Y...................... HAPPY
BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! To Eliza and Jacob! 16. Weird. You´re still both in
middle school in my mind. Have fun driving haha! Felicidades!
And
so this week was... insane. Like every week. On Monday, we were super
busy trying to get everything ready for the newbies who got here on
Tuesday. I´ve never been so busy before transfers before. There were a
lot of problems with the missionaries who were headed home. For example,
I didn´t have passports for 3 out of the 4 foreigners until Monday when
I received one of them, then another one on Wednesday, and the last one
at 9:15 at night on Thursday just in time to go to the airport the next
morning at 3am. Ya, and all through that, we found out that there were a
lot of missionaries that had expired Visas last week and that made it
even worse because they had to go to Migrations before they could fly
out to other areas. So we all made a trip to Migrations on Thursday
(which was the day of the actual transfers) and at the same time we had
to take the new missionaries all across the city so they could get their
visas and be legal. And everything changed with flights, and I mean
EVERYTHING. And it was so crazy that we even had a missionary fly out to
another area when he wasn´t even scheduled for a flight until the next
day! Don´t know how that one slipped through, but ya. I´ve basically
never seen so many problems show up at once and then be resolved so
quickly. And when I mean quick, I mean like miracle fast this person needs
a copy of her passport in 10 minutes or she´s going to miss her 2nd
flight in 2 days, but wait, there´s no internet in the entire city to
print off the papers that Elder Groneman sent. Migrations don´t budge
because something happened and her papers were bad. But somehow the man
working for another airline (the worst airline in all of Bolivia) on the
other side of the airport lets them get on his computer, the only one
that actually has functioning internet, and lo and behold, she´s on her
way to her next area. Miracle.
The whole week was the exact same for my companion too. We got to
one point this week where I almost had to take out money from my own
bank account so that the mission could have money. Nothing was his
fault, but the way that everything worked out this week (somewhat
because the 2 assistants are new in the offices and we´ve been trying to
help them out as well) we didn´t get our money in time and....... well
ya, it´s just been a very interesting week. I´ve never been so stressed
in my entire life! Definitely seen a different side of the mission here
haha!
And speaking of different sides of the mission, we took a little
trip over to La Guardia yesterday after lunch. I was with an Elder that
went home this morning. He was originally going to go home on Thursday,
but then unexpectedly was in the hospital Tuesday night with
appendicitis and they operated Wednesday morning, so he had to get a
bit better first before going home. Well, he left some stuff with
another missionary in an area close by where he was before going to the
hospital, so we went to go get it so he could have it to go home this
morning. So we took a little vacation over to La Guardia. It´s about an
hour away headed towards the south by city bus (micro). And it is
beautiful. I´ve always known that Santa Cruz is surrounded by the
jungle, but I´ve never seen so much of it until now. When I was in
Cupesí on the edge of the city, there were tons of parrots every day and
such and lots of jungle on the edge of the area, but Santa Cruz is
super flat without any hills at all so you can never see too much of the
city and the surrounding jungle and river at the same time. But
yesterday, when we were in La Guardia, the missionaries there took us up
to this one hill (La Guardia is by the mountains off to the South East
of the big city) and we could see the river and the mountains off to the
east that are the most jungle-filled mountains that I´ve ever seen, and
the city off in the distance. Seriously, Santa Cruz is this big city
right in the middle of a huge jungle! Never seen so many trees before.
And it was awesome because right as we got to this lookout point, it
started raining again like it tends to do every morning and afternoonish
here. And then it stopped pretty fast and this rainbow came out. South
American jungle with big city, mountains, river, and rainbow. I have
pictures, but they´re on a different camera because I just happened to
take mine out of my bag yesterday morning. Oh well, he´s going to email them to me, but he hasn´t done it yet. Probably for next week.
Well, that´s basically it because we didn´t even teach this week
until Saturday night with everything going on with transfers. BUT. The
big family is still awesome. The girls already are basically members.
The parents got back yesterday from Oruro and La Paz so we should be
good to teach them the rest of the week. The boys need lots of help.
They´ve been different since their parents left. Still lookin forward to
their baptisms this month.
Don´t feel like this is a missionary letter haha. Too much other
stuff going on. But being in the offices has given me a different sense
of how the Spirit can help me in my everyday life. Especially with all
of the problems this week, it´s really interesting how the answers just
come sometimes and we know what to do in the right moment.
So, if we haven´t learned anything this week, at least we can
remember that this is the Lord's work. And now more than ever I realize
that He´s the one directing it and everything goes according to His
plan. So when things aren´t working out too well in our lives, maybe we
can all ask ourselves if we´re doing our part in the plan, or if we´re
just being a bit rebellious and doing it our way. Life is a whole lot
easier when we just submit ourselves to His will and become instruments
in His hands.
Loving my part. Freaking out when people lose passports.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Groneman
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