Speed Dating – Elder Dallin Grubbs

Buenos dias hermanos y hermanas! Otra semana en el barrio de los adultos solteros en Tyler Texas!! This week was pretty crazy not gonna lie… Not sure if y’all remember Jeremiah but he is the guy that helped me get a new phone at Walmart. He said he didn’t have a religion or anything but would listen to us. He refused to read the Book of Mormon but said we could come back and keep talking with him. This past Monday we tried to set up a lesson with Him and he responded saying His minister told him he shouldn’t entertain other religions. Wait wait wait, WHAT?! Yes, his MINISTER! Bro!!! Homie wasn’t even going to church or anything when we talked with him but all the sudden he’s got a minister and can’t come to FHE cause he had “bible study”. We brought him closer to Christ, just not quite the dirrection we wanted

Tuesday was a pretty crazy day. Around 8:30 President texted us telling us to call him. Honestly that’s never a good sign… we were pretty scared to see what he was going to say. We called him and he informed us that an Elder in our Zone would be going home this week for medical reasons. It was super sad because he didn’t get much say at all, the missionary medical department made the decision. So within a week 2 of the missionaries I have trained have gone home due to health reasons. Wow I didn’t think it would effect me as much as it did. I didn’t see it coming at all either. It’s never easy seeing missionaries go home early especially when you’ve been companions with them and even trained them. So that threw off my day quite a bit. I tried not to think about it but I just couldn’t help it.

We had our district council and then went up north to another district council. It was fun but I still felt pretty off. After district council we talked to the STLs about the missionary who was going home and holy crap I was trying sooooo hard not to cry. My eyes watered so much but I didn’t cry. One of the sisters had asked us earlier for a blessing so I just gave her a blessing while we were there. It was a powerful blessing and the spirit was really strong. I don’t remember anything I said but I definitely felt the spirit. When we got back to the car and started to drive away, Elder Bullock literally read my mind and said, “I think you needed that blessing just as much as she did”. It was true. Even though I wasn’t the one receiving the blessing, feeling the spirit like that helped me a lot.

I think it’s safe to say my last few Valentines Days haven’t been the best… But hey there’s always next year. Insititute was very interesting as well… Because it was Valentines Day they separated the guys from the girls and had this long table with Girls on one side and Guys on the other. We discussed scriptures and answered questions with the person across from you. It was like speed dating but seminary haha. It was weird and being a missionary I felt a bit uncomfortable lol. But Bro Richins made us do it even when we pulled the missionary card. But it was a good lesson. Per ususal, we talked about marriage! Yay… (insert long exasperated sigh) But I still learned a lot. We talked again about the list of characteristics you want your spouse to have. Bro Richins explained that this list wasn’t a list for your future spouse but actually a list of things you should work to have yourself. Be the person you want to marry. He also talked to Elder Bullock and I dirrectly and said when we are choosing a spouse we have to be closer to the Lord than we are on our missions. That’s a pretty big deal. I mean we are living and breathing the gospel 24/7 which is impossible to do at home but just goes to show how much we have to prioritize the Lord when we go home. We discussed a bunch of other things but one quote that really stood out to me was, “You marry potential not perfection”.

Wednesday was ‘park your car day’ so we did a lot of biking… Google maps said we biked a total of 2.5 hours but I’m pretty sure it was more than that. We biked out to Tyler Junior College which was close to 40 minutes away and then street contacted people on campus. We didn’t have a ton of luck especially next to the BSM (Baptist Student Ministry) So we got bashed un poco but it wasn’t that bad. The BSM is actually insane though. They go on missions too but not quite the same… They literally go to provo Utah and their mission is to unconvert people from our church. No joke. If that’s not the work of the devil I don’t know what is!! Makes no sense to me… But we were walking towards the football field and saw this big ol boy get out of his truck. It was like an f150 but made that thing look TINY. He was probably 6’7″ and at least 300 lbs. We talked to him and he had the deepest voice too haha. His name was Adrian but “you can call me Big A” he told us. When we talked with him, one of his teammates walked up too and it was Zion! He’s a member in the YSA! He brings some of his teammates to church every once in awhile. So he came over and was able to bear his testimony. It was sick. Zion also invited us to bible study. He organized a bible study with his teammates they do every Thursday night. Zion is such a beast.

On Friday we had interviews with President and Sister Seitz! It was very needed. Pertaining to my greenies that went home he reassured me and said he doesn’t want me to think that there was anything more I could’ve done and that helped me a lot. It was a really good interview. Then I had my interview with Sister Seitz!! It was so good! I could just talk to her for hours. But she told me that out of all the interviews she has ever had, this was the most people actually talked to her about their zone plan. She said multiple people mentioned the Zone Plan and how they have implimented it in the work and how it has helped them. It made me so freaking happy to hear that. Elder Bullock and I spent hours making that zone plan and we were super excited. We knew it would be sick but only if people actually used it. So YAYYYYYY!! That totally made my day! Sister Seitz also told me how she has seen me change a lot over my mission. It was cool to hear someone else see how I’ve changed and not just myself. We talked about that for a bit and I really needed to hear that.

Back to my interview with President, at the end he looked at me and said, “Elder Grubbs I need you to do something for me”. Of course I told him I could and he then said, “I feel inspired to invite you to find someone by Sunday night. Can you do that?” He talked to Elder Bullock about it too and basically said there was someone elect that we needed to find by Sunday. We were kinda freaking out cause it’s been super hard to find people recently but we were determined to do so.

We stopped by President Rhodus’ house and talked with them for a bit and they told us all these different people outside of Tyler that are praying for a Tyler Texas temple! Sister Rhodus is an ordinance worker in the Dallas temple and she said the whole Dallas Temple Presidency is praying for a Tyler Temple!!! A few other area 70s are too and it was just so sick to hear! And almost 30% of every ward in the stake has a name to take to the temple. It’s just amazing how much faith and prayer is focused on this.

Side note: I got into BYU!!! I honestly didn’t know if I actually would get in or not so that’s a super sick miracle

Saturday was super busy but nothing too special happened during the day. That night we were doing some stop-bys at an apartment complex and didn’t have much luck. We looked at one door that lights on inside and Elder Bullock and I both felt like we should knock it. This dude opened the door and we asked if he would be interested in a short message about Jesus Christ. He agreed and we stood outside to share a scripture. After getting to know him he said he had gotten out of jail but has been trying to turn his life around. He has a bible on his desk and he has just been turning to God and trying to see his presence in his life. We asked him about baptism and what he understood. He had been baptized before but it didn’t really mean too much to him. We talked to him about the book of mormon and shared a few verses and he really liked it. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ briefly and invited him to read the book of mormon. We asked him if he came to know the book of mormon was true and gained a testimony that this was Christ’s restored truth if he would be baptized into Christ’s true church. He said he would and thanked us a ton. He said we were a huge blessing and he was excited to read from the book of mormon. Clearly this was the man president was referring to in our interviews. It was so cool!! And to make things even better, homie’s name is Zaytron Pringle. What a sick name!! Sounds like a transformer fr. The only problem is we definitely heard some Cocomelon or some little kid TV show in the background. So if he has a kid we will have to refer him to the T2E sisters :(( But hey who knows, maybe he moved back in with his mom or a brother or something after he got out of jail. We are praying he’s YSA so we can keep teaching him haha.

Sunday was honestly kind of a drag but some really cool things happened. Austin passed the sacrament for the first time!! We passed with him and it was cool because it was Branch Conference so President Rhodus and his councilors were there too! It was a really neat experience and we’re trying to see if he can go with the Branch to their temple trip this Saturday!! After sacrament meeting Austin just kept yawning and said he was super tired. We asked him why and he told us he stayed up all night talking with his roommate at the Salvation Army. He said they stayed up talking about religion and God and stuff. Austin basically bore his testimony of the book of mormon to him and how it has changed his life. So this dude started reading from the Book of Mormon!! He said he likes it a lot so far too!! Austin didn’t even tell us until we asked! He’s literally already a missionary. So we gave him another copy of the book of mormon to give to his friend and Austin is gonna invite him to our next lesson!! We’re super stoked!!

For second hour we had Bro. Tannery from the Bullard ward teach us. Aparrently he is like super famous in the music world. He makes music for movie trailers. He literally made the music for the Star Wars Rogue One trailer!! He is so sick!! But he talked to us about a few different things. One thing that stood out to me was Come Follow Me. He talked about how we aren’t supposed to study Come Follow Me. We are supposed to study the scriptures and use Come Follow Me as a resource. It didn’t come out to just be another Sunday School class where we read the manual and call it good. No, we’re supposed to dive into the scriptures and use Come Follow Me to reflect on the things the spirit has taught us as we have read the scriptures. It was a cool lesson and I never really thought about Come Follow Me that way. It is just supposed to aid us as we continue the daily habit of scripture study.

That was basically my week. It was super busy and stressful but it was good overrall. But I do have an invitation for you. No matter what you’re doing just stop and pause for a second. Think about that exact moment. Think about and appreciate life, the chance we all have to live and breathe. Appreciate the blessings you have been given and the ways you have seen the Lord’s hand in your life. It’s easy to get carried away with the business of life. Just stop and think about why we are actually here. Life is such a precious and temporary thing. Enjoy it. I know God has blessed me in more ways than I could ever explain. I know he is my Heavenly Father. The knowledge of my divine identity as a son of God has helped me so much. I know he loves me, and I know he loves you just as much.

Poet Jean-Luc Pierre once wrote,

“Life flows like a song in the wind

An adventure just waiting to begin.

With trees and rain and mountains and snow

the blessings from God will forever show.

Remember his love embraced from within

Because life flows like a song in the wind.”

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Muchos besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good ️