December 19, 2011

Hello

This week we had some really great contacts with a number of people, including a few different friends of members in the area. There are so many people that could use the feeling of warmth and love that comes with attending church. We were scheduled to have a few more people come to church yesterday, but who ended up running into a road block one way or another. One thing I am gaining such an appreciation for is the strength we can draw from by going to church. The strength of the Spirit in the building from other members is very noticeable and this ward has so many strong members that love the Lord and everyone around them. Some of the life stories we hear are very sad, but also very mendable with the warmth of simply going to church. I pray specifically that those people will find the courage to come just once, because that is all it would take.

From my personalility that has developed over the past few years, I rarely find myself in a mad state of mind. Especially here on a mission when the work is so full of joy. However, I found one thing that gets me close. It breaks my heart to hear people that haven't been to church in decades or people who don't know much about the church refer to members who have turned them away from the Gospel. My mind is drawn to the joy which comes from introducing someone to the fullness of the truth. Compare that same joy to the guilt which would come from being the reason someone fell away from the arms of the Savior. I certainly do not want to have to answer for unkind words or actions that would be the reason for someone to miss out on the blessings that are available to us.

My heart aches for the Solomon family. What a sad experience to go through. I remember a line from the book True to the Faith - To take the sorrow out of death, you have to take the love out of life. Obviously love cannot be taken out of life, and sorrow cannot be taken out of death, because of the universal laws about opposition in all things. But having the sure knowledge of the potential to live in a family unit for eternity can cause those feelings of sorrow to diminish quicker than anything else in the world. That knowledge is a great motivation to try and do all we can to be worthy of that gift from God.

Also a bummer to read that Campo's streak ended. What a great run though. It was fun to get the weekly updates even though I am far away.

I still haven't heard anything about my visa. But I know there is more for me to learn and do here in Tennessee. I absolutely love Brother and Sister Carroll. He is the ward mission leader and does so much not only for us, but for anyone he comes in contact with. We will be at his house for Christmas afternoon and will call home from there. I will most likely wait until the late afternoon and we will have an hour to talk.

Today will be a first for me. I plan on entering a barbershop and paying someone for a haircut. I am not quite sure how to tell them what I want, but hopefully it goes well. A couple of the attachments on the hair trimmers we have in the apartment are broken and they happen to be the ones I need. Tomorrow we have a zone conference - a special one for Christmas. I was reminded this week of a quote from President Hinckley - Get on your knees and pray, get on your feet and work. As we are counseled to always have a prayer in our hearts, this provides insight on how to do so. We can pray and ask for help and guidance and what we might need. Then we get up and go to work trying to help God help us answer those prayers. Kind of like the saying that He can't drive a parked car. That is something I keep in mind as I go throughout my studies and work everyday.

Well thanks for the letters and I got some neat Christmas cards this last week. I won't have time to respond by letter to everyone, but thanks to the Severson's, Peirce's, Jex's, and Steven's. The thought goes very far.

With much love and charity

Elder Graziano

December 12, 2011

Hello-

WOW what a great email to read that Campo football won again. That is so exciting. That is too bad that Vince's back is hurting and bothering him but to hear he kept playing is no surprise. We all learned that bit of "self-sufficiency" (also known as stubborness) from our wonderful Grandma Barnes I think. But how gratfeul we all are for that trait of dedication and will.

This week was full of good. Elder Clark and I continue to work hard and focus on making sure we are living worthy to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. The members really seem to be feeling it and a few of them have started to mention the names of some of their friends to us. One of the members said she had been waiting for a set of "hard working Elders" to introduce a particular friend to. She just said that yesterday, so we will see when that meeting can happen. But obedience and consecration to the work are being noticed. The main girl we are teaching, Sierra, says she has received an answer the Book of Mormon is true and loves coming to church and feeling the consistent love and warmth of our ward family. Something she identifies as being unique from the other churches she has been exposed to. On Thursday, all of our plans got canceled, except for a dinner appointment, luckily. Sierra sent us a message right after all the cancelations saying she had a friend she wanted us to meet. After our studies finished in the morning, we went to her apartment and met her friend named Autumn. She had some initial questions about various things, and then Elder Clark and I began to teach the message about the Restoration of Christ's Church. At the end of the lesson, Autumn said she felt overwhelmed at the feeling that she had. I then had the opportunity to invite her to be baptized. It was all due to the undoubted presence of the Holy Ghost which had confirmed to her the truth of the message. She said yes! Come to find out from Sierra, Autumn said she hadn't planned on believing anything or feeling anything while she talked to us. It was a powerful testimony builder for me. We will now have to see how she reacts to the witness she received and we will pray her parents are receptive to it as well. They are very active in their faith at an Assembly of God congregation.

We also had the opportunity last night to meet with a man named Robert Jenkins. He was exposed to scouting with an LDS troop as a teenager and has fond memories of the warmth and love of the ward that he was involved with. He lives with a woman and their two children and has been feeling lately that church is what their family is missing. He also commented that because of his familiarity with the overall love and concern that church members seem to have as a whole, he thought it no coincidence that we knocked on his door at the time we did. In reality, we knocked on his apartment door while looking for a family on our ward roster who apparently moved away some time ago.

Elder Clark and I can really feel blessings of the Lord being poured upon us. Another thing we have squared away, thanks to the idea from Dad, was to get a little blurb in the newspaper. On Thursday this week, there will be a small article advertising our service to help with any last Christmas decorating and also to help take down and haul away Christmas trees. This exposure will not only keep us busy, we're sure, but hopefully produce a few more good contacts for us to start teaching. We have had some crazy times on our bikes. The shoulders on most of the roads here are as thick as the wide paint strip on the side of a lane. And the people seem to have many places they need to get to in a hurry. I have been riding on the side with two cars in parallel to my left a few times more than I would like to admit.

I got a great package from the Bishop Sorenson and his family this week and their kindness is amazing. Please make sure they know of my love for them and gratitude for the their thoughts on my behalf.

I didn't hear back about my camera battery charger, which I really would like to know soon so I can either buy a new one or get it mailed out to me. I would like to take some pictures and send them home. Please let me know.

Everyday is a great day to wake up and dawn the nametag with the name of our Savior. As I read about laying up treasures in heaven this week, the thoughts about what some of those treasures hit me. Obviously nothing physical with go with us. But the knowledge, Priesthood, attributes, and family we have developed in this life are all the treasures that our loving Heavenly Father would want us to develop so we will have treasures after this life. I look forward to developing the kind of treasures that will eternally significant and not come and go with a strong breeze of bad times during the course of my life. I love you all. Thanks so much for the unending prayers and thoughts.

With love and charity,

Elder Graziano

December 5, 2011

Hello--

I just read the great news about Campo football! How exciting. Congratulations Vince and everyone involved. That is so awesome to get to play in the Oakland Coliseum. I will be waiting with anticipation to hear the results next Monday. Awesome about getting co-MVP for the defense. You are great Vince! Keep working hard and always keep your eyes and head up.

We had a good week here in Tennessee. We made some good contacts with various individuals and will be returning this week to hopefully begin the teaching process. Last night we watched the Christmas devotional from the First Presidency. The comments were great and brought the true focus of Christmas into my heart. The video they showed from lds.org was also very powerful and I wish I could spend more time on the computer to watch those types of things. But seeing that depiction of the Savior's birth was very powerful. Sierra was able to watch that with us at the Carrolls house after they invited her at church. She has been doing really good lately and we are scheduled to have dinner with her and her mom next Sunday which will be great because her mom has not been too excited about her learning from us. Hopefully this will help. Jill, the other one we had consistently been teaching, is struggling with the pressures from her parents, and could certainly use your prayers. We have been trying to help the bishop out lately by going to the addresses of people who haven't been seen in a while and seeing if they are around. This has produced some of the good contacts I mentioned earlier. We have also continued our service efforts and can still feel the power of doing so.

I had the thought this morning of how my understanding of time is changing a bit. At times, when we are not busy and having to really think about what the best thing to do next would be, the minutes go by slow. But, when he have plans to teach, or visit people, or even better, serve others, the time goes quickly. This will certainly help the rest of life. Many times we comment on how ugly this life is, or how sad it can be. True. But when we forget ourselves in the service of others, we forget about that aspect of time to a large degree. And if we were able to perfect this, we would not be weighed down so much by the sadness of having time in front of us, but rather look forward to the Spirit we can invite to the lives of others by serving them and sharing the Spirit of Christ with them.

I got a great package from the Harries almost two weeks ago now and have a letter written to them, but the box got thrown away without having copied their address down. Could you please send that to me either in a letter or email so I can finally send that letter next week?

Last Monday we played a bunch of dodgeball and a little basketball with the other missionaries in our zone. It was fun. We had a big lunch together too. It's too bad we can't do that more often, but the areas we serve in are far enough apart to make it a bit of a pain to gather like that.

My mind was drawn to a verse in Philippians earlier this week that Bishop Sorenson shared with me about a year ago. Philippians 4:11. I can feel the attribute developing in me to find joy and contentment in whatever state I am in. This is most useful to me when I cannot control the situation, but am still able to find happiness in an undesirable setting. When we get a door slammed, or told where we are going for eternity (not heaven), I am still able to smile and trust in the Lord. Alma 38:5 has helped as well: "as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day". I do try to put in as much trust as possible, seeing as we have that great promise.

As far as getting to Brasil - I do not have any idea how long that will take. It could be another week or it could be a few more months. I approach everyday with a fire to accomplish as much as possible for the good and feel this is the right way to approach the situation. I do not want to miss any learning opportunities during this fine time I have to serve in Tennessee.

Thank you so much for the prayers and love that I can feel daily. The support I feel is a huge bonus to how I approach the days as well.

With love and charity,

Elder Graziano

November 21, 2011

Good rainy monday-

It rained here most of the day yesterday and is supposed to continue through Wednesday. Perfect for the week when we don't have the car. However, I am excited to walk a more so in turn I can eat more at dinners and such. I could feel myself getting soft sitting down all week.

Happy Thanksgiving a few days early. Tomorrow our ward is having an annual Pie Night. I am sure there will be plenty of sweets available kind of like my memories of Grandma Barnes' house during Thanksgiving time when there would be at least a half dozen different kinds of pie available. On Thursday morning we get to play in the ward's Turkey Bowl - that should be a lot of fun. Everybody keeps thinking I really want to play quarterback but I would be just as happy blocking or receiver. My mindset now is certainly different than a couple years ago in full competition mode. We are going to the house of Br. and Sis. Carroll in our ward for Thanksgiving meal. He is the Ward Mission Leader and is really great. The members of our ward are so nice to missionaries and are also really happy to have a set of missionaries solely dedicated to their ward. It has been a while since that has happened so there seems to be a fresh energy and excitement developing.

We had another investigator at church on Sunday, Sierra. She was supposed to get picked up by one of the girls her age, but at 5 minutes til start time, we found out that girl got in a roll over accident the night before. So we drove with Br. Carroll and picked her up. It was a bummer to have to be late on her first time at church, but she met a bunch of the other young men and women her age and ended up enjoying herself. The youth of this ward are also really strong and very helpful at welcoming in new faces. That is something I got to experience first hand in Arkansas - the universal feeling of love throughout the church. It is so comforting that no matter where we go in the world, we will also have the Lord's church to enter and feel the same Spirit when doing so.

This week, especially Friday and Saturday, were two of the days that a lot of missionaries talk about I guess when no plans really seem to work right. We had a lot of set plans and also people we wanted to visit, but for one reason or another, they canceled or people simply weren't home. I have been praying that God will help my Spirits during times like these, and in fact came across a great thought that I clearly felt was an answer to those prayers. "Plant with love in the vineyard of the Lord. Perhaps you will never see the tree grow and produce fruit, but the Lord will. Many missionaries will never be aware of all the results of their labors. But if you spend your lives doing all the good you can, without wondering and worrying about the consequences, you will find the true joy of the Gospel." Like I said, that fit right into the situation, and gave me some extra strength to go about my work without worrying about the immediate outcome. One of the things I have been doing, and I may have mentioned this in a past email, is to write down 3 things every night that I am grateful for in my journal. This was a challenge we received in the MTC. Regardless of how a day goes, I know that God is still watching over me and blessing my life.

Speaking of which, I am so grateful for the nice birthday cards and packages that came. Grandma Bunny sent some incredible homemade goodies. There was some chocolate coated caramels and some toffee brittle and both were outstanding. The only bad thing was the timing of them arriving during a week where we had the car... Jennifer Whitaker sent a great package too with a couple ties and some other things... Incredibly awesome and appreciated. Also, the thoughts she includes in her letters have answered my prayers many a time. I am so grateful to have her support.

One of things that is fun to do have been service. This past week we raked leaves a couple different times, helped organize Christmas lights for an older couple, played basketball at a retirement home, and helped some strangers who were moving and we were walking on their street. The retirement home basketball was fun and funny. They would try and shoot a nerf basketball into a 5 gallon bucket. One of the ladies kept saying "Give me a real basketball and see what I can do" when she would miss. She also got so mad at others on her "team" when they would miss. That feeling of serving others is so great and I am grateful for the chances we have to do it.

One of the scriptures that really touched me this week was John 16:33. It was a great reminder to me that Jesus already overcame the world. If we but remember this always, and be of good cheer, we will not let the everyday frustrations and difficulties of life get to us. Granted there are times that are meant to push our limits and in these times we can really experience growth. However, the blessing of the Atonement is so infinite, and as we humble ourselves to reap the benefits of that great sacrifice, we can truly can overcome some of those feelings of the world too.

I almost forgot, I completed my electronic visa on Thursday. This was the last step I was waiting for. Now I just wait until the real visa come through and I will going to Brasil. That was real exciting. Elder Stephens also got to do his electronic visa on the same day. Elder Werner, my MTC companion received his visa and he is leaving today for Brasil. I got to see them on Friday. One of the General Authorities came to talk to the mission and it was great.

Well thank you all for the love and support and prayers. I am so happy and blessed and pray to be the instrument the Lord needs out of me.

With love and charity,

Elder GrazianoL

November 14, 2011

Hello!

So far so great here in Nashville. It has been a busy, yet fulfilling time here. We got here on Wednesday afternoon and I was hungry so I paid for some food at a Popeye's chicken in the airport. But they were slow and right after we saw the mission president waving us towards the exit, so I had to leave without the food. I was thrilled to be able to donate $5 to their franchise... We went to the mission home after that though and had meatball sandwiches and were interviewed and it turned out great. Then I got assigned to be companions with Elder Clark. He is from the Seattle, WA area (Maple Valley) and has been out about 4 months. We have been assigned to labor in the Mt. Juliet area. This area has not had a designated set of missionaries for a while, but President McKee felt it would be good for us to start up again. Elder Clark is new to this area as well, and the old missionaries only had a couple of names to give us to start working with. That being said, we have spent much time trying to talk to members and develop relationships with them and we have also done a numbers of hours worth of tracting. Bike riding has been entertaining as well. Except the engineers here forgot to put sidewalks or even shoulders on many of the roads, so we had to ride in grass ditches and make dashes across the road to cross bridges and stuff. Too bad there are no videos available for you. It is amazing to see how many people in this area are church goers. Their faith in Christ is strong. Many are friendly, but pretty set in their established family traditions of religion.

Last night, we taught a 17 yr old girl named Sierra about the Restoration. It was my first time teaching this message and the Spirit was was strong. I am excited to hear how her prayers went when we visit her again this week. There is another girl that was taught by the old Elders, Jill, who is 16 that has a desire to be baptized already. She attends seminary and is doing "personal progress" with the young women at church. Right now we are planning on attending a talent show that she is in with her parents, so hopefully that will help. Both of these girls have parents that aren't supportive right now, but I have been praying for the Holy Ghost to touch their heart about the truth of the message as well.

When we left the mission office, we went straight to our apartment and had enough time to use the bathroom before a member came and picked us up to make some visits. No one answered, so he took us to his house and fed us because our stomachs were growling again. At the apartment, I slept on the floor the first night, since the old missionaries never bothered getting an apartment in their area. They are leaving next week, and have since given us the beds and they use the couches now. It has been fun getting to know two more missionaries who have been out for a while and gaining knowledge from them. Apparently word traveled quicker than me that I was a football player and other things... The first thing the missionaries and president asked about at the airport was about football. Same with my companion and the Elders in our apartment. I also am seeing how this is an easy way to break the ice with some of the members and other people in the area. Now I just have to learn how to bring it up in an easy way, because so many people down here love football and when they find out I had the opportunity to play in college, etc. they light up a bit.

I haven't received any mail since I have been here, so I don't have much to respond too. I feel the best way to do it is to simply have you send things to the address I sent last time, and then the mission home forwards it out when received. My companion gave his last apartment address to people and now has to wait for his mail to get there, then either to the mission office or wait for the Elders for forward it.

One of the things I marvel at is the Spirit of joy which I feel as we walk or ride places. Mainly we have walked, and sometimes about 45 minutes to get to the area we want. There is a car assigned to this area, but we have to share it with two other Elders. We will switch every week. I feel better about this coming week because we will obviously be able to cover more ground in less time with the car. The weather has been just about perfect the last few days. The trees have already lost most of their leaves, but the landscape is still beautiful. There are many small farms around. One lady we talked to last Thursday invited us to come fishin in her pond some time on a preparation day.

Apparently there is a member of the Quorom of the Seventy coming to our mission this week on Friday, so we will have to miss most of our labor that day. I'm sure it will be great to have the opportunity to be taught by him. I love the time we have alotted for personal and companion study. I feel I am learning great insights daily. I usually have an hour a day to study Portuguese while my companion simply does more personal study. I try to do all my personal prayers in Portuguese and this seems to help. Also, at times I will watch church films with portuguese audio and try to make sure I understand everything.

This email seems so much longer than the previous ones. We have an hour to write here in the field. We start off by writing our mission president. I think the four of us in our apartment are going to play some basketball this afternoon and do some grocery shopping and cleaning. The cupboards are a little bare and we have slim pickings for breakfast. Dry cereal is only so gratifying.

Well I love you all and look forward to hearing from your whenever that is. Know that I think and pray for you every single day and I am loving life down here. Thank you for your continued prayers, love and support.

With love and charity,

Elder Graziano

Pictures from the MTC

Friends from the Reno Single's Ward: Elder Graziano, Elder Calinog, and Sister Forman

Cousins: Elder Higbee, Sister Harries, and Elder Graziano

Elder Graziano and his cousin, Sister Harries who is going to Vina Del Mar, Chile

Elder Calinog (Reno, NV), Sister Viland (Reno, NV), Elder Graziano

Elder Harmon (Mountain View, WY) and Elder Graziano

Elder Graziano and Elder Wadsworth (Oakley, ID)

Elder Graziano and Elder Butler (Florida)

Elder Graziano and Elder Collins (Arizona)

Back Row: Nuttall, Broach, Graziano, Werner, Bradshaw, La Banc

Middle Row: Sampson, Empey, Nielson, Wadsworth, Holteclaw

Front Row: Harmon and Sillitoe

Elder Graziano and Elder Black (Palo Alto, CA)

Elder Stephens and Elder Graziano

They are from the same stake in CA

Elder Nielson (Parma, ID) and Elder Graziano

"Awesome Elder! Very humble yet confident in the Lord"

Sister Taylor (Durango, CO), Sister Hansen (Joseph City, AZ), Sister Welling (Bountiful, UT), Elder Werner (Hershey, PA), Elder Graziano

Elder Smith (Provo, UT), Elder Graziano, and Elder Mahoni (New Zealand)

Sister Houston (Coordinating Sister, from Roosevelt UT), Elder Werner, and Elder Graziano

New Tennessee Address!

105 Westpark Drive Suite 190

Brentwood, TN 37027-5010