Villa Agricola 2 - Six Months and Small Miracles
Hey everybody, I hope things are going well and that you´re all happy and enjoying life with family and friends.
Well, today marks six months since the day I left Arizona for the Domincan Republic. I´ve been a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for almost two hundred days. It´s a long time. But really, it´s passed by in the blink of an eye. So much has happened in this short time it still amazes me to think about it.
Elder Alva and I today at Sambil (the biggest mall in the DR), waiting for the other missionaries to arrive to eat.
The fact that I´ve learned to speak Spanish sufficiently enough to talk with everyone here only 6 months out in the field, miracle. The amount my testimony of the Church has grown and how much I´ve come to love this Gospel and sharing it with others, another miracle. How much I´ve developed positively as a person and the attributes I´ve grown out here as well as how physically blessed I´ve been in a country full of disease and sickness, another small miracle.
I´ve really come to realize how much God is involved in our lives out in the mission. Every day as a missionary, you really see little miracles from God. If you´re working hard, being obedient, and having fun, there really is no other place better than where you're called and where you serve as a missionary of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I absolutely love it.
I´ve really come to love this area these past couple of days. As I said in my last letter, adjusting to the differences here and leaving everyone I knew was hard for me. But through a lot of prayer and help from God, Elder Alva and I really are turning this area around. We´re basically blanking the area - which means that we´re starting brand new and we both don´t have too much time knowing Villa Agricola. He has a month and I have a week and a half. So we didn´t really start with much. But over these past couple of days, we´ve found some truly blessed and prepared people for this message.
All the missionaries that came to Sambil. We had some Johnny Rockets, looked around a little bit and we were planning on going to the aquarium but it was closed. But it was still awesome. Saw a lot of things I hadn't seen for a solid 6 months - and heard a ton of new American songs (which made me miss music a ton but it´s all good cause we got MOTAB).
We´re really hoping for some great things to happen these next couple of weeks. We´re working hard with a couple that has been taking the lessons from the missionaries for 6 years. They aren´t married and the husband, Frank, has really been having some struggles with his testimony and has been less involved. But we´ve really strengthened the relationship he has with God and he told us that he finally wants to start taking the steps to marriage with his wife and soon in the future. So they´re going to get the birth certificate of their son and we´re going to be setting a date for their marriage hopefully in these next two weeks.
We´re working hard and we have a lot of people with great potential now. We just got to keep up with it and do everything we can to bless this area.
I love you all and I´m grateful for each and every single one of you and your influence in my life.
Until next Monday,
Elder Graff
Jacob 7:26 "The time passed away with us and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream"
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