el 7 de septiembre

that's a mouthful... septiembre... aah! today marks eight months in the mission... i can't believe that i'm almost to the halfway hump. yikes!

this week? a biggest achievement! seven investigators in church! i will never cease to see the miracles that come when we put our faith in the Lord and then go and work for our goals. i have always been one of those people who believes that if you want something done, you pray and then you go and work for it. and if it doesn't work out, it wasn't meant to be. this week, we prayed, fasted, and then went to work to bring eight people to church. of a list of 16 people, we brought five planned and had two unexpectedly. not going to complain!

a biggest challenge continues to be to find new investigators. we had the opportunity to have interviews with President Russell on tuesday, and i expressed my concern about our area. thursday afternoon we worked with the district leaders in our area, and then worked with the hermana leaders (like a zone leader, but just with the sisters) on friday. what an amazing opportunity. our teaching pool in those two days doubled, going from six little fishies to fourteen! yippeeee!! there is still room for improvement, but the ball is rolling again.

three generations: my mama, me, my baby girl!

favorite person... hermanito efrain. he is a young man who was baptized in january of this year. little kid is a strong example for the entire branch, and for that, the entire mormon church. he shows up two hours early for church. TWO hours early, so that he can be on time, ready to pass the sacrament, and to help with whatever else. this sunday, he brought his mamita (his grandma) to church all by hisself. i was such a proud missionary.

this week i was studying through the book of mormon, looking for specifically how it testifies of Jesus Christ. i had the opportunity to read mosiah 12-16. i invite everyone to read these five chapters tonight. wherever you are in your reading of the book of mormon. pause it, read it, and tell me that chapter 14 does not just absolutely change your life. 

welcome to granada! where the greenga and the loca roam the streets inviting you to change your lives forever

a tender mercy? getting to see julia and elmer be baptized. julia and elmer were going to be our golden family for august. but because of family problems due to elmer's old habits, they decided to move to a little colony in the boonies... of the area of the zone leaders. not okay! but friday night, elder mattallii (one of our zone leaders) called us and cordially invited us to the baptism and wedding of a special couple. sister liberato about cried. saturday afternoon we bought a cake, and had the grand adventure of making it to the chapel on time for the baptism. we unfortunately missed the wedding, but were able to be there to support them in their baptism. i won't be able to report this baptism to president, but their names are going in front of my preach my gospel. and that's final. (her pictures of this event didn't load)

as always, we always look for adventures. forty cords was looking really pricey, so we went looking for a bus to get back to our area. while walking to the bus stop, we saw a member and her family in their little toyota pickup leaving the market. i shouted "where are you headed?" "the house!" paola shouted back... "dela pues!" and away we crawled into the back of a pickup. no shame, no gain!

this week, i look forward to getting back into the habit of studying a little bit of the scriptures each night and writing in my journal. i have gotten into the bad habit of falling asleep while waiting for our leaders to call, and i need to get away from that. it's causing me to wake up in the middle of the night.... ugh..

                                                                                 i love you all!

hermana graves