Email 19 - Frank is Baptized! And a New Companion!

 

"Frank's Baptism"

 

 

 "Visiting Nancy"

 

"Saying goodbye at the train station with Katy and Melissa"

Hey family!

We´re about to go pick up my new companion, Hermana Zitting (the only thing I know is that she´s from the States), so I don´t have time to read your emails- but I´ll print them and read them later! (Hopefully Hna Zitting and I will be able to return to finish up. I doubt she´s done her internet time yet.)

Thanks for the Thanksgiving banner/sign! Hna Diezi and I have been filling it up, and I´m going to have the YSA here write on it when we have our Thanksgiving dinner this week. :D Also, I´m super grateful for the Conference talks. I was so excited to see that in there! And the Plan of Salvation pictures are stupendous. Aida sent me a sweet package as well, give her a big hug for me when you see her!

Oh, and I skimmed through your emails, and yeah, I´ve listened to all of the recordings. Multiple times, haha. I love it! I´ve been with the other Hnas all day, and I don´t have the cord to send this week´s recordings, but if I come back with Hna Zitting, I´ll send them!

Alright, now for the good stuff.

Frank was baptized this Friday! His baptism was nothing less than a miracle. As we were meeting with him the day before, we were prompted to have him talk with the family history specialists about the temple with us. I was a little nervous about talking about it before baptism, but after showing him photos of temples and talking a bit about their purpose, he told me it confirmed his decision to be baptized!

Two hours before his baptism, Frank called us and said "we need to talk." Naturally, Hna Diezi and I were freaking out about what could have happened. We met up and he told us that he hasn´t had any work for 4 months, and a lady offered him a job, but she could ONLY meet on that day, at the exact time of his baptism, in a city 30 minutes away.

After talking for a while about what we could do, Hna Diezi asked how much faith he had. He said, "muchisimo." She then promised him that if he put the Lord first and was baptized instead of taking the job, he would find something better.  And he was baptized two hours later :D 

He was sad to see Hna Diezi go, but much less so than many of the members. It´s very apparent with him that he´s truly began the conversion process, and he genuinely has a testimony of the truth.

Hna Diezi left this morning to Madrid to be companions with... (dramatic pause)... Hna Adair!!! Crazy.  (editor's note:  Hna. Adair was Chrissy's companion in the Missionary Training Center in Provo!)

I´m excited to meet my new companion. I hope she´s ready to work, haha, because we´ve got lots to do here in Gijón.

As for our other investigators, E---n came to Frank´s baptism and to church the next day! He´s progressing really well, and committed to living the Word of Wisdom in our last lesson. He told the Elders when his baptismal date was, and told the other Hnas that he thinks being an Elder would be really cool. :)

We were finally able to meet with Fa---la again, and she´s telling her friends that she´s a Mormon! She wants us to meet with a few of her friends that are "losing their faith," because she always feels good when she´s with us. 

It´s been so great seeing how the Lord opens opportunities for us when we´re really set on working hard all day. It can be easy sometimes to slack off a bit during the day, like walking slower between appointments just to take up time, etc. But after a day of that, I just feel terrible because we´ve wasted the Lord´s time.

And so, one day this week, I was just praying all day that we´d be able to use all of our time exactly how the Lord would want us to. 

And of course, that was the day when a bunch of our lessons fell through. We had 40 minutes without anything, and I was super thirsty and Hna Diezi needed a bathroom, but we knew we needed to do something so we set out to contact. 

 

About two minutes later, a girl grabs my shoulder, apologizes profusely for never being able to meet, and insists that we stop in a cafe for a bit so she can buy us a drink and we can talk. ´Turns out she was a street contact from about a month ago. It was a little thing, but it was a miracle! Heavenly Father knew our desire to work hard that day, and he provided the way :)

 

Ok, we actually have to run to the train station now. I have more to say and photos to send, so I´ll hopefully be coming back in a minute!

 

Love you guys tons!!!

 

-Hna Grover

 

I´m back! Hna Zitting seems super awesome. She´s 22, from Tennessee, has 4 months left in the mission, and studied Speech Therapy at BYU. I think we´re going to get along super well :)

 

Kate- good luck with your new homeschool group! Keep me updated on that :) and I would love to see more of your drawings!

 

Dad- I´ve left that camera on auto the entire time, haha :) I love it! I´ve been keeping it safe with that little Pelican case Aunt Sue gave me a million years ago. I´m glad to hear that tithing settlement is such an uplifting experience. It´s been really neat seeing a transformation in the branch president here in the way he handles things. He´s a much more patient, humble person than when I first met him. I´m so grateful that we have callings in this church!

 

Mom- Thanks for the article and for sharing Sheila´s story! That´s awesome! I would have loved to have you in the kitchen for making paella as well! I took notes, I´ll send them to you next week :)

 

Mike- sounds like the band is doing great! Let me know how things go with Alicia :)

 

Anyway...

 

I´ve been studying a lot this week about the potentials we have and the labels we give ourselves. Especially as missionaries, we often make the huge mistake of defining ourselves by our actions. If I don´t make an effort to contact anyone on my way to an appointment, it´s easy to think, "welp, I´m a failure at contacting. I´m not a missionary who works hard." Or if I don´t understand something that someone says at church, it´s easy to think, "ha, I guess I don´t understand this language after all. I´m not a missionary that can speak Spanish." (Kinda like what it talks about in that ´Drops of Awesome´ blogpost, y´know?)

 

Funny thing is that we (or at least I) tend to feel justified in our actions with these definitions. But when you consider the purpose of life and the enabling power of the Atonement, it´s SO clear that this kind of thinking isn´t of God. 

 

We aren´t supposed to limit our capacities by assigning constraining definitions to ourselves or others. I´m sure that´s not something Heavenly Father would approve of!

 

Our constant desire and focus should be improvement and progression. Elder Ulisses Soares says that "Upon acknowledging our dedication and perseverance, the Lord will give us that which we are not able to attain due to our imperfections and human weaknesses."

 

It´s true that there are things we alone can´t do without the Lord. Without His help, it´s true that, in those moments, I´m not a missionary who can work hard or speak the language, but if I define myself that way, it won´t change. His promise is that we´ll be able to have those attributes and capacities we need- even when our weaknesses say otherwise- IF we are dedicated, persevering, and if we trust the Lord.

 

We can´t forget that Heavenly Father´s the ONLY one with the right to put a label on us, and the one He gives us is that of His children :) Divine in nature and infinite in worth.

Kinda cheesy sounding sometimes, but it´s so true and so important!

 

I love you guys tons!  Have a great week!

 

PS- Hna Zitting and I are typing away furiously, haha, I´ll send a picture of us next week :)

 

Love you!