Family Search

     So this week was a good week! first of all we are back on the streets again without sickness working hard! and we are one week away from transfers! stay tuned for next week to find out who will be my next comp!! 

      Now to the work! we have an less active named Oscar and we are trying to help him overcome some problems right now! i have been praying for how to help him for a long time now and i think Heavenly Father is opening a new door for him! this week i got the idea or prompting that i needed to do some family history with him! so we talked about temples with him and in our next visit we are going to teach him how to use the family search website! we are almost positive that we will have a name to take to the temple for him so all we need now is that he gets a temple recommend!!!

We have another less active family the Meza Family and the Dad is really great we talked with him about baptisms for the dead and then we helped him do some work on Family Search and this sunday he has an interview for a temple recommend!! 

     I am literally seeing the hearts of the children being turned to their Fathers! i am seing revelation happen before my eyes! i can't wait to go to the temple with them!!! Family Search is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      if you are feeling sad or down hearted. i have a solution! please take the 20 minutes to make an account and do some family search! you can do your own work or you can index! either way it will belss you more than you could know!!

                                                   With all the love from Santiago to Home!

                                                                Elder Groen!

Wow another week in the Lord's vineyard!

     WEll first of all this last week on friday we got a new investigator that moved into the ward! she is absolutely incredible! i think she has been prepared in so many ways for us to teach her! i can't wait to teach her again on this friday! her name is Arielle! super pumped about that one!

      

 Then the plague hit our house! my comp got sick last friday and had to go in the house early and couldn't go out all saturday... so the other three elders and me did divs all those days and tried to get to visit everybody! Then on monday Elder purnell and my comp were both sick again and they stayed home all day so i went on divs with Elder Mellado all day long! then yesterday Elder burt said he needed to come in early because he was sick... Then yesterday he told me he didn't study at all in that whole time he was sick!!! i coulnt believe it!! he was inside for somewhere around 30 hours and didn't study at all!!!!!!!! i was trying to be patient with him and have some sympathy for him but it killed me! i felt sick all of those days too but i knew that if i didn't go visit the people they wouldn't get visited! and i knew that i wasn't that sick so i could go and do it! but then it just about killed me because he had stayed inside and i felt like it was all a big excuse so he didn't have to work hard... i just feel like if we look for excuses to not work we will find them but also if we try to give everything we have we will be blessed with the strength to do anything! sorry everybody that was very pesimistic of me but please do not look for excuses!!!!

                

then on monday we had our Zone conference and it was absolutely incredible!! President told us that our faith is not where it should be and told us that we need have more faith in baptisms and in the power of the spirit! so I am giving everything i can to listen to his words and give more room in my life for faith! After all when we have faith we can move mountains!!!

                          With all the love in the world,Elder Groen

Back to normal

             This week we are back to the normal! After busy General conference and stake conference we are going into a regular sunday! so we finally get to go out and work our week normally! this week we are shooting for 20 lessons and 6 lessons with members! Numbers are kind of a hard thing to fugure out on the mission! we can't let our lives be dominated by the thought of numbers, because then we forget that each number is a person and that person has specific needs and a specific life! but on the other hand numbers show us how important records are in this church! Heavenly Father cares so much about us that he wants to know exactly who is a member and who is doing what! when we realize this love that he has it makes sense that we record the numbers! also numbers help us to measure what more we can be doing! when we see that we didn't reach our goal for the week it motivates us to do more and to try harder to teach more people!!! 

           We are working especially with Francisco and Pato right now! both of them are great people but they are just missing the action part of the gospel! The prophets teach and have always taught that we must act and when we do we recieve! so when we give a scripture or ask them to pray and they don't, but then they say why can't i feel the spirit like you always say i can. we tend to get a little frusterated. but we always try to rmemer that to help them we need patience and love and we look for any possible way that we can help them keep their commitments with us!!!!

           Here in Chile we walk almost all day everyday but i am learning that walking is really fun! if you don't believe me try it! instead of driving somewhere try walking its a great time to talk with someone and learn more about them!!! 

Remember that somewhere else in the world someone is always smiling so why shouldn't you smile!!!

                                         Love the practically chilean Elder Groen!

Miracles Happen TODAY!!!!

      so before i talk about the rest of the week i have to tell you about Monday!!!!! we had district meetings in the morning but then after we had lunch pretty early. so we left early and walked over to our lunch appointment! it was with Nicole and Patricio, Nicole was just reactivated and is awesome! but Pato is out of a job and looking for work. so he had a interview for a job and couldn't be to lunch. so we invited a ward member named oscar to come with us so that we could go in the house! she made lasagna while we all sat around and talked with her (mom i tried to help her she would not let me, i promise!). then Pato got back from his interview about an hour after we got there and he said it went really well! then what happened next was amazing! Pato doesn't talk a lot with us usualy. but all of a sudden him and oscar just started talkin about everything and they were instant friends. I am so glad for that because that is what Pato needed most right now! that was the first miracle of that day! then we all ate lunch and thought nothing of it! then after lunch Nicole told us the story of a woman in the bible who only had enough food to feed one person and fed the prophet Elias with it, but after she fed him their was more food in the pot and so she fed her children and then their was more for her! Nicole told us that usually one pan of lasagna barely feeds thier family of her, pato and little Maxi. they usually only have one square left. but she fed 7 people 4 missionaries, Oscar, her, Pato, and their son Maxi!!!!! she said everytime whe went back for another scoop their was more food!!!!!!! she wasn't even planning on eating that day and got worried when oscar came and when pato got home!!!!! Then Pato Said he didn't know why or how but that everything she said was true and that it shouldn't have happened!!!!!! Miracle number 2!!! then Pato said he would come to FHE this week with Oscar's family!!!!!! Miracle number 3!!!!!!!

              then that night we visited with oscar, because he has a smoking problem and is still techinically not an active member until we can help him overcome that! anyway we visited with him and shared a scripture, then i said the closing prayer and i thanked heavenly father for his good heart and service and asked that he would be blessed for his service. then when the prayer was finished he was crying and thanked us again!!! Miracle number 4 (he doesnt ever cry! EVER!!!! his words!) 

              this week has been such a great week! i promise when you pray for something and then work for it you will recieve that thing, as long as it is Heavenly FAther's will!!

                 we do a lot of walking and working but i love it all so much! i have never been as happy as i am now on my mission! i hope all is well with all of you!!!

                                                Love Elder Groen!