29 de Febrero 2016

leap day!

this week was actually long. which is not normal on the mission. and let me tell you why!

tuesday was an adventure. we started the afternoon off with some really delicious 

potato salad, with beets, eggs, carrots, and potatoes.yumm... we had some plans to 

help nelson, a young man about my age, get baptized this weekend, but when we 

got there to do an interview, we had some troubles finding him. so we went and 

contacted some less actives while we waited for him to get back to the house. while 

entering a less active´s home, the neighbor started screaming that he was going to 

call the police because he had a signed document saying that we weren´t allowed to

 be there. funny, because i had never met the man. while saying the closing prayer, 

he came running out, screaming and shouting that we were violating the law and that 

he was going to call the police. the less active and her daughter came running to the 

door to try and hide us and while the cranky old man went running in the get said 

document, we made a speedy exit. come to find out that nelson was sleeping and so 

we made a ¨quick¨ visit to carlos´s house to verify everything. (quick note, nelson and 

carlos literally live on opposite ends of our area...) but we made it, like an hour late, but 

he was waiting for us, book of mormon out and the seats all ready. it was soo adorable. 

we taught him the gospel of jesus christ, and then were on the run back out to meet with 

nelson. all in vain, because nelson had gotten drunk on sunday after we had called him 

and left for rivas on wednesday morning.... fallen baptismal date for this weekend. what a day.

wednesday was a weird day because we did our weekly planning session. we had our lesson 

with carlos to verify some commandments and some loose ends for the baptism this saturday. 

a member, sister maria esther, even let us use her patio to have the lesson because the church 

was closed.

thursday we spent all day in managua practically. we had a multizone meeting with Elder Ochoa, 

the first counselor in the Central America Area Presidency. talk about a neat experience. there

 just aren´t words for the all the questions that i got answered. i got a package and got to share 

some valentine´s day love from the family with the whole zone. (don´t worry, the m&m´s stayed

 in my and sister naumu´s control...) we had some quick lessons and then had to call it a day. i 

was so exhausted that night that i was literally falling asleep in our less active lessons....

friday was a busy day, starting with sister naumu´s magical rain poncho. she had a lot of fun trying 

it on, and i busted a gut the entire time... a district meeting, and then going to work, trying to make 

up for numbers and to get things ready for the baptism. but we were able to find a member reference 

and have a great opportunity to teach the restoration to them. then it was an emergency trip out to 

carlos because he couldn´t make it to el rosario, where we taught him the plan of salvation. he was 

waiting for us, even if we did have to have the lesson sitting on the curb.

saturday, my companion completed two weeks without a voice. the nurse said that it should 

be coming back any day now, so she prescribed some mucinex to help with the cough for now. 

then we got a call at 9am, ¨hermanas, no hay agua en la capilla.¨ translation, sisters there is no 

water in the chapel. AAHHHH. start the search with the bishop for water **here**. the district 

leader came and got lost in our area trying to help us sign our baptism record, and was able 

to help us organize with the zone leaders to have carlos´s baptism with them at the same time. 

the only member we had from el rosario present was the ward mission leader, but i am not going 

to complain. it was super last minute. it was raining, but i didn´t have to shout over the rain this 

time. by some miracle, we got everything figured out and CARLOS GOT BAPTIZED! repeat, 

we had a baptism. see attached gleaming photos, please. then it was back to work, and to run 

some errands, which proved pointless because the medicine was rancid... gotta love nicaraguans.

sunday was a joy because we had a confirmation. carlos is now a member! but we also didn´t 

have progressing investigators in church, so now we have to work double time and smarter to 

prepare for march. also, yesterday my first convert, Andy, completed his first year as a member. 

the missionaries in loma linda tell me he is still firm and steadfast in church. :)

today, we had a district activity, so we went to lunch and played soccer. this is our fail at a 

championship football team picture. three latins and six wannabes. whatcha gonna do?

2 timothy 2:3-4

::Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth 

entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;that he may please him who hath chosen him to 

be a soldier.::

lots of love,

hermana graves

el 2 de Noviembre

ya'll ready for this? i had changes to..... el rosario! 

aka, the missionary's dream land: the members feed you dinner, the investigators show up to church by themselves, members show up to baptisms, and the bishop is on top of the retention of new converts. i was absolutely shocked. absolutely felt like living in a novel here. the song sleepy little town comes to mind frequently...

it was hard to leave granada, especially with all the less actives, converts, and investigators that have become such good friends, but time for new adventures. time for hermana liberato to be a big girl missionary now!

i will send this picture of me home because it's the most glamorous i took. the other ones i am half crying, half smiling. this was when i still didn't know that i was leaving granada. lady, gabriela (recent convert) and i. 

tuesday night i got to bed about midnight, packing all of my crap (i can't believe how it all multiplies!) into my three suitcases again and then at four am, it was up again! a quick changes meeting and then my zone leader, elder mataalii, and i changed zones together, again. we were in the same zone in universitaria together when he was working as the district leader and in the office, then together we went to granada, both trained together, and then both moved to jinotepe together. crazy! 

i'm now in el rosario, with sister rodriguez, a sister that started in nicaragua with me. what a treat! 

please ignore the un-makeup-ed face. it's pday.

​the best part of this weekend was helping jose danilo make the baptismal convenant with his father in heaven. he and his stepdaughter (who is only eight, so counted for the ward) were baptized saturday night, completing another family in zion! he marks baptism number 21, family number 3. i love being a missionary here in nicaragua where the fruits of repentance are relatively easy to start, but where the greatest challenge is the retention. it's great to see it all. come through here.

el rosario is a little town, where the bishop is part of one of the oldest families in the ward. almost all of the active members are endowed and the grand majority of the people are converts. the church is old enough here that there are return missionaries as converts children, and it's just amazing! aaahhh!!

a favorite scripture this week will be a modern scripture.... 

::the savior wouldn't bring you to it, if he couldn't help you through it.:: 

now my child, insert your name here, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day. alma 38:5

i love you all so much. thank you for your support. know that i pray for you, and think of you always. i am being taken care of here by the lovely sisters and brothers here in el rosario, and just hope to be here for christmas.

lots of love,

hermana graves

last week i saw hermana cornell and hermana garfield. look how much it's all changed!

el 19 de Octubre

this week, i did survive the stress. but let me tell you why it was stressful. because we had three baptisms. repeat, we had three baptisms. 

the rain was a little bit of an enemy at night, but thankfully it didn't start to rain until about 8:30, 9pm when we are running from one end of town to the other looking for last minute lessons and everything, but it's soo nice to sleep when it's raining. i've always loved to sleep when it's cold and it doesn't get very cold here. so it's been nice!

let me take you through the week then to show you how many miracles happened. first, the branch had planned an activity for the young men and women to go to Managua and spend the day working on Personal Progress and My Duty to God and getting to know each other. 

this is christopher, a less active convert that we were got excited to go to managua for his "mormon adventure". thanks to some faithful leaders, he went and had a great experience. miracle number 1.

tuesday we had a lesson at the church with our district leader and gabriela. she was still a little unsure about her baptism, but thanks to a great district leader and the spirit, we were able to help her recognize her answer that this is where she needs to be. she was interviewed, and we set the ball rolling for a baptism with the other sister missionaries saturday at four pm. 

gabriela was the first baptism this area has had in over three months. miracle #2.

miracle numbers 3-infinity happen next. so last sunday, the young women's president and the branch president pulled hilda aside and started talking with her about what she was holding her back from getting baptized. they talked, then we talked, and we sent a plan to have a baptism on the 24th with her little sister claudia. their mom makes our meals, so we were constantly verifying everything, especially their mom's permission. before hand, their mom wanted nothing to do with anything about baptism, but after some discussion on friday with our district and zone leaders, we realized the only thing really holding these sisters back from getting baptized was a signature. the answer that this is the truth, and this is where they need to be was there, so we set fast track plans to get them ready for an interview friday night and a baptism on saturday. at our first meeting on friday afternoon, their mom gave us permission but told us the last word came from daddy, not from mommy. so we came back at eight that night, and after a little bit of discussion, had permission on these two girls. i called my zone leader and simply said "put yourself in a taxi. we have permission." within ten minutes, he was there and within the hour we had two more baptisms ready for saturday night. hilda went with the young men and women to managua, so we had their baptism that night with all them present. another grand miracle happened that their parents and a less active friend came with us. something we never, ever thought would happen.

claudia is the little girl in front, hilda is the one in the middle.

sunday was a fantastic day, one full of joy because we had three confirmations. we also had seven people in church, which was also a great blessing. this is samuel, ruby's little brother. he's a charmer and i just hope that one day his parents will let him get baptized. with time, little one.

(The 2 pictures that should go here didn't load from Janelle's end of things.)

a favorite scripture can be found in alma 31:34-5

::O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ. Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee.::

alma is praying to help the zoramites come again unto the fold, but it applies to all of the local sheep that have strayed. may we all pray to have opportunities to help bring the lost and fallen sheep back into the Master's fold, so that our joy may be full over one repentant soul (d&c 18)

i love you all, and thank you so much for your support. we have lots of plans to find new investigators so that our month of november can be just as successful as our october turned out to be. thanks for all your prayers, and please continue to pray for our safety, health, and success.

i love you all,

hermana graves

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

el 15 de Junio

this week was an adventure, but all missionaries can testify, that it's always 
an adventure.

our biggest challenge this week was working through the rain. having the
spunk and the energy to work through torrential downpours is a little rough
on the soul, but we did it!

a big concern right now is that our teaching pool is really small, and we should
be working with more people than we are. this week will be almost pure new
investigators if we play our cards right!

a big success, helping michael make his dreams come true and get baptized
this week. also, helping roberto each day remember his promise to live the
 word of wisdom. we started out calling him each day, but by the end of the
week, he started calling us to let us know that he had stayed strong that day.
here come the baptismal waters! 

elder velasquez, the young men's president (kevin) and michael. an older
gentleman in the ward gave michael a tie, and we had to re-tie the dang
thing four times to get it to sit right. but he was soo excited for it!

my favorite person this week is president russell. we had the opportunity to
have an interview, and it was great to see the progress that i am making. it
was really hard to pray in english, and i ended up slipping into spanish in
the middle of the prayer. between the two of us, we had to think really hard
to talk in english. we looked at my numbers and talked about ways that i can
be a better companion. he thinks that i have a lot of potential to be a leader
 in the mission, and i simply told him that i am here to do the lord's work.
where he needs me, i will go. 

for a significant tender mercy, see the story above about roberto.

this week i am not looking forward to preparing to say goodbye. we find out
next tuesday if loma linda 1 will see any changes, and i really hope not. but
the feeling has been the same since i started this change, that my time is
coming to a close here in loma linda. give me two weeks and i will tell you
how close i really am to knowing myself.

the greatest scripture this week is one that has been on the back of my
planner for the past month. lucas 24:5-6

::Why seek ye the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen::

with the comment, seek him. 

at first, i thought it was talking about Christ, and really the intention is of that.
but it hit me with another application: our investigators. we search and search
and work and work to help people come unto Christ. but some seeds we aren't
meant to harvest. we are meant only to help them grow to a point. and like the
 parable of the forgotten harvest, to leave field for a while. why look for the
living investigators among those who aren't progressing. there aren't there,
but walk among another crowd, another field.

seek them. and we shall find.

hermana graves

el 08 de Junio

what a week, but one worthwhile.

we really struggled this week to manage our time well, and partly
due to the fact that douglas, who we will discuss later, lives in the 
other extreme of our area, and is like a wandering dog, not always 
in the house. and as part of it all, we have to visit our investigators 
each day the week before their baptism because the spirit of 
temptation is the strongest, so we chased the wandering dog each 
day and helped him find a home to stay in the Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter-day Saints.

after sunday, we were really concerned about hermanos roberto
and veronica, a couple who are investigating the church. roberto 
has problems with alcohol, and for fifteen days he resisted all of 
the temptations to drink. but last sunday morning, all ready for 
church, he sat with liquor in his hands. so, saturday we gave him 
this: 

his personal calendar to count the coming 21 days to his baptismal
date. here, investigators have to attend church three times, and go 
for at least two weeks without alcohol or cigarettes before they can 
be baptized, hence the importance of the coming three weeks and 
his recovery from this addiction.​

another great success, would have to include helping this little
guy into the waters of baptism, as the pioneer of his family. his 
brother will be baptized next week, and his parents are starting 
to open up to listening to our message for themselves, so we 
may have a  wedding--baptism party again! (no Photo)

jose daniel and me, all ready for his confirmation the next day!
(picture didn't load from her)

a great tender mercy here is not having a fault of food. the
people here are humble, and also willing to share with us. they 
understand the principle that daniel taught, that if they share 
with the Lord's servants, they too will be blessed with the 
nourishment they need. this is usually what we receive for dinner:

eggs, rice, beans, and bread. something simple to show their
simple offering.

hermano neftali makes the list this week as favorite person,
because he cares enough to travel a great distance to travel 
another great distance to visit investigators. a great ward 
mission leader!

this week i did a little study about the cross that christ asks us
to take upon ourselves in matthew 10:38-39

::And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not
worthy of me. He who seeketh to find his life shall lose it: and he 
that sacrificeth his life for my sake shall find it. He that receiveth 
you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that 
sent me.::

but what is this cross that we are asked to take? we read later in
matthew 16:24-26

::Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. And 
now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all 
ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments. 
Break not my commandments for to save your lives; for whosoever 
will save his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come. And 
whosoever will lose his life in this world, for my sake, shall find it in 
the world to come. Therefore, forsake the world, and save your souls; 
for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and  lose 
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?::

take up our cross, deny yourself all ungodliness, keep the
commandments of the lord. 

and the next part is probably my favorite: break not my
commandments for to save your lives. for whosoever will save 
his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come. 

the lord invites us to take upon us our own responsibility and
take action. our salvation is individual. 

james e. talmadge says

::a cross was a symbol of ignominy, extreme suffering, and death.
however, should they lose their lives for His sake, they would find 
life eternal.::

the lord's grand promise is life eternal. take up your cross, and
come to him.

hermana graves

el 27 de Abril

aaahhh.. another week, come and gone!

our biggest challenge this week is getting hermana Anai to come to church with us. we verify, verify, and knock on the door, but she doesn't really have that desire to attend church with us, which means her baptismal date for this coming Saturday has fallen, and we need to work a little bit more with her.

our biggest concern was friday, when hermana Maryurí told us that she didn't want to get married. which is kind of big problem, because you have to be married to the person you are living with to be baptized. it's kind of a thing... but we had a great lesson with her last night, and she was also interviewed by our district leader, and all is on track for her baptism this coming saturday!

our biggest successes include having four people interviewed, and ready for baptism this saturday, one baptism yesterday. eight investigators at church, and completing the standards of excellence for nicaragua managua south missionaries. this week's baptism is brought to you in part by the help of the Lord, a whole lot of following the spirit, and a little bit of faith. allow me to explain: last friday we were told that hermana lucia would be going out of town for a couple of weeks, to help care for her sick grandma. tuesday we got the impression to call her, and see how it was going. she asked us about the plans for her baptism, and we scrambled to repent and put our faith in the Lord in action. 

she got back into town Friday night, we had her interviewed Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon we and a few members of her family gathered to help her make this convenant with the Lord. 

my favorite person this week is Asucena, who accepted the calling as second counselor of the Relief Society presidency, just four short weeks after her baptism!

a tender mercy can be found in hermana Elizabeth, the sweetest, most amazing member of the ward. {shhhh don't tell no body!} we made a dinner appointment with them Saturday, and after tracting for about four hours straight, I was hungry and ready to sit down. she made some really great spaghetti and rice, and then we sat down to talk with her and her husband, Santiago (who is the Elders Quorum President) about the needs of our investigators. We got to talking about the complicated marriages that need to happen this coming Saturday, and turns out that they aren't really that confusing or difficult, and her sister who is a lawyer can do them for us for a fraction of what it would have cost us to do them with another lawyer that we know! wooo hoooo!! prayer answered! 

i am most looking forward to another set of baptisms this Saturday, completing a family in the church, and starting another! 

a goal for this week is to eat more fruit, and not so many chips...

something that i have been thinking a lot about these past couple of weeks about the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3-9, with the knowledge of the scriptures in Alma 32:37-39.

i got thinking about the types of soil that the Lord distinguishes. according to Luke, the seed the sower sows is the word of God. our hearts are to be understood as the soil. looking at the people i have come in contact with here in Loma Linda, i can find the four examples of soil.

1- the seed that falls by the wayside. people who don't want to even talk to another person. who won't even let you introduce yourself.

2- the seed that falls on stony ground. the people who let you in the house, and listen to the word for a little while, but don't want to act. people who fall away because temptations come and they don't have the roots to sustain themselves.

3- the seed that falls among thorns. the people who accept the word, go forth searching good for a little while, but then seek the worldly recognition and are choked out.

4- the seed that falls on fertile ground. the people whose hearts have been prepared to cultivate the seed. a heart ready to change, grow, and flourish in the Gospel.

i have seen them all here in Loma Linda, and thanks to other missionaries, I have the opportuntity to reap many souls unto the Lord. for the same token, I have the great opportunity to help other hearts, in other fields, to be prepared for a future harvest. 

until the coming week,

hermana graves

el 13 de Abril

remember tang and the gorilla? well, tang here is a like kool-aid, urbdy gotta have some. five gallons of water, five tang, and 2 litros of sugar, and you have five gallons of happiness for any nicaraguan native. it's either tang, mango juice, this drink with water and a type of oatmeal, or soda pop to drink here. water is something saved for Hermana Gladis if I can at all avoid it. It's kind of been an unspoken rule for me here: try it, love it, drink/eat it all or try it, hate it, drink/eat it all. because the people here sacrifice their FOOD, which is not a lot, to share with you and it's the least I can do. the mom of Jose Javier, who I will talk more about, shared this with us this week, and everything minus the plaintain was delicious! it almost tasted like Grandma's Lake Powell Chicken. 

tuesday we got to get up and go to a "reunión de nuevos" which means meeting of news in english. all of the missionaries that entered the field with me were their with our trainers. we had the opportunity to receive some guidance and also to verify our progress/training. i was one of about half of the missionaries that completed my 42 lesson plans for the 42 gospel principles in the 5Preach My Gospel lessons. Let me tell ya, it was a long process, but definitely worth the time. It's really nice to be able to pull scriptures out of a hat and use them in lessons. we talked about a lot of things, but one of my favorite take-aways was a comment made by President Russell: he asked Hermana Garfield who we are supposed to invite to come unto Christ, and who we are to contact. she replied, "chosen families." lovingly the response came, "no. your purpose as a missionary is to invite all to come unto Christ, talke with everyone, and that's how you find the chosen ones." i love the connotation in that, we don't get to make the decision who is chosen and who is not, we just get to be a hand in their conversion. and maybe right now, they aren't chosen and they aren't ready for baptism, but one day they will be. of the six baptisms i have been a part of, three of them were antiguos or old investigators who the missionaries had stopped visting. you read that right, only half of my baptisms have been someone cold contacted, first time ever talking with the missionaries. 

and speaking of baptisms......

Jose Javier was so ready for baptism during his interview Friday, that the district leader decided we could baptism the following day! let me tell you how stressful that is! my companion was in alta gracia, on splits while I was working with the Sister Training Leader, and I had to get all the details put together because hermana gomez wouldn't be back until saturday afternoon, just six short hours before the baptism. i called sister gomez right after we left Jose Javier's house and together we got the water figured out (because we haven't had water in the church for two weeks!), who was going to baptism him, who was going to be there as a member of the bishopric, and calling of the young men I could think of to see if they could be there to support him. believe it or not, Jose Javier is 14 years old, and is all ready a great example for his sister, who has a baptismal date for the 25th. 

and now for mom's favorite part: questions!

What had been your biggest challenge this week? my right foot is really bothering me, and the pain is making walking rather comical for hermana gomez. i have tried the last couple of days to just work through the pain, but yesterday was a little much, so i caved and took some tylenol to help the pain.

What has been your biggest concern? our baptism for this week, who needs to put a ring on it, but she's underage, so we are working with our beloved friend, Howard, to get it all squared away.

What has been your biggest success? handling the situation of Jose Javier for the most part rather calmly, and not freaking out about the stress of it all.

Who has been your favorite person this week and why? Jose Javier, and can you guess why?

What has been your most significant tender mercy? the opportunity to read Jesus the Christ and nurture my relationship with Him through learning more about His life.

What are you looking forward to this coming week? another baptism! and some better health

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it? as a companionship, we have a goal to use more the points of Preach My Gospel in our teaching efforts

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week? doctrine and covenants 18:10, 14-16

my purpose is to cry repentance to all people, not just those who i choose. my purpose is to invite all and follow the Spirit to find those chosen few.

may god be with you til i write again,

the tennesse hermana

this is Elizabeth, the mom of Andres, the little boy whose picture I sent a couple of weeks ago with my tag. Elizabeth is probably my favorite ward member, and is currently preparing to enter the temple!

El 23 of Marzo

the lord knows that i needed a filter for my testimony, and he found one in spanish. it's quite frustrating some days to try and share my testimony about some deep doctrine, and not be able to, but that's the thing: my job is not to teach the deep doctrine: its to share the simple truths of the doctrine, and let the spirit do the testifying of the other stuff.

i started teaching some of the jovenes piano lessons on Saturday, and the hope is that they bring their non-member friends as an opportunity to assimilate them into the gospel using music. i am soo excited, and it's a great opportunity to learn new words as well!

for all those that want to know what a day in the life of a Nicaragua Managua Sur missionary looks like, here is Tuesday of last week. We were supposed to have divisions this day, which means we were supposed to work with two other sisters, and split the work in the afternoon, but that fell through, so we ran from appointment to appointment, trying to get them all in. and by some great miracle of faith, it happened.

this cutie, is andres. he is the little boy of two recent converts, Elizabeth and Santiago, who are preparing to enter the temple in June. he is absolutely crazy, and loves me. he wanted to wear my plaque, but i only would let him hold it. so of course, we had to take a picture of the new Hermana Graves.

another great miracle this week: hermana asucena was cleared to be married! we found all the information we need for a divorce, and got it to a point that she could be married to hermano luis on saturday, and be married later that afternoon. it's kind of sad, but it was a quaint ceremony. she, her husband, one of her boys, two friends, and two of her sisters in law and their children. i am so glad for the blessing of the knowledge that my wedding can be for eternity and for the opportunity that i have to help hermana asucena have the same experience. her baptism had a small crowd, but that's exactly how she wanted it. she's so incredibly humble like that.

​these are my favorite nica food. they are called tostones, and they are fried green plantains. fried yellow plantains are sweet, and when fried are not my favorite. (the picture would not load)

there is one way back to live with God: living the gospel. as missionaries, we invite others to come unto Christ and receive the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. this is the same Church that was on the Earth in the times of Jesus. I know this to be true. the book is blue, the church is true, and i have the amazing opportunity to share this message with the whole wide world of Nicaragua.

i love you all, and wish you the best this week,

the tennessee hermana

El 16 de Marzo

this week showed me just how much is possible when i put my faith in the Lord, and not in my own abilities.

for one: i got a package! third one of the mission, and one that i was waay excited to see. it had all my bedding in it! so i don't wake up with a crick in my neck, and i have been sleeping through the night, and not waking up three and four times in the night, having to readjust my makeshift pillow. a picture of my bed, and my three american luxuries: a pillow, sheets, and a fan!

monday night we got a call, that i had an interview scheduled for the following morning at eight in ante gracia with President Russell. this phone call meant three things: 1-we had to get to the house asap to start cleaning, because with interviews, comes inspections of our apartment. and not that we hadn't cleaned, we had just cleaned a little bit. so we had to hurry and repent in the final hour. 2-we needed to plan real quick for the following day and get to work. 3-we had to get up early and get ready, to be at the church in ante gracia at seven thirty. which is about a thirty minute taxi ride away. we passed our inspection, which means brownies for Hermana Graves and Hermana Gomez!! Sister Russell took our weight, and turns out that I only feel fat. I weigh the solid 138 that I weighed when I started here in Nicaragua/left the MTC weighing. After that, an interview with President Russell, and an opportunity to talk in English. There is something about talking with and being complimented by a father figure that is just soothing for the soul. 

the assistants that night, tuesday, came and interviewed Angel and Frank because they were struggling a little bit to feel ready for their baptisms. can i just say, that amazing things happen when you pray for something specific and then go and work for it? we had been working with Angel, and been trying so hard to get it done ourselves, and even had had the Zone Leaders come and talk with him, but most of the time, the Lord doesnt want us to do it alone. we need the help of others in the work. thanks to those elders, a little bit of spiritual pixie dust, and a whole lot of prayer, the elders get the permission from franks mom, and got both angel and frank on the bath to baptism. they also visited hermanita emily and gave her a packet with some pamphlets of the church about baptism, confirmation, and the path that she would be starting on. super pilas. with some hard work, and several hours of prayer, we were blessed with the miracle of three baptisms saturday.

this week is something that we could not have done without the Lords help. it seriously would not have been even remotely possible. but we can do all things in Christ, who strengthens us. i know that i was called to be a disciple of Christ, THE SON OF GOD, to preach this Gospel, His word, to the people of Nicaragua to help them achieve eternal life. only when we as missionaries walk by faith will we have success, because testimony and knowledge only come after the trial of our faith. the field is white, all ready to harvest, and all those who have a desire to serve are called to the work. this work, HIS work, is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. eternal life. salvation. the greatest of all the gifts of GOD. and i have the opportunity to share to open my mouth and preach it. there are changes in the works here in nicaragua and the great thing is that something never changes: God´s plan for us. its never going to change. the tomb is empty, man is free, Christ has won the victory.

con fe

hermana graves