Not much happened this week either. Last Saturday though we had one of the best ward activities I have seen here in Guatemala for Father’s Day. They had a lot of little activities, a slide show of the Fathers and their families, presentations from the youth, a mariachi band, and a dinner. It was actually a lot of fun. Thursday President took us out to all you can eat ribs again at Tony Roma´s which was awesome and today we are planning to have three baptisms at 7.
We got our zone shirts and they turned out really well. The other family we were teaching (of 6 people) will be leaving this week to go to Jalapa (outside the capital but still in our mission) as the dad got transferred for work so all of those baptisms we were planning will no longer happen. It felt like a break up when they told us and is extremely disappointing. Probably the worst news we received all week. Things are going good though and I am extremely happy for the baptisms we will have today. I am healthy, the Spanish is coming along and things are great! Yesterday I also had to talk with a landlord who wanted us to pay for her water bill. We explained we were not going to pay for water that the Elders there did not use and she freaked out. She started insulting me, calling me names, threatening to kick the elders out, call the cops, vandalize church buildings, tell everyone how bad the "Mormons" are, telling me how much shame it would bring upon me, my family and the missionaries living there. With every threat I just kinda said ok do it, we are not paying for your water bill and the missionaries will not leave until June 30- because we have paid to rent the house until the end of the month. Me not showing interest in her threats just made here even more mad. It was a very long and stressful phone call. As of now she has not done any of the things she said she was going to do, but the missionaries there are looking for a new house and they are a little worried that she will break into their house and steal something from them or change the locks when they are gone, it is a big mess. Just one of the many things I have to deal with here in the office. Any time there is any problem with missionaries and money, bills, houses, landlords, etc. just people complaining wanting more money. -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber
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This week was just an average week. It was like school in the morning and then work in the night, with no time to do anything else. We worked each morning in the office and things are going well there. After the office we worked in our area and things are going well there too. We have members leaving with us and we are seeing their support. We have a ward activity tonight and have some baptisms planned for this next weekend. We have three baptisms planned for next Saturday and three more planned for next Sunday after church if they attend church tomorrow and next Sunday. We are hoping to see all six of them baptized this next weekend. It has been a true miracle with them here in our area. There has not been a baptism here in 6 months and when we got here we did not have anything. The Lord has helped us find and teach these families. The ward has helped us with them a lot too and that in and of itself is a true miracle. I know if it were not for the Lord we would not be seeing the success we are seeing now in our area.
Last Saturday we went to a market and browsed around there, but did not find anything worth buying. Yesterday we had multi Zone conference and I had divisions with Elder Fisher. Well that was my week. I am healthy and doing great. We also might be getting all you can eat ribs again this Thursday :). -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber Not much happened this week. Last week we went bowling again and I must have had the luck of the Irish with me because I had three consecutive strikes and beat everyone with 159 points. I was feeling pretty proud about that, I think it is a personal best. Other than that this week was just fairly normal. I do not understand how people can be so dumb though. This week I had to deal with a lot of missionaries and landlords about stupid little problems. It was a very stressful/frustrating couple of mornings. The work is going good though and we are finally getting members to leave with us to go and visit investigators. The area is turning around and we are hoping for some baptisms here at the end of the month if everything goes well. We have seen many miracles just in the help of the ward and finding people to teach which has been great! We are starting to see the fruits of our labors.
I have started doing P90X every morning and I am SO sore after not doing any real exercise for a couple of months, it makes it hard to walk around and my comp keeps making fun of how I walk. We have also heard that they might be coming out with quads of the scriptures in Spanish here in two weeks so I am excited for that. I think it is funny how I am excited for new scriptures and for when General Conference comes. We also made zone jerseys and should be getting those pretty soon too. I have got the hang of the office and still love it. Everyone here in the office is awesome and things are going great! Nothing really happened this week but we have seen lots of progress in the area and it was the greatest week of my life! -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber Well this week was a busy week with all of the changes. Sunday afternoon, after church and eating cow hooves and cow stomach, we went to the office to figure out changes. I didn’t have changes and neither did Elder Baum. He is officially the first comp I have had for more than 6 weeks (1 change). From there we had to plan how to get everyone to their new area which took a little of time. After we got that all figured out we went back to our area, had a lesson, and then it was time to go home. Monday was filled with a lot more work as nearly all the plans we had, for changes, fell through. The Taxi/Bus guy that we were going to use failed us and fell through. We quickly had to replan everything using another Taxi service that we had been using. We called them and figured it all out. Monday President also took us all out to Carl’s Jr. for lunch. In the night we all went to a members house where they made us dinner; eggs, beans, and fried plantains. Probably my favorite meal here in Guatemala. The Family was really nice and pretty much their whole family lives in the states so they all spoke English fluently. After dinner we all went to the White House (mission home where all the missionaries going home stay on their last night and were the executive secretaries live) to call the zones and let them know of the plans. As an office we partied it up a little and then went to bed. Tuesday morning we left at about 7am to go to the Chapel of Montúfar and prep for the changes. Taxis started coming in full of people and we had to make sure they were all organized and got back in the right taxi to go back to their new area. All the Changes went really well even with more things falling through and a bus just decided to leave without picking up the new missionaries. It was a little frustrating at times but we finished at 10 in the morning (1.5 hours faster than before) and we saved about Q3,500 Quetzales for the mission so president was really happy. I also gave a little talk to all the new missionaries entering the field (only 5, we are losing more missionaries than we are receiving and president has had to close a lot of areas) on the financial rules and my job as a financial secretary. There was only one new missionary from the States (Utah) and he did not speak Spanish before the mission. It made me think of how far I have come with the Spanish language seeing him struggle to understand and speak in Spanish. It feels like just yesterday I was in his same place, especially as he is going to my first area too. Went back to the office to take care of all the little stuff we had to do and in the night we went back to the White House to spend the night there with all the missionaries going and the office staff. President showed up too, for a little bit, but hadn’t realized that every change the office staff goes there to spend the night (apart from the executive secretaries as that is their house) so he told us it would be the last time because we need to be in our own area and try working a little in the night. President did however forget some things for the missionaries going home so Elder Barker and I went to his house with him to go pick them up. Sister Caffaro gave us ice cream with hot fudge, caramel, and Oreo crumbs while we waited. President’s house is REALLY nice! It looks just like an American home and looks as if it had been renovated recently. Their house is awesome. After all of the changes and everything was done the week was just a fairly normal week, but long office days and running errands. Yesterday was Sister Caffaro´s and Sister Daly´s Birthday so we got them a cake, every missionary wrote them a little letter and we got a nice box from a market to put them in, we got them flowers, and we sticky noted their cars. They were surprised and seemed like they enjoyed it. That is about it for the week. Doing awesome here and having the best day ever! -- Having the best day of his life, Elder Gruber The Office Staff Our truck we drive. Office Staff with President and Sis Caffaro Hard at Work
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