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
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