Holy cow, what a week!! It seemed to go by decently fast but the days were pretty slow. Surprisingly my Spanish hasn’t been as terrible as I thought it was and I’m able to talk to people a lot more. Elder Reed is super cool and has a lot of dedication to learning Spanish. It definitely reminded me of when I first got in a Spanish area and I’d just freeze mid sentence and not know what to say. And I’d just look at my comp and give him the “Help me!” look haha. But this week has been pretty good.
Tuesday was crazy with transfers and picking up my greenie Elder Reed. Walking in to the training meeting I heard someone call my name and it was Truleigh!! (Excuse me “Sister Newbold”) haha I’m gonna have to get used to that.
That night we had a lesson with Toni and Maríbel. Hermana Ramirez was supposed to come with us but wasn’t answering her phone. I was terrified because this would be my first time leading a lesson in Spanish. But it went super good and Hermana Ramirez ended up coming eventually. It was a really good lesson and they were super engaged.
Wednesday we went to some small Mexican restaurant and I tried menudo which is cow stomach. It was terrible but now I can say I’ve had it. Also the lady said they make it on saturdays so it wasn’t fresh. Not sure if that would make a big difference tho…
On Thursday I was kinda bummed because I felt like we hadn’t had very many spiritual experiences and I really want Elder Reed to have them especially at the beginning of his mission. So I was just praying that we would have more opportunities to feel the spirit. We stopped by one guy and then we were planning on driving to the next spot and bike around. For some reason I just decided we should just bike to the next spot. So we rode down a few streets and saw this guy outside. His name was Jesús and we had a really good conversation. We taught him about the BOM and he said “I’m seriously gonna read this” (which is the only thing he said in English haha) But he explained to us that his mom was catholic and anytime something would happen she would just throw a Bible verse at the problem and he just didn’t understand. He believed in God and Jesus Christ but he didn’t know why God would let things happen like Adam and Eve’s transgression. In my head I was like ‘boy do I have a scripture for you!’ And I opened up to 2 Nephi 2 and it was fire. We had him read it and he just lit up because it made so much sense. It was so cool!! Definitely an answer to my prayers.
Another cool experience: Friday night we were street contacting a trailer park (our “little mexico” if you will) and I saw these 3 guys out in their driveway but towards the back. They were kinda far away and obviously working on a car. At first I didn’t wanna bother them and was just gonna walk away. But immediately I thought of the quote by President Monson “never postpone a prompting” so I let out a sigh internally and walked towards them. They were all interested in English Classes so that was cool BUT one guy, Mario, asked about our church and I talked about the book of Mormon. He said that his wife didn’t have a church and is currently looking for one. So we talked about our service and gave him pur info. It was super sick!
We also talked with our homie Juan again and it was kinda sad honestly. He’s the one that said he was busy and that he wanted to read the BOM before we talked to him. He said he read the introduction and part of the beginning but I honestly don’t think he did. I think he researched some stuff and it was just really sad. He was super cool at first and really wanted to learn about the BOM. But then he just got super defensive and talked about the Bible. But he said he would still read the BOM and we basically dropped him until he wants us to come back.
Saturday we had like 4 meetings and it was a grind. Elder Reed definitely fell asleep during 2 of them lol but I don’t blame him. We had the Elders Quorum activity and it was good for him to meet some of the ward. Sunday was super busy like always but good. We had English classes and it was a blast too. The members bore their testimonies after class and the spirit was super strong. It’s definitely a super cool opportunity for nonmembers to be in the church and feel the spirit.
At dinner on Sunday a bunch of the families in the ward all had dinner together so we just joined them. They had this sauce/salsa and they said it was SUPER spicy which says a lot. Often times they’ll say something isn’t spicy at all and your mouth will still be on fire. So when they say it’s hot, it’s hot. They said only have like a tiny bead of sauce for my taco. I took one look at the sauce, and then the members, and plopped a spoonful on my taco. Lol I tried it and it was definitely pretty dang spicy but it wasn’t bad. They say the more chili you have the faster you learn Spanish. With every bite I felt Spanish surge through my veins. Haha jk but it was super spicy but really good.
This is definitely gonna be a long transfer but I definitely gained a lot of confidence this week which is good. I’ve just always compared myself to other missionaries and I know my Spanish isn’t very good, but now that I have to do everything I’m starting to see that I can understand quite a bit and hold a conversation decently well.
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Spiritual Thought:
Even though come follow me basically already went over Job, I wanted to share a few verses that really stuck out to me the other day. It’s Job 11:16&18
“Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away. And thou shalt be secure because there is hope.”
Those verses are just so powerful. Our trials in life will come and go. Even when we feel we are struggling with something we can’t handle, just like the water in a river, it will come to pass. And we can have assurance of that because there is Hope. The world has changed the meaning of hope. People say, “I hope this happens” or “I hope we get to go” but that’s not what hope is. From the scriptures we learn that hope is a surety. We have hope in Christ because we KNOW that he overcame all things. We KNOW that we can return to our Father in Heaven. We KNOW that we can be forgiven of our sins. Hope is a gift given to us freely to KNOW that through Christ we can overcome any trial that takes place in our lives. Yes life is hard. Yes you are going to have struggles. But Christ will be with you every step of the way.
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Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I’ve just been praying so hard to be a good trainer and show him the blessings that come from obedience. I’ve trained before, but training in a Spanish area is so much different. Thanks again for all your love and support. Please let me know if there is anyone I can pray for! Muchos besos! And remember, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good!
All my love
Elder Grubbs
