Remember Your Covenants

I hope everyone is very aware that I am coming home next week (:

Be excited for me! Haha I'm going to need all the help I can get. It will be weird...I'll let you all know now that I will be very awkward and just ask you all laugh at my missionary gospel humor

(btw this is my last email I'm sending out)

2 quotes I'd like to start off with that people have told me and that I've learned during these past 18 months

1.Serve because of your covenants....not because of your callings.  

AND

2. You are never released from your covenants. You'll eventually be released from your callings but never from your covenants.

Good things to live by especailly as my calling as a full time missionary is ending. 

We had the amazing experience with Sister Chang in the Washington D.C. Temple!!!

She is seriously so special to me. It was too cute seeing her in the celestial room. During her endowment she got to wear the headset and listen to the session in Chinese (: The spirit each filled us with so much peace. 

Wanna hear the best miracle of it all??

Reason 327 why I love fasting.

Sister Jolley and I last Sunday both decided we would fast the day before Sister Chang's endowment. Which happened to fall on my birthday but I didn't really care. So Friday comes along and we are already fasting. We call Ssiter Chang that morning to follow up on how she's doing and she said she hadn't gone to her interview with the stake president yet because of the huge snow storm...and was going to get it on Sunday. Which meant she wasn't going to the temple the next day!! As soon as we hung up we texted Sister Diehl and asked her what the plans were for tomorrow and she shared the dilema but was trying everything she could to get it worked out...but that it didnt seem likely that they wouldn't get in for an interview. We contniued fasting and praying that whole day and saw a lot of miracles throughout the day.

Helped someone jump their car and met the nicest girl Tiffany! 

Then about 530 rolls around. Still no word from Sister Diehl...

Sister Jolley and I are on our knees getting ready to break our fast discussing a few things and we hear our phone ring!!! It's a text from Sister Diehl saying that they were scheduled for an interview that night and the temple was still on for tomorrow! I have a huge testimony of fasting(: 

Not only does fasting help us spiritually, but it shows Heavenly Father our faith in things happening. 

Also later that same night around 830 we were getting ready to walk home from our last appointment. Before we get outside, Sister Jolley pulls me aside and shares with me she had an overwhelming feeling that we needed to be very cautious going home and be aware of our surroundings. We say a prayer before we got outside and started walking the 10 blocks home. We get about 2 blocks and we're right next to this ghetto dirty gas station. We kept walking but I saw someone pumping gas into their car and as I turned to look more who it was it none other than Sister Diehl and Sister Chang!!! They had stopped after their interview witht eh stake president to get gas before our big trip the next day. We were like hello!!!! She offered to drive us home and we were so happy! Man it's so humbling and overwhelmingly comforting to know that Heavenly Father answers and hears our prayers and fasts. She was a very direct answer to our prayers and she definitely acted on a spiritual prompting to stop for gas at that gas station right then instead of any 100 different times she could of. Heavely Father uses others to answer our prayers. 

The temple is the greatest place on earth. I plan to make it a weekly occurance when I am home. Mmmm the peace one feels and the spiritual power and strength and promises you recieve from going to the temple are indescribable. Please go to the temple if you don't reguarly. If you are unworthy of going to the temple, make whatever changes nesseccary and get to the temple. 

Heavenly Father's whole work is the temple! The main purpose of the gospel is what we learn in the temple. 

My mission means so much to me. I have never been happier than being out here serving the Lord. Typed words or vocalized thoughts will never be able to accuarately describe how much my mission has changed, blessed, and strengthened my life. Things can never be the same from the experiences and the witness I've felt during these 18 months in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Misson. Elder Holland says it better: "After an encounter with the living

Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before"

Good things are going to happen!

I start up again at BYUI in April, come be my friend(: 

I love you! And am really excited to see you all and give you HUGS

xoxo

Sister Christy Manson

best philly cheese steak

I love M's

masonic temple love 

masonic temple love 

cray snow storm!

Brighten Your Light

These last two weeks I get the great privilege to go the temple twice! 

once with sister Chang which will be indescribably special...for her to get her endowments!!

the next with the group of departing missionaries. YAY. i can't think of anything more powerful than being in the temple with a whole herd of missionaries. 

at MLC (missionary leadership council) president asked me and 2 other sisters to bear our testimonies since that was our last one.

It was really special because when it was my turn to go up, i went and just looked into the eyes of all of these great leaders and realized that most of them were some of my greatest friends.

I thought coming out on my mission the people that would mean the most to me and that I would do the most good for would be investigators.

i never imagined that I would come out and make so many close friends with not only other missionaries and my companions but with ward members and leaders. and that most good was done TO ME from these people.  

Went on exchange with sister handy and sister smith her golden. hahah had way too many adventures. they wanted us to double into their area so we did and just went on exchange there. bless my little sister Jolley she accidentally locked their keys in their apartment! and apparently there is no spare key to be found! so after she called me and sister handy we ran over and assess the scene. we decided to say a kneeling prayer in the grubby dusty crowded staircase floor. and exactly when we finished their neighbor Jon the tennis player comes walking down stairs! He helped us and we were able to unlock the door with his help. aka screwdriver and hammer to jimmy the door. oh man good times. crazy things always happen when you get more than 2 sister missionaries together! 

Last pday we toured the masonic temple(: it was a dream. we got a super good tour guide this time and he answered all of our questions. i was very content. 

i just love love love Philadelphia and am so happy i get to end my mission here. way too lucky. 

I have thought about it for quite sometime now and have decided my future husband and I are going to be moving here (: into the independence ward and it will be the greatest thing ever. 

one of my favorite things about being here serving in a Philadelphia ward is that we have hands down the BEST fast Sunday experience you'll ever experience. I was dying yesterday

here's what went down:

we had a guy get up twice..each time in a different outfit.

a guy for like 22 minutes talking about why its okay for him to respect females

and one girl got up and said a prayer for her testimony 

i was in heaven. also a guy shared how he got shot 3 times, and how he'd been shot before, but never 3 times and how it happened on good Friday, but it didn't seem so good to him. 

i was dying! i love it here. 

GOOD TIMES. i will miss this. I have a feeling YSA's and west coast ward fast Sundays are just not gonna cut it for me now on. 

I read a really good talk called "put of the armour of light" by elder neilsen

read it and write down your thoughts:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/03/put-on-the-armour-of-light?lang=eng

Romans 13:12

"cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light"

I hope that we all understand that we are to reflect the light of Christ to everyone we see. 

Christ says that He is the light of the world, but clearly also states that "YE are the light of the world" With His help, we can become like Him!

Our light can shine in dark places only if we reflect it.

Sister Steadman's favorite scripture is D&C 50:24

24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

we can fill our lives with light! leaving no room for darkness.

I invite all of you to put on the armour of light! if you're not sure how exactly, read that talk(: 

continue to do things that will invite light into your life, and put away the things that cause darkness. Even if other people are radiating darkness in your life, and you feel weighed down and cannot see, I testify that light and dark cannot exist together and can promise that darkness will have no room if we are filled with light. Especially with the light of our Savior. This spiritual light has a short shelf life though. we need to be constantly, frequently, and DAILY doing those small and simple things that adds light. 

Some questions I've learned to ask myself throughout my mission is: 

how bright is my light?

Am i a dim light bulb?

or am i like the sun!?

Your light may be on, but i encourage each of you to brighten your lights

and in doing so you'll brighten those around you.  

I love you so much

and will see you soon(:

Sister Manson

Fishing using a metal detector

Pday was moved to Tuesday because we had a super cool mission wide
conference yesterday!

I fasted during it and got some really really good insights from
Heavenly Father.
I had very particular questions that I wanted answers and I got them
plus 100 more!
My testimony on fasting has been strengthened 100fold since being on
my mission.Fasting is seriously the best and a huge strength to me.
This Sunday is fast sunday and I invite you all to fast! Specifically
with a question in mind. I know as we are actively seeking answers and
comfort or reassurance and guidance from the lord we will be guided.

This past Sunday we had an amazing lesson on seeking spiritual light
and truth (president uchtdorfs general conference talk) I studied it
the day after too and I'll share a small insight i was taught.
It's normal and natural for us to have questions and for some things
of the gospel to not make sense to us or completely understand. As we
follow the four steps mentioned in his talk
1. Actively seek and search the word of God. Aka scriptures and talks etc..
2. Ponder and mediate on these things
3. Pray and ask Heavenly Father
4. Act!

We need to be using the right resources and tools in order to find the answers.
We cannot expect to successfully go fishing by using a metal detector.
Spiritual truth comes from using spiritual tools.
Those steps mentioned above always work
It only doesn't when we do not put in the proper time and attention to
each of these.

Great news:)
Sister chang our cute little old Chinese friend who we've been working
with to come back to church and to go the temple has her official
temple date! In the Washington, D.C. Temple.
MARCH 7 (day after my birthday) uhh can you saw holy miracle:) I'll
take 100 pictures for you.
I'll be in heeeeeaven that weekend.
Things are going so well here in our area. It's on fire and I'm a
little bitter the transfer is ending so quickly it feels like! There
is a lot of fruit here that has been the product of all of the hard
work done by the previous sisters in this area. Shout out to sister
Bennett and menlove

I went on exchange with sister Bailey and I wasn't having the best of
days and was feeling a little low. I told her this when we were
together and she said she was too alittle. So we said a prayer right
there having full faith that Heavenly Father would help us. And help
us he did!
As she was praying the thought came to my mind something that always
makes me feel better: listening to people sing. So my initial thought
was to just ask her to sing to me haha but then another thought came
that that was pretty selfish. Haha instead of her singing to me, we
can go find a human and both sing and help not only ourselves but
someone else along the way:)
I shared that with her and she was alittle apprehensive but she was a
champion and went along with me. We found a human and I went up to her
and was like:
"Hello! My name is sister manson. And I am not having the best of days
today..can we sing to you? That always makes me feel better"
Hahaha I kid you not that's pretty much what I said...
She said sure, and we sang!  "I need thee every hour"
She was in tears by the time we were done.
We started talking to her about the Book of Mormon and at first she
was having none of it. But after being persistent :) and bearing
personal testimonies and teaching her she accepted a copy and was
really interested by the time we finished.
Even on cruddy low days in my weaknesses Heavenly Father still allows
me to be used as a capable instrument in his hands. I am so grateful
for that.

During weekly planning in our opening prayer I prayed that we would
miraculously get in contact with alan, a recent convert who we haven't
had any contact with since December...and then literally 2 days later
we saw him walking down the street. You best believe I shouted his
name and ran over to him. We had a lesson with him and he's coming to
church Sunday :)

Sister jolley and I are in such good shape(:
We run every morning and walk everywhere during the day
We don't use our car. Literally at all.
We've only gone about 100 miles this whole month
And usually we go like 800-1000 every month in previous areas and transfers.
We walk and use the subway a ton and we are able to talk to so many
more people that way.
Just picture us trekking and derping(; around in the snow negative
degree super windy days every single day. Those are times when I'm the
happiest. Because literally I would never be doing this! But I love
Heavenly Father and know what my purpose is so that's why I'm still
here.
I think it's interesting to think about the why behind everything we do.
Different levels behind everything.
Am I obedient because of president anderson or my companion?
Or am I obedient because I love the lord?
Do I read my scriptures every day because I've been given that hour in
the morning to do so?
Or do I read because I know I'll be uplifted by the spirit?

Knowing our "why" behind everything and making sure we are doing
things for the right reason really makes a huge difference and I know
will make a huge impact when I go home.
These habits and patterns I've established and made here will come
with me when I am home.
I am so grateful for my mission. It literally means the world to me.
And I would be a hot mess without these experiences with the spirit.

Love you!
Sister Manson

Jack Attack (see 25)

I can't get over how much my heart is 100FULL. 

I just 100love it here so much and being a missionary.

Can't really vocalize it, but know I'm 100happy here. 

Here's my "100 Miracle list" for the transfer

This week here's what went down:

15 meeting tev at jimmy g's steak and him meeting us at the temple site for a return appointment! 

16 stopping by Karen. Who came down stairs with her swollen ankle! Showed because of him and got a return appointment:) new investigator! She wants us to teach her!

17 sang "I need thee every hour" to Gary the septa subway worker while waiting for the subway. Softened his heart and got his # 

18 had some sisters emergency/doubled into our area...never ending adventures and craze.

19 finally found a Parking spot after circling the streets and one ways for seriously I kid you not for 45 minutes and many prayers later. 

20 finally found our car where we parked after walking and running around with all their stuff for also 45 minutes the next day many prayers and wandering later. 

21 exchange with sister cox(: met DJ frosty! Aka Mike spiker. He was painting up a mural that got graffitied, and we helped him paint!! YEAH I Tagged a building in Philly :) see picture below. 

22 met pan! AN ASIAN! Return appointment :) one of our goals for the transfer. Teach an Asian. 

23 Melissa (sis Anton's friend) wants us to come have lunch with her. Perfect timing, as were walking out of sister antons home after just talking about how much Melissa would benefit from meeting with us...she's outside! So I run over and I'm like hey Melissa! She was so happy to see us and walked us to our bus stop. She loves us:)

24 met shantell (sister jolley's kindred spirit) on the subway. Way too nice and loves us. 

25 Jack restoration lesson!! So prepared:) with Morgan's. His baptism will be in March!!!!!!!!! 

26 caught the bus just in time...after running like mad To not miss it. 

27 didn't get hit by a bus....it honked and we noticed it. 

28 Jack, joel, tatyana and Terrance were all at church!!! 

29 more than 60% of standards of excellence hit This week 

Referencing 25----->

WHAT A HUGE MIRACLE AND TENDER MERCY. 

Originally we had met him at dunkin donuts and he was so impressed by sister jolley and I by the way we talked and were dressed. #recognizedasrepresentativesofchrist

Then we met with him like 2 days ago. Taught the restoration. He agreed with everything and is getting baptized in March! And he came to church the next day(: I love being a missionary. 

Referencing 23----> 

Perfect timing!

Sister antons friend Melissa is having a really hard time and sister anton before we left told us all about it, and I just felt super prompted and urged that she really needs us to go talk to her. Sister anton assured us she wouldn't like us to go over, so I was praying after we were getting out the door somehow we'd see her or something. And as we walked out I looked over towards where she lives AND THERE SHE WAS!!!!! I like ran over and was like hey Melissa! And she was like hey and was super happy to see us. She even walked us over to our bus stop and waited with us until it came so we were able to talk a little. Then sister Anton like 2 days later called us and told us Melissa wants us to come over! Literally I'm like so happy to help her and that Heavenly Father is just allowing me and sister jolley to be his hands and go around lifting others!

Sister Bennett shout out:

WHETHER YOU'RE THE ONE LIFTING, OR BEING LIFTED, YOU'RE BOTH EQUALLY BLESSED.

Next Week we'll have PDay on Tuesday because Monday we'll be having a mission wide conference!!!! Our entire mission will get together for like the whole day and we'll get 100 good notes/thoughts/spiritual guidance/pep talks/callstorepentance etc...

Stay tuned and I'll share what I learned. 

Had a pretty sacred & reassuring experience while listening to a temple fireside last night.

Super grateful for my Heavenly Father who is mindful of me and all who I love.

Thanks for keeping me in your prayers. 

You're in mine.

LOVE YOU

Sister Manson 

Our graffiti boy

And sister jolley and I 😍😍😍

Sprint To The Finish

HELLO!

So first things first...

My new companion is sister jolley.

And her name totally fits her! 

She is so happy all the time and is really really good for me.

It's impossible to get apathetic or past feeling around her. She lights everything up.

Super grateful for her. 

I am obsessed with the number 100.

So since this is my last transfer, I was thinking about something that I could do 100 times haha.

I decided sister jolley and I are going to see 100 miracles this transfer!

I am keeping track and have a numbered list going:)

We saw 14 this past week:

100 miracles list

1 Met Mark! who had met with pennypack sisters years ago and was going to get baptized. Got a return appointment. 

2 mikel! Met at SAMs house

3 people who are meeting with the elders on the subway 

4 eliminating the non elect

5 we were lost..said a prayer, saw a police man. He directed us where to go and then we 

---> met a guy from Russia. Able to bear testimony and give Book of Mormon. 

6 said a prayer after not knowing what to do next..met hunter! Cried and said she wanted to know her purpose here and that her dad works for a company who is helping build the temple!! 

7 Jack at dunkin donuts(: recognized us as representatives of christ. Going through a hard time with divorce, wanted to meet us again! 

8 definitely meant not to go to stake conference--> ride got food poisoning and our investigator's car wouldn't start. Probably protected from getting into a car accident or something. 

9 tatyana finally opened up and shared her feelings with us about her grandma passing away. 

10 we were made "invisible to danger" like sister jolley's prayer asked. 

11 no car still...riding the subways like crazy & walking 100 miles :) legs ripped. We officially decided to not even use our car anymore when we get it back. We talk to so many people on foot:) and we love the subway too much. 

12 after driving around the blocks searching for a place to park....for seriously 40 minutes we finally found a free, no time limit parking spot!! 

13 tatyana and joel came to church

14 fantastic powerful lesson with pearl and she is coming to church next week #sacrament!!

GOOD WEEK.

I feel like when I take the time to recognize the lords hand throughout the day, it's so much easier for me to see the miracles! I hope each of you will take the time this week to notice the miracles happening. Also take the time to have miracles happen to you as you search and seek for them. Becoming creators of circumstances, not waiting around waiting to be acted upon. 

We had MLC Friday. So good as usual. Talked a lot about trust and learned a lot.

Sister jolley and I trained on what it means to live the gospel and living what we learn.

We had the coolest miracle of the week happen the night before MLC that we were able to share! (See 7)

Okay so we stopped by dunkin donuts before heading in to make our final preparations for our training. First off...we never go inside dunkin donuts but for some reason we decided to go. Got some yummy donuts and hot chocolate:) that was a plus. Then I called elder jones(the person in charge of cars) to update him on our car situation and parking lot issue. So I talked to him and then after I hung up, a guy sitting behind us says "did I hear you say sister? What church are you from?" And he went on to ask 100 more questions and told us how when we first walked in he noticed how we were dressed and just how nice and conservative we looked. 

(white handbook 10 "your appearance is often the first message others receive") he also said he noticed how I was talking on the phone and just how I was very respectful and nice. 

Because sister jolley and I were simply just living the gospel through our actions, he was able to recognize us as representatives of christ!!! He shared how he is going through a divorce right now and wants to meet with us again. Sister jolley bore her testimony and we got his phone number. Good things are happening here in Philly! 

Man I am so grateful to be here.

Sister menlove gave me one of her wooden toothbrushes and she wrote "sprint to the finish"

(& some other things too) but I really love that part. 

I mean I feel like I've been sprinting my whole mission....haha but definitely sprinting even more to the end.

I have been really studying Matthew 11:28-30 this past week like crazy.

It's so good and I have learned a lot. Especially just how easy and light doing things with christ is. Sister jolley is pretty inspired and shared this random fact with me:

A Clydesdale horse can pull 900lbs alone. Which is so much!! Right? 

Guess how much it can pull with another horse yoked with it?

1800? 2000?

WRONG.

Eightthousandpounds!!!

8000??!

Yes. 8000.

I know as we do things on our own we can accomplish a lot. But when we yoke ourselves with christ we can do a heck of a lot more!! Being yoked with Christ is easy because his burden is light. Well how the heck do we yoke ourselves with Christ? Sign me up!

Already done. It's through our covenants we make. Baptism, sacrament, the temple...

Something I'm going to do this week is study my covenants more.

Also I read a scripture everyone is super familiar with 

1 Nephi 8:10

"I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy"

And it really caught my attention and the spirit taught me a lot.

How the fruit's (representing christ) only desire is to make us happy. 

I love that. And I know that's true!

He wants us to be happy more than anything else.

The gospel makes that possible.

I've never been happier my whole life than on my mission, these past 17 months.

Love you!

(Also thanks for all the special prayers and thoughts. I definitely have felt them this past week.)

Sister Manson🌵

Sister jolley <3 i love this girl

and sister zeller! 

at MLC

tatyana and terrance <3 

they are so special to me! 

tatyana and terrance <3 

they are so special to me! 

this sweet graffitii (sp??) thing we found (: 

this sweet graffitii (sp??) thing we found (: 

Joy Cometh in the Morning

Sister Bennett and I were super sick and stayed in allllll day on Friday. Flu/cold stuff going on around here. This one member knew we were sick and came and dropped off donuts! Nicest thing ever. They were Amish donuts too so even better. 

Do you want to hear the worst news ever??

I lost my scriptures....on the subway!

I must have left them on the seat as I got off at my stop. 

They're 100% gone.

Ugh it's horrible. Those were like my one and only prized possession out here! 

It's okay..its a good reminder when I die I can't take anything with me anyways, just my brain filled with the things I learned from the scriptures haha. 

This is sister Bennetts last week as a missionary. Ah it's so weird..then after this week it's my last transfer. I don't know where time is going.

Also sister Chang is going through the temple in February instead, not sure on the exact date but I think I'll still be able to go:) 

But this will probably be my last area which I am totally 100% fine with. I love this city so much. It feels like a dream that I get to be where I am every morning.

I know I say this like every time..but I am just not who I was before my mission! Like so much not even close. It'll be interesting to come back and see how everything works out. I read one of my new favorite talks called "joy cometh in the morning"  by elder Nelson.

It's so good and I love the scripture it's based on:

Psalms 30:5

"Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning"

JOY ALWAYS COMES. And sometimes we need to go through trials and bad days because those are what stretches us to be ready to feel happiness or joy more deeper. I am a firm believer of that. 

"The gospel of Jesus Christ...declares joy to be part of our divine destiny. And to experience joy in the morning becomes our special challenge. The true test" —Elder Nelson

I'm working on finalizing my last goals for my last transfer starting next week. Crazy how fast everything goes. I've had some very cool and spiritual experiences come from "praying like I've never prayed before" there's a big difference than praying/going through the motions and actually communicating and petitioning our Heavenly Father for help guidance and gratitude. 

I've been really praying to Heavenly Father asking him why I'm here in this specific area. And we had a very tender experience with a member as she was talking to us about a lot of her concerns about the gospel and sister Bennett and I were able to share very simple but very powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the church. A moment on my mission I will never forget.

I hope everything is going well for you all :)

Stay warm and share the gospel.

Love sister Manson 

Octopus Jerky

The experiences this week was made just for me. Particularly to humble my little spirit.

I went on an exchange with a sister this week and had such a sacred experience with her. The thought came to ask her randomly if she felt Heavenly Father was proud of her. She started to cry and it was clear she wasn't sure and was trying to know Him better. We were able to feel the spirit so strong as I bore my testimony and help her feel That He is. I am very grateful to be serving where my sphere of influence is not only to strengthen our investigators or members of the ward, but also my some specific fellow sister missionaries that sister Bennett and I are with.  

One of my favorite things about being a missionary is personally feeling the intense a,punt of love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for each one of us.

ZONE CONFERENCE!

Thoughts:100 best zone conference of my whole mission. Good thing because it was my last one! Learned a lot more about the atonement and the doctrine of Christ. Shared our new mission 2015 theme with us: D&C 128:22 "shall we not go on is so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage and on to the victory. Let your hearts rejoice and be exceedingly glad" 

Can't even describe how perfect this scripture is. Just for me:) 

We had some "octopus jerky" with sister Chang. It was good!

She is still set for january 31 to go get her temple endowment! So excited for her. 

Sunday in relief society we had a lesson all about prayer. I know that too was all just for me. 

I've been really studying and working on my prayers. Ultimately I've realized and gained a testimony of how prayer changes us. I've started to say personal vocal prayers. Which are 100x powerful. I feel the spirit the whole time while praying in my head it's so easy to get distracted.

If you have never prayed out loud privately before, I encourage and invite you to do so. It's alittle awkward and different at first, but I promise you'll be able to see and feel a huge difference. 

Heavenly Father's love for me cracks me up. He knows me really well..and it has just felt like for at least a week and half I've been running into a brick wall and just feeling really crappy for 100 different small silly reasons. I am a bit prideful when it comes to asking other people for help... But Heavenly Father gave me some very specific experiences and feelings and thoughts with the spirit to help me be humble enough to ask for a priesthood blessing. But so much peace came during and right after I got a blessing. I wrote down all my thoughts and made very specific promises to Heavenly Father and for the first time in a while i felt an INSANE amount of peace. That experience helped me gain an even stronger testimony of the priesthood power and its ability to heal and comfort and bless and uplift. I am just so grateful for the priesthood and that experience I had last night. 

One of our appointments canceled so we decided to stop by a referral. Sister Bennett  Originally thought it was the house # was 908 and I said it wasn't. Haha so we knocked on a door we thought she lived and got no answer. Then we were going to go back to the car but sis Bennett wanted to knock on 908 so we did! 

Something my mission has taught me is to be persistent. I have a very strong testimony and belief in being persistent. A women opened the door and didn't want to talk to us..at all!

At first we could barely see her eyes as she cracked the door open. Then we talked and could see her daughter and started talking to her and we were there bearing testimony for like 2-3 minutes in the rain! At this point she was about ready to either let us come in or kick us out. 

She finally said "okay come in" after we practically begged her to let us share truth with her. 

Super cool experience! Bore testimony of restoration and Book of Mormon. She opened up a lot about some deep personal things and I just felt so much love for her and did not want to leave until she knew what I knew about the gospel. I felt strongly inspired and prompted to promise her if she kept her commitments we left, she would get the job she was worrying about getting. She felt the spirit and it was way powerful. We are going back tomorrow:) 

Good things happen as we push ourselves and go beyond that which is normally done. 

Inconvenience verses convenience.

One of my favorite principles of the gospel. 

Missions are hard and taxing...but everything about the gospel is also.

Salvation is not a cheap experience. I am grateful for the times on my mission, but at the beginning and more recent times, where my heart and soul have seemed to be stretched so thin, only to realize that it was so I can feel joy deeper. 

Alma 36:20

"my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!"

I love you!

Sister Manson