¡Buenos Días Buenos Días!

¡Buenos Días Buenos Días!

Sounds like California was good. Jealous of the beach though. Missin' that a little. And glad that all´s well with Sophie and such.

Yup, still here in Guayaramerín, which is good because I´m loving it more and more everyday and am determined to be here until December because my branch is awesome. Everyone who we visited last Sunday came to church! There were 54 people in the sacrament meeting again! (Last Sunday we dropped down to 15 again). So all of the members were really happy for the work they did and more that it actually worked and they made a difference. So we went with everyone to visit again, this time the group was a little bit larger with 10 of us, including a couple people that we visited last week, and we went to visit people that
haven´t come to church or talked with anyone for years. It really is cool to see the reactions of inactives when they see members show up at their house. Just a little bit different from the reactions that we get sometimes haha! But it really does make a difference for them to know that the members are thinking about them, their friends, instead of just the missionaries who are always looking for them.

We visited a family yesterday, a really really big family, that told us last week that they need lots and lots of time to come back to church and they wanted to, just didn´t know how. Yesterday, we went there and they
were shocked that people actually remembered who they were. There were lots of tears. From the active members might I add también [also]. But I was thinking later that really their problem was just that they didn´t know how to return when they didn´t think that they would know anybody. They promised to everyone that they would be there on Sunday and just wanted that nobody forgets about them. It really changes everything when they know that people care about them, but would they know that if the branch didn´t visit them yesterday? Something to think about..... I can tell you that we´d probably have to stop visiting them later because they wouldn´t come to church. But the members here have made all of the difference. I talked with the members that we were with yesterday to see how they felt. They couldn´t describe it. We always listen to the prophets, we always listen to the apostles. But do we really LISTEN? We can talk forever about what we should do, but when we actually decide to do something different (because if what we´re doing now isn´t working we have to do something different) then something incredible happens and you begin to UNDERSTAND what everyone else was trying to tell you. Hmm... Funny how that all works. Do something different that you don´t normally do. Visit someone that hasn´t come to church for a long time. Introduce someone to the missionaries. You won´t be able to explain what happens later, but you´ll UNDERSTAND what I´m saying. It really works, missionary work. I made a question (oh wow my English is really struggling haha but I´ll leave it so you can laugh) to our branch president yesterday as we were visiting someone. I could tell that he was feeling the spirit really strongly. As we showed up at another
house, I said, ¨If the whole church was like this, how would it be?¨(something like that). He turned to me and said simply, ¨There wouldn´t be any less actives.¨ I was thinking about that later. There really wouldn´t be any less actives, nor inactives, nor people that get baptized that don´t have testimonies. I found my dream branch haha. I don´t want to leave. They´ve found the trick. They´re not just members of the Chuch, they´re missionaries. I can´t even describe the change that I´ve seen in this branch. I arrived here with 10 active
people or so and a list of 500 (no joke) inactive members. They´ve more than doubled the number of people in sacrament meeting. I love Mamoré. We´re going to be in the Liahona one day hahaha. Just kidding.
But that´s how I feel right now. We´re one of the success stories of the church and it´s just getting better and better.

Well, other than that life´s good. Pdte Zambrano´s trying to get Guajaramerím to be in our mission and there´s already plans for the missionaries and the members here to start the church over there because it´s not officially organized over there yet. Just members who don´t have the chance to meet together on Sunday. So if all goes well with the Pdte´s plans, we should be going over to Brazil sometime in the next transfer. Hoping that that happens. Gotta practice my Portuguese haha.

Thanks for finding N C-T. He needs the help. Thank you.

Eliza, this letter is super long. Hope there´s something in it that you can use. I would say that you could focus yourself on the missionary work there at home and the things we can do to be missionaries even when we don´t have the plaque (I don´t know if that´s spelled right or if it´s just plaque on teeth haha). But there´s so much to do. We just have to pray, search for our part, and step up and do it. I promise it works. I know that this church is true. Everyone needs it. Everyone needs to feel our Savior´s love. We have it. We can give it to them. He´ll help us share it. But nothing happens when we don´t do our part. And if we don´t do our part, who will? The other people have their own part to do. There is always someone with whom to share the gospel. There is always someone that you can give service to. There is always something more to do in the
kingdom. We just have to ask and it will be given us. Then we have to act. Then they´ll thank you later for what you´ve done. They´ll never forget what you´ve done. Don´t underestimate your calling as a member
of the Church. We´re all disciples of Christ.

Ok, well, hope you get my point haha. I was just really happy yesterday and have to tell the world that THE GOSPEL ACTUALLY WORKS!!! But thanks for listening haha. Now go and act!!!

Love you all,
Think about you all everyday. Sorry, but I´m not wishing to be home right now, just that you were all here with me,
Hasta Luego,
Mucho Amor,
Elder Groneman