January 24, 2012

Hello Family!

This week was a good one.  On Wednesday we called a referral that we
taught a lesson to and he said that he had read from The Book of
Mormon and prayed before and after, and he had an overwhelming feeling
of peace that he hasn't felt before. He said that he couldn't shake
that feeling and it was wonderful.

We had a couple of good first lessons with people we met. They both
had really hard things going on in their lives and are in great need
of the Gospel. It's always wonderful to be able to teach the
Restoration to people.

Sister Ramos and her family are doing well. They're our family with a
baptism date. They came to church on Sunday for the second time and
enjoyed it. She has to give up cigarettes and coffee and tea so we're
doing the stop smoking workshop with her this week. She's so sincere
and grateful and has such a strong desire to come closer to God.

There's a recent convert in our ward I think I've mentioned before.
His name is Brother Hill. He requested missionary visits and a Book of
Mormon when he saw an ad on tv for a Book of Mormon and had a dream
that he needed to seek it out. He went to the temple to do baptisms
for the first time a couple weeks ago and got his patriarchal blessing
on Sunday!  He's got a very strong testimony. He's a guitar player and
played with Eric Clapton one night. I thought Dad would be interested
in that :)

I love you all so much! I love missionary work. There is nothing I've
done that is more challenging or more rewarding. I know the Lord is
there, helping all of us every step of the way.

Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Monson

January 17, 2012

Hello family!

 

This week was a good one. We got to teach a lot of lessons and meet new people. It was cold and rainy one day (the weather has been crazy - yesterday it was in the 70's!) and we were tracting, and some really nice people let us in and we got to teach them. They'd met with Elders once before and didn't like what they learned, but they got excited when we taught them and understood what we believe better. The Spirit was strong. 

 

We taught the cup display lesson a couple times this week. It's a cool lesson where you build the church Christ established using cups. It ends up as a pyramid with apostles as the foundation, and when you take out the apostles the church falls. You build it back into a few smaller pyramids to represent how we got so many churches, and then teach about Joseph Smith and show how the church today is the same as it was when Christ established it. I'm so grateful for the Restoration of the Gospel and that we have apostles and prophets today. I love reading General Conference and I can always feel the Spirit strongly when I do. 

 

One of the times we taught the cup display this week was when we were at a family's home for dinner. Their neighbor came by just as we were starting and sat in on the lesson. She's had a really rocky life and was so sincere in the questions she was asking about God and trials and truth. She's seen how her neighbor's kids are so at peace with the world and she wants that for her own kids. During the lesson we found out that she may've been baptized in the church when she was a little girl because her friend was Mormon. We're excited to teach her again!

 

We were driving to an appointment with some members Sunday night. They live out in the boonies on a dirt road. We were heading down the road pretty fast when a deer came out of nowhere. I don't know how we missed it, but we did! That was a great blessing.

 

I love you all so, so much!

 

Love,

Sister Monson

January 8, 2012 Ward Newsletter

Dear 3d Ward,

Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year!  I hope everyone is well and things are good.

My mission is continuing to be a great experience.  I recently transferred from Missouri to a little branch in Sallisaw, Oklahoma.  I live in a tiny town called Roland.  Sallisaw is just a little bit bigger.  If I come back saying "was" instead of "were," "whenever" instead of "when," and "yous" instead of "you," and if I use phrases like "cut it half in two," then you'll know I've learned my mission language.  The people here are fun and really nice.

We had some wonderful experiences in my last area.  We met a family that I just love.  The man was a convert and he was in the army and got lost soon after getting baptized.  Somehow we got his records and his girlfriend and her daughters started learning and despite of a lot of opposition from family and friends they kept meeting with us and gained testimonies of the Book of Mormon.  I've really found that no one who reads the Book of Mormon sincerely can deny that the Spirit is there as they read, and it testifies of the truth.  They got baptized and one of the girls plans on serving a mission!

In this area we just had the baptism of a girl whose grandparents are recent converts.  Her mom and sister are going to start learning now too.  It's amazing how the Gospel spreads to individuals and then to families.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary.  I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's restored church and that we have the fullness of the gospel.  I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He makes it possible for me and for everyone I love to become better and have peace in theis life and the next.  Thank you for your support!  I love you!

Love,
Sister Monson

January 10, 2012

Hello Family!

This week was good. And ridiculously warm. It's raining today, though.

We met with a kind of new guy this week who was a referral from our
Branch President's wife. He was looking for a church and agreed to
meet with us but then when he found out we were Mormons he changed his
mind. We asked if we could meet with him once and he said that was
okay. The lesson we had with him was really wonderful and the Spirit
was strong. He really liked the scriptures from The Book of Mormon
that we shared. That was a great experience.

Transfer calls came and went and we're still together here. Sister
Williams was expecting to leave so we were surprised. Transfer calls,
or not getting a transfer call, is always a surprise.

I love you all so much!

Love,
Sister Monson

January 3, 2012

Hello Family!

 

This week was a very good one. We met a lot of new people and had a lot of lessons and had new people come to church. Usually we don't meet a whole lot of people tracting,  but people were letting us right in right and left!  It was a great blessing.

 

Sister Ramos is doing well. She and Guicho came to church and had a very good experience. It's the first church she's felt comfortable at. The only member she knew happened to step outside just as she was coming in, so she immediately had someone to sit with. It's amazing to me how much Heavenly Father loves His children, and knows what they need. He helped everything fall into place.

 

We were going to see a lady we'd set an appointment with and she wasn't there.  Her next door neighbor, who we've been teaching, came out and she was having a very hard time.  It was clear that we needed to see her just then.

 

New Year's Eve was good. We had plans to go tracting before an appointment we had, but our district leader called about 30 seconds before we were going to head out the door and told us we couldn't, because people were drinking. We showed each other our pictures for a little bit and then had a good lesson with a recent convert.

 

I love you all so much!  I know this church is true. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to share it.

 

Love,

Sister Monson

December 27, 2011

Dear Family,

 

It was so wonderful to talk to you on Sunday!  It was so fun to hear your voices (Jake sounds so old!)!  I love you so, so much!

 

This week was good. We did some caroling with our zone at a hospital, which was fun, and then with some members of our ward. There's a lady we've been visiting in the nursing home who investigated the church a long time ago but couldn't stop smoking. She was wondering if she should meet with us and when we caroled to her she decided she should!  That was really neat.

We have 3 new baptism dates this week. One is Brother Yule, who we started teaching last week, and the other two are Sister Ramos and her son. They are so sweet and so teachable. She has had questions about the trinity her whole life and felt that God the Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were separate but people always told her they weren't. When we taught her that they were and about how we know that because of Joseph Smith's vision, she was very touched and emotional.

 

After our phone call we went to a family's house for dinner and then we went to the nursing home to visit people. Sister Williams had been feeling anxious about calling home and at the first room she passed out. We went to the emergecy room and were there until passed 9. All the tests they did came back fine.  It was an eventful Christmas, for sure!

 

This week we went to an appointment and the people weren't there. As we were writing a note, the next door neighbor opened her door to smoke. We had talked to her a couple days before and she wasn't very interested. She invited us in to see her butterfly decorations and we shared a Christmas message with her about The Book of Mormon prophecies and Luke 2. She immediately appreciated The Book of Mormon and then as we read Luke 2 she felt the Spirit very strongly. She said she had felt bad for not letting us in before and was so glad we came back. It was a wonderful experience.

 

I love you so, so much!  I'm so glad I got to talk to you and I'm so glad we'll be a family forever.  Happy New Year!!!

 

Love,

Sister Monson