An Interesting Week

This week was a little interesting. We only taught 9 lessons all week but it went by way fast. Basically every time we went by the person we had a lesson with, they weren't home. That happened ALL week. One day we didn't teach at all because literally no one was home. Nevertheless (that word is fun to use), we got a lot done. We found some new people to teach and taught a former JW the Plan of Salvation - that was a fun lesson. For about 20 minutes we had to explain why Jehovah is Jesus. We also had to explain everything very simply but in great detail at the same time. Gotta love the people that know a ton about the Bible.

 

Oh, we also had the worst lesson of my life. Haha I literally started laughing when I read mom's letter and the part about "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and how Mecham used it all the time to teach people about families and marriage. I laughed because we decided to use it to do just that with an awesome family that we found last week. Well, the lesson died. Completely. Like burst into flames while falling off the Grand Canyon, strapped to a shark and a rocket which is heading for a volcano. That kind of died. We walked into the house and the table was covered with food so that we could eat 11 [lunch] with them. We did that and all was well, except for the fact that we were running short on time. In the first lesson the dad told us that at one point they were going to get married but because of the mother-in-law they didn't, so we thought, "´The Family´ would be perfect for them" so we started to read it with them. That is when everything died. To sum everything up - the mom basically never wants to get married and the whole time we are pretty sure that she felt like we were attacking her. The dad and kids were fine with everything but she is the person that lays down the law in that house........We then had to fix everything and at the end everyone was happy and in a good mood. We set another appointment (which is actually for today) then left. So today we are going to see what damage control we still need to do......Gotta love it when lessons don't go as planned.

 

That's basically what happened this week in a nutshell. We had fun washing our mamita´s car. My comp is wearing a jumpsuit thing that a lot of people here use when they are working on their cars. Our mamita didn't want us to get dirty so she let us use them. I didn't use it though ;)

 

Elder W**  He's one of the other elders in the ward.

my comp, our Ward Mission Leader, his son, and me in the back of their family´s small car: You can't see them, but up front is his wife and their 2 daughters. They live next door to us so they gave us a ride home.

GeekSquad

This week was great. We are finally finding new investigators and finding our old investigators that disappeared for a while. This week I feel like we didn't do much but we actually did a lot. We had more lessons this week than I've had for the past month and in between all of those lessons we became the personal GeekSquad for our mamita. Her husband hasn't had work for like a month and finally (after fasting) had an interview via Skype. Well, they didn't know how to set up Skype or the webcam and microphone they bought so my comp and I had fun doing all of that (with many problems in between because neither of us knows how to work Windows8 and the mic had problems too). So we were the GeekSquad for our mamita and House Maids for the family of my convert. Basically the house was chaos because the mom is opening a little business in the house (that's completely normal here) and her 2 little girls are bipolar walking tornadoes. So we helped her too. Yay for random service!!

 

As for our investigators we finally found a family that we've been trying to contact for almost 3 months now. Well, persistence and patience paid off because we finally had a lesson with them this week. They are awesome and during the lesson they all listened attentively (even the little kids!) then at the end they eagerly agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true! The only downer is that they aren't married. Apparently they were going to get married years ago until the mom ridiculed them a little. Hopefully it won't be too hard to convince them that they need to get married.

 

So ya, all is well. Working hard to find people and still waiting for that earthquake ;)

 

This week please do not choke on your own spit because 1 it's embarrassing and 2 you could die ;)

 

Love y'all,

Elder Groneman

Same Area, New Companion

Okay, so Skyping was awesome yesterday. Definitely made my day! No Dad, I have not converted into a believer in sunscreen. I only use it because a peeling nose is not enjoyable to look at.

 

So basically everything was sail during the call but to give a brief overview...

 

My comp is Elder H** from Bogota Colombia. He's asewome and we are always laughing. Our comp studies are awesome too because he is my first comp that wasn't a convert (well he technically is but at 9 years old) and actually paid attention in seminary/primary/YM. So I dont have to explain the basic doctrines and principles of the gospel to him. Instead we go deeper. It's awesome and we're learning a lot.

 

I'm still in La Serena in the extreme edge of the mission and all is well. We are still looking for investigators and trying to help our current investigators make the decision to get married. There's still a lot of work to do in this area.

 

So ya. That's about it. Watch out for banana peels on the floor this week.

Elder Groneman

[Skyping with our Elder for Mother's Day!]

Gotta Love Miracles!

So we still haven't found any new investigators BUT 2 of the ones we do have went to church! We've been working with them for a long time now and have had slow progress. They aren't married which adds another problem (Law of Chastity and all). They have two kids and he hasn't had a job for a few weeks now. Well, we went to visit them Saturday night but he wasn't home so we couldn't teach them. We asked her how their plans for getting married were and she said good but if their economic situation gets better she would want to get married asap. My comp promised her that if they went to church the next day her husband (though not married) would get a job soon. She said that she would talk about it with him when he gets home and asked that we call her at 10 that night. So with planning and other things we completely forgot to call. Oops. Sunday morning came around and I remembered at 9 (church starts at 10). I quickly called them and asked if they were going to go (after apologizing first of course). The speaker on their phone is bad and he was shouting too so it was really difficult to understand but at the end I took from the conversation that they would talk about it. THEY FINALLY WENT TO CHURCH! I was playing the piano so I wasn't able to talk to them but in the middle of the meeting he walked out because his phone started ringing. At the end of sacrament meeting I was only able to say hi and bye because they had to leave but my comp did talk with them. Apparently that phone call was someone offering him a job! They went to church and he immediately got a job! And he said that he felt at home in the chapel and that they were going to go the next week as well!!! Gotta love miracles!

 

Besides that the week was pretty normal. Most of us are just waiting to see what changes will happen when the new pres comes in 6 weeks. That, and waiting for the earthquake which Pres Kähnlein confirmed was coming.

 

Fine. I'll send some pictures;) #1 is one of my converts in this area. We took the photo because we thought that she was headed to Santiago for awhile. But now it sounds like she's going to stay.

#2 is the soccer ball for Chile. We see them all over and just had to have one for ourselves. So ya.

 

I'm looking forward to the Skype call. #2 of 4. But like I told mom, I have no idea how it's going to work because we have changes this week and no one knows if they're going to be in their same sector. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Love y'all. Advice for the week - be careful of choking on a spoon.

 

Elder Groneman

#1 is one of my converts in this area. We took the photo because we thought that she was headed to Santiago for awhile. But now it sounds like she's going to stay.

#2 is the soccer ball for Chile. We see them all over and just had to have one for ourselves. So ya.