, and went to the mission office to take the van up to Richmond. Not exactly the best start to a transfer, but it gets even better!

Our area is about 400 square miles (*gasp!*) and we cover 3 stakes. The Benson, Richmond, and Smithfield North stakes combined form our area.. And it's just enormous. It looks even more like Iowa than Tremonton did. We live with a single sister and we live in her basement - which is actually the biggest apartment I've had so far! It's really really nice... The only minor flaw is that there are quite a few flies since everything is farmland and we have a wheat field in our backyard. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention... We have probably the 4th largest area in the mission right now! Here's the catch: WE HAVE NO CAR!!! Yes. Seriously. I was pretty shocked to find out - 3 days before I got in the area the missionary I replaced was driving and hit a 25 pound rock at 50 miles per hour. He took out both of the passenger side tires and ripped off the oil pan. And then he got transferred to an area with a car! And he's driving again! And WE are the ones who have to suffer. I'm not going to lie... It's been extremely frustrating. Everything is so far apart that all we do is bike. We bike bike bike all day and get very little done. Just the other night we biked over 10 miles one way to an appointment, and 10 miles to get back home. It's exhausting, frustrating, and I feel like no matter what we're doing, the work is just crawling because we can't get anywhere. We biked 50 miles in the first 2 and a half days with our bikes. Hopefully they will be getting us a car this week - it's literally almost impossible to get anything done. We're still working but we're definitely running uphill at the moment. The Smithfield North Stake is about an hour and a half bike ride from our house. So we just spend so much time biking between cornfields and so little time proselyting... We're praying that they get our car to us soon!

As for my companion, luckily he's awesome. Elder Cox is from Arizona and he's been out for a whole 6 weeks now. And I must admit - I can tell that he was much more prepared to leave on a mission than I was. He's completely confident in teaching and talking to people and he's not overbearing about it... Being senior companion isn't as horrible as I thought it would be ha ha. Plus I have Elder Carron and Elder LaFond in my zone (my MTC pals!) so everything is just going to be awesome. I love Elder Cox and, Lord willing (and hopefully CAR PROVIDED!), we are going to have an awesome transfer.

 

It's been a fun week despite all of our challenges. And we actually had a baptism on Saturday! It was for a 10 year old girl named Mysteria. Yes, really. Her family has been meeting with the missionaries for almost 2 years to get her baptized, and every time they get close to her baptismal date the mom freaks out and cancels it. Over and over again. So it was almost what you'd call an eternigator - but she's 10! Hahaha.. But the baptism went very well. I still can't believe her name is Mysteria. If it's any consolation she goes by Mitzy.

Other than that, the only lesson we've been able to teach was actually last night. We're teaching a couple in their late 40's. They're both non-members and are working for a member in the Richmond Area helping him repair trailers. And they are just the most amazing people... They already gave Elder Cox a bike and they offered to give bikes to the missionaries in another neighboring area. They come from such humble circumstances. They're both recovered drug addicts of about 5 years and they're so humble it's crazy. David has already taken to reading the Book of Mormon and is now reading the Pearl of Great Price too. We met with them last night and invited them to go to the Brigham City Temple Open House... We're going with them Wednesday morning. I'm praying for them so hard. I just want them to accept the Gospel so badly... That feeling has come more and more for me. We're struggling to find other investigators since a TON of people are members... But with 3 stakes, things are bound to happen.

To answer Dad's question, President Hiers is such a stud. And I don't feel weird using that word to describe my mission president, because more than anything he just radiates this aura that he's there to do everything he can to help you. He hasn't made a ton of changes in mission policy - if anything he's even less strict than President Olson. He took away all of the minor mission rules (such as we couldn't drive on P-Day before) and said that we are strictly going by the white handbook. He's regularly going out of his way to attend as MANY convert baptisms as he can, which is huge. He and Sister Hiers are going out of their way to travel to missionaries areas to support the person being baptized. They both just bring such a strong spirit of friendship and warmness... I love them so much.

 

Mom - NACHOOOOOOO!!! I can't believe I'm already 20. It's crazy to me... 19 seems SO much younger than 20. But I had a pretty good birthday. The White's are absolutely wonderful! They brought my companion and I dinner and a cake! I love them so much... Do you guys facebook chat it up all the time or what? I opened my birthday box kind of early... Basically because I got the box on July 16th and my birthday wasn't until the next transfer. Thanks for all the random strange things. Are the shoes that were in there the ones that were on back-order way back before I left? I still have like 25 ties. I haven't bought a new one in 6 months.. I'm scared. I'm serving nearby Leven's again. I'm hoping I won't cave... School is started! CRAZY! The summer is just gone! I hope Evan has a good school year and Ryan too! I think the only thing I'm running low on on meds is Albuterol. I have lots of everything else.

Dad - You should email me a few pictures of the new truck! It sounds pretty sick.. Is the black one out of commission then? I guess I told you a bit about my new companion.. And about the mission president... I wish I could have been around for the arrival of so many cousins! I miss those days. Killer Bunnies is still just a horrible game hahaha. It's so ridiculously frustrating! And did you get the TV explosion on video? Bill Frank and Lorin Walker.. I bet Bill would make you some seafood chowder for the service. And I actually don't think I've ever met Lorin Walker.. I've just heard you tell me many a tale of your high adventure days.

Anyhow. Pray that we get a car so we can get some work done! I love you all! And tell Nanny I got the birthday package from her yesterday! :)

- Elder Tyler Grant

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Transferred North!

So my streak of staying in areas for only 3 months and then getting kicked out is continuing... I'm being booted out! Back to the north!

 

 I'm being transferred to the Richmond area; which I know very little about. I just know that it's a small town up very close to the Idaho border (it was in my zone when I was in Star Valley) and from what I've been told, the missionary work has been booming there. My new companion is named Elder Cox and he just finished his first transfer. Which brings in another scary thought - I'm not a junior companion anymore! That part makes me a bit nervous.. But Heavenly father doesn't call people who are prepared - he prepares those who he calls. And I know that all my experiences in Mount Lewis have certainly prepared me to this point. Throughout my 12 weeks I've been here I've been able to see the area blossom from having exactly 1 investigator to having 2 baptisms and a new teaching pool of nearly 20 people with countless others we're in contact with. I really do hate to leave the area right as it's doing well.. That seems to happen to me a lot. But I'm looking forward to serving in Richmond and pray that I can be both effective and confident as a new senior companion.

This past week has been... Up and down.

Luckily, on Thursday we had interviews with our mission president, and I was able to share some of my concerns with him. He told me to do the best that I could do; but to also turn to Heavenly Father for guidance and help. I told him that I would - and things have been slowly turning upwards. I've tried to listen more  and it's almost helped.

Jelena's baptism was on Saturday. Her whole family was in attendance and so was an entire non-member family that they invited to the occasion. She was basically running around the whole time with a stuffed animal that she called her "baptism bunny" ... But the Spirit was there nonetheless. For the closing song we sang "Do as I'm Doing" ... Which was ironically appropriate, don't you think? :)

Mom - YES I got my birthday box like a month ago. I swear I told you last week but I guess I forgot. Thank you for that :) I can't believe I turn 20 on Saturday! I'm a little freaked out! I sent a box full of things home today - it should be there by like Monday. Tell the cousins I say hi!! I'm glad to hear Ryan went to church. Has it been a while since he has? I was also a little stunned to hear you finally accepted the fact that pushing me to do spiritual things may have turned me off a little bit. :) But it's okay. It all worked out in the end, so I guess I'm over it. I hope you don't become overwhelmed by all the 'splosions and all the mess. Keep up the faith!! Sadly, I didn't get Nanny's letter... I'm sorry! :(

Dad - Trunky. Is a horrendous word. Does it stem back to living out of your suitcase/trunk and wanting to go home? 7 babies in 24 hours... That's a little wild. Were any of them named Yak or Dung? What color is your new truck? Yellow? I love President Campbell. He's a way good leader - I'm sure the stake will benefit from his leadership. Who are the other two people you would have speak at your funeral? I'm going to have to guess Truman G. Madsen is one of them. I can't believe you used that word to describe Amaleckiah. All the missionaries around me now think that you're some roughneck biker who swears all the time. Not really. But I thought it was funny. :)

Anyhow. I'm looking forward to my new area. Keep me in your prayers, and may the Spirit be with you all! I love you guys!!

- Elder Tyler Grant

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August 8th, 2012

So I brought my camera. And my camera cord. But I left my camera cord out in the car... And I'm trying to decide how much I love you guys. Because this seat is very comfortable.. We'll see how I feel after I'm done typing. :)

So! This week! Has been... A bit slower. But that's unavoidable. A lot of our investigators have been busy last week and have had to cancel or reschedule. Which is always kind of a drag... But all we can do is persevere! It's been so unbearably hot here; pushing over 100 degrees almost every single day. I love my new Wal-Mart bike! It's very pretty... I opted not to spend $500 on a bike, which I hope you appreciate. It needs some tuning - no doubt... My brakes are SO squeaky and SO loud. But at least they work! I really don't enjoy wearing a helmet - especially because I never wore one at home... Then again I never biked at home. We bike upwards of 10 miles every day and my new road bike makes that much more bearable. My latest problem is helmet hair - but I can get a haircut and fix THAT problem.

I felt pretty terrible! My companion hasn't gotten one piece of mail all transfer... Which is probably pretty normal for a missionary who has been out almost 20 months. But as SOON as he started to bring up the fact that he never gets mail.. I got letters from people on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. Oops. Don't get me wrong - I really appreciate it! I'm just hoping his family sends him a birthday package really soon.. (his birthday is on Friday)..

We still have a baptism this upcoming Saturday! I'm so excited for Jelena and her family. Saturday is going to be a very special day. I'm really wondering what is going to happen at transfers... So far the pattern has been 3 months in every area that I've been in. And I don't know if I'm going to be ready to leave. There are so many people here that I love and care about so much. So many of our investigators will be ready for baptism 2 transfers from now.. I'm almost wishing that I stay here till then. At the end of the day, I know that I will go where I'm needed and where I'm supposed to be... It'll just be hard to let go. I won't know until next week though. I'm sorry - I'm running a complete blank right now. I'm just hungry. :)

Mom - I'm sorry to hear about Dylan. I'll keep him in my prayers and hope he'll be all right. I actually do remember fast Sundays in the old building being a quite horrible experience... And I didn't even like asian food! It's so weird to think the Radfords are gone. I think I know who President Campbell is... Big glasses? I think it's so funny that you're skyping for seminary... That'll be some interesting classes for sure. How well do you think Evan will do for All-State practices? It is kind of a huge time-sucker... He sings well though. Perfect pitch always helps :). Say hi to the Hopkins for me! Andrew Olson hasn't written me a letter in like... 6 months. So I don't know if I'll get my hopes up hahaha. Glad to hear you got some rain finally.

Dad - Man.. Ryan NEVER has any luck with camping, does he? That's horrible... So do you think he enjoyed it at all? I was really hoping the best for him. Those are some sweet facts for Mount Rushmore - I vaguely remember that trip we took to South Dakota.. I mostly remember the smell of horses. And I DO remember Evan's Plunge! Kind of. I remember the pool with the rocks on the bottom... That was so long ago. Tell Ryan to write me a letter back! I've written him two and he hasn't said anything! GAH! And he needs to draw me Pokemon so we can get on with this challenge once and for all! (Also - tell EVAN for me... - his next challenge is to draw SANDSLASH and SHROOMISH!!)

I continue to keep you all in my prayers. Sorry for the lack of updates - I'll surprise you with more juicy details next week when we hear about transfers. :)

Love you all!

- Elder Tyler Grant

Dad - You're looking into a diesel?? WHY!? I like that black truck. But I guess I never drive it. So it doesn't bug or affect me any.

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July 31st, 2012

Hey you guys!

Hmm.. Even though I knew it was coming, it's still strange to only get one e-mail in a week... I hope Dad and the rest of the gang are traveling safely and especially hope that they will enjoy being so close to Utah :). Hahaha.

Anyways! So this past week has just been... Well, probably one of the best weeks I've had in Mount Lewis so far. We taught 15 lessons last week, and we're leading the zone in teaching right now. In the past 2 days we've committed 3 more people for baptism, and all of them accepted! AND - Amy got baptized on Saturday! It was such an awesome baptism. She's like.. 8 and a half months pregnant, so she had to wear the most billowy baptismal dress I've ever seen.. But almost all of her and her husband's families showed up to support her, and almost all of them are less-active. Amy's mother was a member of the church, but never went... So that's why she was never baptized. Her older sister joined the church after marrying an active member; and it was because of her older sister inviting Amy to meet with missionaries that all of this happened. The relief society president and many other members of the ward came to support her and many of them gave her gifts - including a new set of scriptures with her name on it, if that answers your question Mom! The Spirit there was so strong... After she was baptized she came out of the water and was crying because of the Spirit that was there. We confirmed her that day and she cried during the whole thing. I've never met someone who is so sensitive to the Spirit. She and her husband will be awesome members of the church, and they are well on their way to going to the temple in a year.

Hmm.. What else happened last week... We've been biking so much lately. Yesterday we almost biked 20 miles (which is kind of incredible considering the size of our area..). This is compounded even more by the fact that our entire area is on a hill; very literally. We can go from the far east side of our area to the far west side of our area without pedaling even once. So biking home at night is pretty miserable... The hill we live on is one of the steepest most miserable roads I've ever seen. I want to meet the guy who thought that our road was a good idea and hit him in the face. Walking it was pretty bad but biking it is just horrible. I'll probably be picking out my new bike today - I might just grab one of the mid-range Wal-mart bikes since I had second thoughts on paying $500 on one from the bike shop... Thank you for sending me the extra money :) haha.. I wondered what your reaction would be when I texted you yesterday... I figured if I kept it straight to business then you wouldn't be emotionally affected too much... Fingers crossed.

It's weird that I can't think of anything else to say.. I hope my letters aren't getting TOO brief for you guys. The fact that I e-mailed on Wednesday just made it seem like so much less happened! We're still actively working to set up 4 lessons every single day and the amount of work we're getting done is skyrocketing. We've got so many lessons set up this week... Even if half of them fall through, we use that extra time to re-visit bishops and auxiliaries to see what we can do to help the missionary work  progress in every single ward. It's been tough to try and mobilize the members and leaders in this area... They're all wonderful people - but they're very set in their ways and as a result we have to do 90% of the work for every investigator. Which I truly don't mind.. It's just a problem when we turn the new convert over to the ward and they have no one to hold on to. I love working hard; doing 90% of the legwork in missionary work is exhausting mentally and physically, but it's also exhilarating and rewarding spiritually. We're hoping to pick up 2 more baptismal dates tonight, so keep up your prayers! :)

Mom - Was going to church alone as awesome as traveling alone? Skype seminary sounds pretty awesome. I'd do it. Well.. I'd do anything over 3 years of home study. I hated that so much. I wish I had had a more positive experience of seminary... But I'm glad for the opportunity I have to study my scriptures every day on my mission. It's definitely making up for some lost time. I'd much rather you e-mail me than write letters... E-mailing is just far easier and regardless of how much time I have to be at the computer I can pump out a much bigger message than I'd ever have the patience to write down physically. I was not wearing my suit in the parade... And I haven't dry cleaned my suit since Tremonton. Oopsie daisies. Tell Annie congratulations for me! She's going to be a mommy before I even come home! That's so weird! And I swear you told me Nate was going to write me a letter like.. 6 months ago.. Hahaha. I know everyone has lives! I forgive you all! :)

Anyways. I love you all! :)

- Elder Tyler Grant

Singing in the Rain!

Hey! So if you were expecting a letter yesterday, then this is it!

As you well know (and I was informed very quickly) yesterday was Pioneer day, which I had NO idea was such a big deal anywhere. It also meant that the family history center and all the libraries were closed... So our mission president gave us special permission to write today. I'm pretty sure that we may have had one or two potlucks at church to celebrate the holiday over the years, but over here..The 24th of July is almost as big as the 4th of July! It's amazing how much people actually cherish their ancestry here - but I guess if there would be a place where the Mormon pioneers would be appreciated, it would be here. We got to march in the parade yesterday! President and Sister Hiers as well as well over 120 of the missionaries in our mission showed up to march, and it was hilarious. The order of the parade was.. Well.. I'll just tell you. The front was the police. Second were some people dressed as pioneers pulling handcarts. Then the marching band. Then the scantily clad dance squad marching and dancing the whole way. Then the high school cheerleaders... And then the missionaries!! Who's idea was it to put the missionaries right behind all of the immodestly dressed girls?? Hahaha.. It was pretty funny. Because when it came down to it, everybody clapped politely for the cheerleaders... And when the missionaries walked by, everybody stood up and applauded and cheered their hearts out. Hahaha.. We spent the whole parade singing "Called to Serve" and "High on the Mountain Top" over and over again, and at every intersection the Polynesian missionaries and many others stopped and did the Haka. If you don't know what that is, look it up on YouTube or something. Oh - did I mention it DOWN POURED the entire parade? All in all it was a very memorable experience... I love the rain. It doesn't rain enough around here, and an excuse to walk in a storm was pretty cool.

So we have a baptism this Saturday! Amy is getting baptized and I'm just so excited for her. She's been incredible to teach, and I feel so privileged to have been able to work with her. She's pretty much the definition of a golden investigator. She's been going to church and loving it, and she was so excited to show us the program she and her sister have been putting together for her baptism. Everything is just falling into place for her and her family, and I can't help but marvel at what Heavenly Father does for His children. When we commit to live His teachings and His commandments, he WILL bless us. He will never let us down. That's the amazing part. He will always hold up His end of the deal as long as we do our part. Satan may try and push us down, but the undeniable feeling and influence of the Holy Ghost will still guide us to do right. How couldn't it be true? Jesus Christ never forced anybody to do anything. Instead, he showed us the way and invited us to do likewise. He never said we had to take His word for it just because he was the Son of God. With everything, we are invited to make the changes in our life that align us with our Heavenly Father's will and just SEE for ourselves the amazing difference it makes. That's probably my favorite thing about being a missionary. We try so hard to help people to follow Christ, but until they DO it we can do no more. But when they do make those choices, it's the most rewarding thing you can imagine... I love it so much.

We've been teaching a lot of people in the past week. One of our investigators set a marriage date! Another one of our investigators just had her baby and we're now working with her towards a marriage and baptismal date. We've set a goal to set up 4 lessons every single day, and it's making a HUGE impact on our work. If it's winding down to the end of the day and we haven't set up 4 lessons yet, we've been pushing ourselves to find those last people that Heavenly Father would be placing in our path that day to receive the truth. On Monday alone we taught 5 lessons, set up 4 return appointments, and set up 6 lessons with new investigators. It's incredible once again to see just how much Heavenly Father's hand is in this work. And when we push ourselves and use our agency to do His will, He blesses us with success. With our huge pool of people there are so many that are ever closer to the commitment of baptism. There are only 3 more weeks in this transfer.. It's flying so fast. I hope that we can find everyone that we are meant to find and are courageous enough to seize every opportunity to teach and talk to people in whatever setting we may be in.

Mom - You haven't messed with my room EXCEPT let Evan sleep in it (with the CATS) and blast a giant hole in my wall! Other than that I'm sure it's the same. I have a new cousin! Hooray! I can't believe it's been that long since you told me Deidra was pregant. Have I really been gone for 8 months? Holy... I haven't been playing the piano much since we've been working so much and so consistently. I still take the time every once in a while to sit and play for a few minutes.. But I feel like it's something that I may invest more time and energy in once I'm home. NOOOO!!!! They pulled the missionaries from the branch? Why?? There has been so much success.. That won't solve anything! (Didn't I say this to you like.. twice?) We cover 1 stake of 8 wards. There is NO shortage of missionaries right now. They've been splitting a lot of the areas to put even more sets of missionaries in because we have so many. I borrowed the bike from a member family, and actually just yesterday they bought us brand new helmets. Yayyyyy.... Hahaha.

Dad - I do not miss humidity. Or dry crackly grass. It's been super warm here for a long time, but it's bearable! You had to descend to Google Translate to speak Japanese? Ooooohhh.. You're slipping! Haha. I've met like.. 4 people in the last week that served their missions in Japan AFTER the Osaka Mission was dissolved. So you probably wouldn't know them. Are you ever going to do ragbrai in your sit-and-chill-out bike? I'm over the fact that there will be no Dad letter. I hope you enjoy Martin's Cove and especially hope the same for Ryan. Isn't that in Wyoming? And I'm still writing faithfully in my journal every night.. It's kind of weird. These emails to me are kind of a second journal! Hahaha...

Anyhow. I'm about to write Papa a letter. I love you all! The letters from everyone are getting sparse! But I'm over it. Hahaha.

Love,

- Elder Tyler Grant :)

Biking...finally!

Guess what? We got bikes!

Just thought I'd throw that in. Reason being - for the 7 weeks I was with Elder Daly we had to basically rebuild our teaching pool from the ground up. And on foot, it was very easy to just walk up to people and start teaching them then and there. But at this point, we've got a HUGE (unbelievably huge..) pool of potential investigators as well as a fairly large number of those we actually have lessons with.. And Elder Stewart and I decided that we need to shift our focus from building our pool to straight teaching. I guess I never realized or comprehended just how much a bike would speed us up. We've been setting up and teaching lessons like crazy! We had 4 on Sunday, 4 yesterday, 3 set up today, 5 set up on Wednesday.. Everything is literally exploding right now and we're almost to the point where we're busier than we can handle. But everything keeps falling into place and just working out... Which leads me to believe that we're not alone in this effort! :)

One of our investigators dropped their baptismal date last week... They still want to meet with us, but they were busy on Sunday and weren't able to attend church; so we have to recommit them for another day and pray for the future. We do have 2 investigators that are rock solid on date for July 28th, so I'm very excited for them. One of them is Jelena, the 9 year old girl who continues to amaze me with her heart of gold. She's probably the kindest, most selfless kid I've ever met. She always wants to help her family, and even tells us that every day she tries to do something  specifically to help Jesus Christ. It's unbelievable to me. Since we've been working with them, her family has returned (with the exception of one) to going to church every Sunday AND staying the full 3 hour block. The other baptism we have scheduled is for Amy, and she is just... Incredible. She's 24 years old and expecting a baby on August 18th (the best birthday in the WORLD) and she wants her child to be blessed and raised LDS.  Her husband is a less-active member who is on his way back; the only thing holding him back is work... We just had a lesson with them yesterday and they were extremely excited and were already setting up details for the program and the time of her baptism. They were able to hear us speak in their ward on Sunday and they both loved the talks we gave. I somehow managed to speak for almost 30 minutes... How crazy is that? But we're going to keep working with all the people we have and this week we will begin committing them to baptism and hope the Spirit will touch their hearts.

I'm really enjoying serving with Elder Stewart. He's another one of those missionaries that  is an incredibly hard worker. He's a tad rough around the edges, but he's allowed to be since he's from Memphis Tennessee... Hahaha. But after seeing the area and seeing the potentials that Elder Daly and I worked so hard to build, his jaw dropped to the floor. He said he's never come into an area where it was so evident that the missionaries before him had worked so hard. And immediately we got to work - I know this transfer (even though it's only 5 weeks..) we can see miracles. Everyone is so CLOSE! With a few prayers and diligence, things are going to start happening around here. I just know it.

We were also able to finally teach Miki last week! She had us over for dinner and then we taught her a quick lesson on feeling the Spirit and prayer.. And she is just so prepared! As I mentioned before she has been to girls camps, youth conferences, just about everything you can imagine. And she knows exactly what the Spirit feels like. I just can't believe she isn't already a member of the church. We weren't able to teach a full lesson, but this coming week we're getting her to come to church and hopefully she'll recognize that the feelings of the Spirit are more than just warm fuzzy feelings, but in reality it is God telling us that something is true.

Another fun fact - on Sunday night we were able to attend a fireside with M. Russell Ballard. And it wasn't at all what I was expecting.. Since it was all about Pioneer Day and historical stuff. But it was a blessing in itself to just be in the presence of one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ.

Mom - I can't believe I'm almost not a teenager anymore. In all reality it probably won't feel a whole lot different.. Probably because life in the mission field is so sheltered and cut off from anywhere else that nothing feels real besides being a missionary. I'm starting to feel more and more that this IS my home and that Iowa is just like.. I don't know.. It seems more like a dream. If that makes sense. There's no place I'd rather be than the Utah Ogden Mission haha.. Tell Andrew Olson that I'm here to stay. And that kid needs to write back for a change! That punk! There are a few students in our area (we're about.. 5 miles from Weber State University) but all of them go to the YSA wards so we don't really work with them a whole lot. Hey I remember the Dunnicks! Tell Allen and Austin I say hi! Oh my gosh. I can't believe Evan is a freshman. That's crazy! ... You bought a piano. Is it pretty nice? Or does it just take up more space in the living room? :) Haha.. Impulse buy! I'll look for some music for Ryan. I need to send some things home SO badly, but I am nowhere near a post office (or if I am I have NO idea where it is) and I have no box. So that's a problem... What's the gerbil's name? You have 3 missionaries to choose from now - is it Tyler, Andrew, or Ben?

Dad - Yeah I'm pretty much used to being called Elder Grant or at the very least being called Grant. Every once in a while there will be someone named Tyler around me and that part of my brain almost responds when someone talks to them. But it's mostly gone. I think I've heard that teenage porcupine talk! Or at least I've heard OF it for sure. The more I think if it, it's very true.. I don't think I spent a lot of time with you since you were always at work or meetings and I was always at school related things or work. So yes - I definitely think that trip to Colorado was a memorable one! That boulder field was just awesome. There were so many hidden passages and things... Did you get a chance to really explore them or did you just kind of glance around? I dont' recall. Hopefully you guys get some rain. It's rained like 4 times in the past 6 days, which is nice because it cools things off from the regular 95-100 degrees. I think you mean Elder Daly, not Elder Lewis :) Haha. The AREA is Mount Lewis, silly goose! Best of luck with the truck situation, and try and control mom's impulse buying a little more... I'm afraid when I come home there will be a space shuttle in our backyard :).

I love you all. Stay classy!

- Elder Tyler Grant