This week was a fairly normal week. There wasn't anything super exciting that happened. I suppose that's good. Sometimes exciting stuff isn't exactly what you want.
Elder Cheadle and I have been doing a lot of tracting recently because there's no one outside in the heat. I like tracting. It's kinda fun just getting to spend some time talking to your companion and knocking doors. Most of the people in our area are pretty nice so we don't really get too many doors shut in our faces. Normally if they don't want to talk to us they just tell their kids to tell us they're in the shower. Sometimes it feels like everyone in our area is taking a shower at 4 in the afternoon.
I've started to grow a greater appreciation of people's shrines in their front yards. They can really go all out with lots of candles and tinsel and christmas lights. The people here in this area are very believing. As a missionary I find I've been called less to help people believe things than to help people to do things. A lot of the people we teach accept almost everything we tell them but very few actually are willing to act upon it. A lot of the difference in investigators comes from them doing the simple things we ask them to do like read in the Book of Mormon and pray. Preach My Gospel talks a lot about how real faith is developed when a principle is applied. I've come to see how true that is, especially with the people to whom I have been called.
I really liked a talk I read recently by Pres. Eyring. He actually gave it at the Young Women's broadcast and it's in the current conference Ensign. He talks about developing a testimony and tells us some of the things we need to do to strengthen our testimonies. I learned a lot of good things from it that I'm now trying to apply to my work as a missionary. Because of the talk I've been working more on applying the things I learn from my scripture study every morning. Studying the scriptures becomes a lot more fruitful when we show our faith in them by applying what they teach us.
Elder Ray is going home in a week. He's pretty excited. About a week ago he walked into the kitchen of our apartment and announced, "I declare trunky!" He's still working really hard but he's definitely excited to see his family. Next week me and Elder Cheadle and Elder Chipman will be a tripanionship as we call them when he goes in to the mission home. I'm gonna miss Elder Ray. He's a pretty funny guy and has helped our zone progress a lot since I got here. He's gotten us all much better at inviting people to be baptized. I now invite people to be baptized pretty regularly on the street. I even invited a pastor to be baptized a few days ago. We're seeing really good results in the zone as the Lord helps us to find the people who are ready to accept the invitation to follow Him.
Well, that's about all for this week. Kinda a slower week. We'll see if there are any more changes next week at transfers other than Elder Ray leaving us and a new zone leader coming to take his place.
Love,
Elder Grasley
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