2 Weeks Left! - Saying Goodbye In Barrio Garupa - Recovering From Dengue Through Priesthood Blessings

As the time passes by, it seems like the time we have to write gets shorter and shorter. However the need to write seems less and less important as we are closer and closer to the coming back home.

This week I will not be able to send pictures, but their are lots the should be coming your way this coming week.

I have had a very interesting experience this week and am very grateful for it. As some might know I was sick some time ago and was not able to work. The illness was called Dengue. Well because of that illness, I have a really weak immune system right now, and was having some problems fighting off an annoying bug. Long story short, I was, again, forced to stay in and rest instead of working. This is the opposite of what I wanted to do at the end of my mission. I was given a blessing that the Lord had some special plans for me in the coming weekend (which would be this past Saturday and Sunday) and that I would be ready to work again on Saturday. I prayed every day that it would turn out that way, and today I can testify that priesthood blessings and unfailing faith are real and powerful.

A good friend from the MTC who will also be going home in 2 weeks, E. Preece and I served a good while in Barrio Garupa, and President Lapierre allowed us to go and say goodbye for the last time to our converts and good friends who we will be leaving here shortly. Their are many stories that I wish I could share with you now, but there is not time today. What I shared with many of them, through tears in my eyes, while they also had tears in theirs, was that it is very difficult to leave home going on a mission, because we know that we won't see our family for two years. But in the back of our mind we know that we will see them in two years. What makes saying goodbye to these people here in Argentina and Paraguay so difficult is that we don't have that assurance that we will be able to come back and be with them again. I will miss these people deeply. They are a new part of my family.

Just so my parents know... Iguazu Falls trip got moved to tomorrow! So I will be sending pictures about the trip next week!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Write to Elder Graves via e-mail by May 29 to reach him before he comes home!!!

  E-mail -  tgraves@myldsmail.net