Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!! This week we had Zone conference and it was soooo sick!! Elder Barnum was conducting so we had to sit on the stand. Not my fav… But conference was super sick and spiritual. President Seitz talked about journaling and it was sick because I’ve always prioritized journaling and haven’t missed a day since I was set apart.
The Stake President, President Rhodus was there with his 2 councilors. During lunch his councilors dressed up as Buddy the Elf and Santa Claus! It was so sick. Everyone got pictures with them after eating. Afterwards we had our white elephant gift exchange. I was super pumped because my gift was a baby carseat. I thought it was so funny. Then to top it off I put a banana inside and drew a cute lil face on it. It was pretty funny to see everyone’s reaction when they opened it. The gilmer sisters took my picture that was sitting in the apartment there from my white elephant gift from last christmas, and used it as their gift. It made me laugh.
After Zone conference we went on exchanges with the Palestine Elders so I went down there for the night and half the next day. I got super carsick on the way there though and did not want to do anything. But after a 30 min nap I was good enough to go out. We knocked a few doors but nobody answered. I heard a TV or some people talking so I was like, ‘yo lets hit this door.’ We knocked and homie let us in. He was super cool though. At first they were like, “Yeah we already know Jesus” But I kept pushing and just asked to share one scripture verse and it was sick. They wanted us to come back and were super greatful.
Elder Barnum got sick so the next 2 days we stayed inside. Super boring but I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom and studied and wrote in my journal and literally everything you can think of. But the first day we went to Walmart to pickup some drugs for Elder Barnum and we had the sickest experience. We went inside and got his medicine and decided to grab some hotwheels and soap while we were there. As we were checking out this random dude payed for us. His mom had him pay for us and I don’t think they were members either. They just said merry Christmas. We were pretty dumbfounded but very grateful. We were walking back to the car and we felt like we needed to go to Target. There were a few reasons but we won’t go into detail. We drove over and had to park pretty far back cause it was PACKED. We were at the 10th row of cars and this one lady stops us and asks if we were ‘Latter-day Saints’. She then was like, “Wow I think God is trying to tell me something.” Aparrently she had run into a few other missionaries and then was thinking about us earlier that day. However our chat went a little south after we started talking because she started talking about the Bible and her “studies/research”. She bashed a tiny bit and asked “Do you beleive in the Word of God or the Book of Mormon?” We then tried to explain how the Book of Mormon is a compantion scripture to the bible and they are both the word of God. She talked about the classic revelations scirpture about not adding to the bible. I hit her with the “Yeah Moses said the same thing but the New Testament is still scripture so…” She started talking about how she knows what witchcraft is and knows how the devil feels. She said missionaries talked to her and she read parts of the Book of Mormon because she told them she would. She then said, “I know what God feels like and that was just not him”. I just paused, not wanting to push it further. I said, “Look, I’m just telling people what makes me happy”. Her whole countenance just changed. She said, “I know. I know” and started to tear up. She said her family went through a rough time and our church was the only one that would help her when they reached out. All the churches they grew up in and payed their tithes and everything. Nobody would help them. But our church helped them with their groceries when nobody else would. Through her tears she said, “I may not agree with that book or what y’all teach, but I do know you are doing good things. I don’t know what it is, but there is something about your church. You are doing something right.” It was a very powerful moment for me. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with the book of mormon, but thanked us and asked if we could pray for her. Her name is Megan. It would mean a lot to me if y’al could include her in your prayers. That she will be able to recognize the power of the Book of Mormon and that God placed us in her path for a reason. I don’t know when her heart will soften but I am so beyond grateful to see her acknowledge the light of christ that we share as we help other people. She may not believe any of our doctrine, but she does understand we try to have and share charity, the pure love of Christ. To make things even crazier, we went inside target and looked at a few things. As we were looking down one isle a lady stops us and asks if we work there. We told her we did not but were missionaries for our church. She said “okay good” and then told us how she was in a bad marriage and in 2015 her house burned down and took her 4 dogs with it. Everybody sided with her husband and she felt like she had nothing left. The missionaries would go to her house and pray with her everyday. She said she contemplated taking her life, but the missionaries that came to pray with her was the only thing that got her through it. She didn’t take the discussions of get baptized, but acknowledged God’s hand in her life by sending the missionaries to pray with her. It was super cool to see and hear especially because we often don’t see those results. Most of the time the only time we see the fruits of our labors is when somebody gets baptized. But within 10 minutes 2 ladies felt inspired to tell us how the missionaaries and the church had helped them so much. It was so cool! But she thanked us and told us that we are doing good things and help so many people even if we don’t realize it. Elder Barnum and I could not believe what had just happened. We were dumbfounded that all of this happened within like 10 minutes. God is good!!
Saturday: Christmas Eve was a crazy day. Sister Seitz called us in the morning telling us we needed to pick up a few packages that had come to the mission hom late and give them to Longview and Gilmer Zones so that they could have their packages by Christmas. So that was just awesome blowing a ton of miles to meet Gilmer and Longview Zone Leaders! (That was sarcasm) But actually it was good and needed to be done. Especilally because there is a sister in our Zone that had a package from her Grandma. (Pretty sure that’s the only package she got from her familiy) None of her family are members except her grandma. So Sister Seitz was pretty adament that she receieves her package before Christmas.
Sidenote: It snowed on Thursday and it was so awesome. The flakes were pretty big too and reminded me of back home. There wasn’t enough snow to stick to the ground at all but it was nice to get a little taste of Utah.
Christmas Eve night we had dinner with this one family the Morris’s I think. They had a shrimp boil which was sick cause I haven’t had shrimp like that before. It wasn’t my favorite (Not as good as the crawfish boil in Carthage) but I still ate everything and it wasn’t bad. They had this little dog that was super nice to the family but anybody else she would bite and wanted nothing to do with you. So I was determined to pet her and make her like me. I slowly built up and actually got to pet her a lot. She got comfortable with me for a second but then started growling a bit later on. After dinner one of the kids was holding her and said, “here you hold her”. The dog was growling a ton and very clearly did not want me close to her. She got pretty close and lunged straight at my face. I pulled back so I didn’t get hit but it was absolutely terrifying seeing a dog try to bite my face and take my nose off. Needless to say I didn’t pet her after that….
We went over to the stake president’s house after dinner and it was a party! We got there a little late so when we walked in they were in the middle of bingo. (Winners got $50!!!) but we all sang christmas songs and reenacted the nativity and it was a lot of fun.
Christmas day we went to church with the Legacy Trails Elders since YSA wasn’t having a meeting for Christmas. There was a great program with pretty music and definitely set the tone for a Christ centered Christmas. We didn’t have anywhere to go for dinner but our branch president asked us if we had plans and then invited us to his brothers house where they were having their family gathering. We get there and knock on the door and this lady opens the door and looks a little confused. She had the look of ‘can I help you?’ We didn’t know what to do. We knew for sure we were at the right house but didn’t feel very welcomed. We hesitantly asked for President Freeman and he shouted from the kitchen, “They’re with us!” So we went inside and sat at a table off to the side. Our branch president and their son sat next to us but it was so weird because we were off to the side and besides saying hello, nobody talked to us. We definitely felt pretty awkward so we left after eating haha.The non-members didn’t seem very excited to see us either lol.
That night we went caroling with the district and it was pretty fun! We sang to a couple of our friends and it was a great night. We sang to this one lady and she cried and thanked us. It was such a sweet moment. She doesn’t have much family and can’t drive or anything so she was very grateful for us. The other Elders asked her if they could meet with her this week and she goes, “Of course. I’m home about 95% of the time! Just give it a knock and if I don’t answer knock louder! If I still don’t answer then you know I’ve gone up there” pointing towards the sky and laughed. We all kinda froze. We were like, ‘she did not just say that’. But we told her we hoped that wouldn’t happen and we’ll see her sometime this week. She was quite the character.
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Spiritual Thought:
At Zone Conference President told us a story about their boat and an anchor. They went to lake powell and during a storm they let down their anchor (Which was a houseboat anchor so it was pretty freaking big). They let down their anchor but when they tried to move and tighten the anchor a little more, the rope snapped. He then stated that with the storm and the boat moving, the anchor never moved. He related this to the gospel in the aspect of our relationship with God and Christ. Our Savior Jesus Christ is our anchor. Regardless of storms, he is always our unmoving anchor. When their is a bond broken between the anchor and the boat, it is always because of the boat. In that same way, when there is a bond broken between us and the Lord, it is always because of us, not him. He is unchanging in character, in love, and guidance. He is always there for us. If a bond is broken or a relationship with God is weak and deteriorating, it’s because of our own actions and chioces. But even when those bonds are broken, our savior is still in the same spot. He is always right there waiting for us to strengthen that bond again. We can break that rope over and over again, but he will never abandon us or deny our efforts in coming closer to him. During our storms, our trials and afflictions, the best thing we can do is strengthen our relationship with Christ. He is our mediator, our redeemer, the prince of peace. Relating a little bit to my last email, our conversion to Christ relies very heavily on how we treat other people. I want to close with a quote by Elder Holland. He says,
“Our relationship to Christ will be determined -or at least affected- by our relationship to eachother.”
I love you all dearly and hope you had an amazing Christ-centered Christmas! Always turn to Christ. Even if you have abandoned him, he will never abandon you. He is our Savior and loves us with an infinite love that we can’t even comprehend. He suffered all the pains and afflictions of the world so “he would know how to succor his people”. He knows what we’re going through and knows how to help us get through it. Please trust him. I wish y’al a happy new year! I love y’all so much! Muchos besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!
All my love,
Elder Grubbs
