Satan's a Jerk

Sad news. Remember that guy who finally accepted a baptismal date after years of listening to the missionaries?W ell, he was really excited at the beginning so he told his whole family....They didn't like the idea. Basically they started ridiculing him and bugging him about it. We haven't talked to him for almost a month now because every time we pass by, he's purposefully busy or refuses to come out of his room. Satan is a jerk of a brother. That's all I have to say about him.

 

Haha so another natural disaster happened this week in Chile. A volcano is now active in the south. We heard about Nepal too. Yay for signs of the second coming!

 

We taught a lady who almost was a Jehova´s Witness this week. She studied with them for 6 years but never got baptized. She had a lot of good questions and JW thoughts. Those are always fun to resolve. God really does prepare people because she and her grandson are so ready to have the gospel in their lives. They were going to go to church but ended up getting sick Saturday night. Again, Satan is a jerk. But we talked with her later and she was sad that she couldn't go and is excited for when we are going to pass by and teach them again. Woot!

 

That's about it for this week. The last interview with Pres Kähnlein was good. Now we're all just waiting to see what changes are going to happen with the new pres..

 

Love you all. Thank you for not dying the past week. This week please don't fall down the stairs ;)

Elder Groneman

Daily Routine

Thanks Dad, that did answer my question. [He says he keeps getting asked if Joseph Smith was a Mason.]

 

No,I  haven't climbed the stairs on the hills yet because that is only in Valparaíso. Apparently in some places your tie literally touches the ground because of how vertical the hills are. YAY! 

 

Mom asked for my daily routine....

7:00 wake up and exercise

7:30 - 8:30 breakfast and get ready for the day

8:30 - 9:30 personal study

9:30 - 10:30 companionship study

10:30 - 11:00 language study

11:00 Leave the pensión and start working

1:30 - 2:30 lunch (at least that's what it should be but since Chileans LOVE to talk and get offended if we leave ´early´, we usually end up leaving lunch between 3:00-3:30)

2:30 - 9:30 (or 10) work

9:30 - 11:00 plan for the next day and get ready for bed

11:00 - 7:00 sleep through earthquakes that happen regularly

 

Todo el día, todos los días. [All day, every day.] It seems monotonous but the days usually go by really fast. But every once in a while there is a day when 15 minutes is an eternity. Those days are really fun......

 

As for what happened this week....... Apparently my calling should be the Ward Nursery Leader because it turns out that I have the ability to keep any kid quiet and entertained during lessons and during sacrament meeting. Honestly I don't know how because I do the exact same things as everyone else. Gift from God, I guess? 

 

Más que nada estamos preparándonos por las últimas entrevistas de Presidente Kähnlein este Miercoles. [More than anything else we are preparing for the last interviews of President Kähnlein this Wednesday.] Oh, sorry....sometimes I don't realize when I'm mixing English and Spanish. If you don't understand, Mecham [his older brother] can help you. Not much has happened. We "scared" two less actives into going to church by using the examples of the disasters in Chile and the dreams/visions that many missionaries and members (including those 2 less actives) have had about a giant earthquake. Sometimes there's a tsunami included in the dreams/visions. So ya, we're still waiting for that fun vibration massage and mud bath.

 

So ya, that's this week. Don't die this week.

Elder Groneman

Tree of Life Insight

So this week was a little bit difficult. Our 2 most promising investigators told us that they didn't want us to come by anymore and we couldn't find any of our other investigators all week. BUT yesterday we saw at least 10 miracles during the day! A lot of them happened when a ton of less actives finally came to church! Another was that the recent convert of my comp showed up again and is normal again (he got back into drugs and alcohol after his baptism). You've got to look for the miracles because they are literally EVERYWHERE!

 

So it's really awesome when your convert of one month can literally destroy a Jehovha´s Witness of Level 33. For those of you who don't know, JWs have a ranking system based on their knowledge. Level 33 is the highest and it's also the level which they need in order to talk to the missionaries. If they aren't 33, then they are literally prohibited to talk to us. Haha so the neighbor of our convert is a JW Level 33 (we know because we´ve talked with her before). Apparently that neighbor has tried to tell our convert lies and to try to convince her that she's wrong - lies such as we worship Joseph Smith and that we don't believe in God, we practice polygamy still, and other things. Haha our convert stood up for what she knew was true and straight up told the JW that she was completely wrong then she told her exactly how things are. Yes, my comp and I are very happy to know that our convert of one month is firm in the gospel!

 

So the picture is quite awesome. Just look at it and you'll know why.

 

Here's a little insight from Lehi´s vision of the tree of life. So before Lehi tasted the fruit he had to be led to the tree. Then once Lehi had been led to the tree and tasted the fruit he, in turn, led others to the tree.  The Lord led Lehi (prophet) to the tree and then Lehi led others (his family) to the tree because he knew how to find it. In order to find the tree we need to be led by someone who is already at the tree and knows the way. We have the words of prophets, ancient and modern, who know the way and who lead and guide us so that we arrive at the tree of life. After we arrive at the tree and taste of the fruit we, like Lehi, will have the desire to help others arrive at the tree. More than the desire, we will have the responsibility to help others. The Lord expects us to help our brothers and sisters who do not yet have the gospel to arrive at the tree. If we don't use our time helping others arrive at the tree that unused time could become occupied with listening to the people in the building which is dangerous because everyone who gives heed to them will fall away. So, once we arrive at the tree, let's use our time in helping others arrive as well instead of using our time listening to the world.

 

That is all for this week. Love you all! Read and Watch the conference talks again because you'll receive even more revelation.

Elder Groneman

General Conference and earthquakes

General Conference was AWESOME!! It's literally like candy for missionaries. Haha so if you want to get just a little bit of an idea of the Spanish I have to listen to, compare the speed of the Spanish of the two Spanish talks. Elder Zeballos is from Chile and his Spanish was notably faster than Elder Pino´s. Now take that speed of Spanish, speed it up more and take away the diction and enunciation then cut off the endings of about half of the words and add a lot of sayings and words that don't exist in Spanish (only in Chile). Once you've done that you will have a bit of an idea of what I get to listen to every day - and I love it!

Besides General Conference nothing much happened. A few temblores no más. Oh, a temblor is a weak earthquake. A Terremoto is a strong earthquake. In Chile a terremoto is 8.0 and higher and everything else is weak. Haha in the rest of the world a terremoto is everything stronger than a 6.0. Ya, Chile gets a lot of temblores. Now when it happens at night I usually sleep through them and don't even realize that we had one.

So ya, That's it for the week. Love you all. Don't die, that would be unfortunate ;)

Elder Groneman