Miami Lakes North June 5, 2017

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well wherever you may be :). This has been a great week! We have not had too much exciting happening, but life goes on.

On Monday the other Sisters in my house took me to a little mall for my b-day, and then we went to get cookie dough flautas. It was a lot of fun. As we were about to leave to go proselyte that night, we checked the mail and saw that I had gotten a little b-day package from my family. I didn't have time to open it just then, so I set it on the back seat of the car and we went to go knock doors. Our appointments for the night had cancelled, so we decided to go to the very border of our area to knock because we didn't have to be back for anything. Well, we knocked some doors, nothing too exciting happened, until we went to get back in the car. Our car is probably the nicest one I have ever driven, it is the kind where you can leave the keys in your purse and just push the button to start it, and I forgot that it is an automatic locking car! I put my purse in the backseat, shut the door, then went to open the driver's door, and realized that the car had automatically locked and so now the car keys were inside the car! Thankfully Sister Smith still had the phone outside the car with her, so we had to call our vehicle coordinator. At that point it was getting late, so he said if we could get a ride home he would drive up the next morning to bring us the spare key. We called the other sisters that we live with to come pick us up, they said they would come. However, since we were on the very edge of our area it would be a little while. Well, we decided that we must be in that area for a reason, so we went to knock doors again. On the very last door we knocked, we ran into a lady named Margaret. Turns out she was baptized when she was younger, but she has not been to church for a long long time. She really appreciated the visit, and said she knew it was a sign that God wanted her back in church. She speaks English, so she won't actually attend our ward, but we knew that Heavenly Father wanted to us to stay in that area to find her. That was the only consolation of my blonde moment from locking the keys in the car! Well, we made it home alright, and the next morning our vehicle coordinator (bless his heart) drove up from the mission office with his wife, and took us to our car with the spare key. We were so happy to get inside, and I was so happy to open my long anticipated b-day package! It was super funny, thankfully our vehicle coordinator was very understanding. He says he gets this kind of stuff a lot.

On Wednesday we went to visit a recent convert family in our ward. They were baptized back in November, and I love them!! The mom is named Gabby, and she is pregnant. Then the dad is Jimmy, and they have a son (Manuel) who is 12. It is actually a cool story because they missionaries knocked on their door, and they started listening to the lessons. They knew it was true, and decided they wanted to get baptized. However, when they submitted their named to get baptized, Gabby found out that she could not get baptized because she had already done so when she was 8! She was raised by her grandparents who were members of the church, so she was raised in the church, but she didn't even know it! She had moved out of their home when she was young, and had not been to church since. Her husband and son ended up getting baptized, and now they are all coming to church together. They are so cute. 

On Thursday we saw a cool miracle. We were out knocking doors, and we saw some people standing in a driveway with the hood of their car open. We went to go talk to them, turns out it was a mechanic, and the owner of the car. The owner of the car was named Agatha, and at first she wanted nothing to do with us. She was super stressed because she was supposed to be at work, but her car had broken down. We asked if we could share a prayer with them, the mechanic accepted immediately, so Agatha was forced to agree. After the prayer her countenance changed completely. She opened right up to us, thanked us so much for the prayer, and started asking all about our church. She told us that we radiated peace, and that she had been looking for peace. We told her exactly how she could find the peace she had been searching for, and she agreed to listen to the missionaries! She only speaks English, so we had to pass her to the English missionaries, but it was really cool to see the Spirit work in her and help her recognize truth. 

Other than that we have had a pretty normal week with LOTS and LOTS of rain! It is beautiful! I am just loving this area, and the wonderful people here. It is such a privilege to be a missionary, and I feel so humbled for the chance to help others learn about our Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all!

Love, Hermana Monson


Just something I loved from her letter to me:
This week I heard from Angela finally! I have been really bad at remembering to email her, but she said to tell you and the rest of my family hi and that she loves you. She said she has had a couple more job interviews, that she is loving Georgia, and that she has been able to make amends with her son Carlos. She also said that she has been going to the ward in Georgia, and sharing her testimony. She has been working on her family history. She also said the Bishop has helped her get a place to stay, and helped her get some food and everything. I was seriously so happy to hear that. I have been worried about her, but it sounds like she is doing great! She said the temple picture you sent her is hanging above her bed, and the other pictures from her baptism are on her nightstand. I miss her, but I'm so happy she is doing well!!