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