First Area - North Hollywood 5th Ward

Hey Mom, Dad, those people born younger than me that I call siblings, dog, and all other fellow Americans,

     Hello from North Hollywood! Yes, I am finally in the California San Fernando Mission. After three weeks in the MTC, I am in the campo misional. Exciting stuff.  So I'll start with the last couple of days that I spent in the MTC.

     Friday(19th) was an all day "in-field orientation." We basically learned how to be successful in the field. Not gonna lie, it didn't help very much. But we did watch a cheesy play, where an over-eager greenie went into the field, and every time he talked some cheesy music came on in the background. But otherwise not much else happened.

     Saturday I came down with a pretty good case of allergies. I think I went through an entire box of Kleenex. And so I took some Benadryl and was really tired in the warm classrooms. But I did get to see Kelly and her future fiance (is it official yet? If not, Kelly, don't get mad at me). I also saw Adelaide, a girl I worked with at the JKB. Crazy stuff.

     Sunday was a jam-packed day. We had our last temple walk, so we took pictures and did all that stuff. We also had priesthood, and Bro. Jenkins (a member of the branch presidency) was our teacher. He has a very interesting teaching style. He asks very vague questions and is looking for a very specific answer, so it sometimes is a little frustrating. More funny than anything. We also had a departure devotional for all those that we going to leave in the next week. The mission presidency of the MTC spoke, so that was pretty cool. Our regular fireside was by Bro. Stephen Evans about obedience and the Holy Ghost. We instantly liked him when he invited all the elders to take off their suit coats. It was a very funny, very inspiring, and very spiritual at the same time. He told us a story of some missionaries that decided it would be a good idea to build bombs on P-day and set them off at 10:30 at night. The sheriff that lived up the street wasn't too happy to be woken up. So he questioned them in their apartment. And as you know missionaries have maps... With pins... Of where investigators live. Needless to say, the mission president wasn't too happy when he had to bail them out of jail.

     Monday we taught Casey one final time and I have to say that was by far the best lesson that we have ever given. It was excellent. Spirit was great. And she committed to getting baptized. So that was good.

     Tuesday, there were only 3 of us left in our district. The rest of them went to their respective missions. Actually, those that had calls to Mexico City had to go to Boise because of visas. So it was me, my companion, and Elder Uribe. But we did more service, more janitorial service. And we had a devotional by Elder Zivic of the seventy. It was a powerful talk about repentance, obedience, baptism, just kinda about everything. But one story I remember was of a mission president in Spain who had a zone leader named Elder Bateman, but he liked to call himself Elder Batman. Transfer time came around. Well, the mission president received inspiration to give him Elder Robins as a companion. Elder Batman and Elder Robins.... Get it? Get it? Do you get it? Huh? Haha

     Well that's all I have time for right now. Talk to you later.

     Just kidding. Flight to Burbank was good. Got a Book of Mormon placed. Well, not me. I just happened to have one and I lent it to a missionary who was able to place it, I had an emergency exit row seat.

     Pres. and Sis. Martin are amazing. I absolutely love them. Pres. Martin is always so happy, so jovial, so lively, but he can be serious when speaking about spiritual topics. He is awesome. And Sis. Martin is the cutest old lady. The perfect grandmother-ly figure. You don't want to do anything bad because then you have to tell her and she'd be so disappointed. And she always is making sure we are taken care of. I don't think she could ever get mad at anyone.

Well, we had a long orientation the day after we got there. Rules, rules, stuff we need to do, stuff we shouldn't do.

     My area is the North Hollywood 5th ward. Pretty sweet stuff.

     Oh, my companion, my "father" (since I was born into the mission under his watch). It's Elder Hawke. He is awesome. We have a lot in common. Same humor, same sarcasm, same style of teaching. It's really awesome. About the only thing that's different is the height. He's about a foot shorter than me. Just like everyone else around here. He gave me a posterity tie, which is the tie his father gave him and his father gave his father and his father gave his father. I think it's like 5 or 6 generations that tie has been in the mission family.

     Our area reminds me so much of the Lower Valley in El Paso. The scenery is exactly the same, mountains in the background, dry, and hot. Sweetest people in the world though. I absolutely love them. Our ward loves the missionaries. Our meal schedules are always full, and sometimes we're overbooked on the meals. Since it's offensive to them to cancel dinner appointments, we have two dinners. And it's offensive not to eat all that's on your plate, so I eat all that's on my plate. And half the time, the hermanas we eat with can't, so I have to eat their food too. So don't worry mom, I'm being well fed.

     Our district is really awesome. We have my companionship, the hermanas (Hnas. Waite, Busch, and Marquez) and the zone leaders (Elders Torres and Vazquez). We generally all eat together everyday, so we spend a lot of time with each other.

Hermana Waite reminds me so much of mom, which is kinda ironic because she's my "mom" (since she's the oldest sister in the district when I was born). She gets slap-happy when she's tired, she says "oh- my gosh" exactly like mom, and makes the same facial expressions whenever we're mean to her. So, mom, all is well.

     The ward is good. It's recently had a lot of success. And guess what. I'm the organist. Shocker. They haven't had an organist in years. Half the time they don't have a pianist, unless a missionary that knows how to play the piano comes along. But we're teaching piano classes, so hopefully one day.

     Investigators are good. I'm just trying to get to know the people that we're teaching. This week we're concentrating on new investigators.

     Please send letters to the mission address. I don't think I should give out my regular address over e-mail, but if any of you decide to send me a letter, I can get you my new apartment address (my apartment is pretty decent, by the way).

     I'll send my memory card for the pictures about once a month. So I just need to buy a new memory card from Staples today.

     Wellllll, I think that's it.

Love to all. Send letters :)

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

Five Days and a Wake-up

Hey Mom, Dad, Siblings, Dog, and all other friends reading this,

Got my travel plans this week. I forgot to send them in my last letter home. I leave the MTC at 8 in the morning on August 24th and my flight leaves Salt Lake to Burbank, CA at 11:10 am, or something like that, on Delta Airlines. Just thought that would be something you would like to know.

Ok, start off with a fun story. There are two words in the Spanish language: sorceria, which means sorcery, and sacerdocio, which means priesthood. Well Elder Arrieta, an elder in my district, invited someone to be baptized by someone holding the power and authority of God's sorcery. We got some good laughs out of it.

Elder Schoenfeld snores and sleep yells. There was one night that he woke up at like 2 in the morning and yelled "I have to go!" Apparently, he had to go to the restroom, and it kinda freaked me out.

So, remember my ankle? Well, it's been two weeks and it is still really, really swollen. And they tell me it's new swelling, not the same swelling. We can't figure out what's wrong with the ankle because it doesn't hurt at all. It's kinda weird because the trainers don't know what's going on, and the head trainer guy is just like, well, I wouldn't worry about it too much. The only reason why I'm worried about it is because it's swollen up more than any other injury I've ever had. It's weird. And yes, I ice it everyday and I do ice bucket and I've done compression boot and I have it wrapped. Nothing.

Speaking of my ankle, my companion's twin brother rolled his ankle exactly the same way I did. Playing basketball, left ankle, on crutches for a day or two. I got a good laugh out of that because he was talking smack about breaking my ankle. That's what you get when you mess with me.

Elder Dugger, my old roommate, is here. He, Hermana Edgerly (another sister from the 83rd ward), and I were able to get a picture together. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of that picture, so all ye 83rd warders that want a copy of that picture need to get a hold of Hermana Edgerly for that picture. I need to do that too.

And I also got a picture with all the Budge Boys that were here at the beginning of this week. About 10 of us were here on Sunday, and 2 of them left on Monday. So, you 96th warders can have a picture of the Budge Boys courtesy of me. I just need to get the pictures all developed (do they even call it developing anymore? because it's not film). Which I probably won't do until I got to Cali.

Devotionals and firesides are all good. The Sunday fireside was given by the MTC director person, I don't remember his name off the top of my head. Nor can I remember what he said. But don't worry mom, I have it written down... Somewhere... And the devotional on Tuesday was given by Elder David Evans of the quorum of the seventy. It was about God and His love for us. Pretty good stuff. They don't tell us beforehand who comes and speaks at the devotionals. Which is a good thing because we don't need 2,000 missionaries (which is how many are here, from what I hear) camping out when they hear that Elder Holland comes to speak.

Did more janitorial service on Tuesday. Good stuff.

Misioneras are the best. They add a different dimension to missionary work. It's really cool. It's exactly the same as being with other girls except we're not allowed to hug them or touch them in any way or flirt with them. Not that I would want to flirt with them. But I just think that they are really helpful, and offer a break from the same boring routine of being with well-dressed guys wearing white shirts and ties and slacks. And they're nice too.

So I have a song I came up with because, you know, missionaries have so much time on their hands:

'Ere you left your room this morning

Did you think to shave?

Did you think to take a razor?

Do your face a loving favor.

Take that scruff away.

Oh, how shaving takes the beard-y.

Shaving cuts the fuzz away.

So, when face gets dark and hairy

Don't forget to shave.

I don't yet have a second verse yet, or any other things to write about.

There's not much else to say. We're teaching a girl named Casey, which is tough because she's really stubborn, but I think we've finally got through to her after the 5th lesson. Last night haha. And we're still teaching Daniel.

Cynthia Amaya- I know you're reading this, because you love stalking my facebook and reading everything about me. Send me a letter, you person. 

As a matter of fact, that goes to everyone. Send me a letter. Please. I promise I'll write you back :)

Well that's about it. Love you, take care. I would share a scripture but my scriptures are not on my persona right now. Sorry. But Proverbs 3:5 is a good one.

Con amor,

     Elder Nathan Gruenewald

Week 2 - Missionary Training Center

Hey Mom, Dad, Brian, Jocie, Punk (Jordan), Chico, and all other friends and family,

Mom, can you send me the e-mails of family members so that I can e-mail them directly? I only have yours and dad's. Yes, you can e-mail me on here.

So I've been in the MTC for one week. I will say, it has been quite an eventful, enlightening, and tough week. So much has happened, I've learned a lot about myself.

Kayla Owens sent me a Dear John letter. Thanks for waiting a whole 24 hours for me, and then realizing I wasn't worth waiting for and getting engaged and now having a date to get married in two weeks. Yeah, thanks Kayla. Haha, actually she just said that every missionary should get a Dear John letter at some point in there mission. I don't think 24 hours into the mission is the time to get a Dear John letter. But, Kayla, it made me laugh. Thanks.

Sunday was pretty rough, not gonna lie. We had fast and testimony meeting. Guess what, I'm the new branch pianist. Go figure. But testimony meeting was nice. We have our sacrament meeting with other intermediate and beginning Spanish classes, so we got to hear broken Spanish. That was fun. Then we had mission conference that day. The mission presidency and their wives spoke about baptism, faith, and the Holy Ghost. Then we had district meeting. In district meeting, I had a question that really bothered me, which is why Sunday was so rough. Someone had said something that when the Spirit speaks to you, you need to write it down. Well, I realized at that point that I'd never had an experience like that, or at least, I hadn't realized if I've ever had an experience like that. I kept wondering why and how could I have an experience like that. So that question bugged me all day. Then we had a fireside by Elder Merrill J Bateman. It was a good talk about missionary work or something like that. I took notes, so don't worry mom.

Monday was exhausting. Had rehab for my ankle that day. During personal study, I tried to seek the answer to the question I had the day before. My answer finally came during a workshop later that day. I realized that the Spirit doesn't speak to me the same way it speaks to other people. It provides a way for me to find the answer, instead of directly giving me the answer. The led to other questions, but they aren't bugging me as much as that question did. We also had the opportunity to teach Daniel.

Ok, here's how this investigator thing works here at the MTC. You get some volunteers from the "outside world" and they come in and pretend to be investigators. So you teach them as if they were investigators. Got it?

Tuesday we had to do a service assignment in the morning at 6:00am. Janitorial. Ah, just like the good ol' days. Then we did more study and had the opportunity to teach Daniel again and he accepted an invitation to get baptized. It was weird how excited we were because he isn't a real investigator. It'll be interesting to see how I react when I get an actual baptism. I got cleared to play basketball again, so my ankle is better (kinda). Super Cecil Samuelson and his wife gave a devotional about missionary work. That seems to be a pretty stressed topic here. He told us to remember we are always missionaries even when we think no one is watching.

Wednesday. Study session. Taught a new investigator Casey with out district. It's hard to develop a personal relationship with her because there are 10 of us trying to get to know her and she's not very receptive. Taught Daniel. Gym time. Played basketball against a U of U basketball player and I think I frustrated him. It was fun.

Today. Went to temple. Really, really nice. Wrote letters. That's about it.

My ankle is still really puffy. And it's stiff. But it doesn't hurt at all. I mean, if you hit it, it's like a bruise. But, I know what you're going to say dad. Ice it. Okay.

I leave here August 23rd, or August 24th, or August 25th. I've heard three different things in the past week. Apparently they keep changing it. The most recent one is August 24th. So I will say August 24th, for now.

Mom, you'll love this. We get 40% off at the bookstore for everything basically. Plus, we get $6 a week to use on whatever we want.

Food is okay. My companion has gained like 20 pounds. I haven't gained anything, even though I eat the exact same thing as him, more than him sometimes.

Found the bubble gum tree. It really smells like bubble gum. Sometimes, I just go up to it and hug it and smell it. Refreshing.

So there's a scripture in Proverbs that talks about writing letters to missionaries. I don't have my scriptures with me at the moment, but it's in Proverbs 25:25. It goes something like "Just as a thirsty soul loveth water, so is good news from a far country." So just as thirsty people love water, missionaries love good news from a far country. The "outside world," as we like to call it.

Parents, post this in my blog and post the link on my Facebook. Please. Gracias.

Love you guys.

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

Hello from the Missionary Training Center

Hey Mom, Dad, Brian, Jocie, Jordan, Chico, friends, family, and anyone else that reads this letter,

 

Things are going well here. I have a few stories to tell.

So, Dad, remember that guy that we met at the gate in El Paso? The Calgary guy? Ok, so I sat behind him on the flight to Denver. We talk for a bit. We get to Denver and went our separate ways. So I go to my gate and am just chilling there when 30 minutes later he comes to my gate. He comes up to me and says "Here, have some lunch." He'd bought me a good sandwich and chips and such. Such a nice guy. Dad, can you remind me of his name?

Then, I'm chilling at the gate for another 30 minutes when a well-dressed young man comes and sits by me. Turns out it's an Elder Erickson from Edmonton (what's with all these Canadians?). We talk and were kinda each other's companions during the flight, where I sat behind him. Our flight was delayed an hour, once because the plane was late, once because of weather in Denver, and again because of weather in Salt Lake.

Moral of those stories: God provides for His missionaries. He made sure I always had a companion of some sort. And he made sure I was well-fed :)

The MTC is awesome! First day was just full of orientations. Met the MTC presidency and stuff like that. Got my black name badge. It's pretty cool. About 500 missionaries came into the MTC that day, the largest number they've had all year. I'm thankful that I forgot the time I had to go into the MTC and we went an hour early because otherwise it would've been a madhouse trying to get everything done.

Spanish classes are going good. I'm the only white guy in our district. I'm used to being the minority. But I think I'm one of the more proficient ones with Spanish. I mean, there are words here and there that I don't know, but overall, I can comprehend it very well.

We taught our first "investigator" yesterday. Daniel Rodriguez is his name. He's a poor man whose father is a member, but he isn't. We taught him the first lesson yesterday and challenged him to be baptized. He wasn't ready yet; he had questions about The Book of Mormon and stuff. And, yeah, it was probably too early for him. But that's one of the things you have to do with the first lesson as the Spirit directs. And I felt like that was something we should do. So, on Monday, we'll be teaching him about the Book of Mormon. And we challenged him to read and pray and stuff like that. We'll see how that goes.

There are a lot of guys from my BYU ward here. It's fun seeing them, catching up a little bit.

There's a guy from the Montana Vista ward here too. Elder Esparza. I didn't know him before I went to the MTC, so it was cool talking to him about things in El Paso. And then there's an Elder Fleming from the westside stake.

Oh, Mom. Remember back in December, Lori Gonzalez's friend that had just put in his papers? And remember how you were wondering if we would ever see each other in the MTC? Well, that's Elder Morga. He's in the Spanish class across the hall from mine and he's in my zone. So, yes, we did see each other.

Wow, I still have 15 more minutes on here.

No, I'm not going through Facebook withdrawals. Or phone withdrawals. Or NCIS withdrawals. Or laptop withdrawals. There's too much to do to have any sort of withdrawals. 

My residence hall is kinda weird. It used to be a girl's residence hall, so we don't have urinals. I have not taken a hot shower since I have been here, because there seems to be no hot water in our building (Budge Hall memories). We're on the fourth floor which is kinda a pain.

We had our first gym time yesterday. We get gym time 5 days a week for one hour. And guess what I did? I played basketball. And guess what I did to myself? I sprained my ankle. So now I'm on crutches, which kinda stinks, but tomorrow I think I'll be good to go. And now I have to do some rehab for my ankle. 

I don't know what else to say on here. I have about 9 more minutes I can think of stuff.

The Spirit is so strong here. I absolutely love it. It's pretty awesome.

Other than that I don't have too many other experiences. Normally, I will write on Thursdays while I'm here at the MTC because that's my normal P-Day. Today's a half P-Day for us.

Copy and paste this letter on my blog and post the link to my Facebook please. That way other of my friends can now what I'm doing and I don't have to write 20 million letters. Because, you know, I have 20 million friends.

Looks like my laundry is almost done. I think I might've accidentally put my red shirt with all my white shirts. So Mom, ugh, we might have a problem. Just kidding.

I'll try and take pictures. I've taken a grand total of one picture because there just isn't time. And I'll send them when I get to California.

Love you guys.

 

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

 

Mi proposito como misionero: Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante de la fe en Jesucristo y Su expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, y el perservar hasta el fin.