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