Happy black history monthhhh

We are LOVIN our iPads(: they're amazing at bringing in the spirit quickly.

So recently I've been studying the Atonement in hopes to understand it
alittle more.
I've found a really cool quote that I will share with you(:

"Any increase in our understanding of his atoning sacrifice draws us
closer to Him"

We had lunch with Kelly this week. At this cute little place called
"Sunflower Cafe"
She's amazing, and a total testimony builder to me. Such a great
example of faith. She's been having a really hard time...but we've
been really trying to help her understand and know to just keep
pushing forward.

We had a crazy miracle happen. Randomly we got a text message saying
we have 2 referrals! Bethann and Margaret, given to us by their uncle
who is a Bishop in South Carolina.

With only his first name and last initial...combined with my FB
stalking skillz acquired from miss Kalie Harper <3 we found him!! and
got his phone number and called him to get some more info on the
people he sent. Hahaha #MissionaryStalkingSkillzAtItsFinest (;
We left him a voicemail since he didn't answer....and later he called
us back!! I am so excited to teach these 2 women. He shared that they
are sisters and their mom has just passed away a couple weeks ago. We
had planned to teach the restoration, but with that knowlege, we
switched to teach the plan of salvation to them! To help answer their
questions of where their mom is.

SO NEAT.
We had an appt with Margaret but when we got their she was really
sick..so we are going to try again this week. Keep us and them in your
prayers so that we can give her some comfort.

I feel like I've meet SO MANY PEOPLE in my life/on my mission so far
that I've been able to help by sharing my experiences and my testimony
to help with their love ones passing away. I met one of my friends in
college whose mom had passed away only a year ago. Lena in my last
area mom had died too. Chuck and Ella's baby had only lived 11 days
before passing away, and now Bethann and Margaret. I'm so glad for my
trials/struggles because I get to now help other people who are going
through the same/similar ones.

We had a really powerful lesson with Eric and Lori about the Book of
Mormon. The spirt was really strong and both me and sister steadman
bore our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. Eric asked us a really
interesting question, one that I've been thinking a lot about.
"What's the purpose of the Book of Mormon? Why do we need it?"
I've been studying that topic ever since and have found some really
good talks that helps answer this question...because I've never
honestly thought about why we have it and what's its purpose is other
than it being another testament of Jesus Christ. It's so much more
I've been realizing as I've been studying about it. So that's been
really cool :)

We called one of our potential investigators to invite her to come to
church. She's kind of slow..and literally it took us 19 mins to get
her to understand the address...here's what went down as we tried
spelling it out for her:
"M.......A.......U......."
"Wait hold on...what?"
"M........A......U......G...."
"Wait hold on"
"M.....A...."
"Hold on, what?

Hahahahah 19 minutes of this....I kid you not! But she eventually got
it (: #EndureToTheEnd

I was ON THE FLOOR silently laughing my little heart out listening to
this conversation that was taking place between us. #GoodTimes

Ahhh start of week 6! This transfer is coming to an end..no! :( I'm
like 1000% confident sister steadman will get transferred because
she's been here forever. We find out Friday who stays and who goes.

This next week in MARCH is going to be crazy...
**March 3 start of new transfer
**March 4 I hit my 6th month mark!!!!!!!!!
**March 6....unfortunately against my will I will be turning 20!
Hahha..so gross. So old.

Man..I love being a missionary so much! It's amazing. :)

Have a good week
Sent from my iPad <----- hahaha I'm keeping that! Yay for the iPad <3

Happy black history month! We celebrated and took gangster pics (:
Lolz #LivinTheLife

Love sistermanson

me and sister steadman in an igloo!!

and crazy pjs a member gave us.......they're huge on me!!

happy black history month! we celebrated by dressing up as gangsters.

..........hahhha gotta keep life interesting and fun on a mission(:

cool mural! 

cool mural! 

 us and kelly at a cute sunflower cafe

Spiritual Drop

So....I am at MCDONALDS right now! Hahaha on my iPad. Yay for free Micky D's wifi:)

#MissionaryLife

Gotta love it.

D&C 88&73 is such a cool scripture. The Lord is really hastening his work! Evidence of the age change and being able to use Facebook, and now iPads to help hasten the work in these areas.

We love using them:) we've shown a lot of Mormon messages in the middle of our lessons on our iPads! It's so sweet:) we've been sharing the Mormon message called "daughters of god" with some of the sisters here, and it's such a powerful video and makes me feel good about myself haha so if you've never seen it before you should watch it! It's really good and gets you pumped!

So D&C 4 is the famous missionary section in D&C...but D&C 6 is (in my opinion) WAY 10x better than section 4. Verse 13 struck me hard. "There is no greater gift than the gift of salvation"

As missionaries our whole purpose is to invite others to come into Christ and to help them gain their salvation. There is no greater gift than that, and that's pretty cool to be apart of that for people :) yay for missionary work! Haha

K so I'm like so done with the snow! Haha like seriously...it's ridiculous and needs to stop! We have so much snow here...and the city doesn't even know where to put it all! I've seen cars completely buried under the snow!! Haha pretty intense..I'll send pics next week of it.

Happy late valentines day:)

Valentines day as a sister missionary is pretty exciting.....no cute boys for me! Hahahaha..

This transfer is going by so fast..which is really sad because my time being comps with sister steadman is dwindling! She will probably get transferred because she's been here for 6 months!

We are still trying to find people to teach.

"If you want to teach more people..talk to more people!"

That's what we've been doing recently! Just talking to everyone we see about the gospel and how it can bless there lives.

We went and visited sister hall a less active member. She was really distraught and flustered because of some things that went wrong that day for her. We came over and sang hymn 193 I stand all amazed. Almost immediately you could notice a change in her. That's one of my favorite things about singing hymns for people. It causes a SPIRITUAL DROP!

..kinda like a bass drop in dub-step music..haha but in spirit form:) hahaha I crack myself up...my district leader in my last area came up with that. Genius huh? I like to think so....Lolz.

Singing hymns is such a great way to invite the spirit into the homes of the people here, it's one of my favorite things to do. The spirit comes so strong! And sister hall could definitely feel it and was her feelings of frustration were replaced with peace! The spirit works wonders for people :)

Recently I've been studying how I can better represent my savior Jesus Christ everyday.

----> reverence!

Me and sister steadman have a lot of fun together...hahaha which is good!(: But I am trying to be more reverent in my calling and purpose..in everything! My thoughts, my actions, my behavior...etc.

I found a lot of good talks about it and I want to try to be better at that:)

Sundays are always the best days.

We had a really neat experience with Kelly!

We were talking about patriarchal blessings. It was really good and definitely guided by the spirit. She started opening up to us and telling us how alone she felt and that she's angry and frustrated with a lot of things. She shared with us this as she was crying, and immediately the talk called "cast not away therefore your confidence" by Jeffery r holland popped into my mind. Because it talks a lot about how satan tries really hard right before and after we make a really good spiritual decision. So we read a little bit of that talk with her.

Before Joseph smith had the first vision and saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, satan tried to overpower him. After Moses saw and talked with god face to fave, satan came and tried to have Moses worship him. And with Kelly right after her baptism satan is trying to weaken her faith and testimony. But Heavenly Father knows this. "I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning" (D&C 10:43)

Which is really comforting! Because we know how to fight back against satan.

Doing the simple things everyday...praying, and reading scriptures. So simple! Yet sometimes difficult to do. I think the most important thing to do in those types so situations is to be confident and faithful! Don't look back and keep moving forward.

Once we loose our confidence and faith in Christ..it's pretty easy to fall.

Have a good week everyone!

I love you(:

Love sistermanson 

Under My Umbrella, ella, ella, ay, ay, ay...

Yeah..so this past week has been really cold and cloudy and stormy...... #IMissTheSun....

I used an umbrella for the first time in my whole life...do me a favor and go listen to Umbrella by Rihanna right now(: haha...

So the beginning of this week was hard..I definitely was feeling pretty lame about everything. But the end of this week was so awesome and exciting(:

hahaha funny crazy story about WENDY'S! #TheHolyLand

alright..so we were STARVING one night..and drove way out of our way to go eat dinner at a members house..but we get there and realized the whole apartment complex has NO POWER...(there was a really bad ice/snow storm this past week...luckily we never lost power at our place though) so we're like oh...that's probably why she never returned our phone call..ha so we go back and now we're both like extremely starving about ready to go into the woods and kill a squirrel that's how hungry we were. We drove and went and got Wendy's for dinner. hahaha and here's what went down:

we walk in and stand in line and a lady shouts over to us: "I know a Mormon when I see one!"

hahah me and sister Steadman look to see who it is and start talking to her. She grew up Mormon but was not active anymore..and then we ordered our food and the guy in front of us was really happy we were out doing the Lord's work and paid for our dinner! He gave us his contact info and we gave it to the Elders that are also in our area. And then the cashier was asking us about our religion too! and it was just crazy because everyone wanted to talk to us which like never happens.....so that was cool(:

Okay so I had been feeling really lousy like this whole entire last past week..like getting really frustrated that we didn't have any people to teach and I was feeling really useless. (We only had like 1 solid investigator...)

I prayed a lot! like everyday this whole transfer so far...to find a new investigator, and help someone with the gospel.

Late last night....end of week 3....WE FOUND A NEW INVESTIGATOR!!!! #Miracle..literally..like you don't even understand! ahhh.okay.

Crazy how it happened too..we were driving out of a parking lot after a lesson with a less active and it's snowing really hard/fast. we're at a stop sign and Sister Steadman says pointing at the man walking in the snow at night.. "Look! Theres our new investigator!" I look over and I'm like whoa lets go talk to him..so I jump out of the car and run over to him, and I'm like "HEY!!"

and we start talking and he seemed actually super interested into what we had to say and wanted to learn more and we got a return appointment with him for this week(: ahh we were both so happy. when we got in the car we straightaway said a gratitude prayer to thank our heavenly father!!

I come to find out a little bit later when I was talking to Sister Steadman about it..after we stopped freaking out that we had found a new investigator hahaha..she told me so was totally joking that he could be our new investigator and was surprised I got out of the car!! hahaha we're a great team. She's the thinker, I'm the doer!! We work pretty well together(:

This is what I learned: Sometimes you just have to wait.

And be patient and Heavenly Father will totally reward and bless you.

I've learned a lot this transfer about humility..and doing Heavenly Father's will instead of my own..things always work out a lot better when you do His will!

Kelly got baptized Saturday(: good way to end the week!

That morning she was really flustered and told us she had a really bad night/morning..I pulled out my scriptures and read to her comforting scriptures haha and then afterwards me sister Steadman and Kelly all kneeled down together and said a prayer. it was pretty powerful! and a really cool experience. It 's so neat to be able to see how much the gospel truly does change/bless people's lives!

we also are getting our iPADS tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY

ahhh....and BRADLEY is getting baptized March 2!!!!!!!!!!! bummed I can't go....but so happy that its happening for him!

alright(: gotta goooo

love sistermanson

Kelly got baptized! (: she's the best!

sister Steadman's mom sent us her hands.....hahahhhahahhahah

and I'm wearing solid red...(:

GIGANTIC icicle!! 

sNOw

WE GOT OUR CAR BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhh so happy...

Okay first of all........let me just start off by saying how much I hate the snow!!!!!!!

say NO to sNOw.

hahaha K. literally it snowed for like 15+ hours straight yesterday..We got like a foot+ of snow!

I have officially decided I am not living anywhere where it snows..it makes life so inconvenient.

Me and sis Steadman tried getting out to go to the store to buy food...haha we shoveled a little around our car and thought we were good...WRONG. we move forward out from our parking spot..and then our tires start spinning! hahahahha all I could do was laugh..because I'm sure we looked ridiculous trying to get our car out during the big snow storm! We had some nice guys help push our car and we were golden once we got to the main road....I really needed my cereal!!! hahahhaha........no joke.

We visited a member of our ward who was in the hospital....she broke her femur!!! hahaha which makes me think of Frank (: #Skateland........hahahahh..good times mom.

she was cute. she didn't have a book of Mormon with her to read while she was in the hospital..so I just gave her mine so she could read it so she wouldn't get too bored being in the hospital.

funniest thing...we had a lesson...in MCDONALDS!!!!!! ew..The one place I told myself I would never enter into during my mission...hahahha it went well. We read our scriptures there and talked about John 14. #TestifyErrywhere (:

It was really cool though..because we were all able to feel the spirit! even in McDonalds.

It's so nice to have something that I am familiar with because being in a new area is pretty scary/overwhelming sometimes. So its nice to have the church and the feelings the spirit brings as a CONSTANT in my life.

We met with our less active sister lewis, and it was so cool! because originally we had planned to talk about going to church, praying, and reading the scriptures (CPR) but we did our awesome teamworking skills again--aka Sister Steadman got the kid, I got sister lewis! haha I got to know her and she shared that her husband is not supportive at all with her going to church and reading the Book of Mormon..so change of plans! We read from 1 Nephi 1.

We got to the end and I felt prompted to ask if she knew what a tender mercy was that Nephi was talking about in verse 20. She didn't know what it meant.

So me and sister Steadman shared experiences that have happended on our missions that have been total tender mercies.

I talked about how one day I was having just a really bad and lousy day..we were stopped at a red light and I happened to look out my window and guess what I saw??

a GIRAFFE spray painted on the side of the road(I attached the pictured below)...hahhaha I was like are you serious right now?? hahah heavenly father knows all the small and little things that would make me happy.

Sister Steadman loves to play lacrosse. one P-day she went outside with her companion to the park and in the middle of the field there just happened to be one single lacrosse net!

Being able to see all the tender mercies the Lord puts for us everyday help us realize how much He truly loves, knows, and cares about us! He wants us to be happy.

We went over to another less actives members house..they had the BIGGEST cat I've ever seen!!!!!!!!! He's easily like 40 pounds...no joke!! when we go over next I will take a picture of me holding him...he's HUGE! I laughed so hard when I saw him trying to come down the stairs.............hahhahahah. so funny.. #ILoveFatCats

We went to a legit Mexican food place. ahhh..I was in heaven...so good!!

I decided to make a list as to what constitutes a Mexican restaurant as being legit or not.

here's what I came up with:

-Complimentary WARM chips with spicy salsa

-Spanish music playing in the background

-Hispanic workers

-Mexican stuff errywhere! i.e. Sombreros, donkeys, Spanish words..etc

-colorful plates

-dimmed lights

-BEANS&RICE!!!!!!!!!!!!

-masks and pots on the wall

ahhhh I love me some LEGIT Mexican food(:

All my BYUI peeps reading this...go to the TACO BUS for me!!!! that place is so good(:

I tend to learn the most/grow when things are hard. When it's easy...you don't grow.

I have felt like my mission has been like a refiners fire for me!! Molding and shaping me into who Heavenly Father wants me to be. Look up:

Job 23:10

1 Nephi 20:10

Zech 13:9 and

1 Peter 1:7

Trials and hard times help us get rid of all our impurities and we then can become like GOLD!

"Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, every tragedy, every disappointment, every heart-ache, every temptation, and every opposition happens for one purpose: to give you the opportunity to respond by applying n your life the teachings of Jesus Christ. As you do so..you are changed to become more like Him"

Fast Sundays are always the best. A member's testimony was an answer to my parts and part of my fast! yay.

Another member shared something that really stuck out to me. She said the prayer that is ALWAYS answered no matter what..is "Thy will be done. Not mine, but thine"

So powerful. And a good lesson for me to learn. Sometimes I like to do things my way.....but this is NOT my work. This is HIS. And that's such a good reminder of who I represent and what I am doing.

Really cool quote:

(holding up the scriptures)..none of this makes much difference unless it gets inside of you. All of this is only marks on pieces of paper bound together in leather, it has no intrinsic value unless it becomes you"

Sweet right?? let it sink in..

:) K I love you!

love sistermanson

tender mercy 

:) the day we got our car back...haha we were excited!!!!!

:) the day we got our car back...haha we were excited!!!!!