Week 96

Hey there y'all!! It's been another great week here in Texas! We did a lot of hard work and found a few new people to teach with a lot of potential. And the big news...Elder Frost is getting transferred! I will get a new companion tomorrow and I am excited to be staying here.

This Monday we visited a family that we tracted into last week and it went pretty well; they are Catholic and see no need for a restoration of the Gospel, but they are willing to read the Book of Mormon and so we will have to find a convert with a Catholic background to fellowship with them.

Wednesday we went and saw a woman named Yolanda and we had a really good visit with her. She is Pentecostal, so it could be very interesting in the future, but it was great on Wednesday. We taught the Restoration really briefly but she got it. Right before we left, she asked, "So why are their so many churches?" Either she didn't understand the apostasy or we didn't explain it well enough, but we told her about the apostasy and how Christ's church was lost from the earth and she got really excited and said, "That makes so much sense! That is great! I'm going to read the Book of Mormon and read up on Joseph Smith!" There is a new Joseph Smith movie online as well, and so the member we were with gave her the web address and she said she would watch it. We will see how it goes!!

Mike is doing alright; he is going up to Van Alstyne this week to camp out and fast and pray about the Book of Mormon to try and get an answer. He is taking it pretty seriously and I hope he does get an answer and find out it is true.

Pranom didn't end up working out. She doesn't want us to come over anymore, but we are still going to at least try to drop off the Thai copy of the Book of Mormon to her.

We didn't get to see Sarah this week, either, but we hopefully will be able to later this week.

This week we saw a less-active member who is in the hospital recovering from a surgery and we gave her a couple blessings this week. They were some of the most powerful blessings I have given in my life. The first one I gave, and the second one Elder Frost gave. The first one, I felt like everything I said needed to be said, and in the second one, the minute our hands touched her head, I felt the power of the Spirit from the top of my head going through my arms straight to hers. It was an incredible feeling and I loved it.

This weekend we have a SWEET opportunity to hear from Elder Dallin h. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Fluckinger, who is an area seventy here. I am way stoked and it should be super good.

That's really it for this week! I love y'all and miss y'all and hope y'all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Grondel

P.S. just a couple pictures. The Harty's had a breakfast on Saturday for the district and so we took some pictures...I hope you enjoy them =D

Week 95

Hey there y'all!! It's been another great week here in Texas! We had a really good week with some really cool experiences.

First off, a member in Farmersville named Jason just got back from serving his mission in California and called us on Tuesday and said he was having mission withdrawals. So we agreed to let him come tracting with us for a few hours and found some people that day, including a woman named Pranom. She is from Thailand but converted to Christianity several years ago and loves having people over that love to talk about Christ. We got her a Thai copy of the Book of Mormon and we should see her tomorrow and give it to her then. Jason then came with us on Saturday and all our appointments fell through so we went and saw some of his high school buddies and families he's been working with. One of them wasn't home, and so we went to another one and his mother was home but he had since moved out. His mom, Sarah, was very nice though and allowed us to teach her the Restoration. It was short yet powerful and we were able to commit her to read the Book of Mormon as well! We should see her tomorrow, too.

Friday we had a Specialized training and it was incredible. President Smith talked a lot about keeping up records and better ways to work with members. We talked about the new mission president, too! President Smith is going home in July and so we are going to get a new one. I would love to meet the new mission president, but at the same time, I am happy that I will be able to have the same mission president my entire time here.

Sadly our investigators aren't really progressing all that much right now. Mike is still wanting to meet with us but he hasn't come to church yet. We are having a member invite him to church this week so hopefully he'll get there. We have a few other potential appointments as well so we will see what happens.

Other than that it's been great! Beautiful weather, a love for the work, the Spirit of the Lord, and a good companion. I couldn't ask for more right now! Well, Except for baptisms. But I always want those =)

I love y'all and miss y'all and hope y'all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Grondel

Week 94

Hey there y'all!! It's been another great week here in the TDM!!! I am loving Texas so much and it has been just wonderful to serve here.

Lauren was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was a really great service and because she's moving to the 6th ward this week, there were a lot of people from the ward there in support of her decision to be baptized. It was super sweet. She also invited a nonmember friend named John and he seemed to enjoy it. He lives in Lucas (which is just east of Allen) and so we probably won't see too much more of him, but hopefully the Elders there will be able to teach him.

This week we didn't teach a whole lot of people; to be honest our teaching pool is really quite small. We have Mike and we haven't seen him for a few days; other than that we don't really have anyone to teach in either Melissa or Farmersville. We found a couple new people but they seem pretty flaky. We will have to see what happens.

Saturday was really cool. We had the baptism in the morning, and then we were invited to a child of record baptism in the Farmersville branch. It was a girl named Kloey and we eat with the family every Thursday, so they invited us to come. It was super good and a lot of fun. After that we did a little bit of finding and then we went to the temple with some recent converts for temple baptisms! It was just a day full of baptism and I was so drained by the end of it. It was pretty awesome.

Well that's really it for this week. Our dryer broke this morning so we might be doing coin-op for a while...lame. We'll see what happens. Hope all is going well for all of you!!

Love,

Elder Grondel

P.S. Here's pictures of the baptism!

P.P.S. Sorry here's some pictures from the Harty's sealing as well. I forgot to send them to you. =)

Week 93

Hey there y'all!! It's been another great week here in the marvelous state of Texas!! As always, I am loving the work and things are going pretty well.

This last week we saw Lauren a couple times and she is still doing really well. She had her baptismal interview on Friday and is set to go to be baptized this Saturday! I am so excited for her. She loves the church and is excited to become a part of it.

Mike is doing great. We had a good lesson with him Wednesday and invited him to watch the Priesthood Session and one of the Sunday sessions. He ended up coming to a cook-out the men were having just before priesthood and became good friends with one of the ward missionaries. He later enjoyed conference. The next day, he came to the Sunday afternoon session and loved it. I think it was a changer for him and we will hopefully see him progress rapidly form now on.

The Farquharsons are still doing well and are headed for the temple in about a month! They are extremely solid and Jared and Ashlyn are loving it as well. I am so happy for them!

Our investigator pool is slipping, but we are going to go out there and keep looking! We'll find some new people to teach.

Conference was great this last weekend. I received a lot of insight at what I am doing OK at and what I need to improve upon. I am excited to take the things I have learned and apply them to myself as well as to my investigators.

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Grondel

Week 92

Hey there y'all! It's been another week here in Texas! This week was a little bit slower. We really didn't find anyone new to teach and because we baptized Jared and Ashlyn, we didn't get to teach a lot of lessons. However, we did get to meet with Lauren a couple times, and it's amazing to see the change that has taken place just in the last week. Last Saturday, she said she was a little concerned with everything, but this week we taught about baptism and what it means and had a really powerful lesson last night and she is doing really good. She is set for baptism on April 9th and we are looking way forward to it. We also got her connected with another single mom in the ward named Amy and she has been way good for her. Amy is very solid and has a lot of faith and it has really helped Lauren a lot.

That's really it for investigators, but the best and biggest news of the week is what happened on Friday night. I was able to go to the temple and see AJ and Cindy Harty sealed for tome and for all eternity in the Dallas Texas Temple. Elder Hardy and Elder Moses were there, too. President Smith and Sister Smith were also there, as they were part of their teaching process and it was great to see them there. It was so powerful. I couldn't help but smile most of the time. I did cry for a little bit, but most of the time I just couldn't stop smiling. I forgot my camera so I can't send pictures but next week I'll send a picture of everyone that was there that night. Tons of people from the Allen 6th ward were there as well in support and there was probably 40 or 50 people total! it was really cool. I love the Temple!!

Well, that's about it for this week. Have a great week y'all!!

Love,

Elder Grondel

Week 91

Hey there y'all!! It's been another awesome week here in Texas! We had a lot of good things happen but best of all, we had a baptism!

Jared and Ashlyn were baptized this weekend and the Spirit was super strong, especially when Ashlyn's dad baptized her. They are now preparing to go to the temple here shortly so they can be sealed together forever as a family. I love the gospel so much.

Lauren is doing well. She came to church and had a good time but for some reason couldn't meet with us yesterday when she said she was going to be able to. We'll see her sometime this week, however, so no worries.

Sadly, there weren't any miracles this week (besides the baptism of course) but I am looking forward to this Friday because AJ and Cindy Harty will be going to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity! I can't wait for it to happen! It's going to be so cool!

I know it';s short, but that's really it this week. Check out the pictures, though!

I love you all and hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Grondel

Week 90

Hey there y'all! It's been another great week here in Texas! We have seen more and more miracles here! First, the big news: Elder Frost and I are NOT getting transferred. We didn't get the call this go around so we'll be together for another 6 weeks! I'm actually pretty happy about it because we're getting along really well and it felt like the last 6 weeks went by way too fast.

Anywho, Jared is doing really well and he had his baptismal interview and will be baptized this week! Last week we also found out that his little sister, Ashlyn, was also not baptized and she is 9, so she's going to get baptized this week too!! It's so crazy to see how the Lord blesses us when we are diligent and obedient to His commands and expectations of us. It has been so wonderful to teach this family and they are rock solid now. They will hopefully be able to go to the temple soon after the kids are baptized and be sealed for time and all eternity!

Daniel and Genevie are kinda flaking out; she's pregnant which makes it hard and he said that he has just been way crazy busy with work and what not. We're going to keep on them, though; hopefully they'll turn around and recognize the truth.

Mike is a cool guy. He knows the scriptures really well but is pretty open and we have had a couple good lessons with him and we will be seeing him tonight to teach him the Plan of Salvation, which I think he will thoroughly enjoy.

Brent sadly works every Sunday from 7 to 7, so we won't see him at church every and he wanted to take a couple weeks to read from the Book of Mormon. He is a really inquisitive man as well and asked a lot of questions about the organization of the church with the prophet and the Apostles and seventies and etc. He has a lot of potential and we are going to keep on him. We're hoping that he will be able to switch shifts with someone else at work so he can have Sundays off, but we'll have to see what happens.

The miracle this week is a woman named Lauren. On Wednesday we were driving home from District meeting (they are normally on Tuesday but we had a leadership meeting this week) and this man named Ed called us. He lives in Tennessee but was here visiting his daughter, Lauren, because she is going through a divorce right now and it's a hard time for her. Ed joined the church several years ago but got divorced when Lauren was 4 (she's 28 now) and so Lauren never grew up with the church. He has been feeding it to her for years, however, and now she was ready to hear the gospel! It was crazy awesome. We went over and it was really powerful and spiritual and we invited her to be baptized on April 9th and she accepted! She didn't bring up any concerns about it, either. She is so prepared. She has a cute 2-year-old daughter as well named Samantha. I love it when the Lord provides!

We had a pretty funny experience yesterday. We were walking to dinner after knocking a street nearby and saw some people on the side walk and I just said, "How are y'all doing?" and they said, "Good. Are you from Texas?" Apparently I say y'all good enough and I have enough of a drawl to blend in. I told them I was from Vegas and they laughed and said they didn't believe me at first, butit was just funny. It was great. It made my day. I love Texas =D

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Grondel