Howdy Howdy!! This week was just as busy as ever! On Tuesday we had interviews with President and Sister Seitz. They always seem to know exactly what I need to hear. In my interview with Sister Seitz I was talking about things I was grateful for and she asked me why I’m grateful for the Book of Mormon. It was really cool because I started bearing my testimony of the Book of Mormon and my mind was just filled with things to say about it. Sharing my testimony with Sister Seitz allowed me to recognize specific parts of the Book of Mormon that I have a strong testimony of. As I was sharing my thoughts I was just overwhelmed with the spirit. I expressed that even with questions or doubts I may have, I can never go back. I have had too many spiritual experiences with the Book of Mormon that I can’t disregard. It was just neat for me to see how much bearing my testimony could strengthen my testimony.
Tuesday night we had institute and it was just as good as it always is! We started by reading Isaiah 30:18-21. Which says, “And therfore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judment: blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. And thou the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not they teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall se thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
Breaking it down we talked about the bread of adversity and water of affliction. We cry to the Lord, he hears us, and answers us. Then Brother Richins posed the question ‘What are you waiting for?’ He then added, “How do you get to faith on the other side of waiting?” Job 1:21 says, “And the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” How can we have the same attitute as Job? He knew that the Lord gives and the Lord takes, but regardless of what he gives or takes or whatever happens he says, “blessed is the Lord”. We then watched the devotional by Elder Bednar from 2013 “That We Might Not Shrink”. If you haven’t watched it I would highly reccommend watching it. It has a very powerful message.
He shares the story when he visited a young couple John and Heather. About 3 weeks after their wedding, John was diagnosed with bone cancer. The doctors had given him a 30% chance of survival. Aproximately 3 months after the diagnosis and a few days after a big operation, Elder Bednar visited them and would give John a priesthood blessing. Before doing so, Elder Bednar then said, “John, do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?” In her journal Heather recorded, “Though terrifying at first, the thought of having the faith not to be healed ultimately freed me from worry. It allowed me to have complete trust that my Heavenly Father knew me better than I knew myself, and He would do what was best for me and John.” Then John stated in his journal, “After this experience, I knew that having faith—at least in my circumstance—was not necessarily knowing that He would heal me, but that He could heal me. I had to believe that He could, and then whether it happened was up to Him.”
Elder Bednar then said, “even with strong faith, many mountains will not be moved. And not all of the sick and infirm will be healed. If all opposition were curtailed, if all maladies were removed, then the primary purposes of the Father’s plan would be frustrated. Many of the lessons we are to learn in mortality can only be received through the things we experience and sometimes suffer. And God expects and trusts us to face temporary mortal adversity with His help so we can learn what we need to learn and ultimately become what we are to become in eternity”
Our agency gives us an opportunity to express our love. God not only wants us to come back to him but he wants us to choose to come back to him. Do you have the faith to acknowledge that the Lord takes and that sometimes you have to wait awhile to receive it again? The Lord blesses those who are patient. As it says in Isaiah, ‘the Lord will wait’, the Lord waits for your faith to be strong enough. Do you have the faith to not receive aan answer to prayer in the moment you desire or in the time-table you expect? You must give it all to him and trust that he will direct you where you need to go. Even if you don’t receive an answer, you will receive comfort, you will receive his presence and his influence in your day to day life. Institute was soooo good! I can’t even begin to explain how I felt. The spirit was so strong and I can’t put everything I felt or learned into words. It created an opportunity to really ponder over my life and challenges I’m dealing with right now and allowed me to have an eternal perspective.
On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders! I went with Elder Kelsey in their area. This is his first transfer but his Spanish is actually really good. I haven’t spoken Spanish in awhile or even had a language study. So I was definitely a little rusty. I was supposed to do a baptismal interview for one of their friends but she wanted to get baptized the same time as her brother so they moved the date. It was still a good lesson though and it was really fun to speak Spanish again. Nobody in our apartment speaks Spanish and we’re so busy I never get time to do language study so I never get any practice. Elder Kelsey is a dog! He’s a really humble missionary and just super diligent.
On Friday we had MLC!!! It’s always my favorite! I love seeing all my friends that I don’t get to see at Zone conferences and stuff. Then it’s just a full day flooded with the Spirit. We had a really good discussion about fasting. I thought it was super cool because just a few weeks ago I was talking to President Seitz about it and why we’re not supposed to fast more than once a month as missionaries and stuff. In institute Brother Richins has talked about it and some of the things he has said have really resonated with me. Fasting is one of the best ways to obtain spiritual power. Christ literally fasted for 40 days and 40 nights before his atoning sacrifice in order to have the needed spiritual strength. Every time you fast, you have more and more power over the natural man. We are sacrificing temporal needs to be blessed with spiritual strength as well as added blessings that we fast for. We discussed making the preparation to fast a spiritual experience as well. If we just forget until Saturday night and say a quick prayer to begin our fast, it won’t have quite the same effect and you won’t have quite the same experience. President Seitz shared a very tender story with us. Years ago, President Seitz suffered a brain aneurism. As you can imagine this was a very difficult time for their family. After undergoing multiple stages of treatment, their family decided to join together in prayer and fasting. His first sunday back to church they all fasted. Sitting in sacrament meeting, a close friend leaned over to their 5 year old son and offered him some fruit snacks. This young child then responded, “Thanks but I can’t eat it. I’m fasting for my Dad.” Hearing this story from President Seitz was so powerful. The Spirit was even stronger than it was before and the whole room just felt like it was glowing. There are so many lessons we can learn from this story. I learned not only how powerful fasting can be, but how much spiritual power young children have. They just radiate with the light of Christ.
Sunday was such a special day! I was super excited for Easter especially after all of the general conference talks about Easter and the resurrection. Michael is someone in the YSA that leaves for the South Africa MTC on April 27th and then to go to Uganda. He gave his farewell!! It was soooo good he’s gonna be such a good missionary. He moved out to California and even though he was raised in the church he fell away and just didn’t care about anything. He was around people that weren’t good influences on him. But one day he decided to go back to church. He gained his own testimony and went through the repentance process. He turns 26 this June so he barely made the cutoff. His testimony was so pure and it was cool to see his perspective. He talked about how hard it was leaving the people he hung around and the things that became so normal to him. Satan works hard and he struggled to give a lot of things up. But through the power of the Atonement he was able to put all of that behind him and become someone better.
None of our friends came to church which was sad plus a ton of the YSA was just with their family for Easter so it was empty. But after church we got to go to Austin’s patriarchal blessing! I won’t go into detail about anything that was said but it was so cool to be there for Austin and see how much he has changed and how far he has come spiritually. It also talked about Temple marriage and a few things he has been worrying about. It was super cool being a part of a patriarchal blessing that wasn’t my own. Just walking inside the Patriarch’s home you could feel the spirit so strong. It was so cool! Unfortunately the member meal with the other Elders was the same time as the blessing so everyone got 2 hours to eat with members and we just sat at home. It kinda sucked but wasn’t too bad cause I took a nap.
This week was busy as always but nothing too crazy. I hope you all had a great Easter and took time to ponder and reflect on the Savior and his resurrection. 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!
All my love,
Elder Grubbs
