Bautización (Baptization)

J** and F** got baptized!!!! It was the most uneventful, calm, normal baptism I've had my whole mission. NOTHING WENT WRONG! It was a weird but nice change. The font worked perfectly, the kids and family arrived on time, the mission leader actually put together the program, no one forget anything, we didn't have to run anywhere, and the font drained fine as well. Wow, so that's how it should all work....weird....

We should also have another baptism on the 29th with the kid whose parents are less active. We started teaching him and if all goes as planned - which it rarely does - he should be baptized on the 29th. Then we are going to work on the older sister. Then hopefully the parents will actually be willing to get up early on Sundays to go to church because nothing else seems to have motivated them yet.

Update on E** - his dad is now avoiding us and we have no idea why. Almost 2 weeks ago now he told us that he wants to baptize E** and that we were going to work together to get it done. Well, ever since then he has been avoiding us. Ya, we are a bit confused with the whole situation. Lots of prayers are needed....

Oh, as for the title of the email - Bautización (Baptization for all you English speakers). J**, for some reason didn't realize for the longest time that you could just call it a baptism. Instead he would say things like "At what time is the baptization?" Haha he's great.

The random tip of the week is more serious this time - DON'T WALK THROUGH TEAR GAS!!! It is not a pleasant experience just in case you were wondering....

So ya, Love you all! Enjoy the photo of the baptism  :)

Elder Groneman

Sunday's baptism

Short Letter after Skyping

Yay! Short letter because I basically told the basics of what has been happening here. [We were able to Skype with Parker for Mother's Day. Best. Present. Ever.]

Oh, just to let you all know, the tradition continues - today we went to Viña to do Elder R**´s first tramites! Ya, I think we made record time finishing in less than 2 hours.

Okay, quick recap. J** and F** are going to be baptized this Sunday (assuming all goes well)! Haha the Primary definitely got a lot more.....energized...with J**. Think of Jacob´s energy and humor with Mecham´s habit of pestering. Now put that into a 10yr old kid. That's J** in a nutshell. It's definitely a party every time we teach him.

We got permission from the less active family to teach and baptize their son who is about to turn 9. He always goes to church with his uncle and gma. We are hoping that this will finally help the family to reactivate. Hopefully....

Ya that's about it.

Please remember that your feet stink. Be courteous to others and don't take off your shoes in public. I'm pretty sure becoming the world's first mass murderer for death by feet odor is not on anyone's bucket list.

Love you all!

Elder Groneman

[Sort of strange with Parker creeping over Mecham's shoulder]

Normal Week

This week was fairly normal. Nothing big or exciting happened.

 

The kids are almost ready to be baptized. They lack one lesson and their interview which will happen this week. Haha when we taught then we used the game we created to teach E**. At the end we reviewed all of the cards to make sure they understood everything. When we pulled up Thomas S Monson we asked them if they remembered his name. The older brother (member) said it but apparently the little sister (investigator) wasn't paying too much attention because she quickly raised her hand extremely enthusiastically and shouted "Matias S Mismos!!" We all burst out laughing (us, the brothers, the gma, and the cousin) because she was soo focused on remembering that she didn't even hear her brother and then blurted out a random name so rapidly and excitedly. Don't worry, she didn't get offended or mad. She kinda started laughing too when we told her why we were laughing. Haha, teaching little kids is definitely interesting sometimes.

 

There is also this young couple that aren't married.... Well, long story short, she wants to get baptized so about 6 months ago they were going to church, receiving the lessons, and even had a marriage date. But her parents were opposed to the marriage so in the end they didn't get married and stopped complying with their commitments. Well, the other day we confronted - with love and the Spirit of course. We talked to them about what the most important thing for them is. Of course they said their family (they have a 1 yr old daughter). We basically asked them if they were really focusing on what would help their family or only themselves. In the end they finally woke up to what they were actually doing. Now they are once again going to church, praying, and reading the BoM. We are going to start reteaching them the lessons so that when they get married (we still don't know if they've set another date yet) she can get baptized right away.

 

Thinking about that whole situation made me realize exactly how easily we can be distracted by things that are good but can impede us from achieving what we really want. They were distracted by school and work. Two good and necessary things but they let themselves become distracted, losing sight of what mattered most and where they wanted to go. I've decided that we need to take a step back and remember where we want to end up and if we aren't acting according to that vision then make the changes needed to get back on track.

 

So, about Sunday and Mothers Day.... Presidente Diaz told us that if we are in our last 2 changes (which I am) that we won't be able to call home. He doesn't want us to get unfocused and become trunky. Sorry Mom!

 

Okay, mean joke. I will be calling. I'll probably call between 4-6 Chile-time so like 1-3 home-time. I think it's 3 hours behind....  Please send me my username and password just to be sure that I remember it  :)

 

Love you all! Please be sure to brush your teeth before the Skype call. I don't think smelling someone's bad breath through a Skype call was a feature that they intended to add  ;P

 

Nos vemos el Domingo! [See you on Sunday!]

Elder Groneman

Baptizing a Primary

This week was amazing! Haha I think that my comp and I are going to end up baptizing a whole Primary......

 

This week we found lots of new investigators. One of them is the ex-mother-in-law of a recent convert that is now living with her. The RC landlord asked for the house because she needed a quick option so she is now living with her ex-mother-in-law. We helped her move some stuff into the house on Tuesday and afterwards we took advantage of the situation and taught G** (the ex-m-i-l) We've been trying to teach her for a while now because we contacted her about 2 months ago. Well, we finally got the chance! She accepted a baptismal date but it fell through because she didn't go to church :( Its all good though because with the RC living with her she's for sure going to get baptized!

 

Some of the other news are part of a family of 13. Only 3 of them are members. The mom met with the missionaries a few years ago and really wants to be baptized but can't because she and her husband both need to get divorced so that they can then get married. BUT, in the mean time we are teaching her granddaughter, niece and the son of the niece. The two kids are 10 and they both want to be baptized. The niece wasn't 100% sure so we have to work a bit more with her; but when she sees her son get baptized, we think that she will want to as well.

 

We also are activating an inactive lady who has a granddaughter living with her who is also 10. She wants to be baptized too and the gma is all for it!

 

This week we found that there is a grandson of a family who wasn't registered after he was baptized. He turns 11 today. If they can't find all of the necessary info, he will have to be baptized again.

 

Yesterday a member came up to us wanting us to teach his nephew that will now be with them every weekend. He is 8 about to turn 9 in a couple of weeks.

 

Then there's E**. He's 10.

 

So in total we are teaching four 10-yr-olds and will probably start teaching a 9 and an 11 yr old. Ya, we're going to baptize the Primary. The Primary President is happy.

 

So ya, that was a brief recap of this week  :)

 

Please wear shoes while jumping rope. That is unless you want your toes to be smacked by a tube of plastic whirling around at a million mph. If such is the case, I advise to keep band-aids and ice close at hand.

 

Love you all!

Elder Groneman

Mi querido familia. ¿Cómo están? Espero que estén bien

Mi querido familia. ¿Cómo están? Espero que estén bien. Se escucha como si todos.............[My dear family. How are you? I hope that you are well. You'll hear if all...] 

 

Ya, okay I won't write in Spanish. I should send a message in pure Chilean Spanish just so that when you send it through Google Translate it won't work    ;P

 

Anyways, all's going well here. It's rained the past few days here, so, of course, every Chilean hid inside their home and made scones (the Chilean version). Now I am very aware of how worn out my shoes are. Haha the good part of walking all day is that the water in your shoes eventually gets warm and keeps your feet warm too   :)

 

E* went to church yesterday! Finally! They haven't been going for the last few weeks. Haha it made me laugh that of all the weeks to go, they go when it rains which is when the majority of the other members don't go to church. Oh the irony. The gpa said that starting in 2 weeks they are going to start staying for the 3 hours sí o sí. If all goes well and there aren't any random surprises (which there always are) E** should be baptized some time in May.

 

Last night the rain actually helped us. We were walking down the deserted street and we see this guy just standing calmly under the overhanging of a building. Yes! Someone to talk to! We started talking to him and he told us that he was waiting for the rain to let up so he could walk to his house (he didn't have an umbrella). Haha he´s trapped - perfect! We start teaching him and he actually got really excited and wanted us to go to his house another day so that we could teach his family. In the end we walked with him to his house so that we would be able to find it in the future because he didn't know the direction because they had just moved there. Hopefully we can find it and teach the whole family!

 

When there is rain and wind, please be sure to secure the ends of your umbrella. It's not that fun when it flips inside-out and instead of blocking the rain, it acts as a personal resoviour (ya, spelling. I know.....)

 

Les Quiero! [Love you!]

Elder Groneman

Short & Sweet

Sad News: E** did not get baptized. He passed his interview and everything. The problem is his dad and grandpa. They kept up with their problems, excuses, and doubts; so, in the end, E** did not get baptized..... We´ll see what happens. Now he won't be able to be baptized until May at the soonest  :(

That was the main thing that happened this week. We walked a ton because basically all of our appointments fell through for some reason. But we did have some good contacts.

One of the few lessons we had was with an investigator who co-habitates with a less active. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. Wow, I've never seen someone get soooo excited about the Plan of Salvation. Usually there is some excitement but this guy, wow, he was really excited. Like more excited than Pepper [our dog] when Dad gets home. Ya, really excited. What called his attention most was the Resurrection and the fact that everyone will be resurrected - the good and the bad. Also, he loved the thought of the Celestial Kingdom. He told us that he is willing to do anything to be able to go there with his family. Little does he know that he just committed to getting married! Anyways, it was great seeing the light in his eyes as we taught and testified. It really was something else. Like a little kid on Christmas morning (one that's not getting coal in his stocking).

So ya. That was my week. Short and Sweet - like one of Mom´s mini-cupcakes   :)

Never underestimate the power of bubbles. They can turn any adult into a little kid again :)

 

Love you all!

Elder Groneman

Gotta love the missionary equivalent of Christmas!

Well, like always when we have baptisms planned, Satan throws everything he's got at us and the investigators. Two of the 3 won't be baptized this Sunday as previously planned. The other one hopefully will but it's not 100% certain right now. He still wants to and is ready but the problem is with his gpa and father. Ya, giant story there that I do not want to take the time to write because it would take forever! So ya, pray for E**!!!

 

HAHA so I feel like I'm in my training again. With my compañion we are now speaking 3 languages each. Portuguese in the mornings, Spanish during the day, and English at night. Ya, let's just say that in the mornings I don't talk as much as I do during the rest of the day. It's a work in progress but slowly I'm getting the hang of Portuguese. I'm still nowhere near being able to speak fluently though. I'm good at reading it out loud though.

 

General Conference was great! Gotta love the missionary equivalent of Christmas! It was sad seeing Pres Monson give such short talks. Powerful, but short. Actually, his talk Sunday morning was just parts of like 2 or 3 of his past talks. I have those talks on my pen drive and have listened to them enough that when he was talking, I recognized every word. Elder Hales basically said goodbye :( We may have 2 more Apostles soon......On the bright side, I really like Elder Stevenson as a new Apostle. His talk was a great way to explain priesthood keys and their significance and importance.

 

Now, the question is this: What are you going to do with all of the counsel and advice that you received this weekend? (I'm assuming you all watched/listened to GC, if not, go repent and watch it.) Many times people ask "why are they saying this again? They've said this a million times now". To answer that question I pose this question, "How hard have you tried to apply what they've said?" The reason why the prophets repeat the same counsels over and over again is because we, as human beings, are naturally stubborn and lazy in nature and don't like working for the change. News Flash! We are not with God. If we are comfortable with how we are now, it means that we are comfortable not being with God. God is found outside of our comfort zone. Now go and ACT! That is all.

 

So ya. That's about it. Please be careful of witches offering some of their brew. If you drink it, it may be the last thing you do.

 

Love you all!

Elder Groneman