Time Keeps Passing

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I know it was yesterday, but just pretend that it's yesterday ok? Haha Dad, I hope you had a great day. Thank you for all you do!

And Happy Father's Day to all the other dads! None of us would be who we are without you!

This week flew by. This transfer flew by. This is our 5 week transfer and this is the fifth week. I can't even tell you how fast it's gone. We have Zone Conference this week and then a new Mission President next week. 😮

This past week was good! On Tuesday, Sister A** and I had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders, Sisters D** and H**. I went with Sister H** and we had a blast. She is so sweet and I learned a lot from her. Cool fact: One of Jackie Chan's houses is in their area and we were so close to it! We tried to find the road that goes up to it, but couldn't. Everyone needs the gospel and we wanted to bring it to him!

We've been working a lot with the members and the youth. The youth are amazing and are constantly doing missionary work which is incredible. One of our young women actually asked us yesterday to come out with us so she is coming out with us tomorrow! 

Sister A and I have come to be close friends with a group of 10-11 yr old girls. There are about five of them and they live in our complex so we see them all the time. This past week J**, one of the girls, asked us for a Book of Mormon for herself and a Spanish one for her mom. That night we were able to teach them a little bit about Jesus Christ, the Restoration, and the Book of  Mormon. It was a cool experience. All of them wanted a copy. A couple days later J** told us that she was halfway through (the children's version) and that her mom was reading her Spanish copy and they both loved it. We were able to meet her mom who asked us to teach J**!  The only thing is she will be gone for a month in **. We are hoping we can at least start to teach her before she leaves. She is the sweetest little girl and has such a big heart. We love her and the rest of our friends, too!

Our P-day ends at 2 today....because Sister A** and I get to go to the temple!!! We get to go in our bday months and Sister A's birthday was June 6! We are so thankful to the family who is taking us. Brother S** is taking off work to watch the kids so Sister S** can take us. We cried when they texted us offering. They are so sweet and we are just so thankful! Temples are such a blessing. It is our way to do missionary work any time we can. Please take advantage of the temple. My calling is to work with the living and I can't tell you how much the temple blesses us and those we are standing in place of. Your call as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to work with the living and the dead. There are people waiting on BOTH sides for you specifically to find and/or help them gain salvation. 

I hope this week is a good one for you all. I have finished marking the attributes of Christ in the BoM and am now marking every time it says "heart" or "love". It is stressed so much that everything begins with your heart. I hope that we all are working on fully placing our hearts with the Savior.

xoxo, Sister Groneman

 

I forgot a story!! Sister A** and I found a HUGE spider on our counter one night. Our DL and the other Elders in our District live in our complex so we called them to come kill it. They are the best Elders ever! They came ready to win the battle!! The spider was killed and Sister A** and I are very thankful:)

Sister A** and I got matching elephant shirts:)

Sister H** and me

Hello from Paradise!

This week was another week of fun! Sister A** and I are working hard and meeting great people every day. The ward is still amazing. We are working with them and getting into their homes. We are their cheerleaders basically, just supporting them and encouraging them in the missionary work they are already doing and have the goals to do. 

When we aren't with members, we are out visiting Potentials, Formers, and Less-actives. Just regular stuff we do every day. We've seen some cool miracles with all of them though.

Thursday was a day full of answered prayers. We had prayed to see those we came in contact with the way Heavenly Father sees them. We also prayed to be able to discern what part of the gospel they need to hear most in this part of their lives. AND we prayed to be able to have the courage and confidence to open our mouths. (We want to talk to people and we know we have the promise that He will fill our mouths with words, but sometimes it's hard. Especially when you never used to start conversations haha!) EVERYONE we saw that day was an answer to our prayers. We didn't think twice about talking to them, we loved everyone we met, and it was so clear to us what part of the gospel they needed in their life. We didn't even have to search for it. Everyone opened up to us and told us things they probably wouldn't normally say in a conversation. It was so cool to experience. Heavenly Father answers prayers! We have a few return appointments with these people this week!

We had our last interview with President and Sister Felix this week. It's so sad to think that they are leaving in about 2 weeks. I thought it was going to be forever until they had to go home, but these last 4 months have flown by. It's like I blinked and they are leaving:( They are truly amazing and love the gospel and the Savior. I am so lucky that I was able to have 4 months with them. Their Homecoming is July 9 at 9:00am.

Well, I hope you all have a great week! Don't do anything stupid, but don't be boring!:)

xoxo,
Sister G

 

We celebrated Sister A's birthday this week!!

There are roses everywhere and I'm in heaven!

 

Read the Book of Mormon!

Hey!

Can I just stay here forever! Sister A** and I are just having too much fun! We love it here in Moorpark. The hottest it has been here so far is around 87. Our ward boundaries have a lot of neighborhoods that are gated, then a couple that have a lot of houses with cars lining the streets. And a lot of Hispanics...So when tracting, we either stumble through conversations, or walk around the gated neighborhoods only talking to those outside. It's great though! We've been giving a lot of referrals to other missionaries. The work goes on!

The ward is still amazing. We are going to start something with the active members called the "one-pager". It has had a lot of success in other areas so we are excited! It's a page to fill out to help them to know what to do with their friends and family to bring them closer to Christ. It has ideas from getting to know/spending time and serving them, to inviting them to things. It's nice because most people think that missionary work is just inviting them to be baptized and it's not! The first step is loving and serving them!

We, as missionaries in the Great CVM, are reading and finishing the Book of Mormon by the time President and Sister Felix go home (3 more weeks:(). While reading, we are marking the characteristics of Christ. It is so incredible to see just how many there are. I am almost done and the pages are just filled with highlighted words and phrases. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and it truly is another testament of  Jesus Christ. If you are not reading it, I invite you to start doing so! We have been promised that our testimony will be strengthened, we will be able to handle whatever the adversary puts in our path, and we will never go astray. And if you think about it, everything the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is rides on this very book. EVERYTHING. Isn't it important to read it? If it's hard to understand, please mark the characteristics of Christ as you are reading. I have never understood The Book of Mormon more.

I hope you all have a great week. Please remember that we all have a part in assisting in the Lord's work. We are all needed in this fight for truth and righteousness. No one else has the talents and abilities that the Lord has specifically blessed you with. YOU are needed:)

xoxo,

Sister Groneman

If you only knew....

OK!!! First, I am sorry, but I forgot my camera so I can't send any pictures....

But!

I LOVE IT HERE. Sister A** and I are literally the same person. Like, it's scary how similar we are. We even have the same toothpaste. We laugh constantly and are having so much fun working together. She is from Ammon, Idaho and has been on her mission 11 months. She and I value the same things and we have the same goals in what we want to accomplish here, and also the same idea of how to accomplish those goals. I love her.

THE WARD (Walnut Canyon Ward). So I thought our ward was celestial....This ward is doing our job, we feel like. Everyone we have met so far is incredible. They are always trying to help others and they are always giving us people to go see. They are very missionary-minded. We met our new bishop, Bishop Hodges (he is 34. Most of the ward is early 30s) and he is amazing. He told us it was the ward's job to find people for us to teach and we should not have to do all of the work. He has so many great ideas of building this new ward [boundaries were changed about two weeks ago] and we are excited to help him accomplish those goals.  Sister A** and I are just amazed with our new ward already and can't wait to get to know, love, and serve them more.

Sister A** and I have been working hard. Everyone we find who is interested we end up referring them to the correct missionaries. We have decided that the people we are supposed to teach will come from the ward.

I really am so excited to be here in this new area. I love it so much. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

I hope you all have a great week!!

xoxo, 

Sister G

Transfer News

Any guesses??

Sister C** and I are white washing out of Paso Robles. We are blue washing which means Elders are taking our place. Sister C** and I feel good about this because there are a few people we feel would really benefit from having Elders.

I am going to Moorpark. My companion is Sister A** (who was in my zone and is adorable!) and we will be going into a brand new ward. I'm excited! Sister C** is going to Westlake (we will be in the same zone) to be in the YSA ward! I am so excited for her, she will kill it there!

Paso had definitely been the perfect fit for my first area. I have learned so much and have come to love so many here. We spent yesterday saying goodbye to people and today we will say goodbye to more. A couple in our ward, the R**s, are taking us out to lunch today to say goodbye and they invited everyone who wants to come as well. From what we have heard there will be a lot of people there. These people are truly amazing and it's weird to think that I am leaving them:(  I have learned so much from them and they have really taken care of me here. 

This past week we had a great lesson with A**. We felt like we just needed to start over with the lessons so we taught him the Restoration. We taught it with the cups (it's hard to explain over email, but you use cups to teach it). Sister C and I feel like A** was starting to fully understand. There were many points that he said he actually got, so that's good. He has never been taught by Elders and we feel like that might be just what A** needs to get over the wall. We are praying for him!

This last transfer we had the opportunity to visit B** M** every week and read with her. She is old and her body won't let her come to church. She is the sweetest thing, with her blush making her white hair pink:) Her smile lights up her face and she has such a strong testimony of the gospel. She was so sad when we told her we were leaving and we all almost started crying. Sister C and I have loved seeing her every week and brightening up her day and giving her some peace she has been looking for. I think she was the one who was actually teaching and blessing us! It's hard to tell you just how amazing she is over email, but take my word for it!

There are just so many people I could talk about it's not even funny! [Long list of people..], the young women, pretty much EVERYONE haha!

There are a couple pictures of potential investigators- K** and R** and his wife. We have taught K** a few times and he is like half an investigator. He is stellar and asks awesome questions and really wants to know. We have been working on bringing him back to the simple stuff , as he wants to know all the answers to the deep questions. Stuff we learn about as we learn more in the church, if that makes sense? R** and his wife are great, too! They actually had us over for dinner on Thursday as a going away thing. And he came to church yesterday!! He said he would come to anything we invited him to. But this time he came because I beat him in a game of ping pong :):)   

I hope you all have a great week this week!! Thank you for all the support and prayers! 

xoxo, 

Sister G

 

 

Zone Conference

Hey!

Happy Birthday to Grandma Groneman this week!

Happy late Anniversary Mom and Dad!

I don't really know what to say because we talked yesterday (which by the way was great! It was so fun to hear all of you). So this email is going to be really short.

This past Tuesday was Zone Conference. We did a hike for a change. President and Sister Felix had mini lessons on the trail so it was fun. We were talking about the Holy Ghost and its role in our work. We learned a lot.

Oh!! President made an exciting announcement at Zone Conference as well. Missionaries can now go with their recent converts to the temple to do baptisms for the dead!! Sister C** and I are so excited because that means we get to go THIS SATURDAY with O**! Our ward is doing a ward temple day for adults and they reserved the font for the adults who haven't gone through the temple so they could participate as well! O** is going and we are so excited!

Other than that it was a pretty regular week. Work work work. Last Monday we did go to Hearst Castle (It's definitely a must). 

I hope you all have a great week this week! Don't do anything stupid;) 

xoxo, 

Sister Groneman

 

Hearst Castle

Mother's Day call home

Thank you for the quote! I loved it! I actually used it for my planner for this upcoming transfer!

 

Zone Conference

From the California Ventura Mission blog, written by Sister Felix:

We were able to do our activity on the Childs' property.  Here is a picture of both zones, SLO and SM.

San Luis Obispo Zone 

We had a prayer at the stake center and then car pooled to the Childs'.  We started singing Let the Holy Spirit Guide.

Everyone was given a bandana.  Our CVM Target is Ignite the Fire Within so when we saw these bandanas we were excited to get them.

 One of the missionaries in the companionship was blindfolded.  The "seeing" companion could not touch their companion but would give directions for walking on the trail. We don't always know where to go or how to do things but the Spirit will direct us.  We have to listen.

After we all crossed the stream, Sister Felix shared "President, I have a frog." (The story will be posted on one of the other zone activities).

We drove back to the Santa Maria Stake Center to eat lunch and have a fruit bar outside.

This is a finding activity where cards were handed out with a description of an identity of who they were on top and they were looking for the identity of the description of a person at the bottom of the card.  After finding and doing how to begin teaching they taught a gospel principle.

We convened in the Relief Society room for training on working with members and social media, more on the Holy Ghost, and a summary of Ignite the Fire Within.