IMG_0178L.jpg)
"Some goodbyes after church yesterday (yes. All of these missionaries and more are in the chapel at the same time each Sunday between 6th and 8th ward. Crazy)"
IMG_0174.JPG)
IMG_0149.JPG)
"District meeting and Burger King afterwards"
IMG_0152.JPG)
IMG_0153.JPG)
"A sunny day!! Finally!"
IMG_0158.JPG)
"Ecuadorian food!"(with F------o)
That soup that they ordered was also delicious. It had a bunch of different sea creatures in there, haha.
IMG_0160.JPG)
IMG_0163.JPG)
IMG_0166.JPG)
"Making cupcakes with Andrea :)"
IMG_0167.JPG)
IMG_0170.JPG)
IMG_0169.JPG)
"I had my camera nearby because we were just waiting for Hna Hansen to get called as Sister Training Leader, which means a bajillion intercambios (exchanges) every transfer! and this was her and her companion´s reaction when the call came, hahaha."
"Loving the Valentine hearts! Thanks so much! Love you!!!"
IMG_0185.JPG)
Hello my marvelous family!
Thank you for the love and the emails and the recordings and the photos! I´m glad you were able to see the photos from Randy Scully (editor: please see Randy's photos in the blog post below) and that you enjoyed the chocolate :) Brad and Kate- Mom and Dad both raved about S&E, but I need to hear about it from you guys! ¡Cuentemen!
And happy 13th, Kate! You are so freaking old! I hope you had a fun birthday :) We were playing some volleyball in the gym of the church this morning for Pday, and I had the other missionaries join me for the little recording (attached). :)
We had transfers again this weekend! Hermana Palomino and I are both not going anywhere, thank goodness! I love her so much. Her goal this transfer is to learn English from me, and my goal is to learn to cook from her. I´ll keep you guys posted on how that goes!
We spent a lot of time out walking around this week, and because the weather was pretty nasty (it´s usually about 2*C, except for the random, FABULOUSLY sunny day this week when it reached 17*C!!!!!) there weren´t many people in the streets to contact, so we went looking for Menos Activos. ´Not much luck there, but we´re going to keep working on the list the Bishop gave us.
F------o has been doing super great. He came to another baptism this weekend and, after a temple tour, explained to us that he really wants to be baptized and knows that it´s what he needs to do, but he´s still holding off on committing. (I don´t think he´s done as we´ve recommended and talked to Heavenly Father about it quite yet...)
We went to a kind of sketchy Ecuadorian food "restaraunt" (If you want legit food from Ecuador here, you have to go to a "Hueca," which is just someone´s house where they sell meals, haha) and it was SO DELICIOUS. I got a super greasy, super delicious plate of rice and chicken and fried bananas and a bunch of other stuff. Mmm.
We did, however, get an unfortunate text message from F------o at 3 in the morning the other night apologizing for falling into temptation again. His phone´s been turned off since then, but I know he´s going to be okay.
Yesterday, Hna Palomino and I discovered that we both felt like we needed to read "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" by Elder Scott during our personal studies. This talk is perfect for people like F------o!
My favorite part is when Elder Scott says:
"The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. He cannot because He knows what it takes to become like Him," however, "whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy." And thank goodness for it!
Our less active buddy, E-----o, is slowly but surely improving (ok, sometimes not so surely...). This last Monday, he called us and told us that he´d watched a 50-minute video of an ex-mormon explaining why the church isn´t true. Selena sent it to him :/ Anyway, he told us to come over, and to come prepared.
It was probably one of the best lessons I´ve ever had. When we left, he was still extremely skeptical, but we did our part in testifying and in teaching the Plan of Salvation (a little mid-lesson revelation from Hna Palomino that allowed the Spirit to testify to him of the truthfulness of what we were saying). Still very doubtful, but he´s been saying lately that he wants to leave his doubts and start fresh, which is a huge step.
As you know, last week was a week of just testifying of the Book of Mormon to people who didn´t want to accept our message. In that setting, it´s always a little tough, and even though I knew for certain that this book was true before, I know now even more certainly for certain, haha.
We´ve been sharing Elder Holland´s talk, "Safety for the Soul," quite a bit this week (I discovered that I can save Conference talks onto my recording device!). As I´m sure you all remember, he shares a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and asks it to be recorded by angels and men as a witness to God that He testified to millions of it´s truthfulness.
So cool!! Shoot, I want everyone in the world to hear this man with undeniable Apostolic authority beating sense into them about this life-altering book. But I guess missionary work would be done a whole lot differently if everyone needed to hear Elder Holland´s witness in order to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, haha. I guess there´s a reason that we have 80,000+ young, uneducated kids out testifying (some trying to do so in a language they´re struggling to learn), instead of 80,000+ elderly theolgians with a lifetime of knowledge to backup every well-phrased point of doctrine that comes out of their mouths.
As we all know, it´s the Holy Ghost that does the teaching, and if we´re doing the best we can, He can testify to the hearts of investigators through gramatically-incorrect gringo-Spanish just as He can testify through Elder Holland´s awesome sermon.
Thank you for the love and the emails and the recordings and the photos! I´m glad you were able to see the photos from Randy Scully (editor: please see Randy's photos in the blog post below) and that you enjoyed the chocolate :) Brad and Kate- Mom and Dad both raved about S&E, but I need to hear about it from you guys! ¡Cuentemen!
And happy 13th, Kate! You are so freaking old! I hope you had a fun birthday :) We were playing some volleyball in the gym of the church this morning for Pday, and I had the other missionaries join me for the little recording (attached). :)
We had transfers again this weekend! Hermana Palomino and I are both not going anywhere, thank goodness! I love her so much. Her goal this transfer is to learn English from me, and my goal is to learn to cook from her. I´ll keep you guys posted on how that goes!
We spent a lot of time out walking around this week, and because the weather was pretty nasty (it´s usually about 2*C, except for the random, FABULOUSLY sunny day this week when it reached 17*C!!!!!) there weren´t many people in the streets to contact, so we went looking for Menos Activos. ´Not much luck there, but we´re going to keep working on the list the Bishop gave us.
F------o has been doing super great. He came to another baptism this weekend and, after a temple tour, explained to us that he really wants to be baptized and knows that it´s what he needs to do, but he´s still holding off on committing. (I don´t think he´s done as we´ve recommended and talked to Heavenly Father about it quite yet...)
We went to a kind of sketchy Ecuadorian food "restaraunt" (If you want legit food from Ecuador here, you have to go to a "Hueca," which is just someone´s house where they sell meals, haha) and it was SO DELICIOUS. I got a super greasy, super delicious plate of rice and chicken and fried bananas and a bunch of other stuff. Mmm.
We did, however, get an unfortunate text message from F------o at 3 in the morning the other night apologizing for falling into temptation again. His phone´s been turned off since then, but I know he´s going to be okay.
Yesterday, Hna Palomino and I discovered that we both felt like we needed to read "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" by Elder Scott during our personal studies. This talk is perfect for people like F------o!
My favorite part is when Elder Scott says:
"The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. He cannot because He knows what it takes to become like Him," however, "whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy." And thank goodness for it!
Our less active buddy, E-----o, is slowly but surely improving (ok, sometimes not so surely...). This last Monday, he called us and told us that he´d watched a 50-minute video of an ex-mormon explaining why the church isn´t true. Selena sent it to him :/ Anyway, he told us to come over, and to come prepared.
It was probably one of the best lessons I´ve ever had. When we left, he was still extremely skeptical, but we did our part in testifying and in teaching the Plan of Salvation (a little mid-lesson revelation from Hna Palomino that allowed the Spirit to testify to him of the truthfulness of what we were saying). Still very doubtful, but he´s been saying lately that he wants to leave his doubts and start fresh, which is a huge step.
As you know, last week was a week of just testifying of the Book of Mormon to people who didn´t want to accept our message. In that setting, it´s always a little tough, and even though I knew for certain that this book was true before, I know now even more certainly for certain, haha.
We´ve been sharing Elder Holland´s talk, "Safety for the Soul," quite a bit this week (I discovered that I can save Conference talks onto my recording device!). As I´m sure you all remember, he shares a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and asks it to be recorded by angels and men as a witness to God that He testified to millions of it´s truthfulness.
So cool!! Shoot, I want everyone in the world to hear this man with undeniable Apostolic authority beating sense into them about this life-altering book. But I guess missionary work would be done a whole lot differently if everyone needed to hear Elder Holland´s witness in order to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, haha. I guess there´s a reason that we have 80,000+ young, uneducated kids out testifying (some trying to do so in a language they´re struggling to learn), instead of 80,000+ elderly theolgians with a lifetime of knowledge to backup every well-phrased point of doctrine that comes out of their mouths.
As we all know, it´s the Holy Ghost that does the teaching, and if we´re doing the best we can, He can testify to the hearts of investigators through gramatically-incorrect gringo-Spanish just as He can testify through Elder Holland´s awesome sermon.
We´ve still been reading almost every morning with Andrea, and there´s been a HUGE change in her since I first met her! She used to honestly want nothing to do with us and would reluctantly and quietly listen to our message anytime we showed up. Now, she´s always excited to see us, super talkative, and straight-up explained the Book of Mormon and bore a powerful testimony of it to her two friends that showed up when we were reading together on Friday!
One of them, Alex (tattoed, pierced, and Buddhist), came to church with the three of us yesterday!! I taught her and Hna Palomino how to make cupcakes on Saturday, too. We got a little messy, but it was super fun :)
I was super excited to get to teach English class again this Wednesday, and I got to teach the Noche de Hogar directly afterwards using the talk Mom sent me. I love how clear it is, when you look for the directions in the New Testament, that this church really is exactly how the Lord wants His church to be!! My favorite part of this talk was this, which explains exactly what we´ve been trying to convey to people that have serious doubts about their testimony, like E-----o:
"Suffice it to say, I can live with some human imperfections, even among prophets of God—that is to be expected in mortal beings. I can live with some alleged scientific findings contrary to the Book of Mormon; time will correct those. And I can live with some seeming historical anomalies; they are minor in the total landscape of truth.
"But I cannot live without the doctrinal truths and ordinances restored by Joseph Smith, I cannot live without the priesthood of God to bless my family, and I cannot live without knowing my wife and children are sealed to me for eternity. That is the choice we face—a few unanswered questions on one hand versus a host of doctrinal certainties and the power of God on the other. And for me, and I hope for you, the choice is an easy one and a rational one."
I´m so grateful for the blessings that come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like Elder Callister said, I can live with a few uncertainties along the way, but I can´t imagine living without the Book of Mormon or the knowledge that I´m sealed to you guys forever.
Have a great week!
Love,
Hna Grover
No comments:
Post a Comment