John H. Groberg Is My New Hero (3/4/2019)

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Dear friends and family,

So I hit my 14-month mark yesterday. It is insane to think that a year ago I was serving as a two-transfer missionary is Las Vegas. I can now look back on my journal and read what I was doing a year ago on my mission. It's just surreal. In some ways I miss Las Vegas, but I know that I know that I needed all these experiences I have had in Ohio. I can't necessarily say I'm in love with the place or even the people yet but I feel that I will get there.

Some interesting things happened this week. An old lady named Rena that had been taught before I got here had been on a cruise since I got to Reynoldsburg but finally got back and was ready to meet again. We went over for a dinner she offered us and found that she really didn't remember anything of what Elder Pay and his previous companion had talked about so we pretty much started from scratch. We set up another appointment where we would show her the Restoration movie, but when we called her a day or two ago and were greeted with the abrupt and disappointing news that she has "no intention of joining the Normon Church." (Her words.) So that's sad. For her, church is just a social thing and we think that her daughter probably anti'd her. She still considers us friends though so we'll go by again sometime.

Jason is getting baptized this Saturday! He passed his interview and It's pretty exciting. Jason has had a difficult life. I don't know all the details but he has a prosthetic leg which gives him a lot of pain and he was homeless for a while when he moved from California to Ohio. As I think I've said before, he met with missionaries first in California so it's really pretty cool that we have been able to pick him up here. He has come to church every week since I've been here. He is a perfect example of "childlike submission". He just accepts everything he is taught because he knows it's the truth. Pretty cool change of pace! He is a super nice and funny guy, very loveable. He asked Elder Pay to baptize him and me to confirm him. Looking forward to that!

Now for the thing that happened yesterday... We watched The Other Side of Heaven at a YSA dinner event, and WOW. I had seen part of it once before a super long time ago but all I remembered was John messing up a church speech in Tongan. There's a lot more to the story than that!

A few transfers ago our district leader had us read a talk entitled "The Lord's Wind" by John H. Groberg. I thought it was an amazing talk, but I had no idea that John. H. Groberg was the same as the guy in the movie The Other Side of Heaven until yesterday. I also had no idea that the guy from the movie became a Seventy!! He's now emeritus and as far as I could find he's still alive and hopefully he sticks around because I want to meet that man one day. The Other Side of Heaven was amazing and John. H. Groberg is my new hero. What he endured and was asked to do and managed to accomplish is just mind-boggling and inspiring. I fully intend to at least read the memoir the movie is based off of when I return home.

So I definitely recommend watching the movie, reading his conference talks, and probably reading the book (I'm sure it's amazing).

It amazes me that some people have given so much for the gospel. My mission has been a pillowy, fresh-scented walk in a bed of lilacs compared to his. We really are just doing the grunt work. Missionaries lke Elder Groberg actually did the heavy lifting!

Anotther final thing that touched me this week. I've been reading through the Old Testament--well, listening to the audio rather, because I decided it just takes way too long to read it all. I mean I finished the book of Genesis and that was only 5% of the Bible. (That's 50 chapters!!!) Anyway I'm on Exodus now but something I read in the Old Testament Student Manual (because who doesn't love reading textbooks?) pointed out a passage about Joseph of Egypt forgiving his brothers who sold him as a slave that really moved me.

Genesis 45:4-8
4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Love,
Elder Gallagher

Pics: District Photos

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