Bueno bueno!! Another week in good ol’ McKinney! This week honestly felt sooooo long but we still saw some really cool miracles. Monday night after P-day we had our branch president join us for a lesson with our friend Jose. This time his wife Carmen joined in on the lesson! We’ve only seen her like once but she’s never joined us before. Presidente Quiroz was all over the place haha. We went over the Restoration, parts of The Plan of Salvation, parts of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and even bits and pieces of the commandments and what-not. It was crazy, but it was a good lesson and we invited them to church and their daughter to young womens!
Tuesday was an insane day. We had mission conference in the morning which was super good! Sister Seitz shared a few stories that she has shared in the past. I know I’ve put them in my emails before but here is one of the stories:
There is a fence dividing the people into 2 sides. One side is Jesus Christ and the other is Satan. Each of them beckoning others to draw near. Some people on Jesus’ side decide to cross over and join Satan. Others see Christ and choose to change; they cross the fence line and follow Christ. Eventually Christ and Satan part ways leading their groups of followers. One man however, had not chosen a side. He sat on the fence the whole time. Christ returns and pleads with him to follow, but the man refuses. A few minutes later Satan comes back to grab some things he left. Satan talks with the man on the fence and asks him to join him. The man declares that he didn’t choose Christ but didn’t choose him either. He is simply sitting on the fence mot having to worry about who to join. Satan starts to walk away and says, “It doesn’t matter whether you follow me or not. I own the fence.”
Reading that story, what does it teach you? Many people choose to find a ‘gray area’ where they aren’t necessarily breaking a commandment but not trying to follow it either. With God it is only black and white. We either choose to follow him or follow Satan. Satan wants you to think that you don’t have to choose one or the other. Even if you aren’t actively following Satan, sitting on the fence is still choosing Satan. Why go so close to the edge? Why risk losing blessings when you can safely walk with Christ?
After mission conference we had Interviews! It’s weird thinking that it’s my last interview. It’s everyone’s last interview with President and Sister Seitz but it’s my last interview in the mission too. I’m super glad that I get to do my last interview with them and not the new mission president that I won’t know anything about. But interviews were very interesting… Your last interview consists of President Seitz going over “MyPlan” which is just goals and things you set for when you go home. It was mainly President talking and me listening quietly. I got the good old marriage talk. Which is always fun… he said, “Elder Grubbs, I don’t want you getting married 2 months after you get home. BUT, go home and get married.” That’s just how it goes I guess. I talked with President and Sister Seitz a little bit about marriage and how you know you chose the right person. They both said, “You’ve probably heard this a lot and I know it doesn’t help but, as cliche as it is, you’ll know.” I get that ‘I’ll know’ when it’s right but HOW??? I’m not super worried about it cause I don’t want to get married super fast but thinking about dating and finding ‘the one’ is very daunting.
Wednesday night we had a lesson with our friend David. He is a super chill dude but he hasn’t been keeping any commitments we have given him. We taught him the Plan of Salvation but tried to be pretty bold. We discussed eternal families and how we have the opportunity to live with our families again, but that is contingent upon our faith and willingness to follow the laws and ordinances of the gospel. I explained that Christ said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” Christ is showing us that if we truly love him, we will express that love by being obedient. If we love God, we will do all we can to follow him. I explained that it’s similar with our families. I said, “David if you truly love your family, you will do everything you can to live with them in the next life.” We don’t love God by simply stating we love God. We have to act. We have to show that we have faith in him and honor him. As President Nelson said, “This life is the time to prepare for salvation and exaltation. In God’s eternal plan, salvation is an individual matter; exaltation is a family matter.”
On Thursday we went on exchanges and I was in our area with Elder Sathre. We stopped by an apartment complex to talk with one of the families we are teaching but they weren’t home. The whole complex is basically hispanic which was sick. So we walked around a bit and started talking to our homie Alberto. You never know what’s gonna happen walking up to a group of Hispanics blasting their music, joking around, and drinking. But Alberto took the time to listen to us and walked away from the group to talk with us. We talked about repentance and what it means to him. He was super cool and really liked the message in the Book of Mormon. We gave him one and a pamphlet about the Restoration and he wanted us to come back! He asked us how we pray and it was cool cause people don’t often ask us that and either don’t know how to pray or don’t feel comfortable praying. So we taught him how to pray and set up a lesson for next week! Score!
On Friday we went up to Melissa and Anna. This last transfer President has set a goal that we all should strive for 50 gospel conversations everyday. That is a lot.. and we’re doing everything we can to talk to anybody and everybody that is outside. I think for the first 20 doors or people we talked to they instantly rejected us, some nicer than others… One guy opened the door, saw us and instantly closed the door and said, “See ya!”
But we kept going and probably talked to 30 people which was super sick. There was this husky chillin on the side of the house and jumped around when he saw us. He had a shock collar on so he couldn’t come close to us. After knocking a few doors we went back and played with him for second. I got all dirty because he was jumping all over me haha but it was totally worth it.
Saturday we had a lesson with this guy named Omar. We were supposed to have a lesson with him last week but Elder Hansen got a concussion so we had to cancel. He sent us his address and he literally lives in the most boujee place in McKinney it looks like Europe. I’ll drop pics below. But we met with Omar and he is so prepared. He is from Venezuela but came here and got married but now he’s divorced so it’s just him and his 4 year old son Felix. His mom also lives with them too. But he has been to a bunch or churches around here but hasn’t liked them very much. He saw an ad on Facebook for our church and signed up for a visit. The lesson we had with him was so amazing. The spirit was so strong and I needed it so bad. This week has been incredibly long and that lesson made everything worth it. My Spanish was super good cause the gift of tongues came in clutch. But I was able to talk about different things than I normally say in lessons and it was just so cool. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he loved it. Hermano Aguilar joined us at the very end of the lesson but we read the intro to the BOM and it was sick! We invited him to church and he said he would come!
Sunday, Omar pulled up to church!! He brought his son Felix and he’s the cutest! I sat next to him and tried to help entertain him during sacrament meeting. Hermano Santa fe spoke and it was just perfect for Omar. He talked about the atonement and shared a few personal trials they have dealt with. They had a 5 month old girl that passed away suddenly and they talked about the healing the atonement of Jesus Christ has brought them. Omar was swarmed by members after the meeting it was sick! Then they stayed for second hour and we took Felix to primary which he loved! In priesthood we talked about Elder Renlunds talk from last conference and it was super cool talking about the priesthood and covenants and it was sick! Omar wanted us to send it to him after church. It was so cool!!
I didn’t have a ton of time for this weekly so I’m sure I missed a bunch of details but those were the highlights. I love you all so much!! Muchos Besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!!
All my love
Elder Grubbs
