el 30 de Noviembre

let´s be a little real, these past five weeks have flown by. 

this could possibly be my last week with sister rodriguez. 

aaah! so much to do, in so little time!

my companion and i are butting heads a little, but i have 

figured out that it´s something that you do with all of 

your companions. it´s not something that is preferable, 

but it´s something that happens so that you get along

 better. the more you talk through it, and the more that 

you listen and apply your own words, the better received 

your advice will be heard.

the greatest challenge this week... getting one of our 

investigators to believe/understand that the word of 

wisdom is not a play thing, it´s not something that we can 

live when we want to, and that alcohol really is not 

¨cleansing for your stomach¨ like we want it to be. sorry!

a tender mercy. we were able to work with our leaders 

this week,and one of our visits was with a family. harold, 

soliet, vanessa, and camilo with their little sister cristal 

make me feel like i am on the other side of a missionary 

visit with my family. absolutely positively, almost 100% 

like home. best part, they came to church! all five! 

what a blessing!!!

favorite person right now, hermana mariela. she is a return 

missionary who helps us always with divisions and it´s so 

nice to have some member support who actually knows 

the lessons... i love working with the relief society sisters, 

but it just isn´t the same some times...

a favorite scripture: john 21:15-17

So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, 

son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto

 him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto 

him, Feed my lambs.

He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, 

lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest 

that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 

thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third 

time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest 

all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him,

 Feed my sheep.

the lord so simply calls us all to feed the lambs and the sheep. 

something that includes loving and caring for the investigators, 

new converts, active members and less active members of the 

church. there was a talk given in conference that talked about 

what we can do to help the less actives become active again, 

and it was just so powerful. we all can be an uplifting hand for 

those that hang down.

goals... write in my journal each night. got out of the habit again... 

think about the savior when i want to think of home.

i love you all, more than words.

hermana graves

ps. yes that is a coke bottle. coke has become my friend because 

here, water just isn´t a great option sometimes. plus, pizza goes 

better with coke.

el 23 de Noviembre

let´s just be real for a second. saturday i completed a year since i got 
my mission call. this time last year, i was telling the whole wide world 
that i was going to nicaragua for eighteen months. and here we are, 
almost eleven full months later. i have almost been away from home 
for a year... yikes people.

i am doing great! the medicine that the doctor helped a lot, and then 

i got permission to buy a cream especially meant to treat sarna, and 

that has done miracles to clear it all up. i continue to take benadryl to 

stay on top of the itching, but i am no longer calling attention to myself 

with all the itching. our ward mission leader noticed and gave me an 

antibacterial liquid that is supposed to help with the itching as well, 

sweet man. the parasite is something that i got from the mattress in 

granada, but the mission yes, had a doctor actually look at it in person

 because the first round of medicine didn´t do anything to calm the itching. 

the rash, with all the symptons that i had, were enough evidence to know

 that i had the parasite. with the conditions that are granada, it wasn´t 

overly surprising really.

the greatest success this week, would have to include the fact that we 

completed with all the normas. thanks to some great return missionaries, 

and willing sisters, we were able to do quick spurts of divisions with the 

members to cover more ground in less time. can i please ask all those that 

can, to please do divisions or visits with the missionaries like once a week. 

having that kind of support from the ward makes such a great difference in 

all aspects of the work.

a tender mercy... we were able to teach harold and his children about prayer, 

and it just went swimmingly. harold showed up to church four sundays ago, 

looking for a church where his kids could have a realtionship with their savior, 

and where they would have the opportunity to interact with clean kids... 

something every father wants, right? well, we have been focusing on only 

teaching this family with members because it just makes such a different in 

everything. we taught them about the power of prayer, and it was great to 

see the power of the spirit that was there to help us.

a favorite scripture: philippians 4:8

::Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 

whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 

lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there 

be any praise, think on these things.::

just remember that when we think after these things, we will be able to know 

our savior better. because these are his attributes.

::

a favorite person.. let´s go with the ward mission leader. his name is ricardo, and 

he is pretty much an optime of every missionary´s dream. he goes out looking 

for references for us, and when we were wating on thursday to have our weekly 

coorelation meeting, he was contacting the people that were passing by, helping 

us work as well as giving us a larger teaching pool. what an example... he reminds 

me a lot of grandpa bingham in his ability to talk about random church history 

and deep doctrinal topics, and the ability to capture you in a conversation for an 

hour.... amazing really. i attached a picture of the great man deep in thought. (yes,

 those would be his g´s hanging out... good ol´ nica for ya)

goals this week... be a better example for my companion. something that i have 

learned on my mission is that so much of your desire to do something has to do 

with what you see around you. if your companion doesn´t go to bed on time, it´s 

harder to do it. if your companion doesn´t do exercises, it´s almost impossible to 

have the will to do it. but when you do it, they will too. 

some challenges... getting through all the normas. but like i said early, thanks to 

some great ward members, we were able to complete! also, getting our investigators 

to church, but that is something that shows through because of our lack of work 

before sunday afternoon.

we celebrated hermana quezada´s birthday with cake! delicious, whipped 

creamed iced birthday cake... yummmmmmm

i love you guys so much, and make sure to remember about the christmas wish 

i have for you!

hermana graves

el 16 de Noviembre

things here in el rosario are hitting the polar ends. 

during the afternoon the sun is stronger than ever, 

because we are starting into the summer months. but, 

november and december are cooler during the evenings, 

so it's kind of bipolar. at night, it's so cool that i'm using 

my comforter to sleep! we are relatively close to the cost, yes. 

about a two hour drive to the coast. if the raineys and the 

moris were in costa rica, they were very close to where i am. 

costa rica is a place where the nicas go to find work for a 

couple of months, and then come back to support their

 families. whatever they can do to find money to put food 

on the table.

a favorite scripture from this week... the joseph smith 

translation of luke 12:57

::For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much 

be required; and to whom the Lord has committed much, 

of him will men ask the more.::

the lord know us, and has required much of those he has

chosen. the world will try and ask the more, but know that 

he has asked the most. 

mosiah 2:22

::all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments;

 and he has promised you that if ye would keep his 

commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never 

doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do 

keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.::

a favorite person.. can it be a thing? his name is aslan... 

he's a husky and the biggest playful thing ever! he and his 

companion, bella, are the two dogs of our lunch appointment, 

and it's funny. you would think that he would be the one to 

bark and bite, but it's actually bella, a cute little pitbull that you 

have to be careful around. crazy story, she is really brava, or 

aggressive. if you enter the gate, and she doesn't know you, 

she will bite. the owners say she's mormon, because whatever 

missionary that passes through the gate, she's the cutest little 

puppy ever. but if you don't have a plaque, or are a strange dog, 

she will attack. guaranteed. crazy right? power of the plaque.

a great challenge this week: completing with the normas. monday

 wasn't a great day for us, because it's p-day. there isn't a full day 

of work to do. tuesday we worked with the lovely sister hancock, 

our hermana training leader, and so there was a little bit of time 

sacrifice there. wednesday we had our planning meeting because

 thursday we had interviews with president and we passed all 

afternoon in jinotepe, waiting our turn. friday we spent all day in 

managua for my doctor's appointment, where i got diagnosed 

with escabiosis, or a skin parasite, that i most likely picked up in 

granada. this little bugger is because i have been itching myself

 for the last month, and thanks to some modern medicine,

 everything is on the way to healing. saturday and sunday it was a

 mad dash to complete with numbers, and thanks to some return

 missionaries in the ward, we were able to least get closer to 

completing. 

some goals this week: know the area, go beyond the normas, 

and work with our investigators to teach more families. it will 

be an adventure!

most tender mercy: we were in a lesson with a less active, and 

she had been without water for four days. we started with a 

prayer, and hermana rodriguez said the prayer. she asked for 

water, and then we just continued to read in the book of

 mormon with the less active. not a moment after gabriela 

said the closing prayer, the hose started to spurt water. 

the power of prayer my friends.

i love you all, and thank you so much for your letters!

have a great week!

hermana graves

el 9 de Noviembre

this week i can write you a letter, because i have a basis of questions again. 

this week i did survive. it's so amazing here. the climate is fresh, and although 

the sun is still piercing, it's accompanied by a nice wind, so it's not too bad. 

my new companion is from honduras, so there's another country to add to 

the companion map! we have found quite a few new investigators in the 

same general area of el rosario, but i would like to go adventuring into the 

other suburbs of el rosario to meet and activate converts, less actives and

 find new investigators that way. we'll see how it goes. 

my favorite person this week is hermanita rubi. she is the sister of a less 

active we baptized this weekend and she's the cutest. her mom is super 

supportive and she's kind of the next heart to change, and just, aahh! i 

love this ward! everyone is just so ready to come and help us do anything. 

thursday we did divisions twice, one time with about twenty minutes of 

notice! #inlovewithelrosario

a favorite scripture is a little bit harder to put my finger on. lets go with 

one in doctrine and covenants 33:8-12

::Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even 

as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness. Yea, 

open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves 

upon your backs, for lo, I am with you. Yea, open your mouths and they 

shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, 

and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; Yea, 

repent and be baptized, every one of you, for a remission of your sins; 

yea, be baptized even by water,and then cometh the baptism of fire and 

of the Holy Ghost. Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel;

 and remember that they shall have faith in me or they can in nowise be 

saved::

powerful right?

our biggest challenge this weekend was getting and placing fechas. for 

some reason the time just got away from us, and before we knew it, it 

was eight oclock and we were short two fechas and a couple of lessons... 

something a little bit difficult to recuperate. 

a tender mercy... divisions with members. and returned sister missionaries. 

it's so nice to be in a ward where there are four return sister missionaries. 

they are still red hot with the desire to go out and preach the gospel, so 

there are so willing to drop everything on a dime and help. they under-

stand the lessons and know how to be pushy and how to be nice. 

sooo great.....

some goals for this week... make it through the quincena with only 60 

cords. that's right. we get money on saturday and i only have 60 cords 

left. here we go penny pinching! this is what college taught me!

a picture of 

hermana hawkins 

and hermana quezada, 

the other two sisters

 in our district. we had 

lunch today so of course 

we took some crazy 

pictures. ;)

i love you all

hermana graves

OH! The picture of the old lady... This is Hermana Maria Antonia, 
the first member of the church here in El Rosario. She's 92 years 
old, and still going strong. So for all of you with a bad day, think 
of Dueña Antonia.

el 31 de Agosto

this week was one for miracles. we had the opportunity to hear the words of the president of the quorum of twelve apostles, president russell m. nelson, and i had the chance to be the first missionary of nearly four hundred to shake his hand. it makes it worth the three thirty alarm...

my companion is my vivi! something that i will explain another day... she is learning the lessons and we are working on english. she loves to sing, so we pick a hymn out of the english hymnal and sing every morning. it makes it a lot of fun to learn english! 

the biggest success... making to through a nineteen hour day with only about an hour's worth of a nap. see miracle that happened above with president nelson...

greatest challenge continues to find people to teach. if you are the praying type, this would be something to help us with. pray that we find new investigators. please!

my favorite person, president nelson. hearing him for the second time as a missionary really strengthens your testimony and rereading my notes helps me focus on what i need to change and better as a missionary.

i love the prison master's conversion. read acts 16:25-33. look how quickly he accepted the gospel and how completely as well... less than 12 hours!

fun adventures... it's always an adventure to go and visit an older couple we are teaching. there is a short cut, through a finca, or like a swamp, that cuts the travel from about twenty minutes to five. when time is as precious as cold water in a nicaraguan heat, we try and use this passage way when it's dry. long story short, hermana liberato almost fell to her death climbing down one part. great laughs with my vivi.

i have been in this area now for ten weeks, two and a half months. it's possible that i will be here another ten weeks. it's not exactly set in stone. 

i love you all! have a great week.

love from nicaragua!

hermana graves

my vivi decided to straighten her hair for president nelson's visit so she looked a little crazy before hand!

el 24 de Agosto

this week i found a jehovah's witness. for all of you ex-missionaries, you know what an interesting conversation that can lead to. it turns out that this jehovah's witness is from the states, and that my companion and i were the first mormon missionaries that he had come into contact with. what a privilege! the conversation in english made me realize how accustomed i am to talking and sharing my testimony in spanish. it was really, really hard to talk about the church in english! (i haven't decided if that's a good thing, or a bad thing, yet. i'll keep you posted!

this week the lord showed me just how humble we need to be. we didn't have a single little duckling in church yesterday, and i could have strangled the bulls that caused the problem. let me explain. it's a grandadian tradition to allow bulls to run the main streets once a year, like the running of the bulls in spain, just this bulls are a lot more lazy and less aggressive. but, nonetheless, everyone goes. but the twenty people we had lined up to go all told us, "si, yo me voy a la iglesia este domingo; no me voy por la carnival." translated (yes, i will go to church this sunday; no i will not go to the carnival) but needless to say, they are all liars. come tuesday, they won't even know what hit them!

since mom forgot to write me this week, i don't have anything else to say, just to tell mom, that i am getting fed. the sister who makes us lunch and dinner is heavenly, and i am now getting my daily portion of gallo pinto again :)

i love you all, and look forward to all of your repentance letters next week.

hermana graves

el 17 de Agosto

i hope this letter finds each and everyone of you in good health, and dry. here we are in full swing of the rainy season, and unfortunately my mounding pile of laundry never seems to go away. rainy afternoons make it hard to leave clothes out to dry!

our biggest challenge: finding new investigators. we started with a list of probably 50 people who in the past have taken the missionary discussions and have attended church, the goal being to help them take the lessons again and progress towards a baptismal date.

this week, we went to hawaii! not really, but the district (or a really small stake) put together a plane crash so that we could all learn a little bit more about the plan of salvation. all of our investigators really enjoyed it, and it was a great opportunity to fellowship some of our investigators, less actives, and converts. thank you plan of salvation!

one of our investigator's fathers makes jewelry from silver. my HLJ was a cheap one that the Church sells, and i had been searching for a brother to help me out. for 150 cords (or about five bucks) he made me one that fits just right. yippee!!

we got a little stir crazy during our thursday morning planning session....

(picture didn't load from Janelle's end)

(this picture didn't load either)

this is a cajeta. sugar, coconut, and water. that's it! it's an acquired taste, but a deliciously, calorie-full one.... we help a less active make them a couple of times a week, and it's been a really great opportunity to have gospel discussions. maybe one day her mom will be baptized. little by little, brick by brick.

a favorite scripture of the week. i finished john this week, and in the 17th chapter, we read that jesus prayed for us:

::I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.::

the lord knows us, cares for us, enough to suffer for us. we are counted as his. he knows us and wants to best. 

may we always remember to pray for others. we never know which sould needs a reminder of his love.

hermana graves

el 10 de Agosto

so how are things going with my companion... well great! i got  a new companion, her name is hermana liberato. she is from the dominican republic and she is fresh off the airplane from the MTC... yep! for all you ex-missionaries, or people who understand that lingo, it means that i am training hermana liberato. i am her mama, and she's my mija. it's been an adventure, something that i wasn't expecting until a little bit 

later in my mission. but here we are!

 

our greatest success, who have to be having

 six investigators in church! and an added 

bonus, two families! it was a struggle, but 

something that i am eternally grateful for. 

thank you for your prayers.

a tender mercy... this opportunity to train a new sister. not gonna lie!

for a favorite person, see the following photo taken wednesday:

a favorite scripture. one of the great things about the book of mormon, is that it answers the questions that come from the soul:where did i come from? why am i here? how can i have a better life? and one of my favorites what does christ expect of me? i had the opportunity to study in the scriptures to find these answers, and the answers that i found are something that i have been marking in the book of mormon when we give them to our investigators. i have totally spaced on where they all are right now, but i will make sure to send them to you next week!

a goal... exercise. we've been working on it, but it hasn't been completely successful quite yet. little by little.

today we visited a little diner, and the sister had the name cokes. look what one we found!

​of course we had to take a picture... granada has some great old catholic churches that we are going to try and visit next week.. the only problem with going whenever we want is that they aren't in our area. (we have to ask for permission to leave our area...) so next week... pictures!

i love you all, and thank you for your emails.

hermana graves 

el 4 de Agosto

another month! what?!

this week, i promised photos, so i will try and do the 

best i can!

the first one. his name is jose. and he's my favorite 

little vejito (how you kindly call him an old man). 

he calls us his little angelitas, and we try and visit 

him once a week. he's been a member for about two 

years, and still has a lot of questions to learn about 

the book of mormon. cute man has some weir beliefs,

 but i love him!

the next one, this is maryuri. she and i share a birthday, 

the first of many sister missionaries to visit the house 

to share one! what a privilege. her grandma made us 

lunch and it by far, was one of the best i've had here 

(even compared to sister gladis!! shhh, you didn't hear 

me say that!)

this was my birthday lunch... yumm!!

this past wednesday was an adventure. let me 

explain. almost two weeks ago, my eye started 

bugging me. bad. it felt like i had something in 

my eye, but it wasn't coming out by itself. we 

tried rinsing it with saline, to no avail, and i just 

kind of tried to deal with the pain. last sunday i 

talked with sister russell at our branch conference, 

and she and her nurse/appointment maker, made

 me a doctor's appointment in managua on 

wednesday. the doctor looked at my eye for three 

seconds, said "o, yeah, you have plastic in your eye. 

let me take that out for you. let me get a needle." 

he scrapped it out, and out came the tiniest little 

piece of plastic i have ever seen. he proceeded to 

but some medicine in my eye, and give me the 

world's largest eye patch. he told me i couldn't 

blink my one eye, so i had to stay the afternoon 

in the house. but, there wasn't another option, 

but got to work in the evening, so away we went! 

all the little kids were quite amused at my eye patch, 

but thankfully on thursday morning i was able to go 

to managua again and have it removed! thank you 

random doctor man!

sunday was a struggle bus, but we are working on it. 

completeing with our six investigators in church is 

proving to be really hard, but we will do it, if it's the 

last thing i do here in granada!

we had a zone activity today, so here's a picture of all 

of us! the matching shirts are the companionships!

my favorite person this past week... probably

 hermanita claudia. she's one of our investigators, 

soo adorable, who wants to be baptized, but her 

mom doesn't want to give us permission. prayers 

that she and her daddy and mommy can talk and can 

give us permission to make that covenant with our 

Heavenly Father.

most significant tender mercy... the power of a fast. 

i am holding out for the blessings i know we can receive 

after a faithful and worthy fast. a fast brings miracles, 

especially here in the mission.

a most favorite scripture: john 9:25

::Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing 

I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.:: 

through our faith in christ, we may be brought to the 

light that is our lord and savior, jesus christ. to have 

that personal relationship is something we should all 

strive to have, something that we have to have in order 

to be able to have that light in our lives.

goals: work harder, pray harder, strengthen my 

relationship with Him.

yo se que vive mi salvador

hermana graves