Email 45 - In the Canary Islands "Everyone's NICE. Like Everyone!"

Hey, family!

Okay, here´s a little more about where I´m serving right now:

-No one pronounces their "s" sounds here. They just kind of trail off on plural words and any other word ending with that sound. I´m very glad I´m here AFTER becoming comfortable with the language, haha. It´s really not hard at all to understand, though.

-Everyone´s NICE. Like, everyone. Even when they really don´t want to talk to us. They´re just all really chill. It´s like they all know they´re living in paradise or something.

-It´s not hot here like they told me it´d be.

-Members feed us always. But THEY LET US CHOOSE OUR OWN PORTIONS!!!! Praises on high, mah friends.

-It´s not quite like Africa, Kate, haha. It has everything I need. I´m actually seeing more PB here than I did on the Peninsula ;) But thanks for watchin´ out for me!

-´Lots of homeless folks.

-It´s almost always really cloudy where we are. And it´s kind of desert-y too. In most parts, if you imagine Las Vegas with a beach, you´ve got Las Palmas :)

Right now I´m on another island, Tenerife, and it´s just as gorgeous. It´s a reeeally rare case that we travel from island to island, because it´s a 3 hour boat ride to get anywhere. So we always do the monthly zone trainings on Skype. But every six months, the President and the Assistants come down, and we have zone conference- and I was lucky enough to come here just in time!

So we woke up absurdly early, took a boat (´didn´t get sea sick!! ...Hna Caballero wasn´t so lucky, haha), and we´ve spent all day playing sports with the other missionaries from other islands. President Jackson doesn´t hesitate to get right in there and play, too. I was playing basketball against him today, and he was rockin´ it, haha. I got to see some good mission buddies of mine that I haven´t seen since my Gijón days :D

We´re still getting used to teaching in a trio, but we´re doing pretty wonderfully. Hna Irigoyen is very eager to please, and she´s just a very pure, uplifting person to be around. Hna Caballero is amused by everything, and is always laughing, but takes the work very, very seriously. She keeps us focused and relaxed. I love the different perspectives we´ve got, with one companion just starting the mission, one in the middle, and one about to end. We´re trying lots of new things.

Here´s the latest on the people we´re focused on:

-F----o has a baptismal date! June 7th. Hna Caballero set up a set time for us to pray for him to be prepared for baptism each day- which seems a little Muslim to me, hahaha, but it´s been working great! We´re seeing huge changes with him.

-There´s a lady named Y-----a that lives an hour away (still in our area. Our area is half of the whole island. It takes so long to get to appointments!!! We do splits with a member almost every single day), and she´s got a lot of problems. She´s had all of the lessons, knows it´s all true, and wants to be baptized. BUT she needs to divorce her ex husband, marry or break up with the boyfriend she´s living with, and stop smoking and drinking coffee 24/7. We´ve been teaching the whole family, and we´re focusing on her nine-yr-old daughter, A----a, who has felt the Spirit and "just knows" she needs to be baptized asap. Her 16-yr-old daughter is also headed to an EFY in a few weeks (WOOHOO!).

-One less-active we´re teaching is named P--o, he´s an old, one-legged man who´s fallen back into his smoking addiction. We´re seeing a lot of improvement, though!

One of the Elder´s recent converts, R--a, and his Brazilian girlfriend, E----i, invited us to eat with them and E----i´s kids on Saturday. E----i´s such an adorable member, and she cooks great food :) While we were eating, R--a pulls out a ring and proposes to E----i!!!! It was a mix between being the cutest and the most awkward thing ever, haha. Mostly for the reactions of E----i´s kids.... I´m pretty sure that they wanted to "share this moment with the Sisters" (whom they hardly know) to help E----i´s kids stay calm, hahaha. It was still pretty cool getting to be there, though :)

Anyhoo, we´re working with a lot of people who have been investigators for a long time, as well as a lot of less actives, so we´re almost always going over the basic lessons. I´ve realized this week that my favorite way to repass any one of the lessons is to start with a brief overview of the Plan of Salvation. Lay the little pictures on the table so they can see it, and refer back to the different stages of The Plan throughout the lesson. It´s amazing what a little perspective can do!!!

And that kind of perspective is so ridiculously rare, too. 

I mean, just look at people´s reactions to fútbol here, for example. On the day of a fútbol partido, the shops close, the streets clear out, and every living human body is sat down in front of a tv in the nearest bar to watch the match. It´s SILENT in the streets.... until there´s a goal. I swear, the atmosphere just EXPLODES. 

It´s curious, and really sad, how people can be so indifferent and closed-minded when they hear about a Living Savior and His Infinite Atonement, and then errupt with happiness when a man they´ve never met kicks a ball into a net.

Haha, I´m not putting down sports or anything, it´s a really neat part of the culture here, but it definitely proves a point. Plus, I might just have a thing against fútbol because it´s one of the #1 causes for people not attending church, and our effectiveness really takes a blow whenever there´s a game, haha. 

I´m not sure how much time I´m going to have, because I don´t know what else President has planned for today, so I´m going to get to sending pics- I´ve got a lot this time :)

I love you guys so so much!!!!!

-Hna Grover

Email 44 - "Big Ole Change of Plans!‏" Surprise Transfer! Chrissy's in the Canary Islands!

Chrissy and the new missionary she's training, 

Hermana Irigoyen, who's from Argentina!

Saying goodbye in Madrid

Hey family!

'Couple big surprises this week - here's the biggest... ready for this?

Right now I'm sitting in the apartment of two senior missionaries on an island 80 kilometers off the coast of Africa!! Ha, weird, huh?

Allow me to explain:

On Tuesday afternoon, Hna P and I were heading to the chapel to pick up our greenies, and I got a call from President Jackson that started like this: "Hermana Grover! I've got an assignment change for you. Are you sitting down?"  He told me that I'd still be training, but he needed me to fly to the Canary Islands... tomorrow.

I won't lie, what followed was probably the most stressful evening of my life, haha. I only had time to make four "goodbye" stops of about 45 seconds each, and then I had less than an hour to pack up my stuff and head to the mission home to spend the night. The next morning, I chose which suitcase to take to the island with me, and my greenie and I took the 3-hr flight to Las Palmas, where we met up with our other companion, Hna Caballero (we're in a trio!)

So here we are!

Hna Irigoyen (ear-ee-go-shen) is my adorable greenie :) She's from Argentina, and I LOVE her accent. She's just about fluent in English, and she wants to work HARD. I love it, She's doing great with contacting, asks questions about everything, and has been quite a trooper through all of the craziness in getting to her first area. I love seeing missionary work from her perspective, because everything's a miracle- which I guess we tend to overlook sometimes. 

Hna Caballero is from Elche, Alicante (same home ward as Hna P) and she's a machine. She ends her mission this transfer, but she's the most undead dying missionary I've ever met. She never talks about going home, how much time she has left, or anything. She has a really chill sense of humor, and I hear "Chacho!" (Dude!) from her about every thirty seconds, haha. ...No really. Allll the time.

I'm officially Hna I's trainer, but I'm really grateful that we've got Hna C, she's a really solid example and is full of great advice.

Of course, I really miss 8th ward over there in Madrid, but the ward here is awesome. We showed up to a baptism, and it wasn't a stressful experience! Haha, normally, we need to worry about filling the font, providing refreshments, making sure there were white clothes, towels, programs, piano players, etc. Here, we just show up to the service! Super cool. Our ward mission leader is super great, too. His name's Willy, he's from Ghana, and he has his own dance studio where he teaches his take on Zumba... "Wimba". From what I hear, it's pretty fantastic.

There's an old, homeless black man that's always hanging out just outside of the temple. Everytime we pass by, he yells to us in English, "Hello my sisters! Don't worry, be happy! God will bless you!" Hahaha. Is it bad that he reminds me a little of Rafiki, from The Lion King? ;)

Anyhoo, I'm still getting to know all of the investigators, but we've got one guy progressing named F----o. He's also from Ghana, and he's awesome. After every commitment, he just shrugs and says, "Si, si, Hermanas, lo hare. Por que no?" (Yeah, yeah, sisters, I'll do it. Why not?) Haha. He's got a milder version of the personality of the football player from Jerry McQuire ;) 

We're also teaching a guy named K----n, from Hungary. He's homeless, and lives on the beach. Hermana Irigoyen teaches him with me in English :) He's always extremely grateful for our visits.

As I was looking back on the week, I was going over my studies, and I discovered that, this whole week, the Lord's been preparing me for this sudden change. He knew it was coming, and he was guiding my studies to be prepared.

For example, I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 101, about the parable of protecting the vineyard, and I loved it. In verses 44-55, it basically explains how we need to just obey. Don't talk about it, wonder about it, put it off, etc. Just obey the command you receive. (Hermana Grover- I need you to head to the Islands tomorrow!)

I was also reading in Matthew 14:28-31, about the part where Peter tries walking on water and begins to sink. I realized something I hadn't noticed before; when Peter called out to the Lord to have him invite him out to the water (sending in the mission papers). He had already seen the storms, he had already seen how crazy the waves and strong the wind was! He knew, more or less, what he was getting himself into (the mission's hard, man). It wasn't until he was in the water, and began to experience the hardships himself that he began to doubt a little (I need you to leave your area... tomorrow). 

I'm super happy here. I love seeing the beach. I love my companions. I love being a missionary :)

You guys are the best. Keep the faith!

Love you guys tons!!!!

-Hna Grover

Email 43 - "Some big, important part of me just got recharged!"

 

Hello again!!

First off, yes, I did get Dad´s voice message on our phone yesterday. We´d left the internet place after calling you guys and went straight down into the subway, so I didn´t have signal. When we got out, my comp started listening to the message, and quick pushed the phone on my ear because it was in English. It was a little bizarre hearing Dad´s voice coming out of our phone! And I guess my reaction really scared Hna P, because she told me later she thought someone´d died or something, hahaha. (I guess when I´m really happy that´s the impression she gets from my expressions?) I'm stoked to hear that Alicia and Mike will be down in the 321 for my homecoming, that´s a very generous sacrifice. :) 

Thanks for letting me know about it right away! (And yeah, I was wondering about how you had our number, haha) 

It was so, so great seeing all of you yesterday, too! I don´t know why, but having big connecting moments like that with you guys doesn´t make me sad or trunky at all, I just feel like some big, important part of me just got recharged. :) Perfect preparation for the arrival of my trainee tomorrow!!

Hna P and I continue to scramble in the moments we´re in our piso to get ourselves organized enough to have two more people join us. It´s really strange setting up all on my study stuff in a separate room! I´m so grateful, though, that my sweet comp and I will still be living together as we both train, I know it´ll help a lot. Mike´s advice is going to be a huge help as well.

And I found out last night that I´ve been released from my assignment as Sister Training Leader so I can focus more on my new companion and not be worried about exchanges, which is a bummer and a huge relief at the same time!

I had my last exchange this week with another Hermana Palomino (no, not related. This one´s from New York and one of her parents is from Ecuador). All of our investigators got a kick out of that. It was fun getting to be with another missionary who has much more experience than I do!

This week we haven´t been able to see as many people as we´d like to, but A----o´s starting to progress again, F------o´s still meeting with that pastor and not with us, R-----d´s caught in a really rough situation with his wife and he´s been needing some serious introspective spiritual reflection, S----o´s been finding himself surrounded by testimonies of the truthfulness of the One True Gospel in every baptismal service and Sunday meeting he´s attended (yay!), and M-------o still loves to talk just as much as ever and interrupt us with really long random comments during our lessons, hahaha. It´s going to be SUPER weird splitting up our investigators between the new companionships that´ll be formed this week. It hasn´t been a very fun process... but we´ll still get to see them in the chapel! :)

And, because this is a work of miracles, this week was as full of tender mercies as every other :) Here are a few:

-We stopped to pick up flowers at a flower stand for a sweet, helpful member´s birthday, and the lady gave us a HUGE bunch for free, explaining how she´s a member from another ward, and she´s here in the area to help out with the Mothers´Day craziness. Now we´ve got flowers in our piso!

-After a long visit from two old, raspy-voiced plumbers, our bathroom doesn´t leak water into the apartment downstairs anymore!

-As I told you on Skype, I got to see my mission prep teacher, Brother Farnsworth! 

To make a long story maybe a little shorter, when the missionary age requirement was lowered, I had a few things made very clear to me, one of them being that I needed to serve a mission asap. One of the things not made so clear, however, was how the heck I was going to begin preparing. After first miraculously making it into a mission preparation class, I started getting on track with the help of my wonderful professor. Then, as he does with all preparing pre-missionaries, the adversary began to hit me HARD, and I started getting really confused and frustrated by the feelings of doubt and unworthiness that came. I had nothing keeping me from being worthy, so I just tried ignoring the feelings. After a long time of pushing it off to the side, I finally had to talk to someone about it- and I had the strong impression to talk to Brother Farnsworth after class one day. I´ll never forget his patience and assurance as we talked, and his advice to talk to my bishop out there at BYU. I remember walking on air on the way home from talking with Brother Eastly- having been declared worthy by a judge in Israel (something that probably wouldn´t have happened without the nudge from Brother Farnsworth). Satan was then powerless to make me feel unworthy, and I was able to continue preparing with a little more inner peace :)

Seeing Brother Farnsworth brought all of that rushing back to mind, and I´m so grateful for the reminder :) The thirty-second encounter he had with a past student he probably doesn´t remember probably meant nothing to him, but it meant a lot to me!!!

-A----o had another one of his crazy dreams, but this time, it was about trying not to be distracted by groups of people competing for his attention as he made his way, past guards, up to a huge, beautiful mountain! (temple!!!) So cool.

-We had an awesome right-place-right-time moment as we stopped by R-----a´s and were able to help her inactive sister rekindle her testimony a little.

Haha, I love getting to remember all of this stuff every Monday :)

And of course, there was the awesome meeting with Elder Snow and Brother Neilson, who talked to us a lot both about our history as missionaries of the Last Dispensation, and about the futures we need to be planning on having. I accidently left my notes at home, but I´ll write more about that next week :)

Also, we spent this morning at the Zoo! Haha, yes, the Brevard Zoo a block away from our home in Florida is definitely better, but it was fun spending time with Ana (adorable YSA who´s decided she´ll be our personal tour guide any Pday we want to go anywhere. awesome!!!) and my comp.

After hearing "¡Hermana! ¡Sáqueme una foto aquí!" all day, I think I understand how Dad feels on our vacations a little better, hahaha. Needless to say, I have LOTS of photos of barely visible animals on my camera now, hahaha. Whatever. We had a blast :D

And I think that´s about all I´ve got for this week! Once again, I LOVED getting to see all of you yesterday. That was by far the highlight. Thanks for being so dang wonderful :) 

Have a stupendous week!

Love you!!!

-HCL :)

Email 42 - "It was a really crazy, really great week."

With Hna Hone and Hna Cançado

"Accidently making paper-doll swords while prepping for a lesson about the Ammonites"

 "Finally succumbing to drinking some of Hna P´s Herbalife (witchcraft that she drinks every morning, haha) because I´ve been a little sick again this week."

"Our growing Forget-me-nots!"

"Fun in the mission home :) I LOVE this picture of the Jacksons :)"

Holy awesome emails from everybody, Batman!!!  I LOVE this! Haha. You guys are the best. I love hearing about all the awesome stuff you´re doing.

I´m excited to tell Hermana Pavéz that Adam´s headed to Argentina. I´ll have to ask her what part she´s from...

And yeah! I get to see you guys next week!!! Woohoo!

So this week just flew by. Holy moly. ´Lots of really awesome stuff. I was only in my area for about half of the week!

Lame news first: Remember our golden investigator, S----a? And our less active buddy, E-----o? The same "prophet" from the same church that attacks our religion and led those two away from the truth has been working on F------o!! He had him promise to not read the Book of Mormon for a month and attend with his congregations instead of coming to the chapel.  So. Frustrating!

We finally met with F------o yesterday and ensured that there´s no doubt in his mind about the things we know to be true. We made sure it was clear to him that he may feel just fine in another religion, but he´ll never find the church organization that Christ established, the pure doctrine He taught, or the authority to act in His name anywhere outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If he wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true, not reading it isn´t going to get him anywhere, and the only way he´s going to find the peace of being in the right path is through following an answer from God Himself.

Haha, okay, rant´s over. Kinda crazy, huh?

On a much brighter note, I got to go participate in one of the coolest meetings I´ve ever been to on Tuesday :) I had my first leadership council in the mission home! President Jackson made it very clear that it was intended to be, very literally, a council, and as each comment was considered and decisions were made, I felt how the Spirit was guiding the discussions and the meeting in general. 

President Jackson said that President Packer once said that, when speaking in councils, "there is revelation scattered among us," so everyone´s input matters. ´Loved that.

(And now I understand a little more why returned missionaries feel so weird being alone when they finish their missions, haha. We had special permission to leave our comps with members and travel alone to the mission home, and during that time w/out a phone or a companion, I felt more awkward and vulnerable than I ever have in my life! And I used to love being alone back home! Haha)

Anyway, there are a lot of changes happening in our mission, and it was really cool and humbling being given a chance to teach with our zone leaders on Wednesday in our zone training.

One of the changes (just made by the Twelve) is that we now need to teach the "after baptism lessons" (lesson 5 in PMG) before an investigator can be baptized!

I wasn´t sure about how I felt about that (I knew right away that it was revelation, but as I thought about our investigators, I wondered about how prepared they´d be), but right when I met up on Tuesday evening with my companion, I understood the change so much better! 

She´d just had a lesson with R-----d, and he was asking a lot about temples (he has a pastor- yep, same church- telling him that he shouldn´t be baptized because of what we do in the temples.) and she was thinking the whole time, "whyyyy can´t we teach him lesson 5?! Maybe we can get permission from President..." Haha. So cool.

And I got to go to the temple again!!! The session in Spanish is beautiful, and I got some very specific, much-needed answers while there. President pointed out on Tuesday that, in almost every instance where the Savior has appeared to man, one of the first things He does is forgive that person of their sins. In doing so, He allows that person to have a perfect peace of conscious to be able to enjoy His presence. I think being worthy to sit in the temple gives us a glimpse of what that peace of conscious in His presence is like :)

We also had another exchange this week, and we´ll start another one tonight. The one I had was with Hermana Fowers, a really sweet missionary from a big family in Utah, who was trained by Hna Zitting. It was fun seeing how much she loves everyone she teaches, and I got to help out with a couple English-tutoring sessions :)

Overall, it was a really crazy, really great week. Sunny´s doing better than ever and he´s been really helpful with our investigator, S----o, who came to a baptismal service and church this week! (yes!!)

Not a whole lot of progress with anyone else, but Hna P and I have been loving teaching together more than ever... which probably means one of us is getting transferred next week, haha.

But hey, you guys´ll get to meet her on Sunday! :D

I can´t wait.

Thanks for being so awesome! Keep it up and keep me posted!

I love you so much!!!

-Hermana Chrissy-liss