Week #103 - Th-th-th-th-that's All Folks

Hey Fam,

Well, this will probably be the last time I email from Jamaica. 

Boy it has been a wild ride and I have had a blast. I'm so thankful for the time I have been given to be a missionary and I am going to miss it. I have really tried to bust my tail over the course of my whole mission but especially for this last transfer and I know that the Lord is going to bless a lot of people. I have learned how to just roll with any situation or task or challenge that comes my way.

In the words of Ammon to his brethren after their missionary journey, “Yea I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise His name forever.”

I am excited to see everyone again! I guess I will finish this all off with the only thing I have which is of any value: 

I know that Jesus is the Christ, that he suffered, died, was resurrected, and LIVES so that if we choose, we can receive eternal peace and happiness. Joseph Smith was called by God to restore the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. We can successfully overcome the storms of life through striving to apply the principles we learn from regular scripture study. 

I stand with the Savior when He says: 

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Love,

Elder Graham

Another family pic, missing Elder Callister
Elders Morris, Graham, Christensen, Bischoff and Epps

Hello / Goodbye Kingston...

Week #91 - Teaching the Wrong Guy

Hey Family!

This week was another one full of miracles and tender mercies.

We met a lady on the street about a week ago and invited her to church and SHE CAME and even bore testimony during fast and testimony meeting - it was awesome. And then to make it better, she invited us over for dinner and we taught her the Restoration with Omar. Omar said that she is basically already a member so that was awesome. She lives in the same complex as us too so we pass her all the time and say hi and stuff.

Alright here is a story... So we met a guy a few days ago named Kenny. He said we could come by on a Sunday so we called him and asked if it would be alright for us to come and talk to him and he said sure so we walked over to his yard. There are probably four or five houses on this little lane and we didn't know exactly which one it was, so we were just walking down the street yelling Kenny's name. Finally we heard someone respond, he came out from the bushes (he was farming, it wasn't as creepy as it sounds) and just said hi to us. But his hair was super short compared to when we first met him. He just looked a little different, but he invited us into his house and I said a prayer to start the lesson. After the prayer he looked at me and said, “I thought I should say that my name is Reginald, not Kenny.” Uhhhhhh what??  Then where the heck is Kenny? Who are you and why did you just let us into your house and start teaching you? What is going on?? He told us that Kenny was his brother. Okay so that explains why you look similar but different, but that didn't answer any of our other questions?? Ah man we were so confused, but we taught him the Restoration anyway and he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and everything. So the second we were done, we ran around looking for Kenny because he was probably wondering where we were. Turns out we couldn't find Kenny but we accidentally taught his brother, Reginald. So there’s the story for the day.

This week was awesome. I love doing these baptismal challenges with the Book of Mormon when contacting. We see miracles pretty much every day. More stories to come later!

Love you guys!

Elder Graham

We took a "family photo" at the Halloween party. From left to right: Elder Callister (son, because Cody is training), myself, Elder Christensen (son, because Cody trained) and Elder Epps (grandson, because Elder Christensen is training)

Week #82 - Don't Leap, Elder!

Hey Family!

This week was great. We are teaching a couple new people who have some great potential.

Lover's Leap was awesome. It was SUPER rainy when we first got there, but it cleared up after about 10 minutes and was beautiful!

I got to see Elder Christensen for the first time in forever this week.

Not too much to report, but I guess I will share one quick story:

So Sister Hudson has been recovering from her surgery where they cut a burst cyst out of her head (so naturally she couldn't really make it to church the last couple weeks). Church ended and we did tithing and were about ready to head out, but as we called people, the whole evening pretty much fell through. So we prayed to know what to do because obviously the plans we made were not the right ones haha. During the prayer I felt like we should go take the Sacrament to Sister Hudson. So we called her and offered, and she said that she would really appreciate that and that she had been pretty upset that she had to miss it two weeks in a row. So that was super cool. More tender mercies. I have been noticing a lot more tender mercies lately. It's so cool to see the will of God play out through you. I think it is one of the most rewarding experiences.

Anyway that's all for this week. Let me get these pictures up, there are a lot this week.

Love,

Elder Graham

Great reunion with Elder Christensen

The rainy part of Lovers Leap with Elder Stevens and myself
Elder Graham's selfie skills not so on-point...

More Leaping

Week #56 - A Blast From the Yallahs Past

Hey Family!

This week was really good. We are seeing little miracles here.

I went on a trade-off with Elder Porter on Wednesday. We just stayed in Sav this time. He is a BOSS. We found a ton of people and I was hoping to be able to teach some people with him but unfortunately didn't get the chance. However, we talked to some guys that we went back a few days later and taught and they are sweet!! 

We are beginning to teach a lot more young men which is exactly what the church needs here. So I'm excited to keep working with these people. One kid does parkour like professionally and comes to Friday Night Activity with his parkour friends and they always are flipping and stuff. They provide some good entertainment!

We got transfer calls Saturday morning. Elder Sandmaier is going to Junction and I will be staying here in Sav and receiving Elder Kuehn! I'm excited for that - it should be a blast! I lived in the same house as him back in Yallahs. I also found out that Elder Christensen is going to be with Elder Fowkes! My son (Cody trained Elder Christensen)and my father (Elder Fowkes trained Cody) will be tearing it up in Boulevard!

The week was good. We got a lot of work done and there is a lot more happening in the area now. We will see how this next week goes!

Love,

Elder Graham

This might be my first real picture with Sandmaier... my bad!

He's tall.