This week has gone by pretty fast but each day has been pretty long… this week wasn’t super special so this email will probably be pretty short but I’ll tell you’ll about my week nonetheless.
Here in Paris there is an Eiffel tower and its got a cowboy hat and it’s pretty cool. I’ll put some pics at the bottom. It was fun to see that and take some pictures w the other elders in the apartment.
We met this guy named Jimmy who was sitting outside in his driveway. He had a sweet black C6 corvette in his garage next to a Honda grom and a small 125 kawasaki. He was way cool and asked us a ton of questions about the mission and we talked to him for close to 30 minutes. He seemed pretty young and just liked racing his cars and hanging out w his friends. He started to talk to us about what was hard on the mission and talked a ton about not giving up and how we’re doing the right thing. It was pretty motivational and and gave us some wise advice. It was way cool. Then he was like “You probably think I’m some 26 year old that’s just making up stuff” then proceeded to tell us that he was actually 46 and just looked super young. He didn’t want the gospel or anything like that but we gave him our card and he said he would give us a call just to check up on us. Even though he didn’t want to hear our message it was still a cool experience.
We also met with Sheila who Elder Brubaker and Elder Thompson had been teaching and she’s been on date to be baptized for a bit. We had a super great lesson w her about tithing and then the next day said didn’t wanna be baptized and it was way sad. But we followed up w her and I think she’ll still get baptized, but she’s just been dealing w hip surgery and lots of pain physically. She’s also been struggling w the word of wisdom and I think she thinks her goals are unattainable. But we talked w her and I think once she starts to heal from surgery and finds more motivation to stop smoking, she’ll get baptized and progress. I’m super excited for her and she’s just a sweet old lady.
Saturday was probably one of my worst days so far. Looking back it was fine but in the moment the whole day dragged on so much. We stayed in Clarksville so that my comp could do a baptismal interview since he’s the district leader. I did an exchange w Elder Barney and we walked around Clarksville all day. It was exhausted and ridiculously hot. Most people that were outside would see us and run inside taking their kids or anyone w them inside. It was so frustrating and everyone seemed to hate us. Not even one person said yes to even hearing a scripture. It was just devastating. Then to top it all off it started pouring soooooo hard. I had annotated and marked up the restoration proclamation and kept it in my front pocket. So it got soaking wet and totally ruined it and the pass along cards w it. We were drenched and it was so cold. We were in Clarksville so I didn’t have a change of clothes and we were already late to a dinner appointment 45 min away. So I sat in the car, then the members home for dinner, all soaking wet. Then the 30 min drive back to the apartment. And let me tell ya, wet garments are not fun… but then I changed and it was fine.
Sunday I got to teach my first law of chastity lesson… it was…great…. hahaha but it was actually good and the investigator understood it. The most awkward part was having an older couple in the ward in on the lesson. It was fine and probably made him feel better but I was u comfortable. But it went well and nothing wasn’t too weird.
Sunday night we were at the fountain Square and this guy named Johnathan was there w his dog. We started talking to him and he opened up right away. His grandfather had just passed away a couple weeks ago and he’s staying w his grandma and great grandma taking care of them. He never went to college and has been out of drug addiction rehab for 8 months now. He’s had a rough life and his whole family would deal drug’s and it was just a bad situation. But he’s turning his life around. He looked up up his grandpa so much and just wants to make him proud. He wants to go back to school and get an education so that he can have a family and settle down to make his grandpa proud. He told us he was struggling internally and I could tell he needed our message. He kept saying he didn’t know why he opened up so much to us but I knew the spirit was helping him feel connected to us. It was really cool and he had a book of Mormon and I write down our number and I invited him to read 3rd Nephi 11 which is when Christ comes to the America’s. We got his information and I hope we can start teaching him. I knew he just needed to hear about the gospel and it would bring him so much happiness. He said he’s got plenty of time on his hands and needs stuff to do so I hope we can talk to him more and hopefully he’ll read his book of Mormon too.
This email was definitely longer than I was expecting but I hope it was still good. This week was kinda weird but hopefully I’ll have more motivation and a better attitude for this next week. I love y’all so much and I love hearing from you in emails so keep sending them!!! Don’t forget that God loves you and he has a specific plan for each one of us. See y’all next week and remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. God bless and Muchos Besos!!
Love Elder Grubbs
