Au revoir to the City of Love

Hello friends and family! Unfortunately my time has come to finally leave Paris. It doesn’t quite feel real yet to be honest. I’ve been here almost 8 months so it’s crazy to think I’m actually leaving. This place has really come to be my home and I love the people here so much. A very bittersweet moment. I’m headed to Marshall which is a Spanish area so that’s super exciting but I also reeeeeally don’t wanna leave Paris haha. I just really hate goodbyes.


I apologize for no email last week, I had a lot on my mind that I needed to process and wasn’t in the right place to write an email. Last week wasn’t super eventful but a few fun things happened. We got bashed… I was very polite but I also believe I’m here to defend my faith. So basically I used my “resolving concerns” Bible (copied from Elder Bond) and very kindly destroyed his testimony and proved him wrong with the Bible. When you get bashed you will come to know that it’s a complete waste of time and no matter what you say, they won’t believe you or listen to. So after a little bit of “conversation” I just stopped and said, “Todd why are you here?” He then said “To convert you to Christianity” I straight up laughed out loud. I couldn’t believe it. People actually think we’re not Christian. We were in a pavilion at a park so I started to wonder what the other parents and adults thought about our conversing. I wondered if any of them thought, “Huh. Maybe those Mormons are on to something…” because basically they heard us arguing, todd using YouTube videos he watched as his source and I was quoting straight from the Bible. But after all was said and done we both left smiling so don’t worry about me hurting his feelings or anything. It just strengthened my testimony about how the gospel is so plain and simple and just makes sense. And some people are too stubborn to open their eyes and see it. Todd made a complete fool of himself and then to make himself feel better he posted all these anti-mormon stuff on Facebook tagging me and stuff lol. So immature…


Last week we had Zone Pday last week and it was super fun. We went down to Gilmer to a member owned clubhouse. They had pool, dartboard, ping pong, shuffle board, racquetball court that we played volleyball in, gym, movie theater, bean bags, like 5 pin ball machines, and dozens of arcade games. It was suuuuper cool.


This week I also went to my first Hibachi grill place that they like cook in front of you and stuff. It was super cool. I had salmon, chicken, a bit of calamari, and some sushi. It was so amazing. The mathews took us there cause I’d never been and they knew I was probably getter transfered.


Hermana Perschon and Sister Allred are going home! It’s so sad! Hermana Perschon has been in my district my whole mission so it’s crazy to think that she’s leaving. But for district council we had their “funerals” haha and it was a lot of fun.


We listened to the conversion story of Bill Carpenter when we drove to Clarksville and it was so good. It’d about this devout catholic priest dude that became a member and his story is insane. The ending was incredible and had goosebumps the whole time. If you ever want a super spiritual story I highly recommend listening to it. It really motivated me as a missionary too.


We played football with the youth on Saturday and jt was so fun! I’ve missed football and just sports in general. But of course knowing me, I just had to get hurt. So I sprained my ankle a bit lol but nothing terrible. It’s honestly more of an annoyance. I’ve hurt my ankles so much too, so its never fun when they get injured any more.
This week was General Conference! I’ve been so excited for it and it was so good!! We went down to the Wilson’s for the Sunday afternoon session and it was super fun. The Wilson’s are so cool and I love their family so much. Boston is their youngest and we’re best buds. It was super hard to say goodbye to him but I’m grateful for all the memories we’ve made.


I was amazed at how much they talked about missionary work. I was surprised how much they were encouraging serving missions. But I think that’s so cool cause missions are so amazing and you grow so much. So I loved Elder Ballard’s talk about that. I also loved Elder Hollands and Elder Uchtdorfs talks! I love the idea of spiritual momentum and how to acquire that. What did y’all get out of conference?


Thank you all for the love and support you’ve shown me. Every little thing makes a big difference and I truly appreciate the thoughts and prayers. Those little things that may appear small and insignificant to you, have a big impact on me and I’m truly grateful. I love you all and hope you have a great 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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