Week 19/104

July 18, 2016

Heylo Eberyone!

This week has been a week where I have really learned to trust the
Lord for strength. I'm not sure why, but I was struggling this week
with keeping on top of things. Even though I felt that things weren't
going so well, looking back at the week, I realize that because I put
my trust and faith in God, we had more opportunities to teach than
ever before. The Miller family - all nine of them - came to church
this Sunday, and they loved all three hours of it. We've had some of
the best lessons yet, where we were absolutely guided by the Spirit of
the Lord! and we made progress in ways we thought wouldn't be possible
yet. In the end, I realize that even through my struggles, as long as
I am willing to put my feet to the pavement, buckle down, and work
hard as the Spirit directs, the hard things we go through seem
minuscule compared to the joy and the success we experience.

We had a zone conference this week, where President Christensen, his
wife, and his two assistants came and gave us wonderful training. Our
zone leaders also taught us. The zone leaders trained us on teaching
by the power of the Spirit, and the AP's gave us awesome guidance of
the principle of remembrance. I learned things from both of these
discussions that applied directly to what Elder Pavlakos and I were
working on with our investigators this week. We were also given an
interesting commitment. As a mission, we do our best to follow every
guideline and principle the Missionary Handbook contains, but
something was pointed out that we as a mission could improve on. Under
the Schedule section, this is what it says missionaries should do at
9:00 p.m.:

        "9:00 p.m. Return to living quarters (unless teaching a lesson; then
return by 9:30), and plan for the next day's activities (30 minutes).
Write in your journal, prepare for bed, pray."

The AP's then committed us as a zone, and, consequently, as a mission,
to follow this guideline, and to write in our journal every night. I
am not the best at writing in my journal, but since we committed to do
so every night, I haven't missed a day yet, and plan to continue. I
have seen the blessings that come from this counsel already. I have
been able to much more clearly see the hand of the Lord in my life
every day, and I have been able to record positive experiences, and
positive lessons I have learned from negative experiences. I love
writing in my journal!

There is no aspect of this work that our Heavenly Father doesn't guide
or oversee. No matter the individual struggle of the individual
missionary, He comforts each and every one of us, because He has
called us to this work. He has promised wonderful blessings to all
that spread His gospel; as Elder Neil L. Andersen puts it, "words to
speak will be given in the very moment you need them, opportunities
will be given unto you, faith will overcome doubt, and the Lord will
bless you with your very own miracles." ("It's A Miracle", Ensign, May
2013) I promise that these blessings are not empty, wishful thinking.
These are blessings that an apostle of God has promised, and as such,
God has promised them as well.

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

Love,
Elder Grover

1. Pres. & Sis. Christensen with our zone.
2 A flag I acquired that's being passed around to all the missionaries
from Oregon.
3. The best part of today. :)