June 23rd, 2014

Hello!

I hope you have all had a great week filled with all the goods. This week i went all over the place. Seriously! I got to go to Galvaston! Sister Piutau had a baptism of someone she taught while we were there so we got to go all the way down there! For someone who doesn't remember ever going to an actual beach this was exciting, the closest I've ever been to the ocean. But guess what! we aren't allowed to drive by the beach or anything! Secretly, I'm glad, it was a beautiful day with the sun shining and water reflecting off the ocean. It was super hot, so you know I would have been tempted to just jump in the water. No fear. So we went and that was a very beautiful service and the family of the man who was being baptized came and had traveled from far away. So that was really cool.. We went to another baptism yesterday (my companion just has taught a lot of people in her time I guess..) 

We started teaching this 16 year old named Louis, and he's super cool, he referred himself through mormon.org. He ordered a book of mormon so we went to deliver it, we went back the next day and he had already read like 3 chapters. This kid is legit. We saw him 3 times last week, I love how the Lord provides us with people who are prepared to be taught. 

I love Edith Lazo. I don't know if she has facebook or what, but she's a ward missionary, member of a year and we're teaching her family and she comes out teaching with us all the time. She's got a really strong testimony of the gospel. I'm jealous. She bought us popusas the other day. Holla. They were delicious. I can't think of anything except that it's hurricane season here, so everyone keeps telling us to be prepared. The only thing I'm not prepared for is this 110 degrees with 100% humidity that everyone keeps warning me about. I wish I had something funny or different to share with you guys but I got nothing. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Hermana Groves

ps mom made a comment about me not cooking... I make this really good chicken for Sister P and me like once a week :)

awkward I didn't mean to send that creepy picture of me... I actually didn't mean to send either of those 2 in the middle. well.. surprise everyone who opens this lame email. haha

apparently being a dad means taping fake mustaches to your face like sideburns

June 17th, 2014

Hola mi amados familia y amigos

How has your week been? I will tell you right now, I had a great week. It really was an awesome week. Me and Sister Piutau were killin it, last transfer we averaged about 10 lessons a week.. this week? We almost doubled that. 19 lessons, which is incredible for this area. It was lots of hard work though, we talked to a lot of people and asked everyone for referrals and guess what! We ended up with 4 new investigators!(Which in comparison to our 0 every week was awesome)

We are really trying to pick this area up and I think we're doing it. Heavenly Father sees our efforts and our desires and is blessing us for them. I don't know if I told you about Claudio, who a member invited to come to the book of mormon class a few weeks ago, well his friend invited him to the class, this week we actually got contact of him and taught him two days in a row and he accepted a baptismal date. Isn't that awesome? Get this, he's also requesting Sunday's off so he can come to church. This guy is legit and is so ready to better his life. 

It's hot out here. If you guys didn't already know. One day this week, ONE DAY we decided to ride our bikes, my lanta, we were on fire. after riding our bikes ALL day we got in the car after hooking our bikes onto the back and the thermometer said.. 111 degrees and it was not 0% humidity either. Why do I even where white shirts anymore? If you know what I mean.. haha I was gross! But in that process we met a lot of people who became potential for us so, I cannot complain. People are so prepared. Okay I've said it once, but I'll say it again, people are crazy. They crack me up. I can't think of anyone specific but I have just been told so many random stories this week. Do you think it's because they want to confuse us into not talking to them? probably, but I wasn't the queen of prank calls for nothing. I can turn anything into a situation that I want to, okay? haha

We went to the zoo yesterday. It could have been a funner experience, haha we got lost... a few times.. and no offence to the birds.. but if we're going to the zoo.. I want to see some big cats. We should have known of course that because it was really hot that all of the animals would be hiding in the shade. But we got a good laugh out of the monkeys. Thank goodness for the monkeys, they crack me up. 

Well guys, I can't think of much else. But Sister Piutau and I did a father's day photoshoot, I thought the hat looked like black hair. Whatever.  (also I love all the mothers in my life but you can't really dress up as a mother haha.. anyways no one get offended) I hope that you all had a good week! Sorry the email was today. internet was bad in the library yesterday. Also sorry it's scatterbrained. Not used to writing on Tuesdays. Love you all. keep strong and carry on! :)

Happy Father's Day!

June 9th, 2014

Happy Father's Day week!!

Well this week I was given a new companion. Let me tell you guys, she's kickin'. Her name is Sister Piutau (pew- t-ou) all the way from Ontario, CA but her parents are from Tonga. My lanta this girl is hilarious. Basically we just have opposite senses of humor but we both laugh at the other. There's like a joke from everything. Also she's super cute. I know all the men are fighting over her back home. And she can sing. Ah. I like her. But unfortunately she's going home next transfer.By the end of next transfer like ALL of my companions will be home. Dumb. Anyways..But on the brightside we got to drive away from the mission office in a brand spankin new car. It only had 30 miles on it.  This week we got lost. A lot. I'm buying a GPS this week because we cannot continue to just drive/ride around lost all day. It's not very purposeful. 

On another hand, we had a "Multicultural Potluck" for our ward party this week. I love living in America. The melting pot. Whatever country you can think of, it was represented. It was so awesome. And we had some investigators come and get to know the ward so that was really good. It was a good chance for us to get to know them and just get personal. The senior couple went out with us to subway a few weeks ago and I got a footlong. Bad idea. Elder Mechling at everything we're at with food he makes sure to come up to me and say "I knew the first round wasn't going to be enough for you" at Zone meeting they brought lunch for us and he said "I want you guys to make sure you leave enough for Sister Groves. But Sister Groves you gotta leave enough for everyone else." Haha so that's a constant battle. But whatever, I eat alot. I'm healthy. Get over it! haha

So yesterday we went to our ward and the single's ward with one of our recent converts who wanted to try it out. And let me tell you. I'm so glad I'm not in singles ward right now. haha awkward. Besides the point, during the sacrament in our ward we were sitting there reverently and this like 2 year old was doing the 2 year old thing and just kinding standing on the pew looking back. Well.. She had been holding her sacrament water in her mouth and she looked right at us and spit all over Sister Piutau! Haha holy cow, I know we gotta be reverent during the sacrament. But I was dying. Haha "Welcome To Maplewood 2 Sister Piutau!!" Just can't get over it. 

Guys I love being a missionary. I'm so glad to be out here in Texas, I want you all to know that no time is wasted in the work of the Lord, whether it's serving in a calling, being a full time or a part time missionary. Heavenly Father wants all of his children to return to Him and it's all our responsibility. You guys are great, I love you and hope you have a fantastic week. Keep strong and carry on :)

"I got soul but I'm not a soldier"

July 2nd, 2014

This week we got transfer calls and guess what... Sister Groves is staying in Maplewood 2 and Sister Ritter is being transferred. That came as a giant surprise for us.. seriously. Sister Ritter thought that she was going to end her mission here and well...I thought I'd go back to Spanish eventually.. I will, I will. :) 

This week was so lame guys. We basically rode our bikes to the other side of the world, and I say that because we had to bike through an ocean. Haha it dumped buckets here. We had like 4 flash flood warnings, but the work doesn't stop for a little rain. Haha. My legs are so ripped you would not believe it, trudging through the water on my bike.. Man. haha 

But because of that we weren't able to teach a lot of people. We were trying this less active family and so we knocked on the door, and this young man opened the door (he wasn't the less active, but his brother[babysitting the kids]) and he said he would love for us to come in and share a message, we saw that there was a woman inside so we thought it was okay for us to go in. Well that lady seemed to have disappeared as we came to sit down. Let's call this guy Tom, for the smoothness of the story. We were offered a seat, drinks, all the southern hospitality stuff. He sat in the middle of the couch and Sister Ritter just kinda sat on the couch, I avoided that situation and sat on a random chair. We were asking him questions about his beliefs and he was asking questions about everything but our beliefs. Luckily I wasn't born yesterday so when he started staring and told the kids to go outside I took that hint. But apparently I was the only one, I was trying to hint that we needed to go, but Sister Ritter didn't catch my drift. Haha this guy was pro, you can tell that he was a ladies man, he was trying. But I asked if we could say a prayer with him and then just picked up my stuff and said "man we really gotta go!" he was like "ah come on, stay a little bit longer, I'm sure you can be late." HA! no. no we can't be late for our FAKE APPOINTMENT. Yikes.

I talked to this man on the bus and he told me all about how Americans are racist and that he's surprised I speak Spanish cause I look like a racist American. But he liked me cause I didn't deny him space in the ER. People on the bus are nuts. I am a person on the bus sometimes. I'm also nuts. 

As I continued to ride my bike this week I kept singing "come come ye saints" but without even thinking about it I actually ended up giving it a remix to "I got soul but I'm not a soldier" by the killers. hahaha He's mormon.. so it's approved.. right? baha wrong. But whatever keeps you biking..

I don't have a whole lot more to share. Sorry this week was lame. I hope you guys have a great week :) LOVE YOU!

Sister Groves

Happy Late Memorial Day!

May 27th, 2014

Hello hello!

First off, shout out to Al for graduating. I am so proud of you!:) Also I'm so jealous to everyone who went to Beaver, I was telling like all the members what I was missing out on for memorial day haha. Also Congrats to Ashley and Troy for the awesome news about the baby :)

Next order of business... Well last week for P-day we went to Sugar Land down to the Hindu Temple. It was actually really cool. The structures of those buildings are incredible. Hand carved. It's nuts! That was fun, it was a zone activity so I actually got to see some sisters. Haha Sister Pace from Cedar is in my zone, did I tell anyone that? Well I accidentally called her by name and everyone was basically appalled. Haha I think it was just more weird than anything. But anyways, that was a cool experience. I love building structures. 

On Wednesday we had exchanges and Sister Bloom, our sister training leader, came to me and we just rode bikes, like all day long. Haha we talked to a lot of people and got some contact information too. She's bold. Holy cow. I can be bold in Spanish, cause if they turn me down I just tell myself it's cause I'm a little white girl who can't speak Spanish, but in my native tongue, I'm afraid of rejection so I just kinda hold it back. But she pumped me up a little bit so for the past few days I've been trying really hard to just talk to everyone.

On Saturday we went to 2 baptisms, one for Sister Ritter's old investigator and the other for an investigator the elders in our ward were teaching. The first baptism was so well organized, peaceful and just seemed to go perfectly. The one organized by the elders... Haha oh man, here's a story I can't wait to tell. The water heater in our font is broken. So obviously you don't want to be imersed in that.. So she went in the water and was about to get baptized and her husband was going to do it, first time ever baptizing someone so the elders were basically pep talking him. I then realized that she was not wearing a bra, with a thin dress, and us being the only other women there, you know that was probably going to be a scarring experience. So I ran up to the font and told her she may want to put on a bra. Thank goodness I did. Because she came back out and was baptized 3 more times because she kept sticking out an elbow or a toe or something and so as they were about to do the 4th time under our ward mission leader tells them to wait a second. We thought he was just gonna go pep talk from the font, 1 minute later, I kid you not, one minute later he comes into the font wearing a jumpsuit. Haha it was like "super Myles to save the day" I was chuckling so hard to myself at how fast and unexpected that was. Haha so he goes and just makes sure that all of her is under water when she was baptized. This was a really really weird experience for me and I'm pretty sure it was for everyone else too.

A member was giving us a ride yesterday and in the car we listened to this story for her son and it sang this song about loving walking in your own shoes and there was a line that said "I love my wet shoes, I love my wet shoes" we definitely ended up singing that song later that day. Holy hannah, we biked through like a flood. We couldn't see the curb but we just trudged through it. We were drenched. From head to toe, our bags, our raincoats, everything under them. It was ridiculous. Haha and we can't ride in our car so.. For this rainy week we will have to.. Endure through the stormy week that will come. It 

On Friday we realized that we were super super low on miles. Like we probably have 40 miles to get us through until June so we had no other choice but to.. Hit the bikes. Our area is very reliant on the freeway system though..What did we do? Of course we rode through the weeds and bushes on the side of the freeway. Of course I was leading the way. Even though it was terrible, it was actually a really spiritual experience for me. Weird, right? So as we were riding I just started thinking about the pioneers first, because I was singing "put your shoulder to the wheel" to myself. haha. I actually gashed my foot with this deadly weed and I was bleeding all over the place, and I told my companion to stop for a minute, as a warning of the nasty weeds that will eat your flesh. But she didn't stop, she actually got one stuck in her gear and fell off her bike. It really got me thinking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was thinking about every path that we've taken, he's experienced it. He testifies to us through the spirit that we either need to go a different way or continue onward. He had to pay the price of justice for us and so as we were biking I was thinking of how I was like the Savior in this situation, I had gone through it all, so I needed to warn my companion of certain bumps in the way that would make her ride a little bit harder, when she didn't listen she faced consequences, and I was thinking about how often we take the Savior's atonement in vain, that what we know what we're doing isn't right and we continue or we just ignore promptings of the spirit, and yes we can repent of those things, but wouldn't it be easier to just do things right the first time? I just want you guys to all know that I know the Savior atoned for our sins and that as we follow in his steps we will find happiness. He is the light and he is the way. Holy cow, the gospel is awesome. I'm so happy to be a missionary. I love you all and hope you have a great week :) Keep strong and carry on!

Sister Groves

May 19th, 2014

This will probably be short cause I waited until the last 20 minutes of my email to write my group email. 

This week we took a mission temple trip! My first time in the temple for 9 months! It was so awesome, I went with a group of sisters. We woke up at 4 drove to the temple started our special session at like 6 and then afterwards we had a Q&A with President and Sister Ashton and then the temple president, President Crane and his wife. It was a really cool experience but very sacred ,I learned a lot about the order of the temple and why things are the way they are. President challenged us to pray in advance over what our true characters are and who we really are.  I learned a lot about myself as I tried to find my true character but nothing stood out to me FOR me. I was enlightened with everything everyone else was sharing but I couldn't find it for me. Afterwards I was discouraged, I didn't understand why everyone suddenly felt their divine character or purpose but I couldn't find mine. The next day I was a little discouraged and decided to pray really hard for it. I studied the scriptures and then suddenly... Lightbulb. Patriarchal blessing. As I read I picked up many of the characteristics we had spoke about: courage, excitement to have knowledge, leadership, charity, dicerning between right and wrong, and a few others I can't remember at the moment. The reason I didn't receive an answer in the temple is because I already had one. I just needed to open my eyes and heart a little bit.

So that was an awesome experience. I wish I could go back and do it again, the temple president told us that it was a once in a lifetime thing and that we probably wouldn't have that oportunity again. 

You wanna hear a funny story? Good I'm gonna tell you one. We had a really really slow week and so we were walking around trying to find people to teach on a busy street, the wild was blowing, but it was hot outside so we appreciated it. Well I don't know how long we were walking but like 2 cars honked within like 30 seconds of each other. I turned around to look and guess what? The wind had blown my skirt up so that my skirt was no longer covering my bum and was like bunched below my backpack. I was walking on a public street guys! How embarassing. Haha talk about showing your religion.. Bahaha classic Hermana Groves right? I just thought I was getting a nice breeze.. nope the wind was directly hitting me. Haha

Also last week while we were grocery shopping and I was drinking water (I hadn't all day) so I was smiling. I look up and this like 50 year old man is staring at me. So I smile and look away and look back and he's still looking. He's a little while away.. But he yells to me "Maam, I'm sorry for staring, but you got your self a MILLION dolla smile!" I like pointed to myself and he said "Yes maam! Did you see me staring at anyone else?" haha I told him thanks. But that was basically the most flattering thing I've heard on my mission. Haha he was completely sincere and just walked away. Random acts of kindness, I dig them. 

Just remember I love you guys. You're fantastic. Keep strong and carry on :)

Hermana Groves

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

May 12th, 2014

This week we had what seemed like a really long week, where we taught a few lessons and the rest of it was just driving around trying to find people in our are area, less actives and formers all that fun. But after 2 days straight of strictly knocking doors and calling old/bad phone numbers we recieved 3 marvelous texts. We had referrals, the best kind mormon.org referrals. These are the people who go out of their way to find the church website and ask for missionaries. So you know what we're doing this week! We're going to go visit them. I am so pumped. We were working up a sweat trying almost the whole ward list to get less actives and we were blessed by our efforts with some potential investigators. YAY! 

 

So I can't remember if I told you about a less active we're teaching named Cynthia. But she is a riot. Seriously she's really cleaning up here life, she's getting married, she's been clean for 2 weeks of cocaine and she came to church yesterday for the first time in a long time! Let me just tell you some of the things she says that is just so funny. To me anyways. So she was thinking about her marrying Edward (her live in boyfriend) while she was by herself the other day and she said "Sisters, I was thinking about Edward the other day and I was praying to my Heavenly Father and the thought came to me that Heavenly Father is gonna be Edward's father in law. Oh wait that means Heavenly Father's gonna be my new father in law! Heavenly Father's gonna get a new son AND daughter in law!! Oh man, Cynthia where you going with all this?"  hahaha I love her. So there was this other time she was talking about right after she was baptized in like the 80's and how she was living on God's side. She said that she and God were so close that she would get her hair done and it's be raining and as soon as she said "My haaaaiirrr" the rain would stop. She's super entertaining and sweet too, she sometimes takes in homeless people and gives them food, bathes them and sends them on their way. She's a really great lady I really like her. I'm glad her friend from the ward comes with us most of the time though, she's better at keeping her on track than we are haha.

So we have been working a lot with them members and just getting to know them and their families. One rule I hate as a missionary is the baby rule. In every house I go in there is a baby under the age of 1. I just wanna hold all the babies! Speaking of my young ward, yesterday being mother's day the primary kids sang but there is no such thing as a senior primary here, there are 3 nurseries and about 50 children in the primary under the age of 8. This ward is adorable. But you can imagine how that song went without the older kids there to kinda lead the song. Haha I didn't even cry! That was mainly cause I didn't really know what song they were singing hahaha. Ah man. 

I finally saw a Vermont Licence Plate. Ahh Yeah! I can't think of anything else to share. I hope all you mothers had a good mother's day and I was so happy to talk to the fam yesterday :) I hope everyone has a great week! :) LOVE YOU!

Sister Groves

Attachments area