Last Days in the US

Well, it's hard to imagine, but David has been in the MTC for 8 weeks! He's now a veterano missionary who will leaving the MTC early, early Monday morning for Mexico. David's last assignment at the MTC was a zone leader. He's learned a lot the last couple of weeks in his leadership calling and now has a brief taste of what church administration is like.

David's travel itinerary is as follows:
LV: SLC at 600
AR: Dallas/Fort Worth at 935
LV: Dallas at 1215
AR: Mexico City at 1445
LV: Mexico City at 2110
AR: Culiacan at 2205

The cool thing is that David will be in same time zone as home unlike his brother Alan, who was not only in a different time zone but a different day in the Philippines, or his cousin Dallin who is in Finland. At least we'll know when he should be awake and sleeping without having to do any complex mathematical calculations.

David's Testimony Request

We received a letter from David last week and it had a request in it. He explained that he was sitting in the Provo temple and received a prompting that his testimony should be recorded and distributed to friends and family. Well, here it is:

I know God has a plan. I know that God, in His omniscience, has provided a way for all of us to be born and receive a body, live a life here on heath, and return to live an exalted life with Him in the Celestial Kingdom. God, in His love, has provided this path for us to travel because he wishes for all of his children to return to him and live in His glory.

I also know, with all of my heart, that God has not provided his children with a way to His glory in exclusion, but has provided a designated plan for you, one of his independent and literal children. The Lord has a plan built specifically for you. He has built your life piece by piece and wants only for you to follow the plan He has laid for you. I promise you if you do, that is accept Christ and his atonement for our sins, repent, and be baptized, your life will be blessed beyond anything you have yet experienced and eternal joy will be yours.

I know that like your individual plan, my plan includes this very same acceptance. It also includes the consecration of two years of my life to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have received a direct revelation from an ordained patriarch, and personal revelation on an immeasurable scale for myself. One example of which is this very letter.

I hope that you heed the words of prophet and scripture and come unto your Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Newest Elder Grimm at the MTC

We dropped our son, David, at the MTC on Wednesday July 29, 2009. David is our second son serving as a full-time missionary. He'll be serving in the Culiacan Mexico Misson. To be honest with you, dropping off a child at the MTC is one of the most rewardingly difficult thing an LDS parent has to do! One of our friends said, "how can anything so good hurt so bad?"

David joins his cousin, Elder Dallin Grimm, at the MTC - Dallin is headed for Finland but they should overlap at the MTC for a few weeks before one of them departs. Hopefully they'll be able to see each other. David also joins another cousin, Elder Justin Goodale as a full-time missionary; Justin is serving in Oaklahoma.