Week #13

Hello Family and Friends, 

First and foremost.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Thursday to the best mom in the whole entire world. Everyone please give her a hug for me:) love you mom and have the best birthday ever!! 

Monday we had zone development day. It was awesome we played games and had pancakes for dinner. After all the fun and games we had a great zone meeting. There are a lot of things that President Cooper is changing. He is taking it one step at a time. Our schedules have changed quite a bit, we can now email from our iPads and we also get to email for as long as we need to on preparation day, which I was super excited about! We are super excited about the Light The World campaign. It will be a great way to get into the holiday season and help each one of us to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. 

This week has been humbling. We had interviews with President Cooper on Wednesday. He is going to start having them once a transfer instead of quarterly. I have a firm testimony that you are called to your mission President!:) Sister Bowen and I have been training each other for the last 4 weeks. It has been an incredible journey full of laughs, teaching, testifying and trials. It hasn't been easy but it has been so rewarding. There are some things that as a new missionary you don't know how to do. When we don't know an answer to a question from one of our investigators, we go home and study it,

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We were given permission to eat at a members home. We aren't allowed to eat with members unless we have an investigator, but we can on holidays. We had two wonderful dinners. One was with the Beck family and the second one was with the Arborgast family. Sorry mom we didn't get a picture with either of them. The Beck family invited about 10 families over for a thanksgiving luncheon. It was awesome to spend time with multiple families in our ward. The Arbogast family is an elderly couple in our ward. They were very formal, played classical music and barely talked but it was still fun.  It was so nice to sit down and have a meal with a family. Boy were we stuffed though! We usually have to pack our lunch and dinners because we live out of the area right now, so we were thankful to have an actual meal.

Thanksgiving really made me think how this is the greatest time of year. I am so glad I got to start my mission around the holiday season. I have been able to reflect on my life and all the amazing things that God has given me. Being on a mission I have been able to realize quite a few things, but the greatest gift that we have been given is our Savior Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. Because of him we are able to return back to our Father in Heaven. Because of him we can experience joy and happiness. Because of him we can be made whole again. "It was unthinkable, impossible, unfathomable, unprecedented, a single act that changed history, possibility and destiny. He was a carpenter, a teacher, an outcast, a leader. Yet he did what no carpenter, teacher, outcast, leader had ever done. Like all who preceded, he lived and he died.  It unlike all who preceded him he rose from the dead. He lived again. He lives and because he lives you, you, you, and she, and they, and all of us will live again. Because of him death has no sting and the grave has no victory. We can start again and again and again. Because of him guilt becomes peace and regret becomes relief. Despair becomes hope. Because of him we have a second chances, clean slates, new beginnings. There is no such thing as an end because of him."  I am so grateful for the times our Heavenly Father allows us to struggle. It has taught me not to rely on man, but to rely on the Savior. I am grateful he is my brother who is always there when I need him. He is with me everyday tracting, teaching and testifying. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. 

There are so many things to be thankful for. President Monson gave a talk in general conference a few years ago on gratitude. Called "The Divine Gift of Gratitude" in it he says "Do material possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted." I love this man. He says it so perfectly. The things that are most important in life we take for granted. How easy is it to sit on your phone instead of having a conversation with a family member. In the long run what do we get to take with us when we leave this earth? Our relationships. Being away from my family and only getting to talk to them once a week is so humbling. I am thankful for my family!! I am grateful for a father who holds the priesthood in our home. For a mom who works hard day in and day our for her kids. I am thankful for two beautiful sisters who have taught me how important it is to love. Every single person that God puts into our lives is for us. President Spencer W. Kimball said "God does watch out for us, but it is usually through someone else that he meets our needs!"  

We don't have any solid investigators right now. Sister Bowen and I are working really hard. We have done hours and hours of tracting this weekend. There have been a lot of no thank you's, I've already found Jesus, and your too young to know what you are talking about. It gets hard at times but it doesn't shake our faith that if we are diligent that we will find someone who is ready. We just laugh and smile and move on to the next door. We met with Robin the lady we taught a few weeks ago and she has decided to stop meeting with us. She is going through a lot and say she is praying for God to answer her prayers. We know we have all the answers to her prayers she just isn't ready for them yet. If you would please keep her in your prayers. That she may have a peace and comfort that would be awesome. I am so grateful to be a missionary and that I get the opportunity to be a part of this sacred work. I love this gospel and I know it is true. I wish you all the best week and want you to know that each one of us are lights in the world because we have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. 

Love, 

Sister Graham