Bienvenidos a mi carta semanal! This week was definitely an interesting week. We weren’t nearly as busy as we usually are so it was really weird. We actually had a few hours to street contact and do some finding haha. But last Pday we had Zone Pday!! We played a bunch of games and it was a blast! Elder Saltern plays the bagpipes and he played for us and it was soooooo sick! I’ll try to send a video. We also found out that he will be going home because he has been super sick. He flew out this morning. It’s just so sad! That’s the 4th missionary to leave the zone and 3rd to go home all this transfer! It makes me so sad :(( But I’m glad he’ll be able to figure out what’s wrong and come back within a few months.
Tuesdays are always jammed pack which can be good and bad. But at district council I was reminded of a few things President Seitz has said. He said, “Conflict is inevitable, but contention is a choice.” I’ve thought a lot about that this week. We can’t control what happens around us but we can control our attitude and response. As President Nelson has said, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” (Or something like that idk) But we street contacted at this one apartment and saw this one guy taking pictures of his dog. We walked over and started talking to him (Larry) about his dog and college and stuff. His dog was so cute!! He was an American Pitbull and about a year old. He was a big boy, just pure lean muscle. I played with him and he was getting really excited and was just knawing on my hand and arms
Larry is going to TJC to play on the football team! He was super cool and asked us questions about our missions and how long we’ve lived in Tyler and whatnot. As we talked about the YSA he mentioned that he was actually looking for a church! (Crazy how that’s actually a thing in Texas) So we invited him to church and exchanged numbers!
As always, we had Institute Tuesday night!! Just when I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse than the “speed dating” activity last time, it did. It was an amazing lesson and I learned a lot, but not things I really wanted to or even planned on talking about lol. We talked about marriage and what it looks like to nourish a new marriage. We talked about causes for divorce. The world says the 2 major factors in divorce are 1. Communication and 2. Financial problems. He said President Kimball talked about marriage and stated that although these factors make a big difference in a marriage, the #1 reason marriages end in divorce is problems with sexual intimacy. We talked about that for most of the class and you can imagine how Elder Bullock and I felt haha…. It was definitely interesting though hearing peoples questions about that and how Brother Richens answered them. Some people struggle with the fact that their whole lives they have been taught that feelings of sexual intimacy are bad and frowned upon, but then when you’re married it’s like a switch flips and everything all of the sudden is okay. Brother Richens explained that the problem comes from people teaching the way Alma 27 does and comparing breaking the law of chastity to murder. It says sexual transgression is next to murder. So inevitably there will be feelings of discomfort dirrectly after marriage. It’s important to realize that these sexual emotions we feel are okay to feel. They just only can be expressed within the bounds of marriage. God designed us in his image and that is a gift he has given to help us connect with our spouse. Brother Richens explained it like driving a car. You can drive a car without a license, but it’s dangerous and leads to serious consequences. But once we are given a license, we are supposed to drive the car and there is nothing wrong with that. Enough on sexual Intimacy though, I’m uncomfy….
We all read Alma 32 together and it was so cool. Rather than comparing the seed to our faith, we compared the seed to a marriage. It totally changes the chapter and there is so much more to interpret! Verse 26 talks about (a marriage) not being perfect any more than faith can be perfect. It also says in verses 37-39 if you nourish the seed (the marriage) it “will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.” But if you neglect the tree (the marriage) it will not take root and will be scorched. If the tree doesn’t sprout it’s not because it’s a bad seed but the ground is barren and the seed is not nourished. There’s just so much to learn about marriage in this chapter it’s crazy! Every week we talk about how marriage will be extremely difficult but also extremely rewarding. I love verse 42 that says, “And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure.”
If your ground is barren, June Ensign of 1998 says, “one or both are not doing thier part.” In a marriage you have to dig and prune and dung. You have to work or the tree will never fllourish. Brother Richens then talked specifically to the women in class. He said, “If you think men don’t want flowers, cards, candy, compliments, etc. you are wrong.” It was just interesting to see what Brother Richens and President Ketcher had to say about that. Like when Brother Richens goes out of town, his wife will put a card in the pocket of every shirt he packs. They talked about little things like that and how much that can make an impact. This discussion caused me to reflect on growing up and my own experiences. I don’t think women quite understand how much a simple compliment can effect a guy’s day. Believe it or not, guys are not complimented very much haha. I’m sure most guys can relate but I remember a compliment someone gave me in 4th grade and I haven’t forgotten it. It just doesn’t happen very often so when it does, we don’t forget it. Simple words can make a huge impact.
Wednesday was kind of a crazy day for Elder Bullock and I. We planned our day and did personal study and everything but we both just felt so off. I didn’t know what it was but I just didn’t feel good. President Rhodus called us and mentioned a few things we weren’t aware of and that didn’t help at all lol. But after lunch we randomly decided to go downtown to take some new profile pictures. After that we were just gonna sit down and do some facebook and send the pics to Sister Seitz to get approved. I thought since we were already at downtown that we should go to the gallery to sit down and do all that. We walk in and happen to see Austin sitting in there! We walked over and he just got off the phone and looked depressed. He said that he just lost his job again. We couldn’t beleive it. He has gone through SOOOO many jobs in the last few weeks it is literally insane. But we sat down and were able to cheer him up and have a lesson with him. It was super cool because he recognized that God sent us to help him. We had no plans to talk with Austin or even to go to the gallery but we felt like we should so we did. God is good!! Then Austin shared a few things he has learned from the book of mormon! He was like, “I read this scripture the other night that I really liked and I wanted to share it with you guys.” He then procceeded to read 1 Nephi 3:7. Elder Bullock and I just looked at eachother as soon as he said the scripture. It was so sick!! And we were able to testify to him that God ALWAYS provides a way! Just like we were led to go to the gallery and meet with him. We felt so much better after the lesson and knew that’s what God wanted us to do that day. On his own he found that scripture and also talked to us about how the fall needed to happen and how it relates to our agency. Everything was just clicking for him and it was so cool! His roommate even told him, “That’s the Holy Spirit.” That’s exactly what it was!! The spirit was teaching Austin. He also told us at Salvation Army everyone is trying to put him down and turn him away from the church. He says it was crazy because he has never seen people be so hostile towards a church before. But he has a strong testimony and the opposition has just strengthened it.
President Nielson in the mission presidency messaged us about a member from Gilmer that was just put in a senior care facility in Tyler and only has a few days left on the Earth. We went over with the Legacy Trails elders and gave her a blessing. She was really old and frail and could barely move her mouth. She couldn’t talk but you could kind of read her lips to understand what she was saying. We gave the blessing and it was just so sad. Afterwards she bore her testimony to us. We couldn’t really understand anything she was saying but we picked out 2 things she said. She said, “I know God lives. I know God loves me”. It was a powerful moment for us and we all felt like crying haha. But she was really sweet and I hope she is at peace now. What was cool though is as we got to her door, one of the nurses stopped and helped us. She asked if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We obviously said yes and she goes, “I knew it!! Y’all’s faces were just glowing!”. It was super cool to see how other people recognize the difference in our countenance.
That we were knocking a few doors at a complex next to TJC. We look for TJC parking passes on cars and try to guess which apartment they live in, it’s fun. We knocked one door and this blond chick probably 24 opened the door. After she opened the door she just acted so shocked to see us and smiled. She was methodist (They usually hate our guts) but claimed to have never heard of the book of mormon and let us share a scripture. It was kinda funny and gave us a good laugh. After that we went to Braums for some facebook work and then this one guy walks up to us and asked if he could have a book of mormon. He is just interested in learning about religions and he wanted to read the book of mormon. It was pretty cool. Right place right time.
Thursday was kinda slow but it was good. It was a gorgeous day so ate dinner outside and played catch the whole time. It was a lot of fun but my arm hurts so bad from throwing the football. That night we stopped by this guy named Cameron who was in our areabook. He answered right away and was super sick! He forgot about our church but wanted to come. He said if he comes to church he has a lot of friends that wanted to go with him!! It was so cool!!!
Friday was very interesting… There is a member (We will call him steve) that moved in recently to go to TJC. His Dad talked to us when he moved in and explained that Steve had high functioning Autism and just try to help him make friends and get comfortable in the branch. We had a lesson with him while we were on exchanges so it was me and Elder Irizarry. It was not the best… he hasn’t come to church but went to a fireside a month ago and left early because he didn’t feel comfortable. He is a convert and doesn’t really understand a whole lot about the church. He has started going to a baptist church next to his apartment because he feels comfortable there. We talked with him about covenants and the sacrament and a bunch of other stuff to help him but it was to no avail. He is 20 and graduated when I did in 2021. Eventually he mentioned that he has been having problems with a girl… Basically she won’t talk to him and he reached out and decided to block her and they don’t talk. That doesn’t sound too crazy but then he told us that she has their kid. He has a child. I was not expecting that at all. Massive curveball right there. I didn’t even know what to say or how to help him. He’s techinically not supposed to be in the YSA either because he has a kid. We talked him through things but he didn’t really care and just wanted us to leave. But hopefully he softens up and wants us to come by again. Keep him in your prayers.
Saturday was SICK!!! When we were unexchanging with the Spanish Elders we saw a few pretty cars in front of someone’s house. We made a quick detour and got out to take a few pictures. As soon as we got out of the car we hear, “Elders!” 3 couples from the whitehouse ward were there at their little “Cars & Coffee” meetup. There were a few Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s, Porsche’s, McLaren’s, and Ford GT!!! It was insane!! One of the members took us out back to one of their garages and it had a brand new Lamborghini Hurican STO. If you don’t know what that is, it is very fast car
A few of the cars there were easily a million dollars (Ferrari Pista). She took a picture of us next to the Ford GT which is Elder Bullock’s dream car, and sent it to our Moms. that car alone is almost $500 grand. It was crazy. Then hearing them drive away was the best!! They sounded so good!! I was in heaven!
Saturday night Austin got to go to the temple with the Branch!! President Freeman said he showed Austin around inside of the temple where he was allowed to go. He talked to a temple worker and mentioned Austin was a recent convert. She grabbed a member in the Temple Presidency who sat down and talked to Austin!! They sat in one of the chappels and talked for like 20 min about the temple! We were so ecstatic to hear that! Our friend Amelia came to church though and it was good! She’s like maybe 5′ and has sooooooo many questions. During our lesosn last sunday she met President Rhodus. President Freeman went up and introduced himself and asked if that was the same guy. We laughed and told her this was the branch president. She was like, “I’m Asian! All white people look the same to me!” She always brings up the fact that she’s Asian and says something about white people She said she was gonna come to institute which is exciting. Except we looked at the lessons and we’re almost posititve the lesson will be on pornography and “Multiplying and replenishing the Earth” So we’ll see how that goes…
To end I just wanted to include a quote I read this week. It says, “We must remember that our salvation is intertwined with the salvation of others. We must care more for those who seem to care less for their faith”. Ponder this week on somebody in your life that is beginning to care less about their faith. Keep them in your prayers and find ways to strengthen and support them. I pray that you all will be able to recognize the Lord’s hand in your life. As you grow closer to him, you will not only feel his love more abundantly in your life, but you will feel greater purpose here. God lives. He is in every aspect of our lives. He wants so badly to bless you. Please allow him to. Only you can close the door to the blessings you receive. 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 
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All my love
Elder Grubbs
