Email 32 - "The Gospel is Beautiful"

"...a super precious 6-yr-old in a part-member family we´re working with. She´s soooo cute, and she adores all of the Hermanas :) That was at a Valentine´s Day dinner that we had in the chapel on Saturday night. And Fernando came!"

"Two of the new Elders in our district! This picture doesn´t even do their hilarious height difference justice..."

Another lunch in Burger King

Mi querida familia,


Love seeing pictures as always! Pretty eventful week for everybody, huh? I´m glad to see that Brad can still survive off of pizza even in the wilderness, hahah. Also, lil bro, you definitely owe me emails!


This was an interesting week, with a little bit of everything. We continue helping J------n, the 15-yr-old in our building, with her homework, and she came to the chapel for English class the other night (the other missionaries don´t like teaching the English classes, so we finally decided that I´ll just teach every week. WOOHOO!  Love it so much.). Anyway, she was super nervous about an Algebra test that she was about to have (I hear ya, sister), so we taught her about how much prayer helps. The next time we saw her, she said that she was fine right before the test, but her friend was freaking out. She told her, "A lo mejor, tal vez puedes hacer una oracion. Dos chicas que he conocido me dijeron que ayudaría." (Hey, maybe you can say a prayer. Two girls that I´ve met told me it´d help). She said that her friend tried it and calmed down right away, and was able to take her test just fine. 

Such pure faith!!

Hermana Palomino continues to progress amazingly well with her English. She´s trying to only speak English in the streets (working on that), and she´s learning "A Child´s Prayer," and cries almost every time we sing it, haha. I love her. Also, her friend sent her an exercise video for us in the mail. Ready for this? It´s called "Billy Blank´s Boot Camp," and it´s a MASSIVE black man doing aerobics. Exercising in the mornings has gotten a million times more exciting, haha.

Speaking of massive black men... hahaha, one of the new Elders in our district is from the Dominican Republic, and he´s ENORMOUS. His hand swallows mine when we shake hands. The best part is that his companion is a tiny guy from Mexico that comes up to about my chin.

Oh! And I made pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and the four of us Hnas ate all three loaves the same day. Same story with some iced brownies. Lots of praises sent your way, Mom, from the Hermanas for your recipes. :) (Thank goodness for Billy Blanks!)

Also, we had our first dinner appointment since I left Gijón! The drive from the chapel to Rivas, where the family lives (about 45 minutes) could have easily been the drive from SLC to Provo (just with fewer temples/ chapels and much more grafitti, haha). Lots of memories!

Plus, I saw my first neighborhood with houses since seeing the mission home when I first entered the field. So fun! The family we ate with is a very classic, talkative, strongly-opinionated Spanish family. Loved it.

Alrighty, now for the good stuff.

F------o has a baptismal date!!! Finally! He´s basically our only investigator right now, so we´re stoked to see that he´s progressing. He´s set with March 8th as his goal. It was a really neat visit, when he committed to the date. We shared Mosiah 18:8-11, where it talks about the baptismal covenant. What seemed to finally hit home to him was what we´ve been trying to teach him all along- you don´t have to be perfect to be baptized!

These people in this chapter had a desire for all these things (being in the fold of God, serving others, being an unwavering witness of God, being worthy of Eternal Life, etc), they weren´t already doing these things. BUT, they had the desire, and it always starts there!

We continue studying the Book of Mormon with A----a, and I love it more each time we go. We´re all well familiarized with Lehi´s family (having read about them each of the hundred times we´ve decided to start over reading the Book of Mormon, haha), but, surprise! You can still learn new things from the stories you´ve heard since sunbeams. Good stuff.

For example, I love how when a commandment of the Lord is revealed to Lehi or Nephi, the next morning they get right up and do what is asked of them. Like when the Lord prompts Lehi to take his growing family even further into the wilderness (without any further instruction or promises), and as he gets up to leave, boom, he trips over the Liahona that will serve as his guide through the journey.

I´m sure it would have been a whole lot easier for him to roll out of bed that morning and leave his tent if he´d known that the Liahona was out there waiting for him. But hey, at this point, I think we all know that that´s not how the Lord works.

Then, after Lehi slips up and complains, humbles himself, and asks God for direction, the Lord simply points his attention back to the guide he´s had all along.

"Look upon the ball, and behold the things that are written."

Or, maybe more applicable for us, "Take a break. Sit down. Open your scriptures and behold the things that are written."

E-----o has still been struggling a lot with his doubts, and at the beginning of this week, he told us that he was going to just live his life. He wasn´t going to come to church, read the scriptures, or pray, and he wanted to see what would happen.

Needless to say, he´s had a very confusing week, haha.  A couple of days ago, he said he just didn´t understand why he wasn´t being guided, why, suddenly, nothing was making sense.  "Sit down. Take a break. Open the scriptures and behold the things that are written."

Little by little, I think he´s going to come back to fully accepting the Gospel. He´s very attracted to the things of the world, but just like how Laman and Lemuel didn´t approve of the ship Nephi was building (not work[ing] the timbers after the manner which was learned by man) until after it was finished and they saw how beautiful it was, I have a feeling that E-----o just needs to hang in there and keep the faith until the blessings come and he can remember again what a beautiful thing living in accordance with the Gospel is.

And just as it´s helping E-----o, I think the counsel the Lord gives Joshua in Joshua 1:5-9 is a good reminder to all of us :)

We´ve heard a lot more this week from the churches here that attack our beliefs, and F------o even has a couple of coworkers that are trying to "save him" from becoming a Mormon.  I´ll just always be grateful for the clarity we receive from the Book of Mormon and the witness I receive, everyday, that what I´m teaching is true.

Despite the contradicting doctrines we´ve been hearing this week (and since I came here to Madrid), I know that Heavenly Father loves every one of us unconditionally. He can´t tolerate sin and He´s sad when we make wrong choices, but that´s only BECAUSE of His perfect love for us- because sin keeps us from being able to return to Him. I know that we ALL have the potential to be able to return to Him- that´s an option that´s open for everyone. Not a single person comes into the world without it. 

I know that we, as imperfect mortals, have neither the power nor the right to condemn anyone of our brothers and sisters, and that we will one day be judged by the only perfect judge - God - and He will take into account how we have judged our fellow beings in this life. 

I don´t need to see the brass plates or find the name of a Book of Mormon prophet in the Bible to know that the Book of Mormon is true. And even if I didn´t have the ancient tablets/ records that "prove" the origin of the Bible, guess what? I would still know that it´s the word of God!

The guides are there. The Gospel is beautiful. The Church is true.

And I love you guys so much! I think about ya and pray for you all the time.

Love,

Hermana Grover

PS- Can I just say I love you guys again? I really do. It isn´t easy being so far away from you all! Love you love you love you!

Email 31 - "I´m so grateful for the blessings that come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Some goodbyes after church yesterday (yes. All of these missionaries and more are in the chapel at the same time each Sunday between 6th and 8th ward. Crazy)"

"District meeting and Burger King afterwards"

"A sunny day!! Finally!"

"Ecuadorian food!"(with F------o)

That soup that they ordered was also delicious. It had a bunch of different sea creatures in there, haha. 

"Making cupcakes with Andrea :)"

"I had my camera nearby because we were just waiting for Hna Hansen to get called as Sister Training Leader, which means a bajillion intercambios (exchanges) every transfer!  and this was her and her companion´s reaction when the call came, hahaha."

 "Loving the Valentine hearts! Thanks so much!  Love you!!!"

Hello my marvelous family!

Thank you for the love and the emails and the recordings and the photos! I´m glad you were able to see the photos from Randy Scully (editor:  please see Randy's photos in the blog post below) and that you enjoyed the chocolate :) Brad and Kate- Mom and Dad both raved about S&E, but I need to hear about it from you guys! ¡Cuentemen!

And happy 13th, Kate! You are so freaking old! I hope you had a fun birthday :) We were playing some volleyball in the gym of the church this morning for Pday, and I had the other missionaries join me for the little recording (attached). :)

We had transfers again this weekend! Hermana Palomino and I are both not going anywhere, thank goodness! I love her so much. Her goal this transfer is to learn English from me, and my goal is to learn to cook from her. I´ll keep you guys posted on how that goes!

We spent a lot of time out walking around this week, and because the weather was pretty nasty (it´s usually about 2*C, except for the random, FABULOUSLY sunny day this week when it reached 17*C!!!!!) there weren´t many people in the streets to contact, so we went looking for Menos Activos. ´Not much luck there, but we´re going to keep working on the list the Bishop gave us.

F------o has been doing super great. He came to another baptism this weekend and, after a temple tour, explained to us that he really wants to be baptized and knows that it´s what he needs to do, but he´s still holding off on committing. (I don´t think he´s done as we´ve recommended and talked to Heavenly Father about it quite yet...)

We went to a kind of sketchy Ecuadorian food "restaraunt" (If you want legit food from Ecuador here, you have to go to a "Hueca," which is just someone´s house where they sell meals, haha) and it was SO DELICIOUS. I got a super greasy, super delicious plate of rice and chicken and fried bananas and a bunch of other stuff. Mmm.

We did, however, get an unfortunate text message from F------o at 3 in the morning the other night apologizing for falling into temptation again. His phone´s been turned off since then, but I know he´s going to be okay.

Yesterday, Hna Palomino and I discovered that we both felt like we needed to read "Personal Strength through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" by Elder Scott during our personal studies. This talk is perfect for people like F------o!

My favorite part is when Elder Scott says:  

"The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. He cannot because He knows what it takes to become like Him," however, "whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy."  And thank goodness for it!

Our less active buddy, E-----o, is slowly but surely improving (ok, sometimes not so surely...). This last Monday, he called us and told us that he´d watched a 50-minute video of an ex-mormon explaining why the church isn´t true. Selena sent it to him :/ Anyway, he told us to come over, and to come prepared.

It was probably one of the best lessons I´ve ever had. When we left, he was still extremely skeptical, but we did our part in testifying and in teaching the Plan of Salvation (a little mid-lesson revelation from Hna Palomino that allowed the Spirit to testify to him of the truthfulness of what we were saying). Still very doubtful, but he´s been saying lately that he wants to leave his doubts and start fresh, which is a huge step.

As you know, last week was a week of just testifying of the Book of Mormon to people who didn´t want to accept our message. In that setting, it´s always a little tough, and even though I knew for certain that this book was true before, I know now even more certainly for certain, haha.

We´ve been sharing Elder Holland´s talk, "Safety for the Soul," quite a bit this week (I discovered that I can save Conference talks onto my recording device!). As I´m sure you all remember, he shares a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and asks it to be recorded by angels and men as a witness to God that He testified to millions of it´s truthfulness.

So cool!! Shoot, I want everyone in the world to hear this man with undeniable Apostolic authority beating sense into them about this life-altering book. But I guess missionary work would be done a whole lot differently if everyone needed to hear Elder Holland´s witness in order to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, haha. I guess there´s a reason that we have 80,000+ young, uneducated kids out testifying (some trying to do so in a language they´re struggling to learn), instead of 80,000+ elderly theolgians with a lifetime of knowledge to backup every well-phrased point of doctrine that comes out of their mouths.

As we all know, it´s the Holy Ghost that does the teaching, and if we´re doing the best we can, He can testify to the hearts of investigators through gramatically-incorrect gringo-Spanish just as He can testify through Elder Holland´s awesome sermon.

I love that. And I love reading the Book of Mormon.

We´ve still been reading almost every morning with Andrea, and there´s been a HUGE change in her since I first met her! She used to honestly want nothing to do with us and would reluctantly and quietly listen to our message anytime we showed up. Now, she´s always excited to see us, super talkative, and straight-up explained the Book of Mormon and bore a powerful testimony of it to her two friends that showed up when we were reading together on Friday!

One of them, Alex (tattoed, pierced, and Buddhist), came to church with the three of us yesterday!!  I taught her and Hna Palomino how to make cupcakes on Saturday, too. We got a little messy, but it was super fun :)

I was super excited to get to teach English class again this Wednesday, and I got to teach the Noche de Hogar directly afterwards using the talk Mom sent me. I love how clear it is, when you look for the directions in the New Testament, that this church really is exactly how the Lord wants His church to be!!  My favorite part of this talk was this, which explains exactly what we´ve been trying to convey to people that have serious doubts about their testimony, like E-----o:

"Suffice it to say, I can live with some human imperfections, even among prophets of God—that is to be expected in mortal beings. I can live with some alleged scientific findings contrary to the Book of Mormon; time will correct those. And I can live with some seeming historical anomalies; they are minor in the total landscape of truth. 

"But I cannot live without the doctrinal truths and ordinances restored by Joseph Smith, I cannot live without the priesthood of God to bless my family, and I cannot live without knowing my wife and children are sealed to me for eternity. That is the choice we face—a few unanswered questions on one hand versus a host of doctrinal certainties and the power of God on the other. And for me, and I hope for you, the choice is an easy one and a rational one."

I´m so grateful for the blessings that come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like Elder Callister said, I can live with a few uncertainties along the way, but I can´t imagine living without the Book of Mormon or the knowledge that I´m sealed to you guys forever.

Have a great week!

Love,

Hna Grover

Photos From Captain Randy Scully!

Chrissy's package in the cockpit!

Captain Randy Scully said, they began to hit a little turbulence over the Atlantic, so he thoughtfully strapped in the package!

Greeting Randy at "Temple Square" in Madrid were President's Assistants Elders Merriman and Pluim, and Hermanas Grover and Palomino! 

The Eagle has landed!

A very special delivery from a very special man!  Here's Hermana Grover with American Airlines pilot, Captain Randy Scully, who hand carried this box all the way from his dentist's office in Florida!  Thank you, Randy!

The president of the Madrid Missionary Training Center, President Lovell, took time from his busy schedule to greet Randy, and give him a tour of the MTC!

Randy's shots of the beautiful Madrid Temple

An olive tree from Jerusalem, now in the gardens at 

"Temple Square"

Email 30 - Strength in the Face of Opposition, and a Special Delivery, Thanks to American Airlines Pilot, Captain Randy Scully!

Hand-delivered!

 "My favorite scripture in Elder Helske´s Finnish scriptures"

(John 14:6)

"A white van giving us some encouragement during a hard moment, haha" (Editor:  I think this translates to "The Best is Yet to Come.")

"The weather has been very cold, very windy, and very wet, but no snow for now!"

"Some of Hna Palomino´s cooking :)"

Valentines Package

"I´m not a fan of these three (below) because I look like a goober, but Hna Palomino was very proud of my reactions and said I had to send them, haha.  Thanks again for the packages!

And Katie, thank you for the new bracelet! I gave one of them to Hna Palomino :) My other one was looking a little old. The colors aren´t so bright anymore, hahaha. I´ll send you a picture next time."

"So excited to make some American goodness with that stuff!"

"We definitely just walked by a big ole important fútbol game the other day. Definitely in Spain!"

"More of Hna Palomino´s cooking"

"Proud to have earned missionary shoes like these! (please don´t send new shoes, these still work just fine - with some help of some glue ;) and I only need boots for a tiny bit longer anyway. I have plenty of other shoes)"

Holy Christmas all over again, Batman!!! THANK YOU for the packages!!!!!!!!! The homemade bread, cookies, brownies, and snickerdoodles are all very fresh and soft,  very appreciated by all, and very, very delicious. (Perfect for finishing a fast!) We got the cans of pumpkin and all those treasures this past Wednesday, the box from Captain Scully yesterday, and then your big Valentine´s box came this morning! I couldn´t believe it! Hermana Palomino had a lot of fun snapping shots of my reactions to what was inside, hahaha.  Feeling the love!! ´Definitely feeling ready to take on the world ;)

(Editor:  Patient and friend Randy Scully, an American Airlines pilot, called to tell us he was flying to Madrid, and generously offered to take something to Chrissy!  We emailed President & Sister Jackson to see if a meeting could be arranged.  The Jacksons were awesome, and rolled out the red carpet!  They sent the assistants to pick Randy up at his hotel, arranged for Chrissy and her companion to greet Randy at the temple, and for the Missionary Training Center President (Lovell) to meet Randy and give him a tour of the MTC!  The Jackson's daughter, Megan, is serving in the Florida Orlando Mission, so Randy not only took a package to Chrissy, he also picked one up from the Jacksons to bring back to Orlando for Sister Jackson!  During the course of our excited emailing back and forth, President and Sister Jackson each had very sweet things to say about our Hermana.  Thanks to the Jacksons for making this all work, and thanks to Captain Randy Scully for blessing two families with his intercontinental mission of joy!)  

Meeting Captain Scully was such a fun experience. What a great guy!! The Assistants picked him up in his hotel and brought him to temple square (President Jackson told me how bummed he was that he was in the Islands and couldn´t be there, but he had asked me to give him a tour of the grounds). I was really glad that the Assistants were there because I´ve only given that tour once before and my companion couldn´t help me out because she doesn´t speak English!

Haha, it felt strange teaching in English, but the Spirit was definitely present and Captian Scully was thrilled to snap a bunch of pictures to show to you guys :)

And it was really cool meeting President Lovell, too. ´Turns out, he and his wife are best friends with Bryan and Peggy Russell!! He gave us a tour of the MTC, too :)

Captain Scully was super attentive, interested and respectful of the temple (asking if it was okay to take pictures, if it was okay to show them to you guys, etc) and of what we do as missionaries the whole time :) It was such a nice visit!

F------o is doing well. He went two whole weeks without drinking! And after slipping up once, we were pleasantly surprised to see that he was optimistic and ready to start again. And he came to the other Hna´s baptism this Saturday!  The only issue with him for now is that he still feels like he needs more preparation before he accepts baptism. We told him to pray and find out what God thinks :)

A----a´s doing well, too. She finally told us what we´ve been suspecting, and it turns out that her boyfriend has asked her not to go to church and told her that he really didn´t like us coming over and all that good stuff. Thankfully, her response to that, to us, was that she wants us to come over every morning and read the scriptures with her. Heck yes!

We´re hoping she acts on the promptings she´s going to receive about what she needs to do. We fasted with her yesterday and even though she´s having a reeeally hard time right now being stuck between the church and this boy she really loves, we know she´s going to do the right thing :)

I´ve been lately helping a fifteen year old that lives in our building with her English homework, and we always get to share a little about the church with her and her mom before we leave. It´s been fun :)

The last time we showed up, though, she told us that she just found out that she had an Algebra test the next day, and her family has been traveling so she wasn´t in class for the whole chapter. Yep. Definitely had to try to help someone with Algebra homework. In my second language.  Hermana Palomino had to take over for that one!

Lots of good things this week :) :) :) Hermana Palomino has been cooking some super delicious stuff (I´m going to start paying more attention to how she makes it), like the potato tortilla, some Ecuadorian oven-cooked chicken and veggies, super delicious pizza (surprise! When she worked as a chef for a million years, she not only made Spanish and Ecuadorian food, but she also made pizza!), and we´ve been seeing lots of tender mercies.  And we´ve needed it all, haha.

There are a lot of people out there that don´t like what we´re doing as missionaries, or that just reeeally don´t like our beliefs. Most often, these are people with strong religious beliefs that differ from ours.  Up to this point, we´re good. No worries. You have your belief. We´ll have ours. It´s cool.

I´m so grateful for the emphasis put on the sacred nature of our callings in this church, because these people are never very content with meeting us and then letting us peacefully go about the work. We´ve been finding these people surprisingly frequently, and it can be a little tough. BUT I know that I have a call from a living prophet. 

As David M. McConkie put it, "You are on the Lord´s errand. You are His agent, and you are authorized and comissionied to represent Him and to act on His behalf."  And he actually said that not just about missionaries, but about every calling in the church.

As these people that we´re running into use powerful and eloquent speech and endless "evidence" in an effort to convince us that we´re mistaken in our beliefs and what we´re doing as missionaries, it can have NO effect on our testimonies. There´s nothing anyone can say (and trust me, it´s all been said!) to sway a testimony that´s founded on inspiration from God Himself and assurances from the Holy Ghost.

I´m imperfect. I don´t have all the answers, and if I did, my life would serve no purpose.  God, however, is perfect. He has all the answers and He gives me the ones I need to make it back to Him. He´s told me that this is the Church of Jesus Christ Himself, and I know I can trust what He tells me (Not people on the street, not "prophets" of other churches, not ex-mormons in Youtube videos, etc)

Our invitation as missionaries to others is that they can ask Him, too. We don´t convince, change, obligate, confuse, use strategem or try to take away the faith that other people have. We share what we know, and invite people to counsel with God in prayer and ask Him what He thinks they should do.

The promise we deliver with the message is that He´ll answer them in the time and way that´s best for them.  And the promise that I rely on is:

"Therefore, if ye do these things, blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day... And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as my Father, and the Father and I are one." (2 Nephi 27:22, 28:10)

The majority of the lessons we´ve had within these last two weeks were with people like the ones I´ve mentioned, and all we do is testify.

Last evening was tough because we found out that S----a has decided to be baptized into the church whose members have been fighting/ preaching directly against our religion. PERFECT timing on your part for a package of home-baked heaven and an inspired note from Dad.! Haha :)  Your testimoy, Dad, is exactly what we´ve been saying all week:

"The complete Gospel of Jesus Christ is now restored to the Earth.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and is the Living Head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Thomas S. Monson is the Lord´s prophet.

The Book of Mormon is the Word of God."

So great to hear it again from another source!

And we know that this couldn´t truly be the Kingdom of God on the Earth without the adversary doing everything possible to halt its progress!

I know that Jesus Christ is the One and Only Way back to Heavenly Father. I know that the path He´s laid out for our success and happiness and salvation is found within the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I know that in order to enjoy the blessings of the fulness of the Gospel, accepting both of those books as the Word of God is imperative. I know that we cannot reach our full potential as Children of God without sacred ordinances that will permit us to one day stand in His presence. I know that the Holy Priesthood found in His Restored Church is His power, and I´m so grateful to have grown up surrounded by its influence!

I know that this Church and ALL of its teachings are true! I also know that if we truly want to follow the example of our Lord and Savior, we will love each other and feel no need to attack other faiths.

Thank you guys for sharing/ living your testimonies!! I love you guys so, SO much!!! I´ve always got you in mind, and I know I wouldn´t be out here preaching the Gospel without the love, support, and prayers of my awesome, eternal family!

Hurrah for Israel! ;)

Love,

Hermana Grover

Email 29 - You Gotta Have Faith, Faith, Faith!

Puerta del Sol

"Hna Palomino took some stalker-shots of me teaching English Class this Wednesday. "

"American week!"

"Check out what I found while knocking doors in our building!"

"A little missionary reunion at stake conference"

"Snow!! 

This morning was Hna Palomino´s first time seeing snowfall."

"Our trip to "Sol," a super tourist-y plaza about twenty minutes from where we live.  There was a Subway there!!!! So delicious."

"Bedtime in the piso"

"President and Sister Jackson here for our district meeting."

"...that beautiful temple. I´ll get to go in there someday next transfer! (I better not get transferred!!)"

"Sister Jackson forwarded this to all of us. She and President Jackson surprised us and sat in our district meetings!"

Hi family!

First of all, IT´S SNOWING!!!!!!!! It was totally like that moment in the movie, "Hook" (shout out to FUZ!). Hermana Palomino´s desk faces the window, and during comp study, she suddenly yelled, "¡Esta nevando!" (It´s SNOWING!) Haha. I didn´t even know it snowed here. But it is most definitely snowing. Reeeally hard. 

Anyhoo, there were SIX general authorities in Florida??! Looks like they´re really lighting that place on fire. That´s so awesome. It sounds like it was a good week for everybody :)

We had Stake Conference this weekend, and it was also a transmission from SLC, to Spain, Portugal, and another place that I don´t remember. It was neat because a few of the General Authorities can speak Spanish, so they didn´t need a translator!

It was funny, too, because when Elder Ballard was speaking (and he had a translator), anytime he said a word in English that Hermana Palomino recognized, she got all excited. So fun. I also ran into Hermana Fuller and Hermana Lexi Crandall! It was great to see them. I recorded them saying hi. Just be prepared to gag a bit because it´s about a minute of squealy, excited Hermanas that haven´t seen each other in awhile, haha.:)

So, this week wasn´t quite as miraculous as last week, but it was still a solid one! 

F------o is doing great. Still getting better and better with that darn addiction he´s been fighting. Our first lesson that we had this week with him was in this cafe where we have just about all of our lessons (I have had sooooo many hot chocolates there. Poor Hna Palomino is moderately lactose intolerant, too, haha), and we were getting him all motivated to keep making changes and getting better.

As we were talking to him about these changes, I kid you not, "Man in the Mirror" came on the radio. Then, as we explained that these changes come through faith, "You Gotta Have Faith" came on. I was dying inside! Hahaha. Especially because I was the only one who realized what was happening. So funny.

We also met with him in the chapel and had him watch the talk from President Uchtdorf, "You Can Do It Now," and we had a member with us that started going off on him about how he needs to believe in the Book of Mormon and come to church, etc. He got all defensive and told her how he´d committed to coming to church every week, he already knows the Book of Mormon is true, and he's reading and praying everyday. So awesome to hear him say that!  He´s on his way to baptism on the 15th!

We haven´t been able to meet with S----a because, guess what? She was at an Evanglist camp for the last few days! Greeeeat. 

She really wants to talk to us, though. I think she´s super confused because she said on the phone that she felt the spirit a lot at the camp, but still doesn´t have an answer. We´re meeting with her tonight. Prayers, please!

And A----a´s doing pretty well. We haven´t been able to meet with J---e, but when we were teaching A----a this week, we asked if she had any questions. She said, "Yeah, just one. What does it feel like to have the Spirit with you all the time?"

We invited her to come teach with us sometime to find out for herself. :)

Other than those three, we´ve just been working with a LOT of new investigators. Lots of questions, lots of Restoration Lessons, etc. It's been really neat, though, seeing how prepared some of these people are. Just yesterday, we taught a man and his wife (who needs a kidney transplant, so she was thrilled about the resurrection and perfect body part of the plan) the Plan of Salvation. Usually, when we explain about the three kingdoms of glory, no matter how incredible and perfect and wonderful we tell them the Celestial Kingdom is, when we ask where they want to go, everyone always says, "Well, I´m really not sure I could ever make it there. Probably one of the other two." (Not the point of the question!) But this time, with these two, before we could even finish the question, they both were leaning out of their seats and pointing at the picture of the sun, saying, "¡Allí!" (There!!) So cool :)

Hermana Palomino has been cruising with her English, too. She knows that I love teaching her, and she´s been really enjoying herself. I don´t know if I already told you, but she promised me that she´ll be fluent one day, and when the day comes that she can understand the General Conference talks, she´ll visit Utah and attend a session with me :)

Here are some of her phrases of the day this week: 

"Come what may and love it."

"Smile, God loves you!"

"You are stronger than you realize. You are more capable than you can imagine. You can do it now!"

"I promise you that you will one day stand aside and looks at your difficult times and you will realize that He was always there beside you."

"I think I am going to be sick of English."

Haha :) And we´re still working on hymns!

The other day, I was a little upset about something, and she just said, "le ayudaría enseñarme inglés?" (Would it help to teach me English?) Works everytime.

Anyway, as we´ve been teaching all of these new investigators, we've had a lot of hard questions. I´ve concluded that the hardest questions to answer as a missionary are the ones you´ve at one time asked yourself and then simply relied on faith as your answer. 

A strong indicator that someone you´re teaching has learned to trust the spirit and rely on faith is when they reach that point where they stop using questions or doubts as excuses not to believe, and start confiding in us with their questions and doubts because they don´t want anything impeding their belief.

No one starts to believe in the Gospel until they want to! As Alma put it, that´s where it all starts! (Alma 32:27 - even if ye can no more than DESIRE to believe, let that desire work in you, even until ye believe)

It always starts small! 

And, to be honest, some of the very best things this week were super small, but powerful. For example:

-President and Sister Jackson showed up to our District Meeting. Always a huge blessing to see them.

-The Elders gave Hermana Palomino and I Priesthood blessings. Always with exactly what we need to hear.

-We ran into the Elders out contacting, and two seconds later, the other Hnas showed up. Love it when that happens!

-There are some super delicious banana chips that they sell here. Salted like potato chips and super addictive. They had some in the fruit shop next to our piso!

-Ready for this one? It was AMERICAN WEEK in the grocery store! It was a little ridiculous, because a lot of the stuff they have there anyway, but it had the statue of liberty and stars and stripes plastered all over it, haha. But, what they had that I have never seen here before were GOLDFISH CRACKERS and REESES. Hallelujah! 

Haha, and Hermana Phillips told me that there were Goldfish there, and she said, "I thought of you when I saw them in there. I dunno. You just look wholesome and Goldfishy." ;)

The little things make all the difference!  Like with F------o. He is a completely different person right now, and it´s all because he´s been reading, praying, and coming to the chapel. So simple!  President Uchtdorf said in his talk that when he fell on the ski slope, all it took was his grandson saying, "you can do it now!" for him to get up.  And then Alma straight up says in Alma 37:6-7 that these little things are what bring about the salvation of many souls.

Small and simple is the key, folks!

Sorry that was a bit all over the place. There´s a lot happening here in Madrid! It´s been a cold, windy week (I have plently of warm clothes, Mom, no worries!), but we´ve been seeing success and Hermana Palomino and I continue to love being together :)

Love you guys tons!!

Have a "estupendo, genial, y maravillosa" week! (that´s what Carmelo in Gijón always says :)

Love,

Hna Grover