Thursday, June 21, 2012
D 14
What’s up!! 20 June 2012
Yeah, I got the camera!! Thank you for helping me out. I bought a Sony cyber shot, a little red thing ha, because they didn’t have much of a variety. It ended up costing me about 155 dollars so i don’t think it was too bad. It is only 14.1 mega pixels and only has a 4X zoom but its durable and works for what I am doing . So thank you! And yes I buy things for tons of missionaries because everything is so so cheap here and then send stuff with the ZL’s to get back to other parts of the mission.. And the shoes were less than thirty bucks I bought them for 12. Ha I LOVE THIS PLACE.
But this week we had the chance to do a lot of things. We talked to our neighbor and even though they aren’t very interested in our message they still let us serve them, so we went over and painted her kitchen and her ceiling and had a good time doing it. We borrowed the ladder from the church and got everything done in two mornings of work.
We have an investigator that is doing really good right now. His name is Faustino, we met him the other week and he has progressed really fast. He accepted a date to be baptized and will be working with his girl friend to get married. We passed by his house one day and saw him outside sitting on his porch, he said hi to us and then from out of now where he showed us his Book of Mormon and what he was reading. I really hope that he can get his answer from the Lord to stay strong and stay with us. Because we have had some trouble these past few weeks getting people to progress, I guess it just means that we need to change a couple of things! :)
We also had an intercambio (dont know what it’s called in English – a trade off ) on Monday with the zone leaders and i was with elder Cordero he is from Santo Domingo and is an awesome missionary. I look up to him a lot. We worked so freaking hard and visited so many people in one day it was crazy. He taught me how to work effectively and to understand if someone is going to progress or not. He works magic ha it was fun.
We passed by a house and outside there was a lady washing coolers so we stopped and helped her and as the sun went down the mosquitoes came up and ate us to death. Dajabon is known for the mosquitoes. i couldn’t believe how many there were it was like our back yard times ten!
So this week has been fun full of service and learning what the Lord wants for us here in Dajabon. i love the gospel and I’m really grateful for it and to know that I am a child of God, they say that a lot in primary but I’m just realizing it now hahahaha .
ELDER GRINER
mision santiago!
D 13
HEY! Hello !!!! 13 June 2012
Is anyone out there?
So this week we had to travel to Santiago, so I don’t have much time so ill just write a little bit .
We have had some success in the past couple weeks that I didn't really notice as success at first.
We are always trying to find inactives and when we do we try and teach them. So we found and have been teaching and talking with a girl named Tina and her brother that were baptized about 2 yerss ago. They hadn’t been going to church but as we started to talk to them they came back to church and Tina received a calling in young women’s.
We found an former missionary that is inactive and lives alone. One day we were contacting in the boonies and we knocked on his door and he let us in. He told us his story and asked us for help because he doesn't have anyone else to turn to. He said he wanted to come back to church and start walking like he used to. So Sunday he came to church and this week he is going to leave with us to visit.
They aren’t people that we are going to baptized or convert but they are people that need our help and I feel privilege to help them because it’s awesome to see them come back to church.
I love all of you and hope that all is going well . I hope ya have fun at the funeral (if that’s possible). And hopefully everybody is still alive in the family, I haven’t heard much from anyone.
But I LOVE YOU
ELDER GRINER
D 12
Hello !!!! 6 June 2012
Today is the end of the first transfer with my child ( new greenie companion). My kid is no longer new in the mission and we are working to help other people here in Dajabon. I really have come to love this area because it is so relaxed. Everyone knows everyone and the people are way to kind. Even though it feels like everyone has either heard from the missionaries before or been baptized there is still a ton to do.
We are always being told that people are being prepared for our time, right now. Maybe a missionary passed by a house and the people there didn’t accept them at that moment because they weren’t ready, but everyone has their time.
I truly believe that, because we have an investigator named Yohanni, and she has been progressing for a while now but we haven’t been able to get her baptized because she can only come to church when someone is at her house to take care of her mom. But she has been perfect since the day that we met her. I know that the Lord prepared her to receive us because she’s not from here and she has only been here for a year and was going to leave, but she stayed and because of that we got to meet her. She has never had problems, but the other day we got the chance to talk to her, and after we had talked about prophets, she stopped me and started telling me about a boyfriend that she has (because her husband died a while ago) but that he is always drunk and only wants to be with her when he is drinking. She expressed a lot of feelings with us, so my comp and I played doctor Phil with her and helped her with her doubts. It honestly reminded me of high school drama but I had a good time with it and hope that we were able to help her..
Sometimes we get really discouraged here because some people don’t want to read or just can’t read so they don’t progress. And I thought that it was going to be like that forever but on Friday we visited a guy named Faustino and had not expected that he had done anything, but we got to his house and he had read about 10 pages of the Book of Mormon and had tons of questions and wanted us to come back . It made us happy because we had been reassured that if we are doing our job and inviting people to act , there are going to be some that actually do it .
haha I was reading in English today and I got so so frustrated because I didn’t understand anything, well okay I understood but it was way hard . So I guess I’ll just stick to Spanish for now ..and forever.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACI sorry its late. BYE BYE LINDSAY have fun . and
I LOVE YOU ALL
BTW its so so hot in this country ......................:)
Sunday, June 3, 2012
D 11
HHHEEEELLLLOOOO:: 30 May 2012
So this past week was so, so amazing!! and funny.
We did have the baptism and we decided along with the other Elders that are here in Dajabon that Iris Leidy is the best convert in the world! Haha. She was baptized Saturday and confirmed Sunday. Elder Horne baptized her and it was way cool. It was fun to see the change, as I’ve said in my previous email, She is absolutely different and I’m way excited for her to progress in the church. She has plans to go to the temple with the ward next Saturday to do baptisms!! Where she will be able to learn from others and more about what the temple is all about.
We also found a man named Isidro. He is about 50 years old and has three daughters; they are all out of the house and have their career. We have taught him about 3 times now and he has accepted everything gladly and always wants to know more. It was fun the first lesson we had with him because we were trying to explain the restoration and before we could get to priesthood he asked us about it, and before we could get to Joseph Smith he asked about him, and before we could get to the Book of Mormon he asked about it. That made me laugh a little bit, but also helped me know that he was listening and interested. I really hope he can progress and come to church!
Yesterday we had a "lesson with the elders" , meaning we invited a member to come teaching with us. He served a mission and is now back home and serving in the branch. So, we got to the house where we were going to teach and I got thru the introductions and everything went well up until we got done with the first prayer. When I said amen, he started talking ......... and never stopped. I can honestly say that I think I got 10 words in the whole lesson! haha ! . We had a lesson planned and everything but he just wouldn’t stop talking, maybe he was inspired to do it but quien sabe (who knows) ha. So that’s a lesson with the elders!
The Lord works in a lot of different ways and I have been able to see His tender mercies throughout my time here in the mission. One of the things that I am really grateful for, is for all of the companions that I have had. Last night I received a call from Elder Alexis, the Haitian. I asked why he was calling me and he just told me he wanted to say hi and ask what’s up. That was just a small thing I know, but it let me know how much he cares about me, and it meant a ton to me. Little things make a big difference. I know that the Lord sent him to help me, even though we are totally different people with totally different backgrounds. I’m really grateful for it.
I love all of you and I honestly hope everything is going okay!!
Love,
ELDER GRINER
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