July 30th 2012

I love you guys,

I cannot believe the shirleys are actually going this time. so many times they said, they planned, and it finally happened. WE DONT NEED THEM ANYWAYS! WE CAN HAVE ALL THE FUN WE WANT WITHOUT THEM! :P nah that makes me sad gang. they were always such good friends and brian ... bishop shirley helped me out so much in my preparation for the mission. i will forever be grateful.

That ice cream... i showed it to my companion and he didn't believe me hahaha. they don't have that serving size here and it would be SO expensive if they did haha. This week president came to our ward and it was great. He gave a training that went SO well. i learned a ton about being a future leader- young mens pres, elders quorum pres, bishop, stake pres... he said that the ward grows in 3 ways:

1- baptism

2- reactivation

3-... (the elders and sisters cannot help here) Having babies!

But how can we help? how do we make these 3 happen?

1- Interviews! If you are the president you should interview every single member in the quorum- know where he lives, what he does, family, etc...

2- Executive comitee has to happen weekly (invite the missionaries 10-15 minutes)

3- Visits have to happen- not just once a month home teaching, but visits to members in the quorum, leaders, friends... invite friends over to watch a movie and invite the elders or sisters to drop by after. invite a family over for family night and invite the missionaries to provide the message!

In 5 years as a stake president, 7 chapels became 30 chapels, 1 stake became 3 stakes, and the numbers exploded. President then went on to read D&C 58 where it says that we should always be involved in a good cause and perform much righteousness. A servant that needs to be commanded in all things is not of worth...

I love president fernandes. He is teaching me so much more than just the gospel. he is teaching (us) me how i can be a great husband in the future, a great dad, a better person. How i can be sucessful in business, school, family, church leadership positions...etc. I am so grateful for being here on the mission. This week we found a really special family and we taught the restoration... when we finished the lesson and were about to leave the commitments to read, pray, and visit the mom asked: "so if i wanna visit your church... where is it and what times during the week?" haha. They accepted the baptismal invite and we had a great day! on saturday we got into 4 new houses! that is more than i have ever done in a day... and in some cases weeks! The Lord is preparing the way for us. We found and taught another family haha. We made the contact and he asked how long the message takes. "Can you do it in 15 minutes i have to leave at 6:30?" ... YES! haha. We got in the house, taught the restoration, and the spirit was really strong! at the end he said that his parents were members but they passed away a while ago. They were baptized after he had already left the house, but he would like us to come back so he can learn more.

People are prepared and i realized this week that it is not us vs. them. no. we have a message that is really special. it can change lives and help everyone that hears it. they don't know what they are missing!

The gospel is true, the angel flew, true blue and all the way through! OORAH! haha. oh ps: USA! USA! USA! :D

Amo vocês!

-Elder Grondel

pps: i am thinking about changing my name tag to ELDER THOMAS... because no one says my name write and they end up calling me Elder Grande which means big... or Grandão (Grandow) which means really big.