Week 16/104 - Transfer 2/17

June 27, 2016

Heylo Eberyone!

This week we said goodbye to Elder Hemsley. He was such a fantastic
missionary, and I couldn't have asked for a better trainer. The Toones
are also leaving in a couple days. They're coming to our zone tomorrow
to say goodbye to us, and of all the things I knew were coming, I
think this is what I'm dreading the most. Saying goodbye to my trainer
was hard enough, but also saying goodbye to my mission president and
his wife only a week later's going to be hard. I have grown to love
them so much. I'm really excited to meet President and Sister
Christensen, though. I know they will be fantastic leaders of this
mission.

With the send off of one companion, I obviously get to welcome a new
one. And in this case, he's brand new. Elder Pavlakos just got here
from the MTC this transfer. I'M TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY!!!
When President Toone called me to be a trainer, I couldn't speak for a
few seconds. I was sure that I would have someone who's been out for a
while, so I could continue learning for a bit, but the Lord feels that
I'm ready to train. I feel so humbled, and my desire to work hard has
grown more than I ever thought it could. I have already seen that this
companionship is going to thrive. We're still in my first area, and
we've already found three new people to teach in our first week, where
we haven't been able to find anyone new in over a month.

Elder Pavlakos is from Detroit, Michigan. He's turning 19 in a few
days, and he's so ready to go! He's got the "greenie fire" (don't tell
President I said that). Because we've been working hard this week,
we've been blessed with so many miracles. One of the new people we are
going to teach literally pulled up right next to us while we were
biking and asked us to take down his address so we could come by to
teach him, his wife, and his family of seven kids! The other two
people were people we just contacted on the street. They were really
interested in what we had to say; one had even been to our church a
couple times! God is a God of miracles. This is truly going to be a
blessed transfer. Expect to hear more miracles that Elder Pavlakos and
I experience; I know there'll be so many.

We also moved into a new house this week. I'm no longer living in a
barn with cows as next door neighbors, but an actual house! It's truly
a blessing to not have to stress about getting four elders showered in
the morning when you all have to use the same shower. I don't have any
pictures of the new house, but when we're settled in, I'll send some.
There's actually a really funny story behind that house. Carrie, one
of the members of our ward, was looking to move into a new place a few
weeks ago. She said that she had found a house nearby, there was one
other offer for it, and the renter went with the other offer. So until
she finds a new house for herself, she and her son (who I've written
about before) will be living with a friend of hers. When we told her
that we were moving in just down the street, she realized she knew
which house we moved into, and she was not happy for a few minutes.
Then we laughed about it after she was able to explain the entire
floor plan to us.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I can feel them every day.

Love,
Elder Grover

1-3: Pictures of my old house. Mine was the third desk and the bottom bunk.







4: Elder Ward, one of my former roommates, with a tie that I skinny'd
for him. Looks good, huh?