Otra Semana

Dear family and friends,

Hello again. I'm beginning to hate government holidays because they rob me of my email time until the middle of the week. And there's no such thing as a three day weekend as a missionary. Really, there's no such thing as a weekend.

Speaking of weekends, this last week was pretty rainy. I got absolutely soaked. That's one thing I'm very thankful about here in Phoenix, that I don't have to be out in the rain hardly at all. Still, we had set an appointment to go out contacting in an area and we'd been praying for people to be there so we went out to go find the people even though it was rainy and almost no one was going to be outside. When we got to the area, the first people we found had a lot of connections with the Church and seemed quite interested. One of them was a cousin of one of the counsellors in the bishopric here and the other had grown up in Juarez, where there's a large population of Mormons. We also found another man who had been inactive for years but his member mother had just moved back in with him. It was amazing to see the blessings the Lord gave us because we were still working hard despite the weather.

We've also started asking everyone we meet for referrals, and it's been amazing how many more referrals we've received. We've only received one referral from someone we've just met on the street, but we've been getting a lot more recently just from other missionaries or members we run across. It's nice to see those blessings from the Lord when we do what Preach My Gospel asks us to do.

We have a baptism coming up this Saturday. His name is Benito and he's the husband of one of our recent converts. He's a pretty cool guy. He always shows up to Church all blinged out and shiny. He really does just want to follow Christ and make a change in his life, and it's great to see his simple faith in God. He's got a very good heart and we're excited for his baptism on Saturday.

We've also been teaching that woman that Elder Chipman found on the street when she was having that terrible day. She says she always used to have headaches because of the beatings and that she'd have to take pills to get them to go away, but she says that since the blessing we gave her she has felt completely fine. She looks much happier now and she's very excited about the gospel. The woman Elder Chipman called up to take her to Church that day is now very good friends with her, and they seem almost perfect for each other. I know Elder Chipman received revelation to call her. We're very excited for her, and it's amazing to see how much happier she looks now. She and her daughter have been attending Church every Sunday and the girls in the ward have been inviting her daughter to lots of activities.

This month I'm focusing on the Gospel of Christ in my personal study. I love the Gospel of Christ. It amazes me how simple the Gospel really is. All we need is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to endure to the end. Five things are all you need to receive eternal life. Of course, it's simple to understand but hard to do, and is overall a lifelong process of learning and growing. I especially love how focused the Book of Mormon is on the Gospel of Christ. Some of the most powerful sections in the Book of Mormon, such as in 2 Nephi, 3 Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni are almost entirely focused on the Doctrine of Christ. It's amazing when we focus on those five things how often they appear in the Book of Mormon. As a Church, everything we do should be focused on strengthening one of those core five principles.

Overall, that's about all that's going on right now. Spanish is coming along nicely. I'd call myself fluent, although I still have trouble understanding people with thick accents or who mumble. For those of you who like learning little cultural tidbits, you should Wikipedia Jesus Malverde. He's a Mexican robin hood sort of figure for a lot of the people from the border (or frontera as it's called). He's kind of the patron saint of drug runners, border crossers, and other less than lawful people.

Love you guys,

Elder Grasley