Week 12: Improve the Shining Moments

     I have literally never heard the song that this letter is titled after, but the lyrics are nice! This week has been a little bit discouraging to be frank. We knocked into an atheist the other day that lectured us for a solid 15 minutes on why God is not real, and then we knocked into a Pentecostal who bashed us for a solid 45 minutes on why we need to start speaking in tongues to be saved (yeah that is really not true!). Bad things happen; unfortunately it is a part of life and a huge part of missionary work.

    But good things happen all the time too! Like just yesterday we knocked into a guy named Bill who owns a candy business that sells band-aid shaped chocolates, and he gave us a huge bag of chocolates because they were broken! Seriously, so nice!

     Highlight of the week is an amazing Latina woman named Letty. Letty is Roman Catholic (for now :)) and she has been talking with sister missionaries for a really, really long time. She has not progressed ever, in fact she hadn't even really gotten through the entire first lesson ever before. Generally if an investigator isn't progressing the missionaries don't keep going over, but Letty is an exception. We went over to chat and stay for 30 minutes or less, we wanted to get the first lesson in and see if she would keep a commitment. We wound up being there for 2 hours, Elder Holland once said that something everyone says will eventually lead back to the gospel, so just listen. That is so true!!! Letty has started questioning her beliefs since her church got a new pastor, and she was so devastated. Eventually I asked her, "Letty, do you even know what makes our church different from other Christian churches?" She thought for a second and replied, "No, I don't think I've ever known..." It was the perfect opening to speak about the Restoration of the Gospel. It has taken many sets of sisters, but Letty is finally ready to hear the Gospel! We talked about the Book of Mormon and helped her get the gospel Library App so she can listen to it in Spanish. We talked about Temples and how families can be together forever, Letty cried and told us that she had always wanted four children. She said that it must have been God's will that she only had 2 because Sister Bird and I have become like the completion of her family. 

     God works in mysterious ways sometimes, I can't say that I always understand it, but I know that everything happens for a reason. 

     Have a wonderful week!

      All my love,

        Sister Megan Monson

Week 11: Be BOLD, or italic, never regular

pencil case

   That is a joke that any good English major would appreciate. I saw it on a pencil case in the Museum of Glass this week, and I found it inspirational. Be Bold, or Italic, never regular.

    There is nothing normal about missionary work, no average 19 year-old in their right mind would choose to get up at 6:30 every single day, run a mile, study for two hours and then spend the rest of their day in the service of others. Not to mention choosing to wear your Sunday best every single day. The very existence of missionaries screams "crazy!" Every day missionaries go out and serve, they go out and teach and they use all their might to be as bold as possible.

    Being bold is never easy, I was taught my whole life not to talk to strangers, and now what do I do all day? Talk to strangers. But I couldn't be happier! I get to invite every person I talk to to come closer to my best friend, Jesus Christ! How amazing is that?

    This week something amazing happened. When I first got here, one of the First assignments Bishop gave us was to start meeting with this less active woman named Kelli. Kelli had a series of unfortunate events happen recently and was living in a shelter, worked insane hours that prevented her from going to church, and her relationship with her fiance was suffering. The first time we met with Kelli we invited her to start paying her tithing, because we know that tithing really does help. Although she had her reservations, she agreed and started paying the very next day. After that, the miracles started happening. Kelli and her fiance made up and he started investigating the church with some missionaries in a neighboring ward, her job allowed her to take enough to to go partake of the sacrament, Kelli was able to leave the shelter behind and she and her fiance were married. The biggest miracle was that we were able to see her new husband be baptized on Saturday. God is a God of miracles. We said good-bye to Kelli for likely the last time after the baptism, and as we all embraced, we cried, and Kelli just said "thank you." I cannot say that I did anything, But the Lord did everything.

    God is so good, my friends! I'm reminded of something the Savior said in Mark 10:27,"with men it is impossible, but not with God: For with God, all things are possible."

   Happy Labor Day!

    All my love!

     Sister Megan Monson

Sister Monson

harbor

sisters at the museum

glass ceiling

glass fruit bowl

glass creature

glass blowing

Stadium Ward Building

Glass pig

Glass museum ceiling

Week 10: Ten Days in Tacoma

   Not having a P day on Monday is seriously the weirdest thing! It felt like we were all "go, go, go!" but you can really only do that for so long! So I am exhausted! But it has been a constant crazy for the past 10 days!

Sister Bird, Kelli, Sister Monson

Planner cover

   We taught Ann on Tuesday and Wednesday and it was wonderful! We felt like she was so prepared and we were ready to call and reserve the font! But on Thursday disaster struck! Ann is gone. She lived with one of our less actives, and they got in a huge fight, Ann got kicked out and it turns out she was lying to us the whole time and wasn't keeping any of her commitments... So that was a fun. 

    So, yet again, we are back to square one. Yay. So it's more knocking on doors, more talking to people and even more praying to find people to teach! This week Sister Bird and I are really working on having hope to find people to teach. We have been told that Knocking is dead in Lincoln, over and over again people have told us that there is no one to find. But if you go to 5-7s thinking that it's pointless, that you're just knocking for obedience and it doesn't actually do anything, then it really won't do anything, you really aren't going to find anyone. So we are trying our hardest to have hope that there really are people to teach, even in Lincoln.

Cartoon Sister Monson

    On Sunday we sang at a Bishop's Youth Fireside... It was an adventure to be sure! Elder Jocelyn got to come back from Gravely Lake to sing with us! We sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" again, but we only had a piano copy of the music so the Elders kept forgetting the words! So it was slightly the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened! For our other number we sang "Amazing Grace," which is our mission song. So we had Elder Jocelyn's new companion and Elder Pipe's new companion join us and it was much less chaotic!

Elder Uceda

    Nothing gets you more pumped to find people to teach than having two members of the quorum of the seventy come and talk to your mission! That was the privilege we had as a mission this Monday! Elders Uceda and Clayton came on a mission tour and talked to us about how to be better missionaries! It was so awesome to have counsel meant just for our mission given to us, of how to work with members, and how to teach people better, it was seriously so cool, I can't even describe it!
   On Tuesday Morning Sister Bird and I got a phone call we never expected! Elders Clayton and Uceda wanted to interview just 24 missionaries in the whole mission, and we had been chosen! Like, what????? It is not every day that you get to be interviewed by a seventy! Elder Uceda and I had an amazing conversation about mission life. It was like talking to an old friend, someone who just wanted to hear about me. He asked about my family and how I am doing on my mission, and he looked me straight in the eyes, and told me that I will be an angel to the people here in Tacoma, that two "angels" had knocked on his door many years ago in Peru and that they were just like me. It was incredible to hear a servant of the Lord promise me that.

    This work is incredible! There is so much to learn and every day I get a little bit better, every day I get a little closer to my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary! I love the gospel!

All my Love,

Sister Megan Monson

nothing is boring with Elder Pipe

This is what we sent the ward members when Elder Jocelyn was transferred

back cover of planner

Week 9: Small and Simple things...

A little fun with the camera

When Alma was speaking to his son Helaman he taught him that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6) As I read this verse this week, I realized something, I am small. Many people remind me of this fact, I know that I am small. I am also simple, my brain and my thoughts are infinitesimally simpler than God's. I am small, I am simple, and, hopefully, through this small and simple thing God can make great things come to pass!

    This week we taught an amazing woman named Ann. We have been teaching her for a while now and you can literally see the difference the gospel is making in her life, it is as if someone flipped a switch and her whole demeanor has shifted dramatically. We were talking about coming to church and praying with her. Her one hold up on her baptism is that she keeps not coming to church! So we were talking about it with her we talked about a story that was just perfect, it's found in 2 Kings 5:

1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria,was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

 2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid;and she waited on Naaman’s wife.

 3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

 4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

 5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying,Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

 7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

 8 ¶And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot,and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said,Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean

 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

    I love verse 13, because the Lord is not asking is to do anything that is impossibly hard, He is simply asking us to do those small and simple things that will bring us closer to Him and allow us to return to Him some day! We taught Ann that these are not hard things, that these things are not impossible to do, but that as we do them we will be blessed. I know that that is true, that as we do those things that are "seminary answers" that we will grow closer to our Heavenly Father and that He will bless us enormously!

    I had an amazing tender mercy this week! My retainer broke soon after I got here to Washington, Bummer! I am not one of those people who can get away without wearing my retainer, my teeth do not like to stay put! So I had to go get a new one made. Sister Anderson (my bishop's wife) suggested I get Dr. Bird to do it for me, so I went and got the impressions done and a few days later went to pick it up. When I reached for my wallet the receptionist waved me off and said "No charge!" which was awesome because retainers cost a lot of money! It doesn't end there! When I opened up the retainer case there was not one but TWO new retainers. What a tender mercy, that an amazing Dentist would be kindhearted enough to help me out! Blessings!

    Transfers were this week and I am staying in Lincoln for another six weeks! Random fact, I won't be writing until next Wednesday because we have a zone conference next Monday! Have a wonderful week!

All my love,

Sister Megan Monson

The Bateman's, wonderful friends

Our District

Love the Puget Sound

Beautiful view of the Sound and Tacoma City