February 4, 2013

Family,

This week was amazingggg. This is probably the best week i have had as a missionary. Not because everything went my way, but because my faith is growing and the Lord was very much present in our day to day. I was able to accept the things that are out of my control, trust in the Lord, and keep moving forward. I can honestly say that i have never been happier than i am right now.
We did two splits with the elders quorum and we were able to teach WAY more people. We had some great visits and on sunday we saw the fruits of our hard work and patience. We have been working hard and we are trying to work smarter as well. We are teaching better, more clearly, and more direct.
The Lord is blessing us for our righteous desires and i am seeing now, more than ever, that the gospel is not a list of beliefs or rules, but a map to be successful and find happiness in this life. We all have problems, but as i was reading moroni 7 he taught that we must have faith, hope, and charity. But he doesn't just say faith. He says: "Faith in Jesus Christ." We must hope that through Christ we will be resurrected and that we will receive eternal life. So no matter what happens, no matter the problems that we face, we have hope. We understand the atonement of Jesus Christ. We know He wants us to be happy.We know that through Joseph Smith a fulness of the gospel was restored and we can find peace in the words of a living prophet.
I have learned to love the words to a hymn- Assombro Me Causa- which in english is: I stand all amazed. We can all change :)

Amo vocês,

-Élder Grondel jr.

Jan. 28th, 2013

Família querida,

Minha nossa senhora essa semana foi uma montanha russa de emoções! We had a great week that ended with a sour taste unfortunately. We worked really hard this week and with patience, the Lord has blessed us. We made a "plan of action" or game plan with Heavenly Father and as long as we are doing our part, He is doing the rest. We have some great investigators and some families are just falling into our lap. This sunday was probably the Best i have had on my mission. Our gospel principles class was full and i was very pleased with the attendance of less actives and investigators at church.

We had some more really neat experiences this week and one of our investigators is dating a guy who goes to utah valley and will move there in march so i will probably see her after the mission. cool huh? I am so glad that lexi is going to church! we are teaching a young gal who just turned 19... 2 weeks ago and she reminds me a lot of lexi. she knows the truth, but has struggled in the past to do what is right. almost everytime that we mark a visit with her... she is not there, or is leaving and we end up having to pass by later. But for some reason i felt obligated to persist and now i understand why. i believe that the Lord puts people in our path that are similar to our loved ones so that we can help them even thousands of miles away. when i teach Ana, i imagine lexi. when ana doesn't read, or go to church i didn't fail her, i failed lexi. You guys will understand better when you are missionaries. But this week we had a very touching visit with almost all our investigators and i really feel the Lords hand in our work. HE is the man! haha.

 

I love you all!