Baptism & Zone Conference

So before I forget - Guess who I ran into this week? One of Mecham´s comps - Elder C** (I don't remember how to spell his name). Apparently he was also waiting for a visa to Venezuela that never came. So ya, I met him. Apparently Mecham and I are "exactamente lo mismo [exactly the same]". Okay?

 

So yes, The baptism did happen on Saturday. Her dad baptized her which was awesome because when I first came to this area he was inactive. There was also a lot of member support which doesn't always happen when the baptism is on Saturday.

 

For the first time in my mission I wanted to cry in a lesson for something other than feeling the Spirit. We were teaching a less-active family that was sealed in the temple. The wife is fine and realizes that the things that are happening are because they've stopped keeping all of the commandments. The husband is the opposite. The whole lesson he gave excuses and tried to justify himself and tell us that we didn't understand because we were young. The part that made me want to cry was when he said God will leave his children alone in the world sometimes. That's just the jist of what he said. He has lost the most basic and fundamental part of every testimony. God will NEVER leave us alone. He ALWAYS will help us. It's us that distance ourselves from Him. He will always have his hand outstretched waiting for us to take it so that He can lift us up.

 

This week was awesome. Baptism and Zone Conference. Oh, haha President Kähnlein surprised us and let us watch Meet The Mormons. Good movie - I highly recommend it.

 

So ya. Until next week!

Elder Groneman

Elder Groneman & Elder C** (a former companion of Parker's older brother, Mecham)

La Serena Norte Zone Conference

Trip to the Zoo

So we ended up not having the baptism yesterday. We didn't finish teaching her all of the lessons so we moved the date to Saturday. And yes, we are sure that she wasn't baptized into another church because 1- her parents are sealed in the temple, 2- every member knows her and her family, and 3- they remember the baptism (her dad baptized her). So really the record just didn't get put into the computer.

The zoo was great. It was a lot smaller than Hogle Zoo but it was fun to do something that none of us had done for a long time. One of the pics that I'm sending is titled ´Mecham´s "other" side...´. On the way home from the zoo we actually almost had to hitch-hike. The zoo is a bit in the middle of nowhere and therefore there aren't any taxis that pass by that aren't already full of people. And the one bus that travels on that road doesn't pass often. Well, after waiting for a while, we prayed. About 2 minutes later the bus passed by and picked us up! Talk about immediate answers to prayers!

My ward is Compañia Baja. Honestly we don't know why it's called Baja [low] because another ward nearby is Compañia Alta [high] but in elevation it is a lot lower than ours. The chapel is on the corner of Perú and Las Rosas. I'll send a picture of one of the views from my sector. Oh, I don't know when you are going to send another package but it would be awesome to have some maple syrup. You can find it here but only in one store (the one bought by Walmart) and that store isn't close to our area so we can't go. So ya..... :)

¿Que más......? [What more?] Oh, the English classes are good I guess. We've only had two as of now. We are going to start puting up signs on the street to advertize it so more people start coming. Hopefully it works because a member told us that English classes have never been successful in this ward/area. Ya, we're going to change that.

Creo que eso es todo por esta semana. [I think that's all for this week] Not much happened. Stake Conference was good and this week we are going to have Zone Conference (I think it's the second to last with Pres Kähnlein) so we are excited for that. And ya....I think that's all.

Love you all!

Elder Groneman

one of the views from my sector

Mecham´s "other" side...

Weird Week

So this week was really weird. Some things happened that hadn't happened in my mission until now. Friday was especially weird..... 

 

So on Wednesday we started teaching English classes. Ya, that was a first. In our ward there are 2 latinos and 2 gringos missionaries (I am one of the gringos - just in case you were in doubt). Well the latinos had the idea of starting English classes as a way to find new people to teach. Haha the thing is that they don't speak English well enough to teach it. So they assigned their comps to teach. Yay for us... Well, the other gringo ended up going on interchanges that day so I was left to teach the class alone. That was fun. We're hoping that every week more and more people come.

 

Sunday we are going to have another baptism (assuming everything goes well). There are a few weird things about this one. 1 She was already baptized when she was 8 but for some reason her records don't appear when we search for them. When that happens the family just has to gather the dates and everything and fill out another record. Well, the family can't find ANYTHING that proves that she was baptized - not even a photo. 2 We were going to baptize her with her boyfriend the same day. Ya, no. Turns out he was baptized 4 years ago but now doesn't remember ANYTHING. 3 The baptism isn't going to be in our building. It's going to be in the Stake Center (which isn't even in the limits of our zone) because this Sunday is Stake Conference. So she is going to be baptized with 4ish other people from the stake. Ya....weird situation.

 

Friday. Weird. To start off the day my comp forgets his watch in the pension. He is literally lost without it because he looks at it about every 2 minutes. Next, all during the day there was literally NO ONE in the street. So, we figured that they were all in the houses. We started knocking doors but no one was home either. Weird. Our sector is a ghost town now? The only person we found was a less active lady. When she came out to talk to us her door slammed shut behind her. Oh, btw, Chilean doors ALWAYS need a key to open. They don't have a doorknob like in the USA. Just a keyhole. Well, it turns out that she didn't have her keys with her when she walked out so we were left to try to help her get back into her house. I'm pretty sure we looked like we were robbers trying to break in (well, we actually WERE trying to break in) but it doesn't matter because there was nobody around to see us (Ghost Town, remember). Finally a neighbor came by (where from, we still don't know) and jumped the neighbor's fence, then jumped her backyard fence, then entered through the backdoor to open the front door. So as the day went on there still was literally no one. I'm pretty sure we made 5 loops around our whole area. Then an old lady randomly called us over to her house. Apparently she had just left her house without her keys and before she realized that, she closed the door. Awesome. We knocked her neighbors door because they have a spare key. Nope, not home - of course. We tried to instruct her how to use a card to open the door (Her gate was locked so we couldn't pass through and help her like with the less active). Ya no. That didn't work either. In the end a random teenager walked by that apparently she knew and she asked him to go grab the spare key that was in his house. I'm guessing that this happens often to her if so many people have spare keys to her house. So right when we left that attempt to break into a house the street was FULL of people. We were so excited until I looked at my watch. We were late for our 1st appointment of the day (or night because it was at 8) so we didn't have time to contact everyone. After that cita we went to our other cita which is when we found out about the girl who has to be baptized again. Well as her dad was driving us to our house he almost hits a dog that is pooping in the middle of the street. It didn't move out of the way because it was so focused that it didn't even realize that a giant car was coming towards it. And, to top off the day as we were entering our pension a cat was leaving. What??? We don't own a cat! So ya, that was our weird/crazy day Friday.

 

So ya. Weird week. Other things happened too but I don't have time right now to write them all because we are in a rush to finish and go to the zoo!

 

Until next week!

Elder Groneman

Baptism!

So first of all before I forget like I have been for the past few weeks. Yes, I finally got the package (like 3 weeks ago). Thank you all for everything! Unfortunately, I can't make the cake right now. In my last pension we didn't have a good oven. Well in this pension our oven is more like a blowtorch. So ya, once the pensionero brings us a new cocina [stove]... I have to wait....

 

BAUTISMO!!! Yes, the baptism happened yesterday! WOOT! We had to run to get everything ready because our mission leader forgot to put the program together, but in the end everything was awesome. A lot of member support which was awesome! Haha she said that whenever she goes underwater she gets this weird sensation which she can't describe. Haha so because of that when my comp lifted her back up she was gasping and then tripped or something and almost fell back under. Don't worry, nothing happened and she didn't get a second baptism.

That's the highlight of the week. Oh and every companionship in the district baptized this month so the next week we get to have a District Activity! My first activity in the mission. We will be going to the zoo next week (unless plans change). YAY!

 

So ya, basically everything that happened this week had something to do with the baptism and getting it ready so there aren't really and stories. We cleaned the font, had the ZLs call a million times trying to get us to change the baptism to Saturday so that she could be confirmed the next day, ran around the chapel looking for people to participate in the program, and then had the baptism! So ya, that was this week.

 

Love ya all!

Elder Groneman

New Area: La Serena

So yes, I did get transferred. I was on the bus because I went up north to the 4th region (Chile is divided into 12 regions north to south with Santiago being its own little region so 13 in total - Misión Viña del Mar is the 4th and 5th regions). After a 7ish hour bus ride of scripture study, practices, sleeping and talking, we arrived in La Serena at 1am. My sector is the 3rd most north in the entire mission. The Hermanas literally share a border with Antofagasta and have found those Elders in their sector a few times because the limit isn't completely clear. I can now see the ocean every day because my sector is on the crest of the hill, so half of the sector is hill and the other half is flat.

 

My new comp is Elder M** from Lima, Peru. He's great. He has a strong testimony. Especially for only being a member for 9ish months before starting the mission. We already have a baptism planned for this Sunday (assuming that she passes the interview) and 2 more investigatores with baptismal dates. On Sunday I performed my first confirmation on a kid that was baptized 3 weeks ago but then left on vacation before he could be confirmed. That was a little bit nerve racking. Don't know why but it was...

 

That's about all that happened this week. Even though changes are only on Wednesday it feels like they are the entire week. I am now trying to learn all of the street names in my sector and learn it by sight as well. Trying to remember all of the members and who is a leader. Meeting all of our investigators and less-actives. Basically a lot of work to do. It's not hard, just takes some time.

 

So ya, that's my life right now - or at least what's different

Love you all

Elder Groneman

Headed for La Serena

Elder Groneman & Elder M**

Transfers this week

Yay for another 6 hour day-trip to Viña! This time it was for my tramites [processing]. I'm finally going to be legal! Yes, right now I'm in a country illegally. Well, not completely illegally. I have a visa  but not my passport so if they ask to see my visa I'm done for. Lets hope that doesn't happen!

So yes, Mecham is correct. This week is tranfers. And I get to find out if I stay or if I go. Yes, it is possible that I stay for another change. I have heard many stories of missionaries that have stayed in their first area for 7-9 months. Anything is possible in this mission. Oh, so we finally know who our new Pres is going to be. Supposedly we're not supposed to know yet but everyone does. His name is Raul Diaz. He's from Santiago but if I remember right he lives in Concepción right now. I've heard that he's really humble and LOVES CocaCola so the rule impeding us from drinking it will probably be lifted and then we will be drinking it in every lunch...yay.

 Happy Story of the Week!

We found a family to teach that is basically gold! They're antiguos [older people] and they were taught the majority of the lessons but don't remember a lot BUT during the first lesson the dad basically helped us explaining tithing to his wife. He already has a testimony, we just need to reaffirm it and then convert his wife. Their family actually almost got baptized before but the missionaries that taught them forgot to tell them about the baptismal date of their son until 2 days before. Ya, they weren't happy with that so they stopped taking the lessons....Until we found them! They are awesome.

So ya. You are all just going to have to wait to find out if I get transferred or not. Oh the agony of waiting ;) Patience is a virtue, develop it ;) 

 

All is well but unfortunately with the trip to Viña I don't have much time so until next week!

Elder Groneman

 

Elder P**, President Kahnlein, Elder Groneman

 

The Grand Search continues...

To clarify something quick - "the Flea in the ear" means that we never stopped bugging her. We were always calling her, reminding her to go to church. And when we were in the lessons, we would remind her again and again and again to go to church and to not smoke. Well, in the end it worked and she is as happy as can be. So "pulga en la oreja" means that we were annoyances.

Now on to more spiritual matters.....

In the very first verse of King Benjamin we find the purpose of general conference. 

Mosiah 2:9

"...for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view."

So according to our old friend (both in age and familiarity) we know that the reason we have GC is so that we can listen and then open our minds, hearts, and eyes so that we can Hear the whisperings of the Spirit, Understand those whisperings, and then See the purposes of God. So....do we have to wait another 2ish months in order to have that blessing in our lives? I hope your answer is no because if not, you are terribly mistaken. We have access to GC talks 24/7 (unless the internet has randomly died and all of the Ensigns/Liahonas have been burned) so the opportunity to have our ears, hearts, and minds opened is always available to us. Take advantage of it NOW so that God can start working miracles in your life TODAY.

As for the work, basically everything is the same. A few of our investigators have returned and are progressing slowly but surely. The Grand Search for the people who are ready to hear the gospel continues.....and it won't stop until God says it does. So I guess we gotta keep on working and searching.....and of course walking ;)

Love ya all. My advice for this week is a quote from Mom. "Don't Be Stupid"

Elder Groneman

My comp and I got to ride in the back of the 2nd counselor´s truck because "there was no room for [us] in the in(side)" ;) Don't worry Mom, we were safe. We didn't get into a car accident that time. It was fun though!