Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hello Family!

 

We're taking our preparation day today since yesterday was a holiday. This past week was good. We taught a boy who is friends with a recent convert and has been coming to church and activities. He wants to have the lessons and is very sincere. He had heard a lot of things about Mormons that weren't true, which he's discovered from coming to church, and teaching him was great. We're excited for him.

 

We also taught a part member family (there are so many here - lots of stubborn husbands :) ). The wife came back to church about a year ago and the husband has never been very religious. As he's made friends in the branch and started coming to church he's changed a lot, though. He told our branch mission leader last week that he can't stand up and say like everyone else that he knows the church is true, but he knows that he feels good at church. He told his wife the day before we taught him that he thinks he should start reading The Book of Mormon.  We're excited for him, too.

 

Yesterday for Memorial Day we walked around a lot (and got pretty burned - Sister Birati always says she burns like a chocolate cake) and went to a get-together the branch had. A lot of our investigators came and some more part member families, so that was good.

 

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

 

Love,

Sister Monson

May 21, 2012

Hello Family!

This past week was a good one. We had Danny's baptism in Sallisaw and it was great. We had a lot of investigators come and he was so happy.  Transfers came and went. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone. I'll miss them and I'll miss Sister Bullough. This new area is good, though. We serve in a ward and a branch. The ward is Cleveland and the branch is Skiatook. I've been in both places a little bit.  We live with a family in Skiatook, where we go on the weekends, and we live in an apartment in Cleveland. The family we live with in Skiatook is a part-member family. They have a beautiful house and they feed us every meal and make ice cream for us. Very sweet people. Sister Birati (pronounced Beedus) is great. She's from Kiribati (pronounced Kittybus). She's a character.  She's a lot of fun and she has a beautiful testimony. Her parents have sacrificed a lot to join the church. She has a twin sister who just got back from serving in temple square and she has a brother serving in Washington DC. Her brothers' names are Sol, David, and Mosiah.

Last night we taught a lady in Cleveland who has met with sisters for awhile but stopped progressing when she learned about the Word of Wisdom. She told us that she's ready to stop smoking now, though, and that she wants to join the church. That was exciting.  

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

Love,

Sister Monson

 Sarah with Sister Watts and Sister Mitchell. Sister Mitchell got baptized the first weekend Sarah was in Sallisaw

 Sarah with Sister Johnson and Brandon

 Sarah with the Lowders whose kids got baptized while she was there

 Danny at his baptism

 Sarah with the Relief Society president

 Sarah with Sister Bullough at the transfer point

On the drive from Mannford to Cleveland, Oklahoma

May 14, 2012

Hi Family!

 

It was so wonderful to talk to you yesterday!  It was fun to hear all of your voices again.  It sounds like you're all doing well!

 

I'll update you on things we didn't talk about on the phone :).  This past week was good.  The brother from the brother/sister pair we're teaching is progressing well. He comes to church and reads and prays and knows the church is true. His baptism is set for June 9th. He doesn't have a testimony yet that the church is the only true church so we're working on that. His sister likes to come to church sometimes and she sits in on the lessons but she doesn't want to join an organized religion.

 

We didn't get to teach the man with 5 kids this week (Ryan) just because of the way things went but we (or the sisters here) will see him soon. Our Cherokee investigator, Henry, wasn't able to come to church but he took the initiative to let us know beforehand and told us why, which doesn't happen often, so we were excited about that. 

 

We taught a member we found tracting and her mother this week. She converted a few years ago but things in her life went downhill and she fell away really quickly. We found out she's the aunt of two Ryan's kids. It's a small world here. All of the people we teach are related in some way, if they're from here originally :).

 

We taught a new family this week. We gave a Book of Mormon to the dad about a month ago. They live down a dirt road in a trailer. We knocked on their door and he answered and was on the rude side. He asked what we wanted and we told him about The Book of Mormon and gave him one. He said he'd read it. I was a little apprehensive to stop by again, but we did and we had a good lesson with their family. He's been reading. Just goes to show, you never can tell :)

 

Tell Charie I loved the package she sent! The trail mix was delicious and the chocolate was too :) A man came to our church last week who was from Payson! He was driving truck. His name is Riley Martin, I think. I may have his name wrong. He knows Charie and Danny and probably some other Quackenbush's too, but I didn't get to talk to him long. It was fun to meet him.

 

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

 

Love,
Sister Monson

May 7, 2012

Hello Family!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC!!!!!!! I'm happy that your birthday has fallen on Preparation Day so I get to tell you on your actual birthday :)

 

This week was very good.  President Merkley came to our ward yesterday! He visited with our investigators and gave the go-ahead for three special needs people to be baptized.  One of them is a 70 year old man named Danny who is like a 7 or 8 year old. He is the cousin of a recent convert. He has such a sweet testimony of the Gospel. Every time he says a prayer he tears up and he always tells us he loves the Lord "every day."  He told President Merkley and then all of us after the interview that he's getting baptized on May 16th, which unbeknownst to him is the day before transfers. We feel like he was very inspired to choose that day.

 

Thank you for your prayers for Sister Johnson!  She bore a beautiful testimony yesterday. Hopefully she'll be able to be baptized soon, with her son who President Merkley also visited with.

 

We had a powerful lesson with the man I wrote about last week who doesn't want to forgive himself. He feels that every church is man-made and corrupt. He felt the Spirit as we talked about the restoration and when we asked if he would read the first chapter of The Book of Mormon he said he would probably read more than that. 

 

We also had a great lesson after church yesterday with a man named Henry. He's Cherokee. We met him about a month or two ago and we've had one lesson with him. Yesterday we read from 3 Nephi 11 and he felt the Spirit strongly and told us he needed to spend more time on this and promised that he would be in church (in the back) on Sunday.  The Book of Mormon is so powerful.

 

About halfway through the week Sister Bullough and I were feeling like we were in a slump.  We decided to have an "out-of-slump day" and made signs and put them up and said a lot of prayers. Heavenly Father blessed us with a lot of wonderful lessons that day and the next.

 

I love you all so much!  I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday!  I'll be calling around 7:30 my time, so 6:30 your time.  I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Monson

April 30, 2012

Hi Family!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW ALLY!!!!!!!!  I'm in denial that you're almost 17, so I'm going to pretend that you're turning 15. HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY!

 

This week was a good one. We met "Lloyd the Drifter" as we were tracting down a dirt road. His name isn't really Lloyd, but it's the name he goes by when he sells the arrowheads he makes. He had made several big birds out of old rakes and tractor parts. He was fun to talk to. 

 

Our investigators are doing well. We've been teaching a brother and a sister. The brother has been reading The Book of Mormon and praying about it and the sister hasn't been interested in really finding out if the church is true, but likes learning about it. They come to church every week. Yesterday after church the brother said he knew The Book of Mormon was true and that he needs to get baptized. He had a powerful spiritual experience that brought him to tears one day when he had read and prayed. His sister decided to get more serious about studying and said she would read and pray as well.  It's amazing that when people really follow Moroni's advice and read and pray sincerely, the Lord will always answer and they'll always know it's true. 

 

We taught a new man this week from Roland who we met one night when we were tracting. It was getting late and everyone we met was telling us we needed to go home so we were debating if we should or not. We decided to go to just one more house and we walked up and he was sitting on his porch looking really discouraged. He told us he believes in God but isn't close to him. He has 5 kids and he's a single dad and he's got a lot of hard things going on. When we came back and taught him he expressed all the guilt he has and his unwillingness to forgive himself. I'm so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ we wouldn't be able to forgive ourselves or be forgiven, but because of Him we can. We can change. We can be different people than we were before. He said if he could really be completely free from his sins in the past, he'd die of happiness. That's the joy that the Gospel brings.  There is no greater happiness.  I'm grateful for this life. I'm learning that it is for changing and becoming more like the Savior, which we can only do with His help. 

 

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

 

Love,

Sister Monson

April 24, 2012

Hello Family!

 

This week was the best of times and the worst of times :).  We had less people come to church than we expected and our baptism can't happen yet because of cigarettes, but we taught the most lessons I ever have in a week, set several baptism dates, and got a lot of new investigators.

 

Zone Conference yesterday was very good. We learned a new way to tract where we pray about a place to go and then tell the people that we are servants of Jesus Christ and we've been led to them. We ask if we can pray for their family. We tried it right after the meeting and got a return appointment with a cute little family that already have a church they attend and might've turned us away if we'd tried something different.  It's always neat to see how our mission president is inspired.

 

We set a baptism date this week with a man named Brother Jackson. He and his wife are going to have their second baby any day. He opened up to us about struggles he's had with church and religion. He's had some bad experiences and he's never known how to tell is something is the truth or not. It was wonderful to teach him about the Spirit and to feel the Sprit testifying to what we taught.

 

We had a talent show this week and it was really fun. We had several investigators come. One of them was Sister Johnson's little autistic son. He sang "I am a Child of God" and he made really funny comments during the rest of the talents. One little boy did gymnastics and he yelled, "he's even handsomer than me!"  It was pretty cute.

 

We met a few bikers who live near the church. One of them had Seventh-day Adventist/Jehovah's Witness views, which make for a pretty intense person, but the visit went well and the Spirit was strong.

 

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

 

Love,

Sister Monson