Email 39 - "FOR SURE getting baptized this Saturday!!"

Madrid Temple Grounds

A Noche de Hogar that we had last night. That´s Rosanna and my comp to the side, Marcelino (an investigator of ours), Carlota (recent convert of the Elders. Sweetest lady ever), Elders Helske/ Mullins, and then me and a kid named Noslen who accompanies all of the missionaries all the time because he´s getting ready to go on a mission himself :)

"Enjoying my first Spain milkshake at a 'classic American diner' haha. ´Wasn´t too bad :)"

Hello family!

Crazy things happenin´ back home! Cute swan babies being born... Kate getting into jazz band... crazy scores on the Toy Story ride at Disney... flashbacks to young family Grover days... and somethin´ Mike´s working on just might rank up there too ;)

We´ve had a really packed week. And this week should be pretty interesting, seeing as it´s "Semana Santa." We´re actually not allowed to be anywhere near the activities they´ve got going on, haha. They get pretty intense with their parades and I´ve heard it´s actually a little frightening... They take down the statues of the Savior that they have in their Cathedrals and carry them on their backs, and stuff like that. The stake´s doing a concert on Saturday, though, so we´ll see if we can find some people to bring to that :)

As you know, we´re teaching a lot of people, but here are the ones we´re focusing on:

S---y - he´s FOR SURE getting baptized this Saturday!! We´ve got the service planned out and everything. This guy is golden, and I´ve loved teaching him. After all of this time working together, Hermana Palomino and I finally have the chance to witness someone make this covenant with the Lord. So exciting!!!

J---e - he´s an 11-yr-old investigator that the other Hnas were teaching. After teaching him, I´ve decided that teaching baptismal-age children in absolutely my favorite. Especially in this case, because his mom (who has a very deep testimony of the Gospel, but is just recently returning to activity) is right there supporting and teaching him along the way. She also makes us marvelous food, haha. The only tricky thing is that she has 3 jobs and can´t meet very often.

F------o - Good ole F------o. He´s so, sooooo ready for baptism, but he´s still scared. He´s been having nightmares that he´s baptized, in the church, and then falls back into his alcohol addiction. Poor guy. We´re doing absolutely everything possible to help him, and if things go according to plan, we might just have another baptism this weekend (haha, for how many weeks have we been saying that now?)

Also worthy of note:

R-----o and V-------a came to church yesterday! They nervously asked questions about everything from why the deacons put a hand behind their back as they pass the sacrament, to what the word "temple" means, to why I have a bookmark in my hymnal. But they stayed all three hours! And we got to go back to YW to be with Valentina :)

A----o has some major doubts about Thomas S. Monson (we watched a talk with him last week) so that´s keeping him from progressing. He believes so firmly in everything else, though, that we´re not too concerned. We´ll keep working with him on that :)

Needless to say, we´ve been busy. And the weather´s been ridiculous! It keeps changing! It´s getting hot, too. Should be interesting...

Anyway, I´ve been listening to the Conference sessions that I missed on my recording device (I´ll probably print out some of the ones you sent me, Mom. Thanks so much for organizing all that!), and I LOVED the Priesthood Session!! I loved what President Uchtdorf had to say about the ongoing restoration of the church.

The church wasn´t restored, it´s being restored. And we´re a part of that restoration!

´Definitely gives a new outlook on the work we´re doing, huh.

President Uchtdorf encouraged us the think about what we want our contribution to be to the most significant period in history- as we prepare for the Second Coming of Christ.

My companion had to stay home sick on Friday (she´s better now), which was a blessing in disguise for two reasons: I got to reorganize the whole apartment, and I got to have some more study time :) At the end of the day, we watched "The Testaments" together. Such a classic. I´ve seen that movie so many times, and I´ll never forget the first time I saw it when I was little and we were visiting Utah. 

This time, though, the very last lines that show up at the end of the movie caught my attention: "The Messiah has come, and will come again."

We really ought to be filled with the same hope and faith that filled the people we read about in the Book of Mormon as they awaited the coming of the Savior. We´re preparing for His Second Coming!

...I love Mondays and getting a chance to look back on the week. There´s always some kind of theme to what I was studying, haha.

Anyway, I hope we can all keep that in mind and avoid "sleeping through the Restoration." :) I know we´re a part of something super great, and I know Heavenly Father´s pleased by the way we´re doing what we can to return to Him as a family :)

Love as always!!!

Have a great week :)

-Hna Grover

P.S.

I´m sure I´ve said it several times, but it makes me so happy to see pics of you all hanging out. That´s so, so awesome.

I´m glad you´re getting to brush up on some French, too! As we were walking up to the temple grounds the other day, a YSA stopped us and started talking to me in English. He was on his way to the temple, and he was visiting from France! So fun.

Thanks for the updates!

Love,

Chrissy