He Gave His Life For Me - Garage closed on our car! - Exchanges With Me As The Only Spanish Speaker - Church In Person Again!

 

It has been another slower week. We've taught more lessons this week than we have in a while, just all to people that aren't interested. So that's a big bummer. Maybe they'll eventually be interested.

Not many interesting this have happened but here we go anyway. This week we celebrated my birthday with Betty and Luigi and the other Sisters and Elders! Luigi's birthday was the day after mine so we had a little combined party :) My birthday just never ends!! It is so cute that the members here just want to badly to serve us and make sure we feel loved. I absolutely love this ward. 

We had church in person yesterday!! Wow! It was wild! Just the sacrament. The rest of the meeting was virtual and there was a 50 person limit. But it was SO nice to be back in the chapel again. I was so happy. My heart was going to burst. Taking the sacrament at home is special and cool, but there is a special spirit in the chapel while the sacrament is being passed. 

Unfortunately there is really only one other interesting thing I have to tell you all about Haha! We did exchanges this week! It was my first exchange because of the pandemic. But I was SO stressed because Sister Harrop was going to be staying in San Francisco with me and Sister Burch was heading to Oakland for the day. Sister Harrop was reassigned from Brazil...which means she doesn't speak Spanish. So I was going to be on my own in lessons. It ended up being okay! Turns out, I know more Spanish than I think! Especially in stressful situations. I even helped Sister Harrop bear her testimony and learn a little Spanish. Never thought I'd know more Spanish than someone else. It was a little refreshing not gonna lie. A wild thing that happened was we were leaving our garage (it automatically closes after we leave) and the door broke and fell on our car...yikes. Me and Sister Harrop were stresssssssssed. Somehow there are only a few scratches and no dents!

There's a cute verse in the Bible that is the tenderest thing I've ever read in my life. John 15:13. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. Hard to imagine the amount of love someone has for me that they died for me. I also love in this verse how it says the word friend. Yes, he is the Savior of the world, he is my brother, he is the only begotten of the father. But is also my friend. I trust my friends with anything and everything that is on my mind. So I trust him with the same. He is my best friend. I am grateful for everything he has done for me. An incomprehensible amount of love. Wow. 

Food for thought ;)

Good luck in all our weekly endeavors:)

Hermana Graves

1- Golden Gate! The most iconic part of my city 

2- I love Sister Burch!!

3- Me giving my little talk at the baptism:))

4- Jarritos 

5- exchanges with Sister Harrop!

6-I got to go inside the visitors center in Oakland for the first time!! I love the Christus statue 

7-Birthday with Luigi!

8-our favorite book!!

9- Just driving home :)

10- Elder England paid for our sprites. What a kind soul. 

11-cute district! Some of you might recognize Elder Bulter (blonde one behind me) He is from Grantsville!

20th Birthday! - Baptisms In The Ocean - Teaching In Spanish & In English

Okay here's the story of how my birthday started yesterday. I woke up at 4 am because I had severe back pain and could not fall back asleep. I have become aware of what adulthood is really going to be like. I'm not sure how excited I am anymore. That's it tho. That's the whole story

I really had a good birthday! My mom and Dad sent me some cute decorations for the apartment and a few small gifts. Sister Burch made me Avocado toast and stuck some candles in it for breakfast. Later the Elders also came over to give us the sacrament and they showed up with a balloon and some treats for me. They are the BEST! And Sister Telford and Sister Peterson made me a cake!! So good!!! My favorite gift was a little photo album that my mom put together of family and friends holding little papers saying happy birthday and stuff like that. It was so so so much fun to go through. I felt so loved. Kinda hard to not be with the people you love the most on your birthday, but hey. This work is more important than my birthday :)

We also got to attend the baptism of Pilar on Saturday!! Hermana Pilar is a friend of the Elders that I serve with here in San Francisco. They invited us to come and sing musicals numbers. They also asked me to bear my testimony. That was the first time I'd talked in front of a crowd in Spanish. Corona virus will kinda delay those events sometimes haha. It was a super fun day for all of us. Pilar was so so so so happy. She was so emotional. Another thing that's really cool is that here in our mission we are still doing baptisms in the ocean. We do some in the chapels too but it's really cool in the ocean. Pilar reallllllly wanted to be baptized in the ocean "like Jesus was". Cute because Jesus was baptized in a river. But close enough:) We are so grateful for her and her desire to change. She is really an angel. 

We also got to teach Hermana Palencia's daughter about baptism yesterday! We got to do it in English which was fun. She was so excited. I told her about all of my memories from my baptism and Sister Burch did the same. It's fun to see that you can feel the spirit so strong even when you're talking to an 8 year old girl. How special! I remember being SO happy when I was baptized. Honestly it's one of the happiest memories I have from my entire life. I was happy to be able to share that with a little girl who gets to make the same promise with God next week :) All of you should try to remember your baptism this week and remember the feelings you have felt and the tender memories you have from that day. 

Thank you all for the birthday wishes yesterday

Have a good week :))

Love, 

Hermana Graves

1- There is a lot of art is this city...but this one just seemed so random...it had to be documented 

2- She painted this for me. She says it's me with a mullet

3- The way to someone's heart is through their stomach...right?

4-another piece of art by sister Burch

5- We took pictures for the mission Christmas card :))

6- we drove to a lesson and he didn't show up. What's new?

7-my birthdayyyyyyy

8- #20

9- my parents sent us these "sun catchers" for my birthday. So cute.

10- elder england, schow, and sister Telford. I honestly just think this picture is hilarious and it had to be included. 

11- finally got our in n out today with our gift card from winning that kahoot a few weeks ago!!

Finished Painting! - HalloClean - Fall (My Favorite Season!) - Teaching

Can we talk about the fact that it is FALL?! My favorite season!!! It is the BEST! Sweaters and hoodies. Hot chocolate and cider. Wow. I'm really missing the fall leave back home...and snow too apparently 

We had a pretty good week! Tuesday was literally the BEST day. We were on the bus going home from a visit with a member. The bus stopped at a stop (as they do) and I looked outside and i saw a man that I thought looked like our friend Angel. We haven't been able to get together with him because he just got a second job (big oof). We waved and he got so excited! He bolted onto the bus right before the doors closed. We asked him if this was his bus and he told us "No! I just wanted to talk to you!" What a cutie! We got the chance to talk to him for 15 or 20 minutes before we had to get off. It was a little tender mercy. Do you know how many people live in this city and how many people take public transportation and how many bus stops there are? Honestly it was so exciting to see him! We are hoping to get together with him soon. 

Then after that we had a great lesson with Alfonso. All about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We extended him a baptismal invitation and asked him if he'd like to become a member of the church on November 21. He said yes! We were both so so so so happy. And still are! ;) How lucky am I to get to see this every single day?! I love seeing the way Jesus Christ helps every single person. We are so lucky to know Alfonso and feel and hear his testimony of the savior. 

As for Halloween. Well. Not gonna lie it's not the most fun holiday for a missionary. Especially one in this mission HAHA! Sister Burch and I dressed up (as much as you can as a missionary) I dressed up as Jane from tarzan (literally just wore my yellow shirt and brown skirt) and Sister Burch was Alice from Alice in Wonderland (just a blue dress and black headband). No body knew we were dressed up...but we did! 

Here we have a tradition called Halloclean...if you can imagine we spent like 4 and a half hours deeeeeeeep cleaning our apartments. So while all yall ate candy and watched movies...us missionaries were slaving away. It really wasn't that bad tho. Kinda nice. In college I deep cleaned apartments with one of my roommates for my job so I had a few life hacks and it made it lots easier :) 

And of courseeeeeee I will share another thought! I've been thinking a lot this week about the temple! We just heard news that our temple is finally opening!! We have about 30 missionaries here who have not been endowed yet so their parents get to come out here to be with them! AMAZING! I was SO fortunate to go through the temple in December before all the craziness happened. I think I take it for granted every single day. It is something I need to be more grateful for. Not every person or missionary even gets to be endowed in the temple of God. How lucky am I?? I carry a little bit of the temple with me everywhere I go. It's one of my goals to remember more the promises I have made with God in His holy house. I hope this week (all of us that have had the chance to attend the temple:)) will try harder to remember the sacred moments and feelings we have had in the temple and to remember the covenants we have made there.

Love you all.

Hermana Graves

1-my adorable family watching me sing in a Facebook live event for the mission <3

2- Last pday Sister Telford left her clothes AT the laundromat. So we had to leave our apartment to go get them after curfew (with permission...don't you fret) to go get them for her. So here's us driving around at like 10:30 hahahaha

3- I don't even know what this is

4- Celebratory shakes after Alfonso said he wanted to be baptized:))

5- working on BYU applications...RIPPPPPP (if anyone has tips....PLEASE send them my way hahahaha)

6- laundromat again. First stop of pday.

7- a really really nice photo of me and sister Telford 

8- we got ice cream tacos today 🤩

9- Finished another fun paint by number of Jesus and Mary. Shout out to my cute parents for sending it to me 

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 :)