Do All We Can & Be At Peace With Our Efforts - Cumpleanos - Kahoot - Giselle's Quinceaneras

We had a few fun events happen this week!!! So here are my favorite highlights!!

We got a message from the assistants on Saturday that we were going to be having a super important zoom meeting with the entire mission that night at 9:10 PM. They didn't feel like giving us any details other than a few things that had us stressed literally allllllllllll day! So. The time comes. President Durham gets on and tells us that all of our Facebook pages are going to be deleted (there are like 6). They are making one big Facebook page for the whole mission! Kinda stinks because we had been working really hard on this "Meet the Missionaries" series on our page and mine was about to be posted. But eh. Oh well. The important and exciting part of this story. Sister Durham told us there was going to be a Kahoot at the end and whoever won would win gift cards to In-N-Out. This was very exciting news to us. For those of you who don't know what Kahoot is...it is basically a quiz that you do via the internet. Pretty handy. I did it lots in college and high school. Time for the Kahoot comes around. There are about 250 missionaries in my mission right now. TONS of us. So we knew we weren't going to win. We just wanted to have some fun. After the first question, we were in 43rd. But after question 5, we were in 1st! After the last question....we won!!! Hahaha totally not exciting to most people. But we were SO excited. We beat all of our fellow missionaries and now we get gift cards. I've never been so satisfied with winning Kahoot in my life. Wow sorry that was a long and boring story.

Second highlight. We have a recent convert that we are working with. His name is Pedro. He has a daughter that we have been teaching the lessons to as well. Her name is Giselle. Their family just moved here from Honduras. We love them. Giselle's birthday was on Tuesday! The big 15! That means it is supposed to be her quinceañeras! Kinda like a sweet 16 on steroids for Latinos. We got a call from Pedro that day and he told us that their whole family was in Oakland for the day and Giselle was going to be home alone alllllllll day. Only her neighbors were home (there are 3 families that live in their apartment, WILD). Me and sister Burch were SO sad. We panicked a little bit trying to shuffle the last few hours of the day around to make it possible for us to do something. We ran to the store and grabbed her a small little gift, a balloon, some cupcakes, and some candles. We showed up at her door with our little things for her. We talked for a while and bonded with her. It meant so much to us because we have been looking for ways to let her know how much we love her! Honestly it was an answer to our prayers. Such a simple way to show her how much we care for her and show her that she deserves to be celebrated!!

Here's a fun scripture for all y'all. D&C 123:17.

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

What is my favorite part?? "...let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still..." Powerful right?? It is cool because this can apply to us in spiritual ways and relate to us in every day life! All we can do is things that are in our control. We should not focus on things that we have no control over. Once we have done all we can, stand still. Be at peace with your efforts. I am continually working on this as a missionary. It's hard to be rejected so much. But it isn't my job to make people change. They have their agency. My success as a missionary is measured by how many times I show someone Christlike love and how many times I invite someone to come unto the savior. I'm so grateful for my calling.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thanks for updating me on your lives :)

Talk to you soon!

Hermana Graves 

1- Zone Kick off zoom meeting! Yeehaw!!

2- la quinceañera de Giselle con las hermanas!!

4- This was right before we wrecked the mission in Kahoot.

5- Driving home after a lesson!

6- Sister Burch told me she wanted to draw a portrait of me..."from a distance"...this is what I got...

7- Laundryyyyyyyy

8- not gonna lie...taking public transportation is kinda fun. Google maps gets ya lots then you miss your bus and you end up running around downtown like mad men for a while. It's a good time. Big fan.

Transfers! - Exciting News! - Baptism Scheduled - Translated For Spanish Speakers Involved In Car accident

Hey friends:) Another weeks has flown by and I don't have too much to report on again BUT I do have some exciting news! We are gonna wait until the end for it tho...so stay tuned! 

Tuesday we spent the day with Sister Morris saying goodbye to friends and members in our ward. It's so cute to see just how much people love us and miss us when we leave. 

Wednesday rolls around and we take Sister Morris and Sister Mills to the transfer lot...sad day. Saying goodbye was the worst. It's nice to grow so close to people so fast. I've loved every second with her! Sister Morris taught me so much. I miss her and her funny personality everyday.

So now we are left with just me and my girl Sister Burch. She is so hilarious. Nothing but laughs and good times here in SF. We work hard but this week has been rough. Most of our lessons fell through and no one answered our calls. What's new tho? Normal missionary stuff. It makes you realllllllllllly grateful when someone does answer. That being saiddddddd. We have this friend, Juanito. Super cool guy. He loves Jesus and God. He's been getting taught by the missionaries for the past 5 ish months...we put him on date this week!! November 28 :))) We are so excited for him. I love being able to see people make changes in their life to come closer to our Savior. How special is it to have a front row seat?! Wow. I'm lucky. 

Oooooooh here's a cool story. A little while ago, I was driving down Mission Street. As we were driving this car pulled out right in front of us and slammed into the car directly in front of us! We pulled over, obviously. I got out to go ask if everyone was okay. The man that hit the car was pretty shaken up but okay. Then the other car, 3 women got out...and they only speak Spanish. We translated to help them exchange information and help them understand each other. It was so wild. We gave them both our numbers just in case they needed more help. It was so wild that these women happen to only speak Spanish and that we just happen to speak Spanish. Crazy. And if you're wondering, the car that the ladies were driving was completely wrecked. The doors ripped like tin foil. Holes in the door. It was probably totaled. 

I've been studying the atonement of Jesus Christ this past week. The coolest subject EVER. D+C 58:42. Read it. It's a good one for sure. What a relief it is to know that we can make so many mistakes and if we repent of them everything is okay! Because Jesus Christ died for us we don't have to carry guilt. And He will never love us less. No matter what we do wrong (and we will make mistakes. We are human after all) He will ALWAYS want us. We are ALWAYS worth it to Him. 

I hope you're all staying safe in this world!! 

Love,

Hermana Graves

1- Our favorite elders bought matching sweaters with us. Elder Gustavson is in Richmond now :( sad day

2- cute little me being a missionary or something :)

3- a nice view

4- for my homies who like Full House 

5- this is my best friend, Anaita. She's so cute. Its ADORABLE when kids grow up speaking Spanish and not English. I'm obsessed.

6- after service we walked up this path in the park to this waterfall and came across this cross thing.

7- This is Jesús. We love this guy. We teach him English and the gospel. He just told us he's going to move to Utah in a few months!! So cool!!!

8- at service we realized we were holding Corona shovels 

9- there is soooooo much art in this city. I love it

Super Burritos! - Study with Elder Whiting - Goodbye Sister Morris! - Teaching - Life Changes - General Conference -

Have any of you had a super burritos?? Well. It's a super big deal in San Fran. Literally these are just MASSIVE burritos with everything you could ever think of inside. Sister Burch is very set on finding the best burrito on mission street. So. I had my first super burrito today...it did not disappoint. Super burrito with carne asada...hits different. 

This week has been a little bit sad. We found out our transfers on Saturday. I'm staying here in the city with Sister Burch and Sister Morris is heading to the other side of the bay (closer to Oakland) to Hayward. I'm sad to lose her...but she's going to crush it over on the other side of the bay! She's the coolest and she tries so hard in every way. Very inspiring to me. Gonna miss her. 

We have a new friend. Alfonso. He speaks so fast that it honestly doesn't even sound like Spanish so that's the actual worst. But all is well!! We love him. We have taught him a few lessons andddddd he wants to be baptized!! Amazing right?? This man is so great. He's already made some pretty amazing changes in his life. I can't wait to witness all the blessings that will come from his sacrifices!

Alright so, y'all remember that event we call...General Conference?? Okay the second talk given in the conference was by an Elder Whiting. So. Picture this. Me and my companions...driving in SF...phone call from the assistants...they say "you are going to have a zoom call with Elder Whiting and he's going to assess your daily planning and companionship studies"...um okay?! THEN to make it scarier the assistants say "no pressure...you're just representing the entire mission". Anyways. We get around the this call. This man is SO kind and SO inspiring. He didn't have anything bad to say. And then he talked us up in front of the whole mission on another zoom call. It was a proud moment of my life. Go listen to his conference talk if you haven't yet. It's about Christlike attributes!

We played soccer, rugby, and football today for p-day with our district! I think we were there for around 3 hours. It was soooooo fun to get out and play sports with other people who love sports. I'm not gonna lie I'm super bad at rugby and football too but especially rugby. But just because I'm bad doesn't mean it's not fun right? ;)

Remember how I just barely mentioned the meeting with Elder Whiting? So there was a few with the entire mission as well. And this is what I'm going to share a quick thought about today :)) This is honestly more specific to my other missionary friends that are on this list. I feel it's good to share tho. He told us lots of things but one thing he said was "Find the blessings in the virus" (or something like that). I realized after these talks that I am dwelling too much in what I don't have. I need to be grateful for the situation I'm in now. I was blessed to go home for a while (as hard as it was to be there for so long) I got to spend so much time with my family. And now I am taking part in one of the most important times in missionary work! I'm so grateful to be a missionary TODAY. 

Love,

Hermana Graves

1- It's spooky season...so I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for district council :)

2- Elder Dacayanan wearing the BEST apron that Hermana Betty owns 

3- Betty's dog, Gigi. 

4-Our traditional car selfie. 

5- At the chapel recording the musical number for the Facebook live! (Let me know if you want the link to that hahaha)

6- Elder Tompkinson forgot his name tag at home today...so we had to improvise 

7- Post Soccer/Rugby/Football. I'm telling you. This group of missionaries are superior to all of them. There are 4 languages between our little district. Kinda cool :)

Earthly Angels/Be Someone's Angel - SF MOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

It's that time of the week again :)

It's been a great week here! The work was slow. Most of our lessons fell through...BUT we got to listen to general conference!!! 2 days dedicated to listening to the words of the living prophet?! A literal dream. I wish it lasted longer. I'm so sad that it is 6 months away before the next session. But that's okay. We can just talk about how great this one was!! 

I'll share my favorite talk with all of you and if any of you feel so inclined, go ahead and shoot me an email and share your favorite talk with me :)

Hear me out. Carlos A Godoy. A name most of us probably don't recognize. Yet his message was completely different than the common theme of conference. Which is one of the many reasons why it stood out to me so much. His message was about angels! What was special about his message tho is that he mentioned that angels really walk among us right? Spiritual angels. BUT WE can also be angels to people. Earthly angels! In his talk he talks about how sister missionaries were his angels. That hit hard to me because we are teaching a man who calls us his Angels. Elder Godoy talks about each of his angels in his life. The last one, his wife. Literally the most tender thing. Anyways. We can all be someone's angel here on earth!! I hope each of you are searching for ways to be someone's angel :))

Other fun thing from the week. We had another district activity today! We got to go to the SF MOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). Modern art really isn't my thing. But hey. It was free and different! So it was so nice :) I really wish that I could say I understand modern art but I really don't Haha :) Then we OF COURSE made a zone trip to Ghirardelli Square. Because...how could we not? I really have the best district in the world. We all have so much fun together. It is always refreshing to get together with all of them :)

That's the short update for the week. I hope it was sufficient for all of you!

Love,

Hermana Graves

Here are the photos for those of you who have forgotten what my face looks like ;)

1- The Tri-stake center! 

 

2- Oakland Temple :))

3- My first time seeing the temple!

4- Waiting outside a members apartment for dinner :) We love our sweet members and their good cooking ;)

5- Our conference set up. SO WONDERFUL!!!!

6- one of my favorite pieces of "modern art" from today

7- there was a room full of LED lights. super super cool!

8- literally so confused how this takes skill...? Someone please enlighten us...?

9- my girl sister mills!! Such a cutie. She is single boys. Let me know if you want her email.

10- cutest district in the whole entire world. Love them all. 

Sorry for so many pictures hehehe We just had a good time this week :)