Good Things are Happening

Seeing all of you on Christmas was awesome! I loved hearing Grandpa´s song [Sophie and Mecham wrote a song for Grandpa's funeral]. The members here thought that the snow was amazing. I don't think that they have ever seen it so up close and real (well, as real as it can get using a computer screen).

The rest of the week was normal. M** is really excited for her baptism. We talked with her sister-in-law yesterday and her daughter-in-law today and they both told us that she is soo happy and ready. Saturday can't come quickly enough. Oh, and she invited us to eat lunch on Friday. Can't say that an investigator has ever done that yet. She's great and very prepared.

Quick story. I'm pretty sure that I've told you about A** and his son, A** J**, and how the dad hasn't let his son get baptized because he wanted to baptize him but at the same time he said that he didn't believe in the church. Well, yesterday we went over to his house to talk with him about baptizing his son because he has been going to church regularly and is striving to change. As we were talking with him, I saw the Spirit touch him a little (even though it wasn't that spiritual a moment) and he decided to change his plans/goals and to baptize his son on the 10th! WOOT!

I'm really happy because I told the mom that before I leave her son would be baptized and now it's going to happen on the last week of the change! Pray for them. He's trying really hard to overcome his bad habits and needs all of the heavenly help he can get.

Love you all!

Elder Groneman

 

Missionary Concert on the beach

Me with J** F**. Hes the one that I helped activate in Huanhualí. He's leaving on a mission soon!

 

I will now be returning home on July 12 (or something like that). Just in case you're wondering.

So I don't have much time to write because once again we had to travel. Not to Viña but to Villa Alemana! We had a Mission activity for Christmas with 4 other zones! It was great! I'll tell you more about it next week or on Friday!

 

Quick story. Sunday was the last Christmas concert and while we were there I saw my 2 favorite families in the whole entire misión! La familia B** and La Familia F** M**! They are from Huanhualí (my first área). Let's just say that I was extremely happy. I activated and baptized Los F** M** and yesterday they told me that the mom just went through the temple and received her endowments and J** (oldest son) received his misión call to Mendoza, Argentina! He leaves January 28th so it was awesome that I got to see him one more time before he left.

 

M** PASSED HER BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!! After 5 months she will be baptized! We had to move her date a bit because she received a notice from her husband that he wasn't going to make it for Christmas but was going to be there for New Years. She will now be baptized on January 2! Pray that it happens!!

 

Oh,I  don't know if you've heard but the time for native speakers in the MTC has changed from 2 weeks to 3 weeks. Due to that, all of our return dates have changed. I will now be returning home on July 12 (or something like that). Just in case you're wondering. The office wanted all of us to tell our families that like a month ago but I've forgotten every week until now. Just so you know.

 

I'll be skyping around 3:30 here but it may happen between 3 and 4 depending on how the technical difficulties go because there always seems to be something that goes wrong.

 

See you all then!

Elder Groneman

 

ps: thanks for the boxes! My comp is really happy. He says that he's never gotten so many presents in his life.

 

Pics next week (no time right now)

Interesting week.....

This week was.......interesting.

I worked in 2 sectors this week. Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday we were in Cabíldo. Everything normal there. Wednesday to Friday we were in Viña. My comp had choir practices so because our sector is so far away from Viña and it's really expensive to make the trip, we just stayed with the mission secretaries. During the day I worked with Elder B** in his sector in Viña. I've decided my mission is just full of random opportunities to work in random areas.

It was awesome working with him. We gave away a lot of BOMs and taught a few people as well. I'll send a pic of a view from one of the house we were in. It's an amazing view of Viña! Gotta love Chile.

Even though we had only a little bit of time to work in our own sector good things still happened. M** IS GOING TO BE BAPTIZED!!!! After 5 months of teaching her and being in every single lesson, she finally accepted a baptismal date!!! She talked with her husband about her baptism and he also wanted to be present (which is why it's taken so long) so she asked when he was going to be home. He's going to be in Cabíldo for Christmas and New Years (which is a miracle because he's never been in town for the both) so we automatically placed the date for the 27th! She is soo happy! Please pray for her! She's been waiting for sooo long!

That was easily the highlight of the week. But other good things happened too. There's a little 9 year old kid -  J** - who really wants to be baptized but his inactive dad - A** - didn't give him permission when he was 8 because he said that he wanted to baptize him but also that he didn't believe in the church. Doesn't make sense, right? He says that he doesn't believe in the church but then he says he wants to be the one to baptize his son which means that he does believe. Ya, I'm confused, too. Anyway, A** has now changed in the blink of an eye. He is now going to church every week and is trying to stop swearing. He even has an awesome idea for an activity in which to invite every investigator and inactive member. Él tiene tanto ánimo! (sorry, there's not a word in English that translates well.) We have resumed teaching J** and are hoping that his dad feels ready to baptize him. Just a little bit more and he will be!

As for this next week I have no idea what is going to happen with me. My comp has to be in Viña from Wednesday to Monday morning and this time I won't be with him. They still haven't told me if I'm going to be with another elder whose comp is in the choir, with the elders in the sector next door to mine (by next door I mean 30 minutes in bus), or with my ZL whose comp just ended the mission. So ya...this week is going to be interesting. But it's all good. Whoever I'm with is going to get to know Cabíldo because I will go there to work. I am not going to lose 5 1/2 days in my area. Maybe we can do a half and half thing....we'll see what happens.

Today I'm also in Viña. (can I just change my sector to here?) My comp has to do the paperwork for his 2nd visa. I am seriously a master at this paperwork thing. With every single companion, I've had to do it. I don't even bother looking at the instructions anymore. I also end up guiding like 4 other missionaries every time, too. Ya, I've done this way too much....

So ya. That's about it. I still don't know about the time schedule for the Skype call. The member that we are going to do it with wasn't in church yesterday because they had to go to San Felipe. I'll tell you as soon as I know.

When telling someone the time, always check it twice before you tell them. You can really ruin someone's day if you get it wrong. (yes, this is speaking from experience....)

LOL (lots of love ;P)

Elder Groneman

 

PS. So the computer is being dumb and isn't recognizing my camera. I'll have to send you the photos later. Sorry!

Changes! Not.

Changes!!!!

I stayed! And my comp left! Haha ya, we weren't expecting that at all. It was deja vous for him because that is exactly what happened the first time he was here. So ya, I'm still in my 3rd sector. Three sectors with 6 months in each. That definitely doesn't happen that often. I've only heard of 1 other missionary with that situation - and only because he asked for it. It's all good though. Looks like I still have work to do here in Cabíldo.

My new comp is Elder P** from Samoa. He actually lives in the States now but lived most of his life on the island. We get along really well because we both love music. We usually are walking down the street singing or whistling and making random harmonies. It's great. He's in the mission choir so when we have time I help him with his music because he doesn't know how to sight-sing and he struggles with parts.

As for the Skype call on Christmas, I have no idea when we are going to do it. I imagine that it'll happen at like 4ish here so at like 1 there (if I remember right you're 3 hours behind). I'll keep you posted on that.

Overall this week was slow. Everyone here is about to get out of school so all of the parents are ALWAYS in meetings. It's crazy how many meetings they have here! Due to that we barely taught anyone because well, they were never home! This week will be the same (if it goes the same way as last year). BUT it is okay because it is during these times when we usually find the best investigators. No one else wants to talk to you or open their door so if they do it means that they are willing to listen and probably ready to accept the restored gospel. I'm looking forward to those moments this week!

So yeah, that's my life right now. Working like a missionary. Life's good.  :)

Elder Groneman

October Zone Conference [Elder Groneman is on the second to last row, leaning forward]

Fasting on Thanksgiving!

Nothing unusual this week.

So on Thanksgiving we fasted! It was the first (and probably the last) time that that has happened. We fasted because ever since I had that detour in La Calera after my comp ran away, she (M**) hasn't had the same enthusiasm. Well, we finally came to the decision to fast because that was all we had left. That lesson was awesome. It wasn't as spiritual as the last lesson with her but our fast was definitely answered. M** is now 100% sure that she wants to be baptized and, once again, we are only waiting for her husband to return home. She hasn't been able to get ahold of him because of the bad coverage where he is working right now. Basically she will be baptized in December after I leave (we have changes this week and I'm pretty sure I'm leaving).

Slowly but surely the church attendance is growing which makes me happy. When I got here the average was about 20-25. Now we've been having high 30s and yesterday we had 45. Little by little. I just hope that people progress and that they don't go inactive once again....

Cabíldo has a cross situated on a giant hill. Well, today we hiked up to the cross with the elders from a nearby branch and a less active that we are working with (we are hoping that he becomes our ward mission leader because we don't have one). Haha we decided to make our own path. Hiking up the path that everyone uses is too easy, right? What is usually about an 1 1/2 hour hike took us 3 hours and now I'm covered with cuts and scrapes! It was great! For a lot of the time we started following a trail made by the cows and/or horses that roam the hills of Cabíldo then we had to trail blaze until we finally found the top. It wouldn't have taken us so long but there was sooo much mist that we couldn't see anything more than 10 feet in front of us. Not to mention the strong, chilly wind. In the end we ended up coming in from behind and hiking down to the cross. Easily the most interesting pday I've had so far. I'd send photos but I forgot my camera cord.  :/

So ya. That's about it. I'll tell you all next week where I am and who my comp is if I get transferred.

Until then,

Elder Groneman

Zone Conference & Golden Contacts

There's not much to say about this week.

M** now has some doubts about if she is ready or not to be baptized. She wants a definite answer and also wants to feel sure about the decision. Basically the root of her doubt is that she is afraid of failing after she gets baptized. Well, when she expressed that to us we started teaching and testifying, and the Spirit was SOO strong in that lesson. She still isn't 100% sure but little by little she's progressing again. Please pray for her.

So this whole changes we've been having a hard time finding new investigators. We've found a few but no one that is really prepared to hear about the restored gospel. We've been working hard and praying a lot and finally we found 2 people last night! C** (18) and J** (17). We contacted them the other day and set a day to pass by. Usually when we do that with teenagers, they end up not being home. Well, they were different. They were waiting for us and set everything aside to listen attentively. Wow. I haven't had a first lesson go so well since G** (my first convert). They understood everything, understood the spiritual significance of everything, readily agreed to read and pray, prayed at the end without the slightest objection, invited us to return without us asking first, and gave us a reference without us asking. Let's just say that it's not everyday here in Chile when we find people so open to the gospel. I'm just sad that I'm probably going to leave the sector in a week and a half (President Diaz strongly implied it). Oh well, I'm just happy that we found them.

Oh, we also had Zone Conference on Tuesday. SO GREAT! It was all about the strength of the Book of Mormon. I'll send a pdf of just one of the things that Pres Diaz taught us. The BOM is awesome. It contains power that we cannot obtain in any other way. Let's just say that the Lord knew what He was doing when He told Nefi to write on the gold plates.

Love you all!

Elder Groneman

 

16 November 2015, Cabildo Zone Conference--[Elder Groneman is playing the piano]  

 

Gypsies!

This week was really interesting. We had a few....unique experiences.

First off, we taught Gypsies! They are everywhere in Chile (especially in Villa Alemana) but this past month a family of them moved to Cabíldo. We saw their giant tent which is how we knew they moved in. Well, this week while I was in Quillota for interchanges, Elder S** contacted the son, Bryan, and set an appointment. Well, two days later we went to their tent and taught them! We sat on mattresses because they were packing things up because they had to leave the next day to go to Villa Alemana. They were really nice and receptive and wanted to learn more so we gave them my old cell number from when I was in Huanhualí to contact the missionaries there.

They taught us a little about their culture and now I know how to say "How are You?" in Romaní (their language) Sarsán! So yeah, that was definitely fun, but too bad that they had to leave. :( Oh well.

On Saturday we returned to Petorca but this time we visited an area where we had never been before. And guesses as to what area? THE JAIL!!! Yep, that's right! We went to the jail! Definitely NOT what we were expecting.

The Branch President of a nearby branch is the jail´s director so we decided to talk to him in order to see if he would let us teach a member that is there. When we pushed the intercom on the gate "What do you want?" "May we talk to Roberto Gallardo? " "He's not here today" "oh, umm we would like to visit someone then." "okay, come on in" Ya, it was really easy. We left our bags up front and then they led us to a door and walked us through it. Then they turned around and just left us there! WHAT?!?! We looked around and found ourselves in the courtyard (or whatever you call it) surrounded by the inmates. Well, without anything else to do we started talking to people trying to find the guy we were looking for. Thankfully he approached us and asked if we were looking for him. We then sat down on at a table that was near by and started to talk. Meanwhile all of the inmates around us were busying woodworking, watching tv, or talking. They didn't even bother us. As we were talking with him, he told us that the jail was full of people that had been moved there because of good conduct. They have a lot more privileges thanks to their good behavior, such as hot water, tv, they can call home every week. Haha and people from the outside ask them to build furniture and stuff so the majority of the inmates spend their time woodworking and building stuff. Kinda cool. Never thought that I would teach someone in the jail.

Those are the 2 highlights of the week. Oh those and we had Branch Conference this week so all of the members for the first time showed up early to church. Then the first hymn that the Branch President chose was ´Oh está todo bien´ (come come ye saints). The title in Spanish translates to "Everything is okay". I just found it very funny and ironic because not many things here in Cabíldo are "okay".

So ya, that was my week. todo normal...casi.

Until next week!

Love you all!

Elder Groneman