Monday, February 22, 2016

It is finally pday!

IT IS FINALLY MY PDAY!!!
How is everyone doing?! I love reading your emails!!
So after my last pday, Tuesday night we had a devotional from Edward
Dube from the seventy. He talked about missionary work and the
importance of it. He said "open your eyes and see who you can become."
He also mentioned to make the next 18 months the best 18 months of our
lives. Sounds good! We also got to see Jenny Oaks Baker (president
Oaks daughter) one night. She plays the violin and speaks, her
children also played instruments. It was beautiful.
So I've been writing this up as the days go by so, the mtc has been
kinda hard but I love my companion and my district so that helps. I am
learning a lot from the teachers. After the devotional, President and
Sister Facer came into our classrooms and we talked about the
devotional. Then Sister Facer came into our residence rooms and she
asked us how we were doing and my companion just started to cry and
say it was all just so overwhelming and then I started to cry with her
and we talked with Sister Facer and we all just cried. She told us we
should ask the elders to give us s blessing but we didn't do that...
After Sister Facer left I went and hugged my companion and told her I
loved her and we cried more. We finally went to sleep. Wednesday we
got up and exercised, ate breakfast, we went to go teach Lawana on
skype but when we got to the room there was a note on the door saying
she wouldn't be able to meet with us and so we sent her a video
message. That was a little sad. I had a one on one tutoring session on
the Book of Mormon and how to study it. We then had more personal and
companion study time. Then we had classroom instruction, dinner,
planning, studying, we taught Haley and that lesson went pretty good.
Talked to her about the plan of salvation. Then we had more planning
and study time. We also got new roomies. Oh and I also saw Hermana
Flores! She worked at the di with me! So fun. Thursday morning we did
service. Me and Sister Payne took out all of the trash cans on every
floor and every room in the building we were in. Then we ate breakfast
and went to the gym and played volleyball. I had red dots on my arm
from the ball lol. We then had more classroom instruction and went
over how to send the invitation to be baptized. Went to teach Lawana
but she couldn't make it again :( we had some companionship study
after that and then went to lunch. We had another class instruction
and talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then ate dinner and then
more planning and studying. Oh! We taught Lauren, she's basically just
the teacher pretending to be an investigator. But in this case she was
a less active member and wanted us to meet with her. It went good. We
also taught Haley about obedience and the Book of Mormon and she said
she would read and pray about it. Friday we ate breakfast and had a in
field orientation and it was long but good. They did a really funny
play on how a district meeting and meetings with the bishop and stuff
should look like. It was a lot about how the church members should
work with missionaries. Pretty cool. We had pizza for dinner and my
stomach hurt afterwards lol. My family keeps sending me boxes of candy
and chocolates and I couldn't eat all of it. Too much lol. My district
thinks I'm sending packages and letters to myself lol. We taught Haley
and invited her to be baptized! Saturday we ate breakfast then went to
exercise, it should be the other way around because you have to put on
church clothes then gym clothes then church clothes again lol. The
sisters in my district walked the track or whatever then we went and
shooted some hoops with the elders. We had more classroom instructions
and did some role plays. Talked about revelation through prayer and
church attendance. On Sunday we had sacrament and I got picked to say
the first talk. That was fun.... It was on baptism and I didn't know I
was speaking until they said my name so I went up there. My district
also sang a musical number "I believe in Christ." I think it was
pretty good. I got interviewed by brother Facer and it went pretty
well. I can feel his love for missionaries and he is really trying to
help us. I always feel happy afte I am interviewed. We had really good
devotionals on Sunday. Monday was our last day at the mtc. That was a
sad night. The sisters in our district got blessings from the elders
and elder Carter gave my blessing and it was amazing. He said my my
family will be blessed and healthy. He started to tear up when he was
talking. All the sisters went and elder Grantham gave one of the
elders a blessing and that's when the tears came. Everyone was crying.
Even some of the elders. It was hard but the blessings helped. Tuesday
morning we got on a bus at 3:30 am and headed to the airport. We flew
two flights and made it to Philly!! We got off the plane and some
elders and the mission president and his wife were standing there with
a banner and we met them and took pictures. They are nice. We went
straight to the mission home and ate dinner then had a little meeting
with everyone. Had interviews. I cried. I've noticed I am a really
emotional person lol. We slept in the mission home. We got up and went
to the mission office and met my companionS!! I am in a trio!!! I am
serving in Newark Delaware. After that we went to wawas and got
sandwiches and a shake. One of the sisters asked how I was doing and
told me not to be stressed and stuff and of course I started to cry
again. We went to the apartment, the service elders brought me a bed.
The apartment is kinda small but there is 3 of us... Lol. I got to
pick my bed spread out at the mission office and I picked a super cute
pink striped one, it looks like something a little girl would use but
oh well! Haha. We taught a lesson with a member present. Went well, he
is just confused about some stuff. We ate dinner at a members home. We
knocked on two doors and they said we can come back. When we got back
to our apartment we dud some planning oh and before that we went to
the library and got my iPad set up! Yay! One of the sisters asked how
I was feeling and of course I cried again. I don't know what's wrong
with me lol. I've never cried this much before! So I've been asking
the missionaries if they knew Sister Holt and some of them do! I've
met some really nice people. Good dinners. Friday night we got to
heart attack someone's door! Thanks mom for the heart sticky notes!
Friday during the day we did weekly planning and ate chocolate covered
pretzels lol. Saturday we woke up and did more studying and
exercising. A lot of the people we wanted to see were not home. But we
saw a lot of people on the streets and in parking lots. The weather is
amazing here. No snow and no jacket! It's like in the 60's and 50's!
We talked to this guy who was holding his cat, who he takes everywhere
with him apparently. He was super nice and interested and my
companions wanted me to invite him to be baptized and he said yes!! We
have to meet with him and teach him. So awesome. We met with a lady
who had questions about why we have the sabbath day on Sunday. I think
we got her to understand that better. We ate dinner at a members home
and ate ribs and Mac n cheese and potatoes and it was sooo good. I ate
two plates.. Also she fed us carrot cake. Oh so the new missionaries
are actually called goldens here. We heart attacked two more people on
Friday night! It is so much fun. Guess what?! We actually have a
baptism on the 27th! She passed her interview and we are soooo
excited!! Sunday, I am serving in the Newark 3rd ward. I got to say
the closing prayer in sacrament meeting. There was an rm from a
different ward who spoke in Sacrament and he served in Vegas!! The
ward members are friendly. We actually share a ward with a set of
elders, the zone leaders so there are 5 missionaries serving in one
ward. There's quite a bit of trios here. Crazy. OH! So the sisters in
this mission actually get to give the tours in the new temple! I'm so
excited.
My one month mark is actually coming up quick. That's kinda crazy lol.
I hope everyone is doing great!! I love you all.
Love,
Sister Gronning