Hermana Grondel: How Can I Keep from Singing?

Helllloooooo!

So, one of my favorite things about having a Latin companion is I try to teach her a bit of english. Lately, I have teaching hermana Jimenez the proper times and places to use the word " 'Murica ". SO funny.

As missionaries, we tend to meet people from all walks of life. This week we met a man named Clifford. Clifford is a rap artist and is black. We are pretty sure he also takes drugs. He is also absolutely hilarious. He isn't trying to be funny, he is just himself, and his personality makes me laugh SO hard. If you have ever seen the video "Welcome to Kingburger where you can have it your way, but don't get crazy now" (not titled as such, just what I can remember), he reminds me of her. A lot.

So, one of my problems as a missionary is when people start contradicting what we are saying, I want to prove them wrong, since I feel and know that the gospel is true. That is NEVER a good idea because the spirit leaves as soon as you start doing that. Also, everyone leaves the experience feeling terrible. I have made it one of my goals to stop before it starts. This week, we were in a lesson with Maria and Romel, two investigators who have a lot of potential. The spirit was super strong when the brother of Maria came to visit. He is evangelico...muy fuerte evangelico... He began to deny the existence of prophets and the need for church and other things...it was bad. So, Hermana Jimenez and I just left our testimonies, saying we respected his beliefs and didn't want to contend with him about the Bible and we left. Well, later that afternoon, we ran into Romel again, who apologized for his brother-in-law, saying how said it is that he doesn't believe the same things as us. The way he said it, he put himself in the same opinion as us. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! Rosa, who is Maria's sister and the sister of the evangelico, is also an investigator. When we went to her house the next day, she began apologizing for her brother. Maria had told her what happened and they all felt terrible. Truth and peace are always stronger than contention.

Reason number 456 why I love being a missionary. You are truly an instrument in the Lord's hands. Saturday, Hermana Jimenez and I wanted to visit some less actives that live far from our house. Entonces, we decided to take a bus to visit them. It was also super hot, so we stopped for ice cream. As we walked to the bus stop, we saw our bus leave. Puchika. We were then waiting for the next bus. It arrived, we got on and started going. About half way through the bus ride, Hermana Jimenez says, Hermana Grondel, you're going to kill me. I, very confused, asked her why. She said the families we wanted to visit live about 5 minutes from where we bought ice cream, but we both thought they lived farther away. We also recognized that the fastest method to reach them would be to get off the bus where we got on. Feeling a bit bad that we wasted time and dumb that we forgot where they live, we waited for the bus to continue. As I looked out the window, I said to Hermana Jimenez "Look, those two look like elders!" "Hermana, those ARE elders! Let's go see what they're doing in our area." We got off the bus and walked up to them as they were talking with una joven. We quickly learned that the joven was a recent convert who had moved to Puerto and had no idea where the church is, so she hasn't been able to attend for 2 months. She had been searching for missionaries, but hadn't seen any until she saw the elders. When we came up, we were able to give the direction of the church to her. We felt like we were fulfilling the story of Job, for the Lord blessed her doubly after the trial of her faith.

Sunday was a great day. Hermana Jimenez and I spoke in church! I discovered that I do not enjoy speaking in church in Spanish. Part of my problem may have been that I didn't actually write out my talk. I just had my idea, my Liahona article, and went with it. I think I'll stick to playing the piano and musical numbers :)

Also, the elders had a baptism on Sunday, so Hermana Jimenez and Holly (a member in the ward) sang "When I am Baptized" while I played the piano. I love playing Primary songs on the piano! After the baptism, a couple of members requested their favorite primary songs, and we all sang together. It reminded me of Sundays at home when we all sing together around the piano. It was a beautiful day.

Well, I love you all bunches and bunches!!

SIGUE ADELANTE!

Love,

Hermana Grondel