El Espino Mission

Hola familia! well it looks like you all have been waiting to hear about cambios...entonces.... I am still here in good old El Espino! hahaha. this is my 5th cambio here in this area and its so weird to think how much time i have here. pretty sure my mission is El Espino...not Santa Ana El Salvador. Just kidding. But its good. Lots of work to do here still. BUT i have a new companion. Her name is Hermana Mayorga and she is from guatemala. She has 7 months in the mission so we will finish our missions at the same time. CAN YOU BELIEVE I HAVE 7 MONTHS? ya crazy. Anyways she is so super great. From what i have seen this week she want to work hard. She is a convert of 2 years. super super cool. She was catholic before. Her family is members too. But anyways i feel kind of bad because the truth is we have no investigators right now. She is coming from an area in santa ana where the members work really really hard and they had 6 fechas for bautismo. and then she came here and we have no one and the members dont give us references...so i feel bad and i know that at first she was a little frustrated. But hey i have been in this are for 6 months now and i have learned to love it. I think she will be humbled to be here in this area where there is a lot to improve. But that is the good thing, is she has a lot of good ideas to work with the member and so we are going to try and motivate them and have a change of culture in this area. Because the truth is knocking doors really doesnt work that well. We arent having any success finding people knocking doors. In these days we really need to work through the members.. So that is the first thing we need to improve is receiving references from the members. When we received references from the members we will actually have new investigators, and when we have investigators then we will actually be able to teach lessons throughout the week, and then we will be able to teach investigadores with the members, and then we will be able to bring people to church, and then we will be able to have baptisms!! yeah! haha. but really if we cant find people to teach we cant do anything. So thats kind of where we are at right now. Trying to find people. I had a few rough days this week just because with our leaders its super hard because we really cant have much work if we cant find people...but slowly we are going to find people. I told my companion that i want to act like we are opening up this area. I want to act like i wasnt here before and just start fresh. we are starting something this week that my comp used in her other area. There is a family missionary that we call each week during sacrament meeting and they have to have one person in the family leave with us each day during the week. That way we can contact references with them, find new people with them, have lessons with the investigators with them, and then they can help us bring those people to church. My comp used it in her other area and it worked really well. (the members in her other area worked super super hard) but i think this is going to help our member start to get motivated to work more. We are starting with the Bishop and his wife so that they can be the example in the ward...because if the bishop doesnt do it, the members arent going to do it. But yesterday we went and planned with the bishop and his wife when they are going to leave with us each day this week. I know its going to be a sacrifice for them with their time but i am so so so happy that they accepted to start this plan and are willing to work because i think we are going to have a lot of success this week working with them and starting this new program here in the ward. Then in sacrament meeting they will announce to the ward the work they did with us, (how many lessons, how many contacts, how many new investigators we found with them) and then we will call a new family to be the missionary family. Anyways so we´ll see how that goes. I hope we can start to see changes here in the area. I know i need to have more faith and we can find these people. The mission isnt easy in any way but it is rewarding to know that even if i dont have success, all day every day im just serving the Lord and trying to help these people and that is what matters. I have bad news...that basically broke my heart. On tuesday morning we received the call to say who has cambios and i found out i was staying here in the area....and i was so happy because i was just thinking in David Calderon and how i can be here for hopefully when he gets baptized...and then tuesday night we went so that hermana salguero could say goodbye to David and Alba....and guess what. Alba told us that David left to Honduras to work for a few weeks. and we dont know when he is going to come back. I was so devestated because mostly he was the reason i wanted to stay in the area so that i could see him baptized and now he is not here. and he was so close to accepting a fecha for baptism! i cant explain how upset i was...but we'll see when he returns. i hope its during the cambio. And yeah Marcos is still coming to church...and still reading the book of mormon. he is in like 3rd nefi. he says he hasnt received an answer still and he doesnt know why. And i told him he isnt going to receive an answer if he isnt willing to keep the commandments (get married and such)...but yeah he is still attending. But we are counting him for numbers and not counting him as progressing....basically an eternal investigators...we just visit him and Eloisa once a week now. Anyways thats bascially it. Sounds like everything is great at home. I cant believe colby and janelle are going to be moving to georgia! ah crazy. But yeah. And yes mom whoever that girl is can borrow one of my prom dresses. no problem. Anyways love you all tons. until next week! thank you so so much for your prayers. Hermana Groneman

Hola familia, This cambio went by super super super quickly. We only have this week and then the next wednesday is cambios again. I really have no idea at all what is going to happen. I dont feel like im going to leave, but at the same time i have quite a few cambios here so maybe...but i dont think so...but then again sometimes it is what you dont think is going to happen. I dont think i will know by next week if i will have cambios because usually we find out tuesday morning. So in two weeks you´ll know. Im going to be really sad if i leave the area because of all the people here. This week not much really exciting has happened that I can think of or remember. Its still been super super hot. Sometimes I dont know how i get through the day with the heat but I do. I´ll have to try your tip dad. If i had time to take a shower 5 times a day i would. Right now im loving the cold water showers haha. This week everything went fine with elections but they still dont know exactly with the count so the next two days we still have to be careful, but i havent experienced anything dangerous in my time here. The attendance of church was down because of elections, but that was expected. Sabina Pimentel didnt go to church so i was pretty disappointed with that, but she left for the weekend. But David Calderon went. He is so close to having a baptismal date. The last week he told us he loves how in the church people can get up and say that they know that this is true and he said he want to be able to feel that. he says he feels 75% sure. He believe in everything...but he wants to know. We are working with him little by little, but he has progressed a ton since when we first started teaching him. What was really great was both Alba and David were there. Alba has missed church recentely because of her mom with cancer and its been really hard on her to be missing church but she was able to go to sacrament meeting and it was great they were there together. Also Alba told me something interesting this week, that i guess when we were teaching her she was also receiving the Testigos de Jehovah! haha i was in shock because i didnt know that at all, and she always had these questions about what they believed and stuff. super funny to me. Alba is so great. The other day she was saying how it has been different for her that Hermana Estevez left and how she feels like hermana estevez is her family. I know that she knows i feel the same about her, but sometimes i wish i could express more to her and the family how much they mean to me. But they are great. Also one quick short experience i wanted to share. a few weeks back we found this woman knocking doors and we shared the plan of salvation for her. She really really liked it and was interested in it. She attends another church though. Anyways later we went back another day and her husband opened the door and he was very standoffish but he let us in to talk to his wife. we didnt have a lot of time so we shared a mormon message video about fathers and how God is our heavenly father. The video really must have touched his heart because after that he was much more open to talk. Then this week we had an appointment with them. I was super nervous because we planned to teach the Restoration leccion 1 and i figured that they were probably going to drop us or something because they already have their religion or whatever, but it was exactly the opposite. The dad was super super interested and has lots of questions about the book of mormon. The mom told us she had talked to her friends at her church and they were telling her that we say all of these weird things like worship joseph smith and all of the other things they usually say but she told them, no i really like all that they have been teaching me. anyways it was pretty neat. We´ll see where they go, but this week we are hoping to comprometerles a la iglesia. This week is stake conference so there are some good opportunities. Basically thats all i really have to say this week. It was kind of a tough week but we´re just working like we can. We´ll see how this week goes. I loved hearing about all of the missionary work at home in the ward. That literally makes me so so so happy. Keep me updated on that because i love it. Dad we only are assigned to one ward and we only work in the ward just so you know. Its a lot different than utah. If i could ask one thing of you guys it would be to make time to go to the temple this week or the next. a lot of times im not really homesick for home, but homesick for the temple haha. It definitely was a blessing that i was able to go so much before the mission, but at the same time I REALLY miss being able to go whenever i wanted. ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JANELLE THIS WEEK!!! I love you a ton and i hope all is well. Im sure that colby will make it a special day :) Love you all so much! Hermana Groneman

It's Hot

Well family its march...ITS MARCH?? I remember thinking in my first month ....wow when its february i´ll finally feel like i can communicate well and ill finally have the hang of things, but that seemed so so so far away, but now its already march! so crazy the time. Well these week was blazing hot. I know im going to regret saying this, but i cant wait for the rain in may. I dont know...maybe ill feel differently later, but i cant wait until its pouring rain. Right now i would rather be drenched in the rain then dying the hot sun every day. haha. but we´ll see. Well i have had enough time here that im pretty used to the culture. But i dont know this week i was reminded really how blessed we have it. Im pretty used to sitting on dirt floors or rocks or in houses made of tarpes or cardboad or tin sometimes (not always...but lots of times). But wow this week with a lot of our members, investigadores, and menos activos we have been talking with them and it is incredible how they still feel like they need to be more humble when they dont even have water in their houses and they have to walk a few blocks just to bring water to their houses. I was talking with Hermana Garbett, and it is almost disgusting how nice we have it at home. Im always reminded of this in my time here, but more this week. Anyways this week was a little better, still dont have many investigadores, but we are working, and we found quite a few new investigators this week, the problems is they hardly ever are there when we go back for a second visit. But hopefully this week. We had plans to contact a lot of references with the members this week, and every single plan fell through. PLEASE work with the missionaries. I know lives are busy at home and you have other things to do, but literally in these days we cant do it without the members, and when the people dont accept dont give up working with the missionaries, because one day someone will accept, and the most important is that you can plant seeds. Keep me updated on what happens more with Toby in the ward and how things are going with the missionaries at home. This week in church David Calderon came again :) he is progressing...just slowly. I dont know if i told you but i guess years and years ago him and Alba had baptismal dates with missionaries and the day before they decided not to be baptized and the missionaries were super sad (obviously) and i think David is scared for this to happen again, because he wants to be baptized but he is just scared to put a date. But this week it was great, we were verifying with him if he read and he pulled out his scriptures and was asking us questions and alba had her scriptures and their daughter magali had a book of mormon and all of us were searching in the scriptures. I just felt how their family is going to be a strong family in the church studying their scriptures together. I also gave magali one of the book of mormon picture books. I know that david is going to be baptized, i dont know if i will be here when it happens or not, but i know one day. And really that just makes me so happy, because i decided to serve a mission because of the happiness the gospel has brought to our family and i only want that other families can feel the same, and its amazing how i can imagine their family together. The only thing is like i have explained its really hard for their family right now because albas mom has cancer and they are super busy taking care of her. Alba has missed a few weeks of church because she has to take care of her mom. Its sad because i know she feels really sad and guilty..and yeah she needs to go to church but she has an acceptable reason, the most important thing is she wants to go and she would go if she could. Also Sabina Pimentel came for the first time! I dont remember if i have told you guys about her, but we have been teaching her for a few weeks. She has two little kids and her husband lives in the states. Every week she has had these excuses why she could go (the baby was sick, they werent at home...) so i was worried we were going to lose her, but she went and i hope she will progress. She really likes every thing we´ve taught, but she hasnt really received an answer if this is all true or not. This week we are going to focus on her testimony de el libro de mormon. I hope that will help her, because she says when she knows its true, she´ll be baptized. Really im so grateful to be here. Its so hard sometimes during the hot days when im so tired, but my testimony is strengthened every day and its incredible the small miracles that we can see every day. I know that God is answering my prayers in every moment. Anyways i hope that this week is good for you all. Its crazy to think whats going on in all of your lives. I cant believe how big Adelyn is!! i loved the pictures. And its crazy to think ryan is going to be graduating. And colby and janelle are going to be moving!! how weird! But i love you all so so so much! Thanks for your emails every week. Love you all so much! Hermana Groneman These are pics of our new house, its basically the same inside, but it atleast has some color and i feel a little more like im in a home haha also its super funny because a member (hermano freddy) lives in front and he is always checking up on us to make sure all is okay, hes like our grandpa haha

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

Changes

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

Happy Birthday Dad

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

A visit from Elder Cook

Hey family, Well i have a little more time to write today haha. im sorry about last week but ya there wasnt anything i could do. I still dont have a ton of time so i dont think i will have time to send pictures because i would rather spend more time writing. but i promise in one of these days i will send some pictures. Welp this week has been a little dificult. Im still happy, but just disappointments of missionary work. Ill start off with Eloisa and Marcos. In regards to my subject line, you could say im heartbroken. The last email i didnt have time to explain but Eloisa the last week finally received a really strong answer that she needed to be baptized. Originally she said after her husband she would be baptized, but after we said a prayer she was crying and said she wanted to be baptized the same day as him. And all was amazing and happy and great. Then later in the week was when we found out that they werent actually married. They have been living together for like 28 years or something...so we began to talk to them about getting married and how we could prepare everything and we taught the law of chastity and everything. Then this past week weve been trying to see how they feel about it. Even though they hadnt decided to get married still they had their baptismal interviews because other than marriage they are ready. our district leader told us in her interview eloisa said she wanted to get married. But its Marcos who doesnt. He had a bad marriage when he was young and for whatever reason he is scared or has fear. And basically thats it. Eloisa wont really say it out loud to him that she wants to get married because he has fear and doesnt want to. It is literally so heartbreaking. We have talked to them about the blessing of marriage and everything and one of the things that is so sad is i can tell that satan is attacking him. Marcos struggled with depression in the past but ever since we have taught him he said he has had less depression and normally when we taught him he was so happy and making funny comments and super interested and positive, but every time we have talked about marriage there is just something different in his eyes and i can tell satan is attacking. The hardest part is there is literally nothing else we can do. They have had all of the lessons and its their decision now. This week i learned a lot about how our Heavenly Father feels when we make bad decision. Part of the Plan of Salvation is our free agency to choose. But it is heartbreaking. Sunday they didnt come to church either. They have meant so much to me, and only im praying for a miracle that marcos can feel something in his heart to tell him he can do it. Probably what makes me the most mad is nothing in their lives is going to change other than more blessings. Its one signiture that they need and their married and be baptized. Supposedly their baptism is this week...but doesnt look like it is going to happen. David Calderon didnt go to church this week because Albas mom is in the hospital because she has cancer and they had to go to santa ana on sunday. He still doesnt want to put a date for baptism because he doesnt want to say yes and then later have to tell us no if he isnt ready. But i know he is going to be baptized, he wants to and he always says he knows the church is true and all, just have to be patient with him. We are working with him to read the book of mormon more because he is always busy. But ill keep you updated with him. We also had an 18 year old who is friends with all the young men who has gone to church 3 times now and all of the activities for seminary and mutual. But the thing is he only goes to church to be with his friends. We tried teaching him a few times, but on sunday we had a lesson with him and he doesnt want to change his life or repent or read or pray...so yeah we arent really going to keep teaching him. Also Roberto who has the problems with drinking and the word of wisdom went to church again this week which is a miracle whenever he goes. Its really hard for him to give up his work on sunday to go to church, but slowly but surely he is making the efforts. He REALLY wants to change his life and he believes in everything. I have never heard prayers more sincere than his. I hope that we can see a miracle in his life and help him overcome his addictions and trials. Those are basically are main investigators. We have a few other new investigators this week im excited about who are really positive. But ill tell you about them later. This week we had the conference with Elder Cook on thursday and it was amazing!! Wow the spirit with him in the room was just great. Also it was amazing to be with all of the other missionaries from El Salvador. I saw lots from springville! I saw hermana ashlee ontiveros (michelles old roommate) and also Elder Payton Thorpe and Elder Alex Tarin and his companion is also from springvile Elder Bertelsen. It was good to talk to peeps from springville for a little. We didnt have hardly any time to talk to people but it was fun. Also I saw some people from the CCM like our roommates. It was awesome. Elder Cook talked a lot about how we are here for a reason and if any of us think that we would be better in some other place we are wrong. He talked about the hastening of the work and i dont know it was just so powerful to hear his testimony and also the blessing he left with us as missionaries. It was a really inspiring meeting and im so grateful for the opportunity I had to be there. Well this is the last week before cambios. Next wednesday we will probably have cambios. Haha again it is really really really likely we will have changes, but well see. I dont think ill know next monday but maybe ill know just depends. Im hoping I can see some miracles this week. I know the Lord is with me here and I am so grateful to be here. Also im so thankful for your prayers and also for all of the letters i have recieved, it means so much to me to receive letters even if it is just the christmas letters from all the family. Sounds like all is good at home and I always pray that it stays that way. Love you all so much! Hermana groneman