April 16, 2012

Hello Family!

We're pretty much going to email on Mondays now as much as we can. We
have a limited amount of miles and it takes a lot to drive to Sallisaw
on Mondays, which is why we got permission to email on Tuesdays when
we're in Sallisaw. We've decided it's worth the sacrifice, though, and
we'll save miles somewhere else. Next week we have Zone Conference on
Monday, though, so we'll be emailing on Tuesday.

This past week was very, very good. Our branch became a ward on
Sunday!  That was very exciting.  They've been struggling to became a
ward for years now, and Sister Bullough and I are very lucky to be the
missionaries here now that it's happened. There's a Bishopric now and
a lot of changes in callings. We had a lot of investigators come, and
it was cool for them to see how the church works.

Our investigators are doing well. Sister Johnson is doing great with
not smoking!  It's been such a struggle for her, but her testimony of
the Lord's love and the help He gives has grown very much. We're
looking at having a baptism next week!

We met a lot of new people this past week and several of them were
families. A lot of them have been looking for a church and were very
open to learning. We're excited to see what happens.

We met with a Baptist pastor at his church Friday morning. It was a
little on the intimidating side to talk to him, and he wasn't
incredibly open, but it was a good opportunity to share our
testimonies of the Restoration with someone who influences a lot of
people in the community.

We met an inactive member a couple weeks ago who hadn't been to church
in years. He wasn't raised in a strong LDS family and his records were
never moved when he moved. We met with him last night and he's excited
to come back to church and to bring his kids and start doing Family
Home Evenings.

I love you all so, so much!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Monson

April 9, 2012

Hi Family!

First of all, I am so, so excited to hear that Kristen and John's baby
is a healthy boy!!  Yay!  I hope your Easter was wonderful!

This week was adventurous. And a little disastrous.  But, the work is
moving forward :)

Sister Johnson is still doing very well. She has such a strong
testimony. The only thing standing in her way of baptism is
cigarettes.  I hate those guys.  She is so determined, though, and I
think this time she'll be able to stop for good. She's started the
church's addiction recovery program. She is working on converting her
whole apartment complex and has set up appointments for us to meet
with her friends and family. Her sons invited their friend to church
and did well there.

We taught a new family last week who let us right in while we were
tracting in Muldrow. They were so open and the Spirit was strong. It's
wonderful to have experiences like that.

This week was disastrous in part because three of our investigators
were excited and ready to come to church but didn't get to for reasons
that weren't their fault or ours.  It was good that they were wanting
to come, though!  Next week...

Our Easter was good. Thank you so much for the baskets!  We've been
enjoying them :).  We had a delicious meal with a family in the ward
and a couple of families gave us baskets.

Transfers were last week and we are in the clear for another six
weeks. It's great being companions with Sister Bullough.

I love you all so, so much!

Love,
Sister Monson

April 3, 2012

Dear Family,

 

Happy Birthday Mom!!!! I love you!!!!

 

This week was a good one. We got a wonderful new investigator we weren't expecting. We had dinner with a family in the branch who is a little less active and their son's girlfriend was there, wanting to learn about the church!  She'd already been on mormon.org.  She's been reading and praying and she's felt the Spirit.  She happily accepted when we asked if she would be baptized as she continues to feel good about the church.

 

Sister Ramos had a lot of medical problems this past week. It's amazing all the junk Satan throws in the way when people are working towards baptism. She's feeling better now, though, and she and her son should be getting baptized this month!

 

General Conference was amazing! We watched it at the church and at members' homes.  A few of our investigators got to watch it and felt the Spirit. I wish everyone in the world had watched it! I've really, really seen on my mission the difference in the lives of people who have strong families. We talk to a lot of poor people who are in bad circumstances spiritually, and none of them were raised in a family with a good mom and dad who were married and taught them about the Gospel. It makes me very grateful.

 

My testimony of the Holy Ghost has been strengthened a lot on my mission. Last night a couple of our appointments fell through and we both felt like we should visit an older lady who can't really progress as an investigator that we met a few weeks ago. We stopped by and met her daughter who is a lost member of the church and has been thinking about coming back. We also were prompted to talk to some people who were sitting across the street from an appointment we'd just come out of. The wife had done a lot of family history work at church libraries and had a lot of other run-ins with the church, and the husband had been baptized when he was a lot younger. God loves His children so much, and He leads us to them. It's a great feeling to know you are where you are supposed to be.

 

I love you all so much!  Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Monson