Email 61 - Goodbye to the Canary Islands! Hermana Grover Returns to Madrid!

Saying Goodbye

"These two Elders... basically like being with Nate and Klinton again, haha. Super fun. ´gonna miss them."

 

"SWEET, darling, humble woman named Soledad who´s kinda inactive because of poor health. She has Lupus (does that translate in English like that?). But she´s so adorable. I love that lady."

"Teaching Elder Bybee how to juggle last P-day"

"Eating at "Panera Bread" (cooking just keeps growing on me...)

 and my last "dessert war" entry, chocolate cheesecake :)"

"My last look at the Island!"

Hey family!

Welp, as you´ve heard from my sweet buddy Hna Larsen (editor:  from her blog), I´ve left the islands and I´m back in Madrid! I´m in a pueblo called Alcobendas, and I´m thrilled about it. Everyone I talk to raves about this area. When the Elders picked me up at the airport, they, and all the missionaries I´ve run into since, have said, "Hermana! Bienvenida a Zion,´´ where President lives, and all of the office Elders and APs and all that are in my district. I´m definitely going to be learning a lot!

My companion is Hermana Hillman, she´s from Canada, and her family owns a house in Florida! Just south of Orlando!! She said that they´ve spent many a summer in Cocoa Beach. Crazy, huh?

So this means that 2 of my streaks continue... 3 transfers in every area... and a companion from a different country everytime! (Switzerland, the US, Ecuador, Spain, Argentina, and now Canada!). I´m excited to get going. Hna Hillman told me that they´ve got a lot of work here, and that the ward is just golden. I just got off my flight, and we´re running low on Pday time, so I can´t really tell you much about what´s going on, haha, because I still don´t know myself! But, like I said, I´m excited.

While I was super bummed about leaving paradise, I´m looking forward to being able to drink from the tap again, go TO THE TEMPLE, and have Thanksgiving and Christmas with President and Sister Jackson. :D

As always, goodbyes were a drag. It was Stake Conference, so they couldn´t announce that I was leaving or let me share my testimony like they usually do, so unfortunately, a lot of the members still don´t know I´m gone... those that found out I was leaving, however, certainly didn´t make it easy!

Speaking of Stake Conference- you all remember Abu, right? Well, just before starting the meeting (which was done over Skype because the stake´s comprised of all of the islands), Abu walks into the chapel, which the members said he´s never done before, looks at us all for a minute, raises his arm and holds up three fingers and says, in English, "God bless everybody here. In the name of the Lord. Thank you." ...and then one of the members escorted him back outside. I´m going to miss him.)

Unfortunately, everything seemed to be slowing down a bit in Las Palmas this last week. It was pretty frustrating. We don´t really have anyone progressing over there... so I don´t have much updates. We had some new investigators and worked a TON with the area book, and I´m sure it´ll be crazy busy again in no time :)

As I assume you also saw on Hna Larsen´s blog, we got to see a SUPER awesome women´s broadcast where Elder Bednar, Elder Ballard, Elder Hollstrom, and Elder Texiera all spoke to the women of Europe. It was super cool.

Like I said, I´m running low on time and I´d really love to send you all the bajillion photos I took this week, so I´m going to get going on that and I´ll write more if I have time. I was able to write a quick letter to Mom on the plane, and I told you a bit more about the conference- so if you want to include any of that on the blog, you´re welcome to :)

I love you so much!!!!

-Hna Grover

PS- I did get the new Liahona before I left, but I´m guessing that the package probably got to my piso this afternoon, haha. I´ll send Hna Irigoyen a copy of my ID so she can pick it up for me and we´ll see how long it takes to make its way to the Office :) -which is now in my area! Woot.