semana buena

Heeeeelllooooo there evrybody, how are ye fairing this fine day?

Everything is just great here! This week went by fairly quick, and to be honest we didn't get in to as many houses as we would have liked, but it still was a really good week.

The best part of the week was that this menos activo/part-member family came to church yesterday! It was so awesome. The husband is the brother of one of the counselors in the bishopric, and his brother was soooo happy to see him there with his family. The Hermano also really seemed to be happy to be back in the church. The truth is he has done a lot of things in the church, he was even a Bishop. But some things happened, I still don't understand or know all of it, but now his señora and her son are listening, and they were all so happy to be there, it was great.

On Saturday we put on an Easter Activity, and it was fantastic! We did an easter egg hunt, played some games, and then shared the new Easter video and the Bishop spoke a little. It was great! We actually had quite a few people show up, including some other investigators and a less-active family that's been coming more and more to church. We had a lot of fun and it turned out really well, so that was great.

We also did intercambios (exchanges) with Elder Magaña and Elder Bush which was fun. Elder Magaña and I went out together and had a great time. He's a great friend and we get along really well, so we enjoyed ourself. He taught me a lot about just always being happy, because he's always happy and uplifiting and smiling and searching for ways to help.

The rest of the wek was pretty normal, we weren't able to meet with Keila unfortunately. It was frustrating because we set up a time and went by and nobody answered, and when we tried again an hour and a half later, she said, "I was here waiting for you guys at 5:30, why didn't you come by?" And so we somehow missed each other in the one second she went outside for something. I've been studying a lot for her and feel like I've received a lot of revelation on how to get to baptism quickly, and so I really just wanna get in there and throw it down, but looks like we'll have to wait some more.

Apparently we're also going to Bariloche again tomorrow for another conference with President, and on thursday my comp has to do immigration stuff in Neuquén, so I don't really know what I'll be doing or what will happen this week, but I guess we'll just hope for the best.

I love you all, thank you so much for your support!

Elder Grondel

No robberies this week

Hey everybody, how are you doooooooooing? Everything is great over here.

More than anything, this week went by veeeery quickly, but the more I think about it the more I realize how much stuff we did.

The week started out with a brief trip to Bariloche, where we had our zone training and met our new zone leader. The training was very good, as is our new zone leader. We had a pretty good day, and then my comp and I got to go work with some other Elders in another area of Bariloche, which was fun. One of them was the office secretary when I got to the mission, and so it was fun to be with him again.

The other main thing that happened this week is one of our assistants came to work with us for a couple days! Right now we have 3 assistants because one's about to go home, and he is traveling around the mission working with all the Elders right now. So he stayed with us for a little while and we went out and worked together. He's super funny and we get along really well, so we had a good time. Elder Nevins and I both learned a lot, and are excited to apply what we've learned specifically to our area.

The best news of the week is probably that we went to a referral we got from somebody from the bishopric, and they are great! He is a less-active member, and his "wife" (not married) and her son aren't members. We went and taught them and they are so awesome! Super humble, super willing to listen and keep commitments and everything. We thought for sure they were going to come to church, we were somewhat surprised when they didn't show up, but they're great, we'll go back and get 'em this week. El hermano plays the guitar too, and amazingly well, I might add. When we finished the lesson, we saw the guitar and Elder Wessel (the assistant that was with us) Decided to tell them that I play the guitar a little, and so of course they made me play. I struggled through a rough version of "I will Survive" and called it good. Then the hermano came out and just completely rocked Yesterday by the Beatles followed by some grooving Samba called La Música me ayuda, and sang like Brandon Flowers. It was awesome. We'll definitely be having more jam sessions soon.

All in all, things went very well this week. I'm loving life, living the dream.

Love,
Elder Grondel

Here's an old pic I don't think I ever sent. About three months ago.

Robbed

Hey everybody, hope you're all well! Everything's good here. This week passed by extremely fast, but it was good. And bad, mostly very busy and crazy.

Well to start off, I'll explain the subject. On tuesday my comp and I went into the grocery store to buy some food for lunch, and we put our bags in one of the lockers outside the store because you can't bring bags in like always. But the locker didn't have a key, and we didn't have a peso to get one, and so we thought eh whatever we'll be quick we've done this before. First mistake. Anyway, we carry along tranquilamente en La Anonima, and then as we go to check the locker, we come to find out that our bags are gone. Not a trace. Everything gone. We freak out, ask the police, they can't do anything, so we go to the actually police station, make a notice that we've been robbed and everything, and start walking to the church, with bags filled of groceries. Feeling extremely sad for losing not only our cameras and a cellphone for the other Elders, but as well our scriptures, patriarchal blessings, other important things, and suddenly one of the assistants called me and said, "hey we just got a weird call from a kid named Pedro that says he found two bags near the anonima that had this cell phone in it (I had the cell phone for the other Elders that hadn't arrived yet in my bag) and he says he's going to go to the terminal and look for somebody." We freaked out. Ran to the terminal, and a little kid gave us bag our bags! Unfortunately our cameras were taken, but everything else was in them like our scriptures and agendas. It was a miracle, truly a miracle. It never ceases to amaze me, how much love God has for us. After we had ignored slight promptings and done something completely stupid, He still worked a miracle for us.

The rest of the week went by super quick. Things are going well here, we're finding more and more people to teach, but are having a hard time getting them to church. That's our main goal that we're trying to overcome right now. The new Elders and Elder Ascencio from Peru, and Elder Brac from Corrientes, Argentina. They're both really great and are going to do amazing things here, I'm super excited for it.

Last night the assistants called me at like 9:40 and said that they were in San Martin about two minutes from my pensh, and wanted to see if they could stay the night. So that was extremely unexpected, but fun to see them again. We currently have 3 assistants right now which is interesting so that's also fun.

Overall, things are looking up. We get to go to Bariloche again tomorrow for a zone training, so that should be fun.

I don't have any pictures to send this week obviously soooooo, I'll work on that hahaha

Love you all!

Elder Grondel

Another rato in San Martín

Well hello there everybody, how is it treating you right now? I hope you guys are doing great.

This week was amazing! First things first, it's transfers, and Elder Nevins and I will be staying together! Elder Bush and Elder Magaña as well are staying, but both Hermanas are leaving and an Elder I've never met will be training another newbie in their area, so that will be exciting!

All in all, this week was amazing. Like I said, last week was a little rough, but this week was exactly the opposite. It felt like all of the effort we've put in since we got here finally paid off, and we were able to find a ton of new people to teach, and it's all very exciting! I've come to learn that The Lord strengthens us in our time of trial always, just like the Sons of Mosiah when they were about to leave because they had been so rejected and hated, but the lord came to them and told them to go back, the Lord always helps us, we just have to turn to Him.

One of the coolest experiences we had was finding a guy named Matías. We were walking through our area, and we say him shoveling dirt, and he kind of looked at us a ot, so we went up and asked if he needed help. He said "de arriba" (from above). It took me a minute to actually understand what he was trying to say, but when I did, we started talking about the Restoration and accepted everything, even a baptismal date! Unfortunately he didn't come to church, he doesn't have a phone, and lives in a campground where he hasn't been when we've gone by so far, but we'll get him.

We also went to Junin just outside of San Marting for pday last week and did a really cool walk wit a bunch of statues of Christ. It was done by a bunch of Argentine indians, and was actually kind of really weird, but it was awesome.

To be honest I don't remember much because it went by suuuuuper fast, but I'm super excited to keep working here and see the fruits of what's been happening! I love you all so much, hope you have a great week!

Elder Grondel