Monday, September 30, 2013


First off, what a miracle a mission is. All you do is constantly watch the hand of God guide you.

Monday: Welp, last monday started off weird. We got a call from two of the members both asking if we were alive or whether we were hit by a truck and killed. Hmph. Turns out a biker in a white shirt and tie that works at Cummins got hit and people thought it was us. He turned out okay so you can all laugh now. Ha. As a district we went to Zaharako's for lunch. Look it up. It's so cool. This old fashion ice cream parlor. Had our normal Badminton tournament and I am now back-to-back-to-back-to-back champion. Things are getting pretty serious with it now. Hahaha. We also played this game called chair soccer. You get a gym and 4 people who all have their own chair and you put them in the 4 corners. You then throw up a soccer ball and you all go crazy and try to kick the ball to hit someones chair, if your chair is hit, you're out. You go until someone is left. Ta-da! Simple yet magical! We then had dinner with Shawna who was one of our concerned members who thought we were hit by a truck. We arrived like living angels to her house and she was happy to see our bodies still workable. We then exchanged with the Zone Leaders and so I was with Elder Harris, who was actually Brett Smith (my BYU roomate) trainer! SMALL WORLD.

Tuesday: So we had district meeting in the morning and then just went home for break after. Totally lame morning. Then when we tried to leave to go out and work, Elder Harris didn't fit on Elder Oliva's bike so he spent 45 minutes trying to fix it and eventually resolved that he couldn't. It was just a mess. We proselyted outside of Mexican stores and it was really funny listening to Elder Harris try to use spanish. I was dying haha. We never got to teach anyone but we did have dinner that night with the Mijangos and she made us this diviiiine asian food. YUM.

Wednesday: Exchanged back so I got my little hispanic back, ha. I was ridiculously tired this day. It was awful. I am currently yawning as I think about it. We tracted and this girl asked us if we were the "People who believe in a different Jesus". I was so confused, like what does that even mean? Hahaha. I fell asleep for like 15 seconds in a Less Active Lesson, that was awful. After that we went to Walmart and got the ghetto asian food they sell there like at Supermarkets and then found this random mini beach in a grove of trees and ate there and just pretended like we were on a beach obviously.... We then taught Arturo y Ana with Sister Nehring!

Thursday: So we have this investigator in Seymour which is forever away, so we took the car from Columbus 2 and went and taught him and it was totally cool and then we had lunch after at Chili's, freaking YUM YUM. And this Chili's is launching like this pilot program with these electronic devices that you get on your table, it is weird, you pay from your table with your card by yourself now. You'll see it soon California! Then we just had never ending Weekly Planning, taught Familia Jaimez and went to the Panaderia with the Columbus 2.2 sisters and feasted on mexican bread. yum.

Friday: So, we did service all day. Spent 4 hours (whoops) making Empanadas with Sis. Lopez and then after that we had to go set up for the Branch Fiesta. Then we had the fiesta. It went amazing and so many non members came, so awesome! 

Saturday: So today there was this huge marathon in Columbus so we pretty much had to stay in until the roads opened again. We then went tracting in this trailor park in Edinburgh because we had plenty of miles left. We found a new investigator and then accidentally knocked into a Jehovah's Witness and she talked at us for like 35 minutes and then told us to return soon so she can teach us more. lol. That was fun. We then went by Familia Vaiz and they made me eat ants. Not like normal ants, huge ants from Mexico. So awful. Then we went to Familia Jaimez for their sons birthday party and they kept wanting me to drink Tequila so I can "learn to fly"

AHHH! the computer is about to kick me off, i will do Sunday next week! I have to send this. love you all bye!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Day 111!

Day 111! Wow! The days seem to never end and the weeks fly by, it's quite bizarre. It kind of also blows my mind que yo puedo hablar espanol. It's weird when I can just randomly break in between spanish and english. Like I will just be talking and spanish will randomly just roll into my English. I even am starting to say English words in Spanish accent. Like the word family now sounds like "fawmlee" I crack myself up, haha. The letter A makes an "aw" sound and I just can't shake it out of my English! Anyways,

Monday: Well, Preparation Day. I won the Badminton tournament. The Olympics better watch out, I'm really coming along in my great skills. Ha. Went to go pick up my bike from the sisters and it turned out one of the sisters popped my tire and totally tried to fix it but failed miserably. So I flushed another 10 dollars down the toilet for that one. Went to Familia Vaiz and it was interesting. We essentially just watched a Spanish soap opera with them for 15 minutes, they said I look fatter, and we left. Hahahaha. Totally unproductive, whoops!

Tuesday: We had zone conference and it was 8 hours long so that was a hefty amount of thinking I had to do for a substantial amount of time. Sure don't miss academics, ha! It was a super good conference though and I am excited to see how it helps my missionary work! That night we just ate at home and while we were eating, the little girl Hannah that lives with us (4) told Elder Oliva he has a really dark face and looks funny and I was dying laughing and her mom totally swoops in and says "That's because his family are lamanites, isn't that cool Hannah?" and then she was totally amazed thinking he is some Book of Mormon hero now! After, we went to teach an investigator Ulices and he was working on fixing his closet so we went with him to Lowe's to buy supplies and he totally wanted me to drive his old El Dorado 
car and I was so sad that we aren't allowed to, it's such a sick car!

Wednesday: District meeting! I had the idea that we could all share something instead of just the District Leader and so we did and it was so awesome! I loved it! Everyone had great things to share. After, the entire district went to Zwanzigs for pizza and it was so fun to all hang out! As we were driving back home, we saw Arturo working on a roof and stopped and said hi and set up an appointment to teach him that night. Later that day we went by to teach Zaida and we gave her a priesthood blessing, my first ever in Spanish. Crazy! For dinner we went to the Mijango's and they had  CHINESE TAKE OUT! I was so excited I almost cried! We then went with Brother Mijango to teach Arturo y Ana but Arturo was still working so we only taught Ana.

Thursday: So Thursdays we do lots of service and weekly planning so it's not too busy but for our service we worked in the yard with Sister Nehring. We were sawing branches off trees and planting grass and a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE storm came. It was AMAZING. I cannot begin to describe it. I have never seen anything even NEAR what it was like. It was so crazy cool. I just stood outside in it basking in the rain. It was crazy. SOOOO much rain. The rain in Indiana is incredible. It's weird because it's slightly humid hot rain, but whatever! We went by the Panaderia later that day to try and teach them but it didn't work out so we just got some yummy orange muffins and left. Then we had dinner at the Richard's house and I helped coach their daughter Katie in Volleyball and I was so sentimental, haha! 

Friday: Did service in the morning in Sister Lopez' garden. Mowed her lawn and we are starting to rebrick the side of her house, what a joy. We then went to teach Zaida but a huge storm came and we couldn't because we have to teach her outside. It's sad how we always get rained out from teaching her! The rest of the day nothing really happened so we just proselyted outside a mexican tienda and then that night we went and watched some of the 
Columbus North FB game. It was homecoming and like no one was there. Their parade was just the four floats and it just reminded me of how awesome Liberty is at Homecoming! We do it way better than anyone ever can! They let us free into the game and kept trying to give us seats on the field haha. I think they thought we were the security guards or something in our white shirts and ties. 

Saturday: In the morning we went and taught one of our investigators Raul and he sang us songs he wrote and played his guitar and it was coooooolio. That night we just had dinner at the Taqueria and taught Ulices about Chastity and he loved it and said he will talk to his girlfriend about getting married, so cool! Oh, I was dancing in the car and I said "giggin" and now Elder Oliva says it all the time. He is like a little kid, he repeats everything nonstop, haha.

Sunday: None of our investigators were at church.... Super sad about that.... I gave a talk in church too, so I was bummed. It was crazy how I managed to write a talk all by myself in Spanish. I blow my mind sometimes. After church we taught Francisco and then went to Felix y Angelica's to give him a blessing and of course when they got there, they had us stay for dinner too. The hispanics never stop feeding us. It's bizarre. Hispanics LOVE to cook for people.

Wow, long email. Long week. Fun week. Missionary work is crazy, but I love it. I get homesick for a second and then I realize how lucky I am to be a missionary. The work is hard and fun. What a paradox! I am grateful for the mini miracles that I get to see everyday! Well, until next week!

Hasta luego!
Elder Jeffrey Aaron Groseclose

Monday, September 16, 2013

Day Number 104! Haha! That puts me about about 1/7 of the way through. Wow. Anyway, time for the regular:

Monday: We had our usual P-Day! Emails, Walmart, Food, and Sports! We had our usual badminton tournament and I won, yay! I love Badminton haha. Then we played basketball with our investigator Arturo and it was way fun! After he had us over for dinner and it was amazing quesadillas! They used to own a restaurant and are AMAZING cooks! He then took us to our lesson with Ulices after and even invited Ulices to church! He is so amazing! 

Tuesday: District meeting in the morning and then we went to lunch at China Buffet with Elders Combs and Knudsen. We then did service with Arturo y Ana helping clean up the yard of this abandoned house because the lady who lives next door says it makes her house look awful! The story behind it is super crazy. I will give a brief summary! This couple lived there with their daughter who was 28 and the daughter got caught up with the wrong people and these 2 guys asked her if she knew anywhere that'd be easy to rob and she told them of this older lady who was partly deaf. When the guys went to rob the house, the lady woke up and came downstairs so they killed her and other stuff happened but the girl got implicated for murder because of it so the couple had to mortage the house to help with her lawyer bills and all this stuff, crazy huh?

Wednesday: We tracted. We got no results. The usual that comes from tracting. We did teach Zaida though and taught a recent convert Jacie after. Totally hilarious. That night we had dinner with Arturo y Ana again and shared a message with them. :)

Thursday: Day 100! Haha. In the morning we helped Sister Nehring patch holes in the walls and then paint the entire basement wherever there were marks. We then had much success in teaching three lessons and had dinner with the Mijangos that night. She made this rice with cheese and cream and corn and it was super delicious and this amazing, I believe, Argentinian type of meat. It was awesome!

Friday: Complete mess other than that we taught Ulices with Guapo.

Saturday! Great day! Elder Knudsen came to Spanish land and we had exchanges! We tracted for 3 hours and got nothing but a potential but it was still nice because the weather is AMAZING right now! We also managed to set up a return appointment that went through. We then tried Proselyting outside of one of the mexican tiendas and got a few contacts and we hope to see from fruit from that labor! We taught this older couple who sells bread outside the tienda and they talked A LOT. It was an interesting lesson! She has very strong faith though so maybe it can become something? Then we taught Francisco a quick lesson and that night Arturo y Ana had over all the missionaries in Columbus (10 of us!) for dinner! They made a bunch of tamales and they were DELICIOUS! It was so cool seeing all the missionaries eating together with our amazing investigators! Such a cool awesome experience! 

Sunday: We woke up at 6 to head out to a church meeting an hour away and then we had just an hour of church (sacrament meeting). It was an interesting morning. It was Andrew's birthday today! He lives with us and he turned 2! He is so adorable and it made me miss my little buddy Carter! We taught Raul y Odaris and I feel really good about them! They loved the restoration movie! We also got our first ever referral today! The sisters knew how special it'd be so they decorated it and delivered it to us in an envelope all decorated, haha!

All in all, we taught 13 other lessons this week! It is our record by far. It was such a successful week. The Spanish is just spilling out and I don't even have to think about it. It is SO cool. I love getting better cada dia! I am so blessed to be here!

Estoy disfrutando la experiencia que yo estoy experimentando. es increible para mi para pensar que tres meses pasadas, yo no hable nada en espanol, sino horita, yo puedo hablar muchas palabras sin pensando. yo no soy perfecto en la idioma, sino estoy tratando y aprendiendo y esa es la bendicion.

I love you all, thank you!
Elder Groseclose

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Totally forgot about this! Got distracted with all my other emails. So sorry. This one will be super brief! I forgot my journal so I can't remember what happened this week because we do so much! Wednesday was district meeting and then after we taught a recent convert and just tried to help her be motivated and more positive. Then the Bejar's bought us Chipotle and we taught Arturo that night at Boy Scouts! Thursday was an interesting day to say that least.... We traveled to Seymour with a member and taught a guy Marcelino who is awesome and then we had weekly planning and studies scattered throughout the day and didn't accomplish much. We did go to the Creasy's for dinner though and they have an amazing garden of vegetables and fruits, it's so cool to see! Friday was AWFUL, we tracted all day and tried to teach and we ended the day with 0's. Bleh. Saturday we decided to tract in this trailor park outside Columbus and got a new investigator and taught these former investigators. Then we proselyted outside Mi Tierra (a tienda) and made contacts there and then we taught to less active lessons and they went great! Yesterday was church and it was awesome as always! We then watched Lamb of God with Arturo y Ana and that's pretty much the weeky, sorry it's so lame! 

My companion is so funny lol. And just pictures of me pretending to be cool... and how hispanics eat watermelon.... and just weird pictures. Yup, I am still weird.

Love you all! 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Day 91! Hahaha, bizarre! It's already another week into a transfer, the time flies, it's so crazy. We are just nonstop working and then it's magically P-Day. 

This letter I have less time so I am just going to write a long blurb and call it good.... 

SO, last monday was of course Preparation Day but also my sister Lauren's birthday! So weird not talking to her or texting her on her birthday, wahhh. For P-Day we played a badminton tournament at the church with Elder Combs and Knudsen and I won, YAY! We played Volleyball after and I hit the ball so hard into Knudsen that he fell over and his face was beaming, bahahaha. We then went to this Ice Cream Parlor/Restaraunt/Museum place called Zaharakos for lunch. If you've been to the Mickey Mouse Ice Cream place on Hollywood Blvd, it's like that.

 Tuesday morning we did service at Manuel's house helping him replaster his roof for the rain. We then taught Zaida and I got a bunch of flavor Aloe Vera drinks from the Mexican store, I am OBSESSED! Later that night we went to Arturo's house for dinner and Ana was at school because she's taking classes now to help people with there taxes. Anyways, Arturo made us AMAZING tacos and then we taught him about how to receive answers to prayers. On the bike ride home I popped my tire and the other Elders had to pick us up and take us home. Atleast I beat Elder Oliva 100-22 at Ping Pong! 

On Wednesdaymorning, Marc Nehring (the people we live with's son) took us to get my tire fixed and then after we rode over and visited Sister Lopez and she said I looked fatter, awesome. I definitely weigh LESS haha. That night we went to the Mijango's and they said I look THINNER, so ironic it happened in the same day!!! Anyways, after Sis Lopez we went to the Taco Bell and I tried the new Fiery Taco, SOOOO GOOOOOOD. There were a bunch of creepy goth kids outside Taco Bell and Elder Oliva said "I think they are going to molest us" because in Spanish "molestar" means to attack, not like in English! Haha!

On Thursday we did service for Sister Lopez and then went to the Mexican store and I bought more Aloe Drinks haha. We taught Zaida and then had dinner at the Richards. Thursday are usually ineffective due to 3 hours of weekly planning.

Friday! On Friday I had a dream about Lauren and Carter! Carter was choking and I saved him so he kept poking my forehead saying "I love you Jeppy!!!" I wanted to stay in that dream for so much longer!!!! After that we went to walk the Bejar's dogs and they gave us this cake they bought from the Mexican store and I didn't eat any because I didn't feel like it and Elder Oliva did and he said it tasted weird and we looked and it had alcohol in it! Haha!!! That night we went with Guapo to Arturo y Ana's and taught them a Plan of Salvation overview!!!!

Saturday. 106 degrees and humid. Death. Death.
Anyways, this investigator that the Sister's found us in Seymour (a town 30 minutes away) was in Columbus so we got to teach him for the first time! We taught the Restoration at the chapel and it was awesome. He loved the building and even came to church the next day! That night Arturo y Ana had a party for their son Koko (Isaac) and so much of the ward came, it's so awesome seeing them being fellowshipped! The food was PERFECT. Best taco meat EVER. During the party though a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE storm came bigger than I have EVER seen in my life. Thunder and Lightning for legit over an hour and BUCKETS of rain. It was INSANE. And I got to drive in it! It was AMAZING.

Sunday we had Break the Fast at the Hammond's and Arturo y Ana came and nothing else really happened Sunday.

Yesterday was P-Day and the library was closed, so that's why I am mailing today! We played Badminton, Volleyball, and Basketball. Elder Knudsen like destroyed his ankle and we had good tacos for lunch at Poblanita Taqueria. Okay, that's all! 

Yo extrano todos de ustedes! Pero, la obra es muy divertido y yo estoy muy agradecido por la oportunidad que yo tengo para aprender espanol and usarlo cada dia. la obra tal vez puede ser dificil algunas veces, pero yo se que mediante fe, todas las cosas son posible!

I love you all! Tengan un buena semana!
Elder Groseclose.