Hola familia, well this week...was a little difficult to be honest. I really am having fun here i promise and really i love it here in El Salvador. We are always laughing in the streets and there are plenty of good things. Its just hard to remember the little funny things, or hard to explain the little funny things haha. I guess ill start off with my companion. I am still so so happy to be with Hermana Salguero. She is so great. I love her because she is super funny and fun, but in a mature way so its great. And she likes to work hard and has a lot of faith. It has been great to teach with her, and I have felt the spirit so much in our lessons together, even when the people dont accept I still feel the spirit and our testimonies are growing. Hermana Salguero really wants to learn english and i have been helping her a lot with that, its so neat to see her desire to use the time and opportunity to learn english even when its hard, because a lot of the other latino missionaries dont always really care. But its adorable to see her practice. She is trying to help me learn how to roll my r´s because i still cant. So basically we are always walking around the the calles making weird sounds haha. Im proud that this week we had a lot more lessons then we have had other weeks. I have never had so many lessons in my mission and we are working hard like i want to. It feels so good at the end of the day to know that we are teaching lots of people. Lots of the people arent really positive or interested, but our purpose is to share this message with them and if they dont accept thats not our fault plus we are planting lots of seeds. I had an experience this week when we were teaching this guy who had talked with missionaries a lot when he was younger. He had doubts about the libro de mormon and all of that and we taught the restauracion to him...and at one point he was talking and saying that Yeah yeah i know this is what you guys believe and...stuff like that. and in that moment i just realize and told him..this is not what i believe....but this is what i know. I know that joseph smith really was a prophet called of God and that through him the church was restored. This moment he didnt accept or anything, but my testimony was strengthed. And thats the thing....maybe im not having lots of baptisms right now, but my testimony is being strengthened every single day. and Im planting seeds in the hearts of these people. The frustrating parts of this week is that we didnt have any investigators in church yesterday. I cant tell you how upset i was because we had several persons commited to go. But when we passed for them in the morning they werent there or one her baby was sick, and david calderon didnt go because him and alba are really busy taking care of albas mom who has cancer. I was so disappointed. And to make things better before the meeting started they told us it was our week to give talks. So yeah i didnt have anytime to prepare anything...which normally at home yeah i could probably do something, but just with all the stress of the morning and in spanish and everything i was just so overwhelmed. My talk ended up fine. I have talked like 4 or 5 times in the ward already, but i felt so overwhelmed. Its just so disappointing when im trying my hardest and we arent have success with our investigators. We have Eloisa and Marcos, David Calderon, and Nilson (joven) who all have the assistencias and could be baptized...but its their choice. I really am just praying for a miracle for Eloisa and Marcos and David Calderon still....and a miracle that we can find some new people to teach or a new family. We have two investigators Sabina Pimentel and Carla Sanchez. Both are around 23 years old or something and they are both really postive. They both said they were going to come to church but didnt come this week. But sabina loves everything and she want to be baptized and wants to change her life so that her kids can grow up in the truth. And carla we had a lesson with her and we kneeled in prayer at the end of the lesson and she asked if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and she received her answer in that moment. it is so neat to see investigators ask for themselves and receive these answers that this is the truth. I think she has problems with some of the commandments maybe...but we´ll see. I hope both of them can progress. Really I love the mission. This week has just been a little difficult. Its been a different feeling that i have had this week. Im so exhausted at night that it makes me feel a little said. But I know that God knows im working hard and i know he will help me to have success and find these people who are ready to accept this gospel. But I could use some prayers this week to stay positive and to have the strength to deal with this stress. I love you all so so so so much and im glad it sounds like you all had a good valentines day. Not much valentines here, but a little bit. Its going into the hot months here..i dont really know how it could get hotter..but yeah. I love you all and the time is flying! this week i have 6 months in the mission...super raro pero estoy super agradecida por este opportunidad. Hermana Groneman These pictures are of Eloisa and Marcos, My new companion Hermana Salguero, and me washing my clothes...just to remind you to be grateful for how much we are blessed in the US

Changes

Hey fam! Welp this week has been a little different. Ill start off by telling you that we had cambios on wednesday and hermana estevez left the area and I have a new companion here with me now. Im still in the area of Espino and I love it here. My new companion is Hermana Salguero. She is from Guatemala and she is 23 years old. She is GREAT! Im very excited to have her here in this area and she is very fun to be with. I feel super comfortable teaching with her and she really invites the spirit into the lessons. She has about 8 months in the mission, so almost the same amount of time. I think that its going to be a great cambio, but i kind of think i will only be here for one more cambio. I dont know i have just heard stories about how usually your favorite companions you are with them for the shortest amount of time haha. But i dont know, we`ll see. Its only the first week together. I feel like this cambio is going to go by super super quickly. Cambios are always every 6 weeks, but the last cambio because of christmas was 8 weeks and that cambio went by super quick so i cant imagine in 6 weeks! Hermana Salguero knows a little english, but not very much, and i think my spanish is going to improve a ton in these 6 weeks. She has a big desire to learn english so i hope i can help her with that, she is so great. Its super funny though because we still havent moved houses (i hope this week) but she told me her last house had a couch and it had cabinets in the kitchen and it was really beautiful and i feel bad for her because now she is suffering here in our house. But it gives me hope that other areas have nicer houses hahahaha. Also we`ve been waking up early to run...which is good because ive gained a little weight i feel...but also im super tired haha. Anyways this week...has been good but definitely stressful. Im senor companion and directing the area because obviously im the only one who knows the area. Its been good because I can work how i want to for the most part. We walk fast (or faster than i did before) and we can use all of our time to work. Hermana Salguero says our area is huge haha, but she`ll learn the area sooner or later. Its mostly just stressful because the numbers. I remember ryan telling me to not worry about numbers and i try to do that. I know the numbers and goals and leaders are there to help us to achieve higher goals and work harder, but sometimes i just wish with all of my heart that i could just live life as a missionary and work hard and just share the gospel without people always stressing us for our numbers. My new district leader elder williams takes our numbers super fast at night which is good, because before hermana estevez used to talk for like a half hour and i always just wanted to go to bed, so its good now because i have more time at night, but at the same time he only asks for our numbers and if they arent high he says you need to have more lessons with member or more this or whatever and doesnt even take time to ask exactly how are day was. for example the other day i felt like we worked super hard, we used all our time in the day and we talked with everyone we saw, just that none of those people wanted to listen and there is nothing i can do about that. So that day we didnt have a lot of lessons, and at night i dont know i just felt super pressured and a little upset because its not like im not working or something. But anyways saturday night and sunday i was just praying with all my heart that we could find the people that were interested and wanted to listen to the message. Sunday after church we went out working with a member. We didnt really have set appointments but we are going to start now just working area by area and contact everyone. because with hermana estevez she didnt really want to knock every single door. But anyways after church we started in one pasaje (street) and we had 3 different lessons in this one street. I had already contacted some of those house before, but i dont know the people were willing to listen. And we found a golden investigador. This 16 year old kid who literally is searching for the truth. He told us he isnt attending a church because he wants to know which one is true. We taught him lesson 1 and he understood all of it and he really liked everything we said. He was a miracle. Church we had 2 investigadors but they werent people we have really been teaching, but we are going to start teaching them. But i was super frustrated because Roberto Guerrero (who has problems with alcohol) didnt go and neither did David Calderon (Albas husband). I really hope he can have a fecha this week. But we had a lot of less actives at church this week so that was good. Also I just wanted to share a little about our ward mission leader Hermano Marvin Orellana. Honestly he is an amazing member missionary. He has always been good to work with us but i dont know what happened in the past month but his testimony has grown a ton. Him and his wife are working towards the temple and before like a year ago he was inactive so sometimes his testimony wasnt always super strong. But wow. When he teaches with us he knows the lessons, he teaches the people with love, he invites the people to church and to pray and read in our lessons, he contacts people in the streets, he invites his friends and has references for us, and he brings the less actives to church on sunday. Honestly it is a testimony builder for me. Sometimes it is just as neat to see the faith of the members grow as it is to see the investigators. I appreciate your prayers as always. I definitely need them as im leading the area here. But im excited to work hard and i know i just need to have faith and I will be able to find the people who need and want to accept this gospel in their lives. I am so grateful for you guys and your support. I hope all is well as always!!! love you all so so so so much! Hermana Groneman

Happy Birthday Dad

Welp happy birthday dad this week!!! you said you are planning on going to the olive garden...but i think you should go to red lobster...but thats just my idea haha. Well what to say this week. It just goes so quickly that i dont even know what to say. I need to remember to write a list of the things i need to tell you. And im going to try and send some pictures this time haha. These ones in this message are of Family Trejo finally since they are like our second family here you should probably know who they are. And the others were of our hike the other day to the cruz en Ataco. So this week. We arent really visitng marcos and eloisa much. like once a week. We explained about temple marriage and everything. I think that they just need time. It just scares me because with time satan can attack them. They already have had 2 weeks without going to the church. This week maybe i can understand because it was elections here (ill explain more about that in a minute). But yeah, it is just so sad. The last lesson we had with them when we left Eloisa was giving us each a hug and she told us "really thank you so much for every single thing you have taught us". you can tell she wants it. When we were talking with Marcos during the lesson she just started praying quietly...for what...not sure...but you can tell she wants it. Ill keep you updated though, because obviously they mean a lot to me. David Calderon (albas husband) we still are waiting to put a date for baptism with him. He just has fears and for some reason is a little hesitant but he says he knows the church is true and he is always saying it is his church and he wants to be baptized...just maybe needs time to commit to the decision. I think its hard for him because apparently way way back one time when they had recieved the missionaries they both had baptism dates but the day before the backed out and they felt really bad because the missionaries cared a lot for them...so i think its the same thing again. but the difference this time is alba already has been baptized. So hopefuly this week we will be able to put a baptismal date with him. He came to church this sunday so he has his 3 asistencias. I dont know if i have told you but alba found out like 2 weeks ago that her mom has cancer so they have been really stressed with all of that, but the ward has helped out and alba is just taking it a day at a time. Robert Guerrero the guys who drinks we are still working with . The thing is he believes in it all and totally wants to change. He wants to be baptized too. He really just needs time to get over his addiction with alcohol. Weve taught him a lot, so probably just gonna visit him a little each week to help support him in getting over his addiction and so he can come to church. He didnt come to church this week though. We´ll see though. This week was elections on sunday. Apparently it can be really really really dangerous, but it was actually calm. We had rules that we couldnt contact anybody though and a lot of wards only have sacrament meeting. We had all 3 meetings though. Also we could only have lessons with really postive investigators or just visit members, so yesterday was pretty calm. But because of elections it was really hard for the investigators to go to church. We have quite a few new investigators who are really positive. We have received some really good references from the ward members which is great. A lot of our new investigators arent attending another church and a lot of them are passing through a difficult time in their lives, so basically its perfect. There are a few different and i dont really have time to explain all of them, but as they progress ill tell you more about them. But it is really amazing how we can find these people right when they really need the gospel. So yeah this week is changes. Im almost sure i have changes, but like always nobody knows. We find out tomorrow morning. We do know who is going to train though and im not, so im pretty glad for that. I want to train one day, but id like some more time with a different companion to learn more things first. but hermana garbett is going to train, she is super nervous but im way excited for her. We heard rumors that they might be joining the zone again (i dont know if you remember when it split) its kind of sad because they are doing this because we havent been having a lot of baptisms in the two zones...but im secretlely a little happy because if i stay here which is most likely and if they join the zones that means ill get to see hermana garbett not only every monday but also thursday haha. But yeah nobody knows about cambios. this cambio was 8 weeks...two weeks longer than normal, but it went by super super quickly. its definitely taken a lot of patience at times. Also we are going to be moving houses. We found another house and it is much nicer. Im pretty excited because literally our house right now is still so so so hot and i feel like it is a jail cell. But this new house isnt going to be as hot and it has color haha. Still we will only have the necessities as usual, but im kind of excited for that. Anyways things are going great here. It is absolutely crazy that it is february! im almost at 6 months and i cant believe it. I hope all is well for all of you always. You are always in my prayers and im so thankful for your prayers for me! I feel like i forgot something...but oh well. Con mucho amor! Hermana Groneman