California - June 26, 2012

Hello family, how are things? Sounds very dry over there, it is really hot here, but not dry like that. We hope that all will be well and no fires close to home, that is always a scary thing. It is the beginning of a new transfer here; yeah, it's already over, time is going by super, super fast! Wow, it's already July, practically. Well, I am staying with Elder Reid here in Sacramento. We had the opportunity of going to the temple this morning which, as always, was an awesome experience. It was spiritual medicine, the only problem now is I am super tired because we had the 7 am session, so we had to get up super early, so I am falling asleep while I am typing; just be glad I am not driving, haha! JK, it's not that bad, but yeah, it was awesome. I was able to see a lot of the old mission friends, finding out where they will all be going, who is where, and what is what.

Our district is trying to rise this Branch up out of the dust, they are not a missionary pushing branch, and thus we are working really hard but not seeing a lot of progression. But, we are all focusing on trying to improve the missionary work here and I know God has many blessings in store for us here, we just have to keep working hard so we can earn them :). ( If missionary work was easy, everyone would do it. As Elder Holland told us, "It was never easy for him (Jesus Christ) what makes you think it would be easy for you, Salvation does not come free."

Remember that life is an adventure and we face trials and tribulations every day, but God will never abandon us if we continuelly put our trust in Him and serve Him with all our heart, might, mind and strength. I love you all so much!!

Elder Jesse Grover

California - June 18, 2012

Hey family, how are things? Things here are soooooooooooo hot, it was 106 the other day some say it even hit 108; it was miserable, if you know what I mean! We both just wanted to melt away, but we continued to work and we taught some good lessons.  We helped save one of our less actives' dogs that had just been in a fight and was all beat up (never get pit bulls). We were in his litttle house with 8 pit bulls; yeah, I will admit that it was a little frightening.  It doesn't help that one of his dogs has killed another pit bull that had got in with them, so he is pretty beastly; luckly we didn't die, haha! Lots of pit bull stories here, everyone has pit bulls and chiuauas, yeah it is insane! It makes it hard to get to some people's doors, I guess they just weren't prepared, but I have heard stories of some elders that walked like 50 yards to get to this house, and they had huge dogs, and the dogs didn't attack. The owner knew after that, that God had sent them, so God will guide us and guide the dogs not to eat us, haha.

I want to apologize for the forgetting of Father's Day, we realized it Sunday when we went to church and the young men's president asked us to join the young men in singing a song for the fathers, and then they gave us candy bars, cause I guess we are considered fathers too? I dont think so. Sounds like Elsie was right in time for JJ to be a father for Fathers Day, haha! Congrats! So dad, HHHHHAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYY FFFFFFAAAAATTTTHHHEEERRSSSS DDDDAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Fathers day, I hope you know I love you so much :)

All is well here, we are still working, trying to find those people who are being prepared, and we hope to see success here soon . We have several of our investigators that have lots of potential, so we are hoping for an awesome JULY, full of boiling water :) because it is super hot here in Sac, haha. I hope all is well in Blanding, I love you all so much!

Elder Jesse Grover

Yummy Food

Hey, this was a dinner me and my companion had, and you all know how much I like fish, haha! Yeah, and when it looked like that I had fear to eat it, but surprisingly it was quite good :)

California - June 11, 2012

Hey family, como esta? Haha! How are things going? How is the summer? Things here are going good, we had one investigator at church on Sunday. Tomorrow we have the new missionary meeting, 5 weeks since I started training, what the, that is so crazy! We are on week five of this transfer and I shouldn't be leaving here, so I still have lots of time here. Time in general is moving super fast, like all the missionaries that I met when I first got here are home or will be going home, it is super crazy! Everyone is so new. When someone says they have been out a year  I am just like, 'man I thought you got here just after me; wait, what? Dang, you did!" Man time is flying by and really, there is not a whole lot we can do about it.

Last night we went to see a member that had just gotten home from the hospital, she has diabetes and she is going blind very fast.  She was crying, and I felt like there was nothing we could do, then I realized that in reality there is nothing that WE can do. I read to her Alma 7:11-13, told her that Jesus suffered this already, and that she could always rely on him in time of need because he had been there and suffered for that already, so that he could walk right beside us in these times. I believe that applies to all of us; God is there for us, He gave us His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered,for us and died so that we would have someone to turn to in our times of diffulculty.

So here is an interesting story; we had to go to a dinner early, so we thought we would see a less active that lived close.  We called him and he was like, "oh, you can't come today, I am busy, I just got home from work and I have got lots of things to do.' So, while he was telling us this, we felt it necessary to go by. So as we are on the phone with him we walk to his house and he is in the backyard, very surprised to see us because we are on the phone with him. But he was drinking a huge can of beer; we were able to help him and encourage him to pour it out, which he did.  I was glad we were able to follow the spirit and help this man to keep the comandments more.

I love you all and wish you the best of luck,

Love Elder Jesse Grover

California - June 4, 2012

Hey family, how are you? Sounds like life there is getting all busy with the summer coming on, haha! How is the weather? Hot? It is sooo hot here, and it is supposed to get hotter, well today it sprinkled a little and is fresco, but this week was roasting! It is supposed to get really hot this summer. Luckily and unfortunantly we live right by a river; lucky we get nice cool breezes, but we can't swim so it's hard to see the water all the time and not want to jump in. haha!

We were blessed yesterday as 4 of our investigators came to church, it was a wonderful day! 2 of them we found and added on Saturday, 1 we have been teaching for awhile and has come to church 3 times, and  another who is sooooo golden.  She came for the first time and found out one of her friends is a member and so she really enjoyed her time at church, it was awesome. Things are really starting to pick up here in the mission, our zone alone picked up 8 firms this week, and our branch has 1 firm and 8 to church, which is fantastic for our little branch! The work is steadily progressing; I have had lots of desires to be urgent, I wish I had more time! I want to baptize everyone, but no one is going towards the water, except our investigator, Nely Caterino, she has a lot of potential, we are hopeing for 23 of June.

Love Elder Grover