06.24.2013 -- Success!!!!

Hey family!! How are you?! it sounds like everyone is doing great!! So glad to hear it!! Spencer going to St George- how is basketball?? and emily going to Shadow mountain- that sounds like a blast-- and glad to hear she loves tennis, Sis I. (one of the sisters I live with) approves, because she is from Singapore and tennis is a social sport haha she is SO funny. . . . and you got to go to bear lake- FUN!!!!!!

Well this week has been so great!!!  First week of transfer 2 = over :( wow! time is flying WAY TO FAST!!!! I am so sad becasue this is Sis R.'s last transfer and to think we only have 5 weeks left. . . . :( she is SO great and i will miss her a ton!!!!!!!! 

So my new DL he is from Payson and went to Salem hills! hahaha follow ups are so fun every night because we bash each other- and he knows J.! so it is great fun.

ok ok I can't wait any more-- guess WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! B. PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he will be getting baptized on FRIDAY!!!! Oh we are so excited!! B. is so solid- I asked him why he wanted to get baptized and his answer was so beautiful but my favorite part was when he said ''i love God and I want to be blessed'' He is so great!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadly we weren't able to meet with S. and J. this week ;( S. fell ill so we will meet with her this week and all fingers crossed and we are praying so hard for J.

This week was crazy we have a huge list of address unknown files, which are inactive people and we go to their house and knock 10 doors on each side- we find out if the person live there and when we get to their house we invite them to come back to church.  So since our area is the city centre, we don't go knocking that much and we hardly ever leave the city, so we had 2 days straight of knocking and walking up and down hills- I LOVED IT! hahaha it made me really excited for the day when I will be in an English area-- except hopefully that won't be for a while because I LOVE the chinese area!!!!! We did see a miracle though when one of the inactives, who hadn't been to church in decades, invited us in and we are meeting with him again next week!!

It has really been such a good week!! I am learning so much every day!!  I love it here in Newcastle so much!! It is so sad I sent my last email to president Lindley! :( :( oh the Lindley's- they are SO powerful!!  I wish I had more time to serve with them, but I am excited for the new president! On wednesday we are having zone conference so we will leave at 5 AM to take a metro and charter bus down to Leeds, so the north half of the mission will meet there and that is the Lindley's farewell- it is going to be so weird! But I am very excited!!!!!!! Then the next week we will have a conference and meet the new mission president!!

Well family I love you loads! Hope you have a great week! Thank you for everything you do!!! And I am so glad you read all the emails to grandma and gramps! It is so fun to be here in England where gramps served-- the English people are great.  btw what is Whitney's email address??? Love you!!

~Sis Monroe

06.17.2013 Miracles!

Hey family!!  I got the package with the candy, and the package with the dress!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!! Getting american candy was so great! and I LOVE that skirt!!!!! it is so so so cute!!! Thank you for sending all of that! Sorry I am being demanding and asking for a skirt and boots and those books! But thank you so much for sending it!!!

And thank you so much for all the letters! It is so good to hear from home!! And I think we fixed the mailbox so if you want to send them to my flat again, feel free!!! Everyone is telling me I'll stay in Newcastle for a while so letters at the flat should get to me for a while :) it's up to you where you want to send them.

So this week we have seen miracles!  My beautiful trainer, Sister R., is so great! I love her to death and she is a very powerful missionary.  But she does have some pretty bad illnesses, so we haven't been able to have a fully accountable week since I got here.  So it is sometimes very discouraging because I just want to work! But when we work we really crank it! and when we account for the week we always are right up there with the rest of the district with investigators and lessons- so it is amazing how in the time we have we are able to make up everything!! We even found 7 new investigators this week!! and scheduled 4 of them!!!!!!!!! Whoop whoop! And we got standards of excellence again this week! That makes 3 out of the 6 weeks I have been here!! President called us last Monday and told us how proud he was of us!!

I don't know if I have told you about B. but I found him 2 weeks ago while we were street contacting and we have been meeting with him ever since- so he was scheduled for July 6th but this week we realized he is READY FOR BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he is getting interviewed THIS SATURDAY WHICH MEANS HIS BAPTISM WILL BE THE FOLLOWING SATURDAY!!!! Please pray for B.!! he is so great we love him to death!!! At first he didn't want to come to church every week BUT Sunday was his second time coming and he loves it and is going to come every week (that is when we knew he was ready!) YAY we are so so excited!!!!!

So S. had a brownies retreat this weekend so she wasn't able to come, but J. told us she was going to come- sadly she wasn't able to make it to church because she had to go pick up S. at that time. . . but with J. softening her heart we are going to ask her on Saturday if S. can get baptized- so please pray for J. and S.!! Because S. is so ready and she really wants to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!  I have faith that J. will come around!!  J. is changing so much and I just LOVE seeing that change in her!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we were teaching a guy named Q., he is from New Jersey.  He dropped us this week :( He got out of bed so early on Sunday to meet us at the Metro stop because he didn't want to call us over the phone to tell us that he doesn't really have that desire- but he will keep reading and praying.   we have a song we sing when investigators drop us or we have to drop them.  It makes it a little less hurtfull ;) hahahaha

So we saw a lot of miracles this week! and I am LOVING Newcastle still!! We got our new district leader this week and we haven't offically met him even though we follow up on the phone every night, so today when we go to Pday Sis S. and I are trading name tags and we are going to confuse the new guy! and We got a new zone leader and they came to the flat to drop off the packages they picked up from the mission office, and it was so great because I wasn't the new one anymore- so at church Elder M. is the new one and Sis S. and I feel a lot less green :) such a great feeling!!!!!

Can you believe I left 2 months ago today?!?!?!?!?! WOW!! time flies!!!!! ps did you change that facebook pic where I was wearing the glasses?? please do! hahaha

Well I love you lots!!!! thanks for all you do!!! And I hope you had a happy fathers day daddy!!!!

Love ~Sister Monroe <3

06.11.2013 Transfer Survivor

Service Project -- Gardening

Sister Monroe on splits

District eating at Happiness Inn (real Chinese food)

Nice Truck with Church in background

Happiness Inn with Zone Leaders

Thank You from 10 year-old investigator

Sister Monroe and a flatmate

A recent convert

Sister Missionaries waiting for transfers.

Waiting for transfers party!

Hey ya fam! so Emmy told me you are in washington! yay that sounds like fun!!! have fun at the yankee's game! so the other day we were leaving the metro station and a guy was behind us wearing a yankee hat so I asked him if he actually liked the yankee's or if he just wears the hat- he said I don't give a shiz about the yankees- i just wear the hat. . and then we talked about that for a bit. but it is so funny because people don't like baseball here but they love to wear the yankee's hat! haha so if dad and spencer had their competition of red socks vs yankee hats. . . spencer would dominate!

anywhos so this week we had an amazing miracle. so I've told you about J. and S.  well we have started meeting with them twice a week. . whoop whoop! and on saturday I invited J. to church (I WAS SO NERVOUS, she hasn't been for years) but I told her I was speaking in sacrament and I would love to have her there- she hesitated for a moment and I got sassy (i no sassy haha) and I was like J. I need you to be there!  and she was like ok.  so I ended up changing what I was going to talk about and I pretty much addressed everything to J. in the talk. and she was crying the whole time. after church I went to talk to her and she said she felt the spirit and would like to try to come next week!!!!! MIRACLE! but then my heart melted when she told me I was here for her now when she needed it and that she hoped I wouldn't get transfered.

so transfer calls came in last night!!!! wow I have been here in newcastle exactly 6 weeks- crazy but I am staying!!! yay!!!! and everyone in the flat is staying! double yay!!! and I am so glad because I love this area so so much!!!!!!!

ok I don't have much time but I love you SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! so i hope you have fun in washington!!!!!  remember miracles do happen if you have faith! don't forget to study the Book of Mormon!!

hope you have a good bday dad! and a happy fathers day! don't worry a letter and an email are coming your way!

love you lots!

~sister Monroe!