This week has had its challenges as well as its blessings. Despite the difficulties, I learned a lot and had some neat insights. Elder Lynn G. Robbins came to our mission and spoke with us at zone conference and it was pretty cool. At first I was pretty nervous because most times when they come they just go off about everything we should be doing and what we’re doing wrong and stuff like that. But our mission is a pretty dang obedient mission compared to most so he didn’t have anything negative to say about us. I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear the message he gave us though…
Our mission president always emphasizes “lock your heart”. So basically focus on the work and don’t flirt or think about someone else while you’re on the mish. When you have a whopping 18 months left on the mission you don’t expect someone to give a devotional on marriage especially coming from a general authority. So needless to say I was pretty surprised to have general authority discuss marriage for 3 hours.
It was very insightful though and I learned a lot. He had us study a few different talks before zone conference and one of them was a byu devotional he gave titled, “100% responsible”. It was really interesting and he shared some cool stories. He discussed swallowing your pride and becoming one with your spouse. “The successful man finds a way, and the failure finds an excuse.” He also said so many couples excuses for divorce and what not were “we fell out of love”. He then stated that it is impossible to fall out of love. You simply cannot fall out of love. And he talked about how we are given agency, and accountability with every commandment and covenant we make. He then went into how to strengthen your relationship and love with your spouse. He said, “If you want true and everlasting love, you need to love your spouse with a christlike love and with charity. He finished his claim stating, “that it’s impossible to fall out of love if you’re willing to love Christ and God together as a couple.” We then talked about a diagram (I will place it below) but it’s a triangle where the two bottom corners are the husband and the wife, and the top corner is God. It shows the distance (the closeness or love) between spouses. As you continue to love God together, you grow closer together. He also talked about how Satan’s strategy is to divide and conquer. So when argument or contention takes place, remember it’s us against the problem not against each other. It was a really insightful devotional but made me really trunky haha.
They dissolved the Clarksville area so now we cover the whole ward. Which is pretty crazy since there used to be 6 elders and 3 areas in this ward. Our area is massive now. We’re 30 min from the border of our old area and now that’s like maybe halfway across our area. There’s literally so much work here too. We’re teaching like 22 solid people and have about 8 that very well could be baptized within the next couple of months if they come to church. It’s actually crazy how busy we are. Alfred is still on date for the 12 which I’m super excited for but he still needs to stop smoking. So please keep him in your prayers.
I’m so grateful to be on a mission and to have these experiences that help me learn and grow. The mission is really shaping who I am and I’m so beyond thankful for how it’s changing my life. A quote that always keeps me going is a sign I saw in a members home next to a picture of Jesus. It said “I never said it would be easy, I just said it would be worth it.” So just remember when life gets tough, you can get through it. It’s never easy. But it’ll 110% be worth it. God is more interested on your growth than your comfort. I love you all and I’m grateful for your thoughts and prayers. Muchos Besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good 
Love Elder Grubbs
