Que Rapido este semana

Una otra semana....Wow.

Seriously the time is going by so quickly its crazy. The days are still longs as always, but wow the week went by so quickly. Its so crazy its december. It feels so weird that it is Christmas time without snow. But Christmas time is great! A ton of people in our area have put up christmas lights. Its super cool because they put the lights in the pasajes and the houses and pasajes are small and close together so you just walk under all of these strands of lights like a tunnel of christmas lights! i love it! All be honest im a little upset that you didnt get the lights up at home, but i totally understand, just promise me next christmas. And im glad mom atleast got them up on the fence. Also we´ve been singing christmas hymns and such to people so that always invites the christmas spirit! This week our zone also had the opportunity to sing at a theater. It was kind of in connection with the english classes that we help out with somtimes. We sang 4 songs in english and it was super hilarious. We had santa hats and everything.

So about our investigators. We havent completely stopped visiting them, but I think we are going to end up stopping teaching both ana and william. Neither of them are ever in their houses, and they havent been following through with any of their compromisos. But we have some other investigators too. We had an older couple who lived in LA for like 20 years, but they are back living in El Salvador. We have taught her (Eloisa) quite a few times and only the husband once because usually he isnt home. But she came to church this week which was great and also her husband said he will come next week...we´ll see if he actually does. He loves to read though and he knows a lot about the book of mormon and he is reading for both of them because eloisa cant read. So i have high hopes for them. They live way out in the progresso area which is the more country part of our area. Hopefully we can have some baptism dates with them in the next week, but i dont know.

Also we have a baptism this saturday! Its with Dayana (8 years old) she is related to the bishop and basically all of her extended family is members, except her mom isnt. Her mom has lots of problems right now and isnt interested in baptism but she is totally supportive of dayana being baptized. I love dayana. She loves us missionaries and she loves primary and she reads the book of mormon. She said one day she wants to be a missionary. She is adorable and she always comes up to us at church and gives us big hugs.

Also the christmas devotional! we got to go if we had investigatores there and we had 6! Since it was in spanish i didnt understand all of it completely, but it was still beautiful. And the music i could understand. The best part of the devotional was that Alba came and brought her whole family. So her husband david who isnt a member and her daught who is 7 and her son who is like 20 or something who is inactive. I have been praying for weeks now to just see that whole family together in the church sitting on the chapel benches. It was so neat to see them there. We are definitely going to try to work with her husband. Its just hard because he is ALWAYS gone for work.

Anyways i dont have a lot more time, but I am so excited to talk to all of you for christmas! its is going to be so great!!! Mom and Dad it makes me so proud that you guys are working with the missionaries. Continue to work with them and i know you will see success and receive many blessings. Keep me updated on how that goes, i love hearing about that.

Changes are on wednesday and we find out tomorrow what happens. Im almost sure i will still be here and that hermana estevez will be going. But who knows. But really i think that I will still be here and i hope so because i want to be here for christmas. But until next week....Love you all! Enjoy this christmas season and spread the love of our Savior Jesus Christ!

Hermana Groneman

Merry Christmas

Wow 2013 is coming to an end, and I cant believe it is already going to be 2014!!! wow que rapido.

Well this week was just quite fabulous. Christmas here in the mission really was quite special. Im so grateful for the opportunity to be here. Well I know i told you a little over skype how it was but ill resummarize again. So the 24th is actually the more celebrated day here. basically christmas eve and christmas were just more days to work for us. The problem was that most people were super busy doing other things on the 24th and then on the 25th everyone goes to the beach. We visited a lot of members these two days. but we also worked. We continued to contact with singing christmas hymns. Im really going to miss contacting with the christmas hymns, i loved that. on the 24th we ate SO much food. Wow. You havent been a missionary unless at some point you have said a prayer in your heart to help you finish eating a meal haha. First we were with the family trejo and then after we went to Familia Sintigo where hermana estevez skyped her family and they also gave us a huge plate of food. It was fun to be with some of the members. When we got back to our apartment I opened up my traditional pj pants. Mom just so you know i got my companion saying "tradition...tradition!" haha it was funny. Here it is the tradition to stay up until midnight and then TONS of fireworks go off. and i mean TONS. and super close to the houses haha. obviously we were back in our house sleeping, but i set the alarm so that i could wake up and give my companion a hug at midnight because that is the tradition and then we watched a few fireworks from the window. Then christmas morning I woke up and opened up the rest of the packages. Loved everything, thank you so much everyone! At this point i almost didnt want to talk to you guys, because i was feeling fine and i knew after i was going to be sad...so i just didnt want to talk...but obviously i did. It was so good to talk and see everyone. Next time I want to talk more in spanish haha. Afterwards obviously i was sad saying goodbye...but it wasnt because i missed you guys...like obviously i do and im sad im away from you for christmas...but really i was crying. Just because of the confidence that you guys have in me. Really im sure you guys can tell but i dont have a ton of confidence in myself...but to know how much you all support me and how much you all trust me and how proud you are of me meant the world. It makes me know that im out here for something and that I really can do this. So thank you so much for your support. After i ended the call we spent a little time with the members and then went back to the house for lunch. At the house i was feeling kind of sad...but the minute we were back out in the street talking to people, investigadores and members i didnt think about it at all. Really im out here to work and im so grateful for the opportunity to just share this gospel whether people accept it or not. We didnt have any amazing christmas miracle or anything like that, but just spreading the love of christ is all we can do.

Thursday was a normal day, we had district meeting in the morning and also practiced some songs with the other zone for the christmas activity with the mission. Thursday night the ward hard a christmas dinner and it was a lot of fun...super long though haha. We had to leave early, but we had some investigators there, including albas husband. it was fun to celebrate with the ward.

Then Friday was the activity with half of the mission. SUPER FUN. The morning was all fun activities, we ate pupupsas for breakfast and then played games, and we got tshirts, and probably the best part of all is we got to watch a DISNEY MOVIE!! ahhhh haha it was so great to feel the magical christmas spirit. it was something like Arthurs Christmas or something like that, i hadnt seen it but it was super cute. The thing was i was super tired, but i was trying to stay awake because its the only time in 18 months i get to enjoy a disney movie haha. They also showed the slideshow of a bunch of peoples pictures haha thanks for sending some in. Then in the afternoon after lunch we had more of a spiritual thought. Talking about how we can have the spirit of navidad with us every day. Really that is what the mission is. Spreading the love of Christ every day. Also we got some clothes as gifts and candy. Wow our fridge is full of candy....its just like at home, muchas dulces para navidad. ALSO GUESS WHAT. presidente announced that on the 23rd of january Elder Quinton L Cook is coming here and we will be with the other two missions in El Salvador for a conference with him. SUPER SUPER SUPER EXCITED.

Anyways that was the excitement of the week. Back to work. Always working. We are still working with Eloisa and Marcos for baptism in January. The problem is both of them have very different problems/doubts and so it is hard to teach both of them and answer all of their questions. But i have faith that they just need a little time. We are going to focus on teaching Marcos a little more and hopeful as Marcos feels ready, so will Eloisa. Really they are so great. I love them so much and I really hope that everything works out with them. But i will keep you updated with that.

Tonight we have a noche de hogar with alba and her family and la familia orellana and la familia zaldaña. We are going to make pupusas after we have the lesson so im excited for that. Right now this week we are going to start visiting the members a little more, because they really need our support...I feel like a lot of the members have problems between each other in the ward, and there is a lot of pride, so we are trying to help with that. Also we are going to start visiting even more menos activos and hopeful find some new investigadors through their families.

Anyways im glad you all enjoyed christmas and it sounds like you all got some cool things! I cant believe its the new year. Im really excited that i have a full complete year in the mission. All of 2014 I will be here in the mission. I havent set goals for sure yet, but Im excited that all of my new years resolutions can be related to missionary work. I challenge all of you to put atleast one new years resolution to share the gospel in some way.

Thank you for everything, for your support, your love, your prayers, your testimonys.

Hermana Groneman

PS Tell grandma i got her package and i loved the clothes and all of the candy and everything!

Also i am going to see what i can do about gloves for my hands.

And dad I was wondering if you could maybe photo copy a few entries out of your mission journal and send me them in a letter. I just think it would be neat to read a few entries you could pick out about special experiences you had, hard days, funny memories you had, or things with the language. Just if you can or when you want. Dont send them by email because i dont have time to read those, but in a letter.

Still in El Espino

Welp first off no cambios here for me. I am still here in Espino and I am still with Hermana Estevez. I am super glad to be in the same area for Christmas.

(this part probably dont put on the blog haha)

The truth is i was quite disappointed that we didnt have cambios. When we received the call hna estevez was super super nervous and when they said that we didnt have cambios she was thrilled, and to be honest i wanted to break down crying. I feel bad but really i wanted a new companion. The thing is this next cambio is longer than normal cambios, it is 8 weeks instead of 6 and so we will be together here atleast till like february. I really do love her, but i wanted someone knew to work with. I have a lot of stress with her trying to motivate her to work and she doesnt have a lot of patient with the members here and she has a short temper, But really im just remembering what ryan told me "this too shall pass" haha. Its just that it is a long time. But really i learn to love her and i try and just do what i can.

Anyways but this week was really great. We had the baptism of Dayana (8) on saturday and it was great. Dayana is family with the bishop and all of her family is members except her mom and grandma, but her cousins and her uncles and aunts. She has an uncle serving a mission. She was super nervous for the baptism, but she was adorable. Afterwards she was crying and it was a really spirtual experience for her mom as well. Both of them were crying. We asked dayana why she was crying and she said because of happiness. She is adorable, always smiling and giving us hugs. Yesterday her mom Yessenia, had her third attendence to church and after we visited with her in the house of a member and it was a really spirtual lesson. We had the elders with us too. The only reason she wasnt baptized before was because she said she had problems in her life and she didnt feel ready for baptism. But yesterday we talked about repentence with her and we invited her to a baptism date, at first she still felt like it wasnt enough time for her to change, but in the end she was a little more open to it. So we arent completely sure if it is a set date, but we are very hopeful that she can be baptized later this month.

Also we had Eloisa and Marcos both come to church this week. This is the second time for Eloisa and the first for Marcos. They both really like the church. Eloisa cant read but Marcos reads for her. And marcos knows a ton about the church and loves to read. Both of them just need a sure answer that the church is true. Both have been baptized before, so they are a little hesitant about baptism. I really love them. This week we were visiting with Eloisa (marcos was gone somewhere) and we taught her the plan of salvation. Both of them have had lots of challenges throughout their life and at the end of the lesson i was telling Eloisa how i knew that this gospel was what she needed and just expressing to her how important she was to us. we were sitting on her patio and right at this moment the sun shined through just on me, and im pretty sure this didnt make any difference to eloisa or my companion, but to me i just felt the love of our heavenly father and his confidence in me. Maybe im not the best teacher of the gospel, and my spanish still lacks a lot, but that doesnt matter. i have a knowledge of this gospel and i have the light of Christ that I can share with others.

Anyways we are hoping that both Eloisa and Marcos can be baptized at the end of this month on the 29th too. They said if they get an answer they will. They are both around 62 years old. Eloisa has the same exact style as Grandma Mimi, its is great haha. Both of them want friends and dont really talk much with their neighbors so we are hoping that ward can help us out with that.

We have a few other investigators but they are progressing as much. I truly believe the success we had this week is because we fasted. Actually the whole mission was fasting at the same time. We are working for 200 baptisms in the mission for december. That would be the most we have ever had here. President told us to eat, sleep, study, teach, and find, thinking 200. haha.

So im pretty excited for christmas to talk to you guys! I can use skype and i think we are going to be doing it with the Familia Trejo (oh speaking of them we arent eating with them anymore...so im kinda sad about that cause we dont have a cook anymore) but anyways. Im planning probably the morning on christmas...maybe around 9? what works for you guys. also can you look up if there is a time difference here and with utah so i can know? I will know more next week exactly whats going on. I havent received packages yet but im thinking probably on thursday at zone meeting. at least i hope!

Things are well here. The mission is still hard but it is good. Really what i want most is to teach more with the spirit and be a better teacher. It is super hard trying to learn the language and trying to be a good teacher. I feel like i should be a better teacher by now, but im trying to be patient. The hardest thing is i work hard and i follow the rules, its just my abilities and its hard when you are trying your hardest. I think slowly im progressing, its just hard to tell. The spanish....well i dont know, it just depends on the day. Im nervous to talk to you dad on christmas because i know you are gonna have me speak in spanish and i dont want you to be disappointed in my spanish haha...and i still cant roll my Rs!!!

Anyways i hope you are enjoying the christmas season!! im really sorry but i still havent sent off your letters for christmas so you are going to get them really late! but today i will send them!

I love you all so much!!!

Hermana Groneman

Thanksgiving week

Que rapido este semana! This week we had lots of great activities and that made this week fly by! I cant believe it.

So thursday was thanksgiving which was fabulous! We had a special multizona for thanksgiving where we wrote those letters home and presidente cordon shared some thoughts about gratitude. We also ate lunch there, it was good food, maybe not as great as at home, but it was similar to a thanksgiving meal so that was good. Also tell the Soters i received their letter on thanksgiving day so that was great! I loved the pictures especially that they sent. Tell them i love them so much and Im so thankful for their support. Also i got to see all of the other hermanas who came the same day as me, so naturally me and hermana garbett were super happy to see each other!

Then friday was absolutely amazing too. Cant even explain how great it was to go to the temple. Literally missionaries need a trip to the temple every once in a while. We went with our zone and another zone in vans. The car ride was fun and right when we got there and the car parked i heard someone call my name and it was sister peterson (the temple presidents wife) from her balcony and she let us go take pictures on their balcony with the temple. She is so sweet. Then we headed into the temple. Literally the moment i stepped inside i felt this great peace come over me. All of the stress i feel as a missionary just left my body. It was so nice to be in a clean and QUIET place finally. I dont know how many other times in my life i have felt the spirit as strong as that moment. The el Salvador temple is beautiful and it was so good to be able to do another session there. I cant wait to go again...even if it is another 6 months. I miss going every week. But yeah friday was absolutely fabulous. We ate lunch there at the temple and i bought some videos from the store there.

This week there was a change in climate. So last week was literally so hot i thought i was maybe going to die. I would put a wet cloth in the freezer and then put that on my neck throughout the day. But then this week it got way cooler. It felt like fall here. quite windy and at night kind of cold. It was a nice break from the heat and i hope it stays like this. The only thing is at night it is cold. Normally i dont like the freezing cold showers but i can atleast deal with it. But this week i wimped out at heated up some water for my showers haha. Also our casa....we had a few incidences with cockroaches this week haha so that was great. We have had a few small ones before but very small cockroaches. But this week we had huge cockroaches so it was a funny experience. Also my companion has joked with me this week and scared me in our casa at night and she has it on camera...its quite funny haha

Mom the lady who used to wash our clothes moved this last week...so as of right now we are washing our own clothes...and The family trejo had their baby this week! Her name is Nayeli. the whole thing reminds me so much of adelyn. But anyways they are actually going to have someone who is going to cook for hna trejo so their cook is just going to cook for us too so all is well. I dont know who i will be skpying with yet. But hno trejo told me that last year the missionaries skyped so im sure all will be well...ill keep you updated on that.

So this week has been good, but our investigators havent really been keeping their commietments and its so frustrating. They arent actually praying to know if this church is true. and they arent coming to church. On sunday we went to pick up william because he told us he would come. We went to his house a little early and he said Yeah im going to come! and we said okay we are going to talk to some more people and we will come pass for you in like 15 minutes when you are ready and he said okay! and then when we came back he wasnt there. It was horrible. I was so mad. But what can you do.

Its frustrating when you really want to be a good missionary but you dont have the abliities. I know that if i work hard God will help me. i just want to be a better teacher. I feel like im not very clear when i teach (mostly because of my spanish) and because of my spanish and my teaching skills i feel like i dont feel the spirit very much when i teach. I want to teach with the spirit because I know with all my heart these things are true and i want the people here to feel the same. Ive just been praying to have the spirit more and for help with my spanish. This week i have been a little frustrated with my spanish. I felt good about my spanish when i first got here, because i feel like it was good for the time i had here, but right now i feel like i havent improved that much...but i dont know. And its just so frustrating when you want to help people and you want to listen to their concerns and challenges in their lives, but you cant understand them. But im just trying to be patient and i know if i am diligent and work hard and obedient God will bless me. I am only an instrument in his hands.

I hope all is well at home. Im glad you all enjoyed thanksgiving and im excited that you are getting all of the christmas stuff up. It doesnt even feel like christmas to me cause there is no snow haha. But all the people here are decorating so that is great. Question...i am supposed to open up your packages when i get them because the stuff is wrapped right? Also im sorry to say but im not going to be sending presents to you guys cause they dont have like packages or boxes to send really. im going to send an envelope with letters for all of you though. I love you all so i hope you arent disappointed, but i will bring you all home stuff haha. Hopefully i can get the letters off ot you time. I literally have no time to do anything.

Well thats all for this week! Cambios are shorter this month so next week i might know if im going to have cambios or not!

Love you all! Cant believe its december!

Hermana Groneman

My First Parasite!

Well family it has been a whirlwind of a week. I wish I could tell you its been a good week, but its been quite difficult to be honest. This week will be better though.

First off I didnt have cambios. Im still here in the area of Espino and Im still with Hna Estevez. The only change is our zone split. So now instead of being in the zone Ahuachapan, Im now in the zone Gloria. The next cambio is only 4 weeks. so it is going to fly by.

At the beginning of the week I was just feeling super tired and weak and i didnt know why. This was the first week that I didnt have a huge motivation to work hard and I didnt know why. My stomach kind of felt a little weird, but nothing terrible. But my companion told me i probably have a parasite. I didnt believe her though cause it wasnt anything terrible, but we went to the doctor and had examens and yes i have a parasite. Ive been taking medicine so hopefully that takes care of everything. Its just been made tired and ive felt like i couldnt work like i wanted to.

Afterwards though at the end of the week ive been feeling a lot of anxiety. I think being sick from the parasite just made me really stressed and now ive just been struggling with anxiety. I received a blessing from Hno Trejo and that helped a lot. I understood the whole blessing it it was definitely what I needed. I still feel anxiety and im still struggling though. I know that Christ knows how I feel though, and I know that through him and his atonement I can receive strength.

So yeah this week has been kind of tough. Anyways we didnt really find new investigators this week cause it was a rough week. But weve been working with our investigators from last week. We have a baptismal date for an 8 year old dayana. We we were hoping her mom would be baptized too, but she says that she is not interested right now. they are related to the bishop so the girl has a lot of support in the church. Dayana is always smiling and she loved learning and she is excited to be baptized and go to church.

We have some other investigators too, but I dont really have time to write today.

Weve still been visiting with Alba. It was fun to make pupupsas at her house this week. Her son was baptized a few years back and he is inactive now, but he was visiting with us the other day and hopefully we can get him to come back too. Her husband is always away from home working. He was there when we were making pupusas but he was gone the rest of the week and on sunday. So it is kind of hard to work with him, but hopefully we can continue to talk with them.

This week I finished reading the Book of Mormon. I think this is my third time in my life personally reading it. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know that every word in it is true. Im seriously so grateful for it in my life and the guidance I can receive from the scriptures. Now im starting to study the new testament and hopefully i can start reading jesus the christ.

I really didnt get much time to write today but I will write more next week. I know this week will be better. I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers. Im grateful for the opportunity to be out here.

Love,

Hermana Groneman

Transfer week

Wow I cannot believe that I have made it through my first six weeks here in El Salvador! How crazy! Cambios are in two days (on wednesday) and we dont know what is happening yet. We were supposed to find out this morning...but then for some reason they are waiting until tomorrow night to tell us. I dont think that anything is going to change for me or my companion but you never know. My companion has been here for almost six months now... but I think she will finish my twelve week training before she gets switched. This week went by super quick again. So for Pday there arent really a ton of like tourist sites to see so we usually just kind of hang out around the city, sometimes shop around, just whatever. We write at different times so it just depends on what time our district gets assigned. Last week we wrote super early and afterwards we went to an area called Ataco. It is seriously SO beautiful there. I guess that is like the dream place to serve for all of the hermanas, or i guess at least in this zone. It is more touristy with the shops, but it is just really pretty and also the city is just really calm. I bought a few things, but not much. I tried to remind myself i have my whole mission to buy stuff haha. but that was the first time i had been around a touristy area. This week we got to teach some English classes. It was SO SO SO weird to be in a place where i was supposed to be speaking english. I kept wanting to speak in spanish and my spanglish was just weird. It was funny. I dont know if we will keep going to the English classes or not, but it was kind of fun. So like last week I think i mentioned I was quite stressed about areas because I felt like we didnt have people to teach and we needed to find nuevos investigadores. So this week we went out into a different part of our area that we hadnt contacted before. I dont know why we waiting until now to go out into that area, but im glad we did. The problem with this area is we cant go there at night because there isnt a lot of a light out in that area and its kind of dangerous, so we can only work there in the afternoons. But it is out of the city and out in the field and it is SO gorgeous in that area. I dont think i have really said much about beautiful it is here in El Salvador, but it really is. Literally so beautiful and so green! Anyways but I really like being out in the country area of our area. And the people are much more receptive out there. we found quite a few new investigators out there. That really helped this week and I really enjoyed working out in that area. I dont think I have talked much about Dia de Reposo, but keeping the sabbath day holy is really a big problem with the people we teach here. Basically at least half or three fourths of the people you talk to either own a small store out of their home, work somewhere in the city, or make pupupsas or torillas out of their homes. So it is really hard for people to accept that. yesterday was probably the best day out of the whole week. This weekend was stake conference here in ahuachapan. They had a special meeting yesterday from 9 to 10 for recent converts or investigators. We had 5 investigators in church which was really great! Also guess who i saw at the stake conference. President and hermana Peterson! I talked to them for a little and they took a picture with me! So maybe she will send it to you on facebook dad. Anyways after church we headed out to the far part in our area and we had a lesson with a woman named Yessenia and her daughter Dayana who is 8. They were a referral from people in our ward and they came to church yesterday. But we hadnt taught them yet. But when we taught them yesterday we learned that she has talked with the missionaries many times and almost was baptized but for some reason she didnt. But yesterday we invited her to baptism and with a baptismal date and both her and her daughter accepted. I think it helps that her daughter is now 8 so they can baptized together. They were both super positive and we are going to work a lot with them this week. Also after that we went and visited a woman named Ana who we knocked her door the other day. She hasnt really talked with the missionaries before but she has heard a lot about mormons. She is evangelic but she really is interested in learning about mormons. She was quite positive. and she has two boys one who is 8. So we are going to work with her a lot this week too. one of the other investigators who came to church yesterday is named william. His wife wasnt very interested because she already goes to a church, but he was and we are hoping to work with them too. So anyways yesterday was just full of great things that happened. And Im really glad we are starting to find some new people to work with. Alba is doing great still. We had a Noche de Hogar at her house last week, and it was great to see her kind of direct the night at her house and have her share her testimony. It is really great to see her at the church activities. Tonight we are going to her house and we are going to make pupusas!!! Im super excited! Im still trying to work more on following the spirit. I really want to be a missionary who works through the spirit and it is something im working on. I felt like we had some good experiences knowing which doors to knock this week. We do work with the members, but I want to continue working with them more. One thing we have been doing is going to members house and showing them these videos and then reminding them of Elder ballards invitation at conference to share your testimony with one person before christmas and also to kneel in prayer with the missionaries. i really have a strong testimony with kneeling in prayer and fasting with the members. I truly believe that is how we had the two baptisms we have had in this area. So i invite you to invite the missionaries over to the house and kneel in prayer with them for their investigators. Also to share your testimony with one person before Christmas. I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers as always! Hermana Groneman

Wow another week already has gone by! how crazy! Literally this week went by so quickly so I cant even imagine how fast the mission is going to go by in a few months. This week we had quite a few good activities and things that helped the week go by quickly. So on tuesday we had the baptism of Alba (I will try to send some pictures= It was so neat. I feel like I made a little more of a difference in helping Alba to be baptized then I did with Kevin since i didnt teach kevin much before his baptism so it was neat for me. She was a little nervous at first I think. After the baptism though all the people there were congratulating her and giving her hugs while she was sitting in her chair...and after most of the people were done her husband who was sitting behind her gave her a hug from behind she just started crying. Her husband isnt a member but we hope to eventuallyto teach him. But it was neat. Also before the baptism we were asking her little girl if she wanted to be baptized, she is only 7, and she said no.....but after the baptism i asked her again and she was like yeah i want to be baptized when im 8! haha it was cute. One of the other times we visited with them later in the week we were playing jacks with alba and her little girl, it was fun. Thursday we had another multizona so that was absolutely great! I really love multizonas, and i wish we had them more often. They just remotivated me and help me to work hard. and always seem to help me with the things im struggling with. Thursday night when we got back to our area, because the multizonas are at the mission office, we had a talent show night with the ward. It was super fun and it just reminded me how much this church is centered in families and I wish that more people could enjoy the blessings of the gospel with their families. Friday was super fun because hermana hunter who came here the same time as me, came with us for the whole day because her companions are sister training leaders and they had a meeting. That day was just super fun and I want to have more days like that where we have fun but also work hard. We contacted some girls in the street who were jump roping and we played with them for a minute or two. It was great. Ive mentioned the familia Trejo, Rene Trejo and Isabel Trejo. Our ward mission leader and cook. But Hno Trejo got realized as ward mission leader and I am SO sad. Plus Hna trejo is having a baby in like a month so we dont know how much longer she will be our cook. But they literally are our parents here. Yesterday they were just giving us advice and I always feel better after i leave their house. I really cant explain how grateful I am for them, and I wish I could express it more to them...I always say thanks and stuff, but I dont think they understand just how much they mean to me. I have had kind of a stressful week though. Im struggling balancing the stresses. I feel so stressed about the area and our investigators, and also stressed that im not becoming the missionary I want to be, or that im not learning to be the right kind of missionary, or stressing with the language always, or stressing about not knowing the lessons well enough. I know I need to be patient, so its just hard to deal with all of the stress. But Im learning. I try to just take it one day at a time. My spanish the past two days has struggled. Generally ive done pretty well understanding people. But Saturday and sunday for some reason i just feel like I wasnt understanding anything. its so discouraging. But yesterday i bore my testimony in church and Hno Trejo later was telling me how great my spanish was and how fluent it sounded and also another member we ate dinner with was saying how beautiful my spanish was. Literally those two comments were answered prayers to help me feel better about the language. I honestly cant even explain to strength I have received through prayer here in the mission. It is incredible how weak and inadequate I feel. But with Gods help, somehow I am doing it. I am so grateful for prayer. Our area really needs new investigators. It is really difficult to find new people. Tons of people here are catholic or evangelic and that is part of why im really stressed about the area, because im just learning but yet we need to step it up. I dont know. Also Im trying to have experiences where I follow the spirit, but i have to admit dad that i havent had many experiences yet where I felt like we have really followed the spirit. I am trying to work on that more because I know that it is only through the spirit that we will find new people. It was great to hear from you all again and I am so grateful for your support and your emails. I cant even explain how much it means to me. I love you all and thanks for your prayers as always. next week will come fast! Hermana Groneman