Monday, March 31, 2014

Going to try to do this super fast. But lemme start with this:
This morning I bought Kale. Some vegetable. I then steamed it and cooked it in garlic powder and olive oil. WHO KNEW HEALTHY COULD TASTE /THAT/ GOOD. Like it was dang amazing!
No, burping women is not next to me. Sorry to ruin that for everyone. 

Today is day 301, which means I passed 300, obviously.
Also, forgot to say last week, I am staying in my area. So is my comp. So we have another 6 weeks here. That's that.

LAST MONDAY: Normal preparation day. Nothing happened out of the ordinary. Exciting huh?

TUESDAY: So...... we had to wake up at 5:30 to take Elder Cuevas to the mission office because he went home. It was sad to do and he will be/is missed. We then were a trio for the day with Elder Golledge and just cleaned up their apartment because Golledge is leaving also (just transferred, not home). We had lunch as a trio at BWW with the best waitress ever Lucy. She loves us! We then picked up some Pozole from Hermana Mendez and it was delicious and we enjoyed it back over at our apartment over a rousing game of Scrabble, (I WON!) haha. That night we went with President Coffin (Branch President) to Sam's Club and had dinner there and then he bought me a mini-watermelon. :)

WEDNESDAY: Transfer Meeting! We got to go because we had Elder Golledge. That made me happy because I LOVE transfer meeting! After the meeting we went to Guanajuato which is like a mexican Costco, AWESOME. We had lunch there and I devoured a chorizo quesadilla and was just floating on a cloud the whole time. We then went by and read in the BOM with Juan and he is as amazing as ever, just really held back by his wife but we will keep trying! Ended the night with Roman y Mercedes :)

THURSDAY: We had district meeting and then after was Weekly planning. We worked in our apartment complex and got to teach Raul y Raquel (new investigators). Raul has a lot of potential! They are catholic but notice a lot of the things just don't add up so we will see!

Friday: I honestly don't remember Friday and I forgot to write in my journal..... I know we did a lot of walking and then eventually had a lesson with our Recent Convert Manuel and then he got us Hardees (Carl's Jr.) after!

Saturday: Nothing happened. Elder Thurston was sick and slept all day so I just lingered around the apartment.... We did eventually get out though and taught Juan's sister with Hermano Alonso. The lesson started rough, she was super distracted by her husband in Dominican Republic texting her and she kept ignoring us. She said she was with "the mormons" and her husband started emailing her anti by the Seventh-Day Adventist church until at one point she put down her phone and says "He wasn't texting me until you all walked in. I think Satan is making him text me because the devil doesn't want me to know the truth." The lesson then got really spiritual and awesome! So that's exciting! Then we went by the Lara family and had salsa verde enchiladas!

SUNDAY: Before church we had a lesson with Moises and Hno. Vigil came, Elder Thurston was in branch council so Elder Paxman came and did the lesson with me. It was alright. He's receptive none the less. Had Pozole for dinner with Maria de Los Angeles! Roman y Mercedes then went with us after to teach Hna. Francisca, a new investigator referred by a member, LOTS of potential there. She is super interested in genealogy.

Well, that's the week!
love you all, TAKE CARE!

Elder Groseclose
Some spanish Elders (the one with 4 of us)
and some english elders!
Golledge Thurston Me at Sams Club

FOR STARTERS: This is 100% real life. Burping lady is next to me AGAIN TODAY. Craziness. It's ludicrous.

Hna. means Hermana if that confuses you all later on.... 

So last Monday was of course Preparation Day and it was really weird because President Cleveland came to our Gym and did like a workout/basketball clinic with us. Like we actually ran lines and did push ups when we did something wrong and I was just so sore because I was totally not ready for this conditioning sports life again. One of the YSA (Young Single Adult) girls Jordan brought me a caramel apple pie for my birthday and it is actually the first time I have had apple pie and it was yummy! I also made my March Madness bracket this day and it's not doing too bad. Got MSU winning it all.

Tuesday. Mi Cumpleanos! In the morning we had district meeting and afterwards we (Elder Golledge and Cuevas and us) went to Buffalo Wild Wings (DUH!) for lunch. Absolutely delicious as usual. We worked a little until we eventually had our (my) birthday party at the church. Turns out mom, of course, sent a member a huge package of stuff so it was a full out party by Hna. Maricela. hahaha. She made some pretty good Mole and then we had some 3 Leches cake which is my favoriteeee. We ended the night eating some Tinga with Roman y Mercedes and they were super sweet and got me a really cool cologne for my birthday! They are fancy! Hna. Mendez stopped by for dinner and that was fun too. Earlier in the day we actually knocked her door and pretended to contact her like we didn't know her and that was pretty fun! "Do you attend a church mam?" "Yes I am Mormon" "WELL THAT'S AWESOME!". Ha. Also, while we were at the gas I contacted this other woman there in the parking lot and got her address and she seems interested. :) Her name is Dora for future email references...

Wednesday. Just a lot of tracting and finding potentials. We did have a great lesson with Luisa and her daughter Tracy though! So we almost had to cancel because we just could NOT get any members to come and magically Hno. Vigil texts us he can come right as we were about to cancel and I am SO glad he did. He did awesome in the lesson and kinda just took it over but it was okay because it was just what they needed to hear! The cunada (Zully, and cunada is sister-in-law) and her daughter (Hecyeni, pronounced Ay-en-E) were also in the lesson so they are new investigators! 

Thursday. We started the day by going on mini-exchanges with the ZL's and that was good. Just finding more potentials, hoping to be able to teach them eventually. Rest of the day was Weekly Planning until we then had a lesson with our recent-convert Manuel about service and then we went with him and his GF and her family out to dinner at a REALLY YUMMY mexican restaurant "El Mariachi". I got a quesadilla and some tacos and their quesadillas were these huge soft shells almost like a big apple turnover STUFFED with cheese and carnitas! They were SOOOO good!

Friday. Randomly some summer weather came and it was 70 degrees and beautiful. We did lots of tracting and find a new investigator named Moises! We haven't been able to find news for a long time so it was sooooo nice having the weather be nice enough to teach outside! Ended the night by having dinner with the McGrory family. :) I also decided to start collecting bottle tops this day that I find laying around because Hoosiers LOVE BEER.

Saturday: A lot of biking and walking. That made me really tired. We just found a bunch of more potentials. Eventually taught Juan and he is so solid and ready! Just held back on his wife. After the lesson he sent us to visit his sister in the same complex so we did and taught her! :) The night ended by us eating with the Lara family. :)

Sunday! Tracy, Luisa, and Hecyeni all came to church and they all loved it which was super awesome! After church we had a party for Elder Cuevas in the gymnasium. We ended the night by playing games and eating with the Branch President and family and it was just super fun!

SO THAT'S THE WEEK. Love you all, until next week!!!
Elder GROSECLOSE
YSA Jordan got me a pie for my birthday!
Cards from Liberty Lifeskills class :)
Mission Pres and Wife text.
Roman Y Mercedes and my present!
Branch presidents daughter 
Tinga! So yummy! 

Monday, March 17, 2014

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY! And tomorrow I turn 20.... No longer a teenager! Oh the craziness of life, eh? Currently I am sitting next to a woman who is laughing hysterically at her computer and keeps burping super loud and practically screaming "OOOOOOH EXCUSE ME!!!" and then proceeds to burp more and die laughing. It's a hot mess and it is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT through and through HOOSIER BRED INDIANA. WAIT, she just burped again. THIS IS GREAT. I am proud to be in Hoosier Capital USA! Sorry.... this is probably not the kind of stuff you expect in a missionary email, but my life is just so entertaining right now and I hope you are all at least part way enjoying this. 

Anyways, day 286. How exciting! 

Monday was a pretty normal preparation full of sports and non-sense. I for some reason had really bad neck and the Mission Nurse put me on 1600 MG of Ibuprofen to avoid "neck inflammation" which I must say sounds very alarming. We then had dinner with Roman y Mercedes and it was fun! :)

Tuesday. So after a 20 degree day of weather on Monday, Indiana decides to go full blown bipolar and Tuesday was a BEAUTIFUL 70 degree day. IT WAS BIZARRE. UPDATE: I think the man on my left is in a competition with the woman on my right because he just shook the library with a burp of his own. Anyways, back to Tuesday. The morning was pretty hard because my neck was in a lot of pain so I laid on the ground for studies and held my scriptures in the air so I wouldn't have to look down... For lunch we went to Hna. Mendez and ate outdoors because the weather was SUMMER. We had delicious empanadas and she was telling me about how she'll have to make me some weird food one day like eyeball fritters or Iguana tail lollipops. What a treat! We then went to the church with the other Elders were Hna. Maricela gave us some delicious emapanadas with some cilantro lime salsa, yum! I then went and played a little basketball with some of the youth in the branch and I completely balled out and showed them how white boys can ball and I proceed to school them at a game of 21. Yes. The night ended with us teaching Luis Mora who luckily (or God's timing....) pulled up right as we were about to leave!

Wednesday. District meeting followed by the obligatory Chinese Buffet lunch after. Devoured it of course. Dropped by our investigator Luisa to give her a kids picture book version of the Book of Mormon because she says her daughter always wants to read it! We then had dinner that night with the Branch President and his family (The Coffins) where the wife made super delicious chili!!! We have these new pass-along cards in our mission of the temple that they are building about 20 minutes out of Indy so we roleplayed with the Coffins about how to give it to a friend and it was cool!

Thursday. Decided to knock an area that has never really been knocked before and we find out why, no hispanics within miles. Haha. Weekly Planning day so not much happened. We had dinner with the McGrory family. Husband only speaks English and wife only speaks Spanish and it is just hilarious because they legit like don't really understand each other. We shared with them the temple cards and how to share them and ended the night with our Recent Convert Manuel about the temple!

Friday. YES. So we did service in the morning by carrying lots of heavy furniture for Hno. Chapital and then afterwards he took us to a HUUUUUUUUUGE Chinese buffet and it was SO DANG GOOD. Oh my hecccccck. So amazing. HIGH QUALITY, HIGH QUANTITY. Yes! UPDATE: Woman on my right takes the lead as she shatters the windows with an earth shaking burp BLAST. Ended the night with Roman y Mercedes talking a lot about the importance of the Fall of Adam y Eve. Pretty good discussion! They took us out to dinner at a place called El Ranchito and I ate tacos. So I was happy. YAY.

Saturday. Well we didn't have much happen BUT we did get stuck behind a train which I must say is unbelievably enthralling. I was just amazed at the enormity of said train and I was really just in awe. Just a train, I know, but I loved it. UPDATE: Yes, you know what happened. She even commented after this one "Yeah, that was good!" Good burp girl, great one! But we did teach Juan Diaz w/ his wife and the lesson was alright. She doesn't believe in religion and so it's hard for her and her husband proceeds to tell her "You won't be saved then!!!' and she says " Maybe not but it won't be for not attending church!" It was pretty juicy yet awkward to watch play out. He tells her that she'll know the truth through prayer and that she can have her own Joseph Smith experience! He is such a solid investigator haha.

Sunday was church and not much else. We ate dinner w/ Cumberland Elders at Maria de los Angeles' house and she made Panbasos. Delicious! We then went w/ Roman y Mercedes to visit the Lara family and it was a good spirit there and we talked about sharing the temple cards! :)

Well, that's the week! Take care everyone! HASTA LA PROXIMA!
Elder Groseclose
Day number Two Hundred and Seventy Nine. Sounds like a big number when I write it like that, haha.

I really want something deep and profound to put here before I start my weekly letter but I can't really think of anything. As a general update, it's warming up here which is nice. Hovering around 50. Perfect temperature because any hotter and the humidity starts to attack you. 

On Monday we had the usual, preparation day. Nothing too spectacular there. We played volleyball and chair soccer and it was just splendid.

Tuesday. lol. Can I just say that Tuesdays just blow. They are the day after P-Day so it's already a bummer because it's the start of a long week and then on top of it like NOTHING ever happens on Tuesdays. Bleh. So with that magnificent theme, we went to pick up the other elders and when we get there we find out district meeting was cancelled. LIKE WHAT? WHAT IS THIS? So.... we drove home and were like.... Well.... never made a back up plan for this. The afternoon was just..... Not even. That night we had dinner with Roman y Mercedes of Milanesa and Pineapple Pasta. It was delicious! We then taught an English Class and the only people who came..... were Roman y Mercedes who we had just eaten with. We taught a little on how to pray in English and then after we taught them the Restoration again because it's something you are supposed to do with Recent Converts just to check for understanding and all that. :)

Wednesday. I hit my nine month mark on Wednesday which was pretty weird. That's a lot of time! I successfully hit a full pregnancy! So we started the day by tracting the apartments where Luisa lives. We encountered a man named Sean who proceeds to tell us he is gay and wants to know how our church feels about that. So we discuss it with him and answer a lot of other questions he had and he is super open and truly understands what we believe and it was surprising! More on Sean later... We contacted more people but nothing eventful except for this man:
"Hey sir, do you happen to know of any spanish speakers around here?!" "No! If I see spanish speakers though I'll kick them back to where they belong!"  Oh racism...... We then had to drop off the car for the other Elder's doctor appointment and so we walked and visited people. We then walked a LOT until the other Elders picked us up and we had a lesson with Luisa and her daughter in the Nieve's home. It was a great lesson about the BOM and we set a baptismal date with them for May 3rd. They seem to be progressing well. Then just had a nice time talking with Hermano Rios later that night. :)

Thursday. We just had to go back by Sean since he was so awesome and so we did and we taught him the Restoration outside while he smoked down some more cigarettes, haha. It was actually a really good lesson and he just may have potential..... He totally loves my missionary bag and wants his own too so he may go shopping on a missionary website soon. Nice way to get him interested in the church more. haha. Taught Manuel in the evening to prep him for receiving the Priesthood.

Friday. Zone meeting! It was a great Zone Meeting, maybe my favorite one I have had. Lots of cool stuff was learned. Talked about teaching with pictures and it was pretty informative. We also talked more about using the cards with the temple on it that they are building here in Carmel (by Indy). We then went on exchanges and I was with.... Elder Barrio, haha. My companion from Columbus. We went to contact college students on the IUPUI campus and it was so different than anything I have ever done... We then had dinner that night with Roman y Mercedes and finished up the restoration and we had Mercedes' non-member brother in the lesson!

Saturday. Decided this day that I am going to start collecting coins I find on the ground. I will update you weekly on my progress. Currently have a whopping 23 cents. Yes. Made a delicious chipotle salsa from Arturo's recipe. (Columbus convert). Then had a lesson with Hno. Hernandez. 

Sunday. Good day of church. Luisa came with her daughter so that made us happy! That night we had a fireside at the church called "Why I Believe" where recent converts give there testimonies and it was a good meeting.... haha.

Ya, that's my week. I start to get bored of writing for eventually my emails die off.... So I'll let this one go.
Have a good week everyone!

Elder Groseclose

Monday, March 3, 2014

So..... another week down.
Day 273. yeah.

Last monday I got my haircut again shorter. Super attractive now but I have some ugly chin disease growing at the moment so pictures are on hold for a week. Pardon any bad spelling, the keyboard is what sucks, not me.

Monday was my first time ever eating ceviche and it wasn't bad. :) I am still scared of raw fish but Ilived. Easing me in to sushi one day....

Tuesday we had zone conference and got permission to go to the temple twice a year even though it's not in the mission limits! YAY. We then had Manuel's baptism. He is so solid and totally awesome, great guy. 

Wednesday nothing really happened or Thursday because Elder Thurston was feeling sick again. We did though get a new investigator Thursday night through a family in the ward and she is so awesome! She has already come to church and the relief society dinner, I sure see potential!

 On Friday we helped the mission move furniture into new apartments and in the car was an iPad and we were all memorized, haha!! Then had long weekly planning because we had a lot of things to do/plan/discuss! We then talked with Manuel about confirmation to prep him for Sunday!

Saturday we had a very tender lesson and that's all I will say about that. So cool.
We also finally got ahold of Juan Diaz and he has already read the BOM whole and is starting it again! YAY! 

Yesterday we confirmed Manuel and church was cancelled after an hour due to snow coming and safety issues.... 

Sorry I have not much this week!

BUT:

Saw this cool/funny quote:
Sometimes we expect million dollar answers to ten cent prayers!

Haaahaha, have a good week!

Elder Groseclose