Wednesday, January 29, 2014

What a weird week. We were on lock down from Sunday until today (Wednesday). SO we are emailing today but we barely have any time. So I'll give ya what I can. 

Found some Adventists, taught them twice, got dropped.

Lots of snow so we haven't worked a lot. 

Our Investigator with a date for baptism has fallen back into smoking and so that's sad.

Not much has really happened, sorry this is lame. 

But look at me, I look cool.
HA.

Elder Groseclose
Human battleship
Indoor tennis

January 20

So like... my journal isn't in South Bend..... it is at the other Elder's apartment because I was on exchanges... so like I have no idea what happened this week. I will do my best to do it by memory recall, other than that, next week should be a much more exciting email!

So last Monday....
We cleaned the house I believe and it took forever because it was such a mess from the Elders that got double transferred out. It was pretty gross.... We then went about all our errands and played ball at the church! That night we taught a guy named Jorge at his restaurant Elotes y Mas and he gave us really delicious burritos! He is really really really fixed on the fact that God can NOT have a body like us. It's really hard but we are going back tonight and I hope it's productive! He really is such an awesome guy and I see so much potential if he can truly ask in FAITH for the answers and not walk purely by HUMAN thoughts. 
OH OH OH, I HAD PANDA EXPRESS!!!

Tuesday
SUCH A CRAZY DAY HAHAH. So I was on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders and we had, with the other Elder's investigator, service to help him move out of his house. We pull up and we see the guys wife standing there and so we walk up and ask where to start and she tells us "We can't go in until the cops get here." Ummm what the freak? What then followed when the 3 cops showed up was me living my DREAM! I was on like a real live edition of Jerry Springer/Cops/Maury. It was SO ghetto/ratchet/out of control. So the cops come and knock the door and this toothless guy opens it and marijuana smell comes roaring the heck out of that house and the guy is like "YOU CAN'T COME IN!!!!" and the cop proceeds to say "Ummm yes I can" and then accusations of people: Threatening to shoot babies, people attacking each other with knives and hammers, and also theft start flying out. IT WAS SUCH A HOT MESS HAHAHAHA. Turns out this guy who was trying to move out had people squatting his house and wouldn't leave and all this CRAZINESS happened, and here you have 4 Mormon missionaries standing there clueless thinking they were going to help someone move!!! I was like living a dream. Such a hot mess, I loved it so much. Nothing else on Tuesday is noteworthy compared to all that. 

Wednesday
Ummmm..... OH we helped someone move HAHA, but this one was normal! We helped Jorge (that guy up there on Monday ^) move one of his sons out and then went out to Breakfast with his family and it was nice. :) We taught Flor and she is progressing! It was awesome, she read so much and was loving sharing it all with us :) OH, we found a new investigator named Jorge (a different one) and he is from El Salvador and Elder Birch and I couldn't understand ANYTHING he said. It was comical to a point because like, seriously, those sounds could NOT have been Spanish. We both can understand Spanish almost perfectly but THAT was NOT SPANISH!!! Hahaha.... I have in my planner that we apparently taught another lesson too.... but I don't remember who to.... so yeah. OH WAIT YES I DO. We taught Ichy and set a baptism date for FEBRUARY 8TH. She has been investigating for a while and just needs to quit smoking and get married to her BF!

Thursday
Okay so we went and did service at the food bank, ate BWW, and NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED.

Friday
We met a guy named Salvador and he like talks alot and that lesson was a mess. I asked him one question and then proceeded to receive in return everything he has ever done in his life. Hahaha. We did teach Brenda with the Diaz Family and I felt like it was pretty powerful :) I really like this investigator! 

Saturday
Exchanges. It was like a pretty bad exchange and unenjoyable. =\ I spent an hour by myself in the corridors under a house at one point.... Don't even try and ask what happened. HAHA. 

Sunday
So we went to church and Ichy was there and her and her BF (he is a LA member) had an interview with the Branch President and it supposedly went well so there is hope there. :) We then had dinner with Elder Arranda y Hardester with the Martinez Family and had the first mole I ever liked! ( It's mexican food, not like the nasty moles that grow on humans...) We then taught Ichy that night and really just tried to get her fully committed.

So that's my week. I remembered pretty good ay?

I'm doing good, the work is slower but that is LIFE. 
I read "Our Search For Happiness" this week. Amazing book. I was obsessed. I recommend it to everyone! It's only like 100 pages and a good read. :)

Love you all
Elder Groseclose!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Apologies in advance for a lame letter....
Lots of technical difficulties today.

Let me just start by saying I miss the people in Columbus so much. I think about em daily, I am blessed to have them as friends!

Anyways, South Bend is way different! We teach a lot more and find a lot more investigators, but good luck baptizing them!!! Haha.

I legit only have 2 minutes left, SORRY!!!

We did find a 70 year old guy this week who investigated the church for a while 50 years ago! Real cool!

We are in a good stage of the work, I have lots of hope! I promise next week I will have more to share. So much happens and it's all in my journal so one day in the future you can all come read it with me one day! Welp.... just got more time but we are about to leave anyways.

I hate shoveling snow. 

Really awkward things happen as a missionary. This black lady told me to give her neighbors Jesus, haha! This lady growled at us through her window so we awkwardly just leave..... Timing happens that we always knock a door as the people pull up..... But other than all that, I AM DOING WELL. My spanish is doing wonderful and I am grateful for everything! Talk to y'all in a week, hope to hear from you :)

Elder Groseclose
 
I forgot to add:
We had that dream experience this week,
A guy that we teach tells us
"Last night I prayed for guidance from God for what to do in my life and now you two are here and that may be my answer." Say WHAT?! lol
Oh we also had that "We are gonna knock that door over that and that'll be the last one and we'll leave" on an unsuccessful street and then the guy answers and we teach him and set a return appointment. All those missionary cliches coming true!
New companion Elder Birch
Sister Hansen who was in my Columbus district and is now in my Elkhart zone up here
My house 
Catalina and David 
Arturo and I on our last night together
Herman y yesenia and their kids, a less active family that I reactivated
Got all my converts together for dinner my last night in Columbus 
Me and Norma 
Me and Karina 
Arturo and me
All my converts plus the pellegrino family
A picture karinas daughter drew for us 




Wednesday, January 8, 2014

OKAY OKAY. So we don't have much times on the computer here so this message will be a hot mess and I am sorry about that. SO…

This week has been absolutely insane. So crazy. So on last tuesday, it was my last day in Columbus so I had dinner at Arturo's house with him and the family and also Karina and Norma (all 3 of my baptisms together for my last night!) It was so special and awesome and I am so blessed to know them and have had the opportunity to be their missionaries! On Wednesday we had transfers and what I said happened, I got transferred to South Bend! I am now up here by Notre Dame. It's way way bigger than Columbus and way less white people, feel like I am back in California!!! My companion is Elder Birch and he is from Utah. He is WHITE and has been out for almost 17 months, or something around there. We have had zone meetings and weekly planning and all this crazy stuff so we still have yet to have a day to fully work together in our area! I'll get more into that soon…..

So on…. I think….. Thursday, we went by someones house and we walked in and were gonna teach him. I of course was clueless about the whole situation and all being new in the area so when this lady walks by the room we are in, I holler at her to come join us for the lesson so she does. She turns out to be flipping HILARIOUS and when we walk out Elder Birch tells me that it was a miracle because that lady usually NEVER wants anything to do with the missionaries. Yay me! Haha.

We also knocked into a family and we were just talking and I felt like just asking if we can come in out of nowhere and they said yes and we taught them. Haha!!!

Other than all that, IT'S DANG COLD. We live like 30 minutes from the church and when we got there on Sunday, the English wards had all cancelled it for the week and only Spanish Branch met. WELL, it got so cold and snowy and crazy (over a foot) that we ended church after Sacrament Meeting! We ended up not being able to make it home so we had to go 30 minutes the OTHER direction and stayed with the other Elders and we were stuck there ALL SUNDAY MONDAY AND TUESDAY! Elder Birch and I only had the clothes on our backs! It was crazy. True survival man business. No food, clothes, ANYTHING! We weren't allowed to leave the house! And then it was a 1500 fine if you drove a car in the weather! Indiana got SHUT DOWN! Bizarre. So new to me. And our car battery froze and broke and we had to get a new one. JUST A LITTLE SIDE NOTE, haha.

So, crazy week. We didn't really do anything….. BUT IT'S COLD….

-Elder Groseclose :)