EE P23.2

El Ejido
Elder Lowe (Spanish Fork) and Elder Jenks from California

Isaac, me, Nayeli and Elder Ruiz

EE P23.1

El Ejido
Mutual night - Young Women

EE 23

Saludos a todos!  (Greetings everyone)                                                                            02/29/2012

Una semana bien llena de actividades , bautismos ,conferencias y comiendo!! ( A week full of activities, baptisms, conferences, and food!!)

This week has been awesome and full of things to do.   Saturday was a busy yet fulfilling day for our ward – Temple, baptism , and party - All of the ward went to the temple during the day and they even took one of our investigators with them!! haha Upon their return to the church building in the bus from the temple in Santo Domingo, we had everything ready and waiting for the baptism. So when they got off the bus we helped everyone with their stuff and then they came into the church for the baptism.  The font was full and the baptismal candidates were really excited to be baptized; it was a great feeling. 

I got to baptize them and it was way fun.  Isaac felt weightless in the water I felt like I almost threw him in the water and pulled him out like he was nothing.  During the testimony time we had some kids from the primary give some talks and bear testimony.  It was way fun.

After the baptism Hermana Belkis invited us over to her house and while there she had a cake for my birthday! ha  I love her she is like my mom here in El Ejido.  So we had a little party there with that family and then on Sunday we were invited over to another family’s home to have lunch after church and we had potatoes and they were amazing! But it was soon ruined when she gave me carrot cake and I had to eat it. .... ha  - no confetti cake here!

We finished all of the walls on Romy's house finally.  Now he can live in it a little bit easier and it’s a lot bigger as well. We spent the morning on Monday working on his house and then we went over to the church to our activity that we planned for the ward! There was a pool for the kids and volleyball and basketball for everyone else. Also, they played dominos and we had hot dogs on a stick and after we had spaghetti.  The activity  honestly lasted from 3 in the afternoon hasta (until) 9:30 at night!!!  It was  awesome.  After we ate, we all sat down in the chapel and our lider misional (ward mission leader) invited a few people to portray a family and have a mini FHE.  It went over well and set a good example for the members to do their noche de hogars (family home evenings).

We found out that our office Elder, Elder Hale, went home this week.  He’s suffering from loss of memory,  I guess, which stinks.  I hope that doesn’t happen to me.... ha

but yeah, this week was awesome and now we get to do it over again because Elder Ruiz va a cumplir (birthday is) on Friday. So we are about done with birthdays just as yall are. !!!! 

 I love all of you and wish and hope the best !!! 

ELDER GRINER

EE P22.1

El Ejido
abandoned puppies -I want to keep them!

EE 22

So hello family!

My week has gone by so so fast and its scaring me how fast.

First off, a shout out to my cousin lauren francom, my comp wants to marry you...... so be ready for a short Dominican in about 5 months! hahah.

Happy birthday to David and to Grandpa Francom!!

The 2 baptisms are still on for my birthday on the 25^th!!

You asked about my P-day so far?   eh it’s okay... I cleaned the whole flipping day!

HA anyway, this week we have tried so hard to find new people , knocking on doors and calling and getting references but wow almost no luck. But some weeks, that’s the mission for you.  We do however; have a couple people that are progressing which makes me really happy.  

A lady named Alexandra and her kids Miguel and Eternly.  We have the most deep conversations with her it’s crazy.  She really, really wants to know about true repentance; so we spent forever on that, and then got around to how baptism is for the remission of sins. She took it pretty well, but when she found out that her baptism was not done by the proper authority - a little bit of an apostasy- she freaked a little. But she is okay and is coming to the activities that we are having at the church and she has plans to come to church this Sunday and I’m pumped for her to come with her family.

Another that is coming along; well, her name is Yohanna and she is a single mom of 4.  She’s smart as ever and reads and always has questions for us. One thing about her, is that she is always hooped up on coffee so we need to settle her down and talk a little bit about that.

I have found that intercambios (trade-offs with other missionaries) are my favorite things, because we get to learn and act more with other missionaries.  We did an intercambio with missionaries in our district and a brand new missionary came over to my area to be with me for the day.  He didn’t know much but he did what he was taught in the CCM (Spanish MTC) and we had a way good time. We worked way fast and surprisingly (or not) we found a new person that we are now teaching together. It’s fun stuff.  Momma, to your question - my comp is a good guy. He doesn’t follow the rules much but were working on it. ! haha He is just having a hard time because he is really close to finishing his mission (not really an excuse, right?).  But anyway it was fun to be with that new Elder and work hard all day.

So, while we were out, we found a whole bunch of puppies that were abandoned and you know me with dogs .... haha.  They are brand new pups and I want to take one home so so bad !!!  These pups are still clean but they are wild and most of the wild dogs here are hairless, flea-bitten mongrels.  But those puppies were way cool.  I’ll send a picture.

Hey Dad!!! Thanks for the email!! Yeah the transfers are every 6 weeks and I think that I will have about 6 months in this area which is a long time!! But I like it here. The only downside is that I have gotten really close to and comfortable with the members; which in a way is good, but sometimes we are there a lot. ha but I feel like I have grown a lot in this area!

Well sorry I don’t have much more to say this week.  But I love ya’ll and hope everything is going good!!!

Bye bye

ELDER GRINER

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EE P21

Dinner?

with the Bishop's and ward mission leaders kids -

oh and a few baseballs just cause I love them!

Grill

EE 21

HELLLLLO,                                                                 15 Feb 2012

How is everyone at home in the coldness with no snow...... sounds like a nightmare to me- come on snow!

This week we did pretty well trying to get people involved and stay excited here in El Eejido - still ha!

We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar on Monday.  We had to be up and out way early in the morning because the church which we had to go to was pretty far away.  We were to be in our seats by 8:30 (sitting reading our scriptures).  The dress was long sleeve white shirts (luckily no suits).  It almost looked to fake as we never wear long sleeves herein the mission.  It turned out really good though because you could definitely feel a different spirit about us, as we had a chance to relax, read the scriptures and focus a little more on personal thoughts and get ready to be taught on a spiritual level.  We were reverent.  Then after about 30 minutes of sitting there in silence in walked Elder Bednar with his wife, and of course we all stood up. The first thing I thought was, wow he looks pretty old! but then again all that traveling and reading and writing has to get to you some time... haha. He got up and talked and after every sentence he had to stop so the people could translate, which took a lot of time - but was pretty fun to hear. He talked a lot about how we in the church don’t realize enough how the spirit is the real teacher, from primary teachers to missionaries to Bishops, and how we try to direct questions for a certain answer.  But in reality when they have an answer and want to share it you know that they were influenced by something other than your teachings.

So that is what he did for us. He asked a question and waited for people to raise their hands and tell him what they think so the spirit could work in us and not him having to direct the thought process.  He also told us that he never wants us to take notes on what he says but write down what and how we feel when we listen to what he says – like we learned to do in primary and seminary. But wow it’s kind of intimidating, maybe awestruck to be in presence of one of the 12 ! But it was an awesome experience!

I learned this week that it is hard to clean a greasy and oily baking pan......... haha.  We were walking to the hoyo (hole) which is a very very poor part of our area and there were two old women cleaning pans these nasty looking pans for money. I went over and grabbed one and started cleaning it. They gave me some steel wool and a knife and some soap and said go for it.  Wow I cannot tell you how bad my hands hurt after doing that one pan!! Haha.  It’s rough and I don’t understand how they do that for money as a job!!  I’ve found that I love doing stuff like that now, because it is service and truth be told it gets us out of the regular routine, but we also gain respect from other people!

We had a lesson last night, I think it was, and this lady was on something or had just had some of their stiff coffee or something because she would not stop talking. The funny thing was that she understood, responded and wanted to know more about everything that we were talking about, and kept telling us that she wanted to visit the church because she loves people that know what they’re talking about. hahaha .

We also have a sad situation in the ward but one that makes you thankful for the atonement.  One of our investigators that moved into our ward recently seems like such a perfect fit, but too good to be true, ya know, just something off - because he knows way too much doctrine to be just investigating and he knows the whole Mormon community here, and has read every book that pertains to the church.  His Dad told us that he had been a missionary but was excommunicated. We had no idea! He, the son, has never wanted to, and still hasn’t told us his story – that’s okay none of our business. But he is in the process of getting rebaptized, so he’s working with the Bishop.  It will be a great day for him when all is taken care of. 

We are planning for two baptisms on my birthday (February 25^th – just so yall remember! Haha cards, letters, packages… yes)!!

One is the son of one of the members that has just converted into the church.  Her older son is on a mission and we are working with him to get him baptized and active in the church!  The next is a girl named Nayeli who is part of a member family but she is too old to be baptized through regular channels, so we have taught her and are preparing for the 25^th.  So I’m way excited!

I’m really liking the mission even though it can get repetitive (I guess just like anything you do in life). There are still moments where you realize why you’re here and why you need to be doing what you’re doing.  That makes it all better!

I love you all and wish ya the best! Until next week! .

ELDER GRINER