The Book of Mormon is a book of power

Last thursday on the 18th (Chile's independence day! Super fun! Kind of!) we had a big Mission meeting with Elder Zeballos from the quorum of the 70! it was such a great meeting! president, sister Cook, Elder Zeballos, and Sister Zeballos all spoke about the Book of Mormon! 

on monday september 8th we were told that we were going to start reading the Book of Mormon ont he 18th and finish it on December 13th as a mission! so i decided that i should finish it before that! so i spent every moment i had extra and read the book! i went from Alma 34 to the end in a week and a half! it was a lot of reading for story and now i am back to my deep study of it but it was really cool to just read it and see of the goodness of the prophets in it! Now i started and im on track to finish it by the 13th! I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true! And i testify of Moroni's promise that you can know to! if you read and pray you will recieve confirmation that it is a book from Heavenly Father! and you will recieve strength to bear your trials with patience! 

         

then on the 19th we celebrated the 18th with the ward! the best part was we got there adn two of our investigators were there and it was so special to see them just have a good time and smile and be with the ward! the ward did missionary work without even realizing it!!! 

       

 One of the menos activos we have been working with for a while got called to be the ward sunday school president and he is SOOOO motivated to work hard! i am so excited for him and this calling! 

        

this week we spent most of our time walking and knocking! we didn't get very many lessons... but it is motivating for me to think that its not always the number of lessons or baptisms that determines what kind of a missionary we were! it just matters how hard we work and how much we live up to our potential! 

                                   lots of love from Elder Groen!!!!

From Andrea: The next comments are from Ethan when we told him that John, Andrea, Gabe and Sydney (our cousin) are in the LDS Church's Savior of the World production this year.   Jessi has school on Tuesday and Thursday nights when we will be performing, so she couldn't participate this year. 

"oh my Goodness Dad that makes me SOOOOOO happy that you guys made it! my companion has the CD of the soundtrack and we have listned to it here and there, but when we do i only think about how much i loved that time and how much that increased my testimony! memories of wonderful friends we made always come flooding back into my head! I know it will bless the family so much and i know you will love the experience to participate in it!!!!!

ok we worked our way back up to 13 lessons this week. its hard it was still the 18th so everybody was gone on vacations... we did a lot of door knocking again! but we are excited about this week to get our numbers back up! and we can´t give out Book of Mormons on the streets because too many people smoke weed with them... so we have to be in a house teaching someone in order to give one away... oh chile... 

language is great! we get along great! and we obey all of the rules! right now we are trying to help the other two missionaries we live with be more obeidient! but we just got a new missionary in the house! Elder Torres is gone and Elder Mollado from conception Chile is here!"

There is real power in prayer!

so this week was hard because we spent most of our time walking around knocking doors and trying to contact... anyone who has tried this knows that their is a lot of work and not a lot of reward. so i began to get down hearted. then i read in the book of mormon about prayer and the power that fervent prayer has! so i decided that i was going to try this! i did this about two weeks ago! and at first we saw no change at all... but then the past four days have been incredible! first we talked two three peole during contacting that said they were interested and said we could come back!!!!! for those of you who don't know this is a miracle! chileans NEVER have time for the missionaries in thier houses!! then we got two references from a member i haven't ever gotten one before this! and finally we found more opportunites to serve this week than we have before ever! I know that the power of prayer is real and that with it we can change the world! but don't forget that after you get off your knees you have to work! this is a promise from the prophets! and i know that it is true! 

            then one more story! last night we went to visit nicole and Pato nicole is our recent convert and pato is her investigator husband. we went and they live in a big apartment building, and in these buildings you have to go to the front desk and call them before you can go up to their house. yesterday we went and they let us go straight up without calling. then when we got up there we knocked then we heard fighting. After a little bit of time they let us in and we shared a message about christ! i know that because of their willingness to let us in and to hear a message they invited the spirit back into their house and when we left they were holding hands!!!! that was an incredible tender mercy that we didn't have to call them because they probably would have just said not now! 

       

                                                               Love Elder Groen! 

p.s. i finally put some pictures up!!!

Tie anyone? 

90 lbs of ties for $44 dollars - what a deal.
(notice their bunk beds and how close they are to the ceiling).

Elder Burt & Elder Groen

Can you guess which desk is Ethan's?

how important are the members of the church? ESSENTIAL!

so this week was different first off i went on divisions with my zone leader elder Toledo on thursday and turns out he lives in daltons mission! I learned so much from him about how important it is to listen and how important it is to love the people he was an incredible example of those two things! 

        then this week we tried to find more investigators and less active members to teach. so we did a LOT of contacting! we yelled Allo! a million times this week and we didn't get one new investigator. it is hard but it requires a lot of patience! so we have been trying to find new ways to get investigators and we started asking the members in every way possible. we were given 4 new references and two possible investigators. but now in order to keep those people we need the members to keep helping us and go on visits with us so those people have a friend to help them. Without members what we do would literally be impossible! so i want to extend a challenge to everyone that reads this email! please think of every person you know that is not a member and choose one that you can invite over for dinner, family night, movie night, or anything else and then all you need is 10 minutes or more if you can to have the missionaries talk with those people while they are in a comfortable but different setting. Please find a way to get involved with this work the missionaries need you but more important the lord needs you too!!!!

      then we talked with a contact we had and met her dad and he told us all about his time spent in whales and all about some places that i'd heard of! it was so cool how a conversation about his life led us exactly into the plan of salvation and he said he would be willing to listen to our message we are SOOOOO excited to teach him!

     then this week we had a reactivation! Nicole was a member when she was a little girl but her family fell away while she was still young, so she never really was a member. so right before i got to the sector they started teaching her. and she had been truly prepared by the lord. Anything we asked her to do she did with no questions. now she is active and her husband Patricio is listening to our lessons!!!! at first he told us he wanted nothing to do with our message!!!!!!! she is so awesome and her husband has been touched by the spirit it is sooo exciting!

      well just to let you all know right after i am done emailing i am going into my house until friday morning. September 11 is independance day for chile and they blow up cars and shoot guns so tomorrow is my super deep clean of my house!!!! wahoo!!!! gotta love chile!

                                                       Love elder groen

p.s. i sure love all of you!

Another week in Chile!

last thursday was super good! we got three lessons and a member came with us for one of them! then we found out about poor Elder Delgato... my first companions trainer. he is having some serious panic attacks and has to change companions now... 

      friday it rained again! but we had an opportunity to teach Noche De Hogar! Family Night! and we chose to talk with the ward about unity in missionaries and the ward, and then about how we need to come together to make this work what it can become! and it went really well! it is very hard our ward is a little lazy... but part of the problem is they have never been taught or shown another way! this is our goal to begin to try and establish this ward to help them see what the lord needs of each of us! its not always easy or comfortable but the lord will always bless us for our service! 

     Saturday was tough there was a lot of complaining about the ward and them being lazy by the other missionaries... just remember that nothing good comes from murmuring it is bad!

    sunday we had ward conference and it was super good! and the stake president shared some awesome things with us! and that night we taught 3 lessons too so it was a really good day! 

    Monday i went on my very first splits and i went with my district leaders companion who had some big problems with rules. and it was so bad to see the way he just didn't care. it made me grateful for the missionaries i have in my house! and it made me want to give everything i have to being an obedient missionary! 

    Tuesday was really cool we woke up and got to go do service we painted some less active members house because they are moving but they promised to talk to the missionaries!!!!! then that night one of our lessons fell through so we were about to go to our plan B but i said we should go check up on our contacts from a week and a half ago because we haven't had time to do it yet. and so we did and we found out that a man named louis had his child admitted into the hospital and he is really worried so we asked if we could come back later. and we think that this gospel could really help him. i think the lord has been preparing him for us!!! and it wouldn't have happend if i didn't listen to the prompting of the spirit to go there!! 

     wednesday today!! we went to get a farda!!! it is a HUGE bag 90 pounds worth of ties we split the cost between 4 missionaries and got over 1000 ties it cost each of us 11 US dollars!!!!!!!!!! it was so cool i will send pictures when i can it was Super fun!!!!

       family remember when it rains a little it just means that a rainbow is coming! our trials will test us but what matters is how we trust in the lord during them!! and how we serve during them!!!

                                          Love, Elder Groen!!!