Christmas Wishes from Germany

Hi All,

We had a great conversation with Kayl this Christmas morning.  We recorded him giving his Christmas wishes to you.  We hope you enjoy it!

It was so great to see his happiness in experiencing so many new things.

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

From,
Gavin

Post from Dec 15th

Hello!

This week flew by. Every day I wake up and think, "I have an entire 16 hours ahead of me." Next thing I know, I am going to bed. Woa! I am not used to how fast the days go. It is a lot better than the MTC out here in the field. On Friday, December 12th, we had a ward Christmas party. Elder Heil and I made some more Eggnog. We also made a ton of sugar cookies. The cookies were perfect and they Eggnog was not chunky this time. We listened to music and hung out while making the goodies. It was a lot of fun. We made about 3 gallons of eggnog and about 4 big trays of cookies. It was fun! At the party, we talked with a lot of people and I tried my best to understand. It is really, really hard, but the Lord is helping me. There were tons of sweets at the party. I can't allow myself to get fat out here on my mission. I hear stories from missionaries and about how fat they got. Anyway, the party was really great and it was fun to speak German with the people.

That night, we went back to our home to drop off our goodies that people gave us and our leftover cookies and eggnog. We then went out to contact some people. We did not have any luck. Elder Heil was pretty down because we were convinced that we were going to have two or three investigators there, along with an investigator family of four or five. We were stoked, but they never showed up. So while we were out, we sat down on a bench for a moment. I was thinking of ways to help my friend out and how I can contact some people. He told me later that he was just pleading with God to find someone to share the Gospel with and to help him not be so down. We headed back home after more turn downs and waited at the subway. While we were there, a family of 3 from West Africa comes by and they sit down in the seat next to Elder Heil. I was standing because I wanted to allow someone to sit next to him so we can try to get a conversation going. The husband actually started the conversation with us. He talked with us because he met with some missionaries before and he liked them. We talked for a long time. While we were talking with them, the wife just started nursing her kid who is like 1 1/2 or 2 years old.  My companion was spared, but I got flashed. I did not expect to see something like that. My companion didn't notice that she was just beast feeding her kid right next to us. He too was taken by surprised. Ok that is all for that.  Once we got on the train, we continued to talk with them. Elder Heil was showing the man the Book of Mormon. He was not holding onto anything while he was talking. The train then hit the breaks and Elder Heil just falls forward. The man and I are both holding him up, one shoulder each. My companion was as straight as a plank and his face was about a foot and a half from the ground. He was able to stand back up with our help, and he continued talking like nothing happened. I was laughing so hard. Everyone who was nearby was also laughing super hard. I still tease him about it to this day. We then gave the man a card and went home for the night.

That was just about the highlight of my week.

Tschüse!
Elder Grow

Photos from Germany

Statue in Frankfurt. He moves his hand and hammer up and down.

  

Subway Entrance

Statue in Frankfurt

A sick American car that you don't often see in Germany

Elder KC Miller and I

Main train station in Frankfurt

A view from my balcony

Meat in a German store

Giant Church Building Nearby

Our Christmas tree

  

My Desk

'Hella' good water

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Motorcycle pictures for his dad!

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All the Elders in Gelsenkirchen

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Goodies made for the Ward Christmas Party

Chunky Eggnog

First Few Days in Germany

Hey Guys,

This week has been pretty crazy. On Tuesday morning at 6:am, we got on a bus that took us on a 15 minute drive to the Provo Train Station. From there, we went up to North Temple Street in SLC. We got off and walked over to another nearby train. We took that straight to the Airport.

Once we got through all the junk that you have to deal with at an airport, we split off into our Berlin and Frankfurt groups. There were 5 Elders and 1 Sister going to Frankfurt, and about a total of 20 Elders and Sisters going to Berlin. I never saw the Berlin missionaries after that. We then waited until about 10:40 for our flight. All of our plane tickets had seats assigned, and I was sitting next to Elder Fultz for the ride to Chicago. As we were going in, Elder Fultz all of the sudden asks the pilot if he can sit in the empty seat next to him and get a picture. I couldn't believe what he was doing. The pilot actually said yes though. I couldn't let this opportunity pass, so I asked the same question and I got a photo taken. It was really cool! I don't remember a whole ton from the last flight that I went on, so I was really excited for takeoff. It was a lot of fun as we rushed off. I also ended up getting some really neat photos of the mountains from the sky. This flight was about 2 1/2 hours.

Once we finally landed, we carried our carry-on and our personal item to the next terminal. Elder Wilde, Fultz and I all stayed back while the two Elders and the Sister went to the pay phones to call home. Once they were finished, us three went to do the same thing. It was really nice to hear my family's voice! I wish I had more than the 30 minutes I had to talk with them, but my plane was boarding. Poor Elder Wilde lost connection to his call and had to redial a couple times. We all used $5 prepaid cards. Each time you call, it uses about 35 cents to start. It is then about 1 cent every minute. Because he had to redial so much, his card ran out of money and he was really sad. He only had about 7 minutes of talk time.

Once we boarded the giant airplane, took off to Germany! I sat next to Elder Wilde and a really cool guy from Croatia. We all talked for about an hour and a half. After a while, we were served dinner on the plane. That was the last thing I expected. Elder Wilde and I played Phase 10 for a while after that. The plane ride was super slow and I could not fall asleep for very long. I would fall asleep every 10 minutes and I would last for about 2. I was overjoyed once I saw dawn break. I looked outside and it looked like we were still over the ocean. We were actually over land, but it was super cloudy and it was an ocean of clouds as far as the eye could see. We eventually landed at the Frankfurt Airport at 9:15am German time, so 1:15am for Utah. They abbreviated the airport name to Fraport.

We met up with our Mission President, his wife, and 4 Elders. They all gave us a warm welcome. I did not even feel tired. I was too excited to be in Germany. We went to the mission home and got some papers and our debit card.

Apparently 90% of the stores in Germany do not take cards, so I need to withdraw all of my money so I can use cash. While at the mission home, I got an interview and then I was invited to go to an appointment with two Elders. I was excited but nervous. It was a lot of fun. Once I got back there were a lot of missionaries who took us to the Seit. I don't know what that name means but it was a really cool place in town where they had the Christmas markets and lights. We all went there and sung some Christmas carols. There was one man who walked up to me while I was talking with people in the street who pretty much said, "We need to get rid of all the Muslims here. They are bad and need to go away." What do I say in response to that? Honestly? I tried not to take sides so I just said 'Ja' and nodded my head a couple times. He took a hand out card and went on his way. Germany has a large Muslim population. While we finished up a song about 20 minutes later, there was a big protest walking through about anti-racism. There were like 200 people in the crowd. We all walked away for a bit and let them pass by. It was cool!

I understand just about nothing here. I learned gospel German and not regular German in the MTC. I rarely know what it going on. Other than that, the City was way cool! Lots of cool buildings. The streets are really narrow and are shared by busses and trains. The busses are twice as long and look like two juice boxes duct-taped together. Cars will park on the sidewalk in some places. Speaking of cars, the majority of cars are German made (of course) and they are small and get good mileage. I actually saw a huge Dodge Ram 4x4 driving along yesterday. It was a rare site. The weather is also different from Utah in a lot of ways. It is always cloudy here during this time. In Utah, it gets cloudy for a couple days at a time. Here it is always cloudy. (You would hate it here mom :P) It is also very chilly and humid. It really bites the bone. The sun also sets at like 4:30 here. I believe that it earlier that Utah.

Anyway, we went back to the house and I saw all the missionaries who were going to be our trainers. I saw KC Miller there! He is a kid from my ward who is serving in the same place as me. He has 3 months left. It was cool so see him. Later that night, we were driven to a hotel where we would spend the night. We had our own room each and our temporary trainer would show up later that night. I fell asleep inside at about 7:00pm, only to be woken up at 8 by Elder Miller. He was my companion for a couple hours. I thought it was already morning when I woke up. Thankfully, it wasn't.

The next morning, I found out who my companion was going to be. It was a kid named Elder Heil. He is way cool! We get along so well. We went to the Train Station with a bunch of missionaries who were being transferred. With time, all of my travel buddies slowly disappeared as they went off with their companions to their different cities. I was the last man standing as far as my old MTC district is concerned. I miss them a ton. They are like a family to me. At 1:44, we got on a train that took us closer to our city, Gelsenkirchen. I was told this it was one of the ugliest places in Germany with not many historical sites. They also had the best ward though. We took a series of trains back home and made it back at around 7-8. I was kind of tired.

On the next day, Thursday, we were out street contacting in the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). We were stopped by a very friendly and charismatic man. He was a Muslim and he tried to talk with us about religion. Long story short, he tried to convert us to Islam and tried to convince us that we were wrong. He wasted a lot of our time. Pretty interesting first day.

Friday, we had a lunch appointment with two investigators. They are going to the university here and are from America, so it was in English. We ate spaghetti and some bread that we would dip in vinegar and oil. It was all really good. I would watch the way they these two guys would act, and I started to get the vibes that they were gay. I pretended not to notice. Elder Heil was just sitting there and wasn't saying too much. We end up going to their living room so we could share a message with them. Before we ever started, they pointed out their Book of Mormon collection. It was a big shelf and they were all in various languages. I was thinking to myself, "Ooo...kkkk.." Next thing I know, he pulls out his quad (Bible, Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price). I was really confused now. Then, I get a name tag thrown at me and Elder Heil says that they are missionaries. I was stunned. I did not expect that. They all start laughing about it and I was busting up too. They planned this about two day's prior. It was such a good prank. These two Elders were Miller(not from home) and Summerhaze. They are two really cool guys.

Saturday, we had dinner at a part member home. It was a lot of fun! I did not understand anything that was going on, but I was able to smile a lot and start basic conversations. We ate rice with some sort of meat and veggie topping. We also had a really big salad with it. It was all so good! Oh my goodness! I am defiantly going to get fat here if I am not careful. We showed them a video from LDS.org about Jesus called He is the Gift. It was perfect for the Christmas season. I was able to bear testimony about it pretty well and talk about the video somewhat clearly. Apparently I was very bold when I asked certain questions. A 17 year old girl who was there really doesn't like to talk about religion. She is not interested in it very much, but she likes listening to the messages. I asked her what she thought about the video and what Christmas means to her. After the meeting with the family, I invited the head of the house if he wanted to come to church tomorrow. He said no, and then I asked why not. He gave his reasons and I said ok. Elder Heil was impressed. They are usually unable to be that straight forward with them. I don't know exactly why, but he said keep it up while a have a free pass. My free pass is my lack of German. As I get more experienced, people will be able to tell, and I won't be able to say stuff so boldly without having them take offence. Even when I get to the level, I will continue to be bold. I will share the gospel how it is and I won't sugar-coat it. If people take offence to the truth, they obviously are not ready for it yet. I know that might sound harsh, but if the Germans are anything like me (which they kind of are), then I know that beating around the bush just isn't going to cut it.

Sunday, we started off the morning by sprinting to the train. We couldn't afford to miss it. We barely made it. The Gelsenkirchen Ward is so cool! It is only about 60-70 people. I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and I was all over the place because I was so excited. The ward is really friendly too. I was bearing my testimony and I said a word in past tense wrong and a sweet old lady in the front row whispered the correction and I was able to correct myself. Everybody smiled real big when they saw me catch myself. Afterwards, people would say that my German is really good, but I beg to differ. It is so bad. We then ate lunch at the Church and I visited with a lot of people. I was able to help prepare for lunch by cutting bread. We ate soup and bread for lunch, along with some desserts. There was a little 8 year old girl who was standing near me while I was eating, so I turned to her and said, "Deine Deutsch ist besser dann mein. Weißst du dass?" That means, "Your German is better than mine. Did you know that?" All she said back was, "Genau." That simply means, "Exactly" or in her context, "Yep". It was so funny! It sounded like a response my sister Lillian would've said. The other 3 Elders at my table were all laughing so hard and so were the two German ladies who were talking with us. The little girl proceeded to say something else to me that I did not understand. Oh man, it was the best. We then walked back to the train through the rain. I was also able to find enough time today to read a lot in the scriptures. I was surprises to find that I read from Alma 18 through 37. That is a lot of reading. We also made homemade Eggnog. It was really good, but there was one problem. We accidentally overcooked it and the eggs inside the mix slowly got cooked. We noticed that and we tried to strain it all out. It took a long time, but we did it. Now we have about 1.5L of eggnog and some Eggnog pudding. It was a lot of fun.

As for today, it is our PDay and we went shopping for food. We then wrote home to family and friends. After this, we are going to the Weihnachtsmarkt so buy stuff to send home to family. The one in Gelsenkirchen is very small and only sells food, so we are going to another nearby city. It is going to be neat!

Every night (9:00pm or 9:30pm) after the long day, we will drink some hot tea and listen to Christmas music in German and English by various artists. We also write in our journals and hang out. Elder Heil will also play the guitar. He taught himself how to play in the last 6 months. Our apartment is on the 7th floor. This is as high as it goes. It has a beautiful view of a not so beautiful place, but I still love the city! If you want to send letters or photos to me, my address is:

Darler Heide 49
Gelsenkirchen 45891
Deutschland

I don't know how much postage will be, but it will take about 6 days to reach me. Please to not send packages to this address. Send that to:

Kirche Jesu Christi
Cornelius Straße 18
Frankfurt am Main 60325
Deutschland

I will write again next week!

Elder Grow

P.S. Elder Banks and I, as well as a very select few of missionaries had a luncheon with Elder Bednar before we left for Germany.

Letter from the President

Dear Brother and Sister Gavin Grow,

We are happy to report that Elder Kayl Gavin Grow arrived safely today.  Sister Stoddard and I met all the new missionaries at the Frankfurt airport, and your son looked good and was happy to be here.  We are always grateful to have new missionaries come into the field as they bring a sense of excitement and a spirit of great faith.  It inspires and energizes the whole mission.

After their arrival in Frankfurt, the missionaries were transported to the Mission Home, where they completed paperwork so they could register and obtain their Visas to stay in Germany.  They also received their debit cards. This allows them to access their missionary support funds.  They also learned about mission transportation and apartments.   Later, Sister Stoddard and I both spent some time getting acquainted with your son.  I also took a few minutes to conduct a brief interview with him.  He is a wonderful young man; and, we are so grateful to have him here.  After a light meal, the missionaries were taken to a nearby hotel for the night.  On Thursday, Elder Grow will spend the morning in a meeting with the other new missionaries, where they will be introduced to their new companions.  They will have some more training and then head off to their first areas of assignment.

There is a blogspot at http://frankfurtmission.blogspot.de Shortly, photos will be posted and updated periodically.  Please refer to it throughout the mission and feel free to distribute it to family and friends.  A map of the mission, so you can see where your son will be serving, can also be located on the blog.

The mission office address is up above in the header.  Please send ALL packages to the mission office address; and, please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.  When sending Christmas packages, post them before Thanksgiving.  For special packages to arrive in a timely manner, please allow 4-6 weeks.

Letter mail can be sent to the address where your missionary is serving.  However, we recommend that you send packages to the mission office; and, we will deliver them as soon as possible.  It is easier for the mailman to deliver packages to the office because there is always someone there to receive the mail.  The missionaries email their families on their Preparation Day, which is Monday in our mission. Make sure when addressing envelopes or packages to your missionary that you include “Elder” or “Sister”, their first name, and their last name, because sometimes we have multiple missionaries with the same last name. There are a lot of these at this time.

Elder Grow entered this mission at an especially important time.  We pledge to do all we can to insure that he has a chance to grow spiritually and develop a strong testimony.  We feel confident that he will be effective in this important work of teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have been prepared by our Father in Heaven.  We know that your family will be richly blessed for your sacrifice (D&C 31:3-7).  Thank you for sharing your sonwith us.  We will keep him constantly in our prayers; and, we promise to do all we can to help him fulfill a successful mission.

Sincerely,
President Ronald A. Stoddard

Germany Frankfurt Mission President

Letters from the MTC - 11-26-2014

Hi all!

There was a lot that happened this week. I will talk about the various events that I have taken note of throughout the week. So first, I have gotten really good at taking other Elder's name tags and swapping them with my own...even when they are still wearing the tag on them. I took Elder Wilde's tag one time when he left the room and left his badge on his jacket. I simply swapped it and that was it. He didn't know for about an hour. The funny thing is this: when our teachers were saying bye to us, one of my teachers looked at my name tag and called me Elder Wilde. She kept saying bye to all the others like nothing happened. My own teacher forgot my name! Hahaha! Another time, I was sitting next to him at a devotional. This is when we have a speaker come and speak to everyone at the MTC. I was able to snatch his tag from his breast pocket while he was talking to his companion. I grabbed mine and started to slide mine onto his pocket. He caught me in the act, but he thought I was in the middle of taking his tag. So, naturally, he pushes "his" tag back onto him. Success! He didn't even know how much he helped me out. It again took some time for him to realize what had happened. He was so confused. My last successful act was with my own companion. I took his name tag while we were talking to someone across the hall. He knew what I did but he didn't make a big deal of it. Darn. So I put "his" tag back on him. He thought that it was back to normal. I proceeded to place Elder Bank's tag on me while he was preoccupied. It was great!

We also received our flight plans to Germany on 11/21! I am so excited! I fly from SLC to Chicago, then from there I fly straight to Deutschland. I am so stoked!!

One day was very eventful. This all happened on the 22nd. So first, we were sitting at lunch and there were some Tater Tots that were served with our meal. This one Elder in our zone, Elder Oldroyd, comes up with a "genius" idea. He said that he would make Tater Tot cereal. He had a bowl of fry sauce and put a handful of tots in. He then proceeded to eat it with a spoon. Nasty.

Afterwards, we went to class. Our teacher started out the day with a joke. He said (in German of course), "What is the best thing about Frankfurt? The train to Berlin." It was stupid, but for whatever reason it made us all laugh. Everyone, but one person in our classroom, is going to Frankfurt.

Once we retired to our rooms for the night, two Elders were teasing another Elder about the way he did crunches. The one doing the crunches was Elder Gurlock. He proceeded to show them his abs as proof of the results from his crunches. All of the teasing going on wasn't serious of course. Elder Clemins proceeds to show back his nothingness under his shirt. They decide to punch each other in the gut for fun to see if they could take it. They both could. The same Elder Oldroyd from before then comes by and says, "Hey, slap me as hard as you can right here Elder Gurlock." He pulled up his shirt and pointed to the left side of his stomach. Gurlock didn't argue against it and straight up slapped him. It was so loud it made my ears ring! Afterwards, there was a huge hand marks with prints in it from the bones of Gurlock's hands. There was also a line in the middle of the hand print and it was bleeding a little. Holy crap! An awesome 5-Star slap!

I also noticed that something wasn't right when I looked at one of our Elders. I spoke with him for a bit about what was going on. Long story short, he apparently was suffering from severe depression. He got sent home on the 25th. Hopefully he can come back in the future!

Yesterday, I was drinking a mountain dew and was doing some pretty gnarly burps. Elder Wilde told me that when you yell something while you burp, it is your battle cry. We both tried that out and it was the funniest.

That night, we had a devotional. It was by one of the apostles. It was Elder Dalin H. Oaks. It was awesome!! Some cool insights that stood out to me was this-

We are here to do something, for someone, that cannot do it themselves. We are motivated by the pure love of Christ and we serve with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. All four of those points are equally important. This life is also about what we can become when we lose ourselves in the service of others. He used an analogy of a pen and a missionary. When someone uses a pen, they write what they want to write, not what the pen wants to write. The pen doesn't say, "It is my P-Day (Preparation Day) so I am going to take a break from writing." A pen must also be filled with ink or else it is of no use to the writer. Elder Oaks also spoke about why our church is so different from all the other churches. There are three reasons. 1. It has the fullness of the doctrine of Christ. 2. We have the power of the Priesthood. 3. We have a unique testimony of God, Christ and the Holy Ghost. One example is the fact that we know that they are three distinct beings in identity, but one in purpose. We know about our relationship to God. Lastly, he testified that Jesus is our support for our trials of mortality. With him, I know that our hard times will be made a little bit more easy.

I also learned some cool insights this week as well. It takes courage to be a chicken. It takes courage to just walk away instead of starting a fight. That might be a little tough for me because, if someone is going to mug me, I am not going to just allow it to happen. I am going to give him a piece of my mind....and my fist. I also learned that I should go out of my way to talk with others. I might just help them out. I might even make a new friend.

The next time you will hear from me is next week when I am on German soil!

Aufwiedersehen!
Elder Grow

My Companion and I

Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders

Kayl's District

My Companion with the Branch President

Funny Delivery in the Post

Hi All,

It looks like Kayl's settled in well at the MTC.  I don't have any new information.  However, we had an interesting experience this week.  One afternoon, our post lady rang our door bell.  She said to us, "I've delivered many things, but I've never delivered a potato before."  Apparently, Kayl sent a potato to Lilly through the US Postal Service.  I attached a few photos below.

The potato arrives!

A Confused Lillian

This is the best smile I could get from her.

Letters from the MTC - 11-12-2014

Hi All!

You will have to forgive me, but I don't have a lot of time. I have had so much happen this week! It was amazing! I will go into more detail next week. I promise! Yesterday, my companion and I became the Zone Leaders. For those who don't know, a Zone Leader is pretty much the head leader of everyone [Missionaries] in the MTC going to Germany right now. So there are about 30 people that are going. I was praying a lot for my testimony to be strengthened and for cool experiences to happen to me so that I can have neat stories someday. I also prayed for opportunities to help people out. I really enjoy helping people and seeing them happy. It is the best! I guess becoming Zone Leader is going to be an answer to my prayers? I honestly don't know. I don't even know how I am going to do my job. I hardly know what I need to do! Oh well, I'll figure it out. It will be neat. All the Elders call us the Zone Fuhrers. Also, my companion and I would constantly tell these two other Elders that they were going to be Zone Leaders. This is because they really didn't want to, but they seemed like the best choice. Everybody thought it was going to be these two guys. There were two or three others who thought it was going to be Elder Banks and I.

Anyway, I've got to run and I will keep in touch!

[Here's some cool photo's Kayl took.]

Letters from the MTC - 11-05-2014

Hi Everyone,

Time is starting to fly by and I am grateful! Staying in my classroom for around 10 hours a day makes it feel like a jail cell. I was able to attend a BYU devotional speech yesterday, and it was really good! It was from a member of the Seventy. I can't remember exactly what was said, but I remember how I felt, and it was good! I also have two investigators now. It takes time to get used to planning visits for two completely different people. I have learned a crazy amount of German already. I have also learned that German is the least important part when it comes to teaching your investigator. The most important part is to bring in the spirit so that they can feel it and start to come closer to God. Speaking of coming closer to God, my relationship with him has grown tremendously. I can tell that he has helped me out a lot and that I would not be able to do any of this without him. My district consists of four Elders and two Sisters. We have become like a little family. I also found out that one of the Elders in my district, Elder Fultz, it a lot like me. We both think the same way and have very similar personality types. My companion and I get along just fine and I have figured him out. We get along great.

Halloween was fun here. Some of the elders dressed up as ninjas by wrapping clothes around themselves and it was really funny. I decided to see what I could do, so I made a head wrap and it looked pretty cool. Apparently there was some cardboard armor and a cardboard sword that was left here from the previous missionaries. The Elders in my room want to combine any cardboard that we get from packages to make some armor and an ax. It is going to be sweet.

Nothing super interesting has happened this week so I will just send a bunch of photos.

My District

Halloween Fun

Me - Branch President Counselor - My Companion 

My MTC Zone

Letters from the MTC - 10-29-2014

Hello guys!

This first week is finally over! It was really long. All the missionaries here would say, "Make it to Sunday and you will be fine." That was very true. On my second day of being here, my companion and I taught a lesson to an 'investigator' in German. It was terrifying! I have learned so much since I got here. I have no doubt in my mind that God really is there and that he will answer our prayers if we pray with real intent, having faith in Christ (Moroni 10: 3-5). I have prayed more in one day here than I have in about 2-3 weeks back at home.  It is so important to have the spirit with you! With it, you can do anything!

I love Sunday's so much. This last Sunday, we had the best sacrament meeting ever!!!! It was the last meeting for the MTC German veterans, and the first meeting for the German Greenies. Oh my goodness, it the was best. The departing missionaries sung the song "We are as the Army of Helaman". I felt the spirit so strong! You know the feeling you get when you listen to your favorite song/band and you get goosebumps and you arm hairs stand up? It was like that and more! They sung so loud and bold! I don't normally admit this to people, but I was on the brink of tears!

I have awesome roommates! I live with Elder Banks (my companion), Elder Fultz, and Elder Wilde. Fultz and Wilde are the Zone Leaders for three weeks and I am the District Leader for about the same length. It is a little hard to bond with my companion. He is very sarcastic and doesn't really know when to back off. He 'complains' about how I take forever to do something (I think he is just a tad impatient) and he starts to shake his head when I don't know a word on our flashcards. Be patient dude! Anyway, I'll figure out how to get along better with him. He is really cool when we aren't focused on missionary stuff and with our schedule. When all four of us are in our rooms for the night, I get along with him great! The other Elders are really cool too! I wouldn't change my district for anything! We laugh and have fun every day.

For example, we are sitting at lunch and Elder Banks uses the salt shaker for his food. He sets the salt down on his tray so that he can use it again. Elder Fultz looks over at him because he needs the salt and says, " Hey Elder Banks? Are you going to finish your salt?" It might not sound as funny through email, but at that moment, it was hilarious. One thing that I should mention is this: things become a lot funnier when you are sitting around studying all day.

Guys, I know that this is where I am supposed to be. This is what I must do! I have already experienced terrible days as well as awesome days! People back home would always say, "This will be one of the hardest and most rewarding things you will ever do." I would always say to myself, "Yea it will be hard, but I can do it." I never knew how hard it was actually going to be until I started to drown here. I have hit rock bottom and the Lord is building me back up from scratch. I have learned that I must rely on the Lord and not think that I can do it myself. I have a bad tendency to not ask for help and to think that I don't need it. I also tend to think that I can do anything I want on my own. This is not true! The Lord had slapped me in the face to show me this! I can't wait to go to the temple today and to feel the spirit!

Die Kirche ist Wahr! Ich weis dass Gott leben! Ich weis dass das Buch Mormon wahr ist! (I know that the Church is true! I know that God lives! I know that the Book of Mormon is true!) I love you all and I plan on keeping in touch! I will figure out how to send photos home via email eventually. Thanks for the emails and mail! I don't just throw away the letters and delete the emails, I save them because they mean something to me! It really lifts my spirits and it helps me to feel connected to outside life.

D&C 10:5

Elder Grow

P.S. If people wish to send mail to me I have a mailing address:

Elder Kayl Gavin Grow
DEC02 GER-FRA
2007 N 900 E Unit 17
Provo UT 84602