Coming Home

To be honest, this was one of the best days of my life. I absolutely loved my mission, and I will always be grateful for the experiences I had as a missionary. However, seeing my family and friends again was even better than I had imagined. I still remember coming down the escalator, and noticing my family, and some of my very best friends waiting for me. I cried for joy at seeing them, but also at knowing that I had given my mission everything I had, and that I could finally rest. That feeling was sweetly confirmed to me later that day when the Stake President came to release me. He said he felt impressed to tell me "your Savior wants you to know that you did everything he wanted you to do." Those words spoke so much peace to my heart, and I knew that I could enjoy the excitement of arriving home with the assurance that I had performed well in my service to the Lord. Taking off my name tag was a little heart breaking, but I knew that I could continue to be a representative of Jesus Christ, even without that little black tag next to my heart.  The first few days were a little weird adjusting to being home, but I was honestly so happy to see my family and so excited for Christmas at home that the weirdness quickly diminished. At the conclusion of my mission, I am a different person than when I started. None of that is because of anything I did; instead, it is because of the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the 18 months I had to spend in Ft Lauderdale Florida. It was hard, it was humid, I was homesick, we faced a lot of rejection, and I think the dark circles under my eyes at the end were evidence of a difficult journey-however, the sweet joy of bringing other people closer to our Savior made every moment worth it. I have never experienced the love of the Savior quite like I have on my mission. I know that He lives. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints contains the fullness of His gospel. I know the Book of Mormon comes from God, and we will grow closer to God by reading it. I know God loves each and every one of His children individually. What a blessing to be a missionary!

Our last night in the mission we got to do a temple session with all the other departing missionaries, and President/Sister Garns. I was reunited with Sister Peterson :)

                                                             Our final district photo. 

Royal Palm Beach December 10, 2018

Hola Everyone!

I cannot believe it is that time already! I have enjoyed every minute (well, almost every minute) of my mission ;)! 

Just to recap a bit, this week has been absolutely crazy! 

Last Monday we had a zone activity which was a water balloon flight, we had tons of fun. 

Tuesday was District Training, and a bike day.

Wednesday I had my final interview with President Garns. He is absolutely amazing  and has had such a positive influence on my life, I am so grateful for him. The interview was great, and it helped a lot. There are so many emotions that go into returning from a mission, but he had some great counsel. That night we saw Freddy and Darlyne with a couple from our ward. We read from the Book of Mormon together. Freddy told us about how last Sunday he had decided to stay home from church because they had mold in their trailer. However, when he woke up on Sunday he had a pinched nerve, and he couldn't even move his head from side to side. He had to lay down all day Sunday, and he had to take work off on Monday. Needless to say, he said he learned his lesson about skipping church.

Friday we had a combined companion study with our zone leaders, and the other sisters we live with. I love learning from other missionaries. That night we went to visit a less active, she is 19 years old. She was so excited to see us, and she introduced us to her boyfriend Jimmy. She invited him to stay for the lesson, and so we ended up teaching both of them. Jimmy's dad used to be a pasteur, but he passed away a few years ago. It was a sensitive subject to talk about the priesthood, and what constitutes a true prophet, but Jimmy understood very well and is excited to come to church. The Spirit does amazing things. That night we went to help Freddy rake up leaves and cigarette butts around their trailer in an effort to get rid of the "appearance of evil."

On Friday we were on a full day exchange so I got to go to West Palm Beach with Sister Brewer. It is a Spanish area, so that was lots of fun. My favorite part was that night we went to visit a family of investigators they are teaching, and one of them had a cool story for us. She said that she had been on her way to McDonalds with a little bit of cash in her had for food, but for some reason she felt like she should not go to the McDonalds close by her house that she always goes to, but rather that she should go to a different one far away. She remembered the sisters teaching her about the "still small voice" and so she decided to do that. On her way to the other McDonalds she passed a homeless man on the street, without hesitation she rolled down her window and gave the man the cash she had in her hand. She was so excited to tell us that story, it is amazing what the gospel of Jesus Christ does to people!

On Saturday we biked again, and went to visit a potential that we had found from Christmas caroling. At first it was a little awkward, and we could not figure out which direction to take the lesson in. However, then she asked us about some records that had been buried in the ground (turns out she had heard of Mormons). That was the perfect segway to teach the Book of Mormon, she was excited about it. As the lesson was drawing to a close Sister Carling (I am sure she followed the spirit on this one) asked if she had any last questions. She hesitated, but opened up about her brother who passed away not long ago. She has had many question that have been plaguing her since that time, and she loved learning about the Plan of Salvation briefly as well. After that we had our ward Christmas party which was really nice. The decoration were SO cute, dinner was great, and our primary (which consists of about 10 kids) did a little pageant. There were a few less active members there that we got to meet, so that was awesome. 

Sunday morning was a little heartbreaking because none of our investigators came to church, but the day definitely went up from there. A family in our ward named the Whitakers have a tradition to have the Sister Missionaries over to their house for dinner the last Sunday before one goes home so they made us a steak dinner, and homemade cheesecake. It was awesome, I love the people in this ward!! That night we had a long drive to the mission home for MLC. We got to hear from President Garns, and also Elder Foster (a member of the 70 and the director of Family History for the church). They both had amazing things to say.

Monday we had our Christmas zone conference. We got to hear from Elder Foster again, and also from President and Sister Garns. It was an amazing meeting, and we learned so many good things. I got to give my "departing testimony," which was a little nerve racking, but I loved that meeting. The Spirit was so strong, and really confirmed to me that God has a plan for us. That was something that we really needed to hear because later that night we went to visit Freddy and Darlyne. Freddy was asleep, but we talked to Darlyne for a little while. They have been stuck in a rut for a long time, and we are not sure what else to do to help them. However, the longer we were talking to Darlyne, the more it became apparent that it is not their time yet. It came as a bit of a shocker, just because they have been meeting with us for  so long. The last few weeks they have been digressing, and the spirit confirmed to us that they are not ready right now. As heartbreaking as it is to seem them struggle, I know that the Lord has a bigger plan for them. We can't see it, but Sister Carling and I know that we have done everything we can for them, and know things are in their hands. I don't know what will happen, I surely hope they get baptized one day (could be in a few weeks, could be in a few years), but for now I know that they "are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest." 

I feel so very grateful for my mission, and for the things that the Lord has taught me during my time in Florida. I truly know that God loves each one of us, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that they stand with open arms to receive all who are willing to come unto them.

See you soon :)!

Love, Sister Monson

Royal Palm Beach December 4, 2018

Hi everyone!

Hope this email finds you well. We have had another great week in Royal Palm Beach!

Last week a member gave us some money to go to dinner, so on Monday we went for sushi with the sisters we live with! It was lots of fun. That night we saw Freddy and Darlyne, they are still chugging along. We have turned our lessons into Book of Mormon study sessions because we have already taught them everything. They are going to call the court this week, and we are all hoping for a miracle. One thing I have definitely been learning is that God's timing is perfect, and we don't always know the reason He makes us wait, but we can trust that He has  greater plan in mind!

On Tuesday we had a Zone Training, and we learned about how to teach the doctrine of baptism more clearly. Sister Carling and I treated ourselves to lunch at a place called Tijuana Flats, and they have the most amazing cookie dough flautas. It was so good! After that we had a district blitz in our area, so all the missionaries from our district came to knock doors with us. The night before we had prayed over the map to know where we should go, and a neighborhood that I had never even visited stood out to us. It is rare to find a neighborhood I have not been in because I have already been here for 3 transfers, so we were so excited about it. We split up and came back with 7 potential investigators, so it was great!

Wednesday we had lunch with a member of our ward, and her less-active daughter. We ended up talking to her daughter for a long time. As we were leaving our member thanked us so much for being there, and she felt like it made a big difference for her daughter. We were so happy to be able to help. After that we went to visit a recent convert who is 11 years old. His mom has breast cancer, and his dad is very against the church. It is a difficult situation, but I really admire their faith. His mom fed us tres leches cake after which was great. Next we went to meet a recent convert for dinner, and he ended up taking us to Olive Garden! Needless to say it was a fantastic day, full of lots of good food!

On Thursday we went to give service for a sweet lady in our ward who is fostering 7 little haitian children. They are all under the age of 7, and I really don't know how she does it. She was a fantastic example of patient motherhood, and we were more than happy to help her weed her garden. After that we did a fire exchange with some of the sisters, and we were in West Palm Beach. I always love being back in a Spanish area. That night we had a big correlation meeting with our ward mission leader so we could focus on inviting lots of less-actives to the ward Christmas party, hopefully we will se some cool miracles come from that. 

Friday I spent the day on an exchange with Sister Cohen in Port Saint Lucie! We had lots of fun, and we ended up finding a new investigator for them. Port Saint Lucie is as far North as you can go in our mission, and at one point we took a wrong turn and ended up on the turnpike. The next exit was not for 7 miles so we ended up accidentally leaving the mission, ha ha oops! 

On Saturday night we went Christmas caroling with our district again. I love doing that! Even if the  people don't want to hear our message, they know what we are really all about. We ended up finding lots more potential investigators in our area, plus we had lots of fun with the other missionaries. 

There is a competition going on in our zone right now, and yesterday the challenge was who could take the most cookies to the members, Elders vs Sisters. Needless to say we blew the Elders out of the water, the Wellington sisters combined with us and we made 200 cookies yesterday. It was lots of fun, and a lot of the less-active members were very touched when we dropped by some cookies and an invitation to the ward Christmas party! 

Yesterday we were driving to drop off some cookies and a ward Christmas party invitation to a part-member family. Our GPS tried to take us down a road that said "do not enter," and from there we ended up on a lengthy detour. We had not been planning on using all of those miles, but as we were driving we noticed a street that we liked and decided to get out and knock a little bit right then. A few houses later we ran into John who had just arrived home from the grocery store. We started talking to him, and he was so excited to tell us about his own personal miracles and how they helped him to find faith in Jesus Christ. He recently survived a major car accident, and that has completely turned his life around. When we asked him what he was doing to show his gratitude to Christ for working that miracle, he replied that he knew he needed to find a church to go to. We quickly invited him to ours, and he was so excited. "I already have a suit and tie!"  We ended up teaching him the message of the Restoration, and he was completely rivoted (moments before he had been talking non-stop, but he was completely silent as we taught). We asked him if we could set up another meeting, and he quickly offered to buy us a coffee so we could discuss more. Turns out, the starbucks is right next to the chapel, so we set up a chapel tour instead. It was a great miracle that God put us right where He wanted us to be, and he softened John's heart over a period of time so that he was prepared to receive our message when it came.

I know that God is real, and I know that He loves us. What a great time of year to share that love with everyone!

~Sister Monson

Royal Palm Beach November 27, 2017

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. We sure did!

On Monday we had a district activity, we played some glow in the dark games in our gym. It was really fun. After that we had a normal night of knocking doors, and visiting some former investigators.

Tuesday was zone conference. They introduced the Light the World video, and we were all so excited about it. We had some great training on how to set inspired goals, and then achieve them. We also had a short break off where all of the Sisters met with Sister Garns in the Relief Society room while the Elders were with President. Sister Garns just shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon, and told us some amazing experiences she has had. She encouraged all of us to have our own experience with the Book of Mormon, and by the end of the conference we were all in tears. The spirit that radiates from her is absolutely amazing. The whole time I thought to myself, if I could be like Sister Garns one day, I would definitely be on the right track. She even made each of us an individual loaf of delicious pumpkin bread. I love her, and she is a great example to all of us. So is President. I feel so blessed to be able to serve with them!

Thursday was a fantastic thanksgiving! We did a little bit of knocking in the morning, and a lot of people were busy. We had a delicious dinner with Freddy and Darlyne. It was a mixture of the typical American Thanksgiving, and Hispanic food because of Darlyne's background. We had turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing, rolls, spanish corn, rice, collard greens, yams, and so much of it! Needless to say we were very full. We had it in their trailer, there was not much seating and no air conditioning, but it was such a great experience. Darlyne's sister came as well, so we got to talk to her a little bit. We also had fun teasing Jaylin and Macho (5 yrs and 4 yrs). After Thanksgiving dinner we met up with our district in our area to do some Christmas caroling, that was so much fun! We saw some good success with it too, and ended up with 2 potential families to teach. Then we switched and went to the Wellington sister's area for a while. We sounded pretty good, and we had a lot of fun with it. Lots of people cried, and everyone recorded us with their phones. At one house there was a large party, so about 25 people came and stood on the porch to listen. Every single one of them took out a phone to record us, it was pretty funny.

On Friday we were out knocking doors at a spot we had felt as we prayed the night before, and I was getting eaten by mosquito so I requested a return trip to the car for some bug spray. On our way back Sister Carling saw a man standing outside his car, and suggested we talk to him. As we approached he immediately recognized us as Mormons, and was only surprised that we were girls instead of boys. He explained by saying that he had been meeting with Elders in Oklahoma for a while, but had lost contact with the church when he moved to Florida a few months ago. We were able to share the Light the World video with him, and invite him to church. He is super busy right now, so he was not able to make it, but it was a great miracle to be right where the Lord needed us. 

Saturday we did a full day exchange with the Wellington Sisters (we live with them). I went with Sister Long to Wellington, and we had a great day. I have a lot of respect for those sisters, their area is very wealthy, and we got yelled at more than once, but they just press forward! We had a great day together. That night we visited a less-active family in their ward, they are from Haiti and there are so many people living in that house I could not keep them all straight. The night before they'd had a sleepover with a few friends, and it totaled to 36 people in the house, and it wasn't all that big! I loved seeing how close their family was, that is something really cool about the Haitian culture. 

Yesterday Freddy was sick, so they were unable to make it to church. We had a fairly normal day, but we ended up having a great visit with a less-active guy in our ward. He knew that God had sent us to him at the right time, and he is very excited to come back to church. 

Overall it has been a great week! I just love missionary work, and I love the people in Florida. I know that the Savior's love is real, and I am so grateful for it!

Love, Sister Monson

Royal Palm Beach November 20, 2017

Hi Everyone!

I hope this email finds you all well and excited for a great Thanksgiving week! 

On Tuesday of this past week we had a District Training, and our whole district counseled together to get some ideas of things we can to do help Freddy and Darlyne quit smoking because they are having a hard time with it. We got some great ideas, and we decided to do a fast as a district on Sunday. We also talked to our Bishop who headed up a joined fast with our ward council as well. So our district and our ward council fasted with us and Freddy and Darlyne yesterday. We are going to see miracles come from it! We also had interviews with President Garns on Tuesday, and it was awesome. He is so inspired, and I can tell that he has given his whole heart and soul to this mission. 

On Wednesday we were biking and got stuck in the pouring rain on our way home. By the time we arrived at our house we looked like we'd jumped out of a swimming pool. It was lots of fun. We also found a sweet couple that day, the husband was very interested, but we made the mistake of only taking down the wife's phone number. Turns out she was not as interested, so we have not been able to meet with them again. 

On Friday we had a full day exchange, and Sister Gates came to be in Royal Palm Beach with me. She has been on her mission for 3 months, and is such a sweetheart. We were on bikes that day as well, and it was her first bike day! Their area is not normally good for biking, so we had fun with that. At one point we went to visit a former investigator that wasn't home, we talked to the next door neighbor who was outside on the driveway. He would not hear anything we had to say, and told us that we were wasting our time because no one would be home at that time of day. We walked back to our bikes, but felt that we should knock on a door a few houses down. A lady named Tarrell answered the door, and loved our message. She said she feels a lot like Joseph Smith in her search for truth, and it didn't even matter that her neighbor (the man we'd talked to) was shouting at her not to listen to us, the spirit drowned him right out. We are going to be teaching her again this week. 

Saturday was a little crazy, after we exchanged back Sister Carling and I attended a baptismal service for some sisters in our Sisterhood, then we made the long hour drive back to our area. We had a meal appointment with a sweet couple in our ward who took us out after dinner so we could help them round up the chickens and put them in the coop for the night. 

That night we called Freddy and Darlyne to start our special fast with a prayer. They were so excited, and determined to do better this week. At the end of our phone call Freddy told Darlyne to go inside because he needed to talk to us for a minute, which made us slightly nervous. However, he told us that he wanted to propose to Darlyne to make things official. He wanted it to be a secret, but he also wanted to do it at church the next day so that it would be on holy ground and so we could be there. He coordinated with our ward mission leader who teaches Gospel Principles. The next day during Sunday School the lesson was on Eternal Families. At one point during the lesson our ward mission leader turned to Freddy and asked "Freddy, what are you doing to strengthen  your family?" He responded by getting on one knee, turning to Darlyne, and saying "I'm going to start by asking my woman to marry me." Darlyne was pretty emotional, but she said yes. It was pretty cute. There was only one other couple in the class with us, and they were very surprised and excited for them. The ring was beautiful, we forgot to ask Freddy where he got it, but they were just so happy. I am so excited for them. It made for the most interesting Sunday School class of my life. 

That is all for this week! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sister Monson

                                              P-Day adventures - nail painting and cookies!

                                                                     Our twinklie lights!

                                                                 Biking in the rain.

                                                              We made overnight oats.

                                                               Florida is just beautiful!

Royal Palm Beach November 13, 2017

Hi everyone!

I hope this email finds you well. It has been another fantastic week in Florida, I just love this place!

The week started off with the transfer call, and I found out that I will be paired with my trainee (Sister Carling) again for this transfer. I went to go pick her up at transfers on Wednesday, and it was lots of fun to see all the other missionaries. It was a long hour and half drive back to our area, but we made it. We went out to work that night, and it was almost like we never even parted. It has been so fun. 

On Thursday we had a District Training, and we talked about plans for the upcoming transfer. We talked about going Christmas Caroling as a district, and I made sure to request we do it early in December. We have a great district with very focused and hard working missionaries. 

On Friday Sister Carling and I left early to carpool with some other STLs for MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference). We drove to the mission home, and met with all the STLs and Zone Leaders for a training. We talked a lot about the goals that we are setting, and what we can do to become more converted to our goals. If we are converted to our goals, and know they were inspired of the Lord, then we will have the faith necessary to hit them. It was great! Sister Garns always makes us lunch, and she is quite the chef. It was a long drive back to our area again. By the time we went out to work that night it was pouring rain, and Sister Carling had not yet put her umbrella in the car, so we huddled under one umbrella and entertained ourselves by running from door to door. 

Sister Carling as telling me that the day before transfers she was at Chick Fil A for lunch, and someone came up and introduced herself and her husband as President and Sister Smart. Turns out it was the mission president and his wife from the Puerto Rico mission. They bought Sister Carling and her companion lunch, and talked with them for a while. A lot of the missionaries from Puerto Rico have been transferred into our mission, and they had some pretty crazy stories to share about getting them all to safety before the hurricane hit. 

On Saturday we did two exchanges with two sets of Sisters, and it was lots of fun. In one of the areas the sisters are feeling overwhelmed with all of the referrals they need to contact so we split up and contacted as many people on their 2 sheets of referrals as possible in 2 and half hours. They felt a lot better after, so we were glad we could help. We were supposed to meet with Freddy and Darlyne that night, but Freddy had received some startling news about his mom's health so they took their family on the bus to go visit her, but then they got stuck because it was downpouring rain, and the bus station was not that close to her house. Our ward mission leader went to pick them up and give them a ride back to their house. Brother Dietz is awesome and has been really great about fellowshipping them. 

Darlyne was sick yesterday, so we didn't get to see her, but Freddy came to church. We were also able to meet with him for a little bit after, and it went really well. Freddy is determined to stop smoking this week, and we are praying that he will be able to do it! Darlyne is right behind him. 

It has been a great week. We have not found many new investigators, but we know there are great things ahead! Talk to you next Monday!

Love, Sister Monson

Royal Palm Beach November 7, 2017

Hello everyone!

Another week gone by, and it has been great! Monday started off as a pretty normal P-Day, nothing too exciting. On Tuesday we had a normal day, knocking doors (we made sure to do that earlier in the day so we weren't confused with trick or treaters), and visiting people. We got pizza for dinner, then came home around 7 to watch Meet the Mormons and carve pumpkins. We had fun with the other sisters, but they are all artistic geniuses so they were a little out of my league in the pumpkin carving. It was a great time. 

On Wednesday we had a lot of things fall through, but we still had a great day. We were in a part of our area called Loxahatchee. Loxahatchee consists of dirt roads, farms, mud, and lots of trees. My GPS was trying to take us some back way and we ended up on this road called "little gator lane" which was next to a large canal. Right before we had turned on to this road we had called a former on the phone, and he was speaking to us on bluetooth. He had been visited by missionaries a few years back, but had stopped taking lessons with them because a lady in church commented on the Jews being the "chosen people." He had decided to go to a Jewish synagogue instead, and apparently he was disgusted with what he found. He ranted to us on bluetooth for about 20 minutes about the Jews, meanwhile we are driving on little gator lane. Little gator lane consisted of hill, dip, hill, dip, hill, dip. The hills were ridiculously rocky, and our car was almost too short to handle them, clearly it was a road meant for large trucks. The whole car would vibrate every time we went over one. The dips were filled with muddy water, and we had no way of knowing how deep they were beforehand. We did our best to stick to the edges of the puddles, but our car got soaked in muddy water. Eventually we were too far in to this road to turn around, so we were trying hard to keep from laughing as we listened to a rant about the jews and did our best to maneuver this ridiculous road. Finally the conversation ended, and we hung up at the same time we finally turned off the road. We just stopped, looked back, and started laughing. It was absolutely ridiculous!

On Thursday we had dinner with a sweet couple named the Aloisios. They always take such good care of us, and they had fun showing us their Disney pin collection. That night we had a chapel tour with the Henry family, the family we have been teaching for about two weeks. They had not been making time for us, and we were trying to figure out the best way to help them understand how important these things are. We decided to set up a tour of the chapel, and start by watching the short video The Restoration. It went so well! They felt the spirit so strongly, and they were all excited to come to church. Unfortunately only the mom and the 15 year old daughter were able to make it, but they enjoyed it. Hopefully we will be able to keep teaching them this week. 

Friday we did a full day exchange, and Sister Callister joined me in Royal Palm Beach. We spent most of the day visiting former investigators, talking to people in the park, knocking doors, and visiting some less-actives. We did not see much success, but it was a fun day. Sister Callister is really sweet, she has been on her mission for about one year now. I felt bad though because we met a lady that was so rude to us, that we couldn't even say goodbye. Eventually we had to walk away while she was still screaming. I felt bad for her, because you just can't be happy when you treat people like that. We were a little shaken up after that, but I was impressed with how quickly Sister Callister bounced back, and we still ended up having a great day. 

On Saturday we had a lesson with Freddy and Darlyne, and we talked about the Brother of Jared. We spent a lot of time preparing the lesson, and felt that it did not go quite the way we had wanted. However, we were grateful we had prepared it because on Sunday the Gospel Principles teacher texted us 5 minutes before class started to let us know he wasn't going to be there, and asked if we could teach. We already had a lesson prepared on the Brother of Jared, so it worked out well. Freddy and Darlyne were not able to make it because their ride (Freddy's brother) bailed on them. They are really struggling right now, and any prayers in their direction would be appreciated. They are getting discouraged, so we are doing our best to help them keep the faith. 

On Sunday a recent convert from our ward, Eric, had us over for dinner with another couple from the ward. He is single, around 50 years old, and the most amazing convert! He was baptized in April, and has already read all of the standard works. He is so awesome, and just loves the gospel, so that was a lot of fun. 

Last night I found out that I will be staying in Royal Palm Beach this next transfer! I am excited to stay, although I will miss Sister Peterson who will be headed to Fort Lauderdale. However, I will be companions with Sister Carling again!! That will be great. 

Until next week! Love you all!

Sister Monson