Another Blog? But you hardly take care of this one?

That's right folks. I've constructed a mission blog. But NO fear, I won't really be taking care of it. (which I know that's your main concern..)Basically my family will be posting all of my letters onto that blog, I just made it look goooood but because I'm like an ametuer graphic designer(HA, I wish!), so I wanted it to look cute. I may start posting on it before I leave with spiritual experiences or whatever. So I'll leave a link here for you to look at it, if you please.
lettersfromhermanagroves.blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting my blog. You are a great being. I just know it.

I gotta call, I gotta call, I gotta call HEY HEY HEY HEY!!!

Alright guys, this is the real deal. Yesterday after waiting and waiting for hours on end (hours that went by SO slow!) my mission call was opened. And guess where I'm going. Texas Houston South Mission!! And guess what I'm speakin'? Not english. Spanish. Whoop whoop! I report in the Mexico MTC on August 14th. Basically I am more excited than words can describe. But besides announcing where I'm going I really just wanted to get some pictures on here of all my lovely friends and family who came to support me in my call opening.

Before the call

Our future sister missionaries!

look at what I hold in my hands..

my favorite 

Lucky for Rach I picked the picture that was unflattering to both of us. 

WHERE?? TEXAS YA'LL!

probably more excited than she is... just by a little bit. 

TEXAS BOUND!

California for her.. Texas for me!

Brindley guessed Texas, so she was way excited about that!

Rachel left before we could take a group picture. what a shame.
That's all I have for now, until next time!

Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that patience is a virtue.

Well as everyone knows my mission papers have been submitted. Everyone was definitely not kidding when they said the wait for the call was the worst part! I'm trying to keep occupied but you know what's on my mind the whole time. Where am I going? There is a whole world out there, 57,506,000 square miles in the world and 340 different missions and I could go to any of them. People keep asking me if I got my call and I just anxiously say "no, not yet, just waiting for it like everyone else" but as my thoughts progress I wonder if I'll even get it within the next 2 weeks. As those of you who are LDS know, this weekend is General Conference the prophet and apostles make the assignments for missionaries, but do they do that work the week of general conference? I sure hope so, because the anticipation is literally taking over my whole thought process. I'm constantly thinking about my mission, where I'm going, what my companions are going to be like, will I be a good missionary, etc. It seems like that's all I want to talk about too and I'm sure people are just like "That's great, but could we possibly talk about ANYTHING else?"  but do you blame me? And then it makes them mad when I want to talk about it and they ask where I want to go and I say "Anywhere would be fine", I always hated when I asked people that and they gave me that same answer. But now I know exactly how they feel. People keep asking me where they think I'm going and that one I can answer, as cool as it would be to go outside of the country I have a feeling that I'm just staying in the states, where? I think I'm going to Michigan. Detroit. I could totally be a pimpin' missionary in the hood. I really have no idea where I'm going though. I'm honestly just rambling like none other right now. But basically I'm just typing what I think, so I know that this is pretty scatter brained. If you didn't get the message, I am anxiously waiting for my call to come.  So blog readers, sit here patiently with me for the next few weeks. They are probably going to be the longest weeks of my life.

Something else that has been on my mind is the fact that this past Sunday I was put into Young Womens as the mia maid advisor. Okay, this is really freaking me out. I'm back in the homeward, so it's girls I know. But that's the problem, it wasn't even a year ago that I got out of YW and now I'm a leader? I love these girls, all of them, I'm just afraid that they won't be able to take me seriously as a leader, they couldn't even take me seriously as an older girl, it didn't help that I was always trying to convince them that "blue darting" was fun at girls camp, but that's beside the point.  I'm also afraid that because they have all known me, they know my past, they know the things that I have done in my life. So either they look up to me, or they look down on me. It's not like I'm starting out fresh in a new ward, these girls already know whether they like me or not. And as a leader I can't just stick to my group and hope for the best. But I can try to teach what I know and what I wish I would have done differently.

Yesterday was another bittersweet one as I said goodbye to 2 great (now) missionaries. Elder Cardon and Elder Eldredge. Both going to serve in the Paris France Mission. Both of these young men have been good friends to me over the years and I am so grateful for their love, support and example in the time I have known them. They are both more than qualified to go out and serve the Lord and even after watching them dominate in sports all throughout high school this is the thing I am proudest of them for. I know I'll miss them like crazy and not being able to see them for 2 years will be hard, but I know they are doing what they are called to do, and I could not be more happy for the 2 of them. Let's be real, I cannot wait to swap stories with them in two years!

Saying goodbye to Kahi yesterday

David and I at the Homecoming game senior year, sadly I didn't get a picture with him yesterday :(

Anyways, as I sit here impatiently waiting for my call, for me to have some kind of experience in teaching young women and I just think "Wow Maddie, patience is a virtue. You do realize that you getting called to YW will help you prepare for your mission abundantly and you preparing for your mission will help you be a better YW leader" so if you hear me grumble, just give me a good kick in the shins and remind me of what a blessing it is that I am able to be blessed by both of these opportunities.

Baptism

Question numero 2 in this magic jar asks "Who baptized you? Who was there? Did other children get baptized that day? What else about your baptism?" Well this was 11 years ago, so I'll try to remember the goods. On Saturday March 30, 2002 I was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There are a few things I remember for sure about this day that don't really have anything to do with my baptism but I'll share them anyways. 1. My mom fixed my hair in a "spider-web" way, so after I got out of the water it wasn't going to be a pain. 2. Up until my baptism time I got to wear basically my favorite outfit, my pink capris and my pink and white plaid shirt (stylish, let me tell ya) and 3. We went to Park Discovery with my cousins but I had to leave early to get ready for my baptism (I cried cause I had to go). When the actual baptism time came around I was super stoked! I got to wear my pretty new dress and a lot of my family had come to see me. I was baptized by my dad. I honestly can't remember all of my family that was there! I do remember that all my siblings were there, my parents, Grandma and Grandpa Groves, Grandma and Grandpa Harris (4 out of the 6 grandparents!), my aunt Suzie and her family, my aunt Angie, but for the life of me I can't remember the difference between who came for my baptism and for my siblings! Other kids DID get baptized that day, do I know who they are? No, I have NO recollection of this. What else about my baptism? Hmmm. I know I loved the feeling I had afterwards, I remember being so happy. Also I remember we had taco's at my house after. Sadly that sums it up. But let it be known that I did love being baptized, glad I did it!

What's the name of the game?

The first question I pulled out of my magical jar was "Do you have a middle name? If so, who were you named after and what does it represent?" Well I do have a middle name, but I also have a first name which has a meaning so I will answer it for ALL my names! First off, my middle name is Rachel, it's simple yet elegant. Why was Rachel chosen as my middle name? Well if I remember correctly my parents used to teach a primary class and there was a girl in the class who was adorable, my parents adored her. And I'm pretty sure that's where Rachel comes from. I like the reason for my first name though so that's why I'll tell it. My mom was always reading us books as kids (Guess that's why we're so smart, eh?) and  my older sister Jess loved reading the book series "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans so my parents took the non-french(?) version of the name and kept it for me. Okay so it's not the COOLEST reason for names, but they suffice. Also I feel like I have a special connection with the Madeline books. An educated woman always has a connection to books. Here's a picture for reference.

Write Here, Write Now

Today I was going through some old young women hand outs and found a jar with probably 50 or so cut out journal prompts to write about. I remember this lesson because I thought it was really cool that Sister Bonzo had gone out of her way to make us all these cute little jars. But I realized I hadn't even used mine yet.

On the jar it says "Preserve your memories-seal them up well. What you forget, you can never retell. But a journal that's kept fresh on the shelf will help someone through rough times- maybe even yourself!" Obviously I'm horrible at writing in a journal. Blogging is as close as I get to it, and as you can tell I'm not so hot at that either... SO I figured why not try to do all of the promptings before I leave on my mission? I mean when I come back I won't be a different person BUT I will hopefully be a little  more mature, with a more mature perspective on life and all that jazz. Also that gives me a reason to blog, I feel like half the things I have to share no one even cares about, but at least with this hopefully someone in the future (if not the present) will care. So what I'll end up doing is posting the question as the post title and just go into detail from there, good? Great!

If you think you're the best, you obviously are not the best.

Yesterday me and Allie were talking about her prom (we had just went and bought her dress, and were talking about all the things she needed to do before the Prom Royalty assembly this upcoming Wednesday.) I had asked her who her friends were going with and all that fun stuff, when she told me about a boy in one of her classes, he was asking her who he should ask and she gave him a list of names. One girl she suggested is smart, pretty, basically anything a guy would like, his response "I can't go with her! She went with [insert "nerdy" kid's name here] to homecoming. I would get the reputation of liking girls who dated guys like that". Guys like that. Guys like that?! Are you freaking kidding me? My lanta, I heard this and my blood just started boiling! I could not believe that people actually said things like that. And then the wheels started turning in my head, I thought about this all day today, because it hurt me to know that people thought like that. It automatically brought me to my senior year, I had been on a date with someone who may had been classified as one of the "nerdiest" guys in my grade, but I didn't care. I was actually so excited for it, I told Seth that I was going whether he liked it or not because I loved this kid so much. I honestly did, but a few days before he told me I didn't have to go with him if I didn't want to, he didn't want me to go with him because I felt bad for him. My heart seriously hurt. I honestly didn't understand why he would say that, until today. Today I really realized that people are vicious. You don't run around in the same circles and you basically have no worth. That is honestly the way people think. That is ridiculous. Stop raising your children to be hateful, prejudice pieces of crap. I never noticed it because when you're at the top of the food chain you are so ignorant to those that aren't. I have been working so hard on this though, if I have made you feel like you are less than you are I am so sorry. We are all children of God and deserve to be treated as so. I don't care what color you are, what you're good at, who you're friends with, if you treat me well, I will try to do the same to you. Nobody is perfect, we all have flaws, we make decisions we are proud of, and ones we aren't proud of.  I know this is all so random, but I am literally typing it as it comes to my head. But overall this message is for me to rant, but if you feel offended by it it obviously means that you need to work on something.. He who is offended has got some changing to do. Bahaha great quote. That I just made up.

On an unrelated topic I have 2 stories from work I'd like to share. These are funny.. ish.
First one, I was at work by myself and we had a small rush come in, the last lady I helped said "How much are you getting paid?"
"Minimum wage, like 7.25 I think"
I kid you not, she said this "Oh honey, with that face and that body you could be strippin' for twice that much. At least" haha seriously. What the?
Second one, a regular customer came in, he looked up at the speaker and said "Hey this song reminds me of you" I looked at him puzzled and said "Oh yeah, why?" He said the first time he heard it I was making his sandwich and now everytime he hears it he thinks of me. And smiled in like a creepy flirty way. This guy comes in almost everytime I work and now he's admitting his creepiness. Also this was the song. But whatevs, what girl isn't flattered by someone thinking of them when a love song comes on? Just me? Okay..  So I give you the song, "Can't take my eyes off of you" By Lady Antebellum, for listening purposes, obvi.

Also this is a weird lyric video, but whatevs. I just love this song.

Welp, that's all I got for you comrades. Until next time.