April 9, 2012 and the Scary Black Truck

Dear Family,

Yes, Palmdale is in my mission. I live about 10 minutes from Palmdale, and I know all the missionaries that serve in Palmdale. Not sure about Orogrande. Maybe... I'll ask around.

Elder Lisonbee and I are doing good. 

I think I've seen the video with Elder Holland about PMG.

Second Dear John. Congrats to Alex. Kayla wrote me the first Dear John my first week in the MTC.

Ok so now to our crazy week. So many crazy stories to tell...

The week before, we went knocking like the whole time. This week was visiting those people that we knocked into. And we have found some pretty legit people. 

The first one I'll mention is Ana. Ana's son is attending the Lake LA English ward (about 20 minutes away), though he is a non-member, because he is dating the bishop's daughter. Maybe I told you about her. The first time we met her, she told us she would take her son's English Book of Mormon and read out of it, but she really didn't understand the big English words, so she'd take a dictionary and translate them. So we gave her a Libro de Mormon and told her to read it.

This week, we visited her. We asked her if she had read. Yeah, she read from the title page to 1st Nephi 4. At first she was saying that it didn't feel like the Bible, that she didn't feel like she was coming close to God like the Bible made her feel. I paused for a minute and turned to 3rd Nephi 27 and shared verses 16, 17 and 20. She kept reading to verse 21 and then she said, speaking about verse 21, "I just read this in the Bible yesterday."

After that, she really opened up to us. She said that she absolutely loves the LDM, she reads it just as much as the Bible. She said that one day, her friend passed away and that she felt impressed to read the LDM. She flipped to a random page- Alma 40: Where the spirit goes after we die. It was so cool. 

We invited her to be baptized, and she said that she would when she knows for a fact it's true. She's really afraid of what her family will think (at least, that's what we feel) and so we're working on getting her unafraid of that. So that's my cool story about Ana.

Then we have Leti and Jesus. Leti is Jesus's mom and they're both really interested. Leti always passes by the Church building and wonders why it's always locked up and no one is ever there. She has a friend whose son is serving a mission. She's really curious about the LDS Church and wants to know more. We invited her to come to Church with us on Sunday. She wasn't able to (we think they already had Easter plans), but we're excited because she wants to know about the Church. Jesus is this good 16 year old kid, good head on his shoulders. He looks kinda like a punk, but he's pretty cool. He wants to go to Church and learn about Jesus Christ.  Cool story there. 

Then we have Natty, who loves us. We went over there on Saturday and on Sunday, once for her sister's birthday party and once for an Easter party (what's with Latinos and parties?) Anyways, Saturday was kinda funny because we walk in and the whole family (like lots of family: grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts) just moved to the other side of the room. We're sitting their with Natty and Eriberto and talking. Sunday we go and we're a little more laid back, and the family starts to trust us a little more. Then the grandma and aunt starts talking to us and we start to play with the kids. So now the whole family really likes us and the grandma wants to know more about the Church. So we're excited about that. She said she would listen next time we teach Natty.

We went up to a place called Devil's Punchbowl in our area. We were down in Juniper Hills in our area (about 12 miles from our house) and we figured since we were in the area, we might as well check out this place. It was pretty sweet. It's these cool rock formation formed by the San Andreas fault. They have owls and snakes and it's a pretty sweet place. Might be a cool place to check out if anyone is ever up here. They have some nice hiking trails. We only spent like 30 minutes there and the park ranger was interested in the Church. Pretty cool.

These next stories will give you a lot of comfort, mom.

While at Devil's Punchbowl, I found out that we live less than a mile away from the San Andreas fault. So if the fault slips, I'm one of the first ones to feel it. Don't worry, we have a plan if that ever happens. We'll run outside into the desert area that's right in front of our house. That way, nothing will squish us. 

Now for the best story of the mission. Probably the scariest thing in my life. 

So Sunday we go knocking on this one street. We park in front of this house, and we see this guy in that yard, no shirt, skinny white guy with a mullet and a beard. We're like "Whatever, this guy's not Latino, we'll just go knocking around." We go about 5 or 6 houses and we look back at our car and this guy is looking into our car, touching it and everything. So we walk back over. "Who let you park here?" We said sorry, we'll move it. Then he just goes off on us, saying that we aren't allowed to park here, he asked who sent us, to take our "piece of - car" out of there, blah blah blah. For like 5 minutes this guy is going off, and so we're just like whatever. We get in the car and drive off.

We go pick up the other elders and we go knock in another area a couple of streets down. We go knock and the other elders get done and are sitting on the car. Then this same stupid guy comes driving in this black truck and pulls up next to our car and starts talking to the other elders. We're walking up the street and this guy come charging at us in his truck. At the last second, he turns and just pulls right next to us. He starts going off on us again (I've edited out the profanity, so if you include some profane words every other word, you'll get a better picture of what he said). "I know what you guys have been doing!! You guys have been stealing money from my bank account!! I bet that backpack is full of your electronic equipment that you use to steal that stuff!!" I just say, "sir, you are more than welcome to look in my backpack and see if there's electronic stuff." "No, that wouldn't be the Christlike thing to do. You guys dressing up, pretending to be missionaries, but you're stealing my money. You guys are working with JD aren't you? Aren't you!?! Where's JD at?" We have no idea who JD is. He pulls a U-turn and starts charging at our car (keep in mind the other elders are sitting on it) and is going like 50mph towards our car. At the last second, he turns and misses our car by like a foot.

Then we go to our dinner appointment and we're knocking on the door. This same guy pulls up and he is madder than ever. I'm on the phone calling our member and he's just going off. "Get off that phone!! What are you doing, making a quick buck?" (I wish). "You better tell me where JD is at!!! I know you're working for JD!!!!" We're at this doorstep and he is just yelling at us and I'm just like whatever. Then about five minutes of yelling, and he pulls away. That was the last we've seen of him. 

The story gets better.

So then we go to Natty's and we say we're late because of that stupid guy. We tell them the story. They don't believe us, tell us we're full of it. About 15 minutes later, her cousin walks in with her husband. The husband said "You'll never believe what happened to me today while delivering pizzas. This guy in a black truck was chasing me, we were going like 80mph and running stop signs. Then he pulls up next to me and he yells "Where's JD at?!?"" We just busted out laughing. He said it was the most scared he's been in his life. And we just talked about this crazy guy. 

I gotta go. Elder Lisonbee and I are going to buy knives so if we ever run into any more crazy people and we have to fight them.

Take care. Your prayers work.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

P.S. Forgot to mention the part where he threatened to kill us at the very end before he drove off. Yeah, this guy was on something. 

Just know I'm still alive and... well, we can't really avoid that area. But yeah, God's protecting us.

Don't freak out :) 

P.S.S. I forgot to tell you about Samuel. Samuel is a former investigator that was dropped about 3 months ago. Ever since then, he's been praying that the missionaries would come back. He loves us, and he loves the Gospel. He wants to get baptized, but he's afraid of what the family will think. He accepted a baptismal invitation. He couldn't go to Church this week because he went to Mexico but he said he really wants to go next week.

K I think that's all

April 2, 2012

Dear everyone,

Congrats to Brian about your EAC decision. That's probably the better decision. 

And cool about all the spiritual stories. 

Jocie: Yes, the Spanish test is super hard.

This week was a tough week as well, but we had a lot of fun. Most of our time was spent knocking doors, so we didn't have too much success as far as teaching lessons. 

We were able to visit the Diaz Family this week. We kinda went there on a thought that maybe we should go there, even though it was Thursday around 1:00pm and normally we visit them on Friday at 5:00pm. I've found out on my mission that anytime you go to any Latino's house around 1:00pm or 5:00pm, they will offer you something to eat, and it is very offensive to decline. So we had lunch with the mom (the kids weren't home) and Elder Lisonbee looked like he was about to die. We had had lunch at the apartment right before. In Latino work, it is extremely offensive not to eat everything on your plate. A great missionary tactic is called pocketing food. When no one is looking, you put some of the food you can't eat in a napkin and put it in your pocket. He had to do that. 

Anyways, we're glad we went, because after we finished eating, Ashley (the youngest daughter) came home and we had a great discussion with her. She's the one that's most affected by her cousin dying. She's really mad at God for taking away her cousin. She's not really sure if God loves her, and she's not really sure what happened to Christian when he died. We shared the Book of Mormon with her and told her that if she wants peace and comfort, she will read it. It was a great lesson just with her.

Natty went to general conference and she loved it.

But yeah, most of the week was knocking doors. We got chased by my first dog yesterday. That was scary but so much fun. Such an adrenaline rush. This pit bull-boxer thing is just eyeing us down from across the street, so we just run and he runs after us. He almost got hit by two cars, but he was relentless. We're running as fast as we can and Elder Lisonbee is in front of me. He climbs onto the car. The dog is a few feet behind me, and I'm sprinting full speed and I jump full speed onto the hood of the car. That was so much fun. There's now a dent in our Corolla where I jumped on. 

We really have to watch out for dogs here. We have to rattle fences in order to make sure there's no dogs. No trespassing signs don't work on us. Big dogs do. 

We found a lot of potential investigators that we set citas for this week. So we're pretty excited. 

I think I've now knocked into every major world religion. Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Protestant, Jehovah Witness, Buddhist, Atheist (is that a religion?). The only "major" world religion I can think of that I haven't is Taoist, but I don't even know if that exists anymore.

Anyways, there were a lot of fun stories this week. 

General conference was great. I really loved it. I loved Elder Scott's talk about revelation. His talks have become favorites of mine. He talks about stuff that we can really apply in our lives. I also liked Elder Holland's talk ("It's getting late." Ooooh. Sign of the times). I also really liked Elder Hallstrom's talk about the Gospel and Church. Really good. I took a bunch of notes. 

Elder Lisonbee is a great companion. He is such a great testifier. His Spanish needs some work but he can testify in whatever language he wants. And he has such an enthusiasm for the work, he's always on the go, just like me. It's fun keeping up with him. The funny thing is that he's so Utah. We were teaching a lesson in Spanish and right in the middle of the first lesson, he pulls out the Book of Mormon and says in broken Spanish "This is the Book of Mormon. I know this is a true book and that you should read it." I had to backtrack a little bit and explain what the Book of Mormon was and where it came from. After the cita, I had to explain to him "Elder, not everyone knows what the Book of Mormon is. You have to give a little bit of a lead-up when introducing the Book of Mormon." "Sorry, Elder Gruenewald. I just felt like I needed to introduce the Book of Mormon." "That's fine elder. We'll just work on that." Another funny thing was when he mentioned the dispensation of the fullness of times. "Elder, this isn't Utah. 99.9% of the non-Mormon population has no idea what that means." It's fun.

Anyways, that's my letter for this week. Still rough, but we look for the brightside in everything. 

Take care.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

Meeting with Elder L. Tom Perry

Dear Family,

If you sent an e-mail to me yesterday or today, well I didn't get it. So I can't answer any of the questions that you may or may not have sent to me.

This week was a really good but tough week. Tuesday was probably one of the toughest days as far as the work is concerned. We had four member present lessons planned- all of them fell through. That was kinda rough.

We set a baptismal date with Natty!!!..... in August. Natty and her fiance Eriberto (who is a return missionary that went inactive) are getting married in August, so we're trying to get them to move that date up. It's kinda a tough subject for us though. We're probably going to let the branch president take care of that.
We also have a baptismal date with Bryan for the 1st of April, and he's pretty much ready. We're just trying to get in the lessons so that he can get baptized because  he is totally ready.

We got tired of knocking empty doors on Saturday so we tried doing something a little bit different: basketball contacting. That was probably the best idea we have ever had. We got so many great contacts out of that, English and Spanish. It's great when two guys show up in white shirt and tie to take on everyone in basketball, and then they go on and beat them. A whole bunch of people were watching and we were able to talk to pretty much all of them. Plus it was fun. Not like knocking.

Elder L. Tom Perry came to speak with us today. That was pretty sweet. I got to play the organ for that. All the missionaries in the mission (except for 10 in the Ridgecrest zone) were there, and each one got to shake his hand and tell him where they were from. I said I was from El Paso, TX and he just said "Well, that's too bad." The funnier part was that the whole mission heard it since I was the last one and everyone was watching me.

He's a very funny man. He was talking about how he's in charge of Public Affairs for the Church. "Worst job in the Church; I can't wait for them to release me from that." He was also talking about how he gets to sleep: "I recite the Articles of Faith. On odd days, I start with #1, on even days, I start with #13 and go backwards. Why do I do that? Because I can never get all the way to #13 because they make me fall asleep." Pretty good.

He did compliment my organ playing. "Your mother must have been very tough on you to be able to play the organ that well." Yes, mom, you were very tough on me. Sis. Perry said that I should consider studying organ in college. That gives me something to think about. If it was any ordinary person, I wouldn't really care. But c'mon, this is an apostle's wife.

As for what was spoken about, well I don't remember.

It was fun being with all the missionaries in the mission. I got to see a lot of people that I knew back in the valley and I was so happy to see them.

I think that's pretty much it for this week.

Transfers come up again this weekend, and there's a 50% chance that I stay and a 50% chance that I go. I think the more likely thing is that I'll be staying. But there is a good possibility that I'll be going. I'm not too sure. Rumors about transfers don't fly around quite as much here in Palmdale primarily because we're not around each other as often.

I'm just kidding about not remember what Elder Perry talked about. He talked about priesthood and the importance of the priesthood to the Church. Mostly he was telling stories and making us laugh. I took notes, don't worry.

Have a great day and a great week. Tell everyone hi.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

March 5, 2012

Hey,

     Things are going good. Elder Black and I are doing well and the work was good this week. The meals are good. We're trying out the calendar. 

     The Preach My Gospel DVD's are awesome. Make sure Kayla shows you the Law of Chastity: German. That one is super good. 

     That's pretty awesome about Jocie's friend. The thing that I would encourage is to get her involved in activities. The job of members is mostly social conversion. I'm not saying go away from talking about church, keep talking about church. But the more you can involve her in the social part of the gospel, the easier it will be to transition to even deeper gospel conversion. I kinda want to read the new FtSoY pamphlet. 

     That's pretty sweet about Brian getting into BYU-I do. The thing that I think would be best would be going to EAC. Then again, what do I know? The thing I'm thinking is that BYU-I doesn't really like people that go to BYU-I with the intent of going to BYU. Either or is best. And I think he should keep going with clarinet and do vocal performance. Do both.

     Jocie: The website is www.byu.edu.

     That's awesome about dad being able to be promoted to major. 

     Just kidding about Jocie's website. Go to google and type in "onestop byu" and click the first link. Then follow the instructions.

     This week was pretty good. We're still struggling for lessons but we're getting a lot of new investigators. In the past 3 weeks we've had 15 new investigators. Most of those investigators have been families which was really good. This week though, we have about 5 member present lessons planned (we get at most two a week), and we might even get 3 on Tuesday if everything works out. We're pretty excited about that.

     We found one family, the Diaz family, that is awesome. Last Friday, we didn't have a dinner with a member, so they invited us over. We had some of the best pupusas we've ever had. These were amazing. Pupusas are like stuffed tortillas with queso, frijoles, and chicharron. They look like this:

Put a little curtido and some salsa on there and it is the most delicious thing that I have had. Except for brownies. They are a great family with a lot of potential. The only problem is that we can't get them focused enough to teach a good lesson. So mostly we teach a good ten minute lesson and then talk with them a little bit 'cuz then people just scatter and then go in and out. Still great though.

     We were doing a blitz and we went on exchanges with the other missionaries in our district (I was with Elder Jossie [pronounced Jocie]). We knocked into this old lady that absolutely loves missionaries of any kind. It was pretty funny. We taught her a little bit and then we said a prayer with her. And then she blessed us. That was probably the most interesting experience of my mission. She like made us kneel down and she starts praying for us and crying. We left feeling more rejuvenated and ready to go.

     We also got permission to teach one guy who's girlfriend is a member. We had to get permission from like 5 different people to be able to teach him because he doesn't live in our area, or our ward. The reason why we wanted to teach him was because a member requested that we teach him, and Pres. Martin said if he's not happy, the missionary work in the ward suffers. So we had to get permission from the other elders who were teaching him before, the elders who are in charge of the area that he lives in, our district leader, and it was pretty crazy. His name's Bryan and he's pretty ready. Basically, the only reason why we're teaching him is because he's totally ready and because he just needs the lessons. He wants to get baptized by the end of the month. We can only meet with him once a week, so we'd have to squeeze the lessons together, but he pretty much knows everything through his girlfriend, who has pretty much taught him everything.

     Well that's it. I'm getting pretty much kicked off because we e-mail in the family history library and there's a line of like 20 missionaries behind me waiting to e-mail. 

Talk to you later.

Con amor, 

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

February 27, 2012

Hey,

     Things in Littlerock are good. Still only about 1,000 people that live here. The branch is good, I guess. The first two weeks at church were not very good but this past week was really good. Most likely because Pres. Martin was one of the speakers and the guy that gave the class actually gave a class instead of reading a couple of paragraphs from the book, ask "Any questions?" and then continue on. The members, they're... supportive. They like to feed us but after that, that's about it. They don't like coming out with us too much (except for one family that is simply awesome). To combat that, we started doing the same thing that they doing in El Paso 11th, where we pass around a calendar and they can sign up for a day that they want to come out with us. It's not getting very filled up, but at least some people that normally would not come out with us will start coming out with us. We passed it around for the first time yesterday, so we'll see how it works. 

     The weather is no longer too cold. The stuff I have is fine. Yes, my coat is warm enough.

Elder Black is good. I don't know how much I've told you about him. He's from Houston (Hempstead) TX, hunts, fishes, camps, does all that good stuff. And we both hate knocking doors. So what do we do? Knock doors for 3 hours a day. 

     This week was a good week for finding people. We got about 7 new investigators, which is (according to Elder Black) more new investigators in one week than they had the whole transfer before. But it was tough work. We knocked on one door and this girl answers and says "Hi!!! Can I get you some water?" That was the most friendly treatment I've received knocking doors. They invited us back later that week and it was the nicest family. Most of them speak English but the mom speaks Spanish, so that would be our investigators and not English elders. 

     The biggest problem we have here is finding Spanish people that want to be taught in Spanish. There are Spanish people here, but they would much rather be taught in English and go to an English ward. A lot of the people that Elder Black and his former companion were teaching are Spanish people who would much rather be taught in English and go to an English ward, so we're having to give them to English elders. 

With that being said, we haven't been getting too many lessons a week. Things here in the desert are different because you can only meet with investigators about once a week; otherwise you're too pushy. In the valley, you could meet with investigators two or three times a week. However, here in the desert you can actually set appointments and they'll be there, whereas in the valley you go to an appointment and they're never there; you just have to find them at home. 

     We have one progressing investigator: Natty. Basically, she just has to get married to her ex-missionary live-in boyfriend and everything would be set. 

     Elder L. Tom Perry will be visiting our mission on Mar. 12th and have a meeting with all the missionaries. Some pretty exciting stuff. Guess who's playing the organ for that meeting? Mhmm.

     And dad, here's a question for you. Yesterday, we were talking to a guy and we were talking about his mission and stuff like that. I came in a little late to the conversation, so I didn't hear where he went. Then he mentioned he speaks guarani. I was like "Oh, you served in Paraguay?" He served in Paraguay, right around the time that they were doing the pick between 18 months and 2 years. I'm pretty sure you said you served right around that time. His name is Curtis Gerrick. So, dad, do you know him?

     Anyways, I think that's about it. 

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

My First Transfer!

Hello everyone,

 

After 5 1/2 months of being in North Hollywood, I am being transferred. It came as a really big surprise to everyone, including all the missionaries, because everyone was pretty sure that I would be training again for one more transfer. But no, the Lord had other plans for me.

I'm being transferred to Little Rock, a little town with a small Spanish branch about 30-45 minutes from Palmdale. Elder Bushman will be staying here in North Hollywood. My new companion's name is Elder Black, who I basically know nothing about. So I get to go up to the desert in the same zone as Elder Hawke. In fact, he is my zone leader. And I get to be a normal missionary now!! No more being a trainer or being a trainee or being a district leader!! No more 2 hours of companionship study that takes forever and we don't get out of the house until 1:00!!! And no more staying up late trying to figure out last minute goals and numbers and fixing problems!!! I can just be a regular old missionary.

As far as the Little Rock area, I'm not too familiar with it. From what I know, the area is really struggling right now, kinda like our area was struggling about three or four weeks ago. I think I'm gonna be one of those missionaries that gets sent to certain areas to bring an area back up to speed, 'cuz that's kinda what we did with North Hollywood 5th. So I probably won't have too many baptisms. 

I'm kinda sad to leave. I have a really close connection with the ward here (which is probably the reason why I'm leaving in the first place). It's even more sad because our district and our area is at this point where we are so close to having success and I won't be there to see all the success happen. Our area has two people ready to get baptized, the hermanas have two people ready to get baptized and the zone leaders have one. Hopefully I'll be able to come down and see those people get baptized (we're allowed to come down and see people we taught get baptized).

I learned a lot from being a district leader and being a trainer. It was a really good opportunity for me to learn how to be an effective leader.

Nicolas came to church yesterday, so we were really excited about that. We think the situation with his wife has settled down a bit, so I'm hoping that everything will go well with that.

Not much else to report on. This week was kinda a slow week for us.

Take care.

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

January 30, 2012

Hello,

No, I did not visit Uncle Wayne. I knew the missionary going up to Lone Pine and I had sent them a note with him just saying hey. Guess they got it.

This week has just been a roller coaster week. We found out that Nicolas's wife isn't too happy with us because we drank some of her freshly squeezed orange juice that was apparently only for her. He didn't show up to church yesterday either so we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands. We have tried to set up a time when we can visit with both him and his wife, but we've just been unsuccessful in doing that.

We had some interesting experiences on Saturday. We were doing some visits when we had an impression to go visit a lady named Lilian (don't know if I told you about her). When we got to her complex, we saw that Isabel's door (which is in the same complex) was open, so we decided to go there instead. We get there and she said "I knew you guys were going to come over. I was going to close the door but then something told me just to leave it open for you guys. So I did." We had lunch with her. And we found out that she has a husband. The first time we visited her, we thought she was single, but she's been "married" (we're not really sure if it's really married) for 13 years. So she invited her husband to come talk to us. He seemed pretty receptive, and she's just been soaking it up. So now we're teaching them together.

Right after that, we got an impression to visit Emily. When we got there, she left, so we talked with her sister Cathy. Cathy must be a typical teenage girl (she's 18) because last time we were there, she said she wanted nothing to do with us, that she doesn't agree with anything we say, blah blah blah. So we dropped her about a month and a half ago. This time, she said that everything we have said is right, that we're great people, and the only thing she doesn't agree with is Joseph Smith. So we told her to pray about that and to go to church to find out if those things are true. She even asked one of our members for a ride. Did she go? No. But still, it was a kinda weird change of heart.

Again, we are still having a problem with getting our progressing investigators to church. I don't really know what to do because we have tried so many different things to get them to go to church. But we keep on going.

We had another baptism for our district yesterday. That was really cool because it was a lady that had been kinda putting it off for about a month and a half.

I am still in my "greeny" area. Transfer calls come up this Saturday. The chisme (gossip) around the zone is that I will be training again. I don't think I'll be going anywhere this transfer. I think I have another 6 weeks here before I get sent somewhere else.

I was thinking about what will happen when I get transferred out of here. I'll probably cry. I have such a good connection with this ward and with this area. I love my investigators so much and I love the ward members here so much. I'm just hoping I don't get transferred this weekend. I feel I still have some unfinished business to take care of here.

Can you believe that I've been out here in California for almost 5 months? And can you believe that I'll be hitting my 6 month mark this Friday? Crazy, crazy.

Well that's about it. Sounds like you all are doing great.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald