Heart, Might, Mind, & Strength : Week 4! My Crazy Week...

Hey everybody!

I hope you've all stayed safe this wonderful Labor Day weekend! How's Idaho been? Is it starting to cool down? As the end of the year's coming, I start getting excited for snow, that's always been normal to me, but I keep having to remind myself that now I'm in Mesa, Arizona. It will be strange for me. Okay, I'm going to try to list off everything that happened this week. Let me know if there's anything else you want me to include in my emails.

Last Monday was so nice. I remember it was cloudy outside, but still hot. I played so much basketball to the point that I got sick and almost passed out. I guess every zone in our mission has it's own different P-day activities (Nerf, basketball, volleyball) and my zone's favorite thing to do is play Pokemon. It's fun to watch them, because they are all so serious about it.

On Tuesday, the entire zone woke up early and went to play kickball at Westwood High School. We we're all pretty excited and then we got stopped by a locked gate. After checking all the other possible entrances and getting the same result, our zone leaders gave in and told us to hop the fence. After that, we had a normal missionary day. The coolest part for me this week was when we ate at a members house and he showed me his Lehi Stone. I took a picture of it to show you all. This is a legit thing that's down in a Mayan Temple. The real one is about 6-feet tall. The way he explained it to me is in the middle sits the Tree of Life. In the bottom right corner is Nephi and Sam. Sam is holding an umbrella for Nephi to represent him as the assistant. Nephi has a corn hat because of the native american god Nefi-- who is the god of the harvest. To the left of Nephi, you can see Laman and Lemuel. They're smaller because it represents depth (or they're moving away from the tree). Then there's the dirty river at the bottom. That's all that I remember, but still pretty cool!

Wednesday. We got to work at the Mesa thrift store again. We moved boxes around and helped vacuum. We also had to clean out a ton of cobwebs in the attic for them. That's when I found some pretty sweet ninja swords. Nothing else really happened except for a few lessons that went well.

Thursday was moving day for the Papago Reservation Elders. We helped them move into some apartments called Deluxe. We then went and got Jack in the Box. I talked to a few people and got a few referrals for other Elders (because they lived out of my area). We had our district meeting after that. I gave a lesson on charity and love. It went really good and the other Elders told me they got a lot out of it.

Friday was an awesome day. Elder Kuewa pushed another overheated car, no big deal. He's pretty much superman. We then had two lessons that went really well. We showed an investigator named Whitney the first vision video and at the end she said: "Yeah, I can believe that happened." I'm hoping to commit her to baptism this week. The teaching aspect of my mission has been great. I really love it and I don't stress about the lessons as much anymore. Our area's starting to speed up. We're planning on committing two people to baptism this week and getting two people into the waters of baptism this month.

Saturday was a normal missionary day. Sunday was really special though. We taught a mission prep class. It was really good to hear the prospective missionaries testimonies. They were tender and it reminded me why I'm out here. The most spiritual part of the day was testimony meeting in the Stewart Ward. I started to tear up when recent converts and less-actives that I've been working with bore their testimonies. I thought those good feelings would end there, but then our Ward Mission Leader stood up. His name is Brother Felix. He is a great example to me and I want to be life him. He bore his testimony on families. Then at the end, he talked about Elder Kuewa and I. He said that he could see the purity in our hearts. Then he paused and started to cry as he said: "These are good boys." Of course, I started to cry too. I gave him a big hug.

So that was my week. It was a long week and my body is tired all the time. I really love the one scripture in doctrine covenants where it says if I open my mouth and share the gospel, then I'll receive strength not known among men. I'm still working on opening my mouth and getting that strength.

I love being out here on a mission and I wouldn't trade these experiences for the world. I love seeing the change I can bring into others lives. I love that I get to represent our Savior. I love the people of Arizona. I love that I get two whole years here. When I bore my testimony on Sunday, I talked about the importance of testimonies. I told the ward about a man in my home ward named Brother Snow. I sure love Brother Snow. I remember that the day of my farewell, Brother Snow gave me some of the best advice ever. He told me that I'm gonna meet a lot of hard-hearted people in Arizona, but the way to slowly chisel away at the stone around their hearts is to smile and bear my testimony. I've seen the effect testimonies can have. Bear your testimonies whenever you can.

I know this church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true and is meant for each of us. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know He died for us and has given us everything. We can have peace and joy now. I love my Savior. I say these things in his name, Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope you all have a super awesome week. Stay safe and be brave. Sorry for the long email.

Love,

Elder DeGraw