"Our district is broken" Elder Cortes

Hello everyone! This week a few more missionaries in our district got

sick so our District Leader said our district is broken. It was sad.

I'm pretty sure everyone is doing well now!

Monday we ate dinner at the Petersons. Brother Peterson used to be the

Stake President and now he is going to be the mission President in

Dallas Texas!! They are so cool!

We had a lesson with Sister Morales and showed her the sabbath is a

delight video.

Tuesday we had a meeting with our relief society president (Sister

Johnson) and talked about some less actives to try and visit.

We were visiting a member and as we were talking with her, Sister

Robinson went super white and fell to the ground and as she hit the

floor, she woke up and said "what happened?" She passed out!! It was

scary! It was a blessing that we were inside a members house and not

out walking around! We called Sister Randall and the member called

Sister Johnson and 2 priesthood holders came and gave her a blessing.

On our way home we grabbed chik fil a and stayed in for the rest of

the night. We texted our District Leader and he called us back and

said "ARE YOU OKAY?!" It was actually pretty funny. She is doing okay

now! And we have no idea why she passed out!

Oh and Bishop Vest and his wife brought us food!!

Wednesday we did weekly planning. We had a lesson with Mike. He

stopped drinking coffee!! He is so excited for his baptism on the

9th!!

We visited less actives and every house we went to, someone answered

the door!! It was amazing!!

We had a lesson with one of the recent converts, named Elizabeth, she

is 9. We taught her the Ten Commandments using hand signals.

We had dinner with the Polsons.

We visited Sister Collier in the nursing home thing and we met Georgia

and she had a lot of questions about our church.

Thursday was Zone Conference!! I got to see two of my Salisbury

sisters!! The focus of the meeting was faith in Jesus Christ. We also

talked about diligence, and area book planning. We were able to see

the new Easter video #princeofpeace !! It is amazing and I'm so

excited for it to come out on Friday!

We did some stop bys after.

We ate dinner at the Hartline's.

Friday we had Zone Training and that was so good as well! The Zone

Leaders had mostly all of the missionaries in our Zone give a training

or a talk. I gave a talk on diligence. Some missionaries wrote stuff

down so I must have said something good.. haha. The Petersons took us

and they took us to the Cheesecake Factory afterwards!! AMAZINGG. They

asked us questions about the mission and we asked them some questions.

I'm so excited for them. They leave in 3 months for the mtc!

Afterwards we went home and stayed home until dinner.

We ate dinner at the Becksteads.

We had a lesson with JoAnn and she excited a baptism date!! April 29th!!

Saturday we helped a member move stuff out of a storage unit because

she is moving to Washington.

We stopped by some people.

We were going to stop by a former and we saw a kid outside of the door

and we were pretty sure we saw a gun so we called our District Leader

and he said if we feel like we should call the police than do it. So,

we called the police. And guess what? 3 cop cars pulled up!! It was so

embarrassing. And it wasn't even anything. Probably a toy gun.

Hahahaha.

Sunday we went to church. Sister Young said the prayer a lot. It was

her last Sunday.

We ate dinner at the Benfields.

We had a lesson with Georgia again and Sister Collier pretty much took

over the lesson and taught her haha. She is a new investigator :) we

are going over there again on Wednesday.

Guess where we are going today?!?! BOWLING!!! I am so excited!! Haha

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Gronning

Sister Gronning will you................

My subject line has literally been like this whole week. My District

Leader asked if I could lead the Book of Mormon read for District

Meeting. The Zone Leaders asked if I could do a 3-5 min talk and

testimony on diligence for Zone Training. The Zone Leaders asked all

three of us if we could lead the Book of Mormon read for Zone

Training. And a ward council member asked if I could do the spiritual

thought in PEC yesterday. What else?😂🤔

Wednesday, we went to the temple! It was a crazy start but we got

there and it was a great session. We had to walk super fast from the

train station to the temple and barely made it for the 11:30 session.

I saw the Johnsons from Salisbury there! Also, there was a girl who

was going through for the first time so her and her fiancé could get

married and it was the cutest thing ever.

We missed our train on the way back so we got home later then expected

and didn't have time to do laundry. We went straight to dinner at the

Biermanns. We are trying to get their 10 year old daughter baptized.

Oh, we also had District Meeting Wednesday night. That was different

haha. It was also President Randall's birthday!

Thursday we started weekly planning then Sister Young wasn't feeling

well and needed to take a sick day. Our STLs came and Sister Adhikari

stayed with Sister Young. Sister Prince, Sister Robinson, and I had a

lesson with Mike. He is getting baptized on the 9th! He came to church

for the first time yesterday and really enjoyed it!

Sister Prince and I went to Jarrettown. We helped someone shovel snow

out of their driveway. That is tiring haha.

Oh so our old Stake President wanted us to come over and teach Samson,

a bible referral, at his house and we had to cancel because Sister

Young got sick and so he called President Randall and President

Randall sent the Assistants down here to teach Samson. Random right?

We were like what!? 😂😂

Friday we had interviews with President Randall! He is so amazing.

We had a lesson with Thomas. We read 2 Nephi 2.

We had dinner at the Richards.

We had a lesson with Joann. The lesson was kinda crazy and all over

the place. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her.

Saturday we had a Stake women's conference. We had to be there at 8

and it went to 2. We went with two sisters in the ward. A lot of

sister missionaries were there helping. They had 3 sessions and a ton

of classes to go too. The first class we went to talked about the

temple miracles from the temple open house. The second one was how to

prepare our children for missions haha. The 3rd session we went to the

cultural hall and helped with the food and setting up! There was a

huge turn out of women that came! Oh and it was held at the church

building across from the temple. Great food and a lot of fun :)

After that we visited Sister Collier at the nursing home thingy.

We had dinner at the Onoratos. Cool story! Her daughter served in the

Nevada Las Vegas mission and got home in 2015 and she knows Elder

Tollett, Elder Hoopes, Elder Erickson, Sister Coltrin, Sister

Fotheringham, Sister Cook, and I don't remember who else. But isn't

that cool!!

Sunday morning we had correlation and breakfast with the Cassels. I

will attach a super cute baby photo of Neil!

Mike came to church!

We had dinner at the Browns and another cool story! Their daughter is

serving in Las Vegas right now and will be coming home on the 5th!!

Today we have dinner with the Peterson's (old Stake President)

Side note, we have to pay $1.50 in quarters to wash and dry our laundry. Blah.

Oh! Zone Conference is this week!! Woohoo!!

I hope everyone had a great week and continues to have a great week this week!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Gronning

And then I came tumbling down! And my companion came with me!

Hello everyone! My pday got switched to today because we are going to the temple!! Yay :)

Monday, Sister Stubben and I packed and I don't even remember what else hahaha.

Tuesday we headed to Philly! I am serving in Souderton, PA with Sister Young and Sister Robinson! Sister Young had been out for 4 months and Sister Robinson has been out for 5 months. I've been out for 13 months. I'm ancient. Sister Young is a priesthood restoration site sister and she will be going back to the site on march 31st. This ward is awesome and this area is so pretty! Huge houses!! We live in Hatfield. I will put my address at the bottom! Oh and something cool, Elder Drake, who was my zone leader for like ever in the Wilmington zone is now serving in Salisbury South with his golden :)

We did some finding/tracting.

We ate dinner with the Hulse's.

Came home and did our studies.

Wednesday we were going to have a lesson with our investigator who has a date but he forgot and was at work. We did some more finding and tracting. We found a lady named Diana. She was busy at the moment but she told us we could come back any day around 11.

We had dinner with the Sister Collier.

We went to the mutual activity for the young men and young women and they were watching one of the District episodes and we talked about missionary work. It was fun. There are a lot of youth in this ward.

Thursday we had Conference call and weekly planning. We had a lesson with Linda. At first she had us to to McDonald's and get her a junior Big Mac lol. She talks forever and is super funny and crazy. We shared Mosiah 16:8-9 with her.

We delivered a bible and Book of Mormon to a referral. She was so sweet and cute!

We were having dinner with a recent convert and her son is not a member. She didn't start cooking till we got there so we didn't eat till like an hour and 15 min after we got there. So we asked her son, Thomas, if we could "practice" teaching him the restoration. It went pretty well. He asked us a lot of questions. He always comes to church and he wants to serve a mission. Not sure he actually knows what a mission is or means lol. But that is great!

We had a ward relief society activity. We went on splits with sisters in the ward and visited some people and invited them to the stake women's conference. I went with the relief society President and we didn't get to see anyone.

Friday we did service at the Mitzvah circle foundation and it was so fun. We got to shop for families that are struggling and I got to pick out some baby boy clothes!!! I loved it haha.

After that we had our studies.

We were out in a little blizzard and I was going down some stairs and only made it to the second step and I slipped down and I was trying to catch my self and grab on the railing. Sister Young tried to help me and she slipped too on top of me!! We eventually stopped and I sat there for a little bit and then got up and started crying. Sister Young was laughing. It scared me more than it hurt me. And then I started walking and realized that my butt was going numb and my fingers. I am fine, just bruised. I laughed about it later and am still laughing 😂

We had a lesson with Gladys and read 2 Nephi 31:19. 

We ate at a Chinese place with the Schoendorfer's.

Saturday we did a lot of finding and tracting. We found some new people. 

We had a long dinner with the Bussom's.

Sunday we had correlation and breakfast with our ward mission leader and his family! I love them!! They have a really cute 6 month boy named Neil!

Church was awesome. I like this ward a lot!

We had a lesson with JoAnn.

Monday we had a lesson with Brother Meehan and Brother Nyce.

Ate dinner with the Jones.

Tuesday we had a huge snow storm and our cars were grounded so we were stuck inside all day!

This morning we had to get our car unstuck! We pushed and pushed! Two men came out and helped!

I hope everyone has a great day!

My new address is 199 West Vine St. Apt 22. Hatfield, PA 19440

Pictures will be coming!

Love,

Sister Gronning 

Going to the temple

Hello! We are going to the temple on Wednesday so our pday is

changing! We will see how the weather is!

Btw, I am in Souderton, PA with Sister Young and Sister Robinson!

I'll talk to you all on Wednesday!

Love,

Sister Gronning

Plot Twist!! #GameDover

Well, hello everyone! I have some crazy transfer news but you will

have to keep reading to find out! 🤐

Monday we went to Ocean City and walked the board walk and I decided

that I am coming back with my family in the summer and we are going to

try all the little food places!! We saw some horses and ponies too!

Monday night we stopped by Sister Hallyburtons house and we sang

"where can I turn for peace" and talked about the lyrics. We read

Moroni 7:46-47 and talked about how Christ's love never fails.

We went to the Book of Mormon class and read 1 Nephi 17-18.

Tuesday we had District Meeting in Seaford.

We delivered a bible and a Book of Mormon to a girl named Stephanie.

She is going to be moving to Baltimore soon.

We ate dinner at the Slushers.

We stopped by the Laytons and Ryan went home teaching with Brother

Stewart and he was telling us about it and he absolutely loved it!! He

was so happy!! We shared a story from the talk "emissaries to the

church"

Wednesday we went to Sister Kahlers house and we helped her peal

apples haha. She also gave us some really yummy lemonade. We read Alma

5:12-14 and talked about how Heavenly Father created all of us in his

image.

We met Widline at an Investigators house and turns out she lives in

the north sisters area so we sent her over to them.

We were going to have a lesson with Everaldo but the member who was

going to come, forgot.. so we ended up just talking with him outside

and it was super windy that day!

We had a little lesson with Salif. We followed up on church and he

says he liked it and understood some of it. We read Helaman 5:47

We had a lesson with Edwin and we followed up on his praying and

reading and he hasn't done either of them 😐 we read 2 Nephi 32 and

talked about praying and reading scriptures. He said the closing

prayer again! We invited him to read 2 Nephi 31.

We met Sharon on her porch and shared a message with her.

We ate dinner at the Naumanns.

We went to the Castellanos and attempted to teach them English haha.

We had a correlation meeting that night.

Thursday we had Conference call and weekly planning.

We had a lesson with Everaldo and Sister Cole was there with us. He

read most of 3 Nephi 27 so we finished reading that with him. He had

some questions about baptism. He is a little hesitant about coming to

church. We invited him to read 2 Nephi 31.

We had a lesson with a new investigator named Thomas. Sister Bailey

came with us. He talked to us for a long time! We had to cut it short

because Sister Bailey had to pick her kids up from school.

We had a lesson with the Petersons. Megan came with us. We talked

about Samuel the Lamanite and read it from the children's Book of

Mormon. We talked about prophets and the nature of the godhead.

Ate dinner at the Dredges.

We were going to have a lesson with Harry but he said he was super

tired and needed to reschedule.

We visited Sister Hallyburton and shared the video called "good things

to come" we talked about how Heavenly Father will always bless us as

we live the gospel.

We went to the Laytons and read 2 Nephi 32 with Ryan and April.

Friday we did some finding and stop bys. We had a lesson with Sister

Maybury and Brother Dean. We read 3 Nephi 17 with them.

We met a less active named Cinderella White. We shared the mountains

to climb video.

We found Mervin while trying to find someone else. We shared the

Because of Him video with him.

We had a lesson with Leisy. We talked about how she is a daughter of

God and praying.

We had a lesson with Beautiful and Becky. Sister Slusher came with us.

We talked about the nature of the godhead and the role of the Holy

Ghost. Brianna came in at the end from getting her tooth pulled at the

dentist.

We delivered the Bible to Tiffany.

We had our wards Chili Cook Off and talent show!! It was so much fun.

The Sister Missionaries were the judges of the chili! The talent show

was the best thing ever. There was a little kid that danced to the

whip and nay nay song or whatever and it was hilarious and perfect!

All of the kids in the back of the gym were doing it too 😂 I guess

they do that in gym class at school 😂😂

Saturday we did some finding and some lessons cancelled. We had a

lesson with Edwin. Megan came with us. He still hasn't been reading or

praying. We read 1 Nephi 16:28 and Alma 37:38-46 and talked about the

liahona and faith. We had to drop him after this lesson.

We went to Pablo's bowls with Megan and had a little lesson with her

there. SO GOOD.

We met our ward mission leaders daughter who is a less active member.

Also, we went to a less actives house and a lady answered and we asked

if so and so lives here and she said stop coming here and slammed the

door!! And then as I was backing up Sister Stubben, she came out and

started yelling and cussing at us and telling us that we parked on her

grass and that we should be ashamed of ourselves!! It was horrible. We

almost started crying!

We had a lesson with Freddie and Ruth. We shared Alma 7:11-12 and

talked about Christ suffering for us. We talked about faith,

repentance, and baptism.

We stopped by and shared a message with Sister Bowen, Ashley, and her

friend. We shared Alma 7:11-12.

TRANSFER CALLS CAME THAT NIGHT. The Zone Leaders called and this is

how the conversation went:

ZL "are you ready?"

Me "no but yes"

ZL "okay so Sister Stubben"

*mute*

ZL "did you hear that?"

Us "no! You muted us!

ZL "Sister gronning"

*mute*

Us "stop putting us on mute!! Tell us!!"

ZL "okay, Sister Stubben you are leaving. Sister Gronning you are also leaving!"

Us *screaming*

WHAT!!!!????? Plot twist. Ya, definitely not expecting that one!!!

Sunday was church and everyone was shocked and sad! Sister Garner is

leaving too!

Sooo today is a packing day for both of us!! We think they are putting

in elders here but we have no clue! We are anxiously waiting for

transfer plans!! AHHH.

Well, with that being said. I hope you all have a great day and I will

let you all know where I'm going as soon as I find out!!

Love,

Sister Gronning

Fun!