9 months

Welp family....this is it...this week ill officially have 9 months in the mission. I really cant believe that half of my mission has already gone by. I still feel like im a new missionary a lot of the time. I already feel like the time is flying. Well i feel like it was forever that i talked to you all but really it was like last week. I dont really have much time to write this week because i spent a lot of time writing president and reading emails but ill try my best and ill write more next week. Ill tell you a little about our investigators. We have this woman named Xiomara and she is super positve. She really likes the church and her two kids love the church too. At first she wasnt really quite sure if she had received an answer about anything but now this week she has told us that she has more desire to read the book of mormon and keep attending church and shes been asking more about baptism and she really likes that her kids like the church. She says this is the only church that her kids have actually enjoyed going and there were a lot of activities about families this whole week at the church and she went every day and really enjoyed it. BUT there is always something.....she isnt married and she is living with the father of her kids. AND he is married to someone else. They actually want to get married and she knows she is living in sin....but he doesnt have the money to get divorced with his other wife....so yeah we have a huge problem before she can progress. i really dont know what we are going to do right now because Carlos (the father) doesnt really want much to do with the church...he isnt super against it but its just not for him....so yeah i dont know what is going to happen but ill keep you updated because she is great and her kids too. Also we are going to have the baptism of Jasmin this saturday. She is 12 years old and she is absolutely great. Her parents are inactive but we are hoping with this that we can start reactivating them. There are some member who live close to jasmin who are great to bring her to church every week and are a great support for her. Also i wanted to share an experience that i had with one of our investigators. I think i told you about Manuel last week...but he is a little difficult. Has a lot of questions and isnt really sure if he wants to change his life. We had a lesson with him last week and we were sharing with him that really he needs to pray and ask if its true, and i was telling him that sometime we are scared to pray and ask if its true because we know if its true we have to change. Anyways a lot of times i feel like maybe we should stop teaching him because he isnt doing a lot to change, but when we are teaching him i feel the spirit so strongly and i feel a great hope and faith that he can actually change. I dont know how much longer we are going to teach him...we are going to see how he progresses. But anyways all this week at night i was just praying with all my heart that he could pray and ask to know if its true and that he could receive something, an answer that he could recognize, to know that its true. Yesterday in our lesson with him we asked if he had prayed and he said he had (so that right off was a little bit of progress) and i was honestly a little suprised that he actually did it...but he said he felt like he lacked faith when he was praying....so we need to help him with that....but then later in the lesson he told us that he had some dream that he doesnt remember but he had a dream about the gospel or something....but he says maybe it was just coincidence. So i dont know if he is going to progress or not because i dont know if he is willing to change or willing to recognize that that was part of his answer. But to me it was an answer to my prayers that he actually prayed and received something that was an answer. I dont have much more time, But im really so grateful that im not alone here in the mission and I know that God his helping me in every step. Im so grateful for the spirit that is always helping us in the work. At the beginning of my mission i struggled a little to feel like i could feel the spirit testifying in the lessons through me, but now i feel completely different. I really feel the spirit every time i bear my testimony in the lessons and I know that god is answer my prayers. Also i love the time i have to study the scriptures every morning. I know that the spirit really can reveal truth and the mysteries of God to us when we study the scriptures. Anyways i dont have any more time. Yes i got your package and thank you so much!! i loved everything and it was everything i needed. Dad yes there are animals...little gechos and birds and lots of insects and butterflies AND FIREFLIES haha and fruit...yeah there are lots of mangos in this time of year. Anyways until next week!! this week we have a multizone and im pretty sure we are actually going to the temple this week so im pretty excited! Thanks to everyone who writes me it really makes my day and im so grateful for the love of family and friends! Love you all! Hermana Groneman

After Mother's Day

Well its been what..less than 24 hours since i last talked to you all? so i dont really have much to say, but it was really good to talk to you all and see you all on skype, im sorry the connection wasnt that great. It definitely was a lot easier to say goodbye yesterday than it was at christmas time.

So yep im just hear and im just going to keep working. Like i told you I am still learning the area and all of the members and such so we will see what happens.

We have found a few postive new investigators this week so im excited to see if we can help them progress. We have one investigador named Manuel and he is like 24 and i love our lessons with him. He has a lot of great questions and i feel like he wants to know if it is true, the only thing is he needs to have a changes in his life...and we arent sure if he is really willing to change. We are trying to focus a lot on the atonement with him, but i have a lot of faith and hope with him, It might be a slower process to help him change but i feel something different when we teach him. We also have Jasmin Vasquez who is going to be baptized this month. She is 12 years old and she loves going to church, really we are just waiting for her to have the number of asistencias at church. She is always reading her scriptures and we are helping her to work in her personal progress. Hna Daisy is really great to help bring her to church and everything. We also have other investigators but a lot of them are new so we will see how they progress. When i came to the area they didnt have a lot of investigators that they were working with so we are working on increasing our teaching pool.

Well to answer just a few of your questions that you wrote, Dad we do involve the youth and they leave with us to visit people, but as far as activities im still learning what kind of activities they do here so we will see. I dont know really what to tell you more about the members here. They seem like they are trying to help in the missionary work. We are really trying to help him to read Preach my Gospel (So you guys too dont forget to study it). And they seem pretty good to give us references from what i can see, but still i only have two weeks here so i dont have a ton to say about them still.

I really know that the Lord is helping us in every single moment as missionaries. I feel his strength every single day. I feel like really it is a miracle each day how we can just keep going and keep walking and we have the strength to do it all. Maybe i havent a lot of baptisms, but i love the feeling i have every day knowing that i am a representative of Jesus Christ and that i have the power to help people come closer unto him. There are so many people in the world who are so lost and confused and who need His help and Im so glad that i have always has this gospel in my life to lean on. It brings such peace into my life to know that I know the truth.

We will see what more I have to tell you all next week. Thanks for support, confidence, and prayers for me. I have the best family in the world and you all mean the world to me.

Love you with all my heart

Hermana Groneman

Moved to Atiquizaya

Hola familia, Welp i had cambios...and after 7 months ive left El Espino Ahuachapán. I can´t belive it. To be completely honest i cant even describe how much i miss El Espino. I knew it would be hard to leave, but i didnt know it would be that hard. We received the call tuesday morning and it wasnt that big of a suprise but wow....really leaving el espino. I didnt really know how to feel, because i really wanted to leave but at the same time no. Anyways so tuesday was pretty crazy, running around all day trying to make it to our appointments that we had while at the same time trying to say goodbye to a bunch of people. Its safe to say that i basically spent all of tuesday crying. I can´t even explain how much i love those people, especially the members. Especially familia trejo and familia Orellana. They literally are my family. They will always be in my heart and i cant explain the special moments i have had with both of their families. I will forever be grateful for the love of those two families. They were the last people we talked to on Tuesday night. I left familia Orellana a promise written on the back of one of their picture frames that i will return to visit them...en December of 2015...so yah ill have to start saving money when i get home. But yeah really the best way i can explain it is i feel like my first two weeks in the mission when i felt a little homesick. I literally am homesick for the people in El Espino. I wake up in the mornings thinking about them, its really crazy how much i love those people...but i know that it is part of the mission. Also i talked with hermana Mayorga and apparently they are going to have like 4 baptisms in this month in El Espino. There are two jóvenes who were waiting for permiso all of my time in el espino and finally they are going to be baptized, and also sonya has a date for baptism, and then this other reference from one of the members who we were teaching. So yeah im sad i wont be there, but im really happy for those people and im happy that i left espino better than i found it. BUT anyways no worries because im in a great área and i have an amazing companion! I am now in El Angel 2 in Atiquizaya. Atiquizaya is actually really close to ahuachapan so im not too far. But my área is super grande! ahh i dont know how im every going to learn it. El Espino wasnt too small, but definitely smaller than this área. Also el espino was a little more organized with directions...had more of a grid system in some of the áreas....but this área is a lot more campo. I have a little bit of área in the city but its a lot more in the field. So that will be crazy and fun. Ive already noticed that the people are more receptive in this área. In espino we got rejected A LOT, but here that people seem to be a little more receptive so thats great. Also their are six missionaries in total in this Ward/área. Me and my comp, another pair of sisters, and a pair of elders. So that is different too, because before it was just me and my comp in the Ward. But the Ward seems to be more organized. We have a really nice chapel and i feel like i like the Ward. ALSO i played the piano in church on sunday. i guess no one in the Ward plays so i played...but it was horrible hahaha. i havent really played hardly at all in 9 months....so it will be good so i can practice more. We dont have a ton of investigators...so we are going to have to work to find some more people...but we will have a baptism at the end of the month of a 12 year old girl, and also Manuel who is super interested. I feel like for sure we can help him be baptized but im really excited to work with him. He is a reference of some recent converts here in this Ward. My comp is super super awesome. Im super excited to be with her. Her name is Hermana Flores and she is from Guatemala. She only has 3 months in the mission and she just finished her training but she is a super excelent missionary! She Works super hard and she is super funny and friendly. One of the missionaries that came with me was her trainer and she taught her really well. So yeah im really excited to be with her. She has been a member all her life and she has 9 siblings! haha. She is 21 years old too. Also something interesting is we live in a house with 2 other sisters so its really fun and im really excited for that! We live with hermana moris (from california) and Hermana cisnero (panamá). OUr house is super big and ill send you pics of the área and the house and more with my comp and everything next week. Oh also Elder thorpe from springville is in my zone so i see him during the week. Also there are a few missionaries who came at the same time as me in my zone so thats fun. Anyways i dont have a lot more to say. Sorry if there arent a lot of details, but we can talk lots on sunday! Im excited to skype....i cant belive its already time to talk again, i felt like yesterday was christmas! Let me know if you have any specific questions. I love you all so so so so much and im so grateful for your support and your prayers. I love the mission and im so glad to be here in El Salvador.. ....oh yeah i forgot to say...that HERE COMES THE RAIN.....oficially has started raining so im ready to use the rain jacket you sent. I like the rain a lot more than the heat. AND I SAW FIREFLIES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE THIS WEEK..... so that was pretty cool anyways love you all! Congrats ryan for graduating! Hermana Groneman

May Day

Wow family...its practically May. I can´t believe it.

Welp we still dont know for sure what is going to happen for cambios until tomorrow morning, but it is pretty sure that i´m going to be leaving...I feel like im definitely going to go...and to be honest im ready. But also im going to be so so sad to leave the people here. Its starting to hit me that this is the last time im going to see a lot of these people for awhile. (I hope you know that im planning on returning to visit and ive promised the members im going to return...so yeah ill have to start saving my money, i said most likely im going to come back to visit with you Dad...i dont know if you´d want to mom because you dont know spanish...but thats something we´ll talk about later). But anyways its going to be really crazy to leave because i feel like my mission is all in this area haha but im excited to meet new people and a new area.

I really don´t have much to say this week, not too much happened that i can remember haha. Yesterday we had 6 investigators in church, so that was good. Sonya went so that was really exciting, but we dont know if she felt comfortable in the ward so we are hoping that we can help her keep asisting in this ward. We have two young mothers who are neighbors that we are teaching and they are super funny. Something crazy always happens with them. But they came to church too so that was exciting. The only thing is both of them arent married but live with their companions. Their boyfriends both are policemen and assist a different church so thats going to be a problem...but we are going to try to meet their husbands this week.

I was really glad to hear that Grandma mimis birthday party went well! You should have sent me pictures of it or something. The Trejo family sends birthday wishes to you grandma! Also i can´t believe everything that is happening in the fam. Colby and Janelle have two years being married....Ryan is going to be graduating....Mom is going to be finishing another year of school....Dad..is well dad is dad still golfing and yeah haha. Adelyn is crawling around crazy! ahh i cant wait to talk to you all. When i go to my new area ill figure out for sure where i can use skype. Ill probably be skyping colby and janelle seperate is what im guessing, but no worries ill be able to talk to you all :)

Anyways sorry i dont feel like i have much to say. Im so grateful for all of you and im so glad that you are all doing well. Im doing great here eating lots of avocados and mangos. Also mom im starting to like tomatos a little bit more hahahaha. The rain is going to start here probably in this week or the next week so ill be ready to use my big ugly rain shoes mom haha.

Im so grateful for the gospel in my life. And Im so grateful for you mom and dad that you always taught me to live righteously, it made/makes life so much easier. Im so grateful for my savior and that i never have to feel alone. Remember that nothing is more important than the gospel en our lives.

Until next week,

Hermana Groneman

General Conference

Hey fam,

I can´t believe that another conference session has come and gone. Its so crazy to think that the last conference session was my first week here and now another six months has passed. The time goes by so so so quickly.

Well first off, i love conference as usual! We got to attend all of the sessions in the stake center. But unlike the last conference, this time i was watching in español. I understood all of it, but it wasnt the same because normally there are always those certain phrases that i love to write down, but it was a little harder in spanish, but better than anything i was really able to listen to the spirit and what i needed to hear. My favorite session was the Sunday Morning session, i dont know if i really had a favorite talk but i learned a lot about the atonement and i felt the spirit very strongly. In the morning with my companion when we were walking around in the streets we were both just thinking "the people just dont understand that a prophet is going to talk to us today!" to be honest its kind of frustrating to think that the people dont realize how blessed we are to have a prophet and the apostles to guide us in these days. We had several investigators in the conferences...some of them were old investigators who werent really progressing...but maybe something in conference will have touched their hearts.

One of our investigators who went, Sonya, really enjoyed the conference. I dont know if i talked about her in my last letter but i feel major deja vu in her house. We have developed a great relationship with her. she says everytime she prays to know what church is true she thinks in the first vision so we told her that that is her answer. But anyways she received the missionaries like 10 years ago and she asisted the church for like 1 year. But then she stopped going because she had some problems with commandments and such. But anyways she went to the conference and we told her if she could come back for the second session that she should, but she just told us she didnt know if she could but she would see....so then in the afternoon on sunday...she came back AND she brought her sister! haha it was so great. She said...wow the people outside are so confused, they think that you mormons only believe in joseph smith..but really you guys believe in Christ and all of this is about Christ. Its great to have people actually understand. Anyways im excited to work with her more.

We have some other investigators too that im excited to work with but we will see. I dont have a ton of time to give a lot of details but ill keep you updated. We have one investigator who i taught my first weeks in the area but she was very positive, and now she is super interested...but she got sick this weekend so she couldnt go to the conference. But her boyfriend is a missionary and she was thinking about changing religions and she wants learn a lot more. And we have some youth that we arent teaching but we have been waiting for permission for their parents for like 6 months now and they might be baptized in abril but we will see.

Anyways its been a good week. We´ve been chased by dogs a few times..haha. i have a belief that satan has power over dogs...i bet that the positive people are always the people who have dogs in front of their houses that we have to skip haha...We also worked with the Fam Gonzalez this wee as the family missionary. They were great. Their oldest daughter is almost 18 and she wants to serve a mission and her mom is nervous to have her go but really excited too. THey are a great family. This week we are going to work with the Familia Orellana. They are one of my favorite families here in the ward so im excited for that.

Things are good. Thank you so much for your prayers. You all are always in my prayers too. Im so grateful for this experience and the opportunity to be a missionary. It is so incredible the experiences i have to defend the truth and share the gospel with the people here.

Until next week...ill try to send pics next week because today in the morning we went on a hike to la laguna verde en apaneca. And IM SUNBURNT haha

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Groneman

Quick Week

Hey fam,

I dont have a ton of time left to write so sorry beforehand if this letter is short. But thank you so so so much for the support and your words of advice from everyone. I really have the best family on earth and im so grateful for your support and your prayers for me.

This week was hot as always. Im just waiting for when the rain comes so that it can cool down just a little bit at least.

As far as our investigators we are just working with a few to progress..but i dont have a ton to say about them, we are still working on finding a bunch of new people. Its hard because sometimes people are super positive the first day when we teach them and we are super excited...and then the next time they dont want anything or they run away from us haha or things like that. With the time i have here in the area i dont really mind knocking doors that yeah ive already knocked or talking with people ive already talked...but sometimes i feel bad for my comp because i swear everytime they are like..."oh yeah the last time we talked with you" and they point to me and then they dont want anything..haha but oh well. Its kind of incredible how many people i have met and talked to in this area.

I just want to share a kind of funny cool experience that i had this week. We were in intercambios so i was with one of the hermana leaders but i was working in our area. There is a family of recent converts but they are also inactive (the family diaz) and in all of my time here we have always been visiting them. They always receive us and everything but hardly ever go to church. But this last week we contacted the mom and the brothers and sisters of claudia diaz and we are going to start working with them. We had an appointment with them and when we went to teach them they had other preachers in their house from a different church...super awkward...and they told us to enter and join with the other preachers and we could all talk....yeah super awkward.. We had the appointment with them but i guess these other preachers are friends of them so they couldnt say no. So anyways there was the investigadores, familia diaz (menos activos), us and our members, and these other preachers. The other preachers were basically giving the lesson and really the things they shared were actually good things, but yeah we tried to share comments too and it was just super awkward. But at the end of the lesson the investigadores (the mom and her husband) said that they want to learn more from us and that they have always seen good things from the mormons and in the example of her daughter and how her daughter has changed since she has become a member. I just imagined how mad satan probably was in this moment haha. I felt like when they always say that we are on the team of the Lord and in the end the Lords team is going to win haha. It was great. but yeah the brother and sister of Claudia diaz went to church this sunday and we hope the next sunday the whole family can go. I dont know if this story made sense but yeah haha.

Also this saturday the familia orellana (miembros) and going to be sealed in the temple. Hermano marvin was our ward mission leader for a short time and literally this family is so important to me and i cant even explain. Weve always been encouraging them to go to the temple and its been a struggle but i have seen how their testimonies have grown and when they called us the other night and told us they have their reservation for the temple on saturday i just started to bawl. I literally couldnt be more happy for them. technically the rule is we can only go if they are our conversos or if we reactivated them...but i am praying that presidente will make an exception to the rule, but this family really means so much to me. But either way im so happy for them.

Anyways i dont really have much more time. Thanks for everything. Hopefully i can write more next week. But i love you all so much and thanks for you support. Really your emails meant a lot to me.

Hermana Groneman

New Companion for El Espino

Hey fam...wow another week has come and gone and another week of ups and downs

Really i feel like I dont have much to say this week. We are really still just trying to find new people to teach. Knocking door, contacting in the streets, working with the members, just trying to find people. But we have found some new people this week who have a lot of potencial i think. There is one lady who received the missionaries years and years ago and she asisted church for one whole year but never was baptized....we are going to see what happens with her...but i feel serious deja vu in her house. Seriously like i feel like ive already been in her house teaching her but she doesnt remember me and i dont think i went there with my other companions...but who knows. Also we found another women who was really interested to hear that we have prophets and apostles and she really wants to go to conference. Super interesting when we were teaching her though because the lesson was really great and we could really feel the spirit...and then all of a sudden her husband came home and interupted everything and turned on the soccer game and was yelling GOAL and all of this stuff trying to distract the lesson but the woman didnt pay attention to him at all and just kept focused on us and the lesson haha. We´ll see what happens with them.

I dont know im really enjoying the work right now just with my companion and everything. During the day i feel good doing what im doing...but the thing is is the people just arent progressing or arent interested. We had a multizona this week and i learned a lot and there is a lot for me to improve. But we also talked about baptisms and such. I havent had a baptism in like 3 or 4 months....and i dont know i was pretty down on that. But i dont know. Its so frustrating because i want to help people change and i feel like im working but i dont know why we arent having success. And the truth is i feel like we are working harder and teaching better now then when we were back in october and november and december when we had baptisms..

But im not gonna focus on that part..being down and such. because we are having changes here in this area. The members are starting to work more. The familia misionera is we call them in church on sunday during sacrament meeting and then we visit them during the day on sunday and plan with them how we are going to work during the week. They have to give us references and one person in their family has to leave with us every day during the week. Really it is a big sacrifice for the family but i really feel like they are blessed and its helping the ward to get more excited. The bishop and his wife hardly didnt have any time to leave this week but they made sacrifices and it was really hard for the bishops wife but she is a returned missionary and it really strengthened her testimony. We had some really good experiences with them. Then in sunday during sacrament meeting they have to give their numbers or how many lessons and references and new investigators they found and share a little experience. It is really a great program and i feel like it is going to change the ward. Also we didnt have investigators that we were teaching in sacrament meeting this week so that was really disappointing...but we had some less actives. there were a few people that i have visited every single week that i have been here and they have never gone to church, but this week they went so it was some real miracles.

Anyways i dont have much more to say. Things are good, we are just working slowly but surely. Just working the heat every day. Im super super excited for conference this weekend. I cant believe it is already conference again. Last general conference was my first week here in El Sal. Super crazy. But invite all of your friends to conference. (MOM INVITE THEY NEIGHBORS OR WHOEVER DONT BE SHY) haha keep working with the missionaries.

I love you all and mom i love you more than the universe!!!

Good luck moving to georgia this week Colby and Janelle!

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Hermana Groneman