Hi

Hola family!!

This week was pretty great. We had some success, and a lot of different things happened, and it went by waaaaayy too fast as always, pero así es la vida, ¿Qué se le va a hacer?

Anywhooo, the week was good, I was able to festejar mi cumpleaños with a member family because we had an fhe that same night with a new investigator! Family home evenings are the best- good times with members, new investigators that already have friends in the church and therefore have more probability to progress, and there's always food. Also some missionaries made me a cake for my birthday and we ate in in district meeting, I'll try to send the video we took.
A ver.....we also went to a house that we were going to give a blessing because the famil was seeing things there, pero they wern't home soo nothing happened.
We did intercambios with the elders of Fernandez Oro, the small town about 10 km outisde of Cipolletti that corresponds to our ward, that was a fun time, I went with Elder Damico, from Brazil. He's a chill guy, we had a fun time and taught some sweet lessons.

Also, this Sunday we got to church, and one by one, 5 stake presidente, our mission president, and Elder Batalla from the Area Seventy entered into our sacrament meeting. They had a meeting that morning about new plans from the area, and they had chosen the chapel of cipo 2 to do it haha. President Cardenas from San Martín spoke, and it was very nice to see him again. It was a very nice Sunday.

Other than that, not much else happened. This week we have traslados, so we'll see it my comp leaves or stays, I don't think I'll be going anywhere, but you never know.

Les quiero mucho!!!

elder grondel

Cake

An elder made mini-Elder Rodriguezes

Happy Easter!!!

Hello everyone!!!

This week was very special and a lot of things happened, I'm going to write you guys about a few of them.

The best part of these week was definitely this Saturday and Sunday. We had President Nelson come to our mission, and had a special meeting with all the missionaries from the entire mission and him Saturday morning. It was a fantastic experience. On Friday night, I went to Neuquén to practice with the mission choir the arrangement of Asombro me da"(I stand all amazed) that we sang, which was fantastic if I say so myself. It turned out very nice, and I got to stay in a hotel with all the other missionaries from the mission that night which was fun. On Saturday morning, We woke up early to practice a little, and then waited for President Nelson. He came in, and shook each of our hands, and we had a great experience. President Nelson is 92 years old, but he got up and down, spoke with energy and did everything without a problem. He and his wife along with a couple other Area authorities spoke, and it was a very nice meeting. I loved his message because he talked about examples of a couple of the leaders that were there with him, that talked about how their missions meant everything to them. The translator (hno Aguero) learned english oin his mission in France because his mission president told him he would need it to be able to serve in the important callings and assignments he would have, and presidente Texeira also talked about how all the happiness he has had in life came because of his mission and the decisions he made while he was on it. It was very special and helped realize and the numerous things I've learned and gained from my mission, and how grateful I am to the Lord for giving me this opportunity to serve Him and His children in Argentina.

On Sunday we had Stake conference for our stake with President Nelson again. A member picked us up at 7:20 am to get to the stake center early (the conference started at 10). We got some good seats, and the conference was just as special. A lot of beautiful messages, especially from Sister Nelson, when she talked about being able to use Christ's atonement to rise above our sins and weaknesses. Just as the angels said to the women when the came to look for the body of Jesus, we too can say that we aren't in the tomb of those old habits or attitudes, but that we have "risen" above them, and those moments have disappeared. I liked it a lot.

President Nelson also gave a very good talk, spoke about the recorded events of the Resurrected Christ appearing to the people. He spoke of many things, and it was good, but the most amazing part was at the end when he said "Now I feel that I must speak to you in your own language. Thank you Hno Agüero." His translator sat down, and he started speaking in perfect spanish. As someone that has been learning and trying to perfect my spanish for the past 21 months of my life, I can testify that he was speaking by the Spirit. He conjugated everything correctly, he didn't hestitate or pause, he never said one of the male or female articles incorrectly. It was the gift of tongues working within him as the ordained and aparted Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ that he is. The Spirit that I felt in that moment testified the same thing to my heart that I was being amazed by in my mind, it was an incredible experience. I know that President Nelson is truly an apostle, that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today, and that the Lord gives us these experiences to be able to believe more firmly in Him. It wasn't a very long testimony and blessing that he gave, but it was amazing.

Overall, it was a fantastic week, and celebrating my birthday is a great way to end it. Thank you all for your loving support and prayers, havea great week!!

elder grondel

Pictures

Playing "padel" pickleball

Intercambios

A store with my name

When you are cold in the morning

The hotel, and Elder Magaña

My posterity! (The two missionaries I trained, who they trained, and so on)

Elder Bra-Silva feat. empanadas

My group

Our zone

When you're waiting for Pres Nelson to come to your stake conference and your missionaries still haven't gotten there

My comp is great

pictures pascua príncipe de paz

So I don't have a lot of time today, but we had a really good week and a lot of stuff happened. We did exchanges with the small city of Allen. We had a good time. We also had a chapel open house and a few baptisms in the zone, a lot of activities. Pictures say a thousand words, so here are a ton of pictures.

Eating dinner

Eating at a chinese buffet last pday

Going to the terminal with sprite

exchanges, and one of those who got baptized this week

chapel open house

genconf2017

Hey everyone!!! How are you doing?

This week was good, we had a couple of great things happen, and we're even more excited for these next couple of weeks.

These week was kind of hard because we had quite a few baptismal dates for this weekend, but a couple fell. There's a girl named Rosita who's the granddaughter of a member in Neuquén that already knows everything and is prepared, but we went to talk to her with her parents, and the dad seemed like he didn't have a problem with her getting baptized, but the mom said that she wasn't ready for Rosita to get baptized and a bunch of things. We were pretty bummed and tried talking a little more, but she said we couldn't come back until this week, so we haven't been able to talk to her a lot.

But the good thing is that our investigator Mario is progressing very well. He's the brother of a recent convert, and he's always smiling and happy. He has accepted everything we've taught him, and he came to general conference on Saturday! He enjoyed it a lot, he was going to come on Sunday as well, but he had something to do at the last minute, and couldn't come. But he seems excited, and has a baptismal date for this Saturday, we think that he can make it.

Conference was super good, I loved it. A lot of great talks that helped me a lot. I feel like one of the big themes was charity, which is always something I can get better at, but I loved that talking of charity, I loved that a lot of people also talked about John 3:16, which should be the motivation of our love towards others, the motivation for having charity. I know that the Lord loves and cares for each and every one of us, and that as we strive to love others, we will feel more of that love.

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Grondel

It rained a lot