This week was really hard for lessons
because we had so much to do to get ready for transfers this week and
then the lessons that we actually had planned got canceled and such.
BUT, it was still good because we had an awesome baptism yesterday!!!!
Haha you probably didn´t know I had a baptism comin up because we
never even talked about the sister who got baptized, but that´s ok
because we didn´t know it was comin up either. Saturday morning we´re
studying when we get a call from the bishop saying that the mom of one
of the members in our ward wants to get baptized the next day on Sunday
and he wanted to know if I could do the interview that night. So then we
ended up calling up Hermano H**, who was almost inactive as of a
month ago, then was ordained an Elder about 3 weeks ago, to find out
more about his mom, because we didn´t even know that his mom lived with
him. .....Well she doesn´t haha. She lives in La Paz. But, she wanted to
get baptized here because she wanted H** to baptize her and she had
been wanting to get baptized for about a year now or so, but her husband
was really opposed to it, and basically circumstances changed and
everything was good to go to get baptized on the other side of the
country haha! So we ended up talking to her Bishop in La Paz with some
questions and to make sure that everything was all good. Talked to
Presidente Zambrano a bit about everything, and ya, we had an interview
at 8 that night and then yesterday she got baptized in the afternoon. It
was really really good and she had lots of family there and we had a
lot of ward members show up even though she isn´t even from our ward,
and ya, it was just really really spiritual and all. She´s going to be
confirmed next Sunday in La Paz so the other half of her family can be
there for her confirmation. Baptisms just come when it´s the right time
for them to be baptized. It was a nice little addition to Sunday.
The big family came to church for the 3rd time! Ok, well only a
part of them. The parents had to go to Oruro this week and so we taught
all of the rest of them and then 4 of them came to church, including 2
of them for the first time. So now 10 out of the 12 have come to church,
and actually now it´s 13 members of the family because one of them that
was there for the first lesson but couldn´t be there any time after
because he´s doing his obligatory military service, finishes his year
with the military on Wednesday so he told us that he´ll try to be there
for the lessons now, and he came to church yesterday and loved it and
really everything is just so awesome with them still. We just need the
parents to get back today or tomorrow I think it is, so that they can
wake everyone up in the morning to go to church this next week. They´re
still working towards the 15th of February as their baptismal date!
And that´s basically all that happened this week because then we
were stuck here doing stuff in the offices. We already have some lessons
planned for this next week, but really everything´s going to be
Thursday and later because the newbies are comin tomorrow. And yes, I´ll
be here for another transfer. But that´s ok, even though I´d like to
teach more during the week, we have an awesome district and our area is
improving a ton and Elder L** is definitely one of my favorite
companions I´ve had so far. So we´ll just keep pushing onward with the
families that we have.
It´s too bad that we´ll be forced to eat in some of the best
restaurants in Santa Cruz in the next couple of days....... Oh well. I
guess I´ll just have to learn to enjoy it haha.
So I realized something yesterday. We were in a lesson with a less
active that really doesn´t really have a testimony and he´s definitely
the hardest person to teach of my entire mission. He always has some way
to shut down what we´re trying to explain, but he contradicts himself,
so we know that he really doesn´t believe half of what he says. And he´s
been coming to church and he´s changed a ton, so we know that we´re
getting to him and that he´s secretly trying to get his life back in
order, he just doesn´t want us to know that haha. Example: second
lesson: ¨So is it all right if we start out with a prayer?¨ ¨No.¨
¨Oh.... um... well... why not?¨ ¨Because I don´t like that.¨ Haha. Now
there´s times when he offers to say the prayer before we even ask. Ya,
it´s been interesting. But his whole thing is that we should do
everything with an equilibrium (hope I spelled that right). Basically he
comes to church, but not all of it because that´s too much of an
unbalance if he goes to all of the 3 hours. So everything he does is
limited because he ¨wants to live a normal life¨. So I asked him what it
means to him a normal life. He explained his whole equilibrium thing
again and how we should follow the commandments and such, but at the
same time, we should be normal people and be able to fit in with the
world. Then the most inspired question came to my mind and it´s been
stuck in my head ever since. I can´t even explain how directed this
question was to him, but it´s really something for all of us as well and
something that I think I´ll be asking myself for awhile now.
Do I believe that Christ suffered and died for us so that we can
have a ´normal life´? (It sounds better in Spanish right now...) But
really, it´s a question that can have so many different meanings.
So ya, it´s been a good week, and we´re ready for los nuevos [the new ones]! The mission just gets better every day.
con mucho amor,
Elder Groneman
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