OOOOOO Spooky Halloween Letter!!

Hey everyone!!!

So what I meant from I don't hear anything from my sibs is that they hadn't sent me an e-mail in forever or a letter. And that was the e-mail I sent like years ago (okay, fine 2 weeks, but still).

I'm glad you love Sis. Martin because, well, I love Sis. Martin. And I'm glad you're keeping me in your prayers with my surgery and not in everything else. Haha just kidding.

Yes, I heard my cousin is engaged, Granny JoAnny told me. And I called it first. You heard it first from me. It was me that said it first. Let me direct you to what I said the last week I was in the MTC: "I saw Kelly with her future fiance today at the MTC." Yeah, I think I wrote that to dad or something. But yeah, I knew it would happen.

We have some beautiful decorations in our apartment. I think they're beautiful. And tomorrow we're decorating the apartment for Christmas!! Yay!!!

So we're doing a very good job of teaching lessons. We have had between 17 and 20 lessons per week this month. We're doing a bad job of getting investigators to church. Yesterday we had one. Last week 0. Yeah, I dunno what it is. Here, it is so easy to commit people to baptism but a huge thing to get them to actually come to church. We're working on that.

We were teaching this kid to pray and I told him that we had to be thankful for things. We had to express our thanks for things, for our food, our clothes, our house, and our money. I started giggling a little bit hehehe.

I have to tell you about Kenny, the 3 year old kid of Darwin, one of our members. Yesterday, we were asked to go and give a blessing to them. We get in there, he says "Daddy, me van a bautizar" (Daddy, they're gonna baptize me) and he puts his hands on Elder Hawke's head. We were confused and then Darwin was like "Esta diciendo que le va a dar una bendicion" (He means, they're going to be giving me a blessing). So then Kenny says "Tiene las llaves?" (Do you have the keys?). We were like dang this kid is three years old and he is asking if we have the priesthood keys to give a blessing. After a few minutes, we realized he meant an oil vial. He thought we used keys to give a blessing because normally you have the oil vial on your keychain. So he was asking if we had the "keys" when he actually meant if we had the oil on the keychain. It was pretty funny. But we gave the blessings and it was nice.

There's a thrift store we went to last Monday called "It's a Wrap!" Basically, all the movie and television studios here give all the stuff they don't auction off to this thrift store. They have stuff from like Suite Life of Zach and Cody, High School Musical, and yes, NCIS. It was a lot of fun, because since it's Halloween, they had the costumes out. Which was a lot of fun to try on. Elder Hawke bought a yamalkha.

Speaking of yamalkha, we found out yesterday why some Jews wear yamalkhas and why some Jews wear top hats. The Jews that wear top hats are European Jews that most of the time wear yamalkhas underneath. It's just sort of a tradition thing that's just kinda stuck over the years.

We have a lot of squirrels in our area. I think we might have hit one with our car. We also have a lot of Jews and Armenians, but we try not to hit those with our car. I don't think I even knew what an Armenian was when before I came here. They don't like us too much.

We were talking the other day and Elder Hawke did a lot of musical theater growing up. We talked about the King & I and a couple of thoughts ran across my mind. "My cup of tea" for Brian, and Jordan farting when Mr. Maldonado was mad.

Well, I think that's about it. Say hi to everyone.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

I live 1/2 mile from CBS Television Studios

Dear Family and everyone else,

 

This will be a shorter e-mail because, well, I don't have much time. And I still have to e-mail president.

Actually, I may just reserve the computer for another hour and take ten minutes to finish e-mailing.

Yes, my surgery is finally scheduled. After many moons of anguish and torment, my day of deliverance is nigh. Novemeber 7th. Yay!

I knew about Jocie going to see Taylor Swift. Granny JoAnny spilled the beans to me. Glad she enjoyed it.

Sounds like everything is going great with the kids and the adults.

Kayla never sent her care package to me.... She's never getting a letter from me :p

Hooray for dad becoming YM president. I think he'll do great. We're having a big shake up in our ward with the auxilliaries. Our bishop is finally feeling ready to take out everything from the old bishop and have a fresh start with his own ideas. He's been in for about nine months now (after an emergency bishop change, so he was just kinda thrown in there without any notice). We have a new YM president, a new YW presidency and he confided in us missionaries that there are more changes on the way. He wouldn't say what though.

Well, the rumors are actually about next transfer. We already had our first transfer like 3 weeks ago, and then like the day after that first transfer, the rumors started. Kinda crazy how fast things start. But the rumors for this transfer won't be known until 3 weeks from now. And I think that more rumors will start when we have our interviews with Pres. Martin tomorrow. Fun stuff.

Mom, you would be totally shocked by my hair. You would probably say that a missionary should never have a hair cut like mine. "It's too long and shaggy." But Pres. Martin specifically stated that a 2 all the way around is too short for a missionary. So ha. Actually, I'll be getting a haircut this Thursday. Plus, I like my hair length.

This week has been one of the craziest weeks, and unfortunately, I cannot tell the stories over the internet. I know I sent a letter to dad today containing the one story that was just crazy but I don't think I should share that one.

And there are other disturbing stories. Like the time we went to a new investigators house and the 15 year old son was watching pornographic material while his mother and aunt (who is a member) was in the room. He felt so awkward and turned it off.

One of the problems we've had is getting our investigators to church. The past two weeks we've had no one at church. And it's sad. But we're trying our hardest.

We were afraid Fernanda dropped us yesterday, but we stopped by and were able to talk with her. This whole weekend she spent with her dad because it was his birthday, so she couldn't go to church.

As for Heliot, well Elder Hawke's "love affair" (as the hermanas like to call it) with him was rekindled. We're progressing really well with his daughter (no love affair there) who loves for us to come over. She's 14 and reminds me a lot of Jocie. She's normally very shy (ok, that doesn't remind me of Jocie), but always talkative when we are over. Kinda reminds me of Jocie when the missionaries are over and how she's always talkative and fli- Ok, I won't say it.

As for our other investigators, things are going really slow. We're trying to find a lot of people, but it is hard. We can't go knocking very much. There's no place to street contact. It's tough. But we're trying.

So just in case you guys were wondering, or curious, The Office is filmed about 1/2 a mile from where I live. You probably don't even know what The Office is (with Steve Carrell) but a lot of people think it's funny. And a lot of people up at BYU like it.

And NCIS is filmed at the CBS Studios in my area. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be jealous.

At least I think it is.

Elder Herrera says hi.

And as I was looking at the map the other day, I noticed that North Beverly Hills is in our area. We never go down there, it's just something nice to say.

I know my area is called North Hollywood, but it's nothing like the Hollywood you think of when they say Hollywood. It reminds me more of the Lower Valley.

I was sick all day Friday. We tried to work, but about 5:00pm I couldn't do it anymore. So we came back and I took a nap. Then about 6:40pm I wanted to go work again, but Elder Hawke wouldn't let me. I tried to get him to go, but gave up around 8:15pm, then I went back to bed, and slept for 14 hours to try and get the sickness out of me.

Well, that's about it.

Love ya guys.

 

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

Survival of the 2nd Transfer

Hey ya'll,

So I'm e-mailing a little later on Monday because we had a rather big fiasco with the military ID. We went to one of the Army Reserve places in Santa Monica. Santa Monica is about 20 miles from North Hollywood. Yet it turned into a 2 1/2 hour drive when you factored in LA rush hour traffic. So we left at a little before 9 and got there at 11:15. But the lady that is in charge of the ID's decided to go home early and her back-up wasn't in that day (even though she had told us she would be in on Monday when I called her on Saturday). So then we boogied on over further south to Los Angeles Air Force base and took care of it there. We were supposed to get back at 11 and everything was supposed to be fine and dandy. We didn't get back until 3:30. But, we had a good time with Sis. Martin, and we learned a lot of fun stuff.

But funny thing. They wouldn't let Elder Hawke or Sis. Martin on the base because, well, apparently LA Air Force Base is like top-notch security stuff and they don't let anyone on ever unless they have a military ID, and even then I had to get some clearance for me. So I went in all by myself without a companion (AH!!). And as I'm sitting in there this 20, 21, 22, 23 year old girl or something like that is just looking and staring at me. And I'm thinking "Great, just what I need, me with no companion, and here we have a female trying to hit on me." Then she comes walking toward me and I'm like "Uh.... lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is..." She says hi, I say hi. And then she says "I've never seen an elder without his companion." Turns out she was a member in Glendale or something like that. So we talked a little bit about how my comp was not let on the base and it wasn't just because I left him.

Elizabeth was confirmed this past Sunday by me. Fun stuff. I had to say it in Spanish. Fun stuff. She's doing really good. Not much else to say.

We also have Fernanda, someone I don't think I have told you about yet. She's our investigator's (Natalia) daughter. Anyways, we had talked with her once but never really taught her a lesson. When we did talk to her, we had left her a Book of Mormon and told her to read 3rd Nephi 11. So we came back last Thursday for our first actual lesson. We talked for a bit and then she asked a random question out of the blue: "What time do you guys wake up in the morning?" 6:30. "Is that why you guys are always happy and smiling and everything?" "Sure....... haha no." So we talked a little more about why we are happy. And then she told us that she had read 3rd Nephi 11. And one of the things she noticed was how Jesus Christ gave Nephi the authority to baptize. Then we talked about how we have the authority to baptize, and all the first lesson. And we invited her to get baptized and she accepted the invitation. So, we have a baptismal date set with her for November 13th. We'll see how that turns out.

The poor misioneras in our district. They have just had some bad luck the past month. At the end of September they had 8 baptismal dates with people. 2 of them moved, 2 of them they found out weren't married and couldn't get married because one of them wasn't legally divorced and it would cost $6000 to get it done. 3 of them they just can't find anymore. They've just had some really really bad luck. Yet, they are the best. They work hard and always try to keep and optimistic attitude about it. Plus, they're on bike, and this past week was brutally hot (105 degrees on day).

Oh, this past Wednesday I was on a companion exchange with Elder Babcock. So I got to drive all day. Yay! Fun stuff. But actually, it was a really productive day. We actually got a lot of work done, taught 3 lessons. It was a good day.

Well, the library wants to kick me out of here 'cuz it closes at 5:30 and I haven't written Pres. Martin yet. So sorry for this shorter than usual letter.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

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)

Musings of October 3, 2011

Hi everyone, mom, dad, Brian, Jocie, Chico, punk (you don't even get your name included; you never write me something meaningful; and you get mentioned after the dog; yeah, that's right), and everyone else that is reading this letter,

Hi.

So this week was a really rough week for us. Elder Torres left (he had to leave early to Colombia because his visa ran out) and so we had Elder Vazquez in our companionship. I love Elder Vazquez. But that's beside the point. Elder Hawke and I are already working two large areas, and we also had to work Elder Vazquez' area because Elder Vazquez's companion doesn't come 'til later today. So, yeah, it was difficult working three areas.

Elizabeth!!! I love Elizabeth. Well, she's getting baptized this Sunday. She would have gotten baptized yesterday, but she drank coffee (bad teaching on our part; she thought it was okay as long as it was more milk than coffee). But she committed to not drinking coffee at all, so now we're back on track.

As for our other investigators... Well, they're not doing so good. Heliot has somewhat dropped us because he feels like we are pushing him too much. Which is somewhat true. I kinda felt like we were asking stuff of him that made him feel too uncomfortable. With him we had to take it slow, and we got a little impatient with him. So we're working on that. We weren't able to visit with Eduardo this week because of our increased work load. And I don't know if I've told you about Luz. Well, Luz was reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and now she isn't.

And we are having a lot of trouble finding new investigators. Most of our new investigators come from former investigators and potentials that have been recorded over the years. We can't really go knocking at apartment complexes. But this week, we have two focuses: 1) Find new investigators. 2) Get to know the ward more so that they feel comfortable with giving us referrals.

I loved general conference. First time that I watched all the conference talks attentively... Normally, I miss one or I fall asleep through one. It was hard with the Sunday sessions because I had to watch those in Spanish and couldn't get all of it. But I loved it! I especially loved Richard G. Scott's talk on reading the scriptures, Pres. Eyring's priesthood talk about pushing yourself beyond your limits in the service of the Lord (he spoke with more boldness that was not the usual Pres. Eyring style), and Ian S. Arden's talk about being a master manager of time. They were all really great talks. I can't wait for the conference edition of the Ensign so I can tear it apart and re-read everything.

As for the priesthood session of conference. They called us out. They really called us out. They got up in our faces. And it's funny how it can make you feel really bad but at the same time make you want to do soooo much better. I loved it. Well, at the time I was like down on myself because I felt like it was "great, I'm doing my best and it's not good enough." But then as you get to thinking about it, they just want you to push yourself a little bit more. So yeah, I loved it.

Journey... Darn, wish I had been able to go to the concert.

So I have been teaching a guy with Elder Vazquez (since he doesn't have a companion) named Orlando. He has studied theology and is very knowledgable in all major religious movements since the dawn of time. He used to be a Seventh-Day Adventist but didn't like it because of the economic stratification within the church. We were teaching him and he said: "I don't know much about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but let me tell you what little I know." He went on to explain the entire Joseph Smith story, complete with exact dates and vivid descriptions, where the church started and what day, the Book of Mormon, the pioneers, Kirtland, Missouri, everything. Nothing he said was wrong, as far as I could tell. He said he really liked the church because it did not have that economic stratification that other churches have and that it was "pretty close" to the kind of church that Jesus Christ had when he was on the earth. The only thing he had questions about was the priesthood (which later on in the week, he called us and said he found his answer in the little booklet we gave him to read), and sabbath day observance. Yesterday we taught him again, and he said: "You know, I hope I am progressing enough and I know enough to be baptized." Uh, yeah, you know more than the eternal investigator we have been teaching for a year. He really has the desire to find out more, to know that this is the true church.

To Cynthia Amaya (hopefully, mom or dad, you're putting this on facebook)- Yeah, uh, I am mad at you. End of story :p

Welllllllllllll, ummmmm, mom can you send me some developed (is that what they call it now? since everything is digital and only film is developed) photos of the family, the dog... Yes, the dog!!! A photo of El Paso, and any other pictures that are worth showing to like my investigators and my fellow missionaries. I would love, say, 20 pictures, but whatever floats your boat.

Are you rocking your soul in the bosom of Abraham? If you are, congratulations. If you aren't, please do. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a song. We have a CD of African-American gospel music sung by the Mo-Tab that we love and one is called "Rocking My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham." It has become a favorite of Elders Hawke, Vazquez and I and we love rocking our souls in the bosom of Abraham.

Time to get kicked off this library computer. Send my regards to all.

Con amor,

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

September 19 - Letters and emails FINALLY arrive!!

Hey everyone,

So I'm really glad you guys e-mailed me. Elder Hawke was getting a little worried because there was a span of about 2 1/2, 3 weeks of where I heard nothing from anyone. I was okay with it. He was freaking out, wanting to call the mission president so he could call you to see if everything was okay. If it had been a month, I would've started worrying.

Kidding, I worried a little bit.

So, about the hernia. I wouldn't have worried too much about it, would've just waited until after my mission to get it taken care of. But we were helping this lady move and we were moving a big couch, and I think I did something to it. Now it just hurts constantly, especially when I cough and sneeze and sit down. So I decided it might be best to go to a doctor just to make sure everything is alright and turns out it got worse. We had a big fiasco with insurances but I think we got that all settled out. Tuesday I go in for a consultation with the surgeon, I don't think I'll necessarily be getting surgery this Tuesday. So, there's my update on that.

Tell Kayla I'm still awaiting her package that she promised to send me.

Sounds like everything is going great.

We had a really difficult week. Difficult in that we basically had no time to do anything. We had our meeting with Bro. Golden on Monday, P-Day on Tuesday, and a regular proselyting day on Wednesday. Wednesday was actually a really good day for us. We were able to visit Heliot, Elizabeth (more on them later) and one other friend of a ward member, plus a couple of less active member visits. Thursday we went to the LA Temple (more on that later too) and Friday we had our district and zone meetings. And Sautrday we had our weekly plannning and a Dia de Hispanidad. So basically, we had very little time to do some actual proselyting work.

Like I said, Thursday we got permission from Pres. Martin to go outside the mission to the LA Temple with our district. Elder Torres is about to die on Saturday (leave the mission field), so Pres. Martin allowed him to go to the temple one last time with us. The LA Temple was so nice. It's interesting to see how different each temple is, how unique each temple is. The LA Temple is really nice, and the rooms are beautiful.

Friday we taught a few lessons. Not much else to say. District meeting was good. We made horchata, so that was a lot of fun.

Saturday was our Dia de Hispanidad. What went down there was that we had each barrio (ward) in the stake in charge of two countries in Latin America. Our barrio was in charge of the Dominican Republic and Panama. But each country had a baile tipico (typical dance) and the comida tipica (typical food) from each country. So it was really good. We had a few investigators go to that, and it was a lot of fun for them, I think.

Sunday we had three cenas (dinners). Yeah, three. There was some confusion on the ward meals list by two members on who had what for Sunday, and since we don't like to offend the members by cancelling, we had to go to both of the members for dinner. Then Heliot's tia (aunt) called us and said that Heliot was inviting us to a barbeque at his house. And since we love Heliot so much, we couldn't deny that. So we said yes to that. And all three of the meals prepared like so much food and kept offering us seconds (and thirds and fourths). Mom, I have gained 13 pounds since my last doctors visit (which was two weeks ago, I weighed in at 188). I think I've doubled that in the last two weeks.

Speaking of Heliot. We love Heliot. We love his family. He has changed so much since we first taught him. He loves us. When he invited us to the barbeque, we were the only ones outside of his family that he invited. He shares with us all his life stories. When we first talked to him, he barely talked at all, gave simple yes-no answers. Now, he's really progressing. He has given up drinking coffee, which was hard at first, but now it's getting easier for him. His kids are wonderful too. The twin boys are mischevious little kids but they are so funny and they love us. And the daughter Jessica really enjoys the gospel. We tried committing Heliot to baptism yesterday, but he's not ready yet. It's okay, though.

I've found that I find more joy in bringing people to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether they get baptized or not. I've seen people change lives. Heliot's life has changed so much. Elizabeth's life has changed so much. It was almost the exact same story with Elizabeth. She was really timid and shy at first, but has really opened up to us, talking a lot and cracking jokes in a very difficult to understand El Salvadorian accent. She has friends in the ward now, whereas before, she stayed secluded in the confines of her own home. This gospel changes lives. Even if Heliot and Elizabeth don't get baptized, that really doesn't matter. Do I want the to get baptized? With all my heart, yes, I want them to get baptized. But seeing the changes they've made in their lives has brought me so much joy.

Interesting story: As we were doing our weekly planning on Saturday, we were debating whether or not to set a baptismal date for Heliot's kids. The kids' mom is kinda against the church and she has joint-custody of the children (Heliot and the mom are divorced). This week, the kids were supposed to be with their mother. So we prayed whether or not we should set the goal to set a baptismal date with the kids. We felt like we should set that goal, so we did. I remember me saying that I dunno how this will happen, but God wants this to happen, so he'll prepare a way for it to happen. The next day at church, we were talking to Heliot and he said that the kids' mom would not be able to take care of the kids this week, so he would have the kids. I remember thinking "answers to prayers." Yeah, I love God and how he answers prayers.

We were listening to Christmas music this week. We needed to be reminded of Christmas because it's been a whole 9 months since we've had Christmas.

Oh, and we were also listening to the Saturdays Warriors CD. And the first thing I thought of is mom singing "Who are these children coming down?" every time we walked down the stairs. So every time we walk down the stairs, I sing that song. Fun stuff.

Apparently there was an earthquake a few weeks ago that I forgot to mention. 3.9, I think. Yeah, I must've missed it. The hermanas in our district were all freaking out. I might've been asleep or I dunno what. But yeah...

Well, that's about everything. Stay safe. Send letters. Be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and do good to all things.

Love ya.

Elder Nathan Gruenewald

September 6 Ideas,Thoughts and Observations

Hey everyone (I've grown tired of writing all the names),

So, I got all my mail like last Thursday. It was like 10 letters, so forgive me for reprimanding ya'll for not writing.

I write on Tuesday instead of Monday because we had to switch our P-Day to Tuesday. More on that later.

Things out here are going great. I am loving life, I am loving the obra misional, I am loving the people. It is awesome.

We have some really great investigators. Elizabeth and Heliot have really progressed and we have a baptismal date for Elizabeth on the 25th. Heliot still has a little bit to go before we can extend a baptismal invitation. But both have progressed, both are going to church consistently. both will be baptized soon. Hopefully...

Had my first experience tocando puertas (knocking doors). Elder Hawke says it is a lot harder to tocar puertas here than anywhere else in the mission because there are so many apartment complexes that like to kick us out and there are very few Latino homes. For example, we got kicked out of one apartment complex and had no luck knocking other doors. So most of our new investigators come from former investigators. We very very rarely get any media or member referrals. We're working on the members.

Actually, the members here give so much support to us missionaries. Hermana Salegio has helped out a lot with Elizabeth. She tries to come as much as she can to our lessons with her, she takes Elizabeth to church every Sunday, she is a really great friend to Elizabeth. And they both have like the same story. They are both from El Salvador, they both have a daughter, they both were opposed to the church when they first received it. It's pretty cool.

Sometimes, though, it's best not to have members in our lessons. Last Sunday, we asked if we could visit Heliot with Hno. Casco. We were all ready for our cita (appointment) with him, when a couple hours before, Hno. Casco cancelled, said he couldn't make it. We scrambled to find someone else to replace him. Finally, about 10 minutes before our cita, we decided that the Lord didn't want a member to be at our cita with Heliot, and left it in his hands. We are so glad that we did not have a member there. Heliot really opened up to us, told us about the difficulties of raising 3 kids (1 set of rambunctious 10 year old twin boys and a girl), how he lost his first child after he lived only a few weeks, and the rough divorce he had just gone through. It was the first time he really talked openly with us. Now he trusts us, so it's going really good.

But with members, it's sometimes a little difficult. We told Elizabeth not to worry about what she was wearing as long as she wore something modest and respectful because she didn't have a falda (dress? I think) to wear or some nice dress pants. So she wore some nice jeans and a nice blouse. Unfortunately, the topic at sacrament meeting that day was modesty in our apparel, and the lady that spoke ripped apart anyone that was wearing jeans to church. We had some damage control to do.

Another story... So we went out going to find new investigators. We went out to go find this one person that lived in this mobile home park. So we looked and looked and found it. We knocked on the door, and this young man, 18 years old, comes to the door. He speaks English so we talk to him. Find out his name is Ulysses. His parents are from Mexico and El Salvador. We are able to have a good doorstep conversation with him, and invite him to read the Book of Mormon. Elder Hawke only had a Spanish copy. But I, for some reason or another, had packed away an English copy of the Book of Mormon and we gave that to him. I think I had packed it away because we were supposed to have a lesson in English with one of our less active members, but we ended up giving that lesson in Spanish. We also found out that he has a really busy schedule, that he works full-time at Jack in the Box and also goes to school and has a girlfriend, and it is really hard to find him, so we were lucky to find him at home. So we teach Ulysses in his home, invite him to read and pray, and he gives us his word (he said it pretty firmly too, so I believe him).  When we got home later that day, we reviewed the day, talked about Ulysses. We looked at the area book at the investigator we were supposed to visit and we realized that we had knocked at the wrong address, at the wrong home. This is like by far the coolest story I have for this week.

Something else that's cool, Alice Larson you'll love this. Our stake center has one of the coolest pipe organs. I mean, it's not as grand as the Conference Center pipe organ, but it's so much fun. I got to play it yesterday, and I loved it! Pres. Martin gave me the key to open the console and open the door to the pipes and stuff. It does need some fixing up, but Pres. Martin said whatever is wrong with it, just to e-mail him about what is wrong and he will tell the facilities managers to get someone to fix it. So that's what I'm going to be doing as soon as I am done with this e-mail. But I get to go into the back and see all the pipes, show people what a pipe organ is like, show them all the pipes. It was awesome!

Yesterday we had what's called a mission tour, where a general authority comes and tours the mission. Elder Golden from the Seventy came. It was good. We learned about planning, becoming a better missionary, the good stuff. Talked about doctrinal questions that we had. Explained to us why we have key indicators as missionaries. Excellent.

So I've got some pictures. I'm just hoping they're the right pictures. I can't preview them on here. Dumb stuff huh. One is of me and my MTC companion, Elder Schoenfeld (the one where I am wearing an orange tie and no suit). One is of me and my MTC district. One is of me and Elder Morga (the one where I am wearing a suit). Mom, that's Lori's friend that you met and thought we would see each other in the MTC. Well, we were in the same zone. Another is of me and the Budge Boys (the one by the map). And one is of me and Sis. Mullen. I would add more pictures, but there's a limit on here, and we only have one cord for all the missionaries that want to send pictures to their parents. 

Well, that's all. I have 10 minutes to write my mission president.

Love you.

Elder Nathan Gruenewald