July 3, 2012

Hello Family!

This past week was a good one, and a full one. We had a mission tour yesterday and met President Shumway so our preparation day is today.  

My new companion is Sister Meredith. She's a sweet girl, very excited and energized to do missionary work (it's hard for her to even take time to eat lunch :) ).  She's from California. 

The day of transfers we were told we would be there all day in order to be companions with a sister who would be companion-less because of transfers, so I didn't plan anything. When we got there, though, we found out she had other sisters to stay with, so I had an empty day and a brand new missionary. It ended up being one of the greatest days of my mission, though. All day long we met people and had lessons and saw miracles. 

In the evening we were walking by a house that me and past sisters had been to before for different reasons, never with success. Our branch president's cousin lives there so he sent us, and sisters had gotten a media referral for a girl who wanted a Book of Mormon, but had been told she didn't live there.  Some people were outside so we went to talk to them. One of the girls said she had met lots of missionaries before and had several Book of Mormons but as we talked she started asking us questions and then let us come up and teach her and the other people there. We met the girl who had requested the Book of Mormon (she lived there after all) and we were able to finally give her one. The first girl is overcoming alcoholism and is so receptive! We asked if she wanted to come to church with us and she said she did. It's amazing how the Lord sent missionaries there over and over.

We have an investigator who was struggling with the Word of Wisdom. He didn't understand why it mattered if he drank coffee or not. We asked him to pray about it. We saw him yesterday and he told us he hadn't drunk any coffee before church on Sunday. He had mountain dew instead and was fine. He looked so happy. It was wonderful.  

President and Sister Shumway are wonderful!  When we got to mission tour I was feeling a little unsure about things. I knew the Lord had called President Shumway but I wasn't ready to let go of my allegiance to President Merkley. As he spoke and as I met him, though, the Spirit confirmed to me that it was right and good and that I could look forward and not backward.  That was a blessing.

I love you all so much!  I hope you have a wonderful week! Happy 4th of July!

Love,
Sister Monson