Email 52 - Baptism!

Hiya, folks!

Thank you for the pictures again!!!! That was wonderful. Thanks for the emails, too. I'm glad to hear that Girls Camp went so well (I don't remember who came up with the idea of choosing Spain as the theme for the ward, but give them a big hug for me, haha. Those pictures were adorable), that the Florida reception was a hit, and that B-rad's headed off to EFY. 

I'm not sure what advice I would give about getting the youth out to EFY, I'll have to think about it. For me and the other youth that were with me, everyone was just always super stoked about EFY... The youth here are all losing their minds waiting until EFY starts, haha. They're all excited to see Hna Caballero, who's working as a counselor this year. In fact, we're planning activities with the Young Women who aren't old enough to go because they're all depressed about being left behind, haha.

So still no news on F----o or A----a's family, but K------e and P---a came to church!! Y-----a's decided we're her best friends and D---a was baptized yesterday!!

The baptism went really well, too. We did it right after church so a lot of people came. Our district sang "Love is Spoken Here," from the Children's Songbook and we all actually stayed on-pitch, and D---a was all smiles the whole time :) It was great.

We met with N-----a by herself that evening where we were finally able to talk alone with her about baptism and everything. The update is basically this: she's feeling a little pressure from the leaders she's getting close with in the church, and she's really worried about asking her mom if she can be baptized. She also said that she doesn't think it'd be a good idea for us to meet her. The three of us decided we'd all pray about it and talk about how we're feeling on Wednesday. Prayers, please!

In other news, we're starting to see tourists coming outta the woodwork all over Las Palmas, the World Cup is over (FINALLY!!!!!) and my companion was only a little devastated that her country lost, I had another person in the street think I was from Spain (this time even AFTER I'd opened my mouth, haha), and we're getting to know the island reeeeally well as we search all over creation for the addresses the bishop gave us to verify and as we keep searching for new investigators. I live in a really cool place.

Thanks for the advice about perfectionism. It's still been a bit of a struggle, but I'm reading a lot of really neat talks and I've been having some interesting studies lately. Dealing with my faults/ getting over other people's faults has continued to be a challenge, and I feel like the moderately perfectionist side of me from before the mission has gotten a little inflamed and infected, haha. But things are improving little by little!

I really like Elder Bednar's perspective on the Atonement that I read this week in his talk called, "In the Strength of the Lord," where he says:

"Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints- for good men and women who are obedient and worthy and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. I frankly do not think many of us "get it" concerning this enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities."

I'm not sure why that can be so hard to comprehend sometimes. The Savior is not just sitting in the stands, patiently waiting for us to put into practice all that we know about the Gospel, lending a hand whenever we trip up- but he's down on the track for the whole race!

Like I said, I'm honestly not sure why that can be so hard for me to wrap my mind around. It's like I'm down here trying to get to every appointment on time, be exactly obedient, remember to do all of the phone calls, update all of the records, plan perfect lessons, and then I look over and yell to the stands, "I got this! I'm stressed and impatient and definitely messing up a lot and I know there's a lot to improve, but I'm hanging in there! If all goes well, I'll see you there at the finish line!" And then I get an excited little cheer and a thumbs-up from the Savior and I keep going with that sheer grit Elder Bednar talked about.

I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I got this. I won't ask for help because I already know what You'll say and it's too hard. Maybe I can make it all work all on my own.

...Haha, yeah, that definitely doesn't work out very well!

So that's my challenge for this week, and possibly for the rest of my life; following/ depending on/ allowing myself to be strengthened by the Savior. Again, thanks for all of advice!! I know the Restored Gospel is true, that Christ lives, and I'll keep working on letting the Atonement be more than just something that gives me a clean slate every time I partake of the sacrament. :)

Thanks for everything, family!!! I LOVE you!

Love,

Hna Grover

pics: hanging out with Danna and Giovanni as we waited for the Elders to get there to do a baptismal interview :) They got lost... haha. Giovanni is an awesome little magician, he does the coolest little tricks with his deck o' cards there. Super cool.