I don't have feeling in my feet anymore. Don't worry about it. haha

September 29th, 2014

Well this week I'm just pooped. And that is how this email is going to begin. You thought we were busy trying to contact people last week? Hahahaha then you have no idea what this week was like. We had 3 set appointments for the whole week. And we're supposed to be out of our apartment from 12 until 9 every day. You know what that means. We got out, and we worked our butts off. But you know what? I was definitely blessed in ways that I don't even know if I can explain. While we're out walking/biking it's usually so hard to keep my thoughts where they need to be (on the work, and on the people we teach, not on things or people at home) but I've realized that as I've been diligently working on that as we are out, that is no longer something I have to constantly worry about. It happens sometimes but not more than it should. And that's a blessing. We also went on exchanges, our sister training leader Hna Green came with me and we hit the streets(like always) we had a miracle day!!! We taught 7 lessons out on the street to people who were genuinely interested. It was incredible! Unfortunately only 1 of them actually lives in our area BUT those are still 6 people ready to learn about the gospel somewhere else! That was literally a miracle. I just kept saying "Our diligence is finally paying off, Heavenly Father Loves us!!!" Which obviously he does. But when you are walking around all day in the Texas heat with people being rude to you you need a reminder of it. 

Heavenly Father keeps putting people in our paths to encourage us to keep going. The other day, it was(or felt like) the hottest day of the week and we were just trudging along on our bikes and we hear "GOD BLESS YOU!!" like 5 times. we look across the street (about 8 lanes, mind you) and see this man jumping up and down at the bus stop saying "I'M TALKING TO YOU SISTAS. GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP SPREADING THE WORD!" We gave him a nod of appreciation and he yelled it again, but this time with pounding his chest with his fist and throwing up the "I love you" sign. I don't know about Hermana Nath, but that's EXACTLY what I needed. Haha. We also had this man come up to us and say "I just want you to know that you ladies are glowing, and not because you're sweating. Keep spreading the word of God." thank you for pointing out that we're sweating, but really, we needed to hear that. Haha

And for the awkward moment of the week, we were going to contact people (obviously) and there were these 3 people sitting at a bus stop. A Hispanic lady, a black man and an Asian lady. No this isn't the beginning of a joke. So I was just wondering.. "How am I going to talk to them?" and I'll have you know that this is something that I have mastered so I just stopped my bike and..(Now as a quick backround, we had a training once about if you don't know what to say, open your mouth and the Lord will fill it with what you need to say) sat on my bike, made some extreme eye contact with these people and just had my mouth wide open. In the 10 seconds (that felt like 20 minutes btw) that I had my mouth open I just waited. I got nothing. Except probably a few bugs in my mouth. Haha so I just said "uhh Have a great day" and biked off. Just in case you were wondering, I haven't lost my awkward on the mission. Just gained a different kind. 

I would love to talk about sisters conference but.. I understood very little of it. I was actually the missionary sitting in the back row who fell asleep because she was too tired trying to translate. Haha oh the joys :) But Elder Uchtdorf's talk was awesome. 

I hope you all got some sorts of laugh from this email. Haha I want you all to know that I'm in the right place right now. I may seem a little discouraged but honestly I know I have a purpose here. I hope you all have a great week. Keep strong and carry on! I love you all :)

Hermana Groves 

please don't zoom into the picture of my crusty foot. thanks. haha

Pioneer children sang as they walked.. and walked.. and walked...

September 22nd, 2014

Hello hello. Very eventful week here in the Texas Houston South Mission. So I'll just try to cover the goods to the best of my abilities. 

Because it was Hermana Vargas' last P-day last week we had a district activity(plus a companionship from our zone so we wouldn't appear that we were pairing off) and we went to the zoo! This time it was a lot more eventful than last time.. Mainly because elders are like little boys sometimes. Haha they would just get so excited, we spent a good 40 minutes with all the different monkeys. Correction, I spent all day with monkeys but they weren't locked up in the zoo, if you catch my drift. Haha. It was a good day to be there because obviously it was hot, but not Texas hot, like it was when Sister Piutau and I went. All in all, it was a successful p-day.

Wednesday was a rough day. Well, obviously because I sent my companion back to Utah, in the middle of the transfer. Not fair. But another thing that wasn't fair was the 2 temple square sisters (who were replacing the ones going back to the square) were sitting with us in the office for like 2 hours before we found out who our companions were. So we just awkwardly tried to not be more nice to one than the other... I was lucky enough to receive Hermana Nath. (Pronounced like gnat) she was born in equador, but raised mainly in spain. Two Hermanas from Spain in a row. That's pretty rare if you ask me.. But she's really cute and a super hard worker. And I know this because I'm putting us to work. 

 So yeah, suddenly I'm over this area that I've only been in for 3 weeks, where I don't know very many members and don't really know what they expect from missionaries. Basically white washing. Because of that, and our lack of people to teach we've been working really hard. Physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We're also basically out of miles. So one day we rode our bikes about 24 miles. (we live about 6 miles out of our area) and that was like Hermana Nath's second day here. I'm pretty sure she hates me. Haha just kidding, but I would definitely hate me if I were her. So for the subject of this email.. For 4 full days we had ZERO appointments and no one would open their door, so we walked. and walked. and walked. We were talking to everyone we could find in the street/complexes and it averaged to about 1 "street lesson" a day. My companion is a trooper. Did I mention that we're working on diligence as a companionship? Well we are, and Heavenly Father is definitely trying to help us grown in this attribute. Everyday something is put in our path for us to decide whether we want to keep going or give up. It's definitely worth it though, I know that only good will come from the trial of my diligence. 

We also had a ward party for this holiday that basically all Hispanics celebrate their freedom from "La Madre Espania" haha. There were a bunch of cool cultural dances and lots and lots of food. Hispanics know how to have good clean fun! And guess who was there? The Avalos family that I taught in H1. Whenever I see them I just get all choked up and so happy to see that their active in the church. I just love them.

I wish I had some funny stories or something, but this week we will see the blessings of our hard work. I hope you guys have a great week. I love you all! Keep strong and carry on :)
Hermana Groves

I would just like you all to look at the awkward missionary space between the elders and the sisters at the zoo. that's it. haha

Also I have the best district in the world. 

Me and Sister Nath :)

September 15th, 2014

Buenas dias! I hope ya'll are having a great week and that you're seeing the hand of God in your lives every day. This week started out on the rough side.. For 2 full days we didn't teach anyone. Oh my lanta, that was so hard. But we were patient and eventually the Lord blessed us. There is this family that's on the ward roster that lives in our area that says "doesn't want contact with the missionaries" written in, but you know what? We tried it anyways, the family opened the door and said "Oh my gosh it's been so long since we've seen the missionaries! We're busy right now but PLEASE come back." What the? We weren't even gonna go visit them and what would have happened if we didn't? I don't know, but that was a miracle, that's for sure! 

We visited Hna Rosa, this less active member twice this week. Oh my lanta. Kids say the darndest things, but so does Hna Rosa. Haha she kills me. We were talking about prophets the first time and in the pamphlet she saw this PAINTING of Isaiah and was like "how handsome wow how handsome this man in this painting."  and then later on we were talking about how the prophets now still receive revelation for the world. We used pornography as an example and she misunderstood and started talking about how the people back then were "caliente" which means they were hot temperature wise, but my companion told me that when you talk about people being caliente it means they're like really... hormonal.. Haha and so she was saying basically "oh course the prophets prophesied of that cause the people back then were really hormonal" haha when Hna Vargas told me that I was dying. Because when we were teaching her I agreed! I was thinking a long the lines of like they didn't have AC or whatever. But I was like "Oh yeah of course the people were hot, why wouldn't they be?" just hand me the dunce hat already. Haha. But then as we were leaving she noticed I had a few mosquito bites and I told her I was fine because I put on.. (couldn't think of the word for bug repellent) so I was moving my hands trying to.. I don't know physically force the words out of my mouth? Anyways she was like "what? are you going swimming? were you going swimming? Can mosquitos swim?" haha another phrase I wasn't familiar with so of course I just agreed. This girl needs to learn her Spanish better. Haha. I'm bringing shame upon the family name. 

OH! This story is nuts. Prepare for it. So we were walking in this complex trying to contact some of our referrals that we've received and we met on! So we were talking to her outside and our phone kept ringing with this number that wasn't in our phone. They left a voicemail so after we taught this lady we went to the parking lot to listen to this message. This creepy guy like walks up near us so we just avoid eye contact and walk to the car. We listen to this message that says "You guys are little gossips you cancelled your appointment with me but I see you walking around my complex, you say you spread the word of God but you're lying" it's from a guy we contacted on the street that we had to reschedule our appointment because we got held up at someone else's house. and so we called him back apologizing and he says "really, you just walked by me and ignored me" oh man we felt so bad. We were like "man we didn't recognize you, when we met you it was dark, would it be okay if we came and visited you right now?" and he said "you know, I'm a little drunk right now so maybe not" but that's not it, Hermana Vargas starts trying to set something up and he says "I really want the American to teach me English, but I want her to come alone" "Well we stay in a pair so where she goes I go" "Well can I take the American out to dinner and have you sit at another table?" oh my lanta. This conversation went on forever. Until he asked if I was married or engaged. Hna Vargas said that saying I was married was too much so she told him I was engaged his response was "well engagements can easily be broken" This guy is such a creep and I'm definitely never going back there again and we blocked his number. Haha but it was the creepiest/ridiculous thing I've ever witnessed in my mission. Also you know how we Americans love accents? Apparently other countries like gringo accents. Go figure! But all is well in Zion, we're safe we're not going back to that complex with out someone. 

But on Wednesday Hna Vargas goes back to temple square. It's been too short, I love her and will miss her so much! 

So that was my week. Hope everyone else had a good one. I love you all. Keep strong and carry on :)

"Doctor, doctor, give me the news I gotta bad case of..."

September 8th, 2014

So quick opening: if there is anyone receiving this email that would no longer like to receive it, just let me know. I have an automatic list and it's really easy for me to take you off. I know that it's kinda annoying if you don't have the desire to read it. Talk about immediate spam mail, haha so just email me back if that's the case. If not, disregard this message. :)

So as my email from last week said, I was a little sick. But that night, I was trying to man up, bad idea. We went over to have dinner with the Villalobos family (our ward mission leader's fam) and it turned out to be a disaster. I don't know if ya'll have ever had real Mexican fajitas, but I'll tell you now that they do NOT agree with a sensitive stomach. Haha. Not along with like 6 bean soup either. Oh my goodness, it was so bad. I'll just leave it at that. But we were supposed to have our ward correlation meeting that night but we didn't go because I was just.. not having it. But the ward mission leader thought that his wife poisoned us when really, I was already sick. Anyways, he said they probably won't feed us again. There goes that bridge I already burned. Haha. It'll be fine, I'll just pig out next time we eat over there.

Wednesday we were able to have a zone meeting which was really good. There was a talk about "ministering to the one" where we talked on really just focusing on people, if nothing else making sure the people we work with know that we love them. I really loved that, that's been my perspective probably my whole mission, but I know so many missionaries that are so focused on baptizing people but not the people we baptize. This work is all about helping people grow in their relationship with God and His son, Jesus Christ so that's what we need to do first. Help them with whatever obstacles are in their way and help them take the leaps of faith necessary to make covenants. 

We saw our investigator Hailey that day as well. She's 9. So our lessons are always all over the place. They always seem to end with her asking "Will there be.... in heaven?" Also I heard her whispering to one of the kids saying "If I turned into a bear.. would I be an adult bear, a teenage bear or a kid bear?" That's a really good question, that I would like you all to think about for the next week, okay? Haha I have been thinking about it since she asked and I cannot give a sure answer..

On Thursday we took Hna Hull (who is in the first week of her mission by the way) to the doctor and spent like 4 hours there. Turns out she probably has apendecitis (however you spell that) so that's not very good, at all. Nothing stresses you out more than being in a completely foreign place having a completely foreign experience. Let's all wish her luck. Also prayers, prayers would be good. 

Friday Hna Vargas wanted to ride our bikes. Rides our bikes we did. We live about 3 miles outside of our area. But we biked all the way to it and for about 2 hours in between teaching. Haha we were dead by the time we were about a block away from our apartment... We're chugging along probably the slowest you can go on a bike and these European tourists ride past us and stop at the same stop sign as us. We're deeply breathing and they shake their heads and say.. "Americans.." and biked off. Hna Vargas was not happy with that haha. But whatever, I'm a lazy American. I know it. We were definitely blessed that day though for working hard, we were able to see a lot of people and get some new investigators. Work hard and be rewarded :)

We really think that biking Friday blessed us the rest of the weekend because we had a lot of success. It was such a blessing! We had a few lessons with members inviting their friends over and some other random things.

But yesterday takes the cake. We were eating dinner at a member's house (this was our second dinner..this area is making me so large and in charge) and her daughter and son in law were there because she wanted to introduce us, that's not all. She had her daughter Skype her other daughter in Mexico so we could meet her. (all these people are members)  Haha it was so funny everyone felt really awkward about it except this member. She just ate it up, she loves the missionaries and she loves her family so obviously she would put the two together in whatever way she could! Haha Hna Ruiz is such a sweetheart, I was so honored to meet her family.

I just want ya'll to know I love my mission. I realized a few days ago that I'm really on the downward slope. BUT that doesn't mean anything, I want to be the best missionary I can be and I'm far from it. So I got lots of time. I love ya'll so much and hope that you all have a splendid week. Love always

Hermana Groves 

ps I'm basically a person of walmart knitting at the doctors office

Español otra vez!

September 2nd, 2014

As you all read my email from last week (which I'm sure you did..) you know that I was transferred, and my friends, I was. Back in Spanish baby! But get this.. I actually live in my first (Spanish) area. Haha I'm in a different ward and we don't live in our area but I will never be able to get over my first area which I loved because... I drive through it multiple times a day! Haha and the familia Avalos (the family that I baptized) live across the street from one of our borders. It makes me upset because I really just want to go visit them. Haha. Always wanting more.. 

But I also got some more cool news. I have a native companion. Her name is Hermana Vargas, she's from Barcelona, Spain. Holy Hannah. She's so foreign, I love her. She's a temple square sister, so what they do for 12 weeks they go "outbound" to one of the other missions in the states and have a proselyting mission. Unfortunately, I only get her for the last 3 weeks of her outbound and then she goes back to Salt Lake. It's super depressing because I love her so much. We get along so well! But maybe ya'll could go visit her on the square someday. 

Okay so this week we've had some bipolar weather, it's super hot and then it rains. Typical Houston, I know. But we had many adventures, like riding our bikes, filling up our tires, contacting people, ect. Never trust Houston weather, it can still be 100 outside and rain. 

Our area is pretty dead. Meaning we don't have a lot of people to teach, investigators or members. Our bishop just got excommunicated for something way scandalous and basically the ward is falling apart, a lot of people are going inactive because of it. You know what president said to me  "You are the perfect missionary for this area. You seem to fix things that appear to be messed up to no recovery." obviously he said it more eloquently like president and less like me but you get the point. He told me that I'm going to work miracles here. I don't think it'll be too hard for it to go up from here. Haha  but I definitely have faith. 

Honestly I don't have a lot more to share.. I've been a little under the weather and so we haven't been running around as much because.. well that'd be a disaster haha. But I'm so lucky to be a missionary. I love it. I love representing my Savior to the best of my ability. I know that his grace is sufficient, even for me. I love you all and hope you have a great rest of the week! Until then, be strong and carry on! I love you!

Hermana (oh yeah, I love the ring of that) Groves

August 25th, 2014

Hola. Como estan? 

After weekly emails for the past year you would think that I could come up with a unique opening liner every week. Well, you(mainly me) were wrong. Get used to it. So let's just get right to the goods shall we?

Well.. This past week we were able to teach a YSA named DJ, and he decided that he wants to be baptized. On his birthday. In like 2 weeks. Sounds great right? Well it is, except for the fact that there are a certain amount of lessons we have to teach before someone can be baptized and we are only on the first.. still.. with him. His comprehension isn't the greatest but his heart is there 100% he's been coming to church, FHE and meeting with the elders for a long time he wants to be baptized so badly. So we're going to see him again tonight and explain more about the priesthood to him. It should be really good, we have a lot of YSAs coming to teach him with us tonight. 

On Wednesday we saw Millie (a recent convert) and it turns out she had found out that her godson had passed away. She was a wreck, but we were able to talk to her about the plan of salvation and how children under 8 don't need to be baptized to enter into the kingdom of God, so that was a really good lesson, the spirit was really really strong. On our way back from that appointment guess who we saw in our apartment parking lot.. Gene and a few of his buddies. He says "Hey guys, you gotta listen to these sisters, they speak the whole truth and nothing but it!" we were able to teach Gene and his friends about the restoration and the part that killed me was when Sister Winger was talking about the first vision and Gene nudged me and whispered "They're gonna love this.." so now we know that it was a wise investment giving Gene the restoration video, he said he's watched it maybe 4 times since we gave it to him a week ago. haha oh Gene, I got more to share about him later. 

We then had dinner with a ward missionary Sister Rogers and she gave us this cider in wine glasses.. She kept making this joke of acting surprised/ashamed when her husband (1st counselor in the bishopbric) came in from work. She just thought that would be the funniest thing ever. We didn't do it, but she had a hoot just thinking about it. haha After dinner with Sister Rogers we had our 2nd dose of dinner with a less active woman in the ward. She took good care of us. We went out to this restaurant called Ghengis Grill, so good. But pretty expensive for taking the missionaries out (in my opinion haha) but it was so good. We were stuffed, the woman in the ward asked our waiter if he could roll her out to her car. Haha oh my gosh he wasn't sure if she was serious or not. But honestly, neither was I. Haha so we have these potential investigators that we know and the other day the girlfriend came and knocked on our door..(They live in the same complex as us) and told us that she was making some salmon and that she was gonna have too much for her family so we were invited over. Who turns down salmon? Obviously not me. Haha so we were actually able to eat with them and teach them! It was definitely a miracle!

another GREAT MIRACLE!! Louis was baptized this past weekend and I was able to go! When he saw me he ran up and gave me this giant hug and I just awkwardly stood there and said "Louis, you know you can't hug me, you really need to stop" haha his response was "Sister Groves, it's not even like that. SISTER Groves" haha but it was so good to see him! None of his family was there to support him so that really was sad, but he was baptized by one of the young men in the ward and they've become really good friends! It was really cool, I sat by him throughout the whole thing and I just felt like I knew exactly why I was sent to Maplewood 2nd. 

So now onto the Gene story. Gene has been doing awesome lately, we've been teaching him and he's basically accepted everything.. So we asked him to pray about baptism. He did! The answer that he got was that he needed to be baptized the problem being that he didn't care where it was or who did it. So on saturday night he told us that he wasn't going to be able to make it to church because he was going to get baptized by his friend at his friends house. That was probably the most heartbreaking thing ever. Priesthood authority is something we've really been trying to help him understand. 

But as far as the rest of the week goes.. P day is changed to Tuesday next week, due to Labor day so don't be alarmed to not get an email on monday and i'm being transferred. More details to come next email. I love ya'll and hope you have a great week. Keep strong and carry on my friends :)

Love always

Hermana Groves

How can you tell the difference between a gecko and a lizard? The lizard won't try to sell you car insurance. Haha

August 19th, 2014

Happy Mid-august! Hopefully all is well on your side of the world (wherever it may be) 

Let's see where the goods are this week.. Well this week was pretty average. Obviously I'm going to start with the weather report. HOT, HOT, HOT. Like sweat dripping down your legs hot (I say that because I never have experience that in my life before. And it happened here) but it has also been raining buckets. Also, not new here. 

This week we saw a recent convert named Millie in the singles branch and she told us that her Godson, was in a car accident, is in a coma, and has a 30% chance of living. This is a really hard thing for her considering that he lives in Alabama and it's not easy for her to get there. We were able to have a really great lesson on the Atonement of Christ with her and how everything works in the Lord's way and his timing. As we taught that lesson I was able to feel my testimony of Christ growing from her testimony. 

We had a really cool miracle happen. A few weeks ago this whole family showed up to church without an invitation from anyone or anything. They have come for the past 3 weeks, (they don't actually live in our ward boundaries though) and we stopped by to check up on them and they told us that they basically disected the church website/mormon.org and they knew all about how the Hymns are the same wherever you go, they ordered all the church magazines and get this, they were asking us about how the church rotates the times that church starts every year and they asked if the missionaries could come meet them. This family is so cool. After we got in the car, the member who came out with us was like "Why?! Why can't they be in OUR ward boundaries? and Who does that? Who orders the church magazines? We need to somehow get them in our ward". That's not where I'm going with that, but I just thought it was so cute how she wanted them to be in our ward. Haha 

The next day we were having dinner with a member and her grandmother was there. Get this, she only speaks Spanish. Guess who got to use her Spanish for a whole hour and a half during dinner. This guy. Dang am i rusty. haha but it was so nice to be able to put that to use!

Our neighbor Humberto and his sons: Christian and Gabriel have let us start to teach them, Gabriel is 14 and he is SO GOLDEN. The only problem that we're coming up against is that even though he wants to be baptized he's going back to CT to live with his mom in like a week. That puts a bump in the road, but he told us that he LOVED when we came over because we are answering questions that he's always had. 

On Friday I got to go on exchanges with the lovely Sister Cardus (All the way from Argentina aka Temple Square) and we had the best time together. My companion forgot my year mark and she didn't get to celebrate hers cause we were on exchanges so we got to spend our year mark together eating ice cream and getting lost and hanging out in the rain. Oh my lanta. I love her. We are soul sisters and I want to be her friend forever. That's that. Haha she cracks me up!

We had a YSA activity on Saturday it was a BBQ and fun at the park. Let's talk about awkward missionaries at a YSA activity. Okay done. Basically any time a guy comes up to us we have to almost kindly ignore them..? We can't encourage YSA's to have crushes on missionaries. Where's all the fun in that ;) haha jk. But the ladies in our ward have a love hate relationship with us. We're still working on it. 

Yesterday we taught our friend Gene again and he is just so close to accepting the gospel. I can't get over it. We watched the restoration video and what he said after it? "Man this movie relates so much to me and my life. I even had a dream with a light kinda like he saw, can I keep this movie?" so we tried to see how he could apply that and he just kinda avoided that whole situation. Haha

The elders handed us off this guy named DJ who's a YSA and he's a funny guy. I'm pretty sure he's in love with my companion. Haha. Anyways we taught him "Enduring to the end" all in football terms yesterday and it was a hoot. I was laughing so hard, Millie was participating and this was probably the most random lesson I ever had.

Today we went to the temple. Most needed thing ever. This transfer has been killin me. But I know it's where I'm needed right now. The temple is such a great place where I can just feel the love of the Lord for me. I'm glad that I have one so close that I can go to once a quarter (mission rules) haha but I just want ya'll to know I love you and I hope you have a great week. keep strong and carry on!

Hermana Groves 

PS

here's a joke i shared yesterday with a member, I thought it was funny. I was the only one.

How can you tell the difference between a gecko and a lizard? The lizard won't try to sell you car insurance. Haha