The plagues of Egypt have hit Florida

I'd like to share with you a scripture that basically sums up last night. It comes from Exodus 8:3 "And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs"

Yup. Lemme tell you I had the worst night of my life last night. It must be frog mating season or SOMETHING. Because I was up till like 1:00 am listening to frogs croaking. Like these are not normal frogs people. One of them sounded like a referee blowing a whistle for 5 seconds at a time and the other sounded like a sheep. Yeah. I got up and searched frantically for ear buds. I finally found some and I put them in and I could still hear them!! I said so many prayers for God to kill off the frogs. But he just made me fall asleep instead. But you better believe we took a good nap today haha. Anyways just a small cameo into my life.

Another visitor!

 

This week has been quite the week. It started off a bit of a rocky road but ended with a cherry on top. It started out with no car which was starting to stress us out a bit because we had some appointments that we needed to get to in the south of our area. Luckily we had member rides to get us around. But that night we got the call that it was ready to pick up and we were overjoyed because our time of trial was over. So we thought... until the next morning when we were trying to go to service and the car wouldn't even start. So I was like... "looks like we're biking" but my bike was in the shop so I used one of the elders bikes and I definitely almost fell off a few times. But we made it. The Lord definitely kept us alive because it was a pretty busy road but like less than a mile away. Then the lady who is the manager of habitat for humanity gave us a ride home because she said that road was too crazy to bike. So we're freaking out again because we're going to have to re-plan our whole day but we just had the thought to trust God and it would all work out. And I was trying really hard not to get overwhelmed because sometimes I let stress get the best of me. But I kept my cool and trusted God. And then an hour later we heard that it was just the battery and they had replaced it and it was good to go! Blessings!! I almost cried! So that is the parable of the car. Trust in God because he knows what he's doing. 

I felt super bad because I felt like we couldn't be productive missionaries because we were waiting on the car all afternoon. But with the rest of the night we were lucky enough to find 2 new investigators and a solid potential family. One of them was a referral we got from a member. She was a lady that she just picked up on the side of the road and wanted to learn more about the gospel. Crazy. We've been trying to get in contact and we finally did. She's going through a really tough time right now and when we shared some verses from the Book of Mormon she started tearing up. We hopefully have an appointment with her today.. the other lady was a potential that we met a few weeks ago. She's a young, single mother. She was kind of hesitant because we'd interrupted her dinner but as we got to know her better she started to open up. We told her about the Book of Mormon and applied some verses to her situation something caught her interest. She said that now she was really intrigued and wanted to know what might come from meeting with us. The Book of Mormon has power people!! From just a few verses people can feel the spirit! 

Thursday we had a bomb lesson with C- and then had interviews with the President. He's seriously so kind and told me a really good quote about weaknesses. "'So if you have problems in your life, don’t assume there is something wrong with you. Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life’s purpose. As we draw close to God, He will show us our weaknesses and through them make us wiser, stronger. If you’re seeing more of your weaknesses, that just might mean you’re moving nearer to God, not farther away.' Atonement by Elder Hafen" I thought it was incredible. I'd encourage you to read the entire talk called "The Atonement: All for All" 

We made it through all weekly planning in one day without any panic attacks so that was a success. Friday night was a little weird. We did some finding and got a follow-up appointment with a young mom of 4. But then we were looking for this guy T- and we meet M... who we didn't know was smoking a joint. Anyways after a weird rant about having a relationship with God we give him our card and he asks if it's my person so number. And I told him no that we share a phone and he asked for my personal number which I don't have.. And then he started telling me how beautiful I was and how he could take me on an "adult date" and how he'd show me how to have a good time. Ew. Ew. Ew. Never been asked out before. Yikes. 

Saturday we did tons of service. But Sunday was super bomb. Let me tell you about a miracle. So we had an appointment with J- who we met last Sunday and we get to his house and the lady who owns it says that Jose is sleeping and we can't find him here anymore.  So we were leaving and we called the zone leaders because they were going to translate for us and they asked if we had called him. We hadn't so they said pray before you do and we did and Jose answered and said he was coming outside to find us. So we taught him in the garage and it was the best restoration lesson ever! Jose was so prepared and everything made sense to him. When elder sweet asked him what he understood he basically gave us back the entire restoration perfectly. Then I felt prompted to invite him to be baptized. My heart was pounding so hard but I did it and he ACCEPTED. We told him that God was ready for him and he said that he's ready. It was incredible the spirit was so strong. I've never had anyone commit to baptism in a first lesson! It was crazy!! Wow he's so prepared. So that was our miracle. Persistence and prayer works. Anyways... kind of long... But it was a good week!! Love you all! Hope to hear from you soon! 

~Sister Grant

Biking through bugs at top gear

This week has been a crazy week. Oh boy. So crazy. It started off a pretty solid week. We've been doing more finding as we've been weeding out our investigators. But we got 5 new ones!! So that was pretty decent if I say so myself! We needed it. I was feeling a little dry after none last week. So we're back on top!

Our progressing investigators are.... dramatic... hahaha I don't know why I always get the ones with issues. Like pretty crazy issues. D- has been in and out of the hospital again. But we went and visited him and he really appreciated  it. And we finally got in touch with E-! She'd been ignoring our calls all week but she had missed us. Its super hard though because she won't progress until she's out of her living situation. But we're going to keep in contact with her and help as much as we can. F- is still doing good. He's the best ever. We read with him every morning and he reads each chapter twice and he's always trying to read in his spare time. Its just his wife but we're working on her. C- and G- have been tricky to meet with this week. We rescheduled like 3 times with them. 

Ok let's talk about Thursday. Yeet. So we had district meeting down in Vero beach and our car was doing weird things. Whenever we tried to accelerate it would kinda start slipping. It was funky. So afterwards we took it to the autoshop and they said it was a problem with the transmission and we had to take it to the dealership. So we drive up there and after waiting a bit they tell us they have to completely replace the transmission. Ahhhhhh so that means no car for us. But we had some really cool experiences at the dealership. God definitely wanted us to be there. In the waiting room we're talking to Jennifer  and she starts asking us some questions and we have a super good gospel discussion! She was very pensive the whole time and said she would ponder on what we told her. We got her phone number. Then the guy who shuttles us home is a former investigator!!! I'd totally talked to him on the phone before. It was crazy! He still wasn't interested but God put him in our path for a reason. Anyways then we didn't have a car and we had a referral appointment at the south of our area then dinner and we had no way to get down there. We called a ton of members but none of them could so we called our zone leaders for advice and they said to pray. So we prayed and mid prayer a member calls us with another member we should try and that member could! So we finally got down there and talked to this sweet Creole family and gave them a Book of Mormon and got 2 new investigators out of it. So it was a solid day.

Friday was another crazy story. Oh boy. So we are inside all day planning because weekly planning takes five-ever!! And all of our appointments cancelled. And I was just frustrated with everything. Then we need to get to dinner and our ride can't pick us up. And no other members answered the phone or could help us out. And it's the one set appointment we have with a less-active family and we really want to get there. So we tell the elders we need their car and luckily they're still at their apartment planning so they told us to bike over. My bikes a little out of shape from not being ridden for 2 months and it won't shift down any gears! So I'm riding on top gear to the elders apartment and we're like already 15 minutes late. As were riding we go through like THOUSANDS of gnats. I'm literally blind. I ate at at least 10. We finally get to their apartment coated in bugs! We get the car and then we hit rush hour traffic. So... We were an hour late to our appointment. But the family still wasn't even ready to eat. So all was well. Guess what I made my daily goal? "Patience" lols. But I did learn a lot and was able to laugh through it because sometimes that's all you can do.

yep, Florida is wet!

looking for investigators

i got to talk to my family!

Hello everyone and happy mother's day to all the moms out there!! It was a lovely day! And a pretty great week!! Here are some highlights!!

▪ We had zone conference this week in Orlando! It was so fun to be there with so many missionaries! We did SO many role plays... so many... But it was good. Lots of learning was done. We low key got on the wrong highway entrance.. stressful. But we got it figured out and got ourselves some slurpies. 

▪ We had one of the most spiritual dinners ever. Sister Saunders invited some friends over and one wasn't a member. We asked sister Saunders and the other member to share their testimonies and the spirit was thick. You could cut it. We gave her a Book of Mormon and our card. It was incredible. ▪ Saturday was Sister Call's birthday and we partied hard!! By cutting down trees... which was super fun... (I got a picture using a chainsaw... I didn't actually use it I promise) but we went ham on that tree.

Then we got to take A- and S- to the Temple! Seriously so incredible. They were so excited to just see it. They asked if every building was the temple and then when they saw it they said "we get to go in there??" It was adorable. 

Inside the temple I had a very surreal moment. There was enough spots for me to do baptisms as well and we're all waiting by the font and this guy leans over to me and goes "are you a recent convert? " and I say "actually I'm a missionary" turns out he got baptized back in December. It was just a cool full circle because this guy who's been a member for 5 months baptized me who's been a member my whole life. It was just so cool! This gospel is awesome! 

▪ Sunday was mother's day and it was just a really good Sunday! Our mission President spontaneously came to our sacrament meeting and surprised us! Then he found out that we were teaching gospel principles and then decided to stay for that  we did good though and we had a good chat with him after. He's seriously the kindest guy. He's just like our second dad.

my new ride!

Then I got to Skype my family!!! Ugh it was so good. It just felt so natural and like I'd never left. A lot of my family was over and I got to say hello to them! Everything they said was just what I needed to hear. It made me feel like the mission life is a little more doable. I just can't think about the fact that the next time I get to talk to them is 7 months.... it's fine. I'll be fine. 

Other than that everything is good! We're just weeding through a lot of our investigators and trying to find more solid ones. The field is white!!!!! We just need to find the right field hahaha. 

Love you all!! Hope to hear from you soon! 

I saw a British dude eat a fajita with a fork!

Man.... It was a solid week. A ton happened and it felt like it's been at least 3 weeks since last Monday. Last pday we went to the mall and emailed while we sat in massage chairs. Today we went to the beach!!! Ahhh... I love the beach..

This week was a huge week of learning and seeing God's hand. The beginning of the week was a little rough for me. I just still felt overwhelmed with everything and it honestly felt a little like college again and it made me sick. But we had exchanges with the wonderful Sister Judd and she made me feel a lot better because she's felt a lot of the same things I have. So that was helpful. It was really nice just to talk and feel heard. 

It was just a really good week that helped me remember that God does actually love me and that he does answer prayers. I mean I knew he did and would, but I guess I've just never had a super huge moment in my life where I had any reason to doubt. I've always just trusted him. I've needed him for sure and I've always had a good relationship with him but I've never needed to know he was there so desperately than my mission. I knew my prayers would be answered but I didn't think they'd be answered so fast. I wanted to share some of them with you all because they really meant a ton to me.

▪When I was talking to sister Judd she mentioned that maybe I should call the mission President and I thought it would be a good idea but I felt kind of nervous about it and didn't want to be a burden. But then the next morning he called us!! I'm not quite sure he knew why he was calling us... But then I asked if I could talk to him and he counseled with me for a little bit. I know God inspired him to call us. 

▪ then we had a really confusing missionary correlation where I was hoping That we could get some help from the ward but our 1st counselor just kind of talked at us for an hour then at the end asked what he could do for us and we had to be at a dinner in 5 minutes. So I felt even more stressed. I had the thought to call the zone leaders and then they messaged the zone and said that they wanted us to call them and tell them about how the ward could improve in working with missionaries because the stake was having a meeting where they were talking about just that! God answers the silent prayers too. 

▪ We got our investigator D- to commit to the Word of Wisdom without a problem. We were worried that it might turn him away but he was totally willing and so ready for baptism. 

▪ God lead us to another family to teach!! They let us right in and we taught their entire family the restoration!! Their children felt the spirit really strong and just loved us. The parents are skeptical but they have a sincere desire to know if what we said is true. They want us to come over for dinner sometime!! The guy's mom is actually a member of our ward and it was an answer to her prayer as well that we found them! 

▪ We also got 2 referrals which have never happened since I've been on a mission. They came from 2 separate ward members 2 days in a row that both picked up random people and gave them a ride home. The holy ghost is awesome!!!! 

▪ yesterday our dinner cancelled and I was bummed because I really wanted a dinner and I was hoping we could talk to on a ward member and see if we could come to their house because they're always inviting people over but I didn't get a chance to talk to him and I didn't want to be needy. For some reason I was just stressed about it because now we didn't have plans and I said a prayer that I could stop worrying about dinner. Then this lady pulls up to us after church and she asks what our plans were and I said we were flexible and she invites us over for dinner!! Like holy cow!!!! I gotta admit I was kinda doubting because I didn't think that my trivial concerns deserved heavenly father's time. But he did. Because I matter. And if someone like me matters, YOU MATTER. 

A thought that's inspired my mind a lot is the fact that Heavenly Father is an infinite being. And because time doesn't apply to him he has an infinite amount of time to spend with each one of us. We think he's defined because he has a body and he can't be everywhere at once but he can, he can be with each person on this earth. Because he has all the time in the world. So those little coincidences, those little miracles, those are 100% God. He's always with us. Anyways that's my takeaway!! Hope to hear from you all soon!! 

Sister Grant



So... I never explained my subject line.... We had a cinco de mayo party at our recent converts house and they had some friends over and this guy was British and we had fajitas and tacos and he put some stuff on his tortilla then proceeded to cut it with a fork....