Howdy howdy!! Today we get to go to the temple! So that’s why our Pday is today instead of yesterday. This week went by pretty fast though. Tuesday night we did a little exchange with the APs. I went with Elder Esplin and we basically just went to institute. It was super good as always! We discussed the roles of a mother and a father. Brother Richins asked a rhetorical question for us to think about. He asked, “Have you witnessed a father kiss his son? It’s powerful” It was super interesting learning about a father’s role but also how to balance everything too. Like we talked about how often you’ll get home from an exhausting day of work and then your child asking to play catch or do some sort of activity. Families are ordained of God. Heavenly Father will provide the energy required to spent time with your children. You HAVE to be involved in their lives. Even in the little things, God will provide you with strength to spend time with your kids. Of all the titles given, God has asked to be called ‘The Father’ or ‘Heavenly Father’. Of all the titles given, Christ has asked to be called ‘the Son’. This truly expresses the divine relationship between God and Jesus Christ. We talked a lot about the relationship between parent and child and it was super cool!
On Wednesday we had Zone Conference!! It was awesome seeing a bunch of missionaries I haven’t seen in awhile including some past companions. Sister Seitz talked about joy in her training. She gave a really neat definition of joy that I hadn’t heard of. She said, “Joy is the feeling of good pleasure or happiness that is dependant on who Jesus Christ is rather than who we are or what happens around us.” Jesus Christ IS joy!! During the agony of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ he focused on the joy in cleansing our sins. We too can find joy during our agony by focusing on and turning to Christ. There are many things we can bring us joy! Being peaceful and showing gratitude brings joy. Overcoming trials brings joy. receiving the word of God brings joy. Being one with Christ brings joy. Knowing the doctrine brings joy. Repentance brings joy. Forgiveness brings joy. Spreading the gospel brings joy. Practice joy!
President Seitz talked about the spiritual destruction of murmuring. We read through 1 Nephi 2 and discussed how Laman and Lemuel murmured and the little decisions they made that led them down the path they ultimately chose. He shared a quote that said, “Maybe we have stiff necks because we dont bow our heads in prayer.” I thought that was a super cool quote that I hadn’t heard before. One of Satan’s most powerful tools he uses against us is to make us feel unworthy. You are never unworthy to pray to Heavenly Father. He will always welcome you with open arms. Prayer draws us closer to him and is necesary to receive the spiritual strength to overcome our trials. There are 3 things that lead to murmuring. 1) You begin to question things 2) You begin to rationalize or excuse disobedience 3) You begin to be slothful. Obedience is essential to God’s plan even if a rule or commandment isn’t understood.
Then Sister Newbold and I sang “You know better than I”. I was super nervous as always but I was excited too. After Zone conferences we went on exchanges again but this time I was with Elder Maloney down in Palestine. It was quite the exchange haha. We had a lesson with their recent convert Derrel. He is a funny guy that’s for sure. He explained the first part of Nephi and how they went to get the gold plates and it was hilarious just seeing his point of view and how he envisioned the story. We went to dinner with the Thorntons who are senior couple missionaries on the livestock and farmland. Talking with them I found out that Elder Thornton is from North Salt Lake! He grew up one street away from my childhood home! The area has changed a lot since he had been there but there were a few members that we both knew! They even knew one of my favorite sunday school teachers Brother Farrel! Sister Thornton is cousins with Sister Farrel too! Crazy how small the world is sometimes.
Late that night we went to an apartment comlex to knock some doors. We walked by 2 women sitting on the porch smoking and drinking. I asked if we could share a scripture and it sparked a very interesting conversation. One lady was episcipalian and was in her 60’s or 70’s. The other lady was in her late 20’s or early 30’s and was 7th day adventist. The younger lady (Nicole) was interesting… She asked questions about our religion and kind of bashed us but not really in a rude way. She was just arguing with us and trying to show how she was right. I held my ground though and answered all of her questions. It was super weird because she claimed to be 7th day adventist but very clearly didn’t follow their teachings. She explained that she was gay and said a few things to trying to make us say she’s going to hell. It was weird. But it was cool cause she was like, “What does your religion have to say about that? God hates me. I’m going to hell and nothing can change that because I’m gay” and it was an opportunity for me to testify of God’s love for his children. I explained that God’s love is unconditional and infinite and that it doesn’t matter what decisions we make or how much we try to push him away, he will always be there for us with open arms. It was so cool!! Basically I piqued her interest enough and we talked about the Book of Mormon and where it came from. I read moroni’s promise and basically told her that the best way to explain our beliefs is Moroni’s promise. That by the power of the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things. I then explained that the book of mormon was the history of the American Indians and she straight up told me it wasn’t. I asked how she knew that and she told me she’s familiar with their history and talked with indians and blah blah blah. So very bluntly I asked her if God told her it was the history of the american indians would she believe it. She said she would. So I asked her if she would read the book of mormon and pray about it. She agreed and we set up a time to come back. It was just cool to see how the half-bash came full circle and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and have her commit to reading it.
Thursday was kinda hectic cause we unexchanged and had service and stuff. After dinner we had a lesson with Austin and talked about patriarchal blessings! He already had his interview and he’ll get it on Easter Sunday!! We are so excited for him!! We drove straight from Austin’s lesson to a lesson with Leon. Elder Gardner and Elder Bullock knocked his door on our exchange so we’re going back. He is married though and not YSA so we had the Tyler 1 sisters come too so we could pass him off. However, the lesson did not go as planned. Homie Leon is an evangelist at the Church of Christ. When we got inside he had 2 anti articles on the table next to a book of mormon. I knew we were in for a treat… He told us he’d give us some time to talk and explain what we believe and then he’d tell us what he believed. That didn’t happen. After Elder Bullock started talking about prophets he immediately started bashing us. He was super respectful but wow. It ended up being like almost 2 hours. Homie tried to tell us saying Josesph Smith wasn’t a prophet because “all prophecies that prophets give have to come to pass”. which is true, but he claimed Joseph Smith gave a prophecy about the second coming which obviously hasn’t happened. In reality he was given a vision saying that if he reached the age of 82 he would see the temple and the face of God. All of these prophecies he gave were conditional. They would only come to pass IF this certain thing happened. He then tried to drop 2 Timothy 3:15-17 on us. My personal favorite way of confronting bashers isn’t to just call them out and tell them why they’re wrong but to just pretend to be confused. I said I was a little lost and apologized for being confused and showed him how the scripture he gave didn’t say anything about not having prophets after Jesus Christ. He then turned to another scripture (just quoted in the article he had) that just talked about God’s love for us and nothing to do with prophets lol. He just kept dodging my questions and couldn’t answer them. He was a little flustered and it was funny because clearly he had no idea what he was talking about. He then tried to turn it on Sister Wood and Sister Williams and ask them questions without allowing Elder Bullock and I to answer. They held their ground though and gave perfect answers. It was honestly pretty funny. I then very politely called him out lol. I explained we believe God will give us all the answers we need. I said something along the lines of, “I personally believe if I want to know something is true I’m gonna go to the source of all truth. God. I’m gonna ask Heavenly Father myself if something is true, not look it up on google.” as I looked at his paper. He never got mad or anything and overall was pretty nice but didn’t have any good intentions. He said he’d read a bit about the BOM and pray so we’ll see if he actually does or not. We’ll meet with him again on Thursday so I’ll keep y’all updated lol.
Friday morning we had a lesson with Amelia. It was a little frustrating this time because she just asked the same questions as last time. We are giving her all the answers she needs she’s just not connecting the dots. But as of now she has acknowledged that we’ve helped her a lot and given her answers she’s just gotta find out for herself and obtain that conviction.
That evening we set up a lesson with our friend Joseph. He was the guy that asked us our favorite scriptures in the BOM and stuff on his porch. He texted us asking to come by! So that was sick! We brought Michael with us for the lesson which was good cause he starts MTC on April 27th! He’ll be going to the MTC in Johannesburg South Africa and then go to Uganda. When we got there Joseph’s roommate Jose let us in. He was a little interesting but listened in on the lesson and was really respectful. He is part of the BSM at TJC which is the Baptist Student Ministry. We were a little worried because some people in the BSM go on “missions” to provo and just unconvert members of the church. But he didn’t seem like one of those guys. But we taught the restoration and Joseph had questions and it was really cool! We gave them a BOM and they committed to reading it!
Sunday was fantastic! Fast and testimony meeting was really good. Amelia almost went up but got scared cause she thought she had to bear her testimony on Joseph Smith. I explained to her she only needed to bear her testimony on something she had a testimony of. So hopefully next month she’ll get up!! Sunday night Brother Matt Kindle did a music program thing for the stake. It was super cool! He sang a bunch of songs he wrote and played the guitar and had other musicians there. It was really cool!! They are so talented. I recorded a few songs so I’ll attach those at the bottom. Amelia came to that too and it was sick! Afterwards she spoke with President Rhodus and we gave her a tour of his office and the high council room and stuff. We explained the structure of the church better and it was really good! What was super awesome was what she said to President Ketcher and his wife. She said, “I am really impressed with the LDS church because everyone is so passionate in what they believe. The missionaries have helped me so much and always answer my questions”. And then she just continued to express her gratitude for us and our patience and it was just really nice to hear. Definitely made my day.
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!! Please let me know if there is anyone I can pray for! 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
