08.12.2013 Elder Ballard Visit

Hey family!  glad to hear you all survived lake powell and it sounded like a lot of fun! Thanks for sending pics!  I loved to see it!!!

Wow it is crazy to think that your summer is almost over and that you are going back to school with the kids- that will be so fun! and that is so neat that Luke is in your class! He is the cutest!

This week has been really great!

Monday we went to the beach for zone pday- it was loads of fun. We played American football, which was great because it was two hand touch and none of the Elders can touch the sisters haha and it rained the whole time so that was fun because we had the beach to ourselves :) Then we had a really fun FHE, we were crammed in this little cubical in the student union -- it is so great to get everyone together and watch them fellowship each other.  But sadly none of our investigators came! Lame but it was still really great!

Tuesday we ended up getting flogged all day so we did a lot of street contacting :D always a blast ;) haha

Wednesday we traveled down to hear Elder Ballard, oh man- it was SO GOOD! So it was all of the full time missionaries all of the stake presidents all of the bishops and the ward missionaries were invited.  They spoke a lot about working with the ward and how this is a team so we should work together- brilliant, it was so great! And he was funny, we learned SO much! It was SO good, at the end all of us were so pumped to go out and talk to everyone, he told us that if we want to baptize more we have to talk to more people- which means we are going to be better at bus contacting- awe ya :)

it was also really great to see all my friends!!!!  I was so excited to see sister S.!  It was a great reunion we had :)  We didn't get back to our flat until after 11:30 that night- oh man I was so tired- still trying to recuperate from our late night. It is so weird to think that 11:30 used to be nothing for me hahaha

Thursday and Friday were great days we had a lot of street contacting and we have had some really good lessons.  The miracle of the week-- we scheduled W.!!  Did I talk about him before? He is the one that has been passed from missionary to missionary since January- well he accepted a date and he brought a friend to church this week!  yay! But there is still so much we have to do with him and he is so busy so we are praying really hard that we will be able to continue to meet with him!

Saturday we got to clean the chapel that was great.

Sunday was really great, we were able to get 5 people to church. S. brought her boyfriend and W. brought a friend so it was really exciting to be able to have 2 referrals there!

today we are going shopping! I am so excited!  Oh so btw I pulled money out 2 weeks ago and will pull money out again today just so you know.

Well I am glad to hear that everyone is doing good!  I love you loads! And don't worry too much about my health- we are in contact with a doc right now and I will be going to a cardiologist soon, but I am feeling pretty good right now :)  I just figured I'll go so that you all will stop worrying ;)

Well have a great week!! love you!

<3 sister Monroe

08.05.2013 -- Elder Ballard visiting Mission!

Hey family!!  So you're going to lake powell! Ah that's exciting!!  Tell the family I say hey and that I love them all!  I sent a letter your way and it had two pics in it- let me know when you get it!

I have some exciting news too, Elder M Russell Ballard is coming to do a mission tour this week! and we are having a mission conference on Wed and he is speaking at it!  I am so excited for a couple of reasons 1. it will be exciting and great to hear from an apostle! 2. the whole mission will be there!! and all of my MTC friends are in the south so it has been ages since I have seen them! way pumped!  It is crazy though so it is held in the only chapel that is big enough to hold all the missionaries so it is past Leeds- we will be traveling like all day long to get there!  but I am excited!!

So this week we worked so so so hard.  Seriously I was working hard before but this week was insane!!  I loved it :) Sadly the majority of our solid investigators dropped us :( which was really sad. . . but we did see some miracles!

So there was a ward BBQ on Saturday and J. told us S. and J. were coming. The day of the bbq J. phoned us and told us S. wasn't coming but J. said she still wanted to come and to have a lesson from the missionaries! that was a BIG step! So we had a really powerful lesson about the Atonement and the Book of Mormon, and we asked her if S. could get baptized, she said no.  She also said she wouldn't pray.  I was thinking oh NO! we had a powerful lesson!!! What the heck! but then she told us she has been praying at home and she has been praying with S.! That made me so happy to hear!!!!!! 

We have been doing service at an elderly lady's house, all 6 missionaries have been gardening and we have worked for maybe 6 hours total and we are just now starting to see the dirt- but it has been fun!

We had a really good district meeting this week, Elder B. talked about Elder Holland's talk on missionary work and the Atonement, and it is a really powerful talk! It has helped me so much!

We ran into B. in the street, set up an appointment, it was really good! He said he was going to come to church, then didn't show up :(  so I don't know what's happening with him.

BC. is still so great, we don't meet with him as much but we take him teaching with us and he is such a great member present! The chinese group is so great, they all fellowship each other and become such good friends!  It is really neat to watch them become good friends and come to church together and FHE and grow and learn together.

At the BBQ we had an investigator there named H., and he is a really religious guy- so we watched the Restoration DVD- we had one of the guys who was just baptized, another member, and W. (who is the Chinese group leader) and 2 of the sisters investigators.  We were able to have a really good talk after and it was really powerful!

I am so grateful for the gospel! and for the Atonement! I love you all so much! Thanks for all you do to support me!  You are the best! Have so much fun at Lake Powell! Send pics :)

love you <3

~Sister Monroe