el 26 de Octubre

this week was a great bang! we went out at had a great tourist trip of granada, and the best part? we got to do it in p-day clothes! we had a great time climbing up into the bell tower of a catholic church, playing soccer, and taking 8 million pictures. sorry, there's only room to put a couple, but i'll choose the good ones:

we celebrated hermana liberato's twentieth birthday together as a district, and according to nicaragua tradition, we splattered eggs on her head ;) she was a good sport about it all, until another sister got flour involved... like a mini cake in my companion's hair... gross!

saturday we had the opportunity to have another multi-mission conference with elder snow, brother turley, and elder alonso, the church historian, one of his assistants, and the area president in respective order. it was really neat to listen and hear their words, and really realize the importance of writing in our journals. i have about two weeks of "history" to write, so i need to get to work!

a favorite person... elder agustin, who convinced our zone leaders to have the best p-day ever! yippee!! the yellow church is the church that everyone knows granada by. it's in central park, and has some beautiful architecture, but it's missing something. (oh wait, it's the spirit...)

a favorite scripture: moroni 10:33

::if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.::

some goals for this week: get better at writing at night, and not falling asleep in my chair. sleeping is for a bed, not a chair.

the next transfer date is wednesday. i'm not sure that i am going to stay in granada, because hermana liberato just finished her training. but we will just have to see!

something you all could pray for... for our success as a mission to reach our goals. we have some great goals to progress towards for november and december to finish strong the year. 

i love you all, and wish the best for all of you. thank you so much for your letters and your pictures!

lots of love,

hermana graves

el 14 de Septiembre

another change has come and gone, which marks me at eight months in the mission. this change i will go over the hill, and i have mixed feelings about it all!

a big success... we brough eight people to church yesterday! exceeding the normas, people! whatcha gonna do.... when they come... the missionaries!

a tender mercy... wednesday we went adventuring into the extremities (sp!?) of our area, looking for less actives. we found one... reading his scriptures. it touched my heart to see him, and when we called "buenas!" (their greeting here), looked at us, and proceeded to get all teary eyed. he's been a member for more than fifteen years, and has been less active for almost a year. he has a strong testimony, but has had some unfortunate things happen in his life that have pulled him away from the church. it was raining wednesday, we got lost in a bus, and almost left zone boundaries in the search, but the lord knew that hermano carlos needed our visit. just another testimony that it all works out for the best. even if you scare your junior companion into thinking that we have to walk more than five kilometers back into granada...

we had a lot of fun doing each other's hair one night while we were waiting for dinner. i'll give you a hint, this is a man. (a gay man, but a man.)

oh to have his hair....

some favorite people... we had the opportunity to work with our zone leader and his two children.   we visited karla, and her son jose, and had a lot of fun watching the little two year old wash the dirty clothes in the dirt... mom and grandma have taught him well! (this picture didn't load)

a goal this week, walk without killing myself. last sunday night i tripped while having a foot race with a couple of investigators. at first, i treated it like any other wound, making sure that it was clean and i put some antibacterial cream on it and everything. needless to say, tuesday it was all oozy and pussy and we ended up having to call the nurse. a hydrogen peroxide torture wash later and a week of the same treatment, it has stopped oozing and i am able to have full flexibility again. it still hurts, but there we are! (picture didn't load)

a favorite scripture... 1 corithians 3. one of the councils that our zone leader gave us is that we need to make sure that we are feeding our investigators the milk first, and slowly adding in the meat. i read this chapter in my studies today and finally understood what he meant. i know that i was called to this area for a reason, and i have learned some valuable lessons here, now to just find out what it all boils down to.

this week we have changes, and prayers that nothing happens. i know that everything happens for a reason, and if we have faith in the lord's timing, everything will work out for the best.

hermana graves

el 29 de Junio

welcome to the land of the catholics!

this week was one of the easier changes in my misson; the
change from loma linda to pancasan, however, was not as 
easy. tuesday afternoon was full of goodbyes, and hurrying 
to run from one end of town to the other to say goodbye to 
members, converts, and still try and fit in the things that we 
have to do normally. the hardest goodbyes were with elizabeth, 
andy and emily. i made emily a little missionary plaque so that 
she can remember to always help bring her less active parents 
to church. to prepare one day to be a missionary when she will 
have to walk a lot further to bring a whole lot more people to 
church. 

so this is hermana martinez, my new companion! 
(note from Mom: the picture didn't load)

she is only a few months older than me (better than my other 
companions, who were 24 and 22, respectively) and is from San 
Salvador, El Salvador. for those of you who don't know where 
that is, you're with me. i have long ago forgotten my mental map 
of central america that i memorized in high school spanish class. 
hermana martinez was actually the mtc companion of hermana 

gomez, which makes her the third of about 6 sisters from that 
group that i have been companions with... what a treat!

​this is about how all of the main streets are here in granada...
house, house, house, huge catholic church, rich house, house, 
house, huge rich house. the more neighborhood like roads, 
are still rather rich, although they are a little bit more humble. 
i miss my loma linda houses of metal. the opportunity to 
change places and learn a new set of tricks is something that i 
was almost anticipating, but actually being here was almost a 
dream for the first couple of nights. but here we are! a new set 
of friends, and a whole new set of challenges. the streets here are 
flat (hallelujah!) and so, my long lost friends, the calluses, are back 
in full force. thanks to an early birthday present, i have some saving 
graces, but here's to high hopes that they heal faster than last time.

a great scripture for this week... let's go with mark 2:17
::When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have 
no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance.:: the lord came to help us 
all, because all of us in one form or another are that sick and 
afflicted. the sinners are the ones invited to come unto him, and 
follow him. the righteous will have their reward.

some new foods this week include beet lemonade. it was very
interesting, and something that i haven't quite made up my mind 
about yet.... a work in progress.

this week has been a whirlwind of new experiences, a tiny little church
building, like the stereotypical central american church building (fans 
attached to the walls to provide some reprieve from the heat, an 
electric piano, and only about four classrooms in total). a new branch 
president, who is very ready and willing to retain the new members of 
the church. we are working right now on our SIMY (i don't know what it 
stands for, i just know that it's the converts of the last 18 months who 
came to church), because it's seriously lacking... here we go to work!

hermana graves