November 24, 2014

Dear Family!

This week was awesome...it started to rain! woohoo!  its so funny how much i love the rain here. it was really nice because it cooled down a bit, now is the rainy season, the super hot season ended, my last super hot season in Brasil! haha. the other night we were sleeping outside under this covering and it started to thunder and lightning and raining like crazy and i woke up with rain falling on me because it was leaking through the covering. haha

  But we have some awesome investigators here.  we are really excited about them.  i explained most of it in the recording.  but we have one guy that has to have some somoan or hawaiin in his blood because hes so tight! ha, and hes super big, he would for sure be a rugby or football player if he lived in the US. his wife and baby daughter went to church with us this sunday,  but i felt kinda bad because she was chasing their crazy baby the whole time at church.  but it was cool because Sister Kuceki accompanied leandros wife during relief society!!! it was perfect! ha.  we passed by last night and afterwards leandro walked a bit with us and said he really wants to get baptized the 6th!   we also have an older lady we are teaching that went and loved it and will be baptized this week!   we also have another guy we are teaching that went last week and really wants to get baptized, but didnt go yesterday, Elder Smith went in with alma 5 and we called him to repentance, in the closing prayer of the lesson he asked for forgiveness for his error. it was awesome to see how he understood, and he is really sincere and is trying really hard to change his life because he has a really tough background.  but im super pumped for him.

well me comp is super tight. he is super excited and focused. hes super chill as well. he comes from a huge fam! 13 people in his family!  you should look them up on facebook. his parents are Cameron Smith and Honica Smith.  

Well have a great thanksgiving!  I am Thankful for so many things.... i have recieved so many Blessings.   I am thankful for the gospel, i am thankful for my family, i am thankful for this oportunity to teach the truth!!!

I love you guys!

Have a great week!

-Elder Grondel

November 17, 2014

 

 

 

 go brids!!!!

 Hey FAM.

The big city of goiania is awesome!  its pretty hot here, but its really cool to be in the city.  Our area is like the heart of the city, its really big!  i am here with Elder Smith now and we are the zone leaders of the goiania zone! we are really pumped to be here! Elder novais, one of my old comps, is a district leader here, so im pumped to work with him again and i know a few of the other elders here so it should be a great transfer here!  i have so much to learn, im really thankful for the oportunity i have to help here. we share this area with elder cunha and elder silva, the two assistants.  its pretty cool to be in the same area with elder cunha again! Our ward is president kuceki´s ward. so we get to see him at church every sunday and eat lunch at his house every other week! ha. 

We started up the work this week here and it is great.  we had a family that we were teaching here and weird things were happening in their house, someone was throwing rocks in their windows, but it never happened when i was there, elder smith just old me about it and you could see it too.  and the other day we passed by and half of their house had gotten fire and they had just putten the fire out when we got there. we are trying to help, but its difficult with them. the whole thing was wierd.  

this week we found some great people that went to church and we will be teaching them this week.

thanks for the scrips to read!

miss you all a ton!  love you guys!

have a great week! 

-Elder Grondel

November 10, 2014

Hey Fam Bam!

This week was great!  We saw some awesome things happen!  The whole district baptized this week together.  It was so cool.  But unfortunately i was transfered again.  This time they told us everything before the transfer...so i already know where im going and what i will do there.....i am going to......GOIANIA! and there i will have a little bit more responsibility, my comp will Elder Smith. i dont know him but i heard he is awesome. and he is american. ha.

I loved it here!  this week a members husband that has been taught for 20 years and frequented almost every sunday for 5 years finally got baptized. almost the whole branch was the for the baptism.  i had the opportuniy to do the interview with him and it was really cool to see what he had learned and finally see him enter the waters of baptism. (remind me to tell you guys more about this after the hish) but Hes had a date for almost every week this transfer, but yesterday the other elder finally baptized him.   We also had a baptism of diego. he is 15 and loves the church. his little brother went to church and will be baptized in two weeks.  and we are helping their parents to stay moptivated to get married.  They have to get some documents and annoying things before they can mark a date but their are gtreat elders coming here to help.  My comp elder white will leave as well. he will go to anapolis!  my birth place, one year ago. haha

 

we hadnt seen thyago all week, but saturday we had an awesome lesson with him.  we talked about the priesthood with him and responded a few questions he had about it. i always love teaching about the priesthood after they are baptized because you can show them the special treats that the bible has that are a little more in depth and that basically prove what we know about the priesthood, and you can speak a little more strongly about how this is the only true church that has authority and all the others have zero authority whatsoever, are completely false, and are part of the great prostitute of the whole earth. i love it!!!! haha.

i heard from elder blake! hes back in provo and wants to say hi to you guys, you should add him on facebook, hisname is Benson Blake.  Hes the one who kept me from going insane when i got here in brasil.    and can you go on my fb and add all the people that sent me friend requests?

thank you for the spiritual thought! i will study more about this for sure!

Our president is so inspired, we had an experience about that this week as we were trying so hard to get our goals that we established based on this system that he created, we needed one more with less actives and recent converts, so we went to a recent convert, and when we got there he was drinking with his friends, and we talked with him and he was needding a ton of help, he even asked us to pass by today in the morning, and we did and it was great to see his desire to change, he will meet with the branch pres this week. I have so many experiences i will need to share with you after the mission about the revalation our president receives for us. this mission is guided by pure revaltion!  

well i love you guys! im learning a ton! i have never been soooo tired in my life as i was yesterday. every week i get more and more tired. its incredible, im amazed with how tired a human can get without dying.

this is the work of the lord, i know it, i know it, i know it!  

have a great week!

-Elder Grondel

November 3, 2014

Hey family!

Its great to hear that everyone is well!  Ha. dang bryson, us grondels gotta drink more milk to strengthen our bones!  Congrats livs!!!   dude caleb thats freakin legit bro. toe touching on the INT!    ya it was halloween this week! i bet you guys had some sweet costumes! Atta girl lex, moddest is hoddest!  Gerritt looked pretty scary, especially with the  number 35!!!  they dont really do halloween here, only have like halloween activities at school or at the church.  no one goes in the road getting candy.

Ya it´ll be tight to run provo with lex! is she thinkin about a mish?

 

 looks like dad had a blast down there in florida at hogwarts, did he learn any spells to baptize people???

Thanks for all the updates!

 Tbirds are wrecking this year, wow. 

Well this week was pretty great!   We are teaching a family that went to church and wants to get married and baptized, we are planning to go mark the wedding this week!  we will baptize their son this week, he is already participating in like all the church activities.  

Thyago went to church all by himself, we passed by before but he wasnt there and we got to church and he was already there.  he recieved the priesthood this week!  Im so excited to see him become a great leade in Rio Verde. 

President Kuceki came this week and we had like a multi zone meeting. he receieved a lot of revelations and created this new system for our mission. its pretty cool.  Elder Cunha(my second trainer) is one of the assistents, and he and the other assistent slept in our house the night before, it was cool to talk with Elder Cunha a bit because he will die the end of this transfer he told me a lot of cool stuff about the mission and how the transfers and everything is really guided by revelation.

We are working alot with the members and im loving this branch, they are all so excited to help, yesterday we had an awesome fast and testimony meeting!!!

Well i am loving this area, the people are great,

I hope all is well with you guys!

well i love you guys! miss you a ton! have a great week!

-Elder Grondel

October 27, 2014

Hey family! 

We got hit with rain here as well! its been wonderful, iwas dying in this sun!!! ha. i thought i would never beg for rain like we have been.  ive been able to sleep really good.

Well this week was great!  We had two baptisms, and 3 in our district!!!  we baptised thyago and milena.  Milena is a daught of a member here that we actually found knocking doors.  It was really cool to see here progress! we had to drop studyin early every day this week to go teach her, but thats chill because it was for a great cause.  my portugeuse is suffering a little without language study and me and my comp need to stop talking in english! haha

Thyago was a miracle, he wasnt sure about the baptism this week but we went to his house ith a member and talked with him and the lord gave us help and he accpeted the baptism and was really excited.  He is really really intelligent. one of the smartest people i know.  He made us lunch on sunday.  Satan did not want him baptized.  But obedience and faith is stronger than him.  Sunday we got at church and he wasnt there, we left and went to his house and his wife answered the door and looked like she had been crying the whole night.  They had been fighting a lot of the night and he said when he was almost leaving to church they started fighting again.  he said he would go to church the next week and that it wouldnt work this week.  but i prayed my heart out for words and we talked with them and they said they needed to make a decision and i said, yes you guys need to make a decision but thyago, i dont want you to make this decision without the holy ghost, you need his guidance, we just opened our mouths and the lords put in words and he went to church and was confirmed and afterwards we had lunch with him!     JUST MIRACLES!!! it was such a great week, i was literally dead when i fell into bed last night!

You are on so many comittees these days dad that i cant keep track! my comp like that photo, he served in florida for 7 months of his mission, he really misses it.

Thanks for the leader input dad, i really needed it. i really like that quote from dumbledore!   

do you guys have pictures of grandma and grandpa?  from both sides of the fam?  and the names of my great grandparents. it for the little green "my family" booklet  for family history.  i have some of the fam here actually so its all good.

my knees alright.  ive got strength to keep chugging along! i wear my brace every night to sleep.

Well i love you guys! miss you a ton!  less than two months till skype....

-Elder Grondel

October 20, 2014

Hey fam!

This week was pretty tight.  we reached our goal of lessons with members! i think its one of the first times that ive reached it in my mission! the members here rock!  We had a little problem here, the two other elders in the house had a problem with me and my comp and the way i was doing things and i had to resolve that stuff, its been kind of annnoying, but things are way better now, i have a ton of weekpoints, but im learning as i go.

it was super hott again this week but finaly the rain got here!!! thank goodness. i was waking up every night sweating to death.

ha. so here we had daylight savings time...sunday morning. and noone had told us,so we were gettting ready to go get investigators before church at what we thought was 730 but someone passed our house to say something to the other elderes and remindedthem about the timeand they ran in and told us it was already 830...freak. so we like ran to our investigators , and one of them came and she will be baptized this week!  but president came with his family and it was great!!!they both gave amazing and powerful talks! we have been getting alot of references from members! i think its beccause you guys are giving so many to the missionareies there.  thank you! keep it up!

Thats crazy, i dont remember her. but thats cool!  its good shes back at the church.  The spirit leaves a strong impression on people. thats why if you deny it you go to hell.

go birds!!! they are tearing it up. wow.

Dang BYU.  what the freak...

Oh, so i talked with this dude here that trained alot of fighting and stuff and knows about injuries, he told me to put on this icyhot type cream and wear my brace at night and it has been working miracles with my knee this week.  next pday we will go to his dads gym and my comp wants to wrestle and do jiu-jitsu with them but i will just work out with the wieghts there.

YEA GRANDMA!thats so great to hear. i have been praying for them a ton.  yes grandpa!  Im pumped to seehim with a nice set of teeth!  dang, grandpa is a boss, he sets world records like a fat kid eats cake!

Happy Birthday HANNAH!  the big 21!!!

Lex needs to be careful with these dudes, if they cant make a freakin tackle then they for sure wont make a good eternal companion.  MARRIAGE101 by brady.

-Elder Grondel III

October 13, 2014

It is soooooooooo HOTTT here. wow. this week i could feel my skin boiling. i dont think ive ever felt a sun this strong, maybe the sun in the carribean on the cruise. but its all good. im using sun protection.

Well this week we found a ton of people to work with.  We received a promise from our mission president that if we mark 16 baptismal dates every week, we will open the safe that is full of the blessing of heaven and baptize at least three in the month.

Sunday we had only 13 so after lunch we started knocking doors closed to the church and managed to mark 4 more and reach 17!   This sunday only tiago came to church with us, he is the guy that went to genreal conference. he said he would have to travel to goiania but at the last moment plans changed and we past his house saturday night and saw his car there and invited him and he went to church! he also came to the english class with us during the week that we do every thursday night.

Next week we have our branch conference and our mission president will be there in our branch! We are all really excited! he will also give the message in a meeting for married couples this saturday in our city! he really likes this city because its so close to moving from a district to a stake! he even said that he only sends the best missionaries to Rio Verde ;)    haha

Well congratulations Gerritt on the baptism!!! thats so cool bud!!!!! 

youre lookin good out there as a captain as well! ha. looks alot like my championship game picture!

Dang, thats really tough to hear about Grandma.  I hope she gets better. im always praying for them.  I trust the family will do everything they can to help them. and the Lord will do his part.  Theyve contributed so much to the building of his kingdom on the earth.  I LOVE YOU GRANDMA and GRANDPA!  NGUNNGU!

Well i gotta go! i love you guys!!!  have a great week!!! 

-Elder Grondel

October 6, 2014

Hey Family,

So i got transfered this week. but i didnt leave Rio Verde!  i was transfered to the other branch that meets in the same chapel, haha. so im still in the same zone and everything, ha. i am the district leader here, first time with responsibility. but we have awesome goals and super excited missionaries.  im super pumped to work here.  we got here this week and alrady had 2 batisms this week that the other elder left, we just had to teach them EVERYTHING. ha. but they will be confirmed next week.  we found two great people that went to general conference with us, it was a married couple, the guy is really interested he really liked it.  he said this church is way different than any other church.  we also found some  other great people that we will be teaching this week, we basiucally started from nothing and started knocking alot of doors, but we alreadyfound some cool people!   in this area their is 3 companionships as well, we live with another comp of elders and there are sisters here too.. in another house, of course. ha  this branch is loaded with missionaries!   im super excited for this transfer!

My companion is pretty tight, his name is Elder White and he is from south carolina.  He went to BYU, and funny story...we hung out one night in provo before the mission! ha. i didnt remember him but he remembered me and the friends that we were with that night too. haha.  he remembered my nickname the girls gave me there...big booty brady..hahaha  But hes super tight, he served in florida for a while waiting for a visa and already has a year on the mish but only 5 months in brasil.

 General conference was sweet!!! i loved it, our investigaators went to the last seesion with us and it was perfect! the internet froze a few times, but its still worked out fine,  Everyone was so pumped for the guy that talked in portugeuse!  it was awesome to hear the actual voice and emotion, it makes a huge difference.

BYU game - no comment. 

Well i love you guys!  have a great week! 

September 29, 2014

Hey Family,

                            

This week was sweet! We were running like crazy because we had to teach michaelly everything before the baptism, and it turned out great!  She got baptized this Saturday and chose me to baptize her.  She always likes to say the prayers and at church she stayed in gospel principles with her mom and us and she said the prayer in gospel principles! it was awesome!  The district leader said she knew everything in the interview and is really smart!  Its been so cool helping this family.

When we were in the car going to the Baptism her mom was on the phone talking to her husband/boyfriend  and said she was really wanting to go to the womens conference saturday...we hadnt even told her about it! we were so focused on preparing michaelly and helping them plan the wedding that we forgot ot mention the conference, but she had heard at church sunday and really wanted to go, so we got her a ride and she said she really liked it!  The dad, Natanael works a ton, he works two jobs and almost doesnt have time to sleep, and still they live in a really difficult situation financially, and unfortunately he couldnt go to the baptism, but he was there for the confirmation sunday!  

I was reading more about eternal families this week because our focus in this zone is to baptize families, and weve made lesson plans specifically for families. and i was reading in DC section 132 i think it was and it talks about the potential of a man and woman who marry in the temple and clarifies what the Savior says in the new testament about marriage.  The potential that every person in this world has is incredible! (exactly what zach abbott wrote to me this week)  We have been working alot in a rich neighborhood and we had very little...to zero success.  And its amazing how this family, humble, VERY humble, will be able to reach such great things because of their humility and willingness to obey the laws of the lord, far more than the intelligent, rich, successfull, prideful people in the world.

But unfortunately, i will not be here to see them get married, because i was TRANSFERRED!   i just got here it seems! i only stayed six weeks. I hope i accomplished what the Lord wanted me too, but i sure learned a ton that i will apply in the future!  But it was great here, i realy loved this branch and the members here, i wanted to stay a few more transfers!  But im really excited to go to another area as well.  We will go to Goiania tomorrow and have the transfer meeting wednesday i think.  I will let you know the rest next week!

It was really cool, yesterday in the sacrament meeting,(sacrament here is the 3rd hour).  Towards the end of the meeting the lights went out because of the rain and thunder and everyone kept singing, it was really dark because here the meeting goes from 330 until 630. and in the lighting of a few cell phones we watched the last talk and finished the meeting just as normal!  i felt like i was in the era of jospeh smith as the guy in the front spoke without a microfone in very little lighting.

Ya the mission has helped me alot control my feelings, i can feel the mantle that we have in situations like that of last week.

We celebrated elder carters birthday this week and they made a great cake! and after we sang we smashed his face in it!!! haha. he said it felt like he broke his nose!

We played volleyball at the church last week on pday as a zone in our new zone shirt...the camo shirt we are wearing. and our zone leaders wanted to do a "haka" dance for our zone, and they asked me to invent one and lead the zone in a HAKA., ha. so we did the haka in a zone meeting. and took a picture in our shirts in the starting position. ha. 

Dad or Bryson, do you think you could send me the 212 degrees video in portugease? if they have it.

Well i gotta go! Have  a great week! enjoy the time with dad! 

-Elder Grondel!

September 22, 2014

Hey everybody!

Well this week was pretty tough, we prepared the whole week to baptize our friend, we taught with a bunch of members as well to help integrate with the branch, and he was so freaking excited.  and the night of the interview, before the baptism we got there with the district leader and everything to do the interview, he said he would move back to his state, called pará.  he said he couldnt take it here anymore, the dude with whom he was living is a freaking jerk and treats valtuiris terrible and valtuiris just had to take it because its the house of the other guy. He said he would leave saturday morning.  We started to talk and he started to cry and cry, we stayed for ever and i prayed and tried to talk him into just staying until monday morning.  he wanted to baptize sooo bad but said he ouldnt take it anymore. we had everything ready for him to stay, even houses of members to stay...but he said he already decided.  he siad he wil baptize their and go to church their and he will never forget about us.  it was really tough.  and then the jerk had the odasity to tell us to leave the front of his house, and started to attck us and valtuiris.. i was sitted down and i stood up and started to feel those same feelings that came in the football games and i was really annoyed with this dood because he was the problem for everything. he wanted to fight me, valtuiris lost it and told him to fight him because he was sick of him. ha. this guy was a little stick of a brazilian man, he would have destroyed him,  but in the end he went inside.  we passed the next day in the morning but he already decided he would leave.    it was really hard.  i hate to tell you guys this but its what happended this week.  the devil works until the last moment to ruin peoples lives. it is really annoying.  It was so hard because we worked with him and he never agreed to pray but in the last lesson he gave the final prayer, and it was one of the most sincere and humble prayers i have ever heard.  You could feel that he was talking with our Heavenly Father.  he had learned so much and answered all the questions!  

but we still have some other great people,  we have a family in which the dad is a member and the rest arent, but they need to get married first.  We will baptize the daught who will turn 8 this friday. when we inited the daughter to be baptized the mom asked can i baptize the same day?!?! it was painful to say no to someone that wanted to baptize so bad. but you gotta get married duuudee! she wanted to pay tithing already and always wants to say the prayers in the lessons. we asked to do a family night in her house and she got so excited!  we are going to help this family get baptized and sealed in the temple!

We knocked alot of doors this week in a nighborhood that is pretty stinking rich and that was pretty tough, we werent able to teach a ton there, but we marked a lesson with one lady in a huge house that we will teach this week, she said her daughter lives in the US, so i hope she is actually interested and doesnt just wanna talk about the US. haha. 

the branch is super willing to help us!  this guy made soooo much food for us yesterday! so much that he called us back to eat dinner with him after church because there was so much! ha.  ive been losin a little wight. i passed the lastt notch on my belt. and it has started to rip, but i think i can buy one here.

i forgot to tell you guys, but the girl we were teaching in my last area got baptized the week after i left!

Well the zone leaders made a tshirt for the zone and we will go to the church today and they will play sports and take pics with the shirts. so i will send more pics next week.

keep praying for my knee please :)

well have a great week!  get better levi! love you guys!

-Elder Grondel

September 15, 2014

Dear my Beloved family,

This week was pretty good,  we are knocking a ton of doors and talking with a ton of people here!  the name of our investigator is Valtuiris, he is super cool.  This week he said he didnt think he would go to church, but i knew the Lord would not let that happen as we are doing our part.  Saturday we taught him and at the end he said he wasnt going to go and so we started trying to help him and it was amazing, our minds were enlightened and we were given exactly the words to say to help him.  We helped him realize the blessings he as already recieved for being in this path and the importance of going to church.  he had also stated some excuses and we smashed every one of them.  i told him a had clothes my family sent me that he could use and promissed him a chocolate bar if he went. haha.  we showed him matt 6:33 and he started to laugh when he read it because he knew he should go.  after the lesson he promissed to go and was excited.  He went with us, he didnt use the clothes i had but it was great.  he is progressing very well and the members are helping him as well.

YES!!! OBRA MISSIONARIA!!!

Im so pumped that you guys are doing missionary work there! thats so awesome, i love bragging about you guys to everyone! ha. the other Elders think its so tight that you guys are helping accelerate the work as well!   Keep it up!!!   I have learned about the importance of baptism out here, we really have to throw everyone in the water asap!!!  KEEP IT UP OLIVIA!!!  im so proud of you!

Thats sweet jake and cake are participating in the stake! thats something i didnt do and i wish i would have done!     

Caleb thats awesome dude! you wearing the tbird green! you will tear it up as corner and splitend, maybe you wont do very much as splitend on the freshman squad unless you qb can throw, but as corner you can lay the hit on someone!  Get a Hammer hit for me tonight BRO!   I know us Grondels like music and instruments,and thats great! i love music.  but my linebacker squad senior year had a nickname for our selves,  "Darkside"  you can be smily loving, wiht pretty hair  and kind off the field.  But when you step on the field...Bring out your DARKSIDE!!!! show your darkside meu irmão. 

Levi im sorry bro, thats really messed up what they did with you. but dont be sad man! you are the man!!! 70 TD?!?!?  WOOOOOOO! those pappa pep talks really work, i remember them as well! next year ill be back to cheer you on, keep your head up.

YAAA GERRITT!!! thats sweet man!   you are a beast, keep it up bro and get ready for your baptism thats coming up!!!

hahaha. oh bella.  keep being an angel! :) 

yes! im always praying every saturday night that everyone goes to church!

  welli love you guys! gotta go!!!

-Elder Grondel

September 8,2014

WOOHOO!!! what a great week of football to start off the season!

we arent aloud to use headphones now, but the sound hasnt been working anyways. but it was great to see everyone!   I wish i could see you guys play!!!

 

Im so pumped you guys are doing missionary work there! that makes me sooo happy!  Keeping marking baptismal dates! 

We are teaching this 25 yr old guy and he is super tight, he did mma and is super strong but is really timid, the other young single adults have invited him to a ton of activitiess, but he says no because he is so timid, but he went to church this sunday and really liked it!  we are excited to contine teaching him.    We are knocking alot of doors and praying a ton to find the elect here! theirs a ton of them waiting for us.  We just got to find them!  Im learning a ton and im really liking the area and the people!  they are really chill with feeding 6 missionares...ha. and all of us eat a ton. 

well i love you!!!   i gotta go!   have a great week!  

tell bryson i will email him next week!

-ELder Grondel

September 1,2014

Hey Family,

This week was good.  It is really really hot here!   Im am constantly sweating!

But i am liking this area, there are some great people here, we have two ward missionaries that are pretty tight, and our ward mission leader is pretty cool.  They are really excited, this branch is really excited to turn into a ward and make this district into a stake!

For now we are gonna start knocking alot of doors and finding new people to teach in the neighborhoods we felt we should go! it will be a great week of fun in the sun!   

Thanks for the scripture, its always good to hear ideas and cool things to study.  My mission president was a professor of institute and knows a TON, he shared some really cool things with us.  He hepled us understand alot of things that are in the book revelations.  We have all been pretty blown away!   my comp loves the book of revelations too, he has studied it to death! ha. its kinda interesting because the book of revelations is "apocalipse" in portugease. ha.

Ive been learning a ton about the doctrine and the gospel, other missionaries are always sharing things that theyve learned as well.  im pumped to learn more about the gospel in the classes at byu.

Well have a great week! Hope the Summer wraps up well as a new school year starts up!

Amo Vocês!

-Elder Grondel

August 25, 2014

Dear Family!

This week i was transfered to Rio Verde. (Green River)

Its the place where everyone wants to go. They split this zone into two zones this transfer.  Im in a branch that now has 6 missionaries here.  My comp and i opened a third area in this branch, so we share an area with 4 other missionaries, but its awesome, Elder Cunha, my second trainer is here with me, he is my zone leader and Elder Carter, my comp from the mtc is here with me as well!   We had a baptism this week and so did another companionship in our area, they are neighbors! it was great!

We got a new house too, with everything new inside, its pretty sweet.  their is a ton of things we have to build still, because everything is in boxes still. and thier isnt a manual... ha. i think we will have to call someone.  its super hot here, about 100 everyday...im literally melting

thats so cool what happened with Brysons family! wow. thats every missionaries dream!

My comp is super tight, he only has 3 months on the mish, but he knows the lessons and stuff pretty well!  He is a brasilian, but is obsessed with american football!!! who would´ve thought?! ha. we will go to a field next week and throw the football. we´re pretty dead from this week so today we will just sleep.

Wow, thats pretty amazing about Olivia. congrats livs!  i hope the discussion went well.

Im so pumped for ger ger! thats awesome! i bet they had a blast.  i remember my first jamboree.  i was pretty dang nervous.  

I cant believe football already started up again. The Grind!

Ha, mariage and family therapy,  i think you know a thing or two about that topic!!!

I was talking about that with some other Elders the other day and my comp, how you learn to love learning and studying on the mission. you really turn into a nerd out here. ha.

Oh, so since we moved into a new house, it didnt have a lot of things, i had to pay for a ton of crap with my debit card, but i will be reimbursed this next week.  So thats what happened if you were wondereing why my account was draining.

Well i love you fam!  have a great week! 

-Elder Grondel

August 18, 2014

This week was good. I officialy passed one year on the mission! on the 14, crazy...passed super stinkin fast.

 Fernanda went to church again this week! she really liked it and the members really like here! they are making a ton of frinedship with her.  She is having a little difficulty with an answer to her prayers.  Her prayer was answered, but she said it was a feeling really strong, like someone squeezing her heart. she said it scared her quite a bit, so we spent sometime trying to convince her that it was from god, well not convince, but you understand. ha. Shes still a little timid to get baptized this week, so we will help her with that. but in the end, She will be an awesome missionary!!!

Unfortunately i wont be here to see her baptism...because I WAS TRANSFERRED!  idk where im going still, tomorrow we take a bus to goiania and we learn the rest.  But i cant beleive that im already leaving this area, i feel like i just got here yesterday. 4 months passed by so fast.  I really liked this area, im gonna miss it a ton. so many experiences and great people. but im pumped to go to a new area and help there.  i have learned so much here.

So that camera charger isnt the right one, but its all good, my comp gave me a universal charger that works. I will keep the charger you guys sent me in my bag and bring it home with me so you can get a refund. im sure it was expensive.  Thanks tho!    The sweedish fish are gone :´(   they were so good.

Thats sweet you guys had the oportunity to go to Rexburg! you guys are getting some good rest time before the craziness starts again.

YES! everyone is playing football!!! thats great! im so pumped for you guys. im sad i wont be there to watch gerritts first year. But im sure he will shred it up!   Levi will do great, its all good. i have a stuttering problem in portugeuse sometimes. haha.

im not able to hear the sound in the videos that you guys have been sending, but they look great!

Sweet! gospel doctrine! you will be the host of the weekly deep doctrine debates then huh? ha. Im pumped for you to teach me the things that you are learning.  Ya that video is great! we  use ALOT of videos/mormon messges to teach principles and things here. they are really effective.

Thats awesome, everyone will be there in utah together next year! 

LITTLE T! (brother thompson) is awesome. he helped me a ton! him and Bro Ab were always helping me out at the church things.

Elder Neely?! that dude was in the MTC with me! he was in a different district but he came with me to Brasil when we got our visas, i always talk with him at the meetings, hes really cool. Ive heard hes tearing it up!

Thank you for the prayers. Im feeling the help. Im really trying hard to be positive, obediant and let myself be changed, i have a ton to improve. But i know that by the Atonement TUDO É POSSÍVEL!

I love you guys!   

-Elder Grondel III

August 11, 2014

This week was good.  Looks like you guys had an awesome week as well!!! dang, looks like the busiest/funnsest summer ive ever seen! 

We walked a ton this week! ha. we are working more in the nieghborhood close to the church, it is literally enormous!!! But we had a really cool experience this week:

Our Leaders are encouraging us to teach more and giving us ideas, they said when you go to contact an adress and noone answers, theirs a reason God sent you there, knock on the nieghbors doors.  So we did that this week and talked with their nieghbors,and their its a house with 9 woman, 1 is the owner and she rents it to college girls,  we taught the owner and 1 of the girls. the owner said she didnt believe in anything we taught, but the young woman liked the message and wanted to get to know the church and she went with us to church this Sunday! The members treated her so well, and she really liked it!  The Lord works in misterious ways.  

Saturday night i was trying to get more adresses, we have a goal/rule we have to achieve, and i was trying to get a ton of adresses and i tlaked to one young man who is a member that moved from another ward and didnt know where the church was! he said he wants to serve a mission and has a ton of referalls for us! i invited him to church and he went and really likes the ward! 

Well it was cool to see all the couples together in Utah! ha..and jacob alone...keep it that way! ha. 

im glad to hear that everyone is doing well.  That camp sounds like an awesome thing, if it convinces anyone to play football its gotta be great! ha. I almost yelled when i read that hes gonna play football! my comp looked super fast to see what it was. ha. yes!!! hes gonna tear it up, he good easily be better than me.

I read the cards from the box last pday and found the recipe, ha. i loved my birthday card! hahahaha i died laughing. Thanks everybody for the cards!

Last week we went to walmart and the mall with our zone leaders, it was cool to spend a day with my "dad"/trainer(Elder Blake) one last time, he will head home back to provo next month!

I have a strong testimony of the gospel, i know i may not be accomplishing the things i wanted and reaching my expectations i had for myself, but i know im doing the work of the Lord because of the blessing i see in my life and in the lifes of others, especially my family!  I may suffer fisically sometimes out here, but im so greatful for this opportunity to bring blessings to others. THE CHURCH IS TRUE! THE BOOK IS BLUE! GO BYU!!!

Love you guys! Have a Great week!

-Elder Grondel

THANKS GERRITT FOR THE BRACELET!!! its freaken sweet! i cant believe you made it! thats super awesome!!! youll have to teach me when i get back!!!

love you bud!

August 4, 2014

Aug 4

This week was prett good. president came to our zone and we had a zone conference.  it was pretty intense.  He is truly inspired by God, its amazing the knowledge that he has and the power that he speaks with.  He has a huge plan for this mission, im really excited that we have a preident like him.

Haha. no A/C?! thats gotta be tough! ha. its suppppper rare to find someone that has a/c here...ha. The blessings we dont recognize until their gone. 

Dang Dad! your up there with the big boys. thats pretty legit! thats realy cool all you guys went out there. its always weird to see the governor outside of the tv and newspaper, playing football. ha

i made contact with this brother and sister  throwing the football yesterday, i had to throw a bit...ha. hes a huge nfl fan, we will pass their house this week.

i got my package!!! it was literally the best package ever. can you send me a recipe for maple syrup. i tried making it but i feel like im just making a mess. maybe ou put a recipe in the letters? i havent read them yet, only when i get home. thanks for all the pictures! the pants are perfect...just a tad long. but thats all good, they work. i was needing them so bad. almost all my pants were ripped or sewed.

ha. that jacket is the jacket i didnt want to buy but you told me that baxter asked for one when he was in brasil. so i listened to you and bought it. ha. first time ive used it. but helped a ton!

ya im really trying to have patience and look for the positive things.  ive been reading talks about finding joy in the jorney. its exactly what i need.

Amo vocês!

-Elder Grondel