February 28, 2011

Hello family!

 

There have been lots of miracles this week!  We went by the apartment of someone Sister St. Clair has been working with and she gave us back her Book of Mormon and told us she wasn't interested anymore. That was a bummer, but from there we went tracting and found an apartment of people who were so nice and really interested in the message.  If the uninterested woman hadn't given us back her Book of Mormon we wouldn't have had enough for the people who were interested! They all promised to read and pray about it.

 

We have an investigator named Austin who is wonderful.  He was referred to us by the girl who got baptized the first day I got here.  After the first lesson we asked him if he would get baptized and he said yes!  We've taught him three lessons now and the Spirit is always so strong. We haven't even taught him about the Word of Wisdom yet but he's stopped drinking because he heard about it. 

 

One more amazing person is Bang Phan.  We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and it was a huge bummer for him because he drinks coffee every morning and has the best, most expensive kind from Vietnam.  We called him the next day to see how he was doing with the coffee and in his broken English he said, "I throw it away."  Everything we teach him, no matter how hard it is, he accepts so quickly even though when Sister St. Clair started teaching him he didn't even know anything about God or Jesus Christ.  He's felt the Spirit and it's changing his life.

 

An adventure this week had to do with finding a brown recluse in our apartment!  It was in the flower vase right next to where I was writing in my planner, and when I noticed it I just about died. Sister St. Clair was on the phone so I had to wait for her to get off.  We took the vase next door and the big black guy who lives there said it was a brown recluse because of its fangs and its predatory nature., which didn't make me feel much better :).  It was especially bad because just that morning we'd tracted into someone who had gone to the hospital that morning for a brown recluse bite!  These spiders like crawling into bunched up stuff on the floor, and I've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor, so I panicked.  Sister St. Clair had the wonderful idea to put my mattress on our kitchen table (which used to be the clerks' desk), and it actually was pretty comfortable and definitely far enough off the ground.  We told the elders about it at Zone Conference because it's funny, but one of the elders who is way too nice decided to donate his box spring to the cause, so I have a real bed now.  I'll feel really bad if he gets bitten by a brown recluse since he's sleeping on the floor now!

 

Missionary work is amazing and I'm learning so much.  Miracles happen everyday.  I hope everyone is doing well! I love you so much!

 

Love,

Sister Monson

February 14, 2011

February 14, 2011

Well, I'm in the mission field!  As you probably know already from Sister Fatheringham, I'm in Springfield, MO with Sister St. Clair.  I love her!  She's a sweetheart and very supportive and a very good missionary. She's from Utah/Arizona and she went to BYU 3 1/2 years before her mission, just like me.  She's so much like Jenny's/my old roommate Sammie!  She looks and talks and laughs like her, so I feel like we've been friends for awhile already. 

As soon as I got to my apartment after the 5 hour drive from the mission home (which went surprisingly fast), we left to teach two investigators named Do and Bang.  They're Vietnamese students at the university here.  We teach a lot of students because we're the university sisters and our ward in the singles ward, which is fun.  I love Do and Bang!  Their baptismal date is March 12th (a great birthday present for me!).  We taught them about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy that day and about baptism on Sunday.

Saturday we had a baptism!  I feel really bad for Sister Toorea, the sister whose spot I took, because she had to miss it, but it was wonderful to go to a baptism on my first full day.  The girl, Rachelle, gave a beautiful testimony about how she came to know the gospel is true.  A lot of her family there were Baptist and very upset that she was getting baptized.  I gave a talk on the restoration while she was changing and that was intimidating with all of those upset people, but I testified that I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and I felt the Spirit very strongly as I did.

Since being here, we've found two sets of people to teach.  The first one was Matt.  He is...well...very excited about our church and wants to get baptized already, but he didn't really seem to understand what we were saying and also might be going to prison and wouldn't tell us why because he doesn't want to scare us.  That was an interesting lesson.  Then we found a couple expecting a baby.  We went to their house last night to teach them the first lesson and it was CRAZY!!!  The husband's little boy was visiting them and he was clearly starved for attention and wouldn't stop yelling and showing us things.  Poor little guy.  We couldn't teach at all. Then the husband's father came out and he listened and we might teach him again, but he was kinda creepy. So far in my mission, I'm just feeling so blessed for how I was raised and that I've always had the gospel.  These people are so, so lost.  I'm looking forward to seeing families be mended and lives changed through accepting the restored gospel.

The members here are SO helpful!  We have dinner appointments every single night and there is always someone willing to come teach a lesson with us and give us a ride.  The weather has been beautiful.  This is definitely different from anything else I've done before and it's gonna take a lot of time before I feel like I'm contributing much, but I love the Gospel and I know it's true!

Love,

Sarah

February 22, 2011

...

---

Hello Family!

 

I'm sorry I didn't write yesterday.  It was a holiday, so we changed P-day to today.  Holidays are good for proselyting because everyone is home.

 

I've had a lot of adventures this week!  Where to start...I guess with a funny story.  Sister St. Clair and I tracted into some frat boys.  There are fraternity houses everywhere here, which is different.  Anyway, they were really nice and one of them, Robbie, seemed interested. We gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him about the Restoration a little.  We went back to see them and his roommate, Josh, said to come back in an hour and they would all be there and we could talk.  We came back in about two, and we saw Josh walking out to his car.  I guess this made Sister St. Clair feel really awkward, because she started booking it across the street, away from him, in sheer terror.  It was hilarious.  We got a little ways away and she regained her senses and started laughing at herself.  Josh  probably saw us running away from him.  We laugh about that all the time now.

 

There have been a lot of miracles this week.  One of our investigators with a baptism date is named Tyler Jones. He's a black 19 year old kid so Ally would probably like him :)  We've been worried about his readiness so we were planning on moving his date back, but we had an amazing lesson with him.  He opened up (he's been too chill to do that before), and told us about how the gospel is changing him and making him into a better person, and everyone around him is noticing it.  The next day was Sunday and he needed to come to church, but he wasn't there, so I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to wake him up, because he was probably asleep.  He made it to church later in the meeting and told us he had woken up at 9:30, which was just when I prayed that he would.  It was a miracle.

 

We've also tracted into some of the most amazing people.  A lot of the students here are from China, and they are so humble and kind.  We knocked on one door and someone looked through the peephole and yelled "OH."  He opened the door and it was the cutest Chinese man.  He said he got to America that day and asked if we were Mormons.  We said we were and he was so surprised!  I didn't understand why until he said that Communist newspapers write that if people go to America, Mormons will knock on their door. They aren't to let us in, because we're evil. He wanted to know for himself about us when he read that, and he couldn't believe that we got to his door so fast! He could tell we're good people and he wants to learn more.  I'm so excited to go back. We couldn't teach him right then because we need another girl with us when we teach men (all of our investigators with dates - there are 5 - are college boys so this gets hard). He and so many other Chinese people we've talked to have been prepared to learn about the gospel.  They'll learn and go back to China and live it, and soon all of China will be able to learn the truth!  Heavenly Father is mindful of all of His people.

 

One of the members here who helps us a lot is named Codie Keyser.  I found out I know her brother!  He was roommates with Aaron Worthen, that guy I dated a couple years ago, and she hung out with them all the time around the time we dated, and even lived in my old apartment. It's a small world!

 

Our walking area is turning into a bike area!  The Senior missionary in charge of transportation called us and let us know we could either get California bikes or women's three-wheelers.  That's right.  Sister St. Clair and I could be biking around Springfield on TRIKES with our helmets and our skirts!!!  We almost decided to get them, but we're going with the cruisers.  We laughed about that all day, though.

 

Sister St. Clair and I are pretty much the same person.  She almost became an English teaching major, she loves Regina Spektor and all of the other weird music I love, and we're constantly saying and thinking the same thing at the same time.  I feel really blessed to be her companion.

 

I love missionary work!  And I love the gospel.  I know this church is true, and that by following what we know from the scriptures and from modern-day prophets, we can know just how to live the happiest life we can. 

 

Love,

Sister Monson :)

February 8, 2011

Hello Family!

This week has been good.  Just some logistical things first, I can only talk for about 5 minutes tomorrow morning.  My flight leaves around 7 tomorrow so I'll be calling you early in the morning if everything works out.  I'm excited!  Did you get the package of my contacts?  There'll all +7 and 7.5 instead of -.  I hope they got to you.  I still have about a box left for each eye in my prescription.  What a pain! I'm sorry about that.

I wish I could send you more emails and letters and let you know everything that I've been learning and experiencing, but we can only write on Pdays and at the MTC our P-day ends at 3.  Not a lot of time when you fit laundry and personal and comp study and eating and cleaning and exercising into the works. 

This week was a little harder than last week (probably because Satan saw my email last week and decided he needed to crack down - Haha). No, it wasn't that bad.  I had more good experiences with teaching practice (we've committed about 4 people to being baptized - if only they were real :) ) and I grew even closer to my district.  The elders are such goof balls.  They're always stealing each others' name tags and making noises with them like bazookas and doing other things to be obnoxious.  It makes things funner, though, and they definitely all have the Spirit with them when they teach.  I'm glad I'll still be able to see my district in the field, since we're pretty much all going to Oklahoma. 

I'm excited to get out and start finding people and teaching them the gospel!  I know it's true and I know I'm where I'm supposed to be.  I've loved coming to a better understanding that the gospel really does change lives, and I'm excited to see it at work. Thank you all for helping me get here, and for being patient with me when it took so long to decide. 

Would you mind telling the Szilagyis (I know I spelled their name wrong) thank you for me for the notes they wrote? They were all so sweet, and so appreciated. Their address was covered up. Charie sent me a letter too that I loved.  Also, if you wouldn't mind forwarding emails to Sister Church that would be great.  Her email address is on my gmail account.  She's been so nice to write me a lot.

I'm writing you a letter with more stories from this week, since I don't have a lot of time on here.  I love you all so, so, so, so much!

Love,
Sarah

February 1, 2011

Dear Family,

Time is flying by!  I just got here, and it's hard to believe I leave next week!  I head out for Oklahoma the 9th.  We leave at 4:00 in the morning from the MTC.  I'm not sure what time my flight leaves, but I'm allowed to call from the airport so I'll let you know! 

This week has been wonderful.  I love the MTC!  Coming on a mission I wanted to show gratitude for everything Heavenly Father has given me.  I kind of wanted to "pay Him back" I guess, but I'm learning more and more that I really am an unprofitable servants.  Every time I make a sacrifice, Heavenly Father makes up for it and blesses me so much more. 

At first it was hard to be in a companionship, but after a little while I started praying every time I wasn't feeling the way I wanted to, and it was amazing how quickly Heavenly Father took those feelings away and gave me so much love for her!  She's an amazing girl and she's had a much harder life than I have, and I'm really growing to appreciate our differences and how we can help each other.  The elders are getting better at being quiet, and they feel like brothers to me.  They definitely liven things up.  The blessing I got from the Stake President about health problems I've had in the past not being an issue was true!  I haven't had any stomach aches or anxiety and it's been wonderful not having those distractions.  Those are just three of the examples of how Heavenly Father has blessed me for being here.  The church is true!

The most amazing thing here is teaching.  We practice a lot with other missionaries and volunteers and teachers.  I had one hard lesson with a teacher where the Spirit wasn't there and I couldn't figure out why not.  That was hard, but the vast majority have been so great.  We taught a man yesterday in the TRC (where I used to volunteer) show lost his wife a year ago.  We taught him and he was so receptive to the message and believed it immediately.  The Spirit was so strong and we could all feel it.  I realized just what I'll be doing for the next 18 months and I'm so excited to get to Oklahoma and teach the people there!  I can't even tell you how happy and uplifted that lesson made me feel.  There's no better feeling!

One more great thing about the MTC this week was watching the Joseph Smith movie Sunday night.  The Spirit was so strong and once again I was amazed at everything Joseph Smith had to go through and how few fruits of the Gospel he saw (kinda like Abinadi).  Looking around after the movie at the 1500 missionaries in the room with me (500 others had gone to other movies), I was just so amazed that the work Joseph Smith started has grown so much.  2000 of us here in the MTC are getting ready to share his message of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel with people ALL OVER THE WORLD and 50,000 missionaries are already out!  This work is truly amazing and I feel so blessed to be a part of it.

Thank you so much for your letters and the package.  I love you all so, so much.  I look forward to talking with you next week at the airport!  The church is true and missionary work is the best thing on earth!

Love,

Sister Monson

January 25, 2011

Hi Family!

 

In my stress to get to the computer before we go to the temple I forgot to bring the notecard I have with mom and dad's emails on it, so I hope this gets to everyone.

 

I'm doing well!  My companion is Sister Reynolds from Payson.  She's a history major at BYU.  We're both going to Tulsa.  The six elders in my district are too.  The MTC has been a good experience so far.  It's really humbling.  I have a lot to learn as far as contacting people and being brave enough to talk to them, and knowing what I'm talking about well enough to keep them interested and to bring the Spirit so it can do the work.  The Spiritis strong, though, and there's a lot of support from leaders, at least on Sundays, reassuring us that the Lord is helping us and we can do it. My district is fun.  Apart from us going to Tulsa there are two sisters who are going to Florida.  They are in our room along with two sisters learning Mong, going somewhere crazy I can't remember right now. 

 

The best part of the MTC is definitely the firesides, and probably the devotionals, but I haven't been to one yet.  A man named Brother Stephen Allen came and talked to us.  He was so funny!  He told this story about how one time in church he was getting a drink at the fountain and a little boy was trying to get a drink on the smaller one next to him. The water pressure was bad, so everytime he pushed the button the kid's water would go higher and everytime he let go the kid's would go way lower.  He used this to spray the kid in the face about 7 times.  He was in the Stake Presidency at the time.  That was pretty funny. The moral of his story was that the kid never realized who was causing him his grief.  It's important for us to realize that when we're having problems, it's Satan pushing our buttons.  I'm a member of the Lord's army now, doing the most important work there is to do, so he's gonna push my buttons, and he's gonna push yours, so we should do our best not to let him.

 

The hardest part of the MTC is being in a companionship.  Sister Reynolds and I are similar in that we are both used to doing things on our own, and different in that we just do things differently.  Also, she's good at provoking me, much like Kristen was when we were younger :)  The other hard part is wanting so much to use the one hour per day I have to study the gospel on my own, but my District, who are all rambunctious and energetic, have trouble being quiet.  I've been plugging my ears, but we've made a district goal to do better at being focused when we should, so things should get better there.

 

Use dearelder.com!  It's free as long as I'm at the MTC and I get it the day after you send it. 

 

I love you all so much, and I love my Savior.  I want others to know what I know and to feel what I feel, and most importantly, I want them to do the things they need to so they can be with their families forever. I'd bear more of my testimony, but I'm out of time. Take care.  I miss you and I'm praying for you. 

 

Love,

Sister Monson