Hey!

Well, there's not much to update since Wednesday. Except A**'S BAPTISM!

It was so good! It was Saturday night and it went well. Haha Sister M and I were almost late though because we had to go back to our apartment because we forgot the paperwork:P Oops! We made it though! 

It was different being able to go to hers though, compared to others I've taught. Because she is a girl it's a different relationship that is built. We were able to go back with her and watch the baptism from the side of the font. When she came out, she sat there crying because she was so happy and you could see just how much this meant to her. I think that was my favorite part about the whole thing- Seeing the affect it has had on her and her family's life. They are so happy. 

Other than that, it's been a good past few days. It's crazy to think that this week is week 6, end of the transfer. Transfer calls are on Saturday. I'll let you know what happens!

Just a few thoughts before I go and you have to wait another week to hear from me!

-We all need 2 things: we need to be loved and we need to belong.

-Our faith is not determined by the outcome

-Casualness leads to casualties

Have a great week!!

xoxo, Sister Groneman

 

 

Let's See How This Goes!

Hey!!

So normally I have written down all the things that I want to email and tell you all about, but I didn't have time to do that sooooooo I'll try to remember things and not be too scatterbrained!

And I am sorry for emailing so late! Sister M and I had a lesson with N**, a 98 yr old lady who is LA, this morning. She reminds me so much of Great Grandma (happy birthday by the way!!!) and it's so fun to teach her! She was baptized at 8, but never really learned any of it so she is just absorbing everything we are teaching her. The Spirit is always so strong and her eyes light up and you can just tell the Spirit is speaking to her. I love it!

This past week we had a lot of things happen. We had interviews with President and Sister Nakken in our apartment, Stake Conference, and Zone Conference with Elder Schwitzer and his wife, along with Elder Wakolo.

Stake Conference was good! One thing that I took away was something that someone said in their talk. They were talking about being self-reliant and service and how in order for us to serve to our full extent we need to be self-reliant. I forgot my notebook, but they said something along the lines of how can we give, if we have nothing to offer? The answer--you can't. We have to have something to give in order to serve , no matter what it is- time, love, resources, etc.. 

Zone Conference was good! We had a sisters meeting with Sister Schwitzer and it was so good! It kept getting better as the day went on with Elder Schwitzer and Elder Wakolo giving us more training on how to be better missionaries. It was so good!! Something crazy was that Elder Schwitzer and his wife spoke in the MTC when I was there. Man, you can just feel the Spirit that is with them and you can just tell that they are special witnesses of Jesus Christ!

A** is doing so well! THIS IS THE WEEK! She has her interview tomorrow and her baptism is on Saturday! I am so excited for her and her family. They have changed so much and they are so much happier. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way!

This transfer has gone by so fast...I have learned a lot though which I guess is what is supposed to be happening so that's a success hahaha!

I hope everyone has a good week this week. Just remember who you are!! And remember why you are here and who makes this all possible. (If you don't know who that is, it's Jesus Christ.)

:):)

xoxo,

Sister G

ps...We demolished a couch this week😁 SISTER POWER!!

Never a bad day

Hey Hey Hey!

This week flew by! I feel like I was just sitting at the computer sending you all my hello from Santa Maria. I guess you just have to hear from me again:)

Update on A** and her family: We had a good lesson with A** this past week. We talked about her baptism date a little and it needs to be moved because her daughter will be out of town at science camp on the 23. It took the rest of the week, but with a lot of praying, she and her husband have decided that September 16 is the day! We have a lot of lessons to teach, but it will work! She is so excited and we are excited for them!

We now are teaching 2 9yr olds. C** we have been teaching and last night we picked up A**. A**, like C**, needs the lessons because he wasn't baptized at 8. Teaching 9 yr olds is a little different because the lessons aren't made for little kids, so we've had to be creative in how we present the lessons to keep them interested and quiet hahaha. It's so interesting to watch. They are so innocent, yet so wise. I can see why we are asked to become like children.

The ward is great as always! You can tell they love each other and take care of each other. They have pulled us in as well. We had dinner with one of the members this past week and she makes blankets for everyone. To our surprise, she made matching California blankets for Sister M** and me! It was so sweet of her! Also, we have some secret friends from the ward who leave little notes with food at our apartment every so often. We have no idea how they know where we live, but it makes our day to see their drawings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week is a little different- we have Elder Schwitzer from the Seventy coming to the mission. He, along with President and Sister Nakken are visiting every apartment in the mission and doing interviews there. Next week we have a day full of different meetings starting around 7:30am. It's actually interesting because he came and spoke when I was in the MTC. We'll let you know how it goes!

It's also been crazy hot. Like triple digits very hot. We are surviving with fans though (Almost nobody in Santa Maria has AC...) We are grateful for the rain we got yesterday!

Well I hope everyone has a great week this week. I heard the big rival game [Utah vs BYU] is this week....May the odds be ever in your favor!!

xoxo,

Sister G

PS. Awkward that I forgot about exchanges. GUESS WHAT! Sister A** and I were able to be companions again! It was so fun to be able to work together, it felt like we were back in Moorpark. I loved it:)

 

 

PPS. We are emailing on Wednesday next week because of everything that is going on with the General Authority coming.

Well, I'm happy to report that this week was a good one, filled with miracles! The weather continues to be perfect, sitting around 75 degrees every day, and Sister M** hasn't gotten sick of me yet, which is good! Haha the more time we are together, Sister M** and I realize we have soooo much in common. Like same friends at UVU common. And we were in the dance hall all the time and we never met each other. Crazy!

The work is going well in Santa Maria. Our lesson with the H** family was great! The Spirit was so strong and you could tell we all felt it and we knew it. It was Sister M**'s first time taking the lead in a lesson and she did AMAZING! I'm so proud of her and how hard she works! She also extended the invitation to be baptized...A** said yes! That was her end goal and she was excited to work towards it! So as of right now she will be baptized on September 23!! We are so excited for her and her family. Their light is growing and you can see how much happier they are. They even made the effort to come to church yesterday when A** wasn't feeling well. She knew she needed to come and so she and her family came. They are amazing!

We are also teaching a little boy named C**. It's a long complicated story, but he is 9 and has grown up in the church and needs to be baptized. He is considered a convert though because he is 9. 

We participated in a cool service project on Saturday. It's called Serve Santa Maria. It's set up by a pastor of a church and there are a lot of different church organizations and people in the community that come together and complete a bunch of different service projects. It honestly was so cool. To have so many good people come because they want to help and uplift their brothers and sisters. There were over 20 missionaries who were there, too, so we all split up to different projects. Gotta spread the love! Sister M** and I planted a bunch of plants at a veteran's center. We got to talk to a lot of great people and explain what our black tags were for! 

I was reading an article this past week in studies and I just wanted to share a little bit of it. The article talks about being a consecrated missionary, but there were some points that I think can apply to everyone because we all are trying to become better servants of the Savior. One quote I really liked was "Eventually we must do more than tell the stories of the Book of Mormon; we must live them." POWERFUL!  How often do we talk about the people in the Book of Mormon and share their experiences? Probably a lot! But are we living like them? These people are examples to us and how we should be every day! You may think that they are too far of a reach and that you could never reach their level. I DISAGREE! We all have the potential to become like them because we have the potential to become like Jesus Christ. The important thing to remember is that the Lord never expects immediate PERFECTION, but He expects immediate PROGRESSION. Just a little step each day in the right direction will get you farther than you think. 

I hope you all have a great week, and for those who started school, good luck!!

xoxo, Sister G

We celebrated Sister M**'s one-month with some frozen yogurt!

 

Santa Maria!

Hey!!

Transfers went well and Sister M** and I are safely in Santa Maria! I became companions with Sister M** on Tuesday after a lunch and training meetings. She is from ***, Colorado. We are both the fourth of five kids, we both dance, and we both did a semester at *** before coming out, so we have a lot in common! Something way cool about Sister M** is she is a licensed cosmetologist! 

The new ward is great! We've been working with our WML a lot so we know a little about the area. We are kinda starting brand new in the area because the previous missionaries didn't make any whitewash sheets... So we are starting with nothing haha! I'm glad I know how to start with nothing otherwise Sister M** and I would be running around with our heads chopped off!

Cool Miracle though! So we are with our WML when he gets a call from one of the ward missionaries saying he just set up an appt for us tomorrow to meet with this PM family-The H** Family. We show up to the appointment expecting to just get to know them and share a little message. It turns out that the wife A**, who is not a member, really wants to learn and change. She and X**, the husband, want to come and get back into the church. So we asked her if she wanted to take the lessons and she was all in! She was so excited! She is reading the Bible and The Book of Mormon already trying to learn. We have a lesson with them on Wednesday so that's exciting! They came to church as well. It's not the first time she has gone, but she said it's the best time she's gone. We are so excited for them!!

Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened. We're just trying to get the Area Book updated and follow up with many who haven't been followed up with. I'm excited though. The ward is great and there is a lot of work to do here. Sister M** and I are up for the challenge!!

Sister M** is doing so well! You wouldn't even guess she is a new missionary. It's been the coolest thing to watch her grow and learn. My favorite part is watching how excited she gets when there is success. I guess I've gotten used to seeing all the miracles that happen every day, so to see her get so excited makes me so happy. I love it!

I hope everyone is doing well and that this next week is full of miracles!

xoxo, Sister G

 

 

Last Week in Moorpark

August 14, 2017
Hey!!

This last week was good! Things have settled down in Moorpark which made it a chill week.

We had a couple lessons with R**. He is doing well! He is somewhere in Mosiah right now in the Book of Mormon which is great! He is slowly changing each day. I can't wait for the day when he feels and can understand the answers he has been getting about everything, because right now he is so focused on reading the whole Book of Mormon. He can see his faith growing though and he has told us that which is great! There is power in the Book of Mormon. It was sad to say goodbye to him, but I know he is in good hands.

D** is changing as well! She has started to listen to the Book of Mormon on the gospel library app in between appointments!! And she told us that somehow she has always known that Christ visited the people in America. It will be in her own time, but I am confident that D** will continue to come closer to the Savior and eventually (and hopefully!) have the desire to be baptized.

One cool thing this week is that we were able to work with the YSA Sisters a few times this past week. We had time to fill and needed to be productive so we went out with them. Friday night, we were able to go boothing in the mall with them! You just talk to people in the mall. Sis A and I felt like we walked into the world which was overwhelming at first, but it ended up to be pretty fun! YSA still scares me though haha!

It was really hard to know that this was the last week here. And Sunday yesterday in church, Bishop H** made us cry! Let's be honest though, we've been crying a lot because we love everyone here so much. They are truly my family and I will never forget them. But I knew that things like this were going to happen when I signed up! It doesn't make it any happier though.

So I guess the part you've all been waiting for- where I am going.

So I think I first have to tell you that I won't know who my companion is until tomorrow. I am training! And we are whitewashing in to Santa Maria! Yep, back up north. It will be another adventure!! I have mixed emotions about the whole thing as well. I am really nervous. And hesitant because I will be the companion who knows more and I will need to show the way which I feel like I've had the comfort of leaning on my companions when I didn't know what to do. On the other side, I am calm and at peace because I know the call came from the Lord. He trusts me and has placed His confidence in me. And He will help me every step of the way. "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded." I feel like so many in the Book of Mormon who are called and they have the faith to do it, but they are still nervous. I know whoever my sweet sister is will be an amazing missionary and I am excited to welcome her into the Great California Ventura Mission.

Love you all! Sorry I had so many pictures to send home, but I forgot my camera....I know, I'm sorry. You'll get them next week:)

xoxo,

Sister G

Thousand Oaks Zone Conference

 

 

Zone Conference luncheon

 

 

6 months already?

April 7, 2017
Hey!

I can't believe that tomorrow I have been out for 6 months. The Lord's time is so different compared to the world's time!

This week was good. Sister A and I have seen miracles and have been able to still be productive in our area.  We've been able to set a lot of appointments working with our members and some less actives. They've given us referrals as well so we've still been able to go knock some doors haha.

One cool miracle though! We were out with our RS president again and we were not seeing any success. At all. At one point we ended up on this steep dirt hill trying to find an inactive member. We tried to go visit a lady named M**, who was sooo nice to Sister A and me on the phone about a month back. Well, the door we knocked on was the wrong apartment....So Sister E** called and left a message. We decided to head to the apartments across the street to try a couple less actives there and still, no success. Right as we were about to call it a day the phone rang. It was M**! She was just about home and wanted us to come by! We were able to stop by and meet her. We talked for quite awhile. She shared her story of being baptized at 14 and going in and out of activity, but she always ends back at this church one way or another. She really wants to have a solid testimony in this so she invited us back! When we met with her, she shared some questions that she had and we were able to answer them. She said that even though sometimes her brain starts to overthink about some things, she always goes back and remembers how she's always felt here and how she feels like there is a fullness here. Really the one thing holding her back is the Book of Mormon. She hasn't read the full book and she really wants to. She knows that if she can read it and decide and know that it's true then she will be fine! ... Sister A** and I are really just there to help her read the Book of Mormon. She remembers pretty much everything else, although we will review it all. Her husband is not a member, but is very supportive, and hopefully will gain interest as M** is meeting with missionaries.  It was so cool!

R** and D** are still doing well! We had a great lesson with R** this past week. At the end he asked our members that were there how long he would have to wait to get an answer. It was one of the only times I've seen him really really wanting to have an answer. I can't wait for him to get it! We were able to get D** to stay for Gospel Essentials yesterday which was great. The lesson was on baptism and it was exactly what she and R** needed to hear. Brother H** gave a really inspired lesson!

This week we have lessons with R** and D** again, and hopefully M**. It should be a great week. Transfer calls are this Saturday...I'll let you know what happens!

xoxo,

Sister G

 

 

 

 

Oh. We were able to catch a baby lizard. Her name is Shequoquo:)