Molly the Mormon

This week a miracle happened. Six weeks ago, I met Molly. Molly didn't know for sure if God was real, she had questions but didn't really expect her answers to come from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I remember at our first meeting she told me that she didn't understand why we have to obey a lot of the "rules." She told me, "I don't understand why it is wrong, but maybe... If I understood it... I'd want to live it."

As we taught her the lessons Molly genuinely changed. By the end of our third lesson with her she was extending commitments to herself. We sat down to teach a commandment and she told us that after she had read The Book of Mormon she couldn't go back to the things she had been doing. So we basically handed her a pamphlet and said "teach yourself!" :)

As missionaries we are taught to "say nothing but repentance unto this generation." (D&C 6:9) And in teaching Molly, we focused on repentance, and it worked!

Molly was baptized this past Saturday, and what an incredible experience it was to see someone who I have come to love so dearly enter in to the covenant of baptism to truly be cleansed of all her past mistakes.

The Atonement is so real. Jesus Christ suffered and died for us that we can repent and truly be cleansed of our sins. I read in 1 Nephi 21:16 today "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Christ truly took our sins, every single one of them and paid the price we will never be able to pay. The atoning sacrifice of our precious Savior is what can truly keep us going. I know that He Lives. He is my older brother and my best friend. Jesus Christ suffered for all the transgressions we have made. I know it.

I know that the only way to Christ is by making and keeping our covenants! I am so eternally grateful that the Lord put Molly in my path and me in hers. I love this work and I love the gospel!

All my Love,

Sister Megan Monson

new rain boots!

Sister Ireland, Molly, Sister Monson, Sister Rust

They had to describe their companion like a car... Sis Rust is like a red mini of course Sister Monson is a yellow bug :)

cute missionaries

ya think??

The Return of Mr. Jingles

Three weeks ago as Sister Ireland was packing up to leave I saw, out of the corner of my eye, something run across the carpet. I thought I was just seeing things until Sister Ireland saw it too. A mouse. A disgusting little rodent. He came in from the cold and decided to take up residence somewhere in our house. He got into our food and our trash, he left his trace everywhere and we could not tell where in the world he was.

Our Ward Mission Leader named our new roommate "Mr. Jingles" and set out traps in hopes to catch it red handed.

And then we waited...

Fast forward three weeks and there has been no trace of Mr Jingles... Until the cantaloupe...

Mice like cantaloupe. Fun fact. A member gave us a couple of them and neither of us really wanted them... not to be ungrateful but they were on the mushy side anyways. So they sat on our kitchen floor waiting for us to throw away. Of course Mr. Jingles decided that would be a really great snack. We came home to cantaloupe juice everywhere, and traces of Mr. Jingles.

We thought we were in the clear, but no such.

Somehow this applies to the gospel. Like, don't think you're in the clear until you've actually caught the mouse. Or get a cat to protect your home from the powers of Satan's mice... I don't know.

I love you all, Have a great week!

Sister Megan Monson

Faith to Find

Valentines cookie from home

This week we knocked a lot of doors. Many of the doors we knocked on I have knocked on once or twice already, so it was a pretty big trial of my faith. Despite the faith and devotion we showed, no one wanted to talk to us. So we kept knocking and kept talking to people.

As much as it weighed on me, I've had weeks where no one has wanted to listen to me before, but Sister Rust hasn't. I could see throughout the week how much it weighed on her. It broke my heart every time she would try to share the gospel with people and they would not even give her a second glance.

Preach My Gospel teaches, "Some may not accept your message even when they have received a spiritual witness that it is true. You will be saddened because you love them and desire their salvation. You should not, however, become discouraged; discouragement will weaken your faith. If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease, your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the Spirit." Now isn't that a sad picture. It is so easy to get discouraged when door after door after door is slammed in your face. 

But Preach My Gospel also says "When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the Spirit working through you."

Despite not seeing any measure of success throughout the week we still finished out the week feeling like we had done our best, we truly had given our all. We showed up to church and miraculously had two investigators come to church! One was our sweet investigator, Molly! We had an incredible lesson with her this week on the Plan of Salvation. It answered so many of the questions she has had all her life!

We also got new couches this week! Which was super exciting! I haven't had a couch in my house in almost 5 weeks! So it's been nice to have somewhere to sit!

All my love,

Sister Megan Monson

Bedroom in our tiny house

Office in our tiny house

horses and little shetlon pony

Sis Rusts Valentines Cookie

Tiny house upstairs

Tiny house office

New sofa/new carpet

such a lovely front room now

The week of NEW

Usually when you stay in an area your life stays about the same, but mine definitely did not! This week I got a new car, (a carolla! Yay!) new carpets (finally!) and, most importantly, a new companion!

Sister Rust is from the blessed land of South Jordan, Utah! Unfortunately she went to Herriman High School, a pity to be sure. She is incredible and I am just so lucky to get to train her!

This week has been a constant flow of adventures since I picked Sister Rust up on Tuesday.

On Thursday we got the cops called on us! Yay... actually totally not yay. We were rushing to be on time to our 5-7 knocking session and parked in the first place that we could find to be on time. Of course we accidentally parked in front of someone's vacation home, no big. Until that same vacation home got broken into. And who would break into a house but the Sister Missionaries? So we had to hang around for a good forty minutes waiting for them to clear us to go. The man who called the cops described us as "two girls, with those church name tags, probably 25-30 years old." Yep, apparently the combination of dark and rainy adds ten years to my age. The police came, hands on holsters and flashlights in hand. Within seconds of talking to us the officer relaxed and noted, "I really don't think you would be out robbing houses under the pretense of talking about Christ." So he let us go.

Then Friday was a little miracle! I finally got to go to the temple with Steve! We were supposed to go weeks ago, but after many of Satan's distractions, we finally got to go do baptisms with Steve and his wife Patty. It was amazing! Such a wonderful experience to go with them for Steve's first time!

So it has been a good week, a crazy one, but a good one.

All my love, 

Sister Megan Monson

This looks just like what Sister Monson would do to
welcome a new companion

Temple with Sis. Philippi and Patty

Temple with Steve

Sister Bird, the trainer, Sister Monson the new trainer and Sis Rust

 

Sister Rust and Sister Monson

Sister Rust and Sister Monson

It's a GIRL!

On Friday night I couldn't sleep, my mind was racing a million miles a minute thinking of all the possibilities transfer calls could bring. Sister Ireland and I had decided that it was basically for sure that we would be staying together for another transfer. But my mind wouldn't stop. If anyone would leave it would be me, I'd been in the area for longer, but where could I go? My mind kept going. When it was time to get out of bed, I was exhausted my brain could not take another minute. So during personal study Sister Ireland sent me to bed, I was useless without my brain.

About half an hour in I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. Sister Ireland ran upstairs and mouthed to me, "President." My heart stopped. You only get a call from President Blatter if one of you will be going to a leadership position. My first reaction was that Sister Ireland would become a Sister Training Leader and I would stay and get another new companion. The first words out of President's mouth were, "I'm really sorry, Sister Ireland, that you only got to stay one transfer in Shelton. But you'll be going to Southworth!" My brain was confused for a moment, Why had President called us if Sister Ireland wasn't going to be an STL? "That leaves Sister Monson in Shelton," President continued, "and you'll be training!" Shock is literally not even an accurate enough word to describe my reaction. I was basically petrified.

I am so sad that I only got Sister Ireland for 6 weeks, but she truly has changed my life and my mission, and I will miss her terribly. But I am excited, nervous, terrified, happy, and really just freaking out to train a new missionary. This will be a grand adventure! I don't even know her name yet!

All my love,

Sister Megan Monson

PS: When you are trained, your trainer is your "Mom," and the Trainee is a "baby." hence the terminology!

PSS: Sister Monson has decided NOT to count weeks so I guess I won't be adding what week it is on her blog either. But I may still be counting fast Sundays and there are 10 more :) I think!

SNOW!!

SNOW BALLS!

Sister Monson made the little snowman

thumbs up for this gorgeous missionary

such cute sister missionaries, love the hats

Sister Monson made the cute headband!

Week 32:Life is Good and so is God

  

Last Tuesday Sister Ireland was sick as a dog, literally could hardly get out of bed, let alone do missionary work. To be frank, I was a little frustrated, not with Sister Ireland, but with the fact that we had to stay in for a WHOLE DAY. One day inside means one more day that we can't go find those who are ready for the gospel! But we stayed in because we knew that if we went out there was no way Sister Ireland would get better as quickly.

   As we were sitting inside watching The Testaments for the eight billionth time we got a phone call from a Sister Anderson, with a referral for her son's girlfriend, Molly. After getting all the information and chatting with Sister Anderson for a bit, I hung up and Sister Ireland and I just looked at each other. How does that happen? We stayed inside and somehow we still found someone to teach! We decided that that was Heavenly Father's way of telling us, "it's okay, you can stay inside and rest, get better."

sick day activities

     We went about our week looking forward to the appointment we would have with Molly on Sunday, all we knew about Molly is she is dating a member and is our age. Because neither Sister Ireland or I have ever served in YSA wards we haven't been able to teach people our own age before so we were excited for the adventure!

      As we sat down with Molly we asked what questions she had and she admitted that she was agnostic, but never felt right saying that God doesn't exist. She asked us question after question, deeper doctrine questions, ones that I would typically have to go home and study about before I could give an answer. But the words were always there. In Preach My Gospel it says that you can tell you are a successful missionary when you can feel the Spirit working through you, and this was one of those moments. Molly's questions lead us to teaching parts of every lesson we teach. We talked about the atonement and Christ's love, we talked about where we go after this life and how perfect God's plan is. As we talked I could literally see a change in Molly. When we finished our discussion, Molly looked at us, on the verge of tears, and said, "thank you, I know that God is real now. What more can you teach me?" It was truly one of the most spiritual moments of my mission. It was as if when she was realizing that God is real, He was also reminding me of His reality.

    Life is good, my friends, and so is God.

     All my love,

        Sister Megan Monson

Week 31: More Strength to O'ercome

Remember how a few weeks ago I set some New Year's Resolutions? Yeah, Sister Ireland does too, she wouldn't let me forget them, especially when she was asked to do a musical number for sacrament meeting... Naturally her response was "yes, and Sister Monson would love to do it with me!"

One of my most petrifying fears is singing in public, seriously, I haven't even attempted to do it since I was 14 years old. If it came down to speaking in front of a million people or singing in front of 150, I would choose to speak in front of a million people. And I am pretty sure public speaking is the general public's biggest fear.

I figured that there would be no better time to get over my fear than on my mission, so I set one of my goals to get over it, this goal is entitled "More Strength to O'recome." Sister Ireland voluntelling me to sing caused the closest thing to an argument that we have ever had. I fought it for a while until I realized that the longer I fought it, the less time I would have to practice and the bigger the train wreck would be. So I succumbed and we chose to sing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."

Standing up at the pulpit was literally the most terrifying experience of my entire life. My body vibrated I was shaking so bad. But hey, I did it and now maybe my crazy companion will let me slide now!

I love "I Know that My Redeemer Lives," it is basically like bearing your testimony through song, and isn't that why God gave us the ability to sing?

D&C 25:12 For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.

God gives us talents for some reason or another and we have to figure out why. I don't profess to be a great singer, in fact I have lost most of what talent I ever did have due to neglect of my voice. But God did give me a voice and I will praise Him day in and day out for His goodness to me!

All my love,

Sister Megan Monson

PS: on a less Spiritual note: Every transfer I have a word in Ratchet (the language of Tacoma) to help me learn to speak it, this transfer's word is Janky. To explain Janky here is a janky hotel and a janky bridge:

And we also put a pass along card in a bottle and sent it off to sea... someday we will hear a story about someone walking along the beach and realizing they needed to be baptized, just watch.

Pictures from the Mission blog