Feliz Navidad

FELIZ NAVIDAD! Wow I cannot believe its already Christmas again. I´m so excited for another Christmas here in El Salvador! This week I feel like we have a lot of fun activities going, but also the work on christmas day and christmas eve kind of sucks because everyone is out doing their activities...so we end up walking around all day. But we have some good plans, so I´m excited! This week went by really quickly but it was a good week for the most part. Ill just let you know some of the highlights for the week. Mostly the end of the week we had a lot going on. On Friday we had the mission christmas activity so that was a ton of fun! It was with half of the mission so I got to see a lot of friends - Hna Alvarado, Hna Murray, Hna Lucero, Hna Elms and lots more. Also The daughter of President Spjut returned from her mission so that was fun to meet her. We had like skit presentations, watched some christmas music videos, gave gifts, ate a lot of food, played games, and watched the Ice Age christmas clip. It was tons of fun and a relaxing day. It finally actually felt like Christmas haha. Then i got all of your packages!! i had the package with the gifts for little kids, the package from mom and dad, and then grandmas package. Also thanks Grandma and Grandpa for putting money on my card, im excited to buy some souveneers to bring home! im excited to open up all the gifts on christmas! Also ive started giving out the gifts and the kids really get excited so thanks mom. Also Saturday we had a baptism!!! wooo! Hermana Timoteo was super excited to have her first baptism in the mission. I feel blessed we were able to baptize in her first few weeks because it is helping her to be excited to keep working hard and it was a neat experience for her. Cesar is great and he has a great potential in the future. He has really learned a lot about obedience and his conversion was really quick actually. I know that the Spirit helped him a lot to know the truth and to be committed to following the commandments. Also I am really greatful for the Family Umaña because we always taught Cesar in their house and they were a big help. The only funny thing is that he told us on sunday that saturday night on the way home from his baptism he was on his motorcycle and he had one of the other kids in the ward with him and the other kid didnt have a helmet so he got pulled over for a ticket for not having a helmet. So there is a good way to start out his "new life" after being baptized. haha but it was funny. But all is well. I was sad that yesterday the familia posadas couldnt go to church. they came down with the chickungya or whatever its called. So yeah But they have been starting to read the book of mormon more and they really love when we come over. Like i have always said with them I feel like its patience with them but I really feel like they are going to be baptized in the future. Anyways all is well here in the mission. We really just need to focus on finding more people. this week should be kind of hard because of the activities of everyone. On christmas eve we are going to go around caroling with the other missionaries and ward members here in metapan. I love you all so much! Enjoy Christmas! Im so jealous of you mom and dad that you are going to Jerusalem. Take tons of pictures and send me lots of details! Also take care and dont get sick! Cant wait to talk to you all on Christmas morning!!! Con mucho amor, Hermana Groneman

Another week in Metapan

Another week here in Metapan! Well family its been a long, hard week but we ended with miracles! I am really seeing how the Lord is blessing us with miracles. The only thing he requires is faith, obedience, and diligence....it doesnt matter if we aren´t the best missionaries or if we have weakeness but the Lord really does bless us. First off let me tell ya Metapan has brought in the Christmas Spirit!! maybe i can´t go to temple square this christmas but Ive got the next best thing in el salvador. Metapan city park! its so beautiful with all the lights. Ill have pictures next week. And this week we just happened to be walking through the park when they turned on all the lights. We were walking through the park and there were a ton of people and we were contacting a family and all of a sudden fireworks went off and all the lights turned on. It was great timing for us to be there haha. Also fun fact for the week: Apparently I sleep talk in Spanish. hahaha well thats what my comp says. Im feeling pretty proud of that. Anyways now ill let you know about our week. So the beginning of the week was pretty rough. Not horrible but i was just so tired. This week my comp (like i expected) was struggling a little bit more with the spanish and getting used to the culture. But what I love about her is even though i can tell there are some things that are hard for her, she still has a really good positive attitude. Its just so funny to see how much I have probably changed. But during the week days I felt like everyone we talked to was catholic and didnt want anything to do with us. We had lots of lessons...so it was nice that we werent walking around in the sun all day....but i almost feel like its worse when the people let you in their house but they dont even care what you say and they dont want anything to do with it. I was feeling down just because I am here to help people. And they people dont understand how we can help them. But then saturday we had a day of miracles. Saturday afternoon we had an appointment with a lady that had stopped us in the market on monday. We were walking through the market and she was like "Hey I have a question for you hermanas" she wanted to talk to us and wanted to know where the church was. So we took her number and set up an appointment for her. Saturday she met us at the church and we just started talking to her getting to know her and we found out that she actually was a member that was baptized in Tacuba in a different area when she was little...but shes been inactive. We just started sharing with her like "hey we are here to help and we want to help you spiritually in your life" and then all of us sudden she came out and was like "Necesito tu ayuda" (I need your help) And then she explained to us that she has problems with the law of chastity. I felt the spirit so strongly in that moment just that someone actually wanted our help. After days this week with no one appreciating us, I felt like it was a tender mercy that monday we walked through the market and she passed by us. I told her how I felt so grateful that God had put us in her path because I want to help people...and the both of us were in tears (yeah just sitting out on the side of the street because the church was closed haha). But her name is beatriz and Im excited to help her and keep working with her. She was a tender mercy. Then Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with the familia Posadas. We had planned last sunday to go visit them with a member who was baptized last week. He is a little bit older and I just had a feeling that he would help us commit them to church. We went and we had a super long lesson...because the familia posadas and the member were just talking about everything...but i felt like it was fine because they were forming a friendship. but then the member who is a convert shared his testimony and his experience and they said they were going to go to church. So yesterday they went!!! It really was a miracles because I have been praying so hard for them to go. I know they want to know what church is true and I know with patience that they will accept this gospel. They had a great experience and a lot of members were talking with them. Im excited to see what happens with them. For december we are still helping Cesar (another investigator) to keep preparing to be baptized on 20th of december. Hes doing good. He has had problems with the law of chastity too but I think hes gonna be ready. Also the familia torres. I havent told you much about them lately. The hno torres hasnt been coming. So in ward council yesterday we talked about it and it looks like we are just gonna baptize the hermana and her two kids. So Im excited because I feel like we have good things going for us. Things are going great with my comp. Its so hard because she really struggles communicating in spanish or really just understanding the people. But little by little she´ll get it. Im really happy with her and Im really happy with what is going on in the mission right now. I love you all so much! I hope all is well and enjoy the holiday season! Tell everyone hi! Also tell grandma mimi hi....i feel like i havent heard from her in awhile. Tell her I love her. Much love from El Salvador! Happy Holidays! Hermana Groneman

Bucket Showers

HOLA! Well here´s to another week. A week full of ICE cold bucket showers and hour long bus rides. And I have loved every second of it. haha. I love being a missionary and I am so happy to be here. So I will let you all know what has happened with Cambios. On wednesday we had the cambios meeting and I received my "hija" (my new missionary) who will probably be my last companion. Her name is Hermana Timoteo and she is from Taylorsville, Utah! I am so excited to be with her. Her dads side of the family is from Samoa. She is such a sweetie, super excited to be here, and has a lot of faith. This is what I pictured training to be like. So Ill tell you a little about the week. last monday was pday so we took the bus as always to write the family. Then tuesday i had a meeting for trainers and had to take another bus ride to santa ana. Wednesday was the meeting for cambios so another bus ride. Thursday we have zone meeting as always so another bus ride. Then friday we had to go to san salvador for the ID visa info for my companion...so another bus ride. So ive spent all the mornings this week in the bus. And because of that we´ve had to wake up early ...which means we have to get ready early...and we don´t have water until 6:30 or 7am so YEP bucket showers all week this week. My poor comp. Especially cause at this time of the year the water is even colder. But this week we wont have to travel so much and it will be normal. But apart from that I really love it here.. This week it has hit me. I think especially being with my last comp. I dont want to end. Training is exhausting and the days are long and tiring....but I have found myself each night this week laying in bed with tears in my eyes. Cause Im not ready for it to end. The mission is so hard, but I love it. I love the privilege I have to help people and the privilege I have to be a representative of Christ. Especially at this time of year I am really feeling the Christmas spirit. We have been showing a video to everyone that all the missionaries around the world are showing to people called "He is the Gift". we´ve been focusing with people on helping them understand the true meaning of Christmas and helping them realize what they want to give to their heavenly Father this Christmas. I´ve been thinking about what I can give to my Heavenly Father this Christmas....and I want to give him my all as a missionary. I am so grateful that I get to have 2 christmas´ in the mission. I will be honest that last year I wasn´t too excited that I would end up having 2 christmas´ away from home. not that I didnt enjoy christmas last year because I did and it was a neat experience...but I wasnt sure that I wanted to be away from home for another christmas...BUT oh how things change in the mission. I could not be happier to be here for another Christmas in the mission. I feel like I am going to have lots of good memories of this Christmas in the mission. Everything is going well in our area. We are still working with some of our investigators and we are also dropping others and looking for new people. I´ll let you know a little more next week how everything is going with the investigators. Im just focusing on helping my comp. Her spanish is probably how mine was at the beginning...but i think at the end of her mission she will have a better accent than I have. I feel bad because I know how she feels when she wants to express the feelings in her heart and she just doesnt know how. Its hard but she´ll get it. Im expecting that this week will be a little harder for her now that the first week excitement is wearing off a little, but she is super excited to be a missionary and she is really great. Today we are going to buy a small christmas tree and decorate a little in the house :) But I love you all so much. Thanks for your support and prayers. Im glad you had a good Thanksgiving and I hope you enjoy the Christmas spirit! Hermana Groneman

Training again

Hola familia, This morning we received the call. And this week is cambios. Hermana Bustos has cambios...so I am going to be staying in the area...and YEP I am going to be training again. I´m actually really excited and I´m hoping that Im going to have a much better experience this time. Training is a lot of pressure and is really tiring but I´m excited to have the opportunity again. I´m hoping I´ll get to train one of those girls from Utah...but who knows what will happen. Tomorrow I have a meetin for trainers and then wednesday is the changes meeting. Normally when someone is training you are with that person until they finish training (which is 2 cambios), so whoever is my companion will probably be my last comp....thats crazy. This week we had a pretty good week, except for the fact that I had a cold for most of the week. That makes knocking doors and teaching in lessons really fun when your nose is running and you sound like a man. but its all good. haha I feel a lot better now. This week we had some interesting things happen with investigators. With the familia Posadas. We are still teaching them but they only have time for us on saturdays but I really feel like with them we just need to have patience and they will progress. They are just really scared to go to church first (more him than hna posadas...she is much more excited). They want to receive their answers first that this is true....but we have been explaining a lot of things and they really are starting to like everything that we have taught. There scared because of the things that other churches do here and they think it is going to be the same, but we have explained a lot more about the norms of tithing, the dress code, and rules like that and I feel like soon maybe this week they will go. Every time Im with them I really feel like they are chosen and prepared for us. We just need patience in teaching them. I have a lot of hope for them. The familia Martinez. We have been teaching them for like a month now. Rosa and her sister Magdalena went to church like 2 weeks ago. This we were teaching them and we were really sad because Rosa started working and had to work on sundays. We taught her about keeping the sabbath day holy but we didnt really think she was going to apply it in her life. During the week her sister, her husband roberto, and their family friend Joel committed to go to church but not rosa because she had to work. So then yesterday we passed for them in the morning to go to church and rosa was there in the house and we were so suprised because she told us she was going to go to church with us. then she told us she had asked for Sundays off and her boss wasn´t happy so she decided she was going to work there anymore. We were SO surprised. It was amazing that the whole family went to church. BUT .....then after church we asked how it went and they said they didnt have a good experience and i was just thinking...."What?" we were so happy for their efforts to go...and then they dont like it?? They said they didnt like how the members were on facebook on their phones during the meeting and how the talks weren´t using very many scriptures and it was more personal experiences. Honestly i think its more just that they are used to how the other churches are. It made me really sad...but I know we have done our part to teach them and help them to make changes in their lives. We are going to help them try and receive their answers that this is the true church...but its making it kind of difficult that they didnt enjoy it. Then we have Cesar. We just started teaching him like last week. he is like 24 and his uncle is a recent convert. He went to church and he really enjoyed it (haha its funny how in the same meeting the investigators can have completely different experiences). But we taught him last night and early in the week we had asked him if he could see himself being baptized in the church and he wasnt quite sure. But last night he told us that yes...and that in these days hes been reading the book of mormon and now he isnt going to drink coffee and he feel different. He has a baptismal date for 20th of december. We´ll see if he can´t keep working towards this date. But im excited to work with him. anyways thats all I have to say. Next week ill be with a new missionary! im really loving life so I hope you all have a great thanksgiving!!! Love you all! Hermana Groneman

Monte Cristo

hey fam! well im so so sorry but this email is going to be super super short because we are going to Montecristo today! its a tourist site here in metapan and we are going with 2 families in the ward and then the 6 of us missionaries here in the ward! Ill just tell you quickly about the week. This week went by super super quick. To be honest we had some struggles here but everything that happens here in the mission is for our growth and learning. Ive got a lot of goals that I really want to gain the confidence of the ward members here and help strengthen the ward. More than anything I want to do that. Also Tuesday i had intercambios with Hermana Garbett! BEST DAY EVER. hahaha no but it was SO SO SO fun. Its so crazy to talk about how much we´ve changed and just to think about all of those times back in the CCM. At the end of the day we bought pupusas and after we planned we sat in my hammock and ate pupusas and ice cream and such. Hermana Garbett really is my bestest friend here in the mission and i know we are going to be friend for life. She´s had such a great impact on me. Anyways i didnt even have time to read your emails...i just took pictures of the emails and ill read them later today on my camera...so sorry if you had questions that i couldnt answer...but we are writing in the church building here on laptops not in the stake center...so we had to take turns and now we are leaving. But i love you all and im loving the mission. THere isnt any other place I would rather be right now. Love you! Hermana Groneman

Carnival is Over

Hello Family! This week went by really quickly! I don´t even know what I have to tell you guys this week... This week was good because we were able to work a little better with the members. The carnival is practically gone now so there isn´t so much going on here in Metapan which I think has made it easier for us to leave with the members. This week wasn´t amazing in success stories, but I feel like me and Hermana Bustos are working hard and so I´m happy with that. We had a lot of people this week committed to come to church this week. 3 different families said they were going to come and that is more than I have ever had in any other time in my mission. Thats something that I love about Metapan is there are a lot of families, unlike my other areas which were more split families or single people. But when Sunday came...we only had the Familia Torres (the family that we had to reschedule their baptismal date....which Im still not exactly sure what is going to happen with them). The familia Martinez is a young couple family who said they were going to come but I think they ended up going to Santa Ana..but they are good they always receive us and read what we leave them to read in the Book of Mormon...I think they are just going to progress a little slower. Also the Familia Rodriguez was going to come with us and when we passed for them Sunday morning they had plans to go but...they said they couldnt go because they didnt have dry clothes and the clothes they were wearing were old and worn down and they didnt feel comfortable going like that....ugggh haha. we tried convincing them that it didnt matter if they didnt have anything better to wear. But they say next week they´ll go. We´ll see what happens. The other family that I told you last week Familia Posadas (the older couple) didnt go either. We have only been able to visit them once this week. They maybe are people that have a lot of doubts, but I have hope that they will feel the spirit and especially as they read the book of mormon they will find the answer to the questions they have in their lives. We´ll see if we can get them to go this week to church. On saturday this last week we had a ward activity cleaning the church building and we were outside with the youth cleaning the chairs and it reminded me a lot about when i was janitor at cherry creek elementary hahahaha. but then at night there was a baptism of a little girl in the ward and i had a small spiritual experience. The four of us hermanas sang the primary song "i like to look for rainbows... (i think its really called When I am baptized or something like that)" but it just made me think of my own baptism and to think have big I am now. When we were singing I just looked at the little girl and thought about how crazy it is that 13 years ago i was baptized and now im here as a missionary. To think how that little girl can grow up in the gospel and gain her own personal testimony and maybe one day she´ll be a missionary. I dont know it was really spiritual moment for me to remember my own baptism. Anyways all is really well here for me. Time is flying and Im just enjoying the work. Im excited because this week well tomorrow I get to be comps with hermana garbett for a whole day!! wooo! also i think next pday we might get to go as a district to a tourist site called Montecristo...but im not sure. But anyways thanks so much for all of your support. I love you all so much! Hermana Groneman

Many Mini Miracles

Hola familia, Well another week in Metapan. I guess now that im getting to know the area i can tell you a little more. Practically all my area is city. There are areas that are out in the country in the outskirt towns but we dont really ever work there so im all in the city. A lot different because my other areas didnt have as much city. But i like it. Also something way different is there are actually some really nice houses here. Its so weird to me to see some big houses because in my other areas there were hardly any big houses...but there are some here with two floors and everything. Also its nice because a lot of people here actually have dvd players and tvs so we can watch movies which is nice...in my other areas we weren´t always able to do that. A lot of the people here have set jobs so thats a little different but im still loving this area. This week was a little stressful to be honest...but something that I´ve learned about the mission is that God always gives us just enough miracles to help us make it through the week. I know that He knows me and my needs and He is aware of what I´m going through. Mostly this week was stressful because we were supposed to have a wedding and a baptism yesterday of the Famila Torres. They already had their baptismal date planned when I got here but I´ve always felt a little hesitant. Obviously I want everyone to come unto Christ and be baptized...but when they are ready to make this covenant and stay faithful. I´ve felt very cautious about the whole thing because I feel really worried that they are going to go inactive right after they got baptized. But obviously im not gonna come into the area and say they arent ready because i dont know them as well. But this whole week a lot of the members were against the wedding/baptism because they hardly know the family and such. and there were a lot of problems with the planning and I just felt really stressed about everything. Before I went to bed Saturday night I just prayed that if they were ready and that if sunday was the right day that everything would turn out right....but if they werent ready that something would happen so we could plan a better date for when they are ready to be active members.....Then on sunday morning the husband didnt show up to church and that was going to be his 3rd attendance. But because he didnt show up he couldnt be baptized so we had to cancel the baptism and the wedding. Honestly i was really sad because especially the hermana was really excited....BUT i knew that there was a reason that it happened and i know that there is a reason that all along i have felt hesitant about the whole situation. We are still working with them so that they can be baptized in the future. But Im hoping we can help them be ready to make this commitment so that they will always remain faithful members of the church. Its kind of a hard situation to explain but yeah. This week also there was a big carnival in metapan. SO many people in the city park and such. It reminded me a lot of art city days. So that was fun to see. But also it made it a hard week for us to work with the members. BUT this week on tuesday we went to the temple!!! I love the temple here and im sad that was mostly likely my last time. I got to see hermana peterson! i thought they had already left but nope! Anyways the temple was great and it really helps to strengthen us spiritually. Im so grateful for temples. Some miracles this week were just small things. Like when all of our plans fall through and we say a prayer and someone lets us in to share a small message. Or small things like that. Also this week late at night we contacted a family in the street and they said we could go visit them the next day. When we went to visit them they were ready for us. We got to know them a little and at the beginning of the lesson we asked if there was anything specifically that they wanted us to ask for them in the prayer and the hermana said she wanted us to pray so that they could find what church is the true church. I knew in that moment that this family was prepared for us. Later when we were talking with them they told us that they always pray as a couple (they are a little older but they dont have any kids) and that they have been to several churches but they dont like them....then she told us a little about their lifestyle haha (she likes to talk a lot) and she went off talking about what they eat and their diet and how they dont drink coffee ,) hahaha i just couldnt help but smile the whole time. We have an appointment to visit them tomorrow and im excited to see them progress. Anyways thats basically it. Sorry if it was very scattered my email. But anyways life is good here. I can´t believe its already november! But i hope all is good at home. I love you all so so so much! Hermana Groneman

Happy Birthday to me!

Another week....another year! wow can´t believe im 21! well today is pday so it should be a good day but actually our pday is going to be short today because tomorrow we are going to the temple!!! Im so excited! Its funny because i remember last year i was a little bit down on my birthday just cause i wasnt home with all of you guys...but this year...its like who cares...its just another day haha. I got your package....but i opened it early. oops haha. i just couldnt wait. but thanks for all of the treats and the clothes!! Also i bought myself a hammock :) its the best thing we can have in our house haha So this week has been good. Im enjoying getting to know Metapan. It is still so huge so I still have a lot of the area to learn but I love it here. Im really enjoying working with my companion. She´s adorable. Sometimes its hard to be someone´s second companion because they havent learned yet how to adjust to other companions other then their trainers...but it is all great. I love it because she is so obedient and shes pretty funny too. But we work hard. Im sorry im probably not going to write a lot today...i had a lot of emails for my birthday haha so i dont have a ton of time to actually write. But this week we didnt have anyone come to church because it was stake conference in santa ana...so we had to go in bus to church early in the morning...so yeah no one came. But we are working on finding new investigators. When i came here to this area there is a family torres who had baptismal dates for this next sunday...but i think we are going to push it back a week. We just want to make sure that they are really committed to actually live the commandments and all. I think all will be well with them...but we just want to make sure they are ready and that they arent going to go inactive right after. Sorry i didnt write much. Im doing great and Im super happy. Ill write more next week! love you all! hermana Groneman

Adios Atiquizaya

Hola! Well we just found out and yep i have cambios. It was pretty obvious cause presidente already basically told me. I just cannot believe im leaving the area though. All be honest its gonna be hard to leave here. I already had some tears yesterday. Its so hard to say goodbye to people who have changed your life. Especially in this area it is going to say goodbye to the converts. Gosh i dont even know. Especially people like Rosa. Im gonna be so sad to say goodbye to rosa. in sunday school yesterday we had some investigators and the teacher asked rosa to say the opening prayer and so she went up to the front but then gave a special welcome to our investigators and also after church she told them she hoped they would come back. She is just so adorable. Im gonna miss her squinty eyed smile SO much. Ahh i dont even want to think about it. Her daughter Hermana sophie was telling me goodbye yesterday because they actually live in another area but come to our ward so i wont be able to say goodbye to her, but she was telling me how thankful she was for me for teaching her mom the gospel. It was a touching moment. Also people like Carlos Chafoya and Julio just everyone. And yesterday we had our correlacion meeting with the bishop and im gonna miss this ward. We had some really great leaders in this ward. But we are leaving behind a lot of great work. Im really sad that Im gonna be leaving hermana alvarado and hermana lucero. Its been so fun to be with them and these 3 weeks have gone by SO quickly. this change really went by way quickly. Hermana lucero and hermana alvarado are gonna be training and they are both staying in this area. So there will be 4 hermanas in the area again. But its gonna be hard for them because they have to split investigators. But im excited for them to both train because they are both great missionaries. But the good thing is we have a great pool of investigators who we are teaching right now. Im sad that i wont be around to see them progress. I dont know if i told you about Iliana the other week. But she really was prepared to receive this gospel and she already has a baptismal date for the 26th. She is so prepared for this gospel it is incredible. Everything makes sense to her and she says its all logical (FINALLY someone who understands)...but this week we went back to teach her and we were asking her if she had prayed to know if joseph smith was a prophet and she was like "well i always pray ....but i already feel like i know its true" and after we asked her how she had come to know that it was true and she just told us that every time we come she feels a great peace and there isnt any reason for her to doubt it. She is so great. We also have lots of others...i really dont have time to tell you about all of them...but i think the next cambio here the hermanas who are here are gonna have some success with these investigators. Each investigator is different and i just love meeting all these people. Its gonna be sad to say goodbye to a lot of them.. Everyone says im going to santa ana...and truth is no one knows...but i dont know what to think. I want to go to santa because i want to see that part of the mission but at the same time i dont because here there are a lot of people in ahuachapan and atiquizaya who know each other. the two pueblos are close so i feel like i know this whole area and it will be hard to go somewhere completely different. But im really excited to see what the lord has in store for me. Its crazy to think that this will probably be my last area from what presidente told me...but we´ll see. Changes are sometimes difficult to adjust but i like changes because it gives you the opportunity to change and put new goals and such. Anyways im glad all is well at home. Thanks for the pictures and thanks for your support always. I love you all so so so much. Hermana Groneman

Metapan

CAMBIOS!!! well I know you are all waiting to here what happened with cambios so i guess ill let you know. Ive been assigned to work in the are of Metapan with my companion Hermana Bustos. She is 20 and she is from Nicaragua. She just finished her training so she has like 3 months. She is super great and im really excited to be with her. She is a great teacher and a super hard worker. I think ill probably only be with her from 6 weeks if i end up finishing my mission training...but Im really excited to be with her. Metapan is HUGE. and SO BEAUTIFUL. and also its probably the hottest area in our mission...so theres that. There are 6 missionaries here in the area and its just one ward. The capilla is super small. It doesnt have benches or anything and it doesnt have a piano (i know sad right?) and the attendance is about 100 apparently. The thing is Metapan is SUPER FAR AWAY from everything. We have to go in a bus for 1 1/2 hours just to get to our zone meetings on thursday and also to write on mondays. so yeah. But Metapan has everything. Its like provo. Its a big city...but maybe not THE big city. Our area is the whole city and all of the outskirt city things....so yeah ill never get to the limits of our city. But i love it. There is a really pretty city park and everything. The only thing is the members live really seperated so we do A LOT of walking. But yeah. Also it is a lot more calm and a lot less dangerous than atiquizaya...so thats good. Anyways i´ll be able to tell you more next week cause ya ive only had a few days here. Honestly its been crazy having cambios. Cambios are hard to be honest. It is hard to come to a new area and not know anything or anyone and you want to help your companion but you dont know anyone to visit or the investigators or members. But im excited. It was SO hard to leave Atiquizaya. I remember when I got to atiquizaya and i didnt think it would be that hard to leave...but i definitely learned to love the people. It was SO hard to leave especially Rosa and Julio. Im going to miss my converts so much and the members. Ive got a few videos of julio saying his last words to me so you´ll be able to watch them when I get home. When i said goodbye to Rosa she just stood their crying. it was a touching moment I will never forget. This week i was reading in Jacob 5 and I was thinking a lot about missionary work. I love in Jacob 5 when it talks about how the Lord will send his servants for the last time to work with all their heart in the vineyard. I know that that is talking about these last days...but this time when I was reading it I was thinking about this being my last area. Im almost sure its going to be my last area...and honestly its been kind of hard to think about. I know this is my last time to work with all my heart and make a difference. This area has a lot of potencial. The time is going by so fast and it makes me sad. Well I feel like i had a million things i wanted to tell you guys but i dont know. I was going to say that We live in a house of 4 so thats fun. Our house isnt super great buts its not bad at all. we only have water in the mornings though so the 4 of us have to shower in the morning. also hermana garbett is my sister training leader so im SUPER excited because when we do intercambios with the leaders ill get to be with her!!! thats the closest we´ll ever get to being comps. Also it was crazy because so many of my good friends in the mission went home this cambio. it was so sad to see all of them leave! but its part of the mission. Also about the earthquake hahaha. The earthquake happened i think it was monday night. I was still in atiquizaya with Hermana Alvarado and hermana lucero. hermana lucero was showering and me and hermana alvarado were just sitting at the table talking and the earthquake started....and it wasnt super strong and first and we just kind of sat there looking at each other...and then it kept going and we were like "uhh...should we do something?"....and then it kept going so we went to the doorway...and eventually it stopped...it was super super strong that anything fell down or anything but it was really long and it was weird to think what if it didnt stop. But yeah it was cool to be in an earthquake. Also we are going to the temple on the 28th!!! YAY!!!! Anyways the mission is basically the best thing ever. I am SO tired every day but i absolutely love it. Im so blessed to be here. Its amazing the feeling i have every day waking up and being a representative of Christ. In the mission we have been working about talking with EVERYONE and especially in buses. You guys have no idea how the buses are here...but they are like yellow school buses and they are beyond PACKED with people....and its incredible the feeling to get to stand up in the bus and talk to everyone that is there. Most of the people just stare at us...and especially me ...thinking who is this gringa talking to us...but even though the majority of the time no one is interested...I feel amazing to know that I am preaching this gospel to everyone i can. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for your support. I LOVE YOU ALL. Im so grateful for this gospel. Until next week! Hermana Groneman

Conference Week

Hola familia, Im hoping you all enjoyed conference as much as I did. Really conference weekend is literally the best. It was so nice to have two days filled of inspiration and the spirit....well every day here in the mission is filled with the spirit...but wow i just love conference. This week wasnt really all that super great....but we had enough good things and small miracles that happened that it didnt seem to rough haha. This week we found a woman named Iliana. One morning we were out in the blazing sun knocking doors because we didnt have any set plans....and door after door no one had time for us. One woman opened her door but she was washing her dog so she said we could come back in the afternoon. I didnt really think much of it...but we put it in our agenda. That afternoon we came back and she opened the door and received us. I know that God led us to her. We only visited her for maybe 20 minutes...just getting to know her and everything but she is someone prepared by the hand of the Lord. She told us that she has felt something missing in her life lately and she feels like we came right and the right moment. She isnt attending any church. She has only just been going to a church with a friend...but she doesnt actually like it there...she says she just goes because its better than nothing. In the first 10 minutes we were able to commit her to go to conference and also we invited her to be baptized and she said she would like that...and we havent even taught her anything. Sunday morning when we were getting ready to pass for our investigators we were going to do splits because we had a lot of investigators to pass for....but the member who was going to leave with me wasnt home....we were worried because we had no idea what we were going to do because we didnt have time to pass for everyone...and right at that moment Hermana Deysi passed by. THat was a small miracle with perfect timing. So i went with hermana deysi to pick up illiana. When we got to her house she was all ready to go and as we walked out she told me she had read the pamphlet we left with her and that she really liked it. THen during confernece she sat with hermana deysi and after hermana deysi said that they exchanged numbers and that she is going to go to the relief soceity activity on friday and church next sunday and that during the conference some of her doubts or questions she had were answered. SHE IS SO GREAT: also hermana deysi is awesome. Her and her husband want to serve a mission if her husbands health gets better and they would be so great....also hermana deysi told me this week that she want to call president spjut to tell him to leave me in this area until after my birthday hahaha she is so funny. Also I just wanted to tell you guys a little update on Julio. Remember how worried i was about him getting baptized cause i didnt know if he was ready? haha yeah he is so great. He came to 3 of the sessions of conference. And atleast twice a week when we are contacting people around town someone will mention him and how he goes to our church and the miracle that they have seen in him. It is pretty amazing to here that people who arent church members have noticed the miracle of Julio. Also during this week....there were some moments i was struggling....not because of the hardness of the mission or discouragement or anything. But because of the poverty and situations of the people. Even though i have over a year in this country there are still some days when it just kills me. To see little kids who walk around without clothes who dont have food to eat. to see people who have to take turns which days they can shower. Sometimes it discourages me. This week we were visiting a little girl maria elena. She is a recent convert. her mom died when she was little and she lives with her older sister but her older sister doesnt even take care of her and maria elena spends most of the time in the street and she never goes to school and sometimes she wears the same clothes all week. Last time we visited her this week the three of us were almost in tears as we helped her with her homework learning how to write the letters. But that is what brings me to conference....I had so many questions answered in conference....and one of the first questions was answered in Elder Hollands talk about the poor. Elder Hollands talk touched my heart when so many days here i just spend my time thinking that i dont know why the people have to live in these circumstances. But it was a comforting talk. There were so many talks that I loved i wont even be alble to share a lot....but it was great. Also I got to watch conference in english with other gringos!!!! that was amazing. Its not that the spanish would be hard to understand.....but its just so great to hear the voices of the prophet and apostles. Also wasnt it SO cool to have the other languages at confernece??? (we did watch the ones in the spanish in spanish though) Here were the talks that stood out to me: Elder D Todd Christoffersons talk was perfect for the people here in El Salvador. Seriouslly i just want to print off the talk and send it to this whole country haha. He talked about a lot of problems that the people have here in their lives that a lot of time people here dont understand that they have the responsibility to choose their actions and God doesnt control their lives... They always say "if God wants me to i will go to church this sunday"...well obviously yes. anyways it was really great. Uchtdorfs talk was really great for our investigators. I loved how he talked about the personal revalation. Its important that everyone can gain and strengthen their personal testimony through personal revalation. During Tad r Callisters talk I was just thinking about you Mom and Dad. THANK YOU for being such great parents and for being the prime example of my life. I can tell you enough how different i would be if it wasnt for your example. Then Jeffrey R Holland. I already told you how much i loved his talk and how it touched me heart. President Monson obviously i loved. It was really simple but I loved how he talked about our simple purpose. I loved how he talked about the different paths that Christ walked and how we can all relate and we are going to pass through those different paths. Richard G Scotts talked I LOVED. Those 4 tools of family prayer, scripture study, FHE, and the temple are such simple tools. But i loved how he talked about how satan will tell us we dont have time fo those things. But I think now more than ever those things are vital for our families in this world. Those four things are no longer advice but necessary. And last of all I loved Bednars talk. I was so glad i had investigators there. When he said he was talking directly to the investigators we were all like YES! It was a perfect message. I love the way Elder Bednar teaches in his talk. Anyways im so so sad that conference is over...but yeah i learned a ton! We had 9 investigators who came and several less actives so that was really great. I dont have a ton of more time to tell you about our other investigators but maybe next week. Cambios are not this wednesday but the next! But thanks so much for your emails! I love you all! Hermana Groneman

Tres Leches

Hola Familia, Its been quite a different week. Lots has changed...but a lot hasnt changed at the same time. Well you are all wondering what happened with my companion so I`ll start by updating you on that. Monday we went to the office and Hermana Castro talked with President and made the decision to go home. I basically knew she wasnt going to change her mind. After I was able to talk with President Spjut a little bit. He really is so amazing. He was assuring me that it wasnt my fault and that I am a good missionary. It was comforting just to be able to talk to him and express how I felt about the whole situation. He also gave me a blessing that I felt really helped. He told me he wants me to train again...but asked how i felt about that and we both agreed that maybe this next change wouldnt be the best...and so most likely he basically told me what he thinks he has planned for me (obviously things can change) but the plan is that this change ill leave this area to go learn a new area from another missionary and then I will end my last two changes training. I think that all sounds pretty good. Its so crazy to think i only have 3 changes left basically. Time really is flying. So anyways hermana castro was with me until wednesday and then wednesday presidente spjut and hermana spjut were here working with the other missionaries in our area and when the left to head back to the office they took hermana castro and i stayed with the other hermanas in our area. So now im in a trio! normally i didnt really like the idea of a trio...but im with 2 other gringas....so for the first time in the mission i have gringa comps. I love hermana alvarado (from utah and has 11 months in the mission) and hermana lucero (from colorado and has 1 year in the mission). Its been a blast these last few days. It is so nice to be working normal again. Working with people who love the people and want to work. They are great and its been so fun. We call ourselves the "Tres leches". Also its been good because I have a lot more time in this area then them so Ive been able to help them know where are some of the members and inactives and such. We are trying to visit both of our investigators....but we are going to end up dropping a lot of the investigators that I had...we mostly work with their investigators...but thats okay. In church I had a special moment when I was up on the stand playing piano and after I just looked out and it was so great to see all of the lives I have helped here in this ward. This really is my area of miracles. To look out and see the members ive strengthened...all of my converts...Like rosa and her daughter who is less active who now comes a lot...also Carlos chafoya who brought his wife again this week....and of course Julio who is famous here in this area and all the people who have seen him change....and people like Manuel Mejia (who still hasnt been baptized but we are working with him to get married so he can be baptized) but i know ive done my part with him. Its just a great feeling. I love these people. Im excited to work hard with the hermanas this week...and especially because of general conference!!!! I AM SO EXCITED. i really love conference and its something that really helps our investigators. Also saturday night we were able to view the womens conference. It was really great. Mom I also loved how much they talked about the temple and I cant wait to be able to go more when i get home. Also i loved when they showed the video from the little kids in asia who were singing. Anyways things are really great here. I love the mission even though there are always difficulties and such. I love all of you and im so grateful for all of you. THanks for all the pictures that you guys send because I love getting the pictures! Love ya! Hermana Groneman

Muddy Shoes

Hola, Well another week has passed. Im sure you are all waiting to hear what has happened. I really dont have much to tell you this week so sorry if the letter is short. So last monday we went to the office so that my comp could have her interview with presidente spjut. She has the interview with him and everything and still wanted to go..so she called her stake president and he is the one who got her to stay for atleast 2 more weeks. Last monday I was able to talk a lot with Presidente Spjut and Hermana Spjut when we were in the office. Presidente spjut told me that he felt like she had already made up her mind basically. But then when her stake president got her to stay he just told me that we will see what happens. So then we had this week and I knew it would be hard but I was trying to do my best. President told me to try and be really fun for her...and the thing is is the fun part of the mission is the missionary work. If you dont like visiting the people and doing the work then I dont know how to make it more fun. In all my time with my comp I have tried to visit the members to help encourage her (especially the members who are returned missionaries because they always tell great stories) but the thing is she just doesnt like the work so there isnt much I can do. Anyways then tuesday turns out we got sick. haha yep my third time having parasites. (but dont worry it hasnt been that bad this time with the medicine and Ive already finished taking the medicine). But that really didnt hel p my comp because she was sick too. I was just thinking really does this have to happen? Im trying to help her like the mission and getting sick wasnt going to help anything. So then during the week I was trying to encourage her to feel more at home (for example unpack a little or put some pictures or quotes up on the wall) or something to help her feel a little better and she basically told me she already had her mind made up and that she was just waiting for the two weeks like she told her stake president. The hermana leaders also came and visited with her to encourage her...but after i asked if what they said helped and she said she could listen to them...but no. So yeah saturday night she called president and told him she didnt want to wait another week more...so today after we write we are going again to the office to talk to him. Im almost positive she is going home. So yeah its been an interesting week. Ill be honest I have felt really alone. Not in like Im depressed way...but its just so hard when you are the only one who actually has their mind working in the area. But God has really given me small miracles and most of all I know He knows what Im going through and I know that He knows the desire of my heart is to help the people. So yeah I have no idea what is going to happen to me or my area or what not but I know that all will work out well. A part from all of that I wanted to share some funny/good things that happened this week. So first on tuesday I had to go to san salvador for my ID renovation and I got to go with Hermana Garbett and Hermana Murray (they both came with me to the mission at the same time). It was great to be with them. I love the hermanas i came with and its so weird to think that it was like a year ago when I went the first time to san salvador and I saw hermana garbett and was so happy to see her ( i dont know if you remember that but it was the first time i saw her here in the field). The time is just going by SO fast. It scares me to be honest. During the week we had a visit from Elder Ochoa and it was a great mutlizona. I really felt the spirit strongly and he helped us to understand that we have to find the people prepared and chosen who are ready. THat we have to have the faith to drop the people that arent prepared and the God will help us find those who are ready. The REALLY funny thing though...is this day was important so everyone wanted to look their best for Elder Ochoa....and guess who forgot their nametag. Yep me. First time in my whole misson and i forgot my name tag. My whole zone was making fun of me for it but it was pretty funny. But honestly it was the worst. I felt so empty without it and I didnt want to make any comments during the conference because i didnt feel worthy without my nametag hahaha. no but its a funny moment and i was the joke of our whole zone. Also yesterday it rained a little and after church and our meetings with the bishop we headed out with a member to contact a referral. I didnt now where his friend lived but it was SO far. We went to a part of our area I had never been to and we were walking through jungle and the road was pure mud. My shoes were caked and my legs were so dirty after haha. But the family that he took us to received us very well. I dont know if they will be super super positive because they live so far away from the church...but they dont attend a church and they seem like a really unified family. And they have never talked with the missionaries. So at least we can plant a seed and I hope we can help them. That was really a small miracle for me yesterday. But i was said i didnt have my camera yesterday in my backpack because really it was complete jungle style and there were several times i got stuck in the mud haha. Anyways thats basically all. I hope you all know that I really love the mission. It is the best thing that has happened to me in my life. As Ive been trying to help my comp I have realized how much love i have for these people. It is incredible. The people here that I love honestly are people I never would have imagined myself talking to before. It really is amazing to see how we can love people like Christ loved. There is no exception of people and every person needs this gospel. Thanks for your emails. I love hearing from all of you. Im so glad that everything is going well at home. Our family really has always been blessed...but I know its because of our obedience to the commandments and our faithfulness to this gospel. Love you all and ill let you know next week what happens Hermana Groneman

Cambios

Hola famila, Well I feel like I have a lot to say this week but I dont have much time. It has been a hard week. One of the most stressful weeks of my mission...but this whole week I have been thinking of the scripture in Matt 11:28-30 - Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Well the week started out pretty good...but as the week went on my comp has been struggling. Which is normal as a new missionary. Something I just wasnt prepared for as a trainer is I was always thinking what I would need to do to help me new missionary know that she really can do it (because most of the time the new missionaries feel like they just cant do it)...but something i wasnt prepared for is that she just doesnt want to do it. She doesnt want to be here. At the beginning of the week she struggled and wanted to call presidente but we talked things through and we were able to continue..but she continued to want to call him to tell him she wanted to go home. Saturday morning she finally called him and he talked to her. There were moments when she just didnt want to leave the house and she just doesnt want to be here. Ive tried helping her to realize she can rely on the atonement and how many people need her here and that its not easy but its worth it...but today after we write we are heading to the office and she is going to talk to president. I really have no idea what is going to happen. I hope that she can make it through and stay because there are people who need her and the mission is something that will change her life. Its been hard on me. I have never had a more tiring week...but yet somehow I have felt a strange peace in my heart. And its because of this scripture. I know that Christ is carrying me in every moment. Although there are so many things i need to do and so much on my mind he has brought me peace. My first priority right now is helping her to stay in the mission...then after that helping her to learn how to become a missionary...and then last on my mind is what is happening with our investigators in our area. Presidente Spjut has been really great. In the days we´ve talked to him on the phone he has assured me that im not alone and not to take it personally. Im really grateful for presidente spjut. He is so loving and kind and he is a great president. Right now im just not really sure what is going to happen...whatever happens is going to be tough...but ill let you know what happens next week. BUT although its been a tough week. I have realized something really important. There have been many times in my mission where I havent really felt like I have changed much...but this week i realized I have changed. Ive realized how much my heart is in this work and how I really do understand the importance of the gospel and sharing it with everyone. I have realized how much i really rely on the atonement every day and how much i feel in debt to the Lord for his sacrifice and how all I want to do is thank him. As I talked with my comp during the week and as I was trying to help her understand what is more important I realized how much I have changed and I am so grateful for the mission. I am so grateful for every moment. The mission isnt beautiful for all of the beautiful experiences. It is beautiful because of all of the hard moments....its beautiful because somehow we make through. Somehow the lord helps us to keep going when we are tired and no one wants to listen and our bodies hurt and we are far from home. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I know that He is helping me in every moment. I know that this is the true church without a doubt in my heart. I know that Christ atoned for my sins and he has felt every hard moment in my life. And that brings me happiness. I am so happy hear. I am so happy that I have had such a hard week. I am so happy to be here struggling every day. Because I have this gospel and it is a privilege to share it with others. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for everything. Ill update you more about our investigators next week. Hermana Groneman

I'm a Trainer

Hola Familia, Wow well this week we had cambios and they arent called changes for nothing. I feel like so much has changed! First off it was quite interesting to say goodbye to hermana lezama. It was such a weird feeling to watch her go home. She was pretty strong will all of the goodbyes..not gonna like i was tearing up some of the time...just thinking about when i am going to have to say goodbye. But im really happy for her the she completed her mission and all is well. All of our investigators and recent converts really have missed her and I miss her too. Wednesday we went to the reunion de cambios and i received my new comp! My "daughter" is Hermana Castro and she is from Costa Rica! My first comp that isnt from honduras or guatemala haha. She is 19 and Im really excited to be training her. Its so so much different to be training. These past few days really have made me realize how much Ive grown, changed, and improved as a missionary. I cant even really remember how I felt the first few days but its made me realize how much I have improved as a missionary. She thinks I know so much and she thinks im so good at talking with people in the streets and with everyone (hahahah). But she is so nervous and she thinks she doesnt know enough but i just keep telling her it all comes little by little. Im just making sure to be really loving and complimenting her to help her feel at home. I hope I can be a good trainer for her and that I can help her learn correctly. Its been a really tiring week and its a lot different then when I was working with hermana lezama because we both knew what was going on with everything but Im glad to have the opportunity to train and see Hermana Castro grow. Julio was really sad that hermana lezama left but this is what his words were when I presented Hermana Castro for the first time: "yo estaba orando con mi padre celestial para que el me envia una otra angelita para visitarme" (I was praying to my heavenly father just asking him to send me another angel to visit me). hahaha oh julio is the best. Speaking of Julio he walked to church on friday for the mutual ( here they have mutual for all of the different organizations not just the youth) and on sunday to church he walked all on his own. That makes me feel really good because one of my biggest worries was that he would have troubling remembering to go to church on his own when we didnt pass for him. This week we didnt have anyone who came to church. I was pretty upset about that. Manuel always comes on his own and then Carlos´s wife didnt go...but this week i hope we can help them to go. I really want to focus on finding new people too. But all is well here. Its a lot different but I know im going to learn a lot training. I love the mission and i love all that im learning. I love the people and i love this gospel. Thanks for all of your support and emails and love! Thanks for all of the pictures of the Utah Football. Cheer loud for me at all the games. Mom im glad you were able to go to michelles bridal shower. Make sure when you go to her wedding to take pictures to send me! Also im really excited you are serving in young womens!! thats awesome! Sorry i didnt send pictures again....but its because i dont have a connecting cord..but im going to buy one today i promise and next week ill have pictures! Love you all! Hermana Groneman

New Apartment

Hola Familia, Well its been a pretty great week. I can´t believe its the last week of hermana lezama. It is so weird to me to think about ending the mission. Its so crazy to me, but Im really happy that we have been able to end her last two weeks with baptisms. So yeah Julio was baptized yesterday!!! It really was a great baptism. He was so happy and excited for it. During the week it was super funny he was stressing out about the baptismal clothes. We told him that we were going to be in charge of the clothes so he didnt have to worry so he told us his sizes but then the next day he was all worried because actually he told us the wrong size. But all was well haha. Julio has a lot of really great friends in the ward and neighbors so i really hope that can keep supporting him. The bishop has a lot of good desires to make sure they do everything they need to to support Julio. Really Julio will be a convert that I never forget. Honestly i have had such special moments with each of my investigators, but from Julio I have learned about miracles and the love of Christ. I will never forget the simple lesson that I have learned from him that if we want to be happy we have to live the gospel.. Its that simple. Also im pretty sure Julio is my favorite investigator because he saved me from a drunk guy in the street this week haha. This drunk guy was following me and Julio came up "HEY!" and then shewed him away and then walked in the house of the member and was like "este bolo es loco" haha. Super funny to see that in the street if you see the way that julio walks and everything. Also Carlos Chafoya was confirmed yesterday and his wife came to church with him so im really excited about that! she told hermana lezama that she wants us to come by her house tonight to talk to us...so we´ll see what that means! im super excited that she came. We havent taught her a ton but we hope to teach her mom in this week and help her prepare to be baptized in september. Also Manuel Mejia came to church again. he is great and has tons of friends in the church. This week we are going to talk to his wife to see if they can get married. But she attends another church so yeah. Anyways SO....i have to tell you that we just got the call in this moment and im going to be training!! So yep im gonna receive a brand new missionary on wednesday in the changes meeting. Everyone was telling me I was going to train. Im pretty excited to be honest but i know its going to be super stressful...I just hope that we can keep having success still. We have a few people who im excited to keep helping teach but i just hope that we can keep finding new people. Thats always the most stressful. But yeah im super excited! Tomorrow I have a meeting for the trainers. In the zone there are a few people who have changes, but the other gringa hermana in our ward (hermana lucero) is staying so thats great, our district leader has changes too. But elder thorpe is staying here in the zone too so thats cool. But yeah so this week will be pretty crazy im pretty sure. We´ll see who i get as a companion, but im excited! Love you all so much! Thanks for all your support and keep me updated on things at home! send me some pics of your trip to zion or whatever Hermana Groneman

Un ano en la mission

Hola familia, I have SO much to tell you guys this week and i dont think im going to have time to tell you everything! First off, on tuesday morning we moved houses and i dont have pictures of our new house but next week for sure ill send you the pics. It is so so nice to come home at night to a house where I actually feel like i can be at home and rest. Really i think that i am now receiving the blessing for my patience i had in my first house. My first house was super chafa (awful) and now im finally receiving the blessings. The shower still has freezing cold water so that doesnt change, but we have cabnets in the kitchen and the toilet actually flushes! and the floor is super clean that i would feel comfortable eating off it haha. Its because its a brand new house and no one has ever lived in it before. but yeah pictures next week. Also this week we had interviews with President Spjut. Wow i love president and hermana spjut. They really are so amazing and so loving. The interview was really great and i feel like i can share whatever i want with him. Truth is im really happy right now in my mission so it wasnt like i needed encouragement or anything but all is well. Anyways now update about our investigators: Carlos Chafoya: WAS BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!!! yeah super awesome. So on monday we had a noche de hogar with Hno William and we watched the movie Finding Faith in Christ. Carlos really loved it. He had tears in his eyes and everything. After the movie we talked a lot about Christ and his sacrifice for us and how we have to exercise our faith and follow his example. We talked about baptism and he said he thinks he would be ready to be baptized on sunday. The thing was he wasnt exactly sure...he knew he wanted to be baptized but he wasnt sure if he could on sunday but then we told him that he had to have an interview before his baptism so if he was thinking about sunday he needed to have an interview during the week. So during the week the zone leaders interviewed him and he said he wanted to be baptized on sunday. We planned it all and after the stake conference on sunday night we had his baptism. It was really great. A lot of his good friends in the ward came and also his wife came. We are going to start working with his wife because carlos really really wants his wife to come to church with him. Something really neat was that Hno William told us that Carlos had told him that sunday he was out in the corn field before his baptism and i guess he just knelt down in prayer in the middle of the corn fields and made a promise with God that he was going to be baptized that day. During all of the process of Carlos he had a few moments of doubt and didnt think he would keep going, but really the spirit worked through him in his whole process. Im so happy for him and im so grateful for William who gave us his name as the referral. Julio Casarez: So yeah this whole week i was torn about when we should baptized julio. When i had my interview with president spjut i was asking him what i should do and he told me that ill just know what i should do. But on friday our district leader did his baptismal interview and says that there isnt any problem about why he could be baptized. Then sunday after the stake conference julio had an interview with our bishop. THe bishop before was really hesitant about him being baptized because he had only see him...But after the interview he said that there is no problem in him being baptized and the bishop is really willing to keep supporting him after his baptism. So he probably is going to be baptized this weekend. Tonight we are going to watch finding faith in christ with him and talk about blessing and the priesthood and we are going to have him receive a blessing so that he can get walking better and recover from all of the side affects. He actually has over 6 months to leave his addiction. Manuel Mejia: He came to stake conference, We are just working with him to get married. But he is great. We hope in september with him. Apparently we found out that his mom died yesterday. Manuel is pretty old so i imagine his mom was pretty old but its still sad. But we are planning to review the plan of salvation with him and maybe that can keep motivating him. Rose: she is going to be on vacation for 2 weeks so we will go back to visit her in two weeks. Anyways thats basically all of the news for this week. This week me and my comp really are going to focus on finding new people to teach so that we can have more people for september. my comp has like 10 days now....so thats crazy. We are just enjoying our last weeks and im glad that her last two weeks in the mission we are baptizing so thats great! I love you all so much! Keep helping out the missionaries and i hope all is well. Cheer on those Utes for me this week! Hermana Groneman

Es la felicidad de uno

wow another week has flown by.

This week i`ll have 1 year in the mission! wow i cant believe it. I cannot believe that a year ago we were driving to the salt lake airport and i was so nervous and now ive got a year as a missionary. The time really is flying by.

Anyways well this week we had a good week, maybe not as good as last week but im still pretty happy about some of the things that are happening here in this area.

First announcement is we are moving houses this week. Really the mission doesnt like have 4 missionaries together in the same house. So yeah we are separating. Truth is im pretty sad to separate from the hermanas because it is so funy living with 4 and now im so used to it that it will be a little weird to just live with my comp but apparently our new house is SUPER nice....and we get the new house so im pretty excited about that. I think we are moving tomorrow morning.

In church this week we had 3 people in church.

First is Carlos Chafoya. He now has like 5 times that he has attended church. He really is super great but he just want to feel a little more confident in church. He doesnt like feeling new and like he doenst know what is going on. He really wants to learn how to sing the hymns so we are going to help with that haha. I think we can help him to have a baptismal date here in the next 2 weeks for sure. We just want to be patient and not pressure him so much that we lose him. but hes great.

Also Julio Casarez came to church again. Oh what a character. We are going to wait more time to help him get better from the side effects of his addiction. But really he is so great and so hilarious. Whenever we ask him a question he always starts by saying "Es la felicidad de uno". I think im going to remember that saying for the rest of my life..no matter what happens with Julio. Ive really learned the gospel is really simple....the gospel really is "la felicidad de uno". To give you an idea of how crazy julio is with the side effects was apparently he couldnt even get out of his bed to walk before we met him...but now he can walk...but he falls a lot. But we had success because he only fell 3 times in our walk to church on sunday....HAHAHA. But hey hes getting better every day. We`ll keep working with him because he is always waiting for us to visit him.

Also we had Manuel Mejia in church. This was his second time assisting church. Manuel is really great...and ALWAYS giving us food haha. He really likes the church and everything. But now we found out that he needs to marry his wife. So this week we are going to talk more with his wife and him. So we`ll see what we can do to help him. Manuel has a lot of friends in the ward who have had major changes in their lives through the gospel so he really likes that.

Also we have a few other people we are visiting. This last week we found an investigator named Rosie. She is probably liek 20 something and she is pregnant and she lost her mom like 2 years ago. When we found her she said she felt spiritually down. We have only visited her twice but she says in the two times we have visited her she has felt much more peace in her life. She doesnt feel ready to go to church quite yet but i think if we have a little patience with her she`ll go. Im excited to teach her.

Anyways Im just enjoying the last few weeks with my comp. Its almost obvious that i will be staying in this area another change. Also yesterday we atteneded the baptism of the elders of a teenager Giovanni who we started teaching and then gave him as a reference to the elders cause he lives in their area. But it was a great baptism and he was wanting a picture with us and everything. Its great to know that sometimes we just need to help find the people and plant the seeds.

Anyways i love you all tons! Thanks for the emails and for everything!

Love you,

Hermana Groneman

Another Miracle

Hola familia,

I dont even know what to say this week, but i feel like it has been a week of miracles and I have really felt Christ´s love this week. We had a much better week working with the members and we´ve got a few people progressing that im really excited about.

Well first off on wednesday we had an activity when we went to the temple with our investigators. We didnt get to enter but we just do a tour outside of the temple and then there are little classes in the chapel by the temple. it was a super great experience and we had several investigators who went. Hermana Moreno (a member) brought her husband and a few family members and then also we had Carlos Chafoya and Manuel Mejia who went. Ill tell you a little more about them. Also Rosa was able to go to the temple and participate in baptisms.

So ill tell you a little about our investigators.

We have Julio Casarez who i think i told you a little about last week. He is our investigator who had years and years with the addiction of getting high off of glue. It is incredible the love I have felt for this investigator. He basically looks like a drunk if you were to see him walking around in the street because he cant walk well for all of the side effects. But he really wants to change his life. It is almost adorable because he is like a little kid. We always teach him the house of a member and the thing is he doesnt have a good concept of time. He always remembers the day we say that we are going to visit him but not the time. The other day we went for our appointment with him and he wasnt there so we went around asking for him in the streets...and nobody knew where he was but they all said "hes not home but i saw him walking around with that book of yours"....so yep our investigator walks around the streets with his libro de mormon. But yesterday we had a lesson with him. Really he understand and we have learned the best way to teach him is to tell him the topic and then just let him talk and he ends ups teaching himself. Yesterday at the end of our lesson we were putting another appointment with him and he just went off saying that we can come whenever we want because when we come he feels more happy and went off saying a bunch of things about how happy one feels when they are trying to come close to God and he was like if you can come every day all the better because then i can feel happy every day and you two and two "angelitos" that God sent. Yeah knowing me i definitely teared up and i couldnt stop the tears. I have never felt the love of Christ more in my life. I cant explain how much people would normally judge Julio. But during the lessons i always think about the miracles in the new testament. Christ healed so many people. Physically and Spíritually. Christ may not be here on the earth in this moment but he lives and i know he can do miracles. Technically Julio has a baptismal date for the 31st of august...but we arent sure if we are going to wait more time because we really have to make sure he is prepared. But he wants the gospel with all of his heart. He always says he´ll be baptized when we say he is prepared to be baptized.

Also we have Carlos Chafoya. He is still progressing little by little. We want to help him to be baptized in this month. He really enjoyed the temple trip and this week at church he stayed for all of the classes first the first time so that was great! Apparently after the temple trip he stopped by one of the members (william the pizza guy) and was telling him that he has desires to be baptized but his family doesnt really want that. I think its because one of his sons is a pastor for another church in another town. But we´ll keep working with him and im sure he´ll be baptized soon.

Also Manuel Mejia. We have been teaching manuel for quite awhile now. He is one of my favorite investigators haha. He is an older guy but hes always walking around talking to people in the streets and he always gives us food or buys us food in the street and in his house he has these sweet rocking chairs. He is super postive but his challenge has always been to attend church. He never wanted to leave his house alone...but this week after the temple trip we were able to commit him to church and he went. definitely a miracle. and that is super great because he always says he wants to be baptized but we always say you have to attend church first and keep going. So we are hoping he can be baptized too.

Anyways its been a good week. Things are going good in this area and with my comp. My comp really has a great love for the gospel and we have fun screaming/singing Called to Serve when its pouring buckets of rain.

Also i got the package!!! SO great. I loved the shirt so much, its perfect, i wore it yesterday at church. also the treats were perfect. and dad I LOVED getting your autobiography. It was so neat to read some of your stories. obviously i havent read much. But its so neat. Thank you for writing it because its something ill cherish forever.

Love you all so much, thank you for your support in everything! Im loving the mission and time is flying by so fast.

Hermana Groneman

Miracles

Hola familia!

well its has been a pretty good week i would say. Definitely i have seen some miracles this week with our investigators. The good thing is this week we were able to find some new investigators and we were able to work a little more with the members so that is really great.

So this week I want to tell you about two of our investigators.

First is Carlos Chafoya. He is the reference of the member that has the pizzeria. We had started teaching him a couple weeks ago with the member and he has been super positve. Last week he didnt go to church because he had some meeting he had to go to. But anyways he has been one of our main progressing investigators that we have been excited about and planning and preparing for baptism in august. But this week we went to visit him on friday (we never have set appointments with him because for his work he has to leave at whatever moment so its better that we just pass for him) and when we got to his house he came out and said he didnt want to keep receiving us and he wasnt going to keep going to church...apparently he had had some arguments with some family members or something and he just didnt want to keep receiving us and he said it would be a waste of our time. That was so hard to hear. It is so hard to just find investigators who will receive us and so when they finally receiving us and are progressing the last thing you want to hear is they drop you. So we left in that moment pretty sad and disappointed. Friday night we were just praying that somehow he could change his heart. We just prayed because we knew that there wasnt anything else we could do... just pray that something could change in his heart and that he would have desires to go to church. The next day on Saturday we were walking in the street past a members house and one of the hermanos left and told us "hey ive got something to tell you" (this member is kind of less active) but he told us that he had talked with one of his old buddies and turns out it was Carlos. They talked a lot about the church and they were talking with another member too and apparently he said he felt really bad for what he told us and that he wants to keep going to church. I am so so so grateful for the members who helped to give him encouragement because he came to church on sunday and we taught him sunday night and all is good now. We almost lost him as an investigator but God really does answer our prayers.

 

Our other investigator we had in church is Julio. Wow he is quite something. he is 32 and he got high of of paint for practically his whole life...so he practically acts like a drunk guy...he can hardly walk without falling over but he stopped getting high like a month and a half ago. We have to teach him like a little kid because he doesnt understand everything super well. But truth is is he is super positive. He knows a lot of members and he is always walking around in the streets telling the members that he is going to go to church on sunday. He wants us to teach us in the house of member because he doesnt like the influence of his family. We left him so pamphlets and we reminded him to read them and so when we left the house we were walking away and he just came out in the street and yelled "hermanas!! aquí tengo los folletos!" and he was holding up the pamphlets in the middle of the streets. Apparently he was talking with a member the other day and they were talking about how his walking has improved a ton and julio told the member that he thinks when he is baptized he will improve a lot more. He told us during the week that on sunday he could be baptized when he went to the church...but then we explained to him that he needs a little more preperation for baptism. But we´ll see what happens with him. I really actually love to teaching him though because i feel love that the savior has for each one of us. There is no exception of people. He came to church on sunday and we are going to keep teaching him a lot.

Anyways those are some of investigators and i just wanted to share a little about them with you guys today. This week we have an activity to go to the temple on wednesday with investigators so im excited about that.

I havent received your package yet but i probably will really soon.

I cant believe that you guys had hermana culotta over for dinner!! that is so crazy. I remember telling her that i hoped one day she would meet you guys. Find her and have her over for dinner again and send me pics and tell her hi! i have her email so im going to send her an email. That is so neat though.

Anyways i hope all is well. I cant believe we are now in august, its crazy!

Sounds like all is good at home. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Love ya

Hermana Groneman