hey mom so the hives are gone. haha yea i do have a pic to show too. haha but yea things are going well the new area it was really crazy at first the past missionaries didn't leave any notes so we didn't really know what to do so we hopped on the bikes and talked to people and went to members houses. but things are go in well for us here. the ward is really fun i like them already it is different then all the other wards I've been to but its good. I've never really been in a suburban area so its a change. there is a good number of youth and they are like mini missionaries they bring their friends to church and activities its great. and the bishop is really cool he has great ideas to help the work.

my comp is e fisher and things are going pretty well. I'm liking it. we work hard and try to be as effective as we can. and he is really good at staying on the ball like i used to be so i can get back into those skills again. so i bet we are going to see good things but whats funny is he goes home a transfer before me so i think i might kill him off but I'm not sure because he can leave or i can leave but i don't really see myself leaving. it would be cool if e. Davis either came here or i went to him but that's a thought.

so the investigators we have a guy named mark nelson and he has been investgating for like 5 years and he is solid but there is a big problem with his dad. he told him he would disown him if he got baptized so thats not working out too well and he says that this cant go on for ever i need to make a decission and he knows whats rigth so i think he is going to talk to his dad. and his dad hasnt talked to him its a really long story. but he is really cool and he has 3 boys and a wife but shes not as on board as we would like so we are working with her. so pray for him and his family.

the zone is great. we have 3 english teams and 3 hmong teams and 2 karen teams and i dont know how we ar egoing to teach with them. haha i dont konw a thing about it. haha but yea its great the work in the hmong work is really great. we are really excited for them. the english teams there is only one teams that we are concerned about.

and e fisher and i are working out together so its good going from e rutter to e fisher with the work out aspect. and man i love e rutter he is a great kid. im glad that we are still close and we meet in the same building. and thats really nice i can se my friends in my old ward so im happy about that.

well i think that about all i have not sure if im leaving things out. but yea im have a great week i like this change a lot of work it will make finishing strong!!

well i hope all is well i love you mom thank you for everything you do.

blayne

Hey mom hows it going?! things are going so well right now. this week was such a blast. we have been trying to talk to a lot more people and we have seen a lot of miracles happen from it. we picked up 6 new investigators this week. and we are loving it. 2 really cool ones are co -co and jill, they are chines and they speak a little english but its cool because we have like 3 members that's translate. and this week we taught about who God was so its just like we a reteaching jae heon. and when we went over there i miss him so much man i wish i could see him.

and another really cool thing that happened this week we talk to a lady like 3 weeks ago and she said that we could come back and we went back and we had a lesson with her and 3 of her kids. they we younger and it went so great. we taught a restoration and then at the close of the lesson we asked to kneel in preayer and if she would offer the prayer. and she did and it was amazing then all her kids wanted to say a prayer. and her name is Marche then what was really cool we invited them to the ward b.b.q. and her and her step son came and they just had a blast the son played kick ball he's 15 and loved it and she loved mingling with everyone and then she called her husband and told him how much fun it was and that he missed out. it was so cool . so that was really cool this week

and another thing that went really well that lady that we re-did her back yard. kathy...well we've been going over there every week doing service and we invited her to the bbq and she came and brought a friend and they loved it. she got there and the ward just took her in and we had some one for her to sit with and she talk to them we really didnt do too much and thats how its supposed to be it was awesome. we had 6 non members there and it was so sweet. the ward was like wow thats really cool.

and this week we tried to find a way to win the members heart so we made 200 cookies for the wad and had notes attached about the morom.org website and they just loved them. and they said that the cookies were really great. and i know that your not going to be happy but i left my back pack at another elders apt and my camara was there so i dont have any pic of this week but one. so im sorry.

and then another thing...haha well we were on an exchange in st paul and i was with the newer missionary and he didnt know too much about thier parking lot so he told me to park some where and then in the morning we walked out side and the car was gone. haha cool magic trick huh? haha yea the car was towed and we had to go get it and the church did pay for it they said that has to come from us. and 285 bucks later i got the car back. haha funny huh? yea i know its not but cant do too mucha bout it now. haha so i just laugh. a lot of things happened this week.

oh and i built a bike! its an old road bike but i can't find a single speed wheel for it right now but i found a fixed speed. which means the wheel goes the way i pedal. so if i pedal foreward i go that was if i pedal back wards i go that way. its freakin cool but i want a normal single speed because the fixed speed its as safe but im doing just fine. i love biking. and thats so great to hear about kim i wish i got more pics. but cause i cant look at the vides from this comp. but that is so awesome. i love it and i cant wait to come home and do that with her.

well like i said this week so cool. i loved it i really hope e rutter and i can keep it up. he is helping me out a lot and i bet at times hes gets frustrated because im trying to change things in my missionary life like being positive and a lot more happy but its getting hard for me idk i think having a depressed comp. it does that too you. so im trying and he is really helpful and patient. i hope he knows i love him.

hey do you think i can get some pic. i think that if you send them to me i can just put them on my memory car and then print them out for sure. i want to know how dony is doing in football. is he playing at all? i hope so. and this week i realized how cool its going to be to be a parent and watch my kids play sports and stuff and i appericate so much more then i did before you and dad and my bros and sis that would come to my games because it means a lot . and i am so greatful to be in my family it is the greatest i and mean that i love all of you. thank you mom for being so awesome. i love you

blayne

well, Thomas Monson is now Baptized. Great highlight of the week. He also said that he had Zone Conference and was able to visit with some old Mission friends who he came out with. He has been out 18 months now so we sent him a pizza to let him know we were thinking of him. He loves serving. He has a great testimony about what he is doing. I hope that you enjoy the pictures this time. I just needed to get these pictures in this week.

well this week was pretty fun as you can see i fulfilled my dream of riding a tandom bike on my mission now i just need to do that while we are actually doing misionary work. haha other pick, im glad to get my bike back and im loving it. and i made sure that i wasnt going to hit the baby ducks i couldn't do that.

but this week was pretty fun we did a lot of running around and we were helping out the other teams in the area . no one to church this week but we are hoping to see a lot more come next week. thank yuo so much for your prayers i hope to hear from you all soon. have a great week.

While at District Training meetings Elder Grondel was able to have a little reunion with his Mission Companions. He had a great week learning about the Media Program or in other words Mormon.org. He will be transferred this week to New Brighten. He is still in the Minneapolis area. He will also cover St. Paul. He will be a Zone Leader so he will have new responsibilities.

This is the Family the Elder Grondel lives with. Brother and Sister Cain in Edina Minnesota

Good Morning Elder Grondel and Elder Brown

A visit from home Bro. and Sis. Zohner , Cheryl and Wade Hymer and 2 of there boys and Kris Reber and Norm and Joann. I am sure that he was surprised but happy to see some faces that he knew from home.

hey mom! i just got done writing you a letter that has like my entire week in it. but ijust kind of go oer it again. haha well this week was great we had the baptism for Jumah not too many people came but that shows the true colors of the lake nokomis ward. but anyways. it was great the spirit was strong and she felt it so much, and sunday was great as well the confirmation went so great very strong spirit. after the baptism the koskis took us out to red robin it was so good i miss that place so much i was so glad to see them again. they are great people. the plan to come out her sounds fine idk. it sounds like a long time tho. but thats cool with me. who would all come?
e. brown and i are doing so well. we are working hard and we just try to be happy.
so i had interview with pres. this week went well he told me if i wasnt enrolled in school that he wouldnt let me go home. haha so thats interesting. something to think about but im already enrolled at csn so no worries ill be home. haha
the weather here has been crazy. tornados everywhere but where we are . so i just looked at the time on the comp and i hae like 5 mins so ill have to type fast. but yea this week went ghreat we are going to be finding more people to teach. i love this work.
most of it is in my letter

i love you so much mom thank you for everything i love you

blayne

Elder Grondel is doing wonderful as you can read in his e-mail home these are just some short portions of his letter.

hey mom hows it going. this week was a blast. i loved it, jaeheon got baptized and we went to the braves game. they lost that game but the rest of the week they won. so thats good. it was just amazing to have all the things i love to do happen in the same week. so the pic. the ones of the baseball game, then its jaeheons baptism and then this week i bought a lucuador mask and i had people put it on haha and then the one with the creature in the lake its real. haha jk and then this kid is from vegas. its e. peterson, he is a convert of less than 2 years. hes such a kool kid.
yea this week was really great./ and next week of this week should be great to. jumah is still on for being baptized this sat. and they came to jaeheons baptism and she brought her kids and one of them is hanna and she came up to us at the end of the baptism and said i want to be baptized!!! it was so fun. and yesterday at church we went into primary and i played the ukulele and we sang with the kids and hanna was there and i over heard her talking to a girl and she was pointing at us and she said those are my elders. haha it was so cool. this week has been blessing after blessing its going great. but one thing the card has not come yet. idk if its coming today but it hasnt come yet.

<
My Mothers Day visit was so awesome. It was great to hear Elder Grondel's voice and feel his excitement for his work.
He just had another baptism this past week. The Baptism was for Jordan Vaiolatama-Kelemete. just some of his letter" We need to keep teaching him a few more things like the commandments and also put his service together. He is a Happy Boy. But not all the time, especially when he is hungry. He said that his famous line is "I'm Hungry"
He is currently working with an African Family with 2 little girls and a son and the Mom does not speak very good English but they are trying to help her understand. The girls want to be baptized, but Mom needs to know more. They keep coming to church and they Love the church. So we are going to keep working with them so that they can all be baptized together as a Family. And that would be Fantastic.
JaeHeon Kim, He is our Korean Friend. He is Reading the Book of Mormon trying hard to understand it because it is written in old school Korean. He's still not sure if Jesus is his Savior. That is going to be the big break. Its hard to know or even Comprehend who God is Let alone he Has a Son who died for us. But we are making progress, and his English is getting better.
Another big focus is the Less-Active members and we are just having fun meeting more and more Lost Sheep and learning more about them. I have Learned a lot about the Native American culture, we had Indian Tacos the other night. I felt so Dumb when I called the them Navajo tacos Ha Ha. but its all the same. We have a lot of part member families and one in particular This Lady her Husband is from Eveleth. That was in the Virginia Ward. So I have making an effort to get into their home. Whats crazy is the Husband comes to church like every week, so there is good potential. So we shall see.Yea things are going well. We are doing good Elder Brown is a good guy we have some things of interests in common so things are going smooth. Just working hard and staying positive. Love Blayne
This we most of Elder Grondel's last letter. We appreciate all those that care for him and write and send packages as well.

well things are going great here in south Minneapolis. the first part of the week went by pretty slow but that's ok. we have been finding most of the time so we are out on the bikes. the weather is getting better this past week it wasn't so nice with the wind but its supposed to get up to the 70's this week. isn't that something! I'm excited. we are working with a Korean investigator right now and he is doing well its still slow and hard for him to understand but we are being very patient with him and its going great. this past week we have found a lot of great people to work with and to talk to. some less- actives and people around the neighborhood. with conference coming up this week! i made flyer's to pass out to everyone we talk to and for the most part they have a positive response to them and now i have other teams of missionaries asking me to make them copies. i don't want to count all my eggs but i have a good feeling that we might get a good number of people showing up to our church to here the prophet and his apostles. the ward that i am in is the lake Nokomis ward. right next to cedar lake. which is great because i can go to church and see all the great members that i grew to love. i wish i could do that with all my wards. although right now this ward is struggling a bit and it seems that the ward and the previous missionaries were more focused on numbers instead of inviting other to come unto Christ. but things are going great now Elder Davies and i are doing great working and teaching together. although he might say different....haha lets just say biking up and down hills and across the area isn't one of Elder Davies favorite things to do. but i love it. the air is nice and the snow is gone. spring is here and i can't wait for the summer to begin. The time sure does fly when you're out here i love every min. of it. even the early morning . it is great to be out here on a mission representing my Lord and God and my Family, thank you for everything that you do. i love you all. ~elder grondel

Hey Mom!
Well this week has been another great week we were able to teach 21 lessons again. Elder Perry is coming on the 23 and the goal for the mission is to have every companionship teaching 20 lessons and I think this is the 3rd or 4th week that its been done in Cedar Lake its awesome. So we have a baptism next week on the 26 I'm excited about that, its is Christina I've told you about her she is the golden gator but yesterday she gave us a scare. She didn't come to church becuase she was sick but she also got anti. She was told the normal stuff about polygamy its was really dumb and she takes things way out of porportion, but we went over to her house and had a member come over and tell her that he only had 1 wife and give more of the spiel, things are good there. George is great he came to church and he still wants to be baptized. Someone at his work said something about mormons and he stood up and told the guys whats ups and told him that he was a mormon. It was great he truely is coming closer to Christ. As of right now we have 9 gators and 4 of them have dates sets of working no it. the Lord is blessing us right now more than we can think of. E. Hale and I are doing great he is like Winstin I swear . He doesn't have a long attention span but its ok we are working with that haha but its is going great I laugh all the time. The ward is doing great they are trying to help out when they can. we still dont have any dinners haha i know crazy but thats how it goes. how we stay skinny. haha
Thanks for the package too bad the gum ball thing broke thats ok i dont know too much about counting down the days. I need to stop eating candy, Ithink Im going hop on the bike more this week. My bike works great now that it is fixed. Oh and i told you E. Perry is coming! Isn't that great this will be the 4th time to see him I am pretty happy he is one of my favs. Well I hope that all is well. I pray for the family all the time i love my family and i never want to miss a moment to tell them I love them. I love you mom I hope that you have a great week. Tell Dr. Grondel he need to get the job done. I love you mom

~blayne

Mom!
Hey hows it going? I just got done e-mailing you . So far things are good. We (our District and Zone Leaders) are watching the Other side of Heaven the only video we can watch not church owned.
On our way up here we stopped by George @ work and he was so happy to see us. We wanted to know if we were still on for our appointment. He has to work so we made another appointment for tomorrow. And Elder Smith asked him what he has thought about what the Missionaries have taught you. and his response was "Amazing" if that doesn't make you feel good.
Not much has really changed with the companion. He still the same, waits till the last second or waits till its to late to do anything. And he is scared to walk on the ice or if it it looks like ice. He walks slower than a one leg grandpa. HaHa but really he is slow.
So anyways Mildred our other investigator she got kicked out of her house the other day. Because she is coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon. Its really sad. I talked with her last night when we had a lesson we gave the Baptismal challenge and she said that she wants to but she has that concerned look on her face. And I asked if she was ok and she said yea. I asked if it was her Boyfriend? And she said "I have my own and I need to do what is right for me" I know she will find a way to get Baptized.
No too much has been going on since the last time . The bus pass is nice but now its like Elder Burrows has his own car that runs 24-7. Its good to sit and talk to someone. They can't really run away unless their stop is soon. I started talking to a Lady and she said all I know about the Mormons is you worship Joseph Smith and I told her and showed her a pamphlet and she saw that God and Jesus are separate and she wants to know more. So the bus is good.
Mom thanks for the mask it was exactly what I needed. Thank you I love you so much can you believe its been 11 months ! I Love You.

Elder Grondel

11 months

My Brother from another Mother Elder Brooks

A Snuggy to keep him warm during study time

1st Mission Christmas and Birthday

Birthday Dinner the Koski Family took them to Red Robin

zone con was good. and yes i did get great news. max... (ramin my baptism in buffalo.) well his son max is going to get baptized on sat. and do you remember jessica the one that was smoking and a lot of stuff we taught her in the jail. haha she is coming close as well. i am so excited. so elder brooks was there and that was really all i needed. i swear we are bother . and a elder actually told us that we could be. haha but yea me and elder brooks had a good time he is losing weight too but im losing more than he is haha. im down to 179 i never would have though that would happen and yesterday was my 11th month mark. and good news we have 3 gators that want to be baptized!!!!!!!! there are some things they need to over come but mom the lord hears me and know what im giong though. yesterday in zone con. we give our testimony, and my testimony is i read the word to my new fav song of the transfer and the song is hymn 98 i need the every hour. this transfer i have learned that i need to rely on the lord so much. ive never prayed so much in my life.
so geroge our gator is great he is liberian and he has a story that should be a movie he came to america because he wwas going to be killed and then when he went back to see family they tried to kill him and again and when he came to america he has been looking for the truth he has studdies with the j dubs and church isnt working out and when we went over last night we were reading out of the b.o.m. and asked him how he felt he looked at his fianee and said i think that this is the truth. i feel this is what ive been searching for all these years. and then he was saying when he goes back to africa that he is going to take it with him and hes not going to stop. he is going to spread the gospel to his family and friends and village. and i just went into tears. i might not see him get baptized but i know that george has found the truth and is coming closer to christ. these moments are the only things that are helping me out . becauase i have been so down and depressed and the lord knows. but isnt that great.e and been so obedient i am so greatful for the spirit and prayres.