el 8 de agosto del 2018

every once in a while, life comes running at you

and you get this funny feeling that you knew it was coming.

that's how i felt when i finally got my mission call.

it was a feeling that i didn't realize i was missing, but

one, that as soon as i felt it, knew i was looking for all along.

i was one of those people that didn't do research about my mission before setting off for the mtc.

i didn't even ask questions about what the mtc would be like. 

i decided to just go along for the ride, and let it take me where it would.

fast forward through the rollercoaster that was the mtc, 

and the first couple of weeks of my first "cambio" (or exchange) with my companion.

(for those of you who don't know, a mission is divided into sections, called exchanges,

usually six weeks long. every mission calls them something different, but 

being spanish-speaking, we called them cambios.)

my companion and i had had great success finding people to teach 

and helping people come unto christ. 

but i felt like we were lacking on something i felt like we, as missionaries,

should be taking a bigger effort to do: service for those in our area.

so we set off to an appointment one day, without really thinking too much about it.

andy, my precious andy, wasn't home, so we decided to spend some time

 meeting a few new people in the surrounding area.

we ended up behind a school not far from andy's home,

and i felt prompted to knock on a giant red door.

it was the only one on the whole street i felt like we should knock, too.

when i did, guess whose big, adorable black eyes answered the door?

andy.

andy had gone over to his grandma's house after school 

because she had been sick the last couple of days.

he would spend the afternoon in her company, 

before it got too dark and he couldn't make it back home safely.

when we got there, we spent some time with andy,

but something wasn't right. 

we felt the need to talk with andy's grandma and help her in her need.

as sister missionaries, we could only pray and ask in faith

that she would be healed, but there was something more we could do:

serve.

andy's grandma made a small comment about not being able to offer water

because all the cups and other possible cups were dirty.

that day was the day i learned the word traste,

the word the nicaraguans use to describe the dishes in general.

my companion and i spent an hour washing all of her dishes and putting them away with andy.

when we were done, she offered to make us jugo or refresco

but by then, we felt like our work there was done.

we excused ourselves, and went on our way.

little did i know, that andy's grandma was a less active member

and that andy had been begging her for months to come to church

(ever since he started taking the lessons, really).

the next sunday, guess who was sitting next to andy at church:

grandma.

in the remaining months i was there in loma linda,

grandma's health came and went. 

but andy never failed to come with grandma to church.

there are many times in my life, that i wonder what it would be like to go back to nicaragua

now that i have lived on my own again for two years.

a lot of things have changed, and a lot of things have not.

people would still view me as fachenta, or rich, because of my white female status.

i often dream though of yelling buenas over crude fences and doors of zinc.

of the smiles and cries and abrazos that would be inevitable when they recognized me.

i can't decided if i would want a party or just a few minutes at each home to catch up, pay my respects, and move on.

there really is no other way around it:

soy nica y nada me va a cambiar.

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