Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Hello everybody!

Question - Has dad sent that USB stick yet? It's been like 4 weeks since he said (and I quote..) : "No more delays!" I've been meaning to send you guys pictures home and its not practical to send them 3 at a time... as I've taken over 200 pictures and that would take a while.. So if you could get me that USB stick I can back up my pictures, burn them onto a CD, send them to you, and clear my camera before it's completely full. Please and thank you. (:

Anyway. This past week has been.. Awesome! Another week of ups and downs for sure, but I'm pretty sure that's just life in the mission field.. On Friday we went to Wendi's funeral. Considering it was only the second funeral I've ever been to in my life, and the first one was for one of my best friends, it was a completely different experience. At Murph's funeral, there were more people there than I could count. At Wendi's funeral, there were exactly 15 people. We had it at the church building in the ward she went to - and it was a very touching experience. All there was for the program was an opening hymn and prayer, and then her husband and stepson shared a few memories with us. I admired that kid - I don't think I could stand up at my mother's funeral when I was 10 years old and tell her how much I loved her. The bishop also stood up and shared his testimony of the Plan of Salvation and how he knew that Wendi was in a better place.

I'm trying extremely hard to focus right now.. But it's one of those days in the Family History Center where there's TONS of people here and they're all talking loudly (hearing aids must be off..) and all at the same time. So if the quality of this letter isn't up to par with the rest of them, then I blame it on the atmosphere and the fact that my Concerta hasn't kicked in 100% yet.

We had another sweet breakthrough with one of our investigators. He's an 18 year old kid that's living with a member family. He's gone to Star Valley High School his entire life and has been surrounded by a ton of good influences. For his senior year, his parents moved to Jackson (an hour north of Star Valley) and he wanted to finish his senior year with his friends. So he moved in with one of his friends and has been living there since the beginning of August. Initially, his interest in the church was slim - he went to mutual every once in a while, and that was pretty much the extent of it. But a few months ago, the family was fellow shipping another kid while he was being taught in their home, and he sat in on all of the lessons. After the lessons were over with, he decided it was something that he wanted to pursue. So his friends (being awesome missionaries) bought him a Book of Mormon and all wrote their testimonies in it. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and not just reading it - STUDYING it. He has 2 separate study manuals that he reads at the same time and cross references each and every chapter to absorb as much information as he can. And that's about how far he's been. He promised himself he wouldn't commit to anything until after he finished the Book of Mormon - and things have kind of been at a standstill. When I first met him, he was in Mosiah; and I figured that sooner or later, he'd finish and the missionaries that came in after me would get to see him get baptized. Well a few weeks ago he went to General Conference, and something changed in him. He's been going to church (recently, all 3 hours!), he's been praying publicly, and the last few times we've talked with him he's accelerated his reading to a breakneck pace. He's been reading upwards of 30 chapters between visits... Well we had a lesson with him on Sunday and, as always, the entire family sat in on it. We asked him a few questions, and it seemed like the answer he'd been longingly searching for had finally come to him - but the family was getting in the way. They kept interrupting us and asking questions that didn't really pertain to him, so the window of opportunity was closing rapidly.. The lesson came to a close, and we knew we had to do something. After the closing prayer, we went up to him and asked him what his feelings were; we didn't want to put him on the spot in front of everybody. So he shooed everyone out of the room (which was funny..) and told us that he knows it's true! He told us that he's been reading the Book of Mormon so much lately because of the promise that he made with himself. He recently finished 3rd Nephi chapter 11 (which we told him to focus on HARD) and said it was a completely different feeling than he's ever experienced; and the reason he's reading so much is he's trying to hurry to the end so he can get baptized! Hahaha - so we'll hopefully be able to have a baptism in the next few weeks. We're all super excited for him, but the family doesn't know it yet! So I hope they don't read my blog.. That'd be awkward.

In the sad news for the week, we've been having more problems with investigators continuously moving their baptismal dates back. There's one teenage kid who we started teaching at the beginning of March who, when we initially talked to him, was fired up and ready to go about baptism. But due to family problems, church attendance, and other things he's STILL not baptized... And now because they've pushed it back so much he's starting to second guess the feelings of the Holy Ghost. He and his little sister were supposed to get baptized on May 12th, but he's not even sure that he wants to anymore. It's frustrating - the rate of conversion is highly dependent on not only the exertion and effort of the missionaries and investigators, but HUGELY dependent on the friendship and welcoming of the ward. And in every single case with the people we're teaching, the ward and stake support isn't there. I'm starting to realize that everything that revolves around missionary work has to start at the top with the stake president, and funnel on down to the individual wards and auxiliaries so that everyone is playing on the same team and is on the same page. In Tremonton, there were two stakes and a black and white difference between the two. In the stake where the stake president and all the ward mission leaders were on board, we had 95% of our appointments. In the other, there was the same amount of work, but we weren't able to teach anyone because there was no support. Elder Billmire and I have been really focusing our efforts on members this past week - we have a meeting with the stake president on Sunday to discuss goals and plans of action to try and get the stake rolling along. If you're praying for us, keep it up, because we're going to need it in this next week. Many of our contacts have started to slip through the cracks and we're trying to fire up everyone else so we can use the Lord's time more efficiently and effectively.

In an update with the non-member family we've been teaching, the dad now has Sarcoidosis (which I remember from all the episodes of House..) along with another disease that I can't remember. And his wife was terminated from her position at work and they have no income. The worst part about it is that the wife is convinced that the company she works for is a church company (which it's not at ALL..) and that everyone in the church is now turned against her. Somehow everyone including missionaries is to blame for her predicament, and they don't want to meet with us anymore.. Frustrating. Sometimes Satan just needs to back off, you know?

Mom - I'm glad to hear that you received a phone call.. The funny thing is I was convinced that my talk wasn't very good at all! Just TRY and condense the Plan of Salvation into a 15 minute talk and not use any visual aids to illustrate.. It was way difficult! But immediately afterwards, the man who called you walked up to me and handed me a piece of paper and a pen. He told me to write down your guys' phone number so he could call you and said how good a job I did.. Just being polite? Maybe.. Or maybe I'm being too self critical. Who knows! The fact that Cody is finally leaving on his mission is nuts! Wish him luck for me.. He'll be awesome. Haha - what's my opinion of procrastination? It's.. Well, I think the only thing I can relate to is when Elders will go into an area and be timid about inviting people to repent and make commitments. When in reality, there's no point in being afraid! We're only in an area for a short period of time, and we're set apart to call people to repentance, not to be their buddy! So I guess I've learned it's easier and more productive to just go out and get stuff done, and if we get rejected, so be it! On a medication note - I realized I'm down to my last Advair, so if it's not too much trouble, can I have some more so I can breathe? Thanks! And the iPod can't come fast enough.. I'm excited :) by the way.. when are we gonna get some corvette pictures, dang it!? Haha.. It's been over 2 weeks, and it'll be another week before we even get to see them IF you send them before next Tuesday! JEEZ! Haha.. Joking!

Dad - I guess it's never occurred to me that I've never wanted to drive the corvette.. I mean, it's YOUR car, and I guess stick shift was too much to learn to have the desire to drive it.. Haha. I appreciate the talks you've been sending me.. I haven't been able to print them off, so I haven't been able to study them like I'd like to.. But sometime I will. Hahaha - naked in the Celestial Kingdom? Umm.. Yeah some people are strange. It's just that much worse when you hype someone up to how peaceful and awesome church is and then they see someone ranting and raving and jumping up and down.. What question can I ask you.. I guess I have been wondering. When you were on your mission, what church officials did you get to work with? The reason I ask is because MANY people I talk to who served missions say they covered one ward and only worked with bishops and ward missionaries, and were able to get to know everyone in the ward. We primarily work on the stake level - stake correlation meetings and through stake presidents regularly. So I'm guessing your mission was run a little differently :). I feel so blessed to have this unique chance to work so closely with the higher keys of the priesthood. It's just been awesome. And in terms of struggles I've had, I guess I haven't really had a whole lot. I've felt that though we've had trials and frustrations, the Lord has blessed us with miracles and opportunities to serve that more than compensate for lack of success. So if that's what you mean, then okie dokie :)

Ryan - Look up the band "Cartel" .. I'm sure you'd love them. Especially the songs "Let's Go" , "27 Steps" , and "Perfect Mistake." Just a thought!

I love you all, and hope to hear from you soon!

- Elder Tyler Grant :)

April 17th, 2012 still happy in Star Valley

Hello everyone!

This week has been one of the most memorable weeks of my mission so far. We taught more lessons than I've ever taught before AND put 3 more people on date for baptism! But there are a lot of other contributing factors to the week than just that.

When I got into the area, we started teaching this lady named Wendi. She's in her 40s and has had some health problems stemming from a bad back and mild diabetes. She's been awesome to teach - she lives with her husband and they live in extremely humble circumstances. When we first met her she was outside smoking, but she immediately told us she really wants to quit. So we began teaching her the Restoration of the Gospel and there was almost a visible light in her eyes as the Spirit filled the room and touched her heart. We tried to commit her for a baptismal date 3 weeks away, but she hesitated. She said she wouldn't commit for a date until she learned more, and although we told her we would continue coming by and teaching her until she WAS ready, we couldn't stick her with a date. For the next few weeks she was very difficult to get a hold of - appointments fell through, and we struggled to teach her again. Last week we finally met her at her home, and she came out on the doorstep to talk to us. We were prompted that we should talk about baptism.. and we did. She had been going to church and reading the Book of Mormon, and felt that she had learned a lot. Sound in her understanding and knowing that the Spirit had communicated to her that it was true, we committed her for baptism on April 28th. We were thrilled for her and I just knew that she was gonna make it. That was on Wednesday. But on Saturday, we received a phone call from the Relief Society President. Elder Billmire answered the phone, talked for a minute, and hung up. He then told me the news - "Wendi died this morning. She was feeling fine last night but just never woke up." That freaked me out. How could she be gone? She was only 40 years old. What would happen to her? It was just unreal that a person that I was coming to love and teach was just all of the sudden gone. A scripture came to my mind, and it kind of gave me a sense of drive and purpose. Alma 34:33 says "And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed." I never thought that this would be something that would occur on my mission, and it's kind of an extreme example - but it's really shown me that the Lord's work is done on HIS time and not on ours or anyone else's. If Wendi had accepted the baptismal date in faith the first time we came in contact with her, then she could have received the remission of sins that came from baptism and the overwhelming peace that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result of this experience, I have had kind of a new awakening within me. Everyone needs to hear the message that we have to share, and although we may not know it, we may not have all the time in the world. I now realize that we need to strive to work our absolute hardest each and every day for the people we teach. Because just like that, they can be gone.

Another experience I had this week was going to Zone Conference yesterday. It's only the second one I've been to, but it was just amazing. We have a lot of giants in this mission; true examples of amazing leadership that I can look up to as a pattern of what I wish to become. Some of the missionaries going home this transfer bore their testimonies, and it was incredibly powerful. One of them, when he stood up, I wasn't sure what to expect. He was one that didn't necessarily have the greatest reputation throughout the entire mission, but I'd served around him and he seemed like an incredibly intelligent and bright young guy. I couldn't figure out why everyone judged him the way they did because I didn't see that in him at all. So when he stood up, he straight up told everyone that the one bit of advice he'd give to missionaries is NOT to talk down on other missionaries. He was well aware of the judgments that surrounded him, and it soon became apparent that none of them were true. They were hovering judgments of things he had done at the very beginning of his mission, but because no one ever took the time to know him and just accepted gossip as truth, his entire growth and development as a missionary was stunted by false preconceived notions and unjust criticisms. After his testimony, the mission president stood up and publicly apologized to him, as he too had believed a lot of what was said. It really pained me to see this amazing guy who's mission may have been terribly affected by something that was in the past. He also spoke about repentance and forgiveness - he had worked so hard to overcome his weaknesses and shortcomings in the sight of God, and God had forgiven him. So why was it so hard to gain the forgiveness and acceptance of everyone else? We are supposed to be the Lord's servants; and yet, all of us are still imperfect people who are continually trying to do better. It was an incredibly spiritual learning experience for me.

Wow, that was a lot of learning experiences for one week! Want to hear a funny one? So last week in one of the wards it was fast and testimony meeting, which as I have come to learn on my mission, can either be REALLY good or REALLY.. well, different. So this particular Sunday we had 3 investigators in church, which is awesome for one ward! The meeting was going fine, and I was just praying that no one would get up and drive away the Spirit, to put it lightly haha. That sounds so terrible! But I'm SURE that everyone who reads these who has been to an LDS testimony meeting knows what I mean. Well.. Unfortunately for our investigators and for us, we didn't turn out so lucky. A lady got up and talked for TWENTY FIVE minutes about.. Well, not a whole lot. She was basically rambling about her life and how much she loved her visiting teacher. But at one point, she was yelling from the pulpit: "I.. I just wanted to hurt the world so badly! I wanted to hurt everyone! Hurt hurt hurt hurt!" She was jumping up and down and everything and yelling into the microphone.. It was one of those times that I wished the bishop would take a stand and take her aside. But that was our investigator's first impression of what an LDS church meeting is like! So that's going to take some corrective action to fix.. Hahaha.

One more fun experience that happened last night. Well it wasn't that fun at the time, but looking back it was pretty funny. To go to zone conference we had to get up at 4:00 AM to get ready and leave by 5:00 AM. We went and picked up the other Star Valley missionaries, and began the nearly 3 hour drive to Logan. We made it on time and zone conference was from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and it was an awesome experience all around. We went shopping afterwards because I haven't been in a Wal-Mart since I came out on my mission.. (Tremonton and Afton are both pretty small!) and began the drive home. Well we have a limited number of miles every month, and driving to Logan takes a HUGE chunk of our allotted miles. So on the way back we elected to take a 40 mile dirt road that saves both time AND miles and ends up right at our house. Well we hit a patch of deep snow on that road, and.. We got stuck. Thoroughly stuck. It was extremely packed snow and we had barely any tools to do anything about it. Luckily the Star Valley car is equipped with a small military-esque shovel that kind of digs snow okay. And we found some sticks. And used our window scrapers. All four of us spent nearly 2 hours whacking away at this stupid mound of snow, and also carrying gravel with our hands to try and give the car some traction. We got out okay, and it was actually a lot of fun. Sort of. Hahaha. All in all I was up for 20 hours yesterday, and waking up on time today was very difficult.. Zzzzz.

I guess the gist of my letter just goes to show that I love it up here - I dread the day where I get transferred into the city... Because honestly most of our mission is in the city. I've just been fortunate enough to be dealt a different hand. The Afton Stake is also getting a YSA (Young Single Adults) ward which draws from the whole valley, so our teaching area is more than doubling, so that's going to pile on the workload. But I know that Heavenly Father will guide us with his Spirit, and the work will be fulfilling and everlasting.

Mom - I'm sorry to have offended Mrs. Kim with the cat story! I thought it was awesome though and I knew it was something that had to be shared. As for the iPod shuffle, I don't think that it would fit all of my music. It's too small, sadly enough. And even if it did fit all of it, there's no way that I could add more when it got to me. The new nanos are VERY basic, and they'd actually have enough memory to support a music library that consists of more than 200 songs. So that's a thought. The 16GB is equivalent to my touch's memory, so it would have a similar capacity for music, and definitely more when you disregard the need for apps or internet. That would be my recommendation (red would be nice :) ). I'm glad you got to spend some time with the Hopkins, and I dread the day when I have to travel with you again.. Hahaha. We cover 9 wards and now a YSA ward, and they're.. average size? I don't know.. Haha. I didn't grow up in a ward, remember? In terms of pictures of the corvette, he just says.. Well as many pictures as you feel like sending. Engine, car, anything. I don't think he'll mind. Also - did Kim Kelly ever finish/send me my white temple pants? I remember she was hemming them for me in November.. :) I hope you enjoyed the "Fourth Missionary" talk!

Dad - You didn't ask a single question this week! *High five* I wish I could have been there to see Aunt Kim's face. I've never pulled off a surprise of that magnitude, and I'm sure you were giddy with the results. It sounds like your running and walking is also looking a LOT better than mine! My asthma REALLY bothers me when I run around here... When we got stuck last night I ran ahead to scout for more snow patches, only to discover that 7600 feet is EVEN worse for my breathing than Afton's 6100 feet. Get to work on that bathroom! I can't believe you punched a hole in my wall. How dare you. Good luck at your medical conference!

I love you all!

- Elder Tyler Grant

I am the Elder from Captain Kirk country!

Hey everyone!

So this past transfer has FLOWN by. I swear it's only been like, a week since I've been in Star Valley. But it's already been 6! Wow. Well neither of us are getting transferred, so I get to keep a companion for once! Haha.. I can already tell it's gonna be fun. When you're constantly switching companions, it's kind of like taking a step backwards. For the first few days/weeks you have to re-get to know each other, and MORE importantly, you have to establish a teaching pattern. Yes, all missionaries teach the same lessons, the same principles, and invite people to make the same commitments - but not in the same way. People transition differently, highlight different points, use different analogies, different scriptures, and all in all transfers can be a MESS! Especially because the first few lessons with your new companion are basically like going in blind. You have no idea what they're going to do, what they're going to say, or if they have a tendency to crash and burn with a slip of the tongue. It's a real thrill, haha. But we're both staying, and we're way excited for this next transfer. Also - remember my MTC buddy? Not my companion, but the guy in my district who I got along with super well? Well he's basically the guy that got me THROUGH the MTC, and I just found out today that he's being transferred up here to the other end of Star Valley! Transfer day usually sucks, but I'm actually really happy this time around haha.

So! This week! Has been.. Up and down. And up and down. And up. And down. I can't stress it enough - EVERYTHING in missionary work teeters on agency. Invitations to do things, promises of blessings, and testifying of truth are only the steps that LEAD UP to the investigator making the step of faith to follow through on a commitment. And if they don't, then there's nothing we can do but encourage and continue to invite. Sometimes this pattern works really well! We started teaching a guy last week who is AMAZING. He actually just graduated from high school this year; so he's grown up around LDS kids most of his life. But he's like, SO sweet. He told us straight up when we started teaching him that he wants to be baptized, and he wants to get married in the temple. I mean what more can you ask for? In case you haven't guessed, this is when agency is AWESOME in missionary work. But wait - there's a catch, and on the flipside, agency SUCKS sometimes. This kid is 17, and his parents are refusing to give him permission to get baptized. He turns 18 in 2 months, so hopefully he'll still have the desire by then. On a much lighter note, I'm pretty sure Dad would like this guy. He told us that he and his friends used to go up into Thayne (15 minutes north in Star Valley) at about 7 o'clock P.M. They'd all put some money in a can, and meet up at a gas station. Right when the clock hit 7:15, they'd all TAKE off in different directions. The objective: kill and collect as MANY CATS as you can before midnight, and throw them in the back of your truck. Whoever has the most cats at midnight wins the money. Hahaha how funny is that? We asked how many they'd typically get, and he said the highest that HE ever got in those 5 hours was THIRTY TWO cats, and they didn't even win! He even said that they'd shoot and collect cats from off people's porches! Apparently there's so many around here that no one even cares or reports any cats missing. Tell Toby and Tiger to be on the lookout.. Hahaha.

It also sometimes sucks when members get in the way! Remember the 13 year old kid who committed himself for baptism that I told you about? He was supposed to get baptized last week, but one of our Ward Mission Leaders straight up told him not to get baptized! He scared the kid away, and I don't even know if we're going to be able to get in and teach there anymore. The real reason we initially went there was because the mom was a non-member, but we started teaching this kid instead because he immediately got excited about baptism. We didn't even really know he wasn't a member. But a while ago we had a lesson at this ward mission leaders house - he told the kid he wasn't ready for baptism and told him "Don't get baptized because all the other kids are doing it." Okay seriously - what is this, underage drinking? NO one has been pressuring him, half of his friends are members and he goes to church every week! If anything, that's not a bad influence you need to be freaking out about! You'd think that'd be the kind of "peer pressure" you'd want, anyway. Not only that, but during the whole lesson we were asking the kid's mom questions (she's been VERY open with us) and every time she'd go to answer, the ward mission leader and his wife would like totally barge in and interrupt her! It's turned them off a LOT.. I never thought that with missionary work the problems could arise with the members instead of investigators. We're just keeping them in our prayers.

Hahaha. So we met another funny guy this week. We eat dinner with members usually 6 nights a week, so we get to see the WIDE spectrum of people that inhabit the valley. Well the other day we went to dinner out in Smoot, and we were blown away with the people there. When they called to see if we were coming, they said "Uhh.. Is there any way you can come over and not wear your suits and ties? We have 10 cats and 5 dogs and they'll jump all over you..." Now if THAT isn't a golden ticket invitation to dinner, I don't know what is! When we got there I told them I was from Iowa and the first thing that the guy said was "Ohhh no. We've got an Elder from Captain Kirk country!" Face palm. I've never met a "Trekkie" before hahaha. At one point they also sprayed whipped cream all over the table. And the wife told us about a very vivid dream she had about the communists taking over the East coast, and that's why they moved to Star Valley. The people here are so funny, I love them.

We've also gone the past week without a bumper on our car. The past missionaries took the car off-roading in the snow and the bumper dipped and cracked when it caught a snowbank. So there's been this huge crack in our bumper for a while.. and they just decided to fix it. But we told the people at the repair shop we kinda need our car still. It's one of the biggest areas in the mission, and we'd be rather crippled without one. So they took the bumper off and sent us on our merry way. It looks funny - it's a 2011 Chevrolet Malibu, and without the bumper the trunk kinda hangs out and it looks kinda like the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Hahaha.. Only the missionaries' car, right? We talked to the guy at the repair shop and he said he's fixed missionary cars more times than we would believe. The car that was here a few years ago had to have SEVERAL front and back bumpers repaired, and at one point the missionaries tried to tow it out of a snowbank and ended up tearing the entire trunk out of the car. Brilliant, right? :)

Mom - Way to go on the Taco John's key! I had forgot that was even missing. You should have used that to your advantage and gotten some free potato ole's.. They're using the Nacho Libre voice without me!? GAH!! How dare they. They'll never be able to compete with me and Jack Black though.

 I actually HAVE gotten to use my Spanish one time! I forgot to tell you this, I guess. One time last transfer I got to go to an entire evening with one of the Spanish Elders because his companion left to go fill out his visa papers to leave to Argentina. So I got to go to 3 lessons ENTIRELY in Spanish! I didn't end up saying a whole lot.. But it was interesting. I can still comprehend upwards of 80% of the things that are being said. But I just can't talk back. The words are there and I can hear them, but I can't string them together and speak them. In terms of how I feel as a missionary, there's a talk I think you should check out. It talks about different types of missionaries and how we can shift our focus to become the missionaries that Heavenly Father wants us to become versus the missionaries we will become on our own will. Here's the link: (http://www.scribd.com/doc/34660140/The-Fourth-Missionary)

Dad - Did Ryan and Evan find all the Easter eggs? I still remember last year when Ryan found an egg close to 8 months after the fact. You're just way too good at it! Just wait until you get old and can't remember anything - then you can hide your own! :) I thought that was funny about the MTC choir too.. In my last area at a stake conference they had a young women's choir that sang a few songs and they were just BLAND. No tone, no dynamics, and everybody sang the melody. I thought it was incredibly boring, but my companion loved it and said it was one of the best choirs he'd heard! I definitely have been spoiled by my musical perspective and upbringing haha. Tell Scott congratulations for me! And it's good to hear you're still hearing compliments about me. :)

I love you all! Hopefully I can get this sent off because the internet in the Family History Center literally just died.. Crash monkeys! (<---a new "swear word" this lady taught us.. hahahaha. )

- Elder Tyler Grant :)

April 3rd, 2012

Hey again!

So this past week has been FULL of surprises..

I guess first and foremost I very much enjoyed general conference! We watched the first 2 sessions with Budd Rich and the Sunday sessions with some other members. It's kind of nice - I have always had problems focusing during conference towards the end sessions. I've never been a TV watcher, so sitting for 10 hours of watching a broadcast has always been rough for my short attention span.. But I stuck it out, and as a result I gained some awesome insights!  I really think that trying to get EVERY single thing out of every session of conference is kind of like trying to drink from a fire hose. There's so much to be absorbed in a short period of time, that it's mentally draining to some degree. I think one of my favorite talks was by Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, which surprised me. He talked about the difference between the Gospel and the Church, and how the two words are not interchangeable. "We can be active in the church, but less-active in the Gospel." It is easy to measure activity in the church - attending meetings and activities you can stick a number to. But it is much harder to measure the things of the Gospel - how much faith do I have? How repentant are we? Are we striving to keep the Spirit in our lives? I really enjoyed it.

Also I have 3 fun facts for the day stemming from general conference!
1) Dallin H. Oaks mentioned Sarah and Charles Rich. Those are Budd Rich's (the guy we live with) great grandparents.
2) David S. Baxter, who spoke in the Saturday afternoon session about single mothers, IS in fact Baxter's (the guy from college) dad.

3) In the MTC Choir, the final song, the camera ended on none other than Elder David Archuleta, front and center.

So remember that family I mentioned last week? We were unable to teach them again because the dad had to go to an IV treatment in Pocatello ... But let me give you a list of his symptoms. He has peripheral neuropathy and can't feel either of his legs. He has diabetes and has to take insulin regularly. Because of his diabetes he has lost most of his left foot. He recently had a minor heart attack and had to go to the hospital. And last Thursday, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He hasn't smoked a day in his life and no one in his family has had it in the past. I feel so bad for the guy - he's so humble and he's a great guy. But what can we tell him? What do you tell someone who has already experienced more in his 40 year lifetime than most of us will in our entire lives? I don't know anything about trials - I'm a 19 year old kid. And here I am trying to tell him how his life can be better by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's kind of shaken me up a bit. It's been a real test of my faith and testimony talking to him, and I've had to be confident in what we're teaching. I KNOW that it can help him and also help his family. I know that the Lord promises us blessings when we follow his commandments. But I can't promise him that his diabetes, heart problems, and cancer will go away and that his foot will grow back. All we can do is continue to follow the promptings of the Spirit and guide them as Heavenly Father would have us guide them.

We had another interesting teaching experience last Wednesday. Elder Billmire and I had one of the BEST lessons I've ever taught on my mission, hands down. We were teaching Kami again and everything was just flowing PERFECTLY. Like it was literally the smoothest transitioning, clearest, best lesson I've ever taught. The Spirit prompted us to commit her to a date, so we did. And she said NO! I couldn't believe it. The environment was perfect - we taught about prayer, prophets, and the Word of Wisdom. Everything was going according to plan and she was beaming from ear to ear. The reason she said no? She wants to get baptized in JULY, in the SNAKE RIVER! I don't understand. She has to get special permission to do that, and our mission president is definitely going to say no. We were just completely stunned. She went to the Sunday morning session of conference though and secretly I hoped she paid REALLY close attention to Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk... We haven't gotten to talk to her since then, so we'll have to follow up. It was definitely a learning experience for me though. I just wanted her to say yes so badly - not for me, but because I know that it can change her life in ways that she doesn't even comprehend yet. Once again though, we can teach importance, promise blessings, and pray for them, but ultimately it's their agency. They have to decide for themselves. I am a servant of the Lord who invites people to come to Christ, and if they say no, all I can do is pray.

I forgot one quote that I heard at conference that has been resonating with me. I've heard it before, but I couldn't find it anywhere in Preach My Gospel so I figured I'd look it up. “Our missionaries are going forth to different nations . . . the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” End quote. Joseph Smith. I'm sure you've heard it before. If not, then you're welcome.

Man I just can't FOCUS right now. I don't know, maybe I'm just not in the right mindset for e-mails. ADHD has it's downfalls, you know. Hahaha. On the bright side, I usually get a huge burst of energy right around 7 or 8 PM when my medication wears off, and I become extremely personable and my teaching gets a lot better. By the way - Star Valley looks EXTREMELY ugly right now hahaha. I made you guys a few videos that I'll be sending home sooner or later. I made one two weeks ago and then one today. The valley right now is just brown. Brown brown brown as FAR as the eye can see. Hopefully it starts getting green around here.

Dad - Tell Linda Olson kudos on inviting someone to conference! We had two of our investigators attend the Sunday morning session, and from what I've heard they both had positive experiences there. I mean seriously - any way you look at it, you're NOT gonna walk away with bad advice. Andrew Olson (from the one letter I've heard from him) is doing great. He asked me if I miss video games because he is a LOT hahaha. And honestly, truly, I don't! It's weird. There are so many more hours in the day when you're not glued to a computer or TV screen. Tell Ben to give it up! Haha.. You can write more than one letter a week! Oh my gosh.. There was an Elder in my MTC district who literally sent off a letter to his girlfriend every. Single. Day. She even wrote him 3 letters and sent them to the MTC before he even LEFT so he'd get letters the first three days he was there. I'll try to humble myself regarding the stake president. Our mission president has counseled us to do the best we can to work with the ward members and keep the work moving forward. He is called to do his duty, and I know its not my place to try and order him around. Thank you for those passages of scripture - I turn to Helaman 5:12 often and it's a powerful scripture to share with investigators who are looking for a source of light to turn to. I also thought that that particular scripture pairs quite nicely with the talk that Elder Henry B. Eyring gave during the first session of conference. That one and Richard G. Scott's talk on revelation were some of my favorites.

Mom - jeeeez that was a lot of questions. Okay. Starting from the top.. I'm excited for Cody! He'll get to be in London just in time for the Olympics, so there will be a HUGE influx of people to teach! :) Umm.. I'll send some pictures home within the next few weeks. There MAY be something on there that you can use to put on the plaque. We watched conference with Budd and his dog named Ed. The MTC choir was sub-par, but that was to be expected. One because there aren't a whole lot of sister missionaries to choose from and two because they have more important things to do in the MTC than sing. Haha. Tell the Hopkins that I said hi and congratulations to Scott. I DID get the addresses you sent me and have mailed off letters to all of them. This whole general delivery thing is quick! I e-mailed you on Tuesday and the addresses came on Friday. It's a whole lot nicer than the route mail usually has to take.. If you send it to the mission office then they have to forward it again through DENVER. So it takes a few extra days. Be careful when you read Proverbs.. There are a few questionable scriptures in there :). (Proverbs 5:19, for example). And yes, the bunny is gone. Thank you for the electric razor.

Anyhow. I love you all, and look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love,

- Elder Tyler Grant :)

Meet John the Baptist!

Hey everybody!

So Elder Billmire and I hadn't checked the mail since like, last Thursday since we've been busy. So on the way to do e-mails we stopped and checked - holy cow! Letters from Kim Kelly, Ryan and Evan, Josh, AND Nathasia! AND a package from Mom! I just felt awful because Elder Billmire didn't get ANYthing.. But I'm over it. Thanks for all your love, support, and letters. They mean a lot to me :).

So this past week has been CRAZY! For one, we've run into a few interesting people this week that have really stuck out to me. I guess first and foremost would be this guy named John. But he doesn't go by that. He immediately told us that his street name is "John the Baptist." And BOY is he ever! He's a single guy in his 50s who we ran into at the store last Wednesday and we were blown away by how.. well.. "interesting" he was. Hahaha. We introduced ourselves and he told us: "I know who you are! And how BLESSED am I to be in the presence of such WONDERFUL servants of Jesus!" He then started going off quoting some scriptures from the New Testament. We commented how he really knew his stuff, and he replied: "No, not really. I just know my Jesus!" He then told us how he used to be a law enforcement officer and every time he arrested someone he'd hand them a Bible while he gave them their Miranda Rights. As we were leaving, he asked me what my first name was. Confused, I told him, and he said: "Bless you, Tyler. Bless you and bless your family and bless and praise the Lord Jesus!!" He was like, yelling in the store! Hahaha it was so funny.

Last Wednesday I DID get to be interviewed by President Olson, and it was just awesome. I discovered that interviews are kind of just a get-to-know President time and we kinda just talked one on one about how the work has been going, how my studies have been, and a whole bunch of other random things. He's truly an awesome President and I'll be sad when he goes. But he told me and Elder Billmire that he's PRETTY sure we'll be in Star Valley together again next transfer because the work is going so well, and he'll leave me there for another transfer after THAT so Billmire can go elsewhere. So basically he told me that I'll be in Wyoming till July! I'm SO excited! That also means that I'm pretty much safe from the mission switch and I get to stay around and help out all the people we're meeting with for a while. Its looking like 4 and a half months here, if not 6! But yeah that day we had to drive down to Smithfield to get interviewed, which is almost a 3 hour drive from where we are.. THAT sure was a long day.
Another sweet experience we had was on Sunday, where we started teaching a non-member family of five. They've lived here for about 7 months now and have a TON of health problems. The husband has super bad diabetes and as a result has peripheral neuropathy (?) in both of his legs, which has resulted in him losing most of his right foot due to infection. They've had a family fellow shipping them for a while now, and have finally decided to start asking questions and meet with us. We taught them in the member family's home 2 days ago, and it was just amazing to see their countenances change as we explained about the Holy Ghost and Joseph Smith's experiences. They aren't ready to commit for baptism yet, but they have been SO prepared by the Lord in the past few months. It's gonna be awesome.

So yesterday, Billmire had to go to some training meeting down in Ogden (4+ hours away) so he left me in Logan with some other missionaries. And it just so happened that these were the missionaries that serve on campus at Utah State University! So I got to spend a whole day on campus talking to and teaching people my age! It was way awesome and far far FAR different than anything I've ever done. In Tremonton and Star Valley, we work mostly through the members to find people to teach. But at USU, it's highly weighted on straight up contacting - walking up to strangers and asking them questions, and seeing if anyone they know would like to meet with us. It was way cool! It was also really strange to be around so many guys and girls my age - I think I've kind of missed that for a while. But all in all, it was a great learning experience for me and if I ever get transferred to a "contacting" area, I'll feel much more confident!

Hmm.. Well the MyLDSMail interface has shifted or something and it won't let me open up another tab with your questions in it.. Let me try and troubleshoot...

Okay got it! Well in terms of the plaque, I think I'd have to say 3 Nephi 5:13 " Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." It's a scripture that I have come to love as I continually strive to fulfill my purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. In terms of a picture, I do not have one. Maybe you can use one of the pictures that Camille Carr took? They look nice - even if it's not in a shirt and tie, it's still a well done picture and its about the only portrait-style pictures I've had in the past few years.

Questions time! Dad - That's funny about reading the Hunger Games. I was about the same way when I read it, but I read it on the way to getting some fingerprinting done in Omaha. Have you seen the movie? I think it's weird - that's like the FIRST movie that I've actually wanted to see BEFORE my mission and now I can't! I thought it was funny. Haha tell Mrs. Schmitt I said hi! Maybe there IS a more diverse audience than I thought reading my letters home. I might have to start editing myself.. Haha. I've been totally fine on money. I've heard of missionaries in other missions struggling to have enough to the end of the month, but I have NEVER had a problem, especially because where we live right now I don't even have to buy groceries.. I look forward to receiving the videos and stuff from you, and I think I MAY know what Skousen talk you mean. Then again, he DOES talk a lot on the Atonement. The one I've read is called "Building Blocks of the Universe," which is an AWESOME talk. You don't have to feel guilty about not writing a lot! I mean, I AM the one on a mission! I should be the one that has a lot to say anyway. One question I guess - was there any particular portion of the Book of Mormon that you found strength in while on your mission? Whenever I feel discouraged or let down on myself, I have found myself continually turning to 2 Nephi 4 for strength. Nephi's testimony practically glows from the pages!

Mom - It IS kind of weird not being called Tyler anymore. I'm sure I'm not to the point yet, but I wonder if the day will come when I won't even recognize it if someone calls me by my first name..? That'd be SO strange! It still sounds like the missionaries are tearing it up in Storm Lake! I'm going to be amazed when I come back and the cultural hall will be full of chairs and people filling up every pew.. What a sight that would be! I AM extremely excited about conference! The way I see it, I never come away from conference with bad advice! I wish I could have gone down to Salt Lake to go to the conference center, but hey. I've got till November 2013 to seize that opportunity! I pray that seminary is still going well for you! And yes I got the package today from you and have been eating the Starburst Jellybeans the entire time I've been typing this letter... Makes me wish we had a Wal-Mart around here so I could go buy some before Easter is over. I hope your knee heals and stuff and things. I'll write a short e-mail for Evan after I send this one, so keep an eye open for that one.

Anyways - I appreciate all your letters, and hope to hear from others soon! (If you feel like it.. :) ) The work in Star Valley is rolling right along, and we're still pushing each and every day to make it better.

I love you all!!

- Elder Tyler Grant :)

Elk Burgers

Hello again everybody!

Actually, I have no idea how many people read these e-mails I send home. Seriously, who has the time to read all the junk I send? Hahaha..

Well this past week has been fruitful once more! We committed one more person to baptism last week, and have come ever closer with a few more of our investigators. I totally forgot my planner this week... What a drag. So my adventures that I can remember may be a wee bit shorter. I think my favorite thing about Star Valley is that people actually follow through on their commitments! Whether we leave them an invitation to pray, read the scriptures, or go to church, the majority of our investigators will actually DO it! We're still having more lessons than ever before in Tremonton, and people ACTUALLY going to church means that they aren't slowed down in their journey towards baptism! Plus - the amazing thing about having General Conference in a few weeks is that we can INSTANTLY make that invitation to everyone we see! It's been weird talking to people who aren't members of the church who say that they don't want anything to do with our message, but they will sit and watch every session of conference just to hear what President Monson has to say. I mean how cool is that?

With one of our investigators this week, we had an AWESOME lesson about Satan. I know, that's not exactly worded right. But she's a lady who has been going to church with her husband for the past few months, and is getting closer to Christ every time she goes. I've never seen so much opposition in one person's behalf by the adversary before. It seems like every time she tries to do the right thing, something wrong happens. I won't go into specifics I guess. But one of the coolest moments of this past week was on Sunday, where I was able to take part in blessing their baby, Sarateli. Her husband was the one who blessed the baby, which was an amazing thing for him, since he's been less-active for basically his entire life, and in the past few months he's made some incredible changes and was able to be worthy to perform the blessing. But he told us that that entire day leading up to the blessing, he could FEEL the influence of Satan trying to beat him down and tempt him. He said that continued up until he walked into the church that day, and everything just left. As SOON as he walked in the door, all doubts and negative thoughts left him. The Spirit was so strong at that meeting - it was an experience I won't forget. Kami and her husband are also going down to Salt Lake to watch conference, so that should be an amazing testimony builder for her. I'm so stoked.

I'm finally going to be getting interviewed by President Olson tomorrow! It's been weird - usually he does interviews every other transfer, but I've been out for like.. 4 months.. And haven't been interviewed yet. Something about mission conference screwing up transfers or something. I don't really know. But it might be my only interview from President Olson! I may get one more, come to think of it. But after that, it'll be our NEW mission president! AAAHHHH!!! His name is President Hiers and he's from Massachusetts, and he's an ex-MARINE! OH NO!! Yeah I'm probably not going to be happy about that. But maybe it'll be good for me to have some authority clamping down to drive me to do better. President Olson is awesome and he's pretty laid back - plus I'm 4 hours from Ogden, so I'm so far out of his clutches that the temptation to not obey all the rules is definitely a real thing. But I'm still trying to do my best every day to follow the rules. I know my weaknesses and I know my Heavenly Father gives them to me to make me stronger, and He has provided me with opportunities to overcome them while I'm here. I'm just hoping that my weaknesses won't prevent me from finding everyone that I'm supposed to find while I'm here. I can say it's my mission, but really its His. As it says in 3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I have been called OF HIM to declare HIS WORD among HIS PEOPLE, that THEY might have everlasting life." That's a pretty unselfish scripture, and I love it.

By the way - people have asked me what scripture I put on my "plaque" ... And I don't have a plaque! In fact, I don't think I'd ever even HEARD of them until I came here. I don't know if you have, but if you haven't - basically its something that gets hung up in the church buildings with a picture of the missionary, their favorite scripture, and a picture of their mission area. I swear I've never heard of them before, but people tell me that when I don't have one, I'm a disgrace! Hahaha.. It's not quite that bad, but they're hung up in every single church building I've ever been in. I just thought that'd be sweet to see 3 missionary plaques hung up in our small little branch building :). Just a thought. Oh and here's the website where they get them from.. (http://www.ldsspecialtygifts.com/mission.html) just in case you wanted to look. No biggie.

Spiritual thought? Kay! This week I was studying Joseph Smith History a little more in-depth and came across a verse that I really liked.. It's the second half of verse 20, where Joseph Smith recognizes the opposition of Satan in the work he's been engaged in. It says: "... It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?" We were teaching this guy who had a similar question to Joseph's inquiry: WHY does our religion get so much persecution? Why does everyone single us out and Mormons get "hated on" so much (as he put it)? There is only one conclusion I have come up with: It is true. NO other religion has been attacked, questioned, and tried like ours. Just as Satan tried to turn everything he had on Joseph Smith and his followers from an early period in his life, he was trying to smother the flames of Restoration before they started to spread. But he couldn't. The church grew then, and the church continues to grow. So if this church is true, why are we so scared to talk about it? Where do these thoughts of doubt, fear, and inadequacy come from? I can promise you they don't come from God. Think about Joseph Smith's experience once more. That fateful morning as he went out alone to pray, as he was about to receive quite possibly the most important and world changing revelation of all time, what did Satan do? Let's go to Joseph Smith's own words: "... I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak." There you have it. Satan tried to bind his tongue. He figured that if he could just stop Joseph from uttering that prayer, he could prevent the Restoration of Christ's true church from ever happening. But he couldn't! God and Jesus Christ DID appear to him that day, and called him to be a prophet. So - those feelings of fear and apprehension that we have about sharing the message of the Gospel with our friends and neighbors. They are very real, and they are from Satan - he tries to bind our tongue so that we cannot speak. He gives us fear so that we feel we cannot share this glorious message with our friends. But there is one more scripture I'll share with you. It is one of my absolute FAVORITES. Moroni 8:16 tells us how we can overcome these feelings: "... Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." Love. Love conquers fear. If we love our friends and neighbors as our brothers and sisters, we will not be afraid to bear our testimonies to them. Sorry for the lengthy thought.. It's just been on my mind this week. :)

Dad - That's so crazy to hear about the weather there! This morning it was -6 degrees... Rather chilly. And that's so awesome about having a baptism! Congratulate Vern for me, will ya? Hold up. Deidra's new baby..? Did she have her baby!? AH! If so, that's way exciting. And has it really been 8 years since Aunt Kim visited Iowa? Dang! That's like.. Almost 9 years! Hahaha.. So airsoft guns have a history? Wow. But that's not the FIRST time something was big in Japan before it hit the U.S... Just some of the products in Japan are STRICTLY .. uhh .. Japanese. Case in point - the lobster-claw-vending machine? :) Feel free to send pictures/videos of the completed airsoft gun if it ever gets going.. That'll be legit. And cockroaches are icky. Wait. Are you an American citizen yet!? CAN YOU VOTE!? I'm sure as soon as the polls are up, you'll go vote for good old Obama.. Not really. Everyone here is very keen about telling me JUST how they feel about Obama, and they aren't shy about their colorful language either. :) Just try asking them how they feel about the EPA and all their silly regulations. It's pretty funny.

Mom - I know you're handicapped when it comes to typing. I do notice that your emails are considerably less detailed and way shorter than dad's. Yes I got those chips last transfer - did I not thank you for those? I guess you told me to stop talking about ketchup chips, so I kinda did.. :P What do we eat in Star Valley? Umm. People feed us burgers a lot. I've had Elk and Deer for the first time since I've been here, but I've taken to not asking what the burgers are made of. Other than that, they're normal people so they eat normal food. Is that what you were asking? Missionaries have lived with Brother Rich for about 2 years now. Crazy, right? But his wife is deceased and I think he enjoys the company. I DID receive my health card. I don't remember what I'm supposed to use it for. It's in my wallet though. $100 for a package to Australia!? Goodness gracious! Count your blessings, mom.. Haha. Poor Ben. Oh. And if you want to send me a package, it might even be easier if you bypass the mission office. My new address is:

Elder R. Tyler Grant
General Delivery
Afton, WY 83110

So it's not really an address. But it'll get here quicker! :D

Anyways. I can't think of anything else remarkable that's happened. Keep me in your prayers, and I'll keep loving every day that I'm here. :)

Love you all!

- Elder Tyler Grant

Star Valley, Wyoming

Hi again!

How's everybody been? I hope it's been all right! As I read through the e-mail I sent you last week, I realized that it was possibly the longest e-mail I've ever sent. Which makes me feel I deserve a pat on the back. *Applause*

SO! This week has been way sweet in terms of the work! We had more lessons with a member present in the past week than any of the 12 weeks I was in Tremonton, and we're still picking up investigators every day! In fact, we picked up 4 new investigators between March 5th and March 11th. Which is almost unheard of unless it's an entire family, but they're 4 separate individuals! In fact, in this mission, our mission president has redefined the terms of 'new investigator' that they are NOT an investigator until they say they'll be baptized! So that's 4 people who are that much closer to taking the step of faith to follow Christ. High fives all around!

Last Thursday we had an awesome experience at a Family Home Evening. There's this guy named Brian who has been inactive for most of his life. In the past few months, he's made a lot of changes in his life and has decided to start going to church again, so he's been going pretty regularly. Well Brian invited us over to his home to share a message at their family home evening, and we discovered that his wife and two kids are not members of the church. We had NO intention of committing any of them to baptism, because although that's what we normally do on the first lesson, we were just going to share a thought with them to invite the Spirit. His wife has been Anti in the past and is JUST starting to come around and realize that the Church isn't so bad. Well his wife was sick so she was asleep when we got there, so we just taught Brian and his two sons, one who is 13 and one is 7. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ - how Christ led by example and showed us the pathway we need to live life in order to return to our Heavenly Father. As we shared about faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the holy ghost, the 13 year old got really excited. He's been going to church with his dad on some weeks but other weeks he's been going to the baptist church.. Which is pretty funny. But after we were done, he said "So that's what I need to do to get to heaven." We asked him what he meant. "Well, I have faith, and I know how to repent.. So I guess I should probably get baptized as soon as possible!" It was so awesome! We had no intention of pressing the issue, but in the end the Spirit did its own thing and he committed himself for baptism 3 weeks from now! Hahaha.

Oh! On Sunday Elder Billmire and I spoke in sacrament meeting about missionary work (which we often do..) and a guy came up to me afterward and asked me what part of Iowa I'm from. I answered with the usual, telling him Northwest Iowa pretty close to Omaha. He then told me he was born in Storm Lake and moved to Fonda when he was in elementary school. Small world moment number one!

In terms of the weather around here, It's been pretty.. Well, I don't know! It's gotten to be like, -5 degrees a few times, but I don't understand! It doesn't FEEL cold! You know what I mean, right? In Iowa there's that wet, biting cold that sinks into your clothes and skin and never leaves. There's also the ridiculous wind that makes it feel 20 degrees colder at all times. But Star Valley.. Doesn't seem to have that! Yeah, it gets cold just about every day. But you don't FEEL it. The air here is dry so it doesn't soak in and stay. And the wind is almost non-existent a lot of the time. The valley is completely surrounded by mountains, so it kind of cuts off most of the wind. I've only worn my winter boots one time, and that was when Elder Billmire and I decided to make a snowman in our backyard! And what a snowman that was... The snow here sucks. It's not wet and is hard to pack. So our snowman ended up looking like a giant dog turd. Oopsie daisies! Pictures will be included next time I send home stuff.

Haha last Saturday we had an interesting day too! Afton is kind of a small community in itself. But! On Tuesday, the boys and girls basketball team left (and so did half of Star Valley..) to go play at the state championships, which lasted all the way till Saturday! The girls got 4th in the state and the boys got 2nd, which is pretty good! Until you try and realize just how many high schools there are in Wyoming.. Hahaha. But anyway! It's been difficult to find people home since they've been gone. But on Friday and Saturday, there's something called the Hill Climbs that was going on up in Grover, Wyoming. And we didn't think anything of it until Saturday, when we drove down main street and didn't see a SINGLE car! There was literally nobody home. At all. So we decided in an effort to try and do SOMEthing for the day, that we'd drive up and check out what these hill climbs were. And it turns out they're super cool! We went into a canyon and the gist of the hill climbs is exactly what it sounds like. People ride their snowmobiles up sheer inclines (up an entire mountain, steep as a wall..) while swerving through slalom gates and dodging walls and ramps to see who gets the fastest time! I took plenty of pictures and saw plenty of snowmobile wipe outs. Try and imagine a $12,000 snowmobile barrel-rolling down a mountain towards you. It gets intense! But we did get to talk to some people, and the majority of the people there were drinking beer and smoking, so we found the right crowd to hang out with!

On one more slightly less fun note that I'm sure Dad will make fun of me for, I've noticed that since I've come out on my mission, my ... "aversion" to blood has become much more, shall we say, intense! Yesterday morning, I woke up at about 6:00 AM to feel my nose starting to bleed, and I caught it before it made a huge mess of my sheets and blankets. But I couldn't get it to stop bleeding for over an hour, and the amount of blood that left me scared me. Every time I tried to stand up, I lost my balance or blacked out or got a huge throbbing headache. It's mostly gone today and I'm sure most of it is psychological, but it kinda freaked me out to say the least.

Okay time for Dad's spiritual thought! This past week I was reading through the Pearl of Great Price a little bit, realizing that I never really 'studied' it while I was in seminary. But there was a verse that really kind of stuck out to me and it's kind of a depressing one, honestly. In the book of Moses, the Lord shows Enoch EVERYTHING. Enoch sees the entire world that God has created, and he even sees our day. It's Moses 7:26 that hit me super hard. As Enoch is looking over our day: "And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced." How true is that today? The verse that makes it even more powerful is 7:28: "And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept." God can see us. We are all his children. His work, his glory, his joy is to see us all progress, choose to follow Christ, and be happy. But how much harder would it be to look upon us and see that despite everything he's given us, Satan has taken hold of the hearts of the people and is laughing as he is dragging people down. The end of verse 36 seals the deal: "... and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren." People slip up. Satan wins his fair share of battles. But it's up to us to show our Heavenly Father that we are grateful for what he has given us, and return to live with him again.

Mom - *gasp* did you get to eat at HuHot? Oh how I miss that place.. In Star Valley it's pretty sparse as to establishments for eating. There's a Burger King. And a Subway. And a Mexican restaurant. And a steakhouse. And that's pretty much it. Tell you MORE about my new area!? I swear I told you enough! Okay.. We live with a man named Budd  - he's in his 80s and his wife is deceased. He lives WAYYYY up on the mountainside and we have to drive a super long muddy road to get to his house. He lives on the main floor and we have the upper floor to ourselves. It's about the same size as the Tremonton apartment, if not a little bit smaller. I'll have to make a video of it like I did last time if you'd like? Anyway - Budd buys us groceries! He keeps the pantry and fridge full of food so we don't ever have to buy anything.. I swear, in this mission I'm so spoiled. :) We went to 5 sacrament meetings last Sunday but spoke in just one of them. There seem to be a LOT of people around here who are non members that go to church with their member spouses, and they just haven't been baptized! There's a lady who has been going to church for 30 years now and has never taken that step. There's also a guy who goes every single week, has a calling (scoutmaster), and even gives talks in church when he's asked to, but he's not a member! I mean what the heck! Oh, can you send me my electric razor? I mean, I totally miss that thing.. Shaving cream every single day can get pretty annoying.

Dad - An airsoft gun, huh?  Who knew that even YOU could descend to such a juvenile field! Haha joking, obviously. It just seems so.. Not cool compared to blowing up pumpkins! I'm sure it will be awesome. Uhh.. I think it'd be easiest if you sent it to me on a USB drive. I think I'm going to start using one of those to back up my pictures on. That 8GB SD card you sent me doesn't work on my camera! I'm pretty sure it's the fact that my camera is like.. 4 years old and isn't compatible with anything anymore. So if you send it on a USB I can watch the video AND save all my pictures on it. It's a win-win! I can't wait to see how legit Ryan's piano performance is. I DID get the e-mail Papa sent me, and I guess I never wrote him back? I thought I did, but I don't see anything in the sent mail box. So I'll shoot one his way. For district meetings we actually meet up in Thayne which is 15 minutes away, but it's still in Star Valley. Elder Billmire and I cover the bottom half of the valley and there are two other goofballs that cover the north half. For District Leader Training, however, we have to drive to Montpelier, which is about, an hour away. There, the district leaders meet with the zone leaders for trainings and stuff, and I kinda just sit out and play piano and study. And I totally have those verses highlighted already! It's a pretty awesome story - but what's funnier is if you look up those scriptures (which are in the left column of the left hand page) if you look in the right column right across from it, there's a story about a lady who is mad at another lady that tricked her into boiling and eating her baby. So yes, it's definitely still Old Testament. :)

I think that about wraps it up for this week! I got a letter from Andrew Olson, which put a smile on my face for the day. Man I miss that kid. But if you think about it, he's only been out in the mission field for 4 weeks longer than I have. He just spent a transfer and a half in the MTC. So we've had similar time frames with trainers/transfers/etc. I love it here in Star Valley, and I miss all of you!

Love you all!

- Elder Tyler Grant