Monday, May 29, 2017

I know what houses are going to be burned first during the millennium- Elder Cortes

Hello everyone!!

Monday we ate dinner at the Websters. That's all I can remember haha.

Tuesday we had our last district meeting of the transfer. We sang our
mission hymn for the closing hymn and our District Leader (Elder
Cortes) was singing the words wrong and it was hilarious πŸ˜‚
Also during our accountability meeting Elder Cortes was telling us
about this one lady yelled at them and slammed the door in their face
and he was like "I was pretty heated that day, let's just say I know
what houses are going to be burned first during the millennium." It
was so funny. Sister Summers and I were dying.
We ate dinner with the Biermanns and then taught the gospel of Jesus
Christ using jenga.

Wednesday Sam cancelled. We shared the prince of peace video with
Helen. We met with Ian and he said he isn't really interested in
getting baptized but he said knowledge is power..
We ate dinner with the Schoendorfers and the Cassels.

Thursday conference call and weekly planning. We had drop some more
people. Tracting and finding.
We were going to eat at the Caspers. But we got there and they weren't
home so we ate at a Chinese place. She called us and said they went
out and called the number on the program and it wasn't us. Awkward.

Friday was mitzvah. Met with Joanne.
Ate dinner with the Ackerman.
Met with Zita and Samira.

Saturday tracting all day.
We found Juan and Juan Carlos. They let us in to their apartment and
gave us a awesome drink and Juan Carlos said he would come to church
sometime!
Ate dinner with the Amaya's.
Found out that Sister Summers and I are staying in Souderton! Woohoo!!

Sunday was the Peterson's farewell. President Randall and his family came!
Ate dinner with the Cassels.

Today we had a memorial picnic with our ward.

Sorry this is so short! Nothing to exciting happened!


Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Official Travel Plans! 8/23/2017

Wednesday 23 August 2017
Delta Air Lines DL 6218 (Operated by Gojet Airlines Dba Delta Connection)
Departure
23 August 09:40 AM
Philadelphia, (Philadelphia Intl) (+)
Terminal: D
Arrival
23 August 11:29 AM
Detroit, (Metropolitan Wayne
Wednesday 23 August 2017
Delta Air Lines DL 1840
Departure
23 August 12:05 PM
Detroit, (Metropolitan Wayne Co) (+)
Terminal: EM - E.H. Mcnamara Terminal
Arrival
23 August 01:24 PM
Las Vegas, (Mccarran International) (+)

Travel Plans!!




Monday, May 22, 2017

Dropping us like its hot

Hello everyone! This email is coming from the Cassels house so let's
see if you all get it! Let me know!! 🌝

Monday we did nothing. We stopped by some people that evening. We
called a less active and she was like "I'm sleeping can you call me
another day" 😴

Tuesday we had District Meeting and the Jarrettown sisters had to
Skype in so that was fun πŸ‘€
Afterwards we talked to Sister Randall and Sister Bills. Sister Bills
is the mission nurse and she is hilarious!!! I want to be like her
when I am older πŸ˜‚ Sister Summers talked to them and then I finally
told them about my fall and bruised my bum πŸ˜‚ they were like "why
didn't you tell me sooner?" Oops. Sister Bills told me to ice it or
heat it whichever feels better on it haha. She said it will hurt for
about three months so I have one more month to go and then if it is
still hurting I have to get an X-ray. Maybe I'll just do that when I
get home. I'll just get a full on body X-ray and see what else is
wrong with me πŸ€“
We met with the livignis. Got to know them and their daughter a little bit more.
We ate dinner with the Maitlands.

Wednesday we were going to have a meeting with a less active but she forgot..
We dropped off a Book of Mormon to a referral who said to just leave
it in his mail box.. that was a little awkward. But he said he got it
and will read it!
We visited a really cute old less active lady in our ward named Delsa.
She talks a lot! πŸ‘΅πŸ» she's 96 but doesn't look it or act it!
So, we were confirming an appointment with Steven and he texts back
saying "no thank you , as I have decided to go another route with my
baptism and faith in churches . It's not you as I enjoy your company
but I need more in a Sunday experience in faith" what. Sister Summers
and I almost started crying!! We were so sad! We think it was because
he came to just Sacrament meeting on Mother's Day and the talks were
all about mothers and not a gospel topic. If only he stayed for all
three hours. In Gospel Principles we read some verses in the Bible. We
have tried to meet with him again to talk about what he is feeling and
he always says he is busy and he has a lot of things going on right
now. We are going to give him some space and we had to drop his date
and drop him 😭
We had a lesson with Lawrence and Sister Flandro came with us again.
He talked for a very long time about some things going on in his life
right now.
Also on Wednesday we found a mouse in our kitchen!!! Sister Summers saw it! 🐭

Thursday the conference call was helping investigators have a
spiritual experience at church. We weekly planned, like always.
We had a lesson with Brother Santos. He got the priesthood and feels
great! He decided to decline the job offering. We talked about the
Plan of Salvation using little cut outs that Sister Summer drew. He
asked about the Holy Ghost and what it feels like. We told him that
when he thought about his baptism before he was baptized and he felt a
burning in his chest, that was the Holy Ghost.
After that it took us 20 years to find a member to come with us to a
lesson with Abel because he's a guy and Joanne because her aunt
wouldn't be home. Sister Harward saved the day!! πŸ™ŒπŸ» she came with us
to Joanne's but we couldn't find anyone for Abel so we had to cancel
his appointment. We taught Joanne the Plan of Salvation using the cut
outs that Sister Summers drew. She understood a lot of it! Sister
Harward was awesome.
We had to pick up dinner at the Massangas because Alice had to babysit
someone so Thomas made us dinner and oh my goodness, it was so good!!!
πŸ‘ŒπŸ»πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

Friday we volunteered at mitzvah circle and packed boxes for people in need.
We talked to our neighbor and Amanda (our maintenance lady) about the
mouse and our neighbor gave us this worm stuff to set someone and
yesterday the mouse ate it and he should be gone now!!
Sister Collier got home from her trip to Utah. She talked to us for
hours! She is a funny lady. Also it has been really hot and humid this
week and we sat outside and Sister Summers and I were dying. We also
had to go to the store and get her kitty litter 🐈
We went to our bishops daughters wedding reception. They had a bunch
of syrup flavors to make flavored drinks! I loved it haha. They also
had a lot of food!

Saturday we helped Sister Flandro clean her house. Sister Summers
jumped on her tramp for a little bit haha. We ate green smoothies and
and a veggie burger haha.
We were trying to contact a former investigator and we ran into Sister
Despain instead and I didn't recognize her and it was so
embarrassing!!
We visited a less active family in an area where we aren't in as much
because of miles and Sister Casper was so friendly and is a little
missionary! She has a bunch of Book of Mormons that she gives away to
people who stop by! Her granddaughter is also a member and her husband
is not. She invited us over for dinner on Thursday.
We stopped by Helen and talked to her and her grandson. Her grandson
loves super heroes haha.

Sunday there was a mission farewell! He is going to Jarkarta,
Indonesia! There was a lot of people there!!
We had someone picking up Lawrence but when they got there Lawrence
just kept talking and talking and making up excuses and we don't
really know what to do with him.
We ate dinner with the Benfields and their kids are so funny!

I hope you all get this email :))

Love and miss you all!



Monday, May 15, 2017

"I love chocolate. I wouldn't mind being baptized in chocolate"

Hello everyone! I hope you all get this!! 😢

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day! I loved talking to my family!

Monday for my birthday we hung out at the Cassels house with Sister
Cassel and Neil. We ate pizza, emailed, did laundry. Brother Cassel
came home and we went and got ice cream at a farm thing. We got to see
a lot of animals- cows, pigs, chickens, peacock, etc.
We ate dinner with the Johnson's and guess what I requested? Breakfast
πŸ˜‹ we had French toast, bacon, and fruit! Their youngest son who is
like 2 years old I think, started choking on a piece of bacon and it
was so scary!
We had a FHE with the Biermanns. We taught the Plan of Salvation using
a drawing that Sister Summers drew and cut out into a puzzle. Anna
wasn't there but Quinn was and she really enjoyed it and even said she
wants to be a missionary!! Usually she hates us so this was a huge
deal... Anna on the other hand told her mom she wants to be confirmed
catholic.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Broomall. We were in bumper to
bumper traffic. We took pictures haha. The conference was focused on
teaching repentance, teaching prayer simply and inviting investigators
to pray, and virtue. I really enjoyed it.
We ate dinner with Sister Peterson. They are getting ready to go to
Texas to be mission president and wife!

Wednesday we did a lot of finding. We met a guy who talked to us for a
long time about music and sports. I didn't really know anything he was
talking about lol. He liked walked us to our car and everything..
We had a lesson with Lawrence at McDonald's with Sister Flandro. He
talked a lottt. Most people here do lol. He had a question about
restoration and reformation. We talked about gratitude prayers. We had
him say a prayer out loud with us and he was crying afterwards and it
was really powerful.
We didn't have a dinner appointment so we ate at subway.

Thursday we weekly planned. We had a lesson with Mike Santos about the
Aaronic Priesthood. During the lesson he said "I'm sweating like
Elvis" and I started laughing and he was like "what? You've never
heard that saying before?" And I was like "nope" haha.
We had a lesson with Abel. That was interesting. He also talked the
entire time about some random things. I don't know haha.
We had a lesson with Steven. We went over the baptism interview
questions and he did great. He has a issue with coffee. HE CAME TO
CHURCH ON SUNDAY.
We also almost got in a car crash, so that was intense.
We didn't have a dinner appointment so we were going to try this
Chinese place and oh my gosh, it was super duper fancy and expensive
and we were like nope! We tried another place and it was expensive as
well so we ended up going to McDonald's haha.
We had our accountability skype with our District Leader that night.

Friday we volunteered at mitzvah circle.
We got two referrals from missionaries. Ian was at college at LHU and
met with missionaries and has been taught pretty much everything and
he is here for the summer. We haven't met with him yet but he sounds
awesome. Sunny, missionaries met him at a farmers market. He lives in
our area and wants a Korean BOM and he said he is not interested in
talking with us and would like us to put it in his mail box..
We did some finding. We found out where Kevin is and got his
information to send to missionaries in his area.
We had a lesson about the temple with Joanne. She is going back to
china for a year in less than a month.
We ate dinner at our apartment, we got Popeyes.

Saturday finding and tracting all day in the rain.
Ate dinner with the Onoratos. We were talking about chocolate and
Brother Onorato says "I love chocolate. I wouldn't mind being baptized
in chocolate." It was so funny!!! I was dying! I said "same!" πŸ˜‚

Sunday was a great day at church. Great talks and musical numbers. We
got a lot of chocolate as well! STEVEN CAME TO CHURCH. He left during
Sacrament meeting to go to a family thing for Mother's Day. Brother
Santos came as well. He is getting the priesthood on Tuesday!
After church we went to the Cassels and skyped our families and ate
cafe rio burritos!

Also, funny side note. We got a text this week from a sister in a
different mission that started off by saying "hello Elders Gronning
and Summers!" Hahahaha.

I hope everyone has a great week!!
Love,
Sister Gronning
Picture number two- primary colors are 123, red yellow and blue!






Monday, May 8, 2017

Happy Birthday to Me!


You look different, you look like you are 30

My companion said that to me yesterday in the car!! I was like what?!

Anyways, thank you all for the birthday wishes! I am sitting here at
the Cassels with Sister Cassel and my awesome comp. We just ate pizza.
Also, they now have caramel m&ms, they are interesting. My comp made
me a cake. Isn't she just the cutest? Also, I had a donut today. Life
is pretty great for a 21 year old. So, I realized that I spent all of
my 20th year as a missionary. Woah.

Monday- we ate dinner with the Nelsons. They fed us breakfast! Side
note, I asked the Johnson's to have breakfast for dinner tonight
hahaha.

Tuesday- we had District Meeting. I was able to see "my dad" Elder
Jolley. He was like "Sister Gronning, how long have you been out now?"
I was like "15 months" and he was like "woah! That is crazy! I
remember I was your first district leader and you were brand new in
the mission and now you are almost done!" I was like "I know, it's
crazy! It is going by super fast!" Haha. Anyways. I also found out I
go home with my other Zone Leader, Elder Huber. There is so many
missionaries going home in August it seems like! I'm never coming home
though. Jk.
We stopped by a former investigator named Erica and she was like "I'm
coming to church on Sunday! I'll see you there!" And we were like
okay, perfect! She came and then left to check on her kids and then
came back and it was over so she left again.
We finally had a lesson with one of our recent converts, Joanne. She
speaks Chinese and little English so the communication was kinda
tricky but we made it work through google translate! Haha
We had dinner with the Cassels!
After dinner we visited Sister Morales with Sister Cassel.

Wednesday- we had a lesson set up with a former investigator who lived
in our apartment complex and we called her to confirm and she hung up
on us..
We were trying to find a woman to come with us to (Mike) Brother
Santos lesson and we weren't having much luck so we ended up having it
at Sister Johnson's house with Brother Santos and Brother Bussom. Mike
had a lot of questions about repentance and why it was said in the
Book of Mormon so much.
We had our interviews with President Randall. We sat down after we
prayed and was like "I can't wait to hear all of your questions. You
always ask great questions" and I actually didn't have any this time
so he asked if I could bear my testimony on repentance and I was like
sure! I love repentance. It helps us grow closer to our savior and our
father in heaven.
We visited the Biermanns that night.

Thursday- we helped Sister Wen clean her garage. She made us bagel
pizza afterwards haha.
We had a lesson with a former named Abel and we couldn't find a woman
to go with us and we didn't think the lesson would hold so we didn't
go and then he texted us and said he was waiting for us... awk.
We had a relief society activity where some sisters brought some
things from their cultures. It was really cool and good food!

Friday- volunteered at the mitzvah circle foundation. It was a rainy yucky day!
We did a lot of finding and tracting! We met a guy from South Africa!
And his roommate was from Ireland! It was super cool.
We ate dinner at the Becksteads for dinner for Cinco de mayo!

Saturday- finding and tracting like all day!!
Ate dinner with the Rollins! We ate Dominican Republic food!

Sunday- Stake Conference broadcast! It was so good! A lot about the
temple and missionary work.
Lawrence came and we had a lesson with him after! He is so awesome! We
set him with a date for June 24th!
We ate at the Cassels again!

Alright that is all for now! Let me know if you get this!!



Pictures from members!


Ice Cream for the birthday girl!


Monday, May 1, 2017

Awkward

Hello everyone! I hope this email works today! I guess no one got my
weekly email last week.

Alright, lets see if I remember what happened this week. It kinda just flew by.

Well, first of all, my bday is next week! (Monday, may 8th!) ✌🏻

This week I accidentally tried to video call one of the Assistants on
Facebook. That was super awkward and I freaked out a little bit.
Inside and outside.

Monday, we did like absolutely nothing all day. Had dinner with Bishop
Vest and his wife. They are awesome.

Tuesday we had District Meeting. We drive to Jarrettown and then the
Jarrettown Sisters drive us to the chapel where our meeting is in.
It's always a blast. We went to lunch afterwards. Sister Summers and I
did the Book of Mormon read. Our District Leader talked about the Book
of Mormon and companionship unity. One of the sisters was telling us
that Sister Randall told her not to do push ups for awhile anymore
because she hurt her shoulder and this new elder was like "is that for
all of the sisters?" One of the sisters was like "ya, if one sister is
injured, we all have to suffer" we told him no haha. It was pretty
funny πŸ˜‚
We stopped by the Biermanns and just Sister Biermann was home so we
talked with her for a little bit.
We had a lesson set up with Magdala but she cancelled because she was
sick. Then later she dropped us. She said she read the introduction to
the Book of Mormon and wanted to do more research first and we told
her to look at LDS.org and mormon.org.
We ate dinner with the Youngers. Super nice! Brother Younger talked
about his mission to Vegas! He said he never served in Henderson
though. His fiancΓ©e is not a member but she knows a lot about
missionary work because of him!
Our Sister Training Leaders from Logan came to our apartment that
night and we exchanged companions and Sister Summers went to Logan
with Sister Vanisi. Sister Nielson came here to Souderton with me.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Mike (Brother Santos). We mostly talked
about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost because he had some
concerns about that.
We did a lot of walking on Wednesday. We only drove 2 miles in our car that day.
We had a lesson with Steven. He was so sure that he would be at church
on Sunday. He texted us before church started and said something came
up..
We went to a mamas water ice place and then came home for dinner and
accountability.
It was fun being with Sister Nielson again. She's a great Sister.

Thursday after weekly planning we had to go to the store and get
toilet paper and toothpaste πŸ˜‚
We had a lesson with Linda.. I'm sorry to say this, but she is crazy.
We finally were able to show her a movie called "Finding Faith in
Christ" she liked it.
We had dinner with the Olsons and Thomas! It finally happened! We have
been trying to have a lesson with Thomas at someone's house for a long
time! After dinner we talked to Thomas about faith, repentance, and
baptism. He said he wants to know more before he is baptized. He said
he learns something new each time he goes to church.

Friday we volunteered at the mitzvah circle foundation. We didn't go
last week so one of the lady's said to me "I thought you were never
coming back and you didn't even say goodbye!" Haha.
Sister Beckstead wanted a Book of Mormon for her friend so we stopped
by and gave her one and talked with her a little bit.

Saturday we talked to this man named Adel. He lived in an apartment
where a less active used to live. We talked about Jesus Christ. He
spoke broken English. He speaks Arabic.
We got in contact with a former named Barry and he said we could come
back on Wednesday.
We had dinner with the Onoratos. They took us to O'gradys restaurant
and to get dessert after :)
Also, this day was so hot and I was literally sweating all day. If any
of you were wondering πŸ˜‚

Sunday we were trying to meet with a recent convert named Samira and
her aunt or something but they didn't answer the door or phone.
We went to Sister Johnson's house and talked about the lessons we have
this week.
We had correlation meeting.
Church! It was fast and testimony meeting.
We got to teach the beehive class about the first vision.
We got a referral from the Pennypack elders and we stopped by and
talked with him for a little bit. His name is Lawrence. We are going
to get him a ride to church this Sunday and have a lesson with him
afterwards. This Sunday we are having a Stake Conference broadcast.

Tonight we are having dinner with the Nelsons. Their son is here and
going to leave soon for his mission to Indonesia.

Also, the Cassels are feeding us tomorrow night and having us over on
Mother's Day and I'm so pumped! The Cassels are literally goals.

The Johnson's are feeding us on my birthday ✌πŸ»πŸ‘πŸ»πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

SHOUT OUT TO MY SISTER IN LAW. HER BIRTHDAY IS ON FRIDAY!!!! πŸŽ‰

Address is 199 W Vine St. Apt 22. Hatfield, PA 19440 πŸ˜‰

Love,
Sister Gronning