CHILE VIÑA DEL MAR!!!!!!!!!
Sabe
que [You know what]? Elder C** is there too haha! He`s been writing me about his
mission and such and pucha [wow], the email that Parker sent me had 20
questions and didn`t give the answer in the end! And so Elder R** and I
were sitting here with my hand over the screen reading each line one at
a time, trying to guess where you`re going, and then there`s no
answer! Everyone looked weird at us when we flipped out because there
was no answer! .....then they looked weird at us again when we found the
answer in mom`s email. But wow! Que loco [Crazy]! I could talk forever about
how it`s going to be awesome and all, but I have some awesome stories
too that sì o sì [yes or yes] have to share. (but I`m sending Elder C**`s email
too so you can write him and ask him about Viña del Mar). He`ll be
excited that you`re going there.
So we have an awkward moment of the week.
In
the mission leadership council that we have every month: (it`s for the
zone leaders and the sister trainer leaders of the entire mission, and
since I`m neither, I`m only there because I`m secretary). So Pdte
Zambrano was talking about lots of really really cool spiritual stuff
and then he got to a generic question....
¨So who are the different leaders in the mission?¨
Everyone
responds in unison: ¨Senior Companions, District Leaders, Zone Leaders,
Sister Trainer Leaders, Asistants, .......(and then like 5 people
hesitantly......)........ secretaries............¨ And then everyone
just stares at us, hushes the few missionaries who said secretaries and
start to correct them, and it just gets super awkward..... and no one
says anything. Then Elder R** and I at the same time: ¨Jaja no pasa
nada con nosotros! No habla de nosotros en la Manual Misional jaja [Haha, nothing happens with us. It doesn't talk about us in the missionary manual, haha.]¨ And
some laugh and the rest are just super awkward because I think it just
dawned on everyone for the first time that we really don`t have any
reason to be there haha! So then Pdte says, ¨Interesting that you`d
bring that up....¨ (like he`s going to make some huge connection about
that or something)....... then quickly changes the subject super fast.
Not gonna lie, it was super funny and awkward haha!
Next awkward moment. So for several reasons, I had to call up
several families yesterday to see how they were doing so their
missionaries here didn`t have to worry about them and such. So I was
calling this one Latin American country to contact one family, and the
number I had just wasn`t working. So I tried a different number, no
answer. Different number, someone answers, Hello? in a Spanish accent,
which isn`t uncommon here. So I start asking if such and such family is
there. ¨Who?¨ ¨Such and such family¨ ¨Número equivocado!¨ In spanish
they tell me that I have the wrong number. Get a little frustrated and
call up the Pdte to see if we had another number. He told me to call the
bishop. So I try this other number, no answer. Try the Stake
President. ¨Hello?¨ ¨Hola buenas tardes. La familia such and such?¨
¨Hello?¨ ¨Sì, buenas tardes. Hermano _______?¨ ¨Hello?¨ Sì, buenas
tardes. Estoy buscando a la familia _______. Ud es el hermano _______? [Yes, good afternoon. I am looking for the ** family. Are you Brother **?]¨
¨Ummm..... I think you have the wrong number.¨ ¨Oh, disculpe, que tenga
una buena tarde. [Oh, excuse me, have a good evening.]¨ Ya, awkward when they don`t understand Spanish. So I
call it again because I`m convinced that I typed in the wrong number or
something..... ¨Hello?¨ ¨Hola buenas tardes. Hermano ______?¨ ¨Ummm.....
I think you have the wrong number......¨ ¨Oh, disculpe. Hasta luego.¨
........that`s when I realized that I had been putting a 1 before the
other country`s country code. Yup, I was calling the states for like 20
minutes and no one understands Spanish there. The worst is when I had to
call up Pdte again to explain why all of a sudden all of the numbers
happened to start working again. He just laughed at me.
So. 2 awesome moments of today. 1. We have 2 baptisms tonight!!!!!
Really really excited for that. I`ll send pictures from my camera on
Monday.
Awesome moment 2. Last night, really late at like
10ish, Elder A** from the south mission calls me up. I know him pretty
well cause he`s from my group and we were both in La Merced for our
first zone. So he calls me up. ¨Hey, so we have this investigator who`s
got his own radio station.......¨ Yup. That`s right. I was on the air
this morning in El Torno, La Guardia, and every other city that`s in
that area. Long story short, got really excited when Elder A** told me
that his radio`s in El Torno, a small town outside of Santa Cruz, in
our mission so they couldn`t go. I called up Pdte Zambrano, talked with
him for awhile, and bam. We woke up at 5:30 and went an hour and a half
to El Torno this morning to be on the radio. Everything went just
perfectly and we have good pictures and everything. I talked a lot with
Pdte last night and with the radio station guy to see how it was going
to be and such, and I was just expecting to call up the missionaries in
El Torno after and let them know what was going on and such, but after
Pdte asked me who would do it, I gave him some suggestions and he asked
me about the zone leaders over there and such and then after thinking a
bit, he asked me if I wanted to go! And he told me that I could go with
the assistants if I wanted to, but I told him that I wanted Elder R**
and Elder P** to come with and so we went and ya. It was awesome. We
talked about finding purpose in this life and about applying that kind
of stuff after you find the purpose through prayer and such and,
basically it was just really really good and it wasn`t what he was
expecting, but in the end, he really liked it too and invited us back
for next week over the air and really wants us to come back.
But ya, that`s basically it. It was a really really good week.
Read the scriptures everyday. As a family. Challenge if you`re not already doing it.
Congrats to Parker otra vez [again]!
gotta go,
Paz a vosotros [Peace be with you].
Elder Groneman
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