Week 13

Sorry for not emailing yesterday, we changed our Pday to today so that we could go to the temple. 

This week was good! I feel like I really put a lot into the week. My goal was to not complain. Of course I could've done better, but the less I complained, the easier it was to just enjoy the work. It didn't really make it easier other than the fact that I just let go of all the stupid stuff that happened. 

It's been a crazy long week. We had zone conference this week... honestly it feels like it was forever ago. But it was really good. We talked about how to be better missionaries, and how to see success. Because people love to focus on numbers, but at the same time we know it's really not about that. So how do you know if you are successful? We talked about change and how we are here to tie hearts to heaven. We are here to not just baptize, but to make disciples of Christ. 

I also got to go on exchanges with Sister Kennach on Wednesday! So many miracles! We found 2 new investigators! It was amazing! And we got to walk around the temple grounds. I'm really sad actually because one of the investigators ended up being out of our area, so we had to pass him on to the elders. But he was awesome. He lives in a nursing home and has taken the lessons before, but then had a stroke leaving him paralyzed on his left side. But he wants to start the lessons again and be baptized. We also had to pass off another investigator to the elders in ysa. And now they won't even let us come to any of the lessons. So I'm sad about that too. But I know it'll be fine. Our new investigator Ashley is amazing. She has some health issues, and reached out for support by calling the mission office. We go see her all the time. We even got to take her to the temple grounds! She came to church, and she really liked it. She has a lot of faith and I'm so excited to get to know her better! 

Lots of Halloween parties for the wards and stuff. So that's pretty fun! We also have a new car! Not sure if it's permanent. But our carola has had problems up the wall. It was never ending this week. So we are driving a Malibu, it's pretty sweet! 

This week there has been a big focus on temples. I was able to go at least on the temple grounds 3 times this week! It was amazing. And I was able to finally go in and do a session today. What a way to celebrate Halloween! 
But it's been amazing to just be on the grounds and feel the spirit there. We were able to teach our new investigator about the plan of salvation as we watched the sunset. The spirit was so incredible. And then she came to church and I felt like everyone bore their testimonies on temples. It brought a lot of peace to my soul, that's for sure. 
I've also been focusing a lot on coming to know Christ. It is one thing to know about Christ but it is another to come to actually know him and developed a true relationship with him. As I have been able to go see the temple I have really felt that and as I have the privilege of working with and serving so many wonderful people. Not only have I come to love and care about them, I've been given this amazing gift of feeling a little sliver of how the savior feels about each of them. 
I've been reading a talk by Elder Bednar over and over again this week. It is called "if ye had known me", given in October conference of last year. And it's really changed my perspective. He talks about the story of the father that comes to Jesus and says, Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief. And he talks about how many of us do believe in Christ as our savior and the Son of God, but we doubt that the "Master's healing power could indeed be so individualized and personalized as to bless" our specific needs. 
This month's zone focus was on teaching the restoration every single day. It was amazing. Not only do I feel confident in my ability to teach. But I have come to understand the principals so much more and my testimony has grown so deep. There is absolutely no coincidence that the very first point in the very first lesson is that GOD IS OUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER. Every single point in every single lesson can be brought back to the fact that Heavenly Father loves us. And it's truly been a privilege to testify of that every single day this month. I can say without hesitation that I feel Heavenly Father's love for me, I feel that he is mindful of me, and he is mindful of everyone else around me. 
Going back to Bednar's talk, do we ask the Master to help our unbelief in his infinite and personalized healing power? Do we trust in our knowledge that God is our LOVING Heavenly Father? 

Love you guys! Happy Halloween 🕸🎃

Sister Grant 

Week 12

Another week gone by. This week was kinda weird. Not a ton happened but it was just very drama filled. We got a new investigator this week! That's the best news. We have been really struggling in that ward to find people to teach. And our ward mission leader doesn't think we do anything.. I know he knows but I don't think he understands that we cover 2 wards. But I'm excited, I think we are going to set a bap date with her this week. 

Sorry I have like no pictures... like I said not a ton really happened. Or nothing worth taking a picture of I guess. But this Saturday we got to go to the YMCA to do service at a trunk'r'treat activity. It was insane. There were so many people, and we were in charge of the the bouncy houses. So many kids got separated from their parents! I was so tired by the end of the night! But we all got teeshirts and we got to be with everyone from our district. 

Also, my friend Carl gave his farewell talk yesterday! We were in the same singles ward  at school in Idaho and it turns out he lives in one of the wards I'm serving in! Pretty crazy! 

I have an investigator who has a bit of a pride issue.. Anyways I've been studying patience and humility and charity a lot lately. And I was reading in alma and it was talking about humbling yourself. And it's been on my mind lately, am I humbling myself? Or am I being compelled to be humble? And when it comes to teaching, do I have the patience  to let them humble themselves, or am I too quick to compel them to humility? Anyways, just some food for thought. 

Have a good week!

Sister Grant

Week 11

It was another pretty long week.

Great news is that the lice problem is pretty much all taken care of and I never got it! It was a pain because my tablet is almost out of storage from all of the videos I had to download so that she would sit still long enough for me to go through her hair. 

This week we went out to eat a lot again. I can't even tell you how happy I was to finally go to a members home for dinner! I mean it is fun to go out. But it's nice to have a good conversation with someone other than my comp. And it's not like we have that may options of places to go out to eat.

We did tons of service this week! We worked at Catalina and cleaned up the trails. It's not like the work was hard but to clean the trails you have to actually hike them. So that was pretty long. And then the next day we cleaned someone's yard. They are nonmembers in our area and they are older and not able to do it themselves. So sister Gadd and I arranged a day for our zone to go do it for them. It was great, everyone was super helpful. But it was a long day for sure! They were so sweet! Her name is boots and she made us all sloppy Joes for lunch and had a cooler full of soda and waters. She cleaned her pool so that we could all go swimming. So it was a bummer we aren't allowed to because that would've been so much fun! We also did a lot of moving and packing and stuff for some members. So I'm pretty tired.

On Saturday we got to go on an all day splits kinda thing. A ward in a different zone does this activity where all the youth get to go with a companionship for a whole day and see what missionary life is really like. So we got to take a girl named Becky with us for the day! It was pretty cool! We went to the church and played volleyball with one of our potentials who lives with a member in the ward. We got to meet with a less active that just moved in. But the best part of the day was honestly dinner. We went over to Griselle's house, she is a recent convert from Puerto Rico. She loves having us over and always makes us some fancy meal. She is the best. We walk in and she'll snap her fingers and tell us to relax on the couch and have a good time. She also taught us how to make some really good Puerto Rican food! 

We teach a lot of families with little kids and it is so much fun! We have a game or a magic trick or a craft to go with pretty much every lesson. I'm getting really good with making object lessons and making things really simple. It keeps things fun and entertaining. And honestly everyone loves it. The magic tricks are always a hit. When they work hahaha! We've had a few that totally failed but it was pretty funny. We use fire in most of our magic tricks so at least nothing has gone seriously wrong!

I think the biggest lesson I've had to learn this week is patience. It's frustrating when everyone cancels on us. It's just part of missionary work. And everyone knows it, it's just a fact that everyone blows off the missionaries. But even knowing that doesn't make it any less annoying. I've also had to learn to be patient with my comp and with myself. It's easy to say things you don't mean when you are tired and hungry or just not in the mood to life. But I've learned that when I know that I am any of those things, I can turn it over to the Lord. When I get on my knees and ask for strength, He always comes through. Not that I am all of a sudden a different person and filled with energy and motivation. But when I trust in him he helps me to have the courage to just put one foot in front of the other and make it through the day!

Today had been really fun though, this morning all the sisters in my zone went bowling and then out to eat. It was nice to see everyone and just have a good time. It was kinda funny because I asked sister Gadd if we could wear pants and she said no. And trust me, I asked multiple times! But she wouldn't let me. And when we got there, all the other sisters were in pants! I was only very bitter about that. Hahaha but nah we had a great time. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Sister Grant 

Week 10

This week's sure been swell! On Monday, I told you guys that people were coming to stay with us. My grandpa of the mission, sister Carter was here! Super fun! Lots of hugs and good times staying up all night having a blast. We even went out on Tuesday for lunch with her new comp. Had my first Sanoran dog! 

Then Wednesday during our zone breakout we get a text from sister Carter. She has lice. So we called her after to ask if she was messing with us, nope not a joke. So we check our hair and sure enough sister Gadd has the nits. Thank the heavens, we have not found any in my hair! But I have washed EVERYTHING. It's annoying because sister Gadd freaks out beyond no belief, she thinks she's cleaning... she's not. Someone said that if you mix tee tree oil and water it can help prevent lice. We don't even know if that's true. But all she does is spray everything and take naps. Of course i let her tell everyone that she cleans, but I can't even tell you how many loads of laundry, vacuuming, scrubbing, literally everything I've done while she naps. And then who actually gets to go through her hair? Oh yeah, that would be me. I get to go through her hair every night. And really, it could be so much worse! Sister Carter apparently has like hundreds in her hair. I find about 7-15 nits every night. So it's annoying but it could be worse. But she is like a child, she doesn't sit still to let me go through her hair! And it's not like I'm gonna let her just live with it, because I don't want to get it! 

Alright, sorry for the total pity party rant. Other than dealing with lice, the week hasn't been THAT bad. I've been super dehydrated even though I drink tons of water, so I'm trying to drink more Powerade and Gatorade, but my skin hurts because I'm so dry. Not a ton of lessons this week because either we had to cancel or people canceled on us. But the lessons that we did have this week were so great! I feel like I really gained the trust and respect of the people I'm teaching. Everyone loved the missionary before me and were really disappointed when I replaced her. But now that they've gotten to know me and be open with me I feel like things are going much better. 

I really don't remember a ton from this week.. It's all been kind of a blur. We only had a couple dinners this week. Most people canceled on us, so we went out a lot. We got to go to MOD pizza which made me happy. But really this week has just been all about getting rid of lice. I wish we could've done more, but we just didn't see too many people. 

The weather is starting to get to that perfect Tucson temperature! And I'm more used to it. But the nights are about 83 and it honestly feels perfect. Normally I'd say that's really hot for at night but it feels so much cooler. It was funny too because my comp and I had a debate about if 90 was hot or warm, of course I said 90 is hot. But I lost, everyone said 90 is perfect because it's warm. 

Yeah, nothing else much to talk about this week. Trying to find some new Pday things to go do. We don't do very much, sister Gadd just like to sleep and I get really stir crazy so I am demanding that we go somewhere other than the church and wallmart. 

This week in my personal study I've been focusing on Grace and mercy. I love the imagery when mercy is talked about. I had never noticed that the scriptures almost always mention something about God's hands or arms. Like his merciful hand or merciful arm. It makes me think of a hug, and how he loves each of us so much that he forgives us, has compassion on us, and is waiting for us with open arms ready to love us and hold us if we have the faith and trust in him to catch us. Because we will always fall. 

Love you all! Have a good week

Sister Grant 

Week 9

Nothing too exciting this week, it actually went by super fast. I've noticed that it goes every other week. I'll have a long week, then a crazy short week, then another long one. There really hasn't been an in between. Pretty much all of our appointment canceled on us, didn't hear back from any of our investigators. So we did a ton of finding this week. We passed out like 15 BoM's this week. We tried going through our potentials list and seeing everyone. It was good, stayed busy, it just went fast. 

Because we got FB sister Gadd has been wanting to change her profile pic, so we took lots of pictures this week. We would just stop at random places for a little photo shoot hahaha most of them are ridiculous and I can't stop laughing at them. 

One fun thing actually was that we got to go out to eat on Friday! Our dinner appointment canceled on us and dropped off a gift card for this Italian pizza and wine place. It was really good. But it was fun to go out to eat and just talk. Going to people's houses is nice, but honestly keeping up small talk all the time is exhausting! But as we were eating, we were sitting outside and this guy and his wife walk up and asked if we've been to frost. It's this really super amazing gelato place next to the restaurant we were eating at. And before we could say yes or no, he slips me a 20 and and says that they're buying. They were so nice! And yes we have been to frost before but it got paid for by a member last time too! So I've never had to pay for it. And it honestly is the BEST gelato.  

Conference was so good. I watched most of the sessions at the church. But I watched the first and the last sessions at people's houses. We went over to Donna' s for the first. She is the sweet older woman with ms. And the last one with our investigator Shandra. She totally forgot and all of them were asleep. I mean it's probably what I'd be doing if I wasn't a missionary. But it was the 1 o'clock session.. We walk inside and it was a mess. Like we had to move tons of stuff just to see the tv. Then her boys start telling me about their bird. I'm like, you don't have a bird.. And then they take out this pigeon out of a box! They picked up a pigeon and kept it! Not sure if many of you know, it's weird, but I HATE PIGEONS. They were like holding it, petting it, kissing it! It would fly near me and it took everything in me not to dive for cover. I can tolerate a pigeon of its outside, but what in the world am I supposed to do if it's actually in the house! Oh and I forgot to mention, the pigeons name is Jeff. It was an interesting session. I'll probably have to go back and rewatch that one. 

Transfers are tomorrow (tuesday) I'm staying here I'm the NW zone with sister Gadd. So should be another good transfer. We have all the new sister trainers staying with us till the greenies get here. It's a party lol! 

Hope everyone is doing well. If anyone has any cute uplifting quotes feel free to send them my way. Either email, or over Facebook. Like Pinterest kinda quotes that I can print out and put up around my apartment. Also, I'd love to hear what everyone's favorite talk was and cool insights you had. 

Lots of love!

Sister Grant ♡