Email 20 - "Another Cold, Wet, Wonderful Week!"

Thanksgiving

The guy we´re with here is named Manual, and he was just baptized in Oviedo.

We were talking to him about the baptism we had here, the day before his, for Frank. I pulled out my camera and showed him a picture, and Manual freaked out! He told us that a month ago, he´d been in his store, and Frank was cleaning the windows (he does odd jobs in Oviedo sometimes). The Elders stopped in to say hi to Manual, and then left again. After they left, Frank poked his head inside and asked Manual if he was a Mormon. When he said no, Frank said, "it´s not often that you hear such good things in life. You should listen to those missionaries." Manual continued to listen, and now he´s baptized!!!

We figured out when that would have been, and I believe that would´ve happened in between our first and second lesson with Frank, when we saw a noticeable change in the way he treated us and in the respect he had for us. 

Pretty amazing, huh? :D

Hna Zitting enjoying the green hills of Gijón- a welcome contrast from her last area.

The sign you sent filled up by the JAS :) (young single adults) 



Hello my wonderful family!

Sorry to hear about the bug B-rad had going on, that doesn´t sound fun. And Kate, the other Hermanas and I really loved your football story, hahaha. I hope that quarter at least made Noah feel better! I´m super glad to hear about the Maricials (sp?)!! They´re such a sweet family. That´s adorable what Greyson said about Brad being sick for three days, haha.

So, Hna Zitting and I definitely weren´t disappointed about this week ending, haha. It was a little rough! But even though we hardly had any appointments and had some gnarly headcolds all week from being out in the cold, and even though I got us lost on the way to every visit and locked us out of our piso, Hna Zitting and I have been able to laugh things off and enjoy each other- and I love her for it!!

She reminds me a lot of friends I´ve had in the past. I think she looks/ talks a bit like Autumn Jones, has done a lot of the same things as Elise Carter, and likes a lot of the same things as Kayla Cook, haha. She loves folk rock and has performed at an open mic night at the Velour (aaahh yeah) and we listen to her iPod full of bluegrass versions of lds hymns all the time. Plus, she gets all of my American references like movie quotes and such- which is a very welcome change, haha. She thought the Jeopardy recording was awesome :)

Oh, and happy late Thanksgiving e´rybody! Sounds like it was good for everybody. I´m glad to hear Mike made a good impression on Alicia´s family, haha.

We had a big dinner in our chapel with the JAS (YSA) and the other missionaries in the zone. We contributed a ton of roasted vegetables using the recipe Mom sent and those were a huge hit. We also ate lots of pie and turkey and rolls (which were fascinating to the JAS, haha. They´d never eaten rolls). It was great.

We listened to the recording that Brother Carey made with all of the missionaries in our district (we were waiting for a meeting to start), and holy cow, his stories are awesome!  Also, tell Sister Duff and the Ellsworths thanks for the Thanksgiving cards! :)

We found a little Christmas tree in our closet so it´s looking like Christmas here, too! We´re going to start offering to share a message about Jesus Christ "for Christmas" in our street contacting and see if that gets us in some more doors :)

I´ll have my Pday on the 25th, so we´ll Skype then :) And I would really love to do Gifts of the Heart with you all, but I just don´t think that´s something I´d be able to work out...

Anyhoo, like I said, we weren´t able to have very many visits this week, but Frank is doing AWESOME. Still no job/ place to live, but there´s always a huge smile on that great man´s face. He came to our English class this week and Hermana Zitting and I had a lot of fun trying to teach him to say the word "bird," because that´s not a vowel sound that exists in Spanish. He just kept saying "beard." As Hna Zitting kept repeating "bird. Bird. Bird" we both couldn´t stop laughing because it reminded us so much of Bambi, hahaha. He was having fun with it too.

We had a lesson with him last night, and he asked if he could share a thought with us. He opened up to Revelations 2, and talked about the "first love," and how first understanding of the mutual love we have with our Heavenly Father is what begins the conversion process. He closed in the name of Jesus Christ and everything. :) And then he walked with us to the chapel to go teach one of the Elders´ investigators with them! 

The Il----s are doing a little better, too. They´re starting to understand the blessings that this Gospel can bring them, but the frustrating thing is that they still aren´t getting that they can have them, too. We had a long lesson about the Atonement and how it´s available to everyone, and I think that helped. Prayers for them, please! :)

And El--n is doing so, so great. He´s been doing a lot with the JAS, and he keeps reminding people of his baptismal date- which he´s still a little nervous about, but he has a testimony!

We were able to visit M--u again this week, too. I love that woman. We stopped by her piso where a bunch of other previously homeless people live with her, and as we were getting ready to leave, one of her friends- clearly abusing several "harmful substances" walked in and asked us if she could finally have her own Book of Mormon- she´d been borrowing M--u´s. She sat down next to M--u, and Hna Zitting and I just felt a strong love for her come over us. She few teeth she had were black, she had dirty clothes, and blood coming from the corner of her mouth. We talked with her for a bit, gave her a huge hug, and left.

The contrast between her and M--u was so intense. M--u´s bright eyes and powerful testimony as she sat there telling us about how she´s hanging onto her testimony even as terrible things continue to happen to her- and the other woman´s pitiful state and hopeless attitude just showed, so clearly, what kinds of things the Gospel had rescued M--u from. Everyone needs this.

My relationship with the people we`re teaching and with the members has deepened so much this week. I love them all so, so much. I feel like I´m really "moving in" to my mission- little by little. Accepting more and more that this is my life right now and this is who I am and what I do. It´s not just something I´m doing for a year and a half until I finally go home, back to my "real" life.

But one thing I caught myself doing this week was being way too into comparisons with other people. I´ve noticed that it´s really easy to feel like we have talents when they´re different from the talents of those around us. For example, if I´m the only one in a group who can draw, I feel like I have a talent for drawing. But as soon as someone else comes along that can draw better than I can, I feel like I don´t have that talent. It´s the same with other things, like playing the piano, speaking Spanish, etc. I´ve noticed that the only time I feel like I have a talent for something, is when those around me don´t. And when they do, I suddenly don´t anymore. 

I even realized that, sometimes, the blessings of the Gospel don´t seem that special to me because anyone can have them. How ridiculous is that kind of thinking?!

I received a prompting during personal study though, a gentle little reminder, that Heavenly Father didn´t intend for our worth or talents to be measured using comparisons to those around us. It´s something completely individual. That´s such a hard mentality to maintain!!

As I talked to Hna Zitting about how in the world I could go about getting rid of that kind of thought process, she suggested that I think only of comparing myself to- myself. My past self. 

This kind of thinking, instead of depressing us and making us set impossible expectations based on the success of others, makes us want to progress and be better.

And then all that´s left is not beating yourself up when you slip up and aren´t perfect. As President Uchtdorf points out in that marvelous talk, "Forget me not" that Mom sent (perfect timing as always!)..."God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect... God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not."

And of course, as we get better at following the example of Jesus Christ more fully, we won´t even have time to worry about ourselves because we´ll be too busy serving others and turning outward in all that we do! Little by little. We´ll get there :)

I hope you all have another great week! Enjoy the Christmas spirit and don´t let finals/ Christmas shopping/ girlfriends coming home stress anyone out! ;)

Love you tons!!!!

-Hna Grover

Just one recording for this week... :)