Buenos dias hermanos y hermanas! Otro dia para vivir, otro para adorar a Dios! Monday night we had FHE which was a Bob Ross painting night! It was a blast! I love Bob Ross so much so I was super excited! My painting didn’t turn out too good haha but I still had fun. Elder Bullock is an amazing painter so he blew everyone out of the water. (He worked as a freelance artist before the mission). This week we had a crazy ice storm so we were stuck inside Tuesday through Thursday. This gave me extra time to study and listen to a ton of talks while I reorganized by closet lol. It felt nice to be organized again though. We spent like 2 hours planning our Zone plan for the transfer. We spent a long time discussing what would benefit the zone and prayed for inspiration. The AP’s talked a lot about accountability at mission conference so we definitely wanted to include that. But we decided we wanted to focus on Humility.
Famous poet Jean Luc Pierre once said,”You cannot be accountable with out first acquiring humility”. We based our zone plan around acknowledging our weaknesses and by evaluating our efforts daily. We have a talk on humility each week that the zone will study and we discuss our thoughts and impressions on our zone calls. I’m super excited to see how it all plays out because there is a lot of potential for growth and change if our plan is implimented and used correctly.
Wednesday we were still stuck inside but we decided to walk to walmart to get out of the apartment. It was sooooooo cold but totally worth it. We stopped and grabbed some donuts on the way back too and wow I needed a good ol maple bar. Being inside I have had the opportunity to read and study the book “The continuous atonement” by Brad Wilcox and wow 100/10 would reccomend. He has so many amazing insights that just totally change your perspective on the atonement. He states, “Redemption is more than paying justice and bringing everyone back to God. It is mercifully giving us the opportunity of being comfortable there. Not only can we go home, we can also feel at home.” (pg.68-69) He also quotes Elder Oaks who said, “The Savior does more than cleanse us from sin. He also gives us new strength… To be admitted to His presence, we must be more than clean. we must also be changed.” (With Full purpose of Heart, 126-27).
We received news from the APs that one of the missionaries in the zone would be going home the following day. It was so sad to hear. Everyone in the zone is so awesome and I literallly individually love everyone so freaking much. It just breaks my heart to see someone get to the point of needing to go home. But we are fasting and praying for her and her continuation to be a disciple of Jesus Christ as she goes home. The good news is Sister Newbold is getting emergency transfered here! I LOVE sister Newbold! We were super tight before the mission and hungout all the time so I’m super excited to serve in the same zone as her! ( I totally called it at transfers too btw…)
Friday we had MLC!!! I LOVE MLC soooooooooooooooo much!! It’s always so spiritual and I learn so much. Because of the storm though the roads were still kinda icy and we slid out like twice but we made it to Allen safely
We studied the talk “Are you still willing” we talked about being willing to pay the price of discipleship. If you aren’t willing to go out of your comfort zone and make yourself stretch you can’t grow your faith. We also discussed, don’t be the person you are content with. Be the person that God wants you to be. It was super sick as always!! We also found out that 65% of the mission is under 6 months. WHAT?!?!? That’s crazy!! I feel so old.
Saturday was crazy! We went over to President Trythalls house for a breakfast with the Allen zone and then went straight back to Tyler. After that I got to go to lunch with my future brother-in-law so that was exciting!!
Sunday we had a really good testimony meeting. I bore my testimony and when I sat down Austin told me he kinda wanted to go up there but he was super nervous. He ended up going and bore the most tender testimony. He talked about how everything is part of God’s plan and even when things don’t seem to be working out or you feel alone, God is always there. It was super cool.
For break the fast we had taco soup, corn bread, and sopapilla cheesecake! It was super good especially after fasting. Like maybe 2 hours later we had a dinner appointment with a member in the Legacy Trails ward. I was dumbfounded, they fed us taco soup, cornbread, and yes, sopapilla cheesecake. Elder Bullock and I almost lost it. We just had to choke it all down. But we did have a super awesome lesson with Austin! I was a little afraid to teach the law of tithing but we did and it was so amazing. He said he had looked at that before and wanted to do it. As we discussed, Austin mentioned that he knew he could receive so many blessings more than what he could give for tithing. He has gone through 4 different jobs in the last 2 weeks, lost his apartment and is going to the homeless shelter, and he still has the faith to pay tithing. It was incredible!!
Thank you all for the love and support!! This week wasn’t super eventful but I hope you enjoyed hearing a few of my experiences. Have an amazing week!! Muchos besos!!! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!!
All my love
Elder Grubbs
