A walk down memory lane in Gilmer

Wow what a week!!!! It has literally been sooooo crazy and so much has happened! I have so much to talk about! 

I’ll start off with my day in Tuesday. Right after personal study we drove down to Gilmer for exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Strain who actually went to Timpview. We had basically no luck going from person to person until we had finally one lesson that wasn’t canceled. This lesson I never knew would have such an impact on me. It was with Chenin and her son Kyle. Elder Strain and I taught taught Restoration and dove right into the Restoration Proclamation going paragraph by paragraph. It was really cool. Elder Strain talked the most in the beginning because I just didn’t know what to say or add because he had it taken care of and he’s thr zone leader so how am I gonna have anything better to say than him?? I mean I’ve been out 4 weeks! But then I bore my testimony and shared the analogy from my last email about about the dots being the Bible and book of Mormon. They’ve been to so many churches and just wanted to find the right one for them. They basically agreed to get baptized if they received an answer that the book of Mormon was true. The spirit was so strong and it was so cool. Then we started talking about how her foot had been bothering her because she had just gotten surgery and hated not being able to go to work. We offered to give her a blessing and I felt so strongly that I should do it. Keep in mind this would be the my first blessing with oil for the sick and afflicted. Even though I was nervous, I felt super prompted to give her the blessing rather than elder Strain doing it for me. I had my oil with me too which was awesome because elder strain didn’t have any. I gave her a blessing and it was so cool blessing with her with how I felt and what I felt I needed to say. She was crying after and said as soon as we put our hands on her head she felt the power and the holy ghost. It was so good for me.

Fast forward an hour and we had dinner scheduled with the Teftellers. Elder Strain told me that bro tefteller knows everyone in Gilmer and I was excited to talk to him since a lot of my family is from here. As soon as we got in the car I told him I was elder Grubbs and he paused for a second, then asked where my family’s from. I told him here in Gilmer so he asked who I was related to. I told him Mack Grubbs and he goes “No way! You’re kidding me!! Are you really???” Mack is my grandpa and I guess Bro tefteller grew up and knew him. They were 3rd cousins and knew my great uncle Bill and it was so cool. We talked a lot at dinner and about my great grandparents and then after dinner he knew I wasn’t able to go to their funeral so he wanted to take me to the cemetery to see their grave and it was really special. I got to see a whole bunch of other family members all over at the Kelsey Cemetary. Then he drove me over to the School house my great grandma taught at and it was really neat to see the places I’ve heard so much about but never had the opportunity to see. It was a really special moment and I’m truly grateful for Glenn Tefteller and his generosity.

Wednesday we drove from Gilmer to Tyler for Zone conference. At first it was all kind of intimidating because everyone knew each other and was excited to meet again and I was just there not knowing anybody. So the first little bit wasn’t the best but when President and Sister Seitz talked it was really good.  Sister Seitz based her talk around President Nelson’s on faith. I loved how they said, if you want to increase your faith, do something the requires more faith. I just never thought about it like that before and it was neat.

On Thursday we met this guy Kolton who was super cool. His family is super christ centered and he owns a gym called revival fitness. He’s got a boy and a girl and then another boy on the way due in March. So he’s pretty young but his family seems really cool and hopefully we can start teaching him. And he told us we could swing by the gym too so that’s a bonus.

Friday we taught April and she seems super interested so that’s really exciting. And got her to watch general conference so that’s pretty cool. We had English classes that night like every Friday and it was super cool and I had fun teaching the lesson and they were Impressed with my Spanish since I haven’t been learning that long, which made me feel good because I’ve felt so insecure about my Spanish and I just wanna be better but I don’t have anyone to really talk to, to improve it. But after classes we went over to Jimmy’s house!! He’s an old convert that we taught a bit to and then he didn’t wanna know anymore and it was sad but now he’s intrigued with Oliver cowdry and so I’m excited to see him more now. But we went over to his house because he had to measure me. Yeah… I was confused too… but I guess he’s buying shirts for the Paris missionaries for Christmas and ordering a special shirt from Saudi Arabia that’s custom fit and everything. I guess it’s super high end and expensive so I felt kinda bad but he was excited and so am I. So who knows what it’ll look like haha. But in excited.

And Conference!!! Holy cow!!! It was so amazing!!! 10 hours of conference have never gone by faster. I was engaged in every single talk and it was just so cool. I have sooooo many notes on everything and it was super cool. One thing specifically I loved was i think it was elder uchtdorf, but he said to have a daily personal Restoration to evaluate your course and make changes to correct your faith. The gospel wasn’t just restored and all is well. Restoration is a process. And not only for the church but for each and every one of us as well. Each day we can strive to better ourselves in one way. It’s as simple as that, but oh so important. We can become new creatures through Christ growing our faith and relationship with him.

I hope you all enjoyed conference just as much as I did and I challenge you all to think about one thing every day that you can change to better yourself. Every step forward is a step in the right direction, no matter how small. I love you all and hope you’re all doing well. Until next week, Muchos Besos!! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good 

Love, Elder Grubbs

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