December 31,2012

Oi family!

Hey so interesting stuff has happened recently...i have been praying for like the last idk... 2 years for the lord to put me with brazillians, but each time, i realize why the lord put me with my companion. so much to learn, observe, and experience. i hope you guys are learning from mom and dad and your brothers and sisters. we have so much to gain from others.

my comp and i are both willing to work and he is a stud. he is from spokane too, so we are repping washington. yeah buddy. he is always happy... and he just believes. it's incredible. it would be annoying if it wasn't so inspiring haha. he is an example to me in humility and faith. i feel like my whole mission i have hoped or wished and he is teaching me how to believe and how to trust. we have the coolest, and i repeat, the coolest ward here. they are all excited about missionary work and we have some great families that bend over backwards to help out the missionaries. i love the gospel. it really can change people if you let it.

I still don't believe that missions end. i also don't believe that i will ever get married. new years resolutions...

-do exercises daily

-smile more

-love people more (or at least like them...a little)

-comer cuz cuz da molesta!

-write in my jornal

-write my family weekly (letters not just email)

I got the package! ... the day after christmas lol. thank you so much! i loved it all. even those sick candy canes that broke, melted, and stuck to everything else in the box haha. the peanut butter almost made me cry. reeses? oh and butterfingers... i forgot the taste! thanks so much for the football! we threw it around on new years eve :) it is good to throw a football again haha.

i love you guys so much. thanks for everything. be righteous and be your best. the church is true!

-Élder Grondel jr.

December 24,2012

the area is great, my comp is an answer to my prayers, and the ward is just a dream. sorry if my emails are hard to read... haha. i am soooo excited to talk to you guys tomorrow you have no idea. i will try to log in on my account and i will call brady or i will call dad. they both have profiles right? so 3 my time...i dont know what time it will be there.

i love you guys so much! merry christmas!

-Élder Grondel jr.

Dec. 17, 2012

wow you guys are so diabolical. Though i am impressed that you have developed the gift of discernment so well. that is absolutely what he would say if he sent me an email. write down the the linguagem. So crazy story... i was on the bus. just minding my own business and read james when all of a sudden i started hearing english... i looked to my write and this young girl was on the phone speaking english. what?? so i asked:

do you speak english?

yeah...

are you american?

no...

... how do you speak english? hahah

So angela (her name) is 26, she was born in paraguay, her dad is american-brazilian (didn't fully understantd) , and her mom is from uruguay and speaks portuguese. She spoke all three perfectly. we started talking and for the first time, i taugh the restoration in english and it was really... really... hard. also she had some tough questions, but she was really smart and very mature when it came to religion. she had grown up traveling and doing missionary work with her parents so she could relate a little bit to what we do. but it was in this moment that i was able to say- "what we have, and what the restored church of jesus christ has is more. you have the bible? we have the book of mormon and a living prophet." It was hard, but it was very to sit and talk with her. i realized that i have changed a lot. that i truly have a testimony. its weird to speak english. Portuguese is the language of my testimony so when i teach or talk about the gospel in english, it's like a confirmation of what i have been saying. it's neat to see how i have changed and what i can be when i return home. missionary work can never stop. we have to be preaching and teaching our entire lives.

THanks zac for everything that you do brother. you really are a boss bro. word!

I love you guys and will send you more info about christmas when i can. you don't need to send me shoes because my comp gave me a brand new pair! i liked him a lot. i am writing from itajaí! My new area. i got here today actually so i am very excited. i am close to the island and i am close to the ocean again. To say the least i am happy.

 

thank you for everything you guys. you don't know how much you helped me during all these trying times. you guys are the best.

amo vocês,

-Élder Grondel jr.

November 20th, 2012

Thank you so much for all of your love and support.

This week was really rough. We had a lot, and i mean a lot of visits fall through and we did a ton, and i mean a ton of walking this week. I am learning to work things out in my head better and also to ponder the scriptures. . The mission teaches so much and gives you a chance to build and nourish relationships with all kinds of personalities. 

 

We found a really special family this week that went to church and we marked a baptism for saturday. So at the end of the day, we had a tough week, but the fruits at the end were very sweet.

I love you guys a ton and hope that you have a great thanksgiving. The Lord loves you guys so much. I know he loves me. He is happy when we do what is right and He feels sad when we do what is wrong. He gave us the spirit so that we could know what is right always.

I love you guys!

-Élder Grondel jr.

November 12, 2012

Gente do céu!

This week was very interesting. Our house emptied and filled with all new elders... and actually the entire zone haha. only 4 elderes stayed and 6 elders arrived. The other companionship here got white washed so they passed a pretty rough week, but they are good elders and have energy to do the work. My comp is a super star. Super humble and he inspires me to open my mind more to possibilities. His faith is outstanding and he is basically Elder Martin all over again. So i feel like as i respect and serve him, i am also making up for how i treated elder martin. This week we lost a day because of the zone counsel, but we still had outstanding numbers and we found some really special less active families that are part members. We had a really neat experience on sunday with a brother from floripa. He lives there but came to videira to give a training. Also, he spoke in sacrament meeting about how grateful he is that he had enough courage to read and pray about the book of mormon and after, enough courage to be baptized, go on a mission, and be sealed with his wife in the temple. it was exactly what our investigator needed to hear.

After the meeting i thanked him personally and he pulled us aside to talk for about 15 minutes. Dad, mom... the Lord inspires people to pass along his words. I have been praying for weeks and yesterday this brother answered my questions, doubts, and gave me new ideas for the work. Coupled with the desire of my companion... I really feel unstoppable. The Brother said: "Your nametag has two names and that means you are never alone. You never stand alone or testify alone. there are many callings in the church that bring us close to Christ but not one will bring us closer than the calling of an Elder. When an apostle receives his calling we don't call him aposlte (blank) we call him Élder..." He bore his testimony to us and I knew that he knew i had been waiting for these answers. It was amazing.

I love you guys and i miss hearing from everyone.

It was 33 degrees celcius yesterday and it's only going to get better as the year rolls on. QUE bênção e maravilha! I am with an american comp but as always, we don't speak english and we don't plan to. We are very excited for this transfer and everything is looking up :)

 

Amo muito vocês!

-Élder Grondel jr.

November 5,2012

Hey so i don't know if i already told you that i love you guys...

But i do. I love all of you. This week was really tough, because we had an emergency transfer... my comp and another elder in our house got transferred. So me and Élder Alcântara worked together this week and we had to cover the whole city. So it was pretty intense. But we had a good week and got some serious work done. Unfortunately, as with all of the transfers and all my comps, i didn't realize how much i liked them until they were leaving. Elder Banner is now one of the assistants and the other, Elder Hillstead, is now a zone leader. I think these were two successes in the zone. also, another elder is now training, and the best part, Elder Mollenhauer went home, but baptized a family on his last saturday and then confirmed them all on sunday. That is a victory for all of us.

Also, we had a cool esperience. One companionship was not making a lot of contacts so i felt inspired to call and challenge them- 10 contacts today... but something strange happened. they accepted the challenge and i promised them if they made 10 they would find someone prepared to hear our message. And you know what? They found one and he is preparing for baptism... Dad, i have that same thought - "why didn't i think of that?!" but in the end we are all winners. We are a team and we will be blessed as a team. WE NOT ME! It was very special to know that the Lord inspires us and guides us. The church is true. It is so truy :)

Love you all,

-Élder Grondel jr.

October 29, 2012

Oi meus queridos e preferidos,

This week we decided we were going to take our work to a new level. 100 street contacts. yes, this isn't the door to door on a road, this is stop someone, talk, and contact. I felt a lot of pressure to reach our goal during the week. we had fasted that the lord would soften the hearts of the people here, so we knew that we had to do our part as well. I am pleased to say that we made 109 street contacts! On sunday though, it was like this- we had 81 contacts and i was in sacrament meeting. one of the speakers asked us all to think about something that we want, right now... i thought "to find and teach someone to help him/her be baptized." then i thought... why? why do i want to make 100 contacts? why do i want a bunch of lessons? baptisms?... for president? to tell people about how many people i baptized on my mission? or because i love my savior and my heavenly father so much that i will strive to their work? ... i had to look in the mirror and give myself a gut check with that question- Why? De verdade Élder?

we were watching the best two years and the elder slacker that became good was talking about numbers and how they aren't as important as something else. he said- "it's all about the work" Maybe it's not baptisms, maybe it's reactivation or helping the ward. We have to be about doing good all the time. I am learning daily. I have a notebook i carry with me of revelation i receive during the day. it is so neat to look back and see how the Lord has taught me and responded to my questions. i love the book of mormon. i really do! haha. :D

Good week, our zone got a bunch of baptisms this month so we are very happy. The assistants that came taught us that we need to be worried about the success of our zone and not so much our area. "if you take care of the zone, the Lord will take care of your area." I have always been bad with rejoicing in others successes. i remember when rand went cold the year i went to state and how that affected our friendship, but i have done the same thing. maybe not verbally, but in my mind i have had a battle going on. My pride is a monster that threatens to destroy everything that i do. My pride makes me scared, angry, unmotivated, greedy, thoughtless, and worst of all- selfish. this work cannot be about me. When i find joy in the success of others, the Lord will find joy in my successes for Him.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE, THE BOOK IS BLUE... AND JESUS IS A MORMON!

Abração,

-Élder Grondel jr.