Father´s Day
here was in January or February. One of the two I don´t remember, so
nothing special this weekend for us. But sounds like you had a good day.
Yes, I am extremely happy to be here in Guayara. It´s one
of the most beautiful places I´ve ever seen. No, I didn´t take a bus, I
really wanted to, but Guayara has a new airport that´s about 30 minutes
away from the city. I´ll have to take a picture of it when I leave. It´s
a dirt field that´s been cleared of trees and has a shack. It´s
actually less than a shack, more like a covering for a picnic area
that´s been made of palm tree leaves, like most of the houses here, and
has a counter to buy tickets, I think. Yup, just explained the entire
airport. Field shack. A tiny airplane that flies in once or twice every
day. I had a stop in Trinidad, but didn´t see anything. The plane on the
way to Trinidad was full, all 16 of us, and the plane to Guayaramerín
only had the 2 pilots, and the 4 passengers including me haha. Super
bumpy plane ride. Loved it.
So I´m including some photos. [There were no photos! Bummer!!] The first one is from my
last area a couple weeks ago in Cupesí. The other guy´s name is
A and he´s headed for Chihuahua Mexico on a mission in July.
This is one of the many times that we got lost in Cupesí haha.
The other is from Guayara with my new companion, Elder
L from Santa Cruz. (He´s waiting for his visa to go to his mission
in Venezuela). He´s on his 2nd transfer, so I´m finishing up his
training. Oh ya, while I´m thinking about it, I´m also the District
Leader. Don´t know how that one happened. But it´s good and I like
helping out the other missionaries here. Really trying to improve my
district, especially because we´re not in Santa Cruz, and sometimes that
makes the missionaries think that they can get away with whatever
because the President´s 1000 miles away...... Ya, workin on that haha.
But in the picture is the river Mamoré and on the other side is Brazil.
And yes, there are every type of wild animal that lives in the jungle.
They do exist and live just outside the city. Lovin it. Fun fact: on the
way to the city from the airport right after I got here, we saw a HUGE
snake right in the middle of the road. It was already dead, so we got
out and took pictures. Viva el Beni.
Funny enough that you should mention weird foods. I´ve now
eaten the colon of a cow and the intestines, all stuffed with meat and
rice. Tasty. Actually, I´m not a huge fan because it´s a little bit like
the stomach, but it´s actually not bad and I wouldn´t mind having it
again. (the intestines are better than the colon if you were wondering
haha). Yes, we eat with a family everyday for lunch, yes there is a lady
that we pay to do our laundry in a river. It´s much easier to pay
someone, we don´t have time to do it by ourselves.
Ok, Betty. Yes, I was actually going to ask you about her
today funny enough. I haven´t heard anything since the MTC and not going
to lie, I´m a little worried. Sorry, I don´t know where she is, but can
you find her? Gracias.
I got the last package you sent the other day! Everything
was there except the lemonheads and 2 packages of oatmeal, but you said
that you had to take a couple of things out right? It didn´t look like
it had been fussed with at all. Thanks for the Tshirt and keychain!
Ok, so, it´s been a long time since I´ve given you all a
good story, but I have one today that I´ve been thinking about all
morning. There´s a family, la familia S, that´s been having the
missionaries come to their house for 3 years or so. They´ve never gotten
baptized and didn´t really have any desire to do so, but, like a lot of
people, they´ve liked listening to the missionaries because they like
¨hearing the word of God in their home¨. Well, last week, we went to
talk to the wife because Elder L told me that she´s easier to teach,
but I soon found out how incredibly closed minded she was. But she said
that she´s prayed several times to know if the church is true, if
Joseph Smith was a prophet, and also if the Book of Mormon is true, and
said that she´s never received any type of answer and doesn´t expect
that she´ll ever get anything. She said that she feels the same in this
church as she does in any other church and actually didn´t want this
church anymore. Wow. I honestly didn´t know what to say for a second.
But I was thinking about the Book of Mormon the whole time. I asked her a
couple questions, and she told me that when she reads, she doesn´t
understand anything. I told her that it´s really hard to ask if
something´s true if you don´t understand that which you´re asking. So we
told her that we were going to come back and read the Book of Mormon
with her and receive her answer with her. She didn´t seem too happy
about that, but said ok. So we came back a couple days later and she
wasn´t there (I think she was avoiding us), but we taught her husband
instead. He´s super hard to teach too because he doesn´t want to make
any commitments to anything. Anyway, we returned yesterday and read 3
Nefi 11. They expressed several feelings, and long story short, we
prayed with them. After their prayers, they sat there for 10 minutes
thinking and listening. After they got back up and sat in their chairs, I
didn´t know what to say, so I sat there for a minute more then asked
her if she believed in everything the missionaries have said. Her
answer: ¨Son.¨ AH! (they are.) chills. and her husband was crying a
little bit and said the same thing. Their testimonies were incredible
after that (they shared their testimonies with us) and we set a date so
they can get married and get baptized the next day. That´s the story
without too many details, but just know that it´s 1'0 times better than
what I just wrote.
Wow. This gospel is true. I know it with all my heart. The
Book of Mormon is true. It changes lives. I´ve seen it change the lives
of the people here in Bolivia. I hope you´re all reading everyday,
because this book is straight from our Heavenly Father.
¡Tenga un buen día!
Les amo a todos,
Elder Groneman
(and the other picture next week.... the computer hates my camera.)
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