Heart, Might, Mind, & Strength : 6 Months!

Hey everyone! Aloha kakahiak! I hope you all had a great week and an eventful one. How are the roads doing in Idaho? So here's the week...

Monday we celebrated Elder Bird's birthday with a cake. We had a pretty neat experience with one of the youth in our ward. His name is Brian and last Sunday I guess he was out with his little brother doing fast offerings when they ran into Guillermo-- one of Brian's friends from school. They started talking and Brian invited Guillermo to meet with the missionaries. So we got to teach him this day and we brought Brian along with us. After, we went and visited Brian's family and they fed us Mac n Cheese with lil smokeys.

Tuesday we woke up and studied. We then got to run and help out one of my favorite families here. It was the family named the Harmons-- the ones that fed Elder Bird the really hot peppers. We shoveled wood chips for them and then we rewarded with Burger King! I love the members here so much! I also grabbed a bag of the peppers and planted them at our apartment. Had lessons in the night. Also we got a rainstorm!

Wednesday we had a bomb district meeting. We also went to this all you can eat chinese place called Autumn Moon. They didn't have any fortune cookies, dang. It felt a little sketchy walking into. Lessons with Bro Galloway at night.

Thursday was busy! We played some bball with all the elders in the morning. Then had a few errands to run in the Mesa mission. Then that night, we went to investigator basketball and I almost passed out. Then went and visited my two favorites; the Webbs. We haven't seen both of them in a while and they invited us right in. Such a great family!

Friday morning we watched President Monsons Funeral. I'm sure going to miss him. I'm so grateful for the blessing of prophets and apostles. I especially love the story Sister Dibb shared about President Monson when he was looking through an ensign and saw a picture of himself and then said: "That man really did try his best." We then weekly planned, visited a few families, and then had 3 lessons that night.

Saturday? Time for exchanges! I went with Elder Wilding into his area. We went to Pollo Piqunté. The best burritos ever. Period. No one answered their doors to us the whole day. Kinda sad. Dinner was awesome, they gave us some kind of milk and told us it would be good for our stomachs. My stomach was not happy.

Sunday was just another day. We woke up and went to church. We then had dinner at the Malolos. The coolest Polynesian family in Arizona. He gave us each a real cocoa bean and told us how to make chocolate out of it. We then had a lesson with Ron, one of our investigators we were about to drop. We actually talked about baptism and he thought about it for a bit, and then said he would be very grateful to be baptized.

And Monday. Not too much has happened so far. We just finished bowling. My head was hurting so I didn't play a game. I did enjoy watching the other elders tho. These are good boys I get to serve with.

That should be all today. I hope you each have a superb week! I wanted to leave you all with a challenge; "if you choose to accept it." -Mission Impossible. This week Friday will be my 6th months mark and in the time I've been out I've learned how important the Book of Mormon is. We are so blessed to have it in our life's. My challenge to each of you is to take a picture of you or your family holding a Book of Mormon and post (with your testimony or a General Authority quote) on social media. Share the joy that you receive as you study the Book of Mormon and the love that you feel from our Heavenly Father as you do so. Also, you could challenge another friend or family member as well. I can't even begin to say how grateful I am for all the helps and tools our Father's given us so we can make it safely back to Him. #looktothebook #thebookofmormon #lds.org #mormon.org

Love Elder DeGraw
6265 N 82nd St
Scottsdale, AZ 85250