Email 10 - Focusing on Serving and Finding

 

 District Meeting

 

 

 

                                  Medio día at Carmelo´s :)

 

Just so Mom knows we´re eating well ;)

 
 

 

Mom and Kate´s artwork that helps me get out of bed when I need

a nudge ;)

 

 

 

Carmelo´s hilariously ugly dog (he looks unfortunately cute in that picture though. But he he has so much fat on his face that it rolls over his nose so he´s snorting all the time while he breathes. Super hilarious. And don´t worry, Carmelo thinks he´s ugly too, haha)

 

 

Surprising Katy way early in the morning for her birthday with pancakes

Noche de Hogar with a bunch of the members :)

Aaand that Gordon B Hinckley quote otra vez

 

 

What´s up, family? :)
 

It sounds like you´ve all had a pretty busy week, haha. I´m excited to print out your emails and read them a little more in depth later today. I love you guys so much :D
 

It was another crazy week for us, too! But before I get into that, here are a couple things I want to mention first:
 

-I found out that we can listen to "any music that invites the Spirit!" I wasn´t trusting Hermana Diezi on that one because of what it said in President Jackson´s letter, haha, but we were on the phone with him talking about when we could use a computer to look for Mormon Messages (only on Pdays, it turns out. Still super grateful that we have some time. I can´t wait until our mission catches up with some of the missions in Utah that can use iPads in the field!!) and he cleared it up for me. Hermana Diezi has some Piano Guys music, so we´ve been jamming out to that when we´re in the piso :)
 

-Mom, would you mind sending me some recipes? We cook meals almost every day, so I was wondering if you could send me the recipe for that super delish shrimp pasta you make, and for those roasted vegetables? I´ve discovered I´m pretty clueless about how to cook, haha.
 

-I got a letter from Dad, and a couple from Aunt Wen last week :) Thanks so much! Kate mentioned that "Spain" wasn´t written on the letters you sent... those probably won´t get to me, haha. Hopefully they´ll send them back to you and then you can try it again. I´m so sorry if I forgot to add that when I gave you the address!!
 

-It was good to hear that the memory card I´ve got still works! Can I still take photos with it? It doesn´t seem like the camera can read it anymore...
 

Ok, now for the fun stuff :)
 

Things have been pretty interesting with our investigators. We had a roller coaster of a lesson that ended up taking 2 hours (definitely won´t do that again, haha) with T*** this week, after which Hermana Diezi and I were totally drained from trying to discern what he´s feeling and thinking about what we´re teaching (It went something like this: Holy cow, this guy´s totally getting baptized in a couple weeks... crap. He´s totally not prepared quite yet. Ok, well at least we planted a seed. ...Wait, what?? He´s married and has a son? ...Woah nelly, is he crushing on my companion? ...Oh ok, that word doesn´t mean what I thought it did, nevermind...). Haha, it was ridiculous. We´re just praying now to be able to figure out what he needs us to teach, because he knows SO MUCH of the doctrine by now, but he just isn´t taking the steps he needs to.
 

We had a funny thing happen with M****, too. We had taught her the entire first lesson last week, and when we picked her up to walk to the capilla (chapel) for our second lesson, and the first thing she says is, "So what does your church believe?" Ha, whoops. We´re just going to need to take things way slower with her.
 

But we found an incredibly prepared woman on the street the other day, and she basically testified during the contact that we were sent from God and she needed to listen to us. She´s from Buenas Aires, and knows a little bit of English. She´s so, so sweet. She said that she tries to speak slowly so that we´ll understand her, and she told me that if I know a word better in English, to use it, and she´ll try to understand. She´s Catholic, but has been SO open to everything we say. We walked for a half hour to the capilla with her where we taught her the whole first lesson (We really felt like we should teach the whole thing that time, haha, don´t worry) and she definitely was a little surprised when we got to the part about Joseph Smith. But in her prayer at the end of the lesson, she thanked God for sending us to her to teach her things that she didn´t know before about His Gospel. I´m stoked to keep teaching her :)
 

Other than that, we´re really focusing on serving and finding. No one has landscaping to do, or a big house to clean, and no one´s moving, so we´ve had to get a little creative about how to serve (like bringing chocolate to a member who´s husband traveled back to their home country for a year, or like making an American breakfast for Katy for her birthday the other day as a thank-you for all she does). It´s a little difficult to serve people here with the culture being the way it is (if you´re in someone else´s house, it´s for them to serve you, and it seems weird to them if it´s the other way around), but we´re working on it. 
 

Oh, and church was crazy yesterday! Hermana Diezi has been getting sick, so she finally stayed home, but because I had a talk and Hermana King had to play piano, we went on splits to the chapel. We quickly realized how hard it was going to be when I had two of our investigators show up (we haven´t even taught them yet), and Hermana King had a couple show up as well. I played the prelude music while she tried to manage the four investigators, and then she played the hymns during sacrament, I gave my talk (15 minutes of Spanish that sweet Hermano Carmelo promised he understood, but I´m not so sure about what everyone else got out of it, haha), and then we recruited the Elders and some members to help with our investigators. It was rough, but I´m super glad they came :)
 

(By the way, I mentioned in my last email that an Elder was heading home. I really don´t know as much about the situation as I thought I did, because he ended up sticking around, and seemed really happy to be able to. We´re glad he was able to as well)
 

We´ve had some pretty interesting things to eat this week, haha. At a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) the other night, we had a super delicious meat and rice combo that tasted like Mom´s beef stew, and that was stupendous. But then earlier this week, we had a stew made of lentils, hard boiled eggs, and different types of blood sausage. I wasn´t a fan, haha. But hey, thanks to prayer, all things are possible - including eating food you don´t like so no one gets offended ;)
 

I´m still learning a lot here. It´s still tough, but I feel like I´m being very blessed with an understanding of the bigger picture, and that helps me a ton. I´m really grateful to have this set apart time for preparing to become a bit more like what my Heavenly Father has in mind for me. And Hermana Diezi shared a super awesome quote with me the other day that I like a lot:
 

"Today many sisters are being called to serve. Many more are preparing to serve. Not because they have nothing else to do or are not yet married, but they have the desire to serve. One reason the Lord wants more sisters to serve is because within the next generation He will send an army of the priesthood to the earth. He wants to send choice spirit children to mothers who have been prepared, properly trained and taught in the gospel. What better schooling can a mother have than the growth and experience she gained serving a mission?" -President Gordon B. Hinckley
 

Super intense. 
 

I´ve also been studying a lot in Doctrine and Covenants, and it´s been hitting me how real this all is. This is literally the work of the Savior on the Earth today, and I´ve been trusted to take part in it. I have a loooong way to go until I´m the missionary I want to be. I have so much to learn from my companion, from the investigators, and from all the experiences I´m having. It´s crazy!! But we´re being blessed.
 

One fun tender mercy the other day happened as I remembered a talk that President Uchtdorf gave to the Young Women in 2010. All I could remember about the talk was that he talked about our potential, and I remembered feeling like I was a princess, haha. And that´s all I needed to be able to find the talk on Katy´s computer. As we watched it with her, her inactive mom and nine-year-old nonmember sister, we realized how PERFECT it was for them. It was such a little thing, but I was glad that Heavenly Father nudged me in that direction so I could share such a sweet, powerful message with them. (The talk was "Happily Ever After," by the way.)
 

I´m going to start sending some pics and emailing the President before I run out of time, but I love you guys tons and I´m grateful to have you all and the strong members back home backing me up! This area has a long way to go, but I know that one day there will be a solid ward here in Gijon!
 

Love and miss you all lots!!
 

-Hermana Grover

Email 9 - "By Far the Hardest Thing I've Ever Done"

Hiya, family!!

Thanks for all the emails! It was fun to hear from everyone :D And holy cow, you´re going to see Imagine Dragons! Just keep buying their music and supporting them so they´ll still be around when I get home ;)
 

I´ll look forward to getting your letters this week. I also sent some home last Monday, so when you get them, I´ll probably be getting yours that same day. Make sure you always send them to my address in Gijón, because it´ll take about 2 months to get to me if you send it to the mission home. And I´ll probably be in this area for up to 6 months, so no worries about transfers!
 

This week has been pretty intense. I´ve heard people say that a mission is like a refiner´s fire, and ain´t that the truth, haha. This is by far the hardest thing I´ve ever done. It´s easy to look at missions from the outside and say, "huh, yeah I bet that´s pretty tough." But when you get here, you realize how much the Lord expects of you, because He tests every one of your weaknesses until you become the best you can be. We can´t comprehend our potential as He does, and even though this experience is super hard, I´ve been blessed to have moments where I can step back and see how much better it´s making me. 
 

We don´t have a whole lot of investigators (and by technical terms, we don´t have any progressing investigators), but here are some really neat ones:

 

-T***´s a guy from the Domincan Republic in his twenties. He started being taught with Hna Diezi & King, and he has SO MANY QUESTIONS! Like in our last lesson, he wanted to know why we needed to have the 10 commandments if we have the two commandments to love the Lord and love each other- which cover all of the other commandments. Also, when we taught the Plan of Salvation, he said he read and understood the entire pamphlet that we gave him (he´s the smartest person we´ve taught, haha, it´s so awesome), but he didn´t understand the purpose of the whole picture, like why it was all important. It was so awesome getting to really dig in the scriptures with him to show him how to find answers, and he´s really starting to grow in his faith. He just needs to start recognizing the answers he´s getting, act on them, and start coming to church! But he wants this so bad, and I´m super excited because we´re going to set another baptism date with him in our next lesson (he couldn´t keep the other one for this weekend because he isn´t coming to church).
 

- E******** is a twenty-one year old who has a lot of changes to make, but is starting to develop the faith to make them. The Spirit was crazy strong in our last lesson, and she started crying as we taught and felt prompted to just really focus on the Savior and faith in Him. I think she´s starting to feel like she can do what she needs to (like leaving her less-than-supportive 46-year-old boyfriend who´s been keeping her from progressing). We´ve just really got to pray that she´ll get the strength to take some big steps.
 

-M****´s a twenty-year-old from Africa, and it´s kind of a fun story with how we found her. We walked by some pisos, and felt prompted to go into one of the buildings to knock some doors (which you usually can´t do because the doors are locked, but this one was open!) and we found this guy, C********, who seemed SO prepared that we basically gave the first lesson on his doorstep. Because we were so excited with our success from that lesson, we decided to try the next building, and that one was open too! We felt that we should knock on one door in particular, and found M****, who agreed to let us come back in a few days to teach her. We didn´t feel like she´d really progress, but as we stopped by C*******´s the next day, we realized that he just isn´t quite prepared for our message yet, and seemed pretty disinterested. Disheartened, we walked away, and I didn´t want to try to teach M****. We stood by her building deciding what to do, and at that moment, she walked out to take out her trash! That was a pretty clear sign that we needed to talk to her, haha. Anyway, we sat down to teach the Plan of Salvation, but as we started with the 3 questions of the soul about our existence (why am I here/ where did I come from / where am I going), we simultaneously felt prompted to teach the Restoration. She´s either way prepared (pretty sure that´s it, haha) or she thinks we´re nuts, because she just listened quietly and didn´t talk much as we gave the whole first lesson. The Spirit was strong though, and I think that the only reason we found C******* was so we´d find M**** :)
 

We´ve got some really neat new members here that we´re working with, too. Katy (kah-tee) is an Ecuadorian my age I believe, and she´s SUPER helpful and does a lot with us. We never go a whole day without seeing Katy. She was baptized a few months ago, and wants to serve a mission, so I showed her President Rasband´s talk to give her a very thinly-veiled nudge in that direction, haha. 
 

We´re also getting fed a lot by a Latino couple (shoot, I think they´re from Colombia, but I´m not positive), Carmelo and Vicki. They give us SO MUCH FOOD. It´s super delicious. It´s tough though, because with the culture here, they give A TON of food and you just absolutely have to do everything you can to finish it, haha. But with prayer, everything is possible ;) I don´t know where we would be without Carmelo. He basically does EVERYTHING for the rama and for the missionaries here in Gijón. He´s the best.
 

But we have had some way tough days this week. There have been two days this week where we weren´t able to teach a single lesson. Yesterday, for example, we had plans, backup plans, and then more backup plans, and they all fell through. We sat on a bench and called every phone number we had- investigators, potential investigators, members, less-actives, and references, and NO ONE could have a lesson! We knocked a few doors and didn´t get anywhere, and the streets (for the first time that I´ve ever seen) were completely empty of people to contact. And we had three whole hours left in the day! The Lord was definitely humbling us as we tried to find something to do to use our time, and tried to find someone to have a lesson with. It ended up being kinda neat because we literally had to talk to absolutely anyone that walked by- including the kinds of people we definitely wouldn´t normally contact. In most cases, we were just reminded of why we don´t contact those kinds of people, haha, but then we also learned a lot about different kinds of people, and now we´re more open minded as to who we´ll approach. 
 

This area is supposedly the toughest in the mission. We´re far from the mission president and most people here just stick with the culture here of smoking, drinking, and not believing in God. We actually, unfortunately, have an Elder from our district going home this week because it´s so tough here. It´s a shame, because he´s a great teacher, but we´re hoping to hit the ground running with exact obedience as a district as we´ll probably get another greenie to take his place. 
 

Being a missionary is crazy, haha. But I love it. This is testing every part of me, so I´m SO grateful that I´ve been so prepared for this throughout my whole life, and the strength from home is priceless!

 

I love you all so much, and I´ll send more letters home later today :)

 

Love,

 

Hermana Grover
 

PS- The Spaniards here are actually a lot easier for me to understand than other Spanish-speakers, because they speak a lot slower. However, it´s easier to talk to Latinos (even though they speak unbelievably fast) because they´re, well, usually a lot nicer, haha, and they want to help me understand. :)

 

PPS - Holy moly the ward´s splitting?? That´s awesome! And crazy! Best of luck with everything, I´m excited to hear how it goes.

 

PPPS - Mike, your stories cracked me and the other Hnas up. Love it. Love you :) I´ll send you a letter today!

 

"Some of the JAS (YSA) after watching the CES fireside from Elder Bednar. It was lucky that he gave a talk that he´s given before, because I remembered it and was able to understand what was being said in the translation, haha (it was the one about having faith "not to be healed")."

 

 

 

 

 "Eating with Carmelo and Vicki :)"

 

 

 

 

"Another one from Carmelo and Vicki´s"

 

 

 

"A fun reminder of home"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Super good ice cream"

 

 

 

 "The first time in my life that I´ve played soccer! We had an Italian, a Colombian, and Venezuelan, and American, and a Swiss playing soccer together- and an Ecuadorian taking the photo, haha."

 

 

 

 

 

"This was earlier today at a Turkish food place. Mexican food for America is Turkish food for Spain. They have these yummy wraps there that are pretty cheap and delish :)

 

That´s actually all I´ve got for photos this time, but we should be able to go to the coast finally nect week, so I´ll get more photo opportunities there. Dad, you´ll love shooting here, it´s so gorgeous! And it´s comforting knowing that you´ll come here and shoot someday, because if I didn´t want to avoid looking like a tourist, I´d have my camera out 24/7, haha.

Also, thanks for letting me know about the memory card. Thankfully, I´d sent you all the photos I´d wanted to from that card before it freaked out, so no worries. I´ll still try to send it home sometime soon :)
 

Love you all! Hope you have a stupendous week!"

 

Email 8 - First Email from the Field! Plus, Final MTC photos, and first photos from Spain!

Last Day of Classes!

 

 

Packing Up!

 

 

Last temple walk! (the other Hnas are our trainees from our zone in the MTC) I miss them all so much!

Airport!

 

(On the phone with the Family!)

 

 

 

Final goodbyes

 

President Jackson

 

Trying to stay awake in the mission home!

 

The Madrid Temple

 

 

The piso we spent the night in on our first night here

 

The view of the temple from the window in the morning!

Hna Stepp/ Smith dropping us off at the train station

 

 The rather uncomfortable but very fun train ride to Gijon!

 

When we first got to Gijon!

 

District Leaders

 

Spain's delicious :)

Hna Diezi found some Swiss money when we were at Dominos after our zone meeting this week

The missionaries plus a couple members in the capilla (chapel)

Where we contacted yesterday

Where we study in the piso and where we contact every day :)

 

 

 

Hola familia!!
 

Ok, I´ve got to figure out this Spanish keyboard, haha, if there´s a random weird symbol or something in here, just ignore it :)
 

I´M IN SPAIN!!! Haha, what the heck?! I´m loving Gijon (hee-hohn, think of like, the sound a donkey makes kinda, but there´s a french sorta throat noise on the "j")
 

Here's the address of my first piso:

Calle Jove y Hevia 19, 1-D

33211 Gijon, Asturias
 

This week has been crazy! I haven't even really gotten to meet our investigators yet (of which there are few. We need to do SO much finding here!).
 

So here's how the week went:
 

Hna Adair and I arrived safely at the Madrid airport on Tuesday morning, where we were swept up by the Jacksons and taken to the mission home. The two of us and three other Elders were the only ones to arrive straight from Provo (I saw Lexi Crandall!) and it was super hard to stay awake during those first meetings, haha, but I LOVE President and Sister Jackson. They are so amazing, and after I got my assignment to travel to Gijon with Hna Fuller, President pulled me aside and told me how awesome Hna Diezi is and how his daughter, Megan, had gone out to teach with her when she came to visit. Super cool.
 

Haha, and yeah, they did lose my luggage on a bus driving around Madrid, so Hna Fuller and I decided to stay the night in Madrid in a teeny little piso where 6 Hnas live to leave the next day for Gijon. Hna Stepp and Hna Smith took us on splits and I got to contact for my first time in the middle of Madrid! That was super cool, and way hard, because I realized that I don't actually know Spanish, haha. But it'll come!
 

Anyway, long story short, when we finally got to the train the next day, the workers freaked out when they saw all of our luggage (apparently we can't take that much stuff on a train) and although we were able to convince them to let us take one suitcase each, we had to leave the rest of our stuff in Madrid- but I got it two days later at a Zone meeting- no worries.
 

And then Hna Fuller (from Murray, Utah- good friends with Erica Azad!) and I rode for 5 hours to Gijon, and the scenary was so gorgeous. We met up with Hna Diezi and Hna King (Hna King was trained by Hna Diezi, and now she's turning right around and training Hna Fuller. Picture Aunt Wendy Ellsworth as a missionary, and you've got Hna King, haha. She talks just like you, Aunt Wen! That's kinda fun.) Hna King and Hna Fuller live in a piso a few miles away from ours. It's just our two companionships and the District Leader companionship in our district, and we see each other every day.

 

Gijon really is gorgeous, but we haven't gone to see the coast or anything quite yet (we're actually going to head that way right after emails). I'm learning a lot about the culture here, and I got to have my first real Spanish meal last night! A sweet, very talkative, older woman named Maria in our rama (branch) invited the Hnas over to have that awesome potato-egg-tortilla thing and then she fed us a little bit of just about every random thing in her kitchen so that Hna Fuller and I could taste Spanish food. There were some REALLY good things, and then some not-so-good things, haha.

 

My trainer is so wonderful :) Hermana Diezi is from SWITZERLAND! And that's really awesome for a few reasons. One, of course, because Dad served his mission there! Another reason is because the older folks here ask right away when we start a contact if we're American, and she's able to say that she isn't, and hasn't ever been there, and that's actuall y way helpful, haha. (I just kind of stay quiet for that part...) Also, she learned English from her Mom who's from England, so she has a little bit of a British accent which is way fun, and it comes out super strong when she reads.

 

We're getting along really well, and she's been super patient with me as I'm working on the language. We try to just speak spanish when we're outside of the piso (which can sometimes be a problem because most of the time, we're outside when she's explaining situations with members and investigators and all that good stuff, so I was starting to get way confused before we decided we should probably just talk about that stuff in English, haha). One of the first things she told me was that she didn't like stereotypes, but as far as Swiss people loving chocolate- she very much supports that stereotype :)

 

The members here are super awesome, too. There aren't very many here, and there isn't a single one that has grown up in the church, but there are some very, very strong people here, and most of them try really hard to help me with my spanish :)

 

Since coming here, I'm mostly learning about patience, and how to really just focus on the Lord. I'd be lying to say that it was all super easy- it's definitely not- but it's still going so well. I have so, so much to learn, but when I'm feeling the Spirit, I'm able to teach a little and bear testimony.

We had a neat experience on the my first day in Gijon, when we'd been out contacting for awhile and it was getting really hard. We stopped by a member's piso (no one here has a house, everyone's in little pisos) and I felt the Spirit as soon as we walked in the door. We sat down with Marisa and her two daughters and talked, had super thick and wonderful hot chocolate, and had a little lesson. I could immediately tell that I was speaking and understanding better because the spirit was present, and I had a hard time leaving when we had to, haha. But I know that as I get better at this, as I get more sensitive to the spirit and improve my Spanish, I'll be able to experience that more.

 

I've been praying for help for when we're out contacting, to be able to see people's potential and feel love for them. It's made it easier to approach people, but at the same time, it's so hard to know that someone needs the gospel (because everyone does) and have them turn you down. But I know that this is the work of Jesus Christ, and that I've been set apart as His representative, so we're going to keep trying! We have a goal to find a family to teach this transfer. Prayers are appreciated!

 

I'm running out of time because it's taking me longer to type on this keyboard, haha, but I'll send some letters home later today.

I love you all so, so much, and I can feel your love and support all the way over here in Gijon :)

 

I hope you're all doing well (The SLC trip sounded so, so cool!!), and I pray for you all every day!

 

Love you, love you, love you!

 

-Hermana Grover

 

Stupendous, I have a little extra time.

Here are a couple more things:
 

-our District leaders don't speak English! That's actually been way helpful because it forces me to speak Spanish even when we're all together as missionaries.
-Brad and Kate- write to me!

-I'm going to get so fat here, haha. We eat SO much bread and chocolate. It's wonderful :) ...but we're going to finally pick up some fruits and veggies today, thank goodness.

-Ok, that pic with us and some members was actually from a rather spontaneous baptism that happened yesterday morning. It's kinda hard to explain the whole story, but this guy had been investigating for over ten years! Crazy! He was finally baptized yesterday. Good stuff. I'll explain more in a letter.

 

Alright, now I gotta go. Love you! :)

 

PS - Diezi is pronounced Dee-eh-zee :) and I actually have an hour and a half for emails here! Woohoo! but I have to use some of that to email President, obviously. Ok, that's for real the last thing. Love you!

SHE MADE IT!

We received an awesome email this afternoon from Chrissy's Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Jackson.  Chrissy arrived in Madrid this morning, safe and sound.  She's been assigned to the city of Gijon, on the northern coast of Spain!  Her first companion is Hermana Dietzi, who is from Switzerland. (Chrissy's dad served his mission in Switerland!)

President and Sister Jackson's daughter Megan reports to the Mexico City Missionary Training Center next Tuesday, and will then begin serving her full-time mission in the Florida, Orlando Mission where we live!  We're praying Hermana Jackson is assigned to the Viera Ward so we can take care of her like the Jacksons are taking care of Chrissy. :)

Email 7 - Last Email from the MTC!

 

 There are super fat little birds here from all the missionaries feeding them, haha. And that's Hermana Nichigushi with how fast we were able to say the first vision in Spanish, each of us saying a word. We started out at 3.5 minutes, haha :)

 

 

 

Hello, my wonderful family! 

 

Hey guess what? -I get to talk to you all on Monday! Woohoo!

Guess what else? -Elder Reynolds got his reassignment yesterday to Long Beach California... and then got his visa after dinner!!! Now we all get to fly out together. So stoked.

 

Ok, some quick items of biz:

-Is everything good with my debit card as far as going to Spain? I'm pretty sure it was worked out before I went to the MTC, but I just wanted to make sure.

-As for sending photos to my district's parents, I've actually just given everyone my blog address so their parents can see them on there. I know I send a ton of photos, but if you think you can get them all on there, that'd be stupendous :)

-Thanks so much for that pumpkin bread!! We feasted this morning on Reeses Puffs cereal from Elder Merkley's mom, and pumpkin bread from you guys, haha. It was a good last MTC breakfast.

-Thanks to Ma and Pa Samuels for the awesome sweets package!!! Those cookies were amazing (though, of course, never as good as those ginger cookies from trek, haha). I love you both!

-And Mom, I LOVED that picture you painted of the Sister Missionary on the sheet of music. That's super cool!! I'm going to have fun putting these things up in my apartments.

-And of course, DearElders and letters make the MTC world go 'round, so thank you Mom, Dad, Mike, FUZ, Sister Webber and Jonathan! The love, encouragement and support goes a long way!

Alright, now for the really fun stuff.

The temple last week was marvelous as always. Unfortunately, we won't get a chance to go today because we're meeting with the consulate in the middle of our temple time, but I guess it works out because we need to pack anyway.

 

I found myself thinking a lot about Grandpa Mason while I was there last time. I know for sure now that he's doing the same work that I'll be doing in Spain, just on the other side :) It's such a blessing to know that we'll all be together again. In a devotional this week (I don't remember which one), they said how on a mission, "the family is geographically divided but spiritually united." It's the same for this life and the next :)

Speaking of devotionals, the one this week was great as always, and it was another broadcasted one! It was sent to all of the MTCs, and Elder Neil A. Anderson was there! He talked about love and sacrifice, and how "we sacrifice for the things we love, and love the things we sacrifice for." Makes sense, yeah? The coolest part was how he had one of his missionaries from when he was a mission president speak with him at the pulpit. They hadn't seen each other since those mission days (20-ish years!) and they were reunited at the pulpit. Super cool. They talked about the mission and about how hard days and sacrifices are paid off. (I also ran into Kayla Hawes in the choir, super fun to see her!) We also sang my favorite in the choir, "Lead Kindly Light," and one of Mike's media tech buddies shot a closeup of me to send you all a screenshot. :)

 

 

 

As we walked back from that devotional it was "pouring" (in the words of everyone not from Florida, haha), and I realized how it really doesn't take much to excite missionaries, haha. We had way more fun than was normal running back and getting soaked. Good times!

 

 

We were able to host again this week, and I got to meet more prepared, super spiritual Sisters. And here's something crazy, every single Sister I've talked to here (that's a lot) has known that they wanted to serve a mission before the age change. It just goes to show how inspired the age change was!! 

We've had great lessons with our "investigators," and Diana (you know they're all just teachers, right? Haha. The real deal starts next week!) was able to get her husband, "Edgar," to sit in during our lessons this week! That was awesome. We also got to teach "Juan" a hand-game to help him remember the 10 commandments. That was definitely the most fun I've had during a lesson!
 

In the last few lessons we've had, I've really noticed a change in how I've taught. I love these people so much! Even though it's just practice, I've grown to care so much about our investigators. Because of that, I've gotten so much more comfortable during lessons, and the Spirit helps me with the language so much more. However, I've noticed that it can only take you so far, haha. I was talked to Diana and Edgar, and then started getting way into what I was talking about. I was on a roll, and going on about the covenants we make at baptism and how awesome they are and how great the sacrament is and then WHAM, haha, I hit a wall with a word I'd just never learned before. You've got to put the words into your head at least once before the Spirit can call them to your remembrance!
 

But the Spirit's been so strong during our classes and lessons with investigators. I can't even tell you how much Hermano Ball's inspired us! We had a really cool experience the other night where our lesson with Hermano Ball ran late because we just kept asking him to tell us more about the field, and by the time he left, none of us could speak because the spirit was so tangible in the room. We all said a prayer together, and then just wrote down some thoughts and sat there enjoying the peace and strength we were feeling from the Holy Ghost.

I've been reading Alma 26 almost every day this week. It's like Ammon's homecoming talk, haha. That chapter, and Jeremiah 1:5-8 are the best! If I could totally internalize those passages, I don't think I'd ever ever be scared or homesick or worried on my mission! And it's been really cool to see how much Heavenly Father is trusting me as a missionary. He's made it clear to me that there's just no room for doubt on my mission. So many doctrines have clicked together for me while I've been at the MTC, and I've received so many personal revelations on what I need to be doing. I've been so blessed!

 

And of course, it wouldn't be the MTC if we weren't constantly learning about faith. Sister Carol F McConkie of the YW presidency talked about Matthew 14:25-31 this past Sunday. She said that we may often feel like we're stepping out into turbulent waters (the mission field!), but the Lord knows we can stand - He wouldn't have called us out of the boat if He didn't! She encouraged us to show faith that He alone will sustain us by casting aside any burdens, fears, or distractions that we might otherwise be relying on.

I'm going to try to get some letters out in between packing up and everything, but if I don't get a chance, I'll still be getting to call you all in a couple of days! :D

It's been great to hear how you all are doing! Brad and Kate: I want to hear from you two! Mom and Dad have been keeping me updated, but I want the scoop from you guys, too ;)

I love you all so, so much! I pray for you throughout everyday and I can't wait to talk to you soon!!
 

Love,
 

Hermana Grover

 

PS- here are pics of my marvelous companions :) I'll send a bunch more, too.