I officially hit 1 year today!! It’s kinda crazy to think I’m already halfway done. It felt like yesterday was new years but then again high school and being back home felt like 3 years ago haha. It’s just really interesting thinking about everything that has changed in a year. There are certainly some things I never would have thought would happen that did, but also changes in myself that I didn’t expect to see. It’s been an interesting year, that’s for sure.
We found some pretty cool people to teach this week! It’s been cool to see people open up and turn their hearts to God. We were planning on biking around tuesday night but the valve stem on my front tire ripped off, so I had to go buy a new tube. We knocked the door of a guy who we taught but moved to Mexico, but his son answered and said we could come back so it was cool! Then as we were walking away the lady across the street was leaving too and stopped us. Elder Spencer had taught her in the past and she wanted us to come back in a few days. It was cool to see everything from having to go to Walmart and buy a new tube, help time everything perfectly so we could talk to Camina. God is good.
We were driving home and a bit late too, but saw a car parked on the bridge stopped with people waving towels out the window. We flipped around to see how we could help them. The bridge doesn’t have any shoulders so they were just stopped in the right lane. Their car died and they couldn’t put their hazards on or anything because the battery was toast. Thankfully we saw them and were able to park behind them and turn our hazards on before it got dark. We didn’t have any jumper cables but I thought we should at least try ans push them off the bridge out of traffic. For some reason the car was just stuck in park and wouldn’t move at all. So we couldn’t help a ton but at least made them visible in the dark. A cop came later and put his lights on so we could leave. But we gave the ladies our card and at least they have a good impression of us and the church haha.
Wednesday morning: a disaster. Our mission decided to do a mission wide “park your car” which is funny because we used to do this in my previous districts. But basically nobody was allowed to use our cars on that day. I still had to change my tire on my bike. I get the tube changed and all we have are the little hand pumps and I swear I was pumping for like 10 straight minutes. It pumped up a tiny bit but wouldn’t go all the way. I finally just took the tube off again and pumped it up alone. Sure enough, my brand new tube had a whole in it. So I had to patch my brand new tube!! How ridiculous! Also I made sure to check the rim and inside the tire for rocks and debris before putting it on, so no I did not pop the tire myself. THEN of course the one day we can’t use our car it hits 110⁰… very fun…
We did some service at Life Message which is the local foodbank and it was pretty fun. They have a little clothing donation section. Our friend Eric thatworks there is this tall big black dude and he’s hilarious. (WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT) One of the ladies working there too grabbed this huge bra and put it on him. He walked in and yells “my boobs are too big” it was so funny.
Thursday we had 3 lessons cancel but at every lesson we ended up finding a new person to teach lol. We taught Camina and it was so cool! Her daughter has been battling cancer and will be going in for another treatment in a few days. She’ll stay at the hospital for 3 weeks. It was such a powerful lesson and we helped her understand that God wasn’t punishing her with this trial and stuff. It was super spiritual and we were kinda going back and forth with Spanish and English so everybody could understand. They had these adorable little shitzus that were super soft ans fluffy. One of them threw up in me… but it was worth it.
When we got home the other Elders called us because they were with a guy they think is having a stroke but doesn’t speak English. We ran over and the dude did speak English but took like 10 full seconds to answer our questions. It was really weird. He also had a hospital bracelet on too but didn’t say where it was from. I named a bunch of different hospitals and asked him if it was the one he was in and he said yes to all of them lol. We called the police and they came and checked his out and it was all good. We asked them if they knew detective K Hughes because he’s the one looking for Elder Wait’s bike. We talked to them about his bike and one officer off to the side ran over and was like, “Red Trek? Where??” It was so funny. He was completely serious too. Literally all of the officers are on a hunt for Elder waits bike
The other elders moved into our apartment complex so that’s super exciting except they’re on the 3rd floor lol.
Saturday night we went to Brenda but she wasn’t home so we talked to these Hispanics across the street. They told us to go to the old lady next to Brenda because “she’s mean”. We walked over and chatted with Karen for probably an hour. It was a crazy conversation. Basically she has a ton of cats and let some Farrel cats inside too. Her neighbors called the police on her for it and so they took the kittens and were basically gonna kill all the Farrel cats. Because she had so many they also charged her with animal abuse. She was heartbroken. She said one cat they took was the love of her life and he had shown her more affection than any other person has. She was crying and it was all so sad. With all the fines and bills and stuff she loses her house on August 1st. She says she doesn’t believe in God because he wouldn’t allow all this to happen to her. I felt the spirit pretty strong and I remembered something I was told on my first day in the mission field. As missionaries we have the power to promise blessings. So I looked at Karen and told her that I was going to pray for her tonight but when I pray I was going to pray that she will come to know her identity as a daughter and child of God. I promised her that as I did so, she would feel it in her heart that she was a child of God. I also asked her if I could have some family and friends pray for her too and she said it was okay. So if you could do me a favor I would greatly appreciate it if you kept Karen in your prayers.
Sunday was good, we had church and then had dinner with a young couple. They’re super cool and we talked about their missions and it was fun. We had English classes and I always love them! Jose from Venezuela pulled up again and he helped me with some of my Spanish questions too haha.
Our AC went out so when we got home our apartment was 89⁰ Saturday night we just dealt with it but it was only 85⁰. So last night we were like nah. So we slept at the other Elders apartment on the floor.
Spiritual thought: just a quote from Jeffrey R. Holland:
“But when such difficult moments come to us, I testify that there is one thing which will never, ever fail us. One thing alone will stand the test of all time, of all tribulation, all trouble, and all transgression. One thing only never faileth—and that is the pure love of Christ.”
I love you all and hope your week has been good! Don’t forget that you’re always a representative of Jesus Christ :)) muchos besos!! and remember, God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!!
Love Elder Grubbs
