Happy Thanksgiving

     First off I want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's come so fast and I fear my mission will go by even faster. But, Happy Thanksgiving!

     This week flew by for sure! I can't believe that I'm coming up on 5 months either. It's just crazy to see how fast it goes by. Hopefully it slows down sometime soon HA HA HA! I feel like this email won't be too long but we'll see.

     So a couple things happened this week. Firstly on Tuesday we had a Special Training from President on his experiences and learnings from his trip to Nauvoo. He wanted to implement this "Yes list" to help us get more referrals so we could meet our baptismal goal for the rest of the year. We have tried some of these ideas and believe it or not, they actually work! We've added a couple more less active families to our teaching pool! 

     The other really huge thing that happened this week is we got Juan on date for December 1st! For those of you who don't know, we recieved Juan from the APs. He was being taught by them but then moved into our area. We have been teaching him for a couple weeks. We met with him last Thursday and I had the prompting to invite him to be baptized. It was like he was waiting for that question because he didn't even hesitate to answer me! To him it clicked(as he explained to us)! I can't wait to see him baptized or baptize him. 

     I'm fairly convinced that Fountain has no regard for Thanksgiving. We're seeing more and more Christmas trees and lights up every week and it's kind of weird to not see like turkeys or something along those lines instead of going straight to Christmas. But it's whateves, Christmas it lit!

     That's really all for this week! I hope y'all are doing fantastic and are feeling the spirit mucho! Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Grandon

1.) City Hall all decked out for Christmas 

2.) A pole covered in lights 

3.) The Annualm Christmas lighting(in the middle of November)

T'was a good week

> Howdy!
>
> This week felt super short. But then again at some points it felt super long. Not a lot happened this week, but I do see on Facebook that Ivan is really happy to be out! It defiantly is a once in a lifetime experience that I'm glad I could take part in. I know it'll change my life for the better!
>
> As I've been out for 2ish transfers(which I know isn't that long) but I've really grown a deeper respect and love for my parents. I kinda knew how much they did but know I realize how much they actually for me. Defiantly should've shown my love way early to them!
>
> Like I said earlier not a lot happened this week. One of the biggest things is the miracle of our investigator Nicole. You may remember me mentioning her before. She was this really open-minded mother of 6 kids. About 2 months ago she had sent us a text and basically told us she was still interested but just needed some time, for some reason. So we had kinda forgotten about her. Then this week on Tuesday I had the prompting to go see her, we had a bunch of appointments that day so we agreed that we'd try to get to her but if we couldn't we would wait till Wednesday. The urge kept coming back to me so I turned the car around and went to go see Nicole. We would be late to one of our appointments but when you get the same prompting like 3 or 4 times it's kind of hard to ignore it. We knocked on her door and figured out she had been having a pretty hard time due to the choices of some people. She then listened to a portion of President Eyring's "Mountains to climb" talk given back in 2012 I think. It hit her hard. She started crying a little and Elder Peel and I both say that and about started because 1.) Eyring is super good at forcing the spirit onto you and 2.) The spirit was so powerful at that moment! We both bore testimonies on that talk and she agreed to meet with us tomorrow because, in her words, "If this is what you guys teach then I want to learn the heck(She did say something else, but it's ok. Well tell her about it tomorrow) out of it!" I can see the joy she wants in her life and the gospel can defiantly do that!
>
> The other thing that happened this week was we finally got an investigator to church! Which hasn't happened in Fountain in like 3 years! His name is Juan. I wish I had a cool story to tell of how we had found him but the APs found him a while back but he just moved into our area like last month. We hadn't seen him at church yet so we called him on Saturday evening and asked if we could help get him to church. He said he had planned on coming this week but needed a ride. Phhhhhh A RIDE, we can get you 20 rides to church! We called some people and like 2 minutes later Juan had received the news that he'd be getting picked up at 8:30 for church. When he walked in Elder Peel and I were sooooooooo ecstatic. It was kind of embarrassing. 2 grown men acting like little primary children, but we didn't care! Juan was at church and that was all that mattered! That day we piloted the new 2 hour church cause a huge winter storm had hit and Bishop wanted us to be safe and warm at home so it was kinda weird for us and Juan but he said he was coming next week so he'll experience what we do for 3 hours. Anyways, we asked him after church today how he liked it and he was super joyful and said he'd never felt something so different but so right before. Umm yeah we're different but it's definitely a good different.
>
> Well that's really all from Fountain. I hope y'all have a great week and feel the spirit mucho! It really is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father
> Stay fresh till next week,
> Elder Grandon
> 1.) Our train tracks in the snow
> 2.) A dope person who said forget thanksgiving and decorated for Christmas
> 3.) Me being me😅 (Go OU)

Fwd: Transfer 2! 16 more to go

Howdy everyone! 

     This week not a lot happened so it my letter won't be too long. This week is transfers, and Elder Peel and I are both staying in Fountain! Long live the Ginger Comps! We are, however, getting 2 new elders into this district! One is going and taking Elder Butterfield's place in Mesa Ridge and the other is taking Elder Tyre's place in Security! So welcome to the new Elders! 

     This week, like I said, not a lot happened and I'll tell you why later! But the only thing that really happened, happened on Tuesday when we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was up in Sand Creek with Elder Fenn. While we were tracting after a really early dinner we stumbled upon a member who served his mission in Springfield, MO! It was super cool to meet someone who actually knew where I grew up and also happened to serve there! The first name he told me was, of course, Shanklin! That's just a testament of how fun He really was! After that he said he served in what use to be the 3rd ward for like 6 mounths and I was just so giddy cause that was my ward before they shifted the boundaries and renamed everyone! He studied my badge for a long time trying to figure out if he could remember my family. I finally showed him a picture of my Father and as soon as he saw that a huge smile came over his face! He remembers 2 things about the Grandon's, 1.) We were his favorite family and always had them over for dinner and 2.) Our homemade pizza! He went on for like 10mins about how that was by far his favorite meal of all time on his mission! So Mom, Dad I know it was a long time ago but do you guys remember an Elder Bolander who served way back in 2004 in Springfield? If you do that's awesome! 

     That was really the only thing this week! When we were driving from Sand Creek back to Fountain that night we got a text saying that Elder Peel had eaten something bad or something like that and was super sick. We tried going tracting on Saturday but he had made like little to no improvement and his face was as white as snow so this week has been super boring. He at least has color back in his face today so we're going to try basketball and everything else we usually do on P day!

     Well that's really all from Fountain! I hope y'all have a fantastic week! Thanks for all the prayers! 

   --Elder Grandon 

Mudding and Trunk-or treat

This week was something special! A lot happened.
>
> Let's just start on Tuesday. We had to go trade in our car to get it repaired from the hail. So we did that then decided to go all the way out to see this one family that was less active. We found their house but there was a huge mud pit in the way. So I turned on all wheel drive and floored it! we only slowed down like twice but other than that the Rouge made it no problem. We got up to their property and figured out they had moved last month. So not to say that was a waste of miles but it was a waste of miles. While leaving the property we hit a different part of the mud pit and got stuck. So as the driver I was the one who had to get out and get help. the mud pit was up to the bottom of the door, so Elder Peel had the "wonderful" idea to crawl out the window instead of getting the interior all muddy. I crawled out the window and in the end fell into the mud. Thankfully I landed on my feet so only my pants got dirty. but I went back to the neighbors property and asked him to pull us out. He did after about 20ish minutes of being stuck. That was a fun experience. Our car got like super dirty and it looks like it was painted brown! HA HA HA!!!!
>
> Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Security Elders. I was with Elder Kim in Security. It was like misting and cold all day. We still went trackting and it was probably one of the most successful day for Security.
>
> Nothing really happened on Thursday. So yeahhhhhhhhhhhh!
>
> Friday we had district council and blitzed Fountain. We found like 2 or 3 new people for us to teach. The rest of the day we were back at the church setting up for our trunk-or-treat. We were also the chili cook-off judges, which was super hard because there were so many great chilis. It was hard to choose, but eventually chose a chili with Elk in it. It was sooooooooo good! The people who won also cut our hair so were we a little biased, maybe, especially sense we got our haircuts this week. They have a barber shop inside their house so that's pretty cool.
>
> Well that's all that happened this week! I hope y'all have a great week!
> Elder Grandon

I'm Dreaming of a White Halloween

This week has been a really cold one, especially sense I didn't have a winter coat till Wednesday! Well it started snowing this week and didn't really stop till this morning. Fountain does a really good job salting the roads so they aren't too bad. We went tracting like everyday and it was kind of fun. I didn't think it would be but snow just made it fun
>
> This week was good. We found some really solid potential gators! One of them let us into her house and we ended up staying there way longer than we wanted to. She wanted to know a lot of what we believe and we stayed there till she was all out of questions. We spent like 2 hours there. It was really nice to kinda teach a lesson through answering her questions. She wants us to come over this week and talk some more. She could't think of a day and time so we gave her our number and we're staying in contact with her all this week. Just hoping she continues down this path and gets baptized.
>
> So we met with John, a guy we've been teaching, like twice this week. He really enjoys when we come over. We were over there on Saturday and he said he wanted to come to church. We didn't ask him or anything, he just came out and the first thing he said was "Can I come to your church?". His question kinda through us off so we gave him the address of the church and the time. That man was there before we were, and we always get there like 45mins before the meeting starts. I think he really enjoyed himself.
>
> Yesterday we had dinner at the Lewis's. They're a senior couple that works at the bishops warehouse. They have a Chocolate Lab named Jake. He reminds me so much of my dog, Hercules, when he was 1 year old. He's full of energy and always wants to play. I couldn't help myself so I played with him for just about the whole time we were there. He's so adorable and it's hard to say "no" to him.
>
> Well sorry it's so short this week. I hope all is going well with y'all!

> Elder Grandon

General Conference

> This week was full of changes. Firstly, apparently my man Richard moved. So that was fun knocking on his door and no one ever answering. I know what you're thinking, "Didn't you guys see a sign in the yard?" and no we didn't. There wasn't one. We ended up texting him and figured out where he lives now, and he offered to feed us this week so yeahhhhhhhhhhh!
>
> Conference was just absolutely mind blowing! Elder Peel's dad emailed him like 3 weeks ago and guessed that they would be reducing the 3 hour block at church. I don't know how he knew but he did. As that was being announced I just turned to Elder Peel and was super shocked that his dad was literally 100% right! I think my favorite talk was Elder Holland's. He always gives super good talks and he continued that this year. We watched it with the Burlingame's. They are recent converts and have a super cool story on how they found the church. We have been over there a lot because sister Burlingame is having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon. So we've just been over there reading and explaining what we read to her. That family is cool!
>
> This week we didn't really do a whole lot of tracting, mainly because we have to wait a couple weeks cause we've done like everywhere in our area, so we really just drove around and reminded like everyone about General Conference. We did finally get to teach this one family we found a couple weeks ago. They had lots of questions. The really interesting thing is that all of their relatives are of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(almost said "Mormon"). I just wanna like shake them and ask them if they think their relatives know something they don't, but you can't really do that as a missionary.
>
> Sorry for the short email today but that's like all I can remember doing this week!
>
> Till next week
> Elder Grandon
>
>

Fwd: Pour out blessings, Fountain

>
> This week I was probably one of the best weeks I've ever had on my mission. I saw so many miracles this week.
>
> Firstly, my faith in praying was really strengthened on Sunday. We were on out way to see a referral named John. We typed in his address and started to follow it. We were low on gas but according to the "miles left" thing on the dashboard we had 20 left. His house was only 8 miles away. If you do some quick math you know that round trip we had... more than enough to get there and back. There was only one problem, the address we got led us to a tree next to the highway. So obviously that wasn't right. Instead of turning back we decided to drive farther because his house must be around there somewhere. It wasn't! So there we were, 15 miles away from the closest gas station. We were in the middle of nowhere with about 10 miles left. We decided to pull over and say a prayer. After the "amens" were said we started driving back. About halfway back I look over at the dash and the miles estimator is "--" We were literally driving with nothing in the tank, but somehow about 5mins later we rolled into a gas station. The most used saying in this area since then is "the Lord provides a way". So true!
>
> Well My man Richard got a truck this week! Ever since we'd been meeting with him, he's told us he would be getting a truck. He got his truck for $750! I know what you're thinking... this truck must be ready to fall apart any second, it's actually in super good condition for being like 20 years old. It is in better condition than some trucks from a couple years ago, and it's pretty cool too.
>
> We found 3 new families to teach this week! Which is incredible for Fountain. The McBeth family, The Peeta family, and the Allen family! The Mcbeth family had been Southern Baptist like their whole life but for the past like 5 or 6 years they had been bouncing from one religion to the other and none of them seemed to fit them. While we were talking to them they agreed with like everything we had said. They said that Mormonism might be the one!!!!!! Just talking about them makes my heart race. If we baptize that family that's like 7 new people to our ward. A lot of dunking. HA HA HA! The Peeta and Allen families were in a very similar situation to each other. Both of them were Christians but couldn't find the right church for them. We invited them to come to our church AND THEY ACTUALLY CAME! It was our primary program this week and they both seemed to really enjoy that. so hopefully that hooked them. We'll talk to them this week and see if it did.
>
> Well that's it for this week. This week Elder Peel challenged me to keep track of how much I've changed, and compared to my first week, I can see that I've changed spiritually SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! I hope everything for you is going great!
>
> Till Next Week,
> Elder Grandon