"Look, 'DearElder' Works! :)"
"A Doodle Break"
"Our Little Alien-Faced Chair"
"When I got that stupendous package (that room always gets pretty messy by P-day eve, haha)"
"Yyes, we get very tired here..."
"The night that two more elders left"
"Cute lil sticker from mom :)"
Hey Family! It's P-day again! Woohoo!
I got the super-duper awesome package you sent to me on Friday. Thanks so much!! My district and I were way impressed by Mom's and Kate's artwork. That'll definitely be going up in all of my apartments. Also- the district was relieved to have a copy of Elder Bednar's "The Character of Christ" talk, now we all don't have to try to memorize it before we leave the MTC, haha. Oh, and I ate four butterscotch Krimpets as soon as I got to the dorm. It was stupendous. :)
This past Monday, two more Elders from my district were called over the intercom to the travel office, and they were off to Spain on Tuesday! Our District leader, Elder Wilson, and one of our Zone Leaders (had just gotten called that day, haha), Elder Farley, are gone, and our district is down to three companionships. Hermana Adair and I were called on Sunday to be the Sister Training Leaders! (Girl equivalent to Zone Leaders) Probably would mean more if our new district that came in this week hadn't just been 8 Elders, haha, but we'll be there to help if any new Hermanas come in. :) It's been fun being more involved with the Branch Presidency (have I told you that one of the counselors is President Monson's nephew? He talks just like him and has the whole quad memorized. It's crazy), but getting that call last week also meant that we had 10 whole meetings before we could eat on Fast Sunday. That was a long day... But one of the devotionals that day was AWESOME. Jenny Phillips (primary song writer) and Jenny Oaks Baker (daughter of Elder Oaks) played some amazing piano/ violin duets for us. I'm pretty sure that Sister Baker's family was in a Mormon Message once. Her kids all played guitar/ piano/ cello/ violin for us too. That was a way spiritual meeting.
So lately, I've been getting super pumped to get to Spain. We're only at our halfway point for the MTC, but the Spirit's been super strong in our classes and lessons with our investigators, and even though I'm not quite ready yet, I'm getting way excited. We finally found a teacher that works here that served in Spain! She spoke with the "theta" (lisp) and it sounded awesome. She told us that the food is healthy and fantastic, the people are really bold when you talk to them, and she only baptized 2 native Spaniards- the rest were all immigrants. After she left, we had a lesson with Hermano Ball (our teacher with the alter-ego that plays "Juan" as our progressing investigator), and he told us the story of the real Juan that he taught on his mission. He told us about the miracles that had to happen for him to continue connecting with this family throughout his mission, and how Juan was married in the temple 3 months ago. Our whole district couldn't stop smiling. He told us more stories, and showed a ton of pictures, and the Spirit practically had us out of our seats it was so strong. Immediately after that, our trio had a lesson with "Juan" (I hope that's not confusing, haha) about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost because - Oh yeah! I haven't told you yet, he agreed to be baptized!! I know he's not a real investigator, but I have been amazed by how far we've come in our abilities to teach lessons and have the room fill with the Spirit.
So real quick, in that lesson when he agreed to be baptized, we were teaching him about faith, and we were telling him about the power of the Atonement. It went well, and we were all able to say what we had wanted to (we haven't used notes in our lessons since our second one. It's crazy, but the lessons actually go so much better when we don't have notes to reference. Definitely a blessing!) and then we closed by having "Juan" say the prayer. But I couldn't shake the feeling that we needed to say something else. So as my companions got up to leave, I asked "Juan" if he had a couple minutes more. He said he did, and I asked him to please pray again, and this time ask, specifically, if what we had just taught him was true. My comps sat back down, and he prayed and asked if Joseph Smith was a prophet, if the Book of Mormon was true, and if the church was true. After the prayer, he looked up and he was beaming. I asked him what he was feeling, and he said that he had never felt that happy after a prayer. I asked him if he would be baptized, and he said yes! It was such a cool experience, and definitely a testimony builder that we need to follow the spirit (and know how to speak Spanish, haha. Every lesson reminds us of that...). These teachers choose investigators that they taught on their missions to act like, and I know it's inspired through the whole process.
Ok, anyway, that lesson yesterday when we taught him about the Holy Ghost was awesome, because we'd just walked out of that spiritually overwhelming talk with Hermano Ball. And I know there's just no substitute for teaching experience. No matter how much time we spend with the language programs on the computer, or working with our teachers, or in devotionals, the real learning for us happens as we teach. We got to teach in the TRC on Monday (where I volunteered as a BYU student- except this time it's all in Spanish), and you'll never guess what happened as I introduced myself to the first guy we taught. I was telling him about what I liked to do, and mentioned that my family likes to travel to different paises (countries), when I had meant to say different places. When he asked what countries we'd been to, I realized my mistake, but told him we'd been to England, France, and Thailand. 'Turns out, his parents are President and Sister Senior!! I told him I'd met them, and then realized that we'd met him too! He was there in Chiang Mai when Mike was translating for President Senior in sacrament meeting. I told him we had photos from that day, and he gave me his email so I could send them to him. Would you mind emailing those to me? I forgot to bring his email with me, so I'll just forward what you send to me next week :)
Anyway, that lesson went well, but it was a little strange because the two lessons we taught that night were to people that were members, and we were supposed to teach them like they were members, and we didn't know that until we were walking downstairs to the TRC, haha, so we didn't have anything planned. Anyway, it worked out, and I'm amazed at how far along my comps have come in their Spanish.
Our teachers won't stop leaving! Hermana Doxey's gone, Hermana Nishiguchi's going to be gone for a few days, and Hermano Ball just left for a week, and we may not see him again if we get our visas! So by the end of this week, we will have had 5 different teachers, when we should have had just 2 the whole time, haha.
Oh, and we have another new investigator! Diana (Hermana Nishiguchi), and she speaks super muffled and with a weird accent, so I have to ask her to repeat absolutely everything. She's also way quiet, which is difficult. Anyway, we're learning a ton about teaching.
Sorry this is kind of hard to follow, but I want to mention a couple other things:
-DearElder works!! You all seem to be doubtful of that in your letters, haha. But I promise it works, and I've gotten them all :D They're wonderful. I've been loving those daily letters from Dad. Thanks so much for all of the updates! I'll send a letter with more answers to questions later today.
-I'm so impressed by the missionary work happening in the Viera ward. Tell Cameron and Adam that they'll love it here, regardless of when they serve :)
-Tell Ben Clark thanks for his DearElder letter for me :)
-I found another sweet note in my stuff today - I put your little sticker on the back of my nametag!
-'Just ran into Hannah, Mike's friend, at the bookstore, that was cool. 'Still running into people from the stake and BYU constantly! 'Gonna try to catch Kayla Cook here sometime, she's never in her classroom when I swing by, haha.
Bradley - Some Elders in our zone were trying to juggle with some tennis balls the other day. 'Totally got to show off some skills, haha. :) Good luck with school this week! I'm stoked about your two band classes. Keep me posted on those, yeah?
Katie - Wow, sounds like you're definitely keeping busy! I'm way impressed by your progress with the states and everything. That would've been way helpful to know as I went through school. Keep it up!!
I'm learning so much and I still love it here :) The work can be hard, and the saying "The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days" is SO TRUE, but I wouldn't rather be anywhere else than here.
Love you all!! So good to hear from all of you :)
Love,
Hermana Grover
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