another white guy

Hello there everybody, how's it going?

This week was pretty crazy, and encima we were at the terminal all day with transfers until now, and so I don't remember much. But here we go.

Remember how I said I had a great companion that was just really good at a lot of things? Well apparently the mission president (and the Lord for that matter) thought so too, because he was just assigned to be the new assistant! So he left on Saturday night, but I got my new comp Elder Madsen from Farmington, Utah, and thus continues my endless streak of gringo comps. We get along well, and this is his first transfer as zone leader, so we're kind of just winging it, but I'm sure it'll turn out fine. He's a great guy and a super good missionary, so things will go well.

The beginning of the week was pretty normal, but it got crazy about Thursday when President called and told me who my comp was and that we was coming that day because his comp went to Neuquén to be one of the oficinistas. After that, we had to go to San Martín to do a baptismal interview, and it was great! It was fun to be back over there. I wasn't in my area, but saw some members igual. It was fun.

On Saturday, Bianca got baptized. Everything went smoothly, and she was so happy and just said she felt so good and light afterwards. It was so awesome, there wasn't a ton of people there, but it was a good time. We visited some members so Elder Clemens so he could say goodbye, printed out transfers, and sent him off to Neuquén. He really has grown to be one of my greatest friends in the mission, I learned a ton from him. I'm excited to see what he does.

Today was tiring, not much else to say. Love you all hope you're well!

Elder Grondel

Baptism, flia Henriquez, new and old comp, clemens

hace frío

Hello my dear friends, how are you doing? Another great week in the Patagonia, and it was all very cold.

The climate is changing gradually, but this week was pretty cold, despite the few days of sun we've had recently, which was a nice change of pace.

This week was really awesome! To start off, Enrique got baptized! It was a good service and a lot of people were at the church for an activity right before, so quite a few people showed up! He was happy and his wife was too. They're really special and deserve all the love the warde is giving them. Also, on Friday we went by to talk to him and his wife, and she told us that she had a dream that one of her favorite pastors told her that there's another church, and she took that as an answer that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church! She wanted to get baptized yesterday, but it was short notice and we haven't taught everything to her yet, but she'll get baptized next week! It was an amazing and truly humbling experience to see how the Lord blesses us dependent on our own efforts.

The week went by pretty quick as we were preparing the baptism. Claudia is another investigator that we've started teaching recently and she's prgoressing well too. She's very sincere and really cares for other people, we're just trying to get her to really pray and come to church. the 25th of May is a national holiday here, it's something about the civil war, I'm still not quite sure what it is. Regardless, there's going to be an activity on Wednesday for it, so we've been doing a little planning for that as well. Also on Friday we were able to have a lesson with Hermana Claudia Henriquez (the mom of the girl that got baptized a little while ago) and her friend/cousin's wife Paola, and it was really awesome. She really enjoyed it all and felt the Spirit super strong. She went to Chile this week and said she was going to take the Book of Mormon with her to read on the way, but she forgot it. But, her daughter started reading it, so it's great. Really things are just going well. We also went by and taught the whole Henriquez family, and they are really amazing. We were asking them about how they've felt the past couple of months with us coming by, what differences they've notice (all for the objective of getting Jorge, the dad, to realize what he should do) and Daniela bore her testimony of the peace that she has felt because of her decision. It made me so happy, there really is no better work than this. You work so hard every single day, and when you hear something like that, it makes it all worth it. At least she knows.

This transfer has probably been the best one I've had yet. I don't think I've ever been so happy, learned so much, and laughed so much more than these past weeks, I'm super excited for this last week, trying to savor every last moment.

I love you all so much and hope you are well!

Elder Grondel

tudo bem

Hello there my friends and family, I hope you are all doing well.

The weeks go faster and faster, and I remember less and less every Monday I sit down to write. This week was really good, we saw a lot of great things, but the truth is I don't really remember most of it haha. Not that well at least.

We did intercambios and I went with Elder Conceicao from Brasil. It was fun, he's a great guy, really funny. I still can't understand him that well because of his accent (he's got 4 months in the mish) but we had a good time. We saw so people taking out there tree and cutting down the branches and stuff, and we got to help them which was pretty great! It felt good to be able to help someone like that, most of the time they don't let us do anything, but we were able to and then share a quick lesson with them, it was great! We also had a really good lesson with Enrique and his wife at the church. It was really spiritual and we testified super hard. He's gonna get baptized this week which is great! She still has some doubts, but we're working on it.

The Henriquez family (the girl who got baptized a couple weeks back) is doing great too. We're working with the dad right now, it's kind of dificult because he does have too much of a religious background/belief, but he's a great guy. We're trying to figure what we can do to help him. But that family is super special to us, and the other day Daniela bore her testimony about how she felt the church was true and her desires to follow God and it was really awesome.

Yesterday, President came down and we had interviews with him. And it was great. He's such a spiritual man, that you know is trying his best to follow the Lord's will, but he's also super down-to-earth. My comp and I were talking about it, and that's the best word to describe him. He's an amazing person and super great, but just down-to-earth, it's super easy to relate to him. We had a really good interview and talked about my progress so far in the mission and the type of missionary I want to be and more importantly that the Lord wants me to be. He helped me a lot and I'm excited to see how things go from now on.

Things are still going well here all in all. Killin it, having a great time with my comp, loving life

Elder Grondel

Didn't take any pics this week, so here's this one of my comp and I right now

Día de la Madre

Hey there again.

Everything's great here. I just talked to my family so I don't feel like I have a lot to write, but we had a really good week! Everything just seemed to go smoothly and it was one of the best weeks I've had in the mission in terms of, basically everything.

We had our zone training on Tuesday, and it was great. Everybody participated and is super excited about the new plan that Presidente gave us, so we're pumped about that. We really do have a great zone, and things are going well.

The rest of the week is kind of a haze, but Daniela got baptized on Saturday! It was a really nice little service and turned out well. She was reaaaalllly nervous, but it was great in the end. They're a really special family and I love them a lot. Awkward baptismal pictures will be included.

Enrique is progressing as well. We're trying to help him and make sure he understands everything because he has a slight bit of schizophrenia, but he is doing pretty well, and has really sincere desires. He and his wife came to church and Sunday, and his wife bore her testimony! It might have been just from her seat speaking very loudly, but she still did it and it was cool! So we're excited.

All in all, everything's great. Loving life.

Elder Grondel

Fishing y Gonzalez

I really don't have a lot of time, but this week was amazing. I learned so much and we had some amazing experiences.

Elder Gonzalez, the area President for South America South, came to our mission with his wife and gave an amazing training. We learned a ton, my comp and I even got to do a practice with him that taught us a lot. He also spoke at the Bariloche Stake Conference, so we got a lot of him. He was a great guy and I thoroughly enjoyed his messages. Based on his visits he said we're doing really well as missionareis, but we need to improve in our logros, so the assistants and President came up with a new plan that we're excited to implement.

Our area is going super well! Daniela will be baptized this Saturday, and Enrique the next! He came to the Saturday session and when Elder Gonzalez asked what we had learned, he raised his hand and said he wanted to get baptized! So we're super pumped about that!

Everything's great here, love you all!


Elder Grondel