Counting down the days!!

 

Only 1 more day!

Last pictures from the field!

"Sister Gronning, you are dead" 💀

Well, hello everyone! This is my last weekly email in the mission

field!! I fly home this Wednesday!! 😱

Monday after our half pday, we did some things in our apartment. Moved

list, Stake reports.

We took some of Sister Rodriquez family names to the temple so we went

to her house and gave her the ones we didn't do. We talked to her for

a while, like an hour... lol.

We taught Miranda the Plan of Salvation and she loved it!!

We had dinner with the Baileys.

Tuesday was my last district meeting! Elder Huber and I are both

"dying" so we took a dying picture!

We were going to have a lesson with Laurie and we texted her sister to

confirm and she texted us back and said they already have a great

relationship with God and she would appreciate it if we didn't come to

her house anymore.. alrighty.

We had a referral who requested a bible and we called her to see if we

can deliver that to her and she said she is out of town and will call

us.

We had a lesson with Amanda. We read some stuff out of the learning

and serving in the church pamphlet. We talked about home and visiting

teaching, priesthood and auxiliaries, priesthood blessings.

We had a lesson with Elizabeth and Sister Hall came with us. We talked

about temples and families. We talked about baptisms for the dead and

being baptized for herself. Sister Hall bore a great testimony about

her baptism and the blessings she has seen in her life. We invited

Elizabeth to pray about a baptism date in September.

We ate dinner with the Sollars. They made some good spaghetti and garlic rolls!

Wednesday we had a first lesson with Todd. Sister White came with us.

We taught him the restoration.

We ate lunch with Sister Naumann at Panera Bread.

We had a lesson with Ziline and read from the children's BOM in

English to help her learn English.

We had a lesson with Diana's boys. We read the BOM with them.

We had a lesson with Miranda. Hannah Hahn came with us. We taught the

Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thursday, Taylor Brady drove us to Harrington for my departing

interview with President Randall! We listened to the conference call

while we were there and he did a live one where he called on random

missionaries and talked about their questions about helping our

investigators to pray, it was cool.

My interview with President went well. I thought I was going to cry

but I didn't.

After that, we did weekly planning.

We had a lesson with Amanda and we read where she is in the Book of

Mormon. 2 Nephi 17. That was tough haha.

Sister Kelley drove us to Harrington and then the Harrington sisters

and us drove to the P1 sisters apartment. I got to see and talk to

Sister Stubben!!

Friday morning we drove to the temple for my departing temple trip! It

was really good!! I love the Philadelphia temple. I got to see Sister

Collier and Sister Flandro!!

Sister Kelley picked us up from Harrington and dropped us off at the

Tinsmiths. We got to pick and eat Maryland crabs!!! It was quite the

experience! The elders came too and we had correlation with Brother

Tinsmith.

Saturday we had 4 lessons set up and only one happened.

We taught Diana's boys CPR (church, pray, read) by using an object lesson.

We ate at our apartment and then went to Dairy Queen for ice cream!!

They called us for transfer news!! Elder jones said "Sister Gronning,

you are dead" "Sister Roberts you are staying"

President just changed how we do transfers now. The missionaries don't

find out until Tuesday in a meeting with all the missionaries who are

getting transferred and getting a new companion. So you don't find out

where you are going or who your companion is going to be until

Tuesday. That is crazy.

Sunday Miranda came for Sacrament meeting.

We ate lunch at the Klos families house.

We had a lesson with Miranda and taught her the Ten Commandments. She

asked if we had another Book of Mormon she can have so she can give it

to her friend!! She was talking to her friend about it and she wants

one and so Miranda is going to write her testimony in the front and

give it to her friend!! She is so solid and I'm so sad I am going to

miss her baptism on the September 8th!!

We ate dinner at Sister Pilchards.

I have loved serving here in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia mission. I

know that this was the mission I was supposed to be in. I look forward

to seeing most of you when I get home!

Love you all!!

Sister Gronning

Pictures!

Eating Maryland Crabs!

🌪 whaaat ?!

Well, this week has been kinda crazy!!

I don't have a lot of time today because we went to the temple on Saturday and so we are taking a half pday today because we didn't get to do any pday stuff on Saturday.

Monday we went to Assateague with Alanna Klos, Evan Klos, and Melvin! It was fun! Took some sea shells, saw horses, ate ice cream.

We ate dinner with Sister Pilchard, the relief society President and then afterwards we talked about a few relief society sisters who are less active.

Oh and during the day when we got home from the beach, it was pouring down rain so hard and we needed to go to Walmart so we ran outside and got in our car and I could barely see while I was driving because it was raining so hard! And then later that day we found out that their was a tornado in Salisbury!! It hit closer to the south side and we were told that a few trees got knocked down and some cars while driving got picked up and thrown and turned over unto other cars! Crazy!!! We had no idea this was happening....

Tuesday we had District Meeting and it was focused on courage. Stopped by a few people. Had dinner with Sister Thibault (pronounced T-Bo).

We went to a relief society activity.

Wednesday we met with Chemica and read from the Book of Mormon with her.

We were going to have a lesson with a young girl who we met I think Tuesday, named Laurie but the member who was going to come with us couldn't make it and so we talked to her on her porch about the Book of Mormon.

We went walking and knocking on doors on Zion Rd and Sassy Ln. Few people said we could come back.

We had a lesson with Amanda and Sister Smith came with us. We read the Book of Mormon with her.

We ate dinner with the Hahn's and Miranda and Brother Dipaolo at Plaza Tapatia.

After dinner we drove to Woodstown, New Jersey!!! We stayed the night with the Woodstown sisters and the Cape May sisters.

Thursday morning Sister Crystal, Sister Prince and I drove to Broomall and then the Sessions took us in a van up to the priesthood restoration site. Usually they take all of the "dying" missionaries up but this time they only took the ones who have never gone their whole missions. It was an awesome experience. I loved it. I loved just walking around the trails and seeing all of the historic church sites. We were able to see the Susquehanna river as well! The Sessions were too kind and brought us lunch. Us sisters slept on the way there and back. We came prepared and brought our pillows haha.

We didn't get back to Woodstown until like 7 or something and we got dinner at McDonald's and then drove to Dover and spent the night with the Dover sisters.

Friday we drove back from Dover in the morning.

We helped volunteer at the holly center. We sorted through donations of clothes and hung them up. I felt like I was in the back of DI haha.

We had bible study.

We did weekly planning.

We ate dinner at the Smiths house.

Saturday the Smiths took us and Melvin to the temple! It was Melvin's first time doing baptisms. It was awesome.It was my first time doing baptisms in the philly temple. I saw Sister Watkins and some members from Souderton ☺️ Sister Onorato and Brother Nelson.

We ate lunch at the Christiana mall. I had a cheesesteak with bacon on it and fries with cheese, bacon, and ranch!

We had our first lesson with Miranda (the one who came to church for the first time and bore her testimony last Sunday) she is solid. We taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized and she said she has been thinking about it and praying about it already and we set her with a date of September 9th!

Sunday, Miranda came to church again. We had a returned missionary speak in Sacrament who just got back from Australia.

Second hour we talked about the Holy Ghost and the third hour we talked about the Book of Mormon.

We had dinner at the Johnsons with the Taylor's and the Oler's as well. They all have the cutest kids. The Olers baby boy is 2 months old! We had breakfast for dinner because that is what I requested 😋

We had FHE at the Sollars. They just got released after 15 years 😭 the Nielsens just got called to replace them. They will do great.

It is so unreal that I leave next week. It hasn't quite hit me yet.. people keep saying "are you leaving next week?!" And I have to stop and think about it for a little bit and say "oh wow, that is next week huh." I forget because I'm not counting 😂

I have my last interview with President Randall next week and my departing temple trip. Gahhh.

Love you all!!! See you soon😳

Sister Gronning

Baptisms at the Philly Temple with Melvin!

"When do you go home" "How much longer do you have?" "When is your last day?"

Hello everyone! Those are the questions I keep getting this week! 😶

Monday we went to rehoboth beach with the Harrington Sisters (our STLs), Sister Payne and Sister Nye. It was fun! (Photos are on my moms Facebook).

We went straight to the doctors office and I was super late so we had to reschedule for Tuesday...

That evening we taught Amanda the Ten Commandments and taught her the hand signals. Family, I can show you them when I get home!

Tuesday we had District Meeting. We brought brownies for a Elder Mortons birthday which was on Wednesday. Didn't take any photos..

Went to my doctors appointment. We were not late this time lol. I realized I really need my moms help with answering all of the questions!! 😂 the appointment was to check on my bottom from when I fell down the stairs in March. The doctor told me I do have sciatica. Same thing my mission nurse told me. She said it might or might not ever go away 😑 something I just have to deal with.

We were going to have a lesson with Ziline but she wasn't home.

We were going to have a lesson with Elizabeth as well but she had a family emergency and had to cancel.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Ziline. She speaks Creole and little English so we read out of the children's BOM with her in English and help her read it. She has gotten a lot better!

We had a lesson with some formers (meaning they met with missionaries in the past) named the Conways. They asked about how our church is different then the Methodist faith and we talked about the restoration of the gospel. They weren't really interested in taking the lessons or coming to church or anything.

We had a lesson with Amanda again. We read 2 Nephi 2:1-15.

We ate dinner with Sister Spadin. A cute older lady in our ward.

We went to a relief society activity after and we were late for it haha.

Thursday we had to break up our weekly planning because we had to clean our apartment for the bug inspection people.

Sister Armstrong took us to lunch at Delmar pizza and it was really good!

We were going to have a lesson with Ricardo but he didn't answer. We had Sister Slusher and her daughter come with us and Sister Slusher said well, lets go knock on some doors then! And so we went walking and knocking in the trailer park we were in 😆 the awkward part was there was some other people from a different church knocking on doors in the trailer park as well 😂

We were going to have a lesson with Berline but she wasn't home.

We ate dinner with the Cooks. It was so fun to be back there again! I love Claire so much! We had BLTs and fruit pizza!

Friday we went and got brownies and made them for the Walsh family because Sister Walsh had her baby boy!

We went to Elizabeth's 2 year old nephews funeral with Sister Kelley. That was sad. I cried!

We were going to have a church tour that evening with Daniel so we went to the church and turned on all the lights and made everything look nice and he never showed up....

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner that night 😋

Saturday we were going to have a lesson with the Cuzicks, less actives in our ward, but they just came out unto their porch and we just talked. They can't make it to church because of Brother Cuzicks work schedule but they are going to try and come sometime.

We had a lesson with Chemica and went over the restoration again because it has been awhile since she was taught that. She also speaks Creole.

We had our interviews with President Randall! It was broken up in 3 parts. The first part we had to prepare a lesson in 10 min and the Zone Leaders watched and evaluated. Then we taught a 15 minute lesson and one of the STLs was the investigator and the other watched and evaluated. Then the last part was we had a 10 minute interview with President. I get to have another interview with him in a couple of weeks 👍🏻

We had a lesson with Ziline and read from the children's BOM with her.

We were going to have a lesson with Diana and her boys but Diana wasn't home.

Sunday was a great Sunday! We had 4 nonmembers there! One of them was Chemica. One was a lady named Melissa who met missionaries before and she contacted us asking for the time of church and if we could get her a ride. Sister Kelley picked her up and took her home after the third hour. A member of our ward brought his coworker and that was the first time she has come to church and she got up and bore her testimony!! She mentioned that she is reading the BOM every night and feels peace and she said she will definitely be back. She is golden! Another member brought his coworker as well but he might be in the elders area. I am grateful for members and their willingness to do member missionary work!

We finally delivered the brownies to the Walsh family haha.

We had lunch/dinner at the Klos's house (we go their every Sunday after church) and then went over the Word of Wisdom with Sean, he was recently baptized.

We taught Amanda about tithing and fast offerings.

Today we are going to Assateague with the Klos kids! Hopefully the rain won't be too bad!

Love ya!!!

Sister Gronning