Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Lots of changes and crazy Miracles‏ May 29, 2010

Hello, Most important things first, Elder Grant is experiencing a change in Mission Home address. Starting in four weeks if you could all begin to send mail to

SEOUL MISSION

Seoul-si

JongRo-Gu

Gwanghwa-mun 110-602

P.O. Box 210

I would greatly appreciate it. The last few days have been extremely hectic and it doesn’t look to slow down any before we combine with the seoul mission on the 29th of June. From here on out our p-days are being moved to Monday in a worldwide effort by the church to standardize missionary work around the world, thus meaning that today is not a p-day and that all I get to do is email you guys and go right back to work, they announced the change on Tuesday so this week is a long, p-day free, week of missionary work, you don;t realize how much you need that day until you don;t get it. So this last week was transfers but Elder Grant will be staying in bangwha with Elder Tucker. However, our zone experienced some huge changes. We had four people that went home and one area close, out of those four only two of them were planned to go back to America. One was discovered to have a worthiness issue and the other has OCD and so isn’t able to deal with missionary work, talk about crazy huh. So because this elder with the worthiness problem just got discovered on the day before p-day he has to go home making it so we have one less possible companionship so they ended up shutting down an area in our zone where the ward just can;t seem to work with missionaries very well.

This last week we’ve seen miracles every day. We were meeting a man on Saturday and we got to the subway station about thirty minutes early after getting out of a meeting with some other missionaries and we were talking about what to do, so I said, well we need some more lessons and a new investigator to reach our goals so lets do it. We threw down our goals and walked right up out of the station. Right as we came out there was a man walking along beside us so I greeted him and we started talking, this man talked with us for about twenty minutes before our appointment showed up and as I was sitting there and we were talking I was thinking about how we were going to commit him and how he would respond. I thought, “commit him to come to church!”, what commit him to come to church on the street, I had always done that with people in passing but this was like a place in which we could get a new investigator and doing something like that could cost us his trust and friendship as he could come to see us as purely people who go around saying believe in christ, however who am I to say no to the spirit. So as we were parting I threw down the will you come to church commitment to him and he got a little bit freaked out but we explained that just if he had time we would love him to come and see what our church is like. That night we texted him our churches address and told him once again the time. I prayed that night that he would come because I really felt like that was the commitment I needed to give him. Half-way through sacrament Elder Tucker looks at me with a surprised look on his face, “Elder, He’s on his way to the church right now!” I was way surprised and so grateful at the same time. He arrived five minutes to late for sacrament meeting because of his job but we were able to sit him down with a member and teach him about the gospel, he really is an amazing person and prepared. It was a testimony to me that as you find and then commit people through the spirit, it makes for much more effective missionary work.

Hope you all have a great week this week, I’ll pray for you if you will pray for me!

Love,

Elder Greg Grant

Twelve Apostles!!!!‏

Hey Ya’ll and welcome to the sunny/rainy/cloudy/muggy I don’t know what to call it land of Korea. Seems lately like we have been having all sorts of weather. This week has been a really good one. We got to have a special meeting and shake hands with elder Christofferson on Monday, what a special treat to here from an apostle of the lord. His main message was about the book of Mormon and how using it in our own lives and in missionary work we could help to change others lives for the better. I feel like that is so true, if people just read and pray and follow the basics they won;t live problem free but the problems they have will seem less big as they feel a certain peace through the gospel. This last week we went and visited a man and his family who was diagnosed with cancer maybe four weeks ago and is deteriorating rather rapidly. He expressed great concern about his sons particularly his oldest son who says he is done with church when he turns twenty which is the legal age here in Korea. This man was a bishop up until he moved about three months ago, he asked us what he could do to help his three sons. I asked him if they did FHE, read and prayed together, not surprisingly as most Koreans do he said that no they didn;t and never really had. I immediately testified that if they would do that it would change their families lives. I truly feel that just by doing those three simple things together families grow closer and the world has less influence on the children and other members of a family. These three things protect against bad friends, arguments, pornography, a variety of things. I remember very few of the lessons we had when I was little but I do know that because we did it all of the people in my family are better people because of it. So I will commit you missionary style, will you follow the prophets counsel and do these three things as told to? You dang well better or I’ll swim the ocean to come get you all! Lol Well I have got another fun filled p-day ahead of me, see ya’ll next week!

Love,

Elder Grant

Man was it good to hear all of your voices May 2010

Man was it good to hear all of your voices, long time no see, i uh… mean… no talk to huh? Lol SO this last week has been a crazy yet good one and I basically told you all of the goings on over the phone when we talked. Today fro p-day we are planning on heading over to the zoo so we don’t have much time to do anything but it should be lotsa fun! I sure love all of you and am thankful for all of your support. This week I have been studying on how to follow the spirit and one of the things I studied alot of was when nephi in chapter 6 was constrained by the spirit to kill laban. Nephi knew that laban was a bad man and he also knew he needed the plates but he still had a hard time following it. Nephi had to go through a kind of check process before he realized that it was the spirit and he realized that he had to follow it. WE in our lives need to do the same things. As we live worthily and ask for the spirits guidance it will come, its just a matter of following it. Take today for instance. We had gone up to surprise some elders in our zone to study with them and on the way back a little boy sat down in front of me and normally I don;t talk to little 14 year olds especially when their moms and right there but I felt like I needed to talk to him so talk I did, in English, as far as he could go with intros., and then i switched to Korean and he was amazed! Lol This little boy is actually suffering from some type of lung disease and his dream is to become a preacher. He loved talking to me and especially loved the fact that I was Christian. I made friends and he asked me what the book of mormom was and so I explained to him using the intro. And pictures and he loved it and was impressed, even asked me where he could buy it! I told him he could get it for free and asked his mom if I could give it to him, she said yes. This little boys face just lit up brighter than any i have ever seen, I shared my favorite scrip. And he dog marked the page for latter. He was a little disappointed when I told him I didn;t make money but I explained why and by the time we were done he left the bus saying I want to be like you when I grow up! Amazing story huh, testimony to me that the spirit guides us! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Grant

Mother's day phone call 2010

RE: Hey Momma!!!!!!‏
From: Susan Grant (tetonwildflower@msn.com)
Sent: Wed 5/12/10 8:29 PM
To: Greg Grant (charles.grant@myldsmail.net); tetonwildflower@msn.com


Hey Handsome,

It was so great to hear your voice on Sunday, truly, it's a joy to know you are alive and well and still motivated about being on god's errand Greg. It makes my heart rest at ease, but I also sensed the burden of responsibility in your voice and the tenderness of heart you are experiencing. Those phone calls are tough, on all of us I think: ) Much as I love talking with you, I sense they're a little hard; I hope the homesick faded quickly; there were things I wanted to talk about with you, but didn't want to make you cry (okay, me!) Thank you for making the effort and for talking with everyone so patiently---Mikey would NOT let anyone else talk and Kendall just kept saying, "Make him be quiet so I talk" about everyone who had the phone. those little boys are so proud of you and want so much to be like you; it's awesome! Hearing your voice made it real for them--even if they DID keep repeating everything. Your Carly misses you like crazy and would love to have you all to herself; hearing your voice makes us all homesick for you. Probably shouldn't tell you those things, but sometimes we just need to be real and not pollyanna positive all the time? We miss you---that's pretty real right now. But we're so glad you are happy and well---that companion of yours is bound to figure out what an amazing Elder he's got with him and stave off the 'motivational speeches' ---we'll put both your names in the temple again this week when I go. Everytime I am there, your name is too. And lots of my friends...: )

We're headed to Districts Tennis at sun Valley tomorrow; Tanner is coming--Carly's wanting to have this one year to herself, but he's been so great he deserves a break too. He and I will go off and do so she can have her space: ) Hope she does well so she can go to State; she wants so much to make you proud of her. She's going to play singles. We're having spaghetti dinner again; it has become the tradition: ) Tracie will come up and play with the littleboys while we're gone; hope they all three have fun.

I went shopping today to collect girls' camp equipment; camp is in June. did I tell you I'm the camp director? that, and they released me from gospel doctrine last week adn I'm now the Laurel advisor---hope it's not all too much 'mom time' for Carly. I think she's okay with it....just probably not the little brothers that will sometimes have to be with me. Should be a fun couple months---busy, since we have to buy and figure out all new equipment, but hey! at least we get some and I don't have to round up borrowed stuff!

gotta run grade papers and get my lesson planned for next week. I'm going to have my kids do a service learning project with the JCC boys again next week; we're headed out to eh Livestock center west of town; we're going to clear a fence line of big boulders that are knocking it down, clean up the run-off sludge from another section of fence line from the ice in the river this winter and then roast hot dogs and have dutch oven cobbler and s'mores. should be a fun evening with the boys from up north...hope it all goes smoothly. My kids are excited, which makes me happy because they have been so mellow to date i was afraid they weren't really alive and breathing: ) I'll let you know.....: )

Love you son! so proud of you!
finally have all pieces of package gathered, should be in the mail the end of this week!

XOXOXO, Momma Bear





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 May 2010 15:34:19 +0900
Subject: Re: Hey Momma!!!!!!
From: charles.grant@myldsmail.net
To: tetonwildflower@msn.com


Okay I will do! I'll see what I can do about the tennis shoes over here, finding ones my size is a little bit rough but I should be able to do it. Today we hit up a great sale where I picked up some good shirts for 9 bucks a pop and got some free ties. I pulled out 100 dollars and hopefully that will get me shoes and the stuff I bought today, we'll see what i can find. On the shorts I think carly may have them as last year in the MTC I got a pic. and she was wearing them!Lol
Love ya,

Greggors--letters to Momma and back

Re: Greggors‏
From: Charles Greg Grant (charles.grant@myldsmail.net)
Sent: Thu 5/06/10 12:57 AM
To: Susan Grant (tetonwildflower@msn.com)

Hey Momma Bear,
SO this last week has been a good one if not one of the busiest I have had on the mission. Been feeling a little down and out with some kind of nug lately and having a few killer headaches but as of today i am feeling somewhat better. Glad to hear that you and tammi and the boys are having so much fun. I can;t wait to get home and get in on some of that mountain outing and horsebak riding stuff! It really is fun doing the lords work but at times you just wish you could have a day to relax and have some fun.
Sounds as though they finally figured the deal with carly out huh? How long has that nasty stuff been around bugging her? This week is mothers day again, already? Holy cow does time flie by quickly or what? When I call on sunday it should be early on in the evening though I am not sure exactly what time I will be calling or where from yet. When I call if you could have things like how much is in my account, and yeah thats it for prep stuff, ready to tell me I would love you to death, but wait, I already do love you too death! I hope you always remember that momma bear, I love ya!
Love,
Greg
P.s. anything i can do for you over here? I have emailed uncle joe a few times, he's got a great heart you know it!


On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 1:09 PM, Susan Grant wrote:

Hey Cute Elder!

Man do we love to hear from you! Does my heart good to know you're 'alive' and well' : ) Thanks for being so good about checking in all the time; I know your hours must be so limited now--leadership has a way of sucking out all the extra minutes in life, but the blessings are given back in such magnitude I know it's worth it in the long run. We pray for you daily in your new responsibilities.

Pretty cool you have found a 'special spirit' there that reminds you of our Kenny---he's had a few of his own special moments this week: ) He has been home sick from school all week so Dad and I took he and Mikey to McDonald's for a 'hamburger and fries' and to play on the toys. I made them pinky-promise in the car that they would get out of the toys and come with me when it was time to go. I had to get Carly and Kenny to Idaho Falls that afternoon for an orthodontist appointment and we were in a little bit of a hurry...well, long story short, I was half an hour late picking up Tanner to watch Michael because Kendall would NOT get out of the toys. Your he-man dad climbed up those toys and hauled him down just a-fussing. So, moral of the story--don't take your investigator to mcD's for a respite break! Sheesh....we laughed, but shook our heads at the same time. No wonder we haven't been to McDonald's for years...really. We never go. And now....it'll be awhile before we go again: )

Only one more phone call then home! May 2010

Hey everyone living back home in the chilly and very dry state of Idaho. I think it is safe to say that it has officially become summer in korea and boy is it hot and muggy. I can do hot but I sure don’t like the muggy!

So just an update on the life of a zone leader, it’s a busy one. This last week since Sunday today is the first day I have had in my own area, I have been on exchanges all the other days and we have another one planned for tomorrow and then after we make phone calls on Monday in order to help with the combining of the mission’s in two months we will go on exchanges for two days with a couple of the zone leaders from seoul mission. I am feeling so hectic right now that my head is liable to pop right off! Lol It’s tons of fun though, I feel like I just stood up from emailing you last week and sat right back down to email you again.

So I will expound on my adventures here in bang wha today. Mainly the fact that in the last three weeks I have gotten to play tennis twice!!!!!!!!!! I may not be as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was!!!!!!!(Name that country song!!) So I don’t have the skills I had back when I was a senior in high school when it comes to match play but I can stroke back and forth for fun with the best of them on the Korean courts! So we have an investigator who is way into tennis and has even gone to America to play at the USTA tournaments in vegas. She loves the fact that I can play and has invited me on p-day a couple of times, I am loving it. We’ve played a couple of doubles matches and its fun, won some and lost some that just drove me up a wall but overall just getting to play is good. I am able to hit better than I thought I would be able to though.

SO this last week we had jo seew cha get baptized on Sunday, not a very well planned out baptismal service on our wards part and so didn’t have the spirit like we wished it would have had but hey, what can you do, next time we will just get er’ done ourselves. We see miracles everyday as we are on exchanges with the elders, though at times I feel that our own area is kind of suffering for the lack of time that we have to spend in it. We need your prayers more than ever now, we don’t have a single investigator who is meeting us regularly though we do have some part member families we are working with really closely and my companion gave some good insight on that this morning. He told me that it isn’t those people who we find and teach that get baptized most often, it’s the people who are already in the ward who are part of less active families, part member families, and looking back at the last few months I can’t help but think that it is so true! Can’t wait to talk to you on Monday here and Sunday there, I’ll probably be calling around five or six o’clock your time so have the phone ready and a good list of questions so we don’t have akward silence!Lol

Love you all,

Elder Grant

A week in the life of Elder Grant April 29, 1020

Hey Everyone and welcome from the big old Korea!

So this last week has been yet another crazy week and it all started on Sunday where we say miracles! So in order to hit the standards or goals of our mission we had to have a new investigator and 4 lessons with a member present on Sunday, we knew we could do it. So we started out after church with our lady who is going to get baptized this Sunday who is 70 years old and basically a self referral. We got done with her and then we went out to hit the streets with our recent convert here in bangwha! Sidenote- this recent convert is actually mentally handicapped he is named jeoung joong min, he is 17 and absolutely hilarious. I absolutely love working with him because he reminds me so much of Kendall. Anyway back to the miracle I will write about him to you in a snail mail when I have time one of these days mom. So we went streetboarding with him and got all the lessons with a member that we needed but we still hadn’t found our new investigator and both Elder Tucker and I were really starting to worry but we still new it could be done just that we had to do everything in our power to get it done. At that point we had a dinner appointment with a member and our schedule after that for the night was to visit a sister who’s’ daughter has yet to be baptized and then we had an appointment with a less active family. We got out of dinner late so by this point we were really thinking because the plan was to use public transportation to get to this ladies house so we could talk to people on the way but in order to follow all of our plans we would have to take a taxi and go from one appt. to the next really fast. We decided that since the night before we had planned in faith that we would follow our plans instead of just going to street contact until the next appt. so we hopped in the cab and we had decided to talk to everyone in our path, the cabbie was the first target, he didn’t accept. As we were walking to the house we talked with everyone, the student, the smoking guy on break, and we had nearly arrived to visit this member when a guy came walking up from behind me and I stopped turned around and said hi, this led to that and we will meet him this Saturday, tight huh? It was a great testimony to me of how goals set with the lords’ help are fulfilled through that same help! This week started with my first training of other missionaries, we prepared Monday and did it Sunday and then went on splits with the AP’s, talk about crazy. The minute we get in the car I realize that the day would not be normal as we are headed out to another area to pick up an elder who is headed home. On our way there, we get in a car crash! Don’t think that that is bad because all it was was like driving bumper cars at about 2 miles an hour. We were pulling into a gas station and this lady nudged up against our side, the start of a great exchange. We saw miracles on the exchange as well! So that is the week up to date and we start the busy cycle of training and helping our zone on Friday with our
first of 7 planned exchanges and lots of surprise visits! Yahoo

Played Basketball today for p-day so that was pretty fun, can’t wait to hear from you all.

Love

Elder Greg Grant.

Zone leader learning curve April 21, 2010

Hey everyone,

This last week has been an absolutely crazy one and life looks to just get busier than ever. Being a Zone Leader is not all it is cracked up to be. The truth is you get the title but no one really knows what being a zone leader means until you get here and it is definatley not a place people should aspire to be. It involves long days with a lot of hard work and less missionary work than you would like. However we are starting to have some great success in our zone. We have 1 invetigator here in baangwha and no potentials as of right now. It seems like it always happens this way. I build up another area with my comp. to having plenty of investigators to meet and getting ready to see tons of miracles and all the sudden I get transferred into a new area. Sheesh, but hey, I will go where the lord wants me to go. Not much has happened this week. One of the big reasons we were so busy is that all Koreans are required to go for a mandatory military training after they finish their two years(All are Required to serve)once a year. An Elder in our zones companion had to go this week and so fro the last four days we have been covering our area and his and have mostly been down in his which is a good 45 minute bus ride away. I love this work and I know that Christ loves each and every one of us.

Love,

Elder Greg Grant

Holy cow, but I am still a youngster in the mission may 2010

Hey ya’ll there in the snowy world of Rexburg, Guess what, it snowed some here to! Man has it gone back to being cold lately, we don’t like it to very much! So as of last week I told you that transfers would happen today, well happen they did and it surprised me more than you will ever know. So Tuesday night we got a call, I answered our cell phone and whose voice should I hear but for President Burtons, at this point I was thinking, ahh… Elder Lee is going to be training because I had to be the one leaving the area as I had been there for four and president only calls to new trainers, Zone leaders, and A.P. ‘s. So as we greeted each other I was walking over to give the phone to elder lee in our apartment and President said, well elder I suppose you know something big is happening. At this point I was thinking yes siree, my comp. is a stud! However the next words out of president’s mouth were, Elder I would like to call you to serve as a zone leader in the kangso stake. Good thing I was close to a chair cause I immediately sat down and as president explained for about two minutes what that would entail, I don’t think I heard a word and I most definitely wasn’t saying anything either. Came as a shock to me as I have yet to train and I wasn’t a district leader yet either. Elder Grant just became the youngest Zone leader in the seoul west mission, and he isn’t going to lie is fairly nervous about the whole situation. I am going to be leading others who are way older than me in the mission, and I am expected to know the answers to questions instead of being the one asking the questions, ahhh! I am serving in an area called bangwhaa now and am with an elder from Seattle, Elder Tucker, who loves sports, I think we will get along just great!

So from that exciting news to news on the sheheoung front which I just left today. So last week we established a baptismal date with a lady who’s family is all members but less active except for the grandma. This woman was really hesitant to accept the commitment last week but accept she did, for this Sunday. The only problem being that that didn’t leave much time to get the rest of the lessons in, and she has to work almost everyday. The whole ward was excited especially the Grandma but everyone was worried to. We had yet to teach her the commandments and all the sudden everyone is telling us that she has a word of wisdom issue on two counts and that living the law of tithing would be hard for her. These things are true for everyone but we were already thinking that they would be slightly harder for her. Last night in one of the most spiritual and amazing lessons I have had on the mission this lady agreed to live according to all of the commandments of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We prepared half an hour before hand with our ward mission leader and then went in thinking we would have a hard time of it and that she might drop the baptismal date(Which is also her wedding anniversary by the way). As we taught I was praying that she would accept them all, and no lie, as I prayed the most overwhelming sense of peace came over me and the thought all will be well came into my mind. All indeed was well and we called the district leader on the spot to set up an interview for tonight because that is the only time that she has open, Crazy Huh? I got transferred but I Became zone leader in my own zone so hopefully I can go up and see the baptism on Sunday. The amazing part was, and the part that truly saved this woman was that the grandma had gone through and explained a little about each one to her beforehand so that none of them came as a shock to her. This lady truly is a prepared child of god, and there is a reason preach my gospel says to teach with members!

Sure love you all a heck of a lot, know your in my prayers, hope you’ll pray for me with this new assignment.

Love Elder Greg Grant

Ready to get Kicked out to another place!‏

Family and dear Friends,

It is now springtime here in the beautiful land of Korea, and is it starting to become amazingly gorgeous here in this small land. When I say small land I mean that in more than just the way of Korea’s land mass, I mean that in the way that I love sheheung but I am ready to move, the small area we proselyte in has seemed to be getting smaller and smaller each passing day! Lol 6 months in this area is a long time to go, most people only go for and the longest is 5 so who knows about elder Grant right now, next week when the call comes he could go or he could stay though I am definitely expecting to go since I have been with Elder 이 for two transfers already!

So this last week has been a fun one with the weather starting to unfold as is directly translated over from Korean! This last Sunday we had two baptisms of a two little boys who are twelve and thirteen years old. We have been working with them for a long time. They started coming to English class almost two years ago but noone ever picked them up as investigators. Elder Mills and I started meeting them because of grace, her target is this family and still is as the mom and dad aren’t members yet! It was a great day. We had the senior couple up to see it as we had taken them to their home for dinner and a lesson one time. The mom had them get baptized because she wants to send them to BYU so it isn’t true conversion for her yet obviously, however the boys are amazing and we love to be with them. My recent convert from that group of students is still pulling off the miracles and referring his friends up a storm though many of them don’t want anything to do with the church they all come to play ping-pong and we pull out the ones with interest to teach them a short lesson. Teaching these 14 year old kids American age (15 korean), has helped me realize how you really have to change to meet peoples needs. With them we can’t just sit down and go half an hour straight, we have to do it in lots of brief lessons so that they focus and can learn something.

Hmm, funny story from this last week? To tell the truth I haven’t had any funny happenings in the last little while. We had a member call us up from another ward and I had no clue he was a member so we set up a time to meet like he was an investigator. He was talking very bad English on the phone so I figured he was an English suck who only wants to meet to learn English, come to find out he is a less active who really was an English suck at one time but somehow ended up getting baptized and going less active right after the fact. He wanted to meet us because he heard that my name was grant and he knew that there was a church prophet named grant and a U.S. president. Which reminds me, How are we related to both of those people? Maybe grandma or granpa grant can answer that one.

Nothing else has been happening too much this week, missionary work is the same ole’same ole’.

Love you all,

Elder Greg Grant

Thanks for the scriptures April 1, 2010

Hey Everyone it is Good to here from you this week! Thanks so much for sending me all of your favorite scriptures! I loved Hearing from you and Can"t tell you how much I love all of you! Not much time this week as we are at the senior couples home with our zone having a party because they are going home in a couple of weeks. We watched the movie ever strong which has now soared to the tope of my movie list, of course it is still under remember the titans but those sports movies are so inspiring. When someone works hard to reach a goal in life and accomplishes it it is always moving. Not going to have time to shoot anyone individual emails so I am sorry but I love you all and know that the Gospel is the biggest help that anyone could ever ask for in their lives, I have seen it truly change people for the better. Missionary work is the lords work and even though at times it is hard it truly is changing me into a better person and hopefully I am helping some people in the process. One of the big things I learned this week is that change is hard, we talked alittle bit about spiritually purifying ourselves in zone conference and my first thought was of all the things I could change and the second thing I thought was how hard it would be and that I didn;t want to do it. However, once you decide to change your life and ask for the lords help he truly will mold you in his hands as I am already starting to see as I seek to change! I am still in shiheung with Elder Lee and loving it, starting to feel like I know the place "Really well" if you know what I mean. 4 transfers in dongjak and four here now the feeling is starting to be that of" Wanting a new place" But I will go where the lord wants me to go or stay where he wants me to stay!
Love you all,
Greg

Miracles in the snow march 24, 2010

Hey Ya’ll and welcome to the land of insane and crazy changing weather. One day it will be bright and sunny and I am thinking alleluia summer is finally here for godd, the next day it drops three inches of snow on us, and the next day its raining! Dang it seems a little to much like Idaho weather! Lol They say that they haven’t had snow this many time in years!Lol Talk about crazy Global Warming.

This last week has been a good one full of Miracles and finding a couple of good students who seem to be all that exist out here in the countryside because everyone else is either women or old men. Can’t talk to the women and the old men just say, “됬어요” or in other words, “BUG OFF, will you pup, you don’t know anything!” That describes the mindset of 90% of the old people here! However I don’t mind meeting students. Our group from before has all but disappeared except for our baptisms who apparently got baptized because they knew it was true and not for their friends to be awed. So the story comes out now. This Tuesday we had a great district meeting and we went out to get to work. Lately we haven’t been going out to find with very much faith and we both agreed that it was having an effect on the work and decided to change. You would think that we went out and tore the streets up and that everyone wanted to come back and get baptized right then, Right? Come on doesn’t the lord just give us stuff when we decide we want to change? As we all know we must first endure to see the final blessing. We went through the whole day and taught a couple of members and a couple of people on the street but couldn’t seem to find the one. However that night we had a meal with the second counselor in the bishopric planned and our new convert, so we made our way to the church at 7 to pick him up and walk to the house. As happens a lot he wasn’t there. We waited for twenty minutes and figured he just wasn’t going to come and of the billions of kids here he is one of the few without a cell phone and he wasn;t at home. SO we head to our members apt. and when we are basically on the front step he calls, “I still want to come, I am sorry, can I still to come?” Of course we answer! “Can I bring my two friends?” OF COURSE we answer again. He reffered two of his friends to us at the meal and we have met twice since and they are doing great. Since he has been baptized, this little boy has reffered 4 people without even realizing it and they all have good potential! Amazing huh!

This week has been great and next week looks to be even better!

Love you all,

Elder Greg Grant

It was the worst of times, and the best of times March 17, 2010

It was the worst of times, and it was the best of times.‏

Hellllooooo,
So I couldn't think of anything else to put into my subject box so i threw that one in, first thing that popped to my mind cause that is what elder lee said this morning! His english isn't to good so when he threw that one out there I burst out laughing, he was talking about having to proselyte so much on a mission!Lol
So this last week has been a good one, our little boy who was refusing to get the holy ghost and also refusing to talk to us is really staring to come back around, it seems like he doesn;t like the idea of all the other kids having fun and him not. In interviewds with President Burton yesterday i asked him about it and I recieved specific instructions to call my bishop and get his approval to give him the holy ghost and then the next time I see him to clap my hands on his head and confirm him a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints! He's been baptized but if he isn't confirmed its kinda like michael running around with only a shirt on and no pants or underwear on. He's wearing clothes but not the part that does the most amount of good!Lol Amazing story of the week. So I have been wondering lately how we can help people to progress better in the gospel, well i found my answer. The commitment section of preach my gospel is absolutley amazing. A commitment given in the spirit can do wonders but if you do like preach my gopsel says and follow up on that commitment it can do miracles. I have a story I want to share about that. So I have been here in shiheoung for almost six months now, long time- I know, and the whole time I have been working with a man who is 38 years old and less active because he has to work on sundays, however he is an amazing man, but he will not read the scriptures. I have commited him over and over again to read, pray, talk to his boss but he never seems to do any of it, however on monday before we went on exchanges with the zone leader we had an hour to work and I had just read about following up. We commited this man hard, we threw the beast mode at him last saturday and now I knew it was time to follow up, we threw aside the plan to print english flyers and went and visited this man. Needless to say we followed up, and he hadn't done it like usual, however, he came to know that we cared. The next day i texted him and asked him if he had done it and he said that he was doing it right then and had commited himself to read the book of mormon for twenty minutes a day no matter what. Oh, what great blessings this man will recieve for following the word of god and his servants! SO we have gon from lots of investigators to about three but those three are progressing well and two of them have baptismal dates set for the first sunday in april. These two are two little 12 and 13 year old boys and hopefully there parents will be soon to follow! Gotta love misionary work!
Love you all,
Elder Greg Grant

New email address

Hey Ya'll, This is Elder Grant speaking from the new email address which he was so kindly "Assigned" by the church!Lol Oh well not like my old one was much better. This week has sure been a hectic one but as usual it is fun and it is missionary work and I am starrting to realize what i have to do to get things done the way the lord wants them done not the was that elder grant wants to do them!
Question. Do boys fight like girls? Do boys have the ability in them to catfight? No need to answer that one becuause I have seen the cat circle go full round with a group of boys. Those 1 year old boys we have been meeting are now turning into a nightmare of problems. One of the two that has been baptized apparently does not like us any more. he wasn't able to come to church sunday and then the next day we get a text after we met them at the church saying he was done coming to the church. Apparently amidst our dozens of boys someone has offended him. We've been working for most of the week on trying to iron things out but it just doesn't seem to be happening. The sad thing is that he has yet to recieve the holy ghost and he is taking about three other of the closest to getting baptised boys with him, keep mr. lee jeoung hyoon in your prayers please! We have also seen many many miracles this week. One happened on monday right after we got the text from this boy. We had been proselyting all day and it seemed like it was one of those days where just everyone is rejecting you, which happens a lot more when you are with a korean, needless to say we were both starting to feel down and like we couldn't proselyte anymore and this call came to make things worse. We were headed to proselyte in a local park and we had just gotten there when this text arrived. It made me slightly sad but more than that it made me mad that satan was winning and after a few seconds of depression the thought popped into my mind, well he one that round but we'll win the fight, go find someone else. Apparently the lord needed us both good and humble that day as after thinking that I went and sat down next to an old man and started talking to him which we normally don;t do because they won't listen but I was up for anything after all the rejection. The lord humbled us and we taught this man for almaost an hour on a bench next to a tennis court(Can you say distracting!Lol) Life is good here in the mission i\even if it is a little bit dramatic right about now! Can't wait to here from you next week!
Love you all,
Greg
P.S. as the guy on the game cube snowboarding game says, "Wheres the Love Man?"

SPring or winter?>

Family and Friends in the very blessed Nation of America!> > > Hello from shiheoung yes you guessed it, that means I am staying here for my fourth transfer and to see many more miracles! This place is great but I am also A little bit surprised that I stayed as it is really small and president usually sends people elsewhere after three here! I think I will be gone for sure next transfer though, the brain and body are just ready for a new place and fresh start to missionary life! However, we will work hard this next transfer and we (Elder lee and I) will see tons of miracles, starting with our group of 15 year old students!> > > So the miracle of this last week was that we had two baptisms! We are meeting a group of about 15 students and out of them two got permission to be baptized, these guys are just great and so much fun to be around! Lee jeoung hyoon and park jeoung hyoon got baptized Sunday! We have had lots of parental opposition amongst these boys so it was truly a miracle. In fact after he got baptized we got a call from lee jeoung hyoon and he was crying and said his mother had forbidden him from attending church. He could come and “Hang out” with us during the weekdays but couldn’t come Saturday or Sunday. We were stunned Elder Lee talked with his mom and we planned to meet her the next day and explain our church a little better. The reason she changed her minds is because some friend told her that our church was a cult of some sort, and that we didn’t believe in the bible or Jesus Christ, talk about misinformed and not trying to learn for yourself, I hate that, always make decisions based on information you have learned yourself not from the rumor mill! Monday she called us up and said she couldn’t come because she had to go to work and that maybe next week we could meet. That night we met with our boys and gave her son a proclamation on the family to show to his mom, miracle, he showed it to her and her thought pattern did a complete 360! We have been writing letters to our other boys parents and the hearts and doors are slowly starting to open making for what looks to be a fun next transfer!> > > Life is great here in Korea even if the lack of sports and the coming of spring yet continuance of winter-rain season is about to kill me! In just want to get outside and do some real exercise, guess I will have to wait ti’ll next year! Not much going on besides missionary work and all the other usual stuff!> > > Love you all,> > > Elder Greg Grant

Great pix of Greg and Elder lee February 2010

Dear Grants and Elder Lee's brother,We just visited two great missionaries. Hard working, baptizing, happy, and they keep a clean apartment. Thought you'd enjoy the attached photo of them.Love,Elder and Sister Knudsen-- http://kurtknudsen.blogspot.com