el 11 de Enero

thanks for all of your prayers, i really have gained a strong testimony about 

the power of prayer since i have gotten out on the mission. absolutely nothing 

that can take it´s place. we had.... wait for it.... ten investigators in church. 

absolutely fantastic to see the blessings of hard work and trust in the lord. 

now to just have the same success this next week!

we don´t have p-day today, because wednesday we are going to the beach!

 i will explain more next week with pictures!

my companion´s spanish continues to progress. if you are the praying kind, it´s 

always nice to have a little bit of extra help. we are getting along great, even though

 she is someone completely opposite of what i am.

but really great news guys.... my memory is all clean and healthy and not a bug in 

sight! with all my pictures present and accounted for! i am soo excited! also found 

out that i have taken over three thousand pictures on my mission... yea, that's 250 

pictures a month roughly. and i still have a ton of room left on my camera!

most tender mercy... yikes. there were a lot. but probably having ten investigators 

in church and having the members´ help every step of the way. there are not enough 

words to exhort every one of you to do your part to help your missionaries bring 

people to church, fellowship, or even sit with your investigators. it makes everything 

so much easier as a missionary when the missionaries and the ward can work in unity 

to bring people to Christ. there is no other alternative.

one of my favorite scriptures from this week... 2 nephi 31:20-21

::ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of 

hope, and a love of God and of all men.Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting 

upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall 

have eternal life. And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is 

none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom 

of God.::

it´s a powerful scripture that teaches us the power of enduring to the end. there really 

is no other way to enter into the kingdom of heaven. just through our obedience and 

our steadfastness in Christ.

some goals... speak spanish to sister naumu. read the scriputres at night, and don´t fall 

asleep after we plan. it´s killing my neck and i wake up before the alarm which drives me 

nuts!

i love you all!

a couple of the delicious plates of food we have eaten this week!

hermana graves

el 13 de febrero-Last Prep Day in the MTC

i have been extremely blessed here at the MTC. let me explain why: for every week I have been set apart as a missionary, I have found a friend. the first week, it was Sister Kah and Elder Hamby in the Ogden Mission Home. The next week, it was Sister Ray and Elder Irvine headed to Boise Idaho. The following week was Moe, a friend's fiance, at the temple. Skip a week. I found Motra Henderson on my way to dinner last P-day, but I think my favorite run happened this week at the temple.

We were attempting to take a Zone selfie, which was successfully done (i will have to send the proof next week...) and I was trying to find Motra Henderson; all of sudden I hear my name. And I couldn't tell you if he called me Janelle, Hermana Graves, or Sister Graves. But he called my name, I responded "yes," looked up, and say Elder Evan Nelson standing in front of me. I have never wanted to break the missionary rules so much in my entire life. My Branch President was standing across the way, and I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy as I screamed and got really excited and just was being me.... Elder Nelson got into the MTC last Wednesday, and leaves on Tuesday for a mission in Colorado. The Lord knew I needed a friend this week, and so he sent me Elder Nelson. 

Hna. Garfield, I, Elder Nelson and his companion.

Motra Henderson and I outside of the Provo Temple.

in other news:

-district a left, and so we spent quite a solid hour posing for pictures. 

elder muirbrook (our district leader), his companion elder jungers, and our district leaders elder wiscomb and elder ipson.

by the time we had gotten to this picture, elder ipson had posed for quite a few pictures, so we had to do a funny one and try and imitate elder ipson's glorious smile!

(elder ipson, elder wiscomb, hermana smith, hermana cornell, hermana garfield, and me)​

district c had to be cool, so they got a picture

The Zone selfie!

this picture is a little out-dated, but this is my district:

from back to front, elder jagneaux, elder muirbrook, elder jungers, elder rankin; hermana smith, me, hermana cornell, and hermana garfield.

tuesday: each week you have two service assignments, and usually on tuesdays we sisters help clean the main building on campus, one m. also, there are 33 flags that fly outside of the MTC each day, the American flag and the England flag (because the pulley system is broken) always fly. But we got to pick 31 flags to fly over the MTC! It was fantastic!! so much fun to have races to see who can crack the flag up the fastest... :) we also got the news that hermana garfield and i would be participating in "people and our purpose: part 1." the next evening.

wednesday: when you come into the MTC, after dinner your first night, they have a seminar called "people and your purpose" where you have the opportunity to have the first lesson with an investigator basically. you meet three investigators and the "old" missionaries help you get to a point where you could kind of start talking doctrine. then the moderator pauses the scene, and then the new missionaries (there are like 40 of you in a room) take over. guess which part we got to do? in english!! yeah, it was not my favorite thing to think about doing, but we got it figured out.. and we really were able to ask some great questions that I will be writing down to use in later lessons. 

before I came to the MTC, uncle curtis gave me some advice. "don't translate, just speak." and I had no idea how to do it. the first couple of weeks I was here, there was just no way I was going to understand myself. and then this past week, i figured out what he meant. if i tried to just simply speak spanish, but sentences were much more fluid and i could actually speak the language, but if i tried to translate from english to spanish, my head was a mess... needless to say, i have been trying to just speak and not translate this week.

as i prepare to leave the mtc, i thought i would share some thoughts with you:

-love your companion, you are supposed to be with her/him every waking moment. if you don't, you will be miserable.

-love your district. they maybe juvenile at times, and you don' t have to love the decisions that they are making, but that's it. those decisions are theirs to make.

-have a sit down and really get to know the district.

-go to the temple as a zone, at least once.

-there is no tree that smells like cream soda.

-the vending machines get stocked on tuesdays. (i think...)

-yes, your MTC card works at the vending machines.

-print off your emails in the morning, write responses, and then go and do emails in the afternoon.

-sack meals are great for pdays, and the mornings you have service.

and then something for mom:

Who can we pray for on your end of the world? Is there an investigator that you are leaving that could use some extra prayers? pray for the gifts of tongues and discernment, heaven knows i will need it

 

What has been your biggest challenge this week? in field orientation. a 9 hour seminar, all done with a pounding headache

 

What has been your biggest concern? i will be in a foreign country, with no ingles, in four days.

 

What has been your biggest success? i feel comfortable speaking the language. if i don't translate (like uncle curtis said) and just try and speak simply, my spanish is understandable and for the most part grammatically correct.

 

Who has been your favorite person this week & why? the Lord. we taught a lesson on Sunday to the district about having faith through trials, and the blessings that can come through enduring through those trials. 

 

What has been your most significant tender mercy? teachers who are willing to sit down with you and help you understand hard topics. we are focusing on the subjunctive form in spanish this week, and it just wasn't making sense. thankfully, hermano ostler took the time to kneel beside me and help me understand it a little bit better....

 

What are you looking forward to this coming week? this week? an exciting new adventure in Nicaragua!

 

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it? love my companion, don't drown in the spanish. memorize a new scripture

  

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week? 3 Nephi 5:13 -- He aquí, soy discípulo de Jesucristo, el Hijo de Dios. He llamado por él para declarar su palabra entre los de su pueblo a fin de que alcansen la vida eterna. 

this gospel is true, the book is blue, and i love you!

the tennessee Hermana

​

First letter from the MTC

****Note from Mom (who is updating this blog): Janelle sent this email last Friday. It was a bit of a surprise as we were expecting a Monday or Tuesday p-day. I will do better at posting her emails the same day she sends them.****

before i begin, i need to let you know of a FREE (yes, free) way to write me while i am here in the MTC. it's called DearElder.com. using the information from my MTC mailing address, you can send me a letter or note that I will get that day! i will have to wait until p-day to write you back, but it can get it then and there!

i had originally thought that my p-days would be on mondays or tuesdays, but our zone's pday is going to be on friday. hence, why i am writing you today!!

so, how did the week go?

tuesday everything went super smoothly with airplanes and layovers. i didn't get everything i wanted to get done on the plane, but am i okay with the fact that i got some good sleep. i miss my afternoon nap. hahahaha there is a lot of information to learn in just a few short weeks, and they don't waste any time getting you into the espanol. by two o'clock on wednesday, i had already started speaking spanish and the instructor didn't say more than about three words at a time in english. total immersion helps the spanish.

wednesday was great! i got to see Sister Kah in the Ogden mission home, while she and her companion tried to get her companion's luggage out of the impound lot! i won't bore you with the details, but it really is a funny story now that we are a couple days away from it...

that night was a throw into the deep end of the pool in the hopes that we could swim. lots of spanish, and some amazing elders and sisters from the district headed out on monday, i was feeling a little bit on edge.

by thursday afternoon, i was wound tight with anxiety. the language wasn't coming back, i was exhausted, and i was anxious over our lesson that we have to teach in spanish tonight. thankfully, we got to spend some time in the gym, and i am feeling much better. it's amazing what exercise does for the body.

hermana garfield will be my companion while i am here in the MTC, and she's a cutie. she's from grands pass, oregon and is one of nine children. she's currently the senior companion, so i get to follow in her capable footsteps here in about three weeks. she, along with hma cornell and elder jungers will be going to the same mission i will, so we will all leave the MTC on the same day, visa's permitting. the other three elders and remaining sister in our district will be headed to the new york new york north mission at the end of these six weeks. they like to say that they got the lucky end of the draw because they don't have to worry about gross water, or living without certain first world comforts... elder jungers and elder muirbrook (our current district leader) are companions, along with elders rankin and jagneaux (pronounced jag-no). hma. cornell and hma. smith (the sister going to new york) are companions as well. i love these people already. we kind of have an advantage over the other districts because we are the coolest hahahaha

(me and my new companion, Hermana Garfield)

spanish. spanish. spanish. while we are in class, its as much espanol as possible, and we try our best to speak it outside of class as well. two days here and i can say a simple testimony and say most of my prayers in spanish. spanglish is getting easier to use, and they actually prefer you use it so that our teachers can let us know what words we want/need to know! we all get overly excited when the meeting is going to be in english, because it is mentally difficult right now to think in spanish. i just don't have the vocabulary any more. it's coming back, but it's definitely not what it was in high school (props to senora maldonado!) i found out yesterday that i have to have a talk prepared in spanish for sacrament meeting on sunday... no pressure! it only needs to be about five minutes long, and our district probably won't be picked on to speak because this will be our first sunday in the MTC, but they want us to have them prepared so that we can use them in the field. because heavens knows, that they will get used... many, many times. they don't announce who will be speaking until after the sacrament has been given and so you have about thirty seconds, or five minutes notice.
​​

i know that this work is the lord's and that i have been called to do his work. there are people in nicaragua that need my testimony and i will do all in my power to be ready to teach those people. and when i am not enough, i know that the Spirit and the Lord will make up the difference. i know that as long as i am striving to be the best hermana graves that i can be, the lord will bless me to be the best missionary and servant of the lord i can be. this work is not for the faint of heart, but i can do hard things. 

thank you call for the support that you have given me in making and following through with this decision. thank you for all of your amazing advice and your amazing examples.

best of wishes for the coming week,

hermana graves