Welcome Home!

Its been crazy!   I can't believe I am home now.   18 months seriously flew by so fast!    I got to learn so much and grow and now it just feels like it was all a dream.  

So these are just some of the things that I have learned from my service:

• To talk poorly and/or question your leaders is doubting God
• Fasting and prayer really do work!
• The Spirit can be felt in any language
• Change must start with desire
• Good visiting or home teachers can change a person's life for the better
• Listen louder than you speak (im still working on that...)
• Scripture Study (Particularly the Book of Mormon) changes lives for the better
• Take it one day at a time
• Enduring to the end takes diligence - Rome wasn't built in a day
• Love your companion, its the only way
• Make memories
• Rely on the Spirit
• I can do hard things
• Its ok to not be perfect
• If everything goes perfect we are not mortals doing the work of the Lord
• Transfers, and missions do eventually come to an end
• To keep a cake moist, add a scoop of mayo
• Always use butter and real whipping cream
• Before you barrow bikes to ride at night, make sure they have lights
• If you are going to be biking on a busy street with no bike lane, its good to know how to ride a bike first
• Asking for a "beso de agua"  is a bad idea
• Saying that an Elder is "muy suave con sus palabras"  is inappropriate and will result in funny looks and jokes
• Announcing to a Spanish branch in Tucson that you work for the boarder patrol makes the room go dead silent
• Decide NOW to keep the commandments
• Prayers are answered - no matter what they are for (even if its just for ice cream)
• The only easy day really was yesterday
• Never leave a dirty dish out - ants will attack
• Jumping the mission soccer mom jeep will throw out the alinement, but its so worth it especially when your companion gets it on tape
• Bike tire pressure should be at 40 PSI, not 10
• Write things down that you have learned
• Its much easier to just keep the commandments in the first place, than repent later
• Never have a cat!
• Don't trust the men selling perfume from their car trunk
• Everyone has their own struggles
• Trust God, he knows best, and believe in good things to come
• To change a car tire alternate what side of the rim you remove to bolts
• Hot oil + water = fire
• Don't hug a dog
• We are all children of God and all have our own journeys here on earth

Even though being home is new and strange I am real excited to see what the rest of my life can bring :)

Coming Home

Being with my mommy!

after being released what should you do? 

Jump into a pool fully clothed!

One More Week!

So this may be my last blog post as a missionary,  that’s just CRAZY!

But this week has been just insane.  On Tuesday after emailing about that car accident, I got bit by a dog!   I’m just fine now, just a bit scared of random dogs now.  So what had happened was we were at dinner at this member's house and they had the sweetest cocker spaniel, or so I thought,,,,,  So I went to give it a hug (big mistake)  and so it proceeded to bite my head.....   I have about 4 nice bite marks in my head and one on my nose.  They are mainly just scrapes and none required stitches but I get to deal with picking scabs out of my hair now.....    haha  Oh mission life!

Wednesday was crazy!  I got to be on splits which means I was just with a member as a companion instead of my normal companion  and so I felt so weird.  Then on Saturday we had a go go go kind of day.  We had things to do from 8 AM till 8 PM  with just a little time for a lunch.  But the bad part was we got to take our investigator to a baptism but it ended up being awful!  The baptism lasted an hour and a half and it really scared our poor investigator....  but it’s OK.   We will talk with her soon and we know that Heavenly Father has a plan!

Also Sunday I got to give a talk - it will be my last talk as a missionary which is kind of sad.  I spoke on why member missionary work is so important by sharing my story of being invited to church for the first time.  Then I spoke on the importance of choices.  I have learned while out that the decisions we make now really can affect us for the rest of our lives and the importance of choosing now what we will do when faced with hard trials.  My favorite quote I have found on my mission is from Elder Neal A Maxwell about Joshua 29:15  "Joshua didn't say choose you next year whom you will serve; he spoke of 'this day' while there is still daylight and before the darkness becomes more and more normal"  It’s so true we get to choose TODAY how we will react later, if we will be active in the church,  if things go bad will we stay faithful?   I have made that decision that yes  no matter what adversity may come I will stay faithful to my Heavenly Father and will remain active in the church.   

Thank you so much everyone for all the support I have been given in these last 18 months!

Love 

Hermana Grove

Note from Mom:

Suzy returns home Wednesday Aug 20.  If you want information about her flight arrival you can email me at kathygrove2@aol.com. 

Continued from yesterday

Ok so since we didn't get a ton of time yesterday this is the rest of my week:

We have been getting to have a lot of time with the members in the ward so my companion can get to know them and be comfortable with them.  We got to talk with one missionary mom who said the biggest thing she wished her son would tell her is about that he is getting fed.  So yes for the record I am getting fed, we tend to get dinner just about every night!

I did get to go on an exchange this week as well to a YSA area - it was super weird being around kids my own age who weren’t missionaries.

And then for today it’s sure a good thing we planned on extra email time because our car got backed into while it was parked!   I go my whole mission without an accident and what happens?  My last 2 weeks we get hit and aren't even in the car.....    hey it’s good though, it means we didn’t get hurt and it’s just a little paint.

Here are some pictures from the past little bit.

Hermana Grove

Dancing in the rain!

Dinner with members!  We went through a week of A LOT of pizza

We love our bikes, can't you tell?

And riding on a member's scooter!   We decided we like them better than the bikes

2 More!

Only 2 more weeks!  I'm only writing a little and will write more tomorrow.  We had to come to the Apple store to email cuz no where else had open computers....   But it’s been a crazy week and some hard times especially knowing that a lot of my friends are home today.  But  that’s just what a mission is about.

Hermana Grove

Rough Week

So this week has just been rough honestly.  We were still off with sleep because of the ER trip so we had to take a lot of sleeping time.  And then Tuesday night I got food poisoning - I learned that no matter how lazy and hungry you are week old pizza from the fridge is not a good idea.....    It was even weirder to because the Elders got sick as well so our whole ward missionaries were just out of commission.  Also my companion is not getting any better at all....

But the other thing that happened was yesterday.  We got to share the message of the Restoration with some active members and during the first vision I realized just how much I’m going to miss all this (yes there were tears - I’m becoming a cry baby again).  I have loved my mission even when there are hard times and sickness and hard companions.  But the reason I came out was because of how much I had been given as a result of this gospel and I still love getting to share that with others.   

Hermana Grove

Biking Rocks!

Well biking does rock, until it lands your companion in the emergency room.....   Ok well it wasn’t really the biking but it did make her worse.   So yep that’s what happened this week haha.     

We biked a lot on Saturday and it seemed to make my companion feel worse (she has been sick for like the past month)  and so we called the Mission President's wife Saturday night and her and President came right on over to give my companion a blessing and then we all decided that it was best we take her to the ER right then and so we did that at 10 at night. Then after much testing to find out that there was nothing they could find wrong....  got out at 3 AM!   So we got to go and spend the night in the mission home.  But the next morning was church and so I got about 6 hours of sleep (which really isn’t that bad unless you’re a missionary who just biked the day before) and since my companion had been drugged at the hospital she got to sleep all day.  So to go to church and for the rest of the day my companion was one of the Senior Sisters that works in the office here. It was definitely a crazy weekend!  But we still got a lot done and had a great time!

Gotta love missionary work!

Other thing that happened on Sunday was so crazy.  We got asked to come into Young Women’s and talk about baptism (or so I thought)  but what it ended up being was talking about our most recent convert's baptism since she is in Young Women's. So first they started with a great mormon message to which I got a little choked up, but I don’t cry so I was fine. Then they asked our recent convert to talk about her baptism to which I got a little teary eyed, but again I don’t cry. But the kicker came when the teacher asked me to tell about our recent convert's baptism and thus started the water works.  It was such a great day to remember a lot because it reminded me of my own baptism and how the spirit felt there.  Also I realized that she was it.  She was my last baptism of my mission and I just love her so much!   She was so amazing this week she even came out with us for like 4 hours and helped in our lessons just like a real missionary.  I’m gonna miss this so much.  I have learned so much from all the people we work with and I don’t want it to end but it’s going to so very soon :(

Hermana Grove

Start the Countdown!

Ok so first week of the last transfer went great!   I can’t believe I’m only gonna have 5 more blog posts!   So get ready to hear miracles!  I have decided that I am gonna just work this transfer into the ground and we are off to a good start.  We taught 29 lessons which I haven’t taught that much since I was serving in New Mexico.  And we did a whole bunch of finding activities, yep that was knocking on some doors as well as going walking down a busy street to talk to people. It was such a good week.   Every once in a while I get little freakout moments where I realize I won’t be able to do this forever.  I feel like I finally got the hang of being a missionary and now it’s almost over.  So not fair haha but o well!

This week’s lesson was the importance of following the Spirit, because we felt we needed to box knock a rather rude less active member.  He came out as we were going back to our car and apologized and invited us back anytime.  Then we also followed the spirit to know to change out plans and because of that met this cute little family that we got to share the Book of Mormon with.

Hermana Grove

Let it rain!!!!!

We got monsoons this week!!!!   I was on an exchange for the first one on Thursday so here’s the pic of us totally soaked!  For anyone who doesn’t live in Tucson a monsoon is what happens over summer when it is so super hot. All of a sudden these really dark clouds come and it gets super windy and then it just pours!   It’s so amazing cuz for a little bit it’s rather cool and nice out. I love it!     And of course we go play in it.  So there was lots of puddle splashing and dancing and just plain walking around in it.

Transfer news is that I have a little baby!  She only has been out like 7 weeks and so I get to finish up her training as I die.  I’m so excited!   It was weird to watch my comp go home but I know that she was ready for that.

Hermana Grove

Another Soul Saved

So this week we had the amazing opportunity to have a baptism.  It was super special to me because the girl was 17 and none of her family are members - just like me!  It was just such a nice baptism because she had a ton of support and was just so excited to get baptized.   

The lesson I learned with the baptism was that nothing can go perfect - the day of the baptism everything was going nice and smooth, but then we had 2 issues   #1 was that the font was not plugged up so I had to get a little wet to plug it up and then #2 was that the font almost overflowed - we got a little excited to take pictures and forgot to turn off the font. O well, it just shows that we are human doing the work of the Lord

Also during the week we did bike.  We were so excited and happy before but then after we were dead and so tired (I think part of the issue was that we had to go super fast for one part because there was no bike lane and people were getting mad at us - which stressed me out A LOT!)   But we survived and now have a plan of how to take more back roads to avoid angry cars.

We also got the kinda sad news that one of the girls in our ward who has her mission call has decided to get married instead.  It really broke our hearts.   Mostly because I know how much my mission has meant to me and I would never trade it for anything.  I am so incredibly grateful for all the things I have learned and all the ways I have grown.  I just couldn’t imagine choosing a boy over this.  It may be right for her but for me a mission is way better!

Other excitement came Saturday night around 10:00 when we had an earthquake!  I know an earthquake in Arizona!   Weird.  It was about a 5.0 in Duncan which is the AZ NM  border and so when we heard where it was from we got a bit scared since we both served out there but everyone was ok out there.   Also we were just fine out here - just a little shaken up in more than one way.

Hermana Grove

Baptism

Before biking

After Biking...

So This is Tucson

So this week was HOT!   Which yep, is Tucson.   But we had a ton of fun getting to see people.   We even got to climb on top of our Bishop's roof to see the sunset.    We had a lot of success getting to see people and help them feel loved.

It was super sad though to have our zone conference with President Killpack since it was his goodbye time.  Here are all the things he learned in his mission that he wanted us all to know:

LESSONS I’VE LEARNED AS A MISSION PRESIDENT

- Your Purpose is to bring souls unto Christ.

- Investigators, LA, RC, active members, companions, fellow missionaries = ALL

- You should always carry a Book of Mormon - It is your sickle.

- Read the Book of Mormon with those you teach

- Teach people that the way to know the truth of all things (Church, Joseph Smith, modern prophets, etc…) is to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true.

- Your investigators will progress faster if they know your purpose AND their expectations

- You cannot socialize someone into the Church and have them stay.

- Build relationships with members by serving them and working with ward leadership.

- Help ward leaders with retention and activation.

- Member trust is achieved by members seeing you being a missionary, not by being their friend.

- Daily nourish your investigators and your WML.

- Have a member at every lesson possible.

- Pray often every day for yourself and for others.

- Rely on the Spirit to show you where to go, what to do, and what to say.

- If you talk with a few people – you will baptize a few people.

- If you talk with a lot of people – you will baptize a lot of people

- If you talk with everyone possible – you will baptize everyone possible

- Teach when you find. Find when you teach.

- Plan every day. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

- Focus on Key indicators. They can raise your vision.

- Help everyone you teach to make commitments that will bring about faith & repentance.

- Be obedient

- Get out of bed at 6:30. 

- The morning schedule will make or break your mission.

- Music should invite the Spirit, not memories or thoughts of home.

- If you can’t sacrifice the little things, you’ll never be asked to sacrifice the big things.

- White handbook is a book blessings, not a load of restrictions

- You have rights and privileges

- It is privilege to:

Have and use a cell phone

Drive an automobile

Play sports on P-day

Have computer usage – including email

- You will answer to the Lord one day about how you used His financial resources

- It is a right to:

expect your companion to be obedient

expect your companion to keep the apartment clean

Have members expect you are a missionary who knows and understands their purpose

-  Your manners and behavior around others are an indication of the missionary and person you are.

-  The things you say about other people and missionaries are a reflection of your upbringing, your maturity and your testimony of the Savior.

-  Lock your heart. It may save your soul.

-  Your success as a missionary is measured by your commitment to be a missionary

-  Your commitment to be a missionary is measured by your work ethic and your obedience and not by the relative success of your area.

-  The attitude of work hard / play hard is false doctrine for a missionary. It should be work hard, play within the guidelines. 

-  A mission should not just change your behavior, it should change your nature.

-  You shouldn’t just go through your mission, your mission should go through you.

-  You WILL become what you want to be, by consistently being what you want to become.

We will all miss President Killpack so much  but I know President Passy will do great things with our mission!

Hermana Grove

We climbed on top of our Bishop's roof with his daughter to see the awesome sunset

All us sisters with our little remembrance squares for the Killpacks

Our Zone at zone conference this past week

I Don’t Know...

So honestly I really don't remember much of our week....   We went on an awful hike this morning (and I like hiking).   But it was 4 miles into a would be waterfall  but cuz it’s Tucson there is no water!   So then 4 miles out as it starts pushing 100  degrees.  Ya, bad idea.....   So my brain is really fried.  Miracle of today was finding Tylenol in my bag that I didn’t know I had in there.  I found it as my head was pounding and sang  "Yes I know Heavenly Father Loves me!"  It was real great.

O ya we got bikes this week - I'll let you all know how that goes next week.        We went to a park so I could practice getting on and off of it.....   real fun!     Ummm  yep, that’s about it.  Sorry no pictures today I forgot my cable....

Hermana Grove

I Love my Mission!

So this week was just soooooo amazing!    

On Tuesday we did this fun finding idea of leaving "love notes" on people’s cars in random parking lots.  So what we would do is write a cute quote like don't worry be happy and then our number and momrmon.org on the back.  It was so fun and so cute.  Unfortunately no one called us back.....   but that's ok cuz we had fun doing it.

Then later in the week we went around trying to meet more of our members and ran into this super duper less active family that at first told us to leave, but then because I was from L.A. we got to talking about California and how they had moved from there and they ended up letting us in to teach a lesson and want to take us out to lunch next week.  Miracle!

Next up was on Saturday I got to go on an exchange with one of my favorite sisters and we had a ton of fun!   We got to help with shoveling dirt for a member and it was so fun.  Then we just worked and worked and worked and didn't stop.  It was so great!

So Sunday in the 2nd hour of church one of the Elders' recent converts informed my companion that he has a crush on me....awkward!   I don't exactly know how to handle that.

Then also on Sunday I got to have a great talk with another recent convert.  Just convert to convert and it not only helped him out but me a ton.  He was feeling that he wasn't good enough because he hadn't been raised Mormon, much like I had felt before and it hit me in the middle of testifying to him that I am good enough and that it doesn't matter when someone found the church, it matters that they are there at that time and that they are utilizing Christ's atonement and how that is there for everyone!

So yep I’m loving my life here, even if it’s 111 degrees.

Hermana Grove

110 Jail Time!

So this week has been fun, in a funny twisted Tucson sort of way.  So it hit 110 this week, ya I’m not going to miss the summers here they kinda suck a lot!      And then our investigator, the one that picked his own date last week went to jail....  So I got to have a ton of fun calling the jail and calling around to anyone that might know about the jail. It’s just been so exciting..... and I never ever ever want to do it again!  But we also got to go to girls camp for a day and teach them about the Plan of Salvation it was super duper fun!  So yep that’s the week.

For my learning this week I have the goal from our mission president to read all of Preach my Gospel by the end of the month.  And so yesterday was Christlike attributes and I noticed it all starts with faith and prayer!  It’s really like what President Uchdorf said in one talk, that we just need to start where we are.

Hermana Grove

Gotta Love Tucson - preaching the gospel in the Ghetto!

Girls Camp!!!!!!!

This week's dog washing adventures!

Transfers!

Haha JK, we didn't get transferred  but our elders did, so that was a sad day :(

Transfers are now becoming a super bitter sweet thing.  More bitter than sweet I think, just because you have to say goodbye to so many people and friends that you have made on the mission.  But its ok because it also means you get to make some new friends and you are just that much closer to that plane that keep flying over head....

We did have an awesome thing happen though this week.   One of our investigators picked his own baptismal date.   He had told us that he wanted to get baptized next month and so we left him to pray about it and so he picked the one he wanted.  We were so excited and we really think he will make it!

An awesome quote I heard this week was that "death is not a period but only a comma."  from Elder Niel A Maxwell.  I really thought of it more in a mission sense of how a mission "death" or going home is just like that only a comma.    Especially seeing so many friends end their missions today and many ending soon I just love to think that going home isn't really the end we will be missionaries for life just without the badge and how we will always be friends, even if its just on facebook.

Hermana Grove

some cool kids kicking it on the stage 

our ward missionaries with a photo bomb from our district leader

our favorite Peruvian elder!

Goodbye and Hello!

So this week was so weird.  On Wednesday my last companion returned to Salt Lake which meant that I got a new companion.  So we ran around saying goodbye to people Tuesday and then Wednesday cleaned out my new companion's old apartment because they are closing that area which is always sad.  So we got to have a fun week of still figuring things out - if I thought taking over an area was hard after 6 weeks I never could have imagined after 4.....   We love the GPS.  But we still are getting a ton done. It’s better having more experience with this sort of thing that I can figure out an area much faster. So Saturday was super awesome we got to help out with a Boy Scout rummage sale/car wash and then that afternoon there was a Cinco de Mayo barbeque which was extra fun because I got to see a ton of people from my first area and even some from my last.

What I learned this week:  Just keep swimming!   We can't stop or give up or any of that.  We have to just keep going no matter what happens.

Hermana Grove

Me and my last companion being goof balls!

My zone

Baptism!

Yeah!   We had a baptism on Saturday and it was just AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!    I loved it so much.  It was extra special because it was in Portuguese for a lot of it.   We as missionaries even did a special musical number in Portuguese, which just made the Spirit so strong there.  It was awesome!   And then today we got to watch and wave goodbye as she left to go back to Brazil :(    But it’s OK because the church is strong there and we know she will be taken care of.

So during the week I managed to get the stomach flu.  It was so funny.  I knew I had it so I just didn’t really eat anything and after zone meeting I just slept until dinner.   But after dinner we were driving home and talking with the elders in our ward on the phone (bluetooth)  and I had to pull over so fast to throw up.  I felt bad that the Elders had to hear that......   awkward moment!  I guess that’s just how a mission goes.

So something I learned this week is that the spirit speaks every language.  It doesn't matter what language you speak the Spirit testifies of truth in all languages!

Hermana Grove

Hoy!

So this week was super cool and we should be having a baptism on Saturday.   It was the most dramatic week with all that.  So our investigator is from Brazil (hence the Portuguese) and she didn't think Joseph Smith was a prophet so she couldn’t get her interview but she goes back to Brazil on the 12th so she wanted to get baptized before then. So yesterday after church she told us in a lesson how she was feeling and then it hit her that she knew the Book of Mormon was true and so that solved that. So during the lesson I texted our mission president to get her interview all set up and she will have it today at 2 and then be baptized Saturday and confirmed Sunday and fly to Brazil Monday.  Then to add to all that my companion goes back to temple square that Wednesday.   Ya my head is ready to explode...  We also found these 2 awesome new investigators thru a referral!  And they are like pure gold just soaking up everything.  I remember how I used to take notes with my lessons and all that, ya they do that too. They actually read and pray and do everything - its so amazing!

So this week we had an amazing Zone Training and I did a lot of thinking about how in this life we have to act!  So like how faith without works is dead we have to act and do something!  Something I loved got said. "In order to grow you must get out of your comfort zone". It’s super true.  If we are to do anything we have to be out of our comfort zone.  It just hit the nail on the head exactly.  That’s why we have trials (maybe in the form of areas that have no work in them or companions that are difficult). But we have them to kick us out of our comfort zone and get our butts in gear.

Hermana Grove

Temple Time

So this week was awesome!

We got to go to the temple on Tuesday.  It was so nice to just go and enjoy the Spirit!   I loved it!

Then since we didn't really have anyone to see we went through our ward directory a ton and met just about every member who lives in our area.  But that came with a few good stories.  First we went to this guys house and he opens the door with his Iphone recording us.  That video was so funny cuz I just looked at him and was like  umm why are you recording us?  Turned out, that neighborhood had been having issues with robberies and some really mean solicitors before.  Then just around the corner we tried another person  but parked down the street a ways cuz we found some shade and a nice spot off the road so we are walking down the street to this house and hear someone pull up next to us.  It was the lady whose house we parked kind of in front of telling us to move our car and how we would get a lot of shut doors in that area and that they don’t like solicitors.  She was just super rude!  And we weren’t even parked in front of her house, we were parked in the dirt off the road kinda near her house....   o well its just the times we live in I guess.

But awesome miracle here!   We were like starving for referrals so I fasted for them yesterday and guess what, this morning we got a call for a referral!   So exciting to see just how much fasting and prayer work!

Also I found a quote I loved from Preach My Gospel about The Book of Mormon,   it says:  "One of the most effective ways to teach and testify of the Savior is to read together from the Book of Mormon".   It’s so true since the Book of Mormon helps us to know that Christ is our savior why would it not help us teach and testify of him.

Hermana Grove

The missionaries in my ward

With Sister Hardy, my MTC companion