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 !!
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