Email 37 - Chrissy Called To Be STL (Sister Training Leader)

"This is what just about all of our area looks like :)"

 My poor finger... 

but it was worth it! ;)

"One thing that poorer families eat when they don´t have much, or what they eat as a snack, is arroz con huevo (rice with fried egg). I don´t know exactly why, but we all LOVE it, and Hna Palomino gets a kick out of Americans eating it, so she makes it for us all the time, haha."

More goodbyes! Again! And a shot of our district :)

"I ran into Hna Fuller!"

Hi family!!

Thank you for the emails :) :) And I LOVED everybody´s pictures! Brad and Kate look so OLD! I haven´t even been gone that long!

It was another solid week to finish off the transfer- and Hna Palomino and I aren´t going anywhere! I´m stoked to have another 6 weeks with her.

Unfortunately, we are losing our sweet piso-companions, Hna Hansen and Hna Thunborg. They´re the best, and it´s really hard to see them both head off to other areas, especially because they´re closing their area, so we won´t be getting more Hnas living with us :( We also sent our District Leader off, and we had an Elder finish his mission and head home to Mexico. Crazy!

Okay. I´m gonna tell you right now, it is reeeally hard to type right now, haha, because, on Friday, I almost cut off the top part of my left pointer finger! Definitely a mission miracle right there, because considering the way I cut it and everything, it should´ve been sliced right off. Gross, huh?

Thankfully, I live(d) with two nursing students who took fabulous care of my weak-stomached self, President took a look at it and said I don´t need stiches or anything, and I was able to avoid getting a single drop of blood in the cookie batter I was making! (Haha, yes, I cut myself with one of the crazy handmixers they have here)

Good stuff. It doesn´t hurt or anything anymore, it just looks nasty.

In other news, President Jackson extended the assignment of Sister Training Leader to me for this next transfer. That basically entails monthly meetings at the mission home, teaching in zone meetings, and exchanges with all of the other Hnas in the zone. That should be a very big learning experience, haha, because all of the other Hnas have a lot more experience in the field. I´m excited to get to work more with President, though!

Alrightie. Updates.

F------o is still not baptized. He´s reading, praying, can answer the baptismal interview questions like a champ, and we´ve taught him everything we and everyone in our district can think of, so now it´s just between him and the Lord. He´s just convinced he´s not ready yet. Hna Palomino and I feel like this is just a trial of patience for the two of us, and we´re confident he´ll get baptized this transfer.

We actually have quite a few potential baptisms. S---y and A----o are both progressing splendidly :) We had told S---y that we wanted him to meet the bishop this week, so he shows up to church and starts looking for the bishop to meet him, haha. He´s very prepared to be a member of this church.

Have I told you about R-----o and V-------a? R-----o´s from Colombia, he´s a single guy in his late 30s with a twelve-yr-old daughter, V-------a, who´s handicapped physically so she walks with crutches. She also acts like she´s 25, and I love her SO much! They came to a baptism on Saturday, and loved the welcome and the spirit they felt there. All of the other missionaries fell in love with V-------a and her sassy attitude right away.

R-----o´s had a really tough life, and he has major issues with trust, which is a big impeding factor on his faith. He´s had a lot of experiences where something appears to be really great, he trusts in it, and then things go terribly wrong. He´d just gotten out of a really bad relationship that went like that when we found him. We´re trying to help him find the faith he needs, and it was really cool introducing him to President Jackson when he and Sister Jackson showed up to the baptism :) He basically confirmed everything we´d been teaching in just a few words. So great.

I´m also not sure I´ve told you about R---n and M---a J--é. They´re a couple we were teaching a while ago, and we decided to try again with them, so we stopped by yesterday and met some of their friends. While we explained the Restoration, Hna Palomino pulled out a Book of Mormon and started explaining what it was. One of the friends there, B---a, snatched it and said, "another testament?? Like a second Bible? That´s awesome! (to her husband) You have one of these, right?"

In all my time here in Spain, I have never seen a reaction like that to the Book of Mormon- but that´s exactly how it should be!

Our ward mission leader once put it this way: If I love astronomy, and I have a book that I absolutely love about astronomy, I´m not going to reject another book about astronomy if a friend offers it to me. I´m not going to say, "woah now, I already have a book on astronomy. Yes, I want to learn more about it, but not if it comes from any other book than the one I already have. Now go away."

Haha.

Also, A----a came back from vacation! She went to Valencia with her boyfriend to visit her family over there. We´re still going over everyday to read with her, and on Friday, we walked in and her boyfriend was there!!! He was SO nice to us, and even sat in to listen as we read 2 Nephi 4- which ended up being PERFECT. He´d been telling us how he hasn´t taken a vacation in years, and how, now that he´s had some time off, he´s realized how happy it makes him, how much he loves it, and how much he needs it. During the lesson, I told him that the Gospel is the same. He may not realize it now, but if he gives it a try, he´ll see how happy it makes him, how much he loves it, and how much he needs it. He seemed to like that idea :)

It´s so interesting to see how the Gospel can still click for people who don´t know anything about God. There´s so much about the Gospel, and so much that we have- and sometimes we just don´t even realize how blessed we are.

We´ve shared the talk, "Your Wonderful Journey Home," a few times this week, and for anyone that hasn´t read it, I highly recommend it! President Uchtdorf explains this all so well; that we knew all of this at one point.

"You knew with absolute certainty that God existed because you saw and heard Him. You knew Jesus Christ, who would become the Lamb of God. You had faith in Him. And you knew that your destiny was not to stay in the security of your premortal home. As much as you loved that eternal sphere, you knew you wanted and needed to embark on a journey. You would depart from the arms of your Father, pass through a veil of forgetfulness, receive a mortal body, and learn and experience things that hopefully would help you grow to become more like Father in Heaven and return to His presence.

In that sacred place, surrounded by those you knew and loved, the great question on your lips and in your heart must have been “Will I return safely to my heavenly home?”

...Everyone you see around you... was valiant in the premortal world. That unassuming and ordinary-looking person sitting next to you may have been one of the great figures you loved and admired in the sphere of spirits. You may have been such a role model yourself!

Of one thing you can be certain: every person you see—no matter the race, religion, political beliefs, body type, or appearance—is family. The [person] you look at has the same Heavenly Father as you, and [they] left His loving presence just as you did, eager to come to this earth and live so that [they] could one day return to Him.

However, [they] might feel alone, just as you sometimes do. [They] may even occasionally forget the purpose of her journey. Please remind [them] through your words and your actions that [they are] not alone. We are here to help each other."

And after reading, over and over again, the talk, "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox that Mom sent me this week, I know that our Savior has done everything possible to give us the chance to come home. He complied with ALL that His Father sent Him here to do. All of it. 100%. He did it so that we could be cleansed so that we would be able to go home, and changed so that we would want to be there. (Highly recommend that talk, too. Thanks, Mom!!)

I know that this Gospel is the path He´s laid out for us. I know it! We´re doing all we can to help these people accept it and follow it, but it´s all up to them. I´m really, really grateful to already be on this path with my awesome family!

I love you guys so much!

Have another stupendous week, and then don´t forget to write to me and tell me about it! ;)

Love,

Hna Chrissy-liss

Email 36 - "Another Marvelous Week Here in Madrid!"

The pretty new flowers on the temple grounds

The sunrise the other day from our window :)

Story time: Hermana Palmino is very, very scared of spiders. During studies the other day, there was a big one up on the ceiling behind her. All it took was me looking up and saying, "um, I don´t want to scare you, but..." for her to run screaming from the room, hahaha. I attached a tissue to the end of a broom and Hermana Thunborg and I had fun sending that sucker to Hades while Hermana Hansen and Hermana Palomino hid. 

Afterwards, I said, "Pero, Hermana, este tipo de araña no le puede hacer nada!", and she said, "Si, puede. Puede matarme por el susto que me da!" Hahaha.

Dinner with Glenda (one of the super sweet, sassy members in our ward)

´Gotta love Relief Society. This reminded me of The RM. The teacher handed out homemade, crocheted toilet-paper covers at the end of her lesson. Love it.

The pumpkin bread I made today :) The other Hnas came home singing your praises again, Mom, for the tasty recipes. Hermana Hansen said, "You come from one of those baking familes, don´t you? Mmm, yep, you can definitely tell." :)

A random group picture with a handful of the people that showed up for the Joseph Smith video.

These are the weird benches that they have in the Metro stations.

 Our faces when we realized that we reached our weekly goals again!

Helloooo family! And friends! And anyone else that may read this!

It was another marvelous week here in Madrid. Even though we thought it´d be impossible with some of the random, hard things that popped up this week, Heavenly Father proved to us that He´s the one in control here, and it´s always possible to reach the crazy goals you set. And we reached them! Again!

We had a lot of moments where we were being guided by the Spirit without realizing it. Here are a couple examples:

1. We had 30 minutes until our next lesson, and we reeeally wanted to fit another lesson into the day. As we walked down the street, I saw a guy that I didn´t feel great about, so we crossed the street to continue on the other side. About thirty seconds later, we ran into an investigator (Y--i) that we´ve been trying to meet with for over a month now! She was stoked to see us and we sat right down on a bench and had an awesome lesson.

2. One of our appointments fell through, and, once again, we were looking for a lesson. Hna Palomino and I both needed a bathroom, so we decided to stop by R-----a´s (menos activa) for a rest stop (have I mentioned before that public restrooms don´t exist in Spain?). As we entered her house, she opened up and started crying- saying that she´d just got off the phone with her daughter (in Peru) after having to tell her that she and her baby couldn´t come live with her because she knows her daughter won´t work to support herself, and she doesn´t have the means to support all of them. She told us that we were an answer to her prayers, because she just had no idea what to do. We prayed together and shared some scriptures, and walked to our next lesson full of gratitude for the Lord´s guidance.

More updates on our investigators:

-F------a dropped us, and that´s always a really hard thing to accept. Hna Palomino and I both feel like it´s not her time, though, and I feel very assured that she´s going to accept the next opportunity that comes around. 

-Soooo, Spanish is Sunny´s 3rd language, so it turned out to be a surprise for him when he discovered that the baptismal date we´ve been talking about was for him, hahaha. Workin´ on that. 

-F------o is a stud. He accepted the tithing lesson like a champ (we were a little worried about that one because of some false perceptions he´d gotten from some coworkers about the Church), and he told a girl that he´d go watch fútbol with her on Friday if she promised to come to church with him next Sunday! We know he´s prepared for his baptism on Saturday, but he´s still reeally nervous. Prayers for him, please.

-A----o is a newbie in his thirties from Venezuela, and he reminds me a lot of Carmelo from Gijón. He´s very, very prepared. He loves what the Book of Mormon teaches about the Fall of Adam and Eve, and seemed grateful for some clarification in the doctrines of resurrection vs reincarnation. He also told us that, a few months ago, he was looking for an opportunity to be "re-baptized." Perfect! Haha ;) He has a date set for next weekend.

And yes, we had some fun things going on with the eating appointments with the members all week. My very wise companion refused to explain to me what we were eating each time until after leaving the appointment, which I was especially thankful for after eating a full plate of kidneys, and again after another appointment where we ate pig stomach. Mmmm.

Among some of the other fun things that happened this week is a full room of English class students! Woohoo! And a youth activity that we had where we all paired up as companions with the youth, and one of the most hilarious things I´ve ever witnessed:

As we walked out of an apartment building, we passed by a bar where a bajillion people were watching a soccer game- and Madrid had just scored. A man came running out of the bar, and just started screaming "iSi! iSi! iYaaaah! iToma BAR-CE-LON-A! iYAAAH!" he was practically turning himself inside-out, punching and kicking the air and pumping his arms up and down. He kept going for at least two minutes like that, before exhausting himself and entering back into the bar. I wish I could have recorded it, haha, but I know I´ll definitely never forget it!

Anyway I got Mom´s letter this week, which inspired a week-long study of the Atonement. I´m not even sure I can put into words the feelings I´ve had about what the Savior did for us, but I loved what Mom said about the Family Home Evening you guys had last week. It´s amazing to think that because Jesus Christ suffered as He did, He knows what we´re going through when we sin. And, because of His perfect love, He doesn´t want us to have to suffer the pain that comes from our sins. He wants to forgive us, and it´s when we trust in that love that we can know we really have been forgiven. 

It´s been SO cool watching the Atonement in action during my mission. I´ve seen people feel strengthened in the very instant that they turn to their Savior, and then watched as they keep working at it, improving, and reaching sanctification. Such was definitely the case with Frank, and I´ve seen it in action in many, many, maybe less-significant ways as well.

Like, for example:

-An alcoholic drinking orange juice

-A less-active walking into the chapel

-An overweight guy going for a run

-An athiest on the temple grounds

-A Catholic reading the Book of Mormon

-A (previously) picky-eater eating kidneys and pig stomach ;)

-And a homeless woman finding refuge in the scriptures

I love what Elder Craig A. Cardon says about this:

"If we exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the enobling power of His Atonement strengthens us in our moment of need, and His redeeming power sanctifiesus as we put off the natural man. This brings hope to all, especially to those who feel that recurring human weakness is beyond the Savior´s willingness to help and save."

We can always change and improve!!

And, as President Ucthdorf said, "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now."

I love being a missionary!! We watched the Joseph Smith movie (have you seen the new version with his mom narrarating?) in the chapel with investigators from all the missionaries in the district, and by the end of it, I was feeling more grateful than ever for the nametag I´ve got on and all that it represents. 

I hope you all have a great week :) Keep workin´ hard at all you´re doing!

I love you guys so much!

Love,

Hna Grover

Editor:  excerpt from personal email from Chrissy regarding the passing last Wednesday of dear Brother Ron Reardigan:

I got Mom´s message about Ron, and I know that there is no welcome that could ever replace "Hiya, Chrisseee!" and a big, wet kiss from Ron Reardigan upon entering the chapel every Sunday :) But I also know, just as you and Mom have said, that he´s finally able to rest and he´s very happy where he is. I imagine he received a welcome upon passing through the veil that pays him back for all of the welcomes he gave in the chapel, and more. What a great guy :)

Email 35 - "This might just have been the very best week of my life."

"I had the happiest, most fulfilling moment of my life as I watched Elvyn (above) walk into the temple for his first time. Just before going in, he shook my hand and said, 'Hermana, era por usted que me bauticé.' (I was baptized because of you)"

Members from Gijón!!! 

"Here are some fun things we see all over the place here: that pig meat I told you about (see those feet? gnarly), the old people exercise parks...

...and the door to the woman´s bathroom in the malls, haha."

"Spending medio día with Hermana Palomino´s best buds...

...and me and my sweet comp :)"

Hey family,

This might just have been the very best week of my life. I´ve never worked so hard at anything before!! Hermana Palomino and I set some pretty crazy goals, and even though we were running around and praying in the streets to find people to teach to reach the number of lessons we´d set, we reached it! And Heavenly Father put SO many prepared people in our path. 

As we look back, we´re still learning from the rough patches we had this transfer, and it´s been really cool seeing how Hna Palomino is being able to counsel her family with some really hard things now that she´s passed through some trials and we´re seeing miracles.

Like I said, we taught a lot of people this week. We continue working with F------o, who still won´t accept a baptismal date, but every time we meet, there´s a new, small change in him for the better. Every time. And A----a´s doing great, and she´s going on vacation this week but we all have a goal to read the chapters in the Book of Mormon that we would´ve read together.

S---y came to church for his first time yesterday and got to hear a kind of crazy talk on the literal nature of the law of consecration that ran waaaay overtime, haha, so we´ll see what he thought about that. We´ve been able to meet with him more often, and he always asks if we can meet on the temple grounds. I definitely don´t blame him for that!

And have I told you that we´re teaching a Dora and a Diego? Haha. Diego, and his brother, Fernando, are youth in our ward, but we´re teaching their Mom, Dora, who´s never been baptized even though all 4 of her children are active members. Workin´ on that. 

We also taught a lady named F------a twice this week, and she´s ADORABLE. She´s a Catholic from the Dominican Republic, and she´s very determined to find out for herself if what we´re teaching her is true. The biggest issue we´re facing with her is her respectful but very athiest boyfriend whom she lives with.

Anyway, lots of newbies. Not a single medio día spent at home, and we have eating appointments planned for EVERYDAY this week! Woohoo! Hurray for no grocery shopping! Haha.

We spent the entire day on Saturday next to the temple, and it was incredible. Hermana Palomino´s ward in Elche came up and she got permission for us to spend medio día with her friends. So fun!

We planned temple tours for the whole day so we could be over there when the GIJON BRANCH CAME!!!!

I had the happiest, most fulfilling moment of my life as I watched Elvyn walk into the temple for his first time. Just before going in, he shook my hand and said, "Hermana, era por usted que me bauticé." (I was baptized because of you) 

Remember that part in the cartoon version of The Grinch where his heart grows so big so fast that it breaks the scale? Yeah, that´s pretty much what happened.

I was also really touched by the reactions of the handful of Gijón members that came to the temple when they saw me. Those wonderful people are like another family for me, and I can´t even tell you how happy it made me to see them!

And as we gave temple tours to some of our investigators and to some of the members that were there from wards far away, I was reminded of all the times we´ve visited church sites and met the missionaries there. I had a lot of fun being on the other side :)

It was just a good, solid week of trying to help people feel the love that the Savior has for them. Hermana Palomino and I have been feeling that love super strongly all week long, and we´ve been sharing 3 Nephi chapter 17 with a lot of people. When you read that chapter, there´s just no denying the love Jesus Christ has for each of us. I love imagining myself being there, wanting Him to stay a little longer, and seeing how He stayed, healed everyone in need of healing, blessed the little kids, and ministered individually to 2,000 people.

The cool part, is that directly after that beautiful experience, He shows these people and the rest of the world how to always feel that love- even when He´s not there personally to give it to us. In chapter 18, He administers the sacrament. That´s how we can feel His individual, powerful love for all of us. As we partake of the sacrament, one by one, we´re filled with His love before going out and tackling another week. 

He wants us to be happy, and He really wants us to always be receptive to the love that´s always available to us. And He promises us that we´ll be founded upon His Rock, if we´ll just accept Him and try to do as He´s taught. (3 Nephi 18:12, Helaman 5:12)

I sure love you guys, and I love being a missionary. I miss you guys, but I wouldn´t rather be anywhere else in the world right now!

Love you all!!!

-Hna Grover

Email 34 - "I don´t think I´ve ever been happier to be a missionary!"

"A proud moment of Hermana Palomino´s as I cut zuccini the way she taught me."

"Raw pig leg.  Mmmm.  They prepare it by cutting if off the pig, covering it in salt, and sticking it in the ground for a couple of years.  It smells horendous, but tastes delicious.  Haha.  iVive España!"

Elder Malan´s birthday, haha. His new convert makes amazing cakes, and they agreed to smash it in his face. Good stuff. (He´s the one that was in the MTC with J-Bob (Editor:  J-Bob is Elder Jace Robert Ellsworth, Chrissy's cousin, currently serving in the Spain, Malaga Mission). They´ve also had the same girlfriend, haha.)

"This is a sign in one of the Metro stops."

"Fat kid moment," as Hermana Hansen calls it, with some ice cream on the couch.

"A new weakness...dulce de leche pastries. Mmmm."

"My first smoothie in 7 months at the new frozen yogurt place! (doesn´t even compare with Jamba, but hey, it´s something :)"

"Medio día together for Elder Peña´s birthday :)"

Hiya family!

Thanks for the emails!! Looks like there´s lots of good stuff happenin´ over in the States. 

This was a GREAT week. Lots of very, very good things happening here in Madrid. As you know, we had a lot of tough stuff going on earlier in the transfer, but we´re starting to see the miracles that always come after the trial of faith :D

Honestly, nothing monumental happened, but this was the first week we´ve had together where, in almost every moment possible, we had a lesson. We worked really hard, and I don´t think I´ve ever been happier to be a missionary!

And it´s been SUNNY! The weather has been so, so nice. And it hasn´t been absurdly windy like it was before, haha. As someone that has to wear a skirt all day everyday, that´s definitely been a tender mercy, haha. I´m told, however, by everyone and their grandmother, that the summer heat here is diabolic- so I´m not really looking forward to that.

Anhyoo, F------o didn´t drink all week! In fact, he is doing stupendously. We called him on Saturday night to see how he was doing, and he told us that he´d gone out with his friends, but as soon as they started offering him drinks, he left, went home, and started getting ready for church the next day. Awh yeah.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, as we later found out, he was sitting in his house super bored when a bunch of his friends (beers in hand) arrived at his house. He left to try to get away from it, and then his cousin called to invite him to watch fútbol and drink. He told him he needed to make a call first.

That´s when he slipped into a locotorio and called us to come find him. He spent the rest of the day walking around with us and we had a lot of fun bringing him to appointments, haha :) He still doesn´t have a baptismal date, and I´m worried that he´s going to get comfortable where he is- always saying that someday when he´s stronger, he´ll be baptized.  Workin´ on that!

And our African buddy, S---y, has a baptismal date!! The 29th :) He´s so humble and wants so badly to follow the Savior and be able to go to the Celestial Kingdom (he was a big fan of the Plan of Salvation lesson). When he gets baptized, you betcha it´s for the right reasons!

A----a´s still doing super great. She came with us to teach a single-dad who´s really skeptical and doesn´t seem to think the great stuff the Gospel promises could possibly be real. She bore the sweetest testimony ever about how the church is changing everything about her for the better and about how much happier she is as she´s becoming active again.

We also FINALLY got in touch with a bunch of the less-actives from  the list that the bishop gave us a million years ago, and they all want us to meet more often. (If you haven´t noticed yet, I really really loved being a missionary this week, haha).

And the highlight was definitely getting to finally go into the temple on Wednesday. I got to feel that peace and complete tranquility that comes from the absolute separation from the world inside the Lord´s house. I hope to never take for granted the opportunity to go into the temple when I get home from the mission!

One thing I had pointed out to me over and over this week, even in the temple, was that I really need to forget about myself completely while I´m here on the mission (like what we heard last week about being consecrated missionaries). I´ve been looking forward to going into the temple for months, and the moment we walked in, a small Brazilian woman asked me, in English, if I could please help her because she didn´t speak any Spanish and was super nervous. It was very humbling to see how much comfort she took in basically nothing more than my willingness to help- I didn´t do much of anything else. I think it was Heavenly Father´s way of reminding me that going to the temple isn´t just for recharging my spiritual batteries and giving me more help and guidance from above, but to serve others- the living and the dead.

I kept learning that lesson over and over this week. Once again in the zone training, as one of the zone leaders pointed out that even though it´s neat and powerful and important to study profound doctrine, it´s going to do much more for our investigators and our overall purpose as missionaries if we spend more time studying Preach My Gospel, and less time studying things like Jesus the Christ.

So Hermana Palomino and I have started focusing our studies on improving our lessons. I love teaching with her!

I was studying about how to help people accept the Book of Mormon, and I had a lot of fun reading the testimonies of the inspired men who wrote that awesome book.

The more I read the Book of Mormon as a missionary, the more I feel like these people are sitting in front of me with little black name tags, trying to help me understand the Gospel, haha.

And these guys sure don´t beat around the bush when they testify. They know that what they´re teaching is true. No doubt about it!

Check out what Moroni says: (Sometimes I want to say something like this to people we teach....)

27 And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust?

28 I declare these things unto the fulfilling of the prophecies. And behold, they shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the everlasting God; and his word shall hiss forth from generation to generation.

29 And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true. 

34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.

And then what Nephi says in his testimony: 

10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. 

11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness. 

12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.

13 And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come.

14 And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the Jews, and also my words, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God, behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day.

15 For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen.

iSuper fuerte!

I wish I could testify like these spiritual giants, but I´m so grateful for the inspiration they all had to able to write the life-altering things they wrote. And in less than a month, we get to hear from our modern-day spiritual giants in General Conference! Woohoo!

Also, on Saturday, Hermana Palomino´s ward from Elche is coming up to the temple and she gets to see her best friend! AND the branch from Gijón is coming!!!! Pretty sure my my heart´ll explode if I get to see Elvyn and Frank in front of the temple.

Anyway, I´m a happy camper. I´m reeeally tired, but it´s the kind of tired I want to be. We´re working hard :)

Thanks for the prayers as always! You guys are the best :)

Love you more than I can tell you!!

-Hermana Grover

PS- I did better this week with snapping pictures, haha. And here´s a little recording.

Oh, looks like we´re going to finish up later today. More pics to come! Maybe one that´s a bit more flattering than me trying to eat raw pork, haha. ;)

Be back soon!

Email 33 - "Wherever You Go, Go With All Your Heart." :)

Here´s Hermana Brooke Shelton from my BYU ward! 

A taste of the really cool grafitti that´s all over the place here.

Hello family!

I´m glad you got to see a little clip of my life here in Madrid through the Delaps. It was so fun to see someone from home and get updates on the families in the ward. :) Hermana Palomino was grateful when she discovered that they speak Spanish, too, haha.

Thank you so much for the letters you sent over with them!! That´s always the best thing ever. And I loved the articles Dad sent. If only we could implement some sort of universal policy that everyone had to read those before being able to comment on our beliefs, haha. Members and nonmembers alike... ;)

Mom, that´s so cool that you got to meet Michael Wilcox!! That was nice of him to sit so he didn´t tower over you in the picture, hahaha. Loved the rest of those shots, too. That one of B-rad, Kate and the Brodrick trio is awesome.

Anyhoo, F------o had a really good week. We had a Noche de Hogar with him and two members and it was pretty dang perfect. All of the comments from the members addressed a lot of the concerns that F------o´s been having. They talked about how he´ll never feel alone as a member of the ward, that even though it´ll be hard, there´ll always be people there to help, and they talked to him about the Holy Ghost and the help that will be to him. So great!

The bummer is that he slipped up yet again this weekend. We always try to make plans with him on Friday and Saturday nights so he doesn´t have a chance to even be tempted to go out and drink, but this Saturday, he slipped up while out at lunch with some friends. Unfortunately, that means we´ll be changing his baptismal date, but I´m confident that he´s going to be okay.

A----a´s rockin´ it and coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon like a pro. We had a Noche de Hogar with her and her parents on Saturday night, and after sharing our message, J---e, her dad, asked if we could share another one! Haha. We also enjoyed Mom´s brownie recipe again and played a very watered-down version of Grover Charades. I´ve never seen those three laugh so hard before. :)

Friday was Carnival! All I know about that is that everyone wears costumes in the streets and then they have a parade/dance party that night. It was fun street contacting that day for sure. I haven´t been carrying my camera around with me lately, and I definitely regretted it that night, haha.

We also had a neat lesson with two African guys, S---y and F------n. As we invited them to accept baptism, F------n laughed and said to S---y, "I knew it! I told you they were going to ask you about baptism!" and then turned to us and said, "he´s prepared. S---y´s ready to be baptized."

They both then asked a bajillion questions about the process of preparation. All of their questions were the "I want to believe this" kind, and not the "I can´t believe this because of this" kind. Love that. It´s always tough getting in touch with them, so we´ll see how things go with them this week.

Oh, and we had another eating appointment this week! We ate with a outspoken, Dominican, returned-missionary and her two teenagers. I love Dominicans. And I really love their greasy, yummy food.

Wednesday was by far the best day this week. Elder Teixeira and his wife came to do our mission tour!! Three of the zones near/ in Madrid got together (yep, still haven´t had a single meeting with the whole mission. Is that weird?) and I got to see Elder Alhovuori, Hermana Fuller, and Hermana Shelton (she was in my ward at BYU!).

Anyway, I learned a LOT during the 6 hours we spent there in the chapel. Elder Teixeira has a really neat presence, an uplifting sense of humor, and he speaks English with a hint of a New Jersey-type accent, haha. He had us all come up and shake his hand and meet him before beginning the meeting.

The General Authorities are very wise, very inspired men. I learned a lot during the discussions he led, and the message that kept coming to mind was to be a consecrated missionary. To give all I´ve got to the 18 month-opportunity to wake up each morning and be a sister missionary.

Hermana Jackson focused her talk on that and explained how every conscious thought and effort needs to be focused on the work. I love the quote she shared from Confuscious (sp?):

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." :)

And the main message from Elder Teixeira was to put our missionary purpose into action, and he gave us something new to try- with the promise that if we embrace it, we will transform our area and quadruple our teaching pool within an transfer. Sounds great to me!

He told us to ask our investigators to think for a moment about who they would like us to pray for as we begin our lesson. He told us to pay attention to the promptings that come during the prayer that follows, and then suggest to the investigator the help for this person that the Spirit has revealed. He said we can explain a specific way in which the church/ missionaries can help the investigator´s friend or family member. We should try to meet the person/ pass their number to missionaries nearby within the next couple of days, and then you´ve got a new investigator AND someone to help your principle investigator along in their first few steps of conversion.

We had a lesson with A----a directly after that meeting, and we prayed with her for an inactive friend of hers who, after years, is still really struggling with the loss of her mom.

Hermana Palomino and I both felt that we needed to recover the Plan of Salvation to help A----a feel better equipped when comforting her friend. As we started, J---e walked in! We´ve been trying to share the Plan of Salvation with him for weeks!!

It was such a miracle. We´re definitely going to put this idea of Elder Teixeira´s into practice more often.

Among other things, Elder Teixeira also spoke for about ten minutes about the importance of learning English. (I was really glad that that´s something we´re already working on, because that would have been a very guilty moment if not!) So my comp is more pumped than ever to learn. :)

I love how we get to have meetings like these as missionaries, but I also know it´s all meaningless if we don´t change anything. Like what it says in Moroni 4:10, "If you believe all these things see that you do them."

There´s always something we can do to change and improve!

Oh, and on Wednesday, after walking past that beautiful place almost everyday, I finally get to go into the temple!!!

Have a great week, folks! I love you guys :)

-Hna Grover

PS- I haven´t been doing very good about taking pictures... but here´s Brooke Shelton from my BYU ward and a taste of the really cool grafitti that´s all over the place here. :)  And a quick little recording :)

That´s all I´ve got for now!

Love you tons!!