Parasite take 2

Hola fam,

well remember back the the beginning of my mission when i had a parasite....welp ive got another one. Finally one wednesday i was fed up with my stomach hurting me the past couple of weeks so i decided to talk with the mission nurse. It wasnt even that bad but after three weeks i was a little worried. So i went and had tests done and yep ive got a parasite. But the truth is i feel worse this week then i did before i knew i had a parasite. The parasite didnt even really make feel that bad but now im on medicine that is super strong. About a half hour after i take it im dead tired and about 5 hours after i take it start to feel nausea and i dont really want to eat...but i have to eat to take the pill. it would be easier if i was only taking it in the morning and at night but i have to take one during the day too. Honestly its been such a hard last few days. It is so hard to keep going in every moment and we have had some bad days with lessons falling through and everything so our work this week hasnt been that great, but honestly i just feel good at the end of the day that i was able to make it through the end of the day. I know thats sad to say but its been tough. The worst part is i still have 5 more days to take these pills so i need lots of your prayers. I talked to the nurse about the side effects but there isnt really anything i can do because i have to take the pills to kill the parasite.

But a side from the difficulties....there are always miracles. I dont have a lot of time to share with you about the other things that happened this week but i want to share with you about Rosa.

First off Rosa is going to be baptized on saturday and i couldnt be happier for her. We had her baptismal interview yesterday after church and all is good to go. But at the beginning of this week we passed by her house to teach her. We actually hadnt talked to her about her results from her doctors apointment (the last week we talked to her son and law and thats how i knew) so anyways at the beginning of the week when we were talking with her we started talking with her and she told us the news. I have never seen someone so happy. She told us that the doctors were shocked when they checked her results and everything. It really is a miracle that she didnt have anything. But the most amazing thing was she told me that when she was at the doctors all she could think about were the words i told her last thursday. The night before her doctors appointment i had told that she didnt need to worry about anything and that everything would be okay. But the thing is when i said those words they just came out of my mouth but when i said them i was thinking....i dont know why im actually saying this because truth is i dont know if everything is going to be okay....but when she told me that when the doctors told her the results and the only thing she could think of were the words i had said it made me realize that as a representative of Christ i really can promise blessings. I cant explain the miracles i have seen with Rosa. Also this week when we set her baptismal date she repeated telling her story about how before she had received the missionaries and everything but how when she went to the temple open house she felt the spirit so strongly but at that time she was asisting a different church. I remember my first visit when she told me that and i was just thinking now is her time. And its the truth. She really is a person that was prepared.

Anyways i dont have more time, but I´m hoping for a better week. Please pray for me that i can have the strength to work this week. Im so grateful for your support and your love. I love hearing about everything that is going on in your lives at home and im so grateful for the experience.

Love you all,

Hermana Groneman

ps ill try to send pics next week

Cambios

welp fam another cambio is here.

I am still here in El Angel but i have a new companion haha so you were all wrong! To be honest im pretty sad that hermana flores left. its so weird because i had sooo much time with hermana estevez and after that ive only had 6 weeks with all of my comps. It goes by SO quickly. So anyways we found out about cambios on monday (earlier then normal) so then tuesday we spent practically all day saying goodbye for hermana flores. This was her first area to leave and she had 3 cambios here so yeah. Then we had the cambios meeting on wednesday in the morning. I was glad i got to go because its fun to see the other missionaries who have cambios and especially because it was the last cambios meeting with presidente cordon. So it was pretty sad. But later in two weeks we are going to have a last meeting with presidente cordon with the whole mission. It will be so weird to receive a new mission presidente. Im going to miss presidente cordon a lot because ive learned so much from him, but also im pretty excited to see what changes will happen and to meet the new mission president. Ryan what was it like when you received your new mission president?

Anyways so hermana flores went to ahuachapan and she is companions with hermana garbett!! crazy huh? anyways and my new comp is Hermana Lezama. She is from honduras and she only has 3 months left. So this is mostly likely her last area. To be honest she is kind of baggy with only 3 months left, but she is really nice so we will see how this cambio goes. But truth is i dont think i want to be her last companion but we`ll see what happens. Its only been a few days so we are still getting to know each other.

Anyways. So this week to be honest was pretty horrible. Lots of our plans fell through this week and we didnt have a ton of success. So it was a little hard but we just keep working each day. Basically poured rain this whole week. truth is i love the rain. so much better than the sun. and everyone thinks im crazy for it, BUT i dont like the rain when our plans fall through. If we had set appointments and none of them fell through it would be great with the rain. but yeah. Thursday was pretty horrible because all day long we knocked doors and searched for members to ask for references and nobody was home and nobody answered their doors. But hey we just keep going and there are always small little miracles. There is always a small miracle or something to show me that God knows me and knows how im feeling and he is aware of what im going through.

But ITS A NEW WEEK. and im hoping to work really hard this week and have a completely different week.

But in good news for this week. We have two investigators at church....not that much...BUT we had a 19 year old boy who came - Roberto - and he is super positve. Hes pretty busy with studying and things going on in his life, but i think he can progress. We havent taught him a ton, but i hoping to work with him more this week. And also Rosa. At first i didnt see her in church because we got their a little late because we passed for Roberto, so i was super upset that she wasnt there, but then i saw her and i guess she had been there the whole time. Best of all. SHE DOESNT HAVE CANCER. so this week she went to the doctor for some more tests to verify everything and decide her treatment and everything and i guess everything ended up negative and she doesnt have cancer! really it was an answer to prayers. And during sunday school the teacher asked if anyone had had a spiritual experience this week and she stood up and shared that she new her prayers were answered and that we as missionaries were praying for her and how grateful she was for us. It was such a tender moment and she is such a sweetheart. We`ve basically taught her all the lessons and we are going to put a date with her for baptism this week and review a few things. Im so grateful to have met her.

Also last night i was able to talk to hermana estevez. We were just talking and catching up and then she told me how grateful for me as a companion and she was telling her companion the other day that if any missionary helped her to change it was me. THat i helped her to change to have energy to work and to enjoy the mission and to have more faith. It was such a tender moment because maybe things were a little hard with her sometimes...but i love her and im so grateful that i was able to be a good example for her. It made me realize that maybe i dont have a ton of success with investigadores always, but we are also here to help our companions grow.

she says hi to all the family.

Anyways thats basically all i have to say. Sorry my emails are always so scattered all over the place. Im ready to have a better week and to work hard. It sounds like everyone at home is having fun campion and enjoying summer time. Enjoy it because it goes by quickly!

Love you all and thanks for your prayers and support

Hermana Groneman

Love the Rain

Another cambio come and gone,

I cannot believe how fast the time is flying. And i feel like i say that every week. But really this cambio went by SO fast. Probably the fastest 6 weeks of my whole mission. I dont know if part of it was because i changed areas or what, but i cant believe. We still dont know anything about who has cambio until tomorrow and the truth is i dont really know what will happen. I think id basically be happy with whatever. My comp has 3 changes here and its her first area so it is probable that she could leave, but she could also stay so we arent sure. I basically feel like ill be happy with whatever happens. The only thing i wouldnt like is if i had to leave. 6 weeks in one area isnt long enough and i wouldnt like to leave now that i feel like i know my way around. I dont think that will happen, but with cambios you never know. Im guessing either my comp will leave or we will stay together for one more cambio...but we´ll see. Ill tell you next week.

This week...there was lots of rain. But i love the rain here. its so much better then the sun. But i think im the only one who thinks that. But heres the thing. When it rains its like the world stops and everyone sleeps. I love sleeping with the rain so i dont blame the people but its kind of ridiculous. Luckily it didnt rain sunday in the morning because if its raining the people just want to sleep. Im sorry to say mom but im not using my big black ugly shoes. I just cant get myself to use them. But here they sell a bunch of different rubber like shoes so i use those all the time. they are super cheap and stuff, but truth is it is better than other shoes because normal shoes just soak up the mud and rain, but these are rubber and have holes so i use those most of the time. maybe ill send pics or something.

This week we dropped one of our investigators Manuel who i think i told you guys a little about. We werent teaching him a lot but we wont be teaching him at all anymore. Its sad because really i could see a lot of potencial in him as a member and i know that the gospel would bring him a lot more purpose in his life, but truth is is he didnt want to change. He is too worried about what his friends and family will say and he doesnt want to leave his old life behind. But now he has the knowledge of the gospel and so its his decision. Hopefully in the future the missionaries will find him. Also his friend is a member ( he was a referral) and his friend jose received his mission call to guatemala this week so we got to watch him open his call. Reminded me a lot when i opened my call. Ya cant believe that was more than over a year ago. Feels like yesterday.

This week Rosa Trujillo (who has cancer) came to church! and also this little kids who we found on saturday came haha. Sometimes its weird teaching niños but hey if they receive the gospel now in the future they can become missionaries and such. When we passed for him in the morning he wasnt sure if he wanted to go because he was eating breakfast but we told him we would wait...but after church he was super happy and he has a lot of friends in the church and he told us..."im going to come back next week.....and every single sunday after that too" haha. little kids are so sweet. Anyways but about rosa! I was super super happy that she was able to go. She is such a sweetheart. And it breaks my heart that she has cancer but i love visiting her. We´ve been able to do a little service for her this week cleaning her house and such. THis week we taught her some of the commandments and all is well. We invited her for a baptismal date...and she almost accepted BUT she says she doesnt know what is going to happen with her cancer treatment so maybe she will have to go to san salvador for a week or santa ana certain days to the hospital so she doesnt want to say a date and then not know what will happen with her treatment. But this week the doctor is going to tell her what is going to happen with her treatment so after that we´ll set a date. Id like to review some of the lessons with her, just because she is a little older and sometimes its hard for her to comprehend everything. But she is a sweetheart.

This week we also had a scare when we went to visit jasmin (recent convert). Shes twelve and when we got to her house she just wasnt the same and she was sad and we didnt know what happened. Her mom is a member but inactive and we were sitting their trying to teach a lesson but something was off. So we just asked her straight up and she didnt want to tell us at first but her mom helped her to open up. I guess her grandpa was telling her all of these lies about the church and was telling her that we worship joseph smith and the church is false and all this stuff and from what she told us she defended the church and tried to explain to her grandpa that we dont worship joseph smith, the he was a prophet, and that we worship God and Jesus Christ and stuff....but i imagine that when she defended he said other things to her to discourage her and he told her she needed to go to his church and stuff. WE helped talk her through things but really it makes me so sick to think that people would try to confuse and discourage a twelve year old girl. Plus it makes me sick because she almost wanted to stop coming to church because she was so discouraged. But after our visit she went to mutual the next day and she was happy and back to normal but it makes me so mad when people say stuff about the church when they have never been or dont know....but anyways

We are always trying to find new investigators and sometimes its frustrating. The people here the majority of the time listen to us and let us into their houses but they dont actually listen they just nod their heads and agree because its "la palabra de Dios" so yeah. But ya know we just keep working every day.

It will be super interesting to see what happens this week with cambios and all but im excited for whatever happens. I hope i can keep working hard. Im so grateful for this gospel in my life. Before i knew that their were millions of people without this gospel, but i didnt realize how lost and confused they were.

Keep working with the missionaries and going to the temple. I love hearing about how everyone is at home.

Thanks for your love and support!

Hermana Groneman

Summertime!

Happy summer to all of you back at home!

Its super weird to think that it is summer for all of you at home! Wow the time is flying by, can´t believe that it is already june.

Well i really dont know what im going to tell you this week. I feel like the week went by really quickly and sometimes its hard to remember what happened...i need to go back to making a little list each week of the things to tell you.

So this week we didnt have an investigators at church...again. so that was disappointing. I get so frustrated when the people say they are going to go and then they dont go...especially when they are just sleeping. Also the rain...during the week the rain is our friends because the people let us come into their houses....but on sunday no. because they dont want to leave their houses to go to church. But hopefully this week will be better.

So we are still working with Xiomara and her husband. I dont know what is going to happen because carlos still hasnt started any process to divorce his other wife....and xiomara cant really progress until that happens. Its a difficult situation because really the best thing they could do would be to seperate right now for a little and then later when they can get married get back together...but i dont know what to do to be honest. But xiomara´s mom lives with them and we are teaching her now and she likes everything we are teaching....so maybe we are going to work with her first. Also xiomara´s son michael LOVES the church. He is 8 and he loves when we come over and apparently he was crying on sunday because he wanted to go church but his mom wasnt going to go. So we are thinking of maybe working towards baptizing michael and xiomara´s mom at the same time and then later we can see what happens with xiomara.

I dont know if i told you about our investigator Rosa. She is an older lady and her daughters are members and she receiving the missionaries before but she was asisting another church then. Now she isnt asisting a church and we have been working with her....she is just a little hesitant...BUT this week she found out she has cancer. So now she is going to start treatments and its going to be hard for her to come to church for her schedule and everything. But we are hoping this difficult time can help her to recognize how important it is that she receives the gospel now. Its pretty heartbreaking. I feel like ive been around lots of people in my mission with cancer...and its hard.

Also we had an experience with an investigator Margarita this week. She is a younger mother and her husband doesnt like the church but he is never home. But anyways we have taught her quite a few times but she hasnt gone to the church (because of her husband) but we werent really sure if she was progressing a lot or if she has a lot of desires to keep learning. So we had an appointment with her and then plan was to see how she is with desires to keep learning and if not we were going to drop her as an investigators. We were pretty sure we were going to drop her... but then during the lesson she said that she talked with her husband and told him that she wants to go to the church, but he says no. He says that she can listen to us but that she cant go to the church. But she told us that she wants to keep learning and she feels like she has always just done what he says and so now she want make some decesions. We were so surprised that she had the courage to talk him. So we are going to keep working with her and we are going to see what happens.

So that is a little about some of our investigators that we have right now. We have others but they are newer investigators. We are still working hard and i am hoping with can keep working hard so that we can have a lot of success in June.

I dont have a lot more to tell you...all is well here. Lots of rain. But i love the rain. it is so so so much better than the sun. in my opinion.

Hows it going with the missionaries at home? are you still working with them? and are you guys studying preach my gospel?

Anyways love you all so so much! Enjoy summertime!

Hermana Groneman