First off, cause I know everyone's wondering how I found an actual person to teach here.. Well, I didn't, haha! His real name is Hermano King, one of our teachers.. But, as Manuel, he's getting baptized on Saturday! And we have a ton more to teach him and only two more lessons with him, so we'll see how that goes...
And once again, this is a letter of random thoughts, so don't expect much out of it, haha!
Oh ya, we accidentally asked Manuel if he was pregnant instead of asking if he was still embarrassed to pray... Ya that went over well... and he threw the polygamy card at us.. But somehow we were able to teach by the Spirit and everything worked out perfectly! It's interesting to witness that moment when the Spirit enters your lesson and all your plans change, and you start saying so many things that you don't even know you're saying, and the whole atmosphere changes.. I'm not going to lie, the MTC is hard! But these moments make it all worth it! Church is true!
So our whole zone is getting switched buildings (our classrooms) because they're making the building we're currently in into las hermanas residential halls (sister's rooms). And we found out that as of November 13th, we're the first group of missionaries to go through the new training program that they're using for the missionaries starting in January with the shorter MTC times.. So we're learning everything in 6 weeks instead of 9, and because they're not shortening our time, the last 3 weeks for us are going to be straight teaching investigators... Supposedly it's going to be like this down in Peru, but really we don't know what to expect!
WE GOT OUR VISAS!!! Only our Peruvian Visas, but still! That doesn't always work out, so we're really excited about that! The Elders who are serving in the same country as their other MTC place (so like if I was serving in Peru..) don't get their visas nearly as fast because they have to get the work visas, whereas we only need temporary visas for Peru.. There are a couple Elders in our zone who haven't been able to get theirs yet, and it's been two weeks since they needed to leave for the Peru MTC, so we're really grateful that we have ours! We've met a lot of other Elders with the same issue of not being able to go to the other MTC that they were assigned to because of visa problems, and it's usually the Elders who are trying to get to the Peru and Columbia MTCs.
So I'll email my flight schedule later, but we leave the Provo MTC at 6am on Tuesday the 27th, and we fly through Atlanta, GA, then straight down to Lima, Peru! Because we don't have our Bolivian Visas yet, they have a flight held for us just in case we don't get them by the time our time is up at the Peru MTC.. Our flight out is scheduled for December 30th, which is cutting a week and a half off of our original MTC time, and we'll be serving in the Atlanta, Georgia Mission if we don't get to go to Bolivia. Honestly, that's like the next best place if we can't make it to Bolivia so I'm really excited about that! But, at least we know that we'll either be in Bolivia or Georgia by the end of the year!
Anyway, I've got to get off now, but I'll probably be sending another email a little later today...
Chispas Hijos!
Elder Groneman
(it's not really something you say at the end of a letter, but we've been saying it all week so that's how I'm ending it because I can)
So I said earlier that Manuel was a fake investigator, which is
true, and we're actually teaching a new (fake) investigator tonight for
the first time.. His name is Luis, played by Hermano Bruce, our other
teacher.. Hermano King hasn't actually been teaching us until this last
Friday, so that was kinda weird to have have our investigator teaching
us haha! And even though most of the investigators are fake and work
here, there are some actual ones that we might have already taught
without knowing it... The first day we were here, we taught in huge
groups of like 30 missionaries, and we taught 3 different people.. When
we met with the first investigator, Elder Nathan and I thought we were
being hazed haha! But no... it turns out his life story was real, and so
was everyone else we met with that night... We don't know their status
in the church now, or even if they are members or still investigating
because they're not allowed to tell us that, but all of their stories
were real, and they were really dramatic, heart-breaking stories... So
our current investigators are fake, but we do know that they do have
real investigators that come here to be taught.. Also, we're teaching
someone like that on Wednesday this week.. We're pretty sure they're
members, but we won't ever know.. We do know that they're all Latinos
who moved to Provo..
So last Tuesday, one of our Districts in our zone left, and we didn't really know them so no one really cared, but it was weird because then we got a new District on Wednesday, which is really fun because it's obvious to see how far ahead we are compared to them, and we've only been here a week longer than they have! Elders Nathan, Jensen, Bardin, and I are the next to leave next week, and honestly it feels like we've been here forever! But then again it feels like we just barely got here! Days are long, weeks are incredibly short! It's going to be really sad leaving our District though because we are all so close now..
So we don't pay tithing here, and we have to pay through our home wards.. People get money in the mail and stuff and have to tell their parents to pay tithing on it haha! I haven't gotten any money in the mail, nor do I want any or have any use for it at this point, but could you pay 20 cents for tithing for me haha?! Ya, I got paid to iron someone's shirt last week... There are many things I could say about this, but I'm going to refrain from saying that some people are incapable and inexperienced ahem!........
So funny story.. this kind of happened last week, but I have to tell someone! So at gym, they have a track upstairs, basketball, volleyball, weight machines, a rowing machine that is fun but makes you incredibly sore in the morning, and foursquare. Yes. Foursquare. A dead "sport" after elementary school, right? Wrong. A bunch of us thought it would be funny to play it just as a joke and to have a good laugh.. Well sadly, that didn't work out.. One of the Elders in my District got someone out, and one of the regular foursquare-goers leaned over to another one of the Elders in my district and whispered, "Aw.. He already has the soft touch.." Ya.. It turns out that they are really into it.. Like not just for fun, but they have fights about the rules after gym and who did this wrong and so-and-so wasn't playing fair... Seriously?!?! No. Stop. I'm sorry, but I'm sorry for your eagerness to play FOURSQUARE!!! Now I just run or play volleyball with our zone..... Ya..... not much more to say other than you would die if you knew how much it meant to them haha!
Oh, and yesterday we had a pre-departure meeting with our branch
presidency! It's crazy to think that we're already leaving! We're
leaving at a bad time though because we aren't able to get everything
we need done beforehand because of Thanksgiving and all.. Like we tried
to get our dry-cleaning done an hour ago and they said we wouldn't get
it back until next Wednesday... awesome.. and they have one-day
dry-cleaning, but we can't do that until next Monday.. ya that doesn't
help us either.. And there are some things that I don't think I'll be
needing so expect a package sometime before I leave next week.. And I
still don't have the flight information with me so I'll just send it in
the mail later today...
Um pictures... ya wait until next week...
So we've
learned a little about Santa Cruz.. We've seen one picture of Santa Cruz
that's hanging up in the hallway in one building, and it's of two
misionaros hermanas and they're walking down a street in the city
during a minor flood haha! Also, we've been told that all of the sister
missionaries stay in Santa Cruz and all of los Elderes get sent out into
the boonies.. So excited to get out there! And we've heard lots of
different things about the food.. Either we're supposed to be super fat
because we eat really well, or we're super skinny because we walk so
much and get tapeworms! So ya.. no one knows.. Someone who has been
there before told us that they do really interesting things to potatoes,
and he told us one that he remembered that was really good was when they
wrapped the potatoes up in who knows what and then they stuck them in a
river until they turned black...? Sure... Bring it on!
So now for some rumors... well actually I can only remember one so
that's all you get.. Supposedly, the church is coming out with a
different design for the scriptures or something.. That sounds bad.. I'm
not saying that they're changing any part of them, but they might be
adding more footnotes and cross-references or changing the leather
covers or something like that.. Some of us think that they might be
adding The Family: A Proclamation to the World or The Living Christ or
something like that in the back.. No one really knows, but apparently
they've stopped supplying Deseret Book with some of the scripture stuff
and that the new stuff is coming out in December.. Anyway, just one of
those things we've been hearing about..
Oh, so Thanksgiving.. The schedule is really weird and I don't
remember any of it, but we have a devotional in the morning and one of
the Quorum of the Twelve is going to be here! We don't know who, but we
know one of them is coming.. And I might be performing sometime that day
with Elder Lowe from my district.. He has an incredible voice, like
he's going to be on tv incredible.. And I'm not exaggerating that
because he's waiting to get the results in the mail for an audition he
did for the Glee Project.. they told him that they would hold him a spot
in the season following his return if he made it.. So far he's made it
all the way to the semi-finals... But anyway, we found music last Thursday morning and auditioned an hour later.. The MTC presidency's
wives were judging and Hermana Brown isn't afraid to tell you what
you're doing wrong haha! So we auditioned and she told us how SHE wanted
the song to sound and told us to audition again... So we went back an
hour later and made it haha! We don't know when we're going to perform
(by the way, I'm accompanying him because it's better that way haha) but
we do know that we will be a musical number at one of the
devotionals before I leave next week... And he straight up told them
that we really wanted to perform at the Thanksgiving Devotional haha! I
don't remember their response, but their reaction to the question seemed
like they were seriously considering it anyway...
Well, obviously we've had a ton of extra time today because I've
written 2 letters now and they're both super long but oh well! Pardon my
horrible English! I'm switching between two different languages and
sometimes my mind works in English and sometimes in Spanish haha! Pretty
much we just speak Spanglish all day and it all works out! It's amazing
how fast you learn things here though.. Gift of Tongues in action! It's
really fun to see where everyone's going when you meet new people every
other second! Like yesterday we were on the edge of where our zone
usually sits and las hermanas that were sitting next to us were speaking
some crazy language, so we got talking to them and they're going to
Singapore/Malaysia Malay speaking! So that was a fun conversation when I
told them that I was there in June. And we met the Cambodian-bound
missionaries during our first week so that was fun talking to them once
they found out I had been there.. And today we sat next to some
France-bound misionaros and tons of other people that are going all over
the place! This place is amazing! There is nothing that compares to the
work that goes on here! I'm doing just fine, having the time of my
life, and I hope everyone is doing just as well!
Write me! I love getting all your letters during the week! Even if I
can't write you back until Mondays usually, it's still nice to know
that normal people still exist haha!
Scripture I liked this week:
1 Nephi 10:18
"For he is the same yesterday, today, and
forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the
world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him."
-Elder Groneman
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