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!!!

hey guys love ya'll

so first of all i spent almost all my time trying to figure out how to download pictures so my letter will be kind of short! and second of all the dang thing i bought so i could download pictures won't work so i didn't get any pictures up yet... please don't kill me! 

      now my week! so we have been working on an 18 year old named fransisco who is SUPER smart and he is reading and praying about baptism, but he says he hasn't felt an answer. so we are trying to help him see all of the different ways the spirit can touch us! 

Oscar another less active member has now been off of drugs for 3 weeks!!!! its a miracle he couldn't go 3 days without before he started reading the scriptures with us everyday!! 

everyday we walk So much but the cool thing is we are coming in contact with hundreds of people everyday that we are helping plant seeds. Just remember the lord needs willing servants who will be his soldiers to fight satan in these latter days!!

 oh and mom the missionaries in the ward were volunteered to be in the ward choir so... yup im back at it again! we are going to practice right after we email today!!! 

  the trainer of my old companion is having some stress problems right now and they are going through a pretty big trial. so please if you could family pray for elder delgatto and elder Curtis they could use the extra blessings! 

also everyone promise me you will read the book of mormon or any scriptures but without them you cannot feed your seed of faith and of testimony. i can't tell you how much i wish the people down here would learn that... so please do it, its so little being asked.

                                                         Love elder Groen! 

p.s.    the word of the week is sonrisa.       lift up your hearts and rejoice!     SMILE!!!

hashtag numb one

so on thursday we had our interviews with president cook! and it was so fun just to get to know him and talk with him! turns out he knows Elder Zwick really well i told him i would tell elder zwick hi for him if i ever got the chance! maybe you could help me out there Allie?!?!?! 

           Friday was my official welcome to chile day!!! so first in the morning i was doing my scripture study and i looked up out the window and a house in our ward about 5 blocks away was on fire!!!!!! then all of our plans and lessons fell through one after another so we walked for about 4 hours straight with no lessons. then while we were contacting some houses a guy stopped us and told us to come over to his house so we did and told him who we are and what we are doing and he said come in lets talk about Jesus! Right then my companion and I looked at eachother and smiled! the people of chile never invite you in unless they are ward members. so we went in and it turned into us listening to him. then we asked if we could share a message about our gospel and why we are serving missions and he told us that its more important to listen than to talk so we needed to listen... that made me chuckle a bit! then at the end he told us about his marajuana (sorry don't know how to spell that) and we aren't aloud to be in a house with marajuana and we had been there listening for about 1 hr and 45 minutes so we left him with a few words and a pamphlet and will continue to pray about what we should do with him! then we went to teach an investigator named oscar and when we got there he was fighting with his sister they are like 40 and 45 and he said not tonight and just left... so we knocked on a few more doors and went back to the house. then while we were planning we heard a ton of gun shots about 10 blocks away in our sector and the next day found out there was a gang fight with 42 gun shots fired and they think one man was killed but the police have tried to stay out of it so their is no official report, so we don't know for sure... yeah WOW what a crazy day and mom don't worry im fine and just remember the promise that the lord made to the sons of mosiah!!

            Saturday we had two pretty big service projects that took up most of the day and that was really good then we taught oscar and we ran into a lady that we think we can really help that seems to be very receptive of the gospel so we are excited about her!!!

           Sunday i gave a 5 minute talk to introduce myself and help get the ward excited about missionary work and it was really awesome even though my spanish wasn't very good i bore my testimony and after a lady in the ward told me that she thinks the world needs more young people like me and it was the sweetest thing ever!! and no i didn't understand that all at first my companion helped translate for me!!! then i attended meetings for a long time then we had lunch at 4 and went and taught 4 lessons that night!!

           Monday we had my first zone and district meetings and they were both good but in spanish and hard for me to understand!! then we went and had lunch and taught all that night!!!!

           tuesday we taught a teenager in the ward english in the morning and gave his 90 year old grandma a blessing then we went to a zone practice to practice our play for the stake primary and i got assigned the rold of John Taylor which is the only speaking part for an elder and i am the only one who doesn't speak fluent spanish in our zone... but im still way excited for that i think they will laugh at me a lot!!!! then that night we taught francisco and i extended my first baptismal invitation and he said if he recieved an answer he would get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know if he does the things we have asked him to do he will recieve an answer because the lord always keeps his commitments!!!!! 

     Here on the mission i have found a new love for the scriptures every morning i read 5 chapters in the BOM but then i have so much more to study i have to stop... but i have never had a desire like this i absolutely love it!!!!! my spiritual message comes from mosiah 24:15 when the people of alma were righteous but were still overcome by the lamanites and alma promises them that they must remain faithful to the lord and he will deliver them! and it says that they prayed and the lord stregthened their backs that they could cary their burdens and overcome their trials and then it says they waited with patience and cheerfulness.

              we have trials and hardships every day and not only is it important to have faith in the lord but it is important to wait with patience and cheerfullness! i am learning how important it is to be postitive always here on my mission. some missionaries seem so bummed and grumpy sometimes and it just makes the work so much harder... the power of a smile is really special!!!

                                                         Love Elder Groen because he loves you!!!! that sounds kind of funny!!

hey guys i made it!

                 well this week! where to start... oh yeah the beginning! on thursday we went on splits with some missionaries from santiago east for 5 hours and it was so incredible! i shared my testimony with a little old lady and she started crying! i didn't know i could do that in spanish!!!!!!!! it all just really settled my nerves and showed me that i can do this!!!

           friday and saturday were good we said goodbye to all of our teachers on saturday and it was sad but exciting!!! 

           sunday was normal and wonderful!! then at night President Cook came and spoke at the CCM and it was AMAZING!!!!!  "we congratgulate you for your sacrifices but we do not apoligize for them!" 

           Monday was a big long boring orientation day and we learned all about how to work with ward members!!!

           Tuesday was the big day!! we woke up at 6 and got ready to leave then we left to the mission at 8 and got there at about 9 then we took care of all of the paperwork and that good stuff! and i learned that my trainer and new companion is Elder Burt! he is really cool he is from massechusits i know i spelled that very wrong but i can't think in english sorry! and we had a really good lunch!!!! then we had a testimony meeting with all of the new elders and sisters! then we left to my new home!! it is really small and we live in the upstairs of a cute old couple that are members! it is so humbling to see what these people have and how happy they still are! count your belssings you are all living in mansions! and please serve everyone you can there is no reason not too! anyway then we went and taught the mesa family that was super hard they spoke the fastest spanish i have ever heard! but i was able to share my testimony and try to speak with them!! then we taught Oscar who is a great guy but has a problem with drugs... so we meet with him everyday to make sure he is staying out of trouble! but he is just a happy gut that wants to improve his life it is so humbing!!! 

             today was pday and we played soccer that was super fun and then we had complaetos a big hotdog with everything on it yummmm!! then we cleaned the apartment and came here!!!! 

                I know this church is true and i love it with all my heart! please, please, please serve the lord will give you opportunities all the time just take advantage of those! I love you all!!!!

                    

                                                    Love Elder Groen 

          p.s. keep on keepin on

          p.p.s. come up with lots of questions that i can answer next week!!!!

Elder Groen asleep - what a surprise! 

Missionary selfie

gotta love it but I sure am ready to leave!

So as you all hopefully know i am leaving to the field in one week from today! i can not tell you how not ready i feel but how ready i am to leave! I love the CCM so much but all day stuck in a stinky classroom with no windows gets a little tiresome! And so i am very excited! this week we will go on splits with the local missionaries and we will go contact people in the park (Scary but Fun)!!! the Bad news of all this is i do not think i will be able to email next week so i am very sorry for that but please send me all of your emails because i love to hear how EVERYONE is doing!!!

      Any way this week was fun but also very similar to every other week!! On tuesday we said goodbye to all of our teachers and that was sad because you get to grow so close to them, but we got new awesome teachers on wednesday so it was fine!! Wednesday we got a few new things. We got new teachers Hna. Arcos, Hno. Gonsalez and hno. Correa! i love all of them a lot but they don't speak any english so sometimes it is very difficult!! We got two new roomates for two weeks Elder Clegg and Elder Puzey! they are nice boys i like them we don't see them a whole lot but its all good!! 

Thursday we taught an investigator and turns out he is a bar tender and i told him i wanted a drink... spanish is kind of hard sometimes!!! other than that it was just spanish all day long!

Friday was excatly what every day is here so it was kind of boring but i like the days here so it wasn't bad in any way!!!

Saturday i had a cool experience with an investigator! he was talking about his concerns and the spirit just prompted me to talk about why we chose to serve missions so i did and he completely changed and began to listen to our message i was so happy! the spirit is definitely the teacher not us!!!

Sunday was good but we got put into the all spanish lessons so all day long i don't really know what was said, but i do know that i felt the spirit and that is what is most important!! 

Monday was good we didn't do a whole lot but we did talk about how much of a miracle it is that we are in Chile being able to learn spanish!!! 

I know this gospel is true please do what is right make the everyday little decisions the right ones and when it comes time for the big ones it will be a MILLION times easier to make it!!! God loves his children, and i love the people of Chile and all of you!

                                                      Love Elder Groen the one who is in Chile!

p.s. enjoy milk it is something that i wish i had.

Listen

      Wednesday was super hard i felt like it went on for hours and hours and hours staying awake was impossible! but it was still full of the spirit so i can't complain! 

Thursday was Pioneer day and no one down here knows about it not even a ton of the missionaries... so i told everyone that it was and made it a special day because no one else seemed to really care! but I had a really awesome day!! And Elder curtis and I were asked to teach in priesthood! that was really special!

Friday was pretty boring... Hermano Marcel bore his testimony about Never losing the Faith. i really love that message! why are we here not for ourselves, so don't lose the faith!

Saturday during one of our lessons President Doll the president of the CCM came in and was a memeber of the ward. He taught us so much about listening to the investigator and focusing on their needs. at the end of the day i felt Really sick but i prayed and when i got to Alcantra i went right to bed and sunday i felt better!!

Sunday was full of the spirit!!! WE listened to a talk by Elder Oaks that was awesome he talked about missionaries who have a real change of heart! Elder Gilbert taught the lesson in the afternoon devotional about planning and being prepared. then sacrament meeting and sunday school were both focused on obedience!! And then Elder Curtis and I taught a lesson about the book of Mormon to all of the English speaking Elders in priesthood! 

Monday was sad there were a lot of lasts... our roomates and a bunch of the missionaries left this morning (tuesday morning!) so it is sad to see them leave and Elder and sister Gilbert the couple that is called to mannage Alcantra leave on thursday and the Jacobsons come in!! that is going to be a hard goodbye! WE also went out on the streets and gave out pamphlets! It was super scary but really cool we gave out all three of ours and got some new names for the local missionaries!! 

Now Ethans Missionary Stats at the CCM!! 

13-15 prayers in one day(sometimes more)

2-3 hours of scripture study and reading

4-5 hours of language study

3 meals a day

3 different teachers every day

This weeks missionary message is about listening! I felt like i kept hearing the idea of listening all week long!! you have to listen so you can aske inspired questions. this way investagators will teach themselves and tell you exactly what to teach them! its amazing how listening with the spirit is so important!!!!!

I love you all so much please keep doing the small things they will change your life i promise!! 

                                            Keep on keepin' on!

                                             Love Elder Groen the one in Chile

I wouldn't rather be anywhere else!

I love everyone so much and i miss you guys but man i really do love it here despite the hard times the good ones make it all worth it!!!

 now all about my week to keep you updated!! 

tuesday we said goodbye to the three oldest Elders that were staying at Alcantra with us! then we went to the chilean Walmart called Liters! that was definitely a new experience! 

Wednesday we got our 3 new teachers for the next two weeks!! Hermano Marcel, Hermana Arcos, and Hermana Areneda. so that means we get three new investagators too! its kind of hard because we were just starting to get somewhere with our last investagators... but im very excited for the new ones! that night we had a fun game of "who can get on the top bunk without using there hands!"  im pretty lucky because there are 4 of us to our room and 4 to one shower all the other rooms have 6-8 per shower! 

Thursday we met all of the new missionaries and they all seem very nice they are all going to santiago Este (east) We also had an awesome lesson on obedience!  It reminded me of what elder Zwick and President Eyring said to me before I left!!! 100% obedience! 

Friday night my roomates and I got in trouble for not being on time in the mornings... but its hard because most mornings i sit around ready to go for 10-20 minutes just reading, while i wait for them to get ready. Oh well they are trying to get better and that is what matters! It was still a great day i played soccer for the first time here! and Hermana Arcos told me i need to bear my testimony more because the spirit is so strong when i do! that was really nice of her!! 

Saturday was good our lesson went really well and i understood almost everything that was said in spanish!! also we had a substitute hermano Alvarez and i found out he served in Long Beach California and one of his mission presidents was mari Bubert's Dad! she was my friend in junior high and left in 9th grade when they got called to that mission!!! he also taught us the reasons why people serve missions. Fear-Duty-blessings-charity!!! Good, better, best!!! i hope im here for the right reasons! 

Sunday was awesome just like always!! frist we watched a video from 2011 of Elder Holland addressing the missionaries in the provo MTC it was INCREDIBLE!!!! he talked about converting ourselves before converting our investagators, then he talked about peter and the principle of a change of heart and feeding his sheep! then we watched the movie On The Lords Errand about president monson! and talked about him with the class. then we had our sunday meetings and those were all awesome and about the Holy Ghost! then for FHE we watched a video about the Book of Mormon, Parley Pratt, and an italian man who found a book of mormon and wearched his whole life for the church that the book belonged to! I love the book of mormon and we should never take it for grantid! Monday! today Elder Curtis yelled from the shower "holy hot mother of my children!" as the water turned super hot coming out of the shower! today Elder christensen went home... its hard to see him go but he is doing it for the right reasons and wants to be here serving worthily and honestly so he is going to clear some things up and come back out! I can't imagine the courage it took to admit he had a problem im sure he struggled with that every day so im so proud of him for putting his savior first and using the atonement!!!

                                                                   Love Elder Groen!!!! 

p.s. I hope everybody is reading there scriptures!! EVERYBODY not just family!!!

Elder Prince and Elder Groen