Email 29 - You Gotta Have Faith, Faith, Faith!

Puerta del Sol

"Hna Palomino took some stalker-shots of me teaching English Class this Wednesday. "

"American week!"

"Check out what I found while knocking doors in our building!"

"A little missionary reunion at stake conference"

"Snow!! 

This morning was Hna Palomino´s first time seeing snowfall."

"Our trip to "Sol," a super tourist-y plaza about twenty minutes from where we live.  There was a Subway there!!!! So delicious."

"Bedtime in the piso"

"President and Sister Jackson here for our district meeting."

"...that beautiful temple. I´ll get to go in there someday next transfer! (I better not get transferred!!)"

"Sister Jackson forwarded this to all of us. She and President Jackson surprised us and sat in our district meetings!"

Hi family!

First of all, IT´S SNOWING!!!!!!!! It was totally like that moment in the movie, "Hook" (shout out to FUZ!). Hermana Palomino´s desk faces the window, and during comp study, she suddenly yelled, "¡Esta nevando!" (It´s SNOWING!) Haha. I didn´t even know it snowed here. But it is most definitely snowing. Reeeally hard. 

Anyhoo, there were SIX general authorities in Florida??! Looks like they´re really lighting that place on fire. That´s so awesome. It sounds like it was a good week for everybody :)

We had Stake Conference this weekend, and it was also a transmission from SLC, to Spain, Portugal, and another place that I don´t remember. It was neat because a few of the General Authorities can speak Spanish, so they didn´t need a translator!

It was funny, too, because when Elder Ballard was speaking (and he had a translator), anytime he said a word in English that Hermana Palomino recognized, she got all excited. So fun. I also ran into Hermana Fuller and Hermana Lexi Crandall! It was great to see them. I recorded them saying hi. Just be prepared to gag a bit because it´s about a minute of squealy, excited Hermanas that haven´t seen each other in awhile, haha.:)

So, this week wasn´t quite as miraculous as last week, but it was still a solid one! 

F------o is doing great. Still getting better and better with that darn addiction he´s been fighting. Our first lesson that we had this week with him was in this cafe where we have just about all of our lessons (I have had sooooo many hot chocolates there. Poor Hna Palomino is moderately lactose intolerant, too, haha), and we were getting him all motivated to keep making changes and getting better.

As we were talking to him about these changes, I kid you not, "Man in the Mirror" came on the radio. Then, as we explained that these changes come through faith, "You Gotta Have Faith" came on. I was dying inside! Hahaha. Especially because I was the only one who realized what was happening. So funny.

We also met with him in the chapel and had him watch the talk from President Uchtdorf, "You Can Do It Now," and we had a member with us that started going off on him about how he needs to believe in the Book of Mormon and come to church, etc. He got all defensive and told her how he´d committed to coming to church every week, he already knows the Book of Mormon is true, and he's reading and praying everyday. So awesome to hear him say that!  He´s on his way to baptism on the 15th!

We haven´t been able to meet with S----a because, guess what? She was at an Evanglist camp for the last few days! Greeeeat. 

She really wants to talk to us, though. I think she´s super confused because she said on the phone that she felt the spirit a lot at the camp, but still doesn´t have an answer. We´re meeting with her tonight. Prayers, please!

And A----a´s doing pretty well. We haven´t been able to meet with J---e, but when we were teaching A----a this week, we asked if she had any questions. She said, "Yeah, just one. What does it feel like to have the Spirit with you all the time?"

We invited her to come teach with us sometime to find out for herself. :)

Other than those three, we´ve just been working with a LOT of new investigators. Lots of questions, lots of Restoration Lessons, etc. It's been really neat, though, seeing how prepared some of these people are. Just yesterday, we taught a man and his wife (who needs a kidney transplant, so she was thrilled about the resurrection and perfect body part of the plan) the Plan of Salvation. Usually, when we explain about the three kingdoms of glory, no matter how incredible and perfect and wonderful we tell them the Celestial Kingdom is, when we ask where they want to go, everyone always says, "Well, I´m really not sure I could ever make it there. Probably one of the other two." (Not the point of the question!) But this time, with these two, before we could even finish the question, they both were leaning out of their seats and pointing at the picture of the sun, saying, "¡Allí!" (There!!) So cool :)

Hermana Palomino has been cruising with her English, too. She knows that I love teaching her, and she´s been really enjoying herself. I don´t know if I already told you, but she promised me that she´ll be fluent one day, and when the day comes that she can understand the General Conference talks, she´ll visit Utah and attend a session with me :)

Here are some of her phrases of the day this week: 

"Come what may and love it."

"Smile, God loves you!"

"You are stronger than you realize. You are more capable than you can imagine. You can do it now!"

"I promise you that you will one day stand aside and looks at your difficult times and you will realize that He was always there beside you."

"I think I am going to be sick of English."

Haha :) And we´re still working on hymns!

The other day, I was a little upset about something, and she just said, "le ayudaría enseñarme inglés?" (Would it help to teach me English?) Works everytime.

Anyway, as we´ve been teaching all of these new investigators, we've had a lot of hard questions. I´ve concluded that the hardest questions to answer as a missionary are the ones you´ve at one time asked yourself and then simply relied on faith as your answer. 

A strong indicator that someone you´re teaching has learned to trust the spirit and rely on faith is when they reach that point where they stop using questions or doubts as excuses not to believe, and start confiding in us with their questions and doubts because they don´t want anything impeding their belief.

No one starts to believe in the Gospel until they want to! As Alma put it, that´s where it all starts! (Alma 32:27 - even if ye can no more than DESIRE to believe, let that desire work in you, even until ye believe)

It always starts small! 

And, to be honest, some of the very best things this week were super small, but powerful. For example:

-President and Sister Jackson showed up to our District Meeting. Always a huge blessing to see them.

-The Elders gave Hermana Palomino and I Priesthood blessings. Always with exactly what we need to hear.

-We ran into the Elders out contacting, and two seconds later, the other Hnas showed up. Love it when that happens!

-There are some super delicious banana chips that they sell here. Salted like potato chips and super addictive. They had some in the fruit shop next to our piso!

-Ready for this one? It was AMERICAN WEEK in the grocery store! It was a little ridiculous, because a lot of the stuff they have there anyway, but it had the statue of liberty and stars and stripes plastered all over it, haha. But, what they had that I have never seen here before were GOLDFISH CRACKERS and REESES. Hallelujah! 

Haha, and Hermana Phillips told me that there were Goldfish there, and she said, "I thought of you when I saw them in there. I dunno. You just look wholesome and Goldfishy." ;)

The little things make all the difference!  Like with F------o. He is a completely different person right now, and it´s all because he´s been reading, praying, and coming to the chapel. So simple!  President Uchtdorf said in his talk that when he fell on the ski slope, all it took was his grandson saying, "you can do it now!" for him to get up.  And then Alma straight up says in Alma 37:6-7 that these little things are what bring about the salvation of many souls.

Small and simple is the key, folks!

Sorry that was a bit all over the place. There´s a lot happening here in Madrid! It´s been a cold, windy week (I have plently of warm clothes, Mom, no worries!), but we´ve been seeing success and Hermana Palomino and I continue to love being together :)

Love you guys tons!!

Have a "estupendo, genial, y maravillosa" week! (that´s what Carmelo in Gijón always says :)

Love,

Hna Grover