Email 71 - Baptismal Date!

"Zone Conference this week. Always great to be near the temple!"

"That´s my buddy, Hna Cabrera. She´s awesome. Everyone in the ward in Alcobendas says I look just like her. All of the youth call me "Cabrera!" So I took this photo to prove them wrong... I think it just destroyed my case, haha. They´re more convinced than ever."

  "The traditional pushup contest to wrap up every Zone Conference, haha. President Jackson always almost wins."

  "Then all of the missionaries there that served in Gran Canaria. Recognize the Elder holding the futbol jersey? He was one of the members in Las Palmas, who was called to serve in this mission! Elder Brewer, who was in my district down there, is his trainer! Super cool."

Hey family!

Thanks, as always, for the emails :) I´d love to see the story about the ward´s explosion with family names in the temple show up in the Ensign someday! ´Sounds like it was a pretty solid weekend. I hope the weather´s nice for the Turkey Trot this week! And I hope Mike and Alicia aren´t freezing out there in Utah... sorry to hear that Alicia was sick :(

The weather´s been SO nice for the last couple of days. It´s been rainy, but it´s brought the temperature up quite a bit. No complaints here! It´s still chilly of course, but I haven´t needed my coat. Marvelous.

And yes, actually, we did get invited to the mission home for Thanksgiving. I can´t adequately explain how excited I am about that, haha. It was looking like we were going to have to come up with something on our own like last year, but then President Jackson called and said they´d be expecting us at 2 on Thursday!!

Other than that, it´ll be a normal day for us, but between Hermana Jackson´s cooking and our temple trip on Wednesday, it looks like a very good week so far :)

Remember how I said last week that I´ve been praying to find people that don´t have any crazy agency-restrictions from past mistakes? We found a couple! 3, actually!!

One of them, E--, is a single mom of a very energetic 4-yr-old, and she´s accepted December 20th as a baptismal date!!! That´s the first time in several transfers that I've had a baptismal date accepted. It´s been a long time. We´re stoked. She´s very prepared, and already believes that the Church and the Book of Mormon is true. She had already been taught by missionaries a couple of years ago, so that helps a lot. It´s just very refreshing to have an investigator that´s keeping her commitments so well.

We also found a couple that had listened to missionaries about 6 years ago in Columbia. C-----a and D---o :) We found them knocking doors, and they already have a great understanding of the Apostasy and are willing to read the BoM.

We´ve been surprised, however, by all of the doubts a lot of people we´re teaching have all of a sudden about Joseph Smith. We finally found out about those news articles coming out in the States full of misinterpreted facts about the early years of the Church. Have you all been hearing about those? Good grief.

Unfortunately, it created quite a set-back for a couple of the people we´re teaching, but, as Elder Neil L. Andersen said in his beautifully-timed Conference talk, we can know "in our own hearts that he was a prophet of God and [take] comfort that all this was long ago foretold by Moroni."

And, after walking home at the end of a particularly frustrating lesson, Hna Hillman remarked, "Y´know, this may sound apathetic, but I just frankly don´t care what they say about Joseph Smith. I know he was a prophet, so who cares what they say on the news??"

Elder Andersen also said in his talk that "opposition against the things of God sends seekers of truth to their knees for answers," and that "spiritual questions deserve spiritual answers from God."

Finding out if Joseph Smith was a man called of God and given divine power is most definitely a spiritual question - and the only acceptable answers to such questions absolutely must come from spiritual sources.

"The negative commentary about the Prophet Joseph Smith will increase as we move toward the Second Coming of the Savior. The half-truths and subtle deceptions will not diminish. There will be family members and friends who will need your help. Now is the time to adjust your own 'spiritual oxygen mask' so that you are prepared to help others who are seeking the truth."

Once again,I took another good look at my testimony this week, and I still just simply can´t deny what I know to be true!

I invite anybody who reads this to prayerfully take an introspective and sincerely honest look at what you know to be true about God and His prophets. Anyone seeking truth with real intent will be led here. Because you can´t find pure truth anywhere else!

Anyhoo, I hope you all have a marvelous steak-dinner Thanksgiving! I expect photos :)

I love you guys tons!!!

Hna Gro

PS- E--´s only hang-up with baptism is her fear of water... we told her we´d pray with her about it, and we´re going to see if we can set up a priesthood blessing, too. I mean, she has like, a petrifying fear of water. Please include her in your prayers!!!

Thanks :)

Email 70 - "Feathers you use to write on white walls."

"Snapped that sucker on the car ride back from a member´s house. Crazy, huh?"

 "Eating at the Vera family´s"

 "...followed by a jam session with Elder Cahoon on the guitar and all of us harmonizing hymns. Good stuff :) (poor Elder C´s companion was having knee surgery... good thing he´s in the Office and doesn´t have to be walking around...)"

 "Birthday cupcakes for Hna H! 20 years old..."

"And then that was another bday party at Eusebio´s (the sweet guy in the Residency). We forgot to buy candles..."

"An attempted photobomb almost got myself an elbow in the face when my comp changed positions, haha."

 "Taking advantage of some pretty lighting yesterday" 

(Editor:  That's my girl. :)

Hi family!!

Thank you for the emails!! I loved all of the photos of the weekend out in Utah, and it sounds like Cheesecake Factory made it a good weekend for the ladies back home, too :) Good stuff all around.

So we had a pretty good week over here in Alcobendas. Hna H and I have been trying to pay more attention to little details- things we can do to find more investigators and grow closer to the members. We´ve been blessed!

We found a few new people to teach, and we´re praying to finally find some people who can prepare themselves for baptism right away, and that aren´t caught up in living with boyfriends (who either don´t have their papers here in Spain or aren´t divorced to their last wife so they can´t just get married and the situation is heckadays complicated) or addictions. I would frankly LOVE to find someone like that right now, haha. Like, that´d be stupendous. 

Working on it!

Wanna hear something funny?  I feel like I can pretty much speak Spanish now, right? I´m totally comfortable in lessons and everything. But that´s when we´re talking about the Gospel, haha.

Earlier this week, while in a pharmacy, I asked for "those little belts you use to keep the fabric from clothes on your skin over a wound."

Later, that same day, I asked a lady in an office supplies store if she had any "feathers you use to write on white walls." In both incidents, I realized my mistake as soon as the words left my mouth (Brian Reagan flashed through my mind, saying "WORDS ARE COMIN´ OUT!"), but couldn´t really do much about it. How the pharmacist and the poor craft store lady figured out I needed medical tape and whiteboard markers is beyond me...

We saw a few cute little miracles this week. V------a, that lady I mentioned last week, has never been able to understand much of what she reads in the Book of Mormon. But her 11-yr-old daughter, S-----y, soaks in everything she can about the Gospel and is a pro at understanding scriptures- especially for a primary kid. V------a has never been willing to read with her.

I called her the other day to confirm our appt, and I asked how she was. "Here," she said, "reading the Book of Mormon with S-----y."  Sure enough, by the time we got there, they´d spent the whole afternoon reading the scriptures. S-----y wouldn´t let her mom go on until she´d understood the verse they read. I´m so proud of that kid. They both eagerly accepted new reading assignments :)

We´re also still working with T-----a and P------a. P------a can only meet once a week, so there´s not much news there. In fact, most of the people we´re teaching can only meet once a week... at the same times as everyone else, haha. Yeah that´s kinda hard.

Anyhoo, T-----a´s been doing really well. She has hard questions. But good ones. We finally ended up giving her a study journal and telling her that these were the kinds of questions she needs to write down and look for on her own- the kinds of things she´ll only really learn through the Spirit, not through a couple of missionaries. 

In fact, Hna H and I were practicing teaching her during a comp study, and we would ask "why" after EVERYTHING (which is pretty much how our lessons go, haha), and we were trying to explain everything, until we finally got stuck on one question: why couldn´t Heavenly Father just give us all of the blessings He has? Why can we only progress this way?

After praying, looking for scriptures, and throwing ideas around, we both just recognized that the Spirit was telling us,"You just can´t become like Him all at once. Divine attributes have to be acquired."  Basically, it was a "this is just how it is" kind of answer. We realized that those kinds of things are answers T-----a´s going to need to get on her own, so we straight up told her we weren´t going to answer her questions. She took it well :)

Still thinking about her questions, though, I read over Elder Christofferson´s talk, "Free Forever, to Act for Themselves," from the Conference edition I got in the mail from Mom (Thank youuu!! ´Pretty sure I´m the first person in Spain to have that). He says, "So God does not save us “just as we are [or just hand us blessings],” first, because “just as we are” we are unclean, and “no unclean thing can dwell … in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man [of Holiness].”4 And second, God will not act to make us something we do not choose by our actions to become. Truly He loves us, and because He loves us, He neither compels nor abandons us. Rather He helps and guides us. Indeed, the real manifestation of God’s love is His commandments.´´

Following His commandments is the only way to become like Him. He´ll give us answers and help along the way. Just obey and trust!!

In other news, Hna Hillman´s birthday was this week! That was fun. I also got a lot of photos this week, so I´ll get on sending those...

Love you guys!!

Have a good one!

-Hna Gro

Email 69 - "The Atonement...the most tangible evidence of the Lord's incomprehensible love for us!"

 President and Sister Jackson, 

and the Spain Madrid Mission Leadership Council

 Leadership council with Hna Crandall

"After a reeally long day.

Hna H snapped this the other night when, after planning, she went to the bathroom and came out to see this. As you can see, I had plenty I needed to do, but reading the talk Mom sent me was first on the list, haha. Even before getting off the floor after the prayer I guess.  For the record, our piso looks spotless right now... haha, I feel bad sending a shot of a low-moment on the cleanliness scale... ;)"

 "This is what was in the oven when I made the recording :) Pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself."

"Eating in the most legit American restaurant I´ve seen on my mission- they even had milkshakes!  I got a Philly Cheesesteak ...not quite like the real deal, but satisfyingly close, haha."

"Shopping in a palace."

"A couple of goofball missionaries on our way over here to the internet cafe. :)"

Hiya!

I loved Dad´s photo of B-rad this week. 

I've got my version attached above ;) Hna H snapped it the other night when, after planning, she went to the bathroom and came out to see this. As you can see, I had plenty I needed to do, but reading the talk Mom sent me was first on the list, haha. Even before getting off the floor after the prayer I guess.

Hang in there with that homework load, Bradster! There´s life after high school, I promise.

Thanks for the updates, as always!

This week was a pretty good one for us over here in Alcobendas. It´s gotten super cold, but I´ve got sweaters and tights and earmuffs AND we just restocked today on popcorn and hot chocolate, so I´m set!

I got to go to that Leadership Council meeting again this week, and it was fantastic. Great to be in the mission home, too. 

President Jackson said that the Europe Area Authorities have decided that the most important "key indicator" here is church attendance. Because, "you can´t fake church attendance!" as President explained :) It really requires effort on the part of the investigator, and they can´t receive the ordinance of baptism until they go. So there´s a new big push on that in the mission.

And even though most of the people we´re teaching didn´t make it to church yesterday, L--a, that less-active I adore showed up for the first time in years!!! and V------a, an investigator who hasn´t been progressing much, (but she always sends her two daughters to church with her brother, they´re baptized and everything) she came to church and saw her kids in the primary program!!! Her 11-yr-old was beaming the whole time. It was precious.

Anyway, we´ve been focusing a lot on P------a. She didn´t make it to church yesterday, but she´s been progressing quite a bit. We realized that she just didn´t understand the purpose of life/ the commandments/ physical bodies/ temptations, etc... nor did she understand how it´s even possible to comply with the Gospel. So now that we´ve set that as our focus, we´ve seen some big changes.

Honestly, it reminds me of that little vice I´ve got that I´ve been working on... I´m sure you all remember those times when I´d become waaay more social during high school, whipping out a bowl of popcorn and chilling in the kitchen with whoever would join me... because I couldn´t grasp the purpose of/how it would be possible to do chemistry or algebra homework, haha. Suddenly, my clarinet, Facebook, errands, our pool, whatever became a million times more interesting. Anything to avoid doing something I didn´t understand!

´Still going to have to work on the homework thing, but P------a seems to be understanding a lot more, so I´m happy. It´s nice having her friend there, too (Mom, her friend´s the one that bought me the earmuffs, haha), because she can see how the Gospel´s a lifestyle that´s possible.

And if there´s one talk I feel sums up all I´m learning/trying to learn about the Atonement on my mission, it´s "Sweet Above All That Is Sweet," by Sheri Dew, the talk Mom sent.

She says, "Surely there is nothing our Father is more eager for us to understand than the breathtaking scope of the Atonement of His Son and the power the Atonement makes available to us." Because, it´s "the most tangible evidence of the Lord´s incomprehensible love for us," and it´s "the key to unlocking the power of His covenant [people]."

Pretty important!

She also says, "life would have crushed me long ago if I hadn´t learned how to access the Savior´s power," haha. True that!

So I´m going to keep studying that, I highly recommend it to anyone that hasn´t read it yet!

And well, other than that, there´s really not much goin´ on. I tried a really delicious Venezuelan food this week called Pabellón! It was marvelous. Right before that meal, Hna H and I were talking about how we were kind of picky eaters before the mission. Ha, yeah, that´s definitely not something I would´ve liked before the mission! It was sooo good, though.

And we spent the day today with Hna Chapple and the other Hnas again. We shopped at a palace. Or at least it looks like a palace, it´s actually just a really fancy mall. (I felt reeeeally out of place, haha. But it was cool!)

Hope you all have a good one. Tell me all about it next week :)

Love you!!!

-Hna Grover

Email 68 - "Receive the shower of heavenly blessings!"

"We finally tried this AWESOME sandwich place I´ve heard about during my whole mission. There are more than 100 mini sandwiches, and each one is like a euro. They´re soooo delicious. The best, by far, was that little beauty you see there- chocolate-chip bread with chocolate icing and oreos in the middle (Katie, you would LOVE this). So, so delicious."

"We found this store. It´s a second-hand store, and I bought 3 sweaters for a euro each. Score!"

 "Eating with a solid family that just moved back to Chile."

Hey, family!

Thanks for the emails!! It was crazy hearing that soundbite of Brad´s marching band... like I mentioned to Dad, just hearing "Drum Majors! Is your band ready!?" gave me a weird little adrenaline rush. Haha, it´s been such a long time...

Thanks for filling me in on tender mercies, too, those are the best!

Speaking of tender mercies, Hermana Cançado (my buddy from Gijon) finished her mission but was in our area for a week while she waited for her parents to come pick her up. Not only did she fill me in on Devonshire (where Mom´s got me set for housing next semester) by RAVING about it, but she also gave me an awesome coat that she was leaving behind!! So now I´ve got more peace of mind about where I´ll  be living, and I´m all toasty-warm. It got really cold really fast this week...

Oh, and remember Lexi Crandall? We were both called as the Sister Training Leaders for our zone. We´re pretty excited to get to work together!

Also, I heard that my dear friend F---- (convert in Gijon) is doing okay!!! I don´t think I updated you all, but the last news I received was back in June, and it was not a good report. To make a long story short, he was inactive and labeled as "dangerous." Yep. Preeeetty sure that´s the worst thing you can hear about a convert.

But I called Hna Mather last night to ask her something, and she told me he´s active, has a calling, and is doing AWESOME. Hooray!

And yeah, I got pretty sick, as you heard from the Jacksons. That was no fun... no way to make that sound any better than it was, haha. If it´s not too gross to mention, I discovered just how tired I was when I couldn´t sleep because my stomach hurt to bad, and couldn´t hurl because I was too tired, hahaha. But that was just the first night... when I literally counted minutes until 7am so I could call the Elders to come give me a blessing!  I am, however, 100% recovered. Hallelujah. The Priesthood is real, folks!  

Anyhoo, the work took a big blow while I was stuck on the couch for 3 days, which is really frustrating, but I´m really hoping we can get things back together this week!

Like I´ve mentioned before, we tend to keep finding and teaching people that can´t be baptized right away because of their limited agency due to past transgressions (complicated situations with unmarried couples, addictions, etc). Our new District Leader, Elder Cahoon, didn´t know that´s something we´ve been struggling with, but he was inspired to assign us to speak on how to deal with those situations in our meeting last week.

It was cool having that chance to study exclusively about that. 

We ended up using President Uchtdorf´s explanation that he gave in the past General Women´s Broadcast last month. He said:

"Part of our challenge is, I think, that we imagine that God has all of His blessings locked in a huge cloud up in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with some strict, paternalistic requirements He has set up. But the commandments aren’t like that at all. In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us.

His commandments are the loving instructions and the divine help for us to close the umbrella so we can receive the shower of heavenly blessings."

We had everyone think of an investigator that has just one thing. One "umbrella" that´s keeping them from being baptized. Then we read Mark 10:17-21, the part in Christ´s ministry where He is approached by a young rich man. This guy´s main struggle was his riches. We all know the story, but I love how Christ makes sure the young man understands the basic doctrine, feels love for him, and then goes straight to his "umbrella."

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor."

No beating around the bush. Get married. Quit smoking. We love you and this church is true. Now get rid of this stupid umbrella.

Let´s put away the umbrellas, shall we? I´ve never been a fan of them anyway. I always get hit in the face by my companion´s (literal umbrellas, by the way... haha)

Have a great week!!

Love you tons!

-Hna Grover