08.26.2014 -- Crazy week full of Doctors :(

Well there is never a dull moment in Keighley!  It has been a crazy week full of doctors and the A&E.  Since I last emailed home I have got to talk to you one the phone, rode in an ambulance, had district meeting in our back garden, President and Sister Pilkington came and visited us in the flat, slept- a lot!, oh and gave a talk in sacrament meeting :) and I am still alive to tell the tale so I feel like that is pretty good :)

 

Hey but we have seen a lot of miracles!  I have definitely seen the Lord's hand a lot this week!!  The first huge miracle is that I got a cardiologist appointment!  In this public health care system it usually takes AGES, so Helix (that is the church's private health care) doesn't mess around!  And Helix has been amazing, they have nurses that call me almost everyday to check on me see how I am doing and all that jazz :)

 

The zone leaders came to our flat Tuesday and Elder Crabb gave me a wonderful blessing! In it he promised that I would see miracles in Keighley and that I would be able to go out continue to do the Lord's work :) So that blessing has really help put me at ease :) 

 

The cat scan came back with nothing serious to worry about :)

 

My district leader Elder Hobby, the Keighley elders, and Sister Staheli and Peck are all taking such good care of me!  I am so blessed to have such great friends in the mission!!

 

President and Sister Pilkington call everyday :) and on Sunday they came to our house and came to check on me, it was really nice of them! They are the best!!  Elder Stevens, he is the medical adviser of England he calls every few days.  So I am really being looked after :)

 

And Brianne Burge is fabulous!! She bought groceries for us, and has arranged for the relief society to drop food off for us every day :)  This ward is amazing!! She is calling and giving you updates and arranging lifts for us, she really is the best!!!

 

I'm on 3 prescriptions right now and they are helping a lot with the pain! 

 

So I think that means that things are looking up :)

 

Thursday was district meeting and President didn't want me to leave the flat, so we asked if we could have district meeting in our back garden, he thought that was a great idea!! It was SO much fun! It rained the whole time, but it was perfect because we were talking about attitude and patience so it fit :) and we had set up a tarp and umbrellas so it was kind of like a tent over us. 

 

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and Bishop comes up to me and says well I'm in trouble one of my speakers backed out will you give a talk for us? and I said well I'm not positive I can stand for that long but we can try :) so all of his talks ended up backing out so all 4 missionaries got to talk, it was fun!  I got up there and started my talk by saying ''well I am on a lot of pain medication right now, I hope that you understand my talk because my thoughts don't even make sense right now!'' but I think it ended ok :) I talked about obedience and the Wizard of Oz with 1 Nephi 17:13 as the main scripture.

 

Well I love you so much!  I am so happy to hear spencer is doing well :) Hope you have a good week! 

 

<3 Sister Monroe

 

08.18.2014 -- "Apple my Pretty?"

Well we have had a good week here in Keighley :)

 

Yay I am so excited for spencer!! I brought his farewell invite to our district meeting to show everyone :) YAY!

 

So this week has been crazy!!! We have had so much success knocking!!! We were out in a village and we talked to this old lady for like 20 minutes, we were having a great conversation and she invited us back.  At the end she was like hey would you like an apple?  Well I love apples so I am like oh thanks that is so sweet! As we walked away, all I could think about was Snow White little old lady ''apple my pretty??'' but I ate it anyways :) I figured if there was anytime I would be able to eat random apples from people it is while I am on my mission :) 

 

Also we were knocking this one street that we felt impressed to knock and in the space of 1 hour we got 4 return appointments!!!  It was the best thing ever! We met amazing people and had amazing conversations!! It was amazing to see how the Lord guided us there! One of the guys is friends with a member in the ward! YES! instant fellowshipper!!!  :)  And another guy we talked to looked just like the actor on the Restoration DVD! And he even said that he is confused right now looking for truth. He said he believes in a higher being but everyone says different things about what is out there so he doesn't know. :)  ''Ask the Missionaries, they can help''' :) it was so exciting!!!!!!!!!

 

We have also met some CRAZY people! It has been so fun! We were waiting for a bus after a tea appointment and this older guy walks by, obviously drunk... . my favourite type of people. . . . He says to me ''hey are you waiting for the bus''  ''yep, we are. That's why we are standing at the bus stop :)''  he turns to me and says ''hey you should walk into town with me.'' I turn and look at him and say ''Ya, not this time sorry love'' and he says ''I can give you a piggy back ride!'' and I just started laughing and was like ''ok BYE!!'' old drunk men, they are hilarious- but I try to avoid them if possible ;) 

 

Then we went to the bus station and we weren't sure which bus it was we were supposed to take, so Sister Howard has the map and asks this lady sitting there if it was the right bus.  The lady then starts to cry.  So sister Howard comes back to me, I thought it was sad but pretty funny. Then the lady yells ''I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!'' and I was like oh man what the heck happened!??!  But she was yelling over us at this man, then they start to fight. Classy because there were quite a few people in the bus station. Hahaha it was hilarious!

 

So we found 2 new investigators this week! One's name is D. and the other is J. :) We also started teaching the daughter of a less active, her name is E. and she is 12 :) what are the odds of that ;)

But ya it has been an exciting week :)

 

Oh so mom, I have been getting frequent headaches lately and I was wondering if you could send some crystal-light with caffeine in it, the energy one.  I have found the only thing that helps my headaches is caffeine and I am trying really hard to be healthy so I'm trying not to drink too much soda.

 

Thanks so much! 

 

good luck to Spencer! I love him!! He is going to do amazing!! 

 

<3 Sis Monroe 

08.11.2014 -- Week full of Miracles!

Hey family! Wow sounds like such a good week!!! I am so happy and excited for Spencer!!!! WHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I LOVED the package you sent!!!! I loved how you got to see the Robinsons! They took really good care of me while I was in Darlington <3

 

Well this week has been great! It has rained a lot!!  and I had to bring my winter coat out again. . . I almost flogged it in Leeds because I was sick of packing! I am so glad that I didn't!!

 

Well it has been a week full of miracles!  This week I have really learned that there are always 2 ways of looking at things, you can make it miserable or you can look for the good!  And I am choosing to see the good and so even though we got rejected a lot this week, the few investigators we had dropped us, and it rained a ton-- I had the best week ever! I also know that I am more resilient because of rejection :) Really though never been happier!! :)

 

I got a package with your scrapbook in it! We have met some amazing potentials!  

We were knocking in a village called Silsden and we met this really old man, he was crazy!! He invited us in and gave us a tour of his house. . . . It was the funniest thing ever. He couldn't hear a word we said but he really wanted to show us this figure he had of the Savior on the cross. 

 

We were knocking yesterday and this guy was like sisters come in! So we were excited and went in. Turns out somehow he has met missionaries before and we were in there for 40 minutes having the best conversation about how we know God is there and about prayer.  He said we could come back and talk about the book of Mormon! :)

 

Some times I feel like Ammon in Alma 17:13-16 Keighley is a more rough area and a lot of people struggle with the idea of a God.  But ''this is the cause for which I had undertaken the work, that perhaps Sister Howard and I can bring them unto repentance!''

 

I am doing the Lords work, why wouldn't I be happy :)

 

Do you remember M. from Darlington?! He is Trish's boyfriend that we were teaching, well he got baptized!! Yay!! and Sister Morris is back in the mission! She is in Leeds B zone, so not too far away!! When she came in President called me and let me talk to her :) I was SO happy!!!!! 

Well good ole Keighley is going to whip me into shape with all the hills that we walk up and down! It is so good :) and we are helping a lot of less active at the minute, as well as always finding new people to teach!

 

I love you all so much!

 

Good luck to spence at his farewell! I love you! <3

 

<3 Sis Monroe

 

 

08.04.2014 -- Blessed to see so many Miracles!

Hey family! So back in Keighley part 2 :) So far it has been really good!! We have been blessed to see so many miracles!  and guess what!!! SISTER MORRIS IS COMING BACK TOMORROW!! I just got an email from her and I am really hoping she comes back here!!  :)

Ya so we have met SO many potentials!!  We have done a lot of finding since we have been here but the best miracles have happened!

 

We had a lesson with a less active one evening and we had 30 mins to knock before the lesson, as we were getting close I felt a really subtle feeling that we needed to knock this street, as we were deciding where to start I felt the slightest tug to the left. Well the guy answered the door and he had a huge picture of the Savior on the wall, which by the way is rare- I just found out yesterday that there are more practicing Christians in mainland China then there are in all of Western Europe, crazy huh!

So anyways this guy says oh I'm not interested, but then we got him talking. We ended up having an amazing conversation with him!! We talked for 30 mins about the plan of salvation, he told us to come back on Sunday and we left him with a plan of salvation pamphlet! 

 

Then we made our way to the less active, and she ended up flogging us. So we were deciding what to do and I looked straight ahead at this one road and I had the strongest desire to knock! So we went and knocked this street and found 2 potentials on it!  One guy said we could come back!

It was a huge testimony builder to me about how the Spirit guides us in our work!! It was very subtle both times but I know that the Spirit guided us to meet them!

 

Unfortunately both of those potentials flogged us last night, but that ended up being a miracle because we were able to go to a different area and we stopped by one of our former investigators. We read a scripture from 1 Nephi 17 with her about how as we keep the commandments of God, our Savior will be our light and guide us through the wilderness! So we talked about the scriptures. Then we told her about the gospel library app and she was SO excited! She was like help me download it now!!! And she is going to put what we said to the test! She is going to read everyday for a week and see if there is any difference in her life! It was so good!!! :)

 

Then we went to stop by this really nice guy sister Morris and I had met, he is really involved in his church but he already had a copy of the Book of Mormon so we asked him to read 3 Nephi 11. Well when we got there he let us in. He said he didn't want to talk about religion but that he had some questions for us and wanted us to meet his wife and his daughter. So 2 days after we had met him there was this show that came out called Meet the Mormons, and it is all about Elder Field who is a missionary in our mission now.  So the show is ridiculous, it only shows him crying at the MTC and the interviewer hounds him on questions about garments. . but anyways it has been good because people start talking to us or feel bad for us :) hahaha

 

So he asked us all of these questions about our missions, did we really not choose where we go? do we pay ourselves? do we really not see our parents for that long? why would you do this?

:) Well David I am so glad you asked! I got to tell him why I CHOSE to come on a mission and how spencer is leaving on one soon! I felt like I needed to testify about prophets so I threw that in there as well.  

 

We then started talking about family history, I showed him my 'My family' book and my 4 generation chart :) and then we told him about familysearch.org and we talked to them for about 30 minutes :) at the end I thanked them for letting us come in and asked if I could leave them a pic of the Savior, so I gave them one of the pass along cards with the Savior and the articles of faith on back :)  It was really good because he kept saying over and over again how much he appreciated and admired what we did!

 

So overall good week! It rained SO hard on Saturday!! I was singing Just keep swimming!! :)

 

Love you so much!

 

<3 Sister Monroe

07.29.2014 -- Another exciting week!

Well this has been a great week :)

We got to go to York on Tuesday for a mission tour where Elder and Sister Dyches of the 70 came.

 

It was really really good!! I loved them!!  Elder Dyches talked about how we have to 'make our own weather in life' and Sister Pilkington talked about how the key to success in this life is learning to listen and follow the Holy Ghost.  It was a powerful day!  I always love those meetings, I feel so empowered as we all come together as missionaries and the Spirit is so strong!

  

It was also great because I got to see Sisters Neilson, Lybbert, and Nigido! and everyone else from up north :) So I was really really happy!!  :)

 

This week we went on member splits, I got to go with a university aged recent convert from China, her name is J. We went street contacting and it was the funniest thing in the world!  We met this girl named L., she is from Taiwan, we ended up talking to her for 30 minutes!  She said she has friends back home that are Christian and they are really good examples and always happy, she said she really liked that about them.  Then she said that her friends 'talk to the God, and He helps them to make decisions' and she asked us if God would do that for her too.  It was a really cool experience to have J. there teaching with me and we promised her that God does hear and answer every single one of our prayers!  

 

We had a ward activity on Saturday and she came to that! It was great!  

 

Transfer calls came in, and I am going back to Keighley :) with Sister Howard, I don't know who she is I have never met her but it should be good.

 

One things for sure I am SO sick of packing! It was just this time last transfer I was packing to move from Darlington to Keithley, then a few weeks ago Keithley to Leeds now back again, good job I didn't unpack I've just been living out of my suitcases for the past 3 weeks :)

 

And good news about Sister Morris's foot, she has the clearance to come back really really soon! So that is exciting!! :) 

 

Well I love you have fun in Tennessee!!!

 

<3 Sister Monroe

 

 

07.21.2014 -- The Church is True! Being a missionary is the best!

Hey family! so glad everyone is happy! I am so so so proud of Spencer!!!! I talk about you a lot over here!!  :)

 

Hey so there is something you guys can do for me, besides find out when BYU sign ups are :(, so this week during I found these AMAZING videos on LDS.org, you might have seen them before but they are so good, it's the segment called ''Unto all the world'' and it is the videos of the apostles when they are on assignment throughout the world, well they are all about missionary work and they made me so happy so you guys should watch them too!  Actually I really felt like you should, make sure Spencer is there and it would be so great if you could get gramps there as well!! ok so they are all good but there were a lot about England and the Sunderland stake!!!  So you should look up

Perseverance is a Hallmark of Membership in Europe

Building on ancient roots Europe

Noah's Story

 

They are all in the Unto all the world: travels of the apostles section.  But they not only got me so excited about missionary work but also made me feel so blessed that I get to be a missionary in this great time!!!  And a lot of the people are leaders that I worked with or members I know!! So it is way exciting!!! But I would love it if for like a FHE you watched them!!  as well as another one called ''the gospel in asia''  so good :)

 

But has been the craziest week of my mission! I just don't even know where it went!!

Monday after Pday we got to go into city center and street contact, the best news ever is that there is a University so every chance Sister Peck and I get we talk to the Chinese people :) it makes me so happy!!!  But we met some really really great people monday night!  We contacted around the uni and met people from China, Mexico, Brazil, and a lot Asian countries as well, I loved it :)

 

We also have gone on 2 exchanges this week, one with the Leeds 1 Sisters (who are the sisters we live with) and the Leeds 2 Sisters. So much fun!

 

So Sister Staheli and I went with Sister Dragoti, she is from Albania. Oh man she is so crazy but so good! She got the entire bus talking together and she was testifying about church, that girl is so bold! We were talking to this guy and he said he didn't have any beliefs in God, and she turned to him and said ''you are so blessed to be talking to the missionaries''.  It didn't really change a whole lot what he was thinking about God but Sister Staheli and I had to fight back laughing when she said it.  We also had so many miracles, when we were knocking we were able to set up 3 return appointments with 3 different people for the next day! It was amazing!

 

When Sister Peck and I went with Sister Scott, we had the biggest miracle ever!  We were knocking and this cute younger lady answered the door we were having a great conversation and I started to testify about the Atonement, she started to cry and she said that is exactly what I need! It turns out she had just lost her son, so we taught about the plan of salvation and she was so grateful!  It was a really powerful experience!!! :) 

 

Probably the highlight of my week was yesterday, so we decided to help our investigators L. and A. get to church. They have 5 kids all under the age of 9 and they are really energetic kids, they don't have a lot of money so they usually walk everywhere. So we walked to church with them. It took about 45 mins but it was such a powerful experience!  I was walking holding hand with N. and L. two of their kids, and I could just feel the angels around us as we were all walking to the chapel!  It was amazing! and they loved church :) Then a member said she was going to take the whole family back to her house for lunch and then take them home! It was a huge miracle!!!

 

The church is true! Being a missionary is the best!! Love you lots!!!!!! :)

 

ps Mission tour is tomorrow so I get to see Sis Neilson and Lybbert! I AM SO EXCITED! :) 

<3 Sis Monroe

07.14.2014 -- Crazy Week...Sister Leader Trainer again.

Oh man! This week has been INSANE!!! Ok so first off, Monday Sis Morris' foot was really bad so we stayed in the flat all day, luckily we got permission to watch disney films in the flat until pday was over! So we watched monsters university, so cute!  

 

Tuesday, her foot was still pretty bad. . . But we were able to go into town where she could sit on a bus and I could contact :) We have done that a lot over the past week! It's hilarious because there is this war memorial and a bunch of benches in a square, so I just go bench to bench and talk to people.  A lot of time the same people are out, so me and the taxi drivers, we are best friends!  Pretty sure if we were ever stranded I could call Mohammed and he would come pick us up in his taxi free of charge :) hahaha but no it was good- staying in the flat was kind of making me go CRAZY so any chance I got to talk to someone made me so happy :)

 

So Wednesday was district meeting in Leeds. And crazy enough there was an emergency transfer so Sister Peck and Sister Kuhn switched places and now Sis Kuhn is in Darlo and Peckie came here!!! Which made me so excited because we were going on exchanges with the sister training leaders this week!! 

 

So then we went to the doctor and it wasn't good news. . . . . . ;( 

But hey Sister Morris and I have been having so much fun! We were trying to go out when we could and set up appointments to rest her foot.  She is amazing I love her SO much!

  

So remember I.? The one we met bus contacting with the Yankee hat?! ya we met him on Friday and took him to the chapel! We gave him a chapel tour- it was AMAZING! He said that he has always been drawn to this church and he passes it on the way to work- he said it has always stood out from the other churches.  Sister Morris and I had a powerful lesson! at the end we brought him into the chapel and talked about the Book of Mormon, he said, that makes so much sense! Why wouldn't Jesus visit other people?! :) it was AMAZING! WHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

 

So then later on Friday the sisters came for exchanges, I went out with Sister Peck, super crazy being back again!! So then I got a call from President telling me he had just heard word that Sister Morris was clear to go home, so she could let her foot heal, and that he was about to call her. Oh man I was so sad when I heard that :( Then after he had called her he called me back.

ok now sit down. this is where it gets crazy.

So he told me that he wants me to serve with Sister Staheli and Sister Peck in Leeds 1. So I am basically here until the end of the transfer, or until another Sister goes home, so I'm kind of in limbo. . . . He told me I'm a ping pong, so I haven't unpacked my suitcases because we are in week 4 of the transfer, but I am a sister training leader again! and we are going on 2 exchanges next week. So that is exciting! And it is so weird to be in a third area with sister peck! hahahaha weird! we were only away for like 3 weeks! but it is so good! I love being in the big city of Leeds :) I am so so happy :) but I do miss sister Morris so much!!

 

well glad to hear you are all doing good! I love you lots!!!! 

 

<3 Sister Monroe! 

07.07.2014 -- Interview with President

hey family!!  Well we had a very interesting week!! 

So monday was an amazing day! We had a lesson with C. and her kids!  She is cutting down smoking, and we are trying to start to teach her 12 year old daughter Jessica!  We talked about the Book of Mormon with them and shared our testimonies talked about why it is so important while we made scripture cases out of cereal with them!  So fun! and C. shared her testimony about the Book of Mormon.  We didn't even have to commit them to read because C. said I know that we need to read as a family! So I wrote down good stories for them to read for this week!

Tuesday- best day EVER!! So the zone leaders challenged us to talk to 40 people and if we did then they would get us ice cream.  Well we dominated and talked to over 40 :) we found 2 new investigators- one is named E. the other N. and the best thing ever- Spencer will be so proud. . . so we were waiting to get on a bus to go back home Tuesday night and this guy walks up.  He was wearing a Yankee hat- so of course I had to comment. Well the first miracle was, he actually knew who the yankees were! Most people here in England where the caps but have no idea that they are actually a team! hahaha but the guy was SO excited to hear my American accent! It turns out he is from Aruba and he has been living here the past 18 months!  So we talked the whole way to the bus station! When we got off the bus he had to hurry to work but we asked if we could meet with him again and keep sharing our message!  He said yes and gave us his contact information!! It was so good!!!!!!! He is amazing! and I have talked to him on the phone since, he is a golden investigator!

Well since Tuesday was such an epic day Satan had to fight hard.  Sister Morris tripped off the curb and hurt her foot pretty bad.  We spent all day Wednesday in A&E, all day Thursday in the flat.

Friday we had zone training meeting and interviews in Leeds so we went there and spent the rest of the day in the flat. . . 

Good news I had a great interview with President! He asked me if I came from a good family,  and I said yes the best family ever! and he said I can tell, I really really can tell! so good job mom and dad ;) it was such a good interview though, we talked about how much the mission means to me and he said alright I will give you £1million right now but if I give it to you, you have to erase your mission, it is like it never happened, you won't have the experiences or the memories.  I said no way! I wouldn't do that even for £1 million!  We talked about how it is interesting how that changes, he said I would bet at the beginning of your mission you probably would have took the money, but now you would never take it.  It is so true- I just love the mission SO much and I can't believe how fast time is going!!!!

So I am going crazy in the flat. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .  But we talked to President on Sunday, and she might have to go home- everything is in limbo at the moment.  .  .  It is really sad we get on so good! We are best friends and having so much fun! I don't want her to go home but I don't think I can stay sane if I sit in the flat any longer. . . . . . . . But I am learning patience and charity- it isn't her fault her foot is hurt, so I am taking really good care of her :) and we are trying to make the most of the situation!

I got your package! Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it!!

Also it turns out I have anemia, but the doctors put me on a prescription and I am feeling SO SO good!!!! I didn't even realize that it was more than just mission tired that I was feeling, but now I feel amazing!

On the 4th of July Sis Morris wondered what it was like in America, so I drew fireworks and I reenacted Stadium of fire ;) hahaha it was hilarious!  

Well I love you so much! wish me luck for the upcoming week! glad you got to see good ole yorkshire in the tour de france- it was madness here!!!

Love you!!!

<3 Sis Monroe

06.30.2014 - Excitement

Hey family! Well this has been a crazy week!!

So Monday we had a lesson with a less active.  She is trying really really hard to give up smoking- and so we have been working with her to create a plan that she can cut back and quit.  We had a really powerful lesson with her and her testimony is really strong!  When we were on the way back we met two amazing people and talked to them both for ages!  This man had been pondering about God and it was ''weird'' that we ran into him and started talking to him, he also said it was ''weird'' that everything we were saying he was wondering about.  Well I've come to see that weird experiences are not just consciences but they are little miracles, little tender mercies!  And I love how every single day we get to see them as missionaries!!

Tuesday. . . oh man. . . so we were contacting all morning and then went to stop by a less active for half an hour.  When we got there she had a fit.  She let us in shut the door and then started throwing things and going crazy. . . .  yep I was scared and didn't know what to do.  She was blocking the door, luckily this lasted only a few minutes and Sister Morris gave her a hug which calmed her down then she was back to normal.   Well she sat me down next to her 5 minutes later she starts to have a seizure. Ya it lasted about 7 minutes.  She came out of it and couldn't talk and I don't know Britain sign language! we called one of her friends! oh my heck it was scary!

Then we had to go in at 4 that day because England was playing in the world cup. Pres made all the missionaries go in an hour before the game.  So we ordered Chinese food and dyed our hair :) it was so fun!!

I love Sis Morris! we get on so good!  She is so fun and chill and we are just having a blast together!

Thursday we saw a drug exchange, after talking to the lady for a while- she said got to go, then a car pulled up they did their drug deal and she ran away. . . . hahaha ya this place is crazy!

But we have had a lot of contacting time this week- so that has been really good!  President always says that the more rejection and opposition we get the more resilient and strong we become.  That's good because England is the first ''post-Christian'' country in the world.  Only 3% of people believe in God- but we have met some great people this week so we have been really blessed!!

Oh I forgot to tell you! The Tour de France comes through Keighley this weekend! In fact our church is cancelled because the road that the church is on is shut down because the cyclist will be going down it! Cool huh! I had no idea that the tour de france started the first part in other countries! Well it is the first time ever that it is in yorkshire and the whole route is in our mission! you should google it you might get to see our chapel!!

Well I'm sorry I'm out of time! But I love you!! Glad to hear everyone is good!!  :) We are happy and working hard here!!!! Seeing blessings all the time! I have really come to see how everything in life and in the mission is about attitude! I read mental toughness by elder ballard and he talked a lot about how successful missionaries are ones who have good attitudes and work hard!  I think that is true in life!!!! As we trust in the Lord and work our best to love the people around us I know that we see miracles and more happiness!!

love you!

<3 Sister Monroe