Okayyyyy let's see here....

Day 174 or something like that.
So today is P-Day, but it's not...

So we have preparation day today from 10-1 and then we have "the rest of Preparation Day" on Thursday from 1 to the end of the night due to Thanksgiving. Pretty weird but whatever.

First item of business, IT IS COLD. IT IS SO COLD. Humid cold just like touches your face and begins to murder you. Pretty awful. It's intensified by being on a bike and just taking in the wind as you go. BLAH.

So after P-Day activities last week we spent the night doing FHE with the Hammond's and it was fun. They do them in a really fun way and gave me ideas for when I have my family! 

On Wednesday, even though we were both staying, Elder Barrio and I got to go to Transfer Meeting, biggest one ever in the mission, it was crazy! They split every zone in half so there are so many more zone leaders and zones and it's crazy.I got to see Brett and Elder Oliva so that was fun, Elder Oliva goes home in 3 weeks! 

We then had lunch at Panda!!! I haven't been in AGES!!!! We got to drive by the temple being constructed in Carmel also. :D After that we went by Norma and had Milanesa with her and Cris, so good! 

On Tuesday we took Arturo to a lesson and it was so cool having him there as a member! :D

On Wednesday we had district meeting with the new district and then went to a really yummy noodle shop called Noodles and Company and got this Spicy Peanut Sauce pasta, no clue but it was good!  We then had dinner with Arturo y Ana and taught about doing missionary work!

Also on Friday we had a dinner/lesson with Karina at Arturo's house and we got to teach them both and it was cool to have them altogether. :)

On Saturday Norma went to the temple and loved it! Hernan y Yesenia also went so it was all pretty special for me. :) 

Yesterday Arturo was confirmed in church :D He says he already feels the difference! Brother Hammond then went with us to Seymour to visit Less Actives and a recent convert in the English Ward out there who speaks Spanish!

Other than that, just another week.

I will try to stay warm....

Have fun! Happy Thanksgiving!

-Elder Groseclose 

Ummmmm.... day 167. which means like when you go off dates, i am home in 18 months. weird stuff like that man. Okkkkkayyyy, this week was probably the longest week of my mission. Everything was SLOOOOOW and Elder Barrio and I felt sick and sore and pretty much the word I am looking for is: dead. Anyways, as I type this and yawn, let us begin:

Monday: Zone Preparation Day! Which means a bunch of missionaries came together to do stupid things like throw balls at each other and try to catch them and dodge them at the same time (DODGEBALL), throw a circle into another circle while bouncing the circle in order to get closer to the other circle (BASKETBALL), running full speed at each other while we try to kick a ball into a chair (CHAIR SOCCER), and Volleyball (like the perfect sport). So after all this business we were all ridiculously sore and in store for a week of feeble knees and biking, yippee! We had FHE with the Mijango's and they made Milanesa and just like... it's so divine I can't even put words together..... 

Tuesday: So tuesday we had District Meeting and then exchanges so I was with Elder Harris who actually goes home tomorrow. Weird.... Anyways we just walked around and taught no one because whatever, bad day of finding. We just sang songs all day. chill. We then went to Golden Corral for dinner with a member and then gave Hernan a blessing because he my BOY and then we had Arturo's Baptism Interview and I got to translate in it and it was just totally cool man. Oh, and then he asked me to speak at his baptism so like yeahhhhh. 

Don't even talk to me about Wednesday. We tracted in what may as well have been Antarctica for 6 hours aight? We eventually got to go eat with Hernan y Yesenia though and watch Mountain of the Lord.

Thursday. Pretty chill day. Woke up and did the usually studying business. Then we did service chopping down trees for the Nehring's like the usual things. Eventually we had weekly planning and then ate at the Hind's and then had an awesomeeeee Word of Wisdom lesson with my bestie Karina! So gooooood.

Friday. LOL. What a day man. Shootout to my girls Tayler Delaney Erica and Kelsey for being in my really weird missionary dream and Kelsey for calling me daddy in it, HA! :P Went with Shawnna to China Buffet for lunch. Anyways so we went to Seymour and it was fruitless. Talked to this guy who was scared of the BOM because he thought God would kill him if he read it so like..... lol.  Then our dinner appointment calls us and pretty much describes to us that she has leprosy, so needless to say, we cancelled that. We then went to Hernan y Yesenia and hung out and gave blessings again and Elder Barrio and I both almost passed out and we felt SOOOO sick. So we went home early and went straight to bed at 8:30, but I didn't fall asleep until midnight. awful. awful.

Saturday. Ummmm I don't really remember what we did. Ummmm. Ya sorry I am drawing a blank here. My bad my bad! We did have Stake Conference Adult session in Indy though!

Sundayyyy. MAN WHAT A COOL DAY. We had SC in the morning again and then after we went and made the Baptismal Program and filled the font and then went home for break. While we are there, out of NOWHERE comes this loud siren coming from who knows where and just blares across all of Columbus saying a tornado is coming. It was like God was speaking from the clouds so bizarre. So I was all excited for it and everyone else is freaking out lol. We almost postponed the baptism an hour but Arturo was already at the church! So we then continued with it and everyone came and right as the service started THE TORNADO CAME. EXCUSE ME AS I USE CAPS BUT DANG MAN IT WAS CRAZY. YOU COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING EXCEPT DUST AND WIND AND FLYING TREES! MOBILE HOMES WERE FLYING IN THE AIR AT THE TRAILOR PARK. IT WAS CRAZY. IT WAS SO COOL. OH MY GOSH MAN LIKE DANG I HAVE NO WORDS. THAT TORNADO WAS CRAZY. Anyways, I gave my talk at the baptism on Focusing on the Important Things and it went well and Arturo was baptized and we had a dinner after at his house and it was all so amazing. Ahhhh, so cool to be a part of.

OK SO THAT'S ALL, I GOT TO GO. LOVE YOU ALL <3 SEE YA IN 18!

ELDER GROSECLOSE

Arturo's baptism! 

Arturo y Ana and their kids

Elder Groseclose y Norma 

Herman y Yesenia so special to me. less actives that i worked with for 4 months and are now reactivating :)

The district

Okayyyy. So that weekly letter thing time! I am just gonna give highlights as always. My mom always begs for more details but like.... Mom we just knock doors and hear white people say "Leave us alone" and the Hispanics say "No but you can have some water." Like not too much details to give!!! :P

Anyways, with that aside, pretty awesome week!

On Monday was preparation day and we just hung out at the Nehring's house (where I live) with the other Elders and played Ping-Pong and Spies and Rebels (shout out to BYU friends!! I really wish we could play Murder in the Dark again!!) Then as we were about to leave to go out and bike at the end of Preparation Day, Arturo pulls up randomly and then proceeds to take us to his house and he gives us some AMAZING Salsa Verde Enchiladas and then we read with him in the Book of Mormon, because as we all know, the Isaiah chapters are HARD!

Tuesday was another exchange and once again I stayed in Spanish.... lol. We had district meeting and then a little district picnic after. That night as Knudsen and I were biking this girl somewhere in her twenties yells "Hey Morons! Morons!" and so of course we go say hi and talk with her because at least she isn't running or hiding like most people when they see us LOL. So turns out she was hammered drunk beyond belief and it was just hilarious and it was a fun discussion we had and then she proceeded to try and drunk hug us.... We then had Arturo pick us up and take us to Hernan Y Yesenia's and we watched the John Tanner movie and they made absolutely PERFECTLY DELICIOUS DIVINE LIFE CHANGING AMAZING PERFECTTTTT milanasa. No words can sufficiently describe the taste. YUM. We then went to Arturo's house and talked about scripture study with him!

Wednesday was a hard day, but at least Shawna fed us some Chili!

Thursday was service, planning, Hernan y Yesenia again for dinner, and then we taught Karina w/ Brother Creasy and committed her to baptism Dec. 21 and she accepted. She is so prepared. :)

Friday we were missionaries, okay? I just want to get to Saturday!!!

OKAY SATURDAY. AMAZING DAY. We tracted in the morning and it was useless and then we tried to contact people and it was in vain. Whatever, no biggy. We then went by the Mijango's because they are back from Guatemala and she got us really cool street vendor bookmarks from there! And then..... So last Sunday, Arturo signed up to feed us so like all week we were just working towards reaching our Saturday dinner with them so we could invite him to a baptismal date. So we were so excited for this dinner. We get there and Arturo invited the Nehrings, Bro. Bartnett, and the Pellegrinos over for dinner (the members he is closest with). So we were all excited because it was gonna be some huge dinner with a lot of empanadas and before we started eating, we all gather together to say the prayer and Arturo says:

"So the reason I gathered all of you here today is because I have an announcement for everyone," I start dying and all nervous and excited "I have decided I am going to be baptized, and I want to do it as soon as possible that way Elder Groseclose will still be here and not be transferred yet." Words cannot explain the joy that everyone had in that moment and the joy that I felt, I had absolutely NO WORDS in that moment. I was bright red I bet. It was honestly one of the most amazing moments of my life. It is TRULY so amazing the work that we do as missionaries. No matter how hard all the tracting, lack of sleep, and everything may be, they are completely lost the second you see someone taking the steps that you KNOW will bring them pure happiness. It's unbelievable how much you grow to love the people. Arturo's baptism is completely all for him but knowing that I helped him there and that I was a part of someones conversion is so amazing. Ahhh! So next Sunday at 5! :D

Sorry that was so scatter brained ^ It's hard to put words together about the experience. You truly cannot understand the feeling until you've gone through all the experiences, trials, and hardships leading up to it. It's great to be a missionary.

Sunday was the primary program and Arturo's and Karina's kids were in it, so cool. :) 

So like I am flustered now haha, so I will close!

Love you all!

Elder Groseclose!

Uh..... whoops I ran out of time.

Quickest recap ever for the past week:

- Cleaned Sister Lopez' garage for 3 hours. Sound exciting?

Oh.... the computer just refreshed my time. Well, this is awkward now because I was totally digging the idea of a quick and easy update. But uhhhh, okay lemme give a LITTLE more info...

On Tuesday we had a lesson with our now returning (YAY!!!!) less actives and we brought Arturo with us and they totally got along and it was so awesome to see! On the way home Arturo got us snacks and hot chocolate (he was totally making jokes about buying Tea and Coffee because we just taught him WOW, haha!) He then asked us to go over Baptismal Interview questions and tithing with him! So he decided to exercise faith and paid tithing yesterday! So cool to see. 

Wednesday was the Halloween Party at the church. Fun stuff. 

Thursday was Halloween but it got postponed due to a severe storm lol.Definitely not in California anymore. haha. We also had interviews with president and they went swiiiiimmingly. Tracted and got nothing in some crazy crazy rain. These older ladies stopped and tried to give me their umbrella so I wouldn't get sick!  So FRIDAY was Halloween and we had a Zone Meeting and then went to Norma and Cris and taught about Temple Baptisms and had dinner and then had to be in early for the night due to Halloween. So we handed out candy and discussed doctrine with Sis Nehring. fun life.

Saturday we did brick stacking service with Arturo and then he took us to his taqueria for lunch. yum yum yum yummmmm. We then had dinner at his house later that day and taught more about tithing with Ana there.

Yesterday was fast sunday. Pretty chill day. I can't think right now. Sorry. whoooops. Totally bomb dot com good testimony meeting and we had Arturo y Ana, Karina, y Marcelino all attend church. Then that night we taught Karina, well actually we just answered lots of questions she had. wheeeee. good times.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Don't worry, I am more descriptive in my journal, I just get all lazy sometimes. I don't know what I am actually saying anymore. Can I just write to you all in Spanish. It is just easier sometimes.

Yo espero que ustedes tengan una buena semana y cuidense muuuuucho.

deuces (that's english lol)

elder groseclose

Week 20!

I think my sister told me it's Week 20, so I'll go with that. 

WEEK 20.

That makes me like almost a fifth of the way done, that's weird. Seems like it's been forever but it also feels like I am almost home. Ha. 

So like, the longer you are in the field the more you realize that you just simply cannot do an organized weekly email anymore. So much random things happen and you forget what goes with what day and it's just a mess. Every week is pretty much go out and explode and then you have PDay and do it all again. Haha. Anyways, something cool: We got an email from President and he said by MAY (so yes like 7 months) every companionship will have 2 iPad Minis and and iPhone. You will be able to have Facebooks and Skype and you can teach Skype lessons you people you know from HOME that may be interested in the Gospel. A missionary in Florida, for example, is teaching his non-member mom over Skype, SAY WHAT?!?! It just like makes my mind blow up. I cannot even comprehend it lol. 

Anyways, so for some weekly highlights:

-Visited Catalina and David and got to talking about the "Don't add or diminish from this book" scriptures and it was cool to see how misinterpreted it is and it was cool to learn about the history behind the Bible. 

-We got fed 4 dinners in one day. Blah. WHILE BIKING. 

-Arturo y Ana still make us the most amazing food as always. So perfect. 

-We were biking and someone hung out the window and pointed and laughed at us and 10 seconds letter got pulled over by a cop. HAHA. 

-Helped Arturo with his landscaping job and he said he wants to come to lessons with us if we ever need a ride! 

-Played a prank on the other Elders into thinking the car was stolen and it was their fault.

-Knocked a trailor and asked a guy if he knew where any Spanish speakers lived and he started yelling at us to leave America and go look in Mexico and it was funny that he got so worked up about it hahaha.

-Had Arturo y Ana over at the Nehring's house and got to roast marshmallows with them and share a GC talk! 

-Norma got baptized on Saturday!!! 

-Arturo stayed all 3 hours at church :)

Have a great week my beloved family and friends. 

Elder Groseclose

ps: i speak spanish. weird.

Wowwww, I am running low on time so bear with me if this letter is shorter than usual!

Anyways, last Monday was just a regular P-Day and nothing was too special and Tuesday we just went around so Elder Oliva could say bye to members and investigators and all that beautiful stuff. Yawn. ANYWAYS: New companion.

So Wednesday was transfer meeting and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Barrio. He is from Chihuahua Mexico and lives in the Mormon colonies there. He lived in the states for a little bit in HS because he is near Juarez which is like awful with drug trade and all that. But he knows English and Spanish perfectly so it's such a blessing to have. He has been out 11 months and he really is an amazing missionary. I have learned so much from him in our short time that I cannot even begin to explain it. I think I will grow 2489361 fold this transfer. 

Anyways, I am so sorry for how lame this email is but truly, it was just a week of adjusting and getting ready to work hard. We are still set for the baptism with Norma on Saturday and she passed her interview last night so it's all pretty much good to go. I absolutely love the branch and the people we work with and I blow my mind every day that I speak a language that isn't English...

So just some weekly highlights:

-Pruned a pine tree

-My new district seems really fun

-District lunch at China Buffet

-Seeing my investigators have a lot of opposition which shows me how true the work really is, the adversary tries so hard to stop it! 

-Late night Taco Bell run!

Yup, I am boring this week! But let it be known, I am thankful for everyone and you all have no idea how much I appreciate the emails and letters!

Tengan una buena semana mis amigos :)

Elder Groseclose

My new companion Elder Barrio

Day 7361279, but in reality, Day 125. And the end of my third transfer and 2nd in the field, which officially makes me DONE with training. That's nice! I have no words to even BEGIN to describe these last 2 transfers. They have been LONG, they have been difficult, they have been A L O T of work, they have been exhausting, but, they have been FUN. How much I have learned and grown and seen in these past few months is unexplainable. I can't even wrap my head around it. And to think I still have somewhere near 590 days to go is really cool but also bizarre. Time is an interesting concept...

MONDAY: Last monday, the usual, PREPARATION DAY. Zone Preparation day though so all the missionaries in the zone who wanted to came down to good old Columbus and we hung out at the church playing Chair Soccer and Dodgeball. Of course, being me, I made an alliance in chair soccer to make sure I did as good as possible. Not being a soccer player, it was my natural instinct to use my witty ways and make allliances and welp, I won. It sure made me miss all my TV shows of who can outlie who, bahaha. Then P-Day ended and we exchanged and Elder Combs came to Spanish land for the night! 

TUESDAY: Our real exchange was today. We biked around trying to find people and of course everything, naturally, fell through that we had planned. Expected. We did though get the chance to visit Jacie who is one of the newer converts to the ward. We talked with her for a little bit and it's always interesting times with her. From there we had Chilean food with the Bejars, whatever in the world that is. They made some great quesadillas though so I definitely was digging that. Afterwards, we went with President Nehring up to Greenwood to teach Norma. Her husband Chris is a member and she has decided that it's time for herself to be baptized also and she has such a strong testimony that she just never knew she had. We set a baptisimal date for October 19th. :) On the way home, President Nehring got a call that two kids at Institute were sick so we stopped by their and helped out with that! We got in at 10:36, we are supposed to be in BED at 10:30, WHOOPS.

WEDNESDAY: Went in the morning with Brother Sanchez to visit and teach Norma again. We breezed through two lessons and it all went swell. After that we went to teach Luis Jaimez and he actually read in the BOM and it was so cool! Who knows what else will happen but it was cool to see him actually keep a commitment. Like I've said before, Arturo y Ana used to own a Mexican restaurant and since Wednesday was Ana's birthday, we went with them out to dinner at their old restaurant. It was SOOOOOOO good. Divinely good. SO GOOD. The tacos were perfect. I had 10 of them. They changed my life. Arturo said it's his recipes, he is a freaking amazing cook! Then for dessert we had Tres Leches cake (3 Milk) and that is seriously my favorite cake now. It is perfect!

THURSDAY: Helped Sister Nehring in the morning out in the yard and then had weekly planning after. I got a great package from Lauren and it had the cutest family pictures!! Got to have dinner with the Richards and taught a lesson with our newest investigators Karina and Ben. It was a great lesson!

FRIDAY: Zoooooone training!!! We learned more about how to work with members and it was great and really productive. After the training we went and taught Norma again and then they feed us this Argentinian food Milanesa, SOOOOO GOOD. Oh my goodness it's crazy the things hispanics can cook! We had a dinner scheduled right after that but thank goodness it cancelled! So we just headed home and did some studies and all our lessons fell through so we visited a referral we had and he was a Jehovah's Witness so we had the usual talk there. Those are always fun though, I enjoy them. I learned that their Bible they take out a lot of the verses. It was really weird to learn. 

SATURDAY: General Conference! A missionaries dream! The talks the morning session were SOOOOO good. It's crazy being a missionary and seeing how everything is about missionary work! After the first session we went with the Sisters and the 2nd Ward Bishop to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and he paid for us so that was super sweet! Marcelino was in town because he needed to exchange something at the local pawn shop so we went and helped him communicate because he knows no English. He then came with us after to a session of General Conference and loved it :)  After the second session we just visited people and one of our investigators was absolutely wasted out of his mind. 8 beers and he was smoking who knows what. He was talking to us and was like an inch away, he totally had no sense of distance. He then started just randomly hugging us and he started to speak in English. It was bizarre. He asked how to pronounce my name for some reason and when I said it he started yelling "YEAHHHHH MAN!" He then proceeded to tell us he was drunk as if we couldn't tell and then started apologizing profusely. Interesting. We then returned to the church for pizza and watched the Priesthood Session. 

SUNDAY: General Conference part 2. Luncheon at the Church. Took district pictures. Killed off Elder Isaacson (when a missionary is about to go home you take a "death" picture, his was being killed by a star on a christmas tree). No investigator lessons today, all fell through so we went and visited a part-member family Catalina y David and just had a great time chatting and what not. She gave us hot cocoa and bread.

AND NOW FOR THE FEATURE PRESENTATION.... So last night we got "THE CALL", which is when we find out who is being transferred, who is staying, and whether either of us will be training or what not. SOOOO....

My trainer Elder Oliva is.... LEAVING. Sad to see him go. I am so thankful for my trainer. I was truly blessed. 

I am...... STAYING. YAY! I am so glad for more time here in Columbus, especially with a baptism in 2 weeks!!

Anyways, running out of time so I gotta send the family pictures. Bye!

ELDER GROSECLOSE

me and elder oliva dressing up.

my new nametag because groseclose is too hard for hispanics.

the taco sign in arturo's old restaraunt 

Arturo singing Te Amo (i love you) to Ana!

Arturo y Ana's kids!

Elder Oliva and I made a rap and so we got an award.... lol

Our district!

Catalina y David. They didn't smile because they are too cool. Haha

Columbus :)