Quizás todos los días no sean buenos, pero siempre hay algo bueno todos los días.

Quien quiere llegar, busca caminos; quien no quiere llegar, busca excusas

Well, to start off, I forgot my planner therefore everything that happened this week I will have to report off pure memory, which means that not much may be said. But, maybe inspiration will come to my head and I will remember what happened this week.

Monday we went by and visited a members dad and we are now teaching him. He has every day off EXCEPT for Sundays lol. SO WEIRD. It sucks! His name is Juan for future reference in emails.

On Tuesday nothing happened! We had district meeting and then we had to move after so it took forever (all day!). We then went with the Smitharts from the mission office to Walmart to buy some more stuff for the apartment and it was so late that they ended up taking us out to eat at Applebee's! Afterwards we went to the church and Maricela gave me a haircut!

Wednesday we had a specialized training in Fishers for Trainers and their Trainees. At one point, President Cleveland had all the new missionaries line up and pretend to be contacting people on the street and it was SOOOOOO funny how awkward some of them were or just didn't know what to do. It really helped me realize how far I have progressed as a missionary in just being able to contact people on the streets, it's such a crucial skill. The trainings taught us a lot. :) After that though we went to dinner and.... I FOUND THE ONLY WINGSTOP IN INDIANA. So for the first time in 14 months, I partook of pure JOY. I almost cried when I saw that they had the Giants baseball game on. All the stars aligned. Too beautiful.

Thursday...... Now it's to the point where I don't remember what happened in the week so I will throw out highlights of what I do remember.

Found this new woman named Josefina. We were knocking and we here someone saying "Quien? Quien?" (who is it?) and we can't find the voice so we go to the street and see here from her top story window and so we talk to here for a little bit through the street to sky connection haha. She comes down and we teach her and give her a BOM and set up a return appointment. We go by last night for the return appointment and she is on the porch with her BOM waiting for us, so she seems to have a lot of potential! She's a single mom in her 30's who doesn't have a church already!

Also, they are no longer in my area because they are from when I was with Wolverton and Latu as companions but if you remember me talking about Niurka and Vilma, they were two people we found a few weeks ago. Well, Vilma has been coming to church and Niurka finally came yesterday and they are SUPER solid! They accepted a baptismal date and I got to be in the lesson with them on Sunday after church. They told me I was their favorite and it made me all sad not to be their Elder anymore, but at least I see them at church!

Other than that, I don't remember the week at all, the pains of forgetting a planner! My trainee is my opposite, super quiet and pensive, neither of those come NEAR to describing me. He loves studying though which is something I hate doing, so kudos to him on that! 

Another transfer ends on Wednesday, crazy how the time flies. Less than 10 months to go??? Crazy! 295 days.

Blows my mind that the time can fly that fast. Less than 300 days? That's just weird.

Hasta la proxima! Que les vaya muy bien!

Elder Groseclose

Ton-tony!

Sister Gil!

sister Mayberry!

SELFIE.

Dinner with the Smitharts!

i said SELFIE and she sticks out the duck lips hahah.

FOUND THE ONLY WINGSTOP IN INDIANAAAA

New address:

835 Weghorst St.

Indianapolis, Indiana 46203

I am always so dang lazy by the time I am supposed to write my email....

I have to start out by saying..... MY TRAINEE DOESN'T WILL NOT TAKE SELFIES. So.... that's apparently an actual thing....

Anyways, I am still in Indianapolis and I am still in the same branch, I just moved about 20 minutes Southeast of where I already was. My new companion is FRESH out of the MTC and his name is Elder Baird. He speaks Spanish like he has been out 3 transfers or so, so it's nice, he's a little bit advanced. In other news, I got a 100% on the Spanish total language assessment. Pretty cool stuff.

So this week was ridiiiiiculously long.

Last Tuesday I got my new companion, already discussed that a little up there. He's from Orem, Utah and that's that. 

Wednesday. So the first day in this brand new area and let me tell you... we had NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. It was a complete mess. We leeched on to the other Elder's lunch appointment so that was fun, other than that, we knocked doors..... a lot. And we did it forever and ever and we found NO ONE. So we rethought things and decided to search for Hispanics in the street guide for the rest of the day. (too complicated to explain).

Thursday was the usual life of a new area. We went out in the morning and tracted for millenniums until eventually, WE TAUGHT SOMEONE. Her name is Susanna. IDK if she is super interested, but atleast we got to finally teach someone and get a "new investigator". We then just listed more at the Library because we have no area to Weekly Plan for and then we worked the street next to us and taught a guy named Gustavo.

Friday we had interviews with the Mission President which means we were stuck at the church all day until 5 PM lol. We did get our own car though, so we got a full time car for the next week and a half at least, lol. It's really needed in this HUGE area that is starting from scratch. We then went down to Greenwood and tracted fruitlessly until we had dinner with the Fernandez family, since they are the ONLY members in our area....

Saturday we seriously spent all morning running around downtown TRYING to find a place that would sell maps and didn't find a single dang one. APPARENTLY we taught someone, because I wrote it in my planner, but I cannot remember for the life of me who it was or what there name was. We also found this guy who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ or God or the bible or any of that, got a return appointment with him though, hahaha. #LETSGO #MAKINGCHRISTIANSOUTOFATHEISTS

Sunday Funday! Church, like I always say, was good good stuff. We didn't have any investigators there, but the other Elders did and I sat with one of theirs because I knew Vilma when I was in their area. The talks were on temples, Pioneer Trek, and Baptism for the Dead so yeah, I was lucky enough to get the chance to explain it all to her lol. After church we went to the hospital because Hna. Lara finally had her twin girls so I HAD to visit! We then ate dinner with Cumberland Spanish at Maria's house. Marta was also there (another member). We then went and tracted a little until we went BACK to Maria's to teach her daughter Vicky who is currently LA because Vicky and I are TIGHT. It was great! We then tracted a little more by our house and were walking and saw like 5 people staring out a window at us so I yell over "COMO ESTÁN" and the woman hears me and opens the door and I promise her a 10 minute lesson and so her and her husband agree and we teach them and they seem to have a lot of potential! Ended the night talking to this hispanic who was HIGH OUT OF HIS MIIIIIIND and all he would tell me is that "God is dead." which baffles me for the simple reason of that if you actually believe in God you'd think he'd live forever, I mean I can understand an atheist but believing in God and just thinking he is dead now is just bizarre.

So that's the week. Chill chill, talk to y'all in 7 days! Less than 10 months to go (crazyyyyy)

My boy (Eder Baird) is on my right (so left of the pic)

Elder Triance and Elder Birch also

downtown selfie tho.

ummmm what....

#yolo

elder triance #suchbadquality

that suit with those pants....

7/14/2014

Ooooooof. Brazil got thoroughly spanked out of the World Cup. Super stoked that Germany is the Champion! Sad that all that beautiful hispanic soccer mayhem will no longer be happening. But life goes on, and so does the mission (10 months to go. Crazy)

By the time it's actually time for me to email now, I am just so freaking tired haha. I will do my best to give a brief summary of the week...

On Tuesday we went to eat at Mi Pizza Loca (Branch President's shop) with Maricela and when we finish, she leaves but forgets her Calzone and so Elder Wolverton calls her and tells her "Hermana, dejò sus calzones en la pizzerìa." Which would be fine and all.... but CALZONES means underwear in Spanish. So he essentially told her that she left her underwear at the pizza shop. Loooool. She was confused to say the least.

Wednesday we went to a specialized training (we got randomly picked to go!) and the mission department from SLC came and gave just really inspirational and straight to the point trainings and it was awesome and I really think it can change the mission for the better, we will see!

We had a lesson with this ETERNIGATOR (someone who has been talking with missionaries FOREVER and never progresses) and we were like "Cree que puede recibir una respuesta de la veracidad de estas cosas?" and she just laughs and was like "Jajaja, pues, QUIEN SABE?" and she thinks it's so funny and I just say "Yo sè." and it completely caught her off guard and she just goes silent and starts thinking. It was pretty bold and I think it may help her, but we shall see. Y'all can stick that in a translator or something or ask your local hispanic what it says, ha.

Friday we had Zone Training and it was good as usual. Nothing special stood out. We then had dinner with Cristina and helped the sisters move apartments. #niceguys

Saturday EVERYONE was opening their doors. We first taught Vilma and she seems super interested! Her brother came into the room in the middle of the lesson and tried to start and bash with us and I just said a silent prayer that he would leave and he just stops suddenly in the middle of his rant and turns around and leaves and doesn't come back. Vilma saw the contention he brought and it actually helped her be MORE inclined to what we taught.

We also taught Miguel y Margarita, whom we found last week, and she still seems interested! She says she has been reading a lot and really enjoys the BOM so she has a lot of potential! Had lunch with the Coranguez Family and she made chicken and alfredo and MAN I was HAPPY!!!! Afterwards, we went by a referral from the English Elders to visit a man named Jose Luis. He just arrived here from Honduras and is looking for a church. He seems to have so much potential! Ended the night with our investigator Lorena and she made us dinner and we decorated a cake and ate it while watching The Testaments! :)

On Sunday, we had mini miracles! I called Vilma and asked if she was still coming to church and she said something came up and she had to take her friend to his church so she couldn't come anymore. I insisted that she come and just bring her friend and she said she'd "think about it" and let me know. Well, 5 minutes later she calls back saying she is coming!!! Her and her friend came and I think really enjoyed it! They say they will be back next week. We also had Jose Luis come! It was so cool having all these people come for their first time and I hope they continue to come! Sunday night was the Why I Believe fireside and it was great, I love hearing of peoples experiences and how they came to know the truth.

That's the best summary I can give! Tomorrow my trainee comes in from the MTC and the craziness begins. Should be a wild wild week! LOVE YOU ALL.

Cuídense mucho.

Elder Groseclose

The Smithharts! (Senior couple in the mission, from Fresno and go home a week before me!)

Some homies from the YSA.

lol

7/7/2014

lol, interesting week.

First off, let me mourn USA losing to Belgium really quick..............

I guess I can root for Germany to win now. #LetsGoDeutschland 

So we moved apartments last Monday and it was actually fun because I love organizing houses. Tuesday I was on an exchange with Elder Latu and it was super fun because he is just a sick person altogether.

Wednesday was an interesting day because I switched companionships so now I am with Elder Latu and Elder Wolverton (my MTC companion). I get my trainee next Tuesday so it won't be too long but it's definitely going to be cool to say I had 3 areas and 5 companions in one transfer. lol.

Thursday.... hahaha. Well we had a dinner appointment...... 50+ blocks away and it was a HECK of a bike ride. On the way I was like "Seriously this is awful, the only thing that will make this ride worth it is if I get there and they made Enchiladas Verdes." and by the grace of God, THEY MADE ENCHILADAS VERDES. I wanted to cry I was so happy. It was a TRUE MIRACLE. That night we then taught my homegirl Lorena who is this super sick 20-something year old from Peru and we just hung out and just had a good time and then we read 1st Nefi (Nephi....) with her. I then asked if she happened to own tennis rackets and SOMEHOW she turns out to be an avid EBAY seller and whips three out of her closest, so now I got rackets! We then spent the whole night (from 9-10:30 because the next day was our 4th of July P-Day so we didn't have to plan) knocking doors asking for tennis balls and never found any ): We did meet a lot of interesting people while knocking though.... One guy thought we had 'elf powers'? Too be honest I was just as confused as y'all are right now reading that.

Friday was 4th of July P-Dayyyyy ALL DAY LONG. It was sick. We did a "Zone Olympics" and it was sick. Twenty times sicker because my team won. We just did a bunch of little mini games and it was cool. Afterwards, put those rackets to use and played tennis for the first time since June 3rd 2013 (shout out to my girl Alexis Esquivel!). It felt so nice to play again, even if it was with cheaper rackets and being a whole heck of a lot of rusty with my game, but it was good good in the hood. We then went to Panda Express after for dinner before getting together as a zone that night to go watch the fireworks on the river (seriously such a beautiful view we had!). We didn't even have to be home until 10:30 #missionarycurfew haha.

Saturday was fulllllll of teaching lessons. The notable lesson was when we were walking through some apartments and Latu notices some guy sitting under a grove of trees #JSmith just kidding. But yeah, we go and make small with the guy until I get bored of it and and have him go get his wife for a lesson. We taught them the Resto and they seemed to have a lot of potential. We left them with a BOM and who knows, maybe they will read it and then know it's true! ;) Also, that night we were knocking in some more apartments and we are approached by a group of little kids (like 12 of them) (ranging from 5-11) who are all begging for us to help them with soccer. They tell us that two older kids (some siblings of the kids in the group) play soccer with them every night but that the 2 guys are super good and so they ALWAYS lose so they wanted our help to finally beat them. So, of course we obliged. We won 11-2 and the little kids were SO excited because they had NEVER EVER won before. It was so cool. They now love us and we are famous in the complex.

Sunday was a normal Sunday, except it was fast Sunday so of course I was STARVING and we didn't have dinner appointment until 4 so when we got there and saw that the meal was TINGA you better believe I ate AT LEAST 15 tostadas. It was so good. I am TOO obsessed with mexican food!

That's pretty much my recollection of the week. Big mission talk is that we might get iPads on Wednesday. We'll see. ;)

-Elder Groseclose

After a long bike ride....

Dinner with Christina Soberanes.

TENNIS w/ Elder Birch!

#reallybadqualitytennispic

Olympic Champs!

My bottle cap collection

Back with the MTC Comp!