10-13-09 Candy?

Hey family of man all across utah and the country!
This week has been quite the Roller Coaster. I didn't e-mail yesterday because the library was closed for Columbus Day, we didn't even know it was Columbus day til we tried going to the library. Missionaries are a little shelterd at times. Anywho, here I am today, alive, breathing and teaching the good news!
Last week was pretty interesting, We have had some great things come to pass, and Satan has won a few battles as well. To start out we taught the entire plan of Salvation to Keri, it was pretty quiet because her little 3 year old Brooklyn had fallen asleep. To give you a little bit about Keri, just think of a quiet Rena. We taught her and commited her to come to church. She called us around 10:00 sunday morning saying she wasn't feeling good so she didn't go to work... but she still coming to church and needed directions. WooHoo!! So we waited at church until about 1:15 then called her, she said her car broke down (overheated) and couldn't find a way to get there, but she also said nothing is going to stop her from coming this week. So its really good to see her desire to come to church. I know she has been so well prepared to recieve the gospel... even though it took 4 other missionaries to do it.
That's kinda what we are picking up on, playing a little clean up with the former investigators in the area, Because we taught another girl who I think 4 or 5 other companionships have taught, her name is Rosio. She has a 6 year old girl Ashley. We commited Rosio to baptism for the 8th of November. She couldn't come to church last week because she had to work, but we hope and plan to see her this week.
Salvador, he is the story of the week! We couldn't stop by on tuesday this week but we've been trying to daily contact him as much as possible, so we swung by to say hi on friday, he wasn't there but his brother was working on a bike. Come to find out Elder Oswald knows quite a bit about fixing bikes. So he took of his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and got tinkering! I sat and talked with his mom in spanish for awhile, it was a really good oppurtunity to meet the family and really let them know we're good guys. Who knows maybe we'll start teaching them sometime soon. We pray so! After tinkering and talking for awhile, Salvador shows up! So we talked with him for awhile, we set another baptismal date for the 25th. He really only has one more lesson to go, we asked him if he got to watch any of conference and he started talking about how passionate Elder Holland was! Booh Yeah!! On top of all this he came to church on sunday in a suit! He is getting serious about getting saved! I'm so stoked for the huge progress he's made this week. Pray that he can make even more the coming week so he can get baptized.
On a downer note, we had a good lesson with Oscar this week. We had arranged for a member to meet us there, but we were on bike and got about 20 minutes behind schedule. So we finnally get there and he and Hermano Jerez were just talking up a storm! They talked about scriptures, baptism, repentance, prayer.. almost everything! We had a really good lesson with him and set up a return appointment for Sunday... so where's the downer you ask? Saturday night comes around I give them a call for a reminder of church and... they say they can't cause they are taking the kids to the dentist. Dumb! Then on top of that they cancelled the appointment we had with them. I was so frustrated after that. We swung by yesterday and set up another appointment, if they don't keep anymore commitments they're going to be dropped until maybe some other missionaries can play clean up.
So a lot of up and downs this week. Also we've done a lot of finding work. Looking through our area book, we made a huge map of our area with colors and pins and the whole ten yards, we haven't found a lot but a little.
I did get to see one of the people I taught while I was in the trio get baptized yesterday, it was a really good service... but... we had to improvise a while because we filled the font too hot. Kinda funny that it was too hot this time and not too cold. When we asked Marie how it felt she just said it was a nice warm bath.
The work is going, my companion and I are trying our best to get along. We either have really good days, or really hard days. But maybe your right Dad, I'm just getting prepared for something. I just need to get through this transfer then we'll see what's after that mark. They might be splitting our area cause we have to look for another apartment in the northern part of our area.
I love you all, I thank you so much for your love and support. I wouldn't be able to do this without you.
Hasta luego!
Elder Groves