Royal Palm Beach August 21, 2017

Hi everyone!

It has been a great week! It started off with the usual transfer day of craziness. We all pack up our stuff, and the whole mission meets at a church near the mission home to exchange. The next hour is full of greeting old companions, finding your new companion, and then trying to transfer all of your belongings (including your bike) from one car to the other. It's a lot of fun.

I met my new companion Sister Peterson, and she is great! She is from Bountiful, Utah. She went to Utah State before the mission to study Biomedical engineering. She has been out on her mission the same amount of time as me, so we go home at the same time. We live with two other sisters, Sister Oliverson and Sister Long. They are crazy, but super fun. Sister Oliverson goes home at the end of this transfer, and Sister Long has been out for 4 transfers.

It has been lots of fun being an STL so far, it is weird how much I love the sisters, even though I haven't met most of them yet! We did meet 2 of them during a fire exchange this week (we meet up and knock doors for 1 hour together). It was fun to get to know them.

We are working with an adorable little family of investigators! I love them! Their names are Freddy and Darlyne, and then they have 3 little kids (Jaylene-7, Freddy-4, Elijah-2 months). They live in a sketchy trailer park, and are really struggling right now. They are working to quit smoking, but that has been a real struggle for them, so we are working on that! They are also trying to get married, but Darlyne was married when she was 18 and then separated that same year. She was never legally divorced, but she has no idea where her husband is which makes it tricky to finalize everything. They can't get married until they get her other divorce finalized, so we are praying that everything will be able to work out with the court this week. Darlyne grew up as a Catholic, and she is from Puerto Rico. She speaks both Spanish and English (yay!). Freddy is from New York and has no religious background, so everything is very new for him. They are both so humble and ready to learn. We have met with them several times this week, and they came to church yesterday!

We also had the chance to bring our bishop with us to a lesson so that he could bless their home. They have been seeing spirits and things in there, so they asked for a blessing on the home and for themselves as well. After the bishop gave them a blessing they asked if he could bless all their kids too, they loved it, and the spirit was really strong. A cool experience that happened was on Saturday we got a text from Darlyne saying that Freddy wasn't feeling good so they wouldn't be able to make it to church. We were bummed. However, around 10:20 at night we get a call from them and they are really freaked out because they think the spirits are back in their home again. We told them to say a prayer together as a family, and to turn on some hymns. They decided that they could not afford to miss church the next day, and that they would come no matter what. I guess it was a blessing in disguise, but they have been feeling a lot better since church. I really think that we will be able to help them have the gospel in their lives, and they need it!

Yesterday was great being able to meet the ward. They are all really nice. Last night we ate dinner at our ward mission leaders house, and his wife is from Honduras. She made us baleadas, so I was pretty much in heaven.

I'm so grateful to be here, and to serving as a representative of our Savior. I know He lives, and loves us!

Love, Sister Monson

Last Week in Silver Lakes. August 15, 2017

Hello everyone, 

I hope you have all been enjoying the end of Summer! I found out last night that I will be transferring again to the area of Royal Palm Beach. I don't really know anything about the area, and I don't remember meeting my companion, but her name is Sister Peterson. I will also be serving as an STL in my new area, so I am excited for that! Sister Dees will also be transferring out, and she will be going to Fountainbleau (one of my past areas, I'm so excited for her!).

I have really enjoyed my last week here in Silver Lakes. I have loved these last few weeks with Sister Dees. This week started off with an awesome P-Day water balloon fight with our zone, that was really lots of fun. We each brought 100 water balloons, so by the time we finished we were completely soaked! That night we felt inspired to be in a certain neighborhood, and at the very last door we found a woman named Yuneyki and her daughter Ivanna. They both listened to our message, and after we had finished sharing the first vision Yuneyki was speechless. The spirit was so strong, and she got really emotional. Sister Dees and I came away from that lesson feeling like the Spirit was definitely the one in charge because we were both on the same page the whole time. We have since lost contact with them, we aren't sure what happened, but we are hoping that the new sisters in this area will be able to continue teaching them!

On Wednesday we had our first Zone Conference with President Garns, and it was absolutely amazing. He has not made a lot of changes to rules or anything, but he has taken a new perspective on how to do missionary work. He wants us to focus on being more led by the spirit, and rather than trying to think "outside the box", he told us that "there is no box". Rather than trying to fit the box of a "perfect missionary," he told us to rely on the Spirit and make it personal, because the Lord has placed US in a SPECIFIC area for a certain reason. I loved it! President Garns is just amazing. It is always fun to see old companions as well. My favorite part of Zone Conference, as always, is when we sing "We Are As The Army of Helaman" at the end. President and Sister Garns can never make it through without crying, so it is pretty special. 

On Thursday we ended up teaching Rosa and Ronald, a sweet couple from Honduras. We were trying really hard to implement what we had learned in Zone Conference, and follow the spirit better. After some questions, and a little bit of digging, we found out that Ronald has a niece who is a member of the church, and that he has always had questions about it. We were so excited to share a Book of Mormon with them, and help them understand what we know to be true. We have not heard from them since, but we know that the seed has been planted!

At church on Sunday there is a sweet, slightly crazy, old lady in our branch named Hermana Rodriguez. We ended up sitting next to her in sacrament meeting, and we came out of the meeting crying from laughing so hard. Our first counselor in the branch was giving a talk about tithing, and as he was reading the scripture about "bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house" she was CRACKING UP!! She was laughing so hard, like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. She just kept looking at us, and pointing her thumb towards the pulpit with a face like "who is this guy?" We just tried to keep her from disrupting the entire meeting, but she thought it was so funny! I just love her. 

Yesterday we had a blitz with our zone leaders and the Sisters we live with. We all agreed on a spot to meet, but when we arrived we found out it was gated, so Sister Dees and I looked around a bit, and found an apartment complex to knock. Everyone met us there instead, we prayed, then split up to go knock on doors. Sister Cook and I thought it was weird that every door seemed to have a card reader in order to get in, but we were pretty proud of ourselves when we managed to sneak into the 2nd floor. Pretty proud until we found the "guest laundry." Upon further inspection we realized we were not in an apartment complex, we were in a hotel! Haha, woops! That would explain all the card readers on the doors and everything. We all had a good laugh about that. 

It has been another great week. Even though it sometimes seems like we are not able to see the fruits of our efforts, I know Heavenly Father is pleased when we are diligent in His service. There is no more important work than the salvation of souls, and I know that comes because of Jesus Christ. 

I love you all!

Hermana Monson

Silver Lakes Week 4 August 7, 2017

Hello!

It has been another great week here in Florida! I just love this place! Even though it is getting super super hot, the sunsets and the flowers and the people all make up for it. 

We have had a really slow week, not a lot of people to teach. What broke our hearts was when Sergio (the man that unexpectedly showed up to church last Sunday with his wife) called us one morning and said that he was not interested in learning more. We don't know what changed, but we were sad to hear it. We dropped by their house, but they weren't home so we left them each a Book of Mormon with a little note. We know that someday they will get baptized! It is just not their time yet.

One cool thing that happened was when we were going to share a message with a lady in our ward named Sister Sylva. I have so much respect for her. Her husband used to be a bishop, but he has become less-active. She comes to church every single week by herself, and is one of the most faithful people I've ever met. We made them cookies, and were planning to sneakily invite her husband to eat cookies with us and then share the message. As we were praying in the car before we went inside we both received the impression that the message we had originally prepared was not what we needed to share. So, we both sat there for a minute thinking of what to share instead, and we both came up with the same Mormon Message called "The Hope of God's Light." We went inside, and Brother Sylva arrived home from a bike ride just as we walked in. Miracle #1. We asked him if he would like to join us, he hesitated, but agreed to listen after he changed. Miracle #2. They both opened up to us a lot, and we were able to establish a good relationship with him. Then we shared the video. The Spirit was so strong, and afterward we had them each share some of their thoughts. Without us even asking, Brother Sylva opened up to us about how he came to know God existed, and the first time he met the missionaries. Miracle #3. They both enjoyed the visit, and the cookies. He did not come to church yesterday, but we are determined to keep working with him! He definitely felt the Spirit during our visit and we were very grateful for the prompting we'd received. 

Another miracle we saw was when we were on our bikes. We were biking through a little trailer park around 3 in the afternoon, it was very hot, and there were not a lot of people outside. We spotted a man in the distance walking his dog, so we went over to talk to him. He introduced himself, and we were so excited when he did it in Spanish! We had not had a lot of luck with finding Spanish people that day. We got talking to him, and he started asking us all about our missions and what we do. We explained to him, and he told us some of his beliefs as well. Somewhere in there, he mentioned that he really likes to read, and I had the thought to give him a Book of Mormon. We ended up explaining the Book of Mormon to him, and he was very excited to read it. He declined a return appointment, but he said that he knew it was not a coincidence that we had run into him because he was brand new in the area, and he never walks his dog at that time of day. Sometimes it's the small miracles that are just so amazing, I love how Heavenly Father helps us to be in the right place at the right time. Even though we don't always see the fruits of our efforts or our sacrifices right away, it is just a blessing to be able to serve the Lord. 

Nothing else too exciting this week, but we are expecting more miracles this next week! I can't believe it is already the end of another transfer. I guess time flies when you are having fun. I love you all!

Love, Hermana Monson

                               Ikea is our new favorite place to eat.  It is so cheap if you go after 6!

                                                       My tan line from bike day.

                                                                    House pic!

                                                                  Us being crazy!

Pictures!!! July 31, 2017

                             Visit to Hollywood Beach on P-Day with Katrina and Rowdy!

                                                                 District Training

                                               Sunburned and sweaty after our bike day!

                    Member sent us with pizza in Tupperware.  Good luck with that on a bike!

                                                 Zone wide exchange with Sister Smith.

Silver Lakes July 31, 2017

Hola!

It has been a great week!

It started of on Monday (like most weeks usually do). There is an awesome member named Katrina that took us to Hollywood beach. She LOVES missionaries, and so does her husband Rowdy. She was an alcoholic and a drug addict all of her life, Rowdy was a drug lord. They were found by missionaries 5 years ago, and  have completely turned their lives around. They are doing so good now, and they feel so grateful to all of the missionaries. They have a fridge on their front porch that is dedicated to missionaries, so anytime we are in the neighborhood we can go get a popsicle or a cold drink. They are awesome! Anyway, they took us to Hollywood beach. It was the most beautiful beach I've ever seen! The sand was white, the water was blue, and there was a cute little cobblestone pathway behind with icecream shops, so of course we had to get icecream. We also got to go on the pier, we had the most amazing view of the ocean. It was so fun. Katrina has SO much energy, and just never stops talking. Rowdy has a country accent, is more quiet, but has the best sense of humor. He wrote a book about his time as a drug lord called "The Man With 17 Names." They were so kind to us, and we had a great day. 

That night we were exhausted from our trip to the beach, but we went out to work with high faith. We felt really inspired to be in a particular neighborhood, we did not see any success, and we were about to return to the car. We decided to just knock 2 more doors, the last door was a man named Sergio. He had us pray for him and his wife who has cancer. He really appreciated the prayer, but did not seem interested in hearing our message. We left, not sure exactly why we had been in that neighborhood, but knowing we had given it our all. Fast forward to Sunday. We are walking out of ward council, and some members come up to us. They tell us to follow them so they lead us to the foyer where Sergio and his wife are both sitting there waiting for church to start! We were so shocked to see them because we had not had any contact with him for over a week. Sometimes even the people we call 5 times to remind about church don't come, so we were so excited to see him there! He told us that he remember our prayer, and they decided to come! Our church starts with gospel principles, and they had to leave right after due to a previous commitment. We were not able to teach them, but they assured us that they would be back next Sunday. However, they did accept our baptismal invitation, and they are set to be baptized on August 26th! It was such a cool miracle! We are going to be teaching them later tonight.

On Wednesday we were both feeling pretty stressed. We had just come away from our district training feeling overwhelmed by all the things we need to do to help our area. We prayed for help, and went to work that day. By the end of the night we ended up with 3 new investigators! One of them lives with a member from our ward so we were able to teach her during dinner (the most delicious arepas of all time). The other two came from a man that we talked to in the park. At first he didn't want to accept a message, but after talking to us for a little bit he invited  us back to teach him and his wife. We know the spirit was able to work on him, and they ended up being 2 new investigators as well! They arrived to the US from Venezuela only 15 days ago, so they were excited to hear some "Americans" speaking Spanish!

On Friday we had a zone-wide exchange. I got to work with Sister Smith (not my former companion, a different one). I was in the English area called Plantation. It was my first time in a "English only" area, and it was a little ironic because we ended up talking to this little latin janitor for 40 minutes when we were knocking doors in an apartment complex. Sister Smith was so much fun! We just laughed our heads off the entire time. We also saw some cool miracles, they ended up with a new investigator which they haven't had for over a week, so that was lots of fun. We met back up as a zone on Saturday to switch back. 

On Saturday night we ate dinner with our ward mission leader and his wife. After that they came with us to visit a less-active part member family. The visit went well, the Davalos were so excited to have us in their home (Sister Davalos is less active, her husband is not a member). We were able to share a brief message about the  Book of Mormon, then they told us that they had cooked us dinner! Our ward mission leader threw us under the bus and said "I'm already full because we ate before we came, but I'm sure the sisters saved some room!" We ended up eating 2 dinners that night, needless to say we were a little full, but the food was delicious! We are going to keep teaching Rolando, they are the nicest couple. He came to church as well yesterday, he has already been a few times, so the whole ward is really good at fellowshipping him. 

That's about all for this week! It has been a crazy week with lots of biking, lots of sun, lots of food, and lots of miracles! I'm so grateful to be a missionary, and to share the important message of Jesus Christ. I love you all!

Love, Hermana Monson

Silver Lakes Week 2, July 24, 2017

Hello everyone!

It has been another wonderful week here in Florida! 

Monday we had a zone activity complete with volleyball, a potatoe sack race, double dutch, and ice cream. It was a little random, but so much fun! 

Tuesday was one of my very favorite days of my whole mission. The morning was pretty normal, with studies and knocking doors. However, that night we had the opportunity to go to the temple with Patricia. Patricia is a recent convert that was baptized the week before I got to this area. She is divorced, and her son has been living with his dad. He got baptized while living with his dad, and is currently serving a mission in Colombia. I bet he was so excited to hear that his mom got baptized! Anyway, the temple was so amazing. I had not been to the temple in a year, and as soon as I walked in I felt so much peace. Sister Dees and I had not been expecting to be able to participate in baptisms, we thought we would only be able to watch. Turns out they changed the rule, and we were able to do baptisms as well. We all got changed, and were waiting in the chapel when the temple president came to speak to us and the other group of youth we ended up with. He was going around asking who everyone was being baptized for, then he noticed Patricia. We translated between the two of them, and when he found out that it was her first time in the temple and that she was being baptized for her grandmother he started to cry. The spirit was so amazing. Patricia could not stop smiling, and neither could I! She said she had never felt so peaceful or so happy. Sister Dees came out of the temple rejuvenated and so happy. I just love that place. 

On Wednesday we had interviews with President Garns. It was so awesome to get to know him a little better. He is so easy to talk to, and I really appreciate the way he views missionary work. He talked to Sister Dees and I a lot about simply following the spirit as we are teaching. Sometimes we get it in our heads that there is one way to do missionary work, and if we aren't doing it that way we are not being good missionaries. However, he assured us that as long as we are following the Spirit, we are doing what the Lord would have us do. It takes a lot of stress off when you think about it that way. Plus, President Garns likes tennis too, so he is a pretty cool guy. 

On Thursday all of our appointments fell through, so we ended up making lots of unexpected visits to people.

Friday we went on a full day exchange with our STLs. I got to go with Sister Dimond, I lived with her last transfer, so we had a ton of fun! We started off the day doing service at a place called Flamingo Gardens. It is the most rainforesty zoo/peacock preserve/dinosaur museum ever! It was DOWNPOURING rain, so we just took two umbrellas and felt like adventurists as we walked through the rainforest picking up trash and peacock feathers. It was awesome. We also ended up talking to this adorable old paleontologist that was very excited to show us his dinosaur bones and even more excited when he found out we were Mormons. He had lived in Utah for a long time, so we invited him to church! After that we made a visit to a sweet old lady from our branch named Virginia Rodriguez. We were supposed to be eating dinner with her, but first we asked her if she would take us to visit her friend who was a former investigator living in the same apartment complex. She was overjoyed that we had remember her friend "Blancita." Turns out Blanca was the most adorable 80 year old lady ever, and she could hardly talk. When we arrived there was another visitor named Sylvia, the fanciest and craziest little old Cuban lady I've ever met with an abundance of blue eye shadow and a HUGE ring on each finger. The three of them ended up in an adorable argument about whether or not Blanca should be moved to a nursing home. Blanca was insisting that was where she should go, at the same time that Sister Rodriguez was insisting that she stay in her apartment, meanwhile Sylvia was talking louder than them all and insisting that Blanca could just use her spare electric chair. She was even demonstrating how easy it was to use her electric chair by yelling "Adelante!" and "A tras!" While propelling herself forward and backward. Sister Dimond and I were cracking up. 45 minutes later we finally managed to sneak out of there, and we decided to treat ourselves to a place called Bolay for dinner. It was the weirdest combination of sweet potatoes, cilantro noodles, and tofu you could put in a bowl, but it was absolutely delicious. That night we did some normal knocking and visits, nothing too exciting happened though. 

On Saturday we switched back and Sister Dees and I continued our ongoing search for new investigators. We did not find anyone, but we did get to visit Patricia. We showed her the video of the Restoration, which she loved, and then downloaded Meet the Mormons for her which she loved too. We then helped her to pack up some boxes because she is going to be moving apartments next weekend. She will still be living close, just in the next building over.

On Sunday morning we had a great day at church. I love going to church and seeing all of the members, that is one of my favorite parts of the week. Other than that we had a lot of appointments fall through, so we got to continue looking for new investigators. We have not seen a lot of success with that this week, but we have definitely planted a lot of seeds! One thing that was cool was while we were knocking doors yesterday we saw two women sitting on their porch a little ways away, we went over to talk to them, before we could do more than introduce ourselves one of them hurriedly excused herself to go inside. The other one declined a message or a prayer, but after talking to her for a minute she changed her mind and conceded that she really could use a prayer. She spent the next 30 minutes telling us about some very hard things that she is going through right now including a restraining order on her x boyfriend, drug addictions, unemployment, and trying to raise her 9 year old daughter. She was so moved by the prayer, and said she knew that God had sent us there at that time. We were so glad to be able to be in the right place at the right moment to help one of God's children. She speaks English, so we passed her information to the English missionaries. Hopefully they will continue teaching her. 

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

Love, Hermana Monson

                                                             Temple visit with Patricia!

                                   Exchange with Sister Dimond, who I lived with before.

Silver Lakes Week 1 - July 17, 2017

Hello everyone, 

I hope this email finds you well. I am doing great! My new area has been so awesome, and I just love Sister Dees. She is from Orem, she has flaming red hair, she has been on her mission for 3 months, and she is just tons of fun. 

Monday was my last full day in Miami Lakes. That night we had a Family Home Evening activity for less-active and recent converts. There was a ton of ward members that came, and they were all so concerned at the possibility that Sister Smith and I would be transferring out. We were also so happy when Alideisy came. She is a little shy, but I think she ended up having a really good time. We had a lesson, then played a game where we set up a huge circle of chairs in the gym with a blindfolded person in the middle. Then someone would have to make an animal noise and the person in the middle had to decide who made the noise, it was pretty hilarious. Thankfully the animal noises are the same in English and Spanish, so Sister Smith and I were set. That night we had transfer calls. They made TONS of changes. They ended up combining the Miami Lakes missionaries so instead of having a set of Elders and Sisters there will only be Elders in the area. The ward was sad to hear that we would be leaving, and I will miss them. They are just so awesome!

On Tuesday we packed up our house, then went to the church for a last zone activity. That night we went to say goodbye to Alideisy. She was sad that we would be leaving, and we were sad to leave her. I just love her so much, but we assured her that the new Elders would take care of her. 

On Wednesday we finished packing then went to say goodbye to a less active member that we have been working with named Jaqueline. She has been through so much stuff, especially in the few months that we have been visiting her. She was sad to see us go as well. She has a hobby of making candle bowls, she dumpster dives for old candles that stores throw away, then melts them all together in a bowl. She gifted one to Sister Smith and I, it was super cute. I told Sister Smith she could have it though, not exactly sure what to do with that.  

Thursday was my first full day in Silver Lakes and it was great! Sister Dees and I have been working a lot on organizing our new area. We saw an awesome miracle that day when we were knocking. We knocked on a door and an adorable lady answered the door, didn't even wait for us to introduce ourselves, and with the usual Latin  hospitality ushered us in. Once we were sitting on her couch with a glass of water and some cookies she allowed us to state our purpose. She immediately accepted a message of Jesus Christ in behalf of herself, her friend who was visiting, her daughter, and her daughter's friend. We ended up teaching all of them. It was so awesome because she told us that she has always been really confused by all the different religions, and all the corruption that she saw in her Christian churches in Venezuela. We were able to answer all of her questions, and then we shared the first vision. At the end she just told us that she had never felt anything like that before. She and  her daughter  both accepted to be baptized! Her name is Carla, and she arrived from Venezuela just 5 months ago. 

That night I was able to meet a recent convert from Sister Dees and her former companion. Her name is Patricia, she is an adorable old lady from Colombia. She works at a shop called NothingBundt Cakes, so every time I have seen her since I got here she has given us cake or cookies. She is so sweet. We were going to try to go to the temple that night to do baptisms with her, but due to a lot of unforeseen circumstances we will have to postphone that to next week. She is just awesome though. 

On Saturday we went and did service with the other sisters that we live with. Their names are Sister Cook and Sister Cardoso. Sister Cook is from New Mexico, and Sister Cardoso is from Mexico but they are working in the English ward. We went to help one of their members with a garage sale. We put up signs all over the neighborhood to advertise, and helped her set out all of her things. This lady had SO many shoes, bags, clothes, etc. It was crazy. Her sweet mom, an adorable old lady, was helping us too. She went off for about 20 minutes about how material things don't really matter, and how family and God is what will bring us happiness. It was so cute, and we completely agreed with her. 

On Sunday I got to go and meet the branch! Our branch mission leader is Hermano Suriel, he is from Dominican Republic and has a fake leg. He is awesome. Most of the branch members are old ladies with non-member or less-active husbands, which gives Sister Dees and I a LOT of work to do. They are all so sweet and I already love them. One of my favorite parts was that we called Patricia that morning  because she hadn't arrived yet. She told us that she would not be able to come because she was having really bad pain in her back. We were surprised when she walked into Relief Society. The look of relief and joy on her face was so adorable, you could tell that she was so happy to be at church. It reminded me of what a blessing it is to be able to go to church each week and feel the spirit. Sometimes it is hard to focus at church, or we are hungry, or tired, but if we think about what a blessing it is to really be there-it becomes the best part of the whole week. 

Anyways, that is all for this week! Love you all!

Love, Hermana Monson

My new address: 

12941 NW 2nd St #1-104

Pembroke Pines, FL 33028

                                     Jacqueline - I just lover her!  She made us this candle melt bowl.

                                                          Sister Dees - isn't she cute!

                                           Weird troll beard candy.  We couldn't not buy it!!

Miami Lakes - last week July 11, 2017

Hola everyone!

I hope this email finds you well. I found out last night that I will be transferring out of Miami Lakes. I am so sad to be leaving this area, and especially Alideisy. They will be removing sisters from our ward, so there will be a new set of Elders that are taking over the ward. I am sure they will do great, but I will miss this ward! I love them so much! My new area is called Silver Lakes, it is in the Ft. Lauderdale zone. I don't know much about it, only that it is a Spanish area. My new companion is Sister Dees and I have heard she is very nice, so I'm excited :)!

This last week started off with an awesome zone activity where we met at our chapel as a zone, and made a bunch of food from all different countries. We have Brazilians, Mexicans, and people from all over the US in our zone, so we had some good food and it was a lot of fun! 

On Tuesday, we  had a DT in the morning. We all dressed up in some 4th of July gear, so it was lots of fun. Afterwards we had a "sisterhood" activity, so all of the sisters in our zone came over to our house and we had a gospel discussion, and had some treats, it was really fun. Next we had a lesson with Alideisy and a ward member, Nancy Munoz. We talked about the temple, and Alideisy loved it! Sister Munoz promised to help her look for some family names to take to the temple. That night we had to come home early, so Sister Smith and I picked up dinner from one of our favorite places, Panera, and came home to do a pedicure night with the other sisters. We went to bed at 10:30 like normal, we didn't see any fireworks, but we sure heard them! It was a great day. 

On Wednesday we had a "meet the President." We were able to meet President and Sister Garns, I love them! They are so sweet, and they are really pumped up about doing missionary work. They said they want to come to lessons with us, and come do studies with us, so that should be awesome. President Garns is a war veteran, and he teaches photography at BYU. He and Sister Garns are an adorable couple, and I am really excited to be working with them. That night we went over to Alideisy's house to review the questions for her baptismal interview, she did awesome! She is really shy so she was pretty nervous about her interview, but we assured her it was all going to be fine. 

On Thursday we had a housing inspection, from Elder and Sister Rudd. Afterwards they offered to take us all to lunch! It was lots of fun, they are so nice! That afternoon we had Alideisy's baptismal interview, and she passed!! She was so excited, and we were so excited! She told us that she'd been studying all day to make sure she passed her interview, it was so adorable. She was also telling us how she'd downloaded the full hour and a half video of Joseph Smith, and also Meet the Mormons. She told us all about Meet the Mormons, and said her favorite story was of the missionary mom. That night we went on splits with our ward Relief Society president. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find anyone at home, but I just love working with her. She is a very sweet lady from Puerto Rico.

On Friday we had a meeting with Alideisy and the bishop. We talked about service in the church, and it was good for Alideisy to get to know the bishop because he was the one that baptized her and everything. 

On Saturday we spent most of the day running around getting ready for Alideisy's baptism. We had to make a baptismal program, get some treats ready, fill the font, etc. Our ward mission leader came to the church to help us set up, and we were so happy when lot of ward members came too. Alideisy was so excited, and we were so glad when her husband came to support her as well. Sister Smith and I were pretty stressed, due to the usual Latin standard time no one showed up on time. It was supposed to start at 4:00, Alideisy didn't even show up until 4:15! However, it turned out to be so wonderful, the spirit was so sweet, and she was happy. It could not have been better. Especially because at the end, the ward sisters all brought out a bunch of treats that they had brought as well, so we ended up with a huge feast! You can always be assured of having plenty of food at the Latin Ward get togethers. 

On Sunday Alideisy got confirmed in sacrament, and then she gave a brief testimony afterwards. She just talked about how she had seen God's hand in her life, especially as He helped her to get baptized. It was really sweet. That afternoon we had no appointments so we ended up making visits and knocking for a long time. The very last door we knocked at the end of the night turned out to be a cute old Nicaraguan couple that had met with missionaries before. The husband even had a Book of Mormon! We taught them the Restoration, and they promised to come to church next Sunday. We haven't had much contact with them since, but it was cool that we were able to meet them!

Yesterday we had a zone wide blitz for our YSA sisters. Our whole zone met at a college campus, and then we split up to go talk to the students. It was weird talking to people our age, and talking to them in English, but it was fun. After that it was a pretty normal day until our FHE activity with our ward. They are doing a FHE activity for the new members, so we went with Alideisy. There was a spiritual thought, a game, and (of course) lots of food! Alideisy had fun, and I was just reminded of how much I love these ward members. That is one of my favorite parts of the mission, getting to meet such wonderful members! They were all so sad to find out that we are leaving, but they said they will keep praying for us. 

It has been a great last week here in Miami Lakes, and I am looking forward to my new area! Until next week!

Love, Hermana Monson

                                           

                                                                           Fourth of July !!

                                                                   No Fun!

                                                              Ward Mission Leader

                                                               Alideisy's baptism.