Cha Cha Cha...

Hey everyone! Como estan? I hope all is well with you all, and I continue to love reading your letters/emails. This week was a really good week, so I'm just gonna get down to business alrighty? Sweet. Well, first I had a really embarrassing moment happen the other day.

  

We were going to pick up Yolanda (the most adorable old woman) to come out and teach with us, and we knew if we ran, we would make it to her door right at 8 o clock. Wel,l we were running, and then we started chanting "backpack run, backpack run."  I being the more fit of us (hahahaha jk), was in the front just running up the stairs, and suddenly we were chanting back pack run to the "cha cha slide." I start getting into i,t and I'm "sliding" and "cha cha"-ing, and I bust into some dance moves and a flippin sweet turn. Well, I turn around and see Yolanda at the top of the staircase waiting for us.  I go from chanting to "Oooooh ye HOLA YOLANDA!" She just busted up. I think she was definitely embarassed for me. I know we're supposed to be representatives of Christ, but I highly doubt that Jesus would have turned down a good chance to bust a move at that perfect timing. Just a thought. Haha just saying. 

  

We were also street contacting, or "OYM"ing, and we talked to this lady at a bus stop. We taught her, and then asked her for a referral, and she said, "You know I don't know anyone really that speaks our language around here."  I was like "Our language?" And she said, "The language of our Latino ancestors?" This conversation was in Spanish. She thought we were Spanish. My life is becoming complete. Haha this was super cool. I am so glad to have the gift of tongues. 

  
We had a really cool lesson with Rosaurio(LA) this week. Wilson usually has the lessons with us, but he texted us last minute saying he couldn't come, so we went to teach Rosaurio by herself. It was a good thing too. When Wilson is there we focus on him and her, but she definitely needed us to focus only on her. We weren't sure what to teach her so we brought out some Mormon Messages and told her to pick the one that stood out to her the most. We watched one about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and bore really strong testimony after. Turns out she feels like a bad mother because her kids are in Guatemala with her mom. She's here working to eventually bring them here, and we wanted her to know that she is a good mom. It's because she's making that sacrifice that we know that. We bore strong testimony and we were all in tears. Guys, the Atonement is real. Jesus Christ suffered for our sins, pains, sicknesses, every emotion we have felt. He's felt it too, and I know that for a fact. We are never alone. Never. Just remember that. 

  

Now for the big news. This week we had stake conference, and guess who came. Just guess. You'll never guess, so I'll tell you. Russell M. Nelson, one of the 12 apostles! This was by far the best stake conference I've ever been to. He spoke on Saturday about the importance of members and missionaries working together and promised the stake that we will be an example for the whole world of member and missionary work. Pretty awesome huh? The Sunday session was 1 up from Saturday though. Elder Hansen from the Seventy came and spoke as well as the temple president and his wife. They talked about first the temple being a goal, and then always returning to the temple. Elder Hansen told a story of when he was serving as mission president and his son was married far away. Because he was serving as mission president he couldn't go, but at the same time that his son was to be married in Logan, he went to the temple here in Houston. When he was waiting there was a young man with a pin that said "to be married" and Elder Hansen asked if the young man could pretend he was his son for 30 seconds. So they held each other and cried. Elder Hansen didn't know why the young man was crying, but he soon found out that the young man's dad wasn't able to see him be married. It's amazing, the power of the temple, they were connected even though they were so far away. And the young man was able to feel of a father's love on his wedding day. Whatever I was crying like a baby, who cares? Haha 

    

But then Elder Nelson spoke. First of all, there were many cool things that strengthened my testimony. He asked to have all the children stand and sing him a verse of "I am a child of God." Another cry fest for Hermana Groves. It reminded me of in the Bible when Jesus says "Suffer the children to come to me." Elder Nelson, like us missionaries, is a representative of Christ. He holds the same authority that Christ did and to me that small gesture was something that Christ would do. No doubt about it. But I definitely saw a miracle. Elder Nelson was being interpreted the whole time, had headphones to understand what was going on. At the very end of his talk he said, "I would like to speak to you in a language that is not my own, but I can only do so by your faith." Now the spirit in that chapel was super strong, and I could feel the faith around me. I know that I was feeling the Spirit because in that moment, Elder Nelson stopped using an interpreter. He was speaking perfect Spanish as he testified of the Atonement, Joseph Smith and many other things. I was crying, and all the people around me were crying. That was the gift of tongues; it's real. I can testify to you that we have living apostles and prophets in the world today. I had the privledge to be called by name by him and shake his hand. I am exactly where the Lord needs me to be, and it was testified by the touch of the hand with Elder Nelson. Our Savior loves us, our Heavenly Father loves us. I know this. I am also being blessed with the gift of tongues, I am not fluent right now, but I've been learning Spanish for 5 months and had a woman ask me if I was a native speaker. Only through God is this possible. I love you all very much and hope you have a great week, I would like to hear about some miracles that you've seen this week. Make my week huh? Keep the faith. Love you!

Hermana Groves

Happy 2014

Well happy 2014 everyone!

How has your week been? My week has been pretty good! I'm just gonna jump right into the good of this week alright? So remember Wilson and Rosaurio who invited us over for Christmas? Well, I love them. Anyways for the past 3 transfers, I have been asking for referrals for people to teach, and it's become like an inside joke, because I start the sentence and sometimes Wilson cuts me off and says "No, Hermana, I don't know anyone."  Well Wilson is a little liar, because for the past 3 weeks he has invited his inactive siblings to come to church (who live in different ward boundries), and they came! Pretty soon the whole ward will be filled with the Garcia family! (there are 13 kids in his family and all but one brother is inactive), so good for Wilson. He's legit. Seriously. His sister doesn't live in our area, and he keeps saying that he only wants us to teach her cause she loves us(from Christmas) anyways, that was super cool.

Then yesterday in testimony meeting Sofia's mom, Lili, went up and bore her testimony after only her 2nd week back at church. She was crying saying how grateful she was that the missionaries came and found them again because they couldn't find the LDS church when they came from Guatemala. They've lived here for 6 years. They've been missing the gospel for 6 years. It's crazy.

Their story is really cool.  We were trying to update our addresses from the formers that were taught in this area, and we were looking for the neighbors. We had an impression to knock on their neighbor's door (Julio, Lili, and Sofia's door,) and Julio answered and told us to come back later. The second time Lili answered, and she told the story yesterday. She answered the door and saw these two missionaries, angels, glowing, like they had been an answer to her 6 year long prayer. She was so happy to see us. It's crazy to me. I've lived my life, 19 years without having to live without the gospel. I have never known that sadness of not having the sacrament or church in my life. It's really an eye opening experience. It helped my testimony grow a lot.

So here's a crazy experience that will be one I'l remember. We were on exchanges this past week, I had Hermana Allen (fresh out of the MTC) with me and we were coming out of the apartment for dinner and right behind our car was this Suburban with all of it's doors open and loud music blasting with 3 men standing outside of it. We definitely had a bad feeling about it, but we had to go out and teach, and it was too cold and dark to ride our bikes, so we just started walking to the car. They said "Excuse me, can you help me with something?" We didn't say anything. He then proceeds to say "You know, I haven't talked to any ladies with such fair skin before, and I'm gonna ask you something that is may put you out of your comfort zone." Hermana Allen yelled "We're missionaries!" and he did this evil chuckle and was like "oh missionary huh?" then proceeds to say really perverted things to us as we hurried and got in the car. So I am still learning how to take charge in missionary situations like that. I realized in that moment why I wasn't called English speaking though, I was really 1 step away from giving him a piece of my mind. I wasn't afraid, more insulted. I mean you would think when you dress practically like a nun.. Well yeah. Anyways, God was definitely watching over us because 3 in shape men were within feet of us, and something really bad could have happened, I know that because we were really in tune with the spirit, that we got out of that safely. I am so grateful for that. 

Enjoying our holidays like a sir

Exchanges

I realized something today when hanging up my clothes to dry, I own lots of black and white clothes. I also see things very black and white. I see things as right and wrong. In one of my studies this week I went really in depth with spiritual gifts, and that's one of mine, discerning right and wrong. I look back on my life and am super grateful for that, because I have had situations that if I wouldn't have had the "common sense" or just that knowledge, that I would have gotten into a lot of trouble. I'm trying to really grow spiritually with all my spiritual gifts, but also gain more. I encourage you all to do the same, find you're personal strengths and really try to magnify them. I love you all a lot and I hope you have a great week :)

Keep the faith!

Hermana Groves

Week 14

How was everyone's Christmas?

     Mine was really good! I'll give you guys a play by play cause I know you'll all dying to know.. Well primero, we woke up, and I went to the bathroom (an important part of the plot haha) before exercise, and come out and Hermana Bonhard is stretching and cutting out snow flakes (we have to exercise daily..), and she says "I know you are used to having a white Christmas so I thought I'd do what I can." So we just cut out some snow flakes while "stretching" to count it as exercise time haha. Isn't she just the sweetest? So if you were wondering.. I DID have a white Christmas! haha So we opened up our presents (the ones that we didn't sneak open the night before), and headed over to the church to have a district breakfast. We had green animal waffles (some of the sisters have an animal waffle maker, and our District leader has a tradition in his family to eat green waffles) and we had a good time just had some fun with one another.

     We then returned back to our apartment to do our daily studies (which was the hardest day of studies ever.. knowing that we were going to be talking to our families) and then headed over to a member's office, but he thought we said 2 and not 12, so we called him, and he said he would be there at 2. So, the family knows I had to call from a payphone (because we're not allowed to use our phone to call our families) at a gas station to let the family know I'd be a while. The member had 2 computers, but one was his girlfriend's and she wasn't answering her phone, so I had to wait until almost 3 to call home. Whatever, it was fine, I just was having a panic attack hoping the fam wouldn't wait for me on the computer haha.

     So that afternoon we taught him and went to visit Yolanda, an older member in our area. We visited her at work because she was dog sitting and we got to walk around this really nice neighborhood with all their Christmas lights on. Suddenly it felt like Christmas! Haha but it was great. We then went to another member's house. Wilson and his roommate Rosaurio is also a member too, and she made us this great food (Guatemalan), and basically they loved me even more cause I shoved my face. They invited friends they wanted us to teach over and we did. It was great. I love Rosaurio and Wilson so much. They are legit. Hermana Bonhard and I are secretly trying to get them together. They're soul mates and secretly know it.

   

     This week was a slow one for the work. President said that we should be able to get a lot of members out with us because of the holidays, but unfortunately everyone had to work MORE, and all of the people we teach are out of town. That blew a little bit haha, but we found ways to keep in contact with them all. One of our investigators gave us presents. Or should I say Hermana Bonhard. She got the presents under the tree and was like "which one is Hermana Bonhard?" looks down at the presents... They both say Hermana Bonhard. So she just awkwardly just hands me the smaller present. Whatever, I've only been teaching you for 3 months. Haha it was super funny, my feelings weren't hurt.

    So I know that I had a goal to finish the BOM in Spanish by the end of the year.. But there aren't enough hours in the day for that. I'm still working on it and should finish Alma by tomorrow. so 2/3 of the way through. Not bad in my eyes.. Hopefully by the end of this transfer. Spare time is.. Sparse so I do it when I can.

    Also this week I had 3 or 4 members tell me that my Spanish has significantly improved since I got here. THEY CAN UNDERSTAND ME!!! It's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE (All caps for emphasis.haha) Before you know it this muchacha will be a little native speaker. (fingers crossed) 

   Christmas was really good this year. It was great to have Christmas completely dedicated to Christ. I want you all to know how much I love you and that I hope you had a great Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year! Thanks for all the cards/packages/todo

Love always

Hermana Groves

Week 13 Feliz Navidad!

Feliz Navidad!

I am so excited to say that tomorrow is Christmas! A lot of you have been asking what my plans are and well... First we're going to have a district breakfast at about 8:30 at the church, and after that we go back and start our studies.  Somewhere after studies we get to skype our families (INSERT GIANT SMILE), and then on to proselyting for the rest of the day. We have plans to go with our cute member Yolanda to her work (she watches dogs), and she's going to make us dinner and stuff like that. We're really excited. Yesterday we had a mission wide "party(?)" where we had a zone conference in the morning, a huge lunch, watched a movie, had a talent show, did a live nativity (President's family), and then went our separate ways. It was really fun though. I got to see some girls from Cedar (Megan Pace, Samantha Kunzler and Marie Taylor), so it was really refreshing seeing some familiar faces.

There were some pretty great talents, the Polynesians did the "haka," and the sisters did a dance that goes with it. It was just great. It was nice to just be a little carefree for a few hours. This past week we've had a lot of success with the people we're working with.

We're teaching this girl, Sofia, who's 11.  She's getting baptized in a few weeks, and we're soul sisters. Seriously, we met in the prexistence. When we met we both felt like we had met each other before that. We haven't. She lived in Guatemala before the past few years, and they haven't left Texas since. We met in Heaven, and we bonded. It's awesome. Anyways I can't remember much else that happened this week but the fact that I have such great family who sent me lots of goods. Thanks for all you guys do. I love you all so much! I am so glad to be our here serving the Lord, Christmas is such a great time to remember him and put him in our lives. I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, this is the will of God. I know that many blessings come from serving the Lord with all our hearts, might, minds and strength will give us eternal blessings and happiness. Keep the faith and have a FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Love you!

Hermana Groves

Week 12 - I'm a big kid now...

Hola Familia,

Seriously, I'm a big kid now. I'm officially out of the 12 week training program but I have good news. I am NOT being transferred, AND Hermana Bonhard and I get to spend Christmas together. Holla! This girl is the bomb, for real. I'm lucky for her cause she puts up with me and we're constantly laughing. 

Okay so we had a pretty good week this week. On Saturday we taught 9 lessons. Which is extreme. For us anyways because some weeks we don't even get 9 lessons.

I have a story that you will all probably laugh at. Hopefully. Because it made me laugh (at an inappropriate time). So we have this lady in our ward who is border-line blind, like she can hardly see anything. She wears sunglasses the majority of the time unless she wants to emphasize something, and she'll take off her glasses and hold them in her hand, shake her head and hold her hands in a "i don't know" kinda way (if that even makes sense), and this lady is bold. I mean, she has to be, if she wants things to get done, she's gotta be bold to get help. Anyways she's one of the only members who will come out teaching with us, and this week she's going to Venezuela, so we thought we'd use her while we can. We took her to this investigators house who has 2 little boys. I hope that's enough of an intro. 

Well we were sitting in on this lesson and one of Zenayda's sons starts crying, so she goes to comfort him, and the other one starts crying. So first of all it's a cry fest, plus the tv is on. Then Hermana Latorrre's phone was dying so it was doing that annoying ringing thing that it does every five minutes when it's dying. She doesn't understand that because she can't read. So she just whips out her phone and just pushes send which calls the last person who called her, us. And we don't answer it. So she slams it shut and starts talking about kids that keep prank calling her. This may not seem chaotic but it was. And the best way I could handle this stress? I busted out laughing. Well, good to see the maturity level on this one has improved, right? haha No. I was super embarassed. The lesson ended up being really good, and once the Spirit was there it didn't leave. 

This week we also helped Yolanda (an 86 year old member who lives alone :( ) decorate her tree. We've been visiting her a lot this transfer and she told us we were like the daughters she never had. I like to think her soul mate died when he was a baby, and that she'll be lucky to meet him when she goes straight to Heaven (cause she will). I know that God's a just God, and he will definitely give her the cream of the crop.

The thing about missionary work is the fact that it is so great and that I get to learn so much. Because no matter the setting you can always come back. I am happy to be a horrible Spanish speaking missionary because it's what God has called me to do. I love you all very much and can't wait to hear from you! And next week my P day is on Tuesday, and then I'll get to skype with the family on Christmas!!! YAY! Okay love you all! 

Hermana Groves

Week 11...BAPTISM!!!!!

My dear family and friends,

Hermana Groves had her first baptism this week!!! Can you believe it? It was great! But a little funny too. Margarita's husband (Sergio) was the one who got to baptize her. It was his very first ordinance and she was baptized 5 times. Yep that's right. The first time he did it right but she didn't go all the way under the water, the next time her clothes didn't go all the way under, and then the next 2 he kept saying it wrong. The last time under her breath, Margarita repeated to him the words that he had to say haha! It was really cold at the church, and I think she was just done being baptized! Haha I got a good laugh out of it haha. But we were there waiting for her in the bathroom when she came out, and she was so relived. Almost the whole ward showed up because she's been investigating the church for so long, she had already formed friendships and everything. It was awesome. But yesterday we ended up staying 13 hours at the church between meetings, the baptism and the Christmas Devotional, so we definitely crashed after planning last night.

 

This week it has been bitter cold. And by bitter cold I mean like 35 but let me tell you something, when you pack for hot Texas and not cold Texas well you're lacking a little bit in wardrobe. Haha we're freezing! We're supposed to be in proselyting clothes by 8 am for studies, but we definitely put sweats on under our skirts, \ because it's cold haha. I'm sorry to EVERY one that I bragged to about going to the heat. Talk about karma. Last week I went on exchanges with Hermana Lister in her area which is all bike, and we froze our buns off. Okay I froze my buns off because she invested in a coat. Smart woman! Haha okay sorry, this isn't supposed to be all about the weather. You guys have phones; you can check the weather if you want.

 

Like I said I went with Hermana Lister to her area, we're in the district so we see each other at least twice a week. Guys, I love her. Take back all the complaints I had about her. Let's just say in the MTC I was just being a homesick baby, and she had her own problems too. Apparently that didn't mix well. Because now we're like best friends? Weird how that happens. Anyways I go on exchanges in their area a lot (and we're in the same ward), and they have a golden investigator named Fransisco. He has been learning about the church for 5 months and has read the whole Book of Mormon and the Docterine and Covenants. This guy is awesome. The only problem is he's on probation for 4 years so he can't be baptized. He begged the sisters to let him talk to president. Now he and president are writing a letter to the first presidency to get special permission to be baptized. He's awesome and he has such a light. He says that he's sad that he had to wait 50 years to find the church but he's never going back. He's lost a lot of friends, but he says that "When you're on God's side you always have a friend". I want you guys to all follow in his footsteps and stand up for what you believe in. It's hard but God is always there with us if we just let him in. I hope you all have a good week and keep safe. Love you!

Hermana Groves

P.S. I ate an octopus this week. And sushi. And some Guatamalan food. Keeping it fresh.

Week 10

Here's a picture of my cat...

Hey everyone! How were your Thanksgivings? Mine was humble but great. None of the members in our area invited us to eat with them, BUT one of the ladies in the ward who feeds all the missionaries after church on Sundays invited us over, so we were fed. Hermana Galicia is great. She had over 20 people over in her little apartment and fed us chicken, salad, mashed potatoes, bread. Simple but good. 

A member (Jessica who came to Galveston with us), brought us a "gift" to the dinner, an investigator and we've taught him again since then. It's awesome! We also stopped by another member's house, and she had invited us to "stop by" but she had a couple for us to share a scripture with. She's been working with the wife a lot, but the husband has a hard heart; he's really abusive in all ways possible and so she is definitely looking for a reason to keep going. But she's prepared she told us she wants us to come and teach her some more. So that's really awesome!

We've really just been continuing on our former investigators trying to find more people to teach, most of them have moved a long but we've been blessed for our efforts with lots of different blessings. Margarita still isn't baptized we're still waiting on the OK of her husband to baptize her but she is ready and told us that she can't wait, she just wants it to be more special. I love the people I teach, Angelica reminds me of Grandma Glenda so obviously I love her but her personality is so similar so when she wants to hug me, I just bring it in for a big one! Haha but she has invited her whole family to come sit in on the discussions with her. Man she's ready. Honestly, we taught a lot this week and had a lot of success but I can't remember anything else that happened... Whoops. The schedule is the same on holidays. I know I was shocked as well. But holidays are the best time to find people at home. So teach on! Haha I hope you have a great week. Dad, shave your beard. Bub, get a haircut. Haha Love you all and think of you and pray for you daily. Have a great week :)

Hermana Groves