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
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