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 :)