Email 28 - "A Week of Miracles!!"

"Super soaked! It rained all day the other day. No worries. We sang "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today" all day because there was no one in the streets!"

"This kid, Elder Poulson, was in my ward at BYU and now he´s in my zone!"

"That was the view from our window one morning :)"

"Andrea´s bunny, "Pacho" :) He doesn´t tolerate Hna Palomino. I think it´s because she´s always joking about eating him, haha."

"We found this book in the MTC president´s house (we had a district meeting there. His wife, Sister Sullivan, makes us American cookies sometimes)."

"FHE last night at S----a´s house. That´s Elder Helske, Elder Malan, me, S----a, Hna Palomino, and N----n (S----a´s dad), and that´s the bishop there on the end. He´s such a huge help! :)"

Dear family,


So much to write this week! And I was skimming through your emails and dying to read them more in depth! It sounds like you all have some really awesome things going on right now. Keep it up and keep me posted! I love you guys way the heck more than I can tell you. Thank you for the gorgeous photos and the recording!!


Thanks Mom and the Brodrick gang for the fabulous letters! I had to share some of the adorable things Noah and Ellie are saying with the other American Hnas in the piso, and they all loved it. And if I remember correctly, Noah had whispered to Ness´s belly before Anderson was born something along the lines of this being the best family ever. Yep. Basically. :)


Oh, and Mom, we have a can opener in this piso :) It´s weird, but Hna Palomino knows how to use it, so no worries!


Ok, so Hermana Palomino and I had such a great week. I mean, we´re talking more-miracles-than-I-even-have-time-to-write-in-my-journal kind of week. We definitely can´t take credit for any of it, because it´s all been Heavenly Father putting super prepared people right in our paths. As an overview, we got 50 people´s numbers on the streets and 9 new investigators. We also had three different occaisions where someone approached us in the street, genuinely wanting to learn about the Gospel!


We´ve definitely been working harder. Hermana Palomino and I LOVE working together and it´s been super awesome/hilarious teaching her hymns in English this week :) Because of some rough patches with her trainer, she didn´t seem to care much at all about learning English at the beginning of the transfer, but now she can´t get enough of it! She loves learning funny phrases to make the other missionaries laugh.


I really feel like my Spanish is progressing super quickly, too. And Hermana Palomino pointed out that when we´re just talking, she can tell that I have to think a little about how I´m going to say things, but she told me that, as she´s watched me teach, that just goes away during lessons. She says that the Spirit´s really been working miracles with my ability to teach in this language! :)

I love this about her. She always tells me things like that to help me keep going.

Another thing she told me after a lesson was how she noticed that I was starting out explaining things using "creemos" (we believe), but after explaining about Joseph Smith and testifying of the first vision, I switched to using "se" (I know). I definitely didn´t notice that I´d been doing that! But the Spirit was definitely giving me more confidence as it testified that what I was explaining was truth. So cool.

Oh, and she told me that one of her past companions had asked her teacher in the MTC why she couldn´t just teach in her native language. She was a good teacher, why not be able to teach well right from the start? There are plenty of people out there that already speak Spanish!

The MTC teacher reminded her that she´d been called by a prophet, and that the Lord knows that her testimony, given in a foreign language that she doesn´t know very well, will do much more for many more people than any testimony she could give as a missionary in English.

Yep, not going to wonder about that anymore!

Anyway, here are some of the other miraculous things that happened this week:

1. Remember S----a? She´s doing AWESOME. She loves hearing conversion stories and reading about examples of answered prayers in the scriptures (I think Ether 2 helped a lot- when the Brother of Jared has the three big problems with the ships and the Lord sends him instructions in three different ways: 1. Don´t worry about it. I´ve gotcha. 2. Here´s exactly what you need to do to fix it. 3. What do you think the solution is?) We had a Noche de Hogar with her and her dad last night (first time her dad´s sat in for almost an entire lesson!) and we brought the Elders and the Bishop. We´re trying to start including Priesthood holders early so that it isn´t awkward when they have to choose someone to baptize them and they don´t know anyone, haha. Anyway, it was such a sweet, powerful lesson. S----a always talks about how much she loves and respects the leaders of her church, so it was SO awesome to have the help of the bishop!! Also, he connected really great with her dad. It was a miracle that he had time to help us! And Selena says that she "almost has her answer!"

2. F------o still isn´t totally free of his addictions, but everytime we´ve met with him, we see something else change. For example, he used to always say "I have to drink. I don´t have a choice," and then it changed to, "it´s just hard. I´m trying, but it´s hard," to, "my friends invited me, and I went, but I just didn´t want to." Those are miraculous changes, even if he still refuses to be positive and notice them! There´s definitely a lot of hope in him, though!

3. Alright, here´s my favorite one of this week. We were out contacting, and decided to stop by to see A----a, J---e´s daughter, and we talked with her about Heavenly Father and His love. At the end of the lesson, she started crying. She told us that she really feels like Heavenly Father has been trying to tell her something all week, like she´s kept running into Him. She told us that she was scared to come back to church, so we promised her that we´d pick her up and take her with us.

Ok, then a couple of nights later, we had a Noche de Hogar planned with her family, but we showed up and she wasn´t there. Their DVD player was broken so we also couldn´t watch the video we wanted to show them. I was a little bummed, but little by little, we saw how Heavenly Father had planned it all out perfectly. J---e stayed in the room for the whole lesson. He participated and asked questions. As his wife got up to go to the kitchen, she flashed us a huge smile and a big thumbs-up (she comes to the chapel occaisionally and reeeally wants her husband to be baptized).

At the end of the lesson, we explained to them how their daughter was scared to go to the chapel, but that she was going to come. Both of them got so excited! They both said that it was an answer to prayers, that Heavenly Father had heard them (J---e prayed?!?!?!)  We told them, pretty directly, that as her parents, they were the ones that needed to accompany her and help her out, and we reminded J---e of what he´d told us before about doing anything to help her. They were both not promising anything. 

We asked A-a (the Mom) to say the closing prayer, and in her prayer, she said , "Senor, me voy a la iglesia mañana. Te prometo que me voy. Gracias por escucharme. Me voy mañana." (Lord, I´m going to church tomorrow. I promise you that I will. Thank you for hearing me. I´ll go tomorrow.) 

Sure enough, we showed up to pick them up, and they were all three ready to go!!! They were all SO HAPPY at the chapel. And all the members greeted them and helped them feel comfortable.

Love it. 

Sorry that was a little obnoxiuosly detailed, but Heavenly Father was in every little detail, and it was a huge miracle for this family!

4. We had a first lesson with (a lot of people, but also with) J--n G-----l, and as he sat there telling us how he believes that God exists but thinks he´s just missing something; like there´s peace and answers out there somewhere, I couldn´t help but feel like I was holding a huge plate of delicious food, and someone was approaching me saying, "I´m hungry." Haha.

Anyway, that´s really just a tiny portion of everything awesome and miraculous we saw this week. Like I said, we´ve been working harder than ever, but something I was studying was what really changed things for me this week. Mom and Zac both sent me talks from Elder Holland: "The Inconvenient Messiah," and "The Hands of the Fathers." Thank you both for being so inspired!!

My favorite parts of the first talk were these two quotes:  "If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived." And, "All but a prophetic few must go about God´s work in very quiet, very unspectacular ways. And as you labor to know Him, and to know that He knows you; as you invest your time - and your convenience - in quiet, unassuming service... ´He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up´(Matt 4:6)"

Life wasn´t convenient for the Savior, and missionary service isn´t supposed to be convenient for me. Forget yourself. Serve others. Get off the bench and talk to that guy. Fold your companion´s laundry. The Inconvenient Messiah :)

And an Elder in Zone Training this week said that when the alarm goes off or when it´s raining and you want to go home before 9:30, you just have to ask yourself, "How much do I love the Lord?"

The examples of perfect, parental love in the talk the Brodricks sent me solidified that idea in my mind. The Lord loves me perfectly, and would do anything, and did do everything, for me. So how much do I love Him back?

As I kept those two phrases in mind, "The Inconvenient Messiah", and "How much do I love the Lord?" I was able to do a lot of things this week that I don´t think I could´ve before.

And it was far from a perfect week. Perfect weeks don´t exist, haha. We had hard lessons. We had hard moments. We´re helping a lot of people, and Satan´s not terribly pleased with our efforts, haha. He´s been working hard, too. ´Hasn´t stopped us yet!

Anyway, thank you for your prayers, love, support, letters, and for just being so crazy awesome. We´re being really blessed over here in Madrid!

I love you all so, so much!!

Have a stupendous week!

Love,

Hna Grover

P.S.  Dad, the missionary training idea sounds awesome! I´ll have to think about advice for that- but know that we live by Preach My Gospel, so knowing that book and experiencing missionary work for yourself is the best preparation there is!

Man, I can´t wait to visit the new temple down there! I can´t wait to visit the Madrid temple, too.  We don´t have a temple day this transfer, but I know that if I´m still hear next transfer, I´ll be able to go! Everytime we walk past that sacred building there´s a "heavenly homesickness" as I´ve heard someone describe it, that always makes me look at the angel Moroni up top for a few seconds :)

Thanks for everything you´re doing back home, and a huge, eternal thank you for helping me prepare to be here and for establishing the wonderful family/ home that I can´t wait to see again someday!

I love you!

-Chrissy

P.P.S.  Also, before I get off, Hna Zitting told me that Frank and Elvyn received the priesthood yesterday!!!! So much happiness!

Love you! Byeee! :)

Email 27 - "More often than not, just stick to the basics! :)"

Here´s a photo from the locotorio (computer/ public telephone place. I don´t know what that´s called in English) we went to last week. Look for a sign of missionaries in the picture :)

Our district´s Elders in a really cool member´s house (most hipster place I´ve ever seen.)

Hermana Gaona´s last day in Spain!

Hello my American family! :)

Wow, you´re the best member-family ever! Haha. Giving the Sisters hot chocolate and then driving them (and their bikes) home. Love it.

The new Sisters there sound really neat. It´s fun getting to work with people from different countries. In our district we´ve got another Elder from Finland, a Sister from England, my companion from Ecuador, and then the rest are Americans :) 

And I´m not sick anymore! I was able to go out and work everyday this week and I´m think I´m totally better now :) Finally!!!

And I realized that I made it seem really vague and mysterious what I was learning by being sick, haha, but what happened was Heavenly Father put me in a really humble situation and kept me there until I started paying attention to what I could learn from those around me- something I hadn´t been paying as much attention to before. I learned so much!!

I had intercambios (exchanges) twice this week, and I went to another district for both of them, so I´m still not getting to know our investigators as well as I´d like to! Haha, but I learned a ton as I worked in the 6th ward´s area.

The first time, I was with Hermana Phillips, our Zone Sister Training Leader, who finishes her mission this transfer. She has a really amazing conversion story, beginning with her living with her grandfather for a couple months and being baptized when she was 9, but not remembering anything about it. When she showed up at the doorstep of the house where she was renting a room during her first year of college, an LDS family opened up and invited her to an activity at the chapel. She said she felt an amazing, super familiar feeling ("I don´t know what this is, but Inever want it to go away!"), which the missionaries tried to convince her was from the premortal existence, but she was pretty sure it was something else.  She had them check to see if she was baptized, and sure enough, she was already a member!  3 or 4 years passed, and here she is on the mission :) I learned a lot from her as we spent all day running from lesson to lesson.

The second intercambio was with her companion, Hermana Cabrera, a greenie from Ecuador who also doesn´t speak English. She´s a convert of a few years, was raised by her older sister (who she calls "Mom" and everything), and is the sweetest thing ever. I think it boosted her confidence a lot to see that she could work well without her trainer.

We had a pretty intense first lesson with a member reference, though. I mean, good gracious. You can keep saying that you respect other religions, but that doesn´t mean you do! Next time I have a lesson like that, I´m making sure that our purpose as missionaries is understood- that it´s not to convince them that their religion is wrong, nor that our religion is right. We´re here to share what we believe and love, and give others the chance to try it out and ask God if it´s true. We respect other religions and ask that others respect ours and don´t waste their breath attacking what´s precious to us!

Next time a lesson starts out with articles about the origin of Halloween and how we don´t live what we say we believe because of how a goofy holiday we celebrate started, we´re taking a time-out and making sure we all understand why we´re here, haha. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I´m learning a lot from the people I´m working with here. If for nothing else, I needed to serve a mission just to have my eyes opened to the people around me!!

And I´ve been studying a lot of different things this week, and one thing I discovered was that I should really stop trying to complicate doctrine, haha. Remember how I was studying how blessings could be the natural consequences of specific laws? I was looking at that more (with the talk Mom sent- I was on an intercambio in that other piso when your letter arrived- perfect!), and was wracking my brain for deep spiritual connections when I felt a little something telling me to chill out and stop complicating things.  Blessings are blessings and we receive more of them for being obedient. Nothin´ more to it than that, haha.

As my Book of Mormon professor would say, it´s cool making deep doctrinal connections and it´s important to understand and apply the principles of the Gospel, but some of it just isn´t as important as we try to make it. Sometimes, before explaining some neat little thing in the scriptures, he would first say, "Now, this won´t getcha into Heaven, but here´s something cool.."

More often than not, just stick to the basics! :)

Anyhoo, I have finally gotten to know some of our investigators! Here are the ones we´re focusing on:

F------o is in his 20´s, and he´s kind of got a similar situation to F---- in that he has trouble with some of the commandments but desperately wants a change. He came to church for the first time yesterday, and told us that he felt amazing and didn´t want those feelings to leave. He´s really scared of slipping up again. We´re going to see him as often as possible and try to keep him positive and focused!

S----a is a seventeen-yr-old Evangelist who´s gotta be the most sweet, innocent girl I´ve ever met. In complete contrast to the lesson I had with Hermana Cabrera, when S----a asks "hard" questions about parts of the Bible, it´s because she genuinely wants to know what we think the answer could be. She´s really searching for truth, and I know if she keeps looking with faith, Heavenly Father will let her know that this is what she´s been searhcing for!

And I haven´t really pieced together exactly why yet, but a lot of parents here (especially fathers), feel that they can´t/ don´t have an obligation to govern their kids. It´s really interesting, and it´s the case with J---e, and investigator who lives with his inactive wife and 21-yr-old daughter, A----a. He doesn´t have a whole lot of interest in what we have to say, but he really wants us to reactivate his daughter, and he told us that if he has to come to church to get her to come, he´ll do it. We´re going to try to help him understand that his progression in the Gospel, as the head of the household, is what´s going to help her and his whole family.

Oh, and I got to help with English classes this week! There were like, 15 people there! :D I´m surprised by how many people speak English here in Madrid. I mean, it´s not a ton, but our ward mission leader and a handful of members speak perfect English, and we contacted a guy in the street the other day who could only speak English. We´re also teaching two Muslim guys from Iran Spanish, which has been pretty hilarious because the only way we can communicate is with the tiny bit of Spanish they know, and the little bit of English that only one of them knows. It´s great. :)

And that´s all I´ve got for this week! I love you all sooooo much!

Have a great week!!

Love,

Hna Grover

Email 26 - A Little Sick, and a Lotta Happy

Hello my wonderful family :)


I can´t wait to see the video that Dad and Brad made of the roller coasters. Sounds super legit! (Editor:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqoXqf6_8A  )

Can´t wait to hear more about Kate´s skating classes that she´s gonna start up, too. Mom, I don´t think I´ve ever heard that CS Lewis quote- I love that!! I´ll have to translate that one for my comps :)  (Editor:  Quote available below *) And I left before the magazines got to me, but I´m sure Hna Zitting will send them with the zone leaders at the next zone meeting, and I´ll get them eventually, haha :)


Being in Madrid is so different from Gijón! It´s a little colder, there are SO many members, and when you contact people, they actually listen to you!!! Haha. But for reals. Super different. Gijón was made up of wealthy, old, white Spaniards, and Madrid is made up of everything else, haha.


Hermana Palomino and Hermana Gaona are contacting MACHINES, and I love them for it. It helps that people in the streets are super friendly and we get a phone number from just about every single person we stop. That´s definitely new.


I really love my companions a lot. Hermana Palomino and Hermana Gaona have super strong testimonies. Hermana Gaona leaves next week for the Mexico MTC. She´s 21, the only member in her family, and was just baptized a few years ago. Hermana Palomino knows better than any missionary I´ve ever met why she´s out here, and you can see it in everything she does here in the field. Her parents are divorced, and she´s had a pretty difficult life, but she´s a really amazing example of a hard worker. Plus, we can all laugh together and enjoy each other. :)


Oh, and Hermana Palomino´s family lives in Jace´s mission boundaries! They live in Elche, in a little place called Elecante. It´d be super awesome if Jace met them!


My confidence with the language has grown a ton, and I feel like I don´t really have to think before I speak now (which sometimes isn´t a good idea even in English, haha, but you know what I mean).


It was really strange this week being in such a huge ward (the chapel´s on the temple grounds- so cool), and having a ton of families there that were raised in the church (oh the things you take for granted before a mission!). There are 4 Elders and 7 Sisters all in the Madrid 8th Ward. SO MANY MISSIONARIES.

And all 7 of those Sisters were living in that piso (which yes, was the same one I stayed in my first night in the field!), and so five of us moved this past Saturday to a new one. It´s super cute, comfortable, heated, and has marvelous showers, so I guess it´s okay that I don´t have the sunrise/temple in my window while I study anymore, haha. But that was super awesome while it lasted! Oh, and now we don´t have to travel a half hour to get into our area each morning, haha.

We get to go to the temple once a transfer as long as we´re in the area, and my companions are going to show me how to do temple tours so we can get going on those. 

Here´s my new address (I should be here... probably 2 transfers):

Calle Leon Felipe 6

Escalera F, 3-C

28038 Madrid, España

Here´s a little downer to it all, though: For the last five looooong days, I haven´t really been able to leave the piso, except once for when we moved, and a second time for church, because I have had a gnarly cold. I won´t lie, it was a little rough- mostly because as a missionary, you have one purpose (huge blessing. You don´t even have to think about other things!), and when you´re working hard at it, you feel great regardless of how the day turns out.

When you´re sick in bed, however, haha, it´s a little hard to find ways to accomplish that purpose.

We all know, however, that Heavenly Father does everything with a purpose (how perfect is that quote from CS Lewis for this week! Love it.). Although it wasn´t a famine or a lost battle to humble iniquitous Lamanites, He allowed cold symptoms to accumulate in this lil´missionary until she finally humbled herself and learned what He was trying to tell her.

This morning, yet another symptom appeared and I´d just about had enough of being sick, haha. After a very introspective personal study and a powerful companionship study, I discovered that most of my symptoms had disappeared. None of the crazy household remedies that the members or my companions had shared (straight-up drinking boiled ginger-root, eating half a bag of oranges every day, heating Vick´s Vapo Rub and breathing in the fumes, etc) had taken away the trial Heavenly Father had permitted. Even the priesthood blessing from one of the Elders on Saturday was going to have to hold off a bit. Only learning what I needed to did the trick :)

I´m still not the picture of health or anything, haha, but I´m feeling a lot better and looking forward to finally getting back to work!

My sweet companions took super good care of me this whole week. They´re the best. They kept President/ Hermana Jackson updated for me, made me food (orange juice, spanish tortilla, etc), and found ways to work with members/ have me stay at members´ houses so that the work could still get done.

That being said, I haven´t met many of our investigators yet, but I´ll keep you posted on all of that :)

And other than that, I don´t have much else to tell you guys about! But I love you more than I can tell you, and I miss you tons!

I hope you all have a great week :)

´Till next time!

Love,

Hermana Grover

* “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” - C.S. Lewis

Email 25 - "I´M IN MADRID!" Chrissy's Transferred to Her Second Area in the Field!

Hola querida familia mía :)


I´m glad to hear that everyone enjoyed their break! Love the photos as always, and I´m looking forward to checking out that audio file later. Indoor skydiving looks super awesome! (although I´m still hoping to do the real deal someday, haha) Also, was that a Florida Gators sweatshirt I saw on Alicia? ;)


Thanks, Mom, for all the updates on everybody! I didn´t even know Kelly McArthur was engaged!! I hope all goes well with Jay´s surgery, and give Brynn a thumbs up for me for peacing out of high school a little early. From what she was telling me before, that was definitely a smart move. 


Glad you all enjoyed trying Spanish candy, too :)


Yes, we had transfers, and yes, I´m somewhere new! I just got into my new area a couple of hours ago. Lots to tell you already!


I´M IN MADRID! :D My piso is on the same block as the temple, and it has a great view (I´m still not sure if it´s the same one I stayed in my first day in the field, but it could be!). I get to go to the temple once a transfer as long as I´m here!! I can´t wait to go in. The spirit was so strong just as I walked past that sacred place on the way to our piso.


I´m in a temporary trio. With... two Ecuadorians that don´t speak any English! One of them, Hna Palomino, entered the field the same day that I did (she´s 26), and the other is a Hna that lives in Oviedo (so I know her a little already and she knows all about Gijón), and she´s waiting to get her visa to go to the Mexico MTC. She´s in the field without having any MTC training! I don´t know why she isn´t just going to the Spain MTC, but whatever :)

I went from sharing a piso with one other person to sharing one with SIX other Hnas. Our trio doesn´t even have a bedroom, we just have three matresses, haha. They´re opening up a new piso soon, and we´re hoping to get sent there. My address for now, though, is:

Calle Valdebernardo 10, 3-C

28030 Madrid, España

I don´t know when that´ll change though, it could be next week, in two transfers, or anywhere inbetween that. I´ll keep you posted the best that I can :)

Leaving Gijón and our awesome, awesome branch and super tight-knit district was pretty rough. I already miss that wonderful place a lot. But here´s the crazy thing, Hna Fuller got transfered too! We took the 6 hour bus ride to Madrid together, and then she took another bus to Móstoles, and I met my comps here. It was such a blessing for us to be able to spend our whole time in Gijón together, starting and ending together :) She´s the best!

And I already miss Hna Zitting a lot, too. I really felt like I could be myself around her.

It´s been interesting so far, already, only speaking Spanish. I keep going back and forth between realizing how much Spanish I really can speak, and how many words I still just absolutely don´t know. But I can already tell that this is going to be a fun transfer. These two Hnas are super sweet, and they´ve been really patient with me so far!

This area is definitely going to be a big change from Gijón, but I´m excited to see what I can learn and what I can do in this big ole city.

Anyway, it was kind of a crazy week this week. Because of the holidays, hardly anyone could meet, but M--ú is still doing marvelously (she has a goal to get herself going to the temple in March with the branch. It helps that she´ll be able to see me then, too. Now we´ve just got to get her to stop relapsing with the cigarettes!)

F---- was progressing really well, and then we lost contact with him again for four days (longest we´ve ever gone without contact), and so he still doesn´t know that I´m gone. I left a letter for him with Hna Zitting, and I just pray that she and the greenie she´ll be training will be able to help him get his act together and get him to the temple so I can see him!

We spent a lot of time together as a district this week. I´m pretty sure we spent every medio dia together, haha. They´re so awesome. We ate at that stupendous Chinese buffet again, at Omar´s restaurant, at a kinda sketchy burger place, and at Carmelo´s for one last time :)

The Hnas had intercambios (exchanges) this week, too, so I was with Hna Cançado for a couple days. Ah man, she´s hilarious, and she has this really great, humble attitude about everything, so she´s really fun to be with.

Oh, and happy new year! It´s hard to believe that I spent half of 2013 on the mission. That´s so crazy!

The tradition for ringing in the new year here is eating grapes. When the clock strikes twelve, you pop in a grape at each "dong," and make a wish for each month. Seedless grapes don´t exist here, so it´s kinda difficult to eat them that quickly, haha. Hna Zitting and I decided to eat our grapes at 10am, instead of waking up to do it at midnight. I´m pretty sure we celebrated New Years with the Hawiians, haha.

I read that "Quick to Observe" talk again, and after reading it this time, I feel like I finally understand that scripture in D&C 130:20-21 better. I realized that obtaining the gift of discernment would be a natural consequence of being quick to observe the commandments of God. By being obedient, you aren´t constantly blurring lines and finding gray areas - you aren´t rationalizing away your ability to discern and judge right from wrong. So, naturally, through exact obedience, your ability to discern the black and white in situations would increase, and you´d be more capable of finding and bringing out the good in others.

I never really thought that specific blessings came from obedience to specific laws, as it says in that scripture, but after realizing that that´s exactly the case with being quick to observe/ the gift of discernment, now I´m super curious about what other laws naturally bring about such specific blessings! Definitely going to look into that more.

I´m looking forward to getting to know the members and getting to work here in Madrid! It´s already looking like a huge change, but now that I´m here, I´m super excited to get going on the work. And to learn a whole lot more Spanish! :D

I sure love and miss you guys tons!! Good luck starting all the school and work routines back up!

´Til next week!

Lots of love,

Hna Grover

Email 24 - "Feelin´the love over here in Gijón :)"

Our picture that we were going to try to turn into Christmas cards (something that just really doesn´t exist here, haha. We were missing Walmart for sure as we tried to find a place to make some!)

 



 

 

Some cool stuff around Gijon

 

 

Hi family!

 

Love the pictures as always. I´m glad to hear it´s been a fun Christmas break for everybody! Thanks to everyone for the Christmas cards and packages! Feelin´the love over here in Gijón :)

 

I´m looking forward to checking out those GoPro videos sometime, Brad! 

 

On Christmas day, after Skyping with you guys (which was so awesome), we went to deliver cookies (aaand all the other Christmas treats we´d been given, haha) and sang Jingle Bells at each of the doors. The reactions were pretty great. I don´t think these people have ever experienced opening their door, being sang a really obnoxious Christmas song, and then handed cookies. But they loved it! (I think)

 

Oh, and Mom, that´s the first counselor (Carmelo) who added you on Facebook. Make sure to confirm him and you´ll find a bunch of pictures of the missionaries on there.

 

(Editor:  Reference to missionaries elsewhere facing struggles...) If you´re not careful, the tough parts of missionary work can accumulate really fast and become a little incapacitating. But hey, prayer works, and if you´re focused, that stuff doesn´t have any power.

 

One thing that Hna King taught me was, when I´m thinking about something back home or stuff about BYU or whatever other post-mission-life thing, it´s helpful to write it down, stick it in a box, close it, and forget about it. It´s written down, you don´t need to think about it, you won´t forget it because it´ll still be in that box when you finish your mission.

 

Anyway, wanna hear about my week??

 

Haha, good.

 

So we had the Primary Program last Sunday in sacrament meeting, and that was possibly one of the most precious things I´ve ever seen. All 8 of the primary kids were up there, and they had Hna Zitting and I helping with a few things. It was super cute.

It´s tough not being able to love on kids the way you can when you´re not a missionary. They´re all so adorable, and I think often of Sister Wixom´s plea to us in the MTC to pay attention to and "love them, for me."

 

We also ate at Omar´s (new investigator) Mexican restaurant this week! Ok, I really didn´t like Mexican food before my mission, but his food is super duper good. It´s fun having somewhere to stop by when we don´t have an appointment, and we just buy a soda and sit and talk with him and get references from people that walk in.

 

I love having "people." Having connections as a missionary is the best! We´ve got a lady that we always talk to in a fruit shop, the lady who owns the second-hand store here loves us, and the guys that own this locotorio (computer place ;) are the best!

 

They´re 3 muslim guys, and I have grown to love them a lot. They love just talking about life, trying to learn English, and talking to us about our religions. They really have their priorities straight in life- much more than a lot of Christians that we know here. 

 

Last night, we stopped by to say hi, and they gave us pizza, we taught some English, and we got the references of everyone that walked into their shop. It´s the best! They gave us our Skype-time for free on Wednesday, too :)

 

Anyhoo, M--u´s doing a lot better. She was reeally sick this week, but the Elders came with us and gave her a blessing and her fever went down and she was able to eat directly afterwards. She has so, so much faith. She was holding my hand during the blessing and would squeeze my hand with all her strength everytime Elder Alhovuori said something.

 

On Sunday, because Hna Zitting needed to play prelude, Hna Fuller and I picked up M--u and helped her make the hour-long walk to church. We sat down just in time for the sacrament :) It was her first time to church since October!

 

F----, on the other hand, is not doing well. I swear I´m going to have a head of gray hairs by the time I leave this area after working with him, haha. I sometimes wish I could just stick him in a room somewhere where I know he´ll be okay! But we´ll keep praying and fasting for him and something´s going to work out!

 

We´ve been blessed with a few new investigators this week. One of them, J--n, is an economist or something and we taught him in his office. After clearing up that Mormons aren´t Amish, we don´t do bethrothals, etc etc, he asked if he could take a picture of us to show to his friends that we´re just normal people! Hahaha. I hope he posts that on Facebook so people will recognize and talk to us in the street.

 

It´s interesting how people just really don´t think we are "normal" though. Spanish families here have a really hard time accepting the baptisms of their family members. The other Hnas have a recent convert who is terrified of telling her family that she´s a member. It´s really sad.

 

In Branch FHE this week, Santi ended his lesson sharing a powerful testimony about his experience with that. He explained how 8 of his 10 close buddies from his pre-baptism life (he´s only been a member for 9 years) have lost their families completely because of their drinking/smoking lifestyles. Santi´s wife, Elena, was baptized when they had three little kids, and Santi didn´t join the church until another 21 years had passed. He said that once, he came home from being out with his friends and heard Elena praying out loud, saying, "¿Oh, Dios, cuando cambiará este hombre?" (Oh God, when will this man change?). 

 

He told us how his relationship as a husband and father was salvaged by the Gospel. I think it really helped the Hnas convert to hear that.

 

Oh, and Mom, I loved the "Quick to Observe" talk from Elder Bednar. Especially on the mission, I´ve definitely noticed how we´re blessed by being quick to "look or notice and obey," and that´s what brings us the gift of understanding and discernment that Elder Bednar was talking about. 

 

I was reading this week in Mormon about the destruction of the Nephites, and everything bad that happened was the consequence of them neglecting the things of God.

 

At one desperate moment, Mormon tries to reunite his men with a pep-talk (Mormon 2:23-24, 26), but without the strength of the Lord that backed up the words of Moroni (Alma 46:12-13,21), the people were only stirred up "somewhat to vigor" and they were left to battle depending on their own strength. There´s a lot to learn from the differeneces in the scriptures of those that were "quick to observe" and those who weren´t!

 

Well, that´s all I´ve got for this week, and I unfortunately didn´t take many pics or get a chance to do another recording, but I hope you´re all enjoying the break and having fun! Keep sending photos! :)

 

I love you all so much! I´m so grateful that the Gospel is what has united our family, and that we haven´t ever had to worry about it being something that would cause contention or division.

 

Have a good week!

 

Love,

 

Hna Grover



Email 23 - Christmas in Gijon! (Skype Day!)

Elvyn's Baptism!

We found Sesame street! The gang in the window wasn´t quite complete, so I thought I´d add Grover to the mix (ba-dum-cheeehhh)

NINJABREAD COOKIES!!!!   from Hna Zitting´s old YW leader

(Editor's Note:  We had the blessing of Skyping with Chrissy today!  Out of this world!  Here's an email Chrissy sent while her companion Skyped.)

Hna Zitting´s skyping with her brother now that´s serving in Honduras, so I´ll do a real quick update on the week :)

Elvyn got baptized! He bore a simple, powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon during the service. He also brought his parents along! Super cool.

We had a Christmas dinner with the branch, and we had about an equal number of members as investigators there. :D There were only 8 people present (including 6 missionaries, haha) for the Christmas devotional that we watched beforehand, but things really picked up as soon as the food started arriving! Also, Hna Zitting and I put together a Christmas choir. It was precious. I´ll send the recording :) 

This has been an awesome Christmas. Mom- I could tell how much thought and love you put into everything you sent me. Thank you so, so much, and please know that I love everything! Also, I will never have to buy another cardigan in my life. I love it. It´s all perfect. I may or may not have cried a little when I saw your painting. That´s definitely something I´m hanging onto forever! And holy cow, the cards from everyone were the best.

I miss you guys already! I wish we could´ve talked more and I could´ve gotten to know Alicia better and all that good stuff, but I´m so glad we were all able to talk! (Editor:  Alicia is Michael's awesome friend who spent Christmas with the Grover Family in Florida.)  I felt more nervous speaking Spanish in front of you guys than I ever have in front of people here, haha.

We always try so hard to focus our Christmases on the Savior, but I´ve never felt so close to Him during the Christmas season as I have on the mission. Thank you so much for helping me get here and helping me through it all! I honestly don´t even want to imagine trying to do this without the backup that I have. 

I love you guys more than I can tell you! Give my best to er´ybody back home!

Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Hna Chrissy Grover