One more photo

Elder Getts is home!

Elder Getts arrived in Columbia Falls this morning about 11:20am.  It is so good to have him here.  He served a faithful mission and is now embarking on the rest of his life.  :)

Mom

Dad

Niels is happy to have his big brother home.

The Last Two Weeks

This last week has been amazing! We had the Mission Department come and give us a training on how to teach more simply and powerfully. They showed us how to teach with the pamphlets they made from Preach My Gospel by asking the investigators to look at the pictures and tell us what they see. (Does that remind you of 1 Nephi 11?) It works really well! The Spirit is there and they put forth some effort to think so He can influence them more. We teach and testify simply and they really get it! We learned how to invite them to read the Book of Mormon and what we needed to do to help them got to church so they can witness the sacred ordinance of the sacrament. The same day after we got out of the meeting we were impressed to stop by someone that we haven't taught for 5 months, since I first got in the area. I had only met the wife and the son, but the dad answered the door, and we said that we are servants of Jesus Christ and we were inspired to come by their house. He let us in and we taught him the Restoration. The Spirit was very strong. We have been having many other experiences like that and seeing many miracles. The whole mission is changing because of the many things that we learned. The Lord is hastening His work in more than just calling more missionaries, but in how we do the work and how we guide others to the truth as well. What we learned is really going to have an effect on my whole life; I can feel it. Elder Hernandez and I were talking, and if I hadn't come home from the Dominican Republic and then come to this mission, I wouldn't have been in the Utah Provo Mission at this critical time in missionary work and wouldn't have been present at the life-changing meeting that we had. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's plan! Have a wonderful week!

Well, here goes the last email from my mission! Pretty crazy. I still don't think I really grasp it yet. I had my exit interview with President McCune yesterday, which was good. This weekend was great! Justin and Stephanie were baptized (in the pictures I will send). Their baptism was awesome! They are really bright (she goes to law school at BYU) and study the scriptures a lot, have always believed in Christ and she even prayed about if coming to BYU was the right decision. (We weren't at all surprised when she told us that it felt right :) the Lord brought them here for a reason). They have attended 2 Married Student Wards, and then with all of their friends from school, we filled up the whole chapel! It was great, especially because they bore their testimonies. We even were able to bring an investigator named Benson from Kenya, who will be baptized on the 13th, so it was a great baptism for him. Then on Sunday Elder Hernandez confirmed Stephanie and I confirmed Justin. It was really powerful and I definitely felt the Spirit during both blessings. He was ordained to the Priesthood as well, so we will be going with them tomorrow morning to do baptisms for the dead! It is awesome to be able to do that with them. I love going with new converts to the temple, because then they see how much more they can receive through the Gospel and get a glimpse of what is in store for them. Justin and Stephanie actually started a blog about becoming Mormon and they said they have already had people from all over the world look at it. The new Assistant is Elder Guzman! He was my companion as Zone Leader, so you should remember him. He will do a great job. Teaching went a little slow this week because of transfers and also Elder Hernandez was sick for a day. Well, I love you and am looking forward to seeing everyone at the airport on Thursday!

Love,

Elder Getts 


Justin and Stephanie get baptized
with Elder Hernandez and Elder Getts



The Light of the Gospel

Our area is great! We have a great family stake to work with that has a lot of nonmembers and less-actives, and our YSA stakes are good as well. Bob is getting baptized on Saturday. He passed his interview today. He will be the oldest person that I have taught to get baptized (80 years old!).

We need to find some new investigators! We have a few preparing for baptism right now, which is awesome, so we need to find more so we aren't caught in a rut when they all get baptized. We had an awesome experience this Monday. A young couple we have been teaching finally got their answer! Two Mondays ago the wife asked us for a blessing and I was voice. It was probably the most powerful blessing that I have ever given. I knew that the Holy Ghost was speaking though me. The only thing that I really remember saying was at the beginning, when I said that Heavenly Father blessed her to know that this blessing was by the power of God. When we talked with her this Monday (we meet once a week on Mondays), she said that she really did know that it was by the power of the Priesthood. Then the next day (Tuesday), they happened to go for a drive and ended up at Temple Square. They read some scriptures there and then were just sitting there looking at the temple, and they started talking and thinking about baptism and said that they felt all of the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, light and everything else confirm to them that it was the right thing to do. After they had left and started for home as they were driving they also received confirmation about question 2 of the baptismal interview, which is if they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the gospel was restored through him, and if they believe that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God today. They had been telling us that this was the only question that they could not answer honestly for the past few weeks. They had wanted to be baptized, but that held them back. Well, the husband received a confirmation from the Holy Ghost that made him know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, and the wife received a confirmation that Joseph Smith was a prophet! So they got both parts of the question. They were so happy and excited when we met with them on Monday. There was a new light in their faces and we could tell something had happened. It really is amazing what the Gospel does in our lives. They were talking about how amazing they felt and how they just wanted to tell everyone about what they now know. They are going to be amazing disciples in Christ's kingdom!

Well, I hope that everything is going well for everyone.  Have an awesome week!

Love,

Grant

Thoughts from the past couple of weeks

Today we went to a Married Student Ward. It was the first one that I have ever been to and it was pretty weird. We went with a couple that we are teaching. They are investigating really intently. They read the Book of Mormon, study conference talks, go to church every Sunday, pray a lot, and the wife decided that she is even going to fast every Sunday until she gets her confirmation. They feel really good about the church, but it seems like they just have a fear of taking the next step without being perfectly sure about it. I think that they will be ready soon. We have been focusing on just listening to them and then giving them things to read or watch to help them with finding their own answers, which is the way the Lord would have us teach. It is amazing to see how they answer many of their own questions as they talk to us about their concerns. Oh, and by the way, my companion and I bore our testimonies in the ward, and when I had finished and was heading to my seat I saw Shelly B. in the congregation! It was pretty cool to see her and meet her new husband.

. . .  

I am having a great time. It seems like I am getting the most out of my mission now as the transition out of the Utah Provo Mission is approaching. I put it that way because I don't see it at all as though my mission is ending. I am just going to be transferred to Columbia Falls for a few months and won't be required to be with a companion 24 / 7 and follow some extra rules, that's all. And then after that I will be transferred to BYU again! I really love to feel the Spirit and feel it working through me. This week we have given a few blessings, and they are the blessings where I have felt most that the Spirit spoke through me. I have really felt that it wasn't me speaking, that I was just the mouthpiece and the words were coming from someone else. It is just amazing to see the effects of the Gospel in anyone's life, whether they are a member, not a member, less-active, or a recent convert.

. . .  

We had board week this week and did everything for transfers and have been really busy in our area. We are actually going to split the area because of how busy we are. We wanted to focus more on the Grandview East Stake, because there is so much work to do there between non-members, recent converts and less-actives. We also will cover 2 YSA stakes that are in the same area (where the Branbury, Carriage Cove and Old Mill are). I am really happy about how the area is doing and hope to get it even better by the time I leave.

So long, Elder Bishop. . . Hello, Elder Hernandez

 

Bits and pieces from the last few weeks -
I am doing great! We have transfers this week - transfer calls are tomorrow. Elder Bishop is heading home.  We are doing well. Andrew was confirmed today and then given the Aaronic Priesthood and now has a temple reccommend! So we are going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with him on Tuesday. It is so much more exciting when you can go to the temple and do baptisms with your recent converts really soon after their baptism! I don't worry as much about if they will stay active or not because I know that they are starting to enjoy the blessings of the temple. It has been a good week. I love teaching the Gospel and getting to know Heavenly Father's sons and daughters. We are teaching a family in a member's home right now, which sadly doesn't happen very often, and it is amazing! The members are a young family with an 8-month-old girl, and there is an amazing spirit in their home! They aren't afraid to invite their neighbors over for games, for FHE, and then to meet with the missionaries, and it makes a huge difference in our teaching and how the people we are teaching are progressing. Much of the time all we have to do is invite! There are many people who will accept if we just invite them! If we do it with sincere love they will not be offended. Keep up the good work in the service of the Lord!

It has been a wild week for me. We had transfers and tons of stuff to do, and then suddenly we are flooded with appointments! So we have been all over the place teaching and working. We got 17 missionaries this transfer, opened some new areas and created a new zone, which is what is creating all the work for us. It is fun, though. I like to see things change for the better and be a part of it. Everything is going well for us. We had a baptism yesterday and he was confirmed today. I confirmed him and really felt the Spirit as I said the prayer. It definitely felt like my words were being guided.  My new companion is Elder Hernandez. He is from Raleigh, NC and his parents are from El Salvador. He was called on an English speaking mission here. I hope that everything is going well for you and everyone else!

Elder Hernandez is cool. He has been on his mission for 15 months. We get along pretty well and are working hard. There is SO much work to do here that we need to split our area to focus more on individual stakes, especially Grandview East. It probably won't happen until the transfer that I leave to come home, because we are getting mostly Spanish missionaries this next transfer in February. The next baptism coming up is on February 9th. The man's name is Chris and he was really prepared. Everything makes sense to him and he feels that it is true, which is how the Spirit often speaks to us. It is really amazing to see the member family that has helped us fellowship them and the love and the Spirit that can be felt in their home. I just wish that the members of the Church would catch the VISION of Preach My Gospel that the Apostles are trying to get us to see! It is SO important and even more rewarding!

Well, I hope that you have a great week!