Yippie...Columbus Day

Hey everyone,

Sorry this is a day late. But there was an extremely important holiday yesterday that the whole city shut down to observe this magnificent day. Columbus Day!! Yay! We had great Columbus festivities and all the libraries were closed. Ok, we didn't really have Columbus festivities. I think Columbus Day is just a way to get another day off for government workers. But whatever. Actually, my companion said that everything was closed because it was Canadian Thanksgiving in Monday (which, it is true that it was Canadian Thanksgiving; they celebrate it earlier). We had a great Thanksgiving feast with a lot of missionaries from our zone yesterday. We had mashed potatoes... that we found in our pantry that were probably from a couple of months ago. Stuffing from the Dollar Store. Corn and green beans (who knows how old those were...). French bread (is 73 cents for a loaf of french bread like the ones we always buy good, mom?). Pumpkin pie that the hermanas made. And our "turkey" ... that was actually a chicken rotisserie we bought (the chicken looked dead!!!). It was so much fun.

So it sounds like the cruise was fantastic. That will be on my to-do list for the year after I get back from my mission.... Find an esposa (wife), take a cruise... Easier said than done. Have to find the esposa first.

That's pretty cool about the bilingual wards. Here in the valley we don't even have bilingual stakes. The stake we have is an all-Spanish stake. That's actually not very common in the mission, only here in the San Fernando Valley. We have an English stake and we have a Spanish stake.

Our mission is kinda divided into four areas: The San Fernando Valley (which I am in), the Santa Clarita Valley, the High Desert, and Antelope Valley. Something like that.

Oh, so the highlight of the week. Elizabeth was baptized!! Yay. She's so happy, though in the pictures, it would seem otherwise. She didn't smile for the cameras. But yeah Elder Hawke did the baptism on Sunday. There weren't too many people, which she wanted, because it wasn't announced in sacrament meeting the Sunday before because, well, it was general conference. But she's super happy, and she really wants her daughter Karen to start getting more into the church. Right now, we're kinda teaching her but not really. We're working on that.

Our other investigators are kinda a struggle. Heliot has somewhat dropped us because of something Elder Hawke said, so we haven't seen him in a while. We haven't been able to schedule an appointment with Eduardo. Luz hasn't been keeping her commitments. But we have Natalia, who is doing well, and her daughter Fernanda. We tried to visit them today, but Natalia's autistic son Adrian had to be taken to the doctor because he was sick. And we have a couple more people we're working with but nothing seems too promising at the moment.

As for the golden investigator, well, I no longer get to work with him because that was in Elder Vazquez's area and he has his new companion Elder Herrera. But as far as I know, everything is going well with him.

We had stake conference last Sunday. And I'll be honest, none of the missionaries really paid attention. But, guess who the organist was? Yeah, me. Anyways, there were so many people there, like no room whatsoever in the gym or in the chapel and whatever. And it was the really nice organ. And they fixed it!!! So it made it even more exciting for me. It was fun playing the organ. Most of those people didn't even know what an organ sounded like. Ok, not really, but you know. I tend to overexxagerate. Oh, mom, someone told me to thank you for teaching me piano and making me take it. So I'm thanking you for "teaching me piano" and making me take it.

Our mission is very chismoso (gossipy). It's kinda funny. It's almost as bad as high school freshman girls. Rumors abound about this and that and the other. That seems to be how everyone knew everything about me before I even stepped foot into the mission. But now there are rumors abound about what will happen next transfer regarding me. First, there was the rumor that Elder Hawke would be training again and that I would be transferred to who knows where. Then, the rumor was that our south area would be re-opened to new missionaries and that Elder Hawke and I would be split up, and that he would take our north area, and I would take the south area and we would both have new companions. Now, the rumor is that I'm going to be training a greenie next transfer and that Elder Hawke is going to be transferred to who knows where. And this is all in the span of about a week and a half. So there will be other rumors. Not that I care, I don't pay much attention to it. I just think it's really funny. I'll keep you updated on the chisme (gossip).

We have one 10 year old girl, Kathy, that went to Elizabeth's baptism that really wants to get baptized but the mom won't let her. The mom is the roommate of one of our members that we visit all the time, and so the mom knows us very well and loves talking with us. She lets us teach Kathy, but will not let her get baptized, which is sad. 

I have had quite a trial with patience the past few weeks and it has nothing to do with the mission work. It has to do with the surgery. I was supposed to find out a week ago about a surgery date. So I called and asked if they had received the authorization. No, but they'd check and call me back. Didn't call me back. Called the next day- "Oh, we'll check and call you back." No call back. Called on Friday. The lady wasn't in that day. Called yesterday. "Oh we'll check and call you back." No, I wasn't about to let them do that to me. I told them to check right now and that I would call back in one hour. Called back in an hour. "Oh, uh, yeah, Mr. Gruenewald... well, you see... we didn't send it in correctly. We sent it in with only the last four digits of your father's social security number... so we need to resubmit it. But don't worry, we put it as urgent, so it should only be a couple days." Oh, the frustration. So, I'll probably be waiting another week so I can schedule a surgery date.

Oh, at Elizabeth's baptism something kinda funny happened. I was scheduled to play a solo piano piece for her baptism. Except I didn't have anything. So I called Elder Banuelos to ask if he had some music that he could bring. "Sure, I'll be over in a bit." Didn't come to bring the music until 5 minutes after the baptism started. So, he brings in this really difficult piece (it was actually a Jon Schmidt "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" arrangement) and I'm like "great, I can't practice this and I can't chicken out of it." So I sightread it. And it turned out really good. I was very surprised (and nervous).

This week we also had some food that gave me what we like to call a bad case of Jeremiah 4:19. Read that scripture and you'll understand what I mean.

My companion goes to Santa Clarita tomorrow for district leader training, so I get Elder Babcock as a companion. He's been out as long as I have. But it also means I get the car. Yay! The long skinny one is the brake, right?

I hope you're still posting these e-mails on the blog and then on Facebook.

Oh, so remember how someone asked what it was that would be a really good thing to get missionaries? Stamps. Stamps are wonderful. Stamps are what keep us aware of what is going on in the outside world. And Gillette Fusion razor blades, but those are a bit more expensive and I'm not even sure if you're allowed to ship them. But those are nice too, like for Christmas or my un-birthday or something.

So I think that's about it. I feel like I'm missing something and as soon as I send the e-mail, I'm going to remember what it is and be like "dang it." But you know, whatevers.

Send my love to everyone.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

xxooxOoxOoXxOo (I was totally gonna do that before you e-mailed me. stole my idea)