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!

Very Good Week - some Pranks on District Leaders!

Hiya! you alright?? that is how everyone greets each other here-

Well this has been a very good week!  I have learned a lot!! 

Good ole W. is doing great! I met W. my very first day.  Well I love W. so much and it has been amazing to see the change in him from when I met him 2ish weeks ago!  He is reading and praying and is excited to meet with us.  We taught him the word of wisdom this week- which is so hard because tea is who they are (really i had someone tell me that ;) at first he wasn't really willing.  he said he wouldn't smoke anymore and he would just drink a little bit and that he couldn't give up tea.  We kept testifying to him and teaching him and by the end of the lesson he said he would do it!! WAHOO!!! he also said a beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson asking for help- and for W. to ask for help from God is a BIG CHANGE!! so it was great!!

We had stake conference yesterday- it took like 2 1/2 hours to get there because the metro was down and we had so many bus problems, but it was really good and we got 3 investigators out there! Which is huge because Sunderland is far away and for them to come that early was really great!!!!!!!!!!

We played the best prank on our district leader :) when the other sisters were following up sister R. and I were ''yelling'' at each other in the background- and sister I. was like oh no here they go again and they kept doing there follow up. so when they passed the phone it was just me and I was telling Elder E. how sister R. was on my last nerve and how I couldn't handle it any more (the whole time R. and the other sisters were in the room listening) and sis R. comes in and we were yelling at each other and we hung up the phone.  he called right back and sister S. answered and said sis R. just punched sis monroe and blood is everywhere. he totally bought it and he was kind of freaking out- I was pretending to cry and sis R. was pretending to be so mad. and then he told the other sisters to get us seperated and he was going to call the zone leaders (they live pretty close to us) and we all got silent and started to bust up laughing.  It was a great prank because E. freaked out :) but please tell Spence to send some prank ideas my way!!  haha

I went on exchange this week with Sister I., it was great to get out with her and I learned a lot.  we also had a lot of fun and cranked it hard! 

We went to dinner as a district this week (that is Sis R., S., I. and Elder E. and H.) anytime the whole district gets standards of excellence the Elder's ward mission leader takes the district out to a nice dinner.  I don't know why he did it though because only 2 teams got it- I guess he just wanted to meet us.  we went to a place called Tony Carvery and it was so SO good!!!!!!!!! He goes to utah every month for business and he knows exactly where spanish fork is- he said he works a lot in provo. he was one of the nicest people ever.

that's so sad to hear about sis p.'s husband!  she is so sweet!!!

The kids are almost done with school, YAY! what adventures do you have planned?? besides baseball games?? so occasionally people wear yankee hats

whoa parker is 16?! wow!! tell him happy late birthday!!! and uhh jake has a bday around here too right? and luke?? mark?? give a shout out to the fam!! Tell them I love them all!! and I hope you are telling gramps all my stories!! ask him if he likes yorkshire pudding, and if he ever had cow stomach, and if custard was something he ate every day at tea. 

well fam I love you all!!!!!! you are the best! 

much love!

Sister Monroe :)

First email from Mission Field!!!

Well hello family!!  I did make it safe and sound and I am glad you got the email from president and sister L - so my area is called Newcastle Upon Tyne.   Don't let the name be deceiving  it is a bigger city so ummm nothing like I was expecting England to be like. not fancy or proper at all ;) But emmy it is almost as far north as you can go so I have been keeping my eye out for a 1D singer- but haven't found any yet ;)

 

So SUNDAY I AM SKYPING HOME!! yay! thanks dad for sending the account and password- you are one step ahead of the game! so I will be skyping at 5pm England time. . . I don't know what time that is for you guys. . . . but before I call home on Sunday it would be great if you guys logged onto mine and called yours so I have your account name and to make sure everything is working.  will you send a quick email before sunday to write your skype name down?  So everything should work and I will see you guys on Sunday!!

 

So happy bank holiday- that is why I didn't email home on monday- the library was closed but we were still able to have Pday, so we went to the beach :) pretty much everyone in the area came- it was a BLAST! fish and chips, beach volleyball, and of course football (soccer in USA) - it wouldn't be england without football.

 

I love it guys!! I love my trainer, her name is Sister R. and she is great!  She is super supportive and has been out a long time so she is FULL of knowledge.  So how it worked was on Wednesday we traveled by bus to a church in Leeds- and we had some orientation then the missionaries started to come and all the newbies got to bare their testimonies. then all the sisters lined up- president introduced all of us and said who their trainer was they ran up and gave us a hug.  So he gets to me my trainer runs up- and president says to everyone Sister Monroe how comfortable are you with Chinese. . . uhhhhh???? he said well looks like you'll be learning lots.  . . .my heart dropped. . . . . so ya she is assigned to speak chinese and most of our investigators are chinese.  we do most of the lessons in english with a little chinese but there is one that doesn't speak any english. . our sunday school class is all chinese. . . .and they are ordering me a chinese name tag.  But never frett because I am assigned English so I am supposed to teach in english any chinese I pick up is just for me I'm not required to learn any, but it would be helpful ;)

 

so I already had an experience with NASTY FOOD! what the heck i'm in england I'm supposed to get good stuff right?! nope! SO it was my second day here and we were at our tea appointment (ps that means dinner appointment) so we were at a families house from Africa - super nice family - so they bring out the soup. . . . it was cow stomach and brain. . . . I tried my hardest to eat it. . but there was hair on the back side of every single piece and I chocked like half of it down but I just couldn't do it. . . . I felt so bad. they are the nicest family ever. . . . EWWWWWWWWW welcome to the mission ;)

 

So there are 4 of us living in our flat- which is GREAT! they are in the same situation - trainer called to speak chinese but it is the BIGGEST tender mercy/ blessing ever because the other girl her name is Sister S and she was the first sister I met at the airport- we became very fast friends and I love her to death! and we are living together!!!!! It is SO much fun! and so the 4 of us are in the same ward and so are our zone leaders- so 6 missionaries in one ward. and oh my gosh this ward is tiny! pretty sure one year at lake powell we had more people on the house boat than there were at sacrament meeting! But its great :) the support of members is pretty good- we have tea appointments almost every night which is so fun because we are meeting the members and it's the 6 of us so it is always so much fun! one of the elders is hilarious and all of us get along great!!!

 

oh the flat I live in has been Elder's apartment for the past 5 years. . .. and our district leader cleaned it for 6 hours before we came- it is pretty good now but they left us pics of what it used to look like. . . NASTY!! hahah but it is a pretty big flat on top of a hair salon- you have to go through this gate to get there and it reminds me a lot of New York- which btw YAY for Sarah!! I love her SO much and I am so excited for her!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY

 

So I get around by metro, bus and walking. and I still have not seen ANY rain since I've been here! it rained like 2 at the MTC but I was inside so doesn't really count- I know I just jinxed myself. . . . haha but it is at times pretty cold but the past 2 days have been nice- I even got sunburned at the beach!

 

Well family I love you!!! And I can't wait to talk on Sunday- 5 England time so like 10 america time? ya I have no idea haha but see ya then!! 

 

Love you!!!!

 

ps Em, cat fight at your comp?! no way!! that is intense!!! hahaha glad you guys had fun with Char and Ben!! 

Letter from Mission President -- SAFE ARRIVAL!

  

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

ENGLAND LEEDS MISSION

Lister House, Lister Hill

Horsforth

LEEDS

LS18 5AZ

3 May 2013

 Dear Brother and Sister Monroe,

It is with pleasure that we welcome your daughter, Sister Allison Monroe, to the England Leeds Mission.  We find her prepared and committed to serve the Lord and to share the message of the Restored Gospel.

Your daughter’s first companion is Sister R., who was prayerfully selected to ensure the best introduction to missionary work for Sister Monroe.   We are confident their relationship will be a mutual blessing. 

Weekly encouragement from home will certainly help inspire her missionary effort.  We encourage you to write her once a week with your letters uplifting in spirit.  Please let other family and friends know how important it is to write positive, encouraging letters that support missionary work.  Your daughter’s address is now:

                      Sister Allison Monroe

                      England Leeds Mission
                      Lister House, Lister Hill
                      Horsforth
                      Leeds LS18 5AZ
                      England

Personal, practical and inexpensive gifts from home for birthdays or Christmas are encouraged.  The best gifts are consumables, such as ties, socks, small personal items, and goodies.  Please send packages through regular mail to the above address.  However, because missionaries move frequently, and space is very limited; large, heavy or unnecessary items are discouraged.  Remember your missionary is limited to two bags and a briefcase. 

Families and friends are asked to not visit or call their missionaries in the field.  Such calls and visits will undermine the effectiveness of missionaries and their companions.  Please feel free to call the mission president in the event of an emergency at home.  Missionaries are not to call home without the president's permission.

Any anxiety your missionary may have about finances will hinder the work.  Please do not send excess funds, too much money can be as detrimental as not enough.  If you need to send funds to your missionary, please add it to their personal debit card or contact the mission office to discuss the best way for you to do so.

I want you to know that Sister L. and I consider it a privilege to serve with your daughter and promise to help all we can.  Your daughter’s physical, emotional and spiritual welfare is of utmost importance to us.

Sincerely yours,
President L.

Arrival in the Mission Field -- email with pictures from Mission Secretary

What a pleasure it was to meet your daughter.

She is going to be a fabulous missionary!

I hope you enjoy the letter and pictures.

Warm Regards,

Sister W.

Secretary

England Leeds Mission

Lister House Lister Hill

Horsforth, Leeds  LS18 5AZ