Well it was definitely a good week!

  So as you all know we had our big Christmas celebration on saturday! that was really fun! we all learned so much! we learned that even the Savior himself had people make fun of him and in comparison had very little followers during his ministry. But he not once measured his sucess by numbers or by how many baptisms he had. He was the perfect example of what it means to do the Fathers will with no desire for numbers or notice for doing something great. We cannot strive only for numbers we are here for individuals not to see the church's numbers increase. 

      This week was a great week! we are working on finding new people. which means we are walking and knocking doors a lot! but turns out its not that bad we like to make fun games out of contacting people! like the next green shirt we see we have to talk to! or things like that! And its a great time to learn more about my companion! 

     This week we had two really great lessons with two different people! and both of them are looking like they are ready to be baptized! we are excited to try and put dates for baptism for the two this week! one was the guy with the Iguanna and the other is a young man with 15 years and we are trying to get his Grandma also! I will keep you all uptaded on them next week! 

     This week on friday we have our ward Christmas party and we have done so much for it! i will try and send pictures next week to all of you! 

       Well the work is working and i am really happy and working hard! sorry my emails i feel like are always kind of boring. i will work on being a little more lively in my emails for the future! 

                                                  Love Elder Groen!!! 

Wow it's good to be in Chile!

Well first of all i think you all want to know about the birthday so i will talk about this first! after much anticipation the morning of December 6th finally came! and yes it was like Christmas morning and i woke up at 6:30! i just kind of sat around with a smile on my face then i rememberd i had a package from Allie and opened that! then i mad some pankakes for the other missionaries and myself! then i studied! then for lunch we went to the Bishops house and he had a Lasagna that was SOOOOO good! and a really good cake! then we went and worked it was kind of a bummer because a lot of our visits fell through, but we still talked to lots of people and worked really hard! All in All it was a great day doing what i Love to do!!! Work!!!

       second there is an elder in my zone! in fact he is one of the the Zone leaders! and he lives in Dalton's mission and this week he leaves for home so he is going to bring a letter to dalton for me this week im really excited about that! he was always such a good example to me and a great leader! 

       This week i got asked to prepare two musical numbers for our ward Christmas activity. that means two weeks to do two special numbers! 

       We have a family in the ward with the name of Salgado. they are going through a SUPER hard time right now. the dad of the family is in the hospital with cancer... and the rest of the family is doing everything they can to stay postive! almost all of them are members but the two youngest that are 14 and 15 are not. so right now we are teaching those two and trying to get them ready for baptism. but the family is giving up on the church and it is so sad to see them let go of the only hope they have for happiness in a time like this. the more they let go the more sadness we see in their lives and the more problems they feel. We are doing everything we can to help them come back to Christ but it is SOOO hard. 

       on the bright side of things! we have a Less active member named Felipe that had his rights suspended but this week he had an interview with the stake president and now has his goals to come back! we had a lesson with him and his wife and it was the most spirtitual thing to hear him bear testimony of how much he wants to help our bishop in this time when our ward is lacking priesthood bretheren. he is so excited to come back to the ward and help!! 

It was a great week we finally hit our goal of 20 lessons and 6 divisions for the first time on my mission!!! we are so excited that we were able to finally do it! and we are going to try again to do it!  

         Love Elder Ethan Groen! 

Hello everybody!!

First things first! THis is for EVERYBODY that reads this and please everyone who reads this should tell everybody that they know of this new enlightenment!!!! i was reading in a book called gospel principles!!!! and it said that a good activity for the saboth day is to take 10 or 20 minutes and write a letter to a missionary!!!!!!!!!!  Now of course i wouldn't say this in a selfish way so please you don't need to send me any letters... but think of all of the missionaries you know and spend some time to write a letter to them!!! you have no idea how happy it will make them!!! Letters are just about the very best thing in the whole world!!! what a great family sunday activity!!!!

      Second of all! this week i was called to help and be an asistant to the young mens president. when he is out of town(like riight now) i am in charge of the young men. its only us two and the bishop working with them right now! due to the short in numbers of priesthood bretheren in the ward. all of a sudden i am feeling a lot of stress, but i am going to do my best to prepare all of them for a mission! i was in thier position about 6 months ago! i understand them and know what they are all thinking! so i am going to do my best to love them and help them! that is something that is really small in this ward we have about 6 young men in this ward and i wouldn't say that any of them are particularly strong right now... but we are going to see about that!!!

     Third! This week we were teaching a cute old couple named Juan and Beatrice. we have been teaching them for about 2 weeks now about 3 lessons in total and in our 2nd and 3rd lessons we asked them to be baptized. they haven't said yes yet... they are VERY catholic, but they are changing and they commited to praying about the gospel and baptism into this gospel! they said the believe everything we have said is true including Joseph smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Plan of Salvation. they just won't commit to baptism... but i understand it is really hard for them to change now when they are both 80 years old and change what they have known for their whole lives! but we keep on asking and teaching with faith that they can know that this church is true and that they need to be baptized!!!! 

     the work is working and sometimes i feel like its really hard to be in a tough mission without baptisms or much results. but i alwasy remember the story of Abinidai and his seeds that he planted!!! I know i am doing the Lords work and will! And I KNOW this church is true! 

           I love you all and hope and pray for you all! Love Elder Groen!