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

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

Another week in the books. They really do fly by pretty fast, it's kinda scary. I always feel like life is gonna go way too fast for me after my mission. At least right now everything happens within this massive two year bubble I am in....

Any of you that are missionaries (and well I guess anyone, but especially for missionaries!): These scripture references SCREAM getting transferred, haha! Alma 17:13 and Luke 4:42-43. Read em. Pretty funny.

Also, my question for all the people that read this: So I have been having this thought in my head, so hear it out, I'd like responses! Haha. So we, as missionaries, teach a lot of people such a great message of joy and hope and all that, but how do you get someone to even WANT to have faith? Like for someone who Jesus Christ and God are honestly just like nothing to them, how do you get them to MATTER to the people?

Like all weeks, it was pretty interesting.... 

Well actually, in case I didn't say this last week, I ate goat tacos and they were pretty good....

OK ANYWAYS;

I was bad with journal writing this week which means my email might suck but last Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Markward in his area. It was pretty fun but really short. We had dinner with one of his Recent Converts and it was just.... interesting. Only word. Ha. 

Wednesday we truly did nothing. Elder Thurston was sick. We stayed home all day. 

Thursday was the LOOOOOONGEST weekly planning of my missionary life and I have no clue why. We have 3 investigators so like.... I don't even understand lol. When we finally got out of the house, Manuel (our investigator who gets baptized TOMORROW!!!!) picked us up and we went over the Baptismal Questions with him and he is all ready to go! We went over tithing also and no problem there! We then went by Luis Rios who is a member who has been coming on and off so we just shared the Articles of Faith with him.

Friday. Well my hair was a HOT MESS so we used our break time to get my haircut hallelujah. We then just walked a crap ton until we had dinner with the other Elders here at the Branch President's house. His daughter gave me a One Direction stick for my nametag, THAT'S WHAT'S UP!!! Manuel then had his baptismal interview and he did great... Well he passed so I assumed it was great. We then went by the Hernandez family because they are returning to activity and their son wants to serve a mission so it's really cool to stop by them! Going over there tonight for dinner:) 

Saturday. WALKED ALL DAY. MY LEGS DIED. We had a lesson at 8 AM yes..... 8 AM. That was weird. It went well though but the people said they'll schedule our lesson mas tarde next time because we were all so tired haha. We then walked seriously the whole state of Indiana and contacted this REALLY awesome homeless woman who is SO ready for the gospel. She is so knowledgeable of scripture and she is prepared. I hope the other Elders are able to get in contact with her (we passed her on as a referral, she speaks English). We then just had a really lame lesson with Priscilliano because we were rushed and it was just a mess. Haha. While we were walking home I saw these two black teenagers playing around and one kept trying to grab a huge rock and his friend was yelling at him now to do it, so I turn around and go "DO IT!!!!" and they both turn and look at me so I walk over there and start just messing with them haha. Then they keep talking about the rock and I was like "Man, y'all aint got time for that!" And I had a sucker in my mouth and so the one kid goes "You right! You got candy though? Cause I DOOOOO got time for that!!!" So I gave them candy.... Haha! 

Sunday was Sunday. Had lunch with Maria de los Angeles otra vez and it was nice. We had Pozole. I LOVE POZOLE. Like SO much. SO good. We then had dinner with the Lara family and it was MILANESA. That's ALSO my food! I was in food heaven to be honest...

SO, that's the week. Baptism of Manuel tomorrow and also Zone Conference, should all be really exciting!

Hasta la proxima!

Elder Groseclose

What a week. Holy wowzers.

I'll start off with a summary. 

Got transferred to INDIANAPOLIS. Yes, I made it to the city! Not what I expected, president finally fooled me. It is the White River Branch.

Address => 6001 Beachview Dr. #283

Indianapolis, IN 46224 

My birthday is March 18. Mark it in your calendars or your missionary planner if you're a part of that missionary gang yo! Totally feel free to send me so many letters. ;D #teamIWILLWRITEBACK

Companion se llama Elder Thurston. He is from Provo, Utah. His mom es de Argentina though so Spanish is his first language. He speaks them both (English Y Espanol) perfectly though. Sorry I am noticing this goes in and out of Spanish/English. Bear with me. He has been out like 2 weeks more than me. We go home the same day though. (May 19, 2015)

The branch here is like..... huge. Hahaha. 

Anyways, Tuesday was the last night in South Bend for Elder Birch and I and it was like totally super sad because they were shutting down our area and we didn't want our investigators to just get lost in the shuffle. Hmph. ): We pretty much just went around saying bye to everyone. One of our investigators is like he busiest women ever and we legit like hunted her down at work in Michigan to say goodbye to her. Ha. When we went to say bye to Ichy and Hna. Hernandez and just that whole household it was SO SAD. They had a cake made that said. "Goodbye Elder Birch and Elder Groseclose. We love you and we will miss you." Talk about heartbreaking. Ichy, our investigator, was texting us during transfer meeting "No se vayan!!!" which is essentially "DON'T YOU TWO LEAVE!!!!" hahaha. 

It's weird being out of South Bend so fast. I loved the gente there.... ): But I'm sure I will be back in that branch someday further down the mission road. Perks of a Spanish Elder. 

SO, I am in the city. I really feel like I am just chilling in San Francisco, it's awesome lol. I am currently on the 6th floor of the Library and can see across the city. Oh there's where the Colts play.... Oh hey the Pacers play in that fieldhouse.... Hahaha, weirdness!!! I have missed tall buildings! Columbus had none, SB a good amount, but here is just like home! 

I am obviously still new to the area so I actually don't have a clue of anything that is going on BUT, we do have a baptism next Tuesday of a guy named Manuel.... so that's pretty sick. Ha. He's super cool younger guy. That will be nice. :) OH, and we had a lesson with people I had never met before but I TOTALLY had dreamed of their faces and the lesson we taught them, LAST WEEK. Like I already knew what they were gonna say. TRIPPY.

Hmmm... what else....we played lots of sports yesterday for P-Day and we did Junior Comps vs Senior Comps volleyball match and we won (JC's) in a tightly-contested matchup. I still got it going, feels nice. Hahaha.

Once I know the area more and the people I will be able to talk more about them.... but until then.... Cuidense mucho! Que tengan una semana de diversion ;) 

-Elder Guapisimo..... PERDON, Elder Groseclose

The view out the library window 

Ichy and family :)

Maria y Rafael. We set a baptismal date for April the day before we left. :)

Pedro! Found him tracting in SB. Love him!

Cake from Sis. Hernandez and Ichy when Birch and I double transferred.

Jorge! Investigator.

BRENDA. Love her. amazing!

Elder Birch and I 

Elders in my South Bend Branch 

Some elders in my district (Do-It-D!)

Quesadillas!!!

Touchdown Jesus!

WHOOF. Brutal! Got calls last night, WE ARE GETTING DOUBLE TRANSFERRED AND THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN MY AREA. Wow. It was definitely a surprise. It's so crazy......

This week was just crazy. We had two exchanges so our area kinda just stalled for a few days.

We did teach Maria though and it was an awesome lesson and she is doing AMAZING. I am absolutely BROKEN to leave her behind. UGH. ): 

Everything else I am just completely flustered by because of this double transfer so I can't really say much...

I will share something cool that happened though:

So on Wednesday I was going through former investigators and I came by one from 2008 (6 years ago!!!) I decided to call the number and ask for the person. The person answered and I asked for Cesar and a woman, startled, said to me "Why do you need to speak to him?"

I proceed to tell her we are missionaries and that we spoke with him about 6 years ago and we wanted to see if we was still interested in our message.

"Did you not hear the news....?" She tells us.

I answer back that we are new missionaries and we just found his record and decided to call it. She proceeds to tell me that he was murdered back in 2012 and left behind 5 kids and she just begins to cry and pour out her heart to me in grief and after a while I interject and start teaching her about Plan of Salvation over the phone and I manage to set up an appointment. Today is the day we will teach her. What a miracle!

what up! Wednesday is 8 months. That's weird. So anyways.....

I emailed y'all on Wednesday, so even though it's 5 days later, not much has happened. Saturday I was on exchanges in Goshen so nothing really happened that day except that I got to to go to their investigators wedding! So I guess I can tell y'all about Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday :D

WEDNESDAY: We had District Meeting in Elkhart and then afterwards we had some freaking DIVINE Taco Bell. Then legit like EVERYTHING fell apart. EVERYTHING cancelled. OH MY FREAK it was AWFUL lol. I seriously hate getting cancelled on. BUT IT WAS FOR A REASON, we decided due to all the cancellations to visit Rafael y Maria whom he haven't been able to see in a while and oh my heck she is HILARIOUS! She was asking us if there is a scripture that talks about a day when Hell will burst because she believes that Hell bursted and everyone stupid lives in South Bend HAHAHA. We then showed her the picture of Christ holding a lamb and comforting and we asked how it made her feel and she goes; "It's so mysterious, I love it! You see Christ comforting the lamb, but you know in his head he is thinking 'You little lamb are what's for dinner' " HAHAHAHAHA SHE IS HILARIOUS. She tells Elder Birch that he has a light that lights up a room, but then has the power to destroy all the light if he wants, like what? Hahah! Love her! We will get back to her on Sunday....

Thursday was fun! We did Service at the food bank like always and got a hispanic guy Timo who works there to give us his address so we will see where that goes! We then ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. YES is all I can say. We then got rejected so hard by our investigator lol. Like, oh my gosh it was hardcore. Haha. Then Elder Birch accidentally drove the wrong way on a one way road. lol. We then read Joseph Smith History with Ichy and it was great! Well received!

SUNDAY. We had church, no investigators came, but it was still an AWESOME testimony meeting. Love the testimonies that were given. POWERFUL. After church we went to eat with Goshen elders at the Romero's and I seriously ate EVERYTHING in sight hahaha. It was delicious and I couldn't stop. They thought I had to have been sneaking food to their dog, Cosita (means 'little thing') because I ATE EVERYTHING. hahaha. That's what happens when I fast.... We then had another lesson with Maria y Rafael and it was PERFECT. Maria was ALL OVER the idea of an apostasy and totally understands it and totally gets it. After we watched the Restoration movie about Joseph Smith's story she tells us: "I feel it. I can't explain it. There are not words to describe the inspiration I feel. It's such a humble story, he can't be lying." Elder Birch and I almost DIED of happiness. It was amazing. On top of being hilarious, Maria just GETS IT! So much potential there! We then taught Ichy that night using the 2014 January First Presidency Message about setting goals. It says "The Best Time to Plant A Tree Was 20 Years Ago, The Second Best Time Is Right Now." It was a powerful lesson also and so we helped her set some goals to work towards and I am excited for that too! 

That's the week! It wasn't too full of teaching at all, but the lessons were powerful and I am so thankful! I am loving it here, but I miss you all nonetheless! I am so thankful to be a missionary, I am SO LUCKY, or in the words of Sis. Nehring: there is no luck, only BLESSINGS, therefore I AM SO BLESSED.

Have a great week! Espero que tengan mucho exito y que sepan que les quiero BASTANTE.

Se cuidan mucho :)

Elder Groseclose

Letters from Arturo y Ana and family 

Ichy (an investigator) on the far left, then her BF Ivan (Less Active), Noel (Ivan Brother, active), Me Elder Birch, Sis Hernandez (mother of the boys, active).

South bend :)