Ordinary Week

Not much happened this week. It was super hot every day besides yesterday. The temp may not be too high but the sun is the killer. The ozone basically doesn't exist here because everyone uses propane for everything (water heater, heater, stove..) so all that gas pollution has destroyed the ozone and therefore "all of the concentrated power of the sun" shines on us every day. Yay Skin Cancer!!! (Yes Dad, we use sunscreen - SPF 50 because there's nothing higher here). Oh, funny story. When I first got here, one morning I heard music coming from outside that sounded like an ice cream truck. Nope. It was one of the propane trucks that drive around selling propane. Ya, I was very disappointed...

The reason why this letter is a lot later than the others is because we had a BBQ with the ZLs and 3 RMs in our ward that are awesome. That was fun. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera so no pics. But C** (one of the RMs) supposedly is going to send us the pics that he took, so wait for next week.

That's about it for the week. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Heat, Sun, Rejection, Happiness, Exhaustion, Laughter, Walking, and Walking, and some more Walking....Oh the life of a missionary:)

Love yall!

Elder Groneman

Short and Sweet

WST (weekly scripture thought)

3 Nephi 11

When God was trying to speak to the Nephites they were too busy to hear Him. It took Him 3 times to finally get their attention so that they understood what He was trying to say. This is like us and the Holy Ghost. Sometimes in our lives we are way too busy with all of the things that we have to do. During these times, the HG may be trying to talk to us but we are too busy trying to complete everything on our list of things to do that we don't hear it. We need to slow down our lives a little so that we when the HG talks to us we are able to hear. It is okay if we don't finish everything on our list because Heavenly Father doesn't care about all of those things. He wants us to listen to Him so that He can guide our lives.

Not a lot happened this week. We did find R** again (the guy that had the heart transplant) but he was drunk out of his mind. He really wants to stop drinking and smoking though because he knows that it is just damaging his new heart. 

Yeah, besides that not a lot happened. Same as usual basically. We had interviews with Pres. K this week and he told my comp and me that we are no longer allowed to speak English at all. The only English I am allowed to speak is when I am asking what a word means. Por ejemplo "Gato significa Cat?" o " Qué significa Gato?" o "Cómo se dice Cat?".....Yeah, that is driving me crazy but it is really helping my Spanish.

So yeah...that's it. Sorry no photos. Maybe next week....maybe ;)

Love y´all

Elder Groneman 2 (the better one)

Best week we have had so far!!!

Best week we have had so far!!! Three days into the week we already had done as much as or more than last week in every aspect! Ya, it was a good week.

So story for the week...

   We were on the way to a teaching appointment with a less active lady when these two guys in their 20s say hello (hola) to us from their front yard. Not unusual because everyone here says hi as we walk by. Either that or we say hi first. Anyways, we continue to the lady´s house. We arrive but she says to come back later because her grandkids just got there so she was going to spend time with them. Okay, no big deal there. As we´re walking back down the road the 2 guys call out to us again. We don't have anything in our immediate plans so we decide to talk to them. One of the guys invites us into the yard (every house is surrounded by a gate - lots of crime here) then we start sharing with them. Long story short (sorry, I'm not going to give a play-by-play of the whole conversation) He (the other guy was just a friend) has been wanting to talk with us for a while because he recognizes that Mormons are different. We talked with him for a bit and he seemed really excited to learn and read the BOM, pray, and go to church....so we also invited him to be baptized. He accepted! Sad part of the story. He has recently had a heart transplant so he can't do many things (like have a job). Well, he was going to go to church yesterday but ended up going to the hospital in the morning because he didn't feel good. End sad part. We have another cita [appointment] with him later so it's all good. 

     Ya....I am terrible at telling riveting stories..... :)

Scripture Study Insight

- I am restarting the BOM because I finished so I am in 1st Nephi. So basically everyone knows about Jacob 5, the longest chapter in the BOM, is all about the analogy of the olive tree. But, did you know that Jacob did not come up with that himself?? He actually got it, or at least a major part of it, from Lehi. Cool huh. It's amazing what little things you can notice when you actually are paying attention to what you are reading.

So ya....Elder B** and I made it through changes but one of our Zone Leaders didn't. (We share a ward with them so we know them really well). The new ZL is from Argentina. Haha it's funny because basically all Chileans HATE Argentines. He is awesome though. 

So ya....that's basically it. Love y'all lots. Don't die while I'm gone because that would be unfortunate ;)

Elder Groneman

General Conference was ´really really good´! ;) It faithened my strength ;)

But really, all jokes aside, Conference was great! Thank you Mom and Dad for being my prime gospel teachers!

     THE RESULTS

Eliza and Jacob - you both fail

Sophie - Thanks for the update, but you also failed

Mom and Dad - you both receive a B

;) Love y'all

Soooo......Elder Scott's talk was the best that I have ever heard him give. And now for the invitation to my wonderful family. Actually act on what he talked about! Now that Dad is out of the Singles Ward you can have FHE EVERY week (emphasis on the EVERY in case you didn't catch that). AND start having DAILY family scripture study (Emphasis on the DAILY and take note of the word STUDY - it does not say READING nor does it mean that you can accomplish it in 5-10 minutes). Since Mecham and I are on missions and cannot be physically present for those studies I will be sending in my email a little snippit of my studies since it says daily FAMILY scripture study.

Mecham - Le invito hacer la mismo hasta vuelva en Noviembre [I invite you to do the same in November.]

Sophie and Jeff - I imagine that you both stop by the house a lot still (or at least Sophie does) so when you do, share a little snippit of your studies, or, better yet, join in a family study right then.

Anyways.....eso no más.

Couple questions/answers/requests

1- yes conference was in English and yes we watched the Spanish talks in Spanish

2- my shoe size is 10 1/2 wide USUALLY. I never know for certain cuz every Brand is different. I am not familiar with J**´s boots, sorry. And I have not asked the other Elders what boots they have.

3- Is A** D** on a misión? I'm pretty sure I saw him in the missionary choir twice. Please ask Sister G** for info.

4- for christmas (or before) please send a really good flashdrive with a lot of space on it, like a 64 gig if those exist. Super useful for lessons and other things cuz everyone here has a tv that you can plug one in and show a talk or something.

This week was extremely difficult lesson and contacting wise. Definitely our worst week yet. Yes, worse than last week which is saying something. But, it's okay because Conference ended the week and one of our investigators went to the Saturday morning session which is literally a miracle. She only made it for the last talk, Uchtdorf´s, but it was perfect for her. The reason why it was a miracle is because she said that she would never go to church because when she was 14 she went to a Mormon activity with her member friend. Well, when she got home her parents beat her for leaving. Since then she has never gone to church (she's currently somewhere around 60ish). After the session she asked when church started and it sounded like she was going to go! Yay for the Holy Ghost touching hearts!

Besides that the week was blah. Nothing happened....like at all. This week will be better. I finish my first change and first 6 weeks in the field. Hopefully Elder B** doesn't get changed because that would mean I get a step-father. Elders and their trainees are fathers and sons. If an Elder gets two different trainers (you train for 2 changes) the second is the step-father.

So ya....study the talks. Have weekly FHE. Study the scriptures every day as a family. Pray together every night. AND go to the temple every week. Not hard at all, right?

Love y'all!

Elder Groneman

 

Villa Alemana Zone

 

Hard Week

First things first. I am very disappointed with all of you. Only dad bothered to update me on his efforts with inviting someone to conference and it was not a positive response. Do better!;)

Anyways, question answering time.

- The boots are for both warmth and to keep the water and mud out. I can't get a good pair down here. Every missionary that has says that they get trashed very fast and only last a couple of months at most. Before next winter (your summer) would be nice to have them, so like April-ish. 

- The fleas aren't really around in the winter so I haven't had any problem with them yet but according to everyone you will get them no matter how had you try to prevent it from happening. If you want you can send the oils down but I can't promise that I will use them. 

- The language is still a pain. Yes, every day I understand more but it really depends on the hour if I understand anything or not. At times I catch almost everything, then at other times I have no idea what anyone is saying or what the topic even is. Ya, those times are frustrating. But all is going well.

M** and J** were baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. We had the baptism at a different chapel because our font is still being dumb, so the water was clear and warm. G** was supposed to be confirmed yesterday too but he didn't show up. We stopped by later and it turns out that he had to go to work. He still doesn't have the job secured yet because he has to pass training. After that though he will be able to go to church every week without the worry of being called in. 

Besides the baptisms, the week was hard. Basically all of our teaching appointments fell through and no one would stop and talk to us either. It is okay though because this week looks like it is going to be a lot better. Even if it's not it's okay because General Conference is this weekend!!! Ya, never have really been excited for it before but now I am. AND the missionaries get to watch it in English! ya, I was kind of worried about that but it's all good.

Oh, update. We found C** again. Turns out she has an extremely bad memory. She barely remembered who we were and didn't even remember that she said that she wanted to be baptized. She reads the BOM every night (for some reason she remembers that) which is awesome! It's hard to get another cita with her though because she says that everyday something new comes (which she probably just forgot about) so she´ll never know when she will be free.  But it's okay, we found her again and we now know that she wasn't just telling us what we wanted to hear.

Yep, that's about it for the week. No pasó mucho.

Love yáll

Elder Groneman (not the older, just the better;) )

Great Week!

So it won't let me send a video right now of a stake activity we had for dieciocho [the 18th]. Turns out 18 isn't even their independence day. It's basically the day that they won the war and defeated Peru and Bolivia like 200 some odd years ago. Ya Chile is better than Bolivia:P There are actually a couple of jokes about Bolivia here but they don't work in English sorry.

¿Por qué Bolivianos no pueden casarse? Porque no tienen derechos amar!!!

For the nonSpanish speakers...´amar´ means to love but ´a mar´ means the sea. So basically Chilenos are rubbing in the fact that they took Bolivia´s land that was next to the ocean. Ya, Chile is better:P

Anyways, yesterday was G**´s baptism! And it was crazy! For some reason the drain had stopped working so there was still some water in the font. I have no idea why but there was. Then, once we got that working the water started coming out dirty and cold. We still don't know why because the water for the last baptism (which was a couple weeks ago) was clear and warm. Hopefully they get that fixed before Saturday which is when M** and J** are getting baptized. If it's not fixed we will probably just go to another building that is close by. The actual baptism went great. I didn't mess up his name or the prayer at all and he went all the way under easily. The water was dirty and cold but oh well. Yep! It was awesome! Then while we were changing G** started singing! That shocked us because usually he has absolutely no expression on his face at all and the only way we know what he is feeling/thinking is by asking him. Well, not this time. He started singing. I have no idea what but he sounded happy! The ward was also extremely supportive which was a giant blessing because G** had no friends or family to support him. His family is atheist and his friends don't like the idea of him changing. Well, G** is basically breaking his ties with his friends and hoping God will bless him with new friends from the church. He is going to be confirmed on Sunday and has an interview to receive the priesthood that day too! He was actually really bummed when we told him that he would have to wait a bit to receive the priesthood because he needed an interview. He also is excited to put his mom´s name through the temple. Growing up in Utah we don't always recognize just how special the temple is because we have like 7 within an hour's drive and 4 within 30 minutes. But the temple is such an amazing place!

Something else that happened yesterday. We found a less active that just moved into our sector so we had a lesson with her. Well, there wasn't an adult male in her house so she went to her neighbor's door, knocked, and asked him to share with us too. Turns out he is like her ex-husband's brother-in-law or something like that. Anyways, the lesson went really well and we are going to meet with him (J**) later this week! Members can open doors that the missionaries would never be able to! I think that most members think that they are helping the missionaries by referring their neighbors or friends when really in addition to that, they, the members, should take the initiative to share the gospel with their neighbors and friends FIRST! Its not just the missionaries´ job to preach the gospel, its everyone's. 

So...here's the missionary in me coming out......These next two weeks find someone to invite to listen to General Conference and then bug them until they accept. Then go a bit further and invite them to watch with you just so you know that they did it. Persistence is the key to half of what missionaries do, so members need to be persistent too. Everyone knows someone that they can invite even if they can't think of someone. Pray to find out who to invite and how to invite them. God always answers prayers, especially about sharing the gospel because He wants ALL of His children to have it. 

So ya. In your emails next week I will be expecting an update on your efforts. And that means an email from each person. Yes Eliza and Jacob, that includes you too. 

Well, that's about it for this week. I love being here in Chile and I know that there is not a better place to be....even if you [Mecham!] don't want to be here....cough cough.

Love ya all!

Elder Groneman

 

 

The week was pretty much normal.

To answer some questions first...

The sleeping bag is great! I sleep amazing every night with it. I would like some more long sleeve shirts and a pair of boots (not for snow) for next year though. We only get mail once a month because that is when the ZLs have their conference and collect all the mail for their zone that came that month. Dumb? yes, but I can't change it, so oh well. The language is coming slowly because Chileans use tons of slang and have words that only they use and then different definitions of other words. Like Palolo means bug but in Chile it also means boyfriend. Stuff like that makes it more difficult. That and the fact they they still talk freakishly fast. It literally sounds like mumbling. Yes, lots of less actives. It's hard reactivating them though because they are never home or, if they are home, they don't answer the door. Oh well, we keep trying.

Anyways....G** is getting baptized on Sunday and he asked me to perform the baptism!!! Barely a month in the field and I get to baptize! So next week expect photos of that. But no photos this week, sorry.

Funny story. This is when I was on interchanges so I wasn't there but it was with one of our investigators that had a fecha so ya....My comp and Elder H** (one of the ZLs, I was with the other in their sector) were on their way to J**´s house. Well, as they were walking they see her little brother, who´s like 6, and mom outside. The little bro looks and them and says ´´Mom! The Mormons are coming!´´ She then calls him inside and quickly slams the door. Well, they go past the house so they don't look stupid and go check on a recent convert. After that they go back to J**´s house and call it. No one comes out. They try again with the same result. So Elder H** decides to use the Magic Hand. So, he waves at a random window and smiles like he can see someone in it. Well, after that they came out! J** said that she prayed and felt like the Bible was the only word of God and didn't want use to visit her any more. End Story. AHHH!!!  ..... We know that her mom convinced her not to meet with us anymore because she never liked us to begin with and the lesson we had with J** before went amazingly! And we know it wasn't her dad either because he was the reason why we went to the house in the first place and he was open to the message too! That was frustrating when I heard that. But oh well. You can't take away people´s agency even when you want to. 

The rest of the week was pretty much normal. Found a couple new investigators, one of which accepted a fecha! So ya....all is well.

 Oh, and a less-active and part member family we've been teaching (la familia F**) came to church again! The dad still doesn't want to have anything to do with the church anymore though:( The mom however, is loving church and said in one of the classes that ´to start going back to church is hard but once you do, you never want to stop again´!!! The two boys that aren't baptized are going to be baptized on the 27th and we wanted their older brother to do it but he hasn't gone to church again so we doubt that the bishop will let him. The mom really wants to be sealed as a family but that can't happen unless the dad becomes active again or she divorces him. .... I really hope the dad comes back to church but my comp and I can't do much about it because he won't even talk to us. The push will have to come from his family. 

Yep, that's about it for the week!

Love, 

Elder Groneman