Preface: My phone stopped working so for the last 2 weeks I haven’t been able to write or send out an email! So this is gonna be a pretty long email but I’ll try to sum up what has happened in the last few weeks.
Wow this week went by sooooo fast. We did a ton of service which was a ton of fun. It was also a super spirit filled week. We ended the week of strong with Stake Conference and it was unbelievably inspiring (hence the subject of this email).
Monday night we had FHE and we played volleyball. They were very impressed with me haha. My team absolutely destroyed 
Tuesday we had a sick lesson with Austin! We talked about the 1st ½ of the plan of Salvation specifically the premortal life and why we’re here. The spirit was super strong and we continued with life here on Earth and talked about a few commandments. We taught the word of wisdom and immediately he agreed to following it! It was super sick! Everytime we’ve been over he’s had a Brisk bottle (tea) but know that ‘he knows’ he committed to completely stopping! Later in the week he even bought gatorade instead! Austin told us he wants us to send him scriptures everyday! He is so elect! He also talked about wanting to be a missionary and since he’s 27 we talked about just member missionary work and helping others learn about the gospel. He told us he had talked a bit with his niece and said he would invite her to church with him when they come to visit him!
Then Tuesday night we had Institute!! Austin came too so that was dope. Bro Richins is the institute teacher and he is amazing. He lives up in Gilmer and his wife is actually from there! Litte connection, my great grandpa was her bishop! But the lesson was super good. They all picked the class on Christ’s parables for this semester but when they started, the 2nd councilor in the Stake and bro Richins said they prayed about it a lot and chose to do “Eternal Families” class instead. I was like, “Dude I got 6 months left come on” lol. But it was a super cool class. We discussed many different talks one especially talking about ‘God being the Gardner’. Elder Christopherson spoke in 2011 and shared that story by Hugh B. Brown about the currant bush. It is super fire so if you haven’t heard that talk, go listen to it right now!!! But one thing I liked from institute was the quote, “Sometimes you go through hard times not because God doesn’t love you, but because he needs you to be something else.”
Wednesday Coach took us to dinner!! We went to the infamous Stanley’s Barbeque and got the “mother-clucker” chicken sandwhich
Thursday we had another lesson with Austin. The branch is so amazing at fellowshipping. He told us that he lost his job and didn’t have money for dinner. He felt promopted to message our member Mariana who during our first lesson said if he ever needed anything, she could help. So he reached out to her and she went and brought him some dinner no questions asked. She never said anything about it to us or anyone else. Hearing about that experience from Austin was super cool. He has felt so loved and comfortable at church and around everyone. They are the perfect examples of how to fellowship and support investigators.
On Friday we had interviews! I always love because President and Sister Seitz always give the best council. Interviews ran super late so we missed our dinner appointment. The other Elders were able to make it but we couldn’t cause it started at 5:30 and we didn’t finish until about 6:00 and we’re still 20 minutes away haha. The Seitz asked us what our plan was for the night and if we had dinner. We told them we were just gonna go home and grab something and then do some stopbys. Sister Seitz immediately said, “Come to Torchy’s with us!” So we got to go to dinner with the Seitz! It was so fun! Plus it was Torchy’s which is THE BEST! Sister Hyland our medical coordinator met up with us too, it was so fun. At dinner another member was there and told us they were eating with a family friend who loves the missionaries! She isn’t super open to reading the BOM or really talking to the missionaries, but anytime she sees the missionaries she takes a picture with them. So we ran over and talked with her. I asked if we could get a picture haha so we got a few. She’s super nice and showed us a few pictures she had with other missionaries.
Saturday morning we helped out at a cemetary down in Whitehouse. There were tons of people there and we bagged up all the leaves and cleaned up the gravestones. They even took out a few dead trees and leveled out the ground. Of course here in texas
Saturday night we had the adult session of Stake Conference. Elder Brian J. Holmes of the 70 was there and it was amazing! He spoke for probably 45 minutes and it was soooooo good. He wanted all of the missionaries to be there which was sick because usually we can only go to the adult session if we have an investigator going with us. But we all got invited and it was so dope! He told us he had a message dirrectly from President Ballard and the quorum of the 12 and said that they love us and that we are their companions. It was super cool. He shared a bunch of cool stories that blew my mind. One story in specific was about a missionary from Tonga (We’ll call him Elder Smith). He had never been in America until he was assigned to a mission in California. When he was maybe 8 or 9 his sister (We’ll call her Mary) basically left the church, married a catholic priest and moved to America. They had no contact and had no idea where in America. Fast forward 10 years, her and her husband left their church but were having a baby. They didn’t know what to do or where to go. She mentioned the LDS church and her husband immediately said no. She hadn’t had any contact with her family for 10 years, but Mary’s husband said, “If your brother comes and knocks on our door, we’ll join the LDS church”. Elder Smith had been assigned to serve in California. The mission president prayed and decided to place him in a city of around 22,000 people. Elder Smith knocked on a few doors and low and behold, he knocked on Mary’s door. After a few weeks his brother-in-law was baptized and reactivated his sister. He told us this story to show us that Mission Presidents are so inspirted and pray so much about where the Lord needs you to serve. Assuming Elder Smith would serve in the US it was calculated that it was over 1 in 300 million chance that he would knock on his sisters door. How crazy is that!!
He told us a story about some other missionaries and compared it to the story of Abinadi and how he only converted 1 person. But that one person, Alma continued on to convert thousands and thousands of people. He said, “1 is a multitude”. That was really powerful to me. Being out here in texas the work isn’t all too easy. But it’s cool seeing how Abinadi didn’t even know if he converted one soul. But his actions created the conversion of thousands of people. Sometimes it’s hard to see the effect we have on people. We are examples of Christ with everything we do. People are watching us and it’s important that we are striving to exemplify Christ in everything we do.
Sunday we had another session which was so good!! Elder Holmes talked about testimonies and how they will waiver but we shouldn’t let our conviction leave. He told a story about Heber J. Grant when at age 23 he was called as a stake president. He was then critiqued by a member of the 12 for not testifying that he knew the church was true. Heber then said it was because he doesn’t know if it is true, wanting nothing to do with the calling as a stake president. They turned to the prophet to see what he would do. He then said, “He knows it, he just doesn’t know he knows it.” I feel like that happens with so many people we teach that eventually turn away. They know it’s true, they know they have felt the spirit testify to them, but they turn away. They run away from the things they hae felt.
The following tuesday we had institute and it was super good. Bro Richens explained a few things that kinda blew me away. He said, “One of the biggest misconceptions in the church is that God will never give you a trial you can’t handle.” he continued, “God ALWAYS gives us trials we can’t handle. But that is because he wants us to turn to him.” This was first a misconception from the scripture 1 Corinthians 10:13. This says that God will not suffer that you are tempted above that which ye are able. However, temptation is different than adversity. Temptation drives us away from God. Adversity drives us towards God. I thought that was super sick and I never heard of that before.
We had a lesson with Austin and invited him to be baptized!! He agreed and we set a date for February 11th!! So we’re super excited about that!
Friday we had an open house for the “gathering space”. Basically at the church they tore out the family history center and a few offices in the back and made this huge room just for the YSA. Its got a fridge, snacks, 85″ TV, tons of board games, Ping pong table, etc. It’s just a hangout room for the YSA. It’s so cool!! At the open house we had our area authority there, Elder Cannon, which was cool to meet him.
Saturday we had a YSA Fireside at President Ketcher’s house about transitions in life like marriage, coming home from a mission, starting college, having kids, new job, etc. Austin came with us and it was super good for him. He asked a lot of questions and he said it helped him a ton because he has been trying to find a job and get stable. One thing that was really interesting was Pres. Ketcher mentioned that God is not a micro-manager. Often times we pray for an answer of where to go to school or pray for guidance when making a decision between 2 or more things. We aren’t always given an exact answer to our prayers though. Sometimes God just lets us choose and wants us to act. He isn’t going to micro-manage every step we take. Sometimes we just have to act in faith and trust that whatever step we take, Heavenly Father allows us to make our own decisions but will direct us as needed to stay on the right path. From Alma 32 we learn that the keys to success in life are Faith, Diligence, and Patience.
Sunday night we got transfer news! I was a little worried because I didn’t have a phone so I didn’t know what was gonna happen haha. But Elder Barnum is leaving to Longview and Elder Bullock from Longview is coming here lol. I’m super excited though. It’s gonna be a really good transfer.
Tuesday after transfers we had Institue!! Namdi came which was super sick. We talked a lot about marriage and married life haha. Brother Richens talked about John Gottmon who is apparently a super famous professional on marriage. The church uses him for his statistics and studies. He can watch a couple discuss one “argument” and with 97% accuracy tell you if their marriage will fall apart within the next few years. Crazy!!! But then we heard this statistic: People who live together BEFORE getting married have 98% chance of getting divorced within the next 10 years. WHAT?!?! That is insane!! You would think if people have lived together before that itll make marriage easier but obviously not!! Just another reminder that there is safety and protection in following the commandments. Brother Richens then had all the ladies write down a list of all the attributes they would like in a husband. That was fun… President Ketcher was like, “Dang my wife got lucky! That’s literally me!” It was pretty funny. Some of the things they had were ‘Funny’, ‘Super hot’, ‘RM’, etc. Then it was the guys’ turn. Without hesitation Michael says, “Obedient!” We all died laughing. Sister lauder is the 2nd councilor’s wife in the branch presidency and she goes, “you better be talking about obedient to the Lord!”. But we listed a few other common things.
I then raised my hand and mentioned that with the little experience I have had with relationships haha, that I don’t want my spouse to just run away from problems. I want to work them out together rather than pushing it off and running away. Bro Richens difined that as ‘Grit’ and said out of all the books he has ever read, including books from the church and by apostles, etc, the book ‘Grit’ biy Angela Duckworth was on of the best books he has ever read. So hey if you need a book to read, there you go! But we also talked about how you can’t set your standards too high for a spouse because 90% of the attributes you would llike in her and the attributes she would like in you take time. And eventually you develop those things as you work and grow together. Bro Richens mentioned a quote by President Hinckley’s wife. She was asked, “How is it like being married to the prophet?” with which she responded, “He wasn’t the prophet when I married him.” Marriage is hard work. It’s not gonna be easy. But that is what brings you closer to eachother, and closer to God. The advice we were given was “find someone who loves the Lord more than they love you, and marry them”. That was super powerful to me because I know at one point in my life I loved someone more than I loved God and it took me down a dangerous path. But if you both love God and strive to come closer to him, you will automatically grow closer together.
At district council Sister Hunt -one of the senior missionaries- talked about how everything is gonna be okay. She shared a quote by President Hinckley that says, “Everything is gonna be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end!”. I really like that quote because it just gives us a lot of hope and reassurance. Along with that quote is 2 Timothy 1:7 which says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
On wednesday we had a passoff lesson with the STL’s with this guy named Justin. He was super cool and want’s to konw the truth for himself. He has read like every religious book except for the Book of Mormon and was excited to read it. He really loves talking about himself haha but at least he was excited to read. He definitely felt the spirit though and acknowledged it so that was sick.
Thursday was pretty cool. We knocked some doors at an apartment complex and found a few people to teach! We randomly knocked a door and the guy that opened it looked super familiar but I didn’t know why. At first I thought he might have been a member cause we told him we were the missionaries and he was like “oooh okay that makes more sense”. But i told him he looked familiar and he said he worked electronics at Walmart. So it hit me! He was the guy I talked to at Walmart when I bought my new phone. So I talked to him about the phone I got and returns and stuff. So we randomly knocked his door!! That was super crazy and now we have a lesson set up for Saturday. That night we also had a pass off lesson with the Spanish Elders with Harold. He was super sick and accepted the invitation to be baptized when it was only our second lesson! They didn’t set a date but he was still excited and wanted to come to our activities.
Friday we had mission conference and it was super good! The AP’s talked about accountability and enjoying the work. It was really good and made me think about how much I actually enjoy the work compared to the beginning of my mission. Everyday just dragged and dragged and weeks felt like eternities. But now I love it here so much and thinking about the little time I have left scares me. I don’t like thinking about leaving. President gave a super good training about our attitude. He said our attitude is an act of faith. A bunch of missionaries had mentioned in their weekly letters to him that they were disapointed that they got transfered or that they had to stay another transfer in the same area. His response, “How can you be disapointed in the will of God?” That caused me to reflect on my past areas and how it has been so hard to leave. But looking back, I know I was supposed to leave when I did. As much as I miss Rowlett and speaking spanish and all the amazing members, it just feels weird thinking about going back or still serving there. I know that the Lord needs me here and that has helped me so much. I hate leaving areas but God has provided me with comfort and a trust to know that I am placed exactly where he needs me. This applies outside the mission as well. Moving on can be hard especially when it means leaving people behind. But as long as we are keeping our covenants and striving to have a close relationship with Heavenly Father, then he will place us exactly where he wants us to be, and exactly where we need to be.
Saturday we had our lesson with Jeremiah. At first it was super sick. We had Wes come with us and we taught the Restoration and it was all going super well. The spirit was strong and we talked about the BOM and Joseph Smith and it was super smooth and spiritual. Then Wes shared part of his conversion story about the missionaries teaching his dad and he got baptized at 16 and read the BOM and everything. It was super sick! We asked him if he wanted to know the truth and he said yes. So we invited him to read and pray about the BOM. We hand him the BOM and he goes, “Oh no thanks I’m okay.” I was like ‘bro what?!?!’ he says, “I don’t experiment. I just walk and go where my faith takes me.” He said “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. So he wouldn’t take the BOM. I said, okay how about we give you the book and we won’t come back and if you have questions you can message us. He still said no. But he said we could keep coming and sharing messages. So like he wants us to come over, but won’t read the Book of Mormon. It was honestly so frustrating. One of THE hardest parts about missionary work is when you know somebody feels the spirit and denies it. After I bore testimony of the book of mormon and after trying to give him the BOM I asked him how he felt. He said, “Nothing. I don’t feel.” I just couldn’t believe it. You could tell during the lesson that he felt the spirit. He asked questions and was engaged and it was so good! But he denied it. It just sucks pouring out your testimony to someone just for them to walk away. But we’ll still meet with him and hopefully he’ll come around. When he used to live in Whitehouse he went to church with his girlfriend because one of his rooomates was a member so they all went together. But yet he still won’t read…
Random sidenote: Apparently Patrick Mahomes is from Whitehouse and played for the highschool there. The missionaries have his parents info in their area book. Patrick Mahomes has listened to the lessons, went to seminary as a kid, has read the Book of Mormon twice, but didn’t end up joining the church because his parents became hostile towards the church. But everyone in whitehouse is a chiefs fan which is sick haha. So with them going to the superbowl (I’m pretty sure they are…) It’s gonna be sick!
I’m sorry that this email was super long and wasn’t filled with a whole lot of experiences, but I’ve learned so much in the last few weeks and I hope the spirit has taught you something while reading this. I want you all to know that I love my Heavenly Father so much. I know that all he wants is for me to grow closer to him. He gives us adversity to draw us closer to him. You can ignore him as much as you want but he will never leave your side. I’m grateful for the knowledge that we can one day return to him and live wih our familes for forever. I love you all and hope you have been doing amazing!!! Muchos besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!!!!!
All my love
Elder Grubbs
