29/104

Sept 26, 2016

Heylo Eberyone!

This area is very different from my last area. There are so many converts in our wards! Lots of the members in my last area were born in the church, but in this area, lots of people joined the church later in life. It's pretty cool!

Last Monday we got a call from one of our bishops asking if we could give an emergency blessing to a member of the ward who was taken to the Emergency Room earlier in the week. His kidneys were failing, and he was in a pretty rough condition. His parents, who live in New Mexico, called Bishop Smith and asked him and us to go over to the hospital to give him a blessing. It was such a cool experience! Elder Inchin and his last companion had been visiting with him for a while, and had helped him get back to coming to church, so his mom was really grateful to Elder Inchin for that. We blessed him that he would have a peaceful, painless passing, and that, if the Lord desired, he would be able to stay alive until his parents got there to see him one last time. The blessing was fulfilled, and he passed away the next day. The family was very grateful to us for the help the missionaries had provided for him over the past few months. before they left on Saturday, they took us out to lunch at Cracker Barrel. I felt kind of helpless in this situation; I wanted to provide some sort of comfort and consolation to the family, but I couldn't. It was kind of a weird experience. I could see, though, how this family's knowledge of the Atonement was comforting them in this time of need, and that gave me peace. 

We've been working a lot with the members in this area, especially the less active members. There are a lot of them here! Many of them are happy to have us over, and to visit with us, and others want nothing to do with us. We had an experience trying to contact a less active member with the last name of Love. We knocked on his door, and a disheveled, obviously irritated man answered the door. He stared me down, and after I greeted him, he stopped me, pointed to the NO SOLICITING sign on his front door, and said, "You see this? Next time, take the time to read it." Elder Inchin started to ask if he was the man we were looking for, and the man interrupted him, threatening to sic his dogs on us if we didn't get off his porch. We promptly wished him a good day, then left. I've had plenty of instances like that before, but for some reason, this one irritated me for a long time. I think it was because his interaction with us appeared so shortsighted and impatient that he didn't give us time to even find out if he was the guy we were looking for. If he wasn't, we wouldn't have bothered him again. But, because we don't know if he's Brother Love or not, missionaries are going to keep coming by. After that, we commented to each other that he didn't really live up to his name. :)

Even though this week had kind of a somber overtone to it, I still find comfort and joy in the work. The things we do as missionaries provide so much good for people, that there's no room for sadness to overwhelm me. Even when I was irritated by that interaction, I received peaceful confirmation that the effort I am putting in is not wasted. We stopped by the library on Friday night to see if we could use the internet there, but it was closed. As we were pulling out, however, a car that was parked in the driveway pulled over to us, and the driver asked if we were Mormon. We confirmed his query, and spent the next 30 minutes talking to him about the church. He's looking to have religion in his life again, and we directed him to the Mesa temple visitors' center. He was excited to go check it out, and also accepted an invitation to the Gladys Knight devotional. I know God is directing this work, and the servants who participate in it!

ALL IS WELL IN ZION!

Love,

Elder Grover

1. The last picture with San Tan, my old zone! :'(

2. Elder Inchin and I w/ Bishop Smith @ DQ

3. Baskin Robbins celebrates the Olympics, too!